She is not a fairy godmother.

That's usually the first (and worst) assumption that human assignments have. She is not here to grant wishes, folks. She doesn't have a spare hundred million bucks lying around somewhere. No. Just no. She can't make people fall in love. She can't kill someone. Though, sometimes she wishes she could.

(Talkin' about you, Kim Sunggyu.)

She's a guide. Not god.

And trust her when she says that there is a huge difference between the two.

She sighs as she watches Sunggyu do his homework while listening to music through the earphones plugged into his mobile. It's been like this for the past two days. Sunggyu leads his boring life. Nayoung makes an appearance every three to four hours. They have a heated argument. Nayoung turns invisible and lets her imagination run wild with the many ways that she could do serious damage to her assigned human. Sunggyu returns to his boring self.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

She doesn't understand why he's so... afraid. It doesn't make sense. Everything about Sunggyu doesn't make sense. He's smart. But incredibly stupid. He's cocky in the way that makes a person want to punch him in the face. But also cowardly that makes a person want to punch him twice in the face.

Or that might be because she really wants to punch him in the face.

Seriously, though. The dude's lacking majorly in the balls department. Not that she's been checking him out. But. You know. There's only so much she can take of the Let's Awkwardly Try to Talk to Ahn Joo-hee Show. All that blushing and wincing and bowing and self-recrimination isn't as amusing as one would think it to be. Which is also why she has refused to tune into Sunggyu's thoughts whenever said girl is anywhere in the vicinity. The kid would put Shakespeare to shame if he ever heard Sunggyu waxing poetic about the curve of Joo-hee's lip or her tinkling laugh or how the stars shine in her eyes.

And it wouldn't be half so irritating except Sunggyu is so unrepentantly... Sunggyu. The dude knows he's a being a huge wimp and yet he is utterly utterly utterly determined to remain that way.

How incredibly selfish.

Checking the digital alarm clock on his bedside table, Nayoung groans and shifts from lying down on Sunggyu's bed to sitting on the edge of it.

"Yo," she says by way of greeting.

Sunggyu repeats his now automated response for whenever she shows up. "Go away. Stop ruining my life."

"I think your boring life would thank me for ruining it, McSassypants. But whatever."

Sunggyu scoffs but his attention remains on the math problem before him. "At least I still have a life to live, ghost girl."

"What? Why would you say such a horrible thing?" Nayoung clasps her hands together in pretend hurt. "Puh-lease. Like I haven't heard that a bajillion times before."

"You're horrible," Sunggyu spats.

"And you're lame."

There's a tiny sense of victory when Sunggyu tugs his earphones off and turns on his chair to face her. "I didn't know that when I'd ask the heavens for help, they'd give me a pain in the ."

Nayoung gasps, finally offended. "I hate you!"

"I hate you, too!"

"I'll see you in three hours!"

"Make it two! I wanna be asleep in three hours!"

"Okay fine!"

"Fine!"

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

No, wait.

"You do know that you're way off on number five, right?" she tells him cheekily as she peers over his shoulder.

"Shut up, ghost girl. No one asked for your help."

Nayoung laughs in his face. "Uh, you kind of did. Remember? Hence this whole stuck-with-you-until-you-decide-to-use-your-balls situation. What's with the short-term memory, gramps?"

Sunggyu buries his head into his book. "I have so much hate for you right now, ghost girl. You don't even know. I've never wanted to strangle someone as badly as you and it's frustrating for me because you're a girl and a ghost and that makes it impossible on a whole new level."

"See, for someone with such violent tendencies," Nayoung frowns, her brow furrowing slightly, "I don't see why you aren't all like 'Me, king of the jungle. Me, Sunggyu. You, Joo-hee. Let's make jungle babies.' or whatever caveman language it is you prefer."

Sunggyu stares at her for a moment, mouth agape. "You're..." he sputters, "You're mean!"

"Well..." Nayoung shrugs her shoulders. "Death makes you sarcastic."

"What did I do to deserve this?" Sunggyu groans.

"Be a wimpy who won't confess to the love of his life?" Nayoung taps a finger on her chin. "I don't know. But something tells me that might be it."

Sunggyu flips his book close and turns back to her, raising his feet onto the foot of his bed. "I can't believe I have to get into this with you again. But okay," he explains tiredly. "I don't want to confess to Joo-hee because I'm not that kind of person, alright?"

"A gutless person?"

"No..." He rubs his face with his hands. "I just... I'm not a risk taker, okay?"

"Judging by your boring life, I'd say that that's pretty obvious."

Sunggyu frowns at her. "Look. Can you be serious for five minutes? I'm tired. I still have some homework to finish and I have an English test tomorrow morning. I'm not in the mood to fight with you, so can you cut down the sarcasm just for tonight?"

"I suppose," Nayoung says slowly. "Just hurry up and explain so that I can figure out how to fix your life!"

Sunggyu's eyes study the floor for a long while to the point where Nayoung thinks that the guy's just really trying to test her nonexistent patience. But finally he sighs and crosses his arms, then regards her with serious eyes. "I can't confess to her, knowing that she might not feel the same way about me."

