wicked.

minjunfey​:

minjun laughs lightly. “it’s not like i’m making it boring. it’s just how it is. you asked,” he points out. hawon can be a little dramatic sometimes– or a lot. even as a hanu witch, decisively more wild than most (but more subdued than many of his hanu counterparts) he might prefer taehyun’s more refined nature a little more. then again, he’s known him longer, maybe he’s just used to it, or maybe this is that gwiin vs hanu turbulent relationship thing coming into play. minjun wouldn’t really call it that, hawon is just…hawon.

he proves it in the way he suddenly grabs his hand, and minjun blinks in disbelief for a moment before laughing again. he feels a little unnerved suddenly, but he doesn’t have anything to hide, does he? he’s made peace with his past and his reality now, and the fact that the ghosts will never truly leave him alone. after five years, he’s learning how to make his own place among them. sometimes they feel like friends.

“you hope i know a lot,” he comments, a little underhandedly, but he grins cheekily after, knowing hawon has no right to knock him for a little bit of attitude. still, he watches as hawon traces his hand with muted curiosity. he doesn’t try to pull away. instead, he takes not of the way hawon’s expression shifts into annoyance, and he laughs again. “what did you find? anything?”

hawon’s follow up question catches minjun off guard again, and surely it shows in the way his eyes widen. minjun isn’t much for secrets, usually an open book, so he sees no reason to lie. “i was really drunk. i probably needed to get out of there before i drank more and passed out or threw up and pissed taehyun off even more than i did by leaving.” yes, that’s part of the story– probably not the part hawon wants to know, though. “i felt bad that you didn’t invite sooyeon, so i went to see her. it wasn’t like– anything.” i kissed her. “i fell asleep on her couch.” 

“i have to hope. i can never be sure with you.” the words could be mean, snappish, but that’s not really hawon’s style. he says it with a grin and whether he actually believes that minjun is an idiot or not is left unknown except to the speaker himself. and if he was being honest, he only sometimes thinks that his friend is genuinely stupid, just in certain areas. but everyone has their flaws and hawon’s not that judgey that he’d cut contact for a few blonde moments.

he does scowl a bit deeper when minjun laughs at his frustration with his palm, though.

silently to himself, he vows that he’ll never read minjun’s palm ever again even if he begs for it (though how true that is time will reveal). “a whole lot,” he answers honestly, though he’s not happy about it, “but not what i was looking for. can you believe how hard it is to find the spot on your hand that tells me that you’re king of the ghosts or whatever? you’d think that’d be pretty obvious.”

hawon huffs his indignation as if personally offended by the content of minjun’s palm. “you’re hard to read. i don’t like it.” if he had a more inquisitive nature, he’d want to understand exactly why and maybe try to connect it to the ghost thing. but hawon is a little lazy for that.

he tries to keep his face neutral when minjun starts talking about what happened after the birthday party though, tries not to act like he might lowkey be interrogating him. he still doesn’t like sooyeon and he’s definitely not sorry that he didn’t want her at his celebrations, but minjun does. and taehyun does. and that last part still makes his blood boil just a little bit.

minjunfey​:

“yeah, of course!” minjun chirps, even though he knows very well that hawon doesn’t really need permission to ask anything; he probably will anyway. minjun doesn’t mind. in fact, he appreciates hawon’s energy. he’s fun, and by all counts should be obnoxious– maybe he is objectively –but minjun has never minded that either. he likes to count himself as a fellow annoyance, so for him, hawon is good company, even if he’s closer to taehyun out of the pair. 

ah, it’s a ghost question. minjun doesn’t mind that, either. at least if he’s going to be the stupid guy that tried to raise someone from the dead and opened up the gateway to hell on accident, he can put it to use somehow. “sort of,” he replies hesitantly, briefly narrowing his eyes in thought. “it depends. sometimes i feel them, sometimes i hear them, sometimes i see them. they can present differently, but they’re always different from humans. they’re more translucent, or…shadowy?”

oh, so hawon’s question is about palm reading. it is an interesting thought. he searches through his memory, but ends up shaking his head. “i can’t remember seeing any of their hands, or at least not their palms. i hear them a lot more than i see them, but i imagine if a ghost wanted to get a palm reading they would be able to show their palm to me. most of it is about how much they want to reveal, and not so much what i want to do.”

he can’t help but laugh a little at hawon’s speculations. he wishes it were easier to explain. maybe if he tried hard enough he could use his magic to show others the ghost he sees, or temporarily open up a link of some sort. it’s a thought, but likely dangerous, and minjun may still be an idiot, but he’s grown wiser in recent years. it’s probably not worth the risk just to give hawon a chance to give a ghost a palm reading. “i’ll have to pay attention to their hands next time i see them and let you know.”

he frowns his disappointment. minjun has arguably one of the coolest curses a witch could hope for and still manages to give him an incredibly boring answer. hawon is pretty sure that if he was listening to and seeing ghosts 24/7, he’d bother them so much that they eventually just leave him alone. minjun is a little (a lot) more polite than he is though. maybe they take advantage of his niceness and that’s why they decide to stick around.

