It was best not to tell anyone. Not intentionally obscure it either, of course; Joohyun had told Hyuna and Sunmi, and she let Seulgi know as well. But judging from the reaction she got from her friends, she could only imagine that publicly announcing she'd be taking Seungwan to the Ball would lead to an explosive increase in incorrect gossip. Everyone would think she liked Seungwan, or Seungwan liked her, or most likely that they'd been secretly dating all along and just covering it really, really well. All the popular rumours seemed to be dramatic like that.

Besides, people didn't really do that, right? Taking the time, after rejecting each invitation, to let their suitors know who they'd chosen over them. That was weird. Joohyun was fairly certain she'd never done that when she took Seulgi to Balls, not that she could remember anyway. To be fair, she'd never given it much thought before.

Yes, everyone would know on the day of the Ball even if she hid it. Well, not hid it. Didn't publicize it. But it would be entirely different, because on that day, they would see how she and Seungwan were clearly interacting as friends, and that would stop their imaginations from reaching too far. All the ridiculous romantic scenarios would wilt before they had a chance to grow roots, faced with the immediate reality.

She was overthinking it. She knew she was, and that nothing could prevent baseless rumours from spreading. She could probably headbutt Seungwan in the middle of the dance floor and some people would still think it was some courtship ritual. She was just clinging to the illusion of control.

News spread quickly, regardless. Despite the fact that all three of them were known to be unavailable term after term, Seungwan too busy for a date and Joohyun and Seulgi accompanying each other, there were still quite a few students who tried their luck, hoping this would be the year things would be different. And so everyone was surprised to learn both that Seungwan had a date, and that Seulgi didn't. If Joohyun had to guess, she'd say Seulgi's news was the one that received most attention. She didn't take it personally, though. Being single inevitably attracted more attention than being taken, even if it was by a partner shrouded in mystery and anonymity.

They were still trying to keep a low profile, so they usually weren't together when they were asked to the Ball. Joohyun saw a few people approach Seungwan at breakfast, all the way across the Great Hall, and she knew some were trying to catch her in their shared classes, although she doubted any succeeded there, since Seungwan always arrived with seconds to spare and left with dizzying speed while everyone else was still packing up. She only got to witness it once, late in the evening, when they were both studying at an isolated nook in the library.

A sixth-year Hufflepuff with an easy smile and distracted look in his eyes approached them, hands in the pockets of his messy robe and looking like he’d landed in the library entirely by accident. He paused by Seungwan’s chair, leaning against their table, and his grin widened.

“Hey, Seungwan.”

“Oh, hey, Taehyung,” Seungwan offered immediately, brightening up as she did around nearly everyone. Joohyun looked up only long enough to offer a terse nod, trying not to lose track of where she was going with her essay. “You’re here late.”

“Yeah, I had to return a few books. I only realized after dinner that the deadline was today, so…” He trailed off with a shrug, one hand slipping out of its pocket to tap elegant fingers on the thick wood of the table. “What about you? A lot of work to do?”

Still facing her parchment, Joohyun rolled her eyes at the uninspired conversation. Still, she didn’t intervene as Seungwan cheerily assured him that everything was under control, and he hoped she wouldn’t stay too late, and she laughed and said she hoped so as well.

Joohyun was almost done with her essay by the time the boy finally stalled the exchange of pleasantries, cleared his throat and got to the point. “So, uh, are you going to the Spring Ball? I mean, with anyone?”

“Oh,” was all Seungwan replied for a moment, and Joohyun had to look up at that, because how could she possibly be surprised by the question that Joohyun had seen coming for about ten minutes? Still, there she sat, blinking away the surprise with a polite smile. She looked away then, catching Joohyun’s eye, and her smile morphed into something warmer, a hint of amusement around the edges.

“Actually, yeah, I am going with someone,” she said, a little shyly. Joohyun returned the smile and quickly ducked back to her work, suddenly feeling shy herself. She tapped her quill on the corner of her parchment, not writing a single word.

