That Boy Has Arrived — End of the Camping Arc
August 30, 2014.
The day I finally made it back to London after surviving two full months of the Charms Academy course.
Stupid Cedric Diggory and that traitor Percy Weasley had shown up three hours early just to dump ice water all over me.
"I, Eugene Kim, accept the Ice Bucket Challenge on behalf of Cedric Diggory, who was nominated by Lee Jordan—ah, cold! Fuck, wait until I finish talking before you pour it!"
Standing in the garden in nothing but my underwear while ice water cascaded over my head made my blood boil, but the guilt over costing them that precious five-man party combat experience still outweighed the rage, so I gritted my teeth and took it.
That guilt, though, was melting faster than the ice under the midsummer sun every time I looked at Cedric and Percy rolling around in front of me, cackling like idiots.
Ding-dong—
"Kids! We're here! Heehee, look what I bought!"
"Jihyun's incredible. I honestly thought I was watching Catch Me If You Can."
The moment Karina and Penelope arrived, whatever scrap of guilt I had left evaporated completely. Cedric and Percy each took a solid hit, then quietly sat themselves down in the living room.
With Uncle Raul away on a business trip, we'd planned to sneak in some booze and drink until we dropped.
I'd used the academy wrap-up party as an excuse to pick a day when Uncle Raul would be gone and secure the house. Cedric and Percy had each called their parents and begged until they got permission. For reasons I still couldn't fathom, every parent on earth seemed to trust Percy. Even that total daughter-obsessed softie Mr. Yoo Seong-heon would just shout "Of course!" the second he heard Percy Weasley, top of the year, was involved. Apparently a childhood friend like Eugene Kim or a fiancé like Cedric Diggory ranked lower than the straight-A Percy Weasley. Whether it was Korea or Britain, grades really were the number-one priority for parents.
Karina was the one who'd bought the mountain of alcohol and hidden it in her suitcase. From where I stood, both of her bodyguard unnies clearly knew she'd snuck the booze in and were just letting it slide because she was too cute. She looked so proud of spending her own money that I decided not to say anything.
She was a pure-blood noble young lady down to her bones, but she secretly loved a good time. As long as she wasn't losing her temper at Percy, she was basically an angel walking the earth.
Percy kept lecturing that "alcohol is harmful to brain cells" even as he eventually picked up a glass. Cedric, as always, filled the room with nonsense and took charge of the mood.
Penelope just smiled and downed her bottle in one go. I had no idea where she'd learned to drink like that. She knocked it back exactly the way Thor drank beer in the movies, even though she looked like a pretty little blonde girl. I was convinced there was a bearded Viking living inside her somewhere.
We gathered in the living room of Uncle Raul's house—his mansion in Chelsea. The place where he and I had lived alone together ever since that day in 2007.
Right in the middle of round one, Uncle Raul video-called us, so we all huddled in front of the giant screen in the living room.
On the other side of the screen sat a middle-aged man who looked like pure exhaustion itself, wearing a wrinkled shirt and nursing a coffee.
"Kids, I'm sorry I can't be there to do something for you. Don't worry about keeping the place clean—just have fun. You worked hard at the academy."
"Then at least order us some delivery."
"Eugene Kim, quiet. Delivery is bad for you. Why do you think I went all the way to a Korean temple to learn vegetable cooking if not to feed you properly? Cedric, make sure that boy doesn't sneak snacks in the dorm either."
"Yes, Uncle. Don't worry. Oh—is my dad there with you?"
Cedric snickered as he spoke to Uncle Raul.
"Cedric, your father dumped a mountain of paperwork on me and ran off somewhere. That idiot Amos is probably hiding and watching a Leeds United match again. Not that it'll matter—Nottingham Forest is winning the title this year anyway. Penelope, your parents are well, I hope? I heard your little sibling was born safely. Congratulations, dear. I sent gifts with Eugene—a premium infant car seat, some clothes, and something for you as well. Go on and open them."
I pouted and handed over the boxes Uncle Raul had left with me. The first one Penelope opened contained a pair of boots.
"Wooooow, Uncle! I love you!!!! How did you know I needed new boots?"
"How would I not know, you little rascal? Every time you came over, I saw those worn-out boots by the door. Your parents must have been too busy with the late baby to buy you new ones. Late children take a lot of preparation, so try to understand."
"You've been a lifelong bachelor, Uncle. You've never even had a kid."
"Eugene Kim, quiet."
At my pouty remark, Uncle Raul put a finger to his lips on the other side of the screen and made a shushing gesture.
