~

“So, we do have a problem,” Kyuhyun announced to Jongwoon at his next appointment when they entered the apartment. “I would have called you when I first discovered it the other day, but I wanted to be certain it wasn’t a simple mistake.”

“What?” Instead of answering directly, Kyuhyun opened the cooler and showed off the empty vials. This also caught Heechul’s attention who walked over to look alongside Jongwoon.

“You used all your potions, so,” Heechul questioned.

“I have twenty-one vials as usual, except the fact…”

“That Taekwoon took you an extra one a few days ago,” Jongwoon finished for Kyuhyun almost glaring at the vials. “And you have confirmed it is nowhere else?”

“I have. I checked my whole house, my school supplies, and even went back to the restaurant my friends and I ate at and confirmed with the staff that it wasn’t there.”

“So, someone must have taken it, or you lost it somewhere else without realizing it,” Jongwoon said.

“You haven’t told anyone about it, have you,” Heechul questioned.

“No. I swear. My friends all think they are just herbal medicines from my mother’s health group. I haven’t even mentioned the bookstore to them. And I was alone when Taekwoon and Wonshik dropped off the extra vial. I’m even not talking to one of my friends right now because he still thinks I don’t believe in mages.”

“What about the day you noticed it missing? Anything out of the ordinary happen? Anything that would have given someone the chance to access it,” Jongwoon asked.

“Not really. The only thing I can think of is that I had a cup break at lunch, spilling hot tea all over me. Donghae grabbed my spare clothes from my backpack while I was in the restroom.” Jongwoon’s eyes narrowed slightly at the mention of Donghae, but Kyuhyun didn’t notice. “But my clothes are in a different pocket than the vials.”

“I don’t think there is much we can do about it at the moment, but we will need to be more careful going forward.”

“Keep an eye out on the people around you and see if anyone is acting strange. Don’t be obvious about, just be more aware of your surroundings for anything out of the ordinary,” Heechul added.

“That seems difficult to do without looking paranoid.”

“Are you just generally not an observant person? Do you not pay attention to what goes on around you normally?” Heechul asked him. Kyuhyun was about to defend himself a bit when Jongwoon spoke.

“If he did, he might have had an idea of who cursed him in the first place.”

“Hey. Rude. I am fairly observant thank you. I just feel that being more so would make me seem paranoid to other people. And no, I don’t recall anyone acting out of the ordinary around the time my bad luck started nor was I even thinking of the possibility that someone cursed me to think about that. I refused to even believe magic was real until I met you guys.”

“We know. But usually when people get cursed, they have a feeling of who could have done it, whether it’s correct or not, they have suspects. So, for you to not have anyone you may feel could have had the motive to do it, is a little odd and feels like you don’t pay much attention to the people around you.” Kyuhyun wanted to protest Jongwoon’s claims, but Jongwoon held up a hand silencing him before he had the chance to even open his mouth. “Now of course, I’m not saying this in a you neglect people or are narcissistic kind of way. Just more like you don’t tend to notice more than what is necessary. You know and recognize your classmates and you remember many of their names, and you probably know who is in your classes that you went to high school with, even if they weren’t in your class back then, but beyond that you don’t give them much thought. And that’s fine, that’s how most people are. Obviously, the most observant would notice all the little details, like the exact seat each of your classmates sit in everyday and if someone started using a different backpack than usual, who the students who wait for the neighboring class that starts at the same time as yours are, or for the class that begins after yours.”

“And, I’m just suddenly supposed to do that,” Kyuhyun interrupted starting to feel frustrated with the older two. “If I’m suddenly switching to trying to notice every little thing, that’s where I feel people will see me as paranoid.”

