When Taehyung returned to the room, the magician was already there. He was leaning on the table, tense as usual and with hands crossed on his chest. Taehyung only needed to take one look at him to know he didn’t find what he was looking for.

The magician barely noticed his presence – his only reaction was an absent look he sent in Taehyung’s direction before he fixed his gaze back on to the floor. Taehyung somehow managed to avoid rolling his eyes. He was sure the magician had at least 20 additional plans ready in case anything went wrong with the first one, so there was no way he was preparing for their next action. It was much more likely that he was feeling sorry for himself.

Clearly, he must have been convinced that the perpetrator was Seokjin – his current behavior and the fact that he decided to target him first, were a good enough prof of that. Although, it was a bit unusual for the mistake that could be fixed as easily to have this kind of effect. Perhaps it wasn’t just conviction, mused Taehyung, perhaps he saw the other two suspects as his friends. He curled his lips into a smirk, hoping that his theory was correct, even though he had to admit it could only be the magician’s clearly low self-esteem.

“Didn’t find what you were looking for?” he wondered with the sole intention of rubbing salt in the wound. He made sure to put extra effort into sounding as amused as possible.

That somehow managed to throw the magician out of his trance. He raised his head and glanced at Taehyung with a cautious expression on his face. “It wasn’t Seokjin.” he said finally, his voice carefully controlled.

“Clearly.” responded Taehyung.

The magician looked back at the floor, slightly frowning. “The student council meeting should have started by now.” he said after a few seconds of silence. “Which means Namjoon is not in his room.” he raised his head and made eye contact with Taehyung. “You will unlock the door and wait in the hallway.”

Taehyung slightly narrowed his eyes. It would be much faster if he helped search the room. Not to mention his short encounter with Seokjin made him suspect that standing on the hallway with no apparent purpose would be likely perceived as highly suspicious. He was convinced the magician was familiar with these facts, but he still asked, just in case; “But wouldn’t it be so much more efficient if I helped you search?”

The magician glanced at him. Then he pushed away from the table and slowly walked towards the door, completely ignoring Taehyung’s polite inquiry. He smirked – if he wasn’t completely sure before, he certainly was now. The magician was hiding something – and Taehyung was quite determined to find out exactly what.

He absently wondered what it would take to convince him to let him help search Namjoon’s room, and concluded it all depended on three factors – how strong the magician’s faith in his own magical abilities was, how intelligent he perceived Taehyung to be, and how obvious whatever he was trying to hide was. If it wasn’t obvious and if he didn’t trust himself to be able to completely control Taehyung regardless of what he knew, then he might let him in the room as a proof he wasn’t hiding anything. But only if he believed Taehyung would take it as an absolute confirmation and didn’t go out of his way to find whatever the magician was hiding. With other words; there was absolutely no way it would work. It was unfortunate, but not a complete disaster – there were other ways to find the truth.

Still smirking, he followed the magician out of the room. While waiting for him to lock the door, – which he did Seokjin style (triple turn and double check) – he took a quick look at the number plastered on it. It was 13, or with other words; an opportunity that was way too good to pass. He opened his mouth to make a comment, but to his dismay, the magician somehow managed to beat him to it. “I already know it’s ironic.” he said, placing the keys in his pocket.

Taehyung curled his lips into a smirk. “See, it’s not that hard.” he said, his voice filled with genuine amusement.

The magician responded by giving him a confused look. Taehyung couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “It’s not that hard to go off the previously prepared script and comment on something in the spur of the moment.” he said. “The rest of us do it all the time.”

The magician seemed to be taken aback by that, and Taehyung realized he didn’t know he noticed how he over-analyzed every single word. Which was ridiculous, especially because it probably couldn’t be any more obvious. Taehyung raised his left eyebrow, and the magician reacted in the same way as usual – he turned away and began walking down the hallway, doing his best to pretend Taehyung didn’t exist.

Taehyung just nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders and followed after him.

Around a minute later, they were standing in front of the room 27. The magician leaned on to the wall next to it in a way that was probably supposed to be casual, but clearly betrayed his anxiety. He nervously glanced down the hallway before he turned towards Taehyung and gave him an expectant look.

Taehyung leisurely stepped forward and put his hand against the keyhole, concentrating. A moment later, a quiet click signaled the door was unlocked. Taehyung grabbed the handle and pushed it open in an exaggerated gesture, taking a quick – and hopefully secretive – look around. The room was just as impersonal as the magician’s with its bare walls and clear surfaces. Taehyung wasn’t really surprised – whatever the magician was hiding had to be at least somehow important. And if his limited interactions with students of this academy were anything to go by, they would never leave anything significant out in the open.

No, he will have to find another way to figure out what the magician was hiding. He slowly moved away, leaving just enough space for the kid to enter the room. It was obvious that his proximity made him extremely uncomfortable, which was why Taehyung had swore to violate his personal space any chance he got. He smirked as the magician cautiously glanced at him before he pushed past and grabbed the door. Taehyung was convinced he was going to slam it into his face, but to his surprise he just turned around and looked at him. His expression was a dead give-away that something was bothering him. “If someone comes down the hallway, hide.” he said.

