Chapter Text
Sometimes the anger inside of you is hard to hide when you look at them. It truly wasn’t their fault. They didn’t have an idea that you existed. Really there is only one person to blame among them. But even then, it was hard for you to stay mad at him when he flashed those pearly whites and gummy smile.
The smile of a fae was a weapon that you weren’t strong enough to deflect.
At least, not his.
Honestly, they were all beautiful. The most obvious creatures were the two werewolves that were constantly attached at the hip and the pale - almost blue – vampire. The only reason you knew the fae was a fae was because of the amount of childhood years that were wasted on him. Him leaving you for a “cooler” high school experience and eventually forgetting about you well into college.
Now was not the time to dwell on him though. Right now, you were already five minutes late to your potion class. One that was currently being blocked by the object of unwarranted hate.
You could do this. Just politely say excuse me and go through those doors.
Why were they even here? You were pretty sure that none of them took Potions, and you were even more sure that they weren’t in Potions Advanced III. This class was reserved for witches and warlocks. Unless one of them was but you had never seen them in any of your other classes curated towards witched and warlocks.
All you had to do was go up to them and ask them nicely to move.
Or you could go home. Whispered your familiar, Jinx. A black bunny that sat on your shoulder, invisible to others. One of his ears flopped over and the other was perked up.
“No, Jinx,” you mutter back, not wanting to give away your hiding spot from behind some lockers and a wall. “I need to turn this project in if I don’t Park Jimin-sunsaeng-nim is going to flip my shit. Literally.”
“What will I be doing y/n-hak-saeng?” you knew that voice. It was the same voice that belonged to Park Jimin, your world-renowned potions’ teacher that was behind you but, to be honest, the last thing you wanted to do was confirm it.
You very slowly and very carefully pivoted on your black boots to face the handsome devil that was your potions teacher.
“May I ask why my most troublesome hak-saeng is across the hall from a class they should be in right now?” he asked while crossing his arms. You quirk a small smile at him hoping that would trigger the little bit of sympathy that may be left in his body.
“I was running just a little bit late,” you used your index and thumb to emphasize a little bit, “NOT by choice I promise you. You see there is a group of people that I’d rather not associate with in front of the door.” You peek back over to see the group of boys that was there, gone. Jimin followed your vision and quirked a perfect eyebrow at you. His face very clearly said “What people?”
You cough to clear your throat and scurry to enter the classroom. Not before you heard Jimin mutter how he should admit you into the nearest mental hospital. You couldn’t help but agree.
In his defense this isn’t even the weirdest situation he has found you in. But that’s a story for another time.
Class ended without any explosions, which in your mind was a success, to others like Bambam that was a disappointing class. But nevertheless, you were innocently packing away your ingredient sheets into your tote when you looked up to find your professor in front of you. Waiting.
“Yes, Park Jimin-sunsaeng-nim?” you question.
“Can I ask you a very small, miniscule favor?” he had the most serious tone you’ve ever heard him speak with.
“Absolutely not.” Was your instant reply. “What is it?” was your second.
“You are undoubtedly my best student.”
“Correct.” you interrupt.
He sighs and continues, “I need you to tutor a couple of my most horrible students.”
“I’m not tutoring Bambam or his buddy Yugyeom. I’d rather be fed to Cerberus.”
“Good thing that my worst students are neither of those two.” He pauses and cringes. “Surprisingly.”
You finished shuffling your potion books into your tote and swing it over your shoulders. Jinx huffs and floats with his tiny bat wings while you shuffle your bag around to a more comfortable position.
“Listen, I can’t really tell you who exactly because confidentiality reasons, but I promise they are good people. They just need a bit of help and can cause a bit of trouble.” The last part is said quietly.
“Why can’t you get Rose or even Momo to tutor them. They are more suited for…” you trail off to find the right word. “People in general.”
“Trust me, I am well aware that you have very, very poor people skills.” He says plainly and waves in your generally direct as if that proved his point. You could only scoff at him. He wasn’t wrong but that didn’t make it hurt any less. “But you are more likely to focus on the task at hand than Rose and Momo.”
