Posted: 04 May 2016, 17:00 EDT | Word Count: 7,244

~//~

Kai spent the night in daylight, on the other side of the world. As hundreds of tourists penetrated through his non-corporeal form in the middle of Times Square, the genie let himself absorb that soon, he would no longer be invisible. He’d have a real body tangible to more than his master. He’d be able to interact with more than his master, to make choices beyond his master’s desires.

In front of him, a small child dragged quickly along by his father tripped and fell. The man picked up the crying child and continued on his way, unaware that his son was upset not because he was hurt, but because he’d dropped his superhero action figure.

Kai walked up, picked up the toy, and in the blink of an eye, caught up to just behind the father-son pair. He carefully placed it into the outstretched hands of the child who appeared momentarily confused by the sudden materialization of his possession, but was quickly smiling now that his figurine had been returned.

Moments like these were what had kept Kai’s servile fate tolerable. The small acts of kindness he was able to perform because of his magic reminded him that there was a silver lining to everything.

A thought occurred to Kai then. Once he was free, what would become of him? Would he still possess his magic? Would he remain immortal? Did freedom mean that though the talisman would no longer lay claim over him, he would become fully spiritual in existence, unable to be seen, heard, or touched by anyone ever again?

Not knowing what he’d come from, Kai realized he had no idea what he would be going to when Ji Won made the wish. His fantasies of his past and hopes for his future were more or less one and the same, and so he’d always imagined his life post-genie as human. But if he was never human to begin with, then freedom would surely mean returning to whatever previous form he’d once held, right?

More and more questions piled on top of themselves as the weight of Kai’s impending future loomed closer. He could feel his magic restoring little by little and knew that he was nearing the halfway mark. His tattoo would probably show three spokes out of the eight. When he reached full power, Ji Won would give him the one thing he’d always wanted.

Ji Won. Would he be able to see her…or rather, would she be able to see him once he was free?

A stab of pain, like a portion of his heart was being hollowed out, inundated Kai. He’d never felt emptiness like this before, but he knew he needed to see Ji Won.

It had become dusk in New York and according to the time on one of the big digital displays suspended on the side of a skyscraper, it was Monday morning in South Korea. He remembered that Ji Won was on a break from school so even though he expected her to still be sleeping at the hour, Kai meshed his surroundings together and once he’d pictured his destination, the blobs of color around him had turned to the familiar room of his master in the eastern hemisphere.

To the genie’s surprise, Ji Won sat at her desk. Her back was to him so she hadn’t noticed he’d appeared, but she seemed to be studying from the open textbooks in front of her. With an inaudible sigh, Kai teleported to her roof and lay on its shingles with the sun warming his skin overhead. He’d gotten his glimpse which assuaged the ache in his chest.

It was times like these Kai wished he could sleep to pass the time. He closed his eyes and tried to relax his mind, trying to get his body to slow its processes until he became unconscious.

It was impossible. His body didn’t function like a normal human’s. Magic was infused throughout his veins and arteries, sustaining him for perpetual consciousness.

There was mumbling below him in Ji Won’s room that put Kai on alert, straining to hear the conversation taking place between his master and her mother.

“Ji Won, you’re not leaving the house until you finish your homework. The longer you procrastinate, the less time you have to enjoy your break,” Ji Won’s mother chastised.

“But mom,” she whined. “I still have a whole week before break ends. Why can’t I play first and work later?”

“Because the last time you tried that, you played until the day before school and then you cried to me about not having enough time to finish your homework,” Mrs. Kwon retorted. “I am not staying up all night to relearn high school math for you again.”

After a shuffling of footsteps and the sound of a door closing when Kai was sure Ji Won’s mother was gone, he decided to pop in on Ji Won again. She obviously hadn’t been very hard at work given her mother’s scolding.

Having been in a prostate position, Kai imagined being on Ji Won’s bed as he teleported back to her room.

“Ahhh!” his master screamed.

It was just by coincidence that at the exact moment he appeared, Ji Won was about to jump onto the bed herself and upon seeing him in the last moment, teetered on the balls of her feet with arms flapping to stop herself. She failed and her face met the edge of her mattress, giving Kai cause to break out in howling laughter.

