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under any normal circumstances, jeongguk would appreciate his older brother seokjin's sudden adoration for soulful vocalizing and power ballads. as a singer and an avid appreciator of the musical arts, music was naturally something he enjoyed sharing with others so since he was freshman in high school, he'd made playlists on his 8tracks account and often sent them to his brother. he'd made many different mixes and playlists with quirky artwork often from a movie still. he'd done a studying playlist with mainly mellow trip hop instrumentals, a headbanging playlist with lots of linkin park and an embarrassing amout of sum 41, but there is one playlist he made that he, over the course of the past three days, has come to hate.
he called it the heartbreak hotel, it was a playlist he'd made when it was revealed that his favorite singer in the entire world, who he admittedly dreamt about marrying, was in a relationship. despite the fact that he'd never actually met this singer and despite the fact that she was an incredibly famous, renowned musician and he was a college student who worked part time at a starbucks branch, he loved her.
he'd made the playlist to mourn. it consisted of all the great break up songs (from "burn" by usher to "someone like you" by adele) and it started with the most poignant breakup song of the century. a song that has become motivation for him to build a flux capacitor, travel back to the 90s, and kill whoever wrote it.
all by myself blares through the speakers from seokjin's room but manages to spread itself evenly throughout the apartment. jeongguk hangs his head and tries to keep himself from going in there and breaking seokjin's laptop. he takes a deep breath to calm himself, to remind himself that seokjin was his brother and the real enemy here was the guy who broke his heart.
"how is he?"
the concern in jimin's voice is very real and very clear even over the phone and it only makes jeongguk feel even worse for wanting to wrap the aux cord around his brother's throat.
"well, 'all by myself' has only played ten times this morning which is a definite improvement from the whopping thirty in the beginning."
"you need to get him out of the house," jimin sighs. "has he even gone anywhere?"
"midnight run to buy ice cream at three in the morning, nothing else."
tsk tsk. "take him to the park, for a walk or something."
"my brother isn't a dog," jeongguk scoffs, still staring at seokjin's bedroom door. but he knows jimin is right. what seokjin needs is a change of scenery where he isn't constantly reminded of the asshole who didn't have the balls to break up with him in person. "what kind of a person breaks up through text anyway?"
it almost creeps jeongguk out that he knows, without seeing, that jimin is shrugging his shoulders.
"you know what you should do? take him to your parents' cabin."
jeongguk narrows his eyes.
"how would a dark, dank cabin in the middle of nowhere make him feel any better?"
"you have to get him isolated but not alone. he needs the space to think, to see the world is bigger than he who shall not be named."
jeongguk feels his blood start to boil as he thinks of the guy who put his brother in such a state. "fuck voldemort."
seokjin scrolls through his phone for the nth time that morning. he checks his weibo, his twitter, his instagram, his snapchat, and, most importantly, his messages. he doesn't know what he's hoping to find. maybe a message from yoongi that reads: "OMG I AM SO SORRY, SOME JEALOUS COWORKER STOLE MY PHONE AND SENT THAT BREAK UP TEXT TO YOU, IT ISN'T REAL. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH" but yoongi's not big on texting and seokjin isn't that naive.
this fact doesn't stop seokjin from scrolling through.
he searches instagram for a picture, maybe a picture of something that would reiterate his previous fantasy. but he finds nothing and that makes him feel better than anything. he tells himself that there's nothing to find because yoongi is so obviously in mourning of what they had together but he knows that isn't true either. that yoongi wouldn't have dumped him if he knew he'd only regret it in the end.
he opens up that text again and reads it over and over. since he'd opened the message three days ago, he's probably read it only a thousand times. with every read he finds something different, something new to overanalyze.
this isn't working out, let's end it
seokjin thinks this time that it could have been a text that yoongi meant to send to a person he could have possibly been having an affair with, that maybe yoongi didn't respond to clarify because he didn't want to admit that he'd been unfaithful. oh goodness, was that supposed to make him feel better?
suddenly he's blinding by more light beaming into his bedroom and he pretty much shrieks, quickly pulling his duvet up for protection. he feels a weight sink by his thighs and feels a hand on the top of his head.
