#fruiteronet

HEESEUNG

you and heeseung are walking together on the street, fingers loosely intertwined, when an old friend suddenly calls his name—a female friend. before you can even react, she steps in and hugs him.

your hand slips from his immediately, brows slightly creasing together as you watch her hands wrap around his neck. heeseung freezes for a second before gently and awkwardly pulling back. he turns to you instantly, noticing the way your demeanor completely changed. “hey,” he murmurs, hand snaking around your waist to softly squeeze it. after she leaves, he breathes a sigh of relief before tilting your chin up with his finger. “you okay?” you don’t answer right away, prompting him to lean down and press a slow, reassuring kiss to your pouty lips. “i’m with you. you’re okay, angel.”

JAY

a random girl compliments jay’s hair as she walks past you two, smiling a little too hard for someone she doesn’t even know. you immediately feel a small sting in your chest

jay presses his lips together as an uncomfortable “thank you,” before stopping you on the sidewalk, arm sliding around your waist naturally. it’s fairly empty, so he takes it as a chance to be a little bold. he lifts your chin with two fingers, causing you to meet his piercing gaze. “don’t do that, doll.. c’mon.” he kisses you when you sigh as a response—possessive as his lips hungrily move against yours. that’s the point he’s making. “you’re the one i want, and you know that.”

JAKE

jake’s phone buzzes while you’re sitting beside him—it’s from his female coworker. you catch the name and the message, reading, “hey wanna grab lunch tmr?” you go quiet the second you both acknowledge it, and he notices instantly.

“easy, baby.. you already know what i’m gonna say,” he murmurs, unlocking his phone and showing you as he types out a firm “no.” his arm arm snakes to your hip, patting it as your face nuzzles in his chest. his text back to her truly felt reassuring. “you’re my girl.. y’know that?” he presses a wet kiss to your lips, then another to your cheek, then your nose, smirking when you finally calm down from your silent tantrum.

SUNGHOON

a girl at the gym smiles at sunghoon, eyes flicking to his arms. “someone’s been working hard,” she says casually. you roll your eyes immediately—of course she doesn’t realize that you’re his girlfriend.

you walk right beside sunghoon, hand wrapping around his bicep like you’re holding it. “only for me.. right, hoon?” you purr, looking up at him with big eyes as he smirks and pulls you closer by the waist. “that’s right, baby,” he replies flatly, causing the girl to clench her jaw before walking off. after, he leans down to kiss your pouty lips, muttering a small, “you’re hot when you’re jealous.”

SUNOO

a girl laughs way too hard sunoo’s joke when you’re out with friends. she leans in like she wants more.. and he notices it instantly. but more imporantly, he sees you and how it made you feel.

he reaches for your head, lacing his fingers with yours before pulling you closer until your shoulder presses into his side. he kisses you while everyone’s busy with their side conversations, smiling against your lips as he gently squeezes your thigh beneath the table. “did that make you jealous?” he teases, and when you nod, he can’t help himself from pecking your face every chance he gets. “good,” he starts. “because i’m yours.”

JUNGWON

a girl keeps stepping closer to jungwon in an elevator, brushing his arm, very clearly flirting—not knowing you’re together. jungwon chuckles awkwardly, eyes flicking to you every now and then. and gosh were you upset.

before her flirting goes any further, you gently pull yourself into his chest, shooting her a hesitant glare as his hands naturally throws around your shoulder. “oh, this is my girlfriend,” he says politely but firmly, causing her lips to press together as she softly nods, embarrassed. once she steps out of the lift, he hugs you tightly, resting his chin on your head. “you didn’t like that, hm?” he whispers against your hair, and you shake your head. he turns to kiss your temple, then your lips, his own heart fluttering at how protective you can be sometimes.

NIKI

a girl at your friend gathering keeps touching niki’s arm, laughing too close, intentionally grazing her fingers against his. niki’s patience runs thin fast.. especially when he notices your pissed expression

without a word, he walks over to you and snakes his arms around your waist, resting just above your butt. he pulls you close to him, not giving a care in the world if anyone saw you two. but he hoped that girl saw him. “hey,” mutters, but his grip tightening around you as you’re on the verge of rolling your eyes. he cups your jaw with one hand and kisses your lips, deepening it to remind you that you’re only his. “don’t look at anyone else,” he mutters, forehead pressed to yours. “i only want you, got it?”

© 𝗬𝗢𝗢𝗡𝗶𝗦𝗢. @douqhnxtss @j4eyxn @f4loveex @ourhyeons @orimuraa @berryysuyoo @kristynaaah @ryukumi taglist !

dividers by @enchanthings

taglist ii will open soon!

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──── yoon keeho

꩜ energy up to the MAX, he is bouncing off walls, hooting and hollering (per usual) and most of all clinging to you like a cat.

꩜ at parties he’ll always have his arm around your waist, or his fingers in your belt loops, giggling at god knows what.

꩜ but of course when his energy starts wearing off, he swears you look 10 times more gorgeous than usual.

꩜ now he’s whispering in your ear asking to ditch the party, his finger tips grazing the bare skin under your shirt effectively making you shiver.

꩜ and when he finally convinces you to leave, he can’t even wait until you get home. He’s pulling you into a kiss, his hands warm on your body.

꩜ how could you not give in right away? Keeho’s soft lips against yours, tasting of vodka and sprite mixed together. You get lost in the feeling, completely forgetting you’re parked outside his poor brother’s apartment.

──── choi taeyang

꩜ a very giggly drunk, like giggly to the point where he can barely make out words.

꩜ so he tends to be glued to your side at parties, his head on your shoulder as you meander and talk to people.

꩜ but then there's the point where he gets lost in the way your lips move, and he can only think about kissing that pretty gloss you wear off.

꩜ he pulls you by your wrist towards the door, murmuring about how he wants to go home, his usual giggles nowhere to be seen.

꩜ the second the door closes behind you both he's on you, pressing your waist against the wall, his lips capturing yours in a feverish kiss.

꩜ you could care less that you're making out right outside of Keeho's apartment, not when your pretty boyfriend his groaning against your lips.

──── choi jiung

꩜ genuinely acts a fool when drunk, so much to the point where even you need to side eye him. (he's still so funny to watch though.)

꩜ isn't the clingy type, especially in public. Jiung will always be moving around and chatting it up with guests, he can't sit still while drunk.

꩜ when his social battery drains, that's when he looks for you, wrapping his arms around you when you finally meet, his complaints muffled into your neck.

꩜ when his lips collide with your sensitive skin, you know its time to leave. You drag him out the door, flustered goodbyes leaving your mouth as he caresses your wrist.

꩜ once you get home, he's all over you, lips peppering kisses across your face, needy whispers accompanying them.

꩜ then his lips finally meet yours in a slow, longing kiss that he's been dreaming of the entire night.

──── hwang intak

꩜ lord. the most clingy drunk to ever walk earth. this man will be all up in your business, a hand always under your shirt or his arm draped over your shoulders.

꩜ like keeho he is always hyper, 100% chance he will start a dance battle with a random, making everyone around him roll on the ground laughing.

꩜ he gets needy when he hears your laugh and sees your bright smile. he is so down bad for you.

꩜ now he's sitting close to you on the couch, the pads of his fingers lightly grazing the skin above your waist line, making you squirm.

꩜ he knows he's worked you up once you drag him towards the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind you both.

꩜ when you both start kissing, he's already weak in the knees, melting into you, his hands roaming your body.

──── haku shota

꩜ honestly not the type to drink, but when he does he goes nonverbal, and is practically sewn to your side.

꩜ he's so captivated with you when he's under the influence, not that he isn't usually, but the alcohol touching his system is making him even more infatuated with you.

꩜ you get nervous when you meet his eyes, pupils full of love, with the cutest smile etched on his face.

꩜ luckily, the party is at your place. so you both take the chance to disappear into your bedroom, already giggling as you shut the door behind you.

꩜ he doesn't waste time to kiss you, tittering into your mouth as you pull him closer to you. both of you forget about the party happening outside the door, and get lost in each other instead.

──── kim jongseob

꩜ oh this boy, he's the happiest drunk you'll ever meet. A smile never leaving his face, and his adorable high pitched giggles pouring from his mouth.

꩜ he's gonna be doing anything to get your attention, like tickling your side to see you squirm away, but pouting when you do it back to him.

꩜ also a huge flirt, he'll whisper into the shell of your ear, relishing the way your cheeks burn when he says something particularly dirty.

꩜ finally he has enough and starts begging you to leave, nudging his knee into yours with the biggest puppy eyes ever.

꩜ as you leave the house, his lips are already on yours, smiling against your mouth, tasting like pure beer.

꩜ doesn't mind waiting till you get home, but the car is so much more practical right? you both disappear into your back seat, never breaking the kiss Jongseob started.

Juhoon understood what he was getting into the moment he auditioned to become an idol. He anticipated the long hours of training, the need for immense creativity, the overwhelming support from fans, and the requirement to be social. He excels in these areas, knows what he's doing, and is prepared for the next step. What he wasn’t warned about is the possibility of falling for someone who is out of reach. You, unbelievably pretty, bubbly, and seemingly sweet. Traits that Juhoon has observed from afar, even though he desperately wants to learn them directly. Unfortunately, he never gets a chance to introduce himself or talk to you personally. You are both always ushered around, have conflicting schedules, and train on opposite sides of the building.

Though your paths seem to cross momentarily throughout the day, both traveling to your respective rooms. With your fast pace and his slow reaction time, he can never seem to get a word in. He’s come to terms with the fact that you’ll have to stay a simple hallway crush, someone he’ll admire from afar. He can’t help but wonder what it would be like to know you as a person, even if your relationship stays friendly. What are you interested in? What’s your family like? More importantly, what even is your name? 

Juhoon can never seem to catch it, no matter how hard he tries to eavesdrop on your conversations. With all the cons and few pros, he feels defeated. Even though he tries to believe he’s accepted that you’ll forever be a stranger, he can’t. Your face never leaves his head, your laugh, your voice echoes in his thoughts when a room is quiet. You haunt him, and he can’t seem to escape, despite the number of times he’s tried.

The solution is simple: Introduce himself and finally get to know you, a task that he’s actively making harder for himself. Juhoon doesn’t know how to casually walk up to a girl and introduce himself; he doesn’t know how to have a charismatic personality like other boys do, he knows he has to learn somehow; he needs to put himself out there. Not only for himself, but for you, the girl he’s been yearning to know for weeks now. This has got to be the most stressful event of his life, other than auditioning to be a trainee, of course.

It’s early in the morning, and Juhoon feels like a zombie. He slumps while the dance instructor rambles on about technique and ability; all of her words float through his head, going in one ear and out the other. You’re on his mind again, your smile outshining the choreo he needs to get down. Music plays through the room, snapping him back to reality. He quickly gets to work; it's a miracle he managed to hit all the right moves. The only problem, he’s being sloppy; he can’t wait to get out of this cramped practice room and see your face, hear your voice, and maybe even step out of his comfort zone and finally speak to you.

He freezes once the music pauses, the dance instructor having an annoyed look painted on her face. Juhoon already knows what's about to happen, especially since she’s glaring daggers at him specifically. He slumps down and bows his head to apologize, internally cursing at himself as he prepares for the lecture of his life, or even worse, being told that being an idol isn’t the job for him. 

“Juhoon, what’s been up with you lately?”

She asks instead, a concerned tone coating her voice. Juhoon lets out a sigh of relief and straightens himself. He contemplates what to say; he can’t just outright tell her his situation, he’d dig a deeper grave for himself. He bites his lip and looks off to the side, toeing the ground shyly.

“I’ve just had a lot on my mind, I think I’m just adjusting still. I’m sorry for interrupting.”

