a/n: sorry this took so long :(
[ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 ]
"Taehyung remember to grab your luggage," I called out, giving him a pointed look as I took a large bite from the corner of a slightly charred slice of toast. The boy nodded obediently, grabbing his suitcase and double checking that all his belongings were tightly secured inside.
Today was moving day. The day in which we had to leave this place. I was peppered with small bouts of melancholy as I skimmed my hand across the back of the sofa, feeling the soft velvet under my fingers. We had all had fun here and, until MediHeal had come along and shattered the facade into a million splinters, we were like normal teenagers. Like roommates sharing a flat at university. As if we were all normal.
"I still don't understand why we have to leave this early," Yoongi yawned, clunking down the stairs with blatant annoyance. He looked like he had only just rolled out of bed, his hair askew and his belt hung loosely through the loops on his jeans but still managing to cling Holly close to his chest. That dog was the only bit of life in his house, chasing his balls around and destroying any piece of accessible furniture. Yoongi was the only one who could seem to control the little devil from dismantling everything in its path.
"Well if it were up to you, we would never leave," Jimin teased, leaning over to snatch the last piece of toast before the other boy could even reach the final step. He raised his eyebrow with a teasing smile on his face. "You'll have to make your own breakfast."
The older cursed, a slightly peeved scowl on his face, as he pulled open the kitchen cupboard and peered in. "Where did all the cereal go?"
He poked his head round the door frame and sent a suspicious look towards Taehyung who sat, rather guiltily, on the living room rug. "There was only a bit left. Plus, Hoseok drank all the milk."
Just as if he had somehow heard his summoning, the aforementioned boy also entered the room with the glass of milk that Taehyung had only just previously mentioned. The look on Yoongi's face was pure thunder.
"Is everyone ready to leave?" Hoseok asked obliviously yet still cautious of the boy sending him daggers, choosing to stand next to Jimin and take a small sip from the glass.
"We're just waiting for Namjoon; I think he's just loading the car."
There was a collective sigh as the realisation that we all had to suffer through another boring road trip. Travelling for hours in a hot sweaty vehicle was not exactly a comforting idea.
"You all ready?" Namjoon asked, sliding open the kitchen door with a pair of car keys hanging from his forefinger. It looked like he hadn't slept again, the purple circles of his eyes bulging under the skin and I wondered if we should be trusting this man with the task of driving. It looked as though he would fall asleep at the wheel only minutes into the journey. However, not everyone seemed to share my concern and Jimin jumped up unknowingly, strolling forwards and reaching for the door handle.
"I shotgun front seat," he announced, just as he slid past Namjoon and hopped down the gravel driveway.
Yoongi cursed in the realisation that he had just been scammed, launching out of his seat and rocketing after the boy with a flurry of profanities following him. I had never seen the boy act so quickly; normally he preferred to act on 0.5x speed. Namjoon just watched them in exasperation, pinching his forehead as he understood what the day would come down to. Chaos, absolute chaos.
"Come on Taehyung, I'll help you with your suitcase." Hoseok reached down and, with the help of the younger, they shuffled the luggage across the room. Taehyung appeared to be struggling, heaving the bag along as though the was pulling a dead body whereas Hoseok was shuffling along with ease. I suppose that was to be expected after all, the man does work out.
"You ready to go Hayeon?" Namjoon asked softly, peering into the adjacent room and double checking that all the lights were turned off.
"Yes, I think so."
I pulled the straps of my backpack tighter, feeling a sharp corner of Jungkook's sketchbook digging into my back, letting out a sigh. I was finding the idea of leaving quite painful even though it was a must needed change. There were a lot of bad memories haunting this place but similarly, there were a lot of good ones if you could overlook the obvious effects of MediHeal's ambush. The skewed painting, the broken lampshade, the small shards of glass that had been overlooked during cleaning, the carpet still stained brown with the dried blood of Taehyung's wound. It was all too much to cope with.
With one last look at the place I had spent the last few months, I pulled the door close until the satisfying click of the lock clicking into place rang out through the garden. This was it- a new beginning. An end to this story.
Knowing that if I was going to reminisce for much longer I would ultimately end up in floods of tears, I hastily turned away and stormed towards the car and pulled open the door without even glancing at the person who sat next to me. Turns out, I had managed to score a seat next to Taehyung (who hopefully wouldn't feel nauseous this time) sat besides Hoseok. Luckily, there was a large armrest between all three of us and I knew that Taehyung was a safe enough distance away from me. On the other hand, Yoongi had chose to sprawl out on the backseat all by himself and, in my opinion, it was arguably better then the passenger seat.
Namjoon slid into the front seat, plugging the keys into the ignition whilst simultaneously reaching over to plug his seat belt in. Just as he was about to set off, he leaned over the head rest and passed an object over to Taehyung.
The boy gasped, realising that the older boy had retrieved Jungkook's Nintendo DS that he almost forgotten. "Namjoon hyung, you're a lifesaver."
Namjoon huffed, pretending to scold the boy, but probably feeling quite proud of himself. "You're lucky I spotted it."
Without another word, the boy revved the car and we rumbled over the potholes in the driveway, watching as the gravel dust swirled over the windscreen. When we finally reached the main road, becoming just another car in the masses I felt as though I could finally breathe for the first time. In fact, began to notice the small things I hadn't even bothered to try and observe only hours before: the blistering scab on the side of my hand, the way in which Jimin kept trying to crack a joke and then winced when it didn't get the reaction he was expecting, the consecutive snores from Yoongi who appeared to have fallen asleep in a puddle of his own drool and the tapping of Taehyung's nails on the screen of his DS.
