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Witches are supposed to be horrid and dreadful creatures. They’re supposed to be old hags with creepy smiles full of rotten teeth and wrinkly hands with long and sharp nails they use for all kinds of wicked things. They’re supposed to be evil and to look like they’re evil.
When Huening Kai lets all his thoughts out, unable to keep his mouth shut – he blames it on the shock –, he’s confronted with a pout. A cute, adorable, offended pout.
“Those are stereotypes. Most of my friends are actually very good-looking."
The person in front of him – the witch in front of him, if the broken broom, pointy black hat, and long black robes are a good indicator of it – is, first of all, not a woman.
The witch sitting on the ground of his minuscule garden is staring at him with brows knitted together in annoyance. He has delicate features, round cheeks, and high cheekbones. His lips are full and shiny, and his hair is a pretty, light shade of pink. He’s completely covered in dirt, with dried leaves and flowers dangling from his tilted hat and in between messy strands of hair, but not even that manages to make him seem any less soft and elegant.
“Why do you humans always get so surprised to see male witches,” says the boy, voice petulant. “And why do you always stare so much,” he continues, but this time he sounds almost shy.
Kai’s eyes land on the boy’s baby pink hair once again, on his sharp eyes, rimmed with red and wet with unshed tears. This witch doesn’t look old and wicked, he doesn’t look like he could be able to do anything evil at all, ever. And, well, he’s definitely not ugly.
He’s pretty. Extremely pretty. The prettiest person Kai has ever seen, really.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare," he tries, taking a couple of steps towards the boy who startles and makes himself tinier, back flush against his bush of azaleas – or the remnants of his azaleas, now mostly crushed under the weight of the boy.
He raises his hands in the air, trying to make himself look as innocuous as possible. “I won’t get closer but, huh. Are you okay?”
The boy sniffles and rubs his gloved hand over his eyes, before speaking. “I’m sorry for your flowers, I would try to fix them but I have no energy,” his voice sounds soft and he looks so small and frail. Kai doesn’t care about those flowers one bit. “I had a little accident while flying and I ran out of magic.”
“It’s okay, I – Don’t worry about the plants. Are you hurt?”
The witch shakes his head no, but his lips are wobbly and his eyes are pooling with tears once again. “I’m not hurt, but I killed your flowers and I ruined my dress. And my broom…” His eyes get all big once he turns around to stare at the mess of wooden pieces scattered on the ground. That must’ve been the broom, Kai thinks dejected.
The witch looks two minutes away from having a breakdown, so small and out of place here in his garden that Kai wants to wrap him in a huge blanket and give him a pillow to hug and something warm to drink. Everything to avoid the pitiful sniffles and tears that are threatening to fall down his eyes. There’s no way that someone this cute should ever look so miserable.
"It’s okay, we’ll find a way to fix it, I promise,” Kai tells him, but his voice sounds unsure even to his ears. He has no idea how to fix a broom, he had no idea until today that witches even used brooms to fly. He inwardly cringes at how empty the promise sounded and tries to change the topic. “You said you ran out of magic?"
The boy nods as he hugs his legs close to his chest. “I used too much magic too quickly and I don't have my replenishing potions with me," he explains, voice soft, "and you know what happened next."
Kai doesn’t know what happened next. He was brushing his teeth in his bathroom when he heard the loud crash coming from his garden, and in the time it took him to rinse his mouth and get a pair of slippers on, the damage had already been done. Next thing he knows there’s a boy sitting in front of him on the only plant he had managed not to kill in the few months he’s been living in this apartment.
No, not a boy. A witch. A witch who doesn’t look old, ugly, or wicked.
He considers taking a couple of steps back, his flight or fight response telling him that maybe witches make themselves look pretty and defenseless in order to lure humans close enough to eat them. Perhaps the pretty face in front of him is a facade, and the moment he lowers his defenses, the witch will show his true appearance and feast on his flesh. He shivers.
He doesn’t want to be eaten, not even by a pretty guy with a pouty mouth and big, round eyes filled with tears.
