Mark remembers the day very clearly in his mind—the day he met two fourth years by the names of Jaebum and Jackson.



He had just finished quidditch practice, the first of the year after try-outs and with the new members, and was going to head back to his quarters to relax or start on his Charms assignment. Don't get him wrong, he liked his teammates and they were like a second family to him, but he really didn't want to stand idling around when he actually had work to do. Plus, he had a feeling the older members of the team were discussing plans to go into Hogesmeade and get drunk. Probably.

The Gyrffindor quidditch team wasn't nicknamed the “beastly players” for nothing, on and off the field.

Mark had already said his goodbyes when he heard two voices call out his name. Turning around, two of the fourth years that just joined were running up to him. Jaebum and Jackson, if he recalled correctly, the ones that took the two beater positions. (He himself was a chaser.)

“Hey, guys. Was there something you need?” He forced a polite smile. No matter how much he wanted to walk away, he had to set an example of a good senior to the fourth years.

The two boys exchanged a glance, before Jackson spoke up. Or at least Mark thought it was Jackson, he's pretty sure the dark haired one was, and the silver haired one was Jaebum.

“Nothing much, just wondering where you were headed.”

Mark paused to think about that statement. Please don't tell him he has stalkers from his own house. It wouldn't be a surprise to him, for the past year he's had a fair share of love confessions, looks and giggles whenever he passed by, and unfortunately one or two students that would follow him around. He could deal with them, it wasn't as if he was incapable of notifying a professor and telling them (politely) no, but people on his team? That would be a lot more troublesome.

“Nowhere in particular, just back to the dormitory.” He managed to get out, wearily eying the two to see if they were up to anything suspicious.

“Cool, let's go then!” That time it was Jaebum that spoke, and what he did next had alarms in Mark's head going off. He threw his arm around his shoulders. What's worse was that Jackson did the same thing. What.

“Hey, did we have anything for Potions to do?” Jaebum asked from Mark's right side.

“What are you asking me for, I thought you were the responsible one!” Jackson replied from Mark's left.

“I thought you were actually paying attention!”

“I was, just not to the homework! I block out things that are harmful to my well being.”
Before Jaebum could respond, Mark cut in. “You do know you guys have to maintain your grades in order to stay on the team, right? Just putting that out there.”

He waited for a reaction, but nothing came. The three of them continued to walk back to the Gyffindor dormitories, as if Mark didn't just give them a very important warning.

“Yeah, yeah we know,” Jaebum waved it off, “we can pull if off. I'm sure you've missed a couple assignments before. We'll be fine, you worry too much, Mr. fifth year.”

“We're going to be good friends, us three. I can feel it.” Mark could only wonder what he got into.



To this day he still wonders how he managed to become friends with those two. Following that strange encounter, he hung out with them a few times and learned that they were just two guys that liked to do stupid . On a few occasions he was involved (flipping everything in the Gryffindor wing upside down, and oh that one time they exploded pumpkins to see who could make the biggest blast), sometimes he wasn't (when all the bathrooms somehow became flooded, or when chocolate started to rain from the ceiling of the dining hall), and he's impressed to say they haven't been caught yet.

They get along well, which was also good for the quidditch team. They share a lot of things about themselves and didn't really have big secrets from each other. It was a good friendship. But that didn't mean Mark didn't regret things.

The thing that tops his list of regrets was making the mistake of staring at the cute fifth year Ravenclaw that sat a table down from him in the dining hall for too long. It wouldn't have been so bad if dumb and dumber weren't the ones that caught him staring. To make things worse, Jackson waved to the platinum blond sitting next to Cute Guy at the Ravenclaw table. Damn Jackson and his people skills. They haven't let him live it down yet, nor do they forget to bug him about talking to him.






“I could ask you know, Namjoon seems to be pretty good friends with him,” Jackson suggests one day while they're sitting around in the grass, ignoring responsibilities and watching the clouds.

