Chapter Text
It was quiet when Jooheon started his morning run near the Han River park. He had planned to finish his run by 8am before going back to work in the music studio. He was engrossed in his hip hop playlist, bobbing his head to the rhythm in his earbuds, when a flash of light blinds him momentarily. Jooheon stops in his tracks, immediately using his hands to shield himself from the bright flashes whilst walking towards it. What is that…
“Eh…?” Jooheon unconsciously frowns as he picks up the teapot looking thing with his bare hands, lowkey wondering if it is radioactive; no thanks to all the disaster films he has watched in his free time. He slowly turns the item in his palm, inspecting all of the teapot-esque thing closely. It is barely the size of a cup that holds his favorite iced Americano. The surface of the pot is well polished and has some weird patterns engraved all over it. Jooheon tilts his head as more questions form in his brain. This is definitely not something someone left here on a whim. Jooheon thinks to himself and shrugs, leaving him with no choice but to cut his run short and bring the teapot back to his studio. He is greeted by the welcoming cool air from the aircon that he forgot to turn off yesterday. Settling himself down into the gaming chair, Jooheon begins to work on his keyboard, the teapot at the back of his mind as he continued to work on new tracks for the upcoming album.
Night fell quickly, and Jooheon’s stomach grumbled loudly, signaling the end of work and time to go home. He walked past the convenience store but stopped, deciding it was a good place to grab a quick bite for dinner. He pushed the door open and saw a familiar face fiddling with his phone near the checkout counter.
“Minhyuk hyung.” Jooheon called the man shortly and made a beeline to the ramyeon section, grabbing a few other things along the way to go with his cup ramyeon.
“Oh, it’s Jooheon! Hey, don’t you have better places to blow your money?” Minhyuk chides as he scans the items, tutting in feigned annoyance as the plastic bag of convenience store food gets heavier. Jooheon rolls his eyes playfully with a grin on his lips, quickly paying for the bag of food with a tap of his phone. “Hyung, you know this place is called a convenience store right? I wouldn’t be here if it wasn't convenient.” He knows Minhyuk means well but the older one just nags like a grandmother sometimes.
Minhyuk returns his eye rolls with an equally cheeky smile. Jooheon waves his hyung goodbye as he steps back out onto the streets, plugging his earbuds back into his ears and makes his way back home.
The moment Jooheon keys in the passcode to his apartment and opens the door, blue smoke engulfs him. He senses something wrong, quickly shuts his apartment door, and scans the room for the source of the smoke. Spotting his backpack, he throws it to the floor and backs into the kitchen, keeping his eyes on the cloud of blue smoke as it grows by the minute.
“Finally…”
Jooheon’s eyes widened in surprise as a figure emerges from the blue clouds. He blinks rapidly, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands to make sure he is not dreaming.
The figure is half naked, with shoulders as broad as a sturdy oak, well-sculpted biceps and six packs abs. “Oh my god… what on earth is this Greek god…”
“Thank you very much for the compliments but I would really appreciate it if you could stop staring. Your drool is all over the floor,” the figure speaks and his voice is a smooth baritone.
“My name is Hoseok but you can also call me Wonho, I’m the genie of the lamp,” Wonho continues, gesturing grandly and pointing to the backpack that is still lying carelessly on the floor.
“What lamp? What are you even talking about…” Jooheon raises an eyebrow in disbelief as he walks over to his backpack. He scavenges deep for a minute before pulling out the teapot. “T-this… teapot?”He holds out the lamp with his thumb and index finger on the ear of the lamp, taking awhile to digest what he is seeing and leans onto the wall beside him for support, his legs turning into jelly.
“This is so much better than a teapot, please. Also, quit being so dramatic, you must have heard of Aladdin,” Wonho the genie ignores the scene in front of him and makes himself comfortable on the couch nearby.
“You… How- What? Aladdin?” Jooheon calms himself down and decides to sit on the kitchen floor, thinking if he is hallucinating or just going crazy. Has the lack of sleep finally taken a toll on my brain?
“Four rules.” The genie holds up four fingers.
“Well, I know about the first three rules, but why is there a fourth rule? What is it?” Jooheon questions as he collects his messy thoughts.
“The fourth rule is you cannot free me.”