He bows once more, praying that she’d let it go and not question him. That reality fades away once Martin barks out a laugh and throws his arm around his shoulders. Juhoon stares at him, practically begging him to shut up with his eyes. Of course, he’s ignored, because why wouldn’t a day go his way for once?

“Sun-bae, tell him to man up and talk to the girl he thinks is pretty.”

Juhoon’s face turns bright red, and all of his dignity leaves his body as soon as Martin calls him out. He groans and pushes the taller boy away from him. He accepts a future of wearing a paper bag over his head so nobody recognizes his face, maybe even going rogue and never coming back to the HYPE building. The dance instructor laughs as his shoulders droop, and his eyes glue to the ground, refusing to look at anyone out of pure embarrassment.

“Go for it, you won’t be young for long.”

His head perks up at her words; even if they were simple, they hit him harder than ever. He thinks of you, mostly your reaction to a random boy coming up to you out of nowhere, he remembers how kind you seem from afar, picking up after your friends, holding their hands when they seem down, always joking around and smiling. You wouldn’t brush him off, call him weird, at least he hopes. 

A small smile blooms on his face as the instructor shoos the group back to their original positions and restarts the music. Juhoon practices with newfound energy and motivation, the thought of finally being able to learn your name clouding his consciousness. 

As soon as practice ends, Juhoon gathers his stuff and rushes out of the room, leaving a protesting Martin and Keonho behind. He has to act fast if he wants to catch you in the hallway, a routine that he’s become used to after 4 weeks of this crushing. Martin and Keonho will just have to catch up. When he reaches the usual hallway, he’s doubling over and panting, struggling to catch his breath. He jolts when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks up, expecting it to be Keonho, but instead it’s you, with that same kind expression he admires from afar.

“Are you ok?”

You ask, shoving your water bottle in his hands. Juhoon is rendered silent, surprised at your sudden appearance. He wasn’t sure what to say, what to do, or if he should even look at you. His silence only concerns you more. You clasp your hands over his and lift the water to his mouth, encouraging him to sip it. Pink dusts his cheeks, his eyes darting around as he drinks from your water bottle.

“If you feel like you’re gonna pass out, you should sit down. I'll stay with you.”

You whisper, taking your water bottle back. Previously, he wasn’t about to pass out, but now that you’re here, holding his hand and letting him sip from your waterbottle, he might as well. 

He lets you lead him to a bench nearby, sitting next to you instantly. Blush is apparent on his cheeks; he’s shy of the amount of affection you’re giving him without even knowing him. He clears his throat and gains the courage to finally speak, even if his mouth is dry.

“I- Sorry, thank you for helping me. You’re very kind.”

Juhoon murmurs, earning a smile from you, and he practically melts into the wall behind him. You rest your hand on his shoulder and try to get a good look at his face. He isn’t pale, which is a good sign, actually, but rather red. 

“No problem. Just coming back from practice? Now that I think about it, I see you here a lot.”

His head perks up; the fact that you’ve noticed him previously makes his heart beat faster than usual. Juhoon wonders if you’ve been wanting to talk to him as well, your busy schedules whisking you away from each other.

“Yeah, actually, I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while.”

His words cause you to flush slightly and look away with a nervous giggle, which Juhoon absolutely eats up. This moment feels surreal, talking to you, your hand on his shoulder while you blush and giggle at his words. He wouldn’t doubt the possibility of this being a dream, one he won’t want to wake up from for a while. 

“Actually? I didn’t want to admit it earlier, but me too. I think you’re cute.”

Juhoon’s eyes widen, listening to his prayers being answered, the girl whom he’s been admiring from afar for so long feels the same way? Now he’s fully convinced he’s dreaming. Subtly, he pinches his arm, testing reality. Nothing changes, he’s still in the barren hallway with shitty vending machines and blinding lighting, staring at your pretty face. He laughs and looks at his feet, hoping you don’t see how red he’s truly become.

“I-”

Before he can start his sentence, the echo of footsteps and familiar voices echoes through the hall. He curses under his breath and closes his eyes, knowing exactly who the source of the ruckus is. Martin and Keonho come running down the hall, shouting Juhoon’s name with the biggest smiles on their faces. 

“Juhoon! We just scored with snacks, come eat with- NO WAY.”

Keonho comes to a stop, his mouth agape at the sight in front of him. Martin mimics his movements, equally as surprised as the boy next to him. Juhoon groans and shoves his head into his hands, the sudden interruption ruining his previous mood. Both of them come running over, Martin shaking Juhoon’s shoulders while Keonho jumps up and down like an excited child.

“So, your name is Juhoon?”

You laugh, asking him despite the chaos. He manages to push Martin off of him and nod, the warmth he previously felt returning as his attention diverts back to you.

“Yeah, what’s yours?”

He tilts his head, somehow not concerned with the sudden silence from his two friends.

“Y/n, it’s nice to meet you, cutie.”

You reply smoothly, before standing up and brushing off your outfit. Juhoon doesn’t get a chance to say goodbye as you rush off after spotting your friends, leaving him sitting there, flustered beyond belief.

“YO.. RIZZ!”

Martin yells and smacks Juhoon’s back, erupting in laughter. Juhoon groans and shoves him away again, embarrassment taking over rather quickly. Before moving to leave, he notices you left your water bottle. He picks it up, smiling. Now he has another excuse to speak to you.

He returns to his dorm that night, your conversation plaguing his mind. He crashes on his bed and groans, burying his face into a pillow. He can’t even begin to process what was said earlier; he never would’ve guessed you felt the same about him, nor did he believe his daydreams would ever become real. 

What truly kills him is how bold you were, that stupid nickname sliding so easily off your tongue. He wonders where you got the courage, especially after just meeting him a few minutes previously. Juhoon knows how much he’ll be overthinking that moment, and he accepts the future of many sleepless nights. He doesn’t care though; the fact that he was able to speak to you today is more than enough for him to power through the journey ahead.

The next day after practice, he rushes to your regular spot like always, not skipping a step in his routine. Juhoon has your water bottle in hand, ready to give it to you. He even practiced what he would say to you in the mirror. Very thoughtful, in his opinion. When he enters the hallway, he’s surprised to see you without your usual group surrounding you. He notices you’re searching for your water bottle right away and smiles sheepishly. He approaches you from behind and pokes you with the bottle, laughing as you gasp and whip around to face him. Your nerves calm as you recognize his face, and your water bottle in his hands.

“Oh, thank god, you found it.”

You let out a sigh of relief and take your water bottle from his hands, hugging it to your chest like you just found your lost dog. Juhoon can only smile like an idiot while he watches you sway around with it tight in your arms. He thinks you’re absolutely adorable.

“You left it yesterday. I didn’t want anyone to take it.”

He murmurs, trying to seem more nonchalant than he actually feels. You giggle watching him look away from you with a blush coating his cheeks. You can see right through his “chill” act, especially with how bashful he’s been acting around you. Without another thought, you throw your arms around the boy in front of you, not caring about the possibility of someone spotting you both and misinterpreting the action. Juhoon’s brain short-circuits; he wasn’t expecting that. He opens his arms and hesitantly wraps them around you, bringing you closer to his chest. He silently kisses his chill persona goodbye as you give him one last squeeze, pulling away from him.

“You’re the absolute best, thanks for keeping this safe.”

Like last time, you go to flee once again. Though you stop in your tracks and turn back to the flustered boy behind you. Juhoon raises his eyebrow, curious about what came to your mind.

“Give me your hand.”

He absentmindedly obeys your request instantly, placing his hand in yours with a look in his eyes that has your heart racing. You rummage around in your tote bag and pull out a pen, and you start writing your number on the back of his hand, making sure it’s neat so he can easily read it. You finish it off with a heart and your initials under it, with a “text me”, only to see him blush. You move away from him, smirking as the redness you desired to see spreads across his face. You turn around and wave goodbye, leaving him to drown in his thoughts.

Juhoon waits till he hears the door close behind him, and traces the numbers staining his skin. His heart threatens to burst as he examines the doodles you left as well. He runs his fingers through his hair, contemplating his life and the fact that he fell for a girl who is such a tease.

Juhoon specifically pushes off texting you until he’s alone, without his four other friends crowding his space, nosey about your relationship. He collapses on his bed and opens his phone, splaying out his hand in front of him so he can read your number. His heart rate slowly speeds up as he types every number in, wondering what he’ll say without being awkward. He’s thankful that it’s over text and not in person; he has all the time in the world to think about what to send. Juhoon saves your number as “y/n <3”, not caring about the thought of his friends seeing it.

The hard part is finding the words to text to you. He knows he should keep it simple, but something inside of him wants to send paragraphs detailing his feelings for you, but he knows better than to do that; he respects himself too much. He rolls around his bed, searching his brain for something, anything. After half an hour of straight contemplating, he says fuck it.

He starts typing, his fingers working fast as his eyes struggle to catch up with his speed. He stares at his screen before sending the message, instantly putting his phone down and rolling over to sleep off the anxiety.

J - Hey, pretty, it's Juhoon.

It’s been a few weeks since you’ve both been seriously getting to know each other, constant calls, back and forth texts, you're both having the time of your life. Though with that, you’ve both set boundaries, not only for the relationship, but the information you give to your friends. 

Even though it’s not necessarily romantic yet, people can still interpret things differently and get you both in trouble (even though it’s obvious you both want it to be more already). You’ve agreed to keep it on the down low, your idol careers on the line, which is something you both can’t sacrifice.

The routine didn’t stop after you both finally started speaking to each other— everyday, Juhoon rushes to the spot you two always meet, leaving his friends behind without another thought (they’re too happy for him to care anymore). Excitement fills his body as he makes it to the door leading to the hallway, a smile painted across his face. He walks through the entryway, except this time something was off, you’re there of course, but so is another boy he doesn’t recognize beside you. He’s whining, pouting, and you’re undeniably finding it adorable. Juhoon returns to his previous role, watching from afar, even if it is a little creepy. Jealousy takes over instantly, and suddenly his whole mood does a 180.

“I’m so bored of doing the same thing every day, when will we get freedom?”

The ginger whines, his eyebrows turning up as he complains. Juhoon takes this moment to examine his face. The fact that the other boy is really cute hits him like a truck, and suddenly he’s also pouting. You laugh at your friend, patting his shoulder as he continues to whine like a child; you find it extremely entertaining.

“You’re gonna hate being an idol if you’re already complaining, Kyungmin-ah.”

Juhoon cringes and sinks further into the corner he was already sulking in. Do you treat all your guy friends like you do him? He thought he was special, different than the people you’re usually around. You even told him that yourself. Yet, here you are touching his shoulder, cooing at him as he babbles about how bored he is. He’s jealous, jealous of how you touch him so casually, using friendly terms with him, and the fact that you’re both talking in the spot you two always frequent at. He shoves his face into his hands, blocking out your conversation for his own sanity.

He contemplates leaving until an alarm rings through his ears, Kyungmin gasps and looks at his watch, which is the source of the annoying beeping.

“Ahhh, more practice. See you later?”

You nod and push him away from you, encouraging him to rush to practice. As the other boy leaves, you notice Juhoon sulking in the corner. You raise an eyebrow before heading over to him, a hand on your hip as you stare him down suspiciously. He crosses his arms and pouts, refusing to meet your eye.

“What’s your problem?”

You ask, boxing him in the corner so he can’t escape you. He noticeably squishes himself further against the wall, suddenly shy, but still frustrated at you.

“Do you treat every guy the same? Who even was that?”

Juhoon suddenly gains confidence and straightens himself. He squints his eyes at you, jealousy painting his face. Instead of getting annoyed at his questioning, you laugh, finding this absolutely adorable. You step towards him, reach out, and touch his arms. Your fingers caress the skin, which makes him absolutely fold instantly. He hopes you don’t realize, but of course you do. You move closer, your hands trailing up his arms and resting on his neck, his breath hitching as your thumb brushes against his jaw.

