“Then you should have locked it better.” Nayeon grunts, finally stepping out of the room.

Everyone springs to their feet. But before they can ask anything, Nayeon stops them with a raising hand.

“We’re not done yet. Dahyun! I need you to fly back to my house and retrieve me a silver bracelet.”

She pulls the girl aside and whispering instruction of where to retrieve the bracelet. The blonde nods, quickly turns around and flies into the sky. Last time Dahyun turned, Sana didn’t open her eyes to witness; so this time she can’t help but being awed by this transformation.

Nayeon looks around at the expectant faces staring at her and sighs.

“We’re doing our best. Eat something. It’ll be long.”

She nods at Jihyo, who’s peeking out from the kitchen, and goes back into the room.

Too absorbed by their own thoughts, they barely notice when Jihyo puts a tray of food on the table. Only when the smell of fresh cooked food fills in their nostrils do they look back down. The lunch is nothing fancy, just rice, miso soup, beans and rolled eggs. It’s simple and homey, but they’re too occupied by all the whirling thoughts to enjoy the meal. A tall girl with tanned skin and brown wavy hair helps setting the table, putting bowls and chopsticks for everyone.

“Oh, you are Tzuyu!” Sana exclaims out loud at the new girl, who only throws back a glare before disappearing into the kitchen, much to Sana’s dismay. She just wants to get to know the girl. And maybe pet her a bit. Sana loves all dogs.

***

Finally, after what seems like centuries, Nayeon and Jeongyeon step out of the room. They close the door behind and walk to the expectant crowd, who are already on their feet.

“How is she?” Chaeyoung asks impatiently, she doesn’t like the look on Jeongyeon’s face. The older is avoiding everyone’s eyes.

“She’s sleeping.”

Nayeon answers instead, and quickly adds when seeing Chaeyoung is about to go in the room.

“Don’t go in just yet. Let her rest for a while. We need to talk first.”

Reluctantly, they sit back down, cross-legged around a small tea table. Jihyo quickly introduce the two, Nayeon – the witch and Jeongyeon – the healer, and the newcomers together. When grandma Hirai recounts the story, and the curse, it’s Nayeon who responds and asks for more details. Jeongyeon stays silent beside her.

The newcomers are too absorbed in the conversation to notice the slump of her shoulders and her fidgeting hands. Jeongyeon is starting to pick her cuticles when a soft hand finds hers, provides just enough warm and assurance to stop her fumbling ones. She doesn’t need to look up to know it’s Jihyo’s. They have known each other for so long and the girl always know to comfort Jeongyeon when her anxiety kicks in. Jihyo squeezes Jeongyeon’s hands, not too hard to hurt her but enough to send the silent question. The older looks up at her with eyes so sad it breaks Jihyo’s heart. She knows it’s not good news they’re delivering.

“What is this curse all about?”

This time it’s Momo who speaks up. They’re talking about something she doesn’t understand. Only thing she knows is her family is (partly) responsible for this.

“This is like a poison. It starts from the point where she touched the statue and slowly spreads out. Until it reaches her heart and eventually her whole body. It’s lucky you brought her here before it reaches her heart. If that happens, we couldn’t really do much.”

Sending a worried glance to the healer still slouching down next to her, Nayeon sighs before continuing.

“Even when not reaching the heart yet, it is too powerful. To contain this is all we can do. Jeongyeon and I have trapped the curse in her hand, bounded by a silver bracelet. She’s fine for the time being. But even with our power combined, it’s sure to break free and spread out to the rest of her body.”

“How long… until it breaks free?”

Nayeon’s composed face suddenly wavers. Now both the witch and the healer avoid everyone’s gaze.

“Two months… three months top.”

“What?”

Sana and Momo says in unison. Horror evident in their voices.

“I’m sorry…”

Jeongyeon, whose head still hung low, says solemnly.

“What do you mean by 2 months? What will happen after that?”

Momo’s cry is echoing in the quiet room. It holds accusation and so much pain that pierces through their hearts.

“It’s lethal. When it reaches her heart and the rest of her body, she’ll die.”

***

The silence once again takes over the room as the words sink in. Everyone freezes on their spot. If you look into the room at the moment, you would think someone has put a freezing spell on them. No one dares to say a word. They’re all trying to grasp this devastating information.

When Momo slumps down to her seat beside Sana, she can feel the trembles of her girlfriend’s unusual cold hand. She feels dizzy. No. this doesn’t make sense. How can they just say that? How can they say Mina, a healthy girl full of life, will die in just a few months, from a god-know-what curse from whatever dynasty?

Waves of emotions course through her body as the older girl’s words starts sinking in. She looks at Sana, who is pretty much in the same state as her, and her grandma, whose head hangs low. There’s a lump in and she struggles to push the broken words out.

“That… that can’t be… right?”

 “We’re sorry. We can’t do better than that. This one is extremely poisonous and powerful. I think your grandma knows how dangerous it is.”

They all turn to look at Grandma Hirai. Momo feels like she has just been thrown into a dark pit of hell when she sees the guilty look in her grandma’s eyes. She feels herself tremble uncontrollably, out of fear, out of anger. Anger boiled in her system; her body feels like it’s on fire.

