He woke up a few hours later, relieved to be feeling a little bit better, though he was still nowhere near well enough to do anything but lie in the bed. Which was inconvenient, especially because he knew he should really go grab something to eat. It was true that he wasn’t particularly hungry – actually the plain thought of food made him nauseous - but he didn’t have anything for almost 24 hours and was quite well aware he needed to force at least a few bites down if he wanted to get better.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly turned his head towards the demon. He was still leisurely sitting on the bed with a book in his hands and Jungkook would be tempted to believe he hadn't moved at all while he was asleep if he didn't notice two stark differences; a) he was reading a different book, and b) he was now so close that Jungkook could touch him if he as much as moved a finger in the wrong direction. Needless to say, Jungkook’s immediate reaction to this realization was to attempt to press himself as close to the wall as he could, while straightening his legs so they weren’t in immediate danger of brushing against the demon.

The demon looked away from his book for just long enough to give him a knowing smile before he went back to reading. Jungkook observed how he carefully turned the page, noting that he was almost at the end of the book – and, he suspected, almost at the end of his book collection as well. It shouldn’t be possible considering its size, but the demon read extremely fast, not to mention there was practically nothing else for him to do in the room. Jungkook couldn’t help feeling slightly anxious at the prospect of the demon running out of things he could entertain himself with.

There was nothing he could do about it at the moment though, so he forced himself to put the unwelcome thoughts aside, and painstakingly got himself into a sitting position. His head was a bit better, but he still felt as if someone had recently tried to break it open with a hammer. The pain got worse every time he moved - he could tell the walk to the cafeteria was going to be fun.

He hugged his knees as he once again glanced towards the demon. He was aware he was going to have to ask him to move out of the way if he wanted to go anywhere, and he truly hoped the demon will politely humor him like he did the last time. He truly didn't have the energy to climb over him in his current state.

“Can you move?” he asked after a few seconds of silence, hating how strangely hoarse his voice sounded. He coughed to clear his throat, though it didn’t seem to do much to help.

“What for?” asked the demon nonchalantly, not as much as glancing away from his book.

Jungkook leaned against the wall, suddenly too exhausted to sit upright. How he was going to walk to the cafeteria and then back was beyond him. At times like this he really wished he actually had friends - at least he could ask someone to bring him food so he wouldn’t have to move. “I’m going out.” he answered, sounding approximately as tired as he felt.

The demon now did look at him, one of his eyebrows slightly raised. “You’re going out.” he repeated. His voice was flat, but Jungkook still detected a tinge of mockery in it. “You’re going to collapse before making it out of the room.” he evaluated after giving him a thorough head-to-toe look, mockery now obvious.

“I won’t.” protested Jungkook. It theoretically wasn’t a lie; he was sure he could manage to leave the room at least - it was the rest of the way that worried him.

The demon responded by giving him a calculating look before he curled his lips into one of his trademark amused smirks. “Fine then” he said. “I’m coming with you.”

For a second or two, Jungkook wasn’t sure he had heard him correctly, but the expression on the demon’s face promptly told him he didn't misheard. He couldn't help responding by slightly narrowing his eyes. “Why would you want to come with me?” he asked, his mind already running through all the possible answers to the question. He came up with nothing, either because there was no way the demon could sabotage him by coming along or because he was too sick to think clearly. He truly hoped it was the former, though he suspected it was the latter.

The demon’s smirk became even more unpleasant. “You know, there’s this very annoying very unnecessary thing called the Orders that is forcing me not to let you get hurt.” he said.

Jungkook might not have been able to think of a way the demon could sabotage him, but it was quite clear that the way definitely existed. The Orders were a bad excuse – he was only required to act when the danger was imminent and certain, and it was neither in the current situation. “How can going out hurt me?” he asked, mostly because he didn’t trust his brain at the moment and hoped the demon’s answer would help him make sure he didn’t overlook anything.

