Shamans Kim

Chapter 1 : Magic doesn't exist!

     The muscular, dark-haired high school student was absorbed in his contemplation of the blond, baby-faced high school student leaning on the table in the high school library, near a window that showed the fading sunlight reverberating on the windows of the surrounding buildings.

     Jungkook rarely saw Jimin alone but each time he was engrossed in a mysterious reading. Naturally sociable and playful, Jimin was always surrounded by his friends and those who wanted to become one of them. 

     Indeed, the boy seemed to have a power of attraction that drew people to him. It had to be said that a kind of natural kindness emanated from him and his sincere smile that seemed to reach your soul. Everyone wanted to be his friend. Except Jungkook who didn't want to have friends.

     Going to the library in the evening, when everyone else was joining their evening classes in the different districts of Seoul, Jimin knew that he would be alone in high school until it was closed by the custodian and he liked this old room which was the original library of a former palace of an ancient dynasty transformed into a high school, next to the Inwangsan mountain. There, it reigned like a familiar magical atmosphere that soothed him in the tumult of Seoul. Because of this, he didn't notice that he was being watched.

     His youthful face with rosy, chubby cheeks and partly hidden by his blonde locks seemed frozen in a serious, almost worried expression that didn't suit him, Jungkook thought. The latter realized that his habit of observing Jimin in this room with the bewitching smells of old papers was frightening. But he couldn't help it.

     For his part, Jungkook with a year older than Jimin, was the complete opposite of him. He hated talking to other students, was very lonely, and was hated by them for his temper. As he was a brawler, few students dared to attack him, but he felt the animosity of others no less. 

     This did not prevent him from being a good student: even if he did not particularly like studying, he particularly hated failure and only stopped working when he had succeeded in accomplishing the desired goal. He had known for a long time that he was a weird boy but he couldn't help it. Because of this, he knew he would spend his life in extreme loneliness and he would have to get used to it.

     However, he couldn't understand why he felt compelled to try to get closer to Jimin since the boy had set foot in high school this year. He had never had the urge to get close to anyone, knowing he was usualy an unsociable and even detestable person. 

     The "Jimin Effect" affected him like the others and it annoyed him a little because he knew that someone like Jimin would never be friends with someone like him. It wouldn't work. He was sure they couldn't get along because just by looking at Jimin's reactions with the others all day, Jungkook was tired of it. He was just smiling too much. Was too pleasant. Too happy. Too loved.

     Jimin closed his book with a sharp snap that echoed throughout the empty library and pushed it angrily.

     "Why can't I find anything?!" he shouted.

     Startled, Jungkook realized that this was the first time he had seen Jimin get upset. He watched with a sigh as Jimin grabbed another book from the small pile on the table. Jungkook had time to read the title: Korean shamanic magic – where did the magic of our ancestors flee?

     He was no longer surprised by Jimin's readings. The boy seemed passionate about magic, though he didn't seem to share that passion with his friends. Was he afraid that others would find him weird, make fun of him and leave him? Jungkook felt, through his low-key observations in the library at night, that he shared a secret with Jimin and therefore had a special connection with him that no one else had. It was pleasant.