"are you okay under there?"
jeongguk.
"fine," seokjin mumbles. "please close the blinds and leave me alone."
the duvet is peeled back slowly and his little brother's face comes into view, light cast all around him as if he was some sort of angel. "i've done that for three days. but i can't wait for you anymore, i'm hungry."
those two words pretty much snap seokjin out of his stupor and he's up in an instant. "why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"i wanted you to rest," jeongguk defends as he follows his brother out to the kitchen. "i know now's not the best time for you to cook anyway."
"well, never is a good time for you to starve."
jeongguk smiles inwardly as he discretely turns the celine dion off. if he had known getting seokjin out of his room was as easy as feigning famish, he would have done it a long time ago. "i'm sorry."
seokjin sniffles as he takes out some vegetables from the fridge. "don't be, it's not your fault."
"don't you need your precious sous chef?"
that gets a laugh from seokjin who swiftly wipes his puffy eyes and jeongguk kindly pretends not to notice.
in between moaning at the sheer deliciousness of the japchae and ensuring his brother is not reaching for the ice cream instead, jeongguk decides to take jimin's advice.
"we should go to the cabin," it comes out muffled because his mouth is stuffed but seokjin still understands him.
he raises an eyebrow. "the cabin? you hate the cabin."
jeongguk nearly scoffs again but he doesn't want to risk losing food. "no i don't. i love the cabin, i want to go to the cabin."
it's sad, jeongguk thinks, how easy it is for him to manipulate his brother. all he has to say is that he wants to and seokjin jumps to get it done for him. this time seokjin worries his lip.
"you want to go right now?"
jeongguk nods. "i just finished midterms, i'm feeling very happy with my grades and i want a break before i go into finals shock."
seokjin laughs and reaches over to ruffle the younger's hair. under normal circumstances, jeongguk would fight him but "it's so cute that you do stuff like that now."
"so? do you want to go?"
"i don't know, kookie..."
"please?" jeongguk urges, widening his eyes ever so slightly because he is cute and, yes, he knows how to use his cuteness to his advantage. "just for the weekend?"
"ok," jeongguk breathes into the phone. "he said yes."
"really?"
"yeah, how do we plan this?"
jimin laughs on the other end. "we're inviting the gang. except for--"
"voldemort," jeongguk nods, still refusing to say his hyung's name. it annoys him that he used to respect the guy.
"right, voldemort. i'll bring the drinks--"
"do you really think, after being in a relationship with a person you truly loved for a year and being dumped through a text, that you would need alcohol?"
silence.
"good point. i'll just get everyone together."
jeongguk nods. "okay. and jimin?"
"yeah?"
"make sure, under any and all circumstances, that voldemort does not come near the cabin or my brother, ok? you don't want me to get convicted for murder now, do you?"
the cabin is no different from what it was when seokjin was younger.
as a kid, his parents would take him there often. he enjoyed the lake more than anything. it was far and wide and seemed to sparkle like a sea full of diamonds when hit by the moonlight. he'd spend hours just staring at it and he's sure he could do the same now. the trees that used to surround the cabin all proud and tall now seemed to twist and hunch over the roof of the cabin as if they were shielding it. it was a little creepy looking but it still felt like home.
jeongguk, seokjin could tell, was grossed out by the smell of the cabin: the smell of pine and overall outside. but for whatever reason, the kid was insistent to go and to stay.
"i've missed this place," he'd said, widening his eyes a bit, probably thinking that seokjin wouldn't notice the act he was putting on.
while jeongguk disappeared inside to clean everything up for the group, seokjin walked around the wooded area, soaking everything in. it was so beautiful, he thought. so natural and free and refreshingly rough, it relaxed seokjin. he didn't feel any pressure here.
he makes the mistake of thinking this is a place he'd like to share with yoongi which makes him shuffle back inside the cabin, looking for the quickest route to the bed.
but jeongguk is quick to stop him, hands pressing against his chest.
"where are you going?"
"to lay down."