“that’s so boring. you know that, right?” he groans and deflates dramatically, as if his entire life is ruined by this answer. he doesn’t want to have to convince a ghost to appear to him and get their palm read. he just wants things to be easy.

without asking permission, he grabs ahold of minjun’s wrist in the ghosts’ place. he hasn’t looked at this palm as much as some others and still hasn’t been able to pinpoint the moment where it all went wrong for minjun in the wrinkles and curves of his skin. it’s almost like a game at this point, where’s waldo, except it’s hawon trying to find a big mistake in a palm littered with thousands of smaller mistakes. you’d think it’d stick out. it doesn’t.

@minjunfey

“hey can i ask you something?” if hawon isn’t bothering taehyun, there’s a good chance he’s bothering someone. today’s victim just happens to be minjun, even if minjun would probably never say that hawon is a bother. hawon knows he’s lying; he tries his very best to be a bother. it’d almost be more insulting to know that all of his efforts go entirely wasted on someone with way more patience than hawon has ever deserved.

but today there actually is a point to his bothering. he knows minjun is the go-to among the young witches for all things ghost, a topic that hawon knows embarrassingly little about. it’s never really interested him before now, ever since a fleeting thought crossed his mind.

“you see ghosts, right? like, full-body apparitions? have you ever seen their hands?” he wants to know what the palms of the dead look like. does it remain the same as life, could he pinpoint the end of their lifeline and know exactly how they passed? hawon doesn’t see ghosts, nor has he ever tried to summon them. he doesn’t know. but maybe minjun would find the concept as interesting as he does.

“‘cause, like, i’m just wondering what it would look like. to me, i mean, since i do the palm thing. are they see-through like in movies and stuff or can they be more solid? oh my god, what if their palms are totally blank??”

i am a fickle person.

i desperately want more threads and plots on hawon and @feyweixin!! i wrote open starters on both of them to try to stimulate some new interaction so anyone interested PLEASE take those. but if you’d rather plot something out please reach out, like this post, anything to indicate you’re interested in either of my boys!! i’ll start sending messages before anything else can happen this time.

OPEN STARTER

na hawon woke up this morning with a headache right in the middle of his forehead. deep, steady pain had followed him into the bathroom through his morning routine, and then into the kitchen to join him for breakfast. it’s only halfway though agonizing over the fact that he accidentally poured his cereal into his milk and not the other way around that he realizes that this is not a hangover or any natural cause for a morning migraine. no, this is a curse settling itself right in his third eye chakra.

he had slammed the milk on the counter to urgently examine his palms. third eye, linked to clairvoyance; he’s angry, but not surprised when he can’t see his own future in the lines and mounds of his hands.

after angry shouting at nobody in his empty apartment, hawon realizes exactly what must have happened. or at least, he has a few working theories. someone wasn’t satisfied with the future he read for them, or maybe they thought attacking his point of wisdom would be a fun way to call him stupid (it wouldn’t be the first time he’s heard that, and probably not the last either). he has to worriedly check his own normal human vision, testing his eyes by trying to make out shapes on the other side of the room. alright, that’s fine. so it’s a relatively weak curse even if it’s blocked his poor third eye chakra.

weakened perception makes a tracing spell a bit difficult, but hawon isn’t going to taehyun for a little curse like this. he can figure it out on his own. a few flowers and herbs and a small flame is all he needs, and then to drop a crystal in the fire to capture the spell and take it with him. he’s done this before to make sure he can find his way home on drunk nights, the crystal warming against his skin when he’s close, and cooling as he moves further away. in this case, he’s not looking for home. he’s looking for whoever did this to him.

hawon is still in pajama pants and a worn t-shirt when he stumbles out onto the streets, letting the warmth of the crystal guide him. he wishes he could put his full faith in it, confident that it would lead him directly to the witch who had cast the curse so he can convince them to remove it. or at least take him to someone who might’ve requested the curse, even if they didn’t have the means to do so themselves. what it leads him to is someone who he can’t recall ever seeing before, which makes him doubt his own capabilities while still cursed.

he’s never been very shy, so he takes the risk anyways.

i was trying to get @feyweixin established and plot more on hawon but i’ve been dealing with a not totally unexpected but much sooner than anyone predicted death in the family over the last week or so. i’m fine, but everything has been a bit chaotic since then, ykno.

taehyunfey​:

“rude,” he laughs, with no indication at all that he’s even remotely offended by hawon’s useless threat, “what if it was a family heirloom? you’d feel bad then i bet. what if it was a cursed family heirloom? you know what my family’s curses are like. even i wouldn’t be able to help you then.” he punctuates his own empty threat with another small splash of water aimed at hawon’s face.

