#19: Let's call it a day
Title: Let’s call it a day
Rating: G
Other pairings involved: minor Krystal/Chen
Length: 6272 words
Summary: As the school’s new Head Prefects, Krystal tries to stay them out of trouble. Jongin on the other hand, thinks it’s a way to get closer to her.
Warnings: None
Notes: None
After three months into being forced to spending her entire year with Kim Jongin, Krystal wishes she could turn back time and start over as an average, book smart student.
She’s considered it, the type of that can't solve the common room riddles every other day but plays Quidditch every other week. The one that stays quiet in class, despite itching to answer all the questions but instead, silently judging other people for not knowing. She’s been reaping what she’s sowed as a perfect student, especially when she’s stuck with someone like him for a Head Prefect.
“Krys,” He whispers to her in Potions, not following the instructions to the brew. The inside of his cauldron is expectedly clear as water, just like the contents of all his other vials on the shelf. “I need you to cover for me."
For the first time after a while, her feelings of resentment after being hat-stalled into Ravenclaw return. Having the courage to convince the hat to sort her into Slytherin might have made this a less painful experience.
“What now,” she grumbles, looking his way as she stirs her potion. Jongin always looks like he just came out of the shower, hair partly wet and his sleeves rolled all the way up. His robes lay on the stool, donned with red and gold.
“There’s an extract in the professor’s cupboard that I need. It’s on the top shelf."
She looks behind him to see a variety of vials and immediately figures out which one. She sees a red colored vial labeled ‘Salamander’ and stares at him in disbelief.
“That’s like wizard steroids."
“Exactly.” He raises his eyebrows and looks at her knowingly. “I kind of need it to boost team morality. You know."
She rolls her eyes and sighs. “Do you even know the implications of Salamander Blood when not brewed correctly? You’re going to make everyone sick."
“But I will brew it correctly, you see.” He nods confidently before placing his hands on her shoulders, giving her a pat. “Get’em girl."
“Disgusting,” she says, pinching his skin to remove his arms from her shoulders. Jongin winces and flails excessively, teasing her wits.
After some consideration, the cons outweigh the pros in her head, with her acing this weeklong potions assignment and him probably flunking by not attending next class. Krystal puts on her most convincing smile and asks the professor a few questions, directing him away from the cupboard.
Halfway into listening to his answer, she swears she can almost see Jongin spill the entire contents and quickly flicks her fingers to levitate the vial. He mouths a ‘thank you’ and sighs in relief, grabbing the extract and placing it in his pocket. Fortunately for him, the professor turned to look just after the incident, leaving Jongin guilt-free. Krystal takes a few deep breaths, the heat from her beating heart slowly rising to her face. She is always near death whenever he is involved.
“Dumbass,” she whispers at him back at their table, frown intact. “Do it right next time."
He nods as he puts three teaspoons of the blood into his cauldron, stirring thoroughly. “But you’re the best part."
She glares at him for the third time today and turns to face him head on. “And why is that?"
“Because, you’ll always make sure we’re out of trouble.” he smiles as the contents in his cauldron start to boil, the color turning a shade of violet. He looks at her knowingly and points at the space above his left chest, tapping it lightly. “Thanks Head Girl."
Krystal suddenly feels a migraine forming above her right temple and massages it slowly, cursing to herself. She ignores him for the rest of the class to continue brewing her potion to perfection, its scent beginning to sweeten as the liquid turns into a glass yellow. Jongin on the other hand has quietly been filling empty vials with the pearly violet liquid and she sees him take out a small handbag.
“Capacious extremis.” There’s a flash of light and he begins to chuck all of the vials into the bag.
She sighs and grabs one of them, examining the content. “Did you really come up with this yourself?"
“You question me, Jung.” he starts by reaching for the vial in her hand, but puts his hand away. “That’s yours. Do whatever you want with it.” As he finishes putting in the last vial in the bag, the bell rings, signifying the end of the period.
“Has this been tested?” Krystal asks him quietly as the professor dismisses the class.
“Not really. But I do come from a family line of famous potion brewers.” he says, a matter of factly.
“And that’s all you’re going to rely on?” She swishes her wand and the contents of her cauldron transform into what looks like a large, semi-circle block of soap, flying to sit on her designated shelf.
“Yep.” He says, zipping his bag. “I’ve to go. Here’s today’s reports,” he hands her a stack of paper, almost making her fall backwards. “Actually, half of them. I’ll catch you later!” After throwing his handbag in mid air and catching it, he runs out of the classroom, letting her drown in all the weight.
Putting the papers down, she skims through each of them and sees that he has written nothing but one sentence in each of the rows. “What do I even expect from him?…” she mumbles to herself, putting their cauldrons away on the shelf. She takes one last look at the vial of liquid and puts it in her robe pockets, not daring to ask herself any more questions.
--
The first to figure out that Kim Jongin was appointed Head Boy was in fact not herself, but a fellow prefect. Kyungsoo was a natural Ravenclaw, his gifts include having a photographic memory and a meek personality. No one could have thought he’d be the one listening into the professor's’ meetings, after finding a secret passageway below the Headmaster’s office.
“This is almost akin to Amortentia, but… with enhancements,” he says after examining the vial. “It could go both ways. Who did you say brewed it?"
“Who else really,” Krystal replies, throwing her body on the common room sofa. “He’ll probably fail the assignment.” Kyungsoo looks at her skeptically, but she quickly shakes her head to dismiss his thoughts. She omits the part where she does become an accomplice in helping Jongin steal an extract but keeps quiet about it, maintaining a little dignity.
The room is quiet after dinner on a Friday, with students filing in slowly to enter their private chambers. ("Today’s riddle was rather tricky to crack," Kyungsoo mentions.) The fireplace crackles with life, illuminating their corner of the common room. He’s catching up on homework at a wooden table, nested behind a small sitting area with royal blue sofas where Krystal sits, his parchment rolls scattered all around the floor.
Kyungsoo nods nervously and hands it back to her. “Follow up with him, Krys. I’m starting to smell berries and cheese, and scent is never a good thing."
Confused, she laughs at him and he doesn’t, his expression rather serious. “But you like berries and cheesecake.” Kyungsoo gives her one last look and shakes his head, before it hits her completely.
“Oh merlin’s beard.” She stands up from her seat but then sits herself back down, the short hand of the clock halfway over the number 10. “I’ll see him at 11. We’re posting new patrol schedules."
She can see Kyungsoo frown, putting his quill down. Before he could say anything, she puts her hand up to talk.
“Quidditch. It’s all because of Quidditch. We have a lot of players this year,” she shrugs, taking a parchment out of her pack. “I tried talking him out of it because it’s an extracurricular, but he has selective hearing.” Kyungsoo eyes her blankly and she heaves a sigh. “He’s captain, soo."
“The school system’s mistake. It’s understandable.” He dips his quill into his inkbottle and continues writing.
Krystal knows for a fact that no one resents the fact that Jongin is Head boy more than Kyungsoo does. Being appointed from a pool other than the existing prefects, he feels Jongin is undeserving of such title, especially considering the standard of conduct for the current prefects. She suddenly feels guilty for tolerating the guy so much.
After a long period of productive silence, Jongdae walks in with a large group of students, all clapping around him. Surely he finally solved the riddle. His face is turning a shade of red, coloring his cheeks as he scratches the back of his neck.
“Thank you, thank you. Back to your chambers, all of you.” Krystal stifles a laugh as she sees him separate from the crowd, strutting. He hits the table lightly and startles Kyungsoo out of his essay writing. “The answer was-"
“Echo. Unseen, and won’t speak back until-"
“-until spoken to, yes. Thank you Kyungsoo.” He pats his back and waves at Krystal, heading to sit on the sofa next to her. “Haven’t seen you in a while."
