Posted: 25 March 2016, 17:00 EDT | Word Count: 3,524

~//~

For the past hour, Kai had occupied his time perusing through travel books in the bookstore across from the theater. This section in particular was located next to a large glass wall lined with plush chairs that allowed for a view of the busy street below, and, not that it was important, the entrance to the movie theater.

As Kai glanced up from a guide on the most expensive private islands, he noticed Joo Hyun step out of the theater alone. How strange, Kai thought. Why wasn’t Ji Won with her? With an unsettling feeling in his gut about where and who she might be with, he flashed back into the theater.

Scouring the lobby for Ji Won, Kai reminded himself that he was only making sure that Gi Cheol’s victims list didn’t grow. He wasn’t getting himself involved with his master. No, he was merely doing the honorable thing that any half-decent person would do.

He finally found her standing outside the men’s bathroom with Gi Cheol. “Do you maybe want to get coffee or something?” she shyly asked him.

Gi Cheol’s eyes traveled down her body and then back up to her face like she was a piece of meat to be appraised. Ji Won tugged the cloth of her sweater closer and hunched her shoulders protectively. At least she wasn’t completely dense and had the sense to feel discomfort from the two-timer’s scrutiny no matter how enamored she was with him.

“I’m sorry Ji Won,” Gi Cheol regretfully replied, “I already have plans.”

Kai scoffed. Though Gi Cheol had the decency not to lie, his plans of cheating on “Weekend Chick” with “Weekday Chick” hardly atoned for his honesty while turning down Ji Won.

“Oh, well maybe next time then,” his master said with an awkward laugh.

Gi Cheol gave her a quick, noncommittal smile and stepped into the men’s bathroom. Ji Won stared at the closed door with a forlorn look for a long moment before she finally left the theater.

Once outside, Kai fell into step beside her. He turned his visibility on and said, “I’d say you dodged a bullet there.” Ji Won remained mute, staring blankly at the ground until she arrived in front of a bus stop and took a seat on the covered bench. Kai sidled next to her on the bench and studied her dismal profile. "Don't tell me you're upset because he said no."

Her lip jutted out. "I'm just disappointed. I guess I thought we really connected during the movie and things would start picking up from there." She sighed loudly. "But it's not like he completely rejected me. He had plans so maybe there's still a chance, if I can somehow pep-talk myself into asking him out again."

Knowing what he knew about Gi Cheol, Kai was unable to wrap his head around Ji Won’s persistence. Surely she’d behave differently if she were aware of his true personality. But as proven from his earlier attempts, his master wasn’t going to believe anything he said against her all-great crush.

Ji Won suddenly sat up, alert and curious. Kai followed her amber eyes to a café across the street. But that wasn’t what had caught her attention. It was Gi Cheol, and he was strolling into the establishment with a girl who looked college-aged on his arm. His appearance had changed slightly – his hair gelled up and parted on the side to make the high schooler look older. Was he trying to match his age with “Weekday Chick”? He wouldn’t have been surprised if the two-timer was lying about being a college student himself.

Ji Won suddenly stood up, a mischievous look on her face, and jogged across the street just before the light for the oncoming traffic turned green.

“Who’s the stalker now?” Kai pointed out as he reached the entrance to the café just before she did by way of teleportation.

“Shut up,” she muttered. Ji Won picked up a nearby magazine to cover her face while she waited in line and spied on the couple who was giving their order a few spots ahead of her.

Gi Cheol pulled out his wallet, and just as Kai had observed at the theater, a blue credit card peeked out from the front pocket. He pulled the piece of plastic out and handed it to his cashier. Kai immediately turned to Ji Won, finding her shocked and confused.

“Look who was right after all?” he said haughtily now that evidence of his warning had finally presented itself. He expected her to drop out of the line and discreetly excuse herself out of the café. What else could she possibly have done? But no, she remained in line, looking focused and almost determined. Placing a simple order for coffee and receiving it on the spot, Ji Won settled into a chair a few tables down from where Gi Cheol and his date sat and continued to watch the couple.

Kai was absolutely befuddled. Was she in denial? He materialized into the seat across from her, effectively blocking her view of her crush.

