"Wow. You guys are such weird people."

Beomgyu's sitting on the love-seat beneath the window of Taehyun and Soobin's attic when Kai lets himself in, armed with giant bags of takeout and wearing what can only be described as a Google search result for pagan fashion.

"Hi Kai. Taehyun and Soobin went to get some drinks for later."

Kai nods, mouth hanging open as he shuffles inside. Beomgyu watches Kai take in the space and follows his gaze, trying to see everything from a newbie's perspective.

The sloping windows are large and let in great natural sunlight in the mornings, but right now it's just the smoky dark blue of Seoul's late night. It's all smudged, desaturated, edges lost to color like in analog photos. The kind of night that settles Beomgyu's heart.

There's a deceptively normal pile of Soobin's university textbooks close to where Beomgyu's sprawled, but there's also an inherited Medieval Scapini Swiss tarot deck on top of the pile. The rest of the room is full of plants-plants sitting on windowsills, plants hanging from pots on the ceiling, plants sitting in planters on the floor. The walls are papered with Soobin's sketches and charts, half of which even Beomgyu can't read. There's an old vacuum tube radio in one corner, a makeshift travel altar in a large trunk, and assorted candles, crystals and other typical witch paraphernalia everywhere. Little lights twinkle like fireflies from hidden nooks and corners.

"How did you guys even get into this?" Kai asks, dropping the takeout on a table and sitting on the floor beneath a large poster of a spiral galaxy.

"I got my clothes thing from my grandmother," Beomgyu says. "Then I met Soobin through his psychic cousin who wanted to talk to me about it. This is her place. She moved back to Busan recently, so he lives here now."

"So it's a family thing?"

"Kind of. It also puts him through school. He sells votives, crystals, spell jars, potpourri-all sorts of shit. Soobin's good at reading cards, so he does that too. Taehyun's just the most interested person among all three of us. He genuinely likes learning about this stuff."

Kai picks up a book about purifying herbs. "Has any of your spells actually worked?"

"Oh yeah," Beomgyu grins. "You wouldn't believe it. We've seen some weird things! Once we got invited to this seance, you know. Local interest group we found on Tumblr. They had a medium who called on a ghost that broke every single window in the house. It was spooky as hell."

"Wires and buttons," a familiar voice says from the room's threshold, cool and disparaging. "They've been using parlor tricks right from the Victorian era and people still fall for it. Idiots."

"Hyung," Kai whines, making a face.

Yeonjun slips in through the door. "Yes, Kai-ah."

He's wearing a leather jacket that swamps his slight frame, tight jeans and tall boots. His hair, dyed silver-gray, falls slightly damp around his face. There's the unexpected shine of some soft pink balm on his lips, and the low light washes him in a gentle blue that reminds Beomgyu of old film.

He's pretty. Those pants are real huggy. Beomgyu stares until he remembers Yeonjun hates him.

Kai clears his throat. "What did we talk about, hyung?"

"That I'd keep my mouth shut so you can have your night of idiocy among twee plants and shiny stones," Yeonjun says, yawning. "Kai-ah, look at this place, this is crazy."

"Don't knock it till you try it," Beomgyu mutters, while Yeonjun stares at the room with mild interest. "Why are you even here if you just think we're idiots?"

Yeonjun's grin is slow and shark-like. "I was bored."

"We're not the Travel and Living Channel. Find your entertainment elsewhere."

"I don't know," Yeonjun says, "Your friend invited me. Would be rude to decline, wouldn't it?"

Beomgyu rolls his eyes and scowls out into the night.

"I met a witch once for a production we were doing on psychics," Yeonjun mutters. "She said something about my aura being really negative."

"Wow, big surprise."

"Do you guys sell these altars?" Kai asks, placating as he checks out a little box with incense sticks and candles and cat charms from Japan.

"Yep. We take custom orders."

Yeonjun hums. "Profits must be high, right? Conformity is out, chaos magic is in."

"That's what Soobin says."

"Soobin has a good head for business, then."

