Andrews’ eyebrows shoot up. “Excuse me?”

“No, really.” I gently pry the pot of salve from his fingers. “Uh... this is a good... bonding experience for us. I’ll do something nice, and hopefully, he’ll, uh, return the favor.”

“That’s very kind of you, but you don’t-,”

“I insist. Besides,” I add. “I said some pretty awful things to Taehyung a few minutes ago. Let me make up for it.”  

Eventually, after asking me a million times if I’m sure, Andrews leaves. I wait in anticipation, my ear at the door, until I finally hear him make his way downstairs.

Then I sprint down the hall to my room, grab a handful of petri dishes and cotton swabs from the mini refrigerator on my desk, and hurry back to Taehyung.

This is how we’re going to get magical matter. I’m going to get us enough to keep us stocked for ages. Initially, I was planning on engaging Taehyung in a massive fistfight in which I “accidentally” scratched him and collected his blood. But now someone- or something- has already done it for me!

Taehyung lies motionlessly on his bed. By the looks of it, he’s completely passed out. Even better. My lips curl up into a grin as I repeatedly swab his skin and swipe the petri dish. For good measure, I dump a chunk of the salve in an empty dish.

“That should do the trick,” I grin. Wiping my hands in contentment, I now stare at Taehyung’s marred body.

You said you’d do it. Sacrifices had to be made to get what you needed.

“This better not take long,” I grumble.

Dipping my fingers in salve, I reach over to apply the medicine over Taehyung’s neck. However, as my hand nears his body, a strange feeling pushes at my fingertips. It’s like my hand is the positive side of a weak magnet nearing the positive side of a much stronger magnet- something is slightly pushing me away from Taehyung.

The amulet. “,” I mutter, pulling my choker off.

If it was really effective, it would be stronger than that.

Well, in a few more days, we’ll have amulets that are good enough to do that.

When my salve-covered fingers touch Taehyung’s skin, the wound emits a loud hiss! It feels like I’ve just stuck my hand into a burning hot coal boiler.

“Ow!” I shriek, jerking my hand back. My fingers are an angry shade of puce.

“What the ?” I mutter, resentfully glaring at Taehyung. Is that supposed to happen?

If it was, Andrews wouldn’t have let me do this. Right?

“Should I go get him?” I murmur.

No. You insisted.

And besides, give him a break. You’d rather have that poor old man get hurt like this?

.

“Can’t believe I’m doing this for you,” I grumble to Taehyung’s sleeping figure.

My attempts to assuage the pain by applying the salve with a cloth are useless. Somehow, the heat manages to hit me right through the fabric, leaving me with bright red burns. Tears spring to my eyes as I continue nursing Taehyung’s wounds; it hurts so badly that I have to take breaks in between and just pull myself together.

“You don’t... deserve for me to... do this,” I tell Taehyung between ragged breaths. “You... are such... a .”

The clock ticks past one. I swallow as I trail down his chest, painfully applying medicine. When I first got here, I thought Taehyung was so built because he spent every non-school moment working out at lacrosse practice or working out in the gym like every other gains-obsessed jock.  

But no. It must be because of these magic practices.

I peer down at his face. Maybe magic is what makes him so attractive. Maybe he artificially enhanced his features.

When he’s awake, he’s horrible.

But when he’s asleep, he looks...

“No.” I hastily shake my head. “He’s despicable.”

That’s right. He is Taehyung Kim, after all...

“He doesn’t have wounds anywhere else, right?” I murmur. A quick peek under the leg of his sweats reveals that he does not. “Thank god.”

Yawning, I pull myself up, grabbing the petri dishes and my amulet. I’ll put some of the salve on my burns- hopefully that should ease the pain and treat the blisters.

The clock reads 2:12 AM.

“,” I mumble, and trudge back to my room. I’m too tired to change into pajamas, so I just throw off my clothes and jump into bed in nothing but a tank top, , and my choker. I’ll treat my burns tomorrow.

Crazy, I think before I doze off to sleep. Magic is crazy.

“He better be grateful,” I mutter.

I awaken to the sound of a door slamming open.

“Wha-?” I mumble groggily, my head pounding, but stiffen as I see Taehyung slowly walking towards me with an absolutely evil expression. Anger and spite bubble in his eyes as he approaches me, a terrifyingly calm smile on his face.

My eyes widen in panic for an instant before I remember that I have my choker on. At least that’s protection from his weird mind crap.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’ll do me any good if he decides to throw me out the window.

“You ,” Taehyung utters. “Did you think you would get away with what you did last night?”

What is he talking about?

“You got your chance to repay me,” he continues. “But trust me. I’ll give it back to you tenfold.”

Oh my god. He’s talking about when I refused to feed him. Is he unaware of the fact that I spent hours last night taking care of his wounds?

I roll my eyes so hard it feels like they’re about to come out of my sockets.

The act causes Taehyung’s demeanor to grow even colder.

“Oh, so you think I’m joking,” he says. I don’t grace him with a reply; instead, I move to get out of bed. In a flash, he’s straddled me and pinned my wrists under his knees so that I am rendered immobile.

“I see you’ve recovered from the fire,” I sarcastically tell him.

He narrows his eyes. “What fire?”

“You know. The fire that you jumped into last night to save all those people. That’s where those burns came from, right?”

He curls his lips. “Oh, yeah. That fire. Why? Sad that I’m not still bedridden?” He scoffs. “If you thought what I did to you before was bad, what comes next will be even worse.”

