Chapter 1
Chenderella Kim Jongdae, fondly called Chen for some odd reason, liked to think he had his life pretty much in order.
He got great grades in school, was pretty decent looking, and had a strong passion in music and, more specifically, singing. He knew he wanted to continue his music as a career, and he knew he’d be able to get some good connections to the industry from friends and old teachers—some who would call it unfair, but he’d call it “using his resources.” All in all, there didn’t seem to be much wrong with his life; at least, according to him.
His friends, however, seemed to make it their life goals to find all the problems with his life, and to tell him how much of a hell he was living through. Needless to say, Jongdae found it a bit too much of an exaggeration, though he had to admit: it was amusing to hear what they had to say nonetheless.
“You know who you remind me of, Chen-ah?” his friend Jonghyun asked him one day during lunch. There weren’t many people who had lunch during this period, so the room was relatively quiet—well, for a cafeteria. The sound levels were kept to a dull roar, and Jongdae liked it—not nearly as chaotic and annoyingly jarring as his lunch period last year, during his freshman year.
“Who?” he responds simply, though seeing that glint in the others’ eyes, he can only imagine he’s in for a wild ride.
“Cinderella!” the other boy exclaims, a broad grin on his face, as though he’s proud of his little ‘revelation,’ if it could be called that. Jongdae, used to his friends’ weird comparisons and comments, just raised an eyebrow in questioning.
“What are you going on about this time, you dinosaur?” Kibum, another one of their friends, says as he walks over to their table, setting his tray down and seating himself next to Jonghyun.
“No seriously, hear me out,” Jonghyun persists, and Jongdae gestures for him to continue. “You have an evil stepmom who makes you do a ton of chores, bratty stepsiblings, you’re always singing, and you never go out. The name even fits; imagine it—Chenderella!”
“And you’re literally incapable of saying no to people,” one Park Chanyeol, who had been uncharacteristically silent until now, chirped up, that beaming smile that’s perpetually on his face slowly morphing into a teasing smirk. “Like what the , Jongdae, there’s nice, and then there’s stupid.”
“Not to mention you love ,” Kibum mentioned offhandedly as he picked at the crust on his sandwich. “Like, really love .”
It was at the last comment that Jongdae became flustered, turning his head to glare at all three of them, Kibum especially, as he sputtered out a response.
“Will you stop with that already? I’m not a cockwhore. Jesus, I never should have come out to you guys,” Jongdae whined, and the other just shrugged, though a small smirk was making its way onto thin lips, much to Jongdae’s dismay. “Besides, you’re exaggerating. Anri isn’t evil; she just doesn’t like me very much. Sehun and Jongin aren’t bratty, they’re just a bit spoiled; they’re sweethearts, really. I’m always singing because I’m in choir, and so are you, need I remind you. I don’t go out because I don’t want to. I’ve never really been a party person; I’m not like you guys, you know. And that name is just plain stupid.” He ignored Jonghyun’s small protests and snapped his head to stare straight at Chanyeol, who still had that dumb smirk on his face. “And I am not stupid!”
“Yeah, you are,” Chanyeol replied quickly.
“No, I’m not!”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not!”
“Yup.”
“No!”
“Yeah.”
“N—“
“Children,” Kibum interrupted, his tone exasperated and his face a mix between ‘#1 Ice Prince of the school’ and ‘Mother who’s about to beat your .’ “You can squabble later, now we need to discuss Jongdae’s odd similarities to a fictional princess.” The mentioned boy huffed.
“There are no similarities, though!” he argued once more, pouting slightly.
He was ignored.
----
The first thing that Jongdae faced as soon as he entered his home was a list of chores taped to the door of the shoe closet. With a sigh, he put his shoes away and ripped the list off the door, scanning through it to see what he had to get done. It was nothing major, just some small tasks to finish for general housekeeping, though he supposed why his friends found it exhaustive. As the eldest kid in the household, he really should be passing on chores and things to Sehun and Jongin, his stepbrothers, but neither of them were very good at cooking and cleaning, and Jongdae didn’t mind taking over for them too much anyway. They’d take care of their own rooms and messes, while Jongdae handled his things, as well as the rest of the house. It was a pretty effective system, and it didn’t eat away at too much of his time, so he decided to just go with it. It kept Anri off his back, anyway.
