IM ALIVE

MY EXAMS END TOMORROW

IM BRINGING BACK THE RETURN ON SUPERMAN SERIES GDWFSEGVFSET

Synopsis: You’re invited to Hogwarts, the most prestigious magic school in the world, and immediately gain zero friends but one rival.
Member:Doyoung/Reader
Word Count: 19,872
Notes: lol it’s ya boy with a collab fic make sure you read the fic that @taeyongtime wrote as well! this fic has been in the works for like three years I hope you all enjoy!
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“Wow…”

You stare up at the castle in the distance, eyes wide in wonder at the beauty and size of it. When you got your letter from Hogwarts telling you of your magic powers and that you were able to attend in your upcoming school year, you just expected another normal building with kids in it. You didn’t expect a large castle across a lake with hundreds of other kids riding in boats with you towards it.  

The only word that could describe how it looked was magical, cheesy enough as it was.

Eventually, the boats reach the other side of the lake and everyone clambers out of them. You’re all led up to the castle grounds and into the castle, and even more things astound you as you step inside the Great Hall. The floating candles above you, the night sky that had been magically produced, the long tables where many more students sat. All of it made it hard to keep your jaw off the floor.  

“First years, gather around,” Professor McGonagall says. She’s standing in front of the room near another table, who you no doubt is a table for the other professors of the school. Next to her is a chair, and on the chair sits a hat with a weird amount of creases that almost looks like a face.  

You wouldn’t be surprised if it talked.  

“I will call up your names one by one for you to be sorted into your house. After that, please join your respective table.” The professor unfurls a scroll, picks up the hat, and then begins reading off names. One by one students go up, and, just as you thought, the hat talks, telling them each what house they belong in.  

A few names stick out to you, a boy named Kun, who ends up in Ravenclaw, and another Ravenclaw boy named Ten, only because of the ridiculous cheering from girls that no one else really gets.  

A third names sticks out, and you watch as the boy named Kim Doyoung walks up to the chair and takes his seat. He looks proud and confident as he sits there, and the hat laughs at him for it.  

“Ahh, of course you’d be proud. Just like the rest of your family. Hoping to be in Slytherin… But you have so many traits from Ravenclaw as well… Hmm… What a difficult choice,” the Sorting Hat debates for a moment, but Doyoung never wavers from his proud posture, sure that he’ll be put into Slytherin. “Hufflepuff would be a good choice for you as well, now, wouldn’t that be something to tell your parents… Ahh, but really it isn’t a difficult decision at all, is it?”

The hat quiets for a moment, and ultimately bellows out, “Slytherin!”  

Doyoung sighs with relief and you watch as he rushes over to his designated table. You laugh as he holds a hand to his chest, seeing that the whole proud act was just a show in front of everyone. Just like all the other kids, he was just as nervous.  

More kids are called up, and then your name is called soon after. You step up to the chair and take a seat as the hat is placed on your head. The hat is silent for a long moment, and you stare out at the crowd in front of you, your breath catching as all eyes are on you.

“I see many things in you, many traits that any of the houses would be happy to have…” The hat says. “But I see what truly lies deep within you… All the traits you’ve yet to grasp…

“This one is Gryffindor!” The hat yells. You hear clapping from your house table, and rush over to it as soon as the hat is taken off of your head. You weren’t at all sure what house you were going to end up in, but this one seemed fine to you as you sit among the other students.  

Of course, good things could only happen for so long before they were replaced with bad things.  

The sorting ends, and dinner begins. Immediately, everyone starts talking, and you have trouble joining in on their conversations. It seems a lot of the other kids know each other, and you have no idea what they’re talking about when they mention magical things you’ve never heard of.  

You were born of two non-magical parents, and all these kids grew up with magic somewhere in their household.  

You can’t help but feel absolutely left out.

“Hey, you.” You look up at the voice speaking and see Kim Doyoung, staring at you with a raised eyebrow. You point to yourself and he rolls his eyes. “Yes, you. You’re the one who was reading on the train by yourself, right?” You nod your head at Doyoung, and he smirks. “Then I guess it’s fitting that you’d be my rival, being in Gryffindor and all.”

“Rival? When did we become rivals?” You ask. You notice a lot of the other Gryffindor children staring and you feel unease settle in your stomach at the unwanted attention.  

“Right now, when I declared it.”

“…that’s ridiculous! I’m not going to be your rival!”

“You are. Not that it matters, because even if you’re my rival you won’t ever really surpass me.” Doyoung turns on his heel and walks back to the Slytherin table. The other kids at your own keep staring until you look back, and then they all quickly look away, as if they didn’t just all have their eyes on you. You frown and try your best to focus on your food, even though you weren’t hungry anymore.

Dinner eventually ends without you making one single friend, especially after the Doyoung incident, and then you’re led by an older student through amazing hallways with moving stairs and talking paintings. Even the painting in front of your common room talks.  

As you enter your new shared bedroom and sit on your bed, you take a deep breath.  

Your parents told you to make some friends the first day, but there were plenty of other days to make friends. You could be impressed with all the magic around you first and make friends later. That’d be okay.

“Hey, Y/N, right?” You look up at one of your roommates, not at all sure of what her name was. You nod your head and she raises an eyebrow at you.  

“You look really confused. Are you a Muggle-born?” She asks. You nod your head, knowing that word meant you had nonmagical parents. She smirks a little bit, and then steps away. “Make sure you stay away from me then. I don’t want to catch your stupid.”

You frown as she walks out of the room. You weren’t stupid. You absolutely were not stupid. You hop off your bed and follow after her, grabbing at her robes as she stands in the common room with some of the other students.  

“What- stop touching me!” She steps away from you and glares. “What do you want?”

“I’m not stupid. Just because I have muggle parents-

“Can you do this then?” She asks, producing her wand and casting a spell. You frown and stay quiet. “Like I said. Stupid. Now get out of my face, loser.”  

You glare at her, and, without thinking grab her wand and throw it at the roaring fireplace. It lands in the flames and bursts with magic. The kids all look at you, and she screams.  

“How dare you, you stupid-

“Guess you’re stupid now too since you can’t cast spells without your wand!” You yell.  

You rush back up to your room and slam the door. There was no doubt you were going to get into trouble, but at least you stood up for yourself. That was something to be proud about.

Right?

-

After a stern talk from the headmaster, and a switch of rooms, you officially start your life at Hogwarts. The first few days are lonely, considering everyone in the school had apparently heard about you throwing someone’s wand into the fireplace by day two. No one wants to talk to you, so you just take it in stride and keep to yourself as much as possible. You study in the library, come back to your room when everyone is sleeping, and eat alone.  

It’s fine, because at least you weren’t friends with some petty bully.

Until your birthday rolls around only a few weeks later, and there’s no one to even talk about it with. You get a letter from your parents, wishing you well with a gift of school supplies and some nice sweaters for when the weather gets colder, and you can’t help but feel sad knowing you won’t get to spend the day with them.  

Not to mention that every year you would always make cake with them, and this year you wouldn’t even be able to see them.  

It sucked.

Your parents wouldn’t want you to be sad though, so after dinner you go off to find the kitchens. If you couldn’t make a cake with them, you could at least make one by yourself. You deserved at least that.  

You wander the halls for a while, entering classrooms and bathrooms and storage rooms as you go along. It takes a while, but you manage to finally spot it near the staircase leading up to the Hufflepuff house. Upon entering, you see small creatures rushing about with trays and plates and bowls and food, clearly still cleaning up after dinner.

None of them seem to take notice of you, and you stop for a moment, not sure what to do. You don’t want to get in their way, but you don’t want to go back on your original plan either.

“What are you doing here?” You look down at one of the creatures, a stern looking one that stares up at you.  

“Uh, I… I’m sorry, I just came to make a cake I didn’t know- sorry, I can leave,” you say. The creature shakes its head at you and takes your hand. They lead you over to a small table and gesture for you to sit down. As you do, they ask you again why you’re here.

“I wanted to make a cake… because it’s my birthday and my parents and I would always make a cake together. But…” You sniffle, and wipe at your eyes, not realizing you had started crying.  

“You stay here. I’ll be back.” You nod and sit at the table, watching as the creature disappears further into the kitchens. It’s a long time before the creature comes back, but when they do, they stand in front of you and set a plate on the table with a slice of cake on it.  

“Happy birthday, young one. I am not your parents, but I hope this suffices.” You start crying again but thank the creature anyways. They walk off after patting your arm, and you wipe at your tears once more, feeling better at the small gesture.  

It wasn’t your parents, but it was good enough.  

“Y/N.”

You look up at the voice and see Kim Doyoung standing there. After seeing him on the first day, you didn’t stop seeing him. He had been in multiple classes with you and had often been in the library when you were in there. You didn’t talk at all, but he was still there.

And here he was now.

“Doyoung… Hi.”

He nods at you and then walks away. You turn back to your cake, a little confused as to why he was here, but focus on your treat and take a bite. The cake is moist and just the right amount of sweet as it melts in your mouth, and it’s delicious enough that it makes you forget about everything that’s happened the last few weeks at school.  

It’s really what you needed, and you make a note to really thank the creature that gave it to you.  

“Here.” A cup is placed in front of you next to your plate and you look up to see Doyoung again. He sits down, with a plate of cookies and a cup himself, and you stare at him, even more confused than before.  

“What? Do you not eat cookies and milk?” He asks.  

“I do- but- why are you sharing with me?” You ask. He stares at you before picking up a cookie and shrugging.  

“Saw you talking with that house-elf about your birthday. I thought I’d be nice,” he says. “But if you don’t want it- 

“No! I do. Thank you.”  

Doyoung nods and the two of you eat in silence, Doyoung eating cookies faster than you’ve seen anyone eat cookies and only stopping for a drink of milk. You eat your cake and nibble at a cookie afterwards, feeling content with how your birthday has gone.  

Even having Doyoung with you, who had declared you his rival since day one, was comforting.  

“I heard you threw someone’s wand into a fire on our first day.” You frown and set your cookie down. Of course Doyoung heard about that. Everyone in the school had.  

“She called me stupid. I wasn’t going to let her bully me like that,” you say. Doyoung laughs.  

“No wonder you got sorted into Gryffindor,” he says. 

“What do you mean? Are you insulting me?”  

“No. It just makes sense. You stood up to me and that girl. Only people brave enough to do things like that would be sorted into Gryffindor.” Doyoung says. It grows silent between the two of you once more, Doyoung shoving three more cookies down his throat before you decide that you can’t let the silence last any longer. Not when there was a pressing question on your mind.  

“Why did you declare me your rival at our sorting?”  

Doyoung looks at you for a long moment before he shrugs and stands up. He picks up his plate of nearly empty cookies and his cup, and steps away from the table.  

“You seemed like the only one who could actually match up to me. And I clearly made the right choice because no one else seems to be taking school as seriously as you and me,” Doyoung says.  

