Da-Jeong drags her feet along the dusty pavement, each step bringing up a small cloud of dust and stones paired with an obnoxious scraping sound. No one had truly warned Da-Jeong of quite how high the level of stress would be at university, I mean god she was studying a dang art degree, why were things so entirely awful? She stopped dragging her feet for a minute to grab another tissue from her bag. Da-Jeong tended to get nosebleeds when she was stressed, it was a real inconvenience but an unavoidable thing nonetheless. 

“Aisshh, when will this damn nosebleed stop? Was getting blood on my cute new jeans not enough suffering for the gods to inflict on me??” She grumbled to herself, kicking a stone and watching as it rolled off the pavement and settled in the road. Whoever convinced her that university was a good idea was a ing . She only had to last a few more days here in England before she could go back home to Korea and see her family again for the holidays. She missed them, she missed them very much. Especially her sister, though they had argued a lot in young age, they got on so well now. Mi-Na was her name, they teased each other all the time but there was no one Da-Jeong would rather talk to than Mi-Na, they told each other everything. She definitely missed Mi-Na.

As though she were able to hear her thoughts, a message popped up from Mi-Na.

“Ayyy fam, u alright? Can’t wait to see u again soon, Soon-Ae is literally driving me mad” Da-Jeong smiled and shook her head, Soon-Ae was their younger and more annoying sister. Da-Jeong and Mi-Na often bonded simply over how annoying Soon-Ae could be, it was a funny kind of relationship they shared.

“Yeahh boii, ur English is getting better, I’m impressed man. Hype to see you and mum, not so much Soon-Ae (I joke), only a few days now! Just getting home so talk later, yeah?” She tapped send before quickly stuffing her phone in her pocket and trying to find her house key with one hand, the other still holding a tissue to her bleeding nose. Messily sticking the key in the lock the wrong way a few times, eventually she got inside and inhaled the safe smell of home. Shutting the door with a quick slam, she rushed upstairs to the safety of her room. On throwing herself inside, she let out a huge groan before throwing her bag on her bed. The bag slammed into her pillow full force which was quickly followed by a noise she did not expect to hear.

A small but pained squeak. It almost sounded like a very audible “ouch”.

“What…the ?” Da-Jeong’s brows creased in confusion. She crept towards the bag and nudged it but no further noise came. She then grabbed the bag and threw it off the bed expecting to find a crushed mouse or something but nothing was there. Clearly I am imagining things she thought to herself before throwing herself on the bed with another huge groan. This time there was a much louder, much more pained squeak close to her ear.

“Okay seriously whAT THE ?” Da-Jeong shouted in surprise as she shot up and stared at her pillow as though some kind of gremlin were going to crawl out from beneath it and kill her, which on the bright side, would mean no university fees to pay. As though the the gods had read her mind, slowly, a small pair of hands began to peep out from underneath her pillow. At this point her mind was literally singing a whole choir of cuss words. These tiny hands were followed by tiny arms and in turn a tiny head, tiny body and tiny legs before in full there was just a whole tiny person at around 4 inches tall.

“What the actual ting ?? Am I seriously so underslept that my mind is making this stuff up???” Da-Jeong choked, taking such a wobbly step back that she fell on her .

“Ah, um, no, I’m fully real- sorry let me introduce myself! Kim Taehyung, your own personal fae at your service!” The small man exclaimed in his small but excited voice as he reached out a hand to shake before seeming to realise the sheer size difference and retracting it again. Da-Jeong stared at him in complete silence before letting out a huge snort and cracking up with laughter. Taehyung awkwardly scratched his head as Da-Jeong stood up from the floor, still laughing so hard she had to clutch her stomach.

“This isn’t real, you are not real. I’m just dizzy and confused because I’ve had a nosebleed for so long and I haven’t slept or eaten in like three days,” Da-Jeong wiped tears from her eyes as she calmed down and met eyes with the small creature. “I mean, a ing fairy, come on man. You can’t be serious? Like bloody Tinkerbell, nah nah nah,” she sat on the bed next to him, still chuckling.

“Yeah I get it’s a shock but are you looking at me? How can I not be serious? I’m 4 inches tall and I can,” he slowly lifted off the bed until he was hovering at eye level, “fly, I’m being pretty serious. But no, I’m not a Tinkerbell fairy, I’m a fae,” he grumbled.

“Mmm sure buddy, don’t fairies have wings though, where are yours- oh…” up close Da-Jeong noticed a faint green shimmer from his back which fluttered like a thin veil although you could barely see it.

