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“Nayeon...I think I like you.”

Nayeon wanted to fall backward onto the bed, collapsing into Mina’s comforter. She wanted to wrap herself into it so she could hide from Mina and her words. Either that or Nayeon wanted to run out of the room and lock herself away in her bedroom, never to come out again. Her heartbeat felt erratic and electric. She could feel the pulsing in her head. The white noise in the room was magnified. It was like her senses were heightened as all she could hear was the buzzing of a small fan and the sound of Mina’s soft breaths.

Mostly, Nayeon felt guilty. She knew that this was all because of that love potion. Mina had just “broken up" with Chaeyoung because of her. She had just confessed to Nayeon just now because of that stupid cupcake. But Nayeon’s heart was doing something strange. It wasn’t just beating quickly because she was guilty, it was also beating fast because Nayeon couldn’t help but admit hearing Mina say that out loud made her feel something she hadn’t felt before.

Nayeon had only just met Mina in college a few years ago. She was a sophomore and Mina was a freshman. It had been when Nayeon attended the first Witch Alliance meeting of the Fall semester that year. With her mom also being a witch, Mrs Im had introduced her daughter to the Alliance in the city she was now attending college, this way Nayeon could meet more girls like herself. There were extended covens in every major city across the country. Each group was led by a High Priestess who oversaw the activities of all the members.

This was the first year Nayeon’s childhood friend, Jihyo, would be attending a meeting. Jihyo elected to go to the same school as Nayeon, much to the older girl's delight. Their mothers had been best friends, and were a part of the same coven, which was why Nayeon and Jihyo were so close. Arriving at High Priestess Irene’s house—a Victorian style manor that practically screamed “witches live here”—Nayeon had held Jihyo’s hand as the grand front doors opened on their own as the two girls approached them, revealing the surprisingly chic and modern interior of the house.

Nayeon introduced Irene to Jihyo and Jihyo was greeted warmly by the older girl. Irene mentioned there were a few other new recruits as well for the meeting that day, and that they’d all be introduced once the meeting commenced. Nayeon and Jihyo took a seat in the large living room filled with plush couches. The ornate fireplace was lit, casting a bright orange glow on everyone in the room. Nayeon easily spotted the newbies Irene had mentioned: two girls who appeared close to Jihyo’s age, sitting together on the other side of the room, whispering to each other. Much to her surprise, the two girls were people Nayeon recognized from high school, but had never really gotten to know being a different class than them. She’d passed them in the hallways, perhaps smiling politely or nodding, but that was really it. She’d never known they were witches.

Nayeon would later find out that their names were Mina and Sana, and it would be a few weeks before the girls would agree to form a coven of their own. Nayeon was so excited to get to know more witches her age other than Jihyo. The four girls’ personalities meshed well together. At the start of Nayeon’s junior year they all decided to get an apartment together off campus: a two story apartment that, while a little outdated, was still exactly what they needed.

Nayeon remembered thinking that Mina was a bit cold at first. Mina let Sana do most of the talking while she simply watched and observed. She smiled politely, but seemed to be somewhat distant. It wasn’t at least until a few months of knowing her that the girl began to open up more. Nayeon discovered that Mina was a huge nerd, and that she was actually really nice too. They’d gotten close, meeting up for lunch and dinner—hanging out on the weekends. During the times that Mina broke down, usually due to pressure from school, Nayeon was there to comfort her. But never once during that time had Nayeon felt any feelings for the girl other than a strong urge to protect her.

Now, with Mina looking so vulnerable, confessing her crush, Nayeon couldn’t help but feel her heart rate increase exponentially. She'd been well aware that Mina was gorgeous, but she looked even more beautiful to Nayeon now.

Snap out of it! She thought to herself. Mina was her friend and roommate. The only reason Mina was saying any of this was because of a love potion not even meant for her. Poor girl. She needed to be upfront with Mina about everything that went wrong. Maybe Mina would know how to reverse the spell and everything would return to normal. Nayeon didn’t even care about winning the bet at this point, all that mattered was fixing Mina.

“Mina…” Nayeon began, her focus returning to the girl sitting in front of her. Mina’s eyes were huge and shining. Despite having just cried she still looked so beautiful. Damn it. “I…”

“You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know,” Mina replied softly. She smiled sadly and Nayeon could feel her heart being ripped to shreds. “It hit me all of the sudden.”

