2014, OCTOBER 29th.

After four years of convincing himself that it was all a coincidence, just when he could finally move on. Just when he was to completely enjoy his highschool life. Just when everything feels right...

His father died.

The same way his mother did seven years ago.

On the last day of his father's funeral, Jimin has no tears left to cry. Jeongguk had insisted to accompany him the whole night because he is worried that Jimin might pass out. Jimin's lips are now pale and there are very deep and dark bags under his eyes. Jeongguk would also sometimes catch him staring blankly at an empty space. The brunette hasn't slept for the past few days now. Jeongguk can't help himself but be concerned. But Jimin looked at him straight in the eyes and said, "Please. I need some time alone." So, Jeongguk had no choice but to leave him alone with his Aunt Park.

The night was dark, cold and silent as Jimin sat on the ground together with his aunt, his father's alter is sitting next to them. Visitors are long gone.

You see, Jimin wasn't able to sleep for the past few days now, but still restlessness is trapped in his body. It still felt like a fever dream. He can't believe he's gone. Who can blame Jimin? It's just like few days ago, his father treated him to dinner in his favorite restaurant, his father kept on teasing him about the girl he caught talking to Jimin. Jimin wished he didn't roll his eyes at his father and just continued to laugh with him that day.

His father told him that he couldn't wait to know who would be Jimin's first love. He couldn't wait to call someone – tease someone – as his in-law.

Truly, he couldn't wait.

He's gone now.

Jimin bites down on his bottom lip. There's no tears left to cry. His eyes are exhausted. Yet it still hurts. His chest hurts so much, it feels like he's breaking into pieces. He folded his hands in his lap, playing with his own fingers, distracting himself. When will pain go?

A hand ran through his hair. Aunt Park.

Dragging his eyes away from the empty space in front him, Jimin turns his head to look at his Aunt. She feels the same, Jimin could tell in the way her eyes could no longer sparkle with mirth. She just lost his dear brother whom she spent a longer time with. It must be harder for her. Aunt Park continues to raked her fingers through Jimin's hair, gently and comforting. She tried to give him a warm smile, Jimin sees the way the corner of her lips curved up for a very short while, but she couldn't fake it. It's understandable.

Who could smile at the person that caused all of this?

The brunette looks away. "Auntie." A broken whisper.

He heard a hum, a sign to continue.

"I'm sorry."

She wilted.

"For several years, I tried my best not to ask him about it, because he would only say it's all coincidence anyway. So I stopped asking." Jimin says, "But this and everything that happened is too much. And grandmother –" Jimin hesitated to call her that, "She would not say such a thing if she didn't mean anything to begin with."

Jimin looks back to his Aunt, brows knitted in a frown, probing her with a penetrating gaze. He wants to know the truth now.

Now or never.

"I'm not a kid anymore. I don't want to be clueless anymore. Please," He begged, "What do you know about my curse, auntie?"

It took some seconds before his aunt speak.

For years, Jimin's parents had a hard time from not being able to conceive a child, so they were very ecstatic when Jimin came into their lives. At some point, his distant grandmother loved him and treated him as her grandson. Although the old lady still doesn't accept her son-in-law (Jimin's father is quite poor for his grandmother's standard), she still paid them visits to check on her pregnant daughter. Aunt Park has no idea whether the old lady was doing it for Jimin, or she's just simply worried about his mother, but at least she still cared. She cared enough to accompany them to the hospital during labor. Everyone was beginning to think that the line that has been separating the two sides of the family is finally getting blurred.

Until Jimin's had his first seizure, three days after birth.

It seems like his parents' world has crashed down when their son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. They were told that Jimin will not survive any surgery at such young age. Their hearts are ripped into pieces when they heard Jimin only had seven weeks to live.

His mother was losing her mind. Being a new and low-rank police officer, his father doesn't really have funds for his hospital needs. She sold all her accessories (except a gold pendant which is an heirloom she inherited from her father) just so she earn enough funds to seek alternative treatments and help from different doctors, even in Seoul. However, money is not really the problem, as Jimin's distant grandmother decided to help in the end. (She had to put the blame all on his father for putting bad luck on their family before she did.) But to no avail, hospitals all have the same conclusion.