“i didn’t buy you the lake, hawon,” it’s a necessary clarification, it would seem. realistically, if he did want to buy a lake, he could afford it, if he saved up enough salary and allowance and put the pools together. but it would be grounds for disapproval from his parents’ perspective, should he buy something so grand and impractical for anyone but himself (and, transitively, whoever the future recipient of his dowry and fortune would be). not to mention the obvious qualms any reasonable person would have with purchasing a large body of water for someone like na hawon to use at his own discretion: “knowing you, you’d find some way to piss off the creature living at the bottom of it, and we’d never see you again. i am not fighting off hangry mermaids for you, so don’t get too attached to your limbs.”

it’s an extreme version of the truth, hawon’s playful assumption that taehyun has already begun planning next year’s festivities. as is typical of the gwiin witch, he seems to have forgotten everything that comes between now and then, all of the events taehyun will be expected to have a hand in putting on over the next three hundred and sixty-five days: events for work and the museum, events for his family, events for his peers (perhaps an event for his own birthday, but that feels tacky thanks to his parents’ stringent ideals of status and wealth). no, in hawon’s world, his birthday might as well be the only day of the year that matters.

“maybe. maybe i’m already mapping out the fireworks show in my head. maybe you’ll never know…”

but hawon’s suddenly serious, a lull in friendly banter fading the smile from hawon’s face and bringing him closer in the water. his tone pulls taehyun’s attention immediately, and he starts to lessen the distance between them as well, meeting hawon halfway with the beginnings of a concerned scowl on his brow.

“i’m sorry,” he starts to apologize, gently, for the nth time, thinking hawon was made uncomfortable by the solstice, still hasn’t processed it for lack of closure from the day, “i said i’d make it up to you, didn’t i? i meant it-”

but he keeps speaking, blind-siding taehyun with a mirrored version of what he went through the first time he met hawon, years ago, though there was no spell on taehyun then. 

his own voice is uncharacteristically small when it seems his turn to speak, timid and tentative, afraid of rejection in that way he has been since he learned what the word meant.

“feeling what?” because he has to hear it, has to hold his breath to keep this moment still and calm and unbroken until he knows for sure.

“why would a camera be a cursed family heirloom? i don’t think i’d have anything to fear by throwing it into the middle of the lake where it belongs.” he humphs his way into his logical conclusion, splashing back his rebuttal with a face at the other. some things go unsaid; the fact that he knows that taehyun would do everything in his power to remove an ancient family curse if hawon did happen to stumble into one, or at least hinder it enough not to ruin hawon’s life too much.

he acts hurt, as if taehyun’s consistently low expectations of him are either a surprise or actually offensive. they’re neither to hawon, but he pouts and sighs his mock-outrage anyways. “first of all, mermaids would love me. i’ve never tried to read a webbed palm, so i’m not gonna go out and try to piss anything off.” he pauses. “but is this you telling me you’re getting me my own lake for christmas?” he’s teasing, but he’d accept the gift in a heartbeat. what the hell is na hawon going to do with a whole lake? he has no idea. but he’s sure it will come in handy someday.

the banter and distractions can only last so long. he’s forced to focus on the latest matter at hand; his proximity to taehyun again begins to feel awkwardly far, yet inappropriately close. he drops his eyes, only to look up again immediately after, as if he can’t bear to look at the other man yet can’t stand to look away. the butterflies are barrelling against his throat now as if trying to break down a barricade there. hawon has no idea what they would do if he let them out; he’s never met such ferocious little creatures before. he finds some comfort in a smile, in another small moment of distraction he can make for himself. “you mean this isn’t making it up to me?” he glances around the lake, at the party going on without them in the house, at everything taehyun had prepared for hawon’s birthday. “i’m looking forward to that then.”

he doesn’t expect anything more from taehyun. he does more than enough. just putting up with hawon’s antics and idiosyncrasies is too much to ask from most people who can only take the witch in small doses. it’s not that hawon doesn’t appreciate all that his friend does for him, but he doesn’t expect it. well, not all the time at least. there’s the understanding that even though he’s not entitled to taehyun’s time and energy, taehyun will give it anyways.

hawon has to pause before he can answer the question. isn’t it obvious? he wants to ask. do i have to say it for you to know? but he already knows the answer; yes, there’s some rituals that require spoken word. there’s something concrete about verbalizing it, some point of no return where hawon can’t play this off as a misunderstanding and stay best friends forever. whatever comes next he can’t quite predict... or can he? he reaches for taehyun’s wrist without asking for permission, dragging his palm toward him and comparing it against his own. there’s nothing there that he hasn’t seen before, never any specifics. but there’s similarities in the lines and mounds of both of their hands, something in there that tells hawon that they will be in each others’ lives, one way or another, for time yet to come. it comforts him just enough.

taehyunfey​:

the alcohol is already beginning its telltale buzz through his veins, and it shows in the unbridled laughter that splits his face into a bright, easy grin. his prank was a success, and it’s evident in the chilly splash of water that smacks him in the face, courtesy of hawon. his hair plasters itself to his forehead, and he flicks his head to flip soaked fringe out of his eyes, splashing hawon right back in a display of his easygoing triumph.

