Archive of Our Own ^beta

Today the sun is shining over Mrs. Kim’s greenhouse. Hangyul hears the sound of the rain falling against the roof, the rumble of a thunder in the distance, but still, the sun is shining, and the sky is blue, and he has long learned not to questions some things.

His hands are covered in dirt, as he tries to get all the tough weeds out of the flowerbed; apparently the roses have been complaining about it, and when the roses are mad, they get stubborn, and they tend to grow more prickly with a vengeance. At least that’s what Mrs. Kim says.

 “Move the rosemary for me, will you, dear? The wolfsbane is being annoying again”.

Mrs. Kim is preparing the mix of herbs for her tea on a table by the entrance, the greenhouse directly attached to her home, and she is looking at him work with a comfortable smile. She looks younger when the sun is shining, her hair more blond than grey, and her wrinkles relaxed with a good mood.

Hangyul rises, the knees of his jeans stained and sweat on his brows, and he goes to the side of the greenhouse where, sure enough, the wolfsbane seems to be moving as if swept by wind in the direction of the vase with rosemary. With an amused sigh of some sort, he proceeds to move the rosemary near the basil (who seems far less restless than the wolfsbane); as he goes back to wash his hands, he sees Mrs. Kim place two cups neatly, a lightly coloured infusion already brewing.

“What’s in it today?”, he asks, sitting right in front of her.

Mrs. Kim smiles, in that unsettling all-knowing way that he has grown accustomed to. “Who knows” she says, “It’s going to be an eventful month”.

Hangyul hums thoughtfully, never quite understanding what she really means, and takes a sip. The teas Mrs. Kim makes don’t always taste great, but somehow, some way, they always fit right in with the mood, or the season (or himself, really).

“By the way, tomorrow you have a delivery” she says, old eyes sparkling with mirth “We have a new client”.

Mrs. Kim always gets incredibly excited about clients, especially if they are new, especially if they are like her, because that might mean she will get a new regular.

“Who is it? Do they live far?”.

“Not far at all, it will take you maybe ten minutes”. She seems to be musing the distance for a moment. “Fifteen if you do trip on the sidewalk”.

Hangyul snorts a laugh, that Mrs. Kim reciprocates with a knowing smile full of child-like amusement.

“In the morning I’ll prepare the nettle for you, they expect it by five”.

❧

It goes without saying that Lee Hangyul has seen his fair share of weird things, and that he has to thank Mrs. Kim for that. He’d love to say he stumbled upon her house and therefore his part-time job by chance, but Mrs. Kim does not believe in coincidences at all, and at this point he has no reason not to believe the same. Not when he found her magically warded house when he shouldn’t have been able to even see it.

So, there he is, right in front of an apartment door it took him fifteen minutes to find (he did end up tripping on the sidewalk), with potted nettle in his arms. There are four apartments on this floor, the third of the building, and obviously the one he is in front of is the only one that doesn’t have a doorbell. He struggles with the plant for a moment, and then manages to knock two or three times. As soon as he does it, he hears a loud thump, and the sound of glass crashing. After a full minute of silence, the door opens with a burst.

Of all the things or people Hangyul expected, an attractive young man (not much older than him really) with a welcoming smile and questionable leopard print short shorts was definitely not it.

“Hi? Hi! Sorry, you must be Hangyul? You brought her!”.

Hangyul tries to go for a ‘yes’, but the guy takes the plant (her?) off his hands and hurries to bring it inside, very obviously excited about it.

“Come on in, don’t worry!”, he shouts somewhere from inside the house.

Hangyul feels a little dazed by the interaction, but Mrs. Kim told him to talk with the client, welcome him to the city and maybe explain about her business, so he accepts the invite and closes the door behind him. What welcomes him inside is definitely not what he was expecting. Sure, Mrs. Kim has a greenhouse with plants that seems to move, and some of her friends read tarot cards and have crystals, but this guy’s living room is in a whole different ballpark.

Just on his line of sight, there’s a shelf of suspicious-looking vials and jars, some full of liquids that seem to be shifting, some with tags, some empty. There are plants by the window and plants by the tv; there’s a big cauldron in the middle of the room, just behind the sofa, hanging on the ceiling by a chain that keeps it suspended a meter from the floor. There’s a bookshelf full of volumes of all sizes that look extremely old, and there’s a red cat on the sofa, looking at him like he knows exactly what he did every single waking moment of his life, squinting in a way that makes Hangyul want to check if he has something on his face.

“Don’t worry about Wooseok” says the guy, re-appearing right beside him “That’s the face he does because he can’t see that well”

Hangyul blinks once or twice. “Does your cat need glasses?”.

That’s what he decides to go with. That’s the first thing he says in front of a stranger. He expects the guy to laugh, can’t blame him really, but he just sighs half-amused half-resigned.

“Oh, we tried, but he says he looks better without them”.

Hangyul can’t help but smile dazedly at that. “Right”, he says, and with that he shakes himself out of his gawping and turns towards his host. “Sorry about that, yes, I’m Hangyul? The part-timer”.

The guy offers him a hand “Mrs. Kim told me! I’m Seungyoun” he says with a friendly smile that makes his eyes curve attractively “I’ve just moved in”.

Hangyul looks at him then, really looks at him, and he can’t help but notice that he’s really attractive. Handsome for sure, tall too, but there’s also something cute about his eye-smile, or the way his long hair looks messy and kind of fried. Also, those shorts are really short. He shakes his hand with a smile.

“Well, how do you like it?”.

Seungyoun gestures him towards the sofa, “It’s definitely a bit more cramped that my place before, but I think I can make it work” he muses “Can I offer you anything? Tea?” and then he gestures to sofa again.

Hangyul takes the hint and sits, “Just some water will be fine”.

As soon as he says that, Seungyoun hurries to the kitchen, hair bouncing, and he disappears behind a door.

Hangyul breathes a little sigh and takes the time to look around from the new perspective. From the sofa he can see there are some pictures on the wall right in front of him, his eyes getting caught on one right over the tv, in which Seungyoun is smiling wide in a monkey costume, arms around someone in a frog onesie. That’s kind of cute.

He must have made some sort of dumb expression, because when he raises his head, he finds Wooseok looking at him just as before, and this time he knows he’s being judged. He is about to make a face at the cat or maybe give him a cold stare, but right then he feels something soft tickle his hand. As he looks down, he sees a tiny vine coming from under the sofa to twist around his ring finger, small green leaves splaying on his hand. He stares at it with dazed fascination -that doesn’t happen often at the greenhouse- and at some point, he even dares to raise a finger and pet a leaf.

Behind him, Seungyoun burst into a cute, loud laugh, and as he offers a glass of water to his free hand he says “Sorry about her, she is kind of nosy”.

Hangyul steels himself not to jump out of the startlement of being caught, “Is she?”.

“No worries though, that means she likes you!”:

Not exactly what he was worrying about, but that is kind of nice to know, so he offers Seungyoun a smile, and the man reciprocates encouragingly. Hangyul is taken off guard, so he drinks the water to hide his face for at least few seconds.

“Her name is Shiba Inu” says Seungyoun as he takes the glass back from his hand.

Hangyul lets out a funny sound at the name, then raises his hand to take a random leaf between his index and thumb, “Uhm? Hi? Nice to meet you”.

“Ah, that is nice”, Seungyoun says to him, a fond million dollars smile on his face “You’re shaking her leg”.

Hangyul lets the leaf go as if it burned. Do plants have legs? Did he offend the plant? But then Seungyoun is laughing at him incredibly amused.

“I was kidding. You are cute”.

Hangyul feels himself finally blush bright red and he succumbs to the urge of covering his ears with his hands.

❧

Hangyul has been working as a part-timer for quite some time, and he is surprisingly paid in actual money, in addition to the regular teas, the occasional rock and various kinds of baked goods that end up being eaten by his roommate.

A roommate that, at the moment, is sitting cross-legged on his bed, wearing a grey tracksuit, funny sock, and a funnier expression to match.

“I work at a café” he says for the third time “You work for a grandma. Me and you are not the same! Your interaction at work are limited to plants! Leaves! How do you get hit on before me”?

“Well I wouldn’t call it-”

“He called you cute, you hightailed out of there claiming to have plants to pot, and he still told you to come back!”.

Hangyul breathes in.

“I will eat all your chex choco”.

❧

Three days later, Mrs. Kim gives him a little pouch of seeds and a jar of belladonna flowers. She says: “I don’t think you are going to trip this time” and gives him a supportive pat on his back. Hangyul is sure she knows he has embarrassed himself.

According to Mrs. Kim, Seungyoun needs to stock up on a lot of things, since he left most of his inventory behind with his old roommate. This is why, once again, Hangyul is in front of a door with no doorbell, hands sweaty but free enough to knock properly.

This time, Seungyoun comes to open the door with his hair looking a little more combed, but also randomly dyed blond in some spots. It’s a look, Hangyul thinks, it works for him.

“Hi! You are right on time!” he says with a smile, opening the door to let him in “Hope you don’t have plants to pot today, I made tea”.

Hangyul closes his eyes at the light mockery and offers a dumb smile. He kind of deserves that one. “Not really, but I may have some cats to water”.

Seungyoun seems to find it funny enough and he laughs, leading him to a table that seems to have taken the place of the cauldron in the middle of the room. It’s covered in pouches and jars and paper bags, and there are some tags all over, some still blank.

“I’m almost done unpacking” he says, as Hangyul hands him the belladonna and the pouch, “I’m trying to see what I’m missing, looks like I’ll probably need your services again” he adds while wiggling his eyebrows.

Hangyul snorts with a smile at the cheeky remark. “Looks like it” he just kind of says.

Looking around, he spots Wooseok sitting on the bookshelf this time, slotted between two dusty books like a piece of Tetris. Hangyul tries to go for a pet, but the cat gives him what seems like a warning huff. Hangyul squints at him, then unconsciously pouts for a moment: animals usually like him, or at the very least they don’t mind him.

