Reflection II: Artificial Love Potion
Prompt No: 40
Title: Artificial Love Potion
Rating: PG
Side Pairings: Sehun/Kai
Word Count: 3.6k
Summary: Potions class is all fun and games until Kyungsoo’s Amortentia forces him to face the truth.
Author’s Note: So! It is done. My first fic. Thank you so much, prompter, because your idea consumed me from the moment I laid eyes on it. Thanks to the mods, for taking such good care of this round. And thank you, anyone who reads this, for your time.
Being two weeks into February means that it’s unbearably cold. Winter at Hogwarts always makes Kyungsoo lazy, the temptation to lounge around in front of the fire in the Slytherin common room almost overwhelming. Paired with the apathy that comes with being in his final year, the lure of the warmth wins out today. Morning finds Kyungsoo stumbling out of his dorm still in his pajamas, thick blanket draped across his shoulders like a cape. Everything’s a blur without his glasses, but he’s spent the better part of six years here and finds his way to his favorite armchair easily, sinking into the plush cushion with a satisfied sigh.
With part of it extending underneath the Great Lake, the dungeon is frigid and dark. The only source of warmth comes from the roaring fires that the house elves keep going throughout the cold season. Located strategically around the perimeter of the room, the magical fires give off a comfortable dry heat. Kyungsoo is curled up in front of one now, peeking his socked feet out from the cover of his blanket to defrost his toes. Briefly, he considers doing the responsible thing and getting up to go to his morning Muggle Studies class. Almost as soon as it comes, the thought it dismissed with a scoff. Kyungsoo’s mother is a muggle; he could take his NEWT with his eyes closed and still get an O. Convinced that staying in would do no harm for one morning, Kyungsoo burrows deeper into his cocoon and relaxes.
He’s just about to nod off again, lulled to sleep by the crackling fire, when Sehun finally appears. His friend is impeccably dressed in his robes, as usual, but his small eyes are sleepy, thin lips slanted in a tired pout.
“You’re not going to breakfast?” Sehun asks. He pulls on his dragon skin gloves and carefully wraps a thick scarf around his neck, taking care to cover his ears. The dark green stripes are striking against his pale, sharp jawline. Even though he stopped modeling for his parents’ wizarding fashion line years ago, Sehun never lets anyone forget that he still could. “Or class?”
Smirking at his friend, Kyungsoo pulls his blanket more tightly around himself. “My body is frozen. I can’t go anywhere.”
Sehun’s eyes narrow. “Don’t be so smug. You’ll be down by lunch.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Junmyeon,” replies Sehun, now making his way to the door with a grace that Kyungsoo, with his perpetually poor posture, could never achieve. “Double Potions this afternoon, did you forget?”
***
The thing about Kyungsoo is that he’s too diligent a student to skip out on an entire day. When the grumble of his stomach reminds him that he slept through breakfast, he drags himself back up to his room to get dressed and makes his way into the Great Hall in time for lunch. He’s in the middle of a particularly delicious bite when a rush of rubies is released into the Gryffindor hourglass. The tinkle of jewels is accompanied by a crow of victory so loud that it can only be sourced to Byun Baekhyun. Suddenly, Kyungsoo’s meal is tasteless. He sighs and puts his fork down.
Said loudmouthed Gryffindor leaps up from his own house table to slide into the empty seat across from Kyungsoo. A bright, rectangular smile takes up nearly half his face. The sight of it almost makes Kyungsoo smile back, until the words come.
“That’s another twenty points,” says Baekhyun. He bobs his head in a satisfied little dance. “The way things are going, I see the Hall decked out in red at the end of the year.”
“Is that so?” Kyungsoo feigns disinterest, but the truth is that it’s his last year and he really wants to win the House Cup. He’s worked too hard these past few years to not have his house honored. Plus, Baekhyun is getting entirely too smug. Kyungsoo makes up his mind then and there that Slytherin will win the Cup, even if he has to win all the points himself.
Baekhyun doesn’t bother replying. He just cackles and heads back to his own meal, leaving Kyungsoo with the strange feeling that the other sees straight through him.
***
After lunch is Kyungsoo’s favorite class. Potions is like cooking, only he’s slicing up flobberworms instead of cucumber. When he’s working on a potion, it’s like he’s back at home in the kitchen with his mom. He thinks about her on his way to class, the way he can hear her humming as she washes rice in the mornings, the light tap of her feet on the floor. He’s so busy missing her that he bumps right into someone getting off a stairwell, a sweet scent flooding his senses.
“Whoops, I’m so sorry,” Junmyeon apologizes immediately. His hands flutter up to Kyungsoo’s shoulders and chest, checking for injury.
Kyungsoo feels his body seize up. It’s been doing that in reaction to Junmyeon in recent years, ever since that summer they spent touring Japan together. Of course Junmyeon notices, and to Kyungsoo’s dismay, his touch is gone in an instant.
“Sorry,” Junmyeon says again, arms now awkward at his sides. His hair is slightly damp, wet fringe plastered against his forehead.
