Chapter Text
The Hogwarts Express, without fail, leaves at 11 in the morning every September 1st to mark the start of the new school year. It was five minutes to 11 now, and Seo Yundeok was still nowhere to be seen.
“He’s always like this,” Jeong Hyeonuk said with his feet propped up elegantly on the empty seats, eyes unmoving from his trashy tabloid magazine (that he reads religiously, despite complaining about how much petty gossip it prints). “He’ll show up eventually. Don’t worry your pretty little head off.”
But everyone knows Seo Yundeok was as unpredictable as British weather, so it was hard for Yuseop to get complacent, even knowing Hyeonuk’s rationality. His face was pressed up against the compartment’s windows, fingers cupped around his eyes in imitation binoculars, attempting the near-impossible task of spotting Yundeok among the bustling crowd of Hogwarts students out on the platform. And he saw quite a lot of crying first years refusing to part with their mothers, many cats scurrying between legs, suitcases and trunks rolling around on their own with the help of magic, and groups of seventh years looking like giants treading among the younger kids—but no Seo Yundeok.
To this, you might say: "But Yuseop, how did you expect to spot a completely average black-haired Gryffindor in a sea of similarly average Hogwarts students in the first place?”
And to that, Yuseop would respond: one, Yundeok is the furthest thing from average as humanly possible, and two, he would recognize Yundeok as soon as he saw him, so shut up.
Five minutes later at eleven on the dot, when the platform had completely cleared up, the train gave a blare of warning and a pump of steam and began to pull away from the platform. If he had to make a prediction based on previous years, this should’ve been approximately when Seo Yundeok would burst in with some dumb excuse, like ‘my cat bit me and I had to get it treated’ or ‘I couldn’t find my set of weights’. Yuseop turned away from the glass windows and toward the doors of their compartment, but there was no Seo Yundeok. “You don’t think he’s missed it?” he said, and saw Hyeonuk in his peripheral, looking up from his magazine.
“He’s not that stupid.” Fair enough. But sometimes you really couldn’t tell with Yundeok, so Yuseop couldn’t rest easy now. He was already coming up with a long list of insults and jokes he could make, in the unlikely scenario where Yundeok really did miss the train.
Unfortunately, his brainstorming was indeed a waste. Thirty seconds later the glass door of their compartment slammed open, and in came Seo Yundeok, looking as if he’d gone through hell and back. His hair was all mussed up, his breaths came out in shallow puffs, there was the mysterious red smear of an unknown substance near his mouth, and his trunk looked so overstuffed that Yuseop worried it might explode. And—to Yuseop’s terrible misfortune—he held the carrier of that savage cat of his in his other hand.
“Did you get into a car accident or something?”
Yundeok responded to Yuseop’s comment with a breathless scoff, shoving his luggage in the storage corner and (rather impolitely) setting down his rabid cat next to Yuseop. “Might as well. Some idiot crashed on the road, so they had to close off an entire lane, and then my mum and I got stuck in traffic and then we got totally lost in King’s Cross. Just barely made it.”
Hyeonuk blinked. “What is a ‘traffic’?”
Yuseop and Yundeok exchanged an exasperated stare. Purebloods.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head,” Yuseop waved a dismissive hand, and snickered at Hyeonuk’s eye-roll.
You’d never hear him admit it because it’s too sappy (like, seriously too sappy), but while some people dreaded the first day of school, this was what Yuseop was looking forward to all summer. And by ‘this’, he does not mean he’s not scared shitless to be starting his first N.E.W.Ts year, nor is he jumping for joy to be back in Professor Vata’s potions dungeon. No, he meant this. Being back in this rattling compartment with his best friends, laughing, bantering, loading up on sweets from the snack trolley and watching Hyeonuk wastefully unwrapping Chocolate Frogs until he pulled the card he wanted… it honestly got him pumped, because good beginnings had to mean good endings, right? How could this year possibly go downhill from here?
Okay, that might be a bit of a jinx. So he won’t go as far as to say this year was going to be perfect, but it sure as hell can’t go too wrong with Hyeonuk and Yundeok by his side.
Hyeonuk, with his tabloid now abandoned on the seat beside him, was trying to feed Yundeok’s wildcat without getting his finger bitten off, while the feral beast’s owner was laughing his head off, completely useless in the situation. This was one instance where Hyeonuk’s rationality did not extend to his actions—it’s been three years since Yundeok picked this stray cat off the side of the road, three years that the cat’s expressed nothing but pure undeterred hatred towards Yuseop and Hyeonuk, and he still hadn’t given up with trying to befriend the monster. Eventually, Hyeonuk gave up on his attempt and retracted his hand from the carrier, firmly declaring that this would not be the end of their ‘bonding process’.