"but we just got here?"
"and i drove the whole way, i'm tired."
jeongguk pouts, sticking out his bottom lip and it's ugly but endearing. "hyung..."
"look, i'm not gonna get lost in there. i really just want to lay down for a bit--"
"please? i miss you."
"what?"
"i mean," jeongguk sighs. "not like...i just miss you not being sad. voldemort's an asshole."
"i'm sorry who?"
"he who shall not be named," jeongguk says like it's obvious. "and if you want me to, if you'd let me, i would totally kick voldemort's ass for you."
at this seokjin laughs.
"but you won't let me so i have to get creative." jeongguk steps closer. "this weekend, for the time being, there is no such person. he doesn't exist, he's not here. this is about you. don't let him still hurt you, he's a prick. say it with me. there is no such thing as..."
min fucking yoongi.
jeongguk is staring daggers at yoongi. no not daggers. big ass swords made of pure steel. he is glaring at yoongi like he's the antichrist and not just an older guy who is shorter than him and who he could probably take down within a minute. if he'd had his brother's permission of course.
the cabin is silent and the tension is thick.
seokjin is frozen, staring at yoongi. yoongi is staring at his feet, trying to disappear into his black hoodie. and everyone else is switching back between the two of them. except for hoseok. except for clueless fucking jung hoseok.
jung hoseok, who not only managed to tell he who will not be named about the cabin sleepover, managed to invite him to stay as well. jung hoseok who has been so busy with classes and dancing and self promoting that he missed the gravely important memo that everyone else knew. it makes sense, jeongguk thinks, for hoseok to be clueless and not realize that seokjin and voldemort were no longer an item. but it makes no sense whatsoever for voldemort to agree to show up at such an event.
what an asshole.
"you're more than welcome to call a fucking uber and get out of here," jeongguk so kindly points out to yoongi who only glares back in response.
"what did i miss?" hoseok asks after a full minute of taking in the overwhelming amount of tension. the tension was so thick that it couldn't be cut with a knife. a chainsaw could maybe cut through it but definitely not a simple knife.
taehyung leans into hoseok and whispers into his ear. the mortified expression on hoseok's face reveals his feelings on the matter. he all but gasps in surprise.
a text? he mouths at yoongi who shuts his eyes in what jeongguk assumes is embarrassment.
jeongguk sighs. "i'm sorry, seriously, what are you waiting for? you're not staying here!"
"no," seokjin speaks up finally, placing a gentle hand on jeongguk's shoulder. "it's fine. it's fine. the roads are rough out there and it's too dark for him to head back right now. you can stay for the night, er...however long you'd like really."
everyone is quiet. like they can feel seokjin's pain and they're all rendered speechless.
"i'm just..." seokjin juts his thumb back, pointing toward his room before disappearing inside and shutting the door quietly.
i'm going to kill you, jeongguk mouths at yoongi.
yoongi feels like an idiot.
for some reason, for some idiotic fucking reason, he'd decided to break it off with a person he really loved. but that wasn't the worst part. he'd decided to do it through a measly text. even worse, he'd managed to infiltrate a gathering that took place in the middle of nowhere in a cabin that belonged to his ex.
yoongi is an idiot.
"don't beat yourself up about it," namjoon settles down next to yoongi on the porch.
"i'm surprised you're actually talking to me," yoongi chuckles. "hoseok's been avoiding me since he found out."
"rightly so," namjoon shakes a pack of cigarettes until one comes out. "you did break the heart of the person, let's face it, we all love the most. i mean...it's jin--"
"i get it, i fucked up. weren't you telling me not to beat myself up about it?"
"yeah, don't get me wrong, you shouldn't. but you also should be aware of how much you fucked everything up."
"that's my cue to g--"
"i bet you don't even have a valid reason for breaking up with him, do you?"
the truth was that he did have a valid reason. it was a very valid reason, in fact. but the more the thought about it, the less sense it seemed to make, and the more obvious it became that there were better alternatives as opposed to doing it through text.
yoongi sighs. "are you guys gonna block me on social media now? delete my number and pretend i don't exist?"