The demon slightly raised his eyebrow. “An excellent question from someone who can barely sit upright.” he said. Something about his expression implied that he knew exactly what Jungkook was thinking about and was – as usually - incredibly amused by it. Perhaps he was only asking to come with because he knew Jungkook was going to be suspicious about his motives, and he enjoyed stressing him out?

Jungkook messaged his temples, trying to decide what to do. “Fine.” he said, defeated. He would have probably put up more of a fight if he had the energy - and if his brain worked properly. “As long as you don’t turn into a snake again.”

The demon responded by curling his lips into a small smile. “Oh, but it would be the most practical.” he said. And to be honest, Jungkook could see how – it would be relatively easy to hide a snake – but he nonetheless had absolutely no intentions to humor the demon on this one. He would actually prefer to go through the day without food than try to walk to the cafeteria with a snake anywhere near him.

He absent-mindedly rubbed his eyes. The conversation was tiring him, and he was more and more annoyed by his inability to think clearly. He was barely a match for the demon on a good day, which meant he was in no way capable of winning an argument now.

 “You said you wanted to come with me because I could get hurt.” he said, after a minute of silence, during which he had tried his best to come up with a way to convince the demon that turning into a snake wasn’t in his best interest. His argument was only a very simple sentence but they both knew what was left unsaid – he was clearly afraid of snakes so the demon turning into one would only heighten the probability of him getting hurt. The demon would be there of course, but Jungkook was quite sure he wasn't particularly enthusiastic at the prospect of having to save him from breaking his neck purely because he was too preoccupied with panicking to look where he was going.

The demon gave him another one of his trademark smirks. “I’m actually surprised by your ability to think in your current state.” he remarked as he elegantly jumped off the bed and moved aside, leaving just enough space for Jungkook to do the same.

“Alright then.” he said after he gave him another one of his calculating looks. “Wear something with big pockets.”

Jungkook slightly narrowed his eyes. He was quite sure the demon didn’t plan to turn into anything pleasant and was half expecting to be forced to deal with a giant spider or something equally disgusting. Nevertheless, he kept his mouth shut – partly because he was too tired to argue and partly because he didn’t believe it would make a difference.

He slowly crawled towards the end of the bed and carefully climbed on the floor, all while trying to ignore the demon, who was observing his every move with a strange intensity in his eyes. Jungkook accidentally caught his gaze as he walked towards the closet, and the demon responded by tilting his head a little to the left, his lips forming a small mischievous smile.

Jungkook responded by averting his gaze, putting his energy into choosing his outfit and getting ready for the walk to the cafeteria instead of being bothered by the demon. He got dressed as quickly as he could without falling over and making an unfortunate contact with the bathroom floor. Needless to say, his fastest wasn’t particularly fast, and the demon seemed to have tired of waiting pretty soon. He roughly knocked on the door, almost making Jungkook hit his head against the sink as he flinched in surprise. “What?” he murmured quietly, sure the demon would be able to hear him nonetheless.

“Just checking if you’re still conscious.” came the demon’s nonchalant reply.  Jungkook grinded his teeth together – he was almost 100% sure that the real reason the demon knocked on the door was to scare him. He might not have been able to see his reaction, but he could definitely hear his accelerated heartbeat and the change in his breathing.

“Bull.” he whispered, not particularly bothered by the fact that the demon was definitely able to hear him. He couldn’t deny that he had became slightly more daring when dealing with him, although he wasn’t sure whether that was the product of getting used to his presence or his progressive annoyance by it. Probably a little bit of both.

He heard the demon chuckle outside of the bathroom door, and couldn’t help rolling his eyes in response to it.

He emerged a few seconds later, fully dressed and probably looking as exhausted as he felt. He didn’t have the energy to bother with his hair, so he was most likely suffering from a serious case of bed hair. The demon gave him one of his annoying head-to-toe looks accompanied by a particularly unpleasant smirk. “Great hairstyle.” he commented.

