Chapter Text
If Seungmin remembers correctly, this should be the second to last room, and the rooms should be getting more difficult, so he’s curious as to what their next challenge will be— there is no door. There’s a key right there, just lying there for them to grab, but no door. There are also eight levers attached to the wall, all with a number above it.
“Should we just try to pull a lever?” Changbin suggests and runs over to lever number one to pull it up, and something rumbles while the lever springs back to its original position, but nothing happens. “You can pull it both up and down.” He tries all the levers one by one, both up and down, but still nothing happens besides some rumbling after he pulls the first two levers up.
“Wait, here’s a hint— I think?” Seungmin notices something scribbled on the walls and motions for the rest to come over. “It’s three drawings, and it looks a little like a wave reflecting against a wall. There's also a four written down.”
“Is that the pattern we have to recreate with the levers?” Jisung ponders as he squints at the drawing. “Is it like when a rope is attached to a wall and you make a wave that reflects?”
“Hmm, yeah not quite but it looks like it… and four would be how many levers the wave is long?” Chan nods. “Then the pattern would be… uhm…”
Minho raises his hand and Chan lets him speak. “The first one goes up, then the second and first one, then the first three ones, then the first four, and then one rests and two until five goes up, and so on until five until eight are up. Then the eighth lever goes down and five six seven up, and then eight and seven down and five and six up, and so it travels back, just like in the drawing.”
“That sounds complicated,” Jeongin complains. “Can I do the last one then? That one has to do one up and then four times down, right?”
“Oh, guys, I’m afraid I’m going to mess up too,” Changbin wrings his hands together nervously. “Because everyone does something different and we have to be in sync, right?”
“Yeah I— oh!” Hyunjin stops himself and turns to Seungmin. “Can you help us? Can you, like, program our brain to do the right sequence of actions?”
Seungmin thinks about it before he places his hands on Hyunjin's head. “Can you pull the lever up for me? And think about your action, think about ‘up’, or ‘lever up’.”
Hyunjin does what Seungmin tells him and Seungmin focuses on which parts of the brain become active. Then he tells Hyunjin to pull the lever down and think about it. It’s hard to distinguish those two, but Seungmin thinks that he might be able to do it. Making someone do nothing for a few beats is easy, and Seungmin is happy that he practiced making people do sequences of actions for the performances, so it should work.
They divide their parts and decide that Seungmin can do lever eight because he can’t hypnotize himself, and the rest they just do based on the way they’re standing at the moment. The ones that can help Seungmin remember the sequences as he hypnotizes the members do so, and Seungmin really hopes that it’ll work immediately and that they’re not wasting time by making him use his magic.
“Get ready at the levers,” Seungmin tells everyone, feeling his heart pound at lightspeed in his chest as he keeps his hand ready at the lever too. He snaps his fingers to start the hypnosis and anxiously looks at how his team starts pulling the levers up. It’s successful and Seungmin just barely is on time himself to pull the lever up before he pushes the lever down and keeps doing that as he watches the others starting to push the lever down too. It seems to be working since Seungmin can hear the wall shaking and cracking open slowly but surely as they keep pulling on the levers. When lever number five is pulled down, Seungmin stops and watches the cascade of the rest pushing down and stopping too. Only when it’s done and Seungmin looks over to see that the wall has split open to reveal the door, he realizes that he did it. They did it!
He snaps his fingers to stop the magic and points at the door. “We did it! It worked!”
Instead of going to the door and opening it to go to the next room, everyone claps and whoops and praises Seungmin for his abilities, showering him with hugs. He urges everyone to move on, getting a little embarrassed by all the attention, but once Seungmin opens the door and everyone enters the next room, Hyunjin pulls him aside for an extra hug.
“I’m so proud of you, Minnie. I knew you could do it,” he says and pecks Seungmin’s lips. “Every single time you manage to amaze me with your magic.”
Seungmin blushes and shakes his head lightly, but he does finally feel a little proud of his magic, not like he is somehow less than the other mages.