Her face red as a beet, Ji Won righted herself and pointed an angry finger at him. “Stop doing things like that!”

Kai pouted innocently. “But you were the one who told me to keep being myself.” He shrugged and nodded towards the talisman which he’d noticed lay in a coil on her nightstand. She had taken it off for some reason. Did she not like the gold? “If you want me to stop, all you have to do is order me.”

Rolling her eyes, Ji Won plopped herself on the edge of the bed, her back to him. “I’m so tired of school. The point of a break is that you actually get a break from it. I can’t even play on my phone because Mom confiscated it. And you –” She twisted in her seat and directed her frustrations on Kai, “why can’t you be of any use? You really want to thank me properly? Then how about I take a nap and you swish a hand to do all my homework?”

“And deny you of a good education?” he retorted. He shook his head disapprovingly. “What kind of a friend would I be then?”

“A good one,” Ji Won fervently insisted, “No, not just good, best friend level.”

Kai angled forward until his eyes were level with her amber ones. They shone a mesmerizingly lighter color than he’d yet seen. “You want me to do your homework? You’ll have to wish it.” It was a fruitless challenge. He knew Ji Won would neither waste a wish on something so trivial (at least not deliberately considering how her first wish had been made) nor would she rescind on her promise to give her last wish to him. He now held that much faith in his master.

With a wrinkle of her nose, Ji Won said, “You’re so stingy, you know that?”

Pleased by her response, he smiled and earnestly claimed, “And you’re a good friend, no, not just good, best friend level.” Never mind that she was his only friend.

She arched an eyebrow. “Wow, a compliment. Careful there Mr. Hyde, you’re starting to show your Dr. Jekyll.”

Kai fell backwards and rested his back against her headboard with a chuckle. He quite enjoyed their playful repartee. “Or Mr. Hyde isn’t as evil as you think.”

“Right,” Ji Won snorted. Then with a long, exaggerated sigh she picked herself up and trudged back to her desk. “I guess I should actually try since I have no other choice.” With her pencil poised, she stared at the workbook in front of her for a long, silent minute before the quiet was broken by her cry. “I don’t know what to do! I can’t even call my classmates for help. I’m going to be stuck in my room all week!”

Kai beamed to the place behind her chair and stared over her shoulder. She had her trigonometry book open to the section on identities and the workbook that went along with it open to the first page for the associated material. She hadn’t gotten far. In fact, she hadn’t even done one problem.

“You have to use the cosine of a sum identity,” Kai explained after a cursory glance at the first problem. He’d done the scratch work in his head within a few seconds.

“You know trig?” a surprised Ji Won wondered aloud.

Kai tipped his head questioningly. “You don’t?” The material was hardly rocket science.

Ji Won sheepishly scratched the back of her neck. “Math isn’t my strong point. But how and why does a genie know trig?”

“I’ve had a lot of free time,” he evasively answered.

Now wasn’t the time to reveal that he’d read through her textbook a couple of days ago. Kai may have been ignorant on some social cues, but even he knew that a stranger, as he was known to Ji Won at the time, sitting in a sleeping girl’s room to pass the time could be perceived as creepy. 

He flipped the pages until he found the one he’d remembered reading on the exact concept he’d mentioned, and pointed to a line in the middle of the page. “This one.”

Ji Won glanced back and forth between the place his finger marked and the first problem in her workbook. “Ohhhh,” she said with an understanding nod. “So a and b are the same?” She started working the problem out exactly as Kai had pictured in his head until she arrived at the solution. With delighted relief, she said, “I wouldn’t have figured that out by myself.” Her glee was short-lived though. “Now I just have a million more left to do.”

With a feigned sigh, Kai stepped around her chair and settled on the edge of her desk. “Guess there’s no other choice. I’ll have to help.” Here was the perfect excuse to spend time with Ji Won while doing what he could to help her after all she would do for him.

Ji Won’s face gleamed with pleasure. “Really? Then how about I do the first half and you tackle the second half as well as the ones I can’t do from my half?”

That sounded like a cunning setup for her to push all the work onto him. She would no doubt give a mere half-hearted attempt at her portion. “I said I’d help, not do it for you,” he said flatly.

“And how exactly do you plan on helping me, then?” she replied exasperatedly.

