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Now don’t get Bam wrong: even with all the hardships of being a high schooler with secret magic powers, he loves his life. He loves his family and appreciates everything they do, no matter how dysfunctional they can be. He loves being able to teleport across town with an easy flick of a wand. He even loves sitting through SAT tutoring at 4pm on Saturdays because he gets to sit beside the prettiest person in the eleventh grade right when the sunlight from the window hits his hair at the perfect angle, and yeah… he really loves Khun Aguero Agnis. (Or is that too much to say about someone who doesn’t know about your existence?)
But when he gets back his second practice test with a score 400 points lower than his initial test and a note from the instructor reading, “come see me,” while sitting right next to said Khun Aguero Agnis, Bam wants to crawl into a hole and die.
Who even cares about the SATs! Bam wouldn’t need it anyways. Bam didn’t even want to go to college! Why is he even taking this course in the first place?
A groan from his seatmate startles him. Oh right… Khun Aguero Agnis is why.
Bam not so subtly leans over while trying to read Khun’s score breakdown over his shoulder. He’s searching for it on the paper when all of a sudden he can only see blue, a really deep, beautiful, mesmerizing blue. Wait.
Bam jumps back into his seat. Khun Aguero Agnis is staring back at him with a slight grin of amusement.
“You know, if you wanted to see you could’ve just asked. I’m not shy.” Khun winks as he flips his paper over. “But just so you know, I believe in fair trade. So you’ll have to show me yours in return.”
Bam’s cheeks heat up, and just great… Not only did he get caught snooping, but now Khun is asking to see his score too. And Khun is looking right at him! With those gorgeous eyes… How can Bam be expected to think properly with Khun Aguero Agnis looking at him with his perfect hair and perfect skin and perfect face.
Then that same, gorgeous face scrunches up as Khun giggles. Khun Aguero Agnis is giggling, and it might be the best sound Bam has ever heard. Bam telepathically signs to Yuri that he might not make it back alive tonight.
“It’s okay, I already saw yours,” Khun admits sheepishly as his laughter dies down. “It was hard not to peek when you seemed so distraught.”
Bam’s eyes widen comically, because not only is Khun Aguero Agnis speaking to him, but he just admitted to being curious about Bam! And that means, he must’ve seen that awful score… His mouth opens and closes a few times, trying to get some form of words out. Anything he could say would probably just make this more embarrassing.
“And it’s fine, you know? About the score. This test is stupid anyways,” Khun reassures. “You can look at mine if you want, but I don’t think you’ll appreciate it very much.”
Even with the warning, when Khun flips his scoresheet over to reveal only a single question wrong, Bam’s mouth drops yet again.
“Wow! That’s incredible!” he can’t help but let slip. “You’re amazing!”
And even when his hands slap over his mouth in embarrassment, Bam still means it. Everything about the student council president screams attractive, and there’s no way anyone could possibly refute that in Bam’s eyes. Still, Bam can’t believe the very first words he speaks to the love of his life are so embarrassing, not to mention the way Khun is looking at him now. He’s still giving Bam that tight-lipped grin, eyes curious and amused, but now with something else Bam can’t put his finger on.
“Thanks, I did better on the last one though.”
“Oh, me too!” Bam jumps in again. Can his brain to mouth filter work for once, please? “I mean, I think I was just a bit distracted or something when we took this one… I normally do much better, I swear!”
Distracted was one word for it, he supposes. Missing an entire section because Khun looked so good with his brows furrowed behind his thin reading glasses and his bottom lip between his teeth in concentration was more like it. How could Bam not take the opportunity to bask in his beauty? Totally normal for someone taking what should be one of the most important mock tests of his life. Bam has his priorities straight after all!
“I’m sure,” Khun agrees easily with a nod. Everything about Khun from his appearance to his nonchalance is just so attractive, and Bam thinks if he keeps this up any longer then he may just physically swoon. “Which section do you have the hardest time with?”
“Um,” Bam starts, peeking at his terrible scoresheet again while the blush on his cheeks does not falter. “Math is difficult for me.”
“Oh, that’s an easy fix! I can send you some of my notes with all the equations and theorems if you’d like?”
“Yes, please!” Bam replies a bit too quickly and enthusiastically, but he doesn’t care because Khun Aguero Agnis is the kindest person Bam’s ever met, and he’s willingly trying to help him, despite how hopeless his score comes across as, and the fact that they’d never spoken prior.
