Once a class period dwindles to the final ten minutes, students start to zone out and shuffle their things together. Regardless of this universel knowledge, Sehun’s ancient Ancient Ideas and Their Modern Value professor continues droning and scratching the blackboard with chalk.

Even his own creature companion, an old Basset Hound, is asleep. Sehun can hear its snores from the back of the room; he’s not sure how the professor can ignore them, but he’s always suspected the man’s a bit hard of hearing.

Absent-minded, too. He’s teaching the same lesson as last week, but no one has the heart or patience to say so. Back and center of the room, Sehun has a clear vantage point to observe the rest of the class on the other levels of auditorium seats—a couple girls are using a Oujia board to chat with a recently departed friend; the clique of gothic vampires have a bottle of alcoholics’ blood and pass it back and forth under the table.

Just in front and to Sehun’s left, a young witch actually seems to be paying attention to the professor. That, or she’s sleeping with her eyes open; Sehun hasn’t seen her blink.

She plays with her silver pendant, spinning the chain between her fingers and watching it twirl fast, spinning to its limit before unwinding slowly. It catches the light from the window, throwing shards of white that sparkle over her palm, arm, and dark sweater.

Sehun never understood how easily people in comics and TV shows could get hypnotized by a coin, but he’s so focused on the pendant that he jumps when another student sneezes. The girl looks his way, usual haughty frown on her face. He wipes the bit of mindless drool from the corner of his mouth.

“I like your necklace,” he comments softly. “It’s cute.”

She offers a half smile and tucks the necklace into her shirt. “It’s a pentagram.” A crow squawks from the ceiling beams, probably insulting him. “Summoning demons isn’t cute.”

“Oh...” Beside him, Jongin stifles a laugh in his folded arms. Figures he’s been awake this whole time and just didn’t want to pay attention. Just for that, Sehun isn’t going to lend his notes.

The professor checks his watch, then the clock on the wall, and says they’ll stop for the day. Without even packing his things, he leaves, Basset Hound lumbering sleepily at his heels.

Vampires swoop out first, flying overhead and keeping to the shadows. Sehun spots the gothic clique by how crooked they fly, bumping into one another. The wolves dash out the door, howling and clawing to be the first into the hall. Witches, fairies, ghouls, and the rest follow, but Sehun stays behind with Jongin.

“You think he knows he should have been dead, like, ten years ago?” Sehun leans back and stretches, quickly pulling his legs back so stragglers can pass before stretching out again. “You wanna get food before we go?”

“I thought we could just stop somewhere on the way, but if you’re hungry, now—No, not you, Kai,” he scolds his familiar, who stands up at the mention of food and places his forepaws on Jongin’s shoulders. The sun bear is about the size of a petite human and eats like he’s starving. “I really hope he just sleeps the whole drive.”

“Can’t you just, like, teleport us? Or take a broom?”

Jongin shakes his head with a sigh. “I don’t have a circle made to take us to, and traveling blind like that is a really bad idea, especially with three of us.” He drops a cheek onto his hand, smiling dazedly as his mind struggles to wake up. “If you want to take a broom, be my guest. Don’t come crying to me about the saddle sores, though.”

“Ugh…” That’s a good point. Riding a broom short distances is convenient, but blisters start to form after an hour. The family cottage Jongin uses when collecting ingredients is a few hours away by car, which would be closer as the witch flies but also much less comfortable.

Sehun’s also fallen from a broom one too many times to completely trust them. He’s learned enough magic to know the idea behind flying, spells, and enchantments, but the Kim family has all said, as kindly as they could, that he just doesn’t have the talent for magic.

Their university is in a dimension alongside Seoul, sharing physical space with the older, non-magic university. Shops in both dimensions carry supplies and equipment for the average witch and supernatural beings, but Jongin comes from a line of power that uses very specific ingredients that can’t be found in any populated area.

Every couple of months, he takes a weekend and heads out to wherever he divines he should go. Sehun isn’t sure who the first person to believe what their soup is saying was completely sane, but it’s a practice much older than anything Sehun would use, so he’ll take Jongin’s word for it and tag along for moral support and out of boredom.

The occult is a common phenomenon, even in the region Sehun grew in—more magical folk moved into the cities like wild animals displaced by activity in the forest and countryside. It’s a poorer, middle-class area, and by the time Sehun is born, it’s expected that he’ll grow up with were-children and vampires and the like. His best friend in Kindergarten was a fairy; Sehun was allergic to his dust. But they’re normal, to Sehun.

