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“Wizards and witches, what an honour it is to present to all of you the Quidditch Cup Final between the Lions of Gryffindor and the Snakes of Slytherin!”

The Quidditch Cup Final was between Gryffindor and Slytherin; a breath-taking, utterly unpredictable, and vigorously intriguing match of the year – totally the finest words to describe how astonishing the very last tournament of this term would be. 

Since this one counted as the most awaited Quidditch Inter-house match in Hogwarts, a lot of enthusiasm were flowing out from every single audience who had been arriving at this tremendous oval-shaped arena; exclusively for performing Quidditch, approximately half an hour before the tournament even started – meaning, it seemed no one wished to skip the final of Quidditch Cup which absolutely not startling at all.

“I’m Kang Hyun Woo, the former Beater for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, and I will bring all of you to see what’s going on during the final!” 

Jeongguk was bloody eager to embark on his lovely afternoon by beating out his biggest house rival, Slytherin, to the fullest. ‘Serpent is stupid just like their captain’ had been repeating like a broken cassette for the past 20 minutes while waiting for the match to finally start – yes, he thoroughly loathed Slytherin with so much passion.

It would be wholly humiliating if Gryffindor lost to Slytherin like months ago; a very painful match to be remembered, though he did not wish to retrieve the memory again – keeping it buried deep down there until he entirely forgot about it. For this final, optimistically, he would not let Slytherin bring the trophy home, but instead Gryffindor; losing to Slytherin was the worst nightmare, ever.

“So, may I know where Slytherin’s supporters are?” Commentator Hyun Woo asked, even if he knew exactly where they were seated.

The Slytherins barked out their loudest screaming after getting asked about their whereabouts; to be precise, in Hyun Woo’s left direction.

“Very well! I wish to hear where Gryffindor’s supporters are, too?” Hyun Woo turned to his right, facing the Gryffindors as waiting for the reply.

The Gryffindors’ shouting way too immediately reverberated through the Quidditch arena, slightly louder than Slytherins.

“It seems like these lions can’t wait any longer to knock snakes out, and vice versa, doesn’t it?” A quick chuckling could be caught on Hyun Woo’s voice as he completed his rhetorical question.

Talking about his Gryffindor best friends, they were awfully supportive towards him. A greatly long parchment displaying ‘Our Cutie Baby Jeon Jeongguk’ written with a colour-change ink; seemingly, they used an obsolescent quill since those strokes were quite shabby, and then three unsymmetrical blood red heart at the end, was what they had on their tight grips – waving erratically through the afternoon breeze. Every single person there, much less Gryffindors, could easily spot that, though no one dared to leave any comments or insults; truthfully, they were sort of used to seeing it.

This was indeed not his first time seeing his friends doing whatever they liked. In every Quidditch match, using other different things, they did very creatively, either to show their massive support or embarrass the hell out of him – perhaps, the second one. Even though, from the very deep of his heart, this embarrassing parchment was actually quite effective for him to pass through every Quidditch match of his more confidently.

“From what I see, the players are ready to play and Professor Lee seems ready as well to throw the Quaffle.” Hyun Woo’s tone was perfectly bright, eyes found them, fingers circled around the magical megaphone tightly. “And here we go... the game now begins!”

Everyone here knew him as the Quidditch Captain and Seeker of Gryffindor – most likely to be the reason why he aimed to show off his greatest ability by flying vivaciously on his Nimbus 2001 to seek out for a walnut-sized golden-coloured sphere with silver wings—the Golden Snitch—which was barely could be caught by his vision since it flew around the field unstoppable at extremely high speed. 

“The Quaffle is being chased! Chaser An Ha-kun of Gryffindor is now in the control of the Quaffle!” shouted Hyun Woo, eyeing the movements. “The question is, can he score when Chaser Seong Minjun of Slytherin is getting nearer and nearer to catch it from him?”

Having a quick look at his own teammates, chasers were attempting their best to score a point by throwing a red, leather-covered football-sized orb—the Quaffle—through one of the three hoops at opponent’s side, keeper was taking care of their own hoops from oncoming Quaffle, and beaters were protecting them by hitting a black iron ball—the Bludger—away and towards the opponents. 

“Did you all see it?” asked Hyun Woo, starting to raise his voice in enthusiasm. “Chaser Seong Minjun of Slytherin successfully takes the Quaffle away from Chaser An Ha-kun of Gryffindor and flies in fast! How will Gryffindor respond to this?”

Honestly, Slytherin was definitely the toughest house to be defeated rather than other houses. Hufflepuff was sort of the easy one, while Ravenclaw was not really interested that much on Quidditch this year – perhaps, focusing on upcoming examinations more; no offence, these were only his own thoughts. Back to Slytherin, he was well aware of the fact that they were achievement-oriented and ambitious; anyhow, no different with him whatsoever. 

And particularly, this one wizard who was always getting under his skin every single time they faced each other in such a close proximity; an infuriatingly charming blond-haired bloke who was flying on his fabulous Firebolt right now, Kim sodding Taehyung.

“Look at these Slytherins! They play so fast, and... oh! Chaser Cho Do Yun of Gryffindor grabs the Quaffle and flies immediately to the goalpost! What a surprise!” Hyun Woo’s comment sounded cheerful, then pausing for a moment to build up the tension. “I’m totally neutral, but hoping he will score a point!” An ambiguous statement of his was likely to start a war, but he did not seem to think about it. “Can he score perfectly before the Slytherins try to capture the Quaffle again? Let’s see!” 

There was no absolute reason for him to be nice and harmonious with Kim Taehyung, and vice versa, even if he could not deny the jittery sensation which bubbled inside his stomach every chance his green eyes locked with the Slytherin’s grey ones at all. However, knocking him off his damn Firebolt took precedence than his stupid sensation. It would be really fun to find him falling miserably from 30 feet or higher to the ground, wouldn’t it? Surely, cheating was not a Gryffindor thing.

“Merlin, he really scores! 10 points to Gryffindor!” 

A joyful screaming radiating from Gryffindors who were rising up from their seating at once after the Quaffle passed smoothly through Slytherin’s 40 feet tall hoop. 

“What a wonderful start from Gryffindor!”

It was indeed a wonderful start since Slytherins were oftentimes aggressive-playing; absolutely not surprising, but still exasperating – meaning, Gryffindors always got the effects of their aggressiveness. Bunch of unwanted accidents in the past made this one rule, which allowed the use of force throughout the tournament, to be removed by the headmaster of Hogwarts after receiving professors’ approving statements to make the Quidditch game more compatible; this was a school after all.

Casting a spell towards the players by the audience was also unacceptable – that was obviously an act of cheating. Notwithstanding, no one seemed to give much care about rules when it came to a match between Gryffindor and Slytherin; they would manage to do that thing doubtlessly.

“This happens really quick, Chaser Seong Minjun of Slytherin is now near the goalpost with the Quaffle!” Commentator continued in anticipation, “Can Gryffindor keeper block his way?” And yelling with a lot of power afterwards, “The answer is... 10 points to Slytherin!” 

This time, Slytherins’ shouting echoed more louder than Gryffindors when the Quaffle surpassed through Gryffindor’s 50 feet tall hoop without any trouble. 

“The scores are now tied with 10-10! So exciting, isn’t it?”

An abrupt Bludger getting to his direction made him flinch. If the beaters did not come in and smash the Bludger away at the very right moment, he would naturally get knocked off his Nimbus 2001 and then fall harshly to the ground. As a result, their broomsticks ran against each other slightly.

“The unexpected Bludger almost hit our Captain Jeon Jeongguk of Gryffindor!” Commentator announced, sounding a bit concerned. “As you all can see, thankfully, the beaters were there to smash the Bludger away from him! What if the captain got knocked off his Nimbus 2001? It would be a total nightmare for Gryffindor, wouldn’t it?”

Bloody embarrassed, but wanting to zip Commentator Hyun Woo’s lips more because he did not wish to hear any more mortifying comments from him once again. Instead, he chose to avoid this spot and make his way to the other side quickly, going back to seek out for the Snitch; until this very second, he still had not successfully caught it yet. The Snitch was moving around so fast that he could hardly see it, but he would not surrender until the end.

“Gryffindor takes the lead, everyone! Will they be able to score another point again and again?” Hyun Woo’s voice was loud, rather sensational. “Whoa! Another 10 points to Gryffindor! Well done!” 

The commentator’s enticing announcement spontaneously brought him to take a brief look at the scoreboard and spot 40 points below ‘Gryffindor’ and ‘Slytherin’ was still stuck with 30 points; Gryffindor really took the lead, hopefully would take the trophy home as well.

After the chasers flew past him to snatch the Quaffle away from Slytherins, the Golden Snitch eventually traversed across his face and it hit his senses to seize that walnut-sized flying sphere quickly. And as expected, Seeker Kim Taehyung was also trailing after it on his Firebolt.

“The moment we’re waiting for! Seeker Kim Taehyung of Slytherin is now following the Snitch! Will he catch it first before Seeker Jeon Jeongguk of Gryffindor?” Hyun Woo paused, carrying on after getting a lot of impatient looks, “Honestly, I’m not sure what will happen! But... this is exactly the moment we shall witness together!”

Letting Kim Taehyung to catch the Snitch first was a big no; there was no way he would let it to happen when he was only a few feet behind it, but this was surely the moment he had been impatiently waiting for to come – Kim Taehyung following the Snitch with him, seizing that flying sphere before the Slytherin could do it first, then finally becoming the winner of Quidditch Cup Final this year. However, it did not go as well as he wished.

For a mere aggravating seconds, he flew quite unsteady on his broomstick as if there was some dickhead—a Slytherin, no doubt—casting a spell on his Nimbus 2001. He felt like almost falling to the ground harshly, but his stronghold on the stick was really helping him in this situation, successfully sitting back onto his broom after draining a bit of his strength due to climbing himself up forcedly. Even though this was not his first time to face this, still utterly maddening. What an annoying situation he must always encounter as a Quidditch player for bloody years.

“Salazar! It seems something happened to Seeker Jeon Jeongguk of Gryffindor’s broomstick!” screamed Hyun Woo unconsciously loud enough through the magical megaphone he held. “He climbs back to his broom! Thank Merlin!”

He badly wanted to glue Hyun Woo’s lips together with a flick of his wand, but instead he decided to not make any childish act and concentrated back to the tournament after feeling himself could take control of his Nimbus 2001 fully. 

Having a sight of Kim Taehyung’s head directing to Slytherin house seats, he somehow got nervous for no reason. It looked like the Slytherin was also aware of his situation—getting spell-casted by someone—because he really stopped following the Snitch and searching for them with rage—no, why the hell would Taehyung care about him?

“Slytherin beaters are the best. All of you can see they’re so fast to hit the Bludger away, not wanting Captain Jeon Jeongguk of Gryffindor’s situation to be repeated again to themselves!” Hyun Woo made a long comment, impressed by Slytherin beaters’ quick action. “Meanwhile the keepers stand by their own hoops, protecting their hoops from oncoming Quaffle. So intense, don’t you think?” His comments kept coming, buzzing through the breeze and filling the Quidditch arena enthusiastically. “Oh... here we go again! The Quaffle is now finally taken by Slytherin! Let’s see what will happen!” 

Wishing to not get distracted by that anymore, he increased his own speed; taking this rare moment where Taehyung’s attention was still stuck on his own house seats, to follow the Snitch’s movement and give out both his hands in an attempt to capture the Golden Snitch. It was annoying, flying to every side, then eventually disappearing before he could catch it once again.

“Seeker Jeon Jeongguk of Gryffindor failed to capture the Golden Snitch. What a pity! Don’t let your hopes get down, perhaps, later? Keep your eyes on him!” Commentator Hyun Woo blurted out, taking a look at Gryffindors, then back into the field. “Whoa! Wonderful! 10 points to Slytherin! I almost didn’t see it!” 

Unfortunately, their scores were tied again with 50-50 points. Slytherin Chaser successfully smashed the Quaffle through Gryffindor’s 50 feet tall hoop after an intense battle of bumping each other’s broomsticks.

“Jeon.” Kim Taehyung, with an appealing yet cocky lopsided grin he had always shown on his sharp features, was now flying by his side out of nowhere. “Let’s end this tournament shortly, shall we?” Mischief tone of his, was always getting the Gryffindor all riled up, but sometimes a bit aroused.

Jeongguk snorted, rolling his eyes; this was not the right time to be aroused. “Yeah. Sure.”

“Slytherin will definitely win the final,” Taehyung stated with no hint of care while sensing their broomsticks were only a few feet apart; so close yet so far. “Don’t you think?” asked him, eyebrows wiggling in teasing, speeding his Firebolt up to the Snitch.

“Well, I do not think so.” Jeongguk’s jaw slightly strained, controlling himself not to take his wand out and hex him on the spot. “Stop dreaming, would you?” Briskly, he followed Taehyung’s movement from behind.

“Er, it seems there’s a quick conversation going on between the captains! Hell—whoops, I mean, I’m quite curious what they’re talking about!” Hyun Woo grinned ear to ear when the professor shook her head because of his language. “Isn’t it interesting to know the conversation between two famous rivals in Hogwarts? I suppose it is!”

Famous Quidditch rivals in Hogwarts – yes, they were. To be honest, since the first day, they had never liked each other very much; not mutual, perhaps. He did not understand why he ignored Taehyung’s stretched hand after they got sorted into a different house, unintentionally declining a potential friendship with him.

They did not talk much after it, much less after Kim Taehyung being the youngest Seeker; his first year was not quite fun anymore when someone he rejected got a position he wanted badly, although he eventually became one in the second year. Their questionable relationship—they had never been friends—changed into rivals real quick. 

“The Quidditch Cup Final this year is so interesting, isn’t it? Like—oh no, Chaser Cho Do Yun of Gryffindor has just got hit by the Bludger! Where’s the beaters? Anyway, this is a good opportunity for Slytherin!”

Sometimes, he wondered what would happen if that time he accepted Taehyung’s stretched hand. Would they now become friends, or perhaps, more than it? Like, super-duper-mega-best-friends? 

“As expected, 10 points to Slytherin!” Hyun Woo’s voice was not quite as bright as it was a couple minutes ago; maybe his lips started to feel dry because of commenting too much. “Very well!”

Jeongguk shook his head incredulously when he realised he had just been zoning out for a few seconds; thanks to Hyun Woo’s announcement. And looking at how tense Gryffindors’ expression, even his best friends were, it made him sigh frustratedly, then shifting to the other side to search for the Golden Snitch again.

“Keep in mind, the scores are now 70-70! I suppose we’re really near the end of the Quidditch Cup Final! I can’t wait any longer to see which house will take this wonderful trophy home!” After having a look at the scoreboard, Hyun Woo suddenly shouted, “That’s the Golden Snitch! Did all of you see it?”

The Golden Snitch unexpectedly appeared across his face and flew in a fast motion away from him. Rising his speed up, but failing due to he had already reached the maximal, he kept following its movement and realised Kim Taehyung being on his left after their broomsticks bumping against each other.

“I see, you’re quite slow. Tired, are you?” Taehyung asked, his familiar mocking tone could be heard vaguely, tightening his holds on the Firebolt as carefully trailing after the Snitch alongside the Gryffindor. “Why don’t you just be honest with me? No?” 

“Am not!” Jeongguk retorted in a low-scream, resisting the urge to kick Taehyung off his Firebolt. “Your damn Firebolt is annoyingly faster!”

Taehyung chuckled amusedly hearing his response. “You’re totally right. 100 points to Gryffindor!” To be honest, seeing the Gryffindor’s angry face was really satisfying and he wished to see more.

“Ugh,” He grunted out, eyes widened, annoyed by the Slytherin’s giggle. “Nothing’s funny about it, you insufferable prick!”

“Why, why is this little Gryffindor mad because of trivial things?” Taehyung asked simply, enjoying their bickering moment a little bit too much. “I found it very funny if you’re wondering.”

“I’m not mad!” He was mad, slightly. “Stop talking, will you?” And when their broomsticks knocked into each other by accident, he could feel the Slytherin’s presence more obvious this time.

“Whoa, our captains are having a conversation once again! I wonder what they’re talking about!” Commentator Hyun Woo was quite curious of the captains, eyeing them in suspicion for a few moments. “Anyway, the Chasers of Gryffindor are so close to Slytherin’s hoops!” In a quick move, moving to the chasers, then screaming with full of interest, “Brilliant! 10 points to Gryffindor as expected!”

The announcement did not make him stop following the Snitch’s movement, however, he still stole a glimpse of Gryffindors shouting in blissfulness. His lips obviously twitched into a warm smile, but it changed real quick to a shy one when he saw his best friends’ long parchment fluttering through the wind rapidly; they kept jumping at their own seats way too excitedly.

“I’m totally neutral, maybe a bit. But, that’s not the point here!” denied Hyun Woo nervously, shaking his head thrice when the Slytherins yelled towards his direction. “I’m no longer a Gryffindor! Think of me as your Quidditch commentator, not a bloody Gryffindor!” Even though the quarrel did not seem to stop shortly, he managed to bring the audience’s attention back to the field. “Let’s focus back to the final, shall we?”

Let’s say if he succeeded at catching the Golden Snitch, they would automatically get 150 points into their score and this Quidditch Cup Final would also be over immediately; definitely, Gryffindor would end up taking this wonderful trophy home. Still, it was not that simple as what he thought it would be, when his opponent was none other than his biggest rival, one and only, Kim bloody Taehyung, who was the type of Seeker that would not give in at any situation – instead, he would make sure Slytherin winning the tournament at the end.

“Stop talking? Hm?” Taehyung teased, ignoring the Gryffindor’s stern tone. “If you can beat me, then I’ll stop – but oh, you can’t.”

“Sod off, you stupid git!” Jeongguk blurted out, running his Nimbus 2001 against the Slytherin’s Firebolt deliberately; this was not his thing, but he somehow had no other choice.

