the power of alcohol

The Rise of the Mages
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[Dining room]

“Come!” Haechan had said, Mark going up to his friend and standing beside him before grabbing my hand. My eyes widened when Haechan held Eunwoo’s hand, my hand automatically holding Eunwoo’s as Haechan began to open the box and push us towards it.

“W-Wait, wait wait—” I gasped when I stumbled towards the box, suddenly dropping into nothingness with Eunwoo and Mark when I bounced softly, landing on what seemed like freshly mowed land. Blinking, I looked around me and couldn’t help but stare in awe at what I was seeing.

We were in front of a mansion.

An actual mansion inside a box. There were multiple floors, grass that was actual grass and a massive statue in front of the mansion with the words “Rumpelstiltskin”. I frowned at the name, wondering where I’ve heard that name before when I remembered that it was a fairytale back on Earth. Frowning, I remembered that it was about a tiny creature that was bad and granted wishes, stealing a baby princess unless people could guess its name. Opening my mouth to ask Mark, I saw Haechan drop down from the top of the box, landing softly onto his feet and smiling widely.

“Welcome to my mansion!” He exclaimed, clapping his hands.

“Nice statue,” Eunwoo said to him and he nodded, motioning to the big statue of a small-sized man with a long nose and a pointy hat.

“Yes. That’s Rumpelstiltskin. He’s my uncle. He built this mansion for me,” Haechan answered like it was general knowledge and I frowned, looking at Haechan. He did not seem like he would be related to a “Rumpelstiltskin.”.

“Rumpelstiltskin on Earth was a bad man,” I told Haechan and he whipped his face to me, shaking his head. “I mean, there’s a story of Rumpelstiltskin back on Earth too…” My voice trailed as I tried not to offend him any further.

“He used to be bad but then now he’s good!” Haechan cried and I apologized, seeing his big eyes fill up with tears. “He’s doing community service now to repent for his sins! I’m going to see Johnny now!” and with that he stomped away into the mansion when I saw my brother come out.

“Harin!” He exclaimed, running to me and giving me a hug. I took note of the glasses on his nose and he cupped my face lovingly before turning to Eunwoo curiously but not saying anything and introducing himself as Seungwoo, my brother. If this was Wooseung he would have already bombarded me with questions.

“I think I made Haechan cry,” I admitted and Seungwoo chuckled. “I said Rumpelstiltskin was bad on Earth.”

“I did the same too when I first saw the statue. That’s why Haechan doesn’t like me but likes Wooseung more,” Seungwoo said, giving Mark a high-five. Mark decided to go back into the mansion first while Eunwoo stood beside me, Seungwoo tackling me into another hug.

“Happy birthday, by the way. I wanted you to spend some time in a place that wasn’t your bed room so I thought of Haechan. I mean, Wooseung, thought of Haechan,” he said, smiling. “And don’t worry about making Haechan cry. He gets sensitive when people talk about Rumpelstiltskin. They all call him ‘The boy who hid Rumpelstiltskin’”

“Why?” I asked curiously, looping my hand through Seungwoo’s arm as we walked.

“Well, apparently Haechan grew up in an abusive environment. Evil stepmother, three evil step sisters and they would always starve him. He already was able to hide things in his pouch and would do so with food. And he was a baby then! Around 5 or 6, I think. Then one day he went down to steal some milk to drink when he saw Rumpelstiltskin in his kitchen.” Seungwoo told me and I listened intently.

“So, at that time Rumpelstiltskin was actually on the run because he had a bounty on his head. Haechan, not knowing that, befriended him and hid Rumpelstiltskin in his pouch for two years.”

“Why did Rumpelstiltskin have a bounty on his head? It means when people catch him, they’ll get money right?”

Wouldn’t that mean Haechan was giving refuge to a criminal? I thought, walking down what seemed like a long beautiful hallway with lit candles. It was hard to believe I was in a box.

“Yes, Rumpelstiltskin was actually a criminal. There is this one guy in NCT named Jung Jaehyun,” Seungwoo said lowering his voice as if he was ready to gossip. Eunwoo edged closer, also curious.

“Take this: Jaehyun is actually a son of a nobleman and he was conceived only because his parents asked help from Rumpelstiltskin. Rumpelstiltskin granted their wish but he said that if Jaehyun’s parents were not able to guess his name, he’d come and take Jaehyun away. That was when Jaehyun’s parents tried to guess his name and when they couldn’t; they guarded Jaehyun as a baby and put a bounty on Rumpelstiltskin's head.”

“Wow. Does Haechan know all this?”