“And every single time you manage to amaze me with your cheesy comments,” he teases back, smiling at Hyunjin’s reddening cheeks.
“You know that I mean it, right?” Hyunjin pouts at Seungmin’s teasing, and Seungmin can’t help but laugh, feeling his cheeks match Hyunjin’s cheeks’ color.
“Yeah, I know that now,” Seungmin admits slowly, and he watches Hyunjin’s face light up in realization. “I believe that now.”
Hyunjin squeaks in delight and Seungmin quickly pulls him along to the last room so that he can’t overthink what he just said. First, they have to finish the escape room.
As soon as they enter the room, they are blinded by smoke filling the room. Minho tries to dilute it with his magic, but new smoke quickly refills the room.
“Are we supposed to— Ah!” Changbin yelps in pain, but Seungmin can’t see him through the smoke. “Did someone throw something at me?”
“No, we— Ow!” Hyunjin wants to answer but flinches too, so Seungmin pulls him closer instinctively. “Something hit me too!”
Seungmin looks around to see where it’s coming from, but he soon realizes that he can’t see anything. Multiple people talk through each other and let out pained yelps as projectiles keep hitting them, and Seungmin can’t focus in the chaos. He is suddenly pulled by the arms and stumbles, dragging Hyunjin along. He bumps into Chan and sees the rest of his team huddled together in what seems like a spot in the room where the projectiles fly by less often.
“Are we all here? No— where is Changbin?” Chan looks around and calls out for Changbin.
“I’m here!” Changbin’s voice sounds, but Seungmin can’t quite make out where it’s coming from. “Ow!— I found— ah— I found a button!”
“Press it!—” “Don’t press it yet!—”
Their teamwork isn’t working optimally right now, but Changbin yells that he has pressed the button already, so it doesn’t even matter. They hear a loud clunk and look around, but realize that, again, it’s useless because they can’t see.
“Oh! I think we have to press them— ah— oof! ” Changbin cuts himself off with a pained groan.
“Changbin, are you okay?”
“Why do you think we have to press them? What happened?”
They yell at Changbin but there is no answer. Shit. Minho wants to leave their huddled group to go look for Changbin, but Chan stops him.
“We need a plan first, Minho,” Chan urges, but Minho doesn’t look convinced yet.
“But what if he’s in danger?—”
“Then you will be too! We have to make sure that we know what we’re doing first.” Chan’s tone is final and Minho relents. “I have noticed that the projectiles are magical, so I don’t think your wind magic will work. I don’t think any magic will work to protect ourselves.”
“What kind of magic competition…” Minho grumbles. “So what do we do then? Changbin knows what to do with the buttons. We need him.”
“Okay fine, you can go look for him, but take someone with you. No one goes anywhere alone, okay?”
Hyunjin volunteers himself to go with Minho, saying that he feels like he hasn’t done anything useful yet. Before anyone can protest to that, Minho pulls Hyunjin along in the direction where he apparently heard Changbin coming from. The rest anxiously waits for them to return when suddenly a loud noise sounds. Seungmin covers his ears and waits for the noise to stop, but it doesn’t. What the hell is happening? When they see silhouettes appear in the smoke, it’s only Minho and Changbin— fuck . Changbin looks like he’s in pain, but Minho is supporting him.
“Where is Hyunjin?” Seungmin demands worriedly. “What happened to no one goes anywhere alone?”
“Changbin was running around and saw that the buttons help open the door, but there’s also some timer that counts down until a new hindrance is added,” Minho explains, raising his voice over the noise. “And when Bin pressed the button, the timer went down, so Hyunjin said he was going to look for other buttons, but he was already gone before we could stop him, and because of the noise we couldn’t tell him to stick with us.”
Seungmin internally curses and hopes that Hyunjin is okay. The first extra difficulty added was probably the projectiles, and now the sound, so Seungmin is afraid of what the next ones will be.