“He sees me perfectly and he hates me” he mutters under his breath.

Seungyoun laughs fondly, “He does take a bit to open up” he admits “I guess you’ll just have to stop by a lot more”.

Hangyul ponders his reply for a moment or two. “That’s some bold flirting” he goes for at the end, no filter whatsoever.

Seungyoun leans on the table, “Well, is it working?”.

Hangyul shakes his head, halfway between an answer and an attempt to move his bangs and try to hide his eyes. “Maybe if you offered me the tea I was promised”.

Seungyoun produces the cup out of thin air, as if summoned, and gives him a winning smile, “Here you go”.

Hangyul takes it from his hands and starts to sip it: it feels warm, kind of Christmas-y, definitely better tasting than the one Mrs. Kim offered him earlier in the afternoon. He sips, as Seungyoun shuffles some things around on the table, and they both enjoy the quiet for a while, until Seungyoun raises his head and asks: “So, how long have you been working for Mrs. Kim? Actually, how did you end up working there at all?”.

Hangyul hums around the mug, the hot infusion kind of steaming his nose, “A year ago? I found her house while I was lost in the rain, and she found it interesting that I could see it, interesting enough to keep me around and make me do all the heavy work”.

“That is interesting”, Seungyoun says with a look of wonder, then he bends to scribble something down again.

“And you? What are you exactly?”.

Seungyoun scrunches his nose in confusion, “What do you mean? I’m a witch just like Mrs. Kim”.

Hangyul shrugs, “I guess? It’s not like she actually says things straight. I just took it at face value and thought of her as a funky old lady” then he adds “Her house is the kind one would call normal, I guess? Sometimes the plants move”.

Seungyoun breathes out a funny sound in amusement, with a smile that looks a little struck, “Wow” he says without further comment, then he changes tone “Well, she is a green witch... Doesn’t she have weird vials? A fancy familiar?”.

“Oh, is that what Wooseok is?” he asks, “But not that I know of, no annoying cat”.

At that exact moment, Wooseok reaches one of its paws towards Hangyul’s head, and in a split second he paws at him, with no nails, but the intention definitely comes through.

Seungyoun valiantly holds his laughter, but he is shaking very obviously with effort.

Hangyul huffs a little. “I think I deserved this one” he says grumpily, sticking his nose into the cup.

Seungyoun nudges him with his shoulder, then he goes back to his tags, and an hour passes just like that, between easy talks and soft scribbling sounds. And when Seungyoun leads him to doorstep, Hangyul feels warm all over, and he can’t help the shy smile that blooms on his face as the door closes behind him.

❧

After the second visit comes a third and a fourth, and Hangyul realises how comfortable he finds himself in Seungyoun’s house. The witch is easy to talk to, fun; at some point, he even gives him a tour, excited to show him around. The room he uses for storage ends up being even more overwhelming that the living room, while the kitchen and the bathroom feel suspiciously mundane and safe in comparison. He doesn’t show him his room, mumbling some kind of excuses Hangyul doesn’t totally get, but since he is feeling kind, he lets him off the hook.

The house feels cosy and familiar, like houses full of objects and personality tend to be, and yet always new, since Seungyoun seems to never run out of boxes to unpack, things to put on shelves or furniture to move around.

Hangyul ends up going back a week later, this time with sage, the business card of a friend of Mrs. Kim that appears to be an expert in reading tea leaves, and the word of advice to not to look into the abyss. That’s not even one of the weirdest things he’s heard so far from Mrs. Kim.

He knocks on the door with his shoe, and he waits for a minute, then two, then three. Five minutes later, Seungyoun pokes out looking frazzled, hair even messier that the week before.

“Sorry, I’m having pixie problems, come in quickly” he says opening the door just enough to make space for him.

Hangyul can’t even metabolize how close he is to Seungyoun, because this time the house is a proper mess, turned upside down. Hangyul has never seen a pixie, he didn’t even know they existed, but seeing Wooseok’s ruffled fur and the scratches on Seungyoun’s cute nose, he honestly doesn’t want to know.

“Feel free to snoop around, I know you like to” says Seungyoun, as they hear the sound of something breaking somewhere in the background. “I’m going to solve this” he adds determined.

Hangyul offers a smile that he hopes looks encouraging, but Seungyoun is already scurrying off towards his room. Hangyul smiles to himself and goes to leave the sage on the table.

“You look funny” he says to Wooseok, while he passes by him.

He gets closer and attempts to lift a hand to smooth his fur, but the cat gets off the sofa and goes to sit in the kitchen.

“Funny but pretty, I swear?”. Wooseok just huffs.

With nothing left to do and with open permission to do so, Hangyul does snoop around, trying not to concern himself with the sounds of things breaking and Seungyoun yelling. He looks at the books on the shelves, some very dusty, some that look like they’ve been read often. His gaze, however, inevitably falls on the third shelf, where a toad sits unmoving. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought it to be a statue of some sort, but he does know better, so when it croaks, he is not surprised at all.

The toad looks kind of dumb, but also kind of all-knowing. Hangyul feels unsettled by the fact that he can’t seem to look away. Its eyes are yellow, and it didn’t blink once. Wait, do toad blink at all? Hangyul keeps on staring, he must figure this blinking thing out, and then he gets closer, and closer, until- until a hand comes to grip his wrist and he is violently pulled out of whatever trance he was in.

“No more looking at Gerard, he is very dangerous”

The toad croaks loudly.

“Evil, even. Sorry about him”

Hangyul nods and looks at Gerard. The cross-eyed toad is evil, noted.

He must have said it at loud, because Seungyoun laughs, then he starts to look around, as he was meant to do when he came out of the other room, before finding him having a staring contest with a toad.

“Have you seen a blue vaporiser?”. Hangyul shakes his head. “Wooseok, have you seen the blue vaporiser?”.

Seungyoun turns towards the cat, who sits completely still on one of the kitchen stools, fur still ruffled, and eyes locked on something behind Seungyoun’s head. That can’t be a good sign. Hangyul follows his gaze, as Seungyoun keeps on looking for the vaporiser, and finds a tiny blue creature on his line of sight, hovering over the tv with a creepy smile.

“Seungyoun” he whispers, taking a step back, eyes never leaving that spot.

Seungyoun replies with a non-committal hum, rummaging through a box he got from god knows where.

“I think you forgot to close the door”.

Seungyoun freezes, understanding the implications, then he slowly raises his head. Sure enough, the blue thing is the damned pixie, and he looks like he is gloating and ready to bite their noses off.

Hangyul takes another step back, as Seungyoun puts the box back down in slow motion.

“I assume this is not good?”.

Seungyoun’s reply comes in the form of a hysterical laughter, that the pixie mirrors in a high pitched and straight-out evil tone, right before it starts zooming around at a speed that Hangyul can’t keep up with his eyes. Seungyoun starts to scream as he looks for something else to catch it, and Wooseok hightails out of the room.

Hangyul backs away until his back hits the shelves behind him. He’d try to locate the pixie, but something shakes over his head with the force of his weight, and before he can even look up, one of Seungyoun’s shady vials comes crashing down his head. In a split second, his body sinks down, and as he blacks out, the last things he feels are Gerard’s ever knowing stare on him and the manic laughter of the pixie.

❧

When Hangyul wakes up, Wooseok’s snout is five inches away from his face, and he is sitting right on his chest, kind of making it hard for him to breathe. Hangyul has to cross his eyes to look at him properly, but as he does that, Wooseok slams his paw on his nose and meows loudly.

That must alert Seungyoun that he is awake, because Hangyul hears the sounds of slippers shuffling, before the witch appears over the backrest of the sofa, smiling so apologetically that Hangyul doesn’t know if he has to be scared.

“Hangyul, I’m so so sorry” he starts with, then he comes around the sofa and pushes Hangyul’s hip a bit to make space to sit next to him, “Good or bad news first?”.

Hangyul groans, making Wooseok meow in irritation.

“Good, I guess?”

“You are alive! Ah Ah!”. Oh my god, Seungyoun is so bad at whatever this means. “And! We got the pixie, I enchanted him into a Hawaii snow globe. I’ll free him as soon as I can, but he seems to like it?”.

Hangyul stares at him. “You are kinda rambling”.

Seungyoun lets out another fake laugh, a full ‘ah ah’ out loud.

“What’s the bad news?”.

“Well, it’s really not that bad! Maybe you wouldn’t mind, who knows?”. Hangyul gives him an unimpressed stare. “So, you know how something crashed on your head? It was not a regular potion, really, it’s my fault for keeping it in my house, I really shouldn’t hav-”.

“Seungyoun.”

“You soul-bonded”.

Hangyul doesn’t react at all, and he doesn’t move. He takes a full minute to analyse the situation in silence. Wooseok is not looking at him to mock him so it must mean it’s something serious.

“I-”.

“Your soul bonded with another soul. You soul-bonded”.

Hangyul nods slowly. “Sure” he says, “And this means…?”.

“It means your souls cannot be separated, that you must stay together at all times. Soul stuff is tricky, so my potion is kind of faulty, I’m sure I can solve this in some way”.

Hangyul nods again, slowly going over it in his head and still not understanding. A bit like trying to study and finding yourself reading the same line over and over without assimilating a single thing.

“Is it not you?” he asks then suspiciously.

Seungyoun smile turns into a total grimace. “No”.

“Who is it?”. Still no answer. Hangyul takes a breath in. “What is it?” he tries again.

Gerard croaks loudly somewhere in the background.

❧

“HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN”.

Hangyul is totally laughing in disbelief and he can’t stop himself; Seungyoun is visibly scared and his hands hover over his shoulders with uncertainty, totally confused on how to work this out.

“I don’t know? I think he was the closest to you” he says. Then he adds in a whisper, “And his soul is very powerful”.

“The toad has a powerful soul!” Hangyul repeats, “AH! Makes sense!”.

