Jinki barged into the Slytherin common room and hurriedly scanned the people with his eyes, searching for his best friend. When he spotted him he stomped to the group hanging around on the sofas and grabbed his friend's arm, pulling him up from his seat. "Kibum come with me for a second."

"Damn it Jinki, I just sat down. What's the hurry, calm your ." he shrugged his friend's hand off and stopped. "Hey, I can go by myself, stop pulling me." 

"Okay. Okay, just- come with me please." Jinki said and went towards his room. Once both of them were inside he closed the door and started pacing around.

Kibum sighed and plopped down on Jinki's bed. "So? Spill it."

"Remember I told you I had a new friend? Joon?"

"Of course I remember, you freaking dumped me for him. He's like the only person you spend time with these days." Kibum replied and scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Look, I think I'm going crazy but..." Jinki swallowed and stopped on his tracks to look at his friend. "...do you think it's possible that it's actually Jonghyun?"

Kibum shrugged. "Sure. Nothing's impossible."

Jinki's mouth parted in shock. Kibum seemed to be completely unsurprised even though the idea seemed to be absolutely insane to Jinki. "What the ? 'Sure'?" he stared at his friend and then his eyes narrowed. "Do you know something I don't?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Kibum replied and looked at his nails.

"Kibum." Jinki warned.

"Shut up. I'm telling you I have no idea what you're talking about. It just seems like an.. option. I mean, Joon doesn't even attend classes with us. I barely see him in the Great Hall during meals and I don't think I've ever seen him and Jonghyun in the same room." 

Jinki's jaw dropped. He had never even thought about it.

"Well, that being said.. Why do you think it's Jonghyun?"

"I-..." Jinki choked, still not being able to shake himself off from the shock. "I told you about his voice right? And his mannerisms? And today at breakfast he ing ate that ing jelly and no one eats that ."

Kibum gave him a skeptical look. "Jelly. You think it's Jonghyun because he ate the jelly."

"No, it's not only that. When-.., when we were hanging out some time ago he shared his childhood story with me and... he said he hadn't seen his father ever since he got his letter from Hogwarts when he was 11. And he's supposed to be a transfer student. I didn't give that too much thought back then, I thought it was just a slip of a tongue but now I can't help but think he forgot himself for a second and didn't change the story to match Joon's."

"Hmm.. It's possible. So, what are you going to do about it? Ask him if it's true? Try to catch him red handed?"

Jinki run his fingers through his hair and then threw himself on his bed, right next to Kibum. "I don't know. I mean, I'm not even sure about this whole thing, maybe it's a coincidence. If I'm wrong I might ruin my friendship with Joon and I don't want that. Maybe everything's fine and I'm just overreacting..."

"Maybe you want Joon to be Jonghyun and that's why you keep seeing all those 'clues'." Kibum proposed casually.

Jinki stiffened and then sat up, his eyes shooting daggers. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"I think you understood me very clearly."

Jinki's jaw jutted out. "Look. I honestly don't know what you made up in that head of yours but it's not real. So drop it."

"Seriously..." Kibum let out the most exasperated breath he could muster, feeling his blood pressure rise. "Can you please stop with this bull already? You're ing obsessed with him and you know it. Did you perhaps notice that ever since you started to hang out with Joon you stopped bullying Jonghyun so much? You couldn't be friends with Jonghyun so you bullied him because it was the only way you could make him pay attention to you. Joon reminds you of Jonghyun so instead of trying to have what you can't you decided to satisfy yourself with a substitute."

Jinki's face twisted in a scowl, his eyes narrowed and angry as he stared at Kibum heatedly. And that's the only thing he could do: stare. Because somehow he didn't have anything to say to defend himself. " you. I'm ing done with you." he said and stood up, making his way to the door.

"Yeah, right. Just walk away. Stop lying to yourself!" Kibum shouted after him.

"Minho. Minho you need to help me." Jonghyun shook his friend awake.

"What? What?" Minho stirred and then squinted at the boy hovering above him. "Jonghyun? What's going on? I told you I'm not getting up for breakfast today."

"I know, breakfast's already over, I just came back from the Great Hall. Minho please get up, I think he's suspecting something."

The boy groaned and slowly lifted himself from the bed, his back hunched and hair all messed up. "What happened?" he asked groggily and rubbed his face with his hand.

"So I went to breakfast with Jinki today, you know. And I forgot I was supposed to be Joon and I just ate what I usually do and Minho I ate the jelly." Jonghyun wailed.

Minho sighed, his expression growing serious. "Don't worry, you made a mistake but it's not the end of the world. Did he say anything?"

"No, but Minho you should've seen him. He stared at me like I grew out a second head and then he didn't talk to me anymore. I could freaking see his head steaming from all the thinking he was doing." Jonghyun swallowed hard, clenching his fingers on Minho's blanket. "Help me. I don't know what to do, he can't know it's me."

Minho exhaled and then reached out for his friend's hand. "Jonghyun listen... Maybe it's a good time to end this? The whole experiment thing has been going on for way too long anyway."

"N-no." Jonghyun shook his head furiously. "No, Minho please. Just a little bit longer. I-..." his breathing quickened. "Help me this one last time. Please, I want to do it for a little bit longer."

Minho looked at his friend in silence for a few seconds before his shoulders sagged in defeat. "I guess I could drink the polyjuice potion to turn myself into you when you're Joon and then we'd make sure he sees us together. That should do the trick."

"Yeah, sounds good." Jonghyun smiled and his face relaxed slightly. "Thank you. Really."

"Don't mention it. Just-. Please make sure you're not getting yourself into something nasty okay?"

"Of course."

"I mean it Jonghyun. The longer you keep this up the bigger the chances Jinki will find out about everything. You need to make sure you stay in character when you're with him, you cannot afford another mistake. Do you understand?"

Jonghyun nodded, his head hanging low. "I know. I know, it's just..."

"What is it?"

He looked up at Minho and then down at his hands. "Sometimes it's just so hard you know? When I'm with him-... he just makes me so comfortable I forget it's all fake. I forget I'm not Jonghyun and that Jinki would never treat me the way he does if he knew the truth. But then I accidentally see my reflection in the window or he calls me by Joon's name instead of mine and the bubble pops."

Minho's eyes turned sad. He placed his hand over his friend's and squeezed slightly. "Jonghyun you do realize how you sound like right?" he sighed tiredly. "You must've realized it too... It's not about carrying out an experiment anymore, is it?"

Jonghyun in a shaky breath and then slowly shook his head.

"God, Jonghyun. What did you get yourself into?" Minho run his fingers through the other boy's hair. "You need to end this before it's too late. You'll get hurt."

Jonghyun shook his head. "It's already too late and you know it." He stood up and walked to the wooden desk, traced his fingers along the surface. Then he raised his head and looked at Minho, his eyes determined. "I'll keep going and see where it takes me. If there's a trace of a chance that he-.." he stopped himself and swallowed. "If there is a chance... I'll take it."

"Taemin leave me alone. I'm not going, just bring me back some food." Jinki grumbled and t