Interlude I: Home

My mom's surprised when I show up at the door of my old house, but she immediately tackles me into a huge hug. "Mom," I mumble, "You're squeezing too tight."

"I know," she replies, letting go after a second. "But I missed you. And so did your father - he's not home right now, but he will be later."

Looking at my mom's expression, I almost want to stay. Almost. I always forget about how much I miss my parents while I'm living at Jeonghan's, and then I go visit them, and I remember all of a sudden that they're my parents. But I swallow my feelings and shake my head. "I can't stay for long," I get out. "Layla's coming over to Jeonghan's, so..."

"Ah." She nods. "But - just come in for now, alright? I did get you a gift. And I can just tell your father that you stopped by."

I give my mom another quick hug and smile, trying to hide my guilt. "Thanks, mom," I mumble. 

It's weird - by human laws, I should be living with my parents, since I'm not 18 yet, but I've lived with a clairvoyant warlock named Yoon Jeonghan ever since I was 14. When a warlock or witch turns 14, they can legally live with a mentor, as long as they're learning magic. It sounded like such a good idea when I was rebellious 14-year-old - live in a house that looks normal from the outside, learn magic from people who aren't my mom and dad...

And it wasn't a bad idea. I can't learn much from Jeonghan, since clairvoyancy is something you're born with, not something that can be taught...but Jeonghan pretty much runs Foster's Home For Wayward Warlocks. The only permanent residents are myself, Lee Jihoon, and Choi Seungcheol, but there are about 11 of us in the house at any given time. It never gets crowded, either - there's an enchantment on it, thanks to Kwon Soonyoung, that spawns new or bigger rooms whenever new or bigger rooms are needed. And, yet, the outside just looks like a normal townhouse. 

But when I entered high school - when the bullying stopped - it just seemed like a long-term solution to a short-term problem. 

But there's no going back now. I step into my childhood home - that old, creaky, purple place - and sigh. I kind of miss it. And I miss my parents.

It's like nothing has changed at all.

"How long can you stay?" my mother asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"About an hour," I reply. "And then I'm going to have to bust -"

"Language, Wonwoo!"

"Sorry. I'm going to have to hurry out."

"Are your friends throwing you a party?"

"Something like that."

"Ah. In that case, I won't make you stay very long."

"No, mom, it's alright -"

"Really, Wonwoo." She looks at me, and she just looks likes such a mom...all that affection and sadness and bittersweetness. I can't hold her gaze for more than a few seconds. "Come over to the kitchen."

I follow my mom into the kitchen, the floors squeaking as I walk. "This one's from your father," my mom begins, handing me a package that I know right away is a book. 

Still, though, I open the wrapping carefully, and I'm pleasantly surprised that it's not a textbook of some kind. "How To Change An Atom?" I ask, breaking out into a grin. "I've been looking for this forever. Tell dad I said thanks."

My mom nods. "Of course, of course. The next one's from me. It's not a book," she apologizes. "But I think you'll like it." She hands me a much smaller package. 

I look at my mom for a long time, and then I open the package. Inside of it is a silver pendant with a symbol I know from somewhere but can't recognize, on a long, silver chain. I immediately put it on, to see if there's a spell on it, but nothing happens.

I look up at my mom; she chuckles at my reaction. "It suits you," she comments, with a smile.

"It's not enchanted."

"It's a little enchanted," she corrects, smiling. "There's a good luck spell on it, but it's been in my family so long that it's mostly worn off. I figured it was about time you got it."

And then, all of a sudden, I know where I recognize the pendant from. "Mom, this is - you're wearing this in the picture of you and dad on your wedding day," I say, looking up. 

"Family heiroom. And, moreover, it's a family heirloom that's yours now. And besides," she adds, "I don't think you'll be needing the luck."

"What do you mean?"

"Technically," she begins, "You still live here. Your school stuff all still comes here. And you've applied to a lot of schools, Wonwoo, even though you won't be actually attending college until next year."

"Mom..."

"I'm saying, the BSA wrote you," my mother says, giving me the last item on the table, which I assumed was just a birthday card. But, no, there it is, the fancy parchment from the Bucharest School of Alchemy.

My hands are shaking. I can barely grab it. "Mom," I get out, looking up at her. 

She nods at me, encouraging me to open it. I squeeze the pendant once, for good luck, and open the letter. 

And when I read the results, I engulf my mom into the biggest hug I can manage.

