for as long as jinah lee can remember, her twin brother jeno's annoying best friend jaemin na has been in her life. his constant teasing, flirtatious nature, and penchant for trouble have been the bane of jinah's life, especially now more than ever...
the awkward tension that had set in the astronomy tower followed jaemin around like his own personal gray cloud. literally. someone - he was pretty sure it was donghyuck; he always liked to torture jaemin in the most creative ways - had charmed him so that a fluffy cloud would follow him everywhere. and depending on his mood, the cloud would either turn a dark gray, with thunder and lightning, or a lighter gray with mild rain or fogginess.
needless to say, jaemin was stuck carrying around an umbrella more often than not. and with the new "kitchen kitsch" meetings (the name had been declared by kannika; not a single person besides renjun understood what it meant), jaemin was stuck interacting with jinah too far often to even let go of his emotions enough to will the cloud away.
"i can get rid of the cloud for you," jinah offers, although she looks far too bemused with the spectacle in front of her. jaemin rolls his eyes and he can feel the cloud turning darker but he forces himself to stay calm, not wanting the thunder that followed him to reveal their secret rendezvous.
"do it," jaemin grumbles, and jinah nearly lets out a peal of laughter at the resemblance between the thunder and his voice. she pulls out her wand slowly, as if prolonging his torture, before flicking it upwards and downwards. the cloud dissolves into wisps of fog that fall between the two of them.
"you're welcome," jinah says smugly, turning to face the rest of the marauders, already digging into the chocolate cookies.
she doesn't hear the quiet 'thank you' or see the faintest blush on jaemin's cheeks.
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jinah had an issue. a big issue. so big that she didn't know how to hide it or keep it within her heart, even though she was beyond confused and simply didn't have the facilities in her to try and figure out what the solution was.
the issue was that jinah only had one friend. one good friend, at least. arguably, she had a total of five (four?) friends, but she only had one person (maybe two?) in those five people that she could truly talk to and quite frankly, really cared about. this in itself wasn't so much of an issue. but lately, the only friend that jinah had was starting to grow more and more detached from jinah.
she could understand that kannika needed her own time and space for herself, and was completely fine with that. but she couldn't understand why that time and space had suddenly started cutting into the time spent with her. last time she checked, jinah and kannika weren't fighting over anything; if they were, she'd certainly know by now.
and every time jinah would ask why kannika was so distant or if they weren't on good terms, kannika would just offer a distracted smile and tell jinah she was delusional. at this point, jinah really couldn't tell if she was delusional or not. all she knew is that they needed to become animagi and they needed to do it soon. but she couldn't even discuss the matter with kannika because she was never to be seen. their secret hideout had been overrun by the marauders and quite frankly, jinah didn't want to share her nights in the astronomy tower with anyone - even kannika.
but when an entire week passed with kannika only talking to jinah in class, she finally burst, cornering her best friend in corridor that led to the kitchen, just before curfew.
"kannika, what is going on with you!" jinah exclaims, lowering her voice when a house-elf - a sweet young house-elf named 'jewel' - looked at her with a concerned expression. kannika looked at her strangely.
"what do you mean? i'm perfectly fine," she says and for the first time in literal days, she seems to have some clarity in her voice as opposed to the ditzy glaze and the dazed smile she usually sported nowadays.
"i mean, we haven't talked in ages! and trust me, i'm perfectly fine with having personal space but isn't this too much? i mean there's a storm brewing in the next couple of days and if we don't take advantage of it, i fear that we won't be able to complete the animagi conversion process for another two or three months!" jinah says hotly, eyes darting around to ensure that no one was watching before heading towards the portrait that separated the kitchen from the open corridors.
"oh. i forgot about that," kannika says with her eyebrows furrowed. "i didn't even realize jinah. i'm so sorry. i've just been so caught up in - in things, that i don't think that i had processed anything about the outside world."
jinah whirls around, her long black hair nearly giving her whiplash from the speed of her movements.
"you may have forgotten, kannika, but i haven't. i don't know what's going on with you, but i had hoped that we were good enough friends for you to share whatever was on your mind with me. but since we're obviously not, i'm hoping that we're good enough friends for you to honor the fact that one of our mutual acquaintances needs our help," jinah says. the words are casual and hold no venomous thoughts; kannika knows this well. but for some reason, they dig their claws deep within her heart anyway and it takes her a second to realize that she truly had been blowing off jinah for quite some time now.
it was a wonder that jinah had been so accepting thus far, bar the occasional questioning sessions. anyone else likely would've picked a fight with her and just left.
"jin, don't talk like that. i promise that i'm not ignoring you on purpose. i swear. please don't be upset with me," kannika says, entering through the door to the kitchens that had appeared when jinah had tickled the painting.
thankfully, none of boys had appeared yet, allowing the two of them to speak privately before they got here.
"i don't really care whether it was on purpose or not, kannika. you're my friend; i know you would never do anything to hurt me on purpose. but it doesn't change the fact that the wolfsbane potions aren't doing enough to slow down the effects of donghyuck's shifts. they're only getting worse and frankly, the potions not providing enough time for us to figure out why," jinah says, taking her usual seat at the bench (the one closest to the fireplace). "it might be because renjun and i are not brewing potion properly but the boys simply cannot handle this on their own anymore."
kannika says nothing. jinah was right, of course. the shifts were only getting worse, even though they were using the wolfsbane. she wasn't sure if donghyuck's body was rejecting the potion or something but the relief it was providing simply wasn't enough.
"i know," kannika says, looking up with her eyes blazing. "and i'm still in. let's do this."
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a/n: the way i wrote this chapter in 1 day but over the course of 3 weeks ;(
