Chapter Text
Chan groaned before he let his head fall forward onto his arms.
The clock mercilessly kept ticking, further and further and if he didn't fall asleep right now then he'd be able to watch the sun rise again.
Sure, sunsets were beautiful but if you were trying to fall asleep and still ended up staying awake every night because going to bed just meant lying awake with your eyes closed, then watching them wasn't that enjoyable anymore.
Chan sighed deeply and turned his head so he could rest it on his knees that he had pulled up under the covers.
Who was he kidding? He didn't sleep yesterday and he wouldn't be able to sleep properly now either.
It definitely wasn’t for a lack of trying though.
He had tried for months now, experimenting with everything he could think of to shut down his mind and get some rest.
At first he had tried all the “classic “ remedies like various teas that all promised better sleep and relaxation. Then came trying to "train" himself by sticking to a fixed ritual before bed which was supposed to help signal the brain that it was bedtime as soon as one started their personal ritual.
He had followed a strict “no phone or laptop or any blue light before bed” rule, as blue light was said to keep one's brain alert, he had tried breathing exercises, meditation, melatonin pills, sprays… Anything that was supposed to help with sleep, you could name it and Chan had already tried it out unsuccessfully.
His last attempt had been aromatherapy with lavender and other calming scents, first with an aroma lamp and when that didn’t work he used them directly on his cushion - which turned out to be a pretty bad idea because (as he found out the hard way) some of those oils were not supposed to get directly onto your skin.
The only thing that actually managed to put him out was a heavy dose of sleeping pills but the problem with those was that the next day he didn't feel well rested either. Every time he woke up after taking them he felt like he’d been hit by a truck in his sleep which obviously wasn't what he was looking for.
If it was up to him then he just wouldn’t sleep at all; he could make better use of his time than lying around with his eyes closed anyways, but sadly his body had a different idea about that.
By now Chan knew exactly what happened when his insomnia was getting worse and he couldn't sleep for too long. At first he still felt fine, maybe he needed to concentrate a little more on his work but he didn’t really mind that. Then, slowly but surely, concentrating became harder and harder until willing himself to stay concentrated wasn’t working anymore.
Next, he got exhausted and restless, both at the same time and he got so easily distracted that working became impossible.
After that it actually became dangerous, because he got careless and became prone to stupid mistakes no matter how much he tried to keep everything under control.
He quickly ran out of energy and patience as his body slowly started to show more and more symptoms of sleep deprivation:
he got pale and moody, something he was really ashamed of because normally he always tried to be kind and reasonable to anyone and then, in the end his mind grew fuzzy and sluggish, with a constant pressure behind his eyes which just kept hurting.
There was also the constant feeling of weakness in his muscles that simply wouldn’t go away as the exhaustion weighed his body down until the urge to just lay down and sleep forever got so strong that he took the sleeping pills again - just for the cycle to start anew.
His doctors couldn’t help him either and so despite him trying his best every night there he was again now; at half past three in the morning, sitting awake in his bed as he waited for his mind to finally shut off and let him rest for once.
Sometimes, after hours of lying around with his mind running wild, he gave up trying all together and got up to do at least something useful with his time, hoping he would get tired during it but mostly he just ended up overworking himself and making it worse.
Chan picked up his phone, starting to search for any new remedies against sleeplessness that he might have overlooked before. As he was staring on the screen he felt guilty for doing something that he knew he wasn’t supposed to ("no blue light") but he was desperate and if he couldn’t get out of his head he felt like he’d start crying right now.
Chan wiped over his tired eyes and sighed again as the birds outside were starting to get louder. Maybe he needed to go a step further and try out some of those obscure magical cures that were sold all over the internet.
He found an auction for "dew drops collected from evening primrose petals during a full moon's night" that were supposed to give you beautiful dreams - and almost choked when he looked at the auction price. That was definitely more than he was willing to pay for grasping at straws. He was desperate, but not desperate enough to pay a sum like that. At least not yet.
Of course he knew that there was magic in the world out there - after all, it had been proven to be true with science quite a while ago, but real magic was still rare and most people never got in contact with it. He doubted that people with an actual magical talent would sell overpriced water via the internet.
Most of the magically gifted - or "witches" as they were still called - kept their talents a secret because of the backlash they would often face for it. People had always been scared of the unknown and uncontrollable and having proof that magic existed didn't make it feel any less dangerous.