“What- why?”
“You don’t want to know what happened the last time I was free…” Wonho said in a rather serious manner as his eyes drifted to the black television screen in front of him, as if past events were playing on it right now. Jooheon stood up from the kitchen floor, and walked towards the couch, his fear of Wonho the genie long thrown into the back of his mind.
“Very well then, my first wish is to know what happened the last time you’re out of the lamp.” Wonho deadpans.
“What.”
“You heard me,” Jooheon plants his butt onto the floor near the couch, opening the bag of convenience store food and stares at the genie. “C’mon, tell me what happened!” Wonho huffs in defeat and folds his arms across his toned chest, narrowing his eyes at the man seated near him.
“I don’t know why you are wasting your wish on something about me but fine, since you are so interested…” The genie mutters as he places a finger onto Jooheon’s forehead.
~Flashback~
Kihyun was back at his parents’ place to celebrate the new year. As he is an only child, he has given himself the obligation to return home and spend some time with his parents every year. This year he has gotten basement duty, which is to be cleaned once in a long time. Well-armed with a N95 mask and cleaning supplies, Kihyun slowly makes his way down to the basement, avoiding the broken last step of the staircase.
“Oh, what’s this…?” He mutters softly to himself, walking towards a large shelf and stops in front of it, eyeing the shiny thing on the highest compartment. Standing on his tippy toes and using the shelf as support, he stretches his hand in an attempt to retrieve the shiny, golden box from the compartment. Little does he know the shelf is not the most stable and with the additional weight of an adult male, the whole structure collapses along with Kihyun. He braces himself for the impact. Scrawny arms shielding his head in fear of the weight of the shelf crushing him but impact never came. Instead in less than a minute, he was surrounded by a smoke of white cloud, the shelf crashing back against the wall as if it never fell over from the start.
“Are you alright?” Kihyun immediately sits up upon hearing the familiar baritone voice, cheeks turning a light shade of pink when he sees the well-sculpted body of Hoseok, one akin to Greek mythology god. Thank god for the N95 mask that covers two-thirds of his face.
“Y-yes, I’m fine! Hoseok, right? I haven’t seen you in awhile. How have you been?” Hoseok’s eyes widened. He did not expect Kihyun to remember him after such a long time. Hoseok is Kihyun’s family’s guardian angel and the last time he appeared in front of him was when Kihyun was six years old.
“Great, just been chilling in the basement after you’ve grown. And I must say you have grown up to be quite a fine young man.”
~End of flashback~
“Cute story, you saved his life but what has this got to do with you being stuck in a lamp? Also, aren’t you his guardian angel, why are you a genie now?” Jooheon asks and Wonho sighs, tearing open a pack of chocolate milk from Jooheon’s convenience store food stash before taking a big sip.
“Slow down with the questions man! Let me take a break, geez.” Wonho blows a raspberry and gets comfortable on the couch.
“I don’t want to bore you with a long story, so long story short, we fell in love. And I got banished into a lamp because well, guardian angels can’t date humans.” Jooheon huffs at the genie’s response, shaking his head as he starts munching on a kimbap.
“What a shame… How’s Kihyun doing then?” Wonho just shrugs his shoulders and brings his legs up to the couch, tucking them under his chin. The genie is surprisingly flexible considering his big build.
“I dunno, haven’t seen him since I got banished. I can’t look for him either, unless the master of this lamp does.” Jooheon stops chewing his kimbap and gives Wonho’s foot a hard smack.
”Hyung- I can call you that right? Hyung, we are going to help you find Kihyun, I’m going to use my two other wishes on you!”
“You- what?” Wonho was about to return the smack, his hand stopping mid air as he looks at Jooheon like he’s gone mad.
“Come on! You know where he lives right?” Jooheon stuffs the rest of the kimbap into his mouth and drags Wonho out of the apartment immediately after, carrying the genie’s lamp in his hoodie pocket.
Jooheon sits in his car and punches in the address given to him by Wonho. It must be their lucky day because Kihyun lives only ten minutes away! Jooheon is so excited for them to meet each other that he is certain he exceeded the speed limit for the entire ride. Stopping his car in front of the apartment building, Jooheon takes a deep breath and rings the doorbell.
