"And then the prince leaned in and kissed her on the lips, his heart breaking at the sight of her laying there. When she didn't move he was upset that he could not bring her back for her friends and for him, as he had fallen for her at first sight." I read aloud, the twenty tiny toddlers leaning in to hear what would happen next.

"BUT WAIT!" I suddenly screamed, making them gasp.

"Just when they had given up hope, her eyes started to open. She was dazed and confused but none of that mattered. She was alive! The dwarves jumped up and down with glee and as the prince looked back to see what the commotion was about, he was shocked to find the once lifeless princess was standing up-right, as if she was just sleeping before.

"He ran over and picked her up in his strong, manly, attractive arms, and swung her ar-"

"That isn't actually in the story!" One of the kids interrupted my daze, making me realize that I had been too caught up in the moment.

"O-Oh...my bad..." I turned away embarrassed as the children giggled at me, my cheeks turn a light shade of crimson. Determined to finish the story, I turned back to the book after clearing my throat.

"And so...Snow White had decided to live with the prince and everyone lived..."

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER!" The children screamed with me. They all clapped their hands as I shut the book close. I rose from my seat.

"Okay that will be it for today! It is time for you guys to go back to school." I said. The kids all groaned and whined.

"But I want to hear another story!" One of the little girls said cutely, pouting after saying so.

"I want to hear the story about the brave prince who fights the evil dragon to wake up the sleeping princess with a kiss!"

"I really like the one where the girl pretends to be a man and fights for her country! That one is my favorite!"

"I want-"

"Okay, okay!" I shouted, trying to get the children's attention. They all became quiet and waited for an answer from me.

"We will read another one another time but that is it for today! I want you guys to go back to school and focus really hard now okay?" I said, bending down to their level, they all shook their heads and started to get up. I slowly rose with a smile on my face and watched them as they walked away. One little girl, the same one who pouted before, came running back to me and cutely looked up so that she could see my face.

"Miss Choi?" She said quietly. "Is there such a thing as a happy ending?" I was taken back by her sudden question and lightly giggled. I bent down so that I was level with her eyes as I talked to her.

"Why do you ask that?" I questioned, my thoughts circling as to why she asked me.

"Because all fairy tales have happy endings. It seems too good to be true. Will I ever get a happy ending?" She asked. I saw that she was on the verge on tears as she asked me, clearly upset by something. I smiled reassuringly at her and pulled her in for a hug.

"Of course! We all have a happy ending! And someday..." I pulled her back to look at her in the face.

"Your prince will come for you too." She grinned widely at me and gave me another quick hug before bowing towards me. I giggled at how adorable she was. 

"Good-bye Miss Choi!" She waved as her teacher ushered her outside. I waved back and as soon as she was gone I sighed, exhausted. That was the fifth class of kids today at the library to come hear me read a story and I was extremely tired. 

Before sitting down and knowing full well that I would not want to get back up, I quickly cleaned up the area that we were sitting in. I fixed the chairs and picked up some of the wrappers that the kids had left behind from before.

Everything else done, I went to go put the book away as I picked it up and examined the cover.

"Is there such a thing as a happy ending?"  

I honestly have no idea. I am 23, single, and my so called happy ending is no more. My husband left me, my parents think I'm a disgrace and the one person that made me incredibly happy has left my life. Forever. 

Tears welling up in my eyes, I patted my face to get myself to cheer up, trying to make the thoughts disappear. I looked back down at the book and smiled. 

Maybe there is no such thing as a happy ending after all.

