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The curse always came, never late and never fake. It was real. Had been for centuries, a reason many stepped down or never made it to the spotlight.
It is said that when an idol or celebrity dies, their one true love will be displayed for the world to see. Everyone knows it's inevitable, years since the curse started and nobody has been able to find the truth behind it.
Simply known as the curse that'll cost you everything including your death, always posted from the same anonymous source and without a proper caption.
Just the name.
The anonymous page was checked everyday, users anxiously waiting to dig deep in their idol's life, too deep in their obsession even if it meant someone had to die for that movie to be uploaded.
One cold morning, a mysterious video with nothing but a name was uploaded and the world stilled.
Thame.
Po wakes to an emptiness that feels heavier than before. His apartment is silent, it always is but it’s the kind of silence that rings in his ears, the kind that presses against his chest like an invisible weight. He knew something felt off, like the world had shifted overnight and maybe it had. He reaches for his phone instinctively, his fingers brushing against the cool screen. The moment it lights up, his heart stops.
A single notification stares back at him.
"A new film about T-pop idol Thame has just been posted! What does this mean? Is the idol gone?"
Po's breath catches. His fingers go numb. For a second, he convinces himself that it’s some mistake, some cruel joke, but his body knows the truth before his mind does. His stomach churns, a cold dread spreading through his veins.
His phone slips from his grip, the dull crack of the screen against the floor barely registering over the deafening sound of his pulse.
Not him.
Po scrambles, hands shaking as he fumbles for his phone, nearly dropping it again as he frantically tries to dial Thame’s number.
It starts ringing.
Once.
Twice.
Come on. Please, Pick up.
The line goes dead.
Po dials again, his breath coming in short, uneven bursts. Another ring, then nothing. His vision blurs. His fingers move on their own, pressing Jun’s contact next.
Please not him, anyone but him.
The call connects instantly, but the silence on the other end is suffocating. Po doesn’t ask.
He just can’t and then Jun speaks, his voice so hollow, it sounded broken.
“He’s gone.”
Just two words, that’s all it took for his world to start tilting and the weight on Po’s chest crushes him entirely. The rain outside is relentless, pounding against the window, and for the first time, Po understands.
It isn’t just rain, its clear that the sky is mourning too.
“Phi, give me your number.”
“I promise to memorize it this time.”
05:55 in the video, Thame learned Po’s number and memorized it in his heart. A heart that was now buried, memories now shattered with the dirt that laid on top of him.
Po didn't go to the funeral, he didn't step outside his apartment for a month. Everyone came. Mars, two weeks after they buried their best friend while Baifern came around the most. Every few days she'd show and just wrap her arms around Po in silence as he sat, staring at a world without Thame.
Scared to press play.
Everyone had seen it.
The world knew.
Thame had only ever loved one person and that was his greatest love. He died thinking that love had given up on him. He died thinking Mars didn't want him. He died surrounded by people he didn't know. He was alone, cold in the air.
He died scared as the plane went down, he died young and still filled with so much love that it seeped out of his soul, out of his corpse when they picked him up, It bled out of his grave when they visited him, Thame never stopped loving.
Fans tracking down his social media, bombarding him with the vilest messages imaginable, cursing him for breaking Thame apart. For ruining him. For killing him.
The word despised Po, blaming him for Thame’s death.
And honestly? Po blamed himself too.
In the aftermath, Oner quietly shut its guilty doors, and Mars faded into nothing, a name that once filled arenas, was now just like another song lost to time. It was like they never existed.
Po found the letter exactly a month later.
Phi Po,
There’s so much I want to tell you. I’m afraid that if I try to say it to your face, I won’t be able to say everything. That’s why I decided to write it down for you. As I’m writing this, we’re waiting for the final chart results. Pepper is trying to keep busy so he doesn’t get upset. Nano and Jun are sticking close by, while Dylan has isolated himself. We keep calling him, but he pretends not to hear.
As for me, if I don’t do something, I think I’ll lose my mind like the rest of them. So, I decided to write this to you instead.
Do you know, if we succeed, this will be my second All Kill? Honestly, I should be less excited and more composed this time, but somehow, it feels the opposite. I keep asking myself why? Is it because this All Kill carries the hopes and dreams of everyone? Is it because it means Mars will be whole again? Or is it because this is our first real success as a group? All this time, we’ve been trying to climb to the top to prove to the world that we matter, that we’re worth something. We believed it was something we had to do whether it was me, the members, or even you. How else would the world see our value if we weren’t successful?