“I’m a fae,” he muttered, crossing his arms and staring her in the eyes.

“Okay okay, a fae, but that still doesn’t make you real-” Taehyung drifted towards her face and grabbed hard at her nose, causing Da-Jeong to swat him away like a fly, he hit the pillow and let out a small “oof” sound.

“Bet that felt pretty real though,” he sniffed, dusting himself off as he stood up. Da-Jeong just stared in surprise, her heart rate increased and eyes wide.

“O-okay so lets- lets say that you’re real… what did you mean, my personal fae…?” Da-Jeong stuttered, shuffling away from Taehyung slightly.

“Ahhh now we’re getting somewhere! Okay sit down, this is gonna take some explaining- oh you already are, right…” and so he began to explain. He explained that every human had their own fae who would watch over them, these fae make decisions about their futures, careers, soulmates and so on. He also mentioned that each pair of soulmates shared a birthmark, for example, Da-Jeong had seven small dots which created a centimetre wide circle on her lower tummy and somewhere there would be someone with the same.

“Matching birthmarks, are you ing kidding me? That’s so dumb,” Da-Jeong rolled her eyes.

“Are you really going to insult the work of the fae right now? And anyway, yes, it’s like a fae labelling system okay,” Taehyung sighed before continuing his explanation. The fae hated to be called fairies, it was a bad name given to them by popular culture which gave them a ridiculous Tinkerbell-like reputation.

“So…so technically…. You’re like my fairy godmother?” Da-Jeong snorted.

“Yah!! Don’t even get me started on that and how wrong you are, I mean fairy godmothers don’t even do that much like they’ll give you a wish or two but they’re hardly in charge of your well-being and future!” Taehyung yelled, hitting her leg with his tiny hand. Da-Jeong laughed again but apologised.

“Okay, I’m sorry TaeTae, go on, continue- wait can I call you TaeTae? Ah sorry continue,” Da-Jeong smiled sheepishly, adjusting her position on the bed so that she now sat cross legged, facing Taehyung.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Taehyung shrugged, “so anyway, the reason I’m here, well I guess I decided I owed you an apology for the mix up with your soulmate…” he trailed off, scratching his neck and avoiding eye contact.

“Um…. Please elaborate? What do you mean… mix up with my soulmate..?” Da-Jeong asked nervously as she out the creases in her bed sheets to distract her mind a little.

“Well… yikes maybe this was a bad idea…” Taehyung began, taking a few steps away before floating a little further. Da-Jeong grabbed his small body in her hand and forcing him to face her at eye level.

“Ah!” Taehyung squeaked, trying his hardest to avoid eye contact, “okay so, um… well I never meant to make him so unreachable, I promise! I mean how was I supposed to know that men who become famous idols are practically untouchable??” He complained, wriggling as hard as he could to escape Da-Jeong’s hold.

“Kim Taehyung! What the hell are you talking about??” She tightened her grip and shook him ever so slightly.

“Okay! Okay! Listen I knew this was going to upset you because I personally added the romantic quality to your personality so I understand this is going to be very upsetting but I promise I’ll do whatever I can to fix it!” Taehyung squawked as Da-Jeong shook him, gripping onto her hand for dear life.

“You bloody better do but was is this ‘it’ you’re going to fix??” She replied impatiently.

“I’m really not meant to tell you who your soulmate is…” he gulped but another shake brought him to his senses, “buuttt in this case I think it is only right! Okay… so… ah- you know, ohh what’re they called, that kpop pop group- Thirteen? No Seven… Seventeen! Yes, Yoon Jeonghan of Seventeen, well it’s no coincidence that he is your bias… He sort of is… well y'know…” Taehyung trailed off looking utterly ashamed of himself. Da-Jeong dropped him, unable to speak she looked down at her hands in shock. “I promise we can still try and achieve it, I mean you wouldn’t be unhappy with anyone else like you remember that lass you dated last year?? You had a great time with her! So soulmates aren’t that important… I mean I guess they are but you can survive without them-” he stopped talking as soon as you stood up from your seat on the bed.

“I… I mean I don’t even know what to say? So you’re saying every relationship I have will be like the last one? None of them will be my soulmate?” Da-Jeong sounded crushed. It’s not that her last relationship had been bad but it had never been the best and it certainly didn’t last. Thanks to Kim Taehyung she was a huge romantic, love was an important thing to her and the idea that she may never experience the true love she dreamed of was crushing. Taehyung looked at her before taking a deep breath.

“You will experience it. You go back to Korea soon yes? Well I have some ideas…” Taehyung began.