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Seungmin was walking through dark woods, not a star in the night sky, just darkness, no leaves on trees either. Wind softly whistling, keeping him on toes. He could hear little noises from time to time, making his heart race and making him hyper aware of his surroundings. It was so dark he could barely see anything.
"It's late for a puppy like you to go on a walk," said a voice in front of him in the shadows, Seungmin's heart dropped for a moment before he recognised the voice.
It didn't take long for the figure to appear from the shadows. Figure wasn't particularly big, a bit shorter than Seungmin, but a lot buffer. There was a pointy hat on the person's head and a cape around their shoulders.
"I am capable of taking care of myself, thank you very much," Seungmin said with sort of a jab in his voice before curtly adding, "Changbin."
"I wouldn't say so after, not after last week," Changbin said with teasing undertones, even in the dark Seungmin could see the undeniable smirk on the other's face.
Last week will forever haunt Seungmin, burned in his mind will be the memory of him flying off a broom. They say brooms are the easiest skill to own for a witch, Seungmin is proof that it is not always the case. Seungmin's strong suit were potions and healing magic, he was an earth witch, and as an earth witch, he felt the safest on the ground and certainly, not in the sky.
"Or, maybe you want me to catch you again? Want to feel my strong arms again." Changbin said, flexing his muscles as Seungmin rolled his eyes, which he hoped Changbin saw in the darkness.
Seungmin just kept on walking ignoring Changbin's presence when suddenly, strong pain rushed through his body as if there were holes burning into his skin and he fell onto his knees.
Changbin immediately changed his behavior.
"Seungmin? Are you alright? What happened?" Changbin said holding Seungmin.
"Yeah, it's the forest, it's hurting," Seungmin said as the pain lessened.
"Do you know why?" Changbin asked as he helped Seungmin to stand up.
"It could be anything really, a kid breaking a stick off or someone craving their name in a tree, but it hurt so much this time I can't imagine what it could be."
"Should we be concerned?"
"I'm not sure..."
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It didn't take long for Seungmin to find out what happened.
He woke up to the sound of someone banging on his door. Quickly finding his glasses, he got out of bed and opened his door to a messy haired Felix.
Felix was another earth witch and Seungmin's best friend.
"Felix? What are you doing here at...?" Seungmin looked around trying to understand what time it is.
"At 7 am," Felix said breathlessly.
Seungmin cocked his eyebrow as he let him in.
"Someone tried to burn down the woods," Felix said when Seungmin closed the door and looked at him.
Seungmin froze. Forest was their source of energy and soul, that's why they could feel what forest felt when they were in it. In a way, the forest was their mother. If someone tried to harm it, that meant they hold a lot of hatred for earth witches, and everyone knew who it could be. Fire witches, the question was, which ones.
Fire and earth witches never really got along as woods and fire didn't go along well, and while the peace had been made hundred years ago, there were still witches with as much hatred as back then.
"Do you have any clues on who it could be?"
"Only that it happened at midnight," Felix said, sadness lingering from his words.
"At midnight you say?" At that time, he was in the forest with Changbin and he might have been distracting Seungmin from going further where his friends could have put fire.
"Yeah, do you know something?" Felix asked as he saw Seungmin's eyes darken.
"Maybe I do, but I'll tell you about it later, for now, I have to go meet someone."
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As soon as Felix left, Seungmin quickly washed himself and stormed out of his house to search for Changbin.
Once he got a sight of him, he was so full of anger he could turn into a fire witch himself.
"You! You helped to burn down the forest, didn't you!?" He said accusingly jabbing his finger into Changbin's chest.
"Woah woah woah, what are you talking about?" Changbin said, thrown off guard, he held Seungmin by his shoulders, to keep a distance.
"Yesterday, when we met in the forest, you were distracting me while your friends fire witches tried to burn down the forest!"
"Someone tried to burn down the woods?" Changbin asked as puzzle pieces in his mind started connecting.
"Stop acting like you didn’t already know that!" Seungmin spit out angrily.
"Stop accusing me!" Changbin said, starting to replicate Seungmin's anger.
"Just because you don't like me doesn't mean that I tried to burn down the woods! I am just as concerned as you are!"
"And why would that be? You're not even an earth witch, this doesn't hurt you in any way!"
"Doesn't mean that I'm a cold hearted bitch! Not everyone is like you Seungmin!" Changbin spit out now portraying Seungmin's anger and Seungmin immediately shut up and widened his eyes.
"What did you just call me?" He asked, spitting venom with each word.
"You heard it." Changbin said no emotions in his voice, just darkness and void which made shivers go down Seungmin's body.
After that Changbin turned around and walked away, leaving Seungmin speechless.
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After a few days passes Seungmin's each body cell filled with regret, he accused someone he didn't even know that well of a horrible crime and the realisation of that kept him awake at night.
