Archive of Our Own ^beta

It’s not like Chenle planned to mess up his spell and teleport himself into a different place. It just happens, ok? One minute he’s in Professor Qian’s class trying to ditch it by teleporting himself to the bathrooms and then the next minute he’s standing in an unknown room with a guy laying in a bean bag chair as he munches on watermelon, dressed only in a t-shirt and boxers.

It just happens!

It’s not his fault that spells can be so finicky sometimes. You mess up the pronunciation of one word just slightly and suddenly you poof into a cute boys apartment. The boy jumps up so high Chenle’s afraid he’ll hit his head on the ceiling and lets out a scream so high pitched he swears he sees the windows shake.

“Dude, what the hell? ” The boy's eyes widen in shock as he stares at Chenle like he just appeared in his room—except he totally did just do that. Right.

There’s a noise that startles them both, well startles Chenle more. The boy just curses under his breath, something about running over a banana, as he grabs some unknown object and stares at the large box thingy sitting in front of them.

Chenle has many questions. Where is he right now? Who’s this boy? And what do bananas have to do with their current situation, but instead he points to the box and asks, “What’s that?”

The boy takes half a second to glance at Chenle before going back to the large box. “I’m playing Mario Kart.”

Chenle tilts his head as he stares curiously at the boy. He has no idea what that is, but he’s only intrigued more. He turns his head back to the black box and moves to stand in front of it.

“Wha—hey man, I can’t see!”

“What’s this strange box,” Chenle asks out loud. Watching as the scene on the box changes. “Are there people in it?” He lifts his hand and tries to reach inside the box, maybe to see if it’s a portal to another place, but all his hand hits is glass. The box begins to wiggle as Chenle tries again, maybe it requires more force?

“Whoa there,” the boy is suddenly right behind Chenle, he grips the strange box before it’s able to fall. “I guess Mario Kart can wait, I was losing anyways.” The boy carefully separates Chenle and the tv. He takes the moment to stare at Chenle, taking in his appearance. “You’re very fancy looking?” He hums, eyeing the robs. “Wait–how did you get in here again?”

Chenle blinks at him. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not really?” The boy chuckles as he scratches at his cheek, still giving Chenle a strange look. “I’m Mark by the way. Are you one of my roommates' friends? If so, you’re kind of in the wrong room.”

Something doesn’t seem right to Chenle now. The way Mark dresses just seems, different? It’s no clothing Chenle has ever seen. Also the room they are currently in is filled with objects Chenle’s never seen in his life. Not to mention the fact Mark doesn’t seem to connect the dots that Chenle teleported here.

Where is here?

“Where am I?”

“Uh, in my room? By the way do you have a name or something?”

That is the final straw. Chenle looks at him, shock clear on his face. “You don’t know who I am?”

“Haha, should I?” Mark suddenly looks extremely awkward. “Did we meet at a party? Look, I was super drunk at the last one, so i’m sorry if I don’t remember–”

“Mark, shush,” Chenle interrupts. “You’re not joking?”

Mark shakes his head.

“You’ve never heard of the Zhongs? My dad is part of the wizard council, he works closely with the ministry.”

“No? Wait, by wizards are you talking about like, magic and stuff? I know someone who can do some pretty cool card tricks.”

Chenle gapes at him. Is he joking?

Chenle slowly shakes his head, his eyes widening the longer he stares into Mark’s curious gaze. “I’m Chenle, I’m a wizard. I accidentally teleported into your room.”

“Whoa,” Mark gasps. “You’re not kidding are you?”

Chenle shakes his head, his eyes move to his hands. Is he going to be able to teleport back? He could be wrong, but judging by his new surroundings and how different they are, he must have teleported himself far away.

“Shit, so magic actually exists?”

Very, very far away, Chenle thinks as he watches Mark’s facial expression change from various forms of excitement at the realization that magic exists. Chenle thinks it’s kind of cute. He’s never met someone who didn’t know about magic. He must be a non-wizard, Chenle thinks to himself. One of the regular humans who doesn't know magic exists. He’s never met one before. The closest thing he had was his textbooks, learning about all the strange things they did and all their weird gadgets they invented. He guesses that black box that was playing Mario Kart is one of them. 

Chenle knows there are some wizards and witches who live amongst them, but they hide who they truly are. Chenle has a feeling he just broke a lot of rules revealing himself to the curious little human looking at him with his big round eyes. But that's for future Chenle to worry about, he has more pressing issues right now. Like how is he going to get back? He’s not even sure how he got here to begin with. He starts to contemplate all of his options, which aren’t many, can he even use magic here? He sees Mark stand up out of the corner of his eyes and start to head to the door.

“I’m gonna go grab one of my roommates. A wizard just teleported in my room? Donghyuck’s gonna lose his shit.”

Chenle blinks as Mark starts to open the door. He weighs the pros and cons of Mark telling more non-wizards about their… predicament and quickly realizes the cons outweigh the pros by like, a lot.

“Wait!” Chenle flicks his hand and the door slams shut. He winces when Mark has to move his hand quickly before the door can hit his fingers. He doesn’t want to have to explain to his parents why this person is missing fingers.

Mark’s eyes manage to widen even further somehow. Chenle squeezes his eyes shut and waits. He’s read that years ago, when wizards and witches tried to coexist with non-wizarding folk, they found wizards incredibly dangerous… and yeah maybe he almost hurt Mark, but it was a complete accident. He just panicked, it doesn’t mean he’s dangerous per se even if he did for a split second try to think of a spell that will reattach body parts to one's body. So he waits for Mark’s upset voice to speak or maybe even one laced with fear at Chenle, but he gets neither.

“Dude, that was so sick?!”

Chenle opens his eyes, “Huh?” He doesn’t even know where to begin to understand that statement, but when he looks at Mark all he sees is absolute wonder on his face as he looks from the door to Chenle.

“Yo, can you do that again?”

Chenle begins to giggle, the giggles erupt out of him and he has to hold his stomach and stop himself from falling onto the ground.

Mark just blinks dumbly at him, “Did I say something funny?”

Chenle shakes his head as he wipes a stray tear from his eye. “You’re the cutest human I’ve ever met. Well, you’re also the first one I’ve met.”

Chenle thinks he sees the tips of Mark’s ear go red. “Uh, thanks?”

“So I can’t tell anyone I’m hiding a wizard in my room?”

Chenle doesn’t have to look up from his wand to know Mark is pouting. It’s evident in the way he speaks, he sounds sulky. Chenle doesn’t answer at first, too focused on his task at hand. He hasn’t quite mastered teleportation (which is very obvious seeing how he ended up in his current situation) and he’s scared if he tries to teleport home, he might end up somewhere worse. He was also right to think here is far from his home. He teleported across realms. How did he do that? He has no idea, on another day he’ll probably think it’s cool as hell, but not while he’s stuck in the non-magical world.

He’s never been outside of his own realm before, but he knows enough about different ones to know there’s some that he does not want to end up in. Some have monsters in it and he shudders at the thought of being some monster's lunch.

“Chenle?”

Chenle blinks and looks up at Mark. He was right to think the human was pouting and it only adds to his cuteness. Are all humans so cute? Or is it just Mark? “Sorry, what did you say?”

Mark frowns as he scratches the back of his head, his eyes are conflicted. “I can’t tell anyone about you? I’m just supposed to hide you in here until you figure out how to return home? No offense–well this is actually a compliment–but you’re like super cool and it feels like a shame to just keep you hidden. I’d love to at least introduce you to my roommates. I promise everything will stay between the four of us though.”

Chenle shakes his head, “I know just teleporting in your room and asking so much of you on the first day we met is a lot, but I’d really appreciate you doing me one more favor and that’s keeping this between us.”

They don’t say anything for a few moments and just as Chenle is starting to think he’d agree, Mark asks, “What’s in it for me?”

“What?”

Mark clears his throat and shrugs, “I don’t know if I’m in any place to make demands, and it’s not like I’ll spill everything if you say no, but I feel like I deserve something for keeping a whole wizard hidden from the world.”

Chenle tilts his head in thought, “That would be only fair, huh?” Chenle eye’s suddenly twinkle, “How about I grant you a wish for staying quiet and helping me return home?”

“Shit, are you serious?” Mark’s eyes widen comically again. 

Chenle gives him a wide smile, cat-like, “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Well yeah, I just didn’t think you would say yes so I’m kind of shocked.”

Chenle giggles, “It’s not like I can grant anything crazy though, as you see I’m still in training. I didn’t mean to teleport into your room, Mark.”

Mark gives him a boyish smile, “I won’t ask much of you. Maybe a sandwich from my hometown, I haven't had one in like forever.”

Chenle giggles, “That I can do.”

Mark agrees to keep Chenle hidden in his room until Chenle can figure out a way to fix this. The problem is Chenle doesn’t exactly know how to “fix” it. The only way to get home is to teleport there since Chenle doesn’t have any of his other items from home to help him. He’s slightly familiar with objects that he could use to help him. He’s never used any before but there’s teleportation stones and potions that exist but when Chenle asked if Mark had any of those, he just looked confused.

“Teleport–what?”

Chenle sighs, “I’m guessing that’s a no.”

The only thing to do is to practice teleporting. Instead of practicing on himself, he uses items he finds in Mark’s room. Mark quickly puts an end to that however when Chenle teleports both his xbox controllers and his glasses.

Mark rubs his temple, “And where did you teleport them too?”

Chenle smiles at him sheepishly, “Hopefully home? I’m not sure though.”

Mark looks at him, “Can you bring them back?”

Chenle bites his lip, “Still working on that.”

Mark bans Chenle from using his stuff to practice teleporting. Instead he goes to the store and buys these small plushies for Chenle to practice with. He also makes surprisingly helpful suggestions.

“How about you practice teleporting these a shorter distance,” Mark says as he watches Chenle send a poor stuffed duck across realms.

Chenle’s eyes light up, “That’s a great idea!”

“I wish I told you this before you sent my glasses away,” Mark mutters under his breath. “Dude, if you find those when you get home, you gotta give them back.”

Chenle waves him off, “I will, I will.”

While Chenle practices teleporting, Mark goes out of his room to talk to his roommates and get them food. Before he left Mark asked if Chenle liked pizza and Chenle’s response was, “What’s that?”

Mark actually looked at him like he was crazy. “You’ve never had pizza before?”

Chenle shakes his head.

“Dude, you’re going to love it.”

Chenle listens to the voices outside his room while Mark gets them this pizza. Chenle can hear two different voices talking to Mark. Humans? One definitely is human, but the other Chenle actually isn’t so sure about. Chenle can sense strong magic coming from out there, stronger than his own magic. The magic is on par with some of his teachers back in his home realm, except even stronger somehow. Chenle makes a mental note to ask Mark about his roommates later, but for now he focuses his attention on teleporting Mr. Turtle. He can't tell if the magic is good or bad, so he’d rather not find out until he knows how to get out of here.

Mark comes back with two plates in his hand. As soon as the smell hits Chenle’s nose, his stomach grumbles.

Mark laughs at him as soon as he hears it. “Here, you must be hungry.”

Chenle accepts the plate gladly, “I’m starving Mark. Teleporting across realms really makes a boy hungry.” Chenle looks at the plate in his hand. “Oh, I’ve read about pizza before.”

“Rwlly?” Mark asks, mouth already stuffed with a slice of pizza.

Chenle nods, “It’s a really popular food here right? It was in my textbooks, but I’ve never tried it before.” Chenle picks up the slice as watches the stringy cheese start to drip down his plate. He takes a bite and his taste buds explode. He doesn’t stop once he starts. He finishes the first slice and then immediately moves onto the second. Once he’s done he licks his fingers clean. When he finally looks at Mark, he sees the boy grinning at him.

“Like it?”

Chenle blushes and nods his head. “Can I have more?” He asks, offering Mark his plate and sending a pleading look his way.

Mark finishes his own slice and stands up, “Sure! Hopefully my roommates didn’t eat them all,” he mutters as he grabs Chenle’s plate and ventures out of the room again.

If Chenle eats Mark’s other slice while he’s gone, Mark doesn’t comment on it when he gets back with more pizza on Chenle’s plate.

“Chenle, how about you take my bed?”

Chenle looks up at Mark from the floor. Mark has changed his clothes to something more comfortable according to him. He also gave Chenle something to sleep in as well. He sees Mark frowning from on top his bed, he looks conflicted at the thought of laying down while Chenle is sleeping on the floor. Chenle waves him off though. “I’m fine on the floor, plus if your roommates come in then it probably should be you they find on your bed.”

Mark opens his mouth to argue, but Chenle is already turning around in his spot and closing his eyes.

“Goodnight, Mark.”

It’s silent for a few more moments and then Chenle hears rustling noises as Mark most likely lays down. All the pizza he ate and the magic he used today is finally catching up to him because he finds himself quickly falling asleep.

“Night, Chenle.” Is the last thing he hears before he drifts off.

⭐️

Chenle is a dreamer. There’s not one night he falls asleep and doesn’t dream of something. Usually his dreams are fun, full of magic and light. Other times he dreams of his family and friends, sometimes his dog even makes an appearance. But this dream wasn’t very fun.

He was alone, no friends or family around. He didn’t recognize his surroundings and when he tried to use his magic, he couldn’t. He felt darkness closing in, he felt scared. There was nobody to turn to for help, there was no way home. Chenle curls himself into a ball and squeezes his eyes shut.

He’s never felt like this before. So helpless.

“Chenle?”

“Mark?” He mutters, opening his eyes and looking around, but only finding more darkness around him. He starts to feel panic build up in his chest as he looks for the boy calling his name, but no matter where he looks, all he finds is the dark, eerie abyss he’s in.