And even if he knows it's probably out of pity, Bam is glowing as he returns home with a long document on important theorems to know for the math section of the SAT and Khun Aguero Agnis’s phone number. He can’t decorate his new contact with heart emojis lest his Yuri snatch his phone again and start asking questions, but mentally they’re there.
“Bam, what was that signal about earlier?” Yuri asks as he walks through their home’s front door. “I know you like to exaggerate but stuff like that is pretty scary. I was this close to warping right to you and dragging your ass out of there.”
Oh, right. Bam had almost completely forgotten. He really needs to fix his habit of crying out to Yuri every time he feels vaguely panicked, because if he could have blown his whole cover with Yuri magically teleporting into his classroom just because of Khun Aguero Agnis’s giggling, then maybe he has a problem.
“It was nothing,” Bam says truthfully, but he knows Yuri will keep pressing. “Just got my mock scores back.”
“Oh? And how’d they go?”
Bam gulps and shakes his head sheepishly.
“Why are we even paying for those classes?” Jinsung calls from the couch. “You don’t need to take some dumb human test to get into college, you know. Even if you did, we can teach you an enchantment spell or something so you’d get all the answers right.”
Yuri turns around in a huff. “Let him live a normal life for once, will you? Bam wants to go in on his own merit!”
Yeah, merit. That’s why he begged them to let him take this class.
“Anyways, it’s fine, Bam. You’ll do better next time, for sure!”
Bam agreed, making another mental note to sit as far away from Khun as possible in the next month’s mock.
“Oh speaking of which, we have things to discuss,” Jinsung says as Bam sets his bag down and makes his way over to the living room. “I know you don’t care for this stuff but we’re planning to launch our next mission on the Ten Great Families again.”
“Master, I already told you I’m not interested.”
Really, Bam is grateful for everything FUG’s done for him. He’s grateful that they adopted him, put a roof over his head and food on his table and they even teach him how to use his magic, but that doesn’t mean he approves of or wants to participate in everything they do. Most of the time, he tries to stay as far away as possible.
“Look kid, listen to what I have to say first, okay? If you listen, then it’ll make my job and all of our lives easier,” Jinsung sighs. When Bam respectfully nods and sits at the chair across from him, he continues. “So we’re planning to make our move on the Khuns soon.”
“Khun?!” Bam sputters. Why would they want anything to do with Khun’s family?
Yuri’s jaw drops. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know about the Khuns, Bam.”
“What about them?”
“They’re one of the families with the highest magic affinity in the human world. Of course they’ve lost a lot of their magical history from the decades they’ve spent here, but their gifted kids have some of the highest danger potential that we’ve seen.”
“So?”
“So they need to be dealt with.”
“Dealt with?!”
“Are you just going to keep repeating everything we say?”
The Khuns? Dealt with? Bam is not cut out for this.
“Anyways, I heard there’s a prominent Khun around your age at your school. It would be a huge help to us if you could get to know him a bit,” Jinsung pleads. “This would mean a lot to us, Viole.”
A Khun his age? At his school? No, it couldn’t be…
“Do you mean Khun Aguero Agnis?!”
“You know him already, Bam?” Yuri chimes in. “That’s great news! We thought we’d have to brief you more.”
Bam throws his cousin a scared glance. What is she talking about? And Khun is not magical.
“Are you already friends?”
Bam feels the heat rising to his cheeks already as eyes widen again, looking anywhere but at Yuri. “Um, I wouldn’t exactly say we’re friends, but I do know him a bit…”
“Well, we just need you to bring him over at some point. Apparently he’s prized even among all his cousins,” Jinsung muses.
This checks out to Bam: perfect report card, perfect voice, perfect face, perfect personality. But there’s no way that Khun is a magic user, let alone dangerous (minus for his dangerously good looks). Bam definitely would have noticed! (Read: he watches Khun everyday, and he has never done anything remotely magical, nor suspicious.)
“If we can just get to him, then the whole family will be ours with just a snap of our fingers.”
Both Bam’s internal monologue and any semblance of refusal he could have coughed up are cut off as Jinsung opens the door to his office.
“Counting on you!” he shouts as it shuts behind him, finality of his request thick in the air.
~*~
When Bam sits down in History on Monday morning at his usual seat at the back of the room, the last thing he expects is for there to be another bag at the paired desk. Bam normally sits alone; he always liked this seat because he could subtly glance at a certain blue haired beauty in the front row without obstruction or anyone else noticing.
He could go one day with a partner though, Bam supposes. It might be good to get his mind off Khun anyways, especially after what his family had just begged him to partake in. Who would want to sit next to a nobody like Bam though?
