Bargain (Not Met) (JungHope)

Deal with a Manager: Revised

"So...where did Jimin-ssi end up putting my drive?"

Hoseok jolted in his chair and swirled it around toward Taehyung, who leaned against his cubicle wall with a pensive stature, hunched in and hesitant.

Hoseok blinked and slowly turned his chair toward Jimin, who stood adamant about occupying the corner while the office worker worked.

"Well?" Hoseok said, breezy and coaxing. "Where'd ya hide it, Jimin-ah?"

Jimin answered not with words, but instead with a show of him rummaging through his pockets and pulling out the sought out drive.

"Why is Taehyung-ssi asking about the drive?" he asked after showcasing the object, tone wary. "I thought he didn't know it was missing."

Hoseok rolled his chair over to where Jimin stood and snatched the drive out from his grasp. "I told him about it," he answered bluntly, already turning back toward the manager with the prized possession. "Wanna give it a listen?" He wiggled it appealingly, raising a brow for emphasis.

There was another note of uncharacteristic hesitance in Taehyung's answer, and Hoseok realized that this was just as big of a deal to Taehyung as it was to the rest of them.

"Yes, please," he finally spoke, voice soft and desperate.

Hoseok complied with a simple shove-click of the drive into his laptop. He listened as the machine's fans whirred hazardously while loading up the files, filling in the blanket of tense silence of the cubicle's occupants.

The files transferred after another moment or so, and Hoseok loaded up the first one, which was titled draft 67.

The haunting, melancholic melody of piano cords blared from the laptop's speakers, and Hoseok noticed the quiet little white-noise of his coworkers pause upon the sudden music.

A slow rise and fall of notes, whimsical and consuming, sang out into a short ninety-second blurb that immediately left Hoseok's winded.

He heard Taehyung hum behind him, thoughtful and distant. "Yeah, that does sound familiar," he murmured.

Hoseok played the next one without prompting, eager to hear more brilliant pieces of music.

Titled The Court, the second track was quite the opposite of draft 67. Instead of a stand-alone composition of piano chords, it featured a dramatic, orchestral background sweeping alongside a periodic, rattling blow of heavy bass that played on in loose rhythm. Its tune was relaxed at first, but it steadily gained speed, urgency, and transformed into a story with a fast-approaching climax.

It diminished into soft-going orchestral after the dramatic peak, and Hoseok found himself craving more.

First Love was the final track.

The piano made its return, but it was accompanied by an unexpected guest: a voice.

The previous tracks had been instrumentals, and Hoseok realized with a start that that was not Jungkook's voice.

Gruff and mature, low-spoken and accented, the unknown singer crooned about a tragic love. Grief and joy melded into one as the instrumentals trailed beneath his voice with quiet respect, followed his rhythm, and complemented his tale of woe with benevolence.

The silence that followed the conclusion was suffocating, and Hoseok hadn't the courage to break it.

However, Jimin had no qualms with breaking them from their stunned-paralysis.

"That didn't sound like Jungkook."

Blunt and true, the fact was released into the air, unfortunately falling on deaf ears for the one person who needed that confirmation.

Hoseok startled when Jungkook suddenly approached his side, torso leaning in front of him as he stared down at the laptop's screen.

"Kook...?" Hoseok said hesitantly. "What're you doing?"

Jungkook grunted in reply, and Hoseok figured him to be a lost cause; his brooding teenager mode was on again.

Hoseok turned toward Taehyung expectantly. "Remember anything, Taehyung-ah?"

Taehyung's eyes snapped over to his the second the question left his lips. He had a one-sided stare-down with Hoseok for a moment, causing the afternoon's pin-prick of sweat to announce its return along his spine.

"Yeah," he eventually, blissfully answered.

Hoseok breathed a silent sigh of relief. Their shoddy plan had worked out somehow, and they'd (hopefully) triggered a chain of memories involving Taehyung's missing friend.

But Hoseok didn't really want to start counting his blessings. With the confirmation of Jungkook not being the one who produced the tracks, there was no telling if the person behind the music was even related to Taehyung, much less the friend they were looking for.

With bated breath, Hoseok waited for Taehyung's elaboration.

"I remember who my friend is," Taehyung confirmed.

Hoseok felt light-hearted elation float around in his chest, but the feeling was crushed when he noticed the guilty, grim line of a frown spread across the manager's face.

"My friend isn't you, Jungkook-ssi," Taehyung said, and Hoseok felt Jungkook jolt against the back of his chair. "It's someone else. A childhood friend of mine."

Hoseok gulped down the feeling of impending dread that concerned Jungkook. "Do you remember how they disappeared?"

Taehyung nodded carefully. "Yeah."

Hoseok watched as the manager's gaze flickered up to Jungkook's back for a moment, fleeting and telling all the same.

"He got caught in a demon's deal."

--

It shouldn't have been surprising. Convenience for convenience's sake wasn't a regular occurrence in Hoseok's life.

So, when Jungkook broke down in the confinements of his apartment later that evening, it shouldn't have been surprising. His mental stability had disintegrated, and he had just been written off as a nobody—again.

Hoseok stood just outside the doorway of his bedroom, watching the bundle of blankets that was Jungkook's form shudder and heave with his sobs.

He didn't know how to deal with crying people, much less crying demons.

But he wanted to try and bring comfort to the demon, if only for a short amount of time.

With a shuffle-step, Hoseok stood inside the entryway of his bedroom, still no closer to achieving his goal of emotionally comforting Jungkook. Another shuffle-step. Some more shuffling, some more stepping—

His knees braced themselves against the bedframe.

"Kook?" he breathed, officially announcing his awareness of Jungkook's current mental state.

He heard a faint gasp escape the stilled pile of blankets, promptly followed by a series of hiccupped sniffles.

"Hoseokie?" Jungkook croaked, vulnerable and shaky.

Hoseok's heart clenched. He was careful in his mounting of the mattress, sitting just beside Jungkook's covered form.

They sat like that for a while, silence blanketing them, and Jungkook shielding himself from Hoseok's patient gaze.

A/N - angst!!!!! and comfort next chapter.