Title: Tell Me Your Wish

I decided to clean my shed on a whim and it brought back some memories. Some were sad others were happy and taking out corroded boxes from the shelves, I can’t help but smile wistfully. It felt like it was just yesterday that I told her how I feel. It has been eight years and I could still remember and feel how my hands and knees trembled, my heart pounding hard against my chest and my voice trying not to quiver. The crisp, cool autumn breeze, the way how the leaves fall noiselessly and crack as someone steps on them, the way her hair sways together with the wind’s direction …

everything on that day came back to me.

I won’t be able to finish cleaning again this time…

*~*~*~*~*

The night was cool, the wind pierced through his skin, he looks at the sea below him, it was calm and dark just like the night sky above him, it reflected the hazing moon and twinkling stars above it, he heard soft clashes of salt water and rocks at some point below the bridge. He wondered if his body would sound like that too, if breaking bones would be heard despite the clashes of water and rocks, will he still live.

There’s only one way to find out, he thought as he leaned steadily forward, his grip loosing it’s tightness as he inched farther away from the railings of the bridge.

“Don’t!” he heard someone called out as a pair of hands grabbed him at both wrists. Donghae turned and saw what he thought was one of the most beautiful faces he has ever seen in his life and he wondered what it would look like without those signs of worry and concern.

“Your life’s too precious to just waste it this way.” She said.

“How would you know?” he retorted.

“I just do. If I had your life I wouldn’t just end it this way, why do you people lose hope so easily?” She continued coaxing Donghae to cross over the railings and back to the safer side of the bridge; he pretended to be stubborn because he already decided that he’d give life another chance.

They had a heart-to-heart conversation as if they’ve met each other for years. Donghae told him of his problems – his father getting ill, his boss firing him, his lover leaving him.

“I just want to escape.” He said morosely.

Yuri, as she introduced herself, placed a comforting hand over Donghae’s and smiled warmly. “I have something to tell you but you shouldn’t tell anyone, ‘kay?” she said playfully in low, reticent tone. Donghae couldn’t help but play along, he can’t help but smile back at her energetic face.

“What is it?”

“I’m a genie. I can grant your wish.” She waited for Donghae to burst out laughing or look at her skeptically like how most people do and did but Donghae just looked at her wide-eyed and expectant.

“As movies go, you are granted three wishes and no you can’t wish for more wishes, you can’t wish to bring back the dead to life, and wish for someone’s death.”

“Why don’t you have a lamp? Or bottle? Don’t genies have those as houses?”

“We do, but it’s a secret. So what will be your first wish master?”

“I wish to have a stable job, the job that I always want. Can you grant that even though I didn’t specify it?”

“We have our ways. You’re sure about it, yes?” she said with a flick of her hair, Donghae nodded, Yuri leaned forward, over the coffee table separating them and gave him a peck on his right cheek.

The next day, Donghae was stunned to find out that he suddenly became an idol, he was a popular singer/dancer/actor which was what he always wanted. Few days later, Yuri mysteriously appeared like the first time, asking him for his second wish.

“Do you only appear whenever you want to get a wish?” Donghae asked over warm coffee and cakes. Yuri propped his elbows on the coffee table and rested her head on them. “Nope.” She said with a giggle. Donghae thought his heart skipped a beat when he heard that melodious voice.

“Then do you come once a week? It’s been a week since we last see each other.”

“No. Do you want to see more often, master?”

“Yes.” Donghae replied meekly.

He felt vulnerable from her gaze and couldn’t help telling the truth. He wants her to grant his second wish but he also wants to spend more time with her, she was so mysterious in so many ways and he feels compelled to take that veil off of her. While he was lost in his train of thought he realized a pair of soft lips pressed softly against his cheek, he jerked back.

“You can’t grant that wish!” he ordered.

“Why not? Don’t you want your father to get better?”

“Yes… but… you can’t just do that without my permission! I haven’t said anything yet.”

“Don’t worry master. I’ll tell you another secret. If our masters wanted to see us, they only have to summon us. You only have to think or say it then I’ll be right in front of you.”

Donghae’s father got better, he was not cured but his life was extended that was enough for him. He took Yuri out to the amusement park, they were currently riding the Ferris wheel.

“Whaaa~ so amazing!” Yuri said, awestruck.

“Haven’t you ridden a Ferris wheel before? Or have seen the world from the skies before?”

“The world constantly changes… that’s the beauty of it, that’s what keeps living from getting boring.”

At that short time, Donghae wondered if he could wish for her to be by his side forever or wish for his lover to come back. He had seen her playful side, the genie, and now she was being melancholic, he wondered for the two months she became his genie does he really had special feelings for her or was he just enthralled by her being supernatural? When they got off the cart, he was surprised to encounter the very person he was thinking.

Kibum?! He thought. Kibum had a girl clinging to him possessively.

“Someone you know, honey?” the girl said.

Kibum gazed at her affectionately. “An old friend.” He answered without hesitation.

