don’t look for me anymore
9.2k words yoon jeonghan x f!reader, harry potter au, lovers to enemies to strangers to friends to lovers (😭), angst, fluff, kind of dialogue heavy, misunderstandings
synopsis; the last time you and jeonghan saw each other felt like it’d be the last, but clearly fate had different plans
“ow- watch it yoon!” your friend soonyoung scowled at the boy that had just bumped into him. the boy in question being none other than yoon jeonghan.
“why? you that weak that it broke your arm or something? your little girlfriend going to kiss it better for you?” the long haired boy shot back, his voice going high pitched at the end in favour of mocking your friend. jeonghan’s eyes turned to you, “though i can’t expect you’d be with her for much longer” he narrowed his eyes, “she’s not even bothered to stand up for you” he scoffed mirthfully.
“she’s not my girlfriend, but even if she was or wasn’t it’s none of your business so leave her alone?” soonyoung snarled at him.
despite soonyoung’s wishes, the slytherin would not leave you alone. he continued to stare you down, patiently waiting however long it’d take you to budge and acknowledge his presence.
“ln. you blind or something?” he stared down at you, “not even going to say hi to an old friend?” he faked a pout, faux sadness in his voice.
“i’d never be friends with someone like you, yoon” you glared at him, trying your best to not present yourself in a way that was open to something he could poke fun at you for.
he scoffed. you could tell he saw right through you. for a gryffindor, you were always quite the coward when it came to jeonghan.
“that so? you didn’t have the same thing to say a few years ago though” he smirked, hell bent on making sure you remember what the two of you’ve known for years but you try hiding so desperately. “ah well, i’ve got better things to do now so i’ll see you and your girlfriend another time”
soonyoung waited for jeonghan to leave before turning to you, “think if i pay shua he’ll put some hair removing potion into his shampoo?”
you breathed a laugh out at his idea, imagining jeonghan’s reaction to it. he’d probably use his whole life savings to get the school shut down.
——- ★
walking into your transfiguration class, you quickly moved to get to the last seat at a table of a few gryffindors. your face dropped when you saw it be taken by a hufflepuff. scanning the classroom, your eyes set on the last remaining seat at the table of slytherin’s, and low and behold, there was yoon jeonghan. luckily enough, the seat wasn’t next to him but one of his friends, joshua.
from what soonyoung had told you about joshua, he was nice- so much so that soonyoung insists the sorting hat must’ve been having an off day when it decided to place him in slytherin. but from what your other friend seungcheol had told you, joshua was just as mischievous if not more so than jeonghan. and from what you’d seen of him in classes for the last few years, he was incredibly good at thinking on his feet. the amount of excuses he’d managed to pull from out of thin air had you questioning just how eventful this man’s life was.
you’d quickly moved to the table, smiling slightly to joshua “uh, is it alright if i sit here?”
joshua smiled easily at you, “yeah sure go ahead” getting a quill out of his bag before moving it off of the seat so you could sit there.
you breathed out a ‘thank you’ before grabbing a quill yourself, keeping your gaze fixed on the textbook while you waited for your professor to arrive.
as much as you’d tried to avoid it- you could feel his eyes on you. you knew jeonghan was staring at you, but you couldn’t deal with him embarrassing you in front of his friends so you avoided passing your gaze to him.
——- ★
class felt like it’d never end but as soon as mcgonagall had dismissed you, you don’t think you’d ever packed your things that quickly.
turning on your heel you made a beeline for the door, hoping to catch up with seungcheol to head to your next class.
“yn” you heard someone behind you clear their throat, and you silently prayed it wasn’t who you thought it was. you turned around to see joshua with his hand out, “yn, you forgot your book”
“oh thank you, joshua” you hummed, smiling up at him. for a split second, you looked to the left of him and saw jeonghan staring right back at you. “well..” you cleared your throat, “i’ve got to go now, but thanks again. i’ll see you around, bye!” and then you were gone.
“should’ve burnt it instead of giving it back” jeonghan muttered while he walked out of the classroom with his friend.
“next time, you can have at it” joshua laughed. being jeonghan’s best friend, he was well aware of the circumstances between you and jeonghan. “don’t you think it’s about time you let it go?” joshua suggested when they’d arrived back to the common room.
“it’s not like i care about that, i just don’t like people as spineless as her” jeonghan muttered. despite his words, joshua could easily tell he didn’t mean it. he was still genuinely hurt at what happened in your guys’ fifth year. “whatever. you heading to hogsmeade this weekend?”
“not sure yet. might have to catch up on some homework, why?” joshua pondered over it.
“i wanted to head down to grab something” jeonghan sighed, “a book you idiot!” jeonghan continued after seeing the sceptical look from his friend.
“you can’t blame me for being curious, can you?” joshua laughed, dodging the pillow his friend threw at him.
“well if you do change your mind, let me know. anyway, i’ve got alchemy now, i’ll see you at dinner”
joshua nodded, waving at his friend before heading to his own class, potions.
——- ★
“have you thought about what you’re going to do after n.e.w.t’s?” nayeon asked you as the two of walked into class.
“hm? uh i was thinking maybe taking a year to myself for travelling or something” you thought over it for a few seconds, “i think i’ll end up going insane if i need to start looking for jobs immediately” you laughed.
