“You know drinking so much coffee stunts your growth, right?”

“And you know nagging gives you premature wrinkles, right ?”

“You just made that up!”

“All hail the oh-so-wise Kim Seokjin. He has the power to recognize obvious bull.”

At this, the taller of two boys who had been crossing their campus quad to one of the scattered picnic tables scoffed and smacked the shorter, who was sipping at a cup of coffee. The action was rewarded with a roll of the shorter boy’s eyes as they sat.

“Forgive me for looking out for the health of my friends,” Seokjin muttered. His companion sighed.

“If I ever want your advice, Jin, I’ll ask for it,” the dark-haired male grunted, but the words held a softer edge than before. What Yoongi, for that was his name, would never tell Jin or any of their friends, however, was why he was scarcely ever seen without a piping hot dose of caffeine (and yet somehow managed to sleep at all hours of the day).

Unfortunately for him, Yoongi could see auras - rings and pulses of colored light that surrounded any given person. And Min Yoongi could see them all. Every. Single. One. The flashing array that made up the student body was a headache to trump all others, so he downed unhealthy amounts of steaming brew and pumped hip hop through his headphones (the other accessory he was never without) to keep his mind too active to focus, until he crashed so hard he fell right into the dark, welcoming, blissful void of sleep. There was no color there, just endless black and no need to think. Paradise.

Jin and the others were well aware of his ability, of course, but not its debilitating nature and its resulting caffeine abuse. And he preferred to keep it that way.

Yoongi was jolted from his thoughts by a flash of pink and the abrupt presence of Jin’s elbow in his side. He grunted in annoyance and looked from the calming stability of the brown table grain just as the elder leaned back.

“Here they come,” Jin muttered, like Yoongi couldn’t see the other four figures hurrying toward them, auras shining even brighter than those of the crowd around them. That was one annoying thing about his friends; due to the fact they all possessed magick, their auras carried an extra shine that made them impossible to ignore, especially now. There was Tae’s familiar sunny yellow; Jimin’s blue, muddled with hints of black and brown; the friendly orange that matched Hoseok’s hair; and finally, Namjoon their leader, whose normally regal purple hue carried the same distortions as Jimin’s. Had something happened? Before he could ask anything, however, Namjoon was sitting down across from him and speaking, robbing Yoongi of the chance.

“We have a situation,” he began.

“I gathered.” Namjoon gave Yoongi a look that the latter returned with an unconcerned shrug.

“We might have found him ,” Taehyung declared without any sort of preamble. Yoongi and Jin gave him equally disbelieving looks while Hoseok rolled his eyes.

“ Might have. Nothing is sure yet,” the orange-haired boy elaborated. Namjoon nodded.

“Tell them what you told me, Jimin,” he instructed gently. Jimin, who Yoongi noticed now sported midnight blue locks almost blending into his aura, took a breath and launched into a retelling of the night’s events. When he was done, a troubled feeling settled in the atmosphere.

“So there’s a chance he’s among us, but we have no way of knowing for sure until he does something again? That’s a dangerous gamble Namjoon. If he really did just awaken his abilities, he probably won’t realize what he’s doing. He could really hurt someone,” Jin fretted, a worried frown creasing his otherwise flawless skin.

“That’s why everyone needs to be on extra alert for the time being. Especially Yoongi and Jimin. You two in particular will have an edge on finding this person the rest of us don’t. If anyone sees anything out of the ordinary, let me know immediately. No one is to approach him unless given the okay. We can’t afford to make a mistake about this, or make any moves that might show our hand to them ,” Namjoon instructed, looking far more grave than usual. In the years he’d known him, Yoongi had seen their fearless leader look serious, but not like this. Now he looked less like a philosophy student contemplating life’s mysteries, and more like a general getting ready to go into battle. And that was what had him nodding agreement without any objection or jokes about the matter.

“I’ll gather some extra things for a new round of search and locator spells. Jimin, can you use what you felt about that person’s energy to look for them?” Jin asked. Bottom lip between his teeth, Jimin nodded hesitantly.

“I can try,” he answered quietly. Namjoon hummed approvingly.

“Alright, we’ll meet in the usual spot when everyone is done with class. For now, just stay alert. See you then.”

For the rest of the day, Jungkook was unbelievably on edge. He didn’t bother going to the classes he hadn’t slept through, sending emails to his professors with a weak story about how studying so hard so late for midterms had made him ill (his calculus professor was the only one who didn’t buy the story). He received a modicum of consolation from the discovery that the library staff had saved his things from being ransacked when he vanished the night before. With a sheepish apology and mutterings about spacing out and forgetting, he scurried from the place as fast as possible, eager to forget the real reason.