“Hey, Viole right?” And there, in all his beauty, stands the very Khun Aguero Agnis that Bam (for once) wanted off his mind, taking the seat next to Bam’s. “You don’t mind, right? I was wondering how it went with the notes I lent you.”
Khun remembers him? Of course he would. How do you forget offering someone your hard work? And what’s more, Khun Aguero Agnis is so bright. He must have a photographic memory with how naturally intelligent he is. It really isn’t surprising Khun would remember him, despite Bam’s overall insignificance.
But Khun remembered not only the conversation, but Bam enough to 1) look up his name and 2) check in with him afterwards. Khun Aguero Agnis truly is an angel among angels.
“Of course not! Uh you can call me Bam, by the way. Viole is just a formality.”
“Bam? Alright. So how were the notes? I would’ve messaged but you never texted, so I didn’t get your number.”
“Oh! I’m sorry. Um the notes are really helpful!” Bam exclaims. Not that he’d looked at them besides to trace Khun’s handwriting. He’s sure if he used them for real they’d be better than any professionally made paid study guide, though.
“I’m glad. You can keep them if you’d like. I have all the math concepts down pretty well.” Khun was looking at him with that calm, amused, beautiful grin again, slightly lopsided and small in gesture, but still strong enough to push his left cheek up to his eye. “And about your number?”
It should be embarrassing how Bam gapes at him like some cartoon character, but Bam’s already embarrassed himself enough in the two times he’s spoken to his crush of over ten years that he really can’t be surprised at all.
“You can just say no if you don’t want to talk with me,” Khun speaks slowly, the happiness lighting his beautiful face slipping away to Bam’s chagrin. “I hadn’t been planning to blow up your phone though if that’s what you’ve been worried about.”
“My phone?” Bam asks, blinking twice, mouth returning to its wide open state. “You mean, you want my number? Still?”
“Well I did ask for it, didn’t I? I thought we were exchanging them in class the other day, but you didn’t reach out.”
“Oh.”
Khun’s eyebrows are high on his forehead as he nods slowly while huffing chuckles through his nose.
(To anyone else, it would probably come across as horribly condescending, but Bam is a bit slow when it comes to anything but spells, and everything regarding Khun Aguero Agnis. After their classmate Rak had organized a protest against the school’s recent snack ban and labeled the petition’s signature column with “Turtles in Agreement”, Bam learned that this is the expression Khun makes when he is particularly amused.)
After a few moments, Bam finally collects himself and hands his phone over.
“You don’t have a passcode?” Khun asks as he unlocks the device in his palm.
“Um, no…”
It wouldn’t do anything anyways. Even with the world’s highest level technical security system, anyone nosy enough in his family could easily get in with a flick of a wand. Or even worse, Yuri might accidentally break the device while trying to break past the passcode.
Khun hums while using Bam’s phone to text himself, and Bam has suddenly never been more glad he refrained from adding hearts to Khun’s contact name.
“And there we go,” Khun says with a nod right as their teacher walks in. He leans over into Bam’s space just before the lesson starts with a whisper of, “maybe I’ll call you later?”
He doesn’t look at Bam again after making his way back to his own side of the desk, eyes focused and attentive on the lecture ahead and raising his hand to participate like the star student he’s always been. All the while, Bam tries to ignore the chill that still runs down his spine.
And Khun stays true to that promise of “maybe.”
Later that night when Bam is eating dinner, his phone lights up with a quick text from “Khun Aguero Agnis” and Bam wants to throw himself into the wall.
“Who is it?”
Bam’s head snaps towards his caretaker and with all the ways his heart has hurt in the past few hours, he’d almost forgotten about his adoptive family’s resolve to kill his crush. Bam shakes his head and spews, “Uh, no one!” As interested as he’d been in his school’s student council president, there’s no way he’d ever want to put him in danger or potential death. Bam wouldn’t be selfish - he’d push Khun far, far away, if it meant keeping him safe.
“No one?” Jinsung repeats with a brow raised in suspicion.
“Yeah, no one.”
“It’s the Khun child isn’t it?” Hwaryun asks from the kitchen. Of course she had to be over tonight. “You should answer.”
“It’s not!”
Hwaryun only gives him her usual blank look from behind her lace eyepatch. They both knew Bam was a bad liar in general; the fact that he still tried to pull the rug over a master of foresight magic is beyond both of them.
“And so what if it is?” he grumbles as he slouches into his seat to hide his phone screen.
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis : How’s the studying going?
He had not paid his studies any mind since the very boy texting him had first spoken to him a few days prior (or ever, really), but even Bam knew that was probably the wrong way to go.
