It's supposedly vacation from work for the guys. All the concerts and the next comeback preparation —just the work concerning music-making(they aren't sure when to do a comeback yet)— is done; now the next thing coming is some idols' programme/competition(I'm not sure what) that they need to prepare for, but there's time for that; Now is the vacation time.

Yeah, it is not needed and not really my concern, but I do pay attention to what these guys do. I mean it's boring to stick with Soojin all day, she does boring stuff. How do you think I know what's up with Sooyoung, or Ateez or even Donghyuck? They're all a tad bit more fun to follow. No offence to Soojin. Umm?.. Well.. she can't hear me anyway. Full offence to Soojin!

Anyway. So, some of the boys have already reached their homes or at least departed by now. I am, right now, following Jongho. There's a reason behind it. See, I couldn't care less what all games these boys would play, or trips they'd go to or what their idea of family time is and attempting at it when they're with family. I could find out a new fact or two about their family, but it doesn't really concern me; besides who told you that I even need to follow these humans to dig up stuff about them, I can get a database on anyone even remotely connected to my client without moving from where I am, so why bother. The boys are much more fun to be around when they're all together. 8 truly makes one team.

So, this dude, Jongho, actually is planning to go to his home too. He is on his way— well, he was on his way to his hometown when he decided to take a particular route deviating from the one he should originally have taken. Long story short, he's now at some mere seconds' walking distance from Min Yoongi's shop. He decided to go take a look at me before leaving for his hometown, surprisingly. But is it really a surprise, though? He's been thinking about the mystery(which I'm responsible for, sorry bud) that happened to him, his teammates and his crush(?) way too often than his hyungs.

It makes me feel at ease to know that he thinks about Soojin. Kudos to Jongho, I'm rooting for him. Maybe this can be the new ship. Right now, he's the only one I have hopes for. Soojin and Seonghwa: Seong-jin, as I liked to call, is a goner at this point. It's partly my fault, I shouldn't have blindly shipped them and let my guards down. Jongho still seems like the consistent guy; had it been he who had ended up with Daisy, it'd have been perfect. I know it wasn't wrong of me to stick with Soojin throughout all the months she lived as Daisy and not switch to the real earth to check on the Ateez members. But if I had just done that once and checked on Seonghwa, this mess wouldn't have happened, it's not even about the failed Seong-jin, it's about Seonghwa whose pre-written fate I altered with my magic.

But I'm not working alone. Fate, this is on you too.

But maybe you already assigned this alteration to his fate.

Did you?

The banner on the side of the street vigorously shake and move around due to sudden winds that Jongho or the other humans can't see.

Oh...OHH...

As much as I want to discuss it more and ask some more questions to the ones above, I can't because Jongho has now entered the antique shop. Yeah, my priorities are no news. And of course, I'm excited at the fact that he's here to meet me, or have a look at me or whatever.

"Welcome to the shop," Mr Min greets the boy and the younger bows.

"Do you want to look around or do you have something in mind already?" the old man asks expectantly with a smile.

"I'll look around," Jongho replies politely and goes to find the cheapest thing he could, which is a pen from the olden times, or so he assumed. He came prepared to buy at least one thing from the shop out of politeness anyway.

After he was handed the pen after the packing and the paying, Jongho asks, "Is Min Yoongi-ssi upstairs?"

"Ohh," the old man surprisedly says. "You knew him? He's upstairs."

"Yeah, I was here before with other friends and Ahn Sooyoung-ssi," Jongho awkwardly replies.

"OHHH!" the old man exclaims and takes a u-turn from behind the long counter to Jongho and speaks slowly and excitedly when he's near the boy to avoid any eavesdropping from the two customers in the aisle. "You're one of those boys who was affected by the statue. I couldn't believe it when my grandson told me. Is it really real?"

Jongho nods.

"I also heard you're an idol," the man whispers. Jongho chuckles and nods.

"That's well, that's well," he pats Jongho's shoulder in appreciation. "Young people nowadays are very talented and hardworking. Keep it up. Yoongi's upstairs, go on, he'll be happy to assist you in any way."

