prue; @joonam - Tumblr Blog

May 31

studio 306 - chapter 15 | jjk

Pairing: Demon!Jungkook x Reader (f)

Genre: fantasy!au, demon!au, haunted apartment, horror (its not too bad bc im a coward guys), slow burn, forced proximity, supernatural romance, angst.

Summary: Jungkook is trapped in an attic, cursed to win affection from those who fear him most. Every tenant has fled until you move in. With your budget and patience on the line, you refuse to leave. Now you’re stuck sharing a space with a creature no priest, shaman, or exorcist can get rid of, and neither of you can escape.

Warnings: NSFW (yes yall you read that correctly), mentions of wanting to die, supernatural themes, slow burn, forced proximity, mild language.

Word count: 13k..... sorry not sorry yall

a/n: i love this chapter, writing it was so fun 🤩 so i hope you guys enjoy this chapter too!! only good things ahead, i hope 🤭 OH just another thing, i have an assignment i need to finish so chapter 16 might not be out until i submit that assignment 😭

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The East Citadel of Kratos, one governed by the Kim, operates differently from the North.

Where the Jeon citadel was built on mountaintops, where it’s cold and quiet, the Kim territory was built on a more desert-like area and it runs on information and gossip. Every corridor, every house, and every room in the East have ears in it and every visitor who crosses into Kim territory did so knowing that the moment they set foot inside its borders, the Kim already knew things about them.

Seokjin was prepared for this.

The Demon who owed him the favor, Aria, was old and powerful enough in the East that it was easy for Seokjin to get clearance from the East exterior checkpoints. A Demon prince walking around outside of his territory is calling for trouble. So, Seokjin spent the past couple of days trying to mask his energy so that it wouldn’t be as recognisable.

Seokjin did not go to the Kim citadel itself.

The city surrounding it was where Seokjin needed to be.

East Kratos, like all parts of Kratos, does not only own a single fortress or main citadel, there are smaller fortresses and villages around it. These districts of villages where Seokjin is walking towards, are built up outside the citadel walls where Demons with lower rankings or bloodline lived.

Seokjin walked in the East with his core energy pulled inward to not attract attention. He was walking towards the residence of Eris whose address he extracted from Aria.

When Seokjin finally reached just outside of the house, he looked around, taking in his surroundings. The house was unremarkable, almost run down on the outside, which meant Eris must have specific reasons for wanting to be overlooked as she was not of lower ranking, not until the incident that is.

Seokjin knocked once, and even before he took his hand off the door, it opened. Eris was waiting right near her door, she sensed the Demon walking towards her house from metres away, and it has truly been awhile since she sensed a non-Kim Demon energy.

She looked at him for exactly one second, before her expression changed to disgust and disappointment, "Ugh," Eris said, "it's the wrong brother."

Seokjin took a good look at Eris.

She was exactly as he remembered from the last time their paths crossed before the incident where she tried to kill Jungkook and Jophiel. Erin has pale skin, long black hair, and a small cross tattooed on the center of her forehead as mockery to The Ancient One, and while most Demons had eyes with veins across it, her eyes were nothing but white.

Seokjin smiled at the one crazy weapon he needed, "You could invite me in?”

"I could also close the door," she said in amusement.

"You could," Seokjin agreed, "but you won't, not until you hear what I have to say."

Eris studied him for some time, her white eyes moving over him, assessing what Seokjin was looking for and whatever it was he actually wanted under whatever he might claim to want. Then she stepped aside to let Seokjin enter her humble abode.

The interior of the house was exactly what Seokjin expected from her: excessive and tacky. From this alone, Seokjin could tell that Eris is still hung up on his brother. Because the Eris from back then, the Demon she was before she went rogue, was a Demon woman who could pick any Demon in Kratos and have them head over heels for her, she even had that angel, Jophiel, kissing her ground.

"Give me your little brother," Eris demanded, standing by the windows with her arms folded.

Seokjin sat in the chair right across where Eris was standing without being invited to, "That's actually why I'm here."

"Is it?" Eris said, tilting her head as she batted her eyelashes at him.

"I can help you get him," Seokjin restated.

Eris looked at him before laughing, "Oh yes? And how exactly are you going to do that? You cursed your brother to earth, he's been stuck there for hundreds of years," she tilted her head, “are you going to send me there too?"

Seokjin opened his mouth, stopped, and then closed it again, "Huh," Seokjin said quietly, "why didn't I think of that?"

"Because," Eris said giggling, "you are the dumb brother."

The smile dropped from Seokjin's face and his energy, which he has been keeping carefully controlled since he entered Kim territory, pressed outward slightly before he pulled it back again, if Seokjin lost control, he would lose all his progress.

Seokjin held Eris’ gaze for a few minutes, clenching his jaw, before finally exhaling slowly through his nose. Seokjin has to be the bigger Demon here, he has to be patient for this to work.

The woman in front of him is nothing, doesn’t even have a high rank anymore after she went uncontrollable.

"What if I told you," Seokjin said, his voice a little bit higher to show her that he is an accomplice, though it took him visible effort to do this, "that he is no longer on earth?"

Eris said nothing.

"What if I told you," Seokjin continued, "that the curse was broken? That Jungkook is back in the North Citadel, right now, as we speak?"

Still nothing from Eris, but her posture changed, very slightly, but Seokjin has been reading Demons his entire life and he caught it.

"And," Seokjin added, keeping his voice entirely casual about it, "he has a woman beside him now."

The silence that followed was different from the ones before it.

Eris turned her head towards the window, her arms were folded against her chest tightly. To be told that her supposed-to-be "lover" was back and reachable again, Eris would be lying to say she wasn’t excited, "You're lying," she said.

"You know I'm not," Seokjin replied.

And Seokjin was right, Eris knew he was not lying, because she could sense that he wasn’t. Seokjin was telling the truth, and she knew it. Although every Demon believed she went rogue, Eris is still very much capable of doing anything she wants. She was and still is one of the most intelligent Demons from the East.

Eris turned her head back to look at him, and her expression turned colder and much more dangerous, before demanding more from the Demon prince in front of her, "Tell me more."

"She was a human girl," Seokjin said, and he purposefully slowed down when saying the word human, "not even a Demon. Well, she is now, she’s a human turned Demon. She was born a human, she lived a human life, and she managed to break a curse that was designed to be unbreakable."

"How does it feel?” Seokjin continued, muttering his next words slowly for Eris to clearly hear it, "to know that you, a pure Demon, a Demon with centuries of power behind you, could not get Jungkook's attention? But a mere human girl could?"

The silence that stretched out after that sentence was the longest one yet since Seokjin came into her house.

Eris did not look at Seokjin.

Her gaze stayed fixed on the wall behind Seokjin, her jaw clenched so tightly she was prepared for it to break, "Tell me more," she demanded once again of the Demon prince.

Seokjin smiled.

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"I went to the land of the necromancers," Seokjin started.

Eris raised her eyebrows, she didn’t know whether to see Seokjin as an impressive or idiotic Demon. Necromancers live in the most isolated realm, a tough one to get into. The land of the necromancers was not designed for living creatures to easily walk through. A creature would have to be desperate to seek out a necromancer as reaching their realm alone was a gamble with death.

"That," Eris said slowly, "was not an easy trip, was it?”

"The necromancer's realm is known for that," Seokjin confirmed.

"How long did it take you to find them?" Eris asked curiously.

"That is not relevant," Seokjin said.

"It took you a long time,” Eris smirked.

"I said it's not relevant," Seokjin said as he shot her a glare that Eris just brushed off.

"I guess you succeeded then," Eris said, "clearly, I mean, you're here."

"The necromancer was," Seokjin added, "persuaded."

"Necromancers are not persuaded easily," Eris said as she studied him again, reading everything he wasn't saying which was the more interesting part of the conversation.

