vớ vẩn 3

5: Bottle Part II.

When Namjoon ended the call the house fell quiet, so quiet in fact that Hoseok could hear only the sound of his own heartbeat, his friends' soft breathing, and the ticking of the clock on the wall above the hissing TV. After a few seconds Jimin shifted to pick up the remote and turn it off, cutting off the static noise and light. He mentally thanked him because it had been getting under his skin for quite some time, but the downside was it made the house that much more close to silence. There was a tension in the air that longed to be broken and yet none of his friends seemed to be able to do so. Hoseok just studied the phone on the coffee table as he fiddled with the cuff of his jacket, fingers pulling at the black denim because if he didn't then they would shake uselessly in his lap. At least snagging handfuls of the material allowed him to use them, to hide that they were shaking even though it was rather pointless. He knew that he wasn't the only one shaking, in the fingers or physically shivering with nerves, so he wasn't sure why he felt the need to pretend he wasn't.

For quite some time now Hoseok had been thinking about what Seokjin had said to him, had said about Taehyung retreating to a safe place. Both he and Namjoon had meant his thoughts of course, which he had disagreed with immensely. Taehyung wouldn't go into his thoughts to feel safe and secure. Their friend had never been able to trust his own thoughts, sober or drunk, because his mind had a terrible habit of turning on him. Hoseok could visualise his lover's thoughts like an unpredictable dog, happy and content one moment and then whirling around to clamp him between sharp teeth. They had all seen it happen often, and beneath the surface he knew that it was a constant thing. Taehyung couldn't trust his own thoughts and therefore he wouldn't be safe with them, which meant that he needed somewhere else. Somewhere he felt physically safe.

"If he doesn't call us back," Jungkook said as he shifted to lean his weight back on his wrists. "What do we do?" Hoseok glanced up to study him, finding it weird that he wasn't wearing his uniform right now. Seeing him in his everyday clothing without an armful of books was a jarring sight that he hadn't seen in some time. Whenever he usually had enough time to see the boy it was right after they had both finished classes, but not tonight. Jungkook moved his eyes over them all. "Do we go looking for him?"

"Yeah," Yoongi replied with a firm nod. "Yeah we go and get him."

"From where?" the boy asked, raising his eyebrows at the question.

"Wherever the fuck he is."

"The...the house?" Jimin suggested uncertainly. "Do you think he's in still in the house."

"No," Seokjin shook his head. "No I don't think he is, or I hope that he isn't."

Hoseok stared at the phone on the table and he tried to block their voices. There was a thought at the back of his mind and he was trying to pull it to the front but his friends were distracting him and he couldn't seem to do so. Something to do with a safe place. In time of need sometimes it wasn't the most obvious thing, like a bedroom in which someone could lock themselves up in. Hoseok knew that Taehyung didn't have many positive memories associated with bedrooms, whether or not he directly said it, and he was only slowly helping him create some. If it wasn't a house then it was something else...somewhere that Taehyung physically needed and-

"He's in the trainyard," Hoseok said suddenly, voice low because he was talking to himself more than anyone else: his thoughts slipping out of his lips. Jungkook stopped talking, trailing off as he looked at him with a blank face. He dragged his eyes off the phone and looked over them all slowly. "The trainyard, that's where Tae is."

"How do you..." Namjoon paused before letting out a soft noise under his breath. "Shit, you're right. Tae will totally be there."

"Why would he be there? That's blocks down from his old home that would be..." Jimin furrowed his brow and then it seemed to hit him.