| V. awkward encounters |

In the Gryffindor common room a couple of days later shortly before Halloween, Luhan twirls his quill in his hands as he attempts to get ahead with some of the reading that he had been assigned for Charms. The homework's been piling nonstop these days, and it's starting to get pretty overwhelming despite him normally being on top of things.

He squints down at the textbook in front of him, but his focus is soon entirely interrupted when Jongdae lets out a loud whine from where he is seated in front of him.

Luhan looks up questioningly. The younger Gryffindor sighs before putting his quill down.

"We already have so much to do, and it's barely the end of October." Jongdae burrows his head in his hands. "The only things I'm looking forward to at this point are the Halloween feast and our first match against Slytherin."

He, Jongdae, along with Chanyeol (and Jongin on occasion) studied together in the common room pretty frequently. Luhan often found himself having the other boys with whatever they needed to do while dealing with his own at the same time, which is a pretty tiring thing to do in all honesty.

Chanyeol hums in agreement.

"Seems like all the teachers are out for us these days. I didn't think I'd ever see the day where Defense Against the Dark Arts is hard for me, but..."

Surprisingly, he looks pretty focused for once; he's currently scribbling hurriedly on his parchment. Although his nose has completely healed, Luhan makes it a point to still keep an eye on him during practices especially with the season right around the corner.

"Tell me about it," Jongdae groans as he massages his temples. "It's been quite tiring lately, since Kim's pretty focused on lecturing. And when we do end up practicing on each other, it doesn't go very well since we have to use nonverbal spells for literally everything now..."

"Nonverbal spells are kinda cool, though, you can hex someone without them knowing about it." Jongin's voice then says, and the three Gryffindors look up to see the younger male standing in front of them. He seemed to have just gotten out of the showers; his hair's damp, and he's dressed in his pajamas.

Jongdae smiles at the sight of him. 

"That's the point of it, after all. But it's bloody difficult... I look ing constipated whenever I try to do it. You heading to bed already?"

Jongin shakes his head. He pulls out a textbook from behind him and waves it at the trio.

"I just got ready early because I wanted to go straight to sleep after finishing something up. Can I join you guys?"

"'Course you can," Luhan nods before turning back to stare at his textbook, and the other two Gryffindors voice their agreement. Jongin mutters a thanks before he pulls out the chair from next to the seventh year.

"What are you studying for?" Chanyeol asks, looking up at the other male curiously.

"Oh... I'm actually just doing some extra reading." Jongin answers nonchalantly as he places the book on the table.

At this, Chanyeol and Jongdae's eyes widen in surprise.

"Extra reading?!" Jongdae's mouth falls open at that. "Mate, since when have you ever been willing to read extra on..." He leans in to read the title of the textbook, and his eyes widen even more. "...Potions, too, of all things?"

He's right; although Jongin's grades were decent, he was the type of student who didn't feel the need to study more if he already got a good enough grasp on the topic. Furthermore, he never really actively tried (or wanted) to get ahead in his other classes.

"Impressive," Luhan glances at Jongin in surprise, amazed by the Gryffindor's sudden change in attitude over his studies.

"I-I'm doing this for a reason!" Jongin raises his hands up in defense, looking a little embarrassed. "I, um, well. Kyungsoo found me the other day and said that he forgot to mention that I should read ahead on the next potion that we were going to do in class. We already went over the one for this week's with our last tutoring session, so he just... Yeah. I-I mean, he said that it should help me know what to expect so I don't get too nervous."

Chanyeol leans back in his chair, laughing a little, as Luhan tries to figure out who this 'Kyungsoo' was—the name sounded so familiar.

"Blimey. One session only, and he's already working you to the bone."

"I don't think it's that bad," Jongin mutters. He looks down at his textbook. "At first, I really thought he didn't want to help me, but... he actually seems to putting in effort towards it since he apparently was looking for me all day. I think it's why I'm also motivated to try hard, too. It's just that..."

He trails off, looking vaguely troubled. 

"That?" Jongdae presses, interested. 

"That he seems so closed off to me, or something." Jongin opens his Potions book and flips through the first couple of pages. He hesitates a little before continuing. "I mean, I get it. We've never spoken until this year, but it makes me feel kind of conscious of what I say and stuff. It feels like he'll curse me if I say just one wrong word."