“He does. Jaehyun does too and he doesn’t like hearing the name Rumpelstiltskin as much because Jaehyun was your typical sleeping beauty. From the day he was born until Rumpelstiltskin was caught with Haechan, Jaehyun was sleeping because Rumpelstiltskin put a curse on him that if he wasn’t going to be taken away by Rumpelstiltskin, he’d just forever sleep.”

“So how did Haechan end up here in SM?” I asked, engrossed in the story.

“They caught Rumpelstiltskin one day and was about to behead him when Haechan, who found out that what he was doing was actually magic, decided to pledge his alliance to the Order and train under SM in return for Rumpelstiltskin’s exempt of being beheaded. Apparently now his Uncle Rumpel is doing community service with the centaurs and being a good leprechaun. When they agreed with Haechan, Rumpelstiltskin then went to Jaehyun’s parents and lifted the curse by pricking his finger with a magic needle to wake him up. By that time, Jaehyun was already thirteen years old and because he was conceived by leprechaun magic and was cursed for a long time, he found out he had pretty unique powers and went straight to SM.”

Wow, and I thought Suho’s back story was complicated. Seungwoo pushed his eyeglasses up his nose, going to the door and pushing it open slightly and when I peeked through it, I saw nothing but darkness. Eunwoo, who seemed kind of suspicious, grabbed my hand squeezed it, pulling me behind him as he took the first step.

“SURPRISE!!!!!” A pop sounded and I jumped, seeing everyone sitting on a dinner table filled with food and party hats perched on top of their heads.

They honestly all looked like idiots.

 All my EXO friends were there and a few NCT people who I have seen with my brother but had no idea who they were. Mark and Haechan were clapping aggressively, more excited than I was.

“Ong Harin!” Baekhyun yelled, going up to me and hugging me while Chanyeol joined in. “Happy day you came to this world!” He said to me and I chuckled, hugging both of them happily. “… And you brought him.”

Baekhyun eyed Eunwoo who stood quietly beside me when I began to introduce him to everyone, saying that he was Xiumin’s step brother but not giving the details. Weirdly enough, Chen had came up to Eunwoo and began to introduce him to everyone from EXO and I was glad that none of them looked at Eunwoo like he didn’t belong despite being a non-mage.

While I was thanking Luhan and Tao who were pretty confused what was going on, but still going with the flow, I saw Haechan jumping up with Seungwoo trying to take out his glasses.

“Take it out! Bring Senior Wooseung out!” Haechan was saying and I laughed to myself, remembering how much he liked Wooseung. I wondered if he thought that Seungwoo’s glasses were magic and if Seungwoo took off his glasses, Wooseung would appear. “Take it out!”

“It’s my sister’s birthday, I want to spend time with her!” Seungwoo answered, trying to swat Haechan away when Haechan managed to grab Seungwoo’s glasses. My brother squinted, not able to see anything in front of him as Haechan gave an “AHAH!”

“Now you can’t see…. Change to Senior Wooseung now!” He ordered and before I knew it, I saw Wooseung come up, his eyes relaxing as he stopped squinting.

“Haechan. You have got to stop doing that,” Wooseung warned, the younger male wrapping his arms around him; clinging to his lower half. “Seungwoo deserves to spend time with Harin too… Oh, Harin!”

Pushing Haechan away and shushing him to cut the cake, he bounded to me and hugged me so hard I thought I would break. He brought me to the table and smiled, telling me that I was now twenty-two and I had always made him proud.

“I tried to show them what a birthday party was like on Earth and Baekhyun borrowed a book in the library that showed 5-year old kids with party hats. He gets mad at anyone who tries to take off the hats because he wanted today to be perfect for you,” Wooseung told me, straightening a pointy birthday hat on his head.

“Happy enlightenment day, Senior Harin!” Mark said loudly from the back. “Wait, didn’t you just get your powers?”

“Right. Has it already been a year? Senior Tao, what did you do?” Haechan asked, looking horrified at Tao who looked tiredly at the younger male.

“Not enlightenment day. It’s her birthday, the day she was born,” Wooseung corrected boredly, seemingly for the umptieth time. 

“Really? If you say so! You’re the best!” Haechan countered to Wooseung, smiling brightly. Haechan sometimes reminded me of Baekhyun, the childishness; the bright smiles. Baekhyun was more careful with strangers though, and that was confirmed when I saw Baekhyun talking to Eunwoo. I stood up, pulling a chair out from beside Eunwoo to sit beside him.

“I already knew it was Harin’s birthday. She told me when she would come to the infirmary every night to talk to me,” Eunwoo was telling Baekhyun and I felt his hand go up to mine, intertwining our fingers as he leaned back onto the chair. Whatever Eunwoo did, it felt so natural. He squeezed my fingers and I felt how cold his hands still were.