He giggled to himself as he remembered his friend Jinki’s describing Anri as an old green witch lady who locked herself up in a basement concocting potions. In actuality, however, that was far from true. Jongdae’s stepmother was a young, beautiful woman, with a stern personality and a largely successful pediatric research career going for her. She was far from some evil hag, something his friends picked up to describe her as when they found out how much she seemed to dislike Jongdae.
Though really, Jongdae couldn’t blame her. If he had fallen for a sullen businessman enough to want to marry him, despite a bad experience with a previous marriage and the man’s reputation of sleeping around, only to find out that not only did he have a kid in his custody, but that he also wouldn’t be around most of the time to help deal with said kid, he’d hate the kid too, no matter who he was.
Jongdae wondered how long it had been since he had seen his father. When he was younger, they used to be together 24/7, but as years past, his father had become more and more swamped with work, and became more and more detached to his son. Any free time he had he’d prefer to spend it outside, instead of at home with Jongdae. The latter wasn’t surprised that his father had been out looking for lovers; he was surprised, however, when he found one to marry. His father had never been much for commitment, and his past experiences didn’t really help either. The man didn’t have a very successful dating history, the rock-bottom-point probably being when he got his girlfriend pregnant when they were both 17, sticking with her through the pregnancy, and then being left with a baby—guess who?— by the mother barely a year later.
With a sigh and a shake of the head, Jongdae trudged up the stairs, throwing his belongings in his room before starting on his chores. The sooner he’d get this done, the better.
----
“Hyuuuuung, how much longer is this going to take?” Jongin whined, leaning into Jongdae’s back until he was basically putting all his weight on the other boy. The older grunted, shrugged his stepbrother off and shooing him with his hands.
“Don’t be impatient, food will be ready in a bit,” he said, and the younger boy pouted.
“But hyuuuuuung, we always get hungry after dance practice, and you won’t let us have any snacksssss,” Jongin drawled, and Jongdae noted in his head how this dork was supposedly the ‘cool and y dancer’ of their school, Kai.
Cool and y, my , Jongdae thought. More like whiny and squishy.
“You’re not allowed to have snacks because it’ll mess up your diets—Sehun don’t think I don’t see you trying to get a granola bar over there!” he cut himself off as he snapped his head over the stare at his other stepsibling, the youngest one, Sehun. The mentioned boy smiled sheepishly as he closed to pantry door, raising both hands in defeat. Jongdae huffed before turning back to Jongin. “As I was saying, it’s not good to eat so soon after exercise, too. Give your body some time to relax first; take a shower, read a book, or, I don’t know, start on your homework, maybe?” At this point, Jongin’s expression pretty much exactly matched Sehun’s sheepish look, and eventually, after a little bit more convincing, the two left Jongdae to mull over the steaming foods once more.
Dinner itself was a calm affair, seeing as Sehun and Jongin always seemed to spend it in the living room obsessing over whatever was on TV instead of in the dining room chatting about their day. Jongdae didn’t mind; he liked it, really. It was a nice way to regain his own energy after having spent so much of his day dealing with his energetic friends, handling all his school work, and completing his chores. A quiet dinner left him to his own thoughts, and let him relax a bit before he got back to work.
By the time he had finished his chores, made sure his stepbrothers weren’t messing about or arguing, and worked on his own homework and whatnot, he was positively exhausted. He took a quick shower and brushed his teeth as usual, before throwing on some thin cotton pajamas and collapsing on the bed. Luckily, not only was it a Friday, so he’d have the weekend to relax some more, but it was also the day before one of Sehun and Jongin’s dance recitals, meaning the house would be empty, save for himself, all of tomorrow. Maybe he’d sleep in or have a lazy day…oh, or maybe he could invite some people over to work on things for choir! He’d decide later…
Jongdae groaned as he shifted his body position for the nth time, as he tried to fall asleep. The problem was, even though his body was completely worn out, his mind was wouldn’t shut up, racing with things to ponder until early morning.
