Bargain (Not Met) (JungHope)

Interlude - Memories

The walk back to his work building was uneventful, and Hoseok enjoyed the tranquil night that was rarely offered in the bustling city.

The peace was broken when, spotted by the foot of the revolving front doors, Jungkook's figure broke through the city fog.

"Jungkook?" Hoseok wondered aloud, incredulous, and bewildered. He thought that the demon had taken off to sneak into someone else's house for the night, not sniveling and shivering against the winter winds right where Hoseok had departed from.

Jungkook started at the sound of his name being uttered and whirled his head to where Hoseok still stood, frozen on the slab of pavement that stood a meter or two away from him. "Hyung?" he called, just as perplexed sounding as Hoseok felt. "What're you doing back here?"

"Forgot my bag and stuff," Hoseok replied simply, creeping forward until his toes stood mere centimeters away from Jungkook's. "You?"

Jungkook shrugged.

Hoseok waited for him to come up with some mopey answer, but found that the demon had gotten past his scornful hatred and simmered down into passive agitation. He sighed and walked the few steps it took to stand beside Jungkook's hunched form and plopped down alongside the demon.

"What's up, Kook?" he sighed into the night air, crisp and placid.

Silence met his simple question, but that was alright because it wasn't like Hoseok had any urgent plans at the moment. The waiting game could go one until dawn if Hoseok had the energy to stay conscious for that long.

The moon shone with a quiet beauty, benevolent with her light and full of love for the creatures aware of her presence. The clouds that made themselves sparse that night blotted out her edges, distracting the complete view of her existence. A silent tragedy, indeed.

Late nights made Hoseok poetic, honestly. Maybe even delirious.

"I think," Jungkook began, startling Hoseok out of his quiet marvel, "that I'm regressing to the age I first became a demon."

The words were hard to process, exhaustion, and trauma clouding Hoseok's overworked brain. "Come again?"

Jungkook actually growled, and Hoseok realized he should start paying more attention. "I became a demon when I was fifteen."

Hoseok grimaced and thanked his lucky stars that the shadows overtook his features, for he was sure Jungkook wouldn't take too kindly to his pity in his condition.

"Once you become a demon," Jungkook continued, unaware of Hoseok's discomfited reaction, "you just...stop being human, I guess. There is no adolescence because there are no hormones. After all, we are, essentially, dead. No more hormones are produced to progress our physical or mental growth.

"So, what I'm getting at is that my angry, teenaged hormones are starting to kick in again as I regain my memories."

Hoseok blinked, nodded, and stared at Jungkook's scowl, visible in the moon's dim rays. "Mind telling me what, exactly, you're angry at?"

Jungkook huffed, and Hoseok closed his eyes, memories of his own outrageous behavior at the demon's (mental) age filling his mind.

"Everything!" Jungkook spat, just as vicious as earlier that evening. "That stupid USB drive, stupid Angle Boy poking his nose in where it never"—yes, he growled that—"belonged, and Taehyung...!"

There were a few struggling moments where Jungkook was spitting with so much fury that no actual words left his lips.

"Taehyung...?" Hoseok prompted carefully, wary of the demon rounding on him in misdirected anger.