“Merlin, the captains’ broomsticks running against each other! What does it mean—oh, the tension! That’s very intriguing to see!” 

One of Hyun Woo’s annoying habits was, exaggerating everything. His scandalous tone was something that he hated the most. If he had time, he would surely glue Hyun Woo’s lips together and not let him be a commentator of his matches any longer; luckily, this Quidditch Cup Final was literally his last tournament.

“That’s not very Gryffindor of you. But still, have another word to say, Jeon?” Smirking charmingly, he flew near the Golden Snitch with an unexpected boost of speed leaving the Gryffindor far behind as well as not letting him say something first.

“Whoa! Seeker Kim Taehyung of Slytherin! He’s so fast! He’s near! I repeat, he’s near the Golden Snitch! Everyone, let’s focus on him!”

Jeongguk could not process what just happened after Commentator Hyun Woo announced those words – Slytherin won. Kim Taehyung reached the Golden Snitch perfectly, capturing it using his slender fingers, then proudly showing it to the audience afterwards; this was truly a nightmare.

“Merlin! This is insane! Seeker Kim Taehyung of Slytherin has just successfully caught the Golden Snitch with ease! 150 points to Slytherin! The final scores are 220-80! Slytherin wins!  Congratulations!” Hyun Woo announced purely in shock, his voice radiating to every spot of the Quidditch arena.

Slytherins were obviously screaming in pleasure to hear the announcement. Some Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were delighted as well to see this. From Gryffindors’ side, they looked disappointed and miserable to deal with this fact. The headmaster and professors’ expressions seemed to be mixed with happiness and sorrow seeing the students’ reaction. And this Quidditch Cup Final between Gryffindor and Slytherin really ended up with a victory for Slytherin.

“Bloody hell!”

Seeing Kim Taehyung’s lips curl into a very satisfied smirk towards him, he felt his body was about to explode out of frustration and anger. Instead of causing an unwanted scene, he flew on his Nimbus 2001 away from the Quidditch arena.

Hot steams wafting across his face slowly, however, the feeling was wonderfully pleasurable since the swimming pool-like hot tub he was bathing in this late afternoon was adorned with pink soap foams; not only beautiful to be seen by his exhausted eyes, but also somehow soothing up to every length of his body.

One of the perks of being a Quidditch Captain was, he indeed had the authority to use the Prefects’ bathroom which was on the fifth floor after blurting out the correct password; pine-fresh. 

Certainly, this was the best bathroom he had ever seen in his entire life, judging from there was a splendid candle-filled chandelier hanging above and everything inside of the Prefects’ bathroom was made of white marble; extremely elegant from every side. Plus, this swimming pool-like hot tub he was in gracefully sank into the middle of the floor. 

And lucky him, there was no one at the moment. Prefects must be guiding the students back to their own houses, Head Boys and Head Girls currently might have not needed to use the bathroom; whatever their reasons were, and Quidditch players aside from the captains could not share a bath with him in here; what a pity, but he felt relieved to have a bath alone.

Leaning his back against the firm tub, he rested his forearms over the rim while humming along the beautiful classical piece, which was playing from his muggle phone – of course, he did not sneak his phone in purposefully, his mother told him to do it since she understood her only child very well, how he immediately was attached to his phone when he was back home without stop. Although, there was still no internet here, he still could use it to listen to some music like what he did right now and maybe, proceed to take a lot of pictures here.

He was a muggle-born wizard, both parents were muggles who happily lived in Muggle Seoul – the reason why he still kept up with muggle world, what muggle did these days, and literally everything about them. Once he got home, he would live normally like muggles for sure, sometimes he missed living like one; or perhaps, because performing magic in front of muggles was forbidden.

Suddenly, without realizing, Kim Taehyung had already come into the Prefects’ bathroom looking all-messy, but undeniably hot. 

“Having a great bath, are you?” Taehyung asked way too casually as if they were close friends; but no, the Slytherin was always acting like this, his long fingers starting to remove his green Quidditch robes and let it fall down on the cold floor carelessly.

It effectively made Jeongguk turn his head down with no sound—why would he need to see him?

Once all of his clothes were off him, Taehyung took a brief moment in the shower stall at the other side of the Prefects’ bathroom before stepping into the tub across from him, then asking, “Did you, perhaps, break your ears or something after the final? It wasn’t even a hard question, was it?” His eyes darted to Jeongguk’s green ones, withstanding to not make a way down. “Are you having a great bath, Jeon?”

Jeongguk almost let out a low gasp at Taehyung’s somewhat demanding tone if he was not conscious enough to realise it was his rival who had just spoken to him. “Yes, I am.” 

“Oh, really?” he asked, not giving any care about the Gryffindor’s reply, instead actually his smooth skin—wait, it would be bloody embarrassing if Jeongguk caught him staring, wouldn’t it? Though, he was obviously no saint.

Feeling the water moving from where Taehyung placed himself in, he attempted to think of something else than the Slytherin’s sudden presence which warmed even more the Prefects’ bathroom. “Stop asking, will you?” Complaining, but it rather sounded like a whine, he deeply wished to hear this beautiful classical piece instead of the Slytherin’s low-pitched voice; this was totally the perfect time to be aroused—no, what was he thinking? Merlin.

Surprisingly, Taehyung did obey by squeezing his mouth shut and savouring the piece instead; he did not know anything about muggle music, but this one seemed quite familiar to his ears. And minutes were spent with him sighting at Jeongguk’s phone in appreciation. Honestly, he sort of wished to have one, even though he did not understand how it worked properly. There were owl postal service and Floo network to communicate and transport here – anyway, he could Apparate as well just to talk face-to-face since he had mastered Apparition.

This strangely comfortable silence between them lasted quite longer than what Jeongguk thought it would be. Eventually, the classical piece changed into an upbeat song – a modern love song by a muggle boyband, bringing him to fling his eyes open way too fast and reach for his phone immediately.

“It sounds like a very bizarre boys’ choir, don’t you think?” Pouring the pink soap foams onto his bare chest then rubbing himself, Taehyung joked carelessly, “Of course, muggle song. No wonder why, though.”

“Don’t you dare insult muggles,” Jeongguk hissed after clicking the stop button on the screen harshly, feeling offended by his favourite muggle boyband being insulted by the Slytherin. “Disgusting pure-blood.”

“Whoa,” Taehyung genuinely looked surprised by the Gryffindor’s strong remark, mouth hanging open while arms folding across his chest defensively. “Wasn’t it you just insulting my kind? Disgusting pureblood? Huh?” Before he could express his disbelief more, an unexpected splash of pink soap foams mixed with hot water from the Gryffindor smashed right on his face. “Bloody hell!”

“You look, mph,” Jeongguk broke into a very contented laughter seeing the Slytherin’s covered face. “What shall I say? Dashing, Kim.”

“Did you just—” Taehyung snapped incredulously as he rubbed the pink soap foam off his face in fury. “—splash this to my face? Really?”

“Oh, I did. I thought you did see it, too?” Jeongguk giggled annoyingly, eyes never leaving his grey ones. “Shall I do it again to, you know, refresh your eyes, perhaps? No?” Without waiting for the Slytherin’s answer, he quickly did another solid splash on the chest this time, not his face; he pitied him, truthfully.

“Why are you like this?” Taehyung blurted out, chest heaving, eyes narrowed. “I absolutely did nothing wrong here.”

Seeing Taehyung’s anger face—it went back to normal just in a few seconds later—he said half-bravely, averting his eyes to side, “It would be lovely to have an afternoon bath without seeing your very stupid face, Kim.”

Taehyung snorted after catching the Gryffindor’s uncertain statement. “Well, how stupid of me for thinking my afternoon bath would be nice and peaceful when there’s a Gryffindor here.” A quick pause filled the bathroom as their eyes intensely locked together before he continued mockingly, “My apologies for capturing the Snitch first and making your house lose on the final. It was just a Quidditch game, anyway, wasn’t it?” 

Jeongguk flinched after hearing his emphasising. “What?”

Shaking his head in a dramatic way, he kept going with no hint of doubt, “However, I do understand your misery. But at least, don’t let your pathetic emotion take over the air in this lovely Prefects’ bathroom. That’s very unpleasant, isn’t it, Jeon?”

“What?” Spitting out his wrath, Jeongguk reached out for his wand inside of his bag right behind him hastily, then straight away directed it to Taehyung with no mercy. “I beg your pardon. What did you just say? Shall I banish you from my sight now? Tell me, Kim.” His evil grin slowly appeared on his face when he realised there was no wand in Taehyung’s reach.

“It’s not fair for me without my wand right now, don’t you think?” asked Taehyung, who seemed to not be afraid of the pointing wand, instead leaning his back against the tub. 

Jeongguk scoffed, his grip on the wand unconsciously tightened, “Don’t even try to talk about fairness when you’re a bloody Slytherin.” 

“I’m afraid you’re not aware of Slytherin back then and now. They’re different.” 

“No! They’re not. Don’t be stubborn!”

“I must say it’s you who are stubborn here.”

“Shut it or I will hex your bollocks off!”

Taehyung was beyond amused, calm and relaxed, never expecting the Gryffindor would easily give up on their bickering. “You’re really something else, do you know? No one dared to point their wand at me like this before. Of course, except when duelling.”

Jeongguk rolled his eyes. “I’m flattered.”

“Because if they dared to, I might or might not have to strike them out first wandless.” Disregarding Jeongguk’s shocked look by continuing to pour the pink soap foams onto his arms, he said casually, “Relax, Jeon. I suppose it’s not the right time to show you my wandless magic. Perhaps, next time? But of course, I would love it if you’re asking for a duel after this bath.” Finding the Gryffindor knitted his brows in consideration, he declared along with a breathy chuckles escaping from his mouth, “No wand. No clothes. On my bed.”

“W-what?” Jeongguk’s ears quickly turned pink like the soap foams when realising what he truly meant. He did not even miss a single beat of Taehyung’s satisfied laughter radiating in the Prefects’ bathroom. “Sod off! I will actually hex you now!” His hand, however, betrayed him – trembling when once again aiming his wand to Taehyung; he was not ready to actually throw a spell on the Slytherin.

“Jeon Jeongguk.” Taehyung’s voice was a lot deeper than before; it had been such a very long time since Jeongguk heard him saying his full name. “Muggle-born. Both parents are muggles.” There was no sign of him looking scared of the pointing wand, not even a bit. “Mother is a healer – what does muggle call it? Ah, doctor.” He did not bother to care about the Gryffindor’s surprised expression, either. “Father is a businessman, I suppose. You’re their only child. Living in a very comfortable and big house in Muggle Seoul. What a wealthy muggle family.”

Jeongguk’s frown deepened, terribly confused and startled by the Slytherin’s words, his wand eventually dropped over the rim. “Did you usually do a background check? Really?”

“I did not. Unless...” Taehyung trailed off mysteriously, a sneaky grin perfectly painted on his face, then saying, “It’s someone I’m interested in.”  

Jeongguk’s eyes widened, face abruptly warming, then stuttered, “W-what?”

Taehyung laughed victoriously, extremely satisfied seeing the Gryffindor’s reaction, and stopped when he felt running out of breath. “You shall not take that one seriously. We do all know that riling you up is a thing I love to do, don’t we, Jeon?”

“Oh b-bugger off, will you?” Attempting to ignore his pounding chest, he squashed the water onto the Slytherin’s face using his feet before demanding hesitantly, “Don’t make me say it again.”

Getting out of the tub with rage right away; he had had enough getting splashed by the Gryffindor for today, he hissed, “Fine!”

Jeongguk resisted to stare at the Slytherin putting a milky white towel around his lower body, but failed miserably—how could he not stare?

As Taehyung was done getting dressed, he mumbled quietly, “Why the hell did I even waste my precious bath time for you earlier. I must be indeed mental.” Then, leaving the Prefects’ bathroom in fast before the Gryffindor could ask what he meant by that.

Putting his wand back into his bag, he exhaled a deep sigh and clicked the resume button on the screen to play his unfinished song. Merlin, he truly wished to hear his favourite muggle boyband’s songs without any interruption while enjoying the hot bath since he stepped into here. And as he shut his eyes closed to savour the music which was melodiously filling the Prefects’ bathroom again right now, he could clearly hear his own chest hammering with no control inside; the Slytherin’s presence really affected him—like, how could he stop thinking about him now?

Actually, he had a deep crush on Kim Taehyung since his very first Quidditch match with him in the second year—should he say he fancied the Slytherin? He had always had a thing for blonds and he could not help it. Despite him regularly hating the Slytherin’s presence, he was extremely aware of how attractive and fit Kim Taehyung was; absolutely not good for his own sanity. Sure enough, he would die on the spot because of his face heating uncontrollably in embarrassment if anyone found out his little secret.

Another thing that made his cheeks somehow starting to burn after the Slytherin left the Prefects’ bathroom was, Kim Taehyung was fucking hung. Bloody hell!

A week after the Quidditch Cup Final, he rarely saw Kim Taehyung except at these certain places; classes they shared together, study hall, and Great hall. 

The Great hall was the main gathering area in Hogwarts; a marvellous place with thousands of candles which were floating in mid-air over four long tables for students of each house and another long table at the top of hall for headmaster and professors; greatly, this hall screamed miraculous and wonderful from every spot.

And this evening, they were having dinner together. A lot of goblets of water and glittering plates—containing bacon and steak, beef casserole, lamb chops, roast chicken, sandwiches, mashed potatoes, and more—were scattering over the table deliciously; somehow making him feel full seeing these, but still he was not complaining.

“Stop reading your book, will you?” Hoseok said while munching his lamb chop, eyes gazed at another Gryffindor across from him who still did not want to stop with his reading. 

“He loves studying, haven’t you noticed it?” Jeongguk stared at Namjoon and his book alternately, was very used to seeing him reading in every situation like his life depended on it. “Way more than these delicious foods for sure.”

Hoseok was confused, then asking, “Aren’t N.E.W.T.s still two more months or three, are they?” Pausing for a moment, he continued, “No doubt, Namjoon will definitely get Outstandings in all subjects he chose and become an Auror just like what he always wanted to be.”

“I thought he always wanted to be a Potion Master rather than Auror. He loves Potion very much, doesn’t he,” Seokjin muttered, taking a sandwich on his plate into his mouth. “I misread him, then?” 

“People changed is the answer.” Jeongguk replied simply, turning his eyes down at his own plate before shifting to Seokjin. “No offence, but it’s cooler to be an Auror, though. Why I’m saying this, is because I’m terrible at Potion as you have seen me struggling in that class. Chasing dark wizards seems more intriguing, although more exhausting.”

Seokjin let out a knowing grin to Jeongguk. “You’re failing and I’m not even surprised anymore. But of course, I do agree that chasing dark wizards is cooler. I imagine Namjoon in his Auror robes will look bloody impeccable.” 

Namjoon blushed. “That’s very nice of you. I do love potion and have thought of becoming a Potioneer, but I chose to follow my father’s path.” And flipping to the next page as returning back to his reading in silence.

Swallowing the food down his throat, Hoseok rested his palm over Namjoon’s opened-book and demanded patiently, “Eat your chicken and stop studying for a bit, won’t you, mate?”

Namjoon hummed, adjusting the glasses on his nose, staring at them, and saying, “Who said I’m studying for N.E.W.T.s right now? I’m not, ok?” Quickly, he carried on, “But since you have started this topic, I may or may not have prepared for it, anyway. Surprise?”

“Clearly not.” Jeongguk lazily snorted, shaking his head. “We have known you so well that you’re always ready for it. It’s rather weird if you haven’t prepared for N.E.W.T.s. I can tell you that you’re definitely not Kim Namjoon, but someone has just polyjuiced themselves as Kim Namjoon.”

“Well, how can I disagree with that one?” Grinning, Namjoon slightly pushed Hoseok’s hand away from his book to show them the title of his book; potion. “Are you seeing this now?”

“Yes. It’s potion?” Hoseok mumbled, not understanding. “And what about it? You did include the potion subject in your N.E.W.T.s, didn’t you?”

“Er, you’re correct. I did. But I wanted to make sure if it’s really possible to make, you know, what potion two of you asked me to make days ago.” Namjoon gazed at Hoseok and Seokjin with a mysterious look before focusing himself into his Potion book on page number 394. “It would be insane if I could really make one, don’t you think?”

“It surely would, but are you serious?” Hoseok’s eyes turned bigger in surprise, directing to Namjoon then moving to Seokjin afterwards. “I thought he would never try it at all.”

Seokjin’s mouth slightly opened, blinking his eyes as if he needed some more time to process Namjoon’s words. “Wow. I truly didn’t expect to hear this coming from your mouth.”

“Was there any potion all of you wanted to make?” Jeongguk asked in curiosity, putting his empty plate aside then taking his goblet of water for a few sips. “Do tell me about it.” Realising they stole glances at each other in hesitation, pouting, he blurted out bitterly, “No one? Really?”

“It’s not something that you, perhaps, want to know, mate.” Namjoon replied awkwardly, somehow feeling hesitant to close his Potion book. “There’s a problem about the potion. I didn’t exactly understand how to make it, ok? Because some said it exists in this world, while some others said it doesn’t. Actually, you know, it’s sort of complicated.”

Hoseok nodded, swallowed nervously, and said, “It is. Quite complicated to explain, too.”

Jeongguk arched an eyebrow, slightly annoyed by the fact that they did not want to tell him. “Why are all of you acting so mysterious to your mate? Huh?” Neither of them wanted to elaborate—he had had enough, and mumbling in defeat, “Fine, then. I don’t care.”

Seokjin interrupted after taking the very last bite of his sandwich, “Talking about potion, I have heard some gossip about it.” Capturing them stare at him spontaneously, even Namjoon closed his book, he continued, “You all know about Amortentia, do you?” He explained after there were only Namjoon and Hoseok who eagerly nodded, “I supposed it’s the most powerful love potion in existence. You don’t know about it?”

