Three quick raps on the door. Seungwan shifts in her slumber. Another three knocks provoke a groan, but no significant movement. Seungwan bolted upright at the final three slams, likely a much more fitting word to describe the way Irene was pummeling the door. Still half asleep, and definitely very grumpy, she trudged to the door to confront the transgressor. 

Swinging her door open, she catches Irene off guard. Standing there with her hand still raised, presumably in position to incite another series of impossibly strong knocks from someone of her size, Irene brings her hand down to her side.  

"What do you want?" Seungwan grumbles. 

"Thought I should wake you up for dinner."

Seungwan's eyes widen, visibly becoming more alert with Irene's statement. Surprised, she says, "Did I hear that right? Did you make me dinner?"

The corner of quirks up. "Now I didn't say that..." 

As Seungwan sighs, reaching to slam the door shut, Irene stops her. "It would be hard to cook anything when you don't have a single ingredient in your fridge. I opened it only to find a pineapple, a loaf of bread -- who even puts bread in the fridge by the way -- two tomatoes, and a lot of oranges. And that is no exaggeration, it's a whole shelf full and far more oranges than a single person would be expected to own.” She starts walking toward the kitchen, making a nearly imperceptible hand gesture beckoning Seungwan to follow, continuing, “I know that you lived with your best friend, which just leaves me with more questions. I have no idea how idea you two survived. No wonder she wanted to leave so quickly, she must've starved every day. Either that, or managed to subsist only on a large supply of oranges."

Walking languidly after her, Seungwan comments, "She was the one who bought almost everything in there." She stops, furrowing her brow in confusion, "But I have absolutely no idea why she would get that many oranges. She doesn't even like them!" Seungwan throws up her hands in an exaggerated display of bewilderment, before quieting down in realization. "I'm the only one who likes them." 

Irene interrupts her before she gets too emotional, "Surely you don't like them enough to have that many. Actually, I think your 'Seulbear' left a note on the huge box of oranges for you. At least she has the sense to give an explanation, but obviously not enough sense to stop her from turning her wallet inside out for the sake of leaving an edible parting gift." She opens the fridge door as Seungwan grabs a chair from their island, taking a seat. Pulling the yellow post-it-note off the box, she slaps it on Seungwan's cheek, breaking her out of her storm of muddled thoughts. Seungwan doesn't have the strength to protest, simply peeling the sticky note off her face, more interested in what Seulgi left behind anyway. 

With characteristically cute, lopsided, and extremely tiny letters scribbled out in green ink, the note reads:

"Hey Wannie! I had to run some errands and grab some new film before I left, and I happened to see all these oranges on sale! Not sure why, they look perfectly fine to me, but I thought you would like them! Maybe you can sink your teeth into them and make orange smiles, like you used to whenever I was down. I know you'll need to smile once I'm gone anyway~~  

- Your Seulbear : )

P.S. Maybe if you get a new roommate, you can share! I think I bought way too many for one person, even if you like them that much."

Irene shoves a peeled orange into Seungwan's hand before she can even make a move to refuse. "You're frowning too much. That's the opposite of what your friend wanted. Now here," The genie slides a slice into Seungwan's gaping mouth, earning a response of muffled questions, "Do the thing she was talking about."

Seungwan has half a mind to just spit out the orange, but it tastes surprisingly sweet for being on sale, and she's afraid that another thought about her ex-roommate would cause her to cry for the fifth time that week. Instead, she takes the safer option that doesn't threaten the wrath of a genie, who stands across from her, arms crossed in patient amusement. Biting down to hold the orange in place and replacing her teeth with the juicy sensation, she does her best sunshine grin.

Irene bursts out laughing, doubling over and clutching her abdomen as if her appendix just burst. With the amount of wheezing she was doing, she could fool Seungwan into believing that was the case. Attempting to stifle her boisterous laugh to no avail, but managing to suppress it to a chuckle, Irene talks through bouts of laughter, "Now I get what that Seulbear was saying! Seeing you make such a fool of yourself is really a sight to behold. One second it's Ms. Frowny and the next second it's Ms. 'I have an orange in my mouth and I'm going to pretend it's dentures!' Classic, classic."

