your mind's been out of your body

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/30504843.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Relationship: Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V, Jeon Jungkook/Min Yoongi | Suga,
Kim Taehyung | V/Min Yoongi | Suga, Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung |
V/Min Yoongi | Suga
Character: Jeon Jungkook, Kim Taehyung | V, Min Yoongi | Suga, Bangtan Boys |
BTS Ensemble
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Witches, Witch Jeon
Jungkook, Demons, Demonic Possession, Demon Min Yoongi | Suga,
Human Kim Taehyung | V, Getting Together, Mutual Pining, wow Lots
of pining, jk has a lot of feelings and chooses to ignore them All, hes
trying his best though, Fluff and Angst, yoongis cocky demon persona is
a defense mechanism against crabby old witches, he likes to piss them
off too but, what taehyung lacks in magic he makes up for with his
Everything Else, i like to believe that everyone's love for taehyung is the
very glue that keeps this world together
Collections: Hexed! Fest
Stats: Published: 2021-05-13 Completed: 2021-07-02 Chapters: 4/4 Words:
36655

your mind's been out of your body

by jnivrse

Summary

“Wow, Jeongguk, I’m impressed. You seem to know more than your friend.” Not-
Taehyung begins walking around the little space in their room, carefully stepping around
the sigil as it glows at his presence. He pulls out one of Jeongguk's journals from the
bookshelf, looks at him in a way that tells Jeongguk he's enjoying this. “Though I do
suppose that’s why you’re the witch in this little duo.” He smirks. Again.

Now, Jeongguk’s one hundred percent sure. He’s gotten his best friend turned major crush
possessed by a demon. Underneath all of his panic, he thinks that he should have listened to
his parents when they cautioned him about demonic magic.

or

A demon is summoned, a few deals are made, and Jeongguk ends up not regretting it as
much as he thought he would.

Notes
 yeah ,, i let this prompt get away from me ,, but i hope u enjoy it nonetheless ! i rlly enjoyed
writing it, so !!
cw: there's just a bit of blood in the first part, nothing too bad at all really only a few
sentences !

title from sunday cruise's iykyk

Prompt:

witch jungkook dabbles in demonic magic, accidentally causing his best friend taehyung to
become possessed with the spirit of a particularly rude demon named yoongi.

See the end of the work for more notes

 a somewhat terrifying ordeal

Jeongguk checks the ritual notes one more time before looking back at his setup. It’s simple
enough: a sigil drawn out over the floor, candles laying where the intricate patterns meet at the
edges, already lit. The dagger his parents had given him as a parting gift sits at his side.

He feels bad for doing all of this in the bedroom, but tonight the moon is angled just perfectly so
that its light shines through the window between their beds.

From his bed, Taehyung watches with interest.

“I still don’t get why you asked to stay and watch. It’s not as interesting as some of the movies
make it.” Jeongguk looks back down at the book he’s holding to read over the ritual notes again,
just to keep his eyes on something that isn’t Taehyung.

“This is like a part of who you are, right? Everything about you is interesting, Jeongguk-ah.”
Taehyung seems so sincere, and Jeongguk would never force him to leave, either. Never really
wants him to leave.

So he stays, and Jeongguk continues.

He picks up the dagger, leaning forward to bring his hands over the center of the sigil. Right
before he slices skin, Taehyung makes a sounds, as though he hadn’t even known the dagger was
there in the first place.

“What are you doing?” When Jeongguk looks up at him, his eyes are wide, focused on the blade
centimeters away from his palm.

Jeongguk sits back. “Hyung, it’s just a little blood. Don’t tell me you expected this to happen
without a little blood. I’m literally trying to summon a demon. Demons are like, inherently
bloodthirsty creatures. I think,” he tries to joke, but doesn’t know if it works with the way
Taehyung is biting at his lip.

“Does it hurt?”

He’s worried. Jeongguk warms at the thought of it, is glad they kept the lights off for this. Doesn’t
want to know if somehow, Taehyung can still see the blush on his cheeks.

“It’s only a little sting, hyung. This one doesn’t require too much blood, just a few drops.”
Taehyung slumps back down into the bed after that, Jeongguk glad to have reassured him. “Plus,
my parents lined the dagger with some old spell. Makes me heal right back up after a little bit.”

“Okay then,” Taehyung huffs. “You still have to deal with the cleanup, though.”

Jeongguk sends him a smile. “I was already planning on that.”

Taehyung smiles back, and Jeongguk thinks it would be more beautiful next to him in the
moonlight mixed with the warm light of the candles. “Good.”

Jeongguk leans forward again, wasting no time in carefully slicing a slit into his palm, clenching
his teeth to keep Taehyung from hearing how much it actually hurts. He brings his hand into a fist,
watching as his blood drips down, running along the lines of the sigil rather than splattering across
the floor when the drops land.
He looks back at the book, making sure he has the first line correct before he starts the incantation.

As he starts, the syllables both familiar and unfamiliar on his tongue, Jeongguk watches as the
flames of the candles glow brighter, grow larger. Another passage and the sigil joins, glowing a
deep red that tints the room.

Halfway through, Jeongguk dares to tear his eyes off the script he’s reading to meet Taehyung’s
eyes. They reflect the red from the sigil and the growing orange of the flames. He wonders if
Taehyung can see the same swirl of colors in his own.

Neither of them moves for what feels like the longest time, but only turns out to be a sentence or
two.

Jeongguk just barely stumbles on the next passage, forgets what's supposed to come next watching
Taehyung from across the room. He snaps his head back down at the script.

The flames continue to grow bigger after that. They meld and swirl together, coming up at the
center of the sigil. Taehyung’s form disappears behind the fire, Jeongguk sitting close enough that
for a second, it’s all he sees.

The pillar of fire doesn’t relent, even as he reaches the last part.

Jeongguk moves his eyes from the book to the ritual to peek around at Taehyung, who’s watching
in something similar to awe, eyes transfixed on the fire as it swirls and swirls.

There’s smoke rising as Jeongguk reaches the end of the incantation, filling the room faster than
he’d initially realized. There’s worry sitting in the back of his mind about Taehyung and the
smoke, but he’s so close. All he needs to do is read the last line.

He presses his lips together, reaches a hand—the one he cut, already healed, remaining blood
dripping off—out toward the sigil, feels the slow draw of his magic. With as much finality as he
can muster, Jeongguk recites the last line.

A final puff of smoke rises from the fire. Jeongguk tries to blink away the sting of his eyes as he
watches the fire swirl down to nothing. The smoke takes longer to settle, not even letting him find
Taehyung eyes a meter or two away.

“Hyung? Are you okay?” Jeongguk calls out. Blinks even more, this time in hopes that the next
time he opens his eyes, he’ll meet the soft face he watched vanish behind flames.

“I’m okay.” There’s a slight tremble to Taehyung’s voice, Jeongguk doesn’t know if it comes from
fear or adrenaline. “Just—There’s just a lot of smoke.” He pauses the way he does when he’s
thinking something over. “Is there a demon in our room now?”

The smoke clears, then, and where Jeongguk expects there to be a somewhat scary-looking demon
standing fixed on the sigil, there’s nothing.

“Huh.”

“‘Huh’?”

“Yeah, uh. There’s supposed to be a demon right here.” Jeongguk gestures in front of him then
rubs his face with his hands. “I don’t know what happened,” he moans out. He slumps down,
pouting at the sigil like it had personally betrayed him.
“Oh.” Taehyung slides off the bed and joins him on the floor. They sit there for a little bit, just
staring down at the sigil. “Well… at least it didn’t, like, blow up in your face?”

Jeongguk thinks back to when his parents had let him try a ritual for the first time on his own. He
shakes his head to get the memory out, laughing a little.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Taehyung stares at him for a little bit, the moon has moved far enough that its light barely shines
through the window anymore. Jeongguk wishes it did, though. He wants to see Taehyung in the
moonlight again.

“It’s late, we should sleep,” Taehyung starts, but makes no move to get up. “Come on, let’s go to
sleep.” Still, he makes no move to get up, even beginning to lean his weight against Jeongguk.

“Yeah, let’s go to sleep.”

They both stay on the floor after that, neither of them moving at all. Jeongguk realizes he should
probably clean up the stuff left from the ritual, but Taehyung is really warm, even on the floor like
this.

Sometime into the night, they fall asleep against each other, still on the floor without even a
blanket.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

Taehyung dreams of the house on his grandmother’s farm. Knows it’s a dream because he hasn’t
been in years, hasn’t had the chance to visit since he left for university.

He’s sitting on the couch, right next to the stain of spilled juice from back when he was young and
too full of energy to ever sit still.

If he closes his eyes, he can almost hear his grandmother padding around the kitchen, the clinking
of dishes as she sits them down on a rack to dry. He can almost hear her humming along to the old
trot songs that would play on the radio sitting on the counter..

This is a dream, he’s sure. And so, he wills himself to imagine his grandmother walking into the
living room when he opens his eyes.

Instead, he opens his eyes to find a man sitting on the coffee table in front of him, raising an
eyebrow at Taehyung as if he’s the one that’s not supposed to be here.

Taehyung’s never seen this man before. He’s heard that all the faces people see in their dreams are
ones that they’ve run into before, but he’s certain that he would have remembered ever coming
across someone like the man in front of him.

The only word that comes to his mind when he tries to describe the man is powerful. Taehyung
doesn’t know if it’s the suit he’s wearing, the rings that decorate his hands, or the way he’s staring
at him like he’s something to study, or maybe even all of it together, but it makes him want to
shrink down in between the cushions all the same.
He blinks as he watches the man sit back to rest his weight on his hands, stretching his legs out far
enough that they almost kick at his own feet. He never takes his eyes off Taehyung, maybe even
starts staring at him a little harder.

Taehyung licks his lips, hasn’t found the strength to break eye contact. He gulps, taps his fingers
against his knee as he opens his mouth to speak.

“Do I… know you?” Taehyung asks. He’s so sure he doesn’t, but the silence was beginning to
make him uneasy.

All the man does is shrug. He watches as he leans forward to rest his elbows on his thighs.
Taehyung leans back just the slightest. He doesn’t think he could handle looking into his eyes from
any closer.

“Probably not,” he finally says. In the back of his mind, Taehyung allows himself to be attracted to
this stranger, every aspect of him seeming to demand power. In the front of his mind, he continues
to wonder who this man is, and why this feels off from any other dream he’s had.

His confusion must be showing on his face because the man chuckles slightly, his shoulders
shaking along with it. He tilts his head with a smile, all while never moving his eyes away from
Taehyung.

“Call me Yoongi.”

Taehyung nods at that.

“Okay, Yoongi-ssi. This is all just part of a dream, right?” He looks around. Everything looks fine,
just like how he remembers it to be, but there’s a sort of haziness around the edges if he turns too
fast. He looks back at Yoongi, and there’s something weird about it. As if he and the dream are
two separate things. Like he has his own presence, completely separate from this dream world in
Taehyung’s head.

“Something like that,” Yoongi says with a quirk of his lips, confirming Taehyung’s thoughts that
something here is different.

Yoongi stands up and starts walking around the living room as if he’s the one that’s lived here for
his entire childhood. Taehyung simply watches as he peruses, eyeing the family pictures on the
walls as he goes.

He stops in front of a picture of Taehyung and his grandmother when he was a child, small enough
to still fit in her lap. Runs a hand over the frame before slowly turning his head to Taehyung.

“Kim Taehyung, I want to make a deal with you.”

That almost rings alarms in Taehyung’s mind. He never told Yoongi his name, there’s no reason
for him to already know his name.

But this is just a dream, Taehyung reassures himself. Even if it’s one on the weirder side, things
like this happen all the time in dreams. Things like this don’t need a reason when they’re
happening in a dream, he supposes.

“What—What type of deal?” Taehyung asks, he’s kind of missing the normal dreams he would
have. The ones full of complete nonsense that he could laugh about once he woke up. This dream
feels like one he’ll never wake up from.
Yoongi’s voice pipes up from behind him, “It’s simple, really.” Taehyung jumps, whips his head to
Yoongi from where he was just standing. He takes a deep breath in, reminds himself that this is just
a dream, sighs it out.

“Simple how?” he asks, unclenches his hands, stretching them out against the couch cushions.

“From what I’ve seen, things seem to be a bit hectic right up here.” Yoongi brings a finger up to
tap at Taehyung’s temple. “I’m here to offer you a… break of sorts.”

Taehyung’s brows furrow. “A break from what? Life?” Did he dream himself up some sort of
dream man to whisk him away to some dream vacation? Maybe he did inhale too much smoke
from Jeongguk’s ritual thing.

“Exactly.” Yoongi walks around the couch so that he’s sitting back on the coffee table. “A break
from work, school,” Yoongi looks him in the eye, “a certain boy…”

“How do you know about that?”

“It's driving you crazy, isn't it?” Yoongi asks. “ Oh, he likes me. No, wait, he couldn't. If he found
out, he'd probably be so uncomfortable. I’m being too selfish, being friends is perfectly fine. ”
Taehyung barely has any mind to take offense to the voice Yoongi uses when he’s so spot on.
“What I’m saying is that you deserve a break. And I can give you one.”

Taehyung stares at him, and he stares back. Somewhere in Yoongi's eyes is a challenge for
Taehyung to refuse, or maybe Yoongi always stares this intensely at people.

A break does sound nice, though. He’s been ignoring his steadily increasing pile of assignments to
be done, he hasn't gone out in a little bit. Most of all, he spends so much time now overthinking
and overanalyzing his interactions with Jeongguk, maybe he should accept.

Either way, this is just a dream, nothing will change once he wakes up. It’d be fun to entertain the
idea for a bit.

Yoongi puts out a hand in between them, Taehyung thinks he must see his resolve breaking.

He almost reaches out to shake it, but—

“What do you get out of this, then? If you're offering to give me a break, what are you expecting
from me?”

Yoongi hums like he still needs to think about his answer. “You get a break,” he starts, “and I also
get to have a little break away from home.” He smiles. “We both win.”

Taehyung supposes that that makes sense, even when this dream feels so horribly off in a way he
can't quite put his finger on. He wonders exactly when he’ll wake up.

He watches as Yoongi extends his hand again with a tilt of his head. “So, do we have a deal?”

Taehyung bites his lip. He grabs onto Yoongi’s hand before he can let himself back out of this
weird dream deal.

Yoongi’s hand is surprisingly warm, his grip turning firm as they shake hands. What’s also
surprising is when he looks back up, his grandmother’s house is gone. It’s just him, Yoongi, and
nothingness. He’s beginning to wonder when he’d stood up.
“Kim Taehyung.” Taehyung meets Yoongi’s eyes and can’t seem to tear them away after that. He
can feel them staring straight through his own, as if he can read what he’s thinking. His
grandmother always did say that the eyes were the gateway to one’s soul.

The edges of his vision are getting blurry. Maybe his eyes are just struggling to register the empty
background around them. Or maybe he’s finally beginning to wake up. He faintly realizes that he
still hasn’t let go of Yoongi’s hand.

“Kim Taehyung,” Yoongi says again, his voice somehow manages to echo off the emptiness
around them. “What do you know about demons?”

Before he’s able to answer, or even fully register the question, he sways on his feet. He feels
Yoongi pulling him toward him before his mind starts getting fuzzy. And then, nothing.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

The first thing Jeongguk registers when he wakes up is the horrible crick in his neck. The next is
the cold of the floor that hugs at his legs. After that, it’s the way his back aches and is practically
begging him to stretch with satisfying cracks throughout his spine.

It’s only when he sits up that he opens his eyes, just to immediately snap them shut at how bright it
is. Jeongguk had forgotten to cover the windows last night, he figures.

He sits back against his bed frame with a groan, trying to remember if he has any classes today.
Even if he doesn’t he should get off the floor sometime soon, even if to just climb back into bed
and sleep some more. Blindly, he starts patting the floor around him for his phone. He cracks an
eye open, still wincing slightly at the light before opening his other eye.

He almost jumps when his hand finds his phone, which almost feels colder than the floor does. The
date displayed tells him that he’s free until the evening for work, so he relaxes a little as he begins
to scroll through his notifications.

When he looks up from his phone, he properly jumps out of his skin.

Centimeters away from his face is Taehyung’s, his eyes running over his face as if he’s seeing
Jeongguk up close for the first time.

“Stars, hyung, you scared the crap out of me,” Jeongguk breathes out, pulling back from Taehyung
as far as he can.

Taehyung makes no move to do anything. Staying bent in front of Jeongguk as he continues to

stare. Jeongguk has always been familiar with Taehyung, has really never been one to deny him
any physical affection or closeness in general, but this type of closeness is different. Here,
Taehyung’s eyes are practically boring into his, closer than he’s ever been.

Jeongguk takes to moving his eyes around the room. He can’t continue to meet Taehyung’s when
they’re looking at him that intensely. He might be blushing right now, actually. Maybe that’s why
it got so warm.

He looks out the window, up at the ceiling, scans the posters hanging above Taehyung’s bed,
following the blankets down to the floor, where the leftovers of last nights’ failed ritual remain.
Stops.

It could be a trick of the light, really, with how bright it is outside and how they left the window
wide open from last night, but Jeongguk thinks that the sigil might be glowing. It shouldn’t be,
though. He messed up the ritual when he stumbled through the incantation, there’s no demon for
the sigil to sense.

Then, he looks back up at Taehyung, who hasn’t said a word. Simply studying Jeongguk as if he’s
something to play with.

“Hyung?” He asks, just because he really doesn’t want what he’s thinking to be true. But Taehyung
would have jumped on Jeongguk the second he walked into the room instead of eyeing him like
some sort of predator. Taehyung would have asked Jeongguk if he wanted to eat out somewhere for
lunch since they slept through breakfast. Jeongguk’s eyes widen.

Taehyung would have been in class right now.

“Hyung.” Jeongguk sits straight, fully awake now. “Hyung. Taehyungie hyung. Please tell me
you’re completely fine and that I did not invite a demon here to possess you.”

Taehyung (Not-Taehyung?) finally stops staring at Jeongguk and laughs. Jeongguk freezes at the
way he laughs, he’s never heard Taehyung laugh like this before.

Usually, his eyes and cheeks bunch up as he giggles, and Jeongguk’s able to see all of his teeth in a
smile that always manages to take his breath away. This time, Not-Taehyung smirks at him, a face
he’s only seen on Taehyung that time when he’d been cast as the antagonist of a play and practiced
facial expressions in the mirror of their bathroom.

Before, Jeongguk had only been around fifty percent sure that he’d really fucked up with his ritual.
Now, as he looks up at Not-Taehyung from where he’s still frozen in place on the floor as he teases
him, he’s probably ninety percent sure.

Jeongguk swallows so hard that he wouldn’t be surprised if Not-Taehyung heard it from where
he’s standing over him.

“Who—Who are you? What do you want from me?” Jeongguk scrambles to stand up so that
they’re eye to eye. “I’ll do anything you want. Don’t—Just leave hyung alone, please.” He winces
when his voice cracks at the last part.

When Not-Taehyung speaks, Jeongguk almost expects to hear a completely different voice, yet
he’s still met with Taehyung’s low baritone.

“Wow, Jeongguk, I’m impressed. You seem to know more than your friend.” Not-Taehyung
begins walking around the little space in their room, carefully stepping around the sigil as it glows
at his presence. He pulls out one of Jeongguk's journals from the bookshelf, looks at him in a way
that tells Jeongguk he's enjoying this. “Though I do suppose that’s why you’re the witch in this
little duo.” He smirks. Again.

Now, Jeongguk’s one hundred percent sure. He’s gotten his best friend turned major crush
possessed by a demon. Underneath all of his panic, he thinks that he should have listened to his
parents when they cautioned him about demonic magic.

He takes a deep breath before sighing it out. Does that one more time as he wracks his brains for
any possible solutions.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Jeongguk gets out. “Who are you, and what are you
planning on doing here?”

Not-Taehyung hums at Jeongguk’s question. Drops the journal onto the floor, walking back toward
Jeongguk.

“Usually, I go by Yoongi, but maybe you’d be more comfortable calling me hyung.” He adds a
wink as if this is all a joke, but Jeongguk can’t help but blush seeing Taehyung’s face so focused
on him.

Not-Taehyung—Yoongi sucks in air through his teeth as he considers the second question.

“I don’t really have a plan.” Yoongi pauses as he reconsiders. “Actually, the plan is pretty simple: I
fuck around a little bit up here, play with your friend, and maybe cause you some torment before
you manage to exorcise me.” Yoongi eyes Jeongguk up and down, Jeongguk doesn’t know how
much more he can take when he’s using Taehyung’s body to do it. “By the looks of it though, I’d
say I have a bit of time before I’m going anywhere.”

This is possibly the worst thing that’s ever happened to Jeongguk after messing up a ritual. What’s
even worse is that he doesn’t know what to do.

He can’t tell his parents, no, they’ll make him move back. He promised them he wasn’t going to do
anything bad while in school, yet here he is, standing in front of his possessed friend while his
heart is racing a mile a minute at the way this demon is making Taehyung look at him.

For now, though, he can make the problem easier for himself to handle, hopefully.

He jumps at Taehyung—Yoongi without warning, pulling him onto the sigil easily with the help of
the momentum from his jump. Yoongi grunts, and right now Jeongguk allows himself to be
grateful that Taehyung has always been too lazy to follow him to the gym when he works out.

“Wh—What the fuck are you doing?” Seeing Taehyung this agitated is slightly off-putting, but
Jeongguk just starts chanting to himself that This isn’t Taehyung this a demon Taehyung isn’t here
right now as he begins digging through his things before Yoongi can break out of the sigil.

His hands are shaking as he pulls out paper, ink, and a brush to prepare a talisman and Jeongguk
really hopes that he won’t fuck this up like he did with the ritual.

Yoongi is saying something under his breath. Jeongguk doesn’t know much about demons and
what they can do, which in hindsight is probably a big reason why he’d messed up so badly, but he
figures he doesn’t have much time left.

He almost spills ink everywhere as he writes on the paper, but the characters look neat enough and
when he runs his magic over it to dry it he doesn’t sense anything wrong.

Just as Jeongguk runs past Yoongi, he breaks away from the sigil looking very annoyed. Jeongguk
hopes that demons don’t have strong powers when they’re possessing humans, or else he might
have gotten himself into even more trouble than he thought.

He reaches the doorframe in two more strides, slapping the talisman against it in one loud smack as
he whispers the activation spell.

Stepping out into the hallway, he sends a small prayer to the gods, the moon, the stars, to every
other higher being he can think of off the top of his head that this will be the first thing today that
goes right.
Yoongi stalks toward him, Taehyung’s face looking the most annoyed he’s ever seen in his entire
time knowing him. Jeongguk steps away from the doorway, feeling his back hit the hallway wall as
he keeps his eyes on Taehyung— Yoongi .

“I’m not gonna let you leave this room.” Jeongguk straightens his shoulders as he tells him. “I’m
gonna fix this, and you’ll be gone within hours,” he declares, maybe more for himself than to tell
Yoongi.

Yoongi steps right up to the doorway, staring Jeongguk in the eye.

Taehyung’s eyes were always one of Jeongguk’s favorite things about him. They’re always so
expressive. He thinks of how they’d looked at him last night in the dark of their room. Taehyung
trusted him, that’s what he had told him through his eyes. Now, Taehyung’s eyes are blazing with
amusement, alight as Yoongi brings a hand up and tries to reach it past the door.

Jeongguk watches as his hand strains more and more as it moves closer, before being pushed back
by an invisible force. He sighs out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

“It seems that you do have a few tricks up your sleeve, witch boy,” Yoongi says with a smile. He
takes a step back. He studies Jeongguk for a second longer, then turning around as he explores the
rest of their room.