<<< Me: doing well, thanks!
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis : Is there anything you’re having trouble with?
Yes. Everything.
<<< Me: not at all!!
The little typing bubble appears at the bottom of his screen for a bit before it disappears. Bam frowns. This was his one chance to talk to the love of his life outside of class and he was already blowing it! Then a new message appears and Bam nearly jumps in his seat.
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis: Oh
Oh. Oh… OH? Bam had really blown it now, hadn’t he? It’s over. Everything he’d ever wanted vanished in an instant. Just like that it was gone! His one chance at true love and-
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis : Are you up for a study break?
Bam’s mouth drops. Is this going where he thinks it is..?
<<< Me: i’m on break right now ^^
It wasn’t a lie. Bam is on a life long study break. You know, except for studying Khun Aguero Agnis’s features.
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis : Would you mind if I called you?
He slouches further and further into his seat until before he knows it he’s past the edge and slipping knees first onto the purple carpet.
“You alright there, Viole?”
Sorry, Jyu Viole Grace can’t come to the phone right now. Why? ‘Cause he’s dead!
That’s right. Khun Aguero Agnis had broken every barely functioning part of his brain, and now he remains nothing but a lump of skin and bones with maybe some minimal magic flooding through his veins.
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis : It’s also fine if you don’t want to…
Oh, fuck. Bam had left him on read. For six whole minutes.
<<< Me: NO!!
<<< Me: i mean!! yes! i would love to call!! ^_^
Before he can even take a moment to catch his breath, his phone is buzzing in his hands, a bright blue “Khun Aguero Agnis” flashing in big bold letters over the screen’s caller ID. He flinches and tosses the phone around like it’s a hot potato, just barely catching it before it falls to the ground.
“Hello?”
Bam flinches again. Oh no… Had he..?
“Um hello?”
Slowly, Bam turns the phone over, and there it is. He’d accepted the call.
“You should probably respond before he hangs up,” Hwaryun says knowingly from her place by the kitchen counter. Her voice is cool and collected, but Bam has known her long enough to catch the teasing twinkle in her left eye.
Shakily bringing his phone to his ear, he answers with a soft, “Hi?”
“Oh great!” Khun’s voice sounds almost… relieved? “I thought maybe the signal was being faulty.”
Not that that would be unlikely. Bam does live in the middle of the woods, after all.
“Luckily, no,” he mumbles, not sure of what else to say.
Khun hums pleasantly before continuing, “So how are you doing?”
Bam smiles a little at the eagerness in Khun’s voice. But still, with Hwaryun and Jinsung paying attention to his every move with intent stares and even sharper ears, Bam shivers slightly. His life is over. (A small voice reminds him: and maybe Khun’s too, if Bam doesn’t play this properly.)
“Sorry, could you give me just a moment?”
“Uh, sure.”
Bam mutes himself and darts past Jinsung to get to his bedroom fast enough that his master won’t get a good glimpse of his beet red face. As he shuts himself inside, he mutters a quick noise canceling spell along his door. At the back of his mind, he knows Jinsung has probably already broken through it, but at least it gives some sense of privacy.
“Okay, I’m ready now,” he says with glee as he flops onto his bed like a giddy little girl, not that that’s too far off from the truth. “What did you need?”
“I didn’t need anything. Just bored. Studying all day can get pretty boring, you know?”
“Yeah, I know what that’s like.” He most definitely did not.
“Is anything interesting going on with you?” Khun continues. “Sometimes my life feels less bleak when I know what other people are up to.”
“Yeah,” Bam starts, but then stops. He’d been making lots of progress in potioneering - he’d finally brewed a successful headache cure! He’d also finally managed to beat Yuri in a casual broom race, and she’s one of the best flyers in FUG. And most excitingly, he was currently talking to Khun Aguero Agnis!
Oh yes, and there was also the fact that his family wanted to kill said Khun Aguero Agnis. That one was more of a downer, though.
But still, Bam couldn’t tell his crush any of these things. So instead:
“I wish,” he sighs. “I’m just studying too.”
Khun hums again, but this time for longer. It’s almost as if he too is contemplating what’s appropriate to respond with.
“Do you think it’d be less boring if we studied together?”
Bam nearly topples out of his bed.
“T-Together?” he manages to ask after regaining his spot along the sheets.
Khun chuckles, probably having heard the chaos of all the shuffling. (Bam holds himself back from signalling his distress.) “Yeah, we could study together. If you want to, that is… Maybe at the library tomorrow after class, if you’re free?”
