Jungkook woke up with a horrible headache, wincing when the morning light assaulted his eyes. Quietly groaning, he pressed his face into the pillow. His stomach churned, and he felt nauseous and uncomfortably hot. He shouldn’t have drunk so much. This was all the demon’s fault for not stopping him earlier. Stopping him… he barely held back another groan when the memories of the previous night slowly trickled back and he recalled why the demon had ended the game in the first place. He'd told him about Kangmin… But at least he didn’t do anything (too) embarrassing, and that had to count for something, right?

“How are you feeling?” asked the demon, and Jungkook winced. His voice wasn’t loud at all, but at the moment, every sound seemed deafening to Jungkook, and it didn’t help that the demon was so close to him. The bed might have been big enough to accommodate four people at once, but Taehyung still kept right next to him, their shoulders almost touching.

“I’ll take that as ‘horrible’.” remarked the demon, thankfully keeping his volume down this time. The bed slightly dipped when he reached towards the nightstand, grabbing a glass of water and an aspirin, holding the glass out to Jungkook.

Jungkook took a deep breath before pushing himself into a sitting position, trying not to wince at the pain shooting through his head. The nausea was worse when he was sitting up too, and the water looked very unappealing to him. He took it anyway, knowing he had no other choice.

Taehyung apparently wasn’t prepared to take mercy on him, not even while Jungkook was feeling this horrible, holding the aspirin in front of his mouth. It was quite obvious what he wanted, and Jungkook tried to ignore the heat rising up his neck as he glared at him, contemplating if he had the energy to put up a fight. The answer was a firm no, so he saw no other option but to obediently open his mouth, allowing the demon to put the pill on his tongue. Taehyung’s fingers briefly brushed against his lips in the process, and Jungkook barely suppressed a shiver. The demon gave him a knowing look before gently tapping the glass, reminding Jungkook he should drink.

Jungkook did, giving the empty glass back to Taehyung – who, of course, made sure to touch Jungkook’s hand as much as he could when taking it. Jungkook rubbed his skin as he lay back down, trying to get rid of the uncomfortable tingling. He should really stop having these over the top reactions every time the demon touched him – too bad there was nothing at all he could do to stop them.

He pressed his face into the pillow, but before he could properly relax again, the bed dipped, and then there was an arm around him and a body firmly pressing against his back. Jungkook automatically tensed, breath hitching in his throat.

The demon clearly wasn’t done torturing him. And to pour fuel on the fire, he said; “Just go back to sleep, it’s still early.” His voice was quiet, but his face was close enough that Jungkook felt his breath on his neck, involuntarily shivering in response. Yeah, right. Like he could actually go back to sleep like this. And the demon knew exactly what he was doing too.

“What are you doing?” muttered Jungkook. It was a pretty stupid question all things considered, but he couldn’t bring himself to care despite knowing he was most likely going to be teased about it. He just had to say something since he didn’t think he could take the silence when the demon was hugging him from behind, and that was the only thing he could think of.

“I thought that was pretty obvious?” asked Taehyung, a hint of amusement in his voice. One of his hands moved to the side of Jungkook’s head, gently sweeping through his hair. Jungkook pressed his eyes shut, reflexively clenching his jaw. Maybe he should have stayed quiet - speaking seemed to have made things worse.

“If you don’t like it, just tell me to stop.” said the demon, his voice gaining a slightly more serious undertone. Just slightly, since the amusement was definitely still very much present. Jungkook was pretty sure he knew why – if he’d said he didn’t like the demon touching him… Well, he would have lied and Taehyung seemed to be well aware of that. Although it had taken Jungkook a while to admit it to himself, he did like it when the demon touched him. It was pleasant and weirdly comforting, especially right now, when he was hungover and feeling all kinds of awful. The problem was just that he kept having strong and incredibly embarrassing reactions to it so he couldn’t properly enjoy it. Maybe it would have been easier if Taehyung had been a human. Then he at least wouldn’t be aware of Jungkook’s rapid heartbeat and uneven breathing, but since he wasn’t… the whole thing was mortifying.

“And you'll actually stop?” asked Jungkook.

Taehyung hummed. “When it comes to this – yes.” he said. Which Jungkook suspected was a translation for: ‘when it comes to touching yes, but not when it comes to other forms of teasing - then I’m going to continue to be merciless’. Which was just typical, really.

Jungkook closed his eyes, consciously trying to relax his muscles, forcing himself to take deep and even breaths. It felt impossible, but he did almost manage it a few times… until Taehyung moved, reminding him of the position they were in, and Jungkook tensed up all over again.

He wasn’t sure how he fell asleep like that, but somehow he did and when he woke up again he felt a bit better. His head was still very much killing him, but at least he didn’t feel as nauseous as he had before.

