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If someone told Bora she’d be wearing black and yellow over her silver and green robe, she’d probably send a flock of teeny tiny birds with a whip of her wand and a pointed, “Avis!”
But, there she is with a terribly painted badger’s face on her cheeks—Minji’s drawing skills could do with some practice and fervent praying—cheering for the Hufflepuff that accidentally spilled sticky butterbeer all over her cashmere sweater her mom bought her when they first saw each other.
At the time, Bora had been royally pissed. Like, the kind of pissed that makes Minji shiver with fear and she knows that Bora can’t sleep without a tight hug and internally cries whenever she’s sincerely complimented. (Bora has always had trouble with that part of her that can’t receive compliments, always thinking that she’s never doing enough and that she has everything to prove. She has spent a lot of her life busting her ass to show that she’s a witch worthy of her family name and prefect house title.)
And because Yoohyeon was a year younger than her, a muggle-born witch who was well-aware of the reputation of the Kim Bora, she had cowered, would have shrunk a whole foot and then some if she could, shuffled behind a wide-eyed Yubin and profusely apologized with her eyes finding that The Three Broomsticks had marks on its floor that resembled a goofy Mandrake root. Before Bora could lay it on her, the good ol’ fashioned Slytherin way, bless Yoohyeon’s trembling heart, Bora had a soft spot for pretty girls and despite her spanking brand new sweater smelling like butterscotch, she had let her off with a scoff and a glare.
If it were anyone else, it might’ve been possible that Yoohyeon would have gone home with boils covering her face. But, mercy is a thing and apparently she had it for her.
It was those sweet, puppy dog eyes that Bora had only caught a second of and the warm drawl of her voice—a kind of voice that Bora would remember for weeks to come. She couldn’t have possibly made the prettiest girl she had ever seen go home like that.
Bora would have neither confirmed nor denied that she knew a hex of such, nor that she would have ever thought about performing it. She would have also neither confirmed nor denied that it only took Yoohyeon’s eyes to stop her from doing such a spell.
After all, she had an ego to protect.
“Go, Yoohyeon! Go!”
Bora is out of her seat, body leaning out towards the field, voice already raw from cheering and fist-pumping when the Hufflepuff slings the quaffle through one of Slytherin’s goal rings.
Clearly, now, her ego could shove it.
Yoohyeon whizzes past, but not without cheesily blowing a kiss at her before just merely ducking under a blazing bludger.
(Jihyo doesn’t pay kindly to her teammate nearly being hit, whacks the bludger back in the direction of Nayeon, that fire in her eyes matching the one Nayeon gets during matches.
Bora finds herself cheering Jihyo on, playfully sticking her tongue out at Nayeon who throws her hands up in offense because, like, hello, they’re in the same house!)
So, yeah, if anyone told Bora that she’d be willing to fight for the Hufflepuff that spilled her drink all over her, she’d have to take drastic measures to protect her pride. But, when the Hufflepuff seeker catches the snitch after Yoohyeon solidifies their win with another goal, Bora proudly takes her into her arms after the match ends and Yoohyeon is idling with her team, tiptoeing to give her a smooch that Yoohyeon tries to back out of, happy smile on her lips when she giggles against hers.
Bora gets some grief from her housemates, something about betrayal, but Yoohyeon is a bit of a sweetheart that the entirety of Hogwarts is endeared by, so, whatever, they totally get it.
~
Yoohyeon is always a little smug after winning her quidditch games. She likes hearing the praise and she welcomes it more easily, still cutely blushing just as much but smiling a lot more freely.
(It doesn’t really make a lot of sense to Bora.
But it also kind of does.
Yoohyeon isn’t the most competitive person. In comparison to Jihyo who is the fire of the Hufflepuff team, Yoohyeon is the smoke billowing from a tiny matchstick. But, somehow, she makes it work. Of course, it has to do with her natural skill and admirable dedication to the team and playing well, but she just…finesses her way through playing, making miracle shots that should honestly hospitalize her and making impossible plays that feel a little more magical than a flying fucking broomstick.
(Whenever Yoohyeon tries those tricky shots that rely on balance and refined skill and a whole cauldron of luck, Bora is positive it’s her who needs to be hospitalized for suffering a baby heart attack while spectating her girlfriend with watchful, worried eyes.)
