Chapter Text
Goblin Camp 3
Southwest to the Capital City
High Nocte
There is pin-drop silence in what would have been pitch-black darkness. If it isn’t for the smattering of light sparkling from somewhere to Jungkook’s right, that is.
He doesn’t turn to admire Yoongi’s spell though, not now. He’s focused on his own role, which is getting ready to charge out if anyone were to catch them here. Next to him, he feels rather than hears Jimin shuffle up to his elbow.
Wordlessly, Jungkook gives an imperceptible nod which Jimin notices, of course he does even in the semi-darkness thanks to his dark vision. Jimin gets to work immediately, his tools clinking just barely in the silence. Jungkook feels the slow but heavy thump of his own heartbeat in his ears, the beginnings of the fire from beneath his skin he will surely feel later.
The lock clicks its release. Yoongi snuffs out his lights, because out of this room they can’t afford to be seen.
“Go,” Jimin’s whisper is heeded by Jungkook and Seokjin, broad handsome Seokjin whose weapon of choice tonight is a great battle axe of all things.
They’re then followed by a small gap before the rest of their crew trails them out the door in order: Namjoon with his quarterstaff in hand; Taehyung somehow still managing to look princely as he practically glides across the floor holding a rapier, hood over his head; Yoongi with his scimitar still unsheathed; Hoseok, eyes glowing gold - so beautiful, as always, so pretty! It’s one of the things Jungkook loves about him - and his longbow gripped tightly; and lastly Jimin, small backpack slung across his back in favour of two twin daggers clutched in each hand.
Jungkook? Jungkook is always up front, because this is where he shines.
His armour is securely fitted across his chest and on his shoulders, his longsword held with both hands upright next to his face. His long black hair is tied back, few strands that have come loose from their tie tucked under a simple helmet.
He pauses in the hallway. He knows they’re supposed to turn to the right but he hears murmurs. Straining his ears he guesses three or four of them, through the small crevice in the wall on the left. Goblins are terrible at sneaking. Can’t be tough for their team to handle, but what about noise? They can’t—
“Don’t,” murmurs Seokjin, super close to him, reading him as usual. This is why Seokjin leads them on missions, he’s way more disciplined and tactical.
But, you know what, fuck it, Jungkook’s been trained as a fighter and the blood of his ancestors courses through his veins. It fuels him now, propelling him with impulsion and before Seokjin can stop him he’s darted across the short space and slips into the hallway. In the blink of an eye, he’s slashed the nearest goblin into two. An arrow flies past him and embeds itself into the eye of another goblin that was just advancing on him - ah, he can always count on Hoseok.
Jungkook sees movement in flashes, his sword moving not half a second later and gashing the green-skinned creatures that surround him. Blood sprays across his shiny armour, the goblins are dropping like flies at his feet before they can even open their mouths to scream or call for help, and Jungkook is thriving. Here’s where he shines, he—
“That’s enough!” Seokjin pants from next to him, having killed a couple of goblin guards himself. Next to him, Namjoon wipes sweat from his brow.
There is none left in mere seconds, and Jungkook doesn’t even realise when his comrades joined him in the fight.
“Focus,” Seokjin hisses, eyes flashing, “We’re not here for them.” He eyes the bodies by his feet contemptuously. “Take what you can and get back into formation.”
Jungkook moves away immediately, and Yoongi darts forward with Namjoon to check the goblins’ bodies for treasure, good weapons and other useful items.
“Calm down, JK,” murmurs Seokjin to him, his voice still hard, as he gets back into position and gets ready to creep down the right hallway.
“Sorry,” Jungkook says. He can’t help it. The fire beneath his skin is tamed slightly, but he still feels it, that urge to dive into combat, to challenge his enemies— He shakes his head to clear his mind. “I’ll focus.”
Almost automatically, he turns to check on his band of thieves. Adventurers? Soldiers? He doesn’t know what they are now.
The group advances deeper into the building until they see a purple glow from a room.
“There,” Seokjin confirms quietly from his shoulder.
Something isn’t right, Jungkook thinks, as he hunches low next to the doorway and waits for his friends to fall into their usual positions. It’s too quiet.
He looks at Seokjin’s face and knows from the worried crease between his eyebrows that he’s thinking the same thing. Jimin steps lightly to the front, next to Jungkook, daggers at the ready.
“What do you think?” Seokjin whispers to the rest of the team huddled close behind.
“Probably a defence sigil of sorts,” Yoongi states, his low voice quiet.
“I don’t hear or feel anything,” murmurs Taehyung, fingers lingering on the amulet near his neck. Jungkook breathes a sigh of relief. He always dreads anything that’s ritualistic, he especially doesn’t understand those types of magic.
“There’s something, but I can’t put my finger on it,” Hoseok says quietly, cocking his head. His horns twisting from the front of his crown reflect purple.
“Spell-based,” Namjoon confirms. “Probably a sorcerer put up defences in there.”
“Okay, we’ll leave it to you,” Seokjin nods at Namjoon and Yoongi, then gazes at the rest of them one by one. “The rest of you, cut them a path if needed to the sigil, remember—” He locks eyes with Jungkook last. “—Focus on our prize. Look out for the sorcerer.”
Jungkook nods resolutely, pushing aside the feeling of slight guilt. “On three,” he breathes, and the rest of the group scuttles back, leaving their main fighters by the door.