And boy, does Bam want to… And he’s also fr-
The adrenaline pumping through his body dissipates in an instant.
“I can’t do tomorrow after class.”
Bam loves spell lessons, he really does. He looks forward to them every week! Yet for the first time ever, he wishes they didn’t exist.
“Oh.”
Khun sounds upset. Gosh, Bam had really gone and ruined everything again… Why was everything stacked against him? Why couldn’t he be blessed with-
“Maybe lunch then?”
It’s like there was hope laced somewhere in his voice. And maybe (but just maybe!) Khun wanted to spend time with Bam too?
“Yes!’” he agrees again, all too readily. “Let’s eat lunch together!”
“Oh, great! Bring my math notes, will you? We can use them for reference in case you get stuck on anything.”
Bam nods excitedly as Khun rattles something about needing to go before hanging up. He’d just talked on the phone with the love of his life! And he’d been invited to eat lunch with said love of his life! The giddy feeling in his chest warms him all night: while he’s brushing his teeth, packing his things for the next day (with extra care for Khun’s notes - he carefully placed them into his book bag by hand instead of using magic to shove everything inside like usual).
It seems like things are finally looking up!
~*~
At least that’s what Bam told himself, until it was twenty minutes into his lunch break at the library with no word from Khun. His ham sandwich from the school cafeteria has never looked so sad and disgusting, and that’s saying a lot knowing the school cafeteria.
He should’ve expected as much, really. Why would Khun want to hang out with him anyways? Especially being as busy as he is. The past few days must have just been Bam’s fever dream.
Bam signals to Yuri again. He doesn’t feel like being at school anymore; maybe she’ll come pick him up early so he can leave without a fuss.
As expected, he was teleported home within two minutes.
“You’re home early today, Viole,” Jinsung calls as Bam walks into their home. “Did something happen?”
Bam is in shambles, and the last thing he needs is for his master to know the details.
“Absolutely nothing.”
His caretaker hums. “Have you made any progress with that Khun kid?”
Bam freezes. What is he supposed to say? Even if he wasn’t still distraught over today’s tragedy, he still wouldn’t be able to tell his family anything.
And Jinsung can read through Bam’s slurred “uh…” like a headline.
“Just keep at it, okay? No rush, but we’d hate to lose this lead.”
Bam simply hangs his head in shame. Maybe this is for the better. Bam may spiral into depression, but at least Khun will be safe. And for that, even with the hurt in his chest, Bam is glad.
~*~
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis : Hey, i’m really sorry about today
It comes within an hour of Bam ditching school. He can’t say he expected it, but of course Khun is perfect and mature and in another scenario Bam would go crawling back to him without a second doubt. But Bam knows his worth now! He won’t just accept any lousy excuse after being stood up.
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis : The student council meeting today ran over. It got so intense that I completely forgot about our study date
Um. What did he just say?! Study date? Study date..? Study date… Study… Date. A date!
Bam can’t do this. It was a date? Khun saw it as a date? Khun asked him on a date? They were going to go on a date? But he definitely didn’t see it in the same way. Maybe Khun just has a weird way of phrasing things. There’s no way. But date? Can that really mean anything else?
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis : I hope you didn’t wait up too long. If you’d be okay with it, I would love to get a redo tomorrow. :)
Khun is asking Bam to meet again. One on one. A redo of today. Of what Khun described as a study date. A date with Khun. Tomorrow.
Bam knows his worth and decided he won’t accept an excuse.
<<< Me: YES
But, maybe he can make an exception. Even if Khun doesn’t mean it romantically, he made an honest mistake in missing their date. Their date. Just this once, Bam can forgive him?
<<< Me: i mean. yes, it’s ok i can do tomorrow instead!
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis liked “YES”
And there’s no harm in continuing the conversation either.
<<< Me: i hope everything is ok with student council if it got so tense
>>> Khun Aguero Agnis : It’s just Hatz being insufferable again. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.
To Bam’s chagrin, their study date the next day does not include any confessions of love or anything of the sort. But any time in Khun’s company is more than enough for Bam.
~*~
It turns into meeting once a week, to thrice, to eating lunch together just for fun with no books in sight.
The shift in their relationship happens naturally, but Bam can’t help the anxiety that niggles its way through the back of his brain. Isn’t Khun busy? Is Bam a burden on him?’
It’s during one of these “study” sessions (in other words, Khun works at an apple while Bam bangs his head on the table in frustration at the word problem on question 24 and the occasional drop of juice that slivers down his crush’s chin as he bites) that everything comes to a head.
