Woohyun himself didn’t think he was capable of becoming good at housework, as most of his life the only cleaning he did was washing the dishes and putting away clothes in the wardrobe when his mother pointed out that people couldn’t tell what the color of his bedroom floor was. And yet, the apartment looked better than when he bought it. This had to get him brownie points in some way, right?

Unfortunately cleaning only covered one base, as there were forty ways this could go wrong and he would embarrass himself in front of Sunggyu.

Feeling restless, Woohyun paced around the living room. Then sat down. Then got up again as he saw the crystal ball in the other side of the room and decided it would look better facing west. But then was it okay if it faced west? Which part needed to face the sun? Did it matter which? Did crystal balls even need charging or should he just cleanse it? Most importantly, why was Woohyun having this dilemma about (probably) basic magick knowledge minutes before a supposed expert was coming?

“Calm down Nam Woohyun, calm down. You don’t have reasons to be nervous. It’s just a new roommate…”

As if somebody was listening to his solo zen session, the doorbell rang the second he started believing his nervousness went away. , he was here. “Come on Nam Woohyun, mom didn’t make you charming for nothing.”

Having said that, he opened the door smiling widely. “Welcome, hyun- Oh it’s you.” he deadpanned.

“Yah, I know you were waiting for somebody else and I still find offense in that kind of welcome! Also are your first two buttons undone??” Woohyun cursed, hastily buttoning up his shirt. “You’re either really desperate or you have a stripper schedule that I don’t know about which is a clear violation of our middle-school pinky promise.”

“Just shut up already Sungyeol, what are you doing here?” Woohyun barked back.

“Since when do friends need a reason?” the insultingly tall person said, making himself comfortable on the couch with his legs resting on the back of the the piece of furniture. Just like he always did. In fact the sofa had a dent that Sungyeol’s bony (if that deflated thing counted as an ) has been molding meticulously ever since high school, when the piece of furniture was still part of Woohyun’s former home.

Just like the other hinted previously, Woohyun and Sungyeol have been friends for a long time, tracing back to kindergarten days. As Sungyeol liked to overshare the background of their friendship with any new person they met, the boys forged their lifetime bond on the day Woohyun was being pushed around by a bully (he wasn’t really a bully, the kid just got physical because Woohyun refused to trade his rare pokemon card double with him- it would have been a lousy exchange according to the five year old Woohyun’s marketing instinct and Woohyun didn’t play when his quest to be the very best was at stake). Sungyeol just happened to pass by and came to his rescue- looming over the other guy with his already additional centimeters supporting him. Not to let himself intimidated, the “bully” attempted to turn being tall into something mockable and hit Sungyeol with the world’s oldest (read lamest) comment used on taller people  - What’s the weather up there, freak? (okay, the last part wasn’t in the original Bully scripture). And then, questionably prepared for a variety of height related insults, Sungyeol simply informed him that it was raining and spit on his head.

It was absolutely disgusting but Woohyun at that time thought it was the coolest thing since Batman and worshipped Sungyeol for an embarrassing amount of time.

After that incident, Lee Sungyeol had been a constant in Woohyun’s life and was there for him during his embarrassing period of initiation into magic. Sungyeol possessed no magical aptitude but he was a walking encyclopedia and loved conducting exhaustive research on anything but academical subjects. He was the one who checked every available occult and magic anthology to help Woohyun in his magic coming of age and tried to make sense of the limits there were in this uncharted territory. He also made Woohyun do the weirdest spells for him every time he happened to owe him.

“I mean if you’re dying for one, I’m here to see what your ugly boy is doing.”

Woohyun frowned in confusion. “Huh? He’s not ugly, he’s actually kind of cute,” he noted and was met with silence from his friend. “What?”

“I was talking about your pet-” Woohyun froze in mortification.”- not the apparent culprit of your future uality crisis.” Sungyeol informed kindly, pressing his lips together to hold his laughter at Woohyun’s absolute embarrassment.

Getting himself together (eventually, it took more than he’s willing to admit), he threw the first thing that he got his hands on at Sungyeol’s head. It proved to be a weak retaliation as the object turned out to be a pack of gummy bears that Sungyeol took as an offering instead and indulged into to treat. “Go home already, you insufferable gazelle!”

Sungyeol released a puff of laughter in defiance, “And miss your transition to panicked biuality?!?” he ignored Woohyun’s scandalized refute, “never, this is way too juicy. Your first meeting is already worthy of rom-com novels, like who fights because of in a public space?”

Woohyun covered his face in despair, “God, please, don’t remind me!”

“What did you want- or actually, what did he need those for?” Sungyeol crossed his arms, tilting his head as he thought. Oh. He didn’t mentioned that.