“that’s fair” nayeon returned your laughs, “i’m not completely sure what i want to do either. i was so confident back in fifth but now it’s just.. i’m so unmotivated” she groaned, burying her head in her arms.
you rubbed her back in comfort, looking to the door to make sure professor snape hadn’t arrived yet. you knew what he was like, if he saw nayeon ‘slacking off’ as he would put it, he’d end up taking it out on all gryffindor. “oh- nayeon quick get up” you whispered when you caught a glimpse of his greasy, unkempt hair.
“oh shit thanks” she told you hurriedly, quickly gathering the materials from her bag. you stifled a laugh at her panic, secretly urging her to hurry up because snape was about to direct his line of vision to the two of you.
luckily, nayeon had managed to get everything out in time and from what snape saw she was raring to get the lesson started.
“nayeon, this weekend professor sprout has requested you help the first years with their extra curricular” snape looked over unamused.
nayeon sighed before nodding, and turned to you to roll her eyes before plastering a smile on and turning back to the board.
“can’t believe i have to cancel our plans this weekend to help with herbology. why couldn’t that slimy snape just ‘forget’ to tell me instead” your friend groaned disheartened.
you laughed, “it’s fine don’t worry about it, we can always go next week!” you reassured her.
“if i end up dying before that i’ll make sure i turn into a ghost and terrorise the herbology class from now on” she mumbled, still pouting. “oh well. i suppose if we can’t hang out you can at least spend some time with your ‘boyfriend’” nayeon teased.
you looked at her confused for a few seconds before groaning and rolling your eyes, “are you talking about guwon again? i told you he’s not my boyfriend!”
“you guys are literally always together!” she accused, a smirk settling on her face.
“that’s because he doesn’t have any friends!” you lied. from what you knew, guwon was pretty popular in ravenclaw, “we only know or talk to each other because our parents are best friends. if it wasn’t for that i wouldn’t even look at him”
nayeon pondered for a few seconds, “you have to admit though.. he’s pretty cute isn’t he?”
you sighed, clearly she wasn’t going to drop it. “i guess you’re right.. guwon is a little cute, but ah-!” you were cut off by someone bumping, well more pushing, passed you.
“watch it!” nayeon screamed at whoever it was, helping you up at the same time. “ugh, some people are so rude. are you alright yn?”
nayeon had her wand out, ready to hex whoever had bumped into you without even apologising.
“i’m fine, thanks” small smile on your face. you looked over for a few seconds while nayeon was still ranting about the manners of people in this school, you could see the back of who had bumped into you and you immediately recognised those long raven locks of hair. you frowned slightly; you really couldn’t blame him. you smiled at nayeon before just suggesting to head back to the common room until dinner.
——- ★
that weekend, you decided to head to hogsmeade on your own, asking nayeon what she wanted you to bring back for her. after making a note of it, you headed off.
when you arrived, you made a beeline for the three broomsticks, although you quickly regretted it seeing how busy it was. there was only one free seat and it was next to- oh great.
“mind if i sit here?” you mumbled, avoiding his eyes.
“what? you sit here?” jeonghan deadpanned, looking up at you, “no. get lost” he didn’t pay you any more mind, going back to sipping his drink.
you sighed exasperated, “look there’s literally no where else to sit!” you gestured toward all the seats to emphasise your point.
jeonghan followed what you were pointing at, before settling on one table. he pointed toward it, gathering your attention, “isn’t that your boyfriend over there? why don’t you go sit next to your darling, cute moon guwon?” he made a physical show of gagging unenthusiastically.
you stayed silent for a minute. “yeah that’s what i thought” he scoffed. “always so spineless. for a gryffindor you’re a real coward, you know that?”
he continued to sip his butter beer, really paying you no more attention. that was until you shoved him to make room for you on the bench.
“the hell do you think you’re doing?” he whisper-shouted at you, ears turning red at how close to his side you were.
“just shut up for once!” you scoffed, “that was what i hated most about you when we dated” you shook your head at him, aware he could see the teasing gleam in your eyes.
he shook his own head, “oh yeah? well i hated how you never understood the concept of personal space, and clearly-” he gestured between the two of you, “you still haven’t”
you giggled lightly, taking your own butter beer from the waitor, “thank you” you smiled as she left. “whatever. see it isn’t hard for you to be civil is it?”
you looked up at jeonghan when he went silent, but he was looking at something else. you followed his line of sight and saw guwon approaching the two of you.
“yn, hi! you’re with.. jeonghan.. how have you guys been?” he smiled tight lipped.
“uh good. how about you, guwon?” you shifted uncomfortably.
“i’m great! jeonghan?”
the boy in question was currently staring down at his hands, playing with a coin between his fingers. “hm?” he looked up. “i’m uh, i’m good guwon. thanks” he said void of emotion.
“great! yn how about you join me at my table?” he said moving to grab your hand.
you moved your hand from where he could grab it, moving it to your pocket instead. you were tired of jeonghan making assumptions on his own. “i’m going to head out after i finish this anyway. just wanted to grab a drink. thanks though!”
guwon nodded before heading back to his own table, but you could tell he wasn’t happy. you rolled your eyes at the thought of a letter from your parents coming within the next few days to scold you.
whatever- that didn’t matter. what mattered was the boy sitting next to you. warily, you looked back at him, a distant look in his eyes. he looked so hurt, and tired. “jeonghan-” you started, only for him to put a hand up to stop you.