“What were you doing up there?”
“Oh, I just headed up for a quick shower,” Junmyeon explains. “Chanyeol got dragon dung fertilizer over everyone during Herbology.”
“Ah,” says Kyungsoo. He doesn’t ask how that happened. He’s sure even Chanyeol wouldn’t know how it happened.
The light in Junmyeon’s eyes dim a bit at Kyungsoo’s lack of response, but then he starts to match Kyungsoo’s fast pace and picks up on a different thread of conversation. “So have you thought about Japan again this summer? We haven’t been for a couple of years. Are you running low on that enchanted laundry detergent from last time?”
“We can go wherever,” Kyungsoo says. It comes out gruff, but what he really means is that he’ll go wherever Junmyeon wants to go.
Japan, though, scares him. Junmyeon and Kyungsoo had become friends on the train first year, both half-bloods in an unfamiliar and exciting place. Before the school year ended, Junmyeon invited Kyungsoo along on a trip he was taking with his parents. That first summer, it was America. Then they’d gone to Brazil, Switzerland, Egypt. They were all taken with Junmyeon’s parents, both professors, and were mainly educational.
The summer after fifth year was their first independent trip, and they’d chosen Japan. To save some money, they’d shared a small room together. A month cramped together enhanced their friendship greatly. For the first time, Kyungsoo and Junmyeon fought, about all sorts of things. Junmyeon was messy all the time. Kyungsoo was grumpy in the mornings. They had different taste in music and shopping and food.
But it was also the first time they shared a bed, and the first time Kyungsoo woke up to Junmyeon’s face inches away from his own. It was also the first time Kyungsoo felt, exquisitely, how much his friend cared for him.
They passed a home goods store in the Wizarding District that sold magical laundry detergent, an intoxicating powder that would keep clothes smelling fresh for months after a single use. Kyungsoo had first gotten excited about it, then embarrassed, tearing himself away from the display with a red face. Over dinner, he couldn’t stop talking about it but tried passing it off as something he’d want to get for his mom. The next morning, Junmyeon offered to bring back breakfast and returned in an hour with pastries and a container of the detergent in the largest size available.
Maybe it was that moment that changed things for Kyungsoo on that trip, in that place.
***
The NEWT level potions class is rather small. Only a few students from each house scored highly enough to be placed in it. Professor Kwon greets them each with a smile that Kyungsoo returns politely. Next to him, Junmyeon huffs and pulls his book out of his bag with excessively powerful motions, slamming Advanced Potion Making onto the table with a heavy thud that brings Kyungsoo’s full attention to the start of class.
“I believe I promised you a lesson in love for Valentine’s Day if a majority of the class scored Exceeds Expectations on last week’s Everlasting Elixirs examination,” Professor Kwon is saying. A couple of girls giggle loudly, and she pauses to give them a stern look. “I was pleased with your results, so today you’ll get to try your hand at Amortentia.”
An excited murmur sweeps through the room. Junmyeon tenses, and his eyes are wide when Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow at him. Across the table from them, Sehun elbows his seatmate Jongin, and the two grin greasily at each other.
“Before we get started, I need to make it clear that you are not to save any potion for yourself.” The professor begins listing ingredients on the board as she speaks. “The complicated process is good practice for your NEWTs, and I expect you’ll have some fun observing your finished potions, but any student who uses their product will be severely punished. Love potions are banned in this school anywhere other than in this classroom, under my supervision. Let me stress that the potion creates artificial love. As such, you are sure to suffer dire consequences should you get the idea to actually use it.”
The warning isn’t enough to dampen the thrill palpable in the air. Anticipation is a heavy knot in the pit of Kyungsoo’s stomach. He feels like he’s missing something, like it’s on the tip of his tongue. For some reason, he wants to move his seat away from Junmyeon.
“Open to page 214. Materials and method are copied on the board for those of you who have forgotten your books. You may begin.”
Professor Kwon’s way of conducting her class is nerve-wracking enough on regular days, but now the embarrassment of working with love potion causes Kyungsoo’s peers to fluster even more easily. As they bend over their cauldrons, she peers over their shoulders and quizzes students at random, throwing out questions about the ingredients and procedures.
“Park, tell me, why does the potion require Ashwinder eggs?” she asks Chanyeol at the next table. Kyungsoo recites the answer to himself as he pours equal volumes of morning dew and rosewater into a flask.
A well-known magical creature lover, Chanyeol answers without a beat of hesitation. “Ashwinder eggs hatch in fire, so it’s believed that they provide love potions with the quality of passion. But they have to be frozen, because they have a tendency to explode.”
“Five points,” the professor nods and then turns to Joohyun. “Miss Seo, please explain the stirring instructions”
“When brewing Amortentia, the potion should be stirred in perfectly circular motions,” Joohyun answers eagerly. “A circle has no beginning or end and is a symbol for everlasting love, so the more accurate your stirring, the stronger your potion will be. What I like to do is measure the diameter from the rim of my cauldron and then cut out a stencil-“
“Thank you, Miss Seo. Take five points.”
