”It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love.” – Horace Slughorn

Part 1: Why You Should Never Accept a Potion from Na Baekjin

The rumor started in the Great Hall before the morning toast had even hit the tables.

Nobody knew the exact details of how or why it happened, but word spread like wildfire that Seongje had been rushed to the hospital wing just before dawn. He’d been released soon after... not because he was cured, but because Nurse Abbott had dryly informed him that only time would wear off whatever he’d swallowed.

The prevailing theory across the house tables was that Na Baekjin was to blame. As Seongje's best friend and Slytherin’s most talented potion-maker, Baekjin had allegedly been experimenting in the dungeons late into the night. Whispers claimed he was trying to brew Amortentia... or something frighteningly close to it... intending to trick Park Humin into drinking it. Everyone knew Baekjin had been hopelessly, quietly obsessed with the loud Gryffindor Beater for years, a complete mess considering Baku only had eyes for Gotak.

Somewhere along the line, the story went, Seongje had drank the potion.

By eight in the morning, Keum Seongje was roaming the corridors, completely unhinged.

Ahn Suho and Yeon Sieun were in the middle of a debate over the usefullness of Pearl Dust near the library corridor when the heavy wooden doors swung open with enough force to rattle the hinges. Seongje stood in the threshold, hair slightly disheveled, tie hanging completely undone around his neck.

He didn't draw a wand. He didn't sneer. He walked straight up to Suho, grabbed him by the front of his robes, and leaned down until they were nose-to-nose.

"Where is he?" Seongje demanded. His voice lacked its usual sharp, mocking edge; instead, it was dead serious and terrifyingly earnest.

Suho blinked, his mind trying to reconcile his cousin’s sudden physical proximity with the lack of active jinxes. "Where is who? Seongje, get off me!"

"My Jun," Seongje snapped, his dark eyes wide and fixed. "The one who smells like caramel and writes his notes like a spider had a seizure. Where did you hide him?"

Sieun froze mid-step, his hand hovering in the air. He exchanged a bewildered glance with Suho, whose hands were still awkwardly hovering near Seongje’s wrists.

"Are you... talking about Juntae?" Sieun asked carefully.

Seongje turned his gaze to Sieun, his expression darkening with intense frustration. "Of course I'm talking about Juntae! Who else? Do you think I'm running around this godforsaken castle looking for you muggle? He isn't at the Great Hall. He isn't in the library! Where the fuck is he?"

"He's not with us," Suho managed, slowly peeling Seongje’s fingers off his collar. "Seongje, are you drunk? Or did you... drink something weird today?"

"I drank whatever experimental vial Baekjin gave me," Seongje growled, stepping back and running a hand through his hair. "I only agreed to take it in exchange for him giving me a rare powdered boomslang skin, which, by the way, I needed for Juntae’s assignment because the adorable idiot failed his last test. And now I'm wasting time talking to a blood-traitor cousin and a featherweight know-it-all when I could be holding Juntae’s hand. Unbefuckinglievable."

He turned on his heel and strode off, his robes billowing behind him, leaving Suho and Sieun staring at each other in absolute, stunned silence.

"Did he just say..." Suho started.

"Holding his hand... and that Juntae is adorable," Sieun confirmed, his face unreadable. "Yes. He did."

Part 2: In Which No Corridor Is Safe from a Desperate Slytherin

By noon, the castle was buzzing with reports of Seongje’s erratic behavior. The consensus across all four house tables was clear: Keum Seongje had consumed an experimental potion and it had completely unhinged his mind.

Before he had even made it past the grand staircase, he had already terrorized half the first years. A huddle of tiny Hufflepuff had made the fatal mistake of blocking a narrow corridor while trying to decipher the moving stairs; Seongje had simply grabbed the tallest one by the back of his robes, lifted him onto a stone ledge, and barked, "Have any of you miniature specters seen a Gryffindor named Juntae?" The trembling children had scattered like startled gnomes, two of them leaving their copper cauldrons rolling uselessly across the flagstones.