The witch seems to sense his newfound fear because he hurries to speak, gloved hands balled into little fists on his lap.
“I won’t hurt you! I can’t do that, my magic can't do much harm,” he says, sitting a little straighter.
He takes off his hat and a bunch of dried leaves falls all over him, and Kai can’t help but find him adorable. His brain keeps sending him mixed signals and he has no idea if he’s scared of the possibility of being eaten alive or smitten with the boy.
“I swear I won’t hurt you, I really do,” the witch continues, big eyes staring into his. “What is it that you humans do? Pinky promises?”
He extends his hand, pinky finger stretched towards Kai in such an innocent way that he forgets everything about being careful. Definitely smitten, he thinks.
And if his judgment is clouded by pretty lips and sweet eyes, that’s on him. But here again, maybe being eaten by a cute guy is not the worst end he could ever encounter.
He takes a couple of steps forward.
“Pinky swear, okay,” he concedes, unable to contain a smile. “I’m Kai.”
The boy’s eyes are still shiny and wet, but he’s smiling now. His hand stays stretched tentatively towards him, and Kai decides to take it, locking their pinky fingers together.
The witch’s smile grows bigger as he shakes their hands twice. “I’m Yeonjun, and I promise I will do you no harm.”
Yeonjun is still staring up at him with those pretty eyes and that pretty pouty mouth and he’s still not letting go of his hand.
“I just need a place to stay until I recharge my magic, please?” he asks.
Damn it, Kai is weak.
They’re sitting in his tiny kitchen, with two mugs from different sets – courtesy of Soobin for breaking the matching ones for both pairs – fuming in front of them. The tea has a nice peppermint aroma that Kai hopes smells as comforting to his guest as it does to him.
“Will resting here be enough to get your magic back?” is what he says once the witch has calmed down enough to take a sip of his tea. “Are you sure I can’t help you in any other way?”
The witch, Yeonjun, is now sitting in front of him in a pair of borrowed grey sweatpants and a soft yellow sweater that looks way bigger on him than it does on Kai. It pools around his waist and it keeps slipping from his shoulder, and Kai wants to kick himself for noticing those details again and again. He tries to force himself to focus instead on the way Yeonjun is no longer covered in plants and dirt, looking significantly in better shape now than he did earlier.
Yeonjun blushes and doesn’t look at him when he replies, staring intently at the leaves floating on top of his tea. “There is something you could do, actually.”
He tucks one long strand of hair behind his ear and Kai distractedly notices that one of the things he thought he knew about witches seems to apply to the boy: Yeonjun has long nails. They’re longer than his, as he has to keep them short to play the piano, but still not as long as the ones he’s used to seeing on his sisters. They’re pointy and manicured with a nice pinkish color that almost matches his hair.
“You know, us witches can specialize in different kinds of magic and draw our energy – our magic, from different sources,” Yeonjun starts to explain.
“Witches whose element is water tend to live close to water sources and they’re usually very strong during rainy days,” he continues, long fingers tapping on his mug, “a witch who specializes in herbology can draw energy from the vitality of the flora, or maybe even the sun, I should ask Beomgyu – ”
Kai can’t help but imagine Yeonjun sitting in his garden, covered in leaves and flowers like the first time he’s seen him, his pretty eyes closed in contentment while he photosynthesizes under the sun. He has to stop himself from laughing, but the witch clearly sees the mirth in his eyes and furrows his brows.
“This is a serious topic,” he whines.
Kai immediately stops smiling. “No! I’m sorry, I wasn’t laughing at you, I swear. Please go on, I really want to help.”
Yeonjun searches his face for a moment and then continues.
“My specialty is love spells. I can help people with their relationships, I can brew them love potions," he stops a moment to wet his lips, "I can handle soulmates' strings and change their fate."
There's something dark and powerful in the way Yeonjun talks about his magic, and Kai is reminded of the fact that Yeonjun is a witch. Supposedly dark, powerful, and dangerous.
“I can draw energy from seeing two people being in love,” he adds, eyes bright with excitement. “Do you have a significant other? Just being in your company could help me at least fix my broom.”
