Author's note: I'm terribly sorry about the lack of a chapter yesterday, I was feeling really sick and spent most of the day recovering. 

Please enjoy~!

His eyes rise from the letter to gaze at the spectacle unfolding in front of him.

“The hunter stalks her prey. This is the oldest dance in nature, that of predation, the ultimate game of survival. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. There hasn’t been a proper game in weeks and starvation looms. Carefully, the hunter moves ever so close to the unsuspecting prey, preparing to jump. Can she do it? Can she overcome the weakness of hunger and thrive?” his dad’s voice is both calm and focused, halfway between a Quidditch announcer and the narrator of some National Geographic nature documentary.

His mum, on the other hand, is doing a terrible show of trying to be sneaky. She’s crouching, walking slowly behind the couch, every once in a while peeking over it to stare intently at the chocolate frog lying on the cushions.  It had escaped – again, he’s fairly sure his mum does it on purpose by now – and her predatory gaze remains fixed on it as she slowly moves into a position that allows her to strike, his dad’s voice narrating all of this like it’s an exciting development. Finally, after a tense moment, she leaps, managing to catch the offending chocolate confection in one outstretched hand and roaring with triumph.

His parents are so weird, Daesung thinks, attention returning to the parchment. To his delight, Seunghyun had taken to writing him more often lately. After some gentle prodding he had revealed that he honestly hated writing because he couldn’t express himself properly through it. Formal letters and inquiries were one thing, there were guidelines and standard protocols for those, but anything informal left him floundering a little. After finally admitting to this their exchange had grown more comfortable and even his handwriting had seemed less forced, turning slowly to blocky, bold letters that contrasted with Daesung’s more cursive style. The only thing apprehensive about this was how he went out of his way to never talk about anything muggle related, as if skirting around the subject – the apprentice didn't and still doesn’t know what to make of that, frankly.

An arm sneaks around his shoulders, pulling him close as a wriggling chocolate leg is dangled in front of his face. “Mum!” he complains, letting the letter drop to the table as his nose scrunches in disgust. There’s no one that gets him to sound so much like Seungri as his parents. Truthfully, he’s glad they’re a bit odd, even if it gets embarrassing whenever someone he knows is around. It makes it easier for him not to feel like he’s being childish sometimes. “Don’t you want a bite, Daedae?” The frog leg kicks again and he shakes his head, laughing and bringing the sugar quill back into his mouth as he raises both eyebrows at her.

His mum shrugs and munches on the rest, seemingly unconcerned. They had taken to magic and the idea of wizards like a couple of children but there’s not much they can have around the house, it being in a muggle neighbourhood and all. There is a chance people might see it and the Ministry doesn’t take kindly on people breaking the statute of secrecy. Even the moving photographs are locked away in a drawer. Magical sweets may not seem like a lot but it’s a way for Daesung to share a little of his world with them. There’s so much his parents don’t really understand but they had supported him every time of the way and celebrated all of his achievements.

A hand sneaks into his hair, gently ruffling it and he looks up to see his dad sitting across the table, D-Lite perched ridiculously on his shoulder like he always does whenever they visit. “Feeling okay there?” his eyes blink away the tears and Daesung smiles again, nodding. He must be more tired than he thought if he’s getting this emotional. His father’s short finger taps at the letter twice. “Is that from Youngbae?” he doesn’t have to answer if he doesn’t want to, his parents have always allowed him his privacy, but it’s a way to make conversation. “Ah, no, it’s Seunghyun.”

“Is he still harassing people during interviews?” his mum takes the seat right next to him, peering cautiously at a pepper imp. The sugar quills are always his but there’s still a lot of sweets left, some treacle fudge, chocolate wands and frogs, fizzing whizzbees, – that he doesn’t eat because they’re made with bugs but that doesn’t stop the woman – cauldron cakes and some every flavor beans. Maybe this is why Seungri insists on people calling him that, he thinks, shaking his head. “No, it’s another Seunghyun.”

“Oh? School friend?”

“… not really. He went to Hogwarts but we didn’t talk then,” D-Lite does a happy little dance on his father’s shoulder, hooting in tune with the song in the background coming from the radio in the kitchen. It’s not as bad as Christmas but Halloween songs are getting quite popular the closer they get to it. “We only really met recently. He’s a nice guy,” his gaze lingers on the letter again but it finds two sets of intrigued eyes staring as him once he raises it again. His cheeks immediately flush. “What?”

