Back in the safety of the apartment, away from anyone who she could potentially kill with her voice, she ran the worst-case scenario in her head. She imagined Mingyu falling dead in public in front of all his fans, just like S.Coups had. The image made her tremble and cry and vow to never be out in public until her voice was eliminated.

The gloves, which had been keeping her fingers safe from the violent compulsions of her anxiety, were now off. She began picking at the cuticles that had only just begun to heal. Hurting herself made her calm down, even if it tore up and bled her fingers again.

She was infinitely grateful for whoever had covered and saved her from the close catastrophe. She imagined it was Jeonghan, then felt guilty imagining the pain that kindness might have put him through.

She wondered if he was okay, so she decided to send him a message. With her trembling, bleeding fingers, she tried to message him. The blood stained her screen and she could barely type, so instead, she sent him a shaky voice note.

“It was you, wasn’t it? Thank you, Jeonghan. Thank you with all of my heart. Please let me know that you’re okay. I’m worried about you.”

Jeonghan had suicidal tendencies, so if he was out and about by himself in public, there was no telling what he would do. Her thoughts spiraled, and she began to imagine the worst when Jeonghan would not reply or even open the message. What if he was dead? What if his kindness to her had turned him into the devil and he was arrested for doing something terrible to someone else? Or what if it hurt so much, he took care of it himself? What if...

She called him, and he didn’t answer. She called Hoshi, who also didn’t answer. She called Woozi, who also didn’t answer. She called Jun, who picked up and said he had no idea where Jeonghan was. Arin could not just sit around and wait for someone to respond. She rushed out the door, toward MRS.

-

She sped through headquarters toward the room in the Procreation Unit where Jeonghan was staying for his makeshift rehab. On the way, she passed by the Extraction Room, where she saw Hoshi stumbling out. Arin stopped dead in her tracks.

Hoshi was hissing in pain. His face was bleeding and bruised, and he was holding his arm like it was hurting him.

She, and other passing members of MRS, rushed to his side to help him.

“Arin, check up on him,” Hoshi said, pointing with his head inside the Extraction Room.

Arin knew precisely who he was talking about. She nodded and hurtled into the room, leaving Hoshi in the care of other MRS members.

Jeonghan was being restrained by five different men onto the bed as they tried to chain him. The look in Jeonghan’s eyes told Arin that he was possessed by the devil and all he wanted to do was hurt them. He struggled against them like a maniac, pushing them, and hurting them in the process, just like he had hurt Hoshi.

Arin walked into the glass room and approached him. She wasn’t scared of him, even if he was the devil. When he saw her, something in his eyes twinkled, something evil, something that should have frightened her, but didn’t.

She didn’t know what compelled her in that moment, but somehow, she knew it would work. She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest as the MRS workers around him tried to tie him down.

In that moment, being in close proximity to his chest, her head resting on the fabric of his suit, and getting a whiff of the perfume on his neck, eradicated all doubt in her mind that the person who saved Mingyu from death was Jeonghan, and that being possessed like this was a byproduct of that kindness.

At first, Jeonghan tried to get himself away from her. His leg went free, and he kicked her. When his hand went free, he pulled her hair. She didn’t move no matter how he tried to hurt her, and eventually, he stopped struggling. Finally, the MRS workers were able to cuff his hands and feet to the bed, with Arin arm around him in a tight, unbreakable embrace.

Even after he was bound, Arin did not let go. She stayed laid over him until the heave in his chest subsided until his breath steadied and she felt his tight body loosen in her arms.

When she finally decided to pull away from him, she did so slowly and carefully.

But Jeonghan was okay now. He was no longer possessed, she could tell by the apologetic look in his eye as he looked at her. But even though his eyes apologized, his lips said something else entirely. “Get the away from me, Missy.”

Arin wished she could speak so she could express her gratitude. She wanted to thank him for what he had done, for going through that pain to save her from killing someone she loved.

She glanced at the color on her bracelet and realized that he did so much more than that. Not only did he save her from killing Mingyu, but he also saved her from being the one to kill Jeonghan himself. He could have easily revealed himself to her then, and she could have said his name, and he would have dropped dead before her very eyes.

But he chose to disappear into the crowd without her, even though he wanted to die.

Hoshi entered the glass room with an ice pack over his cheek. He was carrying a shopping bag, and Arin recognized its logo as that of the music store that sold the limited edition versions of the album.

Arin’s eyes widened and she looked at Hoshi inquisitively.

“He went out to get this for you, I’m guessing,” Hoshi told her, holding out the bag.

Arin took the bag and looked inside. She wanted to cry when she saw it. It was the album she wanted to buy but did not have the chance to. Jeonghan had bought it… for her? That was why they both happened to be in the same place at the same time. That was why he was able to save her.

