Evening approached quickly afterward, Hoseok's cubicle its usual bustle of noise after days of stilted silence. Seokjin took notice, and Hoseok kind of missed his nosy coworker.
"I've meant to ask this, but since Taehyungie-nim didn't seem to have a problem with it, I figured that this was just a thing now," was the first thing Seokjin had to say to Hoseok. "But, Hoseok-ah, why is there an unregistered stranger inside your cubicle?"
Jungkook whirled around toward Seokjin with a gaping mouth. "Oh, hey! I remember you!" he said in lieu of a greeting, or perhaps an introduction.
Seokjin glanced over to Hoseok with raised brows, muted bewilderment hidden in his wide, wide eyes. Hoseok gestured between the two of them with casual formality. "Jungkook-ah, this is Seokjin-hyung. You know, the first guy I revealed you to." He grinned at Seokjin's uncomprehending expression, all twisted and unflattering. "Seokjin-hyung, this is Jungkook-ah, the demon I was telling you about last month."
Jungkook waved his hand in greeting. "Haven't seen you a while. How've you been, Seokjin?"
Seokjin sputtered in response, pointing an accusatory finger at Jungkook's relaxed form. "You?! You're the guy who's been living in Hoseok's shadow?!"
"Well, actually, I haven't been doing that lately. I heard it takes a toll on my client's body whenever I do."
"Praise the Lord, you do listen to me when I talk," Hoseok said while placing his hand over his eyes dramatically.
"Wait, wait!" Seokjin exclaimed hastily. "I thought this guy was supposed to be seen only by you! Why can I see him?"
"Some developments have happened during your absence, and Jungkook can now be seen by regular people," Hoseok explained while packing his unfinished reports and laptop into his bag. "Anyways, it was nice catching up with you, hyung, but I kinda want to get some sleep for once." He pulled his coat on and gave Seokjin a mock salute in farewell. "'Night, hyung." He slung his bag onto his back and beckoned Jimin and Jungkook to follow him in his departure. They left Seokjin to his stunned silence with little reluctance.
"That was kind of cruel, Hoseok-hyung," Jimin said once they were in the confines of the elevator.
"Nah," Hoseok rebutted. "If he really cared, he would've followed after us or pointed Jungkook out a lot sooner." They reached the ground floor and stepped out of the elevator in quick succession. "I think the gossip's running dry in our department, so he's circled back to me."
"Human relationships are much more complex than I thought," was all Jimin had to speculate on the matter.
They exited the building, and just as they were about to start their journey back toward Hoseok's apartment, a sudden call of Hoseok's name stalled them. Hoseok turned toward the voice curiously and startled when the figure that accompanied the shout turned out to be Taehyung. Running while frantically waving a parchment of paper, Taehyung approached their party with a giddy urgency.
"Hoseokie!" Taehyung shouted once again, nearly nose-to-nose with the office worker.
"Taehyung-ah?" Hoseok replied, puzzled, and stepped away from Taehyung's intrusive form. "What are you doing here? I thought you clocked out already."
Taehyung shook his head and used his free hand to grasp Hoseok's wrist. He tugged, and Hoseok had no choice but to follow the manager as he dragged them the opposite direction of Hoseok's apartment—toward the library. "I never went back after lunch, so I never clocked out," he explained with an air of impatience.
Hoseok gasped scandalously. "Taehyung! You can't just ditch work—"
Taehyung whirled around and pressed a finger to Hoseok's lips, instantly shutting him up. "That's beside the point, Hoseokie," he said sternly. Hoseok nodded his head in understanding, and Taehyung lowered his finger and turned away to continue their travel. "I did some research on those Hellmouths," he continued, pace brisk. "There was almost nothing on them, as it turned out, because they're extremely ancient and considered the laughingstock of the supernatural community, even to die-hard theorists."
He handed Hoseok the parchment he'd carried with him, and Hoseok took it with a fumbling hand, only to pass it back toward Jungkook when the wind flapped the paper senselessly. "Read that aloud, Kook," Hoseok demanded. "Nice and loud, now."
He heard Jungkook grumble something underneath his breath, but the demon complied all the same. "'Hellmouths are the true mysteries of the supernatural world,'" he began, shouting over the howling winds. "'The only recordings of their existence are found in remote locations with ominous scripts of warning written in Latin.
"'There have been six locations with the abovementioned evidence. However, researchers speculate there may be a hidden seventh. In accordance with the origin tale, the Seven Deadly Sins made their escape from Hell through these Hellmouths to spread their sin across humanity. Thus, the seventh sin's Hellmouth location has yet to be discovered and is hidden within our society.'"
