Posted: 24 June 2016, 22:00 EDT | Words: 3,621

~//~

Discovering the talisman was like a sudden splash of cold water to the face after the five-week long dream Kai had been living.

Frightened that someone with the means to access the magic within it would undo his wish, or worse, use it for nefarious aims, he took off late into the night when he was sure everyone in the house was slumbering.

Grabbing his skateboard, Kai skated out till he was just outside his neighborhood and then called for a cab. “Han River,” he said as he hopped in, clutching at the hexagonal bump under his shirt while he aimlessly looked out the window. The city was a blur of colorful lights smeared across a black canvas. Noise, lights, and life, Kai feared it may all go black for him if he didn’t do away with the talisman.      

“We’re here!” It was the third time the driver had said this before Kai finally registered that the car had stopped. He quickly pulled out a twenty and without waiting for change, jumped out of the vehicle. He rolled along the sidewalk on his board to a section of the river without any people around.

Un-wreathing himself of the talisman, Kai gripped hard along the edges of the pendant at the end of the chain. With his eyes, he outlined the triangle, the circle inside, and each of the eight spokes within. This was the mark that had been emblazoned on his chest, shackling him to the wretched life of a genie. For years he’d thought such an existence inescapable. He’d been trapped in a maze like the one on the opposite side of the talisman, but his had no foreseeable exit. Now that he was out of the labyrinth, he would make sure to never enter again.

Kai pitched his arm back and with a powerful , swung forward. When he let his hand drop though, the talisman still dangled between his fingers. With his head hanging low, he stared at the black river water. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t give it up.

Possession of the talisman had always meant control and by his standards as a genie, freedom. For the past five weeks, he’d had a taste of true freedom. But what if, after letting go of the person he’d once been, he lost sight of the person he wanted to be? The past that had been mapped out for him, was that the kind of person he would have become had he always been human? That Kim Jong In was exactly like one of the unappreciative, selfish masters he’d detested. The person he was now, Kai, was only because of the trials and tribulations he’d endured as a genie. And the cold, hard stone in his hands was the only reminder of this.

Reluctantly, Kai strung the necklace around his neck and tucked the talisman safely under his shirt where it would remain a dark keepsake from grim times close to his heart.

***

A month had passed since Yoon Ah had picked up her fertility drinks and she was due for her next month’s batch. Kai absentmindedly watched TV while he waited for her after his parents and Jung Ah had departed for work. It was still on the news channel his father liked to watch while he ate breakfast.

“Powerful conglomerate Mirae Group has seen a 12 percent drop in stock price since the passing of Chairman Park Young Min more than a month ago,” the male spokesman of the segment said. “Analysts say the cause is likely not the death of the paramount figure of the company, but the high risk management style of his son and successor, Park Young Min –”

Finally locating the remote, Kai flipped the channel. It turned to another news channel. “In recent news, the Gyeonggido police have reported a drastic increase in assaults on females found walking alone on residential streets of the province. From victims’ descriptions of their attackers, a single culprit is not responsible for this.”

The screen was focused on the female announcer relaying the news, but in the corner was a black and white silhouette image of a male figure following a female one.

Kai had never given thought to how Ji Won might have felt that first night he’d approached her as her genie. It’d been a long day of watching and waiting on his part until she was alone for him to introduce himself. And when the opportunity finally came, it was on a dimly lit street late at night. He’d thought he was doing her a favor at the time, but he was only realizing now how shortsighted his consideration for her really was.

He’d thought Ji Won idiotic when she, looking jittery and spooked, had made a phone call to her parents, warning them to call the police if she wasn’t back soon. Any sane person would have realized it was fake with her exaggerative acting skills. But it’d been the naïve teenager’s only method of defense against the stalker she assumed him to be. Kai still remembered her wide-eyed look of terror when he’d finally shown himself – he knew he wouldn’t hurt her, but how was she to know he wasn’t one of these assaulters the news reporter spoke of? And for him to ask her to blindly trust him when he’d had her bound in his arms to keep her from alerting the neighbors, how could he not have seen that the poor girl was terrified beyond her wits when she’d started crying into his palm gagging ? No wonder the girl had been wary to trust even after believing him to be a genie.    

