chapter.12  »  no one but me.

Right when Soojin left, the black wind and smoke came.  The witch was back, and I was in no mood to argue with her whatsoever.  I was also back into being a human, but I had no intentions of admiring myself or even acknowledging the fact that my body was back.

The witch actually had the nerve to order me around the house and had me get her some tea.  I gave her some.  There was little to no care I could give anyway.

“What is going on with you?”  The witch was sitting down on the couch, her black outfit draping all over the sofa.  She had a smug look on her face.

I didn't answer her.  Instead I sighed, and turned my head away to look at somewhere else.  I was sitting on the ground, on the same spot I was when I was still a dog seconds ago.

The witch was alarmed, I felt.  “Is there anything bothering you?  You can tell me.”

I scoffed.  “‘Tell you’?  Do you even realize what you just said?”

“You have to remember that I am also a goddess underneath this darkness, Prince Jinki.”  The strength of her voice had returned.  Then she softened again.  “So if anything is bothering you, it is my job as a goddess to help in any way possible.”

“Of course.”  I mumbled under my breath really quietly.  “It's really none of your business.”

“It is!  I will help you, don't worry.  I'm not all that bad but I will be, after helping you with whatever type of adversity you're going through at the moment.”  She took a sip of her tea, not taking her eyes away from me.

I furrowed one of my brows.  “What's your name?”

The witch, in return, raised one of her brows.  “You can call me anything you want.”

“You know what, whatever.  Don't worry about it.”  I rubbed my face and stood up.

The witch simply sipped some more of her tea.  “Your choice.”

Hesitated once, hesitated twice, surely I could still hesitate thrice, right?  Of course not.

“Fine, fine, I'll tell you.”  I sat back down and sighed.  The witch's posture slightly changed; she was suddenly interested, and slowly, the blackness of her outfit was in slow gradience to a dark grey.

“Go on.  I'm waiting,” the witch said, waiting, indeed.

After a long inhale, and a heavy exhale, I explained to her everything.  How my feelings were suddenly starting to go mellow, how I always missed Soojin when she left me, and how I messed things up as of recently.  All the while the witch didn't make a single comment, even a single reaction.  She kept her poise, her lips forming a very thin straight line, her hands clasping her knee.  Her gown was now a of a silver shade, on its way to being white.  The dark and mysterious aura she had was being replaced with a lighter, much friendlier one.

When I had finished, I ran out of breath for a moment.  There was silence, then more, then some more, until it became a long stretch that seemed to have drained the entire day.  But it didn't, and the witch—now a very beautiful goddess in an elegant white gown—was still there.

“Prince,” she looked down briefly, then looked back to up to stare intently into my eyes, “you do realize that... all of these feelings were caused right after I had cursed you, am I correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then, you do realize that the reason I turned you into what you were was to learn a lesson, do you not remember?”

I blinked.  “I do.”  

“Has it ever crossed your mind that there is not only one lesson you can learn?  Perhaps you haven't thought of that, considering your head has been revolving around the kingdom lately.”  She was still looking me in the eye, but I was less terrified.  “A good thing to do, Prince, is to start thinking about yourself.  All this time, for only a couple of days, you have been mindful about your feelings only and not your entirety.  Maybe you should also start using a little more of your brain, no offense intended, so your confusion can lessen at least by a bit.”

The gears in my head that were once locked in place, old and rusty, were now moving again.  In the moment I knew I was back into being a human, an Under Human, for I was able to set things in place just that quickly.  I had given up before, but I kept on forgetting that I was under a spell that could be broken requiring some of my part.

I snapped out of my finally working brain.  “Why... Why are you even helping me?”

“I understand how you feel, that is why,” she said vaguely.

“But you're not mortal!”  I retorted, reminded of my lessons back then about the witch or goddess I was facing now.

She smiled, purely.  “I was once a human, Prince Jinki.”

I gulped.  After that, I was not my real self any longer.  Everything shifted back to its original place and suddenly I was back into being a dog and she was gone.  And I was still wondering... what kind of human was she before?

author's notes.

hello, hello!  how have you all been?  ^^  did you guys like it?  so yes, all this happened while Soojin was still at work so you're not confused.  ahhh, this is what i get for listening to Yiruma while updating.  anyways, thank you guys for reading!  new subbies, welcome!  i love you all!  <3

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