pairing: Jihyo x Tzuyu

summary: Sometimes you must vanish to be seen. Or, Tzuyu's attempt at invisibility spells.

note: this is a magical school au, but not hp au. (the spell and the title are from Kate Bush song: How To Be Invisible.)

The students looked bemused, Jihyo's joke about Griffin anatomy had passed them - again. She had been telling the joke ever since her teaching career had started and not once had she gotten a knowing smile in return. Still, she tried.

She made a quick turn back to the topic - talking about magical beasts during philosophy class was a bad habit of hers - and the students went back to their usual states of lame interest and mild boredom. Jihyo couldn't help but glance to the back row, hoping that a certain pair of eyes had been looking at her with keen interest, but instead, she was disappointed. The grown jewel of class 2C (Sword and Shield), Chou Tzuyu, was looking down at something in front of her, completely unaware of the rest of the world and Jihyo's educated jokes.

Jihyo swallowed down a sip from her water bottle and sprinted on, trying to get lost in the subject that she loved. If she could somehow make the class understand the thought process behind their practices, it would make her more than glad. She was keenly aware of how unpopular the philosophy of magic could be, and most students that used to study it past the basic level were usually the brainy ones that were interested in everything, or the students who thought she was a kind, amusing teacher – enough so that they could forget the theoretical side of her subject.

After explaining a particularly difficult concept, she asked the students if they had any questions to make. As per usual, most of them stayed quiet, vacant look in their eyes as they tried to look as unnoticeable as possible. It was funny that even as she was teaching young adults, they still acted like kids when they happened to be in a class room.

“Anyone?” she said and glanced at the back row, hoping that Tzuyu would come up with something. The girl was good at coming to her rescue at times like these when everyone else was lost, or too shy to speak up. However, the student still looked down, preoccupied with something else. It wasn’t odd behavior to most of the other students, but Tzuyu never wasted a minute when she could be learning.

Thankfully, one of the boys asked a simple question and she went back to explaining, this time with a slower pace and clearer examples. As she talked, she could see that some of the students began to understand better and it gave her a push to move on, knowing that she was on the right track.

Just as she was getting to the end of a complex concept, she saw something from the corner of her eye. She turned to look ahead to see the whole class, but nothing was out of place. Everyone was just as she they had been before, but it felt like something had sifted.

"Maybe the boys have learned new tricks," she thought as she drew a triangle on the board. Out of curiosity, she turned again, hoping to see if someone was doing anything forbidden. That’s when she saw it.

In the back row, Tzuyu's seat was momentarily empty, until the girl reappeared, sitting exactly as she had done before, her upper body crouched over a book.

Jihyo had her rules. No magic tricks in PMT (Philosophy of Magical Thinking) classes. If someone broke the rule, she ordered them a hefty pile of reading and an essay as a punishment. It did the trick much better than kicking the students out and sending them to the headmaster.

Yet, she stalled. She should have reacted to Tzuyu's doings, but something tied her tongue. She waited too long and told herself she could pretend she had not seen it. So much for not playing favorites. She knew the way she was acting was inappropriate, but Tzuyu didn't strike her as a typical rule breaker. If the girl was practicing spells when she shouldn't have then it must have been important.

As she didn't see any more disturbance from the young woman, the lecture went on, while she kept her eye on the back row, thinking about the problem while acting like everything was just as it should have been.

When the charmed gong sounded in the room, she took a deep breath - surprised and relieved that the class had come to an end. For the first time in ages, she was more excited about being free of duty than educating her unruly students.

"Read chapter twelve on the Klasik’s theory for next week. It will be a big theme in the exam, so don't get lazy," she said and looked at one of the boys, giving him a side-eye as he grinned, already actively forgetting what she had said. She sighed internally and gave up with a smile, nodding to some of the other students as they left, wishing her a good weekend.

Jihyo waited, until almost every student was out of the room, before she approached Tzuyu who was still buried in her book, nose almost touching the brownish paper. Her long dark hair had fallen forward, veiling her small face and when Jihyo stopped in front of her desk, she wanted to brush the hair back and tie it with a ribbon. Even as she knew a spell for it, she didn't do it. Instead, she cleared .

Tzuyu looked up, blinking away mental cobwebs and freezing when she realized they were alone in the room.

"Miss Park, I-"

"You know spells are forbidden in my classroom," Jihyo said, feeling regret as the younger woman flinched at her cold tone. She had never used it on Tzuyu before, because there had never been a need for it.

"Of course, Miss. I was just reading this book, I wasn't trying to do anything-," Tzuyu said, her normally steady way of saying things becoming fast and hard to follow.

"I saw you disappear during the lecture," Jihyo said and made her voice kinder, aware that she was part of the problem for not calling it out when it happened. If Tzuyu was smart enough, (which she was), she could hit back with Jihyo’s own rule breaking.

