IT'S MAGIC!, woosan

15 • starlit meetings!

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Wooyoung

For the first half of the day, I keep thinking about my awkward yet nice interaction with San's grandma, the whole spellbook situation, as well as Yeosang's cryptic text message. His words continue to confuse me, and its made even worse since San left our dorm room before I could talk to him, and Yeosang and I barely had any periods together that morning since our classes were doing that whole obligatory yet sporadic 'shifting' thing due to the official commencement of winter.

And if that doesn't agitate/take you aback enough, about ninety percent of the large campus interior is now filled with a feather-like sheet of raining snow that never seems to touch the grounds, twinkling fairylights that float about the ceiling and even follow you into the lecture halls, and small enchanted snowfolk that hop about and dish out wide smiles whenever they catch your eye.

Yes, the scenery's great, but I can't help that agitation I feel. I can't spot Yeosang or San anywhere, and I don't have the rest of my friends in the classes that I do have. For now, there's really no choice but to see if I can get to them at lunch or even after all my classes are over.

"We wish you a good winter, Wooyoung!" A group of particularly cheerful snow children say to me as soon as I enter the hall that'll lead me to Potions class.

I peer at their little round bodies and don't answer immediately as I'm not really in the mood right now. I'm not perturbed at the fact that they know my name -- they're generated to do this like, almost every year -- but their faces do give me a mild sense of Uncanny Valley. But then again, I should be used to this. I'm a Witch, after all.

Before I can answer, someone steps beside me at that moment, their head of peach dyed hair catching me a bit off-guard. The dye is one of those 'morphing' ones that turn more vibrant shades depending on where you stand or turn, but when I see whose hair this is, I'm not really surprised.

"Jongho?" I grin, surprised at seeing him beside me.

"What's up, Wooyoung?" He grins while subsequently bending his knees a bit to give the snow children hasty high-fives. The magic in him allows him to actually touch them, and when he gets to the third snow child, it plants a small ring on his palm that looks like a combination of frozen snowflakes.

"Awe, thanks," Jongho says as soon as he stands up, eyeing the ring that has tufts of blueish air swirling around it. He looks at me. "Didn't know they were offering those this year."

I shrug, adjusting the laptop in my arms. "They never really did them before. But then again, this is only my second year."

Jongho laughs. "Mine as well."

"Hey," I begin, casting a brief glance at the snow children we left behind. For a moment, they meet my eyes as well, but instead of smiling, they watch on, totally blank-faced until the next set of students come along to greet them. Weird, I think, they're usually so expressive.