Yes hello, it is I, Jenny, the sister. After a long time of only helping out our genius author Joy with the ideas and some minor scenes here and there, I finally got to write one of the one shots by myself!
I enjoyed writing about this new ship so much and really put my heart and into this chapter. I really hope you guys, our dear audience, love this as much as I do. This is the longest thing I've ever written and I hope you come to enjoy my style of writing.

Anyways enough of the cheesy chit chat, let's sit back, get comfy and most importantly get ready to go soft!

Enjoy!

-Jenny, the sister.

 

“Okay, let’s wrap up for today. You guys did well. However, Jeongin! I need you to focus on finding the Snitch instead of watching the other players, alright? We need to slay that game against Slytherin tomorrow!” Lucas told the younger after the Hufflepuff Quidditch team practice had ended.

“Y-yes, Lucas, I’ll do better next time!” Jeongin said and laughed nervously, earning a smile from the older as he landed on the grass, just like the other team members, ready to head for the locker rooms.

Jeongin sighed when Eric appeared next to him. “Isn’t he just so dreamy...” Jeongin swooned, looking after the Hufflepuff Team Captain and seventh year Lucas Wong.

Eric chuckled. “He isn’t exactly my type. He’s too much of a jock. I’m more into bookworms... like Juyeon,” he mumbled the last part but Jeongin didn’t really listen, anyway.

He was too distracted by Lucas.

He had been crushing on the older since May and he was convinced that his crush wasn’t one-sided. Jeongin couldn’t tell what had caused his feelings for Lucas in the first place, but he had started to receive mysterious little love notes every now and then about a month ago and he was almost sure that they were from Lucas.

Jeongin entered the locker room to change back into his robes and smiled brightly when he found another one of these notes pinned to his locker.

‘You caught my heart, just like you caught that Snitch’, it read, with a little heart drawn at the end.

Jeongin giggled as he read the little message, pressed it to his chest and looked in Lucas’ direction. The older was in the middle of talking to one of the other team members, laughing. He was just so sweet, handsome and funny…

Jeongin was still smiling widely when walked through the castle, on his way to the library to meet Bae Jinyoung for his tutoring lesson in Transfigurations.

“What made you so happy?” a familiar voice suddenly spoke up next to him.

It belonged to none other than his closest childhood friend and Gryffindor from his year, Lee Daehwi. He had been so busy daydreaming that he hadn’t even noticed his friend walk up to him.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Today is just a really great day, don’t you think?” Jeongin replied happily. He just couldn’t shake the giddy feeling in his stomach.

“If you say so,” Daehwi chuckled and matched his walking speed to Jeongin’s. “Where are you headed?” he questioned.

“Oh, you know, I have another tutoring lesson with Jinyoung at the library now,” Jeongin said.

“Right, I remember,” Daehwi said before sighing. “I could really use some tutoring in Transfiguration, too... if I don’t get better, I’ll probably end up failing my OWLs this year!” he added, causing Jeongin to turn to him, smiling.

“Yeah, Jinyoung’s lessons are really helpful, you should ask him to teach you too!”

Daehwi blushed a bit when Jeongin smiled at him. “Y-yeah, I will... Maybe we could go t-together...” he mumbled. Jeongin nodded and pulled him into a quick hug before turning to leave.

“Anyways, I should get going, now. I don’t wanna make him wait. See you later, Daehwi!” he chirped and took off.

~

“Jinyoung, hi!” Jeongin said as he entered the library and spotted the sixth year Ravenclaw sitting at one of the tables, a couple of books and his wand in front of him. He closed the book he was currently reading and nervously smiled at Jeongin who sat down across from him and got out his wand, ready to practice some Transfigurations.

He had met Jinyoung through Jisung who had introduced the two of them after promising to find Jeongin a tutor for Transfiguration.

They didn’t know each other very well yet, mainly because Jinyoung had just transferred to Hogwarts at the beginning of the school year, so it was still a little bit awkward between them.

Nonetheless, the sixth year was a really good teacher and Jeongin’s grades were beginning to improve ever so slightly.

“Do you have any assignments?” Jinyoung asked the younger.

“Yeah, I need to practice that duplication spell we learned today. I’m really not good at it,” Jeongin replied, pouting.

He was so bad at Transfigurations and it upset him every time he thought about it.

Luckily, Jinyoung was always patient with him, which was probably the main reason why his lessons actually helped Jeongin stay motivated and improve.

“Great, let’s practice that, then,” Jinyoung said as Jeongin pulled out his books. “Show me how you do it first and I’ll correct your mistakes.”

Jeongin lifted his wand and tried to duplicate the feather in front of him, paying extra attention to pronounce the word clearly, since that was always something he struggled with.

A second feather appeared next to the original one, however, the second feather looked a bit bent and much smaller. Jeongin sighed in frustration.

“That was already pretty good but try to focus on the way you flick your wand. Try doing it like this,” Jinyoung said and lifted his own wand before demonstrating the spell to Jeongin.

Another feather appeared, and it looked just like the original. Jeongin gasped excitedly.

“Wow, Jinyoung! It looks exactly the same! You’re so good at this!” the fifth year said excitedly, earning a warning glare from the librarian as he examined the feather Jinyoung had summoned.

The older looked away, his cheeks turning a bit pink. “T-thanks, I practiced it a lot when I was in your year...” he mumbled.

“Teach me your ways, please!”

Jinyoung showed Jeongin the proper way to flick his wand, gave him some more tips about the duplicating spell and the two of them practiced for about an hour, summoning more and more feathers. By the end of the lesson, Jeongin’s feathers were still small but not bent anymore.

“Let’s stop here for today. You’ve improved a lot today, Jeongin,” Jinyoung smiled, putting away his books. Jeongin smiled happily. Transfigurations was more fun when he practiced it with Jinyoung.

“It’s all thanks to you, Jinyoung. Thanks for helping me out!” the younger chirped as he left the library to head back to the dorm for the evening.

His dormmates Guanlin and Kangmin were hanging around in the common room, so he decided to join them.

“Hey, Jeongin. Where have you been?” Guanlin questioned.

Jeongin grinned. “I had a tutoring session,” he announced, actually feeling pretty good about it since he had improved a little bit.

Kangmin wagged his eyebrows. “Isn’t your tutor the new guy, Bae Jinyoung?” he smirked. Jeongin gave him a confused look.

“Yeah? Why?”

He already knew that Kim Kangmin was into gossip, so he wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to hear what he had to say about Jinyoung.

“I heard he’s good,” Kangmin said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Jeongin furrowed his brows. He didn’t really know where Kangmin was going with this. “I guess so. My grades have improved a bit. And he’s very nice and patient with me,” he explained.

The other’s grin widened. “And he’s cute, right?” he questioned.

Jeongin felt his cheeks heat up. He hadn’t really thought about that, but it wasn’t like Kangmin was wrong.

“We’re just friends, though. He helps me pass Transfiguration and I’m thankful for that,” he said and Guanlin only chuckled. “Besides, I like... someone else,” Jeongin added.

Kangmin’s face lit up at his words. “Do tell,” he said, but Jeongin waved off, not really feeling like talking about his crush on Lucas – especially not to Kim Kangmin.

Luckily, Guanlin seemed to sense Jeongin’s discomfort and quickly changed the subject. “So, the Quidditch game against Slytherin is tomorrow.”

Jeongin shot him a grateful look as he nodded. “It’s my first game this season so I’m a little nervous. Especially since we’re playing against last year’s winner...”

“I’m sure you’ll do great tomorrow,” Guanlin encouraged him with a smile. Jeongin hoped that he was right. He knew that he was good at Quidditch, and he was excited about his first game, but he still couldn’t help but worry about playing against Slytherin. “Even though I might be slightly rooting for Slytherin since Jihoon is also on the team,” the younger added with a sly smirk.

Kangmin huffed in amusement before a thought seemed to cross his mind, causing his expression to darken.

“I heard Hyunjin put Kim Sunwoo on the team,” he said, a disgusted expression on his face. Jeongin perked up at the name.

“That Kim Sunwoo?” Guanlin questioned in disbelief. “Jihoon didn’t tell me about that...”

“I know him,” Jeongin spoke up excitedly.

Two wide pairs of eyes landed on him.

“H-How do you know him?” Kangmin sounded so horrified that it took Jeongin a few seconds to answer.

“He’s friends with my friend Hyunjin, so I talked to him before. And we bumped into each other on the train a few weeks back,” he finally explained.

Kangmin gasped in shock. “He bumped into you? Did you get hurt?” he asked, reaching out to grab Jeongin’s shoulders and frantically searching his body for any kind of injury but the younger shook him off with furrowed eyebrows.

“I didn’t get hurt! He also apologized to me and helped me up. I don’t see the problem.”

“The problem is that Kim Sunwoo is creepy and dangerous. I heard he skins cats in the dungeons and you’re probably his next target!” Kangmin explained, horror evident in his voice.

Jeongin was beyond confused now. He was pretty sure Kangmin was exaggerating. Sunwoo’s next ‘target’? What the heck was that supposed to mean?

“Listen, Jeongin. We know you’re a sweetheart and you only want to see the best in people, but you need to stay away from Sunwoo. He’s dangerous!” Guanlin told him, almost sternly.

“You guys keep saying that, but how is he dangerous? He was nothing but nice to me so far,” Jeongin argued, slowly but surely getting frustrated with his friends’ behavior. “And what did you mean by target?” he now addressed Kangmin, who had significantly paled.

“My friend told me that Sunwoo pushed a girl down the big staircase near the Great Hall one time. Poor girl was stuck in the hospital wing for two weeks. Apparently, Sunwoo previously “bumped” into that girl as well. We’re just looking out for you, Jeongin...” Kangmin said, causing a frown to form on Jeongin’s face.

“Sounds to me like you’re just making stuff up. Sunwoo is Hyunjin’s friend and I haven’t seen him act weird or violent so far. Stop spreading rumors when you don’t even know him,” he scolded his friend and rose from his seat on the couch.

“Neither do you,” Kangmin argued. It was true, but Jeongin still didn’t think that Sunwoo would purposefully hurt someone.

“I’m going to bed,” he said in a finalizing tone. “Good night.”

