It was Monday approximately 2 weeks after he had summoned the demon, and he was running late to the first class of the day. Usually, it wouldn’t be much of a problem – most of his professors didn’t really care at what time people showed up to their classes (or if they showed up at all). The professor of politics, Mr. Choi, on the other hand, had an annoying habit of locking the door to the classroom a minute before the class began.

Jungkook calculated there was around 20% chance he would arrive on time if he sprinted the whole way. He quietly cursed at himself as he was climbing the stairs as quickly as he could – which admittedly wasn’t particularly quickly; it was true that he was naturally a fast runner, but he was not in a good shape and felt close to the death’s door after about thirty seconds (the headache and the general tiredness he was currently feeling definitely didn’t help).

 He wished he could blame his tardiness on the demon, but was quite well aware it was entirely his fault. He woke up with a headache and a sore throat, felling horrible enough that he fell back to sleep immediately after the demon turned off the alarm. He was jolted awake around ten minutes later, the demon having thrown a pillow at him, accompanying his action with; “Wake up princess, you're going to be late.” He didn’t add that he wanted him gone so he could have his eight hours of peace, but it was implied.

Needless to say, after that rude awakening Jungkook immediately stumbled off the bed and got ready in record time, all while doing his best to ignore the pulsing pain in his head and the general feeling of exhaustion. He told himself it was nothing and he’ll feel better after he gets something to eat. He did his best not to think about the alternative - getting sick while being stuck with the demon sounded like a horrible nightmare.

He managed to arrive in front of the classroom just as Mr. Choi was about to close the door. The professor made a clicking sound with his tongue and tapped on his watch with a disapproving expression on his face after he noticed him, but let him into the classroom nevertheless.

Jungkook quickly found his seat – it was in the second row, next to Areum who gave him a welcoming smile as he sat down. She pointed towards the front of the classroom. “What do you think this is about?” she asked.

Jungkook followed her finger with his eyes, the feeling of relief he felt at being on time immediately turning to dread. There were two of them - a man in his forties kindly smiling at the class, and a demon. The latter stood a few meters behind the first man, his arms crossed on his chest and his expression stoic. Jungkook couldn’t look at him for more than a few seconds without being overcame by an unbearable nausea, but he still managed to notice his skin was completely gray with scaly texture and his eyes piercing yellow.

“They look like the National Security to me.” he murmured as he leaned his head on his hands and tried to keep his gaze away from the demon. It was a lot harder than it should be, especially considering the nausea almost tripled when he looked directly at him.

He didn’t need to be a genius to know what this was all about. The National Security had searched the academy from top to the bottom twice, not to mention thoroughly interviewed the students and the faculty and confiscated a few of their things. They found nothing, so the next logical step was to part with some of their top secret information and turn the inhabitants of the academy into an extra pair of eyes.

Jungkook knew this kind of action was usually among the last resorts – the government had an interest to keep everything regarding the summoning process away from the public. It was allowed to write and discuss the demons, their history and their abilities, but it was absolutely forbidden to share how the demons were actually summoned.

“Again?” asked the girl who was sitting on the other side of Areum - Jungkook was pretty sure her name was Hana. If he remembered correctly she was from the B dorms and climbing quickly.

“They’re probably still trying to find whoever summoned that demon.” he responded.

Areum nodded with a displeased expression on her face. “I’ve no idea how they’re planning to achieve that.” she said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they put every particle of dust under a microscope by now.”

Hana shrugged her shoulders. “It’s unpleasant.” she agreed. “But it’s for our own safety. Someone could have died.”

Areum seemed like she wanted to reply, but her attempt was interrupted by the man in front of the classroom clearing his throat. “Good morning.” he said. “My name is Lee Ilseong and I’m with NS.” He paused, his eyes slowly traveling around the classroom, observing the reaction to his words. Jungkook glanced around – careful to keep his gaze as far from the demon as possible – noting that most of his classmates started to whisper amongst themselves. Some looked just as fed up as Areum while others seemed curious.

“I’m sure you’re all aware of a certain incident that happened a few months ago.” continued Mr. Lee. “I’m here to tell you a little bit about how to recognize a Summoner.” He cleared his throat. “Now, it goes without saying that everything you are about to hear is top secret and forbidden to discuss with anyone who isn’t part of the academy.”

The classroom was deadly silent. Jungkook noticed a few of his classmates exchange glances, and thought he heard Areum say something similar to; “That’s more like it.” He assumed most of the people in the room were excited to learn a small piece of the government’s vast amount of secrets – he, on the other hand, was drowning in an overwhelming feeling of dread. He couldn’t keep from wondering whether he ever did anything suspicious. Had anyone seen his supplies? It was true that he had kept them locked in a drawer, but Namjoon somehow managed to break into his room – it wouldn’t be too surprising if he familiarized himself with the content of his drawer as well while he was at it. But wouldn’t he noticed if the drawer had been broken into?

