Before Her Very Eyes

Chapter 17

When Arin let herself listen to the resonating words in her head, she understood everything.

"You broke your word, you broke your vow" referred to her mother's marriage vows.

"So you will suffer for it now. You hurt my child, I'll hurt yours too." Her child was Jitae, and she was her mother's child.

"Make her feel what mine's been through" referred to the heartbreak and desolation that her mother had put Jitae through.

"A hardened heart that's limp and stale, doomed for loves that always fail" referred to Jitae's failed past relationships, and how his heart was hardened from loving anyone else because of her mother.

They'll die before her very eyes.
The'll call their names to their demise.
Your girl will never love with ease,
For every lover's heart will cease.
From here on out, this girl is cursed,
And this can never be reversed.

That was her curse. A punishment meant for her mother, but inflicted on her instead.

Her mother still bore the brunt of it in the end. Her mother was dead. Arin was still alive. Healthy. Physically healthy, at least.

Mentally, on the other hand, Arin was drowning. The world was closing in on her. Three people she loved, all gone within hours. Her heart was crushed and her spirit was forever tainted. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Had it not been for this stranger who welcomed Arin into her home and went above and beyond to help Arin cope, Arin would have probably never recovered from this.

-

Considering everything that was happening, Arin was surprised at herself for thinking more about the eighth floor tenant, about Woozi, than she thought about ~ and the sorceress.

She thought about how he quickly he typed. How she called his name and made him finally stop talking. How he didn't die. How he said there was something magical about names...

He must know something. Why else would he put it like that? There was no way that it was a coincidence that he just happened to say that names were "magical" for reasons completely unrelated to her curse.

That suspicion was strangely overshadowed by other thoughts though. Arin kept thinking about the moment of relief when she realized he wasn't going to die.

"Woozi," she said out loud to herself. "Woozi."

She loved saying a name that wasn't Jeonghan or Meemo. She loved the power that a name held, irrespective of her curse. A name, even with no magic involved, is a word that can do more than any other word in the dictionary. It made people alert. It made them lift their heads. It made them listen. In Woozi's case, it made him stop asking questions and finally leave her alone.

He didn't die. That was the most important thing. It gave Arin so much joy.

She didn't love Woozi; that was probably why nothing happened. She also didn't love Joshua though, but he still died. Perhaps the curse only worked on Joshua though because it picked up on the crush she felt for him, a crush she did not feel for Woozi.

Arin had always wondered about the way her curse works. Who dies and who doesn't? Who was safe and who wasn't? When people's lives were at stake, she could never had the luxury of testing it out. Case in point: Joshua. After him, she was afraid that even the slightest affection for a person could lead to their death.