The demon was whistling. It wasn’t particularly loud, but it seemed deafening in the silence that surrounded them as they were descending the stairs. Jungkook could practically feel the irritation building inside him, and had to use at least half of his not-so-impressive amount of energy to not start yelling at him. Ms. Jung did not whistle. She also didn’t walk with vigor or tilt her head. And she did definitely not smirk.

To summon up; so far, the demon’s performance had been all but satisfying. Jungkook was prepared to admit that there was a (small) possibility that it might not be a problem, since they were still on the staircase where no acting skills were actually required and the demon might only be doing it to irritate him. But at the same time he also realized that this could be the best the demon was capable off (or even more probably; willing) - which (he had to admit) wouldn’t necessary be a disaster if the person they were about to be up against was a human. Humans either easily dismissed the things that seemed impossible, or found some sort of a far-fetched explanation for them. Lower demons - supernatural beings themselves - on the other hand, were a bit of a different story.

Jungkook wondered – for the fifth time in the last minute no less – whether he should warn V about the demonic guard, but they had arrived at their almost-destination before he managed to make up his mind. He cursed his indecisiveness as he observed how Ms. Jung – the demon – reached for the handle of the door they had stopped in front, his other hand still engulfed in flames. Right before he pushed the door open, he turned his head towards Jungkook and curled his lips into a grin. Jungkook was convinced that he saw something murderous in his expression, but it disappeared way too quickly, and there was truly not enough of time to ponder about it.

The opened door revealed a long spacious hallway that ended with a wide wooden table. The walls, which were covered with – as Jungkook remembered distantly – green and golden wallpapers, seemed blue and silver in the artificial glow created by the battery powered lights. The doors on both sides of the hallway were half swallowed by shadows, and the carpet on the floor was mirroring the appearance of grass in nighttime.

The whole scene made Jungkook feel as if he was trapped in some kind of a horror movie, and he hated to admit it, but the thought of turning around and sprinting away from the dark hallway and the demons had momentarily crossed his mind. Thankfully the feeling of dread was quickly replaced by determination - he had not been continuously putting his life in danger just to give up because of some poor lightning and a presence of monsters.

He glanced towards the demon, noticing how he narrowed his eyes while looking at something further down the hallway. Jungkook saw nothing, but one didn’t need to be exactly a genius to figure out what had captured V’s attention.

Jungkook slightly turned his head, struggling to distinguish the demonic guard from the shadows, not seeing anything but darkness. After he determined that it was impossible to spot the guard’s post from that distance and with that bad lightning, he glued his eyes back on to the demon - he was still staring towards the end of the hallway, his body perfectly motionless and expression on his face unreadable. Jungkook concluded that was definitely not a good sign – he could almost feel the seconds ticking by, and the demonic guard’s suspicion raising.

Which was – he realized – probably the intention. They weren’t even half done with the mission and it seemed that V has already managed to find a way to jeopardize it.  Jungkook had to suppress the urge to – firstly - slam his head into the nearest wall, and – secondly – began to (for the hundredth time no doubt) analyze every word he had ever said to the demon to see if he accidentally enabled him to do anything else that could either harm Jungkook or his plan.

Certainly not a good idea, especially if you took in consideration the almost nonexistent amount of time they had left. He slowly inhaled, forcing himself to think off a solution instead of following one of his worst habits and searching for even more problems.

He made a small step forward, now standing so close to V that their shoulders would be touching if he leaned just a little to the right. “Time.” he pointed out as firmly as he was able to, trying not to look at the demon who – he was certain of it – smirked in reply before he carefully stepped into the hallway, bumping his shoulder against Jungkook’s in the process.

He walked down the hallway at a steady pace, not sparing him another glance. Once Jungkook managed to regain his balance, he quickly followed after him, trying to ignore the strong urge to tell him to hurry - knowing how little time they had left certainly didn’t do anything to help; he could actually almost hear the clock ticking.

All the while they were walking – more like crawling in Jungkook’s opinion - towards Ms Jung’s office, he unsuccessfully tried to catch a glimpse of the guard. He knew that he was certainly at his post – the demon’s reaction was a good enough proof of that, besides he truly doubted that he was allowed to freely move around – but he neither saw him nor heard him, and that somehow made him even more anxious than it would if he received a firsthand proof of his presence. 