“I do not. Nor do I know about other love potions.” Jeongguk admitted, was not that interested in potion; oftentimes failing on that subject, though he did not bother to care about it. “Powerful? Must be dangerous, then.”

“It is.” Namjoon replied, nodded. “Years back, the old professor showed Amortentia in front of class and told them how to make it for study purposes. A lot of students were bloody intrigued and did make it for someone they obsessed with to have the same feelings like them. Valentine’s day that year was a real cock-up.”

Hoseok asked, frowning, “How do you know about it?”

“My brother told me years ago and that’s why I know.” Namjoon explained, looking back at Hoseok. “And I do think that’s one of the reasons why our professor had never mentioned love potion at all. Who doesn’t know about Amortentia, anyway. Everyone obviously knows about it.”

“There’s a bunch of love potions which don’t even reach the half level of Amortentia. Even though the effects of them are not that strong, I was told that they’re still making a brilliant effect.” Hoseok whispered with interest.

“Wait, really?” Jeongguk uttered, whispering.

Hoseok gave him a weak nod. “Well, if you’re somehow interested in buying them, you shall take some notes. ‘Bizarre Potion Shop’ in Diagon Alley. Honestly, it looks rather like a haunted house than a shop. Around 5-10 galleons. They’re quite expensive, aren’t they?”

“Er, you seemed to know about it very well.” Jeongguk shook his head disbelievingly. “I’m quite surprised that your interest for love potions is that deep. Shall I be concerned?”

Namjoon tsked, agreed. “He must have bought one.”

“I did not!” Hoseok’s hand waved disapprovingly, trying to defend himself. Staring at those who did not even care about his denying, he shouted a bit loud exasperatedly, “I swear to Merlin!”

“Alright, we believe you. Hear me out now.” Seokjin cut them off, successfully having their attention. “Some of Ravenclaws are planning to make Amortentia before the end of this month which is three more weeks from now.”

Jeongguk frowned. “For what?”

“I still didn’t know the real purpose of it. As I have heard, they wanted to give ‘Amortentia Chocolate’ in unison.” Seokjin did not let them disturb him and kept going, “Some of Hufflepuffs are also attempting to make it, too. One of them is Yoon Jia, a seventh-year like us and one of the most popular girls.”

“How can you say she’s one of the most popular girls when I didn’t even know about her existence? Let me correct your words. She’s not popular.” Without thinking, Namjoon said. “How about Gryffindors and Slytherins? Do you hear something about them, too?”

Seokjin breathed out. “I don’t.” He glanced at Namjoon in irritation. “Haven’t you known me that well? I did not get along with Gryffindors aside from the three of you and much less Slytherins. Of course, I have gossiped with a lot of friends more than you could imagine, but they’re all Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. Now do tell me, how am I supposed to know about Gryffindors and Slytherins?”

“Well, I’m sorry, then. I forgot about it because I was so curious to know more about them.” Namjoon murmured quietly, making himself back into his Potion book.

Seokjin rolled his eyes, but did not comment anything further.

Hoseok stared at them, still not understanding. “Honestly, Yoon Jia is really pretty and I understand why all the boys are chasing after her. But still, I couldn’t imagine her also doing this shite.”

“Girls are just the same, aren’t they,” Namjoon retorted, his tone sounding boring. Actually, he did not wish to hear about her at all.

Hoseok huffed at Namjoon’s words. “I still remember when I got assigned as her Herbology partner in the fourth year, I could tell that every boy in class was trying to get her attention and asking her out. At the end of class, she generously accepted this one boy, though they only dated twice as I had heard.”

Namjoon’s forehead wrinkled, waiting for Hoseok to continue. “And your point is?”

“If she wants to make Amortentia, that means she’s already yearned for someone else, don’t you think?” Hoseok did not let them interrupt him. “Then why, why did she accept that poor boy? That’s quite odd. Well, I’m assuming it’s because her crush didn’t like her back.”

“Perhaps.” Jeongguk hummed, agreed. “Obsession blinds her and she’s desperate because of getting rejected? Love is complicated.”

Seokjin began, “Her crush, You-Know-Who, actually had rejected her in the first year. And every year she failed pathetically to steal his heart, but apparently, she still hasn’t given up on him yet. She’s mental, isn’t she?”

They echoed concurrently, “Who?”

“What? All of you didn’t know who her crush is?” Seokjin snorted incredulously, leaning to his front before asking, “Are you kidding me?”

“Of course, not.” Hoseok mumbled way too fast, followed by Namjoon and Jeongguk’s nodding. “How the hell are we supposed to know about it? We’re not gossip experts like you!”

Seokjin hissed impatiently, then answering in a whisper to not draw attention, “Slytherin Kim Taehyung. Oh Lord! You all are impossible.”

Jeongguk’s stomach flipped uncomfortably hearing that name—what? Did he just hear ‘Kim Taehyung’ coming from Seokjin’s mouth?

“I heard that she’s got rejected by Kim Taehyung more than ten times – perhaps, 14 times? That’s crazy, isn’t it? If I were her, I would prefer to die.” Seokjin immediately added, “Not only her who wanted to give ‘Amortentia Chocolate’ to him, but some of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, too, as I have mentioned earlier.”

“To him? Kim Taehyung?” It sounded somewhat a bit miserable, like he did not want to accept the fact of all the girls wanting Taehyung’s heart. “Er—really?” One thing that he must understand, there was absolutely nothing wrong about every girl having a crush on Slytherin Kim Taehyung and even boys—also, himself.

“Yes, you’re totally right. Your Quidditch rival Kim Taehyung.” Seokjin confirmed with an annoying tone of his, while searching for him at Slytherin house table. Once he found Taehyung, he unconsciously blurted out, “He’s so perfect, isn’t he?”

Jeongguk coughed; of course, he is. “I do not think so.” Resisting the urge to turn around and see his Quidditch rival—he extremely wanted to, but there was no way he would admit it—he rambled instead, “Everyone has their own flaws, don’t you know? There’s no one perfect in this world. For sure, Kim Taehyung has some flaws that all of us didn’t know. Perhaps, the worst ones that could ruin his name.”

None of them reacted to his words seriously. It seemed Hoseok also agreed to what Seokjin had said and stated facts, “No wonder why he’s that perfect from all sides. Pure-blood – most girls are still rather interested in pure-bloods than half-bloods and muggle-borns, aren’t they?”

Seokjin rolled his eyes, but nodded. “They really are. And that’s annoying, to be honest. Good news is, I’m bent.”

“Good-looking, indeed – he’s a literal Pure-blood Prince—like, that’s what girls called him. Rich, I heard about him being bloody rich—”

Namjoon cut Hoseok off. “The Kim Manor is terribly huge and luxurious. My brother had gone to Kim Manor about three times when he was still working for the Prophet. If you want to know more about it, you can. My brother had written a special edition about the architecture of Kim Manor last year.”

“Er, I actually have read it.” Jeongguk said, embarrassed a bit by the fact he secretly kept up with everything about Kim Taehyung, even outside of Hogwarts. “He’s rich.”

“They’re bloody rich, precisely.”

“Smart, he’s in second place after Namjoon, isn’t he,” Hoseok’s eyes directed to Namjoon, sending him a thoughtful look. “Well, I guess, you need to be careful? He will take your number one spot soon, mate.”

Namjoon sighed and nodded. “Don’t worry. I won’t let it happen.”

“Popular – since the first day, if I remember correctly, he had attracted a lot of students.” Hoseok paused to take a mouthful of his lamb chop and said, “See? I know it’s crazy, but how could he not be perfect?”

It would be a lie if he said he did not agree with Hoseok. All of his statements were completely true. But still, he attempted to be annoyed by hearing his own friends’ compliments to his rival—so, they could never guess about his deep crush on the Slytherin—and said, “Well, I always thought you all are my friends and not him? I’m assuming, you all have changed side now? Hm?”

Hoseok grinned amusedly, laughed. “Of course, we’re always on your side, Gguk.” Putting his arm around Jeongguk’s shoulder to take him closer, he said in a playful way, “You’re still our number one. No need to be jealous.”

“Get off me!” Jeongguk whined, trying to escape from Hoseok’s hold. “Who’s jealous? I’m not, ok!”

Namjoon stared at their childish act and shook his head, however, he seemed to think something before eventually saying, “Gguk, you’re amazing and more talented than him.”

“Er—what?” Jeongguk felt his face growing hot from the unexpected praise. “Why, why suddenly you—” 

“Aren’t you aware that you have won more Quidditch matches than him? Do you know how impressive it is? I couldn’t even describe it with words.”

Seokjin nodded and briskly said, “He’s right. You’re definitely more than Kim Taehyung. And that’s why we always thought of making something new to show you our support in every Quidditch match of yours—like, that very long parchment with your name on it. I’m so glad you did like it.”

“We should have used magic instead of that stupid parchment, don’t you agree? It would be amazing if we used fireworks during his Quidditch Cup Final last week, wouldn’t it?” Hoseok asked excitedly, gazing at Namjoon and Seokjin. “Oh Lord, it would be totally amazing.”

Namjoon let out a deep sigh, agreed with Hoseok. “You’re totally right, it would be amazing. Why didn’t we think of that? My broken quill did a poor thing and the parchment wasn’t that great, but horrible. We should have done better.”

Seokjin nodded, regretted. “This is our fault—” 

“Stop!” Jeongguk was finally off Hoseok’s arm and looking away slightly. “I didn’t understand why suddenly we’re talking about me?”

“Er, I think it’s enough for talking about Kim Taehyung.” Namjoon answered seriously, his voice not attached with any playful sound at all. “And Hoseok, you’re right. I admit Taehyung will take my spot soon.” He turned to face Jeongguk. “I didn’t like him that much, ok?”

Jeongguk let out an incredulous laugh, still puzzled about the sudden turn of their gossiping. “You misunderstood me, I’m not, er, jealous of him. But you know, ‘You’re amazing and more talented than him’ is not necessary, Joon. I’m not asking for a compliment. I’m just, er, joking, ok?”

It was ridiculous to see them changing the conversation and praising him instead just because they were his friends, not Taehyung’s. He had expected that they would start to tease him by talking about his rival even more, but surprisingly, it turned the opposite of it—should he be touched? In Godric’s name, he was not jealous, not even a bit. On the contrary, he was actually eager to hear and hear more about Kim Taehyung—his crush slash rival—but they stopped because of his stupid attempt to be annoyed.

“Er, I genuinely wanted to praise you.” A bit embarrassed, but pretending to be mad, Namjoon barked out, “Well, you what? I take my word back.”

“We know you have a praise kink and that’s why.” Seokjin said jokingly, chuckling, then turning to Hoseok, “Stop praising Taehyung. We’re not even his friends, anyway.”

Hoseok immediately agreed, facing Jeongguk with guilt, though he managed to smile. “Sorry, mate. I couldn’t control my mouth.”

“Er, can’t we discuss something else?” Jeongguk replied instead, feeling warm inside of his chest after realising they did not want to offend him by ‘admiring’ his rival—how cute.

“Do you mean gossiping about someone else other than him?” Hoseok flew a wink to Jeongguk. “Alright. How about the famous Slytherin couple? His friends.”

“They’re both cute for each other! I have seen Park Jimin closely when we were working on our History of Magic assignment last year – he’s damn fit. His darling, Min Yoongi, is cute as hell. What a perfect couple.” Seokjin uttered cheerfully, cutting his untouched meat into pieces before putting them to his mouth. “Never knew this would taste this delicious rather than previous dines.”

“Can I have a try?” Hoseok pushed his half-empty plate towards Seokjin. Letting out a cheeky grin when Seokjin gave him a few chops on his plate, he mumbled, “Thanks, mate.”

“I understood why they’re being called a perfect couple. Aside from that, they didn’t care about anything. Really. They’re basically troublemakers.” Namjoon commented exhaustedly.

“Well, aren’t they, though.”

“It’s still fresh in my memory when they were celebrating their win in their common room last week and it was late at night. Jimin is a Parselmouth and made serpents—don’t ask me where he got a load of serpents to their common room because I didn’t even want to know about it—dancing and fighting as if they were having a competition, while Yoongi were making a pool of butterbeers—he went to the Three Broomsticks right after the tournament ended—to flood their common room. Yes, it was indeed a disaster.” Namjoon grunted out, making a disbelieving look towards the Slytherin house table.

Jeongguk tsked. “They’re indeed mental.”

Namjoon went on, “Only Slytherins, some other students who at that time were there, and I knew about it. I headed to the Slytherin dungeon because my friend, who’s handling the Potion club, needed my help with something. And yes, I definitely saw all of it. Well...” He paused, hesitated for a bit. “Taehyung, thankfully, fixed this mess quickly. He’s also a Parselmouth, I was quite surprised when seeing him talking in Parseltongue to cast them out.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat when the image of Kim Taehyung talking with serpents flooded in his head. Who knew the Slytherin was also a Parselmouth? This another fact of him—after he knew that he could do wandless magic—was beyond surprising, but undeniably attractive. He was more than aware that Kim Taehyung was perfect, but he did not know that he was that perfect.

“You have never told us, haven’t you?” Hoseok accused, pointing a finger at Namjoon. “Even a word. Why?”

Namjoon made his lips into a thin line then explained, “My apologies for not telling you all. This is supposed to be a secret because they didn’t want to lose house points. If the professor knew about it, he would take at least 100 points from them. Not like I care, I just didn’t want to create any trouble for myself.”

Seokjin snorted after hearing Namjoon’s intriguing story. “At least, they’re all good-looking blokes.”

“Fair enough.”

A Slytherin walked into them when they wanted to talk a lot more about the famous Slytherin couple. The bloke looked awful with a tattoo-like ‘Loser’ on his forehead; quite clear to be seen by everyone here, however, he tried his best to cover it up with his robes hood. “Evening, Jeon.”

Frowning subtly, Jeongguk spontaneously replied, “Er, evening, too.”

“In case you don’t remember me, I’m Choi Seun Ho. We shared the same extra-curricular in Apparition in the third year, although we have never really talked before. Er, you alright?” Seun Ho’s tone tried to sound friendly, though it sounded more awkward.

Jeongguk’s smile grew forcefully on his face, then he said, “Alright.” He was still confused about Seun Ho’s sudden appearance and something on his forehead, but he refrained himself from asking about it. “I do remember you. Yeah. Apparition.”

“Great.” Seun Ho replied, gazing at the Slytherin house table for a split second with a nervous face as if he was terrified of something there. “So, er, you know, I will say it to the point since I don’t want to interrupt your dinner time.” Ignoring the Gryffindors’ confused look, he asked, “Is it fine with you, Jeon?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Sure.”

“Jeon, I deeply apologise for casting a spell on your broomstick at the Quidditch Cup Final last week.”

They were taken aback of his confessing, but not trying to disturb him right away. 

Inhaling a lot of breath and exhaling, Seun Ho continued in fast, “...and for apologising this late. I’m more than aware it’s been a week since then. Truthfully, I didn’t have any courage to come to you. However, I really hope you forgive my actions.”

“It was you?” Namjoon’s voice surprisingly went deeper than minutes ago.

Seun Ho unsurely nodded. “Yes.”

“I’m assuming that you were aware of the rules, but didn’t want to comply with them?” Jaw-tensed, Namjoon scolded, “You weren’t playing at that time and nor even a Quidditch player, but you still managed to do such a thing? Cheating? You have violated the rules, mate.”

Seokjin humourlessly snorted, not letting Seun Ho open his mouth. “What did you expect from a Slytherin, Joon?” Rolling his eyes, he commented a bit loud, “They’re basically a cheater.”

“Your forehead really tells what kind of wizard you are, Loser.” Making the air unpleasant was something that Hoseok wanted to do right now, especially to Seun Ho. “It’s been there for a week, too, since I saw that, hasn’t it?” He gazed at the tattoo-like ‘Loser’ on Seun Ho’s forehead and said with no thinking as if what he said was absolutely right, “Looks like you have got cursed by someone who knew you very well. How could they even know that you’re such a loser?”

“Curse?” He knitted his eyebrows, mumbling way too quiet which they could not even catch what he was saying. 

Who could possibly be a ‘Dark Wizard’ in Hogwarts—well, he did not even know if they were here or not. Still, it was really terrifying to know if there was a student in Hogwarts who did perform Dark Arts and cursed other students for their own will.

Seeing his Gryffindor best friends being this protective, he did not want to interrupt them and keep silent throughout their sarcastic comments; honestly, it was quite fun to watch. And of course, there was no way he did not remember about it. He did his best searching for who had enchanted his Nimbus 2001 on the Quidditch Cup Final to give them some lesson—a punch on the face—before having a bath in the Prefects’ bathroom. Nevertheless, he gave up after ten minutes because he could not find them anywhere. It did not matter anymore since he was perfectly fine about it now.

Seun Ho looked so nervous, eyes blinking thrice. “Er—”

Namjoon had a deep look at Seun Ho’s forehead, out of nowhere interested in it. “Or is it a muggle tattoo? Nah. That’s too real to be only a tattoo.”

“Why would he even want to tattoo ‘Loser’ on his forehead?” Seokjin retorted incredulously. “Don’t be ridiculous! I have never even seen Muggles do that.”

“I demand you to answer me.” Hoseok forced, eyes never leaving Seun Ho. “What’s that exactly?”

Thankfully, the Professors and other students were too focused on themselves. He and his friends were sitting at the end of the table – meaning, they could not hear them talking. But, he chose to take a break on hearing their talking and slowly turned himself around to a specific angle where someone who kept drawing a hole on his back was sitting at. Kim Taehyung was far from them, but as expected, staring at him expressionless even after their eyes finally met. He was sitting and sort of having a conversation with his friends, the famous Slytherin couple Hoseok mentioned earlier; Min Yoongi and Park Jimin. 

