Round 9: don't hesitate, hold my hand (1/2)
Title: don't hesitate, hold my hand
Team: AU
Rating: PG
Fandom: BTOB
Pairing: Eunkwang/Minhyuk
Summary: Eunkwang has always thought Minhyuk was good-looking, but it’s starting to be kind of a problem. (Hogwarts AU)
Prompt Used: Juniel - I Think I'm in Love
Eunkwang knows it looks awfully strange to be going up the stairs when everyone else is headed down for breakfast, but if he's caught without his prefect badge, that would be downright unprofessional.
"Excuse me," he says as he passes by a group of mid-years, probably fourth. "Coming through," he side-steps some first years whose names are on the tip of his tongue. He reaches the top of another set and finds more stairs that are vibrating, getting ready to move.
He claps his hands together, looking at the stairs pleadingly, "Can you stay still just a bit longer?"
Eunkwang isn't totally convinced the stairs listen to him, but talking to them is habit by now and today they stop moving. He's reached the entrance level of Gryffindor Tower now, and it takes only a quick jog before he's reached the Fat Lady's portrait. There's lots of traffic headed out, so Eunkwang has to wait off to the side before he can go in.
Once inside the common room, Eunkwang walks by Changsub and Donggeun. They look at him questioningly.
After a second, Changsub catches on, "Forget something, hyung?"
"You got it," Eunkwang doesn't see any point in denying it. He walks past the pair, looking over his shoulder at them. "I'll be down in a moment, see you in the hall."
"See you then," Donggeun answers back, but Eunkwang's already jogging to the final set of stairs that lead to the boy's dormitory.
As a seventh year, Eunkwang's room is at the very top of the tower, so he passes a few boys on his way there, all of whom at least bow their heads and some of whom say good morning. Eunkwang would normally stop to chat a bit, but since he's in a hurry he makes do with returning their greetings.
By the time Eunkwang reaches his room, he's a bit winded from all the stairs. He takes a few breaths then opens the door.
Eunkwang is greeted by the sun shining directly through the window. Once his eyes adjust, he can see that the curtains on three of the four beds are drawn open. Eunkwang himself is out of bed of course, and Taekwoon and Jihoon must be at breakfast already.
Leon meows at Eunkwang from his typical place on Taekwoon's unmade bed, and Eunkwang resists the urge to meow back. If he gets involved in greeting the cat, he may forget why he's here.
Eunkwang walks over to his bedside table and grabs his prefect badge from its usual spot. He puts his textbooks down for a second and pins the badge on his robes with an exhale of relief. He has Potions today and Professor Yang would have noticed his transgression for sure.
Leon meows again, demanding the level of attention he usually gets from Eunkwang.
Before Eunkwang can respond, a groan comes from the only occupied bed.
Eunkwang laughs, which only makes Leon meow again and Minhyuk groan louder.
Eunkwang picks his textbooks up under one arm and sits at the end of Taekwoon's bed, scratching Leon's chin as he listens to Minhyuk rustle around.
"Good morning," he greets though Minhyuk can't see him yet. "Slept in?"
"Yes," Minhyuk does not sound too happy about it. "Jimin wanted to go over some of the plays we discussed last practice, then Bomi joined in, then Hoseok saw, and by the end we had just about the whole team there so we spent way too long talking."
"Taekwoon's up already though," Eunkwang notes, running his hand over Leon's back. Leon rumbles with purring, and Eunkwang notes for about the millionth time the irony of Taekwoon owning a very vocal cat.
"He did not attend our spontaneous meeting. I think he saw us across the common room but he didn't come over."
Eunkwang laughs, "That's so him."
"You're telling me," Minhyuk answers, and Eunkwang hears him shift some more before finally throwing his bed's curtains open.
Minhyuk closes his eyes as he's hit with the full force of the sun. His hair is sticking up in places, and the tank top he sleeps in is very rumpled, wrinkled in some places and clinging in others.
Eunkwang finds himself staring for a moment, his hand on Leon going still.
It's not that Eunkwang hasn't seen Minhyuk wake up before, or that he's never noticed how good-looking Minhyuk is. Eunkwang's been rooming with Minhyuk since first year, of course he's seen him in the morning, and given how long they've known each other it's impossible for Eunkwang to have not known Minhyuk's a handsome guy.
Looking at him now, though, is like seeing Minhyuk all over again.
Minhyuk blearily opens his eyes, and between his sleep-heavy expression, the sun shining on him, his cutely messed-up hair, and his flattering choice in sleepwear, he looks like someone straight out of a romance novel.
Eunkwang can't help being drawn in.
Then he feels Leon walk away and remembers it's weird to stare at one of your best friends waking up.
Eunkwang quickly reaches out for Leon again, and Minhyuk laughs as he completely misses and ends up flopped on the end of Taekwoon's bed, watching Leon's journey to the other side of the room.
Eunkwang purposely doesn't look at Minhyuk as he hears him shift around. From his position, all he can see is Minhyuk's feet hit the floor and his subsequent walk to his wardrobe.
"Exactly what time is it?" Minhyuk asks, starting to undress.
Eunkwang rolls over so that he's looking at the wall instead of Minhyuk's clothes falling to the ground, "Mmmm, about an hour until class. I woke up earlier, I just forgot my prefect badge so I came up again."
Minhyuk snorts, "Good job. We have Potions today too, Professor Yang would have docked you points for sure."
"Exactly," Eunkwang rolls onto his back, staring at the ceiling now. Though he can see Minhyuk putting his shirt on out of the corner of his eye. "And then he'd start talking about," Eunkwang assume his best Professor Yang impression, "'Look at Sunggyu, he has his badge on all the time. Where is your professionalism? You Gryffindors, you've always got that bravado that makes you think you can get away with anything...'"
It's not a very good impression, Eunkwang's voice is off and Professor Yang's vocabulary is different, but Minhyuk laughs anyways. He's mostly dressed now, only lacking his robe, so Eunkwang deems it safe to look and sits up.
He wonders what's gotten into him today, to be shy about looking at Minhyuk change. Normally he would have looked and made jokes about how he thinks Minhyuk's abs aren't quite as good as they were last time, better do more push-ups than the ones he already does daily. But right now when his brain goes to "Minhyuk's abs" Eunkwang gets a detailed image that looks quite appealing. He decides it's better not to think about it.
"You ready?" Eunkwang asks, getting off Taekwoon's bed as Minhyuk tightens his tie.
Minhyuk looks at Eunkwang, grins, and pushes his hair back. It's a bit of a cheesy gesture, but Eunkwang thinks it's charming.
He always thinks Minhyuk is charming, but the thought has a bit of a different flavour to it right now.
"Lee Minhyuk is ready to go," he announces, picking up his textbooks and stuffing his wand into his sleeve. "Forget anything other than your prefect badge?"
Eunkwang walks back to his pile of textbooks, taking them in his arms again, "Not as far as I know."
"Great, let's go," Minhyuk says, wasting no time once he's out of bed.
Eunkwang follows, striking up conversation about their in-class essay tomorrow, and pushes any weird feelings about Minhyuk's looks out of his head.
- - - - -
Eunkwang doesn't expect the morning's feelings to amount to much. Minhyuk's a handsome guy. Eunkwang has always known this. It's only natural to have a moment or two when the fact hits home, right?
But as the day continues, Eunkwang feels oddly aware of Minhyuk.
It starts off at breakfast, where Eunkwang jokingly feeds Minhyuk as part of their group parents routine but ends up thinking that feeding him was actually kind of exciting.
His awareness returns in full force during Potions, where his stomach stirs every time his hand brushes Minhyuk's. He's so distracted by it he almost messes up the day's lab.
In History of Magic too, Eunkwang's daydreaming turns into staring at Minhyuk's profile while he doodles Quidditch plans on his textbook. Minhyuk licks his lips in concentration at some point, trying to get a line perfectly straight, and Eunkwang flushes so much that he has to slap his cheeks. The display gets him a few odd looks.
By the time afternoon has arrived and Eunkwang's headed to choir practice, he's starting to think the awareness is not going to go away.
Why it's surfaced now is another question entirely.
Eunkwang sighs as he enters the music room, plagued with questions. Changsub, Hyunsik, and Sungjae have gathered already so Eunkwang walks over to them automatically.
"Good afternoon," Eunkwang greets as he approaches the group. "Do you know if there's something like a love potion except it just makes you think someone's hot? Not drooling with lust hot either, just regular hot." That's his latest theory and he wants input.
His friends blink at him.
"If there is, I've never heard of it," Hyunsik answers, frowning.
"Aaah, that's not too surprising. Wizards usually go for stronger effects in potions," Eunkwang grabs his chin in thought. "I haven't really had a chance to drink anything like that anyways."
Changsub raises an eyebrow, "Hyung, you've ingested at least five love potions intended for Minhyuk-hyung. If you didn't learn your lesson after the Taekwoon incident, you will never learn."
Eunkwang huffs because he's only ingested four love potions and he totally learned his lesson after the Taekwoon incident. He knew it was a bad idea when he drank the last one, but Donggeun had dared him to and there was food on the line.
Sungjae speaks up before Eunkwang can make that correction, "What are you even talking about, Eunkwang-hyung? What's happening to you?"
"Nothing much," or at least he hopes it isn't. "Just realized someone is really hot today."
"Congratulations, hyung, you're finally going through puberty," Changsub puts an arm around his shoulder. "Maybe it will come with a growth spurt."
Hyunsik snorts and Eunkwang can't help but laugh too. Even jokes at his expense are funny sometimes.
Sungjae, on the other hand, is more interested in what Eunkwang said, "Who is it? Who's hot?"
"Minhyuk," Eunkwang answers simply.
His friends stare at him in silence.
Changsub's stare is particularly unimpressed, "I have never looked at a man sexually in my life and I still could have told you that."
Eunkwang backpedals a bit.
"Okay, okay, it's not like I just realized it. I mean, I always knew he was hot. I share a room with him. We go to the prefect's baths together sometimes. I am aware of what his entire body looks like and it is not bad-looking by any means."
"Eunkwang-hyung, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be talking about that in public," Hyunsik ventures. He does have a point. Some of Minhyuk's fangirls might be in choir and it's always awkward to deal with them.
Eunkwang sighs, "Anyways, I've noticed before but since this morning I haven't stopped noticing, you know?"
Silence falls over the gathered group again.
Eunkwang pouts at them, "You're being silent at me a lot."
"You're kinda hard to believe sometimes, hyung," Changsub says.
Before Eunkwang can ask what that's supposed to mean, Professor Lee enters the room, and all conversation is paused in favour of headed to their proper spots.
- - - - -
Eunkwang only gets the chance to chat again after choir's over.
Sungjae dashes off quickly, having a remedial Potions lab with Ilhoon. Changsub leaves the group too, mentioning something about a nap before he takes off.
Their absence means only Eunkwang and Hyunsik are headed to their post-choir study session today, and Eunkwang really wants to sort this morning out.
"I just don't get it, Hyunsik-ah," Eunkwang says, huffing slightly. "It's not like I didn't think he was handsome before, but I looked at him this morning and suddenly..."
"A boner?" Hyunsik suggests, sniggering.
Eunkwang shoves him in response, "Not literally."
Hyunsik laughs, but he straightens his face after a moment, "Well, I don't really know what to say to you."
Eunkwang groans, "It's just so weird. I normally like girls and it's not like Minhyuk suddenly got hot this morning."
"It doesn't really make sense," Hyunsik agrees, "but it's not like you can change it."
"Weird, weird," Eunkwang tilts his head from side to side for a moment, then turns to Hyunsik again. "What should I do about this?"
Hyunsik raises an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"Should I ask him out or something?" Eunkwang hadn't even thought of that before now. Now that it's slipped out of his mouth, he's oddly nervous.