It’s not a big room, Yoongi will probably get bored eventually, but Jeongguk hopes that this gives
him enough time to try and find a solution for this whole… situation.

Maybe he can call Namjoon, he might know something. Yeah, that’s a good idea.

He pats himself down for his phone, digs through his pockets as he keeps an eye on Yoongi, who’s
pulled out a manga off Taehyung’s shelf just to throw it back after he’s flipped through it. After a
moment of patting over his legs and chest, Jeongguk finds himself still phoneless.

“Shit,” he whispers to himself. His eyes snapping down to where he’d fallen asleep. He’d thrown
his phone down trying to push Yoongi onto the sigil.

He really should have read up more before attempting this ritual. Jeongguk doesn’t even know if
it’s completely safe to be in the same room as someone who’s been possessed by a demon. Though
Jeongguk figures he doesn’t have much of a choice if he wants to call Namjoon for help with this.

He debates whether it would be best to run into the room or sneak in, but Yoongi seems distracted
by the little ecosystem in a jar thing Taehyung had impulsively bought, so he carefully steps into
the room.

It only takes a few steps to make it close enough to reach down for his phone. Yoongi is
suspiciously quiet, or maybe Jeongguk is just thinking too hard because Yoongi has been pretty
quiet for most of the time that he’s been here.

Jeongguk pockets his phone as he stands, only to be knocked over not even a second later. He yelps
at the force of it, his eyes closing shut as he hits the bed.

He opens his eyes to meet Taehyung’s staring over him, finds himself reminded of a dream he had
the other day, then has to remind himself that this isn’t Taehyung, but a demon he’d summoned.
Jeongguk moves to sit up, grunts as he realizes that he can’t because Yoongi’s pinned his arms
down against the bed as well.

“Jeon Jeongguk,” Taehyung’s voice drawls in a way that probably shouldn’t send shivers up
Jeongguk’s spine. He watches as he tilts his head, his eyelashes fluttering as Yoongi considers what
to say next. “I think I’m finding you to be more interesting than I thought.”

Jeongguk blinks as Yoongi moves off of him. For some reason, he’s breathless.

“What?”

“You’re fun to play with,“ Yoongi says. “More fun than I thought you’d be, at least. Your friend,
too.” He looks a little lost in thought, and Jeongguk uses the opportunity to scramble out of the
room.

He knows he doesn’t need to, but he shuts the door of their room for good measure, hears
Taehyung’s laugh sound out from the other side.

Like this, Jeongguk can pretend that he just came home from class and that if he opens the door
again, it’ll be to Taehyung laughing at some show he’s picked up for the week. He’ll look up from
his laptop and smile, invite him to come and watch as he shuffles over to make room in his already-
small bed.

Jeongguk shakes his head and turns to lean his back against the door. Gently thumps his head back
to hit against the wood. Once, twice. Does it a third time as he tries to knock all of his thoughts
back into place.

With one long exhale, he slides his back down until he’s low enough to drop softly down onto the
floor, his knees tucked against his chest.

He sits there for a moment, staring blankly in front of him. It’s silent in their room, now. Silent
enough that all Jeongguk hears is his heartbeat loud against his ears.

All he can think is that I messed up. I messed up so badly Taehyung probably won’t even want to
forgive me after I fix all of this except that I don’t even know how I’m going to fix this and
everything is my fault oh god fuck what if I can never talk to him again and —

A phone rings loudly out into the hallway, loud enough that he startles out of the spiral of his
thoughts.

Jeongguk just sits and listens to the ringtone go off for a long second before he realizes that that’s
his phone ringing, quickly digging into his pocket and siding to answer without even looking at
who’s calling.

“Hello?”

“Ah, Jeongguk-ah,” Namjoon’s voice rings out, and Jeongguk allows himself to relax at the sound
of it. “Sorry to call you so out of the blue, but don’t worry about coming into work today.”

“Oh.” Jeongguk can’t help but think about how convenient this is. “Any particular reason why?”

“There was an accident at the shop with a shelf of potions and now they’re all mixed together and
who knows what they might do,” Namjoon begins to ramble. “No one’s allowed back in until it’s
all cleared out.”

Jeongguk hums. “You’re alright, though?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m perfectly fine. Don’t worry.”

“That’s good.” There’s a small pause before Jeongguk speaks again. “Then I’m gonna assume
you’re free for the rest of the day, then?”

“Yeah, I am.” Namjoon sounds a little confused at the question. “Why, what’s up?”

“Hyung,” Jeongguk starts. Bites his lip before continuing. “I may have gotten myself into a little
bit of a problem.”

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

Namjoon arrives quicker than Jeongguk expects him to, or maybe he’s just been so distracted with
his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed exactly how much time had passed before he registers Namjoon
standing in front of him.

“Jeongguk-ah,” Namjoon says in that soft, honey warm way of his. He’s crouched in front of
where Jeongguk’s sitting, doesn’t seem to question why Jeongguk’s curled up sitting on the floor
against his door. “Everything alright?”

Jeongguk almost laughs at the question. Nothing is alright, he thinks.

The only thing stopping him from pulling all of his hair out of his scalp is the fact that he needs to
help Taehyung get out of this mess that he’s caused himself.

He doesn't even know if Taehyung’s aware of what’s happening and the idea that Taehyung’s soul
might just be trapped somewhere in the depths of his own body right now makes Jeongguk want to
scream. Scream exactly like the mandrake roots had when his dad had made him pick them out of
the soil as a punishment for placing a hex on his brother.

Namjoon’s still watching him carefully though, so instead of screaming, he gives him as much of a
smile as he can. Ignores the way it doesn’t reach past his cheeks.

“Things are okay,” Jeongguk finally lets out, followed by a laugh that might be the beginnings of
hysteria. “They could probably be better, though.”

“I figured.” Namjoon moves to sit next to Jeongguk, looks at the same blank wall that Jeongguk
has been staring at. “You wanna explain the problem? Or do you just wanna sit here like this for a
little bit more?”

Jeongguk takes a deep breath. “You won’t—laugh or anything, will you?” he asks, fidgets with his
fingers. “I made a pretty dumb mistake.”

“Everyone makes mistakes, Jeongguk.” Namjoon nudges him with his elbow and smiles. “I was
the one who knocked all of the potions together back at the shop, you know. But things will always
happen, bad or good. Our job is to decide what we do next.”

“Okay.” Jeongguk wrings his hands, not taking his eyes off of them the entire time he begins to
explain. “I was performing a ritual last night, and my roommate was there to watch. Nothing
happened after I finished, though, so I thought I just messed up a little. But then I woke up, and
hyung was acting weird. He was staring and laughing at me except that it wasn’t actually him
because I somehow invited a demon to come and possess him last night and then I panicked and
locked him inside of our room and ran out like a coward and now—” Jeongguk groans, shaking his
head as his hands go up to his hair.

Namjoon grabs at his hands before Jeongguk can start any actual hair-pulling, his own just barely
rough from work. They hold Jeongguk’s with a gentleness one might use if they were to ever hold
a star, careful and slow as he pulls them to himself.

“Jeongguk-ah, everything’s gonna be fine. You’re still young and learning. I doubt that your friend
would blame you after this, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Jeongguk groans one more time to get it out of his system, but doesn’t do anything to move his
hands away from where Namjoon’s still holding them. “You can help me fix this though, right
hyung?”

“Of course. Nothing a little research plus trial and error won’t fix.” Namjoon stands up, pulling
Jeongguk along with him. “But first, you gotta face your demons head-on.” He laughs. “I didn’t
mean to make that a joke, though. I mean that if we’re gonna fix this, it’s not gonna be from the
other side of the door, so…” Namjoon gestures toward the door, an encouraging smile on his face.

Jeongguk unlocks the door before he can give himself a chance to do something stupid like run
away, Namjoon’s hand now a warm presence on his back.

Taehyung— Yoongi , he reminds himself is lounging on Taehyung’s bed. Jeongguk doesn’t know
what demons usually do when they possess someone, though he doesn’t think that just laying
around is usually a part of it. As he walks further into the room, Yoongi lifts his head, smiling as
his eyes move from Jeongguk to Namjoon.

“Ah, Namjoon-ah!” The words fall out of Taehyung’s mouth, lazy and stuck together, a familiar
voice in an unfamiliar cadence. “I haven’t seen you in a while. You’ve grown well.” Yoongi rests
his chin on his hand, fluttering his lashes like he knows exactly how pretty Jeongguk thinks
Taehyung to be.

Jeongguk stops, too confused at Yoongi’s greeting to think about how pretty Taehyung is.

“Do you know him?” Jeongguk doesn’t really know who he’s asking, maybe both, as he looks
back and forth between them.

Namjoon opens his mouth before he pauses to think, a finger tapping his lips as he does. “Maybe? I
did have a demonic magic phase when I was younger…”

“C’mon, Namjoon-ah, you don’t remember hyung?” There’s an imitation of hurt in Taehyung’s
voice, though Yoongi doesn’t pout like Taehyung would’ve done to further the joke. He seems
even more pleased at the situation now than he did before.

Jeongguk still doesn’t know how most of this demon stuff works. He wonders exactly how often
the same demon gets summoned by a random witch, if there are ways for a witch to summon a
specific demon. He wonders if demons can roam around in realms other than their own, even
without having been summoned. Maybe then this would all make more sense.

Namjoon stares at Yoongi a little harder, though Jeongguk doesn’t know how that would help him
recognize him when he’s just staring down at Taehyung’s body.

“Don’t tell me…” Namjoon mumbles to himself, only able to be heard by Jeongguk because of
how close he’s standing in front of Namjoon. “Yoongi hyung. Please don’t tell me you possessed
Jeongguk’s friend.” He doesn’t sound scared, or surprised, or strongly of any emotion, really. He
just sounds resigned. Like he’s dealt with this so many times before and knew that he’d have to
deal with it even more in the future.

“I’ll have you know that this is the first time I’ve possessed someone in a while, Namjoon.” He
speaks to him so familiarly that Jeongguk wonders how many times they’ve talked before. “Plus,
the boy’s fine. I’m just in the driver’s seat while he watches from the passenger.”

“He can see what you’re doing?” Jeongguk asks. It comes out louder than he meant to, but he
thinks the panic from earlier might be coming back right now. “Like, he’s watching, but can’t do
anything?”

He feels Namjoon places a hand on his shoulder, as grounding as ever.

“It’ll all feel like a dream to him.” He reassures, humming as he looks for the right words.
“Something like being in a meditative state. I don’t want to admit that Yoongi hyung’s right, but
your friend’s fine in there.”

“How do I get him back, though?” Jeongguk can hear how much it comes out like a whine, but he
doesn’t care. He really, really wants Taehyung back.

He wants Taehyung back so he can apologize for even causing this to happen in the first place. He
wants him back so he can look at him and see his face light up in genuine excitement rather than
the narrowed mirth-filled eyes with Yoongi. He wants to be able to hear Taehyung giggle as he
messes around while Jeongguk tries to work. He wants to see him pout as he does the same back.

This is easily worse than the time when Taehyung had decided to ignore him for the entire day
because he’d forgotten to meet him for lunch the day before, swamped with a group project.

Easily so much worse because Taehyung isn’t even actually here .

“Normally, something like this wouldn’t be too hard,” Namjoon starts off, beginning to sound
more like Kim Namjoon, his boss from work rather than Namjoon, reliable hyung. “But you said
you messed up on the ritual last night, so that might affect things a little bit. Do you know where
you might have messed up?”

Yoongi perks up at that, finally sitting straight once he pipes up.

“The little witch practically invited me to come up here and do whatever the fuck I wanted to.
Messed up on some of the demon-talk parts, I guess.” He shrugs. “Terms are terms, though. I’m
simply following what I’ve been told to do.”

“Hyung.” Namjoon steps a little closer. “You didn’t even consider cutting him even a little slack?”

“Not really. This is more fun than I’ve had in a while,” Yoongi says. “All of the old witches had so
many restrictions when they summoned me. Too many guidelines to follow.” He waves a hand
around. “This is much better. Lots of freedom, I haven’t had permission to possess someone in
years.”

Jeongguk frowns at that. He’d messed up so much. He thought it wasn’t a big deal, but now, this is
all getting too much for him.

“Why can’t you just give me my friend back?” He’s so frustrated. This is all his fault and Yoongi is
having the time of his stupid demon life provoking him and every time he looks at him he sees
Taehyung.

He sees this beautiful boy in front of him, wants to confess every single thing that he’s ever felt
since they met, and yet, it’s only for so long that that illusion holds before Yoongi smirks and
Jeongguk is reminded yet again about what he’s done.

“I’ll even do anything. I don’t care. Just—Please leave, already. I get that I’m young and don’t
know anything about this but please .”

“Jeongguk—” Namjoon says as a warning. Like he knows exactly what’s going to happen. He
pulls Jeongguk closer like it’ll protect him from before Yoongi cuts him off.

“Jeongguk-ah,” Yoongi drawls, there’s a glint in his eyes that might mean amusement, or maybe
excitement, something he often sees when he gets a chance to really stare at Taehyung whenever
he goes on tangents about every single thing he’s passionate about. “How about we go on a date
together?”

He almost says yes on the spot, the simple part of his brain telling him Taehyung is asking you out,
say yes before he can take it back . The rest of him, though, pulls him back and tells him this isn’t
Taehyung, this is a demon.

“That’s all you want? After that, you’ll leave my hyung alone?” Jeongguk ignores Namjoon’s
disapproval at him genuinely considering it. “A date.”

“Sure.” Yoongi seems very amused at his caution. “Just one date. Then I give you your friend
back.” He steps forward, slowly, almost dragging his feet on the floor. He sticks a hand out in front
of Jeongguk. “Deal?” He looks at him, tilts his head.

Namjoon doesn’t get to add any of his own input before Jeongguk takes his hand, more sure than
he’ll ever be if he lets himself wait and think a little longer. “Deal.”

“Great.” Jeongguk thinks he feels a small breeze pass through his hair as they shake on it, Yoongi
looks him in the eye the entire time, It’s almost long enough for Jeongguk to imagine what Yoongi
might look like, outside of Taehyung’s body, who he’s really making a deal with.

A deal with a demon. Jeongguk mulls over the concept in his head as Yoongi finally steps back.

He doesn’t need to see the look on Namjoon’s face, pinched brows and lips pressed together to
know that a deal with a demon is never really a good thing, even with his lack of demon
knowledge.

“Pick me up at six,” Yoongi jokes before turning back laying down on Taehyung’s bed. “I’m
taking a nap, I forgot how tiring this demon stuff is.”

“Let’s take a break outside, Jeongguk-ah.” Namjoon puts a hand on Jeongguk’s elbow, the soft
pressure enough to ground him as he leads them both out the door.

Jeongguk takes one last look at Yoongi on Taehyung’s bed and hopes that Taehyung really is okay.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

Taehyung slowly blinks his eyes open to find that he’s still in his grandmother’s house, this time
sat at the counter in the kitchen.
He thinks of when his grandmother would lift him up so he could sit on the stool, claiming that she
couldn’t cook if she didn’t have any company. And so he’d watch, swinging his legs back and forth
as they talked.

Walking around the kitchen isn’t his grandmother, though. Yoongi is there, sporting one of his
grandmother’s old frilly aprons that Taehyung would laugh at if he wasn’t so confused.

This is a dream. He tells himself that a few more times, though he doesn’t remember going to sleep
before this, or waking up before that. All he remembers is a feeling of floating, bouncing around in
his own head. Not really doing and not really watching, just existing inside his head.

“Yoongi-ssi,” He says because he doesn’t know what else to do. Not when Yoongi’s just standing
in this kitchen that he’s spent so much of his childhood in looking so out of place, even with the
apron.

“Taehyung-ah,” Yoongi replies. “How are you?” He asks as if there isn’t something so obviously
off here. As if he’s a friend instead of some random person Taehyung’s made up in this dream
world.

But maybe he isn’t some random dream person Taehyung’s brain has made up.

What do you know about demons? That question rings through Taehyung’s mind, the memory
slamming into him so suddenly he wonders how he’d forgotten that it’d happened in the first place.

“You said something about demons, earlier.” Yoongi nods at that, not seeming bothered at all that
his question was ignored. “Are you—” He cuts himself off with a realization, Yoongi seems
pleased at how fast Taehyung’s putting things together now. “You’re the demon that Jeongguk
summoned.”

“That I am.” Yoongi nods again. Taehyung doesn’t know what to say to that. He never really put
any thought into what a demon would be like, but he thinks that Yoongi isn’t what he had in mind
before.

“You don’t seem very…” Taehyung waves his hand in front of him, “demon-like, though.”

Yoongi just stares at him for a second, so unmoving that it makes Taehyung worry that he may
have broken some secret rule about interacting with demons. Maybe this is when he dies. Killed by
a demon because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

And then, Yoongi laughs. It’s so different from the silence that was just there that it has Taehyung
jumping in his seat.

Yoongi’s laughing a laugh that’s not at all evil, not like the maniacal cackling he’d imagine a
demon would have. It’s just a very genuine laugh. Yoongi’s shoulders are shaking and it’s starting
to become more breath than sound but it’s just like any other normal laugh Taehyung’s listened to
before.

It’s kind of cute, in its own way.

Yoongi calms down after a moment, still smiling like he’s having the time of his life. This smile,
though, is so much more different than the smirks Yoongi would send his way before.

There’s probably a better word, one that accurately captures everything about it, but all Taehyung
can think is squishy . This smile is squishy, more squishy than he’d ever think to see on Yoongi’s
face, or any demon’s face.
“So tell me, Taehyung.” Yoongi leans against the counter. Taehyung is proud to say that he doesn’t
lean away from him. “What did you expect from a demon, if not this?” He gestures to himself. His
tone is light, though he seems legitimately curious.

The question catches him slightly off guard, not at all what he was expecting from Yoongi, but he’s
done that a lot in the past few minutes.

It’s a nice change from before, though. Disarming, maybe. Taehyung can imagine being friends
with Yoongi like this. Not with the intimidating dude that just stared at him as he circled around
like a predator stalking its prey, but sort of friendly-looking Yoongi wearing his grandmother’s
apron.

“I don’t really know actually…” Taehyung hums as he starts to think. “Something… more evil.
Like horns or something.” Yoongi snorts at that. “You don’t even look mean.” Taehyung gives
Yoongi a nice once-over. “You’re actually kind of pretty, now that I think about it. Not what I
would think a demon would look like.”

Yoongi chuckles, dropping his head a little. Taehyung doesn’t know if demons are easily flustered
or anything, but he wouldn’t know what else to call this.

“Yoongi-ssi,” Taehyung fakes a gasp, because this is beginning to seem fun. He still isn’t sure
whether he’s awake or not but right now it doesn’t matter he’s going to tease a demon. He leans his
head a little closer to his. “Have you never been called pretty before?”

Yoongi looks back up after a deep breath, though there’s pink dusting his cheeks. Demons have
blood, then, Taehyung supposes.

“Pretty’s not really a word in a demon’s daily vocabulary.” Yoongi taps his fingers on the counter.
“We don’t show affection as outwardly as you humans do. Life is just different in our realm.” He
says it like it’s simple knowledge. Maybe it is, humans always seem to be out of the loop when it
comes to all of the magic and supernatural.

It’s fine most of the time. Taehyung doesn’t need to know anything about anything supernatural to
live his life, probably never will. But this whole situation seems to be a bit more supernatural than
he might even be able to process, he’s beginning to think.

Maybe this isn’t a dream. Maybe he’s been warped into some weird reality along with a demon
Jeongguk happened to summon.

It’s been a while since he’s seen Jeongguk, actually.

“Yoongi-ssi.” There’s no need to panic just yet, he tells himself, but his throat feels just the
slightest bit tighter. Makes his words strain the slightest bit when they come out. He just needs to
know what he’s gotten himself into. He’d made a deal with a demon. Those usually aren’t meant to
be good, he realizes. “This isn’t really a dream, is it?”

“Well… Yes and no.” Yoongi’s face has cooled back down to one that only shows indifference. He
tilts his head left and right as he looks for the right words. “You’re asleep right now. At least your
body is. Your mind, though, right now it’s wide awake with nowhere to go. It’s why we’re in this
nice little home.” Yoongi gestures around. Taehyung nods along, though still a little lost.

“This is my grandma’s house, I lived here when I was younger.” Yoongi hums like he knew that
already. He might have, actually. Taehyung should ask whether demons can see into people’s
minds.
“The subconscious is a powerful thing. You needed a place to be, your mind chose here.”
Taehyung doesn’t say anything, so Yoongi continues. “In that way, I guess this is similar to
something like a lucid dream.”

“So, what makes this not a dream, then?” Taehyung pouts, he might be even more confused than
before. “How do I know this isn’t something I’ve made up all on my own? You did say the
subconscious is powerful.”

“I did say that,” Yoongi agrees. “But, I think I would know whether or not I’m real or not. I exist
outside of this kitchen, this entire house. I’ve existed for longer than you might think, Taehyung-
ah.”

Taehyung narrows his eyes at Yoongi. He’s messing with him. In some demon mind trick kind of
way, maybe. Or maybe he’s thinking too much into this. His head is starting to hurt.

“So I’m awake. But my body isn’t. I’ve subconsciously created this space for me to exist in before
I wake up.” Taehyung looks at Yoongi, just to make sure he’s getting all of this right. He keeps
going when he gets a nod. “None of this—” he waves a hand, “—is real, but you and I are.”

“Sounds like you got it all down.”

“Why can’t I just wake my body up?” Taehyung tries to remember if he tried pinching himself
awake already, frowns slightly when he feels a sting on his forearm as he does it anyway. “Why
are you even here if you exist out in your demon world?” Yoongi huffs out a laugh at the words.
It’s hard to tell whether he laughs at the questions themselves, or something else. Maybe ‘demon
world’ isn’t the correct term he should have used.

“Remember our deal? I’m here to give you a break,” Yoongi reminds him, standing up straighter as
he does, like he’s preparing himself for the rest of this conversation.

“You never said how, though.” Yoongi levels him with a stare. It’s the same look he’d get from
teachers, the one right before they ask Think a little deeper, what exactly was the reason?

Yoongi is a demon, Taehyung knows that. He also knows that he’d made a deal with him. One
with very, very vague terms. In human media, demons and the like know exactly how to use their
words, saying things that hide other intentions, creating loopholes in contracts, giving themselves
more freedom to do whatever they want.

Taehyung slumps a little in his seat at the realization, Yoongi’s eyes glint a little when he notices.

“Demons just have their ways of doing things.” Yoongi shrugs. “I’m here because I was summoned
to do whatever the fuck I want. I wanted to have some fun, so I struck up this deal with you.”

“All you’ve done is talk to me this entire time. That doesn’t seem like too much fun.” Yoongi’s
here because he wants to do something, except Taehyung still doesn’t know what. His weird
dream-not-dream can’t be the only thing he’s getting out of this.

“Try thinking about what happened right before you woke up in this kitchen, what do you
remember?”

Right then, Taehyung really allows himself to think. Nothing comes up, like whatever happened
right before then was the actual dream. He tries to remember, and it feels just out of reach. He
knows he was in his and Jeongguk’s dorm room, but can’t find the piece that tells him what they
did.
“Your body’s asleep right now, and you’re awake. What do you think happens when your body’s
awake and you’re asleep? Who’d be there to control it, if not you?”

Yoongi is setting this up for Taehyung as if they’re having a tutoring session, and yet it still isn’t
helping Taehyung put anything together.

