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It was nearing nine o’clock at night when Renjun walked out of the deserted classroom, feeling tired, exhausted, and hungry as hell. He hasn’t considered the thing he was making to be done per se, but he wasn’t willing to pull an all nighter three days in a row and so decided that enough is enough, that it was time to stop and exercise some restraint because if not, he’ll probably be staying in that lab until the crack of dawn.
As he was approaching the marbled base of the spiral staircase, Renjun was surprised when he saw another soul pacing around the small strip of landing in between the stairs. Living soul, he quickly added to his silent observation. It might come off as something unusual to be privy of, but he had to be sure of it because in the five years he’s stayed in this castle, Renjun’d found out that he has the same effect on the residential ghosts as an opened jar of sugar would to a group of ants. Irresistibly enticing, for some odd reason. Thus, Renjun would always make sure to check the opacity level of anyone he met before he went on and greeted them with anything more than an amicable ‘hello.’ Wasn’t because he has any prejudices against ghost, mind you. But because he, like most other human beings in this world, still couldn’t shake the heebie-jeebies that would riddled him everytime he interacted with something not from this world. Besides, they make him feel all itchy and tingly. Like he just walked through an area filled with static electricity. Not a fun thing to feel if he said so.
But seeing that it was indeed a living, breathing person standing there (proven by the fact that his feet were touching the ground), Renjun let out a polite cough to let this person knew that someone was approaching him.
The last thing he wanted to do was to accidentally shock this stranger with his presence and caused him to fall fifteen stories down to his death, creating another ghost in the process. It wouldn’t be a hard thing to do anyway, what with him standing on the edge of a dead ended stone platform, which was completely missing the staircase that’s supposed to be attached to it.
When he heard the noise, the strange kid took one step back before he swivelled on the ball of his foot, seemingly also afraid of the possibility of having a gruesome death on this otherwise beautiful night.
“Hey! What are you doing here?” After they both got a good look of each other’s faces, the boy’s surprised expression turned into one of familiarity and Renjun immediately recognised who he was from those Ravenclaw robes and the smile that would put even the most beautiful crescent moon to shame.
“I wanted to ask you the same question,” Renjun gave the kid, Lee Jeno, aka Mark’s best friend, a few pats on his back before he too does what Jeno just did. Leaned over the platform to assess the situation.
“I never knew this is a travelling stairway.” Renjun said while he took one firm step away from the gaping edge, already feeling dizzy after noticing how far they were up in the air with no handrails in sight, “do you know how long it’ll take for it to return?”
“Nah,” Jeno answered his question with a shrug, “I guess we’ll just have to wait.”
At first, Renjun was somehow not that worried about the situation he found himself trapped in. ‘Travelling stairways will always return,’ he consoled himself. But then he looked around him and saw… nothing. Only him, his bulky postman bag, and a bored Jeno.
And there was suddenly a worm that began to feast on his brain. Will it return? Nobody’s supposed to be using this area of the castle past the six o’clock supplementary class. What if they’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning’s class started?
“I hope you’re not rushing anywhere,” Renjun was woken up from his anxiety riddled thoughts when Jeno sighed as he took a seat on the steps behind them, “I have a hunch this is going to be a long wait.”
‘That’s the problem,’ he thought with his lips trapped in a firm bite, ‘I am rushing to be somewhere.’
_ _ _ _ _
Mark was sitting around in his common room. Partly he was reading, but mostly, he was waiting.
Waiting? Waiting for what?
Waiting for something he himself didn’t know.
But every so often he would took a glance at the common room’s entrance, and he kept hoping for something to happen.
And each time, the door would open just to reveal another set of familiar eyes belonging to other Ravenclawnians and Mark would forcefully return his gaze to his book, grumbling something about, ‘you’re being wishful.’ The nagging in his head would then be silenced by the stream of words that came from the novel he was reading.
Until the next time the door opened, that is. And it was the guessing game all over again.