Seungyoun tries a hopeful smile, “Does it?”.

Hangyul can’t even bring himself to tell him no and passes a hand over his face. At the same time, Seungyoun finally manages to put a hand on his shoulders and tries to rub it comfortingly.

“Will I have to bring the toad around? I go to class, I have a roommate, I can’t bring a toad around” Hangyul muses, kind of out of it. “Oh no” he says, “Oh no, Yohan is not going to let me live this down”.

Seungyoun encouraging smile turns sour. “Actually, Gerard cannot stay out too much, he is dangerous” he says tentatively, “The energy of my house keeps him balanced”.

Hangyul nods, then whines a little. “Are you kidding me?” he pleads. “What am I supposed to do? Live here?”.

Seungyoun shrugs, “I mean, I don’t mind? And having you around means I can probably solve this faster”

Hangyul breathes in. The damage is already done, the only thing he can do is try and work it out. To work it out he needs Seungyoun to work his magic and do whatever he does. He can’t really do anything else, can he?

“I can skip some classes for the time being” he starts to say, as if saying it at loud will make it make sense “And there should be no problem if I bring Gerard to work with me, right?”, Seungyoun confirms it silently with his head. “But I have no idea how to explain this to Yohan”.

Seungyoun pouts deep in thought, playing absentmindedly with the neck of Hangyul’s shirt, “Doesn’t Yohan know about the funky old lady?” he says, quotation marks evident in his tone.

Hangyul shakes his head, “Not at all, he thinks I’m a regular gardener”.

Seungyoun smiles apologetically, “Then I might have a solution, but you’re not going to like it”. Wooseok meows conspiratorially like the evil cat he is.

❧

“Hi, Yohan” he says into his phone with a murderous glare, “I’m spending the night out”.

“What do you mean you’re spending the night out?”. A pause. Something must click in Yohan’s brain. “How did you progress this fast? Didn’t know you had it in you”.

Hangyul is sure Seungyoun can hear everything Yohan is saying and the obviously allusive tone, but at this point he can’t bring himself to care. He is bonded to a toad, there’s not much else to say.

“I think I might stay here even tomorrow? I’m not really sure when I’m coming back”.

“Nice, Lee Hangyul, let’s get it”.

Seungyoun snorts a laugh that he fails to muffle on the pillow he is holding to his chest. Hangyul sticks a foot on the meat of his calf.

“That’s really not it, but I’ll keep you updated?”.

“You Will” he says menacingly “I’m going to need an essay on this. Single-spaced. I have to know how this happened”.

Hangyul grimaces, “Yeah, I’m wondering the same thing”.

❧

“So, where do you want to sleep?”.

Hangyul looks at Seungyoun a bit like he is the one that had something smashed on his head. “You know there’s no way I’m sleeping in the same room with the toad, right? And with all this hooky spooky stuff?”.

Seungyoun gives him a supportive smile.

“I’m going to sleep in the bathroom, I think that’s safe enough”.

Seungyoun smile falls. “Actually” he starts, and Hangyul is already groaning “Actually some nights there’s a kappa that comes to visit? He sleeps in the bathtub”. A pause, then he nods in reassurance, “I leave him some cucumbers and he leaves me some herbs, very friendly!”

Hangyul mouths stays open for a few seconds, then he nods, “Yeah, right, I’m sleeping in your room”.

Seungyoun smiles elated, not very subtle at all, “You are?”.

Hangyul sends him a dirty look, “No toad, no kappa, the only animal allowed near me is Wooseok and trust me I’m surprised too”.

Wooseok flicks his tail in indignation, while Seungyoun mutters that those are not exactly animals.

Hangyul moves to sit back, but then he stops himself. “Wait, does this mean I finally get to see your room?”.

Seungyoun freezes, and Hangyul coos inwardly at the way his cheeks colour pink.

❧

To his surprise, Seungyoun’s room ends up being perfectly normal, cute actually, kind of aesthetic. There are pretty prints on the wall and pretty blue lights; there’s minimal furniture and the room is surprisingly tidy. No skulls, no toads, no jars. Hangyul loves it, it looks like a cosy café, and he finds it so very endearing that Seungyoun had been so shy about it.

“I love it” he says quietly. Seungyoun looks happy to hear it but doesn’t reply. “Is it really alright for me to sleep here?”.

Seungyoun rushes to reassure him, and he starts to tell him that it shouldn’t take him too long to undo the soul-bound, but that Hangyul could use half of his closet if he ever wanted. Hangyul smiles at the rambling, but he can’t really go back to get his things at the moment, so he doesn’t get to claim the closet, and he ends up having to make do on his first night.

After dinner (Chinese takeout unites people and magical creatures alike), Seungyoun lends him some comfortable clothes, an old shirt with no holes and some random sweatpants, then he gives him a toothbrush and tells him to help himself to whatever he needs.

Hangyul gets into the shower without much thought, he really feels like he needs it, and it’s only when he remembers that a kappa might sleep where he is standing that he feels like this whole thing could be a little weird.

He dresses quickly, and he gets out of the bathroom with a towel on his head. Seungyoun passes by and pats his head, rubbing his hair with the towel for a second. “Everything good?” he asks, “Did you see the gnomes?”.

Hangyul mumbles: “Not really”. His ears are burning.

“Oh, alright, that might happen”. With that, Seungyoun gives him a final pat on his head, enters the bathroom and closes the door behind him. Hangyul is kind of frozen on the spot and tries not to let it show that his heart is beating faster. That might not have worked, because he swears that the sound Wooseok is making is a hundred percent a mocking cackle.

After that, he settles on the spinning chair in Seungyoun’s room and he fiddles with his phone for a while. Seungyoun comes out thirty minutes later, damp hair over is eyes and skin flushed from the hot water. He looks cute like this, kind of younger. Hangyul raises his hand in a mock wave when he notices he has entered the room.

“You could have gone to bed, I wouldn’t have minded”.

Hangyul shrugs, “Still your bed” he says, “Also I don’t know which side you want”.

Seungyoun smiles fondly, “I will probably have to wake up earlier, maybe it’s best if you sleep by the wall?”.

Hangyul is quick to agree, perfectly comfortable at the idea of being near the wall and hidden by Seungyoun, just in case whatever creature visits the house at night decides to drop by.

And with that said, they settle to bed. Easy like that. Seungyoun is on his side, back to Hangyul, and Hangyul is spread on his back. An hour passes slowly. He doesn’t feel uncomfortable, but his eyes are wide open, and he can’t help but stare straight at the ceiling, unable to sleep at all. He himself thinks it’s pretty childish but sleeping in a stranger house it’s revealing itself as quite the challenge. It’s really not about how Seungyoun is laying right there and how everything smells of him; it’s more about the sounds, the space, the different location of the bed, the different quality of the darkness that surrounds him.

“Can’t sleep?”.

Seungyoun’s voice reaches him muffled, and Hangyul sighs in reply.

“I can get Wooseok if you want”.

Hangyul doesn’t know how that’s going to help, but a few seconds later, Wooseok enters from the door left ajar and closes it with his paws; then, he comes closer and jumps over the bed. Hangyul feels Seungyoun move, so he imagines he must be petting the cat. A few seconds pass, and Hangyul feels Wooseok nip at his hand; he doesn’t try to pet him this time, he keeps still, and Wooseok seems to appreciate it, because he proceeds to settle over his chest with a huff.

The weight is not comfortable, but Wooseok fur is warm, and after a few moments of complete silence he starts to purr. The sound becomes white noise and it mixes with Seungyoun’s quiet and rhythmic breathing. It doesn’t take long for Hangyul to finally succumb to sleep.

❧

Hangyul is sipping Mrs. Kim’s tea, sitting on his usual chair by the entrance of the greenhouse. Today it tastes kind of funny, but he can’t tell if it’s all suggestion, given that there’s a third cup on the table where the fat toad is resting placidly.

“Seungyoun will treat you well” she says, as he offers Gerard a bit of sugar.

Hangyul watches the scene with the resigned expression of someone who has accepted his fate. This is his life now.

“Right” he mumbles, keeping it vague even though he knows Mrs. Kim can see right through him “He says he’s going to work very hard to find a solution”.

Mrs. Kim nods, “Sure” she says, as if Hangyul completely missed the point “I can imagine”, she takes a little bit more of sugar. “You know, sometimes the answer is right in front of us”.

Gerard laps at it with one swift motion, then croaks contently; Hangyul scrunches his nose in distaste. “I don’t even understand how this happened” he says, not really knowing how to reply to Mrs. Kim words (as always, really).

“Who knows”. She is smiling the exact smile of someone that knows perfectly well. “I did tell you it was going to be an eventful month” she adds, feeling very amused, “What’s more interesting is how he ended up in your witch’s home. Seungyoun must be a pretty special boy”.

Hangyul is so busy looking at the toad that’s supposed to be a powerful being of some sort, that he doesn’t even notice Mr’s Kim choice of words. This is his life now and he has accepted it, but it doesn’t mean it makes any sense.

❧

Hangyul settles in quite nicely, and he must say that life with Seungyoun is not that bad, with the exception of the weird creatures. And the potion-induced accidents. And the haywire spells. It’s only been two days.

Missing class makes him a bit anxious, but Yohan says he has managed to get him some notes through one of his friends (Byungchan is an angel, really, even though after talking with Yohan he sent him some sort of cursed meme with no caption).

“I don’t really understand, are you skipping class for” Yohan voice gets small, to a mock scandalised whisper “some dick?”.

Hangyul groans, tempted to throw the phone away. “No, I’m not. Seungyoun has not been feeling well, I’m taking care of him” he lies through his teeth.

Yohan smirks like the Cheshire cat on the screen, “So that’s his name”. Hangyul squints in annoyance, feeling tricked. “You should introduce us”.

“That’s not a good idea. Like. At all”.

Yohan laughs at his expression, then he stops all of a sudden. “Dude” he whispers in awe “Why do you never tell me the important things first? Is that a kitty?”.