Kai flattened the crisp, lightly used workbook. It was obvious Ji Won didn’t put in much effort with her math assignments. “I can guide you if you get stuck.” He pointed to the next problem. “But first you have to make an attempt.”

If Kai truly wanted to show his gratitude to Ji Won, as he promised to himself he would, then he’d take on the task of teaching her the skills she needed to do her assignment by herself. Just as she was giving him independence, he’d do his best to do the same for her.

So after a few hours of patient teaching on the genie’s part, Ji Won progressed from a limited understanding to a passable comprehension of the mathematics of triangles. Kai had picked up on her attention deficit and found that one-on-one instruction helped her focus better.

So much better that Kai thought a change of pace might be in order before she burned herself out. “Are you sure you don’t want to take a break now?”

Ji Won’s gaze didn’t move from her workbook as she fervently shook her head, her pencil furiously scribbling away at her current problem. “I’m on a roll. If I stop now, who knows how long it’ll take for me to get back in the zone.” She gave pause as she moved on to the next question. “What do I do here?” Without giving Kai a chance to speak, she held up her hand and proclaimed, “Wait, no, don’t tell me.”

As usual, Ji Won was speaking before fully processing the problem in front of her. With her tongue sticking out in one corner, a habit that Kai had discovered came out when she was concentrating hard, she started penciling numbers and letters in the corner of her workbook. So engrossed in her work, she didn’t hear the knock that came on her door.

“I got it,” she said a few seconds later, her eyes brightening like she’d won a game. “I have to rewrite tangent in terms of sine and cosine, right?”

Kai nodded, a small but proud smile on his face. “Yeah, I think you’re really getting the hang of it.”

“Who are you talking to?” an old voice that Kai had briefly heard before and who he knew to be Ji Won’s grandfather said. He stood at the door dressed in a cap and coat like he was ready to go out, staring curiously at Ji Won.

“Oh Grandps,” his flustered master answered, “I uh, was just talking to myself. When did you get here?”

“A while ago. I knocked on your door but you didn’t hear me. I guess it’s because you were talking to yourself too loudly.”

Kai snorted, which made Ji Won side-glance him with a glower. He couldn’t help it. His words had sounded like a sarcastic comment, but the old man seemed serious, as if talking loudly to oneself was a common, sane thing.

“Did you need something?” Ji Won asked.

“I haven’t seen you all day,” Ji Won’s grandfather replied with a pout that Kai thought had an uncanny similarity to Ji Won’s. “How about we go out for some barbecue, just you and me?” he asked with big, hopeful eyes very much like Ji Won’s. No wonder she was so fond of him. The two were practically one and the same.

“Barbecue?!” Ji Won exclaimed with a glee that quickly dimmed. “I want to, but Mom says I can’t go until I finish my homework.”

Her grandfather tapped his chin thoughtfully. “In that case, we’ll just have to bring the barbecue to you.” He grinned. “Wait here and I’ll be back with everything for our secret party.”

Ji Won sprinted to her feet and darted after him out the room. The two were no longer in his line of view but Kai could still hear their conversation from the hallway.

“You don’t have to do that Grandpa,” Ji Won claimed almost pleadingly, which was very unlike her, telling someone not to bring free food to her.

“What are you talking about? My Cheon Won deserves to be treated for all her hard work,” her grandfather’s kind voice replied. Kai smiled to himself as he hopped over to the bed and continued to listen to the conversation between the elder man and the girl he treasured so much he thought her essential for him to exist.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be out on your own,” Ji Won countered.

“Nonsense, I’ll be fine. I’m all better now, remember? So don’t worry about me anymore and let me do this for my granddaughter.”

There was a creaking of wood from her grandfather’s footsteps down the stairs and then Ji Won returned to the room, her gaze low and face drawn with concern.

“That’s not the look of someone who’s getting a secret barbecue party,” Kai pointed out with a smirk, catching her attention.

Ji Won’s lips quivered into a warped smile that looked anything but happy.

Kai rose to a sit, suddenly serious. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” she absentmindedly mumbled on her way back to her chair. With her pencil poised straight up from her workbook, Ji Won stared blankly down at the page, unmoving.

