You narrow your eyes, grit your teeth, as you deftly dodge a swipe from the ink tiger. Ten paces ahead of you, Jimin smirks; you dispel his tiger, retaliate with a fireball that scorches the ground barely a foot away from him. Jimin summons a flock of ink birds. You shape another fireball. You’re both panting; the two of you have been caught in an intense mage battle for ten, fifteen minutes, long enough that you’ve lost track. Somewhere in the distance, the roar of a griffin sounds, followed by startled shrieks from students.

“Jimin,” you growl, pointing your wand in warning. “Give it back.”

The little smirks at you again. “Nope.”

Snarling, you launch your fireball. Jimin drops, rolling and sliding across the marble, managing to narrowly dodge the flames. Even so, you’re relentless; you hurl spell after spell, fireballs and ice arrows and tempest winds, all potentially deadly and undoubtedly dangerous.

And most likely not advised for two students in a school building. A crumbling school building, devastated by your current duel with Jimin.

But this is war.

“THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE, PARK JIMIN,” you yell, rolling out of the way from Cerberus’ paw; it’s an ink replica, of course, not the actual hellhound, since Jimin’s still training, but deadly nonetheless. You aim a ray of light at him that could have cleaved him in half. “GIVE ME BACK MY CHICKEN NUGGET.”

“NO,” he yells back, throwing himself out of the way. The ray ends up burning a hole into the school’s inner wall, smoke slowly rising from it.

“YOU ASKED FOR IT THEN,” you shout. Readjusting your grip on the wand, you begin to chant the latest addition to your knowledge of offensive spells. Spells definitely not meant to be used against a friend.

But this time, it’s different.

This time, it’s about your chicken nugget.

“EXPLODERE ERUPTIO!”

You get the pleasure of seeing Jimin’s eyes widen in terror before he desperately throws himself forward, onto the ground, in hopes of avoiding the imminent explosion. Unfortunately (or fortunately—for Jimin, at least), the spell stops midair, a blossoming explosion suspended in time space, before it quickly reverses, sliding back towards your wand before disappearing altogether into a puff of smoke.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?”

The two of you whirl to stare at Jin, your mouths agape and your faces beginning to flush with embarrassment. The head Prefect is standing at the entrance of the emptied, smoking foyer, wand pointed toward you and Jimin, panting heavily; there’s a furious look on his face.

“Uh,” you squeak.

“YOU,” Jin yells. “THAT WAS A LEVEL THREE SPELL, NO ONE’S AUTHORIZED TO USE THAT UNLESS IN BATTLE, LEGITIMATE BATTLE—YOU’RE A FRESHMAN, HOW THE HELL DID YOU LEARN THAT SPELL AND WHAT WERE YOU DOING USING IT ON JIMIN —“

“It was justified! This was battle!” you say. “One that Jimin was losing, for the record.”

From behind you, there’s an indignant squeak.

“JIMIN,” Jin bellows, shifting the aim of his wand to Jimin, standing behind you and maybe trying to slink through a hole in the wall. “IF YOU—IF EITHER OF YOU—HAVE HURT ANYONE—IF YOU’VE HURT _________ —“

“No, no,” you say, hastily. “Jimin didn’t hurt me. He just stole from me.” You shoot a menacing glare at him.

“Stole?” Jin asks, giving you a confused look. His earlier rage slowly begins to dissipate; he lowers his wand. Suddenly, the loud roar of the griffin cuts in, followed by its booming footsteps. Annoyed, Jin scowls, turns away.

“Nevermind,” he says. “I’ll deal with you two later. Someone summoned a ing griffin and I need to dispel it, since all the qualified sealers are out.” He shoots you two a warning glare before sweeping out.

“Damn,” Jimin says after a moment of silence. “Since when did your boyfriend get so good at single target reversal?”

You shoot him a glare, ignoring his comment. “Give it back,” you growl.

“Okay, okay, fine,” Jimin says, resentfully, dropping it in your outstretched hand. “But it’s probably all gross with my hand sweat now.” He smirks at you.

You simply shrug. “Whatever. Either way, I don’t want you to have it.” You turn away, tossing the nugget into the trash can.

“What?” Jimin asks, trailing behind you as you stride down the corridor. “Why?”

You turn to him, giving him a withering gaze. “Because you’re undeserving of chicken nuggets.”

//

“Are you ing serious right now?” Jin asks, his eyes wide with disbelief.

You shrug. “Yeah.”

“Oh my ing god,” Jin says, facepalming. He’s hunched over on the sofa across from you, a stack of papers neatly piled on his lap. He groans.

“What?” you ask. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”

“No, I’m fine, it’s just that—“ He stops, letting out another groan before rubbing his face with his hands. He looks at you before leaning back into the sofa.

“It’s just that what?” Cautiously, you return to your original, relaxed position.

“It’s just that I can’t believe you fought Jimin for that chicken nugget,” he says. “Just that one nugget.”

You pout, crossing your arms. “It’s because Jimin stole it from me.”

“But I’m still not sure how I’ll be able to justify your use of a highly explosive spell,” he points out. He regards the incident report papers in his lap with a look of annoyance.

“It didn’t go through. You stopped it.”

“Yes,” he agrees. “But there was clear intent that you were going to use it. And also you can’t forget the gigantic griffin that Jimin summoned. Which, first of all, is definitely not authorized and secondly, created a massive path of destruction and chaos when it went on a rampage because someone—“ he gives you a look, “set its tail on fire.”

“Okay, I’m sorry,” you say, holding your hands up in a gesture of surrender. “It was an accident!”

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