“One,” Seokjin mouths from the other side of the doorframe, lifting his axe.
“Two,” whispers Jimin, eyes already focused on the doorway.
“Three.” Jungkook hurtles himself into the room, and before he can absorb what’s in it, he hears the clang of iron, because he was immediately attacked and his arms rose to protect himself on instinct.
More goblins, Jungkook sees as he swings his sword almost haphazardly and bulldozes through the grunting little monsters.
The stone floor is covered in blood in seconds. He cuts down any and all goblins in his way, satisfied when he sees Namjoon and Yoongi run to the purple light unharmed - indeed, it’s a sigil inscribed onto the stone wall. Hoseok has found a vantage point somewhere up and to the side, shooting arrows with precision before any goblins can make their way to him.
He feels a body slump onto him, and he wheels around with his sword ready only to find a dead goblin crashing to the floor, his throat slit. Jimin raises an eyebrow at him, twirls his blood-soaked dagger in the air smugly.
Behind him, Taehyung catches him glaring and chuckles, his teeth flashing white from the protective bubble he’s keeping up around Namjoon and Yoongi. “You can’t kill ‘em all, JK.”
“Pretty sure I got most though,” he grunts, slashing at another goblin who was stupid enough to think their conversation is a distraction.
Jimin straightens from where he had to roll on the floor to avoid the swing of a goblin’s shortsword and immediately rolls his eyes. “No one’s counting.”
“The focus,” Seokjin pipes up from behind Taehyung suddenly, his great axe swinging in a wide arc and effectively beheading an unwitting goblin, “Is the crown.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Jimin deadpans immediately, and Jungkook laughs.
Whilst their conversation doesn’t distract them from the fight, it does distract Jungkook from going full rage. He feels the flames licking at his insides simmer instead, saved from going full out battle mode. No difference to the goblins, they’re dead anyway, but a whole lot of difference to his comrades and to Jungkook himself. Battle mode is only useful in an actual war, otherwise it’s just a whole lot of trouble and reeling himself back to sanity. He knows his comrades are playing along with the banter mostly because they know this is how he calms down.
“Bring it home, JK!” cheers Hoseok from where he’s perched, and Jungkook feels his power burst from his chest - muscles tightening, eyes narrowing - as he does a massive leap across the floor to slash two screaming goblins dead.
He lands neatly and straightens as the blood of his last two kills pools at his feet.
“Show off,” Jimin grumbles.
Up above him, Hoseok smiles at Jungkook, and he feels his heart flip. Oh, did Jungkook do an impressive move in front of Hoseok? What a coincidence!
Seokjin strides over to where Yoongi and Namjoon are still investigating the circular shaped sigil. The room is silent now. The sigil is glowing and swirling soundlessly, but emitting that purple colour they saw from outside. Strangely, it’s puffing slightly, as if drawing breaths. Even Jungkook, with no magic studies or training, knows that there is something wrong with it.
“Has it been tampered with?” Taehyung calls, from where he’s busy looting the dead goblins. Jimin’s already searching the room for the crown. Hoseok climbs down from his spot and makes his way to Jungkook.
“Looks like it,” Seokjin confirms, tucking his axe to his back and hovering behind the two druids who are still murmuring between themselves.
“You did great,” Hoseok says softly to Jungkook, amidst the activity happening in the room. Jungkook is happy to tune out the ongoing chatter about the foreign magic in favour of talking to Hoseok.
“Thanks,” Jungkook bows his head modestly. “So did you.”
Hoseok grins, his teeth bright against the burnt red tint of his skin. His hair tumbles in messy black curls around his face, from which his horns grow majestically.
“I messed up, a little,” Jungkook admits guiltily. “With the goblins back there.”
Hoseok shakes his head. “We get it. You checked first before you went in, didn’t you? We trust you.”
“Seokjin doesn’t like it, though.”
“Of course not, he has to keep us in line… You know what paladins are like,” Hoseok laughs softly. “It’s not you.”
Jungkook giggles, warmth in his chest. Hoseok always knows the right words to say, it’s another thing Jungkook has always loved about him. Before he can respond he hears Seokjin calling them over.
“What is it?” Jungkook asks curiously, seeing Taehyung and Jimin also huddled next to them.
“The sigil has some sort of strange, pulsing power,” Namjoon explains with a frown, “Neither me nor Yoongi can calm it down. Taehyung can’t sense it. We’re wondering if Hoseok can do something.”
“My flute won’t work on a sigil,” Hoseok says thoughtfully, “But let me try to counter the spell.”
As Hoseok draws on his demonic power, everyone steps back but Jungkook looks on in awe. He has always found Hoseok’s race fascinating, his magic so different from the practised purity of Taehyung’s, the elemental energy of the druids, and very much opposite to Seokjin’s abilities blessed by oath.
Hoseok’s race is attuned to some energies other humanoids are oblivious to, and when he actively concentrates on them, he becomes more beautiful than ever. His eyes turn into obsidian beads, his hair swept back and his horns seem to grow longer, twisting like branches.
“There is something…” Hoseok cocks his head. “Not demonic, but…”
“Unnatural,” Yoongi suggests shrewdly, arms folded.
“Yes,” Hoseok murmurs. It makes sense then, Jungkook realises, because non-elemental magic is beyond the expertise of the druids. But it’s curious how Hoseok’s eyebrows are furrowed, as if it’s also beyond his comprehension.
