“Admit you have a crush on Mina and move on,” Jihyo tells Jeongyeon, annoyed by how the taller girl has been pestering her for the whole afternoon already.

“What? That’s what you get from everything I said?” Jeongyeon almost yells, pretending to be offended. She has been following Jihyo around the common room in pretense of asking advise on how to ‘improve her relationship’ with their classmates, saying graduation is just around the corner and school is all about making memories.

Jihyo glares at Jeongyeon, looks at her from head to toe. “Jeongyeon, you just literally told me you can’t get Mina off your mind,” Jihyo says blankly.

“And you think I have a crush on her?” Jeongyeon nervously laughs. “Huh. You’re reaching.”

Jihyo rolls her eyes. “I wish I could use at least one of the forbidden curses on you,” Jihyo tells her.

Jeongyeon only made a face. What the is Jihyo saying? Her? Having a crush on Mina? Like she’d ever let herself suffer from liking someone above her status. Jeongyeon laughs. There’s only some level of pathetic she could wear.

--

Well, maybe she really is pathetic. Right now, the girl that has been plaguing her mind is sitting opposite her in the library. She failed three quizzes which prompted an intervention from Professor McGonagall before she gets kicked out from the team. Jeongyeon blames it on the games. Her mind has been focusing on the practices that she forgets about the class activities taking place. She can’t be slacking off in her final year! Gryffindor better bag that championship title for their team.

But of all the people who could be tasked to be her study buddy, Professor McGonagall just have to pair her up with Mina. She hates it. Not being paired with Mina, of course. She hates how Mina must be thinking how stupid she must be to fail three quizzes in different subjects. She is better than this! Why must she embarrass herself like this?

“I’m sorry for all of these, Mina” Jeongyeon nervously tells the Ravenclaw. “I honestly could do this on my own. I just got distracted with the games is all,” she reasons.

Mina stopped flipping the pages of her notes and gave Jeongyeon a quick smile. “Yeah, I could tell,” she says.

“Really? I mean, honestly I’m not really bad at all these acad stuff I just-” Jeongyeon stopped herself, realizes she is embarrassing herself more with what she is doing. “It’s the games,” she finished half-heartedly, thinks Mina will not believe her anyway.

“Yeah, I know,” Mina nods, smiling. “You won against our house last time. I could say you seem pretty aggressive with that last one,” Mina teases.

“Sorry about that,” Jeongyeon pouts, sad that Mina thinks she plays roughly.

“About what? Winning?” Mina laughs. “You did what you have to do,” Mina assures her.

“Yeah, we totally owned your house,” Jeongyeon gloats after assessing the situation, loving how she gets to tease Mina like this.

Mina rolls her eyes playfully. “And look what that got you,” Mina reminds, pointing about the situation at hand.

“Got me sitting opposite the prettiest girl in class,” Jeongyeon says confidently. She is not lying anyway.

If Jeongyeon saw it right, there was a tint of pink on Mina’s cheeks before Mina brushed her off with a face. “I’m still making you answer all these exercises,” Mina says. “Nope. Let me add some more,” she continues as she checks more part in Jeongyeon’s book.

Jeongyeon pouts. “You’re unfair.”

“Well, you did say I’m the prettiest girl in class,” Mina answers back with a sly smile. “Think I’m allowed to be unfair.”

--

Jeongyeon has it bad. She confirms this to herself at 3AM while her thoughts wonder back to a certain Ravenclaw. As though running in her mind for the whole day is not enough, Jeongyeon complains. She wonders though, really confused, what has she been focusing on all these years that she is only now seeing how wonderful Mina is. They have been friends, of course, in the past years. But it was never past the point of usual classmate-to-classmate, friends-to-friends interaction. They are not even from the same circle! She has been so used to Mina’s presence (they have been classmates for 7 years!) that it is a shame that she is only now realizing how absolutely amazing Mina is. She is pretty, kind, and smart. Not to mention, Mina always laughs at her jokes, Mina joins her in fooling around despite how reserved Mina seems to be and Mina has saved her way too many times from detention.

Jeongyeon changes position in her bed again, thinking about all their interactions for the past years. Mina and her are not really that close, she thinks. But Jeongyeon cannot say they are strangers either. They have fair amount interactions to say, should any of them get in trouble for wandering in the dark forest, one would not hesitate to cover for the other. After all, isn’t that what they did after both of them got involved in that one cursed potions experiment? Jeongyeon laughs to herself. She could only flinch at how both her and Mina avoided detention by withholding facts about what they really put in that cauldron. It will remain a secret.

Them covering for the other started three years ago when Jeongyeon found Mina sleeping in the Room of Requirements when Mina told the professors she is down with the flu. Mina, being the Ravenclaw that she is, easily figured out that Jeongyeon must have been skipping class too. Why else would she be there? In the end, Jeongyeon had no choice but tell Mina that she learnt of the said room after she find herself looking for some muggle items to add to her collection. Mina, on the other hand, shared that she just doesn’t feel like going to class. Something about Mina reaching her maximum social interactions for the week, Jeongyeon recalls. She smiles at the memory and at how they have still been meeting up at the Room of Requirements to do the same mundane things until now.