“Barely alive, thanks.” She gives him a fist bump he returns and smiles.
Unlike Kyungsoo, Jongdae is built on effort, being a muggleborn wizard. He was her first and closest friend at school after being sorted, even if her parents did not like him at first. Coming from a family line of proud purebloods never stopped her from befriending him, even if it did take a few ‘mudblood’ insults the first few years. As a result, he is practically immune to it.
"Gameday tomorrow evening. Versus our beloved Head Boy.” He muses, dropping his bag on the floor. She raises her eyebrows knowingly and relaxes her head on the cushion behind her.
“I have too many reports to write, as a result. Quidditch is all he has in his head.” Krystal stretches her arms wide, sighing for the nth time.
“Am I hearing you clearly? Are you complaining about writing reports?” He continues sarcastically and Krystal stares at him, twisting her lip. “The dark horse has finally charmed you, it seems.”
Jongdae raises his eyebrows up and down, starting to tease her again. She hates how his growing hobbies include matchmaking her with random boys in their year, not caring if they might be assholes or not.
“He only almost snubbed all of us during our OWLs.” She says, looking at her friend in the eye. “So he’s not your average joe. I’ll give him points for that. Otherwise, he’s clumsy and horrible at being subtle."
“And he abuses the prefect’s bathroom,” Kyungsoo adds, continuing to scribble right after. She holds her laugh at his comment because it is painfully true.
Jongdae scoffs at both of their reactions. “What a conspiracy. I can’t believe I’m finally seeing you two agree on something.” He folds his arms in front of him, looking rather offended.
She finds Kyungsoo look at her and they start snickering, him holding his mouth and Krystal trying to hold in her laugh by holding her stomach. “I’m starting to think he’s charmed you of all people, Jongdae-ah,” she replies, taking him aback. He surrenders by letting them have their laugh, commenting with an occasional ‘Haha.’ It’s moments like these when she believes the hat made the right decision, letting her not miss out on befriending the best wizards in her year. Krystal’s got two of them.
She remembers about the vial and shows it to Jongdae without a word. He takes it and examines it from tip to tip, shaking it about and smelling its scent, just as how Kyungsoo did it. “Is this that energy drink?” He traces its shape, a small, kite shaped glass that fits right in his palm. “Smells really good. I think this can really enhance your senses."
“How so?” she asks nonchalantly, as if she doesn’t know what the brewer added to it.
“I saw the Gryffindor team have it. They all have one, but Jackson drank another’s straight away. Saw him go a bit cuckoo back at dinner, saying he can lift mountains and hear people breathe and stuff."
Krystal facepalms her forehead and quickly grabs the liquid from his hand, expression annoyed. “I let him brew a Strengthening Solution in front of me without knowing.” She passes by Kyungsoo to leave the common room, his expression rather apologetic. “Amortentia my ass!"
“Sorry,” he manages, before the door closes on them. Jongdae laughs in his confusion.
--
Krystal leaves the meeting room the next morning to find the new patrol schedule already placed up, pinned to the bulletin board just outside the prefect’s bathroom. Even after ditching her for another night of writing reports (and planning a new potion,) Jongin only manages to remember trivial things like these. She yawns loudly in frustration, about to walk away before she spots a small note at the corner of the corkboard.
‘Im at the pitch :)'
She scoffs, pulling the paper down from its pin.
The weather is chilly today, the wind forming a current flowing through the 5am corridors. She takes one look at the window and a player flies past, long hair billowing in the wind; one of Gryffindor's female chasers, Seulgi. As she watches her circle around towards the pitch in the distance, Krystal picks up her pace and jogs down the stairs.
She might be seeing things but she’s sure that the person standing near the Quidditch pitch gates is Jinyoung, one of the year 7 prefects. She gives him a confused look and he bows, greeting her with a smile. He’s shivering in his yellow jumper, his arms hugging his frame.
“Morning, Head Gi- Krystal. Sorry."
“Hey.” She nods back at him. "What brings you? I thought you guys wouldn’t be practicing until after 6am."
“I’m just... waiting here."
“Right.” Krystal says, feeling unsure. Jinyoung’s gaze lingers on her for a while, quietly tracing her facial features. She’s completely unaware, shifting through her pockets for her gloves.
“Let’s go in?” She extends an arm and he nods, holding back a smile.
They both walk side by side into the great wooden structure, through a passageway right under the venue. The doors to the field are wide open, the dewy grass swaying in the breeze. Jongin is seen talking to the two beaters as they float above the ball casket, the bludgers in them rattling the chains.
She sees him look up and starts waving about.
“Jung Soojung!"
He is so dead.
She winces at the sound of her birth name out of his mouth, and crosses her arms. The small handbag from the day before is visible at the corner of her eye, sticking out of a locker beside the benches and spare broomsticks. Jongin hurries to her direction as the beaters fly off, his hair even more disheveled in the wind.
“Huh. So your potion worked.” Krystal looks at him spitefully, hand clearing the dust in the air that came along with him.
“Of course.” He arrives, taking deep breaths. “Hey Junior. You're early.”
Jinyoung winces at his mention as well, knowing that only few people know about his nickname in the Hufflepuff house. Krystal holds back her laughter out of pity; the other Park Jinyoung graduated last year. It didn't help that she was also his senior in the same house. He frowns and Jongin laughs it off.
"I wrote up all our reports last night, no thanks to you. Just submit them after the game. Meanwhile," she pulls out a bundle of folders and shoves them in his face, Jongin catching them just in time. "I'm going to pass out after breakfast."
He nods gleefully, placing the folders on the bench. He then takes out his wand to chant a spell, and the folders fly to fit themselves snugly into one of the lockers. Krystal takes a peek into the field above and sees a few students she recognizes, tossing the quaffle around. All except for one, she realizes that the rest of the players are prefects from different years. She can’t help but point them out.
“Really?”
He fixes his hair and shrugs. “What can I say? We have brains and brawn.”
Appalled at his comment, she feels embarrassed by Jinyoung standing next to them, her right palm hovering above her face. Fortunately, he starts laughing and Jongin raises an eyebrow at him.
“Junior here is a beater too, you know.”
She heaves a sigh and pats Jinyoung’s shoulder, earning a blush on his cheeks.
“I won’t associate you with him, don’t worry.” Unlike Krystal, Jongin notices this right away and stares at him knowingly.
Krystal widens her eyes remembering some papers he needed to sign and takes them out of her satchel. She quickly pushes them onto his chest, startling him.
“These need your signature.” She flicks through them slowly and carefully reads out each of its sender. “The ‘justice for house elves’ association, the ‘astronomers anonymous’ club, the ‘whomping willow tree house’…” Shel continues to name all of them as Jinyoung stares at her, eyes full of admiration. A smile creeps up his face and Jongin notices, raising an eyebrow.
“You just need to sign right above my sig-”
Stopping her speech, Jongin pulls her in and hugs her tight, her mouth crashing into his shoulder. He begins to stroke her back and Krystal is still in shock, the papers in between them starting to crumple.
“Yes. I’ll sign them all, Soojung.”
She feels her ears twitch and realizes the situation she is in, heat slowly rising to her face. She shakes to free herself but his grip is firm, even as she tries to push him away. Jongin steals a glance at Jinyoung to see him look stern, his face already fallen.
“Get off me.”
“What’s the magic word?”
At his request, she smiles and lets her free hand reach for her wand, sliding it between them to point it at his face. Spotting her wand, he reacts just before she could finish the incantation.
“Aqua-”
“Hey, Krys-” Jongin says as he lets go and runs backwards, heading towards the field.
“-Eructo.”
He misses the attack by a hair, the jet of clear water from her wand hitting the grass field. The impact causes a mist of water in the air, grabbing the attention of the other Gryffindor players as they descend from their brooms. The papers are now scattered around the entrance and Jinyoung backs away in recoil, dusting his jumper.