“No. You are lying! This is the magic world for God’s sake. There must be a cure. You are the witch, the healer! How can you say you can’t do better?”

Against her best judgement, she flares, points aggressively at the healer, who shrinks in her seat. But the witch scolds her immediately.

“If I were you, I would think again before throwing those accusation, young girl. I could turn you into a toad with just a snap of my finger. We are doing the best we can, and if you want someone to blame, why don’t you go back to your family then!”

Nayeon is seething! How dare this girl talk to her like that. How dare she accuse Jeongyeon? Her Jeongyeon, who has done everything she can but still blaming herself. A hex is at the top of her tongue when Jeongyeon stops her. Trembling hand holds hers; just one look at those sad brown eyes and her anger deflates. Fine, she will spare the girl, just this time. But she’s on thin ice.

“I thought you said it doesn’t affect non-magic people.” Dahyun points out

“It doesn’t, normally. We made sure our employees have no connection to the magic world, every magical entity that come into our residence must have at least a guard . I just didn’t know Mina…”

“Is connected to me.”

Chaeyoung, who has been silent since Nayeon broke the news of Mina’s condition, speaks up. Her voice is cold, sharper than any words they have heard from her. She has been so still that in the heat of the moment, people seem to forget about her. They forget that she is Mina’s companion and has spent the longest time with the girl among people here.

“We don’t know if…”

“There’s no other explanation. She doesn’t have any connection to the magic world except for me.”

The cat girl finally looks around the room with fierce eyes, as if daring them to counter. No one does. They all know it’s true.

“Now excuse me.”

Abruptly, Chaeyoung stands up from her seat, not letting anyone have time to react before going straight to the room where Mina is sleeping.

“Just let her be” Jihyo says quietly, barely louder than a whisper, more like she’s convincing herself. She knows how important Mina is to Chaeyoung, and how the girl must be devastated by this news. She has been sending a few glances to Chaeyoung throughout the conversation, intending to catch the younger’s feeling. But Chaeyoung just sat there with stoic face, with no expression at all. It’s not the first time Jihyo saw Chaeyoung like this, she just hopes the girl doesn’t run away this time.

“But there must be a cure, right?” Momo asks again, stubbornly refuses to believe the opposite.

“There’re some but it takes years to find and concoct. We don’t have that much time.”

Nayeon sighs. The number of times she sighs today is probably more than her whole life combined. She has discussed with Jeongyeon about this before coming out here. The healer broke down after telling her that there’s no cure that she knows is attainable now. She wants nothing more than to assure Chaeyoung and others here that Mina will heal quickly. But that’s simply not true.

Meanwhile Dahyun is fidgeting in her seat. She can’t stand this dreadful air. On her right, Nayeon and Jihyo is silently comforting Jeongyeon, the healer hasn’t look up once. She has never seen Jeongyeon act like this before, too used with a play and mischievous girl who tells lame joke sometimes (most of the time). On her left side, Sana, the girl she just met today, is crying on the dark-haired girl shoulders now. Tears are racing down chubby cheeks looking like a Shiba crying. Oh no, Dahyun can’t stand seeing puppy crying. She can recall how her heart broke into pieces the first time she saw Tzuyu crying.

“We’ll find a way. I’m sure there must be a way to save Mina. We are just too caught up in this to come up with one.”

Dahyun exclaims loudly and forces out a smile. Bright eyes looking around the room, trying to lighten up the mood.

‘I have tried, even look it up in the Book. It’s a rare kind of poison and there are very few antidotes. It’s so rare that they say when you got this kind of poison, there’s nothing much you can do beside praying to the gods.”

Jeongyeon speaks up, finally raise her head to look at people when Chaeyoung is not here. It’s not the first time she came across a patient she can’t treat, but this girl isn’t just someone. She is Chaeyoung’s companion. By the stories Chaeyoung told her, Jeongyeon knows how much Mina means to Chaeyoung, maybe even more than the cat girl herself realized. Everyone knows how much Nayeon and she adore Chaeyoung; and god forbids, Nayeon acts like a protective mom sometimes. They basically raised Chaeyoung, Dahyun and Tzuyu up, together with Jihyo. How can she look into Chaeyoung’s eyes and tell her that her companion is going to die? She can’t do that, no, not again. Too consumed by her thoughts and worries, she doesn’t expect Dahyun to clap her hand loudly and jump from her seat.

“So we’ll go ask the gods then!”

“WHAT?”

They all look at Dahyun as if she grows two heads.

“How are we supposed to…”

“Don’t we have a priestess to do just the thing?”

A moment of silent before Jihyo stands up abruptly and squeals. She quickly embraces Dahyun and peppers kisses all over her face.

“You’re a genius, Dahyunie. Why didn’t we think of it before?”

“C’mon, Jihyo.”

Dahyun whines when Jihyo attacks her face with kisses, IN FRONT OF ALL THESE PEOPLE, but doesn’t attempt to push the latter away.

“Should we go now?”

“Yeah, before it’s getting dark. Let’s go ask if Chaeyoung wants to come along.”

They all get up. Sana, Momo, Jihyo and Dahyun are heading into the room while others are waiting outside.