Tuning everything out, Kyungsoo starts to work on his own potion. Rather than following the instructions step by step, he prefers to go through the entire list and gather all his ingredients first in the necessary amounts. It’s the same approach he takes to cooking at home. He’s found, over the years, that this method greatly reduces error. Rarely does he skip an ingredient or add them in the wrong order. He’s carefully leveling a tablespoon of pearl dust when Junmyeon’s moonstone flies out of his mortar, skidding across the table into Kyungsoo’s workspace.
“You can’t crush this huge stone in a mortar that size,” Kyungsoo sighs. Junmyeon is intelligent in most subjects, but he’d be hopeless at potions without Kyungsoo’s help through the years. “Here, I’ll break it into smaller pieces, and then you can grind it more easily.”
Looking sheepish, Jumyeon rolls his pestle back and forth in his hands. “Thanks, Kyungsoo.”
“Why do we use peppermint leaves rather than peppermint oil,” Professor Kwon circles the room for her next target, “Mr. Byun?”
“It’ll be too minty,” Baekhyun guesses. He sticks his tongue out and fans it for effect.
The girls giggle and Chanyeol guffaws. The professor only looks slightly amused. “What are we going to do with you, Mr. Byun?”
Kyungsoo winces, anticipating Baekhyun’s answer as the other splays across the table and says, “Whatever you want to do, Professor.”
“Detention, then?” Professor Kwon’s smile is sweet, but her voice is venom. “Thursday evening, with Madam Hwang. You can help her dust books in utter silence.”
Pouting, Baekhyun slithers off the table back into his chair. The class is distracted again when Sehun slams half a pomegranate onto the table, scattering the seeds everywhere.
“You idiot,” scolds Kyungsoo, wiping the red juice from his forehead. “How many times have I told you? You shake the arils out in water!”
Sehun only gives him an impish grin, holding out the red fruit. “Do it for me.”
Grumbling as he picks the seeds out for his friend, Kyungsoo tries hard not to think about what the potion will smell like to Junmyeon. It turns out he may not need to wonder when Professor Kwon offers them a chance at extra credit.
“Fourteen extra points to any student who volunteers to share what they smell. Not at all mandatory,” she assures them. “Just for a bit of fun.”
Across the room, Baekhyun lifts up an eyebrow. Kyungsoo takes it as a challenge.
***
Spirals of steam begin to form over the surface of Kyungsoo’s finished potion, and all activity stops at their table to watch their slow rise into the air. He’s the first one to be done, and almost immediately the effects of the potion start kicking in. Jongin looks like he wants to ask, but then his curious expression crumples, and Kyungsoo is sure that if he were to bend down, he’d see Sehun’s foot crushing his boyfriend’s underneath the table.
Acutely aware of Junmyeon staring at him, Kyungsoo busies himself cleaning up his instruments. He feels himself start to sweat and tries to convince himself it’s from the heat of the fire that he’s been standing over for the past two hours. Junmyeon casts him a worried glance, handing him a small washcloth from his bag. Automatically, Kyungsoo takes it and begins to dab at his face, folding down the dirty sections after each wipe. Baekhyun makes an obnoxious comment about his meticulous manner, but Kyungsoo’s heart is thudding too loudly to go over there and wring his neck.
He wonders if it would be appropriate to stop breathing in class. Surely Professor Kwon wouldn’t hold it against him if he passed out and had to be sent to the nurse. But then Kyungsoo reminds himself that she’s the one responsible for this whole mess in the first place. He can’t resist the house points, even if it means embarrassing himself. Maybe if he’s lucky, no one will recognize the scents. It isn’t as if his classmates make it a habit to follow Junmyeon around and sniff him. Half the time, Junmyeon smells like laundry that hasn’t been picked up off the floor in weeks anyway. It’s a testament to the depth of Kyungsoo’s feelings that he isn’t totally disgusted by his crush- his friend. Friend.
He doesn’t even like Junmyeon. There’s no way the scents wafting off his potion have anything to do with him. The deep, woody scent is obviously that of his favorite candle. He buys them in bulk from a specialty store in his hometown and goes through at least five a year. There’s the savory, briny scent of the bean paste his mother prefers to cook with. Last is a sweet, artificial peach scent, which could be anything, really. Kyungsoo tries, miserable, to convince himself that he hadn’t already caught a whiff of that fruity scent when he met Junmyeon on the way to class earlier. It’s a totally unfamiliar smell. Kyungsoo definitely can’t place it at all. What smells like peaches besides the fruits themselves? Does Junmyeon? Kyungsoo wouldn’t know. Kyungsoo doesn’t know anything about Junmyeon. Who is that even?
Kyungsoo glowers at the iridescent substance in his cauldron. He didn’t ask to be exposed like this. He should have stayed in the common room all day, all week, forever, in front of a fire with hot chocolate and some music to listen to, until the day he died. And even after that, he’d be busy terrorizing Baekhyun in his ghost form. There was no place for the confession of feelings for Junmyeon anywhere in his life. He’s just Junmyeon’s grumpy friend. He’s too boring, too blunt for someone as bright and pleasant as the elder.
