The world where witches are the queens,
The world where spells are traded,
The world where we exist…

This story started just like how any story out there began. There lived a man, named Minho. He was handsome, tall, and strong. He lived in the North Side of this world, where houses were nice, where playing on the street was considered as safe, and where a wicked witch with her obsession with cute boys lived. Then there was Taemin, a cute boy who originally lived next door, with his-brighter-than-the-sun smile, golden silky hair, kissable pink lips, and those pinch-able chubby cheeks.

As long as everyone could remember, Minho and Taemin were best friends. But best friend might be an understatement. They were more than best friends, where there be Minho then Taemin must also be there. They were inseparable. They didn’t have any other close friends besides each other. They didn’t need them anyway, they were fine like that. They weren’t well-known either. Perhaps, the ones who knew them were their neighbors that lived next doors or in front of them. In this region, being famous was the last thing people wanted. They preferred to be known by as few people as possible. That way, they wished for peace. That way, they wished the witch would never hear their names or taken any interest on them.

“Come on, Tae! You can do it.” Minho encouraged the younger one to lift the stone that probably weighed more than Minho. They had been practicing this for a few days and Taemin had shown a wonderful progress with each passing day. In this kind of world, you used your muscles, not brain. In this kind of world, you did rough and dirty jobs like collecting stones from the river, helping the citizens build their houses and some others jobs that only required your power. That’s what was left for people like them, the kind of people that chose not to be involved in the magic world.

Minho could hear Taemin grunt in the process. His face scrunched in deep concentration as he tried to lift the stone slowly but surely. When he succeeded in doing so, Minho asked him to bring it to the nearest tree which was only seven steps away from them. With all his might, Taemin took seven shaking steps to the tree and dropped the stone on the ground with the heavy sound of ‘thud’.

“I did it!” he attempted to yell yet it turned out as a whisper due to his hard panting.

Minho clapped his hands a little to congratulate his friend’s accomplishment. Taemin smiled with the warm reaction he received and marched toward his friend.

“Good job, Taeminnie!” Minho patted his head tenderly.

“So tomorrow I could start working, right?” he asked enthusiastically.

Minho nodded a little, smile never leaving his face.

“Good! Finally I can do something useful for us. Mom and Dad will be proud of me when I bring home some cash.” Taemin exclaimed happily. “I want to use –“ Taemin kept babbling about what he would do with his share as they walked home. Minho only listened to him and kept a smile plastered on his face. Deep inside, Minho was thinking about what kind of job Taemin could handle. The twenty years old Taemin had always dreamt of working and earning money for both Minho and his parents. He never stopped begging Minho to take him to his workplace so he could talk to his boss. It wasn’t that Minho didn’t want to help but Taemin’s lack of physical build worried him to no end. The work was harsh and the pay wasn’t that good. He was afraid Taemin would get hurt.

“Minho!” Taemin’s voice snapped him back to reality. “You aren’t listening, are you?” he sounded upset.

“I was!”

“What? What did I say?” Taemin challenged.

“That you wanted to buy something for your mom and help me with the living fees.”

A smile formed on the younger’s lips. He was satisfied with the answer. His friend actually paid attention to his babble, he thought. He wasn’t aware that, in fact, Minho did not listen to him at all because when it came to this, Taemin would always say the exact same thing over and over again. That was why Minho got the right answer just now.

After what seemed like fifteen minutes of walking, their small square house finally came into their sight. Yeah, their house. It was only a small house built in between their parents’ houses. They had been friends since they could remember and as they grew up they became more inseparable till they decided to live together. The land had originally belonged to Minho’s parents. His mom had the thought of having a small garden beside their house, but, looking at Minho, she couldn’t help but give it to her son to do what he wished. So Minho built a house there. He collected the materials and used up all his savings on building the house. His parents and Taemin’s parents did help him on the funding. After all, it was for their children.

The house they lived consisted of a living room with no furniture at all, one bathroom, one bedroom, and one kitchen. The bathroom was very simple, a tub of water, toilet, a mirror, and a small wooden box used as a table and to keep their toiletries. The bedroom had two single beds on each side and one nightstand in the middle. A small cupboard placed right beside the door was shared for their few clothes. The kitchen was the only part of the house that was proper enough for them to be proud of. They had it all, a table and two wooden chairs. A furnace and all the cooking utensils were there. They also had an adequate stock of groceries for two. Overall, it might be a stretch referring to it as a nice house like the others had, but they were perfectly happy with it.