“i can’t be bothered with your explanation, ln” he muttered, “just finish your drink and leave me alone, please”
you nodded before gulping down the rest of your drink, heading to the counter to pay for yours as well as jeonghan’s drink. it was the least you could do.
when you got back to hogwarts, the first thing you did was head back to the dorm. you didn’t care about dinner tonight, you just felt so tired. you left the book nayeon wanted on her bed before you sat on your own. rubbing your face as you collected your thoughts, reminiscing on the past.
little did you know jeonghan was thinking the same on the other side of the castle.
during fifth year, you and jeonghan were incredibly happy together. you both hated being apart from each other so much that hiding the relationship seemed to be the most difficult thing ever. you would have to borrow someone else’s hands to count the amount of close calls there were.
“baby” jeonghan whined from next to you, both of you sitting in the old astronomy tower that nobody used anymore. “this hiding the relationship thing is getting too tiresome. we’ve been dating for months now, are you sure we can’t..?” he looked over to you, hopeful that you’d finish his sentence with the words he so desperately wanted to hear.
“what? tell people we’re dating?” you looked over at him perplexed, you’ve explained the situation to him more times you could count. “han.. you know i want to but-”
“your parents. i know i know. i’m sorry” he looked back up at the stars, shoulders deflating in defeat.
you gulped nervously, there really was only so much someone could put up with before they lose their mind. “hannie..” you whispered, taking his hands in yours, “i’m sorry. this summer i’ll convince them, alright?”
“you will?” jeonghan looked at you, his eyes resembling those of a kicked puppy.
“i will- and besides! it’s not like you’re the problem, it’s my parents! they don’t want me dating anyone” you hoped and prayed he wouldn’t catch onto your white lie. and thankfully he didn’t because you saw him get a little more energy from knowing your parents didn’t have a personal grudge against him.
about two weeks after your night with jeonghan in the astronomy tower, dumbledore had announced the parents dinner/ball that was to be held.
when jeonghan approached you when it had first been announced you knew this situation wasn’t going to end well. because he had suggested he find a way to convince your parents at the dinner that he was good enough for you. and in that moment you realised yoon jeonghan was in fact too good for you.
“mom, dad please don’t do this” you glared at your parents while whisper-shouting your complaints. still, they beckoned the Moon’s over, catching up with their old friends and introducing you to their son, moon guwon. you shook his hand, shooting him a curt, tight-lipped smile.
you weren’t exactly unfamiliar with him. he was a ravenclaw boy in your year who, from what you knew from seungcheol, was popular in his house. he was definitely their best candidate for head boy in a few years.
“why don’t the two of you go dance?” your mother laughed obnoxiously, already pushing the two of you to the center.
guwon circled his arm around your waist, bringing you closer to him. he smiled down at you, eyebrows furrowing when he saw how unhappy you looked.
“please let me go” you told him coldly, “i don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be dancing with you”
“why? think you’re going to hurt yoon’s feelings? look to your left you’re already too late” guwon scoffed, his head nodding toward jeonghan who you couldn’t read at all.
your face ran cold, desperately trying to get to him but guwon kept you close to him. “let me-”
“do you really just want to hurt him even more?” he looked at you seriously, “what? you really think you can convince your own, as well as my parents to call off this fantasy engagement they’ve had planned for us since they were our age?”
“you’re telling me that’s real? well we can’t just let them-”
“you can argue with them all you want” guwon told you unamused, “if you want yourself to end up on the streets on diagon alley, you go ahead”
a few minutes later, jeonghan had left and you did your best to excuse yourself from the party. jeonghan wasn’t anywhere near the entrances to the main hall. you saw a few of his friends but stopped yourself from asking them, it’d only cause suspicion.
you ran to the slytherin common room, maybe you could catch up with him before he entered; you didn’t know the password so there was no chance of the two of you could talk things through. when you had arrived, you still couldn’t find jeonghan.
‘where could he have gone?’ you paced thinking to yourself. and then it hit you.
when you arrived at the old astronomy tower, jeonghan was sitting there, looking up at the stars like he always did.
“jeonghan” you sighed out of breath, “jeonghan let me-”
“let you explain how you lied to me? how you basically lead me on this entire year? it’s fine yn i don’t care” he told you coldly.
“jeonghan please” you pleaded, “i didn’t want any of what happened back there”. he didn’t stop you so you continued, sighing “my parents and guwon’s parents have had some dream of getting me and him married, but i don’t want that!”
“so then tell them that yn! why’re you telling me?” jeonghan finally looked at you and you finally caught a glimpse of the hurt in his eyes, tears that gathered in his pretty eyes cascading down his face.
you stayed silent. you wanted to tell them but you knew what it meant. you’d be an outsider from your family, never acknowledged again. “jeonghan i can’t..”
jeonghan moved to stand up, harshly rubbing the tears from his eyes. he sniffed, the tip of his nose appearing slightly pink from the cold wind. “see that’s your problem yn. this is what it’s like with you and i can’t be bothered with it anymore. when you can finally take action and stop being so ashamed of me.. come find me”
“that exam sucked!” soonyoung cried, the younger fourth year boy, lee chan, cheering him up.
“oh come on soonyoung! it couldn’t have been that bad. besides! you’re cool you don’t need these stupid exams anyway” the younger boy continued to pat his back comfortingly.
“no it’s not chan! ‘m gonna fail my newts and then the ministry’s gonna laugh at me when i try getting a job!” soonyoung sobbed, clinging onto chan for dear life.