Jungkook tiredly turned his head towards the bathroom mirror and raised his hand to try to fix the problem, not really putting much effort into it. In the current state he really couldn’t bring himself to care whether he looked presentable or not. The demon let out a snort at his awkward attempt, and before Jungkook actually realized what was happening, his hand was in his hair, trying to disentangle it. The demon barely touched his skin, but knowing that it could be much worse did very little for the wave of panic that washed over him. He froze on the spot, his breath caught in his throat.

The demon completely ignored his distress, and didn’t stop messing with his hair until it looked at least somehow presentable. And even after he removed his hand, he didn’t immediately stop invading Jungkook’s personal space. He only stepped back once he thoroughly inspected his handiwork and made one of his typical remarks; “That’s much better.”

Jungkook just looked at him, waiting for his heartbeat to slow down and the waves of panic to disappear – or at least become more manageable. He almost subconsciously pressed what was left of his nails into his palms while he tried to focus on his breathing.

This was stupid – and he knew very well it was stupid. At one point, after he first summoned him, the demon was having his hand around his waist for more than a minute, and despite it making him uncomfortable and slightly anxious, he was nowhere near to having a panic attack. As opposed to right now. It was illogical and Jungkook truly hated things that went against logic. That was probably why he tried to explain it by telling himself the difference was that back then the demon had been following orders (in a really unconventional way, but still), and the last two times he touched him without being forced or coaxed to, which just made Jungkook think he was planning something sinister.

His pondering was – as usually – interrupted by the demon. “I thought I told you to wear something with big pockets.” he said, giving a pointed look at his plain shirt and black jeans.

Jungkook took a deep breath as he tried to push the unpleasant memory of the demon fixing his hair to the back of his mind and focus on the current moment instead. He grabbed his jacket from the hanger and pointedly showed it to the demon before throwing it on. It would be way too warm for it inside the academy building if he wasn’t sick and consequently very very cold.

The demon curled his lips into an amused half-smile, tilting his head a little to the left. Jungkook received absolutely no warning as to what he was about to do, and was taken aback when the demon suddenly turned into a blue butterfly. It elegantly flew towards him and slid directly into his left pocket with a move real butterflies definitely weren’t capable off.

Jungkook let out a small sigh, trying to suppress the unpleasantness of having the demon literally inside of his pocket. Then he grabbed his keys and slowly set up towards the cafeteria.

He didn’t get particularly far. Actually, that was an understatement - he didn’t even pass the first corner before he was ambushed by Namjoon. “Eunjae!” his classmate said as soon as their eyes met, his hand awkwardly raised in the air. Jungkook barely suppressed a groan – this was the last thing he currently needed. He didn’t have the energy to deal with Namjoon on the good day, which meant he definitely didn't have the energy to deal with him right now.

“I missed you at the council meeting.” said Namjoon, sounding somehow uncertain. As usually, he was attempting to carry a whole library in his hands and had to readjust his hold to make sure the stack of books didn't fall on the floor. Jungkook wasn't particularly surprised to see that most of them were psychology textbooks - Namjoon’s interest in the subject was quite well known (and Jungkook honestly couldn't help finding it a bit creepy).

He tiredly messaged his temples. His headache was steadily getting worse, and he really doubted pretending to be civil while they both knew Namjoon suspected he was the Summoner was going to help. “Sorry about that.” he said finally. “I have a fever.”

“Oh.” responded Namjoon. He sounded like he already knew, and Jungkook didn’t have any problems whatsoever believing he did. He was, after all, the most observant person his age he’d ever had the misfortune of meeting, and besides; Yoongi knew, and Jungkook didn’t really expect him to stay quiet about it.

“Well, I hope you feel better soon.” said Namjoon. Jungkook truly hoped this was it, though he should have probably expected it was far from – this was Namjoon after all. He took the student council activities very seriously.

