br.eak

he doesn't say anything when she speaks. instead, lets the admission sit for a moment, which, depending on the student, was either reassuring or unsettling.

"you're not wrong, you do get in your own way." he finally says. there's no point in sugarcoating Something she was already aware of. wasn't his type anyway. "the good thing is, most people do." he moves from where he's been standing to head toward the table, where the book's still sitting.

"but you've done it before. which means that your magic isn't the real issue. the ream problem is here" a finger lifts to tap lightly against his temple. "your mind is your greatest ally but let it turn on you and it becomes your greatest enemy. you know very well you can do this, yet you're letting the part of you that says you can't be the loudest thing in the room." as jiho reaches the table, the book has already moved back to its starting point. smoothly got dragged across the surface as he talked.

"our minds work differently so it's only natural that we apply magic differently too. some need a strong purpose behind the action. others need a distraction, or to voice the intent out loud, i've even seen students need to break eye contact entirely for it to work. you've seen it just now, i didn't need to have my eyes on it to make it move." he pauses for a short instant, not waiting for an answer, simply working out his next move.

it was a shadow he noticed in his peripheral vision as he pulled his door shut that slowed him down. someone crouched in the hallway, facing one of the doors. as he stepped closer the features cleared.

ahn hajun… jiho had heard about his arrival, had been genuinely excited about it too, if he was being honest. he'd crossed paths with him at conferences before, brief overlaps that hadn't had the chance to become anything more. a chance he didn't intend to miss again.

"it's exactly what it looks like."

the mystery behind the media room had caught his attention upon arrival (four years ago now, a number that still occasionally surprised him.) he'd stood in his own room that first week,running a hand along the walls with the specific attention he gave old inscriptions, trying to read what the structure was doing and why.

he'd had hunches, theories he'd wanted to test. and then the term had started, the archive had needed cataloguing, a student had required supervision… routine had closed around him very quickly, his personal issues taking up whatever space was left, and the media room had stayed what it was, a project he intended to return to but never did.

four years, apparently, was how long it took to run into someone else doing it first. he was not at all surprised that someone turned out to be hajun.

"…come back later once i'm done. "

"hm." not dismissal, only the sound he made when something had just earned his attention. he didn't step away when hajun told him to, just shifted his weight to get a better angle and stayed exactly where he was, because leaving had stopped being an option the moment he understood what he was looking at.

his shoulders drop slightly as he stares at the three books piled up on the counter.

no matter how many times he tells himself he's just returning something, he ends up leaving with more. he genuinely cannot remember a month where he hadn't had books overdue to give back. he just can't help it. though he knows he'll have to stop at some point , once he's worked his way through everything the school has to offer, which at the current rate might actually happen.

with a shake of his head, he thanks the receptionist and turns on his heels. staying some more is an option, after all the library has everything he needs for his afternoon activities, but it was about to fill up and he needed somewhere quieter than that. his office would do, as usual.

he crosses the library with the books secured under his arm, already mentally reorganizing his shelf to fit them, when something someone tugs at his sleeve and stops him. he immediately looks down, an eyebrow raised. a rather particular way of intercepting a teacher. that is, if they'd even noticed who they'd grabbed.

one look at their face is enough to place them. sena, mirror walking, good marks from what he'd heard from the other faculty. she has a book open in front of her and he follows the tapping of her finger, brown eyes narrowing enough to make out the words without his glasses. invoking of the spirit, witch's circles and the works.

from those words alone this could go several directions. ritual frameworks and circle casting being the obvious one, though she would have been particularly unlucky to land him given that he held no fondness for rituals whatsoever. but her issue could just as easily be about the historical relationship between witches and spirit entities, the architecture of magical boundaries or.. a translation issue–

"of course," jiho stops the speculation there. none of it was going to change the outcome of this encounter anyway. he cannot refuse a student in need.

with the last paper marked, jiho leans back against his chair with a sigh.

