My eyes widen at Hyeling's revelation, the significance of the Brooch of Zeneddys sinking in. Something about the name sounds familiar; as if I'd heard of it before. But I shake that feeling off immediately, knowing that fact not to be true at all.
I mean, come on! A god of dark magic? It sounds like a tale spun from ancient myths and a very elaborate fairytale villain - there's no way I've heard of him before at all.
Not even my biological mother mentioned someone like me in her tales. Not that I remember, anyway...
I glance over at Cal again, who has in turn set the brooch back down on the table. His palm hovers over the other rings, necklaces and earrings still displayed on the table, but he doesn't pick it up.
"Well, mr Hyeling," Cal says, still looking at the jewellery on that table, "you seem to have quite the collection over here. Mind telling me how you got it?"
"Again, please call me Ling," Hoseok says, sheepish smile on his face. "And as for the acquisition of these pieces...well, there's quite some family history going on about it."
"Family history?" Cal asks with a quirked brow, turning around and looking at the shop owner. "Please, do elaborate. If you don't mind a customer being curious." I can't really tell what his expression is right now. It's not the normal annoyed, or the weird stern one he has sometimes. It's most certainly not the playful, smug one he has with me most of the time.
It's a like a total new Cal. One with a dark shade fleeting across his blue gaze in a hurry before returning his back to normal. It's the same little thing that happened yesterday when he said something about genies being unable to eliminate themselves or something.
Or am I just imagining these things, like I may or may not have done with Jaeun this morning as well?
Ugh, this is enough to give a bigger damn headache.
I decide to ignore all that, because quite frankly, I have a lot on my plate as is. You, magic hunting and all that - who has time to read into expressions and overthink them, right?
Hyeling leans against the shelf he's standing next, casually crossing his arms across his chest. He looks both amused and intrigued by Cal's boldness, and I can tell he's hiding a little smirk of his own. "You know, customers aren't actually be up here," he says, the corner of his cheek twticthing up. Then his eyes slide over to me. "But according to Jaeri, you're trying to be romantic. Which makes me want to excuse the rules being broken and humour your curiousity a bit."
"Uhm," I say, not really knowing what to say. "We're sorry to break the rules. It's just..."
"Oh, don't worry about it, though," Hyeling says, smiling again. He once again waves a dismissive hand, like the whole mini standoff him and Cal just had didn't exist at all. "I like telling this story. My employees are sick of it already."
Cal crosses his arms now too, resting all his weight on one leg. If I thought he was acting like a diva before, he's definitely got the title down now.
I look back at Hyeling expectantly, ready to hear the story he has to tell. Like I said - we're not leaving here empty handed. Maybe something about this narrative will aid in our weird little magic quest or whatever.
Either with the wish stuff, or perhaps something to do with the weird dreams.
"Okay, so this place was opened by great-great grandmother in, like, the 50's, I think," Hyeling begins, eyes lighting up with excitement. "Apparently she had moved here from Gwangju upon getting married and decided that she needed to sell some of the many things she inherited from other family members."
"What was the shop originally called then?" I ask, already picturing a young lady that probably has a resemblance to the man in front of me walking into an empty building with the mission to open up shop.
"Oh, well her name was Yeseul, so she named it after herself," he answers nonchalantly. "Which is why me and grandmother had such a fight about the name change, because it has been Yeseul's Antiques for years now. But I figured it was time for a change, you know."
I, in fact, do not know. Not really. I've never really been in an environment where I had to take care of something that came generations before me. Heck, I don't even know what my ties are to my biological family aside from my mother.
And yes, while I've been more than welcomed and accepted into the Kim family - and there's no abundance of love where I'm currently at - there's no denying that I wasn't really born there.
Regardless, Hyeling carries on with his tale, not bothered by our monetary silence on the matter. "Yeah, so there she was: new to the city, just opened a store and has a hope that she'll make a few extra bucks to add to her husband's income," he says, looking lost in his own story as he talks. "But as she started selling the things, she ran into a little dilemma: soon she'd be out of things to sell entirely."
"So, what? She started asking family members for more things?" Cal inquires, sounding very unimpressed. I don't know why.
"Something like that," Hyeling says, unphased by Cal's tone. I remain silent, waiting for the rest of the retelling to continue. "I think that's where the bizarre stories about these particular items come in."
He gestures toward the table behind Cal and I, and I take the opportunity to steal another glance.
"See, I'm not really sure where Yeseul got these from," Hyeling says, tapping his chin. "The story has always been that some family members and friends donated it. But what remained was all the folklore tied to it."