_ _ _ _ _
With nothing much for them to do, Renjun quickly caught up with the reason as to why Jeno was unlucky enough to be trapped with him. Turns out he left his arithmancy workbook in his classroom. Thinking that an important homework was due tomorrow, he panicked and rushed to retrieve it, only to remember that the homework was actually not due for another two days when he had his hands on the classroom’s doorknob.
“So, here I am,” the sound of his hands plopping against his pants echoed through the eerily desolate stairway and it caused a shiver to involuntarily climb up Renjun’s spine, “how about you? Don’t your kind have your arithmancy classes at the other end of the castle?”
Renjun couldn’t help but hesitate for a little while before answering Jeno’s question, his fingers instinctively reaching out to his cotton bag in a confused mean to either hide it away, or to bring it to the spotlight. “Well… that is true.” On one hand, he was slightly embarrassed to share what he’s been doing until so late in the night. But on the other hand, Renjun thought that it would be a good moment to ask for other people’s opinion (better yet, Mark’s own best friend’s opinion) on whether the thing was of good enough quality to be given to someone as a legitimate gift. Or if maybe Renjun should give up on his dream to be a soap maker and to pursue a hobby that’s slightly more… mundane.
Thankfully (or regretfully), Renjun didn’t have to be the one to decide on what to do with his bag because Jeno saw him fiddling on the metal zipper and his curiosity was instantly piqued.
“Is it in there?” Jeno leaned closer towards Renjun and pointed his fingers at the bag, “the reason for why you’re stranded here?”
“Weeeeell, yeah.” Still with a lot of hesitation, he lugged the heavy bag over and around his legs and set it on the empty spot between them. His fingers continued to fiddle with the leather straps as he tried his best to explain his predicament without coming off as being too overly-enthusiastic to Jeno. Because suddenly Renjun remembered Mark telling him once about how Jeno is not a person that enjoyed overtly romantic things. And the problem is, the thing that he was about to show may come off as a little bit too sickly-sweet-romantic-and-sentimental for anyone with even the tiniest bit of jaded overview of life.
“Ok so… you might think this is odd but I noticed a few weeks back that Mark ran out of his body wash.” Seeing that Jeno’s eyebrows have begun to crook up into a disbelieved frown, Renjun quickly raised up his palm to shush him up from any weirded out protests that might escaped from his lips and quickly flipped his bag open to fish out the thing that he made.
A huge block of custom made soap. It was the colour of clear sea water, gradually going from dark green to a transparent seafoam, and even in its dry form, it emits the most delightful scent of what a perfect tropical holiday must’ve smelled like. Seasalt and toasted desiccated coconut.
“I checked with the shop that he used to go to buy them and they said it was discontinued,” Renjun’s words flow out of him like a barreling train, completely robbing Jeno of his opportunity to cut his explanation short with any unnecessary questions. At least, not until he could score one question of his own. “What do you think? Does it look good? Do you think Mark will like it?”
Jeno accepted Renjun’s silent offering to more closely examine the soap, unsure fingers reaching out and daintily holding the square with as little pressure as possible, “I mean… it does. But…”
“... But?” Renjun was starting to grow worried when Jeno begun to turn the block and inspect the butt of it, fearing that Jeno would notice the bumpy air bubbles that were trapped because he forgot to bang the mould against the table. Renjun shouldn’t have feared all that much about what Jeno has to say about his handiwork though, because Jeno didn’t even notice all the miniscule blemishes on his truly impeccable block of soap. What he should’ve feared more was what Jeno has to say about his personal life choices.
Because his next question came so out of left field it left Renjun unable to string up any coherent sentence for a solid ten seconds.
“You two aren’t dating yet, right?”
“What… what does a soap has anything to do with… that.” Even when Renjun’s voice came back to him, it sounded like he was choking on the bubbles that his soap would’ve made after it was used. Lathered up under the warmest bath, with the fluffiest of loofahs.
Jeno spent a beat staring at him with a surprisingly amused expression before he let out a very undignified snort and hand-waved Renjun’s confusion with him jumping up to his feet and walking to the edge of the stairs’ platform once more. “How long do you think we’ve waited here?”
