THE CURSED ONE - THE BOY WHO CHALLENGE DESTINY

The Beginning of an End - 1

The blue sky turned to golden orange with the dim light that soothed soul and mind. The sun will soon close its curtains and will be replaced by the boundless darkness of the night. Two kids still chatting and joking under the mango tree, they seem to be enjoying their moments. In contrast with those two kids, a teenager watching them from far distant with burned heart. His heart beating so fast and he feels as if his blood almost going to blow up as his anger mounting high. He is Hyul, a second-grade student. Hyul’s hatred towards Jin unbearable, if only it is not f*******n by the sect law, he must have beat Jin to the pulp and thrown him outside the sect in a wastage bin. He tried so hard to keep his patience and controlling his emotion, he sure enough if he will have his moment to make Jin suffer.

Hyul leaves the Yellow Hall field when both Youra and Jin also has left the place, he then walks to Blue Hall’s dormitory to meet his g**g, Eral, Cha, and Gwang. The Blue Hall's dormitory was a big building consist of hundreds of rooms inside, each room will be filled by four students, except for Hyul's room, with all his privileges he can have his room without any roommates. Eral, Cha, and Gwang were roommates thanks to Hyul because he used his family influence to asked for the three of them to be placed in the same room without any other students.

Inside their dormitory’s room, he found the three of his g**g are laying on their bed sleeping and he woke them all.

“Hey, wake up… wake up all of you!” Hyul screamed.

Everyone except cha has awake, Hyul pushing Cha’s body and making him fall from his bed, this method successfully making Cha awake. Cha wakes up in confusion as he looked at Hyul and the other back and forth.

“Don’t act like a stupid monkey, Cha,” Hyul said in bold. “Just sit down and listen.”

“What happened, Hyul? Why suddenly wake us up?” Eral asked.

“While you were sleeping, that asshole kid getting more and more close with Youra.” Hyul answered.

“What do you mean?” Eral asked.

“Today I just followed Youra after our class has finished, I saw with my own eyes if she met Jin and they were sitting in Yellow Hall’s field while chatting and joking, something that I never have the chance to do with Youra. That bastard kid must have done some kind of hypnotism or black magic to her, it’s impossible noble blood like Youra wants to make friend with an insignificant kid like him,” Hyul explained with anger. “We have to act fast before it is too late, how was the preparation?” Hyul asked Eral, the one he trusted to do every preparation and plan.

Hyul promised Eral if their plan was executed successfully he will give him 20 gold coins while Cha and Gwang will get 10 gold coins each. It’s a big amount of money since a normal worker in the golden sect will need a few years of hard works to earn it but for Hyul it is nothing because of his family wealth beyond everyone else in this region.

“Everything is set, Hyul, we just need to wait for the proper time.” Eral replied.

“When is the proper time? Don’t make me lost my patience.” Hyul forced Eral.

“Calm down, Hyul, this is not an easy task, if we make any mistake and someone noticing it, everyone will blame us. You know yourself if something went wrong with this plan I pretty sure if you will be safe considering your family's influence, but how about me, Cha, and Gwang? We’ll surely get expelled from this sect.” Eral explained carefully to Hyul.

“Okay…okay, fine. At least tell me when we will start our first step?” Hyul asked again.

“Didn’t I tell you yesterday if we will start to steal something by tonight?” Eral answered. “And one more thing that I forgot to tell you, we need to wait for my servant to bring some d**g inside, I believe tomorrow he will arrive.”

“Tell me how you will smuggle the d**g inside the sect?” Hyul asked as he’s not convinced enough if they can smuggle the d**g past the guard in the front gate.

“Don’t worry about that, with money we can do anything, I had paid 5 silver coins to one guard that will help us to smuggle it through the gate without being checked.” Eral answered confidently.

“Fine, just do whatever you need, I'll change the cost. This time I will try to keep my patience on. I really hate that damn kid, my mood ruined now.” Hyul murmured while leaving the room.

“Sigh... He always out of patience, it’s bad for him if he continues like this, he won’t be able to retain his family's success with that kind of character and attitude, unless he has some bright and intelligent person beside him, like me. But I’ll have to see first where the wind will blow before deciding to which side I will lend my hand in the future.” Eral said to himself as he complained about Hyul’s arrogance.

Eral is the successor of The Gujia Family who is wealthy and quite influential in this region but they were not as big as Mandook’s family. He was considered a brilliant and talented kid even at a very young age his father already trains him on political situations and strategies as his father is very much reliant on him to carry his family’s name in the future. Right now he has an important mission to accomplish and he is challenged to make this mission successful.

Golden Flame’s Food Warehouse

It’s almost late at night and Jin still couldn’t sleep although he has tried to close his eyes several times, he doesn’t know why but his heart was restless. His intuitions feel if some terrible things will about to happens in near future. He looks to his right and looks at Jung Kook who is snoring in his deep sleep, he slowly stands up from the bed while tries not to make any noise, he doesn’t want to disturb Jung Kook’s sleep. He now walks outside just to find fresh air and free his mind from any concern, the place that he aimed is below the mango tree beside Yellow Hall’s field.

The mango tree stood firmly with roots plunged deep inside the ground, its lush leaves increase the spookiness of this tree in the night. Jin who has arrived under this tree feels goosebumps at first but with all the weirdness that he ever saw in Sura’s World, he feels nothing can make him scared anymore.

