(A: this was supposed to be a part of «My Dearest Enemy » but Gem, Dunk and Fourth made me change my mind)

Fourth POV

Dunk died.

No, I still don't believe it. Gem's brother, my friend... No, this isn't happening. Someone tell me this is some stupid and not funny joke. Even though I saw it all with my own eyes, I still can't believe it. How could the entire world collapse in an instant?

It was supposed to be a normal day. We had classes, where as usual we recently joined our desks so that our whole group could sit together. A few of us were missing, including Perth, Gem, Aungpao, Mark, Film and June. Professor Earth just raised his eyes to the sky, as if he was looking for help there. It was Phuwin's idea. That day, however, someone decided to imitate us.

“Boys! Would you kindly focus on today's topic, huh? Or am I interrupting you?”

P'Earth was clearly in a bad mood.  I wanted to ask him about it, but I gave up on this risky idea when the professor threw a menacing look at Pond and Joong, who followed our example and also started to move their desks with a loud shuffle of their feet. We all spent the next few minutes rearranging the classroom so that we were more comfortable. Joong, who turned out to be quite nice when none of their friends were around, conjured up soft, comfortable chairs for his friends, each of which was the favorite color of the person who sat in it. And then he did something unexpected: he grabbed Dunk by the hand, led him to one of the chairs at the tables belonging to his team and told him to sit down, handing him a lunch box.

“I made it myself. For you, teerak, enjoy!” Joong said with obvious pride in his voice. Pond whistled at the sight, drawing almost everyone's attention.

“Oh, whatever,  you’re welcome, you have the right to envy me for my brilliant boyfriend,” Archen, without asking for permission, sat his ass on Dunk’s lap, who tried to push him off, which had no effect, because Archen was simply stronger. I got the impression that Joong wanted to emphasize that Dunk Natachai belonged to him, because he gave him a loud kiss on the cheek and only then graciously stood up.

“Are you challenging me, Aydin? Fine. I have my meow-meow!” Pond easily found... Phuwin! Without warning, before the poor guy had a chance to realize what was happening, he pulled him to himself and planted a kiss on his lips. I had to blink my eyes twice and pinch myself on the shoulder to make sure that this was really happening.

“Are you crazy, Naravit?!”  Phuwin didn't seem to share Pond's opinion of what a great honor it was to become Pond Naravit's boyfriend.

“You're right, I'm crazy about you, cutie. My adorable kitty!”

I suspected that Pond was only hitting on Phu because Joong had dared to break the mold of their group and fall in love with his rival. Since I returned to class, Pond had been hanging around Phu a lot. The only exceptions were the days when Perth Tanapon showed up for class, which was fortunately rare these days. Pond, being a rich kid, didn't have to worry about attendance, and rumors had it that he had hired a rather charming tutor named Santa. In the No-Magic world, Santa was younger than Perth, but here, Santa was the first in our group to receive runes.

Joong gave Pond the middle finger in a very friendly gesture, embellishing it with sticking out his tongue and a loud cry of “Loser!”.
Archen, feigning innocence, approached the professor as if he wanted to hide behind him from Pond, who started chasing him, waving a brush soaked in black paint that he had stolen from Phuwin. It was as if P'Earth guaranteed safety.

“Sir, maybe I can conjure up a nice armchair for you too?” Joong asked, but didn't wait for an answer. A moment later, a nice, light brown armchair upholstered in leather appeared next to the professor, who was standing at the desk with a martyr's face, his arms crossed over his chest. The resigned teacher sank into the seat and closed his eyes. Watching this chaos brought me a lot of good fun.

All the students started to rearrange the furniture. Prim called the house elf and ordered him to bring as many colorful chrysanthemums as he could physically. The elf bowed politely and disappeared with a loud “Poof!” only to return shortly with a wooden cart loaded with plants.

Prim placed the flowers on the windowsills, then changed their color to blood red. And the pots turned into orange, Halloween pumpkins.

“Ooooh, Mr. Professor , today is Halloween! There will be no classes today, today we are having a party!” Joong ordered cheerfully, as if he was the most important person in the room. I slightly envied his self-confidence, this audacity.

“Did you even ask me for permission? What if I had an important topic for you to study?”

