Until We Drown : Vhope

【パート8】

“Do you talk to him?”
They’re laying on the mats in the combat room, exhausted and panting as practice finally comes toan end. It’d been awhile since they stayed up this late to spar, mostly because they'd both been busy training with the newbies, and Hoseok can tell they'd both gotten rusty with technique. The bruise blooming on his upper arm and at the back of his thigh is evidence enough from where Seokjin caught him earlier off-guard.

Hoseok stretches his sore legs and looks off to one side, “Sometimes? I don’t know, do you?” It’s a clear lie considering the fact that he talked to Taehyung more than anyone else in Divenire, even more than Seokjin and Namjoon.

“Nope, not at all, actually,” Seokjin yawns. “He’s always doing this thing, you know, where he looks like he’s asleep, but I mean, obviously he isn’t.”
Hoseok briefly wonders if Taehyung only talked to him, and somewhere deep down, he took pride in possibly being the only one Taehyung opened up to. He wants to say yeah, he knows more about me than my own parents did, but he keeps it to himself. There were some things that were better left unsaid.
So instead, he says, “Yeah. Obviously.” Hoseok sits up and leans back on his palms, “But whenever we do, it’s kind of like, talking to someone who prefers their coffee black or their  shoes one size too big.”
“Except for the fact that they’re not human,” Seokjin murmurs calmly, but his tone is indifferent from what Hoseok’s just said. And Hoseok doesn't blame him.
“But sometimes we aren't so human either,” Hoseok whispers, glancing in the opposite direction. He knows Seokjin is looking at him questioningly.

Seokjin looks at him carefully, eyebrow raised, “Why are you defending him…?”

Hoseok shifts his gaze to the mat and shakes his head. “I’m not. I’m just being… logical.”

“Well I’m not going to say you don’t have a point, but,” he pauses, “Just keep in mind that not all Syloe are like V,” Seokjin says firmly, standing up and dusting off his pants.

Hoseok wants to believe otherwise, that there were other Syloe out there that shared the same qualities as Taehyung. In the back of his mind, he knew there had to be others, and given that his former gang had used anesthetics on their victims to numb the pain rather than eating them alive, it was clear that they weren't just bloodthirsty animals only looking to feed on the innocent.

But tonight wasn't the night for debates or intellectual conversations, and he knows Seokjin is just as tired as he.

He says, “Yeah, I know.”
Taehyung's hair is grey the next time he stops in.
He's sitting slouched in the corner of the quarantine cell, eyes closed, and Hoseok knows something is wrong when he doesn't glance over as Hoseok enters the room. He shuffles up to the glass, squatting where Taehyung is sitting, and knocks on the glass, "Hey, you alright in there?”

He’d been asking this a lot lately, but Taehyung never really answered.
When Taehyung doesn't respond, not a movement in his body showing any signs that he'd heard Hoseok. He knocks again, this time near his ear. He says, "Taehyung."

Taehyung's eyes remain closed, but his voice is so small and weak and shaky when he finally responds that Hoseok has to press close to the glass just to hear.

"I'm so hungry,” Taehyung manages to get out.
Hoseok frowns, "Did Namjoon forget to give you a pack of animal blood?"
Taehyung shakes his head slightly, Hoseok almost misses the small gesture, "He did,” he pauses to swallow moisture into his dry throat, "but that shit is like drinking water without having food."

Hoseok sits back, "Are you fucking kidding me? And you're only now telling us?"
Taehyung rests the side of his head against the glass, and Hoseok thinks his skin looks like porcelain, fragile and breakable, "What am I supposed to say? Can I borrow a human to feed on?"
Hoseok falters for a second, "So you were just going to let yourself die?"
Taehyung presses his cheek to the glass, “Dammit," he breathes, and Hoseok absentmindedly presses his fingers to the glass where Taehyung's cheek rests, "Why do you even care?"

Hoseok furrows his brows. He doesn't know how to respond because he doesn't know the answer himself. Minutes pass in silence as he struggles to find some kind of logical reasoning because he’s run out of excuses, but as Taehyung falls limp somewhere in the process, he taps firmly on the glass, "Hey, stay with me."