"Karina, dear. I heard you nearly got badly hurt at the academy? Your mother came to see me and glared at me quite fiercely. Said I'd sent you kids to a dangerous school. Your father seems to have run off somewhere again. I feel like I've become the guardian of every last one of you."
"I'm sorry, Uncle. My mom again…"
"If you know you're sorry, then please stop doing it. You're not your father—you're still a student. A daughter doesn't have to take after her father. Just keep studying computer engineering and math the way you are now. That whole 'you must inherit the family business' thing is outdated. Just ask your dad for some of the family stock and be done with it. This time really was dangerous."
"…Yes, Uncle. I'm sorry for worrying you. I just… couldn't help myself."
"Cedric, try talking some sense into your girlfriend. You, on the other hand, probably won't have any stock to inherit. I suspect your father is about to get fired as a managing director at Gringotts. Anyone who thinks Leeds United is getting promoted this year clearly lacks the intelligence for the job and deserves to be impeached."
"You'll be the one filing the impeachment motion, right, Uncle? I'll go ahead and apply for Dad's unemployment benefits in advance."
Cedric answered with a giggle.
"Ah—on second thought, that won't work. If your father gets impeached, my workload will only get heavier. That Amos… he's my only friend, and even if he can't act like a proper superior and just plays around, he's still my friend. Cedric, I'm sorry, but your father is going to have to get even busier than he is now."
"Dad can stand to be a bit busier. Make him exercise and cut out the late-night snacks. It'd be nice if he were as slim and sharp as you, Uncle."
"Alright, I'll drag Amos along for workouts. I've talked too long."
"It was pretty lo—"
"Eugene Kim, quiet. Kids. Have fun today. You all worked hard over the break. You can drink anything except the Glenfiddich in the fourth cupboard. The fourth cupboard, understand? Eugene, cook something nice for the kids. See you next time."
The screen went dark. We all looked at one another.
"There's… Glenfiddich in the cupboard…?"
While we were still exchanging gleaming looks, Penelope was already coming back from the kitchen with the Glenfiddich in hand.
"You lot are way too slow. How do you expect to survive in this harsh world?"
We scattered across the carpet, laid out pillows, and passed the bottle around.
"Karina, speaking of what Uncle said earlier—you know that was actually dangerous, right? Why did you suddenly grab a rock with your bare hands and start smashing?"
"Hehe. That's how my dad fights too, you know? And Eugene was in danger. My eyes just flipped and I…"
Karina scratched her head and answered with pure, simple innocence, as if none of it had been a big deal.
"Honestly, you really are the only daughter of the Subjugator Yoo Seong-heon. If you're going to fight like that, at least build some muscle like your father, you idiot."
Percy scolded Karina while turning on the TV with the remote.
"Shut up, Percy. You go build some."
"She only ever swears at me like this. One of these days I'm going to livestream her cussing me out on YouTube."
"I'll smash your phone before you get the chance."
"Then I'll tie your fists up before you get the chance."
Percy and Karina's childish bickering continued, but Penelope, Cedric, and I ignored them and hunted for the remote.
A football match was playing on the TV. Nobody was really watching it. It was just background noise.
"Karina, isn't that the club your uncle sponsors? Chairman Yoo Seong-cheol?"
Penelope asked while glancing at the screen.
"Um… I think so? Honestly I don't really know. Dad and my uncle don't get along, so I barely know anything about the main family in Seoul."
Karina answered quietly, looking a little embarrassed as she turned her eyes away.
"Man, if I had as much money as your uncle, I'd be drinking happily every single day."
Percy poured himself another drink into an already empty glass and spoke to Karina.
"Hey, Percy. What do you even know about the taste of alcohol? You don't know how to enjoy life, you bastard. The traitor who skipped extra training with me to go watch anime. Jihyun, your dad is a hero of Asia. So why doesn't he get along with the main family?"
"I don't know. Dad doesn't talk about it much either. But I heard my uncle wasn't originally the heir. Dad ran off to Britain to marry Mom, so Uncle was forced into the position. Maybe that's why?"
"A family where both sons refuse to become chaebol chairmen… if that got made into a drama it'd flop hard and get cancelled early."
Karina and I clinked our glasses together as we said it.
Drinking it on the rocks, we were all getting ridiculously drunk.
"Ah, fuck. Looking at Percy is pissing me off again. That bastard is the reason my cooking got ruined back then. He said he was saving water."
"Yeah, not my fault. Percy's fault."