He doubts that any of the human media he’s seen about demons is accurate. Yoongi doesn’t seem
as evil as they make demons out to be. He doesn’t even have actual horns or a tail. And he’s still
wearing a cute frilly apron. Taehyung wonders if demons are even able to go around possessing
people and do evil deeds.

“Oh?” Yoongi perks up out of nowhere. “You’re so close. Backtrack just a little.”

“What?” Taehyung just stares at him in confusion. He hasn’t said anything, he’s just been staring
into space trying to figure out what the hell is happening. “What am I backtracking?”

“The thing you were just thinking. The part right before the evil deeds.” He says it like the answer
was obvious. Taehyung is now stuck on the fact that apparently, Yoongi can read his thoughts.

“You can read my thoughts?”

“Right now I only exist in your mind.” Yoongi shrugs. “It’s kind of hard not to hear them.” He
glances over at the clock on the wall. Taehyung isn’t even sure if you’re supposed to be able to
read clocks in dreams. This isn’t a dream though, not really. His mind is reeling, all he wanted to
know was what’s going on, and now he’s halfway to a headache. “I actually need to go soon,
though. I might just give you the answer at this point, but you’ve practically figured it out.”

“I have?” Taehyung wants to shake Yoongi by the shoulders until he just tells him, but he’d have to
lean over the counter, and his grandmother hated when he did that.

“Yeah, right after you commented on this damn apron, which is actually your fault, by the way.”
Yoongi points a finger at him, but there’s no malice in his voice. “What were you thinking right
after that, though? Tell me out loud.”

“Uh, after I remembered about your apron…” It takes Taehyung a second to remember, his mind
feels like it’s slowly mixing itself into mush. “There was the evil deed thing like you said, I was
thinking about how you’re not like what I expected a demon to be. Then I started wondering about
whether or not you do what I think demons do. Like the evil deeds and the possessing people.”

Yoongi just nods at that, lets Taehyung think over what he said.

“Oh, shit,” Taehyung says, unable to stop himself. He thinks he might get it now. “I guess the
possession thing was correct, then.” He tries for a laugh, misses severely, but he doesn't really
know what to do in this sort of situation.

“It’s not as bad as you might think. I told you I’m just giving you a little break,” Yoongi consoles,
another thing Taehyung wouldn’t have expected from a demon. “You’ll have your body back in no
time. Your witch friend has some good help.” He flashes him a smile. “Or maybe I should say that
your not-so-little crush has some good help, he’ll come to save the day before you know it.”

“Don’t make fun of me.” Taehyung pouts. “You’re already messing with me enough.” He’s already
feeling better about the possession thing, maybe that’s what Yoongi was trying to do in the first
place.

What a nice thing for a demon to do.

“You’re not like, actually using my body to do anything bad, right?” Taehyung asks. Yoongi
doesn’t seem like he would commit crimes with his body after all of this, but just in case.

“No, nothing too bad.” Yoongi stands up like he’s about to leave, even when there’s nowhere to
leave to. He’s gonna wake up then, Taehyung guesses. It’s not as frightening of a thought as he
thought it would be. He thinks he trusts Yoongi enough to not be too stupid with his body. “Just
gonna go on a little date with Jeongguk,” Yoongi slips in, right before he tells him that he has to go.

“Wait! What?” Taehyung scrambles around the counter to stand in front of Yoongi. He’s a little
taller this way, there’s a part of Taehyung that finds it funny how he’s taller than a demon, in the
back of his mind. He wonders if Yoongi heard that. “A date?” The house is starting to melt into
nothingness, the same way it did right after they made the deal.

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll be nice to him.” Yoongi pats him on the arm. “You’re taking a break,
remember? It’ll all be okay.”

“That doesn’t seem like a very demon thing to say,” Taehyung says, both as a joke and an
observation.

The last thing he hears before the nothingness becomes all he can register is Yoongi’s laugh, the
most genuine he’s heard it.
 not the most ideal date
Chapter Summary

“He is cute,” Jeongguk mutters out loud, almost on accident, if not for the small part
of him that has been wanting to gush about anything and everything good about
Taehyung out loud ever since they first met.

Yoongi laughs at that. “Are you gonna start telling me about how much you love the
way his eyes reflect the moonlight now?”

“No.” Jeongguk pouts. “It’d be weird talking about my crush when you’re—” He
waves a hand in front of Yoongi. “—making a home in the body of the person I have a
crush on.”

“I guess it is,” Yoongi says. This might be the longest Jeongguk’s seen him put a smile
on Taehyung’s face.

Chapter Notes

hey !! todays a very special day bc I've finally decided to update this little fic !! (i also
graduate today but that's whatever)

not a lot of taehyung in this chap but he gets a lot of love in the next on i Promise

i don't think there's anything to warn ab but jk does get a little emotional he's trying his
best

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Jeongguk’s been watching over Taehyung’s sleeping form for about an hour.

Fifteen minutes into standing outside, Namjoon left to find his old books on demonic magic, saying
that he might have something close to what may fix this hidden somewhere in his shelves. That
then left Jeongguk to either stand out in the hallway by himself and risk someone seeing him or
going back into his room with Yoongi.

He had quickly decided against being spotted sitting right outside of his own door and slipped
inside.

In the past hour, Jeongguk has done nothing but watch. It might be just a little creepy, sitting on his
bed across from Taehyung’s watching, waiting, looking for something he doesn’t know. Maybe if
he stares hard enough, the demon will just float up and out of Taehyung’s body, like evaporation or
something.

Taehyung wakes quickly and suddenly, so unlike himself that the little hope inside Jeongguk that
had thought maybe he would just be able to sleep Yoongi away gets squashed the second his eyes
blink open as he sits up. Jeongguk continues to watch as he begins to stretch, ignoring the way
Taehyung’s shirt rides up just the slightest.

Yoongi meets his eye with a raised eyebrow, amusement clear in the way he smiles.

“Uh,” Jeongguk says, Yoongi’s silence just slightly off-putting. “Good morning?” It’s not morning,
he remembers right after. Lunch was a few hours ago, and Jeongguk was spending that time
freaking out over a demon who happened to possess his friend. His stomach growls at the thought
of his last meal being more than twelve hours ago.

Yoongi huffs out a laugh. “Good morning. I take it you’re hungry?”

“A little, I guess.” Jeongguk rubs at the back of his neck.

“Humans eat together on dates all the time, don’t they?” Yoongi asks, though it seems that he
already knows the answer with the look he gives Jeongguk. “Why don’t you take me out and we
can eat, yeah? That can be our little date. Then I’ll get out of your friend’s hair.”

It’s almost like a dream, hearing Taehyung’s voice asking him about a date, Jeongguk is sure that
he’s actually dreamt about something like this at least once before.

“What?” Yoongi’s question knocks him out of his thoughts. “You forgot about our deal already?”
he teases with a smile on his face, though it feels different. Before it was mischief, mirth, all of the
mean bully stuff Jeongguk would expect from a demon. Now, it feels more genuine (Pure? Can a
demon be pure?), like he’s letting Jeongguk in on his jokes instead of having Jeongguk himself be
the joke.

“Um,” Jeongguk starts, very much unsure of how to reply to this slight change of behavior. “No?”

Yoongi breathes out a little laugh as he stands. “Well, then you better get dressed.” He turns to
Taehyung’s dresser and picks out clothes like he knows exactly what he wants before he turns his
head back to Jeongguk. “Unless you’re gonna go out wearing that.”

At that, he looks down at his clothes. He’s still in his sweats from last night and he thinks the stain
above his knee just might be blood he unconsciously wiped off as the ritual went on.

“Oh.” Jeongguk takes a step back toward his dresser, picking out the first things he sees. “I’ll just
—” He stops himself when he finds Yoongi changing right in the middle of the room, immediately
spinning back away on the balls of his feet. “I’ll just change in the bathroom.”

He hears Yoongi laugh as he closes the door behind him, hugging his clothes tight to his chest
while hoping that he won’t run into anybody on the way.

Thankfully, Jeongguk doesn’t run into anyone and is in and out of the bathroom quick enough that
he doesn’t feel that anxious about the possibility that Yoongi might have done something in his
room while he was gone.

The level of his anxiety is close enough to his normal only-in-the-back-of-his-mind anxiety that he
doesn’t even need to pause in front of his door to collect himself before he opens it, deciding to just
walk in before he can think even more about it.

Jeongguk opens the door and steps in with enough confidence that he’s already built up too much
momentum to properly stop himself when he registers Yoongi standing right in front of the
doorway, probably testing out exactly how close he could get with the talisman still in place.
He registers how close Yoongi’s standing ( very close) and allows himself to let out a little yelp all
in the split second before he walks right into him.

They don’t fall, Yoongi is surprisingly steady on his feet even with all of Jeongguk’s weight on
him. So, they don’t fall, but Jeongguk is all of a sudden face to face with what looks like
Taehyung, but is not Taehyung.

It’s not because when he looks into his eyes it’s only practiced blankness and a raised eyebrow as
Yoongi helps him settle back on his feet.

If it were Taehyung, he would have laughed as he hugged Jeongguk a little tighter before letting
go. Actually, if it were Taehyung, Jeongguk would have knocked him into the ground when he ran
into him, and Taehyung would drag him down with him so they were nothing but a pile of
intertwined limbs on the floor of their dorm room.

“Jeongguk? Are you ready to go?” Yoongi doesn’t seem bothered with the way Jeongguk spaced
out, or even bothered by the fact that Jeongguk ran right into him. Even then, Jeongguk still
apologizes, and then again after he realizes he’s still holding onto his arms like they’re the only
things keeping him from falling.

He pulls his arms back like he’s been burned, then wonders if that’s actually something demons
are able to do. “Sorry. Yeah, I’m ready.”

“Are you usually this awkward on dates?” Yoongi jokes. Or Jeongguk hopes he’s joking. It’s kind
of hard to tell.

“No. Well, I hope not, um…” Jeongguk bounces from foot to foot, feeling sort of trapped between
Yoongi (who looks like Taehyung and has dressed up surprisingly well for a demon that possessed
Taehyung out of nowhere) and the door that has already closed behind him. “You aren’t gonna do
anything, like, demon-y, are you?”

“Why? You don’t trust me?” The step Yoongi takes back after that feels like the only thing
allowing Jeongguk to breathe properly.

Still, Jeongguk frowns. “Yoongi-ssi, you’re here possessing the body of my friend and making me
take you out on a date,” he says, taking another breath. “I feel like I have a little reason not to trust
you.”

Yoongi tilts his head at him, thinking, then nods. “That makes sense. You have nothing to worry
about, though. As long as you don’t have anything up your sleeve and keep up your end of the deal,
things will work out fine for you, witch boy.” Yoongi just barely smirks, though Taehyung’s face
is expressive enough that it easily shows. “Now,” he starts, walking toward Jeongguk and spinning
him around to the door, “how about you get rid of your little talisman so we can start our date,
huh?”

He keeps a hand on Jeongguk’s shoulder as he waits for him to break the ward the talisman had put
in place. Jeongguk shakes his head at the thought of Taehyung doing the same, except he’d go on
to bring his hand up to the back of his neck to play with his hair.

Jeongguk turns his head and looks Yoongi in the eye. Maybe if he stares hard enough he can find
Taehyung somewhere in there.

“You really mean you won’t try anything?”

The hand on his shoulder moves away when Yoongi makes a show of bringing his hands up by his
head, he wiggles his fingers as if that proves his innocence. “I won’t. Really. I asked for the date,
didn’t I?”

Jeongguk narrows his eyes at Yoongi before he turns back to grab the talisman, muttering a
deactivation spell before he rips it off. He sighs as he opens the door for Yoongi, gesturing with his
hand for him to go first. “Let’s start our date now, I guess.”

“How gentlemanly of you, Jeongguk,” Yoongi laughs out before taking a careful step into the
doorway, followed by another more confident one when he doesn’t get bounced back.

Jeongguk stands there for another moment, processing the whole ‘date with a demon’ thing one last
time. Stopping himself from properly freaking out, he strides out the door, expecting to have to
catch up to Yoongi only to freeze when he turns down the hallway to see him leaning against the
wall a few steps away.

Yoongi turns at the sound. “I thought you chickened out for a second there.” He pushes off the
wall and continues down the hallway, looking back when Jeongguk doesn’t move to follow. He
doesn’t say anything, just stares until Jeongguk jogs up to his side before continuing.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

It’s Yoongi who leads the way instead of Jeongguk. He walks just half a step ahead of him with a
purpose in his steps that says he knows exactly where to have their date. Jeongguk follows him
down and out of their dorm building, watching Yoongi weave around campus as if he’s any other
student.

Neither of them says anything as they walk, Yoongi seeming very focused on getting where he
wants to go.

So their walk is quiet. Quiet from Yoongi’s focus and from Jeongguk’s fear that he’ll finally say
something that’ll make him snap and make Jeongguk burst into flames where he stands.

It’s quiet until someone is calling out Taehyung’s name, which Yoongi obviously doesn’t respond
to, he doesn’t even stop at the sound.

Yoongi continues walking, the voice continues calling, and right before Jeongguk realizes he
should stop Yoongi because technically this voice is calling for him, Taehyung’s name is called
again, significantly louder, and Jeongguk simply watches from behind as someone launches
themselves onto Yoongi.

Park Jimin, in the few times that Jeongguk has met him, is just as intimidating as he is bright and
soft around the edges. While he has never gotten the courage to ask, Jeongguk thinks that Jimin’s
at least part fairy or kumiho or something alluring and powerful and very much able to put people
in their place if he needed to.

For Taehyung’s size, Yoongi manages to shrink enough in Jimin’s arms that Jeongguk almost
laughs at the sight.

“Taehyung-ah.” Jimin spins them around. Jeongguk isn’t even sure he’s noticed him yet. “You
haven’t been answering any of my messages,” he says, finally loosening his hold on Yoongi,
though he doesn’t move any farther away. Yoongi looks the most uncomfortable Jeongguk’s ever
seen him.

“Oh,” Yoongi says back, sounding very much unlike the smooth and possibly evil demon
Jeongguk has known him to be. “Jeonggukie and I just had a long night, and my charger broke right
when my phone died.”

Jimin immediately meets Jeongguk’s eyes after that, like the mention of his name suddenly made
him visible. “Jeongguk, hi.” He smiles, looking between him and Yoongi as he finally realizes he’s
interrupting something. “Are you two going somewhere?” Jimin looks between them again,
landing on Yoongi—who he thinks is Taehyung, Jeongguk remembers—with a look that suggests
something.

“We are, actually,” Jeongguk replies, Jimin looking back to him and seeming very pleased with his
answer. Jeongguk doesn’t really get what there is to be so pleased about. “To get something to
eat.”

He watches as Jimin’s grin grows even wider. It’s bright and mischievous and Jeongguk’s guess of
Jimin being at least part fairy takes the lead right then. “Oh, really?” He squeezes up again against
Yoongi the way Jeongguk has only seen him do with Taehyung, which makes sense, seeing as
there’s no reason for Jimin to believe anything else, not with Taehyung’s body right in front of him.

Jimin looks right into Taehyung’s eyes, and Jeongguk wonders if he’ll be able to tell something’s
off from that close. If not from the unfamiliar way Taehyung’s eyes bore into Jimin, then from the
way Yoongi makes to shrink away from Jimin’s touch as best he can, the complete opposite picture
of Taehyung melting into any touch he gets from a friend.

The answer is that Jimin doesn’t notice, or he does and his mind provides enough reason for it
because he just giggles a little and teases, “Like a date?”

“Something like that,” Yoongi answers without pause, not even giving Jeongguk a chance to react
to Jimin’s original question. He still looks slightly uncomfortable with Jimin hanging off him, but
he still manages to nail Jeongguk with a smile like he’s in on the joke.

“Oh, really ?” Jimin seems so pleased Jeongguk wouldn’t be surprised if he started floating into
the air. Yoongi gets pulled into Jimin’s arms again, Jimin whispering something he just nods at.
Right as Jeongguk grows a little awkward at just standing and watching on the side, Jimin steps
back. “I guess I’ll let you guys have your fun,” he says, still beaming as he steps away.

Not knowing what to say, Jeongguk nods at him.

Yoongi finally straightens back up, shaking himself off before he blinks, and it’s like Taehyung
was never possessed in the first place. “Sorry again for ghosting you, Jimin-ah. I’ll call you the
second I get my phone charged.” Yoongi mimics Taehyung’s behavior perfectly. Taehyung’s body
language, his cadence, the small way his lips jut out in pout when he whines or apologizes, all of it
is done exactly how Taehyung would have done it.

“You better,” Jimin sends Yoongi a look. “I was two seconds away from believing that something
bad happened to you.”

Jeongguk shakes his head. Rapidly. “Nope. Nothing happened at all. Neither good nor bad,” he
states a little too suddenly and definitely a little too forced. Jimin doesn’t seem to care, or he’s nice
enough to spare Jeongguk any embarrassment because he just laughs a little and gives a final wave
of goodbye before flitting off to wherever he needed to be in the first place.
“I like him,” Yoongi says right when Jimin is out of earshot. The whole Taehyung persona he’d
adopted is gone with a slight slouch of his shoulders. “He could probably have the entire campus
bowing down at his feet if he wanted.” Yoongi tilts his head, considering the fact. “A little touchy,
though.” Then he turns, starting to walk again like the encounter never happened.

“Hey—Wait!” Jeongguk blurts before he jogs up next to Yoongi. “That thing you just did, when
you started acting just like hyung. How’d you do that?”

Yoongi furrows his brows. “Are you asking how I acted so well? That’s just skill. A demon
wouldn’t be able to get that far if they weren’t able to act, would they?” Yoongi continues to lead
them to whatever place he has in mind. They turn one last time, stopping at a bus stop on the edge
of campus.

“Well, I mean I guess, but—No, that’s not what I meant.” Yoongi sits down, but Jeongguk doesn’t
think he’d be able to sit still right now. He bounces from foot to foot. “You knew exactly how
Taehyung talks, stands, acts, all of it. But you shouldn’t. You’ve never met before. You possessed
him, you wouldn’t be able to talk to him if you wanted to.”

Jeongguk frowns, trying to figure everything about Yoongi out. He’s confusing, Yoongi smiles,
and that makes him even more confusing.

“What makes you think that I can’t talk to Taehyung?” His question might be the most confusing
thing at the moment. Jeongguk pauses, because Yoongi can’t talk to Taehyung, he’s not here. At
least, he shouldn’t be able to.

“Because you can’t. Taehyung isn’t here for you to talk to,” Jeongguk says, trying his best to keep
his voice level. If Yoongi’s here, Taehyung isn’t. That’s something that Jeongguk is sure of. Then
he starts thinking a little more, and now he’s a little less sure. “Unless you can actually talk to him
through some weird possession thing, but that’s probably not how it works, right?” Yoongi gives
him a pointed look. Jeongguk bounces between his feet even faster. “Tell me that’s not how it
works.”

The bus arrives right then, Yoongi shrugging at Jeongguk as he stands up. “I’m starting to grow
fond of you so I won’t lie, Jeongguk-ah—”

“Wait! No, don’t say it!” Jeongguk turns around and steps onto the bus before Yoongi has a chance
to respond. If he doesn’t know the exact answer, he can act like everything is as okay as it can be.
He plops down on a seat toward the back and stares right out the window, pretends he doesn’t
notice Yoongi sit down next to him a second later.

The view outside the window once the bus departs is not at all a view deserving of the amount of
attention Jeongguk gives it. Anything is better than giving Yoongi attention right now, though, so
he begins counting how many street lights they pass.

Jeongguk only gets to thirteen when Yoongi decides to bother him with the truth again.

“If it makes you feel better, I can’t do any magic demon things when I speak with your friend. He
makes for pretty fun conversation, actually.” Jeongguk counts two more lights as Yoongi
continues. “I haven’t met a lot of humans in my lifetime, but it’s easy to tell that he’s one of the
better ones.”

Jeongguk doesn’t say anything, instead counting a nineteenth street light. He supposes that it does
make him feel a little better, though. He blinks, his focus turning from the street to Yoongi’s
reflection in the window. Or would it still be Taehyung’s? Demon possession is so confusing.
“He seems like a nice person to be around, from what I’ve seen.” Through the reflection, Yoongi
immediately makes eye contact with Jeongguk. It almost makes him jump in his seat, easily the
most demon-esque thing he’s done this entire outing. “I can tell why you like him so much.”

Before he can remember how to properly react to the conversation, Jeongguk whips his head
around so fast it hurts. “What?” He squeaks out after settling back down in his seat, turning back to
the window at a significantly slower speed. “I mean—What? I don’t like Taehyung. What are you
talking about?” He rubs at his neck, rolling it around to both relieve the pain and avoid Yoongi’s
look.

“You don’t like him? Then why be friends in the first place?” Jeongguk can see Yoongi tilt his
head through the window.

“Oh.” Jeongguk carefully turns back to Yoongi. “You mean like, like . As a friend, like.”

“Yes, ‘like’ as in you like him as your friend,” Yoongi confirms. He studies Jeongguk for a bit,
before smiling. “What did you think I meant if you were getting so defensive about it?”

“Well…” Instead of looking out the window again, Jeongguk chooses to stare at his hands sitting
in his lap. “I do like Taehyung. He’s a great friend, a great person.” He presses his lips together,
debating on whether or not to say what he was thinking. He’s already embarrassed himself in front
of Yoongi enough times. “I thought you meant, like, romantically.”

Yoongi doesn’t say anything immediately, but he doesn’t laugh, which is good. “Oh, well that
wasn’t what I meant, but it’s kinda obvious.”

Jeongguk is the one that laughs, letting out a nervous chuckle. “What’s obvious?” He can play
things cool, he’s being cool about this.

“Do you really need me to say it?” Yoongi levels him with a look. Jeongguk sighs, sinking a little
into his seat.

“Is it that obvious?” He sighs. Jeongguk wouldn’t be surprised, playing cool was never something
he could do when things were about Taehyung.

“Just a little bit.” They both know it’s not just a little bit. “He cares about you a lot, as well.”
Yoongi smiles to himself. Good to know Taehyung doesn’t just have that effect on Jeongguk.
“Thinks about you a lot. It’s kind of cute.”

Jeongguk warms at the fact that Taehyung thinks about him, cares about him. Then he remembers
how Taehyung cares for the smallest of things like they’re the very things that have given him life.
And then he warms even more at how much love Taehyung manages to give to the world, and still
save some for himself.

“He is cute,” Jeongguk mutters out loud, almost on accident, if not for the small part of him that
has been wanting to gush about anything and everything good about Taehyung out loud ever since
they first met.

Yoongi laughs at that. “Are you gonna start telling me about how much you love the way his eyes
reflect the moonlight now?”

“No.” Jeongguk pouts. “It’d be weird talking about my crush when you’re—” He waves a hand in
front of Yoongi. “—making a home in the body of the person I have a crush on.”

“I guess it is,” Yoongi says. This might be the longest Jeongguk’s seen him put a smile on
Taehyung’s face.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

Yoongi takes them to the burger place Taehyung frequents less for the actual food and more for the
stores nearby. He’ll come back to the dorms with an extra burger for Jeongguk in one paper bag
and an entire haul of fancy stationery in an even bigger tote.

Still, the restaurant is nice. Its interior is decorated in a sleek but cozy fashion that has Yoongi
pausing to appreciate it before they order.

They sit at a table nestled in the corner without a word. Jeongguk shovels a few fries into his
mouth, breathing out heavily as he chews because he definitely should have waited for them to
cool down first. From across the table, he watches Yoongi take a bite out of his burger and is once
again reminded of how weird this situation is.