"So, you're scared of him?" Luhan then asks, finally remembering the 'Kyungsoo' person as the kid who he thought was a Slytherin spy back on the Quidditch field not too long ago.

"No, that's not it." Jongin shakes his head. "I just don't want to make him feel uncomfortable, so I figured I could try to actually be friends with him. I was actually going to ask Jongdae and Chanyeol what I could do, considering the fact that Kyungsoo's my tutor and all... I'll be spending a lot of time with him until my grade gets back up at least."

Chanyeol hums thoughtfully. He rests his elbow on the table and places his chin in the palm of his hand.

"I don't think he's uncomfortable with you, to be honest."

"Agreed," Jongdae lets out an amused snort. "I mean, you guys are already on first name basis. That's a plenty big step already."

Jongin raises a disbelieving eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yes, really. I mean, Kyungsoo's just a naturally quiet and cautious person in general, so he's the type who takes a while until he starts to warm up."

"Don't worry, it should be fine in no time," Chanyeol reassures him. "I mean, tons of people wonder how Jongdae and I were able to become close friends with him. But we did do it, so it's definitely not impossible for you."

"Besides, Kyungsoo's a pretty nice guy beneath that cool exterior." Jongdae adds, looking unnaturally serious. "You'll be surprised to see it."

Jongin finally seems to visibly relax a little at that. He smiles.

"Thanks, guys."

"Well," Luhan then says, as his eyes travel down to his watch, "as much as I do love listening to your current concerns and all, Jongin, I do have to leave to do rounds tonight."

"Aww, okay." Jongdae pouts as the elder male gets out of his chair. "I'll probably still be here when you get back. I still have loads of to do."

"Same," Chanyeol sighs despondently. Jongin nods as well.

"Brilliant. I'm just gonna leave my stuff here, then." Luhan says as he pushes the chair in. He waves goodbye to the trio afterwards. "Cheers."

He still had quite some time before he needed to start his rounds, in reality. It had just turned 9 o'clock, and curfew began at 10. It's not like he didn't want to spend a little more time with his Gryffindor juniors—he just needed some time to himself for a bit. Besides, he felt like he couldn't give Jongin helpful advice since he didn't know anything about Kyungsoo in the first place.

Once he leaves the tower, he makes his way down the corridors. As soon as he knows that there's nobody around to see him, he casts a Disillusionment Charm on himself and starts to walk in the direction towards the Quidditch pitch. It was the place where he always felt the most calm, even though it was quite far. He figured he'd be able to make it back in time before starting his rounds.

He stops walking as soon as he gets a little closer to the pitch and mutters 'Finite' in order to get rid of the charm. Afterwards, he plops down in the grassy area a few feet away from it. Luhan brings his knees to his chest and crosses his arms over them. As soon as he rests his head on top, he immediately feels all of the previous worries start to go away.

Damn.

He was going to miss this, for sure.

He had started coming to the pitch after the previous Gryffindor captain had left since he needed time alone to reflect on what was happening, and he used to be creeped out because of how eerily silent the place was. Eventually, Luhan started to like the comfort that the darkness and silence could bring. Besides, he didn't know anyone else brave enough to want to go all the way out here at night. 

Luhan looks up at the stars in the sky, feeling suddenly melancholic.

Who knew that six years would go by... just like that.

The fact that he's already less than a year away from graduating is something that keeps eating away at him, especiallly knowing that he'll have to jump into the real world as soon as he leaves. There were already so many things to worry about, and Luhan is just so damn terrified of it. He hadn't confided in any of his other seventh year friends not only because he didn't like being vulnerable in front of others, but also due to the fact that they probably had other more important things to worry about.

Twenty minutes or so later, as Luhan continues to get lost in his thoughts, something startles him.

"So it is true. You are in love with the Quidditch pitch, aren't you?"

Luhan jumps up at the sudden voice and whips out his wand instinctively, pointing it at the direction it came from. Lumos! The seventh year says firmly in his mind, and the tip of his wand produces a bright light at once.

Heart pounding hard in his chest, Luhan blinks in disbelief once he sees who it is.

He could recognize that blank expression anywhere. 

