Bargain (Not Met) (JungHope)

Deal with a Manager: Investigated

Eating in the library was permitted so long as they paid for whatever food-related damage was caused to the books.

So, there they sat. Huddled and crowded around a bookshelf in the far back, away from prying ears and eyes, attempting to talk around varying degrees of mouthfuls of burger meat.

"So," Hoseok began, munching merrily on the last bit of his burger bun, "where do we start, Kook?"

Jungkook startled and turned toward Hoseok with a look that the office worker related to one of someone that had been reluctantly put into the spotlight; deer-caught-in-the-headlights mixed with scornful promises. "And how am I supposed to be the captain of this exploration when I don't even have a map?"

"Why are you speaking in metaphors, Demon Boy?" Jimin mocked good-naturedly from his slumped position against the bookshelf.

"Well," Taehyung, still blissfully ignorant of Jimin's presence, spoke up with a blinding smile, "I thought you could just use your supernatural intuition and point us in the right direction with roundabout rhymes and schemes like a full-fledged demon."

"That's not"—Jungkook sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose—"how it works."

Hoseok hooked an arm around the tensed bridges of Jungkook's shoulders and gave his forearm a gleeful shake. "Then strut your stuff and show us how this shit works because, clearly, someone in the media messed up while trying to represent demons."

Jungkook gave him a heated glare that was quick to snuff itself out when Hoseok offered an encouraging smile.

"Alright," Jungkook eventually heaved, shouldering off Hoseok's arm and walking toward the library's selection of supernatural genres. "Well, I would always go for the stuff that looks to be written in the olden times since their stories are more historically accurate." He scrunched his nose up in obvious displeasure. "Modern novels romanticize the shit out of factually incorrect events."

Hoseok stifled his incoming laughter with a hard shove of a second burger into his mouth.

"And, uh, if you happen to find something that was published in the 1800s," Jungkook continued, unperturbed by Hoseok's behavior, "make sure you double-check the author's name on the cover, spine, and anywhere else that's necessary. There was a nasty little pre-demon that plagiarized novels for profit by hand back then, but he somehow forgot he was dyslexic."

Hoseok rose an eyebrow and swallowed his current mouthful of burger. "And it only applied to people's names?"

Jungkook shrugged as he browsed the shelves' contents. "I dunno the specifics since I never did any further research besides that simple brush-up; it's required that a demon knew of at least twenty notable pre-demons before they got their job license."

Hoseok shared a bemused glance with Jimin, who had taken it upon himself to actually settle down in a chair.

"Anyways." Jungkook pulled free an unusually thick novel off the shelf and showcased its cover to Hoseok and Taehyung. "He didn't copy down the content inside word-for-word, and often twisted around some facts as little Easter eggs or something, so just"—he then flipped the book around so that it showed the spine of the book, which held the author's name, only it was missing a vowel—"be careful, please."

"Duly noted," Taehyung replied, offering Jungkook a mock-salute when the demon rounded on him with a raised eyebrow.

"That tedious task aside," Jungkook continued on with a light smirk dancing along his lips, "just make sure you always, always remember to compare the notes and facts written down with other novels and see if there's a notable difference between the sources."