When Kim Joonmyun awoke one morning from untroubled dreams, he found himself changed into a diminutive ladybug in his girlfriend’s bed.

Why, this is entirely unsurprising, he thought, laying on his speckled red-and-black back, especially after what happened yesterday. I suppose this is what happens when your girlfriend is a literal witch.

He lay there for a few moments more, calmly examining his wiggling black legs with their little clawed ends and the two flexing antennae he could just make out in the top of his field of vision. The world appeared strange, distorted now through his ladybug eyes; everything was either black or white, even the previously vibrant bunches of dried herbs hanging from his girlfriend’s ceiling.

“Yoonji,” he called, surprising himself with the high-pitched, brittle, clicking quality of his voice. “Yoonji, will you roll me over onto my back please? I’m getting a little achy laying here so long.”

His girlfriend grumbled from beside him in the bed, stirring from her sleep. “So clingy, Joonmyun. This is why I turned you into a ladybug in the first place, because I hoped you would fly away and never come back. You’re so needy.”

Joonmyun blinked, or at least he thought he did - could ladybugs blink? He knew from his studies at university that they had compound eyes and three ocelli, but he wasn’t sure. Maybe he could ask Yoonji later.

“Oh,” he said, blinking again. “All right. I’ll let you sleep.”

And so Yoonji slumbered on.

But Joonmyun’s back was feeling awfully sore from being laid on for so long, so he flexed all the muscles in his round little body and strained, strained, strained, feeling like his eyes would pop out - until finally! Out flared his wings, and he pumped them with all the strength a ladybug could possess, beating them until the air carried him up and over, landing him back on his feet. Joonmyun let out a little cheer in his ladybug voice, unable to hold back.

“You’re so embarrassing,” Yoonji said, eyebrows drawn together and vision still blurry from sleep. “This is just like when we went to the fair and you wouldn’t stop cheering whenever you won me a plushie.”

Joonmyun let out a sad chirrup. “But I was just excited to make you happy.”

“No,” his girlfriend said, lips pulling down in a frown. “You were embarrassing me. There’s a difference, Joonmyun.”

So for the next few hours, he practiced fluttering around the room quietly, careful not to let out any embarrassing cheers, even when he managed to fly all the way across the room without colliding with anything. All he wanted, after all, was to be near Yoonji and to make her happy.

Two hours later, Yoonji finally rolled out of bed to make breakfast. At first it felt strange, not feeling her boyfriend’s arms wrapped around her waist as she stirred the cauldron on the stove, but then she realized how freeing it was. No clingy Joonmyun to restrain her movements. No distracting nuzzles at her neck causing her to burn herself on the stove. No koala-like boyfriend arms squeezing at her waist like a living, overgrown corset. Only a little ladybug, flapping its wings in dizzying circles around her head, squeaking away in its buggish little voice.

“What do you want to do today, Yoonji?” Joonmyun asked, voice barely audible over the gurgles of the bubbling cauldron. “Shall I take you to the beach for a romantic stroll? Or shall we have a picnic in the park?”

“It’s the middle of the winter, Joonmyun,” the witch said reproachfully. “It’s too cold. And I want to practice my spells today. Can’t you do something by yourself for once?”

Joonmyun drooped, landing on the kitchen counter. “Can’t I just watch you practice? I love watching my clever girlfriend practice her spells. And I’m smart, too -- maybe I can help you figure some of them out!”

Yoonji glared at him and brandished her stirring spoon. “This is exactly what I was talking about, Joonmyun. You suffocate me, you stifle me, you never leave me alone! And now you’re assuming I won’t be able to understand my spellbook without your help? Well, I’m a capable and independent witch, for your information!”

“Of course you are, dear,” Joonmyun said tiredly. “I don’t mean to stifle you. I just wanted us to spend some quality time together.”

Breakfast carried on as usual. Yoonji sat at one end of the rectangular table, eating her breakfast and ignoring Joonmyun at the other end as he ate his breakfast and attempted the occasional joke, glancing at her hopefully for a reaction each time. (The reaction never came; Yoonji’s grip on her coffee mug only tightened more and more). The only difference was that this morning, Joonmyun was a ladybug, and he was eating aphids instead of oatmeal.