Knowing your grandson, I'm not so sure about that.

"Thank you, hal-abeonim, I just wanted to see the statue again, nothing much."

"Of course, son. Go ahead!"

Jongho wastes no time skipping up the staircase, his newly-bought pen case packed in a small paper bag dangling loosely on the hook of his fingers.

Yoongi is seen sluggishly cleaning the counter behind which he's standing, a laptop kept on the end of the surface of the long, horizontal, teak body. He glances up to focus his vision on Jongho for a mere two seconds as the other approaches him and then diverts back onto the cloth in his hands.

"You're alone today?" he asks.

"Oh!" Jongho says, a bit shocked. "Hello, hyung-nim." He bows slightly. "You remember me?"

Yoongi breaks into a small smile. "So that's why you sounded surprised," he says. "I do. Your hair colour makes it easier."

Jongho simply nods. He fixates his eyes on the showcase on the wall behind Yoongi, the different racks on it which shelters varieties of peculiar items that are enclosed within the sliding glass door confines. What makes this showcase distinct from the various shelves arranged column-wise back in the room is its clear glass confines and the message encrypted along a strip of paper running across it that reads 'NOT FOR SALE!'.

But what Jongho is eyeing is just one particular item. Yes, the statue of the foolish-looking golden money. Yes, me. Rather the symbolic form of me, the idol.

"So you here to study the statue?" Yoongi asks.

"I'd be very thankful if you let me see it again. I couldn't properly the last time with 9 other people competing to look at it," Jongho says.

Yoongi nods. "Grab the stool and have a seat," he says as he turns around to retrieve me from the glass case. He then sits on the countertop in front of the young man and gives a light sweep with a brush to clear off the dust. "Here," he says after finishing. "Do your thing."

Jongho looks at my idol sternly, his stoic face reading each crevice of my perfectly sculpted statue. He then proceeds to zone out with his eyes still on me, his mind too deep and lost in his thoughts, and he does so for the next 5 minutes or longer. Yoongi's constant glazes iterate throughout, a small hint of concern and struggle to decide whether he should disturb the boy or not seeping through. Well, Yoongi can't see it but there are a lot of thoughts running and lots of silent communication going through behind his silent face.

And Jongho then finally reaches his hands out to hold my statue, and as Sooyoung did back then, he runs his palms up and down on the sides of my idol. And as Jongho takes his eyes off of me and looks at the counter instead absentmindedly, hands still feeling on the metal body, Yoongi notices the mysterious golden shine running down the length of me again, with wide eyes now that he knows for sure he isn't hallucinating like the last time he thought he did.

Before any words can leave his mouth, both Yoongi and Jongho turns to the staircase expecting someone as they hear the footsteps and the shadow of a person advancing. And surprisingly to Jongho, and to me even, it's none other than Ahn Soojin.

"Noona!" Jongho exclaims immediately.

Oh wow!

I don't follow the girl for a few minutes and I get a surprise like this. But this is insane, I didn't anticipate this one-on-one meet just as I granted a wish. They were destined for this, right? I transport to the outside of the shop for a second and look up at the sky.

.

.

.

"Hello," I say to Min Yoongi's grandfather with a bow when I enter his shop.

This is a really random visit. I was passing by this area anyway and have been wanting to see the statue again since that night, so here I am.

"Uh.." I advance to him nervously, cue all my awkwardness. "Um... I don't know if you remember me, hal-abeonim, but I've been here before with my sister Ahn Sooyoung."

"Ahh," he immediately says, realizing. And surprisingly, there's no hint of surprise on his face. "I heard about what happened from Yoongi. We'll be happy to help whichever way we can, my child."

"Ohh.." This is going smoother than expected. "Thank you very much, hal-abeonim. Here," I give him the paper bag I was carrying. "I heard from my sister that you like hotteok very much. The street nearby that was selling this smelled great so I brought you some."

He smiles and takes it. "You are just her sister. You both know how to bribe an old man." He laughs merrily making me smile too.