“Please don't, nothing ever ends well when you're involved.” Jackson lets out an indignant squawk and turns to Jaebum for support. The latter just shrugs, “Don't involve me in this, I'm just here to forget my worries that is the Herbology exam.”

“Traitor! I washed your cat!” Jackson lunges at Jaebum, knocking them both over and rolling down the hill. Things always seemed to escalate with those two, and Mark sometimes wonders how they're still friends.

He, however, doesn't move from his spot. Instead he lays down and closes his eyes; he'd find out Cute Guy's name himself. And he figures he doesn't have to worry about the other two, laughter is a clear sign the two have not started to murder each other. Plus their wands are at the top of the hill with him, so even if they got to the point of murder, it wouldn't be with magic.

Sometimes he thinks he's being a bad friend, but then he remembers it's just Jackson and Jaebum.






For the next few weeks, Mark lives in peace. He hangs out with the walking hazards, plays quidditch, studies, and sleeps. No one brings up “Mark's crush on that Ravenclaw guy,” which he's thankful for—despite the stupid name they made up for it. But all things must come to an end, and Mark's peace time was up.

On this day, Mark Tuan received a grim reminder, doom was coming and it came in the form of two fifth year Gryffindors.

He should have suspected something when Jaebum brings a group of three fourth year Hufflepuffs to their usual hill. It's a nice hill, Mark thinks. Perfect for peaceful thinking and maybe a few naps, and not for group gatherings, especially not those organized by Jaebum or Jackson. Someone out there was out to get him, he was sure of it.

“Hey,” the one with a pink streak in his hair starts, “You're Mark, right? One of the chasers.”

Mark's a little weary, but nods.

“Oh, cool! I'm Kunpimook, but Bambam's cool too,” he plops down across from Mark, “You're really fast! And you do so many flips in the air, it's so cool to watch!” The way Bambam's face lights up when he's talking about him makes Mark rethink his cautious behavior, and maybe this kid isn't so bad.

“Hey, hey, we're here too, you know!” Of course it's Jackson who interrupts, sprawled out on the grass. “And I do flips too!”

The tallest of the three fourth years muffles his laughter behind his robes. Jaebum notices and is quick to bury his face in his hands, already anticipating the reaction from the sad excuse he calls a best friend.

“Hey! What are you laughing at, huh?” And suddenly Jackson is right next to the tall one, staring holes into the side of the others' face. It didn't stop the giggles, though.

“Hey, don't talk to Yugyeom like that, Youngjae get 'im!” At first Mark thought they were going to use their wands, since Bambam didn't seem to be getting up, but when the Youngjae kid moved, well, he could see how they would all be friends.

All Youngjae pretty much does is fall over onto Jackson, as a result knocking him into Yugyeom. It's a very strange sight, a Gryffindor sandwiched between two Hufflepuffs. But Mark wishes it was just a sight, that would mean no sounds. He wants to mute Jackson, temporarily of course, but Jackson has dirt on him and Mark doesn't doubt he will be gotten back at.

When they all settle and no one is on top of anyone, they're all relaxing and feeling the wind in their hair, the grass under their fingers, and other nature related things. Mark figures this is pretty nice, and the Hufflepuff kids are pretty nice, and that's good enough for him to call them friends too.

“So Yugyeom, how's your leg doing?” It's Jaebum who asks, absentmindedly levitating strands of grass and letting them fall, and doing it again. He lets them drop in Jackson's hair and doesn't tell him.

“It's..” He reaches down and rubs at his ankle, slapping it lightly a few times, “It's all good!”

“That's good, heard you took quite a fall,” Jackson adds. Jaebum hums in agreement from his side.

“Lucky that Ravenclaw was there though, I don't think Bam and I could've carried Yugyeomie here to the infirmary by ourselves.” Youngjae says, grinning sheepishly at Yugyeom, “Sorry, but you're too tall for us!”

The boy just rolls his eyes and slaps him lightly on thigh.

“Ravenclaw? You don't say....” Jaebum trails off, and Marks hears the grin on his face more than he sees it. He doesn't even have to look up, he knows it's there.