This caught your attention. From your understanding Rose and Momo were two very exceptional students. They not only excelled in Potions but also cursed magic and transformation magic. Those two were the most difficult to master and something that you refused to touch until after your history of cursed magic and Intro to Transforming classes were aced.
The fact that your professor was sincerely asking you and not those two was firing up the red flags in your brain. The wails of the damned were getting louder as warning signs flashed in your head.
“What does that mean?” you couldn’t help but to ask. There was no way you were going to agree without him explaining.
“Well, you are excellent in magic recognition. Something those two aren’t well trained in yet.” He explains.
“What does that even mean, Jimin-shii,” he gives you a warning look. You weren’t exactly in the mood to correct yourself.
“Meaning that you’ll be able to recognize when they are using their abilities to get out of a lesson.” He explains further.
“You want me to tutor a bunch of manipulative jerks that don’t have a care on whether they pass their classes or not?”
“Correct”
“No.”
“Payment is involved.”
“When?”
His Cheshire cat smile will forever haunt your dreams.
According to that witch of a professor (haha get it witch – he is a witch), tutoring would start next week after school hours and would continue until their grades were improving or until the end of the school semester. There will be four of them attending the sessions and they were of varying species. Jimin had warned you that each of them are from species known to manipulate and bend the magic world rules. He also told you to always stay on high alert because they have powerful origins.
If the pay wasn’t so appetizing, you wouldn’t have been so tempted by this job. But you were tight on cash at the moment, and you would rather not work at another potions shop this semester. If one more freshman asked for death’s flowers as if it was a common plant, you swear you were going to blow.
You were too busy chewing on your lip, on your way to the closest café on campus when the shift of magically energy in the air changed. You body instantly seized up and went into a slight panic mode. The first thought that came through your head was to run and hide. But a smaller voice that sounded a lot like Jinx told you that you were safe within these walls. It was more than likely to be a lesser magically being displaying a poor attempt of masculinity or superiority.
With a quick glance around the corner, your theory was right, but it only disgusted you more when you saw your ex-childhood friend leaning over a blushing Rose. You were more disappointed than surprised. Seeing Rose being trapped in a fae’s tricks was a bit disheartening to witness as you looked up to her in many ways. But you guess everyone has a weak point.
It wasn’t your problem though, you had the material Jimin gave you to go through over a cup of coffee and a lot of planning to, well, plan.
Once at the café, you internally groan upon seeing one of them working behind the counter. You had previously staked out this café to ensure that none of the people you wanted to the avoid were frequent visitors. Much less worked there. At least it was the youngest out of the group of men. Yang Jeongin.
You never could quite tell what he was. He wore a mask that covered his supernatural features and made him the closest thing a supernatural could look like to a human. The only reason that you knew he wasn’t a human was one, he was here. No human is allowed into the magic realm. They die. Instantly. Air is different or whatever. Two, you could practically see the powerful charm he used swirling around him.
That was what Park Jimin meant when he mentioned your skills in magic recognition. Your eyes had the very rare ability to identify magic. Even invisible magic. It usually visualizes itself as colorful swirls or a shift in air’s smell. Most of the time it gave you a headache.
You debated going up to the counter and ordering. Deciding that now it would be awkward if you didn’t because of how long you had been standing, you reluctantly make your way to the counter.
Yang Jeongin greets you with a small smile and crescent eyes. “What would you like to order?”
“Hot cocoa with oat milk and marshmellies.” You say robotically. This seemed to humor the boy behind the counter.
“Marshmellies?” he questions. You could feel the heat creep up from your neck to your ears and then to your cheeks.
But you never back down.
“Yes.” You state.
“Okay. What size?” he hits a few buttons on the screen.
“Medium.” You reply curtly wanting this to be over quickly.
“Can I have a name for the order?”
“Nope.” The answer slips out faster than you can think. He looks up from his screen in confusion. Living with faes for most of your life made you overly conscious of who you gave out your name to.