“Mr. Do,” calls Professor Kwon, breaking him out of his spiral of self-pity. “You’re up. Would you like to share with the class the qualities of your potion for extra points?”
“Yes, Professor,” Kyungsoo replies miserably. The past few minutes he’s spend in denial have been exhausting. He turns his entire body away from Junmyeon and lists in his dullest, most unenthusiastic voice, “I smell sandalwood, bean paste, and peach.”
“He certainly doesn’t sound very happy about it,” Seungwan comments in a carrying whisper.
Chanyeol offers, “That sounds really gross all together.” He’s looming over Kyungsoo’s cauldron, nostrils flared as he inhales. Over at his table, his unfinished potion has overheated and is emitting reddish clouds of smoke.
Kyungsoo can’t even muster the effort to reach up and pull Chanyeol’s ear. Having escaped punishment, the taller grins and flees back to his seat next to Baekhyun, who looks like he’s just realizing something.
"Peach? But doesn't Junmyeo-"
"Don't be ridiculous," Kyungsoo snaps, although he really would have done better to stay quiet. His quick defense confirms Baekhyun's suspicions, and a dangerous grin spreads across his face.
"Yes, I'm sure of it," Baekhyun continues, as if Kyungsoo hadn't said anything at all. He turns to Junmyeon. "Say, Your Headship, don't you bring that nice peachy body wash from home because your skin is too sensitive for the regular old soap the rest of us-"
"Enough, Mr. Byun," Professor Kwon finally cuts in. "The sharing activity does not extend to the dissection of your classmates' private affairs. We'll stop right now and no one will get points if you don't behave yourselves."
Unlike before, Baekhyun actually heeds this admonition, settling back into his seat and calmly admiring his own potion as though he hasn't just ruined Kyungsoo's life. Kyungsoo keeps carefully still, unwilling to call any more attention to himself. He only looks up to meet Sehun's eyes, and the expression on his own face must be pitiful, because Sehun makes a show of leaning across the table and inhaling loudly with his face at Junmyeon's collar.
"As expected," he nods to himself, and then announces to a class full of people failing to pretend that they aren't interested in the unfolding drama, "our head boy smells like galleons."
It's a relief, as the rest of the students burst into collective laughter and some of the tension is lifted. But Junmyeon is still next to him, his presence more intoxicating than the combined effects of every successfully brewed Amortentia in the room, and Kyungsoo is still determined not to look at him. He’s afraid that if he looks at Junmyeon, he’ll see all the potion ingredients, the honey dripping from his eyes, pearl dust shimmering on his skin, rose petals coloring his cheeks. Pomegranate on his lips, sweet, tart, bursting.
It's too much. Now that it's out in the open, the truth is even more difficult to deny to himself. Junmyeon doesn't say a word, doesn’t volunteer the things he smells, and silence is an answer in itself, so Kyungsoo packs up quickly once class ends, ignoring the slight tremble of his fingers and the gash in his heart.
***
"I've been looking for you," Junmyeon says. "You disappeared after Potions and didn’t come to the Hall for dinner."
Kyungsoo clears his throat, but he can't bring himself to speak. He settles for a nod instead. He’s been hiding out in the astronomy tower.
"My potion smelled like popcorn." Junmyeon comes closer, until the tips of their shoes touch. "And incense. And laundry detergent.”
The words don't process until a beat later, and then Kyungsoo is looking at Junmyeon in disbelief. Junmyeon, smiling at him so fondly.
"Isn’t it strange, that one of the smells that attracts me is laundry detergent, when I can barely remember to pick my clothes up off the floor, Kyungsoo?"
“Not at all,” Kyungsoo says flatly, even as he feels his ears reddening. “If I were as messy as you, I’d appreciate some clean-smelling clothes too.”
There’s a flicker of something in Junmyeon's eyes that entices Kyungsoo to draw nearer, until all he smells is peach and all he feels is Junmyeon's soft breath and all he hears is his own thundering heartbeat.
Kyungsoo swallows, braces himself, pulls Junmyeon in closer still. His eyes fall shut, and he breathes in deeply one last time before he can’t breathe at all, the meeting of their lips sparking a flame that burns up all the oxygen in his lungs.
Here’s something that’s better than sleeping in, Kyungsoo thinks vaguely when they finally part, Junmyeon pressing one last smile onto his lips, sliding his hands from where they were resting on Kyungsoo’s chest down his arms to slot their fingers together.
“I waited a long time to do that,”Junmyeon finally admits. Pleasure floods Kyungsoo at the words, and the corners of his lips tug up against his will. He tries to scowl to compensate, but the combination seems to endear him even more to Junmyeon, who laughs, pulling a hand free to smooth a thumb over the wrinkle in Kyungsoo’s forehead.