“H-hi.” Donghae managed to utter, he felt his heart bleed when he heard Kibum’s answer. Luckily, Yuri was there, holding his hand. To others, it might’ve looked like they were intimately close but in truth, Yuri was holding onto him as a support. After the little chit chat Donghae fell to a bench, propped his elbows on his knees and placed his face in his palms. Yuri stood before him, her hands placed leisurely behind her.

“Isn’t it time for your third wish?” she asked rather reluctantly.

Donghae shook his head.

“But everything will be better once you wish for him to come back. He is not dead, you don’t want him dead. It’s just a matter of turning back time and erasing a few obstacles and his yours again, your life will be better… you’ll have the life you always wanted.”

“And what will happen to you?” Donghae looked up at her.

“Go back home, wait till I get called again. Wait a minute, what does this has anything to do with me?” she said with a nervous laugh. “Now just say it ‘I wish to be Kibum’s boyfriend again’ and viola! Three wishes completed, right master?”

Donghae stared up at her, studied her, then silently stood up. He laced his fingers to hers and started walking.

“Master?”

“I don’t want to make another wish, and don’t steal it from me like the last time! I just want to spend some time with you.”

“What?”

“If you’re going to disappear after the third wish is granted then I’ll spend my hours and days knowing you before that happens.”

Yuri could not make another protest; Donghae had already dragged her from one place to another, taking pictures, playing and winning games. The day ended, a few days, a week, two weeks passed and Donghae kept evading the third wish whenever Yuri brought it up.

“Was there any genie who didn’t return to their homes after the third wish was granted?” Donghae asked. They were sitting at his dressing room, waiting for the production staff to call him.

Yuri bid her time to think. “None that I’ve known of, it’s either we continue living or we die because of our masters greedy wishes. You know how some people become blinded by wealth and power, in order to reverse it, there’s a little sacrifice that we genies have to do. If we don’t history and the present wouldn’t be this way.”

Donghae nodded in silence.

“Why have you finally decided on your last wish?” she asked giddily.

Donghae looked at her reflection and smiled. “Yeah, sort of.” And he saw her smile widened.

After the show, Donghae treated Yuri to dinner, then they watched a movie and lastly walked at the park watching other couples and families strolling despite the falling temperature.

“So what will be your wish master?” Yuri asked cheerfully.

Donghae took out a silver chain from his pockets and placed it around Yuri’s neck for her.

“What’s this, master?”

“Can you stop calling me master? Yuri, I want you to stay. Please stay.”

The smile on her face faded, and slowly she stepped away from him, her eyes shifted towards the ground. “I’m sorry but I can only grant one wish, master and one is fairly impossible.” She said.

He knew that of course, he knew it was too good to be true – to live the life he wants.

“Can you just think of something else? Why can’t you just wish for Kibum to be back in your life?”

Donghae wanted that too, but that was before… before she intruded him life and stopped him from killing himself. “I thought I wanted that too… but not anymore, I want you, I love you Yuri.”

When she heard those words, tears started to well up from behind her eyes, “Thank you… but even if I’d grant that wish, it is only temporary. You can say I’ve already granted that for the past two months.” She stepped closer, reaching her hands towards his face, Donghae knew what was about to happen next, he didn’t want her gone yet, he didn’t want to make a wish or have it extracted out from him yet but he can’t walk away from those beautiful eyes, those warm hands.

“I never thought that this is how genies grant wishes.” He commented, Yuri chuckled to have heard a joke at such a sentimental mood. She kissed him but not the usual; she kissed him at the lips softly and delicately.

“Third secret… we don’t. It’s, what you call, strategy Donghae.” She whispered against his ear.

 When he heard her call out his name, his hands grabbed behind her head and pressed her lips against his softly and kissed her again, kissed her for the last time.   

*~*~*~*~*

When I woke up the following day, I was afraid to open my eyes, afraid that when I summon her, Yuri would not come; she wouldn’t greet me with that bubbly face, I wouldn’t hear that wonderful voice again but when I went to the kitchen she was there! My wish came true yet I felt a pang in my chest, I knew this wouldn’t last. We were together for two years then she disappeared leaving behind beautiful memories in this house and in these boxes were those memories we’ve made whilst being together. Even now, I still have no idea where she ‘lives’ or how I called her in the first place, she never told me, I wish she was as easily persuaded as I am.

While Donghae moved the boxes from the shed to the garbage bins outsidesomeone came to check the house, he was selling it.

“Excuse me.” he heard a soft woman’s voice.

“Yes?” he voiced out.

 “This house isn’t sold yet, is it?”

“No… I’m still looking for--- buyers…” Donghae stared at the woman in front of him, he rubbed his eyes many times but she did not disappear. “Yuri?”

“You know me? I’m sorry I’m afraid I don’t remember.” She said.

Donghae’s lips curved into a smile, it was her maybe not the Yuri he knew but it was still her. He can only believe that somehow, someone made his wish permanent.

“You just look like someone I know. Would you want to see the house?” he said right away, smiling amicably letting Yuri enter the house. 

THE END