Hyunsik laughs a bit, and Eunkwang frowns at him, "I'm being serious here."
"Sorry," Hyunsik apologizes, a sheepish grin on his face, "I was just thinking that this whole thing is really sudden. I mean, we all know you like Minhyuk a lot but you've never brought up liking him this particular way before..."
"See, that's the thing," Eunkwang purses his lips in thought. "I've definitely had moments where I've looked at Minhyuk and thought 'whoa' before, right?"
"You have?"
Eunkwang nods, "I've been thinking about it a lot since this morning, and you know that time Changsub messed up that spell and landed half of us in the lake?"
Hyunsik looks even more confused, "Yes?"
"We were all totally drenched, in our white summer uniform shirts too. I remember there were some girls nearby and you were super embarrassed but that's not the point. See, I also remember thinking Minhyuk was really hot then."
"Fair enough," Hyunsik says.
"That wasn't too long ago, but back in fourth year when we were growing, I kept teasing him about how handsome he was getting. Thinking back on it now, I meant that sincerely. I'd stare at him a bit sometimes."
"Eunkwang-hyung."
Hyunsik seems like he gets the point but another good example just occurred to Eunkwang and he doesn't want to let it get away from him.
"And I'm sure you remember when Minhyuk finally got his place on the quidditch team. He did so well in his first game that basically the whole school was super impressed with the talented third year. I don't know if you remember this part, but after that happened he was basically glowing for an entire week and I thought all that smiling made him look incredibly cute."
"I think I get the point."
Eunkwang looks at Hyunsik sheepishly. Hyunsik is smiling.
"Sounds to me like you've had a bit of a crush on Minhyuk for longer than you think."
Eunkwang squirms at that, "I don't think it's a crush exactly..."
That sounds more permanent than being attracted to someone. A crush could have a serious effect on his present friendship with Minhyuk, and Eunkwang values that friendship a lot.
Hyunsik sees Eunkwang is uncomfortable, so he doesn't press the matter. They've almost reached the library anyways and Minhyuk is waiting for them there, so this conversation should probably end.
"Anyways, whatever it is you're feeling hyung, I don't know what you should do about it."
Eunkwang groans, so Hyunsik gives him an apologetic smile.
"Maybe start with figuring out exactly what the feeling is. It sounds like you're not sure beyond the 'Minhyuk-hyung is hot' part. Maybe picture dating him and see how that sounds to you."
Being given direction to his thoughts instantly makes Eunkwang feel better. He gives Hyunsik a grin.
"See, you do know what I should do about it. This is why I talk to you, Hyunsik. Always so smart."
Hyunsik has nothing to say to that but "thanks" as the pair enter the library and begin looking around for where their other friends have set up today.
- - - - -
As the day progresses, Eunkwang and the others migrate to the Gryffindor common room. Other days they go down to Slytherin to bother Sungjae and Ilhoon, and occasionally they visit Hufflepuff to catch up with Hakyeon and company, but on most days, as they do today, they claim a circle of Gryffindor couches to themselves and do their own things.
Hyunsik has started up a game of wizard's chess and is highly focused on his match against Ilhoon. Ilhoon brought Sungjae up from the basement too, but Sungjae's busy lying on the floor and discussing something with his friend Sanghyuk. Changsub came down from the rooms a half hour ago and is only now settling down to study, while Donggeun reads an English novel and munches on jelly slugs beside him. Everyone has been helping themselves to Donggeun's candy, but Donggeun is either too absorbed in his book to notice or he doesn't care.
Eunkwang is sitting with Minhyuk. They're leaning against opposite arms of the couch, facing each other while they do some last minute proofreading.
Minhyuk nudges Eunkwang's foot with his own, breaking Eunkwang's concentration, "Pixies don't lay eggs."
"Huh?" Eunkwang scoots forward and leans on Minhyuk's knees. "They don't?"
Minhyuk turns Eunkwang's paper around, gesturing to the mistake, "The potion you're talking about calls for 'fairy eggs'. You have to fix the whole paragraph now."
Eunkwang grabs the paper back with a sigh, "I knew there was something like that."
"How do you get fairies and pixies mixed up anyways?" Changsub asks without looking up.
"I was really tired when I wrote it."
"You have been pretty tired lately," Minhyuk agrees as he watches Eunkwang sit up and make his corrections. "Have you been sleeping well?"
"Not especially," Eunkwang admits as he crosses out every occurrence of the word 'pixie'. "Winter exams means certain students getting very absorbed in studying, which means extra patrolling to make sure no one was missed in the library."
Minhyuk looks surprised, "Night patrols? But you haven't been waking me up. Can you do it alone now?"
"There's quidditch in a few days," Eunkwang gives Minhyuk a grin. "Don't you need your rest more than I do?"
Minhyuk smiles back, "That's thoughtful of you, but if you need company I'll deal, seriously. Only the exact night before the game is off-limits."
Eunkwang's about to thank him for the sentiment, but Changsub pipes up again.
"If you two are going to be sappy like that why don't you just get married."
Minhyuk sits up and practically glues himself to Eunkwang's side. It's a normal part of their group parents jokes, but today that weird awareness is there and Minhyuk's proximity sends some kind of jolt through Eunkwang's system.
Minhyuk pitches his voice up, "Aren't we already?"
"Yes, very married," Eunkwang's dad voice isn't exactly what it usually is and his response was lacking, but it's all he can manage with Minhyuk so close. Minhyuk's lying his head on Eunkwang's shoulder and Eunkwang wants him to stay there.
Changsub rolls his eyes and turns away, so Minhyuk sits up properly. He's not leaning on Eunkwang anymore but their knees are still touching. Eunkwang wouldn't bat an eyelash at it normally, but the awareness won't go away.
"You finished with my essay yet?" Minhyuk asks with a smile, and Eunkwang shakes his head rapidly. He was just starting to read the conclusion. He picks up Minhyuk's paper again.
Minhyuk doesn't move away from their close position. His leg seems oddly warm. Eunkwang feels oddly warm too. He skims the rest of Minhyuk's writing as his mind jumps back to Hyunsik's advice.
He was too busy to think about it earlier, but now all his work is done.
Eunkwang hands Minhyuk's essay back to him, "Everything here looks good to me."
Minhyuk smiles again, showing his teeth. He's really cute.
"Great, thanks."
Eunkwang wants to kiss him.
The thought throws Eunkwang so off-balance he has to pause completely to think about it. He hasn't had such a concrete thought about what he wants to do with Minhyuk before, it was just a nebulous attraction thing.
Now, though, Eunkwang can be positive it's more serious than that.
He thinks about Hyunsik's advice again. He tries to picture dating Minhyuk, but his first thought isn't a picture; it's the fact that if they were dating, Eunkwang could kiss Minhyuk a lot.
That idea alone is incredibly appealing.
"Um, Eunkwang-hyung?"
That's Sungjae, down on the floor still, his chin in his hands as he observes his friend.
"Eunkwang-hyung, is your brain still in there?"
"It looks like he's actually thinking, Sungjae," Changsub flops onto his stomach so he's closer to Sungjae's face level. "Don't interrupt, this is rare."
"It's fine," Eunkwang shakes his head rapidly to get everything out of there. "Did you need something, Sungjae?"
"I was just wondering if you were okay," Sungjae says. "You were totally spaced out. Looked like you became a statue for a few seconds."
Eunkwang hears hollering suddenly, and looks over to the game of wizard's chess. Hyunsik seems to have won. Minhyuk has strayed over to high-five Hyunsik with one hand and pat Ilhoon on the back with the other.
"You're doing it again," Sungjae accuses.
"Doing what?" Eunkwang asks, leaning towards the group's youngest.
"Spacing out," Sungjae snorts as he rolls onto his back. "It's like you're staring at something, but there's nothing interesting, just Minhyuk-hyung and the others."
"I think Minhyuk's very interesting," Eunkwang says unthinkingly as he watches Minhyuk ruffle Ilhoon's hair. He's calling him a 'good son' and Ilhoon's swatting him away.
Changsub and Sungjae exchange a look at Eunkwang's words. Sanghyuk looks at the two of them as well but seems clueless as to what the look means, which is a relief because it means Eunkwang's not the only one missing something.
"I'm sure you do, Eunkwang-hyung," Changsub says eventually, letting his face fall onto the couch cushions. "I'm sure you do."
"I do," he says a bit defensively.
Hyunsik is casting spells to put all the chess pieces back together now, and Minhyuk is crawling around to help by gathering fragments. From this angle, Eunkwang can kind of see Minhyuk's collarbones.
Eunkwang lies down on the couch now that no one's with him and rolls onto his side to look at Minhyuk better. Only the crown of his head is really visible now, but Eunkwang watches anyways as Minhyuk crawls towards the couch. There's a chess piece fragment on the floor right near Eunkwang's head and he didn't even notice it landing there.
When Minhyuk finally retrieves that piece, he looks up and his face is level with Eunkwang's. Eunkwang widens his eyes in fake shock and Minhyuk laughs.
"How's it going over here?"
"Fine," Eunkwang answers. Minhyuk's face is getting closer and Eunkwang's more aware of it than any other proximity of Minhyuk's today. He's practically in kissing range now.
"Hyunsik should really get a self-repairing wizard's chess set, huh?" Minhyuk holds up his handful of chess fragments. "It's impossible to find all the pieces like this."
"Maybe we can get him one for his birthday," Eunkwang says without thinking. He's too busy staring. The effects of Minhyuk's laborious skincare routine are quite visible up close. "How much are they?"
Minhyuk sits back and thinks about it for a moment. Eunkwang has the very silly thought of 'wait, come back.'
Eventually, Minhyuk sighs, "I dunno, we'd have to check. Probably expensive though."
Eunkwang doesn't know anything about the price of magic goods he doesn't have to buy for school, so he hums in vague agreement.
Minhyuk doesn't move after that, continuing to sit on the floor, and Eunkwang takes that moment to notice Minhyuk has leaned forward again. If Eunkwang leaned down and tried to kiss him, he would probably get Minhyuk's nose.
"You're spacey tonight," Minhyuk notes. "Are you thinking about something?"
What can Eunkwang say to that? "You're really pretty so I'm staring"? "I've decided I have a crush on you"? "The fact that you're really close to me right now is making my chest do weird things"? "Are you aware that we're in kissing range right now"?
"Minhyuk please go out with me"?
Even for Eunkwang, that's a bit too spontaneous. He rolls onto his stomach and buries his face in his arms before he says any of his initial thoughts.
"It's nothing, I'm just tired," he lies easily and feels a bit bad about it, but it's necessary right now. "I'm thinking that I don't have night patrol tonight so I should sleep early."
"Sounds like a good plan," Minhyuk stands up. "I should probably sleep early too. Morning practice tomorrow and all."
Eunkwang looks up, and Minhyuk's offering him the hand that doesn't have chess pieces in it. Eunkwang sits up and takes it.
Even though it's just Minhyuk pulling him to his feet and not actual hand-holding, Eunkwang's stomach feels oddly clenched up.
Minhyuk lets go of Eunkwang's hand quickly, of course he does, and Eunkwang feels a bit silly for hoping he wouldn't.
Eunkwang grabs his essay, quill, and inkwell, and Minhyuk starts to grab his materials. He's returned all the stone chips to Hyunsik, who is reciting spells to get his chess set back in working order.
"Eunkwang and I are going to sleep!" Minhyuk announces.
There's a chorus of "good night"s from the group. Sanghyuk says something about all the senior citizens of the group sleeping early, but Minhyuk and Eunkwang are already on their way and can't be bothered to respond.
Eunkwang ascends the stairs idly staring at the top of Minhyuk's head.
He knows he has a crush now, but he has no idea what to about it. He should probably ask for advice again.
