Chapter 29 - With Great Powers...

"Hey, stop the car! I still have the slippers in! My shoes!" Ye Rim exclaimed when she realized she still was wearing the borrowed slippers, inside the car. She completely forgotten about the shoes. But Kim didn't listen to her, and kept driving to get on where they left his car. Lee just laughed at her reaction.

"Really! I forgot my shoes in the doorway!" She protested, though she realized they were purposely ignoring her. " What are you doing?! Why aren't you listening?! Is it a plot of some sort?!"

"Snap it, Ms. Nam!" The doctor said rather harshly, stressing 'Ms.' for some weird reason. "Between the slippers and a pair of mismatched shoes, at least bear with the ones that are most comfortable."

"He's right, Miss Nam," the blond man mused. "Just relax and enjoy wearing 'comfortable footwear' for one night."

"'Relax and enjoy for one night.' I can do that." She agreed with the musician who had turned around and was smiling at her. "And Dr. Kim, can you do that?" She asked, for he sounded caustic again, though she still couldn't detect what had been said or done to change his mood, which was a like riding a roller coaster, apparently.

"Dr. Kim has been thinking about very serious things lately. I don't know what exactly, but I realized that today. " The doctor's hyung commented. "But once we solve the car's problem, will you give us a chance and have fun tonight, Jun Hyeon? By the way…"

Ye Rim liked the musician's tone of voice, calm and kind of lilting, even when he was putting a bit of excitement in what he said. She wondered if he was a singer too.

"By the way," he repeated, "since we're on a non -date with three people, wouldn't it be better if we could set aside the formalities? Let's not leave our guest so uncomfortable..."

A brief silence followed. Ye Rim was a little alarmed, but realized that the doctor had left the decision in her hand. 'Why do I have to decide if he's the oldest?! It would be more appropriate for him to either allow it or not…'

"Well, it's okay to me if Dr. K…" She was cut by his intromission:

"Fine to me as well. You can treat us by 'oppa!'" Speaking the last word, he made a squeaky, mocking falsetto. Lee laughed, Ye Rim joined them, and then she did it just like him, for more laughs.

"Oppa! Oppa!"

'So wait… Did Dr. Kim get mad because I called Lee Dae Won 'oppa' back there? That's it?' she mused internally,

"But we didn't get your okay, Jun Hyeon 'oppa'. Can you let go of problems and have fun with us for one night?" she asked, feeling that calling him oppa changed things as the musician predicted. The addition of the nice and handsome Dae Won had changed the dynamics between them irreversibly.

"Uhn…" Mockingly pretending to think about it, after a while the doctor nodded, for the other two passengers' amus.e.m.e.nt.

"OK. Let's inconsequentially have fun tonight."

...

"You little punk! Stop it now!" The man holding her arm didn't seem to be joking.

Hissing in an authoritative, intimidating tone, he fished her from the scooter seat and got Eun Ha to her feet.

He searched her quickly, and Eun Ha soon thought he might be an undercover cop. 'But does that even make sense at all?'

Her instinct warned that she wasn't facing a normal situation.

The man, dressed in black from head to toe, was looking at her in a peculiar and weighing, but definitely hostile, stare. Eun Ha knew she had been caught. But she could at least try to escape from it.

Several weird ideas that she could use as smokescreen flashed through her head, but the stranger's gaze was so intimidating that the ideas simply died as soon as they got close to Eun Ha's tongue.

Eun Ha clutched her magic wand in her hand, thinking only of running away. But the stranger took another step toward her, totally invading what was left of her personal space, and tightened his grip on her arm.

"Drop me, you idiot!"

"Wand on the floor! Now! "Eun Ha widened her eyes, and tried to get a better look at the face of the man who was approaching her violently, but he slapped the top of her head painfully, and twisted her arm so that Eun Ha m.o.a.ned and lowered her eyes.

"Drop the wand now, you're deaf or dumb?"

"Ouchhhh!" She m.o.a.ned. She was surprised by what he said, after all, for all intents and purposes, she was holding a beautiful pen. It was pretty out of context that she was on a scooter parked on the sideway of an avenue, like a sniper, pointing a pen at random, but still, she might try to claim insanity.

