Bargain (Not Met) (JungHope)

Deal with a Demon

Hoseok squashed his face square against the palms of his hands, a thick, long sigh weaving its way up and out of his body.

Thirty-six hours.

Thirty-six hours since he had last slept.

His heart had ached and hoped that he would get the assignments that his manager had assigned him finished and over with, but he's already twelve hours behind schedule and not even half-way finished with the paperwork. The stress was killing his head in the fact that his anxiety wouldn't shut up about how much shit his manager would give him, but also the unbearable migraines he had managed to earn himself from being in a stressed state for over twenty-four hours with no sleep at all.

Oh, and the shadow demon lurking in the corner wasn't helping.

The godforsaken thing suddenly popped out of nowhere yesterday, startling Hoseok so severely he almost threw his laptop on the demonic creature. But soon after throwing a harmless eraser and pen, just to make extra sure, he realized that the demon was literally only a shadow.

Its property matter didn't stop Hoseok from being any less freaked out.

Knowing that the thing was staring at him at a constant rate without blinking (trust him, he checked) added a tad too much stress to Hoseok's already frenzied mind and he ended up accidentally staring at his computer screen, blankly, for an hour straight.

Hoseok rubbed his fingers over his closed eyelids and moaned for the umpteenth time that night. He was sure that if the shadow demon had any sort of consciousness, then it would have most likely consumed his soul by now and put him out of his misery. He would prefer that over having the constant itch and feeling that someone was staring right at him.

Fed up with everything and just wanting some much-needed sleep, Hoseok slammed his laptop's lid shut and bolted out of his swiveling office chair. He was unsteady for a moment from the sudden rush of blood to his head, but soon regained his balance and shoved the chair out of his way.

He stomped over to his bedroom door, giving the shadow demon a side-eyed glance, before twisting the knob and throwing it open.

A blast of icy air breathed itself across Hoseok's bare skin, sending an involuntary shiver throughout the man's wrecked body. A shaky sigh escaped through his chattering jaw as he hobbled his way down the shadowed hallway.

His own apartment felt like an altered reality; the pieces of furniture looked like they had been bulked up and seemed to be hiding secrets inside all the shadows cast by them; the moon shone eerily through the open glass-windowed door, casting a dim light throughout the living room that gave everything inside it the feeling they weren't supposed to be seen; the air conditioning puffed out of life and hushed for the night, converting the peaceful area into that of deadly silence.

Hoseok felt like he was slowly going insane by how silent everything was, his only company his hammering heart and erratic breathes that echoed across the still air. A small part of him was begging him to just go to bed without his nightly glass of water, but the more significant part of him was really dehydrated and sobbing about how he was going to pass out if he didn't take care of himself.

So, hand tightly clutching his loose-fitting tee, Hoseok crept forward into the unsettling space.

Frantic, hushed whimpers whirred themselves out of him as he tiptoed around his own apartment, slowly making his way to the aisle of a kitchen he had.

Once he had finally reached the kitchen area, he made a break for the refrigerator and tugged open the stubbornly shut steel door. It opened with a crack, and Hoseok vaguely wondered if he should get a new one, but then remember he didn't get paid until next week and decided that his failing appliances could wait.