“Oh. Makes sense,” Taehyung eventually offered, which was probably the most understated reaction that news had received so far. He scratched his cheek thoughtfully. “Actually, I think I heard something about that,” he added after a moment, and Joohyun muffled her laugh under a light cough as even that managed to surprise Seungwan.

A round of polite smiles was exchanged. Taehyung nodded at nothing in particular. Joohyun’s quill dripped on the corner of her notes and she cursed under her breath as she hurried to clear away the spill. When she looked up, the boy was still there, now studying her. He wouldn’t.

“So, Joohyun-”

“Don’t even think about it,” she cut in smoothly, voice sickly-sweet. Seungwan bit back a smile at the shameless attempt, although to be fair, Taehyung was probably absent-minded enough not to realize he probably shouldn’t make it so obvious that his second choice was a second choice.

“Uh, yeah, right,” he quickly backtracked, cheeks darkening as realization struck him. “Duh,” he added awkwardly.

Joohyun waited until the door to the library opened and closed, signalling his exit, before she burst into silent laughter. Seungwan joined her easily, although the laughter eventually died down as she groaned in embarrassment and brought up her hands to cover her face.

“What did he mean, he heard something about it?”

That made Joohyun laugh again, a loud unexpected sound that she quickly clamped down before it could alert the librarian.

“I suppose it’s surprising that even Taehyung caught wind of it,” she commented diplomatically, a playful smirk on her face.

“So everyone knows?” Seungwan realized quickly, with a dawning look of horror.

Of course, while Joohyun had been thinking about it endlessly, it had never even crossed Seungwan’s mind that someone could have taken any notice of her personal life. There was a time when Joohyun would have been unreasonably bothered by this, but now it just made her want to tease the girl for her naivete.

“Well, you’re a popular girl,” she reminded her, smile growing as Seungwan sank in her chair. “And it’s an unprecedented occurrence. I’m sure people are just dying to find out who is this mysterious person who managed to win you over. They might be a bit disappointed when they realize it isn’t the romantic fantasy they’ve probably dreamed up,” she finished, the words seeming awkward as she spoke them. It was what she’d been worrying about all this time, but speaking it out loud made it seem so ludicrous.

“Oh, I didn’t even realize,” Seungwan gasped out, the horror solidifying into something more than embarrassment. “That must be- I didn’t mean to put you in an uncomfortable position, or attract attention- Oh, and we were trying to avoid-“

Joohyun watched as each fragment escaped Seungwan, wondering how best to interrupt the torrent. She opened , eager to soothe her concerns, but she realized that the Hufflepuff was right. They’d been trying to avoid attention, to find a space for themselves, and then she’d gone and asked her to the Ball. That was the very opposite of a low profile. What was she thinking?

Snippets of apologies and loose comments kept drifting out of Seungwan’s mouth, and Joohyun suddenly found herself cutting in to say, confidently, “I don’t care about avoiding attention.”

Seungwan paused. She paused too, brain trying to catch up with whatever she was going to say, but she realized it was true just as she said it. “I don’t want people talking about us because it puts pressure on things, makes it harder for us to just… be ourselves, do whatever we want. But if we stop doing what we want to avoid that attention, then that defeats the purpose, I think. And what I want is to go to the Ball with you.”

Seungwan nodded silently, eyes wide and unreadable. Joohyun shut , teeth clacking together with the force of it, feeling suddenly unbalanced. She felt like she kept saying too much around Seungwan, sharing all sorts of things she didn’t even understand. In the quiet that followed, she could almost hear her heart beating in .

“That’s what I want too,” Seungwan said quietly, eyes focused stubbornly on the nearest book. The words made a strange fluttering feeling blossom in Joohyun’s chest.

(…)

Only one person lingered near the Hufflepuff dorms by the time Joohyun arrived to pick up Seungwan, in her glittering off-shoulder dress. It only took a moment’s study to identify the stranger as Sooyoung, leaning against the wall with a casual air that contrasted oddly with her careful attire. Joohyun recalled their conversation at Hogsmeade with amusement; in the end, she really had decided to take Seungwan and free up Seulgi, a chance that Sooyoung had quickly grasped.

“You look nice,” she said, the compliment genuine. Sooyoung, already quite pretty in her usual days, looked especially stunning so dressed up.