When Taehyung’s brow arched up intimidatingly towards him, he returned himself back into his own friends’ talking abruptly.

“Er—yes. It is.” Seun Ho whispered, admitting after a long silence. “Temporary curse as I was told. Kim Taehyung did this to me because I casted a spell on your broomstick, Jeon.” 

Their eyes widened in surprise, even Jeongguk’s lips hung open. 

Seun Ho hurriedly continued with a somewhat hopeful tone as he faced Jeongguk who was still freezing on his seat, “It actually didn’t have any effects at all, but it won’t disappear until you forgive me, Jeon. That was what he said to me.”

“Whoa,” Seokjin echoed, purely shocked. “How did he do that? I have never heard about the temporary curse. Is it Dark Magic?”

“I have never heard about it, too, but it’s a curse! Of course, it counts as Dark Magic, right? But why, why did Taehyung do that?” Namjoon had never been so interested in this ‘curse’ topic before. “He’s mental!”

Hoseok blinked his eyes. “I... don’t even know what to say. This is bloody terrifying, mate.”

Seun Ho scratched his nape. “Er, he mumbled something that I unfortunately couldn’t hear after the Quidditch Cup Final was over and it was wandless magic. Then, he told me how to erase this away from my forehead. I have never been so scared in my life before.”

“O-oh.” He felt a terrible goosebumps through his body and his hammering chest beat even faster after hearing Seun Ho’s explanation. Did Taehyung curse Seun Ho because he threw a spell on his Nimbus 2001? What was the reason? They were certainly not friends, but rivals since the second year. 

“Why did I even waste my bath time for you earlier. I must be indeed mental.” Taehyung’s low mumble when they shared a bath in the Prefects’ bathroom a week ago buzzing into his ears. So, the Slytherin got late for his bath because of cursing this poor bloke in front of him?

“Yeah.” Seun Ho seemed to read his mind.

Not wanting the conversation to be longer than he wished to, he immediately blurted out with a shaky tone, “I, I forgive you, Choi.”

To their great surprise, Seun Ho’s temporary curse did immediately disappear after glinting for a few seconds—he tried to cover it by using his robes hood and slightly hiding under the table—and it left them speechless. 

“I have no words to express how thankful I am. I have been like that for a week and it’s so embarrassing.” Seun Ho bent down to Jeongguk with eyes glassy in tears. “I’ll see you around. Once again, thank you and I’m sorry, Jeon.” Finally, he left the Gryffindor house table towards the door.

The four of them were still having an uptight silence—what the hell had just happened? Though it eventually ended when Namjoon cleared his throat, facing Jeongguk, then asking, “I have so many questions in my head, but I don’t even know where to start. Mind explaining something to us?”

“So, you’re telling me that Kim Taehyung cursed him because he casted a spell on your broomstick?” asked Hoseok in a lack of belief. “I thought both of you hate each other’s existence. Correct me if I’m wrong.”

Half-panicking, he shrieked, “Er—I, I don’t know!” His ears were starting to burn because of his friends’ deep staring. “Why would you ask me? How am I supposed to know why he did that? I couldn’t read his mind! Of course, we hate each other—he’s an insufferable arsehole! You have seen us quarrelling in the corridors every time we passed by, haven’t you? Don’t say something that’s obvious.”

Seokjin reached for a slice of potatoes. “Hm, interesting.” Taking a bite of it, he blurted out casually, “I won’t ask any details, though, I mean – about your rivalry with him. I guess we shall ask Kim Taehyung about it instead. What’s the actual purpose behind it? Merlin, I’m bloody ready for some confession.”

“I can guarantee you that there’s nothing between us.” Jeongguk said frustratedly, pulling a face towards them; especially, to Seokjin. “Don’t ask him anything, I’m begging you.”

Seokjin laughed in satisfaction. “Fine. I won’t.”

“By the way,” Namjoon switched the topic all of sudden, successfully taking his friends’ attention. “I think we shall try – I’m talking about our potion.”

Hoseok was amused, biting back a grin. “Are you sure, mate? Do you think it would actually work as we wanted?”

“What very good news.” Seokjin shook his head in astonishment. “I fancy your confidence.”

There was a sheepish smile appearing on Namjoon’s face. “I have actually bought the ingredients which I supposed it would work after having a look at some certain potions and conversation with our professor – I didn’t disclose it to him, though. We need to wait a bit until the ingredients finally come. So, er, let’s try our best to make it happen?”

Seokjin chuckled. “You’re moving so fast. I really wonder why.” He shot Namjoon a teasing look. “Someone is very eager! I hope you can sleep peacefully at night without thinking about it.”

Namjoon’s ears turned a bit red. “I have gone this far – I mean, I have bought the ingredients. And despite the fact that I didn’t exactly understand if it would actually work or not, there’s no harm in trying, isn’t it? I wanted to be an Auror honestly, but I am deeply infatuated with potions and I can’t help it.” Closing his Potion book for the hundredth time today, he stared at them with a sign of shyness on his face.

“Very well, mate.” Hoseok squeezed Namjoon’s shoulder lightly. “Who said Aurors can’t do potions? A basic study, it is!”  

He wondered why his best friends were so mysterious; not going to lie, it was sort of annoying now. They did not seem to want to disclose it to him at all. Instead of asking them, he chose to listen to them talking. Perhaps they wanted to make Amortentia, too? It was not like he cared about it that much, anyway.

Seokjin hummed after Namjoon whispered something into his ear. “Forever? I thought it would be only for a few days or weeks – I got it now. Once we did it and the effect will immediately be over? How could you think of that? You haven’t even discussed it to us. Not complaining, though.”

“That’s quite torturing and painful, but sounds terribly hot. Brilliant.” Hoseok commented, dropping his forearms restlessly over the table. “Don’t make me keep thinking about it.”

Turning himself around, he tried not to be curious about his friends’ weird conversation and searched for Kim Taehyung instead—what he was thinking? However, he found Kim Taehyung was still there sipping his water while having a talk with other Slytherins; particularly, the famous Slytherin couple. Taehyung’s loose green tie was hanging perfectly between his black robes. Even on this evening, he looked so utterly good with his messy blond hair; fantastically hot.

“What?” Taehyung’s lips suddenly moved towards him with no sound. 

This was not like he wanted to make eye contact with Kim Taehyung—someone he despised as well as his secret crush—while they were having dinner in the Great Hall. Oddly enough, he felt like he would lose whatever game they were playing at the moment if he broke eye contact first. And he really did stay still without even saying a single word to him; his flushed cheeks betrayed him, nevertheless. 

“What?” Taehyung’s lips moved once again along with the corner of his lips that seemed to rise up a bit.

Should he ask why Taehyung did that? Why did Taehyung curse Seun Ho? This was not his first time to see his broomstick getting casted by Slytherins. He knew for sure that was cheating, however, it would even make Slytherin way easier to win the tournament. They were in the Quidditch Cup Final and obviously rivals, though. He knew Kim Taehyung despised him, too. But why, why did he do that?

For an intense minute, his green eyes locked with Taehyung’s grey ones. To be honest, this was actually quite hard; more than catching the damn Golden Snitch. Perhaps, it was because he had a stupid crush on him for years—why the hell even Kim Taehyung must be looking so fucking hot? If he were ugly, he would definitely vomit after this stupid eye contact game ended.

Taehyung flew an unexpected flirty wink towards him, abruptly making him break eye contact first—yes, he lost—and turning back in quick to his own friends who were still talking about the mystery potion. He could hear a breathy laugher from the back – of course, it was Kim Taehyung’s annoying voice.

“You’re mental!” Seokjin laughed, smacking Namjoon’s back slightly.

Namjoon grinned. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Both of you stop making me eager for it!” Hoseok protested.

He did not bother them anymore since he was finally aware that they were sort of in a weird relationship together; the potion was related to them, perhaps. He would not question anymore about it even if he was so curious about it – not now, at least. To distract his curiosity, he turned around to see Kim Taehyung for the last time – but instead, he spotted empty seats where the Slytherin and his friends were sitting.

For Merlin’s sake, he still did not understand why he could not stop searching for Kim Taehyung even after he had already left the Great hall.

Flying on his broomstick while watching the juniors practicing, he smiled sadly. Today was the last practice with him as the Quidditch Captain of Gryffindor because he would get changed with, perhaps, a sixth year—well, this was the time for him to resign and focus on his study since he was in his last year now.

“Hey, focus on the Snitch! I know it’s so fast, but you could catch it if you keep your attention on it.” 

“The Bludger won’t stop following me!” 

“Can’t you talk less and do more?”

“Alright, alright.”

“Smash it to the hoops, now! What are you waiting for?”

“Whoa, that’s so smooth. Amazing.”

“I have told you that I could do better!”

“Thank Lord, I finally caught the Snitch! See!”

When it was already late afternoon, they all gathered around on the field as he started to say, “Well, I supposed the practice it’s enough for today?” 

The Gryffindors nodded at once, waiting for their captain’s next word patiently.

“All of you really did excellent on this last practice with me as your captain.” Noticing their expressions changing, he quickly continued, “Thank you for your attendance until now. Your passion for this game. I’m so grateful for it. I’m hoping all of you can do your best on the upcoming Quidditch tournaments – even if I, perhaps, already graduated from here. Er, so, practice dismissed!”

They looked all sad of the fact Jeongguk was no longer their captain as well as the Gryffindor Seeker, but eventually walked away from the Quidditch Training Pitch to the Gryffindor tower right after he kindly forced them to. 

Today’s air was a bit colder than yesterday, although it was still pleasant, making him want to curl himself under the blanket to keep himself warm and cosy while listening to some music from his phone; a classical piece should be perfect to hear at this moment. But having a bath first, he must all clean before stepping into his room – that was his own rule. It would be such a lovely afternoon after an exhausting day of classes and Quidditch practice, wouldn’t it?

When he was about to climb up the grand staircase into the Gryffindor tower, he met Kim Taehyung who was having a conversation with alive portraits which were displayed on the wall. Actually, he was still not used to seeing these portraits talking, though. 

“Fancy meeting you here, Jeon.” Taehyung’s voice made the Gryffindor’s hesitant walk stop. He turned himself around to face him fully, completely ignoring the living portraits’ talking. “I saw your last practice. What a good captain.”

“Thank you for your compliment, I guess?” Jeongguk gave him a weak nod, not in the mood to start an argument.

Taehyung said, grinning, “It’s the time to resign, isn’t it?” 

“The time has finally come. Ready or not, we must be ready, don’t you think, Kim?” he replied sarcastically.

Taehyung chuckled and did not mind of the Gryffindor’s sarcastic tone. “N.E.W.T.s are about to come, too, aren’t they? I guess, we’re no longer competing against each other in Quidditch, then.”

He was a bit taken aback of the fact they would retire from being captains and never compete against each other ever again in Quidditch, take N.E.W.T.s for their future careers, graduate from Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft after that, and finally never see each other again—why did those make him suddenly feeling odd?

Taehyung’s eyebrows twitched, waiting for the Gryffindor’s answer. “Jeon?”

He snapped back into realisation, blinking, and immediately answering, “Er—I suppose so.” 

“Very well, then.” 

When Taehyung was about to step away from there, he came up with something that he really wanted to ask since last night. Thinking about Seun Ho’s temporary curse all night long made him go crazy with no reason, even more if he did not get the answer. 

“Kim.” 

Taehyung spontaneously stopped, facing him. “Yes?”

Jeongguk said after a couple of seconds, “Why did you do that?”

An eyebrow rose as the Slytherin confusedly asked, “Do what exactly?”

“Stop pretending that you didn’t know about it when you know exactly what I’m talking about, Kim.” He felt annoyed seeing Taehyung’s clueless behaviour. 

Taehyung shrugged shoulders nonchalantly and leaned against the staircase handle. “How am I supposed to know what you are talking about if you didn’t tell me what it is about?”

“Seun Ho’s temporary curse.”  

Taehyung’s eyes slightly widened hearing the Gryffindor emphasise each word. 

“Why did you do that?” There was still no answer coming from him when he asked again, impatiently this time. “I didn’t know you performed Dark Arts. We do study D.A.D.A. for seven years, don’t we? Nah. I don’t care about it. I just wanted to know what was the reason behind it? I thought you despised me?”

Taehyung croaked, somewhat nervous, “Er, he told you it was me?” 

“Yes, he told me you cursed him because he casted a spell on my broomstick.” He still did not understand where the sudden courage came from and he shook his Nimbus 2001 in his grip towards the Slytherin. “Right?” Then, he resized it using his wand before putting it inside of his pocket.

Taehyung sighed, mumbling, “What a traitor.”

“Pardon?” 

“I can do whatever I want, can’t I?” Taehyung’s expression changed into intimidating in a quick second. “Did my action harm you, Jeon?” 

Jeongguk could only stare with an odd feeling inside of his chest, swallowing his own spit.

“I take your silence as no.”

“I—” 

“Then...” Taehyung took a step forward, making the Gryffindor take a step back in anticipation. Tilting his head, he firmly remarked with the deepest tone of his, “What if I said I wanted to curse him because I didn’t like him messing you up?” 

Jeongguk froze, cheeks heating up in response. “W-what?”

“What if, Jeon.” Subsequently, the Slytherin strode away leaving him all flustered at the grand staircase.

An owl post flew towards the window when the three of his friends were sitting in Gryffindor common room this morning, meanwhile he hid at the stairs looking too curious.

Namjoon hurriedly opened the window and took a small box from it. “Oh?” Observing the mystery box for a few moments, he blurted out, “The ingredients have finally come!”

“I knew it.” Seokjin was rather excited, jumping into a levitating seat beside Namjoon; he loved levitating things. “When will you open it?”

“I won’t open it here, but at the potion classroom.” Namjoon replied, shaking his head. “We will use that class when it’s empty.”

Hoseok eyed his box. “All the ingredients really fit there?”

“I suppose so.”

“When will we start to make it, then?” Seokjin asked, searching for a comfy position on his levitating seat.

Namjoon held the box way too carefully. “I have just told you, haven’t I? It’s when the potion classroom is empty, but I don’t know exactly when.”

Hoseok stared at them and then asked seriously, “Have you found all of the ingredients?”

“The main one still hasn’t come yet. Tomorrow morning, I’m assuming.” Namjoon answered simply.

“Do we need to tell Jeongguk about this?” Hoseok grimaced, there was a hint of hesitation on his question.

The mention of his name sent a jolt on Jeongguk at the stairs, but he did not do anything and kept silent while waiting what his friends would say next.

“I feel so bad, you know.” Hoseok added, staring down his lap. “You do feel bad, too, don’t you?”

Seokjin sighed, nodded in approval, and said, “I do feel bad. You don’t even understand how bad. But you must know that I want him to stay away from the potion because I didn’t want him to get the effect of this. Anyway, he would probably look at us in disgust if he knew about it, don’t you think?”

Jeongguk furrowed his eyebrows—why would he be disgusted by them? What exactly did they want to make? He was terribly confused by their talking, but of course cannot do anything.

“He will know at the end.” Namjoon eventually stood up from his seating after letting out a breath. “The bell is about to ring. Let’s go to the class and discuss this later. Understood?”

Hearing their movements, Jeongguk stepped away from there immediately and headed to his first class today; muggle studies, if he remembered his schedule correctly.

“Jeon!” 

A sudden familiar high-pitched sound brought him to stop his feet and turned around to find a sixth-year Ravenclaw running towards him from another corridor. The Ravenclaw halted on her place after reaching Jeongguk’s side. With eyes shining in hope, she asked, “Have you had any class right now, Jeon?”

Jeongguk shook his head, wondering for a quick second about today’s classes before replying, “I have not.” His last class for today, Transfiguration, had ended a couple minutes ago. “Er—” It was embarrassing, although he tried so hard, he still could not remember her name.

“Ryu Taeri. You don’t remember me?” Taeri did not look surprised nor sad, a warm smile covering up on her face instead. Wanting to see him looking guilty, she joked, “I’m sad.”

“Ah, Ryu.” He recalled in fast the moment when he first knew her—it was not from Hogwarts—they were exchanging Muggle money for wizarding money in Gringotts bank; sometimes, he still ran across her at Gringotts. “Of course, I remember you. I just, er, forgot your name at the moment. Sorry.”

Taeri laughed slightly, waving her hand across her face dismissively. “Don’t worry, Jeon. I was just joking.”

“Do you, er, need something, Ryu?” he asked while nodding at his friends who were now walking away from Transfiguration class first after they gave him a quick code.

“Please do me a favour, Jeon.” She said, her hopeful tone could be caught on her voice again. “You’re aware that I’m handling Duelling Club, aren’t you?” 

Jeongguk nodded, hesitated a bit. “Yes.”

“I need seventh-years to demonstrate duelling in front of the first-years. Please?” she explained, eyes rounded in desperation as waiting for the Gryffindor’s answer.

“Er—alright.” He quickly agreed without thinking twice since he did not have anything to do right now except sleeping; though, he wished to sleep rather than doing this. Following the Ravenclaw to the Duelling Club room, he opened his mouth again to ask, “Er, so, I just need to duel with you in front of them, am I correct, Ryu?”

Opening the door gently, Taeri shook her head and replied, “Not entirely. I said seventh-years – I’m sixth-year, Jeon. You’re not duelling with me.”

“Then,” He was too focused on her as they entered the Duelling Club room, blurting out, “Who am I duelling with?”

“Jeon?” It was not Ryu Taeri’s voice, but Kim sodding Taehyung—what was he doing here? The Slytherin ran his fingers through his blond locks elegantly when their eyes met and said, “Fancy meeting you here. Life is full of surprise, isn’t it?”

“Him?” Jeongguk gave Taeri an incredulous look, ignoring Taehyung completely, and demanding for a confirmation from the Ravenclaw, “Are you serious, Ryu?”

