Taehyung's clue led them back to the library, but instead of going in blind and reading their minuscule amount of legitimate sources, they found themselves wandering the shelves of autobiographies.
"I remember him writing in a journal," Taehyung spoke as his eyes wildly scanned the author's names on the books' spines. "He said that he mostly used it to draft lyrics, but I read it once, and the first few pages actually held his life story. Like, he was writing about how he first fell in love with the piano and how his passion for music deepened as time went on.
"Anyways, he didn't get to publish it himself in the end, obviously." A flash of sorrow broke through Taehyung's forcibly calm expression, and Hoseok's breath faltered at the raw emotion of it all. He shook it off and continued to browse the shelves. "As it turns out, I published it. Like, the day right before he got...erased..."
As the words escaped his parted lips, Hoseok knew that Taehyung had already processed the implications of his past actions. He watched with sympathy in his gaze as Taehyung's step stalled and stiffened with horror, as his breathing became erratic and mortified.
Maybe it was the experience of the previous night's events that fueled his actions, but Hoseok found himself lunging forward and embracing Taehyung's crumbling form. He dragged the manager's limp body over to the cramped space between the two Romance genre shelves and slowly eased their intertwined bodies to the ground. He hugged Taehyung's back close to his chest and hooked his chin over the manager's shoulder. He watched from his peripheral as Taehyung's expression refused to crumble, as it just stayed in a state of mortified disbelief.
"It's not your fault, you know." Hoseok slowly lifted his gaze from Taehyung's face up to Jungkook's, who towered over the both of them with quiet sympathy. Hoseok nudged Taehyung until the manager finally raised his eyes to Jungkook's. "It's your friend's fault," Jungkook continued with profound conviction. "If he'd listened to the demon's deal, then he wouldn't have told you at all about the damned journal. He also wouldn't have told you to publish it, which I'm guessing from experience, he probably did."
Taehyung nodded in solemn confirmation. "But it wasn't underhanded...!" he argued feebly, like a child in denial.
Hoseok frowned at Taehyung's profile before slowly bringing his gaze back toward Jungkook. "Yeah," he said after a moment of contemplation. "Getting publicity through your own work, whether it's from your intended source of profession or not, isn't sneaky in the least. Sure, he probably felt it was and asked Taehyung-ah to do it in fear of punishment, but that couldn't have possibly been the reason for his...erasure."
Jungkook gave a look a pity, and Hoseok felt an immediate weight drop to his gut. "That's the thing... Humans create their own sins, Hoseokie." He crouched down to their level, eye-to-eye with Hoseok's dawning look of realization. "So, if they consider it wrong, then, we, the creations of humans' past sins, count it as such."
Hoseok's mouth went dry at the information.
All this time, he'd thought his feelings for Taehyung would be the cause of his inevitable downfall. But because of that mindset, that thinking process that Jungkook himself had planted into him, he was already considered a sinner. Thankfully, he hadn't technically broken the conditions of his and Jungkook's deal, so no repercussions had taken place. Taehyung's friend hadn't been so lucky, though...
"So, what?" Hoseok finally said, finding his voice after a moment's struggle. "Taehyung-ah's friend got tricked into becoming a sinner because he already thought he was?"
Jungkook answered with a grim nod.
Palpable tension filled in the cracks of silence. Hoseok clung tight to Taehyung's torso, grounding himself to the reality of him meeting the same fate as the manager's friend. Hoseok was mildly aware of Jungkook's stare still trained on him, probably expecting him to take hold of the situation and get them moving before his lunch shift ended. But his mind was just...too tired to even comprehend the thought of moving forward, of going past that single moment in time.
Fortunately, Taehyung had no issue with the matter.
Hoseok let out a startled sort of yelp that muted itself when Taehyung's shoulder knocked into his jaw. He jerked himself away from Taehyung as the manager hoisted himself off the floor and free of Hoseok's embrace
"So, he didn't do anything inherently wrong," Taehyung stated coolly as he towered above both Hoseok and Jungkook, the latter staring up at the manager with bulging eyes.