Before I could tell him why I was here he begins, "They're upstairs, go ahead."

Despite my confusion, I walk up the stairs, I was here for the statue anyway. How did he exactly know what I was here for though? And why did he say 'they'? Unless Sooyoung's here too. That'd make sense. But that girl has school right now—

My queries get satisfied when I reach the upper floor. Oh, it's definitely not Youngie.

"Noona!" I hear Jongho's voice.

Woah woah what!

I swear I'm seeing Ateez way more often than I expected.

"Oh... Annyeong," I awkwardly and surprisedly let out. I chose to ignore the fact that he addressed to informally. I don't really care anymore. "Wow, didn't expect to see you here in broad daylight. Sorry for acting too surprised."

I guess it isn't too bad. I'm not panicking so far. It's still overwhelming to see one of them in such a close distance but the hours last time we spent together, all merry and similar to the friendly days of the past made me at least avoid the fan's panic and jitteriness.

"Well, I am equally surprised too. What a coincidence!" he says. "And also, for clarification, I'm not a vampire, you know." He chuckles. The way angels do.

Wow.

"Oh, sorry," I reply. "I don't really have any idea how celebrity life works. I just assume you guys are either way too busy in the day or are scared of your privacy getting invaded more often than during the nights."

"Both are only partially true," he is quick to correct. "Besides, we're on a vacation from work. We were planning to announce to Atiny with our personal vlogs anyway."

Cool. But why's he telling me that?

"Great, I'll be looking forward to that," I say. My eyes fall on what's lying on the counter behind Jongho, I was so busy processing Jongho to notice that earlier. My eyes widen.

"Oh, right," Jongho says and goes to drag a stool. "I was here to have a look at this." He drags it nearer to the one he was sitting on and then seats himself. I go sit on the other one he dragged for me.

"Hello," I say to Min Yoongi-ssi and he greets me back.

"I am here for the same purpose," I tell Jongho. "I was passing by and thought about coming in here to have a look again."

"Woah," he playfully gasps with a cute smile. "Same. I was taking this route to go to my home and thought maybe I should go see it now because I never know when else I'll get the opportunity again. And now I'm here. It's only been 10 minutes or so."

"The coincidence!" I exclaim. I drag the statue more towards me and begin to play with it. "I can't help but think this is all a bit scary. Like you know, I obviously never imagined we'll meet many times when you first saw me in my restaurant. But my fate's proving me wrong. First off, the mysteries of this statue is not even clear to us, and then things like this happen. But maybe this meeting is just a coincidence, after all. I'm choosing to believe there is no magic involved in this."

Jongho gravely nods, seeming to analyze my words. "I didn't think of it that way until you told me now. And now, it does seem a bit scary to me."

The sound of clearing of a throat turns us to look at the other in the room, sitting behind his laptop now. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop on you guys," Min Yoongi starts. "But this place is really too quiet and it couldn't be helped. Since you both are talking about magic getting involved anyway, care to know what an onlooker's mind has to offer."

"Sure, this statue belongs to you and maybe other stuff in here that could possibly be magical too. Clearly, you know more about it all than us," I tell him.

"All that I told you guys last time is all that I know about the monkey. But I did witness an interesting thing right before you entered here."

I look at Jongho and he seems to have no idea too.

Min Yoongi then faces Jongho. "You were zoned out playing with the monkey so you missed the golden glow that it emitted just seconds before she walked in. It looked just like that time Sooyoung made her wish. That time I brushed it off thinking I was tripping, hope this time too I knew if I was tripping again or not. It happens so fast that you can't ever be entirely sure if it's just imagination or not. But seeing as the last time magic did happen..." He ends with a shrug.

"You do drugs?" I ask the salesman and Jongho's head snaps towards me with a questioning look.

"I don't," he way too calmly replies, unexpectedly unoffended.

"I'm guessing it's not the first time you faced that question," I break into a chuckle. "But yeah, if you're sober you probably saw the glow."