- - - - -
With Quidditch in two days, Minhyuk is only present for meals and classes, which Eunkwang thinks is a shame. He hovers around the team meetings in the common room to get as much time with Minhyuk as possible, but they kick him out quickly by virtue of having Hufflepuff friends and a large mouth.
This situation would normally leave Eunkwang plenty of time to talk to his other friends, but winter exams are right around the corner. After the quidditch game it's tests for everyone, and Eunkwang doesn't want to interrupt anyone's studying.
It's Friday afternoon now, and Eunkwang is helping his younger friends with Charms. Sungjae asked for his help first, then Ilhoon came because he had nothing else to do, and then once their study session was underway Sungjae spotted Donggeun outside the classroom and practically the manhandled the sixth year in with them.
However, everyone has gotten bored of casting Silencing charms each other and they're a bit distracted by the view of the Quidditch pitch from the window.
"Hufflepuff's practicing," Donggeun informs them as some distant people fly above the stands.
"Well, duh," Ilhoon perches himself on a windowsill, looking out at the fields of snow. "You're here and no other team would practice when Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff is so soon."
Donggeun opens and closes his hand, catching an invisible Snitch. He always does that when games are near and he's thinking about it. Minhyuk doesn't have any tics like that, but he exercizes more in the lead-up to games so he's always sweaty. As one of Minhyuk's roommates, Eunkwang would know.
Though he's finding the sight of "sweaty Minhyuk" a bit nicer than usual these days.
That thought reminds Eunkwang he hasn't spoken about his Minhyuk dilemma since Hyunsik. No one else is talking. They're not working anymore, just staring at the distant Hufflepuff players flying about, so Eunkwang supposes he can just get down to it.
"So I realized I have a crush on Minhyuk the other day."
All attention turns to him.
Sungjae and Donggeun look surprised at his proclamation. Ilhoon looks unimpressed.
"That took you a while," Ilhoon comments.
"A seriously long time!" Sungjae exclaims. He looks oddly excited now.
Donggeun just looks confused, "What are you talking about?" He leans past the others to look at Eunkwang. "I thought you liked girls."
Eunkwang turns around and leans his head back against the window, "I thought so too, but Minhyuk isn't a girl and I like him. My stomach feels weird around him and everything."
"Huh," Donggeun pauses, then looks up with a grin. "Are you gonna tell him?"
"You have to," Sungjae declares with an odd amount of determination. "You definitely have to tell him. I could tell soooo long ago and-"
"You could tell before I did?" Eunkwang is a bit incredulous. How come no one told him he had a crush on Minhyuk? That would have been good to know sooner.
Ilhoon pushes down on Sungjae's head, "Don't worry, it's not obvious or anything. We didn't know for sure, we just kind of thought-"
"That maybe it was a thing," Sungjae pops up again. "I mean, you obviously like the rest of us a lot but with Minhyuk you're kinda..."
Eunkwang tilts his head curiously, "Kinda what?"
Sungjae looks off to the side.
"I... I don't how to say it... Just different somehow."
Ilhoon sighs, "I don't know what Sungjae's talking about. I just thought you called him perfect way too often."
"I didn't notice anything," is Donggeun's contribution to the conversation.
"It's okay, I didn't know either," Eunkwang tells Donggeun, though it sounds a bit absurd not to be aware of his own crush. "But now that I know I don't really know what to do."
"As I said before, tell him," Sungjae crosses his arms and nods to himself, completely sure of his own advice.
Eunkwang stops leaning, hopping a little to get away from the wall, "I know, I know. I probably should. It's not like I'm shy at all, I just..."
"Just what?" Ilhoon prompts.
Eunkwang sighs, "I don't really know how he'll react."
"He definitely won't be mean about the whole guy confessing to him thing," Donggeun volunteers. "I mean, he is best friends with Hakyeon."
"I know that," Eunkwang waves off the concern with his hand. "I just... Don't want things to be weird, I guess. He'll probably say no, right?"
Sungjae frowns, "What makes you think that?"
Eunkwang looks to his underclassmen with a sheepish grin.
"That's... Normally what people say when I ask them out..."
Ilhoon sighs in exasperation, "It's Minhyuk-hyung. I think you have a better chance of a yes with him than some girl who doesn't really know you."
That Ilhoon seems to think so gives Eunkwang more hope than any of his own thoughts could.
Eunkwang brings a hand up to his chest, "I knew you had faith in me Ilhoonie."
Ilhoon looks a bit disgruntled now, "I'm just saying there's a better chance. That's pretty basic logic."
"I think there's a good chance he'll say yes," Sungjae is as confident in his conclusions as ever.
Donggeun raises an eyebrow, "But you're still worried about if he says no, right?"
Eunkwang nods. It's not like him to be so concerned or reserved about it. If this were basically any other boy in the world, he'd have approached them as directly as any of his female crushes in the past.
But this particular boy is Minhyuk and before Eunkwang liked him romantically, he loved Minhyuk as a friend. He's not sure he wants to make a relatively new crush his priority if a six year friendship could be on the line.
Ilhoon looks at Eunkwang a bit oddly, as if he's only now realizing how serious Eunkwang is, but before he gets the chance to speak, Sungjae has glued himself to Eunkwang's side.
"That is not even a problem because Minhyuk-hyung's going to say yes!"
"That's a bit of a jump from the 'good chance' you mentioned earlier," Donggeun points out. Eunkwang laughs at Sungjae's eagerness.
"I'm still not sure," Eunkwang says, hoping to dismiss the conversation. Ilhoon seems to be thinking seriously about it and he feels a bit bad. He shouldn't be distracting the others with his problems.
It doesn't seem like he's going to make a decision through this conversation anyways, so it's probably best to put the Minhyuk question to the side.
"How about we get back on track and you guys show me the disarming charm?"
That makes all three of them perk up, eager to make each other's wands fly everywhere. Eunkwang gets ready for them to gang up on him after they're done.
- - - - -
Before Eunkwang is able to think his Minhyuk situation through, the final quidditch game of the year is upon them.
Minhyuk and Taekwoon wake up especially early for the occasion. Taekwoon wakes up Leon in the process of getting out of bed, and Leon wakes up Eunkwang in the process of meowing loudly at his owner.
Eunkwang takes a moment to contemplate the time as he rolls around, wondering if he can sleep more. Once he's realized it's a quidditch day, he scoots forward and parts the curtains to blearily stare at the room from the end of his bed.
Taekwoon is too occupied with feeding Leon to notice Eunkwang, but Minhyuk sees him.
"It's quidditch day," Minhyuk whispers at Eunkwang, aware of their other sleeping roommate. "Go back to sleep."
"I know," Eunkwang is dead tired, but he tries to give Minhyuk a smile. "Just wanted to wish you good luck."
Minhyuk stares back, face oddly unreadable. Then he grins and scratches at his neck.
"Thanks. I'll do my best."
He leaves with Taekwoon in tow as Eunkwang settles back to sleep again. Minhyuk's reaction was a bit strange, but Eunkwang's too tired to think about it.
A few hours later finds Eunkwang completely awake and settling in at the front of the stands with a Gryffindor flag in each hand.
Changsub and Hyunsik are sitting to Eunkwang's right, actually discussing quidditch, and Ilhoon and Sungjae are sitting to his left. The younger pair stand out like sore thumbs with their Slytherin scarves, but they've prepared a large red and gold banner, so nobody needs to ask why they're seated in the Gryffindor quarter.
Sungjae's busy talking to Kim Taehyung and his ever-impressive roaring lion hat, which leaves only Ilhoon and Eunkwang without conversation partners among the expectant pre-game chatter.
"Minhyuk-hyung's fangirls are gathering," Ilhoon points out a group of mid-year girls a few seats away. "There's quite a few of them."
Eunkwang nods seriously, "The competition will be stiff."
Eunkwang makes a bit of a game of trying to yell louder than Minhyuk's fangirls, goading his other friends to join in. He has done so ever since Minhyuk started acquiring them. In hindsight, this is probably one of the reasons other people thought he had a crush.
At the mention of Eunkwang competing with fangirls, Changsub leans over.
"Yeah, you'd hate to lose any competition for Minhyuk-hyung."
"I would," Eunkwang answers back, hoping to throw Changsub off. Apparently he succeeds because Changsub frowns. Hyunsik turns in Eunkwang's direction curiously too.
Eunkwang feels like the attempt to throw Changsub off worked too well.
Changsub narrows his eyes, "Hyung, are you saying that-"
"Mic check, 1 2!" fills the stadium, and the crowd fills with cheers before Changsub can get started. He gives Eunkwang a look, but after a second his attention goes to the announcer's booth.
"Yes, hello Hogwarts, it's Lee Seunghoon here today," the Gryffindor in question throws up a peace sign. Eunkwang frequently has to tell him off for playing loud music in the common room, but he thinks Seunghoon is a good kid regardless. "I know you're all excited to hear from me, but I'm sure you're even more excited for today's game. It's the second one of the school year, Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff!"
As Seunghoon says so, the teams enter the pitch and cheering erupts completely. The stands seem to shake from all the noise.
"Yes, folks, this will certainly be a thrilling match," Seunghoon continues, but Eunkwang is busy looking through his binoculars to watch Minhyuk lead his team onto the field. "We haven't seen these teams in official matches yet, so for those who aren't familiar I'll introduce them to you!"
"Starting with my own house, we have captain, Chaser, and resident handsome guy Lee Minhyuk!" Minhyuk gives a wave and a cheesy wink to the crowd as cheers continue. "Yes, it's our eye candy's last year here sadly, but we'll get a few games out of him yet. Continuing with the seventh years on team Gryffindor, we have Jung Taekwoon! Possibly the most aggressive Keeper in Hogwarts history, we'll see how many fouls he gets to-"
Taekwoon does not look happy with his description, Eunkwang wouldn't be surprised if his glare was the reason Seunghoon stopped talking, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
"Sorry everybody," Seunghoon resumes, "I've been told by Professor Yang to stop doing this so the game can get under way, which is a shame because I prepared some really good introductions, but I'll listen to authority and try to work them into my commentary, alright? Anyways, it's all on you now Coach Kim!"
The school's quidditch coach speaks to the teams, inaudible from the stands, and then puts her struggling chest of quidditch balls on the ground. The teams mount their brooms. Minhyuk's lost the air of playing to the crowd he had before: he's focused now.
Coach Kim opens the chest, tosses the Quaffle up, and releases the rest of the balls.
Eunkwang focuses on Minhyuk completely as he darts forward, reaching for the Quaffle.
- - - - -
Eunkwang ends up watching Minhyuk the whole time.
Minhyuk gathers fangirls from his quidditch playing for a reason: even beyond being a good player and being good-looking in general, Minhyuk looks especially good playing quidditch. He's confident on his broom, almost graceful in the way he moves. He dodges all players and non-Quaffle balls with an ease that Eunkwang's sure no one else in Hogwarts has.
Eunkwang knows it's obvious who he's watching, the one time he looks away from his binoculars he catches Changsub side-eyeing him, but it's impossible to tear his eyes away.
Given his preoccupation with Minhyuk, Eunkwang doesn't see it when Donggeun makes a sudden dive to the ground, but he does cheer as loud as everyone around him at the result it gets: Donggeun catches the Snitch and Gryffindor's first game of the year is a win.
The obligatory victory party starts as soon as people enter the common room. The rate at which people start extracting hidden snacks and transfiguring string into red and gold streamers is downright impressive. If the present level of excitement keeps up, Eunkwang will have to start confiscating mini fireworks soon.
In the meantime, he waits with the rest of the house for the quidditch team to file through the door.
The moment they enter, Eunkwang dashes towards Minhyuk, other friends close on his heels, and tackles Minhyuk into a hug.
Minhyuk hugs back, and Eunkwang thinks he hears fireworks going off, though those may be in his head. Even if they are real, hugging Minhyuk is infinitely more appealing than confiscating fireworks. There are other prefects anyways.
