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"Promise me something, sweetheart."

"Let's meet again in another life...one where I can make you happy forever. It's a promise, okay?"

~

My eyes shot open and I wiped the wetness from my tear-stained cheeks. I had that dream again.

I sat up from my bed. It was too early to be awake but I couldn't bring myself to fall back asleep after that. I rubbed any sleep that was left in my eyes and got up making my way to the kitchen making sure I don't wake up my parents.

I took a cup out and started filling it with water. The images of my dream came flashing back to my head. A kiss between two people, the next one was of two people lying next to each other on a bed in first person perspective while the other person is smiling fondly at me, and the last one I was walking alone in a pitch-black space with no windows and no doors in sight when I hear a voice I don't recognize echo throughout the room causing me to stop in my tracks. The feel and sound of the words caused tears to fall down my face and I don't know why.

I looked around the pitch-black space but no one was there. The words kept repeating themselves slowly with momentary pauses in-between each statement.

"Promise me something, sweetheart..."

My crying always intensified at the first statement. No matter how hard I tried to figure out why, it was as if I wasn't allowed to find out. The answer was just beyond my reach and no amount of begging would get me what I was looking for.

"Let's meet again in another life..."

Another brief pause.

"One where I can make you happy forever..."

Out of all the statements the longest pause was always between the third and final statement.

"It's a promise...okay?"

Get it together Seonmi. I shook the thoughts from my mind, made my way back to my room, and sat on the edge of my bed looking out my window at the moon that shined brightly into my room taking a sip of my water.

My royal blue pendant shined against the dark shadowy walls of my room. I've had this pendant ever since I could remember. I remember overhearing my parents arguing over it night after night. My nightmares began ever since I came into contact with this pendant. According to my parents they never gave it to me and no one they knew gifted it to me either. Here in the capital, a common occurrence among families is that on your child's first birthday all of the family members, neighbors, friends, extended relatives, and passerby's alike are to leave gifts for the child.

This celebration is said to help bring luck, fortune, and protection to the child who is being celebrated. Ever since my celebration rumors flooded the capital that among every child receiving gifts for the celebration they say three or four children are instead cursed. They say it could be for many reasons such as the ancestors being angry or a family member did something bad in a past life and their child paid for their mistakes and sins.

The fundamental problem with this necklace is that I can't take it off. My parents have tried everything and so have I. There's no clasp on the back to remove it and I can't lift it above my head because it's fitted perfectly enough that it can't be lifted above my head either so I'm stuck with it. No matter how much strength is applied the necklace wont break either. Once others heard about my necklace they said I was cursed. Some believed it to be due to my parents being poor, others thought it was because the gods despised my birth, and some even thought I was born a demon child because my parents wronged the royal family.

I guess you could say that my love of creating jewelry stemmed from trying to get rid of one. Kind of ironic if you think about it. My parents realized I had a talent for it and for a long time tried to steer me down other paths but my interest in jewelry making only grew and they eventually encouraged it although I can't help but feel guilty. My parents sacrificed so much so I could own my very own jewelry business even going as far as using the the last of their money to buy a meal and spending it so I had materials to use and a teacher to show me how it's done.

I lifted the cup of water to my lips and took a sip. My family owns a small restaurant that's struggling. My father cooks and my mother brings in customers or at least tries to. There is hardly any interest in the food my parents make since there are more popular places to choose from. Here in the capital if you don't have anything notable about your background, are close to any of the royal staff, or are married to someone of a higher class then everyone automatically looks at you as lower class and tends to steer clear of you.

My parents have always believed that you can achieve your goals and dreams if you work hard enough but I can't bring myself to tell them that it's not how the rest of the world views things. Over the years I've heard people gossiping about them. Saying things like 'They should give it a rest' and no one wants to eat from poor people. My parents always try to keep a brave face on but I can tell that it wears on them.

They saved every bit of their money to buy a beautiful, bright, and a decently sized place in the richer part of the capital so I could run my own jewelry shop instead of working out of our home. I sighed, placed the cup on my night table, and laid back down. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be working late because I have to leave the capital early in the morning to help expand and bring attention to my jewelry business and to make sales. I've never traveled outside of the capital but now with rumors spreading that the other kingdoms have been overthrown except the one located within Woseon and another located in the farthest part of the country now has everyone has been on edge lately.

I should be asleep with there being such a big trip ahead of me once I wake up but my brain keeps replaying the dream that's been plaguing me for all of my life. Although now I've given up on attempting to remove the necklace a small part of me just can't help but wonder what I did to receive such a cruel gift. Was this my fate? Or was it a cruel joke bestowed upon me by my ancestors?

I was already shunned enough growing up by children in school because of the necklace. They would say things like I couldn't play with them or touch them because If I did I'd share my curse with them. I had no friends in school and although I've managed to do well on my own and make very few friends afterwards there's still very few people who treat me as if I'm a plague. I closed my eyes and turned away my back now facing the moonlit window as I began drifting back off into a deep slumber.