Everything has gone steady and quiet. He’s never felt warmer than this.
Title: Artificial Love Potion
Rating: PG
Side Pairings: Sehun/Kai
Word Count: 3.6k
Summary: Potions class is all fun and games until Kyungsoo’s Amortentia forces him to face the truth.
Author’s Note: So! It is done. My first fic. Thank you so much, prompter, because your idea consumed me from the moment I laid eyes on it. Thanks to the mods, for taking such good care of this round. And thank you, anyone who reads this, for your time.
Being two weeks into February means that it’s unbearably cold. Winter at Hogwarts always makes Kyungsoo lazy, the temptation to lounge around in front of the fire in the Slytherin common room almost overwhelming. Paired with the apathy that comes with being in his final year, the lure of the warmth wins out today. Morning finds Kyungsoo stumbling out of his dorm still in his pajamas, thick blanket draped across his shoulders like a cape. Everything’s a blur without his glasses, but he’s spent the better part of six years here and finds his way to his favorite armchair easily, sinking into the plush cushion with a satisfied sigh.
With part of it extending underneath the Great Lake, the dungeon is frigid and dark. The only source of warmth comes from the roaring fires that the house elves keep going throughout the cold season. Located strategically around the perimeter of the room, the magical fires give off a comfortable dry heat. Kyungsoo is curled up in front of one now, peeking his socked feet out from the cover of his blanket to defrost his toes. Briefly, he considers doing the responsible thing and getting up to go to his morning Muggle Studies class. Almost as soon as it comes, the thought it dismissed with a scoff. Kyungsoo’s mother is a muggle; he could take his NEWT with his eyes closed and still get an O. Convinced that staying in would do no harm for one morning, Kyungsoo burrows deeper into his cocoon and relaxes.
He’s just about to nod off again, lulled to sleep by the crackling fire, when Sehun finally appears. His friend is impeccably dressed in his robes, as usual, but his small eyes are sleepy, thin lips slanted in a tired pout.
“You’re not going to breakfast?” Sehun asks. He pulls on his dragon skin gloves and carefully wraps a thick scarf around his neck, taking care to cover his ears. The dark green stripes are striking against his pale, sharp jawline. Even though he stopped modeling for his parents’ wizarding fashion line years ago, Sehun never lets anyone forget that he still could. “Or class?”
Smirking at his friend, Kyungsoo pulls his blanket more tightly around himself. “My body is frozen. I can’t go anywhere.”
Sehun’s eyes narrow. “Don’t be so smug. You’ll be down by lunch.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Junmyeon,” replies Sehun, now making his way to the door with a grace that Kyungsoo, with his perpetually poor posture, could never achieve. “Double Potions this afternoon, did you forget?”
***
The thing about Kyungsoo is that he’s too diligent a student to skip out on an entire day. When the grumble of his stomach reminds him that he slept through breakfast, he drags himself back up to his room to get dressed and makes his way into the Great Hall in time for lunch. He’s in the middle of a particularly delicious bite when a rush of rubies is released into the Gryffindor hourglass. The tinkle of jewels is accompanied by a crow of victory so loud that it can only be sourced to Byun Baekhyun. Suddenly, Kyungsoo’s meal is tasteless. He sighs and puts his fork down.
Said loudmouthed Gryffindor leaps up from his own house table to slide into the empty seat across from Kyungsoo. A bright, rectangular smile takes up nearly half his face. The sight of it almost makes Kyungsoo smile back, until the words come.
“That’s another twenty points,” says Baekhyun. He bobs his head in a satisfied little dance. “The way things are going, I see the Hall decked out in red at the end of the year.”
“Is that so?” Kyungsoo feigns disinterest, but the truth is that it’s his last year and he really wants to win the House Cup. He’s worked too hard these past few years to not have his house honored. Plus, Baekhyun is getting entirely too smug. Kyungsoo makes up his mind then and there that Slytherin will win the Cup, even if he has to win all the points himself.
Baekhyun doesn’t bother replying. He just cackles and heads back to his own meal, leaving Kyungsoo with the strange feeling that the other sees straight through him.
***
After lunch is Kyungsoo’s favorite class. Potions is like cooking, only he’s slicing up flobberworms instead of cucumber. When he’s working on a potion, it’s like he’s back at home in the kitchen with his mom. He thinks about her on his way to class, the way he can hear her humming as she washes rice in the mornings, the light tap of her feet on the floor. He’s so busy missing her that he bumps right into someone getting off a stairwell, a sweet scent flooding his senses.
“Whoops, I’m so sorry,” Junmyeon apologizes immediately. His hands flutter up to Kyungsoo’s shoulders and chest, checking for injury.
Kyungsoo feels his body seize up. It’s been doing that in reaction to Junmyeon in recent years, ever since that summer they spent touring Japan together. Of course Junmyeon notices, and to Kyungsoo’s dismay, his touch is gone in an instant.
“Sorry,” Junmyeon says again, arms now awkward at his sides. His hair is slightly damp, wet fringe plastered against his forehead.
