Chapter Text
It's been three months since Jisung met the witch that day. Since then he's felt much lighter on the inside and more open to doing things he previously was anxious of. Though he didn't always have the courage of a lion, he was doing a lot better than how he started.
Today in particular he was browsing the many stalls at the village market. Summer was a prime time that everyone came out and sold all sorts of different things. Food, trinkets, supplies, you name it and there was probably a booth for it.
Because of the vast variety, Jisung pulled a little wagon behind him. After each stop at a vendor, Jisung was loading it higher up and rearranging things so they wouldn't fall over. There was a list in his hand of all the things he needed to buy that he browsed while following the trail of a black cat.
“You must have company coming over. Or are you trying new things?” One lady at a booth selling cute kitchen supplies questions his haul in light interest. She's an older woman with a face wrinkling from all her days on Earth. Still, she's full of life and passion in her sales.
Jisung pulls his mouth into the best smile he can muster before nodding. “Y-yeah! I'm just, uh, you know,” he flaunts a hand vaguely in front of him as if conjuring a spell that will get the right words out. “Upgrading,” he finally puts it with a tilt of his head.
“I see,” the woman nods before handing over the carefully wrapped ceramic items. One thing in particular is an egg separator that’s shaped like a cat head. Once the egg is cracked into it, everything drains out through the cat mouth besides the yolk.
“I think this will definitely make all of your company jealous! Even when you're not using it for its purpose you can still have it as a table accessory,” she continues on with a great big smile. “Tell them all about me, okay?”
“Oh, uh, yes! Of course I will!” Jisung trades money for the goods and sets them in the wagon where he knows they won't break or fall off. “Thank you!” He bows his head to her before moving along.
Upon the last item on the list being crossed off, Jisung turns away from the booths and heads away from the crowd. A smile spreads across his face as he sees a job well done and stuffs the paper the list was written down on into his pocket.
The wheels of the wagon roll silently along the dirt path outside of the village. Winds rustling overhead in the trees provide him with pleasant white noise until he gets halfway to his destination.
“Thank you again for doing this,” a voice beside him calls out in hushed gratitude.
Jisung doesn't look over as the black cat that has been accompanying him turns into Minho, but shakes his head in acknowledgement. They've had to wait until out of clear eyeshot from anyone to be able to talk to each other. Any sooner and someone would have surely suspected them.
“There’s no reason to thank me. I’m happy to do this.”
“Of course there's a reason,” Minho counters with a short laugh. “I can't go there on my own.”
After having practically been run out of the village, Minho was unable to naturally buy anything from others. If anyone remembered what he looked like, he would never be able to accomplish anything. And chances were too good that people did remember his incredibly handsome face. Before they even found out he could do magic, he was already sought out purely for his good looks.
Partnering with Jisung had come to be one of the best things that's ever happened in his life. Jisung still lived in the village and he wasn't anyone that people spoke much of. With his assistance, Minho had more free roam in the village again.
“But…” Minho clasps his hands behind his back and looks up to the trees in thought. “Maybe that's not such a bad thing.”
Jisung looks over at him in question. He would have thought anything including not being able to freely do something by yourself was pretty bad.
Minho walks a few more steps before rolling his head to give Jisung a warm smile and revealing, “I like being able to go places with you.”
A wave of warmth washes over Jisung’s face, making him duck his head in an instant. Compliments and adoring words still weren't things that he was used to. Any time something of the sort came out of Minho’s mouth, Jisung would struggle in figuring out how to handle it.
The remaining of their walk back is spent in comfortable silence. No longer does Minho work to say anything that will bring shyness out of Jisung and the two are just fine without conversation. They've become well accustomed to focusing only on each other’s company.
At the door, Minho hurries up first and unlocks it. He separates everything from what goes inside and what stays out and begins taking a load into his arms.
Because magic couldn't satisfy means for hunger, the majority of the haul was food that Minho couldn't grow or find himself. For the time being, all he had was a little garden on the side of his house and it really couldn't hold that much. Which– that just came into the other stuff that they had bought. With Jisung’s help, Minho could become a little more independent from the village.
“I’m still really surprised that you've gone this long on your own like this,” Jisung comments as he helps load everything into the house. “I would have definitely starved to death or died by some dumb accident.”
No, he really didn't think he would have been able to survive at all if he were in Minho’s shoes. Alone he is nowhere near capable of handling life. He couldn't possibly imagine himself making it one week had he ever swapped places with Minho. He could hardly order food to begin with. How could he possibly figure out how to do everything Minho did here?
