I am tired.
 

I put the last package down on the floor of my new apartment in Seoul, letting out a huge breath of relief. I sit down on the floor since there was no other place to sit on as of the currently empty apartment.

My back hurts like I'm an 80 year old woman who just tumbled down the stairs and twisted her back. Yup, that's how much it hurts right now.
 

The driver who helped me move could've been a little bit of a gentleman and offer me help with my boxes but no, that did not happen.

He drove off as soon as he unloaded them from the truck,  meaning I had to carry all of them by myself to the second floor because the elevator wasn't ing working either.

It wasn't a good day for me.

I got the opportunity to move to Seoul after being admitted into Seoul High School, one of the most prestigious high schools in South Korea.
 

I wasn't the least bit excited.

I had a lot of friends back in Jeju. And by friends I don't mean the normal group of friends that normal people hang out with.

Nope.

My house back in Jeju was right next to a massive forest, and the nearest house next to ours were the Jungs House, but even that was 20 minutes away from our own.

So I never had neighbourhood friends to hang out with and people in my school just hardcore , so I hung out with faeries and centaurs instead.
 

There's a lot of things going on about Faeries and how they are described and shown in movies, books and Wikipedia. Let's just say they are highly misjudged creatures.
 

People say they're evil, cunning little motherers that will only do something if it benefits them.

That is true to some extent. They are cunning and clever, and would probably feel no remorse if they lead a human to his death.

But once you actually gain their trust and get along with them, they are the bestest of friends once could ever ask for.

They wake me up in the morning, bring me materials I need for whatever spell I wanted to practice and were great listeners.
 

The centaurs taught me everything i know about the stars. Centaurs don't go out of their hiding much during the day, so I only visit them at night, gazing at the stars and talking about the constellations and what kind of future they tell.

The first time I ever met a Centaur was when my father took me to meet Thendu, the oldest living Centaur in South Korea.

My dad taught me a lot about witchcraft and about the thousands of magical creatures in different parts of the continent. For me, my dad is the greatest teacher, and is and always will be my bestfriend.

As for my mom, she's rather 'normal.' Although she knows nothing about spells and potions, she loves listening to me and my dad talk about it.

She would make pancakes and chuckle along to dad's stories while we sat at the breakfast table.
 

Looking around my empty apartment only filled with thousands of boxes containing bottles of sage, candles, sandlewood, spellbooks, my talking cactuses, potions and others of the like, there is a tight ache in my chest when I think about the gloomy mornings I'll have to spend by myself now.
 

Mom and Dad are probably heading over with the movers right now.
 

I get up from my seat on the ground, walking over to the boxes and checking the contents inside to see if the contents I need are inside.
 

I take out four black candles, tablespoon worth of Agrimony, Anise, Horehound, Sandalwood and Rue. After aligning them all,  I take out one piece each of Onyx, Jet and Hematite.

Assembling them all in the order I needed them to be, I take a large grab of burnt sandal wood, drawing a huge protection circle on the floor.

I arrange the candles so they are in a circle, I take the lighter and begin lighting the candles one by one. When the last candle is lit, the candles give out beams of light, each beam connecting with each other at the centre, and more beams radiate from the centre to different parts of the house, forming the protection.
 

By the light of four
Harm me no more

And the spell was done.

Being a modern witch was not always about enchanting plants to talk, hanging out with the faeires and centuars or collecting weird material and having thousands and thousands of jars in your room.
 

Often you had to deal with Wendigoes, Ghouls, Banshees and other demons out for your blood.
The number one rule of every witch or wizard is to guard their house with protection spells.
 

"Your protection spell is improving a lot."

I whip my head around so fast I'm pretty sure I heard a crack. My dad stood there along with my mom, both of them carrying something in their hands.

I'm pretty good at spells, especially healing spells and blocking noise out spells but I at making protection spells, which is one of the basic but most important spells you have to master.
 

"It has always looked good to me though." Mom comments as she walks to the kitchen to place the groceries on the island table.
 

Dad comes up to the circle, stopping just beside the line made by sandalwood as he inspects the contents inside it.

 

"That's a lot of Sandalwood." He comments at the messy ashes on the floor and my hands black and ashes all over the clothes I'm wearing.
 

"Yeah. I guess I was a little greedy with it this time." I chuckle, clapping by hands together which made more ash get onto my clothes, proceeding to stand up from the floor.

"Don't worry. You'll master it someday, maybe when you finally have the perfect will to protect something." Dad smiles as he ruffles my hair, something he always does when he's proud of me or when I'm making improvement. That really made my day a whole lot better. "Now go and wash up while your mom and I make dinner."