“What has you confused?” asks Seokjin curiously.
“The sigil, it’s…” Hoseok, concentrating, closes his eyes, and so he doesn’t see.
The others, despite gathered in a circle, are a few paces away and fail to see it either. Jungkook, who is right next to Hoseok, notices, even more so with his keen eye and battle-worn senses.
He sees movement from behind Hoseok before anyone else does.
The fire in his veins, cooling to embers, heats up once more - and so, Jungkook, ever driven by the flame of impulse and the heat of the moment, does what he’s born to do. He leaps forward at once, and shoves Hoseok out of the way.
The hand that was reaching from the sigil grabs him instead.
There is a flurry of sudden activity as his friends start to shout, the breath is knocked out of his body, and his own centre of gravity goes askew, for he’s never been pulled into a sigil portal before.
The last thing he sees are Hoseok’s eyes - those beautiful, ethereal eyes - turn from black to their startling gold, wide and panicked - before everything he knows disappears.
Hoseok and Jungkook’s Apartment
Yeongdungpo-gu, Seoul
Midnight
The roaring in his ears and chaotic yells of his friends whittle down into a singular scream piercing the air.
Jungkook winces as the sound drills through his aching head, but his body and limbs feel too numb to move. Even his eyelids feel heavy. As he struggles to regain control of all his senses, he distantly starts to absorb that the ear-splitting scream has ceased and someone is talking loudly next to him.
“—you wearing, what the hell, is that a sword—”
“Stop…” Jungkook mumbles, trying his best to speak louder than the voice he distinctly recognises as Hoseok’s. He squints slightly and squeezes his eyes shut again when bright light hits him. “Please…”
“—get all this metal gear from, should I get help? Do you need medicine—”
“Healing,” pleads Jungkook, louder this time. “Water.”
“What the hell. I’ll be right back.”
Rapid footsteps, loud then fading. He hears noises coming from somewhere else.
Jungkook finally manages to open his smarting eyes. And immediately balks. Everything around him looks wrong - too clean, the furniture and their materials are all strange, they’re too sleek and more vividly colourful than usual. Is this Hoseok’s illusionary magic? Is he under a spell? Why the hell would Hoseok enchant him though?
How many days have passed since their raid of the goblin camp? Did they get the crown they’ve been tracking?
“Here you go, glad to see you haven’t moved—”
Jungkook is so shocked he throws out an arm and tries to aim his sword at Hoseok.
Because Hoseok doesn’t look like Hoseok.
This Hoseok is a fucking human, for one thing, just like Jungkook. Skin a tanned golden brown, gone are his horns, instead of his long curls his hair is short with a fringe obscuring his very much non-golden eyes. He’s wearing a strange combination of plain, boxy-cut cloth, something far thinner in material and looser on him than even Jungkook’s night clothes. Hoseok is barefoot and looking far too casual and relaxed for someone who is supposed to be in the middle of a mission.
The only features that make him Hoseok are the sharpness of his nose, sculpted cheekbones, the triangle shape of his lips indicating that he’s upset—
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, put that thing down!”
“Hoseok?” Jungkook tries.
“Geez, what happened to respect, have you really hit your head?” Hoseok says in disbelief. “I’ll let it pass since you seem to’ve had a bad fall. Are you cosplaying or something?”
Jungkook doesn’t know what to say. It’s apparent that this isn’t Hoseok, this isn’t his home, or the goblin camp he was in just moments ago. He doesn’t even know what Hoseok is talking about, how is Jungkook saying his name being disrespectful?
“Here,” Hoseok has already stepped closer without waiting for a response. He holds out his hand, palm up. “Eat this and get into bed.”
Jungkook looks at the item in Hoseok’s palm. It’s a small, innocent-looking white disc. Based on Jungkook’s experience, the most lethal of poisons are often harmless-looking and miniature in size. This doesn’t look like one of Taehyung’s healing patches or an item imbued with the druids’ Essence of Life.
He feels bad being suspicious, but honestly, this whole situation is pretty fucking suspicious.
“Why can’t Taehyung heal me instead?” he asks cautiously.
Hoseok’s jaw drops. “You want Tae to come all the way here and give you paracetamol? Wow, what a brat. Here, just eat this, you wanted medicine!”
Hoseok’s sulking now, brandishing the small disc between thumb and finger.
Because he’s in such a loss, Jungkook takes it. Hoseok immediately starts inspecting Jungkook’s armour and his sword. All the while, he keeps talking. And Jungkook gets more and more alarmed when he realises he doesn’t understand a word of Hoseok’s rambling. He also subtly flicks the little white disc to the ground.
“—work tomorrow, so you should really sleep unless you’re calling in sick—”
What work? He has work? Like, crafting some weapons in exchange for coin or something?
“—usually sleep shirtless so you must be fucking boiling right now in that outfit, the blood stains look so realistic by the way, too realistic—”
Sleep shirtless? In the open where he could get attacked anytime? Is Hoseok insane?
“—looking a little peaky, let me make you some ramyeon if some hot soup and spice make you feel better—”
And Jungkook, a fighter at heart who draws strength from good food, and who hasn’t had a hot, freshly cooked meal since he and his six friends started travelling on foot days ago, immediately perks up.
“What’s ramyeon?”
Hoseok stops his rambling in mid-sentence (something about Jungkook’s hair looking longer than he remembers or is that his imagination?) and stares at him.
