Archive of Our Own ^beta

In hindsight, Woojin should probably have warned Minhyun to be careful before he entered the dance studio.

They had been lucky it was an empty afternoon and only Daniel had been there to man the front desk while they used the main studio for extra practice, after missing a few sessions that week no thanks to their midterms week in school. Jihoon had insisted they should go, if not to catch up then to avoid whatever absurd activity Minhyun would have them do, day off be damned. I’ve let you slack off on your training because school’s just as important, the older man had said, but if you have nothing else to do today, we have a lot to catch up and review, so be ready to fly with me by sunrise.

So you see, dance practice was the perfect way out of having to wake up in the ass crack of dawn (Jihoon’s words, not Woojin’s), either to collect rare herbs on the summit of Jeongsan Mountain or to purify abandoned houses next to small businesses that, according to Minhyun, needed “all the extra energy the universe has to spare in order to thrive”. They’re not boring things, per se – Jihoon and Woojin chose to become apprentices, after all. High school, however, wasn’t entirely their choice –, but Minhyun could be an overbearing tutor at times, and, in all honesty, all the two boys wanted after so many exams was a little bit of rest, not to burn their brains trying to tell leaf shapes apart or drawing endless purification circles around possibly haunted places.

Their only option to escape their tutor’s firm grasp was to nap at the studio under the pretense of practicing.

(granted, they did pretend to be warming up and even turned up the music when Instructor Daniel peered inside the room to check on them before going to the front desk again)

It was meant to be a peaceful nap, but nothing was ever really peaceful to the duo that some people had dubbed Team Pink Sausage, back in their days of worse mischief; no one could have imagined their excess energy was due to unpolished magic coursing through their veins and not ADHD, like so many doctors had attempted to diagnose them with. Their bickering started once Jihoon misplaced a few of the yoga mats they had stolen to sleep on, and would have ended with Woojin confiscating them back to keep the studio tidy had he not insulted the older boy by calling him a pig and thus awakening his rage.

The consequences of their actions took form in their tutor, Minhyun, sprawled on the floor after a giant white Samoyed dog excitedly leaped on him as a form of friendly greeting, slobbering all over his face and (formerly) impeccable clothes.

A surprised and dirtied Minhyun was not a Minhyun either of the boys ever wanted to deal with.

“So this is what you called me for,” he deadpanned, staring dead-eyed at the dog, who only yapped happily back at him. “Where’s your teacher?”

Jihoon let out a loud bout of laughter, trying to act casual; a sharp jab of Woojin’s elbow to his ribs told him he had failed. “It’s a funny story.”

“I’m all ears”, Minhyun replied calmly.

Too calmly.

A surprisingly calm and collected Minhyun, even under a heavy dog, face glistening with its saliva, as he listened to their tale of how whatever had happened in the studio happened was the Minhyun they wanted to deal with the least.

 “You”, Minhyun pointed accusingly at Woojin after a few moments of the awkward silence that followed when Jihoon was done talking. Woojin immediately shrunk on his spot; Minhyun’s voice, however, remained even. “You turned your dance instructor into a dog to prove a point.”

“No”, Jihoon interjected petulantly. “He tried to turn me into a pig to prove a point. Niel hyung just happened to be in the way.”

“You deflected my spell!” Woojin protested, ready to lunge himself at the blonde. “And you aimed at hyung on purpose!”

“He was at the wrong place at the wrong time!”

“He was checking on us because you wouldn’t stop screaming!”

“Like you were trying to curse me quietly!”

The big dog whined in distress at the bickering; Minhyun pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, one of his hands wandering up the dog’s thick white fur to scratch behind its ears in an attempt to calm it down. “That doesn’t make things any better” he muttered, his voice immediately quieting down the two boys. “You weren’t even practicing.” The two younger boys shrunk further. “But you had more than enough time to try to curse each other.” Grunting under the dog’s weight, he motioned for the duo to come closer. “Come on, get him off me. We have a spell to break.”

Woojin hesitatingly approached them. “C’mere, boy”, he tried to call the dog, to no avail. The dog only stared at him in confusion before it sat down on Minhyun’s legs, making itself comfortable on the man’s lap. “C’mere.”

“Don’t call him boy”, Minhyun snapped, sitting up. “Have some respect, he’s still your teacher. Your hyung.”

The dog eagerly nodded, its tongue protruding out of its mouth in what seemed to be a smile.

“He—he can understand us?”

Minhyun rolled his eyes, gently trying to pry the giant dog out of his legs. “Of course. He’s still the same, but he’s also—” The dog barked and licked at his face again, wagging its tail; Minhyun pursed his lips in distaste. “He retains some dog behavior, too, that’s what I mean.”

“He seems to like you a lot”, Woojin commented, squinting at the scene. “Have you ever even met Daniel hyung before?”

His tutor shrugged, struggling to spread his legs under the dog, catching him by surprise when he succeeded, its behind suddenly hitting the cold floor. “In passing, I guess? I don’t remember him much.” The dog whined; Minhyun smiled apologetically at it. “I’ve been spending most of my time with the two of you since I moved back. You two are the only reason I’m here, anyway.”

“That’s a little depressing”, Jihoon muttered under his breath; Minhyun sent him a glare. “In any case, what are we gonna do, hyung? Is it easy to break?”

Minhyun slowly stood up, eyeing the dog carefully; it wagged its tail excitedly in return, but resigned itself to sitting on the floor. “I don’t have the materials for that here.” He stared down at his two apprentices. “How did you even get a hold of this spell? It’s advanced magic; you shouldn’t even be able to deflect it at your skill level, Jihoon.”

“Well”, Jihoon shrugged nonchalantly; Woojin quickly followed, straightening his shoulders. “We’re talented.”

“You said so yourself, hyung”, said Woojin. “Strong magical potential.” His voice cracked.

Jihoon remained outwardly affected, ever the good bullshitter. “We’re just that good.”

It took only one raised eyebrow from Minhyun for them to break.

(the dog, however, only barked in joy; it seemed proud)

The two boys exchanged a guilty look before Jihoon, once again, stepped in to explain. “We snuck a few of your spell books out after our lessons.” Minhyun’s eyes narrowed, but he braved on. “Hey, we were curious, okay? I had no idea training was so boring, I wanted the cool stuff.”

“We’re fairly good at the cool stuff, hyung, honestly”, Woojin added. “You should check us out some time.”

Minhyun didn’t look convinced. “Did you study how to reverse the cool stuff?” He huffed when the two boys winced. “That’s what I thought. Advanced spells are fun, but only when you don’t have to break them.”

“We’ve been training for so long, though”, Woojin whined. “And all we’ve done so far was so… bland.”

“Yet none of you seem to have mastered how to draw a simple pentagram”, Minhyun retorted. “I told you it takes time and patience. I know you have the time, but your lack of patience is very… testing.”

The two boys looked down; at least they had the decency to look ashamed when Minhyun scolded them. The elder sighed again, turning to the dog. “We’re taking him to my house, for now. If all my spell books are back in their respective places”, he said as he sent a glare towards his apprentices, “we’ll be able to find a way to reverse this.” He stared intently back at the dog, who barked happily at the attention. “It can’t be more than a simple animal transformation spell, right?”

“Right”, Woojin replied, a little too quickly. “Absolutely not.”

Minhyun briefly stared at him in suspicion, but said nothing else. “Let’s go, then.”

xxx

The walk to Minhyun’s home was a turbulent one, especially because transporting Daniel in his dog form turned out to be more inconvenient than expected. Minhyun had been fined for walking a dog without a leash and identification tag, and Daniel, already an easily distracted human, tended to be even more distracted as a dog. Thankfully, they made it back to Minhyun’s house before he could get lost or cause any further incident to Minhyun’s already suffering wallet (a hundred thousand won for a fine? Are they serious?).

Despite the two years of visiting Minhyun regularly for lessons and for tea, Jihoon and Woojin never failed to feel awed by how out of place the Hwang family hanok looked among the buildings in his neighborhood; yet, it barely seemed to be noticed or even acknowledged by passersby, despite the blatant discrepancy in height and size. They figured it had something to do with Minhyun’s family being composed almost entirely of wizards, who had most likely charmed the place in order to make it easily blend with the environment.

The duo and the dog sat by the courtyard steps, while Minhyun entered the house to fetch his books, muttering something about not getting their dirty paws on the floor he’d just cleaned, which Woojin figured was directed not only at the dog, but at the two of them as well.

(they were no brutes; they’d never entered the house with their shoes on! …except for that one time Jihoon had accidentally given Woojin a colorful nosebleed and they had to hurry inside to apply first-aid; Minhyun hadn’t been pleased with the dirty footsteps and the electric blue colored blood painting the floor)

Minhyun, never the bad host, came back with a stack of books and a tray with tea and a large bowl filled with water that he offered to Daniel, who yapped in what they’d assumed was gratitude before nearly downing his entire face onto it.

“You’re lucky you didn’t misplace them”, Minhyun said sternly before sitting himself down on the wooden floor, sipping his tea as he opened one of the tomes. Jihoon and Woojin soon were huddled on each of his sides, watching intently as their tutor pored over each book, a frown on his face.

Both Jihoon and Woojin knew little about Minhyun’s life before his return to Busan, two years ago, to train the two of them. Minhyun had traveled a lot before coming back, that much he had shared with them; he would often describe the places he had been to when the boys asked, or tell them small anecdotes about the locals he had met in each tiny village he had visited in his pursuit for new tomes and artifacts. They knew the small cauldron he used for quick-fix potions and elixirs had been a gift from an old Polish lady that had taken him in during a particularly cold winter, and that his favorite spell book was actually a Japanese one; Minhyun spared them no details of his wizardly life, but he remained a mystery in every other aspect.

Minhyun suddenly snapped his book closed, startling the two boys by his side. Daniel, who was currently busy sniffing every plant in the garden, also stopped to watch them curiously. “Spell instructions say it’ll wear off eventually, but they’re not specific about when that could happen.” He frowned, rummaging through the books until he found one of the Japanese tomes. “We could hurry up the process, though. A simple transformation like this shouldn’t be too difficult to reverse.”

He walked off, and came back carrying a small suitcase, which the boys knew to be where he stored his potion-making equipment. Few things had been more fascinating to them than watching Minhyun conjure all sorts of magic food out of that tiny cauldron, instead of the potions they’d expected from the classic wizardry books they’d read when they were younger. It’s my choice, Minhyun had explained, to make things look more familiar. More comfortable.

Daniel walked over to them, obediently sitting down at the edge of the wooden floor once Minhyun kneeled down to prepare his elixir.

“Can we help?”, Woojin asked, already crawling over to where Minhyun was carefully mixing ingredients; a stubborn hand to his face pushed him back and away from his tutor.

“No”, the elder replied coolly, pushing Woojin harder so he fell flat on his butt at a safe distance. “You’ll have to earn back your assistant privileges after pulling this one.”

Woojin pouted, but sat still where Minhyun had pushed him. Jihoon decided to try his luck. “What about me?”

“What makes you think you’re not grounded, too?”, Minhyun asked back, raising an eyebrow at him as he carefully added a small ginger root to the mix. Jihoon deflated, pushing himself to sit beside Woojin to watch their tutor work his magic. Daniel steadily approached the two of them, and, in a daring move, walked past them towards Minhyun, boldly lying down by his side and putting his (very big) head on the man’s lap.

What surprised Jihoon and Woojin the most was that Minhyun did not even seem disturbed by that intrusion. Well, Daniel hyung has no blame in this, Jihoon reasoned quietly, to which Woojin only nodded wordlessly.

Jihoon looked around, seemingly searching for something. “Where’s Woozi hyung?”

“He’s wary of big dogs”, Minhyun replied matter-of-factly. “Won’t be helping me today.”

The boys hummed in acknowledgement, then remained silent while watching their tutor work.

“This is actually a kompeito recipe”, Minhyun confided to his apprentices later, calmly stirring the cauldron as if he hadn’t been doing that for the past hours; that made Jihoon, who was dozing off on Woojin’s shoulder, stir from his almost-nap and nudge the younger to wake up, as well. “I didn’t want to ruin the surprise, but it’s still gonna take a while to be ready, anyway.”

Jihoon nodded warily, looking out to the sky; the sun was starting to set. Still half on Minhyun’s lap, Daniel had been knocked out cold asleep from the first five minutes he’d laid down. “It wouldn’t be safe for us to eat them as snacks, though, right?”

Minhyun laughed, never taking his eyes off the cauldron. “I’d hope you learned from that time you ate an entire pack of mood altering Pepero you charmed and made yourself cry for twelve hours in a row.”

The younger flushed with shame at the memory. “I did, hyung”, he muttered, staring intently at the cauldron when Minhyun exclaimed an aha and added a final dash of aconite to the mix.

A lovely colorful cloud emerged from the brew; Daniel snapped awake and lifted his head from Minhyun’s lap, watching it in fascination.

“It’s ready”, Minhyun announced cheerily, turning off the burner and carefully setting the cauldron on top of a wooden board. He slowly stirred the liquid one last time, then poured the contents into a bowl, where they immediately took the form of colorful little sugary stars.

Jihoon and Woojin had never failed to find the transformation fascinating.

Daniel sniffed the plate, now sprawled half on top of Minhyun, who had allowed him to take a long nap like that while he stirred the cauldron. Their tutor smiled encouragingly. “These should accelerate the wearing off process of the spell.”

The dog slowly stood, taking another whiff of the candy before staring at Minhyun again, whining low on its throat.

Minhyun reached out to scratch at its ears. “C’mon, it can’t hurt you to try one of them. I promise they’re not poisoned or anything. I just want to help.”

Still, not fully convinced, Daniel sat down and stared at the bowl of konpeito; it was starting to get dark out in the courtyard.

Minhyun sighed and carefully dragged himself closer to the dog, taking one candy out of the bowl and holding it close to the dog’s snout, yet he still refused to open his mouth.

