“Turn it off, please,” Arin said, averting her eyes as she realized how strange and creepy it was that she was watching Jeonghan in his own home.

Woozi turned his phone screen away from her.

“You shouldn’t invade people’s privacy like that,” Arin said.

He nodded. “I know what you mean. Since I’ve been hacking for so long, I don’t feel guilty about it anymore though. I’ve become immune to that icky feeling you get in your gut when you look in on people’s private lives.”

“That’s not good.”

“It’s my job,” Woozi shrugged.

“Do you like your job?” Arin asked.

“Not really. I’ve long accepted that I’m not a good person, because my job makes me do morally questionable things.”

“Then why not just stop doing it?”

“I’m not so evil as to spy on people for no reason,” Woozi defended himself. “I try to only hack bad people who don’t deserve any respect or privacy. Jeonghan is one of those people. No offense.”

A few days ago, Arin may have agreed with Woozi about his assessment of Jeonghan’s character. But of course, Woozi didn’t have the context that she now had. She, also, had hated Jeonghan for so long, but over the past few days, it was like that hatred had disappeared into thin air. Now, Arin cared for him and felt empathy for what he had experienced as a victim of his curse.

Perhaps Hyojung was right to keep the curse from her after all. It was good that she hated him for all these years; it kept Jeonghan safe from the ticking bomb of her curse.

Woozi left shortly after to continue his digital search for the girl’s murderer.

Arin had told him that she would pack up and leave for good, but he had insisted that she stay, promising that he would keep away if it would make her more comfortable. She took him up on the offer, mostly because she didn’t want to stay at MRS and didn’t know where else she could go with Meemo.

“I guess this is goodbye forever, then?” Woozi said when he was about to leave. She bade him farewell with a friendly wave, and he bowed slightly, then went out the door without looking back.

It wasn’t much of a goodbye at all. There was something about the lack of finality and closure she felt that told her she was going to see him again very soon.

-

Arin was a little late to MRS today. She entered the reception area where that strange couple was stationed. Today, the man was whispering things in his young wife’s ear and biting her ear sensually.

“Wait!” the woman said before Arin could get to the door. “Just stand here for a moment, let me call Das and tell her you’re here.”

Arin stood still and waited.

“Honey!” the man mumbled pathetically as she pulled away from him to get to her desk phone. “I was just getting to the dirty part.”

“I have to work, honey, later…”

The man crossed his arms and frowned as his wife made the phone call. “Hey Das... the new cursed girl is here. Do I let her in today? … I just thought… Alright. She’ll be right there.” The girl hung up the phone and motioned toward the door to let Arin know that she could pass. “Go ahead.”

This was the first sign for Arin that something strange was going on. The day before, she passed through without the need for special permission from Dasinai. Something was different today.

As she walked through the door, there were plenty more signs indicating something unusual was going on: it was much less energetic. People were quiet, slow, and appeared on edge. There were a lot of side whispers, and she descended into the opening, people stared at her more than usual.

Her mind began to construe theories. Did something happen to Sangbin? Did Hyojung do something? Did someone die? Did a couple from the Procreation Unit fail to conceive? The possibilities were endless, and it made her tense.

She spotted Jun at the side of her eye and walked toward him, hoping for an explantation. He usually had all of the answers after all.

But even Jun looked strange. He had a dazed and confused look on his face, like he had just witnessed something terribly disturbing.

When he saw her, he gave her a weak smile in response to her quizzical expression.

“We captured a prisoner today,” Jun said. “MRS usually doesn’t take prisoners, but sometimes, it’s necessary.”

Arin’s heart began to beat out of control, and the anxiety worsened. This was the MRS that Hyojung had warned her about: the MRS that took prisoners against their will. Arin didn’t know why she had just assumed that MRS didn’t do such things after being with them for two days, but it seemed like the organization had a dark side after all.

Was she on the wrong end of this struggle?

Jun seemed to be similarly anxious. “You know how curses can be blessings in disguise, but blessings can also be curses in disguise.” He paused. “Right now, my blessing is a curse.” Jun didn’t clarify what he meant by that.

Shortly after, the prisoner was escorted out of one of the rooms by two large men. From far away, Arin thought the prisoner was a young man, but when she got closer, Arin saw that the it was actually a young woman with short hair and a tank top.

The woman caught Arin’s eye.

“Arin, is that you?” the prisoner said as she was dragged away. One of the men shushed her and tightened his grip around her arm making her wince in pain.

Arin knew that she hadn’t seen this person before, but how did the woman know her name?

Arin watched as the girl was forced out of Headquarters, Jun trailing behind her.

The dubiousness of the situation was making her lose control of herself. She began to compulsively wreck the skin around her nails as she ran hundreds of possibilities through her mind about who this person was and why MRS were holding her prisoner.

Hoshi emerged from behind her.

“Are you okay, Arin?” he asked.

Arin turned to Hoshi, hoping he could read the question in her eyes. Who is that girl? How does she know who I am?

“That girl, you’ve never met her, have you?”

Arin shook her head.

Hoshi sighed, looking troubled. “I guess Hyojung didn’t let you in on her personal life at all, huh?”

Arin narrowed her eyes.

“That’s Hyojung’s girlfriend of four years,” Hoshi finally revealed. “We’re going to use her to capture Hyojung, and put an end to her plans once and for all.”