The fact wasn’t that Jihoon had a problem with Hong Jisoo, per se. There wasn’t anything he had against him; in fact, he barely knew him at all. What he did know was that Hong Jisoo was the textbook definition of perfect, and that’s wherein the problem lies. 

He remembers their first meeting, on the train bound from London’s Platform 9 ¾. He spoke softly, had that fresh first-year glow Jihoon has seen countless times that day and handed out his smiles like free candy. Even the snack trolly lady had stopped and spent about an hour fawning over his polite charm and enthusiastic exterior (which, now he thinks about it, deprived Jihoon of his chocolate frog for longer than necessary, and, although petty, is rather a devastating feeling for a wizard who’s spent the majority of the summer eating muggle sweets).

His interaction with Jisoo was rather novelesque - quite meet-cute (though at the ripening age of eleven, neither of them were thinking much about romance). His height the disadvantage, Jihoon was struggling the retrieve his travel case from the cart’s carrier rack, and, although small, but still a good foot taller than him, Jisoo found it his pleasure to reach it for him.

“Hufflepuff, probably,” Jihoon thought bitterly as Jisoo handed him his stylish leather case with a sickly sweet smile. (And, no, he was not blushing as Gryffindor and now-best-friend Choi Seungcheol likes to say. Rather, he was embarrassed from the relatively immature third-years who found it humors to wolf whistle and pat Jihoon’s head as they passed - needless to say, the minute Jihoon learned how to hex he gave them all quite an embarrassing fleet at their respective Quidditch games.)

After that their meetings were moderately scarce. Apart from the shared lessons of Herbology in year one, Muggles Studies in year two Care of Magical Creatures in year three, and Potions in year four - in all of which Jihoon found himself constantly challenged (and somewhat frustrated) by the latter’s intelligence and determination - Jisoo and Jihoon spoke rather sparsely to one another. Discounting the few times they went for the same book in the library, or the odd smile - typically from Jisoo - thrown over at breakfast, the pair were nothing more than casual strangers.

And Jihoon was willing to keep it that way.

Again, Jihoon had nothing against Jisoo; he was just perfect, too perfect. To list:

He was smart, very smart. If Jihoon remembers correctly, he was the top of his Defence Against the Dark Arts, his Charms, his Flying and his Astronomy classes. In the lessons he was not at the top (in which, Jihoon probably was), he definitely made it clear he was far from falling behind with his keen want to learn and quick integrity in picking things up. Jihoon once tried to count how many times his hand shot up in a lesson, but eventually gave up after finding it equivalent to trying to count the stars.

He was well-rounded. Not only did he take part in extra curriculum subjects, he was Hufflepuff’s star Keeper in his fourth year, but left the team after Quidditch season was over to ready himself for the upcoming O.W.Ls in year five.

He was kind (Hufflepuff’s are, typically), and loyal (there’s a surprise). Never once had Jihoon heard anyone talk badly about Jisoo behind his back, or to his face for that matter. Everyone in their year, and in other years alike, seemed to look up to Jisoo for his kindness, his soft demeanor, and gentle way. But he wasn’t just this squishy boy with no backbone. Quite the contrary, he had authority:

In their fifth year, Jisoo and Jihoon became prefects. Jihoon, an example of intelligence and leadership for Slytherins; Jisoo, an icon of goodwill and helpfulness for the Hufflepuffs. Jisoo was renowned through Hogwarts as a favorite for his house - always willing to help, funny, witty (Jihoon once overheard him take down a friend criticising his prefect methods with a swift: “Well, it’s a good thing they didn’t make you a prefect. You obviously have no idea what you’re doing.”), but Jihoon become renowned for his fierce control and cold mien - somewhat strict and somehow unlikeable. 

So maybe, that's where the problem lies. Not only was Hong Jisoo perfect, he was more so than Jihoon, and as much as the latter would like to dispell it, deep down he knew that’s the issue he with Hong Jisoo.

“You can stop staring,” Chan says over a piece of toast at breakfast.

“What?” Jihoon frowns. He snaps his head to the Slytherin seeker. “I wasn’t staring.”

