Chapter Text
For as widespread and well-acknowledged as they are across the world, not many people know all that much about ghosts.
It surprises Hoseok, if he thinks about it for too long. There are ghosts everywhere - sometimes they intermingle with people out and about on the streets. Admittedly, they mostly like to keep to themselves, but they’re still there. The average person must come into contact with at least a handful of ghosts a year. It’s just that, unless the ghost decides to make its ghostly nature known, it can be a little hard to tell.
If you don’t know what you’re looking out for, that is.
Ghosts are corporeal, is the thing. They’re not like in some of the more fantastical stories, floating through walls and made of transparent whisps. They’re solid and real; quite literally they are real human bodies, usually freshly dead (at first) and reanimated. If Hoseok were to get specific, the body is a vehicle, a suit of meat fit to help the ghost move through the world and carry out its bidding, whatever that might be. The ghost itself is what is inside, the soul of the thing, escaped from the Spirit Dimension and wandering the earth.
There must be some, Hoseok reasons, that live almost as humans, keeping out of trouble. The bodies can last a surprisingly long time with a ghost inhabiting them - the ghost halts the decay. The only real giveaway that a body is a ghost and not a human is that it simply never changes, never ages - and ghosts tend to leave ghoulish exoplasm traces behind them, faint shiny streaks that look like sparkly water stains and are largely unnoticeable to the untrained eye. They could live inconspicuously, if they wanted, Hoseok supposes.
It’s just that he never has a reason to come into contact with those ghosts.
Bangtan Ghost & Ghoul Excavations operate nationwide, responding to reports of spiritual disturbances. Hoseok’s branch is situated at the edges of Namwon City, on a quiet and secluded street, the office itself as nondescript as an office can be.
Presently, he sits at his desk, staring with complete concentration at the CCTV feed on his desktop monitor. They’re not, strictly speaking, supposed to have access to government surveillance, but no one has caught them hacking into it yet. Besides, if he didn’t have access to a live feed, he’d never be able to see one of his handlers backflipping into a dropkick against the chest of a terrified-looking ghost.
Jungkook.
“Was that necessary?” He says flatly into the in-ear comms system.
“Hyung,” Jungkook’s voice comes through clear enough that Hoseok can hear how heavily he’s breathing. “What’s the point in fighting if it’s over in two seconds?” Hoseok watches as Jungkook barrel rolls out of the way of the ghost’s boot, the ghost attempting to fight back enough that it might be able to flee.
“Jungkook-ah, if you don’t stab him, I will!” Jimin’s voice rings through the comms system, although he sounds more amused than the exasperation Hoseok feels. Jungkook just makes a whooping noise and runs directly into the ghost, tackling it to the ground.
Hoseok groans and drops his head into his hands.
There’s a faint noise in the comms - the ghost begging to be spared, Hoseok assumes. It always feels very pointless to Hoseok, the begging. Ghosts can, theoretically, travel in and out of the Spirit Dimension at will. At most, Jungkook can only send it back to the Spirit Dimension and retrieve the body. There’s nothing they can do to prevent the ghosts from finding another body and coming back. It’s like playing an elaborate and unending game of whack-a-mole, but with knives.
So, it’s not like they can ever pose that much of a threat and yet, every time without fail, the ghosts they capture will beg for their life. Hoseok has listened many times to Namjoon and Yoongi discuss whether that implies that it is actually incredibly difficult for a ghost to reanimate onto earth. Taehyung always insists that they’re perhaps simply attached to their current bodies. Seokjin always turns around privately to Hoseok and jokes that maybe the Spirit Dimension is simply just that boring.
Whatever it is, the begging is always more of an annoyance than a deterrent. He looks back up at the screen, where Jungkook is straddling the ghost, twirling his dagger slowly through his fingers. Hoseok rolls his eyes so hard that his eyeballs start to ache.
“At this point, it’s going to get so tired of waiting for you that it’s just going to leap back into the Spirit Dimension all by itself,” Jimin says, laughing, ignoring the ghost’s pleas entirely.
“Jungkook,” Hoseok adds, not bothering to finish the order to finish this. He watches as Jungkook tosses his dagger in the air, catches it by the handle and drives it into the center of the ghost’s chest. The body glows a bright fluorescent yellow, before dimming again entirely, the ghost finally gone. Jungkook stands up and stretches his arms above his head, groaning a little.
