There's been talk going around that a former Death Eater had been jailed in Azkaban this morning, it's all the buzz in the halls of Hogwarts and everyone seemed to be indulging themselves in this news. Jisoo hadn't heard about it until after her second period, when she met up with Bona by the statue of the golden knight. Bona had instantly grabbed Jisoo's arms and looked at her with bewildered, wide eyes. "Is Taehyung okay?" 

"What?" Jisoo blurts, totally confused and for some reason, her friend's expression and question made her nervous all of a sudden. "Yes, he - he is." They had been partners for a classroom quiz bowl in Arithmancy and it was safe to say that they nailed it. They had made a bet, and Taehyung had won. She promised to buy him butterbeer the next time they visited Hogsmeade. Taehyung had been his usual, cheery self during class. "Why? Is something wrong?"

Bona's hands flew to her satchel, where she grabbed a rumpled copy of today's issue of the Daily Prophet. Both Jisoo and Bona didn't have owl subscriptions to the newspaper, so she must have seen this from someone else and took it from them, hence why they were so late to the news. 

BREAKING NEWS: DARK WIZARD AND FORMER DEATH EATER KIM NAMJOON FINALLY CAPTURED

"Kim Namjoon?" Jisoo read the article briefly, skimming it over for the important bits and details. It seems like he was captured during a raid and that he's been stirring trouble for a while now. His Dark Mark could be seen in the photo that accompanied the headline, an inked in skull and snake as black as night against his pale arm, as he was cuffed and taken by officials. 

Bona took the newspaper from her hands and shoved it back inside her bag. "He's Taehyung's cousin," she tells her friend, her voice going an octave lower. "You better go find him after class, Jisoo. I already heard a few students talking smack about him." 

All throughout class, Jisoo had never been so distracted like this. She was restless, fidgety and antsy. She kept looking at the grandfather clock on the other side of the room and hoped desperately for time to pick up its pace. She was beyond worried for Taehyung and the more she sat there in the stuffy classroom filled with malicious glances from her gossiping classmates, the more worried she got. 

When the bell finally rang, Jisoo felt like she could breathe again. She hurtled towards the door but a group of girls had blocked her way just before she could grab onto the doorknob.

"Kim Jisoo, I didn't know you had it in you to date a Death Eater," the way Sana emphasized the last two words made Jisoo sick to her stomach. "Honestly, the goody two shoes and the bad - or no, the evil - boy. This makes for a rather thrilling love story, don't you think?" She smiled, but there was something so vile about it that Jisoo had to look away.

"Move, Sana." She murmured but there was little to no force in her voice at all. 

"Leave her alone, you guys," Im Nayeon pulled Sana back, allowing Jisoo a wider access to the door. 

Bona clutched onto Jisoo's arm and glared at the other girls. "She said move, you tramp!" She pushed Jisoo forward and past the other girls, ignoring Sana's mean comments and clapbacks as they opened the door and spilled outside. "Do you want me to help you look for him?" 

Jisoo shakes her head, feeling grateful for her friend. "It's fine, I already know where he is." 

She wasn't a hundred percent sure when she said that but a sigh of relief escapes her lips when she sees a dark lump mass under the shade of the willow tree. She broke into a sprint and as she neared, she could slowly make out his figure sitting on the grass with his back turned towards her.

"I was so worried about you." She collapsed on the ground right next to him, catching her breathe and wiping the sweat from her forehead. 

Taehyung turns to her, a hand on her back to help her calm down. "Jisoo, what are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here is more like it," she spread her legs out before her and inhaled sharply. He retracted his hand from her back and looked away, and it was then clear to her that he realized she knew about the article about his cousin and how he's in Azakaban right at this moment. She doesn't know how to make him open up to her, talk to her about what he was feeling because she was still figuring that out herself. She just wants to help him, but every time the subject gets too personal or too touchy-feely, he steps back into his hard shell that is unpenetrable even to her. "Taehyung, I came down here to check on you." 

She wasn't going to ask him if he was okay because that would be just plain stupidity. Of course he's not okay! His cousin just got chucked into Azkaban for illegal practice of dark magic. If it had happened to Jisoo, she'd feel terrible about it too.  

When the silence between them stretches, Jisoo frowns and feels impatient. She places a hand on his lap and sighs. "Look, how am I supposed to help you if you won't tell me anything?" She didn't mean to snap at him, but it was too late to take that back.

Taehyung sharply turned his face to her. "Has it ever occurred to you that I probably don't need help?" 

He was still angry and she wonders belatedly if she should have came down to find him at a later time to avoid his fresh, piping hot anger but she doesn't understand why he's angry at her when she's just here to help. He was being ridiculous and childish right now. "What is that supposed to mean?" She retracts her hand from his lap and her posture stiffens under his scrutinizing gaze. "I'm not here to judge you, Taehyung. I'm here to listen and to -"

"I left the castle to be alone in the first place and you still came to find me." 

"Because I thought you might need help or at least some comfort!" 

Taehyung snorts, and it wasn't the usual playful or lighthearted snort they'd throw at each other all the time; this was different. As if Jisoo's words actually sounded absurd to him. "Well, you thought wrong." 

Jisoo couldn't believe him right now. She was about to stand and leave, but ultimately held herself back and decided against it. They were both being sensitive right now, he was still on edge because of his cousin but that didn't give him the right to talk back to Jisoo like that. "Why are you being like this? Why are you being angry at me?"