there are moments when he wonders what his life would look like if he had stayed on the road. would he have settled in another country, learned a few more languages? would he have pushed himself until the mark had nothing left to take? when he remembers his past self.. it feels like another life, another person even. someone who was always moving toward something new, meeting and getting know new faces constantly. now he's mostly a ghost. seen during classes or caught briefly on his way to the archive, or library, depending on the time of day. some students probably aren't sure he exists outside of those contexts.

normally he'd be heading down there by now, the perpetual search pulling him the way it always did. but tonight he allows himself a moment. and when pushes back from the desk, he doesn't reach for his coat.

he fills the electric kettle by the window and sets it on its base. why, when magic could do it faster? a question he's heard more than once. but he finds it nice to slow down sometimes, let the elements do their work, no input required from him. he supposes there's no harm in trying to limit use where he can,either. the mark doesn't care about intention but he cares about the mark.

the knock comes almost in sync with the first bubbles, reminding him of the headphones sitting on his head. not for music. just the specific reduction of the world that helps him process student evaluations without distraction. he pulls one side back, eyes going to the clock first.

late. later than most people knocked, which narrowed the list considerably.

he isn't sure what he'd been expecting, but the expression that settles on his face when he sees who it is isn't one he bothers to hide. surprised would be an understatement.

"yui?"

she's probably one of the last people who would've made the list (if she'd made it at all). their interactions so far had been…interesting. that's the word he's going with, and it'ss generous. he'd caught her glares during faculty meetings, received brief answers the few times he'd tried to start a conversation. he hadn't paid much attention to how she was with others, not really his business. but he's come to a reasonable conclusion that she doesn't hold him in particularly high regard.

which makes her being here, at this hour, something worth paying attention to.

jiho was usually good at ignoring things, when he wanted to. identify something inconvenient, label it and set it aside in favor of something else that was more worthy of his attention, simple steps for a simple procedure. the pull toward yushu was definitely inconvenient. he had labeled it and had managed to set it aside successfully for the past few weeks and for most of this evening too, but it just kept coming back, tugging at something inside of him like a thread someone kept pulling on from the other end nonstop. definitely annoying.

he had kept his distance, deliberately so. his brain had been very clear about that. his body however..mcuh less cooperative. feet taking him in the same specific direction for the past hours without deviating once, as if the decision had been made somewhere beyond him and hadn’t bothered to ask.

with each step it intensified, bringing something with it that felt wrong in a way he couldn't really explain. the air felt different too, scratching at the back of his throat with every inhale. faint enough that he almost set it aside along with every other thought he had that night and blamed it on the side effects of the redretch’s capture. until it shifted again, drastically.

it felt urgent now, pressing at his chest like it was trying to communicate the only way it knew how. it made his hand move without thinking, palm flat against his chest as if that would do anything about it. it didn't. the pressure stayed, insistent. unconsciously, he started moving faster. and for the first time that night, he was willingly moving towards it, he wanted to reach it.

and then he saw him, back resting against a trunk, sitting in a stillness that wasn't the reassuring kind.

"hey–" he crossed the distance between them faster than he'd moved all night, dropping into a crouch in front of him, eyes moving over the younger man with the focus of someone who needed to know how bad it was before deciding how to feel about it.

at this hour, the archive had a particular feel to it, a specific stillness that only existed in the last stretch before dawn, when the night had mostly ended and the day hadn't yet begun. jiho moved through it the way he always did, one hand trailing along a shelf, the other maintaining a very low flame on his palm, just enough to make letters distinct from the shadows around them.

he heard her at the entrance before he saw her. "over here," he didn't need to raise his voice, the archive carried sound in ways that still surprised people and made his way toward the far table, the one he used when he wanted space to spread things out.

"sit," simply an offer, not an order. he did the same, closing his palm to silence the flame and carefully opening the book he had retrieved earlier to a page he knew by heart at this point. "i found this three days ago." he turned it toward her. at first glance, it looked like a map. quite old and imprecise, with coastlines drawn loosely and landmarks placed randomly. however, it wasn't only a map. whoever had drawn it had added a second layer of information into it, seen in the weight of certain lines, the placement of said landmarks, the way rivers and lakes were drawn slightly wrong in specific locations that corresponded to nothing at all. it was hiding something in plain sight.

