Hexed Intention

There was an ancient spell which had been passed down through the southern Aboriginal tribes of Australia. It was a fairly simple undertaking, but the results were supposedly catastrophic. The first component was red clay, to be mixed with a piece of the target. It could be hair, nails, or even skin. Then, the caster needed to mix fish eyes and meat scraps into the clay before coating the whole concoction with fish oil.

The instructions then called for the foul mixture to be smeared along the inner arms of a corpse. Lastly, the caster had to light a fire beside the body. Once the heat from the fire had melted the clay from the corpse’s arms completely, the curse would be unleashed. It was said that the victim of the curse would then be plagued by a horrific disease before succumbing to death.

Haein Ju, you had it coming.

Yoonmin stood in the yard, staring at the sky and muttering to himself. He knew the theoretical threefold law of magic: Whatever you send out will come back to you threefold. What if his curse rebounded onto him, and he became ill? What if he slowly suffered and died, right alongside Haein? Despite these worries, the thought of stopping what he’d started never crossed his mind. Haein’s smug, smiling face always swam to the forefront of his thoughts, backed by her legion of admirers. The thought filled his veins with molten lava and banished any notion of giving up on his workings.

You don’t deserve happiness. You never did and you never will.

If the cost of Haein’s misery was his own suffering, so be it. They would both die under the same curse, the way a drowning man drags another down with him. Then she would know. She would realize how much pain she had caused him, learn just how deep his wounds went. She would understand that she brought this on herself. If he followed her to the afterlife, he wondered if he would be able to let go of the past. No. Of course not.

A voice shook him from his rumination. “Yoonmin, it’s all done.”

“Huh?” he said, startled. “I was going to do it myself. Thanks, Jiyoo. So, are we ready?”

Yoonmin glanced down at Jiyoo and stiffened.

That doesn’t look right.

He’d met Jiyoo at an occult café. She was a short, thin girl, though her round cheeks reminded him of a hamster. Despite her cute face, Jiyoo boiled with anger and hatred, just like Yoonmin. He had once helped her cast her own curse and now, she was here to return the favor. But…

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Jiyoo asked, looking up at Yoonmin.

“Wait a second…” Yoonmin said, squinting at the reddish ball in her hand. “What did you put the nail in?”

“Red clay, fish eyeballs, and meat scraps,” she responded, seeming bemused.

“That’s not red clay. That’s Play-Doh.”

“So? It’s red and it has the eyes and meat in it.”

“Red?” he asked incredulously. “Does that look red to you? It looks orange to me.”

Jiyoo held the ball of clay closer to her face. “It looks reddish to me”

“If anything, it’s more yellowish. Besides, does Play-Doh even count as clay? It’s mostly made of starch.”

At that, Jiyoo furrowed her brow. “Yoonmin, angry at me?”

“No,” he mumbled.

“Did I do something wrong?” Her voice was rising in pitch now.

Yoonmin raised his hands, waving them frantically. “No, it’s fine! I’m not mad.”

“That’s a lie.”

“For real, I’m not.”

“You’re mad at me and I know it. You think I’m stupid and pathetic!”

“No, seriously,” he insisted, regretting that he had ever opened his mouth. “It’s okay, Jiyoo. Play-Doh, red clay, it’s all the same.”

It took about 30 minutes to calm Jiyoo down. Though he repeatedly reassured her that everything was fine, he questioned if it really was okay. Could the curse be worked with substitute clay? He didn’t have much choice. He only collected one nail from Haein, and Jiyoo had already mixed it with her Play-Doh.

Once he had Jiyoo placated, he realized it wasn’t just the clay that was the problem.

“Jiyoo, but that…” he said hesitantly.

“Yeah?”

“Isn’t that from a tuna can?”

“Yes,” she said. “It’s fish oil and meat scraps, just like you said.”

He stared at her.

“What? Is it wrong?” she asked, a frown forming on her lips.

“No, no,” Yoonmin said quickly. “Fish oil and meat scraps, that’s right. Perfect.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

He couldn’t really fault her. It was fish, oil, and meat scraps, no doubt about it. But it definitely wasn’t what the curse called for. Could it still work? The symbolism of the spell was crucial. Surely meat scraps should be some kind of rotting meat. The tuna from a can just felt too… too much like food.

