Jinyoung is the one who finds him this time.

Jaebum can only be so glad because he’s been stuck in a lamp for 3000 something years without company and that amount of time is bound to make anyone stir crazy.

Jinyoung is 15, a rascal on the streets without parents and Jaebum becomes his best friend.

“Three wishes,” he offers and Jinyoung quirks an eyebrow.

“Only three?” he groans, counting them with his fingers. “Can’t I just wish for more wishes.”

“Nope,” Jaebum counters. “No wishing for more wishes. That’s cheating.”

“How about some lunch?” Jinyoung wonder aloud. Jaebum is about to snap his fingers when Jinyoung panics. His eyes go comically wide and Jaebum lowers his fingers.

“So if not lunch, then what?” Jaebum ...

A cat gets hit by a car in the middle of the night. Jaebum doesn’t see a thing, but he hears the sharp screech of tires against the broken asphalt and the even sharper caterwauling of pain echoing into the night.

It startles him out of bed, disoriented and panicked. He pulls on a jacket and braces himself for the winter chill. He shines a flashlight from the balcony

He doesn’t find the cat that night and by morning the cries of pain have ceased. Jaebum checks the alleyway in the morning and sees nothing but a stretch of dark red dried and flaking on the pavement.

Jaebum never finds the cat’s body.

He never finds Jinyoung in that lifetime either. It’s useless to try and connect the points when he’ll never know anyways, but there are nights, the coldest ones when the heater won’t turn on, that Jaebum wakes up to the sound of a cat’s ...