“Do me a favour?”

“What?”

“Be nice to Jungkook.”

“I’d rather drink bleach,” Yoona growled as she slapped Yugyeom’s fingers away from her face and snuggled deeper into the blankets. Eun, who had crept inside the cocoon a little while back, awarded Yoona with a claw in the knee for being jostled. Apparently temperamental felines didn’t appreciate being woken up in the ungodly hours of the morning either.

Yugyeom chuckled in amusement as he took a seat on the edge of the bed, nudging his sister’s ribcage with his feet. “Look, I know it doesn’t seem like it, but he does get lonely at times.” He paused to heave a sigh, as if the mere thought itself was tiring him already. “It’s not good for him. All I’m asking is that you check on him once a day-”

“Do you want me to shave your eyebrows off in your sleep?”

“Okay, every other day then. Just make sure he comes for dinner every night.”

Yoona poked her head out from underneath her safe haven and shot her brother a withering glare. “You do realise that you’re subjecting me to torture, right?”

“I do.” Yugyeom jut his lower lip out and smacked a palm on his chest. “And I thank you for your bravery in enduring it.”

Eun, tired of having zero peace and quiet from the humans, crawled out from underneath the blanket and padded his way to the window sill.

“Whose brother are you?”

Yugyeom rolled his eyes as he reached down to rip the blanket off of her. “Yours and his. Now get up and tell me why you never told me you liked him.”

... what?

Oh. Yugyeom was referring to the brutal rejection he had walked in on last night at the party. A rejection that had been conjured from little to no substance. Yoona had neatly clocked Jungkook in the head when he had lied. They didn’t even like each other. Her opinion of his physical appearance eventually narrowed down to two points: she liked the look of his face, and would also like to smash something on it. His personality? There was so much left to be desired, there was no point in even trying.

There was absolutely zero romantic interest. Yugyeom should have known that Jungkook was lying. There was no way he genuinely believed that she actually liked the demon living next door.

Yugyeom took her silence as embarrassment and quickly tried to salvage the situation. “Yoyo, you know you can tell me anything, right? I don’t care if it’s embarrassing, mundane or just plain ridiculous. I want to know everything and I will listen to you.”

Oh great. Now she felt terrible for lying point blank to her precious brother’s face. She might as well just give him some semblance of the truth. “I don’t like Jungkook.”

“Are you sure?” Yugyeom squinted his eyes as if to pinpoint the signs of any lies on his sister’s face. ‘You kind of look at him like you do. At Yoona’s flabbergasted expression, he was quick to backtrack and offer a haste explanation. “I see you staring at his house sometimes, and you seem to make an extra effort to be mean to him for no solid reason.”

“My reason is actually really good.”

“Oh?”

“I hate him.”

“Except,” Yugyeom spoke gently, as if talking to a toddler on the verge of a temper tantrum, “you don’t. I know you, and I know that it seems like you like him. I’m telling you, if I can see it then he can too.”

Who would have thought someone apart from her own minister stepfather believed her to be a smouldering temptress who led sweet little boys astray? Tempting Jungkook with flirtations had not been an attempt at seduction, but to rile him up in her own little twist on revenge. It was power. There was nothing worth falling for when it came to Jungkook.

“Believe what you want,” Yoona muttered as she glared a hole in the ceiling. “I don’t care.”

“Well I do.” After a brief pause, Yugyeom suddenly remembered Jungkook’s hand on a sleeping Yoona’s head a moment ago. “And I don’t want you two dating.”

“Oh my god, get out”

“This is my room. You get out.”

BamBam rolled up to pick Yugyeom up twenty minutes later. It was almost difficult to see the black sedan pull up past the thick rolls of fog clogging the street. Yoona stuffed her hands into the pockets of her pyjama pants and curled her toes, wincing at the gritty asphalt underneath. She probably should have gone in to fetch her slippers, but her pride was blocking the way.

“Good morning!” BamBam chirped as he hopped out of the car, and shoving past a bewildered, open armed Yugyeom, ran straight to Yoona to scoop her up in an alarmingly tight hug.

As Yoona struggled to breathe properly, she managed to squeak out a “how are you two so awake?”

“Coffee,” BamBam bounced on the heels of his shoes as he set her down. “Three full cups of it.” After a moment of watching Yoona bend over to dramatically inhale bouts of air, he looked up and down the street with narrowed eyes. “Where’s Jungkook? I’m surprised he’s not latched onto Yugyeom and begging him not to go.”