“You can say he needed them to act as a purifying agent.” If Woohyun recalls correctly, Sunggyu had said that purifying spells didn’t work on the hex, so he had to use good luck as a substitute to counter it.

“Purifying? What do you need purifying for? Purify his past?”

“What.” Woohyun shook his head, dumbfounded. Hoping that he didn’t hear well.

“Oh, or he needs the blood of a for a spell so he needs to fake his chastity.” Sungyeol suggested enthusiastically. Woohyun choked, his mouth dry. “Sungyeol, what.” he vocalized, his voice a whisper of disbelief. His brain cells were struggling to fight images from the implication. Bad Woohyun, bad.

He willed the thoughts away and managed to splutter, “No, of course not- how could you even come up with that.”

Sungyeol rolled his eyes, “Then?”

“He’s got a bad luck curse on him so he’s using the apparently powerful luck charm of the to counter it instead of a purifying spell” he explained and was met with a disappointed whine. “Boring. My version is more fun.”

“Please leave.”

“Right. Sorry, hyung, but the only way I’m leaving this apartment any time soon is if I accidentally trip and defenestrate myself.” he huffed stubbornly.

Woohyun had already a hold on Sungyeol’s legs to help him recreate the scenario when Woohyun’s message tone resonated in the room. As it was placed next to Sungyeol on the coach, Woohyun could see its screen clearly flashing the message I’m here, coming up.

“Oh my god.” he retreated instantly from Sungyeol, entering his previous state of nervousness. You’d think dealing with Sungyeol’s dumb non-existent would make him loosen up a bit but there he was again. “You’ll be fine champ, I’m sure your magic senpai will love you as much as you love him.” Sungyeol encouraged in his own unhelpful way. “You act like he’s the headmaster in Sims 2 about to inspect your house so your child can maximise his academic level and become an overachiever.”

“It’s the first time I feel like I need a chill pill, I don’t know what I’m being so nervous for,” he should have cleansed the house before doing this, who knows what dormant bad energies there were that suddenly decided to manifest. It certainly seemed like the previous tenant was a college kid dying from exam induced anxiety. Nonetheless, he didn’t have the time to purify the house properly, so a temporary solution had to do. Rushing to the incense drawer under the window still, he threw his spell notebook blindly at Sungyeol, who jumped out of the sofa thinking it was something more deathly. “Yah, stop abusing my health insurance!”

Woohyun massaged his forehead, hoping it would coax his brain into giving him valuable information that was surely stored somewhere. No such luck. “Quick, look what incense was good for reducing anxiety or stress, I can’t think clearly now. Was it cedarwood?? Argh- j-just look somewhere in the middle, I think there was some relaxation spell, just tell me the ingredients. Oils not sticks!” he spoke at the speed of light that Sungyeol thankfully understood while he himself hoped to find incense with helpful labels.

“I got you! Well, there’s a spell for inducing a calm atmosphere and it contains hibiscus flowers..musk..ginger…”

As if on auto-pilot, Woohyun gathered said oils and worked quickly to drop them them in the diffuser. “Musk is kinda strong though, is that supposed to relax me?” he inquired on a quick note, trying to make use of his remaining brain cells.

“Ah, you know how some of the ingredients are half there to power-up the combination? Strengthening the effect and all…” Sungyeol commented, already interested in other spells as he kept turning the page.

The incense was already in place and Woohyun did probably the world's fastest (and desperate) silent chant and attempted to picture his intention clearly in his mind. Please let me relax ... Don’t let me it up… I really want to make a good impression… He sighed. Whatever goes. But then, there was still one more thing he had to make sure of.

“Now, you”, Woohyun turned to Sungyeol,  “you’d better be on your best behavior or I swear to god-” he started making his threat when he was yet again interrupted.

“Then what’s in it for me?” to be fair, he already knew something like this would happen. Woohyun sighed in defeat. “Say your price already I’m tired today.”

Sungyeol’s expression lightened up instantly and pulled Woohyun on the couch next to him, whispering in his ear conpiratiously, so that God knows who won’t hear, “Ok so I have a bottle of dragon blood ink-”

He sputtered “A what?” How do you make ink from blood- no, how do you even get a dragon-

“It’s just called like that you ignorant swine, it comes from a plant. Why must you have the magic powers…”

Woohyun ignored Sungyeol’s jab at his intellect and tried to come up with a possible use for something like that. “Is it for writing spells? Supposedly to enhance them?”

“Yeah that’s what it’s supposed to do. I mean, you can order this easily on the internet, but the person who made this said her family has been making dragon blood ink for years and actually have sigilis on their trees to enhance its magic properties.”

Woohyun stared incredulously. “Sungyeol…. how do you find these people and why do you never give me their contact details?”