“Khun,” Bam asks curiously just as his crush leans over his shoulder to squint at Bam’s math work, and... Oh God. Bam can vaguely feel Khun’s breath on his neck. And it’s warm. But in a pleasant way. Bam has to look away. How is his skin so clear?
He nearly loses all track of his thoughts as Khun’s soft breath turns into a low but inquisitive hum as he begins to mark Bam’s work in red pen. “Is something wrong?” he asks, voice gentle but focused. He crosses out question 23 before letting out a light huff. “Besides these equations that is.”
“No, it’s just…” Bam hesitates, gathering his courage. “You don’t have to keep doing this, you know. You’re always so busy, and I know this must be a waste of your time. Why are you helping so much?”
Khun’s eyes don’t lift from the page. “Because you need it.”
Bam chokes. Any offense taken is smothered by how casually Khun oozes attractiveness.
“I am grateful but–” he starts, but Khun quickly cuts him off.
“Stop overthinking it,” Khun says. He confidently draws check mark next to question 24, before finally looking up and meeting Bam’s eyes with a grin. “I like seeing you improve. Besides, I’d miss our lunches.”
It takes everything in Bam not to signal his happiness to the entire wizarding community.
~*~
What Bam did not expect, even in his years of foresight training from Hwaryun, is a familiar head of blue hair at his front door speaking to said foresight coach.
He has to stop mid step on the staircase, just to make sure his eyes aren’t fooling him, but no matter how much he blinks, the image in front of him remains the same. As he takes a few more steps down, looks up at him with a bright smile.
“Hey Bam,” he calls out. “You forgot your calculator with me earlier, but you left school before I could find you.”
And no, no, no, everything is wrong.
Khun shouldn’t be here. He can’t be here. FUG’s orders ring loud and clear in his ears.
“How’d you know where I live?” Bam asks, hoping Khun doesn’t hear the quiver in his voice or his iron grip on the handrail.
“I used my student council president privileges,” he replies with a smirk. God, he’s so hot. If the situation weren’t so dire, that look alone would have Bam on the floor writhing.
“Why don’t you come inside, Mr. Khun?” Hwaryun suddenly interrupts, voice low and smooth with her usual sly smile. “You’re welcome to stay for tea if you wish.”
Bam gulps and practically sprints his way towards Khun, but it’s too late. Khun has already stepped inside, and Hwaryun has already shut the door behind him. She turns the lock.
“ Help me bring Mr. Khun inside ,” Hwaryun signals to Bam. “ Jinsung is on his way over now .”
Bam is rigid in his movements. He can hear his heartbeat in his ear as he watches Hwaryun guide Khun toward their living room. In all his years of sorcery and hiding said sorcery, he had never felt the stakes as high as this.
“I’m sure you have better things to do,” he says as he falls into step beside Khun. “You’re always so busy with student council work and studying, right? Shouldn’t you be tending to those?”
“I don’t think there’s any harm in taking a break,” Khun assures with a light grin, and it’s so carefree and unassuming that Bam feels his heart clench in fear. How could he let someone so perfect die for nothing more than his family’s affinity to magic? How is that fair?
But while Bam scrambles to develop a smarter way to get Khun to leave, he doesn’t even notice how his adoptive father has already stepped into the room.
“Khun, right?”
Bam freezes. He, quite literally, cannot move. It’s like the whole world is spinning, a car wreck in slow motion, and he can’t do anything about it other than watch in horror.
“That’s me, sir,” Khun nods politely. “I just came to return Bam’s calculator.”
No, Khun! Stop talking! Run!
“Oh, are you two working together?”
“Yes, sir, we’ve been studying together at lunch to prep for our SATs.”
Wake up, Bam! You need to protect Khun! Quickly!
Bam shoots a jolt of electricity up his arm. (He’d always been warned not to do that, with the high risk of electrocution from his metal bracelets, but desperate times call for desperate measures.) And that shock made him The Flash himself. He’s beside his crush in an instant.
Jinsung shoots him a look. “What’s up with you?” It’s a warning, Bam is smart enough to know that much. But surprisingly, his master’s face isn’t one of malice. It feels more like… confusion?
“Nothing! I was just thinking how Khun is student council president, and that makes him superrrrr busy-”
“Oh, you’re the president? That makes you quite impressive then.”
Khun cocks his head sweetly. “It’s not nearly as big of a deal as it seems.”
“Certainly you’re selling yourself short.”
Amidst their small talk, Jinsung starts to reach his hand out. It shakes a bit, his fingers sprawled with the slightest turn. A spell has to be coming… And Bam needs to move. Now!
