Woohyun awoke to the feeling of Sunggyu prodding his cheek — and, well, various over locations around his face — incredibly rudely with some sort of hard object. He reached up and grabbed at the air, grabbing onto the offending item as he opened his eyes to discover that it was Sunggyu’s staff.

“It’s hard to aim with this,” Sunggyu commented as he pulled his staff away from Woohyun’s grasp. Woohyun rolled his eyes groggily and turned over so that his back was facing Sunggyu.

The prodding came again, this time at Woohyun’s back. “Oh, come on,” Sunggyu grumbled, “I woke up an hour ago to go meet with Hoya and get our ready for this fairy .”

“Okay, oka - AH,” Woohyun yelped as Sunggyu’s staff hit his spine and rolled over until he was on the other side of the bed, slowly making his way upright as he rubbed his back. He shot Sunggyu a glare and went into the bathroom.

He stood there for a full ten seconds before realizing he had nothing he needed for a morning routine.

“Um, do you think you could get me a toothbrush and toothpaste?”

With a roll of his eyes, Sunggyu conjured a portal, out of which dropped a new toothbrush and roll of toothpaste.

“...and floss?”

“You actually floss?”

“Um, yeah. I don’t want cavities, bruh.”

“I will pay you to never say ‘bruh’ again,” Sunggyu grumbled as he conjured a box of floss for Woohyun. “Anything else, Woohyun?”

Woohyun’s mouth was currently full with toothpaste foam, but mumbled something that sounded like, “Nah, I’m good.”

“You’re welcome.”

The sound of spitting and water running came from the bathroom a few moments later. “Aren’t you going to brush your teeth too?”

“I’m a magical being. I don’t have time for such trifles.”

“You’re not human?”

“Technically, no.”

“Then, if somebody wanted to hook up with you, would that be an interspecies arrangement?”

“You want to hook up with me.”

“It was a PURELY hypothetical siduayon,” Woohyun said, his last words muffled as he attempted to speak while flossing, walking out of the bathroom with his fingers in his mouth.

Sunggyu threw a pillow at him, “Gross.”

After some minutes, Woohyun finished his, according to Sunggyu, extremely mundane routine — “You do this everyday?” — when the older was met with another annoyingly trifling request.

“Can I change clothes?”

Sunggyu grumbled. “Oh my Lord, you’re so needy.” Without giving a , he opened a larger-than-normal portal and out popped a wardrobe fit for a king and all of his subjects.

Woohyun’s eyes widened as he whispered in awe, “Holy .”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes in half-amusement, half-impatience. “Yeah, yeah, just don’t take too long. I’d rather not mingle with the fairies for too long — they can get pretty snippy — but also we have to be there and get our done before the sun comes up.”

Woohyun, having only heard half of what Sunggyu said, stepped out of the wardrobe in bright green overalls with a red-and-white long-sleeved shirt. “Wait, why? Also, how does this look?”

Sunggyu screamed internally (not that he had any right to judge anyone on their fashion sense, according to the authors, but whatever). “You look like an elf without the pointy ears.” He jokingly conjured an elf hat and plopped it on the younger’s head. “Better.”

Woohyun stared at his reflection in the mirror on the door. “Eh. Festive, but eh. Do you think this will get me some fairy attention?”

Sunggyu groaned. “No, not likely. You know why? Because one, you look hideous, and two, fairies only come out at night. And with all your costume changing, by the time we get there, we’ll be too late to see the fairies and I don’t plan on pulling an all-day-er.”

Woohyun mumbled under his breath, “You could definitely go for an outfit change,” but finally settled with a no-sleeved black shirt with dark jeans. He glanced into the mirror once more, clicked his tongue, and winked. “Looking good…”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes and yanked Woohyun’s arm forcefully into the portal.

Finally, the two of them were on their way to Fairyland. Shortly after, they arrived, seeing as travelling by portal barely took a few milliseconds.

Like Sunggyu had said, it was nighttime in Fairyland, though Woohyun could see a hint of light at the edge of the horizon. Sunggyu had dropped the two of them off by a port that seemed to service ferries to the city surrounded by a slow-moving moat. It was hard to see any of the city’s details in the distance and dark, besides the array of golden lights that shone from the edges of buildings.

