"Minseok?"

"Hm?"

"How did you become a witch?"

It was almost comical how fast Minseok went from casually listening to shooting him an almost alarmed look. Luhan was quick to lift his hands in defense.

"I'm just curious, I swear."

The other's gaze got more sceptical before he gave in, gently prying the cutting knife out of Luhan's hands.

"Give me that before you hurt either of us," he muttered. Luhan fleetingly rolled his eyes, but let him be. Instead, he reached for a few uncut flowers, separating petals and leaves from the stem, placing them in their respective bowls as Minseok explained.

"It's not like you just turn into a witch overnight," he began, cleanly cutting the roots off the stem, only to slice them open with the precision of a doctor wielding a scalpel.

"You'll have to find someone to teach you, and that's probably one of the biggest challenges about it. Because-"

"Witches don't work in teams, they hate people, I know, I know," Luhan cut him off, accidentally ripping a petal in two. "But how did you become a witch? How did you find a mentor and what were they like? I can't picture any of the witches I've seen at the Walpurgis as your mentor. Except for Junmyeon maybe," he added as an afterthought.

Minseok actually snorted.

"Please. Junmyeon is pretty much my age. By the time he received his ring, I already had a table to myself at the Walpurgis."

"With Kyungsoo?" Luhan asked, enjoying the faintest bit of insecurity flashing over Minseok's face at the mention of Kyungsoo. Not like Luhan was a mean person who would provoke jealousy... much. He'd definitely save those kind of shenanigans for when the tick of insecurity had vanished though.

"Yeah. Kyungsoo was my closest friend back then," Minseok began, sounding faintly nostalgic. "I spent a lot of time in the hidden library as a teen since it was the only magical location I had access to. Kyungsoo was a regular there, and pretty much the only one around most of the time. He's never had a mentor, by the way. Kyungsoo is entirely self-taught. So there's exceptions, too."

Luhan perked up at that.

"There's a hidden library? Where?"

"Yeah right, like I'm gonna tell you that," Minseok quipped, the hint of a smile on his lips. It infected Luhan, who played up an exasperated groan.

"Fine, keep gushing about your best friend, then-"

Minseok chuckled, short and breathy, and Luhan could tell that he was embarrassed.

"What's there to gush about - either way, I observed the library patrons and listened to them until I found the witch I wanted to be my mentor."

Luhan hummed, signaling that he was listening. Sure, he could continue to , but he did want to know.

"And then I pestered her until she finally gave in," Minseok shrugged in, and Luhan snorted.

"Really now?"

"Really," Minseok confirmed, and just thinking of it seemed to amuse him. "Her magic was based on fire and ice, so it had to be her. She'd also never taken a student before. Even by today's standards, you could say she was... different."

"You're saying she was terribly eccentric, aren't you?" Luhan asked blankly, and Minseok hummed.

"Very eccentric. An excellent teacher though, after she committed to doing it. Made my life a living hell."

"I've always taken you for a sadist more so than a masochist," Luhan muttered, only to get a little jab to his side.

"Half-hearted efforts have yet to make a competent witch."

"Then what does make one? Like, who decides that you're ready and gives you a ring?"

"No one does. You gotta make it yourself," Minseok shrugged.

"But you're not gonna forge it yourself, are you?"

"You think it's gonna appear from thin air, by magic?"

Luhan waited four full seconds in blank exasperation, just until Minseok placed the knife down, to blow air into his ear. Minseok flinched in a way so violent it told him that he hadn't expected it at all.

"No, I don't," Luhan said with what he'd never admit to be a pout, "I know magic doesn't work like that. Which is why I asked about forging-"

"You can take just any ring. As long as the enchantment works, allowing you into the Walpurgis and being actively connected to the other rings... you're set," Minseok hummed, rubbing his ear as he dumped the cut roots into a fourth bowl.

"Junmyeon brought that up a lot," Luhan mentioned off-handedly, "the ring, I mean. He made it sound like it's able to help you in dangerous situations."

"Not really," Minseok replied dismissively, filling just enough water into the sink to clean knives and cutting boards right away, because he was clean like that.

"You can call for help using the ring. It sends a signal to every other ring, but whether or not anyone will come to your aid is a different story altogether. It's not like anyone's obligated to."

