—what did we
do wrong?

OCTOBER 11:
JUNG HOSEOK

==

"jimin! jimin! slow down, dammit!"

things are blurry for hoseok as he stumbles his way through patches of dead grass and fallen branches, the sky a sheet of absolute darkness over him. it feels surreal, like he's walking through a dream—like his friend hadn't just been chased by an insane demon through unkown woods.

"jimin!" namjoon snaps, running despite the long trip they've taken through the seemingly empty woods. "would you quit it? running around like lost bunnies isn't going to solve anything—"

and, almost mockingly, jimin laughs. it's this sarcastic bellow into the air and god, hoseok just wants to be done with this. he never wanted to be the subject of such danger, but here he is and he can't do a thing about it.

"are you serious? are you actually serious? so you're okay with letting yoongi deal with taeh—" he stops himself, hiccuping at the action— "with that monster by himself? do you even hear yourself?"

"that's not what i'm saying. walking around in the woods without a plan isn't going to do anything, we can't even hear yoongi, dammit—"

"and your point?" jimin turns around, facing the other three with angry desperation in his eyes. "you're saying that we should've stayed back at the grave like yoongi told us to, huh? act like it isn't our problem?!"

the air is silent. because he's right, in a sense; they spent a few too many minutes fixing taehyung's grave again when they should have been finding yoongi. but the latter's desperate words right before he disappeared into the woods were enough to make them hesitate.

"if you wanna ditch, be my guest," jimin finally says, voice cracking. "but i'm not losing another person, alright?"

"jimin—"

"that's not what we meant, chim," hoseok interrupts, breath puffing out in front of him like a cloud of smoke. "we definitely aren't ditching. yoongi is with us, we—we aren't such pricks to just abandon him like that. but we've been walking around for at least thirty minutes, alright? it's time we formulated some sort of plan to find yoongi."

another expanse of silent falls between the four men, tension building up in their lungs. and then, after what seems to be an eternity, jimin exhales shakily and nods.

it's strange, because that's the first time jimin has allowed someone to call him "chim" after taehyung. and despite everything around them, hoseok smiles because of it.

before they can begin to plan, however, an enormous scream echoes through the air, freezing all five dead in their tracks.

hoseok's breath halts.

"that...that was taehyung, wasn't it?" seokjin breathes out, almost as if his words will shatter the trees around them.

jimin swallows, shaking his head.

"no. no, that wasn't taehyung. that was the thing that took him over."

and then they're suddenly running again, all ideas of planning totally discarded because fuck, that was taehyung—or rather, what resides inside of him—, and if that scream came from a fourth of a mile away then, surely, min yoongi is there, too.

hoseok's feet are screaming from the exertion,  but all he focuses on is finding yoongi and saving him from that sick monster—

"yoongi!"

they scream his name,

"yoongi! yoongi!"

over and over again.

and then they find him, sprawled like a corpse on the ground with the faintest heaves of his chest, and hoseok can't help but feel something well inside of his gut.

"my god, he's bleeding so much—"

"yoongi," hoseok chokes out, and then, "oh my god, yoongi!"

his arms pull yoongi up from the ground, frantic fingers and darting eyes, heart sobbing as a persistent pulse is there, is beating. seokjin yells something to namjoon, then to hoseok, maybe a "let me get the truck, hold him right there, hoseok!", and jimin can't help but watch as something blooms on his face.

his cheeks might be growing wet. hoseok can't tell.

"you sick asshole, yoongi!" hoseok shouts, but he can't help but laugh from relief because, if he's completely honest, there was something in his mind that doubted he would be alive in the first place. and it wasn't entirely a long-shot, in actuality. taehyung, the way he was back there, was something terrifying, something that hoseok has never seen before.

"you can't just run off like that!" yoongi's eyes open and he croaks the faintest laugh in response. "god, yoongi, you had us all scared to death..."

"hyung," jimin croaks, managing the faintest grin. "idiot, acting like superman or something..."

yoongi smiles. he winces the slightest from the momentum as he pushes himself up, clutching his abdomen with shaky fingers.

turning to jimin, he quietly speaks.

"he remembers. taehyung remembers you, jimin."

==

hoseok doesn't recall much about how he wakes up that morning, but he does know that the smell of something sharp is in the air.

with a brief stretch and groan, he places his hand on the surface beside him—cheap leather, it feels like—and cracks his eyes open, vision wavering as he adjusts to the fluorescent light. a row of plastic chairs against the faint manila walls make up his surroundings, and the lightest odor of disinfectant hangs in the air.

hoseok is in a hospital.

and, just like that, the events of a mere few hours before catch up to him—carrying yoongi's body into the fraying backseat of namjoon's truck, flashing past at least three red lights, screaming at the tired man at the emergency room desk as yoongi's blood stains the fabric of namjoon's shirt, refusing to leave yoongi alone and falling asleep on each other's shoulders. hoseok's breathing grows erratic as he looks around, finding himself alone in a room that suddenly feels way too claustrophobic.

where are the others? where's yoongi? hoseok remembers him being wheeled past a row of white double doors that reminded him all too well of those doctor shows he used to watch, a sick feeling emerging at the bottom of his gut.

hoseok finally stumbles to his feet, pushing past the door of the waiting room and finding himself immersed in a busy mob of nurses, doctors, and the nauseating smell of rubbing alcohol. he squints around himself—jimin, seokjin, namjoon, where are they? where did they go?