Kai feels himself blush. How do you tell the prettiest person you’ve ever seen that not only are you single, but you’ve also never been in a relationship in your whole life?
A love witch, he thinks, how ironic. Maybe someone up there is tired of watching his boring life and found the idea of letting the two meet absolutely hilarious. Or maybe whoever is watching over him – if there is someone covering said job, to begin with – took pity on him and decided to send some help.
“Uhm, there’s no one. I don’t think I can help you with that…”
Yeonjun’s eyes seem to lose their sparkle, mouth again in a little pensive pout, but he gets over it soon.
“Oh! We could try something else then,” he’s bouncing on his seat, clearly excited about his new idea. “I think watching people in love in those moving photos you humans like could help! It may take longer since it’s not exactly a direct source of energy, but it’s worth giving it a try.”
Kai stops himself from cooing out loud. He wants to take Yeonjun and hug him and put him in his plushie collection and spoil him with sweets.
“Do you mean –” he can feel his lips twitching up in a smile. “Do you want to watch a movie?”
They end up watching four movies. They spend the rest of the evening and most of the night sitting on the couch, then move to Kai’s bed with his laptop once their backs start hurting from the uncomfortable position.
Yeonjun is quick to understand how Netflix works, and after complaining about the first romcom Kai has chosen, he decides to take the matter into his own hands. Kai has no idea what was wrong with The Kissing Booth, but Yeonjun immediately decides their tastes in movies aren’t compatible.
Kai doesn’t mind. He knows nothing about romance movies, and they’re doing it for Yeonjun anyways, so if the witch wants to watch When Harry Met Sally instead of Notting Hill, that’s his choice.
Another thing he doesn’t mind, quite the contrary actually, is how affectionate Yeonjun is. He is a cuddly movie watcher, and Kai realizes it pretty soon into the night.
They start watching Ten Things I Hate About You sitting on opposite sides of the couch. Yeonjun’s thigh is pressed firmly against his by the time Patrick Verona is singing Can’t Take my Eyes off You.
Kat Stratford is reading her poem to the class when Yeonjun lets his head rest comfortably on his shoulder, arms wrapped tightly around Kai.
“I hate when you lie. I hate when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry…”
Kate’s voice starts breaking as she chokes up, but Kai can’t focus on anything else than Yeonjun’s sniffling next to him, sweater paws uselessly rubbing at the tears on his cheeks. He feels warm all over, and he’s glad the other looks so engrossed by the movie because he probably looks a couple of shades darker than Yeonjun’s hair right now.
By the time they finish their fourth movie, La la land, which Yeonjun states probably drained him from the little magic he had managed to gain from the first three movies, they’re both exhausted.
“Did this help? Do you think you could try repairing your broom now?” Kai asks, rubbing sleepily at his eyes.
Yeonjun sits up on the bed and starts wiggling his fingers in front of him, brows furrowed in concentration as he lets bright sparks of magic out of his fingertips. He nods unconvinced and gets up from the bed, socks-covered feet tapping away towards the kitchen where they tried to reassemble what used to be Yeonjun's broom.
Kai follows him and stares with rapt attention as the other lays his hands on top of the wooden pieces, eyes closed.
The idea of seeing real magic suddenly sends a jolt of adrenaline in his system, sleepiness forgotten as he focuses on the way Yeonjun’s hands start gleaming brightly.
Two minutes pass, then five. Yeonjun sighs and the brightness of magic dies down.
The witch hugs himself tightly and pouts, an embarrassed blush covering his cheeks.
“Still not enough magic,” he mutters.
“Maybe La La Land really did drain the energy out of you,” jokes Kai, and Yeonjun giggles back at him.
“We can try again tomorrow. Or maybe even do something else, who knows,“ Kai smiles and he’s filled with warmth once the witch reciprocates it. “Do you want to go to sleep now? I’ll take the couch.”
