"Min-ah."
There he stands, gripping the man's forearm tightly. The sudden distraction had allowed you to escape the man's grasp, and you now stand a few feet off to the side, safe from his reach.
A wave of relief washes over you at the sight of your childhood friend. You've never been so glad to see someone in your entire life. He glances over at you briefly.
"Are you okay?" he asks simply, then directs his attention back to the man whose arm he's still gripping tightly. The man, surprised at first by Min-hyuk's sudden appearance, is now noticeably pissed off. A small painful grimace appears in his angry features as Min-hyuk's vice-like grip tightens, and he flails his arm a bit, trying to escape the unwelcome contact.
You nod quickly in answer to Min-hyuk's question, then realizing he can't see the movement you say, "Yeah, I'm okay."
"F*** off, would you?" The man growls through gritted teeth as he continues to struggle. Min-hyuk releases his arm with a forceful push. The man stumbles a little before standing upright again, glaring daggers at Min-hyuk.
"This your brother?" He sneers in your direction, massaging his arm gently.
"Her boyfriend, actually," Min-hyuk clarifies before you can say anything. Your heart skips a beat at his words. Your best friend's voice is a good deal lower than it normally is and his tone is menacing. You can tell there's a warning hidden in his words--an unspoken message to back off.
You've never seen your friend so angry before. You feel equal parts surprised and scared at what he might do to the poor man.
The man returns Min-hyuk's intimidating stare. The alcohol has obviously given him boldness that he wouldn't have if he were sober. He doesn't seem to catch on to Min-hyuk's subtle warning at all. Either that, or he just doesn't care.
"Boyfriend, huh?" He scoffs, giving Min-hyuk a once-over as if trying to determine which of them would win in a fight. Min-hyuk is about the same height as him, but slightly more built. This doesn't seem to phase the man, however.
His eyes suddenly flick back to you, his smirk returning as his eyes sweep over your body once again. He's practically undressing you in his head, and you feel your face turn a furious shade of red. You shoot him a glare, ready to run the short distance to Min-hyuk if he tries to come closer again.
"Well, it doesn't matter," he continues. "I wasn't gonna do anything. We were just talking, weren't we, sweetheart?" he says with a wink. You don't respond, suddenly feeling sick at the gesture.
Min-hyuk appears surprisingly composed as you glance at him. His hands are stuffed in his pockets and his body looks very relaxed. He almost fools you into thinking he's unphased by the man's words, but the expression on his face says what his body language doesn't: He's barely keeping himself in check. A small humorless smile plays at his lips, and there's a flame of intense anger flickering in his dark eyes as he watches the man.
"You should take better care of your girlfriend," says the man, addressing Min-hyuk now, though still continuing to look at you. "You shouldn't let her wander by herself at night. You never know what kind of creeps you could run into around here. It's a good thing I was here, really. Who knows what could've happened."
You get the feeling the man is doing this now just to make Min-hyuk angry rather than because he finds you attractive. You glance over at Min-hyuk again. You really don't know what he'll do if this keeps going. You feel like this is a side of Min-hyuk that you just can't predict, and that makes you nervous. It's a strange sensation, seeing this new facet to your best friend's personality.
The man takes a few slow steps in your direction, and you really can't decide if he's brave or just plain stupid. You're about to make a dash for Min-hyuk, but he's suddenly right in front of you. With frightening calmness, he places a firm hand in the center of the man's chest, keeping him from closing the distance to you. Min-hyuk's other hand is still shoved in his pocket. He doesn't say a word. The fact that he hasn't said very much worries you. You have a feeling it's because he's been focusing too hard on not socking this man in the jaw.
The man gives Min-hyuk a quick side-long glance, but doesn't seem to be very intimidated at the magician's attempts to stop him. He looks past the Min-hyuk in front of him, making eye contact with you again and leans forward ever so slightly.
"The drink offer still stands, sweetheart," he tells you, lowering his voice as if sharing a secret. "Anytime you wanna ditch Mr. Darcy here, just lemme know. I'll take us somewhere we could really have a fun time."
Ignoring the man's words, you quickly make your way to Min-hyuk and grab his arm. His gaze stays locked on the man even as you approach. You really need to get both him and yourself out of here.
"Min-ah," you plead quietly. "Let's just go, okay?"
You start pulling on his arm, but he doesn't budge.
