chapter.5  »  finding another routine.

Night time arrived, and Prince was laying soundly on my bed.  I bought almost everything he needed to stay well in my house, but I  still forgot to buy him a dog bed of his own.

I was also pretty envious of how peaceful he looked, laying there covering his nose with his paws, while I squirmed and moved around in my bed.

A bunch of things ran around in my head.  I had enough budget to support me—and Prince since he was with me now—for a couple of months, but that was about it.  I knew I had to find myself a new job.  If I couldn't get one soon, I wouldn't be able to survive.  And Prince Jinki wouldn't be able to survive, either, and I'd probably have to let him go.

Having a dog was starting to get to me.  I had never had one, but back in our province I played with other dogs, but for some reason, Prince was different.  Even thinking of having to let him go made me shiver, like I shouldn't give him away under any circumstances whatsoever.

A friend's name popped in my head.  She was the only one I could count on whenever I had trouble with how to push through the conditions of my life, and I knew she could help me this time, too.

The way Soojin spun her small rectangular device in her hand continuously, checking it every now and then just to put it back down to spin, bothered me so much.  We had left her room and were now in the living room, silent and brooding.  I wanted to do something to calm her down, something like sit down next to her and rub her shoulders and just make her feel like she could share her worries with me.  But what could a dog do, really?

She picked me up and lay me in her lap without letting go of her device.  “I don't know what to do, Prince.  I really don't know.”

I had a bunch of ideas in mind.  I was still not sure why she had been down since she saw me in the trash bin, but I had ideas in mind that could probably help her one way or another.  There were so much clouding up my head that I ended up barking aloud, then burrowing my head in her lap defeatedly when I remembered I couldn't talk.

“What do you think, Prince Jinki?  Should I call my friend to let her know what happened?  My phone's waiting, and she needs to know I just got fired days ago and that I don't know what to do with myself anymore.”  Soojin chuckled sadly, running her fingers through my fur rather absentmindedly.

I wasn't sure what ‘phone’ meant, or if the word ‘fired’ had another meaning on the upper Earth, but I turned my dog body around and lay close to where Soojin's torso met her waist.  I stayed there, cuddling myself as I burried myself as deeply as I could, about to fall asleep.

The sound that sent me completely to my sleep was Soojin's voice softly muttering, “Hello, Kyungsoon, it's Soojin.  I need to tell you something.”

“So we'll be meeting tomorrow, right?  Since your reception is... pretty bad?”  I winced when I heard the crackling on the other line.

Kyungsoon's voice was getting choppier and choppier by the second.  “Y- Yes, tom– morrow.  We'll m- meet at—”

“Just text me the location, you're getting worse.”  I said a little louder.

“A- Alright,” she said, followed by a beep.  I looked at the screen of my phone: she had hung up.

Several seconds later she texted me the location of where we would meet.  It was a small restaurant in the middle of the city, tomorrow was the date, 10:00 AM was the preferred time.  I replied with a thank you and tossed my phone aside.

I watched Prince run around chasing his red ball.  It seemed like he preferred it more than the toys I had bought him.  Prince stopped running and looked back at me, running towards the couch.  He stood on his hind legs and tried to climb up with his little paws.

I picked him up.  “You are so lucky, Prince.  You don't ever have to worry about getting a job.”

Prince whimpered and hung his head low.  I set him back down on the floor to watch him play again.  But he didn't, he just rested at the foot of the couch, letting out a small coo with his head tucked underneath his paws.

I was so not lucky.

Humans amused me.  Just because they were going through something, they would end up saying things to compare themselves to someone, or something, else for comfort.  I always wondered why, then I realized people in the Under Earth were no different from people on the upper Earth.

Soojin sighed and stood up, telling me she would be doing something outside in the backyard for a second.  I wanted to ask her what, but ended up barking back and making her think it was an agreement.  I lay my head back down on the floor, defeated.

Suddenly, black winds entered the house through the opened windows.  I stood back up immediately, watching the dark matter swirl into a miniature tornado until the ends of the swirls met and something was formed.  Or someone.

“I see you have found yourself a good caretaker... Prince Jinki.”

It was the witch.

“What do you think you're doing here?”  I growled.  My stomach dropped when my words came out as words, not as loud barking.

The witch laughed dramatically, throwing her head back as the black ribbons of her gown tied around her forearms flew back.  She was floating like a ghost.  “Visiting the long-missed prince, obviously.  I suppose you're doing very well in this... another world.”

“Oh, I'm doing good, alright!”  I jumped forward, and my dog figure disappeared, and in a dust I was returned into my usual princely attire.  My maroon coat was back, the gold fringes of its shoulder pads were back, my slacks were back, and I was standing on two feet rather than four.  I looked down at myself, shocked and confused at the same time.

“Well, well, the prince missed his elegant outfit, didn't he.  Don't you remember this, Prince Jinki?  Do you remember the last time you wore this?”  The witch's words came out with a hiss.

“Bring me back to the kingdom, you good-for-nothing witch!  I don't belong here, and this has gone on for too long!”  I shouted, advancing myself towards her.  The atmosphere darkened, and I felt myself getting tense glaring at the person who caused all of this to happen to me.

“It has only been three days, Prince Jinki, and you still have yet to learn your lesson.”  The black disaster behind her disappeared as she landed on the floor gracefully.  She neared me, a sly smile on her lips.  “The kingdom is waiting for you to come back, darling.  If you ever come back, that is.”

I lost all control and grabbed the nearest thing I could find.  A vase standing on a table near the sofa was my victim.  I gripped the vase as hard as I could and threw it at the witch, but the vase ended up floating inches away from her.  The vase itself traveled back to the table, wobbling a little, before setting itself as if untouched.

“You will pay for this.”  I gritted my teeth at the dark lady in front of me.

“We'll see.”  The witch didn't even flinch.  Instead she smiled.  “Every now and then I will come and visit you, and the human will know of nothing.  Each time I visit, you will turn back into a prince, but not for long... and the human will know of nothing.”

I kicked the glass coffee table with my shoed foot, sending it crashing against the wall into tiny little pieces.  “You will pay for everything you've done!  You will pay for what you've done to me!”

“How brave.”  The witch hovered again.  The black wind was back, and the swirling returned.    She spoke, her voice coming out like an urgent whisper.  “The curse can be broken, dear prince, but you have to find about it yourself.  The entire kingdom is frantic, but they can only do so little.”

“Come back this instant!  We are not done yet!”  I tried running towards her, but she floated higher and higher each minute.  I felt my legs wobble, and everything was being by a tornado.

“Of course.  Of course, we're not.”  The witch's voice was so thin that it pierced right through me.  “And none of this is my fault, Prince Jinki.  It's all yours, for not being able to act like a real prince.”

She neared my face terrifyingly, before the black tornado spiraled around everything, turning the coffee table back into its unbroken form.  The witch left through the window, a small but loud buzzing trailing after her wake.  I, too, was changed, back into my cursed look.  I was a dog again, an extremely aggravated one.

“I'm back, Prince,” Soojin sang.  She came back to the living room without seeing the mess that I had created only minutes ago.

I barked and ran past her into her bedroom where I let every single bit of my anger out on biting and ripping and ruining the dog toys she had bought me.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

i at angst, man.  T_T  believe me, everything looked better in my head.  i swear, those lines were extremely cheesy.  oh wells, i'll learn better next time.  Y^Y  thank you guys for reading!  love you aaaall!

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