▬ Chapter 14: Undercover Disguise ▬

The next morning, Minji woke up slightly irritated. Just the thought of what would happen today irked her as she began to furrow her eyebrows and blocked the sunlight from her vicinity using her arm.

“Minji, honey, it’s time to wake up!” Her mother called her from downstairs. “It’s a big day today and you don’t want to miss school! Breakfast is ready!”

“Ugh,” Minji groaned as she plopped back down her bed, covering herself with her blanket. “She says that every year and the same thing always happens.”

Just then, someone grabbed her blanket so hard, it almost tore into two pieces.

“Hey!” She yelled sleepily and shot up.

“Just what is it with you and people trying to wake you up for the day?” Woohyun chuckled as he began to fold Minji’s blanket for her. “It’s not like you’re a vampire, right?” Then he paused and squinted at Minji. “Or are you?”

“Man, what happened to the gentlemanly Woohyun I knew from last night?”

“Minji!” Mr. Jang called from downstairs. “Hurry up!”

“Coming!”

“Good morning, mom. Good morning, dad. Morning Mr. Jang.” Minji finally sat down at the dinner table after a few minutes of playing tug of war with the genie and finishing her daily routines.

She was the only one whose plate was full as all of them – her mom, dad, Mr. Jang, Minhwan and Junghee – started eating way before she came down. Minhwan, and Junghee greeted their little miss a good morning, while she happily replied back to them.

“You didn’t catch a cold from last night, did you?” Her mother asked, worried.

“No, I’m fine.”

“Where were you wondering so late at night? You had us all worried!” Her dad inquired as he put down his newspaper to face his daughter.

“Sorry for worrying you guys. I was talking with my friend. You know, the one whom I mentioned to you before? Apparently, we talked for so long, we didn’t know that it was already dark outside.” Minji felt apologetic. She gave them a light explanation of what happened last night, excluding the part where genies and being summoned by the Superior took place, of course, because they might think that she’s sick again.

“Please don’t do that again, Minji,” Mr. Jang pleaded. “It’s not good for our heart. You know how emotional all of us can get.”

“A-ah. Yes. I promise. I won’t do it again,” she smiled weakly to which all five of them sighed and felt relieved.

“Now, eat up! Mr. Jang over here prepared a feast for breakfast to wish you luck!” Minji’s dad beamed.

Indeed, there was a feast prepared in front of them. Delicious looking dishes filled the whole table. Honey-styled chicken, honey French toast, Crab-Stuffed Spanish Peppers with Honey Preserved Lemon Herb Compote, shrimp lemon pepper linguini, mandarin chicken, herbal tea, and more.

“What is all this?” Woohyun stared at the dishes. “Everything has either honey, lemon, or tea.”

“Mr. Jang, what is all this? Everything has either honey, lemon, or tea,” Minji cautiously worded.

“Hey, I just said that,” Woohyun pouted.

“Well,” Mr. Jang proudly started, “I stayed up all night searching for recipes that would improve one’s singing voice. I found that those three ingredients are usually used to do so, that’s why I ended up cooking all these. I want our Minji to do well today.”

“Singing? Today?” Woohyun eyed Minji. “Today’s the audition?!”

“What’s wrong with you? You’re not even a part of it, so just stay quiet,” Minji replied.

“Excuse me?” Mr. Jang was taken aback. Her parents and bodyguards also looked at her in surprise. Minhwan even dropped the piece of chicken he was eating straight back down to his plate.

“I-I mean, thank you for doing all this, Mr. Jang! You really are the best! JJANG (wordplay in Korean)!” Minji quickly replied and laughed nervously.

After a few minutes of silence, everybody went back to eating their breakfast. Although from time to time, Mr. Jang would glance up to Minji and tilt his head, mumbling how it must have been due to her being out from the cold last night which made her react that way.

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On their way to school, Minji and Woohyun were silent. That is, until she burst out.

“Dang it, Woohyun! Look what you made me do again!”

“It’s not my fault, princess. I was just… thinking out loud?”

“Don’t you feel sorry to the others who have to constantly be confused? Plus, what am I supposed to do then?”

“You now, you can just ignore me. It’s not like they can see or hear me anyway,” he replied a matter-of-factly.

“Oh. Right.”

“See, I’m always right,” the narcissist replied.

“Minji!” Someone called from b