Hangyul looks at the screen and then turns around: apparently Wooseok came up on the bed, intrigued or maybe annoyed by the ruckus, and he didn’t even notice.

“No, that’s not a kitty” he says scrunching his nose. Calling Wooseok a kitty feels weird. “That’s a pest”.

The cat hisses just a little at the comment. After Wooseok helped him sleep that night, nothing really changed, and it really feels like he wants to pretend nothing ever happened. Hangyul finds it kind of cute, so he just lets him sit his butt on his face and bite his shoelaces out of pettiness.

“I don’t think so, he is so pretty, HELLO CAT!”.

Hangyul half-expects Wooseok to ignore him or something, but surprisingly the cat goes up to his phone, sits his ass over his arm, and looks straight at Yohan, as his dumb best friend ‘pspsps’ at him with a silly duck face. Wooseok nibbles at the camera and Yohan squeals.

“You should have told me your boyfriend had a kitty!” he says offended.

Hangyul groans. “Wooseok is a devil and you will address him with due respect” he says, earning a bite on his thumb. “I can’t believe he answers to your pspsps bullshit, and I still get my toes bitten”

Yohan points his index finger to his temple, “I’m not fucking his owner, think about it”.

Hangyul manages to flip him off for a second, before Wooseok catches his finger between his front paws, and promptly bites it.

❧

On Saturday morning, Hangyul wakes up as Seungyoun tries to get up. He has kind of accepted that they end up cuddling during the night, he doesn’t mind, but waking up every time the witch has to go to work? Now that’s a serious problem. He doesn’t even have the energy to complain, as Seungyoun slides his arm from under him while he shushes him softly with some kind of baby talk.

“I’m going to ask my boss for help” he says, “You sleep”, and with that he gets up, and Hangyul he isn’t sure if the kiss he feels on his head is real or not.

Later in the morning, true to his word, Seungyoun comes back home from the magic shop he works at with a huge black box and advice of all types.

“I collected as many things as possible that could help us”, he says, putting the box near Hangyul, who’s splayed on the sofa trying to do some reading for college. “We are going to try them all”.

There’s a manic glint in Seungyoun’s eyes, and Hangyul braces himself for whatever is going to come.

“The easiest thing is a ritual, I think we can try that tonight” he mumbles, rummaging through the box. He raises some jars, and Hangyul swears one has tiny eyes in it. “There’s a few potions too, but for one or two we’ll have to wait for the full moon. That’s in a week and a half” he finishes in a tiny voice.

Hangyul is a bit tired of catching him be so apologetic, it’s not even his fault if he is a witch and Hangyul has no idea how to act around dangerous potions and god-like toads. “Ok, sounds good” he says, patting Seungyoun’s knee, “Thanks”.

Happy with the relieved smile he receives, Hangyul relaxes back on the sofa, and goes back to reading, as Seungyoun sorts his things out while humming lightly. They keep it up long enough that Shiba Inu comes out from under the sofa to curl some vines around Hangyul’s leg in affection; however, something keeps bugging him, and after catching himself reading the same line over again, he gives up and just asks.

“I know we soul-bonded, but what does it mean?” he tries, turning the open book over his thigh to hold the page. “Like, what happens if I don’t bring him with me?”.

Seungyoun turns his head with a seriously horrified face, “I don’t know” he answers, “Nobody knows. We are not going to find out” he declares categorical.

“What do you mean you don’t know? Do I die?”.

The vines around Hangyul’s leg all let go in horror, while Seungyoun gives him a stare full of hurt, “Why would you say that?” he says “Just keep Gerard near. We are not taking any chances”. He stuffs some things in the box. “We are doing the ritual after dinner”.

❧

“Alright, take your shirt off”.

Seungyoun is holding a baking tin against his hip, which is full of a reddish mushy concoction that he has spent the whole afternoon on; his hands are stained like he has been eating berries, and the colour of his lips kind of confirms Hangyul’s theory. He looks extremely kissable to be honest, but there’s definitely more pressing matters at hand, like the fact that the concoction smells unholy or that he has to get naked for this.

“Not fully naked, just a bit naked” says Seungyoun “I just have to paint you a little, my boss says there’s some runes that could maybe do something. A little incantation”.

Hangyul is not convinced at all. “And what’s that stuff?”.

“Just some berries, some herbs” he says in a squeaky voice, very obviously hiding some weird ingredients “Don’t worry about it, it just helps the whole process”.

Hangyul nods, not that he has much left to do, and he takes off his shirt without any preamble. He doesn’t feel particularly shy about his body, but Seungyoun is kind of staring.

“Nice abs” he says in the end, fingers in the baking tin.

“Thanks?”.

 Seungyoun smiles in appreciation, then he asks him to sit on the table and positions himself between his legs. Hangyul tries not to think too much about it.

The witch uses his thumb, sometimes his index and middle fingers, and he draws symbols all over his chest and arms. “Runes are fun, you should learn some” he says, as he draws a circle over Hangyul’s bellybutton. “Stop squirming” he adds then, when Hangyul feels too ticklish and tries to move away.  

Hangyul tries, but he still finds it hard not to shy away unconsciously, so Seungyoun steadies him with a hand on his hip and he keeps adding weird commas around his bellybutton.

Hangyul forgets to breathe for a while, but then he has to breathe out the air he had been holding and try his best not to look awkward. Seungyoun looks pretty focused and pretty in general; the proximity makes it obvious that he really had been eating berries in the kitchen, and Hangyul finds it endearing. Even when the man is standing between his legs.

“I’m done!”. Hangyul startles, and Seungyoun giggles knowingly. “Gerard it’s your turn”.

Hangyul tries to ask, but Seungyoun fishes a teeny tiny brush out of his pocket, and the answer reveals itself pretty clearly. Hangyul has to stifle his laughter as the witch struggles to paint tiny runes on the toad’s slimy skin.

“Sorry, Gerard” he says panicked from time to time, and Hangyul can’t help but laugh at the way Seungyoun holds the toad with such a reverence. It takes ten minutes for the witch to announce that he thinks he’s done.

 “Ok, now you hold Gerard”.

Hangyul lets Seungyoun position the toad between his hands, then as they are all settled, the witch starts to repeat some words in a language Hangyul can’t identify. He does it ten or fifteen times, and at some point, the runes on Hangyul’s body start to sparkle.

Seungyoun looks at them full of expectations. Hangyul feels the runes get hotter, and in a few seconds, they start to look like they have been painted with shining liquid. Gerard in his hands looks like a moon lamp, basically invisible as he is surrounded by light.

Then all of a sudden, the light expands to the whole room, and after a second it disappears in a flash. The runes vanish from their bodies, and, with a resounding pop, a flower appears on the top of Gerard’s head.

Seungyoun gapes uncertain. Gerard croaks loudly.

Needless to say, attempt number one is a failure.

❧

Attempts number two involves a nasty potion, that Seungyoun makes him drink by tackling him on the sofa and holding his nose to make him gasp for air.

Hangyul re-emerges with tears in his eyes, hair messy and throat on fire.

“What’s in this?” he asks, looking pitiful.

Seungyoun is petting his hair in comfort, and Hangyul would relish in the moment if that wasn’t the same hand of Judas that poured that horrific thing in his mouth.

“You don’t need to know”, he says, using his thumb to catch a tear on Hangyul’s cheek.

“There’s no way Gerard is going drink this”.

Seungyoun seems to ponder it for a moment.

“Yeah, I know”.

❧

Hangyul looks at his phone. There’s a text from his cousin saying ‘wow, can’t believe you didn’t tell me’, a text from Yohan that says ‘ayy, sorry’, and a meme from Byungchan that he doesn’t know if it really fits into the narrative.

It’s crystal clear that Yohan couldn’t keep his mouth shut, and now even Dohyun, his fifteen-year-old cousin who lives on the other side of the country, knows about his. It’s crystal clear that the issue is snowballing, and the solution is not coming out to be quick and easy at all.

Hangyul raises his head and looks at Seungyoun who’s pouring some things in the cauldron, working on attempt number three. It’s obvious that the witch is trying very hard, but Hangyul doesn’t know how long he can keep being cooped up and estranged from his actual life. He can’t really tell him, though, so he stays silent and watches him work with his tongue out in concentration.

Seungyoun does this thing where he meets Hangyul’s gaze while he works, and without realising it, he smiles at him and then goes back to work seamlessly. It’s unbelievably cute. He did it once or twice already, and everything is made more endearing by the pink fumes coming out of the cauldron and the way his hair curled a little because of it.

Hangyul sighs, and his mood must really show, because Wooseok willingly decides to sleep near him on the floor.

“I’m almost done! Taehyung” that’s Seungyoun’s boss “told me there’s a very specific way one must stir this, and I think I got it right”.

Seungyoun keeps it up for another ten or fifteen minutes, then uses a tiny ladle to pour the liquid into a mug and a tiny vial. He motions for Hangyul to come, and offers him the mug, then he turns to Gerard on the bookshelf and prepares himself to make him drink what he poured in the vial.

“Alright, on three”.

Seungyoun counts, and Hangyul downs the potion like a shot. This one tastes nice, like vanilla, but Hangyul promptly forgets about it as his body starts to itch.

“I think there’s something wrong” he says.

Seungyoun is looking at Gerard, and when he turns to look at him, he looks absolutely pale and kind of twitchy. “Yeah, I think so too”.

When the witch moves, Hangyul can see Gerard looking fat and pink.

“Oh my god” he says, “Am I pink too?”.

Seungyoun looks sweaty. “Not exactly”.

❧

It takes a whole day for his skin to go back to normal. As soon as he realised he was positively green, Hangyul avoided all mirrors, windows and spoons, uneasy even when looking at his hands as he washed the dishes or flipped through a book. He has no shame in saying that he got Seungyoun to wash his face and brush his teeth for him because he didn’t want to look at himself.