But he couldn't bring himself to apologise, he decided to ignore the whole situation with Changbin, and instead focused on what was happening with the forest.
Which he failed at, he is positive he saw Changbin as much as he usually would, but it felt like he saw him more often, felt like Changbin was everywhere now.
He doesn't want to but every time he looks at Changbin his eyes linger a bit longer than they should. He doesn't know exactly why. Was it because he felt guilty? Seungmin thought that that might be it.
One time he ran into him in the market and he was about to say sorry but then he saw who he ran into and no words came out.
It wasn't because he was sorry but because of how much he actually wanted to tell him yet he couldn't find the words to do so, instead he just stared at him.
The staring contest didn't last long as Changbin quickly cleared his throat and with a glare passed him.
Seungmin thought to himself that he deserved it though it didn't feel less painful and then he thought why was he feeling so much pain.
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"Seungmin!" A voice called making the boy turn to see Felix.
"Felix? What are you doing here?"
"I forgot to give you it before but here's a list of potions that got ordered!" He said and gave Seungmin the list.
"Oh right, thanks!" Seungmin shared a smile and continued on his way to work, pharmacy.
When he arrived, he looked at the list and his heart stopped for a moment. Changbin's name was on the list, with a few potions beside it. Unconsciously he made Changbin's potions with more care than the others.
But Changbin didn't come for them. One hour, two, three and soon it was time to close.
Seungmin was cleaning the pharmacy when he heard the ring bell, he looked up and saw Changbin.
Instead of saying "hello, how can I help you?" He said: "Oh you came."
"Yeah sorry I'm so late, I got busy with work," Changbin said, not looking at Seungmin and instead choosing to let his eyes wander around the pharmacy.
"It's alright, come to the counter so you can pay for your potions," Seungmin said, making his way to the counter and Changbin following him.
"Power of dragon, snake's venom and ointment for water bites, is that right?" He said as he put the three positions on the counter.
"Yes."
"It will be 22 reckels." Reckels were currency in Farland, their country.
Changbin gave him money.
"Thank you, have a nice evening," Seungmin said politely waiting for Changbin to leave, but he didn't.
"Your work ended right?" He asked instead.
"Yes."
"It's not safe for earth witches outside because of the recent incident, I will walk you to your home," Changbin said, not leaving a room for disagreements.
"It's alright you must be tired, I am capable of protecting myself."
"I insist."
Seungmin knew that arguing with Changbin was no use, so instead he noted his head and let Changbin walk him home.
The walk back home was awkward, there was tension in the air and none of them dared to talk. They only said goodnight to each other as Changbin left Seungmin in front of his door.
•
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With each day there were more and more attacks happening, and more and more earth witches became weak, Seungmin also could feel his power leak out his body.
Every night, there were a few witches put on guard duty in the forest at night and today was his turn.
He was determined to find culprits; he couldn't bare seeing the people he loved lose power and become weaker.
He put a spell that made him invisible and mute to others so no one would know he was there, he was weak though and the spell didn't work for people who were truly seeking him, but he hoped for the best.
He didn't find anything suspicious for a few hours, and he was getting tired already, seeing his bed in front of him.
His sleepiness didn't last long as he heard someone laugh.
He started walking in the direction of laughter, soon seeing three men with flames coming out of their hands.
One of them directed his hand at a three, but before he was ready to shoot, Seungmin averted his hand disturbing the spell.
"Oh, look boys, there's an earth witch with us," the man said with a smirk.
"Should we make a little show?" He added.
The rest snickered before starting to shoot fire in every direction, Seungmin escaped all of them when one was directed right in front of him and Seungmin didn't get to move in time.
Thankfully, a strong arm pulled him to the side before he got burned. He looked at his side to see Changbin, he felt relief washing over his body.
"Really? A fire witch helping an earth witch, don't embarrass us like that!" the same man said, getting agreements from the rest.
"The ones being an embarrassment are you, what are you doing burning a sacred place for other witches!?" Changbin said with venom more poisonous than the day he and Seungmin fought.
"Earth witches are no good, they're just a waste of space, they have done nothing good for us." said the man rolling his eyes.
Changbin after that didn't hesitate to throw spells at them, Seungmin tried to help casting spells as much as he could with his power leaking out of his body, even if he was not hit with fire, he was burning inside.
Changbin noticed how Seungmin got paler, and his spells started to miss targets.
"Go ask for help, I'll stay here and keep them occupied," Changbin said to Seungmin, but he shook his head. No way was he leaving Changbin to deal with three witches alone, he could get seriously hurt.
"Seungmin, you'll collapse if you keep fighting, it will be better if you search for help," Changbin doged fire coming his way as he spoke.
After a moment Seungmin went to search for help, knowing that Changbin's words were nothing but truth.
It didn't take long for him to find other witches to help as the forest was burning from all the fire spells the three men casted.