“Somehow that makes me feel a little better,” you say. “Kind of sounds like you just want a friend to enjoy school with.”

Doyoung flushes at your words and turns away from you, shaking his head. “Whatever you want to think, Y/N.” He pauses and looks back at you. “Happy birthday.”  

Doyoung begins to walk away, but you call out to him before he can get very far. He looks back at you, and you smile. “Thank you, Doyoung.”

He gives a small smile back before finally walking off. You watch him go and breathe out a quiet sigh of relief, happy that your birthday went far better than you expected.  

-

After your birthday, things start changing between you and Doyoung. While he still seems to want to battle you for the top spot in your grade, he at least does it a little more civilly. He sits next to you in classes, going over the homework together before the professor arrives and ignoring any judgmental stares from the other students. He studies with you in the library, challenging you to read book chapters faster than him. And, while he doesn’t eat any meals with you, it still feels like the two of you are friends rather than total rivals.  

Days pass at Hogwarts faster and happier with Doyoung by your side, and before you know it it’s already wintertime, and nearing the end of the semester. You smile to yourself one snowy day as you enter the library, seeing Doyoung waiting for you. How could someone who was just your rival and not your friend do that?  

“Doyoung!” You reach your usual seat across from Doyoung and sit down, placing your books on the table. He looks up at you from the book he had been pouring over and nods at your arrival. “What are you reading? Anything interesting?”

He shakes his head and closes his book, looking up at you. You see on the front it’s your schoolbook on potions, and you grin.  

While every subject you did well at, potions was the one class that you especially excelled at, better than the other students in your grade. Professor Slughorn had been especially impressed, considering many students didn’t understand potions that well their first year when there was so much to remember when it came to the ingredients.  

But you remembered every ingredient and could make all the potions you’d learned so far in your sleep. Not to mention that Doyoung, who did so well in his classes as well, wasn’t as amazing at potions like you were. He hadn’t beaten any of your test scores, nor could he answer a question faster than you could.

And him reading over the potions book meant only one thing.  

“Are you nervous about the potions midterm? I could help you, you know. I don’t mind!” Doyoung stares at you for a moment before shaking his head again.  

“I can manage just fine on my own. I was just studying before you got here.”

“Come on Doyoung. I can help-

“It’s fine!” Doyoung yells. Immediately, the two of you are shushed by the librarian, Madam Pince, and Doyoung looks back down at the book. Silence settles between the two of you for a long moment until you place Doyoung’s charms book in front of him.

“Let’s study charms, okay?”  

Doyoung stays silent as he opens his book and continues to stay silent for the rest of your studying together. He and you end up parting on awkward terms as you head back to your respective common rooms, but you’re sure it’d be fine the next time you saw him.

-

You were wrong. It wasn’t fine the next time you saw Doyoung. Instead of being friendly, he gave you the cold shoulder. When you asked questions, he’d give you half-baked answers. And when together in the library, he and you studied just as quietly as the last time you were there. You wanted to ask Doyoung about it, but you chocked it up to him focusing on studying for midterms.  

You just hoped when they were over, your time together would go back to how it was.

Eventually, your potions midterm arrives, and you enter the classroom feeling excited and ready to ace it. You take your usual seat across from Doyoung, and frown when your former roommate from the very first day of school sits next to you, and one of her friends sits next to Doyoung. They had never sat next to you before in potions and seeing the looks on their faces makes unease settle in your stomach.

“Good luck, Y/N,” Doyoung says. You smile at him.  

“You too.”

“Good morning, everyone! For today’s class, you will be showing me how well each of you can brew one of the following potions,” Professor Slughorn says as he steps into the room. He points to a chalkboard, where three of the potions you’d learned so far had been written. A little unease disappears at seeing said potions, knowing exactly how to brew each of them.  

“Whichever potion you wish, just make sure to tell me when it’s finished, and I will grade you promptly. Now then, begin!” You and your classmates all walk over to a wall of ingredients, and, one by one gather up everything you’ll need for the first part. Once you return to your table, you begin preparing your potion; The Antidote to Common Poisons.  

You add each ingredient according to your memory, first crushed up Bezoar, then a couple measures of a few standard herbs that go into any potion. Once they’re in there, you heat it up, wave your wand, and leave it to brew. While you wait, you’re given a written test, one you fly through without much issue, and then are left to wait again.  

Doyoung finishes around the same time as you do and you offer your hand to him.  

“I’ll turn in your test for you,” you say. He doesn’t complain at your kindness, handing over his test. You take yours and his own up to the professor, and then go over to the wall of ingredients once more to gather what you needed for the second part of the potion.

Nearly two hours later, your potion is ready for more ingredients. You take a pinch from one of the mortars in front of you with crushed-up unicorn horn and sprinkle it over your cauldron. You grab your wand, prepared to stir the potion, only to watch as it begins fizzling before you. You frown and quickly look to the professor, knowing that the reaction it was having wasn’t supposed to happen.  

“Um- professor!” Before the professor can even get to you, you hear your cauldron pop as it explodes next to you. You quickly duck under the table, and that unease that had been sitting with you bubbles up just as your potion did.

“Y/N- how much unicorn horn did you add?!” Professor Slughorn yells. You peek above the table, frowning at the hole in your cauldron. You weren’t going to be able to continue now.

“I- just the one pinch-

“Clearly not! I’m very disappointed in you. 10 points from Gryffindor.”

“But professor-!”

“Do you want more points taken away?” He asks. You shake your head and stand up, looking around at your other classmates. You hated when they all had their eyes on you, and it didn’t help when Doyoung was staring at you with such a blank expression.  

Why wasn’t he defending you? He had to know you added the right amount of unicorn horn. How could you not when you knew the instructions by heart?

“I’ll have to get this cleaned up. In the meantime, please wait in the hall until class is finished, Y/N. We will talk about what happened afterwards.”

“But-

“Go.”

You hear laughter from some of the other students and rush out of the potions classroom. The door slams behind you and you slump to the floor against a wall, wiping at tears that had started to form. You thought this whole bullying thing had ended after the first day, but apparently not. Apparently you were just destined to not have fun at this school.

“Hey, are you okay?” You look up to see a fellow Gryffindor, a boy with a kind face and worry etched on it.  

“I-I’m fine,” you say. He might look friendly, but you weren’t going to fall for it. Not anymore. You wipe at your eyes one more time before turning away from the boy, not wanting to talk to him.

“You say you’re fine, but you’re out here crying,” he says. He moves to sit in front of you, leaning closer than you’d like him to. “Why are you crying? Did something happen in class?”

“Why do you care? You’re probably just going to tell everyone that I was crying. And then everyone else is going to have another excuse to pick on me.”

“Why would I do that?” The boy asks. He leans back and frowns. “Wait, pick on you? Have people been bullying you?”

“…why wouldn’t they? I threw another kid’s wand into the fireplace on my first day,” you reply. “Because I’m stupid because I don’t have magical parents.”

The boy laughs at your words, hearty and long enough that he has tears by the time he’s done. You stare at him, not at all sure as to what he’s laughing at. He grins at you once he’s done and puts a hand on your shoulder, squeezing it.  

“You know why you were put in Gryffindor?” You shake your head, not at all sure of the reason anymore. He moves his other hand to your other shoulder and squeezes them both. “Because when everyone wants to put you down, you’re willing to stand back up, stronger and better than they could imagine. Bullying is pathetic and cowardly, but you’re brave enough to stand up to that bullying, and brave enough to not let it get to you. That’s why you’re in Gryffindor. So perk up, okay? You’ll get past this.”  

You sniffle, smiling at the boy’s words. He was right. No matter how much all of them wanted to get you down, you would still get right back up, better and stronger than all of them.  

“Thanks. That means a lot.”

“You’re welcome uh… Sorry, I didn’t even bother to ask your name. I’m Johnny.” Johnny puts out his hand for you, and you grab it, shaking it.

“Y/N.”

“Nice to meet you then, Y/N,” Johnny says. He stands up and grins down at you. “From here on out, let’s be friends, okay?”

You nod your head, still smiling. “Okay.”

-

Before you know it, your first year at Hogwarts comes to a close. After being able to retake your potions midterm and passing with flying colors, the holidays came and went, and the second part of the school did as well, this time, happier and more enjoyable. While Doyoung seemed to grow more distant, it didn’t entirely matter because you had many more friends that came from it. Johnny and you had become close, especially because he, just like you, was born of non-magical parents. It made things easier, and even more so when he introduced you to all of the friends he had made his two years at Hogwarts.  

It wasn’t fun like hanging out with Doyoung was, but it was fun in its own way, and, really, you couldn’t complain about that.  

As you’re heading to the kitchens one last time before you have to head home for the summer, you see Doyoung enter before you. The two of you didn’t talk much anymore, but, maybe this was the time to rekindle that friendship that had been lost.

You enter the kitchens yourself after a moment and see Doyoung already sitting at the table you had sat at so long ago, eating a plate of cookies with a glass of milk. One of the house-elves notices you and asks if you’d like a snack, and, after declining you head over to Doyoung.

“Hey.”

Doyoung looks up from his plate of cookies, surprise written clearly on his face as his eyes meet yours. You smile encouragingly and sit down.  

“I saw you come in and figured I’d join you. How have you been? We haven’t really talked since the holidays…”  

Doyoung shoves a cookie in his mouth, and then after a drink from his milk, nods. “Yeah… I… had a lot going on after the holidays. Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” you say. “We can talk some more over the summer. We can write each other letters too! My friend Johnny is going to visit, so maybe you can visit- uh- only if you want though!”  

Doyoung smiles sadly at you before sliding the plate of cookies towards you. “Thanks. I’ll ask my parents about it.”  

You frown at Doyoung, knowing that something is clearly wrong, but not wanting to push it. Instead, you take a cookie and begin nibbling on it. Doyoung and you sit in silence together until the plate of cookies is gone and there’s nothing left to keep you together in the kitchens.  

You probably weren’t going to see each other for a while so you reach across the table and put your hand on top of Doyoung’s before he can pick up the empty plate.

“Doyoung, thanks for being my first friend at school. It meant a lot to me.”

He stares at you for a long moment, pain clear on his face, but he ends up nodding and smiling anyways.

“Yeah. The same goes for me.” He stands up and takes his empty dishes. “Thanks for being my friend, Y/N.”

You watch Doyoung walk away, and you get up yourself, heading for the exit of the kitchens.

-

“There you are!” The door to the train car opens and you look up to see Johnny standing there, along with two other boys, Yuta, one of Johnny’s Slytherin friends, and a Ravenclaw named Taeil behind him. You grin and stand up, letting Johnny envelop you in a hug. “It’s only been a few weeks, but I still missed you tons.”

“Me too, Johnny.”

