“What are you doing here, Jeonghan?” Jun asked as Jeonghan came into the room, looking around as if searching for something.

“You know, you guys really should get better security,” Jeonghan replied. “I walked in here without a problem. If I wanted to burn the place down, I could have.”

“What do you want?” Jun asked again.

“Where’s that girl?”

“What girl?”

“The girl who takes people’s pain. Where is she?”

Jun froze. “What do you want with Larali?”

“I need her. I want to talk to someone, and I need that girl with me when I do,” Jeonghan said.

“Well, you got some nerve walking in here asking for her like that!”

“Tell me where she is!” Jeonghan yelled, getting impatient. “Right now!”

“If you think I’m going to say anything to you…”

“Do you really want to be difficult?” Jeonghan spat. “Fine.”

Jeonghan trudged over to where Arin was, grabbed her violently, and pulled her back close to his chest. His arm circled around her neck, restraining her.

“Get away from her!” Jun yelled, stepping forward, prepared to fight him.

He froze when Jeonghan pulled out a pocket knife and put it close to her face.

“One more step, and I’ll maim her!” Jeonghan threatened.

“You wouldn’t,” Jun muttered with wide, afraid eyes.

“Try me.” Jeonghan put the tip of the blade against her face. One small move, and it would have pierced her skin. It made Arin tremble.

Jun did not dare move. “Jeonghan… I think your curse is acting up,” Jun said carefully. “Please, let her go, and then I can take you to Larali.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Jeonghan spat. “And no, this is not my curse. I do not have to do this, but I want to. I need that girl! So don’t make me hurt your new girlfriend, and just tell me where the girl is!”

“Okay, okay! I’ll lead you to her!” Jun finally resigned. “But you are not going to hurt Larali, are you?”

“No, I don’t plan to.”

“Where will you take her?”

“None of your business.”

“Will you bring her back?”

“I won’t keep her prisoner,” Jeonghan murmured. “I just need her for a day. After that she can do what she wants.”

“What do you need her for?” Jun asked.

“I want to talk to my mother, and I can’t do that unless I’m with that girl.”

“Okay. Okay. You can do that. What about on the phone? Can you talk to your mother on the phone?”

“No! Just give me the girl!”

“We’ll bring your mother here, and we’ll let you speak to her, with Larali present, and you can talk to her.”

Jeonghan’s grip on Arin loosened a little. “Then do it. Arrange it, right now!”

“Okay,” Jun said. He pulled out his phone. “I’m calling Dasinai right now! She’ll give the orders, and we can do it, right now.”

“I’m not letting go of the Missy until it’s arranged!”

Jun dialled a number on his phone and put the phone to his ears. “Hello, Dasinai? Yeah, we got a little bit of a situation here…”

-

Jun got Jeonghan’s mother on the phone and called her in.

Hoshi also appeared that night to make arrangements for Jeonghan’s demands. Those arrangements included getting chains on the bed for when and if the devil would possess Jeonghan. Jeonghan saw them do that, and did not protest.

Yoonsa also appeared that night, which told Arin they were making an extraction session out of it.

Jeonghan kept Arin in his grips, holding up the knife to her cheek in the following hours as the arrangements were being made.

Jun stayed there with her the entire time to make sure Jeonghan did not hurt her. At one point, however, he had to tear his eyes away from them to explain the situation to Hoshi.

Jeonghan took the opportunity to whisper in Arin’s ear. “I’m not actually going to hurt you, you know. So please stop shaking like a wimp, Missy!”

Arin did indeed relax when he said that, but she couldn’t use her voice to reassure Jun or Hoshi or anyone else for that matter that Jeonghan’s threats were empty. That was probably why he chose to tell her in the first place.

-

Larali appeared in the Extraction Room later that hour. She looked tired and weak and definitely not prepared to take on Jeonghan’s pain.

Jun looked deeply troubled when he saw her. He turned to Jeonghan. “She’s sick, you know. Mentally. By making her do this, you're putting her life at risk, and I’ll never forgive you for it.” With that, Jun stormed out of the Extraction Room, wanting to be far away from Larali so she didn’t have to absorb his pain too.