"All of it?" I ask, still with my eyes on the antique jewellery items. Something about me beckons me, but I can't explain what, exactly.
"Well," Hyeling answers, sounding just as interested in the top as when he started talking. "How much do you know about Greek and Roman mythology?"
"A lot," Cal replies without missing a beat. His arms are still crossed over his chest, looking both snug in his sweater but stern in his expression. It's a funny sort of combination. "Somewhat of an expert, if I do say so myself."
"So I take it you're a Mythology major?" Hyeling asks, looking even more excited.
"Yeah," Cal says, shrugging a bit. "Yeah, I am. Once more, he manages to fire a lie on the spot. You know, without turning into the main ingredient in ketchup.
Lucky fish...
"Well, then you must be familiar with gods like Erebus and-" Hyeling starts, but is interrupted by me.
"Wait, hold up, Ling," I say, holding up my palms in mock surrender. "Not as good an expert as Cal over here. Who exactly are those?"
Hyeling glances over to Cal for a second before glancing back at me. "Strange that you two lovers haven't discussed your interest, Cal," he says, hinting at scepticism. But he carries on before my ears have time to shine - it's a damn good thing that most of my pink curls are covering them today.
Score one for rushed exit out of my dorm room, I guess.
"But anyway, according to some scriptures and retellings, Erebus is the Greek god of darkness," Hyeling says, taking a step closer to the both of us. It's almost as if he's disclosing secret information with us or something. "He was, like, in charge of casting the night over the wrealms with a cloth made of dark velvet fabric."
"So, he was a bad guy?" I ask, trying to make head and tales of all this. This is my second Greek mythology retelling in the span of 24 hours, anyway, so don't blame my brain for lagging a bit. "Did he like cast his magic into one of these jewellery pieces?"
"Ah, so close," Hyeling says, playing grin on his face. "It was actually his apprentice, Zeneddys, that did that to the brooch you guys were holding just now. Hence why it's called Karfítsa Zeneddys."
I frown upon this onslaught of information, processing it bit by bit. I look at Cal, eyes fill of expectation. I mean, if this trinket really did belong to a Greek god or the other, maybe it has magic too, right?
He looks back at me, for a brief moment, blue eyes unreadable for a second before morphing into a spilt second of contemplation. I don't know if I succeed, but I try to signal with my eyes the thoughts that I'm having right now.
By now, he's stared into my eyes so long that he should be able to decipher what I'm trying to say, right.
"While the legend about the Karfítsa Zeneddys do ring a bell or two," Cal says, still looking at me, "I'm afraid that you've spoken a small piece of misinformation there, Ling." He looks back at Hyeling, a challenge in his gaze.
Hyeling looks a little confused, tapping his chin. "And what may that be?"
"Zeneddys was the grandson of Erebus," Cal answers, reaching for my sleeve without looking at it. And impressively enough, captures it before I can even recognise properly what he's doing. "Not the apprentice."
With that, Cal drags my sleeve - much like I did to his last night - and makes his way past Hyeling to the small storage room door on the other side. With all this cramoed space we have to navigate through, I'm half surprised that Cal and I didn't accidently touch the whole way through.
"Thank you for being kind enough to show us the upstairs area," Cal says, looking over his shoulder. "But there's nothing fancy enough here for my girlfriend. Maybe I'll try another store."
And with that, we're off - Cal's dragging me down the stairs by the sleeve of my sweater and not turning around once to acknowledge poor Hyeling.
I do look back though - in quite a hasty manner, given the speed at which Cal basically sprints out of the store - and manage to give a small wave to Hyeling before he's out of sight.
The latter looks very confused, his mouth forming a small 'o' shape and eyes going wide in shock. He definitely wasn't expecting us to dash like that, especially after he allowed us to break the rules.
"Thank you, though!" I call back to the store owner, feeling bad for just deserting the poor, kind man. My gaze turns back to the genie, and I narrow my eyes at the back of his fake brown hair.
Under normal circumstances, I would protest against being dragged like this, but something tells me not to. Something always tells me not to panic when I'm close to Cal - no, when I'm in contact with Cal.
And it's only been a damn day.
It happened the first time he touched my heart to grant my wish, and again when I grabbed his sleeve to run out of my dorm building. Not to mention the gold that emitted from my arm, and when I didn't do anything but glare at him when his hand was on my waist.
What in the world...
It has to be part of his magic malfunction. Right? Ugh, I don't want to think about that right now. Or ever, for that matter.
We enter the ground floor, where I can see the top of Jaeri's head at the opposite end of the store. Luckily for us, her back is currently turned to us, meaning that we can escape without her badgering us with questions about what we 'got' or any other thing she wants to be nosy.