"are you kidding?" namjoon laughs, finally getting his cigarette to light in the wind. "we were all friends before you two were lovers. it's a fucked up situation but both of you guys mean the world to us. no matter if you don't mean that to each other anymore."
those last words stay with yoongi past dinner, past the forced game of uno, and even past him crawling into bed. sleep rarely ever evades him. sleep is his go to, his number one, no matter how upset he is, he can always count on sleep. but not tonight. tonight he lays in the sheets he knows seokjin washed and laid out especially for the gathering and tosses and turns.
seokjin still means the world to him, that's the problem with namjoon's words. of course, yoongi knows he shouldn't let someone like namjoon, who can barely figure out himself, be the judge of his decisions but he can't help but think on the subject longer than needed.
he didn't break up with seokjin because he didn't care anymore.
he's not sure why he did but it's definitely not because of that.
after a few more failed attempts at trying to get to sleep, he heaves a sigh and kicks the blankets off him. wandering outside of his room, into the eerily quiet hallway, he takes careful steps as to not wake anyone. as nice as the cabin looks thanks to the upkeep of seokjin, it is still creepy and creaky as fuck.
when he steps into the living room, he immediately wants to turn on his heels and haul ass back because sitting on the sofa is none other than seokjin gazing out of the window up at the moonlight.
"hey," he greets quietly, his voice rough and calloused.
seokjin's head jerks away from the window and his eyes are wide, afraid even, when he looks at yoongi. the bob of adam apple gulping doesn't go unnoticed by yoongi who frowns at the sight. "hey."
"can't sleep?"
not without you, seokjin thinks. "no, i'm just...i like the moonlight."
yoongi chuckles. "i was just looking at it too. in bed. it was, um..."
yoongi's voice trails off because seokjin looks utterly breathtaking under the moonlight and the view sends yoongi back to a night in the past where they didn't get much sleep for very different reasons.
seokjin is still looking at him expectantly and yoongi takes a step backward. "maybe i should go."
"no," jin shakes his head. "no stay. we should talk. we never got the chance to."
yoongi feels guilty. maybe that's why he shuffles forward slowly, sinking down next to seokjin on the couch.
"don't worry," seokjin breaks the silence after some time. "i'm not gonna ask you why. i actually just...think i need some closure. you know?"
yoongi nods slowly. "do you want me to...?"
"say it," seokjin says. "just say it out loud please."
"i..." yoongi chokes on his own hesitation and he shakes his head. "i don't want to. i don't think i can."
"it won't hurt me," seokjin insists. "i think the text hurt more than anything."
yoongi groans in response but before he can defend himself or say anything about the text, seokjin has his hand over yoongi's.
"it's okay," the older murmurs. "they don't get it but i do. i mean the first time you said you loved me, you could only do it through a letter. i knew it was hard for you."
yoongi swallows hard, his body going still at the contact. "thank you."
"don't thank me yet," seokjin laughs quietly. "i have some things of yours that kookie recommended i'd bring here to burn. i don't want do that though. let me just grab them so you can take them with you tomorrow."
seokjin quickly gets up and trails off to his own bedroom.
when he's certain the older is gone, yoongi lets out a deep breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding. he wonders why he still feels that way. why his heart still skips beats and why the pressure on his chest builds like that. why seokjin's touch has him reeling and settled all at the same time. he isn't sure if it's just what tends to happen when two people who didn't end on great terms come in contact with each other or if he's going into cardiac arrest.
whatever it is, he's sure that it has nothing to do with love or seokjin's incredibly distracting lips or...you know, the moonlight.
"it's everything from the beginning," seokjin heaves a sigh as he steps back into the living room with a box. "all the mixes and, of course, your hoodies. it's all there."
yoongi brushes his fingers across one of the beanies sitting at the top. it's red with black typography and he remembers the very night he put it on seokjin's head only for it to disappear afterward.
"you kept this?"
seokjin shrugs. "i've kept everything."