Larali took a seat on the floor, hugged her legs to her chest, and endured all the pain she absorbed from both Jeonghan and Arin.

Yoonsa entered too, standing at the side and soaking up the magic.

Soon, Jeonghan’s mother arrived. She was a confused older woman with eyes suspecting everything around her.

It was then that Jeonghan finally let go of Arin. When she was free, she left the glass room too, not wanting to be another burden of pain on Larali. The door closed and Arin looked through the glass at the personal scene unfolding before her.

For the first time, she understood what it was like to be on the outside of Extraction, to watch as someone else’s personal feelings were being harnessed, manipulated and exploited. It felt intrusive and wrong to watch it, but when she looked on over to Hoshi, he did not seem bothered by it at all. On the contrary, he was completely unfazed, treating it like a job and waiting for it to be over.

Jeonghan’s mother was a middle-aged woman. She looked terrified of what was going on around her: her son holding a knife to a girl’s face, the little girl in the corner, and the women decked in purple standing watch over them, in an underground glass room filled with purple spirits.

“Jeonghan… what is this?” the mother asked. “Why did they call me here?”

Jeonghan was staring at his mother, frozen in place. He could not speak or do anything, but Arin could tell that he had so much he wanted to say.

“Jeonghan!” his mother yelled when she got nothing. “Talk to me! What’s going on?!”

“I love you,” he managed to say in a stammer. “Thank you for everything you did for me, and I’m sorry for what I put you through.”

Larali clutched her legs tighter.

Jeonghan’s mother looked confused, unbelieving. “Is this a joke?”

“No. I just wanted the chance to tell you that before I died.”

“Before you what?”

“I’ll be dead soon.”

She froze and shook her head. “Why? Why will you be dead?” his mother asked with rising panic.

“Goodbye, mom.”

At this point, Jeonghan’s mother’s eyes were welling with tears. “What are you talking about?”

Jeonghan stepped forward and kissed his mother’s forehead.

Larali began to moan in pain, which caused Jeonghan to flinch.

“You have to go now,” Jeonghan told his mother. Then he turned to the glass wall and yelled to those outside, “get my mother and the girl out of here!”

“I’m not leaving here after what you just told me! Do you need help, Jeonghan? I can get you into therapy...”

“Mom, leave!”

“I’m not leaving!”

Yoonsa tried to get the woman out, but his mother stood resolute, not budging. “I’m standing right here with my son!”

Arin watched this unfold before her, feeling just as freaked out as Jeonghan’s mother. Hoshi also seemed tense, mostly concerned about Larali. “Arin, come help me chain him. We can’t wait for his mother to leave.”

Arin followed Hoshi. Jeonghan had voluntarily laid himself on the bed, so Hoshi and Arin locked the already-prepared cuffs around either side of his ankles and arms.

His mother was yelling at them to stop.

“Explain it to my mother please,” Jeonghan requested of both Arin and Hoshi.

Arin nodded her head to him.

As soon as Jeonghan was cuffed, they rushed Larali out of the room, and Jeonghan’s eyes gradually turned into the devil’s.

Arin tried to pull his mother out of the room; she didn't want her to see him like that. However, his mother wouldn't budge. She stood and watched her son yell and scream like a feral animal, making threats that made her skin crawl.

“What’s going on?” she asked as tears streamed down her face. “Are you doing experiments on him? What is this?”

It was Hoshi who explained it. “Your son is cursed, ma’am. He’s possessed by a devil now, but he should calm down by tomorrow, and turn to his regular self.”

“What…”

“Come on, ma’am. It’s best to leave him alone.”

Jeonghan’s mother looked at her son, heartbroken. She shook her head, and rushed out before she could see anymore. Arin watched Jeonghan with his bloodshot eyes and the way he struggled and wrestled. Her heart hurt for him.

Just as she was about to leave, Yoonsa stopped her. “Wait,” said the witch. “Stay for a bit longer. There’s magic. A lot of it.”

Arin glanced at her bracelet; it was purple.