bury a friend

(listen)

hoseok's exhausted, really. as good as dead. yoongi will be back any second to finish the job, hopefully. he's finally got hoseok where he wants him, maybe he's savouring the moment? anyways, all he can really do at this point is wonder what his fate will be-- stabbed til' he bleeds out? probably not. no, yoongi isn't that bland, that depends on where the knife goes though. maybe, gas and a match? whatever, he'll find out soon enough.

--

the first time, hoseok was quite perplexed. I mean, he'd noticed the way yoongi would look at him, the curiosity, daring if he didn't know any better. yoongi's strange infatuation with death, too. but this?

afterwards, he just remembered wondering if it was worth it. what could he have done? after everything that had happened, was he supposed to tell him to just snap out of his funk? it felt like he'd be rushing a natural process if he did so. he'd just had faith that eventually, everything would blow over and yoongi would get back into the swing of things. he didn't expect yoongi to try to kill him.

but there he goes; one second yoongi's watching hoseok swim, the next he's in the pool and trying to drown him. he didn't even have enough time to react--just-- he's drowning now. he can't breathe and there's water in his lungs. maybe its a joke? maybe yoongi's gonna let go any second now? hopefully, because his throat is starting to feel thinner and he's not so sure. but then he's being pulled back up out of the water, and, of course he is, of course yoongi wasn't actually drowning him in the pool. who doesn't love a good laugh?

instead, he tries to drown him in the spa.

yoongi manages to manhandle him over the little tile ledge, right into the hot bubbling water. he follows after. his hands return back to hold his head right under. hoseok's face ends up kissing a spa jet and, what's even going on? his face feels hot. it hurts. it hurts a lot and yoongi doesn't have any mercy. is this a guy thing that hoseok doesn't know about? a yoongi thing? a pool ritual thing? he's never wanted to breathe so badly.

even when he woke up by the side of the pool, hacking up water and spluttering like a delusional fish on land, it didn't take long for him to notice yoongi on the seat behind him. he looked, well, blurry. once he managed to rub his eyes and properly look at him. he just stared.

the second time, it escapes his mind a bit. they were at a party though, he remembers that much. and he'd woken up with scars all over. deep ones. stitched up ones. he didn't know who was responsible at the time.

the third time, he ended up underneath a car. yoongi pushed him into traffic. heavy, rush-hour traffic. his leg was bent a way it shouldn't have been and he couldn't tell if it was a bone that was pressing against his flesh or just a pointy rock under his leg. his ribs were definitely broken, he knew that.

"wasn't looking where he was going," yoongi said to the nurse, "tripped. I turn around and there he was, clumsy son of a bitch. he'll get himself killed one day."

he pieced the second encounter together by then. his doctor was also concerned about the absence of a few organs, that connected the remaining dots.

he wonders now, if this will be the fourth time or the last time. he already knows, but it doesn't matter.

"hobi-ah, lighten up. this isn't the end, you know?" yoongi returns with a smile, a rock and a wheelbarrow. he sounds giddy. excited.

hoseok coughs up more blood.

"stop that. you'll see me again--soon. you will, you'll find me." he walks over toward a little hut he's found, brings the rocks down on the handle and smashes it clean off, judging from the clink and small thump on the grass near hoseok's head. he cant really move to see. "I promise. but right now," hoseok cant even scream anymore, he just winces and cries, body being dragged to a toppled wheelbarrow and rolled inside. "-we have to get you in here."

yoongi grunts, pushing the wheelbarrow upright, hoseok sitting limply inside, blood already smudged inside the thing. hoseok decides to let himself anticipate the next move. it's all he has left to do.

he starts to move forward, yoongi pushing from behind. his head falls back and the only thing he can see is the sun and underneath yoongi's chin. his eyes droop for a moment, when they open yoongi's not there. he hears a door being kicked in from in front of him. "I'm so excited. I can't wait 'til we meet again, god, are you planning your revenge yet? you should, you'll want it." he laughs.

yoongi wheels him inside the hut. hut? no. huts don't have hardware tools hanging on the wall, some sheds happen to, though. yoongi's led him into a vacant shed? maybe he'll get creative with the hammer and the screwdrivers and the drills and the saws and whatever else hoseok can't see. if he is, he better do it quick, his eyes keep closing and breathing feels like the hardest job he's ever had.

"what do you think you'll come back as? like, your reincarnation, I mean. I hope it's good." yoongi doesn't reach for anything on the wall, however. he bends down and starts to circle around hoseok, then squirts what seems to be water on the walls. "I wonder what i'll come back as after you kill me. doesn't matter too much, I guess. next time i'll have an even better plan for you. how much fun is this! it's like we have unlimited lives! each time one of us comes back, you get to kill the other one again in a different way. until--basically until the end of time!"

oh, hoseok thinks.

yoongi trails more water from the floor to the grass outside the shed and walks back in. he looks down at hoseok and laughs. "don't forget where I live. we should have a code maybe, like so when you find me I know that its you and not some random trying to kill me. how about...umbrella? yes! umbrella. pink umbrella! remember that." he pulls out a match box from his pocket.

predictable. hoseok had a feeling he would choose that, the fucking pyromaniac.

god, water? his brain is already fried. water doesn't smell like that.

yoongi leans over him, smiles sweetly, like a happy child. hoseok wonders if the pain is worse than his own guilt. "you know where to find me. i'll be waiting." yoongi steps out of sight. hoseok already knows. from outside, he hears the match light.

he wonders if someone will find his body, or better yet, find yoongi. maybe someone will, yoongi'll think its hoseok reincarnated to trap him and get revenge, they'll lock him up somehow and give him the help hoseok should have. that's the only dying wish he can come up with.

oh, yoongi.

--

the first time, hoseok was quite perplexed. I mean, he'd noticed the way yoongi would look at him, the curiosity, daring if he didn't know any better. yoongi's strange infatuation with death, too. but this?