"No," Seokjin smiled, “they do not."

"How many did you have to get through before you found the one who would help you?" she asked.

"Ten," he replied.

Eris lets out a giggle, "The dumb brother who walked into necromancer territory alone, past ten of them who refused to help him, actually came out to the other side successfully."

"I told you," Seokjin said, visibly angry and annoyed, "I am not the dumb brother.”

"You are absolutely the dumb brother," Eris said, rolling her eyes before adding, "but you are also, very apparently, the stubborn one. Oh well, explain whatever you received from the necromancer," Eris said, settling into the chair across from him, "how it works, what it costs, and what the limits are."

“The magic will allow you to borrow energy and appearance from a dead Demon from the North, her name was Ymir. She was a lower-rank soldier, and she was not significant enough to be widely known, as long as you do not visit the villages in the most eastern part of North Kratos, no Demon will know who you are. She was born in the North which means her energy carries the territorial imprint. So with this dark magic, the founding energy of the North will see you as Ymir,” Seokjin explained.

Seokjin took a small breath before continuing his explaination, "The necromancer's dark magic works in layers. Think of it like an armour placed over your energy rather than your body. Your actual energy will still be there underneath Ymir’s energy. The beauty of this magic is that it will make any other Demon see you as Ymir from the North Citadel."

Eris absorbed this new information rather quickly, "So you want me to pretend to be Ymir and do what exactly?”

“Befriend ____,” Seokjin replied, “and once she trusts you, I want you to take her to me.”

Eris stared at him in disbelief, “You want me to go into the North Citadel as Ymir and make friends with the human girl.”

"The former human," Seokjin said.

"That distinction is not the part I'm questioning," Eris responded.

Seokjin leaned back against his seat slightly, "Think about her situation. She arrived in the North against her will, she knows almost no one. The Demons in the North have made it clear that she is not welcome within it, they call her impure and they refuse to associate with her, and the only protection she has is Jungkook's name over her head which, given that she is currently furious at Jungkook, is a protection she probably resents needing."

Eris said nothing to that, expecting more information out of Seokjin.

"She also has an angel who visits when his obligations allow," Seokjin continued, "and Woojin, who is loyal to Jungkook before he is anything else. That is her entire world in Kratos. A being in that position, newly turned, grieving everything she lost, isolated in a citadel that despises her existence, when a Demon approaches her with warmth and no personal agenda, she will want to trust you. She won't be able to help herself, it's just in the human instinct she still carries and will carry for a very long time."

"An angel?" she questioned.

"Yes," Seokjin said.

"Which angel?" Eris asked. As a Kim, she had a feeling of which angel it would be. She knows only Jophiel can easily enter and exit the North. But she wanted to hear it from Seokjin’s mouth, she wanted to hear the confirmation from him.

“Jophiel,” Seokjin smiled, before adding, “he has been visiting her every day.”

“So," Eris said, very quietly, "she has Jungkook."

"Yes," Seokjin nodded.

"And Jophiel," Eris continued.

"It would appear so," Seokjin replied with a smile.

“How do you know all of this if you have been on the run?” Eris asked suspiciously.

“I have someone inside. A Demon who has served in the citadel long enough that no other Demon will be suspicious of him. I have been building this for longer than you might expect. I understood that if I ever needed to move against the North from the outside, I would need eyes on the inside."

"Who is it?" Eris asked.

"That," Seokjin said, smiling, "is not something I'm going to tell you."

Eris observed the Demon prince in front of her, "And this demon tells you everything."

"Yes," Seokjin said, “the political movements happening after my betrayal became known, the reaction to the human girl's presence, what Woojin is doing, what the King is doing, what Jungkook himself is doing on any given day."

Eris believed Seokjin, he had no reason to lie to her. But the most pressing matter to her now is that a human has the two creatures she used to be with.

"Both of them," Eris snapped, "a formerly human Demon who has existed for less than a month, has managed to have both of them wrapped around her fingers?”

Seokjin said nothing, he understood that this was not a moment that required his input.

"I want her gone from the North," Eris said, and the words came out very clearly, "I want her gone from Jungkook, and I want her gone from Jophiel, and I want it done before she spends another day sitting in a room in my citadel having both of the things that are mine."

"Then we understand each other perfectly," Seokjin said, “but Eris, I do not want you to kill her until we reel Jungkook into the camp.”

“What camp?” Eris asked, a clear confusion across her face.

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Seokjin settled back, he had the look of a Demon who was excited to tell another being about a plan he had been building, a plan he was proud of, "I have been in the Lee territory," Seokjin said, "for the past several years, building something."

Eris stared at him, "You have been living in Lee territory?"

"Well near it," Seokjin said, "there is a stretch of land on the border between the North and the South, disputed territory that neither citadel has formally claimed in several generations because the cost of holding it has never been worth the effort. I have been living there with my followers."

"The Lee and the Jeon have never had a mutual understanding," Eris said carefully, “in the entire recorded history of Kratos."

"No," Seokjin agreed, “which is why no one will be looking for me there."

The Lee citadel was the largest army in Kratos. They are aggressive, territorial, and has a grudge against the North that predated most living Demons.

"Doesn't the Lee wants the North weakened?" Eris asked slowly.

"The Lee have always wanted the North weakened," Seokjin said, “I simply gave them a reason to want it now and a plan for how to achieve it."

"You're going to war with the North," Eris said, finally grasping what Seokjin isn't saying directly.

"I'm going to correct a problem that has been building for a very long time," Seokjin replied, "The Lee have numbers. I have knowledge of the North's interior, its weaknesses, its points of access, and a Demon inside its walls who can tell me exactly where everyone will be on any given day. Together, those things are sufficient."

"Sufficient for what exactly?" Eris said.

"To kill Jungkook," Seokjin said plainly, “and the King."

"Both of them?" Eris asked.

"Yes, I need both of them dead," Seokjin confirmed, “killing Jungkook alone solves nothing. The King would simply rebuild the North, appoint a successor, and the North would continue. The throne requires the King's death and Jungkook's."

"And then you take the throne?" Eris asked.

"And then I take the throne," Seokjin replied, “yes."

Eris was quiet for a few seconds before telling Seokjin her opinion, "The North will not accept you after this. You are a traitor to the citadel. You cursed the second prince and you allied with the Lee, the North’s biggest enemy. There is not a demon in the North who would bend a knee to you after all of that."

"There are always demons who will bend a knee to whoever is standing when the fighting stops," Seokjin said, “Is that not the oldest truth in Kratos? Loyalty follows power, not history. The whole Kratos has always known that. It is written into the founding law of every citadel, any Demon strong enough to take the throne has the right to hold it. Bloodline means nothing if someone stronger challenges it successfully."

"So you plan to simply walk in after Jungkook and the King are dead and claim it by right of conquest?" Eris said.

“Yes,” Seokjin simply said.

Eris let out a small sigh, "The Lee will want something in return for this."

"The Lee wants territory," Seokjin said, “specifically the southern border of the North and I have agreed to cede it once the throne is mine."

"The North will never accept that either," Eris said, "giving a territory to the Lee after a war? You will spend the entirety of your reign managing uprisings from your own citadel."

"Managing uprisings is considerably easier than not having a throne to manage them from," Seokjin replied flatly.

"You have been building toward this since before you cursed him," Eris stated.

"I have been building toward this since I understood that my father would never name me heir. That regardless of what I did or how powerful I became, the King has already decided. Jungkook was his choice from the very beginning and everything I did was always going to be insufficient because the decision was never actually about capability."

Eris did not know what to say to that.

"The girl," Seokjin continued, returning his voice to its usual register, "is the key that will take Jungkook out of the North. He will have his army with him to save her, and when he is away with soldiers, that is when I will attack the North. So, ____ is the one variable that guarantees Jungkook moves when I need him to move. And that is why I can not have you kill ____ before Jungkook attacks."