Taehyung curled his lips upwards. He already came to the conclusion that there was no way the magician would let him into the room, but he was still planning to try to convince him. Mostly because he suspected it had the potential to be a serious annoyance.

“Why?” he wondered, lightly pushing against the door so the kid wouldn’t be able to close it on him.

The magician gave him a calculating look, probably wondering whether Taehyung would back off faster if he explained or if he offered a variation of ‘because I said so’. “It’s suspicious.” he finally settled on.

“Why not let me help you search then?” Taehyung wondered as innocently as he could manage, which, admittedly, wasn’t innocently at all.

The magician gave him an apprehensive look, before he nervously glanced down the hallway. Taehyung knew what worried him; they have been standing out in the open for too long – the possibility of someone seeing them increased with every second.

He was just about to wave a hand in front of the magician’s face to get his attention, when the magician turned his head back towards him. “You know why.” he said quietly.

“Do I?” Taehyung wondered, despite being quite familiar with the answer. The magician apparently managed to figure out that Taehyung knew he was hiding something - unfortunate, but not really unexpected.

The kid responded by giving him a level look. Taehyung would gladly make another comment or two, but their chances of getting caught were increasing with every second. Obviously, he didn't particularly care for the magician's well-being - he did, however, have to admit that he had a surprisingly good time playing mind games with him. Actually, if he was completely honest, he couldn't remember when was the last time he had a master this entertaining. It would be a shame if their time together would be cut short just because he got carried away.

For these precise reasons, he took a step back and removed his hand from the door. The magician certainly didn't waste any time - he slammed the door shut, leaving him in an empty hallway.

The sad truth of the matter was that a great percentage of Taehyung's previous jobs consisted of waiting on his masters, so he certainly wasn't a stranger to loitering around without a purpose. He took a quick look at his surroundings, searching for something he could occupy himself with. To his great misfortune, this particular hallway was probably the most boring place on earth. Even its walls were completely bare. The only at least somehow interesting thing he could find was a window at the end of the hallway.

He slowly walked towards it, checking whether it could be opened. The answer to that was surprisingly a yes, and a second later he was enjoying the fresh air and an average view on the school campus. His eyes traveled from the buildings in the distance to the group of students in black uniforms standing on the path below. They seemed to be in a middle of a very intense conversation, and Taehyung decided to listen in, simply because he had nothing better to do.

A redheaded girl who had just joined the group was greeted by; "That was a short meeting." 

Taehyung decided to call the girl who had spoken ‘Doll’. It was true that he could only see half of her face, but even that was plenty to determine she looked like one of those creepy porcelain dolls whose dead eyes seemed to follow you wherever you went.

"Yeah, well. It was one of those 'I called you all on the other side of the campus just to check if you all know what your job is tonight, even though I could have asked you via messages' type of meetings." responded the redhead, accepting her friend's hand to perform some odd handshake Taehyung truly didn't want to see again.

"Typical Namjoon." remarked the only boy in the group. Taehyung decided to nickname him 'Wasp Nest' simply because that was what his haircut reminded him off.

"Was Yoongi there?" asked Doll.

"Is he ever?" responded the redheaded girl, the tone of her voice implying a change of topic would be welcomed.

"I'm surprised they let him stay on the Council." said Wasp Nest.

"You’re surprised? At an academy where your standing depends solely on grades?" wondered Doll, her voice filled with sarcasm. Wasp Nest seemed to have wanted to respond, but before he could as much as open his mouth, Doll turned towards the redheaded girl. "Was Eunjae there? I have something for him and I'd rather not go knocking on his door on the Founders day."

The redheaded girl frowned. "No, I think Namjoon let him off this time since he helped organize the Reception at the beginning of the school year or something. Just go to his room, I'm sure he's alone."

"Yes." agreed Wasp Nest. "I've never seen a single member of his family. I'm actually quite sure he has none."

Doll was clearly going to reply, but - despite being semi-interested in what she had to say - Taehyung could no longer afford to listen. There was a tell-tale sound of the door opening somewhere behind him, and he managed to turn around just as the Magician stepped out of Namjoon's room. Taehyung's eyes were immediately attracted to the laptop he was carrying in his hands.

"I see you found what you were looking for." he said nonchalantly, moving away from the window. He didn't bother to close it - the hallway could do with a little bit of fresh air.

The magician responded by pressing his lips into a thin line. He might have found the laptop, but he didn't seem particularly happy about it. Taehyung once again wondered what type of a relationship he and Namjoon had, but stopped his pondering once the Magician motioned towards the door, clearly ordering Taehyung to lock it.

Taehyung obediently moved forward and pressed his right hand against the keyhole. As soon as he heard a quiet click, he stepped back and turned towards the Magician. "Any chance your assignment is still on?" he asked, motioning at the laptop.

He was hoping for a negative answer, but to his dismay the Magician nodded. "Not even Namjoon could hack in this fast." he said.

Taehyung curled his lips into a small smile. “That’s too bad.” he said. The magician didn’t give much of a reaction – he just turned around and headed in the direction of his room. Taehyung rolled his eyes before he followed him.

