Previously on Black Gold:

Taeyeon: H-how…long was I…out?

Jessica: Taeyeon, y-you…you died.

Taeyeon: … how did I…?

Jessica: Yuri. She…she turned into a gumiho, and then she cut off one of her tails and brought you back with spirit magic.

//

Taeyeon: W-we’re back? We’re home?

Tiffany: …It’s…empty.

Taeyeon: …What?”

Tiffany: Nobody’s here, Tae. The place was completely abandoned when we got here.

Taeyeon : …Th-they…they left us?

Tiffany: We found a mandatory evacuation notice in the Headmistresses office. It was the council’s orders to get all the kids out of here and off the island. They know what’s happening.

Taeyeon: They left us….

//

Sooyoung: It really is like a zombie apocalypse…what’re we going to do?

Tiffany: Don’t think about it for now. Let’s rest for a few days and decide what we want to do later

***

During her school years, Tiffany had rarely used the public bathhouse since the dorm rooms came with their own showers, but showers just aren’t cutting it for her anymore. Still able to feel the chill of the forest, all the way in her bones, Tiffany submerges herself into heated, scented waters in hopes that this will finally warm her up. As the water envelopes her, she sighs in relief. No matter what kind of magic had helped keep them clean in that forsaken forest, Tiffany prefers the simplicity of the natural hot water that’s melting her tired muscles. They’ve been back at the academy for a few days now, but she hates that she’s still trying to shake the exhaustion of the forest from her body.

In school, Tiffany’s always made the effort to surround herself with friends. She was always eager to make friends in every class and always had someone to keep her company in the halls or in library. Being a natural social butterfly, she finds it peculiar that she’s craving this bit of quiet separation as she relaxes in the bathhouse. It’s been noisy as hell with nine girls squabbling together while being stuck together for all this time, so it’s nice to finally get a bit of time to herself.

Rolling her head back against the stone edge, Tiffany sighs and exhales all the tension in her body and closes her eyes as the warm water continues to melt away her stress.

Well, that is until the sliding door pops open with a loud bang.

“Fany?! What’re you doing out of the dorm? You’re supposed to be—wait, you actually filled the bath and didn’t invite us??”

Begrudgingly, Tiffany opens her eyes at the sound of Yuri’s voice, echoing off the walls of the bathhouse.

“I swept the place with Hyo this morning. It’s all good,” she grumbles back. “Now go away, your voice is giving me a headache.”

The fox strides over and stands at the side, glad to see that Tiffany’s wand is at least sitting at the edge of the stone tub. “Yeah, Hyoyeon told us that you were here. How could you not invite us? It’s such a waste of water for one person,” Yuri says.

“Sorry. The bath’s for pretty girls only,” Tiffany tells her friend.

“Ohhh, it smells so nice,” Yoona says.

Surprised by another person, Tiffany finally looks to the entrance and notices the other tall witch that’s intruding on her quiet time.

“I can’t believe you smelt the bath from so far away,” Yoona says to the fox.

“When I used to get really beat from quidditch practice, Fany always made me this blend of Epsom salts,” Yuri says as she fervently sniffs the rich combination of eucalyptus and lavender oils that linger in the warm air. “It’s seriously the ultimate muscle relaxant,” she adds before crossing her arms over her waist and lifting the hem of her shirt over her head.

Tiffany frowns when she definitely did not invite the girl into the bath with her. “What’re you…?”

Even Yoona starts peeling her clothes off and Tiffany can do nothing but roll her eyes as her classmates strip bare before slipping into the water too, causing the surface to ripple and break whatever pretty, tranquil bubble Tiffany was lounging in.

“Do you think Taeyeon-unnie and Sica-unnie are coming down too?” Yoona asks as she tips her head back to wet her hair.

“Why would they be coming down here?” Tiffany asks, knowing the answer already.

She goes unanswered as Yuri cackles, “Nah, they’re probably too busy making out in their room.”

Tiffany tries to into the girls’ conversation once more. “Wait, so the other girls are coming down too—?”

“Good morning, ladies!” Sooyoung chimes as she walks in.

Tiffany loves her best friend, she really does, but goodness, Sooyoung’s occasionally even louder than she is. “Good morning,” Tiffany groans.

She watches as her skyscraper-tall friend comes skipping into the bathhouse, singing off-tune as she excitedly makes her way over to the tub. “Seohyun-ah, hurry up!” Sooyoung calls over her shoulder.

Used to seeing Seohyun’s nose buried in a book, in the back corner of the library, Tiffany’s surprised to see the youngest of their group speed walk into the bathhouse on excited legs. “Good morning, unnies,” she greets politely.