Kai was at her side without hesitation, observing her profile more closely. “It doesn’t look like nothing.” No matter how many times Ji Won had surprised him, she was still as clear as glass when it came to her emotions.

Exhaling softly, Ji Won swiveled her chair around to him. “It’s really nothing,” she again maintained. But her walls had already crumbled and she was soon expressing her true feelings. “I mean I guess I have this bad feeling about my grandpa going out alone. But that’s stupid because he’s cured of his dementia, so it’s not like he’ll forget how to come home or anything like that.”

Her tone and expression didn’t match her words of assurance as she kneaded her hands into her lap. Falling to a crouch, Kai reached for those hands and pulled them apart. “I don’t think it’s stupid to worry for someone you care about.” And just as Ji Won had been opening up to her, Kai found himself doing the same, admitting feelings he’d kept to himself for as long as he’d been a genie. “It’s something that I wish I could experience, worrying and being worried about.”

A small smile pulled at Ji Won’s lips. “I guess you’ll know what it’s like soon enough.” She twisted her arm in his hand to expose her tattoo, which had reclaimed another spoke to five out of the eight. “More than halfway there.”

Kai grazed the tattoo with his thumb and absentmindedly agreed, “Yeah.”

His power was returning to him. He could feel it and see it right in front of him. This was a good thing. This meant his freedom was that much closer. So why did he also feel sadness?

Acting on impulse, Kai pulled Ji Won up to her feet. “I think you need a break to get your mind off of things.”

Ji Won fluidly reclaimed her arms and slouched back into her chair. “And do what?” she whined. “I can’t go anywhere.”

Kai smirked. “But I can.” He popped out of her room, hearing only a muted “What does that –” from Ji Won as she disappeared from his view.

Within a span of a few minutes, he travelled from one end of the world to the other. He first visited the Tokyo Dome in Japan, the place Ji Won had wanted to go last night. There was no event going on at the moment and what was planned for later that day was an orchestral performance that Kai felt wasn’t Ji Won’s kind of music.

Next he was at the Great Wall of China where it was raining. Then at the Eiffel Tower which was teeming with too many tourists, then to the streets of Buenos Aires which, despite the late hour of the time zone, was still packed with people of the kind that Kai didn’t think appropriate for a young, naive teenager to be interacting with. Like this he visited many of the world’s major landmarks and cities and in each found something that had Kai moving to the next attraction.

After a long string of failures, Kai suddenly remembered the spot he’d found just earlier, the private island with the beautiful view from the cable car. The island still appeared to be empty as Kai checked the premises and the car’s machinery for safety. Only once he was sure no harm would come to Ji Won if he brought her there did he return to her room.

Ji Won was exactly where he’d left her, in her desk chair, spinning with her eyes closed. Kai caught the chair by its back and stopped the motion, jerking her awake. Her head tipped back to meet his gaze.

“Miss me?” Kai asked with a smug smile, excited about the surprise he had planned for her. The only problem was the block of his master’s desires preventing him from executing it.

Eyes narrow, she curtly replied, “No.”

Kai was unfazed as he laughed and swung her chair around to face her. His other hand was balled into a fist behind his back, empty. “I have something for you,” he magnanimously claimed. “Close your eyes.”

“Why do you always tell me to close my eyes?” Ji Won complained. “Why can’t you just give me whatever it is?”

If she weren’t thinking about wanting to leave her room, Kai wouldn’t have to take such a roundabout way to give her present. But again, revealing this would just make it harder for him to execute his plan. “You don’t want it?” he merely asked with a raise of his brow.

After shooting him a dirty look, Ji Won closed her eyes and stretched her hands out in front of her, ready and anticipating for something to fall into them. Kai smiled. The blockade had disintegrated and he could feel his magic flow freely through his veins, to his fingertips, and out to the space around Ji Won. Bubbled in a thin, warm sheet of magic, Kai transported the two of them to the private island escape.

Ji Won, who had been sitting in a chair, now sat on the cushioned bench inside the cable car. Her hands were still out in front of her and he could see a wrinkle of impatience between her eyebrows.

A gentle gust of wind passed through the large open window opposite them that ruffled the stray hairs around Ji Won’s face. Her eyes flew open to greet the change of scenery and Kai readied himself for the comments and praise on his abilities and ingenuity.

