Jaehwan swings the creaky front door of the magic shop wide open, walking in with long strides. His eyes immediately catch onto the pile of flavor changing jellybeans (he may be twenty-five, but theres no way in hell he'd forget his all time favorite candy) and he makes a note to grab a few on his way out. He hadn't been to the magic shop for months-- surely thats a good enough reason!

There's a head of dark hair face down on the back desk as he walks closer. It's Hakyeon-- the fell asleep while writing something down (with a glance, Jaehwan sees that its a detailed description of his findings of something). Jaehwan contemplates on either shaking him awake or let him get his rest-- its probably well needed-- so he just lingers for a bit. He helps himself to the back room (he knows where the door is-- its just illusion magic that hides it) and grabs two cups of coffee. 

He also grabs a blanket while he's at it. Reentering the shop, he drapes the blanket over Hakyeon's shoulders as gently as he can and puts the coffee next to him. Jaehwan steps away satisfied and heads towards the shelves to poke about. 

But even before he's made a step forward, Hakyeon's drowsy voice calls out, "...what d'ya want?" He lifts his head off the table, rubbing his eyes. Jaehwan briefly thinks he looks half his age in that single moment.

"Yah, go back to sleep! Do you have a spell on you to make you wake up at the slightest of breeze now?" Jaehwan whines, nudging Hakyeon with his elbow. 

Hakyeon snorts, pushing Jaehwan's elbow away tiredly, "As if. I'd never get any damn sleep."

"I swear you don't!" In a swift motion, Jaehwan crams the mug of coffee into the other's hand, "What are ya studying this time that has you staying up till ungodly hours?"

Hakyeon sighs heavily, shoving aside a couple of stray pens and papers littered about the table. "I'm touching up on some notes about the thing that infected that girl the other week. I have to send them into the Ministry. Do you think we might need to get aid for this?"

Jaehwan's grin stiffened up, the bright air around him dropping. Hakyeon glances up, confused by his rigidness.

He laughs in a way that doesn't sound very convincing. "Well… they… already sent aid," Jaehwan says, rubbing the back of his neck. Hakyeon better not be bullting himself when he says he's over it, Jaehwan thinks.

"Oh, really?" Hakyeon perks up, taking a long swig of coffee, "Finally! The Governor's taking part in something. I thought I would be the one to send in a request. Who is it? Vendine? How old is he?"

"He's 61 this year, I'm pretty sure." Jaehwan comments, "and… um…" he pauses, the name actually unable to leave his throat even though that's the goddamn main purpose of why he came here. It's just… what would happen if Hakyeon was still angry? He only told Taekwoon that he was still angry just incase he came to the shop to confront Hakyeon. He was always red with anger and betrayal whenever Taekwoon was brought up. Would he…?

I'm an , Jaehwan thinks bitterly before saying, "Y'know… I'm not sure, I've only heard about it! I doubt they sent the old man, though-- he's been rusty recently." 

Hakyeon's eyebrows furrow before he launches into a detailed reason why they should send Vendine to Daesam. Jaehwan nods along, trying to seem into the conversation. But all he can think is how he can dig himself out of the hole he might get himself in.

---

The garak guksu place was actually really good.

Wonsik and Sanghyuk were still s to each other, even within a restaurant with straying eyes. (Sanghyuk had somehow snorted up a noodle. Wonsik laughed so hard that Sanghyuk retaliated by pouring a side dish of his onto Wonsik's lap.) The two of them ate like horses, too. Hongbin's grateful that he didn't have to pay for that bill-- he'd be truly broke if he did.

It was... a nice thing to end his time with the two mages on.

It sounds melancholy or whatever, but its not. Far from it, really. They left the restaurant (still laughing at the stew stains on Wonsik's shorts), cheeks aching from the amount of smiling they were doing. Wonsik had his arms thrown around both of their shoulders, like they had been friends of years and certainly did not just meet the other day. 

"We'll get the rest of our crap outta your apartment, then we'll be off," Wonsik brought up, still uselessly swiping at the stains, "We'll see ya again. We drop by Daesam maybe every handful of months."