The door is opened by a young man with slightly tanned skin and dark blue hair; though unnatural, his features are enhanced by the deep blue. Without waiting for the homeowner to open his mouth, Jooheon speaks first.
“Are you Yoo Kihyun?”
“No, why are you looking for Kihyun hyung?” Jooheon’s brain short-circuited but he managed to continue his questions.
“Does he stay here? And you are…?”
“I’m not giving up any more information until you tell me who you are and what are you doing here at this hour.” The man crosses his arms, the lamp in Jooheon’s pocket glows red.
“Uh, okay. My name is Lee Jooheon and the reason why I’m here is to help someone to find Yoo Kihyun.” The handsome man scans Jooheon with feline-like eyes, and after some time, decides that the man in front of him will not pose any danger. He opens the door and gestures for Jooheon to come in.
Jooheon steps into the apartment and offers the other man a sheepish smile, only then does he realize that it is already half past ten at night.
“I’m Changkyun, by the way. I’ll go call Kihyun hyung. Take a seat.” Jooheon nods, mumbling a soft ‘thank you’ before Changkyun disappears down the hallway.
Noticing the red glow, Jooheon takes the lamp out of his hood pocket and rubs his palm on its surface to summon the genie, just like what he saw in the movie Aladdin. Wonho appears after the blue smoke dissipates. Jooheon looks at the half-naked genie and raises an eyebrow.
“Hyung don’t you have clothes?” Wonho just grins and shrugs.
“I don’t think I know you, Mr Lee- Hoseok…?” Kihyun’s voice cracked at the end, his eyes landing on Wonho, tears brimming his eyes.
“Hi, Kihyun.” Wonho smiles, his arms opening wide. Without another word, Kihyun rushes right into his embrace.
Jooheon looks at the couple in front of him with glee. Then, he was ready for his second and third wish. On the way to Kihyun’s apartment, he asked Wonho if he would do anything to be with Kihyun again, and Wonho said yes instantly.
“I wish for Wonho to become human without any consequences and for this lamp to disappear!”
….
The lamp in Jooheon’s hands disappeared with a soft poof, but nothing about Wonho changed.
“I don’t think…” Kihyun pauses as he pulls away from Hoseok’s embrace.
“It’s not going to work, Mr Lee. On the bright side, you’ll get to keep your wishes.” Kihyun shakes his head to himself then offers Jooheon a small smile, wiping away happy tears that is threatening to escape with the back of his hands.
“What’s going to happen now that the lamp is gone…? Where did it even go?” Jooheon only looks at the two men in front of him, slightly puzzled about the turn of events.
Wonho points to Jooheon’s bulging hoodie. The latter’s eyes follows where he’s pointing, looks down at his kangaroo pocket and rolls his eyes.
“What the fuck…” He pulls the lamp out from his pocket and throws it onto the armchair nearby.
Changkyun reappears with a tray holding two cups of hot chocolate, placing each mug in front of the now seated guys before whispering something into Kihyun’s ear. Kihyun nods and dismisses the younger with a soft ‘goodnight’. Changkyun disappears down the hallway without making another sound while the genie went back to his lamp.
Jooheon only stares at the oddly pale man in front of him, sipping on his hot chocolate as he scrunches his nose deep in thought.
“How did you know my wishes are not going to work?” He looks at Kihyun defeatedly, making himself at home on the couch.
“Well…” Kihyun raises his hand and a book appears out of thin air.
Jooheon chokes on his drink, chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath. And for the second time that night, “what the fuck… what are you? Are you even human?” Kihyun only chuckles, taking his own sweet time to take a sip of his hot chocolate.
“No, and according to the research I have done for the past couple of years, nothing is going to bring him back to me. Which is why you will be living with me from now on.” Kihyun announces with a huge smile on his face.
“And of course, I will be eternally grateful to you for bringing him back since we haven’t met for a century already.” Jooheon feels the room around him spinning as he clutches his head with his hands. First a genie, and now what? A vampire?
No, this must be a joke. This cannot be happening. Jooheon thought to himself as his eyes slid shut. He felt someone lifting him up but he is too tired to open his eyes. After all, what’s the worst that can happen right? He already met a genie and a vampire all in one day.