Hakyeon had always been one of the top apprentices of the Academy.

The first two years, he finished top of his year with a wide margin, casting spells his classmates could only dream of casting at the time and combining ingredients with a dexterity of a sorcerer with at least a century of experience, and in his third year his spells surpassed those of one of his senior teachers for the first time. In his fourth year, he single-handedly created a new spell that even most graduated sorcerers had trouble replicating, and in his fifth year he was elected to join the Circle of Spell Development, as the youngest ever to join with an over 100 year margin, and the first to join before completing his studies at the Academy.

By the time he finished his sixth year at the Academy, he was a highly respected sorcerer even beyond the borders of his country.

Of course, being such a prodigy didn't only help him find friends; nearly all of his fellow students and those who’d graduated outshined by him envied him his early success and weren't exactly fond of his existence. Lots of seasoned sorcerers didn't think he should have been granted the honours he had so early on, and not few thought of him as more of a threat than a blessing for the community and the country as a whole.

Still, he was respected, and any bad-mouthing happened well out of his earshot; which didn't mean he didn't know about it.

All of that changed, though, in the beginning of his seventh and last year at the Academy. It was his own fault, really, since he insisted on finishing his studies like any other regular student of the Academy. And yet, later on, he would always say he didn't regret it, not one bit, for it was that choice that in the end had made him become the person he was.

The last year at the Academy naturally brought with it new and advanced courses, supposed to teach them the last bits and twists of magic and it’s wielding to complete their education and form them into fully fledged sorcerers.

One of those courses was Harvesting and Preserving Ingredients from Magical Creatures; HarPre for short, but the full name should have clued Hakyeon in beforehand. It didn't, though, and so Hakyeon found himself in a dungeon of the Academy with 30 other sorcerers, wondering what was to be found under the veil covering the work table on the teacher's podium.

He wished he’d never found out when the old Sorceress with the cold smirk that taught the course adjusted the angle of the work table so that everyone could see and waved the veil away with a gesture of her hand, revealing a sight that would forever be branded into the inside of Hakyeon's eyeballs.

Strapped to the table was a creature Hakyeon couldn't even identify by it’s looks alone anymore, but was told was a fairy. Upon closer inspection, he did see the remains of brutally clipped wings stick out from behind it's back, though he found himself simultaneously unable to stand the sight and to look away.

The teacher started her class.

“The most commonly used ingredient from fairies is their dust, and it is neither hard to gather nor to preserve. Fairies will react to every minor offense by exuding dust everywhere, and all you need is a crystal flask with a regular cork to gather and keep it.”

She elbowed the creature in the side and with a quiet groan, a faint cloud of golden-white dust formed around the fairy, which the teacher gathered with a simple suction spell into the flask she held, corking it elegantly and holding it up for everyone to see.

“Preserved like this, fairy dust will retain its properties and magic nearly unaffected for up to a hundred and fifty years.”

While she talked and then stored the flask away neatly, the students around Hakyeon hurried to take notes; Hakyeon, though, stood frozen, still unable to avert his eyes from the fairy on the podium.

“Another easy to gather ingredient is the hair of fairies. The most powerful portion is always the one closest to the roots, so it shouldn't be grown out too long and harvested regularly. I'm sure you won't mind if I don't demonstrate the cutting of hair; as you can see, the exemplar’s hair has been harvested recently, too, and there wouldn't be much to gather anyway. To preserve the hair, use flasks and stoppers of amber.”

She gave the students a few heartbeats’ time to take notes, and in that time Hakyeon noticed the fairy starting to struggle fruitlessly, quickly stopped by a sharp elbow to it’s ribs from the teacher.

“The next most commonly used ingredient are the fairy’s nails. While some people prefer to use only the grown out part, I don't see why.”

She freed one of the fairy’s hands, lifting it and forcing it open as she turned it for the students to see.

“As you can see here, this is where the root of the nail sits. As long as you cut only what is beyond the root, the nail will always grow back. Now, before I demonstrate how to harvest this ingredient, I’m going to ask two of you to come up here and assist me, for the harvest of the nails more often than not comes with not only one but two other valuable ingredients: blood, and tears. You two, come up here…”

Her words turned to white noise to Hakyeon as he watched his classmates from the first row climb the podium excitedly, being handed two different kinds of flasks and instructed on how to gather their respective ingredients once they showed. It was only when the teacher explained a murderous looking tool and set it against the base of one of the fairy’s nails that the sound returned to Hakyeon; and oh how he wished it didn't!

The blood curdling scream the fairy let out when the tool cut through its finger-nail, half cutting, half ripping it off its finger chilled Hakyeon to the bone, and he his heels and fled the dungeon, unable to stand it any longer. Only when he felt the sun on his skin did he stop running, falling to his knees and emptying the contents of his stomach right then and there.

He fell and retched countless more times on the way to his dormitory, where he locked himself in and frantically searched for a spell to erase his own memory to keep his sanity.

Unfortunately, he didn't find one that promised to be safe enough not to wipe all of his memories if he tried it on himself, and had to give up.

He didn't come out for the rest of the day, went to none of his other classes and skipped dinner as well.

When he did come out again to drag himself to his classes the next day, he had long since become the laughingstock of the whole Academy.

Cha Hakyeon, the great sorcerer prodigy, rendered useless by a fairy’s scream. How pathetic!

Hakyeon clenched his teeth and decided to ignore the whispers, shouts and giggles that followed him through the halls. He also decided never to use an ingredient that came from a magical creature in his spells ever again, and he stood proudly by his decision.

What followed once he made his decision public was incredulity, many of his teachers and colleagues he worked with in the Circle and other, lower organizations trying desperately to convince him to reconsider, but he didn't. What followed was his expulsion from those organizations, and -to their dismay- him resigning from the Circle, before they had a chance to expulse him.

Never again did he set foot in the dungeons where the HarPre course was held, and none of his mentors’ threats that he’d fail the course and be kept from graduating managed to convince him to return. His grades in his other classes plummeted drastically if they involved spell casting, and after no more than half a month, no one held the tiniest smidgeon of respect for him anymore, neither at the Academy, nor beyond it; the news of the wonder-student turned magic-refuser travelled far and fast, and many were the ones that demanded his expulsion from the academy.

Hakyeon stayed, however. He focused on learning the theory of everything he had to know to pass the exams, and while his grades in the theoretical exams were flawless, his practical evaluations were catastrophic, and he only managed to pass his courses because his teachers knew that he was able to cast the spells if he actually tried to.

He graduated, eventually, under the condition not to show at the official graduation ceremony. His diploma was given to him in secret and disgrace in a dark hallway that led to a small side exit of the Academy, where his mentor bid him farewell wearily, far away from the eyes of the Sorcerer’s society, whose focus lay on the ceremony in the merrily decorated courtyard at the other side of the Academy.

It was a relief for Hakyeon to leave that place, and he swore to himself to never set foot there ever again, unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

Before the ceremony in the Academy even reached its end, Hakyeon had long left the city, traveling fast and determinedly, though with no destination. His only goal was to leave that cesspit of cruelty that the Academy represented for him as far behind as possible.