Either way, Yoohyeon is well-deserving of her position as Hufflepuff’s best chaser.
And if anyone asked Yoohyeon how she earned such a prestigious title, she’d just shrug and smirk that goofy smirk and cheekily raise her eyebrows.
Hell if she knew.
All Yoohyeon does outside of her usual drills with her team is practice for that cheesy dream of hers. The one where she points at Bora and suavely says, “This is for you,” and scores some kind of crazy shot that makes everyone go wild.
Poor Yubin, she has been Bora’s stand-in every time, half-heartedly reading her book while Yoohyeon does the same few trick-shots because she’s also responsible for dragging her friend to the infirmary if she accidentally injures herself. So far, Yoohyeon’s success rate is at a staggering two out of ten—there is much for her to work on and more for Yubin to endure for the sake of her best friend impressing her girlfriend.
But Yubin supposes that Yoohyeon is worth all the fuss—she’s just that kind of a person.
Plus, Yoohyeon covers for her whenever she has her little…excursions with Minji past curfew hours and Yoohyeon is only a good liar when it doesn’t concern herself. It’s safe to say she has saved Yubin from detention more times than should be acceptable.)
Bora likes it when Yoohyeon is a little smug.
(And even if she pretends it annoys her sometimes, the more smug, the better.)
She brims with confidence, the kind that is absolutely tangible and definitely really hot. In comparison to how Yoohyeon often practices a critical eye with herself, it’s like pure euphoria seeing her celebrate in herself.
And Bora wouldn’t be Bora if she didn’t celebrate it with her.
So, if Yoohyeon wants to celebrate by running down the halls of Hogwarts with a smile the size of her heart on her lips, Bora will run with her, hand in hers, happy to even be by her side. Yoohyeon’s joy is as infectious as her laugh is—it makes Bora feel like she’s flying.
Past Bora would point and laugh at Present Bora and how Yoohyeon has her wrapped around her pinky.
But Past Bora didn’t know it was possible to love someone this much, didn’t know it was possible for someone like Yoohyeon to exist, Merlin forbid, for someone like Yoohyeon to love her.
(Yoohyeon is the kind of person that her dreams dream of—Bora couldn’t possibly dream of something she never knew existed, couldn’t even begin to fathom her, so much that Yoohyeon was someone she never knew she wanted.)
Bora wouldn’t admit it to anyone, definitely not to Minji because Minji can be a pain in the ass when she wants to be, but she likes loving Yoohyeon this much—so much that she isn’t sure where her love begins or if it ever ends. And to her, Yoohyeon deserves to be loved like this.
The kind of infinite that Bora stopped believing in a long time ago.
But, Yoohyeon makes her want to believe that infinity exists. Yoohyeon has that feeling—of something free and never-ending. Like her kindness, the way her laugh makes her feel, the way she loves.
There has to be an infinity if Yoohyeon exists.
~
There’s the saying, “It takes a village.”
For Bora and Yoohyeon, their village was Minji and Yubin and their friends finding every possibility for them to confess their feelings to each other.
It helps that if there was a Yubin, there was a Yoohyeon and that if there was a Minji, there was a Bora. And if there was a Yubin and Minji, there was a Yoohyeon and Bora.
It doesn’t help that Yoohyeon is Yoohyeon and that Bora is Bora.
Yoohyeon, with her obliviousness and frustrating inability to see that she’s someone worth wanting, and Bora’s inflated pride and stubbornness to accept that a silly Hufflepuff wormed her way to her heart, it took Yoohyeon dancing with some pretty Veela witch at the Yule Ball for Bora to admit her feelings.
(And if it were up to Yoohyeon, the possibility that she’d still be silently, but so blaringly clearly, pining from afar if it weren’t Bora is embarrassingly high. More than talking to anyone that interested her, it was an unbearable thought for her to even imagine having the gall to step up to Bora to tell her what she kept in her heart.)
Tired from dancing, Yubin was content to watch her best friend enjoy the dance. Or, at least as much as she could for not having the person she wanted as her date. The girl dancing with her was incredibly pretty, though, that much Yubin would admit. She had made Yoohyeon laugh when she introduced herself before politely asking for a dance and if Bora wouldn’t be brave enough to want Yoohyeon, Yubin was happy that there was someone who wouldn’t be afraid to go out of their way for her.
