Hoseok froze at the sight of Taehyung's head lolling limply against Jungkook's shoulder. He gasped when he noticed Taehyung panting faintly. He rushed forward when he saw a feverish flush invade Taehyung's face.
"What happened?!" Hoseok demanded as he hovered his hands listlessly over Taehyung's body.
"Hoseok...!" Jungkook choked out. Hoseok was momentarily startled by Jungkook's outburst, but he soon realized that the demon must have been worried sick ever since his disappearance in the Hellmouth.
"Jungkook, what the fuck do you think you're doing bringing humans down here?" Yoongi hissed as he approached from behind Hoseok. He pushed past Hoseok's shoulder to stand toe-to-toe to Jungkook and fixed him with a stern glare. "You know what's gonna happen to you once the boss finds out, right?" he continued, jabbing a finger squarely against Jungkook's chest. "And now you're trying to drag me into your bullshit?"
"Hyung!" Jungkook blurted, having been teeming with impatience during Yoongi's lecture. "Hyung, I—we—really don't have time for this. Can't you see that Taehyung's already been affected?" He motioned Taehyung's entire body toward Yoongi as if to prove his point.
Yoongi faltered upon the acknowledgment of Taehyung's existence, eyes flickering down to Taehyung's sagging body. He seemed to weigh his options mentally before huffing and turning back toward the living room, saying over his shoulder, "Bring him to the bedroom."
Hoseok pressed himself against the wall as Jungkook stampeded past, hesitantly following the demons after closing and locking the front door. He was on edge after hearing Yoongi say they were breaking protocol for merely bringing him to Hell, and after seeing Taehyung's weak condition, Hoseok had a funny feeling that the two tied in together.
There was a shuffle-bang from down an off-branch hall, and Hoseok followed after Jungkook as the demon peered into the room it had sounded from. Yoongi's hand slowly crept out the open doorway to beckon them both in. Hoseok trudged in behind Jungkook, and he watched as Jungkook gently laid Taehyung onto a noticeably recently-cleaned bed. The sheets were rumbled, and the pillows sat flattened and unappealing at the headboard. Scattered objects of all shapes and purposes littered the small aisle between the desk and the bed, and Hoseok could take a wild guess and say that Yoongi didn't know what a desk was actually for.
Yoongi pulled the office chair out from underneath the desk and rolled it to the bedside. He sat upon it with an air of trepidation and observed Taehyung's sleeping face quietly. "Did you manage to get two clients this time?" Yoongi asked after a moment.
Jungkook startled from beside Hoseok and shook his head hastily. "No, Hoseokie's the only one I've made a deal with." He placed a hand onto Hoseok's shoulder and squeezed it tightly like if he were to let go, he would lose Hoseok again. "Taehyung's..." Jungkook hesitated, eyes wandering the bedroom's bare walls as he searched for the right words. "Taehyung's the bait," he settled on while glancing toward Hoseok to gauge his reaction.
Hoseok didn't really have anything to say on the matter. He was well aware of Taehyung's position in their little deal. How could he possibly forget? It was a hard pill to swallow every time it was brought up, but with the recent discovery of Taehyung's past consuming their schedules for the past month, it was quick to slip his mind.
"A human bait, huh?" Yoongi said faintly. Hoseok watched as Yoongi seemed to observe Taehyung's sleeping form with mild curiosity. Like Taehyung was an object on display, exotic and full of hidden marvel.
It was quiet, the light was faint and cast the room in stark shadows, but Hoseok could see the shift in Yoongi's gaze. His eyes went dark with hidden emotion, but they had yet to stray from Taehyung's body. He looked like he was staring at an incomplete puzzle, shattered and missing one too many pieces for the mind to fill in the obscured image.
Hoseok suddenly had a burning desire to break the stifling atmosphere.
When Hoseok was about to act on his whim, Yoongi turned his gaze back to him and Jungkook. Yoongi regarded them with narrowed eyes, cold and calculating. "If I may ask, when is the deadline on this deal of yours?" he asked as he turned his chair slowly toward them, legs wide apart and imposing.
"End of February," Hoseok answered in Jungkook's stead because the demon was beginning to look pale in the face.
Yoongi's gaze landed on him curiously. "There's no specific day, or is it just the last day of the month?"
Hoseok faltered as he churned his mind for the missing information. "That is...undecided."
"When did Jungkook approach you?"
"Mid-December-ish."