And now Jeongyeon is back to thinking about how she sees Mina lately. There’s just this glow that surrounds her, like Jeongyeon could literally feel Mina blinding her. Everything about Mina, from the way she laughs, the way she makes those tiny cute sounds, the way she walks, and god, her gummy smile—everything just draws Jeongyeon in. How has she been missing out on all these for the past six years? Why is she realizing this now? Why is she feeling all these now? She only has three months to go before graduation. She doesn’t have enough time. And Mina? Mina’s been so immensely popular (how has Jeongyeon not noticed that, too!) that Jeongyeon doubts Mina could even spare a different glance on her, an average student who plays rough on a game called Quidditch, over the crowd of other popular kids pining on her. Jeongyeon frowns. She did not sleep that night.

--

“Are you sure about this?” Dahyun asks her for the nth time.

Jeongyeon asked Dahyun and Chaeyoung to help her secure a bottle of the Weasley’s love potion. Dahyun and Chaeyoung are notorious for smuggling anything forbidden inside the campus after all. Of course, it comes with a hefty price.

“You do know this is not gonna make Mina fall in love with you, right?” Chaeyoung reminds, still keeping the bottle near her chest. “That it’s just going to make her infatuated with you at best?”

Jeongyeon swallows. “Y-yeah. Just hand it to me.”

“Just making sure you know. Terms and conditions, yeah? We don’t do refunds if this fails, by the way. Store policy,” Chaeyoung warns lightly.

After receiving the payment, counting it to make sure Jeongyeon’s not playing her, Dahyun looked at Jeongyeon again. “Seriously, Mina’s too smart to not get you’ll be playing her like this.”

Jeongyeon puts the potion in her pocket. “Privacy policy. Keep your mouths shut or I’ll snitch on you two.”

“Hey. No need to be hostile. Keep that attitude in the games,” Dahyun tries to downplay the situation, brushing the non-existent dust on Jeongyeon’s shoulder.

“Good luck on the girl. If this fails, you can always count on us to find something else,” Chaeyoung assures, winking before she pulled Dahyun away from Jeongyeon.

“Or someone else!” Dahyun tries to add but Chaeyoung shut her up by dragging her.

Jeongyeon watched them walk away. She put a hand in her pocket, feeling the liquid in a small vial. Could she really do this? She plays rough but she plays fair. If she used this, would it not be cheating?

Just in case, Jeongyeon tells herself. She will keep it with her only just in case.

--

It’s the final match of the year and the Gryffindors are up against the Slytherins for the Quidditch championship. Jeongyeon hasn’t been sleeping well lately, thinking of how she might fail as a keeper and injure her friends prior their graduation.

“Good luck, Jeongyeon,” Mina tells her before she joins her teammates. All her other friends had already wished her luck and has now left to cheer on Nayeon who is playing keeper for the other team.

“Yeah? Nayeon’s definitely going to knock me out first things first,” Jeongyeon shares her worries.

“Silly,” Mina says. “Nayeon couldn’t even if she wanted. You’re a lot better flyer than her.”

“Is that a compliment?” Jeongyeon smiles before pursing her lips. “Thanks for staying.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.” Mina giggles. “I’ve just gone to Nayeon earlier which is why I could stay with you.”

They were left standing together in comfortable silence until Nayoung called Jeongyeon. The game is to start in 30 minutes.

“They’re looking for you,” Mina tells. “Break a leg!” she cheers.

“God, I hope not.” Jeongyeon whines.

“Good luck.” Mina leans in and gave Jeongyeon a quick peck on her right cheek.

Before Jeongyeon could form a response, Mina has quickly trodden away, leaving a dazed Jeongyeon smiling to herself. She definitely has to ask Mina out.

--

“Who are you taking to the ball?” Mina asks her excitedly, putting down her book on the table. “I can’t believe it. We’re actually graduating soon!”

Jeongyeon couldn’t answer Mina’s question anymore. Jeongyeon had wanted to say ‘hopefully, you’ but Mina moved on quickly. “Yeah, you’re right. We’re graduating.”

“Why the sad face, Yoo?” Mina asks. “Worried you won’t get to see my pretty face anymore?” she jokes, elbowing Jeongyeon’s side.

“Once,” Jeongyeon tells. “I called you the prettiest once and now you can’t stop rubbing it on my face,” she complains loosely.

“And you’re still not taking it back,” Mina retorts. “Anyway, the ball’s in two days. Who are you taking?”

“I still haven’t asked her,” Jeongyeon confesses.

“Oh,” Mina says quickly, looking away. “Yeah, of course. I mean, if nobody had asked them yet,” Mina adds mockingly.

The Great Hall was still fairly empty when Mina arrived. Jeongyeon, in her defense, has been in the hall trying to pluck up the courage to ask Mina out for their graduation ball. However, if the situation could not explain it any better, Jeongyeon has not made any progress on that yet. It’s not like she hasn’t heard about all the other invitations Mina had received. But still Jeongyeon hopes she could ask Mina first before Mina decides who, among all of them, she would go to the ball with.

Mina and Jeongyeon sat in silence again once Mina picked her book to go back to reading. Jeongyeon convinces herself that she will ask Mina about the ball. It’s now or never. She took a deep breath and looked around.

However, Jeongyeon started to panic as soon as she saw Wendy enter the hall. Flashback to when Dahyun pulled her in one of the cupboards to extort some money off her five days ago. Dahyun warned her about the situation, about how