He took forever to come up with that?

"Hold up." Nayoung holds up a hand to demonstrate. "I can't make people fall in love. It's, ugh, it's this weird fairness thing. Like I can affect the environment when it's regards to you. Like fix your room and stuff. But I can't do all the fun things that would have made my job easier. Unfortunately, that's not how it works."

"So basically..." Sunggyu drawls out. "No confessing then."

Nayoung throws her head back and groans. "Can't you just... I don't know? Grow a pair and confess to her?"

"I don't handle rejection well!"

"Have you ever even been rejected before?"

"No! Are you kidding me? No way!"

She throws him a pointed look before letting fly a pen that hits him right smack in the middle of his forehead. "You're hopeless!"

"And you're a pain in the ," he huffs, turning back to his homework, "So go away."

Nayoung crosses her arms and attempts to set fire to Sunggyu which, of course, doesn't work. Boo. She doesn't understand how to go forward with this because all her past assignments have always been at least willing even if they weren't completely convinced. And here is Kim Sunggyu with a head as hard as... well, hers.

Quickly making up her mind, she turns invisible and floats down the stairs into his family's living room. His parents are watching the evening news in companionable silence while his younger sister sits at the coffee table, doing her homework despite the noise coming from the television.

Sunggyu's family isn't really one for talking. His father is mostly a silent but firm figure in the household who secretly harbors a penchant for playing the air guitar while stuck in traffic on the way to work. Sunggyu's mother is just as strict with her words mostly short and shouted but still well-intentioned. She's more handy with a hammer than her husband and likes gardening, as evidenced by the small yet quite colorful garden at the front of their house. His thirteen-year-old sister Sung Hye is possibly the most sociable, well-liked by her classmates though she can stand to do better in school. She has a little crush on Sunggyu's best friend, Woohyun, who she hides from every time he visits the house after school.

Nayoung lounges on the armchair near Sung Hye and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Omma, appa..." She slowly opens her eyes and turns to Sunggyu's parents. "School was hard today. I didn't even know what was happening half the time but I survived... Dongwoo was so funny earlier. There's this girl in our class whom he likes so he was trying to impress her, right? He kept on trying to talk to her while she was getting something from the back of the classroom so he was walking backwards. And he was pretty good at it, I guess, until he tripped over the strap of someone's backpack and... okay, that might have been my fault. But whatever..." She smiles a little, biting her lower lip for a moment.

"I miss you guys..." Nayoung adds softly. "I'm so sorry."

...

"Why couldn't I have gotten your cousin instead?" Nayoung sighs dreamily as she stares at Myungsoo who's seated across the large library table that Sunggyu and his friends are occupying for after class study session.

Sunggyu visibly shudders. "Great. Even ghost girls are into my cousin." He mutters, shaking his head. "This is so disturbing. Please go invisible. I can't think straight."

Nayoung sticks out her tongue at the hopeless human, but complies to his request anyway before returning to her careful study of why Myungsoo is the opposite of his cousin. (Basically, Myungsoo is perfect.)

They've been ensconced within the dreary walls of the library for over an hour. The third year boys, Sunggyu included, are busy poring over their math notes in light of an extra credit assignment. Dongwoo and Woohyun have been engaged in battle over the correct approach for half an hour now with Sunggyu intermittently trying to convince them that both are incorrect. Though, she is absolutely loathe to admit it, she agrees with the dude.

Second years Myungsoo and Sungyeol, on the other, are being adorable as Myungsoo attempts to cram as much knowledge on Literature into Sungyeol's brain as is possible in one hour. Nayoung knows that Sungyeol is going to fail his test to tomorrow—you don't need special powers to guess that one. But it's cute to see them try so hard, that's for sure.

"I don't understand symbolism!" Sungyeol whines. "All of these hidden meanings? I'm not very good with puzzles..." he ends with a pout before bringing his forehead down to meet the table.

Myungsoo just gently smiles, very much used to his friend's antics when it comes to studying. About sixty-percent of studying is made up of delay tactics. "Let's just hope it's a multiple choice type test. I think you'll be able to survive that more than an essay type."

"What are the chances of that happening?" Sungyeol looks so hopeful that Nayoung almost feels sorry for him.

Then Myungsoo bursts the bubble he himself created. "Slim to none."

The only thing that assures Nayoung that Sungyeol isn't dead is the fact that his spirit has yet to leave his body.

Nayoung is so busy running her finger down the bridge of Myungsoo's nose (it's not weird, it's... not... Shut up.) that she doesn't realize that Sunggyu left his seat at some point and is fast approaching the table that Joo-hee is occupying with her friends. She holds her breath, hopeful, that this might be one of those moments where everything falls into place.

And it would have been.

But Kim Sunggyu is Kim Sunggyu so nothing happens.

Just some pencil sharpening action as he shoves his pencils into the electric sharpener that's free for use near the librarian's table. Yay. So. Much. Fun.

Sighing, Nayoung floats over to Sunggyu and makes herself visible to him. Before she can say anything, though, a girl who she recognizes from Woohyun's class bounces up to Sunggyu, with a little flip of her hair.