I walked over to the shelf with a wide array of books and placed it back in its place. I skimmed over the titles of the books, feeling each of the covers with the tip of my finger, and then took a seat in one of bean bags on the floor. People were done coming for the day and so with the small bookstore closed, I slowly drifted into a deep sleep.

~~~

Opening my eyes, I awoke to sounds. Still half-asleep, I rubbed my eyes to see better as it had gotten dark outside and there was not a single light on in the room.

"Hello?" I called out. No one answered. I thought that I had been imagining the sounds when it happened again. Tap, tap, tap.

I froze. I slowly got up from the floor, trying not to remain quiet. I quickly moved my hand in the dark trying to find some sort of weapon when I grasped onto a flashlight that I left on the table from before. Scared to turn it on, I held it out in front of me as I walked towards where I last heard the sound.

Tap, tap, tap.

I climbed up the stairs to where my apartment was above the bookstore. The door was ajar. My heart started to race as I tiptoed over to the door and peeked inside. I quietly stepped in and when I heard the familiar sound towards the kitchen I walked softly to the wall and breathed out as I tried to calm myself down.

Afraid, I peeked around the corner and saw that the fridge in the kitchen was wide open and there was someone in front of it. Fear controlling me, I quickly turned back around.

You are seeing things. This isn't happening. This isn't happening.

I slowly moved to peek again to see the the fridge was still open and the person was still standing in front of it. I placed my back against the wall again and quickly reached into my pocket for my phone to dial 911. I hit the sleep button and when it didn't turn on, I started to panic.

I hit it multiple times and silently hissed when I realized that it had died.

Damn it...What do I do?

Breathing slowly to calm myself down, I convinced myself that if I got close enough to them that I could hit them with the flashlight and knock them unconscious. I just had to hit them hard enough.

Preparing myself, I walked out from behind the wall and faced towards the fridge, my flashlight between my two hands in a swinging position for when I got close to the intruder. 

One step at a time, I slowly made my way over to the fridge, eating sounds becoming louder as the person chewed with his mouth open.

"This is soooo gooood," The person said, making me freeze. I heard him sigh and stop eating. My eyes widened, afraid that he had heard me.

"You," He started again. "You are so beautiful," He held up a piece of leftover pizza from the night before and resumed eating, making me less nervous. 

I continued to move forward and when I was close enough I stopped and saw that the person in front of me was not human.

I dropped my flashlight unconsciously as I stared at the creature in front of me. The flashlight fell to the ground and made a loud THUD.

The creature stopped and turned towards the sound and slowly looked up to meet my gaze.

I immediately started screaming.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" I yelled. 

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The creature yelled along with me, shocked as I was.

We both screamed and when I stopped the creature continued to scream as if he was in more shock than I was. Beyond frightened at this point, I lost my ability to think properly and started to ask it questions.

"WHO ARE YOU?" I shouted, making him stop screaming.

"WHY DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, YOU UGLY THING." I gasped at this harsh remark. I scoffed.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You. are. ugly." I became enraged. 

"You are one to talk. Have you looked in the mirror?" I spat. He laughed cockily.

"Why yes I have. And I am gorgeous thank you. Now...what do you want and why did you scare me?!" He suddenly questioned. I was in awe.

"Really? That is what you have to say? I should be asking you." I knelt down and picked back up the flashlight, keeping it to my side. "Why are you in my house!" I yelled, making him jump. He rolled his eyes and went back to eating the same pizza slice from before.

"I can't tell you," He stated. Anger bubbling inside me, I raised the flashlight, ready to hit him if he were to provoke me any farther.

"Tell me...or I will hit you!" I told him, trying to be as threatening as I could be - which wasn't very much so. He turned to look at me and glanced at the flashlight in my hand.

"You wouldn't dare," He threatened, turning around to face me. He was a lot taller than I thought he was when he walked towards me and practically towered over me. I backed up a little unconsciously, shocked by his height. 