"I see," Luhan trailed off, wordlessly taking the knives to dry them.

Minseok sounded like a mentor already, but he was wise enough not to mention it; it was the only truly sensitive topic between them and currently, he enjoyed the way they were healing all the little scratches gathered along the way.

Four days had passed since their meetup in Windshire and Luhan already found it much easier to read Minseok. That one, honest conversation had given him the necessary clues he'd been missing. He had yet to get over the fact that Minseok thought Luhan was the mature one out of them, that he would be the one who'd be composed and cool when it came to relationships. It also sounded like a given to say that Minseok saw eye to eye with him, but with how much Luhan used to admire him - and still did - that was easy to forget.

One thing about Minseok he was able to pinpoint exactly by now, however, was embarrassement. Their conversation on the tower had helped, yes, but it became even more evident when they fell into bed that night - Luhan had been fully intending to fall asleep while innocently enjoying the sound of their quickly beating hearts, but Minseok wouldn't have it, hands dipping into his pants before he knew it. It took until shortly before his second for him to hold Luhan close, whispering sweet nothings into his ear; that's when he realized that in his own, twisted way, Minseok was shy.

Well, Luhan didn't mind having amazing and he certainly didn't mind waiting for Minseok to become comfortable around him.

Luhan himself needed some more time, anyway, to figure out what to do about the stains on his throat. Clearly, Minseok was ready to keep him in his life whether he became a witch or not, and now it was on him to make a big decision.

He could only hope that time wasn't running out.

The library might be well-funded but not nearly rich enough to afford electrical lights in any room but the main hall and the archive, so every day, someone had to light the oil lamps before the sun set. It wasn't exactly a popular job, so nobody had fought Luhan for it. Usually, Luhan would be the first to try and talk himself out of it, too, but this time, he'd volunteered, and now he was walking down every single corridor like he had all the time in the world, fingertips brushing the wall as he moved as quietly as possible.

He'd been thinking about this even before Minseok had mentioned the hidden library, because no matter how mindblowing being with Minseok was, so was the realization that there was something magical about Luhan himself. Now that he knew what to look for, he was obviously eager to try and get a feeling for this sixth sense of his, so he'd been taking his time on his way to and from the store, purposefully crossing squares and squeezing himself through busy markets, all the while paying close attention to what he was feeling. Sometimes he felt surprisingly comfortable, while other times the sensation was so unbearable that he had to hurry and put some distance between him and wherever he was before it made him physically sick.One thing was certain, however - he was always feeling something. Be it a deserted street or an empty square at night, there was always a distinct, grainy feeling in his stomach. It was nothing more than the vaguest kind of restlessness that never subsided, not even inside the store or at Luhan's home, both of which were decidedly unmagical places. Luhan had thought about that while he'd been packing up more of his clothes to take to Minseok's place, and a sudden, random realization had led to where he was now.

The only places where he'd felt truly calm and peaceful, with no disturbances whatsoever had been the Walpurgis... and the library. Minseok had mentioned how the location they'd been to was protected by powerful, ancient concealing magic - which probably made sense if there were more people with similar predispositions as Luhan out there - so the only logical conclusion was that the same applied to the library. Considering everything he knew about witches, Luhan doubted that they had casted some sort of concealing spells to make the library a better place out of pure kindness.

Surely, the magic library Minseok had talked about was somewhere within these corridors, he thought, listening closely to the perfect silence inside his head and stomach, waiting for the feeling to stir.

Somewhere within these hallways that he had all but grown up in, that he knew inside and out, that he could navigate blindly.

His nails got caught on a ridge in the stone, and he felt the prick resonate through every fiber of him. It felt like he'd pricked his mind instead, and he stilled immediately. Fingers running over the stone, it was hard to tell at first, but there was definitely something there. He made a mental note and proceeded to light every single lamp before returning to the mostly forgotten corridor in the South wing - because he was a responsible person but also because he didn't want anyone looking for him.

On his way there, he'd further convinced himself that if teenage Minseok could get into this place without even having a mentor, so could he.

He was perfectly certain that the library for witches was hidden within the regular library because it made sense. It simply fit into the world of witches as he knew it. It was an oddly ordinary world, with an aura that vacillated between playfulness and lofty arrogance; magic itself wasn't showy, so it embedded itself perfectly into ordinary settings, with an ease that was almost infuriating to someone who wasn't able to understand it.

