“Why doesn’t he ever cry?” Mrs. Do looked up at the doctor next to her hospital bed. Her newborn son quietly lies in her lap, pressed against her chest. “It’s been a week and he hasn’t cried once… what’s wrong with him?”

The doctor sighed, “from all the tests we’ve done, there seems to be nothing wrong with your son.”

“Are you sure he’s not…mute?” Mr. Do said as he got up from the chair situated next to the bed. “I mean, he could be, right?”

“From what I can see, his vocal cords are perfectly healthy. I’m really not sure what the issue is, Mr. Do, but let’s just wait and see. He might just be adapting to his surroundings. Let’s give it some time.”

But it had been three years now and Kyungsoo had never cried even once. And crying wasn’t the only problem. He had never smiled or laughed, either. He spoke in full coherent sentence, though. He wasn’t mute or deaf, and the brain scans showed nothing wrong either.

“He’s like a robot,” his father, Mr. Do, said as the three year old Kyungsoo sat on his lap. Next to him was his wife, tears streaming down her face as she covered .

“P-please save our son, P’Onalo!” Mrs. Do sniffed as she looked at the man across from them, dressed in an all black gown, his long white hair tied in a pony tail and eyes closed.

He shook his head slowly, eyes still closed, as he mumbled an incoherent phrase. The long wooden stick in his right hand tapped against the table in front of him which held a few golden statues of the elders.

Mr and Mrs Do looked anxiously upon the shaman who continued mumbling phrases that seemed to be in a language foreign to them. Kyungsoo only stared straight ahead with his big round eyes.

The shaman finally opened his eyes and yelled, “It’s a curse!”

Kyungsoo’s parents gasped and the child continued staring ahead.

“Your child is cursed!” The shaman pointed at Kyungsoo with his stick and his mother broke out into tears again while his father inhaled before opening his mouth.

“Who cursed him, P’Onalo? Why is our son cursed?”

The shaman’s stick slowly moved towards the mother and he yelled, “Ask her!”

Mr. Do’s eyes widened as turned to his wife, “what do you mean by my wife?”

Mrs. Do tried to speak but her sobs would not let her words form coherently. Instead, she began to sob uncontrollably.

“P’Onalo, please tell me what you mean. Why would my wife curse her own child?” Mr. Do turned back to the shaman.

“Tsk, tsk…” the shaman slowly shook his head and closed his eyes. “This woman’s family has been cursed from generations ago by the witch who knew black magic.”

“B-but I thought th-that,” Mrs. Do said, wiping her tears, “my mother told me that it w-was just a family fa-fable…”

“No, woman! That curse is no fable. What your ancestors sowed, your child shall reap.”

“What curse? Youngmi, tell me what curse you’re talking about.” Mr. Do turned to his wife, his eyes scanning her face.

Mrs. Do took a deep breath, “My great grandfather owned a f-few slaves and one of them was a wi-witch who knew very powerful black magic. My m-mother said that she put a curse on our family when the she was accused of killing a cow and was stoned to death. But I d-don’t understand. Nothing happened to any other person in our family… why m-my son?”

The shaman opened his eyes again and glared at Mrs. Do, “Before your son, all the descendents of your family have been daughters, have they not?”

“Yes, that’s true but-”

“-and you don’t have any other children, do you? How about your siblings?”

“No, the doctor said I wouldn’t survive another child birth… and I’m an only child.”

“And so was your mother, and grandmother?”

“Y-yes, but why is that-”

“-the witch put the curse on the first born son of your family, and now your son will suffer. He will never have a wife or children of his own. Your family lineage will end here,” the shaman pointed at Kyungsoo again with his stick. Kyungsoo looked at the stick aiming towards him and blinked.

Mr. Do’s eyes went as wide as his own son’s large ones. “Is there anything, anything at all we can do, P’Onalo?”

“Yes, we’ll do anything!” Mrs. Do clasped her hands together, “I beg you, P’Onalo.”