Then he feels someone shaking his shoulders. It takes him a moment to fully wake up, but when he does he looks up to see Mark looking at him in concern.

“Hey, are you ok?” Chenle must not look ok, because Mark couches down so they’re face to face. “What happened?”

Chenle sits up on his spot on the ground and hugs his knees to his chest. Apparently, Chenle was muttering in his sleep, saying he wanted to go home. Chenle tells Mark about his dream and how powerless and lost he felt in it. He’s never felt like that before. Mark listens closely, eyes never leaving Chenle’s face as he talks.

“It was awful,” Chenle whispers, resting his chin on his knees. “I was by myself, my friends and family weren’t there. I couldn’t find my home.” Chenle blinks, looking up at Mark with slightly misty eyes, “You were there too, but I couldn’t find you.”

Mark frowns, still listening intensely. “Anything else,” he asks carefully.

“And I couldn’t use magic,” Chenle sighs, wiping his misty eyes with the back of his hand. “I’m fine, I just panicked a little. I’ve never had a dream like that before. Zero out of ten, would not recommend.”

Mark chuckles at that, eyes crinkling in this way Chenle finds adorable. “Noted. Would some breakfast cheer you up?”

Chenle’s eyes light up at the mention of food. His stomach grumbles right on cue making Mark chuckle some more. “Can we have pizza again?”

“Huh?” Mark looks at him surprised. “You want that for breakfast?”

Chenle nods his head, “It was really good, I’d like some more.”

“Uh,” Mark makes a conflicted face, but in the end he nods his head. “I guess I can try to convince my roommates?”

“Yes, tell them the pizza was really good and we should get it again. I’m sure they’ll agree,” Chenle ends with a smug smile.

Mark just stares at him for a moment before walking to his bedroom door and opening it. “Alright, I’ll tell them that I guess.”

A few minutes later, Chenle can hear some voices coming from out the door. Chenle assumes it’s them ordering the pizza and he crawls from the floor onto Mark’s bed and makes himself comfy.

Mark takes his time coming back, Chenle decides to practice teleporting the stuffed animals as he waits. He thinks he’s getting even closer to mastering it. He thinks. The last stuffed animal he teleported did not end up on the other side of the room, but Chenle thinks it’s close by. Maybe.

When the door finally opens and Mark’s fluffy black hair comes into sight, Chenle sits up and eagerly awaits his pizza. The first thing he sees is Mark’s apologetic smile. He looks in Mark’s hands to find two plates, but no pizza in sight. Chenle frowns in disappointment at the sight.

“They didn’t want pizza,” Mark says, handing Chenle the plate. “But Jaemin made pancakes. they’re really good, I promise. I was even able to snag you some bacon.”

Chenle looks at the bacon and pancakes on his lap. His stomach growls again. “It smells good.”

Mark grins at him, “Jaemin’s a great cook. You’ll be begging for more of his food after you have a taste of these pancakes.”

That piques Chenle’s interest so he cuts up a piece of the pancake and places it in his mouth. His eyes widen as his taste buds explode with the flavor. 

“These are delicious!” Chenle stuffs his mouth with more.

Mark chuckles, taking a bite of his own. “Told you.”

He does indeed ask for seconds. And maybe thirds. Mark eventually tells him that his roommates are going to get suspicious if he keeps sneaking back plate after plate of food so Chenle will have to wait until later to have more of Jaemin’s leftover pancakes.

It’s when Chenle is laying comfortably on Marks bed, tummy full and kind of sleepy, he notices Mark putting on his jacket and looking like he’s about to leave.

Chenle frowns. “Where are you going?”

“Hm?” Mark gives him a questioning look over his shoulder. “I have to go to class and then work—“ It seems to hit Mark at that moment, “Oh shit. Right. Would you be ok here by yourself?”

Would Chenle be ok? Probably, but there’s also a hundred things that could go wrong if he’s left alone. “What if your roommates come in?”

Mark waves him off, “It’s fine. Just make sure my door is locked. Jaemin usually respects my privacy, but Donghyuck,” Mark makes a face as he thinks about his second roommate, “Yeah just keep the door locked or he might actually bust in.” Mark rubs his chin thoughtfully, “There was that time he picked my lock, though.” Mark sees Chenle’s jaw drop and he lets out a chuckle.

“Great,” Chenle huffs. He falls back on the bed and lets himself sink into Mark's fluffy pillows.

“Wait!” Mark's eyes light up all of the sudden. “Why don’t you just come with me.”

Chenle looks at him in surprise. “Go with you?”

Mark nods his head, grinning as he walks over to the bed and sits at the edge. “Yeah, aren’t you curious about what’s out there? You said you’re from another realm, right?”

Chenle nods his head slowly.

Mark’s grin doesn't falter, if anything it gets even wider. “Dude, you have so much to see out there then! You should come with me.”

Marks right, Chenle is curious about what this place has to offer. He has the chance to study a place entirely different from his own and actually talk to the people that live here. He would be stupid to pass up this opportunity that may never come again once (if) he makes it back home. But at the same time, he shouldn’t reveal himself to anyone here.

“What if people find out what I am?” That thought alone scares him enough to want to crawl under Mark’s cute watermelon themed blanket and never come out. He swears he even smells watermelon as he buried his nose in the blanket, it smells nice

Mark just smiles at him, “Then they would be blown away by how amazing you are.”

Chenle was not expecting that. He feels his cheeks get warmer as if he’s blushing? He places his cold hand on his warm cheeks. He is blushing. “Is this your way to try and get me to meet your roommates?”

Mark gives him a sheepish smile, he scratches the top of his head , “Is it working?”

Chenle rolls his eyes, “Have fun at work Mark. Just make sure you come back.”

Mark gives him a bright smile, “I’ll be back in no time, seriously! You won’t even realize I’m gone.”

Chenle nods his head and watches from the corner of his eyes as Mark gives him a wave and then walks out his bedroom door, making sure the door is locked and shut tighter before completely leaving.

Chenle goes back to looking at the cat plushie in his hand. Maybe it’ll work this time?

⭐️

When Mark comes back as promised he walks in with two things. One is a plate full of food and the other is the cat plushie Chenle had attempted to teleport inside the room earlier, but in the end sighed in defeat when it was nowhere to be found.

Mark smiles at him, “Look what my roommate found.”

Chenle immediately jumps up with an excited squeal. He runs over to Mark and wraps him in a big hug. “I did it!”

Mark laughs, the sound makes Chenle squeeze him even tighter. “Kind of.”

Chenle pulls back when he hears that. His eyes narrow as he looks at the older boy who’s avoiding eye contact. “What do you mean kind of?”

Chenle grabs the plushie before Mark can pull it away from him, only to drop it with a yelp. “Why is it wet?” Chenle cringes and wipes his hand on Mark’s shirt.

Mark glares at him and smacks his hand away. “That’s the thing. It appeared in the bathtub as my roommate was about to get in it.”

Chenle shrugs, “Whatever, it still worked! Maybe this means I can go home now.”

“Chenle,” Mark gives him an astonished look, “You are not seriously thinking about trying to teleport yourself already?”

“Why not! It worked,” Chenle crosses his arms. “This shows I have control now! I actually teleported it close by. I should be able to teleport home then.”

Mark puts his hand on his shoulder before he can do anything stupid like attempt to teleport right then and there. “Did you mean to teleport it to my roommate's bathtub and scare the shit out of him?”

Chenle falters, his smile drops, “Well, uh no?”

Mark gives him a stern look and even raises one eyebrow to really prove his point. “It doesn’t sound like you have control over it then, does it?”

Chenle prepares to argue, mouth open and shoulders stiffening, but in the end he shuts his mouth and lets his shoulders slump. Mark seems to be waiting for something, looking at Chenle expectantly with a cocky smile that just makes Chenle want to coo at him and squish his cheeks. “Alright fine, you’re right.”

Mark’s face brightens up and he grins at Chenle as he ruffles the younger boy's hair. “That’s right. Until you can teleport things exactly where you want them consistently, you won’t be teleporting yourself anywhere. Now here.”

Chenle had completely forgotten about the plate of food that was in Mark’s other hand. Chenle blinks at it as he looks at its contents, “What is it?”

Mark smiles, “Dinosaur chicken nuggets and tater tots.”

Chenle has never heard of any of those things in his life, but after taking a bit of each he comes to the conclusion he really likes dinosaur nuggets and tater tots.

Mark has gotten comfy in his bean bag chair after deciding to play Mario Kart before bed. Chenle is beside him, sitting crossed legged on the floor as he finishes the rest of Mark’s tater tots.

“So, what did your roommate do when the cat plushie randomly appeared while he was bathing?” Chenle asks, amusement clear in his voice. He can’t imagine a human would be able to calmly comprehend something like that. He wonders if maybe Mark’s roommate tried to come up with a logical explanation for it; which would be funny to watch because there really is no logic when it comes to magic. Magic does what it wants, that’s why it’s so hard to control and why Chenle is having so much trouble teleporting things where he wants it. It’s almost like his magic is a child throwing a tantrum and refusing to listen to him. In a way, his magic is just like himself. Stubborn and refusing to listen.

“Oh, Donghyuck freaked out,” Mark chuckles. Mark’s still staring at the tv as his character races along the road which makes no sense to Chenle. There’s some serious issues with these roads in this game, he doesn’t understand how they’re even driving on it when parts of the roads just end, forcing his car to grow wings and start to fly until it can safely land on the road again. “But weirdly enough, all he said was again?” Mark imitates the voice Donghyuck made. “I don’t know what he meant by that. When else would there have been a time something like this happened.”

Chenle shrugs, he doesn’t really have an answer to that. Unless? Chenle’s eyes drift to Mark’s door. He keeps feeling that strong magic from the other room. Whoever has this magic comes and goes. For a few hours Chenle might not sense anything, but eventually whoever is carrying that magic will come back here and suddenly Chenle is all too aware of it. There’s no doubt it has to be Mark’s roommate, could he be behind whatever happened to Donghyuck?

“What about your other roommate?” Chenle asks innocently, trying to avoid sounding overly suspicious of this person.

“Oh, Jaemin? He’s pretty chill, if you accidentally teleport a stuffed animal in front of him he’d probably think we’re haunted and get all excited.”

Because Mark is currently looking at the tv screen, he misses the weirded out facial expression on Chenle’s face.

“Why would he be excited? Ghosts are,” Chenle shudders as he remembers his very few (he’d like to keep it that way) encounters with the spirits, “Far, far from chill.”

Mark laughs, but he also doesn’t seem to know how to respond so he just shrugs. “It’s Jaemin,” he says, like that answers all of Chenle’s questions. It does not in fact answer anything though. “Wait,” Mark pauses the game and turns to Chenle with his adorably big round eyes, “Have you met a ghost?”

Chenle smiles, “Oh Mark, I have so much to teach you.”

Chenle shares his stories of all the times he had to interact with ghosts and spirits. He explains the differences between the two and how hostile they can get when they don’t accept that they’re dead. He gets so into the conversation, it’s very easy to talk to Mark since he focuses all of his attention on Chenle and encourages the younger boy with nods and short questions. He forgets that he was supposed to ask about Jaemin, but he supposes that can wait for another day. He doubts Mark would even know his roommate might potentially be a wizard, especially since he was so shocked when Chenle showed up in the first place.

“I’m sure they’re not all so bad,” Mark says out loud.

He breaks Chenle out of his thoughts. “Huh?”

Mark smiles, “I mean, I get being, like, angry and not wanting to accept you died. There’s nothing you can do about it and then you’re forced to watch people live their lives while your life was taken away from you. So maybe they’re not all that bad, or you just met the really nasty ones.”

Chenle nods, remembering the ghost that decided to ruin all his textbooks by pushing him into the fountain that sits in the middle of the yard. “Definitely nasty ones.”

Mark laughs, “Maybe you’ll meet some nice ones one day.”

Chenle smiles at him. He really loves Mark’s optimism. “Yeah, maybe. Do you think I can play with you?”

Mark’s eyes light up and he grabs another controller, “You can be the Luigi to my Mario.”

Chenle accepts the controller with a  confused eyebrow raised. “What?”

Mark shakes his head in disbelief, “I have so much to teach you.”

⭐️

Chenle wakes up in a cold sweat. He’s breathing hard as he looks around the dark room in a panic. His breathing finally calms down when he sees the lump move on top of the bed. Mark’s here, in the room with Chenle. The knowledge that Chenle isn’t alone in the room allows him to relax a little.

“Another dream?” Mark’s groggy voice says. He is sitting up in the bed now with one hand rubbing his eyes.

“Nightmare,” Chenle corrects with a sigh. He’s about to ask Mark for some water, but the older boy is already getting out of his bed and stepping over Chenle’s feet.

“I’ll grab you some water,” Mark yawns as he walks to the door, nearly tripping over something since it’s still dark and his eyes haven't adjusted to the darkness. It actually manages to get a surprised giggle out of Chenle. He turns on the light with a flick of his wrist and Mark gives him an embarrassed, but still appreciative smile. “Thanks, be right back.”

Mark is back soon later with a cup of water in his hands. He shuts the door quietly so as to not wake his roommates and he nods at Chenle to get up from the floor he’s been sleeping on most of the night. “Take my bed this time.”

Chenle frowns, “But–”

Mark quickly shakes his head, “Not buts, come on.”

Chenle doesn’t have a choice when Mark helps him stand up and then guides Chenle to his bed. The bed is still warm, a nice contrast to the cold floor he’s been laying on. “Where will you sleep?”

