Fall Ball Aftermath Rendezvous PV Lucia Fox Closed

On the way to the hospital wing, Lucia trailed after Ye-jun, silently cursing her uselessness. The ball had been, quite literally, falling down around her, and what had Lucia done? She'd stood there stock-still and waited for her date to pull her out. It was a little fairytale-like, but also pathetic. A fairytale princess would be able to get herself out of there, but would have chosen not to so she could stay and help heal people and get the tent back up. She'd do something. Something more useful than Lucia had.

Lucia caught sight of her reflection in a window and grimaced. Her hair and dress were soaked through, her makeup was streaked down her face, her dainty shoes were covered with mud... she was a mess. A part-Veela, naturally beautiful mess, sure, but a mess all the same. If only there was some kind of spell she could use to magically fix herself up... Except, there had been one, kind of. If only she'd remembered about her wand as they fled from the ball, Lucia could have conjoured an umbrella to keep herself and Ye-jun out of the rain. But noo, Lucia had to just trail after her ball date like a lost puppy.

They finally reached the hospital wing, and Ye-jun took the lead again, talking to the staff in order to explain what had happened. Meanwhile, Lucia sunk down onto a bed, shivering in her light dress, staring down at her feet. She hadn't really noticed how cold she was until now, having entered the warm, comfortable hospital wing. The difference in temperature between here and outside was incredible. Ye-jun must have noticed this too, because when he returned he quickly cast a hot air charm and aimed it at Lucia. "Merlin's breath. Thank you." Lucia had never appreciated that spell as much as she did in that moment. It also reminded her that she had her wand, too, and she could help as well. "You too. Aer Calidus." Lucia aimed her own jet of warm air at Ye-jun.

There was a moment of silence as the two quietly dried off, and it was when Lucia's dress had transitioned from 'dunked in the ocean' to 'caught in the rain' that the Beauxbatons boy spoke again. "I'm- I'm fine. Your healing spell worked wonders," Lucia told him, and it was true. Plus, she felt a lot better now that she was warm and semi-dry. "Look, Ye-jun, I'm... I'm really sorry, for just standing there, and for not doing anything to help, and for- for being a terrible ball date." The words tumbled out of Lucia's mouth, not unlike the thunderstorm raging outside. "But it was really nice dancing with you, and I'd like to be friends, if you would." Until now, Lucia had assumed that Ye-jun had helped her for Eun-ji's sake, and while that was probably true to a degree, he had still helped her. Surely he thought positively of her in some kind of aspect if he hadn't just run off to help Eun-ji directly the moment Lucia had gotten to the hospital wing, and right how he was still here. "We can write letters?" Lucia suggested.

Violet in English, Red in Korean and Blue in French

“Thank you,” Ye-jun also expressed his gratitude when the warm air washed over his body. He would have done so himself but it was certainly better than waiting until he was done with Lucia. “There is no reason for you to apologize. The incident was unfortunate but nobody’s fault. If I really were to blame somebody, I would blame the adults for not making sure the tent could withstand the storm.” The boy said without any hesitation. The students didn’t cause it and it was completely understandable that some handled the situation better than others. “Eun-ji and I both grew up in the family with doctors. My uncle is a surgeon and my dad is a veterinarian. My aunt is a healer too but I’m not counting that since I didn’t know that until now…” He paused for a moment. “My point is, Eun-ji has spent most of her childhood either at St. Mungo’s or Countess of Chester Hospital so there is very little that can truly throw her off in these situations. I only went to my uncle’s work place twice and it was enough for me but I’m helping at my dad’s vet clinic from time to time so I’ve seen crisis before too. That kind of thing is not common for people our age though. In fact, most of the students back there seemed somewhat helpless and it’s no wonder why.” He shrugged. Really, it was not a big deal. He might have been more uncomfortable about the conflict preceding the accident but that one didn’t have much time to develop so it was okay.

The offer of friendship was a tad surprising for the boy. It was not necessarily that he didn’t like making friends but due to his past, he had trouble trusting people. It took time and effort to get into Ye-jun’s inner circle. Sure, he was relatively popular among his peers but most of them he still considered acquaintances. However, Lucia was a friend to his cousin, who he trusted completely so that already gave her a huge advantage. Also, starting with letters might make the process of bonding much easier. “Sure…” The boy finally agreed. “I would like to learn more about the life here and I don’t want to bother Eun-ji all the time. New perspective is always welcome. Let’s make sure to exchange address later then. Or we can just communicate when at school. I don’t mind either way.” He added with smile. It didn’t matter even if they forgot, his cousin already had his address so the girls could arrange everything even without him.

[quote] [quote]Surprisingly, Ye-jun didn't seem to hold any ill feelings towards Lucia for her uselessness when she could have helped people. "That's true, I guess," Lucia murmured when the Beauxbatons boy mentioned the lack of forward thinking which the staff had shown. Now she thought about it, she couldn't help but wonder why they hadn't checked the forecasts at least, and maybe even forced the ball planners to move the event indoors. Hogwarts had a ballroom for a reason, after all.

Lucia had known that Eun-ji's parents were something to do with healing, but not that her uncle - Ye-jun's father - was as well. It must run in the family; apparently just like their ability to keep calm in a crisis. "That... makes sense." Ye-jun's explanation made the Hufflepuff feel a bit better about not doing anything helpful earlier. After all, unlike Eun-ji and Ye-jun, Lucia hadn't really been in a situation like that before (unless you counted the appearance of a headless horseman ghost part-way through last year's autumn ball, which she'd also chickened out of).