“You’re a whackjob,” Jongin says from shock, his face stunned. Krystal pockets her wand and frowns, disappointed at his good reflexes.
"I'm out," she says with a straight face, her dark circles slowly sinking under her eyes. Nodding contently, Krystal walks off, skipping her way to the castle.
The other players start to gather around the commotion, their brooms sinking into the grass.
“Jongin,” Seulgi says, helping him up. “What did you do this time?"
Jinyoung brushes off the dirt on his pants while Jongin sits up, the dirt from the ground all over his jumper. The rest of the players begin to stand in a circle around them and all they are greeted with is their captain, his grin growing from ear to ear.
“What happened?” Jaebum whispers to Jinyoung, leaning on his broomstick. The boy scoffs and rubs his sleeves.
“He happened. And Krystal got annoyed."
--
The weekend passes by like a blur to Krystal, with most of her time spent hibernating in bed and reading books. She goes in and out for meals and hall patrol while avoiding the other prefects, her robe hood on at all times. In her own private chamber, her company was limited to Petra, the Jung’s camouflaged colored, great horned owl.
She’s staring at the letter she received from Jongdae this morning, just as the owls started to fly in the Great Hall. Krystal strokes her feathered friend, now perched on the windowsill. It is Sunday evening, and she finally decides to open the envelope.
“I know you’re basically glued to your chamber, so I went to the Owllery to have Petra send your well deserved report.”
She smiles reading the first line and unfolds the bottom half of the paper.
"Good news: We won. Bad news: Half of the Gryffindor team is in the infirmary, Head Boy included. I guess there were side effects. I would suggest throwing that vial away, but I’m guessing you already did. See you tomorrow. - Kim Jongdae."
Instead of feeling triumphant, she felt even more awful, her mind already picturing the troublesome week ahead. She looks at vial on her side table, its color now a murky blue.
Groaning, she rolls out of bed to wear her robes and slips into her flats. The common room is oddly quiet after a long day, with only a few students conversing or sitting down, deep in their readings. Spotting Kyungsoo asleep on his table, she carefully walks out of the room, her steps echoing on the walls.
When Krystal reaches the infirmary, she sees Jongin on his feet, elbows on the windowsill. Feeling a bit cheated by the letter she read, she walks up to him, arms crossed.
His expression brightens at the sight of her face and she raises an eyebrow. “Jongdae told me you were here."
“Hey,” he replies softly, tightening his wrapped arm. He’s in a plain white t-shirt and looks like he just got out of bed, his posture rather lazy. “I’m better. These guys got the short end of my potion."
Krystal turns to see Jaebum sleeping against the duvet and two other players tucked under the covers, snoring lightly. She watches them quietly, sitting at the edge of the bed to straighten the sheets. Jongin walks over to sit in the bed opposite her, his palm on his knees.
“You look great," she finally says, looking at his face. “Your complexion, I mean. It’s not as pale.”
He laughs bitterly in reply. “I didn’t drink my potion, Krys. Well, didn’t get to. Jackson’s under the covers over there.” Krystal examines the room, her gaze ending at the bandage around his arm. Jongin notices this and lifts it up.
“This was the bludger’s fault. I was so close to the snitch.” His expression changes slightly, a frown quickly replaced with a smile. “Nothing like a spell to fix it up. It’s just a little bruised.”
“That’s good,” she replies, twiddling her thumbs. She takes a deep breath and straightens her posture. “I was worried I would have to do all of next week’s work myself."
“You’re funny, Krystal.”
She looks at him curiously. “Why are you still here though?” she whispers.
“Why do you think?” he answers cryptically, stretching his arms out. As Krystal looks around, she finds the answer on the side tables, the same vials now left with residue of white liquid.
“The antidote.”
Jongin nods in reply, slowly leaning into the space between where they sat. She feels bad for doubting him, her eyes staring into his apologetically. The Jongin she knew was always bold and brazen, different from the boy sitting in front of her. She realizes this might have been one of his strengths, a fact well known by the school professors.
He returns her gaze and they stay like this for a while, the air around them filling in silence. He slowly raises one end of his mouth and smiles, his picture perfect smirk forming on his face. Contagious, she starts to smile as well, her cheeks starting to heat up.
“So,” he starts, rubbing the back of his neck, “what else brought you here?”
Ignoring the heat on her face, she diverts her gaze downwards to her hands having unconsciously gripped the sheets. She relaxes them quickly before he could see, stretching her fingers out. Krystal clears her throat.
"Well, just wanted to make sure your limbs were working." She stands up to leave but he follows to stand up as well, grabbing her wrist. Taken by surprise, Krystal looks back into his eyes, searching for an answer.
“Stay” she hears him plead inaudibly, his eyebrows raised and expression full of hope. He’s bad at being subtle, she tells herself, recalling other facts about Jongin that draws the line. He’s just playing around.
She breaks their gaze to look at the floor, preventing him from continuing what she assumes might happen next. Jongin watches her expression and smiles, putting away his intentions. He shakes her hand instead, playfully swinging it up and down. She looks back up at him, maintaining a straight face.
“Thank you.” He lets go to pat her back, pushing her lightly to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
--
She made sure to slap herself senselessly before class and Jinri catches her in the act, seizing both of her friend’s arms.
"What is this random face abuse!" She shouts, tightening her grip. It's 3pm on Monday and they are headed for the greenhouse at the edge of the forest for Herbology, along with a few other 7-year students.
"Please don't make me stop." She tries to free from her friend's grasp but to no avail.
“Is it him?” Jinri replies, looking around. "Has Jongin finally made you lose it?” She’s made sure to lower her voice but everyone ends up facing at her direction instead. Krystal facepalms, and stops them in their tracks.
“Let’s not mention his name, please." she says, before Jinri finally relaxes her grip and folds her friend’s arms together, making sure to avoid the face.
“Sorry,” Jinri replies. Sighing deeply, Krystal grabs her arm and drags her towards the glass building.
The students arrive slowly, filling the wooden stools around the long tables arranged in four neat rows. The sun radiates softly between the trees and through the glass, shadows of leaves dancing in the wind. Krystal finds two seats at the corner and leads Jinri to sit on one of them. Quickly placing her bag on the side hanger, the latter looks at her friend expectantly, her elbows on the table. Jinri leans her face into her palm, her fingers poking her cheeks.
For what it’s worth, Krystal is lucky to have Jinri, even after the sorting hat incident. Although it left her parents in denial for a few years, Jinri was always there to help her get through, being her closest family friend. She also learned to tolerate her being friends with Jongdae, which is something she is always thankful for, even if it did affect her pride.
She looks at her painfully and shrugs, pulling her textbook out.
“Tell me, Head Girl, or I’m going to send your sister a very pleasant letter.”
Krystal had expected her to threaten her with something less dangerous, like going to breakfast topless, but this was close enough. She looks at her sourly and puts her book up at a right angle to cover everyone else’s sight.
“He’s...”
Jinri eyes are twinkling, and Krystal can’t help but not let her down. She tries to think of something more interesting but nothing pops up in her head.
“He’s… he tried. I flaked. Then I went back to my chamber and slept.”
She sees her friend’s eyebrows scrunch together, looking at her in confusion. “You what?”
Krystal nods and puts the textbook down, closing it in front of her. “Exactly. I told you it’s nothing.”
“Soojung...” she shakes her head in disappointment and Krystal pats her back, looking at the front of the class. She catches someone’s gaze and realizes it was infact Jongin’s, before awkwardly waving to greet him. He nods upwards in reply before rushing to his seat, the professor arriving next to him to take her place at the edge of the table.
“Afternoon class. Getting incredibly chilly isn’t it?” Expecting a reply, she looks around the class in smiles. Instead, everyone stayed eerily silent and she nods in disappointment, holding some papers in mid air. “Alright you unenthusiastic 7th years. I have your test results right here.”
