Chapter 1
 

“That second guy in the left of the first row! Yah!”

Cho Kyuhyun simultaneously blinked as he heard his professor's voice. He straightened his back and looked at the book in front of him. He scratched his eyes, hoping them to see things clearly, but instead, his sight became blurrier than usual. He returned his look to the professor who was looking at him angrily. Clearly, the professor was referring to him.

“You dosed off for quite a time already! Answer this,” his professor scoffed as he threw that piece of chalk to his desk. Kyuhyun became widely awake as he stared at the professor blankly. He was new. No one might informed him about Cho Kyuhyun. He smirked as he got that piece of chalk which was thrown to him and went to the board. He stood there for quite a minute and analyzed that equation which was asked to be integrated. The equation wasn't exactly simple – it was more than complicated. “Can’t you answer that? Or don’t you want to answer that? Where's your calculator? You need a calculator for that-”

The professor stopped talking as Kyuhyun raised his right hand up, holding the chalk and pushed it towards the blackboard. But he didn’t write anything. The professor laughed mockingly as he walked towards Kyuhyun and tapped his shoulder.

“Next time if you want to sleep in class, be sure to prepare and to know the answer-”

“Stop talking. I am not yet finished,” Kyuhyun closed his eyes. The professor continued to mock him by asking him if his nap wasn’t even enough that he was sleeping while standing in front of the blackboard; that he couldn’t answer the equation because he was too bored. Then Kyuhyun opened his eyes and wrote something on the blackboard as swiftly as he could. He finished what he wrote and made the whole blackboard full with solutions. “There. Easy as one-two-three.”

Kyuhyun walked back to his seat and sat there. The professor hurriedly checked his solution and he didn’t find any mistake in it. The answer was correct. Kyuhyun left the professor speechless that his jaw nearly dropped because the equation really needed a calculator to be computed. Kyuhyun closed his eyes and tried to take a nap again, but the bell rang so he got his bag and left the classroom.

One must not underestimate him. Because he is Cho Kyuhyun.

***

“How long am I going to stay here?” Sungmin asked the giant who was holding that huge bottle he was in. He was looking through that small opening. “I can’t stay here any longer.”

“I can’t let you out because I don’t want anyone to see you. Leeteuk doesn’t want anybody to see you either. Remember that you are not like anyone of us.”

“Damn Siwon. Are you with me or against me? Is that even a thing to be happy about?” Sungmin asked, being impatient. “Leeteuk will never know if you let me out from this bottle now.”

“Alright, alright, Sungmin,” Siwon said. “But then-”

“Ah! Stop it,” Sungmin nearly jumped. “Anyway, where are we going?”

“The master told me to put you into a mission or something. I didn’t know what it is. He just said to me that I should give this bottle to the person who deserves you.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Sungmin asked as he sat. “So am I going to use my magic in my mission? How will we know if that person is the one?”

“Yes,” Siwon answered. Sungmin could really see his big, expressive eyes from where he was sitting. Siwon was looking at him that time. “Leeteuk provided you a necklace right? The stone of it will light if you meet the person already. You better be ready. You don’t know what mission it is. You’d only return as what you are after you had completed the mission.”

“How would I know if I finished the mission or not?”

“I guess you-” Sungmin felt the bottle shaking that made him hold the sides of it. His heart was beating very fast when he felt that Siwon fell down and he dropped the bottle where Sungmin was. He thought that it was already the end of his life as a warlock.

He was a warlock from Sapphire Blue Kingdom. He was one of the greatest warlocks in that kingdom – his sorcery was as powerful as Leeteuk, the King, himself, however, he didn’t know how to use his powers properly that they failed several times.

He was a half brother to Leeteuk because they were born with different mothers and one father. Leeteuk’s mother was the deceased king’s wife. She was one of the four beautiful maidens from the Blue Sea. These maidens had a voice of honey and a tone of milk. Their songs became spells which could control minds.

Sungmin’s mother, however, was a sorceress. She was a royalty who exalted from her kingdom because she wanted to learn her magical skills, but her parents discouraged her to do so.. Her prowess could destroy the whole kingdom when fully practiced.