As the journey continued and as Yoongi continued to enjoy his own world of sleep, Hoseok reached behind him and pulled something away from boy, his head popping up only seconds later with a confused dog in his arms. Holly whined angrily, shuffling away from the older man deciding to hop across Taehyung's lap, stopping to sniff the stain on his knee, before wiggling his way into my lap. I couldn't help but smile, lifting my hand and tapping his head affectionally as I felt the soft brown curls beneath my fingers. I realised that I hadn't been the most accommodating person to the dog but he made everyone, specifically Yoongi, a lot happier.
The dog continued to sit on my lap, tongue lolling out his mouth as he tilted his head and watched the cars zoom past one by one until, even that seemed to tire him out as he choose to flop into one big heap. I couldn't help but giggle, happy that he had decided that I was the one worthy of his presence.
"The dog likes you," Hoseok laughed, only slightly bitter that the dog didn't seem to appreciate his loud antics all that much.
"What can I say? Holly loves me."
There was a grunt from the backseat as the seat creaked, Yoongi letting out an unpleasant yawn. "Who does Holly love? Because if it's anyone but me, I'll knock their lights out."
Hoseok belted out a laugh. "You should be worried; Hayeon and Holly look pretty smitten to me."
The boy started shouting so abruptly that the entirety of the car jumped in shock, Namjoon even swerving the car slightly. "What the hell are you doing?"
Yoongi was glaring at the boy with so much hatred that I was genuinely concerned that a fight would abrupt in the back of the car whilst, on the other hand, Hoseok blinked like a confused newborn puppy.
"Give me Holly. Now." Yoongi snarled, suddenly turning to look at me with wide eyes.
"Oh, ok," I mumbled, picking up the sleeping animal and carefully surrendering my new friend over to the fuming boy. As soon as his hand had wrapped around the dog's torso, he hastily pulled him from my grip and lifted him up as though he was examining him for something.
"What's going on Yoongi?" Hoseok asked, echoing the question that we were all thinking. I know I wasn't Holly's 'number one fan' or anything but I had treated him nicely enough, even allowing him to get his hair and muddy paw prints all over my nice jeans. If anything, Yoongi should be thanking me for keeping his dog entertained.
"She was hurting him," Yoongi muttered, clutching the dog close to his chest as though it was a vulnerable child.
Hoseok just blinked, opening and closing his mouth in bewildered awe.
"She wasn't hurting him Yoongi, he was with her for like the last two hours. He was loving it," Jimin mused from the front seat, an almost bitter undertone in his voice. I think that he had been hoping that Yoongi would stay asleep a bit longer so that he could be the next one to steal Holly's affection.
"He was?" Yoongi pulled the dog away slightly and for the first time since the conversation had started and realised that he was absolutely, perfectly fine. "Oh."
"What was that even about?" Hoseok chuckled, popping a piece of gum into his mouth, screwing up the wrapper and lobbing it in a random direction. I could see Namjoon scowl in the wing mirror. "Did you think Hayeon was going to mutilate the poor animal or something?"
"Yes," Yoongi replied as though it made perfect sense. Everyone paused, even Taehyung stopped to look up from his game of animal crossing, and gave him the most befuddled stares I had ever witnessed. I probably shared the same reaction.
The boy sighed loudly in exasperation, realising that whatever had gone him so fired up was something that only he had bothered to consider. "Hayeon hurts people, I assumed the same would apply to dogs."
I cringed at his choice of words, the regret pooling in the bottom of my stomach, but also felt slightly intrigued by the boy's revelation. He was right; theoretically, the dog shouldn't have been able to touch me without consequences and the realisation seemed to hit everyone simultaneously.
Namjoon gasped, hitting the wheel in excitement, causing the car to once more teeter to the side. "That is brilliant!"
"I don't understand. What does that even mean?"
"It means that there's hope," Hoseok replied brightly, looking towards Namjoon as though he was expecting him to agree.
"It means more than that," Namjoon breathed, staring out into the road blankly. "There are two explanations and each are equally powerful."
There was a silent pause, even Yoongi had stopped fussing around with Holly with a peak in interest. Those few seconds, waiting for Namjoon to hand me my fate on a silver platter, were some the scariest of my life. If he revealed something worse than what I had already claimed for myself, I wasn't sure how I would handle it. Either way, the anticipation was killing me.
"If the dog isn't hurt by your enhancement, it might mean that it doesn't hurt all living things," he pointed out, a slight waver in his voice. "You might even be able to make contact with humans.
I blinked and blurted out, rather stupidly, "but you're human."
Namjoon didn't seem to mind my blatantly obvious statement. "Are we? I mean, we look human but our DNA is probably quite different from your average human. We're unsure of what causes the enhancements but it has to be something to do with altering the genetic code. Maybe, if you're lucky, humans without enhancements will be safe."
"But that's not something I can experiment with? I can't just go walking up to people and potentially causing them harm."
"Well no," he mused, rather admittedly, "but you might not need to. If that particular theory is wrong, perhaps Holly was immune because you didn't intend or want to hurt her..."
"As though you can switch it off," Yoongi blurted, rather out of character. "Ha, you're basically a walking deterrent."
"Oh great, just what I want to be." 'Walking deterrent' wasn't exactly a flattering name and I cursed Yoongi for finding amusement in my suffering.
Hoseok noticed my slight fury and smiled lopsidedly. "Hey Hayeon! This is a good thing; if you can turn it off, you might be able to have some sort of control over it. I can help you, if you want?"
"Help?"
He smirked. "How does extra training sound?"