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sor-vette · 2 years

Text

So Try and Don't Die

Hoseok knows that the building block for any human behaviour is greed, be it his own or anyone else’s. blocks build foundations, foundations - plans, plans - the future he wants to see. but ask any strategist and they’ll say that the most dangerous thing is not the failure itself, but a rogue statistical outlier, for it can ruin your plans one after the next and force you to confront the dreadful truth - is this reason or are you just in love?

• type: mystic strategist! Hoseok x fem! reader • genre: criminal underworld! au (literally), dystopian world, angst, childhood friends to petty enemies/lovers, very Hoseok centred, like extremely, it's a characterization piece almost

• part of seven tales collab. Read the other stories of the collab created by @moon-write, @btsrunmylife, @delacyrose224; @alpacaparkaseok; @btsroyalwilds;

• header credits go to @moon-write thank you so much for indulging my nonsense, I hope this does fit all the guidelines

• rating: mature • w/c: 15k • t/w: implied murder, implied brainwashing, cults, explosions, mentions of claustrophobic environments, mentions of animal experiments, stabbing, near-death experience, collapse of a society

• other warnings + about: upper-class bullshit (yes, it deserves a warning), Darja got very heated about the rich, Hoseok is trying so hard not to simp that once in a while he becomes a little bit of a prick. All in all, this is a dystopian world and while I didn't want to go too overboard, there are ongoing heavy thematics

• a/n: since essentially being bed-ridden for some time now, I skimmed over old books and that will reflect in this through weird phrasing, word choice and the fact that this is going to be so boring and sort of formless? ಥ_ಥ like she really said, let's read the classics and drone on and on about wind and such.

• taglist : @valhallawhispers; @jinsjungkook; @leklekgai; @ohshutupjimin; @miragehoseok; @heyydolll; @hrts4kook; @elyte; @persephonesorchid; @pauls-mccharmly; @jinsjungkook; @pinkcherrybombs; @introlxv;

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During the spring of 1887, officers of her Majesty's government made a strange and bedimmed discovery in what previously was thought of as an abandoned factory complex. Though the news of it was never made public, the reports discussed by the initial investigators did not only reach the ears of Her Majesty but also of the general governance. Those who had already exhibited particularly keen interest were the first to link the two questions together that took place around the time - what was the nature of the discovery and was it connected to the missing prisoners? Indeed the question had been mulled for nearly a decade without any definite or even indefinite answer, no one seemed to have the slightest notion of what happened to the rather abnormal number of incarcerated, recorded but unseen. Jails did not report to be overcrowded and there were no rumours of a mass escape. Whereabouts of nearly three hundred people were shrouded by the most intricate secrecies as they were not to be found in any known prisons, military confinement, records of the deceased, even katorgas or nameless graves by any power that was decisive enough to take up the exploration into the query.

The discovery of 1887 was of the fact that underneath the abandoned factory complex there sprawled man-made tunnels and astoundingly spacious caverns where indeed signs of civilized life could be found, though the sitings of the settlers were never established. The investigation reached no further than that, the main leaders of the supposed expedition that was to happen befell into quick and unexplained deaths, additionally, it being a time of great unrest in the country, the subject was laid to rest.

And the sensation became a conspiracy, conspiracy - a tall tale and that a piece of odd but fanciful folklore after enough time had passed.

The existence of Orchid District, as it was dubbed to honour the first officer who made the discovery - Hiram Orchid, was officially discarded in 1962 when such a conception - a literal criminal underground living beneath millions of unsuspecting feet was pronounced a delusional fancy. An improbability within an impossibility concocted by irrational and bored minds.

And it is here that Hoseok was born.

The obscured cove was mostly silent, save for the rhythmic beat of the fan's wings recycling the stale air. There was nothing more to hear. Even your breathing was near inaudible and Hoseok's hands itched to check your pulse despite the fact that he'd done it ten times already.

As you were sleeping, tied to a chair, he can indulge in a little, private weakness - admiration. Freedom had been kind to you - there was a faint glow and healthy plumpness about your skin. Sun, good food and safety neither of which could be found in abundance underground had given way for you to transform into a seemingly normal citizen of a moral society. Hoseok scraped his fingernails against the tongue of the gun.

The deal was immovable, sturdy and heartless like an axe of an executioner - should you ever return, he'd kill you, that was the promise you both swore in blood. At the time he had seen nothing but fury, nothing but your betrayal so then perhaps he had vaguely entertained the thought of murder however presently he found himself halted in front of an unchangeable sentiment - he couldn't. He just couldn't. He wasn't capable of killing anyone on an average day, it was a flaw that in any other man in the Orchid would have him dead by the age of five but Hoseok was not any other man. Still the thought of anyone killing you? ... No, it would not be.

Grimly, he let the bullets rattle into his palm. He couldn't kill you and he wouldn't let anyone do it either - a senseless conundrum but if he was worth anything of his nefarious name, he'd find the solution to the bothersome problem that was you. When at last you stir, the head of the gun pressing your chin upwards is a sensation as familiar as it was predictable. Your head chains jangling and the creek of a boot. Was he still wearing that ridiculous apparel even after such a chunk of time had gone by? You couldn't help the snort that ripped out and that is greeted by a breath touch too laboured to be in absolute control.

"Out of respect for an old friend," he says as coldly as you muster he capable of, "any last words?"

"What's the name of the most frugal pirate?"

Silence.

"Barry D. Treasure!"

More silence.

"Is this thing even loaded?" you wonder aloud and the gun digs harsher into the crook of your throat. "I asked whether it's loaded not whether it's there." Comes your grumble. In an instant, the blindfold is ripped away from your eyes. Hoseok was no more than five centimetres away, breathing down harshly, looking a tad too unhinged for the reputation that he amassed.

"You think this is a joke?" he rasps lowly and you let your gaze wander over him.

"That outfit certainly is."

"I could kill you."

"No, you couldn't."

He could dress up as much as he wanted, he could lie to others without cease but not even on one day out of a hundred could he ever fool you. Familiarity was a weapon and a weakness you mutually possessed, a two-way bomb both parties had the red buttons for. He seethes in your presence, nevertheless, you think he partially enjoys this. You undoubtedly did.

The gun is tossed aside and he turns his back, not so much out of frustration but so you couldn't see his face. Like a backwards hug.

"Five years you've been gone," he recounts peering into the dark of the underworld through the window blinds.

"Why did you come here to ruin me after five years?"

"I'm not here to ruin you," you object.

Hoseok scoffed, leaning against the window, showcasing the creased back of his burgundy coat.

"My money transfer, weapons exchange, bank heist, even the upworld's communication schism, recently all my plans have been falling through much like straws in a hurricane," he pushes through his teeth. "Not here to ruin me," a lingering pause and the tension surges to new levels, "to destroy me, to humiliate me? Is that why, friend?"

He looks over his shoulder to find you not begging, not pleading but staring quite solemn ahead. Much had changed over the course of five years, not only in his world but of the Orchid itself. Yet how come a delirious place such as this wherein the south side there was a Fate Reader gathering cultists like an aged worshipper of malign, unseen forces, where few streets behind there worked a Mad Scientist, claiming to be able to raise the dead and where the Grey Pianist, the only pillar of trust Hoseok had left when his heart left him to be Up There, had disappeared with nary of trace. How come that even in an ungodly place such as this he was still bettered by you? That he still yearned for your touch, your comfort despite vowing to himself that he'd rather cut out his own tongue than say anything of loving belief ever again.

"I merely wanted your attention."

Hoseok laughed sharply. Then grabbed the letter opener that rested on his desk, above the scattered plans and held it up against your eye.

"Is this enough of attention?" he whispered, spitting words like poison from his mouth but you were not afraid. You never were. It was he who spent his days in fear - fear of being killed, of being tortured, of staining his hands red, of losing you all over again.

A part of him even wished you would have stayed away then he could confine himself in fantasies, where no words uttered were wrong, where you both could live without the oppressive glare of survival down below the decree of normalcy.

"You should stop pretending you're capable of hurting me," you droned, vacant and unblinking.

"Why. Did. You. Come. Here." he uttered once more, the glinting edge of the blade so near it mingled between your eyelashes.

"I need you to help me get someone out as well."

Hoseok considered it for a second and stabbed the knife into the chair, close to where your hand was resting. You didn't even flinch.

"No one leaves the underworld, we live and we die here."

If even one story, a shred of single photographic evidence would ever traverse these hidden halls, the world would be forever changed and the Orchid district would meet its despicable downfall. It was perhaps a fragile and precarious thing but it was the fundamental human nature, no matter how flawed or devious that human might be, that they wanted to live. Orchid needed rules like no other because it housed people who could break it like no other and if there ever was anything that could scarcely to an agreement, a peace treaty among the mirage of villains, it was the unchangeable rule that no one ever leaves the underworld alive.

No one but a single statistical outlier.

"I got out," you refute and Hoseok gave an evil glare in return.

"And I paid for it," he hisses, pointing a ring cladded finger at the scar running across the bridge of his nose.

You open your mouth to say something but then close it. Hoseok wonders whether you've grown smart only to abandon it all when your face grows so close it blurs his sight and he feels your warm lips press upon the scar.

