Hexed Intention

“Today was such a shitty day,” Jiyoo said, her voice muffled by her pillow. She was lying face down on her bed, hair splayed out across the pillow. At 160cm tall, Jiyoo barely made a dent in the queen-sized bed. Yoonmin nodded along from where he sat in her desk chair.

“Are you listening to me, Yoonmin Seo?”

“Of course.”

“Then why are you sitting so far away?” Jiyoo whined. “You’re not really listening, are you? What, is paying attention to me too boring for you?”

“It’s not that,” Yoonmin said hastily. “I swear I’m listening. It’s just… I like where I am.”

You’re completely clueless aren’t you, Jiyoo? Not only did you invite a teenage boy into your room but now you want him to move closer? You’re lucky I’m too awkward to try anything.

“Anyway…” he said, trying to redirect her focus. “So, what exactly made today so shitty?”

“Everything!” Jiyoo mumbled, face still buried in the pillow. “Do you remember that girl I told you about? Eunhye Kim?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Yoonmin lied, privately wondering how Jiyoo expected him to remember every single person she complained about.

“She was talking with some other kids about, like… an idol song or something? And then suddenly, she looks at me.”

“And…?”

“Then she says, ‘Jiyoo, do you know this song? Wanna join us?’ But… you know how I am with people. Anyway, since I stayed quiet, she goes, ‘Well, of course you wouldn’t know. You probably like Japanese anime songs, don’t you?’ What does she know about my taste in music?”

Her foot kicked up and struck the bed in rage.

“Hmm…” Yoonmin frowned slightly. “So, did you know the song she was talking about?”

“No,” Jiyoo admitted.

“What kind of songs do you like, Jiyoo?”

“Red Lotus.”

Yoonmin paused. “That’s the opening from Demon Slayer, right?”

“Yeah.”

Yoonmin had to restrain himself from saying, “So you do like Japanese anime songs.” If he did, Jiyoo would blow up. Besides, that wasn’t the point of her story. Regardless of the reason, Jiyoo was being taunted by kids higher up on the social ladder.

“Anyway,” Jiyoo continued. “After that, Eunhye started laughing at me and of course, all the other kids followed her lead. I didn’t even say anything, and I still got laughed at!”

Yoonmin shook his head, the familiar anger beginning to heat his blood.

“School is a horrible place,” Jiyoo said, her shoulders dropping in a sigh. “Everyone’s just looking for someone weaker than themselves to pick on. Who do they think they are, treating me like that…”

“Exactly,” Yoonmin said sharply, the injustice burning through his body. “Jiyoo, don’t you dare think you’re the pathetic one here. You’re probably the best one of all of them.”

Jiyoo side-eyed him. “Really?”

“They’re the ones who are pathetic,” he growled.

Jiyoo watched him silently, an unreadable expression on the half of her face he could see.

Wasn’t that the truth? Not a single person who looked down on Jiyoo had nearly the amount of money her family did. She had a house with a yard in the heart of Seoul. None of those shitty kids could say the same. They were beneath her.

“Alright,” he said suddenly. “Let’s curse them. Let’s curse every single one of those losers!”

She blinked at him. “Curse them again?”

“Yeah,” he said fiercely. “I came up with an amazing group curse. Listen, name magic is the best thing for school problems. And if you mix it with circulatory magic–”

“Yoonmin,” Jiyoo said, cutting him off. “Forget the curse… Can’t we just drop out together?”

“Huh?” Yoonmin fell back against his chair. “Drop out? Just like that?”

“We can still get into college with a GED,” Jiyoo said, her tone pleading. “You’re a fast learner, why bother going to school? Let’s just study here, at my house.”

Yoonmin mulled the thought around in his mind. “Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Right?” she said excitedly, leaping from the bed and startling Yoonmin.

He nodded slowly, imagining his life far away from the hell of Seorim High School. “There’s no reason to stay at a shit school,” he said finally.

“So…” Jiyoo was gazing at him expectantly.

“Okay,” he agreed. “As soon as I see Haein start to suffer from the curse, I’ll drop out.”

Jiyoo’s expression fell.

“Do we really have to wait until Haein gets sick?”

“Of course,” Yoonmin answered, nonplussed. He didn’t understand why Jiyoo was even asking. After all, if it hadn’t been for their shared desire to enact a curse on someone they hated, he and Jiyoo wouldn’t have even met.

Jiyoo dropped her gaze, lips pressed together for a moment.

“Do you like her that much?” she murmured.

“What?” Yoonmin was dumbfounded. “What the hell are you talking about? Like her? I hate her! I hate her so damn much! I want nothing more than to see her drop dead.”

“You’re obsessed with her.””

“Yeah, because I despise her yet she’s there, in my classroom, day after day and I can’t escape,” Yoonmin snarled. “I need to see her waste away, to see her rot.”

Jiyoo stayed silent, eyes never leaving Yoonmin’s. He knew what she was seeing: a pale, doughy face, like a vampire who never bothered to crawl from his coffin.

What’s with her? Why is she staring at me like that?

Yoonmin couldn’t stand Jiyoo’s gaze any longer and turned his head away, eyes flitting around the room. He needed something to change the subject. Then, something caught his eye.

“Hey, did you read this?” he asked, reaching out.

“Oh. That.” Jiyoo’s face went a little pink.

The book was lying open and face down. He picked it up, keeping a finger in the spot she had clearly stopped at. It was a black magic book he’d lent her.

“Wow, you got up to the Middle Ages section,” he said, skimming across the page. The section was on medieval love spells.

The grimoire Zekerboni contains a recipe for a love potion. The ingredients include the uterus of a swallow, the heart of a dove, and the blood of the one casting the love spell.

