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It wasn’t Seokjin’s intention, really. The spell wasn’t meant to cause this — it was just supposed to startle Jeongguk, not enough to cause any lasting trauma. A harmless prank.
“Bullshit.”
“Namjoon, please,” Seokjin hisses, “you know I never meant for it to go this far.” Namjoon’s eyes narrow.
“Tell that to Jeongguk.” Both Seokjin and Namjoon turn their gaze to the sleeping figure on the couch. Jeongguk looks calm. Peaceful. Seokjin doesn't even dare to hope that it’ll last. Namjoon looks back at him with a sigh. “You know you have to wake him up, hyung.”
“What? He’ll kill me!”
“Maybe.” Namjoon offers him a less-than-heartfelt smile, turning to leave the room. “Good luck,” he calls over his shoulder. Heartless.
Seokjin takes a deep breath and very slowly approaches the couch. This, of course, is the one time it doesn't take much to wake Jeongguk.
"Hyung?" Jeongguk opens his eyes and looks up at him sleepily. His nose twitches. "How long was I out?"
"A few hours."
"Hyung," Jeongguk raises an eyebrow. "You look nervous." Seokjin chuckles, decidedly not nervously.
"Why would you say that?" Jeongguk sits up.
"What did you do? Did you draw on me?" Jeongguk runs a hand over his face – nothing. Seokjin stares at the floor guiltily. Jeongguk glares at Seokjin, and his gaze is suspicious, to say the least. He reaches up to scratch his head, and –
Seokjin sees the exact moment that Jeongguk realizes what’s wrong.
“What the fuck , hyung?. Don’t tell me these are real.” Seokjin finally looks up.
“I don’t think lying would be the best way to resolve this.”
“Well,” Jeongguk says, quiet and measured, “when did you plan on fixing it?” He only talks like this when he’s really upset, and it’s almost never directed at Seokjin.
“It’s a funny story actually. A long story too, and look at the time!” Seokjin inches to the door. “I think I should probably –“ In an instant, Jeongguk is on him, nearly breathing down his neck.
“We have time. So, please, hyung,” Jeongguk smiles as insincerely as he possibly can, “tell me exactly how you plan on removing the rabbit ears that I seem to have grown in my sleep.”
Jeongguk isn’t that good at being threatening, and he doesn’t like to be aggressive. Still, though, he’s disappointed when Seokjin looks… amused .
“What?” Jeongguk demands.
“Your feet,” Seokjin manages between giggles. “You’re thumping .”
“I’m what ?”
“Bunnies thump when they’re angry. I didn’t think —“
“ Hyung ,” Jeongguk pleads, “please just make them go away.”
“I really don’t know how, Jeongguk. I just meant to conjure a rabbit to sit on your head while you were sleeping, but… I’m so, so sorry.” Jeongguk tears his eyes away from Seokjin’s and rushes off, locking himself in the bathroom. Namjoon sticks his head through the doorway, frustratingly nonchalant.
“That actually went better than expected.”
“Jeongguk?” Seokjin calls. “Jeongguk, you’ve been in there for over an hour.” He hears a faint “go away” through the door and sighs. “I’ll find a way to fix this, I promise. But, Jeongguk, I can’t fix anything if you stay in there.” Seokjin waits a minute, then two. No movement. He turns to leave but stops short at the click of a lock behind him.
“Hyung?” Jeongguk peeks timidly out the door. His eyes are puffy and red from crying, and Seokjin’s heart shatters. He hates seeing Jeongguk like this. It reminds him of when they found him — too young and too lonely to be all alone. He’s not a child anymore, Seokjin knows, but it’s times like this that make him ashamed of how he feels now about the younger boy.
They make their way to the study to begin the search for a reversal spell, and everyone else is already there. All eyes are on Jeongguk, but no one dares to mention his ears or his tear-stained cheeks. Namjoon must have warned them against it.
Without any delay, all seven of them begin to search the bookshelves. It’s a daunting task — when Namjoon inherited the building that now houses their coven, it came with centuries worth of spell books and grimoires, most of which have been collecting dust for just as long. The silver lining, Seokjin thinks, is that with all this information at their fingertips, there must be at least one suitable reversal spell. Just one.
Selecting an armful of musty leather-bound tomes, Seokjin retreats to a large armchair at the far corner of the room. To his surprise, Jeongguk approaches him not long after, his own stack of books clutched to his chest.
“Can I sit with you, hyung?”
Seokjin, of course, agrees. He moves to one side at first, but Jeongguk makes it clear that was not his intention, opting to sit in Seokjin’s lap instead. Why Jeongguk wants to be so close after getting so upset with him is beyond Seokjin's comprehension, but he's glad for it — at least Jeongguk seems to have forgiven him a little. Although it's not the most comfortable of positions, the both of them stay there, scanning the contents of as many books as possible. It's quite a while before Seokjin notices Jeongguk's fallen asleep.
He really does look beautiful like this, and Seokjin stifles the urge to kiss his nose, his forehead, his lips. Everything about Jeongguk’s sleeping face is peaceful, angelic. Seokjin thinks he's found religion.
Jeongguk shifts until he’s facing Seokjin's chest, and, to everyone else's great amusement, Jeongguk noses at the crook of the older boy's neck. Seokjin holds his breath.