"why?"
the question comes out harsher than yoongi even intended, harsher than he actually felt. it sounded as if he were hostile because seokjin was emotionally invested in a relationship that yoongi didn't care about and it was obvious it hit some kind of nerve.
"because i love..." seokjin trails off then clears his throat. "because i loved you."
that awkward silence returns and, after standing idly by for a few moments, seokjin goes back into his bedroom. the last of his footsteps echo in yoongi's ears and he groans internally because why did he ruin this again?
he's never been a strong contender for the most communicative person and he certainly isn't up for the "showing your emotions" award of the year but that didn't mean he couldn't feel anything. at the moment, he's overwhelmed with feeling and a great deal of it is guilt.
eventually he manages to convince himself to march into seokjin's bedroom and apologize, getting on his knees to beg for forgiveness but he doesn't want to risk getting bitten by jeongguk the watchdog.
he needs something to distract himself...
as if on cue, as if it was set up by a group of technicians in a surveillance arena, the floorboards creak behind him and he snaps immediately. his edge is partially due to being in a possibly haunted cabin but primarily due to the fact that jeongguk had told him several times, over the course over a single hour, that he was going to kill him.
jeongguk was a hot headed kid with a big heart who's only recently been dropped in the ice cold pool of college responsibilities. yoongi wasn't about to put murder past his list of capabilities.
but when yoongi turns he surprisingly doesn'tfind jeongguk behind him with a meat cleaver instead he sees that there's a warm glow peaking through the floorboards below.
raising an eyebrow and lifting himself from the couch, he takes cautious steps toward the source of incandescence.
must be a basement, he thinks.
maybe if he hadn't been consumed by thoughts of self worthlessness and incompetence leading him to break up with a person he still considers to be the love of his life, maybe if he hadn't accepted hoseok's invitation to the cabin for a weekend, maybe if he hadn't spent that five dollars when he was twelve, he would have just glared at the light and gone back to bed.
but maybes are just maybes and his interest is too high.
getting down to the basement as quietly as possible is easy. it's as if the whole house has been lifted off in space where sound does not exist because he can't even hear namjoon's window rattling snoring. what he does hear is the soft gust of wind and a voice in his head telling him to keep discovering things in the dusty basement.
a box of toys and out of season clothing later, yoongi finds it. the voice in his head seems to be content with the discovery and has ceased telling him to keep discovering and has started telling him to "open it".
what he's found is a tightly bound book with a light brown leathery color. there's is a string of barbed wire wrapped around the book with a warning in big read letters: "DON'T READ IT. DON'T WRITE IT. DON'T SAY IT."
yoongi scoffs, offended and slightly annoyed.
he really hates being told what to do.
jimin is often woken up by the sound of taehyung's light snoring or by the aforementioned's drool gliding down his skin but tonight he's awakened by a chill running down his spine (which is definitely strange because taehyung is wrapped around him like a pretzel and he's been sweating at the close contact).
when he opens his eyes, he finds that everything looks normal and taehyung is still using his body as a small bed. everything looks the same but everything else is different. it's too quiet in the cabin, so quiet in fact, he thinks it would be more than possible to record a clean audio of an acapella group. no need for a studio. and there's a stench in the air.
the stench, on another occasion, could be something he'd accept as a result of taehyung's affinity for junk food before bed but he's been living with his best friend for years and that smell is not a familiar one.
he almost gags at how disgusting the thought is but it's true. the smell is not familiar and is preposterously overpowering.
he nudges the sleeping figure on top of him once...twice...three times...
"seriously tae?" he gasps out. "wake the fuck--"
he pushes once more and taehyung rolls off the bed, collapsing on the hardwood floor. the fallen lets out a painful groan just as jimin makes an apologetic whimper and reaches down.
"what did you do that for--?"
"listen to me," jimin leans forward, capturing taehyung's hands in his own. "do you smell that?"
taehyung's eyes go dead and frowns, the most serious expression stoning his features. "did you seriously push me out of bed so i could smell your fart?"
jimin groans but before he can explain, he's interrupted by a loud, inhuman screech. the sound draws out for a long time or maybe it just feels long because it's terrifying. either way, the two best friends are silenced even when the sound stops.
they both turn to each other in the quiet, their eyes wide. the moonlight outlines each of their features and they come to a silent agreement, both getting up in an instant and packing up their shared bedroom.
namjoon opens the door to their room and taehyung jumps mid-air in shock.