“You guys heard who they made captain this year? Guess,” Yundeok said as their laughter died, leaning forward.
Oh, that’s easy. “Takuma,” Yuseop answered almost immediately, and shrugged at the other boy’s incredulous look. “What? Since it wasn’t any of us, it was gonna be him.”
“He basically led us through the season last year, anyways. Our captain was useless,” Hyeonuk pointed out, his face souring slightly at the memory. Yuseop winced too; the only team they lost to last year was Jeon Junpyo’s Ravenclaw, and even then they had come this close to winning the cup, missing out by a margin of twenty points in the end. It was Woncheon’s first year as a Beater and he’d cried. Yuseop had barely held back his own tears.
“Yeah, I get it,” Yundeok hummed, “but… like, you think he’s gonna hold up against the other three..?”
“I’m gonna tell Kuma that you’re doubting him,” Yuseop said through a mouthful of his pumpkin pasty, and dodged the jelly bean that was thrown his way.
“Shut up, don’t,” Yundeok hissed. “I don’t doubt him, but you know who we’re up against this year…”
A brief moment of silence passed, allowing them all to ponder his words. “Like come on, think about it,” he continued, folding his arms over his chest in a bit of a pretentious, all-knowing way. “Zhang Jiahao, Jeon Junpyo, and Jang Hyunjun were already scary as fuck before. This year will all be their last, so they’ll be ripping at each other's throats for the cup.”
He had a point, but Yuseop wasn’t going to let him have it. “Seo Yundeok, using his brain? What a sight to behold,” he deadpanned, and wasn’t so lucky to dodge the jelly bean this time. “Stop wasting food!”
Yundeok grinned cheekily, flashing those jutting front teeth. He hopped off his seat, crouched down, plucked the two candies off the compartment floor and tossed them in his mouth, responding to Hyeonuk and Yuseop’s groans of disgust by chewing as loud as he could.
“One day, you’re going to die from doing that,” Hyeonuk kicked out his leg, nudging Yundeok with his shoe.
And Yundeok responded with the ever-so clever answer of: “Shut up.”
It was at that moment that their compartment door slid open again, and a Hufflepuff boy poked his brown-haired head inside and looked around. His eyes lingered for a moment on Yundeok, who waved happily from where he was sitting on the ground, but it was clear he had not found what he was looking for when he puffed out his cheeks in frustration. Turning away, he called out, “ Lín, Fán, bùzài zhèli! ”
“Whatcha lookin’ for?” Hyeonuk got up, brows furrowed in mild concern.
Anxin paused for a second, seemingly struggling to find his words before stammering out, “We… we lost Hao-ge’s cat.”
Oh shit . Yuseop glanced at Yundeok with a silent grimace. Jiahao was generally a pretty level-headed guy, but he would kill for that cat. “...and how did you do that?”
“We don’t know!” Anxin looked so genuinely lost and worried that Yuseop felt bad for wanting to laugh. “We looked away for a second and she—she just—!”
“Xin, let’s go, we have to find her before Hao-ge comes back.” A stony-faced boy wearing revolting green-lined robes appeared at the Hufflepuff’s side, linking their arms together.
“Oh, no no no,” Yuseop leapt to his feet, throwing up one hand against the compartment door and making Anxin shrink back in surprise. “No snakes allowed around here. Sorry, Xin, I don’t make the rules, but you know this part of the train is reserved for us Gryffindors.”
“But—”
“Yeah, it’s a no from me too,” Yundeok appeared at his side with that grin of his, perhaps more obnoxious than Yuseop’s own. “Good luck on your wild cat chase, Lin Hanzhong! We’ll meet you on the pitch!”
They cheerily waved off an unimpressed Lin and a puzzled Anxin, waiting for them to disappear into another compartment down the corridor before shutting the doors, satisfied. Hyeonuk stared them down, his brow raised questioningly in a striking imitation of their favourite prefect Noh Gihyeon. Really? He could be saying.
“What?” Yundeok fell back onto his seat carelessly, hands behind his head. “Gotta get the Quidditch spirit on. Can’t have Takuma-hyung doing all the work around here.”
“Does this mean you’re gonna stop hanging out with the younger Seungho now too?”
“Of course not. That’s different.”
“Different… how?”
