The next morning, when Jihyo told Jeongyeon the story of how she had basically told Nayeon off the night before, the Chaser almost choked on her toast laughing.

“Park Jihyo, I knew I was best friends with you for a reason! You’re an absolute legend!” Jeongyeon wheezed out, making Jihyo roll her eyes but smile anyway.

She couldn’t help but be proud of herself, knowing that she had gotten the last word for once. Causing that infuriating smirk to disappear from Nayeon’s face had felt pretty legendary in the moment, she had to admit. Jihyo had finally been able to get her ‘revenge’, and it was like all seemed right in the world. Now, she could wash her hands of the issue and, hopefully, never have to deal with one Im Nayeon ever again.

“Well, I’m just glad that I was able to get an actual apology out of her for once. It’s the least I could do,” Jihyo dismissed with a shrug of her shoulders.

Jeongyeon hummed, shoving another piece of toast into distractedly, “I mean, she already kinda apologized for the Bludger thing, but the apology you got was so much better. Merlin, I wish I was there to see Im’s face when you--”

The rest of Jeongyeon’s statement escaped Jihyo, as she chose to focus on the first part of it. “What do you mean, she already apologized?” Jihyo said slowly, brows furrowed in a deep frown. She didn’t recall Jeongyeon nor Nayeon ever mentioning there having been an apology...

Jeongyeon looked up from her food with a small frown of her own. “Wait, Im didn’t mention that to you?” When Jihyo shook her head, Jeongyeon continued, “I mean, it was a pretty rubbish apology, but I guess by her standards it was genuine. She said, and I quote,” Jeongyeon put on a pretentious and nasally voice that sounded unlike Nayeon entirely, “‘I’m sorry I caused you to break your hand by being such an amazing and unstoppable force of a Beater.’” Jeongyeon scoffed. “Even when she’s apologizing she’s full of herself.”

Jihyo leaned back in surprise. It may have been a very narcissistic way to phrase it, but from what Jihyo knew about the Slytherin, it seemed likely that it was the closest Nayeon would get to a genuine apology. “When was this?” she demanded, wanting as much information about this apparent apology as possible.

Jeongyeon thought for a moment, “It was when I was still in the Hospital Wing. She just burst in and ignored Madam Pomfrey when she said visiting hours were over. So… maybe an hour after you came to visit?”

Not that long after I confronted her outside the Slytherin locker room, Jihyo realized. She was now completely confused-- why would Nayeon say those horrible things just to go apologize to Jeongyeon a few hours later? Why would she continue to say horrible things, trying to provoke Jihyo, instead of just saying that she had already apologized for her actions? It made absolutely no sense, no sense at all. Realizing there was only one way to obtain the truth, Jihyo turned her head to look across the Great Hall.

“Where are you going?” Jeongyeon’s voice was quizzical as the Head Girl lifted herself from the bench.

“To get answers,” Jihyo replied, determined to get Nayeon to confess her true intentions.

Jihyo felt a sense of dejavu as she marched toward the Slytherin table, recalling the last time that she had tried to confront Nayeon. That altercation had ended with Nayeon having the upper hand, but after their little discussion last night, Jihyo felt the playing field was more even this time around.

When Jihyo approached Nayeon, she was surprised to see the girl eating her breakfast and reading a book alone. It was a strange, foreign sight-- Jihyo was so used to seeing Nayeon surrounded by her Quidditch teammates, laughing and messing around, that seeing the girl looking so quiet and peaceful was almost out of place. Shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts, Jihyo moved to stand right in front of the girl.

Nayeon’s gaze flicked upward, and she seemed obviously surprised to see Jihyo standing there. Some emotion that Jihyo couldn’t quite discern flickered in the Beater’s eyes for a moment before her face smoothed into a lazy smile. “Can I help you with something?” she drawled when Jihyo didn’t say anything right away, shutting her book.

Deciding not to pull any punches, Jihyo just asked exactly what was on her mind. “Why didn’t you ever mention that you apologized to Jeongyeon?”

Nayeon visibly stiffened at first, obviously caught off guard. She was quiet for a few beats, and Jihyo could almost see the gears working in her head, figuring out what to say. Eventually, Nayeon just shrugged her shoulders in a dismissive manner. Her voice light and her brows raised, she answered, “Slipped my mind?”