He freezes and against his judgement, his reputation and image, he closes his eyes and melts underneath your touch, as if he was a normal man as if he could have normal things.

The warning screech of tires puts a firm end on that delusion and moving on a well-trained instinct Hoseok pushes your chair away, behind his brown leather chair and not a second after fire fills the room.

Hoseok watched calmly from the side alley as the motorcycle came to a stop and the young offender brandishing a baseball bat slinked his way towards the warehouse.

Unscrupulous and barbaric, typical of the Action Taker.

He didn't make it too far as metal walls fall from the ceiling, effectively caging Hoseok's lair, hiding his precious items and plans like shell did the soft body of a snail.

The Action Taker cursed and hammered the impenetrable wall with the bat. Once he sated his anger, panting and left imperfect, which Hoseok knew aggravated his nerves like nothing else, he spat on the ground and then drove away.

In the outside world, you're both left standing alike, old friends, betrayers, admirer and abhorer rolled all in one, pushed out of the relative safety of Hoseok's hideout. From the frying pan and into the fire.

Hoseok glanced back at you where you busied yourself with tying the ropes loose and putting out the faint cinder lingering in your hair. Something clinked from up the fire escape by the roof and in the darkness two shining dots hung in the air. They blinked in and out not unlike a flickering light and you just began to wonder if it's curiosity that the lights are looking at you with, that they disappeared. Only quiet footsteps could be briefly heard dashing across the roof and then they're gone.

"Who was that?" you questioned, rubbing your arms. They had rope marks on them, red lines etched deep in your skin that partially Hoseok regretted, partially was happy for. Good, he thought, you get to feel at least the fraction of the pain he felt once you left him to rot all alone.

"Alley Cat, don't worry about him."

"I meant the man who threw the bomb."

"That..." Hoseok glared back at the road, "that nuisance calls himself the Action Taker."

"Stupid name," you snorted.

"Quite," Hoseok agreed with a light smile before quashing any kindness away. You were not friends anymore, you were nothing. Just a fly in his ointment. One that he will find a way to get rid of.

"He wants to be the new king of my region. Hence why he's been eagerly leaping into any chance to kill me."

You frowned as he shook the remaining glass shards from his coat.

"Are you...?"

"Please do not pretend that you care," he sharply interrupted, placing his triangular hat on the top of his head. He felt that the more layers he wore with you, the safer he could be. A ridiculous statement but still one he somewhat found solace in.

You pulled back, not quite hurt, but not quite good either.

"I want to get Shadow Hacker out of here," you told with some finality.

"Cute."

"Don't patronize me! The game has changed! No one cares about common criminals here anymore."

Hoseok leaned back onto the brick wall, nearly choking on the fumes of the city. The air was permeated with acidic smell and faintly orange tint that bled from the upper levels. If Hoseok thought of what hell looked like, he imagined it would have some similarity to this. It was like being slowly buried alive.

"No one gets to just leave," he repeated sternly, beginning to catch the nasal sounds of the advertisement loop playing in the Light Fields.

You heaved a tired sigh, peering cautiously at the gang of teens passing by, listening to the music far too loud for anyone's comfort. The longer outside, the more you sink back into its clutches, the unshakeable stench of dirt, piss and petrol, the drone of the neon lights, ever-present advertisements and the barely constrained madness masquerading as a society. Life indeed found a way to persist even in places it never should.

"He won't survive here," you crossed your arms, inspecting even the slightest of details on Hoseok. From the golden chains slung around his chest to the red bandana hiding the bleached hair, he was every bit a piece of antiquated history - of simpler times where the only thing that roamed around Orchid was decadence and the law of weapon. Now... now who could tell what new obscurity and frenzy in a place where there wasn't even warmth of a sun would rise its unsightly head.

"At least... at least help me to find out what happened to him. I take it you haven't heard of him?"

Hoseok pursed his lips together, warily fidgeting at the sounds of sirens approaching. Privately he held the same trepidation as you - that such simple thing as a man with a plan no longer sufficed. Sirens of the firefighters began to drown out the recorded voice of the advertisement announcer and Hoseok was itching for a tactical retreat. The flames will die out by themselves, his environmental stabilizer will make sure of it. Being both a brilliant and greatly paranoid man he had insured his little alcove to be near indestructible much like himself. Perhaps it was no coincidence that both things, his home and his sanity were compromised the moment you showed up again into his life.

"Neutral zone, now!" he ordered. "I am in no mood to escape imprisonment this evening."

His eyes began to sting the second he stepped into the Light Fields.

"Please enter the sanitation area," the automated cheery voice announced as they stepped through the revolving gate. Doing as it asked, Hoseok held his breath as a large spray of disinfectant brushed him into the ground of the grey cubicle.

"You have been sanitized! Welcome to the neutral zone, welcome to Light Fields! We remind all visitors that the use of guns and violence will be punishable by death. Thank you for your cooperation!"

A green approval ticket was printed on the outer side of the sanitation chamber which begrudgingly and hacking at the taste of disinfectant in his throat, Hoseok was quick to plaster on his jacket. The faceless guards holding rifles gave him a lingering glare but proceeded no further than that. You stumbled out of the sanitation area dishevelled and coughing with tears in your eyes.

"Since when do they have these things here?"

Hoseok shrugged.

"Bio attack three years back. The air is toxic outside, once you stay longer than thirty minutes, your lungs will slowly start to corrode."

Your eyes widened.

"Good thing your guys grabbed me early on then."

He didn't grace you with an answer though quietly he thought much the same.

Hoseok turned attention onwards and steeled his resolve. He was marginally pliant to your request of aid but it was for the reason of guarding his work rather than any other sentiments. If you wanted to find the Shadow Hacker it was in his best interest that you would do so quickly, without ruining his plans all over again.

In statistics, an outlier described a data point that significantly differed from other observations. It caused serious problems withing statistical analysis oftentimes rendering even the most flawless prediction obsolete.

"I'm going to rule the entire underworld," he once had announced holding up the plastic sword into the foul air of his mother's apartment and stabbing the unknown enemies into their invisible chests. You hadn't even lifted your gaze from the pages of the book.

"Sure you are," you patronized dryly.

"And you can be my second," Hosseok had then continued ignoring the lack of enthusiasm in your voice. This finally caught your attention. You raised your eyes slowly, looking him over with much the same expression you did twenty years later - as though he had said something astoundingly stupid.

"Second?" you echo. "Honey, I'm going to be the first."

No, you had to go. Even if he wished nothing less than to see you disappear once again, even if these few minutes with you had felt like he was at long last breathing fully, being aware of what life meant and not going through it like a machine, building his castles made of other people's failures. Yes, it would be most reasonable for his survival if you were to go away.

Hoseok fixed his hat, a persistent obsession of his and gazed upon your flighty figure taking in the new development of the Light Fields, with avid, almost childlike interest. You hadn't, in the end, grown up to be the first, neither as Hoseok had become the ruler of the underworld, such a thing was simply not conceivable. In his mind, you had grown up to be much more damaging though that a fellow rival. You were his best friend and somewhere, in a hidden, extremely guarded corner of his mind, he reckoned there was a part of him that was in love with you. He supposed not everyone held their best friend close to their chest when they slept, not everyone dreamt of holding their hand and laying kisses on the crown of their head. Or maybe they did, the matter was beyond Hoseok's expertise, he simply knew as well as anyone else that there was no love that could be sustained in Orchid District. Love opened the way to vulnerability and being vulnerable meant being dead.

Was it reasonable for you to not kill her? To protect her from the blast?

Yes, he thought, that too was reason. Even if he was yet to be fully aware of its nature.

"Oh, look, they still sell foiled potatoes here!" you exclaimed, pulling him by the hand. "This was our favourite, remember?"

It had been your favourite. Hoseok always thought that it tasted too burnt and it was too hot to eat properly but you were always so happy to share he never found a convincing enough sentence to say "no".

"You want one?"

"Sure."

It seems he never will.

"Cleaner city, cleaner life. It's time for the citizens of Orchid to live as they should - safely, cleanly and without threat. Vote for Rinaldi to have the life that you deserve."

As you sit on the bench basking in the mimicry of the sun propelled by numerous bright light strips, he nibbled the potato with masked disgust, more so glaring at the aggravating campaign ad.

"What a bunch of nonsense," Hoseok's lips curled in disdain and you accompanied him with a monotonous "hmm", diligently eating the steaming meal.

"So you haven't heard from the Shadow Hacker?"

"No. Yoongi disappeared soon after the bio-attack, Shadow Hacker fell off the radar after that."

"Have you been all alone?" you asked, somewhat tepid.

Hoseok did not answer.

"Since when is that hacker so important to you?"

Supposedly.

On his weakest days when he slipped into the delusional fancy of you coming back, he imagined that it'd be him you would turn to what was once home. Of course, that was a fucking lie. He watched as the bright light shimmered across the mirrored tiles of the Light Fields, the only sixteen streets in the whole underworld that were free of crime and where people didn't slash each other's throats just to drag out their life till the next day.

"As I said he will not be able to survive out here. I've kept my ear to the proverbial or I guess not so proverbial ground and the things that are happening make me increasingly worried."

Hoseok bit his tongue to not let all the ache piling up like rotting compost spill out.

