Chapter Text
It was a night like any other, with Jaha coming back from defeating yet another clan leader. He returned at the dead of night as usual, his robes covered in blood, none of which was his; the way the blood made his robes stick to his skin was highly unpleasant. All he wanted to do was take a bath and get some well-deserved rest, but the moment he walked in, he was bumped into by none other than his personal leech, Seongtae.
“Sorry, Master, I didn’t mean to—No! You got blood on my new robes… this was one of my favorites… and it's not like the last time I gave you my robe because I thought you'd actually die!” Seongtae started his usual blabbering that Jaha was too tired to indulge at the moment.
“Seongtae, I'm exhausted.” Jaha said, his tone softer than usual, which gave Seongtae literal goosebumps.
“Ew, why are you talking like that?” Seongtae asked, backing up a little bit. Perhaps this was some kind of imposter posing as their master.
“I'm talking normally; I already said I was tired.” Jaha answered, his eyes tinted with a purple hue from the lack of sleep he was getting. And Seongtae policing him about whatever the hell he was talking about wasn't helping.
“Yeah... you do look pretty terrible right now.” Seongtae snickered to himself but stopped after receiving a smack on the head from Jaha. “Ow!” The impact didn't even hurt, surprisingly, but he shouldn't be that surprised. With the exception of their first meeting, Jaha never seriously tried to hurt him.
“Why haven't I kicked you out yet? All you do is get under my skin.” Jaha sighed to himself. Though the anger didn't even register, probably because of how tired he was.
“Because I'm your favorite, of course.” Seongtae said, a smug smile spreading across his face. Of course he was just joking, but teasing Jaha with little to no repercussions was too good to pass up.
After a long pause, Jaha finally responded. “Yeah, you are.” Jaha confirmed, starting to get too tired to think before he spoke. He already knew that he was more honest and blunt when he was tired, which is why he was hoping he wouldn't bump into anyone, but alas…
“Wait, I actually am?” Seongtae asked, genuinely surprised; he expected to be Jaha's least favorite with how he acted around him.
“I wouldn't let anyone I didn't like treat me the way you do. They would be dead already; I thought that much was obvious.” Jaha answered, yawning in between. Although he was extremely tired, for some reason his body wouldn't leave first.
After hearing that confession, Seongtae laughed like he had just won a heated argument, walking off with a lot bigger of an ego than he had before their conversation.
‘Did I boost his ego too much…? Actually I'm too tired to care…’ Jaha thought to himself, watching in a daze as Seongtae walked off.
Jaha took himself to his bedroom, then to his bathroom, stripping off his robes and sliding into the bathtub, letting out a content sigh. After his bath he changed into some fresh robes before sitting on the edge of his bed and thinking about his conversation with Seongtae.
‘Maybe I shouldn't have told him that… I can already see how bad tomorrow is going to go, and I'm dreading it.’ Jaha thought with a long, heavy sigh before lying down on his bed. He decided that it was too much of a hassle to worry about something that involved Seongtae.
Jaha's eyes, finally at their limit, shut as he drifted off to sleep, his muscles being able to relax after having to keep his guard up for days. He fell into a deep sleep, only waking up to Hongshin telling him that breakfast was ready.
“Already…?” Jaha mumbled groggily from just waking up.
Jaha sat up, rubbing his eyes, before getting out of bed and walking past Hongshin to the dining hall. The moment he got there, he was met with Seongtae sitting in the seat right next to his. There wasn't even supposed to be a chair next to his in the first place?!