“You didn’t miss much.” he said. “We mostly discussed concepts for the Christmas dance. I’ll send you the notes.” Despite telling him he’ll send the notes, Namjoon nevertheless proceeded to spend the next fifteen minutes explaining all the points they addressed at the meeting. Christmas dance, the evil summoner who was undoubtedly hiding somewhere at the academy and waiting for the opportunity to kill them all, the new physics professor, the summoner. Jungkook suspected Namjoon was mentioning the latter so much purely to gauge at his reaction. It certainly wasn't a pleasant thought, but he was quite confident in his poker face. When he wasn't using it on the demon of course.

It took an extra five minutes before he managed to escape Namjoon’s clutches, and by the time he finally arrived to the cafeteria, he was completely exhausted. He barely found enough of energy to pull on the heavy glass door and squeeze himself through the small opening. The inside of the cafeteria was almost empty due to most people either already finishing their meal or eating out. It was also freezing cold, and he didn't need long to figure out why – at least half of the windows were wide open. Jungkook - momentarily forgetting about the demon - pushed his hands in the pockets to protect them from the chilly air, and was quickly reminded why that wasn’t a good idea when he felt a flutter against his skin. He flinched and hastily removed his hand, already imagining the amused taunts he was undoubtedly going to be a victim of later.

Thankfully, he didn't really have the opportunity to beat himself about the mishap for longer than a few seconds – he barely made a step forward when he heard someone calling his name. He needed embarrassingly long to connect the voice to the face, but his eyes eventually stopped on the table in the far back of the room. Hana waved enthusiastically, clearly motioning for him to come join her and her friends. He had to suppress a sigh – he was honestly too tired to deal with people, but, unfortunately, offending the potential future government wasn't really an option. This was the only reason he found himself making his way towards his classmate immediately after he grabbed his lunch (he went for pasta and a salad because he assumed it will be the easiest on his upset stomach).

He carefully sat down at the only empty space at the table, and gave a small smile to Hana. Since she was the only person at the table he knew, the next minute was spend exchanging introductions. It was pretty much a waste of time – Jungkook was never particularly good with names, and his illness managed to change ‘not good’ to horrendous, so he promptly forgot everyone’s names the moment he heard them.

Thankfully, most of the people at the table showed absolutely no interest in him and started talking among themselves almost immediately after the introductions were finished. Most of them.

“Which year are you in?” asked the girl who was sitting on Hana’s right. She was leaning forward so she was able to meet his eyes, and Jungkook couldn't help noticing the silver hairpin that was used to hold back her dark purple hair. It seemed oddly familiar and he was suddenly convinced he had met the girl before, which promptly managed to fill him with unease. Trying to convince himself it was most likely only a product of seeing her around the academy did nothing to dispel the unwelcome feeling.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you.” said Hana before he was able to answer. “He's a classmate.”

“You're younger than me then.” remarked the girl with the violet hair – Jungkook decided to nickname her Violet because he really couldn't remember her name no matter how hard he thought about it. He was intending to respond by asking which year she was in, not because he was actually interested but to be polite. Thankfully, she answered his unspoken question before he even had a chance to open his mouth. “Year 5.” she said. “B dorm, just like Hana. We're roommates.”

Jungkook gave her a polite smile, hoping the girls will interpret his silence on the dorms matter as him being ashamed of where he was assigned to. B dorms inhabitants were usually the only ones who included the dorm information in their introductions – people from the A dorm generally weren't keen on being bothered by students searching to climb the social ladder, and C and D dorms inhabitants didn't want to advertise their placing.

Hana might have been hanging out with Areum, but Jungkook doubted she actually knew which dorm she lived in. She wasn't the type to offer this kind of information, and he knew she wouldn't tell anyone about where he lived either, so he didn't believe Hana knew he was from the A dorm. And he had every intention to keep it that way.

 “Are you going to the Christmas dance?” suddenly asked Violet. Her voice was completely nonchalant, but Jungkook still had a feeling her words had a hidden meaning. Hana giving her roommate a stink eye and – if her slight wince was any indication – stepping on her foot, further confirmed his suspicions. Since he was way too exhausted to ponder about it, he decided to store the incident at the back of his mind for future reviewing.

