Jimin has countless wishes in his life, but there's one of them that he wishes the most.

1. He wishes he discovered the truth sooner.

2007, NOVEMBER 5th.

Hidden among green mountains, surrounded by a vast body of the ocean is a busy suburban village located at the at the Southeast tip of the Korean peninsula, thriving and attracting more people from other cities. Two schools have just emerged in the village five years ago, including a kindergarten.

And one of its new students is a young, cheerful boy named Park Jimin - an adorable seven years old boy with chubby cheeks that people wants to pinch and very round eyes that are always filled with mirth and stars. Everyone coos when they see him. He doesn't like missing any of the school classes, so people pats his head, saying he will grow up well.

Then one sunny day, the sky was clear and the birds were happily singing. The fresh autumn breeze of November welcomes him, making the tree branches dance so more leaves would fall down.

The trees are helping him, he thinks. One, two, three. He has been practicing to count up to twenty because he wants to make his parents proud. Four, five, six, seven. He continued to count the orange leaves on the ground, hopping from one to another, imitating the bunny from the book that their teacher read for them an hour ago. The mood is nothing else but delightful.

It's going to be a wonderful day where his mother would buy him a fish-shaped bread with sweet red bean filling after school, or they would visit a local store to buy another storybook (she would always let Jimin pick). She would it read for him later at night, before giving him a sweet good night kiss, putting him to sleep under a soft, warm blanket, making him feel so loved and cherished.

His mother would read him any children's book, anything, except about witches.

Witches.

They are real. Every other month, they would hear news about witch sightings from their nosy neighbors across their yard or television documentaries during family dinner. Witches are always the talk of the town when people are bored. Many would even pretend to be one just to have instant fame, even if it's a bad type of fame, only to be shamed upon when proven fraudulent.

Not that witches, which can only be counted with fingers today, have a good reputation to begin with.

Witches are disfavored and interacting with them is taboo. It is known that witches destroys peacefulness anywhere with their potions. They play with chances and time. Witches don't have magic wands like those Jimin saw from Harry Potter movies. The only source of their magic is the potions handed by their ancestors which decreases with every drop used and soon to be run out. Hence, as long as nobody consumes their potions, there would be peace.

His mother would avoid buying and reading storybooks about them, not because it is about witches, but because it paints all witches as the bad guys.

She doesn't believe that witches are all evil. It's true that they are no fairy godmother like in Cinderella, because they expect something in return before granting a wish, but it's all worth it – according to her.

Jimin had asked her if she ever meant one because she seems to be very knowledgeable about them, however, his mother wouldn't say anything more except one thing.

"You'll know it when you're ready." She said before she kissed him a good night kiss. Then Jimin noted to himself to ask her again as soon as he wakes up, which he did forget the next morning.

Jimin wrapped his tiny hand around the laces of his backpack, tightening his grip as walked towards the gate. A school day in kindergarten just finished. His mother must be waiting outside the school gate already. He found himself excited to hold her hand tight and show her the back of his hand stamped with two red stars (it could have been three, if only he knew what's the name of the shape with five equal sides). However, knowing his mother, Jimin would still receive a kiss on his forehead (even without a star) which is more valuable than any of those stamps.

The young boy giggled at the thought as he continued to stride. He couldn't wait to see his mother again, so he walked faster - he skipped.

And then he heard it.

"Jimin-ah!" His beautiful mother shouted, sitting inside a taxi, waving at him on the other side of the road. Jimin halted his footsteps as he reciprocated her wave and warm smile. Jimin's heart soared. He loves his mother very much. "Son," His mother mouthed, her eyes are shining. "Wait for me there." She uttered as the taxi drivers maneuvered to take a U-turn.

The young brunette nodded. He couldn't wait to give her a hug.

He waited happily.

Little did he know that his life is faster to take a major turn.

It almost felt like dream - a nightmare. Everything happened too quickly. One moment the taxi was in front of him, intact and safe, the next thing he knew there were loud noises and shrieks. His ears were ringing. His heart that once soared, dropped. He felt pain even though he wasn't the one that the truck has crashed to -

Crashed?

"Mother?" Jimin calls, and there was no response behind the clouds of smoke that are hiding his mother from him. She told him to wait for her, so he does. He knows that she will come to him and hug him. "Mother!" Jimin chewed on his lips. His eyes are welling up.

Then everything slowed down.

His arms slacked, dropping his hands to his side.

Jimin was just a kid who loves to observe everything. He loved looking at his surroundings. He loved to see animal shapes in the blue sky, he loved to see how butterfly wings flock together like fairies in the storybooks, he loved to see how the water flows in the river and imagine mermaids swimming there. Jimin loved to see and learn everything, except this. Never this. Jimin forgot how to breathe properly for a moment. He's shaking but at the same time, his feet couldn't move an inch. Smoke was everywhere and he could hear someone asking - yelling "Are they dead? Are they dead?". He could hear children crying too, running to hide behind their guardians, frightened about what they just witnessed. Only Jimin stood frozen on the ground as he watched many people run towards the crashed vehicles.

Just like that.

Just... like that, the one he was waiting for never came.