~

The next morning, Daehwi joined Jeongin at the Hufflepuff table to eat breakfast. If Jeongin was completely honest, he was feeling even more nervous about the Quidditch game than he had been the day before. It was the first game of the season and he really didn’t want to disappoint Lucas.

“Are you nervous about the game today?” Daehwi asked as he poured himself some pumpkin juice.

“A little bit... the pressure is really high,” Jeongin admitted.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll do great. I’ll definitely cheer for you,” Daehwi smiled and fondly squeezed Jeongin’s hand before continuing to eat.

“Thanks, Daehwi! I already feel a bit better,” Jeongin smiled.

Daehwi blushed slightly before speaking up again. “After the game... do you maybe want to go to Hogsmeade with me?” he asked.

“Sure, sounds good! Let’s do that,” Jeongin confirmed happily before finishing his toast.

Daehwi smiled widely at him and blushed a bit more.

After breakfast, the two fifth years decided to head to the Quidditch field together, talking about anything and everything on their way there. Once they had arrived, Daehwi wished Jeongin good luck and headed for the spectator’s area to watch the game from there.

Meanwhile, Jeongin headed to the locker rooms, changed into his yellow uniform and joined the other team members who were meeting up on the field.

Lucas discussed some techniques with the team and next thing Jeongin knew, the game had already started, and he was on his broomstick, looking for the Snitch. He tried hard not to get distracted by the other players and instead focus on his part, just like Lucas had told him the day before at practice.

All he knew was that after about half an hour of playing, Slytherin was leading the game and that he needed to find the Snitch soon if they wanted to win. He roamed through the air with squinted eyes, trying to spot the tiny golden ball, but it was nowhere to be seen. Jeongin was so focused on letting his eyes scan the air that he didn’t see the large Bludger approaching him at the speed of light.

“Watch out!” he heard another player yell, but it was already too late; the Bludger had hit his arm and a sharp pain flared up in his wrist. He tried to move his wrist but decided that that was a bad idea.

Jeongin let out a yelp of pain and let himself sink to the ground after realizing that he wouldn’t be able to catch the Snitch with a – probably broken – wrist.

A few seconds later, the crowd cheered loudly, and the players stopped in their tracks as the announcer declared that the Slytherin Seeker had caught the Snitch, ending the game. That was when people slowly started to notice that something was wrong with Jeongin.

Jeongin was still flinching at the aching pain in his wrist when he felt somebody fly towards him. It was one of Slytherin’s new Beaters, Kim Sunwoo who smoothly landed in front of Jeongin, a worried expression on his face.

“A-Are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to–”

“Get away from him, you creep! You didn’t have to hit him like that!” Lucas exclaimed as him and a few other players, both Hufflepuff and Slytherin, had landed near Jeongin to make sure he was alright.

“It was an accident, I–”

“Leave him alone, he didn’t do it on purpose!” Hyunjin chimed in, stepping in front of Sunwoo and shooting a glare at Lucas before carefully inspecting Jeongin’s wrist. “Does it hurt a lot?” he asked and Jeongin shook his head.

He didn’t want to seem week in front of Lucas. “Just a little bit...” he replied.

“Let’s get you to the hospital wing, I’m sure Madame Pomfrey can fix you up in mere seconds,” Hyunjin assured Jeongin with a smile before telling two of his teammates to the younger to the hospital wing.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Hwang? I told you not to let that weirdo play for your team! All he ever does is bring misfortune wherever he goes. He’s going to get us all killed!” Lucas yelled angrily and pushed Sunwoo, making the Slytherin stumble backwards. He didn’t fight back and just looked down at his feet in guilt.

“That is enough, Lucas! You need to calm down. I told you it was an accident and Jeongin will be fine. You’re–” Hyunjin started, sounding more and more irritated by the second, but Sunwoo put a hand on his shoulder, interrupting him.

“It’s okay, Hyunjin, he’s not wrong... it’s my fault, I-I should’ve paid more attention to where I sent the Bludger,” he claimed and looked down to his feet.

“But Sunwoo, he’s–”

“Let’s just go, please...” Sunwoo mumbled.

He was used to people hating him and was already thankful enough that Hyunjin bothered to stand up for him every time. He didn’t want Hyunjin’s reputation to suffer just because of him. Hyunjin gave Lucas one last glare before letting Sunwoo drag him back to the locker rooms.

“Weirdo!” Lucas yelled after him.

~

“There you go, kid, it should get better now,” Madame Pomfrey said after giving Jeongin some bone-healing medicine. It tasted completely disgusting, but he already felt the pain in his wrist lessen.

“Thanks, Madame Pomfrey!” he smiled and let himself sink into the pillow. The nurse smiled at him before hurrying off to take care of some other patients.

“Jeongin!”

The Hufflepuff sat back up when he heard Daehwi call him. He used his healthy hand to wave at him, who was jogging over to his bed.

“Are you okay? I saw you getting hit by that Bludger just as Chaeyoung caught the Snitch! When I came down to the field you were already gone!” he said, hastily sitting down next to Jeongin on the bed.

“Calm down, Daehwi, I’m okay!” Jeongin chuckled. “I already feel a lot better,” he added.

Daehwi released a sigh of relief and placed a chocolate bar on the bedside table, causing Jeongin to smile brightly.

“Yay, chocolate!” he cheered.

“I was going to give it to you after the game... I didn’t know you were going to get hurt,” Daehwi replied.

“Right! Sorry that we can’t go to Hogsmeade now...” Jeongin apologized with a pout, causing Daehwi’s cheeks to heat up again.

“No, don’t apologize! Focus on getting better quickly instead,” he said before checking the time.

He excused himself and left for class, telling Jeongin to enjoy his chocolate and that he would come back after class tomorrow. Jeongin started to feel tired soon after and fell asleep, exhausted from the game and all the nervousness he had felt that morning.

~

Sunwoo looked up from his book when Hyunjin entered the dorm room that evening and let himself fall back on his bed. He still looked pissed off because of what had happened on the field earlier.

Sunwoo felt horrible. He really hadn’t meant to hit Jeongin with the Bludger, he had just tried to prevent it from knocking his teammate Hyunjoon off his broomstick. Jeongin just happened to be in the exact direction Sunwoo had sent the Bludger off to.

Things like that always happened to Sunwoo. All he did was hurt everyone around him and be a bother.

Was Jeongin really okay?

Sunwoo couldn’t help but worry about him. It was his fault that he got hurt after all. He sighed deeply.

“Dude, are you listening?” Hyunjin said, ripping Sunwoo out of his thoughts. The younger turned to look at him. He hadn’t even noticed that the other was talking to him.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

“I said, don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s not your fault. That Lucas guy is just being an ,” Hyunjin told him. Sunwoo appreciated his words but Hyunjin was wrong.

It was his fault.

Sunwoo remained silent for a few seconds. “I’m really tired. I’m going to bed early,” he mumbled eventually.

Hyunjin just sighed, gave him a small smile and nodded. “Alright... I still have some assignments to finish, so I’ll be up for a while longer.”

~

Sunwoo woke up very early the next morning, still feeling terrible.

He hadn’t gotten much sleep that night, Lucas’ harsh words repeating over and over in his head.

Why did he always have to hurt people? Why him...?

He sat up on his bed and sighed before deciding to wash up already, since he knew that he wouldn’t be able to get any more sleep anyway. When he returned from the washroom, Hyunjin was already sitting on his bed, giving him a surprised look.

“Oh, you’re up already?” he questioned. Sunwoo plopped back down on his bed.

“Yeah... I didn’t really sleep...” he told Hyunjin.

“Say, Jeongin... do you think he’s alright?” Sunwoo asked awkwardly.

Hyunjin gave him a knowing look, but answered his question nonetheless. “When I went to see him at the hospital wing yesterday, he was still in pain. I was gonna go check on him again today and bring him some chocolate or something to cheer him up,” Hyunjin answered.

He paused for a second before grinning at Sunwoo. “Do you want to go there together?”

Sunwoo thought about it for a second, but then shook his head. “No... I don’t think he would want to see me.”

~

Thanks to the bone-healing medicine, Jeongin’s wrist had already stopped hurting when he woke up the next morning.

He yawned, stretched and smiled at the mountain of gifts on his bedside table. The chocolate from Daehwi was still there, along with some other presents from his friends.

However, there was also a large bouquet of flowers with a note pinned to them and as usual, it didn’t say who it was from.

‘The flower of my life is withering without the sunshine of your face. Get well soon,’ it read.

Jeongin’s heart fluttered at the message. Lucas was so sweet and thoughtful. The effort he put into writing these notes for Jeongin was amazing. It just made him even more dreamy. The flowers were beautiful too and they had such a nice scent, Jeongin swooned just as he heard somebody enter the hospital wing.

“Come on, I promise you, he won’t be mad,” he heard Hyunjin say and watched as the older dragged another person into the room with him. It seemed to be Sunwoo, who looked anxious and uncomfortable.

“It was my fault why would he not be mad...” he protested as he involuntarily followed his classmate.

Jeongin couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight as the two Slytherins came to a halt next to his bed. Hyunjin casually put another chocolate on Jeongin’s bedside table and took a seat on the chair by his bed while Sunwoo remained a few steps away, silently looking to his feet.

“Hi, Hyunjin and Sunwoo!” Jeongin smiled at them and thanked Hyunjin for the chocolate.

“Sunwoo here felt so bad about what happened yesterday that he couldn’t even sleep because of it–” Hyunjin started before Sunwoo slapped his arm in embarrassment. Hyunjin chuckled and just continued, “so he’s here to apologize without Lucas interrupting him.”

Sunwoo shot Hyunjin a glare before sighing. “I’m sorry that I got you hurt... I really didn’t mean to. It –it’s just something that happens to the people around me...” he mumbled.

Jeongin was moved that the two of them came all the way over here just to tell him that, but he also felt bad for making everyone worry so much.

“No, no, don’t worry about it! It wasn’t even that bad and I’m already healed,” Jeongin assured him and showed him the now-healed wrist.

“Look!” he said. “It’s me who should be sorry for worrying you so much that you couldn’t even sleep!” Sunwoo looked a bit relieved that Jeongin didn’t seem to be mad at him. “Oh, and you also shouldn’t worry about what Lucas said. He’s a nice guy, I’m sure it’s just because he doesn’t know you!” Jeongin said with a smile.