Yoonmin scoffed. “This is ridiculous.”

“What is?” Jiyoo retorted, her voice sounding muffled again. At some point, she had buried her face back in the pillow.

“I mean, mashing up a swallow’s uterus, a dove’s heart, and human blood—what would that even taste like? Imagine the smell…”

“So?”

Yoonmin laughed. “You hand someone this disgusting-smelling liquid, and you expect them to actually drink it? What does it tell you if they do? Anyone willing to do that was already interested in you.”

“And?”

“So,” he said, eyes still on the passage. “I think medieval love potions were just a way to confirm if the other person was already interested. Like, ‘We’ve been flirting, right? Let’s make it official.’ “

“So what?”

Yoonmin paused. “…Jiyoo?”

“What?”

Yoonmin put the book down, finally recognizing something was off with her.

“…What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

He didn’t know how to answer that.

“Why are you asking? What am I doing to make you think something’s wrong? Why would you assume that?” Her pitch was becoming alarmingly high.

“Uh, no… it’s just…” Yoonmin stammered, taken aback.

“Spit it out!”

It took about an hour to calm Jiyoo down. To be completely honest, he’d actually just run away at some point. She’d probably be back to normal by tomorrow, so he wasn’t too worried. Jiyoo’s tantrums weren’t a frequent occurrence but they weren’t exactly rare either.

She’s so small, but her temper is something else…

***

The next day, Yoonmin arrived at school and opened his desk drawer to take out his books. He paused when he noticed something sitting on top of the stack. It was a chocolate chip cookie, the kind you’d get at a café for 3,000 won. A Post-it note was stuck to the top.

Sorry about gym class yesterday.

Yoonmin could easily recognize the neat handwriting.

Why did she leave me this?

He looked up just in time to catch Haein’s eye before she whipped her head back around to face the front.Yoonmin scowled irritably.

She’s sorry for hitting me with the dodgeball but not sorry for abandoning me?

He was baffled. It was like a burglar breaking into a house, stabbing the family inside, and then apologizing for not taking off his shoes.

Getting hit by the dodgeball didn’t matter at all. It wasn’t even her fault—it was that idiot, Jian’s fault. Haein didn’t need to apologize for that. She needed to apologize for leaving him behind. For making him into a joke, for turning her back on him just to fit in. Of course, he wouldn’t accept her apology even if she did, but still, that’s what she needed to apologize for.

But this? Apologizing for something as trivial as hitting him with a dodgeball? Did she think that was more hurtful than ditching him?

Yoonmin fumed for a long time, his mind too unsettled to focus on the class. Then, he realized something.

Wait a minute, isn’t this an opportunity?

Haein’s handwriting… This could be a perfect application of the “Law of Contagion,” one of the two main principles of curses. If he took this Post-it note, put it inside a curse doll, and burned it, the curse should hit Haein.

“Haein, did you watch Music Tank last night?”

“Oh… yeah…”

Just hearing her voice sent prickles down his spine.

“Then did you see Sun Rise’s dance? Minhyuk was awesome, wasn’t he?”

“Y–yeah… he was…”

Yoonmin glanced up at Haein, who was partially obscured by her flock of friends. Was that what she called a conversation?

“Why do cows have hooves instead of feet?” Haein asked suddenly. “Because they lactose!”

One of her friends shook her head pityingly. “Haein, no. Your sense of humor is so bad.”

Yoonmin stared at the handwriting on the Post-it in his hand.

Sorry about gym class yesterday.

Was this really enough for the Law of Contagion? Sure, it was written by her, but it was just ink from a pen. There hadn’t been any actual contact with Haein herself.

He sighed, leaning back in his chair. Cursing with something like this would probably yield pathetic results.

Decision made, Yoonmin crumpled the Post-it and unwrapped the cookie. So what if it was from Haein? A cookie was just a cookie. It was made with care by someone working at a bakery or café. Well, maybe they didn’t put that much care into it, but still, it’d be a waste to throw it away. The cookie wasn’t at fault. The one at fault was Haein.

A quick glance around the room told Yoonmin that no one was paying attention to him. He half stood and slipped the crumpled Post-it into Haein’s desk drawer. It was his way of saying, “I’m not accepting your apology,” but for some reason, Haein smiled when she saw it

What the hell? Why are you smiling? I’m rejecting your apology!

Seething, Yoonmin headed to the bathroom.

The crumbs from the cookie stuck to his shoes as he walked.

***

The next day, there was something else inside Yoonmin’s desk.

Damn it, why do people keep putting things in my desk? When do they even do this?

He pulled out the small, folded note and his heart began racing. He didn’t know why, but it did. The thought of what might be inside made him nervous.

He looked up to see Haein watching him again. It was still early, so there were only a couple of other students in the classroom besides them. Haein was looking at him more boldly than she had the day before. Maybe it was just his imagination, but it seemed like she even smiled a bit.

Truthfully, Yoonmin had a brief thought that maybe, this note contained a sincere apology. Maybe it was a request to rekindle their friendship.What would he do if that were the case? He didn’t have to wonder for long, because that was not what the note contained.

What did the buffalo say when his son left? Bison!

Yoonmin shot up from his seat. His chair screeched as it slid back. Haein and a couple of other students spun around to look at him.

Without even sparing the other kids a second thought, Yoonmin marched up to Haein and came to a stop in front of her.

“Yoonmin…?” Haein started to say. She closed her mouth when she saw the look on his face.

“Die,” he spat, ripping the note in half. He didn’t care who was watching.

He threw the torn note at Haein and stormed out of the classroom.