Not that Seungyoun minded, anyway, since he became extremely clingy out of guilt, and also as a statement to prove that Hangyul still looked cute. Hangyul would have taken his words for it, but he doesn’t really know what kind of weird stuff Seungyoun is into.

Still, it does take only a day for it to pass, so Hangyul can go out again and look at himself in the mirror without feeling like he is Shrek’s good looking son. His hair still looks kind of greenish, though, but the relief of looking at himself and seeing actual skin makes him think it could be a look.

And it’s with green hair that Hangyul finally faces Yohan.

It wasn’t really planned, Hangyul hoped to avoid a confrontation as long as possible. Maybe never have it and just go back to his apartment when everything sorted itself out. Obviously, things are not working out, not now, not ever, so he isn’t surprised that, when he sneaks into his own apartment to get some clothes on the day his roommate should have been in class, Yohan is sprawled on the floor.

“Well, who do we have here?” says a voice with dramatic flair, “Am I dreaming?”.

Hangyul freezes and unfreezes by the door in the span of three seconds. Yohan rests his head on his hand, still laying, and he welcomes him with wiggling eyebrows and a smirk. “A whole week” he says impressed, then he drops the drama and adds with a pout: “I got kind of lonely”.

Hangyul smiles apologetically. “I’m sorry” he says sincerely “Seungyoun is really going through it” he adds for effect, getting closer.

Yohan squints at him. “Well, are you going through it?”. Hangyul hums in question. “Your hair is green”.

Hangyul face muscles fight trying to make the grimace he feels look like a smile. “Yeah, Seungyoun dyed his hair and I went with it in support”.

Yohan looks dubious. “Aren’t you moving too fast?” he tries “You literally moved in with him. First is hair, then it’s matching tattoos. You are coming back, right?”.

Hangyul freezes on his way to his room. “About that”.

Yohan jumps into a sitting position, then he gets up and follows him into his room as he tries to escape. “What?” he says “What?!”.

Hangyul takes some random clothes from his closet and stuffs them into the empty bag he brought with him.

“Is he that good? Are you a hostage?”. Yohan stops everything to hold him by the shoulders and look at him in the eyes. “Hangyul blink twice if he is keeping you captive, I have friends that can help you”.

Hangyul gives him a perplexed and frankly scared stare, then he laughs a little. “I swear everything’s alright. He- We’re just going through a rough patch? I can’t really explain it right now”.

Yohan nods, and looks at him as closes his bag. “But you are coming back at some point, right?”.

Hangyul smiles softly and ruffles his hair as he passes by. “I am” he says with certainty that has no basis at all “Still paying rent, still stealing your boxers”.

Yohan nods happily, then frowns. “Wait, did you really?”, he glances at his bag, “Hangyul show me what you took”.

Hangyul speeds towards the door with a sprint worthy of a professional runner, and a strangled croaking sound comes out from the backpack on his shoulders as he goes.

“HANGYUL COME BACK HERE!”. Yohan screams behind him. “WAS THAT A FROG?”

❧

Seungyoun has to wait for the new moon for his next attempt, so Hangyul naively thought that they would have a few days of peace. A few moments to study, to relax, to walk around without being scared of slipping on slimy substances.

Except one morning they wake with weird anthropomorphic creatures at the end of their bed, with huge hands, huge ears, huge noses, and teeny tiny bodies, and Hangyul has to eat his words. The creatures look way too funny, but they are also trying to steal their blankets. Hangyul feels sorry for Seungyoun because he knows he has kicked the witch multiple times thinking he was being greedy with the comforter.

“What do we do?”.

They are sitting by the headboard looking crazed, as the creatures rip the blankets apart. One of them uses a piece as a mock bride veil, one of them mimics a towel turban.

Seungyoun looks at him, then at the creatures. Then back at him. His hair is sticking weirdly, and his eyes are not even fully opened. “They are going to leave when they are finished” he says, and with that he curls back on the bed, and he leaves Hangyul to witness a bunch of beings stage a fake wedding at his feet.

On a good day, Seungyoun forgets to warn him he stuck some kind of concoction in the oven, and as he opens it a cloud of smoke explodes in his face, and the witch has to spend twenty minutes cleaning Hangyul’s skin, and ten minutes hugging him to be forgiven.

On a bad day, Seungyoun mistakenly causes an earthquake, that terrifies Wooseok to the point that he seeks shelter in Hangyul’s arms, and he would have loved it, if he wasn’t trying to keep weird potions from falling on his head again. They get out of the house looking frazzled in their pyjamas, only to discover that the earthquake was limited to their house, and that the neighbours are fine and will now hate them.

On a worse day, Hangyul comes back home after work, and stubs his toe on a cabinet that he was sure it wasn’t there the day before.

Seungyoun comes up to him. “Sorry about that” he says. Hangyul looks at him confused. “Dongpyo likes to move every piece of furniture by a few centimetres when he stops by”. Then he whispers with a resigned, mocking voice “just small sprite things”.

A pen hits Seungyoun on the back of his head, and that’s how Hangyul discovers they have guests. Standing by the sofa there’s an attractive pale man, that he’s quick to identify with Frog Onesie Dude in the photo over the tv, while beside him hovers a tiny boy with wings who’s shaking the snow globe with the pixie like it’s maracas.

“Please put the pixie down” is the first thing Hangyul says. “He likes it there and we like him there”.

The boy looks at him in silence and gives the snow globe one last shake for good measure, all while maintaining eye contact.

Wooseok comes to greet him by rubbing on his leg once (1 time), as the pale man offers him a hand, “I’m Seungwoo. I’ve heard a lot about you”.

Hangyul smiles and shakes it. That’s a very cold hand. “And I’ve seen a lot of weird pictures of you” he answers, cursing at himself in the process “I’m Hangyul”.

Seungwoo just gives him a friendly smile, beatific even, while the sprite snickers in the background. Seungyoun nudges him with his shoulder. “That’s Dongpyo” he introduces, “I wouldn’t shake his hand”.

Hangyul takes the advice to heart and he sticks to a tiny wave in his general direction. Dongpyo waves back, and Hangyul can’t help but notice his sharp nails. He’s like a pixie but less blue and definitely bigger, he’s not getting on his bad side.

“We were just leaving” Seungwoo says, putting his hands on Dongpyo shoulders and slowly bring him to the ground. The sprite makes his wings vanish in the process. “But I’m so glad I got to see you, Seungyoun doesn’t stop talking about you”

Dongpyo nods fervently. “It’s kind of disgusting”

Seungyoun has assumed an expression of fake, resigned calm that’s hilarious to witness, and Hangyul doesn’t have it in his heart to rub it on his face.

The pair really does leave, after Seungwoo makes Dongpyo empty his pockets, and when the door is finally closed, Seungyoun and Hangyul stare at it for a full minute.

“Is Seungwoo a…?”.

Seungyoun snorts. “Say it, out loud”.

Hangyul takes a pillow from the sofa and slams it on his head.

❧

Hangyul is making space on the flowerbed and preparing it for another bunch of seeds that Mrs. Kim bought that morning. He is working hard, even if he feels kind of awkward since Mrs. Kim is sipping tea and Yohan is doing the same thing next to her.

It’s not Yohan’s idea, and it’s definitely not Hangyul’s. Mrs. Kim just randomly called him that morning from the supermarket and told him to bring his cute friend.

Hangyul had been really nervous at first, worried about the greenhouse, and Gerard, and Mrs. Kim herself, but the plants are on their best behaviour and the witch prepared a pool for the toad to keep him sated and distant. For a toad that’s supposedly powerful and mighty, he sure looks happy in an inflatable barbie pool.

As for Mrs. Kim, Hangyul abandoned any hope. Yohan already kind of knows that she is a strange old woman, anyway.

After a while, Mrs. Kim motions for him to come and get his cup of tea. Hangyul washes his hands and settles on a chair. As he takes his first sip, he has to force himself not to gag. It feels like death on his tongue, and Hangyul wants to scrub his mouth. He looks at Yohan, who’s drinking the exact same thing in complete peace, and then he looks at Mrs. Kim, who nods as if confirming something to herself.

“You should be very careful, darling” she says, “Bad luck is on your side this week”. Yohan sips at his tea with a raised eyebrow. “You are going to trip on the sidewalk every single time”.

Hangyul groans, but he can’t hide that he feels very spooked. Yohan, instead, not used to this, finds it funny enough, and his eyes sparkle like a puppy waiting for his turn.

“You should take care of him when the time comes” she says absent-mindedly, looking at Yohan’s general direction; then she adds, “You are going to fall in love, good luck with that”.

Yohan squeals in awe. “Am I getting a boyfriend like Hangyul’s?” he asks, blatantly fishing for intel.

Mrs. Kim smiles. “Oh no sweetie, it’s definitely going to work better for you”. Then she muses what she said. “Well, you are not tripping on any sidewalk, at least, not marrying any toad either”.

Yohan sends a confused glance to Hangyul. Hangyul shrugs because what can he say, really. Gerard splashes in the barbie pool, and for once Mrs. Kim looks vaguely worried.

❧

And as Mrs. Kim predicted, bad luck is on Hangyul’s side, and attempt number four is where things start to go wrong. Ironically, that’s the one Hangyul felt more confident in, encouraged by the surprising good mood he was in since morning. He managed to go to one class, and no one noticed the toad in his backpack. He met his friends and he was happy about it even if they made fun of him every single minute. Most of all, Wooseok allowed him three (3) full pets from the goodness of his heart. Things were looking up.

Seungyoun spent the night before in the storage room, crushing some plant under the full moon, and then he used them that morning to make two weird looking pills.

Hangyul has one in his hand, while Seungyoun is crushing the other to make Gerard eat it. It looks translucent, a bit like an opal, definitely too pretty to eat. It looks weird enough to see and uncomfortable enough to eat, so Hangyul thinks it must be it.

“I’m not so sure about this”. Seungyoun says instead, as he gathers the powder with a tablespoon, “I have a feeling. Bad vibes, ugly vibes”.