Eunkwang pulls back from the hug with a grin practically splitting his face.
"Congratulations! Step one towards the quidditch cup complete!"
Minhyuk smiles in return and pulls Eunkwang back into a hug, "Steps two and three yet to come."
"Don't be so sure, you're facing Slytherin next," Ilhoon says, and though he's not as congratulatory as he could be, Minhhyuk smiles at him anyways. "Good job today though."
Sungjae bypasses Minhyuk entirely, "Donggeun-hyung you were so cool! That dive was awesome!"
Donggeun looks pleased as punch, "Yeah?"
"It was impressive," Hyunsik agrees, straying over to Donggeun as well. Minhyuk and Eunkwang follow him after a moment, forming a vague circle around the triumphant Seeker. "I couldn't believe how straight down you went."
"I didn't even know if I could get it," Donggeun recounts with a smile, "but I saw the Snitch out of the corner of my eye and way lower, so I just totally dipped, and then the Snitch was right there!"
"You caught it in the nick of time too," Minhyuk has the air of a proud parent as he puts his arm around Donggeun. "Things were getting messy up there. Wonshik was really on point today, it was getting hard to dodge the Bludgers. Bomi in particular had a few close calls but-"
"Why were you talking about Wonshik?"
Eunkwang practically jumps as Hakyeon peers his head into the circle, but Minhyuk just laughs.
"Your house lost, why are you here?"
"Because I love you," Hakyeon says frankly, stepping in between Eunkwang and Minhyuk. "Also Taekwoon, but I can't see him anywhere."
Changsub snorts, "He's probably holed up in his room."
"Give him a little more credit than that, he'll stay out," Minhyuk says, though most occupants of the circle look skeptical. "There's food out here. Taekwoon loves food."
Hakyeon pouts, "I hope he's here. I really wanted to congratulate him on not getting fouled..."
Donggeun laughs, "He was frustrated at what Seunghoon said but I still can't believe he played so nice after it."
Minhyuk shakes his head disbelievingly, "Shit, I need to go find him too. I have tell him to keep that up."
Eunkwang laughs though he's not quite sure why. Maybe he's still excited from the win and the hug.
"We won't keep you then," he says to Minhyuk. "Go find Taekwoon, tell him I'm proud too."
Minhyuk grins, "Will do."
With that, he and Hakyeon exit the circle. Donggeun starts telling his story of the game from the beginning. Eunkwang starts to listen, but he sees some red plumes of light fly through the air and frowns.
"I'm gonna go too. Can't have people wrecking the common room."
"If you confiscate any unopened fireworks give them to me!" Changsub says as a goodbye, and Eunkwang snorts as he heads to the site of the small explosion.
Eunkwang hates to leave his friends, but his reputation as a lenient prefect is bad enough already and those fireworks are a real safety hazard.
- - - - -
Even with six prefects working on keeping the party in order and dinnertime forcing everyone downstairs before things get too crazy, Eunkwang and the other authority figures of Gryffindor house are stuck cleaning up.
Minhyuk's still around too, talking to Hakyeon at the door.
"Seriously," Minhyuk says, "you're a Hufflepuff prefect, not a Gryffindor one, you don't need to help clean. Go cheer up Wonshik and eat some food. Tell him better luck next time while you're at it."
Hakyeon laughs, "I'm definitely not challenging the Hufflepuff quidditch team for you." He pushes the portrait open with a wave back at Minhyuk. "See you later Minhyukkie!" He makes a kissy face for good measure.
Minhyuk laughs, giving a kissy face back as he pushes Hakyeon playfully through the portrait hole, "See you then."
Eunkwang watches the pair of them from where he's sitting down, sorting through confiscated items. He's been relegated to this task since he's squeamish about food stains.
Minhyuk sits down beside him and looks over the collection of mini fireworks and prank candy with awe.
"I can't believe how many people pull these out for parties."
Eunkwang sighs, "This isn't even all the banned items I saw out. Just the ones I thought were health hazards."
Minhyuk picks up one package with a frown, "Who would even give out Fever Fudge at a victory party?"
"I didn't see, but whoever they were I could hear Boa giving them an earful."
"No kidding," Minhyuk leans back into the couch cushions. He looks tired, but he's smiling. He hasn't stopped smiling since the game ended as far as Eunkwang's seen. His mouth must be getting tired.
Eunkwang leans back beside him, taking the moment to stare. It's not even that Minhyuk's doing anything especially attractive, he's just always nice to look at and Eunkwang likes him an awful lot. Seeing him smile so much makes Eunkwang happy in the best kind of way.
Eunkwang leans on Minhyuk's shoulder, "You're really happy about the game."
Minhyuk leans his head on top of Eunkwang's, "Can't not be happy. We won."
He grins extra big at that, and Eunkwang follows suit.
He wants to kiss Minhyuk so badly, but this still doesn't feel like the right time.
Eunkwang sits up properly. He'd better return to sorting before he goes through with any of his impulses.
"You seem even more excited than usual though," Eunkwang points out as he puts the Fever Fudge in the edible items pile. "I don't think you've stopped smiling for three hours, Lee Minhyuk. Your face is going to get stuck like that."
Minhyuk laughs as he sits forward too, resting his chin in his hands, "That wouldn't be so bad, smiling all the time. You'd look scary doing it but I'd look good."
Eunkwang laughs, "You are the handsome, charming, and beautiful ace quidditch captain here so of course you would." It's teasing, but Eunkwang thinks he sees Minhyuk eye him curiously. Time to change the subject. "Seriously though, you're really happy about this game."
"I am," Minhyuk looks up at the ceiling, almost thoughtful now. "It's our seventh year, right? It's my last chance to win with this team and I want us to live up to our potential."
Eunkwang drops a firework. It certainly is their last year at Hogwarts. He hasn't been thinking about it much, but after winter break they only have six more months of school. After that, it's the adult wizard world. Maybe the muggle world for Eunkwang, if wizarding doesn't work out.
Minhyuk seems oblivious to Eunkwang's momentary realization.
"I'm happy the year's starting out so good with that in mind," Minhyuk continues, before assuming a joking mood. "I mean, what kind of handsome ace quidditch captain would I be if my team didn't win the cup during my last year?"
"We'd have to revoke your handsomeness," Eunkwang agrees nonsensically, and Minhyuk laughs again.
Eunkwang's still feeling the effects of realizing there's only six months until he's expected to be an adult, so he leans his head on Minhyuk's shoulder again.
Maybe it is the right time to ask Minhyuk out after all. Maybe it's the only time. Maybe he could do it right now. Maybe he could just not do it at all, wait until they've both graduated, and hope it fades.
But that just sounds depressing. Eunkwang doesn't like the prospect of confessing and making things strange, but he doesn't want to succumb to his weird hesitance either.
Minhyuk leans against Eunkwang a second time too.
"Forget how happy I am right now, that makes sense, you're the one who's super spacey these days," Minhyuk nudges him accusingly. Eunkwang yelps and sits up.
"Is something up?" Minhyuk asks, eyes large and curious.
"Nothing is up!" Eunkwang insists, even as Minhyuk leans closer, raising a single eyebrow. "There is nothing up with me, not at all. Things are very much down and normal."
Minhyuk frowns, but he sits back.
"I know you keep the serious stuff to yourself mostly, but we're best friends, right?"
Eunkwang's throat goes a bit dry. That's right, that's why he's so hesitant about confessing. They're best friends.
"I mean," Minhyuk looks sheepish now. "I'm always saying it to Hakyeon and not you but I am pretty fond of you."
"Aww, you care," Eunkwang says, giving Minhyuk his best coy grin.
Minhyuk rolls his eyes, "Of course I care. I can see you're trying to distract me from something, but the point is: talk to me."
"I do that all the time," Eunkwang points out cheerily.
Minhyuk gives a bit of an exasperated laugh, "Yes, I am aware."
Eunkwang reaches down towards the prank items again, getting back to sorting them, and Minhyuk joins him silently.
- - - - -
The very next day finds Eunkwang sitting with Changsub, Hyunsik and Donggeun in the Great Hall. They're supposed to be studying, all their textbooks are open, but they've exhausted most of their material.
Eunkwang doesn't have much to contribute to the sixth years' conversations anyways. He's been staring at the cloudy ceiling and wondering about his Minhyuk dilemma for the past twenty minutes.
"Since Minhyuk and I are graduating in six months should I even bother telling him I like him or do you think that dating just won't work out?"
His three friends look up from whatever it is they're doing individually.
"Why are you asking this now? Don't you have a million tests this week like the rest of us?" Changsub asks him.
Eunkwang slumps down on the table, "We got Astronomy done last week so there's just Potions and Charms. The rest of the professors are either taking pity on us poor overworked seventh years or they're saving everything for the NEWTs. Anyways, this is important Changsub, I really need to know."
"You never even told me you like Minhyuk-hyung," Changsub huffs. "I mean I knew, Ilhoon told me, but still."
That makes Eunkwang sit up again, "Ilhoon's been gossiping about me?" I didn't think he cared that much is the joke on the tip of Eunkwang's tongue, but he's not going to go there right now.
Hyunsik smiles sheepishly, "He thought it was weird that you were so serious about your crush."
Struck by the truth of those words, Eunkwang suddenly groans. Everyone's eyes widen.
"That's just it, isn't it?" Eunkwang leans his chin on one hand, frowning. "I'm so completely serious about this!"
"That's not a bad thing, hyung," Hyunsik points out.
"Isn't it good?" Donggeun tilts his head curiously. "Last I checked, being serious about someone was a sign things will work out."
Eunkwang deflates, leaning on the table.
"It's just... It's new to me," Eunkwang buries his face in his arms. "I really really like Minhyuk."
"We know," Changsub says.
"I want to kiss him all the time and maybe get married," Eunkwang squishes his cheek against the table. "He could become a professional quidditch player or whatever else it is he wants to do and I could be his loving and entertaining trophy husband. We could adopt Ilhoon and Sungjae for real."
"I said we know, you didn't need to elaborate," Changsub butts in again. "Just ask him out, seriously."
"But he's important to me."
There's no trace of a joke in that and everyone can tell.
"I'd normally ask him out directly, you know that," Eunkwang sits up properly. "But this feels more... Important than my previous crushes. Heavy, kind of."
There's more silence from the gathered group. Eunkwang almost feels nervous now. This is why he sticks to jokes most of the time: it's easy to take them back, to say "that's not me, i was just joking," but putting a serious statement out in the world means all or nothing.
"I think that if we're going back to your original question," Hyunsik says eventually, "if you're so serious about him and Minhyuk-hyung says yes, doesn't graduation not matter?"
Before Eunkwang can say anything, Changsub holds a finger up to Eunkwang's mouth.
"And before you ask about if Minhyuk says no, I'm pretty sure you two will get past any awkwardness. Plus you're good at rebounding."
"But I'm serious-"
"Agreed," Donggeun interrupts with a grin.
Eunkwang sits back on the bench, staring up at the ceiling again. It's still grey and cloudy, but something about it seems lighter. Maybe he's just looking at the sky more favourably now that he's not troubled.
"I think I'll ask Minhyuk out," Eunkwang looks back at his friends with a wide smile. "Very soon."
"Good for you," Changsub says. "Now let us study."
He looks back down at his book as Hyunsik laughs, but Donggeun looks at Eunkwang.
"We'll still be your friends even if it doesn't go well."
"That's right," Hyunsik jumps in with a smile.
"We're stuck with you," Changsub admits, looking up from his textbook briefly.
Eunkwang pretends to tear up, bringing both his hands up to his chest.
"Thank you. You are the absolute best sixth years in the entire school."
Changsub makes a remark about how Eunkwang's back in joke mode, but Eunkwang was a bit serious about that.
