20 Wild

"My kind sir~"

June He stiffened, his face void of any emotion as Jae Young threw a playful arm over his shoulder and poked his face with his finger teasingly, leaning in with that kissy face of his. "Thy great Assistant He~" Jae continued to sing.

Jenna could only shake her head as her cousin continued to mess with Channing's assistant. She took a sip of her drink, turning her head towards the desk at the back of the office as she sat on the couch. "What are you doing?" she asked with a raise of an eyebrow, watching Channing overturn his files.

"I'm behind," Channing murmured as he stacked and unstacked papers, scribbling on papers and clicking away on his computer. "I've missed another day, but there's still reports to go over, projects to approve, problems that need fixing-"

Jae sighed out loud, the look on his face bored and frustrated. "June, my buddy, please allow me?" he asked.

This time, June didn't ignore him and pushed up his glasses, a firm expression on his face. "Do what you must," he answered, his glasses reflecting a sharp gleam.

A grin broke out on the great Director of YMedia Entertainment's face and he let out an excited, mischievous cackle before frolicking to Channing's side and pulling the plugs to his computers.

Channing didn't even notice until his screens turned black, his unsaved files gone with it. "Wha-"

"Come back to our city with us, my brother!" Jae loudly shouted in excitement, plucking the pen out of Channing's frozen hands and flinging it across the room. "You need a vacation! Stop working so hard! Where's the fun in being successful and rich if you don't spend your hard-earned money on something you like and relax? You have employees for a reason, Chan-Chan! You don't have to do everything here!"

With a bright, sparkling expression, he waited for Channing's response, only to be greeted with silence. Slowly, his smile faded and he awkwardly started to back away, but it was already too late as Channing grabbed him by the collar, a dangerous storm raging under his blazing eyes.

"I get it, you motherf*cker!" Channing snarled through his teeth, veins bulging at his temples. Jae choked on his saliva knowing that he screwed up badly. "But did you have to do that? Did you know how much work I put into organizing those files? Did you really have to unplug all my computers? Huh?! Answer me, you b*stard!"

Jae chuckled nervously and he hiccuped, not knowing what to say. "N- noona," he stammered, reaching for his cousin. "S- Save me!"

Jenna turned a deaf ear to his pleas and continued to leisurely sip on her drink, scrolling through her cellphone. She glanced at June, who stood unmoving beside her. "Do you hear something?" she murmured.

June frowned and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose once again, answering, "No, must be a fly."

"You traitors!" Jae cried over Channing's angry swearing. "Don't I mean anything to you-! Agh! I'm sorry bro! I'll make it up to you, really!"

"How, huh?!" Channing pressed, violently shaking him back and forth by the shoulders. "Are you going to do my work for me?"

"Fine! Fine! Fine!" Jae cried, desperate to escape his friend's vicious clutches. He had a list of things he could say to get him to calm down, but for some reason, the first thing that came to mind was something new.

"Lune can come along, alright? You can invite him, we'll show him around, how about that?" he yelped, squeezing his eyes shut in suspense. And to his surprise, it worked, and Channing's grip on his clothes loosened. Jae peeked through an eye and was stunned to see the sudden tamed look on Channing's face.

"...Really?" Channing asked, peering suspiciously at the one he held hostage.

The corner of Jae's mouth twitched. 'How dare this- this dongsaeng really is so mean to his own hyung but is so happy to hear someone else's name,' he thought. '...Oh, well, I can use this chance to get Lune to join the entertainment industry, hehehe. The looks, the aura, the voice, the potential...hoho, he has everything I need to give rise to the next star...'

Jae sniffed, mustering a smile of excitement at the thought of the rise of a new star. "Er...yeah, really," he said. "Call him and ask him if he'd like to join. We'll leave sometime tomorrow..."

"Call him...," Channing murmured under his breath, realization dawning on him. His face fell.

Jae frowned, confused. "What's wrong?"

Channing stared helplessly at his friend. Now that he really thought about it, he and Lune had no means to contact each other, no address, no cellphone... Heck, he didn't even know where Lune was right now, and outside, the sky was already pitch-dark.

Jenna looked up from her cellphone, noticing Channing's failure to respond. And as if she just read his mind, she said rather teasingly, "Chan, the first thing you do after you make a friend is to ask for their contact information to talk again. Have you been living under a rock this whole time?"

"But-"

"And why did we even let him out of the hospital?" she asked, brows creased with concern. "I wasn't there to see, but didn't you say he was coughing up blood?"

"But he said he was fine-"

"Did you really buy that, Chan?" Jenna interrupted once again, her tone stern.

Channing opened his mouth to retort, but closed his mouth realizing he had nothing to say against her words. She's right. Why did he buy that? And beside him, no one else knew that Lune wasn't human. He couldn't just blurt out that he was different. He wasn't even sure himself how much different an immortal was from a human.

A defeated sigh escaped his lips and he released Jae's clothes, running his hands through his hair in frustration. Next time...next time, he needed to ask Lune and clarify all his answers. He couldn't stand being kept in the dark much longer, even more, the feeling of constant worrying. What is up with his situation?