“No.” he said, trying for a smile. “School dances aren't really my thing.” And neither were all the after-parties that tended to follow them. The Christmas dance took place right before the winter break and after the finals week, so the students were certainly planning to use the evening to unwind. Jungkook definitely didn't look forward to a night of drunk people shouting down the hallways and knocking on his door in search of a toilet.

“Oh.” said the girl, glancing towards Hana. It was clear that some kind of silent conversation was going on, and he couldn't help it but the girls' behavior began to creep him out. He attempted to distract himself by taking a bite of his pasta – as was the standard at the academy, the food was tasty, but Jungkook still struggled to get it down.

“Any chance you’d change your mind?” wondered Hana, giving him a pleasant smile as she leaned a bit closer, her knee brushing against his leg. Over her shoulder, Jungkook noticed ‘Violet' rolling her eyes, and he was instantly hit by a sense of déjà vu - where had he seen her before? The mystery was beginning to frustrate him, and he made a mental note to ask Yoongi whether he had any idea as to why she seemed so familiar. He doubted he would be able to provide an answer but it was worth a shot nevertheless.

“Maybe.” he allowed, more to finish the conversation than because he was actually prepared to reconsider. It was clearly the wrong thing to say if Hana's radiant smile was any indication, and he couldn't help wondering what he had just agreed to.

“Can I get your number?” she asked, already pulling her phone out of her purse. Jungkook suppressed a sigh as he reached for it and proceeded to add his number to her contacts. He knew there was nothing he could say to avoid having to give her his number without offending her, so it was definitely better to just go with it.

When he looked up, he noticed Violet was observing them with an unusual glint in her eyes, and he was quite convinced he had seen her wink at Hana. They were almost certainly up to something. “Anyway.” said Violet as she saw him looking at her, curling her lips into a small smile. “Where are you guys spending Christmas?”

Hana let out a sigh. “At home.” she replied in a voice that betrayed she wasn't particularly happy about that. “My parents are hosting a big extravagant party for all of our relatives. Again.”

“You don't sound very excited.” remarked Violet.

“Yeah well, they expect me to play the perfect daughter. Which I'm really not.” she said dismissively, although Jungkook could tell she was at least somehow bothered by it. He knew it wasn't nice of him, but he still couldn't help being glad that he wasn't the only one with family problems.

“Are you doing anything better?” asked Hana, looking at Violet. Jungkook was relieved the question wasn't directed at him, although he doubted he could avoid having to tell them how he was spending Christmas. Which was doing nothing – he was planning to stay at the academy, cooped up in his room, probably watching anime or TV shows. The same as every year.

“You bet. We're going to Australia.” answered Violet.

“Lucky you.” Hana sighed, before she turned towards him, curling her lips into a pleasant smile. “Eunjae?” she wondered.

He suppressed a sigh. “I'm staying here.” he said, not offering an explanation, hoping the girls will take the hint and leave it alone. Of course, they didn't.

“Really?” asked Hana. “Are your parents…?” she stopped, Jungkook assumed because she didn't really know how to finish the sentence. Or because she realized the question was way too personal regardless of how she was going to spin it. He would love to ignore it, but he knew he had to say something - he took a sip of his water to buy some time while he searched for an appropriate answer.

“We just don't get along particularly well.” was what he finally settled on. It was the truth, although certainly not the whole story.

Around half an hour later, Jungkook was finally back in his room. He was barely able to lock the door behind him and take off the jacket before he collapsed on the bed. There was only one thing he planned to do for the rest of the day – sleep.

That is if the demon would actually let him, the possibility of which unfortunately didn't seem particularly high. He turned back almost immediately after the door was closed behind them and was now standing next to the bed, looking down on him with an amused expression on his face. He didn't say anything, probably because he knew Jungkook - who definitely wasn't able to rest with him staring - couldn't ignore him for very long.