The summer had passed by too quickly with so much going on at home. Your parents and you took a fun vacation together, one you couldn’t shut up about when you wrote to your new-found friends. Your old friends from your neighborhood visited, all asking about the school you went to and enjoying the time you had together. Johnny visited as well, and stayed longer than you expected, and every moment with him was a moment not wasted.  Letters had arrived from all your friends, and you all wrote back to each other over and over as the summer went by.  

One even came from Doyoung, asking about your summer. None after that, but it still meant a lot that he sent one letter at least.  

But now here you were, back on the train heading to Hogwarts, with friends by your side and a happy smile on your face.  

You’re sure that nothing could ruin this year.

-

“Y/N, you can’t study forever. You’re gonna waste away in the library,” Johnny says, his arms stretched over the table. You had been studying for a test coming up in your charms class, but only for a few hours. It wasn’t like you’d been studying for the whole day.

“Studying is very important, Johnny. I know you don’t know much about that.” Johnny laughs and leans back in his chair.  

“You’ve gotten a lot of cheek since summer… Yuta’s been rubbing off on you, huh?”

You laugh yourself. “Maybe a little.”

“Yet none of my free spirit attitude has?” Johnny asks. You shrug and continue to read your Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 book, flicking your wand in your hand as you test out the hand motions for each spell. You can feel Johnny’s eyes on you, watching quietly as you practice and read.  

But clearly he can’t be patient because he eventually reaches for your book and snatches it off the table.  

“Hey!”

“You’ve gone over Incendio so many times that you’d probably be able to set this whole room on fire. Take a break, will you? Come watch our Quidditch practice.”  

“I’ve never watched before though. I won’t know what’s going on,” you say. Johnny raises an eyebrow at you.

“Did you not go to any of the games last year?” You shake your head.  

“I liked studying more, plus, I heard our house kept losing. Something about that Johnny kid being the worst player…”  

“Oh my- now you’re definitely going. That Johnny kid is going to show you just how good he is!” With a loud shush from the librarian, Johnny and you take that as your cue to leave, and head for the Quidditch pitch. You had never actually been out here before, only ever seeing it from windows and hearing about it from students passing by.  

It was cool to be on, and even more so when seeing the students flying up in the air on broomsticks. You had thought Quidditch was just another sport wizards came up with that involved a ball, but this really seemed much more fun.  

“Johnny!”  

One of the Gryffindor kids comes flying down, stopping right in front of you and Johnny with a grin on her face.  

“What took you so long? We’ve been waiting a whole hour!” You look at Johnny and punch at his arm, frowning.  

“You should’ve just left without me!”

“It’s fine, she’s exaggerating. It’s only been twenty minutes.” He turns to you, rubbing at his arm. “You can go watch in the stands. I promise it’ll be enjoyable.”  

He starts walking off, with the girl hopping off her broom to join him, but immediately he turns around and calls to you.

“And no reading, Y/N! Pay attention!” You roll your eyes and head up the stands, taking the stairs up and up until you reach the bleachers at the very top. You take a seat, and look across the way, immediately sighing in relief at seeing other people, ones you did not like, sitting there. This was supposed to be enjoyable, so sitting far from them guaranteed that.

You resist the urge to open a book as you wait, and instead look around the stands, seeing the other students watching the practice. Not only are there Gryffindor students, but there’s also sprinklings of Ravenclaw, and one Hufflepuff student in the same stands as you. No Slytherin, though, that wasn’t much of a surprise, not when Gryffindor and Slytherin were considered rivals.

“Y/N!” You look away from the bleachers and see Johnny on a broom, floating in front of you, and you smile.  

“Looking cool, Johnny.”

“I knew you’d think so. If you want, I can take you for a ride later.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be practicing, Johnny?” You look over to your left and see the one Hufflepuff student, yawning as he walks over to Johnny. Johnny and he exchange a handshake, clearly one they’ve made up together, and they look back at you.  

“Y/N, this is the Hufflepuff seeker, Taeyong. Taeyong, this is my best friend, Y/N. Teach her the basics, will you?”  

“Sure.” Johnny waves and flies off, and Taeyong walks over to you, sitting down and yawning again.  

“Tired?” You ask. He shrugs.  

“A little. I was in a middle of a nap when Gryffindor’s team came yelling at me to get off the pitch twenty minutes ago.”  

“You were taking a nap on the Quidditch pitch? Couldn’t you have just used your bed?” You ask.  

“I could’ve but I was running drills in my head and then I laid down to think and then I was too lazy to go to the common room so here we are,” he leans back and yawns once more, closing his eyes as he does.  

“…Johnny said you’re a seeker. What is that?” Taeyong’s eyes shoot open and he stares at you, eyebrows raised.  

“You don’t know what a seeker is?” You shake your head. “Do you know anything about Quidditch?” You shake your head again. “Okay… Well, it’s a sport with each team having seven players. If you look up there…”

Taeyong points to the Gryffindor team in the air and begins explaining all the basics of Quidditch. How there’s one keeper, Johnny, who kept the other team from scoring. There were three chasers, who scored in the opposing team’s goals. Two beaters, who kept one of the three types of balls away from their teammates and then the seeker, who flew around looking for the golden snitch, an impossibly hard ball to see, especially with all the chaos going on during the game. However, once the seeker caught it, the game would end.

It all seemed simple, but for most of the time that you spent on the bleachers with Taeyong, you yourself looked around to try and find the golden snitch with binoculars that Taeyong had. You barely even gave Johnny a second glance as he kept balls from going into the goals, your mind far too fascinated on the ball that ended the game.

“Oh, there it is!” You point up to one of the bleachers, where it fluttered around a Slytherin boy who stood next to two others, one being Yuta and the other being Doyoung. They both laugh as the other Slytherin boy tries batting it away, and you frown, pulling the binoculars away from your face.

“You okay?”  

“…yeah, just… How does Johnny do it?”

“Do what? Fly on a broom?” You shake your head.

“Becomes friends with everyone. I mean, I’m friends with people in other houses but that’s because he introduced me to them. How do I become friends on my own?”  

Taeyong leans back once more and shrugs. “I guess use that Gryffindor tenacity like him and just be so friendly that others can’t help but want to be friends with you.” Taeyong takes the binoculars from you, and, looking up at the three Slytherins, asks, “You know him? The one with the glasses?”

You nod. “Kim Doyoung. He was my first friend at Hogwarts, but we haven’t really spoken since last year.”

“Well, if him constantly looking over here is any indication, I think he wants to be better friends with you too.”

You flush at Taeyong’s words and shake your head. He was just teasing you, because there was no way Doyoung could see you from all the way up there. You look back to where the Gryffindor players are and see them do a cheer before they disperse. Johnny heads over to you on his broom, grinning at you.  

“Did you watch me out there, Y/N?”

Taeyong and you share a look before laughing.  

“Totally did! You did great blocking the goals!” You say, still laughing. Taeyong laughs harder.  

“So great! Better than when you’re actually playing!”

“Oh my- you two are the worst. I can’t believe I introduced you two.”

-

The year continues rolling by, until your birthday comes around and you’re reminded once more that you won’t be celebrating it with your parents. Even though Johnny is so nice and throws you a wonderful birthday party with all of your mutual friends, it still leaves a vague hole in your heart.

Which was probably why you find yourself in front of the kitchens later that day. You smile as you remember the cake the house-elves made you last time and push open the door. Immediately, at the usual table, you see Doyoung sitting there, a plate of cookies and a glass of milk in front of him, along with a slice of cake and a glass of milk across from him. You grin and rush over, sitting down and surprising Doyoung as you do.

“Hey.”

Doyoung smiles. “Hey.”

“Did you-

“No. It was there when I came in. Guess they were waiting for you.” You smile even more and stare at Doyoung.  

“And what about you? Were you waiting too?”

“No! I- no way. I came for my usual snack time.” Doyoung’s eyes don’t meet yours, and you know that he’s lying to you. The hole in your heart seems to seal up at all of this, from the cake to Doyoung, and you can’t help but feel happier than before.  

“Thanks, Doyoung.”

He’s silent for a long moment until, “yeah. Happy birthday, Y/N.”

-

Whatever had been on Doyoung’s mind seems to disappear for the rest of the year, as the two of you begin spending time together again. He and you sit next to each other in classes, going over homework again. You study in the library together, or even in empty classrooms just so your other friends can’t disturb the two of you.  

All of it is nice and wonderful, and you’re glad to have a friend that’s actually in your year again.  

And then the end of the school year approaches, and Doyoung gets distant once more. It’s different this time, as he’s not ignoring you or acting like he doesn’t want to be around you, but rather he clearly has something on his mind, and whenever you ask about it, he changes the subject.

You figure that maybe it’s got something to do with his family, considering when the holidays rolled around, he didn’t really seem thrilled to go home, but you’re not sure.  

Not when he won’t talk to you about it.

But as the final days of the school year come and go, you decide you were going to get whatever was bothering him out. You were friends after all, and that meant that friends talked to each other. And, unlike last year, you weren’t willing to let Doyoung go again.

You find yourself at the kitchens once more on the second to last day of school, and, upon opening up the doors find Doyoung sitting there, his usual plate of cookies in front of him. You walk over and sit down across from him, pulling the plate of cookies off the table and sitting them on the space next to you.

“Hey why- oh. Y/N.”

“What’s wrong with you? You’ve had something on your mind for the past two years and refuse to open up about it. Aren’t we friends, Doyoung?”

“We are,” Doyoung says. He quiets for a while, opening his mouth over and over again to speak, but not saying anything when he decides it’s not the right thing.  

Over and over he does this until eventually he looks at you, with clear pain in his eyes. “You remember that potion that blew up our first year?” You nod slowly. “It was me. I was the one who sabotaged it.”

“You- you what?!”  

“I put the extra unicorn horn in when you turned in our tests. It didn’t have a bad reaction until you put in another pinch,” Doyoung explains. You look at him, already feeling the tears welling up at his words.

“I-I almost failed because of you- I thought we were friends! Why would you do that to me?!” You yell. Doyoung looks away from you.

“Because you were going to get a better grade than me, and I needed to be the one at the top of the class,” he says. You stand up and step away from the table. No wonder Doyoung had something on his mind. It was total guilt from what he’d done.  

“I asked you if you needed help-

“You think I wanted help from a mudblood?!”

Silence fills the air between the two of you and you feel the tears roll down your cheeks.  

You had thought nothing could go wrong this year, not when you had friends by your side, and especially not when Doyoung and you became friends again.

You couldn’t have been more wrong.

“You act like muggle-borns are the worst people, but you purebloods are the ones that are such bullies and cowards and- and idiots!” You pull out your wand and point it at Doyoung, glaring at him. He pulls out his own wand, pointing it back at you.

“Expelliarmus!” Doyoung’s wand goes flying and clattering to the floor and you sniffle, wiping at your eyes.  

“You wanted a rival, Doyoung. Now you’ve got one. I’m going to be so much better at everything than you, and I’ll make sure you never surpass me. I’ll show you and everyone else just how great a muggle-born can be.”  