She looked at him, bound up and trapped like a prisoner. He was avoiding eye contact, looking away, as if embarrassed by the kindness.

“Don’t misunderstand, Missy,” he sputtered, “I didn’t buy it for you. I bought it for myself so I could tear it up in front of you and hurt you.” Arin could tell that was a lie.

Arin held the bag to her chest. It was a precious item, but the fact it was a gift from him made it feel even more precious than that. She stood in his line of vision and bowed to him.

She was touched beyond words. Even if she could speak, she wouldn’t know what to say, so she resigned herself to bowing for as long as she could.

-

She went home that night with the new album in her hand and a bloated face that had clearly been crying.

Woozi was already there for their date, for which she was knowingly very late.

“Hey!” He greeted her happily at the door. He seemed excited, enthusiastic, but Arin couldn’t match that enthusiasm.

She smiled weakly as she took off her shoes. “Hi.”

Something had shifted in her that day after everything that had happened with Jeonghan. She no longer felt comfortable having this date, and not because she didn’t want to. She still liked Wooxi, and she still felt happy and comfortable around him, but she didn’t want to do anything that might possibly hurt Jeonghan.

Jeonghan loved her, and even though Arin did not love him back, she also could never do anything that could make him sad or break his heart. At least, not yet. So no matter how tempted she was to embrace this relationship with Woozi, her heart was no longer in it.

“What happened?” Woozi asked her. She could see his calculating eyes scan her bloated face and red nose, down to her bleeding, ungloved fingers.

Arin told him what happened that day – the extraction session, her recent encounter with him at the music store, and the gift.

“I don’t want to make him feel bad, so...”

“You changed your mind about us,” Woozi completed the sentence for her.

Arin looked down in resignation. She felt bad for doing this to him, for leading him on and then not carrying through.

“I understand,” Woozi replied with a heavy sigh. “It’s okay, I can wait. Whenever you’re ready, just know that I’m always ready. In any case, I actually wanted to ask you to postpone the date, because I haven’t quite wrapped things up with… um… with Eyes.”

“Oh,” Arin said. “I guess now you don’t have to.”

“No, no. I want to. I wanted to go see her today, but I was a little busy today. I...” he trailed off. There was a hint of a smile on his face.

“What?”

“I found him, Arin. The killer. I used the direction that Jun was following as a hint and began to digitally search along the vector, and I found him…”

“Wait, so that man is…”

“In custody,” Woozi completed. “I tipped off the police, and they got him an hour ago.”

Arin could see the relief on Woozi’s face as he told her. He was relaxed, happy, free. She smiled and congratulated him, and before she knew it, he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly.

“Thank you,” he said.

“I… I didn’t do anything,” she murmured against his shoulder, startled by the sudden embrace. “It was all Jun.”

“Still. If I hadn’t met you then, I would have never met Jun. I’m just so, so happy I met you.” He tightened his arms around her, and Arin relaxed in his arms and hugged him back.

They stayed like this until it was awkward, and Woozi pulled away from her. In the process he took both of her hands in his and held them.

Self-conscious of the roughness of her fingers, she was tempted to pull them out of his hand, but he held them too tight and brought them to his lips, kissed them, then let them go.

Arin felt a tingle in her skin, and she blushed and looked away.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help it,” he said. “I just… love you.”

It hit her then how strange this was. For the past four years of her life before all the turmoil, she lived in isolation, so far from being loved by anyone, but now, she was in the middle of this strange romance, loved by two different people. It was too good to be true. How can one person fall in love with her, let alone two?

The self-doubt made her second-guess everything she thought she knew. Did he really love her, and if so, how? Why? She was not attractive nor funny nor remotely loveable in any way. She was an anxious mess with torn up fingers, frizzy hair and only three changes of clothes. She could not take care of herself, and needed others to help her survive.

How did he love her? Why did he love her? Was he lying? Was he using her? Was he just saying he loved her to manipulate her into doing something?

Why wasn’t her curse working?

That was the underlying question, and it was driving her insane. She did not want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but she needed to understand it. Something was strange. Something was not adding up about him. She let her heart falter, and fell for his words that told her he loved her, made her fall for him too… but something was still wrong, and she could not shake the feeling that he was hiding something from her. That he was lying to her.

“I’ll get going now,” he said, stepping away from her. “I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

Arin nodded, trying to keep her thoughts at bay so she wouldn’t spiral in front of him.

She only began to spiral when he left. Her fingers took the brunt of all the doubts and questions she had about him.