Sungyeol poked Woohyun’s forehead with smug expression. “Because you only know how to use the internet in Korean. And mind you, because I am the bestest best friend you can have, say thank you Sungyeollie, I actually tried to ask this person stuff for you but they’re all so evasive about sharing their magic knowledge as if I will write down what they said into my own magick anthology and sell it on Etsy.”

“...You do write it down though, but not selling it...are you?” you never know with Sungyeol and Woohyun is too afraid to keep tabs on him. It was useless to ask anyway, as Sungyeol pretended he didn’t hear him.

“So listen, I will give this to you, but, ” Woohyun rolled his eyes, “- you have to write at least one spell for me.”

He called it. Maybe the planets were in favor today and Sungyeol wouldn’t ask for something that sent him straight to holding. “As long as it’s legal, it’s up to debate- !” he cursed at the sudden knock on his door, escaping Sungyeol’s grip and rushing to the door, forgetting his previous fear.

“You forgot to open your shirt!” Sungyeol teased.

“You snake, I will remember this.” he vowed and taking a deep breath he opened the door. However before he could welcome the other verbally he was caught off guard by the shaking figure leaning over the door frame.

Woohyun gasped at the others state. “Are you ok?? Did something happen to you hyung?” he forgot all about implied personal space rules available at this stage of their relationship and reached forward to stabilize a sickly looking Sunggyu. He didn’t seem to mind,  welcoming the firm hold on his arm.

Sunggyu eventually caught his breath and voiced through breaks “...the..stairs..” Woohyun’s eyes widened. “You fell down down the stairs????”

“....no...just climbed them..”

“...”

“Don’t mind him,  he can’t handle stairs that well. Or making effort in general. “ an unknown individual voiced, coming from Sunggyu’s back. He looked really young, with large black eyes framed by thin eyelashes. There was something ethereal about his presence and Woohyun could tell instantly he was a magick user as well. His aura was however different from Sunggyu’s. Their melodies were also different.

A lot of witches manifested special magic sensitivities, and in Woohyun’s case it happened to be clairaudience. In other words, he was able to get “spiritual” messages and information via hearing. While he had no experience with getting random messages from those who have passed, sometimes when he was meeting people he could hear different sounds and melodies playing in head. Sometimes it was related to an actual memory that was dear to that person, sometimes it was more of a hint of what their relationship is or would be. In his good days, he could sometimes tell when Sungyeol was in the area because of the annoying pokemon theme hitting him suddenly like a message alarm. And there there were the feelings he got when he met new people.

Right now, Sunggyu’s friend was accompanied by what Woohyun could only describe as the crystalline clink lucky bell charms from temples made. If Sunggyu were to tell him that his friend is actually a fairy, he would low-key take his word for it. On the other hand, when he first met the unlucky hyung, apart from the unsettling aura caused by the hex, his outer-hearing froze for a few seconds. Instead of the loud chattering from the bazaar, he was engulfed into deafening silence. That silence was abruptly interrupted by the shyest piano play, so silent that Woohyun in his own head had to concentrate to listen. As he was quickly brought out from his daydream by Sunggyu yelling at him and the selling lady, his aunt as found out later, he didn’t have time to analyze the fleeting information, and he was a bit put off by the empty glass coloring darkly in Sunggyu’s presence. He instead pondered over it the following night when there was only the silence of the apartment and the stars keeping him company. If he pictured Sunggyu in his mind he could recall the silent melody- it wasn’t a sad one, it was actually very fast and lively, contrasting with how silent it was. It also seemed clumsy, as if somebody didn’t have enough hands to play the song- maybe a quatre mains? But it was quiet in an unusual way, as if the performance was taking place in auditorium with really bad acoustic and Woohyun, as a spectator, had to struggle to catch the melody. It left him with a hollow sensation of loneliness.

Now that he was hopefully going to become flatmates with Sunggyu, maybe he’d get a chance to understand that melody better. But he would get to that later as he now had to pay attention to Sunggyu’s fairy friend complaining about his future housemate’s physical ineptitude.

Never to be forgotten, Sungyeol popped out from Woohyun’s back, “Is that a thing for advanced magick users?  They weaken physically as a consequence of accumulated power?”

“No,  but that’s not a bad idea. I’ll start using it as an argument from now on.” Sunggyu managed to calm his breath eventually and accepted Sungyeol’s glass of water (when did he..?) gratefully. After a few healthy gulps he let out a refreshed sigh. “The disrespectful brat is Lee Sungjong, by the way.” he introduced his friend, ignoring the latter’s protest that he can speak for himself. “And you are...?” he questioned, eyeing Sungyeol attentively. Probably reading his aura as well. He’ll have to ask Sunggyu later what his psychic abilities were.