Next
Team: AU
Rating: PG
Fandom: BTOB
Pairing: Eunkwang/Minhyuk
Summary: Eunkwang has always thought Minhyuk was good-looking, but it’s starting to be kind of a problem. (Hogwarts AU)
Prompt Used: Juniel - I Think I'm in Love
Eunkwang knows it looks awfully strange to be going up the stairs when everyone else is headed down for breakfast, but if he's caught without his prefect badge, that would be downright unprofessional.
"Excuse me," he says as he passes by a group of mid-years, probably fourth. "Coming through," he side-steps some first years whose names are on the tip of his tongue. He reaches the top of another set and finds more stairs that are vibrating, getting ready to move.
He claps his hands together, looking at the stairs pleadingly, "Can you stay still just a bit longer?"
Eunkwang isn't totally convinced the stairs listen to him, but talking to them is habit by now and today they stop moving. He's reached the entrance level of Gryffindor Tower now, and it takes only a quick jog before he's reached the Fat Lady's portrait. There's lots of traffic headed out, so Eunkwang has to wait off to the side before he can go in.
Once inside the common room, Eunkwang walks by Changsub and Donggeun. They look at him questioningly.
After a second, Changsub catches on, "Forget something, hyung?"
"You got it," Eunkwang doesn't see any point in denying it. He walks past the pair, looking over his shoulder at them. "I'll be down in a moment, see you in the hall."
"See you then," Donggeun answers back, but Eunkwang's already jogging to the final set of stairs that lead to the boy's dormitory.
As a seventh year, Eunkwang's room is at the very top of the tower, so he passes a few boys on his way there, all of whom at least bow their heads and some of whom say good morning. Eunkwang would normally stop to chat a bit, but since he's in a hurry he makes do with returning their greetings.
By the time Eunkwang reaches his room, he's a bit winded from all the stairs. He takes a few breaths then opens the door.
Eunkwang is greeted by the sun shining directly through the window. Once his eyes adjust, he can see that the curtains on three of the four beds are drawn open. Eunkwang himself is out of bed of course, and Taekwoon and Jihoon must be at breakfast already.
Leon meows at Eunkwang from his typical place on Taekwoon's unmade bed, and Eunkwang resists the urge to meow back. If he gets involved in greeting the cat, he may forget why he's here.
Eunkwang walks over to his bedside table and grabs his prefect badge from its usual spot. He puts his textbooks down for a second and pins the badge on his robes with an exhale of relief. He has Potions today and Professor Yang would have noticed his transgression for sure.
Leon meows again, demanding the level of attention he usually gets from Eunkwang.
Before Eunkwang can respond, a groan comes from the only occupied bed.
Eunkwang laughs, which only makes Leon meow again and Minhyuk groan louder.
Eunkwang picks his textbooks up under one arm and sits at the end of Taekwoon's bed, scratching Leon's chin as he listens to Minhyuk rustle around.
"Good morning," he greets though Minhyuk can't see him yet. "Slept in?"
"Yes," Minhyuk does not sound too happy about it. "Jimin wanted to go over some of the plays we discussed last practice, then Bomi joined in, then Hoseok saw, and by the end we had just about the whole team there so we spent way too long talking."
"Taekwoon's up already though," Eunkwang notes, running his hand over Leon's back. Leon rumbles with purring, and Eunkwang notes for about the millionth time the irony of Taekwoon owning a very vocal cat.
"He did not attend our spontaneous meeting. I think he saw us across the common room but he didn't come over."
Eunkwang laughs, "That's so him."
"You're telling me," Minhyuk answers, and Eunkwang hears him shift some more before finally throwing his bed's curtains open.
Minhyuk closes his eyes as he's hit with the full force of the sun. His hair is sticking up in places, and the tank top he sleeps in is very rumpled, wrinkled in some places and clinging in others.
Eunkwang finds himself staring for a moment, his hand on Leon going still.
It's not that Eunkwang hasn't seen Minhyuk wake up before, or that he's never noticed how good-looking Minhyuk is. Eunkwang's been rooming with Minhyuk since first year, of course he's seen him in the morning, and given how long they've known each other it's impossible for Eunkwang to have not known Minhyuk's a handsome guy.
Looking at him now, though, is like seeing Minhyuk all over again.
Minhyuk blearily opens his eyes, and between his sleep-heavy expression, the sun shining on him, his cutely messed-up hair, and his flattering choice in sleepwear, he looks like someone straight out of a romance novel.
Eunkwang can't help being drawn in.
Then he feels Leon walk away and remembers it's weird to stare at one of your best friends waking up.
Eunkwang quickly reaches out for Leon again, and Minhyuk laughs as he completely misses and ends up flopped on the end of Taekwoon's bed, watching Leon's journey to the other side of the room.
Eunkwang purposely doesn't look at Minhyuk as he hears him shift around. From his position, all he can see is Minhyuk's feet hit the floor and his subsequent walk to his wardrobe.
"Exactly what time is it?" Minhyuk asks, starting to undress.
Eunkwang rolls over so that he's looking at the wall instead of Minhyuk's clothes falling to the ground, "Mmmm, about an hour until class. I woke up earlier, I just forgot my prefect badge so I came up again."
Minhyuk snorts, "Good job. We have Potions today too, Professor Yang would have docked you points for sure."
"Exactly," Eunkwang rolls onto his back, staring at the ceiling now. Though he can see Minhyuk putting his shirt on out of the corner of his eye. "And then he'd start talking about," Eunkwang assume his best Professor Yang impression, "'Look at Sunggyu, he has his badge on all the time. Where is your professionalism? You Gryffindors, you've always got that bravado that makes you think you can get away with anything...'"
It's not a very good impression, Eunkwang's voice is off and Professor Yang's vocabulary is different, but Minhyuk laughs anyways. He's mostly dressed now, only lacking his robe, so Eunkwang deems it safe to look and sits up.
He wonders what's gotten into him today, to be shy about looking at Minhyuk change. Normally he would have looked and made jokes about how he thinks Minhyuk's abs aren't quite as good as they were last time, better do more push-ups than the ones he already does daily. But right now when his brain goes to "Minhyuk's abs" Eunkwang gets a detailed image that looks quite appealing. He decides it's better not to think about it.
"You ready?" Eunkwang asks, getting off Taekwoon's bed as Minhyuk tightens his tie.
Minhyuk looks at Eunkwang, grins, and pushes his hair back. It's a bit of a cheesy gesture, but Eunkwang thinks it's charming.
He always thinks Minhyuk is charming, but the thought has a bit of a different flavour to it right now.
"Lee Minhyuk is ready to go," he announces, picking up his textbooks and stuffing his wand into his sleeve. "Forget anything other than your prefect badge?"
Eunkwang walks back to his pile of textbooks, taking them in his arms again, "Not as far as I know."
"Great, let's go," Minhyuk says, wasting no time once he's out of bed.
Eunkwang follows, striking up conversation about their in-class essay tomorrow, and pushes any weird feelings about Minhyuk's looks out of his head.
- - - - -
Eunkwang doesn't expect the morning's feelings to amount to much. Minhyuk's a handsome guy. Eunkwang has always known this. It's only natural to have a moment or two when the fact hits home, right?
But as the day continues, Eunkwang feels oddly aware of Minhyuk.
It starts off at breakfast, where Eunkwang jokingly feeds Minhyuk as part of their group parents routine but ends up thinking that feeding him was actually kind of exciting.
His awareness returns in full force during Potions, where his stomach stirs every time his hand brushes Minhyuk's. He's so distracted by it he almost messes up the day's lab.
In History of Magic too, Eunkwang's daydreaming turns into staring at Minhyuk's profile while he doodles Quidditch plans on his textbook. Minhyuk licks his lips in concentration at some point, trying to get a line perfectly straight, and Eunkwang flushes so much that he has to slap his cheeks. The display gets him a few odd looks.
By the time afternoon has arrived and Eunkwang's headed to choir practice, he's starting to think the awareness is not going to go away.
Why it's surfaced now is another question entirely.
Eunkwang sighs as he enters the music room, plagued with questions. Changsub, Hyunsik, and Sungjae have gathered already so Eunkwang walks over to them automatically.
"Good afternoon," Eunkwang greets as he approaches the group. "Do you know if there's something like a love potion except it just makes you think someone's hot? Not drooling with lust hot either, just regular hot." That's his latest theory and he wants input.
His friends blink at him.
"If there is, I've never heard of it," Hyunsik answers, frowning.
"Aaah, that's not too surprising. Wizards usually go for stronger effects in potions," Eunkwang grabs his chin in thought. "I haven't really had a chance to drink anything like that anyways."
Changsub raises an eyebrow, "Hyung, you've ingested at least five love potions intended for Minhyuk-hyung. If you didn't learn your lesson after the Taekwoon incident, you will never learn."
Eunkwang huffs because he's only ingested four love potions and he totally learned his lesson after the Taekwoon incident. He knew it was a bad idea when he drank the last one, but Donggeun had dared him to and there was food on the line.
Sungjae speaks up before Eunkwang can make that correction, "What are you even talking about, Eunkwang-hyung? What's happening to you?"
"Nothing much," or at least he hopes it isn't. "Just realized someone is really hot today."
"Congratulations, hyung, you're finally going through puberty," Changsub puts an arm around his shoulder. "Maybe it will come with a growth spurt."
Hyunsik snorts and Eunkwang can't help but laugh too. Even jokes at his expense are funny sometimes.
Sungjae, on the other hand, is more interested in what Eunkwang said, "Who is it? Who's hot?"
"Minhyuk," Eunkwang answers simply.
His friends stare at him in silence.
Changsub's stare is particularly unimpressed, "I have never looked at a man sexually in my life and I still could have told you that."
Eunkwang backpedals a bit.
"Okay, okay, it's not like I just realized it. I mean, I always knew he was hot. I share a room with him. We go to the prefect's baths together sometimes. I am aware of what his entire body looks like and it is not bad-looking by any means."
"Eunkwang-hyung, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be talking about that in public," Hyunsik ventures. He does have a point. Some of Minhyuk's fangirls might be in choir and it's always awkward to deal with them.
Eunkwang sighs, "Anyways, I've noticed before but since this morning I haven't stopped noticing, you know?"
Silence falls over the gathered group again.
Eunkwang pouts at them, "You're being silent at me a lot."
"You're kinda hard to believe sometimes, hyung," Changsub says.
Before Eunkwang can ask what that's supposed to mean, Professor Lee enters the room, and all conversation is paused in favour of headed to their proper spots.
- - - - -
Eunkwang only gets the chance to chat again after choir's over.
Sungjae dashes off quickly, having a remedial Potions lab with Ilhoon. Changsub leaves the group too, mentioning something about a nap before he takes off.
Their absence means only Eunkwang and Hyunsik are headed to their post-choir study session today, and Eunkwang really wants to sort this morning out.
"I just don't get it, Hyunsik-ah," Eunkwang says, huffing slightly. "It's not like I didn't think he was handsome before, but I looked at him this morning and suddenly..."
"A boner?" Hyunsik suggests, sniggering.
Eunkwang shoves him in response, "Not literally."
Hyunsik laughs, but he straightens his face after a moment, "Well, I don't really know what to say to you."
Eunkwang groans, "It's just so weird. I normally like girls and it's not like Minhyuk suddenly got hot this morning."
"It doesn't really make sense," Hyunsik agrees, "but it's not like you can change it."
"Weird, weird," Eunkwang tilts his head from side to side for a moment, then turns to Hyunsik again. "What should I do about this?"
Hyunsik raises an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"Should I ask him out or something?" Eunkwang hadn't even thought of that before now. Now that it's slipped out of his mouth, he's oddly nervous.
Hyunsik laughs a bit, and Eunkwang frowns at him, "I'm being serious here."