The demon had moved away at one point, and was now sitting in the armchair with Jungkook’s laptop on his lap, intently staring at the screen. The look in his eyes was unusually dark, and Jungkook found himself hoping it wasn’t because he'd managed to download another virus. Taehyung had been much better with technology lately, but his skills were still at grandpa level at best.

“Did you do something to my computer?” he asked groggily, blinking at the demon.

The demon looked at him, the dark look in his eyes slightly softening. “Good morning to you too.” he said, his lips twitching up.

Jungkook narrowed his eyes, suddenly a lot more awake  “You’re avoiding the question.” he accused.

“I didn’t do anything to your computer.”

“Your expression was suspicious.” started Jungkook, but Taehyung just nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m reading the news.” he said. “I’m just appalled at all the things you humans do to each other.” His voice was perfectly calm and he seemed sincere enough, but Jungkook still couldn’t help being a bit wary. He doubted the demon would respond to the news with that kind of expression - given his sadistic tendencies, Jungkook would expect either amusement or complete apathy. Then again, he could be wrong. Hopefully Yoongi hadn’t taught him how to delete the search history and he'd be able to check what he was doing later, just in case.

The demon clearly sensed that Jungkook didn’t entirely believe him. “Don’t worry Kookie.” he said with an oddly soft voice. “It’s nothing.”

Jungkook’s eyes slightly narrowed. Was it possible he was just messing with him? Was it possible that he didn’t try to hide whatever this was because he assumed Jungkook would arrive at the conclusion that he was just messing with him? Just thinking about all the possibilities made his head hurt more, so he promptly gave up. This probably had nothing to do with him anyway.

Taehyung pointed at the glass of water on the nightstand. “Drink.” he said. Jungkook obeyed, only realizing how thirsty he was once he took a sip. He emptied the glass, putting it back on the nightstand before carefully laying back down.

He found his phone under the pillow, wincing when the brightness of the screen hurt his eyes. His vacations in Japan were coming to an end, and he thought it would be best to finish a few things while he was still here, since it would be a lot less convenient to do them back at the academy. First thing first, he had to ask Jimin for the list of people who had accompanied the King on his visit. If the curse was Kangmin’s doing, then one of them had smuggled a higher demon to the mansion, and while there was no way of knowing which one, having the names would at least shrink the pool of possible suspects.

He slowly typed the message, praying Jimin wasn’t going to ask any unfortunate questions. He didn’t want to lie to him, but if he asked why he needed the information, he was going to have to. There was no way he could risk telling Jimin the truth, not after Jungkook's conversation with the king.

Can you give me the names of people who came here with father?

After pressing send, he put the phone down, absentmindedly massaging his temples. The second thing he had to do today was go through the magician’s registry. It would be best to finish doing that before leaving for the academy, considering he needed Violet to take a look at it and getting her to cooperate probably wasn’t going to be easy. Not to mention she was most likely under Orders not to betray her master, which meant they would need a pentagram. “Do you have the USB key?” he asked, looking at the demon.

Taehyung raised his eyebrows. “Are you really going to do this today?” he asked. Jungkook barely held back a sigh. While the demon’s voice was calm, the look in his eyes made it clear that he didn’t approve. Which most likely meant that he was going to cause problems. Which was not good because Jungkook definitely needed his cooperation.

“Yes.” he said.

“You know…” started the demon conversationally “I think that’s a horrible idea.”

“Noted.” muttered Jungkook dryly.

Taehyung tapped his fingers on the armchair, staring at Jungkook in silence for a few seconds. “At least have breakfast first.” he said finally, his lips curling slightly up. The sentence was structured as a suggestion, but Jungkook wasn’t fooled – this was clearly a demand, one that he was going to follow because he was way too tired to fight it. Besides… the demon usually found a way to make him do things he didn’t want to do anyway, so resistance was clearly pointless.

He still asked; “Do I actually have a choice.”

The answer was a predictable ‘No.’, said in a clearly amused voice. Jungkook tiredly glared at him, and the demon responded with an innocent smile.

“What do you want?” asked Taehyung, standing up. Jungkook absentmindedly rubbed his eyes. To be completely honest, he didn’t want anything. The nausea was mostly gone, but the memory of it was still too fresh in his mind and he could barely stomach the thought of food at the moment.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Cereal?” Somehow that seemed the easiest breakfast food to handle right now. Taehyung lifted his eyebrow, leaning over the bed to get his phone. Thankfully, he didn’t try to argue, though it looked like he wanted to.

Jungkook absentmindedly listened to his short conversation with Mrs. Kim, unable not to wonder if Yoongi made any progress with her granddaughter. He'd said that it was possible to remove the curse and while Jungkook believed his assessment, he still couldn’t help worrying about it. If the curse couldn’t be removed… Well, then he was going to be unceremoniously dragged straight back to the palace, not to mention he would be dealing with guilt for the rest of his life.