“Almost ten minutes, maybe? Why?”
As he loomed above the gloomy void, Jeno hummed while he rubbed his chin with his thumb and his index finger, “maybe the stairs are not coming back,-”
“It’s only been ten minutes, we can wait a little bit more,-”
“It’s not coming back soon enough, ” Jeno said as he gave Renjun a cheeky wink that conveyed his understanding of Renjun’s precarious position. Jeno then leaped back to his previous spot, tossing back to a bewildered Renjun his precious block of soap before he clapped his hands excitedly and looked at Renjun with the brightest set of eyes he’s ever seen in his life. Safe from maybe in innocent, too excited toddlers when they face a new and gleaming set of jungle gym.
“If we want to deliver that soap in time, we gotta do it fast. Do you have any idea?” Even though they were essentially stranded on a place with nobody that could rudely eavesdrop their conversation, not even those pesky paintings, Jeno somehow still delivered his game plan in a stage whisper. Maybe because old habits die hard.
Renjun didn’t have to join in on his antiquities, but he decided that he won’t lose anything in doing so and thus after he mulled over the options that they might have, he leaned in, gave Jeno a mischievous smile that would even make Peeves proud, and hushed,
“I do have an idea.”
_ _ _ _ _
The entrance for the Ravenclaw tower opened and closed for the third time in a minute and Mark just couldn’t keep on pretending as if he wasn’t bothered.
He closed his paperback and snuck it at the back of the sofa before he flagged down the group of girls that were giggling their way into their side of dormitory, “hey! Hey… uh, Chaeyoung?”
Little Chaeyoung, after she looked around her group of other fourth year roommates and reassured them that they could go up to their dorm first, went to happily approach him, “Mark! What’s up?”
“Sorry for bothering you but uh… where did you get those?” he nervously asked, avoiding the sight of Chaeyoung’s knowing smile by looking down and pointing into the paper bag she was hugging in her arms that was filled to the brim in dainty parcels wrapped in iridescent cellophane wrappers and shiny red bows, “I’ve been seeing a lot of people come in with them and I’m just wondering if you can… maybe… I don’t know, tell me where to get them?”
With a bright, enthusiastic grin, Chaeyoung nodded and told Mark to quickly go to the kitchen because, “I saw they still have a few spares from the last batch. But hurry! I don’t know how long they’ll last.”
Completely taking her advice to his heart, Mark hastily thanked her before he rushed in the direction of the dormitory’s entrance. He did pause for a little while when his fingers touched the cold marble doors, thinking to himself, ‘why am I being so silly like this.’
But then the door was yanked away from his touch by another group of blushing, giggling student that immediately jogged to their respective dorm rooms and before he slipped through the opened door, Mark mumbled to himself,
“To hell with it.”
_ _ _ _ _
There was a good four meters gap between where they were standing and the opposite platform, and almost five to the neighboring staircases. Jumping, in this case, was out of question. But Renjun’s plan didn’t require them to do any jumping. It didn’t even require them to stand on their feet, even. Oh no, they just needed to… wait a little bit longer. And have a lot of faith on Renjun’s ability to attract spirits.
“You’re a ghost whisperer?” Beside Renjun, who was concentrating so hard with his eyes tightly shut and both of his palms pressed flush against each other, there was Jeno, who just ruined everything by merely whispering.
And that one interruption was all it took for Renjun to finally gave up, after he spent almost a whole minute trying his best to summon any of Hogwart’s usual apparitions. He threw both of his arms to the air in frustration and yelled, “when I don’t call them they come to me! Where are they when I need them??”
“I was just waiting to see how long you could maintain that silly pose.”
One second there were only two people on the stairs, and the next second, a transparent, half-burned face of a dead human popped up in the empty space between Jeno and Renjun. The baby hairs on Renjun’s neck were raised so quick by the sudden surge of static electricity in the air he swore a few must’ve snapped clean from their roots.
Renjun did let out a little jump when the ghost of a dead Gryffindor student appeared, but he consoled himself on that lapse of composure with the fact that Jeno dealt with the situation much more poorly. He screamed so loudly it almost came off as a screech, and he immediately hid his face behind Renjun’s back. Whimpering like a cowardly child.
