Tumgik
Text
First Experience with the Magical Charm
Tumblr media
Chapter 1: First Experience with the Magical Charm
Back in 2002, when AN was still a college student, he rented a room in the same lodgings with a young Cambodian girl named Hai, who had a roundish shape, akin to a jackfruit seed, and deep tan skin. Her smile exudes warmth, like the blazing summer sun in the central region.
This lodging was on alley 1 * * on B T Street, X X District, H C M City. When he first moved there, some guys from his hometown warned him not to get involved with her but didn’t give a reason. Their warning just made him more curious about her. She didn’t seem to work; she just slept all day. Around 3 p.m. every day, someone would show up to pick her up, always a different young, handsome guy in a nice car or on an SH motorbike.
After a while, curiosity got the better of AN and he decided to chat up the innkeeper about it. She said that Hai was involved in the magical charm and warned him not to get close to her. She wanted to boot Hai, but fear held her back, so she let her stay there. AN was clueless about what magical charm meant at the time, so it was like speaking a foreign language to him. One day, when AN headed out early to hit up Mrs. D's café, he found Hai was hanging out there too. When Hai spotted AN, she broke into a grin and threw out a question:
"Been here a while; you haven't said hi to the neighbor?"
AN thought everything was normal, so he chatted with her casually for a bit. Through their chitchat, he found out that Hai was from A G, an orphan without parents. She had been wandering the streets since she was young, and her nature was quite cheerful, unlike what others had said.
One day, AN's curiosity got the best of him.
"Hey Hai, what do you do for a living? People say you're into magical charm; is that true? What's that all about?"
Hai stared at AN as he dropped from the sky and then burst out laughing. After that incident, AN and Hai started getting closer.
Everything remained normal until Hai disappeared for over a month.
One day, she suddenly emerged from the morning mist and called AN out for coffee. Out of nowhere, she handed AN a 10,000 VND note and said:
"Keep this safe; never spend it."
AN didn't give it much thought and just followed the instructions. However, from that day on, things began to feel strange. AN started to notice changes. At university, girls whom AN used to adore but never spoke to suddenly started approaching him. No matter how hard AN tried to avoid them, it was like they were stuck to him like ticks. Even at the restaurant where he worked part-time, his fellow students started treating him differently. They treated AN as if he were some kind of idol. The peak of this was when N accidentally dropped something, and the restaurant owner didn't scold him or fire him as she did to others. In the boarding house area, he would find a folded note with a heart drawn on it tucked under his door every day.
At first, AN didn’t think much about these changes, but gradually he found them extremely strange. The climax was when AN started having dreams and making predictions about random events. Sometimes he saw odd numbers, and the next day, the lottery results matched his dream. After a few instances like this, he mentioned it to his roommates. One of them tried the numbers and won. From then on, every morning, they all gathered to ask, "What did you dream of last night?" And every few days, they'd hit the lottery. As a result, they bought drinks and treats, hosted parties, and treated AN like an emperor.
AN started to worry and think a lot. Suddenly possessing such peculiar abilities, people say blessings come with misfortunes. Who knows? With all this happening, he might be hit with disasters or bad luck his whole life.
Since childhood, AN didn't understand much about spirituality, and he never really thought about it either. That's why he kept wondering without grasping the reason behind it all.
One day, AN happened to buy some cigarettes, and the VND 10,000 note Hai had given him caught his eye. He paused and began to contemplate. Could all these incidents be connected to that VND 10,000 note?
After a few days of pondering, AN decided to ask Hai directly.
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
He called out as he saw Hai opening her room door.
"What's up? Why are you shouting like that, my granddad?"
"Is the VND 10,000 note you gave me some sort of magical charm? I've been feeling strange lately, and I think it might be related. Do you know?"
Hai looked at AN like he had fallen from the sky, then burst into laughter.
"Haha, the magical spell? No, it's the magical charm. Remember when you asked me what that was? Well, now you know, hihi."
"Damn, I don't need it. Can it cause any harm? I'll just burn it."
"If you're brave enough, burn it and find out the consequences. Hold onto it for a while; all incidents will fade away. Whether you believe it or not is up to you."
This marked AN's first encounter with something called magical charm, and its karmic repercussions have continued until now. Things took a different turn after a trip with Hai to the Seven Mountains.
1 note · View note