With a sigh, he collapsed back to the bed, staring up at his ceiling. He thought back to earlier that day, when his friends had decided to continue on that stupid Cinderella comparison. He had to admit, all things considered, it didn’t seem like that bad of an idea. Sure, if he were Cinderella, he’d have to deal with a whole ton of , but at least he’d get a happy ending, right? He’d get whisked away by a glamorous prince who thought Jongdae was absolutely beautiful and handsome and charming, a hottie of a man who would only look at him, unlike Jongdae’s dumb ex who thought more with his asscrack than with his brain that little e—AHEM.
Yeah, that’d be nice.
He sighed and rolled over onto his side. If he was being honest with himself—not something he did often enough, really—more than anything, he was lonely. Sure, he had people around him, like his friends and his sweet, kinda bratty stepbrothers, but he had no close friends, let alone a best friend, and Sehun and Jongin were far closer to each other and their friend group than they were to him. He sure as didn’t have family members to rely on, seeing as how his birth parents’ families ignored his existence, and Anri and her family hated his guts. Besides that, the only relationship he’d ever been in had been an experimental thing with this guy Jongdae ended up sorta liking, but that went down the drain as soon as he found the man ing a third-year girl in the infirmary.
As he thought, he felt exhaustion make its way into his mind, managing to slowly lull him to sleep, and as his eyes fluttered closed for the last time that night, he found himself thinking that, really, it wouldn’t be too bad to have a fairy-tale romance like Cinderella.
----
Now, Jongdae was by no means a morning person, but he wouldn’t say that he was that in the morning, either. He didn’t like waking up, but he could go ahead and do it without pressing the snooze button too many times. When he’d have to wake up early to go to school, he wouldn’t be entirely dead in his seat for his first three classes like some people—coughcoughChanyeolcough— and he’d be pretty alert for the rest of the day. All in all, he’d probably just say that he was a normal—not entirely refreshed and up in the morning, but not a complete night owl either.
Even so, he really didn’t appreciate being woken up at 8:39 on a Saturday morning because some dickheads were making a racket in the house.
Heaving a sigh, Jongdae threw his covers off him and groggily stepped out of bed. He rubbed at his eyes as he walked to the door, already mentally preparing how he was going to tell of Sehun and Jongin for dicking around so early in the morning. At least, that was his plan, but he stopped at the door, with a hand on the knob and the other tense at his side, when he realized that his stepbrothers should be out of the house by now for their dance rehearsals and whatnot.
Jongdae furrowed his eyebrows. Maybe they were just running a bit late? But at the same time, on the days of their recitals, those two would usually be up and out by 8, at latest. That’s a little more than just “a bit late.” Not to mention, those two were usually quite respectful of Jongdae, who would be sleeping upstairs, and they’d never really be that loud, unless something happened and they actually wanted to get Jongdae’s attention. It just didn’t seem right, didn’t seem to add up.
Shaking the thoughts away, Jongdae opened the door and walked out, heading down the hallways to the stairs. He should’ve really known better than to try to find patterns with those two. He was 95% sure that they defied all logic and reasoning in general.
He huffed when he reached the bottom of the staircase, as he quickly noticed that his very loud, obvious footsteps hadn’t made the two stop—God, couldn’t they take a hint? If anything, they were louder than before, and Jongdae noted that the sounds were all coming from the kitchen. Pots were clanging, cupboards were being loudly slammed, something was sizzling—wait.
Sehun and Jongin can’t cook.
, Jongdae cursed to himself as he dashed over to the kitchen. Most people would find his worry irrational and unneeded—those two were 15, surely they could take care of making some food?—but no, Jongdae knew better. The last time he had let those two cook, it had just been two years ago. They were given the simple directions of toasting some bread and of boiling some water for the curry while Jongdae was finishing some homework. Of course, when a piece of bread got stuck in the toaster, Sehun, little, preciously dumb Sehun, tried to get it out with—you guess it—a fork. Somehow, the young boy didn’t electrocute himself and die, but he did manage to start a fire from the mess, and Jongin, with his absolutely fantastic ideas, thought that the best way to put out the fire was—wait for it—by throwing some of the boiling water onto the ing flaming toaster.