Cedric cackled and toasted Percy.
Percy trembled as he held his glass.
"Hey, Eugene Kim. You ought to show me some respect. I am the third son of the Weasley family, overall top student of the second year, and—"
"Ah, shut up. Just hearing it gives me goosebumps."
I cut him off and everyone burst out laughing.
Penelope threw a pillow at Percy. Karina laughed so hard she spilled her drink. Cedric pounded the floor.
"Are all the Weasley brothers this talkative?" Penelope gasped between breaths. "Bill, Charlie, the twins—they're all so chatty. Are your younger siblings the same? Who's coming in this year? Ron, or Ginny?"
"Ron. Ginny's next year."
At my answer, Penelope's eyes went round with surprise.
"Ooooh—Eugene. You've got a surprisingly good memory? I can't even remember the order of those siblings. There are too many of them, and they all look exactly the same."
Percy sighed at Penelope's reply.
"Take back the 'look exactly the same' part, Penny. And Ron talks more than he breathes. Seriously. I'm the normal one by comparison."
"We'll find out once he gets here. I don't want any preconceptions, so let's stop talking about people who aren't here. Eugene, still not doing Quidditch this year?"
Cedric emptied his glass with a sly grin.
There was a definite coaxing look in his eyes.
"Your team is doomed again this year anyway. Might as well switch to Quidditch while you're at it."
"If you love broom-riding that much, go sweep the dorm floors, you broom jockey."
"What? You bat-swinging freak?"
Cedric and I bickered about Quidditch versus baseball the way we had for the past seven years.
"Quidditch is more dynamic. Flying through the air throwing a ball versus swinging a stick on the ground—how is that even a comparison?"
"Dynamic? What's so great about just flying around on a broom? Baseball is a psychological war between pitcher and batter. The whole thing is decided in 0.4 seconds."
"0.4 seconds? In Quidditch a Bludger can take your head off in 0.1."
"So you forgot about getting hit by a Bludger last year and getting carted off to the hospital wing?"
"…"
Cedric shut his mouth.
"But Eugene can't play Quidditch anyway. He can't even get off the ground on a broom."
While I was still coughing with laughter, Karina casually drove a dagger straight into my heart.
"Maybe that's why Angelina likes Eugene. Out of the 540 students in our year, the only ones who can't get more than five meters off the ground are Eugene and Ernie."
Penelope cackled and slapped my back. Her hands were viciously strong.
"Come on, Penny. Cut Ernie some slack. He's got a congenital fear of flying. He's even got a doctor's note."
Cedric answered Penelope while taking a sip from Karina's glass for her. "Then what the hell is Eugene's excuse?"
"Maybe his whole body rejects brooms because he loves baseball too much?"
"Aaaah—so Angelina likes him because 'I've never met a guy with such pathetic broom skills before!' Is that it?"
"Could be."
Percy and Cedric clinked glasses and snickered.
Everyone laughed except me.
"Cedric, you Quidditch addict."
Penelope sighed as if trying to rein him in.
"Stop trying to recruit Eugene. He's tutoring me in Potions this year. Right, Eu-geeeeene?"
Slightly drunk, Penelope grabbed my arm and shook it.
Her voice had gone stretchy. Her cheeks were flushed red.
"Penny, stop pretending to be drunk. She does this every time she wants something."
"Eeeeng—I really am drunk though."
"You crazy bastard, where do you get off acting cute?"
"Penelope, even if you say it like that, no means no."
Percy wrinkled his nose and stepped in.
"How is Eugene supposed to tutor you? He's already busy enough."
He started counting on his fingers.
"He has to watch baseball and swear, watch Ronaldo and swear, watch League of Legends and swear, do Professor Vince's assignments and swear. That guy's entire twenty-four hours are packed with a swearing schedule. Busier than Katy Perry, I bet."
"Percy, don't talk about Eugene like that."
Karina cut in, looking worried.
"Eugene, you're starting the research assistant work with Senior Felix Cruz under Professor Snape for real this year, right? You're going to be so busy. Does that mean you won't be able to hang out with us much?"
I waved a hand and grinned playfully.
"It's not that bad. Just helping with records now and then and entering data on the computer."
"You really think Snape is going to leave you alone like that?"
For a second, the cold eyes of a middle-aged man with a short bob flashed through my mind.
"…Maybe not."
"In the first place, you only took the job because you misfired a spell and wrecked the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and had to pay the school back."
Percy's words were true, so I had nothing to say.