Oh Sehun, of all people, is standing right in front of him. He's dressed warmly for the cold night; there;s a thick Slytherin scarf wrapped around his neck and covering his mouth.

"Bloody hell." Luhan blurts out, as a dozen questions start to pop up in his mind. The younger male scared the out of him, but he wasn't about to admit that out loud. The Gryffindor's eyes narrow, and he doesn't lower his wand. "What in the ever-loving are you doing here?"

Luhan's been keeping an eye out for Sehun ever since their first meeting a while ago, but he hasn't actually seen the Slytherin a lot since then. When he did see him in the castle, Sehun was either alone or with Jongin. He was never doing anything suspicious at all, but it still made Luhan want to keep his guard up around him.

"Could ask you the same thing." Sehun answers, voice slightly muffled from the scarf around his neck. He tugs it down a little, and Luhan can see that the other male's nose is slightly red from the cold.

Luhan stares at him without replying.

Sehun looks expectantly back at him.

"It's not that I'm in love with the pitch." The Gryffindor eventually huffs before he lowers his wand. "All you non-Quidditch players just don't understand the true beauty of it."

Sehun hums in response. Come to think of it, he looks relatively unsurprised to see him there. It makes Luhan feel as if this is a casual run-in rather than them bumping into each other outside the castle at night. 

"So... what are you doing here?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business," Luhan scowls. He whispers 'Nox', and the light on his wand goes out. He could still sort of see Sehun due to his eyes having already adjusted to the darkness. Luhan sighs after that, suddenly feeling more tired. He pinches his nose bridge in irritation. "Shouldn't you be back at the castle by now?"

"Shouldn't you?" Sehun raises an eyebrow. 

Luhan's mouth falls open in outrage. "I'm a prefect, you tit!"

Merlin, he had no idea that the Syltherin could be this cheeky; he wonders how Jongin deals with it.

"Aren't you cold?"

The Gryffindor blinks, caught off guard by the question. Sehun raises his eyebrows, and after a while Luhan hesitantly shakes his head.

"No, I've dealt with worse weather when playing."

"I see." The Slytherin continues. He walks a little closer to stand next to Luhan (who in turn backs up slightly) and stares at the Quidditch pitch in front of them. "I haven't touched a broom since first year, so... I wouldn't know."

An awkward silence passes, and Luhan starts to think of how strange this all is.

To think that he'd run into Oh Sehun out here of all places... this incredibly awkward encounter sort of confirms the younger male's shadiness. What the hell is he doing out here, anyways? Nobody knew what the guy was up to, and from what Luhan heard from other students, Sehun wasn't the type of person to approach someone​​​​​​ and strike up a conversation with them out of nowhere.

"Anyways," Sehun speaks up after a while, "I'm only asking because this isn't the first time I've seen you here."

"You—" Luhan's eyes widen, and he shouts after the words process in his mind, "WHAT?"

"Shhh! Do you want someone to hear you?" The Slytherin hisses as he clamps a hand over Luhan's mouth, to the elder male's surprise; he had never seen the blonde show that much emotion before. Luhan swats the Slytherin's hand away at once, feeling more alarmed at the sudden contact. 

"Don't do that!" Luhan shudders. He repeats, "You've seen me here before?"

"That's what I said," Sehun murmurs. He finally looks away. "That's why I got curious."

"Merlin..."

"Before you start suspecting anything, I swear I'm not following you around." The Slytherin raises his palms up in defense, and Luhan thinks he senses embarrassment in the younger male's tone. "I just... usually go on walks before it's time for curfew, so I'm used to being alone out here."

"You go on walks?" Luhan raises his eyebrows.

Sehun pauses before answering. He shrugs.

"It, um, helps clear my mind a bit."

"...Oh." Luhan replies dumbly, not even sure what to say anymore. With this conversation alone, the younger male already seems so different compared to what everyone else was saying about him. The Gryffindor looks down at his feet and mumbles, "That's sort of the same reason why I go here, too."

"Seventh year stressing you out?"

"It's more of what comes after seventh year that is stressing me out," Luhan scoffs a little, but he immediately clams up when he realizes that he basically told his biggest fear to someone who is technically still a complete stranger. . He shuts his mouth and doesn't say anything else, cursing himself for blurting that out in the first place.