“We have to go help Hyunjin,” Jeongin yells above the noise. “We have to do something. Where are the buttons, Changbin?”
“Random places, I think,” Changbin says, looking better than a minute ago already. “I saw one on the wall, and one on the floor.”
“Okay, everyone goes in pairs or trios and we’ll look for the buttons and Hyunjin, okay?” Chan suggests. “I’ll go with Changbin and Minho to support Changbin.”
Seungmin pairs up with Jeongin and Jisung pairs up with Felix as they leave their safe spot in the room and are almost immediately bombarded with projectiles. They find another button that is not yet pressed, and a button that is already pressed that is embedded in the floor before they suddenly feel a gust of wind. Seungmin looks around to see if he can find Minho, but then suddenly his eyes begin to sting and his throat burns.
“Ugh— what happened?” Jeongin coughs. “Is this the new challenge? Suffocating air?”
“I— I think so.” Seungmin nods and coughs too. Gosh, he wants to get out of here.
It’s hard to see where they have already been and where not, and Seungmin doesn’t know if it’s a coincidence that they barely bump into others or if the room is really that big, but it concerns him. Once they even find themselves back at the safe spot and it’s already worth a breath of relief to have a break from the projectiles and a bit from the suffocating air, but they have to power through.
When they finally find another button, Seungmin notices that the frequency of projectiles has increased and the air is even more suffocating and the sound is louder. As they push the button, the floor suddenly starts rumbling, almost making him lose his balance. Jeongin does fall over and bumps against Seungmin. They fall over clumsily, but when they stand up again, Seungmin notices that the frequency of projectiles has dropped again, and the other hindrances have lessened too.
“Wait, so— so the buttons are at spots with extra intense hindrances?” Seungmin remarks, flinching as a projectile hits his shoulder.
“Could be, but— ah— but how do we find those spots?” Jeongin stumbles again and Seungmin catches him.
“Uhm, just try?” Seungmin suggests, but Jeongin can’t hear him, so he repeats it again more loudly, and his throat burns from the suffocating air.
Jeongin nods and they ungracefully stumble along, tortured by all the projectiles hitting already bruised spots.
“Ack—” Jeongin is hit in the stomach by a projectile and doubles over. They were already supporting each other, but Seungmin still has to catch Jeongin.
"Shit— Jeongin, are you okay?"
"Ugh, it hurts—" the younger whimpers, and Seungmin tries to get him to a safer spot, they won't get anywhere if Jeongin is in pain.
Seungmin sure hopes that the rest, and especially Hyunjin, is in a better condition because otherwise they won't get anywhere and it'll only get more dangerous. Just as they manage to get to what Seungmin thinks is their usual safe place, a loud boom sounds, making them flinch. Seungmin doesn't know if he wants to know what the sound was, but it soon becomes clear as the smoke slowly dissipates and an opening in the walls reveals itself. We did it?
Seungmin hoists Jeongin up and drags him towards what seems like the exit of the escape room. It looks like Jeongin gained some energy because they basically run towards the exit, and they see everyone else there too— except for Hyunjin. Seungmin’s heart drops again and he swallows away a lump in his throat.
"Seungmin! Jeongin!— Innie, are you okay?!" Felix runs over to them to help support Jeongin while Jeongin says that he's okay. Seungmin knows that Jeongin will survive, what he wants to know now is if Hyunjin is okay.
"Has anyone seen Hyunjin?" Seungmin asks urgently, and panic shoots through his chest when everyone shakes their head. He tries his best to remain calm, but his heart is trying to pound out of his chest as he determinedly turns around. "I'm going back— oh thank goodness." As soon as he turns around, he sees Hyunjin stumbling out of the room, looking completely beaten up.
Seungmin sprints towards his friend, who immediately leans on him for support and lets Seungmin help him out. Seungmin sags down on the ground as soon as he can, worry and fatigue causing his legs to become jelly.
"What were you thinking going off alone like that?!" Seungmin hisses worriedly, voice cracking as he inspects Hyunjin's bleeding nose and bruises. "We were all worried sick!"