“soonyoung people are staring at us” nayeon urged soonyoung to stop, “besides why don’t you use this to study for the next one?”
soonyoung looked at nayeon as if she’d grown a second head, “are you daft? i’m thinking of ways to make sure my life isn’t over and you’re telling me about studying!”
nayeon slammed her book shut, using it hit soonyoung’s arm, making him groan and whine in pain. “maybe your life won’t be over if you actually study for the next one more!”
“oh yeah. you’ve got a point nayeon thanks” soonyoung smiled, taking the book from her “i’ll use this to study thanks!” and that was all he said before he ran off, nayeon chasing after him.
you laughed at their antics, watching them for a few more seconds before turning back to your own study material.
the library was surprisingly empty today, you’d have thought more seventh years would be here studying but apparently not. you wished you could be a little relaxed like them, but you were currently stressed beyond reason about the exam tomorrow.
the exam today wasn’t nearly as bad as soonyoung had said, and when you checked back on your notes after the exam was over, you were pleased to see most of your answers were related to what your notes had said. even that couldn’t give you complete peace of mind though, these exams were too unpredictable.
you looked over at the clock and saw it was getting late, your exam was pretty early tomorrow so it’s best you get a good night's sleep so that you don’t end up falling asleep on your test.
after you packed your things up and headed for the exit, something- or rather someone, caught your eye. you debated mentally for a few seconds on whether or not to approach him and before you knew it, your feet were dragging you to him.
“jeonghan” you sighed, smiling at him when he looked up at you, a little confused as to why you would approach him so suddenly. he wasn’t alone, he was with joshua and a few of his other slytherin friends. “good luck with the exam tomorrow. you too joshua!” you waved and left before getting a response from them, but heard a ‘thanks you too!’ from joshua when your back was turned.
walking back to your dorm, you lingered a little longer, observing the walls and infrastructure to set in stone in your mind. it was painful to think about but you weren’t going to be here much longer unfortunately.
while you were lost in your thoughts, you found yourself ending up at the old astronomy tower. you hadn’t been here in two years.
the view was as gorgeous as ever, and the cool air grazed your cheeks so pleasantly. and it dried the tears quicker than you could wipe them.
the memories of the night two years ago were too painful to think about too much. you regretted it so much but still, you often thought about his words. “when you can finally take action and stop being so ashamed of me.. come find me”.
you sometimes wondered if that offer still stood. what if he’d grown tired of waiting? dating isn’t huge news in hogwarts so there was a chance he’d already moved on. your heart broke at the thought. you berated yourself for feeling like this. he was the one that got hurt, not you.
maybe you could fix things between the two of you. you were hopeful, but if you were to be honest with yourself it was all in vain. until you’d be able to stand up to your parents there was no use.
their obsession with keeping up their high status in the wizarding world wasn’t something that you could make disappear in a night.
you continued to look up at the stars, if they were going to be like this, was there even a point in continuing to be a part of their false idea of a family. you were smart enough to get a well paying job, so even if they did abandon you, it’s not as if your life would be over. and you were certain your friends were much more loyal to you than your family, so it’s not as if they’d let you rot slowly away while living with regret.
if only you had realised this back in fifth year you thought to yourself. you were fine with losing a family that was practically never yours, but losing jeonghan who only had love for you was the most stupid decision of your life.
you had decided that after your final day, and when all your classmates will part ways ready for the future, you’d find jeonghan and tell him everything.
——- ★
“how was the exam?” nayeon smiled nervously at you. it was easy to tell she was happy but she was being careful in case it wasn’t the case for you.
you sighed, making yourself look as sad as possible before giggling at her worried expression, “it was amazing!”
“what-? you had me worried!” she whined, pushing you lightly and then pulled you into a hug. from the corner of her eye she saw soonyoung and immediately turned to him, “how was it?”
“so much better than yesterday! i owe it to you nayeon i think i would’ve failed if you didn’t force me to study” he high-fived her. “cheol how’d you find it?”
“they were all pretty great for me soonyoung, i didn’t wait until the last minute like some idiot” seungcheol smirked when soonyoung started to sputter in offence.
you laughed again, but your mind was still distant from everything happening in front of you. looking around, you spotted where the slytherin’s were, jeonghan laughing with joshua’s arm around him. you had to wait until he was alone and it was probably going to have to be after dinner.
you decided to finish up on packing instead, you’d all be heading out tomorrow and getting your results in the mail after a few days.
as you emptied out the last of your things you noticed something. a small, thin silver bracelet. jeonghan had given it to you on your guys’ third date and you’d kept it ever since. you wore it everyday while you were together but wearing it after that night was too painful. you let out a breath you’d been holding in, slipping the bracelet on so it sat pretty on your wrist.
you couldn’t eat much at dinner, your eyes kept turning to where jeonghan sat, hoping he’d get the signals you were sending.
you thought maybe he did when he left earlier than his friends. thinking this was your chance, you waited a minute or two to head in the same direction, trying to be as discreet as possible. you continued to follow where he was heading, confused when he walked to the astronomy tower.
“how long are you going to just keep following me?” jeonghan muttered annoyed, turning around to stare you in the eyes when you wouldn’t respond. his expression was saying ‘go on’.
“i wanted to talk to you-”
before you could finish, jeonghan laughed bitterly. “this is a familiar scene isn’t it. the same astronomy tower and you’re saying the same thing”
“han please just-”
“don’t call me that” he spat bitterly, cutting you off. “the only thing that changed is that we finally feel the same”
you looked at him confused for a few seconds, ‘what the hell was he talking about?’