“Are you jealous, cutie?”

You question, your tone effectively making his knees wobble. He gulps as your hands continue to travel, your fingers tangling in his brunette hair, brushing out the knots. Juhoon is rendered speechless; he can’t even argue with you while you’re actively making him putty in your arms. It’s your intention anyway.

“Do I touch every guy like this? Call them cute? Why don’t you tell me, Ju?”

Before he can even think about answering, you lean closer to him, your lips brushing against him. The way he brings you closer is the confirmation you need, and you close the gap between you. Juhoon’s hands travel to your sides, moving his lips against yours like he’s been wanting to do forever. He gets lost in the feeling of your lips, your fruity chapstick kissing his taste buds. When the kiss breaks off, you leave him stunned, his lips plump from the passion that went into it. He almost wants to lean back in and repeat the moment.

“Do you have your answer now?”

You tilt your head as you back away from him, that same smirk you always have on spreading across your face. He can only nod, still dazed, which you bask in. Before leaving him once more, you press a kiss on his cheek and frolic off, leaving Juhoon to his thoughts like you always do.

God, he’s in love.

a/n : FINALLY. FINISHED A FIC AGAIN.. anyways this is sickeningly sweet and I love them okai

a/n : thank u to the lovely @meirries for beta reading as well (ily!)

perm taglist — @beomtomie @sincerelysungho @ajjaehyun @leeknowramona @wensurr

cortis taglist — @trulytaesan @ivxae

“Let the poor boy rest, Miss L/N,” Madam Kang approaches with a tray of vials, each steaming a different neon colour. “He’s been asleep for an entire day, it’ll be a while before he can regain strength.”

The matron places it on the side-table, pushing his precious Thunderbolt VII out of the way, letting the broomstick fall to the floor ungracefully. Jaehyun feels the urge to protest, or at least reach for it—but the matron is already fussing over his injuries, tipping a healing potion into his mouth and patting him back onto the sheets, propping his casted leg up on a pillow.

She narrows her eyes as she makes sure he drinks every one of the vials, making him gulp down the awful liquid in nervous obedience. It goes down more painfully than the sharp throb in his leg.

“Make sure he doesn’t wander off, this boy has a habit of ignoring medical advice,” she says to you before sauntering off towards the room adjacent to the hospital wing. 

Jaehyun sighs, watching her disappear behind the door. 

“You’re not dead.”

He cranes his neck to see you stare at him—arm in a sling, sitting upright on the bed opposite him. 

“...Yeah.”

“You broke your leg,” you say, voice pinched, “Might hurt while the Skele-Grow takes effect… “

“Oh,” Jaehyun purses his lips, eyes drawn to your injured arm. “What about you?”

“Hmm?”

“Your—” He tilts his jaw to point at your sling. “Your arm… is it hurt?”

He doesn’t realise the stupidity of his words immediately. Of course you’re hurt, why else would it be wrapped up and slung around your neck. Jaehyun expects you to blow up in his face, to call him an idiot and march off to the furthest bed you could. 

But you don’t.

Instead, you just say, “Nothing too bad, should be fine soon enough.” 

He’s never been this awkward around you. To say the atmosphere was civil would be the understatement of the century; instead, it’s tense in a way different from your in-game rivalry. 

The sound of the clock ticking by feels like his insides being wrung like a towel; the lights feel too bright, his leg feels too heavy, and his breaths way too loud. Every time he glances sideways, you’re either twiddling with your uninjured hand like you don’t know what to do with it, or you’re staring longingly out the window.

Jaehyun feels it too—the itch to get back to practice. 

At first, it’s a couple of hours. Then, a whole night—you toss and turn, grumbling in your sleep like you were having nightmares. He’s no better, staring straight up at the ceiling as though it could swallow him whole.

He even ponders jumping out the window on his broom and heading straight for Quidditch pitch.

There’s not much to look at other than four white walls, an unremarkable wooden door, and a couple holiday decorations that seems to have been magicked into places: a festive wreath in front of Madam Kang’s quarters, a little christmas tree hung with painted pinecones and shiny baubles, and streams of tinsel strewn here and there. 

Neither of you converse unless it’s to remind each other to take your healing potions, or sometimes when he needs help with sitting up against the bed. There are no visitors other than the matron’s occasional inspections—just Jaehyun, you, and the soft snowfall out through the frosty windowpanes. 

“How much longer did she say?” he whispers out on one chilly evening, head squished against a fluffy white pillow. 

You barely spare him a glance, trying to flip the page of your book over your tucked-in knees. “A week at least. You broke a lot in there.” You gesture vaguely at his body.

“Right,” Jaehyun grumbles. “I’m gonna lose so much muscle mass after this.”

You scoff on instinct. “Not like you had any to begin with.” 

It doesn’t mean to come out as an insult, not after days of uncomfortable silence. 

But surprisingly, something inside of Jaehyun settles in relief at the familiarity. “You say that and then gawk at my legs during a game. No wonder you don’t hit straight.”

The response is immediate—your eyes flash open, lips curling downward into an angry frown, hands gripping at your worn out copy of Quidditch Through the Ages as though you were about to swing it at his face. 

Jaehyun can’t help but smile at how less intimidating you look when you’re not thirty feet up in the air and sporting all four working limbs. Like a baby bird attempting to peck but without any real aggression. 

“You wouldn’t waste your precious book on me of all people.” He quips knowingly, managing to sound cocky even with a pathetic cast on his leg. 

And he’s right on the nose; you narrow your eyes, click your tongue in disapproval, and then lower your book back to your lap. 

It’s the first taste of normalcy he’s had in days.

Jaehyun sleeps with ease that night, quietly admitting to himself that maybe, being stuck with you in the hospital wing during the holidays wasn't the worst thing to happen to him after all. 

── 𓇢𓆸 

“Hold still,” you reprimand unintelligibly, leaning over his cast to slide the marker across it, the cap hanging between your teeth. 

“I can’t even move, dude,” Jaehyun sighs, watching the way you doodle a wonky lion on him, adding tiny horns and a moustache for flair. “That is the ugliest thing I’ve ever had the misfortune to see…” He grimaces. “—and I’ve seen you on your bad days.”

You sneer at him, looking every bit as comical as he hopes you do when he makes you mad on purpose. 

“You’re not exactly Picasso to be talking a big game,” You spit the cap out and lift your sling—decorated with tweety birds, and a very elaborate, structurally accurate diagram of a Firebolt. “Can’t believe we’re stuck here during Christmas, drawing on each other’s broken limbs.”

“Did you have other plans?” He raises a brow.

“Quidditch, duh,” you state the obvious, watching him nod in agreement. “Match is in two months and I’m not even allowed to use a bat yet.”

“Well,” Jaehyun motions for you to pass the marker to him and scooch closer. “It could be worse. We could have been muggles and have had to get our bones mended their way—and that could take ages.”

“What do you know about muggle medicine?”

“More than you,” He starts to draw stars and snowflakes onto the fabric over your arm. “My mom’s a doctor—a muggle healer. I used to break my bones all the time.”

“...Doing what? Crawling?”

“Playing,” he corrects with a roll of his eye, tongue peeking out as he concentrates on his doodles. “She says I could never sit still as a kid. So she put me into every sport out there—little league baseball, football, archery—”

“They gave you a bow and arrow?”

“I quit after a week because I accidentally pricked my instructor with it.”

“Ah, that’s more like the Myung Jaehyun I know.” You snicker. 

The room has started to smell less like polyester and detergent, and more like Christmas. There’re two cups of cocoa on the side-table—courtesy of Madam Kang—balanced atop a mountain of Quidditch guides and biographies. The tinsel on the tree has multiplied somehow; there’s snow capping the windowsills, wrens and doves making the occasional visit. 

You miss playing Quidditch. But to make up for it, you’ve resorted to transferring your personal library to the hospital wing, the stack of books building by the day. 

At some point, Jaehyun lets out a bored sigh, and you non-verbally pass him a copy of Flying with the Cannons, if only to shut him up. 

“How did you know I’m going to join the Chudley Cannons!?” His face lights up like the tree in the corner of the room. “Don’t tell me you’re a prophet…?”

“Myung…you and I both almost failed Divination in our fifth year.”

“Oh, yeah.” He grins wistfully at the memory. “Honestly, I thought she failed us because you kept attacking me with your teacup.”

“Like you didn’t keep predicting my imminent doom on your crystal ball.” You squint at your book, confused at a particular sentence. “What does this mean—’bristles aid wind direction; the more streamlined the better’ ?”

“Hmm…think of it like birds’ feathers—” Jaehyun lays his own book flat on his chest, bookmarking his page. “—they basically smoothen the path of wind. The more lightweight, the better for flight. Seekers need to maneuver a lot, so we’d avoid heavier woods, like oak.”

“Oh… Beaters prefer the heavier kind. But it sucks when you have to speed after targets.”

“Your speed is fine,” he offers without a hint of deceit, “It’s the hesitance you need to focus on. You do this thing where you just…stop.”

Your brows knit together. “Huh?” 

“It’s like you’re trying to recollect what you’ve read…I can see it in your eye before you swing your bat—you waste so much time on thinking.”

“...” You feel like you’ve been peeled open and cut into two perfect cross-sections. “I don’t—” 

The rest never make it past your lips; you know you’d be lying if it did. 

“You worry too much too,” he continues, “makes you lose momentum. And, you don’t get to show off how skilled of a player you actually are.”

The compliment is thrown so casually as though he is merely commenting on the weather. Not like it’s a monumental milestone in your, mostly sour, age-old relationship.

“...Thanks,” you finally say, still a bit dubious. “You’re…uh… You fly well, I guess.”

Jaehyun snorts at your poor attempt at praise. “Thanks? That’s nice of you… I guess.”

“You don’t think enough up in the air or on the ground,” you huff, “but your muscle memory is impeccable. I can tell you to work hard at it.”

This time, he smiles, meaning it. 

When you let yourself sink into the comfort of simply being next to him— without the biting remarks or scalding anger to burn you—you find that it’s not as strange as you’d imagine it to be.

“Hey,” Jaehyun whispers, eyes tracking the blinking Christmas lights in the distance, the smile still etched onto his lips—as though he’s dipping his toes into uncharted waters. 

You turn your head, sneaking a peak at his face. He’s quiet, eyes soft around the corners, gaze unfocussed. 

“You know…” he begins teasingly, “you don’t need to stay. I heard the matron saying she dismissed you last week.”

Your stomach does a swoop—fluttering, squeezing around itself like you just ate something bad. You feel sick.

“I… She—” A gulp travels down your dry throat. “...I just needed to make sure I’m fully recovered.”

Jaehyun turns his head, lips stretching.

“Did I make you cry when I was knocked out?” He tosses you a lopsided grin, tilting his head playfully. “You know you can’t get rid of me that easily.”

You suck in a sharp breath, heart squeezing in a way you didn’t think hearts could. Jaehyun has that glint in his eyes—not unlike the one he wore when he quipped between practices, or circled around you like a menacing cat. But there’s something else there too…

A curiosity. 

“I—” You clear your throat, sinking deeper into your scarf in a foolish attempt to tame the heat on your cheeks. “I wasn’t worried.”

“Not what I asked.” He smiles, softer this time. “I heard you, you know—saying my name.”

Your cheeks are now scalding hot to the touch, every inch of you aflame in mortification. 

It had been a mistake. You weren’t thinking… You certainly weren’t worried about the loser. Why would you be? He’s brash, he has horrible manners, he teases you, he embarrasses you, he… 

He did save you.

Before you can come up with a justification to why you didn’t outright hate him for a split second while he was out like a light, Jaehyun is already changing the topic, complaining about the annotations you’ve filled into the book in his hand. “Such a nerd,” he murmurs, but still keeps reading—an annoying smirk plastered onto his face. 

