Unedited. I'm a perfectionist I swear I'm just lazy

The name of the mystery girl determined and matched to the gossip she’d heard of new students from other schools, Nana puts Hyuna to the back of her mind and focuses on her classes without problem. Though Donghae seems to be making a reputation for himself of being friendly but stupid thanks to another explosion in Potions, Nana sees an intelligent mind within him.

“I can’t believe you exploded it again,” Nana says quietly. Tucked away in a corner of the library on a Saturday afternoon, she and Donghae sit on large beanbags with their books spread out around them. His books open before him but untouched, Sungmin had long fallen asleep. “How did you even do that?”

“It was an accident,” Donghae says a little too loudly for the library environment. Ducking his head as people glance at them from their tables, he pulls out a spare piece of paper and begins to draw a rune. Nana watches him do so and recognises the rune for silence. Before Donghae can activate it, she pulls the paper towards her and adds the rune for bubble beside it. Catching on, Donghae places his hand on his own rune and waits to activate it in synchrony with Nana. The two lead lined runes glow white for a moment as magic fills them, flashing a stronger white than the paper before dulling to hum lowly. A thin layer of magic spreads from them, flaring open to envelop them in a bubble wide enough to enclose both of them but stopping just short of including Sungmin inside it. Clearing his throat while looking around, Donghae tests the spell. “Can you hear me?” he says in a volume just shy of normal speaking level.

Observing no response, Nana suddenly screams. Donghae jumps and nearly drops his textbook in surprise, leaning away from her with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. Satisfied that the only student looking towards them had done so due to Donghae’s abrupt movement rather than her scream, Nana grins. “That went well.”

“That scared the crap out of me,” Donghae sighs, patting his chest with one hand and rearranging his book with the other. “Are you crazy?”

“Questionable,” Nana shrugs, relaxing back into the beanbag with the assurance they won’t be overheard or disrupt the other studying students with their volume. Kept outside the silence bubble, Sungmin sleeps undisturbed. “So – the explosion? The night class one.”

Biting on his lower lip and looking up in case anybody was looking at him, Donghae avoids Nana’s gaze. “It was late so I was sleepy and got careless.”

“I call bull,” she snorts. “You fixed the sleeping potion and only got one mark deducted because it exploded! It ended by eight anyway so you can’t have been that tired.” Looking at Donghae fiddle with his pen, Nana’s eyes narrow. “Are you blushing?”

“No,” he denies quickly. “It exploded because my timing was a bit off. I guess potions just aren’t my strong suit.”

“Not your strong suit,” Nana repeats flatly, raising her eyebrows. “It’s been one of your best until this semester. I mean – you fixed it – both of them! Do you know how hard that is to do?”

“My dad showed me how to fix them,” Donghae says, toying with the beads of his bracelet between his fingers. “He got me collection beads to absorb some of my magic and hold onto it. They age with me and if I drop one into a potion, I can control the magic from it to reverse a potion to its normal state.” In response to Nana’s surprised stare, he continues hastily, “It doesn’t work for all potions but for something like a class two it will. It was luck.”

Shaking her head in bewilderment, Nana pats Donghae on the shoulder even as he jolts in surprise. “You’ve gotta believe in yourself more, Donghae. It takes more than just luck to do that so skilfully. I mean, you almost beat mine and Hyukjae’s mark even though yours exploded. The potion must’ve been good in the end!”

His flushed cheeks deepening in hue, Donghae sinks lower in the beanbag. “I need to stop getting distracted,” he mumbles.

“What distracted you, anyway?” Nana asks, checking the time and mentally mapping her timeline for finishing homework before the evening. Looking back to her friend, she notices him glancing at Sungmin with embarrassment clear in the twist of his lips. Confused, Nana decides to be blunt. “Do you like Sungmin?”

The loud burst of laughter startles Nana into leaning back. Glancing around to ensure the volume wasn’t reaching anybody else, she frowns in confusion as Donghae curls into himself and cackles more openly than she’d ever heard from him. Once he’s calmed down enough to attempt speaking, Donghae wipes at his eyes. “No. No. I do not like him, oh my gosh.” Chuckles blending into giggles, Donghae’s face flushes bright red with laughter. “I was distracted by… somebody else.”

“You’re gonna make me guess, aren’t you?” Nana asks, catching the cheeky glint in the boy’s eyes. “Well then help me out here. Who do you like? I mean, what kind of people are you attracted to?”

Humming, Donghae puts his books down and folds his arms over his knees to rest his cheek on them. “You first,” he grins mischievously.

Pleased that he’s acting more comfortably around her now, Nana plays along. “I’m pan. Panromantic panual, so basically I could like anybody.”

“Specific,” Donghae says, his eyes glimmering with amusement again.

Slapping him on the back with gentle intention but still making him wince, Nana runs the flash of understanding she’d seen in his expression and leans back, content. “I don’t like anybody in particular at the moment. Your turn.”

“No crushes?” Donghae asks, surprise raising his intonation. “That’s no fun.”

“It’s a massive relief,” Nana laughs, shaking her head. “I liked the same person for about five years in high school, as well as a few other crushes. Not having one for once is so… nice.”

“So you do know what it’s like then,” Donghae says, relief relaxing his grin into an easy smile that makes Nana want to hug him, so she does.

“Why are you so cute?” she groans, feeling him flail in her arms for a moment before hugging her back.

“Okay, okay, cute, got it,” he whines, pulling away and brushing his hair back awkwardly.

“You’ll get used to my hugs one day,” Nana cackles, “they all do.”

