▬ Chapter 17: Prophecy ▬

After their talk this morning, Woohyun left to keep his first promise of not disturbing Minji with her school work and his newfound promise of keeping his distance. For that reason, Minji reverted back to her quiet and disinterested self. Her classmates didn’t seem to be fazed at all as they merely thought that perhaps she just felt under the weather just like the previous times because of her illness. However, one person knew that another reason made her that way and he knew it would come sooner or later.

“That’s the third sigh you’ve been doing since the class started, Sungyeol,” Mr. Kim eyed him from his desk. “Did you not prepare well for the test or something?”

Most of the class stopped what they were doing to look behind them. They were currently taking their English midterms and some of them were feeling distracted with his constant sighing.

Sungyeol already finished his midterms because of his genie prowess of being able to understand any language, although he did sneak in some errors here and there to keep his ‘idiotic’ character. Since then, he has been eyeing Minji, who constantly looks out the window when she was waiting for the answers to come to her, and felt worried.

He knew that a prophecy was going to happen and that Minji was a part of it yet he didn’t know what, how, why, and when that prophecy will happen. If only he knew, then he wouldn’t be worrying about it too much because since the day that he was told about the prophecy, his mind was half filled with curiosity for what this premonition might entail.

Darn that old hag for giving me this kind of prophecy. What’s the point if I don’t even know what it’s about?

With another sigh, he stood up, took his paper to the front, and left the classroom without any word. The class looked at the door then towards the front of the class only to see Mr. Kim’s surprised expression. Their teacher’s eyes then eased into the paper as he saw what Sungyeol wrote at the top.

Thanks for everything, Mr. Kim. You’re an amazing teacher and I can tell that you’ll go far as an educator.

My regards, Lee Sungyeol.

“Huh? What does that mean?” He then scanned Sungyeol’s test and he was even more confused. There were only minor errors throughout his test which came as a surprise as he thought there would have been more. Scratching his head with his free hand, he decided to start a pile of finished test papers and looked back towards the class. “Everyone, please continue.”

As instructed, the confused students complied with their teacher and continued to work on their test.

Speaking of the test, Mr. Kim looked at Sungyeol’s paper one more time as he felt the sudden urge to do so. He looked more carefully and somehow noticed that his minor mistakes seemed out of place. Taking his red pen, he circled the misfits and scribbled down what he found on top of the paper. It only spelled one word: goodbye.

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Sungyeol went back to his world to find the preparations nearly ready for the monthly celebration of new contracts formed between genie and their clients to be held that night. Before reaching is personal study, he met up with the guide who accompanied Minji the first time she arrived to officially meet the Superior.

“Daeryong.”

The said man looked up from his clipboard, “Oh, Superior. School is not over yet. It’s not good to skip, you know.”

“I already quit that role a few minutes ago. Their memories should be erased once someone who goes to that school says my name out loud as per usual.”

Since Sungyeol didn’t stop walking, Daeryong left his post to walk beside him and from the current direction that they were headed, their destination was no longer the Superior’s study.

“Then is there a problem? You usually don’t quit a role until three years or so.”

Sungyeol opened a lion-engraved double door which only had a mirror that spanned one side of the room that was propped on the wall with the same engraving.

“That prophecy has been bugging me since that old hag told me about it so I’m going to see if I can find anything about that issue. Just go on with the preparations and start the celebration without me if I’m not here by the opening ceremony.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before starting to mumble some incantation that made the mirror glow dark navy blue.

Daeryong’s eyes grew wide when he saw the color of the mirror. “W-Wait! You’re going there again? B-But your scars from the last time you went there haven’t healed yet!”

Sungyeol opened his eyes and carefully stepped into the mirror. He grunted when he felt the menacing aura draw him in but his resolve didn’t waver. He looked back to his assistant and chuckled when he saw his worried look.

“This prophecy has the same feeling from three years ago. Sc