Crash

     "What's our plan," Suzy asked Kyungsoo sarcastically. "Now that we've heeded to your request." 

"Let's go find a hotel or something," Kyungsoo said, his voice a lot brighter than before. 

     "How do you know what a hotel is?" Suzy asked, surprised. Although there were many things here were also in their magic world, the terming was different and the way they operated was so much different.

"I've read some things last night," he said. "Couldn't sleep." 

"When?" Baekhyun laughed, amused. "I was so tired I fell asleep right away."

Kyungsoo reached for his inner pocket and pulled out a small brochure that said Mastering Seoul: Travel Edition. 

"You took this from the house?" Suzy raised an eyebrow. "You seriously took this after making all that commotion about Jieun having one of ours?" 

"Shut up," this was for our own good. Kyungsoo opened the brochure and ran his fingers down a list of hotels that were listed on the brochure. 

"You know we don't have money anyway," Suzy reminded. 

Kyungsoo threw a wallet at Suzy and to her awe, the currency of this world was filled in the wallet.

"Wh- how did you get this?" Suzy asked, bewildered as she checked the money in the wallet.

"I'm not you," Kyungsoo said sarcastically. "The first thing I do when traveling somewhere far is get currency of that place."

"You're a genius," Suzy said excitedly as she passed the wallet back to Kyungsoo.

"Of course," he said. "I'm Valedictorian on the Dean's list."

     The three walked in the rainy weather, receiving funny looks as their broomsticks stuck out from under the umbrella. 

   Baekhyun looked around the street that they were walking through. Cars sped past with velocity and past the cars were various stores and restaurants with neon signs and beautiful lights that decorated them. People like Jieun and Jisoo roamed across the streets; some in suits, some in casual clothes, and some in school uniforms just like them. The three found a cedar pavilion by a playground and sat down, watching the rain drop ferociously on the floor. 

"This rain doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon," Kyungsoo said, sticking out his hand.

"We can't even go home anyway until Jieun finds the nametag," Suzy grunted. "What's the hurry?"

"For us wizards and witches, curiously is peril," Kyungsoo said firmly. "I know that she's been nice to us but we've been exposed. Didn't you read in the muggles book a long time ago? The portal won't open for us if a trace of us is left somewhere in this world or our world of wizardry and witchcraft has been found. Jieun's only seen us but if we stay by her it'll only be a matter of time before she sees our world with her own eyes."

"We've got to be realistic," Suzy said. "Even if we do find Baekhyun's nametag, flight isn't going to be easy in this rain. Jieun said that this rain, a monsoon, is going to last at least a month. You're quidditch captain, you should know this better than me and Baekhyun."

Kyungsoo stared silently at the heavy rain. 

     Suzy's words were true; although their magic powers wouldn't be greatly affected for at least a month, their broomsticks were a different case. Because their broomsticks are enchanted with the power of the magic world, their broomsticks were going to reduce in magic faster than they would. 

"I know," he said. "But I got a broomstick upgrade last week when I followed the Coach to the Seeker's barn. My broomstick should last longer than you guyses. If all fails, my broomstick is our last chance."

Baekhyun sighed. "I'm sorry. This is all my fault. If I hadn't lost the nametag-"

"Stop," Kyungsoo interrupted. "Blaming isn't going to get us anywhere. Useless emotions aren't going to get us back home so we need to focus on what can be done here. Besides, it wasn't your fault anyway." 

"I guess," he shrugged. "So what's the plan..?"

     Kyungsoo and Baekhyun stared at the pouring rain silently. 

"I understand where you're coming from Kyungsoo," Baekhyun said glumly. "But I'm starting to think that it was a bad idea coming out of Jieun's house."

"What?" Kyungsoo replied, surprised. Baekhyun was never the type to question his decisions. 

"We can't just sit around hoping that Jieun finds the nametag. We can't just waste our time checking her mailbox to see if she put it in there. What if she never finds the nametag? I feel like we would have had a better shot if we stayed there and searched for it ourselves, you know?"

Kyungsoo sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. "We've been over this-"

"Didn't you just want to leave the house because of Jieun?" Baekhyun asked, staring right into his eyes. 

"What?" Kyungsoo retorted, unable to defend himself. 

"Is there something you're not telling us?" he stood up and walked towards Kyungsoo. "Something in those dreams that I'm not aware of?"

The two stared at each other silently. 

"He would never hide anything from us," Suzy stared at Kyungsoo with a look. "right?"

"Right," Kyungsoo coughed and broke the stare.

     Baekhyun stared at Kyungsoo. He knew that he was hiding something. 

"The rain's gotten lighter," Kyungsoo grabbed the umbrella. "We should head to the hotel in this brochure." 

