"So what's your last wish going to be?" Kai asked as Chanyeol left the convenience store after his shift was over. Chanyeol, too tired to answer, shrugged and started to walk home.

It was three in the morning and he didn't really see the point of making any wishes in his current state. If Kai wanted to get rid of him so bad, he should have given him a time limit rather than to pester him whenever he was too worn-out to think of anything.

"I mean, come on, don't tell me you don't have at least one thing in mind," Kai asked as he walked beside him in a particularly light-footed way. Chanyeol still didn't really understand who Kai really was but he was probably the kind of species that just never got tired.

"I have more than one thing in mind," Chanyeol said and frowned. "But I can't help but think that no matter what I ask for, you'll cheat me anyway."

"Well, you obviously have to phrase your wish correctly," Kai said cheerfully with a smirk that really rubbed Chanyeol the wrong way.

---

It had been two months now since he accompanied a friend to that damn fortune teller lady who sold him that stupid necklace that was supposed to bring him monetary success. Money was something he really needed, being a poor unversity student and all, so he wore it just to make sure.

But then he accidentally left it behind in the changing room of his job in the sauna. He didn't even realize that he wasn't carrying it until he was about to enter the subway. It was because he saw that couple with their ugly couple necklaces that he instinctly grabbed his neck, just to notice that he wasn't wearing it. It wasn't even that he was particularly superstitious but the mere fact that he spent a ridiculous amount of money on that thing made him turn back.

He frantically searched his locker and was crawling on the floor to see whether it could have fallen behind any of the benches, when he heard a cool voice in the door. "You're searching for this?"

He looked up and saw his necklace dangling in the air, held by a boy with a blank expression. He slowly nodded and the boy started to smirk. "Well, Park Chanyeol-ssi, today might be the luckiest day of your life."

And that was the moment his whole misery started.

---

When 'Kai', as he called himself, told him that he was some kind of genie who could fulfil three wishes, Chanyeol of course thought that he was joking. When he suddenly appeared during Chanyeol's shift in the coffee shop where he had his other part time job and informed him that he still had three wishes, he thought that Kai probably was delusional.

He heard that it was dangerous to anger crazy people, so he asked jokingly, "Can you make me fly then?"

Kai shrugged. "In an airplane, yes," he said and drank the coffee Chanyeol couldn't remember seeing him order. "But not like a bird if that's what you mean. There are certain limits."

"Limits?" Chanyeol asked as he wiped the tables around Kai. "I thought I'd have the free choice if I have three wishes?"

Kai snorted. "Didn't you see that one Disney movie? There are always rules. You know, to stop people from using their wishes to do evil."

Chanyeol frowned at that. It really did make sense in a way. "So what are the rules exactly?" he asked and immediately scolded himself in his mind. As bad as it was to offend lunatics, he didn't really want him to think that he was interested in whatever delusions he had.

"Well," Kai said. "First, no superpowers. I can't fulfil anything that's physically not possible for human beings. Second... I mean it would of course be very noble if you ask for world peace or anything but I can't change anyone's feelings. I can't stop hate, I can't make anyone love you." He looked like he had to think for a second what his third point was, when he shrugged again. "Apart from that you can get whatever you want. Money isn't an issue, obviously. And I can make people want you and stuff, if that's what you're into." He smirked again.

Chanyeol pulled a face. "You just said you can't change feelings."

"Well, not real feelings but fleeting ones," he explained and it was almost scary how matter-of-factly he was about it. Just as if he really was talking about a mere business transaction. "You know, like a fling in a club. That moment it's real, the next day you already forgot about it."

Chanyeol still wasn't very convinced but he weirdly felt like testing it out. It was a little like carrying the necklace: He didn't want to believe in its powers but he probably secretly still wanted it to work.

"So what if I say that I want every female who enters this shop during my shift tomorrow to give me her number?" he asked and immediatly regretted it. He didn't want to seem desperate or anything.

But well, that Kai guy obviously wouldn't be able to fulfil that wish anyway. Anything simple probably wouldn't have driven him off.

The next day Chanyeol got fired.

---

It started when he entered the shop and was about to go to the rooms in the back to change into the black shirt and the brown apron they were supposed to wear. He had of course already forgotten about his wish at that point, so when his cute female colleague slipped a piece of paper with her number into his back pocket as he passed by, he was of course happy.

