“What the hell is this? Do they want to start a war?” Yugyeom’s voice whispers through the night.

Jungkook grips his bow tighter as his brows knit in fury, echoing the anger on his best friend’s face.

“It’s dragons, Yug. We’ve got to help them,” Jungkook whispers back.

He’s almost helpless with rage and a need to do something as he surveys the clearing below them. There are dragons down there: five of them. All young, or at least small, with the smallest perhaps just over 10 meters tall and 30 meters long. All in chains. Two of the dragons are brown, one white, one lime green, and the last and smallest a silvery blue. There are chains binding their wings to their sides, and even more chains tethering them to what is essentially an enormous rotating wheel, the energy from which seems be the main power source of the factory behind it as the dragons use their strength to turn the wheel in never-ending circles. There are several humans with whips among the dragons, lashing out at even a perceived slackening of pace. The whips have serrated blades on the ends that leave ugly gashes in the dragons’ beautiful hides.

Jungkook has never seen a downtrodden dragon before, not that he’s seen many dragons to begin with, but he knows now with concrete certainty that it’s not something he ever wants to see again. It’s just… wrong.

Jungkook makes to move closer but Yugyeom grabs his arms and yanks him back down into the bushes they are using for cover.

“I know you love them, Kook,” Yugyeom whispers. “But let’s be smart about this, okay? Hang back for a minute and wait for Jinyoung’s signal.”

Jungkook sees then that the slave drivers whipping the dragon’s were also armed to the teeth: with bows, spears, and swords as common as the whips among them. By Jungkook’s estimate Jinyoung’s squadron of thirty senior cadet Knight Scholars in Training were outnumbered by at least two to one. They would have to be coordinated if they were going to rescue any dragons.

Jungkook settles back down wait a bit grudgingly. “Jinyoung needs to hurry,” he mumbles, his eyes still trained on the scene below him.

They received the mission earlier that same day, having learned of this little operation earlier in the week, of a factory in the middle of the Great Forest churning out weapons, and using slaves to do it. They hadn’t known it was dragons until they got here. And now Jungkook was doubly glad it was Jinyoung’s squadron that had been chosen for the task, never mind that his squadron of cadets were the best of the class in any case.

The clearing below is an eyesore in stark contrast to the nature around it, little more than churned dirt and cloying smoke bathed in the orange glow from the furnace fire, with little hutches where the slave drivers likely slept, and of course the iron encapsulated factory itself steadily churning out what looked like a bunch of steel blades.

Jungkook’s gaze hones in on a sudden bit of commotion. A slave driver snaps his whip at the little silver blue dragon who shockingly whips around and snaps at the man who hit him. His teeth close just inches from the man’s neck; only quick reflexes and probably adrenaline had saved him.

Jungkook mentally cheers the dragon on. But the cheers quickly die down as about five more men with whips hurry over and start flaying the dragon, its roars of agony echoing throughout the clearing and into quiet night hanging over the forest beyond. Jungkook is standing again before he knows what he’s doing. Plan be damned; they are going to kill that dragon!

Probably luckily for Jungkook, this seems to be exactly the sort of distraction Jinyoung had been waiting for as well, and the signal, a whistle imitating the sound of a screech owl, echoes through the air. Jungkook immediately raises his bow and lets an arrow fly, grinning victoriously when it catches one of the slave driver’s beating the dragon right in the throat. From other directions more arrows rain down, some hitting their mark, others missing. The slave drivers quickly regroup and retreat behind the dragons, making themselves more difficult targets. Jungkook swings his bow back on his back and starts making his way down the steep slope into the clearing. Others are following him, he knows; he can hear their feet sliding against the rocks.

Jungkook whips out his knives as soon as his feet touch the bottom, running directly towards the dragons before thinking better of it and veering off to the side, towards the slave driver’s hutches. One of them is bigger than the others; that must be wear the master is, and hopefully the keys to the dragons.

The sounds of the fight raging outside lessen somewhat as Jungkook enters the hutch, prepared for a fight, but no one is there. It doesn’t take him long to spot the keys, thankfully, since they are hung on a hook right by the entrance. Jungkook snatches them up and beats it back towards the center of the fight. Jungkook kills two more slave drivers before coming to the first dragon, the white one. It takes him longer than it should to find the right key, but soon enough he unshackles it and it leaps into the sky with a roar. Jungkook can’t begrudge it that it doesn’t stay and fight; it’s undoubtedly not accustomed to kindness from humans.

