48: To Baekhyun, no star shines brighter than Xiumin. Pairing!XiuBaek, StarGazing!AU, MagicalRealism!AU

"And then the witch was expelled from her tower home. That all happened, oh, 450 years ago now, and..." The guide drones on about the government's lengthy—but victorious—legal battles with the observatory's previous occupant over unpaid taxes like he was actually there; Baekhyun, taking in the older man's hanging jowls and drooping skin, thinks it's maybe possible that the geezer actually was. The thought makes him giggle.

"Oh yes, Student," the guide interjects, pausing to allow Baekhyun a brief now and to answer with his last name. "Student Byun," the man accepts with a nod, "the lingering enchantments left around this historical landmark are certainly a laughing matter!" He's too excited for his face to handle; it jiggles all over the place as he talks but Baekhyun doesn't dare laugh again lest the guide catches on this time and gets him in trouble with his Astronomical Physics professor. This is a class field trip, after all. Luckily the guide soon returns his attentions to the rest of the group, chuckling generously and gesturing with a wide sweep to the door before them, through which the shuffling students can glimpse the observatory's open dome. "Did I mention that we've since spelled the dome with a weather protective invisible shield? Well, it has a tendency to let the first snow in every year despite our best efforts to keep the cold out. Isn't that great!"

Hilarious, Baekhyun thinks. That old lady totally knew her humor. He rolls his eyes but steps dutifully after the rest of his group as they're lead through the door.

"And this, ladies and gentlemen," the guide tells them, clearly awed by the space despite likely giving tours just like theirs on a regular basis, "is that dome."

He keeps talking, likely another story about the witch and he crazy funny-not-so-funny bewitching of the various objects on display around the room. Baekhyun doesn't hear any of it, though, because his attention is instantly caught by the most beautiful antique telescope he's ever seen. As an aeronautics engineer in training, Baekhyun's seen his fair share of the star-gazing instrument, but none so glorious as this. For one thing, the telescope is enormously tall and complex, with lots of little lenses that Baekhyun knows are individually charmed to show the stars depending on the weather, the time of day, the current place in the lunar cycle, and other conditions. It's made of a deeply rich mahogany that practically glows brighter the longer Baekhyun gapes and he finds himself whispering aloud "I wouldn't even need to see the stars if I got to look at you all day."

This delights the guide to no end and he launches into another monologue directed at Baekhyun again. "Ah Student Byun! Once again you clearly know your stuff! This is Xiumin, a telescope modeled after the great magician Galileo's and built by the witch's own hands. It was the first possession seized by–"

For once Baekhyun was listening raptly to every word out of the old man's mouth and had even turned away from the previous sight of Xiumin to better hear about the telescope's history. He is startled enough to emit an embarrassing squeak of fear, then, when a voice from behind him calls out indignantly, "Excuse me! I'm a he, not an it!" The humorous witch, it seems, though nearly 500 years gone from her home, strikes again.

A collective gasp ripples through the touring group of college students and the poor guide practically faints as a muscular, but also relatively petite, young man steps forward where Xiumin had been only a few moments earlier and says politely "And my name is Minseok. Hearing bunches of Koreans butcher my Chinese name for 450 years was part of that hag's punishment." He bows slightly with an air of entitlement that Baekhyun imagines all people from the mid-1600s must have possessed. Or at least ones as attractive as Minseok.

As if the human-turned-telescope-turned-human-again can hear Baekhyun's thoughts, he steps forward off the telescope's raised platform to stand directly before the amazed student. "You chose me over the stars."

It's technically more or less an accurate summary of Baekhyun's adoration for the telescope Xiumin; still he's sort of embarrassed to be put on the spot like this for the third time that evening, especially when Minseok follows that up with "And as a human? How do you like me now?"

Baekhyun blushes under the other's scrutiny but dutifully sweeps his eyes from Minseok's mahogany-colored locks, delicately curved eyes, and slightly pouty lips down to his pale hands, thick thighs, and small feet. "You're no telescope," he finally admits to the man in front of him. Keeping his voice as quiet as possible to avoid the rest of the room's population—all of whom are unbearably curious about their current interaction—overhearing, Baekhyun concludes "But for a human, you'll do."

Minseok breaks into a brilliant grin that glows just as brightly as Baekhyun remembers Xiumin doing too. "I was hoping you'd say that."

(Baekhyun finds out later, after much investigation by the government's magical branch of the fraud department, that Minseok really was once cursed by the witch who used to live in the observatory tower. He'd apparently been too enthralled by the stars to appreciate her beauty, so she'd turned him into a telescope to stare at those same stars until someone was willing to do what he once couldn't: see the beauty of all the sky had to offer but choose to appreciate human beauty instead.)