Strangely, the silence that falls between them after that is not as awkward as it was the first time. 

"I feel like that's a normal thing to stress about. Graduation." Sehun then mutters, which makes Luhan turn to look at him in surprise. "I'm pretty sure there're plenty of other seventh years who feel the exact same way you do."

He kicks a pebble with his shoe.

"It's only natural you feel scared because you don't want to leave a place where you're comfortable, but change just has to happen so that you could continue to grow as a person... I feel like you know that already. Besides, I wouldn't worry too much about your future. It seems pretty promising." 

Luhan gapes at him silently, completely out of words, but Sehun doesn't wait for him to reply. He gives Luhan a side glance before covering his mouth and nose with his scarf again.

"I'm cold, so I'm going to head back. Goodnight."

"Goodnight...?" Luhan says slowly. 

He leaves after that, fifteen minutes before the 10 o' clock curfew. 

The Gryffindor stares off in the direction he went for a while, still in a state of shock. How are you supposed to react if someone told you something like that out of nowhere? And the fact that it was Oh Sehun who just spoke to him... someone who Luhan's always been so cautious around, and someone that nobody knew anything about.

Luhan slaps his cheeks to snap out of it. This is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.

He leaves the Quidditch field quickly and manages to make it back on time to begin his patrol around the castle.

---

Defense Against the Dark Arts has always been one of Baekhyun's favorite classes. Learning different kinds of methods on how to defend yourself from the Dark Arts is exciting to him since he's always been the type to want to jump into action if there's any trouble present. It was the class he paid the most attention to; he had no problem getting things done. Furthermore, he had scored an 'O' for his O.W.Ls, so he already knew that he was prepared to move on to the N.E.W.T level. 

Lately, however, he hasn't been himself. He's been feeling pretty out of it these past couple of days in general, ever since he made the decision to check on Chanyeol in the hospital wing. He just knew that doing that was a horrible idea—seeing him there made his heart freak out, and that's the last thing he wanted. Unfortunately, thinking about those conflicting emotions cost him several sleepless nights since he had a lot of difficulty trying not to think about it.

He enters the classroom ten minutes early, yawning. A few students were already present in the room. One of them, a Hufflepuff boy, had his arms folded on his desk and was already fast asleep.

"Good morning, Mr. Byun." Their young professor, Professor Kim, sends him a friendly, dimpled smile as soon as he walks in. Baekhyun returns the greeting tiredly before walking to the back of the room to take a seat.

"All right, Baekhyun?" His deskmate, another fellow Slytherin named Lee, salutes him before he slides in the seat next to his.

"All right, Lee." Baekhyun grins up at him as the two fist bump.

"The homework Kim had us do was pretty something, wasn't it? It dealt with pretty creepy stuff, I hope we never have to deal with it in person." Lee sighs as he looks down to dig in his bookbag. Confused, Baekhyun blinks slowly back at him. 

"Homework?"

Lee raises his eyebrows as he pulls out the parchment he was looking for. "You know, that essay on Inferi." 

"Ohhhh, ." Baekhyun's eyes widen in realization, feeling his exhaustion ebb away and his stomach drop instead. He places his head in his hands and groans as he tugs on his hair. ", I had completely forgotten about it..."

", mate," Lee bites his lip, worried. "You missed that last one, too... are you doing okay?"

Baekhyun opens his mouth to answer, but he becomes distracted by three sets of familiar footsteps coming from outside of the classroom. The silver haired Slytherin immediately stiffens when he hears them get closer and closer.

Soon enough, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, and Jongdae enter the room, clearly in the middle of a conversation. Of course, how could Baekhyun forget that they shared some of the same classes together? A new wave of tiredness washes over the Slytherin as soon as he sees them, but he does feel a twinge of relief when he notices that Chanyeol's been looking much better these days.

Chanyeol stops himself in order to smile at Professor Kim when they enter (who waves back), and then he turns to look down at Jongdae and Kyungsoo as the three start heading towards their desks.

Meanwhile, Baekhyun turns to face Lee with what he hopes to be a convincing smile.

"I'm okay. Just feeling pretty tired."

"You do look pretty exhausted." Lee notes as he carefully studies him. "Maybe you should visit Pomfrey..."