Nayeon’s features were carefully schooled again, all evidence of surprise gone, and Jihyo felt her frustration building despite herself. The Gryffindor huffed, “That’s not the reason, and we both know it, so just tell me the truth. Why didn’t you just tell me that you apologized, so I didn’t have to…” Jihyo gestured, “threaten you last night?” She remembered Nayeon mumbling that she wouldn’t actually deliberately hurt Jeongyeon, and now Jihyo was inclined to believe that she had been telling the truth.

It seemed Nayeon had recovered from Jihyo’s sudden interrogation, as her signature grin made a reappearance. She pushed up from the bench, and Jihyo numbly wondered how she’d managed to find herself with Im Nayeon within her personal bubble twice in less than 24 hours. “You know, you’re really attractive when you’re angry, princess,” Nayeon mused, as if that was somehow the answer to all of Jihyo’s questions. (Maybe, something in the back of Jihyo’s mind said, it is.)

The Slytherin leaned in slightly and Jihyo held her breath, only releasing it when she realized Nayeon was just retrieving her book on the table behind Jihyo. What the bloody hell else would she be doing, Park? Jihyo scolded herself, trying not to look flustered. Flashing those stupid bunny teeth again, Nayeon teased, “I think saying ‘seeya around’ is our thing now, right? So… seeya around.” She winked and with that she walked away, hands tucked casually into her robe pockets.

Jihyo had confronted Nayeon looking for answers, but now she felt even more confused about the Slytherin girl.

---

If Jihyo couldn’t get the Slytherin off of her mind before, she was finding it exceedingly difficult to do so now after their latest encounter. Nayeon was a riddle wrapped in an enigma, and it was frustrating the Head Girl to no end. She just couldn’t understand her, and she also couldn’t understand why she wanted to understand Nayeon in the first place. It was just a mess in her brain, like a tangle of thread to be carefully unwound.

Friday afternoon found Jihyo overseeing fifth year detention in the Detention Hall as she always did. Jihyo didn’t really mind it— the fifth years tended not to act up too much as they knew that the alternative to sitting in the room quietly for a few hours was polishing the school’s candelabras, of which there were numerous. She usually spent the time studying, and this night was no different, although she unsurprisingly had trouble focusing her mind on the Runes she was trying to translate.

Just as Jihyo’s mind returned going over her interactions with Nayeon as if they were puzzles to be solved, the door to the detention room swung open.

“Really, I don’t understand why this is necessary,” a voice complained, and Jihyo looked up in surprise to see who else but Nayeon dragging into the room a Slytherin girl by the collar of her robes.

Nayeon’s eyes brightened when she saw Jihyo, and before Jihyo could ask her exactly what she was doing there, the prefect spoke. “This is fifth year detention, right?” Jihyo nodded slowly, and Nayeon gestured to the girl she was holding onto. “Well, this is Kim Yerim, she’s a fifth year, and she’s here for detention.”

Yerim groaned, “Are you kidding me! All I did was throw a dungbomb into Sooyoung’s room again, you always just laugh when that happens, why are you being so lame all of a--” Nayeon must have squeezed the back of the girl’s neck tighter, as the fifth year released a little yelp and fell silent with a moody look.

“Anyway,” Nayeon said tightly, forcing the girl to sit at one of the desks. The prefect turned to offer a little grin, approaching the teacher’s desk in the front of the room where Jihyo was sitting. She examined the room with a look of exaggerated boredom. “This seems like a positively thrilling gig.”

The Gryffindor just rolled her eyes. “Haven’t you had to oversee detention before?” Jihyo deadpanned, knowing well that it was one of the usual duties of a prefect.

Nayeon leaned against the desk, tapping her fingers, and shook her head. “Nope,” she replied, popping the ‘p’. “I always have someone else fill in for me when it’s my turn.” She tossed Jihyo a demure look, fluttering her eyelashes and saying in a saccharine sweet voice, “‘I’m so busy, won’t you please do it for me this once? I’ll make it up to you, I promise!’”