However, he couldn’t help but think about what Kangmin had said the other day. How come everyone thought that Sunwoo was creepy, when he’d made such an effort to genuinely apologize for something that could easily be considered an accident?

They talked for a little while longer before the two Slytherins left the hospital wing again, relieved to hear and see that Jeongin was okay.

“See? I told you Jeongin wouldn’t be mad. He knows that it’s not your fault,” Hyunjin said as the two of them headed towards the Great Hall for lunch.

Sunwoo just nodded wordlessly. He was glad that Jeongin wasn’t mad at him, but at the same time he still hated himself for being such an unlucky charm. He knew that this wasn’t the last time something like this would happen.

~

Even though Jeongin already felt completely healthy, Madame Pomfrey insisted on keeping him at the hospital wing for two more days, which ended up being very boring.

Daehwi visited Jeongin every day to help him catch up on the classes he had missed and to just spend time with him.

Eventually, Jeongin was discharged and back on his schedule. He had another tutoring lesson with Jinyoung after class, practicing the duplication spell, when he saw Sunwoo entering the library. Jeongin smiled and greeted him with a wave when their eyes met, causing Sunwoo to wave back awkwardly before heading off to a different section of the library.

Jinyoung looked confused. “Is he your friend?” he asked after Sunwoo had left their field of view.

“Yeah, I think so,” Jeongin shrugged.

“Didn’t he attack you with a Bludger just a few days ago?”

“It was an accident! He just didn’t see me,” the younger defended Sunwoo. Jinyoung just furrowed his brows in thought before continuing his lesson.

After about 15 more minutes of trying to get the spell right, Jeongin finally managed to successfully duplicate the feather in front of him, causing him to jump up excitedly.

“Oh my god! I did it!” he exclaimed and did a victory dance, earning a sharp glare from the librarian which caused him to sit back down and beam at his tutor.

Jinyoung gave him a fond smile. “Good job, Jeongin,” he said.

The older then started to put his books back into his bag and ended the lesson, since he still had somewhere to go.

“Wait!” Jeongin said after Jinyoung had gotten up from his seat and was about to leave. He quickly placed a kiss on his cheek, catching him by surprise. “Thank you so much, Jinyoung! I couldn’t have done it without your help,” he smiled as Jinyoung turned red.

“N-no problem!” he stammered before leaving the library in a whim. Jeongin still felt very proud of himself, even after Jinyoung had already left. He didn’t want to return to his dorm yet and he remembered that Sunwoo had entered the library earlier, so he decided to look for him instead.

It didn’t take him very long to find the older in front of one of the bookshelves, seemingly looking for a specific book.

“Sunwoo, hey!” Jeongin smiled as he approached him. Sunwoo seemed surprised as he turned away from the bookshelf to face him.

“O-oh... hi, Jeongin. Are you feeling better yet?” he asked awkwardly. Maybe he still felt bad about what happened on the Quidditch field.

“Of course! I’m fully recovered!” Jeongin cheered, flailing his once injured wrist, earning a relieved look from Sunwoo. “What are you up to?” he asked casually.

“I’m looking for a book on Defense Against the Dark Arts. I like to do a lot of self-studying...” he admitted.

“Wow, how diligent! Do you need any help finding it?” Jeongin asked.

“N-no, it’s fine... I’m sure I’ll find it soon,” Sunwoo replied, but Jeongin ended up helping him look for it anyway.

It only took them a couple of minutes to find the book Sunwoo was looking for and they returned to their respective common rooms soon after.

~

Sitting on his bed and studying, Sunwoo found himself getting distracted by his own thoughts more than usual.

Why was Jeongin so nice to him every time their paths crossed? They didn’t even know each other well.

Sure, they had talked a couple of times, but it had never been about anything significant. And back when Sunwoo had carried him back to the Hufflepuff common room after Hyunjin’s birthday party last year, he hadn’t even been awake and probably still didn’t even know that it ever happened.

Usually, people would get mad at Sunwoo for much less. Nobody really wanted to have anything to do with him because of his bad reputation and all those rumors surrounding him. Well, except for Hyunjin, maybe.

So why would somebody as popular as Yang Jeongin be nice to someone as dangerous as him?

Sunwoo shook his head and focused back on his studies for a few minutes, until another thought crossed his mind. Jeongin hadn’t just forgiven him for hurting him, but he even helped him at the library earlier.

Why would he bother smiling at someone as unimportant as Sunwoo? On his own accord, too?

He must be a really nice person if he didn’t avoid someone like him. Sunwoo figured that that must be why he was so popular with everyone. He had a very positive aura to him; something so positive that just drew Sunwoo in...

Sunwoo found himself wishing he could get to know him, but he knew that he couldn’t. Especially because he was so nice. He didn’t deserve the consequences of being anywhere near Sunwoo and his circumstances.

He had already caused him enough harm without being close to him.

~

Jeongin made his way to the Great Hall, a bright smile on his face. It was a great day; it was Saturday, so there were no classes, Christmas break was only one week away, and on top of that, he had found another note from Lucas on his pillow this morning. The young Hufflepuff sighed happily as he entered the Great Hall and decided to sit near Lucas for breakfast.

“Oh, good morning, Jeongin,” the older said when Jeongin sat down next to him and gave him a smile.

Jeongin blushed a bit and grabbed some food to fill his plate. “Lucas, by the way, I never thanked you for the flowers!” he suddenly spoke up in realization.

Lucas furrowed his eyebrows. “Flowers?”

“Yeah, the ones you left at the hospital wing the other day! They were so pretty, thank you~” Jeongin explained, feeling his cheeks warm up when he remembered the note that had been pinned to the flowers.

Lucas still looked confused, however. “I’m sorry, I have no idea what you–”

“Lucas, dude!” Ju Haknyeon, a Slytherin in Lucas’ year, interrupted him as he ran over to the Hufflepuff table. He seemed excited to tell him about something. “Park Woojin is planning an awesome party on Christmas Eve and you have to come!” he announced.

“Man, I would love to come, but I’m going to Switzerland with my boyfriend over Christmas...” Lucas declined, causing Haknyeon to pout and return to his seat at the Slytherin table.

His... boyfriend?

Jeongin didn’t even know that he had a boyfriend. He felt his heart drop a bit. Jeongin was so shocked that he didn’t even react to Lucas excusing himself and getting up to leave the Great Hall.

Did that mean that the cute notes weren’t from Lucas either?

Then who were they from?

Jeongin finished his breakfast, unable to lose the pout on his face after finding out that his crush had been one-sided, and based on a misunderstanding, after all. He also wondered who his secret admirer could be, but he couldn’t think of any suspects.

Maybe it was somebody he didn’t even know?

“Hey, what got you so down?” Daehwi, who had decided to join Jeongin at his table, asked, earning a deep sigh from him. “What’s wrong?”

“I thought I knew who these notes were from, but I was wrong...” Jeongin replied, still trying to figure out who it could be.

“Um...notes?” Daehwi questioned.

“Yeah, I’ve been getting these cute little love notes from some secret admirer and I thought it was Lucas, but he has a boyfriend...” he explained.

Daehwi furrowed his eyebrows. “Why did you think it was him?” he asked, confused.

Jeongin felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. Now that he thought about it, he had probably just wanted it to be Lucas because of his crush on him... how ridiculous of him.

Luckily, Daehwi moved on from his question without pressing Jeongin for an answer.

“Well... do you have any idea who it could be?” he questioned, taking a sip of his friend’s juice.

Jeongin thought about it for a few more seconds before he gasped. “What if it’s that guy who kissed me at the Halloween party two months ago!?” he said excitedly, thinking back to it. Daehwi’s face turned deep red. “W-what?” he asked with a nervous laugh.

“I don’t know... maybe he’ll reveal himself eventually,” Jeongin sighed.

“M-Maybe...” Daehwi chuckled nervously, his face still flushed.

“Oh, I forgot! Can you do me a huge favor?” Jeongin asked with a gasp.

“Um, sure, anything,” Daehwi replied, seemingly glad that Jeongin had changed the subject.

“Can I copy the Potions homework from you? It’s due tomorrow and I totally forgot about it...” Jeongin pouted at the Gryffindor.

“I don’t know if what I wrote is good though... wouldn’t it be better to ask someone who’s better at Potions than me?” Daehwi chuckled, shyly scratching the back of his head.

“But I don’t know who else to ask... pretty please?” Jeongin whined.

Daehwi looked at Jeongin for a second, thinking, until he agreed to it. “Alright then, but don’t shade me if it ends up being wrong!” he said, earning a bright smile from Jeongin.

“Thank you so much, Daehwi!” he cheered and leaned forward to give him a peck on the cheek.

Daehwi froze for a second and his cheeks went beet red before he awkwardly cleared his throat and took another sip of his juice.

“Anyway, enough about me! What are you doing over Christmas, Daehwi?” Jeongin changed the subject again, which the other seemed pretty glad about.

“I’m going home to spend the holidays with my family, just like every year,” Daehwi smiled and happily told Jeongin about some Christmas traditions him and his family had.

After a few more minutes of talking to Daehwi, Jeongin remembered that he still hadn’t sent that letter that he wanted to send to his brother and headed for the Owlery to do so. It was very cold outside, so Jeongin decided to hurry through the snowy weather.

When he entered the Owlery, he was surprised to find Sunwoo there. He was standing in front of one of the owls near the window, about to tie a letter to its feet.

“Oh, hi Sunwoo!” Jeongin smiled and approached the older, who seemed a bit startled and turned around to face him. “I didn’t expect to see you here, what a coincidence!” Jeongin beamed, causing Sunwoo to chuckle nervously.

“S-Sorry... I’ll be done here soon...” Sunwoo said, about to turn around to quickly finish sending his letter, when Jeongin stopped him by grabbing his robes.

“No, don’t be sorry! I’m happy to see you,” Jeongin laughed at how quick the older was to apologize for nothing. “What are you doing up here?” he questioned.

Sunwoo briefly showed him the letter in his hands, “I’m sending a letter to my sister,” he replied.