Hangyul raises an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound reassuring” he says, “But I mean, I’ve already become green once”.

Seungyoun doesn’t look convinced nor comforted. “I don’t know, Taehyung said he hasn’t personally tried this one and it uses some strange stuff”.

Ok, that doesn’t sound good. Hangyul takes Seungyoun’s hand in his free one and squeezes hard. “I won’t do it if you are not sure, but what’s the worst that could happen?”.

Seungyoun nods thoughtfully, but he is looking very worried. He doesn’t say anything, so Hangyul keeps holding his hand and uses his thumb to rub the back of it in reassurance. After a while, Seungyoun breathes out. “We can try, but I need to get some stuff out in case things go bad”.

Hangyul nods, and for five whole minutes Seungyoun goes around the house grabbing various items from every corner. “Seungyoun, what’s that for?” he asks amused, when the pile the witch created on the table looks as tall as them.

“Just…” the witch has the decency to look sheepish, “Anti-gremlin spray…” he finishes lamely.

Hangyul nods with an amused and terribly fond smile. “I’d say we are set”.

Seungyoun nods, taking in a big breath, then he gets back to the tablespoon. Gerard is sitting next to pile, looking impassive as always.

“Ok, let’s try this”.

Hangyul doesn’t stop to think about it and sticks the pill in his mouth. It doesn’t taste like much, so he bites it off and starts to fully eat it. The mouthfeel is seriously weird, it feels watery, fizzy, kind of cold.

Hangyul raises his head to look at Seungyoun with a questioning look, ready to ask if anything is supposed to happen, but at the same time as he sees Seungyoun anxious smile, his body goes rigid and he falls on his side.

❧

The sensation is haunting.

Hangyul can’t move, nor talk, nor hear anything at all. The only thing he can do is witness the images in front of his eyes: everything looks red and in slow motion; he can see Seungyoun talking and moving, but his hands leave afterimages in his vision. He tries to figure out what the witch is saying, but his face is blurry. He feels hands on his arms, then on his neck. Is Seungyoun checking his pulse? Is he dying? Seungyoun disappears from his vision, but not even a second later, he comes back to him.

Hangyul feels his mouth being forced open, then two fingers stick something down his throat.

Hangyul can’t move, nor talk, nor hear, and now he feels like he is suffocating, and he can’t breathe, he can’t breathe at all. Snippets of sounds come loud to his ears like a badly tuned radio. Everything stops.

For one.

Two.

Three seconds.

❧

Hangyul sits up with a startle like one would do after a nightmare, gasping for air, and his head knocks hard against Seungyoun’s. He brings his hands to his forehead hissing in pain as he tries to regulate his breathing.

“-the fuck, what the fuck”.

Seungyoun voice comes to him at times, so Hangyul looks up and tries to locate the witch as his vision slowly clears out. Before he even manages it, he feels a warm hand on his cheek gently push his head to the side, and a blurry face appears in is line of sight.

“-gyul?”.

Wow, Seungyoun looks like he has seen better days; his eyes are really puffy and red, but the rest of his face looks pale. His hair looks messy and the tips look wet. Hangyul feels a bit lightheaded and he raises a hand to place it on Seungyoun’s neck. Ah, yes, his hair is definitely wet with sweat.

“Hangyul!”.

Hangyul’s scrambled brain startles and finally starts to register actual words. His name being called grounds him a little, and his vision focuses a bit more. Seungyoun’s looks out of his mind with worry, eyes searching his face for something. Hangyul feels a hand come up to his other cheek and he feels a little squished as Seungyoun forces him to look forward.

“Hangyul, do you hear me?”.

Hangyul nods grumpily, his lips puckering out like a fish. “Yesh, I hear you” he manages to get out.

Those few words work like magic: Seungyoun slumps in relief, all tension and fight leaving his body. His hands fall down to his sides from Hangyul’s cheeks, and his head drops down on Hangyul’s shoulder.

Hangyul blinks once or twice, not really sure of what’s going on. He caresses Seungyoun’s neck in an attempt to reassure him and he looks around trying to gather some intel on what went down. The living room is a disaster, the pile that Seungyoun created out of random objects crumbled down and the floor is covered in random stuff. There’s the anti-gremlin spray somewhere on by the sofa, and a jar of weird looking furry balls is by his feet. Hangyul kicks it lightly, and the movement makes him notice the biggest hint that what has just happened is serious: Wooseok is nestled on his lap, looking at him in silence but not moving from there at all.

Hangyul hears Seungyoun sniff and mumble something. “What?” he asks softly, patting his neck to get his attention.

Seungyoun’s head shoots up, and the witch looks affronted. “I said what the fuck!” he screams. He is crying and he looks miserable, and so offended by whatever Hangyul is doing or not doing. “I almost killed you!”

Hangyul nods, understanding downing on him. “Uh, so that’s what happened”.

Seungyoun looks appalled, and he lets out a disbelieving laugh. “You were almost dead” he repeats quietly “I had to stick my fingers into your mouth”.

Hangyul doesn’t remember much of what happened, his memories totally fuzzy up until when he woke up minutes ago, but he seems to remember the feeling. “Yeah, right, why did you do that?”.

Seungyoun sniffles. “There’s this stone that’s kind of a universal antidote” he says, “I had to stick it in your throat” he adds, looking heartbroken. “I wasn’t even sure if it was going to work”.

Hangyul nods thoughtfully, not really grasping the gravity of the situation since his memory is fuzzy and he feels out of it, like he woke up from a nightmare that’s already fading. “Thank you” he says simply.

Seungyoun looks at him in the eyes, gaze glossy and unreadable. A tear escapes his right eye, and Hangyul moves to brush it away with his thumb. Seungyoun raises his hand to entwine it with Hangyul’s and keep it on his cheek, then he leans against it as he exhales shakily. “I got really scared”.

His voice is so small and broken. Hangyul feels his eyes hurt, and he tries to smile but it feels liquid and shaky. “It’s okay, you did great” he whispers, “I’m safe”.

Seungyoun nods, eyes never leaving Hangyul, then he tightens the hold on Hangyul’s hand and brings it down, away from his face. He looks scared and he keeps quiet, until he takes a breath and says: “I don’t think my magic can help you”.

❧

That night Hangyul tries to hug him, tries to offer a comforting touch, but Seungyoun is on his side and refuses to look at him. Hangyul turns and brings an arm around him, over his ribs, and looks for his hand in the dark. He feels Seungyoun shake lightly as he keeps still, not holding his hand back but neither moving away.

Hangyul has never felt so heartbroken.

❧

Hangyul is at the market with Mrs. Kim and he is holding a basket with Gerard inside, who didn’t almost die or even choke a little. They have to shop for fertilizer and some crystals, but Hangyul’s head is somewhere else; since attempt number four, Seungyoun took the executive decision to be out as much as possible, and when he actually is in the house, he busies himself trying to find a solution to the soul-bond that wouldn’t require his actual magic.

Hangyul feels a knock on his head.

“Stop worrying”. Mrs. Kim is smiling softly. “Some things are not meant to be”.

Hangyul feels wobbly, he doesn’t know what she’s referring to, but that’s the last thing he wants to hear if it’s about Seungyoun.

Mrs. Kim laughs, as if to read his thoughts. “It’s lovely to see you liking someone this much” she says, “It’s a pretty look on you both”.

Hangyul feels anything but pretty, so that’s what he says. “I feel like a gremlin”.

“Oh no darling, don’t say that, you haven’t seen them”. Mrs. Kim answers absent-mindedly, as she inspects some sort of blue tuber. “A cute little troll, however? Now that’s more like it”.

❧

It’s eleven pm and Seungyoun is not at home. Hangyul never really noticed how fast he got used to calling it home, but now he notices every single time and he feels so sad about it. He wishes he knew how to help Seungyoun’s with his fear and guilt, but there’s really not much about he can do about it.

Yohan is in the middle of telling him something about Byungchan that involves a leather jacket, an embarrassing fall and a very hot barista, but he stops as he looks at him.

“I love you man, but you have to tell me what’s going on”.

Hangyul looks at Yohan’s face and he misses him a lot. “What is not going on, to be honest” he whispers, but quiet enough that his roommate can’t hear him and does that dumb thing where he sticks his ear to the camera. “I said I have no idea”.

Yohan rightfully looks like he doesn’t believe him. “You can tell me about it” he tries genuinely.

Hangyul ponders the idea, but how can he tell his best friend that he soul-bonded with a toad that needs to live in a witch’s house. A witch that he likes. A witch that is mostly ignoring him at the moment, proven by the fact that it’s eleven pm and Seungyoun is nowhere in sight, and on his place on the bed there’s Wooseok, who touchingly enough has decided he has to stick to his side.

“I wish I could”.

Yohan keeps silent for a while and shows once again how much of a good friend he is. “Listen you don’t have to, but I can be there for you. We can just hang, you know? Two bros chilling” he says, “If I’ll feel kind enough, I’ll even do your roots”.

Hangyul laughs at that, and Yohan sports a little satisfied smile.

❧

At some point Hangyul dreams of the bed dipping and a hand on his cheek, but when he wakes up in the middle of the night the spot beside him is empty. It is still warm, though, but Seungyoun is nowhere to be seen. (Wooseok, instead, is sleeping in between, and Hangyul can’t help but smile at that).

He gets up and tries to look for the witch. He hears sounds coming from the bathroom.

“Do you know how to undo it?” he hears Seungyoun ask in a hushed voice.

The door is slightly open, and Hangyul can see him cross-legged on the floor, elbow on the closed toilet bowl. He hasn’t fully looked at him in a while, and Hangyul hates that to him he looks even prettier when he’s just sitting on a dirty floor, talking with a funny-looking green creature in the bathtub. The creature is munching on a cucumber and it looks like it’s wearing a tiny straw hat; it also has terrifying teeth. Hangyul deduces it must be the infamous kappa.