“Who was Jihoon staring at?“ Minghao inserts, seating himself next to the mentioned with a Divination book in his hands. 

"I wasn’t staring at anyone!”

“I bet he was staring at Soonyoung,” Jun pipes in, grinning cheekily as he takes a fork and jabs it into Jihoon’s strip of bacon. "I knew there was something more than a love potion there.“

"You know, I will hex you, Junhui,” Jihoon threatens. “Worse so than Seungcheol for that stupid prank. Bat’s flying out of your nose, does that sound nice?”

“He was staring at Jisoo again,” Chan answers, flinching as Jihoon reaches for his 12” oak wood wand.

“I was not staring at him,” he hisses, attracting unwanted glances from other Slytherins around them. “I was just looking over at the Hufflepuff table.”

“For like, five minutes straight.”

“So, when were you going to tell us you had a crush on Hong Jisoo?” Jun has to hold Jihoon’ s wrist and to prevent the Redactum Skullus hex from leaving his lips.“I do not have a crush on him!” Jihoon exasperates. “I don’t even remotely like him!

With a dry laugh, Chan nods his head. “Okay, sure.”

“I don’t see why you don’t like him,” Minghao says, cutting Jihoon off before he can cast a spell on the youngest. "I mean, he’s a nice person.”

“He’s a talented wizard,” says Chan.

“He’s a good prefect,” chimes Minghao.

“He was great at playing Keeper,” Chan adds.

“He’s really cute.”

Another point to add to the Moderate Reasons to Love Hate Hong Jisoo list: he really, really was really, really cute. And handsome. And pretty. And hot. Every word one could think to describe good looks, Hong Jisoo is it. He has this beautiful skin tone, golden, velvety tan and glistening, sunken eyes that scrunched when he laughed. And God, that laugh. Deep chuckles and gasps, matched with his wide, pearly smile and pretty pink lips… Jihoon hates it, hates all of it, and hates the way it makes his heart thud a million times a second. If Jihoon is struck with a heart attack anytime soon, he’s definitely going to sue Jisoo.

“You think everything with a heartbeat is cute, Jun.” Minghao rolls his eyes, his voice stopping Jihoon from turning around and peeking at the Hufflepuff table.

“Says you, sneaking off with Gryffindor prefect Kim Mingyu every second you can. Don’t think I don’t see you two scurrying into the Restricted Section of the library.”

“That’s exactly why I don’t like him,” Jihoon interjects, stopping Minghao before he can throw his orange juice on the former. “He’s just… too perfect.”

Chan pretends to gag as Minghao rolls his eyes so hard Jihoon’s sure they should’ve fallen out of his head.

“No, no, no! I didn’t mean it likeーnevermind.” Jihoon’s body slumps as he the boys around him coo and laugh vociferously. “I’m going to class,” he grumbles, picking his satchel from the floor and stalking towards the doors of the great hall with fiery red cheeks.

Jihoon was a mildly misunderstood prefect. Although strong-willed and tough in nature, Jihoon, and the rest of Slytherin house, knew that his outward frosty stance was a cleverly constructed facade to hide the fact he cares. He cares deeply about the kids in his year, the ones older and younger - he’s only in his sixth year, just starting his N.E.W.Ts, but he can’t but feel like a proud parent when Slytherins get praised and win. His heart hurts when they’re unfairly wronged or punished, and he does his very best all the time to make sure every Slytherin is loving their lives at Hogwarts as they should.

In the confined walls of the common room, he and Hong Jisoo are not very much different at all. Just because the Hufflepuffs are known as a kind bunch, and Jisoo does more than enough to reinforce that stereotype, it doesn’t discern the fact that the Slytherins still have to break down their nasty, sly, cruel cliches every day, and the fact that Jisoo is nothing but praised for his ways does nothing but fuel that fierce fire Jihoon has for him.

He likes to use this bitter reasoning to cover up every other feeling Jihoon has for him in hopes of repressing it to nothing but minuscule inklings.