"Sorry," Hyunsik apologizes, a sheepish grin on his face, "I was just thinking that this whole thing is really sudden. I mean, we all know you like Minhyuk a lot but you've never brought up liking him this particular way before..."
"See, that's the thing," Eunkwang purses his lips in thought. "I've definitely had moments where I've looked at Minhyuk and thought 'whoa' before, right?"
"You have?"
Eunkwang nods, "I've been thinking about it a lot since this morning, and you know that time Changsub messed up that spell and landed half of us in the lake?"
Hyunsik looks even more confused, "Yes?"
"We were all totally drenched, in our white summer uniform shirts too. I remember there were some girls nearby and you were super embarrassed but that's not the point. See, I also remember thinking Minhyuk was really hot then."
"Fair enough," Hyunsik says.
"That wasn't too long ago, but back in fourth year when we were growing, I kept teasing him about how handsome he was getting. Thinking back on it now, I meant that sincerely. I'd stare at him a bit sometimes."
"Eunkwang-hyung."
Hyunsik seems like he gets the point but another good example just occurred to Eunkwang and he doesn't want to let it get away from him.
"And I'm sure you remember when Minhyuk finally got his place on the quidditch team. He did so well in his first game that basically the whole school was super impressed with the talented third year. I don't know if you remember this part, but after that happened he was basically glowing for an entire week and I thought all that smiling made him look incredibly cute."
"I think I get the point."
Eunkwang looks at Hyunsik sheepishly. Hyunsik is smiling.
"Sounds to me like you've had a bit of a crush on Minhyuk for longer than you think."
Eunkwang squirms at that, "I don't think it's a crush exactly..."
That sounds more permanent than being attracted to someone. A crush could have a serious effect on his present friendship with Minhyuk, and Eunkwang values that friendship a lot.
Hyunsik sees Eunkwang is uncomfortable, so he doesn't press the matter. They've almost reached the library anyways and Minhyuk is waiting for them there, so this conversation should probably end.
"Anyways, whatever it is you're feeling hyung, I don't know what you should do about it."
Eunkwang groans, so Hyunsik gives him an apologetic smile.
"Maybe start with figuring out exactly what the feeling is. It sounds like you're not sure beyond the 'Minhyuk-hyung is hot' part. Maybe picture dating him and see how that sounds to you."
Being given direction to his thoughts instantly makes Eunkwang feel better. He gives Hyunsik a grin.
"See, you do know what I should do about it. This is why I talk to you, Hyunsik. Always so smart."
Hyunsik has nothing to say to that but "thanks" as the pair enter the library and begin looking around for where their other friends have set up today.
- - - - -
As the day progresses, Eunkwang and the others migrate to the Gryffindor common room. Other days they go down to Slytherin to bother Sungjae and Ilhoon, and occasionally they visit Hufflepuff to catch up with Hakyeon and company, but on most days, as they do today, they claim a circle of Gryffindor couches to themselves and do their own things.
Hyunsik has started up a game of wizard's chess and is highly focused on his match against Ilhoon. Ilhoon brought Sungjae up from the basement too, but Sungjae's busy lying on the floor and discussing something with his friend Sanghyuk. Changsub came down from the rooms a half hour ago and is only now settling down to study, while Donggeun reads an English novel and munches on jelly slugs beside him. Everyone has been helping themselves to Donggeun's candy, but Donggeun is either too absorbed in his book to notice or he doesn't care.
Eunkwang is sitting with Minhyuk. They're leaning against opposite arms of the couch, facing each other while they do some last minute proofreading.
Minhyuk nudges Eunkwang's foot with his own, breaking Eunkwang's concentration, "Pixies don't lay eggs."
"Huh?" Eunkwang scoots forward and leans on Minhyuk's knees. "They don't?"
Minhyuk turns Eunkwang's paper around, gesturing to the mistake, "The potion you're talking about calls for 'fairy eggs'. You have to fix the whole paragraph now."
Eunkwang grabs the paper back with a sigh, "I knew there was something like that."
"How do you get fairies and pixies mixed up anyways?" Changsub asks without looking up.
"I was really tired when I wrote it."
"You have been pretty tired lately," Minhyuk agrees as he watches Eunkwang sit up and make his corrections. "Have you been sleeping well?"
"Not especially," Eunkwang admits as he crosses out every occurrence of the word 'pixie'. "Winter exams means certain students getting very absorbed in studying, which means extra patrolling to make sure no one was missed in the library."
Minhyuk looks surprised, "Night patrols? But you haven't been waking me up. Can you do it alone now?"
"There's quidditch in a few days," Eunkwang gives Minhyuk a grin. "Don't you need your rest more than I do?"
Minhyuk smiles back, "That's thoughtful of you, but if you need company I'll deal, seriously. Only the exact night before the game is off-limits."
Eunkwang's about to thank him for the sentiment, but Changsub pipes up again.
"If you two are going to be sappy like that why don't you just get married."
Minhyuk sits up and practically glues himself to Eunkwang's side. It's a normal part of their group parents jokes, but today that weird awareness is there and Minhyuk's proximity sends some kind of jolt through Eunkwang's system.
Minhyuk pitches his voice up, "Aren't we already?"
"Yes, very married," Eunkwang's dad voice isn't exactly what it usually is and his response was lacking, but it's all he can manage with Minhyuk so close. Minhyuk's lying his head on Eunkwang's shoulder and Eunkwang wants him to stay there.
Changsub rolls his eyes and turns away, so Minhyuk sits up properly. He's not leaning on Eunkwang anymore but their knees are still touching. Eunkwang wouldn't bat an eyelash at it normally, but the awareness won't go away.
"You finished with my essay yet?" Minhyuk asks with a smile, and Eunkwang shakes his head rapidly. He was just starting to read the conclusion. He picks up Minhyuk's paper again.
Minhyuk doesn't move away from their close position. His leg seems oddly warm. Eunkwang feels oddly warm too. He skims the rest of Minhyuk's writing as his mind jumps back to Hyunsik's advice.
He was too busy to think about it earlier, but now all his work is done.
Eunkwang hands Minhyuk's essay back to him, "Everything here looks good to me."
Minhyuk smiles again, showing his teeth. He's really cute.
"Great, thanks."
Eunkwang wants to kiss him.
The thought throws Eunkwang so off-balance he has to pause completely to think about it. He hasn't had such a concrete thought about what he wants to do with Minhyuk before, it was just a nebulous attraction thing.
Now, though, Eunkwang can be positive it's more serious than that.
He thinks about Hyunsik's advice again. He tries to picture dating Minhyuk, but his first thought isn't a picture; it's the fact that if they were dating, Eunkwang could kiss Minhyuk a lot.
That idea alone is incredibly appealing.
"Um, Eunkwang-hyung?"
That's Sungjae, down on the floor still, his chin in his hands as he observes his friend.
"Eunkwang-hyung, is your brain still in there?"
"It looks like he's actually thinking, Sungjae," Changsub flops onto his stomach so he's closer to Sungjae's face level. "Don't interrupt, this is rare."
"It's fine," Eunkwang shakes his head rapidly to get everything out of there. "Did you need something, Sungjae?"
"I was just wondering if you were okay," Sungjae says. "You were totally spaced out. Looked like you became a statue for a few seconds."
Eunkwang hears hollering suddenly, and looks over to the game of wizard's chess. Hyunsik seems to have won. Minhyuk has strayed over to high-five Hyunsik with one hand and pat Ilhoon on the back with the other.
"You're doing it again," Sungjae accuses.
"Doing what?" Eunkwang asks, leaning towards the group's youngest.
"Spacing out," Sungjae snorts as he rolls onto his back. "It's like you're staring at something, but there's nothing interesting, just Minhyuk-hyung and the others."
"I think Minhyuk's very interesting," Eunkwang says unthinkingly as he watches Minhyuk ruffle Ilhoon's hair. He's calling him a 'good son' and Ilhoon's swatting him away.
Changsub and Sungjae exchange a look at Eunkwang's words. Sanghyuk looks at the two of them as well but seems clueless as to what the look means, which is a relief because it means Eunkwang's not the only one missing something.
"I'm sure you do, Eunkwang-hyung," Changsub says eventually, letting his face fall onto the couch cushions. "I'm sure you do."
"I do," he says a bit defensively.
Hyunsik is casting spells to put all the chess pieces back together now, and Minhyuk is crawling around to help by gathering fragments. From this angle, Eunkwang can kind of see Minhyuk's collarbones.
Eunkwang lies down on the couch now that no one's with him and rolls onto his side to look at Minhyuk better. Only the crown of his head is really visible now, but Eunkwang watches anyways as Minhyuk crawls towards the couch. There's a chess piece fragment on the floor right near Eunkwang's head and he didn't even notice it landing there.
When Minhyuk finally retrieves that piece, he looks up and his face is level with Eunkwang's. Eunkwang widens his eyes in fake shock and Minhyuk laughs.
"How's it going over here?"
"Fine," Eunkwang answers. Minhyuk's face is getting closer and Eunkwang's more aware of it than any other proximity of Minhyuk's today. He's practically in kissing range now.
"Hyunsik should really get a self-repairing wizard's chess set, huh?" Minhyuk holds up his handful of chess fragments. "It's impossible to find all the pieces like this."
"Maybe we can get him one for his birthday," Eunkwang says without thinking. He's too busy staring. The effects of Minhyuk's laborious skincare routine are quite visible up close. "How much are they?"
Minhyuk sits back and thinks about it for a moment. Eunkwang has the very silly thought of 'wait, come back.'
Eventually, Minhyuk sighs, "I dunno, we'd have to check. Probably expensive though."
Eunkwang doesn't know anything about the price of magic goods he doesn't have to buy for school, so he hums in vague agreement.
Minhyuk doesn't move after that, continuing to sit on the floor, and Eunkwang takes that moment to notice Minhyuk has leaned forward again. If Eunkwang leaned down and tried to kiss him, he would probably get Minhyuk's nose.
"You're spacey tonight," Minhyuk notes. "Are you thinking about something?"
What can Eunkwang say to that? "You're really pretty so I'm staring"? "I've decided I have a crush on you"? "The fact that you're really close to me right now is making my chest do weird things"? "Are you aware that we're in kissing range right now"?
"Minhyuk please go out with me"?
Even for Eunkwang, that's a bit too spontaneous. He rolls onto his stomach and buries his face in his arms before he says any of his initial thoughts.
"It's nothing, I'm just tired," he lies easily and feels a bit bad about it, but it's necessary right now. "I'm thinking that I don't have night patrol tonight so I should sleep early."
"Sounds like a good plan," Minhyuk stands up. "I should probably sleep early too. Morning practice tomorrow and all."
Eunkwang looks up, and Minhyuk's offering him the hand that doesn't have chess pieces in it. Eunkwang sits up and takes it.
Even though it's just Minhyuk pulling him to his feet and not actual hand-holding, Eunkwang's stomach feels oddly clenched up.
Minhyuk lets go of Eunkwang's hand quickly, of course he does, and Eunkwang feels a bit silly for hoping he wouldn't.
Eunkwang grabs his essay, quill, and inkwell, and Minhyuk starts to grab his materials. He's returned all the stone chips to Hyunsik, who is reciting spells to get his chess set back in working order.
"Eunkwang and I are going to sleep!" Minhyuk announces.
There's a chorus of "good night"s from the group. Sanghyuk says something about all the senior citizens of the group sleeping early, but Minhyuk and Eunkwang are already on their way and can't be bothered to respond.
Eunkwang ascends the stairs idly staring at the top of Minhyuk's head.
He knows he has a crush now, but he has no idea what to about it. He should probably ask for advice again.
