“You seem to have interesting connections.” remarked the demon once Jungkook put away the phone. His tone was light-hearted (and amused, as usual), but it was quite obvious the nonchalance was only an act; there was an unsettling intensity in his eyes, and he was staring at Jungkook as if he wanted to split his skull open to take a look at his brain. It was enough to give Jungkook the chills, and he was overcome by a strong urge to look away, which he didn’t even attempt to fight. There was a long, exhausting day ahead of him, so it was best to choose his battles carefully and preserve energy.

He messaged his temples while trying to decide on his next step. It was clear that he had to bring Yoongi up to speed, but he had no idea how, at least not without having him and the demon in the same room. The possibility of the demon letting him out of sight for more than a second was precisely zero - the Orders made sure of it since Jungkook’s life was potentially in danger. To be completely honest, Jungkook didn’t even really want the demon to leave. He could still see the girl charging at him when he closed his eyes, and every time he wasn’t careful, his thoughts returned to the events of the previous day, which sent a new wave of panic through him. Knowing that the demon was only a few meters away helped him keep calm, no matter how much he hated to admit it.

With a sigh, he picked up his phone and turned it on. There was at minimum, a 99% chance this was going to end in disaster, but by this point he was out of other options. Slowly, he clicked on Yoongi's contact and typed a short message, praying that Yoongi wasn’t going to cause any unnecessary problems.

Come to my room. We need to talk.

The reply arrived only a few seconds later.

What did you do?

He could almost feel Yoongi's displeasure radiating from the phone, and couldn’t help letting out another sigh. He understood where Yoongi was coming from; if Jungkook had invited him to his room, then something bad must have happened since he would have never risked having the demon anywhere near Yoongi otherwise. Clearly, Yoongi knew the demon would be here, which wasn’t a hard thing to figure out considering Jungkook had told him he couldn’t control the demon. It was only logical to conclude that if he had attempted to send the demon away, he most likely wouldn’t have obeyed. That said, it was still a bit rude of Yoongi to assume Jungkook was the one who did something wrong. The current situation was definitely not his fault.

I didn’t do anything. Kangmin is out.

He wasn’t sure if mentioning Kangmin over message was a smart idea, but it was obvious Yoongi was intending to be difficult, and Jungkook had neither the patience nor the energy to argue with him.

15 min.

Well, finally. He turned off the phone and threw it on the bed next to him, before he pulled his knees towards himself and rested his head on top of them. For a moment, he wondered whether he should warn the demon that Yoongi was coming, but ended up dismissing the idea pretty quickly. This was most likely going to end in disaster anyway, so he might as well have 15 minutes of peace first.

Or not. “I have a question.” said the demon, sounding completely casual, which made all kinds of alarm bells go off in Jungkook’s head. He quickly looked up, noting that the demon was still sitting on the desk and holding the romance novel, though it was now closed. The unsettling intensity in his eyes was still present, making Jungkook more than a little uncomfortable. “Does Jinho know about me?” The way he pronounced Jinho made it very clear that he knew it wasn’t Jimin's real name. Jungkook wasn’t sure what exactly gave it away, but he wasn’t particularly surprised – the demon’s ability to figure out the most inconvenient things was news to no one.

“None of your business.” he murmured, even though that wasn’t strictly true, just something to say without outright answering the question. Not that he knew why he even bothered, since he was quite sure the demon would be able to read the answer off his face.

“Oh, I’d say it’s the definition of my business.” retorted the demon, a hint of amusement in his voice. Jungkook hated to admit it, but he was kind of glad it was there – it made the intensity in the demon’s gaze a bit less unsettling. The demon leaned slightly forward, his eyes boring into Jungkook, before he continued; “So that’s a no then. Tell me how exactly does your friend think you got away from a demon by yourself?”

Of course the demon would notice the inconsistency and grill him about it while Jungkook’s brain was barely functioning. For a moment, he was tempted to just tell him the truth. It wasn’t like Yoongi’s presence wouldn’t clear everything up, provided that the demon actually recognized him - Jungkook guessed there was around 90% possibility of that. It wasn’t 100% however, and as long it wasn’t, he had to at least make an effort to convince the demon he got it all wrong. He didn’t really have much faith in his success – this was more about reassuring himself that he did everything he could to avoid disaster than to actually get the demon to drop it.

“I just said I was attacked. There was no mention of demons whatsoever.” he said, the argument sounding weak even to his own ears. He tried to keep eye contact with the demon while he spoke, but it was a lot harder than it would seem, mostly because of the knowing way the demon was looking back at him. The amused expression on his face made it quite obvious that he was aware Jungkook was bluffing and found it incredibly entertaining.