Chan thought of himself as a pretty open minded person and yet even he got nervous at the thought of being around someone who could bend the world to their will. Even if that person was initially nice then there was still the risk of them acting out when they were angry or hurt. No one was in total control of themselves at all times, right?
Chan bit his lip as he scrolled through newspaper headlines with sensational titles about the dangers of magic and the horrible fates of people that had gotten involved. He was convinced that most of it was exaggerated, simply because horror stories sold better than all the small little incidents where magic had been used to help or to prevent accidents from happening but he couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable while reading.
Chan skipped over a few more of those articles before he switched off his phone and placed it under his cushion. This definitely wasn't a topic that would help him fall asleep more easily. Unless of course he would accidentally find a real witch, someone nice who would be willing to help, who was in the area and had a reasonable price for their life changing magic.
Chan chuckled quietly to himself. That sounded kind of impossible, with or without magic involved. He didn't even know how one could find an actual witch. He doubted he could just put up an advertisement to search for one - and even if, what was he supposed to say on it?
"Desperate, sleep deprived person looking for a trustworthy witch who will help me sleep. I won't pay for pseudo magical bullshit though, so please only call me if you're real."
Yeah, that would definitely go great!
He had dismissed the idea pretty quickly and yet, over the next week it still wouldn't let him go.
The thought of finding a witch, as absurd as it was, had simply stuck with him and so he finally decided to at least put some more research in it before he gave up again. After all, what did he have to lose?
Chan started looking through inserates in esoteric magazines because he had read that those offered the best chances at finding someone genuine but so far he hadn't gotten any luck.
Most of the time the people inserting their ad as witches were only selling crystals or offered palm reading and other things that were nowhere near a remedy for insomnia. Chan had found out that most witches had certain talents and being magically gifted didn't automatically mean that they could do any kind of magic they wanted so even if some of those inserates were legit, as long as they didn't offer the kind of service he needed it didn't help him. He needed the right one.
Just when he was considering to give up for real this time and forget all about it, Jisung caught him with the inserate pages of one of the magazines.
They had agreed to meet up in a coffee shop and as Jisung was often late Chan had ripped out the pages and taken them with him. He was too concentrated on reading to notice his friend coming in - surprisingly on time - until the younger flicked against the pages to effectively startle him.
"You seem busy. Are you looking for a way to magically bake yourself a boyfriend?"
Jisung started teasing him right away as he sat down. Chan just gave him a look and pushed one of the two cups of coffee that were standing in front of him in Jisung’s direction.
"Hello to you too."
Jisung cocked his head, letting his gaze wander from the coffee to Chan’s face.
“Two coffees, hu?” Chan had initially ordered both for himself and Jisung saw right through him;
"I would tell you to slow down a little, but you actually look like you need it. When was the last time you had a full night’s sleep?" the younger asked him with worry in his voice.
Chan’s answer was a tired sigh. "A few days ago I think."
He was taking naps whenever he got the chance, collecting a few hours here and there during the day when his body was letting him rest for a moment but it didn’t come close to sleeping through the night.
"At this point I’d chose magical sleep over any kind of boyfriend."
It was intended as a joke but Jisung picked up on the desperation in his voice and furrowed his brow.
"So you’re saying that you are looking for someone in there? You’re not just reading that for fun? "
Chan shrugged his shoulders.
"Yes? I mean… I don't know. I guess. I thought I might be able to find someone who could just magically cure me of insomnia but so far there were no offers of magical cures. And even if I would get lucky enough to find someone who sounds like they could help me I’m still not sure if I’d trust them enough to be real.”
"Hmm.. " Jisung hummed something unintelligibly into his coffee which had Chan looking up at him. He had expected another joke or something else to cheer him up, not that pensive look on his friend’s face.
"Do you think I’m crazy for trying to look for a witch?"
Jisung shook his head.
“No, definitely not. I just never thought that you’d consider getting involved with magic. You must really be desperate this time."
Chan gave him a look.
"Of course I am! I completely ran out of options quite a while ago so when it comes to my insomnia I feel like there’s nothing left but magic, as absurd as it may sound."
"To be honest I thought you didn't like it at all. Magic, I mean.”
There was a little pause in which Jisung seemed to consider something before he continued. “That's why I never mentioned it before."