When they entered their house, Taemin hurried himself to the bathroom. Minho automatically went to the kitchen, washing his hands clean before cooked rice for their dinner. Taemin joined him just when the rice was ready. When Minho looked at Taemin’s fresh face, he couldn’t help but smile. He liked it when they were at home at nighttime because at times like this, he could see the younger boy without ashes that covered his face in the form of a disguise. Taemin had been hiding his cute and adorable face as long as he could remember just so the witches lost interest in him.

“I’ll continue making the soup. You can go take a bath.”

That night, they ate their dinner quickly so they could go to bed earlier. However, Minho had a hard time tucking Taemin in to bed due to his excitement about the following day.

The next day, they both went to the riverside to work. Today’s work was collecting sand from the riverbank. Taemin was very bouncy all the way there and didn’t feel nervous at all. He was just so eager to work with Minho. When they reached the spot, Minho talked to his boss and he agreed to employ Taemin almost right away. Minho was his favourite because he was such a hard worker and one of the strongest ones he had. Minho also requested light work for the younger boy and his boss granted it just like that. Satisfied with his persuading skill, Minho went to Taemin and told him what he had to do. Taemin was in charge of moving the sacks of sand to the cart. Minho put bandages on Taemin’s hands beforehe enveloped them in the gloves, for safety reason he said. He made sure Taemin’s hands wouldn’t get hurt from the job.

So that day, Taemin stayed close to Minho who was filling the sack with sand and once it was full, Taemin would take it to the cart to be sent to those who demanded them. Their boss paid them on adaily basis. On his first day, Taemin earned six silver coins which he held so dearly on their way home. Despite the fact that it was only enough to buy proper meals for two,Taemin was very grateful for his money. Minho earned much more, he even had gold coins. At home, they divided their money for living fees and for personal savings, plus for mom and dad in Taemin’s case.

“If it’s too hard, you can quit. Don’t push yourself, okay?” Minho warned Taemin that night.

“Not at all,” Taemin smiled. “I’m sure it’s the best job available. Aren’t you saying that this kind of job is the best? I don’t want to work in the market, Minho. It’s a dangerous place, you say.”

Minho nodded. “The Market is dangerous place for you.”

“That’s why I better be with you doing harsh work. I don’t want to be involved in selling those bad potions. And I’m afraidof being caught by the witch.”

The mention of the witch sent shivers down their bodies. Taemin instinctively moved closer to Minho and clutched his arms.

“As long as we don’t attract unnecessary attention, we will be fine. I’ll protect you.” Minho assured the younger boy. It had never crossed Minho’s mind to ever lose Taemin to the witch. He would do his best protecting him. 

“Let’s go to bed. You must be tired.” That night, before he collapsed on his bed, Minho sat on Taemin’s bed and asked the younger to lie on his stomach. That night, Minho gave a massage to Taemin, with the first-day-of-work-fatigue excuse. But deep inside his heart, he was afraid Taemin would wake up feeling sore from the work.

It went on smoothly for the first three days. Taemin had yet to complain of the harsh work. He enjoyed it at all cost. On the fourth day, things didn’t go well for either of them. It was raining by the end of their work. Taemin cast a worried glance to Minho who understood it almost immediately. Rain could wash Taemin’s disguise away. In order to hide his face in front of others, they excused themselves right after their shift ended. They raced to their home as fast as their feet could bring them, hoping no one on the street paid attention on them. The ash that covered Taemin’s face was almost gone when a voice called out to them, making them stop in their tracks. Minho was the first to turn around to see whoever it was and his eyes met with a woman with a cat in her hand, walking casually towards them.

“Tsk tsk, look at what we have here, Silvia” the lady her cat’s fur. Rain didn’t reach them; they remained dry while everybody was already drenched in rain. On the first look, Minho was one hundred percent sure she was the witch. Taemin sensed Minho tensing up beside him. At that, Taemin knew he wouldn’t be going home today.
 

If we put aside the story of Minho and Taemin for a while and took a look at what happened on the South Side of this world, we would meet two boys named Jinki and Jonghyun who happened to be happy lovers and had been successfully hiding their relationship for seven months and seventeen days. The South Side was completely different with the North Side where Minho and Taemin lived. Here, you wouldn’t think of wandering off the street with no reason. Here, you weren’t scared of witches. Here, you were more afraid of the society. The dark society who didn’t accept boy and boy relationships. The kind of society that would punish you if you did a single thing against the norm. There were only two kinds of punishment; getting whipped or hanged to death.

There weren’t many differences in the beginning of the story between Jinki and Jonghyun with Minho and Taemin. They were originally neighbors and worked at the same shop. Jinki was the cashier, due to his good looks and Jonghyun was responsible for the repository, just because he looked tougher than Jinki. They had been friends since they were kids. How could they not when their parents were friends with each other and they lived just by next door?