Instead of answering, Mark takes the spot on the floor Chenle was just at. “I’ll sleep here tonight. We can alternate,” Mark suggests and Chenle can’t really argue with that. It’ll be nice to not wake up with his back in pain. “What was your dream about?”

Chenle lets out a long sigh as he gets comfy on Mark’s bed. “Same as last time. I was alone, and couldn't find anyone.” Chenle rolls until his cheek is squished against the pillow, “Couldn’t find you.”

Mark hums to let him know he’s still listening.

“Could you use magic?”

“I didn’t try this time, I was too scared,” Chenle mutters, slightly embarrassed. “Why do you think I’m having these dreams?”

“Stress maybe?” Mark suggests, deep in thought. “And also fear. You’re in an entire new place and surrounded by nobody you know. I would be pretty scared too dude.”

“I guess so,” Chenle grumbles into the pillow.

“Try to get some sleep,” Mark says softly.

“I’ll try,” Chenle says, knowing full well he’s going to be up for the remainder of the night.

“You’re leaving again?” Chenle makes an affronted sound when he sees Mark putting on his atrocious work attire.

Mark chuckles, but it’s a little breathless as he quickly gets ready. “Yeah, I have class again today and then work.” Chenle scowls at him, but all Mark does is laugh and squish his cheeks, “Don’t make that face. I’ll be back, just like last time.”

Chenle watches Mark run around the room out of boredom. He could be practicing his teleporting skills right now, but he thinks he needs a break from that. The dreams he’s been having have really been discouraging him, and it doesn’t help that his magic while teleporting things is really unstable so it makes him feel even more useless.

“You forgot this,” Chenle says right as Mark is about to walk out the door. Chenle doesn’t really know what it is, but he knows Mark likes to put them in his ear and hum to himself.

Mark’s eyes light up as he sees the object and he grabs them from Chenle and puts the round bits in his ear. “Shit, my ear buds. Thanks, I don’t know what I would do without music there.”

“It plays music?” Chenle questions out loud. “How does that work?”

Mark smiles at him and ruffles his hair, “I’ll show you when I get home. I’ll have you listen to all my favorites.”

“Wait!” Chenle practically screeches when Mark makes a beeline to the door, “What about food?”

Mark’s head pokes back in the room, “Oh right. Listen, I’m running late, but my roommates aren’t home right now so help yourself to anything in the kitchen.” And then Mark is running out the door with a rushed bye over his shoulder.

Chenle hears the front door open and slam shut. He doesn’t even know where the kitchen is.

He did what Mark said and helps himself to what’s in the kitchen (after walking around and opening random doors until he found it. The only time he’s snuck out was to use the bathroom, but it’s right across from Mark’s room so he’s only only familiar with Mark’s walls and the bathrooms walls). He did eventually find the kitchen, but he soon hits another problem; he has no idea what any of these objects are. How does Mark expect to help himself to food when he doesn’t know half the objects in his kitchen? He does know what a fridge looks like so he starts there and rifles through all of the food. Some of them have names written on the package, but he ignores it. It’s Mark’s fault for leaving him alone to cook for himself.

As he’s doing so, he feels some sort of presence behind him. Chenle freezes with his head still in the fridge. His body stiffens and he quickly turns around to see what caused this reaction, but there’s nobody there. He swears he sees a shadow move out of the corner of his eye, but after doing some quick investigation work (he’s hungry, so he can’t be blamed for rushing it) he comes to the conclusion that it was nothing. Just a trick of his mind, at least he hopes so.

Since Mark claimed his roommates are out of the apartment he decides to eat outside of Mark’s room for once. He settles himself on the sofa with a plate of leftover pizza and some other snacks he found while looking through the cupboards. Mark told him how to work the magic (not magic according to Mark) black box which Chenle now knows is called a tv. Mark taught him how to use the remote controller and how to get different things to appear on the tv. Chenle finds the entertainment here quite interesting, very different from what he used to watch back at home. There’s no magic duels or tournaments to watch. No witches or wizards on their flying broomsticks. Mark did turn on what he called a ‘basketball game’ and Chenle thoroughly enjoyed that. But Chenle grows disappointed when he can’t find the channel that has it on.

He settles for watching something else that interests him; Kdrama. Mark put it on as background noise while he completed some assignments, however Chenle was completely mesmerized by it. Who knew he would be so interested in the love life of someone in a magic box. 

As he’s watching it he swears he feels a presence in the room. He sees more shadows moving out the corner of his eye, but there’s never anything there when he looks. He’s starting to think Mark’s apartment is haunted, especially when the bowl popcorn he made suddenly disappears. He didn't know ghosts liked popcorn.

He’s watching as the female lead finally makes a decision to go after the guy she’s been pinning for since she started working at her new company. It only took 2 seasons and even then Chenle has this bad feeling about the receptionist at the company who’s been eyeing the male lead, but he’ll push that to the side for now. That’s a problem for later, he’s just happy the main character finally made up her mind, he was obviously into her from the start.

He was so engrossed in watching the confession that he’s surprised he didn’t miss the sound of the front door knob starting to turn. He feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up at the noise and he quickly tries to fix the mess he made. All it took was a snap of his finger to get everything back in order. The tv turns off, the empty bags of snacks that are spread out on the table find themselves floating to the trash bin in the kitchen. All that’s left is to hide himself now.

Chenle quietly slips into Mark’s bedroom just as voices start to get closer. Chenle shuts the door and lets out a breath of relief when he’s safely back inside. 

Mark doesn’t come back for another hour. Chenle decided to concentrate on teleporting the plushies while he waited for Mark’s return and it goes about as good as one would expect. He’s pretty sure he heard Mark’s roommate let out a loud shriek so at least he’s teleporting it inside the apartment even if it’s not exactly where he wants it.

As he’s counting how many plushies he has left (not a lot) Mark opens the door and steps inside the room. Chenle didn’t even notice when he got home, usually he’s able to sense it, but he was too absorbed in his stuffed animals.

“I’m running out of things to teleport,” Chenle says to him. He counted, he only has ten more left. Eleven if he can get back the one that scared Mark’s roommate.

“Huh?” Mark blinks at the stuffed animals Chenle points at. “Oh. Yeah, I can get you more. Hey, I have a question.”

Chenle turns his attention to Mark who seems a little more tired than usual. “What’s up?”

“Did you by any chance eat any snacks today?”

Chenle slowly nods his head, recalling all of the snacks he ate on the sofa while watching his show, “Yeah, how did you know?”

Mark pinches the bridge of his nose, “Great.”

“Why isn’t it good,” Chenle frowns, now understandably confused. “You told me to help myself to anything in the kitchen.”

“I know, I did,” Mark’s lips form a straight line. “I didn’t expect you to eat all of my roommates snacks though.”

Chenle’s mouth opens slightly. “Oh.”

“He thinks we’re haunted now, or that we have a thief who only came in to eat his snacks,” Mark chuckles in disbelief. “Luckily, Donghyuck’s going with the haunted idea. When he was confronting me and Jaemin to see if we ate them I was scared he was gonna start checking rooms too to see if anybody was hiding in them.” Mark looks visibly stressed as he says it, even biting his lips nervously.

Chenle can only imagine how that would have gone if Donghyuck had opened the door to find Chenle surrounded by the same plushies that have been popping up around the house to scare him. On second thought, maybe Chenle wouldn’t mind pretending to be a ghost. It’s better than anyone finding out he’s actually a wizard. 

Mark makes him promise to lay low for the rest of the night which means no more teleporting. Chenle isn’t sad about that, he was getting frustrated with his magic anyways so he could use a break from it before he goes crazy. 

Despite what Mark said the night before, he makes no intention of claiming his bed for the night. Instead, he lays out on the floor once again.

“I’ll take the bed tomorrow.” Mark says and Chenle only slightly believes him.

Chenle is starting to think his magic hates him. He didn’t appreciate Mark’s laugh when he told him that.

“How can your magic hate you?” Mark questions. “Like, how is that even possible for it to hate you? Is it alive?”

Chenle huffs, he really doesn’t have time to explain the complexities of magic and whether or not it’s a sentient being. “Nevermind that, I feel like I’m back at square one!” Except worse, Chenle thinks but doesn’t say out loud. His magic feels even more unstable and now when he teleports things, they’re teleporting outside of the apartment. Mark said he found a stuffed animal outside while he was walking back to the apartment and his roommate found one in the elevator. Chenle doesn’t understand why he’s losing the progress he’s been steadily gaining ever since he appears in Mark’s room. To make matters worse he’s having nightmares every night now and they all have two common themes. He’s always alone and he can’t use his magic.

Chenle feels like he’s doomed.

“I’m doomed,” Chenle whines. “I’m never going home now, Mark, I’m going to be stuck in your room forever.”

Mark chuckles softly, “You’re not doomed, we’ll figure this out.”

Chenle doesn’t even bother with a reply because of how defeated he feels. He just grunts in response.

“Come on,” Mark leans across the bed and runs his hand through Chenle’s hair, “My roommates are out right now. We can watch one of your shows in the living room before I go to class.”

“Really?” Chenle pouts at him.

Mark smiles, “Really.”

Chenle jumps up from the bed in excitement and grabs onto Mark’s arm, “Come on, I found a really good one last night!”

Mark laughs and lets himself be dragged away, content with the fact he’ll be spending his free time before work watching a silly romcom. 

Chenle wakes up from the worst nightmare he’s had so far. He’s never felt this much panic in his body before as he shoots up from the warm covers on the bed. The soft and cozy fabric does nothing to ease his racing heart and fast breaths, but hearing Mark’s voice does.

“Chenle?” Chenle doesn’t realize Mark had already gotten up from the floor and walked over to his side of the bed until Mark’s face is in front of his own, worried frown etched into his face. His voice is deep and still full of sleep when he asks, “Did you have another nightmare?”

Chenle guiltily bites his lip, “Yeah. Did I wake you up?”

Before he can feel bad for waking Mark up (he’s not even sure how many times this has happened by this point), Mark shakes his head, his bedhead getting even messier thanks to the movement. “Was already up. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“To help?” This is the first time Mark’s asked him this.

Mark nods his head, “Yeah, like do you need me to do anything besides get you water? I’m totally cool with doing that by the way, but I have some younger siblings who used to have nightmares a lot and there were a few things that helped.”

Chenle tilts his head, curious at the kinds of things Mark did to help his siblings. “Like what?”

“Well, sometimes I would read them to sleep, or sing,” Mark shrugs. “Seemed to help them. Other times I would just climb into bed with them and hold them until they knocked out again.”

“Cute,” Chenle mumbles, not entirely aware he said that out loud. He doesn’t falter at his blunder though, not even when Mark looks at him with wide eyes. “Would you hold me if I asked?”

Even in the dark, Chenle can still see the light blush on Mark’s cheeks that gets darker as the seconds tick by. Chenle doesn’t know exactly why he said that, and he can feel his own blush creep up on his cheeks, only that the thought of Mark wrapping his arms around him and bringing him against his chest just seemed nice and safe.

“I don’t think I would have another nightmare if we did that,” Chenle mutters shyly when Mark doesn’t say anything. Chenle starts to crawl under the covers again, thinking Mark is going to tell him no, but then Mark sits on the edge of the bed and gestures for Chenle to scoot over. In a matter of seconds, Mark is lying beside him, blush still on his cheeks as he asks in a soft voice if it’s ok if he holds Chenle.

Not only did Chenle not have any nightmares that night, he also got the best nights sleep he’s had since coming here.

⭐️

Chenle feels dread fill up in his stomach the moment he realizes his magic isn’t working. Mark had already left for work so it leaves Chenle alone in his room, staring at the stuffed animals that haven't moved an inch even after casting the spell. His eyebrows scrunch up and he bites his lip as he thinks of things he may have done differently, but he comes up with nothing. He’s said the spell properly, did the right hand gestures, he’s ticked off every check box in his head. He did everything right, so why isn’t it working?

“Really?” Chenle squawks. He tries to keep the volume of his voice down (Mark told him he was too loud and his roommates would find him in no time if he keeps it up), but it’s becoming increasingly hard to contain his loudness when his magic is throwing a fit. “You’re doing this to me right now, seriously?” He would probably sound and look crazy to any human right now. Talking to himself? Or worse, talking to his magic? Mark would certainly give him a strange look, but he wouldn’t judge Chenle. He’s long since accepted magic and all of Chenle’s seemingly unusual behaviors. “We don’t have time for this right now.”

His attempts to teleport things only fail miserably. He gets no answers as to why his magic is acting out like this, sure it started acting weird by teleporting things randomly again, but its another thing for his magic to just stop all together.

He decides to put it on hold for now until Mark gets home and they can brainstorm reasons together. Not like Mark will be much help, Chenle couldn’t possibly expect him to understand anything about his magic, but he still thinks voicing his thoughts out loud to a listening ear will help. And Mark is a great listener.

He eyes the time on the clock. Mark won’t be home for another few hours so he could distract himself with Mark’s video games in his room , or, his eyes move to the door that is currently shut tight and locked, he could venture out, get himself comfy on their sofa and invade Donghyuck’s snack cabinet. Except he’s not sure if Mark’s roommates are here or not. He hasn’t heard any noises since Mark left, but that doesn’t mean he’s alone in this apartment. He decides the risk is worth the reward and quietly tiptoes out of the room. He might not be able to laze around on the couch this time just in case Mark’s roommates are out and about, but he can at least bring some tasty snacks back to the room to munch on while he plays some Mario Kart on Mark’s somewhat comfortable bean bag chair. Those are his thoughts as he heads into the kitchen, but he stops dead in his tracks when he sees a figure standing in front of the fridge.