As for the odd book… He had meant to leave it in his room, to let it stay forgotten until he knew what do with it. Even if he couldn’t possibly belive it was the cause of that freaky gust of wind (because he refused to consider the possibility it was himself), the thing still gave him some weird vibes he wanted nothing to do with. But it had felt equally wrong to just leave it lying around in the dorm, like the damn thing was begging for him to bring it – so it was nestled between his textbooks in his bag, and he was trying very hard to forget it was there.

Desperate to shake the uncertainty and other tumultuous thoughts plaguing him, Jungkook had agreed to meet some of his friends at the nearby coffee shop, the promise of food, company and notes from classes he’d missed too promising to pass up. It was a short walk from his dorm, and should have been the most uneventful part of the last twenty-four hours. And for most of the way, it was. That is until he bumped shoulders with a girl rushing past him on the sidewalk. Head down and long hair shielding most of her face from him, it was impossible to see her lips move, but as they crashed into one another, he heard her speak as if she had looked right at him.

God I wish I hadn’t said that! This is such a mess. He’ll think I’m some kind of maniac now, too. But I can’t go back… I just can’t!

Startled, Jungkook stopped in his tracks and turned to say something, but the girl was gone, already several yards away behind him. Shaking it off as her sorrowful ramblings, he hurried the rest of the way down the street, and into the coffee shop.

The place was packed to bursting with folk of all kinds at this hour – students seeking a more peaceful environment than busy dorms to study; others headed to night classes chugging ventis to stay awake; and of course the post-office-hours metropolitans headed back home, in search of something to take the edge off the day. The low chatter of all buzzed through the air, but he still managed to hear someone call his name, and turned to see Yugyeom and Minwoo waving him over to the table they’d managed to secure in this madhouse. He shoved as gently as possible through a pack of giggling girls clutching pumpkin spice concoctions, and collapsed in the chair across from his friends.

“Dude, you look awful. Did you even sleep?” Yugyeom commented, not even bothering to think about the overly brutal honesty of his words. Minwoo rolled his eyes.

“He was probably up all night with his real girlfriend, studying . You’re practically married to those textbooks man,” he taunted, just barely avoiding the slap Jungkook leaned over to aim at his head.

“Shut up, both of you. I just couldn’t sleep, that’s all. I wasn’t feeling good.” He was passed out, after all - that wasn’t something healthy people did.

“Whatever,” Minwoo dismissed, reaching into his bag. He passed the stack of photocopied lined paper to Jungkook. “You may be be a weirdo, but I still like you so here. God forbid you didn’t slack off just once in your life.”

“If I’m weird,” Jungkook answered, ignoring the last part of Minwoo’s comment with expert ease, “what does that make you two?”

“Your voices of reason,” Yugyeom answered without missing a beat. Jungkook cast him the least amused glance he could manage.

Ugh I wish I was friends with Yugyeom. He’s sooo dreamy, Jungkook heard a girl’s voice say, breaking into the thread of conversation, and he couldn’t mask his snicker. The others gave him curious looks.

“What, you guys didn’t hear that?” Jungkook asked, and they shook their heads. “Hyemi from Stats pretty much just announced to like the entire cafe that she thinks Yugyeom is ‘dreamy.’” Behind them, a girl let out a scandalized shriek, followed by the sound of her chair pushing away, and the cafe door ringing.

Oh my god, what an ! One of the other girls scoffed, glaring at Jungkook.

“I’m not the ,” he replied, and her expression shifted into one of surprise. “Hyemi shouldn’t have said it for the whole world to hear.”

“She didn’t say anything, you jerk - you did!” The girl snapped.

“No, she was the one who told the entire room about her little crush. Everyone heard it.” She gave him one last scathing look, and stood up to follow her friend outside. Jungkook turned to his friends, who were giving him the same odd looks as before.

“What?”

“Dude,” Yugyeom said slowly, “Hyemi didn’t say anything. And neither did Minah.”

“Look I know you guys feel bad, but you don’t have to lie. It’s - “

Suddenly, the voices of the other cafe patrons, previously white noise to him, rose to a roar in Jungkook’s ears, as if everyone was screaming at him.

I have to finish this paper or I’m screwed -

I wonder if Jikyun did the laundry -

UGH! They got my order wrong -

No one should be caught dead in that -

Is Jungkook okay?

Overwhelmed, Jungkook tugged his hands from where he’d thrown them over his ears and slammed them on the table, making the others jump.

“ ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!!”

It was Thursday, Hoseok’s favorite day of the week (though truth be told he liked them all). Today meant the coffee shop he inhabited for his part time job was busy with people getting that kick to help them through to the end of the week, and who better to assist than him? With his sunny smile and quick moves, he was the perfect barista. And his other… talent certainly didn’t hurt his cause.

