The Yinma's Curse

Rough breaths scattered across the bedsheet.

The living room we had rushed back to, straight from the mission, lay heavy under the smell of disinfectant and a silence that had sunk deep into the air. I knelt at the edge of the bed and looked down at Yu-jin's lower abdomen. She lay there with her top pushed up to just beneath her chest.

Right beside her navel, on skin that ought to have been smooth and pale, a bruise-like mark had formed in a geometric shape.

It was not a wound that threatened her life. What it had left behind was a Yinma's curse.

I had already tried amplifying Yu-jin's spiritual power with my ability, hoping to purge it. The brand gave no reaction at all, as if it had been a part of her from the beginning.

"Hah... hah..."

Beneath my palm, Yu-jin's abdomen rose and fell. My fingertips had gone cold, but her bare skin was lukewarm, flushed with heat. I bit down hard on my lip and poured my focus into my palm once more.

The moment I pushed my energy through the skin where we touched, the spiritual power flowing inside Yu-jin answered, pulsing hard. On any ordinary day an amplification like this would have been enough — common curses and miasma alike should have turned to white smoke and vanished. The pattern of this curse, though, did not change in the slightest. If anything, it was only drinking in the spiritual power that spilled over from the amplification, as though that power were nourishment of its own.

"Si-woo oppa... how is it? Did even a little of it come off?"

Seol-a, standing at the head of the bed, asked it in a fretful voice. The silver wolf ears that would normally have been perked hung limp over her head, trembling.

I couldn't bring myself to answer. I lifted my hand from Yu-jin's stomach, all the strength gone out of it.

"...No. It doesn't seem to be working at all. Keep trying, and the curse might actually grow."

At the despair threaded through my voice, the fingertips of Yu-ra noona — standing beside me with a wet towel — gave a faint tremor. She tried to hold her face calm, but she could not hide how bloodless her lips had gone.

"How can that be...? It was only supposed to be a lower-class Yinma. A curse even your amplification can't push out... I've never heard of such a thing..."

With a shaking hand, Yu-ra noona wiped the beads of sweat from Yu-jin's forehead.

Somewhere in my chest, it felt as though the flesh were charring black.

If only I hadn't frozen like an idiot in that one crucial moment. I still couldn't understand it. Noona had warned me beforehand, and I had still made the beginner's mistake of falling under the hypnosis.

I clenched my fist against my knee until my nails bit into the palm.

"I'm sorry, Yu-jin. If I... if I just hadn't made a mistake that basic, you never would have gotten hurt. Because of me, you..."

"Hey. Yoon Si-woo. That again?"

Yu-jin's scolding voice dropped onto the crown of my bowed head. When I looked up, she was drawing the pushed-up hem of her clothes slowly back down, covering her stomach. Her face was pale, but her eyes were as clear as ever, fixed steadily on me.

"Look. I'm fine. No hole through me. Nothing broken."

As if to prove it, she pushed herself up on the bed, closed her fist lightly, and tapped my shoulder. The punch had less strength in it than usual, but folded inside was a gentleness meant to put me at ease.

"And what are you even sorry for? Teams exist so we can cover mistakes like that. It's because of your amplification that it ended here. If it'd been my spiritual power on a normal day, I'd probably have a hole in my stomach."

"But the curse..."

"Don't make a fuss over one lousy bruise, you idiot. I'm really fine."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Yu-jin unnie... it really doesn't hurt, right? You're not lying?"

"Aigoo, I said it doesn't hurt. Since when did this one turn into such a crybaby?"

At the tears caught in Seol-a's voice, Yu-jin patted that silver hair. Watching her hold herself together so stubbornly only made my throat close shut.

I had to break this curse, whatever it took. I didn't want a brand that sickening left on Yu-jin's body for even one more day.

Right then, Yu-ra noona's phone on the dining table went off with a sharp vibration.

Vmm— vmm—

What came up on the screen was the mark of the Exorcism Association Headquarters. The moment we had gotten back, Yu-ra noona had sent out feelers in every direction through her contacts and the Association network. She set the towel down and snatched up the phone.

As the call went on, the crease between Yu-ra noona's brows drew tighter and tighter. Without meaning to, I swallowed against a dry throat and stared at nothing but her lips. Seol-a held her breath as well, ears pricked. After listening for a long while to whoever was on the other end, Yu-ra noona ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slowly nodded.

The call ended. In the living room, where the quiet had settled in again, Yu-ra noona turned to face us. Relief had come into a face that had been sunk in shadow.

"Thank goodness, everyone. There's an undisclosed isolation lab under the Association that knows about this curse. The director there saw the Curse Wavelength Data and gave us permission to come in tomorrow morning."

"Really? Then we can break Yu-jin unnie's curse?"

Seol-a brightened, pressing her hands together, and Yu-jin let out a small sigh, as if the tension had finally left her.

"Only... because of how the institute works, we'll have to stay cut off from the outside for as long as the treatment lasts. And the condition is that the whole team checks in together and cooperates with the research for the cure."