“Hey Yoonji, which park do you want to visit when we go honeymooning in New York? Because for me, it’s Linkin Park.” Joonmyun let out a buggish guffaw. “Get it?”

His girlfriend slammed her bowl on the table and stood up, forehead furrowed. Joonmyun let out a little yelp, chasing after his aphids that were now scurrying toward the edges of the table in fear.

“I’m going to go practice my spells,” she said, eyes squeezed closed and fists clenched. “And you are not coming with me.” Before Joonmyun could respond, she whirled around and stomped off toward the dungeon.

Disappointed, Joonmyun sat on his little ladybug bum and wondered what he should do. Yoonji had always been independent to a fault, although it was also what had attracted him to her in the first place. The first time he’d met her, she was marching up from the swamp near her house, scowling ferociously with three warty toads clutched in one hand and an angry scorpion in the other, and in that moment, he’d thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen before.

Unfortunately, he had soon discovered that witches grew up in convents of only women, rarely allowing male visitors in. That, along with Yoonji’s fiery independence, had planted a deep-rooted fear of committed romantic relationships in her.

Looking back, Joonmyun considered, munching on a wriggling aphid thoughtfully, perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to propose last night, then.

His marriage proposal hadn’t exactly gone smoothly. He’d led her blindfolded into a candle-lit church where he’d hoped their future wedding ceremony could take place, a fact his girlfriend had not taken too well. (“I’m a witch, Joonmyun, I’m literally pagan! Why the hell would you bring me to a Christian church to get married?”). Then when he’d started reciting promises to always take care of her, to love her, and to never leave her, that had been the final straw. Yoonji had stormed out of the church, crossed the street to her house, and descended promptly into her dungeon, locking the door and screaming about her capability to take care of herself. Joonmyun had gone to bed thinking little of it, but now he knew which spell she had been preparing in the dungeon last night.

She’ll probably turn me back into a human some time soon, he thought. Maybe if I just give her a little space.

But three hours later, Joonmyun was bored and hungry again, and all the aphids were gone. Besides, Yoonji needed to eat, too, and he knew she had a tendency to skip meals when working. Fluttering his way down the spiral staircase and into his girlfriend’s dungeon, he ignored the putrid fumes steaming up from her cauldron and landed on the open spellbook.

“Yoonji, it’s lunchtime,” he squeaked, straining to project his bug voice. “Don’t work too hard, sweetheart. Come take a break.”

His girlfriend turned from the cauldron long enough to fix him with a glare. “I told you not to come down here, Joonmyun. I’m working on a spell, and I don’t need you distracting me!”

He hopped closer to her, taking care to avoid the steamy cauldron. “What kind of spell is it?”

“I’m making an immortality potion. But never you mind, hop back upstairs and leave me alone.”

“But I’m hungry,” Joonmyun protested. “We’re out of aphids.”

Yoonji let out an annoyed huff. “Then fly away and find aphids somewhere else. And while you’re at it, don’t come back!”

Hurt and a little fed up, Joonmyun sat down on the yellowing pages of the spellbook.

“Why do you keep pushing me away? All I want to do is take care of you.”

“Because I don’t need anyone to take care of me,” Yoonji said, pointedly avoiding looking at her spellbook. “I’ve survived all my life without a man, and I don’t need one now.”

“But I need you.” Joonmyun, trying to make her look at him, clicked his mandibles earnestly. “Me needing you doesn’t make me any weaker, don’t you see? It just means that I love you, and I want you in my life.”

She bit her lip, finally turning to gaze at him. “It’s not that simple for me, okay?”

“But -- uh, Yoonji, isn’t that immortality potion supposed to be green?”

Her head whipped back to the cauldron. What was meant to be bubbling, green, and stinking to the high heavens was suddenly calm, white, and fragrant, glowing with the purity and serenity of a full moon on a windless night.

“This is a disaster!” Yoonji clutched at her pointy hat in anguish. “It’s ruined! This is - this is paint! White paint!”