Ten minutes later, he had cornered a pair of Ravenclaw in the Charms hallway, snatching a freshly written parchment right out of a girl's hands, scanning it frantically for Juntae’s name, and, upon finding only an essay on Swelling Charms, shoving it back into her chest with a furious, "Useless! Absolutely fucking useless!"

By the time he reached the courtyard, whispers were flying through the halls that the Slytherin prodigy had lost his mind entirely, marching through the school like a man possessed, demanding tribute in the form of one specific, brown-eyed Gryffindor.

Park Humin and Go Hyeontak were coming up from the Quidditch pitch, broomsticks slung over their shoulders, when Seongje cornered them by the courtyard fountain.

"You," Seongje pointed a long finger at Baku.

Baku immediately dropped his broomstick, snatching his wand from his belt and squaring his shoulders. "You want to go, Keum? Right here?"

Seongje didn't even bother drawing his wand. Instead, he closed the distance in three sharp strides, stepping so close their noses almost brushed, dark eyes burning with absolute, frantic irritation.

"Shut the fuck up you moron! Where is he?" Seongje growled, his voice dropping into a dangerous, clipped edge. "Did he come down here to watch your fucking pathetic flying skills? Is he still in the field?"

Gotak immediately stepped in between them, digging his elbow into Seongje’s chest to shove him back. "Move, Seongje! Who are you even talking about?"

"Juntae!" Seongje shouted at the sky, throwing his arms up as if appealing to a higher power for patience. "The only person in this godforsaken castle worth looking at! I haven't seen his stupid, pretty face all day! I missed our morning argument! I haven't gotten to ruin his lunch by making him blush until his ears turn red! Do you have any idea what that does to my mind?!"

Gotak stopped shoving. Baku’s mouth fell open, his arms dropping to his sides.

"You... what?" Baku stammered, his wand arm dropping uselessly to his side as his mouth hung open.

"He's soft, and kind, and naive, and stupid, and bloody amazing, and his face is the prettiest thing in this miserable school," Seongje spat out without a single breath, pacing back and forth in front of them like a caged predator, completely heedless of the open courtyard where three second-years had stopped dead in their tracks to listen. "He's too good for this world, and you bunch of useless Gryffindors just let him wander around without me to protect him! If he’s fallen off a stairwell because he had his head in the clouds again, I am going to hold both of you personally fucking responsible!"

Seongje glared at them one last time, spat onto the cold flagstones, and marched toward the dungeon stairs, his black robes snapping behind him.

Gotak stood frozen for a long moment before slowly turning his head to look at Baku. "Tell me your ears are playing tricks on you, too."

"I think..." Baku rubbed his eyes, thoroughly shaken, his chest heaving. "I think Keum just called Juntae bloody amazing and said his face is the prettiest."

He paused, a sudden, indignant scowl sweeping over his face as the words finally registered. Baku shook his head violently, pointing a thumb at the boy beside him. "Which is completely wrong, by the way! Juntae is cute but you are the prettiest, Gogo!"

Gotak froze mid-step, the color rushing to his face so fast his ears turned bright crimson. "Baku, what the fuck? Shut up!" he hissed, his voice cracking slightly as he yanked his broomstick higher onto his shoulder and spun around, striding toward the castle as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Hey! Wait up! I'm just telling the truth!" Baku shouted after him, completely oblivious to Gotak’s burning face as he jogged to catch up.

Two hours later, near the Greenhouses, Seongje struck again. Sieun was walking with Juyang and Gayool, discussing their upcoming Astronomy paper, when Seongje appeared out of the shadows of the archway.

He ignored Sieun and Gayool entirely, stepping directly into Juyang’s space.

"You," Seongje hissed, his voice lethal and unhinged. "You ugly, loudmouth, freckled weakling."

Juyang raised an eyebrow, completely unfazed. "Can I help you, Keum?"