“You too, huh?” Tiffany askes.

“Yuri-unnie said that you make the best baths because of your combination of salts and oils,” Seohyun says as she removes her robe. She slowly dips her toes in first, getting familiar with the vast temperature change before the rest of her body eases into the bath as well. “It feels lovely already,” she tells Tiffany.

As graceful and poised as Seohyun was as she got into the bath, Tiffany can’t say the same for her friend as Sooyoung stretches a long leg over the stone edge and shrieks as steps into the water. “Hot, hot, hot!” she chants as she swings the next leg over and quickly submerges herself in, feeling her skin turn red before it actually does. “Oh my god, it’s so hot!” she screams as she stands up, trying to cool down her skin that now feels like it’s on fire.

As much as Tiffany wants to continue displaying her irritation, she can’t help but to laugh at Sooyoung’s clumsy personality.

Seohyun laughs too before she sighs contently. “This is so perfect. Do you guys ever feel like you can never get warm again? Like you can always feel how cold that forest is?”

“Yes!” Yoona exclaims. “I feel like I have to constantly be wearing three layers to stay warm.”

“Maybe you should just gain some weight,” Yuri hisses as she leans over to pinch the skinny girl’s arm.

“Yah!” Yoona squeaks before flicking water back at the fox in retaliation.

Tiffany flinches when the girls trade a few splashes, so she lifts her arms out of the hot water and sets them on the edge as she leans back. She drums her fingers against the cool stone before turning to her best friend and sarcastically asks, “What? No Hyoyeon and Sunny?”

“Oh, they’re on their way,” Sooyoung replies. “You didn’t really think we were going to leave you alone, did you?”

Tiffany laughs. “And if a chimera popped up in here, your skinny would save me?”

In a mirrored tone of mockery, Sooyoung obnoxiously laughs before clarifying, “Not me! Her, obviously.”

With almost comedic timing, Tiffany feels like completely submerging her head when she hears two more girls enter the room, laughing and talking as they approach the tub.

No. No more girls. Enough is enough. Tiffany raises a wet arm out of the water as Sunny and Hyoyeon approach the tub in their robes. “No Gryffindor girls.”

“Pfffftt! Whatever,” Hyoyeon dismisses as she unties the knot around her waist.

“Gryffindor, Hufflepuff—what does it even matter?” Sunny remarks as she tosses her black and red robe aside. “The house system’s silly. We’re all probably going to be different people in five years anyways,” she says and she climbs the stone steps.

Now finally comfortable enough to sit down, Sooyoung chuckles at Sunny as she enters the bath. “You know, for someone named Sunny, you’re awfully pessimistic. I think the house system’s good. It brings likeminded people together.”

“They’re just colors,” Sunny says, rolling her eyes.  “People grow and change all the time.”

“She’s right, you know,” Hyoyeon says as she tosses her robe and wand to the edge before climbing the steps. “You might value learning the most right now, but maybe once you’re working, you might prioritize being ambitious about the position you want.”

Conversation’s nice, but Tiffany definitely doesn’t want to get into a philosophical debate with the girls, so she turns her attention to something else. With some clothes heaped along the edge of the stone tub, Tiffany boosts herself out of the bath and leans out to rearrange the garments and even some of their wands so that they’re within clear reach, but she shrieks when something—someone—pinches her .

“What the hell?!” she yells as she falls back into the bath with a splash, just in time to see Sunny retreating her hand away.

“Oh yeah, she does that,” Hyoyeon laughs. “Sunny likes butts.”

“They’re just so pinch-able,” the Gryffindor witch coos, practically with twinkling stars in her eyes. “You got a good , Fany.”

Tiffany’s been in an all-girls school for far too long to feel embarrassed by being in the company of a bunch of other girls, but she feels the blush spread over her face and down her neck from the bizarre girl’s habit. Baffled, she finds herself uncharacteristically speechless along with Sooyoung who’s staring with wide, confused eyes.

Yoona frowns as she adds, “Not only the pinching, but she likes to bite too. She used to bite the skin of my elbows back in grade school...”

It takes a while before Tiffany can even think of the words, “S-something is wrong with you...” to mumble, which only garners a mischievous cackle from Sunny.

“You, of all people, are not allowed to turn into a werewolf, okay?” Sooyoung demands of the short witch.

It doesn’t take long before Hyoyeon laughs and tells the girls about the first time Sunny pinched Taeyeon’s and nearly scared the werewolf right off of the roof.