When his lady boss gave him a card with a kiss mark on it, he frowned and when his first customer, a girl in a high school uniform, blatantly hit on him and grabbed his hand to write her number on it, he realized that something really was off.

It was positively hysterical. The queue was crazy and every single female customer wanted him to make their coffee, even after he kept assuring them that his colleagues definitely were better at it. The more time passed, the worse it got. Some customers refused to leave and blocked all the corridors, others started to yell his name across the shop and when he came by their tables they started groping him. When he dropped the note one middle-aged lady gave him and when a girl laughed at her, they started to fight and pulled each other's hair.

After two hours of complete madness the owner told him to leave and to never come back. As all the females suddenly left without a word, Chanyeol suddenly saw him. Kai. He just sat at a corner table and waved at him while drinking another coffee he definitely didn't buy from Chanyeol.

Chanyeol tried to confront him, of course but all he got was another smirk.

"I didn't force you to make that kind of wish."

---

He made his second wish when he was angry.

Kai kept following him and turned up around each single part-time job he had. After the coffee shop debacle Chanyeol obviously didn't want to make any more wishes and he still wasn't even sure whether the whole thing really was real, so he just ignored him for a while.

"I want you to disappear," he would say, just to be informed that Kai wasn't able to leave until the third wish was finished.

Chanyeol considered to just come up with very banal wishes but then he became afraid that the more simple a wish, the worse the outcome. If his first wish cost him his job, what would the second one do? If he asked for money would he be framed for a bank robbery? He knew movies like that. Greed was obviously going to be what would ruin him.

"Okay, great, you want to hear my wish?" he muttered as he carried sack filled with used stinking towels to the back of the sauna. Kai of course didn't help him unless it was his official wish. "Give me a week off then. I want a week without you bothering me during my jobs."

Kai gave him a weird look at that. "All right," he said and left.

---

Kai apparently had his own way of understanding Chanyeol's wishes.

When Chanyeol was about to leave for his morning classes, two guys in suits took him hostage and literally dragged him into a black van. Inside he met Kai who smiled at him and informed him that they were going on a trip.

It really made sense in a messed up way. Kai couldn't bother him during his jobs if he wasn't going to his jobs and Chanyeol didn't explicitly say that he didn't want to see him at all. It was really just a question of deliberate misunderstandings.

Not that he really had anything to complain about during that one week. They took a private jet and went to some tropical island with white beaches and lived in luxurious bungalows right next to the ocean. It was like being in a travel agency advertisement and he unwillingly thought of cheesy lines to accompany the picture. 'Kai's Tropical Island Travels - where wishes come true!'

Kai, too, was awkwardly nice. He guided him around and every morning he had another surreal plan for the day, whether it was scuba diving or fishing or a course of what he liked to call Typical Tropical Island Dances. Chanyeol ate a lot and laughed a lot and almost forgot that this was just a short-term thing.

Once he was home his landowner was on the verge of throwing him out because he was supposed to pay his rent the day he got abducted. His mother meanwhile had almost declared him death and he lost all his part-time jobs but one. The awfully nice people in the sauna were the only ones who believed him when he said that he couldn't call because he was sick in bed for a week.

He really was done with his wishes. Rather than to think of anything he wanted, he constantly kept thinking of the possible consequences of whatever he was going to ask for.

---

"So I can really wish for anything?" he asked as he leaned on his broom. It was so early in the morning, the sun was barely up and he was told to sweep the street in front of the convenience store because there wasn't really much else to do yet.

Kai who had made it a habit to hang around during the most ridiculous times shrugged and stretched his legs as he sat down on the small plastic bench next to the door. "Pretty much, yeah."

"And what if I want to transfer my wish to someone else?" he asked and sat down next to Kai after making sure that his boss inside couldn't see him.

Kai didn't really seem to like the idea as he pulled a face. "If there's anyone you dislike that much..."

"Ha!" Chanyeol said triumphantly and pointed at his face as he jumped up. "So you finally admit that these wishes are no good!"

Kai snorted and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. It really was a bit too chilly outside to sit around without any aim. "Who do you want to transfer your wish to then?" he asked indifferently.