“Deal with the body and get back here, both of you,” Hoseok says, reaching over to pull a form out of a drawer and picking up a pen. He stares at the CCTV for a moment more, listens as Jungkook and Jimin acknowledge his orders, then switches off his screen and starts working on completing his report.
--
Jungkook and Jimin return to the office in a whirlwind of noise. Hoseok pushes up from his desk when he hears them and rounds it, so that he can stand in the middle of the room with his arms folded. He’s aiming for intimidation, mostly.
He’s not sure it will work.
Their office is small, just one room with seven desks squashed together, attached to an even smaller boardroom that doubles as a makeshift kitchenette. The entire team had pooled their money so that they could buy a coffee and hot drinks machine, which is by far the nicest thing in the entire place. The only other room is a small, one cubicle bathroom, with a lightbulb that only seems to work every other day.
Most of the team are at their desks, all lined in twos alongside the right wall of the room, covered in monitors, surrounded by filing drawers filled with paperwork, weapons, equipment.
Yoongi is at the back, his space bigger than everyone else’s by virtue of him being the boss. In front of him, Seokjin is leaning so far back in his chair that one good shove would send him flying backwards. Namjoon is next to him, hunched over his monitor, too engrossed in whatever he’s reading to pay attention to the room, or Jimin and Jungkook’s return.
Hoseok’s empty desk is next, the cleanest space in the office, with Jimin’s desk next to it, almost as clean as Hoseok’s by virtue of Hoseok always nagging him to clean it. Taehyung is at the front of the room, where his and Jungkook’s desks are. Their desks are covered in so much stuff that it’s difficult to tell where one starts and the other begins. Hoseok doesn’t like to look at it for too long, lest he starts getting a headache in that specific spot behind his eyes.
Taehyung, Hoseok can see, is constructing paper airplanes at his desk, from a pile of paper he has shoved unceremoniously onto Namjoon’s desk without Namjoon noticing. He throws a plane across the room; it skims past Hoseok and into the front of Yoongi’s desk. Taehyung stares at Yoongi with wide eyes, waiting for a reaction. Yoongi continues to type at his computer. After a moment, Taehyung screws up his face and starts constructing another little plane, then aims it once more towards Yoongi.
“Jimin-hyung’s going to buy us pizza,” Jungkook announces to the room at large. He grins at Hoseok, whose arms are still folded in front of his chest.
It is, Hoseok thinks, the true bane of his life that Jungkook is impossible to glare at.
“Fuck you- I never said that!” Jimin clarifies quickly. “I do not have the money to buy you all pizza.”
“Jimin-ssi,” Jungkook wheedles. Hoseok sighs.
“Get in there,” he says, pointing towards the door at the side of the room, adorned in a paper sign that is affixed with duct tape and reads ‘Bangtan Namwon Boardroom’.
Neither Jungkook nor Jimin’s smiles even so much as falter as they march into the room and make themselves comfortable at the long table that sits in the center of it. Hoseok follows them slowly, sighing again as he goes.
He allows them to bring him up to speed on the job, reading the notes Jimin has made on the body as they do.
“Seems clean,” Hoseok says, when they finish up.
“Always is, hyung,” Jimin says. Hoseok waits a beat.
“I feel like it didn’t need to take as long as it did,” he says eventually, eyes moving over to Jungkook.
“Hyung-” Jungkook starts to say, before Jimin jumps in animatedly.
“You know he wasn’t doing it incorrectly, hyung, he was just showing off.” Jimin wiggles a finger at Jungkook and ignores the way Jungkook turns to him and shoves at his shoulder. “How much flair do you need to stab a magic dagger into a corpse, Jungkook-ah?”
“Flair is extra points, not less!” Jungkook says obstinately. “I’m sorry if my sweet backflip made you jealous-”
“My backflips are way better than yours.”
“Not all of us can have flair, Jimin-ah, it’s ok-”
“Do you want to shut your mouth, you little show off-”
Jimin and Jungkook are shoving playfully at one another, pulling stupid faces as they do and Hoseok wonders what on earth he could have done in a previous life to end up having to look after these idiots.