Chan tried to catch Jisung’s gaze but the other suddenly seemed very focused on his coffee.
"You never mentioned what before?"
Jisung wasn't magic, he knew that for a fact so what else could he mean?
"I never mentioned that I know a witch. A nice one. I met him by accident - literally - and he helped me. So if you're really serious about this and open to try whatever it takes then I can tell you where he lives."
For a moment Chan was speechless.
"A witch.. who helped you? You never said anything about that! Just because I'm a little wary with magic doesn't mean I would have taken it badly. Where did you meet them? Are you still in contact?"
Jisung nodded.
"Yeah, we still talk sometimes. He's a little reluctant with people though. I don't think they’ve been very nice to him. But he's really sweet when you get to know him. We meet in the woods where he's living in a little house with a herb garden and mushrooms and trees all around, you know, the full on witch cliche. It's actually quite beautiful.
I was out looking for mushrooms, last year, when I had that nature phase and tried to live organically and all that. I’m sure you remember, it was around the time when I almost poisoned Hyunjin with Lily-of-the-valley leaves. I think he’s still a little mad about that even though I told him I'm sorry about a hundred times. I really mistook them for wild garlic! "
Jisung looked guilt-ridden for a moment before he got himself together.
"Anyways, back to my story.
So I was out there searching for mushrooms when i tripped over some roots and fell and just like that my ankle was fucked. It really hurt like hell so I couldn't walk properly and hobbled through the woods like a mixture between bunny and flamingo.
He just turned up, out of nowhere and offered to help. Said I made enough noise for two boars and he’d rather have his quiet back.
At first I was a little …surprised, you know. A strange man in the forest asking me to follow him to his place... "
There was a look of embarrassment on Jisung's face and somehow Chan had a feeling that his friend wasn't telling him everything. If he had to guess Jisung had probably been scared to death and convinced he was going to be abducted. He wondered what the witch had done to make Jisung trust him - but he didn’t dare to ask.
"As I said, despite his grumpy first impression he was really nice and helped me back to his home where he made me tea and gave me herbs for the pain and to stop the swelling of my ankle.” A little smile that played along Jisung’s lips at the memory that gave away he remembered it fondly. However, strangely enough he hadn’t called the witch by name so far.
"What's his name?" Chan asked curiously, expecting something that sounded old or magical so Jisung’s answer took him by surprise.
“You can call him Lino. It’s not his real name though. He told me that giving your name to someone is a big deal with witches, a sign of trust or something, because you can do all kinds of things with it. Use it for spells and curses and that kind of stuff. I think it might be where all those tales come from, the ones that tell you not to give your real name to fairies."
“Did you give him yours?”
Jisung nodded. “Yeah, I did. I doubt that he’d use it for any curses.”
Chan swallowed hard. He was torn between excitement and wonder about everything that Jisung had just told him and the nervousness that was flaring up inside him at the prospect of meeting an actual witch!
Nonetheless he couldn’t just ignore this chance, because if he did nothing then he’d go back to his routine of sleepless nights and frustration. He wondered what his other friends would say if they knew..
"Wait, do the others know that you're friends with a witch?"
Jisung chuckled. "Uhm.. kind of. Hyunjin freaked out a little and insisted on locking me into my room for one night to make sure that I'm not under some kind of spell that would get me to strangle him in his sleep so I was a bit more careful with telling the others after that but apart from Felix and Jeongin everyone else knows by now.”
Chan furrowed his brow.
“Why didn't you tell Felix?.”
The younger was convinced that basically anyone was a friend until proven otherwise, so Chan was glad that Changbin was keeping an eye on him when they were out.
Jisung smiled widely. "For the same reason I didn't tell Jeongin. I was sure that at least one of them would be curious enough to go search for Lino and I didn’t want to risk getting them turned into frogs in case they would annoy him with hundreds of questions until he'd snap.”
Chan bit back a laugh. Yeah, that definitely sounded like something they'd do.
" So.. If I promise not to annoy him and make sure no one gets turned into a frog then you’ll tell me where he lives? I guess asking for a phone number isn't an option?"
Jisung nodded.
"Yeah, I'll tell you. But you have to promise me something first: Don't judge him too fast, okay? He might need some time to open up but he really is a kind person."
Chan knew that Jisung meant well but that didn't exactly help to make him feel less nervous about their first meeting..