- - - - -
With Quidditch in two days, Minhyuk is only present for meals and classes, which Eunkwang thinks is a shame. He hovers around the team meetings in the common room to get as much time with Minhyuk as possible, but they kick him out quickly by virtue of having Hufflepuff friends and a large mouth.
This situation would normally leave Eunkwang plenty of time to talk to his other friends, but winter exams are right around the corner. After the quidditch game it's tests for everyone, and Eunkwang doesn't want to interrupt anyone's studying.
It's Friday afternoon now, and Eunkwang is helping his younger friends with Charms. Sungjae asked for his help first, then Ilhoon came because he had nothing else to do, and then once their study session was underway Sungjae spotted Donggeun outside the classroom and practically the manhandled the sixth year in with them.
However, everyone has gotten bored of casting Silencing charms each other and they're a bit distracted by the view of the Quidditch pitch from the window.
"Hufflepuff's practicing," Donggeun informs them as some distant people fly above the stands.
"Well, duh," Ilhoon perches himself on a windowsill, looking out at the fields of snow. "You're here and no other team would practice when Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff is so soon."
Donggeun opens and closes his hand, catching an invisible Snitch. He always does that when games are near and he's thinking about it. Minhyuk doesn't have any tics like that, but he exercizes more in the lead-up to games so he's always sweaty. As one of Minhyuk's roommates, Eunkwang would know.
Though he's finding the sight of "sweaty Minhyuk" a bit nicer than usual these days.
That thought reminds Eunkwang he hasn't spoken about his Minhyuk dilemma since Hyunsik. No one else is talking. They're not working anymore, just staring at the distant Hufflepuff players flying about, so Eunkwang supposes he can just get down to it.
"So I realized I have a crush on Minhyuk the other day."
All attention turns to him.
Sungjae and Donggeun look surprised at his proclamation. Ilhoon looks unimpressed.
"That took you a while," Ilhoon comments.
"A seriously long time!" Sungjae exclaims. He looks oddly excited now.
Donggeun just looks confused, "What are you talking about?" He leans past the others to look at Eunkwang. "I thought you liked girls."
Eunkwang turns around and leans his head back against the window, "I thought so too, but Minhyuk isn't a girl and I like him. My stomach feels weird around him and everything."
"Huh," Donggeun pauses, then looks up with a grin. "Are you gonna tell him?"
"You have to," Sungjae declares with an odd amount of determination. "You definitely have to tell him. I could tell soooo long ago and-"
"You could tell before I did?" Eunkwang is a bit incredulous. How come no one told him he had a crush on Minhyuk? That would have been good to know sooner.
Ilhoon pushes down on Sungjae's head, "Don't worry, it's not obvious or anything. We didn't know for sure, we just kind of thought-"
"That maybe it was a thing," Sungjae pops up again. "I mean, you obviously like the rest of us a lot but with Minhyuk you're kinda..."
Eunkwang tilts his head curiously, "Kinda what?"
Sungjae looks off to the side.
"I... I don't how to say it... Just different somehow."
Ilhoon sighs, "I don't know what Sungjae's talking about. I just thought you called him perfect way too often."
"I didn't notice anything," is Donggeun's contribution to the conversation.
"It's okay, I didn't know either," Eunkwang tells Donggeun, though it sounds a bit absurd not to be aware of his own crush. "But now that I know I don't really know what to do."
"As I said before, tell him," Sungjae crosses his arms and nods to himself, completely sure of his own advice.
Eunkwang stops leaning, hopping a little to get away from the wall, "I know, I know. I probably should. It's not like I'm shy at all, I just..."
"Just what?" Ilhoon prompts.
Eunkwang sighs, "I don't really know how he'll react."
"He definitely won't be mean about the whole guy confessing to him thing," Donggeun volunteers. "I mean, he is best friends with Hakyeon."
"I know that," Eunkwang waves off the concern with his hand. "I just... Don't want things to be weird, I guess. He'll probably say no, right?"
Sungjae frowns, "What makes you think that?"
Eunkwang looks to his underclassmen with a sheepish grin.
"That's... Normally what people say when I ask them out..."
Ilhoon sighs in exasperation, "It's Minhyuk-hyung. I think you have a better chance of a yes with him than some girl who doesn't really know you."
That Ilhoon seems to think so gives Eunkwang more hope than any of his own thoughts could.
Eunkwang brings a hand up to his chest, "I knew you had faith in me Ilhoonie."
Ilhoon looks a bit disgruntled now, "I'm just saying there's a better chance. That's pretty basic logic."
"I think there's a good chance he'll say yes," Sungjae is as confident in his conclusions as ever.
Donggeun raises an eyebrow, "But you're still worried about if he says no, right?"
Eunkwang nods. It's not like him to be so concerned or reserved about it. If this were basically any other boy in the world, he'd have approached them as directly as any of his female crushes in the past.
But this particular boy is Minhyuk and before Eunkwang liked him romantically, he loved Minhyuk as a friend. He's not sure he wants to make a relatively new crush his priority if a six year friendship could be on the line.
Ilhoon looks at Eunkwang a bit oddly, as if he's only now realizing how serious Eunkwang is, but before he gets the chance to speak, Sungjae has glued himself to Eunkwang's side.
"That is not even a problem because Minhyuk-hyung's going to say yes!"
"That's a bit of a jump from the 'good chance' you mentioned earlier," Donggeun points out. Eunkwang laughs at Sungjae's eagerness.
"I'm still not sure," Eunkwang says, hoping to dismiss the conversation. Ilhoon seems to be thinking seriously about it and he feels a bit bad. He shouldn't be distracting the others with his problems.
It doesn't seem like he's going to make a decision through this conversation anyways, so it's probably best to put the Minhyuk question to the side.
"How about we get back on track and you guys show me the disarming charm?"
That makes all three of them perk up, eager to make each other's wands fly everywhere. Eunkwang gets ready for them to gang up on him after they're done.
- - - - -
Before Eunkwang is able to think his Minhyuk situation through, the final quidditch game of the year is upon them.
Minhyuk and Taekwoon wake up especially early for the occasion. Taekwoon wakes up Leon in the process of getting out of bed, and Leon wakes up Eunkwang in the process of meowing loudly at his owner.
Eunkwang takes a moment to contemplate the time as he rolls around, wondering if he can sleep more. Once he's realized it's a quidditch day, he scoots forward and parts the curtains to blearily stare at the room from the end of his bed.
Taekwoon is too occupied with feeding Leon to notice Eunkwang, but Minhyuk sees him.
"It's quidditch day," Minhyuk whispers at Eunkwang, aware of their other sleeping roommate. "Go back to sleep."
"I know," Eunkwang is dead tired, but he tries to give Minhyuk a smile. "Just wanted to wish you good luck."
Minhyuk stares back, face oddly unreadable. Then he grins and scratches at his neck.
"Thanks. I'll do my best."
He leaves with Taekwoon in tow as Eunkwang settles back to sleep again. Minhyuk's reaction was a bit strange, but Eunkwang's too tired to think about it.
A few hours later finds Eunkwang completely awake and settling in at the front of the stands with a Gryffindor flag in each hand.
Changsub and Hyunsik are sitting to Eunkwang's right, actually discussing quidditch, and Ilhoon and Sungjae are sitting to his left. The younger pair stand out like sore thumbs with their Slytherin scarves, but they've prepared a large red and gold banner, so nobody needs to ask why they're seated in the Gryffindor quarter.
Sungjae's busy talking to Kim Taehyung and his ever-impressive roaring lion hat, which leaves only Ilhoon and Eunkwang without conversation partners among the expectant pre-game chatter.
"Minhyuk-hyung's fangirls are gathering," Ilhoon points out a group of mid-year girls a few seats away. "There's quite a few of them."
Eunkwang nods seriously, "The competition will be stiff."
Eunkwang makes a bit of a game of trying to yell louder than Minhyuk's fangirls, goading his other friends to join in. He has done so ever since Minhyuk started acquiring them. In hindsight, this is probably one of the reasons other people thought he had a crush.
At the mention of Eunkwang competing with fangirls, Changsub leans over.
"Yeah, you'd hate to lose any competition for Minhyuk-hyung."
"I would," Eunkwang answers back, hoping to throw Changsub off. Apparently he succeeds because Changsub frowns. Hyunsik turns in Eunkwang's direction curiously too.
Eunkwang feels like the attempt to throw Changsub off worked too well.
Changsub narrows his eyes, "Hyung, are you saying that-"
"Mic check, 1 2!" fills the stadium, and the crowd fills with cheers before Changsub can get started. He gives Eunkwang a look, but after a second his attention goes to the announcer's booth.
"Yes, hello Hogwarts, it's Lee Seunghoon here today," the Gryffindor in question throws up a peace sign. Eunkwang frequently has to tell him off for playing loud music in the common room, but he thinks Seunghoon is a good kid regardless. "I know you're all excited to hear from me, but I'm sure you're even more excited for today's game. It's the second one of the school year, Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff!"
As Seunghoon says so, the teams enter the pitch and cheering erupts completely. The stands seem to shake from all the noise.
"Yes, folks, this will certainly be a thrilling match," Seunghoon continues, but Eunkwang is busy looking through his binoculars to watch Minhyuk lead his team onto the field. "We haven't seen these teams in official matches yet, so for those who aren't familiar I'll introduce them to you!"
"Starting with my own house, we have captain, Chaser, and resident handsome guy Lee Minhyuk!" Minhyuk gives a wave and a cheesy wink to the crowd as cheers continue. "Yes, it's our eye candy's last year here sadly, but we'll get a few games out of him yet. Continuing with the seventh years on team Gryffindor, we have Jung Taekwoon! Possibly the most aggressive Keeper in Hogwarts history, we'll see how many fouls he gets to-"
Taekwoon does not look happy with his description, Eunkwang wouldn't be surprised if his glare was the reason Seunghoon stopped talking, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
"Sorry everybody," Seunghoon resumes, "I've been told by Professor Yang to stop doing this so the game can get under way, which is a shame because I prepared some really good introductions, but I'll listen to authority and try to work them into my commentary, alright? Anyways, it's all on you now Coach Kim!"
The school's quidditch coach speaks to the teams, inaudible from the stands, and then puts her struggling chest of quidditch balls on the ground. The teams mount their brooms. Minhyuk's lost the air of playing to the crowd he had before: he's focused now.
Coach Kim opens the chest, tosses the Quaffle up, and releases the rest of the balls.
Eunkwang focuses on Minhyuk completely as he darts forward, reaching for the Quaffle.
- - - - -
Eunkwang ends up watching Minhyuk the whole time.
Minhyuk gathers fangirls from his quidditch playing for a reason: even beyond being a good player and being good-looking in general, Minhyuk looks especially good playing quidditch. He's confident on his broom, almost graceful in the way he moves. He dodges all players and non-Quaffle balls with an ease that Eunkwang's sure no one else in Hogwarts has.
Eunkwang knows it's obvious who he's watching, the one time he looks away from his binoculars he catches Changsub side-eyeing him, but it's impossible to tear his eyes away.
Given his preoccupation with Minhyuk, Eunkwang doesn't see it when Donggeun makes a sudden dive to the ground, but he does cheer as loud as everyone around him at the result it gets: Donggeun catches the Snitch and Gryffindor's first game of the year is a win.
The obligatory victory party starts as soon as people enter the common room. The rate at which people start extracting hidden snacks and transfiguring string into red and gold streamers is downright impressive. If the present level of excitement keeps up, Eunkwang will have to start confiscating mini fireworks soon.
In the meantime, he waits with the rest of the house for the quidditch team to file through the door.
The moment they enter, Eunkwang dashes towards Minhyuk, other friends close on his heels, and tackles Minhyuk into a hug.
Minhyuk hugs back, and Eunkwang thinks he hears fireworks going off, though those may be in his head. Even if they are real, hugging Minhyuk is infinitely more appealing than confiscating fireworks. There are other prefects anyways.