"Please, Min-ah. Please let's go," you try again. As you tug his arm this time, he lets you drag him back a step. Then he gently pries his arm away from you, choosing instead to intertwine his fingers with yours. His hand is warm, and his grip is firm but comforting. You don't realize that your hands have been trembling until he gives your hand a gentle squeeze. All the while, he continues his intense staring contest with the man in front of him.
"Do you..." Min-hyuk's quiet voice surprises you. "...believe in magic?"
You're not sure who he's talking to until he finally looks down at you. You can see in his eyes that his question is directed at you.
You hear the drunk man let out a short bark of laughter. "What's this? Think you're a wizard or something?"
"A magician," Min-hyuk corrects him simply, eyes never leaving yours. He continues to wait for your answer, his face incredibly serious.
Time seems to come to a standstill as you stare into his eyes. Here he is, asking you again if you believe in magic. You wait, expecting the usual answer to form in your mind: "magic is not real." But that thought never comes.
Then everything seems to fall into place in your mind. Why can't it be real? Why not? Min-hyuk believes it is... and suddenly that's enough for you. If he believes, then you want to believe with him.... You want him to share his world with you.
"Yes."
You hear the word, hardly louder than a whisper, and you vaguely realize that it came from your own mouth. You blink once, surprised at yourself. Then, you suddenly gain more confidence in your answer to Min-hyuk's question.
"I believe," you say firmly.
A familiar half smile breaks across his face.
"Then," he says, a mysterious twinkle returning to his eyes. "Care to see a magic trick?"
Without waiting for an answer, he lets go of your hand and takes a step toward the man, who now looks fairly confused at the interaction that just happened between you two.
"Annara..." he mutters his magic words, almost to himself. "...sumanara."
With that his arm flicks upward, his cloak billowing out behind him, and your view of the man is briefly obscured. As Min-hyuk's cloak settles back into place a second later, your jaw drops.
There's simply empty space where the man had just been standing.
You look around the deserted street, expecting to see him somewhere, but he's nowhere to be found.
Min-hyuk turns around, holding his arms out as he takes a graceful bow.
"Ta-da."
*********
You and Min-hyuk walk side by side in silence. He'd insisted on walking you back to your house and at the time you were still too much in-shock to object. He seems completely unbothered by what just happened, but you're still trying to wrap your head around it.
You can feel him stealing glances at you every once in a while as if trying to read your mind. Min-hyuk knows you too well; he knows you have questions, but he seems content waiting for you process everything first.
You stop walking suddenly. He keeps going a few steps before he realizes you're not at his side anymore. He turns back to look at you. He'd taken his top hat off a while ago and his hair is now a little disheveled, but that just seems to add to his already charming appearance. He raises his eyebrows in a silent question.
"What just happened?" You ask, no longer able to hold it in.
"That was my disappearing act," he replies with his little half smile, as if that explains everything.
"No, I got that," you say. The man had disappeared into thin air. That much had been obvious. You pinch the bridge of your nose. You're definitely feeling a headache coming on. You try to search for a question that will result in a less vague answer from your friend.
"Where did you send him?"
Min-hyuk simply shrugs his shoulders in answer. You raise your eyebrows.
"You don't know where he is?" you say, incredulous.
He nods and purses his lips lightly. "I'm honestly still working on that trick. Let's just say the success rate isn't one hundred percent yet. So yeah, I really don't know where he is."
You simply stare at him with wide eyes, unable to form words quite yet. Is he serious? He just magic-ed a person away but has no idea where he sent him. And on top of that he doesn't seem the slightest bit worried about it. He notices your stare and quickly tries to justify it.
"Look, I saw what he was about to do to you, Y/N. I wasn't about to stand around and let it happen. Also," he pauses here, face becoming serious again. "he really made me angry, saying those things to you."
"So you thought it would be okay to just...?" You mimic the hand gesture he'd done when he'd performed the trick.
He clears his through uncomfortably and looks away. A moment of silence ensues, and he still refuses to meet your gaze. A thought suddenly occurs to you and your eyes widen slightly.
"You don't think....." you start, a sense of horror bubbling inside you. "He's not dead somewhere is he? You didn't kill him, right?" You seriously doubt Min-hyuk would've done something terrible to him, but you have to ask anyway.
This makes him chuckle for a moment, a response you don't quite expect from someone who was just accused of murder, albeit jokingly.