Everytime I up my protection spell, he tells me I don't have the will to protect something or I just don't have the desire to protect at all.

I still don't understand what that meant. I practiced over and over again, thinking of that something I wanted to protect, for example, my dog which I sadly had to leave, or my talking cactuses which I adored with all my heart, but I never improved.

After my shower, I walk into a clean living room. All my equipments were cleaned off the floor and the smell of bibimbap and bulgogi rented the air.
 

"I cleaned your equiments up since I didn't want the movers to get the wrong idea." Mom states, putting the steaming hot pot of miso soup down on the kitchen table. Only then did I realize that I had furniture inside now.

"Did you build an empire while you were washing up? You took an hour and a half." Dad looks at me pointedly. He wasn't a fan of hogging the bathroom for too long.
 

I flop myself down on the chair after helping mom serve the dishes. "Why are we even eating dinner now? It's only 5:30." I ask, swiftly grabbing my chopsticks to eat the food. It may be early, but my stomach is always ready for food.

"Well, we have a flight to catch in an hour. Your dad  has to go to a meeting in Hongkong and I have work tomorrow as well." Mom states while looking at me distastefully while I push food into my mouth.

"What? You're leaving? Me? Alone?" I'm pretty sure a grain of rice flew out from my mouth just now. I'm not always a messy eater, but when there's a huge amount of food in your mouth and you're shocked, it's an exception.
 

"Come on. Don't act like a baby. You'll do just fine. I redid your protection spell so it'll be safe." Dad merely throws me a thumbs up while he's pushing food down his throat, barely even paying attention to me.
 

I wasn't afraid of wendigoes or ghouls or whatever, I know I can fight them off to some extent. I just didn't want to be alone on my first night here.

"Yup. Don't worry Areum. Your dad's protection spells are marvellous. They've protected us since the day you were born." Mom pipes up from her seat.

I guess I'll be staying alone tonight.




 

In half hour's time, my parents have left me alone in the cold and empty apartment. Better as well start unpacking all of my stuff. It would take me ages to unpack and another century to arrange them to their designated places.

 

I take out cactuses first, and the first thing Yoomi decides to say is "Man, it was stuffy in there."
 

Yes my cactuses talk, so what?
 

"Sorry for not unpacking you guys sooner. I was kind of busy." I quickly apologize, taking the others out of the boxes as well.
 

"It's okay Ari. Did you eat already?" Yoora questions. They all call me Ari instead of Areum.
 

One of the many things I love about my cactuses is that they're always polite and they always ask about my health and stuff. I don't know, I just find it really sweet when someone takes their time of the day to ask if you've eaten or if you slept well.
 

"Yes I ate already. Okay, you guys can choose where you want to be in the house."
 

And then they begin choosing where they want to stay. Some say they want a place where there's lots of sunlight while some prefer the corner. Hera just states that she wanted to be where I will be in the most, so I kept her on the table beside my bed.

After arranging all the cactuses in where they wanted to be, I take out my constellation charts.
 

I've done lots of spells using constellations like Orion, Andromeda, Lupus and other constellations, but I mainly work with the seven brightest stars in the constellation.
I'm still lacking with my future reading with them, but practice makes perfect. Too bad the centaurs won't be here to help me anymore.

 

As for spellbooks, I hate the ones you can find at the human bookstores. They're crappy, they do nothing and make no sense most of the time. I actually did try to follow one before, and I almost set the entire house on fire because Hematite should not have been there at all.

And the runes. Don't even get me started. They're not even true runes that can actually work.

Most of my spellbooks are from dad, who got it from grandpa, who got it from his grandpa and the chain goes on. So I treasure these books to the stars and back.
 

The unpacking continues, my room becomes fuller and less normal, and by the time I'm too tired to do anything, it's already 2 am in the morning.

"Sleep Ari. You can continue again tomorrow." Hera says sleepily from the table. I yawn, squinting my eyes because they were starting to sting a bit.
 

I should take a rest and just continue again tomorrow. School doesn't start until next week so I have a good 5 days to unpack and arrange everything.
 

The reason it also takes me so long to unpack is because not only do I have lots of stuff, but I also want them to be arranged according to their type, what kind of spell is it used for, the colour, the brand and even the scent, they all have to be arranged perfectly.

 

I decide to call it a night because my back does not feel like a 17 year old's back. I don't even feel like doing a spell or charm on it to make it better, I just want to sleep.

 

I don't even bother to wash up either Because I'm unhygienic like that and it's not like a hot guy is gonna appear out of nowhere anyways. So I hit the bed and turn off the lights, wishing Hera a quick goodnight.