“Mina, I’m—”

“You’re really beautiful. And I know I might tease you a lot, but you’re smart too. You don’t give yourself enough credit. And you pretend to be full of yourself but I know it’s all just a cover up. You don’t fool me one bit.” Mina was slowly moving forward on the bed, and Nayeon could feel her breath catching in . Mina was getting closer and closer...what was she doing? It was driving Nayeon insane.

“You’ve been here for me all this time…” Mina looked up from Nayeon’s lips and noticed the look on Nayeon’s face. She wasn’t quite sure what she was doing herself. Her mind was buzzing with a strange sort of energy that was stopping her from thinking about anything but Nayeon. Part of her wanted to pull back, mostly for Chaeyoung’s sake, but it was as if she were being tugged forward like a puppet on a string. Being closer to Nayeon didn’t just feel right, it felt necessary. Like if she didn’t do it then she’d explode. “Do you want me to stop?” Mina asked Nayeon. She figured her only chance at self control was getting the girl she suddenly wanted to kiss so badly to stop her.

There was a beat. Nayeon could only stare back at Mina blankly, mouth slightly open and moving like a fish out of water desperately trying to breathe. “No,” Nayeon admitted, even though part of her was screaming. “Don’t stop.”

Mina continued leaning forward until her face was only inches from Nayeon’s. There was a sharp intake of breath. Mina pressed forward and their lips met and Nayeon was falling.

Mina’s lips tasted like the cupcake chapstick Nayeon always saw her put on. She could feel Mina’s eyelashes tickling her cheeks lightly as Nayeon positioned her body closer until there was no more space between them at all. Mina put her arms on the small of Nayeon’s back, continuing to press her closer. Nayeon recovered from her shock and cupped Mina’s face with her hands, feeling her smooth, almost flawless skin.

Mina was practically pushing Nayeon back onto the bed with how much urgency she was putting into the kiss. Her whole body was leaning into Nayeon and internally Nayeon was screaming to stop but she liked it and she hated herself for it.

Slowly Nayeon fell so that her back was against the mattress and they stayed like this, with Mina pressed on top of Nayeon, for what felt like forever, until Nayeon finally broke from their kiss to catch her breath. Mina rested her cheek so that her nose was touching the side of Nayeon’s neck just below her ear. Mina’s soft, warm breaths tickled Nayeon’s skin.

Nayeon felt her eyes closing in the comfort of being like this with Mina. If it hadn’t been for her need to breathe Nayeon felt as though the two of them could have went at it for hours. “God help me,” Mina whispered, sending shivers down Nayeon’s spine. Nayeon couldn’t agree more.

“I’m gonna kill her,” Tzuyu muttered. She’d taken one look at Chaeyoung, seen the distraught look on the shorter girl’s face, and promptly crossed her arms and looked like she really was about to murder someone.

“What?” Chaeyoung asked. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying, and she wiped her nose with her sweatshirt sleeves, sniffling.

“Mina. I’m gonna kill her.”

“God, relax,” Chaeyoung whined.

“I knew this would happen,” Tzuyu replied harshly. “I knew she’d do this to you. I told her––”

“Just shut up, please,” Chaeyoung begged, and Tzuyu’s cold expression instantly softened. She set her bag down on her bed and walked over to Chaeyoung’s bed. She sat down beside the girl and took one of the girl’s hands without a word.

“I’m sorry,” Tzuyu whispered gently. “Do you wanna talk about it? That might help.”

“No,” Chaeyoung shook her head. “I’ve thought about it enough. I just want to get my mind off of it.”

“Okay, let’s watch something then,” Tzuyu jumped up and grabbed the remote, turning on the small TV in their room. As she flipped through the channels, she scooted closer to Chaeyoung, gently running her hands through the girls hair until Chaeyoung leaned back against Tzuyu and let her eyes flutter shut to the sound of a kdrama rerun.

“Which one do you like better?” Sana asked, holding two different tops, both the same style but in different colors. “The red one pops more, ya know?” She held the hanger with the red shirt on it in front of her slim body, displaying it for Dahyun. “But the black one is more sophisticated and elegant…” She moved the red shirt away and held up the black shirt with her other hand. She looked at Dahyun expectantly, but the younger girl was preoccupied with something on her phone.