-

“…Y/N, how many classes are you taking this year?” Johnny asks from across the dinner table. The sorting ceremony had just finished for your third year at Hogwarts, and while everyone around you had been talking and eating, you decided to get another head start on your studies.  

It was necessary if you wanted to beat Doyoung in all of your classes.  

“Ten. I tried for eleven but Professor McGonagall said that no matter how smart I was, it wasn’t possible.”

“Ten- Y/N, you’re a third year. The max is nine classes, and most finish the year with eight! I mean, I barely finished with eight!” You roll your eyes and look up at Johnny.  

“Not to be rude, Johnny, but your talents don’t really lie in using your brain like me. You’re better at brute force.”

“First of all, that was totally rude,” Johnny says, but he laughs anyways. “Second of all, just because you have a brain doesn’t mean you have to burn it out. Give yourself some kind of break.”

“I can’t. I have to be the best,” you say.

“You keep saying that, but you never say why. What happened before the school year started? Did someone say something to you?” Johnny moves his hand to grab yours, and he squeezes it. “You know I’ll deal with them, right?

Your eyes wander past Johnny to the Slytherin table, where you see Doyoung staring right at you. You glare and look back at Johnny. You didn’t need Johnny to deal with Doyoung. You were already doing that.

“No need. I’m already dealing with them,” you say. You pull your hand away and close your book, standing up right after.  

“I’ll see you back in the common room. I can’t study with all this noise.”

“What- Y/N! You didn’t even eat-!”  

You walk out of the Great Hall, with many eyes on you as you exit. You weren’t supposed to leave until everyone else left, but you had been doing this for three years now. Johnny would tell you the new password later, and in the meantime, you were going to go find a nice corner to sit and study in.

“Y/N!”

Or not.

You keep walking, not wanting to turn around at that voice. You were going to be hearing it for the rest of the year, so at least for today you could be rid of it.

But then you feel your legs wobble beneath you and you fall to the floor, forced to look back at him.

“A Jelly-Legs Jinx? Really?”

“Well, you wouldn’t stop, now would you?” You frown at Doyoung and wave your wand at him, performing the exact same curse. His knees buckle and he falls to the floor in front of you, with a roll of his eyes as he does.

“Really?”

“Yes, really. What do you want?”  

“I-“ Doyoung pauses for a long moment, and when he has to think his words over, you quietly mumble the counter curse and feel your legs return to their natural strength. You stand up and Doyoung looks at you, frowning. “Wait!”

“I did wait! You didn’t say anything!”

Doyoung rolls his eyes and waves his wand again, ready to perform the jinx once more, but you’re faster and you quickly knock his wand out of his hand with another Expelliarmus.  

“I hate how good at that spell you are,” Doyoung says. You snort at his words, and then quickly bite it down before it turns into more laughter. He was your rival, which meant there was no laughing to be had.  

“I’m glad you can admit I’m better. I’m sure it must hurt your pure-blood pride.”

“Oh shut up- I came to apologize not to be ridiculed by you,” Doyoung says. You roll your eyes and wave your wand again at him.

“Rictusempra.”  

Doyoung starts slapping at parts of his body, laughing as he does, clearly trying to get the tickling charm to stop but of course it being ineffective. You laugh at him, finding the scene all too funny and hard to keep in. For someone so proud, he looked pretty pathetic right about now.

“Oh- ha-hahaha- Y/N! Come on- ha-haha-haha!”

“Good luck, Doyoung! Bye!”

Before Doyoung can even do anything, you rush off, laughing still as you do.

-

Encounters between you and Doyoung don’t stop there, and, most of the time, end in duels between the two of you. While they’re mostly harmless, there are more than a few that ended in an Incendio spell setting your robes on fire, and even once burning your hand. Nothing too serious, but it still hurt and you got Doyoung back with a good Flipendo that sent him right into a group of students. It had been a good enough distraction for you to run away and make it back to the Gryffindor Common Room before Doyoung could try anything else.

You’re sure the duels weren’t what Doyoung really wanted, but it was impossible to stop them when Doyoung tried to keep you in the same place long enough for you to listen to whatever crap he wanted to say, and you weren’t willing to listen.

Besides, the dueling was fun, and it kept you up on your spell casting.  

That is, of course, until you get in trouble for dueling without permission. Afterall, there was a club for it.

You had been avoiding Doyoung for what felt like the fifth time that week, and came across Johnny walking and talking with the other Gryffindor Quidditch members when you interrupt.

“Johnny! Hide me!” You say, quickly shoving yourself between him and someone else. You grab the back of his robes and walk behind him, doing your best to use his tall stature to hide you. It doesn’t work well though, especially when he asks questions.

“What- what are you doing?” He asks, trying to turn around.

“Hiding! Just let me walk behind you for a minute-

“Y/N!”  

You pull on Johnny’s robes, only for him to lose footing and fall back, bringing him with you as you tumble to the ground together. You groan and quickly push him off, getting up to rush off, but not before a spell is thrown at you, making you trip and fall again. You huff and turn around, throwing your own nonverbal spell back at Doyoung. He himself trips, and you quickly get up, pointing your wand at him.  

“Y/N- what is going on?” Johnny asks, grabbing at your pant leg beneath you. You shrug down at him and grin.

“Dueling. Why do you ask?”

“Dueling?!”

“Flipendo!” You wave your wand in front of you, easily muttering a Protego under your breath as the spell bounces off your shield spell. Doyoung throws a few more at you, and you start backing up as he comes closer. The other Gryffindor students that had been around you all dodge out of the way of your duel, and Doyoung swiftly moves around them as he walks towards you.

“You know, it’s not nice to back your opponent into a corner, Doyoung.”

“It’s not nice to ignore your opponent either, now is it?”

“Oh, whatever! Stupefy!” Doyoung looks shocked as you fire off the fourth-year spell at him, but it doesn’t shake him up enough as he shouts out his own spell.

“Protego!”  

“Come on Doyoung! You’re never going to catch me like that,” you taunt. Doyoung’s face hardens and you turn down the hallway, looking back for a moment only to see Doyoung running after you, faster than before.

“You’re starting to seriously piss me off!” Doyoung fires another spell at you, you block it, laughing, and then he yells, “Imperio!”  

You let out another shield spell, but whatever spell Doyoung’s fired off seems to go right through it and hits you. Your eyes widen for a moment and immediately after your mind goes blank. It feels like a weight is lifted off your shoulders, and any stress you might have been having just disappears into thin air. You watch vaguely as Doyoung stands in front of you, his own eyes wide, as if he was scared of what he just did.  

Then, all the feelings that disappeared come back to you in a rush as you hear Professor McGonagall round the corner, yelling at the two of you. You fall to your knees, your head pounding as you try to gather your thoughts, and you feel Doyoung next to you moments later, spouting healing spells at you. It makes the pounding in your head go away eventually, but it’s replaced by incessant murmured apologies from Doyoung.  

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”  

“Both of you- detention before dinner! We will talk about your further punishment later, for dueling outside of dueling club and for- for using an unforgivable curse on another student.” There are a few gasps in the distance, and you can see the other Gryffindor students watching the scene unfold. The professor turns on them and yells once more. “Off to class! Now!”  

Everyone scurries away except Johnny who rushes to your side, helping you up. The professor looks you over, patting your head, seemingly to examine you. Once she’s satisfied, she sighs and then looks to Johnny.  

“Take her to the infirmary, Mr. Seo. It’s better to make sure than be sorry later.”  

“Of course, professor.”  

“Mr. Kim. Off to class. We will discuss this later.”  

“Yes, professor.”  

Doyoung rushes off in the opposite direction of you and Johnny, and Johnny begins leading you to the infirmary. As you’re walking, you can’t help but think about the unforgivable curse Professor McGonagall mentioned. You had been studying a lot of spells since you and Doyoung started dueling, but you never came across anything called that.  

“What’s an unforgivable curse?” You ask Johnny. He stops and looks at you.  

“What? Even you don’t know? Ms. I’ve-been-stealing-Johnny’s-fourth-year-books-to-learn-spells-to-duel- Kim Doyoung? He was the one bothering you, wasn’t he? Why didn’t you tell me?”  

“We’re friends- we were just dueling for fun,” you lie. You’re not sure why you do, but even so, Johnny wouldn’t look pleased either way.  

“Friends don’t use the Imperius Curse on other friends.” He turns to you, putting his hands on your shoulders and squeezing them. “There’s three unforgivable curses. The Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Killing Curse. They’re unforgivable because they do terrible things to their victims, and evil wizards and witches use them for their own enjoyment. It’s dark magic, Y/N. And he- he used one of them on you.”  

“That doesn’t mean he’s evil. He’s just… easy to annoy,” you say.  

“Why are you defending him? He tried to use mind control on you!” You push away from Johnny and shrug, crossing your arms.  

“I don’t know- we were just dueling. Why are you getting so upset over it?”  

“Because-“ Johnny stops himself and shakes his head. “Never mind. Let’s just get you to the infirmary. You should be resting.”  

After getting checked over by Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary and resting there for a few hours, you head off to Professor McGonagall’s classroom to receive your punishment. Doyoung is already sitting inside of the classroom, his arms on the table and his head in his arms. You grin and wave your wand at him, watching as your spell hits his robes and begins making them float.  

Doyoung doesn’t even react and continues to stay in his position. Your grin falls and you walk over to the table, crouching in front of it and poking Doyoung.

“Ooo, there’s a ghost messing with your robes…”

Doyoung peeks out from his arms, and you can see his eyes are red and parts of his face blotchy and bloated. He quickly turns away from you, rubbing at his eyes quickly, clearly to wipe away any remaining tears.

“Doyoung, were you crying?”

“No- shut up. Why are you even talking to me?”

“…because I like annoying you,” you say. You move around the table and take a seat in the one next to Doyoung. “Plus, we might be rivals but I can’t let my rival be crying. What’s wrong?”  

“Nothing. We’re rivals. Not friends,” he says. “Besides. Why would you listen to me now when you wouldn’t listen before?”  

“Well-

“Mr. Kim. If you’d come with me.” The two of you look up to see Professor McGonagall, a grim look on her face. You frown, not sure why you guys were getting separate scolding’s. It seemed unnecessary, but, then again, you were already in trouble so there was no real point in arguing with her.  

You stay quiet as you watch Doyoung follow the professor into a side room. She closes the door and you’re left alone. Quickly, you rush towards the room and put your ear to the door, trying to listen in. When you don’t hear anything, figuring it has to be enchanted, you return to your seat and amuse yourself by making various things in the room float.  

Eventually, Doyoung comes out and takes a seat next to you, mumbling that it was your turn. You walk to the room and it closes behind you, and Professor McGonagall sits there at a desk, writing various things down.  

“Sit.”

You do as she says, sitting in one of the chairs opposite the desk, and watch as she writes.