By the time Jungkook had finished, they had reached the entryway of the library. Taehyung turned toward them with an expectant look, almost like he wanted their opinion on the matter. Wanted validation for his research.
Hoseok turned toward Jungkook curiously. "Well?" he approached. "Does anything in there sound like what you've learned in demon school?"
Jungkook's brow creased in extreme thought, casting a slim shadow over his hooded eyes. "Well, I can't really confirm nor deny most of the stuff here," he said eventually. "But the whole thing about Hellmouths being the seven deadly sins' exits? That's fake. Hellmouths were created when Hell was created. The sheer amount of power that was collected in such a dense and compact place ended up leaking out into some underdeveloped areas on the surface."
Hoseok hummed as he churned the information inside his head. He turned toward Taehyung apprehensively. He wasn't sure he was entirely on board with the idea of Taehyung venturing into Hell in search of his friend, which they've yet to confirm if he was actually turned into a demon or not. But he was also curious about the ideas Taehyung had in store, never one to snuff out a potential positive in a situation.
"Well, Taehyung-ah?" he questioned mildly, freeing his wrist from Taehyung's grasp with a gentle tug. "Why'd you show us that?"
Taehyung looked positively scandalized that Hoseok hadn't picked up on his hidden clue. "It's in the text!" He emphasized his insistence with a jerky movement of his arms toward the parchment still held in Jungkook's hands.
"You're gonna have to be more specific, Taehyung-ah," Hoseok said gently, sensing Taehyung's growing frustration.
Taehyung gave a broad sweep of his hands in the direction of the library building, a brilliant smile spread wide across his face. "This is where the lost Hellmouth is!"
Hoseok gave pause upon Taehyung's words. He slowly turned to face the library head-on, heard the shuffling of Jungkook and Jimin doing the same. He stared at and scrutinized each and every detail of the building.
The building itself wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Tall windows that held no latches, less chance of forced entry. A lone double-door that was currently locked due to active hours being over long before Hoseok got off work. Walls that held chipped crevices to reveal the age and aftermaths of near-annual construction that Hoseok was always semi-aware of.
He turned toward Taehyung, stumped. "I don't think you've got the right place, Taehyung-ah."
Taehyung shook his head and pointed a finger downward. "You're not looking in the right place."
Hoseok furrowed his brows and turned back toward the library, lowering his eyes toward the foundation. He was confused as to what Taehyung thought he would find looking down there. There were only the stairs leading to the door, a thick slab of concrete surrounding the building's base, a window with the curtains inside drawn, an unsightly crack—
Hoseok backtracked and narrowed in on the inconspicuous window that was placed along the supposed foundation.
"What..." he heard Jungkook breathe out from beside him.
Hoseok walked forward and kneeled down in front of the window. He rapped his knuckles against the glass, watched the streetlights waver and reflect back at him with the movement. "Why would there be a downstairs window for a building with only a ground floor...?" he wondered aloud.
"Exactly." Taehyung's voice came from right beside him, and Hoseok startled onto his ass. Taehyung steady Hoseok back onto his knees, an apologetic grin on his face. "Sorry." He turned back toward the window and inspected it with narrowed eyes. "I tried to ask the librarian on shift at the time, but she insisted that they didn't have a basement or anything of the sort," Taehyung said with a sour attitude.
"Must be a secret to the public," Hoseok mumbled.
"All the more reason to be suspicious," Taehyung concluded, standing to his feet and helping Hoseok do the same with a pull. "Let's investigate."
Hoseok scoffed in slight disbelief. "How?" He gestured toward the locked front doors. "We're locked out 'till morning."
It was then that Jungkook approached them and inspected the window himself with close observation. "What do you think the window's made of?" he questioned mildly, folding the parchment paper and placing it into his pants' back pocket.
Hoseok startled at the out of place question and leveled Jungkook with a suspicious glare. "It's probably the same cheap stuff they used in my office building." He gave a meaningful pause as Jungkook stood from his crouched place in front of the window, the demon's gaze never straying from the window. "Why do you ask?" Hoseok asked eventually, dread churning in his gut.
Jungkook turned toward Hoseok with a manic grin. "With where we're going, Hoseokie, you don't need to sweat the small stuff."
And that's the only warning he offered Hoseok before facing the window once again and kicking his sneaker straight through it.