At the mention, Krystal brightens up as Jinri groans, her head laying on top of her arms.
“As expected, Chrystal S- I mean, Krystal Jung, gets full marks. 50 points for you, Miss.”
Embarrassed, she catches the paper as it floats near her, a few of her peers clapping in support.
“And again, as expected, Kim Jongin just almost gets full marks! Great!” She sees him shake his head as his friend Chanyeol nudges his arm, the paper landing on the table in front of him. “Three years and you two are still head to head, it seems.”
“Head over heels, probably,” mutters Jinri, glaring at her friend. Krystal looks back at her in worry, mouthing something she can’t make out. “What?”
“Barely half the marks, Miss Jinri!” she shouts, tossing the paper directly at Jinri. This takes everyone by surprise as it zooms past, faster than the rest. Krystal catches her friend’s results in time before it smacks her in the face, straightening the paper on the table in front of her.
“10 points. From Slytherin.”
Jinri fists her palms below the table and smiles bitterly at her, nodding her head. “Thank you, Madame.” Krystal grips her friend’s arms to prevent her from taking her wand out but she holds her hands instead, patting them softly.
“I can’t believe you forgot Madame Oh has incredibly sharp hearing.” she says shamefully, but Jinri waves it off.
“You still owe me a story,” she says, pointedly. Krystal can’t help but smile at her.
“Christmas, at your place?”
Jinri smiles, her eyebrows raised suggestively. “Ooh. Are you trying to seduce me?”
Krystal almost spits on her friend’s face but closes her mouth on time, holding back anymore sounds before the professor can call them out. Jinri hits her on the arm and they both laugh silently in the corner, their mouths wide open. On the other side of the class, Jongin watches skeptically as they laugh without a sound, almost falling off their stools.
“That’s an inside joke you’ll probably never understand,” comments Chanyeol, twirling his quill.
At that remark Jongin nods, ignoring the tingling in his chest. This year, she hasn’t pestered him about his grades once.
--
That night after dinner, Jongdae brings her food from the great hall.
He finds her buried behind stacks of papers after their weekly meeting, having no time to eat. A quill is scribbling frantically next to her, charmed to keep writing bodies of text of what seems to be an important essay. Krystal waves at him and brightens at the sight of bread, grabbing a piece before he could even put it down on the table.
“I swear I’m going to see you choke on that one day. Slow down,” he says, taking a seat next to her. She’s reading through a long parchment as she stuffs the pastry into her mouth, the crumbs falling on her lap.
“Look at this.” She takes a big gulp, half of the bread gone. “Apparently, there are really strict rules about stealing from the the forbidden forest. I can’t believe these things actually exist.” Jongdae can see her eyes widen at each paragraph and chuckles out of amusement.
She stops after a while and leans back on her seat. “Who am I kidding. I’m not in the mood for this.”
“You kind of have to,” comments Jongin out of the blue, popping out from the table next to her. Startled, she gasps as her plate of food clatters, barely spilling the food. He almost laughs before spotting the boy next to her and smiles, rather in genuinely. “Hey, it’s the Ravenclaw keeper.”
“You know who I am, Jongin.” Jongdae replies spitefully. There is tension in the air as they stare at each other and Krystal sighs, expression completely annoyed.
“Break it up,” she says, waving her arms in front of them. “Thanks Jongdae-ah. I’ll see you later.”
He smiles at her and she watches it fade as he looks at Jongin, forcing a nod before he leaves the room. She laughs at her friend and returns to her readings, the fourth paragraph about centaur possessions.
Jongin looks at her blankly, leaning on her chair. “Krystal.”
“Hmm?”
“What is it about him you like?” he asks almost rhetorically.
Krystal scoffs, taking a quill out of the drawer. “It’s not about what I like. We just go way back.”
“Is that it?” he asks, slumping into the chair next to her. He stacks the remaining papers aside and rolls out a new parchment, an official document written by the Headmaster. “I mean, you guys are just lucky to be in the same house and all.”
She finally looks at him, judging his remark. “And? Am I just lucky that I happened to end up with you as a Head Prefect?”
Jongin smiles, looking like an expectant puppy. “Are you?”
She rolls her eyes, ignoring his question. “You’re completely missing the point.”
Krystal straightens her posture and places the parchment on the table. “It’s the concept of time. We have a lot of memories together.”
Hearing her almost-answer, his face falls. Jongin doesn’t ask her anything afterwards, working through the parchment he had recently opened. Krystal notices the change in his actions and considers explaining herself to him, but buries herself in the papers instead. Reading is much easier to do than talking, after all.
For the next two hours, they hardly exchange words, even with the silent tension in the room slowly growing.
Krystal finally looks up from her readings, biting a piece of her bread. “Help yourself,” she says, breaking the silence. The food on the plate had started to grow cold. Not seeing where it is, Jongin slides her the next stack of papers to sign, the plate falling off the table. On reflex, he catches it on time, his hand overlapping with hers.
“Sorry.” They say at the same time, looking at each other nervously. Krystal looks away, pushing the plate on the table as he stands up, walking towards the large window. Jongin opens the latch and the air flows in, the last of the November winds blowing softly into the room.
“It’s December tomorrow,” he says, his fringe dancing. She turns back to watch him, feeling the cold air hit her long, dark brown hair. Taking a deep breath, she stands to the space next to him, looking at the view above. She spots a raven fly in the distance, trying to avoid the Whomping Willow.
“I’ve never flown before, by the way.”
He leans his head back, her words taking him by surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah. I failed my first flying lesson. I retook it a few days later, but came out as average.” She feels her heart race, afraid that she started off on the wrong note. Instead, he tries to enter her field of vision, teasing her wits.
“What?” Krystal feels a smile creep up her face and bites her lip.
“You’ve never flown outside of class?”
She stares at him again, wishing she didn’t have to repeat herself. “No, Kim Jongin, I have not.”
Jongin shakes his head, trying to grasp the situation. He takes out his wand from his side pocket, considering what he’s about to do next.
“And your friend Jongdae has never taken you out flying?”
She sighs, her eyes still following the raven. It’s trying to escape from the tree’s frantic attacks, the leaves on the ground floating around from the impact. “He thinks I’ll break, basically.”
Hearing this, he points his wand at the sky, chanting a spell. Krystal barely hears it through the wind but she spots a broomstick fly out of the Quidditch pitch, heading their way. It halts right next to Jongin, his Comet five-ten good as new. She examines the broom and looks up at him, his smile widening awkwardly. It hits her late and as she backs away from him, her arm is already in his grasp.
“It’ll be fun, come on.”
“No! No, not when- the papers,” She looks back and forth to him and the table, pushing her body away.
“Come- on-” He manages to pull her body up and sits her on the wooden seat of the broom.
Krystal tries to balance herself by abruptly hugging the end of the broom with both arms, her body hunching down. “I really can’t do this.”
He looks at her mischievously, pocketing his wand.
“Give me some space will you?” He sits in front of her and she shifts back, giving both of them space to sit. She awkwardly tugs on his robes where his arms are and tries to balance, her expression extremely uncomfortable.
“I swear to Merlin, Jongin, if you make me fall-”
Before she could finish her sentence, he grabs her hands to secure around his waist, her grip instantly tightening. He can feel her stiffen behind him and smiles to himself, looking at the view beyond the window.
“To making memories?” He asks, before kicking his feet off the floor.
She winces at this cliche and considers going off the broom and back into her chair. Before she could place her foot down, Krystal sees the raven fly up, soaring into the sky. He’s going to make you regret this. Get off the broom. Watching the bird fly, she takes time to collect herself, evening her breaths.
After a good few seconds of leaving him hanging, she whispers faintly into his ears, ignoring her conscience.
