Jungkook honestly wasn’t sure whether to mark the day as a disaster or as a success. On one hand, he was once again in possession of his laptop – and consequently an assignment that had been on it – which meant he wasn’t going to be kicked out of school (at least not yet). On the other hand, the demon now knew he wasn’t enrolled in the academy under his real name.

Which wasn’t a problem by itself - the demon didn’t know his real name, and there was nothing on the school grounds that could help him find it. Jungkook wasn’t in any worse position because of the demon’s newly acquired knowledge.

Or at least that was what he had been telling himself for the past couple of minutes. He had actually believed it at first - he only started thinking of it as a problem after he saw the expression on the demon’s face when he learned the truth. Jungkook still wasn’t entirely sure what the emotion was, but it seemed suspiciously similar to excitement. It might have only been there for a second, but even that was enough to firmly decide to dismiss the demon as soon as possible and never summon him again. And, of course, hope the current king won’t summon him either.

He knew he was most likely blowing things out of proportion - it was just like him to find an issue where there was none, honestly. The demon’s expression could mean a number of things, but of course his thoughts had to immediately jump to the worst conclusion. He actually had to force himself to take a couple of metaphorical steps back and focus on analyzing the best possible outcome first - the demon only pretending to be excited in order to get a reaction. It certainly wouldn’t be impossible, especially considering how well the demon seemed to be able to read him. Jungkook tried to convince himself that was what it was, but even so, he couldn’t dismiss the possibility the demon’s behavior had been genuine. When you wanted to succeed – or in this case; not die – you always had to prepare for the worst outcome.

But how do you prepare for the possibility that the demon had become fixated on you? The truth of the matter was that demons usually didn’t care what happened to their masters after they were dismissed. They searched for the ways to destroy their plans, annoy them, hurt them or even murder them when they were under a magician’s control. But after they were dismissed, they no longer cared – the humans were so interchangeable for them that they didn’t attempt any kind of revenge on the former master once they were summoned by their new one.

Of course, there were exceptions. None of them survived for very long – or were they lucky enough to die a quick and painless death.

Jungkook took a deep breath, telling himself he needed to stop thinking about it – it won’t save anything, and he already wasted too much time as it was.

He took a quick look around the room before stepping forward and carefully kneeling on the floor. He had covered the pentagram with the carpet before he left the room, and now he slowly rolled it, lifting it on the bed. As soon as it was out of the way, his eyes traveled over the lines drawn with chalk, and he suppressed a sigh. The pentagram was in a pretty bad condition – he was looking at at least an hour of work.

Resigned to his fate, he picked up a chalk and was just about to redraw the first line, when the demon grabbed his wrist. It was completely unexpected, and happened so fast Jungkook involuntary flinched, his thoughts already running over all possible mistakes in the Orders that would allow the demon to hurt him.

“I thinks it’s in your best interest if you don’t.” said the demon, his voice as usually filled with amusement. Jungkook opened his mouth to ask him to clarify, but the demon wasn’t done speaking. “Your darling National Security seemed to have decided the Founders day is a perfect time to perform a search. Certainly a smart move on their part – you wouldn’t notice until it was too late.” he said, pausing for a moment before adding as an afterthought; “I saw them passing by the A dorms a minute ago.”

Jungkook froze, a wave of fear crushing against him before he could even rationalize what the demon was saying. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm the rapid beat of his heart, and pressed his shaky fingers against his legs, more to hide his weakness from himself than from the demon. He absently wondered whether this was one of the reasons he had been deemed unable to do magic – the fact he always overreacted.

There was no way the demon was telling the truth. The National Security had already searched the whole academy from top to the bottom. He had to buy a new laptop because they seized the old one, and every single person living or working here was monitored for over a month. It was very thorough, and Jungkook doubted they needed to do it again. Unless… Unless their tactic was to make him feel safe enough to acquire the supplies and summon the demon again. The founders day would be a perfect time to do that – there were so many people at the school that no one would be particularly concerned if he saw a stranger loitering around. For the same reason, the Founders day was also perfect for conducting a search. Of course they had no confirmation that he was going to summon a demon again, but he knew that barely mattered when it came to a situation this serious.