But the truth is that what kind of world measures our worth with trophies, rankings, and numbers? What kind of people do we have to become to please a world that cruel? When in reality, If we had nothing, if we were still just trainees. would we really have no value?
I kept asking myself that question but never found an answer until I met you.
You were the one who made time slow down for me. You were the one who showed me that even if we have nothing, even if we’re not recognized or praised, our work has a value that may be small and unseen but it’s still there, somewhere, with someone.
Because of you, I believe that after this All Kill, Mars will be a group that lasts. And none of us will have to drown in loneliness ever again. I wrote all of this to thank you and to ask you: No matter what happens, no matter what I have to face, no matter how hard it gets, please don’t let go of my hand. Even if the world rejects us, even if it crumbles before us, I still want to stand beside everyone and you. Please, stand by me as I am. Be there with me.
Let’s fight against a world that expects so much from us, together.
—Thame
At first, he stares for a long time. His hands shaking while he holds the paper, eyes tracing every line over and over, as if he could somehow change the past just by reading it differently. As if the ink would rearrange itself into something less devastating.
Thame had begged him not to let go, had asked him to stand by him, had believed Po would but Po failed him. Each word kept cutting deeper than the last. If only he had stayed. If only he had tried.
Thame would still be here.
“Oh, are you up? I learned your favorite song while you were asleep.”
At 24:44 Thame spent the entire night learning Po’s favorite song, his own way of saying thank you for bringing Mars back together, through the only language he truly understood. His music.
He imagined Po’s face when he heard it, imagined the surprise, the softness in his eyes. That was enough to keep him going through the night.
Po never played that song again. Not in this lifetime, not without Thame.
About 48:88 minutes in, they wandered through the night, talking and laughing like nothing else mattered, like they were the only ones in the world, each step drawing them closer, falling in love a little more.
“Let's not keep a 5-meter distance because even 5 centimetres feels too far apart.”
Po moved out a year later. The apartment complex was set to be demolished, and with it, he lost another piece of Thame.
1:08:88, and Thamepo had found each other completely. They had made Po’s apartment their own. Clothes tangled together in the closet, laughter spilling into the quiet, warmth where there had once been emptiness.
They learned to cook each other’s favorite meals, burning fingers and ruining recipes but never once minding, because they were together, because they were one.
“Let us be a part of each other's everyday life.”
Now, the apartment was nothing but an empty space, stripped of everything but ghosts. Ghosts that tormented Po everyday. The scent of Thame’s shampoo had long faded, the echoes of his voice swallowed by silence and now, even the walls that once held their memories would be gone.
“Thame, aren't you tired?” at the end, he had asked, hoping Thame would give up on them and choose his profession over Po.
He didn't, so Po made that choice for him.
"Not at all Phi," Thame replied, his voice trembling as he sobbed, hands frantically brushing away Po's tears instead of his own.
“Phi, just tell me if you want to stay with me. Do you still want to walk together like we always have? Do you still want me to memorize every digit of your phone number? Do you still want us to linger every day, even when we’ve run out of things to talk about? If you do, then I’ll do whatever it takes to make it work. No matter how hard it gets.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t want this anymore.”
Po never really lived after Thame, he just couldn't. He merely existed, haunting the suit shop where they once shared a sandwich, where laughter used to echo between fabric lined walls.
He opened early, closed late, moving through life like a ghost of the person he used to be and, each year, on the anniversary of Thame’s passing, he sat alone and watched the movie again reliving their love, tragic and unfinished, a story that would never find its ending.
He had long since cut himself off from the world, but the world never forgot him. Strangers whispered when they saw him on the streets, their gazes sharp with blame and hatred.
The one who drove Thame to his death.
A decade later, Po’s body gave out. A simple illness, nothing violent, nothing loud, just a slow unraveling, the final thread snapping after years of quiet suffering. It was obvious how badly his soul had been clipped the moment Thame left, and death only seemed like the last step in a journey he had already taken but at least now, there was peace.
And then, the world shattered again. The next day, another video surfaced and this time, their love through Po’s eyes. His truth which was so raw and unfiltered that it broke the world.
They buried him next to Thame.
And finally, they were together again.