Jihyo scoffed, looking back down at her Runes homework. “I’m pretty sure that’s a clear abuse of power,” she muttered, picking up her quill again.

Nayeon grinned and snatched the quill from Jihyo’s hand, twirling it playfully as Jihyo glared up at her. “What, are you gonna turn me in?” she taunted, leaning in closer, “Report me to Dumbledore?” Her eyes twinkled with mischief, and Jihyo just narrowed her own.

“Maybe I should,” the Gryffindor countered, holding Nayeon’s gaze. Neither of them wavered, staring at each other defiantly for what seemed like hours before they were interrupted by that fifth year, Yerim, loudly clearing .

Nayeon tossed the girl a dirty look before her gaze returned to Jihyo again, less intense this time. She leaned back away from the desk and crossed her arms. “Well, I’m sure Yoo has told you that Gryffindor and Slytherin are having an unofficial game tonight at practice.” Jihyo recalled Jeongyeon mentioning it at breakfast that morning, and internally braced herself for another barbed remark mocking her best friend. Instead, Nayeon surprised her by commenting, “Well, you should come watch.” At Jihyo’s raised eyebrow, the Slytherin hummed suggestively, eyes dragging down from Jihyo’s face then back up again, “I bet you’d look really good in green, cheering me on.”

At this, Jihyo couldn’t hold back an incredulous (albeit slightly nervous) laugh. “And what makes you think I’d cheer for you of all people, instead of my best friend?”

Nayeon just smirked in that way of hers, choosing not to answer. “I’ll see you tonight, if you don’t die of boredom before then,” she chuckled. Jihyo had almost forgotten where they were, to be honest, and she felt her cheeks begin to color pink as she realized that the whole room of fifth years had been listening in on their conversation.

As soon as the door shut behind the Beater, Yerim piped up from her seat in the front, “Wow, she really has a massive crush on you, huh?” A few of the other fifth years in the room released muffled giggles.

Jihyo’s eyes snapped to the Slytherin girl, momentarily at a loss of words due to the abruptness of the statement. “She just likes to taunt me,” she eventually explained, rolling her eyes. There’s a clear difference.

Yerim scoffed, leaning back in her chair to prop her feet up on the desk. Are all Slytherins so flamboyantly pretentious? Jihyo wondered, irritated. “Yeah, don’t you think there’s a reason for that?” the younger girl pointed out. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Im’s an .” She said it so plainly that Jihyo, for a moment, almost felt offended on Nayeon’s behalf before she remembered that she knew firsthand what Yerim said was the truth.

Yerim continued, “But it’s pretty obvious to anyone with eyes that she’s being extra -y to you because she has a huge, gross crush, and wants to get your attention or whatever. Like, she’s pretty much the only prefect who has never given me detention, much less personally walked me here, so obviously she was just using it as an excuse to see you. Same with that Quidditch thing she was talking about.” Jihyo just stared blankly at the girl as her brain began to process this new information. Obviously Yerim thought she was thick, as she began to say slowly, emphasizing each syllable, “Nayeon wants to jump your bo--”

“Okay!” Jihyo interrupted suddenly, her face feeling even hotter. Why did she have to have this conversation in a room full of 15- and 16-year-olds? Sighing and accepting the fact that they would never take her seriously ever again, Jihyo finished, “Even if that’s true-- which it definitely isn’t-- it doesn’t matter, because I would never be interested in someone like her anyway.” She frowned deeply, hating how it sounded like she was trying to convince herself of the fact.

Yerim seemed similarly unconvinced. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say,” she snickered. “You two were practically undressing each other with your eyes a hot second ago, it made me seriously uncomfortable. But go off, sis.” She lifted her hands in a shrug.

Jihyo made a face, confused both by what Yerim thought she had apparently witnessed and the weirdly informal way she spoke. “Whatever,” the Head Girl mumbled, not knowing what else to say, “Just… this is detention, just sit there in silence and think about what you did, okay?” Yerim laughed but thankfully didn’t say anything else. Jihyo picked up the quill Nayeon had dropped back on her desk and forced herself to return to her homework, trying (and failing) not to fixate on what Yerim had said.

It had to be untrue… right?