The librarian stared pointedly at the couple seated next to Joohyun, then let her gaze fall on Joohyun herself as though holding her personally responsible for whatever the other two decided to do. It seemed a bit unfair, but she only gave a half-hearted nod in return. It wouldn’t do to get on the librarian’s bad side.

As soon as the old woman had turned the corner, Joohyun leaned forward and pulled her book back to her front, away from the giggling duo. They weren’t even reading it anymore, just studying each other’s palms and exchanging observations in hushed tones.

Leaving the couple to their own devices, Joohyun flipped the pages until she was at the beginning of the chapter. She was planning to take advantage of this free period to go through the entire section on Chiromancy and hopefully be on equal footing with Seungwan by the time the girl came to join them in the library.

Palm-reading really was dull, though. Joohyun liked Divination in general; after all, Divination and Astronomy had been the only NEWT classes that she hadn’t just chosen with her future career in mind. The classes she’d taken for her own interest. But somehow, getting through the chapter on palm-reading was proving a bit of a pain.

To be fair, she was probably just tired of studying in general. Still, it wasn’t like she could stop, so she pushed away her boredom and focused on the lines in front of her.

Chiromancy is a delicate and fickle art. When it comes to reading the lines of the hand, the one thing that the reader must always keep in mind is-

“Joohyun,” Hyuna demanded in a whining voice that she only ever used around Hyojong.

Joohyun paused to take a calming breath and attempted to tune out the irritant, before returning to her book.

When it comes to reading the lines of the hand, the one thing that the reader must always keep in mind-

“Joohyun,” Hyuna repeated petulantly, really trying her luck at this point. Joohyun resisted the urge to cast a Muffling Hex in her direction.

- the one thing that the reader must always-

“Joohyun!”

“What?” she spat out a bit too loudly. The librarian’s face appeared in a gap in the bookshelves, narrowing her eyes at Joohyun before disappearing again. Great.

“Hyojong’s love line is longer than mine,” Hyuna whined on, finger tracing its length as she shoved his hand in Joohyun’s face, dragging the whole boy along and nearly out of his chair.

“And?”

“Why is it longer?” Hyuna insisted, still waving the hand under Joohyun’s nose.

She leaned closer, pretend to study it for a moment.

“You’re going to break up and he’ll get married two more times while you’re alone and unloved.”

“He’ll what?”

Hyojong pulled his hand free, already waving it in denial while Hyuna reacted dramatically. Then the Gryffindor paused, frowning.

“Wait, how do you know all that without even seeing my palm?”

“I don’t, I made it up.” Joohyun dodged Hyuna’s shove, then flicked her quill in her direction, splashing her with ink. “Now let me study in peace.”

“You’re just mean because you’re single.”

Hyuna leaned back against Hyojong, who immediately wrapped his arms around her to steady her.

“I’ve always been mean,” Joohyun countered as she rested her quill in the inkwell and returned her attention to her book. She’d get past the first page eventually.

“You’ve always been single.”

Without looking, she stretched her leg out towards Hyuna’s shin, missing it by an inch.

Chiromancy is a-

“Speaking of, where’s your study buddy?”

Joohyun couldn’t even be mad at Hyuna’s interruption. She hadn’t expected any less at this point. But the change of topic didn’t make any sense.

“Speaking of what?”

Hyuna shrugged with a playful smirk.

“And she has a name, you know?” Joohyun added with an eyeroll.

“Oh, sorry. It’s just, I remember a time when I couldn’t mention her name without setting you off.”

“And yet it never stopped you.”

“So you admit that it annoyed you.”

“You annoy me. Anyway, she’s in class right now, she’ll come over after.”

For a brief moment of silence, Joohyun pondered actually making another attempt at reading that unlucky first page of the chapter. Maybe if she skipped to the second page it would break the curse and she’d finally be able to study chiromancy productively.

“So I have to ask.”

Maybe not.

“What? What do you have to ask that is so much more important than me passing my classes and having a future?”

“Did you two hook up during the break? Is that why you’re suddenly friendly and on speaking terms?”