“Oh, cute, I didn’t know you had a sister,” Jeongin said. “Are you going to see her when you go home for Christmas?”

Sunwoo paused and awkwardly looked to his feet. “I’m... not going home for Christmas,” he mumbled, making the younger gasp.

“What, but you should spend Christmas with your family!”

“My family is better off without me...” Sunwoo mumbled in response. There was a pause.

What kind of family did Sunwoo have to make him say such a sad thing?

Jeongin couldn’t imagine not getting along with his family. They had always been there for him and supported him, no matter what. How lonely Sunwoo must feel...

Jeongin held back his tears at the thought.

“You know what... I’m going to stay here over Christmas break!” he eventually decided. He couldn’t just go and celebrate at home when he knew that one of his friends was in Hogwarts, spending Christmas in such a sad way.

Sunwoo’s eyes widened. “Y-You really don’t have to do that! Like you said, you should spend Christmas with your family...” he replied.

“No, we’re friends! Nobody should spend Christmas alone and if you can’t spend the holidays with your family, you should spend it with your friends!” Jeongin insisted.

“S-Still, you don’t have–”

“My parents are on a cruise anyway and my older brother is probably going to bring his fiancé over and they’ll probably just be overly cuddly and cheesy with me all the time and–” he interrupted himself when he realized that he was rambling, his cheeks reddening a bit.

Sunwoo looked at him and sighed. He seemed to figure that Jeongin wasn’t going to change his mind. “Fine... if you insist...” he decided, making the younger cheer happily.

The air in the Owlery was getting pretty cold, so the two students decided to finally send their respective letters and head back to the castle together. They didn’t talk much on their way back, but it wasn’t an awkward silence.

Once they had arrived back in the dungeons, they had to part ways to head to their respective common rooms. Sunwoo couldn’t help but wonder about Jeongin. He was so nice and selfless, and it just didn’t make any sense to him.

He didn’t care about Sunwoo’s reputation or anything, like all the others did. It was the first time Sunwoo was actually looking forward to Christmas break.

Maybe... Jeongin would want to spend some time with him?

Sunwoo mentally slapped himself when he remembered.

He shouldn’t get close to Jeongin! No matter how nice he was, no, because of how nice he was! He would have to try to stay away from him.

He didn’t want to harm him any more than he already had because of his... circumstances.

~

The next week passed rather quickly and next thing Jeongin knew, it was finally Christmas break. Jeongin had already unpacked his things again and contacted his family about staying in Hogwarts after all.

This was the first year he wouldn’t go home over Christmas break, but he didn’t mind at all, instead, he looked forward to experiencing what Hogwarts was like over Christmas.

He was also looking forward to getting to know Sunwoo a bit more.

After all, he was the whole reason why Jeongin decided to stay and he didn’t really know a lot about him.

The castle slowly started to clear out until only about 70 students were left.

On the first day, Jeongin decided to explore the castle a little now that it wasn’t as lively and crowded as usual. He found some really nice hangout spots that he had never even been to before, even though he had been in this castle for 5 years.

On the second day, he ran into Sunwoo when he was just about to leave the dungeons and decided to hang out with him for a bit, despite the Slytherin’s protests.

It turned out that Sunwoo knew a lot of nice places around the castle, like for example a bench next to a window on the second floor of the Astronomy tower, that showed a beautiful view of the Black Lake and the Quidditch field. They sat and talked there for a long time until they were out of things to talk about, causing them to fall into a comfortable silence as they watched the snow fall.

Jeongin didn’t understand why the other students were so cautious around Sunwoo.

He seemed like a good guy, who was just a little shy and closed off. Not dangerous, weird or creepy or any of those other things his friends had called him. Sure, you needed to take your time with him, but Jeongin found himself even more interested in finding out more and more about him.

For example, why he always wore gloves even when he was inside or why he always avoided touching people, as if he was scared that he could hurt people with his bare hands. Those were some odd things Jeongin had noticed a while ago but didn’t know how to ask about them without possibly sounding rude.

The two of them also hung out in places that were usually too crowded for comfort, like the library or the Clocktower Courtyard, and talked about anything and everything.

Jeongin told Sunwoo a lot about his family, especially about his brothers and what they would usually do around Christmas. Sunwoo didn’t really like to talk about his own family but enjoyed listening to Jeongin telling him stories about his. Even if he couldn’t relate to most of the things he said, he was glad that the Hufflepuff was so happy and loved.

The day after that, Jeongin found out that Sunwoo usually skipped a lot of his meals and dragged him to the Great Hall for lunch.

“You can’t just skip your meals, you need to be healthy,” he scolded, putting a mountain of food on Sunwoo’s plate.

“I generally don’t eat a lot. It’s like I don’t really need food,” Sunwoo explained.

“That’s ridiculous, everybody needs food, you dummy!” Jeongin said, pouting.

Sunwoo didn’t feel very hungry but started to eat anyway. After all, Jeongin had put in so much effort in dragging him here, he might as well do that for him, he thought. He found it endearing that Jeongin cared so much about him. Sunwoo wasn’t used to that at all, but he also didn’t dislike it.

On the contrary, it made him want to care for Jeongin too.

Sunwoo was just about to reach for something to drink, when he suddenly cut his arm on one of the knives that were placed near the plates of meat. He flinched at the pain; the cut was pretty deep and blood started to erupt from the wound.

Sunwoo should’ve known that the last week had been far too peaceful.

Jeongin gasped and reached for Sunwoo’s arm, but, to Jeongin’s surprise, the other pulled away. Sunwoo didn’t want Jeongin to get hurt as well. It wouldn’t be the first time he had gotten somebody hurt like this.

“Oh no, are you okay? That cut looks bad, we should go to Madame Pomfrey!” he exclaimed, already about to get up.

“I-it’s fine, I’m used to it...”

Jeongin figured that Sunwoo just didn’t like to be touched. “Don’t be silly, Sunwoo, you need healing,” he insisted.

“Healing doesn’t work well on me, it’s–” Sunwoo interrupted himself when Jeongin pulled out his wand, pointed it at Sunwoo’s arm and closed his eyes in concentration. “Jeongin, I’m serious, this won’t–” Sunwoo trailed off, unable to believe his eyes. His wound was actually starting to heal. The bleeding stopped, the cut slowly closed itself, and his arm went back to normal.

Madame Pomfrey had never been able to heal Sunwoo this quickly, no matter how small the wound was, which was why he had stopped going there sometime around his second year. Even some very powerful healers, who Sunwoo had been to in the past, had taken at least a few hours to heal a wound like that.

Good magic had never worked well on Sunwoo before. Ever. And Jeongin had just healed him fully... in a few seconds.

Sunwoo’s jaw dropped as he inspected his now healed arm. Jeongin smiled happily.

“There you go!” he said and put his wand back in his robes.

Sunwoo was speechless. “I– How–”

Jeongin chuckled. “It’s no biggie, I’m really good with healing spells! I do have to say though; it has never worked this quickly before... I guess I’ve improved a bit,” he said proudly, oblivious to how impressive this actually was, considering Sunwoo’s circumstances.

Jeongin told Sunwoo about how he wanted to become a nurse after Hogwarts, and that he had been practicing healing spells ever since he was little, because he loved helping people.

Sunwoo was sure of it now. There was definitely something different about Jeongin, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it just yet.

~

On Christmas Day, Jeongin woke up with a smile on his face as he checked the pile of presents from his friends and family next to his bed. He fought the urge to open all of them immediately when he remembered that he had made plans to meet with Sunwoo at breakfast, so he decided to just take them with him and open them in the Great Hall.

“Wow... that’s a lot of presents,” Sunwoo commented when Jeongin sat down across from him at the empty Slytherin table.

The other students were probably still asleep or simply decided to stay in their common rooms for the morning. Jeongin just giggled excitedly in response.

“Did you leave your presents at the dorm?” he asked.

Sunwoo paused awkwardly. “I... usually don’t get presents for Christmas,” the older mumbled, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

Jeongin pouted at him. “I’m so sorry to hear that, Sunwoo, but... I already thought you might say that, so I prepared something for you!” he announced and set down a little box in front of Sunwoo, who now had a flustered expression on his face. He seemed to have successfully surprised the older.

“Y-You really didn’t have to do that, Jeongin. I’m fine!” Sunwoo said and was about to return the box to Jeongin, but the younger stopped him.

“I know, but I wanted to! How could I not get you anything? Just take it,” Jeongin smiled.

“But I didn’t get you anything...” Sunwoo replied, the feeling of guilt clear in his voice, but Jeongin simply waved off.

“Here, I made some cookies too! Have some~” he cheered and placed a bowl full of self-made cookies on the table as well. Sunwoo finally gave him a small smile of gratitude and grabbed one of the star-shaped cookies. They were amazing to say the least.

Jeongin then started working through his pile of presents, opening them one by one as Sunwoo watched him.

He received a pair of new gloves for Quidditch from Jisung, an ‘I love Sydney’ pillow that Felix and Changbin sent from Australia, a self-knitted pair of warm and fluffy Hufflepuff socks from Jinwoo and Mina, autographs of his favorite Quidditch team from Chan and Minho, a book called ‘Transfigurations for Dummies’ from Hyunjin and Seungmin, a huge amount of cute Christmas cards with heartfelt greetings and wishes on them and a ton of chocolate.

Jinwoo’s and Mina’s Christmas card came with a couple of cute pictures of them and the baby.

Sunwoo felt happy to see him receive so many heartfelt presents from his friends and family and he enjoyed watching his face light up every time he read out the Christmas cards to him. The last present Jeongin opened was the package from his family. He decided to read the card first.

Dear Jeongin

We hope you’re having a great time in Hogwarts, even though we miss you dearly. The cruise is beautiful and we’re enjoying our time here!

We really hope you and your friend eat well, sleep well and dress warmly in the cold English weather!

To make sure you don’t catch a cold, your mother made Christmas sweaters for you and your friend and she really hopes you like it! Wish him a merry Christmas and don’t forget to bring him with you next time you come home!

Much love, Dad~

Jeongin smiled at the letter and pulled out the two sweaters from the box that had come with it. Both had a classic Christmas pattern on them, but one of them was green and white like the Slytherin banner, and the other one was yellow and black like the Hufflepuff banner.

