Thankfully, the King departed almost as soon as their conversation was done, wishing him good luck with school and telling him to be careful. Jungkook accompanied him to the front door, partly to be polite and partly because he wanted to see him leave with his own eyes. As soon as the line of cars drove through the main gate and disappeared out of his sight, he sighed in relief, feeling like a huge weight just fell off his shoulders. Thank god that was done. 

Taehyung turned back into his original form immediately after the royal convoy was gone, leaning against the nearest wall, his arms crossed over his chest. "He's even worse than I remember." he remarked, absently staring at the road. He sounded oddly somber, and when Jungkook looked at him, he saw something dark flash in his eyes. "I should've tried harder to kill him."

"Right." muttered Jungkook. He wasn't particularly surprised Taehyung had tried to kill his father - actually, that had been his assumption from the start. Taehyung had been his father's guard for a while, many many years ago and for a very short period of time, which most likely meant the King had problems controlling him. Jungkook had summoned him almost entirely for that reason - he'd doubted his father would have ever wanted Taehyung's services again. 

Taehyung pushed away from the wall, straightening his back before taking a few steps closer to Jungkook. "This could have gone worse." he said, putting his hand on his shoulder. Jungkook did his best not to flinch at his touch, but he did automatically avert his gaze, blood rushing to his cheeks. Taehyung's action successfully reminded him of what he'd promised himself to do after his father had left, and he took a deep breath. He had to do it. Maybe not right this instant, but definitely today. It would only get harder the longer he waited, and he really couldn't avoid it forever.

"I have to spend the whole summer in the Palace." he pointed out, unable to hide the pure exhaustion in his voice. 

"Yes." agreed Taehyung slowly. "And I want to cut his head off just for that." Jungkook did flinch this time, and the demon gently patted his shoulder. "But" he continued calmly "it's not forever. And Yoongi is still here." 

Jungkook turned his head, looking at Yoongi. He was standing a few meters behind them, and while his face was just as void of emotion as usual, he somehow still managed to look more relaxed than he had while the King was still here. He nodded at Jungkook, and Jungkook hesitantly nodded back. 

"It's not going to be pleasant." started Taehyung, and Jungkook needed a second or two to realize he was referring to his impending stay at the Palace. 'Not pleasant' was an understatement - it was going to be hell, plain and simple. The demon continued before Jungkook could point that out. "But I don't think you should worry about it that much. You're not exactly defenseless." he paused for a moment, before adding, with clear amusement in his voice; "Actually, you're pretty merciless." 

"I'm not." immediately protested Jungkook. He wasn't. Not at all. His father had caught him in one of his traps. Admittedly, it was the smallest of them, but a trap nonetheless, and one of these days he was going to catch him in one of the bigger ones. It was only a matter of time, really.

"Really?" asked the demon, quirking his brow at him. "I must have been having auditory hallucinations then." A corner of his lips was curled up, and the amusement in his voice couldn't be missed. Jungkook could see nothing amusing about the situation at all, which he expressed by staring daggers in his direction. Unfortunately, that only seemed to amuse the demon more. "I thought I heard you talk your father out of both sending you home and replacing Yoongi. I also distinctly remember that he had to bribe you to agree to come to the Palace during the summer." 

Jungkook grimaced. "I'm not sure if you can call that bribing…" he started, but the demon cut him off before he could finish.

"Kookie." he said softly. "It'll be fine." His hand moved from his shoulder to his wrist, his fingers wrapping around it and gently pulling him after him, inside the mansion. It was only after the door closed behind them that Jungkook realized he was shivering. Stupidly, he'd gone out in the cold without a coat. He would wrap his arms around himself for warmth if the demon wasn't still holding on to his wrist.

"We'll figure it out." said Taehyung. "Just forget about it for now. It's months away and we really have more urgent things to worry about."

"Good idea." muttered Jungkook. Unattainable, but good. 

Yoongi didn't follow them to their room this time, slipping into his own and slamming the door shut behind him as soon as he could. Jungkook strongly suspected he was annoyed about the conversation he and Taehyung had outside the mansion. Or maybe not about the conversation per se, but about the touching. The amused glint that appeared in the demon's eyes as he watched Yoongi leave supported that particular theory as well. 

"He's probably going to keep the noise cancelling headphones on for the rest of our stay here." remarked Taehyung as he positioned himself in his armchair, tucking his hands under his head and leaning back.  

