Flash Fiction #3 Love Potion

Vanilla and Peppermint

by _yoontaetive_

What are the plausible reasons for someone to stay awake till 3am?

Probably trying to finish assignments that were due the very next day; if your life is beautiful, then partying with your friends. And sometimes, with a metal cross and rock salt surrounding you because you recently watched a horror movie. But drying laundry was not something a normal person would do; unless it's Jeon Jungkook.

It was twelve when he found out that more than half of his closet was lying in the laundry basket and what remained in the closet were some fancy see-through shirts and swimming trunks, which were definitely inappropriate to be worn to university. And hence the haste to do laundry at 3am.

Just when he was done wringing the last pair of jeans and started to wonder how to dry them up, a crashing sound came from the living room scaring the hell out of him. Petrified with the image of burglars intruding his little apartment, he grabbed the nearest thing he found to act as a weapon and carefully walked towards the living room.

In the darkness of the room lighted by the shine of the street lights outside, he made out a figure sitting in the midst of the room. There was a pointed hat sitting on his head which moved along with his skull. And then, the person turned towards him.

Before Jungkook could properly see the face, his barrage of screams exploded and he let out a terrified scream.

"Silencio!" echoed a voice and the next moment, Jungkook stopped screaming. Or rather, it was like some imaginary forces had sealed his mouth, preventing him from screaming.

"I didn't know muggles were such scaredy-cats", the same voice spoke, now approaching Jungkook. Adjusting his eyes to the darkness, he made out a face. Correction: handsome face, like one that had been carved by Apollo himself. His eyes, though different, were beautiful and they looked down upon him with a frown. The pointy hat and the satin robe made him look like he came from Diagon Alley.

"Mmngh mngh" he spoke, but realized that he had been silenced by this strange species.

"What?" the male asked. Then with a quick flicker of his wand, he unsealed his mouth. Jungkook took a sharp exhale of breath as if he had been obstructed from breathing too.

"What are you? And where did you come from?" he asked, putting his 'weapon' in front of him.

"Firstly, I'd like you to put this hairy plastic of an excuse for a wand away", he said, pointing at the 'toilet cleaner' with a face as if it was something incest. Well, truth be told, it was.

"What if you hurt me?"

"I don't lose my magic at useless things."

"Rude", Jungkook muttered under his breath with a scowl and took a more casual stance, keeping the toilet cleaner away.

"And as an answer to your questions: I'm a human, like you. Name's Kim Taehyung", he replied, flipping the mullet of hair at the back of his head. "And to the next question; I was happily brewing up my Love Potion back in Diagon Alley, when suddenly everything darkened and I fell with a bump in your house."

"So... you're a witch?" Jungkook asked curiously.

"Wizard", Taehyung corrected.

"Okay", Jungkook answered. "And how did you end up here?"

"It felt like I came here through the floo network", he answered. But seeing the confused look on Jungkook's face, he estimated the male understood nothing. "Through the chimney."

"But I don't have one", Jungkook stated. As far as he knew, the apartment had nothing that resembled a chimney when he first came here.

"Well you do now", and Taehyung turned to point at the opening in the ceiling that looked like a chimney had abruptly stopped from growing. He stared wide-eyed at the hole like structure and turned to Taehyung for a logical, or magical, explanation. But he just shrugged.

"Maybe I added a tad too much of moonstone powder", he said to himself.

"But what was a muggle like you doing this late at night?"

"Laundry."

"At three in the morning?"

"I don't want to wear a see-through shirt with swim trunks tomorrow to university!"

"Can I help?"

Jungkook considered the offer for a second. I mean, he's a wizard. He can dry them up, right?

"But in return you have to help me get an owl", he demanded the very next moment. "I need to send a message to the Ministry of Magic."

"Okay fine."

The two of them then walked to the washing machine where, in a basket, the washed up and wringed apparels were lying, waiting for Jungkook to dry them up. Taehyung pointed his wand at the basket and closed his eyes, his lips moving in a silent muttering.

"Don't burn them", the other warned, earning a side-eye from the wizard.

A jet of white light emerged from the tip of the wooden wand and fell upon the clothes, making them levitate higher from where they had been. Slowly all the other pieces flew up in the air and expanded themselves from the messy bundled up form they had been in. And the next minute, they fell back to the floor.

"Check", Taehyung suggested to Jungkook who had been gaping wordlessly at the scene that unfolded. He bent down to examine the first white T-shirt. It was cozily dry and even warm. The same with the pair of jeans lying nearby and so were all of them.

"Thank you so much!" he squealed with happiness as relief washed over him.

"You're welc- wait a second", Taehyung took the white shirt from Jungkook's hand and sniffed it.

"Why does it smell like vanilla with a hint of peppermint?" he asked, turning to the other.

"Because... that's my signature scent?" Jungkook answered, wondering as to why the sudden question.

"Should I freak out by the fact that my Love Potion smelled exactly like this?"