“You, um,” Donghae struggles to look away from the floor but manages to look her in the eye. “You specified romantic and ual attraction. Do you know people who don’t have them match up?”

“I think that’s for them to tell you,” Nana says honestly, smiling gently to avoid making him feel awkward.

“That’s fair,” Donghae agrees, relaxing at the response. “You’re a trustworthy friend, Nana.”

“Trustworthy enough for you to tell me who you like?” Nana asks, waggling her eyebrows and eliciting a laugh.

“Maybe,” Donghae grins, blood flaring high in his cheekbones. “I’m biual and biromantic with no preference, I’ll tell you that much.”

Nana hums in thought, thinking back to the students they share Potions with. “So… in other words you’re not telling me who it is.”

“Nope!” Donghae chirps, his shoulders shaking as he laughs silently at the look Nana gives him.

“You little .”

The third week marks the start of endless quizzes, assignments and announcements of mid-semester exams. With it comes the first results, outlining areas for improvement and unintentionally providing students with the framework to form a hierarchy of performance.

Nana, being more than a little competitive, keeps an eye out for other people’s results to assess her own standing. Taking the steady increase in workload of incantations to strengthen, runes to learn and skills to combine in stride, she pushes through the busy times with the determination of a woman on a mission.

Or as Hyukjae says, “Like a stubborn bull.” He shifts on his perch at the end of her bed, his book falling off of his lap and onto the duvet. “Aren’t you studying enough?”

Shrugging, Nana finishes the rune for invisibility and double checks it with her textbook. “I just want to do my best.”

Hyukjae sits up a little higher to peer at the rune. “And you want your best to beat everyone. Right?”

“Of course!” Her eyebrows narrowing with concentration, she places a finger on a lead line and channels her magic into the rune. A flash of white illuminates the finger before they both vanish. Nana’s excitement lasts until she realises she can still see her jumper without any trouble at all. “Darn it. How’d I do?”

“Well,” Hyukjae hums, pinching his chin in examination. He can see a slight darkness to the air where he knows Nana’s hair is, though no other sign of her body is visible. However, her purple jumper and black track-pants are a dead giveaway to her position, marking her as leaning forward slightly with her arm extended to the piece of paper he knows the rune is on. “I can kinda see your hair, and I can definitely see your clothes.” He hears a grunt of irritation before Nana flashes back into view, folding her arms and pouting slightly.

“All that practise, and yet,” she sighs, watching the rune fizzle back onto the paper. “Oh well. I’ll keep trying.”

“Why are you so interested in that rune?” Hyukjae asks, falling onto his side to rest on the mattress. He pushes Nana’s knee away slightly as he makes himself comfortable. “We’re not even covering it yet. If anything I thought you would’ve gone for that connection one.”

Shrugging, Nana sits back against her pillows and silently agrees to take a break. “No, you would’ve gone for that one since you’re a sappy romantic.”

Hyukjae swats at her leg, glaring at them for a moment. “Joong said it doesn’t have to be romantic, so there Miss Long Legs. And I’m a classy romantic,” he sniffs.

“Oh, so he’s Joong now?” Nana says with a smirk, tugging at his ear.

“He’s hot!” Hyukjae protests, grabbing her hand after a brief struggle and holding it away from his reddening ear. “It’s not like I call him that to his face, anyway.”

“I can’t imagine that going well,” Nana laughs, imagining the professor’s stunned face. “He’s got a commitment rune on his hand. Totally taken.”

“They can be removed,” Hyukjae says flatly. “Hey!” he yelps after Nana promptly smacks him on the head. “I was joking! I wouldn’t break up a relationship,” he sulks, his lips protruding into a pout as he rubs at his head.

“If you could break it up I doubt it was a strong relationship anyway,” Nana snorts, running a hand through her hair. “I don’t think you’d want to be with somebody who’d seek another partner without the other’s consent either.”

Hyukjae hums in agreement, closing his eyes for a moment. “Nah.” A lull in the conversation follows while he tries to remember what he’d asked before. “Oh yeah. Why the focus on the invisibility rune?”

Nana fidgets with the duvet and reluctantly answers, “One of the transfers said it was her favourite.”

Hyukjae opens his eyes to raise an eyebrow at her. “So you’re studying extra because a girl apparently knows something you don’t.”

“Yes?” Nana frowns, wondering why he makes it sound like it’s something strange.

“You competitive freak,” he snorts, turning his face into the doona. “She was the one next to, uh, Gayoon and Jihyun, right? She’s pretty.”

“Oh?” Nana blinks, a little surprised that Hyukjae had remembered her. “Pretty enough for you to like?”

Hyukjae muffles his laugh into the bed. “Still not into women, thanks. There are plenty of hot guys here.”

“Like the professors,” Nana says sarcastically, grinning when Hyukjae’s laughter starts up again. “You sly fox.”

“There are hot students too!” he protests, shifting around and nearly kicking his notes off the bed. “I can’t help that I admire beauty. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna pursue it, geez.”

“I was just teasing,” Nana says in a more gentle tone, smiling apologetically at him. “Sorry.”

“S’fine,” he murmurs, flopping back onto the duvet face-first. “Nobody likes me anyway.”

Nana frowns, almost offended for him. “I bet that’s not true! You’re a great catch, surely someone likes you.”

“Doubt it,” he scoffs, peering up at her through the hair falling over his eyes. “I’m not exactly anyone’s idea of handsome. I should’ve worked harder on that beauty potion.”

“You mean the one that puffed out your lips even more and made it look like you’d been punched in the mouth?” Nana asks bemusedly, scrutinising his expression an