It started off with Jinki humming a random melody on their lunch break and Jonghyun joining in and somehow they created a better sound together. When their tune ended, they stared at each other for a good minute before breaking into smiles for the fact that they just created a song on their own. It was indeed spontaneous but they managed to repeat almost the exact same sound the next day and the day after and they ended up carving the sound in their memory, labeled it as their very first song, and called it Revelation. From there, they began to make more and more songs on their own. No instruments needed, just the natural tunes slipping out their lips.

One day, Jonghyun came by Jinki’s doorstep and knocked softly; hoping Jinki would be the one opening the door for him. And his wish was granted. When the older boy appeared in front of him, he grinned and shown off the old item, called a harmonica, he bought from the merchant that crossed their village. He demonstrated to Jinki how the item could create beautiful sounds and that day, they spent their night finding a way to sing Revelation with the instrument.

It was by their sixth song when Jinki confessed his odd feeling towards to younger. He expected Jonghyun to be hysterical and quit being his friend because in their world, man was supposed to be with woman. There was no such thing as a boy liking a boy, or a girl liking a girl. They didn’t know that that kind of love existed; neither had they known how the society would react to it if they found out. The confession was as simple as ‘I think the feeling I have for you isn’t as simple as the feeling we have for a friend. You mean more than a friend to me.’ Jonghyun was caught off guard by his friend’s words before replying ‘Is it love?’ From that, they named their sixth song Rainbow.

Knowing well that society would punish them for being a couple, they did nothing more than usual in public; they acted just like friends would. Once they reached home, Jonghyun would love to lay his head on Jinki’s lap while the older would his hair affectionately. Their first kiss was on Jonghyun’s birthday. On the same day, Jinki slept over and played his own composed song for his love as another birthday present. It was called Lullaby, though sometimes dubbed as Jonghyun’s most favourite tune ever. After that day, Jonghyun had difficulty falling asleep without listening to Lullaby which caused them to sleep over at one another’s place every single day.

They got caught by the cruel society by their tenth song. It was Jinki’s turn to sleep at Jonghyun’s so he did. The mistake was that Jonghyun didn’t close his room’s window properly so that passerbys coincidentally saw Jonghyun kiss Jinki and decided to peek at them the whole night, watching them kiss and cuddle up to sleep which could not be referred as normal.

The next day, Jonghyun was dragged out of his bed by the so called ‘Elders’ and led to the heart of the town where many people had gathered to see him getting punished for a reason they didn’t even know yet. The half-awake Jonghyun was confused as to why they suddenly took him by force to this place until he was faced with the rope that would hang him to death. That was when he realized that they had found out. Jonghyun was sentenced to death for seducing his neighbor and friend and did something unusual to him. They saved the details because they didn’t know how to explain it to the people that it was possible for two boys to kiss and cuddle like a boy and a girl would do.

At that moment, all Jonghyun could think of was his Jinki. Would he be alright after his death? Would people in town leave him alone after he received the punishment? Jonghyun was afraid that they would do something to harm his Jinki after he died. Jonghyun was sad, because he didn’t have the chance to give his last words to Jinki. Yet he was happy, because the last thing he did before he died was sleep in Jinki’s arms.

“Wait,” a voice grabbed everyone’s attention and it turned out to be Jinki’s. He stood there, fully dressed. “I’m sorry for interrupting such an important ritual but I have to say that you caught the wrong person,” He said, voice composed. “I’m very surprised to see you make a rush decision like this. Where are the Elders that are famous with their carefulness and wisdom?”

“What do you mean, Jinki?” the Elder questioned, clearly annoyed.

“Why didn’t you tell the truth, that I was the one who seduced you first?” Jinki faced Jonghyun. “Punishing the wrong being only brings disaster to our town, right? As much as I love seducing young male boys, I’d rather die in punishment than have to face whatever curse that would attack this town for taking the life of the innocent. It’s better than suffering from the plague and dying in a long and painful way.” He smirkedwhen he succeeded in shaking the Elder’s stance. Jinki knew very well that the only thing the elder was afraid of was the curse. That was why they never made a move if it was only a rumour. The Elder wanted strong proof before deciding the punishment. Never once had they made a mistake. They were awfully careful.

“What makes you think we would trust your words?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I was caught in his room, not the other way around.” He said nonchalantly. Then he made his way to Jonghyun and met his eyes. “Don’t you ever think I’m doing this out of love. There never was love between us. I’m here to save myself, not you.”

In a brief moment, Jonghyun was released and Jinki replaced his position. Jonghyun was too shaken to say anything back. It was when he saw the rope tightened around his lover’s neck that he screamed, he screamed with all his might for Jinki to be freed. But it was too late.