“Well, you have been talking about refurnishing the dungeon lately,” Joonmyun reminded with a sage bob of his speckled red-and-black head. “We can paint the walls together now. It’ll be an opportunity for us to spend some quality time together!”

His girlfriend turned to him, jaw flexing and eyes bright with fury. She was squeezing the wooden spoon in her hand so hard it was splintering, and he could feel her magic pulsing angrily in the air.

Wow, he thought. She’s hot when she’s angry

“This happens every time you come down here. Every time, Joonmyun! Goddammit, you’re such a distraction! Why can’t you just leave me alone forever?

“Because I love you,” Joonmyun said matter-of-factly. “I love you, so I can’t live without you, Yoonji.”

“Don’t say that! Don’t say that to me, Joonmyun! I can live without you, and I’m going to show you!” Eyes wild and distraught, she heaved up the tome of spells Joonmyun was seated on and flung it at the wall with all her strength.

Joonmyun, having narrowly avoided being crushed to death against the wall, managed only a feeble chirrup of protest. He felt a splash of something hot and wet on his back, something that dribbled down his hard, armoured back with the viscosity of store-bought honey. Lifting a leg that had been drenched in the mystery liquid, he stared at the pearly white substance.

It’s paint, he realized. She’s throwing the paint at me. She’s trying to paint me into the wall!

Ignoring the aching throb in his tiny ladybug heart, Joonmyun raised his voice so his girlfriend could hear him.

“You may paint over me, but I’ll still be here,” he said, laying still and allowing her to slop more paint over his body. “You won’t forget me, because I know you love me, too.”

“Shut up,” she snapped, clutching the dripping cauldron to her chest. “Shut up, shut up, shut up! I don’t need you!”

“I’ll always be in your heart, Yoonji. I -”

Not wanting to hear anymore, Yoonji turned and fled up the stairs.

Later that night, Yoonji returned to the dungeon, considerably calmer and intent on making her immortality potion correctly this time. Now that Joonmyun wasn’t going to be distracting her with his warm hugs, spontaneous kisses, and random skinship, she would finally be able to practice her potions without feeling all fuzzy and weird and wrong inside. Witch hat angled at a jaunty tilt on her head, Yoonji hummed to herself and knelt to retrieve the spellbook she had thrown at the wall.

“One of the pages tore out when you threw the book,” said a squeaky voice from above her. “It’s over there in the corner.”

Startled, Yoonji scrambled to her feet, holding the book protectively. “Joonmyun?”

The ladybug wiggled three legs at her in greeting. “This paint dries really slowly,” he explained. “It’s probably because it was made with magic.”

“Well, just sit there until it dries,” she retorted, tearing her eyes from the ghostly white lump on her wall. “Don’t bother me. I’m trying to make my potion again.”

And so the pair sat in silence as Yoonji added ingredient after ingredient to her cauldron. In went a vial full of scorpion venom, which she had harvested herself at the peak of a lunar eclipse. Next was the blood of a bear she had wrestled and won against, and then the warts of a highly poisonous toad. All of these trials and tribulations she had emerged victorious from, she had accomplished on her own. She had no need for anyone else; no need for help, especially not from a man.

“You look awfully tense, dear,” Joonmyun squeaked amicably from the wall. “Would you like to hear a joke?”

Yoonji’s eyes narrowed. “No. No, I wouldn’t.”

The ladybug ignored her. “What kind of paper likes music? Huh? Huh?”

The witch’s eyebrows drew together in an angry line. “Joonmyun, stop -”

“Wrapping paper!” He chortled, wiggling his three mobile legs with delight. “Get it? Like rapping? Wrapping?”

The already splintered spoon in Yoonji’s hand cracked entirely under her annoyance, sending wooden shards flying into the cauldron.

“That’s not even funny, Joonmyun!” She struggled to collect herself, but it was too late. The vile green potion shuddered as if trying to shed its skin, and then the bubbles and color dispersed, once again leaving only pure, cotton-white…

“Paint!” The witch screeched with rage. “Paint again! All I wanted was to get this immortality potion right, but you’re always distracting me!”