"Have you seen Juntae?" Seongje demanded, stepping directly into Juyang’s personal space, his eyes wide and dark. "And while we're on the topic, stop putting your fucking hand over his shoulder! Are you fucking disabled? Can you not walk without leaning on him like a goddamn crutch? If I see you touching him again, I will hex you and your entire bloodline into the next century!"

Gayool raised an eyebrow, shifting the weight of the heavy Herbology text under his arm. Sieun just pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling a long, agonizingly slow breath.

"Seongje," Sieun said, his voice calm, like the tone of a teacher attempting to reason with a toddler in the middle of a full-blown tantrum. "Juntae isn't here. Juyang has been with us since right after lunch, and none of us have seen him all day."

Seongje glared at Juyang for three more agonizing, suffocating seconds, threw his hands up in utter disgust, and turned on his heel. He stormed off down the corridor, muttering loudly to himself, "Waste of my fucking time. Entire day wasted. I could have kissed him six times by now."

"Okay," Gayool whispered, watching Seongje's retreating robes with wide, bewildered eyes. "The Amortentia rumor is definitely true. Though, Juyang... didn't you say Juntae told you where he was going earlier?"

Juyang smirked, crossing his arms as he watched the Slytherin turn the corner. "Well, yeah. I know exactly where he is. But let that Slytherin shit lose his mind looking for him. It's hilarious."

By dusk, Seongje was exhausted, furious, and still completely empty-handed. He cornered Suho, Gotak, and Jin Taeoh right at the foot of the spiraling stairs leading up to the Owlery.

"Where is he?!" Seongje demanded, his voice cracking into a raw, desperate shriek. He lunged forward, grabbing Taeoh by the front of his fine robes and yanking him down until they were nose-to-nose. "Taeoh! You tell me! I know you motherfuckers have been hiding him from me all day! Tell me! Please! I am fucking begging you, just tell me where he is! I feel like I can't breathe!"

Taeoh, thoroughly bewildered and genuinely alarmed by the complete collapse of Seongje’s usual untouchable pride, carefully pried Seongje's trembling fingers off his chest. "Seongje, mate... are you alright? You look like you're having an actual breakdown."

"I am having a fucking breakdown!" Seongje yelled, backing away and pacing back and forth across the stone steps like a rabid animal. "I've searched the entire goddamn castle! The library! The pitch! The dungeons! I haven't seen Juntae in ten hours! I haven't heard him laugh! I haven't gotten to smell him! What is the bloody point of being a fucking gifted wizard if I can't even find one small, brown-eyed Gryffindor?!"

He spun on his heel and stomped off toward the Gryffindor tower, his dark robes snapping through the air as he left Taeoh, Suho, and Gotak standing in stunned, ringing silence.

"He's completely lost it," Gotak said quietly, staring after Seongje's retreating figure. "Whatever was in that vial fried his brain."

"No," Suho sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in deep, bone-weary exhaustion. "I think my cousin's brain was already like that. The potion just stripped away his filter, and now he has zero shame about showing the entire castle how fucking insane he actually is."

"Well, yeah, he's a total lunatic," Taeoh said, exhaling a breathless whistle. "Our families have been close since we were kids, so we spent a lot of time together growing up. I remember him hexing anyone who dared to stare at him for more than three seconds. But trust me, I have never seen him lose his shit like this. Did you hear him beg?"

Gotak let out an incredulous laugh. "Baku said a few students heard Seongje begging the headmaster to tell him where Juntae is. He was also terrorizing people at the library, basically trying to force them to conjure Juntae out of thin air. The teachers said he's harmless for now and to just let him roam, but I have a feeling if he doesn't see Juntae soon, he's going to become the next goddamn Voldemort."

Part 3: In Which Even the Paintings Desperately Wanted to Look Away

It was nearly eight at night when Seongje finally collapsed onto the stone bench opposite the portrait of the Fat Lady. He sat there, head in his hands, dark hair falling over his face, looking entirely defeated.