You groan. But in the private crevices of your mind, you can admit the relief you feel when he doesn’t bring up the subject again. 

“Why is your common room so far away, ugh,” you grunt, testing out your newly healed arm with a roll of the bones.  

“Sweetheart, if you stopped complaining for one second, we’d already be here.” 

Jaehyun has a slight limp to his steps, but Madam Kang had reluctantly let him leave the hospital wing—after several shameless bats of his lashes, and a long speech you’d prepared, listing all the reasons why the white walls would only slow down his recovery and how much more infuriating he had been getting in bed confinement. 

After all, it was Christmas eve tonight.   

“This is ridiculous,” you say as you follow after him, stepping through the hole behind the painting on the wall. 

He snickers at your whining, and stops abruptly so that he purposely makes you bump your head right into his back. 

“God, you are so—”

“Charming?” He swivels around.

“—Pesky.” You poke his forehead to push him out of the way. “Why did you even bring me to his hellhole?”

“Because it’s almost Christmas, and also because you haven’t let me show you my blueprints in exchange for me listening to you go on and on and on about the history of Quidd—”

“Shut it.” 

The first thing you smell when you move forward is the fire—inviting and gentle on your nose. The first thing you see is red; it almost sends you into a panic-induced coma. 

But your eyes adjust to the red in increments, slowly turning less aggressive in your mind.  

And you can acknowledge one thing: Gryffindor tower is the right opposite of yours; almost everything is gold or crimson, rustic in a way it makes you feel warm all over. Cosy. 

Jaehyun wastes no time before he flops onto the couch, stretching as though he was making a snow angel against the fabric. 

The place looks lived-in—evidence of friendship and family stretching from wall to wall: half finished board games, party hats strewn under the table, a festive poster someone has stuck to the bulletin. There’s a tree beside the window, glittering in reds and yellows—snowflakes spiralling down outside.

You linger at the scarlet tapestries on the wall, the lion motifs adorning the sides—then you trace your hands over the bookcase in reverent awe. 

It’s…beautiful.

Of course, you’d be lying to say it isn’t. It’s not home to you—not like the Ravenclaw common room—but you can imagine Jaehyun growing up here, spending his days lazing around and surrounded by his friends. There’s love lingering in every corner.  

“Come here,” Jaehyun waves you over, having planted himself on the carpet near the coffee table at some point along your assessment of the room. “This is a Nimbus 1000; you’re already familiar with it—” He smoothes out a large glossy blue diagram, with chalk and scales overlaying it. 

Of course you were familiar; it was your first-ever broomstick your dad bought you.

You sit next to him, leaning over as he pushes it towards you. 

“See the handle and how it's curved over here—that’s to reduce air drag,” he points out, bringing your finger to the drawing. 

It’s slightly smudged, as though he had pressed his fist across it while sketching it down—or fallen asleep late into the night, cheeks against the paper. It’s a surprisingly fond image.

“And,” he continues, delving into the intricacies of broom aerodynamics. “see this—that’s to help with turning 360 degrees mid-flight. An old but reliable model.”

“Who knew you could read, Myung?” You quip, an insult too shallow to hurt. “So this is what you’re off doing instead of completing your Charms homework.”

“Says the girl who spends the class taking down Quidditch notes instead of practicing spells.”

“Thought you didn’t see me as a girl,” you wiggle your eyebrows, finding yourself relaxing a little. 

He pauses to look at you—then grunts away a response. 

For the first time in a very long time, you don’t worry. When he finishes showing you his collection of blueprints and miniature broom models, you settle into comfortable company; you read out loud your favourite passages from Quidditch Through the Ages as he works on another sketch—nodding along to your words with a question here and there.

Time quietly slips away; the world hangs its head as the hour hand walks its way to twelve. A cuckoo pops out to announce Christmas day.  

Jaehyun’s eyes are half open, head tossed back against the couch cushion. You’ve accidentally come to rest your side against his, fingertips a hair’s breadth away from his. 

“Y/N,” he murmurs, dazed.

You aren’t any better. “Hmm?”

“Merry… Merry Christmas." 

Maybe it registers in your mind, maybe it doesn’t. Nonetheless, a smile shows itself.

“Merry Christmas,” You don’t even hear your own voice, eyes drooping closed, “Jaehyun.”

Christmas arrives, and you aren’t alone for the night. 

── 𓇢𓆸 

Gryffindor common room - Christmas 

“When I said let’s get food—” you huff, teetering on your heels. “—I didn’t mean the entire kitchen, Myung.”

“God forbid a man likes pastry,” he pouts through a cheekful of tart, barely balancing a mountain of plates in his hand, almost dropping an entire bowl of mini candy canes onto the plush red carpet. 

“The man needs to stop talking while he eats,” you frown in disgust, swerving out of the way before he sprays crumbs onto you. 

Morning light spills through the open window. It’s chilly, but the roaring fire and woollen clothes keep you warm. There’s a light trill of birds over someone humming carols from the grounds below. 

You and Jaehyun spend the entire morning and afternoon digging into as many delicacies as you can, and as quickly as your tummy allows. Being athletes called for a strict control over overindulgence—or at least for those of you who actually kept to it.

But today is an exception—you get to stuff yourself to your heart’s content.

Cupcake wrappers litter the coffee table, pavlova cream smeared at plate edges. The jars of what used to contain eggnog sits empty. The fruit cake is demolished. 

Jaehyun lies spread-eagle on the floor, patting his belly.

You would chide him for being so ungraceful—had you not been in the exact same situation. 

“I regret everything, ugh. Why didn’t you stop me?” You can barely speak through the pain in your chest, eggnog swirling dangerously within your tummy. 

“I did try,” Jaehyun grumbles. “You told me to go take a swan-dive off the Astronomy tower.”

You don’t refute.

It’s another minute before a lightbulb sparks alive on the top of your head—and he seems to have the same idea. 

What better way to work out the kinks in your muscles, to let off steam and to truly enjoy Christmas to its maximum?

“Broomride?” you ask.

“Broomride.” he nods.

The sun is only beginning to descend—making the Great Lake shimmer at the surface. Jaehyun swoops above the water, grinning as the cold air nips at his skin, his red scarf whipping behind him as he speeds up.

You join him with the same enthusiasm, not hiding the smile that escapes you. Hogwarts feels so small from up here—nothing but one of Jaehyun’s miniature models, an ant among giants. It’s breathtaking. To fly after ages feels like having your first inhale of a breath after holding it in for so long. 

When you finally come back down to earth, feet skidding against the gravel, the rush of flight hasn’t worn off yet.

“This is where you pushed me off from,” Jaehyun leans over the pier, looking down into the bottomless blue, where merpeople and squids resided in their own pockets of life. 

“‘Push’ is a strong word,” you refute. “I prefer…‘gave you the nudge you needed.’”

“No wonder I choose to run before you can get me now,” he chuckles, skipping a stone over the gently cascading water. 

You follow suit, trying to outdo him, but come up two steps too short. “You don’t run when it matters though…that’s the important bit.”

Jaehyun remains silent; he knows you’re hovering over things you want to say—too afraid to acknowledge the elephant in the room, wary of breathing things into existence where they need not be. 

It must be the sunset softening your edges—because the words roll off your tongue as you watch the light bathe over the lake.

“You… saved me. You didn’t even think before you dived.”

Jaehyun’s eyes widen at your words.

Honestly, he never thought you’d mention it again. You aren’t the type to linger on guilt or pity—someone who worked through feelings with a book and a quill. And occasionally, a blackboard. He isn’t equipped to handle such a straightforward sentence out your mouth.

Jaehyun’s mouth is parted, words teetering between honesty and fear. 

“Seeker’s instinct,” he finally says. 

He’s not sure if he even believes it himself. There’s a truth there, but it’s not the entirety of it. 

For a Gryffindor, he was every bit a coward as you regarded him to be, Jaehyun thinks.

You, however, nod—taking what he’s willing to offer, not demanding anything more. 

Jaehyun wonders if you feel guilty for his broken leg. He nudges your shoulder with his own, keeping you rooted when you meet his eyes—with something more than just delicacy swimming underneath those brown flecks. 

“It’s not your fault. I was the one who jumped before thinking,” he says softly, a hint of self-blame dancing around his assurance. “Don’t worry that head of yours, alright?” For good measure, he gently flicks your temple, earning a shove into his ribs.

Before he can fall off into the water once again, in a perfect replication of the incident from three years ago—you pull him back onto solid ground by the neck of his sweater, letting him lean his weight against you, his still weak leg swaying.

“Thanks,” you say.

‘For saving me, for the anonymous tips,...for being here, for going into a food coma with me, for flying with me all day,’ goes unsaid, but the warmth in your gaze conveys it all. He doesn’t pull away; you don’t let him.

For the first time in years, you can admit you may enjoy Myung Jaehyun’s company.

It turns out to be one of the nicest Christmases you’ve ever had.

Great hall - first day of Spring Term

”Park Gunwook, stop eating the chocolate! That’s for Y/N!” Liz smacks the taller boy’s hands, making him drop a handful of bonbons back into the silver case. 

“Y/N-ie!!” She veers around him to throw herself against you—her own version of a hug. “I missed you!!”

“She did,” Gaeul appears behind her, grinning. “Wouldn’t shut up about it. My deaf Grandma had the worst three hours of her life trying to understand why she kept crying over home-made cookies.”

“The wonky one reminded me of Y/N,” Liz pouts, and you swing your hand back to punch her in the arm. 

But you’re interrupted by the barrage of the rest of the Ravenclaws flooding in through the main doors—Ricky, Leeseo, and Kazuha all mid-chatter and heading straight for you. You take turns hugging them, letting Kazuha ruffle your hair.

“Had a good holiday? Or should I ask—had a good Quidditch vacay?” She pinches your cheeks.

“You could say that,” you mumble, but don’t elaborate when she throws you a questioning look.

It’s a miracle that you’re saved from Liz’s nosy interrogation—thankfully, she’s too distracted by Gunwook now choking on what should have been your present. 

You watch them play around—returning to the welcoming dynamics of your friend-group—everyone settling comfortably back into the routine of awaiting classes, taking in the ceiling that was charmed to swirl snow onto the four long tables, watching as the other houses began to trickle in one after another. 

Then you wonder if one of those red scarves is Jaehyun’s. 

After Christmas, you had found a new sense of rhythm with him; more broomrides at night, a lot of discussions-turned-debates over flight moves and strategies… You even ended up showing him your most prized possession—your Quidditch notebook where you scratched down every fleeting thought and every observation you’ve ever made since the third year. 

In return, he’d practiced day and night with you—helping you act quicker without thinking too hard, reminding you not to strain your arm when you swung with too much force.

New year’s rolled around, and nothing changed for the worse. 

In fact, you even let yourself indulge in the gift-giving festivities: he now held onto your annotated copy of Flying with the Cannons—a note with his name and a haphazardly written ‘happy new year’ slipped into it.  And you… You were now the (not) proud owner of a miniature model of Tweety bird on a broomstick. 

“It’s a bird… Why the fuck does it need a broom?” You had asked, squinting at it in your palm.

Jaehyun had been undeterred, simply giggling when he’d said, “Can’t I be a little poetic, L/N?”

The memory is fond, feeling like an old story than from only a couple days ago. You’re trying to recollect your exact feeling of that moment when—

“Ah, stuffing your face as usual, I see,” Seok Matthew struts into view with a smirk, arms hidden in the depths of his trouser-pockets. 

Gunwook sneers around his chocolate, “Fuck you, Seok.”

“Fuck me yourself, coward.” The Gryffindor taunts, his smirk only growing.

“Jerk!” Gunwook squeezes his fists, flaring his nostrils in what is supposed to be intimidation.

It’s three seconds away from what could be anything between a food fight and a fist fight, when a steady hand pulls Matthew back before Gunwook can ambush him.  