“i wish i had a camera,” he announces, gloating shamelessly in the face of his best friend’s startled retaliation, “i’ve never heard you scream like that. i didn’t know your voice even went that high.” he pauses his laughter to mimic hawon’s shriek, albeit quieter, so as not to attract anymore unwanted attention from invited guests or uninvited woodland creatures that may be lurking nearby than hawon’s typical high volume may already have. he also takes the moment to catch his breath, legs working to tread the pitch black water underneath him, the moonlight on its surface barely broken up by the shining mop of black hair now stuck to the contours of his face and neck.

he’s still smiling in lingering amusement as he watches hawon swim back away from him, glancing only briefly at the obnoxious beacon of debauchery that is the booming, shaking lakehouse just up the way from the water.

“it’s cold,” he comments obviously, shrugging off the smallest shiver that travels up his spine as his body starts to get used to the lake’s natural chill. he knows he’ll regret this when they step out onto the shore, naked bodies covered in cold water exposed to the amplified chill of the night and slipping into wrinkled clothes that are just as chilled, without a single towel in sight.

taehyun’s considering summoning a pair of towels for them from the hall closet on the topmost floor of the party’s venue when hawon treads back toward him and speaks, and the fleeting thought leaves him, replaced by casual curiosity at the subtle shift in hawon’s demeanor. he doesn’t hide his surprise at the overt display of gratitude from hawon, who typically and happily takes without acknowledging or returning favors.

“you’re very welcome,” he returns with a half-smile, still anticipating some sort of caveat to show itself in hawon’s next few breaths, “even if i’m sure you’ll expect me to out-do myself next year.”

“i hate you,” he threatens, without actually hating taehyun at all. he doesn’t enjoy being scared and he certainly refutes his friend’s terrible impression of his shriek. hawon insists he didn’t sound like that, that there’s no way he screamed at all; it was probably some wildlife that taehyun is mistaking for his best friend’s voice. na hawon never screams like a little girl when he’s startled. “if you did have a camera i’d throw it into the middle of the lake right now. and i wouldn’t even feel bad ‘cause i know you can afford like twelve more.” he wrinkles his nose up at the other, making a face to really punctuate his displeasure.

a quiet hum confirms he’s thinking the same thing: the water is cold, but not cold enough to warrant getting out just yet. hawon is a summer baby, a child of sunburns and pool parties, and he’ll be damned if he lets a little lake chill get the best of him. “buy me a warmer lake next year,” he jokes, but with taehyun he never quite knows how far all of his jokes will go. surely his best friend understands that almost everything that comes out of hawon’s mouth is pure shit. not that he’d complain if taehyun really did buy him a lake. that’d be kind of awesome.

taehyun’s smile makes the butterflies caged in his stomach do some sort of elaborate dance, flying every which way until his insides almost feel ticklish under their delicate wings. he’s beautiful, hawon thinks briefly. he’s known it objectively since the first day they met, thought it on and off ever since. he’ll say it was this summer solstice when it all started, but looking back he could be convinced that it all began much longer ago than that. hawon has been called every sort of stupid there is by almost everyone he knows, but he might actually start to believe it.

“please, i don’t even have to expect it. i bet you’re already planning next year.” he grins, deflects from the matter at hand for just a little longer. it’s inevitable now that he’s begin the conversation, even if taehyun has no idea where this train of thought is going yet. “you know you could rent me a bouncy castle sized for toddlers and i’d find a way to have a good time.” resourceful in all the wrong ways, that’s how hawon would describe himself.

he’s not sure where to position himself for this next part. if he should swim closer to taehyun, make himself comfortable in his space as he’s done a hundred times before, so all they can see is each others faces. or maybe distance is the better option, less overwhelming for the both of them and easier to flee the situation overall. hawon decides on some middle ground, close enough to reach out and touch but a far more respectful distance than he’s probably known for. “um,” he really wishes he had just one more drink for courage right now, “there’s something else i want to tell you too.”

hawon takes a breath.

