The Baggage You Carry • Jung Hoseok

Part 8 • Hoseok

Friday, March 20
Hannam-dong, Seoul
4:14pm
Hoseok

By the time Hoseok got home, he felt like was a walking zombie. His rib hurt, he was drained (mentally and physically) and all he wanted to do was roll up in a blanket burrito and sleep for the next 48 hours.

Unfortunately, he has a group of 6 highly persistent men that would not allow him to miss out of the self-proclaimed "boys night," so Hoseok figured he was hooped.

He grabbed his keys from his pocket (thank gosh he never left those in his bag) and unlocked the door to his apartment and was met with silence. He knew that Namjoon was at a tutoring session with some foreign chick that wanted to learn Korean, and Yoongi was working with another producer named PDogg on his first album.

Silence was a rare commodity in Hoseok's apartment, but whenever it occurred, it was usually at the most ideal time - like right now. The apartment was not as quiet as the three roommates would've preferred (considering they all dedicated most, if not all their separate downtime to producing their own separate mixtapes), as it was considered the central hub for their group of friends. Hoseok wasn't really sure what drew his friends to his apartment specifically, but all he knew was that quiet moments like this were almost impossible to come by nowadays.

Although, silence tends to bring about different moods for Hoseok - sometimes it inspires him to work on dancing or his mixtape, other times he uses the silence to maybe meditate and clear his mind.

This silence however was not accomplishing either of those things - instead, it was making Hoseok more exhausted (he was mentally patting himself on the back for the fact that he was in fact, still conscious). If his feet weren't dragging before, they sure-as-shit were now just at the thought of seeing his loud and sometimes obnoxious friends. He knew he needed to start mentally preparing - the group chat had been blowing up since Hoseok confirmed his attendance (he was cursing 3:45pm Hobi for agreeing without really thinking things through).

The game plan was simple - everyone would meet at their apartment (obviously) at around 7pm since everyone (minus Hoseok) were doing things.

Yoongi had expected to get home at around 5:15ish, and Namjoon should finish with tutoring around 5:30-5:45ish, and he had said he was actually at Jin Hyung's cafe so they would head up to the apartment together once that was done. Hoseok estimated that he would have at least an hour of being completely and utterly alone in his apartment, so he did what every mid-20s guy would do in an empty apartment....

....he fell face-first onto the couch and passed the fuck out.

He didn't know how long he slept for, but he was rudely and rather abruptly was woken from his slumber by the door to the apartment door being opened and a quiet shuffle of feet. It only sounded like one set of feet so in his sleep-deprived mind, he figured it was Yoongi.

His theory was proven to be correct when he heard a yawn and a little 'Hobi?' Hoseok was still extremely drained and probably a little too comfortable (especially given the somewhat awkward position he found himself in), so he just groaned in response. He heard Yoongi's feet shuffle over to where Hoseok was chilling on the couch. Yoongi looked about as tired as Hoseok felt, but Hoseok couldn't really blame him - he had a super long day today too.

"Hey Hobi, how are you?" Hoseok, still not having the energy to really respond with words decided to merely grunt, again. Yoongi smiled at him and plopped down on the chair adjacent to Hoseok and kicked his legs up on the coffee table and groaned in appreciation. Hoseok smiled - at least he would've if he was more awake.

"Are you gonna have the energy to go out tonight?" Yoongi asked, and finished off the sentence with a massive yawn - almost contradicting the point he was trying to make. Hoseok lightly chuckled and tried to find his voice because grunting was really taking it out of him.

"Are you?" Hoseok chided Yoongi back and they both weakly chuckled. Hoseok left his eyes closing again, and he could tell that Yoongi was starting to fall asleep too.

"I'll be fine in about 5 minutes... I'm just gonna close my eyes for a bit." Hoseok couldn't help but think that was a wonderful idea so he decided to join his best friend in another little nap.

This time, when he was woken up, it was to the sounds of tons of feet and lots of voices talking as the door opened. Hoseok quietly groaned and tried to capture a couple more moments of peace, and it seemed to almost be a possibility - that is until Taehyung came in.

His deep, booming voice resounded through the apartment and suddenly Hoseok was snapped out of his near-comatose state. His eyes snapped open and he started blinking them rapidly in an attempt to wake himself up, and by the looks of it, Yoongi was doing the same thing.

"Hobi Hyung, Yoongi Hyung! Where are yo— Oh, there you are!" Taehyung exclaimed while sitting on Hoseok's legs. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but Hoseok couldn't find it in himself to complain. "Are you guys excited to go out?"

Hoseok started rubbing furiously at his eyes in hopes to rub the exhaustion away. "Yeah, I guess." Hoseok responded and Taehyung got off his legs so Hoseok could sit properly. He winced when his rib started to throb - he definitely needed to take some Advil before they headed out.

The rest of the boys started filing in the living room and making idle chit chat. Jimin came and sat on the other side of Hoseok and casually whispered to Hoseok, asking if he was okay. Hoseok shrugged in response, still feeling pretty tired and his rib was still causing him grief.

Hoseok stood up and went to the bathroom to get some Advil, and by the time he'd returned, everyone was getting ready to leave.

He sighed and accepted his fate - after all, what's the worst that could happen?

———

Hoseok didn't regret coming out at all. The soju seemed to help him wake up a bit, and it started to numb the pain that his rib was causing, so he couldn't complain much.

The streets of Seoul were considerably busy which made sense once he remembered it was a Friday night and most people didn't work the next day, but luckily it wasn't the kind of busy that made you want to rip your hair out. Thank gosh, because Hoseok wasn't sure if he could handle that level of busy right now.

They were walking the streets of the Myeongdong Night Market and enjoying the smells of all the street foods and the people watching. For it being the middle of March, the weather wasn't too cold, so really there wasn't much to complain about.

Hoseok decided that while he was here, he should start looking for a new bag. If he bought it at the Night Market, he knew it wasn't going to be the best quality bag but he needed something in the meantime. He started walking over to a store on the side of the street and Namjoon noticed and followed him to the shop.

"Hey Hobi Hyung, did your day get better? You seem a little off still."

Hoseok shrugged and kept looking through the bags. "I'm okay. Someone took my bag at the train station and it's been bothering me all day."

Namjoon nodded along to him and stopped suddenly.

"Weird, the girl I'm teaching Korean to lost her bag today too. What a weird coincidence." Hoseok stopped briefly, and quickly looked at Namjoon.

"Do you know what her bag looked like?" Namjoon gave Hoseok a quizzical look.

"Do you know how many bags I see in a day? I don't really pay attention honestly." Hoseok nodded because that makes complete sense - besides, what are the odds that he actually has her bag?

"Oh, speak of the devil." Namjoon said and caught Hoseok's attention immediately. "Y/n, over here!"