Having watched the whole display while trying to get the bits of orange fibers out from between her teeth, she swallows, responding, "If it works, it works! I would do it all the time whenever Seulgi came back home exhausted from her long walks or shoots. As smiley as she is sometimes, I can always tell when she needs cheering up. You, on the other hand, I don't really get. What you would need cheering up from?"

Irene stills, letting silence empty the room that was previously full of her laughter. Seungwan tenses up slightly, wondering what serious blunder she has now committed.

"I could go into another rant about all of the grand disruptions that you have brought into my life, but I'm afraid I would kill you and lose the only place I have to stay at the moment." She shuffles, smiling slightly, as if to offset the dagger eyes she was previously shooting in Seungwan's direction. Seungwan was pinned, hands paused in their trajectory of bringing another orange slice to . Irene leans over the island, snatching the dangling slice and swiftly dropping it into . Seungwan just pouts. Eyes gleaming with her small success, Irene tilts her head to the side. "Don't be a crybaby. There's fifty more of these where that came from, but I won't peel them for you this time.” That elicits an even bigger pout from Seungwan. "Now that we've had a nice snack, I'm still starving. I woke you up for dinner so let's whip something up!"

"How are you going to cook with the sad state of the fridge?" Seungwan asks, swallowing the last remnants of the orange.

"The question is not how am I going to cook, but rather, what will you be wishing for?"

Wow, a question for a question. Two can play at that game. Seungwan thinks for a moment, before replying with a question of her own, "You're really going to make me waste a wish on dinner when I could just order take out?"

"And did I ever force you to make a wish?"

"Did you think that your heavy insinuation slipped past me?"

"Ok, ok, enough, enough you bickering baby. If you don't want to 'waste' a wish, you don't have to, but it is an option. After seeing the notes by the house phone, it looks like Seulgi does all of the ordering anyway. Just thought that it was funny that you can't even muster up the courage to successfully order takeout and yet here you are throwing haughty retorts to a genie."

"How do you even know that it's her handwriting? You've been around here for only..." Seungwan glances at the clock, "... six or so hours."

"Here's some more genie 'lore' for you, as the youth call it these days." Irene begins, with Seungwan fighting an internal battle with herself in order to suppress her rising laughter. "When we sealed the contract, I gained a lot of information about you. These background details help make our job much easier in terms of properly answering the wishes to precise specifications, even if you don't even know what you want. For example, I know that your birthday is February 21st, that your favorite color is blue, who your friends are, which isn't a lot, just Seulgi."

"I don't know how I feel about you knowing more information about me than even my best friend."

"Oh trust me, she still knows much more. Though I may be able to recall who your crush was back in the 3rd grade, most of this exposition is not enough for me to gain comprehensive insight into your character. I'm still lacking many details about your personality, though I think I'm finding that you are even more of a dork than all of this has already told me. A member of the baking club... I didn't think you could've been any worse than my preconceptions, but here we are. I suppose it will all be repaired once I get you to bake me a cake."

"First, we will never — and I mean never talk about Jessica. That was embarrassing, more than a decade ago, and something I had worked very hard to forget about until you, just now, ruined all of my efforts! Second, I'll just wish for one and save all the effort. I only bake cakes for people I like,” She huffs, crossing her arms in a weak form of defiance.

"Seems like that long nap restored your backbone. Care to use it to sit up straight and finally wish for some dinner?"

Seungwan realizes the ugly slouch she has been sitting in, straightening up and clearing , “So how do these work, do I just think of a wish and poof! Or...”

”Not exactly, it requires, at least, minimal effort on your end to verbalize your wishes. Just start with 'I wish' followed by whatever you are wishing for. It's not rocket science, so I'm sure that even you could understand what to do."

Unimpressed, and quickly growing tired of Irene's snark, Seungwan executes her first command, ”I wish for a better genie.”