“Look”, Minhyun started, a little frustrated, “I know you’re probably very confused about what’s going on and my… line of work, but I swear I just want to help you.”

Daniel could only whine in response.

“Don’t be scared”, the wizard tried to calm him down, “these will just help you turn back into a human, I swear.”

He reached down to pat the sides of the dog’s face just as the sun disappeared in the horizon.

It happened fast; one moment later, instead of a dog, Minhyun had a lapful of a very naked man half on top of him, and found himself holding onto human face, as well.

Woojin screeched in surprise; Jihoon only raised an eyebrow, then refrained from looking at his dance instructor’s bare rear, his mouth shut in a tight line to avoid laughing.

“Oh”, was all Minhyun could say about the situation; he didn’t look embarrassed in the least, but the suddenness of the transformation had caught him by surprise just as much as the dog leaping on him earlier that day previously had. “Jihoon, could you please fetch your instructor a few of my clothes? It’s getting cold.”

Jihoon didn’t need to be told twice; he immediately scrambled to his feet, shuffling out of his shoes before running inside the house.

Daniel stared at Minhyun, looking a little dazed. Woojin, who had covered his eyes the moment Daniel had turned human, spied on Minhyun through the gaps between his fingers. “Is he—is he okay, hyung?”

Minhyun shook his head, letting go of Daniel’s face. “He’s still a little confused. Probably still thinks he’s a dog.” He snapped his fingers in front of Daniel’s eyes, finally awakening him from his daze. “Daniel-ssi?”

Daniel blinked once, twice, narrowing his eyes at Minhyun at first, then looking down at himself. He squeaked, blushing as he fell on his butt to the floor and out of Minhyun’s reach. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry about—”

“Don’t sweat it”, Minhyun told him gently, holding his hands up. “I should have figured this would happen once you turned back and brought you a blanket or a towel, at least.”

From inside the house, they could hear Jihoon yell Soojin noona please don’t go outside right now, sounding very distressed; Minhyun let out a small laugh, prompting Daniel to do the same. Woojin covered his eyes again the moment he realized Daniel didn’t seem very inclined in covering himself up just yet; how and why Minhyun was so calm and composed during the whole situation, he had no idea.

“I’m glad it wore off on its own”, Minhyun admitted, shyly running a hand through his hair. “This was my first time trying to reverse a spell like this; I wasn’t sure the kompeito would work.”

Daniel nodded in understanding, seemingly relieved, as well; confusion soon took over again. “So… this… what exactly do you guys do?”

Minhyun cleared his throat to call Woojin's attention; the younger immediately uncovered his eyes, back straightening at the unspoken command (regretting doing that, as his instructor remained naked and unbothered to cover up just yet). "I'm a wizard", Minhyun started carefully, watching Daniel's face intently. "They're my apprentices. I have been tutoring them for two years, now. I hope not to have to erase your memory of today's events, so please don't tell anyone."

Daniel had a fascinated glint to his eyes (great, Minhyun thought, groaning inwardly, another Harry Potter enthusiast), and an almost childish smile when he asked, "Did you go to school for that? Like, Hogwarts or something? Oh, man, that's so cool—"

"I didn't", Minhyun quickly corrected him, watching his face fall slightly in disappointment. "Real life wizard training is a little... different. And a little more lonely, if you don't have a tutor."

Woojin perked up at the new information. "You didn't have a tutor, hyung?"

Minhyun shook his head. "I come from a family of witches. Traditionally, we're supposed to leave our house for training on our own at sixteen."

"Is this why you left Busan, then?", the younger asked, tilting his head to the side; a habit he had learned from his tutor, himself.

"Yeah, I went to Seoul for training, at a friend's house—" He interrupted himself when Jihoon emerged from the door, a bundle of clothes under his arm and a small black cat perched on his shoulder. "Ah, Jihoon, please hand him the clothes—I'm not sure they'll fit—", he muttered, giving the other man's body a quick onceover before realizing that could be inappropriate, given he was naked, and looking away, "—but they'll do for going back home, for now?"

Daniel nodded, stifling a giggle at MInhyun's embarrassment. "They'll do, thanks." He then smiled at the cat, excitedly reaching out to pat it when Jihoon gave him Minhyun’s clothes. The cat immediately retracted, jumping out of Jihoon’s shoulders to hide behind Minhyun’s. the rejection didn’t seem to affect Daniel. “Cute cat!”, he exclaimed, much like a child; Minhyun gave him an exasperated but fond look.

“It’s my familiar”, the wizard explained calmly. “He doesn’t really like dogs. I suppose you must still smell like one to him.”

Daniel frowned, discreetly sniffing himself, then shrugged before putting the new clothes on.

Once Daniel was fully dressed (it came as no surprise to anyone that he and Minhyun happened to be the same size, the majestic towering broad-shouldered creatures they were) and proper introductions had taken place, (and Minhyun had made his two pupils bow in an apology to their dance instructor for inconveniencing him, to which Daniel just laughed and waved them off; it was kinda fun to be a dog for a day, he'd said, much to Minhyun's dismay) Minhyun soon was seeing the trio out, bowing to Daniel himself in yet another apology.

"I told you, it's okay! Kind of unexpected, but okay, I swear", the other man had reassured him again.

Minhyun frowned, but nodded and decided to drop the subject. He turned to his two apprentices. "You better never try this again", he threatened them, looking the scariest Woojin and Jihoon had ever seen him act. Lesson learned, they thought as Minhyun soon returned to his usual sweet self to talk to Daniel again. "I'm pretty sure the spell wore off on its own, but—if you experience anything weird, please feel free to contact me or come over again. I take full responsibility for whatever these two idiots inflicted on you."

Woojin and Jihoon winced; Daniel smiled and nodded as Minhyun handed him a slip of paper with his number. "Modern witches use phones, huh?", he asked amusedly.

"We're witches, not cavemen", Minhyun deadpanned back, effectively making Daniel giggle (he laughs at anything, Woojin had told him earlier that afternoon during the strenuous preparation of the kompeito). "Anyway, please feel free to call me if anything happens."

"And if I call you just because I feel like it?", Daniel asked, a mischievous glint to his eyes. Behind him, Woojin and Jihoon fake gagged, shaking their heads vigorously at Minhyun, who hadn't seemed to catch on to the undertones of Daniel's question.

"You would be wasting both of our times", he replied simply, no real bite to his tone. He glanced over at the boys. "You better be here tomorrow morning, or I'll personally hunt you two down. You have a lot to do to make up to me."

Jihoon nodded, unbothered; Woojin gulped, but nodded along.

As soon as Minhyun closed the gate behind him, Daniel's face fell into a disappointed frown; Jihoon burst out into laughter, lightly slapping his hyung's shoulder like the disrespectful dongsaeng he had always made sure to be. "That was cold, hyung", he said as they started walking away.

Woojin glared at him, trying not to seem amused. "Don't be mean to hyung."

Daniel shrugged, smiling despite himself. "It's okay. I still got his number, didn't I?"

"I had no idea you were into Minhyun hyung", JIhoon commented, looking slightly disgusted. "You could have asked us to turn you into a dog long ago if you'd told us."

"Hey", Daniel protested, frowning at him. "I don't remember asking to be turned into a dog today."

"You loved the experience, though", Jihoon smirked knowingly at him. "Slobbered all over hyung, sat on his lap, pounced on him—"

The older man blushed, groaning as he ran a hand through his face in frustration. "I have no idea what came over me. I didn't mean to—"

"It's okay, hyung", Woojin reassured him, "dogs are more transparent about their feelings, so it's not like you could really control yourself in that form. You just acted according to how you felt. I read on the spell instructions that it tends to happen: the transformed person will often give in to the instincts of the animal they've been turned into."

"That doesn't really help", Daniel groaned. "Now he knows, and he still rejected me."

Jihoon shrugged. "Plenty of other fish in the sea. I wouldn't want you to waste your time on someone like Minhyun hyung, anyway."

"Yeah, hyung's a bit too closed off", Woojin added. "You wouldn't really match well."

Daniel pouted, but didn’t argue. "If you say so..."

After they had parted ways (I'm pretty sure I left my wallet and all my belongings in the studio and I should retrieve them, Daniel had said before he started his jog towards the studio, which thankfully was within walking distance from Minhyun's house), Woojin paused mid-walk, almost making Jihoon crash into his back.

"Jihoon", he said, eyes open wide and slightly vacant, "do you remember which spell I went for?"

Jihoon glared at him for the abrupt stop. "I don't know, the basic transfiguration one? I don't think you were angry enough to want to turn me into a pig forever."

Woojin scratched his head, still in doubt. "I suppose I wasn't. Never mind, then."

They walked into the station in silence; Jihoon eyed Woojin suspiciously when he wouldn't speak more than two words, but didn't try to pry. It was an exhausting day as it was, and they would need all the energy they could muster to put up with their tutor's nagging and with the long hike they would probably be subjected to as punishment for their deeds that day.

Jihoon sighed inwardly. At least the dog issue was over.

xxx

Minhyun had never been one to oversleep.

He was an early riser, effortlessly so. Cold school mornings were never a problem, nor was waking up before dawn to watch [creatures] or collect particularly shy mushrooms. No one who knew him would go as far to say he was a morning person, good mood be damned, simply because waking up early only meant he had more time in the day to nag everyone around him, his family included.

Which was why Soojin preferred to let Minhyun sleep in whenever she noticed he hadn't woken up yet at his usual time; the moment she noticed the door to his room still closed, she decided to pass by as quietly as she could muster and call their parents for breakfast, instead.

(Minhyun would often bicker with her over that, whining that she should be considerate and wake him up along with everyone else if he ended up sleeping in; his protests would often go ignored, however)

So when Minhyun had to be shaken awake by Soojin at seven in the morning halfway through spring, he knew something was up.

"You have a visitor", she said simply, shaking his shoulder a little more vehemently. "Don’t keep him waiting."

Minhyun groaned as she left, stretching his limbs under the covers before dazedly sitting up on his bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Woozi, the cat, watched him curiously from its cushion, placed next to the bookshelf.

It had been a while since Minhyun had last received a visitor, usually magical creatures passing by and asking for small blessings, charms, and even offerings. The Hwang household was used to their presence, and never denied any passerby what they'd requested; no ill-intentioned being could trespass the ancient wards set upon the place, anyway.

Most creatures wouldn't mind being received by a host still in his pajamas, so Minhyun decided to try his luck, dragging his sock-clad feet towards the living room as he buttoned up his pajama shirt; he wasn't a monster, he would at least look presentable. Woozi easily fell into step with him, curious about the visitor as well.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting", he said as he walked into the living room, pausing when his eyes met the guests and he had to do a double take. "Daniel?"

Sitting on the couch, all four dirty paws on it, in full Samoyed form, was Daniel, looking sheepish even though he couldn't seem to stop wagging his tail.

Woozi made a run for Minhyun’s room.

xxx

The moment they entered the courtyard, Jihoon and Woojin were immediately seized by their ears by a very angry Minhyun and dragged inside; they barely had time to kick off their shoes before Minhyun threw them into the living room, unceremoniously pushing them towards the couch. Daniel watched the scene and whined low in his throat in empathy for the boys.

"Explain", the wizard demanded.

Jihoon pushed Woojin off of him and out of the couch, then held his hands up, reaching for his very red right ear and wincing in pain. "I have nothing to do with this!"

"You know you do", Minhyun retorted, then glaring at Woojin, sprawled on the floor, looking just as pained. "That wasn't a simple transfiguration charm."

Woojin shook his head, staring at Daniel with eyes as wide as they had been the previous night, when he had realized the same. "It wasn't, hyung."

Minhyun glared at him in disbelief. "Curse of the werewolf, Woojin? Really?"

The younger scratched his head, looking anywhere but at his tutor. "My actual wording was werepig, hyung, but I guess that's not how it works, is it?"

"It's not", Minhyun nearly shouted in frustration. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to break a curse?" He ran a hand through his hair in distress; from the couch, Daniel whined louder.

Jihoon quickly reached out to scratch behind his ears like he had seen Minhyun do the other day.

"I-I don't, hyung. I'm sorry."

The wizard started pacing on the living room; the two boys braced themselves for the scolding of their lives. "Why would you even try cursing someone, Woojin? Do you know the implications of it? The consequences? Cursing your best friend? What were you even thinking, I thought I'd made myself clear about the weight a curse has on your magic; gods, out of all the things I've taught you, this one—"

They let him speak as much as he had to, tuning him off five minutes into the lecture; even Daniel seemed to no longer pay attention after a while. When Minhyun was done (when he'd ran out of breath, actually), red-faced and disheveled, he let out a long sigh before plopping himself down on the couch, by the dog's side.

"Go home and pack up, Woojin", he announced weakly, wrapping his arms around Daniel for comfort; the dog's tail started wagging again despite himself. "We're going to Seoul to break this curse."

"Seoul?", Woojin asked incredulously. "Can't we sort this out... here?" His voice grew weaker as Minhyun's glare at him intensified. "Guess not", he mumbled, staring at the floor in fear.

"You're in no place to question me or complain", Minhyun warned him; Woojin didn’t seem pleased in the least, but he quieted down, nodding in acceptance.

Jihoon shifted his feet, warily watching his tutor. "What about me, hyung?"

"You stay", Minhyun announced, voice strained in anger. "Someone has to catch up with school for Woojin."

"But—"

"I know you wanted to visit Seoul", the elder said sternly, "but you're not, this time. This is your punishment."

Jihoon widened his eyes, looking very close to throwing a tantrum, but one simple glare from Minhyun was enough to shut him down. "This is so unfair", he whined, instead.

Minhyun shrugged. "We'll be visiting my favorite shop", he taunted, smiling in satisfaction when Jihoon groaned in frustration. "A friend's apothecary, too", he added, laughing when Jihoon dramatically threw himself on the armrest of the couch and buried his head into a pillow to refrain from screaming. "A bird emporium, if we find the time."