"Does that work for demons?" asked Jungkook, awkwardly pausing at the door. He asked it half out of genuine curiosity and half in a desperate attempt to buy himself more time.

He knew what he had to do, and his heartbeat was already speeding up in anticipation. A part of him was looking for excuses; he was tired, so he should take a nap first, or maybe today wasn't the best time after all and he should just wait for tomorrow. He did his best to ignore the thoughts, knowing quite well that the longer he waited the worse the anxiety would get. He wouldn't be able to pretend the feelings weren't there forever, which meant he would have to do it eventually. It was better to just get it over with now - it was going to be like ripping off a band aid. 

"It helps." replied Taehyung, curling his lips up. He didn't reach for a book or the laptop, staring at him with that odd intensity in his eyes. He knew. Jungkook was sure he knew exactly what intentions he had, and he didn’t know if that made the anxiety better or worse. He supposed it could be a bit of both.

Jungkook bit his lips before reaching in his pocket, pulling out the USB key the King had given him, throwing it to Taehyung. He was stalling, he knew that, and he was irritated at himself about it even when he couldn't really help it. "Can you keep an eye on that?" he asked. 

He needed to take a thorough look at the Magicians' registry and find Violet's master - but not today. Today he was going to have this really unpleasant and really terrifying conversation with the demon, and then he was going to hide under the covers with his phone for the rest of the day to recover from what was undoubtedly going to be a mortifying ordeal. He didn’t have the energy to do anything else.  

The demon nodded, putting the key away without breaking their eye contact. 

Jungkook opened his mouth, closed it and then opened it again before finally gathering his courage and murmuring; "The question from yesterday…" It was a truly awkward beginning, but he supposed he had to start somewhere. The problem was that he now had no idea how to continue. He sighed. This was even more difficult than he'd thought it would be. 

The demon looked at him with amusement in his eyes for a few long tense seconds, before finally taking mercy on him. "Just ask Kookie." he said softly. 

Jungkook pressed his lips together. "It's not that easy." he murmured, because it really wasn't. Just thinking the words made blood rush to his face and his heartbeat race. Saying them out loud… 

The demon quirked his brow, his eyes flashing with amusement, but he thankfully refrained from saying anything. Jungkook took a deep breath, inhaling through his nose. Then he fixed his eyes on the floor, muttering really quickly and really quietly; "Are you in love with me?"

The demon didn't even hesitate with his answer. "Yes." Jungkook had expected that, he really had, but it still made him flinch. He risked a quick glance at the demon, the other looking at him with his head slightly tilted, before he fixed his eyes back on the ground. There was a beat of silence, and then the demon let out a soft sigh. "Oh, come on Kookie." he said. "You must have been pretty sure to ask in the first place."

Yes. If he could have thought of a single good argument against a (now confirmed) theory that Taehyung was in love with him, he would have never asked. It would be too humiliating. It was humiliating even now, despite the correctness of his assumption.

"Why?" the words tumbled out of his mouth before he actually thought them over, and his face heated the moment he realized what he'd said. He did genuinely want to know, but… at the same time, he didn't really? He wasn't sure what kind of a reason an ancient powerful demon could have to fall in love with… Well, someone like Jungkook.

"You can believe me it wasn't planned." said the demon with a hint of amusement in his voice. "And I'm sure it was even less planned for you."

"Yes." muttered Jungkook. He hadn't even contemplated that it was possible for him to… Well, fall in love with a demon until the moment he'd realized he already had. It not being planned was an understatement. He wasn't even sure how it happened.

What followed after that was silence. Tense and uncomfortable - but probably only for him. The demon didn't seem to mind, but then again, Jungkook couldn't really read him all that well. He nervously shifted his weight from one leg to another, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground for the most part, though he still risked a glance or two at the demon. Taehyung was staring at him with the familiar intensity in his eyes, not saying anything. 

After what was probably at least five minutes, Jungkook finally couldn't take it anymore. "What now?" he asked, trying - and failing - to not sound as lost as he felt. He raised his head, giving the demon a short glance before he had to look back at the floor again. 

The demon tilted his head, an indecipherable look in his eyes. "What do you want?" he asked. 

Saying that Jungkook had no idea how to reply to that would be an understatement. What did he want? He didn't know. He couldn't ignore the whole thing, that much was for sure, but he didn't know if he should do anything about it either. If he could do anything about it. But… he had to choose one of these two options, there was no way around it - he had to either ignore this or do something about it.