“two years ago, i loved you. so, so much. but you didn’t love me back, we didn’t feel the same. but now we do. you hate me like you did back then, and i hate you too. isn’t it just hilarious how the world works”
you couldn’t speak. ‘i hate you too’ the words echoed in your mind. you wanted to tell him that it wasn’t true, you never hated him and you never could hate him. that even today you still love him. but the words died in your throat to make space for the lump forming in it. “jeonghan-”
“yn” he turned back to look at you, “don’t try to find me anymore”.
it wasn’t fair. the first time he had called you by your name in two years and it was to tell you that he never wanted to see you again.
he didn’t care about you. his offer didn’t mean anything, he didn’t want you to find him.
it wasn’t fair because you cared about him, to you that offer was a last hope, you had already found your soulmate.
but he didn’t care. he saw the tears in your eyes and scoffed, walking away from you and not even looking back once.
sniffing harshly, you bitterly wiped your tears, deciding to retreat for your dorm for the rest of the night, waiting for the trains to take you away the next morning. away from hogwarts, away from life as you know it, and away from a life with jeonghan.
“lumos” jeonghan gripped his wand loosely, having just shot up from the sound of someone in his house.
“jeonghan! happy birthday!” jeonghan winced at his friend’s loudness, groaning as he rubbed the sleep from his eye. looking over at the bedside table, he saw the clock read 00:03.
“what the hell are you doing in my house at midnight?” jeonghan looked at his friend unimpressed, but any threatening looking act he was trying to put on was undone by his messy bed head.
“wishing you a happy birthday!” he motioned to the balloons to which jeonghan rolled his eyes. “oh come on, it’s not everyday your best friend turns 25 is it? here make a wish”
joshua brought a small cupcake with a single candle lit to jeonghan, and he’d be lying if he said there wasn’t a smile creeping onto his face at his friend’s efforts. he blew out the candle, giving a hug to his friend. “thanks shua”
joshua smiled brightly, “your welcome, what’d you wish for by the way? because if i were to make a suggestion i’d tell you to wish for a girlfriend because-”
“you’re starting to sound like my mother, you know?” jeonghan whined, taking a lick of the cupcake’s frosting.
“look i’m sorry! but usually this type of thing would be done by somebody’s partner- not t eir best friend” joshua reasoned, taking a seat on jeonghan’s bed.
“well it’s not exactly like i asked you to do all this” jeonghan mumbled under his breath, “not that i don’t appreciate it of course!” he quickly added on seeing the look joshua always has when he’s mad. and an angry joshua was not something jeonghan wanted to deal with at 12am.
“whatever. have you got work in the morning?” joshua took a cupcake for himself from the box of a dozen.
“yeah, someone from a different department’s transferring to ours. i’ve got to introduce them to the team and sort of like- mentor them i guess. well it’s more like just showing them the ropes but you get the idea. anyway i’ve got to do that for a week”
“aren’t you the head of the department?” joshua looked at him confused.
jeonghan finished off his cupcake, throwing the paper into the bin near his door. “i am, but i thought i’d just introduce them. we don’t get new people often-”
“because you people have some crazy elite department-”
“we don’t get new people so i thought i’d be nice and introduce them myself”
joshua stared at his friend for a few seconds. “the minister told you to do it didn’t he?” he smirked.
jeonghan’s eyes widened, ‘how the hell did joshua see through him?’ “look whatever! maybe choi seungcheol was on my ass about it a little more than usual for some reason but i don’t care! now goodnight!”
joshua laughed at his friend before deciding to head to the guest room for the night, he still had to get everything for jeonghan’s party set for later. hopefully one of his surprises wouldn’t completely fall through.
——- ★
“so you’re transferring next week?” nayeon asked you while she took a sip of her drink. the both of you were currently at your friend soonyoung’s quidditch match.
“that’s what cheol told me yeah” you kept an eye on the game, trying to follow soonyoung but it was hard considering he was the seaker so he constantly moved from one side of the field to the other in mere seconds.
“that’s great!” nayeon smiled before it dropped seeing the dejected look on your face, “isn’t it?”
“it is! it’s just- for some reason they’re making the head of the department stay with me for my first week” you rubbed the back of your neck sheepishly.
nayeon frowned confused, “that’s weird. did you ask cheol about that?”
when you opened your mouth to speak you were cut off by a bludger almost hitting right to the side of the bench where you were sat. before it could connect however, the referee made quick work of whipping out his wand to divert it back to the middle of the field.
you breathed heavily, “that was a close one! thank you!” you called out to the referee, “but uh anyway yeah the transfer. i didn’t want to bother cheol with asking him why the head’s sticking with me this week. it’s already amazing he’s putting the transfer through”
nayeon nodded, looking away from you to look at the match again. currently, soonyoung and the opposing team’s seaker were neck and neck, fingertips grasping for the snitch. both you and nayeon shouted cheers for soonyoung and his team, the cheers getting louder as soonyoung got closer.
after a tense chase, soonyoung finally managed to grab the snitch, using his broom to fly through the crowds, waving at the two of you when he spotted where your seats were.