He knew that he was going to have to reveal himself sooner or later, but he had somehow assumed he would do it before V and Jungkook were only a couple of steps away from their final destination. “Ms. Jung?” the voice that came out of the dark was deep and sharp, and no matter how hard Jungkook tried to detect some kind of emotion in it he discovered none.

He took a quick glance at the demon to see his reaction, relieved to notice that the expression on his face was the same stern expression Ms. Jung often wore. Jungkook was just intending to turn his head back towards the guard’s post, when he caught a fast movement with the corner of his eye. Before he was actually able to comprehend what was happening, the demonic guard already stood in front of the table at the end of the hallway in all of his glory.

Jungkook couldn’t refrain from flinching at the sight, summoning an almost inaudible chuckle from the demon. Unlike V’s, the guard’s demonic side was visible at first glance – his skin was unnaturally blue, covered with unusual markings and emitting a faint white glow, while his eyes shone yellow. Jungkook could feel a strange sensation washing over him as soon as his eyes met with his, momentarily followed by a wave of nausea that made him sway on his feet.

If he claimed that he knew why that mysteriously seemed to happen every time he was around a lower or medium demon or why he could – unlike other magicians - tell them apart from humans, he would be telling a very very big lie.

He clenched his jaw, trying to concentrate on something other than the demonic guard and the sudden sickness that made him want to curl into a ball. Thankfully the demon decided that he was not going to waste any more time. “Obviously.” he said in a surprisingly good imitation of Ms. Jung while nonchalantly pushing the door to the office open and motioning Jungkook to go inside.

To his relief, the nausea had subsided as soon as the office door slammed shut behind him and he was suddenly much more stable on his feet and no longer yearning for a chance to lie down.

Unlike in the hallway, there were no battery-powered lights inside the office, which of course meant Jungkook wouldn’t be able to see anything even if it was only an inch away from his face. Given his usual amount of luck, that also meant that he managed to trip over something the moment he made another step into the office, and would certainly make a very unwanted contact with the floor if the demon didn’t grab his arm and roughly hauled him back to his feet. Jungkook was quite convinced that he was going to have a huge bruise to show for it later, but cleverly decided not to say anything about it. The demon was probably already overly amused as it was.

The chuckle and the condescending expression on his face that Jungkook noticed once his eyes adjusted to the sudden light emitting from the fire ball the Demon, now no longer looking like Ms. Jung, had conjured, were certainly a very good proof of that. “So, not only have I been summoned by a stuck-up suicidal criminal, but that criminal also appears to have two left feet.” said the demon, his voice practically laced with amusement. “How exactly are you still alive?” he slightly tilted his head, his lips forming a smirk a cat would give to its prey if it knew how to smile. Jungkook suppressed a sudden urge to turn around and ran until his feet would no longer carry him.

He forced himself to take a deep breath and say – probably for the up-tenth time in the last hour - “We are running out of time.”

The smile on the demon’s face deepened. “Pardon me.” he said calmly and for once almost seriously. “What I previously meant to say was; a stuck-up suicidal criminal with two left feet and a very limited vocabulary.”

Jungkook responded by grinding his teeth, before deciding to do the smart thing and ignore him. Arguing with a demon was not precisely the best idea, even less so when you only had about three, perhaps four minutes left to find a test, fix it, and then return to the ground floor.

He slowly inhaled, forcing himself to concentrate, and then quickly scanned the badly lit room, trying to figure out where Ms. Jung stored her tests. The office was luckily not very big, but there was nevertheless plenty of places she could have put them. Two white closets stood against the wall, facing a big wooden table and the third closet with glass doors. Jungkook moved towards it, his eyes quickly traveling over the content. Once he determined what he was looking for wasn’t in there, he moved towards the table, sending the demon a glare in the process. “Help me find the test.” he ordered as he began to search through the documents he found in one of the drawers.

“Your wish is my command.” mocked the demon, before he swiftly moved on to the other side of the room and opened one of the remaining closets. A couple of seconds later, Jungkook’s search was interrupted by the sound of something hitting the surface of the desk before him. He flinched in surprise, looking up to find the demon wearing one of his most obnoxious smirks, his hand placed on top of a huge pile of paper Jungkook immediately recognized as the reason they were there. “Do you also need me to go through this and find your test, or is that actually in your range of capabilities?” he wondered condescendingly.