Taeri clapped both of her hands, grinning. “You’re correct! And yes, I’m serious, Jeon. I heard both of you are good at duelling, too, aside from being talented seekers. I suppose it’s a good opportunity for both of you to show the first-years about the basic duelling in a perfect manner. It would be lovely, don’t you think, Jeon?”

Jeongguk lost words, lips parted. “But—” 

Taehyung cut him off. “Who knew we would actually duel right now? I have always thought that we wouldn’t compete against each other any longer, but it seems the world still wanted us to be together—er, I mean, rivals.” Turning his face away, he cleared his throat and blurted, “Right?”

“Er, right.” Jeongguk did not understand why he agreed to what he said so easily. Having a look at Taehyung’s wand, he emphasised, “Wand only.” Of course, he did not wish the Slytherin to give him a sudden attack wandlessly. “Are we clear here?”

“Sure.” Taehyung nodded, his smirk appeared interestedly, then replied, “Don’t worry too much about it, Jeon.”

Jeongguk narrowed his eyes, still not convinced enough of the Slytherin’s words. “Let’s see, then.”

Taehyung shrugged. “Well, alright.” 

Taeri stared at them, a bit confused about their talking, but did not comment anything about it, instead she asked, “Are two of you ready now?” Catching them nod spontaneously to her, she demanded to the first-years with a voice ringing in enthusiasm, “Good. Everyone, gather around!”

They took their positions in the centre after the first-years finally gathered around for the demonstration. Holding their wands in a certain way across their faces, they faced each other at such a close distance without even breaking eye contact at all.

“Scared, Jeon?” Taehyung whispered, the corner of his lips lifting upwards subtly.

Jeongguk retorted in between his teeth, whispering as well, “You wish.” 

Before stepping back into their actual spots, they bowed towards each other. And he started the duelling immediately by aiming his wand at Taehyung and shouted, “Everte Statum!” It successfully made Taehyung fly several feet back and land harshly to the ground with a loud noise. Realising the first-years were indeed shocked, he felt his heart sinking when he saw the Slytherin laying down on the floor because of his casting.

Taehyung got to his feet in a second, pointing his wand at him as shouting, “Levicorpus!” If it hit Jeongguk, his feet would get dangled in the air. Unfortunately, he missed way too far from where the Gryffindor was standing.

Jeongguk’s lips parted a bit, shocked. This was not what he had expected. Kim Taehyung was bloody excellent at duelling more than himself. There was no way the Slytherin missed it when he pointed exactly to him—did he just do it on purpose or was he actually bad at duelling? 

When Jeongguk was about to toss a spell on Taehyung again, Ryu Taeri abruptly took a step between them and stopped the duelling straight away, yelling in low, “I did say basic duelling, didn’t I? Not this! Oh Salazar, why didn’t you both show them disarm charm first?” As she massaged her temples, she sarcastically said, “Congratulations for making them freak out.”

He gazed at the first-years and captured their anxious faces seeing the duelling, then said apologetically, “Ryu, I’m sorry. We will start again. This time, I guarantee you, disarm charm.”

“Start again on the count of three,” Taeri demanded, eventually taking a few steps away from there. After making sure they were ready, she said, “One... two... three—” 

Taehyung unexpectedly started first this time by directing his wand towards the Gryffindor and he immediately shouted, “Expelliarmus!” 

The dazzling flash of scarlet light hit Jeongguk’s wand perfectly, making it slide down the floor, but the casting did not even the slightest contact with the Gryffindor’s body, only his wand.

“What a great duel, Jeon.” Taehyung’s hand stretched towards him, asking for a handshake, intentionally stopping the duelling. 

He did not want to miss the opportunity to shake Kim Taehyung’s hand again and took his hand—for the first time—for a quick handshake. The feeling of their palms bruising, the Slytherin’s subtle rubbing and his intense staring, it made him swallow before saying, “Yes.” And finally, their hands parted. 

“Very well!” Taeri’s smile widened, inviting all of the students to clap their hands. “I suppose it’s enough since two of you have just performed your duelling. Thank you very much for this perfect demonstration of casting a disarm charm.”

Taehyung nodded to Ryu, bent down a bit, and said, “My pleasure.” He excused himself out of the Duelling Club room afterwards.

“Let’s now search for a partner and learn disarm charm first. Understood?” Taeri announced to the first-years, her expression was bright and lovely; such a good and patient teacher. “Let me know if you need my help!”

Jeongguk lowered his voice to Taeri after taking his wand from the floor into his wand holster and said, “I shall go now, Ryu.”

“Thank you very much, Jeon.” Taeri bowed slightly before focusing herself back into the first-years. 

Taehyung was nowhere to be found when he walked out of the Duelling Club room; he had not even asked if the Slytherin was fine or not after landing harshly to the ground—yes, he felt so bad, even though it was a duel. However, the Slytherin’s leaving really left him a question.

Did Kim Taehyung not want to harm him?

As he had eavesdropped three days ago in the Gryffindor common room, his friends were planning to make the potion when there were no potion classes that day because they needed the room. Finally, the day had come. He was way too curious about what exactly they would make. Was it Amortentia like what he had always thought? 

After his Alchemy class was over, he ran to the potion classroom in a rush because he wanted to see the making process of the potion as well.

Peeking the inside of the room through a tiny opened-door, he clearly saw the three of his friends were there. Hoseok was sitting at another table alone with his untouched cookies over the table, Seokjin was using his wand to clean a mortar and pestle from the leftover ingredients that unfortunately he could not identify from this far, and Namjoon was moving a dark blue liquid—which he supposed it was the potion—from a cauldron into empty phials on the table. Seemingly, they almost finished with the potion.

His friends’ expression somewhat tensed when he walked into the classroom after knocking the door twice. Taking an empty seat beside Hoseok, he hesitatingly asked, “So, er, have you all finished with the potion?”

Namjoon gave him a nod. “I suppose so.” There was a hint of hesitation in his voice, too. “We still haven’t tried it yet.”

“Gguk.” Putting the mortar and pestle back to some cupboard, Seokjin cautioned, “Please, don’t touch it. It’s dangerous.”

Jeongguk quickly nodded, understood. “I won’t. Don’t worry.”

“Sorry, mate.” Hoseok rested his palm over Jeongguk’s shoulder and gave him a few squeezes of comfort. “It’s embarrassing to tell you about it, you know? It would surely make you feel uncomfortable and that’s why.” 

Seokjin and Namjoon gazed at each other in guilt, but neither of them gave him any further explanation.

“I won’t ask anything. I understand your situation. I’m just – it’s great to know that all of you finally made the potion you wanted to make.” Taking one of Hoseok’s cookies beside an empty phial into his mouth, he commented while munching, “Must be difficult, right? I mean, making the potion.”

Namjoon’s eyes widened without blinking. “Did you just—” Turning his head down to count the phials, he swallowed as he faced Hoseok, “You haven’t poured it into those cookies, have you?” 

Jeongguk instantly let his bitten cookie fall onto the table after catching Namjoon’s stern tone. “Pardon?”

Hoseok’s face grew pale when he looked down at the cookies and empty phial, then muttering, “I... have.”

“Oh Lord!” Seokjin brushed his hand over his face in shock, flopping down to the nearest empty seat. As he gazed at Jeongguk, his expression changed into full-panic. “Why didn’t you… ask first?”

Jeongguk started to feel burning inside of his body as if he was coming down with something, but he did not know what it was. “Please do tell me what the hell is this? What potion is this actually? Why do I suddenly feel weird—” A spike of arousal rushing through his body, especially his cock. “Fuck.”

Seokjin and Hoseok shut their eyes closed, not having any word to say, let alone Namjoon who looked very frustrated as he made his way closer to Jeongguk, attempting to explain to him, “It’s a...”

“A what?” He wanted to cry in exasperation, sensing a hot feeling in his body and impatiently waiting for Namjoon’s next word. “I’m begging you to say it now, please!”

“Lust potion.”

His Gryffindor best friends were having an embarrassing silence while watching him cover himself under a blanket. As expected, Jeongguk ran away to his own room right after Namjoon said ‘lust potion’ and almost locked the door if Hoseok did not follow after him immediately since Namjoon and Seokjin must clean everything first and not leave any evidence before leaving the potion classroom. And seeing Jeongguk’s hysterical reaction, the lust potion surprisingly was incredibly successful, however, it clearly did not make the situation any better.

“Fuck.” Breathing out, he wished so badly to touch himself, but there was no way he would do that when they were still around because he needed to know the reason for making that potion first. “I didn’t understand what’s the point of making lust potion. Explain to me, won’t you?” he whined frustratedly under his blanket.

“We were curious.” Seokjin eventually blurted out, averting his eyes to the floor. “I—we thought, you know, it would be fun. How it feels to crave for each other throughout the week without stopping and then...” Grimacing, he said in a whisper, “shag afterwards.”

Frankly, it was not that embarrassing to discuss about sex with them since they loved to share about some kinky stuff that he did not really into it—but how could they even think to make lust potion? Unbelievable. 

Jeongguk huffed an exhausted sigh, but still not moving away from his blanket. “Er, I got it. I won’t ask any details about it because I didn’t want to know. Just... please do tell me how to stop it now.”

Namjoon grimaced at Jeongguk’s hopeful tone. “I’m deeply sorry, but it won’t stop until you…” he paused a bit too long, full of hesitation to say it or not. “…have a shag with someone you desire.”

“Pardon?” He blinked his eyes in confusion, sliding his blanket away from himself to face his friends, asking for a confirmation. Seeing them keep their mouths shut, he jolted after finally realising what Namjoon had just said to him. “W-what?” A quick image of Kim Taehyung flashing in his head, it made his cock abruptly throbbing inside his pants—was he just thinking about the Slytherin right now? Fuck Merlin.

“Er, I can’t believe the potion actually works, too.” Namjoon said quickly, shaking his head in incredulity. “Except you do what I said before, I honestly don’t know how to stop this. Even if you pleasure yourself a hundred times, er, the feeling won’t stop.”

“Fuck,” Jeongguk squeezed his eyes shut in exasperation, his voice reaching into his highest note. “Tell me the ingredients of this shite – I’m begging you! I’m bloody tired of expressing my anger right now. Just... please.”

“Olive, nutmeg, rose, sandalwood, clove, and patchouli – oils. Six drops from each of them.” Seokjin immediately answered, remembering the ingredients. “We have vanished the plants because we couldn’t leave any imprint in the potion classroom.”

“There’s still one more,” Hoseok gazed at Namjoon in doubt. “Isn’t it?”

“Firewhisky.” Namjoon swallowed, adjusting his loosen glasses. “Well, you know, to make a burning sensation?”

Jeongguk’s chest clenched in a mess. “W-what?”

“And... I made it everlasting with magic. That’s why it really won’t stop. I’m so sorry, mate.” Namjoon pinched the bridge of his nose, looking incredibly stressed with the chaos he made.

Hoseok managed to calm him down. “Hey,” He moved to the edge of Jeongguk’s bed, voice softened with caution. “Do you, perhaps, fancy someone at the moment?”

The picture of Kim Taehyung abruptly came up again and it caused something hot to wet Jeongguk’s pants—did he just come by thinking of the Slytherin twice?

“Can you give me the answer, Gguk?” Hoseok asked softly, somewhat afraid of what he would do next.

There was still no response from Jeongguk, only giving them an unreadable expression.

Giving a subtle code to Namjoon and Seokjin to come near the bed, he patted Jeongguk’s back in worry. “It’s fine if you don’t want to say it now, mate. I totally understand and respect your privacy. We will try to make a lust potion... antidote? Er, yeah. Please, don’t worry too much.”

Jeongguk snorted incredulously, completely unconvinced with Hoseok’s words. “Is that even possible to make it?”

Namjoon swallowed. “I don’t know if it is possible, though, but I will have a try on it.” Taking a brief look at his Potion book cover, he unsurely nodded to them. “I’m assuming that this lust potion antidote would take a little bit longer to make since I need to discover it first. However, I feel so bad for—” 

Jeongguk right away cut him off, shaking his head. “I’m fine, Joon. It was my fault, anyway. I should have asked you all first before eating that cookie.”

“No, it was my fault.” Hoseok replied, lips curling into a frown. “I forgot that I had poured the potion into it. I’m sorry.”

Seokjin sighed, feeling regret for their act. “If we didn’t think of making lust potion, everything would be fine right now, right?”

“Y-yeah.”

It had been more than five minutes since he ran into his room to touch himself, but failed to fulfil it because they were still here with worried expressions on their faces; afraid and confused about what to do. Wondering how to subtly kick them out of his room because he did not give a fuck anymore about their explanation and apologies, he finally opened his mouth, “As what I said, I’m really fine. Don’t worry about me. But please do discover the antidote for me – I’m begging you. And... just can the three of you leave me alone now? I, I’m tired, you know...”

They seemed to catch what he actually meant by leaving him alone. Although this was not the right time to joke around, erasing the awkward air which filled this room was the best option before leaving him alone.

“Thank you for telling us. I’m now aware you feel tired. We shall go, then. So, you can have your time alone.” Winking, Hoseok laughed a little when capturing Jeongguk’s blushed face.

“Y-you made me like this!” Jeongguk barked out, feeling utterly embarrassed and exposed. Kicking Hoseok off his bed, he pointed his wand to open his door widely. “Fuck off, now.”

“Alright.” Namjoon nodded, gripping his book tightly. “I will work on this you-know-antidote right now at the library. Don’t worry, I will figure it out soon.” Then, walking out of his room without wasting more time.

Before Hoseok stepped out, he stared at Jeongguk with a sad smile on his face and said, “See you later, mate.”

It was now only Seokjin. There was no sign of him wanting to leave his room shortly because he cut their distance and took an empty spot on Jeongguk’s bed. “I will give you something. Please, don’t lock your door. Understood?” Without waiting for Jeongguk’s reply, he headed to his own room and came back just in fast seconds. 

He frowned, seeing a black handbag Seokjin brought in. “Er, what’s that?”

Seokjin’s grin widened in response. “I assumed you must have known these things are.” 

Jeongguk felt more embarrassed than he had ever been when Seokjin showed him a dildo and vibrator out of his handbag before putting them down his bed.

“Yes, muggle sex toys.” Seokjin said casually, nodded. “Long short story, I bought them from cannot-tell-his-name, however, he’s also a muggle-born, both parents are muggles like you. It’s all new because I have never used them at all. Honestly, I wanted to use them during that time, you know, before shagging. But, this happened to you right now. So, yeah.”

Obviously, he knew these things way too well. He had his own at home and did not dare to sneak them in since it would be totally embarrassing if they somehow found out about them. Seeing Seokjin show these things without any burden at all, he could not even describe how red his face was right now; perfectly burnt. Even though, not going to lie, he extremely needed those things at this moment.

“No need to be embarrassed and please do accept them.” Seokjin chuckled a bit, shifting them closer to Jeongguk. “And, er, we cancelled our weird plan to use lust potion. Because we didn’t think more about the effects of it. Though, I personally wanted to have a try – but it’s totally fine! Namjoon will probably vanish the potion instead.”

“Really?” He felt so bad for them because he unintentionally had messed up their plan to have some fun. 

Seokjin hummed his affirmation. “It’s fine. Don’t think about it.”

“Er, thank you for this. But can you please leave me alone now?” If he could bury himself alive to cover himself from Seokjin right now, he would be so much thankful. “I, I—you know...” 

Seokjin choked a tiny laugh after catching what he wanted to say, then walking out of his room. “Alright. Have a good time, mate.”

He immediately pointed his wand and threw a locking spell towards his door. “Colloportus!” And when his door finally locked, he slid off his blanket down the floor. Taking his black robes off, unbuttoning his white shirt, pulling his trousers off, and loosening his red tie, he searched for his damn white pillow which was pathetically laying on the cold floor. 

It indeed had been two weeks since the last time he wanked, however, he was bloody desperate this time. His cock was painfully rock hard underneath his wet pants, wishing to be touched shortly. And to make sure no one could hear him wanking inside, he whispered a silencing charm towards the door. It would be so embarrassing if someone caught him wanking shamelessly, wouldn’t it?

Since his embarrassment seemed to have washed away once he got onto his hands and knees, he hurriedly took his pants off him and positioned the white pillow between his thighs to stimulate his hard cock. The arousal – or perhaps, that damn lust potion, had been successfully taken over him and he could not wait any longer to wank.

Thinking Kim bloody Taehyung while wanking was utterly hot, heating his stomach uncomfortably. This was not his first time thinking of him, though, because he oftentimes thought of him while wanking; especially after the intense Quidditch matches against him. 

There were a lot of questions flying around his mind. What if the Slytherin’s grey eyes found himself on all fours naked? How did it feel when those slender fingers touched every inch of his body? Did Taehyung’s voice become way more deeper when he shagged him against the wall? Bloody Salazar, he extremely wanted to get shagged by Kim Taehyung right now.

“Oh. Hmph.” He bit his bottom lip as he rode the pillow without taking a single break. Imagining this poor white pillow as Taehyung’s thick cock he saw when they had a bath together in Prefects’ bathroom, he moved his hips harder unconsciously; except when he was feeling this desperate, he did not usually do pillow-humping.

A few drops of sweat trailed down his temples when he felt himself getting really close to come. His thighs were shaking out of tiredness while his grasps on the bed sheet tightened. The feeling of his cock continuously rubbing against the pillow was so fucking good which hardly could be explained, making incoherent words escaping out of his lips shamelessly.

“Ah. Kim Tae – ahngh,” A jolts of pleasure rushing through his whole body along with long strands of white liquid shooting out of his slit onto his stomach. Finally, he reached the damn climax. And then, he collapsed to the bed looking all filthy since he did not bother to cast a cleaning charm first.

However, he was still bloody hard.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was one of his favourite subjects in Hogwarts – not anymore when he was in this aroused state that made his attention unable to keep on the teachings, but his poor cock.

