outbreak | bts

035

"Wait wait, explain this to me properly so I can understand." Hoseok held up his hands to silence the group of high schoolers who had all started frantically whispering at once. He and Taehyung had finished loading the minibus and had been waiting for the others for ten minutes without any of them showing up. Eunwoo had sent him a message to come down to the clothes store to help them out.

The pair had left Joohyun after confirming she was okay to stay behind and gone down to see the baffling sight of five new, uninfected, kids. Kids who, apparently, wanted to return to the terminal with them. One of them, who Jungkook and his friends must have known, was looking to be in pretty bad shape.

"...are you hurt?" Hoseok asked, carefully. Jihyo sent him a smile in spite of her pale complexion, shaking her head a little.

"I'm hungry and it's, um, that time of the month. I get really bad symptoms." She explained, her smile easy albeit a little awkward. The young boys standing close to her flushed with discomfort at the mention of periods but Hoseok was unaffected. Having an older sister would do that to you.

Briefly he felt his mind drift but suppressed it. His sister  should have been on a business trip to Jeju at the time. She was safe. She was. Nodding briskly, he cocked his head at Jungkook and marched back out of the store. They crept all the way back to the minibus, where Joohyun sent them a bewildered expression.

"I thought you were going to get the rest of them." She said when they entered after depositing some of the remaining bags of supplies in the storage compartment. Hoseok manually shut the door of the minibus and took out his phone.

"Did you make any promises to them?" He asked Jungkook as he scrolled through his contacts. Jungook shook his head.

"Didn't think I should make that call."

"Is she your friend?" He was referring to Jihyo.

"Yeah. She's more friends with Eunha, Yuju and Mina though. If Yuju is the legs, Mina the arms and Eunha the heart, then Jihyo's the head."

"How come she wasn't with you guys when all this happened?" The older youth continued asking as he tapped the name of the person he was looking for, typing something out before hitting dial.

"Jihyo's part of the Seoul Junior Sports Committee. She gets to leave for a day every few months to mentor and encourage rising young athletes. She always went when school returned from break." Jungkook mused, eyes trained on the phone as it rang on speaker.

"So she's been on it for how long?"

"Since freshman year."

"How do those work?" Hoseok had only ever played tennis temporarily before diving into dance but surely something like that couldn't be assigned for so long?

"You have to be nominated and elected for a seat each year." Hoseok's eyebrows rose. How amazing must this girl have been to get elected for that seat three consecutive years?

"Do you trust her then? She's been outside for more than a month." A voice rose from the phone in Hoseok's hand. Namjoon had caught their conversation and grasped the situation.

"I do, she's a lot like you, hyung... she just looks like she's in terrible condition. No doubt she made sure that the boys were taken care of before herself, but there's no evidence of anything else like bite marks or wounds or anything on any of them." Jungkook swallowed. Yuju was still in shock. He could only imagine how Mina and Eunha would react. One or both of them was definitely going to cry.

"...how many people?" Namjoon asked.

"Five. Four middle school boys and Jungkook's friend from school." Hoseok informed him. He then reiterated all the information Jungkook had provided before Namjoon joined the call. There were more voices as Namjoon extended the explanation to the other adults that had likely gathered around when Hoseok called.