“So.. since you are a demi-God, you have aged up to nineteen and stopped, for a time, while you’re deciding whether or not to follow through with this whole.. God thing.” Chanyeol nodded at Jade’s words. It came out of better than his. “And once you transition to a human, you can’t go back up – or down – to your world. Baekhyun and all your other friends have to visit you?” Chanyeol nodded again. He was 100% positive this is what he story sounded like in his head, but looking back at previous moments of his story-telling.. that wasn’t the case for his oral story-telling.

          Jade just nodded, thinking she understood this a little better than before. She had gotten a small notebook from her desk and written notes down throughout his story; keeping track with Chanyeol’s words was hard at points. Somewhere in the story, an elf appeared, the mythical world of Atlantis appeared, animals becoming Gods in human form, and so on. What all that had to do with Chanyeol turning into either a God or a human – Jade didn’t know. She crossed out that stuff though. It was still confusing.

          “So what about the Lay guy?”

          “Lay,” Chanyeol said the boy’s name, with a weird accent that Jade couldn’t identify. It surely wasn’t an Asian accent.. or British.. and she was sure Gods didn’t speak like that. It sounded like “Lie” with a very long ‘ee’ sound. She ignored it though. “He’s a demi-God, like me, but I think he’s going to fully turn into a God. He was saying something about wanting to keep friends with Wu Fanny and all and I’m just – you can still be friends if you are a human!” Chanyeol laughed. Jade noticed, after all the times Chanyeol had burst out in laughter that his face turns into a unique and quite comical expression. She didn’t know how to describe it. One of his eyes would almost completely shut, compared to the other, and his nose would scrunch up and- she had to giggle at that. Or downright laugh.

          Jade decided later on that she’d do research. She remembered in school that she had classes that involved mythical things and Greek history. Which she was sure she’d find something about the Underworld on the internet. “Look!” Jade yelled at Chanyeol, who was God knows where in her apartment. Jade suddenly heard the abnormal running of Chanyeol as he rushed up behind her, nearly falling on her as she sat at her desk, laptop opened in front of her.

          “Yeah?” he asked, curious as ever. He eyed the bright screen and then the top of her head. She tapped the screen.

          “Your dad is called ‘Pluto’ in the Roman mythology,” she commented.

          “You’re looking up stuff over my dad?” he asked. “How?”

          “Curiosity killed the cat,” Jade said, not thinking about the common human expression. Chanyeol turned, panic-stricken, and searched the room.

          “Who is ‘Curiosity’ and why did they kill Jisook?” Chanyeol asked loudly, still panicking as he didn’t spot the white cat anywhere. Jade facepalmed and let out a loud sigh.

          “Babo, that is a figure of speech humans use, now stop with the drama and listen,” Jade’s eyes searched the screen on her laptop as she read. She wanted to know how much of this stuff was actually true. “Parts of the Underworld are nice?” Chanyeol walked over, crouched down next to where Jade sat and looked at the screen, not entirely sure what to look at, and nodded.

          “Very nice,” he commented. He noticed a figure moving on her screen – a Shimeji – and poked at it. Jade shook her head and kept reading. Would he ever learn?

          “Are people really reborn and sent back to Earth after a time down there?” Jade asked, amazed, as she looked at Chanyeol. He nodded and kept poking her laptop screen, completely focused on the Shimeji on the screen. “And the Gods do visit you down there I see.” Jade smiled slightly. That was nice. Before reading that, she assumed that in his fictional world that the Underworld was some Hell-fire place where demons roamed and Hades was evil and people avoided that place at all costs. Maybe it was different.

          “Whoa~” Jade said, leaning in towards her screen slightly, eyes wide. Chanyeol stopped poking the screen and blinked, watching her. He had no idea what she was doing, and didn’t question it, she might get mad.

          “What? Did I poke the thing too much?”

          “No. You have a three-headed dog? I didn’t know that was the dog that lived down there! I remember it from Harry Potter,” she told him, chuckling afterwards. He blinked, a bit confused.

          “Yeah, Cerberus. That dog has three different personalities in one. It’s annoying at times,” Chanyeol said casually, starting to poke the screen again.

          Jade read more from the page and then glanced at Chanyeol. “Who is Prosperine?”

          “Don’t even ask. That’s a long story,” Chanyeol said, poking Jade in the side. This was unexpected and Jade reacted quickly, letting out a squeak before falling out of her chair. She blinked at she stared up at the ceiling, everything hitting her instantly. Chanyeol began laughing. “Can you do that again? It was funny!” He stood up and looked at her, smiling wide.  

          “No,” Jade replied, shaking her head. She sat up, balancing herself on her elbows and frowned. She had fallen so much in the past week that she was surprised that she hadn’t gotten a concussion yet. Maybe she had. She wasn’t a doctor. Chanyeol reached out a hand and pulled her up once she grabbed ahold of it.

          “So, what else are we doing today?”

          “Relaxing.” Jade didn’t feel like doing anything. And she still felt like hiding in a dark hole somewhere far, far away from Chanyeol. No matter how hard she tried to ignore the fact Chanyeol had seen her earlier.. she just couldn’t get over it. It seemed like Chanyeol had forgotten it. That relieved her a tiny bit. Just a tiny bit. To relieve her worry even more, she imagined he hadn’t seen anything at all. That maybe, for a millisecond, he was blind. Like when he told her how Bacon blinded him that one time. Except Bacon wasn’t here. So, her worry just came rushing back. “Besides,” she continued, grabbing her cellphone from the desk, “aren’t you supposed to be worrying about where you have to go after this?”

          “When do I leave again? I can’t remember,” Chanyeol said, blinking. Jade sighed and continued to browse on her phone, ignoring his question. She walked into her room and shut the door, Chanyeol following and standing at her door, pouting. He had two days left. Sunday and then Monday. He still had no idea what he was going to do when his time was up. If all else failed, would he ask Jade if he could stay longer? Probably. But would she agree to it?

          Chanyeol sat down in the floor, in front of the couch, and looked at Jisook as she slept. He thought about what to do. Go back and face his parents? Was he ready to do all this? To go out into this world on his own and live without the guidance of his parents, friends, or the others in his world? Sure, he could, but so far, he hadn’t done the best. He would learn though, he knew that. Adjusting to being a full human shouldn’t be hard. If his mother was one once, he surely could be. Besides, he hated that world anyways. He loved his power though. He had to admit he would miss that the most.

          He still had until Monday to officially decide his plans though. He sat there, on the floor, playing with his fingers as he was lost in thought. What to do?

* * *

     He smiled at her with that devilish smile. One she hadn’t seen since a nightmare long ago.
She thought she’d lost it; she’d gone crazy and her mind brought the dream to reality.
But she wasn’t crazy and he was standing there, before her, dressed in nice attire and hair done perfectly.
He looked drop dead handsome and like a model. But he wasn’t.
He was like a devil in her eyes. And just before he clenched his hand around her neck to break it-
 

        “Not again,” Jade moaned to herself, raising her hands up to her head. Her head felt like it would explode. She squeezed her eyes shut, rubbing her temples. She hadn’t had nightmares in years. What was this? She decided to shake it off. Thankfully Chanyeol couldn't read minds or he'd just start blabbering about it all day when she got up. She sighed, turning over. She needed some pain aid for the stupid headache, but getting up wasn't an option her body was willing to give her. So she just had to fall back asleep.

➥ author's notes; ♡
In the next chapter, it's weird, still. But- Nevermind. Hope some of you are having a wonderful week~ I'm exempted from school all week. Woo~