"Stop taunting me", Jihoon grunted against the soft material. "I accept my fate."

Minhyun frowned at him. "Good. As you should."

Woojin cleared his throat, glancing sheepishly at Minhyun. "Do I really have to go?"

"Are you even asking that?", Minhyun retorted. "Do you know how long a curse lasts before it wears off?"

"Curses wear off, now?", Jihoon asked with genuine curiosity.

"They lose strength over time", Minhyun replied. "Unless you keep channeling energy onto them, they'll eventually weaken too much to have the desired effect." He looked down at Daniel, who had laid down half on top of him on the couch, tense and whining low. "Daniel’s predicament isn’t so bad, given the nature of the curse that allows him to retain his human form at night, but it’s very troublesome for someone who works day shifts. It could take months or even years for a curse to weaken, though, which is why we need to find a quicker way to break it."

Daniel whined louder; Minhyun gently petted his head. "I'm so sorry for inconveniencing you, Daniel-ssi. I promise we'll find a solution before the end of this week."

The dog could only nod and nuzzle Minhyun's leg.

xxx

“So here’s the travel plan”, Minhyun explained, handing Daniel and Woojin their train tickets. It was past 8pm; they had waited until the sun set again for Daniel to turn back into a human; it would be a little more difficult to take a big dog along on a train ride, after all, and Daniel had needed the time to cancel his appointments for the week. Minhyun had also wanted to confirm the specifics of Woojin's curse, and once he found himself with yet another lapful of naked Daniel as the sun set, he had more than enough information to know what it was.

("Don't you think he's kind of lowkey taking advantage of this situation?", Jihoon had asked Woojin once both Minhyun and Daniel had burst out into laughter at Daniel's naked form.

"Who, Minhyun hyung or Daniel hyung?", Woojin asked back, watching them in mild disgust.

Jihoon chuckled before throwing Minhyun's spare sweatpants at them. "Good point.")

"We're taking the 9pm train, then we're staying over at a good friend of mine's for the night. We'll browse shops for the things we need during the day, and hopefully we'll find everything – and everyone – we need before night comes." He looked over to Daniel, twisting his mouth apologetically. "I know it's very invasive and awful, but I—I took the liberty of buying a leash and a collar for—for your dog form."

Daniel brushed his concern off. "Don't feel sorry, hyung. I wouldn't want you to be fined because of me again."

Minhyun sighed in relief; Woojin only rolled his eyes. "Thank you for understanding.”

Jihoon watched them sourly from the couch, furiously petting a very distressed but also very patient Woozi. “What’s this ritual, even? Going to Seoul to do something you show us all the time sounds a bit… too much, doesn’t it?”

“I can’t break a curse on my own”, Minhyun explained, seemingly relieved someone had interrupted that awkward exchange. “And it’s much easier to find a curse specialist in a bigger city. I happen to know a few, but—well—we’ll find someone else, I suppose.”

Both Jihoon and Woojin stared at Minhyun curiously, but made no comment; they knew their tutor wouldn’t share any more information with them than that, if he could.

As they prepared to leave, Jihoon lifted Woozi off his lap, shaking the cat up in the air to call Minhyun’s attention. “Isn’t Woozi hyung coming with you guys, too?”

Minhyun shook his head, reaching out to gently pet the cat. “He’d get too stressed around Daniel as a dog. Besides, I don’t trust you enough to leave you alone, Jihoon. He’ll take good care of you.”

Jihoon groaned. “I’m not a kid.”

“You’re the second most stubborn apprentice I’ve ever had”, Minhyun retorted. “If you’re really going to practice alone, the least I can do is have Woozi watch over you to clear up your messes.”

Woojin snickered; Jihoon glared at him.

“I’d be offended at the implication that I’ll make messes”, Jihoon replied, scrunching up his nose in distaste, “but I think I’m more interested in snatching that first place.”

Minhyun rolled his eyes. “My point exactly. Don’t kill my familiar out of stress, Jihoon.”

“I’d never do that to Woozi hyung!”, Jihoon exclaimed, legitimately offended. By Minhyun’s side, Daniel tried reaching out to pet Woozi as well, eyes shimmering in feline fascination. The cat sent him a glare before leaping to Jihoon’s shoulder, effectively deflecting his hand. Daniel pouted dejectedly, whining at the rejection.

He easily accepted Woojin’s affections in the form of a light scratching under his chin. “Bye, Woozi hyung”, the younger said to the cat, who purred in response to his ministrations.

“Don’t die or kill anyone, Jihoon”, Minhyun said as his form of goodbye to his apprentice.

“I make no promises”, Jihoon replied, smirking playfully. “Try not to miss me too much, Woojinie.”

Woojin rolled his eyes. “Try not to let that big head of yours fall off your neck.”

Minhyun chuckled, smiling fondly at the scene before seemingly catching himself and steeling his expression back into neutrality; Daniel had picked up on that, but said nothing.

xxx

The train ride was somewhat awkward.

Daniel and Minhyun were awkward, in fact. Woojin, half-watching them from his seat right behind theirs, half focused on beating a Gym Leader in his 3DS, could tell there was tension in the atmosphere between them. As loud as his tutor was when spending time with them, Woojin knew for a fact that he was as awkward as Woojin himself when stuck with strangers, and Daniel was pretty much a stranger to him. Getting close with his dog form was an easy task, because who ever rejects a dog’s affection?, but Daniel the human seemed to be a different story.

To his credit, Daniel had made a few attempts at conversation, but Minhyun was quick to either shut him down or respond so blandly to everything Daniel said the atmosphere would only grow more awkward.

Ask him about cleansing magic, Woojin thought, trying to channel his efforts into mentally convincing Daniel of choosing a better conversation topic (one that would have Minhyun talking out of his mind, really). Minhyun would have told him that’s not how it works, but Woojin had never been one to stick to the norms.

Gods, he was really spending too much time with Jihoon.

“So”, Daniel tried again, suddenly flustered when Minhyun turned his full attention to him (something Minhyun would do all the time, but never failed to stun the words out of the weaker ones at heart). “Woojin mentioned you like doing, uh, exorcisms or something like that?”

“They’re called cleansing rituals”, Minhyun quickly but gently corrected him. “I’ve been told I’m… particularly good at them. Don—a friend of mine would say it was because I also like cleaning in the… literal sense.”

“Minhyun hyung does seem like a very tidy person”, Daniel observed, chuckling when Minhyun seemed to shrink in his seat in embarrassment at the compliment. “How are those different from exorcisms, though?”

Oh, he’s in for a ride, Woojin thought, highly amused.

Minhyun lowered his voice, suddenly self-aware that they were in a public place where discussing witchcraft would probably be frowned upon, if anyone decided to pay attention to them. “Exorcising spells are meant to banish spirits from the place or area they’re haunting, but they don’t prevent new unwanted spirits from finding those places to haunt again.”

Daniel nodded, seemingly fascinated. “And cleansing rituals do?”

“Exactly”, Minhyun smiled, pleased at Daniel’s curiosity. “They purify the place so its aura will no longer attract ill-intentioned spirits again. It’s not a one-time wonder, though – you have to redo the ritual in order to keep it effective. It’s—much like curses work. How most magic works.”

Woojin stopped paying attention the moment Daniel asked how to perform a cleansing ritual – having Minhyun talk your ears off could be fun at times, but he wasn’t willing to suffer through it when he knew there was a lot of scolding to be done to him on the days to follow.

He knew Daniel wouldn’t last long, either, and his suspicions were confirmed the moment he heard light snoring from the seat in front of him. He could tell Minhyun was disappointed the moment his voice faded in shame at having made someone sleep while he talked.

Woojin gingerly reached over the front seat to squeeze his hyung’s shoulder in a gesture of comfort. “Don’t worry, hyung. He does that a lot, it’s not your fault.”

Minhyun sighed in defeat, resigning himself to take a nap, as well. Woojin groaned inwardly as he realized he would have to wake them up when the train stopped in Seoul.

xxx

“I’m sorry for the surprise visit, hyung”, Minhyun told the man holding the door open for them. “You know I wouldn’t have come if this wasn’t an emergency.”

The man, who Minhyun had introduced to the other two as Aron hyung, shook his head, smiling serenely at the trio. “Don’t worry about that. Call me selfish, but I’m just glad you came to visit at all. It’s been a while, Minhyun-ah.”

Minhyun nodded, lips pressed tightly. “Yeah”, he replied awkwardly as Aron guided them to the living room. “This is a terrible idea, but it’s the least I can do.”

“A spell mishap, then?”, Aron asked, sitting beside Minhyun and gesturing for Woojin and Daniel to sit down as well. “Happens to the best of us.”

“More like a curse”, Minhyun deadpanned back, wincing when Aron frowned at him. ”I have very… creative apprentices. But this is why I need your help.”

Aron nodded, looking over to Daniel, who perked up at the attention, staring at the two of them curiously. “Shapeshifting curse?”

“Reverse werewolf curse”, Minhyun corrected him, making a face at Woojin. “My apprentice messed up, which I’m thankful for. It’s easier to lift, isn’t it?”

Woojin looked down in shame; Aron let out a chuckle and Daniel, who was nervously chewing on his fingernails while watching their exchange, smiled tentatively as well. “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never broken a curse before”, Aron admitted with a shrug.

“What do you even mean?”, Minhyun quickly asking him, suddenly growing uneasy. “I thought you were the one who—"

“Minhyunie”, Aron interrupted him calmly. “Have you contacted—”

“No”, Minhyun hastily interrupted him, his mood shifting into sourness. “And I won’t. This has nothing to do with that.”

Aron stared concernedly at the younger, but didn’t push the subject, not in front of his apprentice and the cursed man he was trying to help. “What are you going to use to lift the curse?”

Minhyun hummed in thought, then reached out of his bag, digging out a few of his tomes from it. “I was thinking of an antidote – a more powerful version than the simple shapeshifting antidote we learned, maybe? This isn’t a curse based on actual spite”, he glared at Woojin again, “but out of pettiness. That’s why I think it requires something stronger than a simple reversal spell.”

“I see where you’re coming from”, Aron agreed, leafing through one of the books Minhyun handed him. “Maybe the boys over at the Apothecary could help you out with the formula.”

The younger wizard groaned. “I didn’t want to see them, but I guess I have no choice.”

Aron frowned. “You can’t come to Seoul for this kind of matter and not expect to see any of your old friends. Where else would you go for ingredients, it not to them?”

“Uh”, Minhyun scratched the back of his head, “less reliable places?”

The elder barked out a laugh, lightly slapping Minhyun’s shoulder. “You wouldn’t last five minutes in the Alley. I know I didn’t.”

“You know nothing”, Minhyun retorted stubbornly, scrunching up his nose. “But I’ll go to Youngmin’s first.”

“As you should”, Aron replied sternly, his laugh dying down. “Don’t try to get your apprentice and your dog boy killed out of escapism.”

“Would that even be escapism, though?”, Minhyun asked; Woojin felt he was about to burst with curiosity at their exchange. “I’m pretty sure Hyunbin’s crew’s still prowling around the Alley.”

Aron shook his head, smiling widely. “Nah. You’d be surprised if you saw them. They’re running a pretty neat café in Hongdae now.”

Minhyun sighed. “Are you kidding me? Why is everyone moving there all of a sudden?”

“That’s just how our modern Korean witch community works, I guess”, Aron reasoned. “Gotta keep everyone close.”

“I’m gonna meet so many people I don’t want to meet”, the younger grumbled, sinking into the couch.

“It’s almost like you hate them, and we know that’s not true.” The elder stood up, stifling a yawn. “I’m gonna make you guys some tea. You have a long day ahead tomorrow, so we should probably follow your friend Daniel’s lead and get ready to sleep now.”

Minhyun and Woojin glanced over at Daniel when Aron chuckled and left to the kitchen. He was knocked out cold on the couch, head tilted to the right, snoring lowly through his slightly open mouth.

Woojin shrugged. “See? He does that all the time, hyung.”

This time, Minhyun looked way too endeared to Woojin’s liking when he stared at Daniel. “That’s kind of cute”, he said before he could catch himself, scowling at Woojin when he snickered at that. “Don’t push your luck, you’re still grounded.”

“You’re not my mom!”, the younger protested.

“I’m legally responsible for you for the duration of this trip and I say you’re grounded”, Minhyun replied, unrelenting at first; he soon found himself breaking at Woojin’s scrunched up face. That would be Jihoon’s influence, Minhyun thought before sighing one last time and ruffling his pupil’s hair. “Take your tea and go to sleep, Woojinie. We have a long day ahead tomorrow and everything needs to go smoothly if we’re going to stay outside for so long with Daniel.”

Woojin nodded despite himself before scooting closer to Daniel to gently shake him awake.

xxx

The next day, very little went according to their plan.

Despite having lived for years in Seoul prior to moving back to Busan, Minhyun had never really mastered the art of moving around the city smoothly. Luckily for them, Aron lived only a few neighborhoods away from Hongdae, where most of the places they needed to visit were located; still, Minhyun had managed to get them lost twenty minutes into their journey.

Daniel was surprisingly reasonable when leashed. He would never leave Minhyun's or Woojin's side, depending on who had control over his leash at the time, and his big city fascination was not as distracting as it could possibly have been; he would look around at times, but one slight pull to his collar would set him back on track whenever he'd start wandering off.

(People would often throw them second glances every time Minhyun profusely apologized for pulling him a little too hard, or for even having to pull at him at all; Woojin was quieter in his apologies, but he still followed his tutor's example)

It took them two hours more than originally planned to find the Apothecary, a nondescript little shop located in a quieter alleyway. Bells rang as they opened the door, and Minhyun immediately ducked behind a taller shelf before the two men at the front desk could see him.

"Oh wow", one of the men at the front desk said when he spotted Woojin, who wasn't hiding at all, and a big white fluffy tail peeking out of the same shelf Minhyun was hiding behind. "Aron hyung really wasn't joking. Hwang Minhyun, is that really you?"