Joohyun’s eyes flew to Hyuna’s face, sarcastic retort already preparing itself in the back of her mind, but she froze when she saw none of the amusement she’d expected. Was Hyuna… serious?

“Why would we hook up?” she asked, entirely baffled. “And why would that be the first reason you consider?”

“I’ve considered other things,” Hyuna retorted, a bit defensive. “But you won’t tell me, so I have to get a little inventive. Besides, I’m not the only one thinking it.”

More wonderful news, then. People in this school never got tired of gossiping about others, did they? And never with rumours that made any sense, either.

She must have been scowling, because Hyuna’s gaze lingered on her face, as though genuinely considering letting her study in peace. And then she didn’t, of course.

“You’re way too uptight. You need to let off some steam.” Joohyun could imagine how Hyuna wanted her to let off some steam, and she was about to say something to that effect when she was cut off. “I know exactly what you need. Sooyoung!”

The cry was far too loud and Joohyun already expected the librarian to pop around the corner and throw her another venomous glare, but for once she was spared her wrath. She couldn’t consider herself too lucky, though, because what she did see at once was the Ravenclaw herself, well within earshot.

She turned around before their eyes could meet and returned her attention to Hyuna. “What do you want with Sooyoung?”

“I’m buying you a Calming Draught and maybe then you’ll stop being so prickly.”

“I don’t need a Calming Draught.”

“Yes, you don’t need any potions anymore, do you?”

So this was how it was going to be. Unable to get anything about Seungwan out of Joohyun, Hyuna had decided to prod her about Sooyoung instead.

“You’re childish.”

In lieu of response, Hyuna stuck her tongue out, which Joohyun felt only proved her point.

“Ladies. Hyojong,” Sooyoung greeted pleasantly from behind her back. The couple waved their hellos. Joohyun refused to turn for just a moment longer. “So glad to run into you. I haven’t given you my updated catalogue, and maybe I could also let you know about our special discounts for seventh-years. Cheaper prices for bulk Wideye purchases,” she added close to Joohyun’s ear, nearly startling her.

“Thank you but no thank you,” Joohyun replied as she turned, refusing the neatly laminated page being handed her way with a polite smile. “Not interested.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to at least have a look first? You’ll find the products we offer have changed extensively. Here at Joyful Solutions, we take pride in working to provide our customers with exactly what they want.”

Ugh, what a stupid name. “You know, I always hated that pun.”

“I always loved it,” Hyuna piped up, if only to be contrary. Sooyoung nodded in appreciation, catalogue still held out for any takers.

“Wait, it’s a pun?” Hyojong sounded truly confused for a second, then he breathed out slowly as the meaning dawned on him. “Oh, because potions, they’re solutions. I like that!”

Hyuna cooed at her boyfriend, making Joohyun glad she had her back to them. Sooyoung still stood in front of her, hand held out, but Joohyun shook her head and she took the hint at last.

“Well, you know where to find me if you change your mind.” Stretching over Joohyun’s head to leave her catalogue with the other two, she her heel and walked off, leaving Joohyun to roll her eyes pre-emptively at whatever Hyuna would surely say next.

“I liked it better when you two were a thing.”

Just as expected. Ridiculous and childish.

"How many people have I supposedly hooked up with? I've lost count at this point."

Hyuna's attention seemed to be on the catalogue in her hands, which Hyojong was reading over her shoulder, but the corners of her lips still quirked in a half-smile.

"Just the two." She turned the page over in her hand and inspected the back. "You should at least check out the new potions. Exes or not, there are some excellent deals here."

"Not exes."

"Then why the sudden change in attitude? You spent all of last year buying potions from her and now you won't even make eye contact."

Hyuna's eyes were still scanning the catalogue, but it felt like she wasn't being quite as light as her tone indicated. Joohyun hadn't told her about Seungwan, or Sooyoung, or… Well, about anything personal really. She didn't like to share any of those things, but they were friends. She should give her something.

She sighed, unhappy with her decision.

"It was a love potion."

The paper flew out of Hyuna's hand and nearly slid off the table, as she immediately threw her undivided attention on Joohyun.

"Sooyoung?" she asked, eyes alight with enthusiasm.

