hogwarts with jae.

two.

the walk up to the common room was long and awkward. you could tell sungjin was pointedly trying to avoid making conversation as he navigated you guys up the winding staircases. he probably feared that you would continue to press him on the slytherin issue so he stayed silent.

after a few minutes, you were tired of the silence and decided to speak up.

"did you see younghyun before the start-of-term feast?" you asked hesitantly, half expecting him not to answer. with a surprise, you saw him nod.

"sure did. what about him?" he glanced at you out of the corner of his eye.

"he was..." you trailed off, deciding not to mention jaehyung again.

"if you're going to ask me why he was yelling at jaehyung, then i can't help you. i'm just as clueless as you are," sungjin replied. he was too smart for his own good, you thought as you cursed yourself for letting him figure it out. he should've been a ravenclaw.

"but didn't he come up and talk to you after the feast? while i was talking to dowoon and pil?" you questioned as you turned up another staircase. you were thankful that this one was charmed to act like an escalator, a relief to your legs that were becoming increasingly sore after the long trek upstairs.

"he did. but he didn't mention it and i didn't ask," sungjin shrugged, almost tauntingly.

"why didn't you?" you asked, starting to get a little frustrated at the lack of answers you were getting.

"because i don't care. and neither should you," he replied shortly before cursing as the staircase ahead of shifted away. "damn staircases. now we have to go the long way."

"fine," you muttered, following the stubborn boy up a different staircase.

he sighed. "you know i'm only hard on you because i wanna protect you, right? you're my best friend and i'd hate if anything happened to you. i know how slytherins are, trust me. you don't want anything to do with them."

your heart twisted. you appreciated his concern but you couldn't help but disagree with him.

"how do you know he's like the rest of them? jaehyung, i mean." you could see the portrait of the fat lady come into view, meaning that the common room was near.

"how do you know he's not?" he countered. fair point.

"i just feel like he doesn't want to be there, you know? he looks so miserable," you spoke softly, feeling sorry for the lonely slytherin boy.

"if he didn't want to be there, he wouldn't have came back for another year. he's no good, there's no point in worrying about it."

the conversation came to a pause as you walked up to the portrait.

"password?" asked the lady in the portrait, looking between you two expectantly.

"is it 'open the hell up, we just walked up a million stairs?'" you breathed, causing you and sungjin to laugh as the woman stared at you in indignation.

"how rude!" she exclaimed, scowling at you. you were laughing too much to care.

"h-honeydew," sungjin said the password in between laughter. the portrait swung upon, albeit reluctantly, to reveal the much awaited common room.

you shuffled in together, laughing as you fell onto the couch. you looked around the common room appreciatively; you had missed it dearly. the fireplace was already ablaze, a few students were littered about, chatting quietly amongst themselves.

you looked over at sungjin, who was staring into the fire with a content smile. he felt your gaze and turned towards you, smiling wider.

"you're hilarious, you know," he chuckled, unbuttoning his robe to reveal his uniform.