Chapter Text
Han Jisung was, in short, the bane of Lee Minho’s existence.
In long, Minho hated potions. He hated the foul stench that permeated the air no matter what they were making, he hated how the heat made him break into an uncomfortable sweat, he hated the tedious hours put into brewing barely usable concoctions.
But, most importantly, Minho hated working with his partner.
In the short time that Minho had been seated with Jisung, he had learned a number of things about the boy; he was rude, obnoxious, and quite possibly the cockiest person Minho had ever had the displeasure of meeting.
However, Minho didn't really have room to talk. Deep down, he knew he was just as bad as Jisung was. Of course, he didn't usually start the arguments, but that wasn't to say he didn't ever continue them. Minho seemed to have a knack for pissing people off, and Han Jisung just happened to be very easy to wind up.
It didn't help that Minho was, in truth, terrible at potions. He had never been particularly good at cooking, often too impatient for even the simple tasks such as dicing things properly or paying attention to the correct temperatures- that lack of skill had obviously transferred over to his potion making, which was, admittedly, a recipe for disaster. No pun intented.
And finally, as if that wasn't already enough reason for Minho to hate potions, he quite honestly could not be bothered to try. His true passion lay in care of magical creatures; Minho didn't understand how he was expected to apply his full attention span to potions when he knew in a few hours time he would finally get a therapeutic session of simply spending time with what he loved most- animals.
Minho held a certain affinity for animals that he didn't hold for humans. Animals, to Minho, were far less mentally draining- he didn't have to hold a conversation, or shake any hands. When he was with animals, he didn't have to pretend he was having a good time, because he simply was.
Don't get him wrong, it’s not like Minho hated his peers around the castle, but let's just say he didn't exactly have the best track record for getting along with them. Minho tended to be blunt, which often times came off as rude and was definitely not appreciated by the majority of the Hogwarts population. As well as this, Minho had a very pretty face, which meant he wasn't exactly foreign to love confessions.
Minho was flattered, but he was also very, very gay. This led to a large number of rejections on his part, which in turn gave him the ever cliche reputation of the schools very own ‘Ice Prince’. Of course, to anyone truly friends with Minho, they knew he had the biggest heart and always showed how much he cared in ways unique to only him, but most people didn't bother getting close enough to him to find that out.
Included in ‘most people’, was none other than Han Jisung, which brings me back to the original point- Han Jisung and Lee Minho just did not get along.
“Eugh! Lee, what in Merlin’s name are you doing!” Jisung spat, using the sleeve of his robe to wipe an ominously dark liquid off his face.
“It says that you need to cut it to get the juice out- how was I supposed to know it would do that?” Minho tried to defend, irritation bubbling in the pit of his stomach.
“Yes, you need to cut the bean Lee, not the eye! Man, I knew you were stupid but I thought you were at least capable of reading!”
“Oh I can read all right, but I dont know how you expect me to decipher words underneath all those dumb doodles you do in your stupid book! Maybe if you had payed more attention-”
In truth, both of them needed to pay more attention. During their heated yelling match, both of them failed to take notice of how some of the juice from the eye had made its way into their cauldron. They also failed to notice the way the liquid started frothing up rapidly, or how their cauldron began to rattle- or rather, vibrate, at a very alarming frequency.
Yes, despite all of these signs, it took the entire cauldron exploding for the two boys to realise they should have paid closer attention to the task at hand. The shell-shocked expression on the two boys’ faces would have been comical in any other situation, but laughter was the last thing on their minds as they were quickly informed of their punishment.
“Lee Minho! Han Jisung! Detention together tonight and I will absolutely not hear any excuses!”