"He's probably fine, Y/N. The magic just makes them disappear," he reassures you.
You breathe a quiet sigh of relief.
"Although," he continues in a low voice. "I can't say I'd be heartbroken if something like that did happen to that bas--"
"Min-ah!"
"Alright, sorry."
There's another moment or two of silence as you ponder over this situation.
"Can you bring him back?" you ask quietly.
"I could if I knew where he was..." he says, looking down at his feet. He absentmindedly puts his top hat back on. He looks almost like a child being scolded right now, and there's a part of you that thinks he looks really cute, but you shove the thought out of your mind. You groan quietly and massage your temples gently.
"This is a mess..." you say, mostly to yourself.
"He'll most likely be back in a few days," Min-hyuk says to try and console you. "The effects never last long, so you don't need to worry."
You nod at his words, feeling better about the whole situation. At least he's most likely okay somewhere, and Min-hyuk seems pretty certain that he'll come back. Now that you're convinced that your best friend didn't do anything majorly terrible, you start to calm down.
As you think back on what just happened, you're only left with a sense of gratitude for him. If he hadn't come when he did, you don't know what would've happened, but it wouldn't have been good. You're grateful he was there.
"I guess I should thank you," you say, suddenly feeling sheepish. Now that you think about it, you're also kind of embarrassed at what happened. He wouldn't have needed to come rescue you if you hadn't been out so late at night by yourself. "I'm really glad you were here."
He looks up at you again, his expression unreadable. He slowly moves to stand in front of you. With perfect gentleness, he reaches down and grabs your hand. His eyes are focused on the place your hands meet as he speaks.
"You're okay, right?" he says, his voice becoming unbelievably soft. "Your hands were shaking earlier."
You nod in answer to his question, surprised that he had noticed your shaking hands. "I'm okay," you reassure him in a quiet voice.
You feel his thumb rubbing back and forth over the surface of your hand as he continues to hold it, and he suddenly lifts it to his mouth, placing a feather-light kiss on it. Your heart flutters as you watch in surprise. He lowers your hand again with the same gentleness and his eyes meet yours.
"I'm glad I was there too," he whispers. "I hope you know I'm never letting you walk alone ever again."
You can see in his eyes as he looks at you that he's still worried about you. It just now occurs to you that you weren't the only one affected by what just happened. He must've been scared too, watching as that man harassed you...
You both just stand there in comfortable silence. Neither of you feel that words need to be said as you stare at each other. You both stay like that until another question pops into your head. One that you're very curious about.
"By the way, how did you know where I was?"
He blinks at you a few times, and his mouth opens as if he's going to say something. When nothing comes out he shuts it again. He clears his throat softly, looking around. It starts to dawn on you. You had thought it was a little weird that he somehow showed up at the exact moment you needed him, but didn't think much more about it until now.
"I mean, I just happened to be walking down here and I saw you," he mumbles, almost unintelligible. He sniffs and continues in a louder voice, refusing to meet your gaze. "Let's get you home, shall we? It's getting late."
He starts to walk off in the direction of your house, but you tug on the hand still holding yours. He seems surprised when you pull him back to you.
"Min-ah, were you following me?" you ask, dumbfounded as you finally piece it all together.
He shifts uncomfortably and his other hand comes up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly. That's all the answer you need.
"How long have you been doing it?" you ask. You're honestly kind of impressed that he'd been following you and you hadn't even noticed, but you won't tell him that.
"Since this morning," he answers, making your eyes widen. You're even more impressed now. You really must have been out of it if you hadn't noticed him the whole day.
"Since this morning..." you echo, shocked. "Min-ah, you do realize anyone else would find this extremely creepy, right?"
"You're not 'anyone else' though," he counters, and you can't argue with him. "Besides, you said you'd come back. I waited all day yesterday. When you didn't come, I just.... I worried a little."
You feel like your heart might give out from how cute he's being, and then you mentally scold yourself. You're supposed to be angry right now.
Your best friend lets out a startled cry as you smack his arm, not hard enough to hurt, but with enough force to make your point.
"You really need to learn to trust your friends, you know," you say sternly. "I said I was gonna come back. You just needed to wait." Then, in a softer voice you add, "I actually turned around to go see you when I ran into that guy..."
He looks at you with some relief in his eyes. He at least seems to be glad that you had planned on going to him.
"Anyway, next time just trust what I say okay? You don't have to go around stalking people," you scold.
