Chapter 15 

❝I wish to always have someone there for me.❞

Krystal

[Thanksgiving Day; Lydia's Carnival Theme Fashion Show] 

Oh. My. God.

I scanned my eyes over the volunteer list again where my name was.

Park, Krystal--> Kissing Booth

"ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?!" I shouted at the clipboard holding the names and stations of the volunteers. "ARE YOU LIKE SERIOUSLY, SERIOUS WITH ME?!?!"

"What's wrong Krystal?" Luhan stood beside me looking over the list as well. I scanned him from the corner of my eye taking careful attention to the attire that he was wearing. So, okay, he did look good in a suit with his hair in that certain coif. I mentally claimed bragging rights to seeing such a sight next time I saw Jesy and Annie.

"Whoever made this volunteer list put me in the freaking Kissing Booth." I turned to him grabbing him by the collar and shaking him around. "THE KISSING BOOTH DAMN IT." I growled crossing my arms over my chest. "Look, these lips are not a ." Not only would I be making lip contact with complete strangers, but also I just bought this new color two days ago. I would have to buy another one by the end of this night; having to reapply the lipstick after every kiss.

Luhan laughed shaking his head as he took my hands off his collar. "Krystal, its all for charity. So...you can pucker up for just a few seconds pretending that every boy is me, all right?" He winked at me sending a weird flutter to my chest. "Then again...maybe you won't have to pretend for long." Genie boy started to walk away.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" I stomped my heel into the ground in annoyance. "HEY! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT COMING TO MY BOOTH!!" I turned my head to the sheet again planning some kind of evil revenge on Luhan, wherever his booth was. I saw his name and traced my finger to the location he was assigned to.

The Corn Dog stand.

"That lucky bastard...." I whispered under my breath as I re-entered the party scene. Artificial turf were set everywhere inside the building, including the catwalk in the middle of the floor. Bright lights, loud carnival music, and carnival-themed colors were in every nook and cranny I saw. Outside the doors of the building was where the REAL carnival was, opened to the public and all the proceeds would go to charity. After the fashion show for the VIP guests was over, they had a chance to join in on the fun outside as well. That's also the part where I would have to wear what the other volunteers of the event wore: a Polo yellow shirt, red suspenders, jean shorts, and knee high white socks with Black Converse.

Yay.

"Oh! Noona! There you are!" Jay called me out, walking towards me. "Did you check out what booth you were assigned to?"

"The kissing booth..." I said in an inaudible voice level as I started to straighten up his suit.

"The what?" Jay asked. I looked up past my lashes and could tell that Jay really didn't hear what I had said.

"The Kissing Booth damn it!!" I exclaimed at an audible tone for only Jay to hear. He must have heard it that time because he burst out laughing.

"So that's where Hyung decided to put you after all" Jay said as he started to walk towards the assortment of food on the long table.

"Wait, so Luhan was in charge of the volunteer list?!" I growled angrily, clenching my clutch in my hand and forming a fist in the other.

Jay nodded as he bit into a chocolate covered strawberry. "Yeah. Lydia told me he insisted on taking some work off her hands, and that's what he was assigned to do."

"So it was all that Genie Boy's fault damn it..." I said under my breath as I walked away from Jay, heading towards the backstage area. "For all I know he could've casted a spell on Lydia to make her hand the volunteer list to him and now I'm put into this position." I tightened my hands into an even tighter fist as I passed the guard getting backstage access with ease.

Genie boy is going to get it.

"Oh! Krystal!" One of the directors of the fashion show came up to me with a frantic look. "Have you seen Lydia anywhere??"

"She wasn't in the front anywhere, so maybe she's somewhere back here?" I scanned the crowd of models, hairdressers, and makeup artists. Nope, no loud, bleach blonde shouting "Krys! Krys!"

Ugh, that wretched nickname.

"She's no where in sight back here as well!!" The director began to go through the list on her clipboard that was either missing or ruined. I nodded my head to show that I was listening, but to be honest things were coming in through one ear and out the other. This was Lydia's problem to deal with, so where is SHE??

"Look, just do the best with what we have right now all right??" I patted her shoulder giving her my best reassuring look. "I'll go and find Lydia and give you a call when I spot her, all right?"