“just through that lift and you’ll be right there lovely” the old lady at the receptionist smiled at you.
you nodded your head and thanked her before going to where she pointed out. the nerves were secretly eating you up.
you checked the small mirror in the elevator to help you freshen yourself up. you’ve had new jobs before, and nerves never hit you on your first day. but the fact that you’ll have to immediately jump into having your boss practically watching your every move and breathing down your neck. ‘get a grip you were a gryffindor for a reason’ you mentally motivated yourself.
the elevator made a sound indicating you were here causing you to take one last look and make sure you looked alright.
the owl you received told you that you’d have to meet the head in his office. you looked around for it, but couldn’t really spot it what with everyone walking around. it must’ve been break time you supposed.
“hi!” you said to one of the workers you spotted near the coffee machine, he returned your smile. you checked his name tag and saw his name was hansol. “i just transferred here and i was told to meet with the head at his office. could you just point where it is?”
he nodded, taking the last sip before throwing the paper cup into the bin. “sure, follow me. it’s a bit far i’m not going to lie”
suddenly you felt bad about making the poor guy use his break to take you to this office, you could’ve just looked around until you found it.
“so what’s your name?” hansol turned to you. “there was a mental situation with the owls and we never ended up getting the file with your information, just the news that there was a transfer”
you blinked at him. a situation with the owls? “oh that’s weird. well i’m yn” you held out your hand for him to shake and he returned it with his own introduction and a nice to meet you.
the both of you continued to walk until you reached a large bookshelf covering an entire wall. you saw vernon reach for wand before reciting an ‘alohomora’ under his breath.
you watched as the book shelf parted vertically in the middle, stepping back cautiously. it revealed another door, and hansol told you that all you needed to do was knock and wait for him to answer.
“by the way it’s his birthday today, so if you mention that later it’ll get him in a good mood” that was the last thing hansol told you before leaving.
his birthday was today? you quickly decided to make a note of it after knocking on the door, october 3rd.. who else’s birthday was on october 3rd?
you went through a mental list of whoever you’ve been close to, none of their birthdays being october 3rd? who the hell was it?
your thoughts were cute off by the door swinging open, your new boss standing right at the frame. oh, that’s who you were thinking of.
“good afternoon, i’m the head of this department my names yoon jeonghan,” he still hadn’t looked up at you, “if you don’t mind could you just tell me your name, you might’ve heard the issue with the owls-” he finally looked up, the color draining from his face.
“i’m ln yn” you held your hand out for him to shake, “i look forward to working here”
you weren’t honestly expecting jeonghan to return the handshake, but surprisingly he did. the initial shock hadn’t run out yet, he still really couldn’t believe you were here.
slowly, an awkward atmosphere encased the two of you. you cleared your throat, “uh, happy birthday! hansol told me..” you trailed off at the end.
you looked up at him and all of a sudden you were 16 again, unable to decipher what the slytherin was feeling. you knew for sure he couldn’t be happy about this entire thing though.
despite your thoughts, jeonghan had actually plastered a smile on his face. “thank you. come inside and we’ll discuss what the following week’ll be like”
you nodded before following him into the office, closing the door behind you. jeonghan motioned for you to sit on the chair opposite from his behind the desk.
when you sat down the nerves hit you again. all of a sudden all you thought about the last time you saw jeonghan, what he said to you. to not look for him anymore.
you started to play with the bracelet on your wrist, and you mentally facepalmed at how it was the one jeonghan had given you all those years ago.
to be fair, it was a beautiful bracelet, and it just so happened to be the one you reached for randomly this morning.
“so as you might already know, i’ve been told to show you the ropes this week. i’m not entirely sure why, it obviously can’t be great to have to get right to work with your new boss watching you, but regardless that’s what minister choi has asked for” jeonghan sighed, checking through a file.
your brows furrowed at the last sentence, ‘seungcheol asked him to?’ weird. it’s not like he knew about you and jeonghan.
“what we’re going to be doing for today is just getting you settled in. i’ll show you around, tell you what it is we do here and why and answer any questions you might have” he said it all so professionally and you wondered why you couldn’t do the same. how was he being so normal about this?
“so before we start, any questions?” he looked up from the file and straight at you.
your eyebrows raised for a second in surprise, “not yet no, thank you”
jeonghan nodded before standing up, “we’ll get started on that tour now. follow me please” he held the door open for you, shutting it behind you before motioning for you to follow him.
after about an hour you were done with the tour and meeting everyone. you could tell why this was branded as a more ‘elite’ department.
“your office isn’t completely done yet so you hang around in here until the end of the week” jeonghan said, pointing toward his office, his other hand in his pocket.
he lead you both back into the office, sitting at his desk before rubbing his face in his hands and stifling a yawn. he looked up and saw you standing awkwardly a couple of steps from the door. and you might’ve been going crazy but you swear there was a smile pulling at his lips.
“yn, you can come sit, it’s fine” he said softly, using his wand to bring the work that needed to be done for today.
you carefully watched what he was doing when you were sat, taking mental notes as to how he does it so you wouldn’t get ridiculed for something in a week or two.
your attention started to drift after a few minutes it happened to end up focusing on jeonghan’s hand. you saw he didn’t have any ring on meaning he definitely wasn’t married. maybe he was dating someone- wait why do you even care? the two of you broke each other's heart years ago and are only talking now because of a coincidence of working together.
“so how have you been?” jeonghan asked you catching you off guard. he looked at you, shooting you a look that said he was being serious and it wasn’t a trick question.