"Oooh," Nayoung murmurs, "We all know what she wants, don't we?"

Sunggyu, forever oblivious Sunggyu, looks at Nayoung, momentarily distracted from the joys of pencil sharpening with a curious look on his face. "What are you ta—"

"Sunggyu oppa!"

He looks startled, if his suddenly wide eyes are any indication. "Uh... Yoojin-sshi," he greets her with a short bow. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Hey! Hey Sunggyu!" Nayoung whispers and she's not quite sure why.

"I was thinking..." Yoojin begins, looking rather coy.

"You should totally just confess to this one," Nayoung continues. She can't stop the big grin that's taking over her face.

Sunggyu, on the other hand, appear to be struggling between giving Yoojin his attention and trying his hardest to ignore Nayoung. But still failing at both.

"I'm having a bit of a hard time with this English assignment?" Nayoung bites on her lip to keep from laughing out loud when Yoojin twirls a curl of hair around her fingers. "And I heard from Woohyun that you're rather good with the subject so I was hoping—"

"I'm awful, though," Sunggyu replies simply.

The girl looks taken aback and Nayoung can see the hesitation set in and for the love of all things living and breathing, she wants to smack Sunggyu across the face. "Are you crazy?!" she bites out.

Sunggyu's eyes flicker to her and his jaw sets in a way that makes a person think twice about what they're saying.

But Nayoung's always been a little reckless. "Don't be stupid, Sunggyu."

"I'm sure you're not, though, oppa," the girl tries again and Nayoung wants to give the girl an award because this? This here? This is trying, Sunggyu, you little wimp.

Yoojin has this uncertain little smile on her face and Nayoung just wants to pat her on the head. Except that might creep the girl out so she decides against it.

Sunggyu smiles back, still totally not understanding the situation. "I wish that were true, but I completely bombed the test the other day. Although," his eyes flicker to Nayoung once again, "That might be because I was having a hard time concentrating on studying. I get easily distracted, you see. I can't even really study when I'm with my friends because it gets a little pointless when I can't focus."

"Oh." Yoojin looks down at her feet. "So I guess studying together is out of the question..."

He lifts a hand to scratch the back of his head and smiles sheepishly. "I'm really sorry, Yoojin-sshi. But I'm pretty sure you'll find someone to study with. I hear your classmate Minkyu is pretty good at English? Woohyun told me that he scored high on that test that I almost failed."

"Yeah, I guess," Yoojin blinks up at him a couple of times while Nayoung attempts to bash her head against the librarian's desk. Which doesn't work for obvious reasons. "Thank you, oppa."

"No problem! And hey, if you do end up having a question or two, just ask me and I might be able to help!"

Yoojin nods a few times before bowing. "Thanks again," she says before heading back to her table.

Nayoung floats to stand beside Sunggyu. "Why'd you—"

"Minkyu, the guy in her class?"

"Yeah?"

Sunggyu tilts his head to the side as they both watch Yoojin talk to her friends who steal glances at them. Or him. Seeing as how she's invisible and all.

"He likes her. Has liked her since the fifth grade."

"Oh."

He sighs. "That's why. That's why I can't confess to Joo-hee."

"Because Joo-hee likes Minkyu? Because Joo-hee is Yoojin's twin sister and she can't do that to her sister? I don't know? You have to help me out here, human. My head is scrambling for the appropriate drama reference for this." Nayoung feels the building exasperation toward the situation. Has it always been this hard, the human thing?

"There might be someone out there whom she likes and when I think about it... Wouldn't it be better for her to find her own courage to confess to that person?" He grabs his pencils and makes his way back to his friends who are nudging each other with huge grins on their faces.

"Knock it off, dudes, the guy's too busy being a ," Nayoung mutters as she floats to sit on the edge of the table by Myungsoo's elbow. But even Myungsoo's good looks cannot erase the frustration that she's feeling. "I don't get it. You don't even know that that's true. For all we know, Joo-hee could like you back just as stupidly!"

"Or not," Sunggyu whispers back.

"So, hyung, did she ask you out?" Sungyeol asks, his grin wide and full of teeth and gums.

"Only wanted to study together, Sungyeol."

"Study?" Woohyun asks with an innocent smile which immediately turns rather lascivious. "Or study?" He even waggles his eyebrows.

Sunggyu only laughs and scratches his head before settling down into his seat. Even though his friends still continue to poke fun at him, Sunggyu quietly answers both Woohyun and Dongwoo's extra credit assignment without the other two realizing it because they've both reengaged in heated debate over how to answer it.

Nayoung crosses her arms and pouts.

Things are not progressing at all.

She looks over her shoulder and sees Joo-hee looking over at her direction.

Hmm... This calls for a little reconnaissance. Shouldn't be too hard seeing as how she's a ghost.

...

Hello!

I don't usually write notes at the end of chapters but I suppose now is a good time to start!

I just want to thank everyone who has subscribed and especially those who have left such kind comments! Thank yoouuu! So glad that people are enjoying this!