fortuitous odds

[3] complex curiosities

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No service.

It was exactly what Jungkook expected as he stared down at his phone that served no greater purpose than being a way to tell time and a way to speak to his family back at home. Here in the vibrant mess of scraps there were no connection points for him to do that. Staring down at his phone spread a tingling pain through his chest. A hazy blur upset his eyes as he continued to stare at his home screen picture of himself standing atop Elias' shoulders, perfectly positioned to make it look like he was holding the sun. The illusion had been his pride for the entire year, any new person he met being introduced to him with his name and that photo.

It was stupid to cry over it, he knew it would do nothing. Shoving the phone back into his pocket, he wiped both palms over his eyes, attempting to clear the dreaded emotion. There wasn't anything to do for a distraction. Left to wallow in an empty room.

Two more layers had been added to his neck, time spent in a very awkward silence as the once gentle healer boy would roughly stitch on his impressive creations. It reached seven needle pricks before Jungkook began to suspect he was doing it on purpose.

Now it had been over twelve hours since Taehyung had left, the sounds outside having settled down to a quiet lull of occasional conversation. The recreation room that was just down the hall seemed to be empty, no childish noise sifting in.

Leaving this room would certainly lead to his own downfall, he was blatantly aware of that. But Jungkook was reaching a point of boredom where his apathy took charge. So quietly he shuffled to his feet, pulling on a hoodie that he found in a cupboard full of spare clothes. It thankfully covered the freakish state of his injuries, and hid the recognisable colour of his hair.

Peeking out from the curtain, he saw the still state of the circular room, not a Deviant in sight. A part of him wanted to head for the purple door that he'd seen Hoseok come out of the other day, but he knew better than to dig that grave. Instead he made his way to the main doors. When he pushed on the handles the door opened up and an overwhelming gust of dust and heat washed over him, momentarily filling his sinuses and making him choke. He hastily wiped at his eyes clearing the dust and coughing out the rest.

Fresh vision revealed the same whimsical set-up he'd seen upon arrival two days ago. It was less hectic, most of the kids wandering past looking like normal children as they read books or did some gardening. None noticed him, or if they did it was never acknowledged. All the buildings were unique, batches of structures matching eachother which indicated they'd been built together. At the end of his sight he saw a new fence line that was being built. At the border of it stood several older teens, all joshing eachother whilst working on the wire and wooden structure of the barrier.

A young girl with dark green hair bolted out of a shelter to his right, drawing his attention to the way she suddenly began walking up as if there were a set of invisible stairs. She did this and landed on the roof of the shelter where a telescope and cartography equipment were set up. Curiosity eating through him, Jungkook wandered over to the roof, using his own natural height advantage to boost himself up and tug his body onto the ledge.

"Excuse me, this is my spot." Said the girl the second she heard the movement and swivelled around to see Jungkook propped up on the ledge.

"Sorry, I didn't want to disturb you, just wanted to see your set up. You map things?" She didn't answer, turning away and rolling up the piece of paper she'd had previously set up, hiding the contents. "Ah I see, you've been told not to talk to me. How did you recognise me?"