     The three got under the umbrella, walking back into the streets.

---

     Jieun stared out the window, watching the raindrops slip down the glass. 

"Lee Jieun," the teacher called on Jieun after catching her daydreaming. Jieun snapped out of her thoughts and stood up, confused. "What would happen if dideoxynucleotides were omitted from a replication mixture?" 

"Uh," she paused for a second. "DNA polymerase would replicate the entire copy of DNA and produce copies of all the same length - gel electrophoresis would reveal one large band." 

    "Correct," the teacher eyed her and continued with his lecture.

     Jisoo glanced at Jieun who was lost in thoughts as she continued to stare at the grey sky. Jieun was usually never distracted but when she was, it affected everything that she did. It wasn't hard for him to see that she was thinking about the three magicians, especially Kyungsoo. 

All this was hard for Jisoo to believe, but he couldn't deny anymore because he had seen the magic with his own eyes. 

It wasn't that Jisoo didn't understand, but he didn't like her being this way.

     "Still daydreaming?" Jisoo snapped his fingers in Jieun's face as she snapped out of her thoughts. 

     "I'm just tired," she said quietly. Her voice was out of energy and she looked like she would explode in tears if someone just poked her. Jisoo couldn't think of a good way to bring up the topic; anything he said about them would probably make her more moody. 

"Let's go eat ddukbokki after school," he nudged. "You love ddukbokki."

"I'm not really feeling it," she shrugged and sighed lightly.

"What are you feeling then?" Jisoo asked, trying to pump her back into energy. 

Jieun stared into the air, lost in her thoughts. 

"Hey!" Jisoo snapped his finger in her eyes and she popped out of her bubble, startled. 

"What?" She said in annoyance, pushing his hand away. 

"Are you still sulking over them leaving?" he brought out the elephant in the room.

"No," she shrugged, avoiding eye contact.

"You know you're a really bad liar?" 

"I'm not lying!" 

"Then what are you sulking about?"

"I tried my best to be nice," she said. "Suzy and Baekhyun seemed to be accepting but Kyungsoo was just so cold until the end it makes me wonder if I made a huge mistake."

"You're stressing over that jerk?"

"He is not a jerk," Jieun glared at him.

"He has attitude problems," Jisoo shook his head. "You did everything you could for them and he should be thankful to you but just look at the way he treated you! That's just straight out unacceptable."

"That's because I lost the nametag-"

"Whether you lost his nametag or not it doesn't justify the way he treated you. Plus, it wasn't even his nametag anyway."

Jieun stayed silent, sighing. 

"It's not every day you get to meet the guy of your dreams. Like literally, from your dreams. I always thought that he would be a fragment of my imagination. Do you know how surprised and happy I was when I actually saw him before my eyes?"

"He might have this adorable puppy face but he is rotten inside. There are plenty of fish in the sea Jieun, you'll get over him."

"Easy for you to say," she said sarcastically. "You've never even had a girlfriend before."

"Ok, that is not true," Jisoo huffed. "I've been in many flings! Just didn't..."

"Make it to the relationship part?" Jieun rolled her eyes. 

"They were cheaters okay," Jisoo rested his case.

"Wasn't it just you getting rejected by every single one?" she snorted and began laughing.

"You're laughing," Jisoo smiled. "I made you laugh!" 

Jieun shook her head, smiling. 

"So?" Jisoo asked. "down for ddukbokki now?"

"Fine," Jieun laughed and tried to lock away her sadness. 

---

     "That was so good," Jieun pat her stomach as she walked out of the restaurant with Jisoo.

"Who was the one that said they weren't feeling it earlier?" Jisoo joked and Jieun shoved him with a laugh. 

"Thanks," she said lightly.

"For what?" 

"Making me feel better."

Jisoo her hair and smiled. "You're all grown up now, you even know how to say thanks!"

"Shut up," Jieun shoved him. "Ruining the moment much."

"I think the last time I heard you say thanks to me was... never." Jisoo joked and the two laughed.

     Jieun's phone started to ring from an unknown number.

"Hello?" Jieun answered and Jisoo watched as the smile wiped off her face replaced by pure horror. Jieun's face turned red as she turned around and started sprinting in the opposite direction, leaving Jisoo surprised.

"JIEUN!" Jisoo chased after her, grabbing her arm. Jisoo stared at Jieun as her eyes became watery, poisoned with fear.  "What's the matter?!"

"Jisoo," she croaked.

"What is it?" he asked softly.

"Kyungsoo," she said hoarsely as she grabbed his sleeve tightly. 

"What?!"

"He's in the hospital. He got in a car crash." Jieun released Jisoo's arms and ran towards the hospital.