That’s definitely not Mark.

Chenle’s whole body freezes, and he holds back the breath he was about to let out. The boy has his back to Chenle at least so he hasn’t noticed Chenle frozen in the middle of tiptoeing into the kitchen. He has his ear pressed against his shoulder, something back wedged in between it and he seems to be talking to someone.

“I’m making dinner right now, when are you coming home, Hyuckie?”

Chenle can hear the pout in the man’s voice as he says it. Now that he’s frozen and aware of his surroundings, he can hear the sound of cutting that goes with the movements of the boy’s arms. He also smells something delicious in the air. How did he miss these signs?

“Ok, hurry back. And tell Mark to hurry home too, we’re having a guest for dinner.”

Chenle takes this chance to slowly turn around and go back the way he came from. He’s careful as he takes steps back to the room, trying to be as light as a feather. It’s working so far and he’s able to get a safe distance away from the kitchen. He lets out a breath of relief when he’s almost there. Just a few more steps.

“There’s no point in hiding anymore,” an amused voice says from behind him.

Chenle jumps in shock. He nervously glances behind his shoulder, hoping that the boy was still talking into the strange black box, but that hope dies when he locks eyes with dark eyes filled with amusement.

“Hi,” the man smiles, displaying his perfectly white and sharp teeth, “I’m Jaemin.”

Chenle doesn’t even wait for Jaemin to finish his sentence, he bolts back into the room and slams the door shut. He locks the door and then rests his forehead against the door while he tries to catch his breath.

He hears a knock against the very same door he’s currently leaning back on.

“I know you’re in there,” the boy sings in a playful tone. The door knob starts to move, but he’s unable to turn it since Chenle had locked it. Chenle smirks, he’ll just stay in here until Mark gets back. 

Or not, Chenle thinks as the door knob starts to move again, and this time it’s actually able to turn, like someone unlocked it which Chenle definitely did not do.

Chenle goes to plan B, using magic to keep the door shut. He closes his eyes and raises his hands, hoping with his heart that his magic will actually listen this time. That seems to be the case, his magic slams the door shut and keeps it there. Chenle opens his eyes when he hears Jaemin’s whines of defeat on the other side.

“Not fair!” Jaemin mewls behind the door. Chenle doesn’t think much about it, not until Jaemin says, “You’re not the only one who can use magic.”

The door slams open, Chenle’s magic that was once holding it shut is no match against the powerful magic that just came out of Jaemin. Chenle is left awestruck as Jaemin runs a hand through his dark hair and then gives him a smug smile as he walks in.

“You didn’t tell me your name.”

Well shit.

“Oh, you’re the cutest little wizard in training I’ve ever seen,” Jaemin coos for what has to be the hundredth time as he pinches Chenle’s cheeks. 

Chenle absolutely hates the chain of events that have led to this moment. This moment being Jaemin, who also happens to be a wizard, throwing all his affection at Chenle as the younger boy tries to squirm out of his sharp claws. He should have questioned Mark about his roommate sooner because he knew something was up with him. The powerful energy was coming from him this whole time, and it turns out just how Chenle could sense Jaemin, Jaemin could also sense him.

“If you knew I was here the whole time,” Chenle breaks free from Jaemin’s pinchy fingers, “Why didn’t you reveal yourself sooner?”

Jaemin just grins at him, a look Chenle is starting to think is permanently etched into his face. He’s either grinning or pouting, there is no inbetween.

“It was fun watching you try to be all sneaky thinking I didn’t notice you were eating all our food and teleporting your cute plushies around the house.” 

Chenle blushes, offended. “I didn’t eat all of your food.”

“Aww honey,” Jaemin says, his voice dripping with this exaggerated sweetness, “You really think Mark could eat five plates of my pancakes? I knew you were a hungry boy so I made sure to make extra.”

Chenle simply glares at him when Jaemin sneaks in one more cheek pinch. He’s never met a wizard quite like this before, especially one so powerful. Chenle has a feeling Jaemin could conjure up anything he wants right now, but instead he insists on squishing Chenle’s cheeks. Chenle is not amused.

Chenle slaps away his hand that starts poking his (what Jaemin calls) bread cheekies. “Does Mark know you’re a wizard?”

Jaemin shakes his head, “He didn’t until now.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Jaemin smirks, “You’ll find out. He should be here any second now.” They both turn their heads when they hear the front door slam open. “Oh, that’s him. Wow he got here fast.”

In a matter of seconds, Mark is in front of the bedroom door, hands on his knees as he catches his breath. There’s sweat running down his face as he looks at Jaemin desperately. “I can explain.”

Jaemin bites his lip to hold back a laugh as he watches Mark fumble over his words in a fluster.

Mark points to Chenle, “He’s not a burglar!”

“What?” Chenle squeaks.

Jaemin nods seriously, or tries to, it’s hard when he’s clearly trying not to laugh but Mark must not notice since he continues to talk.

“I know it’s weird to find a random boy in my room, but I promise he’s not stealing anything! He just popped up in my room–I mean wait no, haha, I invited him in obviously because it’s not like he’s a wizard or anything.”

Chenle face palms. Chenle knows that if Jaemin hadn't figured out he was here already, he definitely would have eventually with the way Mark blurts out every secret he has.

Jaemin must have given up holding back because he burst into laughter, halting Mark in the middle of going on about how Chenle is definitely not a wizard and totally came into the apartment using the front door.

Mark doesn't appreciate this by the frown on his face. “Why are you laughing? Did you already call the police?”

“Huh? The police?” Chenle’s eyebrows crinkle in confusion.

Mark nods slowly, knowing there’s something he’s missing, but not quite sure what it is yet. “Yeah, Jaemin said someone broke into my room and he was going to call the police.”

Both Chenle and Mark turn to look at Jaemin. Jaemin grins in return, “He still had another hour of work so I lied and told him I found you and was going to call the police so he’d get here quicker.”

Mark’s shoulders immediately slump, “Dammit Jaemin, I’m going to have to make up that hour.”

Jaemin coos and wraps Mark into a hug. “I’m sorry, it’s the only way I could think of to get you here faster. Also, I’m a wizard too.”

Mark’s eyes grow big and round and his attention immediately turns to Jaemin. “Dude, you’re what?!”

“Wait,” Chenle looks at Jaemin. 

Jaemin shrugs his shoulders, “Now he knows.”

“I feel like I’m going to faint,” Mark mutters. Jaemin is quick to help him sit down and runs off to grab him a glass of water. Chenle takes the seat beside him and Mark surprises him by resting his head on his shoulder. Chenle cringes a little at his wet hair drenched in sweat, but he still lets him and even pats his head to help calm him down.

“I’m glad Jaemin didn’t call the police on you,” Mark confesses.

“Mark, I don’t know what that means.”

Mark chuckles, “They take bad people away.”

Oh, “I’m glad they didn’t take me away too.”

“So wait,” Mark narrows his eyes at Jaemin, “Why didn’t you tell us you were a wizard?” A pause and then a gasp, “Dude, does Donghyuck know?”

Jaemin must be hiding something, or he simply doesn’t want to talk about Donghyuck and whether or not he knows, because he ignores the second part to Mark’s question and steers the conversation completely away from their other roommate. “Well, we’re not exactly supposes to reveal ourselves to humans,” Jaemin’s eyes glint as he looks at a guilty Chenle who’s looking down instead of meeting Jaemin’s eyes. Huh, who knew Mark had such big hands. He should hold it sometime.

“Oh, right,” Mark nods his head in understanding. “Chenle told me that too. For the record, I would have come clean to you and Donghyuck a long time ago if it weren’t for that rule.”

Chenle finally risks looking up just in time to see Jaemin’s expression fall. He didn’t think Jaemin was capable of frowning.

“About that, we can’t tell Donghyuck.”

“Um, ok?” Mark slowly says. Chenle kind of hates that Mark just goes along with things without questioning it, but it also adds to his cute charm. “Don’t tell Donghyuck, got it.”

Jaemin nods his thanks and doesn’t elaborate further on it. His eyes turn to Chenle. “So, about you. I knew you’ve been sleeping in Mark’s room–”

Chenle and Mark both blush at the way that came out.

“But I  don’t know anything other than that.” Jaemin tilts his head, “What are you doing here, Chenle?”

Chenle closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He’s felt lost ever since he arrived in this silly realm with some boy playing Mario Kart, but now maybe he can finally get some actual direction on what to do next. “I teleported here by mistake, and now I’m stuck.”

There’s a moment of silence as the words float in the air and sink into Jaemin. Jaemin’s expression turns thoughtful as he stares at Chenle, waiting for–well something. Chenle’s not sure what, not until Jaemin smiles and says, “That’s it?”

Chenle blinks. The last few weeks of struggling and struggling and getting absolutely nowhere seemingly meaningless with the way Jaemin phrased that. “Huh–what, wait. What do you mean that’s it? I’m stuck here, Jaemin. I haven't been able to go back home.”

Jaemin’s expression softens and he leans over to squeeze Chenle’s hand, “Right, sorry. I wasn’t trying to make your situation seem small.” The bright smile is back on Jaemin’s face, “I meant that’s an easy problem to fix. I can send you home.”

“Really?” Mark gasp.

Chenle is too busy staring at Jaemin wide eyed to say anything. “I can go home?” Chenle says, voice barely above a whisper.

Jaemin nods his head, mouth opening to say something more, but they’re interrupted with the sound of the front door opening and closing and a voice yelling out.

“I’m home!”

All three of their heads shoot to look at the door. Jaemin turns back to them, a grim expression on his face. “Remember, Donghyuck can’t know.”

⭐️

Dinner is rather awkward. He’s not even sure why they’re eating at the dining table since they don’t seem to ever use it (Both Donghyuck and Mark made confused noises when Jaemin told them this is where they’ll be eating), but Jaemin thought this was a special occasion. Jaemin actually seems to be the only one who doesn’t seem to think anything is out of place. He happily eats his food while making small talk with that wide grin on his face.

“Is it good?” Jaemin says, eyeing all three of them. His grin turns into a pout when he notices Donghyuck is only playing with his food, he barely touched his plate. “Hyuck, you don’t like it?”

Donghyuck rolls his eyes like the question is the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. Which Chenle can agree with. Jaemin’s food is absolutely divine and he’s already on seconds.

“You know your food is good, Jaemin,” Donghyuck sighs. Jaemin brightens up at the praise. “Who did you say this was again,” Donghyuck continues, eyes now trained on Chenle.

“Oh, that’s Chenle,” Jaemin chirps.

Donghyuck nods, “Right, and he’s….” Donghyuck’s voice trails off and Mark picks up where he left off.

“He’s rooming with me for right now.”

Donghyuck studies Mark, and then Jaemin until his eyes finally land back on Chenle. “Why?”

The question makes Mark start to sweat. “Uh,” his eyes dart from Jaemin to Chenle. The boys start to mouth suggestions at him while Donghyuck keeps his eyes on his nervous friend. It doesn’t seem to help though because Mark’s eyebrows just scrunch up as he watches their mouths and tries to repeat the words.

Donghyuck jerks his head to the side to look at the other two and they swiftly shut their lips tight.

“He’s a childhood friend,” Mark finally says. Everyone (except for Donghyuck who is oblivious) lets out a breath of relief, shoulders slumping as they watch Donghyuck believe the lie.

“Oh. I didn’t know you had any other friends.”

Mark glares daggers at him while Jaemin and Donghyuck laugh into their palms. Chenle lets out a giggle too until Mark gives him a look of betrayal and he ends up holding his laugh back.

“I don’t buy it.”

The laughing immediately pauses at the words that just came out of Donghyuck’s mouth. The air starts to get tense as they all wait for Donghyuck to continue.

Chenle worries for a second that his cover has been blown or that Donghyuck knows he was the one who ate all of his snacks (which is really the least of their problems but it still makes Chenle nervous).

Donghyuck just sighs as he shakes his head, “But I guess for right now I’ll believe your friends with this bozo.”

“Hey!”

Donghyuck ignores Marks protests and offended face and directs a smile at Chenle. “Nice to meet you Chenle, welcome to our lovely abode.”

The look in Donghyucks eyes tells him he’s in for a ride.

⭐️

“Holy shit,” the grin on Marks face is wide and charming, Chenle can’t help but smile back, “I can’t believe that worked out just fine.”

Chenle nods his head as he passes Mark to go into the kitchen and look for his own food. “Do you have any more of those dinosaur chicken nuggets?” Chenle feels a little weight lift off his shoulders, not completely, but a little. He doesn’t have to hide in Marks room anymore and sneak out to use the bathroom or get food. On top of that, he still has to corner—he means ask—Jaemin what he meant when he said he could help.

Once glance in Jaemin’s direction shows that he’s a little occupied at the moment. He’s cuddled up beside Donghyuck on the couch as some show plays in the background, but neither of them are paying attention to it, too busy smiling and giggling to each other. They’re as close as on can be, thighs pressed up against each other. Jaemin has an arm thrown over the back of the couch where Donghyuck is sitting. Chenle watches as his fingers dance on top the fabric, wanting to do more but in the end not moving.

Mark pulls out the food and teaches Chenle how to use all the appliances.

“I think i’ll ask Jaemin about sending me home tomorrow since he’s a little busy right now.”

Mark gives him a confused look before glancing over his shoulder. “Oh, yeah. I’d leave them be for now. They’re in their own little bubble.”

Chenle nods. He watches Mark line up all the dinosaurs on the pan.

“Are you excited to go home?” Mark asks, staring intensely at the dinosaur in the shape of a t-rex.