"did you guys hear that?"
both jimin and taehyung nod in unison, continuing to pack all of their things.
"well?" namjoon presses. "what was it?...and what are you two doing?"
jimin zips up his suitcase. "this place is obviously haunted."
"we're going home," taehyung finishes. "we've seen evil dead, ok? we know what happens when adolescents hang out in cabins."
namjoon doesn't scoff or roll his eyes, in fact he isn't even surprised. this kind of behavior is typical of the 95 line who are overly influenced by pop culture. he's better off talking to someone mature and not as fickle. someone like hoseok.
...whose door he opens to find the older spinning around his room like a human twister, the furniture levitating in the air. hoseok is screaming for dear life.
"i don't like this!" hoseok screams, emphasizing each word as carefully as he can.
he spins faster and faster while the furniture is suspended higher and higher. namjoon is so shocked by the sight, he doesn't notice the rest of the group coming up behind him, all of them struck by the spectacle.
and just as suddenly as it started, the spinning stops and hoseok drops to the floor with the furniture. he moans in pain when his head hits the hardwood and everyone stands silent in awe.
jeongguk's legs are wobbling under the weight of all the bags he's carrying in his arms. he's barely making it down the stares. if it weren't for pant shitting fear and a very strong desire to live (in spite of all his college debt), he'd probably still be inside.
"wait wait wait!" taehyung shouts out and everyone stops.
"what is it now?" hoseok whines. "really i'm not staying here another minute."
"what if it's cursed the objects by now?" taehyung whispers. "sometimes they don't just haunt places, they haunt things."
all six of them share a concerned look and come to a wordless agreement, all dropping their bags at the same time and hauling ass to the car. once they're all inside and packed in like sardines, seokjin reaches to start the car.
but it won't start.
"we are living in a b horror movie," jimin whines.
seokjin turns back to look at them. "you guys need to calm..."
his eyes widen.
"what?" namjoon asks from the passenger seat. "let's get this thing going! i mean i know i said i was an existentialist but i don't see myself free-willing out of this situation."
"where's yoongi?"
as if on cue -- damn what is it with this cabin and cues? -- yoongi steps out on the front porch of the cabin and he's...growling? his eyes are red and his white skin is especially pale and damp with sweat. his blinding blonde hair is a mess. he looks like the main ghost in a stephen king novel.
jeongguk groans. "oh hell no!"
"okay," namjoon reviews the list he's written down. "we came to the cabin and we had a falling out. we went our separate ways. we discovered a violent haunting. and now the car won't start."
namjoon looks up at the 95 line. "what's next?"
jimin shrugs. "it depends on the movie."
"it's definitely cabin horror but i'm not sure if it's slasher or demonic possession," taehyung offers quietly.
"really?" jeongguk narrows his eyes then nods his head toward yoongi who is tied up in the corner, foaming at the mouth, spewing threats and promises in a warped voice along the lines of you're all going to die tonight. "you really don't know whether demonic possession is the situation?"
seokjin looks up from where he's currently spoon feeding hot tea to hoseok to calm his nerves. "you guys don't really think we're in a horror movie, do you? seriously, i think it was just...i think there was something funny about those brownies you brought for dessert, namjoon."
"me?!"
"since when do you bake," seokjin bites. "and better yet why did they taste so good? i'm pretty sure what we all saw was a result of--"
"but it happened," hoseok cries out. "it happened to me, let's not forget that."
"hyung," jeongguk sighs. "i love you but pot brownies don't do a great job of explaining regan macneil over there."
yoongi's voice has always been gravelly but it's especially calloused when he says: "you're going to be ripped apart limb by limb--"
"shut up!" jeongguk spits more out of annoyance than fear. yoongi has been repeating the same three sentences since they tied him up and it was becoming less and less fear ensuing and more and more aggravating. "i don't give a fuck if you're possessed, i'll still kick your ass."