The director nodded and turned her head to start shouting at one of the assistants. I was turning to walk out when a familiar face stopped me in my tracks. I squinted my eyes, and saw the boy smiling. Before I could call him out, he turned away walking through one of the curtains that was supposed to act like a wall; I ran after him and stepped through the curtain as well. I had found myself following him through the ground floor of the hotel until we reached an empty hallway.

"Hey! You!" I pointed shouting as I saw the boy continuing to walk, ignoring my calls. "Hello!! I am calling you genie boy #2!! HELLO!!"

The boy finally stopped at the end of the hallway and he smiled. Ugh, I found that cupid's arrow lip cute at first, but now it was just getting so ing annoying to see. He shook his head to the left then continued to walk as if he wanted me to follow him. I know I shouldn't be following strangers, but hey he was a genie.

And from experience, genies were NOT rapists so...why not?

I turned the corner and the genie was standing at the end of the hallway in front of a pair of double doors. Before I could call him out once more, he disappeared into a cloud of his own magic leaving me all alone.

"What the hell is this ?!" I exclaimed to myself as I walked towards the double doors he was recently in front of. "This better lead me somewhere good or else I am going to bust him in the if I ever encounter him again."

As I walked closer and closer to the doors, I heard...crying. I did the old fashioned trick of trying to peek through the key hole to see who it was, and to my surprise it worked: it was Lydia. Sitting alone inside an empty lounge area in her red Versace gown, her matching heels off and by her feet, all while her makeup was streaming down her face. I felt a sudden pang of feeling hit me in the chest as I watched her grab tissue after tissue from the box, wiping most of her eye make up off. Wait, I felt a pang of feeling??

Was I actually feeling sorry for Lydia??

For some reason, flashbacks of the times I cried like that started running through my mind. If there was one thing I remembered, it was the pain of having to go through whatever I was crying about...alone. Whenever I did cry, I secretly always wanted someone there by my side reassuring me that everything will be okay. Hearing it from myself wasn't good enough. I needed to hear it from others so I knew that other people thought the same thing as me.

That I wasn't wrong.

I started to form my hand into a fist to knock on the door when I stopped half way. What the hell was I doing? Why in the world would I be the one to comfort her? I mean, sure I said all those things but a stranger comforting me was not what I mean by "somebody". If I were her I needed someone like Jay, Appa, or one of my friends. A light bulb went off in my head, and I opened my clutch, taking my cell phone, and dialing Appa's number.

It went straight to voicemail.

Damn it! I scrolled through more names....oh! Jay and her were pretty close so...

"Hey yooo this is Jay please leave a message--"

Double damn it! How about...Luhan?? I mean, if Appa wasn't dating her, I'm sure Lydia would go for Luhan....

"Hello?" Luhan answered.

"Luhan! It's me! Krystal!" I whisper shouted as I started to walk away from the door. "Thank god I got a hold of you!"

"Oh? Why's that?" Luhan asked.

"Because I just found where Lydia is and she's crying!" I replied as I found a chair off to the side, sitting down on it. "Can you come here and well...comfort her?"

"What? Why should I comfort her?" He asked. "You're there Krystal. Why don't YOU go comfort her??"

"Because..." I said nervously pulling down the skirt of my dress. "Because its awkward for me to comfort her."

"This is your chance to get closer to her Krystal. Besides, it is HELL out here and chaos is everywhere. They are ALL asking for Lydia and these people don't look like they want to say congratulations..."

I hung up the phone without another word only letting out a sigh. I turned my head from my phone to the door then back at my phone. If she was anything like me...she needed a friend right now. So, well, maybe I should call that director from earlier and--

"So, why aren't you going in there hmm?" A voice whispered in my ear making me shriek and jump out of my chair. I turned around spotting genie boy #2 who I had followed all the way here, smiling at me once again.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO BE SNEAKING UP ON PEOPLE LIKE THAT?!" I tried to grab him by the collar to show him a piece of my mind, but he vanished. I looked around then found him floating close to the ceiling.

"I'm sorry. I tend to do that a lot..." He nodded his head. "By the way, my name is Kyungsoo. Butttt, my genie name is D.O." He pointed at me. "Krystal, right? Luhan Hyung's master?"