So normal that Sehun is only one of two whole-blooded humans in his primary school classes. The other human is a girl. And if that wasn’t awkward enough, she was a witch.

Witches are physically human but spiritually different enough to only be humanish.

When asked, Jongin could only explain Kai as a part of him. Witches share their soul with their companion animal, and it only takes a single form once the witch experiences puberty. Until then, it can change form freely.

Kai really takes after Jongin’s sleeping and eating habits. He moans when Jongin takes his paw so they can leave and lifts his forelegs.

Jongin grumbles, but he does crouch down and open his bag. First one leg, the other, and then some wiggling, and the bear is comfortably settled and ready to be carried.

“Honestly, you are the laziest bear I know,” Sehun remarks. Not that he knows many bears. By that logic, Kai is also the smartest, dumbest, kindest, and meanest bear.

Passing between the signpost closer to the main university building and the large, ancient ginko tree takes people to the parallel dimension. Jongin and Sehun are just in time to catch the bus at the corner.

It’s full inside, carrying a greater capacity than the outside implies. Jongin holds onto a pole bolted into the ceiling and floor; Sehun leans against his back. Kai swats at a wolf cub’s wagging tail until Jongin catches his paw and sticks it back into his bag.

“Heading home, dear?” An old woman smiles at Sehun. Her skin seems to be stretched over her bones with little to prevent them from breaking through, and her nose is long and crooked. Beside her is a fat black chicken roosting in a large mortar. “You look tired.”

“Yes. We just finished class but are going to head out into the country for the weekend.”

“How nice. Such fine young men are probably going to have some fun.” She winks, as though sharing some secret, and Sehun feels a hand curl around his elbow. “Someplace with water? The beach?” A feather drifts to the floor, fiery red and glowing; the old woman shrieks, spooking the chicken and upending the mortar.

“Our stop, Sehun!” Jongin drags him through the chaotic crowd and down the steps. The driver, enclosed in their own little area, seems oblivious to the feathers, flames, and fangs in the bus. On the sidewalk and a couple blocks from the bus stop, Jongin doesn’t let Sehun go but lets his hand slip from Sehun’s elbow to his hand. “Sorry, but you really need to stop being so polite to everyone.”

“Why? Who was that?”

“Old witches like that are notorious for targeting young people, preying on their curiosity and kindness. She was trying to get you to tell her where we were going, so she could get there before us and trap us.” He squeezes Sehun’s hand. “I’m not saying she was a bad person, but I could tell she was starting to pour suggestion into the conversation.”

“Neat. So I nearly got us killed.”

“Eaten, but we’re fine, now. You didn’t know.” Jongin moves his arm to curl around Sehun’s shoulders. It’s more difficult to walk; their hips bump every couple of steps, but Sehun doesn’t move away.

It’s nice, just the two of them. Neither have ever been incredibly social or outgoing, preferring smaller groups. Sehun used to feel bad, turning down his wolf friends’ invitations, but wolves are not only very social but also incredibly territorial. He can only appreciate their constant protection for so long before he needs a break.

“I’ll summon a house demon before we go,” Jongin says. He turns a corner, dragging Sehun by the neck. “They’ll hang onto our stuff until I can make another circle at the cottage.”

“What our stuff? I’ve got my junk in my backpack, which I’m carrying. You’re the one packing your life to take along.”

“It’s important! And books take up a lot of space, so I thought it’d be better this way, instead of making you ride in the trunk.”

“Make the bear ride in the trunk.” There’s a kick and growled protest from Jongin’s bag. “Better yet—have the demon look after him, instead. Car rides make him gassy.”

“That’s mean! Even if it was possible, I wouldn’t do that. Demons live in another dimension that runs on its own time; witches can’t be separated from familiars like that.”

Trying to maintain a light mood, Sehun blows a raspberry and taps the glass window at the front of the Kims’ shop. It’s a skinny building; the family lives above it. “Your brother’s home,” he says, meeting the sapphire gaze of a Siamese. It turns to delicately hop from the display window.

Jongin sighs, pulling a key from his pocket. “They all are. Joonmyun hyung’s moved home since the separation. Minseok hyung wanted to go through his things for something or other…” he waves a hand, flailing when it catches a broken cobweb in the doorway. “And Jongdae hyung’s on vacation—”

There’s an enchantment in the bell over the front door, so no one who enters will respond to all the dust inside and start sneezing. Sehun still manages.

“And I know you’ve missed me, Jonginie,” Jongdae chirps. His Siamese, Chen, sits on his shoulder like a parrot. “I moved the car to the alley, so you don’t take out the garden gate again.”