"I-I will! D-Don't try me!" I stuttered. He smirked at my nervous stance and started to get closer to me. His face only inches from mine as I backed up into the wall, trying to stand strong. He neared closer, and I felt his hands wrap around my waist, making me jump and immediately start hitting him in self-defense. 

I kept on hitting him with my eyes closed, screaming as I did so. He put his hands up to block me but eventually fell backwards as I kept hitting him relentlessly.

"Stop it!" He yelled. I halted for a split second and opened my eyes to see that he was shaking and appeared to be upset. It took me by surprise to see him like that considering he was the one who broke into someone else's home. I let my guard down, feeling bad for a split second for hitting him when he suddenly pounced, grabbing both of my wrists and pinning me back up against the wall.

I was terrified but I tried everything in my power to not let him see it. His eyes stared deep into mine as he tried to read me. I gave back what I hoped was an equally intimidating stare when he let go of my wrists. He sighed. Very confused, I had no idea what to do at this point. He glanced back up at me and inched closer.

"Who are you?" He asked, his face looking more menacing than before. 

"Why should I tell you?" I responded, not clearly thinking straight. He scoffed at my response and grinned.

"Someone is a little cocky are they?" Folding his arms in front of his body, he stared at me wanting to know what I was thinking. "I need to know because I am looking for someone." He stated. I raised an eyebrow at that. 

"So, breaking into my house seemed like the way to find them?" He quickly grew tired of how I was avoiding his questions and his face darkened. 

"Look," He started, pausing a second before he continued. "I am going to tell it to you straight. I was told that the person I was looking for was here. So, when I got no response from the door downstairs, I saw that the window to the bedroom was open and I climbed through there. I didn't mean to completely intrude on your small shabby apartment, but when I saw the fridge, I found myself to be hungry and I just helped myself." I stared at him in disbelief. How the hell did he even get up here? 

"Okay...well...I think the person you are looking for is not here. So it is time for you to leave before I decided to turn your into the cops." I said, feeling more confident than before. "Plus, I think they would probably do something even worse to you, considering the way you look, all blue and dressed in those pants. Like my heavens, what the hell are those pants?" I asked, pointing at them. He then shuffled as if embarrassed, and cleared his throat before he continued.

"They are popular where I came from, so if you hate on the pants, I will hurt you." He hissed, making me flinch at how protective of them he was. "Also, I did find the person I was looking for. You." My brows furrowed as I grew more confused by the minute.

"Me?" 

"Yes, you. Your name is Sooyoung, correct?" I was dumbfounded. He must have known he was correct as he read the shock in my face, laughing at my expression. 

"Wait...you aren't here to kill me are you?!" I panicked, realizing that I didn't know his full purpose for being here. I put my hands up in front of me as if to defend myself when he burst out laughing. 

"K-Kill you?" He managed to say between his laughs. My scared form suddenly got annoyed at the fact that he was laughing for so long. I crossed my arms and waited for him to finish, my anger quickly rising.

"No, no, my dear." He responded, trying to regain his composure before continuing on. "I am here because I need your help." All this guy sputters out is utter nonsense. What the hell? I am looking for you, I need your help...

"Wha-"

"Shh." He silenced me, bringing a finger up to my lips to keep me from talking. "Let me explain." I glared at him as he removed his finger and waited for him to finish.

"I am not from your world. I am from what can you say...a different dimension. Something is happening in my world and when I tried to fix it they said that only one person could help. And that person is supposedly you. I mean looking at you, you look like nothing great but if I was told to find you from the higher-ups you must be something special." He eyed me up and down, taking me back as I tried to process what he had just told me.

"Okay...so you are telling me that you are from another world?" I asked, he nodded smugly. "Are you sure you are not high? Did you do some weird type of drug or some-"

"Me? Take drugs? Never. It would never affect me anyways." He waved off the thought, slowly backing up as he realized that I wouldn't run away now, or hurt him at the moment. He leaned up against the counter and picked his piece of pizza up off the floor and resumed eating it.