“Stop,” he says, rubbing two fingers to his temples. “Jimin-ah, go back to your desk. And you-” He rounds on Jungkook, opening his eyes and staring down at him. Hoseok wonders if he’s imagining the way Jungkook’s smile almost slips, just for one moment, before it grows wider and presses deeper into his cheeks. “Stop messing about on jobs. You’re in a physical fight with a ghost with only a dagger to protect you. I know you think it’s easy-”
“The danger is the fun part, hyung!” Jungkook says. He’s still smiling, but his voice is soft. Hoseok wants to wring his stupidly cute neck.
“We’re not having this talk again, Jungkook-ah,” he says, pointing his finger at Jungkook and trying not to think about how sweet his face looks when he brings his eyes together to stare at the tip of it. “Do your job safely.” He thinks about how he wants to finish that sentence, you’re going to give me heart failure, stop making it my job to watch you narrowly avoid injury or worse just because you’re bored. He doesn’t say any of it though, just continues to stare at Jungkook.
Jungkook pulls a face, almost guilty looking, then nods.
“Who are you even showing off for, anyway?” Hoseok says after a moment, shoving himself out of his seat, watching as Jungkook does the same. “I’m the only one watching.”
Jungkook rounds the table quickly and darts ahead to the door of the boardroom, before turning around to face Hoseok. He grins widely and says nothing.
Hoseok sighs.
As Jungkook twists to open the door, Hoseok remembers something that had been playing on his mind this morning and reaches out a hand to tug at Jungkook’s shoulder, stopping him.
“Hey,” he says quietly. Jungkook shuts the door again and stares up at him, huge eyes blinking inquisitively.
“Hm?”
“That job is still on the table, you know?”
“What?” Jungkook says, before his face falls entirely. “Oh.”
“Moving to Seoul would be perfect for you, Jungkook-ah. The ghosts are always bigger, more dangerous. They’re nothing like the stuff here. You might even feel challenged for once. I just think you should consider it-”
“The job in Seoul,” Jungkook interrupts derisively. “Your old job, you mean? The one you left because you didn’t like it?”
Hoseok levels a look at him. “I left because I didn’t like being a field agent. Something you clearly enjoy a little too much,” he says flatly. Jungkook is starting to grin at him again and it’s infuriating. It’s mostly infuriating that Hoseok never knows how to not smile back.
“Are you sure it’s not because the job sucked-”
“I didn’t really like running around in the dark waving a dagger at monsters, no. Unlike you, you little idiot.”
Jungkook keeps grinning at him, then turns around once more and leaves the room. Hoseok wonders abstractly if it’s too early to start drinking and follows him out.
Jungkook heads over to his desk, where Taehyung is still constructing paper planes, and throws himself into his chair. The chair spins a little with the weight of him. Taehyung’s tongue pokes a little out of his teeth as he concentrates on creating a perfectly straight folded line. Jungkook reaches over and shoves a hand in his hair absentmindedly, then leans back in his chair.
As he watches this happen, Hoseok feels a prod at his shoulder and spins around; it’s Yoongi, staring at him with an eyebrow raised.
“Do I even want to know?” He asks. Hoseok shakes his head minutely.
“He’s too reckless sometimes,” Hoseok says, staring back at Jungkook for a moment. A small paper plane drifts through the air and hits Yoongi expertly in the shin. Hoseok glances back at Yoongi’s face, sees the tops of his cheeks flush red, just a little.
“Are you not going to deal with that?” Hoseok says, trying not to laugh.
“Hyung, that one has a note in it!” Taehyung says loudly across the room.
“What if we moved Taehyungie over to your team instead?” Yoongi says to Hoseok, instead of acknowledging Taehyung directly. “He does physical excavation too, why does he have to be on my team?”
“I already have to deal with Jimin and Jungkook,” Hoseok presses his lips together tightly. Don’t smile.
“We can hear you,” Jimin says loudly, from where he is sitting on Namjoon’s desk, just two feet away.
“This is a private conversation,” Yoongi says, still staring at Hoseok. “I’ll keep Seokjin-hyung and Namjoonie, you take Taehyung-”
He stops talking as another paper plane soars into the side of his head.
“I asked Jungkookie to draw a picture of us holding hands on that one,” Taehyung says.
“It’s a nice picture, hyung,” Jungkook adds.