Jimin had his energy sensitivity ( Empathy , he often corrected Hoseok), Yoongi his auras, etc. Hoseok in particular was gifted at charms. He was no master spellweaver like Namjoon, but bestowing luck or good fortune? None excelled more at these little things quite like he did.

And that was why he loved a busy day at the cafe. No one paid any mind when he murmured a quick incantation over drinks as he mixed, and just knowing he was helping them at all, made him just as happy.

Then, it happened.

The line at the counter was slowing down, so Hoseok stood chatting with one of his coworkers (a fellow dancer his age named Minji) when a boy blew in past the register to sit with his friends. At first it didn’t bother him, but in the boy’s wake something odd settled in the air. If he didn’t know better, Hoseok would’ve said it was… magick. But what were the odds the source of the weird energy Jimin sensed last night would suddenly show up here? So he brushed it off.

For a few minutes, everything was normal despite Hoseok’s nagging feeling to the contrary. Customers and coffee came and went, someone broke a cup – normal, boring Thursday stuff. The end of his shift, and subsequent meet up with his friends, were close in sight, when all hell broke loose.

First, a girl from a table behind the boy he’d noticed earlier went running out, looking ready to burst into tears. When she was gone, one of her friends exchanged heated words with the boy before storming out as well. Peace seemed to settle in, and if it weren’t for the sudden spike in the odd energy from earlier, Hoseok would’ve believed it was over.

By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late.

It took all of maybe ten seconds, tops. Normal chatter had resumed, Minji asking him something about their upcoming midterm. Then –

“ ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!!”

The command rang through the air of the small space, the weight of the magick it held hitting Hoseok in the chest like a champion UFC fighter had er punched him. And as he was floundering for air to breathe again, that same energy settled heavily in the air, and the café fell silent as a cemetery. He watched in a mix of horror and amazement as a few people opened and closed their mouths, but not a single sound broke the utter silence. Not even he could seem to make his vocal cords function properly.

It couldn’t be…

Mind racing, he watched as the boy from before shoved his chair back, gathered his things, and disappeared out the door, muttering the whole way – the only sounds in the café.

Well .

“Yeah, I just heard from Hoseok. Yeah, yeah, I know you warned us this might happen, I’m sorry we weren’t more prepared. Look Jin, at least no one was hurt. Just… don’t do anything for now, okay? I’ll take care of it.” Swiping across the end call button, Namjoon sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

This was too much, too fast. They weren’t ready to handle this. He’d thought they’d have more time, that this kid’s powers would come in more slowly. Clearly, he’d been a fool. They needed to move, and fast. Unlocking his phone, Namjoon dialed a new number.

“Hey, it’s me. What I told you this morning? Forget it. I need you to do something…”

One of the good things about a school with such a large student body? News traveled more slowly. After the incident at the café, Jungkook had prepared himself for some backlash. And yes, some of his female classmates gave him icy stares and whispered. And his friends were ignoring his texts and attempts to talk. But he could handle that! He had simply expected… more , somehow. Thankfully, though, it seemed a large part of the school remained unaware of his, ah, outburst.

The isolation, despite being tolerable, left him with far too much time to think. After he’d left the café, the voices had quited, all but vanishing completely. Instead, he had been left once again with that buzzing beneath his skin, the warm hum in his blood that had followed all these incidents. It was weird and inexplicable, but it made him feel stronger, almost powerful.

What was happening to him? It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the possibility that he was the cause, the center of all of this. Whatever was happening, he wished it would stop so he could just go back to being a normal student.

Lost in his thoughts, Jungkook hadn’t noticed that he had been unconsciously treading the path to the library. Coming to his senses, he halted his steps, and turned to head to his dorm instead. Before he could move any further, though, there was a flash of heat from inside his bag. It rushed through him briefly before settling into an insistent pulse, something poking at him to pay attention.

Too late.

“Jeon Jungkook?” A low voice called. Jungkook whirled to find a tall boy, he had to be an upperclassmen since Jungkook had never seen him before, standing behind him. A cheerful smile split the tanned face beneath his blonde locks, the picture of friendly. And yet something about him was deeply unsettling, some part of his instincts telling Jungkook this guy was not to be messed with.

“Th-that’s me…” He stuttered eventually and the boy nodded.

“Thought so.” The blonde took a step forward, and Jungkook backed away instinctively.

“Look, if this is about yesterday, I’ve already apologized to Hyemi. Not that she was all that forgiving,” Jungkook babbled. What was this guy’s deal?

“Don’t care,” the stranger announced dismissively, taking another step. He was uncomfortably close now, and when he leaned toward Jungkook, the latter could see just how crystal blue his eyes were. Those had to be contacts, right? His brain wondered uselessly.

“Th-then why- “

“My name is Kim Taehyung,” the boy told him, voice cheerful like they were new friends, “and I believe you have something of mine.”