"Disappear? But, Miss, that's not possible," Tzuyu said and frowned. She paused and turned the book so that Jihyo could also see at what she was pointing at.

"I couldn't have succeeded in the spell. I don't have these ingredients."

Jihyo looked at the old book in front of her and the spell that was written on it, with a curvy style that was common in earlier works of witchcraft. Tzuyu's slender finger was pointing at a specific part of the spell:

Eye of Braille

Hem of anorak

Stem of wallflower

Hair of doormat

As Jihyo read the part, she began to smile and eventually she chuckled, feeling light as the mystery revealed its’ true form.

"Those are not ingredients," Jihyo said and smiled at Tzuyu's confusion, delighted to know that the girl hadn't tried to break rules after all. She just didn't know how the spell worked.

"Here, let me show you," she said and turned the book back towards Tzuyu, moving to crouch next to where the student was sitting. Tzuyu seemed surprised, fluttering behind her confusion.

"See this part?" Jihyo said and pointed at an earlier part of the text:

Take a pinch of keyhole

And fold yourself up

You cut along a dotted line

You think inside out

And you're invisible

"You probably noticed that it's clearly a thought process rather than something practical?"

Tzuyu nodded, her face serious like a child's who is learning to write. Jihyo felt warm at the intensity of her curiosity. This was why she liked teaching so much. It was like leading brave people through the dark.

"The twist here is," Jihyo continued, finger caressing the old paper as she moved it from one line to another. "That while those look like ingredients, they are actually part of the thought process."

Tzuyu's eyes glittered with understanding and she leaned closer to the text, like she was seeing it for the first time. They were almost head to head now, both bend over the book. Jihyo could swear she was feeling Tzuyu's breath linger on her cheek.

"This is a really powerful spell, because it's something everyone can try despite circumstances, but it's also very difficult. You have to travel the mental process step by step without losing a single part and then hold it all together at the end."

Tzuyu turned to look at her properly for the first time and seemed to be already trying the spell in her head.

"Can you show me?" she asked, so quietly that Jihyo wouldn't have heard it if she wasn't so close to the girl.

"Uh, sure! It's been a while since I've done this so it might take a moment," Jihyo said and stood up, wondering why she felt like she was trying to prove something, rather than just showing a student what to do.

"I have time," Tzuyu said and smiled, clearly relaxed now that Jihyo wasn't angry at her.

Jihyo smiled back and took a last look at the spell, the different parts of it already emerging in her head. She put them in order and shaped her inner world until everything came together, like working with yarn made of thoughts. Light flashed in her mind and she opened her eyes, seeing Tzuyu staring at her, or rather, the spot where she had been.

Despite being invisible, she continued the impromptu lesson like it was perfectly normal: "This spell is also special because nobody else can see you, even if they turn invisible too. Some weaker invisibility spells reveal the invisible people to each other so against another powerful magician the spell is useless. We teachers catch students using them all the time, just by using the same spell."

"That's interesting. How about turning back? Do you reverse the process?" Tzuyu asked, chin resting on an open palm, eyes wandering when she couldn't see her teacher anymore.

"There are different ways, but for now I'd recommend the reversing. It's the safest option," Jihyo said and smiled only to remember that Tzuyu wouldn't be able to see it. "Why don't you try it now?"

"Okay," Tzuyu said and stood up, hand resting on the desk like she was touching it to comfort her.

"You can do it. You already succeeded in the spell unintentionally, when you didn't even understand it."

"Maybe that's why," Tzuyu muttered, but closed her eyes. Jihyo watched as the girl stilled, only her lips moving a fraction. She looked almost scholarly with her tall figure and a crisp uniform and Jihyo felt like they were more equals than a teacher and a student. The fact that she was only a little bit older than Tzuyu didn't help.

Moments passed and Tzuyu's face tensed, until Jihyo was certain that the girl would open her eyes and give up. Instead, Jihyo blinked once and the girl was gone.

"Well done!" Jihyo said and felt so proud it surprised her.

"There was a light," Tzuyu said, her voice full of wonder.

"Means that you got it right," Jihyo said and felt strange now that there were only two voices talking in an empty class room. "Can I ask you? Why were you interested in this particular spell?"

Jihyo couldn't see Tzuyu but she felt her hesitation, which made her wonder if she has crossed a line - one that was also invisible. Tzuyu was one of those hard-working, very private students who made the teacher’s job easy and never made a great fuss about themselves. Jihyo barely knew anything about her, even as she would have liked to.

"It's just that, sometimes it would be nice to disappear. Less fuss," Tzuyu said and based on her voice, she was now closer to Jihyo than before. "Also, I had this foolish idea that I could watch a certain person without it looking weird."

Tzuyu's voice was arid and quiet, making her seem so much older even as the content of her confession seemed to belong to someone younger.

"Have you tried confessing? It is easier to get close to someone when you are not trying to disappear," Jihyo said, hoping that her warm smile carried over in her voice. She had the feeling Tzuyu was only talking because they couldn't see each other. Somehow, it made everything easier.