“Sure, why not.”
Rating: G
Other pairings involved: minor Krystal/Chen
Length: 6272 words
Summary: As the school’s new Head Prefects, Krystal tries to stay them out of trouble. Jongin on the other hand, thinks it’s a way to get closer to her.
Warnings: None
Notes: None
After three months into being forced to spending her entire year with Kim Jongin, Krystal wishes she could turn back time and start over as an average, book smart student.
She’s considered it, the type of that can't solve the common room riddles every other day but plays Quidditch every other week. The one that stays quiet in class, despite itching to answer all the questions but instead, silently judging other people for not knowing. She’s been reaping what she’s sowed as a perfect student, especially when she’s stuck with someone like him for a Head Prefect.
“Krys,” He whispers to her in Potions, not following the instructions to the brew. The inside of his cauldron is expectedly clear as water, just like the contents of all his other vials on the shelf. “I need you to cover for me."
For the first time after a while, her feelings of resentment after being hat-stalled into Ravenclaw return. Having the courage to convince the hat to sort her into Slytherin might have made this a less painful experience.
“What now,” she grumbles, looking his way as she stirs her potion. Jongin always looks like he just came out of the shower, hair partly wet and his sleeves rolled all the way up. His robes lay on the stool, donned with red and gold.
“There’s an extract in the professor’s cupboard that I need. It’s on the top shelf."
She looks behind him to see a variety of vials and immediately figures out which one. She sees a red colored vial labeled ‘Salamander’ and stares at him in disbelief.
“That’s like wizard steroids."
“Exactly.” He raises his eyebrows and looks at her knowingly. “I kind of need it to boost team morality. You know."
She rolls her eyes and sighs. “Do you even know the implications of Salamander Blood when not brewed correctly? You’re going to make everyone sick."
“But I will brew it correctly, you see.” He nods confidently before placing his hands on her shoulders, giving her a pat. “Get’em girl."
“Disgusting,” she says, pinching his skin to remove his arms from her shoulders. Jongin winces and flails excessively, teasing her wits.
After some consideration, the cons outweigh the pros in her head, with her acing this weeklong potions assignment and him probably flunking by not attending next class. Krystal puts on her most convincing smile and asks the professor a few questions, directing him away from the cupboard.
Halfway into listening to his answer, she swears she can almost see Jongin spill the entire contents and quickly flicks her fingers to levitate the vial. He mouths a ‘thank you’ and sighs in relief, grabbing the extract and placing it in his pocket. Fortunately for him, the professor turned to look just after the incident, leaving Jongin guilt-free. Krystal takes a few deep breaths, the heat from her beating heart slowly rising to her face. She is always near death whenever he is involved.
“Dumbass,” she whispers at him back at their table, frown intact. “Do it right next time."
He nods as he puts three teaspoons of the blood into his cauldron, stirring thoroughly. “But you’re the best part."
She glares at him for the third time today and turns to face him head on. “And why is that?"
“Because, you’ll always make sure we’re out of trouble.” he smiles as the contents in his cauldron start to boil, the color turning a shade of violet. He looks at her knowingly and points at the space above his left chest, tapping it lightly. “Thanks Head Girl."
Krystal suddenly feels a migraine forming above her right temple and massages it slowly, cursing to herself. She ignores him for the rest of the class to continue brewing her potion to perfection, its scent beginning to sweeten as the liquid turns into a glass yellow. Jongin on the other hand has quietly been filling empty vials with the pearly violet liquid and she sees him take out a small handbag.
“Capacious extremis.” There’s a flash of light and he begins to chuck all of the vials into the bag.
She sighs and grabs one of them, examining the content. “Did you really come up with this yourself?"
“You question me, Jung.” he starts by reaching for the vial in her hand, but puts his hand away. “That’s yours. Do whatever you want with it.” As he finishes putting in the last vial in the bag, the bell rings, signifying the end of the period.
“Has this been tested?” Krystal asks him quietly as the professor dismisses the class.
“Not really. But I do come from a family line of famous potion brewers.” he says, a matter of factly.
“And that’s all you’re going to rely on?” She swishes her wand and the contents of her cauldron transform into what looks like a large, semi-circle block of soap, flying to sit on her designated shelf.
“Yep.” He says, zipping his bag. “I’ve to go. Here’s today’s reports,” he hands her a stack of paper, almost making her fall backwards. “Actually, half of them. I’ll catch you later!” After throwing his handbag in mid air and catching it, he runs out of the classroom, letting her drown in all the weight.
Putting the papers down, she skims through each of them and sees that he has written nothing but one sentence in each of the rows. “What do I even expect from him?…” she mumbles to herself, putting their cauldrons away on the shelf. She takes one last look at the vial of liquid and puts it in her robe pockets, not daring to ask herself any more questions.
--
The first to figure out that Kim Jongin was appointed Head Boy was in fact not herself, but a fellow prefect. Kyungsoo was a natural Ravenclaw, his gifts include having a photographic memory and a meek personality. No one could have thought he’d be the one listening into the professor's’ meetings, after finding a secret passageway below the Headmaster’s office.
“This is almost akin to Amortentia, but… with enhancements,” he says after examining the vial. “It could go both ways. Who did you say brewed it?"
“Who else really,” Krystal replies, throwing her body on the common room sofa. “He’ll probably fail the assignment.” Kyungsoo looks at her skeptically, but she quickly shakes her head to dismiss his thoughts. She omits the part where she does become an accomplice in helping Jongin steal an extract but keeps quiet about it, maintaining a little dignity.
The room is quiet after dinner on a Friday, with students filing in slowly to enter their private chambers. ("Today’s riddle was rather tricky to crack," Kyungsoo mentions.) The fireplace crackles with life, illuminating their corner of the common room. He’s catching up on homework at a wooden table, nested behind a small sitting area with royal blue sofas where Krystal sits, his parchment rolls scattered all around the floor.
Kyungsoo nods nervously and hands it back to her. “Follow up with him, Krys. I’m starting to smell berries and cheese, and scent is never a good thing."
Confused, she laughs at him and he doesn’t, his expression rather serious. “But you like berries and cheesecake.” Kyungsoo gives her one last look and shakes his head, before it hits her completely.
“Oh merlin’s beard.” She stands up from her seat but then sits herself back down, the short hand of the clock halfway over the number 10. “I’ll see him at 11. We’re posting new patrol schedules."
She can see Kyungsoo frown, putting his quill down. Before he could say anything, she puts her hand up to talk.
“Quidditch. It’s all because of Quidditch. We have a lot of players this year,” she shrugs, taking a parchment out of her pack. “I tried talking him out of it because it’s an extracurricular, but he has selective hearing.” Kyungsoo eyes her blankly and she heaves a sigh. “He’s captain, soo."
“The school system’s mistake. It’s understandable.” He dips his quill into his inkbottle and continues writing.
Krystal knows for a fact that no one resents the fact that Jongin is Head boy more than Kyungsoo does. Being appointed from a pool other than the existing prefects, he feels Jongin is undeserving of such title, especially considering the standard of conduct for the current prefects. She suddenly feels guilty for tolerating the guy so much.
After a long period of productive silence, Jongdae walks in with a large group of students, all clapping around him. Surely he finally solved the riddle. His face is turning a shade of red, coloring his cheeks as he scratches the back of his neck.
“Thank you, thank you. Back to your chambers, all of you.” Krystal stifles a laugh as she sees him separate from the crowd, strutting. He hits the table lightly and startles Kyungsoo out of his essay writing. “The answer was-"
“Echo. Unseen, and won’t speak back until-"
“-until spoken to, yes. Thank you Kyungsoo.” He pats his back and waves at Krystal, heading to sit on the sofa next to her. “Haven’t seen you in a while."
“Barely alive, thanks.” She gives him a fist bump he returns and smiles.