“Move,” she loudly whispered, batting a hand at him.

"Why are you so thick-skinned?"

"What?" she growled.

He unfolded his crossed arms and leaned in closer to examine her. A sane person would have given up on a charlatan like Gi Cheol. There was only one conclusion to Ji Won’s persistence. “Were you possibly dropped on your head when you were younger, and now your brain has trouble understanding the things right in front of you?"

Ji Won's nostrils flared. "Why are you here?"

Coming to the conclusion that his master was simply a lost cause and any further attempts to talk sense into her were for naught, Kai decided he would just enjoy the free show while adding in his own commentary. "Well, you refuse to believe that you're wrong, even when it's been proven before your eyes. So how could I not watch you make a fool of yourself?"

With one last nasty glare, Ji Won craned her neck to get a look behind him. Kai heard the female declaring that she needed to use the restroom. But something must have happened soon after because Ji Won’s eyes widened.  Kai used the reflective surface of the large framed piece of art in front of him to find “Weekday Chick” giving Gi Cheol a kiss on the lips. She straightened and made her way towards them, compelling Ji Won to turn her head away to avoid the girl’s gaze.

Kai took this chance to remove himself from Ji Won’s sight. He didn’t know why, but he thought it would be best if she thought he was gone, even though he hadn’t moved from his seat.

As he examined her features, Kai couldn’t tell what was going on in her head. Her expression remained a mask of shock as she continued to stare ahead. It changed slightly after the female cashier who’d taken Gi Cheol’s order passed by them with a tray of two mugs and, as Kai saw through the picture’s glass, the Casanova shamelessly passed a napkin to the barista with what he knew had to be his number. This guy just didn’t know when to stop.

This display acted as a trigger for Ji Won to finally break from her reverie. Her hand spasmed, hitting her coffee mug and toppling the hot, brown liquid over the table and down onto her leggings. With a hiss, she slid her chair back with a loud scrape and stood up to dab at the stain with some napkins.

Kai’s immediate response was to help her in the only way he knew how. He focused his magic on her thigh, feeling the heat intensify at its source in his chest. He willed it to course through his body and towards the target, but it remained a spark of fire in his heart. It was no use.

Kai had always known that the magic he possessed was closely linked with not just the talisman, but also the desires of his master. Just as much as he couldn’t stop a wish a master had made from being granted, he also couldn’t use his magic for anything his master wanted but hadn’t wished aloud for. And right now, Ji Won’s mind was clearly on the pain, yearning desperately for it to go away.

She quickly hobbled away in the direction Gi Cheol’s date had gone. Kai followed after but halted as soon as Ji Won entered the women’s restroom. Though no one would know if he entered, he couldn’t in good conscience invade the privacy of a girl’s bathroom. What he did instead wasn’t a much better alternative.

Closing his eyes and focusing on the single person his magic revolved around, Kai was able to hear his master and everything going on around her. It was a few minutes before anyone actually spoke.

“That looks pretty bad,” a sympathetic voice – Gi Cheol’s date – said. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be okay,” Ji Won shakily replied.

“Are you sure? Would you like me to go buy you some burn cream and bandages?”

"No, I'll be fine," his master insisted. There was a long pause and Kai thought the conversation had ended but Ji Won again spoke, “Hey, that guy you’re with, is he your boyfriend?”

“Oh no,” Kai said to himself. “Don’t tell me you’re going to pick a fight with this girl.” He wouldn’t have put it past Ji Won to take whatever emotions she was currently feeling and express them in the most destructive way possible, by taking them out on another innocent victim.

“Yes, he is,” the girl happily replied. ‘Do you know him?”

“Um no, not really. But you should be careful with him.”

Kai was taken aback. Was Ji Won really trying to warn “Weekday Chick”?

“Sorry?” she replied, her voice indicating offense towards Ji Won’s word of caution.

“I saw him give his phone number to one of the cashiers,” Ji Won explained.

“I think you’re mistaken,” Gi Cheol’s date firmly stated.

With a calm and sympathy that Kai found uncanny for Ji Won when she was being tested, she said, “It makes sense that you wouldn't believe me. I didn't believe it when people kept telling me the guy I liked was not a good person." Her voice turned a little more assertive. "You offered to go out of your way to help with my burn. I just wanted to help you prevent it, before you have to feel the pain.”