“Seokjin,” Jimin chuckles behind the hand over his mouth, “is he scenting you?”
Jeongguk's eyes shoot open at Jimin’s words, and he extracts himself from Seokjin's lap before anyone can say anything else. He flees the room, bright red all the way down to his neck, and Seokjin looks down intently at the first book he can find, nearly as red as Jeongguk. He pretends not to notice that all eyes in the room are on him.
Jeongguk spends the rest of the day holed up in his room, only making a brief appearance to steal a bowl of instant ramen before disappearing again. Seokjin decides to give him a wide berth, for today at least – they haven't found a reversal spell yet and he figures they've both had enough embarrassment for quite a while. Later that night, Seokjin almost knocks on his door to apologize again, but he stops himself and continues down the long hall to his own room. He's probably the last person Jeongguk wants to see anyways.
It's an ungodly hour in the morning before the sun’s even risen when Seokjin hears a knock on his door. His voice is rough from sleep but he manages a quiet “come in”, and the door creaks open.
“Hyung?” Seokjin sits up quickly at the sound of Jeongguk's voice. It's not unusual for the younger to come to his room at night, in fact, it's become something of a routine, but this night, in particular, Seokjin can't help but be surprised. He rubs the sleep from his eyes.
“Jeongguk? What are you doing here?” Jeongguk hesitates by the door, his soft brown ears standing up perfectly straight and brushing against the doorframe. He seems on edge. Seokjin stands and approaches him cautiously. “Is something wrong?”
“I couldn't sleep, so I thought, maybe –” he wrings his hands, and in the darkness Seokjin can barely make out the blush rising to his cheeks. “Could I sleep here with you?” Seokjin nods and takes Jeongguk's hand, walking with him to the bed. They slip under the covers facing each other, but Jeongguk refuses to meet Seokjin's eyes.
“Ggukie,” Seokjin reaches out his hand and the younger hesitantly takes it, intertwining their fingers. “I'm really sorry, Gguk. I didn't know this would happen to you, I promise.”
“I know, hyung. I overreacted a bit too.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Jeongguk smiles and finally looks Seokjin in the eye, “I’ve pulled better pranks than this.”
“Like what?”
“Like when I made your voice higher pitched every time you swore until you sounded like a chipmunk on helium? Or when I gave Eomuk and Odeng human voices? Or when I enchanted your food to talk to you every time you were about to take a bite?”
“That last one was just cruel.”
“So in other words, you’ll admit you can’t beat me and I’ll win the prank war?”
“Not even close. You’ll have to try a little harder.”
“Hm, maybe,” Jeongguk murmurs and Seokjin can tell his tiredness is finally starting to catch with him. He squeezes Jeongguk’s hand and pulls him closer, and the younger boy rests his head against Seokjin’s chest, bunny ears and all. “Hyung?” Jeongguk asks quietly a few minutes later. They’re so close that Seokjin can almost feel Jeongguk’s lips move against his neck. Almost. Seokjin doesn’t know why he holds his breath.
“Hyung?” Jeongguk asks again, checking to see if he’s asleep. When Seokjin doesn’t answer, Jeongguk huddles closer, planting a soft kiss on his jaw. “Goodnight, hyung.”
Seokjin’s eyes fly open. Jeongguk notices. The younger boy blanches, immediately stuttering out an apology and attempting to get away, but Seokjin grabs his arm before he can make it out of the bed.
“Let me go, hyung,” Jeongguk pleads, his voice unsteady.
“Jeongguk…”
“Can we just drop it? You don’t have to say anything, I’ll just go. Goodnight, hyung.”
“Jeongguk, wait.” Seokjin lets go of the younger boy’s arm in favour of fidgeting with the sheets. “You don’t have to go.”
“Please don’t pity me, hyung.”
“I’m not ,” Seokjin argues. Jeongguk scoffs.
“You already think I’m too young, that I’m childish, and then you gave me these –” Jeongguk reaches up timidly to touch his rabbit ears. “You’ll never take me seriously, will you?” He laughs softly, but there’s no humour in it. Seokjin melts , wraps his arms around Jeongguk’s waist, drawing him into a tight hug. “I’m sorry, hyung,” Jeongguk murmurs against Seokjin’s neck. “I just like you a lot. I know I shouldn’t.”
“Ggukkie…,” Seokjin pulls away to look Jeongguk in the eye. “Gguk, I don’t pity you. This isn’t pity.” He cups Jeongguk’s chin in his palm, stroking his cheek with the pad of his thumb. He regards Jeongguk for a long moment before finally leaning in – just to stop himself short. “Can I?” Jeongguk swallows, nodding a little too enthusiastically, and Seokjin closes the gap.
It’s soft and unhurried, sweet and slow like molasses. Seokjin might just get a cavity. It’s a long time before they part, but they don’t really separate, arms and legs still intertwined as they lay back down. By now, the sun’s threatening to come up and they’re both beyond tired, but Jeongguk makes one last comment before he goes to sleep.
“You know, hyung,” he mutters into Seokjin’s chest, “maybe the ears were a good thing after all.”
“I agree,” Seokjin answers, pressing a kiss onto each ear. “I think they’re cute.”