Hoseok inhaled a sharp breath, and he felt Jimin swoon beside him. He caught the fainted angel in his arms and gently smacked his cheek with an open palm. When Jimin's eyelids began to flutter open, Hoseok helped to steady him with an unsure arm resting along the small of his back.
By the time Jimin was fully recovered and back to his heavenly judging, Jungkook had cleared the window's frame of any remaining glass. He kicked away the shards that hadn't managed to land inside and turned toward Hoseok with a dazzling smile. He bowed slightly and made a dramatic welcoming with a flare of his arms.
"After you, Hoseokie," he said pompously.
Hoseok rolled his eyes fondly at Jungkook's antics and turned toward Taehyung questioningly. "And you're sure this is the place?" he asked because he really needed confirmation before he did the entering part of the breaking-and-entering crime.
Taehyung nodded confidently, but what he had to say was less convincing: "Probably."
Hoseok was too tired to feel annoyed with Taehyung's wishy-washy judgment. He merely rolled his shoulders and slid down beside the forcibly opened window. He leaned low to the ground, his cheek nearly touching the cement of the sidewalk, and peered into the pitch basement behind the sheer curtains.
When the decision held toward him was proved no less daunting than before his inspection, Hoseok sighed wearily and pushed the sole of one of his shoes through the opening. He slid the first foot through, then the second. His legs followed in rapid succession, and he grabbed purchase from the narrow frame for a safer descent. His legs hung limply in the air for a moment before he lowered himself to his chest, and he felt the tips of his toes touch the floor of the basement. He pressed his head flat to the sidewalk and pushed through the frame until his entire body hung limply inside the basement. He released his hold on the frame and fell the few centimeters between the heels of his feet and the ground.
The first thing he noticed was the glass that crunched underneath his feet. The second thing was the draft that drifted from beyond the opened window.
"Hoseokie?" Jungkook called down, obvious worry bleeding into his voice. "Are you okay? Can you see anything suspicious?"
Hoseok huffed and wiped away some congestion with the back of his hand. He drew his coat close to his body. "Can't see for shit," he called back. "But I'm guessing there's a hole in here or something because it's a bit breezy down here."
A sudden thump from behind startled Hoseok, and he whirled around in a panic. He relaxed when he realized that it was only Jungkook joining him down in the basement. He turned back toward the rest of the room and followed after the source of the flowing air with Jungkook hot on his trail.
Two successions of glass crunching underneath shoes sounded when Taehyung and Jimin made their descent. They gathered around and wandered in close comfort, wary of losing sight of one another with an ominous threat lingering nearby.
Hoseok's hands, which were held stiff out in front of him, brushed against the musty wood of a door. He trailed his fingertips along the edges and felt his breath hitch when a cool breeze flowed between the gaps of his fingers.
"Kook," he hissed while blindly grasping for Jungkook. His finger latched onto the demon's hood, and he dragged him over with a hard tug. "I think the Hellmouth's behind this door," he said once Jungkook fell in step beside him.
He listened as Jungkook hummed contemplatively. He jerked his hand away when he felt Jungkook's hand wander the door's borders. "Yeah," Jungkook said. "This definitely feels like a Hellmouth entryway."
"Great," Taehyung said from behind. "Let's go through and save him, then."
Hoseok could see in the dim moonlight Jungkook hold his arm up to halt Taehyung in his abrupt approach. "Wait," he said. "We can't just walk into a Hellmouth."
"Why not?" Hoseok asked. Wasn't that their entire goal? he thought, miffed.
Jungkook pulled away from the door and tugged Hoseok away from it. "We need to find the key to it," he said.
"Is a Hellmouth a door?" Hoseok figured a Hellmouth would be a gaping chasm in the earth, but his little theory was quickly disproving itself when he thought back to the cool breeze that wafted through the air.
"Not necessarily," Jungkook said. He wandered the edges of the room, hugging close to the walls and feeling up the storage shelves that speckled the extensively bare areas. He released a faint gasp, the sound promptly followed by a metal object clattering against the cement floor. "Shit, I lost it. Hoseokie, can you help me find it?"
"It should just be on the floor, Kook." Despite his snarky answer, Hoseok shuffled over to where Jungkook stood and started to sweep the floor with his hands.
"The more, the merrier, guys," Taehyung said as he joined Hoseok and Jungkook on the ground.
After some fumbling minutes that led to Hoseok stubbing his finger against a shelf one too many times, Jimin eventually said from his little corner, "You know it's teleporting around the room, right?"
