"Sorry? "I stared at him blankly.

"I am at your service, master." He repeated himself, this time slower.

I could only see the top of his head as he faced the ground. 

I cringed in discomfort and bent down, grabbing him gently by the shoulders, and beckoning him to stand up.

"My name is Jeon Harim. Please call me by my name.” I said, staring at him.

Confusion could be seen clearly on his face. It was literally written there. 

“I am not supposed to address you by your name, master. It is considered very disrespectful.” He replied blankly.

“Oh, I see.” I stared at the ground, with a crestfallen expression. 

He dropped down to his knees again and started apologizing. 

“I am sorry, master. Please don’t punish me.” He pleaded desperately. 

Shocked, I quickly crouched down next to him.

“No, why would I do that, even if you did something wrong, I am not in the position to punish you,” I said frantically. 

I grabbed his hands and pulled him into a standing position with me. He continued looking down and avoided my eyes. 

“You are my master and I made you upset, I’m sorry I made a mistake,” He said, voice void of any emotions.

I sighed. This was coming to be harder than I thought. 

"First of all, you did nothing wrong. Secondly, please do call me by my name, the term ‘master’ makes me uncomfortable. Lastly, we are both human and therefore should be treated as equals. " I tilted my head to make eye contact with him, hoping to convey the message in my eyes that I meant what I said. 

"It does not work that way, master. My apologies.” The boy said stoically.

"Well, you have plenty of time to get used to it. I am not taking that for an answer.” I sighed, walking towards the bench.

He followed me slowly, standing beside me while I took a seat.

"Sit down.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him to sit next to me.

He sat down, staring straight in front of him. The silence was deafening.

"Erm...What’s your name.” I asked, breaking the ice.

"I do not have a name; my name will be whatever you call me," he said monotonously. 

 Oh, hell no, he did not. 

"Did you pop out of my ? I wasn’t pregnant with you for nine months so don't expect me to name you.” I said, firmly. 

He stared at me blankly as my words processed in his head. He finally understood and cleared his throat looking away as the tips of his ears slightly reddened. 

“My name is Kim Joon Myeon. You can call me Suho.”

“Hi Suho, nice to meet you, can you please show me what you can do.” I turned to face him, excitedly.

"I can't show you without commands. You must tell me what to do,” He said to me again emotionlessly.

I sighed. He is going to be a tough nut to crack. 

"Look, Suho. I am new to all this Valaen and Ivise thing okay? So, I don't know anything. Please, just show me.” I pleaded with him.

He sighed, walked to the side of the pool, and pointed at it. I focused my attention there and saw the most intriguing thing. The water swirled in big circles and gained speed. It was a mini whirlpool. 

"Wow…" My mouth dropped, and I ran to the edge of the pool to see it closer.

He cupped his hands together. He then removed the hand from the top and revealed a beautiful rose made from water.

I walked over and extended my hand towards the bottom of the stalk. The moment my fingers met the rose, it fell apart. I wiped my hands on my sweatpants.

“That’s so cool,” I said, eyes twinkling.

Suho nodded without a word.

“Will I be able to do that too? I asked Suho.

“When you collect a full stalk of petals, yes,” Suho said

“Oh, whatever, let’s go grocery shopping, I opened the fridge just now and it was empty.” I rubbed my stomach, walked to the front door, and locked it.

I threw the petal in the air like I saw DK do and it attached itself to the stalk on my other hand, the symbol glowed a light blue as it did so.

“Suho, what does this symbol mean?” I asked, showing him the petal.

“It’s a symbol of an Ivise with a water ability.” He replied curtly.

I nodded and walked to the gate, Suho trailing after me. We made our way out of the campus, and to the nearby supermarket. I grabbed a basket and passed it to Suho and grabbed another basket myself.

“Grab anything you want; I will pay for it!” I told Suho, smiling at him.

I headed straight to the instant food section, and grabbed bags of instant noodles, before heading to the snacks section and raiding it, filling the basket with different snacks. Then, I grabbed a carton of 30 eggs, and 2 bags of kimchi.

This should be enough for both of us to survive for a week. I turned to see Suho with an empty basket, following me. He looked at my basket, sighed, and turned to disappear somewhere down the aisle.

I shrugged and looked at my list to see if I had missed anything. I made my way to the aisle with household items and picked out the items that I lacked.

While deciding between buying strawberry milk or chocolate milk, Suho appeared next to me with a basket filled with a variety of vegetables in his left hand and a sack of rice in his right hand.

“That’s a healthy diet you have,” I said, looking at his choice of food.

“That’s an unhealthy diet you have,” He deadpanned, retorting my comment.

I pouted and put both cartons of milk into my basket, before attempting to lift the basket, only to find that it was too heavy for me to lift. I squeezed out every ounce of my energy and finally managed to get it off the ground only for a veiny hand to intercept the basket. Suho headed for the cashier with it and the sack of rice, leaving the basket of vegetables for me to take.

Smiling, I followed him and paid while Suho grabbed the grocery bags without a word.

“Suho, give one of the bags to me, isn’t it heavy?” I asked, reaching for one of the bags in his hand.

“It’s ok, I’ll carry it, just lead the way, master.” Suho jerked the bag away from my reach.

“I still have some shopping to do, do you want to go back first, I will call a cab and give you the house keys. Just leave the groceries on the table, I will sort them out later.” I said, fishing the keys out of my pocket.

“Harim,” Suho said firmly.

“Y-yes?” I asked, surprised that he suddenly called me by my name.

“Stop being so considerate and do what you need to do. I am not leaving you alone.” Suho said, sighing.

Speechless, I walked into a clothing store got some clothing for myself, and headed to the men’s section, grabbing some clothes that seemed to be in Suho’s size. I paid for the clothes and called for a cab back to the campus. Once at home, Suho put the groceries on the table and started to unload them.

“Suho.” I grabbed his forearm, stopping him.

“Yes, master.” He replied, immediately.

“Can you call me by my name from now on?” I asked softly, making eye contact with him, only to be met with emotionless eyes.

“It was only to stop you from carrying the bags, master. I apologize for overstepping my boundaries.” He said, bowing.

“What if I ordered you to call me by my name?” I shot back at him, annoyed at the generic answers he had been replying to me perfunctorily.

Suho stood in silence.

“Then I will do so since you ordered me to do it.” He replied.

“Fine, do what you want, call me master or whatever makes you comfortable. Just go rest, I will deal with these.” I sighed, ruffling my hair in annoyance. 

“Yes, master.” Suho bowed again and disappeared.

Oh my god…I told him to rest not ask him to go back to his petal. Whatever. Pulling out a chair, I slumped lethargically into it, running a hand through my hair. I took out my phone and pressed into the phone app. I keyed in a string of familiar numbers and a familiar contact name popped up. I dialed the number, and it went through in seconds like he was anticipating my call.

“Yes, sister dearest,” Jungkook said, picking up the call.

“Oppa, is Mum and Dad with you?” I asked.

“Yes darling, we are here, you are on speaker!” Ha Joon yelled.

“Great. I have so many things to tell you, I don’t even know where to start.”

____

A/N

I changed the whole chapter because I felt the pace was too fast. For someone who has suffered from being treated badly for years. The Suho in the old chapter warmed up to Harim too fast. 

- lux