“Hwan-” begins Kazuha, but she doesn’t finish when she realises that it isn’t the reliable vice captain that’s keeping them from decking each other. It’s—

“Myung,” you greet—softer than you should. 

“L/N,” he responds, likewise. 

“Y/N, let me at him,” Gunwook punches the air, trying to push past Kazuha. But you interject.

“Save that brawl for finals, we still need to get through one more match.” You say it casually, without dwelling on the meaning—but seven pairs of incredulous eyes whip around to stare at you. 

“What?” You blink at them. 

“...You’re…” Gunwook scrunches his brows together. “...stopping me from hitting him?”

You open your mouth, realise you have nothing fruitful to say—then close it at once. 

To make matters worse, Jaehyun doesn’t jump in at the convenient gap with one of his usual taunts. Instead, he’s looking past everyone, straight at you—with an expression that toes the line between tenderness, and like he’s waiting to see what you’ll do next.

“I—” You gulp. “We’ll only lose house points if you injure him,” you say, turning towards Gunwook. “And I want you in perfect condition so we can beat these idiots.”

It seems to do the job—albeit just barely; Gunwook brightens up with newfound vigour, throwing a condescending look at Matthew for good measure. Liz joins in with a smirk and a covert middle finger pulled out of her robe’s pocket. 

Jaehyun just…smiles. 

“Alright,” he says simply—no malice, no hidden undertones. 

His relaxed tone sends a shiver down everyone’s spine, including your own—Ricky prickling up like a frightened cat, Gunwook’s eyes going wide. 

But Jaehyun is already walking off to the Gryffindor table with his arm around Matthew, who also seems to be just as confused at his captain’s sudden change in personality. 

“Is he trying to scare us?!” Liz gasps, “What the actual fuck was that?”

“He’s just—” You grasp at the clay model inside your pocket—the bird on the broom. “—being infuriating again. Don’t mind it.”

Gunwook starts to refute, but you cut in before he can start digging your grave—

“We have a match to practice for, and we’re already behind compared to those Hufflepuffs. I better see a huge improvement in the next two months, or it's back to the drawing board.”

Everyone zips their lips at once, slowly deflecting back to conversations about homework and professors. 

While the chatter builds and you begin to leave for your first class of the day, something new gnaws at your brain—not just the usual buzz of caffeine and Quidditch jargon. 

Because now, you have another thorn in your side: the near-impossible task of keeping up appearances with your supposed enemy, Myung Jaehyun—who, you realise, you don’t seem to hate as much anymore. 

── 𓇢𓆸 

“I almost got that point,” Gyuvin complains, stopping in front of the Ravenclaw hoops.

”Not my fault you move like a snail,” Gaeul says simply, her nonchalance more cutting than any bite the rest of your team could manage.

It’s yet another joint practice—blue and red robes billowing in the damp January air, snowcapped towers and grounds existing beneath like the inside of a snow globe. 

You’re tracking the movements of your team, mentally jotting down any details you might want to record for later. Kazuha is flying parallel to Ricky, receiving the Quaffle from him, cutting past Hanbin’s tricky ambush to head for the Gryffindor base. 

She swings it into the central hoop, scoring another ten points.

At the next play, you aim your Bludger at Intak before he can do the same to Ricky, managing the strength to knock it into his torso and make him lose his grasp. The novelty of getting the six-foot player to concede fills your heart with satisfaction. 

As though on instinct, you look for him—and find that Jaehyun is looking back at you, sporting a smile that clearly meant he was proud of you for not hesitating. 

It becomes a routine—stolen glances, the accidental mid-air bumps that were less than unfriendly, the way he circles around you for absolutely no reason when he should be looking for the Snitch…

The routine, for lack of better words, carries into your daily lives.

Jaehyun quietly saves you a seat when you come in late for Charms—away from the prying eyes of your teams, private and safe. You talk—over a growing bundle of Quidditch books and blueprints, in the tucked-away corners of the lake where few wandered, over your carefully aligned trips to Professor Jeon’s office when he calls for the captains. Over nothing and everything. 

“I’m telling you, let your Beaters aim for the knee if it’s Park Sunghoon—he loses balance every single time,” You tap the page of your play plan. “And if it’s Taesan, well…”

“I swear he’s got a thing for our Gryffindor prefect, dude,” Jaehyun insists.

The two of you sit side by side on a makeshift seat over the rocks overlooking the Great Lake, a shared notebook between you.

You respond in similar fervour, “Wait seriously? …that explains all the… staring.”

“He’s always bothering her with his pranks, though. She probably hates his guts.”

“Can you blame her? Childish pigtail-pulling only gets you so far.” You shake your head, disappointed in general at the male species. “Ugh, men.”

“Yeah?” Jaehyun’s voice is teasing, but slightly soft. “What would you suggest then?”

“Hmm?”

“If not pigtail pulling—” He waits for you to look his way before he finishes. “What would you suggest works?”

Your heart speeds without warning.

He’s wearing that look again—a hint of a lingering smile, the brown flecks in his dark eyes evident under the backdrop of sunlight hitting the snow—unguarded—his heart right on his sleeve, waiting to slip off into your hands if you offer them to him…

“I—” You lose breath from just looking at him—him and his stupid, earnest eyes… ”So Hufflepuff, ahem!”

Jaehyun all but groans. 

However, he has the self-respect to right himself, brushing off the slight pinch to his ego, and giving way to your digression.

“Their Captain might look all sweet but that guy’s a monster. Keep on his heels when you’re up there,” Jaehyun offers.

“Hao? The guy that stank up the entire Great Hall because he had to just eat his durian out in the open?” 

“Same one. Wolf in a sheep’s clothing, I swear, their whole lot.”

“Rich coming from you,” you scoff, rolling your eyes for him to see.

He ignores it.

“Hao prefers his right side too much, it was so obvious from our last match,” Jaehyun takes the quill from you to add his own little note to the margins. “And I think he’s into our Chaser.”

“Hanbin? Oh yeah, saw it from a mile away. I knew they were giving each other eyes in your last match.”

“Knew you came to spy on us.” He grins, and you pull his cheeks down so it turns into a pained frown.

“I wasn’t spying.”

“Ogling, then.”

“Ew…who would I ogle at…you?”

“Awww, is my Y/N-ie shy?” He coos, lightly grazing the nib of the quill against your nose, leaving a tiny blue mark there. “You weren’t like this when we were in the Hospital Wing and you were all like, ‘Jae-Jaehyun!’” he says in mock sorrow—an embarrassing imitation of your voice.

“WELL, SORRY FOR THINKING YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN DEAD—” you huff, jumping off the rock and beginning to stomp away, but he drags you back to your spot by your wrist. 

“Okay, okay—truce!” He puts both arms up in surrender. “Back to tactics, c’mon.”

You still pout but let him coax you back into strategising. 

“Sakura sticks to a pattern—it’s always, begin on the left, zig-zag across, then she goes right,” you explain as you point at your notes, “You can basically predict her next move before she even starts.”

“That should make it easy then—she’s faster than me as a Seeker, so I have trouble when we need to dive for the Snitch sometimes.”

You offer him advice based on your experience from playing against Slytherin, and he in turn, does the same for your eventual match against Hufflepuff. 

In Charms, the two of you pass notes—little tidbits that you might have not remembered to tell each other the day before. Then he’s slipping scraps of paper into your robe as he passes by you across the Quidditch field—nimble and deft with his hands—you make sure to tell him that he’d make an excellent pickpocket if being an athlete doesn’t work out in the future. 

And then…he stops with the niceties altogether. 

“Good game, partner.” Jaehyun extends his hand out to you after one of your joint practice matches.

You hesitate before taking it, too self-conscious of whether people see. “Hm, yeah.” You avert your eyes.

But he shamelessly lingers on your palm, gently tugging it closer. The pulse under your wrists speeds up dangerously, heart thudding when you look up to see him move your hand closer to his lips—you gulp, thinking he might press a kiss to it—

Jaehyun winks, a smirk appearing before he softly returns your hand back to you.

You almost combust.

//

“What the fuck, Myung? You can’t just—”

“Just?”

“—Flirt in front of my team!” You throw your hands up in exasperation. “They can’t know that we’re—”

“That we’re..?” Jaehyun’s eyebrows raise; he’s smiling—not a bit concerned about you stressing out. “That we’re what, Sweetheart?”

Your temple throbs again. It’s infuriating—how easily he drives you up the wall, how he knows the exact buttons to push to elicit the exact reactions from you—how he knows you inside out like his own mind. 

“Don’t call me that.” You pout, plopping down on the bleachers. “You flirt like it’s your life blood.”

“Only with you, I’ve already told you this,” He puts his cheeks in his palms, leaning in. “I can stop if you hate it.”

You don’t respond. 

You can’t… There’s no way to know if you truly do hate it. Your body seemed to react to his sweet-talking with the same alertness it reserved for an active threat situation—heart racing, adrenaline coursing… but you can’t even say some part of you hasn’t started to look forward to the symptoms now.

Instead of acknowledging his words, you end up asking— 

“Why do you keep helping me?” 

The thought has been weighing you down like a head on a pillow—steadily, maybe even comfortably. There are so many answers he could give you, each one just as tender. 

But what he says knocks the air out of your lungs, and perhaps your heart just falls out and gives itself to the boy in front of you… 

“Maybe I want to make sure my last match here will be with you.” Jaehyun’s voice is a whisper. 

Snow softly drifts—melting atop his inky locks—and then you actually look at him. 

He is no longer the same thirteen year old boy that flew circles around you, or taunted you with his natural talent. He’s older now, his features sharper, shoulders broader—more reliable. 

But his eyes…they’re still as soft, still playful like a kid’s.

You wonder if you just never saw him before, or if you just refused to admit that you did. 

“...I,” you begin, but he’s already pulling you up with him.

“Play a 1 v 1 with me?” he asks, cheeks pink, and smile soft. 

When you finally nod, he’s turning away, leading you down to the broom stands.

Oh.

You watch his back, the way he turns around to look at you—and the world freezes for a second.

Oh, you think.

You’re fucked.

── 𓇢𓆸 

You’re thoroughly, absolutely fucked.

Jaehyun, when left unstopped, is a force to be reckoned with.

He flirts with a newfound passion now—in-between classes, during broomrides, up in the astronomy tower where you once take him to try out a nosedive—on the Quidditch pitch, twenty feet up in the air. 

The location is a second thought to him—all that matters is that he gets to say the word ‘Sweetheart’ to you, minimum three times a day.

“Sweetheart, you forgot to sleep today, didn’t you?”

“Sweetheart, do you think I should start shaving? I think it gives me a rugged look though, no?”

“Sweetheart, why aren’t you wearing your scarf, it’s freezing cold—here, take mine—”

“Myung Jaehyun, shut the fuck up,” You slam a hand to your forehead as he stares quizzically. “Why aren’t you celebrating your win with your team?”

The two of you stand crammed together in a tiny nook behind one of the stairs; Jaehyun is sweaty from his match against Slytherin, face flushed and chest still heaving. You had come to watch, but somehow, in a turn of events that was simultaneously strange and predictable—he had found you right after.

“It’s your win just as it is mine,” he says giddily, “I couldn’t have made that dive if you hadn’t practiced with me.”

“Lies. You didn’t need me for that.”

“I always need you.”

“God, ugh,” You drag your palms down your face, ready to pound your head against the wall. “You are so annoying!”

“Aw, did I make Tweety bird mad?”

“What the fuck, Myung? Why do you keep calling me stuff like that!?”

“Because,” He shrugs. “You look like a Tweety Bird.”

When you just stare incredulously back at him, mouth agape, he elaborates, “Innocent and cute…and fun to chase around.”