"But what if the person is someone in an authorial position compared to me?"

Jihyo thought for a moment, coming up with different scenarios and each of them was wilder than the previous. She shook her head and said instead:

"I suppose it depends on the person and the circumstance."

For a moment, nothing happened and Jihyo couldn't hear anything from the student. Just as Jihyo was about to say more, she felt a tentative touch on her shoulder. She gasped, warmth flooding over her body at the simple gesture. She couldn't see Tzuyu, but she could feel how close she was.

"Miss Park," Tzuyu whispered, pausing for a heartbeat. "Would it be okay if I kissed you?"

Jihyo froze, breath caught in , as her thoughts unraveled. She knew it was forbidden to be intimate with a student, and the fact that they were both adults didn’t change it. The right thing to do was easy to picture in her head, while the wrong decision shifted in shadows, shrouded in mystery. She heard her own heartbeat as her mind ran away without her, coming to a decision before she knew she had chosen.

"Yes," she whispered.

Jihyo felt the air flow as Tzuyu pressed closer, the labels of her uniform brushing against Jihyo's front. Because Jihyo couldn't see the younger woman, she could only sense with her skin, nose and ears. It made her body extremely sensitive and when she felt Tzuyu's breath lingering near , she shivered. She could hear the student swallow and open her lips as she moved ever closer until they were breathing mouth to mouth, lips barely touching.

Jihyo closed the minimal cap and her lips locked between Tzuyu's, the pressure causing her to moan. They only hold their lips together, but it already felt overwhelming. Another shiver rolled on her skin and she moved her lips tighter, only for Tzuyu to do the same. Jihyo grasped Tzuyu on the waist and dived into the kiss, caressing Tzuyu's lips with her own.

Just as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Tzuyu pulled away with a pop and Jihyo staggered backwards, her whole face on fire. She could hear Tzuyu's labored breathing somewhere behind her own struggling one. She was so out of breath and the kiss had only lasted a moment.

"I understand why-," Jihyo started.

"Should we practice the reversing now?" Tzuyu said at the same time, sounding far calmer than Jihyo felt.

"Of course," Jihyo said, trying to regain her authority and thoughts. She had been surprised so many times in the last fifteen minutes that it was increasingly hard to keep up. "Just do the thought process backwards and pay attention to the beginning of the spell."

The room became quiet and Jihyo concentrated on her own breathing, willing it to calm down even as her lungs flapped like trapped wings. She couldn't remember any spells for calming down and wondered if she even knew any - at the same time as her mind replayed the kiss, slowly, then fast, zooming on different pictures.

Tzuyu remained unseen and it was easy to pretend that she hadn't been there in the first place. Jihyo tried to remind herself that she was still a teacher and should say something, but before she could manage to form any helpful sentences, Tzuyu reappeared.

"It was harder to reverse," Tzuyu said, hint of a smile on her lips. If Jihyo hadn't felt the kiss earlier, it would have been impossible to tell from Tzuyu's facial expression that something had happened. It somehow made her more attractive. Which wasn't good at all, Jihyo thought and bit her lip.

"You did well," Jihyo said and cleared . "I think it would be wiser if you left now before I reverse too. If you don't mind."

"Of course not, Miss Park," Tzuyu said and looked down, finally a dusting of warmth on her cheeks. Jihyo watched as the student packed her things and closed the old spell book, holding it close to her chest like a plate of armor.

"Thank you for helping me," Tzuyu said and stepped closer, looking straight into Jihyo's eyes which should have been impossible. It made Jihyo flush red. "I hope it wasn't a bother," she continued and stepped pass Jihyo, brushing her hand against the teacher's hip.

"Not at all," Jihyo mumbled, already turning her head to watch as Tzuyu walked away to the door. She was overcome with a need to say something before the girl vanished out of the class room.

"Oh, and Tzuyu? In the future, leave the spell books alone in this class." The student looked back and nodded.

"And... you can call me Jihyo, when it's just the two of us," Jihyo added, the sentence fading into the air around her, but not enough that Tzuyu couldn't hear. Tzuyu's eyes filled with light and she stared for a moment, thinking of what to say.

"I'll see you, Jihyo."

With that the student left, leaving the room still and quiet behind her. Jihyo looked up at the ceiling and whispered strange words, until the ceiling vanished and turned into a stormy sea. She looked at the water, then walked back to her seat and sat down, angry wind blowing papers around the room. She sat there, with her head in her hands, while the storm raged on and on.

This went on until Jihyo lifted her head up and reversed the spell. She picked up the scattered papers and packed her belongings, turning visible at the door and leaving, trying to look as professional as she had been only an hour ago. A group of students thought they heard a seagull cry somewhere as the teacher passed them, smiling an awkward smile.

It looked like the teacher wanted to disappear.

A/N: Comments and votes are very much appreciated, don't be shy!