Chapter Text
Jungkook never thought he would be one of those people in horror movies that do the stupidest thing possible and then get killed. He would be cool, calm, and collected, kill the monsters, and save the day. He would definitely never read a passage from a strange book as a joke and accidently summon a demon. Unfortunately, its hard to be a smart horror movie protagonist when you don’t know your in a horror movie.
Jungkook was filming a scene for their upcoming music video the day he made his dumb-person in-a-horror-movie mistake. The scene Jungkook was filming involved a creepy, decrepit library. The production crew had built rows and rows of shelves and filled them with similarly creepy, decrepit looking books. As the director called cut and the crew set up for the next shot, Jungkook wandered the shelves, dragging his fingers across the bumpy spines of the books. One of the books caught his eye.
Jungkook pulled the book off the shelf. It was large and heavy and had no writing on the cover or the spine. He opened the book to a random page and saw what appeared to be instructions for casting protective wards on a home. He flipped to another page and saw some words that when spoken aloud while rubbing mugwort on the head would cure baldness.
Jimin wandered over to him from the other side of the set.
“What’s that about?” Jimin gestures to the book in Jungkook’s hand.
“I think its some kind of spell book,” Jungkook replies. “Look here, this one can make you beautiful. You should try it hyung,” Jungkook tries to keep as innocent of a face as possible.
Jimin snorted and slapped at Jungkook’s arm. “Is there one in there for punishing people who have insulted your honor?” Jimin said with a playful glare.
“Nope!” Jungkook shouted as he shut the book and ran further down the aisle, Jimin laughing at his retreating back. Jungkook came to a stop at the back wall of the set, sat down, and opened the book across his lap. He flipped through the pages and eventually one caught his eye. It was a spell for insight, specifically for insight into your heart’s deepest desire.
Jungkook was curious, what was his heart’s deepest desire? He didn’t think he was too complicated of a person. He thinks he knows himself pretty well. Was it possible for someone to want something so badly that it’s their deepest desire, but they don’t even know about it? Jungkook read the incantation on the page out loud to himself. What could it hurt? He finishes the incantation. There’re no sparks of light, no warm feeling inside, no reaction at all. Jungkook laughs to himself and heads back to the others.
***
That night Jungkook has a strange dream. He is walking in a forest at dusk. Jungkook is aware that he’s dreaming. He can hear the leaves shake as the wind blows through the trees. The wind is cold, and he shivers in his thin t-shirt and pajama pants. He reaches out and touches the bark of a tree as he passes it. He can feel the scratch of the bark against his fingertips. He doesn’t ever remember having a dream this vivid before.
He continues to walk even though he doesn’t know where he’s going. The sun sets completely, and the forest gets darker. Eventually, he comes upon a clearing. As he steps past the tree line, the moon comes out from behind a cloud and illuminates a figure standing in the middle of the clearing. The figure is wearing a black cloak and stands with its head bowed.
“Hello?” Jungkook calls out. He feels compelled to approach the figure even though the hairs on the back of his neck are standing up. As Jungkook comes to a stop before the figure, it raises its head to look at him.
“You summoned me,” the figure says in a voice that sounds the rustle of the leaves in the trees surrounding them. The silver glow of the moon illuminates the space under the figure’s hood. Jungkook can see a white mask with a red and black painted face.
“What do you mean I summoned you? Who are you?” Jungkook tries to keep his voice from shaking and is only partially successful. Jungkook tries to wake up but can’t. For a moment he is afraid that maybe he isn’t dreaming at all, that this is really happening.
The figure leans its head closer to him. “You cast a spell and wished to learn your heart’s deepest desire. I am here to give it to you,” the figure whispers.
“What? That old book? That wasn’t a real spell.” Jungkook laughs in disbelief.
The figure stares at him silently. Behind the eyes of the mask, there is only blackness. After a long pause, where Jungkook tries to come to terms with the fact that maybe magic is real, the figure continues, “You cast the spell, so I am here. I can offer you the knowledge that you seek, but you must pay the price for it.
“That’s alright,” Jungkook says. “I don’t need any insight into my heart. I am all good,” Jungkook tries to laugh it off but it comes out stuttering and fake.
“You can’t go back on the bargain. You’ve already cast the spell,” the figure says, its tone going sharp. It grabs Jungkook by the forearm and pulls him closer. Jungkook is horrified to see that the hand that holds him in place is made of bones. Jungkook tries to struggle, attempting to pull out of the figure’s grasp, but its grip is like iron.
“In exchange for the knowledge I will give you, I will take knowledge in exchange. It will be knowledge of something you know well.” The figure leans closer to Jungkook until he can feel the cold, smooth surface of the mask against his cheek. The figure whispers in his ear.
“Your heart’s greatest desire is this. You want all of them to fall in love with you.”
Jungkook tries to pull away from the figure again, but he is held fast. “That’s not true!” Jungkook protests but the figure speaks over him.
“Now I will take my payment.” The bony hand not holding Jungkook’s arm reaches up. Two finger bones place themselves on Jungkook’s forehead and a pale, blue glow emanates from where they touch. Jungkook feels a strange dizziness come over him. Right before he blacks-out he hears the figure say one last thing in its dry, whispery voice.