"Why the fuck didn't you say so earlier?" Hoseok hissed. He hastily stood to his feet and brushed off whatever remains laid on the floor he crawled upon.
"What? What's happening?" Taehyung asked as he, too, stood from the floor.
"Angle Boy's being a little shit," Jungkook supplied.
Hoseok heard Jimin mutter a complaint of his own. He sighed wearily, unable to will enough energy to deal with another bout of arguing. "Jimin-ah," Hoseok said. "Since you can see in the dark, do you think you could catch the key for us?"
"Of course, hyung," Jimin said. A shuffling of his shoes against the shattered pieces of glass promptly followed his compliance. Hoseok startled at the sudden clap the angel made, and slowly began to realize that Jimin's method of fetching was just to trap the key between his two palms before it teleported to a different location.
"Are all Hellmouth keys like this?" Hoseok wondered, bumping his shoulder with Jungkook's.
Jungkook chuckled. "No. This one managed to absorb some of the mischievous energy surrounding it."
Hoseok felt doubtful of Jungkook's explanation. How much trickery could possibly happen around a library, of all places?
Hoseok startled from his pondering when Jimin let out a victorious hoot. The dull smack of metal meeting clamped flesh followed his exclamation, and the rest of the party eagerly gathered around the proud angel.
"Good job, Jimin-ah!" Hoseok said. He grew a wide smile as Jimin placed the key into his open palm. He rubbed the rusted metal between his forefinger and thumb curiously. He handed the key over to Jungkook carefully, wary of repeating the demon's earlier mistake. "So, what now?"
Even in the dim moonlight, Jungkook's smile dazzled Hoseok into a stunned silence. "Now, we perform something you silly little humans like to call 'magic.'"
Hoseok was mildly offended by Jungkook's pompous tone, but he quickly found himself pressing his palms flat against his ears to block out the miserable sounds of Jungkook's demonic chanting. Beyond the shrieks and cries of the damned, Hoseok could hear Taehyung fall into step beside him. His face was contorted with anguish, and Hoseok wondered if he looked the same.
Hoseok hadn't realized he had screwed his eyes shut, but he was snapping them open when he felt the familiar heat of Jungkook's hand pry his own away from his ears. The demon's palms encased the shell of his ears, and after a few moments where Hoseok stood in a world of mind-numbing ringing, Hoseok's hearing popped back into reality.
"You've gotta warn me when you do that," Hoseok said. He rubbed his ears tentatively when Jungkook removed his hands and marveled at how their hearing seemed even more enhanced than the first time Jungkook had performed that ceremony. Perhaps Jungkook really was growing in power, Hoseok thought as he watched Jungkook perform the same ritual on Taehyung.
"Well," Taehyung said after regaining his hearing, "that was awful." He clapped his hands together. "Let's not do that again."
Jungkook laughed merrily. "Sure thing, Taehyung."
Hoseok bounded over toward Jungkook and peered curiously at the key the demon still held, wondered at its unusual luster. "So, what did you do that for?" he asked. Jungkook couldn't have possibly done that chant just to get rid of the rust, however useful it would be in the long run.
"I got rid of the pesky little mischief it had embedded into it," Jungkook explained. He held the key up so that the moonlight caught its silver hue, reflecting the cloudy shafts of light into Hoseok's awed eyes. "Now, we should be able to use it without any problems."
Hoseok nodded comprehendingly. "Great. Let's get moving before we get caught by somebody."
They crowded around the door eagerly. Waited with bated breath as Jungkook inserted and twisted the key in the lock.
He was just twisting the knob, a resounding creak and moan of the metal hinges echoing around them, when Jimin suddenly called out a faint "Hoseok-hyung." Hoseok startled upon the sudden breach in silence, and he whirled around toward the angel. "I don't think you should do this," Jimin continued when Hoseok turned his gaze toward him, annoyed.
"A little late there, aren't 'cha?" Jungkook mocked.
Jimin's gaze stayed steadfast to Hoseok's, so Hoseok figured to pay no mind to Jungkook's little beef, sizing up the angel's severity.
"Hoseok-hyung," Jimin continued while nearing Hoseok's tense figure. "I believe this would be in direct violation of our contract."
Hoseok nodded slowly, cautiously, wary of what was to come.
Jimin's next words were no surprise, but they still punched the air out of Hoseok's lungs.
"If you proceed to use the Hellmouth here, I will have no choice but to terminate my contract with you."