Unlike Kyungsoo, Jongdae is built on effort, being a muggleborn wizard. He was her first and closest friend at school after being sorted, even if her parents did not like him at first. Coming from a family line of proud purebloods never stopped her from befriending him, even if it did take a few ‘mudblood’ insults the first few years. As a result, he is practically immune to it.
"Gameday tomorrow evening. Versus our beloved Head Boy.” He muses, dropping his bag on the floor. She raises her eyebrows knowingly and relaxes her head on the cushion behind her.
“I have too many reports to write, as a result. Quidditch is all he has in his head.” Krystal stretches her arms wide, sighing for the nth time.
“Am I hearing you clearly? Are you complaining about writing reports?” He continues sarcastically and Krystal stares at him, twisting her lip. “The dark horse has finally charmed you, it seems.”
Jongdae raises his eyebrows up and down, starting to tease her again. She hates how his growing hobbies include matchmaking her with random boys in their year, not caring if they might be assholes or not.
“He only almost snubbed all of us during our OWLs.” She says, looking at her friend in the eye. “So he’s not your average joe. I’ll give him points for that. Otherwise, he’s clumsy and horrible at being subtle."
“And he abuses the prefect’s bathroom,” Kyungsoo adds, continuing to scribble right after. She holds her laugh at his comment because it is painfully true.
Jongdae scoffs at both of their reactions. “What a conspiracy. I can’t believe I’m finally seeing you two agree on something.” He folds his arms in front of him, looking rather offended.
She finds Kyungsoo look at her and they start snickering, him holding his mouth and Krystal trying to hold in her laugh by holding her stomach. “I’m starting to think he’s charmed you of all people, Jongdae-ah,” she replies, taking him aback. He surrenders by letting them have their laugh, commenting with an occasional ‘Haha.’ It’s moments like these when she believes the hat made the right decision, letting her not miss out on befriending the best wizards in her year. Krystal’s got two of them.
She remembers about the vial and shows it to Jongdae without a word. He takes it and examines it from tip to tip, shaking it about and smelling its scent, just as how Kyungsoo did it. “Is this that energy drink?” He traces its shape, a small, kite shaped glass that fits right in his palm. “Smells really good. I think this can really enhance your senses."
“How so?” she asks nonchalantly, as if she doesn’t know what the brewer added to it.
“I saw the Gryffindor team have it. They all have one, but Jackson drank another’s straight away. Saw him go a bit cuckoo back at dinner, saying he can lift mountains and hear people breathe and stuff."
Krystal facepalms her forehead and quickly grabs the liquid from his hand, expression annoyed. “I let him brew a Strengthening Solution in front of me without knowing.” She passes by Kyungsoo to leave the common room, his expression rather apologetic. “Amortentia my ass!"
“Sorry,” he manages, before the door closes on them. Jongdae laughs in his confusion.
--
Krystal leaves the meeting room the next morning to find the new patrol schedule already placed up, pinned to the bulletin board just outside the prefect’s bathroom. Even after ditching her for another night of writing reports (and planning a new potion,) Jongin only manages to remember trivial things like these. She yawns loudly in frustration, about to walk away before she spots a small note at the corner of the corkboard.
‘Im at the pitch :)'
She scoffs, pulling the paper down from its pin.
The weather is chilly today, the wind forming a current flowing through the 5am corridors. She takes one look at the window and a player flies past, long hair billowing in the wind; one of Gryffindor's female chasers, Seulgi. As she watches her circle around towards the pitch in the distance, Krystal picks up her pace and jogs down the stairs.
She might be seeing things but she’s sure that the person standing near the Quidditch pitch gates is Jinyoung, one of the year 7 prefects. She gives him a confused look and he bows, greeting her with a smile. He’s shivering in his yellow jumper, his arms hugging his frame.
“Morning, Head Gi- Krystal. Sorry."
“Hey.” She nods back at him. "What brings you? I thought you guys wouldn’t be practicing until after 6am."
“I’m just... waiting here."
“Right.” Krystal says, feeling unsure. Jinyoung’s gaze lingers on her for a while, quietly tracing her facial features. She’s completely unaware, shifting through her pockets for her gloves.
“Let’s go in?” She extends an arm and he nods, holding back a smile.
They both walk side by side into the great wooden structure, through a passageway right under the venue. The doors to the field are wide open, the dewy grass swaying in the breeze. Jongin is seen talking to the two beaters as they float above the ball casket, the bludgers in them rattling the chains.
She sees him look up and starts waving about.
“Jung Soojung!"
He is so dead.
She winces at the sound of her birth name out of his mouth, and crosses her arms. The small handbag from the day before is visible at the corner of her eye, sticking out of a locker beside the benches and spare broomsticks. Jongin hurries to her direction as the beaters fly off, his hair even more disheveled in the wind.
“Huh. So your potion worked.” Krystal looks at him spitefully, hand clearing the dust in the air that came along with him.
“Of course.” He arrives, taking deep breaths. “Hey Junior. You're early.”
Jinyoung winces at his mention as well, knowing that only few people know about his nickname in the Hufflepuff house. Krystal holds back her laughter out of pity; the other Park Jinyoung graduated last year. It didn't help that she was also his senior in the same house. He frowns and Jongin laughs it off.
"I wrote up all our reports last night, no thanks to you. Just submit them after the game. Meanwhile," she pulls out a bundle of folders and shoves them in his face, Jongin catching them just in time. "I'm going to pass out after breakfast."
He nods gleefully, placing the folders on the bench. He then takes out his wand to chant a spell, and the folders fly to fit themselves snugly into one of the lockers. Krystal takes a peek into the field above and sees a few students she recognizes, tossing the quaffle around. All except for one, she realizes that the rest of the players are prefects from different years. She can’t help but point them out.
“Really?”
He fixes his hair and shrugs. “What can I say? We have brains and brawn.”
Appalled at his comment, she feels embarrassed by Jinyoung standing next to them, her right palm hovering above her face. Fortunately, he starts laughing and Jongin raises an eyebrow at him.
“Junior here is a beater too, you know.”
She heaves a sigh and pats Jinyoung’s shoulder, earning a blush on his cheeks.
“I won’t associate you with him, don’t worry.” Unlike Krystal, Jongin notices this right away and stares at him knowingly.
Krystal widens her eyes remembering some papers he needed to sign and takes them out of her satchel. She quickly pushes them onto his chest, startling him.
“These need your signature.” She flicks through them slowly and carefully reads out each of its sender. “The ‘justice for house elves’ association, the ‘astronomers anonymous’ club, the ‘whomping willow tree house’…” Shel continues to name all of them as Jinyoung stares at her, eyes full of admiration. A smile creeps up his face and Jongin notices, raising an eyebrow.
“You just need to sign right above my sig-”
Stopping her speech, Jongin pulls her in and hugs her tight, her mouth crashing into his shoulder. He begins to stroke her back and Krystal is still in shock, the papers in between them starting to crumple.
“Yes. I’ll sign them all, Soojung.”
She feels her ears twitch and realizes the situation she is in, heat slowly rising to her face. She shakes to free herself but his grip is firm, even as she tries to push him away. Jongin steals a glance at Jinyoung to see him look stern, his face already fallen.
“Get off me.”
“What’s the magic word?”
At his request, she smiles and lets her free hand reach for her wand, sliding it between them to point it at his face. Spotting her wand, he reacts just before she could finish the incantation.
“Aqua-”
“Hey, Krys-” Jongin says as he lets go and runs backwards, heading towards the field.
“-Eructo.”
He misses the attack by a hair, the jet of clear water from her wand hitting the grass field. The impact causes a mist of water in the air, grabbing the attention of the other Gryffindor players as they descend from their brooms. The papers are now scattered around the entrance and Jinyoung backs away in recoil, dusting his jumper.