"Since this seems to be a matter of love, I suspect you have to put up with my subordinate until Valentine's, or at least a few days afterward." Yoongi stood from the chair and approached Hoseok and Jungkook with another one of his calculating gazes. He placed his hand to where his heart would be and bowed slightly. "I apologize for his incompetence, and must ask that you leave the room as I take care of his mistake."
Hoseok was hasty to comply, dragging Jungkook out by his arm, and he maintained the long stare Yoongi gave him as the demon slowly, slowly closed the door, effectively separating them from Taehyung.
They stood there for a few short moments, adrenaline roaring through Hoseok's mind before Jungkook abruptly dragged him into an embrace. Hoseok stiffened in surprise before relaxing into Jungkook's familiar warmth and wrapping his arms tightly around Jungkook's waist.
"I was scared I wouldn't find you again," Jungkook whispered into Hoseok's shoulder, words muffled with grief and relief. Jungkook pulled away and gazed into Hoseok's eyes as their foreheads melded against one another. "You're doing okay, right?" he asked, eyes wide with worry. "Yoongi-hyung didn't do anything to you? You're not feeling the effects of Hell yet, right?"
Hoseok snorted at Jungkook's uncharacteristic fretting and brought one of his hands up to press a finger to Jungkook's lips. "I'm fine, Kook," he said gently. "Yoongi-ssi's been a fantastic host so far and has already told me I'll be fine for another couple of weeks down here." He dropped his hand down to Jungkook's, which was hanging loosely off his hip, and pulled it onto his chest. "Feel that? My heart's still beating, so I think I'm doing pretty good. Don't you think?" He offered Jungkook a crooked grin and prayed it looked reassuring.
Jungkook's eyes lingered on Hoseok's for a long beat before lowering to where Hoseok's hand clasped his. Hoseok's heart thumped steadily against his chest, sure and true, and filled in the gaps of expectant silence placidly. Finally, Jungkook tore his gaze away from Hoseok's chest and met Hoseok's eyes again, a pleasant flush blooming across his cheeks.
"You really are entertaining, Hoseokie," Jungkook said as a smile spread across his lips.
Hoseok felt his own lips twitch into a wider grin as he took in Jungkook's serene expression. He brought up his other hand and pinched Jungkook's cheek between his fingers, giving it a vicious tug. "Don't call my suffering entertaining, Kook," he said with no real heat behind his words.
Jungkook laughed and whined at the assault, smacking Hoseok's invasive hand away. "Alright, alright. I'll stop." His eyes landed on Hoseok's with a meaningful look, the blood-red of his pupil molten and dark with obvious affection.
A few moments laid between them where no words were exchanged, no actions were taken, as they yielded themselves to the utter exposure of wide, imploring gazes.
Jungkook broke that silent connection as he brought both of his hands up to cup Hoseok's cheeks, palms tender in their touch like they were handling precious, delicate material. "You're okay..." Jungkook said mutely, almost like a quiet assurance to himself. His thumb ran over the slight slope of Hoseok's cheek, traced the outline of his lips. "You're okay..."
Hoseok felt his lips twitch up into a stiff, terse grin, all nerves and blind confusion. "Yes," he said. He had no idea what the fuck kind of mood-swing Jungkook was going through to be expressing such vivid worry, but he was unnerved by it; he was relishing, basking in the affection. And that in itself was enough of a foreign feeling for him to have him jerking out of Jungkook's gentle hold of his face. "We both know I'm fine, but what about Taehyung-ah?" he asked as he created some much-needed distance between his and Jungkook's bodies, a flustered heat sweating underneath the thin layers of his clothing.
Jungkook seemed disarmed by the sudden question, furling away from Hoseok in startlement. "Taehyung..." he said, brows furrowed in solemn concentration. "I didn't do a background check on Taehyung, and I'm starting to regret it."
Hoseok snorted in agreement. "Obviously. We wouldn't be here"—he motioned toward the entirety of their surroundings—"if you had." He dropped his hands to his sides in faltering mirth when Jungkook didn't return his jesting sentiment, fixing Hoseok with a grim stare and pursed lips. "Well, what's Taehyung-ah's big, bad secret?" he asked hesitantly.
Jungkook heaved a breath before answering. "He's not a pure-blooded human."
Hoseok blinked at him, equal parts stupified and bewildered. "Well, what does that mean?" He watched as Jungkook gnawed on his lips in apparent guilt, emotion running deep in his suddenly criminally youthful eyes. "Kook, what do you mean by that?" Hoseok repeated sternly, slowly, trying to ease Jungkook back into a state of confidentiality.
