after jungkook goes out of his way to help a sickly-looking stranger on a rainy night, the universe chooses to reward him in the most bizarre and unexpected way possible - with a nest of overprotective vampire sugar-daddies.
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Jungkook's never visited the Old Forest on the outskirts of Seoul.
There hadn't previously been any real need for him to venture this far out, what with Euphoria and SNU both located in the heart of the city, and all his friends living relatively nearby. Yugyeom's tried on several occasions over the past eighteen months to drag him out hill-walking on weekends, but there had always been other commitments holding him back (papers to write, books to read, shifts to work), so he's only really caught fleeting glances of the outer suburbs of the city on a couple of occasions, when he'd fallen asleep on the bus ride home after a long shift at the convenience store and woken up in the middle of nowhere. That's another reason why he'd stopped buying travel cards and started walking home instead after nightshifts – back when money was still tight, the risk of massively overspending on unnecessary journeys due to his inability to stay awake was a very real threat to his already-precarious financial situation.
Coincidentally, 'visiting new places' happens to be number eight on the 'Kookie Deserves Nice Things' list, underlined twice (first by Yugyeom, and then by Binnie in that garish sparkly gel pen for added emphasis), and he has a sneaking suspicion that both of his best friends are making secret plans to drag him out to all of their favourite hiking spots around the various hills and forests that surround Seoul.
He's been trying to keep a mental log of the journey so far, but the outer suburbs are almost completely unfamiliar to him, street names and signposts all blurring into one, and even the fancy apartment buildings are becoming less prominent the closer they get to the border of the forest.
Finally, Jimin makes a sharp right-turn at the end of a long, winding road full of expensive-looking detached houses, slowing the car to a standstill in the middle of a short lane that comes to a dead-end right at the edge of the forest. Jimin turns towards him with an easy smile.
"The nest's not far from here," the vampire tells him, then hesitates a moment before asking, "Did Namjoon-hyung happen to tell you anything about the gates?"
It had been hard to concentrate on words when Namjoon's dimples were so damn distracting, but the conversation between them hadn't been anything more than comfortable chitchat while they waited for Jimin to arrive; he certainly can't remember 'gates' coming up, at least not in any significant way. So Jungkook shakes his head, watching as Jimin winces ever-so-subtly, before the vampire cranks up his reassuring smile by a few more notches.
"He probably just didn't want you overthinking it. There's nothing to be afraid of, but it can be a little...aigoo, how can I put this?"
The vampire takes a deep breath and huffs it out again in a sigh, before letting go of the steering wheel to reach across and gently squeeze Jungkook's hand where it's resting on his thigh.
"You're gonna start to feel kinda weird when we head inside," Jimin warns him softly. "But it's totally safe, I promise. The disorientation usually only lasts for a minute or so, you just gotta grit your teeth and wait for it to pass, okay?"