“Every night in the infirmary? So that’s where you would go,” Sehun’s voice suddenly said and I almost forgot that he was there, his eyes flickering over to Eunwoo’s hand that was holding mine. “Interesting.”

Kyungsoo was also staring at Eunwoo and when he caught my eye, I saw Kyungsoo raise two hands to form a heart before giving me a thumbs up.

“Okay, time to blow out the cake!” I heard Wooseung say and I saw those from NCT who I didn’t even know gather while those from EXO stood by the cake. Wooseung rummaged through one of the bags before throwing his hands up into the air. “We don’t have a lighter.”

Everyone turned to look at Chanyeol.

“What? No! I’ll end up destroying your realm!” Chanyeol said to Haechan who nodded.

“I got it,” a guy suddenly said and I didn’t know his name, but his pale face and sweet smile were enough to make me feel like he was a good guy.

“Thanks, Jaehyun,” Wooseung told the guy and I raised my eyebrows, realizing that he was Jung Jaehyun—the guy Seungwoo was talking about in his story about Rumpelstiltskin and Haechan. I wondered what his power was and I heard him muttering under his voice and even though it was low, I could tell that it was hum.

“Jaehyun is going LALALA!” Haechan said, jumping off the chair.

“They are here. Haechan, go and pick them up, please,” Jaehyun said politely and Haechan flew out the room. He looked like a prince, and a taller more muscular male stood beside Jaehyun, as we all waited.

It didn’t take long before a rustling sounded and before I knew it, I saw small fireflies zoom into the room. My mouth dropped open in awe at the beauty of the small insects and I saw the insects suddenly form letters in the air.

“HAPPY BIRD DAY”

I let out a snort of laughter as Wooseung chuckled at the misspelling.

“Jaehyun, it’s birthday. B-I-R-T-H then day.” Wooseung told him and Jaehyun turned a light shade of pink, apologizing and fixing it; the fireflies moving their wings into a very bright and sparkly “Happy Birthday” in the air.

“He is able to control animals,” Eunwoo said to me, whispering and I nodded, smiling up to Eunwoo who was staring at the insects that fluttered. I saw Jaehyun stand up and have one firefly land on his palm before he began to light the candles with the firefly's .

“Thank you, Jaehyun,” I said to Jaehyun who bowed, smiling back.

“You’re very welcome, Senior Harin,” he replied and before we knew it, a very loud Baekhyun told everyone to wear their hats and everyone erupted in a very shaky “Happy birthday song”.

“Happy bird day—Birthday…”

“Happy born day… to Senior Harin,” Mark said, missing a beat with his quaking pupils.

“HAPPY BIRTH DAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! YOU LOOK LIKE A MONKEY AND YOU SMELL LIKE ONE TOO!” Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Tao sang and I blinked; surprised at their version of the song. Baekhyun looked at me for a reaction and I clapped loudly to show that I was really impressed. Baekhyun beamed, satisfied and it wasn’t long when we began to dig in on the food.

“Thank you, everyone,” I told them, both NCT and EXO clapping their hands at me. “And thank you, Wooseung for trying to make it special. You too, Baekhyun.”

I sounded like I was making a speech, but it was a sign of gratefulness that I gained more than just friends from being in SM. They smiled at me and Eunwoo grabbed a flower on the table, tucking it at the side of my ear and telling me I looked beautiful. I couldn’t help but blush, thanking him.

The dinner table was weirdly silent for a birthday party when a guy beside Jaehyun asked Sehun a question, chewing on the roasted chicken that I recognized was the one that Haechan gave me,

“Senior Sehun, is there any update on possible war? Is it really going to happen?” He asked Sehun, frowning. Luhan sighed when he heard the question.

“Of course, there will be one, Johnny. That’s the reason why they’re training us so hard these days,” Luhan said to the guy named Johnny who played with his food. Johnny was taller than all

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mandalee
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nehaosta_05
#1
Chapter 49: <span class='smalltext text--lighter'>Comment on <a href='/story/view/1444457/49'>Epilogue: Part III [Kids!...</a></span>
Hey!!! This story was like gold. Too good. Plot good, Storytelling, POVs, references to fairytales etc etc and so much more. The drawings Kyung did and the way he spoke in broken grammar. It was all groups came together for some Kcon festival or something. Superb story with correct amount of fantasy and plot. It was good to see so many side characters and they carrying out the story. Idk what else to say . I waited throughout the story to complete and then comment because I was so indulged . Took me 3 long days to finish it but it was so worthwhile. I don't have words to say. Really really good. It should get featured already. It has so many good elements.