Sunggyu dug up two pieces of gold from his pocket and handed one to Woohyun. “Fare,” he said as the two of them boarded the ferry, handing their coin to the ticketmaster on their way in. Woohyun gaped at all of the strange creatures on their way in, from a beast with a bull’s head on a human torso to a very short girl of about two feet tall with bright red hair and striped pants.

A tinkling, but masculine-sounding, cackle resonated from the front of the boat, and Sunggyu grabbed Woohyun’s wrist, dragging him towards it. Woohyun was not a huge fan of the thought of going towards the creepy laugh, but made no attempt otherwise.

There, they found a man with large, translucent wings floating on the edge of the boat, laughing as his friend shot magic at the figurehead of the boat. The laughing fairy had otter-like features with dark bangs sweeping across his pale forehead. If it weren’t for the mischievous laugh emanating from his light pink lips, Woohyun would’ve thought he was very innocent.

The other fairy, who had just turned the figurehead of the boat into a walrus, had fluffy brown hair that was parted to the right. His face was longer and thinner than his friend’s and he had sharp, angular features, though they were slightly muted by the smile on his face.

“Good, we didn’t have to use the bait,” Sunggyu muttered as he walked up to the bow of the ship. “Hey, you guys.”

The two fairies looked at each other and then back at Sunggyu with a mischievous look in their eyes. Sunggyu groaned inwardly as he pulled out his staff, ready for whatever the fairies were about to throw at him.

“Aww, look at how defensive he is,” the fairy who had been casting magic said teasingly, “That’s no fun.” He fluttered over to the ship and landed on the deck, his friend following behind him. “I’m Mark, and this is Youngjae. What, fair sir, is up?”

Sunggyu was beginning to find Woohyun just a tad less annoying.

“There’s an open portal to the human world somewhere around here. I need to close it.”

Woohyun blinked. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to close the portals after you bring the changelings back?”

“So the fairies can throw in more changelings through the portal while we’re bringing them back?” Sunggyu asked, one eyebrow raised. “No, thanks.”

“Oh.” Woohyun pouted, defeated.

Sunggyu felt a tad bit bad, and patted Woohyun on the head as he turned back to the fairies.

“You’re headed in the wrooong direction, mister,” Youngjae said with a shrug. “Portal’s all the way in the ice princess’s realm. It’s cold AF, or else there’d be way more changelings getting switched back and forth.”

“Great,” Sunggyu muttered, looking down at his outfit and then over at Woohyun’s. He was still wearing his tank tops and shorts, and Woohyun was none the better off. Normally, he would just conjure a portal and grab more clothes, but he wasn’t particularly fond of opening too many portals in Fairyland — fairies will jump at every chance to wreak havoc in another world. At the very least, he had some extra gold to spare. “Thanks, you two.”

Mark and Youngjae exchanged another glance again. “Man, we gave you some useful information, huh? You think you could do us...a favor?” Mark asked, one eyebrow raised.

Sunggyu stifled his temptation to sigh. “What do you want.”

“We heard there are some pretty hot fairy ladies over in the princess’s realm. We didn’t really want to make the trek ourselves, but...could we join you?”

Sunggyu had half a mind to say no, but he knew how petty fairies could get when denied. “Alright. Fine. We’re going to go shopping in the city to bundle up. We can meet back by the dock in an hour.”

“YEAH!” Mark and Youngjae high-fived. “We’re going to grab some of our friends. See y’all later!”

With that, the two of them fluttered into town. The boat arrived at its dock soon after, and Sunggyu and Woohyun got off the ship.

The city was bustling with activity, both on the ground and in the air. Not wanting to venture too far, Sunggyu found a small boutique down one of the streets near the pier.

“Alright, Woohyun. Take this and go get yourself some warm clothes.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Woohyun said sarcastically as he went into the store. Sunggyu followed soon after, rubbing his temples with his fingers as he tried not to think about the journey to come.

Sori and I are trying to make good use of our break now that finals are over (thank the Lord). Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see if I passed Biochemistry. Sunggyu, lend me some of your magic, pls. -- applenamu.