“I cannot express how disappointed I am in you, Ms. Y/N. As one of the top students in the school, you are to set an example, and yet here you are, dueling outside of dueling club- Mr. Kim said this is the twenty-seventh time. Is that right?”

“…I wasn’t really keeping track, but maybe that’s close…” You clasp your hands in your lap, feeling the professor’s disappointment wash over you. This sucked way worse than her being angry and yelling at you.

“Detention. Until the holidays. It only seems fitting.”

“Yes, professor.”

“Along with that, you will have in-school suspension for the week for using spells outside of your grade. Which means no wandering the corridors between classes, or after meals, and no trips to Hogsmeade.”

“Professor-!” She gives you a hard look, and you immediately back down, nodding your head. “Yes, professor.”  

“If something like this happens again, I cannot guarantee that I’ll be as lenient. Do you understand?”

You nod your head, and the professor waves at the door. It opens for you, and you quickly exit, mumbling under your breath. “That was lenient?”  

You walk back to your seat next to Doyoung and sit, frowning at the piece of paper that’s been placed on the desk. Doyoung has one too but has apparently already started writing. The professor comes out of the side room and sits at her main desk, eyes trained on the two of you.

“One more thing. An essay, explaining everything about dueling you know, considering the two of you seemed to be extremely good at it. I’d like it finished before dinner.”  

You frown and take out one of your pens you had always kept in your robes, quickly beginning to write.  

Though, the second the professor looks away to do something else, you quickly enchant it to write by itself. While essays came easy to you, they came even easier when you didn’t have to cramp your hand while doing it. Doyoung lets out a sigh as you do so but doesn’t seem to tattle on you.

“Bet I can finish my essay before you,” you mumble to Doyoung.  

He doesn’t even look at you as he mumbles out “you’re on” and starts writing faster.  

-

After the whole detention debacle, things go back to how you expected them to go for the rest of the school year. Your in-school suspension is spent mostly in your bedroom, studying and working on ways besides studying that will bother Doyoung. You don’t come up with much, instead, Doyoung and you continue being rivals, quietly, with no other ridiculous stunts like dueling every week. Even in detention together, the two of you don’t speak much, especially since Doyoung sits as far as possible from you. It seemed he was taking this whole rival thing seriously now. In turn, that meant you had to work even harder to not let Doyoung surpass you in any of your classes, which also meant ditching Johnny to study and do homework. He didn’t really like it, the complaints happening every time you had to ditch him for homework. At least it was only one friend you had to deal with doing that, since Yuta and Taeyong were always busy with Quidditch, especially when they were both captains to boot.  

Really, it’s an easy rest of the year. Your birthday passes, with you eating cake alone in the kitchens. Christmas passes, with you staying with Johnny for the holidays.

And once the new year starts, you don’t see much of Doyoung anymore, especially when you don’t have detention together. It’s only in classes when you really meet, but it’s not like you really talk much or anything. The two of you really just keep your distance.

Déjà vu hits you one day as you’re wandering the school grounds, realizing that something like this happened the previous two years as well. Granted, you were the one who caused the distance between you and Doyoung this time, but even so, it was still the same.

You frown, suddenly missing the times you and Doyoung were together.  

“Y/N!” You turn around to see Johnny geared up with the other Gryffindor Quidditch players walking right towards you, and you put on a smile, not wanting to worry him. “You don’t look busy right now, which means you can come to the game today-

“Oh, no, I actually have to-

“Nuh-uh. No excuses from you today! Let’s go!” Johnny grabs your hand and begins dragging you towards the Quidditch Pitch, ignoring any and all protests from you as you go.  

It’s hard to focus during the game, though, especially when Doyoung is the one doing the commentary. You barely even give anyone else a second thought as you stare across the way at him.  

Hearing him enjoying the game, and seeing him smile whenever Slytherin gets a point makes your chest contract with a feeling you’re not entirely sure of. All in all, the game sucks, even when Gryffindor triumphs over Slytherin.  

And, as the year ends, and your fourth year at Hogwarts comes and goes as well, the feeling doesn’t leave. Beating Doyoung grade wise in your lessons both years didn’t even bring you as much joy as you wanted. Really, it kind of just upsets you further.

-

Your fifth year at Hogwarts starts with the same terrible feeling in your chest you’ve had since third year, right at the beginning of the school day in your second class. You had decided on taking muggle studies that year, knowing it’d be an easy class that you’d get top grades for, but a frown immediately takes to your face as you see Doyoung sitting at the front. He’s the only Slytherin you can see in the whole class, yellow and blue and red robes making up the rest of the students. He stuck out like a sore thumb and you resisted the urge to roll your eyes as you made your way to the seat next to him.  

“Weird seeing you here, Doyoung,” you say, setting your bag down and taking a seat. Doyoung looks at you and mirrors your frown.  

“Why is it weird? Am I not allowed to take this class?”

“Oh, no. You’re allowed. Just didn’t think someone like you could stand the smell of all the un-pure blood in the room.”

“Hey-

“What?” You smirk at him, shrugging. “I’m just speaking the truth.  Plus, knowing your family, wouldn’t they disown you for taking a class like this?”

Doyoung rolls his eyes and looks down at his textbook. “How can I beat you at every subject if I don’t take it?”

You snort, happy you could get under his skin.  It made the tightness in your chest dissipate just a little bit, the banter between the two of you feeling good and almost friendly. Though, you probably could have been a little friendlier. “I’d love to see you beat me in this class.”

“Watch me,” Doyoung mumbles.  

The class starts only moments later, and you feel even better as you watch Doyoung take notes on every single thing while all you did was doodle in one of your notebooks. Everything you were hearing you knew first hand, so notes truly seemed like a waste of time. Plus, your doodles of Doyoung furiously writing things down were far more entertaining anyways.  

Doyoung must look over at you at some point, because he huffs and scribbles a few words into your notebook – stop drawing me and pay attention – but you just laugh and ignore him.  

The class becomes even more entertaining when you and a few Hufflepuff students have to correct the professor on something, your eyes turning to Doyoung afterwards to see him see him writing down whatever you had said.  

If he wasn’t such a jerk about his pureblood status, you’d almost think his interest in muggle studies was cute.  

When the class ends, you notice Doyoung quickly shoving things into his bag before pulling a box off the ground you didn’t notice before. He sets it on his desk and looks at you, pointing at it.  

“For you. See you later,” he says before rushing off.  

“Huh? Doyoung!” You stare after him, confused as ever before looking to the box again.  There’s a note attached to it and you pluck it off to read.  

Happy late birthday. For the last two years, I mean. And sorry about our last duel third year. Hope you stay warm this winter. -Doyoung

You set the note down and open up the package, irritation building as you see the expensive sweater staring back at you. How could Doyoung gift you something so nice, and apparently for your birthday and as an apology? Who did he think he was?  

You weren’t even friends. He was the one that made sure of that. And yet, this felt terribly friendly and nice and you shut the package closed, shoving the note into your bag and standing up. Doyoung was such a jerk. The worst type of jerk.

You rush out of the room, intent on finding him so you could return the package and give him a piece of your mind.  

Unfortunately, no matter how many times you end up shoving the package back to Doyoung, he shoves it right back at you and disappears before you can get a word in edgewise. You decide on just handing it off to another Slytherin so they can give it back to him, and find your chance when you end up meeting Doyoung’s sister. She offers to give it back after initially declining, and though you didn’t get a chance to yell at Doyoung, at least you wouldn’t be burdened by his stupid gift.  

Or, so you thought, until your birthday rolls around.

You go to the kitchens for your usual cake, and, for the third year in a row, Doyoung isn’t there. Instead, a larger cake sits there on the table, with a note next to it clearly written in Doyoung’s scrawl, and the stupid package gifted to you earlier in the year wide open to let you know just what was in it. You take the note in your hands and frown.

“Happy birthday…” You sit down at the table, folding up the note and stuffing it into one of your pockets. You cut yourself a slice of cake, place it on a smaller plate and jab a fork into it, bringing it to your mouth rig

Kinktober day 23 - threesome x Kun + Taeyong

[22:05]

You smirked softly as you gazed upon the two boys kneeling in front of you, both their gazes cast downwards and not only their faces, but bare shoulders and chests practically burning a bright red.

“You two are so cute,” You cooed, walking up to them “Why so nervous, hm?”

The pair glanced to you, and then to each other, before immediately averting their eyes again. Neither of them could deny how much the situation, as well as the shame that came with it, was turning them on- their cocks were already completely hard again after having made each other cum before you caught them.

“Are you scared?” You cocked your head

“M-mommy-”Taeyong started, looking up to you with teary eyes and pouty lips “I’m sorry for cumming without your permission,”

You regarded him for a moment, not saying anything before turning to Kun, keeping a face of positive neutrality. Kun pursed his lips, shutting his eyes momentarily before looking up to you.

“We’re sorry,” he said, obviously struggling to maintain eye contact

You chuckled softly

“Get on the bed,”

The two immediately followed orders- they knew better than to mistake your pleasantness for softness.

“Good boys,” You smirked, and they breathed out, watching them fidget as they so clearly wondered what you were about to do to them

Kinktober Day 18 - begging x Johnny (f!reader)

[23:04]

You sat cross legged on the edge of the bed, looking down to Johnny, sat on his knees in front of you, the boy wearing nothing but his boxers, head hung and ears completely red.

You chuckled softly.

“You’re too cute,” You muttered, leaning forward and placing a finger under Johnny’s chin, making him look you in the eye “Guess you don’t get so cocky when you’re forced to beg, huh?”

He whined softly, letting his eyes flutter shut

“What are you waiting for?” You raised a brow, squishing his cheek softly “Beg.”

“Please…” He started “Please touch me, mommy. Fuck- I’ve been waiting so goddamn long- please just fuck me,”

You cocked your head, looking to him expectantly. Johnny huffed, immediately going into a pout as he realised you were asking him for more.

“Please mommy,” He continued, and though he looked more annoyed than anything else, his desperation shone through in his voice “It hurts so fucking much- want mommy to do something- anything to me- I’m so fucking horny for you-”

“Strip. Get on the bed.” You instructed, standing up

your boyfriend immediately obeyed, taking off his boxers and sitting against the frame of the bed, spreading his legs slightly- leaving a large enough space for you to sit there, which you did. 

You smiled softly as you brought your hand to his cock, tracing just a single finger along the vein on the underside of him. Johnny whimpered, bucking upwards, being met with air.

“P-please- more-” He breathed out

“Let’s see how much teasing it takes for you to not even be able to talk,” Your smile widened, turning into more of a devilish one, and Johnny moaned throatily- you couldn’t tell if it was a complaint or a display of his arousal, but you did see his cock twitch as soon as the words left your mouth

Kinktober Day 17 - bondage x Doyoung

[00:05]

Doyoungbreathed out shakily, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down with his head leant back over a pillow, neck fully exposed, back arched with both his hands tied behind his back, a blindfold secured around his head, and his lower legs tied to his thighs, underneath him. You’d been teasing him for longer than he could guess- he’d lost his sense of time, and a lot of his other senses for that matter.