Woojin glanced at Minhyun, who seemed way too close to hitting his head against the shelf on purpose. Daniel watched him amusedly as he left the safety of the shelf to greet the shopkeepers, smiling wryly. "Hey, Youngmin. Donghyun."

The two men beamed at him; Youngmin left the front desk and boldly walked towards them, wrapping both Minhyun and Woojin in a tight embrace.

(Woojin panicked; I don't even know him and he's hugging me, this must be part of my punishment, he groaned inwardly)

"Are you Woojin or Jihoon?", Youngmin asked the younger, still smiling brightly.

Minhyun scowled. "How do you know their names?"

"Aron hyung", Youngmin cheerily replied just as Woojin muttered his own name. "Nice to meet you, Woojin-ah! I'm from Busan, too, did Minhyun tell you that?"

"Minhyun hyung told me nothing about you", Woojin deadpanned back, sending his tutor a look; Minhyun at least had the decency to look ashamed. Youngmin seemed unaffected, his grip on the two of them still strong.

With his leash loosened, Daniel wagged his tail and circled them excitedly, wanting in on the group hug. Youngmin let them go to pet his head. "And this is the cursed guy, right? Welcome to our store, buddy!"

"Did Aron tell you guys everything?", Minhyun whined in annoyance (yet, he still looked fondly at both Youngmin and Donghyun, who had also left the front desk to greet them). "I bet he told everyone."

"Spreading the gossip is our job, Minhyunie", Youngmin joked, putting a hand on his friend's and Woojin's shoulder to gently guide them towards the back of the shop. "Everyone's very excited to know you're in Seoul."

"What for", the wizard deadpanned. "They'll be happier when I leave again."

Donghyun, who followed them closely, frowned. "Why do you keep on saying that, hyung? Haven't you talked to—"

Minhyun immediately interrupted him. "No. Stop trying to make that happen."

Youngmin sighed, letting them go to open the door to the backroom, leading them inside. "Is that why you keep on leaving us all on read? Because you haven't talked to him?"

"I shouldn't talk to him", Minhyun replied simply. "He doesn't want that either, I'm sure."

"You're wrong, hyung", Donghyun quips, but a look from Youngmin makes him drop the subject. "Anyway, Aron hyung told us a little about the curse, but we're gonna need to take a closer look at your friend to see what could be done."

The back room to the apothecary was very much like what Woojin had imagined a potions lab of sorts was like, except without the dungeons aspect a little too many Harry Potter books might have made him imagine. Large shelves that occupied most of the walls, full of large tomes and great varieties of herbs, colorful concoctions, and even a few strange objects and creatures inside glass cases. The arrangements were neat, and there was an old times aura to the dark wooden walls and floor; the desks, filled with cauldrons of different sizes and class receptacles or all sorts, had some chaotic order to them. Woojin suspected it wasn't the kind of tidy Minhyun would appreciate, but he could tell it wasn't difficult to navigate their organized mess.

Donghyun pulled two rustic wooden chairs from under their desks. "Please have a seat. We'll examine your friend, if that's okay."

"His name's Daniel", Minhyun offered, pushing Woojin down to sit on one of the chairs as he walked closer to where Youngmin was kneeling down in front of the dog. "He's a muggle", he added jokingly, letting out a small laugh when Daniel barked and wagged his tail excitedly at the reference.

"A muggle getting cursed", Youngmin said, humming in thought. "Do I want to know the full story?"

"You'll have to, unfortunately", Minhyun sighed. "Tell them, Woojin."

The two shopkeepers grew increasingly amused as Woojin told them about his intent to curse Jihoon and how he thought changing the words to a curse would change its nature; when he was done, Youngmin turned to Daniel again, watching him intently.

"So it's like Aron hyung said. Pettiness instead of spite." He hummed, then stood up and walked towards a bookshelf, pulling a large tome out of it. "A stronger form of Wolfsbane might do the trick, though."

"That's what I was thinking", Minhyun beamed, satisfied with his own line of thought. "Do you think you can make it today? I'll pay you in whatever form you'd like."

Youngmin nodded, frowning as he browsed through the pages of the tome, trying to find the recipe. "That's the thing. We're fully out of a few ingredients."

"And it's very convenient that you guys came in now", Donghyun added. "You do know where Mandrakes grow in Korea, right, Minhyun hyung?"

Minhyun suddenly tensed up; Woojin volunteered in his stead. "Jeju Island, right? Hyung told us that once."

Youngmin nodded, seemingly unaware of Minhyun's current struggle. "Your apprentice's learning well, Minhyunie!" He smiled sheepishly when he noticed Minhyun's withering stare. "Finding them is difficult enough as it is. I think it would count as a good form of payment for our services."

"You just want an excuse to make me go to Jeju", Minhyun retorted warily.

Youngmin firmly denied it being an excuse; Woojin watched them bicker back and forth over whether they were out of mandrakes in stock, curious about why Minhyun resisted the idea of going to Jeju so much. It couldn't be only because of Daniel; they could always travel at night, after all.

He figured he wouldn't last much longer without asking his tutor who was this person everyone seemed to want him to talk to.

Donghyun brought them tea in the midst of the discussion, and Woojin figured things couldn't get much more ridiculous from that point on, with Minhyun firmly determined to help Youngmin take inventory of their stock because he insisted everything was too messy for them to find what they needed (see, Woojin was right about their organization not being Minhyun's type of organization), and Youngmin's vehemence in denying there were any leftovers from the last time they restocked mandrakes.

"Besides, we made a few orders with Dongho last month that we have yet to pick. We could have our apprentice go, but he's a little too young to travel on his own", Youngmin tried to reason. Minhyun pressed his lips together at the first name Youngmin mentioned.

"And Dongho hyung's been busy as it is", Donghyun added, ignoring the look on the elder's face. "Did you know he took in two apprentices, as well?"

"That's nice", Minhyun said, voice strained. "But I'm not going to Dongho's, even if I end up going mandrake hunting for you guys."

Youngmin shook his head apologetically. "That's part of the payment, though."

"That's part of your evil plan", the wizard retorted. "Don't force me to talk to him."

"Please", Donghyun said, frowning at his stubbornness. "Aron hyung would be so happy if you did that."

Woojin finally snapped. "Okay, hyung", he interjected, flinching when everyone turned to him in surprise. "You said yourself we didn't have time to waste. Who's this Dongho hyung and why are you being so unreasonable about seeing your friends here?"

Minhyun looked taken aback, but he didn't scold Woojin for his nosiness, this time. "Now's not the time for that, Woojin", he said quietly, seemingly ashamed of his behavior. "But you're right, we shouldn't be wasting time. Make my payment a task list and I'll do whatever you guys need me to do."

Youngmin beamed at them. "Great! We'll also need you to do a few things around the city, too."

"Now you're just pushing it."

"Hey, curse breaking's expensive", Youngmin shrugged. "We really missed you, you know. Paying us a visit every once in a while wouldn't hurt. You'd be doing a lot of us a favor."

Woojin watched the face of his tutor soften for a moment before he schooled it back into distrust. There was no way he wouldn't agree with their price, now. "I'm not sure why they'd want to see me after—you know, but I'll do whatever you guys want me to. For Daniel."

Daniel showed no reaction to their conversation: he had laid down on the floor and dozed off halfway into the discussion.

xxx

If there was one thing Woojin learned from Minhyun and his family, it was that witch culture involved a lot of tea, be it for pure enjoyment, for impromptu teacup fortune telling (although Minhyun had always claimed to be bad at those) or to drink while settling a dispute. He had witnessed a lot of the latter in Minhyun's household, usually when Soojin decided to chime in with teaching advice for her brother only to be promptly brushed off in the most brattish of ways (Minhyun had no right to call him or Jihoon petty when he acted the same with his sister). Halfway through their bickering, tea would somehow happen, be it by their making or by ordering Woojin and Jihoon around. Usually, the person who made the tea or instigated the tea making would be the victorious one by the end of the discussion.

He wasn't really surprised to find out that habit extended beyond the Hwang household. Watching Youngmin convince Minhyun through tea (and basically emotional blackmailing, Woojin thought) to accept their task list and the trip to Jeju was quite the learning experience; not that Woojin didn't know, by now, how Minhyun preferred his cups (herbal or fruit infusions, absurd amounts of sugar), but confirming his suspicions that the tea also helped settle the winner of any debate was precious new information, especially when going against someone as stubborn as his tutor.

After texting Jihoon that very important information (and promptly receiving ten furious texts back about how he should feel bad for having so much fun and texting Jihoon during class while at it), Woojin focused on their current task at hand: finding the address Youngmin had written down for them to visit. It was supposedly a café (Woojin assumed it was the one Aron had mentioned the previous night, run by Minhyun's shady friends), but the alley it was located in was so empty and run-down Woojin was starting to suspect the two Apothecary guys might have set them up to a trap.

The number jotted down on the piece of paper Minhyun was currently holding led them to an abandoned two-story house. It seemed like it was still in construction when it was abandoned, and the front windows had their glasses broken; the wooden door was closed but had several dents in its painting.

"Not to be negative, but", Woojin said, giving the building a once-over, "I think your Apothecary friends were setting us up to be murdered, hyung."

"Not funny, Woojin", Minhyun deadpanned when Daniel whined in fear at the younger's words. "This is the place, according to Youngmin's map, so we're not lost, for once." He stared at the building, as well, looking for any clue. "There must be a catch. Count on Taehyun hyung to make them always hard to find. I should learn a bit from him."

He muttered that last part under his breath, but Woojin had heard it very well. "Who do you want to hide from, hyung?"

Minhyun was quick to dismiss him. "It's none of your business, Woojin."

Woojin huffed, looking down at Daniel when he nuzzled his leg in an attempt to comfort him. Minhyun made himself busy by scrutinizing Youngmin's note in his hands.

He turned the piece of paper around. "Oh." Woojin's head snapped up at hearing his tutor's voice again. "Donghyun wrote something in the back."

The younger walked closer, tiptoeing to peer over Minhyun's shoulder at the words hastily scribbled down in blue ink. "When you get there, pray at a shrine. Don't forget to make... a wish?" He frowned at the wording, then at the doodle of a black cat (Bring him along next time, Donghyun had written in small letters next to it; Woojin quickly realized it was a drawing of Woozi).

Minhyun chuckled, folding the piece of paper and safely tucking it to his jacket pocket. "That must be Kenta's doing." He walked closer to the door. "Have you ever been to a shinto shrine, Woojin-ah?", he asked, not looking surprised when the younger shook his head in response. "Follow my lead, then.”

Woojin hurriedly moved to stand by his tutor's side; with his leash loosened, Daniel did the same, watching them curiously. Minhyun bowed, once, twice, and Woojin bowed as well, glancing at him to check whether he was doing it correctly or not. Daniel bowed as well, stretching his hind legs while sliding the front ones to the front, looking down. It took all of Woojin's willpower not to laugh at the awkward yet adorable attempt at mimicking the humans. Minhyun then clapped twice, snapping Woojin back to reality, and he clapped twice as well, joining his hands together in front of his chest like Minhyun.

Daniel whined, hitting the floor with his front paws, frustrated at his inability to mimic them perfectly.

"Make a wish, Woojin-ah, Daniel", the wizard whispered, closing his eyes to concentrate.

Please end Daniel hyung's curse, the younger settled for, tightly closing his eyes as well.

Daniel's loud barking made his eyes snap open again; right in front of them, the house had fully transformed.

Magic, Woojin thought, was disappointingly simplistic in its ways, at times: there was no special sparkle to transformations and charms, no halfway point where the object being transformed would look like an amalgamate of both its forms, no turning at all. Things just became others in the blink of an eye, which was, in both Woojin’s and Jihoon’s opinions, very anticlimactic, given the portrayal of magic among common people they grew up so used to.

This is why sometimes it’s hard to tell whether someone has the gift or not, Minhyun had explained to them the day they met. Unless something impossible happens right in front of our eyes, like flying or spontaneously setting fire to something, it’s very hard to tell whether a transformation happened, or if we tricked our brains into believing thing had always been that way.

Yet, even that anticlimactic phenomenon had managed to scare Daniel out of his wits.

Minhyun quickly knelt down in front of the dog, ruffling its neck and head in soothing motions. “It’s okay, Daniel, that was meant to happen.” He smiled when Daniel let out a long whine that sounded more like a howl. “I was pretty surprised the first time I saw something like this happen, too.”

Daniel seemed unconvinced, but at least he had stopped barking. Woojin took in the new façade of the building, modern-looking but with a touch of traditional to it; at first glance, it looked more like a small mansion than like a café up front, but the large sign hanging above the door that read Just be Joyful Café in pretty cursive writing gave away its true nature.

“Is it open?”, Woojin asked, trying to peer inside the curtained windows.

Minhyun stood up slowly and made for the door, a still very scared Daniel following him close, his muzzle bumping onto the back of the wizard’s legs on occasion. “I suppose it is. It’s not night, yet.”

“It’s almost four”, the younger noted, glancing at his lit-up phone screen. “We can’t take too long.”

“We won’t”, Minhyun reassured him, turning the handle and letting out a satisfied aha when the door opened. “Keep track of the time for me, please.”

The interior of the house was as well-kept as its real, now revealed façade. Granted, it looked much less witchy than the Apothecary or even Minhyun’s house had, without that much of an antique flair, the furniture colorful and contemporary. The walls had been painted light, pretty colors, and once they had made it out of the hallway, they found themselves at what Woojin imagined was a waiting room of sorts, with couches and a center table in the middle, tall bookshelves and assorted flower arrangements decorating its walls and surfaces (Woojin could tell the arrangements had a different meaning to each of them; Minhyun had taught them about flowers and their possible meanings the previous spring, but Woojin admittedly had forgotten most of it out of disinterest). The arrangements were mostly dominated by a winged-looking white flower, standing taller than the others, that immediately called Minhyun’s attention.