You were this worried for the Shadow Hacker, an acquaintance at best. Your best friend? No worries at all. Drilling this into the head, Hoseok tosses the half-eaten potato aside, now concentrating on the threshold of headache onto the painfully luminous advertisement slogans.

"Cleaner city, cleaner life. It's time for the citizens of Orchid to live as they should - safely, cleanly and without threat. Vote for Rinaldi to have the life that you deserve."

It was really quite annoying.

"If you want to find ghosts, you know who should we talk to?"

"The Rat?"

Your eyes lit up and your face bloomed into a joyous, excited simile. Hoseok turned away, it was suddenly too bright, even for the Light Fields.

He nodded, biting the inside of his cheek.

"The Rat."

Richard Armon Tully, a greying, wiry little man with the unfortunate moniker of R.A.T. was quick to stumble when seeing Hoseok dive out of shadows in the vicinity of the Mad Clinic, coat swishing behind him. He stumbled and then took off running in screams. Not long after he blundered upon a stray bottle falling flat onto the face.

"Mr Strategist, sir," he stammered crawling onto the trash. "What - what brings you to these paths?"

"You, my unhygienic friend," Hoseok replied casually tossing a glance around. The streets belonged to Mad Scientist and given the wading rumours that enveloped that man with each step of his way, human experimentation, necromancy, mutants, the air around here had an ill feeling tint to it that put any passerby into a state of general unease.

"S-Sir, I am but a simple merchant now! Sir, I am no use to you!" the man pleaded.

"A man like you does not cease to be true to his nature," Hoseok leaned against the brick wall with a sardonic smirk playing on his features.

"Anything else is either an act or a lie."

"Sir, please, please! Do not hurt me! I really know nothing!"

Cold heartedly, Hoseok glanced down to his fingernails.

"Rat, do I look like a gentleman who dirties his own hands? I am nothing if not peaceful and reasonable."

The R.A.T. nodded along, shaking to appease for a better fate.

"She, however..." when the R.A.T. saw the figure behind Hoseok he let out a string of lewd, albeit breathless curses.

"Fuck, fuck, you were supposed to be gone!" he screamed and you smiled jubilantly, unperturbed by the frantic pleasing.

"Supposed, was meant to, who cares?"

Before you even get to swing a fist remotely close to the Rat's face, he crumpled into a pile of hysteric sobs.

"HE WORKS FOR THE RAVAGER," he bellows, nearly choking on his snot, submerging his face into the putrid waste bins. "That's the last thing I heard! I swear!"

"Where might we find this Ravager?" Hoseok asked calmly, still half leaning against the wall and adjusting his triangular hat to ride lower.

"I don't know! No one knows! The guy doesn't show his face!"

"Who else works for him?"

"Uh...the..."

You inched a smidge closer.

"THE CULTIST! THAT CULTIST! THE FATE READER!"

The woman's smile becomes increasingly disturbing the longer Hoseok is forced to gaze upon it. There was not a hint of soul behind those eyes, nothing but empty-headed, singular happiness.

It was unbearably sickening.

Thankfully, you didn't object.

"Are you here to serve him?" she asked, swaying on her feet with shy excitement while the rest of her group glared contemptuously by the sidelines. With every breath, a tangent, dour taste of rot and dirt coated Hoseok's tongue in a disgusting film, further aggravated by the protruding stares and the sheer logicality of being outnumbered, mere two against thirty-five by the looks of it, pushed him into agitation so vivid he hadn't felt in years. Absent-mindedly he reached for your hand, squeezing it lightly.

"Yes, we are," you replied with a similarly eerie smile. The woman of course is far too out of touch with reality to notice how sickly and fake it appeared. She was simply happy to receive joy in return.

"Could you show him to us? I, for one, am dying to meet!"

The woman cocked her head.

"Of course! He is happy to meet all his worshippers but..." here she paused glancing momentarily back at the grumbling crowd. "However if he does not like you, we all will have to pluck your eyes out," she smiled. "It's nothing personal."

"We understand," you interjected before Hoseok could high tail out of there. Being in a direct line of fire was outside his usual norm. He was the mastermind, the man of the High Castle. Now he wondered whether others had the same foul feeling hearing about the Fate Reader as they did about him. However it may was, the woman granted them access and began to snake them in between ruins. It seemed old remnants of the first settlers, simplistic wooden sheds falling into disrepair and unknown vegetation. Eaten by the ground in whose embrace they once hid from death. Yes, it appeared grimly that sooner or later all fates were the same.

The woman led them to a tent far bigger and more ostentatious than the rest, those miserable piles of beige fabric propped on wooden sticks.

As they entered it, guided by the woman's deep curtsy, all air left Hoseok's lungs. Nauseating, saccharine smell spread throughout the living quarters. It was largely dark and obscured room, veiled in thick fumes, claustrophobic in a sense. The only thing Hoseok could see clearly was the tall man sprawled on the red couch. He sat entirely still and if not for the card twirling in his slender fingers, Hoseok could very well assume him as dead. He seemed to shimmer all over like a distant jewel, from the golden stitching of his coat to the crown perched on top of his head.

"Jung Hoseok, _________ __________, I've been expecting you," he spoke in a deep, rumbling voice and suddenly opened his eyes which glinted in a peculiar shade of gold and without a doubt in some vague expression of malice.

Rat screamed as he ran, exhausted to the degree he could barely stand. No matter where his gaze landed, the doors were closed and the windows shut tight. No salvation, no escape. The heavy thudding persisted, chasing him at leisure, without worry that he should break free. Rat's lungs burned and blood pooled in his mouth. Slowly but bit by bit, irreversibly his strength ran out. He crossed old pathways, narrow little alleyways but no one helped him in spite of the fact he knew there were plenty of people laying around in wait, listening to his terror. At long last, his body gave out and he collapsed on the warm ground.

The dogs, hounds, whatever they were arrived not a second later. Far larger than any normal dog, they stretched like sinister shadows at the end of the alleyway. Their razor-like teeth dripped in saliva and as they advanced, their horrendous growl grew louder and louder until Rat could no longer even hear his own cries.

"No, please," Rat breathed and then in a flash, the shadows were on top of him.

Above him on the fire escape of the neighbouring building stood a man in a white coat. He looked on at the scene with pity but otherwise made nor sound, nor effort to save him from the dreadful demise. When the hounds were done and their long limbs trailed away, leaving bloody paw prints in their wake, the man retreated back into the building, closing the door firmly behind.

"I am above servitude," The Fate Reader snarled, contempt flaring up his odd features into a frightening grimace.

"Okay, so you're not their bitch," you rolled your eyes as Hoseok gladly kept quiet, cautiously taking in their opponents even the most minuscule of movements. There was something rather unsettling about the man only half to do with the brainwashed crowds of his worshippers. Hoseok reckoned it was his eyes. They were not of human nature moreover there was no waterline that could serve as an indication of contacts. And they were cold. Haughty and judgemental as though he could indeed read the future and it bored him to death.

"Still you know this Ravager."

The Fate Reader observed his cards and Hoseok knew that it meant he was lying. Perhaps, he was a simpler man, just a criminal against the backdrop of these peculiar newcomers - with their magic and their experiments but it didn't mean they could beat him. Hoseok had survived and thrived in this hell for far longer than any of them and though he could not see the future, he could read people and those rarely changed.

"I know of them," the Fate Reader lied, smoothly to the ears but visibly to Hoseok's sharp eyes. "The Ravager is going after Rinaldi."

"Why?" Hoseok asked. The man examined him with a blank gaze.

"Doesn't like his campaign," he evaded.

A half-truth. Hoseok himself was fond of those, it was as plain as day - Fate Reader knew exactly who the Ravager was and why they hated Rinaldi so much to recruit seemingly the most bizarre minions to name.

"What did they ask you to do?" he persisted on, trying his best to suppress a shudder as he stared into those lifeless, unblinking eyes.

"They wanted me to recruit more followers."

A beat of silence lingered in the fetid air.

"That's it?" you repeated, dumbfounded.

"That's it," the Fate Reader shrugged.

"Now if you're done disturbing my afternoon nap, I'll ask you to leave. Unless, of course," he took lasting regard at you, for the first time in the whole of conversation brightening into twisted amusement. "You want to part with your eyes, instead. You have a splendid pair, my dear," he purred and automatically Hoseok nudged you behind him. But unlike him, you were not scared or at least didn't appear so. Responding with the most gentle of smiles, you chuckled lightly.

"I reckon yours would have more contrast."

The meeting ended in terse silence. Before exiting, Hoseok peeked over his shoulder. The Fate Reader had fished out a letter from underneath his flowy robes. His eyebrows knitted together when he read it over. As they left the Fate Reader's corner the woman who initially received them waved them off, deliriously happy. The rest huddled around weak sparks of a campfire, occasionally gnawing on the ends of a stale, mouldy bread.

Hoseok wondered whether their pitiful state was an act of revenge. No God usually treated their followers so badly or at the very least were not supposed to. Then he looked back at you and decided that ultimately it didn't matter. As long as the Fate Reader didn't pose a direct threat against his and more importantly your safety, Hoseok was content to leave him be. Considering he already had cracked the man through and through.