“i didn’t mention it ‘cause i thought you knew, but there was definitely an attraction spell on you way back on the solstice. i felt it. and then you did the protection spell, to attract good intentions, and holy shit i felt it,” some details go unsaid, an explanation for why he pulled his hands away, an apology for that somewhere lost in the words he doesn’t say. “but you know how those spells work. they only amplify what’s already there. anyways, what i’m trying to say is that i haven’t stopped thinking about it since the solstice. i haven’t stopped... feeling it.”

taehyunfey​:

he can feel himself succumbing to hawon’s ministrations almost immediately, even with the sound of desperate retching and cruel whooping still invading the air from the other room. he lets himself, because it is admittedly nice to have a moment of familiar warmth with his best friend as a reprieve from the countless responsibilities of putting together the perfect birthday party for him. it’s obvious that hawon, at least, is having a good time, which is, taehyun reminds himself, what matters most about the events of the evening, even if it means taehyun might be the one eating nothing but instant ramen for the next month.

“yes,” he nods, putting on an air of eager insistence, as if he is genuinely concerned about what awaits them in the depths of the lake, “eels. like i said. venomous ones. and longfish,” he adds hastily, as they push through designer-clad guests he can recognize by face and name at the drop of a hat, “longfish that- suck up your soul through your big toe. so i hope you’re not too attached to your soul or anything.” he can be reckless with hawon, or as reckless as he is humanly capable of, which is nowhere close to hawon’s default. but he can let his guard down, can allow himself to be a bit unbridled, a bit more playful, less frigid and proper. he doesn’t have to impress hawon, he never has, not since the day they first met, years ago. it’s refreshing to have that much of a break, when he must work so hard to impress literally everyone else, even in the comfort of his own family home.

they make it outside relatively unbothered, most of the party’s guests too far gone to pay much attention to the birthday boy and their host slipping out through the front doors and into the night. it’s nearly pitch black outside; taehyun picked this house on purpose, because of its remote location and lakefront appeal, but it means that they are surrounded by nothing but trees and lake, the only electric light being what spills out from the glass walls of the house gradually shrinking behind them. hawon darts out to the modest pier like an excitable puppy, leaving taehyun to catch up with him as he does. taehyun takes the moment to glance up at the sky, to take in the unpolluted stars and bright waxing moon. there is a heaviness in the air, though not an unpleasant one: it’s moisture, he realizes, pressure changing to give way to an imminent storm. it’s left the woods around the wake quiet of animal life as well. he wonders if hawon’s even noticed.

once he’s clocked the storm (an hour, maybe, give or take a half hour; he’s a little out of practice), he toes out of his shoes, tugs his shirt over his head, undoes his trousers and lets them fall in an uncharacteristically unruly pile in the grass. then he travels to the end of the pier, diving gracefully into the dark water with barely a splash. at first, there is only darkness, a moment of instinctual concern as he attempts to get his bearings in the dim, murky depths. then he circles around, peers through the dark gray toward the moon’s reflection on the surface until he can make out pale legs and a hint of pink hair. he waits a few more long moments, careful to leave the surface where he dove undisturbed, long enough to worry his companion, before kicking suddenly to the surface, popping up just behind hawon with a shout.

“look out! a longfish!”

the water is colder than he expects. his first yelp is in shock, a spoiled kid expecting the warmth of a temperature-controlled pool instead of whatever nature has done with the lake water this season. but jumping in as quickly as he did also means he adjusts to the water quicker; now that his head has gone under the surface and his hair is dripping, the water is a lot less shocking. he still lets out one quick ‘brr!’ if only just to make noise. hawon’s turning to complain to taehyun; first to tease that he should’ve heated up the lake for his birthday, what a terrible friend, and second to berate him for being too slow to join him in the water.

he doesn’t get the words out before taehyun’s graceful dive into the black water. hawon watches the surface, even tries to trace the path taehyun’s momentum should’ve taken him with his eyes, only to see absolutely nothing at all. that’s fine, taehyun is a good swimmer, he’s just enjoying the water. but, just as taehyun planned, hawon begins to worry. there’s no soul-sucking monsters on this earth (at least, not anymore), but there’s weeds and rocks and neither of them could see the bottom of the water when they jumped in. what if taehyun dove too deep and hit his head? what if he’s tangled up in long, grassy foliage that grows at the bottom? what if-

there’s a shout behind him and hawon doesn’t even think to stifle his rather girlish shriek of surprise. he knows the second after his shock that it’s just taehyun, that he was never in any danger at all, and that no longfish is going to bother them tonight. he vents his anger in a big splash right at the other young man’s face, his own expression twisted up in exaggerated annoyance. “i hate you!” he gasps, shoving just a little more water at his friend for good measure, “you fucking scared me!”

hawon kicks away from the other, going so far as to (gently) push off of taehyun’s body with his own feet for a little backwards momentum. he half-floats like that, arms flapping in the water to support a position where he can still stare down the other and watch him for any other nefarious tricks. it’s much quieter out here, just the faintest thrumming of music and voices from the house. quiet too, with the sky looking massive and full above their heads. hawon sits back properly, lets himself drift for a few seconds staring up at the sky. but even he is wary enough of open water not to zone out for too long and frog-kicks his way closer to taehyun and the shore soon enough.

