The reporters’ excitement over the death of Kim Junho and Kim Siyoon didn’t abate for over a month, and during that time it was very difficult for any member of the Kim family to move freely around the city without being hounded. Baekhyun found himself more frustrated than ever before. The curse was closing in on the few remaining Kim family members, he was sure of it, and there was no time to waste.

He was grateful for his friends. Without them, he was positive that he, Junmyeon, and all the others would be done for. While he was stuck in the house – even working from home most days to avoid the reporters that remained around the gate – they were out, scouring cemeteries and talking to public officials.

He was working from his home office one morning when Yixing let himself in without being announced. Usually Baekhyun would be frustrated if someone came in without knocking, but with Yixing he didn’t mind.

“What’s up?” Baekhyun asked tiredly, hardly looking up from his computer.

Yixing crossed the room and a piece of paper under Baekhyun’s nose. He went cross-eyed for a moment until his eyes focused on it. “What’s this?” he asked.

“A list of all the possible cemeteries where Woo Yewon’s infant could be buried,” Yixing announced proudly.

Baekhyun took the list. “Xing, this list only has six cemeteries on it.”

Yixing beamed. “Yes, I know. We’ve managed to narrow it down.”

Baekhyun slammed his laptop shut, heart pounding once more. “So how do we narrow it down from these six?” he asked.

Yixing perched himself on the edge of the enormous oak desk. “Not really sure,” he admitted. “We’ve gotten all the information we can on these six graves. They all house unnamed infants from 1834, but that’s about all we know.”

“Well, then we’re just going to have to exhume them,” Baekhyun said firmly.

Yixing arched an eyebrow in surprise. “You want to dig up dead babies?” he demanded. “Think they’ll let you do that?”

“I’m head of the Kim family, remember?” Baekhyun said with a little wink. “There’s nothing I can’t do.”

It took several phone calls, but eventually he was able to persuade city officials to give permission to exhume the little bodies buried in the six unmarked graves around the city. They seemed uncertain, but, since he was head of the Kim family and his influence was so important in Seoul society, they gave in without much of a fuss. It was one of the few times Baekhyun was actually grateful for the influence that came with his family name.

Six different teams were hired to dig up and remove the tiny bodies. Then they were removed to a testing facility in the heart of Seoul. It was to here that Baekhyun, accompanied by Junmyeon, went.

“How are you doing today, Mr. Kim?” the owner greeted him at the door, bowing low. “It’s not every day we get such an esteemed guest as you at our facility.”

Baekhyun was too distracted to even register the incorrect surname; or maybe he was just getting used to it. “I’ll be better once we get this testing done. How quickly can you match the DNA?”

The man wrung his hands a bit anxiously. “Well, we have the equipment here in the building so it’ll only take a brief while…an hour at most.”

“Excellent.” Baekhyun took a deep breath. “I’d like to watch the whole process, if you don’t mind.”

Here the man blanched. “Um, Mr. Kim, I’m not sure you’re aware what condition these bodies are in… They’ve been buried for one hundred and eighty four years, without coffins or anything. They’re very, very decomposed.”

“I don’t care,” Baekhyun said sharply.

The man hesitated, then nodded and hurried off to make the necessary arrangements.

Junmyeon put his hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “Baek, are you sure you want to see this? It’s probably going to be pretty gruesome.”

“I saw Great Aunt Hyomin with her brains leaking across the pavement,” Baekhyun reminded him grimly. “I saw Madame with an umbrella in her forehead. I watched one of our ancestors slit her own throat, and another die violently from poison. I think I can handle a few old bones.”

He said that, but it was still quite a shock when he was shown into the laboratory, wearing a sterile gown over his suit and a mask over his face. There were six tables in the large room, arranged evenly beneath the bright fluorescent lights. On each table was a little skeleton, smaller than Baekhyun could have ever imagined. There was no flesh on any of them, just bone.

Baekhyun had to swallow past the lump in his throat at the sight of the tiny bodies. He’d never really spent any time around newborns, but the thought of these babies dying before ever really living made him profoundly melancholic.

Junmyeon had opted to wait outside – he had a weak stomach, he’d told Baekhyun with a greenish cast to face – so Baekhyun stood there while the forensic anthropologists worked on the tiny skeletons. First they cut a small sample of bone from each of the miniature femurs, carefully labeling each bone fragment in a petri dish. Then, each little fragment was crushed into a powder.

From there, the anthropologists examined the powder under their microscopes. “Is this what you’ll get the DNA from?” Baekhyun asked one, watching her work carefully.

“Sort of,” she answered, her eye still pressed to the lens of her microscope. “See, there are a lot of cells in here, but not all of them are from the infant. A lot is from the flora and fauna, the dirt, animals, etcetera. I’m looking through them now to find the ones that are human.”

“And what will you do once you’ve found the right cells?” Baekhyun pressed, leaning a bit closer.

“You’re in my light,” the woman said, a bit snappishly. Baekhyun was actually a bit impressed that she’d speak to him that way, so he quickly stepped back with an apology. She sighed, then continued. “Once I locate the correct cells, I’ll have to cut open the cell. Microscopically, of course. We use a special enzyme to do that. But there’s more than just DNA inside the cell. So it takes a bit of time to extract the DNA from the other things inside the cell. So we need time to do our jobs.”

A bit abashed at the obvious dismissal, Baekhyun apologized for distracting her and retreated away from the microscopes to let her work. But he found that it was quite nerve-wracking, so he excused himself to go wait with Junmyeon.

“Did they get the results already?” Junmyeon asked eagerly, half-rising from his chair when Baekhyun came into the office where his cousin was waiting.

Baekhyun shook his head, sinking down into the plush armchair beside Junmyeon. “Nah, not yet. I’m so anxious, I had to get out of there. Hopefully it won’t take too much longer.”

They were only waiting for about another half hour before one of the anthropologists came to them with the results.

“Did you find one that matched my DNA?” Baekhyun demanded eagerly, jumping out of his chair.

The man nodded, holding out a piece of paper. “One of the corpses did have a partial match with your DNA. You share a common ancestor.”

“Kim Hoik,” Baekhyun muttered to Junmyeon.

“I’ll be damned,” Junmyeon said, peering over Baekhyun’s shoulder at the piece of paper.

“I want to see the body,” Baekhyun said immediately. “I want it released into my custody.”

The man frowned. “I’m sorry, sir, but it’s illegal to do that without written permission from a judge. We can’t just go around giving bodies to anybody that wants them, even if they are related.”

“Fine,” Baekhyun said, folding up the piece of paper and slipping it into his pocket. “Keep it out for us. We’ll be back real soon.”