“What?” he finally gave up after a few minutes of intense silence. He truly didn't have the energy to deal with this, but he suspected the demon wasn't going to let him sleep until he gets what he wants - which was probably either to insult or embarrass him, or both.

The demon slightly tilted his head before he motioned for Jungkook to make space on the bed for him. Jungkook begrudgingly obeyed, moving on the other end of the bed and pressing his back against the wall. Even just that took an enormous amount of energy.

“Are you interested?” nonchalantly asked the demon after he was comfortably settled, once again way too close to Jungkook for his liking.

Jungkook frowned as he tried to press himself even closer to the wall. He had absolutely no idea what the demon was talking about, and couldn't help wondering whether that was the product of his illness or the demon was making no sense on purpose.

The demon, of course, noticed his confusion and responded by rolling his eyes. “The girl.” he said as if that actually explained anything. When he noticed Jungkook still had absolutely no clue whatsoever what he was asking, he let out a low chuckle. “Has anyone ever told you you're incredibly innocent for your age?” he wondered, one of his eyebrows slightly raised.

“You did.” murmured Jungkook, not at all surprised that the demon decided to insult him instead of explaining what he had meant. He tried to replay the demon’s words in his head in hopes that will help him figure out their meaning, but he still had absolutely no idea what the demon was talking about. It was incredibly frustrating, even more so because his mind refused to cooperate.

“Good. You're actually listening to me.” remarked the demon cheerily, giving him one of his trademark smirks before he moved even closer to him. There was now only around 10 centimeters between them at best, and Jungkook couldn't help responding by attempting to press himself even closer to the wall (not that it was actually possible at this point). He wasn't sure what exactly the demon was planning, but he assumed making him even more uncomfortable had something to do with it.

“Well?” asked the demon, slightly raising his eyebrows. Jungkook still had absolutely no clue what the demon was expecting from him, and it must had been obvious because the demon rolled his eyes. “Are you interested in that girl, whatever her name is?” he wondered, pronouncing the words unnecessary slowly.

Jungkook gave him an incredulous look – the demon was usually able to read him so well that he truly had no need to ask about his feelings. But then again, he had been in a shape of a butterfly and wasn't exactly able to see his reactions when he was talking to Hana. Jungkook’s mind was so focused on the unusualness of the demon wondering about his emotions that he needed embarrassingly long to actually comprehend the meaning of the question, and how out of place it was.

“Why?” he asked. He didn't bother with trying to express himself any clearer - he knew the demon will be able to tell that what he actually wanted to know was where that had come from.

He - of course - did, although he seemed to be unable to forgo mocking him about it. “Very articulate.” he remarked, his lips curled into his trademark smirk. Then he slowly leaned closer, and - considering there was already only around 10 centimeters between them at best - Jungkook could now actually feel his breath on his cheek. Needless to say, his immediate reaction was to try to move away, and when he realized he couldn't, freeze on the spot, his heart trying to escape his chest.

“I don't know how to tell you this, but…” said the demon in a mockingly grave voice, completely ignoring Jungkook's distress. “She was flirting with you.”

Jungkook blinked. This was not at all what he expected. “No she wasn't.” he said, entirely convinced in the truthfulness of his statement. He wasn't sure what exactly the demon was trying to achieve, but he was quite convinced he had some kind of a plan. Unfortunately, Jungkook was way too tired - not to mention anxious due to their proximity - to even attempt to figure it out.

For a moment or two, they just looked at each other. Then the demon chuckled and finally moved out of his personal space. “You're cute.” He remarked almost as an afterthought and without his usual amusement. It was a so un-demon like thing to say that Jungkook immediately suspected he had some kind of sinister intentions. The whole situation sent chills down his spine, and he pulled his blanket up to his chin.

Thankfully, the demon elegantly jumped off the bed right after that, and Jungkook took it as a sign that the conversation was finished and he could finally go to sleep. That is if he was even able to fall asleep after that. He closed his tired eyes, slowly breathing out and waiting for his heartbeat to slow down.