I still wonder if we had just done our homework the way we were supposed to, would Dunk still be with us?  Gem says it doesn't matter that some twists of fate can't be changed, and someone's death is one of them. I disagree. I keep thinking about what would have happened if... And I can't stop blaming myself, because I know I could have done something better, something more, reacted earlier, anything...

We set up tables and chairs. P'First visited us, accompanied by P'Milk, P'Love, and Khaotung. They brought snacks. We greeted them with obvious enthusiasm, although I'm not sure if my classmates were more excited about the unexpected guests or what they brought with them.

“I got a message that you're planning a party,” Milk stood next to Joong, handing him a picnic basket filled with goodies. Archen busied himself arranging everything on the tables. Each delicacy looked like something related to Halloween.  There were cookies in the shape of miniature coffins, there were skull jelly beans and jelly beans in the shape of crosses familiar to us from Christian cemeteries. There were hot, still steaming baked apples, each with a ghost carved into the middle.

Someone decided to further emphasize the dark atmosphere of our favorite pseudo-holiday, and suddenly real cobwebs began to hang from the ceiling, with spiders walking calmly and lazily through them. When Prim came across one, she squealed loudly and ran away to the door, hiding behind Gem, who had just shown up for class and was completely surprised by the sight he saw.

Gem had been acting increasingly unpredictable lately, to the point that I was starting to worry about him. That morning, when I woke up, he was already gone from his room. I assumed he had probably gone to class, but he wasn't here either. He didn't show up until about half an hour after the scheduled start time for Professor Earth's lecture.

“Oh! Who conjured up such awesome chairs?”  P'First walked over to one of the empty chairs and slowly ran his hand over the upholstery.

“Me, and what, do you have a problem with it?”  Joong appeared like a ghost right in front of me and First, making me jump in fear.

“No, no, no problem. I just admire your skills. Respect nong Archen, most of your friends use spells for torture, and you decided to create comfortable furniture. Hey, wait, maybe those chairs are traps and if you sit on them, you'll...”
P'First began to look at the furniture from every side with comical fear.

“Yes, those chairs bite off a piece of your ass if you sit on them,” Joong replied with such seriousness that I was ready to believe him.

And then all hell broke loose, literally.

The classroom door opened with a loud bang, filling the room with blue smoke, biting your throat and making your eyes water. We all started coughing and rubbing our eyes with our hands. Gemini was immediately next to me and pushed me under the tables arranged in a large square.

Out of the corner of my eye, I managed to see a familiar figure. The man standing in the doorway looked exactly like Gemini, except Gemini was cowering under the table with me. Before anyone could react, this strange creature pulled a real gun out of his belt, and a moment later there was a loud bang of a shot.

One shot, two, three...

How many people were shooting? Who attacked us and why? What had actually happened here and why did I feel that it all made no sense? If Gem was next to me, who was shooting?

I covered my ears with my hands. A stupid thought ran through my head that this was probably a training exercise ordered by the boss. I decided that there was nothing to be afraid of and slowly looked out of my hiding place. First cast an invisibility spell on the three of us, then disappeared from my sight.

Two more shots and suddenly two bodies fell to the floor with a loud thud. I couldn't see Gem. I couldn't find him anywhere.  I began to panic. A moment later, there was complete silence. I guessed that P'First and P'Earth had finally neutralized the attacker. Deciding it was safe, I left my hiding place and looked around. Professor Earth was pinning none other than Perth Tanapon against the wall. Two bodies, two human figures, were lying on the floor.

I didn't immediately understand what I was looking at. It seemed to me that everything was happening very quickly and in slow motion at the same time. I blinked, rubbed my eyes with my hands. The remnants of smoke were still in the air. Gemini was lying surrounded by sweets, and his eyes were frozen forever in an expression of panicky fear. A few steps away in an armchair I saw another person close to me.

Dunk was still breathing, but it was obvious that he was getting weaker. He had two wounds, from which blood was oozing profusely, staining his light blue shirt and baggy jeans with holes. He was wounded in the leg and around the heart. Joong ran up to him and tried to stop the bleeding with magic, but to everyone's horror, his magic had become too weak. It turned out that the bullets that had wounded him had been previously soaked in poison and had been cursed. There was nothing that could be done.
“No, Dunk, I beg you, my sweetie, don’t give up, do you hear? Don’t fall asleep. Fight, you have to fight, you have to live, do you hear?” There was so much despair in Joong’s voice that I had to look away.