It takes Kai almost ten minutes to convince Yeonjun to take the bed, but he manages to do so. His couch is probably the most uncomfortable piece of furniture he owns, and after one hour of turning around uselessly, he starts considering throwing a bunch of blankets on the floor and just sleeping there. He’s about to get up and go get some more blankets when he sees Yeonjun’s figure slowly approaching from the bedroom.
He immediately freezes, scared of actually being eaten or killed or whatever witches do, but all Yeonjun does is crawl on the couch next to him and make himself tiny as he lays his head on top of Kai’s chest.
“Yeonjun–”
“Shh, darling, sorry. I didn’t want to wake you up,” he says, voice just a whisper. “Just go back to sleep, ‘mkay? I think more cuddles could help.”
Yeonjun falls asleep moments later. Kai spends almost two hours completely frozen, staring into the void of his apartment, before finally falling asleep.
In Yeonjun’s defense, sleeping together and late-night cuddles really did wonders for his magic. He looks significantly healthier, from his complexion to his hair, which looks at least one shade brighter than the baby pink Kai saw on him just a couple of hours earlier.
He’s more energetic, he keeps bouncing around in the kitchen and talking about movies and his witch friends and Kai is enamored.
Turns out, and Kai can’t bring himself to be sad about it, that Yeonjun still hasn’t refilled his magic completely, not enough to fix his broom and fly home, at least.
“I was thinking,” says Yeonjun as he turns the stove off and starts piling up the slices of bread he was toasting onto a plate, “there is something else we could try today.”
He brings the plate to the table and Kai stares sleepily at the burnt toasts. He sets it next to a tray with butter and jelly Kai didn’t even know he had home, and his set of mismatched breakfast mugs filled to the brim with peppermint tea.
Yeonjun is being extremely sweet today, and Kai doesn’t know him well enough to understand if that’s how he usually is or if he is being extra considerate because Kai woke up with huge eyebags after a night of overthinking and panicking. Since the witch keeps stealing worried glances at him, he thinks it may be the latter. He tries to tell Yeonjun that it’s okay, that he’s a uni student and he’s used to very little amounts of sleep, but Yeonjun doesn't listen.
Kai feels a little selfish when he lets the topic fall, but it does feel good to have someone take care of him once in a while. He takes a slice of burnt bread from the plate.
The witch sits down in front of him and their legs bump together under the table. “There’s one thing you could give me that will most likely work,” he says.
Kai is too sleepy to reply verbally, so he just hums as he tries to spread some jelly on his bread. Yeonjun kicks him lightly to get his attention and Kai concedes, sleepy eyes locking on his. “What is it?”
“A kiss.”
Kai drops the knife on the table, the jelly leaves a huge purple stain on the cloth that is going to be impossible to wash out.
“A kiss…?” He repeats, heat spreading to his face.
Yeonjun nods. He looks calm and collected like they’re discussing the weather and not whatever it is that they’re discussing.
“Just a kiss and I’ll get enough energy to fix my broom and fly all the way back home,” he says, mindlessly stirring up his tea. “I’ll come back with something for you, too. A gift for being so sweet to me.”
Kai’s brain is still elaborating on the word kiss, the rest of Yeonjun’s sentence falls on deaf ears as he stares at the witch, mouth opening and closing trying to form a coherent sentence.
“You –,” it comes out wobbly and he clears his throat. “A kiss?”
Yeonjun crosses his arms on his chest and scoffs at him. “You’re not listening to me.”
“I am listening, I just –” he shakes his head and slowly sets the slice of bread back on his plate. “You want to kiss me?”
Yeonjun stares at him with wide eyes. “If you don’t want to kiss me you don’t have to, I just thought –”
Kai wants to cry. Maybe someone out there really took pity on him and decided to send him an angel to apologize for his twenty years of loneliness.
“No! It’s not that, I just –”
“If you don’t find me pretty enough –”
“Yeonjun,” the witch shuts up and Kai has to muster up all his courage to maintain eye contact. “Yeonjun you’re, well. You’re very pretty.”
Yeonjun smiles sweetly at him, somehow sounding shy when he asks, “Then what’s the problem?”
“I have never kissed anyone,” he confesses, hiding his face behind his hands, "never had anyone to, uh, kiss before. And do other things, yeah."