In a sudden burst of courage, he darts between them.
“ Master , stop !”
“Bam, wh-”
At only sixteen, he knows he’s not strong enough to actually prevent Jinsung once he’s fully made up his mind, but he can at least try to buy some time.
“You can’t do this!”
Bam’s desperation commands a powerful shockwave of magic to ripple around them. He narrows it toward Khun, and solidifies it into a protective wall.
“Bam? Calm down!”
“He’s innocent! Just a kid like me!”
“What are you talking about?”
Bam rolls out another wave of magic, hoping to stall long enough for Khun to get out of here!
And for what it’s worth, Jinsung does stunt for a moment. That is, before his palm is connecting with Bam’s shoulder, and Bam prepares himself for the worst.
It doesn’t come, or maybe it does. It’s not Jinsung’s palm.
“Bam, are you okay?” Khun asks. “You should take a deep breath.”
Bam turns to face his crush in horror. Oh no. Khun moved past his barrier. There’s no going back now.
“You need to run!” he cries out, Khun’s hand still a soft but steady pressure against his shirt. If Bam wasn’t so scared right now, he would be memorizing the handprint to dot later with hearts. (He makes a mental note to revisit this memory if they get out of here alive, but with Khun’s current attitude, they probably wouldn’t.) “You just don’t understand!”
“You mean, understand that you do magic?”
Bam wallows in his own self spiral for a few moments before registering Khun's words. He whirls to face him.
“What did you just say?”
Khun’s eyebrows raise as if saying ‘ are you serious right now?’ And Bam suddenly feels like he’s missing something. It wouldn’t be the first time, but he’s spent a long time analyzing every detail about Khun. He takes a deep breath.
“So you know my family is trying to kill you?”
And after a long pause: “I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Hwaryun digresses.
~*~
As it turns out: FUG is not the magic underground crime syndicate that Bam had grown up thinking. Quite the opposite, actually.
“After that disaster, Jahad entrusted us with overseeing magic usage in the human world,” Yuri explains. “We’re here to make sure nothing gets out and no one gets hurt.”
As Hwaryun brings a pot of tea into the living room, Jinsung sighs, clamping a hand over his forehead in exasperation. “So why did you think we wanted to kill him?”
Bam can’t believe this. What else was he supposed to think?
“The Great Families talk, the constant checking in?”
Jinsung and Yuri glare at him, unimpressed. Hwaryun sips tea from where she stands at the doorway.
Bam honestly feels like he’s been living a fever dream. That, or he’s being gaslit.
“What about the secret missions, or all those visits from the dark robed wizards and the enchanted briefcase exchanges?”
“Bam,” Khun clears his throat from the cushion next to him. “The robed wizards are actually the magic users of the Ten Great Families. They wear them to distinguish themselves in case we have an emergency.”
Great. Even Khun knows more than him. Not that this is a first, but now his crush really knows that Bam is an idiot. How can this be happening?
“You know everything already? Do you know magic too?”
Khun grins sheepishly. “Actually, my branch of the family doesn’t really have a talent for it. I didn’t even know magic existed until I accidentally froze a sandwich mid-bite a few years ago. Everyone was so surprised, but all of the magic users in the main line said it appeared too late to be of any use, so there was no point in training me. Then I found out about FUG last year, and thought that maybe you guys could help me get my magic under control.”
Khun looks at Jinsung and Yuri the entire time he speaks, almost as pitching his case. Alternatively, he’s looking at everyone except for Bam, now that he knows how much of a lost cause he’s become to FUG.
“So,” Bam starts after a moment, glaring at his lap to keep his tear ducts in check. “You knew my family the entire time, and that’s why you befriended me.”
He says it as a statement, rather than a question, because even for Bam, it’s hard to ignore the facts.
It makes sense, after all. Why else would someone as perfect as Khun have approached someone as messy as Bam? Why else would he have met him for lunch daily, or offered to tutor him, or brought his calculator to Bam's far off house in the middle of the woods, when Khun Aguero Agnis is the definition of success and Bam is just… a nobody?
Khun interrupts Bam’s internal monologue with an audible gulp.
“Well,” he starts, now no longer facing Jinsung and Yuri, but visibly avoiding Bam’s eye contact. “I can’t deny that’s how it started.”
Of course. Bam had resigned himself to this. It was all inevitable. He makes a note to reprimand himself for allowing his heart to hope.
