Bargain (Not Met) (JungHope)

Deal with a Demon: Intesified

A/N - i changed the title of the last chapter to this one bc i felt it fit more. sorry for any confusion.

They arrived at the apartment with sludge in their brains and lead in their legs.

"Where have you been!?" Jimin shouted, a hysterical note in his shrill voice. "I've been trying to get in contact with you, Jungkook-ah, for the past hour! And Hoseok-hyung"—he narrowed his eyes in a scrutinizing manner at Hoseok, and the office worker found himself suddenly self-conscious of his noticeably disheveled appearance. "Hoseok-hyung, I don't think the mark I put on you is in effect anymore. I lost my signal on you the moment I tried to search for you."

Hoseok merely shrugged and released an almighty yawn. "Mind renewing it tomorrow? I need to, uh, work tomorrow. I think. What day is it?"

Jimin's eyes squinted at him. "Wednesday."

Hoseok walked toward the couch and dumped his bag onto the cushion, tugging at his tie and dropping it alongside the carrier. "See? I gotta go to work, so leave all of your problems for tomorrow's me and leave current me alone."

Hoseok trudged down the hall toward his bedroom and set about to his newfound nightly routine: strip and get under the covers before Jungkook could claim his bed.

"Hyung," he heard Jimin's voice sound from down the hall just as his head hit the pillow.

"Sleep, Jimin," Hoseok groaned, turning his back toward his bedroom door.

"Hyung," Jimin repeated, suddenly right against his bedside.

"Jesus, fuck," Hoseok wheezed as he scrambled away from the eerily solemn angel. "Alright, alright. You can renew the mark now if it's so damned important—"

"I can't," Jimin interrupted.

Hoseok's brain faltered. "Huh?"

"I can't renew the mark, hyung," Jimin repeated, tone grave. "Your soul's...too contaminated."

"Well, what does that have to do with anything?"

"A human's soul can bear the mark of an angel under two conditions." As Jimin's getting ready to go into a long-overdue explanation, Hoseok noticed that with a simple glance out his peripheral, it was evident that Jungkook's mark was spreading, now covering up Jimin's previous mark. "The first condition is that they, obviously, have a guardian angel by their side; the second being that they are...pure enough to hold the mark of an angel."

Hoseok gaped and then hastily smartened his jaw. "So, you're telling me...I'm a sinner?"

"No!" Jimin blurted out, offended by the mere suggestion. "Goodness no, Hoseok-hyung. You are no sinner, but under your current conditions, Heaven no longer considers you a saint."

"And those conditions would be...?"

Jimin's shoulders raised, discomfort all over his body language. "Well, in Heaven's eyes, the mere interaction with a devil is unholy in and of itself; already seen as a chance of exposure to the world of sin." He gave pause as gears whirled visibly in his head. "Hyung, you're...you're being influenced by a demon's deal. You've been immune to it for the past month, but whatever happened tonight...it just—Jungkook's possession over you increased tenfold and overpowered my protection over you."

Whatever happened tonight...

The words echoed in Hoseok's mind, mocking and all-knowing.

A simple conversation. One of which had nothing to do with Taehyung, the heart of his and Jungkook's deal. So what could have possibly increased Jungkook's power over him?

A faint ache in his head warned of over-exhaustion, and he soon found himself mulling over the question in his fitful rest.

--

"So," Jimin had begun that afternoon, a guilty, grim line drawing his lips taut, "I might have been snooping around Taehyung-ssi's home during our overnight stay."

Hoseok didn't know how to react. He never figured Jimin to be the type to investigate another person's home without their permission. He felt parts of his face twitch in an unintentional cringe. Or maybe it was from irritation. He couldn't tell.

His and Jungkook's reactions were lackluster enough to have Jimin continuing on, although a significant tremor in his voice warbled his words. "I was just searching, you know? For something that could possibly have memories related to Jungkook-ah.

"So I'm trying to be discreet and such, finding an opportunity to enter his bedroom when he went to wake you guys up for breakfast—when I find a drawer with a keyhole." His eyes narrowed with emphasis, catching Hoseok's every bit of attention. "I go to open it, find it to be locked, and nearly tear the room apart for the key.

"I find it shoved in between his bed frame and mattress. I go to unlock the drawer and find it nearly empty save for a single USB stick." He reaches into his pant pocket, tugging out a slim stick that could only be the USB drive he spoke of. "I investigate it with my examination ability—"

"Your what now?" Hoseok interrupted.

"Examination ability," Jimin repeated coolly. "It's what activates whenever my eyes turn blue, as I'm sure you've noticed. I can see anything a normal human cannot, and thus have no real need of plugging this stick into any computer. All of the information stored here is already safely secured in my mind."

Hoseok blinked, memories of ice blue accompanying the news of a strange soul inhabiting his body flooding his mind, before nodding for Jimin to continue.

"Anyways," Jimin complied patiently, wiggling the USB drive between his forefinger and thumb, "the files saved here don't seem to hold any significant proof of past memories, but that can't be true since Taehyung-ssi had gone out of his way to lock this up."

"Yeah, but what are the files?" Jungkook asked, an edge of impatience causing the question to come out as a gruff bark.

Jimin sent a hesitant glance toward the demon before uttering, "Incomplete song tracks."