Jungkook wanted to kick himself for not seeing it before. Now he was probably as good as dead. He couldn’t dismiss the demon - they would sense the magic and immediately come knocking on his door (or rather knocking his door down). And - taking the previous summoning into consideration - there was no way he could control the demon. The orders had not been given with the dangers of National Security conducting another search in mind, and the demon had already proven himself to be very resourceful - Jungkook was sure he was going to find a way to sabotage him.

Taking a deep breath, he looked up at the demon. “Why are you telling me this?” he wondered, even though he had a strong inkling he already knew. If the National Security truly just passed by the A dorms that meant there was still time to dispose of the evidence - he calculated that he had approximately an hour. It was not much, but it was enough. If the demon hadn’t told him about the danger, he would certainly get caught – but only after he dismissed him. The demon wouldn’t be there to see him panic, which was most likely the reason he told him; he wanted to see his reaction. At least that meant he didn’t become fixated on him and Jungkook had just been feeding his own anxiety by giving the demon’s brief expression of excitement a sinister meaning.

The demon took a long look at his nails. “Because” he said “you’re far more entertaining alive.” His lips formed an amused smile before he added: “For now, at least.”

Jungkook just nodded in reply. He had been right – the demon told him because he wanted a reaction. Sadly, that didn’t mean he wasn’t planning to make sure Jungkook gets caught. It was actually quite likely he revealed the information because he wanted to play a role in his capture.

Jungkook pressed his lips into a thin line. Why was he so incredibly bad at this? He had thought he was ready, but his previous and current experiences told a very different story. The demon could somehow tell exactly what he was thinking, and had absolutely no problems with thoroughly ruining his plans. He should have just let them kick him out of the academy – losing a high social status wouldn’t kill him (probably), while dealing with this demon just might.

He stumbled on his – strangely week – feet, and slowly walked towards the closet where he kept his cleaning products. Magic left traces, the kind demons almost always managed to pick up on. If he didn’t want to get arrested, he had to remove them the best he could.

He picked up a rag, sizing up the room to determine where it would be best to begin. After a few seconds of pondering, he decided cleaning the floor first was probably not such a bad idea – the pentagram was still clearly visible, after all.

“I’ll help.” said the demon, taking a step forward.

“No you won’t.” immediately responded Jungkook. He was sure the demon was planning to purposely leave traces of magic for National Security to find. It was true it would go much faster if he had a helping hand, but he really couldn’t afford the risk.

The demon raised both of his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Suit yourself then.” he said, throwing himself on the bed and crossing his legs. There was a small smile on his lips, one Jungkook was unable to interpret and that somehow made him even more nervous than he already was.

The next half an hour passed incredibly fast. He scrubbed every surface in the room twice, the demon observing his every move. He could practically feel his eyes on his back, and was greeted with an amused smile and a tilted head every time he turned around. It was obvious that the demon was enjoying himself – Jungkook suspected he was probably already imagining the look on Jungkook’s face once he gets caught.

He pressed his lips together as he opened the door to his small bathroom and threw the rug in the sink. “You wanted to help?” he asked sharply once he turned back around. “Change the sheets.”

It probably wasn’t a good idea, but the time was running out and he really didn’t see how the demon could sabotage him at this point. He certainly planned to check whether anything was missing before taking the bedding and the clothes he was currently wearing to the laundry room, and there was no way the demon could transfer traces of magic from the sheets to anything else.

The demon responded by saluting him, his lips curled into an amused smile. Jungkook ignored him as he grabbed the spare clothes from the closet and stepped into the bathroom to shower. When he returned to the room, the demon already completed his task and was once again leisurely sitting on the bed.

Jungkook noticed his eyes slowly travelled from his head to his feet. There was something dark in them, and Jungkook did not like the expression on his face. He crossed his arms in hope it will make him feel a bit less defenseless.