After spending all night long to wank, he was still hard until now. His desire of wanting Kim Taehyung’s touch was also increasing every second. He basically would die if it was not fulfilled. Even though he definitely would never dare to ask for his help; he was not crazy enough to get on his knees and beg him for a shag. 

And unfortunately, he shared D.A.D.A. class with Kim Taehyung and some other class, too, but he did not really remember what the subjects were. Every single time the Slytherin stole a glance at him, his cock flinched in response and something sticky came out soaking his pants.

“Joon.” He whispered, elbowed Namjoon’s arm subtly. 

It effectively made Namjoon turn to him and raise his brow, whispering, too, “Yes?”

“You know... er, I have to go now. Enjoy the class without me.” Before Namjoon could say a word to him, he had already excused himself from D.A.D.A. classroom first.

Being so close with Kim Taehyung was truly not helping him at all. Aside from his arousal increasing crazily, his deep feelings for him also intensified with no control and it made him wonder if the ingredients of the potion were mixed with the love ones, not only for lust – or perhaps, the effect of this lust potion made him think too much.

Shaking his head to stop thinking about it, he briskly headed to the nearest bathroom to fulfil his needs using Seokjin’s dildo he had slipped in his robes pocket since morning – hopefully, no one would find out about it or he would die on the spot.

And it unfortunately continued for a week now. 

Jeongguk had skipped almost all of his classes to deal with his thing, although he well understood it would not stop until he shagged someone he desired, but he could not help it. Running towards the all boys’ bathroom or the Prefects’ bathroom and then wanking, were his routine this week while waiting for his friends to discover about lust potion antidote.

Also, he managed to avoid Taehyung throughout the week because he did not wish to get more aroused than this state. If he needed to be honest, he was bloody impatient to finally get rid of this feeling and return back to his normal activities – or maybe, trying to take a picture of Kim Taehyung using his phone secretly again for the third time, though it was not really secretly.

Back then when he sneaked his phone in for the first time because his mother told him to in the sixth year, he honestly loved to take a picture; capturing every moment in here to be remembered. Although he could review his memories through pensieve, but what if he chose to live his life in the Muggle world?

Actually, he took a lot of pictures of himself and his friends when they were outside of Hogwarts; Diagon Alley, Quidditch Arena, and Hogsmeade – of course, while no one except them was looking. Almost every single time he had his phone with him when he went out, he stumbled into Kim Taehyung and the urge to take a picture of the Slytherin was hitting him like crazy. 

First ever photo he had taken of him was, when the Quidditch tournament between Slytherin and Hufflepuff last year. Kim Taehyung was smiling proudly after successfully catching the Snitch and he did not understand why he immediately slipped out his phone to capture the moment. He was torn between keeping the picture or deleting it for weeks; at the end, the photo was still in his phone.

The second time was a mortifying memory, really. Sixth-years had a trip to Hogsmeade together and he took his phone with him to capture everything there; mainly, Honeydukes. It was such a lovely sweet shop. His friends were at the other side, looking for some sweets they liked, while he spotted Taehyung’s back near the entrance door. 

Kim Taehyung was wearing a black suit and it was terribly hot which he could hardly look away. It seemed the Slytherin had just arrived from somewhere because he did not find him earlier. And there was no way he would miss this moment, much less when they were alone now; their friends were busy finding their favourite sweets. It was perfect timing, wasn’t it?

However, he knew he had fucked up so bad when the flash of his phone flickering to Taehyung’s direction perfectly, making him immediately turn around to him before he could transfigure his phone into something. His face mixed with red and anxious after being caught on the spot by the Slytherin. “For your private collection, Jeon?” Taehyung’s attractive smirk was dangerous, chuckling victoriously, successfully making him run away in embarrassment leaving his friends in Honeydukes—okay, enough. Let’s stop thinking about the blond Slytherin for a second.

“Are you alright, mate?” asked Hoseok, the hint of worry clearly arising on his look. “Namjoon said he will make the antidote after discussing some ingredients with the professor.” 

Jeongguk’s lips parted. “W-what?”

Hoseok quickly shook his head and clarified, “He didn’t say any name. We’re good. Don’t worry, Gguk.”

It was indeed suspicious to hide in his room and lock his door during the day. What if other Gryffindors knew about his situation? Another choice was the library. Fortunately, there were not a lot of students here so he could take the quiet spot behind the bookshelves; not to do anything, but just away from everyone. And Seokjin frequently accompanied him here along with attempting to make some jokes, though it did not always work to cheer him up. He was alone right now since Seokjin was busy with his classes. Feeling somewhat lonely, but not until a way too familiar voice filling in his ears.

“Jeon?”

Jeongguk froze at his place, his chest beating slightly faster. 

“Fancy meeting you here.” Kim Taehyung, his ex-Quidditch rival—they finally resigned days ago—was standing two metres in front of him. It was funny how the way he talked was still the same as what he always did; a familiar mischievous tone, but lovely to hear at the same time. “Never knew you love to be in the library.”

“Er—no.” He took a few steps back when sensing his body warming due to the close distance.

Taehyung was a bit taken aback of his sudden act.

Inhaling and exhaling a shaky breath, he murmured, “I, er, I need a book for—” Pausing, he hurriedly thought of some subjects then took out a random book from the nearest bookshelf. “D.A.D.A. tasks.”

Taehyung’s forehead wrinkled. “Shall I remind you that we shared D.A.D.A. class together? Although you have skipped the class, there’s still no task until now. The professor wanted us to focus on studying N.E.W.T.s instead.” His eyes darted down the book the Gryffindor was holding on. “Easy Spells to Fool Muggles? I suppose you took the wrong book.”

Jeongguk’s cheeks tinted pink after having a look at the book title. “Oh. Right. Thanks.” 

“Hm.”

Placing Easy Spells to Fool Muggles back into the bookshelf, he took another book which he supposed it related to D.A.D.A. subject, and mumbled quietly, “Er, see you around, Kim.” 

“Jeon.” The Slytherin’s voice halted his feet. “Wait.” This time, his tone sounded rather hoarse.

“Yes?” He managed to not turn around and face Kim Taehyung, even if his black robes quite covered his hard-on.

“Are you avoiding me?” asked Taehyung doubtfully, a bit emphasising at the end.

Jeongguk swallowed the spit down his throat, instead replying, “Pardon?”

Taehyung wished to walk a step closer, but somehow refrained himself from doing it. “You’re avoiding me, aren’t you?” 

“A-am not!” His answer was mixing with an unfathomable anger and hesitation. “What shite are you talking about?” Then he ran away from the library, leaving Kim Taehyung who froze in confusion at his place.

Days after that day was not even better. He accidentally met Kim Taehyung many times as if the Slytherin had a map to show his whereabouts. Sometimes, it was quite difficult to avoid him when they were in some certain places where all of the students must gather together; like, Study hall and Great hall. He could not escape, run away, or whatever.

Holding an eye contact with Kim Taehyung was not a good option, it would immediately hit straight into his cock—why this lust potion was made to torture him? He did not understand. The feeling was no longer pleasant, but rather excruciating. 

He could not always excuse himself to the bathroom during class to wank – or, someone would probably notice his weird behaviour. Surely, he did not want it to happen. Hiding Seokjin’s dildo and vibrator inside his robes was not helping, too, since those were not making the feeling stop. Honestly, he was bloody exhausted from using them over and over again.

Talking about the lust potion antidote, they still had not made any significant progress because Namjoon said it was not as easy as when they made the lust one. Some ingredients were difficult to search – perhaps, they would try some muggle medicine. And every day throughout the week, the three of his friends would come to his room and tell everything; the lust potion antidote progress and what they were doing during the day.

“To be honest, I’m not quite sure if the antidote could actually cure you.” Namjoon admitted, letting out a sigh. “Er, you still didn’t want to tell us, Gguk?”

Jeongguk did not say a word on the bed, slightly grasping his blanket. 

Namjoon stares. “What you need to know is, I won’t push you to tell who’s someone you desire or whatever you called it. But if you really want this to be over quickly, you must have a shag with them. That’s the faster way.”

Seokjin settled beside Jeongguk. “Does someone you fancy not have the same feelings as you, Gguk?” Ruffling Jeongguk’s messy hair, he said with full caution, “We won’t judge you or do anything. Promise!”

He nodded, still not wanting to say anything about it yet, his hold on the blanket tightened.

“Do we, perhaps, know them?” Hoseok tried to ask this time.

They were somewhat taken aback when Jeongguk nodded again. 

“I’m assuming,” Hoseok cleared his throat, looking at Jeongguk. “You didn’t get along with them?”

“I did not.” He leant against the headboard for a moment before eventually confessing, “Actually... we don’t like each other very much.”

Seokjin’s lips parted in realization, then blurting out, “Kim Taehyung?”  

Jeongguk’s tense expression surprised them. 

“So... it’s really Kim Taehyung, then.”

No denying or admitting, he covered his face using a blanket in rush instead. Hearing them bark into laughter because of his shy act, he whined, “O-oh, shut it!”

Hoseok nodded in understanding, returning back to seriousness. “So, that’s why you avoid D.A.D.A. class rather than other subjects. Did you feel more, you know, when Taehyung’s around you?”

Jeongguk hesitantly nodded, pouting. “Yeah.”

“I don’t know the potion is that torturing. I’m deeply sorry, mate.” Ignoring Jeongguk who was shaking his head, Namjoon kept going, “I think the antidote can be finished soon.”

“You want to try it, though, don’t you?” Seokjin showed a teasing look to Jeongguk. “Fucking Kim Taehyung.”

Namjoon coughed, eyes widened. “Language.”

Jeongguk’s cock abruptly fluttered in his pants. “W-why would I want—” Cock. “His cock—” Big. “Big—what? N-no! I don’t want his cock—I, I mean... argh, please don’t get me wrong.”

Namjoon and Hoseok gazed away awkwardly, much opposite with Seokjin who was enjoying him struggling a little bit too much as saying, “Guess, you have seen his cock, then. Is he really hung?”

“He is.” Jeongguk automatically replied. “Er—what?” Realising Seokjin’s question, his shyness somehow disappeared. “Why the hell did you want to know about it?”

“Whoa, take it easy,” Seokjin chuckled, genuinely surprised. “I won’t steal him nor his cock. They are more than enough for me if you’re wondering, though.” Looking at Hoseok and Namjoon who were standing uncomfortably beside them, he added casually, “No worries, mate.”

Changing the topic, Jeongguk cleared his throat before saying, “Er, can you all leave now?” After talking about Kim Taehyung and his cock, there was no way he could wait any longer to wank.

Namjoon and Hoseok nodded at once, making their way out of his room right away. “Alright. See you later, mate.”

Eventually rising up from his bed, Seokjin blatantly teased with eyebrows waggling, “Wishing the best for you to get fucked by Kim Taehyung in your imagination, though.”

“F-FUCK YOU!”

Kim Taehyung was literally everywhere; it was really frustrating. He looked like he wanted to have a conversation with him every time they unintentionally passed by in the corridors and failed because the Gryffindor ran away once he called out his name, “Jeon.”

If they were being so close to each other, he would definitely get more aroused. He had no choice other than walking away without turning back to face Taehyung’s confused face. The Slytherin would probably be disgusted once he knew about his situation and would avoid him, wouldn’t he? Surely, he did not want it to happen.

Of course, he sort of missed their bickering, it had been two weeks now since he accidentally ate the ‘Lust Cookie’ and suffered from this aroused state. Nevertheless, there was good news regarding the antidote; it was almost finished as what his friends had said to him last night, though they did not say exactly when.

Today’s class, Arithmancy, finally came to an end. If he needed to recall, he did not even know what the professor had been teaching them for today; his parchment was wonderfully blank over the table while his quill was nowhere to be found. Without stopping, his attention kept going around, and that was why he could not focus to take a single note. And luckily, there was no Kim Taehyung here, but why did he feel a bit disappointed by the fact that they did not share Arithmancy class together?

“Gguk.” Hoseok whispered as they walked out of the class. “I’ll stay with Namjoon until we finish the you-know-antidote. Hopefully, it will be finished today.”

Jeongguk nodded in affirmation, replying instead, “I’m going to my room.”

Seokjin came up between them, holding some books, gazing at Jeongguk. “I’m sorry, mate. I can’t accompany you this afternoon. I have to finish my Ancient project with my Ravenclaw partner.”

“It’s fine. I won’t go anywhere, though. I’ll be in my room.” Jeongguk waved his hand dismissively. 

“Once I finished with my project, I’ll go straight to your room, alright?” Seokjin assured, patting Jeongguk’s back thrice. Turning to Hoseok after getting a weak nod from Jeongguk, he said, “Make sure you and Namjoon can finish the potion before dinner time.”

Hoseok agreed. “Yeah. I think we can. If we can’t, then I’ll tell both of you right away.”

Seokjin nodded, walking away after saying, “See you later, then.”

Although he climbed the staircase up to the seventh floor where the Gryffindor tower was, he actually did not feel like going to his room and took a step to the quiet side of the floor with no one currently there instead. This corridor was extremely quiet – really, the best place ever to do something he wanted to do since the Arithmancy class started; wanking. 

It had now become his habit to wank more than ten times a day; that was indeed mental. He had never been wanking that often in his life before – maybe, ten times a month since he had been busy with Quidditch practices and school stuff for the past few months.

His back leaned against the corridor wall full of cautions, eyes stared around to assure no one here, and ears stayed focused to detect a sudden noise towards him. Honestly, he was not the type of person who loved this semi-public thing, however, today was an exception because he had been taken over by his own desire – or perhaps, lust potion? But when he was about to take Seokjin’s dildo out from his robes pocket, a deep familiar voice rushed through his ears.

“Jeon?” Kim bloody Taehyung was here. “What are you doing there?”

His eyes widened in surprise seeing Taehyung take a few steps forward to him. “Er—Kim,” Gesturing him to stop getting closer, he somewhat managed to push his back against the corridor wall deeper. “D-don’t!”

Taehyung was puzzled, eyebrows frowned. “Don’t, what?” He stopped about a few feet away from Jeongguk. “I don’t understand.”

Jeongguk felt himself being knocked by his arousal even stronger this time. “Don’t come near me, I’m begging you.” Of course, his body wanted to be close to him so badly and it made him go crazy – he was torn between running away or getting into Taehyung’s embrace; those were too difficult to choose.

“Why?” Taehyung’s voice somehow sounded concerned. “Did something happen to you?”

Gulping, he shook his head way too fast. “No.”

“Jeongguk.” His cock abruptly twitched inside of his pants when Taehyung said his first name. “You have been avoiding me for two weeks. Don’t talk shite on me.” Taehyung unexpectedly walked to him until his shoes touched Jeongguk’s.

Grimacing, he squeezed his eyes closed. “Er...” He could feel Taehyung’s warm breath mixed his perfume mingling with his own. If Taehyung did not go away, he would surely do something that he might regret later. And as he remembered correctly, Hoseok said the lust potion antidote would be finished before dinner time – he could wait a bit longer, couldn’t he?

“Jeon.” Taehyung dropped his palm over Jeongguk’s shoulder for a quick second. “Tell me what exactly happened. Are you, perhaps, sick or something?” 

At this moment, he sensed his body totally malfunctioning; his hands out of the blue putting around the Slytherin’s neck to pull him close while his eyes still shut.

Taehyung blinked his eyes in shock when their faces were just an inch apart, still not pulling himself away. “Er, Jeon?”

He could not bear the urge to get shagged by the Slytherin any longer and gave in. “Please don’t be disgusted with me…”

“I won’t.” Taehyung was confused, but nodding. “Tell me.”

“I… I am,” Jeongguk flung his darken-eyes open, tightening his holds on Taehyung’s neck as blurting out, “Aroused.”

Taehyung choked on his own saliva, heat flushed from his neck up to his cheek. “What?” His eyes unconsciously darted down and spotted a vague bulge beneath Jeongguk’s black robes, making his head dizzy.

Tears slowly running down his cheeks, he frustratedly explained, “I, I ate Hoseok’s cookie. Didn’t know it had been poured with the potion they made.”

“What potion—” 

Jeongguk cut him off immediately, exasperated. “Lust potion.”

“Lust potion?” Taehyung was genuinely dazed, his thumb swiping Jeongguk’s tears off his cheeks. “Is that a thing?”

Licking his dry lips, he stared at Taehyung in wanting to drop a kiss. “I didn’t even understand how they could think of it and make one.”

“I got it now.” Taehyung’s hands suddenly rested on Jeongguk’s waist. “So, the effect of that potion is you feel aroused, I’m assuming?” 

Jeongguk hummed in affirmation. “Yes.”

“Have they told you how to fix this situation, Jeon?” Staring at Jeongguk’s messed up face, he thought he would go crazy, too. “You can be cured, can’t you?”

“They’re now currently making the lust potion antidote for me, but they have told me how to fix this immediately. That I must…” Jeongguk purposefully trailed off, not ready to say it to his face. “have a shag with someone I desire.”

“What are you waiting for, then?” Taehyung replied, feeling somewhat uneasy knowing the Gryffindor had someone he desired. “Er, who is it? If you don’t mind, tell me.”

“It is…” This was a nightmare. He would definitely regret this later. Jeongguk dragged his eyes to Taehyung’s grey ones and stopped right there before confessing, “You.” Seeing Taehyung’s eyes grow bigger out of shock, he took his hands off Taehyung’s neck and panicky denied, “No! I, I don’t force you to, er, help me. Please, don’t get me wrong, Kim.”

“Jeon—”

“Stop there.” Jeongguk slipped his wand out of the wand holster and aimed it at Taehyung. “I know you’re disgusted with me. Don’t say anything. I don’t want to hear it. Please, forget what I said.” Suddenly, his wand slid out of his grasp and dropped down the floor after the Slytherin murmured a disarming charm wandlessly. “What—” 

“So, that’s why you’re avoiding me for two weeks, huh?” Taehyung abruptly disturbed him, his tone sounded tempting. Not only making Jeongguk’s cheeks burn, but it brought a hot fluid spurting out of his swelling cock. “You need my help, don’t you?” Taehyung’s smirk painted on his face, his fingertips made their way along the Gryffindor’s tensed jaw. “All you need to do is simple actually. Just... ask me nicely.”