Jungkook watches in awe as the blood visibly drains from Hoseok’s face.
“You’re not Jungkook,” Hoseok gapes.
“You’re not Jungkook,” Hoseok growls.
His teeth are bared, canines long and sharp, like a vampire’s, but not nearly as long as the horns on his head - that’s right, Hoseok has fucking horns.
Jungkook whimpers in fright.
“You’re scaring him,” Seokjin says sharply.
“We’re scaring him?” Jimin repeats in disbelief.
“He’s different,” Taehyung observes. His eyes are fucking cobalt blue, glowing like gems from beneath a tattered black hood obscuring the rest of his face and hair. No contact lenses can make pupils as bold and bright as this.
“Surprise,” Seokjin sighs. He suddenly looks nervously over his shoulder. “C’mon, we can’t stay here for long. There might be more goblins coming our way, or the sorcerer.”
Did Seokjin say goblins? Sorcerer?
“Let him come,” Hoseok grumbles venomously. “We should make him undo this.”
“Like he’d tell us, or be fool enough to be here,” Yoongi shakes his head. “Seokjin’s right, let’s go. Without Jungkook’s sword we’re at a disadvantage in a fight.”
Jimin huffs, “Don’t let him hear you say that, his head would swell bigger than a pine bulb.”
A what now?
Jungkook’s head is spinning. He doesn’t know where he is, what this dank-looking place is, all grey stone shrouded in darkness save for a faint purple glowing from somewhere above him where he’s laying on the ground. There’s a strange smell in the air, like decay and rusty iron, and Jungkook would vomit from its putridity if he has energy and food in his stomach. The worst part though is this: his hyungs are all dressed weird and their bodies and faces looking even weirder.
Hoseok has horns and red skin, Jungkook realised that first thing when he awoke. Taehyung is looking more other-worldly than usual, his skin is dark though - a dark shade that’s almost black yet glowing at the same time, and his eyes seem to shift colour every few seconds. Namjoon and Yoongi look a little green, or maybe a little grey, Jungkook can’t quite put his finger on it but they look like they’re a few shades away from fully camouflaging with the stone walls of this place.
Jimin and Seokjin look the most normal, if only judging from their faces and skin colour, and if Jungkook pretends hard enough that they had a fresh dye job - Seokjin’s silver and Jimin’s a deep blue - then yes, they’re normal.
And Jungkook hasn’t even fully digested their outfits and the fact that they’re all wielding some sort of weapon.
The group continues discussing/bickering in low voices - Jungkook catches something about good weapons and a crown and gold - and Jungkook tunes out in favour of questioning his own sanity. But all that gets shot to hell when Taehyung extends an arm, his eyes glow white, and Jungkook suddenly feels himself levitate.
He flounders for a bit in silent panic, his voice suddenly lost, but Yoongi frowns and waves a hand, some sort of reddish light flashes and then Jungkook feels his limbs get pinned down.
“Weird Jungkook is still strong Jungkook,” Yoongi grumbles, as they start moving towards an exit. Jungkook struggles a little futilely but loses energy after awhile, his fear also dissipating to be replaced by some sort of zen panic.
He must be dreaming, he tells himself, as he’s ‘carried’ by Taehyung. Hoseok’s horns and Namjoon’s mousy brown hair adorned with a leaf-and-flower circlet bob from the corners of his eyes as they walk on either side of him.
That must be it. That’s the only logical explanation.
“What do you mean, the only logical explanation?” Hoseok’s eyebrows furrow. “I can assure you this is real life.”
“But it doesn’t explain where I am… This place…” His voice trembles. He looks down at the table where Hoseok sat him down. A bowl of something red stares up at him. It smells tantalising. Is this ramyeon?
“Jungkook, I have to admit, you’re scaring me,” Hoseok says, a nervous tremor to his voice. “Look, I think you should stay in your room and I’ll call someone over.”
“Get Seokjin,” Jungkook says immediately. “And Taehyung. And Yoongi and Namjoon.” He pauses. Jimin doesn’t know magic, but he’s a great hugger. Jungkook kind of needs a hug. “And Jimin.”
“That’s the whole damn gang,” Hoseok reaches into his trousers and pulls out something small and rectangular before moving his thumbs all over it. Probably some sort of magical tablet? “And the lack of honourifics is probably scaring me more than the whole halloween outfit.”
“Halloween?”
Hoseok gives him a look, but looks back down at his tablet. “It’s past midnight, but I think everyone’s coming. I called SOS.”
Jungkook wants to ask what SOS is but he’s already asked too many questions. He looks down at the bowl again. Should he eat it?
Hoseok reaches past him and grabs an identical tablet, then places it down next to his bowl.
“Keep this with you, I’ll be outside. I’ve put it on loud mode.”
Jungkook has no idea what loud mode is, but Hoseok backs away from the room and shuts the door. Jungkook is left alone. He takes one more glance at the tempting ramyeon and decides that he’ll wait for his friends to arrive to validate whether it’s indeed edible - unless they’re as strange as Hoseok. Which is insane, because it means he’s suspecting that Hoseok is trying to poison him, and if everyone is strange, doesn’t it actually mean that he’s the strange one?
He gets up on wobbly legs and carefully creeps around the room. He’s usually on high alert in foreign situations, looking out for perilous items and danger, but this situation throws him off. Honestly, everything looks perilous and dangerous. He picks up his sword just in case.