Needless to say, Jongdae banned them from the kitchen after that (and didn’t talk to them for a week after Anri blamed him for the mess and took away his allowance for the month).
“The do you two think you’re—” Jongdae stormed into the kitchen and yelled, only to cut himself off by the sight he saw. “—doing…”
Well, that certainly wasn’t Jongin and Sehun. In fact, it wasn’t two people at all, Jongdae noticed, as he was faced with a single, very tall, very unfamiliar man scavenging through the kitchen pantry and cursing in… was that Mandarin?
“Yo, where the is your salt?” the man asked—in Korean thankfully, or not, Jongdae wasn’t too sure—as he finally noticed the boy frozen in the threshold.
Jongdae blinked. He blinked again. Then once more. He even pinched his wrist, just for good measure. It looked like he wasn’t dreaming.
.
While most people would probably dash out of the room in this situation, and while Jongdae really should’ve just ran, he chose to back up slowly, keeping eye contact with the stranger as he tried to seem casual.
“Oh, uhm, I—well, j-just—I’ll go, uhm, I mean—ph-phone, lost my phone,” he stammered out. Yeah, real casual there, Jongdae. He cursed inwardly as he darted off, in the direction of the stairs.
What the was he supposed to do? There was some dude in his house, making food in his kitchen, and of course, now of all times, Jongdae was home alone. He couldn’t take that guy alone! He looked like he could squash Jongdae in a second without even trying to! Who even was he? He didn’t seem like a robber or something, and besides, who robs a house at ing 9 am? Either way, it didn’t matter. For now, Jongdae just needed to call the cops and fend this guy off before they got here. , did he even have anything to defend himself with? Well, his psychology textbook was pretty heavy—
“WHat thE FUuuccCKKK—” he screamed as he felt rope-like things wrapping all around him, two hooking under his shoulders, one wrapping around his hips, and two more encircling around his ankles, as he was suddenly lifted from his spot halfway up the staircase, suspended in the air, and then pulled flying backwards to the… kitchen…?
He grunted with a loud “oof” as he was plopped onto the tiled floor of the kitchen none-too-gently.
“I really don’t have the patience for this right now,” a voice grumbled from behind him, and Jongdae spun on his to see the same man from earlier, with his arms crossed and a glare fresh on his face. But Jongdae couldn’t focus on the man’s annoyance, as something else caught his eye.
“W-what the are th-those?!” he practically screeched as he pointed an accusatory finger at the things swiveling by the stranger. Weird, fluorescent bluish-white beams of what seemed like pure light circled the man’s head and body like creepy tails or tentacles or something. The man just rolled his eyes at Jongdae’s question, as though it was just entirely ridiculous to ask.
“What, never seen magic before?” he said haughtily, continuing before Jongdae could even have a chance to process what was going on. “Now, where is the salt?”
“…L-left cupboard, top sh-shelf,” Jongdae replied hesitantly, not even sure what to think in this situation. The man nodded, going to the cupboard and pulling out the container of salt. “M-magic?”
The stranger ignored him, adding the salt into whatever he was making in the pot over the stove. Jongdae watched as the man stirred and tasted it, seemingly deeming it satisfying as he nodded to himself. The shorter boy’s eyes widened when he saw what looked like a potion bottle straight out of the Legend of Zelda series appear at the snap of the stranger’s fingers, the glass container floating in mid-air like it was entirely normal. Jongdae’s shock continued as he saw the stranger’s concoction—some sort of thick, orangish-red liquid—rise up, floating and transferring into the now open bottle in a regular stream. Once the bottle was full, the bottle screw fastened in once more, and at the next snap of the man’s fingers, the bottle was gone.
As soon as that was over, the stranger turned to look at Jongdae, a light smirk gracing his kindasortanotreallybutactuallyreallyhandsome face.
“So, let’s begin.”
no updates to the fic, just breaking it up into multiple chapters bc 12k words for one chapter is too much lol
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