"No, not Sooyoung. Some idiot, a couple of years younger than us, who bought it from her. It was the cheap stuff, so it only took a few ridiculous thoughts and a senseless urge to smile for me to piece it together and get an antidote from Sooyoung. And then I got his name out of her and made him regret it. Deeply."

Hyuna nodded along to her words, a wicked smile on her face that only grew with each new development.

"After that, I decided I'd rather not make business with someone of such… questionable morality. I also delivered a few threats about what would happen if a drop of love potion ever touched my lips again."

"Well, those clearly worked. She's out of that market completely."

"Completely? I knew about the Amortentia, but…"

"All of them." Hyuna paused, pretended to be mulling something over. "Do you think she's trying to win you back?"

"Ugh, stop."

She shoved Hyuna, who threw herself into Hyojong, making a show of gripping his biceps to steady herself.

She seemed happy enough, content with what she'd been given. Joohyun was glad. Hyuna and Sunmi were good friends, ready to at the slightest provocation but always there for her as well. Even if she couldn't tell them everything, she didn't want to shut them out either.

It was just hard sometimes. Her parents' reminders would never fully leave her mind.

She was a Bae. She had an image to maintain. She must be careful with her secrets, mindful of whom she shared them with.

"Hey!" A voice that had recently grown very familiar pulled her away from her gloomy thoughts as Seungwan sat at their table, books already halfway out of her bag. “How is the studying going?”

“Terrible, this lazy creature hasn’t even cracked her book,” Hyuna offered at once, tone playfully accusing.

“Maybe if you’d actually let me study, instead of assaulting me with pointless questions and gossip.”

“They weren’t pointless! I’m still waiting for an explanation on the love lines thing. They’re different lengths! Oh! Maybe you can help us, Seungwan, since you’re actually up to date with the material.”

“Are you going to let us study at any point, today?”

Joohyun leant back in her chair and finally reopened her book. She hoped to get things on track before they lost too much time to Hyuna’s antics, since they already had enough work to do. Especially Seungwan, who always had twice as much on her plate.

“No, it’s fine. Explaining things is the best way of studying!” Seungwan offered. She opened her own book, looking through a few pages before settling on a detailed diagram of a hand.

“So the thing about palm-reading is that it’s a dynamic discipline, where all the elements must be considered in combination. Something like the length of the love line has no meaning by itself; it’s only when it’s framed within the full set of lines, and studied for all its properties, such as the curve or the depth, that any conclusion can be made.”

She paused, studying the effect of her words, then leaned forward and carefully took Hyuna’s and Hyojong’s hands. “I can do your readings, if you want?”

Both of them nodded enthusiastically and Seungwan immediately set to work pointing out characteristics and taking notes, which she explained as she went. Step by step, the lines on both of their palms were described in detail, and their meanings suggested.

Joohyun looked on, fascinated. It wasn't the way the speech rolled easily off Seungwan's tongue, like she'd already grown more than accustomed to the material and could recall any part of it without effort. It wasn't even the way she pointed out every step on her own hand, or flipped excitedly between pages to find the relevant diagrams, in a way that drew in even the least academically-minded of students.

No, it was the ease of it all. The radiant smile on Seungwan’s face. The glimmer in her eyes, the easy energy that filled her frame. She looked so very comfortable, confident. In the spotlight, Seungwan was bright and blazing and carefree, just as she had appeared before the break.

Her lips were still cracked, the bags under her eyes dark and heavy. But nobody noticed. Joohyun hadn’t noticed either. The term had begun and Seungwan had put on her mask. People were watching and so she smiled, went about her work with practiced calm.

She was a Son. She had an image to maintain. She’d been maintaining it for a long time now.

Maybe even as long as Joohyun.

(…)

There were stares, at first.

Joohyun hadn’t thought about the stares.

Some part of her should have seen it coming, considering their situation. Everybody knew her, everybody knew Seungwan, and nearly everybody knew about their troubled past. So their newfound understanding caused a lot of confusion, and a lot of staring.