“i’ve uh- i’ve been good” you smiled awkwardly, “after school finished it's just been work, you know? probably been the same for you” you laughed awkwardly.
he smiled himself nodding in agreement, “yeah it’s been a little tiresome i can’t lie. but i haven’t really taken a chance to have a break. even now i haven’t even had time to meet new people, that’s why i’m stuck with shua” he laughed at the end and you hated how warm it made you feel. you always loved the sound of his laugh.
you hummed, agreeing to what he was saying. truth be told you never really bothered too much about making new friends after hogwarts, you had the few people that you loved and cared for and they were enough.
you’ve obviously met new people along the way but there was no new relationship that stuck out to you.
“how is everyone else anyway? obviously i already know how minister choi is” jeonghan chuckled, voice breathy, “but how about everyone else? i’ve heard about soonyoung joining a quidditch team”
“yeah he did! right now nayeon’s working at a place in diagon alley to do with herbology, but she’s said she wanted to try applying to be a herbology teacher for hogwarts”
“that’s great” jeonghan said in awe, “shua’s the same more or less. his family’s got one of the biggest accounts at gringotts so he doesn’t have to worry about working for a long time”
you thought back for a second, joshua’s family had about the same social status in the wizarding world as your parents did, so frankly speaking it’d make sense why he didn’t bother working. you would do the same if it wasn’t for the fact that working kept your parents distracted from telling you that you needed to marry guwon any one of these days.
your mood turned sour remembering what your parents constantly remind you. their obsession with being acknowledged and having a high status always took a toll on how they actually were as parents. they were awful, and it didn’t help that you were thinking about all of this in front of jeonghan, the person you lost because you couldn’t stand up to your parents.
“yn? you alright?” jeonghan waved his hand in front of your face a few times, retreating his hand when you nodded.
“sorry just spaced out for a second” you rubbed your eyes.
jeonghan stared blankly at your wrist, there was no way right? “is that the same bracelet that..?” he trailed off at the end, but you knew exactly what he said.
you cleared your throat, “oh! yeah i think so?” you lied straight through your teeth, you knew it was the one he’d gotten you. “it was just with the rest of my stuff and it caught my eye, thought it looked nice”
jeonghan nodded, honestly a little.. dejected? there was no way, who were you kidding?
——- ★
“so anything fun happen at work today?” joshua asked jeonghan in the way to the birthday dinner.
jeonghan looked over at his friend, confused. he almost never asked about work.
“not really..” jeonghan looked at him confused. “well actually- you remember that girl yn ln from school? same year as us but she was in gryffindor?”
“you mean your ex?” joshua looked back at jeonghan.
“yeah” jeonghan muttered, “look whatever point is- she was the transfer to the department”
“really?” joshua said surprised, parking the car outside of the restaurant. “that’s random”
“that’s what i thought” jeonghan mumbled, taking off his seatbelt and walking toward the restaurant with his friend.
the dinner was great, jeonghan enjoyed spending time with his friends. he couldn’t see as often these days, being the head of department didn’t give him much free time.
as he and his friends were getting ready to leave, jeonghan felt someone tap his shoulder to get his attention. he turned around to see a familiar face but he just couldn’t put his finger on it.
“jeonghan! it’s been a while” the man pulled him into a hug making jeonghan go a little stiff. the man pulled back to smile at jeonghan, frowning at how confused he looked. “it’s me.. moon guwon? you don’t remember me?”
“oh you” jeonghan muttered, rage growing in his body. “yeah i remember you. what do you want?”
guwon looked at the longer haired man for a few seconds, taken aback at his reaction to seeing him again.
“well uh, there’s an event on the 20th next month. the family organising it would like you to attend. you too, joshua” guwon plastered a smile at the two of them.
“sure, why not?” joshua sighed, “we’ll see you then guwon”
——- ★
“yn!” a voice called for you as you were about to step onto the elevator. you looked around and saw jeonghan catching up to you a few feet away.
you held the elevator open, giggling to yourself at how he was winded from just running over to the elevator.
jeonghan glared at you playfully, “you’re really laughing at your own boss?”
“my mistake, sir” you stifled another laugh.
“unbelievable” jeonghan scoffed, placing his hand on his chest to feign hurt. “and here i was thinking you were such a nice person”
“i don’t recall me doing anything particularly wrong” you said thoughtfully, placing your finger on your chin for good measure.
considering your last memory of each other from when you were teenagers was him saying he hated you and never wanted to see you again, he really did stick closely to you when you started working with him.
on your off days he was the first to notice. at first you excused it with the fact that you simply had to share on office together and he’d always been perceptive; but even after your office was finally ready, he still managed to always be with you.
he was so good at reading you and so keen on making sure you were alright, that hansol had to stifle a laugh every time he saw you and jeonghan flustered by the other’s actions.
“yn, sit with us” you heard your mother tell you as soon you stepped into your home. shrugging off your shoulder you internally screamed imagine what they’d be like while they were here.
you sat on the couch, not bothering to properly greet either of them. “what’s this about now?” you sighed, already annoyed.
“your mother and i will be hosting an event on the 20th next month, make sure you’re there” your father told you plainly.
“why? you lot never haven’t invited me to any of these events, why do you want me to come to this one all of a sudden?”
“stop talking back, yn” your mother muttered, her face irritated. “but if you really must know, the moon’s will be there. and they’ve been thinking, and so have we, that we might as well finally set your engagement with guwon in stone”
“it’ll be at a public event too, it’ll bring even more attention to us” your father smirked and you had to physically stop yourself from rolling your eyes. it was always about publicity with these people.
you tried not to dwell on it too much, but your heart dropped at how your parents wanted the engagement to be set in stone.
