Jimin’s breath was caught in his throat, unbelieving his eyes. There, in the middle of the air, were tiny particles of ice, iridescent with the sunset’s light, that were slowly falling to the floor. It was a mesmerising sight, and at the same time, terrifying. Terrifying because in the middle of that little clearing of the forest where they all were, a cyclops was standing, staring at them with a mixture of hatred and fear.

But he couldn’t harm them even if he wanted to. He was frozen in place. Literally frozen. And the cause of that was standing between him and Jungkook, with his arms raised and panting in a frantic way. Yoongi’s knees gave up, and he fell to the floor, shaking. That made the prince react, getting up and approaching the blond. He put a hand on his shoulder.

“Hyung…”

“Don’t you ever,” the older said, angry, “do that to me again.”

“I’m sorry—”

“No, Jungkook. You can’t just be reckless every goddamn time and then apologize for it, okay? It doesn’t work that way.”

“But I had to do something!”

“You didn’t have to do !” Yoongi yelled. “And I swear to you if you’re not gonna change that attitude of yours I’m gonna send you back to the castle and lock you up until your father puts some common sense in that brainless head of yours!”

“That is enough, Yoongi.” Both knight and prince turned their heads to look at the source of the voice. It was Seokjin. And he was mad. He approached them, leaving behind different astonished faces that were gaping at both of them. Honestly, Yoongi had completely forgotten about all of them. Seokjin stood then next to them, frowning. “That is no way to treat Jungkook. He is grown up enough. And you,” he said as he turned his body to look at the younger. “Don’t think that I am excusing you. Yoongi is right. You acted in an irresponsible manner when we told you to stay put. I hope you won’t let this situation happen again.”

“How can you say that?” Jungkook exclaimed. “We were in danger! That thing was gonna kill us and the fairies, and none of you did anything!”

“Jungkook,” Namjoon said from behind, throwing him a sympathetic look, “that cyclops wasn’t going to kill anyone.”

Jungkook blinked at him. “What?”

“Cyclops are big and dumb creatures, but they are not bad. Sure, they do some damage—they can’t help it being that big, but they don’t purposely attack people… Unless they are threatened.” He saw the horror invade Jungkook’s features when he realized what he meant. “We just had to let him pass by.”

“I… I didn’t know…” he whispered, lowering his head.

“It’s okay. But next time just listen to us, okay?” he said in a gentle tone. He then turned around and gestured at Hoseok with his head. The black haired boy looked at Namjoon for a couple of seconds, confused, until he gasped forming a small ‘o’, understanding.

He turned to look at Winter and made a small bow with his head. “Sorry for disturbing your territory—”

“What are you going to do about that?” she exclaimed, pointing at the cyclops. He was still looking at them angrily. It was disturbing. “The ice is gonna melt sooner or later!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll send a message to bring here royal knights and they’ll take care of it. They’ll probably be here by midnight if I send the message now. Would you be able to hold it?” Hoseok said, gesturing towards the cyclops.

“I guess…” Winter mumbled in a doubtful tone.

“Again, we’re deeply sorry,” Seokjin said, bowing. The rest of the boys did the same. “If you need help, we’ll stay with you. If not, we’ll leave immediately and continue our way. We wouldn’t want to intrude any more than necessary.”

Winter didn’t seem to mind, but the rest of the fairies that were gathering behind her were giving them the stink eye. Fair enough, Taehyung thought. Even the animals that were in the surroundings of the clearing looked irritated. Therefore, they apologized again and started to move. Taehyung had to gently nudge Jimin and say his name to make him move. He had been paralyzed the whole time on the floor, looking at the cyclops with big eyes. He blinked, looking at his surroundings as he slowly got up.

They all bid farewell to the fairies after Hoseok sent a message flying, and they started walking towards the town that Seokjin mentioned before they even encountered the little snow fairy. They walked; Taehyung, Hoseok and Jimin being behind, Jungkook and (a very pissed) Yoongi in the middle, and Namjoon and Seokjin leading the group. The pink haired boy couldn’t help but to stare at Yoongi’s back.

Ice. Cold. That made so much sense. Why didn’t he figure it out before? He already noticed that when Yoongi lost his temper, he could lose a bit of control over his power. Many times he noticed how he bended the hangers of their room, or the metal ring he wore, when Jimin got on his nerves. So of course. All those times he suddenly felt cold around Yoongi... It was his hidden power. It was so obvious, and Jimin felt so dumb.

It was kind of a consolation that the only ones who knew were Jungkook and Namjoon, and because they knew him since they were kids (Seokjin suspected something after the flower rose incident, but he didn’t dare say anything). Jimin kept thinking about it, stupidly feeling sad about it for no apparent reason. Until someone pinched his arm.

“Ouch!”

“Jiiiimiiiiiinnn…”

“What, Tae?” Jimin asked, irked.

“You’re not listening to me,” the tanned boy pouted.

“Ah, sorry,” he mumbled, scratching his nose. “What were you saying?”

“I’m not gonna repeat everything again,” Taehyung huffed. “I’m tired. Piggyback?”

Jimin sighed. He couldn’t say no to Taehyung when he was showing him his puppy eyes. So, that way, he ended up carrying his backpack on his chest, while he carried Taehyung (and Taehyung’s backpack) on his back. It was easy with Taehyung. Well, it was actually easy with anyone, really, Jimin didn’t have a problem with any person’s weight. But Taehyung had a tendency of clinging to him like a koala, so even if he didn’t hold him wholeheartedly, Taehyung stayed on his back, unmoving.