"Uh." Jungkook looked toward Hoseok with a helpless look, and all the office worker could manage back was an awkward, encouraging quirk of his lips. "Well, when considering the terms of his deal, no. He didn't breach any sort of contract."
Jungkook's answer was sound, and Hoseok agreed with him, but Taehyung's body still held a vigorous sort of tension in itself, as though he wasn't satisfied. "Then, that means he doesn't deserve to be down there."
Hoseok jolted to attention at Taehyung's words, though his brain was slow to churn the unspoken implications hidden behind them. "Wait, Taehyung-ah, what are you saying...?"
Taehyung walked away, pace brisk, without addressing Hoseok's timid question. Hoseok watched as Taehyung's figure was quick to duck behind the autobiography shelves yet again. He slowly turned toward Jungkook, the office worker's gradual realization mirrored in the demon's wide-eyed expression.
They were hasty to follow after Taehyung when his words finally hit them.
They found him crouched down in a visibly abandoned corner of the library, subtle layers of dust lining the shelves and books. Taehyung held one such book in his hands, worn with time but not with mistreatment; tender love and care were shown in the finely written notes of dedications, hand-written, and lack of creases in the pages. The book was dwarfed in Taehyung's hands, but the content it held filled from the outer brackets down to the cut-off space at the bottom of the pages.
A journal.
It looked like a journal.
Hoseok felt queasy.
"Were you...looking for that?" Hoseok heard Jungkook ask from beside him. The demon sounded just as uneasy about the whole situation as he felt.
Taehyung met their wary gazes with finely controlled fury. "Yes." The answer was short, curt. It hurt Hoseok more than it should have—to have Taehyung act distant and cold in his understood rage. "This is his journal," Taehyung continued. He displayed the cover, a simple midnight leather coat with no other embroidery or decoration to give away it was an actual novel.
Hoseok swallowed back the rising panic that roared in his ears. "What do you need it for?" he asked, dumb and shallow.
Taehyung's scowl softened, and Hoseok figured he must've looked pathetic enough to be pitied. Taehyung lowered the book to his lap, and his gaze grew distant before he spoke. "I want...to go to Hell."
Jimin, their silent companion up until that point, was the first to react.
"Don't!" he blurted, panicked frenzy making him ignorant of his unnoticeable existence. "Don't say that, oh my goodness!"
Hoseok placed a calming hand onto Jimin's shoulder, instantly mollifying the crazed angel. Hoseok spared a glance toward Jungkook to gauge his reaction, both to Taehyung's statement and Jimin's outburst. He was surprised to find that Jungkook was neither eager nor infuriated by their two other companion's wishes. Instead, the demon held terror in his eyes and horror on his breath, a slight wheeze with every puff.
Hoseok didn't know who to approach first.
Taehyung was proposing a mind-boggling whim that would most likely end with his soul being consumed. Yeah, that was a major concern that Hoseok should most definitely deter him from doing. But, Jungkook looked like he was about to experience another break-down, and they really didn't need to deal with that in a library of all places.
Hoseok's gaze lingered on the stock-still posture of Jungkook's stance, before he took a deep breath and faced Taehyung with conviction.
"No," he said, stern and terrified all the same.
Taehyung startled from his yard-long stare and turned toward Hoseok with wide, disbelieving eyes. "Excuse me?" he said after a moment of floundering, and, wow, Hoseok was not used to a flabbergasted Taehyung.
Hoseok took another shaky, grounding breath and revved up his half-formed argument. "Going to Hell won't solve anything, Taehyung-ah. Your friend has already had his soul consumed, or he's already been turned into a demon. And, as far as I know, a demon can't revert back into a human, no matter what they try to do." Hoseok felt his features furl in on themselves the longer Taehyung fixed him with a hurt expression. "S-so, there's no point in going to Hell, Taehyung-ah," he concluded with a quieter conviction than when he began. "Your friend's gone, and there's...really nothing you can do to save him."
