For plot, Hosuh Stephen and Daniel all live close to another
Hosuh grabbed his earphones, sitting at his desk with a small smile. He plugged his headphones in his phone, tapping the screen until the familiar discord logo flash onto the screen.
"Hey guys!" He spoke into the microphone. Currently, on the server, Dan and Stephen were online. He entered just as Stephen said "fight" , but decided not to question it.
"Oh hello my good Hosuh!" Stephen greeted enthusiastically, his voice loud in his ears.
"Hey!" Dan returned, his voice cackling at his end of the microphone. Hosuh smiled, twisting his hair subconsciously in his fingers. He let out a tired yawn; his day had been stressful, with the pressure of exams building on him, it was nice to hear his friends, though they werent with him at that current time. They had decided to go to a studying session. He could feel his tense mind relax, and he smiled wider.
"I just was wondering how you guys were doing." Hosuh said, scrolling through his messages. There was nothing new. "I haven't seen you guys in ages, so..."
"Of course you were wondering about us." Dan laughed loudly. "You always ask us the same question each day."
"I just like to check." Hosuh replied, smiling.
"Well I am doing swimmingly." Stephen answered. A dull thud came from his end of the line. "Oh no! No no no!" Stephen's voice rose to slight panic, and he let out a string of curses.
"Language Stephen!" Hosuh scolded as Dan's louder voice overlapped.
"What did you do?" He asked.
"I spilt my tea!" Stephen's voice was muffled.
"Ahh, no!" Hosuh laughed. Dan joined in.
"You're drinking tea?"
"It's that nice one that Hosuh makes!" Stephen defended. Hosuh could feel himself blush.
"You made my tea?" He asked.
"Yeah, it's not as good as yours but I liked it so..." Hosuh could hear a crash at Stephen's end.
"What did you do?" Daniel was still in hysterics, his voice mainly drowned by his laughter. Stephen began to curse louder, and Hosuh gasped.
"My ears!" He shouted, grinning. Though they couldn't see, he clamped his hands over his ears. "The purify of this foul language is defending me!"
"Don't listen Hosuh!" Daniel yelled. "We need to keep you innocent!"
"My cup smashed so I think I am very justified." Stephen's voice was back.
"Jesus we need to keep you in check." Daniel joked to Stephen; Hosuh laughed as Stephen began to rant at Daniel about how exactly he was justified.
"Guys, guys!" Hosuh interrupted, laughing just as Stephen yelled something about his voice being God's own. "It's okay now I've recovered!"
"My dear Hosuh, I was just trying to prove why exactly Daniel is garbage." Stephen said dramatically. Daniel laughed and Hosuh joined in.
"I don't think Daniel is garbage." Hosuh pointed out. Daniel laughed again.
"Thank you Hosuh."
"Anytime Dan."
"Hosuh I thought you were on my side!" Stephen pretended to be offended, huffing in what was supposed to be an angry way.
"Ah no I'm sorry Stephen!" He could hear Daniel laugh in the background.
"You will be."
"Moving swiftly on!" Daniel interrupted, still giggling, "I have a few ideas for our next By The Way video...so would you like to know?"
"Let us hear your secrets Dan!" Hosuh said eagerly as Stephen agreed. Dan laughed.
"Ok so I was thinking of doing a Hunger Games one, or maybe like a jungle surviving one or –"
"Another survival one?" Stephen asked critically, and Hosuh could practically hear the raised eyebrow. Daniel paused, and Hosuh shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The comment seemed a little harsh, but he thought that Stephen was joking. Surely Daniel saw that too?
"What do you mean by that?" Daniel's voice was guarded, and Hosuh could hear slight hurt in it. He raked a hand through his hair, ready to solve this mess, when Stephen replied in a dismissive fashion.
"I just think that we have done that a lot, like that idea has been overused –"
"Look, it's hard to come up with new video ideas, okay?" Daniel's voice rose. Hosuh bit his lip.
"Dan, I'm sure that Stephen didn't mean to offend you –" Hosuh began to try and ease the tension but Stephen wasn't listening.
"You can come up with other things though right? I mean half the time we do movies so why can't you just –" Stephen shouted. Daniel interrupted, voice sharp in Hosuh's ears.
"Why don't you do it then?! I don't see you coming up with any ideas!"
The argument grew louder but it sounded like white noise to Hosuh. He briefly thought it was another prank, but it sounded too real, too raw. His chest tightened and he dug his nails in his desk in an act to keep himself anchored to the matter in hand.
"Guys, just stop –" he began, but once again he wasn't heard.
"Well then why don't you just quit the channel!" Daniel yelled. Hosuh felt his breath catch in his throat. What Stephen said next made him freeze.
"Maybe I will!"
Hosuh knew he should stop the situation from escalating any further. He knew that he should not hang up from the conversation and have a breakdown.
But his fingers moved before the thoughts flashed in his mind, hitting the red button at the bottom of the screen. He yanked his earphones out and sank to the floor, breathing deeply. Thoughts spun wildly out of control, and to Hosuh they were screaming in his ears.