Minho gives him a pitying smile before moving along with putting everything away. “Well… it definitely helps being a witch. I can do more than an average person, but even I have obstacles.”
Jisung really is glad they're places weren't swapped. In the hypothetical event that he was in Minho’s place and he could fend for himself, he doubted they would have met at all. There would have been no way in hell that Jisung would have opened that door. Never would he have taken some stranger into his home as Minho did. He would have packed up and gone to the ends of the earth so no one would bother him.
His hands move slowly as he sets everything down on the table one by one. There's no focus in his eyes as he stares off into space but there's a fond expression inhabiting his face.
It still really sucks that he was forced out here like this to get away from everyone, but I'm still happy that we got to meet. We wouldn't have been able to if everything wasn't like this. I really don't want to imagine what my life would be like without him.
Jisung doesn't hear Minho walking up beside him. Between him being delved so deeply into his thoughts and the way Minho can walk without a single sound, he's oblivious to his presence.
“Is that everything?” Minho asks right by Jisung’s ear to ensure the younger hears him. This causes Jisung to jump, bringing a light chuckle out of Minho in response.
“Oh– uhm, yep! That's it!” Jisung nods while the tips of his ears begin to burn. He hikes a thumb back over his shoulder towards the door. “I’ll work on everything outside now,” he adds before promptly hurrying out the door.
The witch watches him go with slight amusement. It was always entertaining to see Jisung act so surprised by the smallest of things. When they first met, the younger could hardly get out one solid sentence on the first try. Nowadays he had grown into his voice and used it more fluidly around Minho. And the witch supposes he may have done exactly the same thing.
He gives a small shake of his head as he brushes off the topic. For now, there's a whole load of things for him to put away.
When he first moved, there was only so much he could take at one time. So that no one would see him, he had to go in and out at completely dead hours of the night. And when people began to pick up on the fact that there was something changing with his house, he had to figure out how to cover up his tracks quickly.
Honestly he wasn't the best witch out there. Simply put, he had magic and he knew how to do some very basic things. But the degree of what people believed he could do was not invested in him. Or at least, not at the time. Since living away from everyone, he's had more room to freely practice as he pleased.
While Jisung is out of sight, Minho is capable of stealing another opportunity to practice harmless magic. He holds his hand out towards the table everything is set on and keeps his concentration on it as he slowly steps towards his kitchen.
A basket with some fruit lifts off the table in a gentle ascent. Before moving out here he would have only been able to move a few apples at a time. But after a little practice, he had more control over his magic.
And it wasn't as though he was looking to depend on it all. Knowing how to use it only gave him a sense of security. Without it, he may not be able to protect himself in a worst-case scenario.
He hoped a time like that would never come. If he could use magic solely to help himself around this house, then he would be just fine.
In no time flat everything is put into its rightful space in the kitchen. Minho had specifically bought a few new ingredients he hadn't had access to in such a long time. Cooking had always been an interest of his, but with his limited resources, it was difficult to do much of anything.
There were so many things he wanted to try out. Endless ideas of what to cook came to mind, but he couldn't decide where to start. If anything, he wanted this first meal to be special. But before he could even seriously think of doing that, there was something else that held priority.
When Minho makes it outside, he finds Jisung taking a well deserved break at the small pond. It's not directly beside the house, but it's within eyeshot and considered to be on Minho’s property. All around it are large, flat rocks to sit on. Jisung took it upon himself to occupy one of them so he could watch the colorful koi fish swim beneath the surprisingly clear water’s surface.
Light footsteps bring Minho all the way to Jisung’s back. Just like before it seems that Jisung’s focus is too heavily set on the pond that he doesn't notice Minho behind him. So, Minho takes this opportunity to look down at his softly closed fist and slowly open it up.
Sitting on his palm is a beautiful red stone strung onto a very thin silver chain necklace. He tilts his hand a few degrees to watch the light reflect off its very shiny surface and watches his reflection in it. Smiling softly, he lowers his hand down until the necklace is dangling in front of Jisung’s face.
In a bit of a jolt, Jisung focuses his eyes onto the jewelry rather than the pond. A slow hand raises up to hold it in his grasp and look at it more carefully.
“A present for you,” Minho explains and lowers himself down to sit beside Jisung.
By the looks of it, Jisung can only think that this is some incredibly expensive piece of jewelry that he has no business in owning. And having it gifted to him? No, absolutely not.