The only problem with that is that she's definitely going to tell Hajoon. Which means I'll have to talk to Hajoon about me and Cal's fake relationship, since that is how people in the real world perceive us now. Which is exactly the conversation I'm trying to avoid with Jaeun already.
Ugh, seriously? Since when did my life become such a damn dramatic mess?
I blame the genie!
Cal seems to be just as thankful that Jaeri is preoccupied, and I almost roll my eyes. He rellay went from humouring her to wanting to avoid her as much as me. Interesting.
So, with a clear coast, the two of us make our way out of the store. Once we do, the sunlight shining outside reminds us that it's still very much day and makes me concerned that the people inside aren't getting proficient amount of Vitamin D or something.
The abrupt exit from the store leaves me a bit winded, and the breeze is cool against my cheeks that have heated up more than enough inside. Regardless, I don't allow myself to forget about what just happened. "What the hell?" I hiss eventually, cathcing my breath. "We finally find the place where Jaeun got the necklace and someone who knows about ancient jewellery history apparently, and then you bail?"
I feel the frustration behind to build up again, like it always does with every stupid thing regarding Cal freaking Monroe.
"So much for an antique historian," Cal scoffs, looking at me, unphased. "He couldn't even get simple fact straight."
"Oh, and you think because you're an ancient genie, you suddenly know everything about the world?" I question, lifting an eyebrow. "Nobody said he was a magic expert, Cal. And why were you so mean to him? He was nothing but kind and hospitable to us."
"Firstly, I do know a lot about the world," Cal says, counting it down on his fingers.
"Yet you can't figure out why you can't grant my wish and don't know why I'm having dreams of Selene after suddenly freaking passing out?" I ask, crossing my arms and giving him my best 'well now what?' face.
"Secondly," Cal says pointedly, ignoring my little protest, "of course I'd know exactly who Zeneddys was related to, because I knew the guy."
This shuts me up for a solid two seconds, my eyes going wide. I mean, I don't exactly understanding the full scale of what that means, but I do know that Zeneddys' magic was supposedly in the brooch, Cal should've felt it, right? And if they knew each other, then maybe...
"And lastly," Cal goes on, using my silence as permission to go on, "because I knew him personally, I know that he'd never leave his magic in something like a brooch in the first place. All those items were fake, because none of them have off magical aura."
"So, none of them were like the fountain then?" I ask, my voice soft as I continue to put two and two together. "So we're basically back to square one?"
Again, the frustration. I might just burst into tears because of it. "About additional information? Can't we go back inside and ask stuff about Selene?" I ask, the desperation clear in my voice. "Maybe we can get some more clues about the visions? Maybe they tie into why you're unable to touch me and grant my wish?"
"From the guy who said Zeneddys was the apprentice of Erebus?" Cal scoffs, running his hand through his hair. "Yeah, no thanks."
I roll my eyes, balling my fists. "Someone can still be an apprentice and a grandchild of a person, you know?" I deadpan, hating his lack of common sense.
"Not in the olden days, sweetheart," he says shrugging.
"Don't say that," I say, scoffing and snorting at the same time. It's a weird noise that's made to sound derisive, but comes out sounding more like the onomatopoeic representation of a pig. "You sound like an old person when you say that."
"What?" Cal asks, smug smirk back on his face. "Olden days or sweetheart?"
"Both," I say, just to mess with him. I mean, he's been doing that with me the whole damn day by now. What, with his lame jokes and silly comments and mood changes. It feels like months have passed by in just a few hours at this point.
Once more, this is totally the genie's fault.
"Whatever you say, Mimi," he says, winking. And we're back to this Cal, I see. "But as fun as bickering with you on a side walk in front of an antique store really is, I believe you have class in...twenty minutes."
My eyes go wide, and I quickly pull out my phone to check the time. True to his word, I really do only have twenty minutes to get to my next class. And it's a fifteen minute walk from here just to reach the capmus entrance.
Damnit!
It's almost as if Cal is my bad omen causing me to be late for everything today. My hair immediately grip my hair, my number one stress habit.
Even if I run, I doubt I'll beat being five minutes late. And that's just my earliest calculation - let's also remember that I'm the worse runner as well.
I glance at Cal, trying my best not glare a hole in his head. He looks back at me, all amused and wide-eyed, trying to feign innocence.
"Problem, Mimi?" he asking, smiling sweetly.
"Everything bad today is totally your fault," I mutter under my breath before gathering up the courage to ask him a favour. Again.
- - -