A beat of silence passed between the group. Hoseok felt like he shouldn't be the only one stating his argument. Jungkook could back him up with facts he confirmed himself. Jimin could reinforce his demand that Taehyung should absolutely not go anywhere near Hell.
With those hopes and silent commands in mind, Hoseok was relieved when he noticed Jungkook shift from his peripheral.
"Not everything you said was true, Hoseokie."
Hoseok felt both betrayed and confused.
"You were the one who told me that demons can't redeem themselves no matter what they do," Hoseok hissed, fury boiling and replacing the panic that pulsed through his blood.
Jungkook turned his gaze toward him in a slow blink. "When?"
Hoseok paused, thought back to every single one of Jungkook's explanations of demons and Hell, and came up blank. He slumped in silent defeat.
"There is a way," Jungkook continued, satisfaction with Hoseok's surrender noticed in the upward quirk of his lips, "for demons to 'become' human again, so to speak."
Hoseok watched as Taehyung seemed to instantly perk up at the information, and the office worker couldn't help but silent his complaints upon the demon's words. "What is it?" Taehyung demanded, hastily standing from his place against the bookshelf.
Jungkook seemed to hesitate on his next words, and dread instantly filled Hoseok's mind. "The demon would have to reconnect with his past," he explained carefully, slowly, as though Taehyung could lose track of such valuable information. "If he's exposed to a piece of his past long enough, he'll gain enough power to perform a ritual that turns him back into a human."
Hoseok, who'd been nodding along to the explanation thoughtlessly, stilled, and processed Jungkook's words. "Wait, that's what you meant when you said that demons get their 'individuality' the stronger they get?" Had Jungkook been feeding him vague pieces of information the entire time? Or was a simple misunderstanding on Hoseok's part?
Jungkook seemed startled by his outburst. He gave Hoseok a long, hard stare before uttering, "Not necessarily." He released a quiet breath, as though already thoroughly exhausted with his own explanation. "Yes, a demon's power grows stronger the longer he or she is exposed to his or her past. But, just because they have a sense of individuality, it doesn't mean they actually have it.
"The ritual required to turn a demon into a human will sap up all of their individuality, but not their humanity, and turn them into a...doll, of sorts. They start from zero, like a new-born, and work their way back toward complete maturity.
"It's just a really long, annoying process," he concluded with a roll of his eyes. "That's why I never brought it up. Well, that and I'd honestly forgotten about it."
Hoseok rose a brow. "What, do demons not usually want to go back to being human?"
"Oh, no, they do," Jungkook hurriedly said. "It's just that the ritual is kind of ancient, and it's not stated in any official books or anything. So the only way a demon would even know about it is if they asked one of the seven original demons."
Hoseok narrowed his eyes. "You mean...the seven deadly sins?"
"Yeah, that's their formal title."
Hoseok was about to give another wry comment about how much demons really did influence human knowledge before Taehyung suddenly stood from his spot in the corner. Hoseok turned toward Taehyung with a startled gaze and gulped down his immediate question of concern when he noticed the impassioned flame of hope blazing in the manager's eyes.
"That's it!" Taehyung exclaimed, startling the rest of the group members.
"...What?" Jungkook asked after a pause, nobody else having the courage to break the stumped silence.
Taehyung rounded on him with a broad smile, and Hoseok laughed when Jungkook stumbled backward in a flustered attempt to escape. "The ritual!" Taehyung insisted, and Hoseok finally caught on to what Taehyung was trying to do. "We'll just make him do the ritual after spending time with me!"
Hoseok felt Jimin falter underneath his palm. "He can not be serious," Jimin breathed, voice weak with shock. "Going to Hell...? An innocent human? That's unheard of..."
Hoseok stepped forward, Jimin's words echoing inside his head: unheard of. "But there's no way to get there without already being caught in a demon's deal, Taehyung-ah." He rounded on Jungkook with a suspicious glare. "Unless there's something else you haven't told me..."
