𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 • 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐨

21

fortunately enough, seungcheol came back to his senses and told jisoo that what he was saying was a joke.

"i saw you on tv! i saw uncle on tv too!" chaemyoung yells, jumping up and down while making grabby-grabby with her hands. seungcheol eyed jisoo—who was looking down at chaemyoung with a complacent smile and lax posture. "you're the fairy with the antlers! earth fairy! where's the water fairy? where's tinkerbell?!"

"no need to yell, chaemyoung," seungcheol warned. he decides to crush the young girl's spirit. "tinkerbell is not real."

"interesting. do i look like a fairy with this atrocious halloween costume?" jisoo shoots seungcheol a dirty look. "i'm not a fairy but i do have wings, and antlers. i'm jisoo. just jisoo."

"EH?!" chaemyoung shrieked, turning around. "minnie! gaon! guys! everyone! come here! mr. jisoo says tinkerbell is not real!" she says, as if she just discovered a flat-earther.

"what am i... supposed to do now? do i give them candies?" jisoo turns to seungcheol, confused. he looks almost adorable, holding the bucket of candies with both hands while the trinklets on his antlers jingled. "they're bundling up now. oh my! i'm swarmed by small humans!"

seungcheol chuckled, and nodded. "maybe tell them a few stories." he eyes chaemyoung's musty iPad, and wishes he brought his baseball bat with him to wreck that contaminated piece of thing that might annihilate all of human beings.

"who are your friends, then?! if not tinkerbell?! only uncle cheollie?! that's lame!" gaon blew a raspberry. apparently, seungcheol's black list is updated: his nephew, gaon, is next after chaemyoung on the list. if he gets his hands on gaon's nasty bowl cut, he'll shave all of gaon's hair and stick it on his kiddie legs.

"i am all but lonely. you see, i can talk with animals and make friends with them." jisoo patiently smiled, crouching down to meet the eyes of the children crowding around him. seungcheol could care less if they get stiff necks. "once, i had human friends too. but they're dead now."

"but uncle cheollie is human! and he's not dead!"

seungcheol choked on air. is that foreshadowing?

jisoo chuckled, tilting his head to the side. his trinklets made sparkly sounds, extra loud unlike the usual because seungcheol bought more to put on his antlers (used to bribe him). seungcheol realizes that jisoo has quite the patience with children. how does he do that? and yet he says he gets annoyed at seungcheol when the detective doesn't do anything disgusting like these little chois that are a menace to society?

"well, uncle cheollie is a human friend. he's the only human one i have at the moment who is not dead." jisoo states, and seungcheol wanted to gush at that (the 'dead' comment towards the end put him off).

"are there.. l-like, friends who're  magical like you!" heenam says, pulling on jisoo's sleeve. "poor jisoo, if you no have friends!"

"oh!" jisoo chuckled, tilting his head back again. the trinklets make a sparkly sound and the kids seem to be enthralled at that. "i get it. in earth, i am the only one. i'm the only protector and powerful superbeing. but, i know protectors who live in the sun and moon. they're called 'spirits'. they're not as strong as me, but they protect the sun and moon and help earth by giving us light."

chaemyoung flashed jisoo a smile. seungcheol wanted to close her mouth shut because she was missing her front tooth. "really?! what do the spirits look like?! are they nice?! can we see them?!"

"the moon spirit is very kind and shy. she wears a dress that glistens, and she has a blue glow when you see her." jisoo explained. the kids give him big reactions, making him laugh. "the sun spirit, however, is loud and she likes making jokes. she wears a head piece that looks like what humans call a 'crown', and she has an orange glow when you see her."

"but, but," minnie asked, eyes filled with wonder. "why don't you have a glow, mr. jisoo? why do you look different from spirits?"

"i don't, but my eyes glow blue. see?" jisoo blinks, and seungcheol hears tons of loud sounds in awe. he sees jisoo's eyes glow a bright blue, and to admit, seungcheol is amazed every single time he sees it. "it glows so i can see better in the dark. i can see what the stars see, too, but it only works at starry nights."

as the kids chatter in amazement, seungcheol smiled. he didn't know his eyes glow when he's excited. it's endearing that in his long life, he never knew that his eyes had that feature.

"that's amazing! but why do the spirits not have antlers like you?! by the way, i love your antler decorations!" heenam exclaimed, jumping up and down.

"me too, i love the pink decorations! tell us more about you, mr. jisoo! show us your wings! do you cry candies?! do you make rainbows?! can you—ah! chaemyoung, stop pushing me!"

"one at a time. please be proper, or i will not give you candy," jisoo firmly stated—and when the kids behaved themselves, jisoo continued. "frankly, my antlers there for fights. but i can fight well without using my antlers, anyway. so i just filled them with various trinklets. i can't make rainbows or cry candies, and if i show you my wings, my clothing will be ripped off."

"aw. what can you do then?"

"i am very fast. i can run across the country in five seconds, but that speed only comes in 7 second bursts. when i sing, i can heal people, and myself. when i walk barefoot, i leave a trail of mushrooms. i cannot die. i... what else? oh! my tears grant wishes."

looks like he left off the part about eating brains and gaining the victim's memories. seungcheol was slightly thankful for that.

"let's make jisoo cry!"

"no, no, it's not easy for me to cry. i'm very—"

"i know how to make him cry! let's take his candy!"

the crowd of kids jump at jisoo, and the superbeing only laughs. seungcheol found himself idiotically smiling from ear to ear, too, that he failed to notice that hansol was beside him.

"it seems that when he said 'i'm going to eat all parts of you', he meant literally. for a few weeks i thought you were into... nasty kinks." hansol spoke, making seungcheol jolt. the detective did not like being surprised, so he hits hansol's arm lightly. "he stole all the kids."

"i'm never going to let myself be degraded like that. i'm walking out of a relationship if my partner has a degrading kink."

"ah, i get it. because you have a praise kink?"

"wha—hansol," seungcheol firmly grunts, turning his head towards a snickering hansol. only then that he notices that hansol was dressed up like an electro slime from genshin impact. "what the hell are you saying, and what are you wearing?"

"it's nice! what do you mean? you just put on s grey wig! are you cosplaying as our grandpa?" hansol retorted, making seungcheol laugh. the detective doesn't bother explaining his outfit when hansol joined along in his laughing fit.

"at least it's livelier. but chaemyoung isn't off the hook. i want to feed her to jisoo." seungcheol remarked, crossing his arms as he looked at jisoo and the kids from a distance. beside him, hansol snorts.

"so.... is it true that you two are boyfriends?"

"he's an immortal who has a big duty, he won't bother having a boyfriend," seungcheol paused. "what 'boyfriends' are you talking about?"

"maybe the day's today for him to get one, though. especially you. maybe indulge in temporary happiness? your mom's worried for you. she thinks you're lonely. she's close to calling jeonghan hyung's mom so they could set you two up." hansol shrugged.

"i don't like jeonghan anymore, though."

"really?"

"isn't it obvious?"

hansol laughed, eyeing jisoo before averting his gaze to his cousin—who had his eyes trained solely on jisoo. "it is obvious."