“P-please-” He whispered, trying not to struggle against the restraints

“Please what?” You asked, lightly trailing a finger up his bare thigh, stopping before you got to his crotch

“Please touch me I-” He tried, stopping mid-sentence, the words caught in his throat as you took a hold of his leaking cock

“Like this?” You asked softly, going on to stroke him

“Y-yes- yes-” He whimpered, visibly trying to hold himself from bucking upwards

“You sound so pathetic,” You drawled, breathing out a short laugh afterwards, and Doyoung whined softly

Leaning over him, you grabbed the ball-gag next to the bed with your free hand.

“I’m gonna gag you,” You said, regarding the boy

Doyoung didn’t reply for a moment, and there was a short moment of silence filled with only his heavy breathing, before he realised that you were waiting for a confirmation.

“O-okay,” He whispered

“Good boy,” You smiled in return, even though you knew Doyoung couldn’t see you

Relaxing his jaw, Doyoung whimpered when you took your hand off his cock, and then immediately felt it on his head, the ball pressing against his lips, before he opened his mouth wider, letting you secure it properly around his head.

“How are you so pretty?” You cooed

Doyoung cringed at your tone, somehow managing a disgusted face despite being blindfolded and gagged. You laughed, reaching for his cock again, making the expression quickly disappear.

“Let’s see how good of a grossed out expression you can make when you’re moaning uncontrollably, hm?” You smiled, and Doyoung whined softly in return

Kinktober day 12 - overstimulation x Haechan (f!reader)

[23:22]

Haechanwhined, voice high pitched as you thrusted into him, your body leaned over his, with your dominant hand rapidly pumping his practically dripping cock, and your other hand holding yourself up above the boy.

“I’m gonna- I’m gonna cum- mommy-!” He cried, bucking up into you

“Go on, pretty,” you smiled

only a few seconds later, you felt and saw Haechan’s cock twitch, and white ropes were decorating your boyfriend’s torso. You, however, continued your pace, smirk only growing as Haechan realised what you were doing. 

Haechan began fussing, writhing his body around.

“Mommy-” He whined, elongating his word, letting it turn itself into a somewhat pained moan “That really hurts- ah- stop-”

“You don’t really want me to,” You shrugged, voice uneven from the pace you were moving your hips, and Haechan scrunched his nose, trying to form a pout, but instead let out another high-pitched whine.

You smirked, refusing to slow down as your boyfriend’s jaw went increasingly slack the longer you continues, tongue hanging out, eyes rolled back and moans only getting higher and louder. Soon enough, Haechan was bucking up into your hand again, simultaneously trying to move forward with you as you thrusted into him, which, not surprisingly, proved unsuccessful, but it made him look so desperate that you practically began salivating.

“You gonna cum again?” You tried to sound condescending, but it came out as more of a growl

Haechan moaned out an affirmation, trying to nod his head, and you responded by increasing your pace just a little bit more.

Not even a few seconds later, Haechan was cumming, hips bucking sporadically every time a spurt of cum shot out of his red cock, adding to the cum on him so much that it almost began pooling on him.

“So pretty,” You muttered, rubbing Haechan’s torso with your hand, and he whined

Kinktober Day 11 - exhibitionism x Johnny (gn!reader)

[14:53]

Johnny whimpered as you dug your knee between his legs, his face scrunching and body tensing as he tried to keep his mouth shut. The rest of NCT 127 were just around the corner; as far as they knew, you’d taken Johnny to bed when he complained about being tired, and as loud as they were, Johnny was still undeniably worried about one of his members walking just a few metres forward, turning the corner, and seeing him in such a state.

Your boyfriend’s hair was almost sticking to his forehead, a very thin layer of sweat covering his completely flushed face, a very prominent bulge in his pants, and deep red marks that would surely turn to purple later littered all over his neck.

“So dirty, baby boy,” You whispered into his ear “Getting so turned on by me fucking you like this.

Johnny whimpered again, creaking open his eyes.

“Y/N…” He stammered “Please-”

“Please what?” You cocked your head

“God, this is so embarrassing,” He whispered, almost chuckling, but you could tell it was just to let off steam

“Come on Johnny,” You smiled “What do you want me to do?”

“Make me cum in my pants,” He said, smirking towards you for a while, before you chuckled lowly and began rhythmically rubbing your knee against him

“Whore,” You smirked in return as Johnny’s lips pursed again, trying to silence himself, and he whimpered, nodding slightly as you continued, your hands squeezing his hips tightly

Kinktober Day 10 - gaping x Mark (f!reader)

[23:29]

Mark bit his lip, burying his face into the sheets of the bed as he felt the tip of the dildo prod at his hole, blush deepening when he heard a low chuckle from you.

“You sure you’re okay, baby?” You asked your hands on either side of his hips, thumbs rubbing over his skin smoothly

He nodded, and made a muffled noise of confirmation.

“So quiet,” You smiled, squeezing him, and Mark whimpered “Why don’t you tell me how much you want it, hm?”

There was a hesitant silence, in which Mark lifted up his head, and though he was facing away from you, you could practically hear his lip quivering. He was scared, you knew that- you’d bought a much bigger strap than Mark had ever taken, and to be honest, bigger than you’d ever used- but it wasn’t hard to tell how much he wanted it, judging by his flushed face, desperate whines, and most notably, his rock hard cock that had been practically dripping for the past at least minute.

“Please mommy…” He whispered finally “I-…I need your cock so bad please- g-gape me mommy,”

Your smile widened, and slowly, you pushed inside him, the lube squelching as it pressed against the boy. Mark was immediately responsive, body tensing, grasping at the sheets, and a long but quiet moan leaving his lips as the dildo disappeared inside him.

“That’s right baby,” You soothed, rubbing your hands along his skin “Such a good boy for me. Just tell mommy when you’re ready, yeah?”

Mark blushed at the praise, and hid his face in the covers again. There was a pause, where you simply continued to trace your fingers up and down Mark’s back, and his thighs, until he whimpered.

“O-okay,”

You slowly pulled your hips back, and then pushed back into him, smirking as Mark whined into the sheets.

“You’re doing so well baby boy,” You whispered “So good at taking mommy’s cock,”

At your words, Mark’s whines only became louder. You steadily began to speed up, until soon you were going a reasonably fast pace, and your boyfriend was moaning unrestrained beneath you, occasionally what sounded like a choked sob leaving him, but he wasn’t crying.

“F-faster- please-” He managed between his moans

You complied, licking your lips as you watched Mark stretch with the dildo, and appreciating the way his back arched every now and then. It was a couple more seconds until the boy practically screamed, and it was sudden, too.

“Oh?” You raised a brow

“Fuck- again- again- ah- please don’t stop-”

You readjusted yourself, and continued pounding into him, supposedly hitting his prostate. Mark’s moans immediately became much, much louder, and his body jerked slightly before he began to move his hips back in time with you, muttering incoherent begging.

“G-gonna- cum- please mo- mommy- ahh-” 

“Cum for me, baby,” 

After a moment, he did, hips moving sporadically as cum shot out of him and onto the bed sheets. You slowly licked your lips, smirking as, after Mark had come down from his high, you pulled out.

“Such a good boy,” You muttered, squeezing his thighs, eyes fixed on his hole, that was opening and closing slightly with his heavy breathing, and that was obviously far more stretched than just minutes ago

“Thank…you-” Mark breathed

“Anything for someone as pretty as you,” You smirked, and smacked his ass lightly, eliciting yet another whimper

A/N: Oml I know there’s like a million of these but they seem so fun and cute and I wanted to try it!

• Lots of hugs
• You being annoyed every time he starts cleaning the house when it’s already perfectly clean
• Tickle fights
• Lots of pouting
• You begging him to do aegyo
• “Can I get a kiss?”
• “No, I didn’t see you brush your teeth today”
• You being jealous of Ten because he spends more time with your boyfriend then you
• Having to force him to go to bed at night cause he’s a workaholic
• Holding hands while watching a movie at night
• Late night snaks
• Lots of back hugs
• “OPEN YOUR EYES!”
• “SHUT UP AND LET ME SLEEP!”
• Lots of lip biting 
• Passionet Sex
• Sometimes rough
• Long sweet kisses
• Him getting jealous easily 
• You teasing him about it, and assuring him that he’s the only one you love
• Cheek kisses
• Lip biting
• LOTS AND LOTS OF LIP BITING
• Lots of teasing
• Like literally, he’ll be up on stage dancing to The 7Th sense and he’ll be throwing winks and body rolling like there’s no tomorrow
• Little shit
• Loves it when you cuddle to his chest
• Having to comfort him when he feels sad or stressed
• Amazing with his tongue(Just saying)
• Getting mad when you don’t wash the dishes when it’s your turn
• “GET YOUR PURKY ASS IN THE KITCHEN RIGHT NOW!”
• “UGHH”
• Falling asleep on the couch together
• You buying him a new sent of febreeze for his Birthday

Short story:

“Y/N!” You heard Taeyong yell from upstairs, quickly getting up from the comfortable couch you were sitting  and walking to the front of the stairs with a worried look on your face, thinking something bad happened.

Taeyong angrily walked down the stairs with something behind his back. You couldn’t really see what it was, but the way it moves behind his back made you get a sneak peak of what it was. Like some type of clothing.

“What is it?” You asked while furrowing your eyes. Stepping back a bit so he could stand right in front of you.

“How could you?!?” He said sadly. You started to feel a bit nervous by his tone. But confused at the same time.

“I trusted you, I gave you my trust and you took that trust and stomped all over it. YOU BETRAYED ME Y/N, our relationship is broken now ” He yelled as he breathed heavily.

You being confused to why he said, walked closer to him but he stopped back. Putting a hand in betwen you two so there was some kind of space.

“What are you talking about Tae?” You asked once more. Sighing in process, tired of all  this.

He gave a loud sigh while he reviled the piece of clothing he was hiding. It was your underwear.

“You left your underwear on the floor.” He said while putting his free hand over his chest, acting like he was hurt.

“Uh, oops” You sigh and rolled your eyes while walking away.

“Oops!? oOPS?????” He repited as his eye twitched a bit. “Why do you hate me. Why do you choose to hurt me like this?” He pouted

You laughed and gave him a small kiss on the cheek and grabbing your underwear.

“I promise I’ll be more careful with my stuff” You promised while walking over to the couch. 

“Thank you! Its all I ask for” He said while running back upstairs.

Kiki~

[1:54 a.m]

the tiny fan blowing air towards the two of you somehow cannot beat the heat that gathers all around in your shared bedroom. blankets were tossed off of each other’s practically stripped-down-naked bodies in futile attempts to regulate body temperatures, yet your boyfriend thought the best solution was to snuggle closer to your sweaty body.