There is a long moment of silence, and then he feels Yeonjun’s hands slowly holding his and lowering them onto the table. He keeps his eyes shut out of spite, in a childish attempt to hide from the other’s piercing gaze.
“Open your eyes, darling.”
Kai doesn’t want to, because he’s sitting in front of the prettiest person he’s ever seen and he basically told him he’s a virgin who has never kissed anyone. Oh god, he just told Yeonjun he has never kissed anyone.
“Kai, look at me.”
He listens, slowly and unsure, and Yeonjun is staring at him with such fond eyes that he wonders why he felt the need to hide.
“You don’t have to give me your first kiss if you don’t want to,” he says, voice sweet as honey. “Let’s do something else today, okay? We can go outside and maybe I’ll find another pretty boy to kiss,” he winks, and Kai blushes.
“I’d love to kiss you,” Yeonjun continues, and his gaze lingers on his lips, “but beggars can’t be choosers and it’s okay to save your first kiss for someone special.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, I just – I have never–”
Kai doesn’t like the idea of Yeonjun kissing someone else. It’s more than that, actually. He absolutely hates the idea. He’s not sure why, but it sits wrong with him, it makes him upset and jittery.
There would be nothing wrong with letting Yeonjun take his first kiss, especially since he’s not trying to save it for the love of his life, he doesn’t care about that. But the witch’s magic turns around love, which means Yeonjun has probably kissed lots of people – he’s probably had so many more experiences than Kai and the idea of kissing him and being a sloppy first kiss to someone like Yeonjun sounds absolutely depressing.
Yeonjun’s smile is gentle when he speaks, but there’s something in his eyes that reminds Kai of what a witch should look like, dangerous and predatory. It lasts just a moment, the twinkle of magic leaves space for something softer. “Let’s see how the day goes first.”
Kai doesn’t know how he has it in him to finish his breakfast after this discussion, because every bite is hard to swallow. He feels like something heavy is sitting in his throat. Yeonjun, on the other hand, acts like nothing even happened, keeping up the chatter for the rest of the meal.
“We could also just watch some other movies later tonight! Pride and Prejudice seems so interesting!”
The witch’s idea of going out means spending hours and hours just walking around the city, doing things humans like to do. That, Kai understands later, means engaging in random activities the witch has seen in movies.
Yeonjun has no idea what humans like to do, but he’s eager to learn and Kai doesn’t want anything more but to see his excited face when they enter a new shop or see something particularly cool. Like escalators.
They visit a museum before lunch, and Yeonjun holds his hand the whole time, because that’s how they do it in movies, darling, we’re supposed to hold hands! He keeps dragging him from one exhibition to the other, hands intertwined even when they get a little sweaty.
They have lunch together in a tiny café after that. He’s waiting for their order in line when he sees the first guy of the day trying to approach Yeonjun. The witch is wearing some clothes borrowed from his closet again, and even if they fall a little wide on his smaller frame, he still makes them look good. He looks gorgeous, so Kai supposes it was only a matter of time until he got hit on. He watches them flirt until his number gets called and goes to retrieve their trays. When he gets back to the tiny table, the guy is nowhere to be seen.
“Found yourself a kiss?” he asks, and he cringes internally at the way he sounds so snappy.
Yeonjun doesn’t seem to notice, or he just ignores it. He makes grabby hands at his sandwich and Kai passes him his tray.
“He’s not my type,” he says, taking a sip of his lemonade and scrunching his nose at the sour taste. ”He asked for my number.”
Kai pouts. “Did you give it to him?”
Yeonjun nods distractedly and takes a bite of his sandwich. Kai doesn’t know what to say, so he just shuts up. He must look moody like this, but he is upset. There's no reason to be because he and Yeonjun are nothing, not even friends, really.
Yeonjun looks at him with raised eyebrows, before letting out an airy giggle. “Kai, I don’t even have a phone.”
Kai tries not to let himself smile too much. He doesn’t think he does a good job.