“I’m this fellow’s soul brother, our friendship was forged since infancy. “

Sunggyu blinked, slightly perplexed. “That’s… ok.. “

Woohyun kicked his leg exasperated. “Yah,  speak normally!”

“But you told me to be respectful and all... “

“That doesn’t mean you have to talk to him as if he were your master in a fantasy rpg.” Sungyeol’s face clearly showed his displeasure. “What’s the use of having magic buddies then??”

“Anyway,” Woohyun voiced clearly, “Let me help you with your luggage, hyung.” Sunggyu wasn’t moving here (yet, if things went well), but after a lot of messaging Sunggyu ended up disclosing that staying with his friend was a ticking bomb for his hyung’s temper (does he want to know?). Woohyun offered to let him stay for a few days, or anytime he needed (that could even serve as a trial!), so he wouldn’t have to return to Jeonju immediately if he decided Woohyun’s home wasn’t the place for him. For that reason, he said he would bring some stuff with him.

“Ugh that’s right,  I left in the hall-wait.“

Upon closer inspection,  Sunggyu apparently noticed there was only the baggage he carried in the hall. Kind of a big baggage, if you asked Woohyun. Either Sunggyu was the type of person to bring a quarter of his house with him so he won’t have to bother Woohyun by using his things or he was not as reluctant about moving with him as Woohyun originally thought and this “visit” was more of a courtesy. “Sungjong,  where is the luggage you had to carry?“ apparently there was even more luggage, solidifying one of Woohyun’s theories.

“Ah, in my bag” he patted the seemingly small sachet hanging from his shoulder.

Sunggyu’s expression seemed confused before it morphed into a dark complexion.

“Does that bag … perhaps have an undetectable extension charm?” A what? Woohyun watched the exchange like the new intern who had no idea what his employees were discussing.

Sungjong didn’t seem to feel like beating around the bush. “Of course. “

Before he had time to ponder, Woohyun was startled by Sunggyu’s sudden low (and quite dark to be honest) tone. “You had a ing magic bag that makes an Argentinosaurus weight a feather but let me carry this bull five stairs up??“ he snapped at the younger boy.

“It’s so hyung-like to remember pretentious dinosaurs names,  and yes?“

“ ….and I suppose you had the time of your life watching me die on the stairs“

“I confess, I had a moment of weakness when I started feeling bad, but then i remembered you called the pest control on Baby once. “ Sungjong huffed and Woohyun was afraid to ask what Baby was.

“Just!” Sunggyu sighed aggravated, pinching the space between his eyes with the defeated expression of a tired uncle that had just finished his anger management classes and after doing his best for a while something really dumb made him lose all the progress so far. “Just- go move the car, we left it in a no parking zone.”

“Oh, right, sorry about that.” Woohyun forgot to tell Sunggyu about the dumb lack of parking slots.

“It doesn’t really affect me, it’s his car. I left mine in Jeonju with my family.” Sunggyu grumbled.

“Are you sending me away like some sort of equivalent of sending your kid to reflect in the corner because I annoyed you?” Sungjong enquired, scandalized.

“Yes, hyung is upset, now shoo.” Sunggyu dismissed him with a quick hand gesture.

“I can’t even- Fine! See you later guys.” Sungjong retreated with pout, mumbling about child labor (it’s his car, what labor?)  and unfairness of the hierarchy system. With his departure, a veil of silence fell upon the room. Clearing his throat awkwardly, Woohyun muttered a let me help and proceeded to get Sunggyu’s luggage inside. Speaking of the older, he seemed to get over his irritation, a sulky expression marring his face as a trace of the earlier discussion. He kind of poked an urge inside of Woohyun to baby him.

“Actually, I’ll take my leave too.” Sungyeol announced, taking Woohyun by surprise. Wasn’t he yapping about how he was going to watch Woohyun’s biual metamorphosis, or whatever? “Why? Not that I know why you came here in the first place.” he said he was here to see Woohyun’s pet, which he already know was bull. But then? Was he just scenting Woohyun’s apartment like a cat to mark his territory in Woohyun’s social circle?

“Nah, I came to give you the thing- you know what thing, don’t forget the promise Nam!”

“Riiight.” still not explaining why he was leaving. Woohyun eyed him suspiciously. “Why are you in a hurry-”

Sungyeol waved him off. “Anyway, nice to meet you, Sunggyu ssi! Our Woohyun might be lacking in some- okay kinda a lot of ways, let’s not be modest, but please take care of him.”

“I didn’t accept to move here ye-” Woohyun looked away to hide his amused expression, because he wasn’t exactly successful in conveying this apparent indecisiveness, but Sungyeol straight up snorted.