“Do you know where Seungcheol is?” Jihoon asks a small crowd of Gryffindor sixth years clustered around the courtyard. He has plans (mainly to distract himself from a) Hong Jisoo and b) the Alchemy homework he’s been putting off for a week) to get revenge on a certain Gryffindor captain for ‘accidently’ spilling love potion into Jihoon’s drink - the year and years of tension and strife between the Gryffindor and Slytherin houses has more recently been channeled into light-hearted pranking wars since the new generation of witches and wizards have flooded Hogwarts. Much better than cold glances and heated fights, Jihoon thinks. 

“Uh… I think he’s down at the Quidditch pitch,” Hansol says. “Practicing for the new season, probably.”

Jihoon grins, more excited about his scheme than he should be, and thanks Hansol before scurrying off to the gates to make his way down to the Quidditch pitch. God, his prank is good, the best this year. He’s going to fool Seungcheol so well. With his fingers jittery around his wand, he repeats the Colovaria charm in his head - a charm to change Seungcheol’s natural, luscious brown hair a striking color of hot pink. He can’t wait to see the look on Choi Seungcheol’s stupid facー

“Oof!" 

Jihoon has the air knocked out of him with a great force to his chest as he stumbles back, losing his balance and landing flat on his behind, aching bruises ready to pume over the skin smacked against the cobble. 

"Oh, God. I’m so sorry!" 

Jihoon frowns up at the voice, the sun shining above blinding his vision, until a face blocks the light and Jihoon’s eyes focus on the distinctive features outlining Hong Jisoo’s handsome face.

"Are you okay?” he says sweetly, reaching his hand out for Jihoon to hold.

It was like something from a cliche muggle movie - the protagonist bumps into the love interest, causing them to have a clumsy, heartwarming meeting filled with shy apologizes  and cute glances - a meet-cute (except at the blossoming age of seventeen, Jihoon didn’t want romance to be on his mind - and now his  hurts).

“Can you watch where you’re going?” he spits, denying the hand and somewhat regretting the move as Jisoo’s face falls subtly. He stands up and, with a scowl, brushes off the dust on his robes.

“I’m really sorry,” Jisoo mutters, bending down to collect his books he dropped in the impact. “I was rushing, I should look where I’m going.”

Jihoon tries to ignore the way his heart bleeds at Jisoo’s soft voice dejected and ashamed. 

“Yeah…” he begins, knowing he can’t bring himself to say anything mean or spiteful. Instead, with a sigh, he drops to his knees and helps him pile together the loose pieces of parchment and paper.

“Thank you, Jihoon.”

Oh no… it sounds so nice when he says my name.

“Just…” They stand and Jihoon presses the papers to Jisoo’s bundled arms with red, red cheeks, “be careful.”

Jihoon has never been so accepting of the idea of death as much as when Jisoo scurries away timidly. Sure, there were a few times he’d be happy to drop dead during his O.W.Ls last year, but at that moment, Jihoon was ready to throw himself off the Astronomy tower. He sounded like he was scolding a careless first year rather than a sixth-year prefect! He sounded like such a , Hong Jisoo was never going to look at him the same way again.

But then again, why did it matter so much how Hong Jisoo saw him? Why did Jihoon care so much for the thoughts of a Hufflepuff? It took Jihoon longer than expected to realize that maybe those years of repressing his positive feelings for Jisoo had gone a little to waste.

It wasn’t a massive realization, nor a devastating one - it just angered Jihoon knowing he’d let someone as perfect as Hong Jisoo phase his way through the walls of his heart. It was vexing that Jihoon had become weak to the way of Jisoo’s smile and voice and attitude. It’s like when someone plays a game and puts their absolute all into winning, but it turns out they’re placed last instead. They don’t want to accept their failure because they tried so to win, so they battle and battle it until they’re worn down. Jihoon tried and tried to not fall in love with Hong Jisoo, but the truth always finds a way to bite him in the somehow. Jihoon hates losing. It was annoying that there was no such thing as a reverse love potion to get himself out of this mess. And it was a pain that his friends are so damn observant.

“Something’s wrong with Jihoon,” Chan announces as they tuck into their evening meal in the great hall. 

Jihoon, fist balled against his chin, an eyebrow. “Hm? No there isn’t. I’m fine.”