He walked closer towards the arrangement on the center table, gingerly touching the petals of the white flower. “These usually only bloom in October”, he noted, curiously brushing his fingers against the texture of the petal.

“We wanted them to bloom forever, though”, a deep, raspy voice snapped Minhyun out of his thoughts. Woojin and Daniel both looked up at the same time at the newcomer: a very tall, ridiculously handsome young man dressed in all black except for a white apron tied around his waist. “Good to see you again, Minhyun hyung.”

Minhyun broke into a smile, also looking up at the man. “Did you do that, Hyunbin-ah?”

The mysterious tall man’s calm and composed façade crumbled right before their eyes; he made it to Minhyun in two large strides, enthusiastically sweeping him into his arms in a crushing embrace, his gravelly voice breaking like an excited child’s as he repeated his hyung’s name.

“We thought we’d never see you again!”, Hyunbin bawled, clinging to Minhyun like an overgrown child.

The wizard laughed onto his friend’s shoulder, gently patting his back. “It’s not like I was dead, Hyunbin-ah.”

“You never picked up the phone, though”, the younger complained, still not letting go. “We thought you hated us, but Aron hyung would always say that wasn’t the case.”

By his side, Woojin could hear Daniel’s confused grunting. He patted his head awkwardly, trying to find a way to explain the situation, but he was just as confused, himself.

“It wasn’t, really”, Minhyun replied catching his breath once Hyunbin briefly let him go (only to hug him even tighter after taking a second look and apparently realizing he was really there). “I thought you’d hate me, though.”

There he goes again, Woojin thought in annoyance, feeling his stomach flip in anxious curiosity.

Hyunbin pulled back again to look at the elder, confusion in his eyes. “Is this because of—”

“Ah, look who decided to finally show up!”, another voice echoed cheerily through the room. A relatively shorter, brown-haired boy emerged from the door, also donning an apron like Hyunbin’s, and quickly made his way to the two men hugging, pulling them by the waist to join the hug.

“Good to see you too, Kenta”, Minhyun said, enthusiastically hugging the shorter man back.

Once the trio was done trying to out-hug each other to death, the two men led them to the main room, sitting them down on a table before Hyunbin disappeared behind the counter and into the kitchen, intent on serving hyung and his friends some cake. Not that Woojin or Daniel were about to protest against having cake, despite Minhyun’s attempts at stopping Hyunbin from going.

Kenta sat with them; soon, three other very loud men emerged from the kitchen, running to cheerily pat Minhyun’s back or to shower his cheeks with very sloppy kisses. Woojin frowned slightly at the invasive behavior, but once Minhyun kissed the boy’s cheek back, he let it go; his tutor’s tendency to be touchy meant he welcomed the same levels of affection just as much, so he figured the kisses were making him more comfortable than not in that place.

Once Hyunbin came back with the cake and Minhyun properly introduced his apprentice and Daniel to them, they all sat down at the largest round table in the room to talk. Woojin had learned the other three men were called Sanggyun (the funny, full of himself one), Taehyun (the short one in charge of the management of the café), and Donghan (the tall, kissy one).

“Wait, Minhyun interrupted their loud chatter, frowning at the empty space still left on the table. “Where’s Yongguk?”

“He’s scared of your friend, hyung”, Donghan answered, looking over to where Woojin sat and Daniel’s head peeked out from his sitting position on the floor.

“Of Woojin?”, the elder frowned, looking over to his apprentice, as well.

Kenta laughed and shook his head. “Not Woojin, no—the furry one.”

Daniel barked indignantly. Minhyun paused, then laughed. “Oh.”

“He’s also upset you didn’t bring Woozi hyung along, this time”, Hyunbin added, eliciting a laugh from Minhyun.

“Well, Woozi is also afraid of Daniel in this form”, the elder said, shrugging.

They laughed at that; Taehyun didn’t let the short silence that ensued settle, cutting to the chase. “So, what brings you here? If you wanted to check the café out, you’d have done it a long time ago.”

Minhyun flushed in embarrassment at the elder’s direct words, but did nothing to deny them. “Didn’t Youngmin give you all the details yet? I thought he was spreading the word that I’m here around.”

“He did”, Hyunbin said, helpfully. “We just wanted to hear the details from you, hyung. What’s this about a curse?”

Woojin groaned; he knew Minhyun would continue to punish him by making him tell the same story to a bunch of strangers over and over again, and he wasn’t proven wrong when Minhyun demanded exactly that from him again. The moment he was done retelling his tale for the second time that day, he groaned inwardly as everyone laughed at his predicament.

“It’s just like you to have an apprentice willing to curse people for being untidy, hyung”, Hyunbin said among tears of laughter. Minhyun scowled at him, but didn’t try to defend himself, which made Hyunbin seemingly realize his mistake. “Wait, no—shit, I didn’t mean it like—”

“It’s okay, Hyunbin-ah, I know what I did”, the elder said, shrugging off their concerns. The atmosphere had suddenly changed from light and full of chatter to awkward and quiet.

Taehyun broke the silence. “You do realize it wasn’t your fault that time, right?”

“I don’t want to talk about it”, Minhyun cut him off, respect for his seniors be damned. Taehyun pressed his lips into a thin line, visibly angry, but didn’t push the subject; Donghan did it instead.

“We were—we were called in to check for collateral damage, hyung”, he said, voice uncharacteristically quiet for someone Woojin had pegged for loud and boisterous. “Back then, we had no idea what had caused that, but now—”

“I don’t want to talk about it”, Minhyun repeated, a little louder this time. Donghan opened his mouth to protest, but Taehyun sent him a look that made him quiet down. “What’s in the past is in the past. We have more urgent matters at hand, like—like him.”

He pointed at Daniel, who had an unreadable look on his face (maybe because dogs have little to no facial expressions, Woojin reminded himself). Taehyun leaned in to take a closer look at the dog, and Woojin briefly wondered what kind of information more advanced wizards could manage to gather from just staring at a cursed person – or animal –, figuring he wasn’t yet at their level to know.

“I think Youngmin’s plan is a solid one”, was Taehyun’s verdict. “You’ll still need what you came here for, though.”

“I thought we were here to make a delivery to Youngmin?”, Minhyun questioned, frowning.

The sixth person in charge of the café chose that moment to walk into the room, carrying a medium sized box in his arms. He wobbled towards the opposite end to where Daniel sat by the table, handing the box to Taehyun. “Here it is, hyung.” He turned to look at Minhyun, grinning at him. “Hi, hyung. You owe me a visit from Woozi.”

“Not my fault he didn’t want to come along, Yonggukie”, Minhyun reasoned, smiling back at his cat enthusiast friend. “What’s in the box?”

“Mandrake harvesting equipment”, Taehyun explained, removing the lid of the box to reveal two pairs of fuzzy ear mufflers and gloves. “Magically altered by a fellow technomancer coven to withhold all the screaming.”

“We had these commissioned for Dongho’s apprentices, actually, but we couldn’t find a way to make the delivery”, Kenta added, snorting when Minhyun’s smile turned into a half-scowl. “I don’t think he’ll refuse to lend them to you after you make the delivery.”

Minhyun took the box when Taehyun pushed it towards him, giving it one miserable glance before putting the lid back on. “And it all comes back to Dongho. What’s with this evil plan to make me visit him at all costs? I bet he doesn’t even miss me that much.”

“It’d be nice if you could visit Jonghyun hyung too—“, Hyunbin started to reply, but got suddenly cut off by both of Donghan’s hands squeezing his mouth shut.

Huh, another mystery name, Woojin thought, raising a questioning eyebrow at his tutor, who promptly ignored him to glare at Hyunbin.

“I’m not visiting him, ever.”

Hyunbin whined against Donghan’s hands; the younger suddenly yelped and jumped away from the taller man, staring at his own hands in disgust. Holding his tongue out, Hyunbin grinned triumphantly before pouting at Minhyun, visibly upset by his words. “You can’t avoid him forever, hyung.”

“I can and I will”, Minhyun retorted resolutely.

The atmosphere grew awkward again; Daniel whined and rested his head on Woojin’s leg, not comfortable at all with what was seemingly going on. Woojin wasn’t comfortable, either. As much as he was enjoying meeting the local witch community of another city, the fact that Minhyun was intent on dodging any questioning about his own past and acting as if he had committed a crime worse than Woojin’s (hey, he had come into terms that what he had done was generally frowned upon by the witch community, despite the general amusement of the people he had told his story to, so far).

Looking out the window, the apprentice noticed the sun starting to set.

“Hyung”, he called Minhyun’s attention, nodding towards the window, “we gotta run.”

xxx

Their visit to the café had been unceremoniously cut short after Woojin’s announcement; after profusely apologizing to Hyunbin and the others while pulling Daniel along a little too aggressively by his leash, Minhyun and Woojin set out running through the cramped alleys that had led them to the café, trying to find the way back to Aron’s as quickly as possible.

“We could have had Daniel hyung turn back at the café, though”, Woojin said, a little breathless from all the running, once they’d stopped in front of a bus stop.

Minhyun shook his head and looked around, trying to locate himself. “I didn’t bring him spare clothes and I didn’t want to embarrass him in front of other people—godddammit, where are we, even—”

“Somewhere in… Hondgae?”, Woojin tried to help, looking at the map open in his phone. Daniel whined anxiously, wobbling on his legs. “The sun’s setting in like, ten minutes, hyung, I don’t think we’re gonna make it, and running back would be counterproductive—”

“Shit”, the elder cursed, taking out his own phone from his pocket and shoving the box they’d received onto Woojin’s arms. “I should have known we’d get lost again—wait.”

Woojin followed Minhyun’s eyes, focused on a residential building on the other side of the street they were in.

“I knew it, I’m not lost—“, Minhyun muttered, dialing a number on his phone. “I’m fucked, but I’m not lost.”

He put the phone next to his ear, waiting for whoever he had called to pick up. Woojin and Daniel could only watch him in suspicion.

Whoever Minhyun was calling either had an incredibly loud voice or was simply screaming in surprise at the call; Woojin had never seen Minhyun call anyone who wasn’t his sister or his parents, so he was pretty surprised as well, despite his recent findings that Minhyun, indeed, had friends.

“Holy shit”, the voice on the other side of the call deadpanned, loudly yet full of disbelief.

Minhyun recoiled, moving the phone away from his ear a little. “Seongwoo.”

“Holy shit”, the voice repeated, “it’s you.”

“It’s me”, Minhyun replied, already tired of that exchange. “Seongwoo, remember that time I helped you purify your grandmother’s house only to have a dokkebi hunt me down for months for breaking a chair?”

“I thought you’d blocked my number.”

Woojin raised an eyebrow at that; Minhyun pinched the bridge of his nose in distress.

“Focus, Seongwoo. I need a favor.”

“Is it really you, though? It could be the dokkebi”, Seongwoo questioned; Woojin thought he did have a point.

“Very funny”, Minhyun snapped back, ignoring Woojin’s stare and moving towards the building instead; it was growing increasingly darker outside. “Do you still live in that apartment in Hongdae?”

Woojin pulled Daniel along by his collar, trying to follow Minhyun and screeching out loud when a car nearly hit both him and the dog.

Seongwoo’s voice remained as loud as ever as Woojin and Daniel settled beside Minhyun in front of the building. “I’m not trying to be funny, but—yeah—what the hell—”

“Seongwoo, I don’t have time for that. You have to let us in now—”

The other man in the call laughed in disbelief. “You don’t have time for that? You ghosted me for two years—”, Woojin could hear him gesturing frantically in indignance, “—to come back out of nowhere and ask me for a favor.”

Minhyun sighed. “Seongwoo, it’s a matter of public decency, we have to be quick—”

“Why do you think I’ll help you out?”

Yeah, why?, Woojin also wanted to ask.

The elder threw his head back in frustration, his voice growing uncharacteristically whiny. “Listen, you can yell all you want at me later, I’m a horrible person, I know the drill, but please, please, let us in—is your building pet-friendly?”

“What are you even bringing into my house”, Seongwoo asked warily.

“A friend”, Minhyun replied sincerely, then glared at Woojin, “and an eavesdropping brat.”

Woojin scowled at him; from the other side of the call, he heard a fine, come in.

Minhyun beamed at the phone before turning off the call; the iron gate to the building opened automatically a moment later.

xxx

The elevator ride to the twelfth floor was a tense one, the fear of Daniel Turning in the middle of it almost tangible, but they made it in record time, and, luckily, alone. As the one Woojin had assumed was Seongwoo (a tall, fairly handsome young man with dark hair and a small face) opened the door to his apartment, Minhyun forcibly pulled Daniel inside, unlocking his collar the moment Seongwoo closed the door behind them and making a run for the living room.

“Hey, don’t unleash your dog inside—he’s gonna dirty the couch, you don’t want that”, Seongwoo tried to warn them, but went ignored. “You paid for, like, half of it”, he muttered under his breath.

When Woojin walked inside the living room, after an awkward but brief greetings exchange with Seongwoo, Daniel was already in his human form, crouched on the floor stark naked and panting from the exertion. By his side Minhyun rummaged through his bag for something, hands slightly shaking.

Seongwoo walked in a moment later, the sight alone enough to make him stop in his tracks in disbelief.

“There’s a naked man”, Seongwoo deadpanned, “in my living room.”

“Oh, get over yourself, you’re not that allergic to men”, Minhyun retorted, throwing Daniel the towel he had retrieved from his bag.

“Where’s the dog?”, he asked, looking anywhere but at Daniel’s broad back as he tied the towel around his waist, smiling sheepishly at Minhyun as he whispered a thanks to him.

“I’m surprised no one told you, yet”, Minhyun replied simply, trying to sound nonchalant and failing. They looked at each other in silence; for a moment, Woojin thought they would hug, judging by the almost fond look in their eyes.

Seongwoo’s expression quickly changed to one of contempt. “I told Aron hyung I wanted nothing more to do with you after you blocked my number.”