"Yeah, that bastard can't aim for shit and blew up the classroom. I nearly had a heart attack. I was sitting in the front row when something blue flashed behind me, there was a huge bang, and the classroom was just… gone. Good thing Professor Kingsley is chill. If it had been Snape or McGonagall, you'd have been dead that day. Because if that misfire had gone even a little lower, Zacharias would have taken it and died."
"Fuck, that bastard can die for all I care. My only regret is missing him."
"Bullshit. Then instead of a chat with the Headmaster you'd have been roommates with Bellatrix Lestrange in Azkaban."
"Exactly, Eugene. The Headmaster was kind enough to just make you a research assistant and have you pay half your wages back to the school. And Professor Snape's lab pays insanely well and looks great on a résumé. Do you know how many big companies are connected to that place?"
When everyone nodded along to Percy's last point, irritation flared up in me unbidden.
"…Hey. Pick one of the two, then. Option A: hope for a corporate connection that might or might not hire you in five years while handing over half your pay and eating dinner with Snape six times a week. Option B: get scolded by Uncle Raul, borrow the money, pay it back, and just go to school normally."
"Damn, sorry, Eugene. Dinner with Snape is a bit…"
"I'd choke to death."
"I couldn't even look him in the eye. So just show me the Potions exam answer key Felix gave you."
"Hey, Felix said he'd kill me if I showed that to anyone. And what makes you think you're pretty enough to get the answer key?"
"I'm ridiculously pretty, thank you. Popular, and nice on top of it."
"Penny, even so, Eugene showing you Senior Felix's answer key feels wrong. Just ask Senior Felix yourself."
I lightly patted Karina's head and called her by her Korean name.
"Thanks for saving me from that scheming blonde who's been eyeing my Potions answer key, Jihyun."
"What's so scheming about me? Senior Felix is scary."
Penelope giggled and emptied her glass again.
Karina frowned a little and pushed my hand away.
"Hey, stop calling me Jihyun over and over. You're going to make it a habit and do it at school too. Then other kids keep asking what my real name is and it's annoying."
"Whyyy? You're half-Korean. Your full name is 'Karina Jihyun Yoo' anyway. What's the big deal?"
Percy cut in, looking interested.
"But what does Jihyun mean? How do people name kids in Korea?"
Karina smiled a little as she answered.
"Um… 'Ji' for wisdom, 'Hyun' for bright."
She traced the characters in the air with her finger.
"In Korean it means something like 'shining wisdom'? Kind of cringey, right?"
"Twinkle Wisdom, huh…"
Cedric rested his chin on his hand and muttered.
"Sounds like a football hooligan group name."
"Or a Cambridge Divination Club name, don't you think?" Penelope giggled.
We all burst out laughing.
"Still, with Professor Kingsley going back to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Defense Against the Dark Arts should be a bit less brutal this year, right? That guy treated us like we were active Aurors."
Cedric stretched his back and snickered.
Karina laughed and agreed.
"True. I heard the new one is a scholar. Name was Quirinus Quirrell or something?"
Quirrell. That fucking bastard. The freak who walks around with Voldemort stuck to the back of his head.
Penelope's cheeks flushed as she spoke shyly.
"I hope Mr. Lockhart comes. Is there anyone more suited to be Defense Against the Dark Arts professor than the adventurer Gilderoy Lockhart?"
Percy clicked his tongue.
"You just want to look at Lockhart's face."
Lockhart. That son of a bitch. A truly incompetent, vain piece of shit.
Hearing the familiar names of those absolute bastards in my friends' conversation suddenly made me think of the original story—and miss it.
Missing even those absolute bastards… am I going through menopause?
As the alcohol settled in, our words started to tangle. Conversations broke off, picked up in completely random places, then broke off again.
"Doesn't our conversation feel completely disconnected?" Cedric said, leaning on someone's shoulder. "It's like a collective monologue."
"That's normal when you're drunk," Penelope giggled.
She hugged a pillow and rolled onto her side.
"So can you get my pillow out from between your legs?"
"Hey, you're the one who took it!"
"Dunno. My legs are long, so the pillow just ended up there."
"Still, we improved a lot by the end, right?"
"Yeah, when Penny took down two by herself I was genuinely shocked."
"My eyes just went to the flames without thinking. I guess real combat really does give you a sense for it. Cedric, you held out pretty solidly too."
"Think about the simulation. Holding out in there, even the Bomb-Tailed Snorkack started feeling cozy."
"You crazy bastard, stop flexing."