"I know you mean well but I just really wanted to be alone." He insists, looking away from her and towards the still waters of the Great Lake. 

"It wouldn't hurt to talk about it. It might even make it easier for you." Jisoo tries to coax him, using a lighter and softer voice to make him know that she wasn't irritated by his dislike of talking to her about his problems (even though she was very much irritated about it). Jisoo thinks that if he confided his worries to her, it'd help lift some of the burden off from his shoulders and she just wanted Taehyung to trust her enough to help him do just that. Weren't they in an intimate relationship after all? What was the point of having Jisoo so close to him when he can't even look her in the eye and talk about his problems. "Taehyung, you can't keep shouldering these burdens by yourself. You have me, and you have friends, what do you think we're here for?"

Taehyung looks back at her and the cold expression that he has on makes Jisoo go still, he's never looked at her with so much frigid bitterness. His eyes looked so different, and the thin line of his lips looked so unfamiliar to her. "You wouldn't understand." He finally says. 

"Of course I wouldn't because you keep everything to yourself! How am I supposed to understand when you won't even talk to me?" Her voice sounded a little more desperate with every word she utters, but she'd do anything to make him stop looking at her like that. 

"No," he tells her firmly. His jaw tenses up and his eyes harden. His anger has spiked rather than diffused. "I mean it in the most literal sense. You wouldn't get my problem because you're a - you're a.... a muggle born." 

He sighs out loud, as if regretting his words but not enough to take them back. The social divide between the two of them has never been stronger than it was today. It's a harsh slap to her face that reminds her she'll never be in his league and that they always be on different rungs of the same ladder. 

"Even if you tried to help, Jisoo, I don't think you'd even understand." He says. 

Jisoo bites the inside of her cheek to keep herself from crying. "Because I'm stupid?" 

Taehyung actually winces at the indifference in her tone. "Anyone who calls you stupid is actually talking about themselves." He snickers, but his compliment doesn't get through her. "What I mean is we just have different beliefs, customs and traditions. We grew up in different environments, I wouldn't expect you to get the problem right away and I still don't feel comfortable sharing it with you because of our differences in background. You say you're not here to judge me, but I know you still will because we're so different in the sense of sociocultural context."

"Differences in background..." she echoed, feeling like he had stunned her without even using a wand or murmuring a spell. "Not comfortable in sharing..." 

Taehyung has never hurt her more than he did today.

She clenches her fist and gets up from the ground. "Fine, I'll leave then." She turns on her heel and walks away. Even though she was angry and hurt and so confused, she still wanted him to stop her from leaving, more than anything.

But he didn't.  

Kim Namjoon was still the talk of the school for a few days and Taehyung kept being dragged into conversations about the infamous Death Eater too. But then an incident concerning Myrtle, the ghost that haunted the girl's lavatories, and a sixth year Hufflepuff had caused quite an uproar that eventually, the attention shifted from the Kims to the ghost and the Hufflepuff boy. Everyone had almost forgotten about Taehyung's cousin and they started leaving him alone. 

But Taehyung and Jisoo were still not on speaking terms. They avoided each other throughout their two shared classes and Jisoo always took the long way around the castle to get to the Great Hall for meals or to the Ravenclaw common room just to avoid bumping into him. 

"You two are being ridiculous," Bona tells her, six days after Jisoo's fight with Taehyung. "Just it up and apologize. I know he said some pretty harsh things but are you sure that he really meant those? That was a rough day for him, you know." 

It had been a rough week for Taehyung, but Jisoo feels like that wasn't enough reason to dismiss everything he said to her. His feelings might have overpowered his rational side but Jisoo just can't let the matter rest. "I can't be the one who keeps giving him leeway, Bona."

"You're not giving him leeway, Jisoo." Bona rolls her eyes. She continues to smear butter all over her toast and ignores Jisoo's glare. "You're merely putting down your pride. You know, lose the battle to win the war."

"What?"

"Oh dear Merlin, this woman." 

Jisoo frowns, fidgeting with her fingers as she looks away from her friend. She begins to absentmindedly tap her fingers against the rim of her glass that was filled to the brim with pumpkin juice. "I'm just still really hurt. A few weeks ago, I was bragging to Yuta and to you how different Taehyung was as a pureblood. Now I'm beginning to think that might not be true at all." She still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that Taehyung had said all those things to her, she thought her background didn't matter to him but obviously that wasn't the case at all. 

"No, Jisoo." Bona shakes her head and puts down her butter knife and toast. "You were right about Taehyung, and you still are, he's not like the other members of his family or other purebloods for that matter. They're much, much worse. He's not like his cousin for instance. He's a good person, he was just hurt that day too. I think you should stop avoiding each other and actually talk like you know, proper and civil young adults." 

"I did try to talking to him and you saw how that turned out," Jisoo points out. She sighs and pushes her plate of half eaten food away from her. "I don't even know what to say to him anymore." 

"Well, you better think of something then. And fast," Bona tilts her head to the side, looking right past her friend. "Because he's coming this way right now."

Jisoo turned back in alarm and sure enough, Taehyung was walking down the aisle of the Great Hall with his eyes locked onto Jisoo. It reminds her of the day he asked her out on a date to Hogsmeade, he blurted it out in front of everyone in the Great Hall. 

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