Jungkook was just about to reply, when he forgot all about his intentions due to the sudden and pretty unintelligible noise coming from the hallway. He froze on the spot, listening intently and trying to figure out what it was. At first he heard nothing and then; “Ms. Jung?” followed by a sharp; “In all honesty Mr. Park, you have been working here for the past three years, I believe you should have been able to recognize this academy’s professors by now.”

“I apologize Ms. Jung.” came the reply of the demonic guard a second later.

“I need today’s and yesterday’s activity report.” continued Ms. Jung, completely ignoring the guard’s words.

The voices were muffled, but Jungkook could still recognize the first speaker as a demonic guard and the second as Ms Jung. Which was impossible – she should have been safely tucked in her bed just as the rest of the school. There was no reason for her to be down here. Unless… The thought made the panic that consumed him as soon as he heard his professor’s voice, at least ten times worse.

His body refused to obey him, which is why he needed at least twice as long as usually to manage to turn his head towards the demon, his horrifying suspicion confirmed as soon as their eyes met. There was not a trace of a smile on his lips and the expression on his face was downright chilling. A shiver ran down Jungkook’s spine and he stumbled back, completely unable to control himself.

“Magicians… thinking they are so clever and we so stupid.” said V, his voice sharp enough to cut glass. Then he nonchalantly waved his hand through the air. “Your turn little magician.” he added, his voice suddenly back to a mocking tone.

Jungkook dug his nails in his palms, trying to convince his uncooperative brain to try to find the solution. Which was hard not only because of the overwhelming emotions battling inside of him, but also because he had to fight the urge to analyze everything he had ever said to the demon, to figure out what he overlooked. At which point did he manage to screw it up so badly that V actually found a way to get Ms. Jung to come to her office at this ungodly hour and completely sabotage not only his plan but also his future? His father was going to kill him.

“How?” he choked, despite knowing very well that wasn’t a good idea. The demon was already convinced that he was the domineering one, – and he was, in this particular situation he was – and there was truly no need to add fuel to the fire, but Jungkook couldn’t exactly help himself. He felt that he simply needed to know the extent of his mistake.

The demon was clearly pleased with the question, at least if the mocking smile on his lips was any indication. He leaned closer and raised his hand towards Jungkook’s head, successfully making Jungkook, who was quite convinced that he was going to get hit, flinch. But the demon just gently brushed his fingers over his cheek, his skin unusually hot. Jungkook tensed and managed to make precisely one step back before his escape was obstructed by a wall.

“Let’s make a deal.” purred the demon, his little finger sliding over the corner of Jungkook’s lips. “Figure out the answer to that question by yourself and I’ll make sure you don’t get caught.”

The voices on the hallway grew louder, prompting both of them to turn towards the door. “The clock is ticking.” remarked the demon, before he finally made a couple of steps back and nonchalantly leaned on the table.

“It’s a trap.” said Jungkook carefully, resisting the urge to rub at the spot on his face where V’s fingers were resting only a moment ago.

“Oh no.” said the demon. “I’m quite serious.”

Jungkook took a deep breath. “I don’t believe you.” he said. “It would clearly be much more beneficial for you if I get caught.” And you’re trying to make that happen by distracting me, so I definitely wouldn’t stand a chance at finding a way out of this stinking situation, he finished the sentence in his mind.

“Oh, you’re going to get caught.” said the demon nonchalantly, while studying his nails. “I’m just making sure that you realize that the fault for that is entirely on you.” his lips curled into a mocking smile. “It’s called being educational.”

Jungkook narrowed his eyes at the monster, only now finally realizing the extent of its brilliance. The demon successfully managed to get him into a situation where he was forced to choose between two incredibly unsafe options.

Chose the wrong one and he is caught.

The clock is ticking.

Okay, this is kind of short. And ty. Mostly the second. I was planning a longer chapter, but I'm unfortunately having slight issues balancing free time and school at the moment, so I decided to update now 'cause who knows when I would get around to it if I didn't. Anyway, I hope you like this nevertheless. And you know, comments and upvotes are always welcome :p.