“Not to that degree, no,” Heechul continued for Jongwoon, noticing he was getting frustrated as well. “You don’t need to go searching for every little detail. There is a middle ground. Just take in a little more than you have. Look for trends. Are there classmates you notice who are around you more often than others? Not only in the sense of they are in multiple classes, but when you get together with friends, do you notice some of the same people. Notice your own habits you may not think much of that could factor in. Like do you and your friends always drop your bags in one place before you grab food real quick, or do you set yourself up in the classroom and then leave for a few minutes to talk to people or whatever. These are the things we are asking you to look at as you go about your day.”

“I’ll try. And I’ll let you know if I do notice anything. Though if I do, what then?”

“That will depend on what you find. We will deal with it if or when that happens. It will take you some time and practice to adjust and start to pick up on these things. But enough of this chat, we do need to get started with your treatment,” Jongwoon reminded them and excused himself first to the basement expecting the other two to follow. Heechul though lightly grabbed Kyuhyun’s arm as he moved effectively stopping him.

“Don’t mind him too much. He’s been a little stressed lately and I think this is adding to it a bit. Which that’s not your fault. We’re mages, we spend our whole lives worrying about the wrong people finding out about us and it’s worse when you live in the city. That makes us notice everything down to the littlest detail, Jongwoon is especially good at that. Neither of us are meaning to come on so harshly, so I’m sorry.”

“I’ve noticed that much. And it’s alright, I know neither of you are trying to insult me or put me down with any of this. I really do wish I knew who cursed me, but at the same time, what would I do with that information? Confront them? Tests said they weren’t a mage, so then what? Prove mages are real to them? Seek revenge? How would I treat that person afterwards? Would I forever hold a grudge against them knowing they could have killed me if I didn’t get over my own false beliefs and took my friend’s advice? Even though the original curse was to be mild and short-term bad luck? It’s a lot to think about.”

“It is,” Heechul agreed quite impressed that Kyuhyun had put that much thought into it. “But for now, let’s not focus on that challenge and go do your treatment. Curing you is more important than finding your curser anyways.”

Kyuhyun’s treatment went as normal, however this time, Heechul had worked out turning the couch into a bed ahead of time, so both could sleep off their exhaustion downstairs. And for the first time since their first treatment, Jongwoon was still slightly conscious afterwards and could help Heechul get him to the bed, though he was asleep almost as soon as he laid down. Kyuhyun was in about the same state as he had been the previous treatment and felt slightly awkward sharing the bed with Jongwoon, especially with how tense everything had been upstairs, but he knew this was better and more convenient for all of them and quickly settled himself in knowing he would also be asleep within a minute or two.

“Just rest Kyuhyun,” Heechul said when he noticed Kyuhyun trying to make sure he didn’t invade Jongwoon’s space on the bed. “I’m heading back upstairs but I will check on you guys as usual. If you wake up and need something, just call for me.” Heechul tapped Kyuhyun’s phone that they had set on the table near him beforehand, they had exchanged numbers now as well, so Kyuhyun could contact Heechul instead if need be.

“Thanks, Heechul.”

When Heechul went down to check on them about an hour later, he was surprised to see Jongwoon awake and sitting on the edge of the bed. He could still see the exhaustion all over Jongwoon’s face even though he was looking over at Kyuhyun. Heechul quickly went over to him, placing a hand on the side of his neck, pulsing a light bit of magic to check over him and see what may have woken him up. They had long ago agreed that Heechul could use magic to examine Jongwoon whenever he deemed it necessary without needing to specifically get permission, so Jongwoon barely reacted when he felt Heechul’s hand and magic on him.

“What’s wrong, why are you awake? You should still be sleeping for at least another two hours,” Heechul asked quietly when his examination didn’t find anything wrong.

“It’s fine Chul. I just simply woke up.”

“Well you should go back to sleep your energy is still very low and I didn’t even need magic to confirm that one.”

“I’m alright for now and I could use the chance to talk to you. But let’s head upstairs so we don’t wake Kyuhyun,” Jongwoon decide already attempting to stand. Heechul quickly braced him before he fell and tried to sit him back down on the bed but Jongwoon wasn’t having any of it.

“Come on, we can talk later. Just sleep for now.”