“You haven’t made a sarcastic comment since lunch,” Jun adds. “There’s something wrong with you.”

Jihoon sighs reaching for his cup for a sip of Butterbeer. “I’m fine.”

“And…” Minghao begins, “he hasn’t looked over at the Hufflepuff table all day. What, did you confess to Jisoo and he rejected you or something?”

Jihoon frowns and shakes his head dismissively. “Can’t I just be in a bad mood and not have any of you pricks questioning me?”

“No,” they chorus and Jihoon rolls his eyes back to his head.

“Speaking of cute Hufflepuffs,” Jun injects. “Where is Jisoo? I don’t see him.”

Curiously, Jihoon turns on the bench, eyes scaling the entirety of the Hufflepuff table and indeed finding no Jisoo nestled between Seungkwan and Soonyoung as he usually is.

“What did you do to him now Jiー Jihoon?”

Chan looks around the hall, finding Jihoon gone from his seat.

The evening is chilly as Jihoon wanders around the courtyard. He’s following the sound, the unfamiliar sound of strumming from an acoustic. Everyone, even a Slytherin, knows that when Hong Jisoo is down, he plays his favorite guitar. The sound fills the halls from the Hufflepuff common room, but from here, it echoes around the cobblestone pillars, soft, quiet and gentle.

What am I doing? Jihoon thinks. I’m probably the last person a sad Jisoo wants to see. Nonetheless, his feet don’t stop, they trod on, following the peaceful melody until he’s met with muggle-brand clad back of Jisoo on the lowest step to the path down to the Key Keeper’s hut.

Even his back looks cute, Jihoon thinks. Say something, say something, say something…

Awkwardly, Jihoon clears his throat and watches with odd endearment as Jisoo jumps slightly, turning with glossy eyes and relaxes when he sees Jihoon.

“Jihoon,” he greets, turning back to the view across the Black Lake. “You startled me,” he chuckles, and Jihoon feels the whole world shift on its axis.

“I, uh,” he stammers awkwardly as he wraps his arms around himself, the wind blowing a heavy breeze scented with pine from the forest and salt from the sea further out.

Jihoon looks up at him, guitar hugged close and offers a small smile. “You can sit down if you want.”

Why doesn’t he hate me? Jisoo ponders in his mind. Better yet, does Hong Jisoo have the heart to hate anyone? Timidly, Jihoon seats himself on the cool step next to Jisoo and finds comfort looking out to the sun sinking behind the horizon. “I, uh,” he says again, “want to apologize…”

Jihoon is a proud person, always has been and probably always will be. He never likes to be wrong, but when he is, the hardest thing for him is owning up to it.

Jisoo looks at him, lips pulled in clothed mouth smile. He shakes his head, moving the guitar from his lap to balance on the step, turning his body to Jihoon. “It was my fault, really.”

“No,” Jihoon blurts, “no, I meanー I’m sorry for, like, snapping at you. It was an accident… I guess I was just having a bad day…”

Jisoo’s smile grows a little wider and he looks at the cracks in the cobble tiling for refuge. “It’s okay, it must’ve hurt. I should still look whereー”

“Oh my God!” Jihoon exasperates, letting out a huge breath and scowling. “Will you stop being so kind and gentle and soft? My heart seriously cannot take it!” He freezes and bites his lip, eyes widening and whispering, “Oh, .”

Jisoo looks at him slightly shocked, maybe from the outburst, maybe from the confession, but his face paints a picture that Jihoon wishes he could erase. "Oh,“ he says, chewing his lip to match Jihoon, ”…uh.“

"Oh…screw it.” Jihoon scrunches his eyes shut and shakes his head like he was shaking his thoughts straight. “I’ve had a crush on you for five and a half bloody years of my life that I tried and tried to suppress because I didn’t want to give my heart the satisfaction of falling for someone who’s so kind, who’s so soft and is probably the most gentle wizard at this school.” He continues quickly before Jisoo has a chance to say anything. “You’re so damn attractive, and really smart and were always better than me and I hated it, except I kind of loved it at the same time, so I was confused for years and I kept telling myself I’ll figure it out but in the meantime I’ll be a to maybe make you hate me so I have the gratification of that so I have a justification to hate you too but I just couldn’t!” Jihoon breathes heavily as he looks desperately at Jisoo. “Tell me I’m an idiot so there’s at least some sanity here.”