And the kappa mumbles something in reply. He sounds a little like an animal crossing character, Hangyul is not going to lie.

“I know it’s ancient magic, but it must have an antidote or something”.

There’s another wet mumble, and a weird wheezing laughing sound.

“How can I be happy about that, shut up”

The kappa takes another bite from the cucumber and raises his shoulders in a shrug. Then he breaks into a funny little smile and he says something again. At that, Seungyoun turns around and looks straight at Hangyul, who intelligently blurts “I have to pee” in an attempt to explain his presence.

Seungyoun rubs his neck awkwardly, then he laughs a little. “Yeah, sure” he says, “He is going to turn around, but you’re going to have to pee next to him”.

With that Seungyoun passes by quickly, careful not to touch him, and goes back to their room.

The kappa says something with a knowing look.

“I don’t understand, but I understand. Shut up”.

The kappa makes a face that seems to say, ‘do you, though?’, then, realising the cold stare he is receiving, he raises his green little hands in mock surrender and turns around with a smirk. As Hangyul pees (because he will be caught dead if he doesn’t when he used it as an excuse), the kappa sings a little weird song.

When Hangyul goes back to bed, Seungyoun is already asleep, or at least he knows how to pretend well.

❧

On a morning when he comes back from class, Hangyul slams his head on a dangly ornament at the entrance that he has never seen before, and he already knows he has guest.

“If you are looking for Seungyoun, I have no idea when he’s coming back”, he announces as he enters and sees Seungwoo and Dongpyo playing card games at the coffee table.

“Oh, we know, we came by just to mess his things a little” says the Sprite, with a cute voice, as he shifts the cards in his hand. “He has been getting on my nerves lately”.

Seungwoo says ‘that’s just him’ while Dongpyo is talking, but as the sprite finishes to speak, Seungwoo nods in agreement. “He has been dumb” he admits.

Hangyul is unpacking his bag as they talk, and he gets Gerard out of his little cage with a little ‘sorry’ and a pat on the head. The toad croaks, back on his shelf, and he doesn’t look offended at all. Hangyul listens to what the two are saying, and he can’t help but scrunch his nose in agreement. “Yeah, I feel that”.

Dongpyo squeals delighted, Hangyul doesn’t know if it’s for his comment or for the card he has just drawn. “You should just kiss him, mhaw, you know” he proposes “But I totally understand if you want to make him pay. I can put worms in his bed!”.

Hangyul is weirdly touched, and in a way to shows appreciation he says, “I’d love that, but I sleep there too”.

Dongpyo huffs in annoyance, then he straight-out screeches as Seungwoo places a card on the table. “Another plus four?!”.

They’re playing uno.

Hangyul blinks a few times, then he shrugs. “Can I play too?”.

“For sure!”. Dongpyo eyes sparkle with victory and he is quick to drop his cards and mix them with them with the ones on the table. “I was winning anyway!” he says cheerfully.

❧

Hangyul comes out of his room the next afternoon and for once Seungyoun is there, looking busy with some kind of jewellery. Outside it’s pouring, and the sky is grey, and Hangyul doesn’t feel good about this at all (Bad vibes, ugly vibes!), but he needs to talk to him.

“Seungyoun”.

The witch raises his head, and Hangyul hates the look of guilt he sees flashing there, before he settles on a more neutral expression.

“Yes?”.

Hangyul musters up his courage. “We need to talk”.

Seungyoun nods, and Hangyul feels hopeful for a moment, until the witch goes for an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, as you see I’m kind of busy”.

Hangyul feels irritation seethe in his chest. “Yes, but I think we need to” he repeats not unkindly but putting emphasis on the right word.

Seungyoun gives him a close-lipped smile. “I know, but I have to solve this right now” he says quietly “Maybe this could help you with your curse”.

Hangyul gapes. “My curse?” he says, “Did I ask? Is that what I need now?”.

Seungyoun raises his head to look back at him, feeling the shift in his tone. “I’m trying to help” he says quietly, helplessly.

Hangyul’s mouth closes. He feels his emotions deflate in a second like a sad balloon. Seungyoun looks so discouraged, maybe it’s not the time for this after all. Maybe he is not ready. “Right” he says. Maybe some things are just not meant to be. “I know”.

“I’m sorry”.

Hangyul smiles, feeling so done with apologies. “It’s alright, I’m going out for a while”.

Seungyoun doesn’t stop him.

Neither of them notice the toad sitting on the shelf.

❧

Hangyul is power-walking under the rain, feeling absolutely miserable and freezing. He can’t go back to Seungyoun and watch him worry about him catching a cold, so he keeps on walking and walking, until his feet bring him to the person that feels most like home.

He has nothing on him, no bags, no keys, so he knocks hard. Yohan opens the door with a confused smile that turns into horror. “What the fuck, what happened?” he says, as he physically brings him inside.

Hangyul is dripping on the floor and he grimaces at that. He moves his hands around trying to explain, but he miserably fails.

“Did he break up with you?”.

Hangyul croaks an annoyed no, after all they weren’t really together to begin with, and Yohan raises his closed mouth in an unconvinced expression. “Did you fight?” he tries again “Did he threaten you? I have some friends we can call”.

Hangyul laughs wetly. “You are just enough for this one, don’t worry”.

Yohan smiles encouragingly. “I guess the funky old lady was right about the bad luck”.

Hangyul nods with a little laugh, lost in thoughts, then his mind focuses sharp as a knife. “Oh no”. Bad luck, funky old lady. Funky old lady, bad luck. Magic. Funky damned toad. Hangyul is so dumb. “Oh no”.

Yohan picks up on his stress instantly. “Are we panicking again? What’s going on?”.

Hangyul starts to shake and he doesn’t know if it’s suggestion, the cold, or some sort of toad withdrawal symptom. “I need to call Seungyoun right now”.

Yohan looks confused. “What? Why?”.

Hangyul tries to keep calm. “I left something very important at his house”.

Yohan huffs kind of amused, “Dude, you left everything at his house”. Hangyul glares at him, even though Yohan is not wrong. “Alright, alright, I’m on it”.

Yohan gets his phone out of his pocket and starts to scroll through his contact list.

“You have his number?”.

Yohan shrugs. “What do you think I am? A simpleton?” he says offended “I stole it while you put the weird frog in the barbie pool”.

Hangyul looks touched, but he also feels his organs move like an accordion, so he can’t exactly show it. He watches as Yohan presses the call button on a contact that’s just the skull emoji next to the puking emoji next to the cat emoji, and his knees buckle.

Yohan struggles between trying to be focused on the call and keeping him upright, and he ends up watching Hangyul slam his knees on the floor. Hangyul feels like puking and his tongue feels slimy. He sees some books, then Yohan’s face, then Seungyoun’s, then the floor.

As Yohan screams a panicked ‘HI I’M YOHAN’, Hangyul loses consciousness and his forehead slams on the ground.

❧

Hangyul hates to say it, but he got kind of used to passing out, so when he wakes up and sees Seungyoun in front of his eyes he has zero energy to feel surprised.

What surprises him, however, is his field of vision, that feels uncomfortably vast. He can see Seungyoun right in front of him, talking on the phone, and he can see the kitchen; he can see the tv, and he can see Wooseok walking in circles. What surprises him is the slimy feeling on his skin, and the weird sensation of having almost no body at all. He can’t feel his arms where they are supposed to be, he can’t feel his legs, he can’t feel the hair on his head.

This can’t be good, and Hangyul feels a disastrous suspicion creep into his mind.

Hangyul raises whatever is posing as his arms and he sees a green little leg with tiny green fingers. Hangyul closes his eyes and the feeling is absolutely revolting; seems like toads can blink after all, but with that sensation it must not happen that often.

Hangyul focuses on Seungyoun.

“Slow down, what’s going on?”. He must be on the phone with Yohan. “What do you mean he collapsed?”. Hangyul moves slowly on the shelf. Wooseok is looking at him. “He forgot something here?”. Something must click in Seungyoun’s mind. “OH SH-”.

Seungyoun stops all of a sudden. Hangyul freezes with a limb in mid-air. Seungyoun looks at him, and Hangyul knows he has been caught because he hasn’t seen Gerard move ever. Hangyul waves the foot in greeting.

“Yohan, I’m going to have to call you back” he says in the receiver “Send me your address” he adds “No, don’t call the police, he’s not dead. I’m coming”.

❧

Seungyoun gets closer and offers an inviting hand in front of him. Hangyul gets onto it like a scaredy-cat, one slimy foot at a time, too scared to try a jump. He never noticed but Seungyoun’s hands smell nice. He steps on his place a few times, then he settles comfortably on the curve of the witch’s palm

“Is this you? Like, for real?”.

Hangyul’s tries to croak, but his actual voice comes out. “I guess?”.

Seungyoun braces himself against the table with his other hand. “This is weird. This is seriously weird. Do it again?”.

Hangyul tries to convey a murderous glare, but he reckons it to be difficult when his eyes are currently on the opposite sides of his head. “I’m killing you” he says and slaps his slimy tongue on Seungyoun’s thumb.

The witch almost makes him fall, startled. “I’m sorry”.

Hangyul grunts. “Not the moment” he says “So, is this what happens when soul-bonded people separate?”.

Seungyoun shrugs. “I think so? You must have switched souls?”.

It takes a hot second for the words to sink in, then they shoot to look at each other, and Wooseok lets out a worrisome mewl.

“Oh my god, is Gerard in my body?”. Hangyul slams his tiny feet on Seungyoun’s hand out of pure stress.

“FUCK FUCK FUCK”.

And with that chant, Seungyoun cups him in both his hands and starts running goofily out of the building, following whatever direction Hangyul is croaking.

❧

When they get to his actual apartment, Hangyul feels like he has to puke his heart out, and he thinks that’s probably how socks feel in the washing machine. Seungyoun doesn’t look any better, gasping for hair as he inspects him for damage.