The room felt too small, and the air felt too tight. He stood up abruptly, dropping his phone onto the carpet. He didn't bother grabbing a coat as he slipped outside into the cold air, just letting his feet lead the way.
—
"Maybe I will!" Stephen shouted, trying to hide a laugh. A message appeared on his screen from Daniel.
I can't stay serious much longer. It read. Stephen grinned.
"Fine!" Daniel shouted back, and Stephen could hear the tremor of laughter in his voice.
At first, he thought pranking Hosuh a third time would be an okay idea – something to kill his boredom – but now he was on the brink of laughter; he almost gave it away before as he was discussing the plan with Dan, unaware that Hosuh had dropped in the voice chat.
Pretend to fight.
Confuse Hosuh.
Done.
Daniel burst out laughing at the other end of the mic, and Stephen quickly joined in. He heard Daniel splutter an explanation, and he calmed down slightly to explain it better.
"Hosuh, we –" he cut off, frowning.
"What?" Daniel asked. He heard a gasp, and he guessed he noticed the same thing.
Hosuh wasn't online.
The door opened and Daniel walked into the room – they had decided to go into separate areas so Hosuh couldn't hear their voices overlapping.
"When did he go?" Daniel asked. His once face was now creased with trepidation and guilt. Stephen felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"I think it was when I said I would leave the channel...I thought it was just a background noise, not..." Stephen ran a hand over his face. Daniel began to dial on his phone, biting his lip.
"I'm calling him, don't worry." He reassured. Stephen watched, counting the seconds it took for Hosuh to answer.
He was counting for a long time.
"Come on, pick up..." Daniel muttered. The phone went to voice mail. "Damn it!"
"We got to go see him." Stephen grabbed his jacket, and Daniel followed. He was still trying to call Hosuh as they walked in silence to his house – Stephen was out of breath when they got there.
At this point it had been almost twenty minutes, and still all the response they got from Hosuh was his voice mail. As the expressionless voice told them again that Hosuh wasn't picking up the phone, Stephen opened the door, surprised to see it open.
"It wasn't locked?" Daniel asked, hanging up. Stephen didn't answer, stepping into the house.
"Hosuh?" Daniel called, peering into the living room. He rang Hosuh again as Stephen went into the hall.
A sharp ringing caught their attention, and they looked around, searching for the source of the noise.
"Up there." Daniel pointed, running up the stairs. Stephen followed, slipping into Hosuh's room.
"Look." Daniel was still holding the phone in his hand. Stephen looked, and his stomach twisted with hot guilt.
Hosuh's phone was lying on the floor, ringing repeatedly. Hosuh himself was nowhere to be seen.
"He thought we were actually arguing." Daniel muttered, hanging up again. The other phone stopped ringing. "Jesus, I feel horrible. We're never pranking Hosuh again."
Stephen nodded. "We need to find him." He looked at Daniel, who was already stepping out of the doorway. "Any idea of where he could be?" Daniel paused, mid-step.
"The park, maybe?" Daniel looked out of the window. "It might be peaceful enough for him there."
"Let's go."
—
Hosuh sank next to a tree, trembling. He was glad no one was in the park, or they would see him having a near anxiety attack a few metres from the picnic benches. He felt a few tears roll down his cheeks as his chest tightened again, restricting his breathing. He ran a hand through his hair in a futile attempt to calm himself, leaning back against the trunk.
"Hosuh!" Hosuh jumped, turning his head. He let out a choked gasp as he saw Stephen and Daniel running towards him, cutting through the grass.
"You guys...made up?" He asked in confusion, looking from one friend to the other. Both Stephen and Dan looked guilty, but it was mostly masked by the worry.
Hosuh didn't feel ready to stand up, fearing that his legs would give out underneath him; instead Daniel and Stephen sat on either side of him, Dan placing a hand on his shoulder.
"It was just a stupid prank." Stephen muttered after a few moments of silence. Hosuh looked at him, suddenly feeling humiliated. He gave a laugh that sounded pathetic even to his own ears.
"Oh...right."
"It was a stupid one." Daniel looked angry with himself, tightening his grip on Hosuh's shoulder.
"We should never have done it." Stephen added. Hosuh didn't know where to look, so settled on staring at his hands. He couldn't work up an answer, his mind still processing the information. He didn't feel much anger, he realised, only relief. Stephen wasn't leaving the channel, DanPlan was still very much active – and he was relieved for that.
"It's fine..." Hosuh reassured. He pressed his fingernails into his palm.
"No it wasn't. And it's still not." Daniel said. Stephen moves closer, giving Hosuh a small smile.
"I'm never leaving DanPlan." He said calmly. "I don't have anything better to do." Hosuh gave a weak smile.
"Yeah, because we all don't have any lives it's a guarantee that we will be doing this at our deathbeds." Dan gave a short laugh.
"And probably beyond that too." Hosuh smiled fully, looking up at them. "We would just haunt discord as ghosts, putting ourselves in stupid situations."
Stephen laughed.
"Sounds about right."