The shaman sighed before he closed his eyes and began to shake his head, his stick tapping against the table. He was mumbling foreign phrases again.

Mr. Do flinched as the shaman pointed the stick again towards Kyungsoo, who sat in his laps but Kyungsoo did not even blink.

“Find the descent of that witch. Only when the witch’s descent truly comes to love your son, shall your son be cured of his curse. That is the only way.”

“But how would we find her descendent, P’Onalo?” Mrs. Do said.

The shaman closed his eyes again. After a few minutes, he said, “the descendent is a child of the Kaido family. Find that child before your son turns 25. Otherwise, the curse will remain forever.”

---

Jongin banged on the door but there was no reply. He didn’t even have time to catch his breath before he ran towards the next one. They were coming for him and he had nowhere to hide. He ran and ran, banging on each and every door until there was nothing but a dead end.    

He heard the footsteps closing in on him, getting louder by each seconds, along with the voices that yelled, “come back here,” and “find that son of a-”

Jongin looked at the stone wall in front of him. He wasn’t sure what was on the other side but he had nothing to lose at this point. He bent down before launching himself towards the wall, his arms reaching to grab onto something. The edges of the sharp stones dug into his flesh as he hissed in pain. He tried to pull himself up to the top of the wall but before he knew it, a strong and thick hand had grabbed onto his ankle and was dragging him down. He yelped in pain as his entire body hit the ground.

“Did you really think you could outrun us?” The bulky man with greasy long hair in a black suit glared as he released Jongin’s ankle.

Another, slightly shorter man dressed in a black suit with a scar across his left cheek stepped forward, “What should we do with this princess?”

“Take him back to the office,” the bulky man said as he turned around and walked past the others. “We’ll decide what to with his body there.”

The rest of the men in similar outfits began to laugh and Jongin felt sick to his stomach. He knew his end had come. He just wanted to die.

-

The small, dusty room reeked of alcohol and sweat. Jongin almost gagged as he was dragged in by two men who held him by both his arms. He had lost feelings in his arms by now by how tightly they were gripping him.

“Oh, what’s wrong, darling? Feeling a little nervous?” The man with the scar said, as he sat down on the chair next to the big bulky man. “What should we do with our princess, boss?”

“Put him down.”

“Yes, sir.” The two men holding Jongin suddenly let go of him, causing his limp body to fall to the floor.

Jongin fought back the tears because he knew they could sense fear. He wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction. He wasn’t going to feed their sick egos.

“Call the agency. Tell them we have their .” The bulky man said, running his chuncky hands through his greasy hair.

“Yes, sir.” The two men said before one of them pulled out his cellphone.

The man with the scar got up from his seat and walked towards Jongin. He crouched down next to Jongin before grabbing his chin and turning it towards himself. His smile was sinister and Jongin wanted to spit on his face. “Boss, let me have some fun with our princess before we hand him over. This face is too beautiful to give up without tainting it a bit myself.”

At that, Jongin actually spat at his face. The man laughed and wiped the spit from his face. “Feisty, I like that.”

“Unless you’re gonna pay the 2 hundred grand instead, don’t touch him.” The greasy haired man got up from his seat.

“Ah, do you hear that princess? Your is worth 200 grand. You feel special?”

Jongin swallowed the spite in his throat as he glared at the man in front of him. He closed his eyes and mumbled something under his breath.

“Your prayers won’t save you this time, you freak!” A bald man who was standing in the border said.

Jongin continued reciting the words. He didn’t care if they didn’t work. He had no other option at this point. In the twenty years of his life, his prayers had been the only thing that kept him alive. He wasn’t going to stop counting on it now.

“Isn’t he just precious? He thinks tha-” The scar faced man fell backwards as the air got knocked out of him.

“What the ?” The bald man came ran towards Jongin with a rod. As soon as the iron made contact with Jongin, he fell forward, body twitching and trembling. His eyes became extremely heavy and he couldn't breathe. Before he knew it everything went dark.

-