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The first time Zhengting met him on a Monday morning, in the coffee shop two blocks away from his house. He remembers the day perfectly, it was the first day after months he comes back at home after his works in Greece as a Curse Breakers. He’s greeted with the crisps smell of coffee beans that sent a warm feeling through his body, the sensation that made him relaxed. And there he was, standing behind the counter with all of his glory.
Their eyes met for the first time, no looking each other up and down, just eyes reflecting off each other. For first few minutes, Zhengting couldn't get any of his senses—he was totally lost in it.
He look like a movie star. He had the angular cheekbones, sharp jawline. The light of the sun was reflected and refracted by his thick black hair. He had it been severely undercut, the sides buzzed to the scalp, with top left long enough to pull back in ponytail.
And his eyes, the moment Zhengting saw his eyes—for the second time, there was just something about him that caused butterflies and made him want to get to know more, to hear his soft yet deep voice everyday, to see his smile everyday. Zhengting thought for a few moments, he has spent the last few years in statis, indolent to move forward in any of his relationship because he has no desire to be in it with anyone. But seeing the man in front of him, Zhengting thought, maybe he could come out of his statis with him—and maybe, he found someone to share his life with.
Zhengting has everything, he is beautiful enough to have all man or woman he wants. So, he was shocked when Ziyi didn’t react to him like the other boys he encounter—he didn’t fall for Zhengting’s intentional charms. He only gave Zhengting a polite smile when Zhengting smiling sweetly at him, and only gave him short reply when Zhengting asking him something. Never in his life, he met someone can resist his charms.
Maybe he wasn't interested with Zhengting—or boys as general.
A week later he knew the reason, a reason why Ziyi never shown his interest for Zhengting in every manners. There are someone already in his heart, a cute university student whose always come to his shop at a lunch hour, he was Cai Xukun.
Ziyi always more talkative when he was with Xukun, asking him something unimportant things like “how’s the weather today?” Even when Xukun made a dry joke, Ziyi will be laughing his head out, enough to make Zhengting bite his lower lip in jealousy.
What Ziyi saw on Xukun, Zhengting asked to himself. Zhengting is more perfect than Xukun, and he deserve Ziyi more than Xukun. Xukun is too skinny with his oversized shirt and protruding collarbones, he is shorter than Zhengting, paler with a lot of freckles in his skin, and he has a small voice that makes Ziyi always leaned his body closer to hear clearly. Zhengting hates Xukun with all of his soul.
Zhengting is an impatient person, and if Ziyi didn’t want him back, Zhengting could make him wants Zhengting as much as he does.
Even if it wouldn't be real.
That night, he'd stood over the cauldron, mixing the ingredients of the most powerful love potions. Ashwinder Eggs, Rose Thorns, Refined Peppermint Oil, even the moonstone, the ingredients weren't that hard to be find, you can buy these dozen in any magic store. He wonders how many wizard with excellent skill in potions ever make the potions.
Zhengting remembered years ago, how his mother let three drop of smoking pearl liquid fall into his father mug of coffee, saying to him with smile in her lips that everyone want to be loved. And he wonders that is it alright to be loved even if because of magic?
He stirred the mixture on his cauldron clockwise, watched the steam rise in spirals, and inhaled, savoring the scent of coffee and sugars and cinnamon, and Wang Ziyi….and yeah, maybe it's not that bad—waking up into Ziyi's scent everyday seems like a wonderful idea.
“Do you want to go out tonight? With me?”
And Ziyi stared at him weirdly, maybe he was confused because all this time they never talked, they aren't close to each other. It hurts, Zhengting thought, for him Ziyi was someone who is special in his heart(in his world, too), but for Ziyi, Zhengting just a regular customer.
Ziyi chuckled, staring at him with his beautiful eyes that Zhengting really love. “Alright, wait me at 7.”
That night was perfect; they had walked around the town side by side, stopped at Ziyi’s favorite diner because he was hungry and Zhengting wants a strawberries milkshake, and they talked a lot at there. Zhengting was shocked, this was the first time Zhengting saw Ziyi talk to him a lot. He was happy, and for a moment Zhengting thought that maybe they could work, maybe Ziyi could see him now, and maybe Zhengting didn't have to give any magic tricks for him.
But it didn’t last long, when Ziyi’s phone rang lightly, Zhengting saw the corner of Ziyi's lips pulling upward, his eyes warmed full of adoration. And he instantly knows whose message that Ziyi reads. Because his smile and his eyes were always like that when he saw Cai Xukun.
His mother said to him years ago that there was little control when it comes to who you fell in love with. And now Zhengting understand what his mother means as he couldn't control himself to not drop his love potions at Ziyi's chocolate milkshake when Ziyi went to the loo.
In the end of the night, before Zhengting knew what was happening, Ziyi had pressed his lips against his, they were kissing, kissing like he never kissed anyone before. And after that day, Ziyi had rarely left his side, his round, brown eyes had never lost the adoration for him, and Zhengting was happy.
Zhengting loves the feeling—when Ziyi told him, gently pulling loose strand of hair away from his face and tucking them between his ear, whispering "you are beautiful" again and again. And years of knowing that Zhengting himself is indeed a beautiful man, it always make him happy that it was Ziyi who said those things, even if it was just magic, a lies.
It was all lies, the 'i love you' between their nights seasons, the promises he said, the 'i never get over you' between their skin, slick and salty with sweat, rubbing against each other as they drowned in the ecstasy of lovemaking, they all magic, magic make up his heart and mind.
Sometimes when morning after their lovemaking comes, Zhengting looked at his sleeping face, thinking that what he was doing was wrong—that Ziyi didn't love him, and he probably would never love him.
This wasn't love,
It was amortentia,
It was magic
It was lies
Sometimes it hurts whenever Zhengting saw his eyes, they were blank, dull, devoid of any life. It was like their relationship, looking wonderful to the passersby, but it was nothing—it wasn't love. They were nothing like the couples he saw, eyes full of life, mouths full of smiles
Sometimes, Zhengting awake at night and wonders how, and when, he's going to tell him. It was hurt whenever he talks about his past live, about his friends, his home, because there is nothing Zhengting can share about his past, about hogwarts, his works as a curse breakers at Gringotts, about magical world, without using Obliviate at him, and he does too often using that spell on him.
But when Zhengting tried to wait too long than usual to give the next dose of the potion, Ziyi would look confused. He would stare all around, he wouldn't realize why he was here, or how he was here. Zhengting sighed, giving him a cup of coffee—with a dose of amortentia he brew last night. It is all lie, but Zhengting could live forever like this. It's not that bad. Just consider it as a routine. Just like a lover who giving his morning coffee for his lover everyday.
Even it’s all lie.
But as cliché as it sound, if Zhengting couldn't have Ziyi….then no one should.
“I made you a coffee, babe.”
“Thank you darling, your coffee is the best, you’re the best,”
“I know, i’ll made you a coffee everyday, everytime you want.”