“What were you doing up there?”
“Oh, I just headed up for a quick shower,” Junmyeon explains. “Chanyeol got dragon dung fertilizer over everyone during Herbology.”
“Ah,” says Kyungsoo. He doesn’t ask how that happened. He’s sure even Chanyeol wouldn’t know how it happened.
The light in Junmyeon’s eyes dim a bit at Kyungsoo’s lack of response, but then he starts to match Kyungsoo’s fast pace and picks up on a different thread of conversation. “So have you thought about Japan again this summer? We haven’t been for a couple of years. Are you running low on that enchanted laundry detergent from last time?”
“We can go wherever,” Kyungsoo says. It comes out gruff, but what he really means is that he’ll go wherever Junmyeon wants to go.
Japan, though, scares him. Junmyeon and Kyungsoo had become friends on the train first year, both half-bloods in an unfamiliar and exciting place. Before the school year ended, Junmyeon invited Kyungsoo along on a trip he was taking with his parents. That first summer, it was America. Then they’d gone to Brazil, Switzerland, Egypt. They were all taken with Junmyeon’s parents, both professors, and were mainly educational.
The summer after fifth year was their first independent trip, and they’d chosen Japan. To save some money, they’d shared a small room together. A month cramped together enhanced their friendship greatly. For the first time, Kyungsoo and Junmyeon fought, about all sorts of things. Junmyeon was messy all the time. Kyungsoo was grumpy in the mornings. They had different taste in music and shopping and food.
But it was also the first time they shared a bed, and the first time Kyungsoo woke up to Junmyeon’s face inches away from his own. It was also the first time Kyungsoo felt, exquisitely, how much his friend cared for him.
They passed a home goods store in the Wizarding District that sold magical laundry detergent, an intoxicating powder that would keep clothes smelling fresh for months after a single use. Kyungsoo had first gotten excited about it, then embarrassed, tearing himself away from the display with a red face. Over dinner, he couldn’t stop talking about it but tried passing it off as something he’d want to get for his mom. The next morning, Junmyeon offered to bring back breakfast and returned in an hour with pastries and a container of the detergent in the largest size available.
Maybe it was that moment that changed things for Kyungsoo on that trip, in that place.
***
The NEWT level potions class is rather small. Only a few students from each house scored highly enough to be placed in it. Professor Kwon greets them each with a smile that Kyungsoo returns politely. Next to him, Junmyeon huffs and pulls his book out of his bag with excessively powerful motions, slamming Advanced Potion Making onto the table with a heavy thud that brings Kyungsoo’s full attention to the start of class.
“I believe I promised you a lesson in love for Valentine’s Day if a majority of the class scored Exceeds Expectations on last week’s Everlasting Elixirs examination,” Professor Kwon is saying. A couple of girls giggle loudly, and she pauses to give them a stern look. “I was pleased with your results, so today you’ll get to try your hand at Amortentia.”
An excited murmur sweeps through the room. Junmyeon tenses, and his eyes are wide when Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow at him. Across the table from them, Sehun elbows his seatmate Jongin, and the two grin greasily at each other.
“Before we get started, I need to make it clear that you are not to save any potion for yourself.” The professor begins listing ingredients on the board as she speaks. “The complicated process is good practice for your NEWTs, and I expect you’ll have some fun observing your finished potions, but any student who uses their product will be severely punished. Love potions are banned in this school anywhere other than in this classroom, under my supervision. Let me stress that the potion creates artificial love. As such, you are sure to suffer dire consequences should you get the idea to actually use it.”
The warning isn’t enough to dampen the thrill palpable in the air. Anticipation is a heavy knot in the pit of Kyungsoo’s stomach. He feels like he’s missing something, like it’s on the tip of his tongue. For some reason, he wants to move his seat away from Junmyeon.
“Open to page 214. Materials and method are copied on the board for those of you who have forgotten your books. You may begin.”
Professor Kwon’s way of conducting her class is nerve-wracking enough on regular days, but now the embarrassment of working with love potion causes Kyungsoo’s peers to fluster even more easily. As they bend over their cauldrons, she peers over their shoulders and quizzes students at random, throwing out questions about the ingredients and procedures.
“Park, tell me, why does the potion require Ashwinder eggs?” she asks Chanyeol at the next table. Kyungsoo recites the answer to himself as he pours equal volumes of morning dew and rosewater into a flask.
A well-known magical creature lover, Chanyeol answers without a beat of hesitation. “Ashwinder eggs hatch in fire, so it’s believed that they provide love potions with the quality of passion. But they have to be frozen, because they have a tendency to explode.”
“Five points,” the professor nods and then turns to Joohyun. “Miss Seo, please explain the stirring instructions”
“When brewing Amortentia, the potion should be stirred in perfectly circular motions,” Joohyun answers eagerly. “A circle has no beginning or end and is a symbol for everlasting love, so the more accurate your stirring, the stronger your potion will be. What I like to do is measure the diameter from the rim of my cauldron and then cut out a stencil-“
“Thank you, Miss Seo. Take five points.”