”Sorry, can't do that. We're together until death do us part,” Irene frowns slightly, escaping Seungwan's notice, “Or until you decide you don't need me anymore,” She poses, tone lightening toward the end, tilting the conversation in a more playful direction than the statement at face value would suggest.

Not too fond of the idea of being married to Irene for the rest of her life, but much more fond of quieting her ever-growing stomach growls, Seungwan makes a more realistic wish, ”I wish for a nice dinner.”

”Vague, but fine. Your wish is my command.”

With the snap of her fingers, two plates of what looked to be her mom's special recipe of delicious tteokbokki appeared in front of Seungwan. The smell of the spice wafted through the apartment, reminding Seungwan of the days when she'd return home from a bad day at school and rush to hide in her room, only to find the scent of her mom preparing this comfort food lingering in the vents. She felt that every time she dug into the dish, her worries melted away. Watching her facial expression shift and soften, Irene smiled. Becoming more sentimental by the minute, Seungwan spoke in a gentle tone, almost whispering, ”How... how did you know?”

”Know what?” Irene looked away in feigned ignorance, trying to wipe the pleased expression off of her own face.

”This is what my mom makes me whenever I'm stressed. It's just what I needed right now.”

Taking a seat in front of the plate across from Seungwan, Irene shrugged. “Another thing about genies, and something crucial to our jobs, is that we have a keen sense of desire above all else. Once our contract was sealed, I was granted access to your deepest wishes and wants.”

Only slightly more concerned at this obvious breach of privacy, yet much more invested in the tteokbokki, Seungwan takes a bite and jokes, “Maybe you should start having your clients sign a terms of service contract. I feel like there was a lot of fine print I wasn't aware of.”

“As if you would've read it all,” Irene challenges. She pauses, as if deciding whether or not to say her following statement before continuing, “You're a lot more fun when you banter back like this. I think I'll have to re-evaluate my first impression of you as a stuttering dolt."

Seungwan focuses on the more positive side of that comment. ”Haven't heard the word dolt used since the sixth century, but thank you. I've had a lot of practice with Seulgi and I's constant back and forths,” Seungwan brightens, “Speaking of changing impressions, you seem a little nicer than yesterday. Obviously you still make fun of me at every opportunity, but you're much less...” Seungwan searches for a proper word, “...angry, I suppose?”

“Well I'm still not very pleased about the state of my home, but I've settled in quite well. Your roommate had a nice room, didn't expect that she would have a balcony. I spent the time you were out redecorating in order to make it more comfortable.”

”Didn't know that a balcony could change your attitude so radically. Seems like it's not enough of an explanation as to why you'd be nicer to me, though,” Seungwan smirks, hoping to coax an answer out of the currently, and perhaps rarely, friendly genie. Hopefully, she's not pushing her luck or the patience of Irene, both of which seem to be intimately related at present.

“Perhaps you're right. If you would prefer, I'll revert to my initial impression of you right now.”

Seungwan flusters, sincerely hoping that she did not just ruin all of the progress she thought she made with the cold girl. “No, no that's not what I meant. I just wanted to know what I've done to change your mind, that's all.”

”To be honest,” Irene teases, “You haven't done much.”

”What was it then? Was it the all-inclusive knowledge of my past, because I'm not sure why that would ever make you like me more.”

“Warmer. It wasn't necessarily the isolated facts about you that reshaped my perceptions. Those are still too superficial and unconnected for me to form the best idea of who you are. Your desires, however, seem to reveal much more about you.”

Seungwan stabs at her food, slightly nervous as to what Irene could have discovered. The girl was unaware about her own deepest desires as it was, and knowing that Irene had so intimate an understanding of what she truly wanted made her anxious. Noticing her growing discomfort, Irene eased her concerns. “You're different. Different than my other masters, that is. While they all had soaring ambitions and avarice, you don't have those same desires. Of course you still have your own goals, but they seem more humble, more realistic. You just want to be recognized for your singing, your music, your talent. You want to bring joy to others, even in the quiet recesses of your heart. One of your desires is for Seulgi to be happy, even though you would be rightfully disappointed that she's leaving you so suddenly. Oh, and there's one last one. You want to fall in love.”

