A/N: HyungNu. No warnings. Warning for some kids punching each other and bein' butts.

Even in the summer months most people avoided swimming in the Black Lake; it's too cold and there are too many questionable lifeforms lurking down there. Still, Hyunwu's been doing laps in it every evening since he was 11 and now, at the age of 17, it's become an unbreakable habit.

He finds peace in the water, away from the ever shifting bricks of Hogwarts and the even more inconsistent social dynamics. He never was the best at reading people, though he's not a complete moron, he's just a little slow on the uptake sometimes.

He isn't what everyone wants him to be and he's not sure whether or not that's something he should be proud of or shamed by. He's not overly invested in being the most popular kid in school or having some kind of prestige like Slughorn's bunch or the quidditch kids, it's just...

Well, being hated isn't very fun, is it? Especially not when you want someone to like you. And especially, especially when the person you want to like you is pretty well liked themselves.

Not that he really cares, but Hyunwu's insecurities notice enough for both of them.

That's all really convoluted and exhausting though, which is half the reason he needs to do his laps every day, regardless of the autumn chill currently scraping it's way across his shoulder blades and down to his toes.

It gives him time to clear his head and catch his breath.

At least until he gets out and finds sleeping beauty unconscious at the shore.

He remembers being friends with HoSeok first, sort of, or at least they'd had some classes together and been friend-ly.

HyungWon, being younger, had come along the year after and the whole school had buzzed about Shin HoSeok's pretty step-brother who'd been sorted into Slytherin, of all the houses.

Hyunwu had noticed him even before the sorting though, because, coincidentally, they'd shared a train car.

HoSeok had been reading some sort of muggle comic and HyungWon had been slumped against him, dead to the world.

Red-lipped, rosy-cheeked and unresponsive and Hyunwu's brain had immediately dubbed the boy Sleeping Beauty.

At the freshly turned and tender age of 13 he hadn't yet developed the restraint to keep that thought and those words to himself. Luckily, he hadn't blurted it out immediately.

It was a couple of weeks later, in the infirmary.

Some Gryffindors had cornered HyungWon in the hall that lead to the library; annoyed by his house and his face and assuming he'd be an easy target, they'd decided to rough him up a bit. They'd shoved him around for a while but he hadn't responded the way that they'd anticipated and things had begun to escalate.

They'd gotten only a single punch in before Hyunwu rushed forward and started wailing on them. HyungWon had stood blinking owl eyes at the scene before one of the teachers had shown up to end the scuffle.

Hyunwu had come from out of nowhere and started defending him by beating up kids from his own house and it was baffling. The teacher who'd stopped them had decided that the first thing they should do is get patched up.

Another teacher had arrived by then and together they'd all marched their way through the halls, one staircase after another, into the kingdom of herbal scents and hospital beds.

The two instigators had been treated and taken away first and HyungWon and Hyunwu had been left facing each other, legs dangling, in the eerie silence of the large room.

"You always stare at me." HyungWon had blurted suddenly. Hyunwu's response had been automatic:

"Sorry." But he hadn't taken his gaze away.

"I don't like when people stare at me." HyungWon was pouting now and Hyunwu still couldn't look away.

"I know." Hyunwu answered.

"You know?" HyungWon stopped pouting and frowned properly instead, head tilting in confusion.

"I watch you a lot. You're beautiful." The words fell out of Hyunwu's mouth without being considered first and when his sense finally caught up to them it was too late; HyungWon was frozen and Hyunwu was mortified.

"You-- " Whatever he'd been about to say, HoSeok had cut him off by bursting into the room in a swirl of gold glitter and sunflower petals.

He'd taken one look at his brother's swollen cheek, his heel, marched back out and punched both of the offenders in the face before the teachers could stop him.

It had been a long night after that and the result had been cleaning duty with Filch for everyone except HyungWon and a total of 10 house points had been deducted from Gryffindor.

They'd also gotten group and individual lectures from their head of house and every Gryffindor and Hufflepuff prefect whose path they happened to cross. It was miserable.

There were a lot of cold shoulders and frightened looks thrown their way as well, plus a few impressed looks thrown at HoSeok and Hyunwu and lots of pitying gazes thrown at HyungWon.

Hyunwu had never been the best at making friends and after everything he was sure he'd made himself a social paraiah, but he was pleasently surprised when he actually gained friends through the experience.

The first was obvious: Hoseok, neutral towards Hyunwu until then, but quick to warm up after Hyunwu had defended his brother; HyungWon was next, weary but grateful and as aloof as ever so Hyunwu really didn't know what he was thinking; MinHyuk and KiHyun had come as sort of a package deal, KiHyun being in the same house as HyungWon and having a strange attatchment to him (though all they ever did was squabble) and MinHyuk, a classic Hufflepuff, always clinging to KiHyun and being an aggressive social butterfly regardless, and the last two followed a year and two years later respectively; JooHeon, another Hufflepuff that MinHyuk was rather close to (as though MinHuk weren't simply close with everyone, ray of sunshine that he was) and ChangKyun, HoSeok and HyungWon's Ravenclaw half-brother.

(Later, Hyunwu learned that MinHyuk was also the cause of HoSeok's glitter and flower petal coating the day of the incident, some glamour spell that had gone terribly awry.)

So, he'd made actual friends for once and all thanks to the boy with the big lips and the soft jawline currently passed out and using Hyunwu's robes as makeshift bedding.

And Hyunwu was screwed because he'd probably loved him since the day they met.

But today was 4 years later and Hyunwu knew how to keep his mouth shut now (for the most part) and HoSeok and ChangKyun and, honestly, probably the whole damn gang would be pissed if HyungWon got sick waiting for him out here; so, instead of watching him sleep like a creep, Hyunwu leaned down, shook him awake, pulled him up, got dressed and walked him inside.

At least then, he could continue pining somewhere warm.