“W-what? No, I couldn't possibly accept this!”
He makes a successful attempt at placing it back into Minho’s hands then stuffs his own in his lap so he can't get it back.
Minho looks back down at it with a fond smile. What seems like him giving up makes Jisung feel a little more at ease. His fingers carefully work the clasp open and in close precision, strings it around Jisung’s neck.
The close contact is enough to make Jisung fall completely still even though he had just denied the gift. With Minho’s face being just beside his to see how to clasp the necklace back, Jisung couldn't move an inch.
“I made it just for you, so please accept it,” Minho voices softly as he sits back upright in his space.
His eyes are light as they look hopefully into Jisung’s. Rejection is clearly not the thing he wants here after he spent so much time and effort making the little gift. But the slowness in his movements show that it's still not something he's forcing onto Jisung. Just, he really wants to give it to him.
Breaking away from Minho’s gaze, Jisung lowers his face down to view the necklace around him. The thin chain is long enough so the gem could be hidden beneath his shirt if the fabric moved in such a way. And the gem itself is specifically his favorite shade of red. It was a nice, warm tone that brought a lot of peace to Jisung’s mind when he looked at it. Though the size of it was no bigger than his thumbnail, it sure was beautiful.
“Why would you make me something like this?”
The words weren't said in a cynical way. Rather, they came off as very confused and shocked. Nothing came to Jisung’s mind when he searched for a possible reason for something like this.
“Well…” Minho leans back on one of his hands with his head tilting in thought. “I kind of just felt that I should. I don't know. I just wanted to.” His eyes move from the pond out in front of him back to Jisung and searches his expression for his next lines.
“But it's so pretty and– and…” Jisung fumbles around with the stone in between his fingers. “I feel bad. I don't have anything to give you in return,” he finishes, his shoulders slumping down in pitiful defeat.
Minho wanted to laugh at that. Actually, he almost did. Jisung had already given him so much that he wasn't sure what the debt was anymore. There were so many things that Jisung had done for him so far. How could he forget?
Instead of speaking his mind about such things, Minho leans towards him just an inch with curiosity written on his face. “Do you really want to give me something in return that badly?”
“Of course I do!” Jisung nodded harshly as if that were the most ridiculous question he’s heard. “But what could I make that would match up to something as beautiful as this?”
There's glee in Minho’s widening smile. He really hoped that Jisung would say something like that. Without another word, he closed the distance in between them.
The tips of their noses brushed against each other in a gentle manner just before their lips did. The action was so slow on Minho’s part to ensure Jisung had plenty of time to break away from him if he were uncomfortable. But to Minho’s delight, Jisung only pressed his mouth closer against his own.
Their opposing lips seemed to fit perfectly against each other. As if a key had found its designated lock. Whereas Jisung had a pouty bottom lip, Minho had a plumper upper lip. It was a match made in heaven.
Precious time was taken in Minho pulling his mouth back. The kisses were so delicate and slow but yet it felt so incredibly intimate. So much that Minho felt like he had just explained every ounce of his heart in one little gesture. And when he opened his eyes again, the shine in them made it very obvious that he was in love.
“You make me happy. That's more than enough for me.”
Jisung’s ears were burning red. Brighter than the stone hanging from his neck. Inside his chest he felt like his heart was going to explode and his cheeks were stinging.
He reaches forward to clutch both of his hands onto the one Minho is leaning on. There's a beautifully bashful smile on his face before he hides it by resting his forehead on Minho’s shoulder. It’s the first time that Minho had truly put his feelings into such a blatant perspective.
“You make me happier,” Jisung replies back in a breath of a laugh. “You make me so so happy.”
When Jisung pulls back, his eyes are glistening so much that it looks like he's going to cry. Never before has he ever felt like this. The amount of pure bliss he felt when he was around Minho was unreal. When he was with Minho, he didn't feel nervous. He didn't feel like his tongue was tied up or that he was saying all of the wrong things. Everything just felt so natural when it came to being with the witch.
And for once to Minho, he felt like he really belonged somewhere. Jisung made him feel like he could exist without shoving everything into a deep, dark abyss for no one to see. There was no shame in him. He could share himself with Jisung without any sense of persecution. And it was such a lovely feeling that he hadn't been acquainted with in so long.
Maybe they were meant to be together from the start. Maybe they were made up of atoms from the same star that burst so long ago. Whatever it was, they felt the thread of fate pulling them closer and closer. And neither would have it any other way.