"Sorry, I just… I just thought that I could be useful for once since magic wasn't needed," Hyunjin explains, exhaustion evident in his voice but also in the way he leans on Seungmin. "I remembered that I had a strengthening potion left, and Minho had to bring Changbin back, and the room was all time-sensitive, so I thought I had to go as soon as possible."
"You could've waited a little longer so that someone could be there with you, help you if you needed it." Seungmin tries his best to keep his voice steady, and he feels a hand on his shoulder from one of his teammates. "What if you got hurt and we couldn’t find you?”
Hyunjin presses his lips together in guilt and sighs. “I’m sorry, Minnie. I— I wasn’t thinking, I guess… Maybe I thought I would find you guys on the way.”
“As long as you don’t do something like that again,” Seungmin mutters and pulls Hyunjin in a hug in hopes of conveying that he isn’t actually mad.
“Yeah, it all turned out relatively fine now, but it could have gone wrong,” Chan agrees with Seungmin as he crouches and rubs over Hyunjin’s back. “I appreciate that you were trying to do it for us, but let’s all stick together when we say to stick together, okay?”
Hyunjin nods, his head still lying on Seungmin’s shoulder.
“Great job, by the way, everyone, I’ll see if I can get Sana—”
“Guys!” Kahee comes running towards them together with Sana. “Did you see? You got second place in the escape room!”
Huh? Seungmin’s mouth falls open in surprise, he had completely forgotten about the competition and placement as he was worrying over Hyunjin. He wants to stand up and cheer, but Hyunjin is too heavy on him, so everyone crouches down for a group hug instead.
“I knew you would do well.” Kahee and Sana look proud and Sana asks them who wants some healing first.
Seungmin volunteers Hyunjin and Hyunjin complains that he doesn’t want to let go of Seungmin, but he doesn’t resist when multiple people lift him up and basically hand him over to Sana. Kahee then asks them about the escape room, and they learn that Hyunjin managed to find six buttons in the last room because he figured out the pattern of the extra intense hindrances near buttons.
As they wait for the rest of the teams to finish the escape room and for the judges to count all the scores and prepare the final award ceremony, they relax on the grass and one by one stop by Sana to get some healing, but even with the healing, Seungmin is exhausted. He sees that everyone else is tired too. Jeongin is lying on Felix’s lap while Felix is leaning on Minho’s shoulder, mirroring Changbin on the other shoulder, and Jisung leaning on Changbin while Hyunjin is leaning on Jisung, all with arms around each other. Seungmin smiles at the sight before he thanks Sana and heads over to sit with them and signals Chan, who is talking to Kahee, that he can stop by Sana now.
“Hey,” Seungmin greets his friends softly as he sits next to Hyunjin and leans back on his hands.
“Hey,” Hyunjin greets back and Jisung tiredly waves at him. The former sits up a little and watches Seungmin with a contemplating look. Seungmin can tell that there’s something on his mind.
“What’s on your mind?” Seungmin asks softly, in case Hyunjin doesn’t want others to hear, but Seungmin thinks Jisung is spacing out anyway.
“Just… just wanted to check if you— if we’re, you know, good,” Hyunjin mumbles, fidgeting with his hands, and Seungmin almost didn’t hear him, but he already expected something like this.
“Yeah, of course,” Seungmin assures and reaches for Hyunjin’s hand to hold. “I was just worried, I wasn’t mad. As Chan said, you did it for the right reasons, but I hope you know that you don’t have to prove yourself to us. I mean, you basically pulled everyone through every round with your potions.”
A bashful smile appears on Hyunjin’s face and a small burst of warmth erupts in Seungmin’s chest at the sight.
“I guess that’s true.” Hyunjin’s cheeks bunch up cutely and Seungmin feels like kissing them. "You also did great. Oh! Which reminds me—"
"All teams please gather at the main stage. The award ceremony will start soon."