“Yeah, Jinyoung! He helped me when I first got here, I think. Helped me find the right classroom,” Bambam nods, holding his chin, “He knew a spell to heal this one's sprained ankle, and then he told us to be careful walking around the outside of the school.”

“So Jinyoung's his name, huh? We'll have to thank him for helping out our dear friend here!” And of course it's Jackson that suggests something as stupid as thanking someone he doesn't even know. Mark slowly turns his head to face the Worst Gryffindors in the history of Gryffindors with a strained smile on his face.

His expression screamed shut up, shut your mouth if you want to keep it, I'm warning you. And Jaebum has the nerve to wink.

So before either of them have the chance to say anything, Mark cuts in and changes the subject. “How did you guys meet these two, anyway?”

“Oh, we ran into them right after Yugyeomie got fixed up, and they just introduced themselves,” Mark shoots Jaebum and Jackson a look, but the two were conveniently looking away, “It was pretty sudden, but it doesn't really matter now that we're friends, I guess.” Youngjae shrugs and leans back against Yugyeom.

The conversation later changes to one of quidditch, and Jackson ends up promising to show (off) his amazing aerial skills to the first years. (He kept boasting, and they wanted proof.) And the rest of the day was spent laying around on the grass until it was time for dinner. It was a bonding experience, and Mark plotted several ways to murder Jackson and Jaebum.






It's the middle of the day when Mark feels it. Gryffindors are supposed to be brave, but right now Mark doesn't know if he can find courage within himself. Maybe that's why he wasn't a Hufflepuff, he couldn't find . He has a really bad feeling and he's looking around; students are walking across the courtyard and minding their own business. Classes are starting, but he doesn't have anything until later, so he can stand in the courtyard all he wants.

The amount of people walking around lessens, but the feeling of dread in Mark's stomach was growing. And suddenly it wasn't just his stomach in pain, his heart starts beating extremely quickly. It's Jinyoung, and even though he feels really creepy for already knowing his name, it's nice to have a name to put to a (really cute) face. Mark really shouldn't stare, so he pretends he's looking around and waiting for his friends when all he's doing is just watching from the corner of his eye.

Luckily, the Ravenclaw boy doesn't seem to notice, absorbed in the book he was reading. Did he always have glasses? Whatever, it was cute, totally cute, and way cuter than Jaebum will ever be with his stupid black frames. He's not that biased, he just knows Jaebum is dumb for a fact.

Mark almost forgets about the terrible sinking feeling that something bad was going to happen, replaced by a sadness that the other boy had nearly crossed the courtyard and was going to disappear from his sight. But things always have a habit of coming when they're least expected, for example, the bludger flying towards his head at an insane speed.

The last thing he sees before he passes out is a black robe fluttering in the wind before disappearing into the building. But the last thing he hears is the sound of two very familiar voices....

“Damn, he was supposed to see that and nurse Mark here back to health.”

“We just missed him! What do we do now?”

“..........Do you think Mark has a few coins he wouldn't mind if they went missing?”

“Well...”

He's going to kill both of them.






The next few days go by quietly; Mark threatened to curse them both after he apparated all their clothes sans the clothes on their back to an undisclosed location (he had taken their wands hostage as well) and made them swear not to meddle in his life or endanger his well being ever again. He still has a slight bump from when the bludger hit him on the side of the head and until that went away he would not let the issue go.

How they managed to get a bludger from under Taecyeon's nose was beyond him.

But that aside, the peace returned and Mark felt like he could go through life smoothly again. Just in addition to his normal routines, he adds time with the three fourth years into his day. They were a lively bunch, but equally as excitable as the two morons he dealt with on a normal basis. The six of them made it a habit to go out to the grassy, hilly area quite often. Sometimes the three oldest would bring their brooms and soar around the skies, show off, let the three younger ones try, whatever they could think of. Of course they made sure their hang out area was far enough so they wouldn't get caught.

Mark thinks it's a good little routine he has.