“Yeah, yeah, of course, by no means, I was just advertising my friend in a very assertive way. See you later!” he waved and disappeared through the entrance, leaving Woohyun and a now aggravated hyung behind. He was starting to taste Woohyun’s daily hardships.

He shook his head, sighing. Forget him. “Should I show you around, hyung?” Woohyun proposed, “Or do you want to take a sit first, you seemed a bit exhausted earlier.”

“I’m okay, I am curious to see what you’ve done with the place. It’s not bad, by the way, you said you had no idea what you were doing but it’s not the case” Sunggyu’s shoulders appeared to relax, giving Woohyun an encouraging nod of approval that clearly worked because Woohyun’s earlier worries evaporated in thin air. Despite the unapproachable demeanor he was aiming for, Sunggyu was indeed kinder than he gave himself credit for, just like Woohyun told him on their first meeting. He had a feeling that even if his house was in a terrible state, he would have told him honestly, but in a way that it wouldn’t discourage Woohyun. He felt...it was indeed the work of a higher force (luck in their case after all) that he met Sunggyu. Something about him fitted well with Woohyun but he couldn’t explain in what way.

“I’ll show you around then. I would have offered hyung coffee but it was already going cold so I threw it.” he said regretfully.

Looking around the room and stopping to examine the crystals on his window still, Sunggyu  hummed. “Next time keep the coffee in a cup and leave it at the window, that way the spirits visiting will be pleased and feel welcomed”

“Oh!” Woohyun perked up, and felt the urge to take notes. “But..won’t it life like it’s inviting them? Not that I would mind a travelling uncle spirit….but I don’t know, maybe a less pleasant person?”

“Nah.” he commented, now seemingly fascinated with one of his music boxes. If he really liked it, Woohyun could show him his little projects and maybe seek for his advice. “That’s why we leave coffee mugs and not soju bottles, imagine if spirits mistook this place for an afterlife bar, ugh” Sunggyu shuddered, “ drinking spirits are the worst, and the violent ones aren’t even the worst. You try to go to sleep and they keep buzzing you, Sunggyu yah Sunggyu yah, sing with me, if you don’t know the song I’ll teach you. You can have a drink too, did you know that your grandmother had the best tolerance in our village?? Man, you look exactly like her when you get angry at jars that won’t open, and so on and they go on forever until I feel like filling the bathtub with water and salt and submerging myself fully so they can’t reach me. You know how people carry holy water, some even in spray bottles? I have a salt water spray ” he ranted.

Woohyun bit the inside of his cheek. Truthfully, he was starting to understand why the spirits took pleasure in annoying his hyung. He was perfect teasing material.

“Being clairaudient and I would trade it for anything.” Oh, that could be his opening! “Ah, is that hyung’s magick ability?” he asked eagerly.

“You mean my gift? Well, yeah but no. I am clairaudient, but like most people I don’t excel in it solely. I have a bit of everything” he confessed, leaving Woohyun in awe. “That doesn’t mean I can excel in everything.” he finally turned to face Woohyun, leaning on the wall. “I suppose you had no one to explain it to you, this is usually knowledge you get from your parents, it’s not exactly written in books because all families have their own slightly different version. “ Woohyun deflated a bit at that, but recovered quickly. That’s what he had Sunggyu for now.

“Psychic powers have three levels: basic, moderate and high. Normally when somebody has a gift, it means that they have a natural talent for it, so it’s most likely to reach a high level easily. However,if you have a gift, that usually means that all other psychic abilities will stay basic.”

“I see...that makes a bit of sense actually. I am actually clairaudient, but I can sometimes see things from the corner of my eye. Kind of like a basic witch instinct, right?” he nodded to himself. So his gift still had room to improve, that was valuable info.

“Mm, that’s it. I instead have no gift so I ended up developing more senses around the moderate level. Not sure if there’s something after that, actually. My mother says that I will stay like that, but Sungjong says he heard from a client that something new can be born from the combination of moderate abilities? Not sure what that’s supposed to mean,” he sighed.

“I’m sure that it’s actually the second version.”

“Whatever is more interesting, right?” Sunggyu groaned. “By the way, your friend is not magic, right? He knows about you, though.” he noted as he stared at the herbs Woohyun hanged from the ceiling. “Also, It’s easier if you make a bouquet with some of these together for the living room. Can I?”