In quick succession Jungkook frees the two brown dragons and the green one, killing another slave driver along the way, before arriving at the side of silver-blue dragon, the last one in need of freeing. The dragon is already looking at him as he approaches, probably having noticed him freeing the others. As their eyes meet, time seems to stand still to Jungkook for a moment, but the sounds of battle quickly bring him back to the present.

He hurries to the dragon and starts digging through the remaining keys to locate the one for its shackle. He unlocks the shackle with a sigh of relief but is a bit startled as the dragon does not immediately launch off into the air like the others. It regards Jungkook closely and he tries not to cower under the intimidating sky-blue eyes. The dragon blinks. It’s an acknowledgement, and Jungkook feels something in his chest warm at the sight, a smile dancing across his lips despite himself.

But the warmth vanishes as quickly as it comes, doused in icy fear, as Jungkook finally notices the slave driver with a crossbow behind the dragon, aiming what looks like a poisoned arrow directly at the dragon’s heart.

Jungkook doesn’t think. He darts past the dragon just as the crossbow releases. The arrow catches him in the chest, stopping all of Jungkook’s forward momentum in its tracks.

He draws in a rattling breath. Coughs once and tastes blood. Distantly, he hears a dragon roaring, a frantic voice calling his name. He thinks that’s his name. Suddenly, he isn’t too sure. His vision is blurring in and out.

Jungkook falls.

Two Years Later

Jungkook puts the last jeweled stud in his ear, a black one symbolizing his seventh and final year as a cadet of the Knight Scholar Academy. There are six other stones tracing the lobe of each ear: topaz, sunstone, jade, and emerald in his left ear for his first four years at the academy, and sapphire, ruby, and onyx in his right for his last three. There is one hole still left empty, at the front most portion of his right ear lobe. He’d gotten the piercing earlier in the week in preparation for this morning's ceremony.

He rubs a little bit at the scar on his chest where that poisoned arrow had skewered him a little over two years ago now as he studies his refection in the mirror. He’s reminded of his younger self briefly, round-cheeked and eager, as he entered the academy for the first time as a student and not as a public ward of the academy.

He’s been incredibly lucky, he knows. Well, not just lucky; he’s also worked his *** off and has the grades and medals to prove it. But still, a public ward of the academy, an orphan in all but name, rescued from slavers at three years old, growing up and becoming a student at the academy? The top student, at that? It had never been done before.

Some portion of it was hard work and dedication, but the largest part was in fact thanks to his mentor and primary benefactor, Professor Moon Namgil.

A much younger Jungkook, then 14, had been encouraged by the Matron of Wards to find himself a job if he wanted a little pocket money for himself to buy the comic series he had seen behind multiple shop windows in Academy Villa. He’d applied at all kinds of places with his non-existent list of experiences and skills with no luck, until at last Professor Moon had overheard him asking for a job book-shelving at the Academy library. He’d been taken in by Jungkook’s eagerness, or as the Professor describes it “bullheadedness,” and hired Jungkook on on a probationary basis. He could do that, seeing as he’s the head librarian at the academy.

The things Jungkook wanted to do, and enjoyed doing, he usually excels in. He’d dedicated himself to becoming the best book shelver ever and then the best library assistant, and then the best head librarian assistant, and before he knew it, he and Professor Moon had become quite close. He's the only father figure Jungkook has.

Even so, it still came as quite the shock to him, when the Professor had nominated him for scholarship at the Academy. He’d never mentioned anything about it to Jungkook, though he had likely seen him gazing wistfully at the student and cadets bent over lecture notes at the library tables or marching past the library windows off on some grand mission more than one.

“You can go see your dragons, this way boy,” Professor Moon had told him, eyes twinkling at the teary eyed and grateful Jungkook in front of him. Even then, Jungkook’s fascination with dragons had been no secret. The Professor was well-respected and well-liked, so his endorsement ensured Jungkook’s free ride at the academy.

Not wanting to disappoint his mentor, and with sudden new and potentially now possible ambitions for himself, Jungkook put twice the amount of effort he had being the best library assistant into the being the best cadet and rose to top student status by the end of his first year. A status he had maintained throughout the remainder of his time at the Academy. It hadn’t made him a lot of friends, jealousy was definitely a disease, but he had Jinyoung’s crew and Yugyeom and Professor Moon and for Jungkook that was more than enough.