He takes a sip of his soda, feels its ice cold all the way down his throat into his stomach. “So, do
demons normally eat, or is it like an optional thing for you?”

“Well,” Yoongi starts through a cheek full of food, then continues to chew as he thinks of how to
continue.

Seeing this image of Taehyung, Jeongguk feels just a bit weird for thinking it’s cute. It’s a little too
easy to imagine that he’s actually just out with him, maybe even on a date.

He blinks out of his thoughts when Yoongi speaks again, “Food isn’t one of the things demons
need to sustain ourselves. But it is something your friend needs. And since I’m in his body right
now, I figure that I should take care of it as if it was my own.” He takes another bite of the burger
as if to prove his point.

“That’s… nice of you, Yoongi-ssi.”

Yoong shrugs. “I’m not as strong as I usually am in my normal physical form. Things that would
affect your friend’s body will affect me to some extent.”

Jeongguk blinks again. This is less a date with a demon and more an impromptu lesson on demons
and possession. “So because you possessed Taehyung, you’ll get hungry and sleepy and all of that
stuff?”

“I guess you can say it like that,” he says. “I haven’t actually possessed a human in a while, it’s
nicer than I remember.” Yoongi tilts his head as he thinks back. “Or maybe your friend is just
being unexpectedly nice about this whole thing.” He gives a small chuckle at that.

“Sounds like hyung to me,” Jeongguk says back, softened with a laugh of his own. He finally picks
up his burger, having left his food alone after initially burning his tongue.

Yoongi stares at him a little too deeply to just be watching him take the first bite out of his burger.
He stares for a little longer as Jeongguk chews, and then, “You really like him a lot, don’t you?”

He freezes in place for a second, before he goes back to chewing and his face begin to warm. It’s
an awkward point of conversation, Jeongguk still chewing after Yoongi’s asked his question, but
he doesn’t do anything to make it pass any quicker.

His silence doesn’t seem to bother Yoongi, though. He simply finishes his burger as he waits.

Yoongi waits, Jeongguk continues chewing, and the words never fully leave his head because he
does. He really does, but he feels so guilty. This entire day has been Jeongguk dealing with his
well-deserved mistakes, but what hurts even more is that his mistakes are affecting Taehyung
worse than they affect him.

He feels even worse for how easy it is to imagine that nothing is wrong, that things are even better
than they were before all of this. How from the outside someone might think that the two of them
were actually on a date, him and Taehyung.

Jeongguk knows that after Namjoon helps him fix everything, or when Yoongi hopefully leaves on
his own after this whole deal of a date, Taehyung won’t even be mad at him.

Telling Jeongguk so would be the first thing Taehyung would do after he gets his body back. He’d
smile, all warm and gentle while he reassured Jeongguk as if he was the one who’d been possessed
and not him.

Jeongguk thinks that Taehyung’s reassurance would be very nice right now. But he can’t even get
it because, again, Taehyung isn’t here and it’s all his fault and—Stars, he’s a horrible friend and
Taehyung should hate him after this but he won’t because he’s Taehyung and Jeongguk doesn’t
deserve him and, and, and —

“Woah, woah, Jeongguk, come back to me.” Yoongi sounds worried, that’s what brings Jeongguk
back. He blinks, realizes he can’t see anything because his eyes are wet, wipes them before he fully
realizes why they’re wet in the first place.

“Oh,” he breathes out, soft and also a little wet around the edges. “Oh, sorry.” Jeongguk sniffs,
wipes his face again. His hands are a bit shaky and his magic a bit unsettled under his skin, but he
chooses to ignore that.

Yoongi frowns. “Hey, no need to be sorry for feeling things.” Jeongguk knows he means well,
making his voice all soft and calming, but it’s Taehyung’s voice he hears in that warm timbre of
his. The one that hums through the air and wraps around Jeongguk like a hug.

He may start crying just a little harder.

“Jeongguk, hey. You’re okay, you’re alright.” Yoongi continues but all Jeongguk can hear is
Taehyung and now he’s crying over his burger and has somehow managed to ruin a date with a
fucking demon and if Jeongguk wasn’t so sad he thinks he might be a little embarrassed about it.

“Fuck, I’m sorry.” Jeongguk doesn’t even know who he’s apologizing to. He just covers his face
with his hands, tries to remember how to calm himself down.

Then, there are hands pulling his own away, replacing them as they cup his face. A new voice
calling his name, telling him to breathe.

Jeongguk looks up, finds that the new voice matches with a new face. It’s sharp eyes that soften
the longer he looks, a pretty round nose and pink lips and pale skin that bring together a face that’s
not Taehyung’s and that’s what makes Jeongguk pause.

“How about we go get some air outside?” And this voice—This voice soothes and calms like the
herbal balm that has been a family recipe for generations. The one his mother would apply onto
bruised arms and aching stomachs, humming under her breath as a nice cold slowly spread
underneath her fingertips. Jeongguk takes a deep breath almost expecting its minty scent.

“Okay,” he sighs out. The hands on his face provide a grounding weight he appreciates, letting his
eyes close into the touch for just a second. When he blinks them open, Taehyung’s back. Or, at
least his body is.

Jeongguk stares at him, wonders if that whole thing before was some panic-induced hallucination.

His cheeks meet again with the cold air when Yoongi finally lets go of his face, focused on
cleaning up their table fast enough that by the time Jeongguk thinks to offer his help, it’s already
too late.

Yoongi has all of their trash piled up neat enough that he can hold it all in one hand, which is both
impressive and distracting enough that Jeongguk has half a mind to pay attention to the gentle way
Yoongi’s other hand takes his own, guiding him up on his feet and out the door, dropping the trash
in the garbage on the way.

The fresh air that greets them as they continue walking is refreshing. Jeongguk always forgets how
nice it is until he finally manages to make himself step outside after who knows how long.

Yoongi leads them the same way he had going through campus: with purpose in his steps and a
destination in mind, like he’s any other person in the city.

What’s different is the fact that Yoongi hasn’t let go of Jeongguk’s hand since they left the burger
place. That rather than staying a few steps ahead, he never even steps a centimeter ahead or behind.
He stays right at Jeongguk’s side the entire walk.

Jeongguk takes a deep breath, letting his shoulders raise and his lungs expand as he closes his eyes.

They keep walking, Jeongguk keeps his eyes closed, liking the sense of peace it gives. He’s
confident enough that he won’t veer off the sidewalk. Even if he does, Yoongi’s still holding onto
his hand. Jeongguk trusts him to make sure he doesn’t walk straight into a lamppost.

Somewhere in those many, many journals Jeongguk collected—some passed down their coven
line, some found hidden in bookshelves at the back of Namjoon’s store, others that seemed to have
just appeared out of thin air—somewhere in one of those journals, maybe lies everything Jeongguk
should know about a demon.

Maybe, at the top of that list of things to know reads out something along the lines of Never accept
any deal a demon offers . And right under that, Never give a demon your trust .

Jeongguk wonders about that as Yoongi continues to lead him blind. Thinks it to be a little too late
as his foot barely catches onto a ledge, his hold on Yoongi becoming a little tighter and their
shoulders a little closer by the time Jeongguk steadies himself.

Yoongi doesn’t seem to mind, not saying anything about it. He doesn’t say much at all, really. The
only reason Jeongguk knows that he’s still there is the familiar hand holding his own, albeit a little
awkwardly. Even then, Yoongi’s silent presence—surprisingly—is a nice one to have at the back
of his mind while Jeongguk’s thoughts wander and float.

Jeongguk’s thoughts continue to float as he does nothing to reign them in. They find a home up in
the clouds, distant enough to barely sound like thoughts at all.

It’s the quietest his head has been the entire day.
“Jeongguk?”

When he blinks his eyes open, Yoongi’s staring at him with a gentle look on his face, open in a
new way Jeongguk hasn’t seen yet. He turns his head in front of them, getting Jeongguk to look as
well.

“Technically, this should be fairly easy since the both of you have done this plenty of times
before,” Yoongi drawls as they both stare at the fenced-off building before them, not making much
sense. “But I’m not your friend and this isn’t my body.”

Jeongguk hums in response, not fully knowing how to respond and still trying to get his thoughts
tethered back in place. “This is where hyung and I would spend the evening on the roof if one of us
had a long day.”

“And the fencing did nothing to keep you away.” Yoongi raises a brow.

“Hyung used the site to take some photos for a project. I guess he decided the view from up top
had to be shared, ‘cause he dragged me here a few days later.” Jeongguk smiles at the memory. “I
almost lost my shit when he jumped the fence right as we got here. Apparently, this building has
been abandoned for a while, though. No one bothered to buy it or something.”

Yoongi makes a face, still staring up at the building. “Interesting.” He steps forward, shaking out
his limbs before he starts climbing the fence. Stopping at the top, he looks down at Jeongguk with
a wry smile. “You coming?”

Staring up at him like this, Jeongguk’s first thought is that Taehyung looks amazing from this
angle. His second thought is that somehow, Yoongi also looks good like this. His cocky demon
persona has long been abandoned in favor of something more genuine, more Yoongi.

Jeongguk doesn’t want to say it, or even to fully believe it, but it’s kind of attractive.

He lets out a breath at that little realization, tucks it in the back of his mind with all of the other
things about today he’s saving to process for later, and starts climbing.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

For being only a few stories tall, the view from the rooftop is a nice one. Especially now, right as
the sun is beginning to set and the city begins to light up. Funnily enough, Jeongguk thinks this
would be the perfect place to conclude a date.

A date. That’s what this was supposed to be. As unwilling as Jeongguk originally was, he still feels
bad for managing to ruin it.

“You shouldn’t feel too guilty about this entire… situation,” Yoongi says, like he’s been listening
in on Jeongguk’s thoughts, which Jeongguk is mostly sure isn’t included in whatever demon
powers he may have. “If anything, this is all really my doing.” He’s standing right by the ledge,
squinting at something in the distance.

Standing slightly behind him, Jeongguk tilts his head at that, even though Yoongi isn’t looking. “I
was the one who brought you here in the first place, though.”
“You’re young, though. Still learning and all. You won’t learn much if you don’t play around a
little. It’s not a bad thing to give into curiosities once in a while.” Yoongi turns back to look at him
for a second before returning his focus to the city before them.

“Curiosity killed the cat, Yoongi-ssi” Jeongguk says, kicking at the ground. “Do demons have
those types of sayings?”

“We do, though some of the things you guys say in this realm make no sense.” Yoongi turns back
around, taking a small step forward as he meets Jeongguk’s eyes. “Curiosity killed the cat,”
Yoongi repeats, “but satisfaction brought it back, Jeongguk-ah.”

That makes Jeongguk pause, giving himself a moment to think. “I don’t think I’m feeling very
satisfied with all of this, though.”

Yoongi holds his gaze for a while. It reminds Jeongguk of their staring contest at the beginning of
the day.

Taehyung’s always had a strong gaze, not to mention how weak Jeongguk may be when he stares
at him, but Yoongi somehow makes it even worse. Like he’s drilling right through his eyes and
into his thoughts. It makes chills run up Jeongguk’s back.

Then, it all breaks with a blink, Yoongi humming to himself in thought. “You still think this is all
your fault.” The hint of a frown leaks into his tone, just enough that Jeongguk barely picks up on it.
Just enough that it makes him a little mad at everything all over again.

“Of course this is all my fault!” He cries out, suddenly enough that it manages to make Yoongi
flinch. And Jeongguk huffs, because Yoongi acting all soft and sorry for him is the last thing he
wants right now. “The only reason you’re here is that I’m so fucking gone for Taehyung hyung
that I let him sit in on a ritual that I fucked up because I couldn’t stop fucking staring at him—”

‘“Jeongguk—”

“I didn’t even think to do a little more research before I decided to try summoning you—Stars, if
my parents found out about this—No, I can’t tell them, they’ll make me come home,” Jeongguk
realizes, feels his magic stirring around in his stomach, swirling up through his chest and around
his fingertips at the thought of it.

“Jeongguk, let’s calm down for a second,” Yoongi soothes, hands out in front of him like Jeongguk
might attack him.

Maybe he can sense Jeongguk’s magic. Maybe Jeongguk would know whether or not he actually
could if he did a bit more reading before choosing to mess around with demonic magic.

Everything always seems to circle back to Jeongguk and his mistakes.

“I should’ve prepared more, or maybe I should’ve just gone down to Namjoon’s shop to practice
like I do sometimes. But hyung asked, and of course I couldn’t say no to him…” Jeongguk runs a
hand through his hair, blown out of place as the wind suddenly picks up. “All because of a stupid
crush I won’t even act on!” Jeongguk laughs at himself, at how pathetic he is.

It’s quiet after that. All Jeongguk can hear is his panting as he finally catches his breath. The wind
still blows, his magic only just beginning to settle back in his body now that he’s calming down.

When he’s able to get his breaths under control, he finds that they come a little easier. Like all of
his frustrations and worries have just been weighing him down since he woke up. After his rant,
he’s left with his chest lighter and a bit wrung out. Yelling on rooftops might become a regular
thing if they always leave him feeling this unwound.

“You feeling better now?” Yoongi asks right as the quiet of evening starts to become stifling. He’d
sat down sometime during Jeongguk’s little rant, legs folded up and hugged against his chest.

“I do, actually,” he replies. Jeongguk doesn’t even pause to consider that Yoongi’s teasing him.
Getting incredibly angry at everything is surprisingly draining.

“Well then,” Yoongi starts, swiveling himself around so he’s sitting right at the edge of the roof,
dangling feet kicking against the building’s side, “how about we try talking through some things
now?”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Come on,” Yoongi’s voice takes on an encouraging tone, the one that people usually use with
particularly shy children and their pets. He pats the spot next to him, “Let this wise old demon tell
you a few things.”

Jeongguk holds back a laugh from Yoongi’s last comment, but walks over to sit beside him
nonetheless. “So,” Jeongguk sits down an arm’s length away, keeping his eyes out and focused on
a flickering shop sign, “what knowledge does this ‘wise old demon’ have to bestow upon me?”

“First off—” Yoongi counts with a pointed finger, “—you think too much about things you can’t
control or change.”

“Oh.” Jeongguk didn’t think Yoongi was going to be this serious about talking things over, with the
‘wise old demon’ joke. Though maybe he wasn’t joking about it. “How so?” he asks after a breath,
hoping that Yoongi won’t be too harsh with his answer.

“You get stuck on things you blame yourself for from the past, worry too much about if you’ll
mess up again in the future.” He pauses, thinking of how to continue. “It’s always about what you
could’ve done better, what you should have done instead, what people are gonna think of you
because of it.”

Jeongguk sighs, because he knows that. Namjoon makes for very long and introspective
conversations when there isn’t much to do in the shop.

“It really isn’t your fault Taehyung got possessed, though,” Yoongi says when Jeongguk doesn’t
reply. “I had a choice, you know? You or Taehyung. Or neither.” He adds with a laugh. “We don’t
usually get much of a choice of what to do when we’re summoned. Some witches are very
thorough with their summoning terms.”

“And I wasn’t.” Jeongguk pouts. “I basically gave you free rein.”

“I didn’t get free rein over a stumbled sentence,” he reassures. “I was more like I just took
advantage of the things you happened to omit. Keywords including ‘I’ and ‘took advantage’,
meaning that it was me who did all of the bad things and you who didn’t do anything wrong, minus
a small incantation error.”

“But—”

“ But it was still my fault, I was the one who summoned you in the first place .” Jeongguk wrinkles
his nose at Yoongi’s imitation, high-pitched whiny voice and all. Tons of witches have summoned
a demon before. Demonic magic’s like any other magic, there’s nothing bad about participating in
it. “I’m sure you’ve made mistakes with, let’s say, potions before, right?”

“Of course I have, especially when starting out.” Jeongguk thinks back to his first try, when he got
too impatient and decided a bigger fire for a shorter time wouldn’t hurt. He’d been left to scrape
that cauldron clean the rest of the night before his mother found out.

“And I’m sure last night was your first attempt at summoning a demon, right?” Jeongguk nods
after a second, because it was. He’d wanted to try something cool in front of Taehyung, and
playing with demons seemed like the coolest choice. “No one’s gonna be perfect on the first try.”

“That…” Jeongguk furrows his brows, turning to Yoongi, “actually makes sense. I didn’t think
about it like that.”

Yoongi smiles, swinging his legs up and over so that he’s facing Jeongguk entirely. “You probably
don’t blame yourself for your other mistakes when you first started, so why blame yourself for
this? I’m sure that Taehyung won’t blame you for this, either.”

“You really think so?” The sun’s almost entirely set, making it hard to see exactly how Yoongi’s
looking at him..

“I do. Like I said, he seems like one of the better humans. Plus, he has a soft spot for you,” Yoongi
replies.

“What—”

“Ah!” Yoongi perks up before Jeongguk can get another word in. “Speaking of soft spots, that’s
my second point.” He brings up two fingers, “You have a soft spot for Taehyung as well.”

“I do,” Jeongguk says as he ducks his head, like it won’t mean as much if he isn’t looking at
Yoongi.

Yoongi hums at that. “Correct me if I’m wrong then, but I thought attraction was considered a
positive thing between people in this realm?”

“Um.” Out of all of the things that Yoongi has told him, has done the entire day, that question
manages to make Jeongguk flush enough that pressing his cold hands against his cheeks doesn’t do
much to help. “It is. For the most part.”

“Then why...” Yoongi shuffles closer to Jeongguk, speaks softer to make up for the shorter
distance, “Why do you shy away from your feelings so much?”

Jeongguk can only stare for a moment before he makes himself look away.

Talking about Taehyung is one thing, talking about his feelings for him is another, and talking
about those feelings in front of someone who is physically Taehyung is the biggest, weirdest thing.
“It’s more complicated than you’re making it out to be,” he sighs out.

“So what makes it complicated, then?” Yoongi asks, genuine and curious and not even a bit
teasing. It settles any of Jeongguk’s lingering doubts against him, assures him that this isn’t some
sneaky demon trick he’s walking right into.

“Have you seen him?” he asks Yoongi. “He’s just—Would it be weird for me to say magical? The
warmth that I felt the first time I learned to control and connect with my magic, the way it’s always
humming under my skin, so familiar that I don’t even notice it unless I really focus, when it starts
swirling around in my stomach if I’m feeling too much… Taehyung hyung, he’s like that. For how
human he is, he’s like his own form of magic.”

It’s almost completely dark now, Jeongguk has half a mind to search for the moon in the sky.

“He deserves so much, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to give it to him,” he tells the moon like she
might be able to help him with his romantic troubles. “I don’t know if I’ll be enough,” he adds,
quiet enough that if Yoongi didn’t hear him, the moon didn’t either.

Yoongi shuffles again, closing the distance between them down to a pinky’s length. “Have you
ever considered, Jeongguk-ah, that you’re already enough?”

“How could I?” Jeongguk gives a sad little laugh, shaking his head. “All I’ve given him is a
demon in his body, and he didn’t even deserve that in the first place. That seems like a far cry from
‘enough’.”

“You’ve given him more than you think, give yourself a little more credit.” There’s a light touch
against his hand. When Jeongguk turns to look, Yoongi’s placed a hand on top of his own, hesitant
at first before he finally settles. “When I say that he thinks you’re more than enough, I mean it.
You think the world of Taehyung, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.” He can’t imagine thinking anything less.

“Then why assume that he doesn’t think just as much of you?” Yoongi says it so easily, says
everything so easily, as if it’s all simpler than Jeongguk makes them out to be. Thinking about it
now, though, Jeongguk might just have a habit of complicating things.

Jeongguk slumps down but doesn’t make to move away. “I guess that makes sense…” Because it
does, and Yoongi has been doing a really good job at driving Jeongguk to a dead end with his self-
deprecating arguments.

“It does, doesn’t it?” Yoongi seems proud of the conclusion they’ve come to.

When Jeongguk looks up, Yoongi really does look pleased, like making Jeongguk feel better was
the reason he was summoned in the first place. He bites his lip to keep from smiling at it. “Thank
you, hyung.” Jeongguk finds that he means it.

“You’re calling me hyung now?” Yoongi raises an eyebrow.

Jeongguk raises a brow back. “Didn’t you tell me to call you that in the first place?”

“I guess I did.” Yoongi laughs. “It was no problem,” he adds after a second. And then on top of
that, he adds, “Are you going to tell Taehyung about how you feel?”

“Uh…” Jeongguk drags out just as a way to stall his answer. “Eventually… Maybe.” He nods to
himself.

Jeongguk can practically feel Yoongi staring at him. “Would it make you more confident if you
practiced?”

“Practiced…?” He tilts his head at Yoongi before he realizes what Yoongi’s trying to say. “Hyung.
You don’t just practice confessions, that’s not how it works.”

“Why not?” He nudges Jeongguk with an arm. “I look just like Taehyung right now, it’s a great
opportunity for preparation. Plus, you saw my Taehyung impression earlier. I make for a very
realistic Taehyung experience.”
 Then, for the first time in what feels like forever, Jeongguk laughs. He laughs loud and genuine
and like everything is alright in the world, bending over at the force of it. “I am not practicing how
I’m gonna tell Taehyung I like him,” he says through his giggles, turning back to Yoongi.

Once he calms himself down, Yoongi’s giving him this look. It’s weird, how it’s one of the few
looks he’s seen on Taehyung’s face today that actually doesn’t look wrong. He’s seen this look on
Taehyung himself before, frequently enough that he can recognize it, but not enough that he’s been
able to learn what that look meant.

“You okay, hyung?”

Yoongi blinks, and the look is gone. “Yeah, all good,” he says. “So I’m assuming that confessions
like those aren’t usually thought about that much beforehand?”

“Not at all,” Jeongguk replies, giggling again because he’s just noticing how little Yoongi really
knows about some things.

And so Jeongguk goes on explaining, talking, and talking under the moon as Yoongi listens, giving
his own input every once in a while as the night goes on. If either of them has noticed that their
hands haven’t moved once since Yoongi placed his on Jeongguk’s, they don’t bring any attention
to it.

Chapter End Notes

:DDDDDDDDDD i swear im close to being done w this last chapter and now that im
done a high school forever im hoping itll be out within the next month or so at the
longest !!!! very excited for all of our boys to come together mmmm

until next time !!

twt cc !!
 feelings to be dealt with
Chapter Summary

Taehyung smiles, sleep-soft and warm. As warm as the hand Taehyung uses to grab at
Jeongguk’s wrist. “I’m sorry if I worried you, Jeongguk-ah.” He doesn’t give
Jeongguk time to say anything back before he tugs at his wrist and pulls him into a
hug.

For how sudden it is, Jeongguk relaxes into the hug all the same.

“Missed you,” Taehyung mumbles, squeezing Jeongguk harder and harder until
Jeongguk decides he needs to do something before he’s no longer able to breathe.

Chapter Notes

hi !! so it turns out i wrote a Lot more than i intended to for what was supposed to be
the last chapter, so i split it into two ! good news is that ive already finished writing
the last part so the final chapter will be up next week :DD

nothing that needs a warning in this chapter, enjoy !

By now, Taehyung isn’t that surprised to find himself in his old bedroom after he opens his eyes.
Nor is he surprised when Yoongi walks in a few seconds later, though this time he’s frilly-apron-
free.

“Hyung! Hi,” Taehyung says from his seat on his bed. “What?” He tilts his head at the way
Yoongi narrows his eyes.

“Since when are you calling me hyung?”

Taehyung swings his legs back and forth over the edge of the bed, shrugging. “Since I decided to
befriend the demon who’s possessing my body.”