“That was an accident.”

“Accidents do happen, especially when you’re around.” The older boy looks at Sehun and smiles. Reaching towards him, he picks a small black feather from Sehun’s sleeve and says, “You meet all kinds of people on public transportation.” He leaves and takes the feather with him.

“I like your brothers, but sometimes they creep me out.”

“Same.” Jongin stomps on the bottom step, so it doesn’t shift or drop stairs as they climb. Just in case, Sehun holds onto the railing.

The youngest Kim’s bedroom hasn’t changed much since he was a child. Posters of human and other celebrities fade in the sunlight from the single, floor-to-ceiling window. The wallpaper used to be striped and floral, something left over from the previous owners. Its pattern is indecipherable, now. The furniture all matches and is older than the house, and the bedposts sport claw marks from Kai’s childhood tantrums.

Jongin drops his bag onto the floor and turns it upside down. Shaking it, a brown paw drops out and then claws its way back inside. “C’mon, Kai. There’s no room for you and everything else!” With more forceful shaking, Jongin finally drops Kai onto the floor.

The bear groans and crawls to where Sehun’s made himself comfortable on the bed in the corner. Climbing up, he fumbles over Sehun and lies behind him, propping his head on Sehun’s shoulder.

They quietly watch Jongin pick up books from his desk and bookshelves, setting some back but putting others into his bewitched bag. Vials and envelopes get the same treatment. Once he’s deemed his packing complete, he pulls a piece of chalk from his pocket and starts drawing a circle in the middle of the floor, following the pattern in a book.

“And what is this one for, again? Beelzebub?”

“There’s nothing that demonic about this circle,” Jongin mutters, squinting at the book in his hand.

“Can it summon me a pizza or something? I’m hungry.” Kai perks up at the mention of food. He knows that meals mean Sehun will have leftover food.

“In theory, but you could just go downstairs and make something...” Jongin finishes the circle, adding a few electric candles to certain pints, and runs his finger along the edge of a page until it splits his skin, then he snaps the book shut and holds his finger over the circle. Where a bead of blood falls, the white chalk turns black, and it spreads like ink in water until the entire drawing is dark.

There’s a boom, a puff of smoke, and a long, tired sigh.

When the air clears, Sehun’s surprised to see Jongin’s oldest brother, Minseok, kneeling on the floor with a folded T-shirt on his lap. He’s scowling, and Jongin immediately disappears.

“Dad told you no summoning in the house!” Minseok stands and leaves, barely acknowledging Sehun’s presence.

He pops his head back around the doorframe. “Hello, Sehun.”

“Hi, hyung…” Sehun replies meekly, pulling Kai from beneath his shirt.

Jongin reappears with a wet towel and quickly starts scrubbing the floor. When it’s clean, he scoops the candles, book, and chalk into a pile and waves his hands over them in a pattern that ends with him cupping his hands together, as though holding a bug. Everything is tiny, fitting perfectly in his palms, and he dumps it all into a character tin on his desk.

“Was it supposed to do that?”

“No,” Jongin mumbles, ears red. “I forgot to add distance to my spell, so it just summoned the closest demon…”

All of the Kim siblings have demon blood. Their dad is a strong witch and made pacts with demons to borrow their power in exchange for his next child. Somehow, he managed to charm each demon into eventually having his child, but non-demonic entities don’t handle the demonic dimension well, so he raised each kid in his own dimension.

The bedroom door opens, and the older middle brother, Joonmyun, looks inside.

“Did you just summon Minseok hyung?”

“Not on purpose,” Jongin mutters.

Joonmyun stumbles into the doorframe, and Jongdae looks in, as well, eyes bright. “You didn’t add distance to your spell? Didn’t Dad say not to summon anything indoors, again?”

“I didn’t think it would be a big deal! I just wanted a little one to hold onto my stuff until we got to the cottage...”

“Get rid of your things before he finds out, “Joonmyun says. “You know he will, even if we don’t say anything.”

“I already did.”

“Maybe instead of gathering new materials for spells you haven’t learned, you should take the weekend to work on ones you already know,” Jongdae suggests merrily. He cackles as he’s pushed away. Even Chen’s yowls sound like laughter. Joonmyun’s giant rabbit thumps his foot, spooking Chen and causing him to streak down the hall.

“I’d suggest you get going sooner rather than later. I’ll talk to Dad when he gets home.”

“Thanks, hyung.” Last time he got in trouble, their dad put a hex on him to make him pirouette every time he sneezed. It was a cruel and unusual punishment.