Ignoring it had been hard. Too hard. But it might be easier now that he at least knew for sure what the situation was. If he managed to ignore them for long enough, then maybe the feelings would just… go away? Or maybe... Maybe he should try to do something about it. But what? He had no idea. The romance novels were his only reference, which was a bit troublesome considering they more often than not didn't apply to real life. And he was sure they applied even less to his predicament, what with his 'love interest' being an actual demon. 

Maybe he should do something about it? The thing was… he wanted to. He really really wanted to. And… There wasn't that much to lose right? And if it didn't work… they could still go back to how things were. Probably. Maybe. 

"I don't know." he muttered quietly, after the silence stretched for a bit too long.

The demon raised his eyebrow. "I don't know if I want to do anything or I don't know what to do?" he asked. 

Jungkook forced himself to raise his head and meet Taehyung's gaze head on. "I don't know what to do." he said firmly. 

Taehyung's eyebrows shot up. The surprise in his eyes was obvious, but it gave way to something else, something softer and more or less indecipherable, almost immediately. The demon had expected him to run away, Jungkook realized, and he couldn't really blame him for it. Running away from his problems was what Jungkook did, and he couldn't say it hadn't been his first instinct this time as well. "Oh." said the demon, his lips curling up. The smile was sharp. "Do you want me to take charge?" There was something unsettling about the way he said it, and Jungkook involuntarily shivered in response. 

Still. Jungkook knew Taehyung wasn't going to hurt him, despite the borderline frightening aura he was giving off at the moment, so he nodded, averting his gaze once looking at the other became too much. 

"Okay then." said Taehyung softly.

Jungkook half regretted agreeing to let Taehyung take charge less than an hour later, because… Well, the demon didn’t really do anything, and it was nerve-wracking. Jungkook did exactly what he had been planning to do; hid under the covers with his phone, absentmindedly browsing the internet and watching YouTube videos. He couldn’t properly relax though, too aware of the demon's presence in the room. He should have predicted how on edge this would put him. He should have asked the demon what exactly 'taking the lead' meant. 

Of course, he could still do it now, but no matter how many times he sternly told himself to open his mouth and say something, he chickened out once he looked in Taehyung's direction and the other met his gaze. The amusement Jungkook found in his eyes each time, clear as day, told him that the demon knew exactly what Jungkook's predicament was and was enjoying it. He had been so helpful and accommodating lately that Jungkook completely forgot what a sadistic he could be. 

Around lunch time someone quietly knocked on the door, and Jungkook reacted by pushing himself into a sitting position, glad for the distraction. At first, he thought it was a servant with his lunch, but since Taehyung responded to the knock with a cheerful 'Come in', it was most likely just Yoongi. The assumption was correct, the demon in question pulling the door open and pausing at the doorway. His face was just as expressionless as ever, his eyes slowly traveling from Jungkook to Taehyung and then back again. 

Jungkook wasn't sure what he saw, but it couldn't be anything good considering the first thing that came out of his mouth was; "I'll come back later." He probably felt the awkward tension in the room and wanted to have nothing at all to do with it, and Jungkook certainly didn’t blame him. He didn’t want to have anything to do with it either. 

"Oh, come on now Yoongi." said Taehyung, amusement practically dripping off his voice. "You're already here, so you might as well tell us what you came for." 

Yoongi responded with a distinctly unimpressed look. "It can wait."

It seemed Taehyung was planning to say something else, but there was a loud crash coming from the staircase before he could as much as open his mouth, attracting everyone's attention. Yoongi reacted first, practically winking out of existence - or more accurately; he moved so fast that it looked like he simply disappeared to Jungkook's human eyes. Jungkook glanced at Taehyung, the demon returning his look with a frown. 

They both followed after Yoongi, Taehyung first and Jungkook a meter or two behind him. The scene that awaited them wasn't pleasant. Mrs. Kim's granddaughter was lying in the middle of the stairs, the food she had been bringing to Jungkook scattered and spilled around her. Yoongi was kneeling next to her, gently holding her head between his hands. 

Jungkook's first thought was that she fainted. Admittedly, ten year olds (or something like that, he could never really tell a child's age) didn't usually go around losing their consciousness, but it wasn't impossible. The looks the demons exchanged though… They certainly made him suspect something a lot more troublesome was going on.