Testing Out°Jikook

●1

The book landed on the table with a force that caused both its contents and those sitting at it to jump. Namjoon let out an indignant yelp as his quills tumbled to the floor and Jimin just managed to save the ink bottle before it doused their homework beyond recognition. Both frowned up at hoseok, who stood before them panting in triumph.

“Here, look what I found!” he dropped into one of the chairs and opened the heavy book, flipping rapidly through the yellowed pages. “It’s very old and handwritten to boot! Half the pages aren’t even readable anymore. They were moving that suit of armo r-- you know the one just round the corner from Charms class? -- And this was stuck under the foot. Must have been used to balance it, since the right leg is about three inches shorter than the left. Anyway, I snagged it before anyone else noticed and I looked through it and found this....”

Having tuned out halfway through hoseok's ramble, Jimin was shocked anew when the book landed in the middle of his parchment, sending a few loose paper drifting. Baffled at what could have excited hoseok enough to interrupt their work, he leaned over the book and squinted at the scrawled writing.

Most of the title was badly smeared, leaving ‘Protection B----’ set toward the left of page. Only the top of the following paragraph was legible, the rest blurred as though splattered with water.

‘This spell protects you against your worst enemy by making that enemy unable to bring harm to you. It is the most powerful and effective protection spell of this nature. It wor---’ that was it. The spell itself was completely intact, if a little hard on the eyes. Jimin frowned and read through the first paragraph again, squinting harder the see if he could pick any words out of the blurred ink.

“Hmm, figure you’d get all excited over some stupid old book.” namjoon said and dropped his rescued quills back on the table. Hoseok looked like he wanted to stick his tongue out at him but it was beneath him to do so. Namjoon had a similar look; only he would have added a raspberry noise for effect. Hoseok narrowed his eyes and imagined making a rude gesture. Jimin interrupted this unusual staring contest by nudging namjoon.

“Here, read this.” He slid the book toward his friend. Namjoon leaned over it, forehead lightly brushing Jimin's. Hoseok fidgeted slightly in hus seat as namjoon scanned the page. After a while, his reddish eyebrows jumped in surprise.

“Huh.”

“Oh, is that all you have to say?”

“Huh,” he said again, challenging hoseok through his bangs. Jimin sighed helplessly. The two had been picking at each other since just a few months after summer vacation. There wasn’t anything nasty about it, more like playful teasing, but it got annoying to witness.