"You," he said happily and felt like a genius. He neither wanted to make anymore wishes nor did he want anyone else to run into his misfortune, so the only option was to divert his last wish back to Kai.

Kai meanwhile seemed completely baffled and Chanyeol added, "I mean, I'm sure you also have things you want, right? So you can have the wish. Provided it won't make me lose my jobs or my house. Or my life." He shuddered at all the possible negative consequences he kept coming up with during the last couple of weeks.

Kai furrowed his brows as he stared at the blank concrete. Chanyeol went back to sweeping but the lack of any reaction made him nervous.

"That's okay, right?" he asked when Kai kept silent. "I really thought about it and that's the only loophole I could think of. I mean, it's really hard to find proper part-time jobs and cheap housing in Seoul and I really need those to graduate."

Kai bit his lip and Chanyeol involuntarily felt guilty, although he knew that he had no reason to. He was the victim after all.

"So," Kai finally said after a while when Chanyeol was about to go back inside. "Is it okay if my wish involves you as long as you won't lose anything?"

Chanyeol narrowed his eyes. He really didn't want to run into another trap and he knew that Kai could just twist around his words if he made any careless mistake. "I guess, yeah. If you can really absolutely promise that there's nothing bad going to happen to me."

Kai still avoided looking at him and instead stared at his shoes when he sighed and stood up. "Do you have any evenings off this week?"

"On Thursday, yes," he slowly said and tried to remember his schedule for the week. "But I kind of wanted to use that time to study."

"I think I need about two or three hours of your time," Kai said. "But that'll be the end of it."

He blinked. "All right, I guess," he said, still expecting to run into a trap. "What do you need my time for though?" Were two to three hours time enough to accuse him of some kind of crime? How many horrible things could happen per hour?

Kai shrugged. "There's a movie I want to see. It's awkward to go there by myself."

---

It really was... nice. And completely normal.

They met in front of the cinema. Kai already had the movie tickets but when he got snacks, he paid like any other average human.

Chanyeol really wondered why Kai would choose a horror movie out of all things because he seemed particularly jumpy during most scenes. At one point he even suddenly grabbed Chanyeol's arm, causing him to almost spill his coke. It really was hilarious in a way and Chanyeol was still laughing at Kai pouting on their way out.

After that they went to a barbecue place and it was a lot like that week on that island. And just like that time did he lose something after all.

---

He didn't really think he would miss to have Kai around. It was probably because the wishes put him under so much pressure, he didn't even realize how comforting it was to have someone who waited for him until he finished his jobs at night.

The moment he was gone, Chanyeol began to wonder whether there couldn't have been a better way to use his last wish. Not even the consequences seemed all that bad in restrospect.

---

"Is Jongin-ah sick?" the elderly lady who worked at the reception of the sauna asked him one day when he helped her fold towels. "I didn't see him around lately."

"Jongin? Who's that?" he asked absent-mindedly and she slapped his arm lightly.

"Oh, you know! The boy of the owners," she laughed. "He followed you around all the time."

Chanyeol was still trying to figure out who it was she talked about when she mused, "It's really such a pity with his parents. No wonder he came here all the time. I guess money doesn't really make you happy after all."

And it suddenly dawned to him.

And he felt incredibly stupid.

---

The story of the man who opened the sauna he worked at was pretty well-known. Back in the day he had just that one sauna but then he bought another nicer one and became so successful, his business kept growing into a massive corporation with hundreds of hotels and saunas around the world. Their sauna remained as the original place and its charme was that it was still as borderline shabby as it was in the very beginning.

The owner's family life apparently wasn't as successful though. He had two children, a boy who became the useless heir and a daughter who died in a car accident with her husband. Chanyeol knew that the daughter had a son but he never really thought much about it. He was just an average employee after all.

But as he stood on the campus of a university much nicer than his and saw Kai in a group of other boys in designer clothes who looked like yet another F4 version in a TV drama about not so average teenage millionaires, he wondered how he could have been so blind.

"Kim Jongin," he said and Kai turned around, just to look at him in utter horror.

It was Kai who dragged him away while giving a nonsensical excuse to his friends who didn't really seem to care so much.