“Hoseok-ah, lets run away together,” Yoongi says seriously.
Hoseok laughs, finally, then gently pushes Yoongi to the side so that he can get to his desk. “Just you and me and no agents. Sounds like a dream.”
Seokjin snickers around the apple he’s eating at his desk. “How would you excavate without any excavators?”
“Hoseok-hyung used to be an excavator!” Taehyung says earnestly.
“Hoseok-hyung didn’t like it,” Jungkook replies, his voice soft. Hoseok’s smile deepens.
“You know, if we didn’t have excavators, we wouldn’t have to fill in reports,” Yoongi points out. He too makes his way to his desk, picking up the littered paper planes as he goes. “Corporate would ask what we’ve done and the answer would be nothing. Nothing at all. Sounds pretty ideal to me.”
“You’d never leave me or Seokjin-hyung like that,” Namjoon says smugly. Jimin is holding one of his hands from where he’s perched on Namjoon’s desk, playing absent-mindedly with his fingers.
Yoongi sighs. “Let’s all go to lunch,” he says, instead of answering. “My treat.”
“I want pizza,” Jungkook says immediately, standing up.
“Yoongi-hyung, you promised we’d get naengmyun today,” Taehyung says.
“Let’s go to Bongga Myeonok! Let’s go to Bongga Myeonok!” Namjoon starts chanting. Hoseok watches as they all rise one by one with a loud clatter of chairs and push their way out towards the door.
“Hoseok-ah,” Yoongi says, looking at Hoseok, who is still sitting at his desk, unfinished report in hand. Hoseok waves it gently.
“It’s not going to write itself, hyung,” he says. Yoongi purses his lips for a moment, then follows the rest out.
“We’ll bring you some back, Hoseok-hyung!” Jimin shouts as they go. Hoseok smiles a little and shouts out a thank you, then gets back to work.
--
Ghost excavating is, broadly speaking, split into two practices - physical and mental. Mental is more difficult to accomplish, but it’s always the preferred method. It requires excavators to use a number of soul manipulation tricks to force the ghost out of the body and back to the Spirit Dimension. It’s cleaner, it’s more respectful of the body and it involves a lot less in the way of sharp objects.
The problem is that not all ghosts are amenable to mental excavation. Some, indeed, are entirely impervious to it, brush away the attempts like they’re swatting a particularly bothersome fly. Mental excavation takes years to perfect, but sometimes what a ghost really needs is to be poked with an enchanted dagger. Physical excavation is all brute force and hand to hand combat. Many ghosts are trained to fight, protection for themselves against excavators and the longer they stick around on earth, the more practiced they become at it, so to be successful at it requires its own extensive skill set.
The Namwon office of Bangtan Ghost & Ghoul Excavations has a pretty simple set up. Yoongi heads up the branch and the Mental team, whilst Hoseok reports directly into Yoongi and heads up the Physical team. Namjoon and Seokjin make up the mental excavators, Jungkook and Jimin the physical and Taehyung covers both, going where he’s needed. It is, as a job, the most fulfilling thing Hoseok has ever done.
Not that there’s much competition, when the only other job he’s ever had involved flinging himself personally at ghosts and making frantic jabby motions with a stupid magic dagger. But still.
Hoseok had been a physical excavator, back when he was doing field work. He’d never been very competent at the mental stuff, but he was fast and fluid, not particularly strong but good at maneuvering around a ghost quick enough to catch it in the back with a dagger. He’d been excellent at it, one of the strongest in the country, that’s what his advisors had always said. He had a 100% success record and took down some of the most vicious ghosts the Seoul office had ever seen, in his time.
He had been 21, and was being internationally recognised for his work, widely acknowledged as one of the most talented excavators of his generation.
It’s just that he really didn’t like it that much.
Some excavators, excavators like Jungkook and Jimin get a thrill from the chase, a kick out of the danger. They enjoy the fight and the taste of victory, be it easy or a narrow escape. Hoseok has never liked that, never relished fighting at all, really. Mostly, he’d sat up every night in cold terror from it, muscles aching and hand blistered from gripping the dagger too tight. The thought of doing it forever, of throwing himself into fights over and over, made his stomach hurt in all the wrong ways. He was just a hard worker, good at training, excellent at following guidelines. His success had felt intrinsically linked to the part of him that didn’t know how to give something any less than his all, rather than a passion, or a love, or even a like of his job.