The face looking back at him now is not the same as that fresh-faced 18-year-old. There is no more roundness to his face, now only lines that years of combat and study had honed to razor sharpness. There are a few new scars as well: a nick through one eyebrow, a thin line on his neck. And of course, the arrow scar, the most dramatic of his collection by far, still marred and puckered and reddish as he runs his fingers over it, even after two years.

It had almost killed him, that arrow. The months of recovery had certainly put him behind, as it is. Here he was attending the spring Treatise Ceremony instead of the fall one like he was originally meant to. Yugyeom had left on his Treatise Voyage months ago and Jungkook missed him fiercely.

Jungkook pulls the white tunic of his uniform over his head and then pulls on his black uniform regulation pants, thin brown belt and freshly polished black boots before affixing two pins to his chest: one designating him as a senior cadet, a bit redundant considering the piercings in Jungkook’s opinion, and the other as the top student of the year. His hair is not cooperating today, and with a sigh he flattens the black wavy mess as best he can, sweeping it back off his forehead in a hopefully somewhat formal look.

He studies himself once more. It’s as good as its going to get. The sound of a bell reverberates throughout the Academy, chiming seven times. Jungkook curses. The ceremony starts at eight; he’s cutting it close. After one final check in the mirror, Jungkook strides out the door of his dorm.

The wood paneled halls are relatively empty, everyone undoubtedly already waiting for the ceremony to begin, so Jungkook can break into a slight jog without being judged or scolded. He breaks out of the dorms into the central courtyard in record time and doesn’t stop to appreciate the massive willows swaying in the light spring breeze, the enormous central domed fountain twinkling merrily, or the manicured flower beds of blue and gold flowers, the colors of the Academy, like he would normally as he hurries across it.

Though the courtyard doesn’t do it, the view from The Airway, the massive granite and marble bridge connecting the eastern and western portions of the Academy as it overlooks the sprawling Academy Villa below, does manage to make Jungkook pause, just for a second. It always does.

The Knight Scholar Academy is situated near the top of a lone mountain, and the warehouses, shops, and residential buildings of the Academy Villa twist along and up the side of the mountain right up until they hit the stone outer walls of the Academy itself. Beyond the buildings is nothing but vast forest, the Great Forest, as far as the eye can see, and from as high up as The Airway is, that is very far.

The Knight Scholar Academy and the Academy Villa is essentially an independent city-state, governed by the heads of the Academy and protected and regulated by the Knight Scholars themselves. It is a city dedicated to learning above all else, and scholars and mages from all the surroundings countries frequently flock to it. Kings and queens would send their offspring to learn and train amongst the Academy’s willows and wildflowers as well, as the place had also developed a reputation for seeking the truth in knowledge, and standing for justice and peace, and against oppression and unequal exchange of knowledge.

To Jungkook it was simply: home. The only place he had ever known. Or could really remember knowing. The place where his friends and (dare he say family?) were. So Jungkook can never resist stopping and appreciating this view of home, but he quickly shakes himself out of it and continues on his way across The Airway, sliding into the back doors at The Great Amphitheater and joining the throng of other cadets also preparing to receive their final stone: the stone that would designate them as full member of the Academy and as true Knight Scholars in both name and form as they recited their vows and announced their intentions for their Treatise Voyage.

Jungkook thinks back to informing Professor Moon, who is not only his mentor but also his advisor at the academy, about his own chosen Treatise topic as he listens to the others around him excitedly discussing theirs.

He’d announced it to Professor Moon in the privacy of his office earlier in the week, and he’d held his breath waiting for the Professor’s reaction. Professor Moon had studied him for a minute behind horn-rimmed glasses, face inscrutable. “I see,” he’d said finally. “And I don’t suppose there is any talking you out of it? I know you are aware that human-dragon relations are at an all-time low right now. That we are teetering on the brink of war?”

Jungkook shakes his head stubbornly. “That’s all the more reason for me to write this,” Jungkook had argued. “I can bring in a fresh prospective, make people look at this whole conflict from a different point of view.”

“This fresh perspective will hardly help the feelings of those who have had homes, property and lives destroyed by dragons,” Professor Moon had said drily. When Jungkook opened his mouth to protest he added, “Not that the dragons’ actions in most of those cases were totally unprovoked! No, usually quite the opposite, in fact. Still, you can’t expect one treatise to change the course of conflict. It’s too unrealistic.”