“Aw, here’s the sweater my mom made for you!” Jeongin smiled, handing Sunwoo the green one.

“F-for me? I can’t accept this, Jeongin...” Sunwoo said, not used to receiving any presents.

Jeongin looked up at Sunwoo and took his hands before he could pull them away. “Of course, you can. This is what Christmas is all about! Plus, you look way better in green than I would,” Jeongin laughed before looking down at Sunwoo’s hands. “But... your hands are so cold. Are you okay? Should we move closer to the fireplace?” he added, concerned.

It was true, Sunwoo’s hands were extremely cold. Sure, it was winter, and the weather was really cold outside, but they were inside and... Sunwoo’s hands felt even colder than the snow outside for some reason.

“N-no, I’m fine... I don’t think the fire would help…” Sunwoo replied and pulled back his hands before putting his gloves back on. Jeongin figured that he used them to keep his hands warm, but he still couldn’t help but worry about him. He contemplated asking Sunwoo about it, but he already seemed a bit uncomfortable, so Jeongin decided not to ruin the Christmas mood.

“Okay, if you say so,” Jeongin replied. “Don’t you want to look at your present?” he switched subjects and smiled excitedly.

Sunwoo sighed and gave the younger a look, probably still feeling guilty that he hadn’t gotten Jeongin anything, but hesitantly opened the box in front of him anyway.

Inside was a large book. It was much larger than the box itself, so Sunwoo figured that Jeongin had used some magic to make it work anyway. After examining it more closely, he realized that it was an advanced book about Defense Against the Dark Arts with contents they didn’t even teach in Hogwarts. Sunwoo’s eyes lit up.

“Jeongin... thank you so much...” Sunwoo said, shocked and close to speechlessness.

Jeongin just gave him a wide smile, happy with Sunwoo’s reaction. There was also some chocolate and a letter inside the small box. When Sunwoo attempted to open the letter, Jeongin put his hand on it to prevent him from doing so, his face turning a bit red.

“Don’t read it now, that’s too embarrassing!” he exclaimed and Sunwoo just nodded awkwardly, putting the letter back into the box.

The two of them talked some more and decided to change into their Christmas sweaters before heading to the library, since Sunwoo wanted to start reading his book and Jeongin felt inspired to start practicing a bit with his new ‘Transfigurations for Dummies’ book, occasionally asking Sunwoo for advice because they didn’t really have anything else to do.

~

When Sunwoo got back to his empty dorm he washed up and sat down on his bed, holding Jeongin’s unopened Christmas letter in his hands. He felt nervous. He had never received a Christmas letter like this from anyone but his sister. He didn’t even know the contents of the letter yet, but he already felt so grateful that Jeongin had even bothered to write one for him.

He smiled at the pretty handwriting on the envelope spelling out his name before he finally opened it and pulled out a neatly folded piece of parchment.

Dear Sunwoo

I couldn’t bear the thought of you not getting anything for Christmas, so I just had to do this. I really hope you don’t mind T.T

I’ve never stayed in Hogwarts over Christmas vacation before and I’m excited to experience what the castle will be like when most of the students are gone~ I hope that we’ll find something to do. I think you’re a nice guy and I hope we can become close friends over the holidays!

I remembered you saying that you like to do self-studying and I figured that you were interested in Defense Against the Dark Arts, so I got you that large book and I really hope you enjoy reading it! I also hope you like that type of chocolate~

Merry Christmas

Jeongin

~

Despite Christmas break, Jeongin still agreed to a tutoring session with Jinyoung after Christmas. He knew he needed it and he was actually glad that the older had stayed in the castle. Maybe he would even get to use his ‘Transfigurations for Dummies’ book, since it did have a lot of helpful tips in it.

Jeongin greeted Jinyoung with a big smile when he entered the library.

“Hey, Jinyoung. How was your Christmas?” he questioned cheerfully.

“Uneventful, yet eye-opening...” Jinyoung answered.

Jeongin chuckled and gave him a questioning look, causing Jinyoung to give him a small smile and wave off.

“Let’s just say it was good. How about you?” he asked.

Jeongin’s smile returned to his face. “It was great. It was my first Christmas here, but I had a really great time!” he answered.

Jinyoung returned the smile. “That’s great to hear. Now, shall we get started on Transfigurations?”

Jeongin pouted a little, but got out his book nonetheless...

~

The rest of the two weeks practically flew by as Jeongin and Sunwoo spent almost every day together, just talking and getting to know each other.

One day however, Jeongin couldn’t find him anywhere. He had checked all of their favorite hangout spots, the Great Hall, the Owlery...

He had even asked another Slytherin to check if Sunwoo was in the common room.

Eventually, he decided to go outside for a while, even though it was incredibly cold there. It looked pretty; the castle all covered in snow, the frozen lake down by the boathouse, and even the forbidden forest. The young Hufflepuff decided to go take a closer look, since he was outside anyway and didn’t know what to do, now that Sunwoo was nowhere to be found.

Halfway down to the lake, he almost regretted his decision because of how cold it was, and was about to return to the castle, when he spotted a figure sitting in the snow near the lake. Jeongin took a few steps closer and realized that it was Sunwoo.

But what was he doing out there when it was freezing cold?

Jeongin approached him and sat down next to him on the small blanket Sunwoo had brought with him. Sunwoo’s eyes widened a bit when he noticed him.

“You startled me...” he said. “What are you doing out here when it’s this cold?” he added, looking back at the lake.

Jeongin chuckled. “That’s what I should be asking you. You’re literally sitting in the snow! Aren’t you cold?” he replied.

Sunwoo shrugged wordlessly, before looking down at the ground in front of him. A few seconds of silence passed before he answered.

“I don’t... feel temperatures,” he said eventually, causing Jeongin to look at him.

“Really?” he asked, earning a nod from Sunwoo. “Well... if you don’t feel temperatures why are you always, you know, wearing gloves?” he asked carefully.

Sunwoo looked at his gloved hands before hiding them under his cloak. “That’s... um, complicated...” he stammered.

“But–”

“You should go back to the castle, you’re going to catch a cold if you stay here...” Sunwoo stated, interrupting Jeongin.

He didn’t want Jeongin to be near him. He didn’t want him to get hurt because of him. And at the same time... his company made him forget all about it. It made him forget that he couldn’t get closer to him, that he should stay away from him. From everyone.

Jeongin ignored his statement and took a closer look at him instead. “Did something happen?” he asked. “You look so sad...”

The older pulled his hands out of his cloak pockets and Jeongin noticed him clutching something that seemed like a piece of parchment in his balled fist. He figured that it was a letter.

Sunwoo closed his eyes, reminded of the harsh words his parents had said to him just a few hours ago. How much it hurt him. How little they cared about him because of something that wasn’t his fault, something he couldn’t control. Sunwoo didn’t even notice the tear escaping his eye.

“My parents, they...” he didn’t get to finish his sentence without his voice cracking.

He didn’t want to cry in front of other people. Especially not in front of Jeongin.

Jeongin looked at him. He didn’t have to hear the details to know that his parents had treated him badly in some way again. He was now crying himself. He couldn’t find the right words to say so, instead, he just hugged Sunwoo wordlessly.

Sunwoo froze at first, not used to the feeling of somebody being this close to him, but eventually hugged him back, silently letting out the tears he’d been holding back.

He could hear Jeongin’s quiet sobs next to his ear, taking in his soft scent, feeling Jeongin’s arms wrapped around him, his warm breath against his neck and the warmth of his cheek pressed against his own. Wait.

He felt... his warmth?

But he didn’t usually feel temperatures.

He never had before.

It was a completely new feeling to him, but he liked it. It felt nice and comforting, and it calmed him. It made him forget about all these bad things he experienced almost every day, like his circumstances didn’t even matter. Sunwoo hugged him a bit tighter.

After a few more seconds, Jeongin let go of Sunwoo and wiped his own tears. His nose and fingers looked red from the cold, but he smiled nonetheless.

“Are you feeling a bit better? My mom says a warm hug says more than approximately 20 words,” he said.

It was such a silly joke that it made Sunwoo smile a bit, causing Jeongin to point at him.

“Oh! You smiled! I’ve never seen you smile before!” he exclaimed.

Sunwoo’s smile dropped. “I... don’t usually smile a lot,” he mumbled.

“You should. It’s cute! And you know what you also should? You should go to Hogsmeade with me,” Jeongin said smoothly, smiling widely.

“Hogsmeade? I’m not sure... I never go there,” Sunwoo replied.

“Then it’s about time! Go there with me tomorrow!” Jeongin requested and eventually convinced him to agree to go to Hogsmeade with him.

“Fine,” Sunwoo said, “but for now, we should go back to the castle before you really do get sick.”

~

So, the next day, they put on their warm clothing, met up in the entrance hall and went to Hogsmeade, where Jeongin showed Sunwoo his favorite places.

Sunwoo enjoyed it, the way Jeongin excitedly took him from one place to another, happily telling him stories about memories he’d made there with his friends. They would’ve explored the stores too but most of them were closed during the holidays, so they just aimlessly walked through the decorated streets.

Sunwoo didn’t feel the cold but he noticed that Jeongin kept rubbing his hands together, trying to get a bit warmer. He stopped to take Jeongin’s hands and put them in the pockets of his warm jacket.

Jeongin looked at him in surprise before blushing the slightest bit. “O-Oh... um, I’m sorry, you don’t like to be touched–” he said before trying to pull his hands out of Sunwoo’s pockets again.

Sunwoo held on to them, however. “N-No, it’s not that I... um... your hands are really cold, so I just figured...” Sunwoo stammered awkwardly.

Jeongin smiled at him. “Oh, thank you,” he said before pressing a quick kiss onto Sunwoo’s cheek.

He was startled at first, when he felt that warmth again and lifted one of his hands to touch his own cheek.

Why was he able to feel things like warmth all of a sudden?

He didn’t mind, not at all, but he also couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Jeongin blushed and giggled. “Sorry, it’s what I do!” Sunwoo looked away in embarrassment. “Oh, you’re not wearing your gloves today,” Jeongin pointed out.

“Yeah, I didn’t feel like it today. Are my hands too cold?” he asked.

“No, they’re not that cold. Plus, your pockets are really warm~” Jeongin smiled.