"He studies business," Beomgyu says. Yeonjun pauses in his exploration of a beaded headdress to look around at Beomgyu in surprise. "Um. So did I? So did Taehyun?"

"I thought you lot have done something artsier."

Kai smiles brightly. "I told you they were little geniuses, hyung."

Yeonjun ignores this in lieu of picking up a decorated sugar skull.

"Careful," says Beomgyu. "That's where we keep Mimi's ashes."

Yeonjun puts it back down like he's been scalded. "Who the fuck is Mimi?"'

"Beloved attic rat," Beomgyu says, mournfully. "Taehyun's cat murdered her. She's our resident altar spirit."

Yeonjun exhales heavily through his nose, still looking at the skull like it might clamp its jaws around his wrist. "You people are insane."

Beomgyu grins into his palm just as the door opens and Taehyun and Soobin nearly fall inside. They have large bags with them, too, and look pink from either the cold or some pre-drinking. They both brighten up when their eyes land on Kai.

"Kai!" Taehyun squeals, happily. "You found the place okay! Ooh, did you bring jjangmeyeon?"

They already look a little tipsy.

It's weird. Beomgyu's always held the assumption that he knows these two well. It's him who introduced Taehyun to Soobin after all. He's watched as their relationship bloomed from its awkwardly touchy fetus state to the full-grown, confident-gay adorableness it is today. He hangs out with them a lot, reads blogs and catalogs online when they're sucking face, which means his reading time has drastically increased in the last few months. He's used to their grossness, and he's proud to be the staunchest supporter of hashtag SooTae.

But tonight is something else.

The eye-fucking starts during dinner, even before they begin the cleansing. Beomgyu eats quickly, downs several glasses of soju, terrified somehow that the heavy dose of lust in the air will kill his appetite for noodles. He's almost tipsy by the time he's done, and his only partner in true suffering-Yeonjun-doesn't seem much better off. His eyes keep flicking to where Soobin and Taehyun are somehow managing to easily include Kai in the proceedings.

Yeonjun looks like he's seconds from asking for eye-bleach.

When Taehyun's eyeballs aren't occupied with pouring large drinks or performing heavy flirting, Beomgyu catches his gaze and rolls his eyes. Taehyun just grins, unabashed.

As usual, it's Soobin who lays out the circle and the rules. Taehyun and Beomgyu help with the candles and the crystals. Kai watches curiously and asks a hundred questions. When Beomgyu goes to place the candle in the North cardinal, Yeonjun's gaze on him is grumpy and suspicious. Beomgyu goes right around him with the salt and the taper, places the candle and says the words.

"Okay," Soobin says when they're done. "This is something I got from my cousin. It's for luck and concentration, which is great, because I have exams coming up."

"...or you could just study," Yeonjun mutters.

"Witchcraft is not a substitute for magic," Beomgyu hisses back. "He's still going to have to study."

"What's the point, then."

"Guidance. Energy. Unlocking potential."

There's an unimpressed dip in Yeonjun's voice. "Now you sound like a start-up convention."

Soobin clears his throat. "Anyway," he says. "I'll draw the sigil. Taehyun hyung, we need sunflower seeds, sea salt, tourmaline and driftwood."

It goes easily from there. They layer the ingredients in a glass jar, and then Soobin places five votives around it with ribbons tied to it.

"Hold it and meditate on your deity."

"Deity?" Yeonjun looks skeptical. "What deity?"

"Pick one you like. Hellenic, Druidic, Norse, elf, fae-who cares. Whoever floats your boat."

Yeonjun thinks for a moment. "Does Legolas work?"

Beomgyu frowns. "He's fictional."

"You said elf. Legolas is an elf."

Kai looks at Yeonjun with abject disappointment. "You could have picked Galadriel and you picked Legolas?"

"I'm fucking gay, you dumbass."

"Gandalf, then."

"I'm fucking gay, you dumbass."

"Legolas works," Beomgyu says, evenly. "Mine is Aphrodite."

