Posted: 05 March 2016, 22:00 EST | Word Count: 2,818

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“So you can’t kill anyone,” concluded the middle-aged man sitting at the executive mahogany desk of a darkened office room. He had gray-streaked, raven black hair which was parted to the side in typical businessman fashion, brown eyes underlined with decades of wrinkles, and tough, tanned skin like weathered leather. The golden nameplate on his desk read President Park Jung Woo.

His words had been directed to the boy who stood across the desk. He was tall and lean, with a full head of dark brown hair that fell over his equally dark brown eyes. Dressed in jeans and a solid gray V-neck t-shirt, he looked out of place in the classic office room with its lavish furnishings. His expression remained passive but by his side, his fingers curled into fists.

Jung Woo picked up a crystal glass filled with an amber spirit from his desk and slowly rotated it with a nascent smile. “Well I just won’t ask you to kill then.”

The boy’s eyes slightly widened. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was his master possibly giving up on his drastic plan to usurp the chairman position?

“At least not directly,” he clarified.

The boy’s heart dropped to his stomach. “Master –”

Jung Woo lifted a hand to silence him. “My father has proved to be as invincible as a cockroach during a nuclear explosion.” His cold gaze turned to the boy and he smiled darkly. “But you, you’re more powerful than a nuclear explosion. And if I play my cards right, the old man will finally be paying the debt he’s been avoiding for far too long.”

The boy’s chest was drumming wildly. Surely his master wouldn’t use him to kill his own father. No matter how cruel and ambitiously greedy Park Jung Woo was, he wouldn’t force him to be a pawn in the old chairman’s death.

But that was just wishful thinking. The boy had been serving his master for nearly ten years now and he knew exactly the kind of man he was – heartless and self-serving.

“It’s regrettable that this will have to be my final wish. You’ve been an invaluable tool in my rapid rise to the President position.” Jung Woo exhaled a loud, frustrated breath. “But I’ve already exhausted every other method and it is imperative for the future of Mirae Group that I take over.”

The boy had to disagree. Mirae Group was as successful as it was today because of the Chairman’s conservative risk-taking. Jung Woo on the other hand weighed profit over risk, and he’d inevitably drive the company to the ground. But the boy kept his thoughts to himself. He wasn’t allowed to speak unless he was spoken to.

Setting his drink down, Jung Woo stood up and as he walked towards the boy, took out something from the inside pocket of his suit. He held the object – a hexagonal gray stone the size of a large coin – between his fingers so that it caught the little light streaming in through the cracks of the closed shades of the window to his right. “Ten years ago, this fell into my possession.” He chuckled darkly. “Who knew this piece of rock would bring me such fortune.”

The boy bitterly eyed the double-side stone, a talisman which he had come to epitomize as the symbol of his free will. The wielder of this talisman became his master, the person who controlled not only his magic, but his every action, for he was what this world would call a genie – if that was truly what he was. He didn’t actually know. Nor did he understand how he came to be what he was or why, but he knew that whoever was responsible for creating him must have been crueler and more crooked than Park Jung Woo to believe that any soul deserved the kind of infinite servitude he was bound to.

“With my final wish, Mirae Group will finally be mine. And my father, who shunned me because I was his illegitimate child, will get exactly what he deserves.”

A knock on the door disturbed the President’s monologue.

“What is it?!” he snapped. “I’m busy.”

The door opened a crack and a pretty youthful face peeked in with a pout. “Daddy, I came all the way to see you and this is how you greet me?”

Jung Woo’s usually severe features relaxed into a serene image of fatherly love. “Min Ah,” he said as he quickly pocketed the talisman and opened his arms out to her. The 22-year old unemployed, college dropout (or as she liked to call it, being on indefinite leave while she tried to find herself) smiled sweetly and stepped into her father’s arms.

Invisible to all but his master, the genie watched with disgust as Min Ah, once her face was hidden by the hug, turned her smile into a scowl and rolled her eyes. As much as the genie hated his master, he did feel the slightest twinge of sympathy for him when it came to his adoration towards his entitled daughter who manipulated everyone around her into giving her anything she wanted. Truthfully it came as no surprise given what Jung Woo was planning to do to his own father. The apple surely didn’t fall far from the tree.