“You’re a whackjob,” Jongin says from shock, his face stunned. Krystal pockets her wand and frowns, disappointed at his good reflexes.
"I'm out," she says with a straight face, her dark circles slowly sinking under her eyes. Nodding contently, Krystal walks off, skipping her way to the castle.
The other players start to gather around the commotion, their brooms sinking into the grass.
“Jongin,” Seulgi says, helping him up. “What did you do this time?"
Jinyoung brushes off the dirt on his pants while Jongin sits up, the dirt from the ground all over his jumper. The rest of the players begin to stand in a circle around them and all they are greeted with is their captain, his grin growing from ear to ear.
“What happened?” Jaebum whispers to Jinyoung, leaning on his broomstick. The boy scoffs and rubs his sleeves.
“He happened. And Krystal got annoyed."
--
The weekend passes by like a blur to Krystal, with most of her time spent hibernating in bed and reading books. She goes in and out for meals and hall patrol while avoiding the other prefects, her robe hood on at all times. In her own private chamber, her company was limited to Petra, the Jung’s camouflaged colored, great horned owl.
She’s staring at the letter she received from Jongdae this morning, just as the owls started to fly in the Great Hall. Krystal strokes her feathered friend, now perched on the windowsill. It is Sunday evening, and she finally decides to open the envelope.
“I know you’re basically glued to your chamber, so I went to the Owllery to have Petra send your well deserved report.”
She smiles reading the first line and unfolds the bottom half of the paper.
"Good news: We won. Bad news: Half of the Gryffindor team is in the infirmary, Head Boy included. I guess there were side effects. I would suggest throwing that vial away, but I’m guessing you already did. See you tomorrow. - Kim Jongdae."
Instead of feeling triumphant, she felt even more awful, her mind already picturing the troublesome week ahead. She looks at vial on her side table, its color now a murky blue.
Groaning, she rolls out of bed to wear her robes and slips into her flats. The common room is oddly quiet after a long day, with only a few students conversing or sitting down, deep in their readings. Spotting Kyungsoo asleep on his table, she carefully walks out of the room, her steps echoing on the walls.
When Krystal reaches the infirmary, she sees Jongin on his feet, elbows on the windowsill. Feeling a bit cheated by the letter she read, she walks up to him, arms crossed.
His expression brightens at the sight of her face and she raises an eyebrow. “Jongdae told me you were here."
“Hey,” he replies softly, tightening his wrapped arm. He’s in a plain white t-shirt and looks like he just got out of bed, his posture rather lazy. “I’m better. These guys got the short end of my potion."
Krystal turns to see Jaebum sleeping against the duvet and two other players tucked under the covers, snoring lightly. She watches them quietly, sitting at the edge of the bed to straighten the sheets. Jongin walks over to sit in the bed opposite her, his palm on his knees.
“You look great," she finally says, looking at his face. “Your complexion, I mean. It’s not as pale.”
He laughs bitterly in reply. “I didn’t drink my potion, Krys. Well, didn’t get to. Jackson’s under the covers over there.” Krystal examines the room, her gaze ending at the bandage around his arm. Jongin notices this and lifts it up.
“This was the bludger’s fault. I was so close to the snitch.” His expression changes slightly, a frown quickly replaced with a smile. “Nothing like a spell to fix it up. It’s just a little bruised.”
“That’s good,” she replies, twiddling her thumbs. She takes a deep breath and straightens her posture. “I was worried I would have to do all of next week’s work myself."
“You’re funny, Krystal.”
She looks at him curiously. “Why are you still here though?” she whispers.
“Why do you think?” he answers cryptically, stretching his arms out. As Krystal looks around, she finds the answer on the side tables, the same vials now left with residue of white liquid.
“The antidote.”
Jongin nods in reply, slowly leaning into the space between where they sat. She feels bad for doubting him, her eyes staring into his apologetically. The Jongin she knew was always bold and brazen, different from the boy sitting in front of her. She realizes this might have been one of his strengths, a fact well known by the school professors.
He returns her gaze and they stay like this for a while, the air around them filling in silence. He slowly raises one end of his mouth and smiles, his picture perfect smirk forming on his face. Contagious, she starts to smile as well, her cheeks starting to heat up.
“So,” he starts, rubbing the back of his neck, “what else brought you here?”
Ignoring the heat on her face, she diverts her gaze downwards to her hands having unconsciously gripped the sheets. She relaxes them quickly before he could see, stretching her fingers out. Krystal clears her throat.
"Well, just wanted to make sure your limbs were working." She stands up to leave but he follows to stand up as well, grabbing her wrist. Taken by surprise, Krystal looks back into his eyes, searching for an answer.
“Stay” she hears him plead inaudibly, his eyebrows raised and expression full of hope. He’s bad at being subtle, she tells herself, recalling other facts about Jongin that draws the line. He’s just playing around.
She breaks their gaze to look at the floor, preventing him from continuing what she assumes might happen next. Jongin watches her expression and smiles, putting away his intentions. He shakes her hand instead, playfully swinging it up and down. She looks back up at him, maintaining a straight face.
“Thank you.” He lets go to pat her back, pushing her lightly to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
--
She made sure to slap herself senselessly before class and Jinri catches her in the act, seizing both of her friend’s arms.
"What is this random face abuse!" She shouts, tightening her grip. It's 3pm on Monday and they are headed for the greenhouse at the edge of the forest for Herbology, along with a few other 7-year students.
"Please don't make me stop." She tries to free from her friend's grasp but to no avail.
“Is it him?” Jinri replies, looking around. "Has Jongin finally made you lose it?” She’s made sure to lower her voice but everyone ends up facing at her direction instead. Krystal facepalms, and stops them in their tracks.
“Let’s not mention his name, please." she says, before Jinri finally relaxes her grip and folds her friend’s arms together, making sure to avoid the face.
“Sorry,” Jinri replies. Sighing deeply, Krystal grabs her arm and drags her towards the glass building.
The students arrive slowly, filling the wooden stools around the long tables arranged in four neat rows. The sun radiates softly between the trees and through the glass, shadows of leaves dancing in the wind. Krystal finds two seats at the corner and leads Jinri to sit on one of them. Quickly placing her bag on the side hanger, the latter looks at her friend expectantly, her elbows on the table. Jinri leans her face into her palm, her fingers poking her cheeks.
For what it’s worth, Krystal is lucky to have Jinri, even after the sorting hat incident. Although it left her parents in denial for a few years, Jinri was always there to help her get through, being her closest family friend. She also learned to tolerate her being friends with Jongdae, which is something she is always thankful for, even if it did affect her pride.
She looks at her painfully and shrugs, pulling her textbook out.
“Tell me, Head Girl, or I’m going to send your sister a very pleasant letter.”
Krystal had expected her to threaten her with something less dangerous, like going to breakfast topless, but this was close enough. She looks at her sourly and puts her book up at a right angle to cover everyone else’s sight.
“He’s...”
Jinri eyes are twinkling, and Krystal can’t help but not let her down. She tries to think of something more interesting but nothing pops up in her head.
“He’s… he tried. I flaked. Then I went back to my chamber and slept.”
She sees her friend’s eyebrows scrunch together, looking at her in confusion. “You what?”
Krystal nods and puts the textbook down, closing it in front of her. “Exactly. I told you it’s nothing.”
“Soojung...” she shakes her head in disappointment and Krystal pats her back, looking at the front of the class. She catches someone’s gaze and realizes it was infact Jongin’s, before awkwardly waving to greet him. He nods upwards in reply before rushing to his seat, the professor arriving next to him to take her place at the edge of the table.
“Afternoon class. Getting incredibly chilly isn’t it?” Expecting a reply, she looks around the class in smiles. Instead, everyone stayed eerily silent and she nods in disappointment, holding some papers in mid air. “Alright you unenthusiastic 7th years. I have your test results right here.”
