"Am I ever so glad you found me."
"Well now I couldn't leave my partner in crime drifting in another dimension after facing that gorgon now, could I?"
"Hecate would vaporise you if she heard, Irse."
"Well, glad she doesn't know I exist then," purred the woman as she lounged on the grass.
She pushed her midnight-black hair out of her face. "So, reanimating corpses wasn't the smartest move. But did they really have to put you in this stupid place? I had to search everywhere for you and the connection's so weak too," she whined.
Her yellow eyes observed Jeongguk lying close by with his eyes shut, mirroring his actual body lying on the bed in the apartment in real life.
"Jeon, are you listening to me?!"
"Loud and clear m'am."
She snorted and tossed her head.
"Eh it's not so bad you know," Jeongguk said in his head, "from all you told me, this place sounds a whole lot more advanced than our Seoul. This science and technology thingy really improved the quality of life of a few....at the expense of a chunk of the remaining population."
Irse rolled her eyes. "But, what about the magic? Or should I say, lack of it?"
"Well yeah, that's a drawback," he frowned.
He had already experienced awkward situations in the past few days when he tried to do something instinctively using magic, like lifting a pack of water or trying to impress Rosé with some trick and failing but always managed to save the situation with his quick thinking.
"Exactly!" Irse exclaimed. "So! What's the plan?"
In the dreamscape, Jeongguk chewed thoughtfully on a stalk of grass. "I have the beginnings of an idea," he ventured, "but I'm still-"
"Jeongguk!" a voice rang out within the dreamscape.
"Oh not her again!" Irse groaned. Jeongguk grinned and sat up with a sheepish smile.
"Sorry Irse. Talk to you later."
"'Whipped' is what I believe the mortals in this realm say for your situation," Irse muttered before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Jeongguk scrambled down the stairs to find Rosé already dressed up with her guitar case slung behind her. She giggled, causing him to smile.
"What? Is my handsome face laughable?" he quipped.
She shook her head and pointed at his feet. "Are you gonna be singing in those Ironman socks?"
>
He had to thank the stars that the gods had no control over this alternate version of Seoul: he had never been so lucky before.
Rosé was a kind-hearted person to a fault, trusting Jeongguk enough to invite him to stay in her tiny apartment. He had been wary of her intentions, keeping tense and stiff until it was clear that she was merely offering him only a roof over his head and food to feed his gnawing hunger. Not only: she even offered him a room and new change of clothes, previously owned by her brother.
"He moved out," she explained, "I think he was around your size though so these should be okay..."
She noticed him studying her and looked up, non-plussed. "What?"
"How can you....trust me like this? A girl, alone with a boy....I could be some criminal....who could bring you a load of trouble..." he said quietly, scuffing his toes with his hands behind his back. "I mean, I could be some inter-dimensional criminal exiled here as punishment. You wouldn't want to be involved with the likes of me."
Rosé gave him a small smile. "I try to believe there's good in people, even if they happen to be inter-dimensional visitors. And by the way, my brother was a convict, jailed for a number of felonies."
She sighed when his mouth dropped open. "I don't need your pity but I'm just telling you to let you know...I've seen my fair share of criminals that my brother used to hang around with, I can handle myself. And additionally, none of them were half as nice as you. Even if it's just an act you're putting up."
She nodded at him and slipped out of the room with a soft "goodnight."
And as would happen in the next few days, Jeongguk plopped on the bed and closed his eyes, his last thoughts always about the amber-haired girl.
>
"Look what I got!" Jeongguk announced as he rushed back to Rosé's laden with food cartons. Her eyes lit up.
"Aori Ramen? But that's like...so expensive!" she gasped, glancing down at the handful of coins she had gathered in the guitar case as if to emphasise the point.
"Yeah well....I worked some magic," he winked.
Oh sure take all the credit and impress your lady friend, Irse grumbled, what am I even wasting my efforts for, just to play matchmaker or something?
Jeongguk ignored her and handed the carton to the eager girl, smiling at how she excitedly started digging into the noodles with gusto.
"I hope your magic didn't involve stealing," she said at length. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Uh...not exactly?"
But how he could he begin to explain how Irse worked her limited magic long enough for Jeongguk to trick the cashier into thinking he had paid for the food?
In this world, there was no such thing as magic, Irse had confirmed as much.
"I appreciate the gesture because I was famished right now," Rosé pouted, "but Jeongguk, there's no need-"
"Say ahhh" he interrupted, holding up a piece of beef on a chopstick. She was distracted when he popped it into her mouth, laughing at her wide eyes.
"Got it, I won't do it another time," he promised, "but it's worth it you know? You eat so well."
Rosé blushed and Jeongguk had to refrain from cooing at her flustered state. He had discovered she was easy to tease and capitalised on his playful nature to make the most of it.
"So, another duet?" he asked after they finished eating. Rosé nodded vigorously, strumming a chord to cue them both in.