Jongin looks around one last time, throws the strap of his bag across his chest and taps a skinny trunk. It rocks side to side and follows him. Sehun grabs Kai and follows the trunk downstairs.

The compact car doesn’t like its trunk being stuffed and tries to throw out the trunk, striking Jongin’s gut. He doesn’t lose his temper often, but when he does, streams of black smoke rise from his back.

The witch shrinks everything, including Kai and Sehun, and dumps the lot onto the passenger seat of the car.

It’s a strange sensation, being the size of a hand. He’s proportional to Kai and the luggage, but Sehun feels things more at such a small size and lies flat on the seat to enjoy the vibration of the running car.

When he can no longer see buildings outside, he knows they’ve reached the highway. Road noise is more intense, even with a car muffled by magic.

Jongin stops halfway to the cottage at a convenience store and buys food and drinks. He kindly returns Sehun to his normal size but keeps Kai small. “Because you eat so much,” he says, putting a piece of sandwich the size of Kai’s head onto the seat.

“How do you feel?”

“Fine.” He’s scowling and pouting. It’s a cute look, but the reason isn’t.

“You want me to drive?”

Jongin balls up the plastic from his food and sends it rocketing into the trash can. “I’ll be fine. You’ll have a hard time finding it in the dark.”

“Well, I’d hope you’d be awake to play navigator.”

“Not a chance. Once I’m a passenger, I pass out.”

“What all are you hoping to get this weekend?”

“Nothing tonight, because it’s hard to find plants at night. I’ve got a couple spells I’d like to try, just because. They’ve never seemed to work, and I don’t know why,” he mutters to himself. He plucks Kai from his shirtfront and drops him in the pocket of Sehun’s shirt. “It’s only an hour and a half or so. You’re fine.” He grins at the soft moan.

The rest of the drive is more pleasant. Sehun admires the sunset and deeper shadows of the landscape. He couldn’t live so far removed from everything, but it is pretty.

He knows they’re in the final stretch when lanterns ignite on either side of the car as it drives over ruts in the ground. They’ve left the road, and the lights follow them to a cottage that glows with welcoming anticipation.

Jongin carries the shrunken baggage inside, returning it to its normal size just inside the door, and immediately starts pawing through the bag of books.

Left to his own devices, Sehun shuffles into the cottage and drops onto the lumpy sofa. Yawning so wide his jaw pops, he settles as comfortably as he can and closes his eyes.

He dreams about the day he met Jongin.

As the only human in his primary classes, he feels like an outcast. There’s a sign hanging over his head, pointing him out as non-magical and weak. The wolf cubs try to adopt him into their school pack, but it starts a playground feud between them and the vampire fledglings.

The only other human child is a young witch, Soojung. Sehun tried befriending her when they first entered primary school. The easiest way to start a conversation, his mom tells him, is to find something to compliment a person on.

Soojung wears a long chain with a pendant shaped like a star enclosed in a circle. It’s simple but cute, and Sehun says so.

The hairs along his arms actually stand up when she casts her eyes sideways at him and says, “Summoning demons is not cute.” Her crow screeches, lightning zipping from its flapping wings.

He avoids her after that. Their seats are an ocean apart, so it’s not hard.

Boats of students cluster together—wolf cubs piled atop one another and young vampires hanging upside down—and Sehun hears gossip about a new kid from down south somewhere. No one’s sure if he’s a were or a vampire or a fairy...

Sehun can’t help the passing thought, Maybe they’ll be weird, like me.

The new kid is brought to the front of the classroom by the homeroom teacher. She introduces him with gestures; she doesn’t have a mouth to speak with or even a face. Putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder, she waves to the class and prompts him to speak.

He’s either embarrassed or shy, looking at the class through his bangs.

“My name is Kim Jongin. Please take care of me.” He speaks to the tops of his shoes rather than the whole class, but he does cast a shy eye up through his eyelashes. Some of the girls titter and giggle, already gossiping about the cute new student. Some of the more eager wolves can’t control their tails, and they bang against the legs of the desks behind them.

His hair is a little longer, starting to curl. He has the healthy tan of someone from a usually sunny place, but it’ll go away soon enough. Sehun’s so pale he only burns; he never tans. Whatever, Sehun thinks. He looks like any number of guys already here.

He thinks the boy’s heard him—Jongin’s walking directly to his desk—but he stands between Sehun and the window. The sun is setting outside, turning everything pink.

“Hello.”

Sehun blinks, blushes—everyone’s blatantly staring—and bows his head back. “Hello.”

“I’m Kim Jongin.”

“I know. I-I’m Oh Sehun. It’s nice to meet you.”