“You can’t,” you sigh, ignoring the warmth pulsating inside your chest. “You can’t just keep doing this. Our teams hate each other, and…we can’t disappoint them.” The last sentence breaks out before you can think it through.

“And that’s the only reason?” he asks, coy.

You gulp, looking away. 

“Alright,” Jaehyun just nods, giving no indication that he intended to do as told, “I’ll hold back on the flirting.”

It’s an ominous statement, you think. The paranoia that claws its way up your body makes you stiffen when he ruffles your hair, saying nothing more after. 

He walks off to where his team waits for him—probably wondering where their Captain had gone off to—leaving you alone with your thoughts in a shadowy spot under the stairs. 

You wonder if you’ve awakened some sort of monster. 

Myung Jaehyun is no longer acting like Myung Jaehyun.

At least not the same one you’ve come to be familiar with—the obnoxious jerk who had somehow melted into a softer version of himself—a teasing, hyperactive puppy-dog of a human that kept following you around.

He takes what you had demanded of him and adds his own flair to it. 

You start to regret that you’d ever said those words. 

“Good game,” he says, without stringing a nickname at the end. “You did well.”

His words are still genuine, but you can tell he’s burying so much he would rather just say.

“Thanks,” you respond stiffly, the hair on your nape standing up. 

But a sly smile shows itself on his face. “What about me, did I do well?”

“Huh?” you sputter.

“I asked,” He leans in to whisper, his breath way too close to your lips. “Did I do well, Captain?”

You pray to the heavens above to swallow you whole, in case one of your teammates has heard it. 

Thankfully, they’re off to the sides, caught up in their own shenanigans—Gunwook seems to be attempting to break Matthews arm in what outwardly looks like a handshake, and Liz’s yells aimed at Gyuvin echoes as far as the distant mountains. 

Jaehyun is undeterred. “What?” he says again, in a pitch deep enough to send a shiver through you. “You said not to call you Sweetheart.” 

Before you can say anything intelligent in response, he walks off with a final squeeze to your palms. 

Then there’s your private strategy meet-ups: he shows up, talks just as enthusiastically about Quidditch with you, and every time the word ‘Sweetheart’ threatens to escape his mouth, he’ll replace it with something more dangerous.

Then there are his touches …

“Can you pass me that blueprint over there?” Jaehyun asks, pointing at the rolled-up paper next to you.

When you hand it to him, your fingertips accidentally brush against his, and the two of you look up to meet each other’s eyes. 

He smiles; you stutter. 

Or you’ll lean in too close without thinking, too caught up in recounting some historic match out of a guide, and when you look up, he’ll already be staring at you—shamelessly, with an attention he does not even offer to his school subjects. 

And it makes you have to dig your fingernails into your skin to keep yourself tethered to the material world.

In a twist you didn’t think the universe was cruel enough to pull on you, Myung Jaehyun proves to hold the capacity to be even more infuriating than you thought he could ever be.

And you are nothing but a victim of his perilous tenacity. 

Your paranoia spikes to an all time high when he approaches you from behind—making you jump in your own skin with just a casual greeting. You start to fear for your life lest he say something too sultry in front of your friends. You start watching your back, treating him like a threat to your life—a time-bomb about to explode that you need to run away from.

But he always finds you.

And you realise that you can’t take it anymore. 

His stupid face is in your head 24/7, his stupid voice now the narrator of your brain. He’s everywhere—physically, spiritually, in all the ways that suck the soul out of your body. 

Myung Jaehyun has cemented himself as the true bane of your existence.

After the nth time you catch yourself staring at his mouth while he rambled on about the Oakshaft 79, you decide you have had enough.

Jaheyun is on his way back from one of his classes, clueless as ever, caught up in his mental world of fast-going broomsticks when—

“Huh, what!—” He feels more than sees: the harsh tug of his necktie, the broom cupboard doors slamming shut behind him, drowning him in dancing shadows—and then you—and your mouth on his.

Your mouth…on…his?

“Y/N—”

“Shut up,” you whisper, pulling him back down. Your hands tug at his nape, at his hair—tight enough to break, and eager enough to electrocute him. 

Jaehyun is stupidly giddy when any comment he might have attempted to make gets smothered by your kiss, fiery and deep. His hands come to find your waist, a desperate attempt to ground himself. It doesn’t work—his soul might as well be floating away with the way you kiss him breathlessly, in a rhythm that’s entirely primal.

When he dares to sneak a look at you, right as you part your mouth for him, he feels his heart skip several beats—your eyes are half-lidded, kiss-drunk, and Jaehyun feels himself lose all inhibition at once. 

He takes control, pushing you up against a wall, curling a hand around both your wrists when they come loose from his neck. Warmth prods at the seams of your lips, and you surrender to it. 

Jaehyun feels the same way he does twenty feet up in the sky, chasing headfirst after a Snitch, when the adrenaline rushes through him—purely chemical. 

Maybe it’s because he knows you so well, knows exactly what to predict from you, all the right buttons to push to coax a soft gasp out of your mouth. You might have been good at observing other players, but Jaehyun was the best when it came to studying you.

You let him kiss you with everything he’s got, as though he was making up for lost time—for all his wasted ‘Sweetheart’s and all the times he should have just given into his impulse. You think of how you used to hate him—and the memory only feeds your need to remind him that it’s different now—that the line between hate and love was want, and you’d been toeing it for a long time now. 

When you finally part, his hands are still where they were five minutes ago, his lips shiny, eyes dropped down to your mouth—he’s already thinking of a second round. 

But before Jaehyun’s about to dive down again, you press your palm against his mouth. 

He frowns behind it, like a kicked puppy.

“Not now,” you say—it comes out as a promise for later. His frustrated whine gets blanketed by your hand, and you shoot him a stern look.

You then peel back, adjust your uniform back into place, and poke a finger into his chest as a threatening reminder. “We never speak of this again, deal?”

He nods, dazed, mind still floating in the memory of your taste. 

“Good.” You leave him there, looking downright intoxicated—knees weak, tie askew, mouth parted, eyes in a slow-blinking haze, hair resembling a bird’s nest—disheveled from head to toe. 

When the door closes, Jaehyun leans his forehead against the wall and lets out a long and pleased sigh. 

You were going to be the death of him. 

“We did it, Y/N,” Kazuha’s hug is fierce as it is warm. “We won!”

“They didn’t stand a chance!” Leeseo bounces, punching her broom in the air, earning a round of ‘hooray’s from the stands. 

The entire Ravenclaw house roars from the crowd, blazing posters of blue and silver, chanting your names when you win them the last match before finals.

Finals.

You’ll be playing against Gryffindor.

Ricky and Gunwook pull everyone into a group hug, the latter close to tears at your hard-earned victory. There’s a light drizzle in the air, making everything look foggy beyond a distance; your hair is slightly damp, your skin buzzes with sweat and moisture, and your body is still stuck on the high of winning.

“Maybe I want to make sure my last match here will be with you.” Jaehyun’s voice echoes in your mind.

You don’t waste any time before seeking him out the first opportunity you find to free yourself from your team. He’s, as predicted, lingering somewhere behind the stands—bundled up in warm clothes, a cable knit sweater instead of his uniform, a thick scarf over it, and fuzzy gloves over his fingers. 

“Y/N, Congrat—” The rest turns into a yelp when you drag him by the collar, to a secluded recess behind the wooden planks. 

You lean up to press a single kiss to his lips.

Jaehyun doesn’t need to be told twice—he discards his gloves somewhere so that he can feel your cheeks underneath his palm without a barrier, thumbing away at the rain-kissed skin there. Then he pulls you back in, deepening it—his fingers coming to rest behind your head, freeing your hair from the confines of your tight ponytail. 

Maybe it's the adrenaline from the match, but you push back just as desperately—swallowing any and all sounds that escape him. Your teeth accidentally graze against his bottom lip, and he shivers against you, then squeezes your waist in response. 

“Congrats,” he ends up whispering into another kiss.

“Thanks,” you huff, too impatient for breaks. “It was—fuck,” Another kiss. “You helped.”

“Yeah?” He smiles against your kiss.

“Yeah.” You nod, eyes only half open. 

And just like that, yet another thing gets added into your routine—stolen kisses behind stairwells, more broom cupboard rendezvous, some softer, some heated, but always the same pattern—by the end, you have his mouth perfectly memorised like the insides of your Quidditch guides. 

Sometimes you want to kiss him because he’s being a gentleman to you on the pitch—offering his scarf when you accidentally shiver, or slipping a candy-bar into your pockets on days you’ve forgotten to eat. 

Other times, it’s when he’s being an absolute shit.

“You’re fucking annoying,” you complain, but your actions contradict the words when you’re shoving him against a wall to kiss the smirk off of his face.

“And you, Miss Captain,” he giggles, “have a potty mouth.”

“And what about it?” You raise one brow threateningly. 

“Oh nothing,” Jaehyun smoothens the knot between them with his thumb. “I like it, actually. You’re kinda hot when you’re mean.”

All you can respond with is a flustered cough, a grunt, and then another attempt to shut him up—with your mouth on his. 

Days bleed into weeks, and before you know it, your life has condensed into half-attended classes, a growing list of diagrams on your soon-to-finish notebook, more Quidditch practices with the Gryffindor team, and kisses that taste like fire and chocolate. 

The best part? Nobody but you and him knows—the thrill of a secret and the comfort of something hidden, it keeps you moving. On days when your stress threatens to break you, its his lips and heat that helps you let off steam. 

You start to look forward to seeing Jaehyun every day. And the dread of finals turns into a promise to be kept—you would beat him before you graduate Hogwarts, and you’ll do it with the assurance that he’ll come find you afterwards no matter what. 

And you’ll kiss all the animosity away, leaving behind only giddy warmth to replace it. 

//

A dent in your plan comes in the shape of one cat-like Chaser.

“Why aren’t you aiming at Myung anymore?” Ricky questions one day after practice, as you’re walking off the field, peeling off your gear.

“Huh?”

“You didn’t throw the Bludger at him even once today.”

You freeze; the chill that runs down your body is not from the cold.

He isn’t entirely wrong. You aim at every other Gryffindor on the team, but when it comes to a certain fluffy-haired boy… Your hand just happens to re-evaluate where you want to hit the ball, and it’s almost never at him.

“...Umm…”

“Is he threatening you, Y/N? ”Ricky asks seriously; it’s a little comedic—how earnest he seems about the concept of you potentially being blackmailed by the hyperactive Seeker of a boy.

You could do two things to worm your way out of his question—you could brush it off and change the topic to today’s weather and distract Ricky easily—he was as easy to bait as a cat is. Or, you could choose the slightly more deranged alternative and say:

“Ye-ah.”

“He is!?” Ricky is all ears—and eyes, from how large they grow. “I knew it, that asshole!”

It doesn’t take too long before the entire team is convinced that Myung Jaehyun was no longer just a headache in your life, but now also an active threat to their dearest captain. 

“We’ll avenge you, Y/N-ie.” Gunwook says, and Liz nods along vigorously over her bowl of warm popcorn. “We’ll beat them dead at finals… 

“Get it?” He turns to Liz. “Cuz I’m a beater…”

Liz stuffs some popcorn into his mouth to keep it shut before he can start guffawing at his own lame joke.

“Will you at least say what dirt he’s got on you?” Leeseo pipes up, curious.

The team is spread out around the common room—Gunwook, Liz and Kazuha on the baby blue couch, Ricky is off at the open window, having a staring contest with a black cat, and Leeseo hangs onto you over your shoulder as you scribble annotations into a guide-book over the short table. 

Gaeul paces around the room as she tries to memorise her Ancient Ruins vocabulary. 

“Secret,” you say before dipping your quill back into the ink bottle. 

Liz boos to express her discontentment, and Leeseo deflates with a pout.

“What we need to focus on,” you continue, “is the match against Gryffindor next month. And making sure we study their last one so we’re ready for finals.”