taehyunfey​:

at the time, it had seemed like a good idea, putting together a massive celebration for his best friend’s birthday, renting a lavish modern lakehouse and filling it with the most elite of hawon’s social circles. with minjun’s help, taehyun had planned everything down to the last champagne flutes: rented the venue, prepped a guest list, ordered the catering, saw to the importing of a fresh batch of ayuhuasca tea, everything it took to make a gwiin’s birthday party exceptional. if he kept a keen eye and a steady hand, the party was sure to go off without a hitch, both amping up his reputation as a decent event host and, more importantly, making hawon’s birthday a night to remember.

taehyun has regrets now. mostly, he’s tired of babysitting, the night not half over. already he’s seen furniture damaged, floor-to-ceiling windows smudged, drinks spilled, food thrown. he knows that, if he were on the opposite end of things, was attending instead of hosting, that he would most likely be partaking in the dionysian ruckus of the evening, lost in food and wine and music and laughter. but currently all he sees are won signs falling out of his account like rocks, liabilities he will undoubtedly be paying for out of his own pocket springing up left and right. 

it’s when he is feeling the edge both mentally and physically, after minjun leaves, like a relentless ringing in the space between his eyes, that hawon bursts from the crowd in a cotton candy whirlwind, face tinted as rosy as the silken mop on his head. i wanna go swimming, he declares through that unbridled grin, the one that hasn’t changed since the first time they met, at an event much more formal than this one. 

“what?” taehyun’s barely heard him, his focus zoning in on the sound of wet retching in the next room over, “won, we’re in the middle of nowhere. there could be, i dunno, eels in that lake or something.”

“hey!” he snaps suddenly and sharply over hawon’s head, toward the faceless culprit, “clean that up, or i swear to fey i will come over there and feed it to you!”

it seems he only notices the drink hawon’s shoved into his hand in that moment, and something clicks in his brain as he tosses the entire beverage back in one swift go. 

“fuck it,” he mutters to himself as he concedes to hawon’s request (demand), setting the glass down with a little extra force than necessary, making his decision on the spot. he planned the party, he might as well enjoy it, “if i drown out there, don’t save me.”

taehyun is tense. hawon can feel it in every inch of space that they share, his friend strung so tight that the smallest of pressure might cause him to snap. it’s a good thing that hawon has always had the looser, more fluid personality. everything about him is bright, loud. he knows he grates on taehyun’s nerves sometimes, but isn’t tonight’s celebration evidence enough of just how much taehyun tolerates him?

if he’s being honest, he’d say that taehyun really should have known better. there’s no way that the young witches were ever going to be gentle and considerate once they had been let loose to party however they’d like. add in the couple of vampires who also made it onto the guest list (per hawon’s special request; he still hasn’t seen kijung which is a damn shame), and it’s a perfect recipe for disaster. literally. if hawon cared a little bit more about responsibility and poor taehyun’s inevitable nervous breakdown right now, he might’ve said something, stopped a few guests from doing something stupid. but he’s hawon, and it’s his birthday, and he’s always been an agent of chaos in one way or another on a normal day.

“i trust you,” he gushes, shifting positions to hug taehyun’s arm to his chest instead now. it’s much more comfortable. “you’re so detailed. i bet you know exactly what’s native to this part of the lake already, you’re just making up excuses ‘cause you know i’m the better swimmer.” it’s a challenge, a little extra temptation to get his friend to do what he wants him to. plus, eels are probably the least of their concerns. they’re witches after all, aren’t they?

a curious glance over to the victims of taehyun’s shouting is all that’s spared before forgetting about them completely, instead grinning wildly as he finally cracks and takes the drink. and what a drink it is; hawon would be impressed if they weren’t partying with a few hanu witches tonight too; they make drinking look professional. but hawon is nothing short of thrilled that he’s gotten his way, that taehyun’s agreed to come out to the lake with him. the glass is set down (with a satisfying thump) and hawon wastes no time in tugging taehyun’s arm toward the nearest lake-side exit.