Min Ah stepped back and slapped on a cute pout. “Daddy,” she said in a baby-like voice while clinging onto his hand and swinging it back and forth like a little girl. “Can you buy me a car?”

“But Daddy already bought you a car,” Jung Woo gently explained.

“That was last year though,” she whined. “It’s so old now and it’s embarrassing driving around in such an ancient model.”

“Cars aren’t like clothes that go out of season, honey,” Jung Woo tried reasoning.

Min Ah dropped her father’s hand and became visibly annoyed. “So you expect me to drive that piece of junk around for the rest of my life?” She crossed her arms and stomped her foot. “I thought that when I agreed to living with you it meant I wouldn’t have to live a hard life. But if things are going to be like this, then maybe I should move in with Mom instead.”

And there was the argument that guaranteed his master’s defeat every time, when his darling daughter pretended to contemplate living with his separated wife.

“Okay, okay,” Jung Woo immediately yielded. With a deep sigh, he forced a smile and said, “I have something important to take care of today, but if things go well, then you can buy a new car every month.”

Min Ah’s eyes glowed with excitement. “Really, Daddy?!” She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “You’re the best! I’m going to go pick out the one I want right now.”

She left as quickly as she’d come, but even that small interaction had a left a noticeable impact on Jung Woo, whose stern face still had a residual tenderness about it. So maybe his master wasn’t completely heartless, but he definitely was stingy with his compassion. In all his years serving him, the genie had only seen his master extend it towards his daughter, who took advantage of his blind love for her, and for a brief amount of time before she’d fallen out of his favor, his wife.

That second of vulnerability quickly vanished as Jung Woo returned to the topic he was previously deliberating, the premeditated murder of his father. “Boy,” he said.

“Yes, Master,” the genie obediently answered, appearing by his side.

“Since this will be my final wish, I have to make sure it’s perfect. There can be no evidence whatsoever that the chairman’s death was linked to me. And if that’s going to happen, he has to die as naturally as possible.”

“But –”

“I already know, you can’t grant death upon someone,” Jung Woo interrupted. “But as I mentioned before –” he turned to the boy and smirked victoriously “– I won’t be wishing for death.”

***

Sitting around a large glass table of Mirae Group’s VIP conference room, the expensively dressed, aged board members deliberated the topic at hand: whether Chairman Park Young Min was healthy enough to preside in his position and if not, was President Park Jung Woo qualified enough to take his place?

The genie, on his master’s command, stood by Jung Woo who sat quietly amidst the shouting businessmen, allowing the other passionate members to argue on his behalf. He sat with his legs crossed, his hands folded over his knee, and the slightest smile on his otherwise unreadable face. The Chairman remained equally quiet, eyeing the bastard son with unhidden disdain.

The genie was still unaware of the President’s exact plan to usurp his father. And while he was ready to be rid of his master, there was a tangle of twisted unease taking residence within him at the thought of his master’s final wish. He couldn’t kill. As powerful as the genie was, he still had his limitations; limitations that he was glad were in place in his current position. That should have provided some alleviation.

It didn’t.

As the genie eyed his master in a side glance, he recalled all the times Park Jung Woo had exploited him beyond his wish-granting abilities, for there was a reason he’d been able to climb up the corporate ladder so quickly and so easily considering he was a simple insurance agent when the genie first appeared to drastically change his life.

Park Jung Woo, fueled by his resentment and need for revenge against his father, had figured out that beyond granting three wishes, the genie could be ordered to come and go as he pleased, which meant he could be used as the perfect tool for corporate espionage. So with ideas formulated by the greatest minds available to competitors, Jung Woo entered his father’s company and worked his way to the top, despite his father’s multiple attempts to thwart him.

If that wasn’t enough, he’d also used the genie to spy on the people around him in order to blackmail them into doing his bidding. This was how he’d gained the supporters who currently fought for him in the heated debate to overthrow the chairman. No money was ever involved, which would normally be the biggest tipoff of illegal activity in all the investigations he’d undergone when rival companies tried to bring forth charges of corporate espionage against him. In addition, the only evidence of his misdeeds, the genie, remained unseen, unheard, and unfelt by the world, for those were the genie’s other limitations.

