Timeless: Hours of Anguish [ATEEZ Hogwarts AU]

Friday, December 2nd

Friday, December 2nd. 02:04AM. Hogwarts, Kitchens. Song Mingi.

Mingi stopped dead in his tracks when he opened the door to the kitchen.

All he'd wanted was a late-night snack after he'd randomly woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and couldn't fall back asleep. He hadn't expected to meet Yunho here in the middle of the night.

Yunho stood in front of the stove, a quietly sizzling frying pan in his hand and his wand in the other. His hair was slightly messy — just like Mingi's — and he was wearing loose muggle clothing as if he had been trying to sleep before coming here as well.

As soon as he'd noticed Mingi's presence, Yunho turned around to him in surprise. Their eyes met for a moment and Mingi noticed just how tired he looked. Yunho regarded him with an unreadable expression for a few seconds before looking away again.

He pursed his lips bitterly and let his food float from the pan onto an empty plate on the counter.

"Sorry. I... didn't know you were here," Mingi said awkwardly.

"I was just about to leave anyway..." Yunho said. He muttered some incantation and with his flick of his wand, the kitchen utensils he had used cleaned themselves and disappeared into their respective cupboards and drawers, leaving only his plate with freshly made grilled cheese behind. He quickly grabbed it and squeezed past Mingi to leave the room, but Mingi held him back by grabbing his wrist.

"W-Wait, you don't have to leave because of me. Let's... talk," Mingi replied hastily. Yunho turned back around to look at Mingi's hand holding onto his wrist before raising his eyebrows at him. Mingi immediately let go of him. "Sorry..."

Much to his surprise, Yunho didn't leave. Instead, he set down his grilled cheese and looked at him, his arms crossed over his chest. "You wanna talk? About what?"

Mingi hesitated before answering. He wasn't prepared for this. He'd just wanted a sandwich before heading back to sleep.

But here he was, awkwardly standing in front of Yunho with his hair wild and unbrushed. Would it have killed him to use a brush before leaving the common room in the middle of the night?

Mingi quickly ran a hair through his hair in a late attempt to tame it a little. "Well, I, um, wanted to apologize for what happened in Slughorn's pantry... I shouldn't have kissed you when we were fighting. I didn't mean to... well, take advantage of you or anything."

Yunho looked a little surprised, flustered even. "Oh... that," he replied and scratched the back of his head, his ears turning a little red, "...it's okay, don't worry about that."

They fell into an awkward silence for a couple of seconds, before Mingi decided to break it. "That's all I wanted to say, really. I'll let you go now. I wouldn't want to keep you from rejoining Hongjoong in bed."

As soon as the words had left his lips, Mingi realized that he had said the wrong thing.

Yunho looked hurt. He scoffed in irritation and looked away, nodding to himself. "Of course."

"What do you mean, of course?" asked Mingi and rolled his eyes.

"I should have known that you were going to start something like this again! And here I thought you were actually genuine for once!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This!" Yunho gestured around wildly, "You, indirectly calling me a whore every chance you get!"

"W-Well you called me a virgin!"

"You are a virgin!"

Mingi threw up his hands in defense. "So what if I am? Why is that so bad?"