1994.

20. OLD FAVOURS

OLD
FAVOURS

                             TAEHYUNG'S KNOCK ON hoseok's house door was impatient, both him and raesun wanting to get away from the irritating silence they were trapped in. the two stood side by side without looking at one another and it was clear that they were annoyed — at that moment, they hated each other.

just before raesun near about kicked the door down, it swung open to reveal a smiling man with a head of dark brown curls, "ah, taehyung! hello my good old friend."

he stepped back and invited them inside his home, which looked cleaner than raesun expected it to. she hurried inside without a word, eyebrow raised, as taehyung trailed behind her with hoseok following.

it was a small but neat house, barely any evidence as to show anyone actually lived there — there was no miscellaneous items or little things with much meaning, just plain pieces of furniture, ashtrays on the coffee table accompanied by a rather large duffle bag.

yet again it was awkward between both raesun and taehyung as they stood apart inside hoseok's living room, raesun's arms wrapped around herself and taehyung's foot tapping the floor to fill the quiet air. hoseok leant against the back of his couch, a grin on his pretty face.

"so, who's this pretty thing? moved on from jisu—?" taehyung cut him off before he got the chance to explain who this 'jisu' was, to raesun's disappointment.

she had never heard of a jisu before.

"it's raesun," hoseok's face dropped at the mention of her name — but why? "you know who she is."

the older male turned his now fiery gaze onto raesun, and for some unknown reason, she got scared. over the past months she had grew more defensive but this man seemed like someone not to be messed with, and she felt herself shrinking down to the polished floorboards under his angered stare.

but she shook it off, looking at taehyung, "jisu? who the fuck is—"

"they told me you were dead," hoseok spoke through gritted teeth, eyes narrowing slowly and studying her right down to each hair follicle and freckle.

"i–i know," raesun struggled to look him in the face, fiddling with a curl of hers, "and i'm here to find out why."

"so they didn't just make it up? to try and guilt trip me?" he was trying to catch her out, she knew that, so she stood firm and tall.

taehyung interrupted the awkward conversation with a short chuckle, "no, that's not their style. if they were asking you for something they would've really needed it, and if they didn't, they would've just shot you dead."

raesun scowled, "stop trying to make them out to be bad people asshole."

the brunette nodded, tapping his chin almost comically. if anything it was quite terrifying as to how quickly he went from angry to completely calm — too quickly in fact, "true. they came knocking on my door, all fucked on molly, looking for a place to stay for a couple days. jin had sat me down whilst namjoon was having a heart to heart with... oh what's his name?" he smacked his head (what a weird guy) to try and think, "oh my god, i can't remember. he's... the tall one. big muscles. rather nice dove tattoo that i must say i might have to copy—"

"jeongguk?" taehyung smiled; raesun let out a breath of relief, though quite bothered — what any of that nonsense had to do with anything significant was unknown to her.

"yes! namjoon was having a very deep conversation with jeongguk, and jin was telling me about a close friend called raesun who had died last year at one of yoongi's favourite races. i'm telling you now, jin can talk for a fucking sport—"

raesun snapped, "and so can you by the looks of it," hoseok rose a brow at that, smiling wide as ever; she turned rosy, plaguing the blooming petals across her face, as she quietened her tone, "are they alive? in this city?"

"they should still be around this area, i believe so," hoseok nodded.

"you believe so?" taehyung laughed to himself, and raesun never wanted anything more than to shush him with a punch to the throat.

she knew what taehyung's game was, and if he was going to be the prick, she'll show him how the game's played.

"jeongguk had to go kill some guy," hoseok shrugged, "some older dude that was there with hana when you were..." a hand of his motioned up and down at raesun's irritated figure, "well you know."

jeongguk killed someone?

was that person one of many?

she felt herself wanting to run out the door and scour through the city until she found the broken boy — yet, he was lost. and though she thought coming to hoseok would be the next step to finding him, she felt like she had lost him a long time ago.

jeongguk wasn't going to be the same honey boy from the past summer; he was a killer, wired on drugs and revenge.

and of course taehyung was smug about it; though quiet this time, he still managed to piss raesun off. after clearing his throat to rid of bubbling laughter, he spoke, "we'll be going our separate ways soon anyways."

for some reason, hoseok laughed, "why? you scared both jeongguk and yoongi are gonna kill you?"

"why would yoongi try to kill you?" yet again, and unknown truth, a secret that was bound to infuriate her even more — what harm was there in telling her the full truth? no lies, no leaving out information; if she knew yoongi wanted to kill taehyung too, she wouldn't have taken the risk of coming with him, "you told me you two got along."

"ahh," hoseok grinned once more that day, full blown and mischievous, "so you haven't exactly been honest either have you tae?"

taehyung rolled his eyes. he was crumbling, she could tell by the way his lips pressed together in a thin wobbling line and his sigh shook. the older turned to the confused girl before him, "do you know what favour tae has to do for me, raesun?"

oh no.

the way he said it sounded taunting, him clearly knowing more than she did and he was dangling the truth right in front of her face, teasing her with pearly whites gleaming and eyes twinkling. her arms wrapped tighter around herself as he moved to the coffee table, more specifically the black duffle bag, and taehyung played with his bottom lip with trembling fingers.

she studied the two for a quick moment, seeing taehyung's nervous glance darting around the room and not daring to meet her own stare.

the duffel bag was opened and hoseok stood to the side, allowing her to see the contents.

bricks of snowy cocaine sat in a pile in the bag, and memories of a certain boy skiing lines on a dewy morning sent her head reeling. as her brows furrowed and her mind scrounged for answers, she was met with hoseok's laughter.

"taehyung here has owed me the favour of dealing my coke for a long while," he smiled, her face dropped, taehyung stood silent, "he promised that he and his friend will do it for me."

— 雨 —