Well, apparently Luhan wasn't one of them, and being convinced of this was probably the first step to reaching his goal.

He placed his hand on the stone again, trying to find the exact spot where the sensation piqued, and when he did, he paused. Took a deep breath. Tried to imagine what Minseok would do in his situation... and simply pushed.

For a moment, nothing happened, but before he had time to be embarrassed, his palm started to prickle and the stone gave way, taking others with him, opening like a door swung inwards. Behind it, he saw nothing but a few, dim lights in the darkness.

Swallowing hard, he stepped inside before he could overthink any of this. It wouldn't make sense for this place to be dangerous. It was just a library, after all, and if he wanted to know more about magic, what better place to start in?

Carefully, he closed the door made of bricks, which complied without a hitch or scraping sound of any kind. Luhan nodded to himself. Toeing the line of being so ordinary it was disappointing. That was magic as he knew it. It was still exhilarating to know that he had done this. All on his own, he had found this place and opened the door, using whatever was thrumming beneath his skin as a key.

It turned out that the room he was standing in was simply a winding little entrance area. Two steps and a turn to the right revealed a room that was hardly bigger than one of their shared bedrooms upstairs and the numerous bookshelves and lack of windows or light sources made it feel even smaller. The shelves themselves looked unusual as well with how they were protruding from the walls like extensions of the wall instead of separate beings, crawling up to the ceiling, and in a few random places round light sources emitted a soft, yellow glow that reminded him of fireflies.

In the middle of the small room was a single table with six chairs loosely arranged around it. A single person was occupying the place, choosing to sit on the edge of the table, eyes skimming the pages of an old-looking book with obvious boredom until they flitted up to meet Luhan's, making way for obvious contempt.

Despite the natural urge to cower, Luhan plastered a strained smile on his face and nodded towards Jongdae. He wasn't surprised to see his gesture go by ignored.

A small, mean voice in his head helpfully noted that seeing Jongdae read was unexpected.

But Luhan wasn't there to pick a fight with him - in fact, he assumed that the library was a neutral ground and the only thing keeping Jongdae from casually spitting in his face right now.

With an internal shrug, he turned away from him, browsing the shelves. Compared to the rest of the library, the number of books was laughable, of course, but every single one of them were meant to be read by witches only, and therefore fascinating to Luhan.

Minseok owned books, too, but Luhan had never touched any of them and looking over his shoulder usually revealed nothing but complex-looking runes that meant nothing to him.

Surely, there had to be some books made for beginners though.

If he had to make up his mind on whether or not to become a witch, it felt only right to take a look at all this by himself. After all, being a witch seemed to be all about discovering and achieving things on your own. So he tugged a few interesting-looking books off the nearest shelf and took a seat at the table, posture straight and proper as he looked down at the first book.

The thick, emerald-green leather binding had caught his attention immediately. With the complex-looking rune etched onto the cover, it was likely one of the more complex books, but he'd intended to take a look at it, anyway.

Slowly, he turned it over in his hands, feeling Jongdae's gaze on him. The other wasn't even pretending to read anymore, instead watching him from the corner of his vision.

Luhan shot him a fleeting, unsure glance before he turned the book back to the front, carefully grasping the cover to-

"Don't open it."

Luhan flinched, but stopped immediately, slowly lowering the book back to the table.

He'd half-expected Jongdae to say something, but the voice had come from the shadows.

"If you're unlucky, it might melt your face off," Kyungsoo sighed as he stepped into the light, placing a stack of books on the table.

With a horrified look, Luhan let go of the book, shooting Jongdae a filthy glare which didn't seem to faze the other at all, who went back to reading now that Luhan wasn't going to potentially die anymore.

"Thanks," Luhan said, voice dripping with ostentation as he shot Jongdae a fleeting glare. Kyungsoo only dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

"I didn't know you were here," he added, subtly pushing the book away from himself. "Were you reading in the dark?"

To his surprise, Kyungsoo simply nodded.

"Some things are best read in the dark. And this is a good kind of darkness."

He could immediately see how this was Minseok's best friend - and how Kyungsoo would be eccentric, even by witch standards.