The room freezes collectively.

Gaeul stops walking, Gunwook’s popcorn falls out of his open mouth, Liz gapes, Ricky does a slow, dramatic turn of his head—Kazuha asks, “What did you just say..?”

You blink, confused—scared, “Huh?”

“You just said,” Gaeul repeats, her hand falling limp at her side. “Gryffindor.”

The gulp that runs down your throat is a painful one. “I-I didn’t… I wasn’t—”

“You’re not even gagging after Gaeul unnie said their name.” Leeseo is in complete shock. “Are you sick?”

“I’m—” You touch Jaheyun’s new year’s gift inside your pocket, tightening your fist around to stop your anxiety from spiking.

Ricky, however, has his absurd theory. “Did Myung Jaehyun hex you? Oh my god, did he obliviate your memorie—”

“No! What?”

“It must be a fever then,” Leeseo places her hand on your forehead to check for a temperature. “You shouldn’t stress out over the finals too much. It might make you sick.”

You can’t do anything but nod, letting the girls coax you back under your bedsheets, laying a cold towel on your head, and forcefully detaching your notebook from your grasp.

You’re pretending to be a bedridden victim, when it was the last thing you were in reality.

The rest of them leave after more chiding, and stacking several healing potions near your bed for easy reach; Kazuha, however, stays behind.

“So…” she begins, careful. Your eyes trail up to hers, fear ballooning. 

Then, she grins like the devil.

“You sly dog,” Kazuha smirks. “You’re with Myung Jaehyun.”

Everything you thought you didn’t need to be prepared for comes to bite you in the rear with a single, terrifying truth. She knows.

“What?” You attempt, feigning confusion. “Pfft, no…pffft …fuck no!”

She’s having none of it. “Y/N-ie, my dearest, you made the entire team bathe in salt the last time Leeseo accidentally said the G-word. I had salt in my ear for days.” 

You open your mouth to protest, but she won’t let you. “We have to touch wood every time you see the colour red…You made Gaeul look up devil-warding talismans before last year’s match against them.

“And,” Her sneaky eyes trail down, a finger moving your collar out of the way, “That there, my friend, is no mosquito bite.”

Your entire face turns scarlet—too close to resembling the Gryffindor red, as though in mockery. 

“It’s not what you think!” You spring up, the wet towel flopping down onto your lap as you grab Kazuha by the shoulders, clutching it for dear life. “Listen! He and I—we’re…It’s—”

“My dearest Y/N,” She combs away the fray hair on your cheek, tucking it behind your ear. “You are a terrible liar.”

“Ricky believed me!” You give up trying to defend yourself, simply falling forward to place your forehead onto her shoulder. 

“Ricky’s an idiot,” she supplies, “And so are the rest of our team, thankfully. For a bunch of Ravenclaws, we’re pretty dumb when it comes to things like this.”

You sniffle dramatically, groaning as you realise what’s happened. Kazuha knows of you and Myung Jaehyun—the asshole you’re supposed to hate. The idiot you might be betraying your house for. 

“You guys are cute together,” She smiles. “I always thought his fighting was too superficial to be anything real—he always looks like he’s two steps away from flirting.”

“You’re not…mad?” You come up for air, blinking.

She just grins, taking your hands in her’s. “Of course, not. You’ve been looking happier these days…more energetic. And oh my god, your skin is glowing—”

“Oh shut up.” You roll your eyes, but the smile that escapes you is real. “Thanks…for being a good friend.”

“Only the best.” She winks.

“Yeah, you’re right,” You let her drag you into a hug, “Only the best.”

“Shush, don’t let Liz here that.” 

The weight on your chest elevates, just a little bit. 

Now if only the rest of your team was gauranteed to react the same way…

//

“So, any Ravenclaw inside scoop I can cash in on with a kiss?” Jaehyun wiggles his eyebrows, already pulling you flush against him, leaning closer with one hand braced on the wall next to your head. The staircase is quiet except for your whispers.

You push him away by the tip of your wand; he winces in confusion. “Kazhuha knows,” you say with a sigh.

“Hmm? Nakamura?...your Chaser?” He quirks his head.

“My best friend,” you correct, “We fucked up big time.”

“Oh, c’mon, who cares?” Jaehyun leans back in again, too eager to keep his hands to himself. 

“Me,” you say, stopping him again. He pouts. “Stop making that face. We need to be more careful from now on. My reputation is going to the sewers if they realise I’m with the likes of you.”

“Hey, that’s mean.”

“You said you like me mean.”

“That—” he pauses, then nods with a sigh. “That is very true. You have great memory.”

“We need a game plan—so we don’t get caught by Ricky of all people again… God, I should have just swung that Bludger at your head, then this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Uh… come again?” 

“They think I’m going soft!” you huff, crossing your arms. “Me! Soft! Can you believe it?”

“You are soft.” Jaehyun manages to pry your arms apart, pulling you close to his chest. You can hear his heart thud in a gentle rhythm against yourself. “Soft over here,” He pokes your cheeks. “Soft over here too.” He points to where your heart should be. “I blame them for realising too late.”

“Yeah?” You roll your eyes, albeit with all intention of entertaining his whims. “And you, Myung? When did you realise it?”

His eyes soften and he swallows nervously, an action not befitting the cocky Seeker you knew most of the time. “That time you called my name in the Hospital Wing. You sounded so…like you cared. Like beneath all that ice, I still somehow mattered to you somehow…”

“Oh… “ 

Jaehyun’s eyes are in their most vulnerable—soul bared as a stream of gentle colours spills over his cheeks from the stained glass window above. 

“Can you say it again?” he asks; it sounds like a spell. “My name.”

You answer with a kiss to his cheek, then another that lands at the corner of his lips—before he rights you and guides you to his mouth, letting you draw out something sweet. At the next press, you whisper against him, “Jaehyun.”

He smiles—just as sweet as he tastes. 

“Again?”

“Jaehyun…” Another peck. 

“Again,” he demands.

“Okay, you jerk—”

“Y/N,” he giggles, “L/N Y/N,… How am I ever gonna stay away from you?”

“Just until we graduate. Then you’ll join the Chudley Cannons—”

“And you’ll be with the Harpies.”

“—And we’ll have all the freedom in the world.”

“Promise me a broomride when this is all over.” It’s not a question.

“Promise.” You nod anyway. 

Staying away from Jaehyun proves to be harder than you expect it to be.

You’ve been attuned to tracking his figure at all times of day. It’s become second nature to find him, or for him to find you—lingering outside classrooms before you head off towards the lake, holding the seat beside yours in Charms for him, waiting all night to share a new piece of Quidditch news with him the next chance you get to. 

But now, you have to actively remind yourself to do the opposite. 

“You look tired,” Kazuha comments as you curl up into the couch, eyes burning from reading for too long. “Had dinner?”

You shake your head.

“Had lunch?”

You shake your head again.

“Did you fight with Myung—”

“Can you be quiet!?” You slap your hand across her mouth. “And no!”

Her response is muffled. “What’s going on then?”

“Nuffin.”

“Y/N—”

“I haven’t seen him, alright?” you groan in shame, hiding behind the crook of your elbow. “I..I..”

“Yes?... You…?”

“I…umm..”

“Almost there…”

“I miss him, okay!?” you whine, face the shade of a beetroot, pride crumbling down. “I hate that I miss him.”

It’s been weeks since you’ve shared any real contact with Jaehyun—no kisses awaiting a draining practice, no home to go to for warmth when you begin to feel the weight of pressure.

The worst part is, you don’t get to seek out his voice, to talk to him when it’s all you want to do—ramble about strategies, watch him doodle little broomsticks to help you take your mind off of championships, any passing moment that you can steal away from him—none of those exist anymore.

Your frustration amplifies when he still greets you with the contained happiness he needed to keep your… this thing, whatever it was, between you—a secret. 

When Jaehyun swoops past the Chasers and straight towards you, grazing your fingers as he reaches for the Snitch—your heart stutters; you can see Kazuha smirking coyly from behind him, and Ricky gritting his teeth like a hissing cat—still under the assumption that Myung Jaehyun had some sort of deep-running bad blood with you. 

It’s stupidly funny, and nightmarishly vexing, at the same time.

You miss him when he’s near you, touching barely but not enough. You miss him when he’s away—manifesting in your dreams that were usually about night rides on your beloved Firebolt—his phantom now on a broom right next to yours, on days where you’ll look at your Tweety bird model and think of him; he’s a permanent itch in your brain.

Each day that draws you closer to the finals heightens the buzz in your chest, turning dread into raw desperation—to win, and to finally meet him at eye-length, in the ultimate clash of your high-school Quidditch career.

You were so close to keeping your vow. 

You would prove to him that you were worthy of being his rival—of being the one who gets to stand alongside him in the last ever match you’d ever play at Hogwarts—his fated enemy, the best Beater he’d ever bear witness to. 

You would not let him, or yourself, down now.

── 𓇢𓆸 

Hogwarts Quidditch pitch - Finals: Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw 

It’s the day you’ve been waiting for—the day all your sleepless nights, every second you’ve spent on this same field to perfect yourself will be put to the test.

The last ever match you’ll have at Hogwarts.

“Brooms up!” Professor Jeon’s voice echoes from the mid-field. 

Jaehyun and you meet each other’s eyes—the rest of the world all but a blur. 

He grins, you grin back. Electricity crackles between you.

You mount your broom, and a sharp whistle blasts through the summer weather, the four enchanted balls whizzing out of their containment. Cold gave into heat, skins sticky from the weightless air. 

Kazuha, Liz, and Ricky fly parallel to each other, spanning across the pitch before they spread out in different directions.  

Tensions are high twenty feet up in the air—figures in blue and red whooshing by like ants from a distance. The crowd roars below you, cheering for either team as they attempt to outdo the other, both houses pumped with adrenaline—players and audience alike.

Liz narrowly avoids a Bludger from Intak, maneuvering around it to make the first goal.

“Ten points to Ravenclaw!” booms the commentator’s voice.

No time to waste; it’s a dive right back into the game without stopping to breathe. Kazuha’s next shot is kicked away by the Gryffindor Keeper, Woonhak. He grins as he waits for Intak to send him a thumbs-up. 

Your brain buzzes with the mantra you’ve been teaching yourself during the past four years of rigorous training: Do not mess up your last game, do not start on the wrong foot, and do not ruin everything.

Do not waste time on thinking.  

Bracing yourself, you swing your bat against the hard iron of the Bludger flying past you, sending it whizzing at Jaehyun’s back. 

But he sees you from the corner of his eye, sensing your presence from just a huff of your beath. He swivels on his broom to dodge, ending up upside down—his hair flopping down in a fluffy mess. 

“You’re cute,” he manages to say through a proud chuckle.

“You’re aggravating.” You smile.

In the midst of the heart-pounding game—at the dead centre of the mass of flying bodies, echoes of hollers and house chants beyond the boundary of what held just you and him—sparks fly between your narrowed eyes. 

I missed you, his say.

I’m gonna win, yours reply.

Hanbin passes the Quaffle to Yujin, right as Gunwook attempts to knock him off his broom. They streak past your Chasers, heading for Gaeul at the hoops.

“Ten points—to Gryffindor!” 

You’re at a draw.

Slowly, the margin narrows—Matthew successfully manages to knock the Quaffle out of Ricky’s hands, but Liz swoops underneath to catch it. She heads for the Gryffindor goal with a one-track mind, barely swinging it through the right hoop before Woonhak stretches to swat it away.

Liz huffs, “Don’t smile too wide now.” Her threat has the younger Keeper begin to sweat.

When your teammates are caught up in their own flurry of competition, you see it—a glint of gold—the Snitch.

Jaehyun’s keen attention to your line of sight has him immediately launching himself at it. 

