"Oh, a handsome young man helped calm lil ole Millianna here! Got her down in a jiffy!" The store owner says, in her arms a humming phoenix. She was in the middle of moving the phoenix into a larger cage when Hakyeon burst through the doors.

Hakyeon stood there, taking deep breaths to calm down his breathing. He got a phone call about a magical bird attacking a pedestrian and sprinted there (leaving a confused Jaehwan to hurry after him). So here he is: panting while leaning on the doorway. Jaehwan comes up a couple of seconds late, bending over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. 

"...Do you know who he was... Or...?" Hakyeon asks, pulling a serious face on. Even though most of the population in Daesam were mages, most weren't good with beasts. 

"I don't," the woman says merrily, "he had brown hair, was about this tall," the woman raised her hand up till it was a good half foot above her head, "he had two bags with him and a heavy jacket on. I've never seen him before. Maybe he's a traveler?"

Hakyeon frowns, thinking, a traveler? Would it be someone from the ministry?... Who looks like that in the ministry? He tries to imagine all of the ministry members, but comes up short. 

"Is that all?" Hakyeon asks. The woman looks up in though, the Phoenix cooing.

"He spoke to another young man with black hair and a nice jawline. I heard something about an apartment, but that's it," the lady supplied. 

Jaehwan snorts, "I bet it's Hongbin," he whispers Hakyeon, "who knows what chaos he gets himself into." Besides, anyone who knows Hongbin and describes him to someone else uses the same terminology. 

They both bow in thanks to the lady, who waves them away, amused. They head into the street without a word. 

"Should we go find Hongbin?" Jaehwan asks, although he knows that it's probably not the best, "I mean, the guy might be with him. You can go see who he is and figure out if Vendine got a wicked powerful youth potion?"

Hakyeon shakes his head, "not worth it. If they know any better, they should head to me because I'm the Mage of the city. Maybe they're just settling?" Hakyeon grins, "That makes me wonder! What did Vendine look like when he was our age?"

"Less wrinkly," Jaehwan scrunches up his nose, probably trying to mimic the man's face. 

Hakyeon laughs despite himself, saying, "he'll turn you into a dog if he hears that."

Jaehwan starts barking of all of things. People around them look at them like they're out of their minds, but Jaehwan continues to bark and Hakyeon continues to shove him, laughing. 

---

Being invited to join the Ministry of Magic was probably the equivalent to being awarded all the money in the world and being crowned king to Hakyeon. 
Maybe it's just him, but it just goes over his head that the Ministry, the place with all the legendary mages, invited him, a lanky twenty-one year old, to join them. It's spectacular! His previous mentors over the moon-- His parents cried when he told them, saying that they knew it would happen someday. 

What do they do there? Would he be sent all over the country to help with things? What about the dragons in the mountains up north? Will he get to see those? How amazing would that be! Dragons seem like a myth to him, only spoke about in history books or reports. Wonsik said he's seen a few since he's a traveling wizard. Hakyeon always begged for Wonsik to let him see one, but Wonsik said he'd just be annoying.

"Taekwoonie! Taekwoonie!" Hakyeon had called singsong, swinging open the door to the said man's flat, "Look! Look! Taekwoonie, look!" 

Taekwoon was sitting on the floor in front of his bed, looking up to him in start. Hakyeon launched himself in front of Taekwoon, landing on his knees and waving a letter in his face.

"Look! It's a letter from the Ministry!" Hakyeon beamed, clearing his throat and reading off, "'Because of outstanding show of magic ability and understanding, the staff of the Ministry of Magic have collectively decided to invite you, Cha Hakyeon, to join the Ministry'! Can you believe it! Me! They invited me!" He was positively glowing with excitement.

Taekwoon let one of his rare smiles slip on to his face. "Congrats, I guess," he said. 

Hakyeon sniffled, suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. "I--I can't believe it... Taekwoonie, is this a dream? Can you pinch me--?" Taekwoon complied, only to get smacked in the arm, "I didn't mean for you to actually do it!" Hakyeon laughed, rubbing his eyes. 

Taekwoon reached out to him and let Hakyeon latch onto him in a hug, knowing that he really appreciates the gesture. He knew how much it meant to the boy in front of him to be invited to the Ministry. And he crammed an identical letter further underneath his bed.

...

"Did you hear? Cha Hakyeon's going to the Ministry!"

"I knew he would get there someday! He's brilliant!"

"Wait, isn't there someone else going too?"

"Another one? Who would it be?"

"I though Cha Hakyeon was the best Mage here."

"Maybe there's someone else who's just as good?"

"Who knows."

...

He's heard the rumors.

He's heard the word that someone else would be going to the Ministry too. From the same place! Hakyeon wondered if he knows them.

Plus, he's noticed how reluctant Taekwoon is around him recently. Whenever they have to go help people with magic stuff and their problems, it's like he's trying to detach himself. It's not really working-- Hakyeon clings on even more when he does stuff like that. It made him worried. Does his best friend not like him anymore? Had he found someone else to replace Hakyeon with? Wonsik said he didn't see a difference, even though he only briefly visited once.

He didn't know.

He swung the door open to Taekwoon's flat, calling in, "Taekwoonie--!" He saw Jaehwan, their friend who practically lived in Taekwoon's flat he's there so often, jump and almost completely spilt his coffee. 

