I wake up to Lucy banging on my door.

“Wha-,” I croak groggily, but I don’t even have time to regain my bearings before Lucy yanks me out of bed.

“You need to get downstairs now,” she says.

“Wha- why?”

“We’ve called you a million times- when did you sleep last night?”

“Uh... really late. What’s happening?”

“Just get dressed and come down.” And then Lucy closes my door and runs back downstairs.

A cold feeling of trepidation sinks through my skin. My hands are shaking as I hastily pull on a t-shirt and shorts. My bedhead and morning breath can wait- I have a bad feeling about this.

“Can you tell me what’s happening-,” I say, marching down to the living room.

My jaw drops.

“Oh, there she is!” Jungkook drawls from the couch, his feet kicked up on Lucy’s coffee table. A single laptop is sitting on the cushion next to his. Lucy, Sofia, Dev, and Tom are standing around him, looking incredibly tense.

“It’s already 1 PM, sleepyhead. What were you up doing last night?”

“None of your business,” I retort. “What the hell are you doing here?”

His smirk widens.

“You need someone to hack into the Kado’s system, don’t you?”

Oh. I guess Lucy and Jin spoke to Jungkook at the party last night, and he agreed to hack into the system. Great.

But why does everyone look so uneasy?

“What am I missing here?” I ask warily.

Lucy grimaces. “Joo.... we didn’t ask him to do this. He approached us.”

“Wait, what?”

Jungkook chuckles. “Why do you think I started hooking up with Lucy in the first place? I mean, don’t get me wrong,” he adds, throwing her a nasty leer. “Tight aside, what’s so special about her?”

“What the are you on about?” I hiss as Lucy scowls.

He leans back in the sofa. “I’ve known something was off with Lucy since our sophomore year. I mess around with the Kado mainframe enough to know when something’s up. Why would a regular student have such an empty file? Why was there so much encryption around her data? And why in the world was Jimin so interested in her?”

“So why didn’t you do something about it earlier?” I ask.

“I did.” Jungkook laughs.

I look around at my friends in utter confusion. “Can someone please be straightforward?”

“Apparently, Jungkook has been doing a lot of very illegal backend Kado stuff,” Jin says between gritted teeth.

“Did you know I’ve been sending Jimin old pictures of Lucy?” Jungkook asks gleefully. “He’s freaked out of his ing mind. It’s hilarious. Almost as funny as hooking up with her.”

“What the ,” I breathe. “Are you actually crazy?”

“No,” he hums. “I’m just bored.”

My jaw drops from the sheer insanity of all this. Jungkook’s airheaded, idiotic boy facade has disappeared, replaced with a chaotic evil sociopath. The fact that he’s known about Lucy’s true identity is the cherry on top.

But I’m still missing something.

“So now what? What are you trying to accomplish with all this?” I question.

“I’m willing to hack through the system with Dev and figure out the real story behind all this.”

My eyes narrow. “What do you want in return?”

Jungkook chortles. “A fair price.”

Everyone is silent as he laughs. I see Dev’s fists tighten. Sofia looks like she’s about to strangle Jungkook.

“What you want goes against the Kado’s core commandments,” Jin says in a quiet voice. “This is crazy. Even for you.”

“What are you doing to do? Report me?” Jungkook sneers. “Should I mention that you’ve been helping the Hado this whole time?”

“What does he want?” I softly ask Dev, dread creeping over me.

He crosses his arms.

“He wants Lucy’s power,” he responds tonelessly.

It feels like I’ve been run over by a steamroller. I close my eyes, attempting to process what I’ve just been told.

“You’re joking,” I finally say.

“Nope.” Jungkook says. “Isn’t it even? Lucy’s life and identity in exchange for her magic.”

Holy ing . This is why everyone looked so angry and terrified.

“You’re out of your ing mind,” I say.

“Not quite.”

“Why do you even need her magic? You’re already a part of the Kado! And apparently, you’re smart enough to hack the Kado computer systems-,”

“Jungkook wants to be Junior Vice Captain,” Jin angrily cuts in.

Jungkook throws him an irritated look. “Hey. Let me make my grand reveals myself.”

“You want to be Junior Vice?” I screech. “You?”

Jungkook’s expression darkens at that. “Why? I can’t?”

“Isn’t Jimin already Junior Vice?”

Jungkook crosses his arms. “If he’s defeated in a battle by someone more powerful, he’s forced to cede his position. That someone will be me.”