"How did you...?" Kai muttered when Chanyeol interrupted him harshly.

"You see, I've been poor all my life, so I think you need to educate me about something," he said and Kai seemed to shrink in front of his eyes. "Is it fun? To mess with the poor part-timer?"

"I didn't mean to," Kai began but Chanyeol already was in rage. Just to think back how naive he had been made him want to slap himself.

"I can't even remember how many jobs I lost because of you," he spat out. "That coffee shop really paid well, you know?"

Kai frowned and suddenly seemed offended. "Well, I told you that money wasn't an issue. You could have asked for money instead of all that ridiculous other stuff."

And Chanyeol found himself speechless for a moment. Sure, if he put it that way it really somehow was Chanyeol's own fault. He should have asked for something sensible if he was going to ignore that Kai most likely wasn't some magical creature anyway. But that wasn't really the point.

"Who would ask a lunatic for money?" he scoffed.

"The fool who didn't realize that all the women who gave him his number were paid off and who gladly accepted a free holiday maybe?" Kai said meekly and turned away to walk to a close-by vending machine. "Do you want coffee?" he asked and threw his hands in his pockets to look for spare change. It was very much different from the picture Chanyeol used to have of rich people.

"Just what the hell is wrong with you?" he asked. "Do you really have no other way to use your money?"

"Well, I like coffee," Kai said as he pulled out two cans out of the machine and threw one to Chanyeol.

"I don't mean the damn coffee," he said wearily as he almost dropped the can. He really shouldn't have come. He didn't know what kind of explanation he had been looking for but the answer to everything probably was that the rich and the poor just couldn't get along.

"I didn't know how to talk to you," Kai finally said downed his coffee as if his life depended on it.

"What?" Chanyeol asked and frowned as Kai shrugged.

"I mean, I saw you at the sauna," Kai explained and avoided his gaze. "So I thought of talking to you. But I didn't know how. Then I found your ugly pendant," he nodded in the direction of Chanyeol's neck, "and I guess I wasn't really thinking straight then."

"Oh," Chanyeol said and his mind suddenly felt weirdly blank.

"I mean how was I supposed to know that you'd make it so hard?" Kai mumbled and stared at his feet. "And I definitely didn't tell the women in the coffee shop to go nuts. I never wanted you to get fired."

Before Kai could utter anymore apologies that didn't really make sense to him, Chanyeol put up his hand to make him stop. "Wait, you said you saw me at the sauna. Why didn't I see you then?"

Kai shrugged. "I hid."

"Well, it's no wonder then," Chanyeol snorted. "Honestly, if you wanted to talk to me, you could have just sat around somewhere. I mean, I'm really not that picky about the people I chat up." And there was especially no need to come up with a fake name and a deliberate excuse to stalk him.

"I know," Kai said meekly. "But that's not..." he began and bit his lip. "I didn't just want to have some random chat."

"So what?" Chanyeol asked uncomprehendingly. He couldn't really think of any plausible reason for anyone to be so obsessed with talking to someone that they would go to such lengths. He wasn't really all that special either and others usually confirmed that it was pretty easy to become friend with him, so there wasn't really any need to spend that much time on money on him. Unless, of course...

"Wait a second," he said and narrowed his eyes. "Were you trying to hit on me or something?" And the short panicked glance Kai gave him immediately confirmed that suspicion.

"Oh, this is just ridiculous," he muttered and finally opened his coffee. So that was why he spent two months worrying about his safety? Because of a guy who didn't mind spending all his money but who was too awkward to actually say why he did it?

He looked at Kai who started to look impassive again and Chanyeol sighed. "You know, Kim Jongin-ssi, you're really stupid."

But well, he probably would have dimissed him after all if he was just that heir at the sauna instead of the guy who turned up around the most ridiculous times to ask him if he had any wishes. The guy who probably only went to see a horror movie with him because the only alternatives were a romance one and one for children and who actually used his wish for that stupid meaningless version of a date. And all that even after he saw Chanyeol who was drenched with sweat after he had to scrub the sauna and who was covered in moldy vegetables after he fell into a pile of garbage behind the convenience store.

"But today might be the luckiest day of your life. I officially grant you three wishes. Although you should keep in mind that I'm broke and busy, so your options are very much limited."