Instead, Ji Won pulled her legs forward to tuck them beneath her chin and closed her eyes as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Kai seated himself beside her and immediately laid a soothing hand on her shoulder. “You can relax. You’re not going to fall.”

Ji Won took deep breaths and her eyes slowly flickered open. She looked pale and about to pass out. “Wh-why I am here?” she whimpered. “You said you were going to give me something. What is this?!”

Kai flourished his hand toward the view beyond the glass, as if it wasn’t already obvious. “I’m giving you a chance to clear your head.” And more time together, he refused to say aloud. He once again prepared himself for a parade of compliments.

“So you stuck me in a box above the ocean?! My head might be clear, but that’s because I’m close to having a mental breakdown and I don’t know what to think.”

Disappointed by the opposite reaction, a miffed Kai rolled his eyes and snapped, “Let’s dial down the theatrics a little.”

Ji Won’s jaw fell. “Theatrics?! I think my reaction is pretty normal given that I was in my room one second and the next I’m floating dozens of feet above the ocean. You could have at least warned me!”

“If I had warned you, I wouldn’t have been able to teleport you,” he retaliated. And he definitely couldn’t teleport her back to her room now that that seemed to be the only thing on her mind as he felt the impenetrable obstacle centered in his chest. Feeling deflated and defeated, he added, “You looked upset and I thought bringing you here would give you a chance to clear your head from homework and your grandfather and anything else that might be bothering you.” Once again, no need to add the extra reasons pertinent only to the genie.

Looking wary and half incredulous, Ji Won carefully studied him. It turned out friendship didn’t go from zero to sixty with her and she still refused to believe or trust his words. After a long minute though, her posture loosened and her feet returned to the floor from their fetal position. “So this is safe?” she cautiously asked, looking from corner to corner at the framing. “This box passed a safety inspection and it’s not going to fall while we’re in here?”

Kai started to smile. “Yes. I inspected it myself before bringing you.”

Ji Won blew out a relieved breath and adjusted herself into a more comfortable position. Her interest seemed to wander past the walls as she took in the white, sandy beach, the whiter high rocks on either end of the cable lines, and the magnificently clear blue water at their feet with growing intrigue. “So how do you find a place like this anyways?”

“I told you I’ve had a lot of free time.” Confidence restored, Kai leaned against the bench back with his hands folded behind his head and hitched his legs up onto the window sill. “This is just one of many of my great finds,” he said with an air of haughtiness.

“Ever the modest one,” Ji Won sarcastically pointed out.

Kai hid a small smile. If she was able to make sarcastic remarks, she was definitely over her acrophobia.

“But are your other great finds high places too? You seem to have a thing for them, like my rooftop, here. Though I guess a genie who can teleport anywhere wouldn’t have to worry about a fear of heights.”

Withdrawing into his thoughts, Kai became silent. His gaze was trained ahead at the horizon, but his mind was elsewhere on previous masters in previous times. Old feelings of helplessness and inferiority resurfaced with the memories of fire coursing through his body – magic which was usually a harmless and controllable flame until it blazed with the greed of his master.

A heavy weight started pushing Kai down making him feel smaller, and instantly the urge to teleport to mountains, skyscrapers, and bridges seized him.

He returned to reality when he realized he was already floating above the ocean and Ji Won was staring worriedly his way. “You’re right,” he agreed in a voice that came out sounding far away and beaten. “I like high places. They’re the only places I can pretend that I’m free and not beneath someone.”

A small, warm hand landed on his arm. Kai went rigid from Ji Won’s touch. It was still foreign to him. But a gentle squeeze relaxed him as he took in the small smile she sent his way. “You won’t have to pretend for much longer,” she reminded him.

That was right. Soon there would be no more running away to solitude because of the misdeeds he’d been forced to commit. He’d have a choice, free will.

“What is this?” Ji Won asked. Brows were knitted as she frowned at her marked wrist. She held it up to him. “Something’s wrong. I had five earlier and now it’s down to four when I haven’t even made a wish.”

“Ah, that,” Kai said, avoiding her gaze and nervously rubbing the back of his neck. He hadn’t taken into account Ji Won keeping track of the spokes on her tattoo when he’d decided to teleport her. “The thing is bringing you here used some of my magic,” he sheepishly explained.

