Lovely | BTS ✓

1

Taehyung walks up to the house that seems to live in the shadows; sunlight doesn't touch it from underneath the canopy of trees enveloping the place - swallowing it.

Suitcase clutched in his white-knuckled grip, his feet carry him across the dead grass, what is left of a walkway reduced to crumbles as weeds and insects claim the cobblestones as theirs.

Stairs leading up to the blackened doorway creak beneath Taehyung's weight, and his concern of being swallowed by the splintering wood beneath him only intensifies when he steps onto the porch, seeing the rotting wood giving way to more darkness beneath it.

This place is screaming at him to leave, but he needs this job.

Though he now understands why the owner of the house is paying such an obscene amount of money to keep the place clean.

He worries this is outside of his capabilities - that the house will collapse in on itself at any moment: shutters hanging by a single rusted hinge, grass so overgrown that Taehyung is sure there are things hiding in its tresses, watching him as he raises his fist to knock on the door.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Then, footsteps.

Languid footfalls echoing through the door, coming ever closer to pull away the barrier between the stranger and Taehyung.

A low groan whispers from the front door's hinges, another sign that the house itself doesn't want him here; he can just imagine the groan forming the words.

Go away.

"Ah," the man says, sending a smile toward his guest. "You must be Taehyung."

Taehyung takes in the disheveled appearance of his new boss; his ivory button-up shirt stained beige, untucked against his worn down slacks, shoes that clearly haven't been shined in far too long and jaw-length hair unkempt and falling into the man's face.

"Right," Taehyung says, holding his free hand out for the man to shake.

"I'm August," the rugged man says, he and his house reflecting the apathy surrounding the entire estate. Neither the man nor the house has cared to live - only to survive in their barest, most withered down forms.

Taehyung has been hired to bring them both from the brink of nonexistence.

He sends the man a smile, hands falling apart from each other as August moves away from the doorframe.

"Come in," he says, turning his deadened stare into the depths of his house. "We have a lot to discuss."