"And after," Eris said, “once she has served that purpose, what will you do then?"

"That is entirely outside my interest. The throne is what I want. What happens to a formerly human Demon is not a problem I intend to spend any time on," Seokjin replied.

Eris nodded slowly, before looking at him directly and said, "If this works and you take the North. The Lee will not stay contained to the border territory you promised them, you know that."

"I know that," Seokjin agreed.

"Managing the Lee from the North throne, after using them to take it, will be the defining challenge of your entire reign," Eris said, “they are not the kind of army that helps you win a war and then goes home quietly."

"No," Seokjin said, “they are not."

"And you still think this is worth it?" Eris asked.

"I think," Seokjin answered, "that the North Citadel has been my birthright since before I could walk. I think I have spent my entire existence being told in every subtle way that it would never be mine. And I think that yes, managing the Lee is a significant problem,” Seokjin paused, “but it is a problem I would very much like to have."

“So,” Eris said after a long moment of silence, “what do I get in return for all of this?”

Seokjin looked at her, "Jungkook."

Eris stared at him, “You just spent the last few minutes telling me your plan to kill Jungkook."

"I said you get Jungkook," Seokjin repeated, “I didn't specify whether he would be alive or dead."

"That is not an answer," Eris said flatly.

"You go into the North as Ymir," Seokjin sighed before continuing, "you befriend the girl, you take her to the camp on day six, and Jungkook comes for her. At that point, what happens to him is between you and me and the Lee army."

“You want him dead," Eris said.

"I need him removed from the equation," Seokjin said carefully, “those are not always the same thing."

Eris narrowed her eyes, "You're offering me Jungkook as a reward while simultaneously planning to kill him, those two things cannot both be true at once."

"Can't they?" Seokjin said.

"No," Eris said, her white eyes fixed on him, “they cannot, either he is dead or he is mine. Pick one."

"What I need," Seokjin finally replied, "is for Jungkook to not be on the North throne. I need him to be unable to challenge me. I need him to not be a problem.”

“I’ll lock him up somewhere,” Eris replied, “or I’m not doing this at all.”

“It would be better for me if he was dead,” Seokjin stated, “a dead Jungkook cannot escape, cannot be freed by an angel or by some other variable I failed to account for.”

“I know ways to lock him up, if you give him to me I will help you pretend being Ymir, if not then I will not do this at all,” Eris threatened.

Keeping Jungkook alive was a variable Seokjin did not plan for. He thought Jungkook would just be a ticking bomb that could explode if he was just imprisoned somewhere.

Seokjin approached Eris thinking she would have wanted Jungkook dead as well. But Eris was the only piece on the board who could walk into the North as someone else, and she has the personal motivation to do this, especially with Jungkook and Jophiel, the two men she used to own, now wrapped around a human girl. Seokjin could always correct the ending later, once the throne was his and Eris has served her purpose.

Seokjin sighed before finally agreeing, “Fine. But, I will have to see whatever you will be doing to him to ensure he won’t escape.”

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Eris observed Seokjin after he finished speaking, there was something in her realisation that was not admiration but was closer to it than she wanted to admit. Then Eris said, "You do know that every King of Kratos can see what is happening within their own territory."

Seokjin said nothing to that, letting Eris continue.

"Who enters," Eris continued, "and who exits the territory. The founding energy of each citadel feeds directly into its King. Your father sits on that throne and the North tells him everything,” Eris tilted her head, her white eyes fixed on him, "How do you know he is not already on you? How do you know he hasn't been watching every single thing you have been building from the moment you left?"

"Oh, I know he is on me," Seokjin said simply without an ounce of fear.

Eris blinked at his confession, "You know?"

"I know he is watching," Seokjin said, "I know he is aware that I have followers. My father has never been someone who misses things, I am not foolish enough to believe I have been invisible to him."

"Then," Eris said slowly, "you are building a war camp on the border of the North's territory with a following of some Demons, and your father, the King who can see everything within his territory, knows about you and you are still here?”

"Yes," Seokjin said.

"Why hasn't he moved against you already?" Eris asked.

"Because," Seokjin said, "what he does not know is that the Lee is backing me. He can see my camp and my followers. But the Lee’s involvement is hidden behind their own territorial energy. The Lee and I never meet on the same ground. Every communication, every negotiation, and every agreement between myself and the Lee has happened with them standing on their side of border territory and me standing on the North. We are always in separate territories when we speak, the Lee on the Southern side of the line, while my followers and I on the Northern side of the line."

Seokjin smiled proudly before continuing, “My father knows I am a threat, but he does not know how large the threat actually is.”

"Your father does not just sense activity within his territory," Eris replied carefully, "you know that. Your father sees what is coming, not just what is happening now, but what will happen. That is not the same thing as being one step behind you."

Seokjin went quiet.

"So I will ask you again," Eris continued, "why has he not moved against you already? And this time, do not tell me it is because he cannot see the Lee's involvement. Your father sees the future, Seokjin. If this ends badly for you, he has already seen it."

"My father's sight is not like The Ancient One's," Seokjin said, "he does not see all futures. He reads the threads connected to his bloodline and his territory. He can sense when something threatens the bloodline. But the Lee exists outside that thread and I exist outside that thread now. I burned that connection."

Eris considered that, "So he is blind to you specifically?"

"Not blind," Seokjin said, "just limited. He can see what is coming but not the full picture of how it is happening, and maybe," Seokjin said slowly, "the futures where he stops me are not futures he can win either."

"You think he has seen every version of this," Eris said, "and the one he chose to allow is this one."

"I think," Seokjin replied, "that a King who can see futures and still does nothing is not a King who missed something. He is a King who looked at every possible outcome and decided that the ones where he intervenes end worse than the ones where he does not."

Eris said nothing to that, which was, for Eris, basically an admission that she had no counter argument, then, she let out a small laugh, "This plan is either the smartest thing I have heard in decades," she said, "or the most catastrophically insane."

"Am I not the dumb brother anymore?" he added.

Eris looked at him for a long moment, her white eyes moving over his face, reassessing the Demon in front of her, "You are," she said finally, "either the dumbest Demon currently alive in Kratos, or the craziest one."

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Jophiel, on your thirteenth day of your second life in Kratos, arrived on a rather late morning, or at least what passed as a morning in this Hell hole.

You were standing in front of the mirror, head tilted slightly, as if trying to make sense of the person looking back at you. Your eyes moved over the clothes Woojin gave you, a loose white blouse with the sleeves rolled to your elbows, tucked into a dark brown leather corset and dark trousers. It seemed to be the fashion sense in Kratos, the Demons all wore clothes that are more made for movement than comfort.

You still weren’t entirely sure how you felt about it. The clothes fit well and the corset wasn't entirely uncomfortable. But they weren’t yours. You looked at your reflection for another moment, before finally looking away.

To Jophiel, this was progress. You looking at yourself in the mirror at all was progress. But he did not mention it out loud, Jophiel knew better than to draw attention to it. He knew if he called out your progress, you would only feel bad about moving on with your new life.

Jophiel came into your room carrying two things.

One was a stack of books, which you already expected because he has been bringing human books to you, but the stack today was higher than usual, there were six books instead of the usual two, and your face brightens up just from seeing them and you couldn’t help the huge smile already forming on your face.

The other thing he was carrying was a small container, with a blue and pink label, and was clearly earth-based because nothing in Kratos, at least from what you have seen so far, came in packaging like that.

You stood there in shock, "Is that… is that what I think it is?" you questioned.

"Baskin Robbins," Jophiel confirmed as he nodded, and he set the tub on the desk near your bed, he felt proud of himself for getting the human dessert.

You walked over to the desk, grabbed the tub of ice cream, turned it over in your hands and read the flavour label, Strawberry Cheesecake.

"How did you get this?" you asked, your eyes gleaming with excitement.