"Percy was pretty great too, right?"
"Give Percy some praise already. This bastard's so drunk he's saying 'Percy was pretty great too, right?' all by himself."
"It was… not bad? Still a hundred times better than whoever spent the whole day lying around."
"…Fuck. If I hadn't woken you up, you all would've died in there."
"Nope~ We wouldn't have. Marcus was watching the whole time~ And even without you, Karina would've woken us up~"
We laughed and made noise until, without any of us noticing when, consciousness simply switched off.
"Ah… my head."
When I opened my eyes, the ceiling was spinning.
Sunlight leaked through the gap in the curtains. It was blinding. My head throbbed.
Empty bottles rolled under the bed.
Glasses were scattered across the floor, and pillows lay everywhere.
Penelope was asleep on the sofa. Cedric was sprawled on the carpet in a perfect star shape.
Percy was nowhere to be seen. He'd probably gotten up first and gone to the bathroom.
Karina was stretched out on the bare floor, snoring softly.
When I gently pulled a blanket over her, she frowned and let out a tiny groan. The hangover was starting.
"I could really go for some bone hangover soup right now."
I muttered to myself.
"There used to be this place in Eunhaeng-dong that made it insanely well…"
What was the name of that shop again? The one the old lady ran. The broth was deep, there was plenty of meat, and if you ate it the morning after drinking, the hangover just vanished.
But that place was gone now.
No—more accurately, I could never go there again.
I came back to the present, sprawled on the bed.
I needed to start getting ready to leave. Tomorrow was the day we returned to Hogwarts.
"Even after getting this young, I still can't beat a hangover."
I clutched my head and muttered.
"Why is whiskey hangover so brutal? And with no snacks, there's nothing to settle the stomach."
Of course it was. We'd just chugged the whiskey straight. The only snacks had been potato chips, and those ran out halfway through.
Despite the hangover, the dizziness, the doubts and the déjà vu, one fact remained crystal clear.
I could never again be the KAIST graduate student who went to that bone hangover soup place in Eunhaeng-dong.
I could never again be the Busan guy who put a plastic bag over his head and cheered at Sajik Stadium.
I could never again be the thirty-something engineering nerd going on blind dates by Seokchon Lake.
Because I had already died in that world.
It started the day Uncle Raul saved this body—nine-year-old Eugene Kim—at Dadaepo Beach while he was traveling.
I remembered nothing from before that, but the memory of Uncle Raul rescuing me from those thugs was vivid.
Kim Yu-jin, thirty-three years old, of the Republic of Korea in 2023, was dead.
And Eugene Kim of this goddamn lovely world was alive.
And then—the morning of September 1, 2014, at King's Cross Station. Uncle Raul had dropped me off in a rush before heading to work.
In my left hand, a silver 45 kg suitcase. In my right, an iced Americano. Hufflepuff robes under a brand-new Stussy hoodie, fresh Air Jordans on my feet. I felt like a modern boy and my steps were light. This year I was finally starting the "business" with the Weasley twins in earnest, so I'd splurged a bit on new clothes. I finally understood how YOLO people were born. Yeah—I couldn't just sit around depressed going "Hing, what do I do?" while trying to keep Cedric alive. I had to refresh my mental health somehow, even if it was like this.
I arrived at King's Cross Station the usual way and was walking toward Platform Nine and Three-Quarters when my feet suddenly stopped.
My heart felt like it might stop. My eyes moved on their own, rolling toward the sight.
Because right on cue, at the exact moment I had been waiting and waiting for, the person I had imagined appeared.
In my sparkling eyes I saw a boy walking while holding Hagrid's hand.
Messy black hair that stuck out every which way, round thin glasses, a height and frame a little smaller and thinner than the average fourteen-year-old.
An oversized, stretched-out Primark grey hoodie that didn't fit him at all, and jeans that weren't fashionably ripped—they were just actually torn in places.
For some reason, a pair of Adidas sneakers that looked brand-new, as if someone had just gifted them to him, shone white.
Wandering eyes and hurried steps.
Through the flying strands of hair, the lightning-bolt scar on his forehead peeked out now and then.
The name that had once painted this world's mad Sirius Black as black as a Conan culprit, then shone a bright light on him again.
The three worlds I knew. The modern Republic of Korea where my previous self had lived. The parallel Wizarding World where I lived now.
And finally, the Wizarding World of the original Harry Potter that I had loved.
The protagonist and the star of that last world.
Harry Potter.
That boy had arrived.