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“Now class, for today’s lesson I will introduce you to one of the most powerful potions that ever existed,” Professor Slughorn announces as he tugs on the black cloth that previously covered the cauldron, revealing a pink potion with a mother-of-pearl sheen and spiraling steam inside.
The sixth-year students simultaneously murmur in awe. For some, it's because they know exactly what potion they have in front of them, and realize what a powerful tool the potion can become. And for some, it’s simply because the potion looks so pretty and smells so nice, exactly the kind of smell everyone would like, for it indeed smells different to each person, according to what attracts them.
“Amortentia!” Professor Slughorn shouts proudly. “Before I teach you how to brew this lovely yet deadly potion, I want some of you to come to the front and describe any scent that you could smell from the potion.”
Ample of hands are raised to the air, showing how excited the students currently are, but Kim Sunoo could not care less.
“You don’t wanna try?” another Slytherin sitting beside him, Nishimura Riki, nudges him in the arms.
“Nah, I’m good. Not that interested. I’ll just try it later after I finish brewing mine.”
“If only you succeed in making one,” teases the younger as he raises his hands following the other students.
Sunoo kicks Riki right in his shin and the taller groans in silence. “Says you,” he sticks out his tongue in a mocking manner before continuing, “Remember that both of us got Ds for Potion class last year.”
“How can I forget that, when Professor Snape made us sit with Gryffindor’s smart-ass prefect during our eight weeks of summer holiday!”
Riki’s words send Sunoo back to the summer holiday they had back in their fifth-year. The supposed to be nine weeks long of holiday turned to be eight weeks of nightmare and a week of finally catching their breath back after such long terrors. The scariest part of the nightmare was not even the lessons they had to catch up on, but the tutor that Professor Snape picked for them.
“Such a fortune that he doesn’t teach sixth-years this year. I can’t imagine if he keeps making Yang Jungwon tutor us,” Sunoo has his head in his palms right now, clearly unamused by the memories.
“Thank you Miss Baek, such an intriguing combination of scent did you smell just now.” Professor Slughorn lets Baek Jiheon, a Hufflepuff cutie, go back to her seat before finding his next target. “Okay, now I’ll have a red robes. Yang Jungwon, come here!”
Speaking of the devil.
“Shit,” Sunoo and Riki mumble simultaneously as they immediately look at one another.
The Gryffindor stands up confidently and approaches Professor Slughorn with a wide grin on his face. He leans closer toward the cauldron when the teacher finally tells him to start describing the scents he smells upon sniffing the Amortentia.
In a few seconds, the red robes’ expression turns serious as he tries his best to define the scents with words. He starts with, “I can smell something citrusy, like lemon, which reminds me of summer and also someone’s fresh smell after bathing.”
A sudden heat creeps up Sunoo’s nape. He does not like how far the prefect will go with this, because Sunoo uses a perfume of lemon fragrance every time he finishes taking a bath. And the fact that Jungwon mentioned exactly that is kind of creepy.
“And then a smell of pine forest with earthy undertones, something that the Slytherin common room would smell like,” Jungwon continues.
“You are not even a Slytherin! How would you know?” a Gryffindor boy sitting by the window asks.
“Must be because his long-time crush is from Slytherin! Wooo~” another red robes sitting behind Sunoo and Riki wooes in a teasing manner.
Oh, Sunoo knows well who the subject of the teasing is. “Gryffindors are dumb-asses,” he grumbles.
Watching his friend’s face suddenly turned red, Riki leans in closer to Sunoo’s ear and whisper, “Seems like he is really coming after you.”
“And you are as dumb as them, Riki. Stop it, you know I don’t like him!” The older Slytherin whines as he slaps the younger’s shoulder rapidly. And no, Sunoo must convince himself that he is not turning even redder after hearing Riki’s comment.
“Class, silence okay? Mr. Yang still has not finished describing the scents he smells. Now shall we continue?” Professor Slughorn wisely calms the class down and asks Jungwon to proceed with his last description.
Jungwon nods obediently. “And lastly, I smell something cool yet warm, salivating-inducing aroma with super sweet undertones,” he pauses for the dramatic effect before continuing, “It’s mint chocolate, my favorite person’s favorite dessert.”
And with that statement, the whole class boos.
“That’s basically a love confession! Just say yes, Kim Sunoo!” Now even a boy from Slytherin also joins the parade to embarrass him even more.