"car won't start..." taehyung mutters. "and we have one man down already...someone else has to go down."
"what?" namjoon inquires.
"they usually have to take us down one by one," jimin breaks in hastily. "the next step, if there is one, is to take someone else down with a completely different happening."
"which means we have to stick together," taehyung finishes. "i mean it...no one say they'll be right back, that always means you're going to die."
hoseok sighs, nearly crying, as he brings up his hands to cover his face. "i hate this."
suddenly there is loud knocking on the door. slow and deliberate and it sends everyone's hearts pummeling into their guts. the knocking is almost metallic which is confusing considering they have a wooden door. hoseok gulps.
"no one answer it," jimin whispers.
the knocking continues, once, twice. it continues until the person -- entity -- on the other side decides to stop pausing and just knocks continuously. jeongguk sighs.
"is this the next threat?" jeongguk whispers furiously. "is he gonna knock us to death?"
there's a small chance that the entity had overheard and was subsequently offended by jeongguk's statement because the next thing they know, there's an axe being torn through their front door.
they all scream, hoseok's is the loudest and most high pitched, as they scramble as fast as the can from the living room.
"where do we go?!" taehyung screams out in the midst of it.
"the basement!" namjoon suggests, diving down.
jimin makes a resisting sound. "that's literally the worst idea you could have in this situation!"
but they scramble down to the basement anyway and, for some reason, seokjin insists on bring yoongi with them. once down safely, they tie him up tightly again and he continues with his empty threats.
they're silent as possible, listening to the axe-entity tear through the cabin, seemingly destroying everything. glass shatters and wood splinters and seokjin can only imagine the damage that's being done up there. he wonders if the family insurance will cover demonic possession damage.
it quiets down eventually.
"he probably got tired," hoseok reasons breathlessly. "he's resting. he's gonna come back though, we can't stay here forever."
"why do you assume it's a male ghost?" namjoon asks, lifting his shoulders. "why can't a female ghost rip through the cabin with an axe? or better yet, why can't a genderfluid--"
"now's really not the time," jeongguk murmurs, shaking his head. "how do we get out of here?"
"you mean without a working car and hauntings around every corner?" hoseok asks sarcastically. "don't see that happening for us."
"there's literally a window right there," jeongguk points to the tiny window near the top of the wall.
"what's this?"
everyone in the basement turns to jimin who is holding an open book, pinching it like he doesn't want his hand on the whole book. he analyzes the cover of the book and his face twists up.
"do you guys always store books of the dead in your basement or..." taehyung trails off, shrugging. "...is it just a...once every blue moon kind of thing?"
they rush toward the book, circling around jimin, leaning in to look at the page it was opened to. the paper was yellowed and some dust had collected over it but the image drawn was clear. it was a black and white picture of a beast, its eyes were grey, and it seemed to be growling at a...window...
a loud rumble makes them all turn their heads toward the only window in the basement and they see the same beast that was drawn on the page, snarling at them. the dog is large, unnaturally so, with a white coat and eyes as red as yoongi's. they all watch in awe as the dog backs away slowly on all fours before running at full speed, crashing into the window and making a huge crack in the glass.
yoongi starts laughing maniacally.
"why is this happening to us?" this time hoseok does cry, sinking down to the floor in defeat.
jeongguk sneers. "i think it's pretty obvious that the wild eyed, good for nothing, breaking up over text asshole is the one responsible for the fucking ghost dog."
"jeongguk," seokjin starts only to be promptly interrupted.
"stop trying to protect him," the youngest of the group beseeches. "he's literally frothing at the mouth, all emily rose and shit. and all he's said since we've found him is that we're going to die. don't forget that when you're lamenting over him."
"jeongguk!"
"what?!"
"i have an idea!" seokjin yells, grabbing jeongguk by the shoulders. "you called him regan macneil..."
jeongguk frowns. "are you just now getting the reference?"