He’s taken perhaps three steps from the table (and the delicious looking, potentially deadly food) when a loud buzzing sound starts grating at his ears, followed by some sort of singing that sounds suspiciously like his own voice. It’s coming from the tablet?!
Jungkook draws closer, heart hammering, hands sweaty around the hilt of his sword, and next thing he knows, Hoseok’s voice comes out from the glowing tablet—
Run, bulletproof, run, yeah you gotta run—
Jungkook’s instincts take over at the blatant threat (in Hoseok’s voice, no less!) and he swings his sword up and down onto the tablet—
It cleaves the tablet and the table into two, everything crashes to the floor—
“Jungkook?!” Hoseok screams from outside the room. He’s running back, and a second later he bursts into the room. He screams when he sees the destruction.
“It was mimicking you and threatening me!” Jungkook pants, chest heaving.
Hoseok stares at him blankly, also out of breath from both his sprint here and from screaming. He reaches out a trembling hand and braces himself against the doorframe, clutching the doorknob. He’s visibly trembling. Jungkook, never one for being frightened, is close to shaking himself.
What the hells is going on?
The thought bounces around in a never ending loop in his head, as Jungkook lets himself be carried for what seems like forever. They’ve left the building, crossed some sort of dirt track and entered a forest. It’s dark out, and there is a large moon in the twilight sky.
The sight kind of calms Jungkook down, because, ok, great, his friends don’t look human but at least there is still a moon and a sky. He’s still on earth. Right?
He doesn’t know how much time passes, perhaps twenty minutes at best. No one speaks, and Jungkook recognises the tension in the air as he sees each of them look around cautiously as they walk, and from the way even their footsteps are silent.
Once he saw Namjoon wave his hand and some sort of dark shimmer appeared above him, stretching over their heads like a large dome. But he must be imagining it. Namjoon is a man who has an obsession with trees, not some forest nymph who can create some sort of magical barrier from thin air, right? Although that’s what it looks like?
Eventually, they stop, and Jungkook hears Seokjin’s voice.
“We’ll set up camp here.”
Camp? Did they carry tents?
He’s placed gently on the ground, and it takes him a few seconds to gather his courage before he realises whatever that held him down is now gone. He sits up and nervously hugs himself, watches his friends move around quickly.
Seokjin has disappeared into the trees with Jimin and Namjoon, but Yoongi is standing near to him, mumbling under his breath and waving his hands around. Now and then there is a faint rustling or a faint shimmer in the air that coincide with either a whisper from Yoongi’s lips or a movement of his arms.
Taehyung is crouched nearby, busy creating what looks like a totem on the ground made of small rocks and twigs, and once one is done he mutters something and the thing glows for a bit before sitting innocently on the dirt. Maybe a trick of the light, though, that glow. Probably. It has to be.
And lastly, Hoseok - the same devilish Hoseok with sharp teeth who scares him, is this the same guy Jungkook’s had a crush on for two years? Hoseok is pulling stuff out from a tiny pouch hanging around his waist. But it’s a bottomless bag, because he pulls out item after item, not one of them looking like they fit into the small pouch. He tosses out what looks like bundled tents, spreads a few bedrolls and even foodstuff, and Jungkook has to close his eyes now because this makes zero sense to him.
“Hi.”
He opens his eyes with a start to see Taehyung sitting down in front of him. Even this close, Jungkook can’t totally see Taehyung’s features. The hood continues to shadow his face, only the glow of his eyes and faint line of nose visible above unsmiling lips. Taehyung reaches out, and Jungkook shrinks back.
Taehyung pauses, withdraws his hand. He has long nails in a dark colour, each of them perfectly shaped into a V. “I’m sorry. I won’t hurt you.”
“Are we… Friends?”
“Of course,” Taehyung nods with a little smile, and it could be a lie, but a warmth of relief floods through Jungkook’s gut nonetheless. “I’m Taehyung. You know that, right?”
“Yes.” Jungkook feels calmer now. Taehyung is comforting, despite the elusiveness of his facial features (it’s not like Jungkook doesn’t know what Taehyung looks like, anyway) when everything else is basically a scary dream.
“Are you Jungkook?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” Taehyung smiles more broadly, as if he’s relieved too. He’s still handsome, the lucky fucker, Jungkook thinks a little wildly. “Jungkook, can I hold your hand?”
“Why?” Jungkook looks nervously at Taehyung’s open palm between them. It’s strange to reconsider something as simple as hand-holding now when Jungkook’s always been open with skin-ship and affection.
“I want to understand what’s going on. It’s easier if I touch you.”
Jungkook is wary, but it sounds appealing. He wants to understand, too. “Will it hurt?”
Taehyung hesitates, but looks at him a little amusedly. “It has never hurt before, for you. I reckon it’ll be the same now.”
It’s clear from what Taehyung is saying that he has done this before. Is it a trick? Jungkook doesn’t know. What does he have to lose?
He places his hand in Taehyung’s.
Nothing happens - at least, not at first. They sit in silence and Taehyung simply stares at him. Jungkook’s awed by the way Taehyung’s previously bright blue eyes turn grey, almost white, like misty clouds. But after awhile Jungkook feels the beginnings of a migraine start up in his head. He must have been concussed—
“Alright, that’s enough now,” Taehyung says abruptly, and lets go of Jungkook’s hand.