Now, seven years later, he knows he’s an excellent physical handler. He picks up the physical jobs, the things that require more brawn than brains, works with his own team to strategise, monitors their work and, most importantly, keeps them safe.
Or, at least, he tries to. He’d maybe be more successful if Jimin and Jungkook stopped trying to initiate back flip competitions mid-excavation.
He’s still mulling over Jungkook’s decision to bodily tackle a ghost that afternoon, while they’re gathered in the boardroom as Taehyung explains the phone call he received moments ago.
“It’s a disturbance up in the mountains, in an area of forest in Hadong. There are reports of travellers missing - seven in the last two weeks.”
“So why are we only just hearing of it?” Hoseok asks, sipping at his iced coffee.
Taehyung shrugs. “Most of the travellers found their way back within a day. They all said the same thing apparently - one moment they’re walking through the national park, the next they’re a little North of Seoul, outside a dumpling place.”
Seokjin snorts. “They’re getting sent to Seoul?”
“Yes and the park keepers had been trying to keep it quiet,” Yoongi jumps in, looking away from Taehyung and out to the rest of the table. “Everyone got back safely, so apparently they just didn’t see the harm in the occasional tourist taking a four hour detour.”
“Thank you hyung. Your voice is beautiful,” Taehyung says serenely, staring down at Yoongi.
“The managers thought the problem would just go away,” Yoongi continues, pointedly not looking at Taehyung. “Until three days ago, when the most recent person went missing. Baek Nayeon. She’s the first one to not return. The family waited for her, then they travelled up to Seoul to try to look for her, but no luck. She hasn’t even been in touch.”
Hoseok furrows his brow. “You think something more serious might have happened to her?”
“We think it’s worth investigating with both physical and mental,” Yoongi says firmly.
“But the park is huge,” Jimin says.
Hoseok takes a deep, steadying breath in. Jimin’s concern isn’t misplaced. Usually they respond to calls of haunted buildings, specific places that have been infested. They’re not typically in the business of extensive hunts. Ghosts don’t typically travel very far, is the thing. They can - as far as Hoseok understands, they can travel across entire countries if they need, they just never do. Seokjin always says this is another thing that backs up his claim that they’re just sort of lazy. Hoseok rarely listens to anything Seokjin claims to be true about ghosts, though, regardless of how many times he’s infiltrated their minds.
Yoongi nods. “That’s why I think…” He pauses and looks at Hoseok for a moment, before continuing. “We all need to go up there.”
“All seven of us?” Hoseok asks.
“There’s a lodge deep in a part of the woods, closed off from the public. The owners have given us permission to use it as base for a few days. Tracking the ghost is going to be impossible for only two people. The more people we have looking at once, the better coverage we get.”
“Wait, hyung, are you going to go out in the field?” Namjoon asks, sounding delighted. Yoongi rolls his eyes.
“We all are. I don’t want this search taking weeks, especially not if someone has died.”
Namwon is quiet and it’s rural - it’s one of Hoseok’s favourite parts of it. It’s a city, sure, but it’s also countryside, surrounded by mountains and Jirisan National Park and the Seomjin River, wonders upon wonders of nature. Ghosts like it here, they’ve found, but the ghosts that find their way here are typically reclusive in nature - they like the space and the wildlife, dead things surrounded by the living. The ghosts in Namwon like it so much, in fact, that they aren’t particularly dangerous. More often than not, the reports the team get are to combat mischief makers, ghosts who have simply become bored of wandering the earth for decades, centuries even, and are willing to risk exposing themselves just for a little light entertainment. By that point, the potential inconvenience of being forced back to the Spirit Dimension for a while probably doesn’t seem so bad.
Sending travellers to Seoul on a whim seems like a typical Namwon case. Sending travellers to their death, on the other hand?
In Seoul, ghosts had been a little more murderous, a little more willing to lurk in dark shadows and alleyways and cause havoc in the most deadly of ways. Namwon, by contrast, is easy. Hoseok thinks sometimes the team here act a little more like disappointed parents scolding their ghoulish children, rather than ghost hunters tracking down terrifying otherworldly beings. It suits him perfectly.