A small crowd of Gryffindors, namely: Suho, Sieun, Baku, Gotak, Gayool, Juyang and Taeoh, had gathered a discreet distance down the hallway, watching him behind a statue of a bowman.

"Should we tell him to leave?" Baku whispered. "He's creeping out the portraits."

"You go tell him," Gotak muttered back. "He'll probably try to bite your whole face off."

Before anyone could move, footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor.

Seongje’s head snapped up instantly.

Walking down the hall, looking tired, windswept, and utterly happy, was Seo Juntae. His hair was filled with bits of straw, his cheeks were flushed, and his sleeve was slightly torn.

Seongje was on his feet in a second, closing the distance between them with frantic strides.

"Where the fuck were you?!" Seongje roared, stopping inches from Juntae.

Juntae blinked, startled, then smiled softly. "Oh! Seongjeyah. I've been looking for… well, actually, I was down at the gamekeeper's place all day. One of the Kneazles had babies, and he let me hold them, but then I sat down in the hay and... I kind of fell asleep. I miss all my classes. I might end up with detention!" He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Did you need something?"

Seongje stared at him. For ten long seconds, he just stared at the stray piece of straw sticking out of Juntae’s hair, the warm brown of his eyes, and the easy, gentle smile on his lips.

All the tension, rage, and desperation drained out of Seongje in an instant, replaced by a raw, naked honesty that made the spectators behind the statue gasp.

"I spent the entire day looking for you," Seongje said. His voice was lower now, thick with an emotion he had spent six years trying to bury. "I threatened half of the school and also probably called your friends idiot a hundred times. I nearly set the library on fire because you weren't in it."

Juntae’s smile faltered, replaced by genuine confusion. "Seongje... what? What happened?"

Seongje reached out, his long fingers threading carefully through dark strands to pull a piece of stray straw from Juntae’s hair. He didn't drop his hand. Instead, his thumb brushed gently across the high curve of Juntae’s cheekbone.

"Because I love you, you complete idiot," Seongje said softly, his voice clear and devoid of a single trace of hesitation. "I wanted so badly to tell you that I love your stupid brown eyes. I love the way you smell like caramel. And I am so damn angry that I was born as who I am… that I feel like I can't stand beside you."

Juntae froze, the air catching in his throat. A brilliant, deep pink flushed across his face, spreading all the way to the tips of his ears. "Seongje... w-what? I'm so confused. What?"

"It's okay. You don't have to say anything," Seongje interrupted, leaning in close. "I just had to tell you. All day, it's felt like my chest was going to burst if I kept it in."

He cupped the back of Juntae’s neck and pulled him into a kiss.

It wasn't their first. Their first had been up in the Astronomy Tower, and Seongje had been stealing quiet, greedy moments ever since. But this wasn't just experimental, or playful, or hungry, or hesitant, or possessive. It was deep, desperate, and aching... the exact kind of kiss given by someone who had spent ten hours looking for the love of his life. The kind of kiss made by a person who truly believed they didn't deserve the other.

Juntae squeaked softly against Seongje’s mouth, but within seconds, his hands melted upward, gripping the lapels of Seongje’s robes to pull him closer.

Behind the nearby statue, absolute, agonizing chaos unfolded in dead silence. Baku’s jaw was wide open, his eyes bulging so far out of his skull he looked like a toad. Gotak dragged both hands violently down his face, groaning a silent prayer to whatever deity was listening to strike him blind, while Suho stood frozen, his brain completely short-circuiting as he tried to process his cousin’s total, shameless lack of self-control.

Even the portrait of the Fat Lady looked utterly scandalized. She dramatically threw her silk fan over her eyes, shielding her view with a outraged gasp. "Oh, the absolute indecency! Right on my doorstep!" she hissed loudly to a painted knight in the adjacent frame, who was currently covering his armored face in pure, secondhand embarrassment.