But common sense prevailed, for it was clear he wouldn't fall for this telltale. Her wand landed with a dry thud on the asphalt, and Eun Ha shivered_ she didn't like to even think that she was throwing something so precious and special in that reckless way on the asphalt floor.

When she did it, the man let go of her arm and pulled back far enough that she could see him. Eun Ha straightened up, and straightened her clothes as well, still scared. "Yeah ... I ... I ... I can explain!"

"Who are you?" He asked in a gruff tone, crouching down to check at her magic wand. He took a handkerchief, his expression cynically and ostensibly showing her he was doing it, and examined it carefully. "Why are you stalking that couple of humans?"

"Yeah…" Eun Ha thought about running away; but also thought that, by doing so, she would then leave her valuable magic wand in the hands of this creepy stranger.

But suddenly she realized two other things as well: 1: He knew what she was, what it was more than she knew, and 2: He implied that neither her nor him were human.

It made her smile slightly, though she was still intimidated. Maybe she could finally understand many things she didn't understand. As for example:

"Wait! If I'm not human, what am I?"

He rose in a flash, and again hissed, quite annoyed, rolling Eun Ha's wand in the handkerchief and stuffing it into the pocket of his jacket.

"I don't have time for your games, you funny kiddo. Since you don't look sorry, you can get your wand back_ or ask someone to fetch it_ at the Gates of the Dominion!"

The fashion designer looked desperately at her most prized possession being confiscated by a stranger; she felt robbed for sure:

" Hey , ajuhssi… Calm down!" She raised both hands in surrender. "I wasn't attacking humans, I was defending my friend! If I don't interfere, she will get hurt in the future! Also… If you take my magic wand, I don't know where to get it back. Gate What? Where is that ?!" She said in a torrent, not even breathing. Finally, Eun Ha filled her lungs with air and said, And lastly, why are you doing this to me? Are you a witch cop? Does it even exist? Really ?!"

Again the cold-displeased man examined her from head to toe, but this time it was different.

"Don't you know what I am?" He asked, both surprised and suspicious. Jung Eun Ha first shook her head emphatically in denial, and then said, "No."

"And do you think you're a witch?"

"If I am not, then what am I ?! Ajuhssi! "She anguished, her tone becoming pitchier and imploring:" What am I, ajuhssi? I need to know!"

The stranger turned his back, clearly preparing to leave. "If you don't know what you are, then you are a potential threat with this wand in your possession. Call me when you know." He started to walk away, but Eun Ha despaired.

"Yo… you ?! Are you really confiscating my wand?"

" Yes. I am." Was the answer from the man in black, walking away.

"But… so what am I going to do?"

"Uhnnn…" A bored sigh sounded. "Ask your parents."

"Oh, I have no parents."

"Ask your godparents."

"I have nobody! No one who knows! Don't you see ?!"

The man this time shrugged, and said nothing.

It was the first time, and potentially the last, where Eun Ha met someone like her. The young woman threw herself impulsively against the man's body, clinging to him like a parasitic plant, and begged, "No, don't go! Don't take my wand away from me, ajuhssi, don't go away either! I need to know. "

He kept walking and dragging her easily, but Eun Ha felt she had no alternative but to keep begging. It was much easier to talk to him without facing him, Eun Ha found out. "Please! You are the first person I have met just like myself in all my life. My whole life, I…"

"I'm not interested in your life. Let me go now." He took another step, but then stopped and began to release her hands from his body. In the process of her clinging and his action to her rid of her , Eun Ha fell to the floor. So far, she was being moved by her urge to know, and was not ashamed to beg and beg and to look pathetic and desperate. She sat there on the asphalt, only feeling that she had sold the country in another life. As an outburst of her heart, she said:

"Since I found this magic wand, I've always had so many questions that never got answers, no matter how much I searched. But this time, it's real. You are here. You are like me! I found, I mean, I was found by someone like me. It's all I ever wanted. But .... It's like getting too close to a well of knowledge from which I cannot drink a drop of water! It's like a dream from which you wake up at the most important moment!" She felt useless and shattered. "I'm being confiscated and I can't defend myself because I don't know anything..." Tears ran freely down her face. She had expressed her feelings of defeat and disappointment here, to the stranger giving his back to her. She just wanted him to know. "I'd give anything to know."

The man turned, putting his hands in his pockets.

"You have my attention."