When I get home, I almost go unnoticed - the main room has literally everyone in it, and they're all very occupied in doing various things. Jeonghan is in the kitchen, cooking something that smells awesome, and Seungkwan appears to be talking his ear off; Jihoon and Joshua (I didn't know he was in town, but there he is) are playing some guitar duet on the couch, while Seungcheol watches appreciatively; Chan, Minghao, and Junhui are engrossed in paper figures that they've enchanted to fight each other, and Seokmin is tending to his plants while Soonyoung pokes at the leaves.

But as soon as I step inside, there's a boom, and fireworks go off in front of me. Jihoon and Joshua stop their strumming, and the paper figures drop. "Weren't we going to surprise him?" Seungkwan asks, his voice more than loud enough to carry from the kitchen to the front door. 

"Yep," confirms Jihoon, sighing. 

"Ah well," Seungcheol says, getting up from his place on the floor and walking towards me. He bro-hugs me, and I smile. "Happy birthday, dude." 

"We all chipped in and got you something!" adds Chan, smiling. "It's up in your room. Which is now next to Seungcheol and Jihoon's room, and I'm sorry."

"But your girlfriend's gonna be here in, like, two minutes, so you might wanna hurry," Soonyoung adds.

"She's not my girlfriend," I chime in. 

"Anyways," Jeonghan butts in, "We're making food and stuff. So that'll be ready later. For now, though, you should change."

"I - I guess," I agree, shrugging and walking up the stairs to the room. The noise picks up again once I leave, and I sigh. 

I haven't really had any real friends at home. Not since Mingyu left. And that was...well, today's my 17th birthday, so it's two years ago, now.

But I try not to think about him too much. I walk up into my room and change into a black and red striped T-shirt - it's one that Layla has said, on multiple occasions, that she likes. (I don't remember when it was I started dressing to impress Layla, but it must've happened at some point.) I mostly, though, take the opportunity to look at my new pendant. 

Upon closer inspection, it's a labyrinth. Interesting. I don't have much time to muse, though, because there's an incessant ringing on the doorbell. Layla. I tuck the pendant under my shirt and run downstairs to greet her.

"So why red?" I ask, looking at Layla's most recent hair color, which seems to glow a little in the dark. There's a hill that's close to my place, where we have picnics and the like; everyone's gone back home, but Layla and I decided to stay, to finish off the thermos of pomegranate tea she'd brought.

She shrugs, twirling one of the strands between her fingers. "I'm going to go back to either purple or black soon," she replies. "I just figured I'd try it once, see how it felt."

"It's pretty cool," I say, shrugging. She looks beautiful, I think.

"I kind of didn't get you a present," Layla says, after taking a long sip of tea. "I mean, I'm going to get you something at some point in time. But I also sort of don't have any money."

"Haven't you been working at the cafe?"

"Only enough to cover the cost of living there."

". But don't worry about it." I almost say the fact that you're here is enough of a present, almost, but the words don't come out. Instead, I say, "As long as it's not a witch hat from the dollar store."

"Oh, you mean that felt cone you were wearing?" she asks, nudging me. "How'd you know it was from the dollar store?"

"They gave me the receipt." I sigh. ''Maybe I'll trade it in for candy or something."

"Can you even return things from the dollar store?"

"I've never tried."

"...You think you could rob the dollar store? If, like, you wanted to?"

"I'm not going to let you steal things."

"Okay, but in theory."

"I mean, you can rob anywhere in theory."

"And you're not gonna let me?"

"Nope."

"What are you, my mom?"

"No, I'm your concerned friend."

Layla sighs. "Fine, fine. But let's just buy a bunch of useless at the dollar store some time. When I have money," she adds.

I nod. "When you have money. Pour me more tea?"

"Yeah," she says, doing so and looking up at the sky. "It's late. I don't know how my mom's going to feel about me sleeping in a house full of boys from their mid-teens to mid-twenties."

"If you need a room, you'll have one. Enchanted house, remember."

"Oh, yeah. Alright." And then, in a motion so fast it surprises me, she lies down to look up at the stars. I follow suit and smile to myself - I know Layla loves anything that has to do with stars, even just staring at them. Her eyes are glued to the sky, and so are mine, but unlike her, I'm not really watching. I'm thinking, and honestly, I'm mostly thinking about her.

I can't pinpoint a time when I started liking Layla Kang. It must've been a combination of a lot of things - from when she was the only person who didn't make fun of me when we were kids, when she was the only person who understood how devastated I was when Mingyu left, all the times I helped her do spells she didn't think she could do, moments like this...

It must've happened at some point, is the point. And I'm not going to pursue it, because that would ruin our friendship, but for now, just this - her and me, laying together under the stars - this is enough.

Home isn't a place. It's a person. And right now, I'm home.