“Jong In, are you okay?”

Unheard by Kai, Yoon Ah had entered the house and now stood in front of him, studying the tense look of deep thought on his face. He stood up and made his way to the kitchen island. “I’m fine,” he muttered. He picked up the box waiting for her and made for the door.

“Wait,” Yoon Ah said, banding fingers around his upper arm. “I need to drink my morning dose.”

Kai silently placed the box back on the counter again and pulled out a pair of scissors to cut open a pouch for her.

“Do I have to keep sending you pictures of me drinking them?” she asked, face scrunched from the bitter taste of the medicine.

“You can do whatever,” Kai noncommittally replied. His mind was still on Ji Won, casting a dark cloud on his face and attitude.

“Jong In, what’s wrong? You seem distracted,” Yoon Ah worriedly voiced.

Kai met Yoon Ah’s gentle brown eyes filled with deep concern. She was the type who could sympathize with anyone, even the antagonists in the dramas she watched. She didn’t believe there were bad people in the world, only terrible circumstances that led people to do bad things. If Kai felt like relieving the burden on his shoulders, she was probably the best person to seek help from. He took a seat on the island bar stool and stared at his interlocked hands. Yoon Ah did the same and waited patiently for him to speak.

“I have this friend,” Kai began uncertainly. “And I said some really hurtful things to her, but only because she hurt me too,” he quickly added in his defense. Since when was he one to act like a five-year old pointing fingers at everyone but himself? “But then she did something to make up for it, something really, really big, and I’ve more than forgiven her for it. It’s just that I haven’t had a chance to tell her, or to apologize for being such a jerk to her.”

Yoon Ah tipped her head inquisitively. “I’m not sure I see the problem. It sounds like you just need to call her up and tell her that. Or better yet, tell her in person.”

“It’s not that simple!” Kai raked a hand through his hair. Guilt and frustration muddled his face as memories of that last night with Ji Won seized him. “When I say I hurt her, I mean I was practically cruel in the things I said to her. I don’t know if she can ever forgive me.” He’d always boasted of his great moral compass, but in the end, he’d employed the old, faulted “eye for an eye” adage in his brutal words to her. 

“Jong In, if she did some grand gesture just to earn your forgiveness, why wouldn’t she accept your apology too?”

Logically speaking that made sense. Ji Won had given away something important to receive his absolution. Surely that meant she would readily give hers.

But Kai refused to believe he deserved it.

“What exactly did she do to you for this fight to break out in the first place?” Yoon Ah asked when his internal confliction left him mute.

“She broke a very important promise to me, one that she did eventually keep. But in doing so, she had to choose me over someone very close and dear to her.” Someone that she’d now lost because of him but Kai didn’t dare reveal that much, even to non-judgmental Yoon Ah. Even she had to have a limit on what she could tolerate. “And now I just feel like a total for how I acted towards her.”

“It’s a little difficult to give advice when you’re being so vague, but it sounds like if she chose you over someone important to her, then maybe you’re just as important to her too. And if that’s the case, then you two just need to talk it out and make up before you regret the time lost with each other. Don’t you care enough about your friend to do that much?”

It was hard to argue when Yoon Ah was being so judicious with her words. But he had Ji Won’s feelings to consider. What if, during these weeks apart, she’d come to the conclusion that he hadn’t been worth freeing over saving her grandfather? What if she preferred to never see his face again? What if, in keeping his promise to her, he was only reopening wounds she’d tried to heal these last few weeks, wounds of regret for the decision to ever befriend him?

But Kai was just making excuses for himself. In truth, he was simply afraid. He’d thought Ji Won a coward for not being able to look him in the eye after she’d broken his trust, yet here he was, proving himself to be the bigger one by not seeking her out to speak to her as he failed to keep her trust.

***

One week. That was how much time Kai had given himself to gather enough courage to seek out Ji Won and to practice exactly what he’d say to her.

He worked on his apology now. With his parents asleep, he sat in the living room with his laptop, staring at the blank screen of his Word document. He’d started numerous times only to slam the Backspace button and clear the words. How did one even begin to express penance to someone for effectively being the reason their grandfather was dead? How did one go about showing gratitude for giving them the life they could only ever dream of?

