Chapter Text
Musty air, dampen dirt floor.
Beomgyu stumbles in between the ailses of weird green plants and curses under his breath as he trips over what he thinks to be a soggy, slimmy vine - one that seems to snicker at his misery before retreating quietly into the shadows. Beomgyu throws it a glare before fixing his robes and stands straight up, almost stumbling again as he walks face first into a wall.
Except it's not a wall. Just some one really tall and much larger than him.
And handsome, too.
Dark soft locks of hair, dark wide eyes, pale porcelain skin, straight nose and full lips shaped like a bow. And Beomgyu might have let out a small gasp, both because of the other person's sudden appearance and how he looks.
He stumbles (yet again), and steps back rather ungracefully. Right at that moment, he feels something soft wraps around his ankles and it's probably the stupid vines again. But before he trips and falls, a hand comes to wrap securely around his arm, steadying him. Beomgyu slightly stiffens when he sees a wand out.
But it's not directed at him.
"Be careful." The person's deep voice resounds in the quiet space and Beomgyu feels like his eardrums have been slightly electrified.
He sees the vines shudder before letting go of his ankles, retreating pitifully at the sight of the other person's wand and possibly a non-verbal incantation.
Before Beomgyu could sputter out a "thank you", said person lets go of his arm, walks pass him and crouches down. Long, calloused fingers delicately picks up the now limp vines and examines it closely.
"You hurt it." Beomgyu hears he say.
He blinks, mouth agape.
"Um, yea, no," he folds his arms. "It tried to trip me." And strangle me, possibly, if it had a chance, he adds mentally.
Perhaps the indignance in his voice attracts attention from the other boy, he turns around to look at Beomgyu, and the dark, wide eyes make his heart jolts strangely in his chest. Trying to distract himself from the other's face, he moves his gaze and notices the black and yellow striped tie, the badger emblem on the chest of the cloak and - oh, a prefect badge. A fifth or sixth year Hufflepuff.
The boy stands up now, he probably has a good three inches over Beomgyu and Beomgyu might have been ready to fight, but he soon finds himself running against a fluffy pillow.
Because the boy says, rather gently: "Sorry, I didn't mean to blame you." He gestures towards the now whimpering vines. "They hates the sun and you might have -" he stops for a bit when his eyes meets Beomgyu, and continues when he turns away: "You must have brought in a little bit of sunlight with you when you walked in."
"Oh." Beomgyu says. That could be a possibility, he hadn't care when he pushed the door open when he stormed in. And so he watches as the vine wraps itself around the Hufflepuff's arm in an almost affectionate (?) way. Beomgyu is intrigued. "What is it called?"
The boy glances at him and replies: "It's a baby devil's snare."
"A baby- what?"
The boy doesn't reply this time, instead he tucks the vines back in its pot, carefully summons a thin blanket and puts it over said pot. Once he's done he turns around: "Anyways, what is your name and year and what are you doing here? Greenhouse five is a restricted area for fifth year advanced students and above only."
"Don't I look like an advanced student?" Beomgyu asks jokingly, but the boy only blinks once, his face remains calm.
"No." He says.
Oh, the prefect tone. Not knowing why that makes him a little bit happy and giddy, Beomgyu bites back a smile and pulls out a slip of paper from his pocket.
"Choi Beomgyu, fifth year, I'm here for the detention with professor Longbottom. What's your name, prefect-hyung?"
The drawn out Korean honorific makes the other boy stops a little bit, but he doesn't react much more. Beomgyu has suspected him to be a Korean, and he is right. Koreans are rare at Hogwarts, but not something out of ordinary.
The boy doesn't answer though, he puts the detention slip in between the pages of the book he's holding and says:
"Well, Beomgyu, your detention task is in greenhouse two." An eyebrow lifted, and Beomgyu doesn't know why it is so attractive.
"I got lost." He explains and opens his eyes wide, trying his best to look harmless and innocent.
Beomgyu is honest though. He can't navigate for his life, and the fact that all green houses looks the same, all green and old and musty doesn't help either. He stopped taking Herbology since third year (few years ago the Ministry of Magic had decided that Herbology is only mandatory until third year) and hadn't been to the greenhouses since. Even though he quite like professor Longbottom and would often hang out with him in his office, he has no desire to work with plants and fungi.
The look the other boy gives Beomgyu tells him that he doesn't really believe him, but he just nods and leave it at that. What a nice fellow.
"Follow me, then."
He says instead, and doesn't wait to hear a reply before he starts walking.
Beomgyu hurries and try to follow his steps: "But you haven't told me your name yet, prefect hyung."