“Yeah,” Chenle smiles, “It’ll be nice to get back home and see my familiar. I bet she misses me.”

Mark hums. He puts the pan in the oven and then turns around. He crosses his arms as he leans against the stove.

“What’s a familiar?”

Chenle gasps, “I never told you about my beloved Daegal?”

Mark shakes his head no.

Chenle can’t believe he left out such a vital detail about himself. “Basically a familiar is an animal you bond with and you form this special connection. You’re basically one now,” Chenle clasps his hands together to help visualize it more. “She becomes your companion, friend, and basically helps you with your magic.”

Mark lips form a ‘o’. “That’s pretty cool.”

Chenle nods, “Very, but I've felt weird every since I left home. It’s strange that she’s not around me anymore.” Chenle sighs. “She used to never leave me side. Now I haven't seen her in weeks.

“But you’ll get to see her again soon,” Mark pipes in.

Chenle grins, “I will.”

Something washes over the two, something that was always in the back of their minds, but that they knew wouldn’t become reality anytime soon so they pushed it away. But with the new fact that Jaemin is a wizard who can help, the possibility of Chenle going home might actually become a reality.

“I guess we won’t be able to see each other anymore,” Mark scratches the back of his head.

Oh. Right. Chenle feels a mix of emotions at that moment. There’s some excitement at the aspect of finally going back home, but there’s also sadness and– disappointed? Chenle doesn’t really know what to do with these newfound emotions, so he keeps it tucked away in a box at the back of his mind. No need to dive into those.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Chenle mutters.

Marks eyes are still on him. “I-“

Beep

Mark and Chenle jump at the noise. Mark turns around to frown at the oven.

“It beeped at me.”

Chenle chuckles, “Maybe you made it angry.”

Mark gives him a look of confusion. “Dude, it can’t get angry, it’s just a oven.”

Chenle sighs with a shake of his head, taking the chance to move the bangs out of his eyes. “Our worlds are so different Mark.”

“Your ovens get angry at you?”

“It means the oven is done preheating,” Jaemin says from behind them, making them jump once again. Jaemin checks the temperature and then peeks into the oven. He clicks his tongue. “Mark, you’re supposed to preheat it and then put the food in,” he scolds him. Mark gives him a sheepish smile.

“Also, to answer your question, we can cast spells to bring life to inanimate objects. So, yeah, sometimes our ovens can talk.”

Jaemin looks at Mark with an amused smile when his jaw drops.

“You can’t drop that on me and think I won’t ask any follow up questions.”

Jaemin smiles, “Ask away.”

Chenle thinks Mark looks cute as he asks these questions. His face is lit up and he’s so animated as he talks about things outside of his realm.

⭐️

Another good nights rest. Seems like Marks arms do the right trick in scaring away nightmares, but it does nothing to help Chenle’s magic. It’s finicky at best, working just fine and then the next moment he can’t cast any spells. He can’t figure out why his magic is doing this to him now of all times, when he’s abandoned in a new place with the possibility of going home finally arriving. He can only hope that Jaemins magic is powerful enough to do what it needs to do to get Chenle back home because Chenle doesn’t think he’ll be of much help in this state.

Mark is home when Chenle is finally able to pull Jaemin to the side to ask about returning back home.

“Can you really send me home?”

They decide to take the conversation to Marks room and they shut the door so Donghyuck can’t eavesdrop on their conversation. 

“Yep,” Jaemin responds with a nod of his head. “There’s a few different ways we could go about teleporting you home, but the quickest and easiest way would be a teleportation stone. It’s also the safest way, teleporting without some kind of object to help you can be dangerous. Even for the most powerful wizards.” Jaemin gives Chenle a stern look that Chenle understands is Jaemin telling him how dumb it was to try to teleport without an object to help him. Chenle understands that, now. 

“Teleportation stone?” Mark questions.

“Yeah,” Chenle cuts in before Jaemin can start to explain. “It’s just as it says, a stone that can teleport you to any destination. My professors showed me one in a book, but I've never made or used one before.”

“Really now,” Jaemins eyes sparkle with interest. “I can show you how to make one if you want. Shouldn’t take longer than a day or two.”

“Really?” It’s hard to miss the excitement in Chenle’s voice as he speaks and it doesn’t go unnoticed by the other two.

“Yeah!” Jaemin chirps. “I should have all the ingredients in my room, and if I’m missing any I can just send my familiar out to gather the rest.”

Chenle knows next to nothing about teleportation stones. In fact, he had just gotten to teleportation in his classes and he barely brushed the surface of it before teleporting here. “What kind of ingredients do you need?” Chenle asks. The only thing he really dabbled in was potions at home, he hasn’t created anything else.

Jaemins looks genuinely pleased at Chenles questions. “Mostly common ingredients but there are a few rarer ones. We can go to my room and I can show you them if you want. ”

As Jaemin speaks he begins to lead Chenle out the door. Chenle pauses for a moment in order to look at Mark, his eyes asking a silent question.

Mark simply smiles and nods, waving him off to continue with his lesson.

Jaemin had stopped talking to watch the silent exchange, but he begins again after watching Mark’s silent approval. He leads Chenle out the room and in the direction of another door at the end of the hallways. He brings out this cutesy teacher voice as he explains the different ways you can teleport. “There’s stones like the one we’re going to make. There’s always spells to enchant doorways to teleport you, but–” Jaemin raises his hand to stop Chenle from asking why they don’t just do that instead. Sounds like it would be easier. “That takes awhile to wear off and we kinda use every room in the apartment so we have no doors to spare. And I don’t want to have to explain to Donghyuck why he teleported to another dimension while trying to use the bathroom.”

Chenle snorts, “Fair enough.”

Jaemin continues to talk as he unlocks his door to his bedroom. Chenle takes a few steps in the room, now only half listening to Jaemin as he takes in the site of all the potions and books sprawled out everywhere. Every inch of the room screams wizard and Chenle finds it very hard to believe that Mark or Donghyuck haven't asked questions upon seeing all the magical items thrown about the room. “Have either of your roommates been in here?”

Jaemin nods casually, like he wasn’t just begging him and Mark to keep this a secret from Donghyuck. “Yeah, but it’s really easy to hide all this stuff. See?” Jaemin snaps his fingers and everything happens in a blur right before Chenle’s eyes. The walls and floors shift, all the books and potions suddenly vanish. In a matter of seconds everything is gone, leaving a plain room with a bed, desk and dresser in it. Nothing fancy, in fact Chenle would even call it quite dull.

“Boring isn’t it?” Jaemin beams, “Exactly how I want it. Nobody would ever expect something is up while looking at this room.”

Chenle nods slowly, watching in fascination as Jaemin snaps his fingers again and everything goes back the way it was when Chenle first stepped foot in here. “Has Donghyuck ever tried to break in here? Mark told me he does that sometimes.”

Jaemin chuckles with a small shake of his head, “I’ve enchanted my lock so he can’t pick it.” Jaemin smirks, “Although sometimes I get rid of the enchant so Donghyuck can rebuild his ego a bit. He never finds anything and I’m usually able to tackle him on the bed and cuddle with him for a few hours.”

Chenle can definitely see Jaemin as a cuddler.

“Here’s the ingredients,” Jaemin says, changing the subject. He spreads his arms out in front of the huge shelf with various bottles and packages on it. Chenle recognizes a lot of them as he gets closer and starts to inspect them.

“Whoa, you have a lot here.”

Jaemin hums as he rubs his chin, eyeing some of the items. “Yeah, but I’m running low on a few things. I’ll send Luna out to get more tonight.”

“Luna?” Chenle questions.

A big smile breaks out on Jaemin’s face. “My familiar! I have three actually, all cats. They’re my babies.” He suddenly pouts, “I only have Luna right now though. Jeno needed Luke and Lucy for something so I haven’t seen them in a few weeks,” he sighs.

“I understand that. I haven't seen my Daegal in a while,” Chenle pats his back in real sympathy. “Who’s Jeno?”

Jaemin waves it off like Chenle’s question is unimportant, “Just a friend from the wizarding realm. About to be an ex-friend if he doesn’t return my babies to me soon.”

Jaemin takes him on a tour of the rest of his room and points out some of the ingredients he has for the teleportation stone and also the ingredients he still needs.

“As I said, I’ll send Luna to pick up the rest of the stuff tonight, but for now,” he shoves a heavy book into Chenle’s arms making the younger boy let out a small oof. “Read up on teleportation, especially stones, but I’ll quiz you on the others too.”

“What?” Chenle asks in bewilderment. “There’s going to be a test?” 

Jaemin laughs as if what Chenle just said was a funny joke. “Of course there is. I’m going to teach you everything you know about teleportation so this doesn’t happen to you again in the future.”

Chenle frowns, he can’t really argue with that. Jaemin must notice because he pats his back and leads him out of the room. “I’ll start getting everything ready, we’ll start actually working on this tomorrow.” Jaemin clicks his tongue, “This wouldn’t have happened to you if your teachers taught you properly. I learned how to teleport before I could walk.”

Chenle snorts, he doubts that–well—Knowing how strange and quirky Jaemin is, maybe there’s some truth to it. “I have until tomorrow to study all of this?”

Jaemin pats his cheek and then goes in for a sneaky pinch when Chenle isn’t expecting it. Chenle scowls and smacks his hand away, but it doesn’t seem to phase Jaemin because he still has that cheeky grin on his face. “Aww is it too much for you?”

Chenle narrows his eyes at the challenge, “Of course it’s not too much.”

“Then you’ll be fine!” Jaemin chirps and then suddenly the door is shut in Chenle’s face and he has nothing else to do but drag himself back to Mark’s room.

“Huh?” Mark questions when he sees the heavy book in Chenle’s hand. He watches as Chenle lets it fall on his bed, causing everything on the bed to jump a little because of the weight. “What’s that?”

“A book,” Chenle sighs as he sits cross legged on Mark’s bed, he opens the first page. “I have some studying to do.”

Chenle can’t remember the last time he studied this hard. His eyes are starting to hurt from staring at a page for hours on end. He’s not sure where Jaemin got this book from, but it’s a lot more in depth than the books at his school. Chenle can understand why the book is a lot thicker than his flimsy one at home. Still, even as detailed as it is, Chenle can only read so much in one day until his brain is fried or turns all mushy and it takes him a moment to even remember his own name.

Chenle shuts the book and falls back on the bed with a loud groan. Mark pauses his Mario Kart race to turn his body on the bean bag he’s sitting on.

“You good?”

Chenle let’s out another groan. 

Mark chuckles, completely amused by his antics. “How about you come play some Mario Kart with me to help loosen up.” He pats the other bean bag chair beside him for emphasis.

Chenle lifts his head and looks at the characters on the screen longingly. “But I need to study.”

“We’ll study as we play,” Mark suggests.

“How?”

“We can make note cards and I’ll quiz you as we play. It’s what I do for my classes. Worked for me so far,” Mark shrugs then stands up to grab a stack of note cards from his desk.

Mark motions for him to sit down in the bean bag chair, even going so far as to pout until Chenle finally sighs and gives up, letting his feet carry him to the bean filled chair.

“You’d help me study even though you don’t know anything about magic?” Chenle questions, watching Mark from the corner of his eyes as he grabs pens and highlighters as well.

“Yeah, why not,” Mark smiles at him. “I’ll learn something new too, it’ll be fun.”

Chenle has trouble biting back a smile as Mark sits down beside him and they get to work making the notecards.

⭐️

Chenle knew he was going to start working with Jaemin the next day, but he didn’t expect Jaemin to knock at his door bright and early at 7am. Chenle simply snuggles more into Mark’s arms when he hears the knock, but they only get louder and faster the longer Chenle ignores him. The disturbance doesn’t seem to affect Mark who continues to snore softly as someone pounds at the door.

Chenle finally starts to get up, detangling their limbs as he mutters out a, “Coming.”

Jaemin can’t seem to wait though because suddenly the door opens and Jaemin pokes his head in just in time to see Chenle remove himself from Mark’s arms.

Jaemin raises a teasing eyebrow at him, “You and Mark share a bed?”

Chenle waves him off though, too early to feel any embarrassment over that. Maybe later once he’s fully woken up. “Helps with my nightmares.”

Jaemin eyes him curiously, but doesn’t ask any questions. Probably saving that topic for later.

“Can we have breakfast first,” Chenle pouts at him.

Jaemin coos and pinches his cheeks, “Way ahead of you. The pancakes and bacon are already done.”

That’s enough to rid Chenle of all his grumpiness at Jaemin for waking him up so early. He brightens up instantly at the mention of food and follows Jaemin into the kitchen where he’s met with stacks and stacks of food.

“Dig in,” Jaemin says as he watches Chenle pile his plate full of food, “You have a long day ahead of you.”

Much to Chenle’s dismay, Jaemin did quiz him on everything he learned once they were in the safety of his room, away from Donghyucks prying eyes. Chenle thanks Mark when he gets nearly a perfect score, those flashcards really helped him remember the small details he would have otherwise forgotten. Jaemin coos at him and tells him he’s proud, it’s the first time Chenle smiles at his actions instead of getting annoyed by his touchiness especially when he pulls Chenle into a celebratory hug. Getting a compliment by Jaemin, whose power is hard to not notice, is the biggest compliment Chenle’s ever received. 

“Ok,” Jaemin claps his hand with a grin, “Let’s get started. Shouldn’t take us long and Luna already dropped off my supplies.” Jaemin walks to one of the three cat beds in his room and scratches the chin of who Chenle assumes is Luna. Luna purrs and even licks Jaemin’s hand a few times before pulling away and resting her head on top of her paws. “Let’s get started shall we?”

