•|Outbreak🔞|•

|₣ØɄⱤ₮ɆɆ₦|

THE NEXT FEW days went by uneventfully for the most part other than when Namjoon had nearly set the entire house on fire trying to cook a cup of ramen over an open flame inside. Everyone tried to stop him from doing it, even M/N, but the leader was so determined to prove that it would have been alright. Three minutes later, M/N is trying to figure out how to put out a fire inside of a styrofoam cup (which, ultimately made no sense since the fire was outside the cup?) without making too much noise to attract attention.

"Sorry," Namjoon had nervously laughed once M/N was able to put out the flames, scratching the back of his head, "I guess you guys were right."

Yoongi scoffed.

"No shit."

Now, M/N exhaled in contentment, everything seemed to be winding down. Jungkook and Namjoon had already made up at that point and acting as if the fight never took place, proving Jimin right that this sort of thing happened all the time, so there was no longer an awkward tension thickening the air around the others. Everything was peaceful.

"Taehyung, give it back!"

Well, M/N sighed, almost everything...

M/N sat on the stairs of the two-story home with his arms resting over his knees, a book about a certain scar-head wizard in his hands, and was barely able to get out of the way when Taehyung came rushing down the stairs with Jimin chasing after him. M/N made a small noise of pain when Taehyung accidentally kicked him in the side, but Taehyung was too busy trying to get away to notice what he had done.

"Why?" Taehyung called behind his shoulder as he dodged Jimin's hands while they tried to grab at what M/N was able to make out as a journal-like book. "What's in here? Something dirty?" Taehyung wiggled his eyebrows teasingly.

"I'm serious, Tae," Jimin whined. "Give it back, please!"

The two ran off into the kitchen, leaving M/N by himself in the foyer, and the boy turned back to his book once it got semi-quiet. The preteen once again let himself get lost in the pages of giant spiders and cursed diaries, his head envisioning a world of spells in a weird language he didn't understand and magic that made him feel, in some way, like everything was normal. It made him feel as if he was connected, somehow, to what the world used to be like. He was young when everything started, so he doesn't remember much about it, so the boy often likes to welcome the nostalgia.

M/N didn't believe that half-giants and large snakes that lived in bathrooms actually used to exist, but the person who wrote the book did, and the boy wondered if the world was so boring back then that they had to create an entirely different one on pages.

M/N turned the page, his eyes following the printed words, and the smell of old dust wafting under his nose.

"Because that's what Hermione does," said Ron, shrugging. "When in doubt, go to the library."

M/N's eyes moved to read the next page, but then he stopped and backtracked to the last line.

"When in doubt, go to the library."

M/N's eyebrows furrowed and he pursed his lips.

"When in doubt," M/N slowly repeated aloud, a bizarre, cloudy feeling swirling in the back of his head out of nowhere, "go to the library..."

For some reason, reading those seven words gave the preteen a sense of déjà vu he couldn't quite pinpoint. They sounded so familiar, but M/N was sure that he had never heard them in his life.

'What the—'

The front door creaked open and in walked Namjoon with Yoongi skulking right after him. The two went out a few hours ago to check the area for infected since it had been relatively quiet the past few days and they wanted to make sure everything was alright. M/N offered to go with them, but Yoongi had instantly shut him down with a push to the forehead and a, "No way, kid. You stay here and let your wound heal."

That's right, M/N had completely forgotten about his bullet graze.

It didn't hurt unless he stretched his torso too much or jogged too fast, so it went unnoticed for the most part, but M/N didn't take too kindly to the rejection.

The preteen hates feeling useless, but he learned that you need to respect your elders, so he (begrudgingly) sat the job out.

"Hey, kid," Yoongi greeted, locking the front door.

M/N, shaking off his weird earlier feeling, blinked and smiled at the pair.

"Hey, guys. How'd it go?"

"Everything was fine," Namjoon sighed. "Not a single infected for miles and no sign of hunters—"

"You sound disappointed," M/N pointed out.

Yoongi clicked his tongue, slightly in awe at the boy's observation, and nodded before he crossed his arms while leaning against the staircase.

"Namjoon thinks that something's wrong because it's so quiet," Yoongi stole a glance at the leader, "but I just think that he's being paranoid."

"I'm not being paranoid. Something is going to happen," Namjoon's eyebrows furrowed, "but I just don't know what or when..."

"I think it's just last night's canned spaghettiOs messing with your stomach. They did expire a week ago—"

"I know what I'm talking about, Yoongi." Namjoon glared at his friend. "There's some shit stirring out there, I'm sure of it."

M/N placed his hand on Namjoon's arm gently. Namjoon looked down at the boy.

"I'm sure it's fine, Namjoon." He reassured. "Nothing's happened for the last few days."

"Yeah," he lowly scoffed, moving away from beneath M/N's hand before walking off.

The pair were barely able to catch the next words that came out of the leader's mouth.

"The calm before the storm..."

(A/N: I apologize for any spelling/grammatical errors!)