Bargain (Not Met) (JungHope)

Interlude - Suspicion

"I think we should go home," Hoseok had announced after finishing the breakfast that was delivered minutes after Jungkook's minor breakdown.

"I think that would be for the best," Taehyung had agreed, gaze shifting over to Jungkook with a look of reluctant acceptance.

And so, with their stomachs full and minds weighted, they set out on their journey back home with the winter winds howling against their flushed cheeks and ears and last night's partiers prowling the streets in a drunken haze.

A silence had settled over them as they struggled through the foot of snow that had yet to be cleared that morning. Hoseok took the moment of lapsed conversation to give his mind some time to think over the past few hours events, before soundly concluding that one event, in particular, stood out to him.

"Since when did you fight back?" Hoseok spoke aloud. His words drifted along with the ice in the air and in his lungs and slapped him back in the face when he processed the accusatory emotion behind them. "I mean," he continued before either one of his companions could get a reply in, "I've never seen you get physical like that, and I guess it's because you're supposed to be a shadow demon, but you've also never gotten angry like that and it just kind of seems so out of character for you."

Hoseok could feel his palms get clammy at the demon's prolonged silence and Jimin's persistent disassociation, which was awful because his hands were already frozen in his coat pockets and he did not need a coating of sweat to make them even colder.

And then his ears perked at the ever so slight sound of Jungkook breathing in deeply, and his eyes watched as a cloud of heated breath blew past him and dissipated into the hustling wind.

"I guess I'm going back to my old ways," was all Jungkook had to say on the matter.

--

Hoseok laid on his bed, hours after they had arrived back at his apartment, and stared up at the familiar, jagged crack in his ceiling. His breaths fell short against the chilled, stale air and proved itself the only company for Hoseok, as Jungkook and Jimin were both mulling about together in the living room, making it a point that they didn't want Hoseok around during their discussion.

Which, Hoseok realized as he pondered, alone for the first time in an entire month, was so fucking bizarre; a demon and an angel—talking with one another. Civilly.

"Fuck," Hoseok hissed, hands rubbing his so, so very tired eyes.

What was his world coming to?

--

Come the first day back to work of the next year, Hoseok was exhausted.

With everything and everyone.

"Ah." Taehyung's exclamation startled Hoseok from his brief stupor. "You brought Jungkook-ssi with you to work?"

Hoseok sniffled and contemplated explaining that he'd been doing that for the past month, but decided that he hadn't had nearly enough coffee that morning and needed a little break from social interaction. "Go ahead and tell Taehyung-ah here about your shenanigans, Jungkook."

"That's not even remotely close to what you should classify our deal as," was Jungkook's astonished remark at the demand.

Hoseok allowed the demon's voice to fade into the pleasant background noise of whirring electric heaters and the periodic clacking of keyboards as he set about to finishing reports for their first official project since Taehyung took over.

Namjoon had fucked up, once again, but that was okay because the entire department was cleaning up his mistakes in record time and that left Hoseok with little to nothing to do regarding the actual finalizing process. Not that he was complaining, though. He just got back from a break filled to the brim with continuous grinding and world-changing involvements, so a little burden lifted off his shoulders was plenty appreciated.

"—okay, Hoseokie?" Taehyung's voice said, breaking through the background of thrumming caffeine and stilted breaths.

"Ha—wha—?" Hoseok immediately questioned. It was difficult for him to tear through the eye-glazing focus he had been in, and his response wasn't the most lucid thing to escape his mouth. But he comforted himself with the fact that Taehyung had already seen him at his (possible) worst, so shame was a sparse guest at that moment. "Could—could you repeat that?"

When Hoseok spun his chair toward Taehyung, expectant and disoriented, he caught the slim moment of the manager's amusement at his behavior slipping off his face and blending into one of patient fondness.

"I was just telling Jungkook-ssi that we can go to the library during our lunch break so that we can at least start a basis for our research," Taehyung kindly explained.

Hoseok furrowed his eyebrows and calculated the hours and minutes in between that designated time. "I—that's pretty late in the day for me usually, so I don't actually know the company's official schedule for breaks."

Taehyung blinked. "Are you telling me you eat on your own hours?"

Hoseok blinked back. "Are you telling me you've never been swamped with work until you clock out?"

Taehyung shook his head and stared at Hoseok with a contemplative gaze. "Shall I just pick you up during the appropriate hour so that you don't forget, then?"

Hoseok floundered and struggled for a fleeting moment before ultimately seeing no harm in having a human alarm clock. "Yeah, sure. Sorry for the trouble."

Taehyung smiled, bright and boxy. "No need to apologize, Hoseokie. It's my fault for presuming the company had decent working standards."

And he twirled out the cubicle's entryway and danced down the cleared aisles, leaving behind three slack-jawed expressions in his rueful wake.

--

"Should I tell him?" Jimin's inconspicuous voice muttered into the muted air, causing Hoseok's ears to perk at the sudden initiation of conversation by the near-silent angel.

"Not until we've explored all the other possibilities," Jungkook muttered in response.

"Are you saying that just because you don't want to be proven wrong?"

"It's not a matter of right or wrong. It's about undoing the damage caused."

Jimin huffed in apparent exasperation. "You're just in denial that there's a chance you're not going to be center stage in this play."

"Since when did you speak in metaphors?"

And that's all their horribly hidden discussion led up to because Taehyung announced his presence in the fashion of steaming bags of burgers and the clanking of coffee mugs.

Hoseok jolted at the noise, of course, and quickly set aside his work material before trickling out of the cubicle hesitantly.

He hadn't understood any sort of meaning behind Jungkook and Jimin's words, and he supposed he was missing all kinds of context, but he figured the occurrence to be an aftereffect of the pair's exclusive discussion during the break. But even with that sliver of information, Hoseok was simply unable to fathom what sort of conversation beforehand could have had Jungkook as stubborn in an argument against Jimin as that; curt and brooding.

Hoseok blinked and wondered what valuable information he was missing out on; what piece of the puzzle had been drifting aside his peripheral vision.

A/N - and the mystery continues on.