Luhan hummed as if this made perfect sense to him because if Kyungsoo was anything like Minseok, pestering for specific technicalities would be useless.

"And is there anything I can read that's not gonna kill me?" he asked, half-expecting to receive a shrug for an answer.

Kyungsoo surprised him yet again, however, when he got to his feet and plucked a few books off a shelf with an ease that betrayed just how well he knew this place.

"Intending to become a witch now?" he asked as grabbed a few more books, piling them all up only to wordlessly return every single book Luhan had gotten for himself.

"I don't know yet," he admitted. He could feel Jongdae's scalding gaze on him and it was starting to annoy him.

"Is there anything on my face?" he asked unhappily - paying him attention was an obvious mistake, but Luhan was already busy taking in this new situation, and Jongdae made it hard to focus.

The other's eyes narrowed slightly and he lowered his book, probably to look down on him more effectively.

"Nothing that would explain why you'd have any right to be here," he said, slow and deceivingly neutral.

"Anyone who finds their way here has a right to be here," Kyungsoo commented calmly, sinking back into his seat.

"How did you get here?" Jongdae asked, no, demanded, and despite knowing better, Luhan bristled.

"Opened the door. Walked in," he stated blankly.

This seemed to shut Jongdae up, albeit temporarily, though he still looked very much agitated about Luhan's mere presence and his nerve to talk back the way he did. He could see the gears ticking inside his head, but instead of paying him any heed, he turned towards the stack of books Kyungsoo had chosen for him.

One of them was written in a language he didn't speak, but it wasn't an unfamiliar one. In fact, none of the books were written in ancient tongues and symbols one would associate with witches. He took every single one, reading the cover and considering where to start. One was about herbs and their uses, which seemed like a safe place to start, but the one about runes and symbols looked compelling, too, as did the one about spells. It seemed like Kyungsoo had purposefully chosen books covering all kinds of areas, and at the bottom of the stack, a worn-out looking, thin book made him pause.

Demons, was all the cover said.

Vaguely registering that Kyungsoo was watching him, he opened it, reading the introduction which was written in ink that was entirely too vibrant to fit the weathered pages. It named demons as a vague term referring to any kind of magical being that could not be sorted into known categories. The parasite kind was apparently the most common one, describing beings that fed off anything intangible and therefore delving into why witches should study them.

It all sounded very plausible to Luhan, so he couldn't help but wonder why no one but Kyungsoo seemed to study these creatures.

He flipped through the chapters until he found the second to last one - about killing them. There were only two pages on it, and the information was vague, at best. Most of it he had already observed on his own - like how physical attacks didn't harm them and it took magic to reign them in.

By the end of it, he was left confused.

"It says that there are no known methods to kill demons," he wondered out loud, ignoring Jongdae's eyeroll and focusing on Kyungsoo's mildly interested expression instead.

"It's an old book," Kyungsoo only commented evenly, but there was a melodious undertone to it, something subtle that was enough to remind Luhan that he didn't know the other beyond him being a friend of Minseok.

"It also says that they cannot be physically harmed," Luhan trailed off, putting the book down. "So no matter the kind of weapon I use, as long as it's not enchanted, it's useless, right?"

"That's correct," Kyungsoo admitted readily. There was no way to tell, but to Luhan, he seemed almost excited over Luhan showing an interest in this. It was nothing but an intense kind of attention that lacked all ual connotations this time.

"What, you wanna follow Minseok's footsteps?" Jongdae piped up, voice dripping with condescension. "You think you're even nearly as talented as him? Or do you wanna protect him?"

The way he said it could have just as well been an open insult, and while Luhan did feel inferior and embarrassed, he refused to show it.

"I didn't say that, did I?" he snapped. "What's your problem? What do you want from me?"

"Nothing," Jongdae shrugged, and Luhan felt the annoyance flare up like an upcoming headache.

"Good thing you're not petty or this would be really ridiculous."

The book in Jongdae's hands was snapped closed, and then he was leaning down towards Luhan, eyes blazing with barely repressed ire that reverberated through his voice as well.

"You're pretty brave for a powerless little piece of -"

"Jongdae."

"Yes, Kyungsoo ?" he asked pointedly, making it obvious what he thought of the other's intervention.