Jeongguk let out a shaky breath hearing Taehyung’s low-pitched voice which was totally driving him insane. He could not resist the Slytherin’s presence anymore nor hold the urge to get shagged by him. It was difficult to run away this time after he had confessed everything, even more when someone that he wanted so badly for the past two weeks was just inches apart across him. He wanted Kim Taehyung so badly. “Kim.” 

Taehyung’s Adam’s apple bobbed in response, eyes never left the Gryffindor’s green ones.

“Fuck me, please.”

Taehyung’s eyes immediately darkened with lust. He rashly covered Jeongguk’s lips with his own, taking him into a very hot snogging. It was crazy how the Gryffindor erratically rubbed his hard-on against him and followed with his quiet whimpers; filthy, but bloody hot. He was so overwhelmed with the sudden pleasure because his cock was now fully awake and wanting to be touched real quick. “Room of Requirement.” Taehyung parted their swollen lips, whispering. “Now.”  

The Room of Requirement would show up when they were in need; they really were now. Once they got in, Taehyung pushed him against the wall with no hesitation, bringing back the snogging. This was like his wet dreams with Kim Taehyung finally came true. He was painfully hard, however, the feeling was a bit pleasant after he had admitted his condition and surprisingly, Taehyung wanted to help him. Truly just like what he had been imagining for the past two weeks, Taehyung’s tongue exploring his mouth, teeth biting his lips to have more access inside, nose fondling with his own, and hot breath soothing his skin. Still, it was quite bizarre to witness Kim Taehyung’s gentle act. He always thought the Slytherin was the typical who loved to play rough – maybe, he held it for later?

“You’re bloody hard.” Taehyung mumbled, mouth trailing Jeongguk’s jaw down to his neck while hand making his way to his flies. “Need my fingers for your poor cock, Jeon?” He gave him a light stroke between the fabrics, satisfied seeing the Gryffindor’s lips blurt a tiny whimper out. “Tell me who you are thinking of every time you wank. I would love to hear it.”

Jeongguk squeezed his eyes shut in embarrassment. “Wasn’t it obvious? You.” There was no chance for non-Kim Taehyung to have a place in his thoughts, much less his wet dreams. Unconsciously, he had set the place for his rival for years and it could not be bothered by anyone else.

Taehyung amused, smirking. “Really? What did I do there, then?” He unbuttoned Jeongguk’s trousers and slid them down his ankles. “Tell me, Jeon.” Getting back to stroke slowly the Gryffindor’s covered cock; it was utterly hard, wet, bulging against the pants. He did not break eye contact even a bit. “Did I fuck you against the wall?”

“Ngh,” Jeongguk whined out loud, sensing his cock spring free after Taehyung slid his pants down. His thighs tensing, hips rocking forward, hands gripping the Slytherin’s blond hair. It felt so damn good, especially when Taehyung cupped his balls while stroking his cock. “Y-you did.”

“So, you really thought of me while wanking, Jeon.” Taehyung whispered into his ears, licking the earlobe gently. “Well, I’m honoured.” His hold on the Gryffindor’s cock sped up while his thumb circled on the head, he confessed, “Because I did think of you, too.”

Jeongguk’s stomach stirred hearing his confession. “You, ah, did?” 

Taehyung hummed, eyes locked with his. “Yeah.”

“Why, why did you think of me, too? I thought you—that’s good—er, hate me?” It was rather hard to keep focus on the conversation when he was about to come because of how bloody brilliant the Slytherin’s stroking was.

Taehyung snorted. “Have you ever thought that the word ‘hate’ is too strong to describe our thing, Jeon?” 

He innocently shook his head. “Never.”

“Oh really?” Seeing Jeongguk was nearly to come, he abruptly stopped his stroking, successfully making the Gryffindor whined in frustration. “No need to be sad, Jeon. Face the wall, will you?”

Jeongguk did as he was told; facing the cold wall with hands behind to shove his robes up and expose his arse to the Slytherin – that was embarrassing indeed, but did he even care about it? Everything felt so damn right now. Taehyung’s touch was what he always wanted, particularly for the past two weeks.

“Are you ready?” Taehyung asked, unbuttoning his own trousers.

“Yes.” Something sticky and wet were suddenly filling up his arse as when the Slytherin whispered a charm, slowly dripping down his spread thighs. He sensed himself more loose, stretched open, and ready to be filled up right away; this was bloody hot. Who knew Taehyung’s wandless magic was really beneficial at this moment? “Er, how did you discover you can do wandless magic?”

“I just knew I could. Nothing is special about it.” Taehyung’s breath was near to his nape, meanwhile his hands rested on Jeongguk’s arse. “It’s useful, isn’t it? Rather than pointing my wand to yours.” There was a breathy chuckle radiating in the Room of Requirement. “Didn’t you want to get rid of it quickly, did you?”

“Er—yeah. Quick is good.” Jeongguk did not know what to say to him; he wanted this aroused feeling to be over shortly, however, he sort of did not want this to end that quick, too. “Thanks, er, for helping me.” After those words slipped out of his mouth, he immediately regretted it. Why the hell did he suddenly say that?

Taehyung’s movement paused for a split second as if he was processing what the Gryffindor had just said to him. “No problem.” Sliding down his own trousers and pants down his thighs in one move, he asked once again, “Are you ready, Jeon?”

“Yeah.” Taehyung’s thick cock pushed inside him, bringing his eyes shut closed to feel the pleasure – it was good, way too good, even he could not explain how exactly good the feeling was; totally, it could not even be compared to Seokjin’s dildo and vibrator at all. “O-oh.” It seemed  the Slytherin took time to adjust himself inside before thrusting in-out slowly.

“Merlin, didn’t know you taste this good. I should have fucked you sooner.” Taehyung groaned, chin resting over the Gryffindor’s shoulder.

Jeongguk shivered hearing his words, his hips rocking backwards following Taehyung’s thrusts. With an unstable voice mixing with moans, he said, “I have always thought you would probably, ah, run away if I asked you to... shag me.”

“Run away?” Taehyung laughed a bit in amusement, thrusting deep inside. “Really, Jeon?”

Jeongguk’s breath was caught in his chest when his prostate was being touched. He managed to hum in response instead, although it was quite shaky.

“Why didn’t you consider that I would be aroused, too, if you asked me to shag you?” Taehyung wondered, nose caressed Jeongguk’s nape inhaling his black musk cologne; intoxicating, just like what he oftentimes breathed in when the Gryffindor walked past him.

Jeongguk lost word when the pleasure fully rushed through his body, then blinking in realisation. “I didn’t want to beg you.” It was a very honest answer—the Slytherin even could not hold his laughter—and added, “Er, you know, ah, I don’t want to put my pride aside and don’t want you to smile victoriously seeing me desperate to get fucked.”

Taehyung genuinely grinned while the Gryffindor could not see him, though he replied back with a teasing tone of his, “Well, you have just done it earlier, Jeon. Begging me to fuck you. Shall we see my pensieve since you couldn’t recall it?”

“Oh, shut it.” Jeongguk’s cheeks burnt; thankfully, Taehyung could not see his face right now and yes, he did remember it way too clearly. “Just wait and I will hex you after this, Kim.”

“I would love to see you try, Jeon.” Taehyung replied, hands landed on the Gryffindor’s hips to push in-out more smoothly. “But first, let us enjoy this moment, shall we?” His trusts were fast, steady, and more eager this time; a good combination of what he had always wanted to do it with Jeongguk. There was no answer; the Gryffindor seemed to have drowned in pleasure since he could catch how needy his whimpers were rather than before.

“P-please, don’t stop...” Jeongguk’s eyes rolled back and nearly shut closed, hands grasped his robes behind tightly, legs trembled while trying to spread himself more open. “Agh.” And moaning shamelessly when Taehyung’s fingers held around his cock and stroked him in fast following the thrusts’ rhythm. 

“Are you close, Jeon?” Seeing Jeongguk give a weak nod, he said as sped up his thrusting, his sweats dropping down the temples, “Me, too.”

The Room of Requirement wonderfully smelled like sex mixing with their colognes and sweats. And when Jeongguk eventually reached for a release, he shuddered uncontrollably along with a high-pitched moan slipping out of his opened-lips, “Argngh—” Almost stumbling on his feet if Taehyung did not hold him steady. His vision seemed to blur for a couple of seconds, forehead touched against the wall, then white shirt adorned with strands of come. 

Taehyung groaned, moaning out loudly when he finally reached his climax. He shot his release inside, letting it make its way out of the rim down to Jeongguk’s bare thighs. “Was it good, Jeon?” His tone was wobbly, however, he attempted to speak normally. Slowly, he turned Jeongguk around to face him; the Gryffindor’s face was utterly red, but beautiful as always. “How do you feel right now?” His eyes locked with Jeongguk’s green ones, waiting for his answer in concern.

“Y-yeah.” Jeongguk nodded, averting his eyes from Taehyung’s grey ones. Even though he was still not completely recovering from the mind-blowing orgasm, but the aroused feeling was now really gone. “Er—I’m good. T-thank you.” He was fine now, no more feeling aroused like the past two bloody weeks—but why did he feel sort of uneasy because of it?

Taehyung exhaled a relieved breath, the corners of his lips rising slightly, as saying, “Thank Merlin.” He took Jeongguk into his embrace, surprising the hell out of him. “You should have told me sooner, Jeon. So, you wouldn’t have to suffer for weeks.” 

Jeongguk felt himself pounding faster—did the Slytherin really care about him? However, he did not even try to get himself away from Taehyung’s embrace; he loved the warm feeling of his way too much.

“I prefer getting hexed by you rather than being avoided for weeks.” Taehyung joked, although he did actually prefer that than being avoided by the Gryffindor; it was a torture.

“O-oh.” He did not know what to say except ‘oh’.

Taehyung grinned. “Yeah.” Then, he murmured a cleaning charm to themselves, making them perfectly clean as if they had just not shagged a minute ago. Buttoning his trousers, he said, “Quick, let’s go out now.”

“Yeah.” Jeongguk nodded, still feeling shy. But when he bent down to pull up his trousers, something slid out of his robes pocket and landed on the floor; Seokjin’s pink dildo. He froze. “Er—” 

“What’s that?” Taehyung’s eyebrows twitched in confusion. He seemed to have seen that thing somewhere, but he did not know where. “Why it looks familiar—” 

“N-nothing!” Jeongguk pulled up his trousers quickly, took Seokjin’s dildo back into his pocket, then ran away—again—from the Room of Requirement leaving Kim Taehyung who was still confused on his spot. 

Merlin, that was terribly embarrassing.

“Where the hell were you?” Seokjin asked in a worry as he entered Jeongguk’s room in the late afternoon. “You said you went straight to your room, but I couldn’t find you anywhere!” Then, he settled on the bed beside Jeongguk.

He cleared his throat. “Er—I, er, bathroom. Prefects’ bathroom.” Getting up from the bed towards the table, he had a look at some books to avoid Seokjin’s suspicious eyes. “Having a bath. I’m sorry if I took a long time. I’m so exhausted and need a hot bath.”

Seokjin huffed a relief, looking more calm now. “You don’t understand how panicked I am when I can’t find you anywhere. I thought you lost. This place is tremendous after all.”

“Y-yeah. It is.”

His door abruptly opened, Namjoon and Hoseok walking inside in excitement. “Gguk!” Hoseok called his name, taking an empty spot beside Seokjin. Namjoon locked the door and stood near the bed. “Look at this!” It was a potion bottle, making Jeongguk’s chest sink in panic. “We have finally made it!”

Jeongguk’s eyes blinked many times; at the end, he really could not wait for his friends to finish the antidote because he was bloody desperate to actually get shagged by Kim Taehyung—and what now? What was he supposed to do now? Embarrassing himself in front of his friends, probably.

Namjoon looked so proud of himself when he said, “It was indeed a long ride, mate. I couldn’t explain it. What you need to know is, it mixed a bit with muggle medicine, but you don’t have to worry. This is not dangerous at all!”

“You two really made it before dinner time.” Seokjin looked relieved and could not hold back a smile. “You know what, I’m so proud of you two!”

“Thank you.” Namjoon said, smiling, too. “I thought it couldn’t be finished tonight. I almost lost hope, but Hoseok said we shouldn’t give up that fast and... finally, it finished!”

“Yeah. You should have listened to me more, Joon. For our Jeongguk.” Hoseok’s grin plastered widely on his face before giving Jeongguk the lust potion antidote. “What are you waiting for, mate? Drink it, now!”

“Er—” Jeongguk did not know how to explain that he did not feel aroused anymore because Kim Taehyung had just shagged him in the Room of Requirement; this was really mortifying that he felt he could not face them at all. “I, I’m sorry.” Instead, he said that with eyes nearly closed.

Seokjin frowned confusedly and echoed, “Why, Gguk?”

“You didn’t want to drink it?” Hoseok was puzzled, turning his head to Namjoon as asking for his approval, “I assure you this is safe, isn’t it, Joon?”

Namjoon nodded briefly, then explained, “Muggle medicine is quite effective and that was why I put it in that. But of course, this is safe!”

“No... it’s not like I don’t trust you.” Jeongguk looked to the other side, resisting to face his friends’ unidentified expression. “It’s just...” It would be totally embarrassing to say it out loud, but seeing them patiently waiting for him to say something next, he surrendered and admitted, “It’s now... over.” 

Hoseok put the antidote down his lap, staring at him, still confused. “What do you mean?”

Seokjin gasped, realising what he meant, and saying, “Don’t tell me... you,” Finding Jeongguk squeezed his eyes closed tightly, he blurted out, “Have just shagged Kim Taehyung?”

Jeongguk coughed, but didn’t admit nor deny it. His face was tinged pink, eyes still perfectly closed, lips pursed into a thin line.

Namjoon’s lips parted in shock, eyes blinking. “Er... really?”

“So, it’s really over, then?” Hoseok seemed normal, rather relieved of the fact that he was now fine. After Jeongguk nodded, he breathed out, “Thank Lord.”

“Yeah.” Jeongguk sat on the edge of his desk, hesitantly opening his eyes to look at them. “I’m now, er, fine.”

Seokjin barked a small laugh. “Wow. I’m impressed. So, tell me how it was?”

“Shut it.” Jeongguk retorted, ignoring how red his face was, and folding his arms across his chest defensively. “Don’t you dare to ask anything.”

“Well... we have been suffering for two bloody weeks to make this antidote and that’s how you pay us?” Seokjin’s eyebrow lifted up, his playful tone could be heard on his word. “That’s very kind of you, mate.”

Jeongguk’s stomach twitched with guilt. “F-fine. I’m sorry, ok. It’s brilliant, are you satisfied now?”

Hoseok was amused at Jeongguk’s confession. “Ah, you really make me want to try the potion.” Glancing at Namjoon, he said in disappointment, “But he did vanish that two weeks ago.”

“Well, let’s not think of making it again, will you?” Namjoon huffed a sigh. “If you want it... we can do that whenever anyway.”

Hoseok choked after capturing what Namjoon meant. “I... you’re right. We can always do that.” And turning his head to Seokjin as if he wanted to know his ‘opinion’ as well.

“Tonight?” Seokjin said seductively, eyes directed to Namjoon and Hoseok, then winking. “Right now?”

Jeongguk shook his head, annoyed of their sudden sex talking; mainly, how shameless Seokjin was. “Can you all just keep it to yourself? I’m still here, by the way.”

Hoseok cleared his throat, gazing away, and blurting out in low, “Sorry.”

Namjoon looked embarrassed and nodded as he replied, “Let’s talk about it later.”

“Just admit you’re jealous of us and want to get fucked again by him!” Seokjin retorted teasingly, locking his eyes with Jeongguk; he really loved to embarrass him. “One fuck is not enough for you, mate? Lucky me, three times a week!”

Jeongguk shot a glare with ears fully pink; yes, he was actually quite jealous—like, there was no way he would do that with Kim Taehyung again, wasn’t it? He must be thankful that the Slytherin wanted to help him earlier. “You all get out of my room now!”

“If you insist, then.” Hoseok chuckled lightly, giving a tap on Jeongguk’s shoulder then moving to hair. “We’ll go now.”

“Don’t be late for dinner, Gguk.” Namjoon said, taking the lust potion antidote with him. “See you there.”

Hoseok and Namjoon excused themselves and walked out of his room right away, leaving Seokjin who was still sitting on his bed.

Jeongguk frowned in annoyance before asking, “Why are you still here?”

Seokjin’s expression changed into a bit more serious. “About Kim Taehyung...”

And that late afternoon, he listened carefully to every word Seokjin said which related to the Slytherin.

The end of this month, they were oftentimes studying for N.E.W.T.s in study hall for hours – and finally, it ended for today when the lunch bell rang through every spot of the hall. Briskly, he rolled his parchment, closed his book, and put his quill into his bag. Seeing how his friends do it as well, even every student hurriedly left the hall, he abruptly walked out and let himself walk to the first floor hallway.

It was quite crowded with a lot of girls—Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws—holding a box of chocolate scattered around the hallway waiting for someone, though he wished him to not show up as if every wish of his had ever come true. Unluckily, it still did not come true, Kim Taehyung walked towards them with a polite smile on his face; absolutely charming like a prince.

“Kim Taehyung!!!” 

“Oh my Lord!”

“Taehyung, please accept mine!”

“No, take mine instead!”

And Kim bloody Taehyung just laughed. It made his blood boil in his veins seeing how wide his smile was. These girls were totally begging for the Slytherin’s attention while hands stretched out giving him their boxes and Kim Taehyung looked like he was enjoying every second of his life there; well, he did not know if the Slytherin was straight or not—but certainly, this quite answered that question.