Jungkook presses his lips together stubbornly and Professor Moon sighs and softens. “It will be dangerous. This is the most dangerous treatise proposal anyone has ever brought to me. How can I sign off on something that might cost you your life?”

“It’s my dream,” Jungkook says obstinately. “I’d do it anyway. Even if you made me pick a different topic. I’d just do it on the side.”

“Is it so wrong to want you to be safe?” Professor Moon had asked. “I’ve already nearly lost you once.” Jungkook had been startled by the sparkle of tears in his eyes and hurriedly backtracked.

“I’ll be as safe as possible, I promise,” he had said softly. “I’ll make it back; I’ll make you proud.”

Professor Moon had sniffed and Jungkook’s heart had cracked, just a little. “You silly boy. I already am.” Without further argument he’d leaned down and signed off on Jungkook’s treatise topic. With a whoop of joy, Jungkook had flung himself in the old man’s arms, nearly knocking them both over.

Professor Moon had chuckled a little wetly before reaching up to smooth out his hair. “Be careful out there, Jungkook,” he’d said softly. “The Great Forest can be dangerous enough on its own. And dragons…” he’d trailed off before restarting. “Anyway, I expect you back here, successful, by this time next year, or I might have to redistribute your unofficial title as the best knight this academy has ever produced.”

Jungkook had pulled back indignantly. “You wouldn’t!”

Jungkook smiles to himself at the memory as the harassed professor helping organize the ceremony herds them all into a single file line behind the amphitheater stage. There are 90 of them in total, most having left in the Fall.

It seems like both a long and short time before Jungkook’s name is finally called and, as he steps out on the stage in front of the sea of scholars and knights and Knight Scholars witnessing the ceremony, he can’t even feel any nerves; he’s far too excited. He repeats his vow of loyalty to academy and to knowledge, truth, and peace back to the Academy head, an elderly lady with a spine of steel that Jungkook has had maybe two conversations with, trying not to bounce on his heels to relieve some of the tension in his body.

Then it’s time for Jungkook to approach his own adviser, his beloved Professor Moon, and he bends slightly to allow him to affix the eighth and final stone to Jungkook’s ear: the diamond, the symbol of a fully fledged Knight Scholar. He can’t help grinning back at Professor Moon’s proud smile. With that task complete, he takes a deep breath as he approaches the podium.

“Greetings, honored scholars, knights, and guests,” he begins. “I am Jeon Jungkook, former senior cadet of the Academy and now a newly fledged member among your ranks.” He pauses. He can’t believe he can say that. “My first task and vow as a Knight Scholar and full member of the Academy, is to leave within the hour to embark on my first Treatise Voyage. I hereby vow to present to the Academy a Treatise entitled: The Legendary Council of Dragons: An Eyewitness Account. I vow that I will not return until my voyage and treatise is complete and I stand before you as a Knight Scholar who has contributed in full to the furthering of knowledge and truth in this great Academy. Thank you.”

With a bow, Jungkook steps back from the podium. Whispers have broken out through the crowd of seated academics, but Jungkook pays them no mind. He’s going to find dragons.

Jungkook is crying. He doesn’t know what’s happening, or where to run. If he should run. He can barely walk; he’s still a toddler.  But there is fire and heat surrounding him, and terror filling his heart and mind. Hands reach for him and drag him out from under the bed where he is hiding. 

“Eomma!” He cries. It’s one of the few words he knows. “Want Eomma!” He struggles in the strange man’s grasp and gets a cuff to his head for his efforts. Now his ears are ringing, and his sobs are harsher than ever. Jungkook bites the man’s hand and is dropped with a curse.

Jungkook runs.

His house is near the edge of the forest and Jungkook heads for the trees as soon as he scrambles through the burning but open back door, vanishing among the leaves. There are no sounds of pursuit.  

He comes back, later. To look for his eomma. There is no one left in his village, the houses burned to barren husks. Ash, broken glass, and splintered wood crunch under his bare feet. Tears stream down his face. He doesn’t know which house is his. He doesn’t recognize anything. He sits in the middle of the destroyed village square and cries.