The room turned to silence, which was broken by the door swinging open and a distressed looking “Weekday Chick” marching right through Kai. When the door opened again seconds later, he had no idea he’d inadvertently made himself visible because Ji Won abruptly halted in front of him.

“I already have a big headache, please don’t turn it into a migraine,” she tiredly pleaded with her usual sparkling eyes a dull brown.

Having become so accustomed to her volatile self, the lack of emotion from Ji Won turned Kai’s instinct to instigate off. His eyes travelled down to her thigh. She’d removed her leggings and done the best to clean up the burn with water and paper towels, which frankly did nothing because a large blotch of raw, red, skin still stared back at him. “That looks serious.”

“I’ll be fine,” she dismissively replied and tried to move past him.

Kai remained rooted in his spot, blockading her. If Ji Won didn’t get her burn treated, she wasn’t going to be fine. Leaving it open and uncovered would surely make it infected. In an attempt to get her mind off of her injury, he changed the subject. “That was a commendable thing you tried to do for that girl.” And he actually meant his words.

Ji Won bitterly laughed. "You really know no boundaries, eavesdropping on a conversation in a girl's bathroom." She shot him a dark glare. "I know there's no point in telling you to leave me alone, but can you at least get out of my way?"

Kai’s attempt to heal her failed. Like a dam barricading his magic, he couldn’t get past her strong desire for the pain to go away. Maybe it would be her second wish once she realized the seriousness of her injury. With no other choice, he stepped aside and let her hobble by.

There was another reason, Kai discovered, that interfering in Ji Won’s affairs, even if all he did was observe, could become problematic for him. Now that he was aware of her situation – the agony she was in as she limped towards the bus stop, was forced to stand because the vehicle was packed, and had to guard her thigh from the people that pushed into her – he couldn’t help but feel pity.

Of all things, he felt sorry for his master who treated her best friend like an ATM, gallivanted around the city when her parents weren’t home, and took advantage of their hard-earned money. It definitely put a damper on his ability to castigate her. Every time he came up with a snarky remark reminding her that all of this could have been avoided if she’d just listened to him, his stomach churned with guilt. How would adding salt to her wound solve anything?

That was why he’d kept watch on her until she returned home. His magic proved useless because the very things he wanted to do for her, like free a seat on the bus, keep the other passengers from shoving into her, or shorten the bus ride, were exactly the things she wanted and kept thinking about. It was a miracle that she hadn’t passed out along the way given how blanched her face was and the layer of sweat that dotted her forehead when she finally opened the front door of her house.

But her arrival at home hardly put Kai at ease. Her burn now looked a nasty yellow with skin peeling around the edges. She really should have gone to the hospital to get it treated, but no, the fool opted for self-medication with some pain relievers, multi-purpose antibiotic ointment, and gauze. If infection had spread into her bloodstream, the cheap ointment wasn’t going to help.

“This is for the better,” Kai tried to convince himself. “When the burn gets worse, to the point that she’ll have to be hospitalized for it, she’ll probably use a wish to get better, and that means I’ll be that much closer to being free from her.”

That reasoning didn’t really work for him though. As much as Kai disliked Ji Won, he didn’t want to see her suffer. His magic had caused a lot of suffering already, namely the death of the Chairman of Mirae Group, and while he wasn’t at fault for Ji Won’s misery he wanted to believe that healing her would help him feel less culpable for his forced misdeeds. So even if he had to wait until she was asleep and hopefully dreaming about one of her poster boys or whatever it was that teenage girls normally dreamed about, Kai would keep trying to use his magic to treat her.

Story of my life
Searching for the right
But it keeps avoiding me

The tune of an English song sung by a female artist blasted down from the second floor. Kai immediately knew it was coming from Ji Won’s room, where upon instant teleportation, he found the girl face down on her bed, humming sadly to the melody playing from her phone.

Being fluent in English, among dozens of other languages, Kai comprehended the language perfectly and continued to listen to the lyrics…

And I know that he knows I’m unfaithful
and it kills him inside
To know that I am happy with some other guy

...to quickly realize that his master must have slept through her English classes in school. “Are you sure this is the song you want to be listening to?” he amused asked.