The steel walls fell one by one revealing a slightly sooted but otherwise unharmed alcove. Hoseok's home. If it could even sparsely be called such a thing.

"You fireproofed your place?"

He shrugged in turn, tossing his hat away and mussing his bleached hair. Through the hole in the window, a faint draft was pulling through, swaying the numerous papers stapled to his board.

You focused on your own picture, tucked on the sidelines, like a lingering question in the back of Hoseok's mind. The string of your picture only tied to Yoongi, Hoseok himself also pushed to the side was free of any such relations. Cold-blooded, he extended that string right in front of yours eyes to Shadow Hacker's picture before sinking back into the plush chair.

His network was amazing you had to give him the honours. The board was made of underworld's map even the smallest street, so much as a backdoor was present on the map and atop of it sat pictures, anyone who ever meant anything was here - from Light Fields to Fate Reader's dump, there seemed to be no one that Hoseok wasn't aware of. As you watched him from the corner of your eye, you recalled the horrible sight of him standing before you, unforgiving and ruthless. The night you asked for help to escape to the upside. He must have felt betrayed. Despite your repeated attempts to explain, he had then barely listened. But the matter was simple - you would not stay here for the rest of your life. Being here was in many ways like prematurely being buried alive. Perhaps he refused to go with you out of spite or perhaps Hoseok truly could not imagine being anywhere else. Whichever it was, the idea was sad.

He seemed gaunter and washed out in a way. This place, with its knick-knacks, the childhood fascination with pirates, globes and maps and spyglasses was more Hoseok than he himself was.

"Damned bastard flamed my curtains," he groused, lowering yet another steel cover to shield the inside from any wandering eyes.

"What would be our next move?" you asked aloud, traipsing through the candles whose wax had melted on the floors and dropping down on the chair opposite of him. In between, there sat a chessboard with Hoseok playing the black pieces, you - the white. The pieces were moved but in positions nonsensical to the game rules, he was obviously not playing with himself but rather representing the field of his opponents.

"Yours would be to get out of here," he fixed you down with a stern glare, loosening his tie. In the pronounced shadows of the darkness in the room, his scar seemed to be etched even deeper and stretch even longer, giving the illusion that his face was cut in two.

Hoseok scoffed. If he was the king of the board there was one piece that was getting quite close to his position. Despite never learning much of the game, from the first get-go it seemed to you that this small, but ambitious little figure would beat his king in two moves.

"I haven't found Shadow Hacker yet," you objected.

"Where is your queen?"

He blinked, following the line of your gaze.

"Not in the game anymore," he replied harshly.

For a moment there were only the off-putting sounds of the alcove creaking, as it was positioned above an abandoned factory. Slabs of rusty metal rubbing along each other, creating echoing, continual screech.

"Whatever is happening with Rinaldi and this Ravager, it's no good. I fear that Shadow Hacker might be caught in the midst of all -" you were interrupted by Hoseok's bitter laughter.

"What is so funny?" you bristled as his laugh continued on.

"If only he gave a shit about you in return."

Crass. Crass and rude but not entirely unexpected.

"He helped me to escape..."

"He?" he interrupted coldly. "He helped you escape?"

"I'm not diminishing your help-"

"I don't want to hear it."

It dropped like a bomb, shattering the somewhat bridged familiarity into broken shards. He was seething, you could tell, even his palms shook from the barely contained wrath. It wasn't as if you hadn't known this would happen, it just didn't stop hurting because of that knowledge.

"I offered for you to come with me."

Rain. It was an actual rain, falling from the sky on your face. Cold and wet and wonderful. You've never felt rain before, only read about it in the books or heard from travellers who occasionally traversed into the upside. There were lights of various colours, adorning tall, spiralling buildings filled with people and sounds of sirens seem to close in on you from all the sides. It was overwhelming. Beautiful. Liberating.

You turn back to where Hoseok was standing at the bottom of the sewer, your escape tunnel.

"Come with me, please!"

You had never once begged for anything in your life, never stooped down your pride but the split was impossible to concoct. Hoseok had been there ever since you first opened your eyes in the underworld. He was there for all days and hours, your stable pillar to lean on, your best friend. To part now, never to see each other again, was a life sentence. If only he could see how close the freedom was, that he needed not to be the looming strategist, moving his pieces and minions for optimal control and survival. That there was more to life than simply power. It was right here, on the cement road amidst the breezing vehicles and chatters in a strange, unknown tongue.

"Please! Let's just leave together! Just come with me!"

It didn't matter that he would just be your friend forever, hell he could regard you as a confidante and you'd be fine. There was no peaceful end in the underworld, suicide and slaughter, another gang war, another overconfident but talented rookie that would roach upon his territory, whoever it was, the end would be violent and ugly.

For a moment, a blissful moment it seemed he will agree, that he would breach that invisible wall that kept him chained to a place he loathed, that everyone loathed but no. The sheer spite hardened his eyes into someone unrecognizable and after sneering that he will not consort himself with traitors, he took off, disappearing down the sewers. There was nothing left for you to do but to climb up, unimaginably - alone.

No response, you both sat stewing for a short while before the topic is changed.

"I will give you the traditional 48 hours, starting now, to remain here. Whether you find the Shadow Hacker or not if you exceed it, there will be plenty of people happy to receive you back. Understood?"

"Crystal."

Staring long and hard, both of you yielded, resting back onto the seats full of thoughts, most - unspoken.

"I will send some people out, get to know what Rinaldi is up to. You should get some sleep."

"Worried for me?" you teased him sarcastically.

"You look half dead. Princess probably has forgotten how to live without 9 hours of her dream time," he cut back just as dryly though most of the acid was already gone from his tone.

10.

This is simply a precaution, he told himself. She could have weapons, she is a smart girl.

Hoseok well remembered that there was always a knife or a gun somewhere on your body, the heel of the boot, by your palm. That sort of paranoid habit had saved their lives more times than he could even properly remember.

This is only reasonable, he insisted. To whom really. He took the hand that peaked over the red satin of his bed and tucked it back under. There was still a draft present in his alcove. Shrugging off his jacket and tenderly touching the now blue jaw, he stood against the doors of his bedroom, trying to recall what about you he should hate with so much vitriol.

Your betrayal. Yet no matter how many times, he went over it in his head, the deed, the speech he would give, it all sounded so whiny.

You left me, you left me, you left me. That was all that spun around, all day, all night, all years. You left me when I loved you so, how could you.

Hoseok had never been to upworld, those few seconds, standing at the bottom of the sewer was all the recollections he had of ever smelling an air that didn't have an ever-present pungent taste to it. Secretly he wondered if it was really that much different than down here. Human depravity could not simply be restrained to a singular geographical location but even more so secretly, Hoseok suspected that he could simply no longer have a normal life. This was all he knew. These streets, these galleries of illustrious criminals. Hiding away in his alcoves and caves made of childhood remnants for comfort. This, he supposed, was all that he was.

He couldn't really fault you for breaking out of the mould, for being different, for being daring. That was your forte. Juggling between brazen insanity and snide calculation, that was your speciality. And if you used that to do what no one else had been successful before - breaking out and living free of the dirt's grip, all the better for you.

You stirred in your sleep, hair in your face, mouth hanging slightly open. Quite an adorable, comfortable sight. Was there a person who got to see this up there?

The realization washed him cold. He hadn't given it a thought before but it was quite likely that there was. Or will be. Your own little admirer, your new best friend with whom you would build a new life. Because you wanted to, not because you were forced to for optimal survival.

His legs and mind grew weary with the useless wondering and standing, so gingerly, he sat down on his bed next to you. He counted your breath, revelling in their normal rate. Usually, you had been a light sleeper, the slightest of sounds could rouse you into hyperawareness. The softer you seemed, the more Hoseok regretted even granting you the 48-hour parole. The underworld was not made for delicate folk. Still being undoubtedly brilliant, you now lacked the vigilance that was vital for such a place. He sighed to himself and reached to brush away a strand of hair, hanging in your face.

Weakness. Stark, unreasonable, damning weakness. But he simply did not care. He will let go any moment, now, just a second longer, just a second. The second turns to minute, that into five and he couldn't let go anymore.

That pitiful whine of "you left me" was still playing in the loop in his mind, but it was not of anger but of tears, if anything.

God, what a pitiful man he was.

"Tessa, stop," you mumble, pushing his hand away.

Was Tessa his replacement? She was probably beautiful and kind. Everything that Hoseok was not.

When you opened your eyes, he made no effort to remove himself from the bed. For one, it was his bed, he had all the right to be here, two, you had already seen him, what was the point.

"You can return to your beau, any time you like," he reminded, trying to sound as harsh as possible. You paid it little attention, closing your eyes again and sinking deeper into the spent mattress.

"Tessa is my cat," came the quiet answer from underneath his blankets.

"You named the poor thing Tessa?"

"I adopted her from the street! That was the name on the collar!"

""Adopted." Kidnapped more like."

"Actually, the term is cat-napped I believe."

"A critical distinction."

Both of you cracked easy smirks, shortly forgetting the circumstances and returning back to years before - the easy banter, the many useless debates - whether or not butt was one or two, what would happen if people could crawl like snails. Many such crucial arguments. Quickly as that moment had come thought, it slipped away.

The room got colder and Hoseok felt somewhat darker.