“What?!” Ji Won said sharply. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt with a crazed look in her eyes and demanded, “Are you crazy?! You’re supposed to be saving up your magic, not frivolously spending it. Don’t you want me to make my wish?”

Kai grabbed hold of the fists bunching up his shirt and tried to pry them loose. “I do. I just figured since I’ve been a genie for so long, what’s a few more days if it means I can show you my gratitude for giving me your last wish?”

“You want to show me gratitude? Return me my privacy! I never thought I’d be so annoyed with a boy popping in my room whenever he pleases, laying in my bed, following me around…” Ji Won paused and scrutinized the genie with a suspicious glint in her eyes. “Hold on, do you like me or something?”

Kai burst out laughing. “What?” How she’d even come to such a conclusion was beyond him.

Looking uneasy, Ji Won pulled her hands back to timidly fiddle with them in her lap. “I mean, it just seems fishy, and it’s not because we’re by the ocean,” she said with much less conviction. “Why extend your slavery any longer than you have to? And you actually went out of your way to bring me out here where we’re the only two people. It sort of feels like you have other intentions…”

Once again, Kai’s lack of social skills had made him fail to realize how his actions might have been misinterpreted for more-than-platonic motives. “Other intentions?” he said with a challenging smirk, unwilling to admit his tactlessness as he flipped the culpability on her. “Care to elaborate what you mean?”

Ji Won didn’t answer. Instead, she bit her lip and pretended to be engrossed in something behind him. This only sparked Kai’s impish nature.

“Maybe you thought I brought you to this romantic, secluded place to confess my undying love for you,” he dramatically responded for her. Ji Won’s face flushed a brilliant red-pink that had Kai in a mix of emotions. There was the expected amusement and excitement that usually came from teasing her, but hidden deep beneath that, a nervousness and anticipation at the idea that he could actually make a girl’s heart flutter the way his seemed to be doing now.

There’s no way I’m falling for Ji Won, he had to keep reminding himself. He’d read so many books on human psychology that had discussed the caprice of human emotions, which could fluctuate from moment to moment. But an instance of attraction towards another was not indicative of greater, deeper feelings. And the factors that caused this instance was what encompassed being “in the moment” – doing and feeling on impulse.

Strange thing was that Kai had never been the impulsive type. And yet it was impulse that drove him to do what he did next. “Well, then I only have one thing to say to you.” He leaned forward and gazed into her strikingly bright, amber eyes which seemed to shimmer like the blue water below them. Was this where the expression “swimming in someone’s eyes” came from? Continuing to act on impulse because that was the only rationale Kai could fall on, he whispered, “I like you,” his first confession.

Ji Won’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. “Wh-wh-what?” she stuttered, tipping backwards.

Why was she moving away from him? Kai instinctively followed and though his confidence was shot, he sustained an unaffected, blasé attitude as he employed what was quickly becoming his go-to solution in these cases: spin the blame on her. “Is that what you wanted to hear?” he said, as if he’d only done what he’d done because he thought Ji Won was hinting at it. But even now, he wanted to try that first he’d lost out on the rooftop. He angled his face closer, his eyes on her lips. “Have I fulfilled your fantasy of me?”

“My fantasy…” Ji Won repeated in a daze with eyes half-closed and on his lips as well.

Seconds felt like minutes as Kai drew closer and closer until he was only a breath away. Just when he thought that Ji Won might actually want a kiss from him, he was literally shoved out of the moment.

“Are you messing with me again?” a furious Ji Won demanded.

Kai groaned and massaged his chest, every grain of attraction to her gone. “I’m not sure if it was worth this,” he said, more to his own attempts at a real first kiss than as an answer to Ji Won’s question.

Ji Won sat up tall and crossed her arms with a huff. “Seriously, can you not go one minute without tormenting me? This is why you need to stop using your magic. So I can be free of you sooner.”

Struck by her words, the physical pain from her jab suddenly felt miniscule as a new kind of pain pummeled Kai deeper beneath the surface. “You really want to get rid of me that badly?” He hadn’t thought that the sentiment he’d felt towards every master prior could actually hurt so much when he was on the receiving end. He’d never cared for the approval of previous masters before.