Eunkwang pulls back from the hug with a grin practically splitting his face.
"Congratulations! Step one towards the quidditch cup complete!"
Minhyuk smiles in return and pulls Eunkwang back into a hug, "Steps two and three yet to come."
"Don't be so sure, you're facing Slytherin next," Ilhoon says, and though he's not as congratulatory as he could be, Minhhyuk smiles at him anyways. "Good job today though."
Sungjae bypasses Minhyuk entirely, "Donggeun-hyung you were so cool! That dive was awesome!"
Donggeun looks pleased as punch, "Yeah?"
"It was impressive," Hyunsik agrees, straying over to Donggeun as well. Minhyuk and Eunkwang follow him after a moment, forming a vague circle around the triumphant Seeker. "I couldn't believe how straight down you went."
"I didn't even know if I could get it," Donggeun recounts with a smile, "but I saw the Snitch out of the corner of my eye and way lower, so I just totally dipped, and then the Snitch was right there!"
"You caught it in the nick of time too," Minhyuk has the air of a proud parent as he puts his arm around Donggeun. "Things were getting messy up there. Wonshik was really on point today, it was getting hard to dodge the Bludgers. Bomi in particular had a few close calls but-"
"Why were you talking about Wonshik?"
Eunkwang practically jumps as Hakyeon peers his head into the circle, but Minhyuk just laughs.
"Your house lost, why are you here?"
"Because I love you," Hakyeon says frankly, stepping in between Eunkwang and Minhyuk. "Also Taekwoon, but I can't see him anywhere."
Changsub snorts, "He's probably holed up in his room."
"Give him a little more credit than that, he'll stay out," Minhyuk says, though most occupants of the circle look skeptical. "There's food out here. Taekwoon loves food."
Hakyeon pouts, "I hope he's here. I really wanted to congratulate him on not getting fouled..."
Donggeun laughs, "He was frustrated at what Seunghoon said but I still can't believe he played so nice after it."
Minhyuk shakes his head disbelievingly, "Shit, I need to go find him too. I have tell him to keep that up."
Eunkwang laughs though he's not quite sure why. Maybe he's still excited from the win and the hug.
"We won't keep you then," he says to Minhyuk. "Go find Taekwoon, tell him I'm proud too."
Minhyuk grins, "Will do."
With that, he and Hakyeon exit the circle. Donggeun starts telling his story of the game from the beginning. Eunkwang starts to listen, but he sees some red plumes of light fly through the air and frowns.
"I'm gonna go too. Can't have people wrecking the common room."
"If you confiscate any unopened fireworks give them to me!" Changsub says as a goodbye, and Eunkwang snorts as he heads to the site of the small explosion.
Eunkwang hates to leave his friends, but his reputation as a lenient prefect is bad enough already and those fireworks are a real safety hazard.
- - - - -
Even with six prefects working on keeping the party in order and dinnertime forcing everyone downstairs before things get too crazy, Eunkwang and the other authority figures of Gryffindor house are stuck cleaning up.
Minhyuk's still around too, talking to Hakyeon at the door.
"Seriously," Minhyuk says, "you're a Hufflepuff prefect, not a Gryffindor one, you don't need to help clean. Go cheer up Wonshik and eat some food. Tell him better luck next time while you're at it."
Hakyeon laughs, "I'm definitely not challenging the Hufflepuff quidditch team for you." He pushes the portrait open with a wave back at Minhyuk. "See you later Minhyukkie!" He makes a kissy face for good measure.
Minhyuk laughs, giving a kissy face back as he pushes Hakyeon playfully through the portrait hole, "See you then."
Eunkwang watches the pair of them from where he's sitting down, sorting through confiscated items. He's been relegated to this task since he's squeamish about food stains.
Minhyuk sits down beside him and looks over the collection of mini fireworks and prank candy with awe.
"I can't believe how many people pull these out for parties."
Eunkwang sighs, "This isn't even all the banned items I saw out. Just the ones I thought were health hazards."
Minhyuk picks up one package with a frown, "Who would even give out Fever Fudge at a victory party?"
"I didn't see, but whoever they were I could hear Boa giving them an earful."
"No kidding," Minhyuk leans back into the couch cushions. He looks tired, but he's smiling. He hasn't stopped smiling since the game ended as far as Eunkwang's seen. His mouth must be getting tired.
Eunkwang leans back beside him, taking the moment to stare. It's not even that Minhyuk's doing anything especially attractive, he's just always nice to look at and Eunkwang likes him an awful lot. Seeing him smile so much makes Eunkwang happy in the best kind of way.
Eunkwang leans on Minhyuk's shoulder, "You're really happy about the game."
Minhyuk leans his head on top of Eunkwang's, "Can't not be happy. We won."
He grins extra big at that, and Eunkwang follows suit.
He wants to kiss Minhyuk so badly, but this still doesn't feel like the right time.
Eunkwang sits up properly. He'd better return to sorting before he goes through with any of his impulses.
"You seem even more excited than usual though," Eunkwang points out as he puts the Fever Fudge in the edible items pile. "I don't think you've stopped smiling for three hours, Lee Minhyuk. Your face is going to get stuck like that."
Minhyuk laughs as he sits forward too, resting his chin in his hands, "That wouldn't be so bad, smiling all the time. You'd look scary doing it but I'd look good."
Eunkwang laughs, "You are the handsome, charming, and beautiful ace quidditch captain here so of course you would." It's teasing, but Eunkwang thinks he sees Minhyuk eye him curiously. Time to change the subject. "Seriously though, you're really happy about this game."
"I am," Minhyuk looks up at the ceiling, almost thoughtful now. "It's our seventh year, right? It's my last chance to win with this team and I want us to live up to our potential."
Eunkwang drops a firework. It certainly is their last year at Hogwarts. He hasn't been thinking about it much, but after winter break they only have six more months of school. After that, it's the adult wizard world. Maybe the muggle world for Eunkwang, if wizarding doesn't work out.
Minhyuk seems oblivious to Eunkwang's momentary realization.
"I'm happy the year's starting out so good with that in mind," Minhyuk continues, before assuming a joking mood. "I mean, what kind of handsome ace quidditch captain would I be if my team didn't win the cup during my last year?"
"We'd have to revoke your handsomeness," Eunkwang agrees nonsensically, and Minhyuk laughs again.
Eunkwang's still feeling the effects of realizing there's only six months until he's expected to be an adult, so he leans his head on Minhyuk's shoulder again.
Maybe it is the right time to ask Minhyuk out after all. Maybe it's the only time. Maybe he could do it right now. Maybe he could just not do it at all, wait until they've both graduated, and hope it fades.
But that just sounds depressing. Eunkwang doesn't like the prospect of confessing and making things strange, but he doesn't want to succumb to his weird hesitance either.
Minhyuk leans against Eunkwang a second time too.
"Forget how happy I am right now, that makes sense, you're the one who's super spacey these days," Minhyuk nudges him accusingly. Eunkwang yelps and sits up.
"Is something up?" Minhyuk asks, eyes large and curious.
"Nothing is up!" Eunkwang insists, even as Minhyuk leans closer, raising a single eyebrow. "There is nothing up with me, not at all. Things are very much down and normal."
Minhyuk frowns, but he sits back.
"I know you keep the serious stuff to yourself mostly, but we're best friends, right?"
Eunkwang's throat goes a bit dry. That's right, that's why he's so hesitant about confessing. They're best friends.
"I mean," Minhyuk looks sheepish now. "I'm always saying it to Hakyeon and not you but I am pretty fond of you."
"Aww, you care," Eunkwang says, giving Minhyuk his best coy grin.
Minhyuk rolls his eyes, "Of course I care. I can see you're trying to distract me from something, but the point is: talk to me."
"I do that all the time," Eunkwang points out cheerily.
Minhyuk gives a bit of an exasperated laugh, "Yes, I am aware."
Eunkwang reaches down towards the prank items again, getting back to sorting them, and Minhyuk joins him silently.
- - - - -
The very next day finds Eunkwang sitting with Changsub, Hyunsik and Donggeun in the Great Hall. They're supposed to be studying, all their textbooks are open, but they've exhausted most of their material.
Eunkwang doesn't have much to contribute to the sixth years' conversations anyways. He's been staring at the cloudy ceiling and wondering about his Minhyuk dilemma for the past twenty minutes.
"Since Minhyuk and I are graduating in six months should I even bother telling him I like him or do you think that dating just won't work out?"
His three friends look up from whatever it is they're doing individually.
"Why are you asking this now? Don't you have a million tests this week like the rest of us?" Changsub asks him.
Eunkwang slumps down on the table, "We got Astronomy done last week so there's just Potions and Charms. The rest of the professors are either taking pity on us poor overworked seventh years or they're saving everything for the NEWTs. Anyways, this is important Changsub, I really need to know."
"You never even told me you like Minhyuk-hyung," Changsub huffs. "I mean I knew, Ilhoon told me, but still."
That makes Eunkwang sit up again, "Ilhoon's been gossiping about me?" I didn't think he cared that much is the joke on the tip of Eunkwang's tongue, but he's not going to go there right now.
Hyunsik smiles sheepishly, "He thought it was weird that you were so serious about your crush."
Struck by the truth of those words, Eunkwang suddenly groans. Everyone's eyes widen.
"That's just it, isn't it?" Eunkwang leans his chin on one hand, frowning. "I'm so completely serious about this!"
"That's not a bad thing, hyung," Hyunsik points out.
"Isn't it good?" Donggeun tilts his head curiously. "Last I checked, being serious about someone was a sign things will work out."
Eunkwang deflates, leaning on the table.
"It's just... It's new to me," Eunkwang buries his face in his arms. "I really really like Minhyuk."
"We know," Changsub says.
"I want to kiss him all the time and maybe get married," Eunkwang squishes his cheek against the table. "He could become a professional quidditch player or whatever else it is he wants to do and I could be his loving and entertaining trophy husband. We could adopt Ilhoon and Sungjae for real."
"I said we know, you didn't need to elaborate," Changsub butts in again. "Just ask him out, seriously."
"But he's important to me."
There's no trace of a joke in that and everyone can tell.
"I'd normally ask him out directly, you know that," Eunkwang sits up properly. "But this feels more... Important than my previous crushes. Heavy, kind of."
There's more silence from the gathered group. Eunkwang almost feels nervous now. This is why he sticks to jokes most of the time: it's easy to take them back, to say "that's not me, i was just joking," but putting a serious statement out in the world means all or nothing.
"I think that if we're going back to your original question," Hyunsik says eventually, "if you're so serious about him and Minhyuk-hyung says yes, doesn't graduation not matter?"
Before Eunkwang can say anything, Changsub holds a finger up to Eunkwang's mouth.
"And before you ask about if Minhyuk says no, I'm pretty sure you two will get past any awkwardness. Plus you're good at rebounding."
"But I'm serious-"
"Agreed," Donggeun interrupts with a grin.
Eunkwang sits back on the bench, staring up at the ceiling again. It's still grey and cloudy, but something about it seems lighter. Maybe he's just looking at the sky more favourably now that he's not troubled.
"I think I'll ask Minhyuk out," Eunkwang looks back at his friends with a wide smile. "Very soon."
"Good for you," Changsub says. "Now let us study."
He looks back down at his book as Hyunsik laughs, but Donggeun looks at Eunkwang.
"We'll still be your friends even if it doesn't go well."
"That's right," Hyunsik jumps in with a smile.
"We're stuck with you," Changsub admits, looking up from his textbook briefly.
Eunkwang pretends to tear up, bringing both his hands up to his chest.
"Thank you. You are the absolute best sixth years in the entire school."
Changsub makes a remark about how Eunkwang's back in joke mode, but Eunkwang was a bit serious about that.
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