One time, the king went for a ride and met her. The king fell in love with her, and she fell in love with the king. They began meeting secretly from a mountain where she lived. One night, the queen knew about this that she cursed the woman to give birth to a son which wasn’t as ordinary as other creatures living in that kingdom. That time, Sungmin’s mother was already pregnant with the king’s son. Sungmin’s mother tried to reverse her song spell but it was a curse that could not be lifted or reversed. Thus, came the king and her son, Sungmin, who really wasn’t as ordinary as other beings. His mother died from his birth. Sungmin lived with a woman who adopted him regardless of what he became.

The king knew about what happened to Sungmin’s mother, so he commanded the palace guards to throw the queen to the dungeons. Although she could control the mind of the king, she wasn’t able to do so because of her love to the king. She gave birth to Leeteuk in the dungeons, and the king spared his son from his mother’s death. Leeteuk grew as a child, knowing that his mother became a traitor. He despised her.

Since Leeteuk was the first child of the king to the queen, he was appointed as the new king of the kingdom when he was fourteen. Then years passed and they both grew older. Sungmin was living on that same mountain where his mother was, and the woman who adopted him cherished him like his own son. He learned that he had magic when he was eight, when someone tried to evade their home and he used his magic to save it. He continued to practice his magic, but the woman who adopted him thought that he would not be trained if he didn’t have a tutor. Because only royal people could practice magic, he was prohibited to do magic again, although the woman was curious where Sungmin got his powers.

The king before he died confessed that he had a brother, and he asked him to find him. Leeteuk did so. He met him in a woods where Sungmin tried to save him. Leeteuk was surprised to see him like that. He asked him his name, and found out that he was his lost brother because he saw that he was using the same magic as his father when he was still alive. He told Sungmin about that and asked him to come with him. The woman who adopted Sungmin let him go with the king and told him to train more in order to be a powerful warlock. Sungmin hated to say goodbye to her, but he still went with Leeteuk.

Yesterday night, Leeteuk told him that he would be doing a mission which may help him improve his ability as a sorcerer. Sungmin did not want it, but because he wanted to get out from where he was and because he wanted to go to the human world, he accepted his mission.

Sungmin bumped his hip hard as the bottle rolled over. He felt that he was going to throw up anytime.

***

Kyuhyun fell down when someone accidentally bumped him. The guy looked so hurt, so he immediately stood to help the guy.

“Are you alright?” he asked, helping the guy up. He looked at him from head to toe and noticed something different to him. He was wearing odd clothes, which looked like a costume from a play which had a fantasy theme. But then, he still looked like a human though, so he thought that the man was from a play.

The man hurriedly got a bottle and acted like he talked to someone in it, which made Kyuhyun be curious. The man looked at him after he had finished ‘talking’ with the bottle. He smiled. “Yes, thank you,” the man said.

“So, I’ll be going now-”

“Wait!” The man stopped him and handed him the bottle. “Take this bottle as my gift to you because you helped me.”

***

Sungmin knew Siwon bumped into someone. He knew that time that it would be a good opportunity if he would be given to that person. The sooner, the better, he thought. Even though the necklace wasn’t blinking, he called Siwon’s attention.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

“Yeah! So you should be careful next time. I think he is the one!” Sungmin shouted in delight.

“Are you sure?” Siwon asked. “Did the necklace light already?”

“It did!” Sungmin excitedly lied. “At last I could get out from here.”

“Don’t forget that you are in a mission and that you are not in a vacation. Do your job properly, Sungmin,” Siwon said and looked back at the person he bumped. He heard him say: “Wait! Take this bottle as my gift to you because you helped me.”

***

Kyuhyun looked puzzled on whether he would accept the bottle or not. He looked at the bottle first. It wasn’t different to other kind of bottle that he had seen before. It was the same wine bottle his parents used to bring him.

“No, there is no reason to thank me,” Kyuhyun said and tried to leave. But the man was insisting.

“Please. I will really appreciate it when you do,” the man smiled and continued to hand the bottle to him.

I guess, it’s okay. I’ll just re-use the bottle later, he thought and got the bottle. “Thank you.”

“Goodbye,” the man hurriedly went away. Kyuhyun continued on staring at him until he was completely gone. Then he looked outside the bottle.

“This doesn’t look weird at all,” Kyuhyun walked on the way to his house and put the bottle on his study table. He took a shower and went back to the bottle. He got a box of tissue to wipe the bottle. To his surprise, he saw something moving inside it then forcing itself to go out from it. On impulse, he immediately threw the bottle. He was looking at something which was moving and he was shocked to see someone who was as little as his palm.

“Hello there!” He greeted.