“Yes,” she mumbled with her face in her pillow, “you got a problem with my song?”

“No,” he said with a laugh, “but do you understand what she’s singing about?”

"Of course! She's talking about her unfaithful boyfriend. And yes, I know Gi Cheol and I weren't dating, but right now I feel betrayed like he really did cheat on me."

Just as he’d thought, she had no idea what she was talking about. “You might want to check the translation of the lyrics then because the unfaithful one is the singer."

Sending a scowl his way, Ji Won brought her phone forth and furiously tapped her fingers on the device to perform a search. The more she scrolled down the screen, the wider fell until eventually she tossed the phone to the other side of her bed and screamed into her pillow.

Kai tried to subdue a snort with his fist. He definitely enjoyed an expressive Ji Won over a cold, hostile one.

All of a sudden she sat up teary-eyed and said, “Look, I’m upset enough as it is without you adding to it. So please,” she swiped a hand at a drop of liquid that sailed down her cheek, “just please, can I suffer in peace?”

The genie’s smirk faded. He could have understood if she was crying because of physical pain, but it was obvious that this pity fest she was hosting all alone in her room was over Gi Cheol. “Are you really going to waste your time crying over a guy like him? He was never the angel you thought him to be.”

“That’s what makes it hurt more,” she admitted as the tears streamed down her face. “I liked a guy that never existed.”

Kai had no sympathy towards her in this regard. Not when she’d been given fair warning multiple times. “What do you expect when you put someone on a pedestal and refuse to listen to anyone’s words but your own?”

“A part of me kind of hoped to be disappointed by the real him,” she quietly confessed.

What the hell is she talking about? She’s not making any sense at all.

“That maybe if he was less amazing and more ordinary, then someone like me would actually have a chance with him.”

Kai was so dumbfounded by her illogical reasoning that the only word that came to his mind was, “Pathetic.”

“What?” a riled up Ji Won demanded, digging her nails into her bedspread as her amber eyes turned a brilliant hue. “Pathetic?”

Bingo, Kai thought. Here was the Ji Won that he knew – short-tempered and easily distracted when her character was being questioned. “Yes, pathetic,” he repeated acerbically. “You just witnessed a guy you like lie and cheat right in front of you. You shouldn't be feeling self-pity, you should be furious that you wasted your feelings on trash like him."

Inflamed by his harsh criticism, Ji Won jumped out of bed and made her way towards him. Kai attempted to heal her once again. But while he was able to push his magic as far out as his arms, the pain was still on Ji Won’s mind, albeit on the back burner, and it kept his magic from flowing out his body.

Tilting her head up to look him straight in the eye, she proclaimed, “Look here Mr. Conceited Genie, you've got some nerve telling me how I should and shouldn't act. Last time I checked, I'm the one who gives the orders. So Genie, I command you to go away until you're called for."

Her “command” did nothing to Kai. “You’re forgetting Rule #4 again. As it stands, the only orders I listen to from you start with ‘I wish’." The corner of his mouth tipped up in a smirk. "But it looks like you're returning to your usual, less pathetic self."

Ji Won's lip curled into a sneer. "Less pathetic?"

"And now you can find a guy who actually deserves your feelings, someone who’s less of a scumbag," Kai breezily said, completely ignoring her question.

Ji Won rolled her eyes. "Like you?"

Kai chuckled and angled forward so their noses were almost touching. "I already told you. Rule #3, you and I can never be." He straightened and in the blink of an eye, moved to a reclined position on her bed, preventing her from returning to her moping. “But yes,” he continued, “someone like me would be more than deserving, out of your league even, though good luck trying to find anyone who comes close to me.”

“Well believe me I won’t be too upset if I don’t,” she blandly said before making her way out of the room.

Kai unwittingly smiled. Though he still held an unfavorable opinion of Ji Won, he was finding their banter to be strangely addicting. But it was the first time he’d spoken so freely to a master. That had to be the reason he continued to interfere in Ji Won’s affairs, or so the genie tried to convince himself.

~//~

Author's Note