It wasn’t his name.

Arin could not feel any magic in her bones. Nothing shifted. Nothing changed. The color on her bracelet was still a glaring white.

“Say it, Arin,” Woozi implored, staring into her eyes in a way that was not natural. He looked like he was trying to tell her something. “I know you’re resisting, but I need you to say it…”

“K… Kihoon,” she stammered, knowing it would not work.

But then, he began to choke. He coughed for air and dropped to his knees as he wheezed and finally went limp in front of her.

But Arin knew he wasn’t dead. That was not how her curse killed people. If he were really dead by her curse, his face would go purple while he writhed before her very eyes.

He was pretending to die.

The heiress drew closer to the bars of the cage, looking in on Woozi’s limp body with curious and slightly panicked eyes.

Arin immediately understood the plan. He wanted her to pretend too. She wanted Eyes to believe he was dead.

Arin covered with her hands. She dropped to her knees and shook him. “No,” she said. “Please, Woozi. Please wake up.” She flung herself over Woozi’s chest and face to conceal his breath. She pretended to cry for him, acutely aware of the heiress’ watchful gaze.

It was easy to cry. Her chest was already in pain, and the tears were already in her eyes. Just imagining that he was dead was enough to make them fall.

The heiress shook her head in disbelief, then took out the keys from her purse to open the cage.

“Yeah right…” she said as she unlocked it, then went inside to inspect Woozi’s body.

It was then that Woozi flung himself onto Eyes, pushing her deeper into the cage until she hit her head against the bars.

“Go, Arin!” he yelled, and Arin dashed out of the cage in frenzy. Once she was out, she stopped and turned to wait for Woozi. She would not leave him behind with a vengeful heiress who almost tortured and killed her.

Woozi had his hand over the heiress’ mouth so she could not call her men. He was laying on top of her to stop her from struggling, then he took her head and banged it hard against the metal bar until she was lightheaded and barely conscious.

He took that opportunity to bolt himself, but he had lost his glasses in the struggle with her, so his steps were clumsy. As soon as he managed to get out of the cage, Arin closed the cage door and locked it. Then she took Woozi’s arm and became his eyes as they ran out of that place as fast as they could.

“There’s a car waiting for us outside,” Woozi told her as they darted out the door. “I took care of all the security measures. Just lead us to the car, and I’ll explain everything.”

She didn’t know why she still trusted him after everything that had happened. She should have just left him and fended for herself. Ran away through the streets as fast as her legs could carry her, away from him, but she didn’t want to leave him. She needed him to be safe.

She led him through the front gates of the mansion, in an expansive front yard. She rushed through the gate and found a large SUV against the curb of the street outside, an unknown driver at the wheel. Arin helped Woozi climb into the backseat. When he was in, she stood in front of the open door, hesitating.

“Come on, Arin,” he told her, holding out his hand to help her climb in.

Why would she still get in a stranger’s car with him, and let him take her wherever he wanted? She could run away now. There was no one following her. She could just leave all of this behind her, and never speak to Woozi again.

“Please, Arin,” he nearly begged, holding out his hand closer to her. “You can trust me.”

Arin swallowed her fears and took his hand.

The car raced through the streets toward an unknown destination.

-

“Thank you for trusting me,” Woozi said after a tense silence.

Arin sat shaken in the backseat, glued to the door as far away from Woozi as she could manage. She was still processing the disturbings events that had transpired, still trying to understand who Woozi was in light of everything she had learned.

“I don’t trust you,” Arin replied, eyes wide and fearful.

“Arin, I…” Woozi reached out to take her hand, but Arin retracted it quickly. Embarrassed, he pulled it back and lowered his head in resignation. “I understand.”

“Where are you taking me?” she asked.

“The car is headed to MRS. Jun’s in another car ahead of us with others. The only reason I was able to find you was because I contacted him. He um… he followed the thread that led to you,” Woozi revealed.

So... he found out she was his soulmate.

“I want you to know that not everything was a complete lie,” Woozi continued. “My feelings for you… they weren’t a lie. Arin, I really, really do like you.”

Arin shook her head. She was not going to fall for it anymore, not after everything that happened. Not after her lied about something as fundamental as his name.

Woozi took a deep breath then proceeded to tell her everything: “The woman you saw, she hired me to investigate S.Coups’ death and to bring her the person who killed him. I accepted the assignment, thinking I would be searching for some cold-hearted sasaeng or something, and doing something good for the world by finding that person. I never would have thought that the mission would lead me to you and to this world of magic.