"Why not?" I asked, disgusted by watching him eat as he stuffed his face and it was all gone in seconds.

"Because drugs don't work on genies." My eyes widened at that and I burst out laughing. He was shocked at my sudden laughter. But come on. A genie?

"Wow, really what drugs are you taking. Because I think they are making you think some things." I said, still laughing. He was growing impatient at my laughter and without realizing it he suddenly grew in height, towering over me. I gawked at the sight of him, and how his once blue form was now red, most likely indicating that he was not finding this matter as funny as I did.

"Proof enough now?" He spat. I looked him up and down and jumped when I saw that his feet were now gone and it was in the shape of what could only be described as a tail. A freaking tail.

"I- Wha- I am so-"

"Stupid mortals." He stated as he slowly started to shrink back down. "So are you going to help me or not?" He pondered, looking over at my confused form. Trying to snap myself out of it, I shook it off and tried to maintain a stable look.

"W-What do you need help with?" I asked, following along with this nonsense as trying to figure it out was too much of a headache. 

"I need help saving my prince." He stated. 

"P-Prince?" I repeated. He nodded as if it was nothing and went to grab another piece of pizza out of the fridge, coming back in front of me after slamming the fridge door. Wait...

"Wait..where did you say you are from?" I asked.

"I didn't say but I am from a city called Agrabah." I gasped at his words, bringing my hands up to my mouth. Noticing my sudden change he stopped and glanced over at me.

"Is your prince's name...Aladdin?" He froze, startled that I could know of his name. "And you are his...genie, correct?" I prodded further, slowly connecting things together.

"Wow, you know more than I gave you credit for," He finished his piece of pizza and wiped his hands on his pants before glancing up at me again. "Yes, his name is Aladdin and I am his genie. I usually go by the name Jinwoon but call me whatever you like." He stated. As he confirmed what I thought, my heart rate started to increase. This isn't real right? Is this a prank? Because this isn't funny...

"He was taken by a sorcerer by the name of Jafar. My comrade Razoul and I tried to save him but no amount of magic that I used could break us into his palace. It was heavily guarded with many sentries blocking the walls and doors. We were out of options. The only other person that we could count on was also taken under his control and she is now a slave to him. It's horrifying really." I could see how he was struggling telling me all of this. He closed his eyes and exhaled before continuing. 

"So when I asked the Higher-Ups, mainly other genies or magical beings that have been around longer than I have, they only knew of one thing that could help him. That thing being you." The very idea was beyond anything I have ever done before.

"Me? I am sorry Jinwoon but I have no idea how I can help. I am just a bookstore owner with her nose deep in stories. Unless you need someone to recite Shakespeare to you, then I have no idea how I can help you." I uttered, starting to feel bad for the strange man that was only looking for help. He sighed in frustration and shook his head.

"No. You are who I am looking for. I can feel it. I can sense this energy emitting from you. It's strange really as I have felt nothing like it before but it is almost overpowering." I sighed.

"Jinwoon. I am really a nobody. I don't know what you are sensing from me but I think your senses are wrong. I am anything but powerful." He lifted up from the counter and inched closer to me, examining every one of my features. His gaze flitted between each of my eyes and when he backed up, he silently cursed, making me bring my gaze up to him.

"Well," He started. "Magic or no magic, you are the only lead I have. So you are coming with me." He stated, grabbing me by the wrist.

"Wait, what? No, no, no, no, no! Jin-" Ignoring my remarks, he started to chant some type of spell in a language foreign to me. Trying to pull myself away, his grip tightened, not letting me go. Within seconds, he finished reciting the words and what could only be described as a crack in the atmosphere, opened up in front of us. I was in awe at the spectacle before me and not resisting anymore, he quickly pulled me in with him.

The room suddenly turned all black as we spun in circles, hands still tightly grasped, when we fell onto a grassy field. I had hit my head against something and I quickly rubbed it, wincing at the pain. I opened my eyes to find that I had fallen on top of Jinwoon.