That manages to get him an amused expression on Yoongi’s face, which is honestly faster than
Taehyung thought he’d get one. He watches as Yoongi walks further into the room and makes a
face at all the clutter on his desk before swiping some stuff aside to sit on top.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” Taehyung asks, before adding, “I didn’t even know
demons could be in good moods.”

Yoongi scowls, though it’s a playful one. “You’re awfully bold when you want to be, you know
that?” He crosses his arms. “I should’ve just continued acting intimidating. Maybe then I’d be
receiving better treatment from you.”

Taehyung purses his lips, working out whether Yoongi means it as a good or bad thing. “I think
I’m treating you just fine. It’s how I’d treat anyone else I’m friends with.”
“But I’m not a friend, Taehyung.” Yoongi raises an eyebrow. “Unless you consider someone
who’d basically taken advantage of you to literally take over your body a friend.”

“Well—” Taehyung pouts. He’d remembered about the demon possession, but he’d forgotten
about how they got here. “—when you say it like that, you make it sound like you’re a bad person.
I’d like to think that you’re not that bad of a person, though. This entire thing was just, like, your
demon day job type of thing, right? You’ve probably done worse in your demon lifetime.”

Yoongi makes a face at Taehyung’s reasoning. “I wouldn’t call it a ‘demon day job’, considering
I’m still a demon whether or not I’ve been summoned. I guess it’s nice that you don’t think I’m a
bad person, but I wasn’t implying that in the first place. It was more like me trying to figure out
why you bother being nice after… all of this.”

“You just seem like you need someone to be nice to you, is all.” Taehyung curls his legs up in front
of him, hugging them close to his chest as he starts rocking back and forth.

“Really,” Yoongi replies, less as a question and more as an accusation.

“Really.” Taehyung nods, falling back until he hits his bed. “Besides,” he tells the ceiling, “you
said you weren’t using my body to do anything bad. I think. No crime, right?”

“No, no crime. I guess I’m really not the big bad demon you thought I’d be.” And it’s true. Yoongi
isn’t at all like the big bad demon of Taehyung’s imagination. He’s a very pleasant person to share
his body with, actually. “You like having me here that much?” Yoongi then says through a little
laugh. Taehyung isn’t able to see the look on Yoongi’s face, but he would bet that his lips are
upturned just the slightest bit, his smile muted to keep from showing how amused he actually is.

“What?” He lifts his head, and Yoongi just gives him that look, the amused one. “Stop—”
Taehyung reaches around for his pillow. “Stop listening to my thoughts!” He throws the pillow,
misses greatly, hears it bounce off the door onto the floor with two sad little smacks.

The smile on Yoongi’s face grows a bit, so maybe the slight hit to Taehyung’s pride was worth it.
“Fine, I’ll stop paying attention to them.”

“Thank you, hyung,” he says, dropping his bed back onto the bed only to shoot entirely back up
when he remembers having heard the words ‘date’ and Jeongguk’ come out of Yoongi’s mouth the
last time they spoke. “You!” Taehyung points a finger at him.

Yoongi doesn’t show any surprise or confusion at the outburst, just deadpans “Me,” before
Taehyung continues.

“You—You went on a date! With Jeongguk! In my body!” With each claim, he shakes his pointed
finger at Yoongi a little more aggressively. “Oh my god,” he whispers to himself, still pointing at
Yoongi. “Does Jeongguk know you’re you and not me? You didn’t steal my first date with
Jeongguk, did you? I like you and all, hyung, but I don’t know if I can forgive you if you’re
messing with both me and Jeongguk—”

“Taehyung, relax,” Yoongi says, his voice smooth in a way that actually has Taehyung just slightly
slumping down after hearing it. “Don’t worry, Jeongguk knew something was different the second
he woke up.”

“And he still agreed to a date with you?”

Yoongi tilts his head, sucking in air through his teeth as he thinks of how to reply. “It was more
like… He was trying to figure out how to get me out of your body, I saw an opportunity and
offered him a deal—a date to get you back—and he was quick to accept. He seemed to really want
you back.”

“But why a date?” Taehyung thinks that if he were a demon, he would have maybe chosen
something more… menacing.

“Sometimes you don’t realize how scary something is until you’re facing it,” Yoongi says. His feet
don’t fully touch the floor with the way he’s sitting on the desk. Taehyung watches the barely-
there swing of his feet. Back and forth, back and forth.

What Yoongi just said is a little more menacing, he thinks. Taehyung understands why he’s the
demon out of the two of them.

Yoongi is the demon, Taehyung’s his own friendly human self, and Jeongguk is the talented,
amazing, pretty little witch. Jeongguk, the one who’d brought them together in the first place, even
though technically they haven’t really all been together (and aware) in a room. Jeongguk brought
Yoongi here, and Taehyung would like to view it as something new, something good.

Taehyung doesn’t really know how much time has passed since Yoongi was summoned, but he
hopes Jeongguk has had enough time to think the same.

“Jeongguk…” He presses his lips together, opens his mouth long before he actually continues,
“he’s not freaking out over this, is he?”

Now it seems to be Yoongi’s turn to hesitate, which does nothing to reassure Taehyung about
Jeongguk. “That really depends on what your definition of ‘freaking out’ is. Because I think
Jeongguk handled it like I would have expected him to.” His voice is pitched weirdly, talking
around an actual answer. Taehyung would have thought that a demon would be better at things like
this.

He narrows his eyes at Yoongi. If only he was the one with the demon powers, then maybe he’d
know what exactly Yoongi’s thinking. “He’s freaking out,” Taehyung sighs out, feeling a little
helpless. He’s seen Jeongguk spiral before, doesn’t want to let it happen again if he can help it.

But he can’t , that’s the thing.

Yoongi lets out a sigh that matches Taehyung’s own, hopping off the desk to sit beside him, careful
not to sit too close. “We talked about some things on our date,” he starts, and Taehyung doesn’t let
himself get too caught up on the ‘date’ part. “I think he’s feeling better about it all now, but you
guys should talk when you get the chance.”

“Why do you think that?” Taehyung juts his lips out before he realizes he’s even doing it, pressing
them together when he does.

“Because I’m here, seeing the both of you be one way when you could so easily be another, one
that’s so much better,” Yoongi says, tells him like it’s something obvious and so easy to see even
when Taehyung has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about.

His lips are pursed again as he looks Yoongi over. “Out of all of the things you’ve said to me, that
was probably the most confusing. And you were the one explaining the whole demon possession
thing to me.”

Yoongi gives him a small smile, something considering in his eyes. “You’ll see what I mean.”

“Will I?” Taehyung says, voice pitched up to match his confusion.

“Yeah.” He looks away like that will lessen how genuine he sounds. “You will.”

Yoongi’s eyes scan the room carefully, slow enough that Taehyung doesn’t even realize that he’s
not just staring into space until he watches for a little bit longer. He would be embarrassed at the
amount of attention Yoongi’s putting into his childhood bedroom, but he’s long past feeling
embarrassed about anything.

He seems to find something that piques his attention, standing up and walking back toward the
desk, reaching up to pluck off one of the photos hung up above it. Yoongi studies it with a half-
smile that he might not even be aware of.

Taehyung, on the other hand, hasn’t taken his eyes off Yoongi.

“What’s got you smiling like that, hyung?”

Yoongi sends him a look too quick to decipher before he flips the photo for Taehyung to see, smile
still on his face as he talks. “It seems like your mind might be breaking the rules just a bit.”

In Yoongi’s hand is a photo Taehyung had taken of Jeongguk their first year after exams, his rosy
cheeks and the soft edges of his smile barely done any justice shrunken down and printed out to be
hung up.

Taehyung has this photo of Jeongguk hung up above his desk in their dorm room.

“That… shouldn’t be here?” It shouldn’t. Taehyung knows that, yet he asks anyway to avoid the
question of why .

Yoongi probably notices, giving a breathy laugh at the way Taehyung’s voice pitches up at the
end. “It shouldn’t,” he confirms, “but it is. I guess a home isn’t a home without—” he plucks
another picture off the wall, shows it to Taehyung. Another picture from the same night, this time
with both him and Jeongguk in the frame. “—Jeongguk somewhere.”

“Hey, I didn’t put those there,” Taehyung says, taking the photos from Yoongi when he hands
them over. He runs a thumb over them as he sighs. “Not on purpose, at least.”

“He means a lot to you. Even without the pictures, it’s pretty obvious.” Yoongi ignores Taehyung’s
whining, giving a little smirk as he moves to sit back down. “You know, you mean a lot to him as
well,” he adds. Taehyung doesn’t know why he says it, but it’s nice to hear it from someone else.
A reassurance that he’s not making up every feeling he thinks Jeongguk is reciprocating in his
mind.

It’s reassuring, yes, but Taehyung can’t seem to think of a way to respond. He hums to let Yoongi
know he’s heard him and leaves it at that.

He runs his thumb over Jeongguk’s face, pokes at his cheek like he did a few seconds after he took
the photo. He misses Jeongguk, he thinks. He really hopes he’s feeling better about everything.
He’ll have to give him a nice hug when he gets his body back.

When he gets his body back he’ll give Jeongguk a hug, and then maybe give Yoongi one too.
Actually—

Before he can think too much about it, Taehyung sets the pictures aside before he sidles up against
Yoongi and wraps his arms around him. “It sucks that I can’t be there to help Jeongguk deal with
you since—Well, you know,” he starts, sighs a little more into the hug when Yoongi’s hands start
rubbing at his back, “but I’m glad that it’s you he’s dealing with, hyung.”
“Mmm, me too.” Yoongi pats him on the back. “I’m glad that it was Jeongguk, and you too I
guess.”

“Aw, hyung!” Taehyung whines, sitting back so Yoongi can see the look on his face. He’s showing
him his best pout, the one that breaks even Jimin’s resolve. “Is this not the most homely body
you’ve ever possessed? Not to mention how good-looking a body you chose.” He sandwiches
Yoongi’s face with his hands. “Look at me, hyung. You can’t say that you didn’t get lucky with a
possessee.”

“Not sure that that’s a real word,” he gets out, like he doesn’t look absolutely adorable with his
cheeks squished like this.

Taehyung plays with his cheeks a little more, “Stop avoiding a response, hyung.”

“Fine,” he replies, eyes narrowed and cheeks bunched. “I’m grateful that you were the person I’ve
ended up possessing. You are by far one of the most attractive people I have ever possessed,”
Yoongi says in a deadpan tone, still very cute when Taehyung’s hands haven’t moved off of his
face.

Taehyung hums as he pretends to consider Yoongi’s statement. “I’ll take it. Thank you, hyung.”
He sits back, picking up the photos and moving to hang them back up.

“What’d you think of your day off, Taehyung?” Yoongi asks while Taehyung decides where
exactly to put the pictures. It doesn’t matter, not when the room isn’t even real, but this is his mind,
and he’s gonna make it look as nice as he can.

“It was… nice?” He holds up Jeongguk’s face right above the middle of his desk, slowly moving it
around. “I was asleep for most of it—which I won’t complain about, this is the most I’ve slept in a
while—but still, the parts when I was awake were pretty nice as well.”

“You thought talking to me was nice?”

“Of course, you’re fun to talk to. You and your demon knowledge or whatever. Real interesting,”
Taehyung replies, still focused on finding the best spot to stick Jeongguk and him back on the wall.
“Helps that you’re nice to look at as well. Oh!” He checks the tape on the back of the photo before
pressing it against the wall.

“Um, thank you?” When Taehyung looks back at Yoongi, he’s playing with his ear, eyes focused
on the floor. Very unlike any demon Taehyung would have imagined. “Good to know that you’ve
enjoyed your time here.”

“All thanks to you, hyung,” he chirps, turning back around to place the second photo right next to
the first.

Yoongi has this soft sort-of-smile on his face when Taehyung looks at him again. If Taehyung
were to rank all of the different smiles and expressions he’s seen on Yoongi, this one might place
close to the top, right under the shy face he’d made back when Taehyung had called him pretty. “I
could say the same for you,” he says, flicking his eyes up at Taehyung before looking back at the
ground. “This is honestly the nicest time I’ve had with someone after being summoned. You and
Jeongguk—” he cuts himself off with a chuckle. “Nevermind.” He shakes his head at himself, still
slightly laughing.

“What—Hyung!” Taehyung launches himself over onto the bed, just barely missing Yoongi. “Me
and Jeongguk what? Hyung, tell me!”
“No, I don’t think I will,” Yoongi says, still not looking at him. Still, Taehyung can see the
growing smile on his face. This face might find itself at the top of his ranking if Yoongi keeps this
up for much longer.

Taehyung gets his hands on Yoongi’s shoulders, turning him around so they’re face to face.
“C’mon, hyung.” He bats his lashes. “You can tell me. I won’t even tell Jeonggukie about it if you
don’t want me to.” He leans the slightest bit closer to Yoongi, expecting him to lean back with it.
Instead, Yoongi stays completely still.

Yoongi doesn’t move an inch, finally looking Taehyung back in the eye. “I would, but I’ve
overstayed my welcome,” he says with a quirk of his brow and a gleam in his eyes.

“Wait, hyung.” Taehyung places a hand on Yoongi’s thigh before he can stand up. “Who said you
were overstaying? I’ll welcome you again, you’ll have a new welcome to stay,” he says in rapid
fire. “Welcome, hyung. Now, tell me what you were gonna say about me and Jeongguk.”
Taehyung doesn’t realize how hard he’s pressing down onto Yoongi’s thigh until a second later,
shyly moving his hand back to his lap.

“Our deal has technically been seen out to its end, Taehyung-ah,” Yoongi explains. “It’s time for
you to get your body back.”

“You can keep it for a little longer, hyung. My curiosity is piqued, I really want to know now.
You’ve never been like that talking about something before.” Taehyung pokes at Yoongi’s leg
with his own. “And it involves me! And Jeongguk! I think I have a right to know.”

The raised brow Yoongi gives him says that he’s amused. “You and Jeongguk—” Taehyung just
barely leans in in anticipation. “—really need to learn how to watch what you’re saying around
demons.”

Taehyung lets out a disappointed noise before he can think to say something, is still gaping at
Yoongi as he watches him stand.

“Goodnight, Taehyung.” His voice rings out in a way it shouldn’t in such a small room. It makes
the fact that this room is nothing but an illusion of his own mind more apparent than it’s ever been.
Offputting is what it is. Taehyung’s so off-put by it that he doesn’t even call out for Yoongi one
last time before he slips through the door.

“Yoongi hyung?” he says seconds after he watches the door close. It doesn’t ring out the same way
Yoongi’s goodbye did, yet it makes Taehyung feel alone enough to have him try and follow
Yoongi out.

Taehyung’s already thinking about where in the house Yoongi could be as he opens the door, ready
to call out for Yoongi again only to cut himself off when there’s nothing. Nothing greeting him
right outside, right where there should be a little hallway with old family photos on the wall.

He moves to take a step back, a step away from the void of his mind, except the room is gone as
well.

By now, he knows where this is going. This fuzziness growing on top of his awareness the longer
he stares out into nothing, blinking fast to try and find a point of focus. He wonders where he’ll
wake up next. Maybe out in the garden, that would be nice, he faintly thinks as he lets his eyes fall
closed.

He wonders, at this point a barely-there thought, if Yoongi was telling the truth about him getting
his body back.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

The thing is, both Jeongguk and Taehyung are heavy sleepers. Even after waking up, sleep clings
to them both like a particularly tricky curse. Early mornings together, rare enough that they are, are
soft and quiet and spent entirely trying to completely wake themselves up. The last time the both of
them were up before seven, Jeongguk thinks he’d left their room wearing his sweater backward and
one of Taehyung’s shoes instead of his own.

Jeongguk wakes up barely aware of anything around him. He floats in this little in between for a
little longer before he sits up, running a hand through his hair and another down over his face,
grimacing a little at the way his mouth tastes.

He sits there for a little longer, trying to form a coherent thought when he’s hit with something. It
takes a second for him to process it before he lets out a delayed grunt at being hit and does nothing
else. He’s considering falling asleep sitting up when he’s hit again, right in the head. He shakes his
head at that, seeming to have been knocked just the slightest bit more awake.

Slowly, he blinks open his eyes to find one of Taehyung’s smaller pillows sitting in front of him.

Huh, so that’s what hit him. Taehyung must have thrown it.

Jeongguk accepts that as fact through the sleep still fogging his brain, letting his eyes fall shut.

And then he snaps them open, turning to Taehyung’s bed. To Taehyung, sitting up against the wall,
sleep ruffled and staring back with half-closed eyes. Jeongguk stares back, almost unblinking as he
looks him over. He looks like he would any other morning. Yoongi seemed to wake up easier than
this, though that was from a shorter nap.

Jeongguk barely even notices himself leaning toward him, like a closer look will give him the
answer he wants. “Hyung…?”

He hums, voice rumbly like it always is after waking up. Like Taehyung. Maybe the entire day
before was just an incredibly vivid dream caused by inhaling too much ritual smoke.

Without even knowing how or when he did it, Jeongguk’s sitting in front of Taehyung, very close
to falling off the bed if he doesn’t lean his weight forward. “Taehyungie hyung.” He shuffles as
close as he can, their knees just barely touching. “It’s you, right?” he whispers. Carefully, he brings
a hand up to cup Taehyung’s face to look right into his eyes.

Taehyung smiles, sleep-soft and warm. As warm as the hand Taehyung uses to grab at Jeongguk’s
wrist. “I’m sorry if I worried you, Jeongguk-ah.” He doesn’t give Jeongguk time to say anything
back before he tugs at his wrist and pulls him into a hug.

For how sudden it is, Jeongguk relaxes into the hug all the same.

“Missed you,” Taehyung mumbles, squeezing Jeongguk harder and harder until Jeongguk decides
he needs to do something before he’s no longer able to breathe.

That something is squeezing back just as hard so Taehyung’s trapped when Jeongguk goes to jab at
his side. “Missed you too, hyung,” he laughs out as Taehyung squirms in his hold before he begins
to tickle him breathless. At some point they both fall over on top of each other in the struggle,
Jeongguk pinning Taehyung down against the bed as he tries to escape.

Even after Jeongguk’s stopped tickling Taehyung, the both of them keep laughing, keep giggling,
keep smiling, keep staring at each other like they’re having their own wordless conversation.

Faintly, underneath the dominating thoughts of Taehyung, Taehyung, Taehyung, Taehyung’s back,
Jeongguk registers the buzzing of magic under his skin, its tingling at his fingertips.

He takes a deep breath, feels less like he’ll vibrate out of his body as he tries to keep his smile from
growing any bigger. It doesn’t really work, not when Taehyung’s back and here and practically in
his arms, smiling up at him with his cheeks flushed from exertion. “Hyung,” he says, gentle and
soft and careful not to break the moment. “Can—Can I kiss you?”

Taehyung’s eyes widen a bit, his smile breaking into a surprised ‘O’. The moment freezes, stills
between them. Like a movie on an old TV buffering before it begins playing again, except the
colors are tinted the slightest bit too warm from then on, just enough for it to feel off.

Jeongguk mirrors the face a second later, realizing what he’s said, what slipped out of his mouth so
easily because he’s thought it so many times before.

“I mean—I didn’t mean to say that, um—You don’t need to say yes, or say anything at all, really
—” he stammers out. If one of his arms wasn’t stuck between Taehyung’s back and the bed, he’d
already be halfway across the room. “Just pretend I never said anything—”

Taehyung stops him with a hand over his mouth. When Jeongguk blinks down to look at him his
lips are pressed together, obviously to keep from smiling.

Even after Taehyung moves his hand away from Jeongguk’s mouth to the nape of his neck (which
he is trying not to put too much thought into), he isn’t able to come up with anything appropriate to
say before Taehyung’s guiding his head down, down, down. Down so that their faces are only
centimeters apart.

Their noses are very close to touching.

That’s really the only thing Jeongguk is thinking—or is able to think—as he’s holding his breath,
because this close Taehyung will one hundred percent be able to smell his morning breath and that
isn’t something that Jeongguk wants to subject him to—

“I don’t think I want to pretend you never said anything,” Taehyung says, looking up at him like
he’s sharing a special secret before finally pulling Jeongguk those few centimeters closer.

Jeongguk’s kissing him back before he even realizes that he’s been pulled into a kiss.

The buzzing is back, something that he barely focuses on because Taehyung is kissing him,
Taehyung is kissing him, he’s kissing back, they’re kissing each other. His magic might be running
enough energy through his body for him to become a human battery, but all Jeongguk pays
attention to is Taehyung.

Taehyung’s lips against his, Taehyung’s hand still at his neck, mindlessly playing with his hair,
Taehyung’s everything that Jeongguk could go on and on and on about at any given time.

Taehyung kisses that are like magic, that warm Jeongguk up from the inside out and have him
accidentally summon a breeze in the room that ruffles their hair, not that either of them notices.
He hears Taehyung let out a little hum, relaxed and even deeper than usual. It lingers, sinks under
Jeongguk’s skin, and creates an even greater buzz that has him wondering if Taehyung is able to
feel the excited magic where their skin touches.

Another breeze blows by when Jeongguk pulls away. He smiles at the way Taehyung makes a face
when his hair gets mussed, even when it was already messy from sleep.

Jeongguk bites his lip—doesn’t let himself think too much about the fact that Taehyung was just
kissing his lips—as he decides whether or not to run a hand through Taehyung’s hair to try and set
it back in place. He needs to make a decision quickly, because smiling and staring at your best-
friend-turned-crush-who-you-just-kissed can only be done for so long before it gets weird.

Just as he shifts to bring his hand up, someone clears their throat from behind them, effectively
popping the happy little bubble he and Taehyung had unknowingly created.

“Is this what you meant when you said you couldn’t practice?” The new voice matches the new
person sitting on Jeongguk’s bed looking at them both with amusement. “You couldn’t let me take
away your first kiss?” this new person teases. He looks very comfortable nestled in Jeongguk’s
blanket and pillows, yet he’s noticeably out of place with how fancy the suit he’s wearing is.

Jeongguk sits up, silently moving so that Taehyung is hidden behind him, out of sight from this
man who just appeared in their room.

His eyes check the door, the window, anywhere that suit-man could’ve gotten in. “How’d you get
in here?” he asks when nothing seems out of place or tampered with. Maybe he’d gotten in with
magic? No, Jeongguk would have at least sensed it, even with how… distracted he was with
Taehyung.

Jeongguk stares at suit-man for a second longer. He’s seen him somewhere before, he just can’t
figure out where.

Taehyung seems to recognize him as well, perking up a little from behind Jeongguk. “Oh! Hyung!”
He shoots him a smile like it’s the easiest thing in the world, and knowing Taehyung, it might as
well be. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Likewise, Taehyung-ah,” he replies, smiling like he’s in on a joke.

“‘Hyung’?” Jeongguk repeats to Taehyung, looking back at him before eyeing suit-man again,
staring at his face a little bit more than he normally would to a stranger, trying to figure out why he
looks so familiar. The answer’s just out of his reach, he can feel it. “You know him, Taehyungie
hyung?”

“Of course I know him, Jeongguk-ah,” he answers like Jeongguk should have already known that,
and maybe he should. He stares a little more.

Jeongguk stares at sharp eyes that don’t stare back, instead looking around the room. He follows
the lines of his suit down to where his hands lay interlaced on top of his lap. They’re nice hands,
Jeongguk thinks. The longer he stares the more he can feel the way they’d cradle his face and hold
his own hand, which is kind of weird, but also nice. He might be more touch-starved than he
thought.

