CARNAGE

Chapter 17

OUTSIDE POV

"I still don't believe it," Hoseok said, breathing deeply. He thought the gang was closer than this, but to abandon just like that? Without so much as a goodbye? Closing his eyes, he released his breath before he grabbed a saucepan and a wooden spoon from the drawer next to the stove. 

Taehyung's arms folded, and his chest puffed out as he pouted. Leaning against the fridge—a permanent scowl across his lips as his muscles remained taunt. He looked like a child who was told he couldn't have dessert before dinner, but the pain ran deeper than that. 

"You think it has to do with his son?" Hoseok whispered carefully, leaning to the side to let his voice carry. His eyes shifted behind himself, glancing at the door to ensure no one was about to walk in on them as if the subject was a secret, but everyone knew now. 

"Nothing else has changed." Taehyung shook out his blue hair as it shadowed his eyes. "I just don't understand why." Looking at the white tile kitchen floor, he racked his brain for answers. 

Hoseok hummed as he put a can of tomato paste in a pan with some seasoning. "Jungkook wasn't going to kidnap that kid." His shoulders raised and lowered with a defeated shrug. He watched the spices blend with the red sauce to keep him occupied. Hoseok wondered if he would ever talk to the man he had considered a brother - for over a decade - again. Was this the end?

"You think R would have asked him to do that?" Taehyung's head bounced up, his voice hiking with surprise. Hoseok found his shock endearing. He didn't know R better by now? 

Hoseok met his gaze, brows furrowing. "I think R would ask any of us to do that if given the chance." Hoseok began to stir the pot of sauce. "Even you." He admitted. It wasn't what he wanted to hear, but it was the truth. 

"I told him no." Taehyung huffed, puffing out his chest as his gaze shifted angrily across the room. Taehyung drew a hard line with children. He put his foot down firmly with R upon returning from his scuffle with Seokjin, chastising him for withholding information about his child and trying to force him to locate the kid without knowing what he was doing. 

"I don't think that matters to R anymore." Hoseok's lips tightened as he reached for the pasta and fetched another pan. It felt like his job to make sure the men in the house stayed fed. Part of him secretly enjoyed having someone to care for. "That kid is what matters to him now."

"We don't?" Taehyung asked, his deep voice perking up as he shot his brown eyes back to Hoseok. His hand gripped his forearm tightly, the whites of his knuckles showing. He had given a large portion of his life to someone who didn't give a damn about him? Heat radiated off Taehyung in his anger. 

Hoseok stayed silent and added water to the pot for the pasta. The lack of an answer was the answer. Taehyung's hands tensed into fists that he tucked away in his pockets with an angry exhale, hoping to hide his frustrations from Hoseok. "He just found out the kid existed, and he is more loyal to him."

"It's his son." Hoseok reminded him. He could only imagine what he would be willing to do should he have a child. "The same reason you refuse to look for him is the same reason R is searching so heavily. You both think you're protecting this kid." Taehyung's lips tightened into a line as his breathing came out more calm. Hoseok was right, and he wasn't happy about it.

"We're past the point of a custody case."He said sarcastically.  Hoseok set the pot on the stove and turned on the heat as he turned to Taehyung. A watched pot doesn't boil. Switching gears, Hoseok's chestnut eyes locked with Taehyung's as he conveyed the seriousness. "This is going to end in blood."

"Our's or theirs?" Taehyung asked the real question. Hoseok's brows flicked upward as he shrugged. His lips tightened into a grimace. Taehyung could tell he didn't want to answer that question, but his gaze insisted he continues.