“Do whatever you want. I don’t care.”

He lowers his face to mine. I look back up at him unamusedly.

“You’re such a spoiled little brat,” I scoff. “Your threats are completely empty. What’re you going to do? Throw another party? Unleash another horde of y girls on me?”

His expression grows darker and darker as I continue talking.

“Tell me.” I an eyebrow. “What’re you gonna do?”

“It’s so cute how you think you can go up against me,” Taehyung utters. “You’re a disgusting little scholarship student in my house. How have you still not learned your place?”

I yawn. “So predictable. Blah blah, scholarship student, blah blah, learn your place. Please. Give me something more entertaining to pretend to listen to.”

He laughs. “Oh, edgy. Where’s all this newfound bravado coming from?”

That’s a good question, actually. Maybe it’s from the triumph of obtaining magical matter from him to make more powerful amulets. Maybe its from the kick I’m getting out of him not knowing that I took care of his burns.

Or maybe it’s the fact that I can tell I’m pissing him off by acting so indifferent and I’m winning for once- I love this power I have over him and although he has that dark smile on his face I can see his eyes blazing-

Something twists down in the pit of my stomach.

“You’re annoying. I’m bored.” I say insouciantly.

“Bored.” His smirk widens. Slowly, he lowers his lips so that they are right above my ear. His torso is pressed almost flat against mine.

“We wouldn’t want you to be bored, would we,” Taehyung says in a deathly soft voice.

“No. So get off.”

“Mmm.” His fingers slowly knead circles around my hip bone, sending white-hot sparks through my body. “Do you really want me to get off?”

An involuntary shudder passes through my body. I slowly run my lips over my tongue.

I know exactly what he’s doing. But just because he has every girl at Windsong wrapped around his finger, he thinks doing this will make me go all flustered and starry-eyed? I can see the condescending glint in his eyes- he thinks he’s won.

Two can play at this game, .  

I arch my back up so that I am pressing closer up against him. “Oh, yeah,” I murmur. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I roll us over on the bed so that I am on top. Taehyung looks up at me, his brown hair disheveled, a cocky smirk on his lips. He tucks his hands behind his head and watches me in anticipation.

Then I casually slide off the bed and head to the door.

“Wha-,” Taehyung sputters.

“By the way,” I say, holding up my hands. “These blisters on my fingers? They’re from putting salve on your burns. You’re welcome.”

The last thing I see before I shut the door is his astonished expression.

I make sure to stay out of Taehyung’s way, because I know he’ll be out for blood after my little... stunt.

Plus, I’m pretty shaken up myself.

I don’t like him at all. He’s a piece of whose personality is only comprised of three things: magic, lacrosse, and being the worst person he can be.

But in terms of physical attraction? And the thrill I get from one-upping him?

Yeah. He has me there.

Whatever. In any event, the cons outweigh the pros. I’ll keep doing my best to avoid him.

“This better be good,” Dev grumbles, sleepily rubbing his eyes.

We are standing in the middle of the Windsong Prep lab at 7:30 in the morning the following Monday. A mini-cooler sits on the table in front of me.

“Oh, it’s going to be good.” I rub my hands together. “Ready?”

“Just open it,” Lucy says, annoyed.

I dramatically yank open the cover of the cooler. “Voila!”

“It’s just petri dishes,” Tom says.

“They’ve been inoculated with magical matter from the one and only Taehyung Kim,” I grin. “We’re ready to roll. Oh, and I have a pot of really good healing salve, too. For future use.”

“Holy .” Lucy grabs the petri dishes by the handful. “Joo, how?”

“I’m surprised that you got this stuff, but I’m even more surprised your plan worked,” Dev breathes. “Not going to lie, I thought it was the stupidest thing I’d heard.”

“I ended up not having to use the plan. He actually came home all cut up and hurt, so I swabbed the hell out of him.”

“Let’s get started right away,” Tom says excitedly. “I’ll pop these in the incubator. Joo, what next?”

“Well, we have to wait 24 hours for the culture to grow,” I tell him. “So... we’re done for the morning.”

“Wha- are you serious?! You made me wake up at 6:30 just for this?” Dev angrily splutters.

“Sorry! I was excited! Besides,” I cough. “I didn’t want to come to school with Taehyung.”

“Fair enough. Do you guys want to go to IHOP and get some breakfast?”

“Heck yeah!” Tom shrieks.

“If you get the ing Funny Face pancake, we’re not going!” Dev shouts.

We end up going anyway; everyone knows Tom’s going to get the Funny Face come hell or high water. As we flip through the menu, he asks, “Appetizers or no?”

I scan the Appetizers section as Lucy snorts, “Appetizers? What is this, someone’s birthday?”

“Mozzarella sticks sound pretty good,” Dev shrugs.

Mozzarella sticks. My ears perk up.

When the waiter comes around to take our order, I tell him, “A single stack of chocolate chip pancakes and a side of mozzarella sticks to go, please.”

Lucy wrinkles her nose. “To go? Are you going to eat them in class or something?”

“Nah. I have... other plans for them.”

She wrinkles her nose, about to ask me to elaborate, but then the waiter goes, “And you, ma’am?” and she has to turn away. As she is giving her order, I pull out my phone under the table and send a text.

Meet me by the benches in the courtyard at lunch.

A/N: lmao ok from this point on... taehyung nd joos interactions get more......... more.  idk if its.... idk. thoughts?

ugh gotta go in pick spinach now bye