Instantly, the migraine disappears.
“What was that?” Jungkook asks groggily.
“I’ll give you a relaxing potion later,” Taehyung says this with a little grim curve to his lips. Jungkook ignores this rather troubling statement for now.
“Do you understand now?” he asks nervously instead.
Taehyung stares at him for a bit, expression unreadable. “I’ll tell you, but we need to wait for the rest. This is something they must know too.”
Something about Taehyung’s carefully blank expression worries him.
“Is it bad?” he asks.
Taehyung doesn’t answer, instead heaves a sigh full of unsaid meaning and gets up, before walking away towards a fire merrily crackling in the middle of the clearing.
Jungkook continues sitting in silence as one by one, the rest of the party appears. Seokjin says something about there being no other camp nearby, and Yoongi tells them about protective spells (Jungkook’s probably misheard this). Namjoon, even more absurdly, says something about the forest creatures and plant life promising to warn them of oncoming enemies, and Jimin adds that there are no traps (Like, venus flytraps? Trap music? Who knows) in the area.
“Totems are all done too,” Taehyung pipes up. His eyes slide over to Jungkook. “Everyone, I spoke to Jungkook and I know what’s going on.”
Jungkook is sitting next to Taehyung. The rest, he notices, keep a wary distance from him, and honestly he doesn’t blame them. He feels so out of place, dressed in his modern hanbok, the yellow one no less. He sticks out like a sore thumb, even in simplicity. He’s also aware that his hair is the shortest amongst them all.
Hoseok looks good with long hair, he thinks, meeting the horned man’s (creature?) eyes briefly. Hoseok is staring intently at him too. There’s something in his gaze, fiery but also telltale discomfort pulling down his lips.
“This is indeed Jungkook,” Taehyung confirms, straight to the point. “But not our Jungkook. This one, believe it or not, comes from a different dimension.”
“Like a multiverse?” asks Jungkook in astonishment. How the hell did Taehyung get that from holding his hand? He voices it aloud.
“Oh, honey,” Jimin sighs.
“Was it easy?” Seokjin asks Taehyung in interest.
“Was what easy?” Jungkook blurts.
“Reading your mind,” Jimin chuckles.
“What?” Jungkook gasps.
“Jungkook’s mental defence has never been the best amongst us,” Taehyung says off-handedly, but hastily adds at Jungkook’s dropped jaw, “I mean in the sense that you’ve always been an open book. You’re very direct with your thoughts and there is an abundance of memories at the forefront of your mind.”
Okay, Jungkook is a little offended, he has to admit, at being figured out so well even by doppelgängers of his hyungs, that the revelation of Taehyung being skilled at mind reading goes over his head.
“Anyway, what’s a multiverse?” Namjoon asks.
“No idea what Jungkook means by that, but basically he’s from a different realm,” Taehyung explains.
A multiverse, then - Jungkook supposes they say stuff differently here… Wherever here is.
“Then where’s our Jungkook?” Seokjin asks.
“I suppose… Back in this Jungkook’s realm,” says Taehyung thoughtfully.
There is a bit of silence. And then Seokjin speaks, voice laced with disbelief and fear.
“Our Jungkook… Our Jungkook, is all alone in another realm?”
“Now that makes no sense,” Jungkook says with a huff as soon as Seokjin says it.
Taehyung, who pitched the idea in the first place, isn’t discouraged. “No, it makes the most sense, because look at you, and look at us. You said so yourself the Hoseok hyung you know is a demon-descendent, Jimin’s some sort of fairy—”
“Hoseok is a tiefling. And Jimin’s faefolk,” Jungkook corrects him.
“—and I’m a sort of evolved, night elf.”
“Drow,” Jungkook mutters, but he thinks no one is listening from the way they’ve all got varying expressions of shock on their faces.
“We watched all the Marvel movies together!” Taehyung practically shrieks, and Jungkook wrinkles his nose in distaste. The Taehyung back in his realm isn’t quite as excitable as this, he’s more poised and regal. “You know the multiverse theory!”
Yoongi rubs at his face and interrupts. “So let me get this straight. You somehow travelled through time and space and landed here? And switched bodies with our Jungkookie?”
Jungkook doesn’t want to believe it. He wants to believe that something more tangible happened, something that could be solved with his own two hands and his own blade. Realm travel? That’s out of his depth, that’s magic, that’s fucking dark magic he’s pretty sure is immoral and outlawed. Deep down, it does connect some dots - like why the druids and Taehyung couldn’t immediately sense the sigil’s energy, because the druids are attuned to natural magic and Taehyung is trained in spiritual practices which definitely does not approve of meddling in other realms. Hoseok, whose specialty is something else altogether, only sensed it thanks to his natural attunement but such dark magic would be beyond even him.
The sinking feeling in Jungkook’s gut tells him that he has no choice but to take this explanation.
The others are discussing this very intensely. Namjoon is talking rapidly and passionately about time-space theory and where’s the science in this and Taehyung is arguing about Jungkook being living proof, what more do you need, Yoongi is trying to diffuse the debate, and Jimin and Seokjin are throwing in additional opinions that add fuel to the flame, and Hoseok—
Hoseok is watching him.
And amidst the chaos and confusion, Jungkook wonders. Does this Jungkook love Hoseok too? Does he wish, and ache, and long for something more? His heart flips in his chest the longer he maintains eye contact. Does this realm’s Hoseok return Jungkook’s—
“I need to go back,” Jungkook says abruptly, when the memories of Hoseok get too much.