If he was allowed to use the time-turner necklace that Professor Dumbledore has in his room, Sunoo would run and grab it right away, turning the hour-glass shaped feature for God know how many, as long as he can skips the time where Yang Jungwon keep coming after him and make silly flirts or confessions towards him like what he is currently doing.
Professor Slughorns is now tapping his hand on the table non-stop, trying another method to stop his students’ shenanigans before they completely mess up the class. “There’s nothing wrong with confessing your feelings. Amorentia can indeed help someone recognizing love, but can also ruin them if being used unwisely.”
Jungwon’s pale face gradually turns pink before Professor Slughorn allows him to sit back.
Sunoo can’t help but notice that, so he turns to Riki and asks, “Does he really like me though?”
“He has been declaring it since the third-year, keeps flirting with you every single chance he has, yet you still wonder if his feelings for you are real or not?” Riki deadpans.
Well, Sunoo actually knows the answer to Riki’s rhetorical question.
***
Sunoo and Jungwon were childhood friends. They lived in the same village back then before being admitted to Hogwarts. The older boy remembers that Jungwon only lived with his grandmother because his parents were too busy working as Aurors. Jungwon was always a smart and brave kid even from a very young age, and Sunoo envied him for that.
There were indeed times where they played along with one another, as well as with other kids in the neighborhood. But to say that they were close friends is overstated.
Literally only kids from the same hometown, Sunoo would say whenever people from Hogwarts asked what their relationship was.
They weren’t that close to begin with, and after being sorted to different houses in their first-year, they grew even more apart. Especially after learning that their houses are rivals to each other.
After so many decades, not many students care about the rivalry going on between Gryffindor and Slytherin. However, Sunoo still does, thanks to a boy from Gryffindor that was able to break his sister's heart five years ago.
Sorted to the same house as him, his sister was also a Slytherin that unfortunately fell in love with a stupid Gryffindor. Not even a year after the two dated each other, the red robes boy cheated on her which caused her a massive heart break. The heartbreak led the older Kim sibling to a suicide attempt.
As one of the smartest students Hogwarts ever had, she was able to curse herself with one of the deadly spells. Sunoo does not know whether he should consider her sister surviving as fortunate or unfortunate. Because even though the doctors still declare her alive after receiving her own curse, yet she is barely able to do anything for the rest of her life.
Sunoo, who was only a first-year student, I remember the tragedy so well. From the moment Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomrey found her rigid body in one of the Room of Requirement in the third floor, brought her to the Hospital Wings, to the scene where their parents came to Hogwarts upon being called by the headmaster and her mother bawling her eyes out for three days straight after finding her daughter’s condition.
After knowing the reason behind her suicide attempt, at those very moment, Sunoo promise to never get close to a Gryffindor, let alone one of them steal his heart.
Unfortunately, even until now, he has to live in Hogwarts surrounded by a lot of Gryffindors that he hated so much. Especially, annoying short one that keeps following after him even after so many rejection.
Like now.
“Sunoo wait,” Jungwon calls for him right after he bids a goodbye to Riki.
Sighing loudly, Sunoo tries his best to compose himself before facing the Gryffindor. “Will you ever stop? Like how many times already did I tell you to stop embarrassing me in front of others?”
“I didn’t mean to–”
“Yeah, but you did anyway. Didn’t I make it clear already that I will never like you?”
“You did, for like seven times.”
Sunoo catches as many breaths as he can, because talking to Yang Jungwon sure requires him a lot of patience. “Then won’t you stop? Don’t you understand?”
“Yes, I don’t understand. Why don't you like me that much? Just because I am a Gryffindor?”
Sunoo wants to argue. It indeed sounds so unfair for the younger if he hates Jungwon just because he is a Gryffindor. But if you ask Sunoo to answer honestly, he would not be able to find other reasons to dislike the prefect, because the prefect is indeed almost perfect.
A smart grade-A student, a skillful seeker of Gryffindor quidditch team, a super friendly classmate, a not-so-strict prefect especially when it comes to Sunoo. What is there to hate about him?
But Sunoo just hates him. Or his logic tells him that he is supposed to hate him.
“Yes, because you are Gryffindor. And because you are so nosy, keep tailing me here and there as if you were charmed by an Amortentia. Those are already enough reasons to dislike you though!” Sunoo runs toward the Slytherin’s dorm leaving Jungwon alone.