"Look Kyung-do, do-do, or whatever genie boy #2..." I said using my hands to flap away all the random names I had called him by. "Why are you here anyways? Shouldn't you be, oh I don't know, tending to your own master??"

"I don't have one at the moment, so I just roam around Earth visiting my other brothers or messing with humans in general." He floated right back down until both feet hit the ground.

"So is there a possibility that all this," I pointed at the door where Lydia was behind bawling her eyes out, "one of your 'messing with humans in general' tactics?? 'Cause I mean, I did follow you here out of the blue and--"

"Oh, no no no no noooo" D.O shook his hands in front of himself while shaking his head. "I mean, I mess with humans but not to that extent." He pointed to the door. "What's happening in there is the REAL thing."

I gave a deep sigh. If I couldn't get a hold of anyone, then that would mean I would have to go in there myself damn it. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head and I snapped my fingers pointing at Kyungsoo. "You're a genie right?? So you have magic powers!! Can you transform yourself to look like somebody and--"

"Sorry" Kyungsoo wagged his finger at my. "I only do such special requests from my masters. And--you're not my master." He snapped his fingers, and in a blink of an eye, an outline made of smoke replaced where his body stood before.

I pounded my head with my fist trying to get a hold of myself. All right, okay, so it was all up to me. It wasn't like I was going to have a deep, mind blowing conversation with her you know? I'll just sit there, pat her on the back, "listen" to her problems, pat her back even more, and end it with "everything will be okay." If I played my cards right, then I would be in and out of that room within 5-10 minutes. I walked up to the door once more and took a deep breathe before knocking on the door. I heard a muffled reply and without a second thought I opened the door and stepped inside.

Here goes nothing.

Luhan

I started pacing back and forth for the nth time in the hotel room I had "booked" for myself (A.k.a. finding an unused room & claiming it as mine.) I checked my watch again. It had been how long ago since I sent Kyungsoo off to do some work and he STILL wasn't back? He could kiss that night-out-of-the-town agreement goodbye.

"I'm backkkkk" a familiar voice popped up on the couch. I looked to see Kyungsoo sitting on the couch with 3D glasses around his eyes, turning the living room area into a 3D movie theater.

"Yah! Where have you been?!" I pointed at him running my hand through my hair. "I've been waiting for you for FOREVER since I sent you to do your job."

"Hey, not my fault that your master is an indecisive little thing" Kyungsoo shrugged as he magically formed a tub of popcorn in his hand. "Besides, you never clarified that this job had a time limit soooo..."

I sat down beside Kyungsoo letting out a sigh as a rumble from the speakers sent the boy next to me roaring with excitement. Yes, I had finally taken the actions needed to force a wish out of her. Though I had sent Kyungsoo out to set up my dirty work, I had been planting the seeds of the plan for a while now so that was enough work for me. From that day at the drive-in theater to now, the true results of my work will show by the end of this night with whether the wish counter stayed at 2 or tick down to 1.

This Lydia and "mother" complex plan HAD to work or else I could kiss another 3 months or longer goodbye.

Normally with my plans, I would watch on screen how things would fall through. To make sure that things WOULD fall through. For some reason though, I felt something in the pit of my stomach...was it hunger? No. Anxiety? No. Guilt? Shame? Nervousness? I shook it off, forcing those feeling out. If that's how I was feeling right now then that means I was actually feeling...something towards a...human. Not just any human, but Krystal out of all humans.

No, no, no...this will not do.

I sat there in silence training my eyes on the screen, not really watching the movie, but thinking of these so called "feelings" I was starting to develop for my master. Ever since that faithful night, when I began to plant the seeds of the "Lydia" plan, I had begun having these "side occurrences" happening in my mind. They mostly happened when I spent time with Krystal, and she would ramble over anything and everything. I would sit there and pretend to be interested elsewhere, and we both knew that she was mainly talking for herself to listen to, but I had actually sat there quite a few times listening to what she had to say.