“Hey! Dahyun,” Sana whined. “Did you hear what I just asked you? Why would you agree to go shopping with me if you didn’t want to be here?”

Dahyun looked up with an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry!” she responded sincerely. “I do want to be here. It’s just, I’ve been expecting a message from someone…”

Sana softened at Dahyun’s sincerity and sighed. “Is it that person you like?”

Dahyun’s face reddened but she nodded. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you. I’m just being impatient with her.”

Sana’s heart sank as she realized the spell must have not worked. It was clear Dahyun was still in love with someone else. “Well, help me out and it might take your mind off things,” Sana suggested.

Dahyun nodded enthusiastically and put on a brave smile. “Alright. I like the red top better. It suits your personality more.”

Sana smiled brightly. “That’s the one I was going to go with too. Great minds think alike.”

As Sana smiled, Dahyun began to watch her closely, studying her face. Sana’s eyebrows raised as she noticed Dahyun staring. “You like what you see?” she joked.

Dahyun’s cheeks reddened again. “You look a little different. I can’t explain why but...your face…” Dahyun’s voice trailed off. Sana looked confused for a moment but simply shrugged.

“Alright let me go try on this shirt just to make sure it fits,” Sana sang as she walked back into the dressing room. As she began to lift off the shirt she was wearing, she glanced at herself in the mirror and did notice something looked off. Dahyun was right, it was as if her face was slightly different. Her features had become slightly wider.

First her hair was a different shade, and now this? She barely even recognized herself in the mirror. Feeling a bit nervous, she put on her new shirt anyway and found it was a bit more snug than she was expecting. There was no way she could buy it. She took it off disappointedly and looked at the tag. It was her normal size...so the brand must just be weird.

She left the changing room feeling a bit ashamed and slightly uneasy. “I’m not gonna get it,” she muttered as Dahyun looked up from her phone in anticipation. Her small smile turned into a frown. “Let’s just grab dinner, I’m hungry,” Sana suggested, hanging the shirt on the return rack and walking out of the fitting room with Dahyun behind her.

Nayeon had stayed in Mina’s room for a while, curled up with her. It all felt unreal, like their time together was from some distant dream that left your mind shortly after waking up the next morning. Nayeon never believed she’d end up here—in Mina’s bed, kissing her. And it felt so good, so natural. She reveled in Mina’s closeness, pushing the creeping feeling of guilt away for as long as possible. She’d hang onto this moment—the feeling of Mina’s soft, vanilla scented hair brushing against her skin, and Mina’s shy yet intense glances—for as long as she could.

But the guilt was quickly returning. She thought of Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon, but mostly she thought of Mina. Mina, who blushed whenever Chaeyoung made eye contact with her, who couldn’t help but rave about Chaeyoung all the time, finding everything she did wonderful and adorable, to the point where Nayeon wanted to gag. This was not the same Mina she was laying next to now. The Mina here was fake—a product of magic, and nothing more. But then why did that kiss feel so goddamn real?

Mina was facing away from Nayeon now, and she was so quiet that Nayeon figured she was asleep. However, her soft voice interrupted Nayeon’s guilty thoughts. “I’m sorry,” she breathed out in a sigh. “I don’t know what came over me. It feels like I’m not in control anymore.”

Nayeon softly brushed the girl’s hair with her fingers. “Don’t apologize,” Nayeon insisted. “You’re just in a vulnerable state right now.

“I’ve been wanting to do that with Chaeyoung for so long,” Mina admitted, still facing away. “But suddenly all I can think about is you. Does that make me a terrible person?”

Nayeon gently pulled on Mina’s shoulder so that the girl rolled over to face her. Their faces were only inches apart. “No, of course not,” Nayeon assured. “Please never think that. You can’t control matters of the heart.” Now would be a good time to be honest with Mina—to come clean and tell her about the love potion—but Nayeon’s heart was suddenly weak and she couldn’t seem to find the courage to do what was right. She could only stare back helplessly at Mina’s sad face, finding that the more she looked at Mina the more she wanted to be with her. God, what’s happening? Nayeon asked herself. She had to set things right, find a reversal spell, and focus on being with Jeongyeon. Mina and Chaeyoung would be together and they could look back on this incident and laugh. Hopefully.

Nayeon decided she’d continue searching for a reversal spell to the best of her ability, but she wouldn’t tell Mina until she found it. She didn’t want to break her already fragile heart. That might be too much for her to bear for one day. At least, that’s what Nayeon told herself to justify keeping this fantasy going. It was extremely selfish, yes, but Nayeon was not thinking straight.