Yeonjun's gaze lingers on him for a charged few seconds. It takes an interesting trajectory, too, a slow slide from Beomgyu's eyes to his mouth, and then catching there. His eyes are speckled with candlelight. "Hmm, Aphrodite. Of course it is."

Beomgyu goes into a coughing fit.

There follows what needs to be fifteen minutes or more of silent meditation. Beomgyu tries this part, he always really does, but standing still and focusing has never been his forte. It's why he cracks open one eye halfway through the second minute and finds Soobin making eyes at Kai. He closes his eyes. When he opens it again, somewhere between the fourth and the fifth minute, it's Taehyun-one eye closed and the other open, one hand on his ribbon and the other squeezing Kai's bicep. Beomgyu really doesn't want to see this, so he sort of imagines Aphrodite as a nameless, faceless woman in an Ellie Saab crystal-speckled dress, closing his eyes again. She prances gently in his vision in what looks like the runway for the Milan Fashion Week.

In the sixth minute SooTae is up to it again, sexting with their brains. Taehyun does some weird little wriggle. Soobin giggles, and then stuffs his fist halfway down his throat trying to contain it. Kai has abandoned all pretense of meditation now and cheerfully on-boarded the heavy flirt train.

Yeonjun stares in unadulterated disgust. "I thought this was supposed to be a concentration spell."

Taehyun grins. "We sure are concentrating on something."

"Ssshh," Soobin says, giggles again, and squeezes his eyes shut. "Be quiet."

In the next two minutes, Beomgyu keeps his eyes open and focused on Yeonjun. His fringe is overlong and nearly falls into his eyes, and the pout of his mouth is soft and pretty when he isn't using it to spit harsh words at Beomgyu. He quickly looks away when Yeonjun cracks open one eye.

It's torture. No one wants to end it because half the circle is having too much fun, and Beomgyu and Yeonjun are both just looking to elongate the other's torment. Beomgyu twists the ribbon's frayed edges between his fingers. He watches the candles flicker. He ignores the slight tussle that breaks out between Taehyun and Kai-a slight pinch that becomes an ass-grab that becomes a butt slap.

It's fucking unbearable.

Don't break, he thinks, meeting Yeonjun's challenging stare dead-on. Don't break, don't break, don't break-

"Okay, jeez! By the power of Legolas, I compel you to stop this," Yeonjun chokes out, throwing his arms up as he drops his ribbon. "God, I need a fucking drink."

Beomgyu lets out a sigh of relief. "Me too."

Taehyun instantly hooks his fingers through Kai's belt loops to pull him into a kiss. It's hot-mouthed and hungry, the tangle of their tongues in clear view for the rest of them, Taehyun's eyes only half-closed and his gaze intent on Kai's face.

Soobin looks like Christmas came real early.

"I need to get out of here."

Beomgyu grabs Yeonjun's wrist, unthinking. "Don't break the circle! Wait."

Yeonjun's stare drops from Beomgyu's face to their linked hands. Beomgyu drops it. He mumbles, "It's unlucky," and Yeonjun says nothing, just purses his lips to a thin line, sharp gaze landing everywhere except for on Beomgyu.

Beomgyu blows out the candles the right way. By the time he's done and rummaging in the drinks cabinet for vodka, Yeonjun's bouncing in terror behind him, clearly antsing to get out before the maniacs really get into their bacchanalia.

"Glasses!" he barks. "No, Beomgyu, not the tiny wine glasses. Big fucking glasses. The biggest fucking glasses you've got! Have you got any weed?"

"LOL. Yes."

"You did not just fucking say LOL, you crazy hipster. Oh my God."

"Stop freaking out."

"That's hyung to you."

"Stop freaking out, hyung."

Yeonjun draws a shaky breath, his whole face flushed. He looks towards where Kai is now happily making out with Soobin and gives a full-bodied shudder. "He's like my little brother. Please get me out of here."

"Where do we go?" Beomgyu asks. "This is a studio apartment."

"Rooftop? Rooftop," Yeonjun gasps, already half out of the door, a jug of water and ice-cubes in his arms. "Meet me there. Hurry up, Choi Beomgyu!"