“Leeseo!” you yell for your Seeker, calling her up from her perch beside Gunwook’s defence. 

She zooms towards you in no time.

You follow at Jaehyun’s heel, chasing after him like a moth to a flame, Leeseo hounding him from the other side closest to the Snitch. When you speed up to fly parallel to his broom, he glances sideways—a satisfying smile etched on his face.

This is everything he imagined it to be—you can tell. 

You break against the wind, swinging your bat backward as you see a Bludger fly your way, extending it in one graceful arc behind your shoulder—and you slam against it— a sharp, resounding thwack reaching your eardrum.

It hits Jaehyun; at the exact second, Leeseo dives down for the Snitch, her hand curling around the golden ball.

The whistle breaks, somewhere far, far away. Someone says something through the loudspeaker.

You don’t hear it through the muffle of wind in your ears, the broom underneath you plummeting after the red spot—sight tunnel visioning on Jaehyun’s falling body. 

Not again, please, no.

There are cheers from the crowd; you can’t tell which house it belongs to. Just that your hands extend for him, your body suspended above his—the Firebolt accelerating faster and faster until it curves like an umbrella—

“Jae—”

You catch him, right in front of you, exactly as your broom thuds softly against the plush grass. 

“Y/N,” He grins, dazed. 

There are no visible injuries on him; no blood to be seen, to bruises to worry you.

His hand finds your cheek, thumbing away a tear that threatens to fall. 

“Jaehyun,” You whisper cracks as you’re throwing your body onto him, pulling him into a devastating hug. “You’re okay.”

“I am,” he assures with a chuckle. “You caught m—” mmff!

You swallow his words with a bruising kiss—uncaring of the hoots around you slowly dying, a confused murmur replacing it before the crowd once more erupts into excitement—students exclaiming amongst themselves.

“That’s Y/N, oh my god! She’s with Myung Jaehyun!?”

“I thought they hated each other! Damn!”

“Y/N, WE WON—Oh… ” Ricky stops in his tracks. Liz bumps into him, and when she looks past his shoulder to see you and Jaheyun’s intertwined figures on the grass—her mouth drops incredulously, 

“Hyung…” Woonhak is approaching from the other end, prepared to get berated by his captain when he too realises that said captain was kissing the opponent in front of the entire school. 

You and Jaehyun finally gasp for air, coming apart red and dizzy.

“Congrats, you two!” Kazuha winks, offering a pleased nod, and Intak agrees with a thumbs up—like he'd known all along. 

Gyuvin looks two seconds away from throwing up—either from the nausea of having lost the game, or from having to witness the shameless sight in front of him, no one will ever know. 

As a cherry on top of the absurd situation, Professor Jeon enters the scene with a dramatic cough, saying, “This is not what I meant by inter-house fraternising,” His chide disperses into a proud smile, “But, Oh well. Good luck, both of you—I expect great things.”

You blush profusely while Jaehyun rubs the back of his head in embarrassment. 

“Are we in hell?” Gunwook grimaces, having forgotten the past hour of playing, and any memory of winning the Inter-House Quidditch Cup. 

“Hey, it’s not like you and I don’t make out either,” Matthew smirks, bringing forth another tide of gasps and groans. “Occasionally,” he adds, like that made anything better. 

“It's…we were just letting off steam!” Gunwook flubbers in his attempt to explain to a betrayed-looking Ricky. 

Liz’s mouth is still comically agape. “What…When…How—WHAT!?” She's maniacal. “Is there anything more I don’t know!?”

Gyuvin swoops in at the chance, “Yeah, Woonhak has that thing with his Slytherin girl."

“Wait, what? Hyung, it’s not a thing—!” Woonhak tries to yell, but no one listens as all eyes snap toward Liz’s ear-splitting shriek.

“Is anyone here dating within their own house or???”

Several shakes of head return her way, but Kazuha leans in with a greasy tone.

“We could,” She wiggles her eyebrows.

While the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor teams continue to argue, the world around you and Jaehyun spins to a stop—to a space where only the two of you exist, your friends’ chatter a comfortable background noise. 

“You saved me,” he’s saying, leaning forward with his hands braced on the grass behind him. Your broomsticks lay abandoned beside you, dirt and grime coating your fingernails and skin. It doesn’t matter—only he does. 

“I saved you back,” You lightly bump your forehead against his, affectionate. “We’re even now.” 

“Y/N,” he nuzzles into you.

“Yes, Jae?”

“Be my rival till I die?” He says it with the conviction of a marriage proposal.

You grin, leaving a kiss on his cheek. “I thought you’d never ask, Sweetheart.”

“So…” Ricky quirks his head in innocent confusion, making everyone turn their heads towards him. “He wasn't blackmailing you?” 

His words are met with a collective set of groans. 

You laugh into Jaehyun’s shoulder, body humming pleasantly, and when you look around at the Quidditch pitch that’s served as your home for the past several years—you recollect every stumble you’ve made here, every new move you’d been proud to learn. Where you grew as a team and as friends—a group of young Ravenclaws that had grown into family.

And, this is where you first met Jaehyun—where you swore you’d beat him one day. Where you finally kept your promise.

When you look at him, you see your past, your present, and then, the future that awaits you. 

One thing remains true even with all the inevitable changes to come: Myung Jaehyun would always be your sworn enemy, your most beloved person, and most of all—your biggest fan. 

You kiss him once more to make sure he knows it’s the same for you.

𓂃𓈒𓇢𓆸 fin

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── .✦ for more hogwarts! aus, check out the signed, sealed, spellbound series!

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a/n: thank you to everyone who left a kind comment on my last rant post and also anyone that sent me an ask afterwards. I was only able to finish writing this without pushing myself too hard bcs of the enthusiasm i've received from you guys. it means a lot to me 💙 thnx to juney @mwotgata for bearing with my rambles and for always being there to bounce off my ideas. and ofc my lovely hana dul set @nemoihan who edits my terrible grammar and checks up on me exactly when i need her. katikins @ilysungho and moemoe @moesthinking who has kept me sane and going for the past week or so. and thank you gill @astrae4 for being so reassuring and the coolest of moots! @yuuvini, @dj-ami, and @tenshi-sama ily for your wonderful asks that made me very very happy. and ofc to my dearest, levy @pupillary, who i miss a lot. i hope you guys enjoyed this fic, ily guys a lot! p.s. sorry for being sappy lol

++ im thinking of opening an interview style ask for the hp series since im done with 3/6 fics now! it'll be any questions u might want to ask the already introduced characters in sungho, riwoo, and jaehyun's fics! if you think i should do this, do lmk!

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inbox always open!

The two of you love sea life, sea creatures, fish, literally anything that has to do with the ocean. Leehan thought of getting you the perfect gifts such as talking you to an aquarium together for the first time, getting you jellyfish accessories: jewelry, a phone charm, stickers, keychains, you name it!

His fans and your fans know about you two dating because in one of your blogs you soft launched him and everyone knew it was Leehan. Tonight he's supposed to call you any minute now to pick you up for your date, a very special date in this case. You're almost done getting dressed and doing your hair and makeup, and you're slipping on a pair of heels that match your outfit. While you're putting on perfume, your phone rings. It's from Leehan.

"Hey love, happy birthday!" Leehan says on the other line, even though you've already heard him say happy birthday to you for over a thousand times, no exaggeration, "Are you almost done? I'm in the apartment lobby."

"You're already here? Damn, I didn't know you were The Flash," You answer while grabbing your bag and checking yourself out in the mirror. He chuckles on the other side of the line.

"Well I'll always be on time for you my love," And just like that, you're blushing. It isn't hard for Leehan to make you all flustered. This fan service thing probably got into his head. You make your way down to the apartment lobby and meet Leehan. His hair is gently slicked back and he's wearing a collared shirt with a pair of blue jeans. He's holding a bouquet of lisianthus, your favourite flower. The second he sees you, he smiles widely. "Wow, Y/N you look gorgeous," Leehan says softly, absolutely mesmerized by you.

"Why thank you my dear boyfriend!" You chuckle, enjoying the subtle entertainment, "So… where are you taking me?" You wonder what Leehan has prepared for your birthday. Could it be a really fancy dinner? Or maybe even to go to an aquarium? All you know is that you are excited and feeling incredibly impatient.

Leehan chuckles, "Well babe, you just gotta wait and see," He spoke while extending his hand to meet with yours, "All I'm gonna say is that I really put all of my thought into this just so this just so this day can be perfect for you," He says with a smile.

You nod as you both interlock fingers before walking to his car, "Okay okay, I trust you."

"Do you now…"

"Yes, now hurry up before I don't."

—

The first place Leehan took you to was a fancy restaurant, and of course you had to take pictures to post in your feed. As a micro influencer, you love making sure that your feed is as aesthetically pleasing as possible, which it always does. While food arrives for the both of you two, you take pictures of them. Leehan doesn't seem to mind, in fact he likes how focused you are when taking these pictures, as well as taking a few of yourself and him. And with that, Leehan surprises you with your first birthday gift. "Here, I got you something. Open it!"

He hands you a small box that has been decorated with ribbon and glitter. You open the box, and inside was a small light blue digital camera. Your old one broke and Leehan knew how much you loved taking photos with your digicam, so he decided to gift you a new one, "Leehan… you really didn't have to… these are expensive y'know that…?" Your eyes start watering, but you make sure to keep your composure.

"I know how much you love taking photos with them and I remembered he devastated you were when it broke. I wanted to gift you a new one," Leehan utters in that same soft tone you're always used to, "We can take photos together after we eat, because next we're going to the aquarium! Especially the jellyfish exhibit."

"Really..? Like, you really mean it? We're going to an aquarium with a jellyfish exhibit?" Your eyes start sparking and you can't thank Leehan enough, "Thank you Leehan! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" You get out of your seat to hug Leehan and pepper his face with kisses that left faint pink stains from your lipstick.

"H-hey, it's no big deal!" Leehan mentions while kissing your cheek and a stuttering a bit in surprise when you lunged out towards him.

—

The two of you are holding hands while entering the aquarium and your eyes sparkle at the sight of jellyfish, "Oh my god, Leehan the jellyfish are there! Can we go now please?" You begged while also giving him those puppy doll eyes.

"Okay okay, whatever you say babe," he chuckles as you yank his arm for him to follow you to the jellyfish exhibit. You and Leehan make your way to the exhibit and you are absolutely astonished by the jellyfish with how beautiful they are. Leehan watches you with total admiration as you're looking at the jellyfish with stars in your eyes. You look at Leehan once more and take out your digital camera, "Leehan, do you wanna take pictures with the jellyfish too?"

He smiles, "Of course princess! You stand there and I'll take a few pictures of you! Stay right there," Leehan mentions as he takes a few steps back with your camera and starts taking pictures of you in numerous poses. When he's done, he looks at all of them and smiles once again, "You look beautiful Y/N. You always do."

You blush, "Why thank you Leehan," you respond with giggles after, "Now let me take photos of you too! Go near the jellyfish and I'll take some photos!" Leehan obeys right away and goes to the spot you were just at, and you start taking pictures, "Oh wow, I knew my boyfriend was handsome but I didn't know he was this handsome," you snicker, "At this point you would be getting a whole lot of brand deals, am I right?" You tease while winking at him.

"I mean, I am handsome am I right?" Leehan returns the teasing, "Come on! Let's take photos together now!" You agree and he takes the camera from your hand. He takes a few photos and then wraps his free arm around your waist, giving you a kiss on the cheek while taking a photo. Your face showed a bit of shock while holding in a smile. You look at him again breaking into the smile and signal him to take one last picture with the two of you kissing. He takes one last picture as you both lean into a kiss that lasts a few seconds and ends with the two of you giggling. Best believe you will be posting this on your Instagram feed.

"Thank you for today, I loved every single part of it!"

"It was the least I can do. Happy birthday my love."

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