Tuning everything out, Kyungsoo starts to work on his own potion. Rather than following the instructions step by step, he prefers to go through the entire list and gather all his ingredients first in the necessary amounts. It’s the same approach he takes to cooking at home. He’s found, over the years, that this method greatly reduces error. Rarely does he skip an ingredient or add them in the wrong order. He’s carefully leveling a tablespoon of pearl dust when Junmyeon’s moonstone flies out of his mortar, skidding across the table into Kyungsoo’s workspace.
“You can’t crush this huge stone in a mortar that size,” Kyungsoo sighs. Junmyeon is intelligent in most subjects, but he’d be hopeless at potions without Kyungsoo’s help through the years. “Here, I’ll break it into smaller pieces, and then you can grind it more easily.”
Looking sheepish, Jumyeon rolls his pestle back and forth in his hands. “Thanks, Kyungsoo.”
“Why do we use peppermint leaves rather than peppermint oil,” Professor Kwon circles the room for her next target, “Mr. Byun?”
“It’ll be too minty,” Baekhyun guesses. He sticks his tongue out and fans it for effect.
The girls giggle and Chanyeol guffaws. The professor only looks slightly amused. “What are we going to do with you, Mr. Byun?”
Kyungsoo winces, anticipating Baekhyun’s answer as the other splays across the table and says, “Whatever you want to do, Professor.”
“Detention, then?” Professor Kwon’s smile is sweet, but her voice is venom. “Thursday evening, with Madam Hwang. You can help her dust books in utter silence.”
Pouting, Baekhyun slithers off the table back into his chair. The class is distracted again when Sehun slams half a pomegranate onto the table, scattering the seeds everywhere.
“You idiot,” scolds Kyungsoo, wiping the red juice from his forehead. “How many times have I told you? You shake the arils out in water!”
Sehun only gives him an impish grin, holding out the red fruit. “Do it for me.”
Grumbling as he picks the seeds out for his friend, Kyungsoo tries hard not to think about what the potion will smell like to Junmyeon. It turns out he may not need to wonder when Professor Kwon offers them a chance at extra credit.
“Fourteen extra points to any student who volunteers to share what they smell. Not at all mandatory,” she assures them. “Just for a bit of fun.”
Across the room, Baekhyun lifts up an eyebrow. Kyungsoo takes it as a challenge.
***
Spirals of steam begin to form over the surface of Kyungsoo’s finished potion, and all activity stops at their table to watch their slow rise into the air. He’s the first one to be done, and almost immediately the effects of the potion start kicking in. Jongin looks like he wants to ask, but then his curious expression crumples, and Kyungsoo is sure that if he were to bend down, he’d see Sehun’s foot crushing his boyfriend’s underneath the table.
Acutely aware of Junmyeon staring at him, Kyungsoo busies himself cleaning up his instruments. He feels himself start to sweat and tries to convince himself it’s from the heat of the fire that he’s been standing over for the past two hours. Junmyeon casts him a worried glance, handing him a small washcloth from his bag. Automatically, Kyungsoo takes it and begins to dab at his face, folding down the dirty sections after each wipe. Baekhyun makes an obnoxious comment about his meticulous manner, but Kyungsoo’s heart is thudding too loudly to go over there and wring his neck.
He wonders if it would be appropriate to stop breathing in class. Surely Professor Kwon wouldn’t hold it against him if he passed out and had to be sent to the nurse. But then Kyungsoo reminds himself that she’s the one responsible for this whole mess in the first place. He can’t resist the house points, even if it means embarrassing himself. Maybe if he’s lucky, no one will recognize the scents. It isn’t as if his classmates make it a habit to follow Junmyeon around and sniff him. Half the time, Junmyeon smells like laundry that hasn’t been picked up off the floor in weeks anyway. It’s a testament to the depth of Kyungsoo’s feelings that he isn’t totally disgusted by his crush- his friend. Friend.
He doesn’t even like Junmyeon. There’s no way the scents wafting off his potion have anything to do with him. The deep, woody scent is obviously that of his favorite candle. He buys them in bulk from a specialty store in his hometown and goes through at least five a year. There’s the savory, briny scent of the bean paste his mother prefers to cook with. Last is a sweet, artificial peach scent, which could be anything, really. Kyungsoo tries, miserable, to convince himself that he hadn’t already caught a whiff of that fruity scent when he met Junmyeon on the way to class earlier. It’s a totally unfamiliar smell. Kyungsoo definitely can’t place it at all. What smells like peaches besides the fruits themselves? Does Junmyeon? Kyungsoo wouldn’t know. Kyungsoo doesn’t know anything about Junmyeon. Who is that even?
Kyungsoo glowers at the iridescent substance in his cauldron. He didn’t ask to be exposed like this. He should have stayed in the common room all day, all week, forever, in front of a fire with hot chocolate and some music to listen to, until the day he died. And even after that, he’d be busy terrorizing Baekhyun in his ghost form. There was no place for the confession of feelings for Junmyeon anywhere in his life. He’s just Junmyeon’s grumpy friend. He’s too boring, too blunt for someone as bright and pleasant as the elder.