He came back to his room the following day, after clutching Jinki’s dead body for the entire day; he had to let him go. He had to see the body of the one he loves eaten up by the red flames. His parents and Jinki’s parents said nothing about it. They didn’t blame him, either. When he was in his room, he saw his – their – harmonica laid on the table, above a folded paper. His instinct told him to take the paper and read the note written on it.
 

And there was a saying in this world that if you were really meant to be, then you were meant to be, either in this world or another. That was what led the two to seek a way to prove the old saying.
 

When Minho arrived at the old loft, it was already four months since the witch took away Taemin from him. He had tried everything to take him back but to no avail. One day, the witch seemed to get tired of him so she let him in her castle. He saw Taemin there, among many other boys that got caught. They were all kept inside ice coffin that didn’t melt. He didn’t know if Taemin was still alive or not but the witch made it clear that there was no way he could get Taemin’sdeadbody back.

Minho knocked on the door and it flung open on the first try. Minho entered the house and wasgreeted by an old lady sitting on a chair, having her tea time. She smiled to him and pointed to the seat in front of her. Cautiously, Minho entered the house and sat down on said chair, eyeing the old lady for the sign that it was okay for him to start talking.

“I know how my guests are always in ahurry but this time, I’m afraid you have to wait. It won’t be long, he will have arrived by the time you finish your tea.” Minho looked down and found three cups of tea he hadn’tnoticed earlierserved on the table. “Don’t worry it isn’t poisoned.” She winked. Minho unwillingly took the cup and brought it to his lips, sipping a little for safety. It tasted nice. He ended up wanting more and when he finished the last drop of tea, he grunted on the loss of the heavenly drink running down his throat. That was when a knock was heard on the door and it swung open just like what it did for Minho.

There stood Jonghyun with his hard look and determined eyes, waiting for the lady to let him in.

“I’m beyond happy that you two came on the same day and almost at the same time, saving me from the obligation of explaining the same thing twice.” She started after Jonghyun finished off his cup of tea. “The saying you hear is not completely right, to be honest. It’s true that you’ll still be together with the one that is meant to be with you in the other world, but not in every world. There is just one other world where you would be with yourdestined one. Travelling across the worlds doesn’t guarantee you that the world you come to is the world where you and your loved one happen to be together. No one can decide which world to visit, it is always accidental. If you’re lucky enough, you might stumble upon the world where you and your loved ones are meant to be together. If you’re not, then you need to try to accept the reality.”

“You mean there is a possibility we won’t meet the one we desire even though we take this path?” Jonghyun was the first to raise an objection. He came all the way here to find a definite way to meet Jinki, not to try out his luck.

“Calm down, young man. To be able to do a journey across the worlds requires compensation. It’s a big deal to get in and out of someone else’s world so it doesn’t come free. For example, there was this lady coming to me with the interest of finding another world. She gave up her precious hair, because it was all she had, as payment to get the charm that would bring her to the other worlds. The shape of the charm differs from one person to another and depends on the payment. The woman got a flat square stone as her charm. Based on long experiences and research, we witches found out that the chance of you to visit other worlds is the same as the number of angles on your charm. That woman only had four chances, four worlds to visit. We also found out that the shape of your charm depends on the thing you give up. The more precious it is, the more angles you get, the more worlds you can visit –“

“What if I get the same as that woman and the fourth world I come to is not the world where I am meant to be with the one I love?” Jonghyun cut off.

The lady smiled, “There is always someone like me in every world. You just need to find us and make a new deal. So, what about thinking what you would give up as payment?”

That day, Minho who was strong and was his boss’ favourite lost his strength for a cube shaped wood. He eyed his small charm and prayed to God that on these eight visits he had, the one would turn out as the place where he and Taemin could be together. Forever.

In Jonghyun’s hand, there was a yellow marble. Its size fit perfectly in his fist. He was happy. Yellow was Jinki’sfavouritecolour. It gave him the assurance that he would meet his Jinki again somewhere, in this universe, where the both of them could live happily ever after.

The instruction was clear enough.Throw the charm in the air three times and it would bring you to another world. The possibility of going back to this world was indefinite. Yet, they didn’t mind. The world without their loved ones was just plain and meaningless. And this world didn’t have their loved ones anymore.

Jonghyun turned to see Minho, giving the other man a sincere smile. Even though they didn’t know each other, deep inside their heart, they wished each other to be able to reunite with the one they yearned for. “Good luck.”

With one last look, they both disappeared from this world.

The world where witches are the queens,
The world where spells are traded,
The world where we lose each other…