“Really now?” asked the demon, quirking an eyebrow. “You both seem to know who is behind the attack, and I'm supposed to believe your friend isn’t aware the mysterious he has access to demons?” The corner of his lips turned upwards, and he somehow seemed even more amused than a few seconds before.

“Well, maybe he thought I was attacked by people.” said Jungkook defensively, crossing his arms over his chest in attempt to shield himself from the intensity still present in the demon’s eyes. Despite it being mixed with amusement, it was still incredibly unsettling, and Jungkook half-wished he could tell what it meant. Half-wished because he suspected knowing would be even more disturbing than not knowing.

Jungkook didn’t think it was possible, but the demon raised his eyebrow even higher. “In that case he has quite the faith in the human race.” he said, his tone betraying how extremely unlikely he found it. “Every single one of my experiences tells me that you – collectively as magicians - never do things yourself when you can have a demon do it.”

Jungkook didn’t know how to reply to that. The demon had a very good point; magicians really did tend to overly rely on demons. It was cheaper, more practical and more effective than employing humans, albeit also more dangerous. “He does have faith in the human race.” he said eventually, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say. He had obviously already lost the argument, but at least he had tried.

Okay then.” said the demon, his lips forming a small smile. He put the romance novel on the desk next to him, tapping his fingers on its cover, before he asked; “Has he actually met you?” The sarcasm in his voice made it clear that the question was in no way serious, but posed with the sole intention to mock him. 

Even so, Jungkook had absolutely no idea what the demon meant. “Why?” he asked carefully, not entirely sure why he even bothered - it was clear that the demon said it purely to make fun of him, so not knowing was probably a positive thing in the current situation. Perhaps the time he was forced to spend in the company of the demon had turned him into a masochist?

The demon rolled his eyes, the annoying smile still firmly plastered on his lips. “I just find it kind of hard to believe you could get away from human attackers.” he said.

Jungkook responded by sending a glare in his direction. Before he could defend himself with words however, there was a quiet knock on the door. Both he and the demon turned their heads towards the sound, the demon shrugging his shoulders and tilting his head slightly to the left. Jungkook still wasn’t sure if it was just habit or a necessary step to use magic, but the fact was that the demon usually did it right before doing something magical. “You don’t have to hide.” he said quickly, without really thinking about it, wincing after he realized what had just come out of his mouth. He blamed his reckless behavior on the events of the last 24 hours and the toll they took on him. A part of him apparently still needed a constant reminder of the demon’s presence just to avoid panic attacks.

Logically, having the demon not hide wasn’t particularly dangerous (he would have both seen Yoongi and heard the whole conversation even if he had been hidden), just incredibly impractical. He was quite sure there was absolutely no way the demon would stay quiet and not ask unpleasant questions, and it was highly dubious that Yoongi would have the sense not to answer. Jungkook was suddenly looking forward to the next half an hour - or however long it would take to explain the whole situation to Yoongi - even less.

The demon looked towards him, and Jungkook could detect a hint of surprise in his eyes, though it was quickly replaced by amusement. “Really?” he asked, a corner of his lips curled slightly upwards.

Jungkook did his best to ignore him as he walked over to the door and opened it a small crack, peering outside to make sure it really was Yoongi. It was, his greeting a severely unimpressed look sent in Jungkook’s direction as soon as their eyes met. It was obvious he was all but happy to be here (Jungkook could relate, honestly). Stepping back to let him in, he wiped his clammy hands in his trousers and willed his heart to calm down. Despite doing his best to reign in his anxiety, he didn’t quite manage it - he could feel this wasn’t going to end well.

It didn’t take long to be proved right. “Yoongi.” said the demon in an overly cheerful voice after the door was closed, elegantly jumping off the desk he was sitting on. He landed next to Jungkook and nonchalantly pressed his shoulder against him, firmly enough for him to really feel it, but not roughly enough to make him lose balance. It made Jungkook mildly uncomfortable, but nothing more than that, which somehow made him feel both relieved and terrified all at once. Relieved because he was quite sure the demon wouldn’t go out of his way to touch him once Jungkook stopped having strong reactions to it, and terrified because he was clearly no longer as weary of the demon as he should have been. He assumed his reduced reaction was more or less reasonable when taking everything that had happened over the last 24 hours into consideration, but the knowledge didn’t make it any easier to accept. 