And then his “friends” forcibly add one more thing to his list of things to do.






It's Jaebum that spots him first, walking out of the Charms classroom. He nudges Jackson and points his chin in Jinyoung's direction. They stare at each other with matching grins on their faces. And so part two of Plan: Help Mark Get Laid begins.


“Come on, let's go this way instead.” Jaebum leads Mark down a hallway they don't usually go down to get outside the school, pulling on his arm to get him to move.

“Why? We always go that way.” He's about about to yank his arm back from the younger one and walk back, to the direction they've been going for the past few months. Jaebum rolls his eyes and tries not to comment about what a baby he was being.

“Ever hear of trying new things? You should do that. Plus Jackson's meeting us, he had to get something from a professor or something.” This time it's Mark who rolls his eyes, the things he does for his friends. “So are we going to go down this way or not?”

The red head makes a face, but otherwise follows Jaebum down the hall.

It was empty before, but classes begin to get out and right when they pass the Charm's room, a certain Ravenclaw walks out and it nearly stops Mark in his tracks. He narrows his eyes at Jaebum, who was just standing right next to him, but appeared to be standing next to Jackson a little ways past the next classroom.

“You don't look too pleased, that upset about walking down here to pick little ol' me up?” Mark wants to punch the grin off Jackson's face.

“Should've heard him complain, man.” Jaebum throws an arm across Jackson's shoulders and drags him down the hallway. “You got what you needed?”

Jackson holds up a scroll and laughs. “Of course, it's important to study everything I can, you know!” The two laugh and continue on their merry way to outside the school. Little did Mark know Jackson was holding a blank scroll in his hands.

Falling a few steps behind them, Mark wonders if it was all just coincidence that Jinyoung had class there, and they just happened to walk through when his class ended. Maybe Jaebum had nothing to do with it, pure chance. Did they even notice that Jinyoung was there? He thinks to himself, just maybe Double J weren't always out to get him, and that the gods smiled on him sometimes.

They start going past the Charms room from that day on.

A few days later, the trio are on their way off school grounds again, and right on schedule the classes let out. This time Mark's too engrossed in their conversation about the pros and cons of owning a griffon versus a dragon to notice the figure walking right beside him.

That, however, doesn't mean the other two didn't. Jaebum, the one in the middle, shoots Jackson a quick look. I trust you, you won't hurt me. It's for the good of the world, and I know you can do it. I believe in you.

Jackson looks like he's about to cry, but nods. He takes a deep breath and shoves Jaebum hard enough to knock him off his feet and into Mark, pretending to laugh really hard at something that was said. Jaebum drags Mark to the ground, who in turn, causes the person next to him to fall over and drop their books all over the floor.

Jackson has the decency to look surprised, and reaches down to help Jaebum up. They share a secret fist bump for a job well done.

Mark on the other hand, sits up and is about to give his friends a stern talking to when he hears a groan from his side. When he looks over, he feels his body freeze.

The blue and bronze colors give it away.

He just knocked Jinyoung off his feet, and not in the way he wanted to. His books were scattered on the floor, and he's rubbing his side. Mark wants to apologize, help him pick his books up, help pick him up, and maybe invite him to coffee to make up for it, but while he's thinking of all the things he should be doing, someone comes pushing through the crowd that gathered to help Jinyoung.

One of the Ravenclaw prefects, Jinwoon, if he remembered correctly. He tells the lingering students to hurry along, and scoops up fallen books in one hand while pulling Jinyoung up with the other.

“What did I tell you about looking where you were going?” Mark hears him say, leading the object of his affections away. His heart drops, but just like that it soars right back up to where it belongs and starts beating as fast as the golden snitch. Because Jinyoung turns around as they're walking down the hall and sends him a shy, apologetic smile.

And all Mark could do was gape.



“You should have seen his face, oh my god, you missed it.”

“Whaaat, and Jinyoung saw that?”

“All of you, shut up, just shut up.”






