“Oh my god, that’s so cool.”

Sooyoung rolled her eyes at the young teens who stood by a movie poster, gushing about the witch who took revenge on her former lover.

“If I was a witch, I’d kick his too.”

As if it was that easy and Sooyoung could know. After all, she was a witch.

Not the Wiccan kind. Hail to the sisters and their loveable way with nature, but her kind of magic was a bit darker and more complicated than theirs.

She was born into magic, like all witches, but you could choose to practice magic or not. Not many took their abilities as a gift. Sooyoung couldn’t really blame them. Every spell took energy and any witch that didn’t have a death wish, stole that energy elsewhere. Sacrifice, if you will. No, not the movie kind, no stealing babies out of their cribs, luring children into the cauldron. Although there were times she used ‘human sacrifice’. Ever wonder why you got such a huge hangover, when you’ve only had a few drinks? Yeah, chances are some witch was messing with some spells and you were stupid enough to go near her.

Mostly they stole energy when people were sleeping, because that’s when they need it the least. The smaller spells suffice with a fresh bouquet of flowers that aren’t so fresh after or those annoying flies that were bugging you all day; lovely bonus when they all drop dead from the air.

The few witches that chose to practice, kept it at that. The bigger a spell got, the more energy you needed, the more complicated it got and the bigger the chance something ends up going wrong. Usually with the witch dying. When that’s commonly known, practicing magic kinda loses its shine.

Anyway Sooyoung was a not so normal case. If you can call being a witch normal. She started experimenting with magic early on in her life and unlike most still uses it on a daily basis.

She mastered a level of spells that was far beyond the general witchcraft, but she drew the line there. As interesting as those darkest spells sounded - you know: world domination, zombie apocalypse,…and all those other powertrips - she merely studied them and left them the hell alone. She wasn’t quite prepared to give up her life so foolishly just yet.

Her magic was widely known in those tattletale circles that was a witches’ community. She was visited by cheating husbands and spouses, who couldn’t get revenge in their divorce settlement and tried it in a different way. As long as she was sure they were in their right minds, not the stalking ‘I’ll kill you if I can’t have you’ kind, she didn’t mind giving people the runs a few times.

Then off course, you had the businessmen who wanted success and the beauty queens who wanted to stay young forever.

She couldn’t make money out of thin air. Hello, she would have done so herself if it was that easy. She couldn’t give them insider information about the stock market or the numbers of the winning lottery ticket. There were limitations to witchcraft. Unfortunately.

So she gave them a potion to absorb anything they read or an enchanted bumper sticker that made their rundown car look like a Ferrari for a few days. Hell, she even sold a slightly nasty potion once to a slick looking guy. One that had to be applied to the skin. Anyone who touched the guy afterwards was confused and dazed for the entire day. Yeah, it was technically cheating if you drug a competitor. But hey, who doesn’t cheat every once and a while. Besides he paid big money and he looked harmless. Well, sorta.

Beauty queens, she had regularly. After Botox and facelifts, magic turned out to be the next big thing. Who knew? Only problem: they expected to be turned into supermodels. Magic, again, does not work that way. Sooyoung could clear your zits in about three seconds, but she couldn’t change the way nature build ya. Ain’t life a ?

So apart from crèmes that make your complexion glow or potions that change the curl of your hair and put a hypnotizing sparkle in your eyes, she had to decline.

Yeah, being a witch was something Sooyoung embraced and chose to be. She had fun experimenting, keeping her magic alive and it paid the bills. What more could you want?

What the other witches chose to do, not really her concern. Unless they paid her. Like the young witches who came to her. She helped them with their spells so they could figure out to which level of magic they were comfortable with. For a small price. Hey, life wasn’t free. She needed the money.

There were a few people who thought it was their concern, what witches did or did not do. Sooyoung met them. With so many fanatics in this world, you were bound to have some who targeted witches. They were convinced Sooyoung was a threat to the world, because she was far more powerful than any other witch. The way Sooyoung saw it though: she was harmless. She was public, well as far as you can be about being a witch, it was commonly known she practiced and she was a respected supplier of witchy stuff.

It were the witches you didn’t hear about, you had to watch out for. The ones practicing in their basement, the ones you didn’t know at what level of magic they were experimenting at. Those were the dangerous ones. Not her. A good thing there weren’t many of those. They usually blew up with their spells, sooner or later.