"Why was the question necessary? Don't I look sober to you now?"

"I have only seen you twice, including this one, but you don't really look like it, you look sleepy, or intoxicated, I don't really know. But now that you denied it, the former one then. No offence."

"And you didn't catch the gleam?" I turn to Jongho who's scrutinizing the statue, face concentrated and lips pouty. He looks both mad and adorable. So cute.

"As I said, it's not easy to catch because it happens too fast, his eyes were not even on the monkey when it happened," Yoongi says.

Jongho huffs out the air he was holding. "But you need to make a wish for the gleam to happen. That is what we got from the facts about the statue we got from you, hyung-nim."

"So you didn't make a wish?" I ask.

"No. I don't think so. I was thinking about a lot of stuff then, maybe even wishing for some stuff but it was not a 'wish' wish like Sooyoung-ssi did, was just thoughts."

"But still, what did you wish for?"

"I just thought it'd be cool if everyone I know became happy like the olden times and more stuff like that. It wasn't a proper wish though."

"Ahh, that's not a specific wish. Even if that gets fulfilled, there's no way to identify if it was the magic that did it," I complain.

"According to the facts, only one person's wishes are fulfilled by the monkey," Yoongi reminds. "And Sooyoung's already the one."

"Right," Jongho adds. "And I didn't even wish."

"It could have been your sleepy imagination then, Min Yoongi-ssi," I say. "Ahh, coming here is having the inverse effect on me, it did not help with anything and in turn is making me more stressed."

"Exactly," Jongho agrees.

.

.

.

After ogling at me collectively for a few more minutes, the attempt at a few meaningless conversations before they leave started as the duo advanced with a desire to learn about Yoongi's work. Soojin already knew he wrote songs and Jongho was curious why he always found the older man so attentively on his laptop. And when Yoongi began speaking about his passion, the liveliness on his otherwise always statue-solemn face couldn't bring the two listeners' hearts to waive on the opportunity on learning. Jongho was especially keen on attacking with questions being the one who relates more to the subject of communication: music.

"—It's difficult to remember. I should write it down and give it to you," Yoongi says.

"Jeez, why'd you decide on it if it's diff—" Soojin's words get cut off by the youngest just then.

"It must be a unique name then," Jongho says. "Did you just use a random name for the youtube or you have a stage name, or if it's just your name?"

"Stage name on Soundcloud and Spotify and a version of my stage name for Youtube," Yoongi says, constantly looking around. "Ahh, there's no paper lying around here."

"I think I have one," Jongho says pulling out a piece of paper from the paper bag he carried. "Your grandpa gave me this leaflet advertising this auction." Soojin looks at it.

"Wow, it isn't even of your shop," Soojin comments.

"He just has a crazy passion for old things, doesn't care much about his own business as much," Yoongi takes the paper and tears it into two to write on each. "This is practically the competitor's shop's leaflet but he's friends with them ignoring the business aspects."

"Bad businessman but a sweet and kind old gentleman," Soojin comments.

"Agree with the latter," Jongho says and then speaks to Soojin in a pout. "But you didn't really have to mention the former, noona."

"Aww, we got another sweet one here," Soojin says with humour, suppressing all her desires to ruffle the boy's hair.

"Here," Yoongi gives the papers, each with scribbles of all his SNS and music platform names, to the boy and the girl.

"I'll be checking this out," Jongho says and gets up.

"Me too," and Soojin does the same. "I'll leave now. Thanks for the help, Min Yoongi-ssi."

"Yeah, thanks, hyung-nim," Jongho then faces the girl. "It was nice meeting you here, noona."

"Same," Soojin says.

And then they depart.

This book is so much harder to write than the first one 😭

Like I know I told you I'll come back with multiple chaps after a long break, but—

👀☕(I barely completed this 1 chap)

Also, it seems all a lil bland and boring rn, but it'll be better once wise monkey spills 'em all the facts he knows. Drama's on the way 👀☕ and so is a new character. just gimme a few more chapters

P.S. sorry for the shit chapter.