It’s more than a little concerning, therefore, to get a report that might hint to something serious - something with a higher cost than a bus ticket back from Seoul. He pushes his chair back and stands up.
“Let’s get ready to leave this evening, then.”
Yoongi nods. “You’re all dismissed. Go home, pack a bag. Hoseok and I will get the equipment together. We’ll reconvene at 7pm.”
Everyone makes noises of agreement and stands up, chatting loudly as they file out of the room to pack up their desks for the day. Hoseok sees Yoongi pointedly hanging around and so he stays too, raising his eyebrows in question.
“It’s your turn to phone corporate,” Yoongi says, when the last person has left the boardroom, door swinging shut behind them.
“My turn?” Hoseok huffs out a laugh. “Hyung, have you ever spoken to corporate in your life?”
“No, that’s what delegation is for. I’m going to get the equipment together. Check it before you head out to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything.”
“Don’t forget the radios!” Hoseok yells. Yoongi waves a hand in recognition as he exits, leaving Hoseok alone in the room, eyes pointed to the sky in resignation. He picks up his phone.
“Hello? Hello, Bogum-nim, it’s Hoseok from Namwon. Yes… yes, I’m fine, thank you. Thank you so much. Yes, have a lovely day.”
Hoseok sits himself back down and waits for his call to be transferred up to the Mission Division Head. He traces a pattern in the wood of the desk with his finger, feels his spine straightening of its own accord in anticipation.
“Hello?”
He doesn’t waste too much time - after a quick but polite greeting, Hoseok explains the new job as efficiently as he can, listening to the concerned and serious noises from the other end of the line.
“Thank you for reporting up, Hoseok-ah,” the Division Head says.
“You’re welcome,” he responds to her.
“...Are you not going to ask how your father and I are?”
Hoseok rolls his eyes even as he smiles. “You didn’t ask how I am either, Mom.”
“Busy, it sounds like.”
Hoseok hums in agreement. “How are you both?” He asks dutifully.
“Your father is stressed, of course. His team is a little thin in talent. I just don’t think they train agents like they used to. And when you’re hoarding the most talented agent in the country-”
“Jungkook won’t agree to move to Seoul, Mom, I’ve told you.”
“If we had both of you on our team here - think of how much good work you could be doing!”
Hoseok tips his head back on the chair and stares up at the ceiling. “Mom, stop.”
He hears a sigh down the line. “You were so talented, son.”
He hums noncommittally.
“All of that time we spent training you…”
“I’m doing good work here, Mom.”
“I know, I know.” She sighs again. “Good luck with the new job. Not that you or Yoongi-nim need it. I’m sure it will go very smoothly.”
“Thank you,” he says quietly.
“When Jeon Jungkook changes his mind, you let me know.”
Hoseok swallows. “I’ll talk to you later, Mom. Say hi to Dad for me.”
“It was nice talking to you, Hoseok-ah. Keep safe.”
“You too.”
Hoseok sits in the boardroom for a few minutes, once the phone call ends, still just staring quietly at the ceiling. He can hear Yoongi in the next room over, packing things into the large duffle bags they keep on hand.
“Hyung, don’t forget the radios!” He yells out to Yoongi, before slowly standing up.
“Shit.”
Hoseok snorts as he makes his way back out and into the main office space, watching as Yoongi frantically throws multiple radios into a bag.
--
Hoseok gets home to the smell of dinner being cooked. He toes his shoes off and orders them neatly by the door, then makes his way to the kitchen.
“I’m the best roommate in the world, Hoseok-ah. It’s ok, you can say it,” Seokjin says without turning around from where he’s stood, cooking meat in a pan.
“You’re the best roommate in the world,” Hoseok concedes, although he sticks his tongue out when Seokjin turns to smile at him. He sits down and pulls his laptop over, immediately opens up his work emails to finish something he’d started that morning. Seokjin moves around him quietly.
When Seokjin finally serves dinner, Hoseok has moved on to looking at maps of the park mountains and tries not to feel overwhelmed at the sheer size of it all. Ghost sightings have been reported from every corner of the park - the biggest mountainous park in South Korea, covering 4 counties. How are they going to even begin to track through the grounds?
“Has anyone ever told you you work too hard?” Seokjin says around a mouthful of ramyeon.