There was a drawn out pause before Ye-jun spoke, during which Lucia began to regret her words. Was that too... forward? Or did he not want to be friends? Lucia had just opened her mouth to say that it was fine if he didn't want to exchane letters with her when he replied favourably. "Oh! Um, I meant owls?" The mention of adresses caught Lucia a little off-guard. She wasn't sure she even knew what her address was. "So we'd just need names and country?" Well, country wasn't that important, but it could be helpful for figuring out how far the owl would be traveling, and therefore how much the letter would cost to post. "Unless, um, your family doesn't have an owl." Lucia suddenly couldn't remember if Eun-ji had mentioned whether Ye-jun's side of the family was magical or not. During the holidays, Lucia still used owls to send letters to Alexa, who was muggleborn, but Alexa had to reply straight away before the owl flew off, and Lucia figured that wasn't always practical. "We could use, uh, Muggle mail. I'm sure I could... figure it out?"

Violet in English, Red in Korean and Blue in French

At last, Lucia seemed somewhat placated by his explanation. And why wouldn’t she? It was all true and made perfect sense. Ye-jun wasn’t the type of person who would to lie just to make someone else feel better. That was not how his mind worked. He grew up surrounded by kids that didn’t give a damn about his emotions and so he didn’t feel like he owned anybody any favours. Except for his family and Eun-ji especially. She was his guardian angel when they were little and he intended to do the same for her now that he no longer needed protection. That is, if she’d let him. He would, of course, do so for anybody that had his back but so far, no such luck. Then again, he didn’t try all that hard to make friends.

“Oh no…I don’t have an owl. Sorry, I keep forgetting most wizards still use them once they go home.” The truth was, since Ye-jun didn’t have close friends at school, there was no need to have one. Anybody else in his life was a muggle or at least lived among muggles so he could just call them or message them. “I mostly use phone to communicate when at home and only use owls when I’m writing to my parents from school. My mother has an important job in the muggle world and often has VIP guests over so she doesn’t appreciate the idea of frequent sudden owl visits. We have a schedule just so I can write her during school year. ” It was not like his mother saved lives but she loved her job and she lived for it as much as she could while also taking care of him and his father. The boy figured she deserved some consideration from his side for that. “I'd be happy to help you figure out how the muggle post office works although now that I think about it, it would take some time for the letter to arrive all the way from France. It might be better to stick with using owls during the school year. I will be sending letters home and to Eun-ji anyway so I can just add one more person to the list?” He still wasn't against the idea of teaching Lucia how the regular mail worked if she wanted but it didn't make much sense. “Also I will be spending summer in Chester this year so you can send my letters to Eun-ji's home this time and it will reach me just fine. Her mother has an owl as far as I know so it shouldn't be a problem.”

It was a one time solution for now but it was the easiest one he could come up with. And who knew? Perhaps he would be there more than once. He sure hoped so. Despite everything, Chester was still his childhood. The good and the bad. “No muggles in your family then?” Ye-jun finally asked. It seemed pretty clear from their conversation so far but it never hurt to double check. Background was important piece of information in this world. It didn't mean just knowing the family status...he didn't care about that but he liked to know whether the other person would understand certain subjects. Even now, sometimes wizard borns had to clear some things for him so he understood properly the same way he had to explain the muggle stuff to purebloods. With the diversity the wizarding world offered, you simply had to know where the other person was at in order to have smoother conversations.

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banner by Scarlet Salvatore [ @Eun-ji Lee Hunt as Ye-jun Lee ] DATE 23/10/21 OUTFIT [x] [x] talking to Ye-jun

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As it turned out, Ye-jun didn't have an owl after all. Instead, he communicated using the Muggle device known as a phone. Lucia didn't understand phones. From what she'd picked up from Alexa and other muggleborns, phones seemed to be a howler, an owl, and a library, all in one. Lucia scoffed at the idea that all that could be contained in such a tiny bit of plastic, and was still waiting for the day when someone would explain to her that it had been a joke all along. Lucia could empathise with Ye-jun's predicament though. She'd never been in that situation - whenever she sent owls home, they went straight home, not encountering any of the Muggle customers who may be at her mother Ebony's shop at the time - but she guessed that an owl suddenly appearing on your windowsill with a letter clutched in its beak or talons wasn't the best way to keep magic secret.

Lucia was preparing herself to have to find a library book on how to use Muggle post when Ye-jun mentioned that it wasn't a very fast method of communication. "Oh, okay." The Beauxbatons boy went on to suggest that they use owls during the school year, and use Eun-ji as a sort of messenger during the holidays. "Okay." That was the easiest solution from Lucia's point of view at least. This way, she could leave all the weird 'put your letter in a box and wait a week for it to get where it's supposed to be' Muggle stuff to the people who knew what they were doing (namely, Eun-ji and Ye-jun). "Will Eun-ji mind?"

Possibly in an attempt to understand Lucia's utter non-understanding of how Muggles communicated, Ye-jun asked whether there were any Muggles in the Hufflepuff's family. "I-" A week ago, Lucia would have given her answer clearly, with none of the thinking that she was now having to do. No, of course not. But that was before she'd met Irina Fox, the Koldovstoretz witch who claimed to be her cousin. Her father, so she'd said, was Lucia's father's brother... but he was a squib. It was true that the Fox family traditionally kept their children secret until they'd proved their affinity with magic, but the mere idea that Lucia could have an uncle who was a squib was something that she hadn't quite wrapped her head around. Best case scenario, of course, Irina was either lying or mistaken, but that had looked less and less likely the more details that she'd inserted into their conversation. Lucia considered lying, but Ye-jun... it just seemed wrong to lie to someone who came off so honest. So, she went with the vaguest of answers that she could think of. "If there are, I've never met them.."