At the mention, Krystal brightens up as Jinri groans, her head laying on top of her arms.
“As expected, Chrystal S- I mean, Krystal Jung, gets full marks. 50 points for you, Miss.”
Embarrassed, she catches the paper as it floats near her, a few of her peers clapping in support.
“And again, as expected, Kim Jongin just almost gets full marks! Great!” She sees him shake his head as his friend Chanyeol nudges his arm, the paper landing on the table in front of him. “Three years and you two are still head to head, it seems.”
“Head over heels, probably,” mutters Jinri, glaring at her friend. Krystal looks back at her in worry, mouthing something she can’t make out. “What?”
“Barely half the marks, Miss Jinri!” she shouts, tossing the paper directly at Jinri. This takes everyone by surprise as it zooms past, faster than the rest. Krystal catches her friend’s results in time before it smacks her in the face, straightening the paper on the table in front of her.
“10 points. From Slytherin.”
Jinri fists her palms below the table and smiles bitterly at her, nodding her head. “Thank you, Madame.” Krystal grips her friend’s arms to prevent her from taking her wand out but she holds her hands instead, patting them softly.
“I can’t believe you forgot Madame Oh has incredibly sharp hearing.” she says shamefully, but Jinri waves it off.
“You still owe me a story,” she says, pointedly. Krystal can’t help but smile at her.
“Christmas, at your place?”
Jinri smiles, her eyebrows raised suggestively. “Ooh. Are you trying to seduce me?”
Krystal almost spits on her friend’s face but closes her mouth on time, holding back anymore sounds before the professor can call them out. Jinri hits her on the arm and they both laugh silently in the corner, their mouths wide open. On the other side of the class, Jongin watches skeptically as they laugh without a sound, almost falling off their stools.
“That’s an inside joke you’ll probably never understand,” comments Chanyeol, twirling his quill.
At that remark Jongin nods, ignoring the tingling in his chest. This year, she hasn’t pestered him about his grades once.
--
That night after dinner, Jongdae brings her food from the great hall.
He finds her buried behind stacks of papers after their weekly meeting, having no time to eat. A quill is scribbling frantically next to her, charmed to keep writing bodies of text of what seems to be an important essay. Krystal waves at him and brightens at the sight of bread, grabbing a piece before he could even put it down on the table.
“I swear I’m going to see you choke on that one day. Slow down,” he says, taking a seat next to her. She’s reading through a long parchment as she stuffs the pastry into her mouth, the crumbs falling on her lap.
“Look at this.” She takes a big gulp, half of the bread gone. “Apparently, there are really strict rules about stealing from the the forbidden forest. I can’t believe these things actually exist.” Jongdae can see her eyes widen at each paragraph and chuckles out of amusement.
She stops after a while and leans back on her seat. “Who am I kidding. I’m not in the mood for this.”
“You kind of have to,” comments Jongin out of the blue, popping out from the table next to her. Startled, she gasps as her plate of food clatters, barely spilling the food. He almost laughs before spotting the boy next to her and smiles, rather in genuinely. “Hey, it’s the Ravenclaw keeper.”
“You know who I am, Jongin.” Jongdae replies spitefully. There is tension in the air as they stare at each other and Krystal sighs, expression completely annoyed.
“Break it up,” she says, waving her arms in front of them. “Thanks Jongdae-ah. I’ll see you later.”
He smiles at her and she watches it fade as he looks at Jongin, forcing a nod before he leaves the room. She laughs at her friend and returns to her readings, the fourth paragraph about centaur possessions.
Jongin looks at her blankly, leaning on her chair. “Krystal.”
“Hmm?”
“What is it about him you like?” he asks almost rhetorically.
Krystal scoffs, taking a quill out of the drawer. “It’s not about what I like. We just go way back.”
“Is that it?” he asks, slumping into the chair next to her. He stacks the remaining papers aside and rolls out a new parchment, an official document written by the Headmaster. “I mean, you guys are just lucky to be in the same house and all.”
She finally looks at him, judging his remark. “And? Am I just lucky that I happened to end up with you as a Head Prefect?”
Jongin smiles, looking like an expectant puppy. “Are you?”
She rolls her eyes, ignoring his question. “You’re completely missing the point.”
Krystal straightens her posture and places the parchment on the table. “It’s the concept of time. We have a lot of memories together.”
Hearing her almost-answer, his face falls. Jongin doesn’t ask her anything afterwards, working through the parchment he had recently opened. Krystal notices the change in his actions and considers explaining herself to him, but buries herself in the papers instead. Reading is much easier to do than talking, after all.
For the next two hours, they hardly exchange words, even with the silent tension in the room slowly growing.
Krystal finally looks up from her readings, biting a piece of her bread. “Help yourself,” she says, breaking the silence. The food on the plate had started to grow cold. Not seeing where it is, Jongin slides her the next stack of papers to sign, the plate falling off the table. On reflex, he catches it on time, his hand overlapping with hers.
“Sorry.” They say at the same time, looking at each other nervously. Krystal looks away, pushing the plate on the table as he stands up, walking towards the large window. Jongin opens the latch and the air flows in, the last of the November winds blowing softly into the room.
“It’s December tomorrow,” he says, his fringe dancing. She turns back to watch him, feeling the cold air hit her long, dark brown hair. Taking a deep breath, she stands to the space next to him, looking at the view above. She spots a raven fly in the distance, trying to avoid the Whomping Willow.
“I’ve never flown before, by the way.”
He leans his head back, her words taking him by surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah. I failed my first flying lesson. I retook it a few days later, but came out as average.” She feels her heart race, afraid that she started off on the wrong note. Instead, he tries to enter her field of vision, teasing her wits.
“What?” Krystal feels a smile creep up her face and bites her lip.
“You’ve never flown outside of class?”
She stares at him again, wishing she didn’t have to repeat herself. “No, Kim Jongin, I have not.”
Jongin shakes his head, trying to grasp the situation. He takes out his wand from his side pocket, considering what he’s about to do next.
“And your friend Jongdae has never taken you out flying?”
She sighs, her eyes still following the raven. It’s trying to escape from the tree’s frantic attacks, the leaves on the ground floating around from the impact. “He thinks I’ll break, basically.”
Hearing this, he points his wand at the sky, chanting a spell. Krystal barely hears it through the wind but she spots a broomstick fly out of the Quidditch pitch, heading their way. It halts right next to Jongin, his Comet five-ten good as new. She examines the broom and looks up at him, his smile widening awkwardly. It hits her late and as she backs away from him, her arm is already in his grasp.
“It’ll be fun, come on.”
“No! No, not when- the papers,” She looks back and forth to him and the table, pushing her body away.
“Come- on-” He manages to pull her body up and sits her on the wooden seat of the broom.
Krystal tries to balance herself by abruptly hugging the end of the broom with both arms, her body hunching down. “I really can’t do this.”
He looks at her mischievously, pocketing his wand.
“Give me some space will you?” He sits in front of her and she shifts back, giving both of them space to sit. She awkwardly tugs on his robes where his arms are and tries to balance, her expression extremely uncomfortable.
“I swear to Merlin, Jongin, if you make me fall-”
Before she could finish her sentence, he grabs her hands to secure around his waist, her grip instantly tightening. He can feel her stiffen behind him and smiles to himself, looking at the view beyond the window.
“To making memories?” He asks, before kicking his feet off the floor.
She winces at this cliche and considers going off the broom and back into her chair. Before she could place her foot down, Krystal sees the raven fly up, soaring into the sky. He’s going to make you regret this. Get off the broom. Watching the bird fly, she takes time to collect herself, evening her breaths.
After a good few seconds of leaving him hanging, she whispers faintly into his ears, ignoring her conscience.
“Sure, why not.”