“Sure, you have free reign hyung” he smiled as he watched the other help himself  with the little chair Woohyun kept beside the window. “And yeah, he’s the only one who knows. I’ve known Sungyeol forever and he’s more or less the embodiment of open mindedness so I knew he’d understand me.” Woohyun smiled as he recalled while Sunggyu got on the chair.” He proved it as well by not-”

Woohyun’s words froze in his mouth as his brain activity encountered an error when Sunggyu stretched to reach the bouquet and his shirt rode up his back. His back wasn’t the problem but the low-waisted denim jeans that weren’t doing a great job in concealing Sunggyu’s undergarment, THE undergarment. Which- was less opaque than Woohyun thought, as the color or Sunggyu’s skin visible through the empty spaces in the lace model blended with the lavender material. “..telling...anyone…” he mumbled transfixed, feeling his face bloom with vivid colour and yet, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the...sight. I should maybe look away, he advised his own brain, who coincidentally pretended it was overcome with deafness. Instead it was filled with really concerning thoughts and dumb words like “chastity” popped up- ing Sungyeol- for no reason. “So--- yeah, he’s...trusting, I mean, trustful, um-” Woohyun, what the hell. The air felt to heavy to take in and wow, was Woohyun a teen, what the hell is he getting so fidgety about. Sunggyu continued doing his own thing, oblivious of Woohyun’s crisis that emerged from nowhere. As he (finally!) stopped stretching, Woohyun took a big breath and choked a bit on air. He reached hastily for the glass of water that Sungyeol handed to Sunggyu earlier to take a few gulps (hoping it would somehow purify the dumb out of him).

Sunggyu dusted off his palms of invisible dust , seeming proud of his work. “Kitchen?” he faced Woohyun, who lowered his head with the speed of light, looking at the floor. “Yeah! Go, I mean, let’s go now.” he raised from the sofa, following Sunggyu who could easily tell where the kitchen was at there was no door separating it from the living room, but a midnight blue beaded string curtain. The overall dark color was disturbed by a splash formed by yellow or white star shaped beads, attempting to mimic the milky way. Anybody could probably tell that Woohyun owned a lot of cosmos-inspired clutter. Sunggyu stopped to inspect the curtain, threading his fingers through it and letting out a soft surprised sound as the beads made a crystalin sound when moved. “Did you perhaps customize this?”

“Yeah… chose it more for how it looked, truthfully. It had some musical beads initially but the melody wasn’t what I was looking for. I replaced them with some that weren’t as loud and gave off a more peaceful sound.” Sunggyu nodded to his explanation and parted his way through the string curtain.

Woohyun’s kitchen was anything but large, but not small enough to feel stuffy. If anything, it served its purpose. Sunggyu’s eyes stopped on one of Woohyun’s favorite handiwork.

“What is….. Is this a lunar calendar?” he pointed to the circle shaped calendar sticking on to the fridge. He did go an extra mile with it- usually it wouldn't be necessary for it to have an individual page for each month, but Woohyun used it more as an agenda with several post-its indicating spells he’d do on certain dates or useful information he picked up on random days. “Yeah, I thought it would be useful, I sometime forget the new things I learn  about magick, so I use post-its hoping that the more I see them It’ll get into my head already. I wrote it all myself.”

“Yeah, there is an obscene amount of emojis...it certainly feels like yours.” Woohyun grinned, not bothering to correct his hyung. He did harbor a love for emoji-s, to the exasperation of all his acquaintances that had to read his texts.  “Would you mind if I added a few tips on your paper?”

“Of course not! What do you want to add?” Woohyun peered curiously at what Sunggyu was scribbling on his paper.

“Just a few things that came into my mind now…” next to the full moon circle of that month Sunggyu added good for potions that increase physical abilities. “Oooh, that’s good to know, thank you hyung!” Woohyun beamed. “You can put emojis too if you want.”

“Why in the world would I do that?” Sunggyu raised one eyebrow.

“That way it’ll look like two people are living here, hmm?” a warm smile bloomed on Woohyun’s face, hoping it’ll make the other see his sincere intentions. Sunggyu remained silent, but his eyes betrayed that he was slightly taken aback. His face quickly changed to an expression that Woohyun could only describe as shy, maybe even flustered, as he lowered his head and avoided looking at Woohyun, fiddling with his sleeve. “I see. I’ll think about it.” his neutral tone promised nothing, but Woohyun was feeling optimistic and might he admit, slightly charmed.

Hyung is a really cute person.

A big smile was still stretching on Woohyun’s face when somebody that wasn’t Sunggyu cleared their throat. Both turned their heads instantly to face Sungjong, who was regarding them with slightly exasperated eyes. Uh-huh, it probably looked like they were having a moment. Not probably, they were having a moment.  “Uh, I left your other luggage in the living room.”

“Right, the luggage.” Sunggyu quipped. Woohyun watched as Sunggyu followed Sungjong back into the living room and almost immediately found another subject to bicker about. Woohyun intervened gently, shifting their attention back to the viewing of the apartment.