Jisoo takes a moment before replying. “I think I might be the idiot, actually, Jihoon.” He looks at him with furrowed brows. “I though… you liked Soonyoung. I mean, last term…”

“No, no, no, no!” Jihoon shakes his head. “That was Seungcheol, he put a love potion in my drink at Hogsmeade so it seemed like I liked Soonyoung, but no, I… uh, I like…you." He pauses and holds a hand over his erratically pounding heart. "Wow, that feels good to get out.”

“So, you don’t like Soonyoung?”

“Not at all. I mean, he’s great, really good at Muggle Studies, but…. no.”

Jisoo nods and hums. “That’s a relief.” His eyes widen suddenly, and he holds his breath like he’s said too much - which he definitely had. “I mean…” he looks at Jihoon, “it’s just, I-I…” he takes a deep breath. “Remember that time in year one, when I got your bag from the train? Yeah, well I’ve kind of liked you since then because I thought you were - or are - super cute and I always see you pranking the Gryffindors and your so funny, Iー”

Jihoon doesn’t let him finish. In a bold move, he lunges forward, aiming awkwardly for Jisoo’s lips. For the most part, he’s successful at hitting the target, but doesn’t quite calculate the angle, and winces as their noses bump roughly together. They pull apart with nothing but a millisecond peck to leave behind and rub their bridges tentatively. 

“Sorry,” Jihoon mutters, checking for any blood on his or Jisoo’s septum. “That was a bit off…”

“You’re, uh,” Jisoo swallows, hands falling into his lap peacefully. “You’re welcome to try again." 

With a shy smile, he complies, this time slowly, tilting his head to gently press his lips against Jisoo’s. There’s little movement; they’re mostly, sitting with their lips together calmly. Jihoon enjoys the taste of Jisoo’s lip - they taste like juice, the kind they serve at dinner, but also strawberry, which he guesses must be from a chapstick. They’re warm and inviting, and Jihoon has to stop himself from leaning closer into their wrath. Jisoo takes a small step, turns his head to oppose Jihoon’s, and lets his lips part.

Jihoon almost looses it.

"You know, I had a thought,” Jisoo says quietly, swinging his hand that clasped Jihoon’s as they walk down the empty corridor.

“Do share.”

“We’re walking stereotypes of our houses, aren’t we?”

With a chuckle, Jihoon replies, “Yeah, we are.”

“And, like,” Jisoo uses the other hand, turning his wrist to help the thoughts flow smoothly from his mouth, “it’s quite stereotypical that Slytherins and Hufflepuffs don’t get along.”

“A stupid stereotype, clearly.”

Jisoo laughs, and Jihoon gets shivers. “Yeah. So, we’re datingー”

“We are?” Jihoon chuckles as Jisoo looks at him dejectedly. “I mean, you never actually asked me last week.”

“Why should I,” Jisoo deadpans, “shouldn’t the bold Slytherin take the lead?”

“Bold is a Gryffindor trait,” Jihoon answers, walking forwards and tugging at Jisoo’s hand playfully.

“Jihoon?”

“Yeah?”

“Will you be myー”

“Yes, yes.” Jihoon laughs. “Now carry on.”

“Us dating is breaking that stereotype,” Jisoo continues,  "like… two stereotypes make a right.“

Jihoon nods and grins, laughing gently. "Yeah, you’re right.” Stopping at the junction between the way to Hufflepuff and Slytherin’s common rooms, Jihoon holds both of Jisoo’s hands, knowing neither wants to part for the evening, even though they’ll meet again in the morning.

“We’re, like, phasing through walls.”

“We are.” Jihoon smiles widely, moving his arms to sling over Jisoo’s shoulders casually. Standing on his tip-toes, he meets Jisoo halfway, their lips connecting gently in a farewell kiss.

Little did Jisoo know, he’d phased his way through more than one set of walls.