He thought back at the café that the guy had approached Yeonjun because he was sitting all pretty and alone, but it turns out that boys and girls altogether just try to hit on him with or without Kai by his side, which ouch.
He knows he’s not on Yeonjun’s level, but people not even considering the possibility that they’re on a date together is a low hit on his self-esteem.
The witch, anyways, rejects everyone. Holding Kai’s hands tightly in front of them, hugging him, getting all over him when other people try to talk to him. It’s making Kai dizzy and warm, and he dreads the time Yeonjun will actually find someone else to kiss.
They end their day at his university’s botanical garden. He has free tickets he thought he’d never use for himself and a plus-one in his wallet, and Yeonjun says gardens are the perfect rom-com scenario for a date.
This Yeonjun in front of him is not the shy witch of yesterday. He's clearly more comfortable now, his personality bright and flirty. He talks a lot and he says things like date, and darling like they mean nothing and everything at the same time and Kai doesn’t know how to answer.
“You know, I can see those auras you humans have,” the witch says once they stop in front of some hydrangeas, the color of the petals so similar to Yeonjun’s hair.
“I think it’s more of your intentions, maybe. The people who approached me today all had this reddish aura around them. That’s lust,” he says, and he gets a little closer to him, voice low while he explains, and Kai has goosebumps all over him.
“I can feed on that, obviously,” he continues, “but the best kind of energy is purer, something more innocent.”
“Pure?”
Yeonjun leaves his side and starts walking again, passing the hydrangeas and moving towards the tiny path of the garden. He doesn’t look back to see if Kai is following him, because of course he is.
“When you truly, deeply fall for someone, that kind of love gets a pretty lilac color, and the energy is clean and strong,” he wets his lips and smiles at Kai, pretty eyes turning into crescents.
“It’s the kind of energy I could get from, let’s say," he stops to think about it, cheeks flushed a light pink. "From someone like you. Someone who's never loved before."
Kai can’t help but stare at him, and Yeonjun takes his hand again, raising it to his lips to leave a small, soft kiss on its back.
“You’re so precious, darling. I feel like the stars are watching over me, letting me find you of all people in such a moment of need,” he tells him, and Kai finds himself once again at a loss for words.
Yeonjun is affectionate in a way that makes Kai’s brain foggy.
Something in his mind tells him that Yeonjun is a witch and that trusting him could still be dangerous. But Yeonjun is sweet, and his laugh is airy and loud when they talk and their hands fit so nicely together.
Kai can’t pinpoint exactly which kind of love language is Yeonjun’s, because the boy seems to love in every way, from the way he acts, all his tiny gestures, to the way he listens and talks to him, sweet and caring. Maybe it’s the nature of his magic that makes him love like this.
And Kai doesn’t know him, not like that, because it’s hard to get to know someone this deeply in a lifetime, let alone just two days. But there’s something about Yeonjun that tells him that when he loves, he does so deeply and fully. And it wouldn’t be too bad, Kai considers, to let him have his first kiss.
“Yeonjun?”
The witch hums and looks at him as Kai raises their laced hands and leaves a shy kiss on the witch’s hand. “I want you to take it, my first kiss.”
Yeonjun’s eyes get round and big, and then he’s hugging him close. He envelops him completely in his arms, head resting next to his, and Kai feels tinier than him.
“Oh darling, are you sure?,” he asks, prepping a bunch of wet kisses all over his cheek. When Kai nods, laughing at the way the other keeps cuddling him, Yeonjun stops to smile, wide and pretty.
“I’ll make it good for you, I promise. Let’s go home?”
They go home and Kai thinks he's going to die because of his nerves. It’s not that he doesn’t want to kiss Yeonjun, because he probably started dreaming of kissing the other the moment he saw his pouty lips the first time he saw him. But he’s nervous, and there’s no hiding that.
When Kai closes the front door behind him, he almost expects Yeonjun to press him against it and just kiss him and get done with it, but Yeonjun doesn’t do anything of the sort.
He takes his shoes off, and motions for Kai to follow him to the bedroom.
“Are you coming?”