Jungkook seemed to calm his nerves, releasing his raw lips from his jittery teeth. "You said Yoongi-hyung already explained to you the side-effects of humans staying down here, right?" he began, eyes flitting over to the closed bedroom door warily. Hoseok nodded in confirmation, and Jungkook continued. "Well, that goes double for any sort of holy being. To the point of being lethal upon immediate entry."
Hoseok blinked, and his mind filled with Jimin's final image. "That's why Jimin-ah couldn't come with us..." he said underneath his breath.
Jungkook gave a terse nod of his head. "Exactly." He lifted his finger toward the bedroom door, the digit wavering in its hold. "Taehyung... I have reason to believe that Taehyung was an angel that reincarnated into a human."
"What?" Hoseok blurted with a startled laugh. "Taehyung-ah? An angel?"
Jungkook held his hands up haltingly. "I know that it sounds ridiculous and impossible, but just hear me out."
He continued when Hoseok managed to shut his gaping mouth.
"My suspicions started when Taehyung seemed to be going against the natural temptations embedded into our contract," Jungkook said. "He was entirely ignoring you in a romantic sense, which I thought was odd because a demon's contract automatically makes the forbidden attractive. You, being his subordinate in work and a complete and utter stranger with an unknown past, was utterly unappealing to him.
"But I didn't overthink it because the contract was clearly affecting you," Jungkook continued, causing Hoseok's face to instantly break out into a blistering flush. "So, I was without any worries or complications for the first month.
"And then, Taehyung approached you with this wild goose chase of his missing friend, and suddenly his role was more than a mere love interest. He was throwing a wrench into my one-and-done contract and dragging my client with him. So, I think that's where my feelings of frustrations came from, but I just wasn't able to figure that out until I was stuck traveling with him in the depths of Hell.
"Anyway, as we were searching for you, I had the sudden realization to ask Taehyung what he remembered about his friend so that we could track him down faster.
"Just as he was getting ready to tell me, he suddenly collapsed. I tried to figure out what was wrong with him, and that's when I saw it: a holy mark." Jungkook lifted his hand and placed his palm flush to Hoseok's chest, feeling the steadily increasing heartbeat pounding underneath his touch. "Right where his heart is," Jungkook concluded.
Hoseok released a quiet breath of disbelief as Jungkook pulled himself away. He had so many questions—too many to keep track of. But he managed to utter the one caught on the tip of his tongue: "What's a holy mark?"
"It's something God embeds into His 'children's skin to protect them when they are no longer up in Heaven with him," Jungkook said. "It keeps them safe from demons and sin so that they can live the perfect second life."
Hoseok brought his hand up to his neck, tracing the outline of Jungkook's mark absentmindedly. "So, how come Taehyung-ah's mark isn't doing its job?" he asked.
Jungkook's entire face scrunched up in a contemplative grimace. "My guess would be that getting roped into our deal has nullified the effects of his mark, or at the very least, weakened them."
Hoseok dragged a palm down his face and held it against his lips as he stared into Jungkook's guilty eyes with his own regret gnawing at his gut. "So, you're telling me Taehyung-ah's dying from Hell's cold, and it's all my fault?"
"No!" Jungkook rebutted with a quick shake of his head. He approached Hoseok and clasped his hands with Hoseok's limp one. "None of this is your fault, Hoseokie. It just so happened that your manager was someone who had already lived his first life." His fingers squeezed Hoseok's hand desperately. "Don't blame yourself for my hasty decision, okay?"
Hoseok hesitated, but Jungkook's gentle, tender gaze was enough to have him conceding with a nod of his head. "Alright," he muttered as his forehead leaned onto Jungkook's. His eyelids fluttered closed, and he allowed his mind to branch out and figure out a solution to their lethal situation.
Taehyung's life was the top priority. His missing friend would have to wait, potentially for all of eternity. But that was a small price Taehyung would have to pay if he wanted to live through the rest of his second life. Hoseok hoped that Taehyung wouldn't let this decision ruin him.
Hoseok opened his eyes and gazed into Jungkook's expectant ones. "Can we use the Hellmouth to get Taehyung-ah back to the surface?" he asked, voice hushed and wary.
Hoseok felt Jungkook shake his forehead against his own. "Hellmouths are only entryways into Hell, and there's only one possible exit: a summoning."