@taehyunfey

“i wanna go swimming,” he bursts forth from the crowd, a grin sitting loosely on his face now that he has a couple drinks in him. not enough to be messy, just enough to be fun. he has to stretch up to get his arm around taehyun’s shoulders, not a very comfortable position when his friend is standing to his full height, but hawon doesn’t care right now. he just wants to be close, close enough that his senses are overwhelmed and fixated on one person among dozens. the feeling from the solstice never really went away, that giddy breathlessness when shadows dance across his friend’s well-sculpted face, or when he’s ruffling his hair or pushing him around, as best friends do. the spell has long worn off, hawon knows, but the feeling stayed. which means it’s not magic. which means it’s real.

he pouts in taehyun’s face for now. “you can’t say no to me. it’s my birthday.”

not that taehyun had forgotten this, if hawon could ever let him. his best friend is the host for tonight’s activities, a beautiful house on the lake rented for the weekend for a bunch of adolescent witches (and a few vampires) to get away, to celebrate the anniversary of the very first day that hawon came into the world screaming- and hasn’t shut up once since then.

hawon may be tipsy, a little extra loose-lipped than usual, but his cleverness hasn’t completely deserted him. he knows his friend well enough to know he’s going to be tense and uptight, that he’s going to take on too much responsibility for the house and the party. that’s exactly why he came prepared with a drink already in hand, pushing it onto taehyun until he takes it. he promises he only took one sip, maybe two, on his way across the room to get it here.

“c’mon, hyun, look outside. the moon’s almost full and you can see the stars in the water. come with me, please?”

taehyunfey​:

“gee thanks,” he returns, amused, though with no hint of anything but pleasant sarcasm, ruffling hawon’s hair again before letting his arm fall back over his shoulders, “i am drowning in your enthusiastic support, truly i am.”

taehyun is not so impervious that he doesn’t know how hawon feels about taehyun’s family pursuit of his betrothal, though even the densest, thickest skull in the world could not keep this fact out. he has always, since their friendship began, been vocal about his less-than-generous opinion of the entire concept. they come from very different bubbles within the same world, hawon, from a family that can afford to put less stock in the marriage of their younger child, even if he is a boy (man, now; it’s hard to shake the image of them as young teens when they have been friends for so long, best friends almost immediately, even in light of their glaring differences). and though the na family does not necessarily boast the same wealth as taehyun’s, they make up for it in gwiin-induced charm and prestige: hawon does not have any social black holes to climb out of, his birthright granting him the reckless freedom he embraces so naturally.

hawon bites back his words, but taehyun might as well have heard them in his head nonetheless.

“no,” he laughs, removing his arms from hawon’s shoulders to shove him away instead, “that’s just what happens when you pay attention to your herbology tutors. you know, you should try it some time.”

then there is a story being told, scratched up palms held out for him to see. he frowns softly in mild concern, reaching out to pull hawon back toward him with a firm but friendly grasp around one of his wrists as he examines the mild cuts.

“your hands. has this fucked up any of your readings? ‘you will die in seven days’, any of that popping up now?”

then there is an explanation given, as if hawon is the one true victim of some horrible, unprompted crime. taehyun looks at him as he often does, like a friend who could smell his bullshit from another world away. it doesn’t stop taehyun from quirking a judgmental brow at the other male, hand still wrapped around his wrist.

“mhm. and what did you do to this vampire to warrant that kind of response?”

“if you wanted support, you should get a good pair of sneakers,” he jokes to distract from the fact that if they keep talking about this, they’ll fight. hawon doesn’t know when to shut up, doesn’t know how to keep his lips from dropping words that he’ll later regret, and he hates when taehyun is mad at him. sure, he could find company elsewhere, he’s a friendly guy with enough people to tolerate him to never be too bored. but a best friend is different. taehyun has always been a little bit special to hawon’s heart, even if he ‘accidentally’ pisses him off on the daily.

he rolls his eyes at taehyun’s accusation that he doesn’t pay attention to tutors. he doesn’t, but that’s not the point. he’s not supposed to say that. “if they find a way to make most herbology more interesting, i’ll pay attention.” the boy huffs, elbowing his friend as a small revenge. he’s got a few plants he tends to, a few that his sister has managed to teach him about, but that was never what caught his attention. things much more mysterious than flowers captured his focus.

a soft pout sticks to his face as he lets taehyun study his hands. it still stings a little, every time he flexes one of the many little muscles of his hands he feels where cuts are trying to scab over. at least it’s not really bleeding anymore.

“i can’t tell for a few weeks, until they heal completely. but that also means they’re unreadable until then. sucks.” he frowns down at his hands. his sister surely has something to put on them to keep scars at bay, but they’re still only human. their rate of regeneration is so painfully slow sometimes.

taehyun’s expression changes, and hawon’s pout only grows poutier. he’s determined to be the victim, especially since he was the only one who got hurt. vampires have forever, why did this one get so pissy for having to wait an extra 30 seconds?

feykiha​:

when kiha had awoken this evening, the city was already under the tight grasp of the summer and her unbearable humidity. it had only been an hour but kiha was already suffering underneath the feeling, could feel his hair curling at the nape of his neck.

for majority of his life, kiha had adapted a nomadic lifestyle. he had kept to a strict rule of staying no more than 10 years in the same place, long enough to enjoy it and leaving well before anyone could ask any questions about him or his past. he had traveled to a lot of countries, had fallen in love with a lot of cities and their cultures, but a small part of him always longed for his home country. he had grown up on the dirt streets of a town now long forgotten and covered with buildings and tarmac. but his memories lived on, carried and buried deep in his heart, stubborningly refusing to forget everything even the horrible moments.