The boy looks like he wants to question further but you’re sure your deadpanned face stopped him.
“Okay then,” he taps the screen a few more times before reading off the total and switching the tablet to face you so you could pay. When you pay and still tip 20%, his cute face contorts in more confusion.
Cute huh? Jinx pops up. You mentally shoo him away along with that cute comment.
Yang Jeongin clears his throat and tells you your order number and that it’ll be ready in a few minutes.
You take refugee in a corner table and set up your station, already planning on settling here until they close at 1600. You only had 3 hours to figure out some sort of curriculum for the four people you’ll be tutoring for the next three months. Hopefully it’ll be over with sooner rather than later.
You were so absorbed in your work, you barely noticed the hot cup being placed in front of you until it is completely set down. You jerk your head up to see Yang Jeongin smiling softly down at you.
“I didn’t know what to call out, so I figured I’d just hand deliver it.” He explains simply. You thank him sheepishly and watch him gracefully walk back to the counter.
You take a tentative sip of the hot cocoa before noticing the writing on the cup. The word ‘marshmellies’ were elegantly written in cursive. It took everything in you not to crush the cup in your nimble hands. You took a glance at the man behind the counter, and you swore the outline of a fox tail was peeking out of the swirling magic.
Sly fox. You couldn’t have agreed with Jinx more.
The tutoring lessons were starting in less than a day and you were as prepared as you ever could be. Thankfully you weren’t self-loathing enough to schedule weekend classes, so you spent your weekend perfecting your materials and binge watching the latest episode of Witches Love.
When the clock hit 1900 you knew you had to get some food in your stomach. Otherwise, Jinx was going to start looking a little too good in a stew. You knew you couldn’t eat a full meal, so you opted to go to the nearest convenience store and buy something to snack on. The last of your pervious snacks had been torn into earlier that week when you were cramming as much of Mastering Ingredient Harvesting 101 into your tiny little brain.
Majoring in Potion making probably was not the easiest to accomplish but it was your dream, nonetheless.
Luckily, the convenience store was still in stock of all your favorite snacks. You had just put all your items on the counter when the door dinged to reveal three of them.
Why couldn’t you just catch a break?
You had never bumped into them so much until just a week ago when the incident in front of the door happened.
Now logically thinking, you could just pay for everything and go about your day. But evidently the brain-dead cashier had it out for you as they very, very, very slowly ringing everything up and placing them to the side.
The hairs on your neck tickled as you felt a presence behind you. It took everything in you to not look back and see which one of them was behind you.
When it came time to pay, you cursed at yourself for leaving your card at home and only having cash. You gave the worker a couple bills and took your bag of items – not caring that you gave him way too much.
“Wait!” a velvety voice calls out. “You forgot your change.”
You turn quickly on your heels to face none other than Bang Chan. A werewolf. A very powerful one at that. A super alpha if the smell and magical swirls were anything to go by. He and his younger friend were the only two shifters on campus unafraid to let out their true forms. Said friend was standing right behind him. Lee Felix. Both are from a pack that resides in Australia. At least that is what you heard from the gossip that lined the halls on campus.
Not wanting to embarrass yourself further, you were quick to snatch your change from the hand Chan was offering. You didn’t care to be polite, and it was noticeable to the alpha. If you were to guess, the blatant rude act probably flared up his alpha instincts. But you weren’t a werewolf nor were you in his pack.
You were so close. So, so close to making it out when another, tall figure bumped into yours. Yelling out a “Hyung, I found the juice!” You had physically push him away from you. Admittedly a bit harshly, but his smell was the one you could stand the least. The smell of the underworld. Frustrated and honestly just exhausted, you push your way out of the store and book it back to your dorm not even giving an apology or chance to apologize.
Finally making it home, you didn’t even bother with eating your snacks anymore and just changed into your nightwear. You flopped onto your bed and let Jinx cuddle up against your head. You silently wished for tomorrow to never come.