Yoohyeon deserved that much.
And while Yubin happily accompanied Minji who was definitely losing her mind over the hors d'oeuvres provided, Bora seethed beside them. The night was dwindling as much as her courage was to ask Yoohyeon for a dance and the witch laughing in her arms was eager to stay there despite Bora sending invisible fireballs at her with her eyes.
Bora considered storming up and stealing her away for a moment of privacy. But she remembered she wants Yoohyeon to like her. Not despise her for humiliating her in front of the entire Yule Ball attendance. As tough as it is, Bora sucks it up, nags herself for being so ridiculously difficult with the truth—the truth that she wanted to spend her night, and all her other nights moving forward, with Yoohyeon in her arms, loving how she nuzzles into her when she laughs.
Eventually, some wizard interrupts the two girls, the Veela witch looking longingly at Yoohyeon when he sweeps her into her arms.
Yoohyeon just waves in typical Yoohyeon fashion, awkwardly with a sheepish smile on her lips. When she leaves towards them, Bora considers asking her for a dance, notices how Yoohyeon fidgets in her heels, thinks that maybe some sitting would help take the weight off her feet.
And because Bora is a woman of theatrics, she nudges Minji with her elbow.
“Hey, break my heel.”
Minji frowns, one cheek puffed and filled with food when she grumbles out, “Wha?”
“C’mon, you’re a brute and you know it. Break my heel.”
Her cheek deflates a little as she chews and swallows, “Why?”
Bora tsks, shakes her head in faux disappointment, “What did I say about asking me questions?”
Minji gulps the rest of her food, wipes the crumbs away from the corner of her lips with a swipe of her tongue, “To not.”
Grinning, Bora takes off a shoe, nearly brandishing it, “Exactly!”
The side-eye Minji gives her is skeptical, looks twice for confirmation.
Bora nods eagerly, does not care that she has rambled to Minji about how much she loves those heels and how they’re, basically, one of a kind.
(There’s something better that’s one of a kind and she’s walking right towards them, wading through the crowd, and Bora needs an excuse to sit.)
“Go ahead; break it!”
Minji draws out a doubtful, “Okay…” and snaps the heel with a resounding crack. (Bora feels some part of her whine but it’s worth it—Yoohyeon is worth it.)
When Minji hands her heel back in two pieces, she breathes out a sigh, “You’re not allowed to get mad at me for this later. You said with your own words I could.”
Bora rolls her eyes, too proud to admit that her tendency to get swept away in the moment has definitely led her to having more regrets than she’d like to have.
Yoohyeon arrives with a soft smile that melts into a pout, a gentle furrow of her eyebrows. The girl’s eyes flicker to her heels before looking her up and down and seemingly checking for injuries, “Bboya, what happened?”
Oh, how Bora wishes to be looked at like that. In a different way. Preferably with Yoohyeon liking what she sees.
And because Bora is a fiend for the ~flair of drama~, she slips into her role as easily as she breathes. Pouting and holding out her broken shoe like an injured bird she rescued, Bora thinks it’s cute how Yoohyeon’s frown deepens to mirror hers, “My heel broke!”
Yoohyeon, none the wiser and ever the compassionate woman she is, offers, “Do you wanna sit? I can look around for a table for us.” Her back straightens as she tilts her head up, her height aided with the platform of her shoes to survey over the crowds of people. Yoohyeon’s eyes only shift back to her when Bora gently tugs her arm, her hand naturally trailing to Yoohyeon’s and lacing their fingers together.
“Can we get out?”
If it was possible, Yoohyeon’s pout gets even poutier, concern flooding her eyes. Squeezing the hand in hers, Yoohyeon nods reassuringly, already leading them towards the Great Hall’s entrance.
Walking without any particular destination in mind, it doesn’t surprise Bora when they arrive at the Sphinx Clubhouse. Bora noticed that Yoohyeon likes to hang around the stained-glass windows with a book in her lap when she needs alone time or a moment to relax and be away from the stress of schooling or quidditch.
It feels like a privilege to be led here by her, to share this safe space with her.
Bora feels safe there too, thinks it has more to do with Yoohyeon than the rows of books and solitary peace.
“I like it here when I feel like I need to get away.”