I know that I should go to Gem too, I should scream in despair too, beg him to live, but something wouldn’t let me. As if I was in shock. And yet I could clearly see the body of the boy who still had some chance to become king, I could see those painfully familiar eyes devoid of that special spark of life. I saw him, I knew he was dead. So why didn’t I react the same way as Joong? I was angry with myself, but I couldn’t feel anything at all.

My attention was drawn to a sudden movement right next to me.

It was Archen who walked up to the floor and picked up the gun that P’Earth had thrown aside.  Joong aimed the gun at Perth and then fired twice, wounding him in both arms.

“This is for my Dunk you fucking moron. May you burn in hell. And by the way, your plan sucked. You don’t deserve anything good for what you did.”

“You’re wrong, I’m the one in charge. You’re nothing, just a pawn in my game, you’re the one who lost.”

“No, Tanapon, I’m not as vile as you. But your reign is over.” After these words, he raised the gun again and fired, this time hitting Perth straight in the heart. “This is for Dunk. I told you not to touch him.”

And then he suddenly remembered the wounded boy. He ran to the chair where he had left him, but Dunk had already left this world. I thought that in my opinion Joong had shown Perth too much mercy. I would rather hand him over to our Supreme Court. Perth should suffer, he should fully feel the consequences of what he himself had done. Killing him was like an act of mercy that I had never suspected Archen of.

“No, it's impossible. Dunk, come back to me. I didn't have time to tell you that I love you! You can't do this to me. Natachai, come back! I love you, do you hear?! I want you to be my boyfriend.  We'll adopt a dog, I'll even let you choose any puppy you want. We'll live together. I have a big house, you'll have a room there for your art studio and you'll be able to invite friends, you'll paint together. I promise I'll gain the friendship of your loved ones, just please, open your eyes, tell me you agree, I beg you, talk to me!”

His scream, his pain, his crying and his despair tore my heart into millions of tiny pieces.

I fell to my knees next to Gem's body and my gaze involuntarily fell on the hands of the corpse. It sobered me up. This man's hands didn't look like my beloved enemy's at all. The fingers were thicker and on one of them I could see a small tattoo of a triangle inscribed in a circle. Before I could take a closer look, someone grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the exit.

“What the hell!” I cursed briefly.  In front of me appeared P'First and... Gemini himself. “Wait, if you're here, then... Who's there?” I asked and pointed to the next room. Gem took my hand again and started leading me forward. I didn't understand much of it. First walked calmly next to us. That's how we reached our apartment. Gem sat me down on the bed and started talking.

“Don't worry, Fourth, I'm fine. That corpse is one of Tanapon's men, the same one who used to torture and scare Chokun, remember?”

I just nodded briefly. I didn't want to think about it now. It seemed to me that I was just dreaming, that I would wake up soon and Gem would laugh at me, that I was sleepwalking or talking in my sleep.

“Gem... But someone else died there,” I said quietly.

“Who? One of ours?” P'First showed interest.

“My brother, Dunk.”

“How do you know?”

“A brotherly bond. I don’t feel it anymore. I know he’s gone.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. His brother had just died, and he hadn’t shed a single tear, and he said it in such a dry and emotionless voice that I had the impression he was informing us about a change of president in some European country. On the other hand, I wanted to howl with pain, scream, I wanted to tear the skin on my chest and rip my heart out. It hurt so terribly that I couldn’t find words of comfort in anything.

After all, Dunk was about to become an uncle. He was so happy! He had been waiting for my and Gem’s child to finally come into the world so that he could spoil it like a good uncle. He even started thinking up names for us. How is it possible that he’s gone?

No, that’s definitely not true. It’s also definitely just some Dunk lookalike, it’s impossible for Dunk Natachai Boonprasert to be dead. No, that’s the end of it.  He's alive, he's definitely alive, he's probably in his room with Phuwin, laughing at us. I have to go to Phu.

That thought made me get up and go to the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To Phuwin”.

“Why?”

“To bring Dunk home. They're definitely together”.