“Now the bargain must be sealed.”
Jungkook wakes up in his bedroom with the feeling of the mask’s cold, unmoving lips on his own.
***
The car door slams as Jungkook gets in the van. He throws himself into the back seat and pulls his hood up over his head. The group has just finished rehearsals for their upcoming comeback. Everything went fine, great even. Except for one thing. Jungkook messed up every single one of his lines. Every single one. He’s been doing this job for years and every time he misses a note, he feels embarrassed, and like he’s failing at his job, and letting the fans down. But today was the worst he’s ever sang in probably his whole life.
Jungkook is upset with himself and embarrassed for doing so poorly at rehearsals. He’s sitting in the back of the van hoping that he’ll disappear before any of the members bring it up. He tries as hard as he can to wish himself out of existence, but sadly he is unable to do so before Taehyung turns around in the seat in front of him.
“Don’t worry Jungkookie. Everybody has off days”. Taehyung reaches a hand over the back of the seat from where he’s twisted around and pats Jungkook on the top of his head. Jungkook tries to dodge out of the way, but Taehyung is persistent and there is no where to go in the back seat of the van.
“That wasn’t an off day, hyung. I literally missed every note! Like what the fuck?” Jungkook’s voice gets louder and higher as he talks. “This has never happened to me before. I don’t know what’s wrong.”
Jungkook pushes the hand petting his head away. Taehyung reaches over the seat back with both of his hands to continue his aggressive administrations. “Don’t push me away, Jungkookie,” Taehyung pouts. As he is trying to climb over the seat to force Jungkook to except his affections, Seokjin turns around from the front seat.
“Let Tae pet you, Kook. I can feel your angst cloud from up here.” Jungkook huffs as he lets Taehyung wrap all of his limbs around him.
“I for one am happy about Jungkook’s performance today”. Seokjin continues as he rests his chin on the backrest of the passenger seat and smirks at them.
“What.” Jungkook says, not sure yet if he’s hurt by Seokjin’s comment.
“Well, with your perfect record, there was never a chance for the rest of the vocal line. Now that you’ve had one bad day, you can no longer have the title of golden maknae. It’s mine now.”
Jungkook laughs at Seokjin. “The tile suites you, hyung,” he says with a smirk. “You are the brightest, most shining, most childish vocalist in the group.”
“Hey, you brat!” Seokjin says with a fake angry voice. The conversation devolves from there into light hearted bickering and continues until they get home. As they walk to their front door, Seokjin puts his hand on Jungkook’s shoulder and squeezes.
***
His voice doesn’t get better. Over the next couple of days, every time he opens his mouth to sing, he sounds bad. Not like he missed a note or two, he genuinely sounds bad. And no matter what he does, how much he practices the same line over and over, he can’t get it right.
Today, he embarrassed himself again at rehearsal. His excuse of being sick is wearing thin considering that he is showing absolutely no other signs of being sick. He doesn’t know what to do or what’s wrong with his voice. He’s always struggled with making mistakes, with not doing the best that he knows he’s capable of. This is worse than anything he’s ever experienced.
Jungkook is laying in his bed. He’s not sulking! Just, all the lights are off and he’s laying there with his bad mood angst playlist playing. But his life could be ruined so, he thinks it’s perfectly valid to sulk. Not being able to sing could ruin his life. It’s around one in the morning when he tips from angsting over into real despair. Everything always seems worse late at night. All of his fears seem closer in the dark, and they press down on him like a physical weight.
When it becomes too much, Jungkook gets up and leaves his room. He pads down the hallway of the dorm and stops at Hoseok and Jimin’s room. He lingers outside of their door for a moment before he slowly pushes the door open. The room is dark as Jungkook crosses the threshold.
“Hoseok hyung,” Jungkook whispers as he approaches Hoseok’s bed. Hoseok doesn’t stir until Jungkook touches his shoulder.
“Jungkook?” Hoseok says as he blinks blearily up at Jungkook. Jungkook can’t keep it together any longer. He’s too scared about losing his voice, about the potential reason why he lost his voice. As he meets Hoseok’s eyes, he begins to tear up. He sniffles a little as he reaches out towards Hoseok.
“Hyung, can I sleep here tonight?” Jungkook says in a tremulous voice.
“Of course, Kookie,” Hoseok pulls back the sheets of his bed. Jungkook crawls in and buries his face in Hoseok’s chest. “It’ll be alright, okay? You’ll be alright,” Hoseok says as he runs his fingers through Jungkook’s hair.
Eventually, Hoseok’s fingers still as he falls asleep. In the warmth and comfort of Hoseok’s bed Jungkook feels safe enough to face the idea that he’s been doing his best to avoid. See, the weird dream that Jungkook had a couple of nights ago has been lurking in his head. The morning he woke up from it, he thought it was a bizarre dream inspired by the weird book he found. But as the days went by and he continued to be unable to sing, he started to wonder. What if the dream was real? What if the knowledge the hooded figure took from him was his knowledge of singing? Jungkook doesn’t even know how to handle the thought that the dream was real. If it was, then that means what the figure told him was true, that his deepest desire is for all of his hyungs to… Well he’s not going to think about that. He’s going to focus on the important part: getting his voice back. Jungkook has an idea.