"Yah, Cha Hakyeon, what's the big deal!" Jaehwan whined, mourning over the little bit of coffee that spilled onto his leg. "I'm here too! It's not just Taekwoon!"

"Is he here, though?" Hakyeon asked, going over to Jaehwan and using a charm to pull the coffee out of his jeans. Jaehwan frowned and scrubbed at his jeans, as if to see if the coffee actually went away completely.

"He's not. Whatcha need him for? Can I come instead?" Jaehwan said, looking at Hakyeon with a child-like expression, "I wanna see the magical stuff you do! What is it? Don't you like, get sprites out of flower shops?"

Hakyeon snorted, "that was only once. I'll tell you if there's sprites again and I'll let you see what we do."

"Aw, hell yeah!" Jaehwan fist pumped, leaping out of his seat in excitement.

"But do you know where'd Taekwoon would be? I found an animal near the forest that he might be able to help." Hakyeon said, looking about the room. Taekwoon barely ever leaves his flat, unless if it's to restock his coffee.

Jaehwan shook his head, but paused soon after, "wouldn't he be at the governor's building?" 

Hakyeon furrowed his eyebrows, thinking, what would he have to do with the governor? "What would he be doing there?"

"Y'know how you had to get leave for your job as city mage to go visit the Ministry to see if you wanna actually do it?" Jaehwan said, Hakyeon's eyes widening as he connected the dots, "Taekwoon's gotta do that too. He just didn't go to get it early like you did. Dunno why. He's not a slacker, but I'm not sure why he's taking his time to go to the Ministry with ya."

---

He doesn't have an idea in his mind why Taekwoon would hide such a thing. Hakyeon should've been able to assume it! Him and Taekwoon are possibly the best wizards in the city! Why didn't he connect the dots earlier?

Instead of going to check if the animal was still at the forest edge, he hurried to the government building. He wouldn't enter-- he doesn't have a reason to and its be disrespectful to Taekwoon (and the governor) if he were to just barge in on them. Waiting outside, Hakyeon thought of all and any possibilities of why Taekwoon wouldn't speak about it.

They were best friends! If Taekwoon told him earlier, he would've been over the moon! The two of them, heading to be apart of the council... It's great! Maybe he didn't get it at the same time I did? He guessed.

It made him antsy. For what reason? He didn't know.

Taekwoon comes out of the government building about ten minutes after Hakyeon began pacing. He didn't notice Hakyeon at first, heading down the stairs with his eyes to the ground. When Hakyeon called out to him, he seemed so startled and panicked when he realized.

"Taekwoon! You didn't tell me you were invited!" Hakyeon exclaimed, bounding toward him. Taekwoon opened his mouth to say something, but doesn't.
"It's great! We can both go to the Ministry!" Hakyeon continued, grabbing him by the shoulder, "we can go do advanced things with magic! Like, actually go see a real dragon! Imagine it, Taekwoonie!" His face was bright; almost too bright. Was he trying to convince both him and Taekwoon that it was a great thing?

"Hakyeon..." Taekwoon murmured, but Hakyeon cuts him off.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" He whined, "you told Jaehwan! Am I not as important?"

"Hakyeon," Taekwoon said firmly, making him stop his whining immediately. "I... You... Do you know much about the Ministry?" he asked, his voice solemn.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Hakyeon nods mutedly. How wouldn't he know about the Ministry? It's taught like a religion in the school they attended.

He's quiet for a couple more minutes until he says, "there's... There's a rule. Only one person from any city can join the ministry."

Hakyeon wanted to vanish from existence.

---

Hongbin feels like he might become the middle man between this feud.

While leading the man to the apartments, they swapped names. The one and only Taekwoon beside him. What luck. Does Hakyeon know he's in town? What the big deal if he does know? Will he yell at him and tell him to get out? It's making Hongbin's head hurt, thinking about all this.  

The man doesn't speak much. He hasn't said a word since he introduced himself. It makes Hongbin wonder if Hakyeon's just a delusional .
He probably is. Magic seems like it'll mess with your head. 

Hongbin almost wants to ask to see Taekwoon side of the story. But does he? Should he really poke into this dumb feud? 

He's already gotten himself way too far in this stuff.

With a couple of side glances, he sees Taekwoon look around in a daze, like he's remembering old memories as they stroll through the streets. He pauses a couple of times, looking at people who were interacting across the road. Hongbin doesn't know if he's envious or if he recognizes them.

"Would you know where that... One girl who had an infected arm would be?" He asks out of the blue, startling Hongbin. 

Hongbin winces at the memory of it and shakes his head. "I think she might be in the hospital still. I haven't heard anything about it until it happened. Are you here for something involving that?" he asks.

He nods but doesn't incline to elaborate. 

Then he pauses with a jolt.

Hongbin jerks his head to look at him, eyebrows creased in confusion. He looks in the direction Taekwoon's looking in and sees the bubbly lights of the sign saying: Cha's Shop of Charms, Potions, and More!

Taekwoon doesn't move for a while, staring at the sign in what seemed like melancholy. Hongbin doesn't feel inclined to say anything, so he won't. 

---

a/n: ayyy instead of my writing being delayed with my projects, my projects are being delayed with my writing (then again I don't have what I need to do my projects an d I ts du e mond ay)

I put the past into this chap because I felt like I've kinda been vague with everything and etc. there's probably gonna be a lot of errors cause I'm doing this on my phone. lol

Thank you for reading!!