“I’m sorry,” said Joonmyun, antennae drooping meekly. Already, Yoonji was slopping the fresh batch of pearlescent paint onto his back, plastering him all the more firmly to the wall. “Yoonji, you don’t have to do this.”

But his girlfriend had emptied the cauldron and was halfway up the stairs before he could say any more.

For the next few days, the pattern continued. Yoonji would descend into her dungeon, determined to perfect her immortality potion, and Joonmyun would try his best to cheer her on, all the while losing more and more mobility due to the hardening white paint encasing his body. Each day, Yoonji would lose focus because of something Joonmyun did and take it out on him, throwing more and more paint on top of his little ladybug body. And with every additional day that passed, Joonmyun could feel his belly caving in further from hunger, could feel his vision spinning more from lack of food and water, could feel his body stiffening and numbing more with the drying paint.

Then one day, Yoonji entered a silent dungeon. No chirrups, no clicks, no gentle (if squeaky) inquiries into how she was feeling that day. Nothing but silence and a feeling of horrible, horrible loss.

“Joonmyun?” she asked, tiptoeing over to the ladybug-shaped lump on the wall.

No response.

Perhaps he was just sleeping. Perhaps he was tired. He would be awake again soon, back to vex her and ruin her attempts at this potion, Yoonji was sure of it. And if he didn’t wake up, wasn’t that exactly what she had intended to happen? Wasn’t that what she’d wanted all along, for Joonmyun to finally leave her alone? For her feelings to stop somersaulting in her stomach every time she saw his handsome face, as if she were some helpless damsel trapped in a tower like all the other women of this time and age?

Turning her back on the lump, Yoonji focused on the potion. Scorpion venom. Bear blood. Toad warts. She stirred, focusing all her hatred and witchiness into one angry ball inside her, just as the potion called for. For two hours she swirled the liquid around the cauldron, making sure the warts stuck to the side and burned, giving off putrid fumes.

Then finally -- finally, the potion was finished, resplendent in its sinister green glow and vomit-inducing odor. Immortality was in Yoonji’s hands. This time, there had been no boyfriend to distract her, to fill her up with affection and amusement and amorous feelings that left no space inside her for the anger she needed to concoct this potion. No, no distractions at all.

Almost against her will, Yoonji’s head turned back behind her to the pearly white sepulcher bulging on the wall. Joonmyun was gone, she knew that much now. He hadn’t moved or made a sound since the previous day. He was dead, either starved from days of not eating or suffocated by the layers of paint thrown on top of him.

“I don’t need him,” she reminded herself. “I don’t need a man to survive. I’m a witch, not a damsel in distress.” Grabbing a ladle, she filled a vial with the immortality potion and raised it to her lips.

“To eternal life.” She threw her head back and, pinching her nose, gulped down the vile concoction.

Immediately, the world began to spin around her, and Yoonji collapsed against the floor, her pointy hat falling with a thump beside her. Droplets of sweat coated her forehead, beading up and sliding down her cheeks like tears. Or perhaps they really were tears, Yoonji couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that the agony that had been burning white-hot in her chest since she stepped foot into the silent dungeon earlier that morning wasn’t diminishing like she’d expected it to. No, it was worsening, if anything, spreading upward into and forming a fiery lump she couldn’t swallow.

Wasn’t immortality supposed to bring her peace? Wasn’t this potion supposed to help her live on and on, forever independent, unspoiled and untainted by the misogynistic world of men? She knew it was, so why wasn’t the pain going away?

Trying to pinpoint the origin of the agony, Yoonji moved her hand over her heart, which seemed to be contracting, contracting, contracting and never releasing. And then a deluge of misty memories inundated her. Joonmyun holding her hand on their first date even though she had just killed a warty toad with that hand. Joonmyun caressing her cheek, and her pretending she didn’t like it when really she was a pile of mush inside. Joonmyun as a ladybug with his piteous little voice, telling her he would always be in her heart. Joonmyun, Joonmyun, Joonmyun everywhere.