“Donghyuk, how many times have I told you, stop jumping out on people,” Renjun said as he flushed out all of his frustration with one long sigh. But when he saw the male ghost yapping his mouth exaggeratedly to his words of warning, Renjun’s fingers inadvertently found their way to his temples, rubbing them in firm circles in the effort to massage out his building headache.
“What is it do you want me to do? You do know I have a high fee if you want me to run your errands, right? Nothing short of peking ducks, or a whole grilled chicken, or man! I do miss the taste of crispy suckling pig,-”
Interrupting the ghost’s silly terms of conditions said in a classic echo-y, ghostly voice was Jeno, who tugged on Renjun’s sleeve and whispered closely to Renjun’s ears with voice still wavering from the aftershocks, “are you sure this is going to work?”
They both took a glance at the shabbily dressed ghost that probably died in a pyromancy lesson that went awry, what with the huge scorch mark riddling half of his face a charcoal-ish black and destroyed almost three quarter of his Gryffindor robe, and Renjun mumbled, “it better be.”
“Donghyuk!” Renjun yelled and clapped his hands to return the ghost’s attention back to him, “I only need you to fetch me someone.”
“Why don’t you just accio his ass here?” Without missing a beat, this Donghyuk ghost-fellow pointed his perfectly char-grilled finger at the hole in Renjun’s plan. Looking at the satisfied grin hanging on his lips, it was clear being a smartass is something that even death couldn’t take away from him.
“You can’t accio a person.”
“You’ll never know until you tried. I did it once. My friend’s arm was hanging on a string of tendon by the end of it.”
“Donghyuk, I swear to god,-”
“There is no god,-”
“DONGHYUK!” Both of them (yes, both. Even Jeno was tired of this ghost’s antics by then) yelled out their exasperation and Renjun immediately swooped in with his request before Donghyuk could cut him with anymore nonsense. “Just help me find this Ravenclaw student and tell him to come and fetch us,” Renjun said while digging at his postman bag in search of his wallet. Once he found it, he took out a polaroid picture of a very rare, relaxed-looking Mark (which might mean that it’s actually not the best pictorial representation of Mark) and shoved it in front of the ghost’s translucent face, “His name is Mark. You should be able to find him at the Ravenclaw common room. Or getting some snacks at the kitchen, I don’t know. You can fly, it won’t take long for you to find him.”
“He’s cute. What will you do to me if I nab him for myself?” Donghyuk high pitched hum resonated through the air like ripples on a still lake, which should’ve worked wonders to calm Renjun’s nerves down. But the act of him jamming his mangled fingers in and out of the slip of polaroid annoyed him so much that Renjun had to snatch it away from Donghyuk’s non-grasping grasp with a harsh huff.
“I will finally find someone to exorcise you away from this realm.”
“You’re too mean,” and to emphasise his displeasure, Donghyuk phased himself right through Renjun before using his phantom fingers to tickle him on where his backbone should be located. Something Donghyuk knew will cause the living boy a night of non-stop shivers and breaking into cold sweat, “but I know you won’t, you care for me too much, Huang.”
And just like that, he was gone.
“Did you intend to call that particular ghost?” Jeno asked when the burnt edges of the ghost’s robe has disappeared under all the complicated structure of the castle, “he seems to have… too much of an attitude for someone living in the afterlife.”
“I did not,” to that, Renjun sighed while he ran his hands over his arms to tame down his still-risen hair follicles, “I would’ve gotten a nicer ghost if I can control this… weird thing I have.”
Now that they had nothing left to do but wait, Renjun decided that the best option they have was to spend some time talking with each other. And what’s a better topic to talk with someone who although Renjun’d spent a lot of time eating lunch together, was essentially still a stranger to him than,
“What type of movies do you like to watch?”
_ _ _ _ _
Mark was in the middle of carefully tying a dainty bow around his own set of cellophane-wrapped, heart-shaped chocolate when a strange looking ghost burst into the kitchen while yelling his name at the top of his ghostly-lungs.
