if spring was a person (it'd be you)
seokmin/sujeong. 997w. hogwarts!au.
seokmin thinks he can just look at sujeong all day and won't even flinch if sujeong were to hit him with a bludger (he'd thank merlin instead).
Seokmin takes a sharp intake of breath when he feels his head slipping off his palm. He re-reads the last sentence he just wrote half-asleep, making sure it makes enough sense for him to at least get an A. He knows what he's capable of. Adding a dot at the end, he sighs and looks up, finding no one is in the Common Room but him. He glances at the empty chair across from him.
Just a few minutes ago Sujeong was sitting there, also hunched over her parchments doing her assignment. However, she only needed an hour to finish, Charms being one of her best subjects. She let Seokmin take a look at her essay, but he thought it was no use since he couldn't copy anyway, but he still took her parchments. Even after Sujeong whined, asking for them because she was going to sleep, Seokmin still held on to them.
As selfish as he sounded, he just wanted Sujeong to stay with him until he's done with his essay.
But he thinks it's a gift, being selfless, so he returned Sujeong's essay and she huffed upstairs to her room, Seokmin watching her back until she turned and out of sight.
Seokmin first met Sujeong at the feast of the start of their first year. He took a seat next to her after being sorted into Hufflepuff. He cracked a joke over dessert, she laughed, that was it, nothing really special. Seokmin isn't actually sure when he started having feelings for Sujeong. Was it after that time Seokmin helped Sujeong into their house when she forgot her password? Or when they worked on their Transfiguration assignment until the break of dawn, sometimes crying over it sometimes laughing at each other's writing but not really working on it? He has no idea. One day he looked at her and his chest started to feel warm. Just like that.
He had thought about confessing, of course. The first time he considered it was during their first trip to Hogsmeade and Seokmin thought about how romantic it'd be to confess to her under the falling snow, but he didn't do it, couldn't. His palms got all sweaty just thinking about it and he didn't know if it was his gloves or the thought of confessing to Sujeong.
So he keeps it, bottle it all up like Sujeong isn't making him dizzy. Not even when Kim Mingyu confessed to her, he kept it locked away. She had come up to him, asking for advice on what to do. Mingyu was the Gryffindor pride, the star Chaser of the lion house. He had joked that if he were Sujeong, he'd accept, since Mingyu didn't seem so bad (he lied, Mingyu was without a flaw). Seokmin bitterly realized what a perfect couple they would be, Sujeong being a Beater for the Hufflepuff team. Sujeong punched him in the arm while Seokmin could only joke about the whole situation. He makes a joke out of everything, and this, he thinks, is a curse.
After their little pep-talk, he was sure Sujeong would accept Mingyu, so imagine his surprise when she came up to him again to tell him she had rejected Mingyu.
Seokmin laughed.
Seokmin laughed out loud until tears formed on the corner of his eyes. Sujeong hissed, telling him to keep quiet but he just couldn't stop. Was it the fact that Sujeong actually rejected one of the most famous boys in Hogwarts, or was it the fact that Sujeong rejected him and next time, it could be Seokmin? It didn't matter then. He just laughed and wished her good luck against the rabid fans of Mingyu.
His friends always say that even if Sujeong hit him with a Bludger, he'd instead thank Merlin.
Seokmin releases another long sigh and brings his parchment up to his face, analyzing it, and finds that he had absentmindedly wrote Sujeong's name in the last sentence. He immediately scrapes it off with a spell and re-writes the sentence.
He's writing about the downside of the Mending Charm when he hears steps coming from the girls side of the dorm. He glances up and sees Sujeong, clad in her blue pajama, coming down from the last step and makes her way towards Seokmin. He watches as she gingerly occupies the seat she had left earlier. He raises her eyebrows, waiting for an explanation.
"Can't sleep," Sujeong says, pouting. She has a book with her, which she puts on her lap. Her eyes go to the parchment roll in Seokmin's hands. "You're still not done?"
Seokmin shakes his head. "Just a bit more," he replies. Sujeong nods and leans back in her chair, making herself comfortable. She closes her eyes but her fingers are drumming on the arms of the chair. Seokmin observes her face. He knows she's not sleeping, but her face is calm. The light from the fireplace illuminates her features; her long hair framing her diamond-shaped face, her button nose and her chubby cheeks which he likes to pinch, her lips which he dreams of kissing at night. He's starting to get content just watching her when she slowly opens her eyes, noticing his vision boring into hers.
"I know I'm cute," she starts, Seokmin detects a hint of fatigue in her voice. "but please, finish your essay."
Seokmin grins. "Yes, ma'am." When he starts writing again, he sees Sujeong finally opening her book. It's silence for a few minutes save for the crackling fire and the scratches of Seokmin's quill against his parchment paper, which is finally broken by the sound of Sujeong yawning. Seokmin looks up, but her face is hidden by the book. He smiles.
Sujeong knows Seokmin is looking at her even without having to put her book down, and she says, "Finish it, Seokmin."
There it is; the familiar warmth engulfing his chest. Seokmin smiles and continues writing, silently thanking Merlin for bestowing his life with Ryu Sujeong.