Monsters Within Us || Taekook AU

열넷

When he wakes up the day has shifted into late afternoon. The plastic lilies are back in their place, no sign of them ever being disturbed. The pale fingers are also nowhere to be seen. He reaches out to look inside the vase but decides against it. It must’ve been sleep paralysis. He was lacking many hours of sleep after all; it’s obvious from the way he overslept his nap.

He takes a quick shower, changes out of his sweaty clothes, and heads out. The thought of staying alone right now makes him uneasy; he needs to see other people, even if they’re just unknown passersby. Besides, his stomach is growling loudly. Apparently he’s not just lacking sleep.

Nothing about the town itself strikes him as particularly strange. It’s impossible to tell just by looking around if Taehyung was ever here, but so far they seem to be inexplicably drawn to the same places. Part of him regrets he didn’t at least consult with a private detective beforehand; maybe then he’d have a solid lead instead of fumbling around in the dark. The more he searches, the more he’s headed for the deep end, or so he feels. It frightens him just as much as it attracts him. He can’t make sense of it.

He settles for an old, hole-in-the-wall ramen shop that is crammed with little tables and chairs. To Jungkook's surprise there are no customers, despite the inviting smell of food. He orders a large bowl with a couple of side dishes for an absurdly cheap price and picks a seat in the corner. He remains alone until he’s finished his meal, and it’s honestly kind of a shame. The food is tasty and filling and the place itself is cozy, albeit slightly old-fashioned. It deserves far more customers.

He’s halfway back to the hotel when he realizes he actually can’t remember the name of the shop. He made a mental note of it in order to recommend it later, but the name is like wiped from his mind. The harder he thinks about it, the more he seems to forget. He can’t remember what he ordered on the menu, how he got there, or even what the chef had looked like. Had he talked to the chef at all?

Jungkook slows down and tries to pay attention to the people around him. It doesn’t matter how carefully he concentrates; nothing about their features or expressions seems to stick in his memory. For all he knows they could be the same handful of people walking past him on repeat, just like the broken elevator music. There are fake plastic flowers in his room and fake plastic people in the streets.

He keeps his eyes on the ground and jogs back to the hotel, afraid he’ll somehow lose his way completely and get caught in the loop if he lingers too long. Once he’s in his room he decides to break the routine, make sure he doesn’t get stuck in anything. He gathers his dirty laundry in a bag and takes the elevator down to the laundromat on the ground level.

The room is basically a basement, flooded by the cold kind of light one can only find underground. Unsurprisingly, it’s empty. The washing machines are silent, the chairs in the waiting area old and worn. There are a couple of foldout ironing boards on the wall and a tall green plant is sat in one corner.

A sign by the entrance tells him how much it costs for non-guests to use the service. Hotel guests may show their key cards in order to receive tokens for the machines. A clerk looks up from the desk when Kageyama enters the room, but instead of exchanging the usual polite pleasantries they end up staring at each other.