Hoseok's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Like, pentagrams drawn in blood and sketchy chanting from a demonic book kinda summoning?"
Jungkook snorted, and the breath spread itself across the surface of Hoseok skin with a gentle warmth. "I'm pretty sure none of that was involved when you managed to summon me, remember?"
Hoseok blinked and released a quiet breath of realization. "So, someone's gotta be going through the worst day of their life for us to get out of here?" That wasn't really how Hoseok wanted to escape Hell, especially with an ex-angel as his companion, but it probably wouldn't be that hard of a requirement for someone to meet. The surface world wasn't the happiest place to live in, after all.
"Well, that and I need permission from Yoongi-hyung, my supervisor, to go up."
Hoseok felt a smile break out across his face, pleased by the positive gleam in their bleak situation. "Well, that should be easy, since he doesn't want us down here, to begin with."
Hoseok pulled away from Jungkook and turned toward the bedroom door, ready to announce their solution to Yoongi, when Jungkook suddenly caught him by his wrist and dragged him back. Hoseok stumbled into Jungkook's chest with a grunt of annoyance. He whirled around toward the demon with a complaint on the tip of his tongue, but he faltered when he saw the grim look on Jungkook's face.
"What?" he said after a beat of silence. "Why're you stopping me?"
"You shouldn't disturb Yoongi-hyung while he's working," Jungkook said. "You'll just piss him off." He released his grasp on Hoseok's wrist and walked back toward the living room. "Let's wait until he calls it quits and then tell him our plan."
Hoseok stood in front of the bedroom door stiffly, looking at Jungkook's retreating back with a scrutinizing stare.
He wanted to storm into the room and demand that Yoongi allowed them all up to the surface. He needed to make sure that Taehyung got out of this stupid, absurd trip down to Hell alive. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if Taehyung died because he and Jungkook dragged him into their ridiculous contract.
Despite his mournful yearning, against his better judgment, Hoseok turned away from the bedroom door and trudged down the hall after Jungkook.
Hoseok found Jungkook settled comfortably atop the living room's couch. Jungkook perked up upon his entrance and patted the cushion beside him. He offered Hoseok a grin when the office worker fell bodily into the couch's plush seat.
"I'm glad you've decided to listen to me for once," Jungkook said as he bumped his shoulder into Hoseok's.
Hoseok snorted and nudged Jungkook back. "You're the one who never listens." He brought a fist up and rapped his knuckles against Jungkook's forehead. "It makes me wonder if you still have the brain of a stubborn teenager in there."
Jungkook cackled and swatted Hoseok's hand away. "Well, I am regressing back to my fifteen-year-old self."
Hoseok faltered upon the mention. He'd been so caught up in Taehyung's troubles and woes that he had momentarily forgotten Jungkook's predicament. He couldn't imagine being frozen in a state of eternal immaturity. Comparing Jungkook's past behavior to mere minutes ago was like contrasting a bratty child to an emotional young adult.
As Hoseok stared at the sharp angles of Jungkook's profile, he recalled Yoongi's earlier words of Jungkook's past: He wanted acknowledgment.
Hoseok couldn't fathom it. Jungkook didn't look like the type of person who would be desperate to ask for outside help when it came to his personal issues. Especially when Hoseok factored in the fact that Jungkook was having love troubles, it just seemed like a totally improbable situation. Because Jungkook wasn't—Jungkook couldn't—
"Hey," Hoseok said hoarsely.
Jungkook turned toward him curiously, eyes wide with visible alarm. "Hoseokie?" he approached carefully.
Hoseok parted his lips to say—what? What was it that he wanted to say? Did he want to tell Jungkook what Yoongi told him? That Jungkook was a teen desperate to win the attention of his oblivious love? What would he gain from that? Nothing, obviously. Jungkook's past had nothing to do with him. The only possible connecting factor between them was dancing, but it wasn't like they would have encountered each other just because they had the same hobby—
A student. One particular student of mine. Exhausted after a day's practice.
Hoseok froze as the blurry image that had invaded his mind so, so long ago—had it really only been two days?—suddenly filled in the smudged details with sharp clarity. As a sweat-drenched, fondly endeared smiling young boy made his appearance into his memory. As Jungkook, boyish, soft, young—so, so, so young—Jungkook egged him on for another round of practice.
It shouldn't have been surprising. Fate had a funny way of working, after all.