To Woohyun’s relief, Sunggyu didn’t mind the size of the guest room that would become his bedroom. Woohyun offered to exchange rooms since he chose the larger one when he arrived first , but Sunggyu rejected his offer politely saying that he preferred smaller places but refrained from explaining why. Woohyun would make sure to ask another time.

They went for a while like that and before they were about to call it a day there was a small incident that involved a bit of residual bad luck from Sunggyu, a few cables to stumble on and Woohyun’s potion for house prosperity that although efficient smelled like Shrek’s swamp in summer. And Sunggyu looked like he bathed in that thing after he managed to get the sticky concoction all over himself.

As for his reaction, it appeared that the older had a daily limit for how many times he was capable of getting angry. With a defeated sigh, he got up from the floor. “I’ll just...Woohyun if you don’t mind, I’ll borrow your shower.”

“That goes without saying, hyung. You’re my guest.” Woohyun himself and Sungjong weren’t faring any better, as they already began to clean part of the mess , the stench sticking onto them enthusiastically. “Did you bring towels?”

Sunggyu scrunched his face. “I knew I forgot something.”

“You can borrow one of mine. Do you mind if you get it yourself from the closet in my room? I want to clean this thing off the floor before it imprints itself for the next two hundred years.” Woohyun emphasized, scrubbing furiously the surface. He wished the concoction had spilled on a rug , because he would have just burned it immediately and got over with it. Unfortunately he had to deal with hardwood flooring. It wouldn’t seep to the apartment downstairs...right? No, that was ridiculous, there was another layer of cement before that-

“Your apartment is not exactly a maze, I’ll be okay.” Sunggyu interrupted his thoughts. “Will you be okay with that? I can help first.”

“Hyung it’s okay, you got it even in your hair, go wash it off before it solidifies or something.” Woohyun chuckled at the sight of Sunggyu scrambling in a hurry out of the room immediately as he processed what Woohyun had said.

“This is absolutely disgusting.” Sungjong grimaced. Woohyun almost forgot he was there. “Ah, you’re the guest, I should be the only one cleaning”

Sungjong shook his head. “Nonsense. Two hands are better than one.” Ah, so he wasn’t as uncaring as he appeared to be, just like Sunggyu. Similar people tend to stick together after all. “Thank you, that’s really nice of you.”

The younger boy smiled at that. “Just don’t let hyung know I’m actually nice, he used to tease me so much when we were young, now it’s my turn.” he brought his finger to his lips, signing Woohyun to keep quiet about it. Woohyun snickered, swearing secrecy. “I’m glad he found somebody to stay with. You will also get to learn a lot from him, half because he’s a good teacher and half because he loves showing how much he knows.” Sungjong rolled his eyes.

Woohyun chuckled. “I don’t mind it either way. I have lots to learn.”

“Yeah, especially in the love charm department.” Woohyun blinked twice in confusion, looking at Sungjong. What was that about?

Before he could ask ,however, a yell (more of really loud squeak actually) reached the room, most likely originating from Woohyun’s room. He sat up in alarm. Did Sunggyu manage to hurt himself somehow?

“Hyung?” he rushed to the other room in a heartbeat, slamming the door. The landlord would have his head.  “Are you hurt?”

He was confused to find Sunggyu in a corner, holding a slipper of Woohyun’s in his hands as if to protect himself. In that moment, Woohyun thought of the worst: there could be a bug in the room. He was about to get the other slipper (and maybe crawl his way unhelpfully to squeeze himself next to Sunggyu, he can’t handle bugs-) when the other pointed the slipper to his closer, hissing. “There’s a really ugly looking thing in your closet. I think it’s a deformed rat?”

Oh. How could he even forget about him. Woohyun relaxed his shoulders, letting out  laugh that caught Sunggyu off guard. “You scared me. It’s not a rat, it’s a bat and his name is Bruce.” He knows that isn’t the most original name.  “And why do you all call him ugly? Not all bats are ugly, hyung”.

“And I completely agree with you Woohyun, but yours isn’t one of those. And bats are technically rats with wings.” Woohyun pouted. “Fine, but don’t call him that in his face, he has really low esteem.” Who knows how many brothers made fun of the poor thing.

“Wait- don’t tell me, is that your familiar?” Sunggyu voiced, appalled. “What’s with you people choosing animals that look like they’ve been dragged away forcefully from Satan’s backyard?” he dragged his hands down his own face to show his frustration, ignoring Sungjong who started listing Baby’s (again, who?) cute imperfections that made him quite beautiful in his eyes.