“No. Help me upstairs, I want to talk this out sooner rather than later.” Heechul relented knowing there was no point in trying to argue with him now and carefully helped him walk upstairs.

Once in the living room, Heechul deposited Jongwoon onto the couch, refusing to take him any further. Before Jongwoon could start whatever conversation, he wanted to have, Heechul walked over to the kitchen and filled a glass of water. He also pulled out a small potion from the fridge and mixed it into the glass and brought it back to Jongwoon. It wouldn’t do much right-away, but it was a potion they kept on hand that would help restore magical energy quicker than just sleeping alone would.

“Now what’s wrong?”

“You know you don’t need to fuss like this. I’ll go back to sleep soon.”

“I don’t care, if you are going to insist on staying awake right now, then I’m going to at least give you something to help. Now start talking, I do want you back to sleep as soon as possible.” Jongwoon rolled his eyes at Heechul, who decide to just stand over him. Jongwoon attempted to make some space on the couch for him, but Heechul glared at him every time he started to move towards a sitting position.

“It’s about Kyuhyun’s missing potion. I think I might know who took it,” Jongwoon finally said after realizing Heechul wasn’t going to budge. “Also, sit down somewhere, will you?”

“What? How?” Heechul finally sat down on one of the chairs, pulling it in closer to the couch.

“Do you remember Lady Maeng sent her student to pick up her order the other day?” Heechul nodded. “Well his name was Donghae, just like Kyuhyun’s friend who was in his bag the day the potion went missing.”

“Could it just be a coincidence of someone having the same name?”

“Possibly but between conversations with Kyuhyun and the conversation I had with Donghae that day, make me think otherwise. Donghae mentioned having a friend who didn’t believe in magic but may have a magical ailment and wondered if I took non-mage clients. Kyuhyun said he was recommended here by his friends. It lines up too much for me to ignore.” Heechul hummed in agreement.

“So, what would Donghae want with the potion?”

“Well he knows someone is helping Kyuhyun. My first guess would be, he is trying to find us. Why? I’m not completely sure.”

“Should we confront him?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Really,” Heechul dramatically sighed. “You had me help you up here, because you had to have this conversation right now instead of just sleeping like you should and you don’t even know what you want to do about it?” He stood up to start pacing, running his hands through his hair a few times.

“Will you quit it with the over-dramatics. And give me a break will you, I’m not exactly in the best thinking condition at the moment.”

“Fine,” Heechul said, sitting back down completely composed again. “What have been your thoughts so far about Donghae then?”

“I’m not entirely sure what we would say to him if we confronted him. I’m also not sure how I would do it without either admitting to him that Kyuhyun’s our client or potentially exposing him to Kyuhyun. Obviously, we can’t tell Kyuhyun anyways.”

“Then we just wait? I feel like we’re doing that for a lot of things with Kyu.”

“For the moment, maybe that’s best until you have either more information or a plan. I wish we had someone who could keep an eye on him and just confirm that it’s the same Donghae to start with.”

“That would be convenient but even I don’t know what Donghae looks like and we don’t directly know any mages who go to Kyuhyun’s university. And while we do know that Wonshik goes there, it would still be inappropriate to even imply that Donghae is a mage to him and ask him to investigate. And there is no way we would risk asking Taekwoon.”

“Right. And Ryeowook has seen him but that would be too risky since he could accidently expose both to each other and he doesn’t know the campus either.”

“I could put out some feelers to clients and see if there is anyone who has someone who goes there that we could show a picture of Kyuhyun to and see if they can get some discreet pictures of the people around him,” Heechul suggested.

“Seems too risky. Especially since we just told Kyuhyun he needs to be more observant to the people around him. If we also ask someone to stalk and take pictures, he could notice, and it would set of false red flags.”

“Good point.” Heechul waited a moment to see if Jongwoon would start talking again. “Anything else?”

“No. That’s all I needed to say for now and all the thinking we can do on it at the moment.”