"I stopped by earth before coming here," Jophiel said, sitting on the edge of the bed, "there is a Baskin Robbins near your place,” Jophiel smiled at you.

You looked up at him, clearing your throat, "You went to my neighbourhood?"

"I did," Jophiel said, "I also walked past the school, and the children are doing well, for what it's worth. And I saw your friends too, they seemed to be doing well."

For a moment, you said nothing. Your fingers tightened slightly around the ice cream tub, and you looked down at it instead of looking at Jophiel. The mention of your old neighbourhood felt warm and painful at the same time.

“Thank you!” you said, a little too brightly. The excitement was real, but so was the ache underneath it. For one brief second, you could see it all again, the streets, the school, the faces you used to know, and the life that continued without you.

"They gave me some spoons, I put it somewhere in my coat pocket," Jophiel said, trying to distract your mind that was about to spiral, as he reached into his coat and took out two plastic spoons with the Baskin Robbins logo on them.

You opened the container and took out one of the spoons, handing one to Jophiel just as the door to your room opened. You did not need to look to know who it was, you knew it was Woojin.

He comes every day around this time with your lunch tray, though he never steps inside. He only opens the door for a few inches, placing the tray near the door, and leaves without a word. It has become routine by now, predictable enough that you knew it was him.

"Woojin!" you called out.

"Yes?" Woojin's voice came through the gap of the door.

"Come in," you said.

Then the door pushed open, and Woojin appeared in the doorway. His eyes went first to Jophiel, then to you, and then, very slowly, to the opened container of ice cream between you and Jophiel.

"Sit down," you said, gesturing to the chair near the bed.

"What is that?" Woojin asks as he’s walking towards where you and Jophiel are.

"Ice cream," you answered excitedly, “it’s a dessert from Earth and it’s strawberry cheesecake flavored."

"Ice? Is it cold food?" Woojin asked in confusion.

"Yes, it is cold," you replied, “that’s the point."

You held out your spoon to Woojin, wanting him to try it first before you, "You're having some."

Woojin looked at the spoon and saw Jophiel, who was sitting next to you, visibly enjoying Woojin’s suffering, "I do not require food," Woojin stated.

"Mhmm.. I know," you said, “but you're having it anyway."

From beside you, Jophiel let out a small laugh and did a terrible job pretending it was a cough.

Woojin then sat directly across from you and Jophiel, he clearly did not agree to participate in whatever this was, but he was outpowered by social pressure, especially by the angel.

You pushed the container towards him and Woojin looked at it for a long moment before finally scooping up a small portion. He held the spoon in front of his face, observing the ice cream. Woojin’s expression was grim, but he put it in his mouth anyway.

"Well?" you asked.

Woojin was quiet for a moment, his tail, which has been still since he entered the room, began moving very slightly, "It is…." Woojin said carefully, "not unpleasant."

"High praise," Jophiel said, which earned himself a look from Woojin that would have made most Demons take several large steps backward, but Jophiel appeared entirely unbothered.

"It's very cold," Woojin said.

"Yes," you said, “have more."

And Woojin had more, and he was so serious about it that it made you want to laugh.

Jophiel and Woojin had a few more spoonfuls of ice cream, before handing it back to you to enjoy. Once you were done with it, you set the empty container on the side table and leaned back against the headboard of the enormous bed.

"Jophiel," you said.

"Yes," Jophiel replied.

"The books you brought me" you said, “did you pick them?"

"Of course I picked them," he said, feeling a little bit offended by your question, “do you think I would just grab anything?"

Woojin, who was standing up to excuse himself, was stopped by your question, "What do you read, Woojin?" you asked Woojin.

Woojin stood there as he answered, "War histories, accounts of how specific battles were decided and what the deciding factors were."

"Boring," you scrunched your face.

“Necessary,” Woojin stated.

"You read about battles that already happened," you continued, "to prepare for battles that haven't happened yet or even might not happen at all."

"Yes," Woojin said, as if this was obvious.

"Doesn't it get repetitive?" you asked, "battles happen for the same reasons every time, don't they? Someone wants something someone else has."

"The reasons are often the same," Woojin replied, "the outcomes rarely are. The difference is always in the details. Every choice we make before the battle is important and to understand a war, you do not only study who won. You must also study who lost and what led them there, what they misjudged, and what they thought they could afford to lose."

"That," you said slowly, "is actually not a boring answer."

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Outside your door, in the corridor, Jungkook has been standing there for forty minutes.

He did not plan to stand there for this long. He planned to just walk past your room, go to the training grounds, or to deal with matters Woojin had flagged to him that morning that still needed his attention after returning to the North Citadel.

Jungkook planned to be productive and present in all the ways that a prince of the Jeon citadel was supposed to be doing. But instead he was standing in the corridor outside your room listening to you laugh and share an ice cream with his subordinate and an angel.

Woojin was slacking off when there were more pressing matters to handle and Jungkook was going to address that later. And Jophiel has been getting too close to you lately, something Jungkook found rather distasteful.

He pressed the back of his head against the stone wall and stared at the ceiling.

He heard your laugh again and something in Jungkook's jaw tightened so hard it was practically audible.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Jophiel eventually came out when he sensed Jungkook’s emotions. He took one look at Jungkook and couldn’t help the amusement he felt when he saw his old friend.

"Don't," Jungkook said.

"I haven't said anything," Jophiel said.

"You were about to, your face is doing that thing again," Jungkook stated.

"My face is doing nothing," Jophiel said with a smile across his face, “my face is entirely neutral."

"Your face has never been neutral in your entire existence," Jungkook replied, “you were built without the ability to have a neutral face, it is one of your most consistent failures."

Jophiel thought about what Jungkook said, "That is…. possibly, true. Huh, I can’t argue with that one," he agreed.

They stood in the corridor outside of your room. Jophiel could sense the energy Jungkook was radiating into the space between them, but Jophiel was not particularly bothered by it, which was infuriating to Jungkook.

Other creatures would have run in fear.

"Woojin is still in there," Jungkook said.

"Yes," Jophiel agreed, “she asked him to stay to talk about books about war. He seemed pleased about her curiosity."

Jungkook's jaw clenched.

Jophiel noticed Jungkook’s jealousy and tilted his head in amusement, "You asked me to come here and help her. I am helping her. The goal is for her to be less isolated and more able to function in her new life. I have been doing exactly that. You are standing in the corridor in what I can only describe as a state of personal suffering because she is laughing with someone who is not you.”

"Jophiel," Jungkook warned, "hands off. She is not something you get to.."

"She is my friend," Jophiel said, cutting Jungkook off before he could finish what he was about to say, “she is a being I have come to care about, and I will not stop visiting her or helping her understand what she is and what she can become, that is not going to change."

Jungkook looked at him with anger.

"And you," Jophiel continued, pointing his finger at the demon prince, "instead of standing in this corridor doing whatever you're currently doing. You should consider whether there is a more useful way to spend your energy."

"I don't need your guidance on what I should do," Jungkook said, defending himself.

"You haven't approached her," Jophiel said, "in the two weeks since you told her what happened," Jophiel continued, and he raised his hand to start counting all Jungkook’s faults on his fingers, which Jungkook found deeply and personally offensive.

"One,” Jophiel said as he raised his index finger, “you have not once attempted to sit beside her without needing a reason.”

“Two,” Jophiel said with now two of his fingers in the air, “you have not apologised in a way that gave her space to respond to you.”

“Three-”

“If you raise another finger, I will cut it off,” Jungkook said, interrupting Jophiel.

Jophiel lowered his hand and continued with what he was about to say, “Okay, three, you have not tried to understand what ____ actually needs.”

“Four, you have not once gotten down on your knees and beg for forgiveness, which, I will tell you honestly, would go a longer way than you believe."

Jungkook opened his mouth but nothing came out.