“Is there any Mark here? Mark? Marky Mark? Mark from Ravenclaw? Ravenclawnian Mark? Markvenclaw?”
The bumpy crackle of his burnt-to-crisp cheeks moved like a drying lava on an active volcano as he kept on yelling, and yelling, and yelling until Mark had to literally go down to his knees to beg the ghost to stop before he could embarrass him any further in front of the remaining students still busy tidying up the borrowed kitchen.
“Your lover and some other guy is looking for you,” the apparition spoke after Mark managed to persuade him to follow him out of the kitchen, because ten pairs of eyes staring at him like he was crazy were ten pairs too many. Mark was thankful when he found out that the ghost was able to speak in a vocal volume appropropriate for being in an indoor location nearing bedtime, “they’re stuck at a travelling stairwell at the south wing of the castle. Your boy told me to just call you there but I think he meant that he wanted you to save them? Maybe? I don’t know?”
Mark quickly made his way to the direction given to him by the annoyingly yappy ghost, but only after he promised him that he would put one of the chocolate in his memorial altar at the Gryffindor tower and remind Renjun of his promise to give him a full meal from his favourite Chinese restaurant.
“What an annoying prick,” Mark found himself mumbling under his breath, not caring that he probably had brought to himself seven years of bad luck from bad mouthing an already dead person. As he did his powerwalk through the deserted corridors, he carried the packet of sweets on one hand, and on the other was his quidditch broom that was somehow still stored nicely inside the broom locker even though the last time he used it was when he was in his third year.
Yes, he knew indoor broom usage was not encouraged, if not fully forbidden, and a better way for him to deal with this situation is by calling the castle’s caretaker. But Renjun didn’t specify for how he wanted Mark to rescue him, so he went with the first thing that came to his mind. As for the caretaker, Mark didn’t even bother. Because he must’ve been either asleep, or too busy listening to audiobooks to bother helping anyone.
“Mark!!” He hasn’t even completed his turn around the bend when he heard the sound of two people hooting and hollering in an effort to gain his attention. There they were, his lover and some other guy. Renjun and Jeno, brought together by coincidence and bad luck as they stood dangerously close to the edge of a barren stairway landing.
“Are you going to save us with that?” Instead of being thankful and herald him as being their saviour, Jeno decided that it would be better for Mark to immediately be bombarded with incredulous sounding question, “is that really your best idea??”
Not helping his case, Renjun added more fuel to the burning pyre by shouting annoyedly, “Mark! You know I hate flying, what the hell?”
“You brought shame to our house. I can’t believe this.”
“We’re going to die tonight Jeno, you know how Mark is with flying broomsticks.”
His two acquaintances then proceeded to laugh their asses off on Mark’s expense and he was so tempted to just… leave them there. Rotting on that wretched platform until god knows when. Next morning probably. And Mark would’ve wished for the toilet inside the arithmancy classroom to stop working just so that the two of them would suffer even more.
But before he could execute his act of cruelty, he heard Renjun shouting his apologies, followed close by a sweet sounding plea to come and fetch him out of his unfortunate situation. And just like that, Mark was defeated. Truly, you just witnessed his full and complete induction into the House of Silly Fools.
With no other options, Mark let one harsh exhale as he placed his chocolate parcel at a safe distance before he threw one leg over the old broomstick and willed it to fly. “Fly, fly please fly I beg you. Please don’t embarrass me, I’ve had enough of it tonight,” he frantically whispered under his breath.
To Mark’s command, the broomstick let out one long shudder that made it sound like it just groaned out an annoyed ‘ughhh’ after being awoken from its long slumber, sounding not unlike a problematic teenager. Like owner like broomstick, apparently.
Just when Mark has begun to feel panic rising at the back of his throat, the broomstick relented its juvenile temper tantrum and it began buzzing, levitating his feet a few centimeters above the ground.