“You, every day,” Hoseok says, not looking away from his screen. He jerks back suddenly as a hand reaches out and closes his laptop pointedly. Seokjin is staring at him from across the table, hand still firmly pressing the screen closed.
“Eat your dinner,” Seokjin says.
Hoseok wants to argue, but he’s not quite sure how to, so he just reaches over to serve himself quietly.
“Do you think the others have packed yet?”
“Hm?” Seokjin asks. “Taehyungie has. Jungkook will probably pack one shirt and call it a day.” Hoseok snorts so hard he chokes on a noodle. Seokjin smiles back at him. “I’ve been slaving over dinner for us both.”
“Thank you, hyung,” Hoseok says dutifully, biting into a piece of spicy beef.
“- and Namjoon and Jimin went to a bar,” Seokjin says, voice a little flat.
“They went to a bar?”
“Hmm. Date night. Except for how we’re not allowed to call it a date because they’re not dating, even though they’ll absolutely end the night in bed together.”
“They’ll end the night in the car with the rest of us,” Hoseok points out unhelpfully.
“I know what you’re thinking, Hoseok-ah! Why would they need to go on an impromptu date in the few hours we have between work and leaving for a work trip! And you know what Hoseok-ah!” Seokjin sounds a little untethered as he rants, so Hoseok decides to let him keep going. “Do you know what!?! It’s because they can’t get enough of each other! They can’t keep their stupid hands off each other-”
“Better this than start hooking up while we’re all in the lodge together,” Hoseok points out.
“This has been going on for five years! Five years of going on dates and sleeping with each other! And they’re still trying to act like it’s a friendship!”
“If that’s what they want to call it, hyung…” Hoseok says, although as he says it he’s not sure why. He and Seokjin have this conversation at least three times a week.
“They’re dating!”
“Hyung, they’re fucking,” Hoseok says, laughing at the way Seokjin warps his face in overdramatic outrage.
“HOSEOK-AH, THEY’RE IN LOVE, DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS.”
“...Do you think they’re fucking right now?”
“I’m kicking you out of this apartment.” Seokjin shoves some more food into his mouth and stares at Hoseok as he chews.
Hoseok reaches over and pats him on the shoulder. “You could just tell them you like them.”
Seokjin waves his chopsticks silently in Hoseok’s direction and continues to chew.
“Do you want me to wash up?” Hoseok offers.
Seokjin still doesn’t say anything, but he does put the last piece of spicy beef onto Hoseok’s plate as a quiet sign of thanks.
--
When Hoseok finally gets into his bedroom, he immediately grabs a bag and starts pulling clothes out of his wardrobe. He usually likes to take a little more care with his outfit choices, but he’s got about 15 minutes before they have to make their way to the office.
His work clothes are, admittedly, a sea of black. Not the most exciting, but practical and safe, particularly for a hunt. He stares down at his half full suitcase, feels something in his stomach twist uncomfortably. After a second, he gets back to folding his pants; he doesn’t have time to reflect on how he feels about going on a field mission after seven years of deliberately not doing so. This is a one-off and it’s strategically sensible and besides, Namwon and Seoul are worlds apart in terms of danger levels. It’s ridiculous that his heart should be thumping out a sickly rhythm, even if this ghost has possibly killed someone.
He can feel drops of sweat gather at the base of his spine and wishes he had time for a shower.
As he’s counting out his inhales and exhales, his phone pings from where he had thrown it across the bed.
Jungkook:
Hoseok stares at the image of Jungkook’s face for a moment, before barking out a loud laugh.
Hoseok: Was that to make me feel better?
Jungkook: Did you need to feel better?
Hoseok: It’s fine. I’ll see you in 15! 💚💛🧡❤️💜💙
Jungkook: Uh
Hoseok: what
Jungkook: Jimin only just got back so
If we’re late it’s because of him
See you soon hyung!!! xxxxx
Hoseok tries not to groan. He fails immediately, but he also sends Jimin a slightly angry sounding text and that, at least, makes him feel better.
Jimin’s call a moment later, all nervous laughter and pleading, is then like a balm for his soul, nerves forgotten under the sound of Jimin alternating between apologizing in his ear and yelling at Jungkook, who is laughing giddily in the background.