Living among magical beings as a simple, non-magical human was hard, Kai quickly discovered. He was fully welcomed, something that came as a surprise knowing that the magic world had been shoved into the spotlight of the rest of the world with no warning. Non-magical humans certainly hadn't been kind to magic beings, especially the ones that blended in with them- witches, wizards, shifters, etc. To be fair, there were some places where humans weren't allowed- secret covens of witches, forests that you could never find your way out of, the Mariana Trench, and Area 51, just to name a few. Most magical places that humans could go were not pleased to have humans there, something that Kai was worried about for sure.
But even with the magical beings not really minding the human living among them, Kai was at a disadvantage. He couldn't fit in with the friend groups that formed based on magical types, or participate in any of the clubs that required things like flying, or floating things with his mind, or creating potions, or playing real-life fantasy games. Instead, he spent his first two months of the school year swamped with homework, eating and working in the library, and dodging the constant questions from Sunghoon-hyung, the Head Librarian of the school. It bothered him that he couldn't seem to make friends, but it was still outweighed by the awe that being surrounded by magic caused. The constant presence of magic in his life still didn't fade Kai's love and admiration of magic, only strengthening it.
Still, two months is a long time to go without friends, so when Choi Soobin shoved his way into his life, Kai was far from mad.
Kai had noticed the fae before- of course he had, faeries were the most beautiful of all the magical creatures. Soobin had nearly the entire school fawning over him, being one of the only faeries there, and by far the most popular. Kai definitely wasn't immune to his charms either, though he definitely prided himself in being able to resist them well enough to avoid completely falling for him, like most people who came in direct contact seemed to. Besides that they shared a math class, during which Soobin seemed to do little other than complain constantly, which, inexplicably, seemed to distract most of the class. Choi Soobin had everyone wrapped around his little finger, but he didn't appear to have any real friends from what Kai could tell. Not that Kai spent time analyzing Soobin's friendships with other people, of course. He was far too busy to do that. Though Soobin did seem to spend a lot of time in the library by himself, something that was perfectly reasonable for Kai to notice.
What he hadn't ever seen, however, was the fae slam the doors to the library open, curse, curse again when Kai shushed him, then march across the 50-ish foot gap between the doors and the check-out counter with a very sparkly garment clutched in his hand.
Kai was surprised when he recognized it as his own, narrowing his eyes at the fae.
"I believe this is yours, Kai?" Soobin asked, dropping the jacket onto the counter with a small poof of golden fairy dust. Kai can't help but notice the faint smell of strawberry that seems to follow him wherever he goes, matching the older boy's bright pink hair.
"Ah, yes, Soobin-ssi, where did you find it?" Kai asks, lifting it off the counter and wrinkling his nose a little at the glitter that will take forever to scrub off the marble surface. Maybe he can get one of the water sprites to try to get it off. They'd had better luck than he had last time this happened.
"Beomgyu-ah had it," Soobin answers, watching Kai's reaction to the dust with a look of obvious amusement. "Said he took it from, quote, 'Kai, that one really cute sparkly boy in math'. I couldn't get him to give it back, so I took it to return when he wasn't looking."
"Oh." Kai feels his face warm at that- Beomgyu, another student in his math class, calling him cute was definitely not expected. "Well, thank you."
