Chapter 3

Deep in a cave behind a wall of vines, there lies a deep pool of water. To the average eye, nothing about it would look abnormal. But once you clear your mind and jump into the bright blue water, an entire different realm awaits you on the other side.

The safe realm, as the residents called it, was a place tucked into a small pocket of the dimension. A space on Earth that wasn’t directly attached. And there in that safe realm lived magical creatures of all types, freedom for all who lived there. Ever since humans took over Earth, any other creature that could serve a potential threat to them would be killed in an instant. That’s when a few creatures found out about the portal inside the cave. It led to the perfect place to hide, the perfect place to build a new life. Those who found out about it and entered the safe realm were able to continue their lives. The realm was almost a parallel to the planet, from its waters to its earthly materials.

Present day...

“Mark. Haechan. For the last time, I am a divination witch. I run a fortune telling service, not a couple's therapy. You two are just wasting your time and your money,” Jeongin sighed, burying his face in his palms.

The two had come into Jeongin’s house bickering something about their relationship. Jeongin was in the middle of meditating and the interruption really set him off, especially because the couple didn’t even make an appointment first. But Jeongin decided to be nice since he wasn’t seeing anyone else later that day. Unfortunately, all Jeongin got out of helping them was 30 gold coins and a migraine.

Haechan huffed dramatically. “Well you’ve got to have at least something! There’s really nothing more you can tell us about me and Mark’s future together? I don’t even know if he loves me,” He said while pointing a finger at Mark.

“Oh my god, we’ve been dating for two years,” Mark groaned and shot a glare at his boyfriend.

“Yeah, and I regret every second of those two years! And don’t think I didn’t notice that my hairbrush was missing this morning. You used it, didn’t you?”

“I did not touch your hairbrush, Donghyuck,” Mark said while sticking out his tongue at the other.

“Don’t call me that you Canadian freak!”

Jeongin had had enough. He levitated his tarot cards into a neat stack and put them back in their wooden box. Then he stood up from his table and went to the door, opening it.

“If you two don’t get out right now so help me I will call one of my friends to hex you both!” He yelled.

The couple reluctantly walked out of Jeongin’s house and mumbled something about him “overreacting” which really made the witch’s blood boil, but he was too done to say anything.

Before Jeongin could close the door a foot blocked it from closing. Jeongin threw open the door again and almost smacked the person before he realized who it was.

“Woah Jeonginnie, why do you look like you’re ready to commit homicide?” Seungmin asked while putting his hands up in defense.

The younger’s posture slumped and without saying a word, he just turned around and laid himself on his couch, burying his head in a pillow and letting out a high pitched dolphin scream. Seungmin closed the door behind him and went over to the younger, sitting down on the couch near his feet.

“I just came to visit you but if I knew you were in a bad mood, I would’ve picked a different day,” Seungmin said.

“No, it’s not you,” Jeongin mumbled while throwing the pillow to the side, “just some stupid customers.”

“Oh yeah, I saw Mark and Haechan walking out when I got here. They got their fortune told?”

“No! They barged in here arguing about nothing and wanted me to answer all these detailed questions about their future. It was so ridiculous!” Jeongin ranted.

“Jeez, that makes being in a relationship sound terrible. Glad I’ve never been in one. I wanna stay single forever. Especially now since my art career is making a lot of progress.”

Jeongin straightened himself up and looked at Seungmin with a genuine smile. “That’s good to hear. I’ll go make you some tea since you came all this way to visit.”

While Jeongin worked on the beverage, the two spent the time just catching up. Seungmin had recently spent a lot of time drawing sigils in people’s houses to give them protection, but he’s also been working on a project with an art-loving werewolf named Renjun. They were in the process of painting the hallways of some magic learning academy. Jeongin set down a cup for Seungmin. It was green tea made with loose tea leaves that sat at the top.

“So earlier today while meditating, the strangest thing happened,” Jeongin started.

“What was it?”

“I started to feel on edge almost. Like something bad is going to happen. I can’t put my finger on it yet, but I could feel four energies all at once. And it seems like in the future, whatever those energies were connected to, are in danger,” He said seriously.

Seungmin had talked with Jeongin countless times about the future. The younger, while being good at his job, almost always had his mind focused on the future. In order to get the most clear and accurate understanding of what would happen to his own future, he would meditate. For other people it’s easy for him to read their tarot cards or read their palms but for Jeongin himself, he couldn’t successfully get an idea of his future from that because his own bias could alter his interpretations to what he wants to happen, rather than what will happen. Jeongin tried to be careful. That’s why he only followed and told his customers vague information. The more detailed things were revealed as, the more errors there could be.

The art witch took another sip of his tea, processing what he had said. “Where do you think these energies could be coming from Innie?”

“I don’t know. But judging by the way I felt them, they were far away,” Jeongin said.

“Well if you did know specifically where these energies were coming from, what would you do about it?”

Jeongin’s eyes looked in a random corner of his living room. His gaze sharpened, and the corners of his lips slightly fell. “I would go to them. I would find them, and protect them. Wherever they are, I know they’re not safe.”

“Maybe you can try meditating again to see if you can find out about anything else,” Seungmin suggested.

“No, that would be too tricky. It might not even come back to me that way. The energies I felt were almost like a dream to put in simple terms. I was interrupted before I could really focus on it. And sometimes when you have a dream that cuts off, it might not even come back to you, let alone continue from where it left off,” Jeongin explained.

“Mm, I see,” Seungmin said in between sips.

“There is another way I could go about it. But there will be more possibilities of inaccuracy if I try it.”

“Well anything is better than nothing really. What did you have in mind?” Seungmin inquired.

“You know I hate reading you, Felix’s, and Jisung’s futures. I’m always afraid my own bias will get in the way of interpreting your futures correctly. But if there are truly beings out there in danger, I can’t just stay here and not do anything about it. Since my future is fairly entangled with yours and the other’s, maybe I could do tarot card readings on all of you.”

Jeongin’s specialty was tarot card readings. It’s what he mostly used to read people’s futures. Slightly behind in skill were his palm reading abilities. And then he also knew how to read tea leaves a little bit.

“Well I’d be more than happy to help you. But we’ll need to call over dumb and dumber here so you can read their futures too,” Seungmin snickered.

Jeongin’s eyes turned into crescents as a smile spread across his face. He could always count on his friends to help him out.

The divination witch then noticed something in the corner of his eye. He looked at Seungmin’s almost empty cup of tea on the coffee table. He leaned forward a bit to look at the pattern closer and Seungmin just narrowed his gaze at the other, wondering why he was staring so intently at it.

“Seungmin,” Jeongin said with wide eyes.

“What?”

The younger looked at Seungmin square in the eyes and the older started to get nervous. It almost looked like the fortune teller saw a ghost.

“Your tea leaves. They... the pattern. It shows that there’s love in your future,” Jeongin sputtered.

Seungmin quickly looked back at his cup and almost screamed. He hadn’t realized it, but the remaining tea leaves at the bottom were mostly speckled out with one clump of leaves near the side. And that clump was in the shape of a heart.

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