From what information I had gathered from her gibber-gabber, Krystal was actually a caring person. She didn't necessarily have to flaunt it in the most obvious ways, but it was always the little things that she noticed and cared about. Things such as taking care of her father's health by reminding him of his meds, actually keeping up with the gossip with maids and butlers of the house all the while giving them advice on how to handle the situation, and point out and congratulate her brother's success in even the minuscule of things. Heck, she even cared for me every once in a while explaining things to me when I was stuck on trying to figure out a mundane object or topic. Last night, when she made that small snack out of the blue for Lydia to eat on while working...I knew that my plan had to be set up tonight or never. Krystal did and will care for Lydia.

Even if I did interfere myself.

"Luhannnniieeee!!" I turned my head at the wretched nickname throwing an evil glare at Kyungsoo who was sitting beside me with his movie paused and 3D glasses on his head now. He looked surprised and dumbfounded. "I know that you could get lost deeply in your thoughts, but for me to be screaming your name and throwing popcorn at you for the past 5 minutes...damn." He gave an evil smirk. "You must be thinking about HER, huh?"

"Of course I'm thinking about my master." I stood up wiping off the popcorn on my suit. "If this plan doesn't fall through as intended then I'll be here for another 3 months."

Kyungsoo clicked his tongue wagging his finger in the air. "Nuh-uh-uh...I have a feeling that its something else."

I let out a small sarcastic laugh. "Have you been having ual desires for her too?" I shook my hair to let out popcorn that was also there.

"Come on Hyung" Kyungsoo whined throwing more popcorn in my face. "Just admit it."

"Admit what?"

"You have a crush on her." He sang, wiggling his brows. "You LIKE her."

The pang in my chest went off again. I ignored the feeling playing off a cool, smug look to hide what was happening on the inside when he said the word. "Of course I like her. She's my master. I'm sort of forced to like her, you know?" I turned to walk towards the window that showed a view of the carnival playing out below. I kept my back turned away from him as he continued to speak.

"Look Hyung, its okay to admit that you have a little crush on her. Let alone, you can admit that you like her in some kind of attraction anyhow... I won't lie and say that the few times the boys and I watched her working out in her room in those short-shorts and--"

"Okay, so she's hot. There. Happy?" I interrupted his thoughts. For some reason, knowing that Kyungsoo and the other genies knew what she looked like during her workouts made me...what is this feeling? Jealous?

"So why don't you...I don't know...do what you always do when you have a hot master?"

I chuckled turning around to watch the expression on his face when I asked the next question. "You seem to have a keen eye on my actions. So, Kyungsoo, what exactly do I do with my hot masters?"

Kyungsoo's mouth opened and closed then opened again before closing quickly. He seemed embarrassed to say it. "Well-uhm-you know..."

I folded my arms across my chest leaning my back against the window. "Actually I don't know, so please do say." I looked up the ceiling playing 'confused'. "It's been a while since I've had this kind of a master. So please explain what I usually do."

"Well, at first you date them, then you do 'it'" he put little bunny ears around the last word. "Then you have a relationship with them and when they make their last wish...they forget all about you & return to normal with their wishes, as if you never existed. You get all the fun you want with, literally, no strings attached."

I nodded my head. "All right then. So, what's the big deal with that game plan then?"

"Well, I mean their is no big deal Hyung...its just..." Kyungsoo gave me a questioning look. "Are you planning to do that with Krystal?"

I gave him a smug smile and shrugged. "We'll have to see...this master I have right now is more complex then the ones I've had before."

As if on cue, my cell phone had started to go off. I checked my pocket to see who it was and I couldn't help but widen my smile as I answered it.

"Kystal?" I asked as I pointed at my phone to Kyungsoo who looked surprised from the sudden call from the subject matter.

"Luhan, I-I need to talk to you" I heard Krystal's voice wavering over the phone.

"Oh? Is everything okay?" I asked in a worried tone. I silently mouthed to Kyungsoo that she wanted to talk to me and he gave me an "okay" sign.

"Actually, that's what I need to talk to you about..." Krystal heaved in a deep sigh. "Cause the thing is...I-I think I'm ready to make my second wish."

So all my work was worth it at the end.

Officially Posted on

December 30, 2015

Author's Note 

Oh well, did I not tell you that Kyungsoo is playing an important part?? Now you know why he was so important. (: 

 &&& OH SHNAP>>> so the 2nd wish has been made!!! But, hmmmm...what exactly was it?? 

Weeeeelllll....let's read on to the next chapter & find out now, shall we??