"I'll be here," Hongbin says, a grin on his face as Wonsik removed his arm from his shoulder, "Do you mind cleaning my kitchen while your at it? It's still a war zone after breakfast."

"We aren't ya slaves!" Sanghyuk howls as the two of them begin to walk off. Wonsik glances over his shoulder before motioning towards Sanghyuk, a eating grin on his face (Hongbin assumes it means Hyuk's gonna clean his kitchen whether he likes it or not). Hongbin smiles, waving at them until they disappeared in the crowd.

Then a feeling of being lost hits Hongbin. What am I meant to do now? he wonders, setting off for nowhere. He's been able to fight off the lack of things to do for a while, but now it's caught up to him. What do other people do when they have nothing to do? Impulse shop?... I'm too cheap for that.

Hongbin wanders around, no destination in mind. He goes in and out of stores, just viewing what they have so if he remembers, he can go back there when he has spare cash. 

Maybe I'll get a dog someday, Hongbin thinks absentmindedly as he passes a pet shop, What would a good name for a dog be? Jackson? Kevin? Amber? Hell if I know. He peers in the shop curiously. At the sight of a handful of birds that certainly did not look like common everyday birds, he picks up his pace.

And then a window smashes in front of him. 

A blur of red shoots out in front of him, and he already knows its one of the birds. (Who thought it was a bright idea to have fantasy birds as pets. I mean, really, Hongbin thinks, annoyed.) The bird latches itself onto a poor pedestrian that happened to be in its path, knocking them into the middle of the street. People around the victim begin screaming and fleeing as the person goes down. As the victim tries to fight off the bird, Hongbin notes that the bird looks kind of like a burnt out phoenix of some sort (then again, he doesn't know any birds and certainly not magical birds). 

I probably should be running, he realizes belatedly, hands shoved in pocket as he watches the two wrestle on the asphalt, Or maybe call Hakyeon. Isn't this his kind of stuff?

A sound akin to a dog whistle pierces his ears, making Hongbin jerk to cover his ears. The bird whips its head towards the direction of the noise, pupils dilated so much there's barely any iris in the eye. It launches into the air, talons out as if it would strike down upon prey. Hongbin looks up just in time to see it be knocked down from its flight, a translucent band of most likely magic around its wings and torso.

The ambers growing in various spots on the bird's body blaze a bright yellow, as if the fire was being forced down. The bird writhes in its bonds, crowing noises of fury. 

Someone approaches the bird, lifting it off the ground with two gloved hands. Hongbin glances to the person and sees a guy who vaguely reminds him of a cat. He's wearing a heavy coat (something a bit odd for early autumn) and a stuffed bag strapped to his back. 

The bird slowly stops writhing in his hands. Hongbin guesses its some type of magic that the guy's using. People hurry over to the victim, helping them up and assessing their wounds, which is only a handful of deep cuts. Soon enough, the store owner cautiously steps out into the road, warily looking at the bird.

"Is it… okay?" the woman asks. The man nods, tucking the bird into the crook of his arm. 

"It was getting claustrophobic because of the cage it was in," the man states matter-of-factly, "you should probably move it and other birds into larger cages if you don't want them to lash out."

The woman thanks the man for the advice, carefully taking the tame bird from the man's arm and retreating back to the store. The man sighs, heading back to another bag waiting on the sidewalk a couple feet away from Hongbin. He lifts the bag up and pauses for a second. He turns to Hongbin, who suddenly notices that he was watching. 

"Do… do you know of any hotels are here?" the man asks. 

Hongbin frowns, initially shaking his head. "Not that I'm aware of…" he murmurs, pulling out his crummy phone to do a quick search to see if it was true. 

The man scowls, looking to the side in thought. "Are there apartments? I can't remember if there are any…" 

To this, Hongbin nods, "Yeah, there's apartments. If you want me to, I can show you to the one I live at. It's okay for the price." 

A ghost of a smile appears on the man's face, "I'd appreciate it if you did. Thank you."

Hongbin grins back and waves dismissively, "No problem."

a/n: lol I just love writing

Kinda a filler chapter. I'm . rip.

I've got a couple of projects to do so that might stall me writing and all that but thats probably a bull excuse.

Thank you for subscribing and reading!! ;;u;;