“That’s an interesting transformation.” said the demon. “I thought you liked pastels.” He pointed at his clothes that were now black, as opposed to light jeans and a blue t-shirt he had been wearing previously. Jungkook didn’t need to be a genius to figure out the demon had connected the dots and now knew he had changed his appearance specifically for him. Knowing the demon had this information certainly made him anxious, but he realized it couldn’t be helped – he most likely won’t be able to dismiss him for at least a month after this, and he certainly didn’t have enough of lightly-colored clothes to last him that long.

He picked up his bedding and the clothes, checking everything was there before leaving the room. What he was doing wasn’t exactly unusual – a lot of people did their laundry on the morning of the Founder’s day to prepare for their families’ arrival in the afternoon – but he still hoped he wasn’t going to meet anyone on his way to the laundry room.

Luck unfortunately wasn’t on his side - he had just loaded the washing machine and was preparing to leave when the door opened and in stepped Namjoon, with Yoongi following close behind. Jungkook schooled his expression into one of nonchalance, wondering what he did to deserve this. He must have been a particularly bad person in his previous life.

He slowly looked from Yoongi to Namjoon and then back at Yoongi, not entirely sure how to react. He quickly determined that Yoongi most likely wasn’t a problem – he had a habit of immediately getting to the point; if he had anything to say he would have already said it. Namjoon on the other hand seemed to be having the same problem as Jungkook. For a moment or two they just stared at each other, clearly waiting for the other to make the first move. Namjoon gave up first. “Eunjae” he said with a bitter expression on his face. “Doing some washing?”

“What else would a person be doing in the laundry room?” responded Jungkook as calmly as possible, trying not to think about the fact that Namjoon was probably the worst person he could have met while trying to remove incriminating evidence.

And just as if the universe wanted to prove him right, Namjoon asked; “What happened to your clothes?” By which he was of course referring to the clothes he wore earlier today, those that were currently in the washer. Jungkook cursed his classmate for being so observant - it was probably what he disliked most about him. From the very beginning it had been obvious that he somehow knew Jungkook wasn’t who he pretended to be – which he would have no trouble getting used to if Namjoon didn’t clearly perceive him as a threat.

“I wore them to break into your room.” he answered, nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders. The clothes were one of the first things people noticed when reporting a crime, so his explanation did make at least a little bit of sense. Especially considering that Namjoon had surely noticed Jungkook paid a lot of attention to details.

His classmate crossed his arms on his chest, and Jungkook suddenly realized that might have been a wrong thing to say – after all, he had just managed to remind Namjoon on their encounter earlier this day. The one where the demon was very much present. “How did you break into my room?” asked Namjoon, pausing for a second before adding; “And who was the person with you?”

Jungkook took a deep breath, annoyed that he somehow managed to get himself into an even bigger mess than he was already in. At this point, diverting Namjoon’s attention to something else was probably his best option. He figured it was time they stopped dancing around the issue and finally get to what this was really about.

“A demon.” he answered, his tone mocking. “Is that what you wanted to hear?” The second question was rhetorical - the answer to it was, after all, obvious to both of them. It wasn’t news that Namjoon was observant and prepared to believe the worst when it came to Jungkook. He knew about his most-likely-failed-test problem, and that seemed to be all he needed to begin suspecting Jungkook was the one who had summoned the demon.

Namjoon responded by giving him an unimpressed look. “I don’t think you can blame me for suspecting you.” he said.

Jungkook took a deep breath, trying to suppress the urge to sigh in exasperation. “Yes I can. Especially when your effort to prove it almost made me miss the deadline. You could have at least left me the copies of the assignment.” he said, even though he could recognize the cleverness of Namjoon’s thinking. If he left the copies Jungkook would immediately know it was him, and Namjoon would have a lot less time to find what he was looking for.