“Well, first of all, it’s not really a hangout, more like weekly workout sessions to maintain our physiques, and second of all…”
And off he went, in typical Yundeok fashion, on an overdrawn explanation about how his weekly playdates with Woncheon and Seungho were absolutely necessary for not just his sake, but also the sake of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, because apparently if he loses even a pound of muscle then he won’t be able to tank any Bludger hits, nor will he be able to throw the Quaffle with 100% accuracy, so the team will lose their “star Chaser” (rude, by the way) and everything will go horribly, horribly wrong and they will go on a losing streak this season and disparage the name of Godric Gryffindor and Takuma will bite their heads off. Yeah, this was what Yuseop was referring to.
Night had long since fallen by the time they reached Hogwarts and a black blanket fell over the sky, a river of stars streaking across the empty canvas. Yuseop took a moment to admire the sky before loading his trunk into one of the coaches, with Yundeok and Hyeonuk doing the same next to him.
Just as he was about to climb inside, he heard a “Yo!” come from somewhere behind him. Takuma was strolling over with a wide smile, with Jaeyoung and Woncheon trailing behind him.
“If it isn’t our new captain!” Yuseop strolled forward, meeting Takuma halfway and meeting him with a fist bump. “And our two Beaters. Oh, we’ve got the whole team here, haven’t we?”
“Oh, don’t remind me, we’re missing a Seeker,” Takuma bemoaned. “If we can’t find a good one, we’re gonna be so screwed, especially in our game against Hufflepuff—I might retrial the whole team, actually—”
“Chill, it’s too early to be worrying about Quidditch,” Yundeok slung an arm around their captain, guiding him toward the carriage.
Big mistake. He was well-meaning, but rule number one of being on the Gryffindor team: don’t ever tell Takeshita Takuma not to worry about Quidditch. When the Japanese boy turned toward Yundeok, his eyes were ready to pop out of their sockets. “Are you serious? Yeah, no, maybe I do need to retrial the whole team, if your passion is waning, Seo Yundeok—”
“Okay, why don’t we get on the carriage first, then talk about this?” Hyeonuk ushered them all forward before Takuma could go on his tangent, wearing his typical easygoing smile. They all lugged their trunks into the coach before climbing inside, one by one. To Yuseop, it looked like they were being pulled along by magic alone, but he didn’t fail to notice how Woncheon gently brushed his hand over an unseen entity before boarding.
They didn’t end up talking about Quidditch because Jaeyoung and Woncheon, god bless them, started geeking out with Hyeonuk over whatever new Chocolate Frog cards they’d collected since their last exchange. Yuseop spent maybe two minutes trying to wrap his head around the details and rarities of the cards before giving up, because he was far too tired and hungry to be figuring out whether or not Eargit the Ugly was a rarer find than Seraphina Picquery.
By the end of the carriage ride, Yuseop’s brain hurt, and he was more than ready to get to the castle and stuff his face with roast beef and mashed potatoes. He tuned the others out on their walk toward the castle (they were now arguing over the values of Chocolate Frog cards), hauling his own trunk along, daydreaming about the feast and the comfort of his four-poster bed… but of course, he couldn’t even do that in peace. Because out of nowhere, a body bumped into him, snapping him out of his hunger-induced stupor. He glanced up, and was met with the shit-eating smirk of Jang Hyunjun.
“Oops,” the Slytherin said loftily. “Didn’t see you there.” He was flanked by Seunghyeon and Minjun, the former looking pained (or maybe constipated) at his captain’s antics and the other, as always, looking slightly lost.
“Dude, that was so corny,” Yundeok frowned. “Did you practise that line or something?”
If he did, he clearly hadn’t practised enough to have thought of a response, because Hyunjun ignored Yundeok and shifted his attention to Takuma. “Heard you’re captain this year, congrats.”
Takuma blinked. “Oh, thanks—”
“Yeah, whatever. I’m just being nice now ‘cus I won’t be on the pitch,” Hyunjun paused for dramatic effect, before continuing, “we’re gonna kick your asses.”
“Just like you did ours last year?” Jeon Junpyo suddenly appeared behind Hyunjun.
Yuseop wasn’t totally caught up with the news at Hogwarts, but he was pretty certain they hadn’t planned a party here. Anyways, Hyunjun did not seem to have anticipated his best friend’s arrival, because he stuttered for a second before composing himself with a clear of his throat. “Things were different then! We played with a sub for one of the games—our Chaser broke his arm!”