Kai nods so fast he thinks his head could fall off, and he hurries to take his shoes off and go inside. Yeonjun is sitting on the bed with his legs crossed when he joins him, one elegant hand patting the space in front of him on the bed.
Kai sits down and just looks at him. He’s been doing a lot of that, lately.
He doesn’t have the time to overthink anything, because Yeonjun gets closer, resting one feather-light hand on his leg, the pressure comforting yet electrifying.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Kai nods resolutely and Yeonjun smiles at him. “Okay, then go rest against the headboard.”
Kai follows the instruction so easily, as he does with everything the witch tells him to do, and watches as Yeonjun crawls towards him.
Yeonjun stops in front of him, getting on his knees and watching him from above.
“You’re so cute,” he tells him, and then he plops down on top of his lap.
Kai’s instinct tells him to hold on to the other’s waist, and it must be the right thing to do because Yeonjun smiles prettily at him, satisfied. The other looks tiny like this, delicate and small on top of him.
“Remember to close your eyes, okay?”
“Okay.”
Yeonjun hums under his breath, pleased by his answer, and Kai tries not to squeal when the witch cups his jaw, pretty fingers raising his head so delicately he wants to cry.
Yeonjun tilts his head to the side and leans in to gently brush his lips on top of Kai’s.
He remembers to close his eyes at the very last moment, once he almost gets cross-eyed trying to catch every little detail he can of Yeonjun’s face. He’s able to catch the way the witch’s lashes flutter close, then there’s the slight pressure of lips on top of lips, and it’s soft.
It’s soft and so tender and it’s over way too soon. Yeonjun pulls away and Kai is left wondering if the pink-haired witch does taste as sweet as he looks.
Kai tentatively opens his eyes, trying not to let his disappointment show, but Yeonjun is staring at him with half-lidded eyes. “Follow my lead, okay?”
Kai doesn’t have time to reply, before the witch is leaning in again, plump lips pressed softly against his.
Yeonjun’s lips move slowly against his, and Kai tries to follow him. This kiss feels more like a kiss, and Kai is not sure what that is supposed to mean, exactly, but it makes him think of the movies they saw together just the day before, of the couple who kept stealing kisses from each other at the botanical garden.
It’s gentle and warm, with Yeonjun pressing his lips against Kai’s just right, as he tentatively lets the witch’s plumper ones fit in between his.
Yeonjun’s arms are resting on his shoulders, his fingers playing with the short hairs on the nape of his neck. Kai distantly thinks that he wouldn’t mind kissing like this for the rest of the night. Or maybe for the rest of his life, too. Eternity spent kissing Yeonjun sounds more like a blessing than a curse.
Yeonjun scrapes his long nails against Kai’s neck and he lets out a breath that gets easily swallowed by the other, who licks at his bottom lip lightly. Something in Kai’s brain stops working and he freezes for a moment, pulling away.
“It’s okay, you’re doing good, darling. So good,” Yeonjun breathes, fingers uncurling from Kai’s hair.
Kai’s senses feel heightened, and they entirely revolve around the witch on his lap. All he hears are his jagged breaths, all he sees is the way Yeonjun’s eyes flutter close as the magic flows under his skin, and all he feels is the way Yeonjun’s hands keep rubbing at his shoulder reassuringly until he melts under his touch.
“You kiss me, now?”
And then there it is, once again. Lips pressed on lips, long nails scraping at his nape and then Yeonjun’s tongue is swiping subtly against his bottom lip, and this time Kai doesn’t freeze, he doesn’t overthink it. He’s not thinking at all, honestly. Everything is about Yeonjun and his mind is dizzy and full of cotton. He lets his lips part open under Yeonjun’s ministration, and Yeonjun hums in approval.
The witch is licking into his mouth, pressing his body against his in ways he’s only ever dreamed about. Kai is surprised to find, as Yeonjun slides his tongue against his, that he does have a very peculiar taste. Maybe he will get addicted to it, maybe that’s what a love potion tastes like, Yeonjun’s magic making him impossible not to be adored.