“I started my investigation by studying all of the articles around the event of S.Coups’ death. I came across a few reports about you: a girl that disappeared after her idol, her friend, and her mother were all found dead at the concert venue. I named you one of my prime suspects, and resolved to find you somehow. And three years later, I did.

“I hacked other police records and autopsy reports to find similar cases to S.Coups’, where people died in similar ways. Most notably, the purple face is something I focused on. It’s a rare side-effect of asphyxiation, and I figured if I found another person who died in that condition with those side-effects, I could better understand the cause of S.Coups’ death.

“That led me to a convenience store worker named Joshua. I hacked the surveillance cameras around that street and went through the archives. That was when I spotted you, Arin, one of my prime suspects. Your frizzy hair was unmistakable.

“I followed you to Jeonghan’s building using the surveillance videos. I had a lot of questions, and decided to rent there myself as an undercover investigator. I needed to understand what you, a girl who was supposedly off the grid, were doing in such an extravagant building as that, and whether you really were the person who killed S.Coups.

“I got my answer very quickly. I met you immediately when you came knocking on my door looking for Meemo. It was from that moment that I began investigating you. I wanted to get closer to you, hoping to get you to confess to the crime. I recorded all of our conversations, and pretended to be helpful just to get you to confess. All throughout, I was sending reports of my progress to Eyes. I just needed to get a confession out of you before I could consider my mission complete.

“My dealings with you were all fake in the beginning. I didn’t care about you, and only viewed you as a murder suspect. But then the incident with Jeonghan happened, where he almost hurt you, and I just felt the need to protect you. Part of it was retribution for my involvement in Mihyun’s deaths, but I also just ended up caring about you, genuinely wanting to help you.

“Then I learned the truth about magic, and learned that you were innocent after all, but I didn’t know how to say that to Eyes. She would never believe it. I told her that I got proof you were innocent and that I wanted to drop the case, but she wouldn’t take that. I ended up ghosting her, and that just made her angry. She hired another investigator to track you down, and that was how you ended up caged in her home.

“That’s the full truth, Arin. I lied when I told you that Eyes was an ex, and I lied about my name. Woozi is just an alias I use doing this work so I can hide my identity. That’s probably why your curse never worked on me. You don’t know my name yet.

“I want you to know my name, I really do. I want you to know everything about me, but if you learn my name then I won’t be able to see you like this anymore, so I continued to hide it from you.

“I didn’t want to deceive you forever. I wanted to come clean about all of this for a while, but it was never the right time. You were going through a lot, and I was afraid that you’d hate me if you knew the truth about my deception. I know I pretended to be someone I was not, and I know I put you in danger. I spied on you and faked our initial friendship, but trust me when I say that I genuinely do have feelings for you now.”

At that point, Woozi went silent, and looked over toward her, as if he expected Arin to say something. Arin could not even turn her head to acknowledge him. She just looked out the window and processed.

Woozi felt like a stranger to her all of the sudden. The person she thought she had known was no longer the same, and he became this strange and confusing jumble of facts and memories.

She was not afraid of him, but beyond that, she no longer knew what she thought of him. He was a person she had yet to make out and understand. Everything that made her care about him before: his helpfulness, his care for her cat, his kindness… it was all bred of ulterior motives. That meant everything was different.

She was angry with him. She was heartbroken. She felt like he manipulated her heart and took advantage of her. Her chest was aching and she wondered if she would ever come to trust anyone ever again.

“I wish I could properly read the expression on your face right now,” Woozi said, squinting his eyes. “It’s the worst possible time to not have my glasses.”

If he could read her, he would have seen eyes that shone with tears that she refused to let fall, and fists clenched tight into her laps. He would have seen how she sat as far away from him as the car size of the car allowed, stuck as close to the door as possible.

The rest of the car ride was quiet. Arin stayed focused at the passing scene from her window, drawing a blank everytime she would try to come up with a definitive way to feel and react to all of this. Should she yell at him? Should she be relieved that he told her the truth? Should she be grateful to him for saving her? Should she hate him? Should anything change?

It was only when the car pulled up in front of the MRS building that Woozi spoke again. “I’m sorry I exposed you to this danger, and I understand if you never want to see or speak to me again. However, I’m going to ask you to forgive me. I need you to forgive me.”