“Besides – if I did summon a demon – do you really think I would leave traces of it on my computer?” he wondered. The truth was that he couldn’t exactly blame Namjoon for thinking he had found the necessary information on summoning online. It was the easiest way to get it, provided you knew where to look. What Namjoon didn’t know though, was that this information was mostly useless. He supposed it was possible for someone extremely intelligent to put the pieces together successfully, but that scenario was highly unlikely. You had a much bigger chance of being found in a pool of your own blood – that is if there was anything left of you at all. He couldn’t exactly disclose any of that to Namjoon, though.

“I think you did your best to remove them, but that doesn’t mean you were successful.” responded Namjoon.

“Right.” said Jungkook, deciding it was probably a perfect time to at least attempt to end the conversation. He knew he could say practically anything, and Namjoon would still suspect him, so talking will definitely get him nowhere. Besides, he was perfectly satisfied as long as he managed to keep Namjoon’s attention away from the demon. “Let me know when you have an actual proof.”

He stepped around his classmate with every intention to leave the laundry room and return to his room. Time was running out, and with every passing second he could feel himself becoming more and more nervous. He absent mindedly wiped his sweaty hands in the fabric of his trousers, and tried to open the door that led onto the hallway. Not the simplest of tasks when Yoongi was leaning on them.

Jungkook sighed. “What?” he asked, taking a few steps back. He truly hated being anywhere near Yoongi.

“How did you unlock Namjoon’s door?” asked Yoongi, his expression as calm and unbothered as practically every other time Jungkook had a misfortune of seeing him around.

His words made Jungkook freeze on the spot. He tried to relax and feign nonchalance, but he knew his acting wasn’t particularly convincing. Thankfully, it really didn’t seem Yoongi cared. Jungkook couldn’t believe his own stupidity – he had been so preoccupied with removing traces of magic from his own room that the fact V used magic on Namjoon’s door somehow managed to slip his mind. It surely left an obvious trace - the National Security only had to ask Namjoon if someone broke into his room or check the security cameras, and he was as good as dead.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his furiously beating heart. He wasn’t entirely sure how to respond, but he still opened his mouth in an attempt to speak. Yoongi beat him to it, however. “Namjoon get out.” he ordered.

“What?” asked Namjoon in obvious confusion. “But I have to…”

Yoongi didn’t let him finish the sentence. “Just trust me.” he said. Namjoon was obviously doubtful, but he nodded his agreement all the same. Jungkook would prefer if he didn’t – the last thing he needed right now was to be stuck in the room alone with Yoongi. Usually, even the thought of that managed to send shivers down his spine, and today was no different.

Once the door closed behind Namjoon, Yoongi looked at jungkook with the same unbothered expression he usually wore. “I like it here.” he said. Jungkook believed him - living at the academy probably allowed more freedom than Yoongi had had for a very long time.

“And I thought we had a deal.” he continued. “But I guess you can never trust a magician.”

Jungkook would love to point out that he didn’t break his promise – if he could even call it that -, but he had an inkling Yoongi definitely wasn’t going to see it that way, and he had neither time nor energy for an argument. However, knowing Yoongi, he had to say something if he didn’t want them to spend the next minute staring at each other in silence. He settled for; “I’m technically not a magician.”

“You summoned a demon and survived.” Yoongi pointed out. “That makes you a magician.”

“Okay.” responded Jungkook, crossing his arms on his chest and trying not to think about the fact that the National Security was probably already in the A dorms, and he still needed to get rid of his supplies and do something about the traces left on Namjoon’s door. He would love to point that out to Yoongi, but he was sure he already knew.

“I’ll take care of it.” said Yoongi. Jungook knew he meant the traces of magic left on Namjoon’s door, and the relief upon hearing these words was overwhelming. He knew he probably – no, not probably, definitely - shouldn’t trust him, but he truly did believe Yoongi wanted to stay at the academy. He had seen more than enough evidence of it in the two years they had been here, not to mention it was only logical considering what Yoongi would be forced to do as an alternative. They both knew his time at the academy was dependent on Jungkook’s enrollment, so Yoongi certainly had motivation to help him. Jungkook just hoped he evaluated him correctly.