Yoongi’s eyes momentarily lingered on where their shoulders touched, before slowly travelling up to stop on the demon’s face. “T…” he started but then abruptly shut himself up, a shadow of annoyance passing over his face. It was gone so quickly that Jungkook couldn’t help but wonder if he had imagined it. “V.” Yoongi pointedly corrected himself while glancing at Jungkook, making the fact he was familiar with the demon’s true name even more obvious. Jungkook wasn’t really surprised – considering the small number of higher demons it was only logical to assume that most, if not all of them, knew each other.

The demon narrowed his eyes at the same time as he grinned at Yoongi. It gave him a mildly predatory look, and Jungkook realized he certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. Yoongi seemed to agree with him; his muscles tensed and he gave the demon a narrowed-eyed glare of his own. “Well, I guess that answers my previous question” said the demon, the abnormal cheerfulness still present in his voice. “I sure have a few new ones, though.”

The demons stared at each other, the tension in the room becoming increasingly more unbearable. Jungkook opened his mouth to say something at least twice, but changed his mind at the last moment both times. He had a feeling it was better not to get involved and let them deal with whatever this was on their own.

The first one to break the silence was Yoongi. He threw his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender, before turninh his head towards Jungkook. “Kangmin is out?” he asked, his voice as usually void of any emotion. At first glance, he didn’t seem particularly upset at the news, but Jungkook doubted he would be standing in the middle of his room if he wasn’t.

“Yes.” he said slowly. “We are meeting Jinho at 5.”

For a few seconds Yoongi didn’t react. “And I'm assuming you want me to pretend I was the one who protected you.” he finally said. Nothing showed on his face, but Jungkook could detect a hint of annoyance in his voice. It was clear he was all but enthusiastic about the prospect, and Jungkook couldn’t help but worry he would outright refuse, which would certainly create a fresh set of problems Jungkook had neither the energy nor the time to deal with.

He absentmindedly massaged his temples. The headache was still present, though the aspirin helped enough that it no longer felt as if someone was trying to split his skull open with a hammer. “Do you want to stay at the academy?” he asked, doing his best to keep the eye contact with Yoongi. It was a lot easier than trying to keep it with the demon, mostly because Yoongi didn’t give the impression he could see in the depths of his soul. 

Jungkook was bluffing and they both knew it - even if he had had told Jimin about V, Jimin wouldn’t have shared the information with anyone, which meant Jungkook - and by association Yoongi - would be able to stay at the academy. Even so, he could still make Yoongi’s life significantly more difficult, albeit not without causing some trouble for himself in the process - which was another thing they were both aware of. Jungkook observed Yoongi’s internal battle while anxiously biting at his lip, barely aware of what he was doing.

He still had no idea what the decision was when Yoongi slowly raised his hand and pointed it at the demon. The way he moved was a lot more lethargic than usual, and Jungkook had an unsettling feeling he was going out of his way to appear nonthreatening to the demon. “What about him?” Yoongi wondered, still maintaining eye contact with Jungkook.

Jungkook breathed out in relief, taking the question as confirmation that he was at least considering lying to Jimin. He was just about to answer when the demon decided to into the conversation – Jungkook was honestly surprised he managed to hold back this long. “Oh, I just love when others talk about me as if I’m not even there.” he said, his voice filled with sarcasm, though Jungkook could detect a hint of amusement in it as well. It clashed with the predatory way he was still looking at Yoongi. “I’m coming with.”

“No you’re not.” said Jungkook as firmly as he could, despite knowing there was no way the demon would actually listen to him. Both the Orders and the demon’s clear wish to turn Jungkook's life into a nightmare were working against him. By now, it was pretty obvious that the demon never missed an opportunity to learn more about Jungkook when there was a chance he could use the information against him. Since the current situation was exactly that - a great opportunity - the demon was sure as hell not letting it go.

“Oh, I most certainly am.” said the demon, pressing himself even closer to Jungkook, whose response to that was a flinch - he had somehow forgotten their shoulders were touching until he was reminded of it, and that certainly managed to fill him with anxiety. Logically, he knew the newfound desensitization to the demon’s touch was most likely the result of his life being in danger and the demon’s role as his only life line, but it still scared him. Swallowing, he took a step to the left while trying to ignore the eyes of both demons on him. It was harder than it should have been, even more so because he knew they were only staring at him because they could hear his suddenly rapid heartbeat.

“I'll meet you at the entrance at 4pm.” said Yoongi after a few seconds of silence, sending one final look Jungkook couldn’t decipher in the demon’s direction, before turning around and leaving the room.