Chapter 40 - New Tactics

Eun Ha was sweating cold as she rummaged through her best friend's drawers with an "evil" purpose in mind.

Last night's conversation with Dr. Flamingo had made Ye Rim more euphoric than anything MP Lee was doing for her, while the rude doctor only hinted that he needed his shirt before it was too late.

'Ye Rim is usually so clever, only a curse explains her attraction to such a person... Aish!' When the fairy finally found what she was looking for, she tried to leave everything as it was, right in place, so that her friend wouldn't be suspicious. She didn't want to think how much it added to her penalties for everything she did. Just remembered that after their 27th birthday, she would reveal everything to her friend and Eun Ha honestly didn't know what to expect after doing it.

She returned to her bedroom quickly, as Ye Rim had only left briefly to buy a spool of thread the exact color of Dr. Kim's shirt. Eun Ha even mused about destroying the shirt, but thought it through, and soon realized that it would only create a new reason for Ye Rim to apologize, compensate, and etc.

'And since Professor Fairy, or rather Professor Shin, said I'm forbidden to use my magic on Ye Rim, otherwise he'll stop teaching me, I need to be creative,' she sighed, opening the case of Ye Rim's old cell phone.

"Let's see. Since I magically broke it by myself in the past, should I be able to fix it?" The fairy put the charger and plugged it in, and then tried to turn it on as any human would.

'Oh my God. It works! I don't even need to use magic. How did it work again?' she wondered, remembering she jinxed it so bad no technician could make it turn on, no matter they tried.

She started searching through Ye Rim's old phone's contacts. 'I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for you, Professor Shin!'

FLASHBACK ON

At their last meeting, while Eun Ha was trying to figure out how wrong it was to use magic the only way she knew it, the Hunter looked concerned:

"Don't you even have a clue about it, Jung? Does hexing sound like something a fairy should do?"

"No, but… I don't know anything about fairies. What I watch on TV counts as lore?" she asked, genuinely interested, even though she knew she wasn't likely to find the truth in human's fiction. But the teacher didn't answer her question. In fact, he questioned her back:

"Tell me anything else but the truth. Have you ever hurt anyone with your magic?"

"…" She stared at him with a startled look. 'My God, what do I say now? If I tell him the truth, what is he going to do?'

"Erm... It depends. Do you have powers to arrest me, as a Hunter?"

"Jung!"

"Oh, well, I didn't mean it, of course, but when I found the wand, and when I started using it, I thought it was like in the movies," she pronounced words in fake Latin, as example of what she was referring to.

"So...yes, I caused a lot of accidents. I hurt some people. I hurt myself too. Don't look at me like that, please! I already said it was unintentional! Until I learned how to control the wand ... I mean... What the heck, I thought I was controlling the wand... I could never make it work properly. I even thought it was cursed! That it could only do things that way..."

"Oh sure. And then, because you've got a 'cursed wand' in your power, you decided to act like a witch."

"Professor Shin, I told you! I never meant to hurt anyone. I didn't mean to be a witch at all…" she mumbled the last sentence, and completed:

"And over time, I learned how to prevent from causing accidents."

At his skeptical look, she mended,

"Well, at high speed it's hard to aim…"

He put his hands in his pockets, looking distraught,

"Right. How long do you have the wand?"

"I have it since I was sixteen." Eun Ha stared at him. "That's when I felt something. Anguish, a siren call, I don't know. Something that made me cranky, anxious. Mostly at night. It was summer. I looked like I was going to burst into flames. My mom_foster mom," she added, with a strangled crackle "thought I was in love. Ye Rim thought the same. She was mad at me because she thought I didn't want to tell her who was the guy I was into." Eun Ha recalled, even though she knew she wasn't giving all the references her tutor needed to understand the whole context. "I used to stare at the starry night, and to know, inside myself something was missing. I knew something was wrong with me."

"The call. The call of magic." The Hunter's deep voice explained. Eun Ha just thought it was right to name it a calling, and nodded.

"Yes. A call. So that's what it's called. That's what I felt. It wasn't long before I found the wand. Did it call me?" she asked the older fairy. The Professor scratched the floor with his foot and seemed to choose the short answer, as it seemed to be his favorite path:

"Anything is possible."

"Well, if anything is possible when it comes to magic, then I want to believe so. That I was destined to go to the acres I inherited from my birth parents, the fairies, and decide to dig a hole near a well; absurdly as it is."

He again took a moment to say something:

"That's something I'd do."

Eun Ha stared at the Hunter, again startled, but realized that he, as anticipated, would make no effort to explain the logic behind his words. "Should I keep going?"

"Another day. For now, you can explain to me why you were chasing those humans. She's the human Ye Rim you referred to, right?"

"Yes. She is in danger. There is a prophecy."

This time, more objectively, Eun Ha tried to explain to the Hunter what was causing her to interfere with Ye Rim's life, after seeing her childhood friend's horrible fate_ soon after discovering her own magical powers.

"So the way you found to defend your human protégé was by preventing her from achieving success, so she wouldn't attract the man who is going to kill her one way or the other."

"Yes, it's right. I thought that would work. And I thought this man would be attracted to her only if she were famous and rich."

"But she's neither famous nor rich right now."

"Yes, I know! That is the worst part. I did it all, but it came out nonetheless. Just now, when we are so close of our 27th birthday."

"A real birth day, you mean? Do you have a birthday the same day, by any chance?"

"Yes! On the 11th of November. Our births have only about two hours difference. But this is not important right now. The problem is, if I don't stop this man from getting Ye Rim falling for him, she'll die before she turns 27!"

He took a deep breath. "I see."

"And can you help me?"

Her tutor's eyebrows told him all she needed to know. 'Aish what a selfish man! Such a mercenary!'

"Why not, Professor Shin? What do I need to do for getting you to help me get rid of this… man in pink shirt ?! I don't know how or why, but I do know that he will destroy Ye Rim and bring her to death in no time. I saw it in the prophecy!"

"Because you chose her. You're her godmother, not me."

Eun Ha gaped as she had never thought of it like this:

"Simple as that?"

"Yes."

She took a deep breath." So… So, teach me well and quickly so I can defend her for myself."

Silence ensued.

"Please." She completed.

"How fast you will learn depends on you. Our deal won't change at all."

"I know that. Professor." She softened the harsh tone of her answer in the end.

"And, I'm adding a new term: if you use magic the wrong way, that is, as you have been using it to interfere with this human woman's life, I will no longer teach you. I don't want to have a student who acts like a delinquent."

"Professor!"

"Don't act like a baby, Jung. Don't even look at me with this pouting in your face. I told you this is a waste of time." He turned his back to prove his point.

She straightened and relaxed her face, realizing the ridiculousness of the situation: "Sorry, force of habit."

"I'm sure even among humans, you're not very successful with that tactic."

'One day I will stop gaping at the lack of empathy this hunter. I already know that he is not human. He makes a point of proving it all the time.' Eun Ha thought to herself, resented.

"I'm recovered. Can we do what Professor Shin suggested before? "She got up from her seat, showing renewed energy and willing to get it over with.

"Ah yes. If you already rested, let's go to practice, "he replied, changing his posture as well.

FLASHBACK OFF

"Like a delinquent…" she grunted, remembering his words. "What am I doing now is different from being a delinquent?" She found the number she wanted on Ye Rim's phone. The fairy also heard that Ye Rim had just arrived from her errands by the sound of a key in the door.

For a moment, however, Eun Ha was undecided. Now that she looked at the name written on the screen, she felt she could really hurt Ye Rim. Her finger trembled on touching the call button.

Would calling Police Officer Ji back really was a good tactic?