It’s rather easy, Chenle realizes. Not just the spell he’s writing on the stone using some magic paint Jaemin had made with some of his ingredients, but just working alongside Jaemin in general. Jaemin is patient with him and is very good at giving clear and easy instructions to follow. He’s kind when Chenle makes a mistake and helps him with Chenle’s confused. Chenle doesn’t think he’s ever had a teacher quite like Jaemin before and it’s a shame. 

“You know, you’re really good at this.”

Jaemin pauses his writing to look at Chenle. “At what? Making teleportation stones? It’s actually rather easy the more you—“

“No, I mean teaching,” Chenle chuckles. 

Jaemins eyes sparkle like stars in the sky when he hears those words. “Really? I did always aspire to be a teacher, but I got sidetracked.”

“With what?” Chenle questions, but Jaemin has already moved on from that conversation and started a new one. Chenle notices he tends to do that a lot. 

It doesn’t take long to finish the rest of the steps. All that’s left is a few things. Chenles heart sinks a little when Jaemin tells him one of the steps they’ll have to do.

“We need to cast a spell now, to enchant it,” Jaemin says with ease. Of course he doesnt think this step will be much of a challenge. To Chenle though, it’s the toughest battle he’ll face all day. 

“Oh, cool,” Chenle gulps while Jaemin eyes him expectantly. “All you need to do is cast the spell?”

Jaemin nods, “Yup, that should do it. Except you’ll be casting it, Chenle.”

Chenle averts his gaze from Jaemin’s sparkly orbs to instead look at the floor. “Can’t you cast it? You’re more powerful than I am anyways, it’s probably better if you do it.’

Jaemin shakes his head with a tsking sound. “No, I want you to do it.”

“But why!” Chenle whines.

Jaemin crosses his arms and furrows his brows. “What’s the problem? I’ve never seen a wizard make such a fuss over casting a spell.”

Chenle pouts, “I’m not being fussy.”

Jaemin eyes him for an uncomfortable amount of time for Chenle. It’s like Jaemin’s gaze is picking him apart, piece by piece. 

Jaemin’s gaze suddenly turns soft as he takes in Chenle’s obvious distress. To his slump shoulders and his nervous habit of biting his lip. “Chenle, what’s going on?”

Chenle sighs, “My magic is acting weird. I might not be able to cast the spell. I’ve also been having nightmares–well I was having nightmares, but–”

“Mark’s cuddles have been helping with those?” Jaemin says with a little wiggle of his eyebrows.

Chenle blushes but nods his head.

“That’s wonderful he’s been able to help with those.” Jaemin sends him a soft smile. “Tell me more about your magic. What do you mean it’s been acting weird?” Jaemin asks genuinely, showing Chenle that he's listening and taking him seriously. Jaemin guides him to sit down before they continue the conversation.

“I don’t know? Ever since I teleported here it hasn’t been listening to me. I can’t teleport things where I want them. When I finally thought I was getting a hang of it, my magic got even worse. The last time I tried to teleport something my magic didn’t work at all,” Chenle frowns. “Is something wrong with me? Am I losing my magic?”

“Impossible. You were born with magic, it runs in your blood. You won’t just lose it,” Jaemin reassures him.

“Then what’s wrong with me?”

Jaemin takes him by surprise by poking his forehead. “You’re stressed. See, you have all these wrinkles on your forehead from thinking too much. You need to relax or you’ll be all wrinkly before you’re old and gray. You wouldn’t want that.”

Chenle smacks his hand away, ”I don’t need you to lecture me about skin care. Of course I’m stressed, I thought I might never get to go home. Wouldn’t you be stressed if you were in my shoes too?”

Jaemin shakes his head slowly, “Oh Chenle, you have the opportunity to do new things, explore a place completely different from your own. Meet new people,” Jaemin raises his eyebrow expectantly and Chenle knows he’s referring to Mark. “You shouldn’t be stressed, you should be having the time of your life right now. That’s what I would be doing. That’s what I am doing. You have so many more opportunities than you would back at the academy.”

“I guess..” Chenle never thought about it that way before. He was so focused on getting home that he didn’t think that maybe he’d be better here. “Why did you come here,” Chenle asks. He never did get Jaemin’s story.

Jaemin smiles at him. “It was supposed to be a short trip but let’s just say I found something here I couldn’t leave behind.”

“What was it?”

A mischievous smile forms on Jaemin’s face, “You’ll find out soon enough. Now I have a proposition for you, one that I really encourage you to accept.”

Chenle nods for Jaemin to continue so the older wizard does.

“You have a lot of potential, I can feel it. Your professors back at the academy have hundreds of other students to teach, so they won’t be able to give you the training you deserve. I can already tell they’re barely trying already,” Jaemin scowls at the thought, “You’re a lot more behind in your studies than I was. I need to get in touch with the academy back home and have a serious discussion about the curriculum—“

“Jaemin, get on with it,” Chenle interrupts with a snort.

Jaemin pauses and then grins. “Right, anyways,” he sends Chenle a wink that causes the younger boy to roll his eyes. “What I was going to say is you should stay here. Become my apprentice and I'll teach you things your academy could never teach you.”

Chenle blinks dumbly at Jaemin who's looking at him seriously. There’s nothing that implies what Jaemin just said is a joke. He’s staring at Chenle, waiting patiently for an answer. “But, why me?”

Jaemins face erupts in his usual grinning, happy self. “I see a lot in your future and I want to be the one to teach you everything. Nobody will be able to teach you the way I will, I can assure you. Plus Marks quite fond of you,” Jaemins eyes twinkle as he says it, “As well as Donghyuck and I of course. I’m afraid you’re stuck with us now, and our love and affection.” Jaemin pulls him into a hug as he says that.

“Ok, ok,” Chenle wiggles uselessly in Jaemin’s grasp. “I guess it doesn’t sound so bad.” And he wouldn’t have to leave Mark. He keeps all this to himself though.

“Great!” Jaemin gets up and starts busying himself around his room. “I’ll make another teleportation stone and enchant them both. We’ll both head back home to the ministry, there’s some paperwork we have to go through for this to be official. And I'm sure your family misses you.”

Chenle nods, he would like to see his family again. “And I want to bring my familiar with me this time,” Chenle adds.

Jaemin nods distractedly, already in the process of making another stone. “Yes, we’ll grab everything you need, don’t worry. I have a task for you while I get these stones prepared, though.”

“Jaemin, I said I can’t do magic right now so I don’t think-”

“It has nothing to do with you using magic,” Jaemin interrupts him. He looks at Chenle with a mischievous grin on his face and eyes twinkling with even more mischief. “You’re stressed, you need to unwind. I want Mark and Donghyuck to show you around our little town. You’ve been cooped up in here for too long.”

Chenle opens his mouth to protest, the thought of getting caught is swimming around in his head. “But what if people find out I’m a wizard?”

Jaemin sends him a grin, “You won’t get caught if you can’t use magic.”

⭐️

Mark was ecstatic when he found out Chenle was finally leaving the apartment. Chenle couldn’t help feeding off of Mark’s excitement. He’s been curious about what’s out there, how different it is from his own home. There’s already so many differences he’s seen and that’s just inside Mark’s home, he can’t imagine what he’ll find outside of these walls. Donghyuck was slightly confused at first, “What do you mean you haven't been outside this apartment?” Mark had to quickly correct himself and explain to Donghyuck that he’s new to the area and isn’t familiar with the surroundings. Donghyuck seemed to buy it after sending a few weird looks their way.

“Where should we go first?” Mark asks. He fixes his glasses as he looks down at his phone, looking for things to do in the area. “There’s a few things within walking distance.”

“Why didn’t Jaemin come with us?” Donghyuck frowns as he looks over his shoulder at their apartment which still has Jaemin inside. “He told me he was busy, but busy with what?”

Mark shrugs his shoulders, “Probably work. You know he works from home a lot.” Mark looks everywhere but at Donghyuck’s face as he laughs nervously. Mark is a terrible liar, Chenle notices, but Donghyuck seems too distracted to really notice.

“Oh, right,” Donghyuck mumbles, still deep in thought.

Chenle feels bad for him, especially since the only reason Jaemin isn’t here is because he’s helping Chenle fix his mistake. He decides to take a risk and loops his arm with Donghyuck’s. “I didn’t have much to do back at home.” Sort of a lie, he had plenty to do, but he knows it’ll be different here. “What do you guys do to have fun around here?”

Donghyuck grins at him for the first time. “There’s a movie theater around here, maybe we can go see what’s showing?”

Mark nods, “Yeah, I’m down for a movie.”

It’s Chenle’s first time stepping into a movie theater and he has to say, his first experience was amazing. They played on the arcade machines first since they had some time before the next showing for the movie they wanted to see started. The only game Chenle has played so far is Mario Kart, but there’s none of that here. Instead, he and Donghyuck shoot zombies on one of the arcade machines and battle each other in hand to hand combat in another. Mark easily gets wiped out by the two of them and is left to pout to himself on the sidelines as he watches the other two boys have fun. 

As they play Donghyuck opens up a bit more to Chenle and confesses all the strange things that've been happening around the apartment.

“Random stuffed animals have been appearing out of thin air in the apartment, I swear. Mark says I’m just imagining it,” he shoots a glare at Mark who is too busy cleaning his glasses to really notice.

Chenle chuckles nervously, “Really? How strange.” Chenle remembers all his failed teleportation attempts and Donghyuck’s screams of fear that always happened soon after. Oops.

Donghyuck sighs in defeat, “Right. But it’s not like it’s the first time something like this has ever happened. Stuff has always appeared out of nowhere, or disappeared. I’ll be cooking dinner and as soon as I turn my back on anything it ends up disappearing and reappearing on different counters. Jaemin’s always there when it happens but he just laughs at me when I tell him and says he didn’t see anything, like how is it even possible to miss a pan floating away!”

Chenle is positive that it’s Jaemin’s way of fucking with Donghyuck and he’s 100% sure Jaemin is using magic to move Donghyuck’s pots and pans around as he cooks.

He doesn’t say anything to Donghyuck though and just bites his lip to hold back a smile. “Maybe your kitchen is haunted,” Chenle suggests. Haunted by a mischievous wizard by the name of Jaemin.

Donghyuck nods, completely serious. “That’s what I’ve been telling them!”

They end their arcade fun by playing a dancing game before finally leaving the area and getting their food. They get a big bowl of popcorn and Mark watches in concern as they pour loads of butter on it.

“All that butter can’t be healthy for us,” Mark says before grabbing a piece and popping it in his mouth.

“You don’t seem very concerned about it,” Donghyuck snorts while Chemle giggles and takes a handful of popcorn for himself. They haven't even gotten to their seats yet and the bowl full of buttery goodness is already about to meet its end.

“It’s good,” Mark shrugs.

They finally make it to their seats with half a bowl of popcorn left. Chenle already made up his mind that he’ll have Mark go on a popcorn run in the middle of the movie.

Chenle takes a seat at the end of the row and Mark goes to sit beside him, but Donghyuck takes that spot instead. Chenle only feels slightly disappointed when Mark sits on the other side of Donghyuck.

The movie is enjoyable, Chenle really enjoys watching as the pictures get projected onto a big screen without magic being involved. He finds it amazing all the things humans can do without magic. They do send Mark on another popcorn run and he comes back with not only popcorn, but drinks and candy too. Chenle feels absolutely full by the end of it. Nobody dares suggest they go get something to eat as they exit the movie theater, but Mark does suggest they get some drinks at one of the coffee shops near them so that’s where they head.

The streets are a lot busier now, going to shops and getting lunch with their friends and partners. It’s really easy for Chenle to get lost in the crowd, needing to stand on his tippy toes to try and spot the backs of Mark or Donghyuck’s head. Just as he thinks he’s lost in the sea of people, someone grabs his hand.

“I got you,” Mark smiles at him. With a squeeze of his hand he helps Chenle maneuver through the crowd until they’re caught up with Donghyuck.

Chenle eyes wander down to their connected hands. His cheeks feel warm as he looks at Mark’s hand in his own. He squeezes it once and feels Mark squeeze it back in response.

They get to the coffee shop quickly after that (only taking one wrong turn before Donghyuck took the lead since Mark is bad with directions). Mark orders for Chenle and gets him a fancy coffee with some cute art on it. It’s weird not seeing flying teapots and plates full of sweet desserts floating onto the table in front of the witches and wizards who purchased them. Instead, Mark comes back from ordering and sets his drink in front of him and then takes the seat beside him, before Donghyuck could take it. 

It’s different not being constantly surrounded by magic, but Chenle finds it fascinating as he watches non wizards do things without magic.

“What are you thinking about?” Mark whispers from beside him, watching him curiously.

Chenle glances at Donghyuck to see the boy looking at the menu, debating buying a dessert to bring back to Jaemin. He’s specifically pointing at the strawberry desserts, an action Mark rolls his eyes at. “Don’t get him a strawberry shortcake again, Hyuck. You know he doesn’t like strawberries.” Mark says.

Donghyuck sends him an exaggerated sweet smile. “I would never!” He stands up, menu in hand, “I can’t believe you think I would do that to him. Again. I swear it was an accident the first time!”

Chenle somehow doubts that and watches as Donghyuck goes to buy Jaemin a “non strawberry” dessert.

“How do you live without magic?” Chenle asks. He still keeps his voice low, but not as quiet as he would if Donghyuck were still here. He still doesn’t want other customers to hear him.

Mark chuckles and shrugs, “Dude, I didn’t even know about magic before you. We don’t know what we’re missing out on.”

They finish their drinks and watch as Donghyuck puts a cute little dessert in a bag. It appears to be free of strawberries so Jaemin seems to be safe for now.