"Get up, we've got work to do."

Shovelling large bites of egg and rice you listened carefully to what Hoseok said, conveniently mishearing the chaste reminder of eating slower.

"And after much fighting, and slamming, he finally spat up that Rinaldi is going to host a private party with his elite sponsors this evening."

"Hmm," you scratched your chin, narrowing your eyes at the picture. "Sleazy, gross."

"The usual," Hoseok completed. "I'll send my best men to infi-"

"Oh, no," you wave a piece of egg in the air. "That's a dreadful plan."

"Why ever for?"

"Elite sponsors means what? Security. Security means what? Screening. Screening means what? Face recognition, chemical balance recognition. Those things are still around, aren't they?"

Hoseok nodded along, nibbling on his lips.

"There's a decontaminator in the Light Fields..."

"Do you really think that a politician on the brink of an election will settle for a measly first layer chemical indicator? Unless your boys have been soaking in that decontaminator for two days, they'll light up like a goddamn beacon in any two-layer detector."

"Then what you suppose?"

"Rich people like to breathe fresh air, don't they. Only poor nobodies get to live in smoke. Means wherever they're meeting even if it's a locked room, it will need to get vented."

"You want the guys to go in the vents? You do realize I hire them to be as burly as possible."

"Your guys are not going anywhere," once again you waved the egg around and Hoseok passively watches it fall back onto the plate. "You and I are."

"I don't put myself in line of action," he brushed off, focusing back on the board. Rinaldi, Shadow Hacker's disappearance, unexplained appearance of the Fate Reader and the Mad Scientist, alongside with the Ravager who remained evasive and unreachable, guiding their own chess pieces from obscurity. All pointed onto something big being in motion, one whose trajectory Hoseok was not yet aware of. A discomfiting position to be in.

"You've got hips narrow enough," you shrugged.

"Don't be so delirious to think that just because you ask, I will sacrifice my safety to appease that suicidal need for action of yours, forget i-"

11.

Hoseok fixed the outfit in the broken mirror reflection, before sealing away his alcove for the night. You were bouncing happily down the street while he grumbled apprehensively, no more than three steps away. As he pulled down the last steel wall, closing it with his eye imprint, there came the familiar rattle of someone sneaking alongside the roof. As Hoseok glanced up, he saw nothing but the darkness but there was no denying his instincts that screamed of a presence of a threat. He heard only the movement, agile, quick legs sneaking somehow vertically down the wall like a spider or perhaps a cat. Alley Cat, again.

"Here, kitty, kitty," Hoseok mocked and though it was not clear, he could swear there was an irritated hiss coming from the shadows.

A gloved hand reached out and dropped shrivelling, brown letters on the top of his head, before disappearing onto obscurity, without saying a word. Hoseok looked the pages over and with an aching heart, recognized the sharp, irregular strokes of Yoongi's hand. A letter, coded in his complicated albeit familiar music note cypher.

"You coming?" you called from the distance and discreetly Hoseok hid the pages in the lapels of his jacket. He had a sneaking, ill suspicion what exactly these pages said and he could not think about, could not bear to read these words and then pretend to be alright enough to carry out a mission. To be alright enough to hide the truth from you. No, you lived your nice, pretty little life upside and it should stay that way.

It was, of course, reasonable if anything because if anything that would make you stay longer and Hoseok did not want it. Not at all.

"Yeah, I'm coming, don't cream your pants," he groused.

12.

"I told you, your hips are narrow enough!" you huffed squeezing yourself with great difficulty into the air vent. Despite the function, there was little to no breathable oxygen, dust was clawing up the lungs and the space was remarkably tight, making it seem like one was crawling down the throat of some unknown, metallic beast.

"We could very well fall through!" Hoseok hissed, trying to look at anywhere but your ass right in front of his face.

"We will not. Galvanized steel! Through and through. Do you have any idea how many drugs these same politicians have hidden in here in their time? Wouldn't want that falling on top of their precious, idiotic voters' heads!"

"There will be an obstruction soon forward!

"We're not here to crawl throughout, we only need to find, aha!"

Miraculously, there indeed was a small grid opening not soon after.

Hoseok greedily crawled to it and took large gulps of fresh, cool air, resting his already damp forehead against the metal.

Below, there sprawled a lifeless grey room. With no windows and two doors, one on each side. Numerous chairs lined up neat rows, about five meters from the north wall giving the impression of an improvised stage. It was disquieting and ominous and as the crowds of rich, overdressed people, patrons of the Light Fields one of the most sleazy politicians, his nausea only grew in strength. Watching their pearly smiles and leisurely laughter, knowing the absolute filth that the rest of them had to live in was sickening. Even in such a place, in a literal underground hellscape where remnants of a decaying society had morphed into an ultraviolent chain of crime, greed, betrayal even here there were parasites growing and indeed flourishing, and even more infuriatingly insisting on their purity, blind to the fact that there was no animal more deplorable than the one claiming purity as they washed their hands in the blood of others.

The night unfolded rather slowly, so slow, Hoseok's hand was beginning to grow numb but you had the look of utter concentration on your face. Almost as you were expecting something. He kept the same keen vigil and after what seemed like a few hours, he could spot Rinaldi in the mingling crowd of guests. He was rather large, stretching quite above the heads of his esteemed patrons, all sipping bubbly champagne and talking over new, ungainly nonsense. Offering smiles and fake gratitudes, squeezing many hands and groping just as many women, he ultimately moved to the front of the room. Undoubtedly, it was an improvised stage.

"Hello," he finally spoke and Hoseok barely could restrain his laughter. Despite the stature and well-defined muscle mass, his voice was nasal and small, like a squeak of a mouse being repeatedly stepped on. His editing team had done a particularly notable job of making him seem an assured and visionary man in his campaign ads when in reality Hoseok had heard children with more grit and dignity. You, however, were slower to mockery. There was a tick in your jaw and ever since Rinaldi first moved in the room your eyes had not strayed a millimetre away.

"As you all know my name is Marcus Rinaldi. Yes, thanks to you I've been getting enough prime air time to make sure that my beautiful visage can be seen by all of our wonderful citizens."

Inexplicably, there rose laughter in the room. Your expression soured even further. Hoseok could hardly blame you for it.

"Thank you once again for your help in my campaign, I could not have done what I'm about to reveal to you today, without your hard stolen money."

The laughter was sparser now, despite the fact that the words were more true. Perhaps that was the reason for it.

"As you all know my campaign slogan has been a cleaner city. But what do you think is ultimately clean? Is it cleaner streets? Cleaner air?" he began to pace around the stage and the doors behind him, began to rattle. "Yes and yes but those are easy trivial things. If we want to think of a change, a radical change! We need to acknowledge the actual filth that is riddling our streets with crime, drugs and prostitution and that is the people outside the Light Fields. The anarchists, gang leaders, intimidators!"

From whose efforts, all of these upstanding citizens funded their light panelled houses and health supplements that anyone living in a scarcity of sunlight could only dream of.

"Well, I say it's time to erase our inheritance of crime that has rotted our wonderful world for more than 200 years!"

The doors were now shaking hard enough for it to be visible and for the crowd to inch surreptitiously backwards. Hoseok drew special attention to the tensing guards - all were armed from head to toe, obviously having been prepared to take on a grave threat.

Rinaldi waved a hand to one of the ceiling cameras and the door, made entirely of solid arm-sized steel, popped open. Out of it ran what only could be described as long shadows. Standing above Rindaldi's waistline pooled something akin to a dog, but far larger. With teeth the length of a sturdy kitchen knife and paws the size of a dinner plate, they had shiny cropped fur all black save for the face. Their face was mostly white and in nearly all angles he looked resembled a human skull. Each of their steps was accompanied by a rumbling growl that made the hairs on Hoseok's neck stand up. He only ever thought that both above and beneath, the man was singularly a monster. Now he very much thought to recant that statement.

"These are the future!" Rinaldi yelled over the agitated crowd.

In mute horror, Hoseok could only watch as people, some he even recognized, mostly low-level drifters, taking odd jobs, were brought out, anaesthetised out of their minds. Obediently, they were placed, ten in the count all some distance apart and after that Hoseok could not bear to look any longer. Trembling, you and he slid down the vent as the sounds of growling, then screams travelled the room and then nothing.

Nothing.

Clapping.

Enthusiasm.

He needed to put a hand over his mouth.

"With these amazing weapons, we can eradicate the filth that pools outside our gates in a matter of few hours. Vote for me and I'm sure we can push this bill to completion."

"Cleaner city, cleaner life. It's time for the citizens of Orchid to live as they should - safely, cleanly and without threat. Vote for Rinaldi to have the life that you deserve."

13.

Hoseok busted through the door, nearly fracturing his shoulder.

"Here have the flashlight, take this gun, take this knife," he shoved the items into your confused hands. You needed to disappear, the first chance you get.

Much to his surprise, you chucked them away.

"Forget the Shadow-!"

"I'm not leaving you."

The answer was unmovable, Hoseok would go so far as to say.

"You dumbass, you do understand what Rinaldi is about to do, right?"

"Hence why I'm not leaving you."

This truly was the worst time for the dream to become reality. You swallowed hard, shaking still but otherwise remaining remarkably determined.