Juyang, meanwhile, peeked around the bowman statue's hip, a wicked, delighted smirk spreading across his face as he took a slow bite of a stolen apple. "Ten galleons says Keum starts stripping him right here. Wait… oh god," he whispered, suddenly wincing as the thought actually landed. "I cannot watch my best bud get unclothed in a hallway."

Gayool immediately slapped a hand over Juyang’s mouth with a muffled smack, his own face burning a furious, bright red as he tried to physically shove them both deeper into the shadows. "Shut up," Gayool rasped through gritted teeth, looking like he desperately wanted to cast a Obliviate on his own brain. "If he hears us, he’s going to murder us."

When Seongje finally pulled back, he rested his forehead against Juntae’s. "Goodnight, Jun," he murmured, his voice softer than any of them had ever heard it.

Without waiting for a reply, Seongje turned and started down the corridor.

Juntae lunged forward, his fingers tightening around Seongje’s arm to pull him back. "I don't like it," Juntae breathed, his voice trembling as he looked up into Seongje's eyes. "I don't like that kiss. It felt so sad... like you were giving me a final goodbye. I don't want you walking away like this, and I definitely don't want you waking up tomorrow angry at yourself, regretting every single word you just said."

"Should I just be fucking selfish, then?" Seongje demanded, his voice dropping into a harsh whisper. "Should I just do whatever the fuck I want with you, and damn my family, your family, your friends, and everyone else?"

He squeezed Juntae's wrist, his grip tight enough to anchor them both in the cold night air, though his dark eyes burned with a helpless, bitter fury.

"You don't get it, Jun. If I stop caring… if I stop holding back, if I just love you and tell the rest of the world to go to hell? It's not me who pays the price. It's you." Seongje took a step closer, towering over him, his breath misting between them. "Do you have any idea what name I carry? What blood runs in my veins? The Keum line isn't just pureblood; it's rotten to the core. They're greedy, selfish, and ruthless. My father, my uncles… they would look at you, a muggle-born, and call you a mudblood before they even learned your name. To them, you're lower than a house-elf. You're less than an animal."

Seongje's throat worked as he swallowed down the dark, suffocating truth he had buried for six years.

"If they ever realized how much you mean to me, if they saw how easily you pull me apart, they wouldn't just disapprove," Seongje rasped, his thumb running over Juntae’s knuckles in a desperate, fleeting touch. "They would destroy you just to teach me a lesson. They would make your life a living nightmare, and I wouldn't be able to stop it. So yeah, that kiss felt like a goodbye. Because being near you, touching you like this... it’s putting a target on your back. And as much as I want to keep you, I can't be the reason you get destroyed."

"I just want... I just want you, Seongje. I only want you," Juntae choked out, tears welling up in his brown eyes as he tightened his grip on Seongje's robes, refusing to pull away. "I don't care about your bloodline. I don't care about your family. I just want you."

"You want me?" Seongje cut in, stepping directly into his space until there wasn't a breath of air left between them, his voice raw, trembling, and utterly wrecked. "Is it the way I want you? Do you have any idea how much I fucking want you? How many nights I've spent lying awake in my bed wanting you?"

Behind the bowman statue, Baku audibly gagged into his elbow. "Oh god, make it stop," he wheezed in a frantic whisper. "He's so… sadly cringe. Suho, gouge my ears out."

"Shut up! They're going to hear you!" Gotak hissed, violently slapping a hand over Baku’s mouth while Suho buried his face in his hands, silently praying for the castle floor to open up and swallow them all whole.

"I... I lo—"

"Don't say it," Seongje warned, his dark eyes wide and wild with a terrifying mixture of desperation and love. He cupped Juntae's jaw, his fingers shaking against his skin. "If you say it, Jun... I will damn everything. I'll burn my family's name to the ground, I'll fight the whole world, and I will damn even you. You'll never get rid of me. I won't ever let you go."

Juntae held his gaze, his voice steady despite the tears spilling over his eyelashes. "I love you."

