“Huh?”

Hoshi flicked a few more candles alight to replace the ceiling lights that had gone out. His mind raced.

The knot flipped inside out. It’s still there but completely inverted. How is that possible?

“What did you do?” Woozi asked quietly.

“I don’t know yet. Hold on. Something in this room must have interfered with the thingamajig outside when I poked it.”

“Can… can you fix it?”

Hoshi looked at the other boy and his expression faltered. The small boy looked a lot more timid now. Whenever his gaze dashed to the former location of the door there was a terror in his eyes.

Does he not like confined spaces? But he’s always holed up in his lab.

“Don’t worry Wooz- I mean, Jihoon.”

“Call me whatever, just-“ He gestured to the wall where the exit was supposed to be.

“Right. Let’s see.”

First Hoshi flung a few analytic spells at the wall itself. It was a regular wall. Duh. All the other brick and cement surfaces around were, too. So far, so useless. In the corner of his eye he saw the pink haired boy fail to get reception on his phone.

“I get no signal. But I never had that problem on the school grounds.”

“Hm, I just tried teleporting us to the designated safe spot, but it seems I can’t get out.” Hoshi poked the air with his wand again. “And my messages to the headmaster don’t go past the walls either. Let me try something.”

He stepped into the conveniently pre-drawn summoning circle and spoke the focus words. Water bottles and sandwiches popped up. They were from his room, where he had put them in preparation for when he inevitably got hungry but didn't want to quit working.

“Ah, so I can still get things in here from the outside as long as I know where they are. That means we’re not in a pocket dimension or somehow else cut off from reality. That’s good news. Something is just locking us in.”

“Can we vanish things from around school until somebody notices and comes looking?”

“Quick thinking. I guess, but I don’t remember where any other items are exactly. Big furniture is going to be in the same place as always, but we don’t have too much space in here.”

Again Hoshi noticed how fidgety the boy was in this situation. It was irksome to observe. Woozi had put the scissors away but he didn’t sit still. He didn’t pace either, just shuffled back and forth as if he was hoping to spot a door he had somehow overlooked.

Man, he really hates not being in control. And he hates being in here with me, but that feeling is mutual. Time to get out the heavy hitters.

“Take a step back, I’m busting us out by force.”

Hoshi loaded a destructive piercing spell into his hand and waited until the last possible moment, when his fingers were starting to tingle as his nerves misfired from all the magic blocking their signals. He focused the power into his wand and smashed the spell into the blank wall.

The impact caused a bright flare and pushed him back. The familiar flickering of magical blockades dissipated the effort.

They reinforced the walls. After that last demon attack, I bet. Lovely.

Any further attempt to break the wall was more likely to injure the boys in the room than succeed in even scratching the surface. By now the shorter boy was walking back and forth like a caged panther, nibbling away at Hoshi’s concentration.

“Woozi, why don’t you just sit down? Or take a nap… Snoozi.”

Jihoon glared at him. “I’d rather work on getting out.”

“I’ll try moving the knot in space. Perhaps it’s blocking the door by sheer positioning and thus the metaphysical exit as well, allowing nothing to get outside.”

“An epiphenomenon?" Jihoon's eyes narrowed. "Sounds reasonable. Try aletheing the hypokeimenoic modality first.”

“Erm, right…”

Hoshi shook his head.

I forgot that he knows almost as much as I do. Even though he’s not magical he studied the theory for so long that his potions go off without a hitch. That’s rare even amongst wizards. And he’s right in this case, too. He figured out what I was going to do before even I knew it.

After fiddling with the knot’s platonic qualia-balance for a full five minutes, he gave up with an exasperated huff. Jihoon was leaning against a wall, staring at the floor. Again, there was this severe discomfort in his expression.

“Woozi?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll try a different approach, but I’m not too hopeful. Don’t freak out. Someone’s going to miss us eventually and come looking. Maybe headmaster-nim is already alerted and right on the way.”

He tried to sound confident, but it came out a bit forced to say the least. He had never seen the fun-sized boy so timid.

While repositioning himself in the magic field lines he said “Didn’t you take out a demon with a single hit? Just a few days ago, I could have sworn I heard that. Mingyu told me all about it.”

“Yes, but I can’t headbutt a wall out of the way,” said the boy with a stone faced expression of grimness.

“Guess not. Look, I’m going to try to recorporealize the-“

“Just do whatever. It’s not like I’m of any use without my potions.”

Man, what’s his problem?

“Suppose so. Alright.”

Hoshi had to admit the boy wasn’t useful with no brews at hand, but he had only wanted to keep him in the loop. He raised his wand but didn’t cast. Something in his head clicked.

“Jihoonie? Do you feel about the role of your work like this only right now or… in general? Because, you know, we don’t just keep you around for those things you can make. You’re still valuable on your own. Because you’re you.”

The smaller boy looked up. His façade crumbled. Jaw dropped, eyes drooping.

Oh no. What did I do? And what do I do now? How do I fix this? What did I do???

“You… You think I’m valu-“ Jihoon’s voice cracked. With quivering lips, he failed to speak as tears welled up in his eyes. All the defensiveness was gone. He didn’t look angry or dismissive or flippant or any of the other things he worked so hard to appear to be. He looked very, very lonely.

[Why couldn’t Woozi just make a snoozi? Forgive me for ending on a sad note, but things had to get worse before they get better. It’s lonely being at the top. Especially when it’s all you have and you never felt like you fit in. See you next time for a less heart wrenching conclusion.]