"Nah, that won't be necessary," Baekhyun insists as he reaches into his bag to pull out his textbook. "But thanks for your concern, mate."

As he turns the page to today's lesson, he couldn't help but pick up on Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, and Jongdae's conversation. He honestly didn't mean to eavesdrop, but it's hard not to—the three of them aren't too far from where Baekhyun was sitting, and they're always naturally loud when they're together.

"I don't know, I wouldn't say anything's wrong." Chanyeol's currently saying. "Luhan's just weird like that."

"I know that he's weird, but he was acting completely dodgy ever since he got back last night." Jongdae waves his hands around for emphasis. "More erratic than usual, to be honest."

"Perhaps he was just tired?" Kyungsoo asks, but Jongdae shakes his head vigorously.

"That's not it." He replies, greeting his deskmate while Kyungsoo and Chanyeol sit together in the desk behind him. "He went to bed as soon as he got back, but he usually spends an extra hour or so studying before sleeping."

"Even so, I'm sure he won't say anything if we asked." Chanyeol shrugs as he looks down to pull out his essay from his bag. "You know that he's never been comfortable talking about his personal stuff. What makes you think that he'd want to say something to us?"

"He'd tell Zhang, right?"

"Zhang? Jongdae, we barely even know the guy—"

"Not a problem. We go to him, and then we—." Jongdae interrupts himself immediately as he continues to probe inside his own bookbag. After a while, the Gryffindor pales as he spins around to face the other two.

"You'll what?" Kyungsoo's eyes turn into saucers, but he immediately realizes the worried expression on Jongdae's face. "What happened?"

"My essay's not in my bag! , I must've left it in the dorm..."

Before Kyungsoo or Chanyeol could reply, Professor Kim straightens up from his desk, indicating the start of class. The moment everyone is situated in their seats, Professor Kim starts to go around in order to collect essays. When he gets to Lee and Baekhyun's desk, Professor Kim thanks Lee when the student hands him his paper. He then looks at Baekhyun expectantly, but the Slytherin offers him a guilty smile. 

"I'm really sorry, Professor. It slipped my mind entirely."

Professor Kim frowns at him for a while. After what seems like forever, he says, "See me after class, Mr. Byun."

When he leaves, Baekhyun drags out a long sigh and faceplants on the desk. Lee attempts to give him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Afterwards, Professor Kim stacks the essays neatly on his desk and starts his lecture for the day. Baekhyun immediately starts to feel himself zoning out as soon as he begins talking; today's lesson was not going to be very action-packed, it seemed. It was even more difficult for him to pay attention considering that he didn't get much sleep the night prior.

Baekhyun spends the majority of the lesson dreading over what Professor Kim was going to say to him, but he should've seen it coming, to be honest. Like Lee said earlier, this is the second assignment in a row that he's failed to turn in already. But he could not begin to know how they had slipped his mind so easily especially since Defense Against the Dark Arts has always been one of his favorite classes... one thing's for sure, he really needed to stop moping about his personal problems.

Either way, Baekhyun knows that he's pretty screwed. Professor Kim was a pretty easygoing guy in general, and Baekhyun liked and respected him a lot. He did not ever want to think of getting on his bad side.

Finally, class was over a long hour and thirty minutes later.

As students started packing up before leaving to their next class, Professor Kim reminds them of another assignment that would be due in a couple of days' time. At that announcement, Baekhyun immediately pulls out his journal and scribbles the due date down hastily so that he hopefully wouldn't forget this time.

Baekhyun bids a goodbye to Lee, who wishes him luck before leaving the classroom. The silver haired Slytherin lets out a heavy sigh before shouldering his bookbag and making his way towards Professor Kim's desk.

"Hi, Professor." Baekhyun tries for a casual, relaxed smile to hide the growing dread inside of him. "You wanted to see me?"

"I did, yes." Professor Kim nods as he takes a seat in his chair. He gestures to behind Baekhyun. "Both you and Mr. Kim."

When the Slytherin turns to follow his line of sight, his teacher's looking at Jongdae, Chanyeol, and Kyungsoo. 

"Catch you later." Chanyeol waves at Jongdae, and his smile falters the slightest bit as soon as he and Baekhyun make brief eye contact. Baekhyun looks away immediately and directs his gaze to the floor in front of Professor Kim instead, feeling his heart pounding hard in his chest. His grip on his bookbag's strap tightens.