Just another day, another rejection. But it is not Yang Jungwon if he can not handle rejection well. He has been receiving that for years, yet not even a mere second he ever thinks that he should give up about Kim Sunoo.
***
During the weekend, Riki drags Sunoo to the Hogsmeade with him. “Come on, I need to get some items at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes!”
The store is filled with younger students when the two Slytherins enter.
As Riki goes to the second floor to get the item he is currently looking for, Sunoo lurks near the cashier counter instead. Not far from the counter, there is a display table filled with pink heart-shaped bottles with a written sign flying above the table. 'Amortentia on Sale!' with a bad hand-writing is carved on the sign.
Absentmindedly, he moves toward the table and tooks a sample bottle. He is supposed to wait for five more days before he is able to sniff the Amortentia that he brewed himself. But curiosity took most of his mind. He opens the cover lid and puts it in front of his nose.
A nice smell of after rain taste, a petrichor, starts to fill in. Then followed by a smell of old, rusty parchment. And lastly a familiar scent of–
Sunoo abruptly closes the lid and puts the sample bottle back to the table before his olfactory sense is able to sniff the last smell. A certain smell that he does not want to remember.
This can't be right, is all he convinced himself.
As Riki gets back from the second floor, he immediately hauls the younger out of the store.
“What are we so hurry for?” the taller Slytherin complaints, still busy putting the item he just purchased inside his parka’s pocket.
“I just don't wanna be around Amortentia.”
***
However, the next five days, Sunoo has to stand in front of a whole cauldron filled with Amortentia. Exactly nine days after their first attempt in brewing the love potion, the sixth-years are finally able to see the results of their hard work.
“Merlin’s beard,” Sunoo swears as his face turns pale after observing the liquid in front of him.
“What happened?” Riki peeks into Sunoo’s cauldron.
“I think I succeeded in brewing the potion.”
Riki’s face gradually fills with confusion, because if he was the older Slytherin, he would be jumping in joy already instead of having a sullen face like what Sunoo currently has. “Isn’t that good? That means that this year you won’t get a D for Potion class at least.”
“But I hate the scents I smell right now,” Sunoo looks even paler.
“Spill it,” full of curiosity, the taller commands.
“Promise me you won’t laugh at me,” Sunoo waits until he gets a nod from Riki before continuing, “There is a pleasant smell that frequently comes after rain, like the wetness of the air after such long warm and dry weather, like a petrichor.”
“You indeed love rain, don't you?”
“I do, but there’s also someone else that loves rain even way more than I do.” Certain childhood memory suddenly fills his head. It is where Sunoo and a boy that was smaller than him played in the playground behind his house, both of them running under the rain with laughters accompanying them. Sunoo ignores Riki’s questioning look as he continues, “Then I smell old and rusty perchaments, I don’t know, like the scent we can usually smell when we enter the secluded old books section of the library.”
“You don’t even go to the library that often! How come you got attracted to that?” Riki complains.
Sunoo shrugs as he mumbles, “That’s what frustrated me! And maybe you wouldn’t believe what I smelled next. It’s really specific though.”
“And what is that?” Riki gives his best friend all of his attention.
Sunoo hesitates for a while, not really sure whether he should tell the younger everything or not. “You remember when I said that Yang Jungwon and I were neighbors, right?” He is even too ashamed to mention childhood friends.
Riki nods.
“I smell this lavender aroma. Not any lavender though, but a specific brand of lavender softener that a granny in my neighborhood usually used for her family’s clothes.”
Riki’s eyes widened in excitement, “Yang Jungwon’s grandmother?” He was almost yelling, which caused half of the students in the class to turn their heads toward the two Slytherins, including a student with the name mentioned.
“You buffoon! Don’t yell it out loud,” Sunoo wants to cry. He lowers his head even further, trying to avoid everyone’s stares.
“You like Yang Jungwon’s grandmother? Why, because your grandmother didn’t live with you?” Riki whispers playfully.
Riki can’t be real, Sunoo deadpans.
“Hahaha, kidding. I know exactly what lavender aroma you were talking about. Must be the scent of Jungwon’s robes.”
And Sunoo hates how Riki is actually right.