Yu-ra noona curled a hand around my shoulder and smiled, soft.

"Si-woo. Stop blaming yourself. Once we're there, Yu-jin will be clean again in no time. Just like before."

Perched on the edge of the bed, Yu-jin looked at me and smiled faintly.

"You heard her, Yoon Si-woo. It'll be over quick. Tomorrow we go in, get treated, and get out."

Her slender fingers brushed across the sheet and came to rest lightly over the back of my hand. The warmth of bare skin — still soft, still warm — seeped into me.

I started to curl my fingers around that small hand. Then my eyes caught the institute's unfamiliar address on Yu-ra noona's screen, and the security-grade warning beneath it, and a strange chill stopped my fingertips cold.

Thud.

The thick metal door shut behind us, and the noise and sunlight of the outside world were severed as cleanly as if a blade had passed through them.

What stung the nose was the disinfectant smell peculiar to hospitals. Beneath that scent of alcohol, though, there lay a faint and strangely fishy sweetness I could not place.

"Oppa... the air in here. Something about it tickles my nose."

Seol-a, who had come in at my side, wrinkled her nose and whispered it. Her silver wolf ears flicked uneasily toward the vent in the ceiling.

We ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were standing at the Security Checkpoint, in front of the Institute Elevator that went down into the underground. Windowless walls of stark white reinforced tile, and the chill light of white fluorescent lamps, washed our skin pale.

"Welcome. Ms. Han Yu-ra and three others — that is correct?"

From beyond the reinforced-glass booth, a man in a white coat came out with a chart in his hand. Two assistant agents followed him like shadows, carrying a black steel case.

"Yes, that's correct. We arranged to be admitted today, for my younger sister's treatment..."

Yu-ra noona stepped forward and greeted him with careful courtesy. The researcher nodded without expression, then with a single gesture called the agents up in front of us. When they undid the lock on the steel case, four objects came into view, laid neatly on red velvet cushioning.

Chokers. Black metal rings about as wide as a finger joint. Along the inner face, fine silver formula-patterns, like circuitry, had been engraved in dense rows.

"Before you enter the inner zones, all four of you must wear these Cognition-Restriction Necklaces."

At the researcher's clerical tone, Yu-jin frowned and took a step back.

"Necklaces? The intake notice only said personal belongings were prohibited. Nobody said anything about putting restraints on us."

Used to the objection, the researcher pushed his glasses up and answered.

"This facility operates a number of special formulas and pieces of equipment classified as a National Class-1 Secret. The regulation exists to cut off, at the source, any leak of classified information through an outsider's sight or hearing. And more than that..."

He paused and looked down toward the levels beneath us.

"In the deepest sector of this institute, live upper-class Yinma captured for antidote synthesis and sampling are being held. As you know, a Yinma's hypnosis penetrates the mind through visual recognition. This necklace lays a real-time filter over the wearer's sight and hearing, and blocks harmful visual information at once. It is also the finest protective gear we have."

At the word hypnosis, I flinched. Last night's mistake in the Abandoned Building flashed through my mind.

Yu-jin seemed persuaded by that as well. The wariness left her eyes, and she nodded.

"If it's gear that keeps mental contamination out... then wearing it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is definitely safer. Yu-jin. Seol-a. If that's the institute's rule, we follow it."

"Yeah, well. Nothing we can do." Yu-jin gave in.

Yu-ra noona was the first to lift a necklace from the case. She swept her long black hair up with one hand, and the pale, smooth nape of her neck lay bare.

Click.

The metal hinge caught, and the black choker closed around her slender throat. A thin mechanical whine, then a clack — the necklace contracted to the measure of her neck and locked.

"Oh my..."

Yu-ra noona blinked, tracing her neck with her fingertips.

"Noona, you all right? Nothing uncomfortable?"

She checked for a moment, then smiled as softly as she always did.

"Mm. It was cold at first, being metal, but it matched my body heat right away. Other than a feeling like my neck's being squeezed just a little... Oh my, this is really strange. The monitor inside that security booth has gone all hazy. I can't see it."

Reassured, Seol-a and Yu-jin took their necklaces in turn.

"Uuugh, I hate having something on my neck. It's suffocating... Won't you put it on for me, oppa?"

Seol-a pressed the necklace into my hand and tipped her chin up. I set the choker around her snow-white nape. With a click it drew tight, and her whole body shivered.

Beside us Yu-jin fastened her own, and I picked up the last of them and closed it around my neck myself.

Click.

The dull vibration of the lock engaging traveled from my throat all the way down my spine. Once the choker was on, I couldn't even feel a seam.

Noona's words came back to me, and I looked into the security booth. Sure enough, the monitors had blurred until I could no longer make them out.

"All four of you have synced normally. I will guide you into the institute. Please board the elevator."

The researcher tagged his card key, and the shut doors of the Institute Elevator slid open. From inside, a musk far thicker than before came drifting out.

We followed him in.