He messaged his temples, trying to remember if he spotted anything unusual. The headache and the still-present nausea definitely didn’t help, and neither did the overwhelming tiredness. He realized he could no longer pretend this was nothing – he definitely had a fever.

“First...” said Mr. Lee. “Latin. Latin is very important in the summoning process, and everyone who has ever summoned a demon and survived needs to have an extensive knowledge of it. I need you to think about people you know that speak Latin, about Latin sentences you might have found written in your friend’s notebooks, about people who sometimes use Latin words. Now, none of those things is incriminating on its own, but it might became such in a group with other signs we are about to discuss today.”

Jungkook tried to remember if he ever used Latin, and realized that he had showed quite an extensive knowledge in his biology and law classes. But he was far from the only one, so he doubted that was particularly suspicious. He nevertheless couldn’t suppress a wave of anxiety that washed over him at the thought.

“Second…” continued Mr. Lee. “Summoning is a very precise process, and a summoner must be good at drawing straight lines and perfect geometrical shapes.”

In the next hour Mr. Lee described everything from the different supplies needed for the summoning to the necessary skills of the summoner to the different ways a summoner could learn them. The latter logically wasn’t explained in too much detail since they had to make sure students didn’t get any unfortunate ideas.

The room had been deadly silent for the whole presentation – at least some of his classmates were probably dreaming about catching whoever the summoner was, their motivation even stronger once Mr. Lee mentioned a hefty reward. Jungkook, on the other hand, was busy trying to keep his poker face intact and his heartbeat steady. He was quite sure the demon was here to monitor the reactions of the students and report anything unusual. In the situation like this he was actually quite happy that he apparently managed to catch something – at least a fever and nausea could provide an explanation if the demon found his behavior unusual.

After Mr. Lee had finished his presentation, Mr. Choi tried to continue the class for the whole ten minutes before he finally realized the students were way too excited to listen and let them go.

Jungkook said goodbye to Areum before he paused in front of the classroom, slightly leaning against the wall while trying to figure out what to do now. He knew he should probably go find Yoongi and ask him whether he remembered if he had ever made any detrimental mistakes that could give him away. Jungkook was thinking about it during the whole presentation, but he still couldn’t recall a single instance that could lead to someone recognizing him as the summoner.

He tiredly rubbed his eyes. He knew exactly what he had to do, and how important it was, but the only thing he wanted to do was sleep. He honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he felt better after being run over by a train than he did right now. His brain was slowly turning into useless – and  painful - mush and he soon realized there was no way he could deal with the given situation in this state. Going to the rest of his classes didn’t make much sense either, since he was quite sure he won’t be able to focus.

The only thing he could do was take a nap and hope he'll feel at least slightly less like he wanted to die after it. The only problem with that was the demon. Jungkook didn’t doubt that he’ll figure out he was sick after a single glance. He also didn’t doubt that he'll immediately proceed to make the most of it. Sadly, he couldn’t really do anything to protect himself – there was no way he could avoid his room for however long this was going to take.

When he entered his room, the demon was lounging on the bed with the laptop in his lap. Jungkook wasn’t particularly surprised by that – he knew the demon occasionally used it, the most noticeable sign being the great amount of viruses that sometimes appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

The demon slightly tilted his head, giving him an head-to-toe look. “You’re back early.” he remarked, his voice completely free of any kind of emotion. Considering how everything that came out of his mouth usually seemed to be overflowing with amusement, this was a noticeable difference. And it certainly didn’t do anything positive for Jungkook’s anxiety levels – by now he’d pretty much learned to connect the demon’s non-amused behavior with trouble.

He needed a few moments to decide whether to tell the demon about the NS visit. In the end he decided it probably couldn’t do any harm, though the conclusion wasn’t supported with as much facts as usual – he was way too exhausted to think clearly.

“The National Security just had a presentation on how to recognize a Summoner.” he explained shortly, letting his backpack slide off his shoulder.

The demon narrowed his eyes before giving him another head-to-toe look, the expression on his face strangely intense. Jungkook had absolutely no doubts that he managed to figure out exactly how horrible he was feeling at the moment, and was probably already planning a way to torture him. Considering he currently found as simple of a task as standing comparable to a marathon, it definitely shouldn’t be hard.

“I see.” said the demon, his usual amusement back in full force. “You’re so important that even the National Security is prepared to part with some of their precious little secrets in hopes to put you on the gallows.” His lips curled into a smirk as he nonchalantly closed the laptop, making Jungkook flinch at how roughly he did it. “So?” he asked after he stacked the laptop on top of the nightstand,  his eyebrows raised in question.

Jungkook responded with a confused look that immediately prompted an eye roll from the demon. “So, is there a possibility that you will get discovered?”

Jungkook would love to disappoint him, but he knew the demon could smell a lie approximately as well as a shark could smell blood. Of course he could ignore him but considering how perceptive the demon was that would probably be as good as lying. He let out a tired sigh. “I don’t remember ever doing anything that could get me recognized, but…” he swallowed. “I probably did at some point.”