Everyone jolts up from their slumped positions and Hyunjin squeezes Seungmin's hand before Seungmin pulls Hyunjin up with him, still giving him a curious look.
"I'll tell you later," Hyunjin winks before he pulls Seungmin along to the main stage.
Hyunjin intertwines their fingers when they arrive in front of the main stage and Seungmin lets out a long breath of relief. They did it. It’s over, and they did well. Those realizations are slowly sinking in. He knows that they most definitely won’t even make it in the top half of the ranking, but they did their best and they spread the message they wanted to and they managed to get at least a few people excited to join the academy.
First, the organizators give a speech about the sponsors of the competition and what it has brought forth and so on, until it’s finally time to announce the final ranking. They are announcing it one by one, from the last place, tenth, up to first place, and taking the time to mention where every academy did well, which is nice.
“And then for the eighth place: Nora Magic Academy!”
Applause sounds along with some muttering and a few boos, but Seungmin doesn’t mind those. He is already happy that they aren’t last in the eventual ranking, they’re close to the tenth and ninth place, but also to the seventh and sixth place.
“After a rough start with a controversial performance and an unfortunate broom race, they made a comeback in the robot fight and escape room where they could show off their strong teamwork,” the announcer says, and despite his mildly monotone voice, Seungmin feels proud. “They are a great example of the fact that two or multiple mages combined can be stronger than those mages separately.”
“And we’re even stronger with our trusty potion maker,” Jisung comments, and the rest immediately agrees, patting and shaking Hyunjin as they praise him.
“Yeah! Hyunjin you are at least as great as any mage,” Changbin tells him and a chorus of agreements sounds again.
“Thank you,” Hyunjin beams brighter than the sun before they are interrupted by the announcer moving on to the seventh place.
After the ceremony, they hang around and make use of the drinks and food that are offered as they chat and bask in how well they did. Some people stop by to ask them questions, some ruder than others, but also curious people that are mostly interested in Seungmin and Hyunjin or in what resources Nora Academy has for different types of magic.
“Guys, can I get everyone’s attention again?” Chan calls when the last few interested students leave. “I know you might be sick of all the speeches, but I just want to tell you again how proud of you I am. I promise I’ll keep it short.”
Seungmin chuckles and feels Hyunjin’s arm swing around his shoulder, so he instinctively puts his arm around Hyunjin’s waist.
“We came here and did exactly what we planned to do and got the results we wanted,” Chan continues with a big grin on his face. “We inspired people and made them feel accepted, and we already see a handful of people being interested in the academy, but if we’re lucky the word spreads, and even more students will apply.”
“And on top of that we did well in the areas of the competition that we wanted, and our placement isn’t important, but eight is a good number.”
“Eight is definitely a good number!” Felix agrees. “Group hug!”
They basically crush each other in a tight hug and laugh in happiness, relief, fondness, and more. For once in a long time, Seungmin feels light, relaxed, and genuinely happy with himself and his life. He has made the best friends he can imagine, and he finally believes in himself and his magic again, that he deserves this all as much as everyone does.
“Right! Seungmin,” Hyunjin turns to him as they pull out of the hug, and Seungmin swallows in anticipation. “You said you finally believe and know that I mean all of my compliments and praises towards you, right?”
Seungmin nods, a smile tugging at his lips as Hyunjin’s expression lights up again.
“Does that mean… does that mean that you..?” Hyunjin trails off, hope shining in his eyes, and Seungmin feels six other pairs of eyes on him.
“Yes,” Seungmin answers vaguely on purpose, he can’t really put into words what he’s feeling. He turns to the rest too and smiles widely. “Thank you all for everything so far, for being open-minded from the beginning onwards and being my friends even when I got insecure and messed up, or when you guys were being judged for standing up for me. It has all helped me in accepting that I do in fact deserve the same respect and happiness as anyone else, and it helped me embrace my magic.”