"hi," he says, over-eager and trying very hard not to be. "i don't think we've met before...? i'm haoran." for a moment, he smiles harder, then he drops it completely. he takes a big gulp of his drink. the sourness makes him want to grimace, but he doesn't. "i'm kind of having second thoughts about this whole hunt thing," he offers, following it up with an awkward laugh. despite his never-ending efforts to connect, he's never sure how to talk to new people. he takes another sip of his drink, much smaller this time, and tries to square his shoulders. please be nice, please be nice. "are you excited for it, or...?"

with its warmth and light, the fire is doing most of the work, successfully making everything feel alive and celebratory despite the true nature of the event.

he isn't particularly fond of gatherings like this and would rather be anywhere else right now, in all honesty. but he doesn't hate them either. they're mostly made for the students anyway, for faculty it's just another mandatory task and all you can do is find something worth being here for. and for jiho, the students are one of those things. they’re interesting, fun to observe. though, some seem to be quite tipsy already, which is a little worrisome considering what the rest of the night has in store.

the spot he finds at the outer edge of the gathering gives him a full view of the area, close enough that leaving would be noticed but far enough that no one feels compelled to pull him into anything. a strategic choice, or at least he thinks so. he isn't surprised when someones approaches, he just hadn't expected it to be so soon. the younger man's greeting earns him a smile.

“we haven’t officially met,” but i’ve seen you around, haoran. “jiho.” there’s something satisfying about finally putting a name on a face you’ve been seing around the school. he’s expected to know the student body well enough to recognise everyone in an emergency but familiars are another matter, free to move as they please (though some tend to stay close to their witches) and there's a few he hasn't identified yet.

"not particularly," his gaze briefly drifts toward the fire. "when it’s your third one, the excitement fades around." he's always found the mystery surrounding the redretch genuinely interesting, but this year he's only here because he has to and not much beyond that.

"it's normal to feel nervous before your first hunt," he turns back to the man beside him, taking in his posture, his body language.. the way someone stands when they're trying not to look like they're feeling something. it's not mandatory for you to participate if you don't wish to. he almost says it, but stops himself. he still believes the hunt to be a good thing for both witches and familiars, the effect it has on them, what it draws out of them.

he had started dropping by the greenhouse more often the past few months but even if the time between each stop was getting shorter, it still hadn't become a habit. jiho wouldn't call it that. at least not yet.

what had officially become a habit though, were min sooah's random visits. he couldn't remember when they started, first she was dropping off lunch, then staying for tea, then appearing on random evenings with dinner or simply as a presence willing to share the silence of his office. he had quickly learned that kindness was sooah's second nature. an inherently good person with her heart on her sleeve.

jiho was amazed by it. and genuinely thankful.

he had tried to think of ways to return it but so far, all of them felt wrong, forced, not really fitting of him.

instead, he had decided to pay her office a visit, as she liked to call it. sooah always spoke about this place so fondly. he had wanted to see it for himself.

what he found had surely surprised him and he'd ended up caught up in what sooah had mentioned during his third visit, about how certain plants would quietly compete for the same soil, suffocating each other's root systems from below with nothing visible happening above ground. so he'd come back to check on them, again and again.

without realizing it, it had become a place he returned to. a place he could step into on nights when whatever was building up inside him felt like too much to sit alone with. and tonight was one of those nights, third time this month.

yoooo everyone very thrilled to be here!! bringing with me kang jiho, your favourite teacher and researcher and archivist. he's gonna be a hard one to crack but i'm very excited to see him involved in everyone's lil stories (when possible ofc)

did my best to have his pages up , missing some info that i'll add very soon. profile & background.

under the cut you'll find random plot ideas i came up with under ten minutes (it was a challenge because all i wanted was to post his intro) but i'd be more than happy to brainstorm anything tbh i just wanna write :] so like this post if you're interested! i will come up with a plot page