They walk out of the coffee shop and into the still busy street. Mark doesn’t hesitate to take Chenle’s hand again and guide him through the streets.

They show Chenle around the town more, they enter bookshops and other cute stores like that.

“I think I could get used to this place,” Chenle says as they come out of the shop. Donghyuck has his arm full of bags while Mark only has one. It has a new video game he’s been wanting to try, he’s been telling Chenle all about it and how much they’ll enjoy playing it since it’s multiplayer.

Mark smiles at that, but then it starts to falter, “But you’re going home soon aren’t you?”

“You can always visit us again if you want,” Donghyuck says, “Mark could surely use another friend.” 

Mark rolls his eyes.

Donghyuck’s phone goes off and he takes out his phone and looks at the screen, “Oh, that’s Jaemin. I’ll be right back.” Donghyuck answers the phone and walks away for some privacy.

“Actually,” Chenle stands up on his tippy toes and smiles at Mark, “Jaemin wants me to become his apprentice.”

Mark’s round eyes widen even more, “What does that mean?”

“It means he wants me to stay here so he can teach me magic.” Chenle’s smile only gets wider as he sees Mark’s features go through a wide range of emotion from surprised, to excitement and then hope.

“What did you say?”

“I said yes.”

Mark’s face erupts in a big smile. Before Chenle can even register what’s happening, Mark has his arms around him and he’s spinning them around. They both laugh and Mark finally lets him down.

“So you’re really staying?” Mark asks.

Chenle nods his head. “I have to go back home with Jaemin to say hi to my family and register him to be my teacher.”

“But you’ll be back?” Mark asks, voice hopeful.

“Yeah,” Chenle smiles, “I’ll be back, it shouldn’t take more than a few days.”

Someone clears their throat and that’s when they realize how close they still are with Mark’s arms wrapped around Chenle’s waist. They quickly separate, cheeks a rosy shade of red. Donghyuck is smirking at them, but he doesn’t comment on what he just witnessed, surprisingly.

“Jaemin asked us to come back. Says it’s important.”

They both nod their heads, not looking at each other out of embarrassment. Mark still takes his hand on the way back though.

⭐️

“Where are you guys going?” Donghyuck asks–no demands–with his hands on his hip as he stares at Jaemin.

“Hyuckie, me and Chenle are just going out of town for a few days.”

“No offense Chenle,” Donghyuck glances at Chenle, “But you just met him, Jaemin!”

“Chenle cringes and then walks away to leave them to their bickering. He walks into Mark's room to find the older boy looking around. “Do you have everything?”

Chenle nods, “Yeah, it’s not like I had much when I got here.”

“Oh, right. How about I give you my number—“

“Mark,” Chenle laughs with a shake of his head, “I won’t be able to call you from there with your weird technology.”

Mark’s shoulders slump, “Yeah, they probably don’t have service there.”

“I’ll be back,” Chenle promises.

Mark stares at him for a few moments and then pulls him into a hug. “Right, I'll see you in a few days.”

“Yeah,” Chenle pulls back with a smile.

“And don’t forget about my wish,” Mark says, seriously.

Chenle giggles, “I won’t. I’ll come back and grant you anything you want, alright?”

Mark finally seems satisfied with that answer, “Alright.”

“Chenle are you ready to go?” Jaemin says, poking his head into the room. “Donghyuck finally stopped asking me questions. We should go before he starts again.”

With one last look at Mark, Chenle nods his head. “Yeah, I'm ready.”

They head to Jaemins room while Mark distracts Donghyuck, making sure he doesn’t see anything he’s not supposed to, like two wizards teleporting to a different realm. 

“Here,” Jaemin places the stone into Chenles hand. It’s warm to the touch. “It’s single use only. Drop this by your feet when I tell you to. Oh, and I really recommend closing your eyes, unless you want to puke in front of the ministry when we get there.”

“Ew,” Chenle’s face scrunches up. “I’ll pass. Did that happen to you?”

“Me? Of course not. Can’t say the same for Jeno.”

Chenle really feels bad for this Jeno fellow. “Is that where we’re headed? The ministry?” He already feels a headache coming from all the scolding he’s going to get there.

Jaemin nods his head in understanding, like he knows exactly what Chenle is feeling. “Yeah, your family should be waiting there for you. I sent them a message that I was going to return you home.”

Oh, that’s even worse. He’s going to get scolded by a bunch of old people in robes and his parents. Deadly combo.

Chenle sighs, “Ok, let's get this over with.”

Jaemin gives him a sympathetic smile and ruffles his hair with a little coo that Chenle doesn’t appreciate. “It shouldn’t be too long. They just need to know where you went and that you’re safe. Ready?”

Chenle nods his head and is about to let go of his stone, but Jaemin stops him for a moment, looking at him seriously.

“Chenle I need you to promise me you won’t tell them anything about Mark.”

“What?” Chenle says confused. “Why?”

Jaemin shakes his head, “Just promise me.”

Chenle shrugs, “Ok, I promise I guess. Can I at least tell my friend?” Chenle was planning to tell Jisung all about his experience here, I mean how can he not tell his best friend that he accidentally teleported to another place without magic. And also tell him about Mario Kart. Chenle thinks Jisung would really like to hear about Mario Kart. Maybe he can sneak Mark’s Mario Kart out of his room and play it with Jisung one day.

“Chenle,” Jaemin warns with a raised eyebrow.

“Ok, fine,” Chenle says with an immature eye roll. “Can we go now?”

Chenle’s pretty sure hears Jaemin mutter bratt under his breath but he chooses not to hear that.

“Let’s go.”

Chenle nods his head and drops his stone. In that split second before the stone hits the floor, Jaemin’s door opens and Donghyuck pops his head into the room. “Jaemin–”

Chenle watches as Donghyuck’s eyes grow wide and then he’s gone and Chenle quickly closes his eyes so he doesn’t get nauseous. It’s hard to describe the sensation he feels while he’s teleporting. It feels like his body is being pulled in every direction. It’s a dizzying feeling and Chenle’s greatful Jaemin told him to close his eyes.

Soon, he feels his feet land on solid ground. He stumbles forward, but luckily Jaemin was expecting this because he clamps a hand around his wrist to help steady him.

Chenle looks at Jaemin’s nauseous face and for a split second wonders if Jaemin opened his eyes while teleporting, then he remembers Donghyuck’s face right before they teleported away. Chenle studies his face closely, it almost looks like he’s scared.

“Jaemin,” Chenle says gently. He thinks he understands why Jaemin wanted to keep this part of himself hidden from Donghyuck. “Donghyuck’s not going to care that you’re a wizard. He’ll probably find it cool, Mark did.”

Jaemin shakes his head, “No, Chenle that’s not why–” He’s interrupted by the sound of footsteps heading in their direction. “Chenle, listen to me.” Jaemin’s serious voice brings Chenle’s attention away from the hallways the footsteps are coming from and to Jaemin’s hard eyes.

“You can’t tell them Mark or Donghyuck know about any of this.”

Chenle frowns, Jaemin’s scaring him a little with how serious he looks and sounds. “I know, you told me already.”

“Chenle, they’ll erase their memories if they find out,” Jaemin whispers quickly before bringing his attention to the hallway as well.

Chenle can’t compose himself like Jaemin just did, not after hearing that new information. “What?! Why didn’t you tell me this before we left!” Chenle hisses out. People have appeared now, dressed in robes. Chenle recognizes some of them, but his eyes are still on Jaemin, watching his blank face.

Jaemin’s eyes flash with guilt briefly before going back to being expressionless. “Sorry, I thought it might scare you.”

“You think?” Chenle hisses before facing the ministry. He wasn’t nervous before, but now he is. He gulps as one of the older men steps forward.

“We’ve been waiting for you, Mr. Zhong.”

He gets separated from Jaemin so Chenle can meet with his family and tell them what happened. It’s a tearful reunion, his mom and dad hug him tightly and tell him they missed him with tears in his eyes. Chenle probably would have teared up too, he didn’t realize how much he missed them, but his brain is stuck on what Jaemin had told him earlier. He knew that he wasn’t allowed to reveal himself to regular humans, but he didn’t realize the severe consequences if he were to.

Soon his dad and the rest of the ministry take him to another room so they can question him. Chenle feels his palms start to sweat as he recounts everything that happened which is hard to do when he has to leave out Mark’s name. Mark was with him from the start and stayed with him every step of the way, it’s hard to tell his story without mentioning him. Chenle somehow manages to, after lots of stuttering and holes in his story, but luckily his dad sums it up to nerves and ends the meeting saying his son needs to rest now.

After lots of convincing his parents that he’s fine and he can be left alone, he gets escorted to a room he can rest in while his parents finish things. He still has an examination he has to do to make sure he’s ok and his body didn’t catch anything since he was in another realm. 

It isn’t long before he hears a knock at the door. When he opens it, he’s greeted with his best friends face.

“Jisung!” Chenle barrels into him without warning and sends them tumbling to the ground.

“Whoa!” Jisung chuckles on the ground. When Chenle doesn’t move to let go or stand up, he wraps his arms around him. “We missed you.”

Chenle finally lets go when he hears a dog bark. He lifts his head with a gasp. “Daegal?”

He sees the white fluff ball running at him down the hall so he quickly lets go of Jisung, ignoring the ‘ finally’ the other boy lets out. Chenle opens his arms and lets his dog jump into his arms and lick his face. He giggles as it happens. “I missed you too.”

“So,” Jisung stands up and dusts himself off. “Are you going to tell me why you suddenly teleported in the middle of class? One moment you were next to me and then you weren’t, you know how confusing that was to tell the professors and your parents?”

Chenle picks Daegal up in his arms and walks into the room. “I thought I could teleport out of class.”

Jisung looks at him in disbelief. “Why would you think you could do that! We weren’t supposed to start teleporting for another year or two.”

Jaemin’s right, they're seriously behind in their studies.

There’s a knock on the door and then Jaemin’s head pokes into the room. Chenle first notices the grim expression on his face and it’s enough to let him know that whatever he’s about to tell him is going to be serious.

Jisung eyes Jaemin skeptically as he walks into the room. He seems to take the hint because he excuses himself and slips into the hallway.

“Why do I feel like whatever you’re about to tell I’m not going to like?” Chenle crosses his arms over his chest defensively, like he wants to protect himself from whatever words Jaemin’s about to say to him.

Jaemin sighs, “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

Jaemin grimaces, “Chenle, they know about Mark and Haechan.”

Chenle’s arms drop to his side. He stares at Jaemin in utter disbelief. “W-What? How did they find out? Why would you tell them anything?”

“I didn’t have a choice,” Jaemin says gently, watching Chenle’s face closely for his reaction. “They wanted to know every detail so they looked through my memories. I’m sorry,” Jaemin whispers at the end. 

“Does that mean Mark and Donghyuck are going to forget us?” Chenle mutters under his breath.

“Kind of. They told me the only memories they’ll erase of me are after they found out I was a wizard, but all my memories with them before that moment will be untouched.” Jaemin gives a little sigh of relief after that, but immediately feels guilty after. Chenle can’t even be upset at that, he’s just happy they won’t forget Jaemin. Jaemin gives Chenle a sad smile, “But because of the circumstances you and Mark met in….”

“He’s going to completely forget about me,” Chenle finishes. He feels his gut twist in his stomach. All his memories with Mark have been full of magic since the moment he teleported in his room.

He’s going to forget everything.

“Chenle,” Jaemin places his hands firmly on his shoulders and makes him look up to meet his eyes. Jaemin wipes at his cheek and it’s then that Chenle realizes a few tears slipped down his cheek. “I’m going to fix this, just trust me.”

⭐️

A few weeks have passed since Chenle teleported back home. During that time Jaemin tells him that Mark’s memory was erased and that he’s working on getting Chenle’s parents to agree to let Chenle go back there with Jaemin. His parents seem quite reluctant to let Chenle out of their sights again, especially in another realm.

Chenle’s nightmares have come back but now instead of it being focused around losing his magic, they’re about losing Mark. Sometimes Jaemin’s there too or Donghyuck. It never feels good waking up from those dreams knowing he basically has lost Mark

Jaemin visits whenever he can, with more charm than ever to try and persuade Chenle’s parents to say yes to Chenle becoming his apprentice. When Jaemin comes, he gives Chenle updates on how Mark and Donghyuck are doing. Chenle’s also been trying to push Jaemin into asking Donghyuck out. It was clear to anyone and everyone that they had some sort of weird romantic tension going on whenever they were around each other. Jaemin denies it. Chenle still tries to push him to ask him out. Plus, it’s better focusing on that instead of on Mark.

He can’t forget Mark whenever Jisung is around though, he’s always poking and probing Chenle for more information on the magicless human he befriended there. Chenle eventually caves in on one particularly boring day, when the only thing he can do is think about Mark and continue to try and convince his parents to let him go back with Jaemin. He tells Jisung everything, from the first moment he teleported in the boys room to when he finally left, promising to come back. Jisung is uncharacteristically quiet during the whole thing. Chenle doesn’t understand why until he’s done talking and Jisung finally opens his mouth.

“Oh, so you like him. That’s why you're so grumpy you can’t see him anymore.”

Chenle’s entire face turns red. “What?!” Chenle shrieks, “I didn’t say that, where did you get that conclusion from?”

“It’s how you talk about him and you said it yourself, you miss him.”

“Of course I miss him,” Chenle says automatically and then blushes when Jisung raises an eyebrow at him. “Shut up, that doesn’t mean I like him.”

“I mean it’s not like it matters anymore since he doesn’t remember you.”