Loud cheers and yells of happiness erupt and Seungmin can’t help but laugh at the dramatic reactions. As expected they end up in another group hug, and Seungmin feels positively amazing . After the hug, they disperse a little again, but Hyunjin sticks close to Seungmin, looking like he still wants to say something, but is hesitant to.
“What is it this time?” Seungmin chuckles, his happiness still lingering in his smile.
“Uhm, I was just thinking…” Hyunjin rocks back and forth on his feet as he purses his lips in thought, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks. “Would now be a good time to talk about… about us?”
Seungmin’s eyes widen a bit, but his smile only grows bigger again as he nods and takes a small step closer to Hyunjin. “Sure. I’m ready for that.” I’m ready to give myself to you , is the thought that crosses Seungmin’s mind, and it kind of startles him, but he also really feels confident enough to be able to finally give Hyunjin back what Hyunjin gives him.
Hyunjin’s eyebrows raise and a sweet smile appears on his face. “Really? Are— are you only ready to talk about it, or… or also ready for like… more?” Hyunjin whispers the last words, but they still make them both blush.
“Well, we’ve been acting a bit like a couple for the past few weeks, so…” Seungmin trails off, gathering the courage to say his feelings out loud. Imagining the smile that will probably appear on Hyunjin’s face already gives him more than enough confidence, so he continues, “And I feel like I can really be myself now and give you the attention and— and the affection that you deserve. So... if you want it too, I would like to continue that, and… and maybe even make it official?”
As Seungmin expected, a blinding smile overflowing with joy and fondness decorates Hyunjin’s pretty face and he steps closer to gently cradle Seungmin’s face in his hands and lean his forehead against Seungmin’s.
“I would very very much love that, Seungmin,” he whispers, breath fanning against Seungmin’s lips before Hyunjin resolutely kisses him.
This isn’t the first time they kiss, but it is the first time that Seungmin can fully relish in it, fully participate and let himself enjoy it, and gosh he enjoys it. Hyunjin’s lips are so soft against his and Seungmin slings his arms around Hyunjin’s back to pull him flush against him. Hyunjin gasps and pulls back for a second before Seungmin dives back in for more. He tries to convey all of his still unsaid feelings and gratitude and love through the kiss, through how his lips move over Hyunjin’s, how he clenches and unclenches his grip on Hyunjin’s shirt, and how he dove in for more. In return, Hyunjin’s feelings come across in the way he sighs into the kiss, the way his thumbs and palms brush over Seungmin’s cheeks, the way his fingers cradle Seungmin’s jaw, and the way he tilts his head to make them both feel even warmer than they already felt.
Their kiss slowly becomes more languid before they eventually pull back and come back to reality. Hyunjin softly smiles and Seungmin mirrors it as Hyunjin’s hands caress his cheeks one last time before they fall down to his shoulders.
“Woo!”
Seungmin jumps and Hyunjin yelps as they hear a whoop and some clapping, of course coming from their friends, who look like they have seen them kiss just now.
“Are you guys official now too?” Felix asks. Seungmin nods bashfully while Hyunin voices his answer, after which the rest cheers again. “What a great way to end this day.”
Seungmin wholeheartedly agrees with that. This had already been a great day, and now it is even better. Seungmin feels like nothing can bring him down, he feels like he can do anything, and he can see that his teammates, his dear friends, feel the same. This wasn’t only a great day, Seungmin feels like this day will be the start of many more great days to come.
And he is right. The headmasters congratulate them vigorously when they come back to the academy the next day and proudly tell the students about it. Some students even walk by to personally congratulate them and sometimes even chat a little, and they seem more open to them. On top of that, lots of students stop by the academy to either already apply or ask them questions, see how things work at the academy, and so on.
After a month or so, the headmasters happily announce that Nora Academy has gotten enough applications to keep existing and maybe even apply for more funding. This lifts the spirit of many students, and along with the new students, Seungmin knows that they are heading the right direction. He knows that they will continue to grow and continue to inspire people to be more open and accepting to both people with unconventional magic and strengthen the bond between mages and non-mages.
The End.