"And five you have also," Jophiel sighed before continuing, "been under the impression, for reasons I cannot fully understand, that what _____ wants most right now is for Seokjin to be dead. And while she does want that, it is not the most important thing. It is not even close to the most important thing to her. And you thinking finding your brother and killing him is part of taking care of her is one of the most significant misreadings of humans I have witnessed in several hundreds years, especially one coming from a Demon who spent hundreds of years with humans."

"Shut your mouth," Jungkook growled.

"Am I wrong?" Jophiel asked.

Jungkook said nothing to that.

"She matters to you," Jophiel said quietly, “I know that. But you cannot stand outside a door for two weeks and expect that to be enough. She is not going to come to you. You are going to have to go to her."

Jungkook still did not say anything to Jophiel and just stared at the door.

"Start with ‘please’," Jophiel added, “and ‘sorry’, humans love good manners."

Then Jophiel walked away down the corridor and left Jungkook standing there.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

At night when he was back in his chambers, all Jungkook could think of was you.

This was absurd.

Jungkook was aware that it was absurd that he was just standing outside of your door. He knew what was on the other side of the door. You were in there, probably reading one of the books Jophiel brought, or sitting near the window looking at the red sky.

It was absurd that after all the things Jungkook has done in his life, the one thing that he was now unable to do was knock on a door.

This was, objectively, one of the most embarrassing things that has ever happened to him and no creature would ever know about it because he would sooner tear down the entire citadel than admit it out loud.

Jungkook clicked his tongue at himself, frustrated at the absurdity of his own behaviour.

It is a very peculiar behaviour indeed.

He has been standing outside your door, on and off, for two weeks. He has stood there long enough to learn the pattern of your footsteps across the room, long enough to know which side of the bed you slept.

Jophiel said to start with please and sorry but Jungkook spent two weeks not doing that and even now, after knowing he should be doing that, he is still not doing it.

Jungkook didn’t understand what he was so unsure of.

Jungkook just didn’t know if he would say the wrong thing, which he has already proven himself capable of, and make it worse. He also didn’t know what to do if you told him to leave.

Jungkook was afraid of losing something he did not even have.

He put his hand over his eyes, this was genuinely the most undignified he has ever felt.

He has mastered the seven traits, survived centuries of containment in a room, watched armies fall, and he did all of it without once losing composure. Yet Jungkook just somehow could not knock on a door.

All because on the other side of the door was you.

Fuck this, Jungkook thought to himself.

Jungkook is going to knock on the door, and he is going to say please and sorry, and he is going to sit there and listen to you.

Because Jophiel was right, which is something Jungkook will not ever tell him.

But Jophiel was right, you needed Jungkook to show up.

He pushed himself off the bed, and started walking towards your room.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

It was what passed for night in Kratos, which meant the red sky turned a little darker than it’s state in the “morning”.

You were reading, Jophiel left hours ago and Woojin had to eventually excuse himself, especially after Jophiel told him that Jungkook is rather pissed at the both of them.

The novel in your hands was from earth. You didn’t know why Jophiel picked this one titled, “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” but you agreed with the content you’ve read so far. Although the book wasn’t about fantasy, you couldn’t help but wonder how surprised all fantasy genre lovers would be when they realise that everything they’ve read and written are all real.

Then you heard a knock on your door.

You already knew who it was. You could sense him through the door, but you just kept on reading, because Jungkook doesn’t usually come in and visit you. He probably knocked by mistake.

Then the knock came again, but you also heard Jungkook, in a voice so gentle, "May I please come in?"

You stopped reading.

You couldn’t just ignore his please. So you sighed, closed the book in your hands, and set it on the bed beside you, "Okay," you finally said.

The door opened, and Jungkook entered. He crossed to the couch across from the bed and sat down on it, and then he was quiet, looking at you sitting straight on your bed looking back at him.

You waited for him to say something, anything.

But Jungkook was not saying anything, he was quiet for long enough that you sighed and finally said, "If you don't have anything to say, just leave."

"Don't," Jungkook said quietly, "don't ask me to leave."

He looked down at his thighs, putting his hand over his forehead, covering his eyes so you couldn't see the expression he was making, "Please don't ask me to leave," Jungkook said.

You were taken aback, you didn’t know what was happening or what was about to happen. You didn’t know exactly what to do or say, so you stayed quiet.

"I came because I missed you," Jungkook continued.

You sat up straighter and stared at him across the room, at the way he was sitting with his hand still covering his eyes, like looking at you while saying it was more than he could manage, "I had to see you," Jungkook continued, "I missed you.”

“Just.. just don’t ask me to leave,” Jungkook said, almost stuttering.

You did not know what to say, not at all.

Because if Jungkook came in angrily, if he came in with the same composure he put up in the courtyard when you yelled at him, or if he came in with the same cold logic he uses for everything, you could have matched his energy.

But this.. he looked so.. sad.

Jophiel said something to you in passing, the day before, “He's trying to figure himself out.”

You stood up from the bed, crossed the room slowly, and when you reached him you stopped, standing directly in front of where Jungkook was sitting with his hand still over his forehead, still covering his eyes as if he was too afraid to look at you. He didn't move an inch when you stood up, he didn’t even look up at you when you stood in front of him.

And then you started crying.

"I've been so alone," you started, "I've been so lonely since I got here. I didn't know anyone, I didn't understand anything about what happened to me or what I am or how any of this works. And the only Demon I knew here, the only Demon I even had any frame of reference for, wasn't trying to help me through it."

Jungkook went completely still, but he finally looked up at you who was standing in front of him.

"I was angry at you," you continued, through the tears, "I am angry at you. But I also wanted you here. I wanted you to come in and say something, anything, even something that is completely wrong, even something that will make me furious, because being furious at you is better than having nobody. But you just stood outside the door."

“You had Jophiel,” he said, letting his guard down, “I thought he would be better at helping you instead of me.”

“I didn’t know Jophiel then,” you snapped, “I know him now. I trust him now. But I didn’t then, not like I knew you.”

You laughed through tears, “and you know what’s the worst part? That somehow, after everything, I still looked for you. I still listened to your footsteps like some pathetic thing hoping the Demon who hurt me would be the one to comfort me.”

“You are not pathetic,” Jungkook said.

“Well, I asked Jophiel to kill me,” you confessed, your voice breaking at your own confession.

The room went dead silent, Jungkook just stared at you and whatever was left of his composure disappeared, “What?” he asked in disbelief.

You pressed your hands against your eyes, "I asked Jophiel to kill me," you said, “that's how bad it got for me, that's how alone I felt… I felt so alone that I asked an Angel, whom I know will never do such a thing, to end my existence because the idea of spending whatever this is without anyone on my side felt worse than not existing."

Jungkook stood up and in one movement, he wrapped his arms around you and pulled you against his chest.

You hated that his arms felt familiar.

You hated that some traitorous part of your body knew him as a safe place even though your mind knew him as the reason you needed safety in the first place.

"I'm sorry," Jungkook said.

He said it against the top of your head and then again, "I'm sorry.”

“I'm sorry," he repeated again as he held you and let you cry against his chest.

And Jungkook just kept saying it.

“I’m sorry.”

And eventually, you stopped shaking.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Jungkook's grip loosened slightly, just enough that he could pull back and look at you, and you looked up at him.

Jungkook looked down at you before finally opening up, "It is entirely my fault," he said, "you would not be here, you would not be any of this, if it were not for me."

"You might think that something like me would be brave enough to come to you and say that sooner," Jungkook continued, “but the past two weeks, I had nothing to say. I felt there was no excuse I could offer you. If I faced you, I wouldn't have known what words to use. So I chose to stand outside your door instead, thinking that being present would be the best thing I could do. Foolishly believing that with enough time it would settle on its own."

Jungkook clenched his jaw, "Isn't that dumb?"