"Think about it. The Ravager appears out of nowhere and hustles this Fate Reader to organize more people. Then Mad Scientist emerges with weird experiments, Shadow Hacker was roped away once again by this Ravager guy. Did you not see what those...dogs were wearing?"

"I did not look."

"They were wearing collars, digital collars. Why would the Ravager recruit the best hacker in the underworld if not for the reason of stopping Rinaldi? Clearly, these animals are monitored, maybe even controlled through the collars, maybe that's what the Shadow Hacker has been doing all this time! Trying to break that code that controls them!"

Maybe. Highly possibly. Still too much of a gamble for Hoseok's liking.

"The only thing that doesn't make sense is that I reckon things like these can't be simply made in one day. The training alone would take years. Even if you happen to blunder this one over -"

"Hey!"

"No way Yoongi wouldn't."

The letters burned in Hoseok's jacket and so he pulled them out.

"Are those his music note cypher pieces?" you gape.

Yoongi had been...maybe still is somewhere a genius. Remaining a forlorn, nostalgic man throughout all the time Hoseok had known him, he remained vigilant where the Strategist's eye failed. The sheet music code was as ingenious as it was hard to crack. If Yoongi had sent Hoseok this, using someone so imperceptible as the Alley Cat, the document could be the most priced document these two had ever passed. Even posthumously.

"You remember enough to crack them?"

"Some of it. Come on, let's try now!"

And without further arguments, you pulled along his arm, forgetting all about the flashlight, the knife and the gun. If not for the looming threat of eradication, Hoseok would almost think that it was like old times. You and him, sitting side by side cracking Yoongi's odd little codes.

"Dear friends,

Note that this is not a suicide note. While by the time that you're reading this I may be gone, I am in fact not dead, merely hidden into places outside your reach for my own personal safety. The information that I'm about to pass you is of utmost dangerous status and will endanger not only you and me but also every single poor and destitute soul trapped outside the Light Fields. A month ago I met a man you might now be aware of as the Mad Scientist. He created what I call dogs, mutant dogs, though he refers to them as Alpha Protector Project. Originally, designed to protect children, they are designed to withstand even the most brutal attacks, be it bullets, a car crash, a flame-thrower, anything that our lovely Orchid throws at us. Be that as it may, clearly the Scientist created something too powerful for its own good. Though there are many nameless figures booting the experiments, the most prominent is Marcus Rinaldi, a runner-up for this year's election. The Scientist fears that they will kick him off this project and will try to remodify the dogs into not protective figures but weapons that will most likely be used against the citizens outside of Light Fields. I see clearly now that the bio-attack was just a precursor for the plans in motion. I have informed a person named the Ravager of the plan to stop the oncoming tragedy. Hoseok stop grimacing, will you?"

"I am not grimacing!" he objected against the letter but continued to read it. There was gratefulness to be felt amidst all the onslaught of sickening despair that Yoongi was still somewhere out there.

"We will recruit the Shadow Hacker. Scientist insists that while they can't alter the mutant's original DNA structure, to make the creature inherently violent they can reprogram their behaviour through some invasive shock collars, alter their brain waves, at this point, I lost him to be perfectly candid. The main plan is if the remote hacking doesn't help, there is without a doubt a rising need to stop Rinaldi at any cost. Even if the cost means compromising the entire ecosystem we so delicately tread upon. I must go now, I fear they have found me but I believe that you will finish the work we started.

Forever your friend, the Grey Pianist.

P.S. ___________, Hoseok has been - "

"Hey, I didn't finish reading it!" you opposed as he ripped the sheet music letter away.

"Whatever! You read the letter, you know now what happened to the Shadow Hacker, could you get your ass-!"

"Sweet Maker, do you really think I came down here for him?!"

Hoseok's mouth ran dry.

"Why would you then...what was the reason..."

"You are the reason, you knucklehead!"

His eyes seem to ran dry as well. Somehow.

You sat beside him, little red-faced but chiefly irritated and while Hoseok knew he was a smart man, there was something he failed to grasp.

"But you said..." he weakly argued which was immediately shot down.

"I lied, Hoseok! People lie!"

He folded his hands in his lap, playing with the frayed edge of the browning paper. This was probably what the Fate Reader had been reading then, his own private letter from Yoongi.

"Are we really arguing over our...relationship... problems right now?"

You leaned back into the plush of his couch, wrapping around the circular table, focusing once again on the map of the underworld.

"Guess we're both knuckleheads then."

"What's that old expression your grandma used?"

"Besties?"

"Besties."

Despite the vague amusement, there was a very tangible dread hanging in between the pauses of the words and in the lines of your smiles.

Everything now hung in balance. Whichever way it would fall, Hoseok suspected there would be no turning back to the normal anymore.

"Considering that we saw, Shadow Hacker has not gained control over those collars."

"And the Fate Reader amassing more people. They are gearing up for a coup. How many days are there till the election?"

"Two."

Both of you remained solemn for a while, thinking, planning, scheming.

"A coup certainly would be an illustrious accomplishment," you reckoned with a fake cheer. "I'm in."

Hoseok sat quiet, looking around his little alcove. A small hiding space just for him, so small it embraced him so tight he had barely moved the latest years. Wearing costumes in and out he had barely a recollection of what exactly Jung Hoseok, the Mystic Strategist, meant. A man who survived no matter what? Or a man defying the odds?

What did it matter in the end? He used to be so scared of going to the upside thinking that he will lose everything that he was, but what was it really?

"Without me, you'll get yourself killed," he sighed theatrically. "And then they'll worship you as a hero and whose going to be left to insist that you were really quite mean."

You threw your head back in laughter. Though Hoseok didn't have much recollection of what kind of person he was, the title of your best friend remained it seemed unchanged.

14.

The street was swarmed with crowds, most notably of the Fate Reader's followers. They followed him like imprinted ducks and though Hoseok was contemptuous of the fact, he had to admit the numbers he rallied were enormous. No longer encompassing mere thirty, starving somebodies, behind him there travelled well nearly a hundred folks. He ordered them something in his deep, domineering voice and strutted inside the planning committee, Hoseok's abandoned warehouse but not before pinning him down with an inscrutable, cold glare. How had you managed to convince Fate Reader into joining the discussion, he had no clue but he was appreciative nonetheless.

The Mad Scientist, Kim Namoon, as Hoseok had learned after much fisticuffs, poisonous darts and other scientific nonsense thrown into his face, keeled over in the corner. He spoke little and observed even less. The only sound that came from him was the faint muttering, a discussion he had been leading with himself for well over an hour. Even the Alley Cat had made an appearance. He sat by the side, appearing utterly uninvested in the happenings, playing cards on his own and examining the jewellery he fished out of his pockets. The Fate Reader dropped down beside him. Each man threw their own assertive stares before ultimately joining a game of cards. Yoongi was still missing. He had not revealed his whereabouts in any of the letters and was not seen or heard from anyone for well over a year. Shadow Hacker was present only in remote format, writing out a succinct "here" on one of Hoseok's monitors and then making no effort to further insist on his presence.

These were of course only the characters that made Hoseok most nervous but there were more in the room. News had evidently spread and quite thoroughly so. Sometime a few nights ago Rat had been killed, gutted in the alleyway and that inadvertently and ironically to his skeevy, miserly status had rippled throughout the community. Stories of dogs, hell hounds really, traversing the night with nothing but murder in mind had spread like wildfire over all of Orchid, creating mass panic in a matter of hours. All around there was a heavy sentiment of simply killing Rinaldi, and if luck has it, take some of his despicable friends along. It was all together getting a tad too agitated.

"You're not going to step in?" you asked, stretching taller in the face of anyone who came too close for comfort. The Fate Reader and Alley Cat had even stopped playing cards, the former remaining somewhat leisurely, most likely eased by the fact that he had strength in numbers lingering outside while the latter however was halfway hiding in the dark.

"Why would I step in?"

"You're the King, aren't you, of this side of the town, anyway."

"King of Nowhere. It was you who was always better with...everything."

You shrugged casually.

"Even so, I am in no desire to move the masses. I'm my own mistress, work for my own gain."

"That's horribly selfish," Hoseok admitted but with no malice. Being selfish was far from the worst crime committed in the room.

"Come on," you nudged him. "Give it a try. If no, then I'll do my Queen's Speech."

He bit on his lip, looked at his feet but then gathered himself, pushed slightly forward by your palm on the small of his back.

It took him a while to get the attention but once it did, Hoseok pressured himself to look as blank and unreachable as possible. He hated this. His place was behind everyone, moving them to his own will, sometimes without even their own recognition, not being here, thrust in front of everyone, in front of their judgemental eyes. He narrowed you down and by looking at you was transported all the way back, when his board was a simple outline of the street and his spyglass a wooden stick, and he would explain exactly why one of the neighbour's kids had strangled the cat, to blame his rival for it.

He in the end understood that you already knew that, merely playing along with his childish games. Why he never quite knew but that all played in your sheerly unpredictable nature. You did as you liked, often going against any sort of logic in the end still coming out as a winner.

"As you all know," he strayed not a millimetre away from your face. "We are under an imminent threat of eradication in a few days' time. As far as we've gathered these mutants are controlled by the collars on their necks. Shadow Hacker has not yet completely hacked them, but he can interfere with the signals long enough to make them confused. These dogs cannot be harmed by bullets, knives or any fire that does not reach 1700°C."