He doesn’t know how long he’s there, but eventually, and suddenly, there is a thunderous thud behind him. Wind sweeps Jungkook’s hair in all directions. Jungkook swings around, ready for fight or flight from an unknown enemy. 

His gaze meets an enormous slitted golden eye.

Jungkook wakes from the dream, heart racing, but not totally in a bad way. It’s a dream he’s had many times before, and in a way it’s almost comforting, now, where once it had been alarming. His back aches from sleeping on the cool forest ground for… he’s lost count of how many nights in a row. Probably close to a month of them, by now.

He stretches to gently work out his aching muscles as he surveys his surroundings for any danger. You can’t be too careful here in the heart of the Great Forest. He’s surrounded by ancient and massive gnarled oaks, covered in moss and vines. The forest floor is laden with a layer of natural dead leaf compost so thick you’d think it would at least be comfortable to sleep on, but you’d be wrong. Ferns and shrubs reach leaves outs broadly across the ground, greedy to catch any drop of sunlight that makes it through the thick leafy canopy overhead.

There are morning birds calling out to each other among the branches, and insects and rodents busily scuttling about through the foliage. Jungkook frowns with disappointment. If a dragon were nearby, all these sounds would be gone, the silence a warning of its own, a whisper that something legendary walked the forest. Jungkook had yet to come across this sort of a silence yet, nor any other hint of a dragon. It had been almost a month already, and he was starting to get frustrated.

Jungkook had been handling life in the forest just fine so far, otherwise, had even come to enjoy the solitude, in a way. He was naturally skilled with a bow, and an excellent student to boot, well aware of which herbs and berries were safe and which were not, so food was not overly hard to come by. He’d had rabbit and berries for supper last night, and still had some left for breakfast this morning, so he munches on the berries as he sits and thinks about what his plan would be for today.

First, he needs to get his bearings. Once he’s finished with breakfast, Jungkook heads towards the nearest and tallest tree, testing the vines running along its trunk for adequate strength before starting to heft himself up into its branches. Once near the top, only slightly out of breath, Jungkook has a good view of the expanse of forest nearby. His eyes immediately find a lake a few kilometers to the east and he barely contains his whoop of excitement. It’s not smart to draw too much attention in the forest. He carefully notes the position of the lake in relation to the sun before climbing back down.

That lake is where he’ll stop, Jungkook determines as he wiggle down the tree. He’ll set up camp there and wait for a dragon to come to him. No dragon can resist a lake. They love playing in the water. With that thought in mind, Jungkook feels significantly livelier than he has felt lately as he strikes off in the direction of the lake.

The lake is even more perfect a location up close than it had seemed from a distance: a pristine blue almost perfectly round lake that's both wide and deep, with a few kilometers of long sandy beach running right up to the tree line on one side, and a tiny island in the middle. It is, hopefully, a dragon’s paradise, and Jungkook settles down and sets up a much more permanent style of camp, ready to wait by the lake as long as necessary.

A two-week wait is necessary, as it happens. Jungkook is pulled from a nap by the sudden deafening silence of the trees and bushes around him. Heart pounding, Jungkook scurries to the edge of the forest and peers out from between the bushes at the expanse of beach. His breath catches.

A dragon is standing on the lakeside, head dipped to sip at the water.

It’s beautiful, Jungkook can’t help but think. Its scales are a deep purple that refract sunlight onto the lake water, its underbelly and slightly spread wings a pale lavender, and its eyes a lovely shade of amethyst. Its teeth are sparkling white and razor sharp as the dragon stretches its neck to the sky after finishing drinking only to yawn a yawn so big the ground under Jungkook almost seems to shudder a bit.

The dragon turns away from the water, towards the trees, and Jungkook shrinks back instinctively, withdrawing further into the bushes with his heart still pounding. When he dares peak out again, the dragon is curled beside the lake, fast asleep. Jungkook's heart won't slow. He's found one.

The dragon has stays by the lake for three days, sometimes splashing in the water, sometimes basking along the bank, before Jungkook finally decides on a plan to gain its trust. Not that he’d been totally unproductive the last three days. No, he’s taken numerous notes on the dragon’s behavior and habits, plus drawn several detailed and anatomical drawings of it, that will be a welcome addition to his treatise. He documents his observations as he sees them:

Today the dragon played in the water for over eight hours. It never seemed to get bored. Though I suppose for a creature so long-lived, eight hours is merely a blink…

The dragon found a piece of stained glass from somewhere and has kept it in its clutches or very close nearby ever since. Hoarding tendencies are not exaggerated, it seems. The question remains though, does the hoarded object need to be shiny, or colorful, to attract draconic attention? Or would anything it finds interesting do the trick? Further observation may tell.