The shorter sputters, feeling spice crawl up . She was already plenty surprised at seeing all of her secret wishes laid out like the pages of a magazine people leave out on their coffee tables, but seeing Irene flip straight to page six put her over the edge. As she always does to conceal her embarrassment, likely unsuccessfully, Seungwan resorts to humor. “Ah, yes, I like to sing, I love my best friend, and I've been single all my life! What great reasons to like a person.”

”You don't get it,” Irene says, a bit dismal, “You're humble. You're selfless. You're loving. Those are indeed great reasons to like someone. You're not a genie like I am, and you haven't seen the range of humanity like I have. The things that they ask for seek far more than just contentment. Even now, for dinner, your heart didn't ask for a decadent, prime-cut steak and the world's finest wine for refreshment. It just asked for a taste of home.”

Seungwan wasn't ready for a psychoanalysis of her character, feeling as though she understood herself even less after Irene's depiction. “You're praising me too highly.”

Irene's eyes speak with more disappointment than her words do. “You value yourself too lowly.”

Seungwan gets up from the table, carrying over their plates to the sink, which had been emptied over the course of their conversation. She directs a subdued smile at Irene. “Go ahead and rest up, I'll handle the clean up. Though I don't know what to make of this whole situation yet, I'm glad to know you don't detest me.”

Irene lightens the mood with her response. “I could never detest anyone who volunteers to do the dishes,” She grins, leaving toward her new room. “If you come up with another wish, just knock. I'll be out on the balcony.”

She focuses on the soap bubbles to distract herself from the thoughts sloshing around in her head like the water she's using to rinse the glass in her hand. Here Seungwan was, unwittingly baring herself to a near stranger. She feels that she's broken some of the ice between them, but wonders at the cost, wonders at how far they could go. Was there a boundary between master and genie that one couldn't cross? If there was, has she already crossed it? She scrubs away the questions as she scrubs away the sauce stains on the plate. 

Irene hears a knock on her door, approaching it hesitantly before opening it. “Here for another wish?”

”No, just a request, if you don't mind. Not one for Irene the genie, but just...” Seungwan thinks about the proper phrasing, “... Irene the roommate.”

Intrigued, Irene replies in affirmation. “Sure, what do you need?”

”Mind if I just hung out with you on the balcony? We don't have to talk, it's just — it's just that Seulgi and I would always watch the view of the city lights when I start to get too withdrawn into my own thoughts.”

Instead of replying, Irene just steps aside to let Seungwan walk in, and through the sliding door to the balcony. It wasn't the largest, as the property value would've been far too expensive for Seungwan and Seulgi to afford, but it was reasonably sized enough to be comfortable. It was clearly designed for only one person in mind, so in the past, the pair of best friends would squeeze in, leaning into each other to save more space. Seungwan didn’t think about the proximity before her sudden request, having to settle for brushing her elbows against Irene's every time they shifted. Somehow, it was just as comfortable.

They stood there in the cold night air, gazing as the streets lit up with the yellows and reds of cars going by, watching the traffic lights shift from green, to yellow, to red. Store fronts shut down their lights, employees locking up their doors, grabbing their bags, and heading home. People walked by on their phones, smiling as they texted loved ones that they would return soon. There were even couples, holding hands and wrapping jackets around each other, blowing hot breaths that visibly mingled, suspended in the air of the chilly evening.

From their spot on the balcony, the two didn't make comments on what they saw, preferring to soak it all in. They acted as if they thought that a single word might shatter the beautiful, delicate atmosphere they had surrounded themselves in. When the last car had whizzed by, and the streets were finally void of the bustling individuals and rumbling engines, Seungwan stepped back inside their apartment wordlessly. Only after making it into the hallway did Seungwan dare to speak. “Thank you, and goodnight.” Irene just nodded, turning back to look at the stars. Even after centuries of watching the constellations shift, she couldn't help but feel that they glowed slightly brighter on this night.