"Soobin." He says, pauses, and adds, "Choi Soobin."
"Are you a fifth year like me?"
"Sixth."
"Then I have to call you hyung. But can I just call you by your name?"
"No." Soobin calmly replies as he turns, Beomgyu following closely behind him.
Beomgyu's mouth opens in a gap.
"But we're not in Korea!"
"You called me hyung first. Stick with it." Soobin says cooly, and Beomgyu realizes that he's not the only mischievious one.
Choi Soobin seems calm and collected, but he has his own attitude too.
"Fine," Beomgyu says, and smiles at the other boy's large back. "Hyung."
---------
It turns out that Soobin has been waiting for him in greenhouse two. Because professor Longbottom is busy, he leaves it to his favourite and dependable student, Soobin, to monitor Beomgyu's tasks in detention.
"Sorry for taking your time?" Beomgyu offers as he puts on the work gloves provided by Soobin.
"I have to write my report anyways." Soobin replies, already picked out a work station not too far away where he gets out his leather bound journals and quills.
"Report? Like homework?" He says absent-mindedly, finishing putting on his gloves, but then stops.
"No-" Soobin says as he looks up, "what?" He sees Beomgyu's stunned expression and asks. And then when his eyes moves towards the dozen of pots in front of the other boy, realization dawns on him. The Hufflepuff hesitate before he speaks: "Do you know what to do with those?"
Beomgyu turns to look at him, wide eyed and looking sheepish and Soobin understands.
The taller boy stands up and walks over to Beomgyu. He shrugs off his robes in one swift motion, hanging it on a branch of tree nearby and Beomgyu glups because how can someone make that simple action look so cool?
But he thinks too soon, because when Soobin rolls his sleeves up and Beomgyu sees the forearms with visible veins, he almost sigh in appreciation. Almost.
Soobin doesn't notice anything though, all of his attention is on the plants as he puts on another pair of work gloves.
"You have to repot all of these mandrakes." He says, picking up the earmuffs and giving them to Beomgyu.
"Oh, right, I remember." Beomgyu says as he receives the ugly earmuffs. But then he asks, out of concern: "What about you?"
Soobin points to his ear, and Beomgyu can see an Apple earpod (time has changed, folks). Soobin says: "I already charmed mine to repell noises."
Right, he knew Beomgyu was going to repot mandrakes.
And so Beomgyu puts on the fluffy earmuffs, but he notices that Soobin looks like he has something to say. The older stares at him, hesitates, and the way his lips thin makes Beomgyu realize that the other boy has dimples and god.
Six feet tall, nice skin, pretty face, deep voice and now, dimples?
Did Beomgyu hit the jackpot when he decide to take all of the blame for his housemates (they charmed the chairs to make farting sounds) in Potions class?
And then Soobin is saying something, his lips move but Beomgyu can't hear him. A few seconds too late he realizes that it's because of the earmuffs. But before he can do anything, Soobin's already moving closer and he takes the earmuffs off of him.
" -you an idiot?"
The sentence snaps Beomgyu out of his daze and once again, he's ready to fight back. But Soobin doesn't wait for him before he asks again: "Do you know how to do this? Or do I demonstrate it for you once?"
"Of course I know!" Now Beomgyu is a little bit offended. "We did it in our second year."
"What grade did you get for that, then?"
"Oustanding, obviously." It's an Accaptable, actually. It wasn't Beomgyu's fault he had a Quidditch try out three days before the assignment is due.
Soobin looks like he doesn't believe that, but repotting mandrake seedlings is not too hard a task, so he gracefully let it slide.
"All right. Do it on your own then." He shrugs. "Let me know if you need anything."
Beomgyu regrets it a bit, he should have let Soobin help him, but the damage has been done.
"Okay, Soobin." So he says, and when Soobin looks at him, he timidly adds, "hyung."
The other goes back to his station satisfied. And he looks so adorable Beomgyu lets out a small giggle which he tries to stifle, but he probably fails.
With a smile, he reaches for the first pot. His brain rakes his memory for the steps, and they feel right when he runs them over inside his mind even though Beomgyu still feels like he forgets something. But then again, it's just repotting plants. It can't be too hard.
He thinks, as his hands reached out to grab the mandrakes firmly.
And when he is about to pulls it, he hears Soobin's voice: "Wait, Beomgyu-"
But it's to late, the mandrake leaves its pot, and it lets out a shrill cry that echoed through out the greenhouse.
At that moment, Beomgyu remembers the thing he had forgotten.
He didn't put on the earmuffs again.