---

Hoseok

J-hope had lost his hope.

Laying there in the dark, cold basement, he wondered how he had gotten there, why, and how long he had been there for. Maybe it had been a day, maybe it had been a month, but he hadn't moved much, not even for water.

His face was covered with dirt. He knew that, but he didn't care. Skincare and showers were things of the past.

But everything changed when he had heard paws and saw the light flick on. He had hopped to his feet, begged a god he didn't believe in for mercy, and pressed himself against the brick wall, hoping it would mask his scent from the animal. Whatever the animal was. Maybe a dog, maybe a cat, maybe something else. But what he had known was an animal couldn't turn on a light. Unless it was a mutant as a result of the disasters. It sounded ridiculous, but Hoseok hadn't wanted to rule it out.

That was until the animal had growled, forcing him to reveal himself and hope a human was on the other side. What he had found was a woman, maybe around his age, holding a hammer with a border collie by her side with liquid drooling from its open snout.

And that led him to his predicament: the woman stared at him with her jaw almost detached from her face.

"You're... you're Jung Hoseok?" she asked. The hammer was long gone. The woman seemed to snap back into focus after a beat and whistled to her dog. "Honey, down girl. We're good."

The dog, Honey, gave Hoseok one last growl before sitting in front of her owner. The woman scratched behind Honey's ears before returning her attention to Hoseok.

"Why are you here? Are you hurt?"

Hoseok wished he had an answer to the first question. Everything had been a blur.

"I don't know. I got separated from my friends."

Friends. No, brothers. Family. A family he didn't know the fate of.

Hoseok then patted down his body, which was concealed by his thick clothing. "I, um..." He trailed off, going quiet to assess, and then, he swallowed a wad of hot moisture he hoped was saliva. "I don't think I'm hurt."

Think was the key word. A word he hadn't used much of in the past few days. Days without his brothers, managers, bodyguards, or anyone else.

"Okay, this is weird as hell," the woman said. She pinched herself, shook her head, and then cleared her throat. "Sorry, I'm making it worse, aren't I? I'm Y/n. I'm just passing through. How long have you been here?"

Hoseok fiddled with his fingers. His lungs felt weak. All those years of training his stamina, and for what?

"I don't know. A day? Two?"

"That's terrible. Where's the rest of your band?"

Hoseok teared up, his grip on his fingers tightening. "I... don't know."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Y/n pulled her bag onto her back and motioned to the staircase. "We have some time before the next disaster hits. We should get you some supplies. No offense, but you look like you've been through hell."

So did she. Half of her face was covered with mud. The bottom of her shirt had green stains he was sure was from vomit. Whether hers or another's, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. Not to mention the edges of her long pants had tiny tears in them, revealing little cuts on her ankles and sand all over her sneakers.

"Okay."

And he followed her upstairs. She didn't say anything, and he didn't either, but he did get sniffed by the dog. Although hesitant, he patted her head, and the dog licked his leg. Honey had a perfect balance of black and white, with one pointed ear black, and the other, a droopy ear, white. Her nose was the most boopable nose in existence. Even more than Jimin's.

Jimin.

Hoseok shook the thought away.

"I'll try not to bombard you, but you have to know I have questions," Y/n said as she grabbed one of the few intact glasses and poured him a water. "I mean, you look like you've been holed down there for ages. Have you even drank any water?"

He didn't answer. He didn't have to.

"Jesus." She handed the ice cold water to him. "Drink. You need to keep your strength up."

He did, and he drank it all in one go. It was safe to say she gave him another, and that one didn't last long either. It took four full glasses until he stopped.

"Good," she said, filling another glass just to be sure. That one Hoseok sipped. "Now, you gotta tell me what's going on. Why have you been staying here of all places?" Y/n glanced at her phone. "We're in Graniteville. Not great, but it's better than being in the City."

"It's... good? Why?"

"You don't know? There's a safe haven a little past Princeton. It's one of the only places where disasters aren't happening, and they have a bunker system ready for the public."

Hoseok didn't know a lot, he realized. Though he wasn't sure why that was a surprise; it wasn't like he had tried to learn anything.