"forgive me for being a little distracted by the paranormal situation we've found ourselves in," seokjin scoffs. "but regan macneil...guys, what we need to do is perform an exorcism."
everyone, aside from the threat spewing yoongi and hoseok who's still crying in the corner, goes silent and seokjin thinks that he can hear crickets somewhere.
"you've gotta be kidding me" is someone's lone response and seokjin bites the inside of his cheek because has anyone come up with anything useful to do in the last hour?
"look," seokjin starts. "this all started with the book, right? maybe if we close it, bound it tight, and then exorcise him, everything will go back to normal."
"that literally makes no sense!" hoseok gripes.
namjoon clears his throat. "i'm sorry but you are all butchering the word 'literally'. there's no reason to use it as excessively as you've been--"
"shut up," seokjin sighs, shutting his eyes. "please."
no one responds to seokjin's proposal and the cabin probably would be silent again if not for the manic, axe waving entity, the ghost dog trying to infiltrate their last safe haven, and yoongi who is currently possessed and whose naturally coarse voice has become a whole new level of rough. the ghost dog continues ramming into the glass, seokjin can hear the axe hacking into one of the floorboards above (probably cutting a passage down to them), and jimin sighs.
"it won't hurt," he shrugs.
"who here has a bible?" seokjin asks brightly.
namjoon blinks. "i'm an atheist."
three poor wifi connections and a five minute wait for an app download later, they find themselves circling around yoongi and saying everything they've seen in the movies. seokjin sprays holy water on yoongi several times to no avail before taehyung of all people has to remind him that plain tap water can't be holy without being christened. jeongguk takes a go at yoongi, punching him in the face and, when called out by seokjin, cites a temporary possession. hoseok cries a lot but does a great job of reciting the same exorcism lines he saw in that one horror movie he was too scared to finish. jimin and taehyung both keep yoongi restrained long enough to complete the exorcism and namjoon discovers that, despite his beliefs, the bible is quite the interesting read.
either through a miracle or some stroke of luck, the exorcism works and a weakened, limp yoongi crumples after the spirit leaves his body. his eyes are no longer red but the skin around his right eye is in the early stages of bruising and, for some reason, the sight of it makes looking at him much easier for jeongguk.
seokjin kneels in front of yoongi, cradling the younger's face in his hands and gauging his condition. "yoongi?"
yoongi simply groans in response. "what have i told you about waking me up?"
they share a laugh, albeit a nervous one and sigh in relief. the axe entity has since stopped its assaults on the cabin floorboards and the ghost dog has disappeared, fading into nothingness just as it had arrived. seokjin tells jeongguk to help yoongi up from the basement so he can get proper rest before they leave and, as jeongguk is carrying him up the stairs, he leans down to his ear and whispers:
"now i can warn anyone else who wants to break my brother's heart by telling them the last guy got possessed by a soul crushing demon."
yoongi observes the bruises and marks on his pale body and laments over the missing memories. he scoffs because possession is a really extreme, fucked up version of being black out drunk and doing shit you don't remember. from what the others have told him -- the threatening and the cursing, the promises of torture to come -- he's surprised jeongguk didn't make good on his promise and kill him then and there. but he's also thankful.
when he's dressed and packed, he watches seokjin packing up the car he drove here. he watches him pack snacks for the others, making sure they all take them, making sure they all promise not to stop for junk food on the way back into the city. he watches as the oldest locks up the cabin and he realizes he didn't break up with seokjin because he didn't love him anymore. he broke up with seokjin because he loved him too much. because he wasn't sure if the love he had for him was too extreme but seeing as how seokjin protected him despite his demonic possession, he has a feeling the love is equal on both sides of the coin.
he starts to smile but frowns when he realizes he doesn't have anything to say. what could he say?
"hey remember that one time i was possessed by a demon and you performed a makeshift exorcism that saved my life? well, i realized then that i am still very much in love with you." ?
yoongi shakes his head at the thought but he doesn't give up on it. and when seokjin hands him a plate of homemade snacks and sends him a gentle smile, he knows he'll never give up...
...even if jeongguk does continue plotting ways to kill him.