“Not fair!” Hoseok whined. “I want a piggyback too.”

That made the pink haired boy chuckle. “Maybe I can carry you tomorrow.”

“Nooooo!” Taehyung whined, making some of the boys turn around to look at him for a second, frowning. “Who’s gonna carry me if you’re carrying Hobi-hyung?”

“Not my problem,” Jimin shrugged, smirking.

“There’s four more backs in the group to annoy, Tae,” Hoseok giggled.

Taehyung stuck his tongue out, offended. But then he actually looked ahead, humming, as if he was actually thinking of who could carry him around. And he decided.

“Jungkook.”

The younger turned around, confused. “Huh?”

“Your back looks strong.”

That simple statement made Jimin snort when he saw Jungkook make garbling embarrassed noises, which made Yoongi turn around and squint his eyes at the group he had behind.

“Hopefully the town we’re going to will have a bus line or something and when we go to the next stop we won’t have to walk,” he grumbled.

“What, Yoongi? Are you tired of walking?” Seokjin asked. “Maybe Jimin should carry you for a bit, hm?”

“ off,” the knight said in a flat tone.

However, Hoseok was trying really hard not to laugh, and Taehyung noticed. Still clinging to Jimin, he reached for Hoseok’s t-shirt and pulled his sleeve to make him come closer.

“What’s so funny?” Taehyung whispered with a big smile on his face. Hoseok’s laugh was contagious. When Hoseok shook his head, still smiling, something clicked in Taehyung’s head. “You saw something in him didn’t you?”

“Saw what?” Jimin asked, confused. Why were those two giggling?

“What was he feeling?” the tanned boy insisted.

“What are you guys talking about?”

“Nothing,” Hoseok chuckled.

That made Jimin actually pout. Cute, Hoseok thought. It made him wonder what would be his reaction if he knew what Yoongi actually felt about the idea of Jimin carrying him around.

They arrived at town, and just as Seokjin thought, there was a hostel there. It was getting pretty dark, so they decided it was best to pass the night in there. After getting some rooms, they decided to have a walk and ask around to the people that there were still out if they had seen Taela or if they had heard anything about her. Unfortunately, no one had seen her at all. Therefore, Namjoon stated that they would go back to the hostel, rest, and in the morning they would ask again.

If it turned out that no one knew anything, they would take the bus—amazingly enough, Yoongi was right. There was a bus stop at the entrance of the town. The bus would probably take them to one of the nearest cities, and they could continue their search from there. There was a high possibility that Taela just wanted to go away from home to live her own life as an anonymous citizen somewhere where her mother wouldn’t find her.

The hostel where they were staying had a public bath, which made part of the group very excited. They tried to convince the rest to go together, but Namjoon and Seokjin were tired and wanted to plan their search route, Yoongi wanted to sleep (he always wanted to sleep, Jimin thought with exasperation) and Jungkook was just too shy. So in the end, only Hoseok, Taehyung and Jimin went to the baths. Namjoon and Seokjin stayed in the room where the two of them plus Hoseok would sleep, planning the next day. Jungkook could hear their voices through the wall of his room next door.

Obviously, Jungkook stayed in a room with Yoongi. There was no discussion for that. It led to Jimin and Taehyung sharing the other room. It was natural, Jungkook thought. Childhood friends would stick together, and friends that have shared years in the academy would do the same. Their room settings couldn’t have been any other way. But it bothered Jungkook. Maybe not the fact that he couldn’t share a room with anyone else but Yoongi, but the fact that he was too damn shy to go to the baths with his friends. So there he was, annoyed at himself and trying not to think what the others were doing.

“What’s bugging you,” Yoongi suddenly said from his bed, not even looking at him. Even if they were awkward with each other right now and Jungkook wanted to be mad at him, the blond was his best friend. Of course he would notice something was off.

“What?” the younger tried to ask in a tone that stated he didn’t know what Yoongi was implying. But he was fooling no one.

“You’re mad about something else... Apart from me being a jerk.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call you a jerk exactly…” Jungkook muttered. After hearing it, Yoongi just turned around and raised his head to stare at him and raise an eyebrow. “Okay, maybe yes.”

“I figured,” the older shrugged as he leaned back again on the bed.

“I just don’t understand why you have to control every aspect of my life,” Jungkook complained.

“Because I worry about what can happen to you,” Yoongi simply stated. He said it with such simplicity and sincerity, it made Jungkook feel bad.

“I know you do…” the prince mumbled. “But you don’t have to take everything to the extreme. I’m almost an adult, you know. I can make my own decisions. And I know I screw up most of the time, like today, but it is exactly because you don’t let me do anything by myself that the few times I can actually do it, I do it wrong. And it makes me feel like . I feel like I’m going to be awful at my responsibilities in the future. So I’d really like it if you let me some space—”

“You’re not gonna be awful.”

“Oh, really? Because I feel like I’m gonna screw up big time. Just like today. I almost got everyone killed because I couldn’t stay put. Because I felt like I had to prove something to you and—”

Yoongi sighed, sitting up on the bed to look at the prince in the eye. “Look, Jungkook… You don’t have to prove anything, okay? You’re just inexperienced. Your brother went through the same, and I bet your father did too. I know you have a lot of potential for this, so don’t think about it. And about me meddling in your social life or whatever… I