Iron Ring 1/???
"Do you think it's possible to curse yourself?"
The words were scribbled into the margins of Rini's notebook, tiny neat letters spiraling around the coil bindings. Between math notes and self-reminders of due dates, it existed as a persistant call with no response.
It was frustrating for someone as studious as she thought herself as to fail in finding explanation. The worrying of her lower lip was proof of that alone, biting away at her desk as she tried to remain attentive to the teacher's words ahead.
She had tried to research the phenomonon throughs books and the childish rumors of her peers. Nails driven into dolls and the black ox that only came at certain hours. Far off fantastical things done in rituals to enact malicious thoughts.
The feeling she was left with was real and tangible, in a way that seemed beyond the superstitions.
Rini could even trace the inception of it back to a singular physical source. The gnarled root that had bore through every other thought.
Her name was Hazel.
The other girl always sat just a couple rows ahead of her, closer to the front to be seen first. Even though Rini only saw her from behind, she could just tell that she held a frustrating smile on her face. It was never too big to be performative, but a small kind quirk that rested naturally on her lips.
She spoke eloquantly and was usually the first to raise her hand when questions were presented to the class. Her pretty looks, dark hair, and informative views made her popular with the rest of their classmates. They flocked to her like moths to a street light, and it had always left Rini in the dark.
A miasma had grown heavy around her heart in that darkness, and for the longest time, Rini had sworn to overcome this monolith of a person. If not in looks or personality, than within academics. Even if she could never find it in herself to speak as boldy as Hazel, she could focus on her studies twice as hard.
That was how her troubles had begun. The fruits of her unspoken rivalry had finally brought that smile turning back to her.
"Good job!" Hazel had said, full of earnest cheer and without the jealously that Rini had hoped for. "I'm definitely going to try and study like you, Rini."
"Oh." She remembered uttering. A lame sound. The graded paper on her desk suddenly much more interesting than Hazel's soft gaze. "Thank you."
From then on she had avoided her as much as she could, slinking away to her desk as she was now, trying to understand the grip that had overcome her chest. It filled her with a buzzing excitement and a looming fear as she watched Hazel's every movement, as if she would suddenly turn her head and catch her eyes with her own.
She would know what Rini had done to herself and she would smile.
Rini's heartbeat spiked once more at the thought and she hung her head further down. He face growing hot as she tried to focus on the words of her teacher.
She would learn how to break this curse she had pushed onto herself.
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