Taehyung finished the conversation, climbing on the bed and sitting down next to him. He didn’t say anything, just took Jungkook’s hand in his, gently trailing patterns over his skin. Jungkook’s muscles automatically tensed, blood rushing to his cheeks, and he quickly averted his gaze, though unfortunately not before already seeing the teasing glint in Taehyung’s eyes. If nothing else, at least he was so busy overreacting, that he forgot to worry about Mrs. Kim’s granddaughter.

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, Taehyung holding his hand and Jungkook doing his best (and failing) to stay calm, but eventually they were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door, and the demon got up to open it. Jungkook almost reached for him when he let go of his hand, thankfully catching himself in time. Taehyung still noticed though, sending him a knowing – and highly amused – look. Jungkook quickly turned away, fighting the urge to hide his face under the covers.

“Oh, would you look at that.” said Taehyung when he opened the door, prompting Jungkook to risk a quick glance in his direction. There was… Namjoon with breakfast, pale and holding himself extremely stiffly. His face turned even whiter when he saw Taehyung, but he bravely remained standing in the doorway, returning his gaze.

“My mother sent me to apologize.” he said, and even if there wasn’t a barely detectable hint of defiance in his voice, Jungkook would know he didn’t share his mother’s sentiment by the way he decided to word the sentence. He bowed at a 90 degree angle, reciting at the floor; “My yesterday’s behavior was unacceptable, and I am deeply sorry for it.”

“Huh.” said the demon. “Your apology sounds kind of scripted.” His voice took on an unnaturally cheerful tone, which was a very good indicator that this conversation was unlikely to end well for Namjoon.

Jungkook massaged his temples, his headache suddenly worsening. “I was planning to talk to you.” he said, looking at Namjoon. Having a conversation with him was another thing he had to do, and possibly his least favorite one, since it looked like Namjoon was imagining his murder every time he looked at him. But now that he was here, Jungkook might as well get this over with, preferably before Taehyung scared Namjoon half to death.

Namjoon returned Jungkook’s gaze, pressing his lips together. It was obvious that talking to him was quite high on his list of things he absolutely didn’t want to do. Pissing off Taehyung seemed to be occupying an even higher spot though. Namjoon carefully glanced in the demon’s direction before forcing his lips up into what was probably meant to be a smile but looked more like a grimace. “What about?” he asked.

Jungkook sighed. “This can go in one of two ways; either I call my brother and you sign an NDA” he started “or we pretend we never crossed paths here and you don’t know my real identity.” If someone had asked him whether there was a chance Namjoon would tell anyone who he was a week ago (if he’d known then of course), he would have said that there was no way – the council president was too smart to put himself in danger like that. Now though, after he'd witnessed the complete hatred Namjoon had for him, he was a lot less sure about that.

He wasn’t particularly happy about offering Namjoon this solution, since it was clear he couldn’t trust him, but… If Jimin learned about this, it wouldn’t stay at just a non-disclosure agreement – he would deem the situation too dangerous and force Namjoon to drop out. And if his father learned about it, he would use it as an excuse to drag Jungkook back to the palace. He didn’t want to sabotage Namjoon’s future and he wanted to be forced to return to court even less, so he didn’t really have that much of a choice here.

Namjoon crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not an idiot,” he said.

“Debatable.” remarked the demon, leaning against the wall next to Namjoon.

Namjoon nervously glanced at him, before looking back at Jungkook. Taking a deep breath, he said: “I’m not going to tell anyone about this.”

“Better keep your word.” said Taehyung pleasantly. His lips curled up, forming a truly terrifying smile, and Jungkook bit his lips, trying to ignore the shivers running down his spine. “Or we're going to have some fun.” added the demon in an even more pleasant voice, his smile widening. It was a clear code for; ‘I’m going to have an exorbitant amount of fun and you’re going to suffer', and Namjoon seemed to be well aware of that, all color draining from his face.

He needed a while to collect himself after that, and once he did, he took a deep breath. “I’m not going to tell anyone.” he said slowly. “Even if I did, no one would actually believe me.” Taehyung slightly tilted his head, and Namjoon swallowed, quickly adding, “Not that I will. As I already said, my lips are sealed.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Taehyung pointed at the door. “Good. So glad we cleared that up.” he said. Namjoon put the tray with food on the nearest piece of furniture – which happened to be the armchair – before practically running out of the room. Jungkook certainly didn’t blame him for the quick exit – he would have done the same if their positions had been reversed, just a lot sooner.

Taehyung didn’t even properly close the door after him, when Jungkook’s phone vibrated. The demon had put it down on the nightstand after he’d called Mrs. Kim, so Jungkook had to move to the other side of the bed to reach it. The message was from Jimin.

Any special reason?

Jungkook barely suppressed a sigh. He could practically feel Jimin’s worry through the message.

Covering my basis. I’m pretty sure Kangmin has people in father’s inner circle.

It was a pretty basic answer, and Jungkook wasn’t entirely sure Jimin would buy it. Regardless from whether he did or not, his answer was thankfully;

I’ll find out.