Spellbound

Chapter 8: Ice

We entered the classroom where Professor Park was already sitting at her desk. She looked at all of us walking in, and her eyes locked on me excitedly. "Rina! I'm so glad you've made some new friends!" She exclaimed.

I gave her a nod as I looked to the boys who had all taken their seats. There were surprisingly only 9 desks in the classroom. Taehyung, Jimin, and Namjoon sat in the first row, Seokjin, Hoseok, and Jungkook in the second row, and Yoongi was in the last row with two empty desks sitting next to him.

Professor Park noticed me observing the classroom. "You can go ahead and sit in the back next to Yoongi!" She exclaimed. I nodded politely and made my way to the back, sitting where she referenced to. My desk was directly behind Hoseok, and as I sat down, I saw the hairs of his neck stand up slightly. The school bell rang signaling the start of class, and I noticed that it was only us in the class.

"Is there nobody else in this class?" I leaned over to ask Yoongi.

Yoongi scoffed. "Yeah. This class is usually for the advanced mages." He looked me up and down scrutinizingly. "I'm guessing the other classes were full, so they put you in this one."

Rude. I looked back to the front where Professor Park had stood up from her desk in front of the chalkboard.

"Usually Rina, I lecture on the history of Magic Arts for the first half of class. The second half is for practicing your elements." She explained. I nodded understandingly, and she began her lecture.

The first part of class wasn't all that interesting. Professor Park was just explaining the biological history of mages and how each of the 8 types of elements had been discovered. After her lecture, she looked down at her watch. "Okay! Yoongi, you'll help Rina for the remainder of the period. Everyone else will continue with their element exercises from last week. Alright?"

Everyone nodded and I turned towards Yoongi. He rolled his eyes and looked towards me, clearly annoyed to be paired with me. He got up and went to the front of the classroom. Professor Park handed him a water bottle and a glass. He came back and placed the glass in front of me, pouring the water from the water bottle into it. He then grabbed his chair from his desk and placed it in front of me, sitting backwards on it, his arms crossed on the back of the seat supporting his chin.

"Turn it to ice." He commanded bluntly, lazily pointing at the glass of water.

I stared at him blankly. He quirked one eyebrow up at me suspiciously. "Unless... you can't." He gazed at me darkly.

I sighed and put both of my hands around the glass. I glanced up at his focused gaze on me, then closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. I quickly pulled the shadow energy flowing in me to my center, just like Bogum had told me to do. I felt the coldness of the glass and opened my eyes. The glass was frosted with ice, and although the water wasn't frozen solid, the water was noticeably colder.

"I'm sorry, I tried my best.." I explained. I couldn't turn it all the way to ice, so a part of me was scared Yoongi wouldn't believe the little magic trick I tried to pull off.

I looked back up at Yoongi, who surprisingly had a polite, gummy smile on his face. His cold, skeptical aura had been completely erased. "That was actually great for a beginner!" He said encouragingly.

Yoongi was definitely not the person I thought he was. For the rest of class, he genuinely tried helping me use my "ice power", giving me tips on how to embrace the cold and let it flow out of me. He even demonstrated a couple times, and I took note of how he instantly turned the water to ice with ease.

I had looked around the room a few times, trying to observe everyone else's elemental capabilities. I saw Taehyung messing around with his water abilities, juggling a ball of water as if it were a soccer ball. Namjoon and Seokjin were squatted in the corner of the room, making a mini lightning tornado on the ground. Professor Park and Jimin were trying to help Jungkook control his fire powers by lighting a candle from a distance, but he kept setting the whole thing on fire.

I couldn't see what Hoseok was doing, since he stayed at his desk in front of me. Yoongi blocked him from my line of sight, and I was actually grateful he was. I would probably get nausea at the sight of his light powers.

Light mages and shadow mages are naturally repulsive towards each other, since we are opposites. Even before the Shadow Clan was excommunicated, light and shadow mages kept their distances. It's no wonder why I got that weird feeling when I first saw Hoseok, I've never been near a powerful light mage before. Even when listening in on The Seven's leader meetings on my previous missions, I've always kept my distance from Wooyoung's uncle.

The bell had rung, signaling the end of the school day. As Yoongi put his chair back to his desk, I stood up and put my school bag on my shoulder. We all said our goodbyes to Professor Park and walked out of the classroom together.

Yoongi walked beside me and suddenly spoke up. "Hey, I'm sorry I doubted you earlier." He started to apologize, and I looked up at his furrowed brow. "I guess I just didn't believe you were really an ice mage since your aura isn't the same as other ice mages I know..." He tried to explain.

I sighed. "Don't apologize. You had every right to doubt me." You were right, I'm not an ice mage. I shrugged, trying to give a comforting smile.

He chuckled, probably at how awkwardly I smiled. We walked out of the gates and I parted ways with all of them.

"Bye Rina! See you tomorrow!" Taehyung shouted. He waved his arm enthusiastically above his head, as he and the boys walked in the other direction.

I gave a small wave back, but faltered as I caught a glimpse of Hoseok looking back at me. We looked at each other for two seconds before I turned around, quickly heading in the other direction.