"So how the hell are we supposed to kill them?" one of the gang leaders, whom Hoseok had repeatedly screwed over, demanded loudly, garnering some general agreement.

"You're not supposed to kill them!" The Mad Scientist unexpectedly stood up, heated. He clutched his lab glasses in the palm of his hand, while his once white lab coat was greying, tattered even. All around, he did look quite mad.

"They are harmless animals, they were meant to help people before Rinaldi altered their brain perception!"

"Shut up you maniac! You created these monsters and now you want us to spare them! When they're trained to rip our throat out!" One of the women screamed barely, back restraining herself to not jump atop of him.

There was even more agreement, some accused the scientist of being a grave robber, a necromancer and other such terms. Facing the aggressive onslaught, he shrunk back and to be frankly honest Hoseok's heart ached for the man. Pronounced insane when his creation was warped into a mass weapon against his will was nothing short of horrible but the scene of the massacre in front of a clapping, appreciative crowd was too fresh in his mind for him to be fully dismissive that these creatures, no matter how controlled, had to be put down.

"ENOUGH!" Hoseok yelled and, taken aback for they have never heard the Mystic Strategist raise his voice, the crowd did fall silent. "We will not blame anyone here present! The threat, the only threat, is Rinaldi's cleansing campaign and I swear to all that there is we will have our shit together to stop him or we all deserve to die."

"The Ravager has been the main mastermind," the Alley Cat reminded sharply. "I'd like to hear them speak and not you."

"Well, I'm speaking, kitty," Hoseok snarled, "and unless you want to take the responsibility for this whole thing, you will do your best to stop being so irritating."

In spite of clearly being pissed off, the Alley Cat spoke no more, sitting with his jaw tightened on the cusp of darkness.

"Like me, hate me, you all know of my reputation, you've probably spent more than one night wishing me the worst death imaginable," the faces were not of disagreeing expressions. "So let me let you in a little trade secret if the basics are solid, the road will naturally open. The road is definitely made here. You've all made dealings with the Light Fields, smuggling drugs, weapons, food. We all have our own little entryways, undetected by anyone else."

Such a thing was precious to their owners, the trade routes had been the most spirited topic of a power struggle for over a hundred years now. The better the routes, the more goods they could transport in and out of the different zones and that in itself secured power.

"You want us to give out such information for everyone to hear?!" the same woman screamed, this time even louder. "Have you lost your mind? How do we know you won't use it to just gain control over the whole of Orchid?"

Before Hoseok could cut anything back there was a sharp screech outside of his warehouse and through his door, a steel door drove a motorcycle. The driver cruised the crowds, those desperately parting to avoid collision and halted to a grinding stop just in front through Hoseok. The Action Taker. He tossed a haughty, determined glare and Hoseok and climbing off his bike, swung a baseball bat behind his back.

"You don't," he replied to the woman, not taking his eyes off Hoseok. "It would be delusional to rely upon that this man who has done nothing but sucking the blood out of all your hard work would do something so noble as to let this precious information simply slide by."

The Action Taker was young, not entirely inexperienced but Hoseok could see the fresh glint in his eyes, the shine of a man unbroken yet by the Orchid. He was much stronger, the bared arm served enough testament to that but he didn't have eyes in the back of his skull and so he couldn't see that you had moved much closer to the scene, wielding a hidden gun up your sleeve.

That gave Hoseok encouragement like no other. Despite all, you would always fundamentally be there for each other. No matter what happened or how many years had passed. The Action Taker however was alone, desiring a wretched throne that Hoseok no longer saw the point in.

He knew what the man would say before he even said it, so he did the courtesy of sparing him the breath.

"Let me guess, you want me to secede."

The Action Taker's eyes widened briefly.

"It would only be fair," he tightened his fists. "You can have the whereabouts of the trade routes but after this, you'll have to leave."

"Where exactly?" Hoseok arched an eyebrow.

"The Upside."

Hushed murmurs crossed the crowd, even the previously bored Fate Reader straightened in his seat. While it seemed like an ultimatum, an embarrassing one at that, Hoseok glanced over the Action Taker's shoulder, taking a look at your worried face. Would it really be so bad?

He imagined a quiet lazy morning of you and him laying next to each other, for once in your life not fearing of the following day. What did Tessa look like? What did you do upside? All these questions he was yet to ask.

He was done with Orchid. It really was no longer a place for a simple criminal.

And to much shock, Hoseok agreed to the terms without a protest.

They only had thirty minutes of planning, swapping secret entryways and information and then one by one, people began to ask what was that noise. After a few seconds, chillingly they all realized that it was the sound of nails, specifically dog's nails, scraping against the concrete. In screams, people dispersed to wherever their feet took them but it was not soon enough as large shadows jumped into the masses. Hoseok felt a harsh tug on his nape as you pulled him to the side door, Action Taker hot on heels. Behind them rang the repeated booms of gunshots, all useless as the screams only grew in the count.

You ran to one of the cars left behind by someone attending, starting the engine but to their lack of luck, one of the dogs had stayed behind and was quick to jump atop of the car, its sheer size punching a sizeable dent into the roof. Hoseok pushed you deeper into the seat, trying to grasp the fact that he just might be ripped apart today. Suddenly instead of growling, there came high pitched whimpering. The dog fell on the ground, shaking its head left and right, trashing around. The collar around its neck was glowing purple and emitted repeating shrill beeps. Undoubtedly, the saving grace of the Shadow Hacker. The Action Taker leaped out, swung his bat and not long after the creature was dead when its skull was smashed to pieces.

You pushed Hoseok off yourself.

"Go, take Jungkook and go to the Light Fields! The rest will regroup. We have to attack now!"

"No, the hell I ain't leaving you!" he clamoured to get towards you, but obeying your orders for some reason, he found himself gripped tightly and wrestled like a doll by the Action Taker.

The warehouse had grown disquietingly still and more hounds poured from out the doors, chasing the survivors.

"Go!" you insisted, prying Hoseok's hands away from your shoulders. But he would not listen or release. You regarded him with an irritated, albeit softened glare and kissed him. Although short-lived and bitter, tinted with the cloud of fear, it did what it was meant to - it shocked Hoseok enough for him to go slack and for the Action Taker to finally wrench him back into the seat

"Go!" you yelled running away. "You're the only one I trust who can end this!"

15.

The Fate Reader wandered the of rather unperturbed by the bloodbath flourishing all around. He glided near imperceptibly, his followers scattered to regroup in front streets of Light Fields. Whenever he saw a moving shadow he dived languidly away and met little trouble on the way.

"I thought we discussed the matter already," without warning, he spoke over his shoulder, halting in the crossroad.

You emerged from the darkness with a peculiar frown, inspecting him like a kid would an ant underneath a microscope. Or a lens, moments before pointing it towards the sun.

"We discussed it yes," you agreed, " but you did not answer me."

"I will not answer."

An explosion ripped nearby and fire sprung in the air, accompanied by growls and terrorized yowling. It cast long lights on the surroundings and made the Fate Reader gleam from head to toe in the horrid orange of an uncontrolled flame.

"By the end of it, we will have what we want. Fate has been predetermined and Orchid is breathing its last."

"Worked hard to make sure of that," dryly, you smirked, winking at him in a conspiratorial manner.

"So did you."

16.

Action Taker took a sudden swerve to the right and the car shook, nearly splitting in half from the pressure of such reckless driving. But even that did little to put a distance between them and the hounds. They were ripping at the tires, some even managing to briefly hamper onto the vehicle itself. The myriad of bombs Action Taker released perhaps left a dent in the numbers but did not wipe them out completely. Intentional or not, the Mad Scientist had created weapons more perfect than should ever exist.

"We need to go to Rinaldi directly," Hoseok shouted over the noise of the car and the horrendous growls, chasing them like unholy demons amidst decimated, burning streets. He had never considered himself to be religious, but now he found divinity in wishing that you would be safe.

"Yeah just kill him!" the other man agreed, glancing nervously in the rearview mirror only to find nothing but a black rolling mass and illusion of white skeleton faces rolling after them like a typhoon.

"Why do you want me to go to the upside?"

"Are you really asking me that now?!"

"I don't know, we're about to get eaten so when's the better time?!"

He nearly drove into a building, just barely managing to steer it out of the collision.

"I just need to get your position so I could do something!"

"Do what?"

"None of your business! Now shut up!"

By the time they got to the Light Fields, chaos had spread far beyond anyone's control, be it Hoseok's or Rinaldi's. With frequent Shadow Hacker's interference and the mass of panicked, crying people the hounds quickly grew overwhelmed and began to blindly attack anyone in sight. Being resistant to most forms of attack, the newly recruited rebels settled for explosions and blunt attacks like dropping cards or ramming the hounds into walls, often resulting in their own death. Amidst the roaring flame moved the Fate Reader almost like a ghost simply gliding through the pandemonium, above the mortal coil entirely. Briefly, Hoseok even spotted the sooted coat of the Mad Scientist pleading and screaming for his "harmless" creations to stop.

It was all around a wretched sight.