——- ★
“yn, are you alright?” jeonghan asked you one day from his seat at his desk.
he’d called you in because it seemed like there was a short evaluation that day at work, so everyone was brought to his office. it wasn’t anything serious, just a quick discussion on how everyone’s work was going and nobody was going to be fired from it.
“i’m alright, this job is great and-” you started to answer him smiling.
“no- sorry, i meant, are you alright? i’ve noticed you seem a little down these days..”
“oh” you breathed out, “yeah don’t worry about it i’m alright, just slept bad last night” you smiled to which he nodded and that was the end of it.
“you’re sure?” jeonghan furrowed his eyebrows before sighing. “look yn.. i care about you- because you’re my employee of course” he sputtered out.
“and you know we want this to be a positive environment so- look how about we just go out for lunch and it’ll distract you a little?”
“lunch?” you looked at him confused. it was cute to see him like this honestly, and it reminded you of how he was when you guys started dating but he was afraid you wouldn’t like how affectionate he was.
it’d probably only make you sadder tonight but you didn’t care. nodding while a smile easily melted onto your face, “i’d love to”
“you’re really good at sucking up to people you know” jeonghan snickered to his friend after a potential business partner left.
throughout the entire event, many businessmen approached joshua, telling him all about how he and his family’s business would prosper by creating ties with them. and it amused jeonghan to see his friend have to pretend to be interested and give them false promises that he’d look into their offers and get back to them. in reality he’d tell them when they contacted him in a few weeks that his family wasn’t interested and that’d be the end of it.
“nice to know you find this so funny” joshua yawned, taking another drink from the tray.
across the hall, you spotted jeonghan immediately. you’d spent the last few weeks getting to know each other again, so you looked forward to at least having his company tonight. the only two problems were that one: both of you refused to acknowledge your past together and two: you were slowly starting to fall for him again.
it wasn’t hard to. he was the same as he’d been when you fell for him the first time. always so mischievous on the surface but to the very few people who could scratch that surface, he was one of the most kind hearted people you’d ever seen.
you were afraid you knew where this was going to go. if you hadn’t fallen in love with jeonghan again, you suppose you could have eventually stopped despising a life with guwon, but now that you’ve spent even a second with jeonghan, you know you’d never be able to accept this life you were going to be forced to live with guwon.
against your better judgments, you let your feet walk you over to jeonghan, smiling brightly at him when he saw you. “jeonghan, joshua! how are you both?”
“yn, hi, it’s been a while” joshua smiled back at you. he looked between you and jeonghan for a few seconds before chugging the rest of his drink, “i’m going to head to the bathroom, you guys have fun without me” he patted jeonghan on the back before he left.
“you didn’t tell me this event was yours?” jeonghan chuckled, accusing you playfully.
“you didn’t tell me you’d be coming!” you matched his playful energy. you observed him for a few more seconds and could tell he was out of energy. “are you alright?”
“hm? yeah” he hummed, “i don’t really like really social events much, lose energy at them far too quick” he laughed lightly.
“why don’t you follow me to that table at the balcony then? it’ll give you a break from everything else” you tried to persuade him.
“trying to get me away from everyone, are you?” he teased, wiggling his eyebrows but following you up on your offer regardless.
the view from the balcony was gorgeous, but part of you felt sick at how familiar it all felt, especially with him of all people. you shook your head, continuing to admire the view while trying to bite back the memories.
you felt something grasp at your hand, soft fingers wrapping around your own. you looked down at it to see jeonghan staring right back at you. and that was the last thing it took for tears to spill.
jeonghan panicked, cupping your face immediately and wiping away the tears, hushed whispers comforting you as he swayed you back and forth.
you couldn’t help the way you melted into his touch. you missed him too much. you didn’t fall in love with him again, you just never really fell out of love with him.
“you know..” jeonghan whispered, his chin pressed to the crown of your head, “that night i told you that i hated you..”
you felt like you were going to sob at him reminding you of that night before you nodded.
“i didn’t mean it. i could never hate you but i’d rather lie than live with the fact that you didn’t feel the same about me” he whispered.
“but i did feel the same about you hannie!” you cried, burying yourself deeper into his shoulder.
“then why didn’t you do something about it sooner yn?” his own voice cracked and he sniffled harshly, “you took so long and it was stupid of me but i couldn’t live like that anymore”
“no it wasn’t stupid of you” you hugged him tighter, “you were hurt and it was selfish of me to put you through all that”
the two of you stayed like that for a few minutes, crying and spilling your guts to each other. everything you both wanted to tell each other for last ten years spilling out now at once.
when you both pulled away, you stared at him for him a few more seconds. you brought your face closer to his, pressing your lips to his own. when he pulled away he smiled at you, the same smile that you’d loved for years. you took his hand in yours and looked at him seriously, “you were right about how i should stand up to my parents, so now i’m going to do something i should’ve done ages ago”
before you could take him to your parents, jeonghan stopped you. “what are you-”
“i already know you mean it now yn” he smiled at you, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you closer to him, “i just needed to know you thought i was worth it. you don’t need to tell them now, im not in a rush. as long as i know you love me and that i love you, there’s no rush”
you nodded, tears welling up again and jeonghan cupped your cheeks again.
“my poor baby, what’s wrong?” he cooed at you.
“just missed you so much, glad we found each other again���
jeonghan smiled down at you before pressing a kiss to your forehead, “yeah? so am i”
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