The Ravenclaw turned to her at her words, eyes flaming as she crossed her arms. “Save it, Slytherin,” she hissed out, and Joohyun tried her best to resist grinning at the outrage.

“Saving all your good humour for Seulgi, then?”

“Oh, very cute,” Sooyoung returned, heavy with sarcasm. She pushed off the wall and moved in closer, accusing. “I specifically asked you who you were taking to the Ball, Seulgi or Seungwan, and you lied to my face. I could have missed my chance at asking her!”

“Well, I was going to take Seulgi, but then I changed my mind.” Joohyun shrugged, mostly to further annoy Sooyoung. The girl’s outrage at her coolness was endlessly amusing. “Besides, how do you know you didn’t weigh into my change of heart? Maybe I did it out of consideration for you and your feelings.”

Sooyoung’s eyes, already hardened by suspicion, further narrowed as Joohyun concluded. “Did you?” she asked testily, entirely unconvinced.

“Nope,” Joohyun admitted easily, finally letting a grin spread across her face. “You didn’t even cross my mind. In fact, I pretty much forget your existence whenever you’re not in my line of sight. You are the exception to my object permanence.”

“Ah, yes, the famous Slytherin wit,” Sooyoung drawled out, righteous anger quickly fading to a more subdued displeasure.

“No need to be so sour. You got the girl, didn’t you?”

“Barely. She almost agreed to go with some sixth-year weirdo, before I jumped in.”

“You’re a sixth-year weirdo,” Joohyun pointed out pleasantly.

“Whatever, at least I have a date. Unlike some of us who always take their friends to Balls because apparently they’ve resigned themselves to being sad and single forever-“

Joohyun was already laughing before Sooyoung had even finished her long-winded insult, but they were both abruptly silenced as the door to the Hufflepuff dorms finally opened, revealing Seulgi in her favourite gown, hair treated to cascade in gentle waves.

“Oh, hi. Sooyoung, you look so pretty! And Joohyun, Wan will be out soon, she’s almost done.”

“Hey, Seulgi. No problem at all, I’ll just chat with you two while I wait. Time just flies by with this one.” She jerked a thumb in Sooyoung’s direction, but the expected grumble never came. Instead, she turned to find the girl tight-lipped and a little flushed, and almost started laughing again. “Oh, show her what you prepared!” she added, already looking forward to the reaction.

“Right, right! I, uh, I have…” Seulgi patted down her dress as she spoke, quickly finding what she was looking for in one of its magical folds. She pulled out a small band, covered entirely in vibrant blooming flowers. “It’s a corsage! For you. It’s a little old-fashioned, but I thought it would be nice, as a sort of thank you. For inviting me, you know.”

To her credit, Sooyoung at least managed to stammer out some words of appreciation as Seulgi reached forward to carefully wrap the band around her wrist. The flowers immediately twisted around as if studying her and graciously shifted colours to match her dress.

“Seungwan helped me grow them. And then Joohyun helped me charm them.”

Sooyoung nodded along, and when she next looked at Joohyun, she actually looked grateful. Joohyun didn’t miss the chance to smirk at her, of course.

“Hi, hi, I’m here, I’m so sorry I’m late!”

Seungwan hurried into view, applying the last touches to her hair. Her tone was apologetic, but she didn’t carry herself with the expected nervous energy, her face showing only a radiant, contagious happiness. She smiled brightly at Joohyun and let her hands fall to her sides, brushing down inexistent wrinkles in her gown.

She must have said something else, Joohyun saw her lips move to form the words, but she was suddenly having trouble hearing it, hearing anything. Her trained eye could pick out the maker of any gown in the school from a glance at the seams, the gleam of the enchantments, but as she looked at Seungwan and tried in vain to conjure up the knowledge, all she could think was how pretty she looked.

She looked beautiful. Every part of her, her twinkling eyes, her full smile, her hands that still brushed against the spotless fabric. And she’d always been beautiful, but the thought suddenly struck Joohyun like something new, and then clung to her, filled her to the brim, drove away everything else, and oh.

Oh.

