"Holy !" Hyukjae squeaked as the door banged against the wall and was slammed shut again. "Yah! What was that for?!"

"Ah, but you made that hilarious monkey face again", a low, voluptuous voice said back with a hint of teasing in its tone. "I truly enjoy it every time I see it."

"You're not funny", Hyukjae grunted, but then seemed to relax. "What are you doing here?"

"Why do you ask when you already know the answer?"

Hyukjae sighed deeply. "Fine, let's talk", he grumbled but the tension in his voice fully vanished.

On the other side, Donghae was trembling like crazy. The awful feeling in his guts kept tightening, to the point it made him nauseous. Tingles of fear ran down his spine. The newcomer didn't sound agressive, and obviously wasn't a stranger to Hyukjae, but he made the boy terrified none-the-less. He could sense that something wasn't right about the mysterious man. He was different, but not in a good way. He was emitting something like dark vibes, something which felt both evil and incredibly dangerous.

"Donghae, this is Kyuhyun", Hyukjae said to the boy, who was completely frozen on the couch.

"Well, well", the man, Kyuhyun, purred with his velvet-like voice. "How lovely. Finally I meet the famous Donghae. I've heard so much about you."

Donghae felt the pace of his heartbeats turn even more furious as he heard footsteps approaching. He crawled backwards, until he reached the bottom of the couch and felt his back hit the wall. He whimpered, terrified, as the other came closer and leaned down, just over him. He gasped and brought his legs up to his chest in a vain tentative of protection but he knew he had no way to escape.

"Don't frighten him", Hyukjae warned, but Kyuhyun ignored him.

"You can feel it, don't you?" he said and sat next to the boy. "My curse."

Donghae parted his quivering lips, letting out a shaky breath, but no words came out. Indeed, he could feel it. It was like a bad smell. A strange sensation of something rottening from the inside.
He flinched when a finger ran over his clothed eyes, sliding across his blindfold.

"And just to think that without this, you'd just need to look at me, and my misery would end", Kyuhyun whispered. "Ironic, isn't it? Your curse could be my liberation."

The aura surrounding him slightly changed, turned somehow fragile, and the male suddenly seemed less scarying.

"Kyuhyun, stop it", Hyukjae snapped again, and this time he sounded clearly upset.

Kyuhyun sighed and backed away from Donghae, but he didn't budge from his seat next to the boy.

"Fine", he settled himself comfortably on the couch. "Chillax dude, why are you so tense?" he lazily muttered.

"I don't want you to scare Hae", Hyukjae sternly retorted.

"It's a natural reaction as when two Cursed meet, he'll get over it", Kyuhyun stated. "Bring me something to drink?"

"Are you going to be a rude brat again?" Hyukjae groaned in response.

"Could you bring me something to drink, please, Hyung?" Kyuhyun snorted and Donghae heard the elder cluck his tongue in annoyance.

"Sure, what do you want?" Hyukjae still kindly inquired.

"Some tea, please", Kyuhyun chirped. "Thank you, Hyung."

Hyukjae mumbled something, before he approached Donghae and tenderly caressed his hair. "Don't be scared, Kyuhyun won't hurt you."

"Of course not", the other sing-sang happily.

"I'll be back in a minute, okay?" Hyukjae only gave his attention to Donghae, who weakly nodded. Then the elder stepped away and went to the kitchen, leaving the two cursed boys alone on the couch.

They both stayed silent for a moment.
Donghae was trying to calm down his racing heart, but his instinct kept howling inside of him, like a storm of prickles washing over him, warning him that the male sitting beside him wasn't to be trust. But at the same time, another sensation crept in his heart. There was something soft and fragile hidden behind the apparences.

"You know", Kyuhyun suddenly spoke, making him flinch in surprise. "It's normal to be scared of me. When cursed people meet, they feel each other's threat. I feel it too, how dangerous you are. My body tells me to get away from you. But I won't listen to it, because I choose to listen to my brain instead. And my mind tells me you won't hurt me. Am I not right?"

Donghae pursed his lips, and then uttered a soft yes hesitantly.

"Don't fear me, Donghae. You'll get used to the sensation. Eventually, you won't feel it anymore."

"Really?" the boy breathed out.

"Yeah, the Witches made us like this so that we wouldn't ally against them. Your gaze kills, right?" Kyuhyun abruptly asked.

Donghae tensed, but nodded again. He tried to swallow the unpleasant lump down his throat, but to no avail.

"Amazing", the other whispered. "I mean, that's a nasty curse, isn't it? You must be tempted to take off the blindfold and steal a look around, aren't you? Temptation is the worst, it drives people nuts. It is hard to be blind?"

"I-It's okay", Donghae muttered, still feeling a bit uncomfortable talking to the other cursed male. Kyuhyun's words were blunt and straightforward, without any sign of tact nor compassion. But, at the same time, talking about his curse with him felt strangely... right.

"Of course it's not okay", Kyuhyun scoffed. "Must be pretty hard to fight the urge to use your eyes. And you have no idea about how the world looks like. You hardly imagine it, right? Like, what colors are, the different shapes of objects, the notions of ugly and pretty... Don't you have a hard time understanding that?"

"A b-bit yes", the boy admitted.

"Because it's bull", Kyuhyun chuckled. "I'll tell you something. You, even if you can't use your eyes, you probably can see better than us. You're not tricked by apparences. What's pretty and what's ugly? It's just a ing point of view, nothing more. There's no Truth."

Donghae nodded again, though he wasn't sure what Kyuhyun was trying to tell him. But he didn't care too much at that moment. His fear for the male was indeed regressing as they quietly talked and he was eager to ask all the questions he had been wanting to ask.

"What's your curse?" he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Kyuhyun scooted closer, Donghae didn't back off. He held his knees against his chest as he fought his urge to run away. His mind told him that, indeed, there was no need for him to be scared.

"Well, you know, there's three types of curses", Kyuhyun blabbered. It was strange how his silky voice seemed to purr, even as he spoke about those painful things. "First : the curses hurting their host. It's stuff, like, having your organs turning into stones or your blood burning you from the inside. A long, endless agony. to get one of those, right?"

"Yes..." Donghae shivered as he imagined himself being cursed to physically suffer.

"Then, you have the curses making their host hurt other people. Like yours. Ryeowook had one of those too. The only purpose is basically to have the host kill other humans. Kinda sneaky, if you ask me."

Donghae's lips trembled. Kyuhyun sounded so detached as he spoke about it, while even just listening to his words caused pain to Donghae. He had never heard someone talk so nonchalantly about the topic.  

"And then", Kyuhyun went on. "You have the curses which make the host hurt both himself and the others. Those ones are the most destructive ones, but also the most painful since it's, like, self-destructive. I have one like that."

Donghae unconsciously crawled closer until he softly bumped into Kyuhyun's body. His fingers wrapped themselves around the other's sweater and tugged on it. His urge to comfort the other was stronger than his instinct of self protection.
The gesture seemed to startle Kyuhyun for a few seconds, as his breath imperceptibly hitched.

"Hmm. Two years ago, I crossed path with a Witch", the cursed male went on after a short moment of silence. "I don't even know why