When he and other witches went back, all that was left was a burning forest. Seungmin started to panic, he was screaming Changbin's name, but there was no sign of him.
It didn't take him long to piece that Changbin was kidnapped.
"We have to go searching! They kidnapped Changbin, who knows what they could do to him! They couldn't have gone far!" Seungmin begged as the fire had been put down.
"He's right, they couldn't have gone far," a witch older than Seungmin and with a deep voice said.
They all looked at the oldest one between them.
He sighed before saying: "Alright let's split up, send fireworks to the sky when you find them."
It took about two hours to find the culprits and Seungmin was exhausted, he could barely walk and his breath was heavy, but it all disappeared when he saw Changbin.
Then something that Seungmin did not expect at all happened.
All of the fire witches got (arrested?).
"Wait! Changbin is innocent! He helped me! He saved my life!" Seungmin said as loud as possible with the little energy left in his body.
"You don't know that, maybe he distracted you and he was actually helping them, we have to bring them all," said the oldest one as the fire witches were getting tied up in powerless ties which didn't allow them to use any magic.
"But I do know that he is innocent!" Seungmin said as he looked at Changbin, Changbin looked back and shook his head, asking Seungmin not to fight it.
"Seungmin, I am sorry but we have to take them all to prison."
•
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That night Seungmin didn't sleep well, in fact he barely slept, thinking about Changbin and how he was doing.
He himself doesn't know how Changbin got to be the subject of his thoughts for the past few days since their fight, but Changbin had occupied every single brain cell.
At seven am Seungmin got out of his bed and got ready to go to prison to see Changbin, because he wholeheartedly believed that Changbin wasn't at fault and if it wasn't for Seungmin being so weak, they could have caught them together.
Seungmin took a deep breath standing in front of the building.
It was made out of stone cold rock, a few windows here and there with bars on them.
"Prison for witches of the Farland" was engraved in front of it.
He looked at it for one more second and went inside of the building.
As he took a step inside of it he could feel all the power in his body being blocked, as expected, prison doesn't allow any use of magic.
Everything on the inside was made out of rock as no witch could draw their energy from it.
He came to the front desk where a young looking guy sat.
"Hello, and welcome to prison for witches of Farland. How can I help you?"
"Hello, I'm here to visit Seo Changbin."
"What's your name, birth date and type?"
"Kim Seungmin, 22nd september 2000, earth witch."
"Here's a key, if your intentions do not contradict any of our rules, a door will appear, the key is made to open it." the guy said as he gave Seungmin a small silver key.
"The entrance to the door hallway is on the right, note that everything is being recorded and filmed, your visit is 20 minutes long," the guy added and pointed to the big door on the right.
"Alright, thank you."
As he went in the hallway a door appeared, he took the key and opened it.
At the other side of the door was a room, again it was made from rock and there was nothing except from a small window high up the wall.
In the middle of the room, there was Changbin sitting rolled up in a ball, when he heard the door open he lifted up his head.
"Seungmin? What are you doing here?" He asked, confused as Seungmin kneeled before him.
"Visiting you obviously," Seungmin said trying to lighten the mood, it seemed to work as Changbin smiled.
"And why is that?" He poked Seungmin on the side.
"To say thank you and sorry..." Seungmin averted his eyes.
"Not to just see me? You sadden me" Changbin said with a teasing tone that he would usually use while talking to Seungmin.
Seungmin rolled his eyes as he pushed Changbin lightly.
"But seriously though, thank you, if it wasn't for you, I would be seriously injured, or not even alive," he said, averting his eyes again as he was not used to being sincere to Changbin.
"Don't say thank you for something every decent person should do, and why didn't you use your invisibility spell?"
"I did."
"Oh."
There was a moment of silence before Seungmin spoke up.
"So you were seeking me out?"
"Well, I wanted to prove to you that I didn't do it so I guess..."
Both of them would be lying if they said their hearts did not start beating faster.
"Ah."
"What did you want to say sorry about though?"
"Oh, um, I'm sorry for being weak, if I was stronger we could have captured them together and you wouldn't have been in prison. And sorry for accusing you of something you clearly didn't do," Seungmin said quietly, being ashamed about what happened.
"Hey, it's not your fault, they were burning down the forest, you couldn't control how much energy you had," Changbin said, putting a hand on Seungmin's shoulder, making him look into Changbin's eyes.
"I still feel sorry, you shouldn't be here," Seungmin said and he saw a spark light up in Changbin's eyes.
"Well, if you're so sorry then take me out on a date after they let me out."
Seungmin's eyes widened, he had for sure not expected this, but it didn't take him long to answer.
"Alright," he said with a small smile, taking Changbin's hand, that wasn't on his shoulder, into his own.
"Yeah?" Changbin smiled and took his hand off of Seungmin's shoulder to hold the other hand.
"Yeah."