"Can you get off of me?" He asked. I fumbled and got up off of him, embarrassed. I brushed the grass off of my pants and my shirt as he proceeded to stand up as well. As I looked around us, I was confused at what I saw.

The sun was shining down as bright as day as I looked around to see that we had landed in a secluded area. I quickly did a full turn and paused when I saw a castle only out of a fairy tale in front of us.

"Damn it," I heard Jinwoon hiss behind me. I quickly turned around to see him pacing back and forth.

"What? What is it?" I asked, just fully going along with what was happening right now.

"We are in the wrong world." He glanced at me and sighed, extremely frustrated.

"W-What do you mean?"

"I mean that I sent us to the wrong world. This is not my city. Curse my teleportation challenged self..." I tried not to laugh at his words when I heard a bell chime in the distance. I turned around to hear the distinctive ring coming from in the direction of the castle.

"So what world are we in then?" I asked, curious.

"No idea. But we can't leave. My power only lets me make a portal if the world is balanced, and everything is going how it should be. And for some reason, I am not able to make one here." He answered.

"Then how were you able to leave your world?"

"It was with the help of the Higher-Ups. They can only do something like that ever so often and seeing how desperate I was to help my prince, they granted me my wish - to find help." My eyes softened as he spoke. He was being sincere about helping him. I mean they were best friends in the story so it makes sense. I was about to speak, when the bell chimed again, making my attention turn elsewhere.

I unintentionally started walking towards the castle when I was pulled back by Jinwoon.

"Wait." He said. 

"What?"

"We can't go out there." 

"Why not?" 

"When people who are not part of a certain world enter it, things can happen that can change the whole outcome of what is supposed to happen. Like the butterfly effect." I gave him a face, realizing that he was probably right.

"Well we can't just sit here. If we can't leave this world, then there is something obviously wrong. We aren't going to be able to leave if we just stand here. What if someone else needs our help or something and that is why we were sent here first?" He looked surprised at my response. I snorted.

"I can put two and two together. I may not be magical but I am quick on my feet." I smiled. "I really think that we should go check it out. What will going into the town do? We can just say we are travelers or something." I suggested. He seemed to ponder my idea and after a minute he nodded.

"Okay. But first, we need to change to look like the people here." He said, and I became confused.

"What, you mean my jeans and t-shirt aren't fairy tale enough for you?" He laughed.

"No, I am just saying that we need to fit in or else we will be drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves. Just give me a second..." And in a second he vanished from in front of my eyes. 

"Where the-"

Before I could finish he was back, holding a lavish maroon color dress in his hand and had already changed into a black-tie suit. 

"Please tell me you just found these laying around somewhere and you didn't steal them." His silence gave me the answer I didn't want to hear. Wanting to hit him from stealing from others, I snatched the maroon dress out of his hands and started to take off my tee when I felt his stare at my back. I turned around to find him staring at me.

"Can you turn around you ?" I retorted. He rolled his eyes and turned his back to face towards me, mumbling something inaudible under his breath. I quickly changed out of my clothes and slipped into the dress, surprised that it was more form fitting than it appeared. 

I glanced back, content to see that he hadn't moved. I cleared my throat and he turned back around. After looking me up and down for a second he nodded his head, giving me a thumbs up. I laughed at his reaction. 

"What should we do with our clothes then?" I asked, holding them out in front of me. He grabbed them and went and placed them behind a tree near us, making sure to cover it under leaves so it would not be discovered as easily.

He came running back to me and was ready to go when I stopped him. He looked at me confused.

"Really? You don't think they are going to scream when they see a blue man walking down the streets? I thought you wanted to be subtle." He sighed and with a flick of a finger, he changed his skin tone to a pale color, looking more like a normal person than before. 

"So you can change your skin color but can't manifest clothes out of thin air? What kind of genie are you?" I sassed. He walked ahead of me ignoring my remark  as we started to walk to the town. Fine, don't answer me, I pouted as I trailed behind him.