Bora fights the urge to say, “I know,” just gravitates closer towards Yoohyeon’s warmth. Sitting at the benches along the walls of the room, Yoohyeon shrugs off her blue blazer and lays it across her lap, keen about how Bora wriggles and tugs down her dress.
“Are you having fun tonight?”
Breathing out slowly, Bora sifts through her possible answers.
It was fun talking with Yoohyeon and pretending it was enough for the night until the Beauxbaton girl whisked her away. Then, it wasn’t very fun thinking that had she gone through with her plan to ask Yoohyeon to the ball that it would have been her slow dancing with her.
But now, sitting next to Yoohyeon in all her sweetness and sincerity, this might be the highlight of her night.
“I am.” Bora glances towards her, feels her cheeks warming when she finds Yoohyeon’s soft gaze on her. “Are you?”
Yoohyeon’s smile is small but it’s genuine, her voice just as soft as her eyes, “I’m happy with where I’m at.”
Bora smiles then, leans her head on Yoohyeon’s shoulder.
(No shoulder has ever felt so comfortable to her.)
She toys with Yoohyeon’s fingers, likes how Yoohyeon lets her, “I’m happy, too. Here, with you.”
Yoohyeon breathes out a laugh, rests her head atop of hers, “It’s a shame your heel broke. I wanted to dance with you.”
Bora nearly gasps, wishes she could take back the moment she asked Minji to break her favorite pair of heels, because, Merlin, all she wanted to do that night was dance with the girl she’s positive she’s falling in love with.
But, Bora has never let a broken heel stop her from getting what she wants.
“We can dance now.”
And they could. The music gently leaks from the Great Hall, Yoohyeon is right there next to her, all of her attention on her, just the way Bora likes.
“But your shoes?”
Bora laughs, slightly shifting away from Yoohyeon before placing her blazer on the bench, standing up, four inches shorter than when she started the night, and offering a hand to her.
“Yoohyeon, may I have this dance?”
Bora swears Yoohyeon’s smile shines the brightest it ever did that night.
It’s not often Bora has a true rife with her height, but she has never wished more for an extra twenty-five or so centimeters because she’s a whole head (and then some) away from being tall enough for Yoohyeon to rest her head on her shoulders. But, when Yoohyeon gently cards her fingers through her hair before resting them on her on the small of her back, Bora likes that she’s short enough to rest her ear against her chest.
She can hear how Yoohyeon’s heart races a mile a minute, can almost feel its drumming.
Bora thinks hers runs just as fast.
It’s ridiculous how simple it is, how Bora just feels herself melting into her, how she feels relieved to let these words go.
“I like you, Yoohyeon.”
Yoohyeon’s heart seems to skip a beat, Bora just nuzzles into her chest because there’s nothing else she wants to do more.
“I like you so much that I’ve started smelling iris and sandalwood in my Amortentia potion.”
Yoohyeon’s breath stutters, softly mutters, “That’s-”
Bora’s smile is damn near impossible to stop; she doesn’t even try to hide it. “Your perfume. I know.”
Yoohyeon stops swaying to the music, curls her arms tightly around her waist, affectionately noses into Bora’s hair, “You can hear it, can’t you, how you make me feel?”
She does.
And she loves it.
And because Yoohyeon is Yoohyeon and she’s a sucker for making memories and everything sentimental, she says it just because, says it because it feels right .
“I like you, too, Bora.”
~
Bora doesn’t mind looking a little silly if it’s with Yoohyeon—for Yoohyeon.
(It’s so fucking cheesy but making Yoohyeon happy is Bora’s favorite pastime.)
And if Yoohyeon laughs when Bora sounds like a goddamn elephant when she eats sound-producing sweets, Bora is happy to eat another piece of candy even if she ends up roaring like a lion right in Minji’s face.
(Minji is just lucky Bora didn’t have a garlic-heavy dinner.)
Bora wouldn’t say she had a heart of ice before Yoohyeon, but there has to be an explanation for why she turns into a melted puddle of lovesick affection and adoration at the mere mention of her name.
Other than the explanation that she just loves her that much.
There has to be something else.
But then again, Bora never saw Yoohyeon coming.
Maybe there’s nothing else other than the undeniable fact that Bora would follow her to the ends of the earth without a single question because loving Yoohyeon means never letting a day pass without her feeling loved.
Bora supposes it can be as simple as that.