Laughter starts to bounce off the walls and Tiffany finds herself chuckling at the story too. As the girls continue to chatter and laugh, Tiffany slouches in her seat in the tub, sinking down far enough that she submerges the lower portion of her face. She exhales and watches the steady stream of bubbles distort the surface, just like these girls have done to her private bath. But as irritated as she originally was by the sudden interruption, she smiles beneath the water’s surface while shaking her head, knowing that she’s grown strangely attached to this messy, squabbling group of girls.

***

Eyelids fluttering open, Taeyeon wakes up to the sight of golden midday rays that creep through the navy-blue curtains. More than the pretty exterior scenery, Taeyeon knows the view behind her is even better when she feels the soft touch of finger pads, running up at down the length of her arm. It gets even better when Jessica slips her arms around the other girl’s waist and pulls herself flush against Taeyeon’s back.

“You’re awake?” Taeyeon asks, well aware of the other girl’s usually heavy sleeping habits.

“Yeah.”

Used to the girl’s usual high tone, the wolf-girl shivers at the sound of Jessica’s voice all rough and low. She groans as she rolls over, grimacing as semi-healed wounds stretch along her stomach. “You couldn’t sleep? Was I snoring or something?” Taeyeon asks, self-conscience of her sleeping habits that Sunny has so often made fun of her for.

Hair tousled in large curls around her face, Taeyeon thinks it’s so unfair that Jessica still looks this pretty in the morning with no makeup.

The girl shakes her head. “No. I’m just...not used to sleeping in a bed with someone else.”

Taeyeon blushes as she feels the other girl’s fingers continue their earlier ministrations and tickle the length of her arm. “That feels nice,” she murmurs, feeling her eyelids weigh down.

It’s a kind of warmth Taeyeon’s unaccustomed too; it’s something simply soothing, like getting your hair washed at the salon, or drinking soup on a cold winter day. There’s just something so comforting about the trailing pads of Jessica’s fingertips, like they’re trying to gently memorize every curve of Taeyeon’s body.

“Are you feeling better? Has your rapid healing kicked in yet?” Jessica asks, sliding her hand down to the other girl’s stomach.

“Ah!” Wincing, the wolf-girl reaches down and stops Jessica’s hand. “Tender. It still feels tender,” Taeyeon huffs through short laughs.

Feeling the injured girl weave their fingers together, Jessica feels her own heart pound a little harder as Taeyeon holds her hand. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Taeyeon says, smiling.

“Are you still tired? You can rest more if you want.”

“Nah, I’m feeling a lot more awake today, but you can sleep more if you want to.”

Jessica giggles at the blatant jab, but she rolls up onto her elbows instead to stare down at the wolf-girl. “No, I’m fine. Are you hungry? I can go grab Hyo and we can go check the cafeteria for food. I can make you a tuna sandwich if you want.”

Taeyeon smiles at her girlfriend offering to—sort of—cook for her. “Yeah, sure. I’d like that.”

“My God,” Tiffany’s voice sudden says as the doors slide open. “It’s past noon, you lovebirds. Wake up—oh my god!”

“Fany,” Taeyeon starts, feeling embarrassed when they’ve just been caught…doing nothing, really. But with Jessica hovering over her like this, she can imagine what her friend must think. “Fany, it’s okay. We’re not—”

“Sorry! Sorry! I’ll come back later!” the Hufflepuff witch fusses, keeping a hand shielded over her eyes as she clumsily stumbles outside before sliding the doors shut.

Taeyeon laughs as she drops her head back to the pillow and Jessica giggles behind her own hand. “Okay, I guess we have to get up then,” Taeyeon chuckles.

“Yeah, let’s go check on those crazy kids,” Jessica laughs. She gives her girlfriend a quick peck on the cheek before she regrettably lifts up the covers and exposes them both to the chilly morning air.

***

The wolf-girl would love to do nothing more but longue around in bed all day, but she’s done enough of that as it is. For the first time in the past few days, Taeyeon doesn’t need Jessica’s help getting out of bed this morning, but she still cringes when she feels the sore muscles in her abdomen contract. At least the pain is bearable today.

To stay safe, they’ve selected a block of neighboring rooms in the Ravenclaw dorm and Taeyeon’s glad that her friends have been generous enough to insist she and Jessica share a room while the rest of them paired off amongst themselves: Sunny and Hyoyeon, Yoona and Yuri, and Tiffany, Sooyoung, and Seohyun had decided to bunk together so that no girl was left on her own.

Taeyeon only needs to take a couple of steps to cross the hall to Tiffany’s r