The moment finally came when Jung Woo spoke. He stood up, drawing the room’s attention, and formulated a contrite expression. “I feel regretful that so much of our valued time must be spent on the distressing topic of my father’s forced retirement. My only aim is that we arrive upon the best decision for the future of this company, the welfare of the employees, and of course the satisfaction of the customers we serve. And it is my belief that the chairman,” he turned to him and smiled cordially, “is more than fitting to satisfy all those objectives.”

Confused murmurs rippled through the board members. The genie stood flummoxed in his spot. This was the complete opposite of his master’s aim. What had brought upon this sudden change?

“As you all know,” Jung Woo continued, looking around the room, “my father and I haven’t always had the best relationship. It is only in recent years that we’ve had the fortune of mending that special connection between father and son. And it is with that in mind that I hope you all understand me when I say I support the chairman continuing on as the head of this company.” He met eyes with his father, who, like the others, looked confused. But beneath that confusion was a layer of fierce distrust towards his scheming son. “Father, I truly, from the deepest part of my heart, mean it when I say this.” He smiled a cold and cruel smile. “I wish that as much as you love me, your humble, undeserving son, you live a long and healthy life so that you may continue to lead this company you built from the ground up.”

Around the room, applause broke out at the President’s heartfelt speech of apparent capitulation. What they failed to see was the boy next to him, an expression of palpable pain on his face. So this was how Jung Woo had planned to circumvent the restraints around his magic. With every fiber of his being, the genie tried to defy the wish. He would not be the catalyst towards an innocent person’s death. That was the one line he’d never been made to cross. The chairman might not have been a virtuous man himself and he was probably the reason Jung Woo became the way he was now, but that hardly earned him a death sentence, and by his hands no less.

However the magic that remained elusive of the genie’s control pushed through his weak resolve and a fire-like liquid coursed through his body like molten lava erupting from his chest. Park Jung Woo’s final wish was going to use his full power as it burned through his veins and, without killing the chairman, took away as much of the elderly man’s life to leave just enough for him to remain alive for however long his affection for his son amounted to.

The effects of the wish left the genie numb and weak, but he could still feel the link between him and his master break, like a constricting shackle around his heart opening and allowing him to breathe. With the little energy he had left, the genie fled as far from Park Jung Woo – from the crime he’d committed, from the nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from – as his magic would take him.

He didn’t get far. He was still in the same country when he landed on top of the Northeast Asia Trade Tower, the highest building in South Korea. The wind blew strong, whipping past the genie at the precarious height. But he couldn’t feel the bone-chilling breeze. He was too overcome with guilt and anger. Why was he not allowed a choice in what he granted? Why was he so weak against his own magic? Why did he have to act as a servant to undeserving humans?

All the pent up frustration released as he screamed out into the open air, all while knowing that no one would be able to hear his cries.

Kai. That was the name he’d given himself. It stood for triumph and victory, because he believed that one day he would rise above the curse he seemed to be under and gain control over his own actions. However not only had his previous master Jung Woo refused to call him by name, resorting to “Genie” or “Boy” whenever he required Kai’s presence, but, since he’d first awoken so many decades ago unaware of who or what he was and only managing to put together the pieces of what he was capable of and more importantly, incapable of, over the years of serving master after master, Kai had been searching for a way out of the perpetual hell he’d been placed in, to no avail.

And the root of his failure lay in the talisman. Only a few times had he been able to hold the stone and while he was still obligated to grant three wishes to whoever was his current master, at least when he had possession of the talisman, he couldn’t be exploited beyond that, not the way Park Jung Woo had taken advantage of him. But every time he granted a master’s final wish, the talisman disappeared to some unknown location, waiting for another unsuspecting human to pick it up and mark them as Kai’s master.

So Kai hoped that this time the talisman would find itself at the bottom of the ocean, lodged in some deep crevice where no human could ever come across it, even if that meant no one would ever see, hear, or touch him ever again.

“Please,” he softly pleaded to no one, “at least for as long as I’ve served Park Jung Woo, let me be without a master. I would rather be a ghost to all than a slave to one.”

As if to spite him, the talisman did just the opposite. A searing heat flared up in his chest. Gasping, Kai pulled down the collar of his t-shirt to find the black inscription – a wheel inside a triangle – over his heart blaring up in a golden light. While each of the eight spokes of the wheel lit up one by one, a link was forming to another human – his new master.

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Author's Note