woohyun has never thought that reading a book could lead him to this situation. he was just chilling in the town’s library, the place he always went to every tuesday and thursday because he liked reading books, then after he opened up an ancient looking thick book, suddenly there was this smoke surrounding him and there, in front of him, popped up a pale looking stranger. the difference between that stranger and woohyun was that the stranger looked almost transparent. like a ghost, but without the scary part. 

“wait, what are you again?” woohyun was still frozen in his place, blinking a few times. the stranger huffed, annoyed because he had to repeat himself.

“a genie. g-e-n-i-e. you haven’t heard of one?” the so-said genie sighed. “but you can call me sunggyu.” woohyun ran his fingers through his hair, trying to really grasp the situation. he thought stuffs like this only happened in movies? or novels. 

“so you’re saying.. you’ve been living inside the book for like, what, probably thousand of years. and whenever there is someone who opens up the book, you come out and grant three of their wishes?” woohyun repeated what sunggyu said earlier to him. “but you know.. even if genie is indeed real, i thought they’re supposed to come out from lamps and i have to rub the lamp or something..” woohyun mumbled. he looked around yet no one seemed to notice the presence of the genie, which meant that maybe, only woohyun could see him.

“well, that only happens in the movies,” sunggyu scoffs. “anyway, what’s your 3 wishes? i’m not here to talk, or to make friends.” 

woohyun frowned. he didn’t have anything to wish for right now, or maybe he had but he just didn’t have anything in mind. 

“can i just go back tomorrow and say them? i kinda have no idea currently,” he said and sunggyu nodded, agreeing. “anyway, my name is woohyun.” 

the next day, woohyun really did come. he didn’t actually have anything to wish for, but he just wanted to make sure he wasn’t crazy because he had been thinking about it all night long. maybe yesterday was a dream? maybe he was just going insane because of his college exams and stuffs. he kinda wished it was but he kinda wish it wasn’t. who in the world didn’t want their wish to come true? although it was only three out of hundreds. 

woohyun mad his way to the same shelf he was yesterday and he saw nothing. “was it a dream then...” he whispered to himself and was ready to head back home.

“no, you stupid. i’m here, real as .” a voice was heard from behind him. there, sunggyu was sitting on the table in the corner, where there was no one. “so, you came to have your wish granted or just to make sure i’m not real?” sunggyu was crossing his arms on his chest with a sulky expression. 

woohyun grinned sheepishly. “uh, both?” he took a seat on the chair near the table. “but i actually don’t have anything to wish for.” 

sunggyu raised his eyebrow. “oh really? that’s kind of impossible. i’ve met a lot of people yet they often ask for more,” the genie took a seat beside woohyun. “aren’t you in exam week? you don’t want to wish for your grades to be auto a?” woohyun widened his eyes again, surprised at the statement. sunggyu immediately knew what he was thinking of and continued, “i know because i followed you secretly today, dummy. did you think i can’t go around when i got a new master?” 

woohyun chuckled at the title. master. “master sounds so ,” which made sunggyu hit his arm hard- and it hurt. woohyun thought because sunggyu was transparent, they couldn’t touch each other.

“how did you end up there? inside the book?” woohyun asked out of the blue. they were in his apartment, and woohyun was doing his college assignment on the couch. the score was going to be taken as an exam score, apparently, so he had to make it at least as decent as possible. 

sunggyu, who was absentmindedly watching the tv, looked at woohyun before he spoke. “it’s a long story, actually,” he said. “but i was a human like you before. it was just long, long, long time ago.” sunggyu looked back to the tv and woohyun nodded. “you’re not going to say your first wish today?” 

woohyun contemplated for a while, before he shook his head. “no, can you wait a few more days?” and sunggyu agreed. 

after woohyun finished his assignment, sunggyu was invited to the kitchen where he watched woohyun cooked dinner by himself. woohyun had asked the genie to help him, in case he was bored or something, but sunggyu stated that he couldn’t cook well. when woohyun was eating dinner, he offered sunggyu his bibimbap and kimchi, but sunggyu said that he wasn’t able to eat human foods. “why can you touch things yet you can’t eat foods?” woohyun pouted, but sunggyu just chuckled at that. 

“i don’t know. i wish i can though, i want to eat foods like humans do,” he smiled lightly. and woohyun could see a glimpse of sadness on his smile. 

the next day, sunggyu went with woohyun to his college. he sat on the empty seat next to woohyun. the classroom was huge, yet there weren’t a lot of people who attended. “where are everyone?” sunggyu asked woohyun as he looked around. “or is it supposed to be like this?” woohyun smiled slightly. 

“no, a lot of people are skipping class,” woohyun whispered, not wanting the lecturer to hear him. “apparently there is a festival nearby, and everyone is probably there since morning. they have guest stars and foods and games. so they decided to skip class.” he continued.

sunggyu looked at woohyun. “how about you? you don’t want to go there?” woohyun shook his head. “can you accompany me there?” the genie continued. woohyun looked taken a back at first but then he nodded, almost slowly. 

when woohyun’s class were all done, they both went to the festival almost immediately. the festival was really crowded, but there were a lot of things to do there. it was almost like those japanese annual festivals. there were foods, games with prizes, and also a stage which was used for guests to perform. woohyun glanced at sunggyu and saw an excited face on the genie. “you look very happy,” he said. sunggyu, with a huge smile on his face, nodded.

“of course! i have never went to these kind of things!” his eyes were fixed on one of the tents. “can we play that game please?” sunggyu turned to woohyun with a pair of pleading eyes. it was a shooting game, if the shooter got three cups down, they could choose a prize. 

“alright, sure.” woohyun walked towards the tent and paid for the game. he held the gun on his hands and positioned himself, suddenly he felt sunggyu’s chest pressed on his back and he glanced at the genie, surprised. the genie was also positioning himself on a shooting position. 

“do you mind?” he said, and woohyun slowly shook his head. “i’m going to make you win. i was so good at shooting when i was alive, you know,” sunggyu said. his lips were really close to woohyun’s ear so it came out like a whisper, which made woohyun shiver a bit because he just realized that the genie’s voice actually sounded pretty nice to hear. “let’s win this thing, okay?” he said again before they both aimed for some cups. woohyun couldn’t concentrate well, so he just let sunggyu took the lead. after all, it was sunggyu who wanted to play this game after all. 

and sunggyu wasn’t lying when he said he was good at guns. they (he) got three cups down perfectly and got to choose the prize. sunggyu cheered happily after the game ended and woohyun felt the warmth from before had disappeared, which meant the genie had pulled away. woohyun saw sunggyu eyeing some prizes and checking them out before pointing a snow globe. “i want that one,” sunggyu stated. 

they played a few more games after that (and always ended up winning, thanks to sunggyu) before going to the stage to see the performers. woohyun was bringing around 5 prizes around and awed people when he walked. he could see sunggyu smiling proudly too. when they arrived at the stage, there was this band called nell performing a rock song. sunggyu watched them with a lot of interest, and it was obvious in woohyun’s eyes that he was really enjoying it. they stayed in the festival until nell finished all of their songs, that was also when sunggyu whined to woohyun that he wanted to go home. (which woohyun found adorable.)

as they walked home, woohyun could see sunggyu humming one of the songs from the band. “you like them?” 

sunggyu nodded excitedly. “yeah, somehow their songs are so catchy and good in my ears. i really like how the vocalist sang and how the band played their musician- i like how they performed in general. reall