Jimin will die without celebrating his first birthday.

Two weeks left. Nothing has changed. All his mother could do is cry silently in the prayer room in a hospital where Jimin is confined for the rest of his remaining time. She's not religious but at that time she learned to pray.

That's when a lady approached her. By their looks, they have the same age. The lady's name is Choi Seoyeon. She has hazel curly hair, but what made her distinguishable is the faint scar on her cheekbone which seemed to be a small gash of a knife. But that didn't scare Jimin's mother.

Because Choi Seoyeon understood Jimin's mother. Seoyeon had a daughter confined at the same hospital too and she knows too well the fear of losing time with her child. Seoyeon's daughter had been battling stage three cancer, and the child only have a month left if not still treated. Seoyeon needs money.

The next day, his father came back from his night shift to see Jimin's room empty. He and his mother were nowhere to be found at the hospital. His father got scared because he knows about his wife's declining mental health. He shouldn't have worked another shift for extra money, he should have just let mother insult him, and he should have stayed by their side.

But thankfully, just before they file a search warrant. His mother shows up in their own house several hours after, carrying their son. There was hope in her eyes.

There are a lot of things that happen in life, and most of them do not have an explanation. Some are hardly explained. Sometimes ignorance is a bliss.

Jimin should have know that. He should have listened.

Jimin's mother talks about everything that happened that day, a hint of happiness was heard from her voice. She said that she met someone that is willing to help her cure Jimin in exchange for her golden pendant necklace. She honestly believes that Jimin was cured by a small bottle of potion.

Hearing the news from his wife, Jimin's father got alarmed and rushed his son to the hospital, thinking his son might have consumed a poison instead.

However, Jimin was completely okay. Like a miracle, Jimin got cured too.

Of course, they became the talk of the hospital for some time because everyone figured out that they exercised witchcraft, which was not illegal but very risky because of its consequences.

In exchange for Jimin's life wasn't only the golden pendant, as Jimin's mother further explained when her mind got clearer, but also the lives of three people that Jimin cherished the most.

In other words, the lives of Jimin's parents.

Jimin will live, but until he turns twenty-one, every seven years, one that he loves will suffer a painful death.

Desperation made his mother agree with it. She had no other choice.

For several years, his father hoped that Seoyeon was just an impostor and that his wife's death was just a coincidence.

But look at them now.

No one has an idea where Seoyeon is now, except Jimin's mother.

Learning about the truth made him feel sick. Aunt Park told him everything she knew. Jimin rose to his feet only to get down again and bow to her, repeatedly saying "sorry" because it's only thing he could do. Aunt Park cried that time, shaking her head and forcing him to get up.

Aunt Park shakes her head with a rigid expression, as she took a hold of his shaky shoulders, forcing Jimin to sit upright once again. "Jimin, no, listen to me. It's not your fault. Listen..." She held Jimin's face between her hands, looking directly at his eyes. Jimin chews on his lips as he kept his tears inside. "This whole curse thing might be a hoax, and everything that has happened might be some crazy series of coincidences."

Jimin pressed his lips together as he shakes his head. A voice in his head tells him that this couldn't be just coincidences.

Sadness clouded her features. "No, Jimin... I told you about it because you deserve to know, but it doesn't mean the curse is true." Aunt Park forced a half-hearted smile, swallowing hard. She wiped her tears away, exhaling noisily through pursed lips. Then she takes his hands that were placed on his lap, holding and caressing them softly. "Promise me that you would never ever blame yourself for something you didn't choose to happen. We can walk past this." She waited for an answer, her legs getting tired from sitting on the floor for a long while, but the room fell in uncomfortable silence. Jimin couldn't make himself promise that.

And his aunt understands that. She slowly let go of his hands.

"Thank you, Aunt Park." All Jimin could say and he means it. Aunt Park could only give a half-smile.