~~~

"Answer me!" I whined as we neared the town. He stopped and turned to face me.

"Are you always like this? So whiny and annoying?" We had walked for about a half an hour along the road leading to the castle and I had been bombarding him with questions, forever curious with the difference between worlds and his magic. It was all so new to me.

"Yes but you are the one who took me dragged me along without my consent so get used to it." I stuck my tongue out and he exhaled for about the 50th time today.

"Fine. Only two questions and that is it." He said, pointing a finger at me as I smiled brightly.

"Okay...let's see...did you really live inside of a lamp?" I asked as we continued to walk.

"Yes I did. But Aladdin released me as his last wish, setting me free. Even though, he said I could do what I wanted, I decided to stay by his side and help him until he was no longer in need of me or I was no longer wanted. I owe him my life." He answered, flashing a small smile before becoming stern again. "How did you know that though?" He asked, curious.

"Oh I know because of your story. Your fairytale." I responded, immediately regretting it. I wanted to mentally hit myself for saying things without thinking again as I was unsure if he knew about whether or not his life was a famous story.

"Ahh, so that's why...does each of these worlds have a story?" He asked, unaffected by my comment. 

"I-I don't know...maybe? It depends on where we are. But I have read a lot of stories so I am hoping that if these worlds are anything like yours, then I might be able to help the problem and get us to your world even sooner." I answered. "I'm still surprised though," I started again.

"Why?" He asked, listening as I walked slowly behind him.

"That out of all the people in my world, that they said you needed me. I mean if all it takes is knowing tales as old as time, then there would have been thousands who could have gone with you instead." I pondered, letting my mind speak freely as I spoke aloud.

"I think it is like I told you Sooyoung," He responded. "I think they sent me to find you for a certain reason and like I felt before, there is another energy pouring out of you that I can feel. I don't know why you doubt yourself, but just know that you were sought out for a reason, alright?" He responded, my stomach flipping in excitement. Just when I thought my life had lost meaning...

"Alright..." I responded, smiling. "Ah! We are here!" I yelled, my excitement growing as we neared the entrance to the town. Jinwoon looked hesitant at first to enter but after I tugged at his sleeve to keep on moving, he walked ahead, sticking close to my side. Lots of people were going into the city, making it very hard to shuffle through.

At one point I almost lost Jinwoon but he caught up to me and grabbed hold of my hand to reassure that we wouldn't be separated again. I had to admit, despite him being a complete and utter stranger/robber a couple of hours ago, I was pretty comfortable by his side. Probably not a good thing that I trust people I don't know so easily but this situation is anything but normal.

After walking through what seemed like an endless sea of people, we reached the main gate to the castle. We both stopped in front, checking our surroundings. I noticed a sign saying that there was a royal ball tonight that started in a couple of hours. I stared at the words, circling through the tales I knew all too well to see if there was any idea of which world we were currently in.

"It seems like we should come back later," Jinwoon said. 

"We definitely need to go to the ball tonight for sure. The world we are in is on the tip of my tongue but I can't think of it right now." I responded. He looked at me and noticed that I was in deep thought and tugged at my hand.

"No need to think about so hard. You will probably figure it out as soon as we get inside. Let's just look around until then okay?" He questioned, smiling. I nodded, taken back by his sudden gentle demeanor towards me. What a difference from his snarky self from earlier.

He then pulled me along with him as we once again went inside the crowd of people to look at some of the stands along the sidewalk. He took me towards a food stand, the waft of the fresh bread reaching my nose. I grinned instantly and wanted to get one. But then realizing I had no money, I pouted. Jinwoon seemed to notice my sudden change of emotion and reached out to give the tender some money to get a roll.

"Wah, who knew you could be so nice." I said as I watched him take the roll from the lady as we walked away. He instantly handed it to me and I grabbed it excited to eat it. He laughed at me.

"What," I asked as I stuffed my face full of the bread. 

"Nothing." He chuckled to himself as I got self-conscious as to why he was laughing, making me realizing that we had still been holding hands this whole time. Not knowing what else to do, I continued to eat the bread and finished it quickly, feeling satisfied. Before I could thank him, he pulled me towards another stand - one that sells fruit. We were almost there, excited to buy fresh produce when I ran into someone, making her drop everything in her hands on the ground.

I let go of Jinwoon's hand and helped her pick up the dresses and other things that had fell. She mumbled thank you over and over again as I helped. I replied by saying that it was no hassle at all and it was my fault anyways for running into her. After picking everything up, I stared at her, recognizing her in a way, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Ella! Come now you fool!" A woman screamed loudly in the distance, making the girl in front of me jump at the voice. She bowed towards me again and I watched her run off towards the direction of 3 women, one seeming to be a mother figure and the other two about her age. 

And that's when it clicked. Jinwoon then came back to my side handing me an apple as he bit into his when he stopped, noticing my dazed look.

"What? What is it?" He asked following my gaze to only find nothing in the direction of where I was staring. 

"I know what fairy-tale we are in." I muttered. His eyes widened at the sudden development in a few minutes as he was away.

"It's a tale about a girl who is practically like a slave to her step family after her mother passed when she was younger. Her father then remarried to her now stepmother and later passed as well, leaving her to be treated horribly by her supposed family." Jinwoon paused at what I was saying, wanting to say something but instead trying to process what I was explaining to him.

"Otherwise known as the tale of Cinderella."