You didn't say anything, letting him finish what he came here to say.

"I completely forgot that you react differently to everything," Jungkook continued, "I forgot to weigh in your feelings, what you would need, what would actually help. Until Jophiel made me understand that what I have been doing was wrong. I didn't just fail to help you. I drove you further into it in that courtyard, and then I left you wounded."

"I know it was all my fault. I'm sorry, I didn't know how to face you,” Jungkook did not know if he wanted to say what he was about to say next, but he realised the only creature he would ever want to know about him was.. you.

And Jungkook thought to himself that there was no better time to say it, "I was afraid. If I admitted all of this to you, that I’m just unable to understand you, I thought I would lose you. I understand now, that it is a very pathetic reason to leave someone alone for two weeks."

You thought it was not possible for a Demon to look.. to feel like this. But Jophiel did tell you that full mastery of the seven traits gave a Demon something that looked like awareness, the ability to feel everything, understand what they were feeling, and decide what to do with it.

Jungkook looked down at you, opened his mouth, then closed it again. He looked away from your face, and his eyes were staring at the stone wall behind you. It was as if he needed somewhere else to put his eyes while he gathered whatever he was about to say.

Jungkook has stood in front of armies and walked into rooms knowing every creature in it wanted him dead. Jungkook has never once, in thousands of years of existence, needed to look away from something because it was too much to face directly.

He looked back at you.

You still didn't know what to say, but something you never imagined would happen, happened.

Slowly, like each inch cost him something he couldn't name, Jungkook lowered himself to his knees.

"I am still a Demon," he said, from the floor, looking up at you, "I will not change overnight and suddenly understand how humans work. I have spent hundreds of years with humans and I have still not understood even close to everything about how your kind works. I understand only forty percent, at best."

"But I will try," Jungkook said, "I will be here now, if you would like me to be, and I'm sorry."

"I'm still angry," you replied, looking away from his gaze.

"I know," Jungkook nodded.

"I'm going to be angry for a while," you stated.

"That's fair," he said.

“I might want you here and hate you for being here at the same time,” you said again, making sure he understands that your progress won’t be linear.

“I can bear that,” Jungkook replied.

"And I'd rather have a company I know," you said finally, "than none."

Jungkook nodded once, he didn't say anything more and you didn't need him to.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

You woke up with puffy eyes and a swollen face, you were exhausted from last night.

A lot happened mentally, and there were too many feelings involved. But, after what happened last night, you felt so much better.

Hearing Jungkook finally apologising and actually hearing you out and letting you hear himself out, felt like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders.

It was almost cruel yet hilarious, how the person you needed most was also one of the people tangled in the reason you were here in the first place. But Jungkook was not entirely to blame, you knew that much.

But maybe, for some weird reason, you needed someone close enough to aim your anger at. And with Seokjin gone, Jungkook became the nearest person you could blame for all of this.

You washed your face twice, which helped slightly with the puffy eyes, and then stood in the middle of the room trying to decide what to do with the day.

On earth, your days were always on some kind of a schedule. During weekdays, you woke up, you had to commute to work, and then you showed up for your students. And on weekends, you either go out to meet your friends or spend the day with your thoughts and hobbies at home.

Here, in Kratos, everything is new.

You didn’t know what there is to do or how the rules and laws are here. But what happened last night finally made you wonder if you could give this place a chance. So last night, before Jungkook left your room, you told him you would take a walk around the citadel in the morning.

Jungkook knocked sometime around morning time, which was really still hard to grasp since the sky never truly changed, on some days the red darkened by a little nearing the evenings, but other days the red colour of the sky just stayed the same. But the citadel operated on some kind of routines that you had begun to absorb without meaning to.

"I can walk with you, if you still want to see more of the citadel,” Jungkook offered.

You thought about it for a moment, "No," you replied, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Jungkook questioned.

"Yes," you said.

You didn't want to be seen walking around in the citadel that already despised you with the prince at your side like you are some weak being that will always need his protection.

You saw him nod as he turned around to the door without arguing, which you appreciated more than you expected to.

“Enjoy your walk,” Jungkook said before closing the door behind him.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

The citadel was enormous in a way that kept surprising you even after two weeks of living within its walls. You have seen the citadel from the window but walking through it was different. The corridors were carved from the same dark stone as everything else, with its glowing red veins and the ceilings arched high.

You passed some Demon soldiers in the lower halls who looked at you and then looked away. You realised there were different responses that Demons give when they see you. Some of them observed you with their dark eyes, some of them talked about you openly, but none of them approached you.

You found your way outside through a set of doors that opened up onto a wide terrace. From there, you follow a path along the citadel’s outer wall, descending gradually until you reach an open ground overlooking the valley below you.

There was a stone bench near the edge of the overlook, so you sat down on it and looked out.

Below the citadel, you could finally see North Kratos in a way you have never been able to see from within its walls. The land was unfamiliar, dark rock formed with their edges lit by the same glow throughout the citadel.

There were towns below and smaller citadels. Between them, you could see figures, Demons, moving and going about whatever Demons do on an ordinary day.

It was bleak.

The sky above North Kratos is the same red colour ever since you arrived here, casting the land in a dull light that made the dark architecture seem even more unwelcoming to a human’s eyes. Even the ground around you felt wrong. The grass beneath your feet was black as if this place has drained the world of colour and left only shadow behind.

But, you thought it wasn’t that bad.

It wasn't earth. It wasn't the view from your studio window where you used to watch people walking their dogs and arguing on their phones. But it was something, it was a place with lives happening in it.

You sat there for a while with your hands in your lap, just looking at the valley.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

"You must be the former human!"

You turned around so fast you nearly slid off the stone bench.

The Demon woman standing a few feet behind you was, objectively, beautiful in the way that most demons in Kratos seemed to be, which you were still adjusting yourself to.

She was tall, with long dark hair and tanned skin. Her horns were smaller than Jungkook's and from yours too, curving neatly back from her temples. She was smiling at you, widely at that, like running into you was the best thing that has happened to her all day.

Your first instinct was suspicion.

In two weeks of existing in this citadel, not a single Demon smiled at you like that. Well, you weren’t out most of these past 2 weeks, but that one time you were outside at the courtyard, most of them looked at you with disgust.

You passed one or two who seemed to be neutral, like Woojin, who was not exactly warm but has stopped referring to you as ‘it’. But a Demon being openly pleased to see you? That was new, and new things in a place that has been consistently hostile to you is just suspicious.

"Yes," you answered, "that's me."

"I'm Ymir," she said as she sat onto the other end of the stone bench, "I've been wanting to meet you."

"Why?" you asked, you couldn’t help the expression of confusion across your face.

Ymir tilted her head slightly, as if what she was about to say was an obvious answer, "Because you were brave and you yelled at senior soldiers in the courtyard on your first day here and apparently told the prince he was a cunt."

You opened your mouth to say something, but realised you didn’t even know what to say to that.

"Everyone knows about it," Ymir continued, "news travels fast in the North, especially news about the former human Demon who walked into the courtyard and started screaming at senior soldiers."

"I wasn't screaming," you said, "I was just defending myself."

Ymir laughed, and you felt something in your shoulders ease slightly against your better judgment.

"Where are you from?" you asked curiously.

"The North, born and raised," she said, "though I come from the lower district and my family has served the Jeon for three generations."

"So you're loyal to the Jeon citadel," you said.

"I'm loyal to the North," Ymir corrected you, and the distinction seemed to matter to her that she was pointing it out.

"I see," you said, it was obvious you were taken aback by her response. Ymir claiming she was loyal to the North and not the Jeon reminded you that whoever is strong enough could just take the throne away from Jungkook's family. You couldn't help but wonder if Woojin felt this way too.

"You know, I have always been curious about humans," Ymir said, continuing the conversation, and she looked genuinely interested in the topic, "the below is not somewhere I have ever visited but I know of it, but earth.. the earth is somewhere I have always wanted to see."

