Bargain (Not Met) (JungHope)

Interlude - Dinner

Evening came quickly that day, all three of the occupants of Hoseok's cubicle wrapped up in their own thoughts. Taehyung was the sole reason Hoseok had any motivation to leave his office chair, the furniture comforting and warm in the face of the day's events.

"Have you got any more books?" Hoseok heard Jungkook ask.

"Indeed," Taehyung replied quickly, the shuffle of clothed paperboard against the jangle of whatever knick-knacks happen to lay in Taehyung's bag slicing through the air. "Here, we'll split half-and-half and make a promise to turn them in on the same day, okay? Hoseokie?"

Hoseok startled at his sudden inclusion of the conversation and nodded mutely in agreement. The crease of Taehyung's brow told him the manager must have finally picked up on the tension in the atmosphere.

"Is..." Taehyung's eyes wandered, eerily settling on the corner Jimin occupied for a moment too long for Hoseok's comfort. "Is everything alright, with you two?"

Hoseok muted his discomfited reaction and laughed it off, but Jungkook had a harder time with swallowing down the possible bitter pill he had received that afternoon, and simply nodded curtly.

Taehyung had the sense to leave the topic alone after the stilted reactions and continued on with the study session plan like nothing had happened. Hoseok had to give it to him: the man was a wonderous actor.

Taehyung talked big and loud and cheery, and Hoseok found himself strung along for the ride. The manager invited him out for a meal, a token of thanks for working so hard, he had graciously offered as an explanation. Hoseok agreed and only just then remembered that Jungkook would, naturally, be involved now that his newfound appetite often plagued his relatively young body.

"Jungkook-ssi?" Taehyung prompted, grin wide and delighted after Hoseok had readily accepted his invitation. "It's my treat, you know," he added after being met with brooding silence.

"I..." Hesitation traced Jungkook's wandering eyes, soon landing on Hoseok's curious form. "No, I don't think so."

Hoseok's eyebrows shot skywards, shocked that the demon would miss the chance to watch such prime "date" material. 

"How do you expect to get home, then?" Hoseok questioned. "You don't really know the way back from here, and you don't have a spare key yet—you've nowhere to go, Kook."

And then Jungkook's face did something funny: a blotch of sudden red, fiery and bright, invaded his cheeks and his lips twitched up into a snarl, one wide enough to show-off his eerily sharp canines.

"Well I'll just find a place to stay, then!" he spat, vicious and fierce, before storming past a startled Taehyung and Hoseok and exiting the significantly stiller cubicle.

All was silent, unnaturally so, before Jimin spoke, hushed: "I'll go check on him," and leaving behind a stunned Taehyung and an anxious Hoseok.

"I guess," Taehyung spoke, seconds after Jimin left, "you're my only company tonight?"

Hoseok startled when he realized he was being addressed and nodded tersely in response. "I suppose so," he muttered half-mindedly, unaware of having spoken at all.

"I suppose we should get going before everything closes for the night, yes?" Taehyung held his arm out for Hoseok to take, and Hoseok readily complied to the polite gesture.