“please woo, spare me from this scorching prison,” you whine from between his arms.

“don’t be dramatic,” jungwoo mumbles into your shoulder, seemingly unaffected by the heat that is practically causing your room to steam in the hot summer night.

“if this is being dramatic then you’re a broadway actor,” you scoff, releasing yourself from his inferno of a grip to get up and turn the fan onto the highest setting. clambering back over towards the bed and flipping your pillow for the millionth time, you turn over and mumble another ‘goodnight’.

it’s when you feel a hand crawling across your stomach and hot lips pressing themselves once again between your shoulder blades that you give up on your cool-down ministrations and fact reality that you will never have any personal space with jungwooaround.

[1:21 pm]

mark has a habit of hugging you at random times. you don’t mind though, seeing how happy he is each time he wraps his arms around you.

[3:38 pm]

haechan is sitting on the couch in the dressing room when you enter. you decided to surprise him before a show, having not seen him for quite a while due to quarantine. you rush over to where he is sitting, and when his eyes land on you, he gasps and opens his arms wide.

“hihaechan,” you giggle as he eagerly pulls you into his lap. you play with his hair as he he cranes his neck up to look at you.

“i missed you so much,” he pouts and you kiss him. he buries his face into the warmth of your chest as he continues to hold you. “you smell nice.”

his grip on you is so tight you can’t help but beam at the fact he has been so eager to see you.

[8:11 p.m]

it’s was unusually quiet in the dorms. based on most of the times you visited, it’s typically been a madhouse. this was true especially with the dreamies. they were ecstatic to finally have mark rejoin them, so many resumed game seshes and movie nights were held in their definition of ‘celebration’

jaemin loved having you around the other boys. he was comfortable knowing that you fit right in with the atmosphere of the group, constantly participating in their rowdy antics.

however, tonight was calmer than usual. despite all being crowded in the same room, the younger boys were busy existing in their own little bubble. renjun had his headphones in reading an audiobook, chensung were playing league on the ground next to the couch, jeno was watching the recording of this morning’s dance rehearsal, and mark was quietly strumming his guitar while humming an unfamiliar tune.

you were splayed across jaemin’s lap as he aimlessly scrolled through his phone. head nestled on top of his thighs, you began taking some selfies of yourself to send to jaemin, hoping to fluster him. jaemin’s eyes fluttered down to your face, where you were sticking your tongue out at yourself in the camera. he tapped at your thigh, smirk adoring his face and you hid your face with your phone, embarrassed to have been caught.

face hot in bashfulness, you turn the camera on jaemin, who is back looking at his phone. biting your lip, you seize the opportunity for revenge.

“jaems.”

he looks down at the sound of his name as your finger hits the capture button.

the silence in the room is quickly disturbed by the laughter that bubbles from your throat. you never once thought jaemin could have a bad angle, but boy did this picture prove you wrong.

“hey—“jaemin protests but you shove a hand on his face as you sit up to show jeno the horrid picture of your boyfriend.

jeno’s laughter prompts the two youngest boys to pause their game and scramble to look at the photo.

“hyung, you look so ugly,” chenle laughs without any regard to formality. jaemin pouts at his remark, and at you for enticing them to pick fun at him.

he gently pushes you off his lap and storms out of the room. you roll your eyes, knowing how childish jaemin can be when his ego is bruised.

“you’re such a baby,” you shout after him, hopping off of the couch and out of the room. you see jaemin sulking on the way to his room, and you run after him, slipping under his arm right before he can shut the door behind him.

your eyes crinkle in amusement at the pouty expression on jaemin’s face. giggling, you toss your arms around his neck, standing on your tiptoes to pepper small kisses all over his downturned face. he doesn’t push you away, but you giggle as you can feel jaemin physically and mentally try to fight off your loving attack.

“i’m sorryyyyy,” you whine, jutting out your bottom lip at him. his eyes dart to your lips for a quick second, and you almost miss the small quiver of the corner of his mouth. you sigh, giving into what you know he wants. “if we cuddle will you stop being mad at me?”

jaemin can’t help the wide grin that spreads across his face at the sound of your pleads. you feel his arms slowly encase you into his embrace and you squint and purse your lips at him, annoyed at the fact that he most had this scenario mapped out in his head from the beginning.

“of course, baby.” jaemin gives you a sweet kiss that practically coats your tongue in sugar.

“you just wanted to get me alone, didn’t you?” you question, raising an eyebrow. jaemin looks up at the ceiling, pretending to ponder at your question.

‘hmmm, maybe?”

“well it worked,” you say, gently tugging him towards the bed you two shared often. “happy?”

“very,”jaemin grins, plopping onto the covers, bringing you down with him.

[4:11 p.m.]

the sun was just setting on the horizon when you visited him. you come over frequently, as the breaks in both of your schedules line up, allowing you guys time to see each other. the apartment is empty when you first walk in and all the lights are off. you chuckle, knowing he’s in his room doing whatever he does in his free time. it’s different each time. you kick off your shoes and walk to his bedroom, where you can hear quiet music playing.

his back is turned to you when you enter, only to quickly swivel around in his chair at the sound of your entrance.

“hey, sorry for not knocking.”

“that’s alright,” ten smiles. “i knew it was you when i heard the front door open.”

he was wearing an apron, with splotches of paint scattered across the fabric. in his hand laid a palette, filled with mellow colors of blue, black, green, brown, and white.

“were you expecting me?” you ask, pulling around a chair and sitting backwards so your head leaned against the backend.

“i always do,” ten responds, a teasing quip to his tongue.

you roll your eyes at his playful mannerism. it’s amazing how fast your heart beats whenever he opens his mouth, despite how often you visit. you guess you’re not used to it yet. maybe you never will be.

you fold your arms along the rear of the chair, chin resting atop of your hands. the sky is painted pink and yellow, casting a warm shadow onto the canvas in front of ten. within the intricate lines and sketches drawn in black, a woman is displayed, painted with the most detail and color.

“she’s beautiful,” you remark. ten’s eyes follow your gaze to the drawing, and the corners of his mouths quirk up into a smile.

“she reminds me of you.”

you let out a giggle of embarrassment and hide your face in your arms. ten bites his tongue to hold his excitement in.

“what movie should we watch tonight?” you ask, choosing to disregard ten’s last flirty comment for the sake of your composure.

“i was thinking pride and prejudice,” he states after a couple of seconds. ten sets down the palette and brush in his hands and replaces the two objects with your face instead. a quiet gasp leaves your lips at the proximity of your faces. “how does that sound, my lovely elizabeth bennett?”

you bite your lip and grin at the man awaiting an answer in front of you. the heat emanating off both of your faces is enough to warm you from the evening breeze seeping in from the cracked windows in his room. touching your nose with his, you can’t contain the grin that spreads from cheek to cheek as you whisper against ten’s lips. perhaps you could get used to this feeling after all.

“that sounds like a grand idea, mr. darcy.”

[18:26]jungwoo zones out as he watches you gather ingredients together, his thoughts filled with future scenarios of you preparing dinner for a bigger family than just the two of you. 

11:13 PM

“Just close your eyes” renjun’s voice soft and sweet, his small hand running through your hair as a sign of comfort. You slowly closed your eyes, feeling tiredness wash over you, the pain you felt slowly sizzling away at renjuns words. “You’re perfect, you’re worthy, you’re beautiful and I love you dearly y/n” you place a kiss to his skin as a thank you, wrapping your arms tightly around him. “Please don’t let your mother drag you down and ruin us, because I need you y/n”He whispers, feeling a tear roll down his face. He knew it was going to happen, your mother didn’t like the fact you loved the boy. Your family and friends didnt like him. Oh he was too controlling, he was gonna hurt you one day, blah blah blah. But he loved you too much, And he wasn’t going to let them hurt you and take you away from him. “I’ll sort it all out y/n,renjun will fix it all” a dark tone ringing in his voice now, a smirk displayed on his face. His eyes dark. A deep chuckle rumbled through his chest, already picturing the gruesome details in his head. “You don’t have to worry anymore princess”

⚠️tw: tragic backstories and crippling angst lol, mentions of deceased parents, drowning mentions, implied suic*de, grief, renjun’s cute english (all mistakes in his dialogue are intentional. enjoy)

i had no idea this would get such enthusiastic reactions. thank you everyone who requested a continuation, hope this makes you feel something and answers some questions ♡

this is part three of merman!renjun, find parts oneandtwo here :))

1:44pm: “did it hurt?”

merman!renjun glanced up at runaway prince!jeno’s prompt, who stared expectantly at him through the bars of his cell.

“what?”

the prince gestured at renjun’s legs and spoke matter-of-factly. “your tail. it’s gone. did it hurt?”

“oh… yes.” he wiggled his toes. “it hurt.”

“a lot?”

renjun paused and hugged his knees a little closer into his chest. “yes.”

“and you… can’t transform back.” pirate!you lifted your chin to make eye contact with renjun, who pursed his lips and nodded in response.

“magic is no-come-back,” he said with a shrug.

“irreversible,” the prince offered.

“irressimble. no merperson ever come back from land.”

your heart and eyes sank to your lap. “right.”

poor haechan.

you found yourself getting to your feet. “i… i’m gonna leave you two to catch up.” dusting off your palms on your hips, you cleared your throat. “let me know if you, uh, need anything, alright?”

renjun nodded.

“right. um… your highness.” you offered a quick curtsey towards jeno, who scoffed lightly at the difference between your usual domineering behaviour and your attempt at character continuity.

as you made your way up the stairs, you remembered the time pirate!haechan had first opened up to you about his past. you had both been younger, yet already best of friends.

“cap'n the only family you got?” he tossed a grape into his mouth.

“we have an older sister. on land, though. runs an orphanage.”

he made a noise of interest. “parents?”

you shook your head as you reached for another grape. “shipwreck, funnily enough. you?”

“three siblings. all younger than me.”

you chortled at the thought. “you? the eldest?”

“i’m more responsible than you give me credit for,” he retorted, a dramatic hand placed on his chest in mock offence.

“yeah, right. i’ll give you credit when you don’t slack off.”

he laughed, and the two of you sat in silence for a moment.

you reached the top of the stairs, and took a moment to let yourself adjust to the sunlight. scanning the deck through squinted eyes, you spotted haechan at the bow of the ship, his back turned to you as he stared out at the ocean.

“your parents still around?” you had asked.

his brow had furrowed at the stars above and his chewing grew hesitant. you had started to apologise, realising you’d struck a nerve, but he shook his head and reassured you it wasn’t your fault.

“dad’s there, yeah. mum’s, uh… mum was a mermaid.”

a sound of surprise escaped your lips.

“—or so my father told us. she came to shore, grew legs and lived as a human. had my siblings and i… and loved my father. loved us.”

you chose to listen in silence and watch as he focused on peeling the skin off the grape he held in his hands.