Arin opened the car door, eager to get out of there. She climbed out of the SUV, but before she could close the door, he said something else: “If our relationship ends here, then I’m happy with the time that I had with you. Thank you for everything.”

She shut the door and walked away.

If her soulmate was someone who spied on her, lied to her, tried to set her up for murder, then she must have had an ill-fated soulmate. She didn’t know why she had ever expected anything else. She was cursed in love after all.

To think that she had experienced the peak of love and romance with this person made her feel like something very precious had slipped through her fingers, or rather, had been stolen away and spoiled.

She walked through the door, where she saw the reception couple bickering. They were so bad for one another, but they were still soulmates. She felt stupid for ever thinking her relationship with her soulmate would never be that toxic.

She was near tears as all these thoughts and details overwhelmed her. She was already holding back any expression of emotion since Woozi’s confession in the car, and remembering that he was her soulmate just made the betrayal feel ten times worse.

When she walked into the interior balcony, she found Jun standing there against the wall waiting for her.

“Arin, thank God,” he said, letting out a sigh of relief. He became troubled by the expression on her face, trembling lips and eyes on the verge of tears.

She could not even whimper to keep the tears at bay, because a whimper used her voice, and her voice was locked up at the moment. It was too much of a strain on her chest to keep them in, so she just let the tears finally go loose.

Jun pulled her into his arms and let her cry into his shoulders. He seemed to understand exactly what was going on.

“I’m sorry, Arin,” he said, tightening his arms around her. “I’m sorry.”

-

Arin ended up spending that night at MRS, one door down from where Jeonghan was staying. It was an amusing irony. After living so close to one another in that accursed building, they ended up neighbors again in a very different place.

The walls were still very thin. She could hear two mages procreating in the room on her left. She covered her ears and tried to fall asleep, but could not.

The traumatic incident of that day flashed through her head and gave her waking nightmares. She still felt like a dirty murderer. She still felt like she deserved to die. She wished she had taken the poison before Woozi had come in and stopped her. Woozi always ruined everything.

To further the torment of that night, the purple wall still made her feel sick. There was a purple spirit hovering over her, like it was spying on her. Arin imagined that Woozi had also somehow hacked into the spirits, and was watching her through them.

She could not stop thinking about Woozi and about all the things that he did behind her back. She could not help but feel so stupid for ever letting herself open up to him like she did, for ever thinking he was helping her out of the kindness of his heart. The thought of him tormented her.

She wanted to yell at the spirit, to tell it to go away and leave her alone, but her voice was stuck in and all she could do was try to wave it away like it was some kind of insect. But it would not go away and remained hovering there like a parasite, bothering her, reminding her that she would never be left alone.

The mages in the other room would also not stop making noises. Arin covered her ears and buried her head in her knees.

At one point, she couldn’t take it anymore. She left the room and came knocking at the door on the right: Jeonghan’s room.

Jeonghan opened the door for her and looked startled to see her.

“What do you want, Missy?” he asked. There was this hobble in his breath as he said, like he did not know how to act. He probably knew what had happened to her. He felt sorry for her.

Arin could not answer him even if she wanted to. She also did not know what she wanted. She wanted to get out of her room that was infested with nosey spirits and beholden to the lewd voices of the mages next door. She also wanted to get away from her own dangerous, self-deprecating thoughts. She wanted to stop thinking about Woozi and how he had deceived her. How he had plotted her downfall and came so close to carrying it out. How she had fallen for someone like that.

She stood awkwardly at his door, hoping he’d invite her in. Of course he wouldn’t; kindness was not in his nature after all.

A seductive groan came from the room of the mage couple. It made her wince, but it seemed to do something else to Jeonghan. Besides being grossed out, he appeared entranced by the sound, which translated to his eyes peering at her – hungrily.

She bounded toward him, bringing their bodies closer and crashing their lips together. He did not yell at her or make fun of her for it. Instead, he indulged her, let her push him inside, and he slammed the door behind them.

In the vein of his curse, he was not being kind to her, rather he was being kind to himself. It was selfishness that motivated him as he hungrily kissed her lips with no regard for her personal space or comfort. She let him have his way with her lips, devouring her face like a rabid animal. His breath drew her in, made her want more.

There was no going back now. She could feel him against her body, desperate for her. She was desperate too, craving some kind of genuine intimate human connection with someone, anyone, and he was giving it to her.