“I’d told you to stop calling”, Minhyun tried to defend himself; Seongwoo was having none of it.

“And I told you to stop running away from your problems, you moron!”, Seongwoo shot back fiercely.

“And I told you to stop meddling with my problems!”, Minhyun snapped.

It soon grew into a screaming match; Woojin watched the exchange like a table tennis spectator.

Still clad in only a towel, Daniel nudged Woojin’s side. “Are they like, exes or something?”

Woojin shrugged. “I know just as much as you do about Minhyun hyung’s private life, hyung.”

Daniel hummed, then stepped ahead to try to gently pry the other two men apart before someone threw a punch. When he failed and went ignored, he decided to loudly clear his throat, immediately snapping them out of their frenzied arguing.

They simultaneously turned to face Daniel; Seongwoo groaned at being reminded that the other man was naked and looked away. Minhyun’s stare lingered for a little longer than socially acceptable before he looked away as well.

“Seongwoo”, Minhyun asked the other man, voice small and a little defeated-sounding, “could you please lend Daniel some clothes?”

“Yeah, sure”, Seongwoo replied a little too fast, turning back towards where Woojin assumed was his room. “He’s a giant of a hellbeast and he’s gonna rip all my pants, but sure.”

When Seongwoo disappeared into the corridor, Minhyun walked closer to both Daniel and Woojin. “I… used to live here. Seongwoo was my roommate back in my apprentice days.”

“Oh”, Woojin said, surprised and disappointed at the same time, “how come you never told Jihoon and I about your friends here, hyung?”

“I—“, Minhyun started, looking down in shame. “I know I owe you a decent explanation for—for pretty much everything you’ve heard from the people we’ve visited so far, but I’m not… ready to talk about that, yet.”

“So you’re gonna keep on lying to me and acting like there’s nothing wrong when everyone who knows you clearly knows there’s something up?”

“I’m not lying to you”, the elder protested. “I’m not—I’m not telling you a few things, but I swear I was gonna tell you when I felt ready—which I still don’t feel, for the record.”

“And when are you gonna feel ready?”, Woojin questioned.

“I—”

“If you’re trying to get him to talk about why he ditched all his friends a couple years ago, you better give up”, they heard Seongwoo say as he walked back into the living room, tossing Daniel a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants. “Idiot thinks everyone hates him or something.”

“Your friends clearly don’t hate you”, Daniel told Minhyun, frowning at him; Minhyun groaned, throwing himself into the couch almost like a child.

“He’s gonna throw a tantrum now”, Seongwoo quipped in amusement. “He’s not worthy”, he mocked Minhyun, who only huffed into a pillow. “No one will like me once they find out what I’ve done.”

“And what, exactly, have you done, hyung?”, Woojin asked his tutor, currently too busy kicking his legs and throwing a tantrum on the couch to listen.

That was an entirely new Minhyun to Woojin; he wondered if it was Seongwoo who brought the worst out of him, much like Jihoon did with himself. Daniel quietly asked Seongwoo for directions to the toilet, and disappeared into it as discreetly as he could to put on his borrowed clothes.

“Wasn’t much worse than cursing someone into becoming a part-time dog”, Seongwoo replied, shrugging. “Looked awful at first, much like all curses do, but—"

“It was awful”, Minhyun mumbled against the pillow. “And it ruined his life.”

Seongwoo raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Have you ever tried to talk to him after it happened? He’s cool with you, dude.”

“He shouldn’t.”

“Damn right he shouldn’t. Ditching your best friend when he needed you the most—that was the jerk move, you moron.”

Minhyun kicked his legs higher, seemingly hoping to find Seongwoo’s handsome face. “Gods”, he begged, “let’s end this conversation. Being here is bad enough as it is.”

“Good to know you wouldn’t even pay your second best friend a visit, if you could”, Seongwoo retorted dryly, “but I should have expected that.”

“I wouldn’t see anyone else if I could, Seongwoo, it’s nothing personal”, Minhyun replied, finally looking up from the pillow he currently had in a death grip.

Daniel quietly emerged from the bathroom and sat at the end of the couch Minhyun was currently throwing his tantrum in, gently catching his legs in the air and pulling them over his lap in an attempt at calming him down.

(Woojin saw Seongwoo gape at the scene, especially when Minhyun did stop moving, but neither of them made any comment on it)

Seongwoo quickly recovered. “And you think your hermit act is cute? You’re lucky no one else other than me ditched you for good.”

But you let him in, Woojin wanted to say, but refrained on doing so, afraid of causing yet another screaming match, this time against him.

Minhyun propped his elbows on the couch, leaning on them. “Do you want me to apologize or something? I did what I had to do.”

Seongwoo rolled his eyes. “A lot of people beg to differ, but sure, suit yourself.” He glanced at Daniel, who still had his hands on Minhyun’s ankles in a gentle grip. “Not that I’m curious or anything, but why were you running around the city with a cursed dog?”

“Hey, I’m only a dog during the day”, Daniel replied defensively, frowning at him. He then glanced over at Woojin. “Care if I explain, this time?”

“Please do”, Woojin pleaded, sitting down on an armchair despite Seongwoo showing no signs of wanting them around any longer.

xxx

Having Daniel in his human form smoothed things over with Seongwoo, in the end.

His version of the story – a fairly funnier one than Woojin’s, but only because it was his first time having to explain it to someone – had managed to get a little laughter out of both Seongwoo and Minhyun, in the end, and things ended somehow in Seongwoo inviting them to stay the night (I don’t think any of my shoes fit you, Daniel-ssi, he had explained, and Minhyun’s room’s still got his bed and some of his stuff he never came back to pick up) and in Minhyun offering to make them dinner (after running back to what used to be his room and shrieking in horror at the mess; Seongwoo had forgotten to add that he had also turned it into a storage room of sorts for all kinds of things, from books he no longer read to random artifacts he’d thought he’d find a use for one day).

Daniel, trying to make himself useful as the only non-magical person around, stuck with Minhyun to help him with the food; Seongwoo, not too interested in making himself useful, lounged by the kitchen island, awkwardly playing catch-up with Minhyun despite their spat barely an hour ago.

Left to his devices, Woojin decided to call Jihoon.

“Thought you’d never let me know if you’re still alive or not”, Jihoon quipped from the other side of the call; Woojin rolled his eyes.

“You spammed me with insults when I did, I wasn’t gonna try again.”

“I was jealous”, the other boy explained matter-of-factly. “Still am.”

“Petty as ever.”

“That’s what got us into this, wasn’t it?”, Jihoon laughed. “So, how’s hyung? How are both hyungs?”

Woojin glanced over to the kitchen, where Daniel helped Minhyun with chopping vegetables. Seongwoo made a joke and Daniel beamed as he watched Minhyun throw his head back in laughter instead of reacting to the joke itself. “They’re… I don’t know, Daniel hyung’s not really subtle, is he?”

Jihoon snorted. “That’s not what I was asking, but if you wanna discuss our teachers’ love lives, then fine by me”

“If I have to talk about the curse one more time—“, Woojin groaned, still watching the three adults talking in the kitchen. “Consider this me indulging your old gossipy aunty ways.”

“Rude”, Jihoon retorted, amusement in his voice. “Tell me what you see.”

Seongwoo had left the kitchen, mumbling something about catching up with work to Woojin before disappearing into his room. “They’re making dinner together”, Woojin observed.

“So disgustingly domestic”, Jihoon replied in mock distaste.

Minhyun leaned in closer to Daniel to whisper something Woojin didn’t catch from the living room; Daniel immediately had a fit of laughter, which made Minhyun laugh as well in return.

“Remember when we tried to set Minhyun hyung up with our Math teacher because we thought we could convince him to charm her into giving us better grades? Your idea, by the way.”

“Yeah”, Jihoon said as the two of them let out a short laugh. “Would probably have worked better if our teacher was a guy, but we had no idea back then.”

Woojin nodded, squinting at his tutor when he touched Daniel’s shoulder to call his attention in a completely unnecessary way. “True. Well, this kind of feels like when we stalked their date and mistook hyung’s kindness for, I don’t know, romance.”

“So like Timon and Pumbaa watching Simba and Nala get it on while hiding in a bush”, Jihoon completed for him. “Are you having any fun third wheeling?”

Woojin hummed in thought, scowling at Daniel’s back as he playfully bumped hips with Minhyun in front of the kitchen counter. “No. It’s no fun being a Pumbaa when my Timon’s not around.”

He could hear the mocking smile in Jihoon’s chuckle. “I’m the Timon? Aw, you’ve finally got one decent opinion.”

“I also happen to think you’re good-looking, so you might want to rephrase that”, Woojin retorted, turning away from the adults just as Seongwoo emerged back from his room to rejoin them in the kitchen.

“Aw, you’ve finally got two decent opinions.”

Woojin laughed despite himself. “Shut up.”

xxx

“Have you tried kissing him?”, Seongwoo asked Minhyun after dinner, sounding unsettlingly serious. Woojin and Daniel spluttered on their tea, while Minhyun only stared at the other man with an unimpressed frown.

“I thought it had been widely established by the community that kissing curses out of people is completely ineffective, contrary to popular – and by popular, I mean non-magical – belief”, Minhyun replied evenly, despite his inability to fight back a smile when Seongwoo rolled his eyes and muttered you’re no fun at him. “We’re going the Wolfsbane route.”

Seongwoo hummed. “Youngmin’s gonna make it, right? He was out of some stuff so he was gonna hire me to make a few deliveries for him in Jeju and get him some—oh, I see what he’s doing here—”

“Please”, Minhyun whined, “I’ll pay you as much as you want to go on my stead.”

“Nu-uh”, Seongwoo tutted, laughing when Minhyun grimaced. “I’d never deprive you of the opportunity of seeing Dongho again—”

“You just want him to punch me because you chickened out of doing it”, Minhyun deadpanned.

Seongwoo grinned at him. “Maybe, but you should also consider this: maybe he misses you as much as you miss him?” He laughed when Minhyun scowled and shook his head in denial. “You’d be in for a few surprises, too.”

Minhyun’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, surprises?”

“A surprise is a surprise”, the other wizard reasoned, shrugging. “You’ll have to find out for yourself tomorrow.”

Woojin and Daniel exchanged a look as Minhyun sighed into his tea. “I don’t like this one bit. I feel like everyone’s hiding something from me.”

“You tell me”, Woojin retorted with a snort, making his tutor blush in shame.

xxx

Woojin hadn’t realized he had fallen asleep halfway through the conversation with the adults until a short gasp woke him up. He frowned, unwilling to open his eyes, listening in to what seemed to be Minhyun’s voice, still too distant to make itself understood.

“… I feel responsible, Seongwoo. It’s not as simple as seeking forgiveness.”

“It’s as simple as paying him a visit, though”, another voice, which Woojin assumed in his sleepy daze was Seongwoo’s, replied with some urgency to his tone.

“And tell him what? I’m sorry for ruining your life?”

Woojin kept his eyes closed, still pretending to be asleep. Not too far from him, he could hear Daniel’s light snoring.

Seongwoo spoke up again, raising his voice a little in exasperation. “You’re taking this way worse than he ever did, trust me.”

Minhyun let out a bitter laugh. “I doubt that. I wasn’t on the receiving end.”

“Did anyone ever tell you the full story?”, the other wizard asked carefully after a few moments of heavy silence.

“F-full story?”, Minhyun questioned him in disbelief. “There’s nothing more to it, I know the properties of that tome—”

“No, you don’t—ugh, I can’t believe Aron hyung never managed to tell you—”

“There’s nothing you guys can tell me that’ll change my mind, really”, Minhyun replied resolutely.

Seongwoo sighed. “You can’t carry this burden like this forever. None of us want you to; is it so hard to believe that there are people out here that care about you no matter what happened in the past?”

“You’re wasting your time”, the elder retorted. “It could happen again, I could fuck up again and throw one of you under the bus, and then what? Are you still gonna trust me enough to have me around?”

Seongwoo’s tone grew resentful. “You trust yourself enough to take in two apprentices. You trust yourself enough to go out of your way to take responsibility for someone else’s mistake and fix that guy’s curse”, he spat; Woojin could almost see Minhyun shrink in his seat. “You’re just too chicken to face Jonghyun again and realize he’s doing just fine dealing with no longer having the one thing you’re afraid of losing the most.”

Suddenly, Daniel’s snoring stopped. Woojin froze in place, listening in to his dance instructor’s incoherent mumbling. The two other men grew silent, waiting for Daniel to fully wake up to say something.

Woojin decided to “wake up” as well, pretending to stir in place and stretching his arms above his head.

The atmosphere remained awkward even as they decided their sleeping arrangements; Woojin ended up taking Seongwoo’s bed against his will (you’re a growing boy, Minhyun had said, sleeping in the couch would be terrible for your health and growth, and maybe that was exaggerating things a little, but Woojin appreciated his concern and the reasonably comfortable bed, in the end), while Seongwoo took the couch. Minhyun and Daniel settled for sharing Minhyun’s former bed; Seongwoo looked like he wanted to protest when they decided that, but he only pressed his lips together after sharing a look with Minhyun.

Woojin wondered if he really wanted to open the can of worms that Minhyun’s past seemed to be.

xxx

There wasn’t really a way around to taking their trip to Jeju during daylight.

Minhyun had found a way around traveling with a big dog – Seongwoo had, in fact, by gifting them one of his glamours: a snazzy pair of sunglasses.

“Put it on Daniel”, he had said, “and everyone will think he’s a person. It works wonders when I don’t anyone to sit next to me in trains or buses – I just put it on my backpack next to me and everyone automatically assumes the seat is occupied by a real person.”