Sighing loudly, Kai shut the lid of his computer and tossed it to the side. He’d work on it tomorrow when he had time to sleep on it. Speaking of sleep, it was already eleven and Jung Ah had yet to return from work. She’d texted earlier saying she would be late and had asked him to walk her dogs. Kai had done so when he took Cheon Won out for hers. It helped that Mong Gu, Jang Gu, and Jang Ah now regarded him as they did all the other family members, with disciplined ardor. Their unrestrained affection was still reserved only for Jung Ah.

But news of the nighttime assaults on women from that morning was still fresh on his mind. He didn’t like the idea of Jung Ah strolling home from the bus stop four blocks away on her own. But he also knew she’d have a fit if he attempted to pick her up for that reason alone.

When Cheon Won skidded across the hardwood floors and crashed into the wall chasing after the Roomba, only to pick herself up and continue following the robot vacuum, Kai grinned with an idea. He plucked her from the ground as the vacuum passed by his feet and held her close to his body. “I think someone has a little too much energy and needs to expend it on a walk.”

Shoes on and his puppy leashed, Kai opened the front door but stopped short when Jung Ah’s dogs whimpered at his feet.

“You guys want to come too?” he asked them as he reached for their leashes hanging in the coat closet. They wagged their tails excitedly when he clipped the ropes onto their collars.

With his phone, Kai checked the bus schedule. The last bus was arriving in fifteen minutes. If he was going to reach the stop in time, he’d have to go at a jog. Luckily the dogs had no problem with the faster pace and kept up easily with him. Maybe he’d try skateboarding with them later.

“Alright guys, slow down,” he said to the quartet of canines. They were just around the corner to the bus stop and he had to make sure he didn’t look like he’d been waiting when Jung Ah arrived.

Right on schedule, he saw the 408 pull up along the curb and Jung Ah depart. A tall, skinny male with brown metal frame glasses and curly, unruly hair followed. He spoke animatedly to Jung Ah who looked too tired to be listening.

Her eyes lit up when her dogs that pulled on their leashes escaped Kai’s grasp and barked loudly as they ran towards their master. “My babies!” she lovingly said to them as she bent down and accepted their welcome back with open arms. She sent an accusatory glare to Kai. “Are you just taking them for their evening walks? Do you know how late it is? How long they must have been holding it in because you didn’t take them out at their regular time?”

Kai shrugged, glad that she didn’t suspect the real reason he was here. “Sorry, I got distracted and forgot.” He nodded towards her bus partner standing awkwardly to the side. “Who’s this?”

The man eagerly held out his hand and introduced himself. “I’m Lee Dong Ho. I work with Jung Ah.”

Kai accepted the handshake and replied, “Kim Jong In. I’m Jung Ah’s younger brother.”

Dong Ho smiled broadly. “Ah, so you’re the brother. It’s so nice to meet you. Jung Ah doesn’t talk about her family much so she never told me she had such a handsome brother.” He looked Jung Ah’s way. “But I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Obviously good looks run in the family.”

Kai refrained from mentioning they weren’t blood-related. The guy was obviously trying hard to impress and he didn’t have the heart to burst his bubble. “So do you live around here?”

“No, he lives on the other side of town,” Jung Ah declared, fixing a steely look on her coworker. “Dong Ho wanted to be a noble idiot and walk me home even though I told him I’d be fine.”

“Hey, the streets are dangerous at night for women,” he argued.

Kai took a step back. Dong Ho had done it now.

“For women?” Jung Ah repeated, the muscle below her eye twitching.

Dong Ho belatedly realized his incorrect choice of words and started quaking in his shoes for an answer. “Uh I mean, not just for women, for anyone walking alone. You should always have a buddy, even if you’re a guy. And seeing how you have your brother now, I think I should start heading back before I miss the next bus.”  

“Actually you just got off the last bus of the night,” Kai reminded him. 

Dong Ho’s face fell. “Oh, I guess I’ll be taking a cab home then.” He turned away and murmured to himself, “Do I have enough money?”