The dragon was startled by a flying fish today. I can now attest that the rumors that dragons’ scales do in fact lift rather like a cat’s fur when alarmed are undoubtedly true.

The dragon is endlessly fascinating to Jungkook, and he fills his first notebook in the span of his three days observing the dragon. He’s starting to worry that the six extra that he brought might not be enough. Observing the dragon’s reaction to its treasured stained glass is what gives Jungkook his idea. Or rather, he realizes the idea he was meant to have all along. He removes the small bag of rather large jewels Professor Moon had given him as a parting gift.

Jewels were not hard to come by at The Academy. In fact, a large part of the city-state’s riches came from the wealth of jewels of all types and varieties that could be found in the heart of the mountain. Still, Jungkook had tried to decline the small fortune’s worth of jewels the professor handed him. But he’d insisted, refused to hear otherwise. “I think you’ll find them useful,” he’d said cryptically.

At the time, Jungkook hadn’t seen how. In fact, until now he’d practically forgotten about the jewels, not having much use for them in the middle of the Great Forest. Now Jungkook grins as he clutches the bag. “Thanks, professor.” He whispers.

The first gem Jungkook leaves at the beach for the dragon while it has departed for a quick hunting trip is a large fiery opal, about twice as big as Jungkook’s thumb. He leaves it at the spot where the dragon usually sleeps and prays that it notices it before laying on it and burying it into the sand under its crushing weight.

He needn’t have worried. The gem is the first thing the dragon notices when it lands again, zeroing in on the light refracted from where it lies amid the sand, as Jungkook keeps to his usual spot in the bushes.  Its wings shuffle restlessly, uncertainly, as it cautiously approaches the gem. Its eyes dart around to look for the gem's potential owner. Seeing no one, it bends down to study the jewel closer. Eventually, at last, a pleased hum vibrates through the air as the dragon oh so delicately picks up the tiny gem in its mouth... and promptly swallows it.

Jungkook blinks, nonplussed. But the dragon looks even more pleased and circles around its sleeping spot before curling up with a satisfied huff, a plume of smoke drifting up from one nostril.

Well. That was unexpected. Still, it definitely seemed to like the gem, even if it did eat it, so Jungkook is determined to keep providing them.

From then on, every time the dragon leaves, a gem is waiting for it upon return. And every time, the dragon seems inordinately pleased before swallowing the gem whole. Jungkook wonders what the professor would say if he knew this is what’s happening to the small fortune he gave Jungkook. He hardly thinks the professor knew the dragon would eat them.

A full month passes like this and Jungkook’s gem hoard starts to dwindle. Also, the dragon is beginning to seem restless, raising its head frequently and staring off into the distance through the sky. Finally, one day Jungkook looks and finds only one jewel left in the bag: a large diamond he had been saving. The best for last. It’s now or never.

The next time the dragon swoops down from the sky after a trip, it doesn’t find a gem and is clearly confused and more than a little disappointed. Taking a deep breath, Jungkook steps out from amidst the trees. Immediately, the dragons’ eyes are trained on him, its scales lifting a little a threatening rumble ripping from its throat. But then it sees the gem in Jungkook’s outstretched palm.

Jungkook watches with bated breath as the dragon’s purple eyes flit between the gem and his face. It doesn’t take long for realization to dawn in its eyes, the connection made between the gems and their supplier. Cautiously, the dragon approaches Jungkook. Oddly enough, its eyes are trained on Jungkook’s face rather than the gem. It levels its head to meet Jungkook’s stare head on and Jungkook tries desperately not to look away. But eventually he caves and his gaze slides off to the side.

He can’t help flinching a bit as the jewel is suddenly plucked from his hand and devoured with a quick jerk of the dragon's neck.

Still. “Hey,” he says indignantly. “You could at least say thank you.”

The dragon blinks at him.

“Thank you,” it, he says, (because the voice is unmistakably male) in a voice deep enough to shake the ground under Jungkook’s feet. The words sit strangely on his tongue as if the language is foreign to him. It probably is.

Jungkook is shocked speechless.