Sunwoo’s heartbeat sped up when he looked at Jeongin’s cute smile, so he quickly cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“You get cold so quickly, why didn’t you put on your Hufflepuff scarf!” he scolded, still holding Jeongin’s warm hands in his pockets.

“I wanted to! But I think I lost it somewhere...” Jeongin pouted, earning a sigh from Sunwoo.

It had already gotten dark and there was nothing left to do in Hogsmeade, so they decided to head back to the castle.

After arriving in the dungeons, Jeongin was about to say goodbye to Sunwoo, when the Slytherin told him to wait there for a few minutes before walking towards the Slytherin common room. Jeongin didn’t have to wait long for Sunwoo to return, a green scarf in his hands.

“Here, use this one until you find your own scarf,” Sunwoo said, already putting the scarf around Jeongin’s neck.

“Your Slytherin scarf!” Jeongin observed, taking a closer look at it. “T-Thanks but won’t you get cold?” he questioned.

“I told you already, I don’t get cold. You need it more than I do,” Sunwoo decided.

Jeongin smiled. “Well, thank you! I’ll give it back to you once I find my own,” he promised and Sunwoo also gave him a small smile. “There’s your smile again,” Jeongin cheered, causing the other to blush a little before turning around to go back to his common room.

Sunwoo didn’t really let people see it, but Jeongin knew that he was actually really caring.

~

Sunwoo smiled to himself when he entered his empty dorm room and let himself plop down on his bed. He was always cautious around others and felt awkward about talking to anyone when spending time with people, but it was different with Jeongin.

It was so easy to talk to Jeongin and he felt like he didn’t have to be scared anymore, like his circumstances didn’t matter.

They did matter, but Jeongin was the only person who made him forget about them completely, even if it was only temporarily.

~

The castle slowly but surely regained its population when Christmas vacation came to an end, and everyone’s schedules returned to normal.

Jeongin kind of missed the atmosphere of the empty castle already, but at the same time he was glad to see his friends and dormmates again and ask them all about how they spent their Christmas.

“How about your Christmas, Jeongin? Didn’t you end up staying at Hogwarts? What did you do all day?” Kangmin asked as he joined him by the fireplace in the Hufflepuff common room.

Jeongin blushed a bit when he realized that he had spent pretty much every day with Sunwoo. “I spent time with other students who stayed here... especially Kim Sunwoo,” he smiled.

Kangmin froze and his eyes widened at Jeongin’s words. “K-Kim Sunwoo?”

“Yeah, he’s so nice!” Jeongin replied cheerfully.

Kangmin’s eyes widened even more. “I can’t believe you’re hanging out with him after I warned you,” he said, shaking his head. Jeongin was about to say something, when some other Hufflepuffs, among them Guanlin, interrupted them and invited them to go to Hogsmeade together.

Kangmin and Jeongin agreed, put on their warm clothes, since it was still snowing outside, and made their way to Hogsmeade.

On the way there, the group of students cheerfully talked more about their holidays as they walked through the snow. Some other fifth years from different houses had joined them on the way and they had a great time reuniting.

The air was stingingly cold, causing Jeongin’s cheeks, nose and ears to turn red very quickly, so he fell behind a bit, pulled out the scarf Sunwoo had given him and put it on. He smiled to himself, thankful that he remembered to bring it. It still smelled like the older and successfully warmed Jeongin’s face. Much better.

The Hufflepuff caught up with the group again, and Kangmin turned around to him, furrowing his eyebrows at the Slytherin scarf around Jeongin’s neck.

“A Slytherin scarf? Last time I checked, you were in Hufflepuff,” he half-joked. The other students seemed curious about it too. Jeongin giggled and looked down at the green scarf.

“I couldn’t find my Hufflepuff scarf a few days ago, so Sunwoo lent me his Slytherin one until I find it again. He said he doesn’t mind the cold and that I need it more than he does. See, Kangmin? I told you that he’s really nice!” Jeongin explained happily but the other fifth years exchanged looks and whispered to each other.

“Jeongin...” one of them started, giving him a concerned look.

“Jeongin, you probably shouldn’t wear that... Kim Sunwoo is bad news...” another student said, and the others nodded in agreement.

“Didn’t he already get you hurt during that Quidditch match a while ago?” a third student added.

Jeongin rolled his eyes. “He apologized! It was an accident!”

Kangmin gave him an even more concerned look. “Is that what he told you? Oh, Jeongin... you really need to be cautious of that guy. What if he cursed that scarf? He probably stole your Hufflepuff scarf beforehand, so he could give you his cursed one...” he speculated as some of the others gasped in shock and exchanged looks.

“He’s a thief now, too? I can’t believe him...”

“I heard that his grandparents were Death Eaters...” another one mumbled.

“Yeah and I heard that he experiments with dark magic on animals in the forbidden forest!”

“Really?! Oh my god. How scary!”

Jeongin scoffed in disbelief. “He would never do any of that! You guys don’t even know him!” he exclaimed, and the group just took a step away from him, singling him out.

“That’s probably the curse talking...” one of them muttered in a scared tone. “I’ve heard enough about him to know this much. The curse he put on the scarf probably makes you like him or something... what a weirdo...”

Jeongin couldn’t believe them.

How could they talk like this about someone they had probably never even talked to before? He took one last look at them, shaking his head before turning around to head back to the castle.

Was this why people avoided Sunwoo? Because of some crazy rumors that probably weren’t even true?

Jeongin was close to tears. This was just so unfair. If only people took the time to get to know Sunwoo, they would realize that he wasn’t like that.

When Jeongin arrived back at the castle, he let out a deep sigh and headed back to his common room to change out of his now snow-covered clothes. He then decided to check the Great Hall to see if any of his other friends were there and could help him get his mind off things.

He found Daehwi there, sitting at the Gryffindor table, reading a book by himself.

“Hi, Daehwi!” he greeted the slightly older. Daehwi looked up from his book, his face brightening up at the sight of Jeongin.

“Jeongin, hey! Weren’t you heading to Hogsmeade just ten minutes ago?” he replied.

“I was but I... changed my mind,” Jeongin stated, thinking back to his ‘friends’ talking trash about Sunwoo. He shook the thought out of his head “I’d much rather hang out with you, Daehwi!” he smiled cheerfully.

Daehwi blushed. “O-oh, thanks,” he stammered and nervously took a sip of his juice.

“Anyway, what are you reading?” Jeongin asked, gesturing towards the book in front of Daehwi.

“Ah, just something about Divination. It looked interesting when I saw it in the library but it’s actually pretty boring,” he chuckled.

Daehwi then tried to pour himself some tea but as he set the kettle back down, his sleeve ended up getting caught in his cup somehow, spilling the hot tea all over Jeongin’s hand.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, Jeongin!” Daehwi apologized, quickly pouring some cold water over a tissue he summoned and wrapping in around Jeongin’s hand for a few seconds and pulling out a small bandage to put on Jeongin’s hand before he could even say anything.

“Don’t worry about it, it’ll heal in no time,” Jeongin said and chuckled at the apologetic expression on his friend’s face. He watched as Daehwi skillfully wrapped the bandage around his hand and gave him a smile once he finished.

“Thanks for always looking out for me, Daehwi,” he said and fondly squeezed the Gryffindor’s hand.

Daehwi looked down on Jeongin’s hand on his as his cheeks heated up. “D-don’t mention it...” he smiled.

A few seconds of silence passed as Daehwi blushed even more and looked like he wanted to say something important but was still contemplating whether it was a good idea or not.

“What is it, Daehwi?” Jeongin asked.

The Gryffindor nervously bit his lip. “Actually, I... wanted to t-tell you something...” he stated, avoiding Jeongin’s eyes. “Do you remember... the Halloween party?” he asked carefully.

“Of course,” Jeongin replied.

“The guy who kissed you there was me,” Daehwi admitted.

Jeongin’s jaw dropped. “W-what, w-why?” he exclaimed.

Daehwi blushed hard and took a deep breath before opening his mouth to respond: “Because I like you. In fact, I’ve been in love with you since second grade!” Jeongin didn’t know what to say.

His best friend was in love with him? He wouldn’t have expected that at all.

“Daehwi, I–”

“You don’t have to give me an answer... j-just maybe think about it, okay?” With that Daehwi got up and stormed out of the Great Hall, his face still beet red. Jeongin stared after him, still in disbelief.

How could he not have noticed that his best friend had feelings for him?

Another thought crossed Jeongin’s mind as he got up from his seat to head to the Hufflepuff common room in order to fetch his Transfigurations book before he made his way to his tutoring session with Jinyoung.

Had Daehwi also been the one who had left him all those cute love notes?

It would make sense since it obviously hadn’t been Lucas.

Now that he thought about it, he realized that Daehwi had always been there for him when he needed him; he had always been a shoulder to cry on and he had known him ever since he had come to Hogwarts.

But did he have romantic feelings for him?

On the way to the library, he noticed how a couple of students were staring at him and whispering to each other as he walked past. Jeongin furrowed his brows and gave them a confused look, but most of them skedaddled as soon as he met their eyes.

‘Oh my god, it’s true...’

‘He’s really wearing it’

‘Kim Sunwoo cursed his scarf’

‘That’s him... the target... poor guy...’

‘Don’t look at it for too long or you’ll have bad luck for a week. Or even worse... you’ll be the next target!’

Jeongin ignored their terrified expressions and continued to make his way to the library, scoffing in disbelief.

Rumors really did spread like a wildfire in this castle.

He hoped that those rumors would die down before they reached Sunwoo’s ears...

~

“Jeongin, are you listening?” Jinyoung asked with a concerned expression on his face.

Jeongin snapped out of his thoughts, Daehwi’s confession still fresh on his mind. “Sorry, I kind of zoned out,” he apologized with an awkward chuckle. “Could you repeat that?”

Jinyoung chuckled and repeated his sentence about transforming paper into flying origami. Jeongin tried to transform a piece of paper into a bird.

Unfortunately, it ended up looking more like a duck. He pouted. “I can’t do this...” he complained. Jinyoung squeezed his hand reassuringly before showing him the charm multiple times until Jeongin managed to make it look like a bird.

Now the only problem left was to make it fly.