This isn’t his Hoseok. This isn’t his world. These aren’t his friends and his comrades.
“How?” Jimin frowns. “We don’t even know how you got here.”
“I— There was a purple hand,” Jungkook struggles to remember the details. The sorcerer, the sigil… He remembers, but in flashes as if the memories are difficult to grasp.
“A what?”
“I went into a portal by accident, it was a trap.”
“A trap?” Seokjin says, in confusion. “Like in those games? Were you in a game?”
“It wasn’t a game,” says Jungkook grimly. A thought suddenly occurs to him. “Was I sleeping - I mean was he sleeping when I got here?”
Five heads swivel to Hoseok and Jungkook does the same.
“What?” Hoseok answers a beat too late, as if breaking off from deep thought and just realising that he’s the only one who might know. “Oh— sort of, Jungkookie was in his room, he actually just got in like ten minutes after we watched a movie on Netflix, he might’ve been tinkering around on his guitar or something when— well, when you two switched. He’s a late sleeper. He can’t have been sleeping already.”
“Might he… By any chance, be holding some sort of weapon?” Jungkook grimaces.
“What?” Jimin gives a shout of nervous laughter. “What do you mean by weapon?”
“I mean…” Hoseok made Jungkook wipe off the blood from his armour before his friends arrived (he refused to remove it) and hid his sword beneath the cushions, so he can’t show them now. “Like a sword?”
Everyone stares at him blankly. Hoseok buries his face in his hands.
“A club? Mace?” Jungkook tries.
Silence.
“A dagger?” Dread is rising up from the pit of his stomach. His doppelgänger travelled to his home realm defenseless…
“Why did you need a weapon?” Namjoon asks quietly. They all seem to suddenly realise he’s dressed head to toe in protective metal.
Jungkook feels bad, he really does. This is him, essentially, he would also hate being thrown into combat unprepared!
“Well, we, uhh,” Why is it so hard to tell them? “We were in the middle of a mission. I’m a fallen knight there. We’d just finished combat when I entered the sigil. Our people are in the middle of a war.”
Jungkook cannot believe his ears.
“I’m guessing no such thing is happening in your realm,” Yoongi says drily.
“What? No,” Jungkook shakes his head. “I work at a nine-to-five there, I live with Hoseokie-hyung, he’s a—”
Seokjin blurts, “He works at a nine what?” the same time horned Hoseok speaks for the first time in a long while, “You… Live with me?”
Jungkook nods, “Yes, you’re a dancer, we became roommates when I graduated, and Yoongi-hyung and Namjoonie-hyung live together, they’re music producers at the same company you work at.”
“Did you understand what he just said?” he hears Taehyung ask Jimin.
“I dance?” Hoseok says quietly.
“We know music?” Yoongi and Namjoon exchange looks.
“What about me?” Taehyung asks interestedly.
“And me!” Jimin chirps.
“And me,” Seokjin chimes in, but a little reluctantly.
“Seokjin-hyung owns a restaurant, Jiminie-hyung and Taehyungie-hyung both work at a modelling agency.”
“A what?” Seokjin says again, still confused.
“I work with you, Jimin!” Taehyung grins, pleased.
“It could be something totally dull for all we know,” Jimin comments shrewdly.
“Wait, what’s work?” Namjoon questions.
“What’s a resta…?”
“What did you call us?” Yoongi’s calm and low voice stands out amidst the babble of voices.
“Me?” Jungkook cocks his head.
“You added something behind our names,” Yoongi nods.
“Oh,” Jungkook realises. “Hyung.”
Everyone stops, looking confused.
“You… Don’t use that term here?” asks Jungkook cautiously.
“No,” Seokjin answers blankly. “What’s a hyung?”
Everyone stares in disbelief at Jungkook’s question.
“So you call us by our names?” Seokjin says indignantly.
“Yes?” He doesn’t get the fuss. He remembers, though, Hoseok saying how disrespectful he is. It must be the local practise, he realises with horror, and he probably trampled all over it. Jungkook’s knight training is enough to warn him that this could turn ugly very quickly.
So he leaps up (ignoring the squawks of surprise, while Jimin falls off the chair) and quickly bows, in one general direction. He chooses the royal bow, bent ninety-degrees and his hand spread wide by his sides away from his body. It’s a way to show vulnerability and relinquish power, though admittedly Jungkook doesn’t feel vulnerable at all being the only armed one in the room.
He hears silence. He waits a bit, then straightens to find them all staring at him.
“Did he just bow?” He hears Jimin whisper to no one in particular.
“I like him,” Seokjin declares loudly, “Let’s keep him!”
Namjoon suddenly slaps himself. No one looks surprised, but Jungkook gasps.
“You do that too!”
Namjoon turns to him quickly. “What do you mean?”
“Namjoon - back at home - he slaps himself too.”
That seems to be the much needed tension breaker. Everyone bursts out laughing.
Emboldened, Jungkook goes on, “You’re all different from my friends back in my realm, of course, not just in looks but the sides you show… But still there’s something very much the same. Your mannerisms, the way you talk, the expressions you pull… It’s like looking at the other side of the same coin.”
The group exchanges glances.