“Meaning, you couldn’t get carried by Cooler Hyunjun anymore,” Takuma butted in, patting Hyunjun on the shoulder sweetly. “Sucks to suck, Jang. That’s the pitfall of having a prodigy on your team.”
“No one on our team carries anyone,” Hyunjun snapped back. “We win because we’re all good. We’re well-rounded! And I wouldn’t be talking, Takuma, because you didn’t even win the cup last year—”
“—and I did,” Junpyo cut in smoothly, sticking an arm out between Hyunjun and Takuma as if they were attack dogs that needed to be separated. “So let’s all stop talking before Hao comes and tells us off for making a scene, alright? Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Hyunjun seemed unwilling, but the idea of being scolded by someone in the same year as him must’ve sounded embarrassing, so he and the other Slytherins reluctantly went off. Hyeonuk gave them a cheery wave as they left, and Seunghyeon smiled apologetically back before hurrying after his captain. That left Junpyo, who turned toward them, meeting Takuma’s eyes. Yuseop imagined sparks flying between their eyes. “Takeshita. Congratulations on captain, you deserve it.”
“Thanks, Jeon.”
“Don’t let it get to your head, though. The result’s going to be the same, no matter who’s leading your team,” Junpyo said pleasantly.
“Yeah, because we’re just infinitely better than everyone else,” Yundeok retorted, pulling Woncheon and Jaeyoung in by the shoulders. Jaeyoung puffs his chest out and nods enthusiastically; Woncheon looks like he just wants to get to the castle already and get some food in his stomach. “Takuma-hyung’s going to lead us to a Gryffindor victory this year.”
“If that’s what you need to tell yourself,” Junpyo smiled, and left it at that.
They stared into his retreating back, with Takuma muttering curses under his breath when they saw Junpyo join up with their very own prefect. “Gihyeon, that traitor…”
“Intense,” Yundeok whispered to Yuseop, as their captain went on a Quidditch-brained prattle.
There was never any real malice between their banter, because at the end of the day, it was what it was—just banter. But you’d have to be blind not to notice that buzz in the air, the added thickness that made it just a little hard to breathe. You could see it in the tightness of Takuma’s lips, the slight scrunch in Hyunjun’s brow, the missing light from Junpyo’s eyes.
Yuseop’s heart began to race.
To be honest, the feast itself wasn’t the good part. Headmaster Xiumin gave pretty much the exact same speech every year, about house unity and the importance of friendship and whatnot, and the Sorting always had too many damn kids in it. Rather, the standout parts of the night were seeing how much everyone changed over the summer (“Yo, did you see Miraku’s new hair?”), catching up on schoolyard news (“Oh, of course they made Fuko Head Girl!”), and the food (“House elves deserve to get paid for this chicken, holy shit.”).
The first night left Yuseop with a full stomach and a light heart after catching up with all his friends, sending him into a peaceful, comfortable sleep with dreams of Quidditch and roasted chicken. This made it all the more cumbersome to get dragged out of bed by Takuma at ass o’clock the next morning for the first day of classes. A bowl of honey porridge and an apple later, Yuseop found himself seated in the cold, dark prison cell of Professor Vata’s Potions dungeon.
Yuseop never expected to qualify for his Potions N.E.W.T., actually, after he pretty much failed it in his fourth year. Back then, he still hadn’t started taking classes seriously, and spent his free time running amok with Hyeonuk and Yundeok and practising Quidditch like he was going to play in the world finals. It was only when he’d received that report card with that big fat ‘D’ next to Potions and gotten grounded for the entire summer that he realised if he didn’t whip himself into shape, he would be stuck tending tables at some ratty bar downtown for the rest of his life, and he did not have the patience to be dealing with old greasy drunkards every night seven days a week. So, when he returned to school for his O.W.Ls year, he was determined to become a cooler, smarter Yuseop, tough in both brains and brawn. It took his blood, sweat, and (lots of) tears, but it was all worth it when he not only passed Potions, but passed with an ‘E’, allowing him to advance into the N.E.W.Ts-level class this year. Professor Vata even smiled at him when he entered the dungeon today—that was something he thought he’d never see until the day that he died.
But even with that brief boost of motivation, there was nothing—absolutely nothing—that could keep him going for an hour and a half of potions theory teachings in the morning, even if Vata gave a demonstration of Felix Felicis brewing and promised them they’d be attempting it next class. Potions theory was possibly the most useless, exhausting thing he’s ever had the misfortune of learning in his life; why did they have to study the properties or the interactions between ingredients, when they already fucking knew them? If it works, it works. Needless to say, Yuseop and Hyeonuk left that class damn near asleep.