kiha holds a certain softness for seoul and her vibrant city, especially her nightlife. and tonight is no exception. the nightmarket is thriving, the streets alive with bright lights, music and the smell of food. kiha slips through crowds of humans and non-humans alike as he makes his way slowly through everything, people watching and window shopping as he goes. it’s a nice night, more laid back then he usually would go for but he enjoys moments like this. moments where he can forget everything even just for a little while, forget who and what he is, lets his guard down and just lives in the moment.

this would probably explain why he doesn’t realize someone has grabbed onto his arm until it happens. kiha turns in surprise, looking down at their looped arms and into the face of a pure stranger.

it takes only a moment to fall into an easy smile, leaning into him like theyv’e known each other for years rather than a few minutes. “i can’t tell if you’re really brave or really stupid for scamming someone that you’ve obviously afraid of.” he trails his hands down to the others, tangling their fingers before pulling him through the crowd pointing at various stores and items to play the part. “so what’s your plan, just hang out with a stranger until he leaves?”

boy, is hawon a lucky little man. he could have easily grabbed a grump, or someone too shy to play the part he needs them to, or any other sort of ill-fit characters for the role that hopefully keeps him alive for another day. the man he latched onto plays along almost instantly. they’re arm in arm, leaning closer, walking side by side as hawon catches his breath and a werewolf stalks angrily, unable to make the move he so wants to.

“both?” hawon offers, still breathing through the stress of the chase. his words are short, a little choppy between heavy breaths, but he’s fit enough and he gets his wind back as soon as a human can. “i’m serious, i don’t know if i actually did it. didn’t know he was..” he looks the stranger over; is this one human? he really can’t tell, but he plays it safe for now, “..some gym freak. like, he doesn’t look it, but that guy’s got muscles. it’s grotesque.”

it’s a bit strange to hold hands with a total stranger, to lean into them as if for comfort and pretend to be close and friendly as if they hadn’t only just met. but hawon is willing to push past the moment of discomfort for his own safety. plus, this guy doesn’t seem too bad. he’s good humored enough, obviously clever enough to play along with the act. hawon’s never been opposed to making a new friend even if the situation is far from ideal.

“but yeah, basically.” what other plan is he supposed to have?

he keeps looking back, an eye over his shoulder, checking if the aggressor is gone or if he’s finally given up on his chase. hawon will be more than happy to issue a refund or replacement, but not when the angry customer is threatening to tear him limb from limb. there are some occupational hazards he just simply does not have to tolerate.

feyxzhixin​:

Tea is a science, he wants to retort, down to the exact temperature that it’s steeped in for a specific amount of time. It’s always been about producing the best and most authentic flavor to the leaves chosen for consumption and the tradition of that science has been passed down through generations, which is why they’re in this quaint little house in the first place. But he’s off of the clock, too busy staring at the hands that wrap around the porcelain of the cup across from him, wondering how long it will take for him to figure out if this is all a facade or not because he’s already aching to . He’s so fixated that it takes him longer than normal to collect himself, to think of something that any normal person would say in this situation both skeptical but obviously interested in the idea of predicting the unknown. 

He barely catches a breath of silence before it turns uncomfortable, which could ruin his chances entirely.  “It’s on the house,” he says rather lamely as he stares into the bottom of his own cup. To be expected, nothing but a mess of wet plant stares back up at him. Besides preparing and drinking the beverage, he’s struggling to see what more could be taken from it after all is said and done. Although, from the sound of it there have been others before him that take this all far more seriously. “That bad, huh? I feel like the need for a disclaimer says a lot about your choice in clientele.” He keeps the comments about preying on the weak-minded behind closed lips but it’s undoubtedly what he’s thinking while he nudges his cup forward. “I’m sure I can take whatever it is the oolong is going to throw at me.”

a grin spreads across his face, wild and unabashed. he hears the scolding note in the other man’s voice, the unspoken implications about people who read tea leaves. hawon doesn’t mind being taken for a fake; he thinks it makes it more interesting for the person he’s reading the fortune for. is he real, or a fraud? do they believe him or not? it’s a risk they take, a choice they have to make for themselves, and adds another level of luck and unpredictability in the delicate game.

“i’d say that most people don’t have good fortunes to read in the leaves, but not many people want to hear that. i could tell some people they’ll become the richest man in the country if they spend more money on my readings and they’d do it. i mean, i don’t, but i could. but the moment i warn someone that their husband is cheating on them or they’ll lose a family member to illness soon, suddenly i’m the bad guy.”

he just hopes that this guy is right about keeping his cool about what the tea has to say.