 

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

 

I don't know how long I've slept, I don't know what the is going on either. I'm still on my bed so that's a good thing, but my window is busted open and there are shards of glass everywhere on the floor and there's a guy standing on top of everything.

 

"What on actual fu-" I'm not able to finish my sentence when this guy, whose face I can't even see properly because of the dark, starts to make his way towards my bed.

 

"ing stay where you are. I know witchcraft and I'm not afraid to kill you." Despite me trying to scary, I just sound pathetic but surprisingly, my threat seems to work when the guy stops in his tracks, just a few steps away from my bed.

 

"Are you really a witch?"

 

"Yes I ing am. And I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in my hou- " He does not let me finish again when he suddenly scoops me up from the bed like I weight nothing and throws me on his shoulder.

 

"Great. You're just what I need."

 

This is what I hate about being a witch. I can't ing do anything without my materials. It would help a lot if I just had a tattoo without having to draw a new rune all the time.

 

So I do the one thing I can do, kick and squirm and try to punch him while I'm on his shoulder.

 

"Jesus, can you calm down for a second, witch?"

 

"Calm down? Hell no. I don't want to be kidnapped." I shout, still keeping up with the kicking although it definitely was not working.

 

Why is he so strong?

 

 

"Can you ing stop. I just need you to help my friend who got injured from a ghoul." He hisses, gripping onto me tighter than before.

 

A ghoul?

 

 

"So I'm going to take you with me whether you like it or not." He attempts to take me out from my window that he just broke, stepping on the shards of glass on the floor.

 

"Wait. I can't leave without my supplies."

 

"Supplies?"
 

 

"Yes. So let me down so I can take it." I'm kind of annoyed at this point and my stomach is starting to hurt because he does not have the softest shoulders.

 

"Is it those jars over there?" He points at the jars on the shelf I took all night to arrange them.

 

"Yes."
 

 

"Which ones do you need?" He begins to walk over the shelf.

 

"If your friend got attacked by a ghoul, then the ones on the left would be the ones I need. Oh, take the candles as well. 1 each of purple, blue and white."

 

He follows my instrustions and takes the things I needed with one hand, putting it in his jacket pockets and jeans pockets and basically anywhere that could fit.

 

"Take the sharpie too."

 

I could hear him mumble something under his breath, but before I could ask him what he said, he takes a huge leap and then jumps out from the ing window.
 

 

I feel all the hairs in my body stand up as the air hits my face like a ton of bricks, and we hit the ground before I even catch a breath.

 

"What on actual -"

 

He turns, grips onto me tighter before he begins to run wherever the his injured friend is.

 

Either he's a werewolf or a vampire. No human could ever jump out from the second window with a girl on his shoulder, and running at once like she weighs nothing at all.

 

It feels like his shoulder blades were drilling themselves into my ribcage, so in conclusion, that was not a fun ride at all.

 

I take a huge breath of air once he sets me down like I've been the one who's doing the actual running.

 

We've stopped infront of a brown door, and on the door, there's an image of a wolf howling inside a circle carved on it.

 

He opens the door and he motions for me to enter first. I look at him, finally able to see his face clearly from the light coming from inside.

 

Well, will you look at that. I really met a hot guy who appeared out of nowhere.
 

Once I enter the room, I'm greeted into the living room where there are currently 5 guys circling a couch with a wolf lying on it.

A werewolf to be exact, and his injury was not pleasant to look at.

There was a huge gash across his abdomen, clearly done by a ghoul.
 

"Is this the witch?" A tall guy questions the one who kidnapped me, probably the alpha.
 

"She is. I can smell sandalwood all over her." Another guy says. Guess my hour and half bath did not do justice in washing off the sandalwood ash.
 

"This is probably very abrupt, but please help our friend." The alpha bows his head, a sign of submission and respect in the books I've read about werewolves.

 

I could just be a decent human and help them out when the alpha bows his head infront of a witch like me. But you see, we live in a give and take world. If you take, you have to give. So I cross my arms feeling like a whole bad and look at him straight in the eye.
 

"What will you do for me if I save your friend?"
 

The alpha answers without a little beat of hesitation, "We'll do anything you ask of us."
 

Werewolves are loyal creatures. They think of their pack like their own blood and soul, and when a werewolf makes a promise, they hardly ever break it.


 

And that was all I needed before taking my jars and candles from the guy who kidnapped me and I walk upto the couch, all of them making space for me.

 

I check the wound, it's a relief I brought some supplies because a wound that deep wouldn't be able to be healed with a simple sharpie wound.

 

If it was in my own home, I would make a rune with some sage and also make a healing circle with some Rue ash, but I didn't bring those materials.