"It's beautiful," you answered, "the colours are more vibrant there. The sky is blue on most days, but sometimes grey when it is about to rain, and even pink or orange at times. There are trees that change colour every season and oceans so large it makes you feel so small.”

You looked out at the valley below you again, before continuing, “And earth just feels.. alive. There would be cars passing by, people talking and laughing on the street. There’s just always something happening. Someone is late to work, someone is falling in love, someone is crying on a train after losing an important person in their life, and someone is complaining about the weather even when the weather is beautiful.”

You smiled faintly, you didn’t mean to talk this much, but Ymir showed genuine curiosity of your home, one you have been missing dearly.

Ymir watched your face as you explained life on earth to her, "What was your life like?" she asked.

It was a question no one in the citadel has asked you. Jophiel listened when you brought things up, but he’s always so cautious with you. Jungkook has never asked, probably because he was a part of it for a while. And Woojin would rather die than engage with something that personal.

"I was a teacher," you replied, "I taught kids how to read and write and how to be a decent human.”

Ymir looked delighted when she found out you were a teacher, and clasped her hands together, "You taught children!”

"Yes" you smiled at her reaction, you have soft spots for people who adore children like you do.

"What were they like?" Ymir asked.

"Very loud," you answered, "but they are honest in a way that most adults are afraid to be. They would tell you if they didn't like what you were wearing. They will believe anything you tell them, they will trust you completely, and their trust was…" you stopped, "it was the best thing I have ever been responsible for."

After a few seconds of silence, Ymir looked into your eyes with a gaze so genuine and said, "I'm sorry…. that you lost it."

You nodded, looking at Ymir who has been kind to you, and couldn’t help but ask her, "Why are you being kind to me? Because in my two weeks here, not one Demon in this citadel has voluntarily sat down next to me and asked me about my life."

"Truthfully, because I was curious," Ymir answered, "and because the way everyone in the citadel has been treating you bothers me. You didn't choose to come here, you didn't choose any of this. And the idea that you should be punished for not being born in the North when you didn't even choose to become a Demon in the first place seems wrong to me."

"Even though I'm not pure blood," you said.

"Yes," Ymir confirmed, "and I will tell you something else, being pure blood is not a measurement all Demons care about."

You looked at Ymir, trying to analyse her again. Ymir is still a demon in a place you do not entirely trust. The suspicion you have of her has not left you, but by the way she was acting towards you, you were beginning to think she might not be so cruel. She asked you about your life on earth, your students, and she even said sorry for something she wasn’t responsible for.

"What is North Kratos actually like?" you asked, "not the citadel, down there," you nodded towards the valley, "what happens in the towns?"

Ymir's face lit up again, "That is a much better question than most visitors ask," she said, "most of them only want to know about the citadel and the soldiers. The towns are where everything actually happens. The trades, disputes, and gossip. You can learn more about how the North actually runs from spending a day in the lower districts than from a month in the citadel halls."

"Have you spent time there?" you asked.

"I grew up there," she said, "I know every district. I know which ones have the best food, which ones to avoid after dark, and which ones will pretend you don't exist if you ask for help."

You looked at her for some time before looking back out at the valley.

"Would you want to?" Ymir asked, "see it, I mean. I could take you tomorrow, if you wanted. I could show you around the lower districts."

Every reasonable part of you said to be careful.

You have only been in Kratos for two weeks, you didn't know this Demon, you didn't know her loyalties or her reasons, and you were already carrying enough things on your shoulders and you shouldn’t add another thing you couldn't trust fully.

But you were also so so tired of your room.

You were tired of the same walls, looking at the same too-high of a ceiling, and the same red sky through the same window. You were tired of existing in a space that you have been put into rather than one you have chosen by yourself.

So against your better judgement, you agreed, "Okay," you said to Ymir.

Ymir smiled, "Good," she replied as she stood up to leave, "I'll find you in the morning."

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Jungkook came to your room that night the same way he did the night before, with a single knock.

You were already in bed, not sleeping, just laying there with one of the books Jophiel brought you laid open on your chest and your eyes fixed on the ceiling. You have been thinking about the valley, about Ymir, and how the towns below the citadel looked like.

"Come in," you said.

He entered and made his way to the couch across from your bed, "How was it?" he asked as he sat down on the couch, "your first day out."

You thought about it for a few seconds, "It was.. strange," you said, "but good strange. The valley is beautiful, I didn't expect that from Kratos."

"The North has always been considered the harshest, yet most beautiful territory,” Jungkook said proudly.

"I’ve never seen the other territories, but I can’t lie that the North is beautiful," you agreed.

You went silent for a few seconds, debating if you should tell him about Ymir. But then you felt like it was something worth mentioning, "I met someone today. A demon woman, she came when she saw me sitting alone, sat next to me, and talked to me as well."

Jungkook looked at you, "Who?"

"She said her name was Ymir," you said, "she asked about my life on earth and about my students too."

Something shifted in Jungkook's expression, he seemed suspicious of your new friend, "Ymir," he repeated.

"Do you know her?" you asked.

"She's in one of the lower battalions," he replied, "a weak one."

You rolled your eyes at him, "Jungkook, I don't care what battalion she's in."

"I'm just telling you what I know of her," he said.

"She was the first demon in this entire citadel to sit down next to me and kind enough to ask me something about my life," you defended, "the first one who wasn't you, Jophiel, or Woojin. So I genuinely don't care what battalion she's in."

Jungkook's jaw tightened slightly at the mention of his two friends, "Speaking of which," he said, "Woojin has been kind to you."

"Woojin brings me food every day, which you ordered him to do, and he occasionally tolerates my presence," you said, "that's not the same thing as being kind."

"And me? I’m not kind to you?" Jungkook asked, "I don't count?"

You looked at him across the room, "You're different."

"How?"

You didn't answer him, mostly because the answer was complicated in ways you weren't ready to say out loud, "She asked if she could show me around the lower districts tomorrow," you said instead, "I said yes."

Jungkook went very still, "Don't," he said.

You raised your eyebrows, "Don't what?"

"Don't go," Jungkook said, "not with her."

"Why not?" you asked.

"Because I don't know her well enough," he said, "and you don't know her at all."

"I knew you for longer before I trusted you," you said, "and look how that turned out."

Jungkook sighed before answering, "That's fair, but I'm asking you to trust me on this one."

"You're not asking me," you said, "you're telling me what to do."

"I'm asking you," he said again in a deeper voice, which meant Jungkook was dead serious, "just don't go tomorrow. Give it more time."

"She was kind to me," you said, sitting up straighter on your bed, "she was the first demon here who treated me like a normal being and I'm not going to refuse that because you have a ‘feeling’"

"It's not a feeling," Jungkook said, "it is an instinct, and my instinct in the North has kept me alive for longer than you believe."

You threw the blanket off your legs, stood up from the bed, and walked towards Jungkook, and following your actions, Jungkook stood up from the sofa as well.

You stopped close enough that you had to tilt your head slightly to look up at him and held his gaze without flinching.

"You never fucking listen to me," your voice cracked as you jabbed a finger toward his chest, stepping even closer to him, "you think you can just control everything I do, everything I am."

"Maybe if you just stop this for five seconds so I could get a word in," Jungkook said, defending himself.

Your finger pressed harder against his chest, and said angrily, “No Jungkook, you should listen to me. I have done enough listening!”

Jungkook caught your wrist, his fingers wrapped around it and the sudden contact silenced you from talking even more. For a second, the both of you just stared at each other.

“Get your hand off me,” you snarled, trying to yank your hand free, but Jungkook’s grip only tightened.

"No,” his voice was even lower, it was almost a growl. Jungkook pulled you forward, closing the last inch between the two of you until your chest is now finally brushing his, “You want to fight? Fine, let’s fight."