The demon let out something between a snort and a chuckle. “I seriously don’t remember ever coming across anyone with as little self-awareness.” he commented, successfully confusing Jungkook once again. He couldn’t tell whether the demon was usually making this little sense or he should blame his brains for not working properly.

The demon, who naturally noticed his baffled expression, rolled his eyes. “I think I had been forced to deal with you for long enough to know you would suffer a major breakdown if you did something summoner-like in front of people. Which means you would certainly remember it.”

Jungkook opened his mouth, and closed it again, before his tired mind finally decided how to respond. The demon had a point – if the statement came from practically anyone else it would most likely calm him down. Because it came from the demon, it filled him with even more anxiety. “I had no way of knowing there was going to be a presentation on summoners.” he said. It was the truth – he never expected things would come this far.

The demon gave him an – or at least so it seemed – exasperated look. “Maybe not.” he agreed. “But I’m sure you took a possibility that some of your brilliant classmates are related to someone who knows a little something about demons into account.”

“Right.” murmured Jungkook. The demon was, of course, right. He had made sure to hide the supplies and tried not to show any unusual talents, because he was aware that a few of his classmates had relatives in the government. But that, unfortunately, didn’t mean that he had never made any detrimental mistakes. It was true that it would certainly prompted an emotional reaction, but a lot of things prompted an emotional reaction – way too many to remember every single instance. Not to mention there was a possibility he had made a mistake unknowingly.

He didn’t try to explain any of that to the demon though – he was too exhausted to even attempt to continue the conversation. The only thing he wanted to do was sleep. “Can you move?” he asked, though he strongly suspected that the day he will have to climb over the demon finally arrived.

To his surprise, the demon pushed himself into a sitting position and moved to the right so Jungkook was able to get to his side of the bed without touching him.

He woke up what he assumed was a few hours later. The first thing his eyes saw after he tiredly opened them, was the demon sitting uncomfortably close to him with one of the romance books in his hands. Jungkook checked the title as he pressed himself closer to the wall, hoping to make a distance between himself and the demon bigger. His attempt to read worsened the already awful pounding in his head, and he tried to alleviate the pain by messaging his temples even though he didn’t really believe it would make a difference. Somehow he was even more exhausted than before he went to sleep.

“Good morning, princess.” said the demon, giving him an amused half smile. “Or I guess it’s the afternoon by now.”

Jungkook didn’t find the energy to react. He just curled himself in a fetus position and closed his eyes. He would most likely fall right back to sleep if his phone didn’t buzzed, signaling he had received a new message. He remembered bringing it with him to bed, but it wasn’t in its usual location next to his pillow, which is why he painstakingly got himself into a sitting position and slowly gathered the blanket in his hands – or rather; blankets. There were definitely two, and he knew for a fact that the second one should be in the closet.

He glanced towards the demon who was observing him with one of his unpleasant smirks firmly plastered on his lips. Jungkook already opened his mouth to make a comment, when he realized he had nothing to say. It was probably better to focus on one issue at the time anyway.

He finally located the phone, and the next minute was spend trying to get comfortable again, preferably as far from the demon as possible. After he managed to find a position that didn’t feel as if he was lying on frozen peas, he gathered the courage to look up at the demon.

“You covered me with an extra blanket.” he said, the sentence sounding as an accusation. Which it was. He might have found it a kind gesture if it didn’t come from the demon – but since it did, he couldn’t help seeing it as threatening. He had no idea how exactly the demon could harm him with it, but he still couldn’t help being suspicious. He tried to alleviate his anxiety by telling himself that the demon probably just wanted a reaction.

The demon shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I did.” he said. His voice was completely nonchalant, but his eyes told Jungkook he knew exactly what he was thinking about and found it incredibly entertaining.

Jungkook awkwardly cleared his throat. “Why?” he asked carefully.

The demon responded by curling his lips into a small smile. “You were shaking.” he said. “It was incredibly annoying.” He paused, his smile somehow becoming even more unpleasant. “That, and I was convinced your reaction will be priceless. Clearly, I was right.”

Jungkook immediately found himself relaxing. His answer made sense and he couldn’t find any other explanation for the demon’s action, so he decided to leave it at that. He was way too tired to think anyway.

He slowly averted his eyes from the demon and finally checked the message. It was from Yoongi.

Where are you?

He typed a quick reply.

Sick

Send me the notes?

Yoongi replied almost immediately.

Fine.

Jungkook could almost feel Yoongi’s annoyance radiating off the message. He wouldn’t be asking him for the notes if it wasn’t his only option. In a school this competitive even people you thought as friends usually had absolutely no qualms about screwing you over, and Yoongi was the only one who benefited from Jungkook not failing the year.

After that was done, he yawned and closed his eyes, trying to push all thoughts away. He was back asleep in a few seconds.