Oh, wait. The man from the burger place, the one Jeongguk thought he’d hallucinated.

“Yoongi… hyung?” he lets out, cautious about the way it slips off his tongue. Jeongguk’s not sure
if he wants the answer to come sooner or later.
Yoongi lifts a lazy hand in greeting, the corner of his mouth following suit. “The one and only.”

Jeongguk drops his head down, letting out a sigh. One problem solved, two if kissing Taehyung
counts as resolving his longtime crush, and another problem made in the form of a demon making
himself at home on Jeongguk’s bed. “I thought we finished the deal. You said you’d go after we
had our date.”

Yoongi shakes his head. “I said I’d give Taehyung back after we went out together.” He tilts his
head down in Taehyung’s direction. “And, as you can see, I’ve kept my word.”

“You really did agree to go on a date with hyung just so you could get me back?”

“No!” Jeongguk immediately replies to Taehyung, snapping his head to him. “I mean—I did, but
—” He’s cut off when Taehyung lurches up to give him a short kiss, leaving him too stunned to do
anything but stare at Taehyung, who’s staring at him with a fondness Jeongguk doesn’t know if he
deserves when he pulls back.

Taehyung breaks into a smile the longer they stare. “You’re the sweetest person out there, Jeon
Jeongguk,” he murmurs as if it’s more to himself than to him. He shifts to sit up, Jeongguk shifting
with him.

Before they can do something crazy like kiss a third time, Yoongi chooses to interrupt again,
reminding Jeongguk about this new problem. “All it took to get you two together was a demonic
possession,” he says, possibly the most deadpan Jeongguk’s ever heard, even with his borderline
monotone way of speaking. “Maybe I should take some notes for myself.”

Jeongguk grabs the closest thing he can find—which isn’t easy, Taehyung already threw his
pillows over at his bed—and throws it at Yoongi, who doesn’t even flinch when Taehyung’s sock
hits him.

Taehyung giggles, leaning into Jeongguk as he whispers, “You know, Yoongi hyung acts all cool,
but he flusters real easily.”

“Really?” Jeongguk raises an eyebrow at that, looking over at him. “Yoongi hyung?” He supposes
that Yoongi doesn’t really look that much like the all-powerful demon he’d been imagining in his
mind, but there’s still an aura of power around him, radiating in waves that almost become tangible
when Jeongguk subtly reaches out his magic to meet it.

Taehyung turns to look as well. “Yeah, look,” he says, and Jeongguk wonders how he sees Yoongi,
with the way he’s looking at him. “You look really pretty in that suit, Yoongi hyung.”

Jeongguk watches as Taehyung bats his eyelashes and leans forward off the bed the slightest bit
while looking Yoongi right in the eye. Except Yoongi is valiantly avoiding eye contact with him.
Jeongguk watches him look down at his hands, at the wall behind them, out the window. It feels a
lot like if he were to watch himself. He would definitely be doing the same thing if Taehyung were
saying that to him.

“This is the same suit you saw me wear in the house, Taehyung.” Yoongi’s reply doesn’t have as
much of a punch as it had before.

Turning to him with a satisfied smile, Taehyung leans in again to whisper an “I told you so,” so
giddy that Jeongguk couldn’t keep from smiling back even if he wanted to.

“I guess he really isn’t as cool as he tries to be,” Jeongguk whispers back, turning to Yoongi. He’s
very focused on his hands, assuring Jeongguk a little more that he hasn’t been listening to their
little conversation. The longer he stares, the more he feels like he’s having this weird out-of-body
moment. Connecting this person in front of them with the Yoongi that was wearing Taehyung’s
face last night is surprisingly easy.

It’s easy to imagine that it was this man sitting beside him up on that rooftop, his rasping voice
talking him through everything, laughing with him as they looked out over the city.

His mind switches Taehyung and Yoongi in and out of the memory, does it so much that he
manages to confuse his own brain and create a whole different scenario with the three of them
together. All three of them on the roof, Taehyung walking right along the ledge as Yoongi tries to
get him to walk closer in. They’re all laughing, weird in how familiar it feels.

Jeongguk blinks himself out of his thoughts, choosing to distract himself from thinking too into his
daydream by talking some more.

“So, you’ve actually talked to Yoongi hyung before?” he asks him. “While you were…” possessed,
he was going to say before he cuts himself off. “Yesterday,” he continues, “You got to talk to
Yoongi hyung yesterday?”

“I told you we’ve talked,” Yoongi chimes in from across the room. “You just didn’t want to listen
to me.”

“You were still being annoying and evil when you were gonna tell me,” Jeongguk says back,
waving a finger at him that Yoongi huffs a laugh at. “What was I supposed to do? Believe that you
were telling the truth and not just screwing with me?” After last night, Jeongguk doesn’t think
Yoongi would really screw with him that much anymore, but it’s the only argument he can think of.

“Well, preferably, yes.”

He opens his mouth to say something—he’s not quite sure what—back, until Taehyung starts
patting Jeongguk repeatedly on his arm to get his attention, looking at him the way he always does
when he gets excited about something and wants to tell him about it.

“Jeongguk-ah, it was actually so weird!” The wonder in his voice is almost palpable. Jeongguk
wants to pull him into another kiss then and there, but he can tell this is something Taehyung really
wants to say. “I was at home, like, the one on the farm I’m always telling you about, you know?”
Jeongguk does know. Taehyung’s fondness for his grandmother and the farm almost mirrors
Jeongguk’s fondness for Taehyung himself. “I was at home, but also not. It was like, I was inside
of my mind, Jeongguk, isn’t that cool?”

“That does sound kinda crazy, hyung.” If Jeongguk’s a little bewildered by Taehyung’s attitude
toward the whole possession thing, he tries not to show it.

Taehyung manages to brighten even more, even with how early in the morning it is. “I know, right?
And Yoongi hyung was just in there with me doing whatever. Out of all the ways demonic
possession would work, I didn’t think it would be like that.”

Unsure of how to reply, Jeongguk just nods in agreement, which Taehyung must take as a signal to
continue, because that’s what he does.

As he listens to Taehyung ramble on about the subconscious mind and how weird it was to exist in
the closest thing to a physical representation of his mind, Jeongguk finds himself turning from
Taehyung to Yoongi, who hasn’t said anything since Taehyung started talking about this.

Rather than talk, Yoongi seems to have taken to staring, watching Taehyung while displaying an
openness that Jeongguk didn’t really think was possible to see from a demon.

For a demon. The more Jeongguk thinks about the phrase the worse it sounds. Yoongi is Yoongi
before he’s a demon. At least, that’s what Jeongguk has begun to think, somewhere down the line.
Not a demon named Yoongi, but Yoongi, who also happens to be a demon. Jeongguk likes the
sound of that better than anything else he’s thought before.

Yoongi, who happens to be a demon, and who also might have a soft spot for Taehyung. Jeongguk
wouldn’t blame him if he did, Taehyung does that sort of thing to people.

Yoongi eventually starts chiming in when Taehyung finds himself wondering about certain things
out loud (“How much of my thoughts and stuff did you actually have access to, hyung?” “Not
much at all. Surface layer stuff, recent memories... It all fades really quickly after I leave the host
body, though.” “Huh, interesting. So you wouldn’t be able to recall my memories of…”)

Jeongguk comes to the conclusion that this is nice, turning back and forth between Taehyung and
Yoongi as they talk about demonic possession out of all things.

This is nice, and he wouldn’t mind spending the entire morning like this. Whatever happened
between Yoongi and Taehyung in the past day seems to have been as nice as what happened
between him and Yoongi on the rooftop. They play off of each other well, against what Jeongguk
might have expected before.

Watching them talk for the first time after his flight or fight instincts were being constantly
triggered the day before is like that stage of potion brewing where it’s at its most volatile and
you’re about to add the second to last ingredient, bubbling and bubbling more and more until it
finally calms down as it waits for you to complete the final step.

There’s an underlying tension that always seizes Jeongguk’s body at that moment, where he’s
always worried he’ll mess up and have to start all over again.

As he’d watch the potion calm as it continued to brew, he’d relax along with it. His parents always
told him he and his magic were especially receptive to the world around them. Jeongguk always
thought it was just a roundabout way of saying how emotional he is, how empathetic he gets, how
reactive his magic is when he gets especially worked up.

But he knows they were right. They always are.

That moment, the one where everything is calming down, settling back into its skin, that’s what it
feels like right now.

That is until Jeongguk’s alarm begins ringing, a horribly grating recording of an autotuned baby
crying easily interrupting Taehyung and Yoongi, reminding all of them that a world exists outside
of his and Taehyung’s tiny dorm room.

Yoongi finds Jeongguk’s phone hidden under one of the blankets on his bed, giving him a raised
eyebrow at his choice of alarm tone as he turns it off.

Jeongguk just shrugs, moving off the bed to get ready for his lecture. “It’s effective, isn’t it? I
almost forgot I had class in the first place.” He turns to his dresser, grabbing whatever he sees first
to change into. “Oh, Taehyungie hyung, you missed class yesterday.” Taehyung mutters a little
curse to himself in reply, making Jeongguk smile. “And you should probably text Jimin.”

He turns back to see Taehyung looking around for his phone. He’s almost halfway to turning his
bed inside out before Yoongi points it out sitting on the floor next to the now-smudged sigil that
Jeongguk still hasn’t bothered to clean up. He should probably get around to that sometime soon.

The face Taehyung makes when he checks his phone is cute enough that Jeongguk kind of doesn’t
want to look away, both resigned and fond at whatever notifications he’s gotten throughout the
day, probably mostly from Jimin.

Jeongguk turns away the second Taehyung looks back up at him, quickly pulling his shirt off and
changing into the one in his hand in an attempt to look like he was, in fact, actually changing and
not just staring at Taehyung. Yoongi coughs from behind, making Jeongguk pause at the fact that
he’d just taken his shirt off in front of both him and Taehyung.

He snaps out of it fast enough, moving to slide sweats over his shorts while he does everything to
not think too much about how maybe Yoongi and Taehyung seeing him shirtless isn’t that bad at
all.

“Jeongguk-ah,” Taehyung says as he slips his bag on, right before he slips through the door.
Jeongguk sees his eyes flit to Yoongi before they go back to him. “After your class,” he starts. His
lips press together, showing how much thought he’s putting into his next few words, “let’s talk,
okay?”

All of the different things Taehyung could end up talking about worries Jeongguk a bit, but he nods
nonetheless. “Yeah, of course.”

The last thing he sees before leaving their room is Taehyung’s hopeful smile.

What really sticks to Jeongguk as he walks to the lecture hall, though, is the thoughtful expression
that was on Yoongi’s face after Taehyung had asked.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

Jeongguk ends up thinking more about what Taehyung might want to talk about than anything
actually related to whatever the professor has been teaching about the integration of magic and
magical folk into society throughout the ages.

He barely keeps from jumping out of his seat when they’re dismissed, tens of different possibilities
bouncing around in his mind as he walks back.

It couldn’t be anything bad, he thinks.

It could be about the kiss. Or any of the other kisses they’d shared after that first one. Jeongguk
feels himself flushing just at the memory of it all.

Even if it was, Taehyung seemed to enjoy it just as much as Jeongguk did. There’s no way he read
that wrong, he knows Taehyung too well to have misread anything.

Before he can think too much about the possibility that maybe he did actually misread the entire
thing, his thoughts are cut off by his phone ringing. He blinks at Namjoon’s name displayed on the
phone for a second, trying to remember if he had a shift scheduled that he forgot about, ultimately
deciding to just answer and find out that way.

“What’s up, hyung?”

“Jeongguk-ah, are you doing alright?” It’s not often that Namjoon starts off a conversation with a
question like that, he tends to ease into the soft mushy feely stuff.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jeongguk hikes the straps of his bag up. “Why’d you call?”

There’s a bit of shuffling on the other end. Mixed in with a faint chiming in the background,
Jeongguk guesses that Namjoon’s back at the shop. “Ah, well after I left yesterday I did a deep
dive into my older journals like I promised—” A door slams shut. “—and I was able to find some
stuff from when I got into demonic magic.”

“Oh?” Jeongguk almost stops where he’s standing in the middle of the pathway. He’d somehow
managed to forget he’d asked for Namjoon’s help with Yoongi.

“Yeah, I think... I might’ve found something that would work.” Namjoon says, albeit with a slight
hesitance Jeongguk wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t listening so intently. “There’s a ritual. I
could help you with the setup, if you want…” He can practically hear the unsaid but at the end, so
he starts walking again while he waits for Namjoon to continue. “But, I honestly can’t predict what
the full result of the ritual will be.”

Jeongguk furrows his brows at that. “A lot of things about rituals are unpredictable, hyung.”

“Well, that’s true,” he sighs. The pause afterward meaning he’s taking his time to decide what he’s
going to say next. “I meant—” Another sigh. Jeongguk can feel himself getting nervous from
Namjoon’s growing reluctance. It’s like he’s about to be told some bad, bad news. “I don’t exactly
know what’s going to happen to Yoongi hyung if we go through with this ritual.”

“You… don’t know?” The furrow in his brow grows deeper. Namjoon was supposed to be the one
to know all of the things. At least, he should be out of the two of them. “Wouldn’t it just send him
back to wherever demons come from?”

The chiming from before sounds again, louder and followed by another door closing. “Any normal
exorcism is only meant to work on demons that… have gone rogue, for lack of a better word,”
Namjoon begins explaining. “Those wouldn’t work on Yoongi hyung, seeing as he’s been abiding
by whatever rules you may have stated during the initial ritual.”

Jeongguk nods his head like Namjoon would be able to see it, hums in affirmation when he realizes
he can’t.

“This ritual that I found is primarily used to send away unwanted things… or I guess people, in this
case. Yoongi hyung could end up in the aether, for all I know.”

“Oh.” Jeongguk tilts his head up to the sky, takes a deep breath, holds it there for a moment before
he lets it all out. “So if I went through with that, Yoongi hyung would disappear off to a place we
might not even be able to find him?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. Which is why I actually don’t think you should go through it,
especially when it basically puts Yoongi hyung in the same category as, well, something you don’t
want.” Namjoon says it with the authority of the boss he rarely acts like. It’s his tone that really
makes Jeongguk realize how serious doing something like that could have been. “And I’m sort of
going out on a limb here, Jeongguk-ah, but it doesn’t seem like you’re as eager to get rid of Yoongi
hyung as you were before.”

The residence hall comes into view right then, yet Jeongguk finds himself stopping once again.“I
—” He cuts himself off. “No, I’m not, actually,” he says, feeling strangely lighter at the
impromptu admission.

Yoongi staying doesn’t sound that bad, not anymore.

He stares at the hall, counts three windows up and two left. That’s his and Taehyung’s room. He
wonders what Taehyung might be doing in there with Yoongi, if he’s just taken to flustering
Yoongi some more. “It’s okay that you weren’t able to find much to help, hyung. I appreciate it a
lot, but I think it’ll be fine if we wait until the summoning terms have been fulfilled.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Namjoon says, already sounding happier than just a moment ago.
“Tell Yoongi hyung I said hi, then.”

“I will.” He’s still staring at the window, from this far trying to make out anything is fruitless.
“And I don’t know if I’ve said this already, but thanks for all your help, hyung. I honestly don’t
know where I would be without you.”

Jeongguk smiles at the shy laugh coming through the speaker. “It’s all no problem, Jeongguk-ah. I
help because I want to see you succeed. Though even if you didn’t have any of my help, I know
you’d still be an amazing witch.”

They say their goodbyes one more time, and the smile on Jeongguk’s face never leaves, not even
when there’s a sign on the elevator saying it’s under maintenance and he ends up having to climb
three flights of stairs.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

Taehyung is working on something at his desk when Jeongguk opens the door. At least Jeongguk
thinks he was working on something, his desk more of a mess than it usually is.

Now, he’s leaning against the bedframe saying something to Yoongi.

Yoongi’s still on Jeongguk’s bed sitting in the exact same position he had been in when Jeongguk
left, but this time there’s one of Jeongguk’s journals in his hands. By the looks of it, he seems to
think it genuinely interesting. Either that, or he’s acting like it is. Jeongguk might have been right
about Taehyung going on to fluster Yoongi some more after he left.

The sound of Jeongguk taking off his shoes is what gets Taehyung to turn and look. Jeongguk
thinks he sees Taehyung’s eyes light up when they meet, but Taehyung’s up and moving too fast
for him to really be sure.

“Jeongguk-ah,” he says with a smile, grabbing his hand and pulling him up close. “Go on a date
with me?”

It takes a few seconds for him to catch up to everything, but when he finally does, Jeongguk
breathes out a little laugh. “This is sounding more like a proposal than a talk, hyung.”

Taehyung rolls his eyes at that, yet his smile never leaves his face. “Fine. How was your day,
Jeongguk?”

“It was nice, hyung. Thanks for asking. How was your day?”
“Incredible. Amazing. Yoongi hyung makes for great entertainment,” he spitfires, ignoring the huff
from Yoongi. “Now—” Taehyung somehow manages to pull Jeongguk even closer. It makes
Jeongguk go a little cross-eyed trying to maintain eye contact. “—go on a date with me?”

This is happening. Jeongguk thinks. This is happening. This is not a dream, or some demon
playing tricks, this is real. “Yeah,” he breathes out. “Yeah, I’ll go on a date with you.”

Taehyung’s smile grows into an even bigger, even more blinding smile. It has Jeongguk’s magic
swirling around in one of the only ways that doesn’t make him sick, just makes him feel like he’s
about to float up off of his feet.

“I’d like to think that my summoning was the catalyst to you two getting your shit together, you
know,” Yoongi pipes up before Jeongguk actually manages to start floating through the air.

They both turn to him in sync. Yoongi flushes more the longer they both stare at him, as if he
wasn’t expecting to gain their attention after speaking up.

“Is this your way of telling us you want in?” Taehyung asks, his voice laced with an exaggerated
lilt. It’s obviously a joke, yet Yoongi visibly freezes until Jeongguk blinks, and then Yoongi’s all
nonchalance and cool demeanor. Taehyung might have noticed as well. He giggles, leaning into
Jeongguk as he whispers, “It’s so easy it’s cute.”

Jeongguk has half a mind to nod in agreement, split between watching the way Yoongi’s hands
still fidget under his forced calm and the way Taehyung’s eyes bunch up the longer he giggles.

“You two finally figure things out and automatically become even more insufferable than you
already were,” Yoongi says, finally looking up at the two of them. Even when he manages to stare
at them at eye level, Jeongguk watches with interest as Yoongi’s eyes flick from him to Taehyung,
him to Taehyung, like he can’t keep contact with either of them for more than one second at a time.

“I’d like to think that Jeongguk and I are a delight!” Taehyung tugs Jeongguk closer, again. It’s a
wonder how there was enough space in between them for him to get closer in the first place.
“Don’t you think so, Jeongguk-ah?”

“Of course I do.” Jeongguk turns to Yoongi. “You just haven’t had nice enough experiences to base
your opinions off of. Oh, and Namjoon hyung says hi.”

Yoongi raises an eyebrow. “Tell him I said hi back. And that I know he stopped summoning me
because he’d somehow summoned Seokjin hyung and Hoseok.” Jeongguk almost misses the rest of
Yoongi’s response wondering if that’s something he should ask about. “And I’ve spent the entire
past day with either one of you guys, is that not enough?”

Taehyung shakes his head before bringing up a finger, waving it around in between all of them.
“Neither of us were at our best, though. I didn’t even have an actual physical form when I was
talking to you.”

“You’ve had your body back for the entire morning and I still think you’re a little insufferable,”
Yoongi points out. He pauses a beat. “Plus, that doesn’t give Jeongguk an excuse.”

Jeongguk pouts at that. “I was two words away from panicking every time I talked to you, hyung.”

“And look at the progress you’ve made. Now you’re using your evil pout to try and make me
change my mind.” Yoongi crosses his arms, leveling Jeongguk with a stare. Jeongguk goes along
with it, even when he’d started pouting without any evil intentions. If Yoongi thinks it’s evil, he’ll
show him evil.
The pout stays firm on his face, the longer he stares at Yoongi the more he widens his eyes. It’s the
same look he’d give to Namjoon asking if he could shadow him during work when they’d first
met. At some point Yoongi’s gonna break.

Yoongi shifts. Just a little, but enough that Jeongguk notices. He thinks he can see Taehyung
snickering out off to his side.

“Hyung,” Taehyung says, breaking whatever was happening between Yoongi and Jeongguk.
Jeongguk thinks that Taehyung might have done it to let Yoongi breathe a little until they both look
over and Taehyung’s showing Yoongi his own pout as he says, “If anyone here is the evil one, it’s
you.”

Yoongi stares at Taehyung for a bit, the same way he had with Jeongguk. And then Taehyung’s
bottom lip wobbles and Jeongguk thinks he sees Yoongi’s nostrils do a little flaring thing before he
groans, flopping down and burying his face into Jeongguk’s blanket as he and Taehyung watch in
amusement. “The both of you. Insufferable,” he grumbles, though the Jeongguk can’t help but
laugh at the way it’s muffled.

“Love you too, hyung.” Taehyung’s also laughing, it takes Jeongguk’s breath away when he turns
from Yoongi to look at him.

This is nice, Jeongguk thinks, and not for the first time, he remembers. This is nice, all of this.

Jeongguk tucks some of Taehyung’s hair back behind his ear as they continue laughing, and he
thinks he might see Yoongi, from the corner of his eye, lift his head up and stare at both of them.
What Yoongi might be thinking, Jeongguk doesn’t know. Outside of whenever Taehyung likes to
mess with him, Yoongi seems to be very good at keeping a neutral face.

Jeongguk wants to believe, though, that Yoongi might be watching them and thinking the same
thing he was.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

The real talk actually happens later that day, Taehyung and Jeongguk leaving Yoongi—they’d
asked him if he’d wanted to come, apparently he’s found a temporary home on Jeongguk’s bed—to
go out not on a date, but for a short walk, just because.

Jeongguk half expects them to run into Jimin again, or more accurately, for Jimin to run into them,
but the walk is surprisingly peaceful.

They’re walking aimlessly, turning whenever one of them feels like they should turn, keeping
straight when they don’t. The weather is pretty nice, Jeongguk thinks that he should take the time
to appreciate days when the weather's like this more often. A breeze blows by, it ruffles
Taehyung’s hair just the wrong way and has him fussing to brush it back in place.

Another breeze blows by, this one may be more Jeongguk’s doing than anything else. Taehyung
huffs a little at the way it blows through his hair.

Jeongguk doesn’t try to stifle his little laugh, not at all.

Taehyung turns to him with another huff, his hands running through his hair again and again.
“What are you laughing at?”

And rather than say anything in reply like any normal person might do, Jeongguk just laughs
harder, another breeze—it’s more of a gust of wind at this point—passing along with it.

The sudden pick-up in the wind has Taehyung yelping, and then he’s staring at Jeongguk with a
special glint in his eyes. Jeongguk doesn’t know what it might mean, he’s still laughing too much
to really think about it. “Are you doing this, Jeongguk-ah?” Taehyung asks, sounds both awed and
affronted at the same time.

Jeongguk doesn’t answer that question either, choosing instead to step in front of Taehyung and
grab his hands from his hair, pulling them away to smooth the strands himself. “If it was?” he asks,
his smile still wide on his face.

“Well—” Jeongguk sees Taehyung look at his hand, up at his hair, into Jeongguk’s eyes. Then he
blinks away. “Well, that’s kinda hot, actually—”

He doesn’t know why he does it, or if there is any reason at all, but Jeongguk cuts Taehyung off
with a kiss. It’s their first one after their little celebration earlier, yet Taehyung doesn’t seem to be
too shy or too bothered by it, if the way he chases after Jeongguk when he pulls away says
anything about it.