Dizzy, she forced herself to clamber to her feet, leaving her witch hat on the floor. She knew what she needed to do, and she could only hope it would work. Immortality was what she had lusted after for so many years, but now that she had achieved it, she knew she didn’t want an eternal life like this.

Yoonji grasped another vial, filled it up, and wielded a knife with her other hand. Crossing the room to stand before the wall, she hesitated. Was she truly going to do this? Was she willing to give up her independence, her pride, her self-worth for this?

The answer, suddenly crystal clear in her moment of despair, came to her, and she let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Vial clutched safely in her hand, she pounded the blunt end of the knife into the wall over and over again, cracking the delicate layers of paint.

Smash. Smash. How had she not realized this earlier? Smash. Smash. More pieces of her wall came crumbling down under her hands. There was something strangely therapeutic, relieving about this. Almost empowering, even.

With a final smash, the chunk of wall came tumbling down, Joonmyun’s emaciated body encased safely within. Yoonji kneeled over it, using her knife’s blade to scrape layer after layer of paint away. Each cauldron of paint she had slopped over him was now coming off under her hands, piece by piece. She labored away, ignoring the sweat trickling down her hatless head. Finally, her boyfriend’s corpse lay in her hands, still covered with tiny pieces of paint she couldn’t remove for fear of snapping off his delicate legs.

“Come on,” she whispered, raising the vial above his body. “Please. Please.”

She tipped the vial, carefully pouring the potion onto the body cupped in her hand. The greenish slime sizzled upon contact, and she knew she only had a short amount of time left now. Closing her eyes and channeling all the love and purity and goodness she’d never known she possessed inside her, Yoonji chanted the reversal spell.

Please. Please work.

The sizzling sound stopped, and Yoonji, eyes still closed, felt her hand growing heavier and heavier. Not daring to open her eyes, she stayed perfectly still, terrified she had somehow messed up the reversal spell.

“Hey there, beautiful.”

The witch opened her eyes to see her boyfriend laying on the floor, the sweet smile she had missed so much gracing his lips and his head resting on her hand.

“Joonmyun!” she cried, throwing her arms around him. “Oh, thank Satan it worked!”

She felt his chest rumble underneath her as he sighed contentedly, returning her embrace.

“I thought you wanted me to go away forever, Yoonji.”

Shaking her head stubbornly, the witch refused to look up at him.

“Yoonji? Can I know why you changed your mind? Also, I thought I died. What happened?”

“You don’t want to know,” she said. “I don’t want to tell you.”

He rubbed her back gently. “Was it the immortality potion? Did you finally get it to work?”

“Yes.” She showed him the empty vial in her hand. “I revived you with it.”

“And why would I be upset about that?”

“It’s not that. It’s just…” Yoonji trailed off.

“What? Tell me. Don’t worry, I won’t be angry.”

She burrowed further into his chest. “I was just thinking, you’re really the submissive one in our relationship. So if anyone were going to lose independence when we get married, it would be you, not me.”

There was a pause, and Yoonji wondered for a moment if Joonmyun was angry. But then he let out a chuckle, a chuckle that grew into full-out belly laughter, and she relaxed in his arms.

“You mean it took you literally killing me to realize how much power you have over me?” He was crying with laughter now, raising a hand from Yoonji’s waist to wipe at his tears. “I’ve been trying to tell you that all along, you silly witch.”

“Well next time, be more clear when you tell me things,” Yoonji said grumpily. “Your message didn’t make it across.”

“Speaking of mixed messages, you said ‘when’ we get married, not ‘if,’” Joonmyun pointed out. “Does that mean you’re saying yes to my proposal?”

The witch sniffed. “Hmph.”

One year later, when Kang Yoonji awoke from untroubled dreams, she found herself changed into a married witch.

Yes, this was based (very loosely) off a certain twentieth century novella. No, I do not own it (sadly). And yes, I will forever love the novella of which I speak with all my heart.

Please subscribe, upvote, and let me know what you think in the comments below! Constructive criticism, compliments, thoughts, anything is much appreciated! And please do check out some of my other stories (linked in the foreword).

Love,

Nana