beginning
Jongin was always deemed mature for his age. That’s because he had to be ; for he was the oldest and the heir to their family’s company. He had no other job but to act responsible around other people and be a good role model for his other two younger siblings.
For a nine year old, that’s a lot of pressure but he managed to make it work anyway.
"were you forced to attend this stupid party, too?" A kid’s voice interrupted his train of thoughts. The little boy nodded his head at the stranger before taking a glass of water and downing the contents of it in one shot. The stranger, upon further scrutinizing looked like someone his age, watched him. Jongin stared back. They stare at each other for a few more moments before his father’s voice calling out to him broke the silence.
He turned around and bowed his head at the grown man beside his father politely. “I see you’ve met my son” The said man with a funny bow tie spoke. Jongin blinked up at him.
"This is Mr. Oh. He’s done a great help in helping to fund our recent projects. And this boy," His father gestured to the smiling boy beside him before continuing, "is his son. Sehun. you guys will be seeing each other a lot from now on so do your best to get along"
Jongin smiled a smile that he didn't know would start a friendship he wished would have no end.
3rd year
No other soul knew what happens inside the Kim household better than Sehun does. When Jongin’s mother died and his dad fell to a total shithole, Sehun was the first to know. The first time his father got drunk and raised a hand to hit Jongin without any plausible reason, Sehun was the first to know. The first time Jongin was so bruised at which it rendered him incapable of moving, Sehun was the first to see.
The first time Jongin cried so hard, Sehun was the first to hear.
"What happens when people open their hearts, sehun?" Jongin mused out in thought on one of their Friday evenings spent laid down on the roof of Jongin’s house. If there was one thing the third year gryffindor loved about living in a huge house situated just at the outskirts of the bustling city of Seoul ; it’s the fact that the stars seem to be clearer and more visible around here.
Sehun’s propped against both of his sprawled hands as he looked up to the sky, too. The hufflepuff took a moment to let his brain process the question his best friend had asked him. ”they become better people” He finally answered, shifting to look at Jongin with a small smile on his face before looking back to the sky once again.
"Do they?"
"Mhm"
A smile stretched across Jongin’s lips. “If that’s the case then I’ll just keep opening my heart to you. I only need to be a better person for you, anyway”
The experimental kiss they shared under the blanket of stars that night ; Jongin’s first kiss — Sehun was the one to take.
5th year
"Why don't you just move in with me and leave your house?" Sehun suggested, looking down at Jongin's body on the hospital bed. The bruised spots scattered on the gryffindor's arm remained as a proof of what his father's horrendous actions did to him when drunk. Jongin mustered up all the strength that's left in him to shake his head subtly before slowly muttering an answer; "Too much work"
Sehun hated seeing him like that, but he knew that there's nothing he could do. Jongin's father was a powerful man -- far too much of a powerful man, Sehun thought.
That year, Jongin's birthday fell on a school day but Jongin didn't treat it as that. He snuck himself and Sehun out of school right after first period ended and went to the forbidden forest to introduce Sehun to the Thestrals that lived deep in it.
"isn't it dangerous to go so far into this place?" Sehun asked, tilting his head to every direction as he took in the beauty of the forest. The rays of light that peeked through the small spaces between the leaves that served as the forest' roof were beautiful.
Jongin shrugged as he continued walking. "The forest isn't much of a dangerous place during the day"
"How can you see them?" Sehun asked, watching as Jongin threw a piece of raw meat on the ground and he smiled when he saw it disappear.
"My mom died right in front of me" Jongin answered. A silence that was deafening illuminated the two of them and he doesn't know why he did it, but Sehun walked towards Jongin and wrapped his slender arms around the Gryffindor's waist, pulling himself close enough to Jongin's chest to hear his heartbeat. Jongin smiled, raising a hand to run it through the back of Sehun's head, pulling the hufflepuff closer to him. "It doesn't matter" Jongin spoke in a whisper. "I have you now"
--
"Why don't you just ask Sehun to be your boyfriend?" Another classmate of theirs, named Chanyeol who he has growned accustomed to over the years asked.
"because it's complicated" He answered, looking up at the moving clouds. "I'm hopeless when it comes to relationship. I don't want to risk it"
7th year
Just like the past few years in the school, their last year came and went. Graduation dawned upon all the graduating students. Jongin just watched his year-mates as they muttered excitedly to their small groups about what their plans were after Hogwarts. Some wanted to continue university in the muggle world, the richer ones chose to stay at home and be taught how to handle their future position in the so and so wizarding company.
Jongin had a plan. A plan that he had been holding on to ever since Sehun and him talked about it when they entered Hogwarts. The plan to head to New York's most prestigious dance school.
It would be nice if he could actually do it.
He knew he should tell Sehun that he couldn't go with him. He knew he should have stopped lying when his father tore his acceptance letter earlier that year and denied the offer from the university. He knew he should've told Sehun earlier that the future was already set up for him by his father.
but he couldn't. the look on his best friend's face whenever the hufflepuff mentioned something about their plan was a look Jongin couldn't bare to destroy.
Jongin was a coward. A big one.
That night after graduation, Jongin had silently set up a port key to a country far from Seoul and Scotland by his desk. He had cast a undetected expansion charm on his back pack to fit all his things in. He took one last glance in the room he spent the last 7 years in before sitting himself down and flattening a piece of parchment on his wooden desk.
He took an ink and began to write ;
Dear Sehun,
I'm sorry. and please, don't forget me.
He fed his owl one last cracker before ordering the animal to send the letter to Oh Sehun.
He didn't want to leave like this, but he hated goodbyes. He knew he wasn't going to see Sehun, nor was he allowed to contact him after Hogwarts and he knew he should've hugged him so tight the last time they saw each other a few hours before, but he couldn't
He smiled a smile that started it all when they were kids as he looked the picture of the two of them on his desk, before ripping it off it's frame and pocketing the said picture.
and now the smile that started it all, will be the smile that ends it all.