“Good. Now go back to sleep,” Heechul ordered. Jongwoon gave him a mock salute but rolled over into a more comfortable position and was back asleep in only a few moments.

~

“Good job Jaehwan. You can take a break for now, we’re going to move onto the next scene,” the theatre instructor announced. Jaehwan thanked her as he walked off stage to where the other cast members and supporting crew who weren’t currently needed were relaxing and practicing their parts.

“I see you ended up getting the part,” Sungmin said when Jaehwan joined everyone. Sungmin had been chatting with some of the other students he had worked with over the last couple years while he was waiting for Jaehwan’s next break.

“I did, thank you. I think joining some of your extra lessons helped. Are you helping out today?” Jaehwan asked, excited to see his upperclassmen.

“No, I can’t stay for long today. I might be able to start coming around more again in a couple weeks, but we will see. But I actually came to speak with you really quick.”

“With me?” Jaehwan pointed at himself and titled his head slightly. While he had worked with the older a few times, it had been some time since Sungmin joined the theater crew and he couldn’t think of a reason Sungmin would have to speak with him.

“Yes. I know it’s a little out of the blue, but could we speak outside for a moment?” Not seeing a reason to turn him down, Jaehwan agreed and followed Sungmin out to a quiet part of the hallway. “I am going to apologize upfront. This was not my idea and I understand how unusual and creepy this seems. So, I’m sorry.”

“What? What’s creepy?” Jaehwan was going to ask more questions but Sungmin stopped him and pulled out some photos from his bag and handed them to Jaehwan. Jaehwan flipped through the pictures that showed him with his friends from the other night speaking with Kyuhyun and a couple photos that must have been before he arrived. “What are these? Why do you have pictures of my friends?” Jaehwan was getting annoyed and angry the more he looked through the photos.

“A friend of mine took them when he was leaving a guest lecture. I have already called him out on these being very strange and stalkerish looking when he first showed them to me. But I recognized you in the pictures, so I agreed to talk to you.”

“About what?” Jaehwan was surprised himself at just how angry his tone was.

“This person,” Sungmin pointed to Kyuhyun in the photo that was on top, “is a close friend of ours, Kyuhyun. He’s been acting strange lately and we’re worried about some things he is obviously hiding from us. We know he’s lying about some stuff and we just want to get to the bottom of it, so when our friend noticed him with people we didn’t know, he took some pictures.”

“You know everyone your friend talks to?”

“Of course not. I wouldn’t expect to know that. I just want to know if I can talk to these two and find out what exactly went on that night before you joined up with them.”

“My friends don’t do anything weird or wrong.”

“I’m not saying they do. I just want to rule some things out. And this is the first place I have to look right now.”

“Why should I trust you? I don’t know you outside of the theater and everyone there is an actor, lying is something we are all good at.”

“I can at least prove that Kyuhyun and I are friends to start with.” Sungmin pulled out his phone and opened his gallery, while Kyuhyun wasn’t the most photogenic of his friends, Sungmin still had multiple pictures of them together along with their other friends. “And that one there is Donghae. He is the one who took the photos, he always has his camera on him, as you can see,” Sungmin said as he flipped through the gallery.

“Alright, so you’re not lying about that. But why inspect my friends?”

“Because they are the first place we can. We haven’t been able to get many leads on what’s really going on with him beyond catching him in a couple of lies. It was just by coincidence that Donghae saw you guys. He saw your friend give Kyuhyun two things, but we don’t know what. For all we know everything in these photos are unrelated, but we have to be able to rule it out. All I’m asking is to just be able to talk to them, maybe they know something I don’t about what Kyuhyun’s been doing,” Sungmin was trying not to plead but still hoped he was getting his feelings across to Jaehwan.

“So, why are there creepy stalker photos of us?” Both were startled at the sudden additional voice over Jaehwan’s shoulder which caused Jaehwan to jump slightly and bump into the person behind him.