***
After Potion class, Sunoo does not feel like going straight to his dorm although he has no other class later today. He thinks he could use some fresh air to calm himself down after the chaos that Riki created in class.
So he goes to the stone bridge where he can get a clear view of Hogwarts sky. He leans on to the stone rails facing the North Courtyard that is currently filled by students from Madam Hooch’s flying class.
“Hi, mind if I join you?”
Even before he turns his face toward the source of the voice, Sunoo knows exactly who the person is.
“Yeah sure,” Sunoo thinks that giving a chance for the boy to finally talk to him properly won’t hurt anyone. Besides, he is just feeling too tired to be aggressive today.
The person, Yang Jungwon, seems quite surprised by Sunoo’s response, “Yo-you didn’t tell me to go?”
“Do you want me to?”
“No, no, of course not!” the Gryffindor waves both of his hands in front of him frantically. “I’m just quite surprised. Thank you for allowing me to accompany you though.”
With both cheeks gradually turned pink, Sunoo nods.
Both of them stand there in silence while leaning on the stone rails with a meter gap between them.
The silence made Sunoo think that maybe he should stop pretending. Pretending to himself, pretending to Riki, pretending to their friends, and most especially pretending to Yang Jungwon that he actually indeed harbors a feeling towards the Gryffindor.
Something that he knows he should not be doing!
No matter how hard his logic tries to stop him from falling, but heart is illogic sometimes.
Now can anyone give advice to Sunoo how not to fall for the younger boy when all he did was flatter him 24/7, sent him lovely stares every 5 minutes, and smiled beautifully every time their eyes met?
Take the current condition as example A, how can Sunoo not bathe in sweat when the younger chooses to say nothing but keep stealing a glance toward him every now and then. With a silly smile plastered on his face even!
Afraid that he will get even more uncomfortable being stared at, Sunoo breaks the silence by asking, “Were you following me here?”
Jungwon chuckles as he smiles widely, “As much as I love finding you here, but I actually came here to watch the first-years having their flying lessons. Kinda observing if I might find any potential flier for my quidditch team.”
“Ah right, you were appointed as captain this year, weren’t you?”
“True.”
Sunoo nods in response.
“For someone who said that they hated me so much, you actually know a lot about me though?” Jungwon teases.
Sunoo suddenly snaps his head facing the younger. “I don’t!” he denies. As he sends the younger a death glare he argues, “Besides, I think that's common knowledge! Everyone in Hogwarts knows who the quidditch captain from each team is.”
The prefect giggles, “Okay okay, I believe you. You don’t have to be that defensive.”
“I am not!” the older sulks again.
Jungwon still giggles even after a few seconds have passed. He takes a deep breath to compose himself and states, “But you even know the scent of softener that my grandmother usually uses. I bet that’s not information that everyone knows though.”
Apparently he heard that, and Sunoo does not have any excuse for that. It’s a checkmate. “Th-that’s an old memory…,” the Slytherin blushes as he tries to drag his answer instead.
A smile filled with relief rises on the younger face. “I’m glad that you still remember. My grandmother would be happy if she knew this, since she actually really liked you back then. She said that you were such a polite and cute kid,” he says genuinely.
Despite the lack of teasing tone in Jungwon’s reply just now, Sunoo still finds it embarrassing and concludes that Jungwon is indeed mocking him right now. Either the embarrassment or the nervousness that finally leads him to shouts, “Because you won’t stop mocking me, I’ll leave! Enjoy your time!”
“Sunoo, but I don’t–”
Jungwon does not get to finish his words because Sunoo already runs towards the stairs and away.
Despite being left alone again after the nth time, yet Jungwon appreciates the slight improvement in their relationship. So he smiles contently and goes back to his initial plan of observing the first-years flying class.
***
Sunoo is about to enter the Frog Choir practice room, when Jungwon suddenly shows up in the hallway and stops him.
“Sunoo, sunoo, have you heard the news?” Jungwon said while panting. The younger boy looks like he just ran straight from his dorm and chased after Sunoo.
“What news? And can you please stop coming out of nowhere like that? That scares me!” The Slytherin says as he puts his hand on top of his left chest, trying to calm his beating heart. He himself is not quite sure whether the jumpscare from Jungwon that caused his heart to beat faster, or other things.
“About your sister! Have your parents sent you a letter?”