Taken aback, Ji Won blinked. “Well…no, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s more like it’ll be nice to finally reclaim some of my dignity.”

“Dignity?” What did that have to do with his presence in her life?

Ji Won bit her lip and struggled for a moment to explain. “The thing is you’ve only seen me at my worst: when you first introduced yourself to me and I mistook you for a stalker, when I discovered what the real Gi Cheol was like and had a pity fest in my room, when I finally learned about my grandfather’s condition and nearly ran away from home. But that’s all because you were – and still are – my genie. Once you’re free, you’ll have other people to interact with. You won’t have to stick your nose into my life for ‘entertainment’,” she explained, using air quotes around the last word. “And I won’t have a constant witness to every mistake I make in my life.”

Kai had been listening quietly during her monologue and as he did, he recalled another theme he’d come across often in books and his observations of real life situations. “So it’s one of those ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ situations,” he concluded, believing to finally understand the sentiments behind the excuse. He hadn’t done anything wrong, it was all Ji Won.

“Um, no, it’s also you,” she immediately countered, catching Kai off guard. “As much as I want my dignity back, I also need my privacy.” Looking riled, Ji Won straightened and pointed at herself. “I am a girl.” She directed her finger at him. “Regardless of your species or magical capabilities, you’re a boy with whom I have no blood relations.” Her finger then assumed a vertical position, like a professor announcing a crucial point in a lecture. “And popping into my room whenever you feel like is not good practice. In fact, you’re the first boy ever to step into my room and more importantly, lie in my bed. If my parents ever found out, they’d ship me off to a convent until I was 30. Although I guess since they can’t see you, I won’t have to worry about that, but the point is, it would be nice to have control again over who comes into my room and when so I don’t die early of heart problems from all the times you pop up and startle me and that’s why I need to make my last wish as soon as possible.” Once done with her speech, Ji Won inhaled deeply to catch her breath.

Yet again Kai had remained quiet and contemplative, arriving at only one conclusion. “In other words, you want us to part ways so that things can return to normal for you,” because he was an aberration in her life that she wanted to remove.

Ji Won opened to answer, but instead paused and took a few seconds to ponder on his words. She frowned. “No, that’s not it either.”

Trying to understand this girl was giving Kai a headache. Did she want to get rid of him or not? But rather than give him an answer, she changed the topic.

“Wait, what’ll happen to you after I make my wish anyways?”

Here was the question that had been plaguing him since early that morning, the dark side of his unforeseeable future. “I’m not sure,” he truthfully answered. “Obviously I’ve never granted a wish like this before.” And therefore, he had no basis to make judgement on how his magic would interpret his freedom.

Ji Won’s bottom lip puckered outwards into a pout. “Will I see you again?”

“I don’t know.”

But at the moment, it wasn’t the unknown which was causing Kai’s chest to tighten with sadness. It was the despondent look on his master’s face that had him racking his brain for a way to make her smile again. “How about this,” he suggested once he’d thought of something, “whatever happens to me, I promise that if we get separated and if I can, I’ll look for you again.”

He’d been careful in his wording to make sure it was a promise he wouldn’t be breaking if the two of them could never reunite. He hoped that wouldn’t be the case.

But his diplomatic vow hardly appeased Ji Won as she bobbed her head up and down, the image of a pouting child agreeing only because she thought she had to. Kai had to smile. The dismal gray inside him had been washed away to reflect a calm blue with a red hue of brotherly protectiveness. He lowered his head to match Ji Won’s. “What’s with that look? Are you that upset about not seeing me again?” The colors shifted to a vibrant, playful blue. He narrowed his eyes and asked, “Is it possible that you’re acting this way because you really do like me?”

Masking it as a joke, Kai was actually half serious about his question. Ji Won had already denied his claim of any attraction to him, but maybe she’d been lying, too embarrassed to admit otherwise. Surely she’d felt even a spontaneous, “in the moment” gravitation towards him. He couldn’t be alone in this. There was something between them. He just didn’t know what the feeling was.

“What?!” Ji Won literally spat.

Kai reflexively shut his eyes and pulled away, wiping the saliva on either side of his face with disgust. “I think I prefer being hit over this,” he muttered under his breath.