"You still have to tell me what the hell happened today," Jae reminded, and Channing stiffened. "Don't think about running away. Tell us. What 'undead' and what 'demons' was Fenn talking about?"

Sh*t...

.

.

"What will you do now?" Lune asked.

Lune and Sha-Sha stood side-by-side under the night sky, staring solemnly at the empty spot where the ghost of Zhu Zhen, the grandmother of Sha-Sha's alter-ego, Zhu Tingyao, once stood. With Sha-Sha's tearful goodbye, the old lady's ghost dissipated, moving on to the afterlife.

"Will you stay?"

Sha-Sha's sniffled, gripping the corners of her skirt. Her human form wavered as she glanced up at the immortal, a sad smile on her face. "Yes, I think I will stay," she said, fists trembling ever-so-slightly. "I still have Aunt. I can't leave her, can I?"

"Hmm, right," Lune smiled.

"You know...," Sha-Sha started slowly, "I really wanted to show grandma my true form. I felt bad for hiding it all this time, but I didn't want her to be disappointed at the last moment..."

"If one truly cared, I'm sure they would accept the other's true selves," Lune murmured.

"What about the human that you're always with? That Channing," she suddenly asked, taking Lune by surprise. "Does he know you're not human?"

The smile on Lune's face faltered as the night breeze flew by, trees bristling around their silence. "He...does." After all, he did properly reintroduce himself to him today, right? But honestly, he didn't plan to tell him much. He was just some wandering immortal who was passing by, someone who was going to return to his realm in less than a year.

Was it really a good idea to leave a mark on someone's life when he knew he was going to disappear in the near future, never to come back?

Sha-Sha fidgeting with her hands. "Then, do you find the human likable?" she asked.

Likable?

Lune let out a breath. He never really thought about that before.

Over the short times they've met, however, Lune felt he had been bothering Channing with his constant episodes, transporting and following him here and there and then taking him to the hospital, not knowing what to do when Lune expended his qi. Of course, Lune also saved him twice, maybe that's why Channing offered to help him each time without complaint, maybe that's why Channing kept trying to know more about him...

"I don't know," Lune answered the little demon quite truthfully. "But he has a good character..."

"...Channing just seems to care a lot about you, that's why I brought it up," she mumbled, looking up at the twinkling stars in the night sky. "We live long, that's why we might overlook details like this, but humans have short lives. I realize that even more after grandma passed...so what I want to say is, immortal, you're already here. It's not bad to make human friends, you know. You don't have to solely focus on what you were sent here for..."

Seeing where this conversation was going, Lune let a chuckle. "Really now...?"

"Really," she said, sure of herself. "I'm sure you've already noticed. There really aren't that many otherworldly dangers here. Perhaps some small problems may show up here and there, but most demons and creatures here are low-key, like me. We don't like trouble. Besides, if there really is significant trouble, there are some handfuls of cultivators that could take care of the problem. So, immortal, you can relax a bit. Maybe go and experience some fun things. Though...it'd be better if you could see...then you could enjoy sightseeing..."

Her voice trailed off at the end, feeling guilty that she was bringing up the topic of his eyes, but he didn't mind at all. Instead, he was amused.

"Hah... Am I really being lectured by a child right now?" he chortled.

Sha-Sha's face instantly burned a bright red, embarrassed. "S- Sorry if I'm saying to much!" she stammered, flustered, and she brought her hands to her face. "B- but we can't just ignore those that are being kind to us, right?"

"Right," he echoed. And almost immediately, he was reminded of his own faults, and he flashed an ironic smile. How many times had he brushed aside Channing's concerns now? More than enough times already, wasn't it?

And tonight, he left again without saying a word, not realizing that his disappearance would go noticed or stressed on by others.

Should he go back, then? He must apologize...

"Hmmm...thank you," he said with a smile. "Your advice, I'll remember it. It was helpful."

"N- n- no, th- thank you for bringing me here," Sha-Sha stumbled awkwardly, shy. She was blushing uncontrollably. She never figured there was a day that she could talk so freely with an immortal, let alone lecture them with no fear of getting killed right after. A lowly demon like her, felt lucky to have met such a friendly lord from the Heavenly Realm.

Suddenly, a bright whistle could be heard making its way towards the two, and they turned their faces towards the hilltop. Though Lune couldn't see exactly what, he recognized the excited flurry of qi rushing towards him, the familiar squack of a bird echoing above them.

"So you were here," Lune said, letting out a breath of defeat. He held out his arm and let the talons of the celestial bird sink into his clothes, and the spirit began flapping its blue-feathered wings in Lune's face.

"Bulu~ Bulu~," it wildly sang, taking endless pride in its given name. "Bululuuuuuuuuuuuu~ lulululululululululululu~"

"Hah, you've grown so much in just two days," Lune noted, letting Bulu hop onto his shoulder as Sha-Sha marveled at the sparkling creature with bright, awe-filled eyes. "What did you eat to grow so fast- agh!"

Bulu chirped happily as it gave Lune a hard whack in the face with its sturdy wing without care, having been used to acting rough when its body had only been barely the size of a fist just two days earlier.

Lune sighed, letting the spirit do as it liked.

"Shall we head back to the capital, then?"