Woohyun offered the now awake little creature his finger so he could hang there instead of one of the hangers in his closet. He saved the little fella when he found him writhing at the bottom of a tree, sporting a hurt wing. After getting him to a very reluctant vet and attempting to release the healthy boy back into nature, Woohyun discovered that it took a liking to him, refusing to leave his side. In the end, they developed some sort of bizarre relationship- little Bruce would stay with him during day, mostly sleeping in his closet where it was nice and dark and he would leave and hunt at night. What was a bat like him doing in Seoul, he didn’t know, but he was keeping himself quite healthy according to the vet. He was an independent, clever boy, hehe.

“Why are you taking him out-- please don’t make me pet him.” Sunggyu borderline begged, his left eye twitching when Woohyun cooed at Bruce on purpose to bug him and Sungjong insisted that he should totally make him pet it. “You’ll learn to love him, hyung, you’ll see!”

“Can’t wait.” he drawled, moving carefully to the closet to get the towel. He yelped when Bruce squeaked at him and left the room with quick clumsy steps. Woohyun giggled, watching his retreating back. “So, who’s Baby?”

“My tarantula familiar.” Woohyun shuddered. Sunggyu had to give him credit, Woohyun’s companion was a bunny compared to that. He brought Bruce to the window, who writhed excitedly as he opened the window for him. In seconds he took off, fading into the now darkening sky.

After that, both him and Sungjong returned to the living room to resume the cleaning. As they finally managed to get the stench out of the floor, Woohyun remembered a leftover conversation from before.

“Hey, what was that about the love charm that you were saying earlier?”

“Ah.” Sungjong voiced, finished with washing his hands, now applying what looked like moisturizing cream on his hands. “I mean, I don’t want to insult you, but the love spell you tried to make in the living room is all over the place.” His what?!? Woohyun’s eyes grew two times their size.

“Love spell- I made no love spell? Why would I make a love spell??”

“Well, the intent felt a bit off, but musk, ginger and hibiscus together are what people use for at-home date nights? They make you more conscious of the other’s presence, maybe a bit hot but they’re also supposed to give you confidence to woo your partner.” Sungjong tilted his head, confused as well. Woohyun’s brain processes the horrific information chaotically, trying to make sense of the situation. What the hell? How did he make that mistake, he was pretty sure the information in Woohyun’s notebook was accurate and confirmed. How could Sungyeol get it wro-

Oh.

Mortification slowly left his body as irritation fizzled into his blood in place. That ...that diabolical er! No wonder he was so eager to leave all of a sudden. He’d better have his health insurance renewed by the next time he dares set a foot in this house.

Woohyun took a deep breath.“It wasn’t- I thought it was a relaxation spell. I felt a bit anxious and I needed some vapor courage. When I set my intention, it was also following that belief.” he explained himself, embarrassment slowly creeping up back on him. Oh God, what did Sunggyu think of him? Damn it all, ing Lee Sungyeol!

“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think it affected anybody at all?” Sungjong tried to reassure him, “It’s supposed to influence only people who are at least a bit attracted to somebody, so I didn’t really feel affected. If you’re worried about hyung, his messed up his aura and senses anyway, so he definitely didn’t notice . If he caught the scent combination, he probably thought you chose some random incense, really. So, no damage done.”

Woohyun’s mind conjured the memory of his own self having a staring contest with Sunggyu’s sightly exposed backside and nursing some worryingly unorthodox thoughts. Turning his head at said person’s voice, who announced he was done with this shower as he exited the bathroom, Woohyun chewed on his lower lip. Sunggyu regarded him curiously, tilting his head almost unnoticeably. A stray drop of water traveled downwards on the map of his face, meeting an obstacle in the form of naturally pouty looking rosy lips.

Yes, no damage.

These took an unnecessary long time and I apologize for that. I tried to write every free time I had but no words would come to my mind. My creativity is fickle. 

So this is it, Woohyun's (chaotic) POV. It appears that in my universe every character has a friend who tests their anger management and person who, in turn, they annoy.

Fun fact 1, at first I made the condition of the "love charm" for that person to be already attracted to somebody because I didn't want Sungjong/Sunggyu (tho he has more on his plate) to be affected. But then I realized I was being subconsciously faithful to my own canon, as I mentioned before that small charm/spells require "work"/help/ a start from the person themselves and can't fully "control" a person unless they are super powerful like Sunggyu's . Therefore, thank you, me. /self clap/
Fun fact 2, I couldn't decide what familiar should Woohyun have, but then I decided to make Sunggyu's life more difficult lol and it already fitted with Woohyu being a Batman fan. If anybody is wondering about the species, it's a horseshoe bat (the name says everything). At first I wanted him to be one of those big bats who eat bananas on youtube but they don't live in the are ;__; 

What did you like about this chapter (if there is anything lol)? Let me know in the comments uwu