“Here, I’ll show you again...” Jinyoung grabbed a new piece of paper from his bag, scribbled something on it, transformed it into a bird and let it fly towards Jeongin. The younger snatched the bird out of the air to prevent it from disturbing anyone and unfolded it. The type of paper looked kind of familiar.

‘I like you,’ it read.

Jeongin’s eyes widened in realization. That handwriting... the paper. He looked up at Jinyoung.

“The love notes... were they from you? Was it you all along? Are you my secret admirer?” he asked, shocked.

Jinyoung avoided his eyes and nodded shyly. Before Jeongin could say anything else, the Ravenclaw scrambled his books into his bag, mumbling, “just... t-think about it,” before practically running out of the library.

Jeongin ruffled his hair in and let out a sigh.

Had he really just received his second confession of the day?

He couldn’t believe that the cute love notes he had been receiving for about a month now had been from Jinyoung all along. His tutor was his secret admirer. He had genuinely had no idea this whole time.

He felt flattered and a bit overwhelmed too...

First Daehwi and now Jinyoung too?

What was he going to do about this situation?

Still baffled, Jeongin gathered his books and left the library to head back to his common room. He needed some time to think about things.

How did he feel about Daehwi and how did he feel about Jinyoung?

He would have to give both of them a response soon, since making them wait would only make this situation even more complicated...

As Jeongin made his way out of the main building and crossed the viaduct in order to get to his destination, he looked to his side and noticed someone’s presence.

It was none other than Sunwoo, sitting on the ledge and facing the horizon with his legs dangling towards the void below. He seemed unbothered by the dangerous position he was in but Jeongin gasped in shock, leaped towards him and grabbed his arm, in an attempt to pull him off the edge.

“Oh my god, Sunwoo! That’s dangerous, get off there!” he panicked.

Sunwoo turned to him and quickly slid of the edge to stand in front of Jeongin.

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you...” he responded in surprise, giving the other an apologetic look. He obviously hadn’t expected Jeongin to pass by there.

“I thought you were gonna fall off...” Jeongin said, clutching his heart and trying to calm down from this panic moment. He noticed that Sunwoo looked pretty down again.

Maybe he’d heard about those rumors?

Jeongin really hoped he hadn’t.

“Please don’t be so reckless, you’re making me worry!” Jeongin added as he examined Sunwoo for any injuries.

“Sorry,” the older repeated quietly.

That was when he noticed the bandage on Jeongin’s hand. “What’s that? Did you get hurt?” he asked in a concerned tone.

Jeongin waved off, “It’s nothing, just a little burn.”

Sunwoo came closer and took Jeongin’s hand to carefully take a closer look at it. “And you say I’m worrying you...” he replied before concluding that Jeongin had probably gotten hurt because of how energetic he was most of the time. He didn’t let go of the younger’s hand, however.

Sunwoo still didn’t understand how it was possible for him to feel warmth all of a sudden. On top of that, it only ever happened when he was near Jeongin. But he liked the feeling of Jeongin’s warm hand in his cold one.

“You always do, though... I worry about you all the time,” Jeongin replied.

“That’s what I like about you,” Sunwoo confessed without thinking before his eyes widened in realization. “No, wait... I-I didn’t mean... um...” he stammered as his face turned as red as Jeongin’s.

Jeongin felt his heartbeat pick up. “What are you saying?” he asked, meeting Sunwoo’s eyes.

Their eye-contact lasted for a few seconds as Sunwoo tried to come up with the right words to say and Jeongin anxiously waited for his reply. Sunwoo eventually decided to just not say anything and instead put his hands on Jeongin’s flushed cheeks, closed his eyes and pressed his lips against his.

The warmth he used to only feel on his skin whenever he touched Jeongin now spread through his body, warming him from the inside. The kiss only lasted for a few seconds, but it left such an amazing impact on Sunwoo.

Yes, he liked Jeongin. A lot.

His cute smile, his laugh, his scent, his clumsiness, his kindness, his energy, his positivity... everything about him. He had finally realized that he did after Jeongin had hugged and comforted him at the lake; when he had felt his warmth for the first time.

No one had ever cared about Sunwoo as much as Jeongin did despite all those rumors about him, and he didn’t care if it was just the way Jeongin treated everyone around him. He had never felt like that about anyone or anything before and he wanted that feeling of warmth and safety to last forever. He wanted to protect Jeongin and keep him safe by his side.

When Sunwoo pulled away and looked at him however, he felt embarrassed and anxious about Jeongin’s reaction to his sudden and wordless confession. Jeongin seemed speechless and just looked up at Sunwoo. He took it as a bad sign and just escaped the scene, running toward the castle and leaving a flustered Jeongin behind.

Jeongin didn’t know what to say or what to do with himself when he looked after him and moved his hand to touch his lips.

This entire day must be a weird fever dream or something.

The fact that three of his friends had confessed to him on the same day was just too surreal.

What was he going to tell them?

And more importantly... who was he going to ‘choose’?

~

Sunwoo was laying in his bed, looking up at the ceiling and trying to calm his heartbeat. His cheeks still felt hot and he questioned his entire existence.

Why the hell had he done that?

He had told himself to stay away from Jeongin so many times and instead, he had possibly ruined whatever relationship they had.

He ran a hand through his hair and rolled around in his bed.

What the hell had gotten into him?

How could he just randomly kiss him without any permission, explanation, or context?

What if Jeongin hated him now?

What if he would avoid him now, just like all the other students?

Sunwoo didn’t even want to imagine that.

Then again... it was probably the best for Jeongin. He would be better off staying away from Sunwoo...

At least he would be safe.

~

The next day at breakfast, Jeongin’s mind was still so occupied by the three confessions he had received the day before, that he almost didn’t notice Hyunjin joining him at the Hufflepuff table.

“What’s on your mind, Jeongin? You look preoccupied,” he questioned with a chuckle as he poured some milk over his cereal.

Jeongin looked at him and sighed. “It’s just... no, never mind. Where’s Seungmin? Aren’t you two always together?” Jeongin replied.

“He’s at the library, studying for midterms. He sent me here because I’m ‘too distracting’” Hyunjin explained with a pout. “But don’t try to change the subject! What’s wrong?” he added.

Jeongin let a hand run through his hair in frustration. “I’m conflicted. Three of my friends confessed to me yesterday...”

Hyunjin choked on his cereal. “Three? Wow, my little brother from another mother got game!” he applauded.

“Not funny! I don’t know what to do... because... I don’t know how I actually feel about them,” Jeongin whined, “Help me, Hyunjin!”

Hyunjin set down his orange juice and gave Jeongin a soft smile. “Well, tell me about them. You don’t have to say who it is if you don’t want to,” he suggested.

Jeongin took a deep breath and decided to go along with it. “One of them is a friend I’ve known for a long time. I didn’t even know he had feelings for me because I never really looked at him like that. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy and he’s always there for me whenever I needed him. But... I don’t think I like him romantically,” he explained, causing Hyunjin to nod as if he was mentally taking notes before he gestured for Jeongin to continue.

“I’m not as close to the second one, he’s more of a secret admirer. He helped me with some school stuff, and he wrote me really sweet love notes for about a month. He’s very nice and I’m thankful that he helped me so much, but I don’t really know him that well...” Jeongin elaborated as Hyunjin continued to listen closely with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“And what about the third one?”

“The last one...” Jeongin started but trailed off, blushing and unable to hide a smile. “He’s kind of mysterious... there’s many things I don’t understand about him, but he’s really cute and sweet at the same time. A lot of people don’t like him, but I think he’s just very lonely and misunderstood. I like spending time with him, and I want to get to know more about him. And... he actually kissed me...”

Jeongin mumbled that last part but Hyunjin smirked knowingly. “What do I do?” the younger whined once more and buried his face in his hands.

“Listen, Jeongin. You don’t need to choose anyone if you don’t have feelings for them. Just don’t lead them on,” Hyunjin advised. “And also, I think deep down, you already know who you want to go for...” he winked and chuckled when Jeongin blushed even more.

“I’ll have to think about it... but thanks, Hyunjin!” Jeongin smiled and got up from his seat to head to his first class.

Obviously, his attempt to focus on the lesson failed miserably.

It was the same for the rest of the day as well.

Even in the evening, when he was sitting in the Hufflepuff common room, already about to go to bed early to give his mind a break, he couldn’t think about anything else. How was he supposed to fall asleep that night when his mind kept wandering to Daehwi’s nervous expression when he had confessed to him, to Jinyoung’s blushed face when he had hurried out of the library and lastly... to the feeling of Sunwoo’s lips on his.

Jeongin once again turned beet red and touched his own lips when he remembered the moment. The way Sunwoo had just cupped the youngers cheeks and kissed him without any warning, the way he had gotten shy about it and ran off, the way he had taken care of Jeongin by giving him his scarf and by trying to warm his hands in the pockets of his jacket when they were in Hogsmeade, the way he had hugged Jeongin tightly and cried on his shoulder by the lake...

Jeongin wanted to know more about Sunwoo. He wanted to know why he was so careful with him, why he was so mysterious and what he saw Jeongin as. He had never wondered about anyone this much before and it was driving him crazy.

That was it.

Jeongin got up from the couch by the fireplace in the Hufflepuff common room, grabbed his jacket and Sunwoo’s Slytherin scarf before making his way out of the common room. The answer had been clear to him all along. All he had to do was grow a pair and tell Sunwoo. The sooner the better, before he changed his mind and chickened out.

It didn’t take him long to get to the Slytherin common room, both common rooms were in the dungeons after all. He took a deep breath as he watched a couple of Slytherins leave their common room. They seemed like second or third-year students. After a few more seconds, another Slytherin turned the corner. To Jeongin’s knowledge, he was Heo Hyunjoon and he was in Sunwoo’s and Hyunjin’s year.

“Um... hi! You’re Hyunjoon, right?” Jeongin asked after approaching the older boy. Hyunjoon looked a bit confused but nodded. “Do you perhaps know if Kim Sunwoo is in his dorm?” the younger continued.

“Probably. He’s in the dorm most of the time,” Hyunjoon shrugged and Jeongin smiled triumphantly.

“Could you tell him to come to the Stone Circle? I... have something to tell him...” Jeongin requested.

