Put A Spell On Me - Taegyu

Teleportation and Other Strange Happenings

Taehyun had opened up the shop on a whim. His mother, one of the more famous witches in this part of the country, had given him enough of her magical knowledge before leaving him out in the real world by himself, as many witches prefer to do with their children. With nothing much else to do in his life, he rented a small shophouse on the quiet side of town, filled the shelves with spell books and jars of herbs, moved his furniture upstairs and hung up a sign above the storefront: The Eclectic Wiccan’s Shoppe.

Of course, Taehyun knew being a witch was nothing like in the movies. He didn’t fly around on a broomstick with a wand cursing people. Being a witch was more like quietly casting luck spells surrounded by candles and crystals on a full moon night. At least he was lucky enough to have a black cat.

When setting up the shop, he noticed that the storefront actually had a large window, but Taehyun being Taehyun decided to cover it up by plastering an unbelievable amount of posters on the glass.

In- store Tarot Readings!

Dozens of modern and antique spellbooks inside! Come and browse sometime! Herbs, crystals, potions – we’ve got it all!

Ridiculously colorful backgrounds and cheesy catchphrases weren’t really his thing (if he had to describe his “thing” it’d probably be dark colors and, well, less cheesy catchphrases) but he knew his town well enough and he knew it’d attract people.

The thing is, his shop seemed to attract only certain types of customers. Not everyone who walked past a shop that had the word ‘wiccan’ in the name was going to want to enter. After a while of tending to the shop, he began to notice certain stereotypes in the people that came in.

His first customers were just curious passers-by. These people didn’t really match a certain type; they were just wondering why this strange store was next to the nail salon/waffle hut they usually visited. Sometimes they’d come in and browse cautiously through the labeled bottles on the shelves. Some would ask skeptically if they actually worked before leaving, and others would have to be convinced by Taehyun before they actually decided to buy anything.

Second came the superstitious middle aged women. These old ladies usually wandered in asking if they could have their fortunes read or if Taehyun had any charms they could hang around the house that would ward off bad spirits (for the record, he could do both).

Sometimes they’d stay for a chat, talking about their adorable grandchildren or their sons who didn’t seem to visit enough, and Taehyun would pour them a cup of lemongrass tea and tell them that things would be okay. Even if it took up most of his afternoons, at least they left extra tips in the money box.

The third type of usual customer he noticed were the hipster-type girls with edgy style. These girls would walk into the store with purple or blue hair tied up into some sort of quirky updo like space-buns. They’d be wearing some sort of shirt with a quote on it that said something like ‘space queen’ or ‘normal people scare me’, and more often than not they’d be wearing a choker or have a galaxy print backpack. These were the girls that liked the aesthetic of being a witch. They loved buying colorful crystals and candles and potion bottles, simply because they were pretty. Taehyun didn’t fully understand it, but it’s not like was going to stop them from buying his hand-sewn moon chart, since those were some of the most expensive things in the shop.

He did get plenty of other types of customers. Sometimes, people would come in, and Taehyun could just sense that they were a witch. Some felt like they were beginners, or acolytes, in the traditional word. Others came in with the perfect aura around them, and they felt like the most experienced witches. Taehyun became self-conscious every time he tried to help out a customer that already knew way more than him. Thank goodness they were actually nice and not snobby that Taehyun knew nothing about blood root in spite of selling it in his very own shop.