(Minhyun had glared at him at that; “You’re evil”, he’d said, much to Seongwoo’s delight, the awkwardness between them from the previous night seemingly nonexistent)

Minhyun and Woojin still could see through the charm; it was fairly funny to walk beside a dog in sunglasses, this time fully free from leashes, yet perfectly behaved during their bus ride to Gwangju, where they would have to take another bus to Wando in order to take the ferry. It was the cheapest and safest way to travel with Daniel, Minhyun had figured, despite the long travel time. Their wallets were weeping enough as it was with so many last-minute travel fares, but Minhyun was determined to go through with Youngmin’s task list.

Both bus rides were pretty silent; Daniel had quickly curled up between his and Minhyun’s seats to sleep through most of it, his head comfortably nestled on Minhyun’s lap once again, and Woojin spent most of the time texting Jihoon and playing Pokémon, homework be damned.

By the time they’d arrived at the port, it was almost sunset.

They played it safe, keeping the sunglasses on Daniel until they managed to sneak him into a restroom, hiding him in a stall and waiting it out until sunset came and he transformed back into a human.

Their ferry ride was a little less quiet.

“Hey, Woojin”, Daniel poked the younger, side. Being a weekday, there were only a few international tourists around and the occasional couple in the ferry, but their assigned cabin had been empty from the start. “Why do you call Woozi hyung?”

Woojin shrugged as if the answer was obvious. “Because he’s older than me.”

“In cat years, you mean?”, Daniel asked.

“No, in actual years”, the younger replied, counting something with his fingers. “Woozi hyung was born in 1996.”

Daniel gasped in surprise. “So he’s only a year younger than Minhyun hyung?”

“Yeah”, Woojin nodded. “Hyung comes from a very traditional wizard family, so they’re granted familiars at a very early age. Familiars aren’t like normal animals, you know. They live longer.” Daniel hummed in understanding, still watching Woojin curiously. “Some even have human forms, hyung told me, but those are usually attached to very powerful wizards. I’ve never seen one.”

“I see”, his instructor hummed, satisfied with his answer. He then proceeded to poke Minhyun awake. “And hyung,” he started, innocently enough, “what happened with this Jonghyun friend of yours? I think it’s about time you give a few answers to your apprentice.” He frowned, aware he was pushing it when Minhyun froze in place, looking simultaneously betrayed and indignant. “Please”, he whispered, gently putting a hand over Minhyun’s.

The wizard said nothing for a few moments, mulling over the question and attempting to sort out his thoughts.

Woojin spoke up first. “You’ve hidden from us for long enough, hyung. I don’t think I’m in any place to judge you for whatever you did. I mean, I did curse someone on accident.” Both he and Daniel chuckled at that, but Minhyun remained expressionless. “That’s bound to have some bad karma for me as well, as innocent as the spell was.”

Minhyun remained silent; when Woojin was about to give up and drop the subject, he heard the elder sigh. “I see none of you were really sleeping last night.” He sends them a look, but there’s no actual bite to it. “Fine. I’m not ready to touch that again, but fine. I should come clean if we’re going through the rest of this trip together.

“Before I came back to Busan and became your tutor, I was an… explorer, of sorts, along with a small group of friends. Seongwoo joined us on occasion, but he’d always preferred working alone, back then. Aron, Dongho, and Jonghyun were part of this group, along with a guy called Minki. They were my best friends; we went through most of our apprentice years together.

So, our job included travelling to different places and retrieving artifacts, tomes, and other magical objects, be it from other negotiating wizards or from abandoned places, tombs, and the occasional shrines. We would mostly take clean jobs, but there was always the odd wizard with the weird request that we had to comply with because we needed the money or the pay was too good to pass up.

Our last job together was to retrieve and translate an ancient scroll, all the way in Japan. Dongho and Minki were in charge of locating it, and Jonghyun and I would translate it.

It seemed to be a simple enough spell scroll as it was, so when I started working on it, I read it out loud to Jonghyun. Neither of us expected anything to happen from reading a spell alone; as you know, it takes putting energy into a spoken spell for it to take form.

That wasn’t the case with that scroll”, Minhyun paused, trying to get a hold of himself before he could continue with his tale. Daniel scooted closer, much like what he would do in his dog form, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as they leaned against the wall of their cabin.

“As I read the spell out loud”, Minhyun continued after taking a deep breath, “I realized it wasn’t a spell, not it worked according to my magic. It was a curse, engraved in the words written on the scroll, and whoever read it first would activate it.

“It was meant to hit me, but it never did; I’m pretty sure I deflected it on reflex, much like what I assume Jihoon did when you tried cursing him, Woojin. And it hit Jonghyun.”

Woojin and Daniel nodded in understanding. “But this—this Jonghyun didn’t die or anything, did he?”, the youngest asked, eyebrows knitted. “You talk about him like the curse killed him or something.”

“Or something, alright”, Minhyun muttered. “It did worse – it sealed away his magic within the scroll.”

Daniel frowned. “That’s not worse than dying.”

“It is to me”, Minhyun retorted quickly, slightly flustered. “Do you know how—how incredibly meaningless it would be to have no magic in a magical family? I’ve been raised in this world, Daniel, it’s not—not something I’m willing to have ripped away from me.”

“Wait, so… So Jonghyun no longer has any magic in him?”, Woojin questioned.

Daniel hummed in thought. “Born into  a magical family but no longer having any magic—like a squib, hyung?”

Minhyun stared at him blankly. “You do realize the only two words I know from Harry Potter are muggle and Gryffindor, right?”

“That would be my house”, Daniel beamed proudly; a sharp nudge from Woojin brought him back to the serious matter at hands. “Is this Jonghyun from a magical family as well?”

“No”, Minhyun replied. “But does it matter? He gave up so much to become a wizard, only to—to have it taken from him by my carelessness—I couldn’t face any of my friends after it happened.”

“But you had no idea the spell would do that, hyung”, Woojin tried to reason.

“I still deflected the curse, Woojin. On Jonghyun.”

“But you didn’t mean it”, the younger insisted. “You didn’t mean to hit him, you were only defending yourself. Like Jihoon.”

Minhyun grabbed onto Woojin’s arm, a frantic look on his face. “What if I did, Woojin?”, he questioned, slightly out of breath. “What if, deep down, I was willing to throw Jonghyun under the bus and save myself because I’ll always choose my magic over my friends? What if I end up doing it again?”

Woojin frowned; he had never seen Minhyun look this disheveled, not even after finding out about Daniel’s curse. “I don’t think you would, hyung”, he said, determinedly. “I’ve known you for two years, and you—you’ve always looked out for us so much. I trust you with my life, hyung, no matter what you think you’ve done in your past.”

“You’ve taken care of me very well, too”, Daniel added, tightening his hold on Minhyun’s shoulders. “I’m very grateful that you’re so determined to reverse my curse. I don’t think anyone has ever been this kind to me.”

The wizard glanced at Daniel in surprise. “I’m partly responsible for your curse”, he said, unconsciously leaning closer to Daniel’s touch, “yet you say I’m kind to you.”

Daniel shrugged. “Well, it’s not a lie.”

“I think”, Woojin quipped before he could fully become a third wheel, “we should pay this Jonghyun a visit when we’re done.” Minhyun scowled, but Woojin interrupted him before he could protest. “Please, hyung. Your friends want you to do that so much.”

For a moment, Minhyun looked like he would say no; Woojin and Daniel stared at him intently with the best puppy eyes they could muster, and Minhyun finally sighed and relented. “Fine. After we’re done. When the curse’s broken. And if I still can find his address.”

Woojin and Daniel beamed at him before going for a hug. That was a start.

xxx

Much to Woojin’s chagrin, when they finally arrived at the island, Minhyun produced two broomsticks from his travel bag, hastily handing him one once they were out of the port and out of sight.

“Money’s short”, the wizard reasoned. “And I tend to find my way around Jeju better when I fly.”

“But I can’t fly properly”, Woojin complained, staring down at his broomstick. “You know that.”

“That’s because you levitate the broom instead of levitating yourself like I keep telling you to do, silly”, Minhyun retorted, positioning himself over the broom. “Daniel, you’re flying with me.”

“Uh”, Daniel mumbled, a little awestruck, “I’m a little afraid of heights, though.”

“Just hold on to me”, Minhyun smiled warmly at him, trying to look convincing. “And don’t look down.”

“Easier said than done”, the instructor muttered as he positioned himself behind Minhyun, already holding tightly to his waist despite them not even having taken off, yet.

The first five minutes of their flight consisted of Daniel screaming into Minhyun’s ear as they gained altitude, and of Woojin scrambling to find a comfortable position on his broomstick, having given up on trying to levitate himself and doing it his usual way. Once Daniel had calmed down, he learned to enjoy the view of the island at night, dotted with bright points, the sound of the wind and the light of the stars in the sky their only guides.

Much to Woojin’s (and his thighs) relief, it wasn’t a long flight from the port to Dongho’s place, a cozy cabin located in a clearing in the more rural part of Jeju. On the ground, a sturdy, sort of scary-looking man, in Woojin’s opinion, waited for them in front of a brightly-lit shed.

“You’re late”, was the first thing the man told Minhyun when he touched the ground, dragging a very disheveled Daniel that still clung to him, dazed-looking and sleepy.

“What, you didn’t expect me to take a plane here, did you?”, Minhyun shot back, slightly annoyed. “It was a long trip.”

“And it’s the kids’ bedtime, but they wanted to stay awake to meet you guys”, Dongho retorted, getting a laugh out of Minhyun.

“I’d never pegged you for a family man”, the wizard quipped, glancing at Woojin and nodding towards the main house in a silent order for him to follow them. “That one’s my apprentice, Woojin. One of them.”

“I’d assume the big guy clinging to you is the cursed one, then”, Dongho shot back nonchalantly, interrupting Minhyun when he opened his mouth to make a retort. “Aron hyung told us everything; I still can’t believe you went to see Seongwoo before you came to see us.”

“I wasn’t planning on that!”, Minhyun protested indignantly. “I wasn’t planning on a lot of things during this trip, actually.”

“Good”, the other wizard replied emotionlessly, opening the door to his house. “You’re in for another surprise, then.”

They walked inside the house, only to be greeted by two smiling young men; Minhyun stopped in his tracks at the sight of them, looking very much like he wanted to disappear back to his bed in Busan right in that instant.

Daniel’s solid presence behind him stopped him from doing so; more because of the physical restraint than because of Daniel himself, but he could appreciate the intent.

“Minhyunie”, the shorter man of the duo said, smiling sweetly at the trio. “It’s good to see you again.”

Minhyun’s mouth opened in surprise, but no sound came of it at first; he quickly got a hold of himself, forcing a smile that didn’t really reach his eyes, apprehension taking over his body. “Good to see you, too”, he managed to choke out, strained and tense, “Jonghyun.”

xxx

The atmosphere was tense during dinner.

They sat in silence, none of them daring to say more than what was strictly necessary, mostly out of fear Minhyun would jump out the window and swim all the way back to Busan at the first mention of his past. Dongho’s two apprentices – Haknyeon and Guanlin, Woojin had learned after everyone got somewhat over the surprise of the first meeting with Jonghyun and Minki –, sat by Woojin’s side, watching the adults with as much apprehension as he did. They’d made small talk, at first, but once they realized they were the only ones talking, they fell quiet again in embarrassment.

Woojin now realized what Minhyun’s friends were hiding from him: Jonghyun’s actual location.

“I have”, Jonghyun himself broke the silence, pleasantly surprised when Minhyun looked up from his plate to pay attention to him, “I have been working a lot with herbs, lately. It’s really fun, and it pays well once you become a well-stablished supplier.”

“We’ve moved to Dongho’s a few months ago”, Minki added, finally feeling confident enough to speak. “I’ve been helping Jonghyun out, but we plan on opening a small apothecary here, as well.”

“We’re working on a partnership with Youngmin’s”, Dongho said, at last, seemingly satisfied at their semi-rehearsed little speech. Minhyun frowned at each one of them, but said nothing.

“Speaking of him”, Jonghyun quipped, “You came here for a restocking order, right?”

Woojin nodded when Minhyun showed no reaction.

“I can have it ready for tomorrow”, the herbalist said, looking straight at Minhyun. “We’ll just need a little extra manpower to harvest the mandrakes in the greenhouse.”

“So we won’t have to hunt those down?”, Woojin asked, staring warily at Minhyun, who remained silent. “That’s a relief.”

Jonghyun chuckled. “What kind of greenhouse would we be if we didn’t grow our own mandrakes?”

Daniel promptly volunteered. “I could help you in the morning.”

Minhyun immediately shook his head. “Mandrakes could be deadly to dogs. You’re staying far, far away from the greenhouse.”

“I’ll help”, Woojin said before silence could settle again. “Minhyun hyung, are you gonna help, too?”

“Of course”, the wizard replied, voice strained.

“So”, Dongho slammed the table, startling everyone. “Woojin was the one who cursed your friend, right.”

Minhyun nodded, relieved at the change of subject and unwilling to think about having to spend time with Jonghyun the next morning. “That would be him.”

“So he’s your Haknyeon”, Dongho quipped, expressionless even when his apprentice protested by yelling a loud hey!.

“Huh?”, the wizard asked, tilting his head slightly to the side.

“He’s your troublemaker”, Dongho explained.

It was Woojin’s turn to protest. “Hey!”

“My troublemaker? In that case, I think I have two Haknyeons”, Minhyun replied amusedly, ignoring Woojin’s protests. “Jihoon is half the reason we’re here.”

“That’s unfortunate”, Jonghyun joked; Minhyun tensed up again.

Minki noticed the change. “I’ll be taking apprentices next summer”, he said, trying to lighten up the mood and distract Minhyun. “They’re very nice children. I think I lucked out and got two Guanlins.”

Guanlin, the very tall sixteen-year-old next to Woojin, beamed with pride.

They made some more small talk, along with plans for Minhyun’s tasks the next morning. Dongho observed every exchange in silence until the end of dinner, scrutinizing Minhyun more than the others; Woojin assumed he was also trying to find a way to confront Minhyun about his attitude, while Jonghyun still seemed wary of doing so.