The silence between them makes everything heavier. Jimin doesn't know what to say next, so he excused himself to wash his face in the men's room.

Jimin stared at himself in the mirror and he sees his mother's eyes and his father's nose on his face. As long as he's alive, he will see his parents while looking at himself. He would always be reminded of everything.

Upon exiting the men's room, he saw a policeman talking to his aunt. Both of them are sitting across from each other at a wooden table. The policeman is much younger than his father. Jimin assumes that he was there to discuss the police car chase that took his father away from him, until Jimin locked eyes with the policeman.

Jimin drew himself towards them.

"Jimin, this is Officer Min Yoongi, your father's subordinate." Aunt Park introduces. Jimin bowed his head as a curtesy, before sitting beside his Aunt. Then she talks to the officer. "You have something to say to Jimin, right?" The policeman politely nodded, a quiet "yes" was heard from him. "Okay, I'll leave you two." Aunt Park stands, "I'll prepare some tea."

Yoongi smiled, "Thank you."

And they were left alone.

"It's nice to meet you again, Park Jimin. You were still very little last time I saw you." The man uttered with a feeble smile plastered on his face. Jimin just bowed his head again as a courtesy. Seeing the man up close, Jimin could tell that he is a fresh graduate and Jimin must be very young then for he couldn't recall the man sitting in front of him. "Your father talked about you a lot. He is proud of you. I even know that you won a math contest last month."

Jimin managed to chortle, a silent one. "Right."

Yoongi hummed as he looked down at his lap. There was a moment of silence.

"I looked up to your father." Yoongi said with a sigh, glancing up at Jimin. "He's a good man and there are lots of things to learn from him. He took a very good care of his subordinates."

Jimin doesn't know what to say. He's happy that people remembers his father that way. But he can't be happy.

Jimin can no longer be happy. He doesn't deserve happiness, after all.

Yoongi sighed at the lack of Jimin's response. The teen in front of him is really quiet and seems out of place. It's a sad sight to see.

"You know... Your father loves you until his death, and death was already expected in this line of work. Let's be proud of your father's sacrifice and bravery. And also," Yoongi pulled his leather briefcase from under the table onto his lap. Jimin watches him take something from the briefcase. "He asked me to give you this thing."

It has a rectangular shape and is fully wrapped with card stock paper. It was wrapped as if it was supposed to surprise the receiver.

"I haven't seen the inside of it," Says Yoongi, "But I think it's a book."

A book?

"Do you want that?" His father asked when he caught Jimin staring at something at a storefront as they walked by. It was a limited edition book. A science fiction. It's book cover is the coolest one Jimin has ever seen. It looks fantastic.

But the price? Not so much. As soon as his eyes lands on its price tag, Jimin grimaces.

It was too expensive.

"No, I'd rather buy an educational book."

"Is that what you really want? Surely not because of the price?"

Jimin nodded.

That made his father chortle, ruffling his hair.

"My son has grown up."

Jimin looks away and bit on his lips, breathing heavily. He should not cry.

"Officer Min," Yoongi corrects his posture when Jimin finally spoke, "I have a favor to ask you."

"Um... Yes," Yoongi leaned forward and listens. He nods, encouraging Jimin to continue, "What is it?"

"Thank you for visiting and supporting my father, but please, keep the gift with you."

His words created silence.

The police office hardly deciphered what he has heard. He blinked owlishly, "Why?"

I don't deserve it.

"Just please."

For many years, Jimin is tormented by the curse. Whether it's true or not, he doesn't have parents anymore. It's hopeless. It's the dead end.

And Jimin has plans for himself after the funeral, and receiving that is useless when he wouldn't be able to read it anymore.

He doesn't want to cause pain to anyone, anymore.

Yoongi thinks for a moment, before he breathes out. "Okay," He slipped a police business card on the table instead, "but contact me when you decide to take it."

Jimin nodded, mindlessly.

Jimin heard it's going to be a high tide for few days.

He wondered how deep a river can be.

"Jimin, take my hand!"

"Jimin!"

"It's okay, you're okay. I'm here. Breathe."