They didn’t get very far. Taehyung expected it, of course – he could hear someone entering the A dorms and walking down the hallway towards them, but it was safe to say he certainly didn’t expect that person to be Namjoon.

And he was certain the person who came around the corner and suddenly stopped right in front of them was Namjoon. Mostly because his eyes immediately landed on the laptop and his expression betrayed shock at seeing it in the magician’s hands. His poker face was good, so good in fact that a normal person probably wouldn’t be able to tell what he was feeling – but Taehyung wasn’t a normal person; he was a hundreds years old demon. He could read humans approximately as well as a children’s book.

Taehyung let his eyes travel from the laptop thief’s head to his feet. He was dressed in a black school uniform, and was holding a textbook in his right hand and a thin piece of paper in the left. Taehyung couldn’t see what was on it, and neither did he particularly care. The student council president somehow seemed even less impressive than the magician – which was certainly an accomplishment.

Taehyung glanced towards the magician. It truly seemed like he wouldn’t particularly mind being stuck in the sewers instead of in this hallway. “Namjoon.” he said flatly.

“Eunjae.” responded Namjoon, and Taehyung couldn’t help curling the corners of his lips slightly upwards. The first name was something - it wasn’t enough, but it was something. He still needed a last name if he wanted to make the magician’s life incredibly difficult, though.

“That was a short meeting.” said the Magician, his eyes traveling to the paper in Namjoon’s hand. It was a single glance that lasted only for a very short moment, but it was enough for Taehyung to realize he definitely needed to know what was on that paper.

He slightly tilted his head - and heard the magician next to him take a shaky breath. Apparently, he picked up on his habit of tilting his head before doing magic. Not really all that surprising.

Taehyung focused, and a moment later a strong breeze coming in through the open window blew the paper straight out of Namjoon’s loose grip. It turned around in the air, and Taehyung was able to see it was a list of names sorted by the dorm rooms’ numbers. When it finally landed on the floor, he had no problem finding number 13 and ingraining the name next to it into his mind.

He glanced towards the magician, who stood still as a statue, his face white. Taehyung couldn’t help curling his lips into a smirk – he certainly had him now. Too bad he needed a pentagram if he wanted to put his new knowledge to use.

Namjoon picked the paper off the floor before he turned back towards the magician. He seemed to have wanted to say something, but the magician clearly had no intentions of hearing him out – he walked right past him, as if he wasn’t even there. Apparently, this tactic wasn’t only used on demons.

Taehyung took a few quick steps forward to catch up to him. “So…” he said conversationally once they were walking next to each other. “Kim Eunjae.”

The magician pressed his lips into a thin line, but that was the only indication he heard him. There was no panic, no anxiety, no clumsy attempts to talk his way out of the situation. Taehyung didn’t need to be a genius to notice something was off. The kid’s first reaction had been exactly what he had expected – an appropriate mixture of shock and fear. But after that wore off, there should have been panic or – if taking previous experiences into account – at least some sort of an attempt to save himself. Instead, the magician seemed more annoyed than anything else.

Taehyung could come up with only one explanation for his uncharacteristic behavior. “This isn’t your real name, is it?” he asked.

The magician looked slightly taken aback, but to his credit he managed to recover pretty fast. “Can you really read me that well?” he asked. It was obviously a rhetorical question, so Taehyung didn’t bother with an answer.

“Who are you?” he wondered instead, knowing, quite well, that he won’t receive an answer. If he was completely honest, he wasn’t even really sure he wanted one. Not because he didn’t want to know the truth, but because this was something he would enjoy figuring out by himself. The magician turned out to be a lot more interesting than Taehyung ever anticipated.

The magician responded by pressing his lips into a thin line. It truly couldn’t be any more obvious that he wasn’t particularly happy with Taehyung learning his secret.

They arrived at their destination around half a minute later. Namjoon already retreated to his room, so the hallway was once again empty.

Taehyung leisurely leaned against the wall, waiting for the magician to find his keys. He was just about to ask him if he wanted help when he felt something. He needed a moment to identify it as the same electrical feeling he experienced every time he used magic. At first, he wasn’t entirely sure where it came from, but the mystery was immediately solved after he turned his head towards the end of the hallway. He saw them only for a moment - they were passing by the A dorms - but even that was enough.

He turned back towards the magician who finally managed to find his keys, and was now trying to unlock the doors. Emphasis on trying, since his hands were too shaky to successfully insert the key. Taehyung rolled his eyes before he grabbed his hand and took the keys from him. He unlocked the door himself, and opened it with an exaggerated bow.

The magician swallowed whatever it was he wanted to say before he walked past him into the room, very careful not to touch him. Taehyung paused at the doorway, glancing towards the end of the hallway despite knowing they were long gone by now.

It didn’t happen often, but he truly didn’t know what to do. Finding new and improved way to get his masters killed had always been one of his favorite pastimes. He enjoyed watching them die even if he wasn’t the one who had caused it. But he also enjoyed playing games - especially when his opponent was intelligent, and knew exactly how to challenge him.