Chenle glares at him and chucks his pillow at the back of Jisung’s head.

“Ow! I’m just telling the truth,” Jisung grumbles and rubs his head even though Chenle knows it didn’t hurt.

“You’re not helping me feel better,” Chenle grumbles.

He continues trying to convince his parents everyday to let him become Jaemin’s apprentice. He doesn't admit it, but it becomes more about him wanting to see Mark again than about him studying magic, but he tries to make it about magic whenever he talks to them.

“What if you get stuck there again?” His mother sighs. She waves her hand and Chenle watches as her teacup gets filled with more tea by magic. Chenle’s back in a world filled with magic where you barely have to lift your finger to do anything, yet here he is begging to go back to the other place.

“I won’t, Jaemin will be there with me. He’s the one who brought me back home to begin with! If I didn’t meet him then who knows when I would have gotten home.”

“He’s right,” his father speaks up. Chenle grins brightly at him while his mother glares. “Jaemin is a talented wizard honey, I think our son could learn a lot from him.”

His mother frowns, “But what if he gets stuck there?”

“Mom, I’m an adult now, not a child. I’ll be fine, really,” Chenle pleads.

“And it’s about time he learns how to be an actual wizard,” his father adds. “If the academy had properly taught him how to teleport then this would have never happened in the first place.”

His mother is at a loss for words knowing her husband is right. Chenle swoops in at that moment, taking his mother's hand and looking at her with those eyes he shows when he wants something. “Please mom? I’ll make sure I visit. I won’t get stuck there again and you’ll know where I am.”

His mom hesitates for a moment longer before sighing. “Me and your father will speak to Jaemin again, but I make no promises. We need to make sure he’s a good fit for you.”

Chenle beams at her, “He is, I promise.”

Jaemin visits the next day and has a serious conversation with his parents that Chenle is not allowed to sit in so he decides to eavesdrop on the conversation with a spell. He makes Jisung his reluctant accomplice (so Jisung says, but Chenle knows he’s nosy as hell). His parents already are onto his trick of casting a spell on Daegals collar and leaving her in the room with them so he can listen in on everything. This time he sneaks something in his mothers pocket when he goes in for a hug before leaving the room.

The conversation is honestly boring, but he’s impressed at the way Jaemin is able to go from the goofy wizard he met to completely professional and win over his parents with just a few words. Soon Jaemin is coming into the room with a wide and sharp grin on his face.

“From now on you can call me master,” Jaemin says with his hand on his hips and an amused look when he sees Chenle’s eyebrows twitch at that word.

Chenle absolutely refuses to ever call him that, but he still runs at Jaemin and hugs him.

“Thank you.” Chenle says into his neck.

To Chenle’s annoyance it still takes another week until he’s finally able to leave. Jaemin tells him to be patient which Chenle responds with a glare and a huff. There’s papers to sign, like a lot of papers. There's also so many rules to this whole thing and contacts to sign. They’re told once again that the people living in that realm can not know about the existence of magic. Chenle is not happy about that rule, he doesn’t want to hide this side of him from Mark when he meets him again which is a whole other mountain Chenle will have to climb when he gets there. 

Another thing they were told was that even though Jaemin’s going to be teaching him they still need to make sure Jaemin is doing a good job. So Chenle will have to take yearly tests back at the ministry to show them what he’s been taught. The rest of the rules and papers fly over his head and he’s happy when he’s told these will be the last papers he’ll have to sign.

The next step is to pack his belongings. Jaemin already told him that he can take the spare bedroom beside his room that Chenle didn’t even know existed when he was there. Apparently, he told Mark and Donghyuck that they’re getting a new roommate. Chenle won’t have to introduce himself as a family friend or hide in Jaemin’s room which he’s grateful for. 

Once he’s all packed he meets Jaemin and Jisung in front of the ministry building where they head inside and walk to a room Chenle has never been in before.

“It’s the portal room.” Jaemin opens the door and they all step inside.

Chenle blinks at the seemingly endless room, completely filled with doorways.

“Our door is this way,” Jaemin says, walking up a set of stairs. “They opened one for us so that we could easily go back and forth between these realms. It doesn’t lead right into our apartment, but it’s close enough.”

Chenle nods, happy to have a portal set up for them.

“You’ll come back right?” Jisung asks with a small pout. “You’re not going to forget me because of that boy you like there, right?”

Chenle smacks Jisung’s shoulder while Jaemin laughs beside them.

“Shut up! I don’t like him,” Chenle blushes, not fully believing his own words. He avoids eye contact with Jaemin and the older boy just chuckles in response. 

“Chenle,” Jaemin says, asking for his attention.

Chenle sighs and reluctantly looks at him, ready for the teasing he’s about to receive. He’s not met with teasing though, instead a soft smile.

“Do you know why I chose to stay there and not come back home?”

Chenle shakes his head slowly.

Jaemin smiles, “It was because of Donghyuck. I wanted to stay for him. Take my advice and don’t avoid your feelings like I did.”

The blush on Chenle’s face spread down his neck and to the tips of his ears. “Even if he doesn’t remember me?”

Jaemin nods and takes his hand, “You’ll find that there’s some things magic can’t get rid of. It wouldn’t matter how many times someone erased Donghyuck from my memory, I know I’d still fall in love with him a thousand times. Now come on, let’s go see them.”

It’s strange being back in Mark’s apartment after weeks of not being here. It still looks the same though and Chenle remembers the path to Mark’s room like the back of his hand. That’s the direction he heads in now, until he falters. Right, Mark doesn’t remember who he is. That thought makes his heart ache.

Jaemin gives him a sad smile and squeezes his hand. “I’ll show you to your room then reintroduce you to them.”

Chenle unpacks all his belongings in his new room. All his magical items he tucks away under his bed or in his closet for now, Jaemin promised he’ll teach him the spell he used on his room to conceal all his magical things later. 

As he’s finishing unpacking, he hears the door shut and then two voices he recognizes arguing with each other.

“I wanted a burger and fries, but no, we had to get pizza. Again.”

That’s Donghyuck’s voice, Chenle thinks as he steps out of his room and heads to the kitchen where the voices just get louder.

“You didn’t complain about pizza last night!”

“Yeah, that’s because it was yesterday, Mark. I don’t want to get it every night!”

He follows the arguing into the kitchen and freezes at the entrance. 

Donghyuck stops his arguing with Mark when he notices Chenle. “Oh hey, you’re our new roommate right?”

Mark turns around then and locks eyes with Chenle. There’s silence and that’s when Chenle realizes it his turn to speak. “Oh, yeah. I’m Chenle.”

Donghyuck nods, “I’m Donghyuck. You can just call me Hyuck though.”

Mark doesn’t say anything, just continues to look at Chenle. Donghyuck rolls his eyes and shoves at Mark’s shoulder. “Don’t just stare at him!”

Mark throws a quick glare over his shoulder at Donghyuck before turning back to Chenle with a smile.

“Hey, I’m Mark.”

⭐️

Some days Chenle thinks Mark will remember. It’s in the moments Mark looks at him a few moments too long. Or when Chenle tells him something, something he knows he’s already told him in the past, and Mark’s eyes light up like he’s about to tell Chenle he remembers, but then his eyes dim again and Mark just nods his head or asks more about it. 

“He wants to remember,” Jaemin says from his desk with all his magical ingredients thrown about. 

Chenle sighs from Jaemin’s bed, “If he wants to remember then why isn’t he?”

“Memory spells can be quite powerful, but it’s a good sign that he’s trying to remember. It means those memories were not completely erased.”

“It sure feels like it sometimes,” Chenle mutters.

He really wishes the nightmares would go away. Jaemin told him there’s no spell or potion to get rid of them so Chenle is left to suffer in the middle of the night when a dream wakes him up that feels too real. His room feels too dark and he’s positive he’ll have the same dream again if he closes his eyes. He gets up and walks out his door. He rubs his sleepy eyes as he walks down the hall and knocks on a door. His brain doesn’t register what he’s doing, everything is on autopilot right now as he patiently waits for the person to open up.

When the door finally opens, he freezes.

Mark is there, hair ruffled from his pillow and eyes full of sleep. “Chenle?” His voice is deep and laced with confusion.

“Oh.” Chenle did not mean to come here. He’s already spinning on his heels, ready to go back to his room and hide in embarrassment, but before he can fully walk away, Mark grabs his wrist.

“Are you ok?” Mark asks with worry in his voice. “Did you have another night–”

A pause.

Mark blinks at him, the last of the sentence dying in his throat. Chenle is frozen in the spot, eyes wide as he looks at Mark and begs him in his head to remember.

“Did I have another….” Chenle trails off, hoping Mark will finish the sentence. That he’ll remember about Chenle’s nightmare, that he’ll remember Chenle.

Mark looks at Chenle with this look in his eye from a moment before blinking and shaking his head. “Sorry, did you need something?”

Chenle has the urge to cry. He shakes his head at Mark and mutters an apology before walking down the hall before he cries in front of Mark and confuses the poor boy even more. He retreats to his room and leans against the door. After a few moments he hears the soft click of Mark’s door shutting.

He opens his door and heads to Jaemin’s bedroom. He doesn’t knock, he just slips inside the room and curls up in the bed beside Jaemin’s sleeping body. It turns out he wasn’t sleeping after all. He pulls Chenle against his chest when he hears sniffling.

“It’s ok,” Jaemin mutters into his ear. Chenle doesn’t even have to tell him what happened, Jaemin seems to just know. “We’ll help him remember.”

⭐️

It turns out Jaemin was working on a potion to help with Mark’s memory this whole time.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Chenle asks as he watches Jaemin put together the finishing touches.

“In case it didn’t work,” Jaemin shrugs. “I was just planning to slip it in his drink and see what happens. I didn’t want to get your hopes up if it didn’t work.”

Chenle doesn’t have the heart or energy to feel upset, especially since Jaemin had good intentions. He hugs Jaemin from behind as he adds the last ingredient to the potion.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Jaemin smiles and pours the liquid into a less suspicious glass. “Here, hand this to Mark. Just tell him you made him something and you want him to try it.”

“Have you done this before?” Chenle asks curiously.

Jaemin just smiles mischievously at him. “Maybe.”

Chenle finds Mark in his room, funnily enough playing Mario Kart.

“Mario Kart?” Chenle says out loud. 

Mark eyes move from the screen to Chenle’s face. “Yeah, you play?”

Chenle nods and sits at the corner of his bed. “Yeah, it’s pretty fun.”

“We should play sometime.”

Chenle smiles, “Yeah, we should. Here.”

Mark pauses the game so he can take the cup from his hand. “What’s this?”

“I made a drink, I just need to know if it tastes good.” Chenle tries to sound casual as he says it, but he’s a nervous wreck on the inside.

“Thanks,” Mark smiles at him and then downs the entire drink in an instant.

Chenle watches him, nervously tapping his thigh as he waits to see if it worked. “G-Good?” Chenle asks with a voice crack.

Mark makes a face, but he still nods. “What was in it? Tasted kind of funny.”

“I got the recipe from Jaemin.”

“Ah,” Mark nods like all his questions were answered. “His drinks always taste funny.”

Chenle feels his heart start to sink. “Right.” Maybe the potion didn’t work? Or maybe it’ll need some time. He stands up, ready to tell Jaemin about what happened–or more like what didn’t happen.

“Do you want to play Mario Kart with me?” Mark asks him before he’s able to walk away.

“Maybe in a bit,” Chenle says half heartedly. Maybe he needs to wait an entire day? Or maybe he just needs to accept the fact the potion didn’t work. 

Chenle is suddenly stopped from walking out the door. “Huh?” he gasps when he’s turned around and pulled into Mark’s arms. His arms hug Chenle’s body tightly, like he’s scared Chenle is going to pull away. There’s no way Chenle would ever do that.

“I missed you,” Mark mutters.

Chenle pulls back, “Wait–Mark do you remember me?”

Mark cups his cheeks with a smile, wipes away the tears that fell. “Of course I remember you. I never forgot, I just needed help remembering.”

Chenle grins wide and throws himself back at Mark. Mark chuckles as he nearly tumbles to the floor but manages to keep his balance.

“Was that one of Jaemin’s potions I drank?”

“Yeah,” Chenle almost purrs, rubbing his cheek against Mark’s neck. “It worked, it made you remember.”

“I did,” Mark chuckles. “And you’re back now. Does this mean you can finally grant my wish now?”

“Yes,” Chenle says, “Anything you want. Well–not anything, but some things. If I can’t do it, maybe I can get Jaemin to help.”

Mark shakes his head, “Jaemin won’t be able to help you with my wish.”

“Really? What could your wish possibly be that the great wizard Na won’t be able to help with.” Chenle giggles at the title Jaemin made him start to say since Chenle refused to refer to him as master.

Mark cheeks start to turn a light shade of red. It spreads to his ears and he averts his eyes to the ground. “When you left I kind of had a realization. Well–before they took my memory away.”

Chenle smiles, “Yeah, what was it?”

“Well,” Mark forces his eyes to look into Chenle’s, “I missed you. Like a lot. I didn’t realize until then how much you changed my life just being here with me. And now that you weren’t there it made me think and I realized I like you–”

Chenle connects their lips. Mark gasps in shock before closing his eyes and kissing Chenle back. It’s short and sweet, they part after a few seconds. Chenle knows there will be plenty of time for kissing later though.

“What’s your wish?”

“Well, I was going to ask if I could kiss you, but now I have to change it.”

Chenle laughs, “How about a date?”

Mark’s eye light up, “Yeah, I’d like a date.”

The kiss after that is longer and even more sweet.