There was a knock on the door, followed by a loud, cheery voice coming from the hallway. “Hello,” Jihyo called. “Are you both still in there?”

Nayeon and Mina quickly sat up with wide eyes. Mina looked to Nayeon with fear and then back to the closed door. “Um,” Mina began, “yes we’re still in here.”

“Alright, well I’ll be down in the living room so you two can have more alone time then,” Jihyo responded. Nayeon didn’t have to see her to know there was a smug smile on her face. They both heard the sound of Jihyo’s footsteps retreating and sighed with relief.

“She’s going to expect Chaeyoung to walk past her on her way out the door,” Mina whispered, sounding horrified. “What are we going to do?”

“I’ll distract her,” Nayeon replied. “And in that time we can just say Chaeyoung slipped out. No one needs to know about this.”

“No one needs to know about this,” Mina agreed.

Nayeon slowly slid off of Mina’s bed and headed for the door. She quietly opened it and slipped out, closing it with precision so as to not make a sound...painfully slow. As Nayeon stood with her back to the hallway, facing the bedroom door, a small squeak alerted her attention and she turned to see someone standing in the hallway, facing her. It was Jihyo, looking at her with wide and suspicious eyes.

“Uh, I thought you went downstairs…” Nayeon said lamely.

“Nope,” Jihyo answered plainly. “I was about to come check up on you and then head downstairs. What were you doing in my room? Were you doing something with Mina and Chaeyoung?”

Nayeon gulped. She knew she couldn’t lie, not with Jihyo staring her right in the face. “Um, it was just Mina and I in there. I was asking her a question about my class. Chaeyoung left a few minutes ago.”

Jihyo raised an eyebrow but didn’t question it. “Oh, it’s just Mina’s response made it seem like the two of them were in there. Why did Chaeyoung leave so early?”

Nayeon simply shrugged. “I’m not sure,” was all she said. She’d let Mina tell Jihyo for herself.

She stood in front of Jihyo another minute before she turned to go into her room. Jihyo slowly opened the door to her room and walked inside, seeing Mina look up at her in surprise. “When did Chaeyoung leave?” Jihyo asked.

“Like a half an hour ago maybe,” Mina estimated.

“Hmm,” was all Jihyo said, eying Mina with a suspicious expression. “Did you take advantage of having the room to yourselves?”

Mina didn’t say anything, and Jihyo took the hint that she didn’t want to talk about it. Normally Jihyo wasn’t one to pry, but Nayeon being in the room made her very curious. “Mina, do you want to talk about it?”

Mina looked at up at Jihyo, suddenly feeling the weight of what just happened between her and Nayeon hit her. “I did something terrible,” she admitted. She felt that she couldn’t keep what happened between her and Nayeon a secret after all. Jihyo walked over and leaned against her bed. “I told Chaeyoung I didn’t want to be with her.”

Jihyo’s eyes went wide, studying the younger girl’s face with confusion.

“I like someone else,” Mina continued. and tongue felt swollen, as if the words were poison.

“You like Nayeon?” Jihyo asked incredulously.

Mina shrank back against the wall, feeling ashamed. She didn’t say anything but that was enough of an answer.

Jihyo shook her head in disbelief. “You like Nayeon...out of all people? Nayeon. Really?” Her face scrunched up.

Mina whined slightly, wanting to hide under her covers.

“I’m just kidding. Nayeon has...some redeeming qualities. But what happened with Chaeyoung? I thought you two were happy together?”

Mina sighed. “I thought we were too, but suddenly everything changed. I can’t really explain it but I couldn’t stop thinking about her.”

“What was she doing in here with you just now?” Jihyo asked.

“She came to see if I was alright...she heard me crying after Chaeyoung left.”

“Is that it?” Jihyo asked, making intense eye contact with Mina.

Mina turned away and her cheeks reddened.

“Mina!” Jihyo cried. “You dumped Chaeyoung and hooked up with Nayeon right after?”

“First off, Chaeyoung and—Chaeyoung and I were never dating in the first place,” Mina responded. Flustered, she stammered a bit. “Second, all we did was kiss!” Her voice rose and became higher pitched in her embarrassment.