“Okay,” Yoonmin said, trying to shake off his misgivings. “Then, for the last part…”

The real problem lay in this final step. Placing the mixture along the arms of a corpse and lighting a fire nearby seemed like a tall order for two teenagers living in the city. And where could they even get a corpse?

Finding a human body was absolutely impossible, he’d already concluded. He figured that it would be far easier to get an animal for the ritual, but Jiyoo was adamantly against it.

“It’s cruel to kill something for a spell!”

“Then we’ll just find a dead animal,” Yoonmin had argued.

“No! That’s gross.”

“Fine. I’ll do it alone.”

“No way!”

“Why not? I said I’ll find it and perform the spell myself.”

“If you do, I won’t let you use my yard.”

That had shut him up. He lived in an apartment, and if he so much as started to attempt this, the security guard would be on him faster than he could blink. Jiyoo, however, lived in a house with a yard: the perfect place to perform a ritual.

“Here, the corpse,” Jiyoo said, holding out a bag. It had “Incredible Bing Bing Rotisserie Chicken” written on it.

Yoonmin took the bag from her.

Crap, is there any way this is going to work? He peered inside, the delicious smell of roasted chicken wafting up into the air.

Well, I guess it’s fine. A rotisserie chicken is still a dead chicken, right?

“The seasoning here isn’t that great, though, “Jiyoo said, completely shattering the vibe. “I should’ve ordered original.”

Yoonmin pursed his lips and placed the chicken’s… corpse… on the ground. He put the Play-Doh mixture on its ribcage, just under the wings, and lit a fire nearby. Then, he began chanting.

“Spirit of the shadows, Abramelin, and Lady La Voisin, who communed with Asmodeus…”

Yoonmin couldn’t shake the thought that he was doing this all wrong. He tried his best to shove his doubts to the back of his mind.

The smell of the chicken’s flesh burning on the bones was strangely appetizing.

***

The next day, nothing happened to Haein. She came to school as usual and greeted her friends. When Haein sat down, her typical group gathered around her.

“Did you see what happened last night? That was awesome, right?” Laughing along with the inane conversation, Haein looked just the same as always.

Damn it, Yoonmin thought. It didn’t work after all.

He shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d performed the curse with canned tuna, kids’ art clay, and cheap roast chicken, after all.

I’m sick of tiptoeing around Jiyoo… Is there a curse that wouldn’t gross her out?

Yoonmin spent the whole class flipping through his magic book, searching in vain for a less disgusting death curse. Soon, it was time for PE and he had found nothing.

Yoonmin hated PE. It was the subject that put the class power dynamics on full display.It mercilessly showed who was at the center of the class, who was on the outskirts, and who was outright avoided.

Yoonmin always wondered why the job of a PE teacher even existed. All they did was toss out a ball and head back to the office to check the stock market.

Yoonmin was contemplating where he could hide today when something unexpected happened. The PE teacher gathered both the boys and the girls together rather than keeping them separate as they usually were. Something was off. Yoonmin glanced around and spotted the principal, lurking off to the side to observe the lesson.

Of course.

“Today, we’ll partner up and play dodgeball,” their teacher announced. “Pair up with the person whose student ID number matches yours.”

The PE teacher was suggesting a painfully outdated activity. Partner dodgeball. It was an activity that reinforced outdated ideas like “boys can take a hit,” “boys should protect girls,” and “girls need to be protected by boys.” If word got out, the students and their parents would probably have a field day criticizing it.

Unfortunately, Yoonmin seemed to be the only one who thought this way. Everyone else was busy checking who their partner was. Yoonmin’s partner was a girl named Jian, one of the five girls who always hung out with Haein.

The moment Jian realized Yoonmin was her partner, she scoffed and said, “Don’t let me die.”

Yoonmin raised an eyebrow and replied, “Yeah, right. I’m going to try and get hit quickly so I can relax.”

“What?” she complained. “That’s no fun!”

Yoonmin shrugged. “Not my problem.”

Eventually, the PE teacher blew the whistle, and the game began. Everyone moved with purpose, each with their own strategy. Some seized balls to launch their counterattacks, while others focused solely on protecting their partner. Yoonmin’s strategy was neither of those things.