“But then after we called the first time, and then started meeting up every day, I thought…”
A hint of pink peeks out beneath Khun’s cheeks. Even with all the hours he’s spent appreciating Khun’s masterfully carved face, this is a first sight for Bam.
“I thought that you were pretty cute.” Khun glances toward Bam’s direction tentatively, then meets his eyes. All Bam can see is Khun. “And I forgot all about the magic thing.”
Bam’s gasp hitches in his throat. Hope beats in his ears, so loud he can’t hear his own thoughts, bursting through his veins with every pump.
“I know it’s kind of embarrassing,” Khun starts again. “Sorry to make things awkward with all this. I really didn’t expect this to be the way I meet FUG–”
“I like you,” Bam blurts out. “I really like you.”
The pink on Khun’s cheeks washes over his whole face.
“Ahem,” Yuri’s voice telepathically echoes between Bam’s erratic heartbeat. “We’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”
But for the first time, Bam pays her signal no mind, focusing only on the warm smile that’s spread across Khun’s lips.
“Me too.”
~*~
Now don’t get Bam wrong: even with all the hardships of being a high schooler with secret magic powers, he loves his life. His family is the best of the best. He loves the euphoria of finally perfecting a potion after hundreds of trials. He loves the feeling of the wind in his hair as he flies on his broomstick through the air. He even loves cramming for the SATs despite knowing his efforts are futile, because it means he gets to spend more time with the prettiest tutor anyone could ask for. Especially when he’s grading Bam’s work and biting his lip with his brows furrowed…
“Bam!”
Bam is shaken out of his daze. Khun’s eyes glow disapprovingly.
“You’re doing better,” he starts, while Bam smiles sheepishly. “But you keep making the same mistakes since you’re too busy staring off into space while I explain them to you.”
“You’re so pretty,” Bam drawls, then perks up in embarrassment, quickly defending himself. “I can’t help but get distracted! Wanna take a break? I can show you how stunning the lake nearby looks at sunset.”
Khun rolls his eyes adoringly, but nods and allows himself to be dragged outside. His face turns to apprehension as Bam pulls out two broomsticks.
“We’re not teleporting there?”
Bam grins cheekily. “Nope! It’s time I teach you something. Get on!”
His boyfriend does so, apprehensively. He knows Khun would never do something so out of his comfort zone if it wasn’t for Bam’s enthusiasm. His heart melts a bit.
“Okay, so you mount the broom and then kick off like this.” Bam says while demonstrating, hovering only a few feet before returning to the ground. “Once you get the hang of it, we can start flying for real. The broom will naturally follow where you want to go. Don’t worry, I already charmed it for training mode, so you won’t fall off. Even if it somehow malfunctions I’ll catch you.”
Khun nods confidently, mounting the broom and taking a confident breath. With his strong magical affinity, this should be no different than how quickly he learned to tame dragons, transfigure objects, or any of the other skills he’d picked up so far. Khun bends his knees, and...
Instead of taking air, he falls straight to the ground.
Bam cracks into laughter immediately.
“Okay big shot,” Khun mutters as he stands and remounts his broom, brushing dirt from his knees. “Second time’s a charm.”
“Here I thought there was nothing you weren’t a natural at,” Bam admits with a light smirk. “I was already doing loops by my second time in the air!”
He always loves Khun’s competency, but there is something uniquely adorable about seeing him fail as a complete beginner, and Bam had limited opportunities to tease him for it.
“It’s lucky you’re such an amazing flier then,” his boyfriend says haughtily. Bam raises his eyebrows.He doesn’t even have time to relish in the attractiveness of that smirk before Khun is off the ground and hopping over the rear of Bam’s broom. “That means you can fly for the both of us!”
“Hey!”
His boyfriend simply clings onto his back before Bam can shove him off. Bam honestly can’t complain, though.
“Shall we go visit the lake?”
Bam giggles and kicks them into the air. “Am I your chauffeur now?”
“If you’d be so kind,” Khun says, musing into the back of his neck. “But your services won’t go without compensation, of course.”
They’re flying slow. It’s a symptom of extra weight on the broomstick, but Bam doesn’t mind having more time to relish in his boyfriend’s rear embrace. Plus, it gives him more time to look around and admire the views. He means the scenery, of course.
Bam’s eyes span around to meet Khun’s grinning face. “So, what sort of compensation are we talking?”
“This kind,” Khun whispers, leaning up for a peck.
They nearly crash into a flock of birds, but hey. It’s hard enough being sixteen with magic powers and the impending doom of SATs around the corner, but Bam really loves Khun Aguero Agnis. So maybe nothing is that hard after all.