Sunmi and Hyuna were right. Surely that wasn’t the most important part of this discovery, stunning in its newness but already feeling like the most established of facts, but it was the first thought she managed to cling to amid the confusion.

Sunmi and Hyuna were right and it was possible that maybe, just maybe, she was an idiot.

“Joohyun?” Seungwan’s voice finally cut through the fog. Everyone was looking at her, Seungwan with concern, Seulgi with amusement, even Sooyoung, with deep curiosity.

“Sorry, I, uh…” Words escaped her. How could she explain what had just happened? ‘I just realized I have feelings for you’ would probably be a bit too honest. She swallowed drily. “I should have got you flowers too.”

Seungwan giggled and the sound nestled in Joohyun’s chest, a fluttering thing that wouldn’t sit still. “Oh, don’t worry about that. You’ve already done more than enough.” She stepped closer and reached for Joohyun’s arm, resting her hand on the crook of her elbow. The gesture was completely natural, and immediately followed by Seulgi offering up her own arm to Sooyoung, but the entire way to the Great Hall, all Joohyun could think of was the light press of fingers against her bare skin.

After the initial shock faded, it was slowly replaced by a fascinated elation, a distracted state of mind in which everything around Joohyun seemed to fill her with joy. She liked Seungwan and she was right there by her side, beautiful and smelling like flowers, smiling at her, laughing at her joking comments. Every little touch, even the lightest brush of their fingers, made her breathless and light-headed, and when Seungwan threw a longing glance at the dance floor, she was boldly reaching for her hand and pulling her that way before the girl could get out a single polite refusal.

Seungwan seemed happy too. She’d greeted her fellow Prefects on her way in, awkwardly excusing herself from their table, but she’d easily stayed away from her Head Girl duties from that moment on, leaving the disciplining and careful monitoring to the others. Sitting next to Joohyun and their friends, she chatted eagerly with them all, making up for Joohyun’s uncharacteristic silence as the latter struggled to stay focused on their casual chats when her thoughts kept wandering to Seungwan, to the way her hands would raise from her lap to gesture animatedly whenever she got too invested in the discussion.

When they danced, movements technically perfect from long practice, Seungwan’s smile was just a little breathless, her hair slipping out of place just enough to make her beauty look even more natural, to make Joohyun’s fingers itch to tuck the strands into place.

Joohyun didn’t even care anymore what anyone thought of them. Let them talk, gossip to their heart’s content. All she saw was Seungwan, so close, so wonderful.

They stood by the drinks table, temporarily alone as the others in their group danced or gathered for an emergency Quidditch meeting. Sunmi definitely needed to lighten up before the Hufflepuff team rioted. Joohyun sipped at her drink, biting back a smile that had sprouted for no reason at all, when Sooyoung materialized in front of them, expression painfully polite.

“Ladies, having a good evening, I hope?”

Joohyun’s first instinct was to ask whether she was going to launch into another sales pitch, right in front of the Hufflepuff Head Girl, or maybe to on losing Seulgi to her Quidditch captain after going to so much effort to secure her company. Instead, she only nodded, her good mood smoothing out all her rough edges. She could tease Sooyoung another day.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to ruin the great time you’re having,” Sooyoung carried on, face still strangely neutral, “but Seungwan, do you think you could spare Joohyun for just a moment? There’s some… business things I’d like to discuss with her.”

“Ah, business things,” Seungwan repeated knowingly, then winked at them. It was so embarrassing but it was also so cute. “Sure, go on then, but don’t take too long. Seulgi will be looking for you. When Sunmi’s done with her, at least,” she added a bit more doubtfully.

Joohyun let herself be dragged away, arm in Sooyoung’s clutches and eyes on Seungwan’s retreating profile. As they walked further and further out of sight, eventually leaving the Hall entirely, she began to grow suspicious.

They turned a corner, reaching an empty corridor, and Sooyoung immediately shoved a hand in some invisible pocket, reappearing with a small vial in its grip. In a flash, she had Joohyun’s jaw held tightly as she tried to pour the liquid down . Joohyun flailed in her arms, trying to push away the taller woman.