But she’d never cared about the attention before, and she wouldn’t start now. She wasn’t bothered by the quizzical glances or the hushed whispers. People would move on eventually, when it became clear that no big dramatic event loomed in the horizon, that the sudden friendship between Son Seungwan and Bae Joohyun wasn’t the first omen of some apocalypse.

She didn’t care at all. But she could already imagine how Seungwan would overthink the entire situation, notice the stares and worry that Joohyun would be displeased, hide away for a week like the last time, just in case she’d put them in an undesired position.

So she pulled before Seungwan could push, and showed in the best way she could think of that there was no need to hide. Like inviting her to study together when Hyuna and Hyojong were there, although it led to a lot more jokes at her expense than she’d expected.

Like sitting together in Transfiguration, and being reminded that Sunmi and Seungwan were housemates and actually got along very well. So well that she began to suspect that they’d have been friends if she hadn’t made that particular relationship very difficult to sustain as one of Sunmi’s best friends.

As it was, some part of her was glad that the two Hufflepuffs weren’t actually any closer, because she couldn’t imagine how effectively they’d team up against her, allying Sunmi’s acquired expertise at playful jabs with Seungwan’s quick wit and unexpected sense of humour.

The easiest was probably Charms class. Technically, she shared that one with Hyuna, but Hyojong also took it, and the couple had a way of becoming very distracted and, honestly, a bit dangerous around wands when they were together.

Seungwan questioned whether it was really fine for them to sit apart like that, just her and Joohyun on one side of the room while Hyuna and Hyojong sat across from them. Wasn’t she intruding, pushing Joohyun away from her friends?

Then Joohyun pointed out how Hyuna had unwittingly set fire to a ball of yarn instead of casting the Knitting Charm they’d been practicing. The fire spread, creeping closer to Hyojong’s sleeve as the two idly commented on that strange burning smell and Hoetaek, a Ravenclaw that had befriended the pair of Gryffindors, conjured a stream of water from the tip of his wand with a look of frantic concentration.

“That could be my sleeve going up in flames,” Joohyun muttered in ominous tones. “I’ll grasp any excuse I can find to put some distance between myself and that.”

“It’s strange,” Seungwan whispered back, tapping her quill on the corner of her notes at a regular pace, “how Hyuna is so good at setting things on fire.”

“Maybe she’s part-dragon. It would explain her interest in the things.”

“Things?” Seungwan questioned playfully, probably having a higher opinion of dragons than Joohyun could muster. Big, fire-breathing creatures that could chomp her head off. Not a fan. “And is she very interested?”

“Extremely. She wants to go work with Chinese Fireballs after graduation.”

Seungwan’s tapping stuttered before recommencing. “Oh, right. That’s nice, that she already has it planned out. And Hyojong?”

“He’s going to do music. He’s really good at it, he’s mastered Self-Playing Charms and he can control nearly a dozen instruments at once, play out all his compositions.”

“So they’ll go to China together?” Seungwan ventured. Joohyun nodded in confirmation, throwing a glance at the couple. “That’s sweet.”

“Yeah. Things really worked out perfectly for them.”

A few more taps of Seungwan’s quill, a little faster than before but back to a steady rhythm.

“What about you?” the girl asked after a slight pause.

“Probably not China.”

“No, I mean, have you chosen what you’re going to do?”

“Oh, that. Yeah, more or less.”

“What is it, then? Unless it’s private, or you’d rather not-“

“Auror,” she offered, cutting Seungwan off. The Hufflepuff’s eyes widened a bit in admiration, or maybe just in surprise. It wasn’t the most common occupation for a pureblood Slytherin, certainly. “And you? Any ideas?”

“I’m… still mulling it over.”

“Well, what do you want to do?”

“My parents were talking about Beauxbatons, for higher studies. They have a great program in Alchemy, maybe with a side focus on Potions or Ancient Runes.”

“And what do you want to do?” Joohyun repeated, eyes on the teacher. The tapping stopped entirely, as Seungwan froze for just a beat.

“Beauxbatons…” she began slowly, hesitantly, tripping over the sentence before it had even begun. “Beauxbatons sounds good,” she finished in a weak voice.

Joohyun wondered which of the two of them she was trying to convince.