 

I place the three candles beside me, Purple and blue for healing and white to erase evil.  I take the myrrh oil, mint oil and sandalwood oil and mix them up.

 

"This might sting a little." I murmur to the black wolf who weakly nods his head.

 

Applying the oil on the wound, he lets out a weak whimper and I can feel the other wolves stiffening beside me.

 

I take the sharpie, drawing a rune on my arm, carefully and slowly not to mess it up or else it won't work.

 

Magick mend and candle burn,
Illness hath left by evil leaveth
Wounds hath left beest gone
Blood spilled rebound
and health once hath lost return

 

There's a long pause, it seems like everyone is holding their breaths and I kind of want to laugh but I know better than to laugh in a situation like this.
 

I stand up from my position on the ground, looking at the wolf who seems to be asleep now. I pat the dust off my shorts and turn around to look at the rest of them.

"It's done." I state.

 

One guy looks at the wolf, and then looks at me with narrowed eyes. "The wounds aren't healed yet. What do you mean you're done?"

 

"You can't expect a ghoul wound to stitch itself all up with a sharpie rune right? It's just a regular wound now and the cut won't be as deep as before. I would've been able to completely heal it if all my equiptments were here but you guys decided to kidnap me instead. You can treat it the way you want since it's only a regular wound now." I explain to the alpha.
 

He nods his head, and bows once again.
"We're sorry for dragging you out in the middle of the night."

 

"It's okay. If you waited a little longer, it would've caused for damage to your friend."
 

"I'm Namjoon. The Alpha of the pack." He holds his hand out for me to shake.

 

"Areum. Teenage witch." I shake his hand. I've always thought handshakes were an awkward greeting but I'm not too awkward with this one. Maybe it's because I just hate shaking hands with normal humans.

 

"Jungkook will drop you off again. He also broke your window so we'll pay for that." Namjoon says, referring to the guy kidnapped me.

 

"It's okay. I'll just repair it with a spell."


 

And with that, Jungkooo escorts me out of the house while Namjoon goes to check up on his pack mate.
 

"Hey. Can we just walk normally instead of carrying me on your shoulders?"


 

"Fine. Your house isn't that far away anyways." He agrees.


 

"By the way, couldn't you knock on my door instead of crashing into my bedroom window like that? I mean, yeah, it looked cool and all but -"

 

"So you thought I looked cool?"

 

Jesus, what is it with this guy and cutting me off in the middle of my sentence.

 

"You weren't cool. The window was cool."

 

I can see him roll his eyes although it was quite dark. His eyes were really sparkly and huge. Instead of a werewolf, he would suit being a cute little bunny more.


 

"What are you laughing at?"


 

oops

 

"Nothing really. By the way, are there more pack members besides the 7 of you guys?"


 

"The 7 of us are in a sub-pack from the main pack. But yeah, it's just the seven of us."


 

I've always wanted to meet a werewolf ever since my dad told me about them when I was 9. But in Jeju, it's mostly faeries, centaurs, mermaids and bakenekos. Plus, much like witches and wizards, vampires and werewolves blend among the human folk well so you won't know you passed a vampire in the streets.


 

It looks like my apartment building wasn't that far from their home so we reach in around 15 minutes of walking.


 

"You can drop me off till here." I say when we reach the entry.


 

"And you'll do what? You don't even have your keys so you can't enter."


 

Yep, completely forgot about that.



 

"Get on my back. I'll help you climb back up."


 

"Woah woah, hold your horses there. Do you think this is some sort of twilight ? You can't possibly climb up the second floor with me on your back. Yeah I know you guys are strong, big and bad werewolves but hey, let's talk about-"


 

"You're wasting time, you idiot." He pulls my arm and throws, legit throws me on his back and I hang onto him for dear life as he makes he jumps on the wall and kicks himself off up in the air and then grabbing my window sill.


 

"How the did you even do that." I ask in amazement, getting off his back and onto the window.  I jump inside the comforts of my room as he is still on the window.


 

"Have you thought about the favour you want from us?" He ignores me and questions.


 

"Yeah. I just want you all to come to my apartment tomorrow."


 

"Peculiar request but I'll tell Namjoon did.   Oh and by the way."


 

He looks sort of hesitant to say this, I raise my eyebrows, signalling him to continue.


 

"I kind of made your cactus fall from the shelf and I stepped on it."


 

"you did what?" my stomach drops to the ground beneath me as I whip my head around to see Yoora on the floor, her pot broken and stepped on.


 

I turn around again at Jungkook to possibly murder him but he's already jumping off the window yelling, "See you tomorrow!"