Jungkook's sheepish grin gave away the answer.
--
The answer was called a Hellmouth, as it turned out.
Hoseok wasn't able to learn everything he apparently needed to know about those during his actual lunch shift. In fact, by the time Jungkook finally stopped meandering around and saying things like, I don't understand how you don't know stuff like this already, and, There really wasn't a single book you've read that mentioned these things? it was five minutes past Hoseok's official lunch shift.
Hoseok had rushed out the library with half a burger shoved in his mouth, not even sparing Taehyung a proper goodbye in his panic.
"You know," Jungkook began when Hoseok was bent over, hand-on-knees, panting, "the whole reason I got you a new manager was so that you could have a more relaxed work schedule. Taehyung's your manager. He wouldn't have cared if you skipped the rest of your shift if it meant you spent your time helping him turn his friend back into a human."
Hoseok, having finally caught his breath, spared Jungkook's reflection in the elevator's doors a harmless glare before they yawned open to his office floor. "Taehyung-ah may be my manager, but he's also twenty other people's manager." He swiped his I.D. along the scanner and waved a passing greeting toward an intrigued Seokjin. "I can't have my entire floor thinking the manager favors me," he hissed once they entered his cubicle.
"But he does?" Jungkook's innocent speculation came out coy, and Hoseok glared at the mischievous glint in his significantly less swollen eyes. "Oh, don't give me that look. I hired him with the intention that he favored you, so it's no use denying the reality of your situation."
Hoseok huffed and fell down into his office chair. "That doesn't mean I want my coworkers to be aware of our little deal. I'm trying to be low-key about this, believe it or not."
Jungkook smiled and walked forward until his shins braced themselves against Hoseok's knees. "Oh, yes. You're extremely subtle, what with your near-constant yelling in your supposedly empty cubicle and near-daily outings with the manager, accompanied by someone who isn't even an employee of this building."
Hoseok scoffed and aimed a kick at Jungkook's legs in petty retaliation. It missed as Jungkook side-stepped out of the way with a hearty cackle. "Whatever," Hoseok muttered. "Just tell me some more about these Hellmouth things."
"They're bad news," Jimin piped up from the cubicle's entryway, startling Hoseok. "Thanks for leaving me behind, by the way."
"Hoseokie was in a hurry," Jungkook taunted. "Try to keep up with your own client, Angle Boy."
Hoseok watched the minute twitch of Jimin's eyebrow as he attempted to temper his irritation. "I'm just going to ignore you for now." Jimin's gaze fell on Hoseok with a stern sort of look. "Hoseok-hyung, don't even think about using a Hellmouth to go to Hell. Those things are not only unstable but also in near-isolated locations. They're not worth your time."
Hoseok held his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, now. I wasn't the one who wanted to go to Hell in the first place. You should be lecturing Taehyung-ah right now, not me."
Jimin's tense stance immediately relaxed upon his assurance. "Okay, good. I was just making sure..." His gaze drifted back toward Jungkook, instantly hardening again. "You need to stop feeding Taehyung-ssi bad ideas! He doesn't need to go to Hell!"
Jungkook snapped his fingers and pointed a taunting finger at Jimin's fuming figure. "Ah, but he wants to go to Hell, no?"
Jimin immediately fired back with a petty insult, and Jungkook was pleased to follow up with his own. Hoseok watched the familiar exchange, feeling as though he hadn't been in that exact situation for a very, very long time. He could honestly cry from how relieved he was to see Jungkook back to his teasing, taunting self, the insecure teenager of last night lost at the moment; how Jimin no longer shied away from them, relieved of any concerns and poorly contained secrets of his own.
Giving in to the joy that bubbled up from his chest and laughing, Hoseok felt as though things were finally back on the right track. Maybe not perfect, what with Taehyung still wanting to go to Hell and all. But, he felt like that maybe, just maybe, everything would work out just fine.
What's the worst that could happen? he challenged.
A/N - subtle foreshadowing? naw