“Mr. Do,” calls Professor Kwon, breaking him out of his spiral of self-pity. “You’re up. Would you like to share with the class the qualities of your potion for extra points?”
“Yes, Professor,” Kyungsoo replies miserably. The past few minutes he’s spend in denial have been exhausting. He turns his entire body away from Junmyeon and lists in his dullest, most unenthusiastic voice, “I smell sandalwood, bean paste, and peach.”
“He certainly doesn’t sound very happy about it,” Seungwan comments in a carrying whisper.
Chanyeol offers, “That sounds really gross all together.” He’s looming over Kyungsoo’s cauldron, nostrils flared as he inhales. Over at his table, his unfinished potion has overheated and is emitting reddish clouds of smoke.
Kyungsoo can’t even muster the effort to reach up and pull Chanyeol’s ear. Having escaped punishment, the taller grins and flees back to his seat next to Baekhyun, who looks like he’s just realizing something.
"Peach? But doesn't Junmyeo-"
"Don't be ridiculous," Kyungsoo snaps, although he really would have done better to stay quiet. His quick defense confirms Baekhyun's suspicions, and a dangerous grin spreads across his face.
"Yes, I'm sure of it," Baekhyun continues, as if Kyungsoo hadn't said anything at all. He turns to Junmyeon. "Say, Your Headship, don't you bring that nice peachy body wash from home because your skin is too sensitive for the regular old soap the rest of us-"
"Enough, Mr. Byun," Professor Kwon finally cuts in. "The sharing activity does not extend to the dissection of your classmates' private affairs. We'll stop right now and no one will get points if you don't behave yourselves."
Unlike before, Baekhyun actually heeds this admonition, settling back into his seat and calmly admiring his own potion as though he hasn't just ruined Kyungsoo's life. Kyungsoo keeps carefully still, unwilling to call any more attention to himself. He only looks up to meet Sehun's eyes, and the expression on his own face must be pitiful, because Sehun makes a show of leaning across the table and inhaling loudly with his face at Junmyeon's collar.
"As expected," he nods to himself, and then announces to a class full of people failing to pretend that they aren't interested in the unfolding drama, "our head boy smells like galleons."
It's a relief, as the rest of the students burst into collective laughter and some of the tension is lifted. But Junmyeon is still next to him, his presence more intoxicating than the combined effects of every successfully brewed Amortentia in the room, and Kyungsoo is still determined not to look at him. He’s afraid that if he looks at Junmyeon, he’ll see all the potion ingredients, the honey dripping from his eyes, pearl dust shimmering on his skin, rose petals coloring his cheeks. Pomegranate on his lips, sweet, tart, bursting.
It's too much. Now that it's out in the open, the truth is even more difficult to deny to himself. Junmyeon doesn't say a word, doesn’t volunteer the things he smells, and silence is an answer in itself, so Kyungsoo packs up quickly once class ends, ignoring the slight tremble of his fingers and the gash in his heart.
***
"I've been looking for you," Junmyeon says. "You disappeared after Potions and didn’t come to the Hall for dinner."
Kyungsoo clears his throat, but he can't bring himself to speak. He settles for a nod instead. He’s been hiding out in the astronomy tower.
"My potion smelled like popcorn." Junmyeon comes closer, until the tips of their shoes touch. "And incense. And laundry detergent.”
The words don't process until a beat later, and then Kyungsoo is looking at Junmyeon in disbelief. Junmyeon, smiling at him so fondly.
"Isn’t it strange, that one of the smells that attracts me is laundry detergent, when I can barely remember to pick my clothes up off the floor, Kyungsoo?"
“Not at all,” Kyungsoo says flatly, even as he feels his ears reddening. “If I were as messy as you, I’d appreciate some clean-smelling clothes too.”
There’s a flicker of something in Junmyeon's eyes that entices Kyungsoo to draw nearer, until all he smells is peach and all he feels is Junmyeon's soft breath and all he hears is his own thundering heartbeat.
Kyungsoo swallows, braces himself, pulls Junmyeon in closer still. His eyes fall shut, and he breathes in deeply one last time before he can’t breathe at all, the meeting of their lips sparking a flame that burns up all the oxygen in his lungs.
Here’s something that’s better than sleeping in, Kyungsoo thinks vaguely when they finally part, Junmyeon pressing one last smile onto his lips, sliding his hands from where they were resting on Kyungsoo’s chest down his arms to slot their fingers together.
“I waited a long time to do that,”Junmyeon finally admits. Pleasure floods Kyungsoo at the words, and the corners of his lips tug up against his will. He tries to scowl to compensate, but the combination seems to endear him even more to Junmyeon, who laughs, pulling a hand free to smooth a thumb over the wrinkle in Kyungsoo’s forehead.
Everything has gone steady and quiet. He’s never felt warmer than this.