“Hongbin, what are you doing here,” he asked once he realized who it was.

“Coming to see you. I checked the theater first and they said you came out here, I called your name, but you ignored me. So, anyways, the pictures.”

“I’m looking for your friends to ask what went on that night before you joined them,” Sungmin explained recognizing Hongbin from the photos.

“Well that’s not suspicious at all.”

“I was just explaining it all to Jaehwan before you showed up. Kyuhyun is my friend, he’s acting strange and lying, so we’re trying to check out anything that seems out of his norm,” Sungmin said quickly, hoping the brief explanation would be enough.

“You ever think that maybe he’s lying and hiding things from you for a reason and that maybe you shouldn’t stalk your own friend? If he’s not going to tell you, maybe it’s better something you left alone.”

“I’ve known Kyuhyun since we both started university, we’re close friends even though we fight sometimes. He’s hid stuff from us before for various reasons, but this time it’s different. Part of this started as something we were all helping him deal with and now suddenly, he’s changed and not talking to us about it and lying. That’s why we’re worried and going about it this way. I’m not going to give any more details than that because that’s his business and I owe him that much.” Sungmin paused and took a deep breath to calm himself down. The last thing he needed was to shout at them or give them any more reasons to not help him. “Please, I know you are trying to protect your friends, but I’m trying to do the same for mine. All I’m asking is for the chance to talk to them.”

Hongbin and Sungmin stared each other down, almost as if attempting to read the other’s mind, until Jaehwan broke it up by pulling Hongbin to the side. Sungmin let them go as Jaehwan gave him a look to let them speak privately. He knows being vague isn’t helping his case but Sungmin has no idea if they are aware that one of their friends is a mage in the first place, he’s not even sure which one it is himself. If they refuse to help him then he and Donghae will just have to find another way to find the mage. He just hopes it doesn’t come to that. Their university campus is fairly large, and some mages are better at hiding themselves, that makes searching based only on a picture would be extremely difficult.

“Kim Wonshik,” Hongbin sternly says when they walk back over breaking Sungmin out of his thoughts. “He’s one of the two in those pictures and you can usually find him in the library between his classes. We’re not telling you anything more than that. I’m also letting him know that you are looking for him.”

“Thank you.”

“I don’t know what you think you will find out, but you better be nice to him and give him more of an explanation than you gave us,” Jaehwan added.

“I will try. And while I hope to figure out what’s going on with Kyuhyun soon, I do hope your friends aren’t negatively involved either.” Sungmin didn’t allow them the chance to say anything more, and just left, not bothering to go back through the theater either. He sent Donghae a quick text letting him know the update.

“What’s up guys,” Wonshik asks when he walks into the theater later that same afternoon to meet with Hongbin and Jaehwan. “You said we needed to talk in person and not via text, so what’s going on.”

“One of my seniors in the theater came to speak with me today,” Jaehwan started.

“And?”

“He had some pictures of us all from last week that his friend took. From when Taekwoon was here and you introduced us to that Kyuhyun guy.”

“Pictures?”

“Yeah, from before we met up with you two as well. Like good quality ones too. And apparently the photographer saw Taekwoon giving Kyuhyun things,” Hongbin added.

“What did he want?” Wonshik had started the conversation a little confused but now it was obvious he was getting angry.

“To find the two of you.”

“He says he’s a friend of Kyuhyun and even showed me a bunch of pictures of them together and pointed out who took the photos,” Jaehwan quickly added before Hongbin’s simple statement could make things worse. It seemed to help as Wonshik put up his hand to prevent anyone from talking for a moment and calmed himself down just a little.

“If he is Kyuhyun’s friend, why is he looking for us?”

“He wouldn’t go into detail but swore it was for Kyuhyun’s own good. Said he’s been lying to them and acting different and the only thing out of the ordinary they’ve been able to catch so far was our meeting with him. And he even said that the one who took the picture saw you guys by coincidence.”