Mark’s two years hiatus from riding a flying broomstick was clearly showing from how wobbly his ascend looked. Because unlike riding a bike, or swimming, flying on a broomstick is not something you can learn once, forget, then pick up anytime you want. Imagine if your bike has a basic consciousness of its own. Imagine, then, if you left it catching dust inside a dark and cold cupboard for years on end. What will it feel when it got woken up after so long, just to find out its only needed to do a very simple back and forth trip that will only take three minutes, at worst, to finish?
All that and now hopefully you’ll understand why Mark’s broomstick was being a little difficult to cooperate with.
“Careful,” Mark had to speak in a hiss through gritted teeth when he finally managed to steer the broom to where Renjun and Jeno were standing, concentration amped up to the elevens and hands both gripping at the handle of the broom to keep it from doing a 360 degrees barrel roll and causing him to fall to his death.
His two friends exchanged worried look and they didn’t even let out a peep of noise until Renjun sighed, sacrificed himself by picking the shorter end of the stick, and stepped up to volunteer to be the first person to be rescued by Mark’s questionable broom riding-ability. “Jeno, I know we’ve only talked for a little while, but I want to say…” he paused for dramatic effect before slinging his bag over his shoulder, solemnly stepping over to the broom and slipping his arms so that they fit securely around Mark’s waist, “it’s been nice knowing you.”
“Renjun I swear to god if you don’t shut up,-”
Mark’s rant was cut short when he felt Renjun snuggling even closer to him, not stopping until his chin rested against Mark’s shoulder. So close even, that when he whispered his next words, the feel of Renjun’s cool breath hitting his suddenly heated earlobe caused a shiver to run through the length of Mark’s spine, “a friend of mine said that there is no god. So I suggest you shut it and take me away from here. Please?”
Sometimes Mark missed the timid and quiet Renjun that would come forth to meet him for the first few months that they tried to get to know each other better. But most other times, Mark was secretly glad that he now would more often than not be greeted by this… surprisingly forward version of his (would be) lover.
And so, with an awkward cough of ‘okay,’ Mark granted Renjun’s wish by shutting it and jerking his feet on the marbled platform to send them both airborne.
The journey was short (thankfully), but turbullent as hell. Mark was biting the inside of his mouth to prevent a pained yell from escaping his lips because Renjun’s nails were digging inside the soft skin of his underarms so hard he was sure it would leave bruises come the next day. But in the end, the both of them managed to land at the other side of the room with little to no harm. Nobody died. That’s all that matters, isn’t it?
Renjun was laughing so loudly near him (maybe because near death experience will bring all parties involved in it closer together) and his claws were turned into a tight hug, that Mark completely missed the presence of Jeno who (somehow) had managed to traverse the great distance by himself. It wasn’t until he heard a forced cough that Mark reluctantly pushed Renjun away from him. He was just about to yell at Jeno to be patient for a little bit when his words were taken away from him as there he was. Jeno. Standing right behind them with both of his arms crossed and one foot tapping away his impatience.
“Are you guys done?”
There needed to be no more explanation for how he did so. Taking one quick glance, Mark saw that the travelling stairs had just completed its docking, connecting the two platforms together and allowing Jeno to complete his descend like any normal human would.
“I guess I should’ve just wait a little bit more,” Renjun sheepishly said, his hands fidgeting with the strap of his bag now that they had let go of Mark’s arms. A little bit of his timidity streak resurfaced then, from the way Renjun took short, rapid, nervous peeks between his bag, Mark, and Jeno.
Mark seemed to be confused by his odd attitude, Jeno looked enthusiastic as he watched from the sidelines, and the bag could only stay there in silence as it was opened and an item was fished from within its bowels.
“For you,” the blush on Renjun’s face when he offered the block of soap to Mark was so pronounced, it made made his cheeks look to be the same colour as the scarlet ribbon tied around the top of Mark’s parcel.
Ah yes, the parcel. Mark raised his index finger as a way to tell Renjun to wait a second, while he put his visibly frustrated broom down on the cold floor and rushed to the corner of the platform to retrieve his gift for Renjun on this beautiful and eventful night.