"Fuck," Seongje swore softly under his breath, his forehead dropping against Juntae's as a ragged exhale tore from his chest. "Fuck. There's no going back now, Seo Juntae."

Seongje pulled him in and kissed him again… this time without an ounce of restraint, with zero intention of ever letting Juntae go.

Down the hall, the Fat Lady's portrait let out a scandalized, high-pitched squeak, dramatically flipping her silk fan up to cover her eyes. "Have you boys no decorum?!" she shrilled, though she quite blatantly peeked through the lace trim of her fan anyway.

When Seongje finally broke away to say goodnight, it came with the absolute guarantee that their world had changed forever. He turned on his heel, floating down the corridor toward the dungeons with the satisfied smirk of a man who had just conquered the entire world.

Juntae stood outside the portrait hole for a full minute, fingertips tracing his swollen lips, his face burning like a Lumos spell gone wrong.

He glanced sideways toward the statue of the bowman, noticing a few couple of shoes sticking out awkwardly from the shadows.

"I know you guys were watching," Juntae muttered, his face flushing an even deeper shade of scarlet.

A collective, panicked scramble echoed behind the statue before Sieun poked his head out, offering a small, thoroughly unconvincing smile. "We're sorry, Juntae. We... couldn't really hear much!"

Beside him, Suho leaned his head back against the cold stone with a hollow, shell-shocked stare, muttering under his breath, "I heard enough. I feel like someone was casting Crucio directly on my brain."

Juntae squeaked, unable to take another second of it, and hastily scrambled through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room.

Behind the statue, the hidden group remained utterly frozen, the echoes of Seongje’s desperate, raw confession still hanging heavy in the stone corridor.

"So..." Baku said slowly, his voice barely a squeak as he turned his head toward Suho. "Amortentia fades, right? We don't actually have to put up with that fucker for the rest of our lives... right?"

Gayool closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the stone, and let out a long, suffering sigh. "God, I hope so."

"It doesn't matter what potion he drank," Gotak muttered, his usual sharp demeanor completely shattered as he stared at the quiet space where Seongje and Juntae were holding onto each other. "I mean, I hate Keum's guts. I wanted to punch his teeth down his throat three hours ago. But hearing him talk about his own family like that... Christ."

Taeoh let out a low, breathy exhale, leaning heavily against the plinth of the bowman statue. "You guys don't get how fucked up this actually is. Seongje and I come from houses where you don't 'fall in love.' You make alliances. You preserve the blood. You sure as hell don't fall for a Muggle-born Gryffindor who smells like caramel and spends his whole day holding Kneazle kittens."

"So he's been... what? Suffering this whole time?" Baku asked, his brows furrowed in genuine, uneasy confusion. "Just hiding it behind being an arrogant bastard?"

Suho stood quietly, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, his jaw tight. "He can’t help being an arrogant bastard. That’s how he was raised." Suho said, his voice dropping into a solemn, heavy register.

The group turned to look at him. A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the hallway.

"Damn," Baku whispered, rubbing the back of his neck. "That's... heavy. Now I feel kind of bad for wanting to kick him down the stairs."

"Don't feel too bad," Juyang chimed in from the back, crossing his arms with a crooked grin. "Pureblood tragedy or not, the guy is still psychotic."

Baku shifted uncomfortably, staring down the empty corridor where Seongje had just vanished toward the dungeons and Juntae had slipped through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room. "But I mean... he doesn't actually love Juntae, right? It's just the Amortentia talking."

Gotak leaned back against the stone wall, crossing his arms as his eyes lingered on the heavy wooden portrait door. "Well... maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I will be requesting for memory charm because goddamn, this is a lot."

Part 4: The Undeniable Truth and the Collective Groan at the Gryffindor Table

The next morning, the Great Hall was unnervingly quiet. Seongje sat at the Slytherin table, casually sipping black coffee with an expression of serene satisfaction, looking like a man who hadn't spent the previous day terrorizing half the castle. He was entirely unbothered by the dozens of eyes fixed on him. Across the room at the Gryffindor table, Juntae was doing a miserable job of hiding his scarlet face behind a folded copy of The Daily Prophet.