“Told us that he wanted to know what you gave Kyuhyun and supposedly just make sure it was a perfectly innocent meeting and unrelated to whatever is going on with him. Frankly I don’t trust him.”

“Do you think he’s working for Taekwoon’s mother,” Wonshik asked Hongbin, finally getting the question they all knew was coming out.

“I don’t know,” Hongbin answered honestly. “Jae says he’s been helpful in theater and has never mentioned anything before that would give any worry.”

“He’s never really asked about friends or anything outside of theater before. And when he showed me the pictures, he didn’t know anyone’s name except for mine. Said that was the whole reason he was talking to me instead of the photographer. I don’t think he knows anything about Taekwoon.”

“Have you met with Kyuhyun before,” Hongbin asked.

“That night was the first time I met him outside of Taekwoon’s job.”

“Which means if they got hired by Taekwoon’s family then his family has already had someone watching you here waiting for Taekwoon to show and when you both met with Kyuhyun, then they would have had to follow the Kyuhyun route to look as disconnected from them as possible. But they had less than a week to see who knows Kyuhyun and convince them to take on the job.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time she had someone stalk me to try and find Taekwoon.”

“She’s had someone stalk us too until they realized we really don’t know where Taekwoon is. Which . But this would be a new angle for her and there was at least a part of my senior that was telling the truth about Kyuhyun. We’re actors, we lie for a living, but sometimes that means we can also see when we’re not. It did feel like he was lying when he was talking about wanted to ‘rule you guys out’ but not when he was saying he was worried about Kyuhyun.”

“I’m sorry. I know you want to be able to see Taekwoon more, but this was his decision. He’s waiting until she can’t have any legal pressure on him because we’re only eighteen. We also recently had Hakyeon find out, so we’re hoping she long since gave up on him being any use. But I’ll talk about that later,” Wonshik added, noticing his friends shocked and almost betrayed looks. He could tell they had a thousand questions to go on about that. “Hongbin already said he doesn’t trust him, what do you think?”

“I’m not sure I trust him fully, but I at least think he is worried about Kyuhyun and that Kyuhyun is his focus. It’s why I talked Hongbin into giving him your info.”

“You gave him my info?” Wonshik just stared blankly at both his friends, trying to comprehend what they just said.

“Relax. We gave him the minimal. That’s all I would allow. Your name and that you frequent the library. He doesn’t even know what you look like other than you’re one of the people in his pictures. If he is working for Taekwoon’s mother, then getting to you means nothing. And if he’s not, then hopefully you can just answer his questions enough that he never has to learn Taekwoon’s name and we don’t deal with him again.”

“Fine. You make a point. What’s his name?”

“Lee Sungmin. I asked for you to meet us here because he’s in a couple of the cast photos we have in here so you know what he looks like too,” Jaehwan explained and pulled out a couple different photos of past theater productions and pointed out Sungmin in each of them.

A/N: So I'm back. Kind of. Its been quite a while I know. I also know you are all used to this by now. But don't worry, i have not forgotten or given up on this story. I had casually tried writing this chapter a few times with it not going the way I wanted and just not being able to get into the writing mindset. Finally more recently I had gotten to the point of just making minor adjustments to the first part and and being stuck on the second scene. Thankfully it seemed remembering that Kyusung day was coming up at the start of the month was the nudge my brain needed to get this written, so finishing it only took a couple days with my friend Kim checking it for my worries and letting me know everything read well from her point of view. Which was good, because while I had almost 2 weeks from the point I decided I was going to finish it for today, I'm not one of the people who gets to stay home during the pandemic, I still have to work as my job sells emergency supplies.
Anyways, It is now midnight for me on the 13th, so I figured that might be the best time to post so it is Kyusung day for the most number of readers when this posts (and for me too).
P.s I know the Kyusung is a little lacking this chapter, I'm sorry, that's just how we fell for this point in the fic and I really didn't have a good filler scene to put in to add a little extra. So sorry about that. I'll make up for it a little bit at least next chapter.