"Let go of me," you repeated, but your voice lost its edge, because his face was too close and the cold radiating off his skin was doing something to your thoughts that made you resent yourself deeply.

"Make me," Jungkook said, almost a whisper.

You opened your mouth to say something, but before you could, his other hand came up to your jaw, tilting your face up, and whatever you were about to say disappeared from your train of thoughts entirely.

His eyes were on yours, "You want to be so angry at me," he continued quietly, "go ahead."

♡━━━ Start of NSFW ━━━♡

Then Jungkook kissed you.

It wasn't gentle. His lips were demanding from the first second it touched yours, his grip on your wrist pulling you closer against him until there was no space left between your bodies.

And you kissed him back. You hated that you kissed him back immediately, without hesitation, without even a full second of resistance. Your free hand found the front of his shirt and grabbed it to pull him closer.

You bit his lower lip, which had Jungkook let out a groan. The kiss deepened and your legs hit the edge of the bed without either of you noticing you had moved from standing near the couch to now at the edge of your bed.

“You’re such an asshole,” you panted against his mouth.

He looked at you with a smirk across his face, “This is what you wanted right? You wanted me to shut you up.”

"You're so infuriating, I wanted you to listen," you said against his mouth before pulling him closer for another desperate kiss. Jungkook shoved you onto the bed and before you could straighten yourself on it, he put his weight on you, pinning you down.

You could feel his hard cock through his trousers, making your pussy clench. You could feel the wetness in your underwear despite the anger you felt towards him. And the way Jungkook was staring down at you, the way he was breathing with his chest rising and falling rapidly, it sent you wild and crazy.

You needed him.

With one hand, Jungkook grabbed at the collar of your shirt with force, causing the buttons to pop-out and your breasts exposed to the cold air, almost ripping your blouse in the process.

He bit down on your breast, sucking hard, using his teeth to play with your nipple until you arched your back in pleasure, and a cry escaped your mouth.

“You're enjoying this,” he whispered, as his lips brushed against your chest, “you love being treated like this.”

“Shut up,” you hissed at him, but your hands were already in his hair, pulling him closer, pushing his face harder into your breast.

He bit your nipple enough to let another loud moan out of you, and enough to have you start moving your hips against his.

Jungkook pulled himself back to yank his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. Then his hands were on the waistband of your trousers as you lifted your hips to help him drag them down along with your panties.

"Look at you," Jungkook said with a deeper voice, staring at your legs spread wide in front of him, "so fucking wet. You have been waiting for my cock haven’t you?"

You couldn’t help and spread your legs wider as he said it, it was an invitation you couldn’t deny, "Don't flatter yourself," you said.

Jungkook smirked again and you wanted to slap it off his face, but then you saw him unbuckling his belt, and not long after, his big cock sprang free and you noticed its head already slick with pre-cum.

Jungkook stroked himself three times, with his eyes locked on yours, and you felt your pussy clench at the beautiful sight in front of you. Seeing Jungkook touching himself in front of you was a scene you never knew could be this hot.

Jungkook leaned over you, one hand bracing on the bed beside your head, the other guiding his cock to the entrance of your pussy. Jungkook didn't ask or warn you, he just thrusted his full length into your wet pussy in one single thrust. You let out a loud moan, your fingers digging into his shoulders as he filled you inch by inch.

You clenched around his cock, drawing a groan from Jungkook, “Fuck,” Jungkook moaned out, pressing his forehead against yours and his eyes looking into yours.

"You’re so fucking tight, like you were made for my fucking cock,” he moaned against your ear, making you cry out in pleasure.

“Fuck me," you demanded, "stop talking and fuck me with your big cock."

Jungkook let out a deep laugh as he pulled out almost all the way before slamming his cock back into your pussy. The impact shocked you, and the bed was now creaking loudly beneath the two of you. He was fucking you with a pace so fast and hard that each thrust drove you up the mattress. You wrapped your legs around his waist, pulling him even deeper into you.

Jungkook lowered his mouth to your neck, biting and sucking, leaving hickeys all over it. While your nails were leaving marks on his back. He then fondled your breasts with one hand, before lowering his head to suck on your nipples, and leaving even more hickeys around your chest now.

"Harder, please, Jungkook," you panted.

Jungkook cut you off by slamming his mouth onto yours, his tongue thrusting in time with his cock. You sucked on his tongue, lightly bit it, and tasted his blood, which you found must be a turn on for Jungkook as he thrusted into you even harder than before, and each thrust drove you towards pleasure you never imagined.

His massive cock filled you so completely, every inch of him hitting your sensitive spots, which sent shockwaves of pleasure throughout your whole body. Your breasts were bouncing freely in front of Jungkook and the sight of you under him was one Jungkook wished to see for the rest of his life.

You felt your orgasm building up, "Don't stop," you begged, “don't you dare stop, Jungkook," you moaned out his name.

"Come for me," he growled, hearing his name out of your mouth, “come on my cock, now."

You tried to hold back, but your body betrayed you. It was all too much and you couldn’t hold your cum any longer. You cried out as your pussy clenched his cock and you whimpered his name into his ear as you come all over his cock.

But just like your first time with him, Jungkook was far from done.

The sheets were now all tangled up beneath you, damp with sweat of hours Jungkook spent fucking you until you've orgasmed four times. You were utterly wrecked by how good he fucked you that your pussy was still twitching after.

Jungkook didn’t give you a moment to recover, the sight of you snapped his control again. The heat radiating off your skin was just so intoxicating. Jungkook gripped your breasts as he moved his body closer to your face, squeezing your breasts softly, before pushing them together and sliding his hard cock between your breasts.

He thrusted forward, groaning as his cock pushed up between your breasts. Jungkook fucked your tits as you looked up at him with your tongue hanging out of your mouth, begging to lick the tip of his cock.

How needy you looked for his cock was what drove Jungkook to his orgasm. Jungkook removed his hard cock from between your tits, and said, “Open your mouth.”

He shoved his cock into your mouth, hitting the back of your throat in one ruthless thrust. You couldn’t help but gagged as he gripped your head with both of his hands and fucked your mouth the way he fucked your pussy.

Jungkook buried his cock deep inside your mouth as he shot his cum down your throat, forcing you to swallow each and every single one of it.

♡━━━ End of NSFW ━━━♡

You laid there, breathlessly, but you remembered something. You and Jungkook were fighting until the both of you decided to fuck each others brains out.

"I'm still going tomorrow," you said, slightly breathless.

Jungkook let out a quiet sigh, "I know," he said before continuing, “I’ll have someone follow you. Just listen to me for once. I just want you to be careful. That is all I want, because if something happened to you I would not recover from it."

"Fine," you said, finally backing down.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Jungkook got dressed quietly and slipped out of your room while you were asleep. He stood in the corridor for a moment longer than necessary before finally walking away.

Woojin was waiting at the bottom of the staircase, "The King is asking for you," Woojin said.

Jungkook just nodded at him before walking towards the King’s study.

The King's study sat at one of the highest points of the North tower, he was seated behind the wide stone desk when Jungkook entered, not looking up from the documents in his hands.

Jungkook stood across from him and waited for The King to address him.

After a few minutes, the King looked up and a small smirk formed across his face, "I see you had fun with the former human?" The King asked.

Jungkook said nothing to it.

But The King looked at his son before looking back down at the documents in his hands, "Don't worry," the King said, "I won't meddle into your private life."

The King then turned a page of the document in front of him, "What training have you been giving the soldiers?" The King asked.

"Extended drills across all battalions," Jungkook answered, "combat formations, endurance rotations, and I have been running the senior units through close-range fights twice daily."

The King nodded slowly, "And their condition?"

"Better than when I left," Jungkook replied.

"Good," The King said, setting down the document in his hand to look into the eyes of his most favored son, "I want you to prepare for war."