“I’m alright” says Hangyul, sounding anything but. “Just knock”.

Seungyoun does as he’s told, and he hasn’t even raised his fist from the door yet, that Yohan is already opening it. He is looking sniffly and manic, and red all over.

He looks at Seungyoun and Hangyul can see that he doesn’t know what to think. “Why do you have a frog?” he cries out in a whiny stressed voice “You are weird, oh my god, I should have called the police”.

Hangyul gulps. “Yohan just let us in, I’m not dead”.

The only indication that Yohan has not been frozen is that he blinks. Very slowly, but he does. “Is this a prank?” he asks with a hysterical laughter “Is this what’s going on? Are you a youtuber?”.

Seungyoun offers a smile that seems to say ta-dah! and explains nothing, and he just shoves Hangyul in the general direction of Yohan’s face. “I’m going to explain everything, but you need to breathe and let us in”.

Yohan stares at him a little cross-eyed. “Cut the cameras”.

Seungyoun looks at him confused. “What?”.

Hangyul groans. “Sorry, he’s always wanted to say that”.

Yohan smiles elated all of a sudden. “Oh my god, it’s really you!”.

❧

“You mean to tell me that a potion bonded you with a frog-”

“A toad”

“and now you switched souls because you got too far?”.

Hangyul looks miserably at his body asian-squatting on the floor, eyes open and completely still in a typical Gerard fashion. “That’s what we’ve been saying”.

“And your not-boyfriend is a witch”.

Seungyoun is leaning on the wall beside Hangyul’s body, and he scrunches his nose at that. Still, he says: “Correct”.

“Wow”. A pause. “You know, when you told me you were spending the night at a random guy’s house this is not what I envisioned”.

Hangyul can’t help but try to nod (key word try), and Seungyoun snorts a laugh.

“So how do we make this go back to normal?”.

Seungyoun pursues his lips and looks away in a fake pensive expression. Yohan catches on immediately. “You don’t know?!”.

Hangyul tries to defend himself. “We didn’t really have time to think about it”.

“I can’t live with you looking like this”. Yohan stares at Gerard. “Your eyes are devoid of any earthly emotion”.

Hangyul body croaks in confirmation. Hangyul in Gerard’s body whispers an ‘oh my god’. Seungyoun goes through a whole journey of expressions on his face. Then he goes: “I can try to call Mrs. Kim?”.

Hangyul jumps on Yohan’s palm out of excitement. He can’t believe he didn’t think about it, he could seriously kiss the witch. “Yes? You do that!” he croaks out.

Yohan looks at them weirdly, as Seungyoun gets his phone out. “Wait, is Mrs. Kim a witch too?”.

Hangyul laughs, but his eyes don’t leave Seungyoun, as he waits for Mrs. Kim to pick up. As soon as she does, he puts her on speakerphone.

“-llo, dear. How are you?”.

Seungyoun wastes no time. “Hi Mrs. Kim! Something went wrong”.

Mrs. Kim takes a moment to pause. “Yes, I’m sure of it” she says, “How can I help you?”.

Seungyoun quickly briefs her in, wasting no time or words at all.  “Gerard and Hangyul switched souls and now we are trying out figure out how to solve this one too” he finishes out of breath “Also Yohan is here”.

Mrs. Kim hums in the receiver once or twice as Seungyoun talks, then she says: “Oh hi, Yohan! Looks like it’s almost time for love!”.

Yohan frowns, unsure what to do about it, but in the end he smiles. “Thanks!” he says. Hangyul slaps his tongue on Yohan’s wrist.

Seungyoun shifts his weight from one leg to the other. “So, what do we do?”.

“I’m honestly surprised you are even asking me about it, I think it’s pretty straightforward”. Mrs. Kim sounds amused.

The three of them look at each other in confusion.

Hangyul says what they are all thinking. “Is it?”.

Mrs. Kim laugh comes crinkled through the speakerphone. “Haven’t you ever read a fairy-tale in your life?”.

❧

“I’M NOT DOING IT”.

Hangyul is trying to escape from Seungyoun’s hands, but the witch holds him firmly, obviously struggling not to hurt him or get too disgusted with the texture of his skin.

“It’s jusht a little kish”. Yohan swallows whatever he took out to eat. “How bad can it be?”.

“I don’t want to kiss my body with this mouth”.

Seungyoun pats him comfortingly and bounces him a little like a dumb green toddler. “Well, do you want to stay a toad then?”.

Hangyul makes an exasperated sound. “No?”.

Yohan laughs, “Then pucker up, buddy”.

He tries to complain again, but Seungyoun shoves him towards his face (his body’s face?).

“Oh my god, this is so weird” he laughs right in front of his own mouth.

“Two goblins got married on our bed dressed in pieces of our blanket”.

Hangyul tries not to focus too much on the way he loves how Seungyoun says our, because his tiny heart is already beating fast and he is pretty sure that the witch can feel it. Then his head shoots up, “Wait, that was a real wedding?”.

Seungyoun nods with an amused smile, but he still pushes him forward a little bit more. Hangyul braces himself.

“Ok, here goes”.

And with that he places his weird little mouth on his actual real mouth.

For a second nothing happens at all, then a puff of cloud-like smoke surrounds him and Gerard. Hangyul feels himself float out of whatever body for a few seconds. Then, all of a sudden, the smoke gets sucked up in a random spot until it disappears, and Hangyul finds himself sitting between Seungyoun’s arms.

He tests his fingers out, splaying them mid-air, and in front of him, were his body was sitting just a few seconds before, he sees Gerard kind of doing the same thing, moving his tongue around. It’s the first time Hangyul has seen him with a different expression.

“Well that was fun”.

Yohan is looking at the three of them and understandably he looks a bit twitchy.

Hangyul keeps on moving his toes and legs until he is satisfied, then he feels Seungyoun pat his belly with his hands, since he is still holding him in a confused sitting back hug. “Welcome back?” he says tentatively.

Hangyul turns around with a smile. “Thank you?” he says, using a mocking questioning tone back.

“Is it over? Are you back for good?”. Yohan is not feeling the mood. “Are you still bonded or whatever?”.

Hangyul looks at Seungyoun expectantly. Seungyoun stays silent for a bit, eyes closed, then he scrunches his nose. “I’m sorry, you are still bonded with Gerard”.

Hangyul shrugs. “Honestly I’m just glad I’m not a toad anymore”.

“Yeah, same”. Hangyul smiles, but Seungyoun looks like he is dying to say something else. “I’m sorry-” he starts. Hangyul is ready to smack him. “I’m sorry for being dumb”.

Hangyul backs down from the fight he was ready to get into and smiles pleased. “At least you know”.

He hears Yohan stress-eating in the background, and he has so many questions about that, but Seungyoun brings a hand to his cheek and strokes it softly. “And I know you don’t want to hear it, but I’m still sorry I couldn’t help you with the curse”.

Yohan scoffs from the table, looking a bit crazed. “Well, did you try true love’s kiss?”.

Seungyoun blushes prettily and looks down, but Hangyul nods to himself as if struck by enlightenment. “I know you said it to mock me, but I think that sounds good”.

“Just say you want to kiss him and go”.

Hangyul looks at Yohan. “I want to kiss him!”. Then he takes Seungyoun stunned face between his hands and kisses him right on the mouth.

It takes Seungyoun a second to start moving his lips uncertainly, task made hard by the way his cheeks are being squished, but when he does, Hangyul rises up from the floor, levitating with no gravity. Seungyoun raises his hands to keep Hangyul right where he is and keep kissing him, until he drops back down with an ‘oof’.

Yohan stare is unimpressed as he looks at Gerard come down with a startled croak. “I think I was right”.

Seungyoun smiles on Hangyul’s lips.

“Also, you just indirectly kissed the toad”.

❧

Mrs. Kim is playing uno with Dongpyo and her energy is the evil one of someone who’s going to destroy a kid’s life while feeling totally unapologetic about it. Dongpyo can’t even cheat, because she never looks away from him, and she throws a tiny pebble on his forehead every time he tries to.

So Dongpyo can’t cheat, and he makes up for it by stealing every penny at the bottom of Yohan’s pocket, a button from his coat and his id. They are going to have him empty his pockets again before he leaves.

But it’s not like Yohan cares about it or even notices at all, too busy making heart eyes at Seungwoo, who’s looking very cornered at the end of the sofa.

“How tall are you?”.

Seungwoo smiles confusedly. “I don’t know? Six feet in my human form”.

“In your human form?”. Yohan giggles. “You are so funny”.

Hangyul gapes speechless, as Seungyoun laughs and nudges him with his shoulder. A hand comes up under his chin to close his mouth with a light tap, then it goes back down to settle on his hip. Hangyul turns to his side and finds the witch smiling lovingly.

“Seungwoo is centuries old and kind of emotionally stunted” he says, “I don’t know how that’s going to work”.

Hangyul nudges him with his hip and snorts, but he doesn’t say anything else and just looks at him.

“Are you happy now?”, Seungyoun asks. Dongpyo fake-retches in the background. Wooseok comes up to their feet staring intently.

Hangyul looks around the house. At Shiba Inu wrapping her vines around Yohan’s ankle, at Mrs. Kim placing her third plus two, at the cauldron, and half burned carpet. Then he looks back at Seungyoun. “I’d says so”

Wooseok rubs his head on his ankle, satisfied, and Seungyoun pecks him on the mouth with a smile on his lips.

It really has been an eventful month, but it also feels like the end of a fairy-tale. A cursed one, he can’t deny it, but he did kiss both the frog and the prince, so he thinks it’s time for the happily ever after, for things to quiet down and live peacefully, normally, for a while.

Seungyoun jumps out of his arms with a jerk. “Yohan don’t touch that!”.

Hangyul can’t turn fast enough: he hears a crash and a manic chipmunk laugher.

“NOT THE SNOWGLOBE! BABY GET THE PIXIE NET”.

Gerard croaks.

❧ fin. ❧