* * *

The people who came to pick up Lee Jungin left behind an abundance of toys and food for the orphanage, like alms.

But only one person got into that car.

Wearing fine clothes instead of the rags from the orphanage, Lee Jungin looked like a prince.

Watching him leave from afar, the boy began to pray obsessively every night after that.

He wished for Jungin to die, for his beautiful face to be scarred, for him to perish in a car accident.

The boy’s face, cruel and full of spite, grew more vicious with each passing day.

And the only one who noticed it was his grandmother.

“Kid… you!”

“I told you not to come!”

“You can’t do that, kid. If you offer a wicked prayer, the curse will fall back on you…!”

The boy carried her blood in his veins.

The old woman had no choice but to leave her grandson at the orphanage, fearing that his soul might be snatched away.

But for some reason, the child’s energy had turned a dark crimson hue.

If things continued, it was only a matter of time before his energy was consumed by something malevolent.

“What does it matter to you, Grandma?!”

“Kid…!”

The boy shook off her hand and ran into the orphanage, leaving the old woman staring at his retreating figure.

Her vision darkened.

---

Time passed.

Exactly one year after Jungin left, he returned.

Had his prayers been answered?

One day, Jungin suddenly appeared at the orphanage.

The boy’s eyes widened at the sight.

“No…! Hic, my brothers will come back for me… I’ll go back home…!”

Go back? As if.

The boy wanted nothing more than to crush Jungin’s trembling lips, muttering about his brothers with a longing tone.

Of course, Lee Jungin was a liar.

He’d said he was happier here, that living with them at the orphanage was better.

Sniffling, Jungin wiped his tears and pulled a doll from his bag, hugging it as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

“My brothers were so good to me. They sang me lullabies every night and played hide-and-seek with me.”

“Liar.”

“I’m not lying!”

“Then why did you come back? You were abandoned, weren’t you?”

Jungin, who thought he was somehow different from the rest of them, disgusted the boy.

He ripped the doll from Jungin’s arms and stomped on it, ignoring Jungin’s tearful protests.

“Liars need to be punished!”

“Y-yeah…!”

Spurred on by the boy’s instigation, even the children who had harbored envy toward Jungin nodded in agreement.

The atmosphere around Jungin shifted instantly.

The children, who had initially excluded Jungin little by little, began to torment him more openly, out of sight of the caretakers.

The sharpest of them noticed Jungin’s fear of the dark and dragged him toward a cramped wardrobe.

“It’s hide-and-seek. We’ll play with you like your brothers did, so get in there!”

“No, no…! I don’t want to! Let me go, Jungin!”

The sight of the dark wardrobe drained the color from Jungin’s face.

His shoulders shook as memories of being locked in a basement flooded back.

Tears welled in his eyes, and the boy felt a twisted thrill at the sight.

“Liars deserve punishment. You’re not a prince, are you? Why’d you lie about that?”

Every time Jungin’s expression twisted, the boy felt a sickening rush of satisfaction.

Grabbing a handful of Jungin’s hair, he shouted,

“Lee Jungin is a liar!”

“I’m not lying!”

“You are! If you weren’t, why were you abandoned?”

The more Jungin suffered, the more the boy’s happiness grew.

Yes, Lee Jungin must have stolen the happiness that was supposed to be his.

As time passed, Jungin began to wilt like a flower deprived of sunlight.

Then one day, the boy felt an unusual unease from the moment he woke up.

That feeling was soon confirmed.

“Kid!”

“Hey, brat!”

“Jungin!”

Jungin’s brothers had arrived, pulling up in a sleek black car that kicked up a cloud of dust.

Just as Jungin had described, they were stunning.

Simply existing, they seemed to radiate brilliance.

These dazzling people embraced Jungin as if he were the most precious thing in the world.

Watching this unfold, the boy knew without a doubt: once Jungin left the orphanage this time, he would never return.

He would live happily ever after with his brothers in that magnificent house.

The boy’s buried jealousy and resentment surged, planting a seed that quickly began to sprout.

---

After Jungin left, the boy was consumed by uncontrollable rage daily.

Why was it that Lee Jungin was always the happy one?

Why was he still stuck in this wretched place?

One day, the boy poured his deepest, most repressed thoughts out to his grandmother.

“He went back! Back to that palace of a house to live like a prince!”

“Do you want to live like a prince too, our Jungin…?”

“Hic, I’m jealous! Why can’t I? We have the same name, we’re the same age, so why does he get to live such a good life?”

Seeing the shadow that had slowly devoured the boy completely, the old woman’s eyes trembled with despair.

She had to save her grandson.

He was the only family her late daughter had left behind.

Her wrinkled face quivered as she clenched her eyes shut, then opened them, revealing a dark gleam tinged with crimson.

She thought of the boy with the remarkably pure aura—Jungin.

She knew what he desired.

He was a child born with a special destiny.

Luckily, he shared the same name and birth time as her grandson.

With just a small fracture in the balance of soul and body, her grandson could claim that noble destiny for himself.

The grandmother’s hands trembled as she held the boy’s hand.

“Yes. Grandma will make it happen. Grandma will… make you a prince too, my Jungin.”

“Really? You can do that?”

“Of course… but you have to listen carefully to what Grandma says from now on, okay?”

The boy—no, Choi Jungin—lit up with hope, his face flushing with excitement as he listened to his grandmother’s words.

He could become Lee Jungin, the one he envied so deeply.

That boy’s pretty face, his special traits, his magnificent house, his family—they could all be his.

“But you must always be careful. The original soul will try to return to its body. If it happens repeatedly, the vessel holding the soul will weaken and eventually break.”

“Okay. I’ll be careful. I won’t let him take it back… ever!”

The grandmother, smiling bitterly at the boy’s clenched fists of determination, stood and began her preparations.

She had much to do.

Opening a dusty forbidden tome, she stroked the boy’s head as he remained blissfully ignorant of what lay ahead.

---

“Where are you going, hyung…?”

Young Jungin’s voice trembled with anxiety as he saw his brothers standing with their luggage.

He had been so sure they would come back for him, and when they finally did, he was overjoyed.

“Jungin…”

“Stay strong for a little while longer, okay? We’ll come back for you after a thousand nights. Just a thousand nights, and we’ll be together again.”

A thousand nights?

They had only just reunited, and now they were leaving again.

Tears welled up in Jungin’s large eyes.

Jungjin clenched his jaw, trying to suppress his emotions.

For now, he didn’t have the strength to protect his younger brother.

The father had no intention of protecting his child, and the mother’s anger increasingly targeted young Jungin as days went by.

Amidst this, when the brothers began to show interest in the child, Jungin was abandoned at an orphanage not long ago.

Jungwoo even caught someone lacing Jungin’s food with suspicious substances.

It couldn’t go on like this anymore.

For Jungin, their attention was more of a poison than comfort.

“Hyung… can’t you take me with you too? I promise I won’t ask you to play with me. I won’t cry because I’m scared, I don’t even need toys, and I’ll eat just a little… please, take me too.”

“Jungjin, what are you doing? We’ll be late. We need to leave now.”

Upon noticing Madam Jang standing behind Jungjin, Jungin flinched, stiffened, and reluctantly let go of his brother’s hand.

It felt like the stepmother’s hand might grab him and lock him in the basement again.

A trembling, impossible to resist, overtook Jungin, who fled to his room and hid in a corner, bursting into tears.

In this house, where even his brothers were absent, he was utterly alone.

* * *