Near the staff table, the Gryffindor group of friends, minus Juntae were chatting with the kind gamekeeper when they happened to overhear Professor Bones speaking animatedly to Professor Longbottom by the side entrance.

"...an absolute disaster yesterday, Thaddeus!" Professor Bones declared, waving his arms around dramatically. "That experimental potion wasn't derived from Amortentia at all!"

Suho stopped mid-sentence, his eyes narrowing instantly. Baku paused right beside him, holding a pumpkin pasty halfway to his mouth.

"Not Amortentia, Julian?" Professor Longbottom asked, tilting his head with an amused eyebrow raised.

"No, no! It was a completely unrefined draft of Liquid Courage!" Professor Bones huffed, shaking his head in exasperation. "Harmless, mostly! But it entirely strips away a wizard's inhibitions and fear of rejection for roughly twenty-four hours! Anyone who drank it would feel compelled to act on their deepest, most hidden desires with absolute, shameless honesty!"

The boys stood entirely frozen as the words settled into the air.

Suho slowly turned his head toward Sieun, his jaw slightly slackened as the terrifying truth fully registered.

Abandoning the gamekeeper, the group sprinted back to the Gryffindor table, practically sliding into their seats around Juntae. They immediately launched into a hushed, chaotic huddle, completely unconcerned that Juntae was sitting right there within earshot.

"Wait, so the potion wasn't a love potion?!" Gayool whispered frantically, leaning across the table.

"What do they mean, Liquid Courage?" Juyang asked, scratching his head. "Like Felix Felicis?"

Baku suddenly squinted at Gotak, Sieun, and Taeoh. "Hold on. Why do you three look like you're not even remotely shocked by this?"

Gotak took a slow sip of his orange juice and shrugged. "I had a feeling. Baekjin might be a menace, but he'd never brew actual Amortentia. He'd never settle for manufactured feelings...especially not from, well you know. He probably just wanted some courage."

"And scientifically speaking," Sieun chimed in, his tone infuriatingly clinical as he buttered his toast, "Amortentia or other type of love potion doesn't even work the way Seongje was acting yesterday. He hadn't seen Juntae all morning, yet every single instinct he had was directed toward him. If it were a love potion, Seongje would have been hopelessly chasing Baekjin, considering Baekjin was the one right in front of him when he drank it."

"Plus," Taeoh added with a breathy laugh, shaking his head as he looked around at the group, "Keum Seongje would never knowingly swallow a potion that forces him to feel emotions like love. He'd view that as absolute weakness. But a potion for courage? He would have taken that without a single worry, expecting it to just be some physical boost. Besides... you all heard him last night outside the tower. That was definitely not a love potion talking."

Silence fell over the table. One by one, every single one of them turned to stare across the Great Hall toward the Slytherin table.

The realization hit them like a rogue Bludger.

The potion hadn't created a single fake emotion. It hadn't forced Seongje to be obsessed. It hadn't planted thoughts in his head that weren't already buried deep inside him.

It had simply ripped away his pride, his arrogance, and the heavy weight of his family's history... leaving behind only the absolute, undeniable, unhinged truth of how he had felt about Seo Juntae all along.

Right on cue, Seongje caught them looking. With absolute, shameless arrogance, he slowly winked across the hall directly at Juntae, who had just peeked over the top of his newspaper.

"Well," Baku groaned, burying his face in his hands in deep, agonizing defeat. "We're never getting rid of him now, are we?"

Juntae slowly lowered The Daily Prophet, folding it into a neat, precise square. A brilliant, glowing blush still coated his cheekbones all the way to his ears, but a small, quietly triumphant smirk touched the corner of his lips.

"No," Juntae said softly, casually reaching for the jar of caramel sauce to pour over his waffle. "He's not going anywhere. Ever. I won't let him."