-

Hoshi was at MRS the following morning with bandages on his face and red around his eyes. Arin looked apologetic when she saw him. She couldn’t help but feel responsible for that. If only she weren’t so stupid to be out in public by herself, Jeonghan would not have had to be kind to her, and Hoshi would be alright.

“You should worry less about me and more about yourself!” Hoshi scoffed when he saw the sorry look in her eyes. He looked down at her ungloved fingers, covered in blood and shredded cuticles.

“Jeonghan’s doing okay,” he added. “We kept him bound for the night and released him the following morning, and he was back to normal. Told me I looked like a cross-eyed raccoon!” Hoshi laughed at that.

Arin smiled. She was glad to know that he was okay, being his normal, obnoxious self.

Arin later learned that Jeonghan had requested not to see her that day, and Arin understood why. He was probably embarrassed and ashamed of what had happened the previous day and was afraid that his tendency to be kind to her would turn him into the devil again.

Because Jeonghan didn’t want to see her, and because the potion no longer had any effect on her, and with Larali still working on her mental health, Dasinai had decided that Extraction would be put on pause for now, until something changes and they could extract magic effectively again.

“So now that we have time off from extraction, I want to use this time to study your curse more carefully,” Hoshi said. “I have a theory I want to test, and for that, I need you to meet someone…”

In came a bright young man with a contagious smile and an aura that made Arin feel comfortable and safe. It was almost the same accommodating aura that Hyojung had.

“Hi Arin! I’ve heard so much about you!” the young man said, his eye-smile sharp and affectionate.

She bowed to greet him and he bowed back in an exaggerated forward motion.

“This is ,” Hoshi introduced him. “He’s another mage who was blessed with heightened magical senses, like Hyojung was. People tend to love him because of it, and I expect you’d love him too.”

Arin could see that Hoshi was periodically glancing at the color on her bracelet as he spoke.

“Yeah, that’s me, Dickity !” replied with a click of his tongue. “It’s a suitable namesake, because you’ll find that I am indeed a sometimes, but not dickish enough to get beat up like my man Hosh right here!”

Arin smiled at the joke, but Hoshi did not. He was focused very intently on the color on Arin’s bracelet, which was now still clear and white.

“Oh, did you hear Chilli’s new song, by the way?” asked suddenly. “Amazing, right? Damn Vernon’s part is… chef’s kiss!”

He reminded her of Minghao. The way he openly spoke about loving boy bands, the way he radiated with positive energy that made Arin feel happy.

Even if she couldn’t speak at the moment, seemed aware of that and carried the conversation himself, avoiding any awkward silence. He was clearly a socially skilled person, and Arin was certainly drawn to him.

However, the color on her bracelet was white, and there was no hitch in that compelled her to say his name. The curse didn’t seem to work on him, the same way it did not work on Woozi. Whatever conditions that Hoshi had to set up to test the limits of her curse, it seemed to be doing exactly what he planned.

Seokmin was talking to her about the new Chilli album when Hoshi interrupted him. “Okay, now I’m going to change his name,” he said. “It’s not . It was never . It’s actually Seokmin.”

As soon as Arin heard that, the color on her bracelet turned purple.

“Well. ,” Hoshi said as he watched. “I guess that explains it.”

Arin narrowed her eyes, confused, not understanding what this meant. Hoshi seemed troubled by what he had found out. Arin implored him to explain with her eyes.

“Seok, you can leave now,” Hoshi told Seokmin. “Thanks for coming in.”

Seokmin smiled and crossed his arms, “hey, I’m interested in hearing what you found out too!”

“This is a bit personal,” Hoshi replied. “I don’t want someone who Arin doesn’t know very well listening to this.”

“I get it,” Seokmin said. “I’ll take my leave then. Lovely to meet you, Arin! I would love to talk more later,” he smiled brightly, then took his leave.

When he was gone, Arin’s neck snapped back to Hoshi, anxious to hear what so secretive and personal...

“You know how your curse doesn’t work on animals?” Hoshi began. “Well, I had a theory it’s because they don’t acknowledge the name that we humans give them. Your cat Meemo doesn’t know or acknowledge being called Meemo. But your mother acknowledges being called ‘mom’ even if her name isn’t ‘mom.’ I acknowledge being called ‘Hoshi’ even if my name is ‘Soonyoung.’ Jun acknowledges being called ‘Jun’ even if his name is ‘Junhui.’ However, Seokmin does not acknowledge his name as ‘.’ I made him lie to you when he told you his name was ‘,’ and that fake name didn’t work.”

Arin gulped at the implication of Hoshi’s assessment. She knew what he was saying, but she didn’t want to believe it.

“All that being said, this is my theory about Woozi. ‘Woozi’ is not a name he acknowledges or goes by. It’s a fake name.”