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

2007, NOVEMBER 7th.

"You..." His distant grandmother looks down at him, her unrelenting gaze pierced through the child's heart. Her eyes are flooded with tears. She's gritting and trembling. She held his shoulder tightly, so tight, her nails are digging into his clothed skin. It hurts him. But her words hurt more. "You are a cursed child." She whispered but made it sure that Jimin could hear her loud and clear.

Cursed.

The word echoes inside Jimin's head.

It's the first time he heard that word outside his favorite storybooks.

Jimin thought that curses only belong to fantasy books. He began to question himself if curses and potions are the same things. He's confused. He knows that he hadn't taken any potion, but the way his grandmother looks at him, he seemed to be wrong.

He only met her twice. He was only five years old when he first met her, and she was shouting at his mother at that time too. Jimin couldn't recall what he did to her. Yet now at his mother's funeral, her gaze that should have been comforting is nothing else but filled with hatred and disgust.

The resemblance between her and his mother is notable. It's just that her hair is white and her skin is wrinkled by time. His mother's eyes would not be the same as hers though. His mother would not look at him like that. Never. His mother made him feel loved just with her eyes, while his grandmother's only scares him. Her darting gaze is suffocating the little boy.

"My daughter..." His grandmother looked at him straight to his eyes, trembling in anguish, reddish eyes still filled with unshed tears. "Your mother died because of you." Her words stabbed right through his heart. Jimin shut his eyes and sobbed, digging his own nails into his palm as he forces himself to keep steady. He couldn't understand a thing, but it still dug a hole in his heart. "You killed your mother. It's your curse -"

"Mother-in-law!" Someone grabbed Jimin from his grandmother. When he opened his eyes, his father just came back, gently pushing him behind, hiding him. Relief washed over Jimin, he could finally breathe again. "He's just a child!"

"A cursed child, he is!" Their raised voices surely disrupted the funeral. The eyes of the visitors are all over them. Few of their relatives began to interfere, especially Jimin's Aunt Park who is holding his grandmother back, telling both of them to calm down and respect the funeral. But his grandmother didn't stop. "A cursed child brought by a good-for-nothing father!" She yelled and yelled, "I knew from the start I shouldn't have let my daughter marry you! I knew it!" She cries.

Jimin flinched upon hearing her loud voice. He couldn't help himself but cry too. He closed his hand into a fist as he clutched at his father's suit, burying his face against his father's back, damping it with his own tears. Jimin is hurt. Everything hurts. He can't understand anything. What is the meaning of being a cursed child? Why is he cursed? Why is it his fault?

"Mother... please..." The voice coming from his father wavered. His eyes are glossy. His father is hurt too.

"Don't call me that!" Jimin's grandmother painfully shrieked, her voice was so loud and it's laced with madness. The look in her eyes was scary and saddening. She spoke through her gritted teeth, still trembling. "My daughter is gone, you don't get to call me like that ever again."

Every word coming from her hurts like hell.

Her daughter, Jimin's mother, is gone.

Why is his mother gone? What Jimin has done for her to be gone?

"My daughter..." His grandmother balled her fingers into a fist and hit her chest, her tears began to fall. She broke down, crying of sorrow and grief. She wailed, and relatives held her to keep her from collapsing. She is in pain too. Jimin feels a pang of guilt in his chest. "My daughter."

Why is he causing pain to a lot of people?

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

"Jimin-ah..." His father kneeled down to match his height. Gently, he lifted his hand and caresses Jimin's damped cheeks, wiping his tears away. "Son, look at me." His voice is soft, comforting him.

But still, all Jimin felt is guilt. He kept his eyes on the ground which looked blurry because of his unshed tears. Jimin bit his bottom lip, bottling his emotions inside. He should not cry. It feels like it's his fault that the peace was taken away from her mother's funeral an hour ago, and he shouldn't disturb it anymore. If only he should have gone home by himself that day, then his mother wouldn't have to ride a taxi and pick him up. Maybe his grandmother was saying the truth. Jimin is nothing but a cursed child. His poor mother. He feels sorry.

"Don't..." As if his father could read his mind, he spoke. "Don't think about what you've heard earlier." Jimin finally looked up and meets his eyes. Behind the weariness in the elder's eyes, his father still managed to give him a smile. Although it's weak, it still soothed him.

"None of it is true. It's not your fault." His father removed his hand from his cheeks and held his tiny, shaking hand instead. He draws circles at the back of his hand. "You're just a boy, not a cursed one, but a boy whose mom was very lucky to have as her son. Okay?"

But saying it like that somehow makes Jimin think otherwise.

"Father..." Jimin's little voice says.

His father hummed in response.

Even though Jimin is still confused about what is happening, there's one thing that's for sure.

He doesn't want to be alone.

"Don't leave me too."

His father let out a quiet sigh like he was having a hard time breathing too, blinking back his own tears. There was a glimpse of fear in his father's eyes, and Jimin was afraid to know what it is for. Jimin doesn't know what to believe anymore.

But then he pulled Jimin into a hug.

"Of course... father is here to stay."

And Jimin could no longer stop his tears too. He sobbed and sobbed as his father tightened the hug.