Arin stayed with Jeonghan until he was too tired to scream and fell asleep. It was midnight by then. Yoonsa had gone home, but Hoshi stayed behind.

Arin walked out of the Extraction Room and found Hoshi sitting outside with a distant expression on his face. He looked disturbed, very different from the happy-go-lucky Hoshi she was used to.

“I explained it all to his mother,” Hoshi told Arin. “Poor woman. She’s shocked and confused. All this time she hated her son and never realized that it was a curse that made him hateful.”

Arin couldn’t even imagine what it must have been like both of them. For a son to be forced to drive his mother to hate him, to a mother couldn’t help but hate him. Arin realized how she had taken her own mother’s love for granted.

“I’m also a little shocked,” Hoshi added. “I found out something very disturbing when I was talking to that woman.” He paused for a moment, thinking. “Turns out, the person who cursed Jeonghan is none other than my own father, the head of the potions division at MRS.”

Arin lowered her head as she processed this new information. She had known for a while that the person who cursed Jeonghan was part of MRS, but she could not have imagined that Hoshi would have anything to do with him. Hoshi seemed too nice a person to be related to someone who would ruin someone’s life like that.

“My father runs a cosmetic company,” Hoshi explained. “It’s very successful because he infuses potions with his products. He had a secretary many years back… turns out it was Jeonghan’s mother. My father had an affair with her, then refused to acknowledge Jeonghan as his son. Got angry at her for demanding payment and cursed him.”

Hoshi sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead.

“Looks like I had a brother all along,” Hoshi said. “And I don’t know what to do about it, Arin. He’s suicidal now, and I feel like I shouldn’t just let him go in that state, but at the same time, trapping him here, chaining him up like that… it also doesn’t seem right.” He turned his head to her. “What do you think?”

Arin shrugged. She also didn’t know the answer to that question, but she did know that she didn’t want him to be alone anymore.

“Have you ever had those thoughts? Like Jeonghan and Larali? Thoughts of dying?”

Arin nodded. A curse was like an endless abyss of pain and suffering, and rarely does a cursed person ever see light at the end of the tunnel. Happiness felt impossible, and even contentment was rare. Every cursed person had something precious taken away from them, something that everyone else took for granted. For Sangbin, it was eating. For Larali, it was happiness. For Jeonghan, it was kindness. For Arin, it was love.

It was hard to explain it to Hoshi, who was a positive, happy, wealthy person who clearly loved his life and couldn’t see why anyone would willingly want to end it. It was a feeling of despair no one could ever understand besides those who have experienced it.

“I want to help him. As his brother,” Hoshi said. “It’s not going to make up for anything, but I hope I can at least take him out of that dark place.”

Arin wished she could do more than nod to express her support for Hoshi’s newfound endeavor, but it seemed like Hoshi got what he needed from her. He clenched his fist with newfound determination.

“Project Jeonghappiness is now underway!” he beamed positively. “I already have so many ideas! First one being… wait for it… pets. His curse doesn’t work on animals, right? So I can get him a dog or something. Second of all, we can get his mother to drop by every once in a while. And do you know what kind of foods he likes?”

Hoshi carried on spewing all of his ideas, and Arin helped when she could by writing down what she thought might help. She was surprised by how much she actually knew about him. She knew he loved ramen because of the amount of ramen packets she had seen in his trash when throwing it out. She knew he loved chocolates, because he kept chocolate on his desk. She knew he loved wearing suits, even when he stayed at home. She knew that his favorite suits were made of gabardine, because she was the one who had to wash them. She knew his favorite scent of perfume from when she wiped the dust in his bedroom. She knew what brand of champagne he liked from seeing them stacked in his kitchen counter. She knew that even if he liked to be fancy, he often enjoyed fast food, especially pizza. He liked pineapple on his pizza, and didn’t eat the crusts. She knew he loved classical music and hated idol music, especially Chilli’s songs.

She realized there and then, that of all the people in the world right now, she probably knew Jeonghan the best.