And those fanatics, well, they made the mistake to be nearby when Sooyoung suddenly felt like trying a few more difficult spells. They woke up with a killer headache and a very impressive rash. On some very uncomfortable places too. Scratched themselves silly for days. They were lucky Sooyoung didn’t decide on the frog spell. She’d been dying to try that one out for ages. A pity she still had a sense of morale, or they really would have woken up in a pond in the morning, catching flies for breakfast. She was still very upset about those broken windows of her magic shop.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if it were real?”

“What? Witchcraft?”

“Yeah.”

Sooyoung’s ears perked up. A slow smile spread across her face as she watched the three young girls. From her spot on the terrace of the coffee shop she had a perfect view of them. They were standing right in front of the movie poster and were talking excitingly amongst themselves like only teenagers are able to do.

Sooyoung let her eyes wander over the other tables on the terrace and spotted a man nodding off over his newspaper. Perfect. It were only some minor spells she had in mind. A few kiddie tricks. He wouldn’t even notice it.

She rose from her seat as the girls were re-applying their make-up while still chatting away about some wiji-board experience they once had. Sooyoung strode over until she was right next to them.

“Maybe we should get some candles to try it out sometime,” one of them suggested.

“Why don’t you try something more real?”

The girls looked up from their conversation and noticed Sooyoung who was smiling politely.

“What?”

“Instead of all that kid stuff, why don’t you try real witchcraft?”

One of the girls snorted.

“What? Like that wiccan stuff? Dance around in the moonlight ?”

Sooyoung chuckled softly.

“God, no. Unless you’re into that stuff, then go ahead. I’m talking about learning a few spells that’ll help your school life become a bit more… bearable.”

“Spells?”

They looked at her as if she’d escaped the loony bin. Sooyoung simply smiled at them.

“Wouldn’t it be interesting if the teacher forgot about an assignment that was due? Or if your boyfriend suddenly got a new romantic streak he didn’t have before?”

One of the girls looked up at that last one. Sooyoung grinned. Girls were ers for love spells.

“Please, as if.”

The tallest of the three flipped her hair back and looked at Sooyoung.

“Do you really expect us to believe that, nutjob?”

Well, isn’t she just a lovely little ? Kids these days. Not that Sooyoung was already ancient. But she still considered herself more mature than this lot.

“Off course not.”

Sooyoung raised her hand and flicked her fingers. She kept her concentration on the man half asleep in the corner. The little tingle of power from the spell tickled her and she sent it to move on. Her fingers lit on fire. The girls stared.

“Just a parlor trick,” mumbled the tallest, but she didn’t sound very sure.

“It is, actually,” said Sooyoung while she examined her flaming fingertips. “Hardly worth calling a spell.”

The girl that was interested in the love spell got a glint in her eyes. Sooyoung knew she’d be visiting soon. She decided to up the ante a little, flicked her fingers and the fire disappeared.

“I’ve always wondered if I look good in red.”

She pulled on her leather jacket and it started to lengthen and change into a coat. From leathery black to soft red. The girls gasped. Even the tallest bent over to touch the fabric. Sooyoung smiled.

“It’s a pity that non-magic people can only learn a few of these spells. But still, some of them come in very handy.”

“So we can learn this stuff?”

The tallest girl asked excitedly. Looks like Sooyoung made a new believer.

“Well,” Sooyoung said, “there are a few spells… but it’s not so easy.”

“How do we learn?”

The girl with the love interest practically threw herself at Sooyoung. She made a mental note to keep that one under control. If she showed her too much, she could have an addict on her hands. Never a good thing. People like her tended to like the power and think magic was an answer to everything. Hardly the case.

“You can visit me at my shop.”

Sooyoung handed them a card with her address.

“I must warn you though, even if you manage to learn these spells, it’s not cheap.”

That seemed to douse their enthusiasm a little. But only a little.

“How much?” the tallest asked.

“Per spell you perfect, 50 bucks. For the first three spells that includes all the material you’ll need.”

They looked at each other for a while.

“Fine, when can we come?”

“Anytime the shop is open. The hours are on the card.”

She smiled, nodded at them and walked away. She shook the spell from her jacket until it turned back to its original state. She heard the little gasp from the girls and grinned. It wouldn’t be long before she had some new visitors.