Sunoo gets stoned hearing the mention of her sister. So many possibilities run through his mind right now. At first only the worst scenarios fill his head. But looking at Jungwon’s face that is currently lit up by excitement, Sunoo guesses it won't be bad news. “No, I haven't received anything. What about her?”
“They found the cure for her, they finally found it!!” Jungwon’s excitement only gets bigger as he pulls out a folded parchment from his robes pocket.
The older’s eyes widen as he can not believe what he just heard. As years pass by, the hope of seeing his sister get cured actually only gets smaller and smaller. But this sudden news that the Gryffindor brought is like a new ray of hope for him.
“Look here, the letter my mother sent this morning!” Jungwon lays out the parchment in front of Sunoo’s eyes to see, before starting to blabber non-stop, “So my parents finally found a great wizard from the North that was able to create a potion to turn your sister’s condition back to normal. Now she can already open her eyes and move her body, still a little bit stiff of course, but I bet she’ll get better in no time.”
Sunoo wonders how come his parents have not told him anything about this? Knowing the information from Jungwon kind of hurts him, “Your parents found them?”
“Yes! So I have been researching about some great wizards all around the world, and I have listed some of them and begged my parents to approach each one of them. Finally, a week ago, my parents met this master and they told him about your sister’s condition and brought him to our village to meet your family. Apparently, the master was finally able to brew a curing potion, and last night when they tried to give it to your sister, she woke up, and… and…”
Jungwon is out of breath and the information he is telling overwhelms Sunoo.
“Won, will you calm down and tell me slowly? I’m a little bit confused.”
“I'm sorry, Sunoo. I was just so excited to hear this.”
The image of Jungwon that is usually very composed and always knows how to act suddenly vanished as being replaced by an image of a hyped kid that jumps here and there because he can not contain his excitement inside. So, Sunoo chuckles looking at the younger's reaction as a smile gradually rises on his face, “Aren’t I supposed to be the excited one?”
A pink blushes show up on Jungwon's cheeks. “Yeah, you are right.” After calming a little bit, the Gryffindor tries to repeat his story, telling Sunoo slowly the details of each sequence. From how it has been years since he spent his times in the library researching about potion masters, to the story of how his parents fly from the far South to the North before finally finding this certain master, up to the complete story of how her sister’s body react to the freshly brew potion made by the master.
“Why do you even bother to go through such a hustle just to help my sister?” Sunoo is almost in tears hearing how much effort Jungwon and his parents put to find the master.
“Eh that’s not much,” the younger one hesitates to answer at first, but finally continues when he sees tears almost break loose from Sunoo’s eyes. “It's not only for your sister, it is also for you. I just want to see you smile more often and not frown everytime you see me. I don't want you to hate me.”
Sunoo wonders how many times he has hurt this lovely soul by acting rude towards him over years, when in fact he never did anything wrong. He should never stereotype all Gryffindors like the jerk that hurt his sister. Because the one in front of him is quite the opposite.
“I want–” Jungwon’s words get halted as the boy in front of him suddenly runs toward him and gives him a tight hug.
Sunoo does not know what kind of power that finally drives him to move forwards and embrace the Gryffindor in front of him. “Thank you. Thank you for all your efforts. Also thank you for showing me what love really looks like.”
“Eh, love? What do you mean?” Jungwon’s eyes move here and there in confusion. Heart is beating hard in his ribcage as he's still not used to be this close with his crush.
Sunoo breaks the hug as he confidently states, “You like me, right?”
“Yes, I think it was obvious.”
“Then please try even harder, because I might change my mind about liking you back,” he says as he takes a step back and walks away from Jungwon.
The Gryffindor blinks as he tries to understand Sunoo's answer. When he notices that Sunoo is not walking toward the Frog Choir practice room, he hollers, “Where are you going? Aren’t you going to choir practice?”
“Please tell Professor Flitwick that I will be super late, I need to go to the owlery first. Gotta send my parents a letter!” the older replies while bouncing away.
Sunoo is not sure whether he takes the right decision to start opening his heart for Jungwon, because he can’t see love clearly with his eyes. But he can smell it, and Jungwon smells exactly like love.
His hair smells like an old parchment, his robes smells like the lavender softener, and his existence in general smells like a petrichor. Everything that Amortentia has told him. Though the liquid can’t speak, yet it sure tells a lot.
-FIN-