He had discovered he didn't sing so badly himself. It happened when he looked over Rose's shoulder back at the apartment when she was practising on her latest acoustic cover and took it to his head to sing the words on the paper just to mess with her but it backfired when she looked up at him in absolute wonder.
Next thing he knew, she had sat him down and drilled him into singing in time with her guitar playing. She was practically vibrating off her chair in excitement when she asked him to sing duets with her for her daily busking sessions.
"Think of this as payment for staying here," she had wheedled.
But Jeongguk, ever the cocky streetwise con, didn't need to be told twice.
If it was something he could do, no matter how badly, he was going to go out there, oozing confidence and charm, and he was going to pull the whole performance off like a pro. Probably years of being overlooked, sidelined and having to fend for himself shaped him to be virtually impervious to any negative criticism.
Jeongguk had never been shy of crowds, no matter how important or divine the audience. Even when he had been just starting out after discovering his abilities and thus his magic wasn't as polished and slick so there were plenty of slip-ups (like the time he couldn't change a dog's head back from that of a fish, or the time he enchanted a tree and it uprooted its roots and took off running helter-skelter for the hills), he still managed to smooth-talk his way out of tight corners.
With his magic, he used to draw hundreds-strong crowds at the Artisan market of the other Seoul and pocket a decent sum of gold for his apparent conjuring acts before he was whisked away to Olympus as one of several courtly magicians answering to the deities.
"Alright, partner, let's get it," Rosé said now, snapping him from his reverie. She cued him in with his favourite track from her repertoire—'We Don't Talk Anymore' by an artist called Charlie Puth. A little crowd had gathered because their duo had proved to be quite popular and already garnered quite a name, with fellow buskers even commending their teamwork.
Singing and harmonising with Rosé and watching her enjoying herself made him smile. The girl was in her element: it was easy to see that she lived and breathed music, embracing it like her very own kind of oxygen.
"Why aren't you more famous?" he asked later that evening from his seat at the table as she pored over books, doing homework.
She bit her lip. "It's...not that simple."
"Why not?"
She sighed. "You make it sound like it should be."
"Well yeah, you obviously have talent so...it amazes me that...that not even the President has heard of you."
She threw her head back, bursting into giggles. "Jeongguk, you're so funny!"
She paused when she noticed him staring at her. "Wait, you're serious?"
He squirmed in his chair. "Well, yeah...umm....everybody should hear you sing."
Had he said too much?
Didn't Irse say the President was like the King of the country here? Had she been messing with him?
Or maybe Presidents didn't bother with singers here? He really had to be more careful before running his mouth—
"Thank you, Kookie," Rosé said shyly, "that's...really nice of you to say."
He tilted his head. "Kookie?"
She blushed. "Just a nickname I thought of just now, I'm sorry I won't use it again-"
"I like it. Only if I get to use one of mine," he smirked. She looked up at him curiously.
"Chipmunk."
He chortled at her indignant cry as she reached over to swat his face.
"Yah, take that back!"
When they settled back down, with Rosé muttering under her breath, he went back to watching her read through her notes for 'biology class', for her 'science major'. There was plenty of space but he preferred lounging on the chair around the table. It was nearer to the fridge anyway.
The apartment was small but cosy, with colourful rugs and bean bags strewn across the open plan room connected to the kitchen. She had made them mugs of hot chocolate, the most wonderfully creamy, rich beverage Jeongguk had ever tasted, and that's saying something when he had regularly sneaked ambrosia and nectar from Hecate's kitchens in her abode.
"So why exactly aren't you famous then?" he asked again.
Her hand stilled before she let out a sad smile. "Life."
He frowned. "Life?"
"My Mom thinks that you can't have a stable career out of music, and she's partially right," she explained, "it's a cut-throat, saturated competition out there to rise to the top and be noticed by record companies. Moreover, my Mom always emphasises that my studies come first before my hobby. That's why I'm studying to be a doctor."
"But music is your passion and your dream, I've seen it!" he protested, his lip curling in disdain. The mother sounded just about as delightful as the gods, all stuffy and strict rules.
"Yeah, but it's never enough. Everybody needs money to live by, you know..." she shrugged. "I'm happy with busking for now. And I work at a friend's café to get some extra cash because Mom said it's how I build character, by working hard to make ends meet until the day I'm able to support myself with a proper paying job. I try to live day by day and...just keep dreaming. This is my penultimate year before I graduate. Then...we'll see."
"But...do you like school?" Jeongguk frowned, because he certainly never had liked it much, especially those crusty Latin classes, although they did help with his spell-casting.
"I like it yeah, I get by. My friends make it bearable."
He didn't comment about the dull tone with which she answered. "And...your brother?" Jeongguk asked instead. "Did he....back you up?"
She played with her fingers. "I guess...he meant well." she said quietly. "But again...Life."