"Holy fuck," Hoseok said, his lips curling into a wide, wry grin, body trembling as he bolted from the couch and stumbled backward, away from Jungkook. "Holy shit," he wheezed as he brought a quivering hand up to cover his grin as he stared at Jungkook—grown, matured, tired Jungkook.
"Hoseokie?" Jungkook said, voice high with alarm. "Hoseokie, what's wrong?"
He made a motion to get up—braced his palm against the couch's cushion—and Hoseok instantly held his hand out haltingly. "Fuck, don't move," he pleaded as he staggered further away. "I just—give me a minute—fuck—"
He wanted acknowledgment.
There was no way—
He wanted to be acknowledged by someone he respected.
Hoseok couldn't have been—
He wanted to prove his worth to that person and, I dunno, earn their affections —
"Jungkook," Hoseok rasped, desperate to escape his spiraling thoughts.
"Hoseok...?" Jungkook replied warily.
"Can you—do you—" Hoseok broke off and gnawed on his lip as he contemplated his next move. He knew that he and Jungkook were connected in the past. He knew that his memories of the past had been blocked because of Yoongi. He knew that Yoongi must have recognized him because why else would he go out of his way to help a random human?
What he didn't know—what he couldn't possibly fathom—was what to do with that information. Should he tell Jungkook? If he did, how much? About the details of his deal with Yoongi? About Hoseok potentially being the reason that he ended up making a deal with a demon in the first place? (Which was still a hard pill to swallow, and the longer Hoseok thought about it, the more he wanted to kick in his past self's teeth and tell him to pay some goddamn attention to the people around him, you fucking idiot—)
"Yoongi-ssi told me something interesting," Hoseok said.
Jungkook's worry was still etched in the furrow of his brows, narrowed in his calculating gaze. "And what was that?" he asked after a moment's consideration.
"He told me what your side of the deal was."
Jungkook's body instantly went stiff, clearly caught off-guard. "What...?" It came out breathlessly, shock and awe intermingling into the single exhale.
Hoseok could feel his grin returning, small, but still as terse as before. "Yeah," he said. He forced his feet to move forward, toward Jungkook's stilted form and imploring eyes. Hoseok stopped in front of Jungkook's spread legs and braced his knees on the couch's lip. He leaned forward, arms reaching out and caging Jungkook between them as he balanced his weight on the back of the sofa.
Their foreheads melded against one another seamlessly, the tips of their noses kissing each other gently. Hoseok met Jungkook's wide, wide eyes and saw the boyish fifteen-year-old hidden within their blood-red depths.
"He never told me the condition of it, though," Hoseok continued once he overcame the sudden rush of nostalgia. He grinned at Jungkook's puzzled expression, innocent and honest. "But, I think I figured it out."
Hoseok felt Jungkook's body trembling underneath him. He figured out it was from excitement when the demon blurted, "What was it?"
Trepidation caught Hoseok's tongue. If he answered Jungkook's question, he would be crossing the border held between them. Of client and demon.
Boundaries were such fragile things.
Hoseok pulled away from Jungkook and pushed himself forward so that he could fall back into the couch. "Well, I guess I should tell you what the actual deal was, huh?" he said with an air of indifference when in reality, he was on the verge of crawling out of his own skin with the amount of adrenaline rushing through his body.
He felt Jungkook shift beside him, instantly coddling up to his side and head-butting his shoulder with a whine. "Hurry up and tell me, Hoseokie!"
Who was Hoseok to deny such an eloquent request?
"Brace yourself," Hoseok warned, but he knew that Jungkook wasn't taking him seriously because the demon's smile only grew wider.
"Hoseokie," Jungkook whined.
"You wanted acknowledgment," Hoseok said swiftly, blood rushing to his head as white noise filled in the gaps of silence. "Yoongi-ssi told me you wanted to be acknowledged by someone close to you. Someone you deeply respected.
"Yoongi-ssi never gave me the specifics on how he planned on doing that, and he also didn't tell me the consequences if you failed to meet whatever requirements he placed on the contract. But," Hoseok said, facing the silent urge within Jungkook's eyes, "I think I figured it out."
"What...?" Jungkook whispered.
"Jeon Jungkook, at the age of fifteen, you managed to let your feelings of admiration turn into love, and as punishment, the person you loved forgot about you."
--
The fallout was quiet.
Because Taehyung had regained consciousness.
A/N - much hopekook, many feelings.