Ji Won readied a fist. “Then should I punch you to express just exactly how I feel about you?”

Kai’s hand shot up defensively in front of himself. “No, I’m good.”  She’d already punished him with her drool. He didn’t need to add the extra blow which could pack more than he ever thought the petite girl had in her.

“This is the last time I’m going to say this. I do not like you in that way. For your information, I’m acting like this because I’m worried.” Her voice lost its anger and force and took on a more serious, distressed tone. “If I don’t see you again, how will I know that you’re okay?”

“So this is what it feels like, being worried about.” Kai frowned, a glowing red now coloring his insides. There was heat to it which reached a cold void inside Kai that he never knew existed. His magic had never touched him there. He’d hated that feeling of hot discomfort from his magic, but this was a pain of a different nuance and he wasn’t sure it was all bad. Ji Won’s face was tense and upset – he didn’t like that worrying about him made her that way. But the other parts, the warm and fuzzy feelings blanketing him which made him feel as if he was protected and not alone, those he could get used to.

“I like it,” he said with a growing smile. His eyes locked onto Ji Won’s as he repeated, “I really like it.”

Something he’d said or done had Ji Won suddenly fidgeting, no longer looking upset or worried. She cleared and refused to meet his eyes. “Well, it’s only natural that I’d worry about you. I mean, we are friends after all.” She stood up and walked over to the window to look out on the horizon.

Kai watched the profile of her back, finally beginning to understand what all those confusing feelings he’d thought were attraction really were – wanting to be near her, worrying about her, hoping to ease away her worries. These were the side effects of friendship. 

“Kai, look!” Ji Won suddenly shouted. She stuck her arm out the window and eagerly pointed at the water below where gray, sleek figures swam around. “Dolphins!”

Closer and closer they came until they were just below them, swimming as gracefully as if they were gliding on ice. Ji Won was now on her hands and knees, staring through the glass floor like a toddler at the aquarium for the first time. “Wow, I’ve never seen dolphins like this before. This is amazing!”

Kai crouched down beside him, his eyes trained on the family of dolphins below him, but his mind was reaching out to Ji Won’s bond. There was no resistance. “I guess it’s time,” he reluctantly said.

“Time for what?” Ji Won absentmindedly asked, too focused on the scene before her.

Kai stretched the range of his magic to encompass Ji Won’s figure and then let the world around them collapse into a mass of multi-colored blobs. He imagined Ji Won’s room: the familiar, cozy bed with its purple bedding, the clean desk which was now littered with her textbooks and scratch paper, the flashily-dressed boys plastered on her white walls, the open closet vomiting out a pile of clothes.

When the room came to, Ji Won was now staring interestedly at her wooden floors. She blinked, looking disoriented. “What happened? Why am I in my room?”

“I had to bring you back the first chance I got, when you were no longer thinking about wanting to go home,” Kai explained. “Or who knows how long we would have been hanging over the ocean.”

Ji Won collapsed onto her bottom and pouted. “Aw, but I was just beginning to really enjoy it there.”

“Ji Won!”

Her mother’s urgent voice carried through the door just before it opened in a rush. She appeared momentarily confused to see Ji Won on the floor.

“Oh Mom, I was just –”

Mrs. Kwon cut her off. “Ji Won, we need to go to the hospital.”

Ji Won quickly stood up and met the terrified look on her mother’s face. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“It’s your grandfather.”

Kai stood up, his face tense and serious as he listened to Mrs. Kwon quickly explain that Mr. Kwon, Sr. had fallen while at the grocery store and was now in the ER. Ji Won didn’t hesitate as she followed after her mother down the stairs and into the passenger’s side of the car waiting in the driveway. He stood there, frozen, watching from her window as the car sped down the street and out of view.

The only thing stopping him from following was Ji Won’s earlier plea for privacy. He desperately wanted to be there with her, holding her hand, letting her know she wasn’t alone in this. He had no idea where these ideas were coming from. He’d never experienced a situation like this before yet somehow there they were at the fore of his thoughts.

But for now, the only thing he could do was wait and hope that her grandfather’s injury wasn’t severe. He wasn’t sure if he could rely on natural instinct to know how to assuage her worries if something drastic happened to her beloved grandfather.  

~//~

Author's Note