“What- What are you doing?” she called out in shock, landing slaps on whatever she could reach. “Let go of me, you weirdo!”

“Just hold still and drink your antidote,” Sooyoung returned impatiently, her motions almost frantic.

“What antidote? You’re making no sense! Did someone sneak Firewhisky into the punch again?”

“Oh, that’s priceless! I’m drunk? You’re the one who’s-“ She cut herself off, also pausing in her renewed attempts to tug Joohyun’s mouth open, and fixed an earnest gaze on her instead. “Now listen here, this is not on me, alright? I didn’t know what was going on, and as soon as I realized I intervened, so that has to count in my favour. So, when you’ve sobered up, you can’t blame me for this.”

“I can definitely blame you for this!” Joohyun retorted, quite reasonably, in her opinion. Sooyoung’s reaction was strangely desperate, and she almost spilled her entire antidote down the side of Joohyun’s face as she forced tightly shut.

“No, that’s not- I didn’t give her the potion! She asked me how to make it, sure, but I thought it was just for class, you know how she is. But I didn’t give it to her, or sell it to her – she’s a Head Girl, I could never sell a potion to her, especially one that’s illegal –, but I guess she snapped, well, something happened, and the mad woman actually used it!”

“You are making absolutely no sense,” Joohyun managed to say after the Ravenclaw finally stopped ranting. For a moment, they stared each other down. Then Sooyoung rolled her eyes.

“Of course you think that. Now drink your antidote!” Yet another forceful attempt at shoving some potion down Joohyun’s throat, yet another rebuttal with a few well-aimed smacks to Sooyoung’s face. “Oh, come on, you are going to ruin my life if I let you go on like this. I swear, I thought you were going as friends tonight!”

“We are going as friends,” Joohyun squeaked out, as a single glimpse of the situation became clear, and that glimpse was that Sooyoung had obviously caught on to the way she’d been acting around Seungwan. She gave one last shove, putting some distance between them, then crossed her arms across her chest. “We’re just friends. Nothing more going on.”

“That in there is just friends?” Sooyoung asked, quite surprised. Joohyun nodded forcefully, ignoring the embarrassment settling in her cheeks. The Ravenclaw blinked, seeming to be reassessing. “And you’re not… suddenly and irrationally jealous of anyone who approaches Seungwan? Maybe obsessed with her and convinced that she is your entire reason for existence?”

Joohyun shook her head at the words. Sure, she liked Seungwan, but she wasn’t obsessed or possessive like that. Her response further assured Sooyoung, who turned to put away her tiny vial, and in her relief Joohyun finally began to catch up to the conversation.

“Well, that is just wonderful, I am so glad that we’ve sorted this out,” Sooyoung sighed out as the gears turned in Joohyun’s head. She straightened her back and let out a long breath, patting her pocket protectively. “Really, really could have gone poorly. I thought you might have gone for some public confession if I didn’t get you out of here, you would have never forgiven me.”

The Ravenclaw let out a laugh at the thought, but Joohyun barely registered the words, because she was slowly putting together that Sooyoung had somehow been convinced that Seungwan had taken the Amortentia she’d brewed and slipped it to Joohyun. And that made absolutely no sense.

“But why would Seungwan give me Amortentia?” she asked, still completely baffled by the possibility. Sooyoung actually snorted at that, a little absent as she patted all her other pockets, probably checking that her stock of potions was all securely in place.

“Well, obviously, because she has a huge cr-“

Sooyoung froze. Joohyun also froze. Possibly the entire world froze, it was hard to tell, except that Joohyun’s heart was still beating, and now hard enough to echo in her ears. Sooyoung’s lips stretched into the most strained smile Joohyun had ever seen on her, eyes a little wide with panic.

“Right. Now that the silly little Amortentia scare is done with, I really should get going. Very busy.”

Joohyun’s fingers lunged to wrap claw-like around Sooyoung’s arm and keep her firmly in place even as she took the first step to a quick escape. The Ravenclaw strained, then sagged in her grip. Joohyun took a deep breath to keep the sound of her roaring pulse from drowning out the world.

“Seungwan has a what?”