Jin sits down in the bamboo chair, he loves this place because Youra loved it also. Every time he thinks about her, his heart always feels popped up just like now, even right now he has missed her although they just met a few hours ago. He looks upwards at the night sky which is very clear without any clouds in between, thousands or even millions of stars beautify each other creating a majestic view that visible to n***d eyes. He was always mesmerized and wondered what the stars are. One folklore that Jung Kook told him tells if the stars were the soul of dead humans, according to folklore, if you missed your beloved one that has passed away all you need is to look up to the stars and their soul will see you from up above. Jin never took this story seriously and he always thinks if those stars must be something else that still unknown to this world knowledge.

His restlessness heart a little bit endured now, but he still not sleepy yet. His mind now questioned if his uncomfortable feeling before was related to Youra's kidnapper because until now no any of the kidnappers being caught yet. In these past few days, he saw the guards inside the sect were tightened but now it start to loosened back to normal since no strange movements around, but his intuitions feel if that kidnapper will make their moves again sooner. Now, for the first time in his life, he regretting his body condition because he wanted to be useful to Youra, but with his body limitations, if he dared to fight the kidnappers, he will only become a burden for her.

Jin pondered alone for a quite long time as his mind keeps thinking about how he can help Youra. The only thing that he can think of is to remove the curse from his body as soon as possible. He knows that the only way to freedom from the curse was to find the secret of Han Bi Hun, but it is impossible to get it in a short time and that kidnapper can act any time soonest, other than that he doesn’t have any clue about Han Bi Hun at all. He tried to use all his brain to find any way for him to help Youra but he always meet a dead end and this makes him feel frustrated. He almost gives up when suddenly he remembered Queen Aghs'tya, the ruler of Sura World. The Queen said if she entrust half of her power to him and if it wasn’t a dream then it should be real. But he knew if there are two problems with that power, the first problem is he doesn’t know how to awaken the power or how to use it and the second problem is he will die after he used it with his current body as warned by The Queen. Jin thinks if the second one was not a problem because he has determined to help Youra even if the cost is his own life, so the only problem is how to awaken the power.

It’s almost dawn and Jin has tried many ways to awaken the queen’s power, from meditating till stand using his two hands, he has tried all include every silly move that possible to do but none of it successful, even he didn’t feel any energy flowing inside his body at all. Some doubt arise in his mind, he afraid if The Queen didn’t actually give him any power, but he immediately erase that thinking as he saw with his own eyes that time if his chest was glowed bright and some light entered inside his chest.

He gave up his practice today as he feels very tired and sleepy, he looks at the horizon and the sun still not rises yet which means he still has time to sleep and rest for a while. He goes back to the Food Warehouse and cleaning himself and changing his dirty clothes before entering his bedroom. Only require less than seconds for him to sleep once he lay on the bed and closes his eyes.

Jin wakes up late when the sun has shone in the east and he regretting himself because this is his first time waking up late. He immediately goes to the bathroom to clean and to make himself ready to do today’s works, he walks in hurry and meets Jung Kook on his way.

“I am really sorry, Sir, I woke up very late.” Jin apologized to Jung Kook.

“Nah, it’s okay, I know if you slept very late last night,” Jung Kook said and Jin looks shocked to hear it, “Don’t get shocked, I awoken last night and didn’t found you around, so I went out to look for you and I saw you in the Yellow Hall’s field. I didn’t know what you had done with all that strange movements last night, but I won’t get surprised if it was for some extraordinary purpose.” Jung Kook added.

Jin feels ashamed because his silly moves are watched by someone else, he hoped that Jung Kook didn’t saw when he tried to jump like a frog last night.

“Thank you, Sir, I’ll prepare myself now.” Jin said.

“Yes, take your time, just calm down, no need to hurry.” Jung Kook replied.

Jin continuing his walks toward the bathroom to make himself ready for works. After he has ready, he directly takes his working tools and goes to Yellow Hall as usual. His first tasks this morning are to cleans all of Yellow Hall’s area. In the middle of his way towards Yellow Hall, Eral, and Cha stopping him. Jin who doesn’t know both of them confused with their act.

“Excuse me, who are you? I have a task to do right now and I am late from the schedule.” Jin asked politely.

“You are Jin, right? I’m Eral and this is Cha, we are Blue Hall’s students.” Eral asked back.

Jin nods his head while Eral watching him from top to toe.

“Is there anything wrong with me? Why are you staring at me like that?” Jin confused with Eral’s weird act.

“No, it’s nothing, I just admired you, Jin.” Eral played his trick.

“Admired me? Why is that?” Jin asked with confusion.

“Nah, just forget it. We come here just to ask you something, would you help us?” Eral asked.

“Oh, sure, what can I do for you?” Jin asked back.

“This noon, around one burnt incense before the lunch break, I need your help in the back of Blue Hall’s building. Can you do it, Jin?” Eral made his request.

“Why? What for? Is there any grass that I have to cut?” Jin curiously asked. He doesn’t have any prejudice towards them.

“Err… Yeah, some sort of it.” Eral replied.

“Umm… Well, okay, I can do it. I’ll be there before lunch break.” Jin agreed to Eral’s request.

“Okay, good then. Don’t forget to go there on time.” Eral closed his words and leave the place with Cha followed him behind.

Jin continuing his walks towards Yellow Halls without any negative thinking, right now he doesn’t know if his fate will worsen because of accepting their request.