Eventually, Jongdae walks up to the other side of Mr. Kim's desk and puts a decent amount of space in between them.

"So, boys." Professor Kim starts. He sighs and pushes his horn-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I know it's still the beginning of the semester, but that doesn't mean that you both have the right to slack off. This year, it's definitely going to be an advantage for you to start off strong considering that the material is only going to get more and more difficult as the year goes by. You have to remember that you're taking this N.E.W.T level course for a reason."

He turns to look at Jongdae first. 

"Mr. Kim, this isn't the first time you've turned in a late assignment this year." Professor Kim's frown deepens. "It's already bad enough when an assignment is late, but it's always worse when the contents of the essay are way below what I consider to be Acceptable. To be frank with you, I feel like your writing is pretty half-assed."

Baekhyun glances at Jongdae, who stares at the floor.

"I'm really sorry, Professor." The Gryffindor mumbles. "I guess it's what happens if I stay up too late."

"And you, Mr. Byun." Professor Kim looks at Baekhyun, hands folded on his desk. "This is the second assignment that you didn't complete at all. If anything, your situation is worse than Mr. Kim's, as he actually manages to turn something in eventually. You've always been diligent with turning in assignments on time in the past, so I just question what makes it so different this time. Needless to say, I'm disappointed."

Baekhyun doesn't even have anything to say in response. 

"I'm sorry, Professor. I... don't have any excuses for my behavior."

Disappointing one of his favorite teachers had to be the worst part out of all of this. He bites his lip, feeling immensely guilty and frustrated at himself.

"I will be taking ten points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin because of this." Professor Kim continues. "Futhermore, I'm giving you both detention so that this serves as a lesson learned. It'll be this Saturday afternoon, at three, here in this classroom. You two will also have a separate assignment to complete in order to make up these past few ones; I have not decided what it is you will be writing about yet, but I will figure it out soon."

Points deducted, detention, and an extra assignment, how incredibly fabulous. Honestly, Baekhyun knows he deserved all that and more; he's mainly grateful that the punishment didn't result in him losing any privileges.

But detention with Jongdae? How awkward would that be?

Jongdae seems to be thinking the same thing. He's wringing his wrists; a habit that he does when he's uncomfortable about something—Baekhyun knows it all too well.

"Um, Professor. I have Quidditch practice around that time. Would it be fine for me to serve my time on another day?"

Professor Kim sighs. 

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kim. As much as I understand your need to practice for Quidditch especially with the season approaching, this punishment is necessary. After all, if you did what you were supposed to, then we wouldn't be having this problem in the first place."

Jongdae's hopeful expression falls a little at that.

"Well, that's all I wanted to talk to you two about." Their teacher then says with finality. "You both should hurry to your next lesson before you're late."

Jongdae nods stiffly and turns to leave the room quickly after that. Baekhyun waits for a bit until he too starts heading towards the doorway.

"Mr. Byun," Professor Kim then says, which makes the Slytherin stop in his tracks. Surprised, Baekhyun turns to face him with his eyebrows raised. 

"Yes, Professor?"

"I know it's not good to pry, but as your teacher I can't help but be concerned. This behavior is really not like you." He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms. "Whatever it is that's happening, I hope you get that motivation back soon."

"Thank you, sir." Baekhyun smiles thinly. He nods at him before leaving the classroom.

---

For the rest of the week, Baekhyun tries to get his together, not wanting to get into further trouble with his other professors. Fortunately, this resulted in him finally getting the chance to catch up on his other assignments. He even went to the library in order to stay focused since working on something has always helped him distract himself from other things. Although his sleep schedule isn't getting any better, he's glad that he's staying up doing homework rather than moping about his feelings. 

As the Slytherin makes his way towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom that Saturday afternoon, he starts to feel more and more regret at the fact that he couldn't simply do his homework. If he did, then this really wouldn't be happening right now. 

He enters the room five minutes before it turns three o' clock, seeing Professor Kim sitting at his desk per usual. Jongdae isn't here yet, but that isn't a surprise; the Gryffindor has never been a punctual person in the first place.