It only occured to Luhan right then that as the city's patron, Jongdae probably rarely received any pushback, not even by fellow witches.

If he was some sort of untouchable, powerful wildcard that must not be challenged... well, Kyungsoo had apparently not received the memo on that yet.

"I'm trying to read here, shut up."

He could see the way Jongdae's tongue prodded the inside of his cheek as he reached out and closed the other's book.

"Better?" he asked helpfully, and Kyungsoo actually slapped his hand away, having had enough.

"Can you be a petty elsewhere?" he asked, voice still relatively calm and clearly unafraid of the aggressive witch across him. "It's been years. Do you really think getting rid of him would bring Minseok back to you?"

For a second, Jongdae sat there with his lips parted, fuming, but at a loss for words.

"Unlike you, the world isn't standing still. People keep living, moving on with their lives," Kyungsoo added, sounding like he'd been dying to say this for a while now. "When will you ?"

"Where do you want me to move on to?" Jongdae only hissed with a joyless smile, every syllable sharp enough to cut, and by now, Luhan was seriously starting to worry they'd snap and try to strangle each other. "I'm right ing here, the best I'll ever be."

"And with the way you're acting, I'm starting to believe that," Kyungsoo replied without missing a beat.

"What's that supposed to-"

"I'm sorry!" Luhan cut them off, raising his voice just enough to be heard. Kyungsoo looked mildly surprised, as if he'd forgotten about his presence entirely, while Jongdae whipped around, ready to direct his anger at him instead. Luhan was faster this time.

"I don't know what happened but I'm sorry you and Minseok didn't work out," he said firmly. "And I'm sorry my presence reminds you of that. But acting all brusque and untouchable isn’t gonna save you from future disappointments either - except for the disappointment of never having taken another shot, that is. For someone who's so high and mighty, you sure seem to like crawling on the ground," Luhan ended, taking a deep breath. He had no idea where this had come from - the words had simply burst out, voicing out the thoughts he'd had about Jongdae for a while now. He actually regretted it, fully expecting things to escalate now.

What he didn't expect, however, was for Jongdae to look at him in dumbfounded silence.

Two seconds passed, and instead of the blind rage returning, the aggression seeped out of him, making room for... resignation.

"And what do you know?" he asked, still sounding derogatory, but also tired. "You're just some random human. Anyone would be able to handle you. Try finding someone who could handle me and come out alive."

At this, Kyungsoo snorted, fixating Jongdae with dark eyes.

"Don't flatter yourself."

Jongdae scowled at him, but it lacked heat this time. Without a word, he grabbed his book and left. Just like that, he'd gone from brash and aggressive to silently retreating, unpredictable and moody as a cloudy sky.

"Don't mind him," Kyungsoo said as soon as the door had closed. "He's been his wounds for way too long, anyway. Your words were probably too spot on for him to handle."

"He and Minseok must have run deep, huh?" Luhan asked with a sigh. He'd said nothing but the truth. He did not feel sorry about being with Minseok, but hearing how close they used to be still made him feel funny.

"Not really," Kyungsoo dismissed him, already flipping through his book to find the page where he'd left off at. "They broke up before things got serious and Jongdae made a huge fuss. By now, he's convinced himself that he's just inherently toxic and not meant to be close to people."

"Wow. You've been watching him closely, haven't you?" Luhan asked, watching the way the other's fingers paused at the corner of a page, before continuing on like nothing happened.

"Don't be ridiculous," Kyungsoo muttered, and Luhan bit back on a smile. He really was similar to Minseok in many ways.

"Did you already like him back then? It must be an absolute pain to like someone like him."

"I'll be the next to leave if you don't stop," Kyungsoo threatened, but Luhan only grinned wider.

"But if you leave, how are you going to research these new demons to help Minseok fight them?"

"So many bold assumptions in under a minute."

"Please, what else would you be researching that has you desperate enough to check the library which you apparently already know by heart?"

"I already told you the darkness here is good for reading," Kyungsoo cut him off with a sharp side glance. "And now shut up or you gotta figure out how to fight off a demon all on your own."

Luhan refrained from teasing him any further, instead sliding into the chair next to him to pay close attention as Kyungsoo explained the very nature of demons to him.
The small smile, however, stayed for much longer.

Minseok really was lucky to have a friend like him.