“She took advantage of you when you were vulnerable!” Jihyo practically roared. “Be right back, I’m gonna go pull her ear—”

“Jihyo!” Mina whined. “Please don’t blame her, I wanted it to happen.”

“God, I leave for a few hours and it’s like you’ve turned into a different person…” Jihyo’s voice trailed off as she studied Mina, who tried to hide under her covers. “You are Mina...right? Oh god don’t tell me there’s been another body switching incident—”

“I’m Mina, okay?” Mina assured. Jihyo didn’t look convinced. “I know this morning when you woke up you nearly rolled out of your bed cursing at your alarm when it went off.”

Jihyo smiled sheepishly. “Alright, okay, it is you then. Phew.” She retreated to her bed and sat down with her legs crossed in front of her. “So...you and Nayeon...are you guys gonna be a thing now?”

Mina shrugged. “I hope so.”

Sana trudged back into the apartment with a look of defeat on her face. While shopping with Dahyun had been fun, she was plagued with a sense of paranoia that her appearance had suddenly began to change. It wasn't just her personality, but her appearance too. Dahyun had even commented that she’d never seen Sana eat so quickly in her life at the restaurant. In fact, Sana usually chatted away, forgetting to touch her food, but tonight she happily ate while Dahyun told a story.

What was happening to her? She walked up the stairs and opened the door into her room, seeing Nayeon hunched over her laptop, sitting on her bed. Nayeon didn’t even bother looking up as Sana entered, clearly quite involved with whatever she was looking at.

Sana set down her shopping bags. She coughed slightly, staring at Nayeon. Nayeon didn’t move. Sana cleared . Nayeon finally looked up at Sana in annoyance. “What?” Her eyes widened slightly upon seeing Sana though. Nayeon couldn’t put her finger on it exactly but the girl in front of her looked slightly different from the Sana she was used to seeing. For starters, her hair looked lighter, and her cheeks slightly puffier.

“Do I look different to you?” Sana asked.

Nayeon leaned forward and squinted at the girl. She hummed. “Yeah…? Did you dye your hair? It looks nice.”

Sana shook her head. “That’s the thing. I didn’t! And my face…” Sana pressed her hands to her cheeks puffing out her lips like a fish. “It looks different.”

Nayeon’s brow furrowed but then she shrugged. “You didn’t cast any spells recently, have you?”

An epiphany silently went off in Sana’s head but she tried her best to maintain a poker face. “No, have you?” she responded defensively, crossing her arms and staring Nayeon down.

“No,” Nayeon snapped back, scowling. “Well, I don’t know what to tell you then. Maybe it’s all the food you’ve been eating?”

Sana pouted and scowled back. She huffed and flopped down on her bed. Had the spell she casted done something to her? If anything, it definitely didn’t make Dahyun fall head over heels for her, as she figured out with Dahyun talking about liking someone else. Some time when Nayeon was out of the room Sana would grab her spell book and see if she could find any explanation for what was happening to her. For now, she felt a bit sleepy from all the food she’d eaten at dinner anyway, so she curled up even though she was still in her normal clothes and makeup and closed her eyes.

The sound of Nayeon’s alarm—Holiday by Girls’ Generation—woke Sana up. She’d slept all the way through the night, waking up still wearing her normal clothes. Nayeon groaned and hit snooze. It was a Friday morning, and luckily her and Nayeon both had afternoon classes. She checked her phone and say it was 10AM. She could sleep in another hour or so. She set an alarm for 11AM and snuggled into her covers, falling back to sleep.

At 11AM, Sana awoke to see that Nayeon had dragged herself out of bed, downstairs and presumably to class. Sana took her time getting out of bed, stretching her arms and groaning. Finally she slid out of bed and grabbed an outfit from her closet. She headed into the bathroom across the hall, preparing to change and get ready for the day.

She flipped the light switch on in the bathroom and closed the door behind her, setting her clothes down on the bathroom counter. She prepared to get changed, but suddenly froze after looking at herself in the mirror. She was staring at a stranger, or rather someone who was not herself. The girl in the mirror was certainly not her. Sana blinked, holding her breath as she continued to stare at this unexpected yet familiar girl.

Why did she look like Hirai Momo?

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Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this update. I'm thinking there will be a minimum of two more chapters of this fic. Maybe 4 at most. Anyway—I'm already beginning to plan my next fic, so please look forward to it!