He doesn’t have the time to wonder if he’s doing it right, because then he does something with his tongue that has Yeonjun sighing happily into the kiss, and that sounds like heaven to his ears.
It’s over all too soon, or maybe they’ve been kissing for hours and Kai just lost track of time. They pull apart with flushed cheeks and swollen lips.
Yeonjun looks good. Kai doesn’t know what magic looks like, but Yeonjun looks full of it. There are no sparks flying from his fingers like the first time he saw him trying to fix his broom, but there’s that pinkish glint in his eyes and he looks satiated.
“Good?” asks Yeonjun, and Kai almost wants to laugh.
“So good,” he says, “I think we should kiss some more. For practice.”
Yeonjun chuckles at that. “If we keep going you’ll start begging to give me one more of your firsts,” he teases, but he still gives in, kissing him dumb until Kai can’t think about the implication of more firsts.
“I’d let you have all of my firsts,” he says, voice soft and breathless once Yeonjun pulls away. It comes out way more honest than it should, and it scares him how much he actually means it.
Yeonjun’s eyes glint as he moves his hands to the front of his neck, one goes all the way up to cup Kai’s cheeks, his thumb pressing on his bottom lip, shiny and wet. “Do you mean it?"
“If you want them, yes. They’re all yours.”
Yeonjun on his lap is buzzing with an energy that makes him look young and powerful, but he still looks sweet and kind, and Kai means it.
“I’ll take care of you, darling. One first at a time,” he says, then he dives for his lips once again.
Yeonjun meant it when he said one first at a time because he’s the one to push off of Kai once everything gets too heated, a promise of more to come, but not now, be patient, darling. We have all the time in the world.
Kai is almost disappointed at first, but he realizes soon enough how overwhelming everything has been so far, so he’s glad to take it easy.
Yeonjun said all the time in the world, which sounds like an empty promise, but Kai will take it anyways. If it’s not all the time in the world, they still have the whole night – and that’s good, too.
When he wakes up the next morning, Yoenjun is not sleeping next to him. He’s not in his kitchen, not in the bathroom, and not in his excuse of a living room. The broom is not sitting on top of his table anymore, but there’s a note on it. I’ll meet you soon, love.
‘ Soon’ turns out to be a week later. Kai is getting back home from the most stressful lecture of his life, and he’s exhausted. All he wants is to get himself under all his blankets and sleep the rest of the day away, skipping dinner in order to just sleep. He almost misses the first flash of pink in his backyard garden, but then there’s another one. His hands are shaky when he tries to open up the door, but he manages.
He runs all the way to the back of his house and there he is. Yeonjun is wearing his own clothes, they fit him nicely, way better than Kai’s, even if he has to admit he loved how big his clothes looked on him. His hair is a bright pink, the brightest shade he’s seen on him so far. He looks good and healthy and Kai wants to burrow his face in his shoulder and hug him oh so tight and never let him go again.
There's so much he wants to say. Kai thinks of the last days he's spent wondering if he'd imagined everything. His tongue feels heavy in his mouth and all he manages to mutter is, "you fixed my flowers."
Yeonjun turns around and giggles, pointing satisfied at his azaleas, magically alive and in fool bloom. Then, he closes the distance between them and hugs him in the same way he did when they were at the botanical garden, big and cozy. He then turns his head enough to leave a wet kiss on Kai’s cheek.
"I tried my best,” he says, and Kai really missed his voice. “But there's no saving your orchids. For that, I'd need to ask my friend Beomgyu, but even green witches can't do miracles," he jokes.
Kai doesn’t care at all about the flowers. He hugs him close once again, and his voice comes out as a whisper when he speaks again. "I thought you left for good."
Yeonjun lets him hold him for what seems to be hours, before pulling away slightly and cupping his head in both hands.
“There are a lot of firsts you owe me, still,” he tells him, his smile so sweet. “Let’s start with first time cooking dinner together, mh? I’m starving.”
Kai laughs and nods, eyes fond.
“Then we could do first time cleaning up the dishes together. Oh, and maybe first date? ”
Kai shuts him up with a kiss. After all, they do have all the time in the world.