House of the Nefarious

Chapter 13

Jungkook shot me a look. "You really want to go into the attic?"

I nodded. "Yup."

"There's literally just a bunch of old relics up there, but it'll be fun to piss Seokjin off so I'm in."

"Great, so how do I distract him long enough to shimmy up there."

"Seokjin talks to us on average a total of 5 minutes, so that's out of the question," he paused. "But he will spend an hour eating his favourite japchae."

"You have the stuff here to make japchae?" I asked, thinking back to the mouth watering dish.

"Well some of it," he admitted. "Most of its substitute ingredients though."

We'll have to grab Namjoon to help us, he's the only one that knows the recipe despite the fact he can't cook for shit."

"You called?"

I jumped in surprise at the new voice, turning to see that Namjoon had made his arrival, dragon wing in hand.

"You know that recipe Seokjin likes. We need to borrow it," Jungkook muttered.

"The Japchae one? Why?"

"Reasons, now can you please hand it over?"

"I guess, but I want a taste of it when you're done," Namjoon bargained, taking a bite of the food in his grasp.

"Then I want to keep the recipe when we're done," Jungkook retorted.

"Fine," the bigger male grumbled, fumbling with his pocket to find the desired recipe.

This was the weirdest negotiation I had ever witnessed. Namjoon was clearly getting the short end of the stick, but why Jungkook wanted the recipe afterwards was beyond me.

"Not spider soup.. Not this one.. Here it is!"

He held up the crinkled paper and I carefully took it from him. "Thanks Namjoon."

"Um no problem," he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

It looked simple enough, despite a few odd ingredients.

We made our way into the kitchen and I began prepping the dish. I wasn't too sure how I felt about putting gargoyle talons in there but oh well.

It came together quickly enough despite my subpar cooking skills (I was a little rusty after living off of instant noodles) but it looked edible.

"Is it done?" Namjoon asked, rushing over to the piping hot bowl of noodles.

"I think so," I replied a little proud of my creation.

He stuck a ladle in there and took a giant mouthful, letting out a sigh of satisfaction. "That was so worth my recipe. You should cook more often Seoyeon."

I felt my ears flush at the compliment. "We'll see, every other dish I make seems to end up a disaster so I guess I got lucky."

I thought back to my potatoes in 11th grade that had been glued to the pan and shuddered. I did not get a good grade on that.

"Well it's time to go distract, Seokjin," Jungkook said, clapping his hands together. "Then back to STB."

The three of us made our way to the mentioned man's office and I hesitantly knocked on the door.

"We'll just hang out here," Jungkook stated. "To open the attic door if you do succeed. It needs blood from one of the sins to open to avoid thieves and shit."

"Come in."

I took a deep breath before pushing open the heavy door. Seokjin sat at his desk, his shiny black shoes propped up against the mahogany desk. He had papers strewn about and a ton of ballpoint pens contained in a holder that said World Wide Handsome.

"Did you need something Seoyeon?" he asked, putting down the book he was holding.

Remembering the food in my hands, I offered it forward. "I made some japchae if you were interested."

"With gargoyle talons?" he question, a brow raised.

I nodded in confirmation.

He beckoned me forward and I placed the bowl in front of him. I held my breath as he took a sip of the broth. My whole plan depended on him liking it.

"Not bad," he muttered, taking a bite of the noodle. "Join me?" He asked, pointed towards the stray brown chair to the left.

I felt my shoulders sag in relief and I dragged the chair over to his desk. The chair was surprisingly comfy and I'm not sure I wanted to know what it was made out of.

"I never did get to ask you how you're adjusting to Hell."

"It's definitely different," I muttered, fiddling with my fingers in my lap. "But it definitely changed my world views.

A ghost of a smile made its way onto his lips. "Entering a realm you never knew existed does that to people."

"I guess so," I replied, feeling a bit awkward.

"So what prompted you to make japchae?" he asked, a calculating glint to his eye.

"Well I overheard Namjoon mention it was your favourite and you seemed a little stressed so I thought it might be a nice thing to do," I lied.

"Well thank you, I'm a rather excellent cook if I do say so myself but this is decent."

Ouch.

Feeling a little uncomfortable, I side eyed the sheets of paper on his desk. The words Operation Unity along with some crudely scribbled drawings of a glowing woman were scattered about the page. Looking at Seokjin's writing on the other documents I could tell he had not been the one to make it.

The minute the man noticed where my eyes were focused the sheet was covered by his elbow.

"I should be getting back to work," he declared, shoving the paper into the desk in front of him. Just what was Operation Unity and why was he being so shady about it?

I took that as my cue to leave, mission accomplished I suppose. He was only halfway done with the japchae and his work should hopefully keep him occupied for a while.

"Remember not to go anywhere you shouldn't Seoyeon," he let out a yawn. "But even if you do you won't find anything."

I shot him a tight lipped smile before slamming the door shut behind me. He definitely knew what I was up to, but I knew I wouldn't be able to just forget my bizarre "dream."

"How'd it go?" Jungkook asked, pushing off the wall he had been resting on. "I'm pretty sure Seokjin knows what my intentions are but too late to back out now."

He shrugged. "Fine by me."

"Seokjin tends to know what we're up to for some reason, so I wouldn't worry about it," Namjoon added.

We made our way over to the attic and we fell into silence.

"What now?" I asked, eyeing the compartment in the ceiling.

"Now I put some blood on it," Jungkook explained, pricking his finger. He smeared it on the surface and the compartment let out a shaky groan. I watched a set of stairs unfold neatly onto the ground. Cobwebs clung to the metal and I could tell it hadn't been used in a while.

"I'll wait here, I'm not a huge fan of all the dust up there," Namjoon shuddered.

"Me too," Jungkook said. "I could go another millennium without tripping over Seokjin's moldy slippers."

I mock saluted them before making my way into the darkness. Time to find out what was up there.