Hoseok faltered on his next words, unsure of how to approach Jimin's final warning. He was always aware of Jimin's insistence that he shouldn't involve himself any further with Jungkook's deceptive promises. But he never took them seriously, what with the regular squabbles the angel often shared between Jungkook's teasing words.
Until now.
Hoseok slowly, carefully retracted himself from the door.
"Hoseokie...?" Taehyung whispered.
Hoseok froze upon Taehyung's utterance. He'd completely forgotten that Taehyung wasn't aware of Jimin's existence.
Hoseok straightened himself out, limbs a bit numb and ache-y from the frozen air. He staggered toward Jimin, reaching out and grasping the material of the angel's shirt. "You're serious, aren't you?" he questioned, already knowing the answer.
Jimin smiled serenely. "Am I not always serious, Hoseok-hyung?"
Hoseok smiled back, lips wobbling against the force. "I've meant to ask you, but why do you call me hyung even though you're older than me?"
Jimin blinked in mild perplexion. He eventually gathered about his wits and faced Hoseok with a tender, fond look, eyes sparkling in the shying moonlight. "Oh, hyung. That's because I've always respected you from the bottom of my heart." He lifted a hand and brought it up to gently cup Hoseok's cheek, thumb stroking the faint peach fuzz that rested there. "No matter how ugly life was toward you, you persevered and bloomed even in the toughest of environments."
Jimin thumbed away the faint trail of tears that descended down Hoseok's cheek.
"Hyung," Jimin spoke softly, melding his forehead against Hoseok's. "I need your confirmation on this: Do you want to terminate your contract with me?"
Hoseok hiccupped an ugly, choked thing that reverberated inside that tiny, tiny basement room. "Why can't you just come with me, Jimin-ah?"
Jimin's eyes glowed their icy blue hue, and Hoseok knew that he had already lost. "Do you want to terminate your contract with me, Hoseok-hyung?"
Hoseok's eyelids fluttered closed as he breathed out a weak, "Yes."
The gentle weight that caressed his face, nuzzled itself against his forehead, slowly faded away. A distant "I love you, hyung," whispered in the mysterious wind, and Park Jimin was gone.
Hoseok trembled against the empty void that once held his beloved companion. His tears wouldn't stop, no matter how hard he pressed his fists against his eyes.
An arm wrapped itself around his shuddering shoulders, and he tucked himself into Jungkook's familiar side. He hiccupped and gasped into the demon's chest, clutching the fabric of his shirt tightly in his fists. Unwilling to let go, to lose another one of his beloved friends.
When he no longer had the energy to cry, Hoseok pulled away from Jungkook's comfort and faced the door, key still locked in place where Jungkook had abandoned it. Hoseok willed himself to move forward, to clasp his hand tight around the knob. To open the door and gaze into the gaping maw of the Hellmouth.
"Hoseokie," Jungkook whispered from behind him, sympathetic and awkward. "It would be best if...I led the way. So that you don't get trapped by the souls of the damned."
Hoseok released a stuttered sigh and moved from the doorway. He felt the comforting heat of Jungkook's body brush past his own as he took the lead. He shuddered against the soothing hand that intertwined with his own, squeezed it tight as he grounded himself to reality, as he braced himself for all that was to come.
Taehyung approached from behind, stilted and out of the loop. Nevertheless, Hoseok appreciated the steady hand that curled around his free one.
When his breathing had evened out, when his eyes had finally cleared themselves of regretful tears, Hoseok gave the go-ahead nod toward Jungkook. Jungkook took the initiative and muttered something quiet and soft in his demonic language. The words were brief enough to cause only a slight jolt in Hoseok's hearing, and by the time Jungkook was moving toward the Hellmouth, Hoseok was already aware of the thousands of whispers that swarmed from the gaping chasm.
Hoseok immediately halted, frightened by the foreign caresses against his ears, subsequently suspending Jungkook from further progress.
"Hoseokie?" Jungkook said while squeezing Hoseok's hand in silent assurance. "Hoseokie, it's alright. They won't hurt you with me around."
Hoseok slowly, surely untensed and yielded to Jungkook's gentle tugging. He followed in step with the demon, Taehyung behind him with close comfort. Hoseok's arms stretched and bent awkwardly as they passed through the doorway, hands still clutched like a life-line.
They stood around the edge of the Hellmouth in a half-circle, all anticipation and trepidation. Hoseok's eyelids fluttered against the icy breeze, heart stuttered at the midnight void in front of him.
I love you, hyung.
Hoseok breathed in deeply and pushed off the edge.
A/N - angst!!!!!