Jung Ah shook her head and muttered, “Idiot,” under her breath. But her frown morphed into a giggle when her dogs reminded her of their presence with their nuzzling.

“You know he likes you,” Kai said as they walked side by side with their pets.

“And?”

So she was aware. “And he seems nice.”

“Well I’m not interested in dating anyone right now so he should really get the hint and stop trying so hard. I mean walking me home? Please, I’d probably end up being the one defending him if we really did run into a mugger.”

“Have you never heard the phrase ‘it’s the thought that counts’?” Kai shot back.

Dong Ho didn’t look like he knew how to throw a punch, let alone fight off a mugger, but if he was willing to take a significant chunk out of his time to make sure Jung Ah arrived home safely, Kai had no doubt the guy would offer himself up as a shield while Jung Ah made an escape should they ever come under attack.

“Is that what you’re doing now? Being thoughtful?” Jung Ah asked.

“What do you mean?”   

“We have small dog breeds that only need to be walked around the block, but you took them all the way outside our neighborhood, and it just so happened to be at the time I was coming home. Looks like someone’s trying to play knight in shining armor.”

Kai should have known he couldn’t get anything past Jung Ah. She was cleverly perceptive. But there didn’t seem to be any of her usual caustic undertone in her words now. This was probably the closest to a thank you he would get from her.

“You’re welcome,” he replied.

“I didn’t say thank you.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Silence fell upon them, but Kai didn’t find it uncomfortable. Jung Ah was exhausted and probably preferred the quiet too.

It was only when they had stepped through the front door that that lull broke when Jung Ah suddenly said, “I’ve decided to put a hold on moving out.”

Kai’s head whipped her way. She’d never actually said words to the contrary when he’d first tried to persuade her against her decision to leave home, nor had either brought up the topic again till now.

Jung Ah nonchalantly shrugged as she made for the stairs. “I figure I have other more pressing things I could save for, like a new car. I don’t want to have to deal with any more car problems or public transportation again if I can help it. There’s too many weirdos on at this hour and after a long day at work, I just don’t have the energy to cope with them.”

“Well Dad would definitely love going with you to pick out a car, you know, if you wanted to do something nice for the old man and make him feel included,” Kai casually suggested. He didn’t want to make a big deal out of her change of heart lest it persuade her otherwise again.

“Yeah, I guess a second opinion couldn’t hurt,” she agreed with a shrug. Jung Ah wasn’t going to admit how thrilled the idea of one-on-one time with their dad probably made her feel. Her hand had reached for the doorknob to her room and twisted, but she stopped short from entering. She turned to him, suddenly looking serious and a little embarrassed. “Thanks,” she mumbled, not meeting his eyes, “for convincing me to stay.”

A wave of glowing pride stole through Kai. Out of all his family members, Jung Ah was the one he worried about connecting with most. She had a tough, near impenetrable shell, refusing to show vulnerability even to her family, the people she was supposed to be able to drop her guard in front of without fear of being judged. He’d been able to chip the corner of the iceberg she’d encased herself in with their mutual love for their dogs, but it was only in this moment that Kai felt he’d finally made a significant crack into the wall between them.

“Like I said earlier,” Kai softly answered, “you don’t have to thank me.” Not wanting to end on a sappy note, he then playfully added, “Besides, Mong Gu, Jang Gu, and Jang Ah could never part with their Uncle Jong In.” He leaned down and rubbed their heads. They responded with tongues hanging out and tails wagging. “See, they might actually love me more than they do you.”

“As if,” Jung Ah scoffed. She whistled and the trio immediately came running into her room. She sent him a cavalier, lop-sided, smile. “You were saying?”

He good-naturedly conceded. “Okay, okay. But just wait and see. Now that you’re not leaving, I’ve got plenty of time to win them over.”

Kai returned to his room with Cheon Won in his arms and placed her in a pen in the corner of his room. She hadn’t learned not to chew up his things when left alone yet. After a quick shower, he jumped into bed, feeling exhausted but content.

The day’s events played through his head. He would have thought it a perfect one, but one thing barred it from being so, something that would hinder all the days to come from ever being perfect, and that was the matter of his unfulfilled promise to Ji Won.

~//~

Author's Note