It takes a hand being held and a kiss to the cheek for both of them to break away from their staring
at each other to start walking again, but they manage.

The stretch of silence between them breaks when Taehyung sighs. Sighing is really only a thing
Taehyung does when he spends too much time thinking about something, which might be why
their walk has been so quiet, Jeongguk realizes.

“Jeongguk-ah…” Taehyung starts, licking his lips before looking at him. “You know how I asked
Yoongi if he wanted to join us as a joke?”

“Yeah?” Jeongguk replies, though it sounds more like another question. Taehyung says things like
this a lot, things that Jeongguk would never be able to fully figure out on his own, even if he was
somehow told them beforehand and given the time to pick these things apart to find the true
meaning before Taehyung actually tells him. What Jeongguk can figure out is that Taehyung is
nervous, so he gives his hand an encouraging squeeze while waiting for him to continue.

In return Taehyung squeezes back, giving Jeongguk a sort of lopsided smile before it turns into
something more shy, and Taehyung’s saying, “I—Um, I don’t really think I fully meant it as a
joke.”

“Oh,” Jeongguk breathes out, before the entire implication of that little truth really hits him. “ Oh. ”
Then it’s just the two of them, staring at each other in the middle of a campus courtyard, breathing
together as Taehyung’s words settle around them. Jeongguk takes a breath, listening to the distant
sounds of leaves rustling. With his exhale, he asks (tries to ask), “Do… Do you…?”

Taehyung picks up on the question easily enough, shaking his head before Jeongguk can bring
himself to finish. “No,” he says, voice light, casual. More casual than Jeongguk would ever be.
“No, not like I do you.”

“Oh,” Jeongguk says once again, because he’s not sure what he should say. If he should ask
another question about what Taehyung might be thinking, if he should brush off this weird mood
they’ve created with some sort of joke, if he should just say what Taehyung’s implying out loud for
the both of them so he can come forward and confess that he agrees.

“I think that I can see it though.” Taehyung gives him a little half-smile, a faraway look in his eyes
as he thinks. “Because I see him the same way I saw you when we first met.”

Jeongguk doesn’t know what the normal reaction is supposed to be when your new boyfriend—
That’s what they are, right? Maybe Jeongguk should ask just to make sure—implies that he might
be developing feelings for someone else he’d met, but he doesn’t think it would be helpful if he
knew the answer anyway, seeing as he’s not really sure what he’s feeling himself.

The half-smile goes away the longer they both stand there. “Is—Is that okay with you? Am I
making you uncomfortable?”

“No! No, you’re not making me uncomfortable,” Jeongguk is quick to reassure, reaching out to
hold Taehyung’s hands in his. He takes a step closer, squeezing his hands in what he hopes is a
comforting way. “I was just thinking a little bit about it all.”

“What do you think, then? About it all,” Taehyung asks, looking at Jeongguk like this might be the
most important thing he’s ever asked him, maybe second to when he’d just asked Jeongguk out on
a date earlier.

Somehow, Jeongguk doesn’t have to think twice about his answer when he says, “I’m thinking that
I might get where you’re coming from.” He smiles at the way Taehyung blinks in response. “I
don’t know if I see hyung the same way I saw you when we first met, but… But I think if he ends
up staying around like I think he will, I might start caring for him a little too much.” Taehyung
laughs at that part, which is good, laughing is a better look than the anxious one he’d just had on.

Taehyung laughs and his head tilts closer and closer until eventually, it’s resting on Jeongguk’s
shoulder. “It’s not a bad thing to care more than you thought you would, as long as they care back
just as much. Having people like that in your life is nice.”

Having Taehyung this close is a nice feeling, Jeongguk decides. There’s a calm that comes with
listening to him talk like this. His own type of magic, Jeongguk remembers. “Yeah,” he says, starts
rocking the both of them side to side as he starts to play with Taehyung’s hair, “it is pretty nice.”

In his head, Jeongguk starts to make a list of all of the things he’ll have to deal with sooner or later.

The list includes lots of things, including his date with Taehyung, his midterms coming up, his
lingering feelings about the entire possession thing, Yoongi (he actually shows up more than
once), and if he’ll ever actually tell his parents about all of this.

Right now, Jeongguk settles on the later in ‘sooner or later’ and closes his eyes. Taehyung’s really
warm.

When they return to their room, Yoongi makes a joke about how he was about to alert whoever the
campus authorities are to start looking for two lovesick boys with how long they’d taken, and
Taehyung makes a joke back about how he’d secretly missed the both of them.

Pink, Jeongguk thinks, the pink of Yoongi’s cheeks afterward might be one of his new favorite
colors.
 one more deal
Chapter Summary

Yoongi sighs as he looks between him and Jeongguk. “Okay,” he says, “You guys can
ask me questions, but twenty is too much. I’ll give you guys three.”

“Each?” Jeongguk tilts his head.

“In total.” Yoongi leans back against the wall as he says it, and Taehyung already
knows any attempt to bargain will be futile.

Chapter Notes

happy friday !! im excited to say here's the last chapter !! enjoy !!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

It’s surprisingly easy, secretly living with a third person in their dorm room. Yoongi just fits into
everything like there was always a spot open for him to simply slip into.

Jeongguk doesn’t seem as uptight around Yoongi as Taehyung originally thought he might have
been, which is nice. He’s glad Jeongguk hasn’t done something like declare Yoongi his mortal
enemy and placed some sort of magic curse on him (If curses can even be put on demons, he’ll
have to ask one of them).

They’d finally cleaned up the old ritual stuff off of the floor after returning from their walk,
Yoongi just watching as Jeongguk told Taehyung what he could and couldn’t touch and where to
put what. Taehyung doesn’t think he’d seen Yoongi move from his perch on Jeongguk’s bed since
he first appeared. He’s like the cat Taehyung sees in the same little nook every time he walks to the
arts department. Always watching.

Yoongi didn’t even move when Jeongguk had slapped a talisman in the doorway. Taehyung had
caught the slight moment of hesitation in his eyes as he glanced at Yoongi only to turn away and
mutter something under his breath.

Today, when Taehyung comes back from one of his lectures, he realizes that he hasn’t seen the
little yellow strip of paper in a while.

He pauses in the doorway at that. “Huh,” he says to himself. Yoongi is reading some book
Namjoon had come by and dropped off along with some stuff for Jeongguk, still sitting on
Jeongguk’s bed. Taehyung wonders if Yoongi can still feel his butt with how long he’s been
sitting. Wonders if he ever feels like he needs to use the restroom. “Hyung, have you really been
sitting on Jeonggukie’s bed this entire time? Or do you like… disappear somewhere when we’re
both asleep?”

Yoongi huffs out a little laugh. Taehyung would like to think that he’s been laughing around him
and Jeongguk more often lately. “What sort of things do you think I’m actually capable of,
Taehyung-ah?”

He takes off his bag, setting it on the floor next to his desk before sitting down himself and
spinning around in the chair. “Well…” Taehyung says as he starts to think, “You can possess
people.”

“Yes.” Yoongi nods. “That I can do. Anything else?”

“You…” Taehyung trails off trying to find another answer, still spinning. He thinks and thinks and
thinks. He goes through every single memory he’s had of Yoongi because maybe he’d witnessed
Yoongi use his demon powers and he’d just forgotten, however unlikely that may be. Even after
the past week, it seems that he hasn’t learned much about Yoongi.

At his realization, Taehyung abruptly stomps his foot onto the ground, stopping his spinning with a
loud thud. He tries to fix Yoongi with a look, but the room has decided to spin on without him.
With a groan, he squeezes his eyes shut, trying his best to not lean off of his chair.

“You okay there?”

Taehyung’s next groan is a little quieter, more airy. He lifts his head, blinking his eyes open. “I’m
fine, hyung.”

“Are you sure about that?” It’s hard to tell what type of face Yoongi’s making when so much of
Taehyung’s focus is being used toward not falling over.

“Yes! I’m perfect!” Taehyung stands to prove his point, staring straight at Yoongi while doing so.
That’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re dizzy, he thinks he remembers reading it
somewhere. You find a point of focus and stare at it really hard. Though that might have been to
keep your balance. He still does it anyway. “See! Look! I can even walk fine, hyung.”

Before Yoongi can reply, Taehyung is walking toward him and the bed with purpose. He doesn’t
fall or wobble, most of the dizziness having worn off already. Either staring really hard at
Yoongi’s face actually worked or it’s just been longer than Taehyung had originally thought.

Even though he’s stable enough to stand up perfectly straight and balanced now, Taehyung decides
to fall forward when he reaches the bed anyway.

The bed isn’t a big one, especially when Yoongi’s already taking up some of the space. It leaves
Taehyung’s legs hanging off after he finally settles on his arms in front of him. Looking up at him
like this is nice. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen Yoongi from this angle before.

Taehyung decides against telling Yoongi about how nice his eyelashes are, instead remembering
about his realization. “Hyung.” He shifts to rest his chin on his hand. “I just realized I don’t really
know much about you.”

“Well, that’s probably because I never told you anything about me,” Yoongi replies matter-of-
factly. Taehyung keeps from rolling his eyes, but doesn’t keep from jutting out his bottom lip.

“Would you answer if I asked?” Taehyung blinks up at him. “Politely?” he adds as an afterthought.

Yoongi hums in thought, and wow is it a nice sound to hear so close up. “Depends on what type of
questions you ask, really.”

Taehyung’s in the middle of thinking of his first question to ask Yoongi when the door clicks open,
Jeongguk freezing when he and Yoongi turn at the sound of him entering. As he stands, his bag
slowly slips off his shoulders before Jeongguk shakes himself and hikes it up. “Um. Hey guys.” He
lifts up a shy hand. Cute.

“Oh! Jeongguk-ah!” Taehyung perks up, but doesn’t move to stand up off the bed. “You came
back at the perfect time!”

Jeongguk looks between him and Yoongi, a confused look in his eyes as he slips off his shoes. “...I
did?”

Taehyung nods. He puts so much enthusiasm behind it it almost hurts. “Yeah! I realized that
Yoongi knows way more about us than we know about him, so now we’re playing a one-sided
game of twenty questions.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to that,” Yoongi says.

Turning back to Yoongi, he smiles what he thinks is a very flattering smile and watches Yoongi’s
eyes just barely narrow. “You didn’t not agree to it. And you also answered in a way that implied
you’d answer if I asked the right questions, so—” He pats the bed, gesturing to Jeongguk.
“Jeongguk-ah, join us so we can interview Yoongi about himself.”

Taehyung thinks Jeongguk and Yoongi might be exchanging a look as he watches Jeongguk’s gaze
move up and over his head. Whatever type of look it was, it still gets Jeongguk to agree and sit
next to them on the floor, so Taehyung doesn’t bother looking too much into it.

Yoongi sighs as he looks between him and Jeongguk. “Okay,” he says, “You guys can ask me
questions, but twenty is too much. I’ll give you guys three.”

“Each?” Jeongguk tilts his head.

“In total.” Yoongi leans back against the wall as he says it, and Taehyung already knows any
attempt to bargain will be futile.

He sinks down into the bed as he lets out a sigh that is most definitely for show. “You have to give
us time to think then, Yoongi hyung. These questions are valuable.” Jeongguk nods in agreement,
seeming way more into it than he was just a minute ago, not that Taehyung is complaining.

Yoongi looks between them both again before he breaks into an amused smile. “Fine. Tell me
when you guys want to cash a question in, and I’ll answer as honestly as I feel like answering.”

“...That doesn’t really guarantee us any honesty at all, really,” Jeongguk points out.

The amused smile on Yoongi’s face grows. “I gotta remind you guys that I’m a demon somehow.
You guys treat me like a third roommate at this point,” he jokes. Taehyung thinks he can feel the
slightest draft of air brushing by, maybe from the involuntary sigh he’s let out or just their faulty
air conditioner doing something weird again.

“Are you not? I swear we asked you to live here to save more money,” Jeongguk says, all fake and
mocking and it makes Taehyung giggle so hard he fully slips off of the bed and onto the floor next
to him.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•
Taehyung and Jeongguk end up taking the Three Yoongi Questions more seriously than they ever
needed to.

It’s over one of their dates, out of all the times, that they agree to split it up so they both get to ask
one question of their choice, with the last question saved for the both of them to ask together. What
they’ll both decide to ask, they haven’t really decided yet.

(They do have a shared word document full of their brainstorming, though. Paired with comments
on the side saying things like Maybe this is just a little too specific of a question, what if Yoongi
hyung gets uncomfortable? and Is this offensive? Do demons get offended by things like this? The
both of them are very cautious with their approach, to say the least.)

Jeongguk winds up asking his question first, opposite to what both of them originally expected. He
gets Yoongi alone when Taehyung is off to check out some sort of exhibit with some friends, and
the silence of him trying to focus on some random assignment and Yoongi reading yet another
book is starting to get to him. Today seems to be one of those days where he can’t sit still.

Right before the silence actually does drive Jeongguk to do something stupid, Yoongi clears his
throat.

“I can practically feel your restless energy from here.” Jeongguk must make a face at that because
Yoongi makes a face right back. “It’s distracting,” he continues, his nose wrinkling.

“Oh, sorry about that, hyung.” Jeongguk rolls his neck around staring back down at his notes. “I
just can’t seem to focus today, I guess.”

“No, no, you’re fine.” There’s some shuffling from behind, the sound of pages rusting and blankets
moving. “This book isn’t even that interesting. Tell hyung what’s on your mind today. I’m always
here to listen.”

Jeongguk turns to Yoongi, who’s moved closer to the edge of his bed, though it’s an unspoken
agreement that it’s Yoongi’s bed now. Taehyung and Jeongguk are cuddlers when they sleep,
anyway, they’re fine with sharing.

He’s still in that suit, too. Jeongguk would hope that it hasn't actually just been one suit that
Yoongi’s been wearing this entire time, or at least that Yoongi’s demon magic plays a part in
keeping him nice and clean.

There must be some magic going on, he thinks. The suit doesn’t have a single wrinkle.

Jeongguk might be thinking a little too much about the suit, now. That, and how seeing Yoongi in
the suit sitting on his bed still has yet to get old or annoying or bad at all. He’s thinking about all of
that, as well as why Yoongi wants to stay with him and Taehyung in the first place.

“Hyung,” he says, after realizing that he should probably say something soon. He grabs at the first
few words he can think of, “Can I ask you a question?”

“One of your three? Sure,” he says, casually leaning back on his hands. If Yoongi is surprised that
he’s serious about the question thing, he doesn’t show it. Jeongguk makes a mental note to ask
Taehyung to try and help him surprise Yoongi some other time. “You have your question ready?”

Jeongguk keeps himself from chewing at his lip to tell Yoongi that yes, actually, he does have his
question ready. The brainstorming document he and Taehyung had made was surprisingly helpful,
ignoring the fact that they had both put in more effort into that than any of their schoolwork. He
takes a breath because he feels like this is something he needs to work up to, and asks, “Does it get
lonely? Being a demon?”

“If this is your way of asking if I have friends, I’ll let you know that I do have people I’m close
to,” Yoongi answers, looking at Jeongguk with that glint in his eye he has whenever he does
something especially demon-esque.

Then he blinks and the look in his eyes becomes more genuine, more familiar.

“We all go through stretches of time where we feel particularly lonely, don’t we?” He tilts his head
before looking down at his hands. “But I guess when you’re a demon that gets summoned left and
right by so many different witches, those stretches of time can be longer than usual.”

And that’s an answer Jeongguk wasn’t really expecting. The more he thinks about it, though, the
more he can understand why Yoongi feels that way.

Yoongi’s entire life up until now might as well have been nothing but a cycle of getting summoned,
making a deal, closing said deal, and not much else in between. There’s no time to connect with
other people when you’re never in the same place for too long. Personally, Jeongguk doesn’t think
he’d be able to last as a demon.

For all that he knows, these past few weeks Yoongi’s spent with him and Taehyung might have
been the longest time he’s ever spent carrying out a deal.

“So, I guess it can get a little lonely.” Yoongi continues after a pause. “But right now…” He looks
up, staring right past Jeongguk’s face as a small smile breaks onto his face. “Right now isn’t one of
those stretches of time.”

“Well, I’m glad, hyung,” Jeongguk tells him.

Finally, Yoongi meets his gaze. “Me too.”

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

When Jeongguk tells Taehyung that he’s already asked his question, he’s a little shy about it.
Taehyung giggles at the way Jeongguk hunches into himself slightly as he tells him about it before
giving him a kiss on the nose. And then another on his cheek, and the other cheek, and when
Jeongguk pouts at him, his lips.

He’ll be expecting kisses in return after he goes and asks Yoongi his question.

Luckily, Jeongguk is out at work tonight, making it the perfect time for him and Yoongi to bond a
little.

Taehyung looks over his container of jajangmyeon to Yoongi, who they’ve finally convinced to
wear something other than that suit of his. (Only Taehyung seemed surprised when Yoongi had
just sighed and waved a hand, his suit changing into a very cozy looking hoodie and sweats before
their eyes. Magic is so weird sometimes.)

During Yoongi’s entire time with them, this is the first time he’s ever seen him eat. Taehyung’s
legitimately considering whether he should change the question he wants to ask to Are you gonna
need to go to the bathroom after this?

Ultimately, he decides against it. Instead wiping his mouth with a napkin before he asks, “Have
you ever wondered what your life would have been like if you lived as a human? Or at least lived
in this… realm? That’s the word you used, right?”

Yoongi hums for a second as he finishes chewing his bite of noodle. Taehyung has never seen
someone eat jajangmyeon so cleanly. “Is this your question?”

Taehyung nods, getting sauce on his chin. “Yep.”

Jajangmyeon makes a very interesting sound when you stir it around, Taehyung thinks as he
watches Yoongi do just that with a small smile on his face. He looks up at Taehyung. “You two
ask surprising thoughtful questions.”

“What can I say?” Taehyung shrugs. “Jeonggukie and I brainstormed together.”

“Of course you did,” Yoongi laughs out before his face settles into something more contemplative.
Taehyung gets another bite of noodle in before he answers.“I don’t think I’ve ever wondered about
what my life would be like if I was born here.”

Yoongi stares up off somewhere, and Taehyung finds himself focusing on how his fingers tap
against his chopsticks in some hidden rhythm.

“But sometimes, I do watch, whenever I’m here. Admire, maybe.” Yoongi makes a sound and he
shifts, sucking in air through his teeth as he vaguely waves a hand around in the air. “Here,
everyone approaches their life with such wonder, like there are endless possibilities. It’s a nice
breath of fresh air to see it, every once in a while. Life doesn’t have to just be deals and contracts,
I’ve learned from my time in the human realm.”

Hearing Yoongi talk about anything is always something nice, something Taehyung lets himself
enjoy the rare time Yoongi gets especially invested in a topic of conversation. His voice takes on
this fond undertone, and when he gets especially into it, he starts rambling and even begins
tripping over his words.

Hearing Yoongi talk about human life, something that Taehyung had always thought was
universal, like it’s something he’s only used to watching and observing, is very interesting, for lack
of a better word.

Taehyung’s grown up, is still growing up and learning more about everything around him. Yoongi,
on the other hand, might have actually popped into existence ready to make a deal.

“Actually, I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to sleep the entire day,” he says, pursing his lips.
“It seems nice.”

“That’s… a very mundane thing to wonder about,” Taehyung says after a moment. Though he does
suppose that in Yoongi’s case, it would be the opposite of mundane. “It is pretty nice when you
don’t have anything going on. It kinda messes you up for the next few days, though.”

Sometime between Yoongi answering his question and now, Taehyung managed to miss when
Yoongi had finished the rest of his food. He places down an empty container and chopsticks,
humming as he considers Taehyung’s response. “Is that so? Well, what about alcohol?”

“Alcohol also fucks you up,” Taehyung sighs, blinks himself away from certain memories of
certain nights. “But I’d like to think that it’s worth it most of the time.” He shrugs.

Yoongi hums again. Out of all of the sounds Yoongi can make, Taehyung would rank his humming
second to only his actual speaking voice. He’s very good at humming.

“Maybe one day we can drink together, hyung,” Taehyung suggests, only half because he wants to
see if Yoongi’s able to get drunk (—and if he is able to get drunk, what kind of drunk Yoongi
would be. Maybe he’d hum more often).

Once again, Yoongi hums. Taehyung’s starting to think it’s the food that’s making him hum like
this. “Maybe one day,” he agrees.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

For it being the middle of the week, the library is awfully quiet today.

It makes Jeongguk feel just a bit weird about the fact that he and Taehyung aren’t even studying or
working on anything for any of their classes. Instead, Taehyung’s dragged him out here to
‘brainstorm’ for the last question they need to ask Yoongi.

At least, that was what Taehyung said they were going to the library for. Sitting across the table
from him, Taehyung seems pretty confident in what he’s about to say.

“I think we should use our last question to ask Yoongi out,” he says without any pretense. His face
softens a little after finally having said what he wanted to say. “If you’re ready for that, of course.”

Jeongguk freezes, taking in the words as Taehyung patiently stares on.

He takes in a breath, sighing it out as he starts to really think about everything. About whether he’s
ready.

Yoongi’s really nice to be around. He knows that. Jeongguk also knows how much Taehyung’s
grown to like him and how fond Yoongi seems to have grown of them both ever since Jeongguk
had summoned him.

Jeongguk also knows that there’s a part of him that also has grown to like Yoongi. A lot. And
there’s another part of him that can’t help but worry about it all and how it feels like it might be
moving a little bit too fast for comfort.

This all started with Jeongguk getting Taehyung possessed. He’d made his best friend lose control
of his own body after trying to impress him, yet Taehyung’s sitting in front of him as his boyfriend,
asking him how he feels about maybe getting another. When he lays it out like that, he can’t help
but feel like something went wrong, that Taehyung should have yelled at him instead of kissing
him the next day.

He can’t help but feel like he still doesn’t really deserve any of it.

“Jeongguk-ah?” A hand slips over his before he’s fully able to blink himself back. When he does,
he blinks back to Taehyung’s worried face looking over him.

Right now, Jeongguk’s realizing that maybe they should have also talked about the possession
thing on their walk that day. Maybe then Jeongguk wouldn’t have been hit with all of these shitty
feelings so hard after ignoring them for so long. “How are you so okay with all of this?” It comes
off stronger than he wanted it to, but he can’t take it back now.

Taehyung’s face scrunches up in a way that Jeongguk doesn’t like, taken aback. “Okay with
what?”

“Yoongi hyung was in control of your body for an entire day and it was all my fault.” Jeongguk
frowns, tries his best to keep his voice at an appropriate level. “And then the next day you act like
everything’s fine after we kiss and we never bring it up again.”

At that Taehyung’s expression melts into something a little sad, a little understanding. “Jeongguk
—” He flips his hand over so he can hold it, squeezing it gently. “—I never blamed you for that. I
never thought it was your fault. I never brought it up because I thought you knew that.”

“But why don't you?” Jeongguk asks. He can feel his voice starting to waver and hopes it doesn't
sound as obvious.

Taehyung just shrugs, giving him a little smile. “We all mess up now and then, don't we?” he says
easily. “Plus, I don't see you being mad at Yoongi hyung for taking the chance to possess me in the
first place.”

Thrown off by the sudden mention of Yoongi, Jeongguk furrows his brow. “I was a little mad
though, right at the beginning.”

“What about now?”