"Hi, Professor." Baekhyun says to announce his presence, and Professor Kim looks up from an essay he's currently grading. 

"Good afternoon, Mr. Byun." Professor Kim replies, smiling a little at him. He then returns his gaze to the parchment in front of him. "I'll explain what you'll have to do as soon as Mr. Kim gets here. In the meantime, just take a seat."

Baekhyun walks over to sit at one of the desks in the front and adjusts his tie in order to keep his hands busy. A couple of minutes later, he hears a pair of loud footsteps approaching, sounding as if they were in a hurry. Eventually, a panting Jongdae enters the classroom.

"Sorry—" Jongdae wheezes as he clutches his stomach, "—that I'm late."

"You're actually right on time, Mr. Kim. Can you close the door behind you?"

Jongdae obliges. He shuts the door quietly before sitting at the desk next to Baekhyun's. Professor Kim, on the other hand, stands up from his desk and clears his throat.

"For your detention today, you'll be doing multiple tasks. The first will be cleaning the classroom. For that, I'd like to ask you both for your wands—you won't be using magic to clean, of course. Once you are done with that, you two will help me sort essays that students of all years have just turned in by alphabetical order. I've already taken care of your class, but I haven't been able to sort through the other years' essays yet."

Baekhyun stares at the several stacks of parchment on Professor Kim's desk and gulps. Those things looked like tiny mountains. He's expecting them to sort those only after they finish cleaning?

"How long will we be doing this?" Jongdae asks, sounding as overwhelmed as Baekhyun feels.

"For as long as I feel fit." Professor Kim replies, and Baekhyun sees Jongdae's face turn slightly green. "You'll have to start right away if you want to make it in time for dinner. There are a couple of buckets and mops by the door for you two to use."

Baekhyun feels his heart drop as he hands his wand to the teacher. Professor Kim was expecting them to be done before supper... which means they'd have to finish everything in a little less than two hours. It just seemed impossible to do without magic; who knew how long it'd take for them to finish?

Professor Kim collects the stack of essays he was previously working on before addressing them a final time. 

"If either of you need me, I'll be in my office." 

He leaves after that. As soon as the door to his office closes behind him, Baekhyun immediately feels the shift in atmosphere now that it's just him and Jongdae left. 

The tension in the room gradually increases as a couple moments of excruciating silence pass. 

Eventually, Jongdae scoffs.

"This is ing ridiculous..." The Gryffindor mutters, but it's still loud enough for Baekhyun to hear. "To think that we'd still end up in detention together without us even trying."

Not knowing what to even say to that, Baekhyun begins to take off his robes so that they wouldn't get in the way while he was cleaning. He places the clothing article on his seat and turns to Jongdae afterwards, who isn't looking at him. 

"We... should move the desks to the back so that it's easier for us to mop the floor," The Slytherin begins cautiously. It's been so long since he last talked to Jongdae, and he feels incredibly cautious in doing so. "Professor Kim's right. We'd have to get started right away so that we can finish in time for dinner."

No answer.

Feeling even more awkward, Baekhyun opens his mouth to say something else. Just before the words could come out, the other male finally turns to glance at him, and this makes the Slytherin freezes on the spot. The Gryffindor's expression is a mix of both frustration and disappointment; it makes Baekhyun shut his mouth immediately.

Baekhyun never liked seeing Jongdae upset. Even if he wasn't the cause of Jongdae being frustrated, he always felt guilty for some reason. Now that he is the reason why Jongdae's irritated, it makes him feel a thousand times worse.

"Fine," Jongdae eventually says before finally breaking their eye contact. His voice is quiet. A few moments later, he also moves to take off the robes he was wearing. He rolls the sleeves of his dress shirt up to his elbows and starts pushing the first desk to the back of the room. "I'll do this side, you do the other one."

Baekhyun wordlessly rolls the sleeves of his own dress shirt up to his elbows before he too starts moving.

They work in tense silence, which is something that Baekhyun finds to be incredibly suffocating. The only noise in the room is the sound of the desks being pushed across the floor.

Once the desks are taken care of, Jongdae and Baekhyun start mopping different sides of the classroom floor.