He nods, a small smile returning to his face. He looks at you in silence for a moment, and you can't think of anything else to say, so you're grateful when he speaks.
"Let's really get you home now."
You nod in agreement. You both turn to continue walking and you feel your heart drop when he lets go of your hand. He simply adjusts his grip, though, interlacing his fingers with yours in a more comfortable position. You feel a smile tug at the corners of your lips.
You walk on together in comfortable silence for a few minutes before you feel the need to clarify what you'd said earlier.
"This time at least, I am glad you stalked me. Just don't do it anymore," you tease. "...Thank you, Min-ah."
He doesn't say anything for a moment, but you feel him give your hand a gentle squeeze.
"I assume you thought about everything? Did I give you enough time?" he says after a while.
"Mmm.." you affirm. "I thought about a lot." You're not even sure how to begin telling him all things you've been thinking about over the last few days.
"You said you believed..." he says quietly when you don't say anything else. "When I asked you just now if you believed in magic... you said you did. You don't know how happy that made me."
You give him a sidelong glance, trying to see his expression. He has a wistful smile on his face, and he's staring straight ahead, seemingly unaware of your gaze.
"Ever since we became friends, I wanted you to believe in magic," he continues softly. "I've been trying to get you to believe for so long. I've waited years for you to say those words, Y/N. So when you finally did..." He lets out a quiet laugh and you can hear the pure joy in the sound. "I could've kissed you right then and there."
Your cheeks suddenly feel warm. He's always so straightforward.
"I'm sorry it took me so long," you say with a laugh. "I made it difficult for you, didn't I?"
"Yes, you did. You're a stubborn one," he teases.
As you continue to walk together, your mind replays the words he just said. 'I could've kissed you right then and there.' Your heart does a somersault again at the thought. You're instantly reminded of when he had kissed you two nights ago. For those few minutes, you were on cloud 9.
Now that you think about it, that was the other thing that had occupied your thoughts a lot over the last few days. What did that kiss mean? Min-hyuk just said he'd been trying to get you to believe for years. Had kissing you just been a means to an end? Had he simply done it to finally convince you?
You glance at your best friend again. He's looking down at his shoes as he walks, his usual smile spread across his face. He looks like he doesn't have a care in the world. As you look at him, you suddenly gain confidence. He's been so straightforward, so maybe you could try to do the same. You clear your throat softly.
"I also thought about some other things over the last few days," you say casually. Not very straightforward, Y/N. Try again, you think.
He looks at you briefly, interest piqued.
"Like what?" he asks, ready to listen.
"Well... when we kissed, for instance..." you trail off. Still not straightforward. Just ask him what it means. What's wrong with you?
"What about it?" he says when you don't continue.
"Well, I just... I've been thinking... about what that kiss meant," you say lamely.
You suddenly feel your arm tugged backwards, and you realize that he's stopped walking and now stands a little behind you. He's looking at you with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
"Really?" he says. "I didn't think that would require a lot of thought."
"What do you mean?" you ask, confused.
"I mean, I thought the meaning of that kiss was fairly obvious."
You frown at him. It feels like he's teasing you for some reason and you don't appreciate it at the moment. All you want to know is what the kiss meant. You simply want to know if your best friend, who you've had a crush on since highschool, has feelings for you. Is that too much to ask?
He sees your look and breaks out into quiet laughter. He most likely already knows what you're trying to get at, but it's obvious that he's enjoying teasing you.
"Alright, alright," he says as his laughter dies down. "If I tell you, will you stop glaring at me?"
"Depends on your answer," you mutter, then blink in surprise. You can't believe that just came out of your mouth. You see Min-hyuk's expression become a little more serious, though he's still smiling.
"I'd better have a good answer, then," he says.
You let out a startled gasp as he pulls you forward without warning. An arm wraps around your waist, holding you close to him. His face is suddenly mere inches from yours, so you're able to hear every bit of the words he whispers.
" 'For years you've been my best friend, Y/N. But now I want us to be together.' That's what I was saying with that kiss."
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A/N: Holy Moly, the reads on this thing just keep jumping! Thank you thank you thank you for the support!! Please vote to support this story!
And as always, keep a lookout for the next chapter! I think you'll like it! Love you all!!!! <3
Also, another Ji Chang Wook pic, because I'm obsessed lol. Look at his lil smile. I just can't with him.