It goes on for the next few weeks, Jinyoung would give him small smiles whenever they would see each other (and Mark remembers to return them), but neither of them made a move to actually talk. Which is fine with Mark, honestly. Having the other acknowledge him is a start, and he's pretty sure all those smiles are going to give him cardiac arrest one day.

He briefly wonders if Jinyoung would help him. He wonders if there even is a spell to help with cardiac arrest.

His thoughts are interrupted when someone slams into his side, not hard enough to push him over, but hard enough to jostle him out of his thoughts. Judging by the messy brown and pink hair, it's only Bambam.

“Heya, Mark!” He greets, grinning up at him. “Where are you headed?”

“Hey Bam, just going to the fields again. You joining us today?” They're almost off school grounds by then, and if Bambam wasn't going to go with him, he better turn back now.

“When would I ever miss a group meet? It's way too stuffy in school,” he practically runs the rest of the way til he's officially off school grounds. that, society.

Mark just laughs and hurries up to catch up. He reaches over and ruffles the younger's hair, much to Bambam's displeasure.

The rest of the guys are already there when the duo make their way over. Jackson seemed to be trying to teach Youngjae and Yugyeom how to make flowers bloom. (He insisted flowers were manly.) Jaebum was propped up against Jackson's back, and it looked like he fell asleep reading, book in his lap. The weather's pretty nice, and Mark decides Jaebum had the right idea. Maybe he would take a nap too.

Bambam worms his way in between Youngjae and Yugyeom, interrupting Jackson's lesson and shouts that he wants to learn too. The Gryffindor looks more than happy to have another student. Mark smiles and just settles under the tree and closes his eyes.

He's not completely unconscious, he still hears Jackson repeating the spell over and over again, enunciating the syllables and making the three younger ones repeat after him. He still hears Bambam groaning, and Jaebum lightly snoring. It nearly lulls him to sleep, until suddenly Yugyeom speaks up.

“Hey, isn't that the Care for magical Creatures class?” Mark opens an eye to see him pointing to a group over by the forest, and...were those Hippogriffs?

“It looks like...Ravenclaws and Slytherins? Wait yeah, I see Namjoon and his short friend, uh what was his name again...” Jackson straightens up when he remembers, waking Jaebum up in the process. “Yoongi! There we go.”

“Congrats, you're a genius,” Jaebum mumbles, elbowing Jackson in the back for waking him up. The other just grins and apologizes real quick before turning back to observe the class.

Mark spots Namjoon, it wasn't hard considering how light his hair was, and his friend that Jackson pointed out. A Slytherin kid; he thinks it's a pretty strange combination, but then again he's sitting around with a couple of Hufflepuffs. He notices a couple students get on the Hippogriffs and assumes it's one of the field days of the course.

He remembers the class, and he also remembers getting in the face by a unicorn. It wasn't that fun, and prefers to not think about the class.

His eyes quickly scan over the group, wondering if....

“You think Jinyoung's there?” That's his cue to look away from the class and back to Youngjae, who spoke. But the look Jackson gives him lets him now that he was caught. He needs better friends that stay out of his love life, honestly.

This time it's Bambam that looks over, one hand over his eyes to help him see better. “I'm not sure, I can't see him...”

Before Mark can tell them to leave it alone, and that no, he's probably not there, the screeches in the sky catch their attention. Up above are a handful of Hippogriffs gliding through the sky, a student on each of them.

“Whoa, I wanna do that too!”

“You get to do that on the quidditch team, calm down.”

“That's different! Right guys, I bet you'd want to ride on a Hippogriff too!”

“Ah, it looks dangerous....”

“Aw Yugyeom, that's no fun. I want to!”

“See, Bambam's for it...”

Mark started to tune out the conversation, instead focusing on one pair of student and beast. The Hippogriff looked agitated, it screeched more than the others and its movements were erratic. Even the other creatures kept a decent space between them.

The actual class eventually notices too, and shouts telling the student to come down start. His friends quiet down to watch; there's not much they could do but watch. “I hope they'll be alright...” Mark hears Yugyeom mumble.