As Baekhyun sinks his mop into his bucket, he starts thinking back to when it never used to be quiet between him and Jongdae before. Conversation always came easy since they both had very similar personalities, so it wasn't a surprise to anyone when they eventually became best friends. Like Jongdae mentioned earlier, they used to find themselves in detention a lot more back then due to the stunts they'd pull together. In fact, this detention has been the first one Baekhyun's had in a while—he hopes his parents wouldn't figure out about it, or he'd be in big trouble again. 

At the thought, the Slytherin starts to feels a bit irritated. He pushes the feeling the back of his mind and starts mopping the floor vigorously to distract himself from it. A few minutes later, he's trying to get rid of this one particular stubborn stain when he sees Jongdae stop moving at the corner of his eye.

Baekhyun straightens up and wipes his forehead with the back of his hand as he turns to briefly glance over at him, wondering if the Gryffindor already finished up. However, Jongdae turns to face him at that exact moment, resulting in them meeting each other's gazes once more. 

"Can I just say something?" Jongdae asks, looking and sounding pretty annoyed. There's a deep frown etched onto his face, and his eyebrows are furrowed.

Baekhyun purses his lips.

"Shoot."

Jongdae rests his mop against a desk before he begins.

"I haven't had a chance to speak to you ever since you cut us all off because whenever we tried to approach you, you'd turn the other way. Eventually, we all just started to avoid you in general. So, I figured that this is the only opportunity I'd have in order to say what's on my mind." The Gryffindor turns back to glance at him. "I never thought that our friendship would end, you know, so it was a pretty big shock when you just stopped speaking to us out of nowhere."

The Slytherin bites the inside of his cheek, feeling incredibly hollow all of a sudden. His hands start to shake, so he tightens his grip on his mop and yells at himself to calm down.

Jongdae seems to notice this reaction. When their gazes meet again, Baekhyun thinks he sees a flash of concern in the other male's eyes, but it's gone almost as fast as it came.

"All I want is an explanation." Jongdae continues. The previous bitterness laced in his tone is gone, and he sounds more pleading this time. "I just want to know what happened. We all do. Chanyeol keeps thinking that whatever happened is his fault."

At that, Baekhyun's heart begins to terribly ache. 

"It's not his fault." Baekhyun manages to say, his voice as low as a whisper. "It's never been any of your guys' fault."

"Then...?"

"I..." The Slytherin begins, but he trails off, feeling incredibly uncertain. Jongdae looks at him expectantly.

The door to Professor Kim's office suddenly opens just then, which interrupts their conversation. He looks down at the both of them in confusion, most likely wondering why the two boys are just standing there.

"How's the progress going?"

Jongdae opens his mouth to say something, but Baekhyun is faster. 

"It's going well," He says.

After Professor Kim nods and retreats back inside his office, the Slytherin turns back to face Jongdae. The other male's looking at him with unmistakable concern in his expression now, and it makes Baekhyun even more horrible at the sight of it. Jongdae's always been kind to everyone, even to the people who don't deserve it.

"I'm sorry," Baekhyun mumbles.

That look of disappointment and frustration from earlier returns on Jongdae's face. He shakes his head slowly before he moves away to grab onto his mop. His shoulders sag, and when he turns to look at the Slytherin again, he looks much sadder. 

"I hope you're happy about how things turned out, Baekhyun."

With that, Jongdae goes back to mopping without another word. The Slytherin doesn't say anything in response. Instead, he too turns away to resume his work; the phrase repeats in his head thousands of times as he does so.

---

A/N: im so sorry to have ended the chap on a sad note like this 3 but good news: hunhan in this chapter! and kaisoo if u squint really hard. i rly like writing hunhan's dynamic haha, so i'm rly excited to write more of them :-) although the reason for baek doing this is not revealed yet, it will be revealed soon, like a couple of chapters soon, so look out for that! i tried dropping a subtle hint here in what it could be related to, so lmk if u have any ideas!

professor kim is not going to be an important character to the plot, but he'll prob pop up from time to time since he's the kids' teacher and all. i'm basing him off of namjoon, though LOL

school is starting very soon for me, so i'm not sure when i'll be able to update again :-( i do really like writing this story so hopefully it'll come sooner than later. i'll for sure write when i find time. thank you so much for all of your comments & subscribes <33 

stay safe & pls take care of yourself!

-seokminz x