“Happy Valentine’s day’s… eve,” after they exchanged their gifts and once again ignored Jeno’s blatant display of annoyance (this time in the form of an eyeroll), or better yet, nearly erasing his existence out of their periphery vision, Mark’s voice slightly faltered at the end of his sentence. the only thing that betrayed his otherwise cool and composed demeanor.
On the opposite side of the spectrum was Renjun, who looked (and sounded) like he just drank a mouthful of sea water and choked to the last inch of his life. But before he could tell Mark what he thought about getting a surprise Valentine’s chocolate, Jeno interrupted him mid-breath-intake by letting out a disgusted groan, “get a room you two.”
“Why is he still here,-? Why are you still here?! Go! Shoo! You’re ruining the atmosphere!” Mark snapped at Jeno, who’s begun to ran away with laughter spilling out of his gleeful grin.
“Renjun! Saturday is still a go though, yes?” Jeno shouted, right before he dashed around the bend in the stairway and disappeared from their sights. Even without seeing his face, Mark could tell that Jeno had with him the cheekiest, mischievous expression. Being roommates for five years will do that to people, a lot of times. Reading things without needing to see it fully.
Sadly, because Mark only knew Renjun for less than a year, he totally didn’t expect for Renjun to answer Jeno’s cryptic question with an eager ‘yes’.
“What? Saturday what? What are you two talking about??”
Renjun was planning on telling him about the now monster movie coming out, and how after they found out that they both love anything horror, they planned on going to the cinema together. But seeing Mark looking at him with panicked, wide set eyes filled to the brim with confusion, Renjun decided to spare him the details and instead gave to him his previously disrupted show of gratitude.
Renjun softly laid his hand on Mark’s forearm and smiled, waiting until he was slightly calmed before continuing, “thankyou for this. You’re too sweet.” And then he went on his tiptoes and gave Mark a peck on his cheek.
Make it two.
Make it three.
One on the left, one on the right, and one that broke the pattern, which was a peck on his lips.
The smile Mark had on his face was embarrassingly wide, and the boy would’ve leaped into the air if Renjun didn’t have him in a deadlock. Both of his arms linked behind Mark’s neck and still blushing like a drunken old man, Renjun began to hum, “is this time?”
They then started to sway to a music only they could hear. Maybe it was the wind, sliding in through centuries old cracks on the wall just for a chance to feel warmth. Maybe it was the creaks of the castle, gaining consciousness at last, from how many souls it’d contained. Or maybe it was from their own feet, tapping on the stone floor.
One, two step. One two step. It was still winter but they were enveloped in such warm scent from the block of soap that Mark still held inside his hand, “if you want it to be.”
“Oh, I can’t believe it. We will be celebrating our anniversaries on Valentine’s day.”
“I don’t mind it,” Mark said while pulling Renjun closer to him. A tint of disbelief was mixed in with a vat of gladness, and the potion spread all over him when he realised how effortless it was for them to stand there and just be. “I don’t mind being normal, if it’s with you.”
“You know what, I have to agree with your pal there for once.” Sitting on the lowest steps of the stairs were a very amused looking Donghyuk. Amused because he managed to make another living being to yell out in shock before the night was over, and amused because it looked like Renjun was ready to whip up a spell scroll and banish him to Limbo.
Even better, in his shock, Renjun accidentally headbutted Mark’s nose and it left Donghyuk ample time to waltz his way out of any sticky situation as Renjun was too busy attending on his (now official) lover to pay attention to his surroundings.
“Go get a room. Y’all are disgusting.”
_ _ _ _ _
(A few days after the accident, when Renjun found himself sharing a same class with Jeno, he went out of his way and approached the Ravenclaw student with a question that’s been eating on his brain.
“You knew, didn’t you?” About the travelling starways’ schedule. About the fact that no help was necessary if we just waited for a little bit.
Without saying anything, Jeno only answered Renjun’s question with a smile. But that was enough. The cheeky twinkle in Jeno’s grin was more than enough to answer everything that Renjun needed to know.
Yes. Yes he did. )