“Jungkook, you really think you can build your path of leadership in the Kado on violating the biggest rule in the book?” Jin says, his voice rising. “That’s the first thing we learn when we’re kids! You. Can’t. Take. Magic!”

Jungkook guffaws. “For an organization that’s supposed to represent the evil in the universe, we sure do have a lot of rules.”

“This isn’t about evil or good- this is about the way of the universe-,”

“Really? So I’m just supposed to accept that Jimin or Taehyung or even Lucy’s born with stronger powers than me?” Jungkook shoots up, all pretenses of condescension gone. “I’ve spent my whole life looked down by you people because I’m younger and weaker and dumber-,”

“No one’s called you weak or dumb-,”

“I know what you all really think!” Jungkook roars. I become distinctly aware of a buzzing sound enveloping the room- it feels like the room is slowly disintegrating, melting away at the corners. I grab the closest person to me- Dev- out of alarm.

“See? You can’t even control your powers!” Jin shouts. “You want to be Junior Vice?”

He slashes his hand through the air. The buzzing disappears, and the room seems to right itself. Jungkook looks absolutely livid.

I can’t tell if Dev’s the one trembling or I am. Both of us are probably shaking like a power blender. Tom and Sofia are protectively standing around Lucy, their hands around her shoulders.

Jungkook is clearly unstable. Nothing good can come of this.

“I’m going to give you all a bit of time to think about it,” Jungkook says abruptly. The anger has disappeared off his face, leaving only a lazy half-smile. We all watch in silence as he strolls across the living room, through the foyer, and out the door. The resounding slam! echoes through the house.

For several moments, we can only stand in utter and complete shock.

I don't know what's more terrifying. Jungkook's wild expression, Jin and Tom's terrified whispering, or the fact that Lucy looks like she's actually considering taking Jungkook's deal.

You are a stupid , the little voice inside my head whispers as I ring the doorbell. What would your friends say if they knew you were here?

When there’s no response, I ring the doorbell again.

It’s almost like you want to get killed. Why would you think this is a good idea?

My finger moves to ring the doorbell again- before the door flies open.

“What the are you doing here?” Jimin hisses. He’s clad in nothing but a pair of checkered pajama pants, revealing toned muscles and a six-pack. Judging by his tousled hair and raspy voice, he just got up.

“I need to talk to you,” I say.

“Do you want to die?”

“It’s important. Seriously.” I put my hands up. “This isn’t a trap. I’m coming to your turf. Alone. No one knows I’m here.”

Jimin narrows his eyes. “Okay, so you really do have a death wish-,”

“Please.”

He looks at me for a long, long moment. I hide my trembling hands in the pockets of my sweater.

And then he finally rolls his eyes and opens the door wider.

“Come in,” he mutters.

I let out a deep breath. Thank god.

“How do you even know where I live?” he grumbles, grabbing a t-shirt from the dryer.

“I came here that one time you had a party... you know, to pick up Lucy?”

Jimin’s jaw clenches. “Right. Well. Make it quick.”

“You need to give Lucy her memories back.”

His face darkens; he strides towards me, saying, “How many times have we been through this-,”

“No, Jimin, seriously, I think she’s going to do something insane-,”

“Oh, she’s going to me to try and get access to her memories? Been there, done th-,”

“She’s going to give up her magic in exchange for her memories,” I blurt out.

Jimin freezes.

Time seems to slow as he takes in what I have said- no, time and space are literally slowing, I can see particles slowing down by my body- the air feels like honey- I struggle to take a breath in. I have never experienced anything like this before, not with Taehyung or Jungkook or even Jimin himself.

“What are you talking about?” Jimin whispers.

My mouth struggles to open- my vocal cords cannot even form sounds-

“.” Jimin closes his eyes, breathes in with five steady beats, breathes out. Slowly, the terrifying sensation surrounding me ebbs away. The moment I am able to breathe in, my body kicks into overdrive, frantically gasping for air.

“What- the - was that?!” I choke out.

“Sorry,” he utters, his eyes still closed. “I- that hasn’t happened in a while. I don’t lose control like that.”

“I thought you... losing control... was just making everything hot,” I pant. “Like that burning sensation in the air.”

Jimin lets out a humorless laugh. “That burning sensation is the heat released when my body suppresses my powers. Everytime I experience strong emotions, a spell has to kick into overdrive so I don’t accidentally... do what I just did.”

Jesus christ. That’s ing terrifying. Half of me is desperately curious to know more (is it like an exothermic reaction? What kind of spell works like that?), but I doubt Jimin will want to explain all that information.

Especially after the bombshell I just dropped.