“I don’t know why everyone looked so bored,” they overheard Sunyub of Ravenclaw saying as they walked out. “I found the chapter on the characteristics of Ancromantula venom very interesting.”
“I’m going to tell Woncheon to aim only for him in our next game,” Hyeonuk muttered to Yuseop, who nodded in return. They loved their Ravenclaws, but sometimes they were simply insufferable .
Their next class was thankfully more bearable, more so because Runes was something Yuseop actually kind of enjoyed, and because Professor Minnie was pretty and fun—even if she did uphold this peculiar ideology of school unity, and forced them to sit with people outside of their house. Yuseop was stuck at a table with a Ravenclaw, but what was strange was that he was pretty damn sure he knew every face at Hogwarts, but he’s never seen this guy in his life. He strained to remember him at the Sorting, perhaps as a transfer student, but all that came to mind when recalling yesterday night was how tender the chicken was and competing with Hyeonuk to see who could toss more grapes into Yundeok's mouth.
The guy was pretty handsome, with plump lips and a strong frame. He wrote neat notes and had attentive eyes on Professor Minnie the entire time. How… Ravenclaw.
Yuseop waited until their fifteen minutes of independent study before putting on his best smile and tapping him on the shoulder. The kid jolted, head snapping up from where it was buried in his textbook, and turned to Yuseop with wide eyes as if he’d only just noticed he was there.
“Yo,” Yuseop stuck his hand out.
“...Yo?” The boy accepted the handshake as carefully as if he were handling a Mandrake, and pulled away just as quickly. Were Yuseop’s hands sweaty? He wiped them on his robes and struggled to maintain his (hopefully) welcoming smile.
It’s whatever. He’s met plenty of shy guys in his life, and they all ended up liking him by the end, so this would be no different. “Haven’t seen you around before. Name’s Yuseop, you?
“Hakseong. Kim Hakseong,” the newly-named Hakseong licked his lips, then continued quickly, “I’m, uh, new. I transferred in this year.”
“Oh, nice. From where?”
“Durmstrang.”
“Why?”
“Uh. Parents’ work.”
Hakseong looked like he wanted Yuseop to stop asking questions, so he did, and waited for the other boy to continue the conversation. But then they were plunged into this stretch of awkward silence, where Hakseong stared at Yuseop and Yuseop stared back. It looked as if Yuseop would have to take the reins in this after all.
“So, uh,” he continued again, fingers habitually moving towards the rings on his other hand before he laid them firm and flat against the table—the new Yuseop doesn’t fidget. “Who’s been showing you around?”
“Uhm…” Hakseong paused, scrunching his face as he tried to recall the name. “Last night it was mostly the seventh-year prefect. Today it’s been…” he glanced around the room, and jutted his thumb at Sunyub, who was diligently studying a few rows away. “Kim Sunyub.”
“Jeon Junpyo and Sunyub, got it. Love those guys, just not on the pitch…” Yuseop hummed, then added as an afterthought, “the Quidditch pitch, I mean. There’s Quidditch in Durmstrang, no?”
With the mere mention of the magic ‘Q’ word, Hakseong went from looking scared that Yuseop would turn into a werewolf to looking like a kid on Christmas Day. Yuseop’s smile became genuine—bingo. “Quidditch? They play Quidditch? Do you play?”
“Yup. I’m one of the Chasers for Gryffindor. Junpyo-hyung’s the captain and Sunyub’s basically his right hand man—you gonna try out? Get on their good side.”
Hakseong nodded enthusiastically, finally putting his quill down. “I love Quidditch. I started playing two years ago. I was thinking of trying out to be a Beater.”
“Oh, is that so?”
And the conversation went on like that until their fifteen minutes were up, with Professor Minnie calling the class to attention so they could discuss what they learned. Yuseop was smiling to himself as they both turned back toward the blackboard, mentally giving himself a pat on the shoulder for overcoming the hurdle of meeting someone for the first time and breaking through their shell. He found himself good at things like that. Not to be narcissistic, but Yuseop would describe himself as a pretty well-liked guy. Sure, he wasn’t on the same level of awing popularity as a kid like Chen Bingfan, but he was perfectly content with just being moderately appreciated by everyone around him. He was nice, he’d consider himself funny, and sometimes, that was all you needed to please people.