"hey," a voice behind him says, and he almost jumps out of his skin because of it.

turning around, hoseok finds namjoon grinning sheepishly at him, and it's almost as if the air in his lungs escapes from momentous relief. "ah, sorry, didn't mean to startle you. i was waiting for you to wake up."

"where...where are the others?" hoseok manages, and he's surprised at how starchy and sore his voice sounds.

"well, the nurses forced seokjin and jimin to eat a little while ago, so i bet they're still at the cafeteria. said that they looked like walking car crashes. really, i can't debate it." namjoon pauses, chewing the bottom of his lip. "as for yoongi, he's in one of the hospital rooms, but he isn't critical or anything like that. apparently we can't see him until three p.m., though. something about scans or whatever."

hoseok nods slowly. "and his wounds?"

the doctor said it was a fractured arm, a bunch of cuts and whatnot. said that he was going to need a shit ton of stitches, but nothing to keep him in here for more than a few days."

hoseok gives the lightest smile. "that's...man, that's really good to hear. i thought he'd have a broken rib or something."

"me too. but i guess yoongi is tougher than we give him credit for."

"wait, but what about—"

"and don't worry, his medical expenses are covered, at least for the moment. i'm not exactly a rich man, and i'm not his relative either, but he doesn't really have any health records or care to back him up."namjoon cracks a wink. "these guys'll take any money laid under their noses, the sick bastards."

hoseok laughs, and although the sound is raw and cracking, namjoon laughs right along. he's missed this, especially after a week of nonstop running and thinking and fearing. sometimes, he dreams that he is back in the detective agency, filling styrofoam cups of coffee and overhearing the shallow gossip of the office workers. but he really can't wish for it; taehyung is out there, quite possibly alive and suffering, and it's just not right to leave him like that.

"d'you think it's weird?" namjoon asks, somehow hitting hoseok's thoughts head-on. "that just ten or so days ago, we were back at the office and reading about stories of celebrity issues?"

"not you," hoseok jokes, "you were ahead of the game, reading all about kim taehyung."

"ah, true. but—"

"but yeah, i get it. and trust me, i think it's...insane. i-i don't know, i guess—" hoseok stops, shaking his head and scrunching his eyes shut. "i feel like this is some sick dream, y'know? like something pulled straight out of a horror movie. i...i never thought something like this would happen to me..."

"yeah..." namjoon quiets his voice, "yeah, i know, buddy."

they stare in silence, and hoseok feels his eyes grow blurry. but not for himself.

because his tears are for kim taehyung: for his deprived youth, for his sobbing mother, for his suffering best friend, for the blood on his arms and the white in his irises.

"hey, c'mon, hoseok. let's go eat, okay? seokjin hyung and jimin are waiting up there."

hoseok gulps down his emotions, manages a smile, and nods to distract himself from the thoughts that linger in both of their minds.

==

seokjin chews once, twice, three times before responding.

"what the hell, hoseok."

"i'm serious! i think this food is alright."

jimin manages a smile, raising an incredulous eyebrow. "are you insane? it tastes like paper. honestly, do hospitals even care to season their noodles?"

"well," hoseok gives a brief, sarcastic wink, standing up and gesturing to the food bar, "i'm getting more. i've probably eaten three pounds of food but my stomach is still growling."

"maybe you should look into that."

"yeah, uh huh," hoseok waves them off, and he walks to the bar with a smile on his chapped lips. perhaps it's just the events of the night before, but hoseok genuinely enjoys the supposedly "unflavored" hospital food.

(he considers the fact that, technically, he hasn't eaten a full meal in about twelve hours.)

just as hoseok grabs the salad tongs between his fingers, a low conversation between two nurses nearby somehow grabs his attention, and he freezes in place.

"really," says the female nurse out of the two, "he's quite the patient to deal with. always bugging us at physical therapy, showing that stupid subway video...i mean, i get that he's on pain medication, but i guess you can't fix crazy."

"i know, right?" and suddenly, hoseok feels his breath grow shallow. "and he's always talking about some boy—sometimes even to himself, you know. what was it—'white shirt, black pants'? man, at this point i can't even pity the kid. jeongguk's a real hassle to deal with, hm?"

==

wow that only took, what, 12 chapters
i honestly feel bad for giving taehyung such a rough time
im hyped tho bc the taebusting gang'll be all together fam!!😩👌🔥
but yeah stay tuned for next time cya :))