“Yoonmin Seo, you bastard, seriously?” Jian shouted, irritation lacing her voice.

Yoonmin stepped aside again, leaving her wide open for an attack.

“I’m gonna kill you!” she yelled.

“Not if you die first.”

A ball came flying straight at them. It was the perfect chance. Yoonmin ducked swiftly out of the way but–

Thud!

The ball struck Yoonmin squarely in the head and his vision went dark. When he came back around, he was lying face up on the ground. His nose and eye socket ached.

“Um, Teach, Yoonmin's got a nosebleed.”

The teacher sighed. “Someone go get some tissues.”

And that was the end of it. No one was worried about Yoonmin.

“A guy got knocked down by a ball?” someone laughed.

“Who threw it? Haein?” someone else snickered.

“Did he seriously fall over because a girl threw a ball at him?”

“Poor Jian, she got paired up with a total wimp.”

All Yoonmin could hear was his classmates’ snide remarks. There wasn’t a single person expressing concern.

Why the hell is Jian the one getting pity?

He had definitely dodged, he was sure of it. So how did he still get hit? It was probably Jian. She could have grabbed the back of his neck and used him as a human shield. That's why he fell backward, it only made sense. But of course, people pitied Jian instead of Yoonmin. That’s just how the world worked.

Life really, really sucks.

Resentment roiled in his gut but there was nothing he could do. Life was always like this: a crappy mess.

“Um… Hey, are you okay?” It was Jian.

“Are you okay?” he shot back.

“Me? You’re worried about me?”

“Yeah. About your attitude.”

Jian rolled her eyes. “You bastard. You seem fine.”

With that, Jian strode off. As Yoonmin watched her retreating figure, he thought, Maybe the curse didn’t hit Haein. What if it just bounced back to me?

The magic book had mentioned that, if there was a mistake in performing a spell, the caster would instead be harmed. Well, using Play-Doh, canned tuna, and rotisserie chicken was a surefire way to make a spell fail. Next time, he’d have to do it right…

The sight of Haein tore him from his thoughts. She was standing in the distance, holding a ball. All eyes were on her.

“Throw it, Haein!” voices called out.

She didn’t. Instead she feinted, catching the ball on her fingertips and drawing it back toward her body.

She’s faking hard.

Feeling like his eyes met hers for a moment, Yoonmin spat on the ground.

***

“Hey…” Yoonmin heard someone call out. He ignored it, continuing to make his way down the stairs. His face throbbed with each step.

Damn, this really hurts. Should I sue Haein before I curse her? He mulled the thought over in his mind.’

“Hey! Wait a second!”

Assuming the shouting was directed at someone else, Yoonmin kept walking.

Actually, now that I think about it, it was Jian’s fault, so it’s her I should sue… Wait, isn’t her dad some high-ranking police officer? That’d put me at a disadvantage. Ugh… Why is the world so messed up?

“Yoo… Yoonmin,” the voice panted. “Wait up.”

Yoonmin paused and turned to look back. His mood soured the moment his gaze met Haein’s.

“That… earlier… during dodgeball…” She was still gasping for breath.

“Screw this.” Cursing under his breath, Yoonmin started running.

“Yoo–Yoonmin?”

Begone, demon. Nothing you have to say is worth listening to. Go hang out with your friends until my curse ends you.

Yoonmin may not excel at much, but he was fast on his feet. The sound of footsteps echoed down the stairwell behind him, though it didn’t worry him. As far as Yoonmin could remember, Haein’s speed was comparable to an unmotivated corgi.

Ignoring the panting behind him, Yoonmin sprinted all the way to the school gate without stopping. When he skidded to a stop, he noticed Jiyoo standing beside the school gate. She wasn’t a student at his school but it wasn’t uncommon for her to walk home with him.

“Why’d you run all the way here?” she asked, looking confused. “Just to meet up with me?”

He blinked at her for a moment. But, remembering how long it took her to calm down over the clay incident, he decided to keep the peace and nodded.

“Wow… I’m touched.” she said with a smile. “Let’s go. There are too many people around here.”

As Yoonmin walked through the gate with Jiyoo, he glanced back. In the middle of the field, Haein had given up the chase and was staring in his direction.

Did you think I was all alone? he sneered at her. I’ve got friends too, damn it.