“Sure.”

“Thank you so much!” Jeongin cheered before hurrying out of the dungeons, through the Entrance Hall and over the courtyard towards the Stone Circle.

It was already pretty late so, of course, it was dark outside and the only light source that lit up the area was the moonlight. The sky was clear and showed millions of beautiful stars.

Jeongin decided to take a seat on one of the stone benches and waited for a few minutes. He regretted his choice to meet Sunwoo outside since it was very cold. It was January after all. He ended up burying his face in the green scarf he had brought along as he felt his heartbeat pick up in nervousness.

What if Sunwoo had changed his mind about him?

What if he wouldn’t show up for some reason?

And even if he did show up, how was Jeongin going to tell him about his feelings without making a complete fool of himself?

He didn’t get to think about that more because after a few more minutes, he already heard quick footsteps come closer and closer until an exhausted Sunwoo appeared in front of him. The older looked relieved when his eyes met the younger, his chest rapidly rising and sinking and his breath visible in the cold night air. He must have run all the way out here.

“You’re really here...” he panted as he came to a halt in front of Jeongin, who got to his feet. “Sorry for making you wait... I got here as soon as I heard,” Sunwoo said, earning a smile from the younger.

“Don’t worry, I just got here myself,” Jeongin reassured him.

There were a few moments of silence between the two. They just looked at each other until Sunwoo cleared his throat awkwardly.

“S-so about yesterday... I...” Sunwoo’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment as he trailed off.

Jeongin wanted to explain why he had called Sunwoo out here like that, tell him what he wanted to let him know so bad, but he didn’t really know how to start.

Meanwhile, the older seemed to assume that Jeongin was going to shut him down and started to ramble out apologies to prevent Jeongin from rejecting him.

“I-I’m sorry for... doing that so suddenly... I swear, I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. I don’t know why I did that either – I mean I do know why I did it – but... like... I totally get it if you hate me now. I shouldn’t have done it and I’m–” Sunwoo rambled on and Jeongin had to hold back a chuckle at how cute and flustered he was before stepping closer to him in a rush of confidence.

Before Sunwoo could even realize what he was doing, Jeongin wrapped his arms around him and softly pressed his lips against Sunwoo’s for a brief second, successfully interrupting his rambling. Sunwoo didn’t know what to say and just looked at Jeongin in surprise.

“I didn’t call you out here to reject you. I actually just wanted to tell you that I like you, Sunwoo,” Jeongin smiled, his arms still wrapped around him.

Sunwoo’s eyes widened. “Y-you like me?” he asked, earning a nod from Jeongin. “B-but why would you like someone like me? All I did was hurt you and be an unlucky charm to you. Most of the people in this castle hate me or are scared of me. They’ve even started to badmouth you and avoid you ever since you’ve started to wear my scarf. It-it’s not good for you to be near someone like me–”

Jeongin interrupted him with another quick kiss. “I don’t care about any of that. I don’t care what they say about you or me. I still like you, Sunwoo... And I...” he blushed deeply, “I want to be with you!”

Sunwoo seemed speechless once again. He couldn’t believe his ears.

Jeongin actually liked him back?

Could he really try to be with him?

His reasonable side said no. No, he couldn’t be with him. It would be too dangerous for him. Sunwoo didn’t deserve him and Jeongin would only get hurt because of him.

But his heart screamed yes. His heart wanted to be with Jeongin, to protect him. He felt like everything would be alright if he just had Jeongin by his side. And his heart was stronger than his mind in that moment.

He leaned forward and reconnected their lips once more, for a little bit longer this time. “I like you too, Yang Jeongin,” he said after he let go of him again and pulled the younger into a hug. He felt the now familiar feeling of warmth again and hugged Jeongin a bit tighter, unable to hide his smile now. “You’re the only one who can make me feel warm like this,” Sunwoo added and closed his eyes.

The two of them remained in that position for what felt like hours, without words, just enjoying the feeling of being close to each other.

Eventually, Sunwoo pulled away from Jeongin, still smiling, and placed a kiss on his forehead. “You should return to your common room. It’s cold out here, you’ll catch a cold if we stay any longer,” he said. Jeongin pouted but ended up agreeing with Sunwoo.

So the two of them returned to the castle, their hands intertwined as they climbed down the stairs to the dungeons. Sunwoo walked him to the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room before wishing him a good night, giving him one last smile and then returned to his own dorm, leaving the younger behind with a giddy feeling.

~

The next morning, Jeongin woke up with the brightest smile on his face. Although he wasn’t one hundred percent sure if yesterday’s events had been a part of his dream about Sunwoo, but he sure hoped that they weren’t.

He stretched, got up from his bed, washed up and paid a little more attention to his hair than usual. He then made his way out of the dungeon, ready for breakfast.

The fact that he randomly broke out into giggles from time to time and smiled like an idiot didn’t really help stopping those rumors about him being cursed, but he didn’t really care about that. When he entered the Great Hall, his eyes skimmed the Slytherin table, trying to find Sunwoo, but he didn’t seem to be there yet, so Jeongin pouted and decided to take a seat at the Hufflepuff table.

While chewing on his buttered toast and sipping on his juice, he couldn’t help but wonder about what he was going to say to Sunwoo once he saw him.

Could he officially call him his boyfriend now? His cheeks flared up at the thought and the students around him gave him some weird looks.

Jeongin finished his breakfast by himself and got up to leave the Great Hall in order try and maybe find Sunwoo before he had to head to class. He hurried through the large door and ran right into a person who was just about to enter the Great Hall, almost causing the person and himself to fall over. Jeongin looked up to see that he had run into just the person he was looking for.

“S-Sunwoo!” he said, looking up at him.

“Hey, Jeongin. I was just about to look for you...” Sunwoo said, blushed a bit and gave him a small smile, not really sure what to say next.

There was a short pause as the two of them looked at each other, smiling giddily. “Do you... wanna eat breakfast together?” Sunwoo suggested, breaking the silence.

“Actually, I already ate just now...” Jeongin chuckled, causing the Slytherin’s smile to fade a bit.

“Oh, I see... that’s okay I’m not... that hungry anyways...” he replied awkwardly.

That was when his stomach growled loudly, exposing his lie. Jeongin laughed as Sunwoo looked away and cleared his throat in embarrassment.

“I can still sit with you at your table,” he smiled and took the older by the hand before entering the Great Hall again, heading for the Slytherin table. Sunwoo noticed many students looking at them and whispering to each other as the two students walked past.

‘There he is’

‘Are they... holding hands?’

‘So, he really did curse Jeongin to make him like him... what a creep...’

‘I guess he kind of deserved it if he was too naïve to see through Sunwoo’s bull...”

He nudged the younger and tried to let go of his hand to stop them from starting any more rumors and ruining Jeongin’s reputation, but Jeongin didn’t let him.

“It’s okay, Sunwoo, just ignore those idiots... they don’t know what they’re talking about,” he told him and continued to hold his hand.

Once they had arrived at the Slytherin table, Sunwoo filled his plate with some scrambled eggs and bacon as Jeongin watched him with a small smile. The students around them were still whispering to each other and exchanging looks but that wasn’t really anything out of the usual for Sunwoo. He just didn’t want them to talk about Jeongin.

He looked up from his plate to see Jeongin smile right at him with his chin in the palms of his hands.

“What is it?” he asked but Jeongin just shook his head.

“Nothing, it’s just...” he blushed a bit, “have I ever told you that you’re really handsome?”

Sunwoo choked on his food and took a sip of his grape juice, a blush spreading across his face. “U-um, no, I don’t think so,” he replied in surprise.

“You’re really handsome.”

“Th-thanks...” he said, giving the younger a small smile. No one had ever called him that before. But if Jeongin thought so, then that was the only opinion that mattered to him.

Even if he found Jeongin much more gorgeous than himself... the bright eyes he had whenever he looked up at him, the way they would disappear whenever he smiled at him, the dimples that appeared on his cheeks when he was talking to him, the fact that Jeongin was a bit shorter than him, his fluffy-looking light brown hair and–

“Sunwoo,” Jeongin said, waving a hand in front the Slytherin’s face, ripping him out of his thoughts.

“Wh– yes?” he stammered.

“Your food is getting cold,” Jeongin replied, laughing. “And I might not survive if you keep looking at me like that,” he added quietly.

“R-Right...”

Sunwoo finished eating and the two of them left the Great Hall again, followed by the eyes of more nosy students. Sunwoo walked Jeongin to his class since he had a free period and therefore had some extra time on his hands. When they arrived in front of the Charms classroom, Jeongin turned around to his boyfriend and smiled up at him.

Sunwoo, however, seemed a bit absent-minded.

“Jeongin... are you sure you’re okay?” he asked with a serious expression on his face.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” Jeongin replied with a smile.

“People are avoiding you because of me. And it will probably only get worse from now on. They are scared of me, and people do crazy things when they’re scared. I don’t want you to suffer because of me. I like you and I want to be with you... but I don’t know if I should if all it does is hurt you,” Sunwoo explained.

“Sunwoo...” Jeongin said and pulled him into a hug. “Please don’t think like that. I don’t know why you’re so scared of hurting me. But I know that I don’t care about them and that I want to stay with you. I promise, I’m okay with anything that comes with that,” he told Sunwoo, his arms wrapped around his waist and his chin resting on his shoulder.

“I just don’t want to lose you,” Sunwoo said next to his ear, just loud enough for only Jeongin to hear. Jeongin pulled away, took both of Sunwoo’s hands and intertwined their fingers before giving him a soft kiss on the cheek.

“And you won’t,” he smiled. They heard Professor Flitwick tell the students inside the classroom to settle down, indicating that Jeongin’s class was about to start.

“I’ll see you later, okay?” he asked, earning a nod from Sunwoo. He was about to let go of his hands and hurry inside the classroom when Sunwoo held him back to give him one last peck on the lips, catching Jeongin by surprise.

“Have fun,” he smiled and turned to leave before Jeongin could notice his red cheeks. He could hear his boyfriend chuckle behind him as he walked off with a smile on his face.

Maybe he could make it work somehow.

Maybe, if he tried hard enough, he could protect him.

Maybe, in order to keep him safe, the best solution was to just not tell him.