Jongin towers over him, tall and lithe and effortlessly graceful. He has dimples when he smiles.

That’s when he first fell for Jongin. Their last year of primary school, eleven going on twelve-years-old. Sehun knows it and can’t help but look back and realize all the skewed colors and sounds are probably because he was so enthralled with Jongin.

It’s lunchtime. Sehun has a small appetite, but even if he had the heavier lunch of his classmates’, it would be nothing compared to the spread Jongin lays out on his desk. The wolves drool and whine over their own comparatively meager meals.

“Two lunchboxes?”

“Huh? Oh… Yeah. I,” his cheeks turn dusky pink, “I eat a lot… Would you like some?”

“No, thank you. I probably won’t even finish this. I just don’t think I’ve seen someone eat so much. Not for lunch, at least.” He’s made it awkward. He didn’t mean to embarrass Jongin. Some people have actual appetites, and that’s okay! He stands on his desk to pull himself out of the hole he dug for himself. “A-Are you in sports?”

Jongin shakes his head. “I like them, but I’ve never been on any teams or anything. I help my family at home with stuff. We own a shop.”

“That’s cool. What do you sell? Or make? Whatever...”

“Tea, medicine, home remedy stuff.”

“So like a pharmacy?”

“Kinda…” Sehun knows he’s a witch, but he didn’t when they met. He’s just a shy, sweet kid who returns everyone’s greetings with a smile. Totally normal.

He shouts in the middle of class, standing on a desk and gaping at the window.

Their faceless literature teacher mumbles, and Jongin stammers about needing the bathroom before bolting outside.

Sehun sees him down on the grounds, long legs carrying him to the massive ginko tree. High in the branches, a masked face peers out and waves at Sehun. Head-first, it climbs down the trunk and leaps into Jongin’s arms.

From red panda to orange cat to brown poodle, the creature shifts and transforms as easily as water is poured.

School ends with bongs of the clock, and Sehun takes Jongin’s things with him. He can ask the office where he lives, but Jongin meets him at the front doors.

“Thank you for getting my stuff.” Sehun blushes. “This is Kai.” He lifts the striped panda and puts it, too, into his bookbag after his books, lunch boxes, and pencil case. It doesn’t bulge at all, and he doesn’t struggle to lift it.

A silver star caught in a circle hangs from the zipper of the bag.

“You summon demons for fun, too?” He points to the pentagram.

Jongin laughs until he’s breathless and smacks Sehun’s arm so hard he falls over. His bookbag sits heavily on Sehun’s chest, making it hard to breathe, and Jongin asks if he’s okay. He calls Sehun’s name.

The heavy weight shifts onto Sehun’s gut, pushing a grunt-like belch up his throat.

“Cute,” Jongin says. “Have a nice nap? It’s eight o’clock.”

“AM?”

“PM. Same day.”

Sehun stretches his arms over his head and feels for what’s pinning him down. Something hairy.

Surprise, surprise, it’s Kai.

“I had a weird dream.”

“Yeah? What about?”

“You.” He intends to elaborate, but somehow his timing gets mixed up, and there’s silence between them long enough for him to never want to open his eyes and acknowledge anything ever again. “When you first moved to town, and I saw Kai change.”

“You still remember that? Here,” Jongin says, handing him a glass. “Drink this.”

“Not as clearly as I used to, but yeah.” It tastes like vaguely flavored water, but he can’t decide what the vague taste is. “What is it?”

“Love potion.” Sehun chokes. “I need to know if it works!”

“Why don’t you try it?”

“I did! ...Nothing happened.”

“What’s supposed to happen?”

Jongin shrugs, frowning at the book in his hands. “It doesn’t say, and that’s what I’d like to find out, but there’s nothing.” Kai sniffs the empty glass and sighs.

“Maybe it takes time to take effect.”

Jongin shakes his head and shrugs. “I don’t think they’re supposed to, but I guess we can wait and see.” He sits on Sehun’s legs, letting the book fall between his feet.

It’s quiet. The cottage doesn’t even have a clock. Outside, crickets and cicadas sing to potential mates. Frogs croak as charmingly as they can.

Sehun bounces his knee, shaking Jongin. “You think we’re far enough away from everyone to summon a demon for fun?”

Jongin smiles. “I already have a circle drawn and ready.”

---

a/n: Written for 94 Dreams (of You). (prompt no.T18 one of sehun's classmates has a necklace with a star. sehun comments that he thinks it's cute. his classmate responds and tells him that it's a pentagram and that summoning demons is not cute.)