Dongho’s house was a large one; Woojin ended up sleeping in the apprentices’ shared room, on a mattress on the floor, while Minhyun and Daniel shared one of the guest bedrooms (the one that used to be yours, Woojin had heard Minki say).

Woojin wished he could say it was a peaceful night, but Haknyeon’s fitful sleep and Guanlin’s light snores kept him up for most of the night.

So long for the calm before the storm.

xxx

It turned out that, when the storm came in the form of a gentle, good-natured person like Jonghyun, it wasn’t really a storm.

Woojin hadn’t been allowed to enter the greenhouse without proper equipment, first, so after borrowing Haknyeon’s brand new ear mufflers and gloves, he finally joined Jonghyun, Minki, and Minhyun next to the large vases where the mandrakes were planted.

Minhyun had looked uncomfortable to be there, smiling in relief when Woojin joined him and sticking to his side most of the time. Daniel had left with Dongho for the woods to look for a pesky owl that had stolen their fire seeds, happy to be able to help, while Guanlin and Haknyeon manned the storefront of the greenhouse.

“It’s a simple task”, Jonghyun started to explain, putting on his gloves and pulling one of the vases to the center of the table. “You have to pull its root out; that’s the ingredient we need. It’s going to scream when you do, so you have to have your earmuffs equipped in order to avoid passing out. Small mandrakes like these don’t kill with their scream, but they still pack quite the punch.”

Minhyun and Woojin nodded; Woojin had the impression Minhyun had heard it all before from Jonghyun, but he made no comment.

The mufflers were truly potent; absolute silence followed when Woojin put them on, watching as everyone else did the same and Jonghyun mouthed the order for them to pull. He swiftly pulled an entire baby-looking root out of the vase, watching in mild horror as what seemed to be a small mouth on its deformed head opened in anguish, although no sound came out of it, to Woojin’s ears. After a while, the opening suddenly closed and disappeared, leaving only the ugly-looking root.

Well done, Jonghyun mouthed at him, gently taking the root from his hands to prepare it for the delivery.

Satisfied with his job, Woojin removed his earmuffs, too distracted to notice Minhyun pulling his own mandrake root out of the vase. Minki, who had been watching him, screamed Woojin, don’t just as the plant started screaming as well.

xxx

Woojin woke up to hushed voices.

He opened his eyes, this time, realizing he wasn’t in the same room as the people arguing, and curiously peeked around. He was in the apprentices’ room.

As he tried to remember what had happened (and as the memory of the mandrake scream hit him like a brick to the head), the voices somehow grew louder; he sat up, ignoring the sharp pain on his head, and slowly dragged himself out of what he remembered to be Guanlin’s bed.

The door to the room had been left ajar; he quietly peeked through it, grateful that that room had a privileged view to the living room, where a discussion seemed to be taking place.

“Stop blaming yourself, he’ll be fine”, Minki groaned from his seat; Woojin quickly recognized Minhyun pacing around the room.

“I shouldn’t have brought him here”, Minhyun muttered, never stopping his pacing. “He’ll probably hate me when he wakes up.”

“It was an accident”, Jonghyun tried to reason, sitting on the arm of Minki’s armchair.

“If anything, it’d be his fault”, Minki added. “We told him not to remove his equipment.”

Minhyun glared at them in frustration. “Still, I’m responsible for him. If he gets hurt during this trip—it’s my fault.”

Minki sent him a look. “Is taking responsibility for things that are entirely not your fault a kink of yours or something?”

Before Minhyun could respond, Minki held a hand up to shush him. “I know what you’re going to say, and I’m not interested. Do you wanna maybe sit the fuck down and listen to the truth for once in your life instead of wallowing in self-pity and avoidance and pretending you’re this unworthy martyr you’re not?”

“Minki, don’t—“, Jonghyun tried to intervene, only to be shushed by Minki as well.

“We kept the scroll, you know.” Minki stood up, walking over to Minhyun to force him to face him. “We studied the shit out of it, we had friends and even a few elder specialists look into it, and if there’s one thing we know, now, it’s this—and you’ll listen, for once.”

Minhyun gulped, then nodded, too intimidated to protest.

“You”, Minki pointed accusingly at his chest, “did not deflect the curse.”

Minhyun pressed his lips together, resisting for one, two, three seconds before the question escaped him. “How?”

“The curse does not affect the one reciting it; you’re the scroll’s vessel, after all, and it still needs your body and your magic to channel its own. It was a very tricky scroll because whoever reading it has no way of knowing they’re reciting a spell, or even what that spell does.”

“I still recited it”, Minhyun replied blankly.

“Jonghyun would have if you hadn’t. We were dumb and inexperienced with this kind of magic, Minhyun. Stop beating yourself up over accidents.” He held his friend’s arms, shaking him slightly. “If anything, we resent you more for that time you got lost in Everland and made us miss out on most rides trying to look for you than for this dumb accident.”

Minhyun moved his head to look at Jonghyun; Woojin couldn’t see his face, but he could tell there was probably a lot of doubt in his eyes from the way Jonghyun stared back at him, smiling and fond, as he stood up to face him. Minki stepped aside, letting Jonghyun take the lead, this time.

“There’s one thing you have yet to accept, Minhyunie”, Jonghyun said gently, taking his friend’s hands into his own. “We’re completely different people. Things have different weights and meanings for the two of us, and that’s okay.

“I loved my magic. I loved making spells, conjuring stuff, charming my food into tasting better”, he chuckled, swaying their hands around a bit. “But magic wasn’t always in my life. You do remember my family never really took my abilities and my choice to become a wizard very well, right? It wasn’t part of me as much as it is an unchangeable part of you. A life without magic is a little duller, yes, but I’ve gotten used to it. I don’t resent you for our rookie mistake, and if one day I manage to somehow get my magic back, well, I’ll be very happy. Until then, I have my friends and the greenhouse to take care of, and I love every single moment of it.”

“Are you happy with your life, Minhyun?”, Jonghyun asked, at last, watching the wizard’s face fall in realization.

“I—“, Minhyun started, then interrupted himself, feeling his shoulders start to shake. “I’m not unhappy”, he said, voice wavering, “but I’m not—I’m not happy, either. Woojin and Jihoon are great boys and I’ll never want to leave them, but—I feel I’ve been living a lot of my life through them, lately. And then there’s Daniel—”

“Oh, he’s so into Daniel”, Minki quipped in amusement, nudging Jonghyun and snickering into his hand.

“—Daniel kind of stormed into my life”, Minhyun admitted, “but being around him feels a lot like being around you guys, and I guess—I guess I missed that, too. I—”, his voice faltered as both Minki and Jonghyun wrapped themselves around him in a tight embrace. “I missed you guys a lot.”

His voice came out garbled enough for Woojin to be able to tell he was crying; he left the door and made it back to the bed quietly, not wanting to interrupt their moment. He had a lot to text Jihoon about.

xxx

“Now that everything’s okay”, Minki said the next morning as they saw them out, too early for the sun to rise (fitting a dog in my broomstick would be too tricky, Minhyun had reasoned), “you better come visit us again soon or we’ll come to Busan exclusively to kick your dramatic ass, Hwang Minhyun.”

“And you better bring all your kids, next time”, Dongho added, gruffly crossing his arms over his chest. “We wouldn’t mind if you brought Daniel along, too, he’s alright for a muggle.”

“See”, Daniel stared smugly at Minhyun, “I’m so gonna make Harry Potter happen with you guys.”

“Try that and you’re uninvited for future trips for a lifetime”, Minhyun threatened him, eliciting a laugh from the younger. “I’m serious, Daniel!”

“Yeah, super serious”, Minki mocked him before nudging Daniel. “He plays hard to get but he’s actually pretty easy, don’t worry.”

Minhyun slapped Minki’s arm indignantly; Daniel flushed from the top of his head to his neck. Once again, Woojin watched them in mild disgust (but actually pretty satisfied at the developments between both his hyungs).

They waved their goodbyes and flew off to the port, intent on avoiding the sunrise while they were still flying.

“You’re gonna start seeing them again now, right, hyung?”, Woojin shouted to the air, hoping Minhyun would hear him over the wind.

The elder nodded, seemingly suffocating a little under Daniel’s tight grip on his waist. “You know”, he shouts back, “when I moved back to Busan, I wanted to run away and start anew. By picking you guys as my apprentices I thought I could do just that, but—“, he paused, glancing over to Daniel, who was listening intently to their conversation, a serene smile on his face. “—I’m glad you guys – and you too, Daniel – ended up pushing me back to where I came from.”

“That’s what friends are for, hyung”, Woojin said cheerily. “I wish Jihoon was here, he’d be disgusted at our greasiness.”

Minhyun chuckled in amusement. “That he would.”

xxx

“There we go”, Youngmin exclaimed from his work table, a violet cloud coming out from the steaming cauldron and surrounding him. He grabbed the ladle and poured some of the liquid onto a plate, where it suddenly solidified into a purple-colored dog treat.

Daniel perked up from his usual spot on Minhyun’s lap, wagging his tail as he realized the antidote was complete. Minhyun, who had been dozing off on the floor while idly petting the dog’s head, stirred from his sleep as well, looking over to Youngmin.

“Is it really done?”, Woojin asked, also waking up from his impromptu nap on the chair provided by Donghyun, who was currently manning the front desk of the store.

Youngmin nodded, showing off the colored treat. “This should do it. It’s the most potent form of Wolfsbane I’ve ever brewed so far.”

“What’s Wolfsbane for, usually?”, the apprentice questioned, watching Daniel sniff the treat, nosing it around on the plate.

“For actual werewolves”, Minhyun explained, running his fingers through Daniel’s silky fur one last time. “Their own curse runs much deeper in their bloodlines, and their transformation is less frequent, but very violent. This keeps them calmer and in line.”

“Is it really going to work for Daniel hyung’s curse?”

“Oh, please”, Youngmin snorted, leaving the plate on the floor so Daniel could take his time eating. “We’ve broken much worse curses with concoctions like these. This would be child’s play, if not for the hard to find ingredients.”

“I see”, Woojin hummed just as Daniel felt brave enough to take the treat in its entirety in his mouth, munching furiously at it before swallowing.

“Good boy”, Youngmin cooed mockingly, laughing when Daniel actually growled at him in distaste. “Now we wait.”

They didn’t have to wait too long; for Woojin, it was the first time he felt relief at seeing Daniel’s bare butt during broad daylight, even though he was draped over Minhyun in the most inappropriate manner as he Turned back into a human for good. Youngmin laughed in delight at a job well done while Woojin occupied himself with throwing the change of clothes on his lap at Daniel’s bare bits in order to cover them.

“You know, I was half-expecting it to fail”, Daniel said among delighted laughter at being returned to his original form. Youngmin briefly scowled at him before resuming his celebration.

“I’ll miss dog Daniel a little”, Minhyun said, stealing a glance (he thinks he’s sneaky, Woojin thought bitterly) at Daniel’s broad and bare back as he buttoned up his pants. “He was a cute dog.”

“I’m not a cute human, then?”, Daniel asked, pouting at the elder.

Woojin snorted. “Hyung, you should know better than trying to pull that on him again.”

Minhyun glared at his pupil. “I’m a new person now. I mean—I’m the old Minhyun I was before, now.” He frowns, then glares at Youngmin when he bursts into laughter. “Anyway, I’m a different person now—and I happen to find Daniel the human very cute, too.”

That effectively shut both Woojin and Daniel up, albeit for different reasons.

xxx

“Hyung”, Woojin called Minhyun during their bus ride back to Busan. Both of them had isle seats, while Daniel had sat next to Minhyun on the window seat, and was currently dozing off onto the elder’s shoulder.

Minhyun glanced at him curiously, careful not to rustle Daniel. “Hmm?”, he hummed, looking at the boy intently.

Woojin took a deep breath, turning off his phone screen and deciding to say it all at once. “Jihoon and I have been thinking of going to college in Seoul next year.” He paused, searching for a reaction in Minhyun’s face. “I mean, we’re still half-muggles—”

“Stop trying to make muggles happen”, Minhyun deadpanned.

“—Anyway, I know we’re supposed to continue our training even after high school, so I was wondering if—if you’d move with us, if we did.”

The wizard’s face remained unreadable before he finally spoke up. “It’s a relief you guys still want to learn from me after—after everything you’ve learned in this trip.”

Woojin shrugged. “Hey, hyung, everyone fucks up once in a while. Your mistake was being an ass to your friend for two years, not—whatever happened before that.”

Minhyun narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “I have a feeling you’ve eavesdropped on one too many conversations, young man.”

“Not my fault you don’t know how to talk with and indoors voice”, Woojin retorted petulantly. “Anyway, now we just have to get Daniel hyung to move to Seoul too—”

“What for?”, Minhyun asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Dance classes”, Woojin reasoned, “and to properly date you.”

Minhyun snorted, trying to conceal the flush on his face and ears. “Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself, there?”

Woojin shook his head. “I’m pretty sure I heard him say, let’s go on a date when we go back, hyung, like, last night at Aron hyung’s house, after dinner.”

“I’m going to curse you into never being able to eavesdrop on anyone again”, Minhyun threatened him, briefly sending him a glare before letting out a chuckle. “Every conversation you overhear will get muted the moment you start paying attention.”

“That’s cruel, hyung”, Woojin gasped in mock horror.

“That’s what you deserve”, his tutor retorted.

“I actually deserve a medal. For Hwang Minhyun’s character development.”

Minhyun rolled his eyes. “Jihoon’s really rubbing off on you.”

“Please never let him know that”, Woojin pleaded, sounding scared for once. “He’ll never let me live if he does.”

“I make no promises”, Minhyun half-shrugged, still careful not to wake Daniel up; Woojin glanced over to their seat and realized they also happened to be holding hands. “So, what do you think I should wear for my date? Try not to think like Jihoon for this one, please.”

Woojin laughed in delight; he’d certainly have a lot to tell Jihoon that night.