“Now…” Jeongguk tries to think about exactly when he started warming up to Yoongi. “I guess
that after I was able to get to know hyung better, I found less to be mad about.”

That gets him a satisfied smile from Taehyung, like he’d answered just how he expected him to.
“And I know you, Jeon Jeongguk.” He reaches over the table to poke at his chest. “I know that if
you knew what was going to happen, you would have done everything you could to stop it from
happening. But you didn't, and there's nothing we can do to change that. What we can do is work
with what we have.”

“Huh,” Jeongguk lets out, sort of impressed by how much sense Taehyung just talked into him.

This all feels very similar to the talk he had with Yoongi on the rooftop. Maybe his type is people
who give really nice heart to hearts. That would also explain the little crush he had on Namjoon a
while ago.

“Hyung,” Jeongguk says, after thinking about everything Taehyung's said another time. “I think
that asking Yoongi hyung out is a good idea.”

After that, Taehyung sends him a smile warm enough Jeongguk might just melt there in the middle
of the library. He tilts his head along with it, a telltale sign that he’s about to make a joke. “Only a
good idea? I thought it was pretty smart.”

“Fine,” Jeongguk laughs, mirroring his smile. “I think it's a great idea, hyung. Now we just need to
figure out when and where.”

Taehyung raises an eyebrow. “Do we?” And Jeongguk’s realizing that there was never anything
for them to brainstorm. There’s already a whole scene Taehyung has in mind. He’s just been
waiting for the right time to have it happen.
He looks down at their hands, unconsciously tangled together on the table between them. When he
lifts his gaze to Taehyung, it’s obvious he’s just waiting for an invitation to share what he’s
thinking. “So what do you have in mind, hyung?”

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

Currently, Jeongguk’s hoping that Yoongi doesn’t know what the concept of being the third wheel
is.

It’s not like Yoongi actually is the third wheel, anyway. Jeongguk would like to believe that he and
Taehyung have been doing a good job at not making anyone who hangs around them feel like a
third wheel.

They don’t even act that much like one of those couples. Not a lot has changed, really. There’s just
more skinship. And kissing. A lot more of that.

And Yoongi. He’s also something pretty new for them.

In a way he is a third, but not in the way that it makes him a third wheel. He’s just… their third. He
listens in on the conversations they have in their room, only occasionally chiming in when he
actually knows what they’re talking about. He memorized both of their schedules after the first
week and a half, wakes them up if they sleep through an alarm, and reminds them both of things
they would’ve forgotten.

Out of all the people to have been added onto Taehyung and Jeongguk’s pair, he’s glad it was
Yoongi who became their third.

Tonight, Taehyung and Jeongguk have finally succeeded in dragging Yoongi out of their dorm
room, luckily avoiding anyone who’d ask about the attractively well-dressed man following them
across campus (Park Jimin). Yoongi whines the entire way, but a small smile has been on his face
since they stepped out of the residence hall.

Yoongi also whines when they reach the same building he’d taken Jeongguk to on their fake date,
the one Jeongguk and Taehyung visit to cool down when the day didn’t go the way they wanted it
to.

“I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to climb this fence, guys,” Yoongi says, staring up at the wall
of fencing with a mix of uncertainty and disdain.

Jeongguk shrugs as he watches Taehyung jump and latch onto the fence, causing it to rattle and
shake as he climbs even more. “You did it last time,” he reminds Yoongi, giving him a little nudge
toward the fence.

Yoongi’s mouth has fallen open into a little ‘o’ as he watches Taehyung climb to the top. Jeongguk
watches as his eyes flick from the ground to Taehyung to the fence. “Last time I had the body of
someone who climbed random shit for fun as a kid.”

“And all those times I climbed onto the roof of my grandma’s house were worth it!” Taehyung
shouts at them, seemingly having no problem at all balancing as he looks down at them both.

And for a second, Yoongi just stares at Taehyung. Jeongguk wonders for a moment what he’s
thinking, if he’s also thinking about how beautifully the wind has blown Taehyung’s hair slightly
out of place, how cute his cheeks are like this, a bit red from climbing up so quickly.

Then Yoongi sighs like he’s just lost half of his life savings before he’s climbing, understandably
at a much slower pace than Taehyung had.

Taehyung whoops as Yoongi makes his way up, cheering him on as he goes. Jeongguk joins in for
a second before Yoongi pauses halfway to look down at him with the same look he’d given him
when he was possessing Taehyung’s body, the look where Jeongguk could see Yoongi through
Taehyung.

Sometimes it’s a little weird to think back on that date he’d had with Yoongi. There are some sour
feelings that he’s reminded of, yet also some sweeter ones as well. The entire day Jeongguk
struggled to separate what he saw Yoongi doing in Taehyung’s body from his own memories of
Taehyung. Now, after hanging around Yoongi for so long, it’s easy to imagine Yoongi—the actual
Yoongi, his physical body and all—in that fake Taehyung’s place.

Seeing this look on Yoongi, confidence and genuine content in his little smile, Jeongguk knows
this is the exact same look Yoongi had sent him hanging from the fence.

“You coming? Yoongi asks, Taehyung yelling at him to keep moving from above.

It takes a moment, but Jeongguk finally remembers how to move his limbs and gives Yoongi a
smile back. “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

There was a very, very, very loose plan Jeongguk and Taehyung had for their little outing with
Yoongi:

First, to get Yoongi out of the room, which was easily done with little complaint.

Second, get Yoongi to the rooftop. Also easily done with even less complaint.

Lastly, find a way to naturally ask their final question to Yoongi. This is the tricky part. Taehyung
had said it would be easy, but Jeongguk had been hesitant about it. He still is a little hesitant. It’s
just like any other question, Taehyung had said. Jeongguk is trying his best to believe him.

Upon reaching the rooftop, Yoongi immediately strolls over to the ledge facing the sunset,
swinging his legs against the outer wall after he sits down.

Taehyung is quick to follow. He runs right to the edge to walk along it toward Yoongi, who yelps
when Taehyung begins adding more flare to his stride, practically twirling along the rooftop ledge
now. Jeongguk just laughs from where he’s standing. He’s seen him do this enough times to know
that nothing bad will come out of it.

If he does manage to fall, Jeongguk’s also sure that either he or Yoongi would be able to magic
something up before anything bad would have happened. Hopefully.

Jeongguk makes a mental note to brush up on some floating spells and charms when they get back
before forcing himself to think of something else. Like how he can visibly see Yoongi’s shoulders
relax when Taehyung finally calms and sits his butt down next to him and how Taehyung leaves
just enough room in between them for both of their hands to fit side by side as they both look out
over the city.

Jeongguk shakes his arms out and breathes with the gust of wind blowing by.

His magic has been buzzing with his nerves since Yoongi had agreed to go out with them and
Jeongguk realized that they might actually get something from tonight, the nerves mainly coming
from the fact that he still isn’t entirely sure whether that something is good or bad.

He shakes his arms again, because maybe this will be the one time it’ll stop the insistent buzz
under his skin. When that doesn’t work, he channels some of his energy into quickly growing a
pair of flowers out of the weeds sprouting along a particularly large crack on the ground. That
makes him feel a little better. He plucks the flowers out of the crack and does a few jumping jacks
before he heads over to join Yoongi and Taehyung.

“Look who’s finally here,” Yoongi jokes when Jeongguk plops down beside him, his smile
instantly turning softer when Jeongguk hands him one of the flowers.

Jeongguk then reaches over to give Taehyung the second flower before Yoongi can say anything to
him about it, because he knows he’ll probably say something stupid trying to respond. Jeongguk
might not have been able to respond anyway, not when the sight of both Taehyung and Yoongi
looking at him with their pretty little smiles twirling the flowers around with their pretty, delicate
hands is too pretty for Jeongguk to even form a coherent thought other than pretty, pretty, pretty.

He ducks his head like that will protect him from the pretty gazes of the pretty boys sitting next to
him, turning away to cough before he mentally readies himself and turns back to face them.

“So, how have you guys been?” Jeongguk asks and regrets it right after. They all basically live
together and Jeongguk is talking like he’s starting a conversation with his aunt after his mom
handed him the phone without any warning.

Taehyung, like the beautiful person he is, doesn’t tease him for it and instead gives him a genuine
answer. “I’ve been pretty good! But there’s this guy that’s been freeloading off of me and my
roommate for like, the past month.” A mostly genuine answer. He makes a sad face. “Neither of us
have the heart to tell him to leave.”

“The worst thing I’ve done is make you two sleep in the same bed.” Yoongi rolls his eyes, though
he puts no effort into hiding his smile. “And you guys obviously enjoy that anyway.”

Jeongguk and Taehyung break into giggles at Yoongi’s tone. This is a nice feeling to have,
Jeongguk faintly thinks as Yoongi breaks into a little laugh as well. His magic is warmer than
anything now. Rather than shake it off, he sinks a little into it.

There’s a warmth at his core, too, deep in the middle of his chest. So deep that it’s not something
he’s ever felt as a result of his magic. No, his magic never settles there.

Rather than his magic, Jeongguk suspects the feeling might be caused by something else. Someone
else.

He suspects it might be coming from Yoongi’s hand resting against his back, an action that’s
become so familiar that he hadn’t even noticed until he consciously brought his attention to it. Or
maybe it’s from Taehyung’s voice, rich and warm as he begins talking him and Yoongi through his
past week.
Jeongguk suspects it to be a mixture of both and a lot more.

Niggling at the very back of his mind is that earlier worry that this is all moving a little bit too fast
for it to be normal. A little too fast for it to be right.

And then Yoongi’s telling them both about this one time he’d been summoned by a witch to watch
over their zoo of magical creatures in exchange for a creature of his own, how he’d swiftly
accepted and named the fire dog he’d taken with him Holly.

And then Jeongguk’s remembering how Yoongi has an established life to go back to whenever he
finally gets tired of playing around with him and Taehyung, and the worry grows a little bigger.

Even if Yoongi did want to stay, he lives a completely different life than anyone in the human
realm. He doesn’t even age the same way a human would. Jeongguk doesn’t even want to think too
deeply about whether or not Yoongi ages at all. They’re all too different for it to smoothly work
out for long.

“Jeongguk? You okay?” A harsh gust of wind blows Jeongguk’s hair into his face before he can
properly look Taehyung in the eye. He brushes it all back into place and sends a shaky nod in his
direction.

“You’re always spending so much time in here,” Yoongi chides, poking a finger at Jeongguk’s
temple. His hair is also windblown, though he’s made no move to clean it up. “It’s okay to lose
yourself in the present for a little, Jeongguk-ah. We can always deal with the future when it finally
comes.” His hand comes down to rest on Jeongguk’s shoulder.

Jeongguk lets his eyes close for just a second as he breathes and collects himself, tries to focus on
the feeling of now instead of the worry in his head.

Yoongi always seems to see right through him into his thoughts, always uses this magic power of
his to say just the right thing. Jeongguk wonders if it’s a demon power to be so aware or if it’s just
a special Yoongi power, then stops himself from wondering too much, because there are better
things to be focusing on.

Like the soothing weight of Yoongi’s hand on his shoulder, and the sight of Taehyung tucking his
flower in between Yoongi’s hair and his ear, how Yoongi turns away from him and blushes at
Taehyung’s coo of You look so pretty, hyung.

Jeongguk giggles, gently taking the flower from Yoongi’s fingers as he slides it over his other ear.

Taehyung and Jeongguk both start to cackle as Yoongi realizes he has nowhere to turn with them
on either side of him, instead burying his face in his hands as they both continue to try and fluster
him between laughs and attempts to catch their breath.

The present really is a nice place to be in, Jeongguk realizes then. It’s not surprising that Yoongi
was right about that as well.

It takes a little bit for them all to calm down and settle back into something as close to a
comfortable silence as they can get when Jeongguk and Taehyung have begun kicking at each
other’s feet and Yoongi has to tell them off before one of them somehow pushes the other off the
roof.

Taehyung makes a noise that gets both his and Yoongi’s attention, and the look he sends Jeongguk
for the brief second their eyes meet is unmistakable.
Okay, they’re doing this now. Jeongguk sends back the barest nod of his head.

“Yoongi hyung,” Taehyung starts, perfectly smooth and playful. If Jeongguk had missed the way
his tongue darted out to lick his lips, he wouldn’t think him to be nervous at all. “Jeongguk and I
have our last question for you ready.”

Yoongi looks from Taehyung to Jeongguk. He doesn’t say or do anything to show that he’s sensed
the shift in mood, but Yoongi wouldn’t be Yoongi if he didn’t. “Alright.” He nods his head, leaning
back against his hands. “Who’s doing the honors?”

There’s another look shared between him and Taehyung, this time Taehyung’s the one to nod his
head. Jeongguk bites at the inside of his cheek. “Hyung.” Jeongguk wishes he was sitting next to
Taehyung, that way reaching out for him wouldn’t look so obvious. He takes a breath. “Would you
like to make a deal with me and Taehyungie hyung?”

That has Yoongi raising an eyebrow, intrigued and curious. “Well, what are the terms?”

“We’d like for you to—” Jeongguk feels his cheeks warm under the weight of Yoongi’s gaze. “—
We’d like for you to consider joining our relationship.” There. He said it.

He watches as a blush steadily blooms on Yoongi’s face, features set to be neutral fighting to stay
that way. Jeongguk’s going to take this as a good sign.

Yoongi shifts his weight from hands to hands, rocking back and forth as he clears his throat.

He opens his mouth, clears his throat one more time, and the corner of his mouth twitches before
falling back down. “I see,” he says, a forced flatness to his tone. “And what do I get out of this
deal, if I were to accept?”

Taehyung makes an offended noise, pitch a little too high and a lot too dramatic for it to be
genuine. “Obviously the best part is that you get to be in cahoots with two very attractive and
amazing people.” Yoongi finally cracks then, breaking out into a laugh even as Taehyung
continues. “You also get to be doted on by the mentioned attractive, amazing people.”

“I gotta say, it’s all very tempting,” Yoongi drawls out once he’s finally calmed down. Then he
leans back forward, his hands moving to play at each other in his lap. He almost looks nervous as
his eyes flick between Jeongguk and Taehyung. “But are you two sure about this?”

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Jeongguk frowns at Yoongi’s hesitance. “Because you’re a demon?” He’d
understand if it was because of that, but he won’t let something like that be the reason Yoongi says
no.

Yoongi shakes his head, looking down at a flickering shop sign. “No, not that. Because I’m—” He
waves a hand up and down his body. “—I’m me. I can’t promise that I’ll meet your expectations,
guys.”

And Jeongguk’s frowning even more, because he doesn’t know how to properly put his feelings
into words. He doesn’t know how he wants to tell Yoongi that this is probably the only thing in his
life he’ll ever be wrong about.

Thankfully, Taehyung always knows just how to use his words. As forcefully as he can without
hurting Yoongi, he grabs his face, tilting it so that they’re making eye contact. “Hyung. Jeongguk
and I don’t have any expectations for you to meet.” He smiles. “We never even know what we
want to eat for dinner until fifteen minutes before.”
Yoongi’s cheeks must be incredibly warm underneath Taehyung’s palms. “You guys should really
work on that.”

“We should,” Taehyung agrees. “You could help us out if you say yes to the deal.”

“I could.”

Jeongguk nudges Taehyung’s arm, who in turn finally lets go of Yoongi’s face. Jeongguk’s own
hands are filling the empty space Taehyung’s leave behind within seconds. He likes how Yoongi’s
face fits into them. “We really do like having you around, hyung.” Jeongguk grins, letting go of
Yoongi. “So, do we have a deal?” He holds a hand out, Taehyung does the same on Yoongi’s other
side.

Yoongi looks between them for what feels like the hundredth time. “And you guys are sure about
this?”

“We wouldn’t have asked if we weren’t sure, hyung. Promise.”

Up on the rooftop, up above the rest of the city as the evening rolls in, time almost seems to
suspend itself. Up on the rooftop, everything stills for a second. Not even the wind interrupts as
they watch and wait.

The illusion breaks with a shy smile from Yoongi. And while it's probably a coincidence, Jeongguk
would like to think that there’s a hidden message the universe is trying to tell them when the
streetlights below all flicker on at that exact moment.

Yoongi’s hands are warm, Jeongguk learns when he slips his hand into his. They’re warm but
rough for a reason that Jeongguk hopes he’ll get to learn one day. Jeongguk looks up at Taehyung
for a second and gets to see the exact moment his face breaks out into a brilliant smile. He
squeezes Yoongi’s hand just to make sure that this is actually happening and Yoongi gives him a
little squeeze in return.

“Deal,” Yoongi says, finishing his sentence with a shake of their hands.

“Deal,” Jeongguk and Taehyung echo back, Jeongguk so giddy he doesn’t think he could stop
smiling even if he put his entire mind to it, instead channeling that energy into leaning in and
giving Yoongi a small kiss on his cheek. The wide eyes Yoongi gives him in return only serve to
make him even giddier.

If Jeongguk’s giddy, then he doesn’t even know what to call Taehyung, who jumps up to his feet,
pulling Yoongi along with him to spin around the rooftop laughing at the top of his lungs at
Yoongi’s almost lovestruck, yet disoriented expression when they finally come to a stop. “It’s been
a pleasure doing business with you, hyung.”

“Yeah,” Yoongi replies, sounding a little breathless. Jeongguk didn’t think Yoongi could get
breathless until now. “It’s been a pleasure.” As he watches, Jeongguk thinks he has never been so
endeared.

Taehyung just laughs a little more at Yoongi’s response, leaning down to tuck his head in the nook
of Yoongi’s shoulder.

As he runs a hand through Taehyung’s hair, Yoongi turns to look at Jeongguk, who’s been frozen
in his spot at the ledge just admiring the both of them. It’s easy to get lost in the both of them like
this: bright and happy and also so, so lost in each other.
Yoongi gives him a look when their eyes meet, and Jeongguk thinks this might be a look he knows
how to read.

What are you still doing over there? The slight raise of Yoongi’s eyebrow tells him, Join us, you
beautiful, beautiful boy, his eyes say when they crinkle at the edges from the force of his smile,
punctuated with the slight tilt of his head.

And Jeongguk can’t say no to a look like that, so he dusts off his pants as he stands before making
his way over, wrapping an arm around Yoongi, the other around Taehyung as he pulls them both
closer toward him.

His magic swirls right at his chest, swells until it spreads all throughout his body with that kind of
warmth he’s never felt from it before, the warmth of summer days where he would do nothing but
savor the breeze as it brushed by. Jeongguk lets out a sigh as it starts to settle, sinking into his
bones.

It all feels new, but it’s welcome, good, right.

•─────⋅☾☆☽⋅─────•

Yoongi and Taehyung are welcomed into Namjoon’s shop by the jingling of wind chimes,
followed by a gentle scent of what Yoongi guesses to be sandalwood.

Followed by that is Jeongguk’s voice ringing out in a welcome that’s definitely a reflexive habit
he’s developed since he started working. He visibly brightens when he looks away from the shelf
he’s restocking to where they’re standing and gives them a more fitting greeting.

“Hey Yoongi hyung, Taehyungie hyung.” He sets down the flasks in his hands before squeezing
them all together in a hug with a strength Yoongi had taken a week to get used to. “What are you
guys doing here?”

Taehyung pouts his lips out, staring Jeongguk down until he gets a kiss. He looks very satisfied
when Jeongguk finally gives in. “We came to see our favorite boyfriend, obviously.”

“I actually just wanted to see if you guys had any spear thistle for… a friend.” Yoongi doesn’t even
want to know why Seokjin had asked him to find some before he came back to visit. Hoseok had
simply winked and told him not to worry about it when he looked over at him.

Jeongguk raises a brow at that, but Yoongi chooses to avoid his eye and ignore it. “You could’ve
just called and asked, you know.”

“That’s what I told hyung,” Taehyung says. Yoongi just sighs, because he knows he can never win
against the both of them. “But he still asked if I wanted to come along, so I think we all know what
the real reason is.” He smiles that smile of his that’s laced with faux-innocence. Yoongi has been
able to see right through it since the beginning, but he can’t help but melt a little every time he sees
it.

Yoongi turns away from Taehyung’s wide eyes to try and shift the focus to Jeongguk. “Shouldn’t
you be working?”

“I should.” Jeongguk sidles up even closer to Yoongi’s side. Taehyung does the same thing on his
other, and Yoongi can’t help but feel like he finds himself sandwiched between them both almost
every time they’re all together (not that that’s exactly a bad thing). “But there are these two really
hot guys here right now, and they’re making it very hard to focus.”

Yoongi snorts at that. “Sorry for being such a distraction,” he says, showing exactly how not-sorry
he is by nosing at Jeongguk’s neck.

Jeongguk jumps at the sound of Namjoon walking in from the back room, in turn making Yoongi
jump. Taehyung just laughs, mumbling something about karma for not letting him do sexy stuff the
last time they were out.

Yoongi opens his mouth to say hi, but Namjoon seems to be engrossed in some book as he strides
right out the door without sparing any of them a glance.

They all stare at the door for a second, the chime above still ringing out after Namjoon’s quick
entrance and exit until Taehyung starts giggling. In turn, Jeongguk starts giggling as well and while
Yoongi doesn’t join in, he’s fairly sure the smile on his face is a dopey one.

“I should probably actually do my job now,” Jeongguk says after a little bit, moving to pull away.

Yoongi grabs Jeongguk’s wrist to stop him. “It’s your job to help out customers, right? Why don’t
you help me out with the thistle first?” He feels Taehyung come up behind him in a hug, resting
his head on his shoulder. It digs in sharp when he starts nodding at Jeongguk to agree, but Yoongi
places a hand on Taehyung’s in front of his stomach to keep him there.

“Of course.” Jeongguk’s smile turns soft as he slips Yoongi’s hand from his wrist into his palm.
Then he stares Taehyung down with a warning look. “As long as you promise not to touch any of
the plants on the top shelf.”

“That was just one time,” Taehyung whines as they make their way to the back garden, still
attached to Yoongi’s back. “Plus, they were asking to be touched!”

“And since when could you speak to plants, hyung?”

“Since forever. I just didn’t tell you. See that one?” Taehyung points to a flower that reminds
Yoongi of a lily of the valley, but three times its size and something that might be a mouth hanging
off where the pistil should be. “That one’s telling me that you’re a loser.”

“Wow, Taehyung-ah.” Yoongi tries to fake his awe. “I always knew you had magic.”

Jeongguk turns around. Yoongi can see a smile trying to break out onto his face, his nose
scrunching with the effort to keep his expression neutral. “I’ll break up with you two.” He points at
them with the garden shears he’d picked up. “I’ll do it.”

“You can’t,” Taehyung sings back, swaying his and Yoongi’s bodies left and right to his voice.
“We made a deal.”

Yoongi nods his head, still swaying. “You don’t wanna know what demons do with people who
break deals.”

“Fine.” Jeongguk finally breaks into that smile from earlier. It looks amazing in the sunlight out in
the garden. “I guess I like you guys too much to do that, anyway.”

“Aw, come here.” Yoongi reaches out to him with both of his arms, wrapping them around
Jeongguk when he gets close enough so he can give him a little kiss. Taehyung makes a noise from
 behind, and Jeongguk leans forward to give him one as well, followed by a poorly aimed one from
Yoongi.

The breeze is nice out here, Yoongi thinks, once again sandwiched in between Taehyung and
Jeongguk.

He doesn’t think he’s ever made a better deal.

Chapter End Notes

thank u for reading !! i really did not realize how long this was going to be until the
very end but i love them so :]]]]

a reminder the kudos and comments are greatly appreciated if u liked the fic and here
is my twt and my cc !

End Notes

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