He stood not far from there, face adorned with jealousy, but he did not do anything except staring at them. “Really noisy.” He let out a comment, trying to look not affected at all.

“Isn’t it now lunch time? What’s going on there?” Hoseok’s lips parted, eyeing them in confusion. “And why, why is Kim Taehyung surrounded by them?”

Namjoon came to his side and explained, “You don’t remember?” His eyes directed to the crowd. “At the end of the month, some girls from Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws will give him ‘Amortentia Chocolate’. We had been gossiping about it three week ago.”

“Oh! It’s now?” Hoseok said, suddenly remembered about their gossiping three weeks ago. “That’s crazy.”

“Gguk, you didn’t want to do something?” Seokjin’s hand rested on his shoulder and gave him a couple of weak massages. “I told you last week, didn’t I?”

Seokjin had told him everything last week regarding the gossip of girls making ‘Amortentia Chocolate’ because he finally found out the reason behind it. It disgusted him, extremely disgusted. They actually wagered 50 galleons on who could win the heart of Kim Taehyung, the most handsome students here, by using Amortentia; a stupid game of desperate girls wanting Kim Taehyung and money—they were indeed mental. He was beyond furious after Seokjin told him that, particularly when he told Yoon Jia was the one who started it. 

Before he could say ‘but let’s have lunch instead’ because he was sick of this, Yoon Jia, the most popular Hufflepuff walked towards Taehyung. All the girls immediately made a path for her to walk like she was a damn princess and owned this hallway. The satisfactory smile of her after she stopped right in front of Kim Taehyung made him want to hex her on the spot.

“She’s Yoon Jia?” Namjoon asked in a whisper, elbowing Hoseok’s arm.

Hoseok nodded, not turning his head from her. “Yes. I wonder what would happen.”

By Kim Taehyung’s side, there was the famous Slytherin couple laughing and teasing Taehyung without stopping. Min Yoongi rested his chin on Taehyung’s shoulder and Jimin half took Taehyung to his embrace possessively, even though their eyes seemed searching for Jeongguk in unison with unreadable expressions. 

And at the same time, he was anxious seeing this scene and did not even move an inch away from where he was standing at all. A lot of questions were filling his head. Was Kim Taehyung aware of their ‘Amortentia Chocolate’ or not? What if the Slytherin did really eat those chocolates and then fall in love with them? No. What was he supposed to do now? Obviously, he could not let this happen, but how?

There was no way he would come to them and hex these girls all of sudden or shout to their faces “Sod off! He’s fucking mine.” like Kim sodding Taehyung was his fucking boyfriend—no, he did not want to embarrass himself either by declaring his undying love to him in front of this crowd like a pathetic bloke. What if Taehyung laughed at him because he was clearly not bent like him? It would be totally embarrassing and he could not face them, even his best friends, ever again.

Hoseok sighed deeply. “What’s wrong with them? It’s now lunch time and they’re blocking the way.”

“Er, Gguk, do you perhaps want to do something?” Namjoon cleared his throat, looking at him curiously. “What if he accepted one of these girls’ chocolates? I mean, er, would you still be fine with it?”

Jeongguk swallowed, hesitated. “We’re... not a thing.” It sounded pathetic, but he did not want his friends’ pity. “Well... he’s straight, don’t you see?”

Seokjin said, breathing out, “Wasn’t it obvious, Gguk? He’s bent.”

“What?” His eyebrows twitched. “What do you mean he’s bent?”

“He had never accepted any girls and he shagged you last week.” Ignoring how red Jeongguk’s face was, Seokjin impatiently stated, “He’s never done any heterosexual thing, anyway. He’s fucking bent, mate. Don’t make me repeat my words again.”

That was what he hoped in every single prayer of his, honestly. But it once again did not come true after Taehyung’s grey eyes met his and his lips twitched into a smirk for a few intense seconds, the Slytherin took out his hand to accept Yoon Jia’s box of chocolates.

Without thinking, his wand pointed at it, he shouted with rage, “Expelliarmus!” and it made the box sliding off Taehyung’s hand to the floor harshly. Everyone there was shocked at his sudden casting, but he paid them no mind, instead walking towards Kim Taehyung who seemed startled as well.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Yoon Jia snapped loudly, looking mad mixed with confusion. “I demand an explanation, Jeon!”

His green eyes shot deadly to her. “Well, have you ever felt embarrassed after he rejected you 14 bloody times? No? If I were you, I would rather die on the spot.” Seeing her expression changing into red, he vanished her box of chocolates with a flick of his wand and barked out, “Fuck your 50 galleons and get the hell out of here now!”

Yoon Jia almost immediately walked off the hallway in angry mixed ashamed tears, followed by the disappointed crowd of girls—Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaw—after his own friends and the famous Slytherin couple dispersed them forcefully.

Still furious, he faced Kim Taehyung—who could not bite his satisfied smirk on his face—and said almost exasperatedly, “She used Amortentia on these chocolates and so did all these girls because of a shite wager. Why are you so fucking oblivious, Kim? Did you really expect they would give you actual chocolates without a love potion?”

“How oblivious I am,” Taehyung chuckled very attractively, decreasing their space, making the Gryffindor abruptly snap back into realisation and taking steps back. “Didn’t notice these poor girls’ chocolates since my attention was stuck on this beautiful Gryffindor in front of me.”

“W-what?” Jeongguk gasped, flushed. He wanted to run away from the hallway after embarrassing himself again and again, but Taehyung had already caught his wrist. 

His head turned towards his friends asking for their help, but they just waved their hands goodbye and whistled, “Don’t snog for too long! Lunch time is about to end soon!” Bloody hell—he pretended to not hear what they had said and let this insufferable blond beside him dragging him into the Slytherin dungeon in victory.

“You can’t run away from me, Jeon. This time, I won’t let you.”

As what he had feared, there were some Slytherins there and they started to stare curiously at them once they entered the Slytherin dungeon after Taehyung blurted out the correct password. Of course, they would stare, especially at him, a bloody Gryffindor, Taehyung’s famous rival, and much less because Taehyung’s fingers circled around his wrist tightly. But thank Lord, no one dared to say a word to them.

Taehyung’s room was now right in front of them. He pushed the door open, walking inside with Jeongguk, then locking and silencing the door wandless and wordlessly; yes, he was insane.  Letting the Gryffindor sit down on his bed, he asked while standing, but slightly bent to face him in close, “So? I expect some explanation here.”

Jeongguk was nervous on the bed, trying so hard to avert his eyes from Taehyung’s grey ones, but failed as if the Slytherin threw a spell on him to keep his head unmoving. “Er—I, I... shouldn’t have you thanked me? I have just helped you there, so you don’t have to eat that shite!” Stuttering, but he attempted not to care, managed to be mad, and quickly said, “I apologise if I interrupted you and those girls, ok? I will leave now!” But as he was about to get up, Taehyung’s palms pushed his shoulders down. “Sod off, Kim!”

“That’s not what I expected.” Taehyung retorted with a snort, loved with every inch of the Gryffindor’s embarrassed face. “Well, I sort of expected you would say that you were jealous of them or did I misread your intention?”

He did not say anything, but he really wished to get away from Taehyung’s reach right now because he was not ready to see the Slytherin’s victorious smirk—or perhaps, he was actually scared of rejection. It would be bloody mortifying for him once again if Taehyung rejected him here.

Kim Taehyung was staring at him with an eyebrow raised up in this close proximity, half-standing right in front of him as waiting for the Gryffindor’s next word. “Jeon?” His deep voice sounded more soft this time and no more a familiar grin of his painted on his face. “I obviously knew they had poured love potion on those chocolates and I even knew they would give it to me at lunch time. Well, my friends always keep an update for me, some gossip as well, though we didn’t know the reason behind it. And I still came there, I really hoped you were there, too. I guess, I was hoping for your reaction? If you weren’t there nor even reacting to me, I would immediately drop those chocolates down the floor with no doubt. Can’t believe you Expelliarmused me and vanished her box of chocolates, though.”

Jeongguk let out a deep sigh at the Slytherin’s long explanation and surrendered, “Right, you know what? Fuck them. I’m so jealous, are you satisfied now, Kim? I have fancied you since we were in the second year.” Bravely holding his gaze with Taehyung’s, he said in fast, “But it’s perfectly fine if you want me to leave now, I do understand. Now, if you excuse me—”

Taehyung smashed their lips together right away, gently pushing the Gryffindor onto his back and getting on top of him in eagerness. 

Jeongguk’s eyes grew wider, but eventually shut closed after sensing how smooth Taehyung’s lips brushing to his was.

Without breaking the kiss, Taehyung mumbled, not wanting to lose, “On the first day. How’s that? I just knew you’re the one when I first laid my eyes on you, but sadly, you rejected my hand. You know what? I did cry.”

“You cry? I’m sorry.” Jeongguk replied regretfully, putting his arms around Taehyung’s neck as an apology, stomach flipped in guilt. “I actually didn’t know why I did that. My 12 year old self was a prick.”

“You broke my heart, you wanker.” Taehyung retorted with a snort, but did nothing to stop their snogging. “You heard that?”

“Sorry, I said,” Jeongguk bit Taehyung’s bottom lip lightly, fingers crawling into his blond locks. “You arse-licker. You heard that?”

“Arse-licker?” Taehyung hummed, stopping the kissing, moving to lick the Gryffindor’s sensitive ear. 

He whined, feeling ticklish, but did not try to stop the Slytherin whatsoever. “Yes, you are.”

“You seem to know me very well. I’m quite impressed, Jeon. How did you even know that I love to lick arse?” Teasing tone of his could be heard again, he was enjoying every second of this. “Well, I would love to if you beg for it.”

Jeongguk punched his chest a bit, embarrassed and shy, then replying, “Stop, you pervert!” Hearing Taehyung’s contented laughter, he laughed, too.

They eventually changed their position into a comfy one, Jeongguk’s head now rested over a pillow while Taehyung was still on top of him and snogging him affectionately – it was brilliant, like what he had always imagined it would be, but still could not be explained with word; how Taehyung’s tongue teasing against his, his swollen lips brushing to his, his hot breath mingling with his own, and his clothed cock pressing his.

Jeongguk managed to surpass a moan and failed miserably. “T-that’s good... Kim.” Exposing his neck wider, Taehyung took this chance to make his way down the length of his neck. “By the way, I’m actually curious, oh, about something.” It was quite hard to keep his voice steady while their cocks rutting continuously down there and the Slytherin’s wet tongue sliding freely on his neck.

Taehyung hummed against his neck, sending a vibration to Jeongguk’s body. “Yes?” He still did not stop his action. “Just tell me, Jeon.”

“Why, ah, did you curse Choi Seun Ho?” Jeongguk closed both of his eyes, his fingers on Taehyung’s blond locks slightly tightened. “You don’t have to do that extreme, you know?”

Taehyung suddenly stopped and explained in rage, “How could I not curse him when that bastard always casted a spell on your broomstick more than other Slytherins? I thought, I have had enough, Jeon. I couldn’t hold myself any longer.” He took off his own black robes and Jeongguk’s before dropping them down the floor carelessly.

Jeongguk’s chest pounded because of his explanation, hands loosening Taehyung’s green tie and sliding it down the floor as well. “But, we were in the Quidditch Cup Final, weren’t we? And also, we’re, er, rivals...?”

“I’m more than aware, Jeon.” Taehyung sneered as he undid Jeongguk’s red tie and let it down beside his green one. “And that’s why it’s only me who can mess you up. Understood, Jeon?”

Jeongguk snorted, amused. “Never expect that your love for me is bigger than your hate. I’m flattered, Kim.”

“Well, well, well, Jeon. You’re totally wrong.” Taehyung pressed himself hard against Jeongguk, making him gasp full of pleasure. “I have never hated you. Being your lovely rival doesn’t mean that I have to hate you, am I correct, Jeon?”

Jeongguk regained his focus after the wonderful pleasure, feeling himself more relaxed and brave, he quickly flipped their positions—being on top of Kim Taehyung. “What a very honest word, Kim. I also wonder why you purposefully missed your casting when we were duelling? Because you didn’t want to hurt me? I’m so touched, Kim. Your love for me is indeed more than I thought.” He said with a mocking tone, satisfied at his own words.

Taehyung’s cheeks warmed, feeling exposed, but he managed to lie, “Shut it, Jeon. Who said I purposefully missed it? I just had bad luck!”

He did not know that Taehyung’s pink cheeks could drive him bloody insane. Taking him into a heated snog again, caressing his clothed cock against his, moaning shamelessly along with him, until he felt himself wanting to burst. Taehyung’s gentle holds on the waist tightened and his hips also erratically thrusting forwards following Jeongguk’s rhythm. And they both came almost together a few seconds later. He landed on top of him, nuzzling his face to Taehyung’s collarbone and sensing his long fingers reaching on top of his head to stroke his hair softly.

Taehyung cut the silence between them after casting a cleaning charm to themselves. “You’re alright now?” Capturing the Gryffindor’s brows knitted, he clarified, “I mean, I’m talking about the lust potion. Did it really work? Are you really alright now? You seemed sort of avoiding me after we shagged.”

Jeongguk nodded, shy smiling appearing on his face. “Yes, it did... work, obviously. Of course, I avoided you after that—like, how could I face you after that?” Hearing Taehyung’s low chuckles, he said, “Well... so, yeah. I’m alright now.”

“Seeing you avoiding me made my heart clench in pain.” Taehyung hissed in Parseltongue all of sudden, his slender fingers continuing to caress Jeongguk’s hair. “But, I’m very glad that you’re alright now.”

Jeongguk did not have any clue about what the Slytherin had just said, but one thing that he knew, it was utterly hot. Watching him hissing in Parseltongue made him swallow hard, then asking, “What does it mean?”

Taehyung poked the Gryffindor’s nose and replied in a playful manner, “I love your arse. We should do another round.”

Jeongguk blushed and hit Taehyung’s chest a bit, then shouting, “Liar!”

Before the Gryffindor could say a word again, he captured his lips again; this time, it was a slow but meaningful kiss. “So, Jeon... what are we now? Still rivals? Hm?”

“Er—I, maybe if you... er, take me out on a date than we... er, you know,” Jeongguk’s eyes gazed everywhere, but Taehyung’s grey ones.

Grinning, Taehyung casually blurted out, “Date? Right. If it could change the title from rivals to boyfriends, then let’s do it. Where do you want our first date to be?”

“Er, Hogsmeade? I don’t know... it’s up to you.” Jeongguk admitted; he actually had no problem at all. “But we must go to Honeydukes! I’m craving sweets!”

“I must dress well, then.” Taehyung replied mysteriously, looking at the Gryffindor’s green eyes. 

“Well... you always look good?” Jeongguk’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“Thank you, but I want to look more impeccable because someone will secretly take a photo of me with his muggle phone.” Taehyung waggled his eyebrows teasingly, his voice sounded so lovely and deep. 

Jeongguk blushed, trying to go away from Taehyung’s embrace, but Taehyung held his waist tightly. “Let me go!”

Taehyung tightened his hold on Jeongguk, laughing at the Gryffindor’s failed attempt, and replied, “Never.”

A familiar sound reached towards Taehyung’s door, making him sliding out of the Slytherin’s loose holds, putting his tie and robes from the floor to him immediately. The famous Slytherin couple stepped into Taehyung’s room after he hurriedly unlocked the door using his wand.

“Both of you missed lunch. That’s very bad.” Yoongi announced, staring at them with a knowing grin. “There must be something happening here.”

Jeongguk cleared his throat, ignoring how hot his ears were and replying with a hesitated nod, “Yeah. We both talked.”

“And both came.” Taehyung added teasingly, but quickly corrected his word after Jeongguk glared deadly at him, “Then both of you came.” 

“Well, if you excuse me—” 

Jimin cut him off by resting his hand on his shoulder, stopping the Gryffindor from walking out of Taehyung’s room, “Jeon.”

“Yes, Park?” Jeongguk frowned, waiting for his next word and trying to look normal as if something had not happened in the Slytherin’s room. 

Yoongi  scanned him up and down, his sweet smile went even bigger as he said amusedly, “Well, I don’t know you’re a Slytherin now, Jeon?”

Jimin tightened Jeongguk’s tie, holding back a laugh, looking at Taehyung and the Gryffindor alternately, he replied playfully, “Me neither, darling.”

Jeongguk looked abruptly down and spotted Taehyung’s green Slytherin tie hanging on his neck. Panicking, he turned to face Taehyung who was innocently using his red Gryffindor tie and managing to hold a grin, but failed. “Er—I,” Attempting to explain to the famous Slytherin couple that nothing had happened between them, he suddenly was being pulled towards Taehyung—hell, the Slytherin just wordless and wandlessly pulled him—until his back contacted with Taehyung’s chest.

“Oh Merlin, I think we wore the wrong tie.” Taehyung pulled Jeongguk’s—his—green tie and dropped a kiss on the lips. “How could this happen, Jeon? I don’t understand.”

Jeongguk was bloody red, however, he did not resist Taehyung’s kisses as if the famous Slytherin couple were not right in front of them. Being bold, he deepened the snog and called, “Taehyung,”

Taehyung’s heart skipped a beat hearing his first name, but he smiled victoriously between the kisses. “Yes, Jeongguk?”

“You’re right. Maybe...” Disregarding Park Jimin and Min Yoongi’s curious look of what he would say next, he said to Taehyung shamelessly, with cheeks perfectly burnt, “Yes. We should do another round.”

The famous Slytherin couple’s groans were blurring in his ears because all he could catch right now was how beautiful Kim Taehyung’s laughter was.

Winking, Taehyung stated, “I have always known that you love my wand. You do know which wand I’m talking about, don’t you, Jeon?”

“O-oh shut it or I will hex your bollocks off, Kim!”