What he discovered about Hakseong in those fifteen minutes was that his parents were Aurors who’d been stationed up in Norway, and that they’d just moved back to Britain for him to finish his last two years at Hogwarts. His German was only passable, and his primary method of connecting with his schoolmates at Durmstrang was through their shared interest in Quidditch. He wasn’t sure how he was going to adjust to Hogwarts, but he already knew that he liked the castle much better. Finally, through Yuseop’s own observation—he was really, really good at runes, and would definitely make for reliable homework help later in the semester.
After class he met up with Hyeonuk, who was not quite as nice or funny as Yuseop. He took one glance at Hakseong and frowned. “That scrawny, quiet kid? No chance he’s making Beater. Ravenclaw already has Saebi and Jiyoon.”
“Saebi and Jiyoon aren’t that good,” Yuseop argued back, “And besides, if he makes it in, we might be able to use him to figure out Junpyo and Sunyub’s plans.”
“Okay, fine, that works. Call him over.”
They were both done with their classes for the day, so they walked Hakseong to his Transfiguration class before heading back to the Gryffindor common rooms to kick back and relax. An hour and a half of chess later, they were joined by Yundeok, who had not yet the privilege of free periods and was still bound to the full schedule of a fifth year. He lamented this to them, sprawled out over an armchair, one hand thrown over his eyes and the other holding a potions textbook to his chest. “You guys don’t know how lucky you are,” he groaned through his arm.
“Those free periods are gonna be for studying, once our workload picks up,” Hyeonuk mumbled, watching his bishop curbstomp Yuseop’s pawn against the chessboard. “Check.”
“I’m bored. I don’t want to play anymore,” Yuseop announced, getting up from the floor and sitting himself on the armrest of Yundeok’s seat instead.
Hyeonuk grinned victoriously, and flicked over Yuseop’s king before cleaning up the board. “That makes it, what, 13-0? C’mon, you need to—”
“I’m bored too,” Yundeok sat up straight, his book slipping off his chest and falling on the floor. “Hey, we should figure out something to kick off the school year. Make things a bit more fun, you know?”
Yuseop knew it was coming, but he couldn’t help but give a small sigh anyway. Their reputations as troublemakers didn’t come out of nowhere, after all. “D’you have anything in mind?”
“Dunno,” Yundeok shrugged. “Slip something in Doha’s potion in your next class.”
“Think of something else, dude,” Hyeonuk shook his head. “I’m so sick of picking on Lee Doha. He’s too easy of a scapegoat.”
“Well, shit, then what?” Yundeok stared, but got no response. Usually, it was Hyeonuk coming up with things; this must be unfamiliar for him. “What if we dyed Jang Hyunjun’s Quidditch uniform red?”
“No chance, I bet he sleeps in that thing.”
“Release a Niffler in the Slytherin dorm?”
“Again?”
“Put a thumbtack on Professor Vata’s chair?”
“What are you, five?”
“Or,” Yuseop cut in, just as Yundeok was visibly starting to get frustrated. “Since you’re taking your O.W.Ls, Deok, you can actually study so you don’t end up failing half your classes this year?”
Yundeok laughed. Hyeonuk and Yuseop didn’t. Yundeok stopped laughing, and stared at them with bug eyes. “You’re not joking?”
“Why would we be? We’re not forgetting that D in Potions last year,” Hyeonuk clapped Yuseop on the leg, “Following our Seopie’s footsteps.”
“Shut up, that was just one time,” Yuseop gritted out, before turning to Yundeok with sincere eyes. “Deokie, I know it’s a huge step out of your comfort zone, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to make a few trips to the library this year.”
“You guys talk about me like I’m stupid,” Yundeok grumbled, shoving Yuseop off of the armchair. “I’m doing fine in everything else. It’s just Potions. Vata makes everything harder than it needs to be.”
“You mean, you’re passing everything else. I wouldn’t call As and Ps fine.”
Yundeok puffed out his cheeks and scowled, like some insolent child being refused candy. Yuseop felt a little bad, and gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder. Contrary to what a lot of people assumed, he knew that Yundeok wasn’t stupid. He just hadn’t been putting in the work, and it reflected in his yearly report cards. “Come on, Deok, get up. I’ll even help you study.”
“Right now?”
“Why not?” Yuseop shrugs, “We have some off time before dinner. Didn’t you say Vata gave you readings to finish tonight anyways?”
Yundeok pursed his lips and turned over onto his other side, pointing his back towards the two of them. At this point, Yuseop thought he was playing up the imprudent act a bit too much, but then Yundeok surprised him by flipping back around and sitting up straight, gathering the potions textbook into his arms.
With an utterly defeated look on his face, he sighed, “Fine. Let’s go.”