“If I may… It’s the same here,” Hoseok begins. His gaze shakes a little but he doesn’t break eye contact, just like before. “It’s why I didn’t realise you’re not the same person, at first. But I see now, the differences. You’re more… Mature. Tougher. Hardened by something. Which makes sense, you’re a knight, holy fuck, Jeon Jungkookie’s a marketing executive—”
Jungkook doesn’t know what that is, but it sounds similar to executor so that must be it.
“—He’s tough, but not- not like this, he doesn’t have a fucking sword—”
The room erupts into noise.
“He has a what?!” Seokjin screeches.
“Let me see!” Jimin throws himself across Hoseok’s lap.
“Where is it, where is it?” Namjoon is asking, vibrating with excitement.
Jungkook triumphantly brandishes his sword he smoothly removes from beneath the cushions as Hoseok facepalms. Free at last!
“Holy shit,” Yoongi chokes on nothing.
“HOLY SHIT!” Taehyung yells.
“Holy shit,” Jungkook wheezes the last of his laughter.
“Is he alright?” he hears Yoongi ask Namjoon.
“I don’t understand either,” Namjoon admits.
“Is he saying defecation is holy?” Taehyung mumbles.
“So you’re telling me,” Jungkook finally splutters, “I am a knight?”
“Was,” Seokjin corrects him. “It’s a long tale, but the previous knighthood fell and each of them dispersed into the shadows. You joined me as a wayfarer. We met Yoongi and Namjoon, and then Hoseok not long after, and then Taehyung and Jimin.”
“Whoa,” Jungkook says, impressed.
“What caught your attention?”
“I served the king,” Jungkook gapes. He’s something here.
“Former king,” Seokjin corrects him. “It’s a queen now, and that’s why we’re here, actually. Her crown was taken. Stolen. It’s a powerful artefact that protects its wearer, and specially gifted from mages and sorcerers past, handed down from ruler to ruler. It’s a symbol of royalty in addition to its power. The queen called on help to track it and bring it back to her, for unimaginable reward.”
“I was a knight.”
“You’re our main fighter now,” Seokjin says with a smile.
“Do I know magic?” Jungkook asks.
Everyone laughs.
“What’s so—”
“Jungkook isn’t very patient with magic,” Namjoon explains with a deep dimple. “He’s more… Hands-on.”
“But Jungkook does have a dragon,” Taehyung offers.
Jungkook’s eyes bug out.
“Well, had,” Taehyung corrects himself. “Each knight was gifted a red mountain dragon, but when the royal knighthood fell, all the dragons fled. Never to be seen again.”
“So I have a lost dragon,” recounts Jungkook, pushing a hand through his hair, feeling insane, “And I was a knight.”
“He seems to really love that,” Jimin mutters to Taehyung.
“Cool,” Jungkook can’t help but to grin.
Looking around the people huddled around the campfire, he feels a surge of adrenaline and a weird sense of pride for the other him. To be surrounded by a gang of cool fighters who hunt down magical artefacts for the queen, to be someone brave and fearless—!
He meets Hoseok’s dark eyes and blushes. He must be behaving so child-like, so naive in the company of people who have shed blood and fought for their people and their ruler.
Yoongi yawns suddenly. “I think we should turn in.”
Oh - Jungkook suddenly realises how exhausted he is. It’s terrifying, when he thinks longer than three seconds about how he’s all alone in this different realm, and what if he gets stuck—
“We wake up in a few hours, before the low sol. We’ll eat, and immediately make for the nearest city,” Seokjin says. It shatters Jungkook’s train of thought, as it strikes him how confident this Seokjin is, so sure and so knowing, while the one back home is more laid-back and happy to let others take the reins. “Rest up. We need to make new plans. Jungkook - you’re with me.”
The group murmurs words of agreement, and slowly disperses. Jungkook notices Hoseok disappear into the tent next to Seokjin’s - it’s a dark red and black, slightly tattered.
Jungkook makes his way uncertainly to Seokjin, conscious of his own light clothes and lack of defences whilst Seokjin’s all padded up in thick metal and a gigantic axe. Jungkook gapes at it. Seokjin shoulders it pretty smugly, because of course the Seokjin in this universe also knows how attractive his broadness is.
“You can take my bedroll,” Seokjin tells him, before ducking into the tent. Taehyung appears as well, pushing a small bottle of a cool blue into his hands and telling him sternly to drink it all up.
Seokjin bustles about washing up, silent, and Jungkook tries to keep an eye on what he’s doing, but he’s so tired his eyelids flutter. Feeling reckless and hopeless, he knocks back all the liquid in the bottle Taehyung gave him and feels its effects immediately - something cool going down his throat but leaving a warmth in his gut. The soft pounding in his head fades. He suddenly thinks of the moon, and the large one he saw while he was carried out of the building. It calms him, the thought of a moon so similar to the one back home.
He determinedly keeps his eyes closed even as Seokjin huddles on the ground next to him, legs stretched out and whittling at a wooden stick.
He tries hard not to cry.
Back in Seoul, Jungkook dreams of a red-skinned tiefling with beautiful twisted horns and a heart-shaped smile, whose lean body moves as effortlessly as a dancing flame on a candle. He’s laying on this realm’s Jungkook’s bed, it’s so soft, but Jungkook feels so uncomfortable.
He hugs his sword tighter to his chest - the one thing he has with him that’s closest to home - and doesn’t make a move to wipe the tears that run down his face.