Action Taker crashed at long last the fuming car into a falling slab of light and glass shattered all over the marble floors. The few guards were dead already and, whether complicit to the plan or not, many of Rinaldi's patrons found themselves on the wrongly planned end of the barrel.

Underworld was, without doubt, waging its last fight and there was no going back home anymore. Avoiding anyone and anything that flew their way, Action Taker and Hoseok ran to Rinaldi's presentation room in whose vents the horrible truth was revealed. This time they entered though through the main gate. There were some henchmen still standing, still fulfilling their useless duty even in the end of times. A man's loyalty was really a weapon in itself. Who was killed because of it varied greatly though.

"Get Rinaldi," Action Taker ordered, readying his bat that he was still somehow miraculously carrying along. "I'll take these idiots out! Just see if the dogs can be neutralized off!"

Without any objections, Hoseok abandoned the young man to his fate. Five against one was perhaps a thoroughly uneven fight, but from the sounds of it, that one was a force to be reckoned with.

He snaked the hallways one by one, trying to find any signs of living but there was only the impersonal steel and white gloss of mirror tiles until he finally stumbled upon a room whose door was hanging ajar. He figured it must have once been the Mad Scientist's lab, given the number of erratic sketches and designs pinned to the wall. The only person in there, amidst the dead scientists, all shot, was just Marcus Rinaldi. Blindly smacking input data into the controller of the hounds' collars, all unsuccessful. His hair was mussed and his suit was far from pristine. It took him a moment to realize he was no longer alone in this room.

"A pirate?" he asked, breathless and disbelieving. "Of all the things to sent after me a mere pirate."

"My name is Jung Hoseok," Hoseok corrected him sharply. What he had with himself was just a dagger, his gun remaining back at the warehouse. Knives were so much more intimate murder weapons than a gun. He would have to get close to the man, feel his dying breath on his face. Despite all that he'd seen and done, it still put a tremble in his hand. Yoongi often insisted that their friendship was formed on the fundamental basis that despite their villainy they still had undeniable inklings of goodness. Goodness which in this place and towards this man no longer had a place to reside.

He pulled the dagger from the side of his thigh and pointed it at Rinaldi who after taking a brief glance at it, burst into loud, delirious laughter.

"Your hand is shaking, boy. You would not harm me. You do not have the grit."

"Who do you think you are?" Hoseok retorted. " Do you think you're complicated? Do you think you're special? Because of your money? Because of your cruelty? You're not special. You're not anything."

He moved closer, stelling his resolve as the cacophonous noise of destruction reigned outside.

"You live like a worm underground, Rinaldi. I can tell your entire life story without ever reading it. What was it? Was it your mommy leaving you for a poorer nobody or was it your daddy loving his poor hired ladies more than you?" From the red in Rinaldi's face, Hoseok could tell he had struck the right albeit predictable nerve.

"I saw how you harassed those women so It has to be Daddy's fault. Or rather no those poor people who always harass rich folk like you. The filth you say? Realize that the filth is you and Daddy did not love you because he was neither capable of love and neither are you of being loved, you genocidal maniac."

Rinaldi ripped forward but Hoseok was faster, sinking a dagger into his side. He fell backwards, clutching at the wound.

"You, Rinaldi, are no more special than any other animal that lives and rots here. You live among us, buried before your death and after you die, no one will ever remember your name," he sneered heavily on the seething man. "Now tell me can the hounds be calmed down?"

Rinaldi spat into Hoseok's face and now with much less philosophical agony, Hoseok smacked him back across the face.

"CAN THE HOUNDS BE CALMED DOWN?"

Rinaldi grinned.

"No one will remember me, you say? You will if I let you all die!"

Hoseok scoffed and moved towards the controller. It was more data cramped into the small of the screen than he'd ever seen in his life or could ever understand. All he found recognizable was a paradoxical smiley face blinking at the corner of the screen. He pressed on it and from it popped a log.

"Please grant me access! I can turn the programming off and we're kind of dying here! - The Shadow Hacker."

Hoseok glanced in disgust at the gasping Rinaldi. He perhaps was not the most knowledgable of that man, having no time to do properly exhaustive research but he meant every word. He knew men like Rinaldi and they were all the same, all performing the same despicable conventions while thinking they were above all else.

He would not use numbers. No birth year because his childhood was an embarrassment and no other year because he was simply not capable of creating any relationship he respected enough to memorize.

He was a man who made flourished speeches while guiding an execution. But he would not choose anything as long as a quote of a writer or a poet, those required emotional capacity such a man also did not possess.

His name was too obvious but Hoseok suspected that in a way the access code would be banal. He took a surly, lasting look around the room, its removed concept, cold colours and the fact that geographically was above the normal level of the city and then it came to him, like any other plan.

The Great One, he typed in and with that came a blissful beep. The door to Shadow Hacker's skill was opened but glimpsing out the window, he doubted it would be returned to any sense of normalcy. The damage had been done and it was time for Hoseok either to say here and rot or go with something better. Go with you.

He heard footsteps down the hall and grabbed the dagger, wielding it at the intruder only to lower it when your dishevelled head came into his sight.

'You're okay," he breathed a long, relieved sigh but your expression placed a pause to it.

And then it became very cold. And his back hurt. And he could not turn no matter how he tried like there was lodged something in his back. Rinaldi as his last penance had ripped the blade out of Hoseok's hands, using the opportunity of him forgetting his whereabouts at the sight of you and nestled it deep within his insides. Pain became unbearable, rendering him blind though not entirely deaf. He still heard a single, finite gunshot and then a body falling down. It could also be him. Everything was at once both sharp and removed.

"Hang in! Don't die! I'm going to kill you if you dare to die after we just met again!" you shook him with a teary voice.

Hoseok found it somewhat funny. He always thought you were really funny though he restricted himself from saying so. Why had he done that? What was the point?

"Before - before I go," he chocked, growing colder and more distant by the second. He could no longer see you clearly and even the screams outside were now muffled but still, he reckoned that you must be the loveliest being that he had ever the pleasure of meeting. His best friend, his most fearsome rival and maybe, if time had been more merciful or he had made better choices, you could be his most treasured lover. He had loved you for a long time and he always will and that he finally realized, that was reason.

"No, you will not profess your love for me, while dying," you scolded him through the tears. "We will say it together, healthy and happy, you hear me, bastard?! Do you hear me?!"

No, he did not.

There were then flashes, awkward, angular pictures of something happening, but those were spiralling forms behind his eyelids. Conversations that he could not discern was the frenzy of a dying man or an actual reality. He believed that at some point he heard Yoongi as well and that made him smile, happy to receive his brother back, even if it was an illusion before his ultimate demise. Then he was in heaven.

Or so he presumed.

The air was fresh like never he had breathed before. The scent of it was sweet, not pungent like in the underground. And it was cool and he felt a breeze, like that of a fan but better. Was this... wind? He made a great effort to crack one eye open and then the world was grey. Grey clouds gliding in the sky so far, far up he could not wrap his head around the concept of there being so much space.

"Huh, who would have thought?" he muttered to himself and fell unconscious.

Six months later

"Postal office?" you asked in vague disbelief as Hoseok sat by the counter, a happy smile enriching his already beautiful face. Sometimes you wondered he was the same man you had lived with in the Orchid but even if it was not, there was no denying the fact that Hoseok was made for upside - for fun, for lazy mornings, for sun, though now in much more moderation after he suffered through a heavy sunburn after falling asleep outside one afternoon. He had to use a cane now, it eased his back pain even if the injury was now healed.

"You want to be a postman?" you laughed, recalling that this same man had once been the most nefarious criminal in the underworld.

"Distribution Associate," he corrected with a fake pout as you placed the chocolate eclairs one by one on the plate. The bakery that hired you briefly after popping up from the sewers nearly six years ago was now entering a new phase of development, growing more popular and increasing your bonus alongside it. Many thought this change to be stressful but growing as you had it was a laughable thing if anything.

"Oh, a postal worked and a baker, could we be more cliche?" you shook your head in faint amusement.

"The normals have the darkest past," Hosek added and you shared secret, private smiles.

"Wait a minute," you told him, wiping your hands in the towel. " I need to fetch a new plate."

"Return soon," Hoseok whined, having grown quickly aware that if he did, you were eager to indulge him. " I feel so lonely!"

You pushed the door open to the backroom with a smile, happy but not unaware of the figure sitting in the corner.

"You messed up, you know," Yoongi drawled lazily, shamelessly eating a muffin he had no intentions of purchasing.

"Oh, yeah, when?"

"You referred to Action Taker by his name - Jungkook, before he and Hoseok drove off. Which by all technicalities you should not know."

"And?"

Yoongi paused to briefly glance at the door.

"You think he hasn't figured it out? "

"Even if he has, what difference does it make?" you shrugged. "It's all done anyway."

Yoongi heaved an exhausted sigh but raised no more concerns.

"Why did you choose the name Ravager?"

You continued to search for the plate for some while, thinking of an answer to give. In the end, you never did.

THE END.

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a/n: chess game has 16 pieces on the board hnce 16 little subchapters :)

#hoseok x reader #jhope x reader #jhope x you #jhope x y/n #hoseok x y/n #hoseok x you #bts fic #bts angst #bts season's greetings #bts fic collab

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