It was happening. She knew he would be unkind to her and only focus on his own pleasure, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t care that he was unkind, as long as someone was filling in the gaping hole in her heart.

She could feel her body go lax in his arms as his hands travelled over it, tugging at her clothes. She let him lift her shirt up over her head, let his lips dawdle down her neck.

He jerked back when he heard a knock next door.

“Arin, are you in there?” Hoshi’s voice rang in her ears. Jeonghan stepped away from her. Arin cursed the bad timing. “Arin?”

She quickly put her shirt back on and opened the door. She found Hoshi carrying her old duffle bag in one hand, and Meemo in the other.

“Oh,” Hoshi said, looking between her room and Jeonghan’s. “You’re here…”

Arin grabbed Meemo from Hoshi’s arms and hugged her tight, much to the cat’s discomfort. The cat writhed itself out of Arin’s arms and rushed into the room.

Hoshi handed her the duffle bag too. “Woozi came by and dropped these off for you,” Hoshi said. “But yeah, anyways, I have some stuff to tell you, but it can wait. So… uh… I’ll just be on my way. Sorry for um… interrupting.” He winked at Arin. “Have fun, bro!” Hoshi yelled inside toward Jeonghan, who was hiding out of Hoshi’s line of vision.

Arin’s cheeks turned pink. Hoshi turned and scuttled away immediately, and Arin closed the door behind them, turning back to Jeonghan.

Meemo had taken her place in the center of the bed, already laying down to sleep.

Whatever heat was there between them, it was quick to die out with Hoshi’s visit and Meemo taking up the bed space. What was left was an awkward and extended silence, filled only with the moans of the couple two doors down.

“I think you should take your cat and go back to your room, Missy,” he said with bated breath. “I’m not about to be some rebound guy.”

When put like that, Arin felt guilty. Perhaps it was true. Arin did make him into a rebound guy, a guy that served to distract her from the heartbreak she was already experiencing.

“I met my soulmate,” Jeonghan told her. “Hoshi and Jun took me to her a few days ago. She’s much prettier and nicer than you could ever be, Missy. Her hair doesn’t look like the bristles of an old broom, and she doesn’t wear the same smelly ugly clothes all the time like you do! She doesn’t use me or make me feel like an like you do. And she’s not cursed!”

Arin lowered her head, feel stupid and embarrassed and berated herself for ever going to Jeonghan for comfort in the first place. He was the last person to provide comfort. Instead all he did was bring up her insecurities and capitalize on them.

She felt worse than she did before. That brief moment of respite, when he kissed her and almost had her, was over as soon as it began, and it wasn’t worth the shame and humiliation that came with it.

She sighed heavily, then walked over to the sleeping Meemo to carry her back to her own room. Meemo meowed, agitated at being disturbed in her slumber. Arin held her tight rushed out of the room and into her own.

Thankfully, it seemed that the couple in the other room was done. There were no more noises or grunts and groans. The spirit was gone too.

Arin closed her eyes and nestled against Meemo, trying to feel better. Instead, she just ended up crying.

At one point, Her phone, which had been stuffed inside her duffle bag, began to vibrate.

It was Jeonghan, texting her.

“Your crying is so annoying. Please stop,” he wrote.

She tried to be quieter when she got the message, but it seemed like he still heard her soft sniffles.

“Don’t cry,” he wrote. “I didn’t mean what I said.”

As soon as that message was sent, she heard him hiss in pain from the other room. He was paying the price for his kindness.

“Say the opposite of what you mean. I’ll understand,” Arin wrote back to him. “Don’t be in pain anymore, Jeonghan.”

There was a brief pause. She waited for him to respond but he didn’t.

“I hate you so much,” he said. “I’ve hated you for so long.”

I love you so much, Arin translated in her head. I’ve loved you for so long.

“You’re ugly. Everytime I see you, I feel sick.”

You’re beautiful. Everytime I see you, I feel good.

“You deserve what that tenant did to you. I hope you never recover from it.”

You don’t deserve what that tenant did to you. I hope you recover from it.

“I don’t care about you at all. I don’t want to always be with you. I don’t want to kiss or touch you. I don’t want to see you smile.”

I care about you so much. I always want to be with you. I want to kiss and touch you. I want to see you smile.

The texts did wonders to the pain in her heart. It did enough to stop her tears from falling, and restore some faith in genuine human connection.

Jeonghan’s soulmate was a lucky girl, Arin thought. She just needed to learn to speak his language of contradictions.