“we were at the beach one day. i guess she missed her home, ‘cause she barely said anything and just stared out to sea.” he took a slow, shallow breath. “i asked her to come and… and play with us. and she… took my hands, told me she loved me… let me go, and—and just walked straight in. right through the waves. didn’t stop. never saw her again.”

you didn’t know what to say, so you went with the safe option. “i’m so sorry.”

“nah,” he said, trying to disguise his sniffling with a deep inhale, “all in the past. i used to be mad about it, but i’m over that now. she’s probably happier.”

you sighed at the sight of him. he was barely moving, but his loose shirt and hair whipped around in the wind. no, you aren’t.

leaning your elbows on the taffrail next to him, you watched the hull of the ship split the ocean surface, leaving waves in her wake and advancing still.

you weren’t taken aback when you turned towards haechan and was met with tears streaming steadily down his cheeks, their trail from his grief-stricken eyes shining in the sun.

he could barely maintain eye contact with you, his gaze drawn to the horizon again. a wet exhale left his lips before he pursed them tighter and gripped the railing until his knuckles turned white.

“the merman’s telling the truth, then?” he managed, his tone laced with anger. “you can’t transform back once you grow legs?”

“haechan, i—”

“you can’t transform back, then what happened to my mum, huh?” he demanded, perhaps towards you, perhaps not. “you’re telling me she walked in to die? to drown in her own home?”

“haechan.”

“you mean i let her go for what? for nothing?”

“hey—”

he sniffed and shook his head, “no. no, it can’t be true. maybe he just doesn’t know her. my house is on the other end of the earth, he probably never even heard of someone returning because he’s never met—”

“haechan.” you caught his shoulder and he gripped your hand, to throw it off or for support, you couldn’t tell—until his breath was sucked out of his lungs, his head hung and he gave in to the sobs that racked his body. his weight fell forward as his knees buckled, and you caught him with practised foresight.

the two of you sank to your knees, his face buried in your shoulder and balled fists clutching the fabric of your shirt. murmuring your words of comfort and drawing circles on his back, you let him grieve his mother a second and final time.

when he finally exhausted himself and you stopped having to remove your hand from his head to wave away anyone who approached you, renjun climbed onto the deck in search of you. he frowned in confusion when he recognised haechan and stayed wary as he drew nearer.

haechan noticed his presence and pulled himself out of your arms and onto his feet. clearing his throat, he raised his eyes to the merman’s.

“i shouldn’t have touched you,” he began awkwardly, “i was… stupid, and… it almost cost you your life. i’m sorry.”

renjun looked like he didn’t know what to respond with. “you are welcome,” he replied hesitantly.

taken aback at the unexpected answer, haechan cleared his throat again and walked past the boy.

renjun turned back towards you, tilting his head in puzzlement. “why is he sad?”

you sighed deeply before standing up too. “haechan’s mother was a mermaid.”

renjun’s lips parted in shock.

“she had legs, too, and lived on land. but she missed the sea, so she said goodbye and went back.” you gestured over his shoulder at haechan’s disappearing figure down the stairs, his gaze following your hand. “he never knew merpeople couldn’t transform back, so he thought she was still alive.”

the boy didn’t meet your eyes when he turned back around. a moment of silence smothered any further words you might have said.

“and he tried help me and push me back in water.”

“… yes. he thought… you would be happier in the water.”

another beat.

“he is not happy.”

“no, he isn’t.”

you paused to let him contemplate.

“but. she was happy.”

“hmm?”

“his mother. she was happy.”

then it was your turn to tilt your head to the side.

“mermaids choose legs,” he explained, “his mother choose land.”

“merpeople choose to transform permanently?”

he nodded eagerly, “choose to t…ransform pernamamently. i choose because you protect.”

“because i protected you?”

“yes. i am in danger and you protec-ted me. i choose tarnsform tail to legs.”

you mulled over this consideration. “i… i’ll let him know. thank you, renjun.”

“you are welcome,” he responded with certainty, offering you his first smile, albeit small.

you managed to smile back. “alright,” you declared, “how about some lunch? you hungry?”

i reckon there’s room for part four.. hm hm thoughts thoughts

part one|part two

taglist:@whattaweeb@radiorenjun

⚠️tw: swearing, violence, haechan’s a bit of an ass in this, but he has his reasons

this is part two of this au!

1:24pm: “will someone remind me why it is we’re taking him with us?” pirate!haechandemanded.

pirate!you shot him a look. “he stays.”

he scowled back at you. “look at him,” he said, nudging his chin in merman!renjun’s general direction, “he can barely walk.”

glancing over, you had to admit that haechan’s observations were right—having given up attempting to stand a while ago, renjun sat alone on the edge of the deck. he was staring down at the wood under his new feet with a slight frown, like he was wondering why the dark grains weren’t rolling over each other as waves would. the clothes given to him were too big for his frame, and his hands and feet were barely visible in the sea of sleeves.

“he doesn’t belong here. why he’s stupid enough to stay, i couldn’t say.” turning around, haechan started to scrub the railing with more aggression than ever.

“well, he obviously didn’t want to go back, so lay off it, will you?”

haechan scoffed like he had given up. “you know what? fine.” throwing the rag back into the bucket, he shrugged rather dramatically. “i’ll just accept that i can’t possibly fathom why a merman won’t go back into the ocean.” with that, he left, stomping away with as much dignity as he could muster despite leaving his chore half-finished.

sighing in frustration at both yourself and him, you picked up his bucket and continued his job.

you decided not to chase him up—you knew the grudge he held, and you weren’t about to sour his mood further just for the sake of it.

you also knew haechan wasn’t being ridiculous, nor was his reasoning questionable. you remembered the terror in renjun’s eyes when he turned back at you, the wordless pleas to save him, his desperate hands clutching at your shoulder. you only had the capacity to be confused after you led him back onboard.

tossing the rest of the water in the bucket over the railing, you carried it below deck, then remembered you had yet to offer renjun some food. visiting cook!kunandcook!chenle in the kitchen, you cleared your throat to announce your presence over the rapid chinese conversation the two were engaged in. they poured you a bowl of a simple soup, and you blew on it softly to cool it down on your way above deck—you were sure renjun wasn’t used to steaming hot meals.

shouts and sounds of a scuffle caught your attention midway up the flight of stairs, and you rushed out to see what the commotion was about.

alarm overrode your senses as you recognised renjun in the crowd gathered at the far end of the ship—pinned down onto the railing by none other than haechan, who was yelling in renjun’s face about something you couldn’t quite make out. even in the chaos, renjun spotted you in his peripheral vision, and opened his mouth to scream for you.

you dropped the bowl and broke into a sprint, your breath hitching as haechan reached down and hooked his arm under renjun’s knees. panicking, the boy kicked out, which only aided haechan in lifting him completely off the deck. you almost swore his hand was searching for something to hold onto as he plummeted.

it all happened so fast, and you were so far—one moment, he was scrabbling at haechan, the next, he was slipping off the railing… then he was airborne, but not for long.

“what are you doing?!” you screamed, almost shoving haechan to the side.

“putting the fish back where he belongs,” he replied breathlessly, barely looking at you. “why? you gonna tell me i shouldn’t have?”

you caught the railing in your hands, leaning over to search for renjun in the water. a cloud of bubbles had risen to mark where the merman had landed, and you held your own breath as you waited, not knowing what to expect. was he just going to swim away? would he wave goodbye?

when most of the bubbles cleared, you caught a glimpse of the white shirt he had been wearing.

even though the blue of the ocean blurred your view of him, the pit in your stomach grew as you realised the shirt wasn’t sinking, and neither was it still. in fact, the sleeves were still flailing around erratically, the unnatural movements slowed by the density of the water.

barely thinking, you kicked off your shoes and threw off your hat. you were about to shake off your jacket when a hand pulled your shoulder back and away from the edge. you let out a cry of shock, whipping your head around to see captain!taeyong, who shook his head at you sternly. you tried to shrug him off, but he only held on tighter.

“haechan,” he said, “fish-boy’s drowning. you go get him.”

the boy’s face turned incredulous. “why me?”

“you threw him over. you get him. go.”

you weren’t shocked when haechan audibly swore under his breath, but started kicking off his shoes anyway. he wasn’t one to cross the captain’s orders, and he wasn’t about to start.

still grumbling, he jumped onto the railing, calculating the distance from the ledge to the water below. he spat out to the side, swore, then pin-dropped perfectly.

you watched as haechan disappeared under the surface, and reemerged a few moments later with a panicking renjun in his arms, yelling at him to shut up and relax.

two of your crewmates had lowered the rowboat onto the water when haechan had jumped. he dragged renjun towards it, pulled himself up and helped renjun in before leaning back and waiting for the crew to haul the boat back up.

when they were both back on deck, renjun was still spluttering up water from his lungs. you crouched next to him and thumped your hand on his back rhythmically, encouraging him to cough it out. tears flowed down his cheeks as he struggled for breath—he had obviously never experienced coughing before.

“for the stars’ sake,” haechan challenged, “why is he still here, inconveniencing everyone? huh?” he leaned into renjun’s face threateningly, “you get caught accidentally, we let you go, and you ignore that? you could have just transformed back and swam away, but no. you just had to make me get my clothes wet, didn’t you? why? you determined to piss me off?”

still doubled over on his knees, renjun had managed to stop coughing. he didn’t move from his position, his chest still heaving as he panted. you noticed his fingertips pressing into the wooden planks under his palms, his nails turning white with the pressure. his shoulders quivered and jaw was clenched tight.

your lips parted in realisation.

“he can’t.”

haechan probably hadn’t heard you over the sound of his own blood roaring in his ears. “what?”

“hecan’t,” you repeated, looking up at him, “he can’t transform back.”

renjun’s silence only confirmed your theory.

haechan blinked. his hands slipped off his hips, and his jaw went slack.

you could only imagine how haechan must have been feeling. how his chest must have tightened with the confronting truth, how he must have forgotten the world around him.

that you could only guess—you knew what thought was whirling through his mind.

“come on,” you said gently, gripping renjun’s shoulders. “can you stand?”

he nodded shakily, and you thought you heard him choke back a sob.

leaving haechan to some space to himself, you led a trembling renjun below deck to get warm. you sat him down on a crate next to the brig, murmuring reassurances to him, and started searching for a spare blanket.

“what the—renjun?”

you had almost forgotten the brig wasn’t empty, so you weren’t alone below deck. you turned to see runaway prince!jeno, who was usually rarely awake, clutching at the bars of his prison.

you frowned in confusion as renjun cried out incoherently, launching himself off the crate to kneel in front of the prison. “je-no!” he exclaimed, sounding just as shocked as the prince through his accent.

“you two… know each other?”

jeno glanced at you, then back at the merman. “renjun freed me and saved my life.” the boy nodded profusely in support.

“uh… you’re still very much imprisoned, your highness.”

“no, no, no—” the prince started to correct you. “—in the merpeople’s palace.”

part three