Settling an arm down on the table, his dad leans forward with a smile, poking him in a red cheek. “You like this nice guy Seunghyun,” his mouth opens to protest, especially when his mum inches forward as well, but D-Lite hoots affirmatively as if to confirm their suspicions, so he settles for sending the bird a look of wounded betrayal. It doesn’t seem to faze his owl, who just starts dancing to the tune of the following song without paying him any mind. How does everyone always know? Youngbae, Seungri, his parents – do they just know him well or is he simply that obvious about it?

“Tell us about him,” his mum teases, shaking his arm a little. “Is he handsome? I bet he’s handsome. Where did you meet him?” Daesung feels his entire face going a deeper shade of red.  He’s half-afraid it’s going to be as bad as when he got his first girlfriend and arrived home during break to a mortifying congratulations banner but it’s not like they had the time to prepare something like that this time. He could just not answer and his parents would accept it – they’d drop the subject if he asked them to, he knows, which is precisely why he decides to answer. 

“Yes, he’s very handsome,” his answer is deceptively calm as he purposefully avoids looking at his father wiggling both eyebrows at him across the table. “We just ran into each other some time ago, actually,” the first time around and he still doesn’t know why Seunghyun decided to speak with him the second time or why he had been in the Alley that day in the first place. Business at Gringotts, probably? Daesung makes a mental note to ask him that, as well as general advice on how to behave himself during the Ministry’s event – which he isn’t telling his parents about because he’s sure they’d start with the marriage jokes almost immediately.

Merlin help him if they ever decide to team up with Seungri, he doesn’t think he’d be able to survive that. Maybe he’d take refuge with Youngbae. Or move out of the country. France sounds kind of nice.  Melodrama aside he doesn’t really mind, any of them would back off if asked, besides it’s just a crush. A crush he’s not doing anything about, since it’s most likely not going anywhere. Daesung has come to appreciate Seunghyun enough to consider himself lucky to even be his friend – and to convince himself that tight feeling in his chest is going to pass sooner or later.

“Do you have any pictures?” his mum’s systematically making her way through the rest of the candy, leaving only the weirdest flavored beans – is that moss? – to his dad who, somehow, never seems bothered or sick while eating them. The apprentice considers the questions for a second before shaking his head; he could probably get one or two from recent editions of the Prophet if his mother insists on seeing Seunghyun, but Daesung doesn’t have any photographs right now. It’s probably for the best.

Thinking back on it now, he remembers seeing the man’s face in a couple of the Friday editions, skimming over the rest of the articles to get to Seungri’s interviews, but he can’t for the life of him recall what the context had been. Ministry stuff, maybe? Or was it just gossip? Actually, he doesn’t even know what Seunghyun does. The best answer his brain can come up with is ‘maybe pureblood business’, which doesn’t help because Daesung has absolutely no idea what that even means. 

The thing is, he doesn’t know how to ask. Would it be too personal? Too impolite? Apparently he needs that book on pureblood social customs more than he thought. Furrowing his brows and frowning slightly, Daesung tries to remember if the topic came up during their time at the teashop but nothing of the sort comes to mind. They had spoken about his studies, pets, then there had been the – wand. He’d been too preoccupied about managing his time to think more on it since then but it’s still bothering him and he can’t pinpoint why. Sure it had been surprising but that should have passed by now.

“Daedae?” a warm hand curls around his wrist, startling him out of his thoughts. His dad had gone off somewhere, presumably with D-Lite still perched on a shoulder, and he hadn’t even noticed. “What’s wrong?” he blinks, slowly, and raises his head to look at his mum’s face. She looks a bit concerned but her smile is kind and patient as it always is whenever she feels like something’s off with him. He remembers one of his first impressions of Youngbae was that the other Hufflepuff smiled like his mum – which was quite the compliment but he had never said so out loud.

Nothing is the first answer on his mind but he dismisses it, lowering his gaze to the table again, frown lines deepening. “When I saw last saw Seunghyun, I caught a glimpse of his wand. It… surprised me,” there’s something he’s forgetting again, something sitting just out of his reach. It’s infuriating but he’s not going to get anywhere obsessing over this. Daesung sighs, deciding to let go, and promptly looks up again. His mum’s staring at him with an odd smile, biting down on her lip to keep herself from laughing.

“What? What is it?” After a second without an answer she clears , attempting to look serious and failing terribly. Daesung tilts his head, staring at her in confusion. His mum clears once again, reaching for hand and squeezing it lightly as if comforting him. “You sneaked a look at his wand and it surprised you. That’s okay, honey,” a moment of silence washes over both of them as they stare at each other. The cogs in his head spin, trying to figure out exactly what she’s getting at before it finally clicks for him, his cheeks immediately going bright red as a reaction.

“MUM!”