Then, the disturbed Hippogriff crashes into another, that was starting to descend back to the ground. It didn't look hard enough to send it off course, but it did throw the student off. It happened so quickly that no one reacted for a moment. Soon, students begin to scream and running towards where they thought he was going to fall. Their professor shouts for someone to go find a nurse, for everyone to come back down, and to get someone to try to get the student off of the crazed beast while he found a way to get it to come down.

And before anyone could say anything, Mark gets up, quickly accio'ing his broomstick and flies towards the falling boy. He thinks he's crazy, but it's one of the reasons he got placed in Gryffindor, and he prays that he makes it on time.

He has to lift his hands off his broomstick, but with almost three years experience of broomstick riding, he can do it. Mark holds his arms out and catches the boy when he finally makes it there. They're suspended a good distance from the ground; there's a lot of cheering and Mark swears he hears Jackson and Jaebum whooping in the distance.

The boy he caught has a death grip on his shoulders, and when he finally looks up, Mark might as well have tightened his hold on him into a death grip, too. He didn't know if fate was smiling at him, or if it just liked to toy with him, because in his arms, was the one Cute Guy from Ravenclaw, better known as Jinyoung.

Mark didn't know what to say, and for the second time, he froze. He's pretty sure his face was pretty red though. (At least it matched his hair, he thought.) His mouth opened and closed a few times, his voice failing him.

“H-hey,” he manages to get out, and mentally slaps himself as soon as the words, or rather, word leaves his mouth. Because instead of asking Jinyoung if he was okay, or if he was hurt because he almost crashed into the very not comfortable looking ground, Mark decides to say hello. Smooth, very smooth. Why doesn't he ask about the weather, while he's at it?

But it's not as bad as he thinks.

“Hi,” Jinyoung replies, a smile gracing his features. Their faces were so close, and Mark thinks Jinyoung's smile looks the best up close, and especially when it's directed at him. He wants to trace the little wrinkles around his eyes and kiss him, but Mark figures that' a little too forward and Jinyoung would think of him as a creep. And then he would never get his picture perfect love story.

“Are you okay?” He finally comes to his senses and remembers to ask. He tries not to think about how warm the other is, and how nice it is to hold him in his arms. And how it feels to have his arms around his neck. Mark wonders if this would be in his future, minus the whole crush-falling-to-his-death thing. He's snapped out of his thoughts when he hears the other's voice.

“Just perfect, all thanks to you,” And then Jinyoung leans up and presses a light kiss to Mark's cheek, “My hero.”

Mark couldn't really hear the sound of clapping over his beating heart.






“And that's how Mark and Jinyoung finally met.”

“Shut up, Jackson. We were all there when it happened.”

Jackson scoffs and pushes Jaebum until he falls over, “It's a great story and I don't need you and your hate to bring me down!” Jaebum just rolls his eyes before grabbing Jackson's discarded robe, balling it up, and throwing it as far as it would go.

“Hey, you better go get that!”

“Make me!”

And that's how it begins. Before long, the two are rolling in the grass, pulling at each other's hair and throwing punches.

Bambam's cheering them both on, depending on who seemed to be winning, while Yugyeom tries to get them to stop. Mark thinks Youngjae is asleep, he couldn't really tell since hes eyes are still kind of open. Creepy, he thinks.

He turns to Jinyoung, who's laughing at the whole situation. (He has a really cute laugh.)

“Are they always like this?”

Mark sighs, and nods. “Yeah, sadly.” He watches Jackson and Jaebum roll around some more before both of them give up at the same time, laying on their backs a few feet away. The two youngest are already running over to check on them, so he doesn't have to worry.

“Hey,” he whispers to the boy sitting next to him.

“Hm?” Right when Jinyoung turns to face him, Mark kisses him. “I've always wanted to do that.” He pulls back to see a smile on Jinyoung's face, mirroring his own.





Bambam's “ewwww” is the last thing he says before Mark lunges at him.