"I didn't see that." Hoseok scratched the back of his neck with his free hand, took another small sip, and tried to keep his voice steady. "I feel like I don't know anything."

"You and me both, but from what I gathered from the reports, the world decided to end on a fucking Tuesday." Y/n rolled her eyes. "Every hour on the hour, a new disaster starts. In EST, which is the time zone we're in right now. These disasters are happening all around the world. To my knowledge, there aren't many safe areas left. Princeton's one. Alaska's holding on because most of their disasters are blizzards and... well, Alaska knows how to handle that.

"Florida's doing okay with all the hurricanes cause, again, they know how to handle that, but the tsunamis are the real issue." Y/n tapped on her phone for a moment before frowning. "Looks like Korea's mixed. Busan's gone, but Seoul's still standing."

Hoseok almost fell to the ground. "Gone?"

"Mega-tsunami. Took out the entire city. I'm... I'm so sorry."

"No..." Hoseok had to hold onto the counter to prevent his legs from giving out. "My bandmates..."

Some of their families live there, was waiting on his tongue, but he didn't have the strength to say it. Had Jungkook and Jimin's families made it out? Had Hoseok's? They were either in Seoul or Gwangju depending on the day.

"I wish we had more time to process, but we have maybe ten minutes until the next disaster comes. It's one-fifty. Each new disaster comes on the dot, so as soon as it turns two..."

"New disaster," Hoseok finished in a whisper, and Y/n nodded.

"You said you've been in that basement for some time, right? Maybe we can wait it out there. Better than being outside."

"How long will it last? What will it be?"

"Don't know and don't know. Sometimes it's a bad thunderstorm that lasts a few minutes, other times it's a tornado that lasts half an hour. Normally they don't take up the entire hour, though, so no two disasters at once."

Y/n set her phone down and sighed.

"Look, it's an eighteen-hour walk from here to Princeton, and that's raw. Not factoring in rest time, food, any diversions from disasters, and anything else we might run into. But I think our best bet is getting to the haven. You're welcome to come with me if you want."

"Yeah." Hoseok swallowed. "Maybe my bandmates are there."

"Maybe. My phone's low, but maybe you can try texting them? Is there an outlet downstairs?"

Hoseok did his best to nod, but his head felt like it was about to fall off. Actually, every part of him felt that way.

"In the corner. Yes," he said, his voice hoarse.

"Good. I'll charge while we wait out the disaster. You can try texting your friends. Do you know their numbers off memory?"

"I do, but no need. I need Kakao."

"Kakao?"

"It's a messaging app we use in Korea, but you should have access to it. Do you have internet?"

Y/n grabbed her phone and knitted her brows. "Yeah, I do. 5G. Remind me to thank Verizon when we get out of this. Okay, I'll download the app. Let's go."

And so they did. They returned to the basement with just themselves and Honey. Hoseok huddled in the corner while Y/n charged her phone.

"Sorry, I would let you do it now, but it gets more charge when it's off. As soon as the disaster's over, we'll get you in touch with your friends," she said, shutting her phone off and setting it face-down on the concrete.

"It's fine." Hoseok had little hope they were alive anyway.

Cool air skimmed by his face. No leaks were in the basement despite the constant disasters, but it was cold nonetheless. Or maybe Hoseok had felt cold since it had happened. It wasn't like he was keeping track.

Ten minutes slipped by in a blur. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The basement, though, didn't. No movement of any tools or items. Just silence.

"Thunderstorm," she muttered, scratching behind Honey's ears. The dog remained on the ground with her head on Y/n's lap. "Got lucky. Probably won't get that lucky for the next one, so we'll have to move fast-"

"How did you survive?" Hoseok interrupted without meaning to. Truthfully, he hadn't been listening to her previous words. "You were on the run. Outside. How?"

"Luck." Y/n rested her head against the wall. "And not being in the worst areas. Got out of the City before any tsunamis hit. Nowhere near any volcanos. Most of what I've hit have been sandstorms and thunderstorms. Some tornados, but I can dodge them."

"You say that like it's easy."

"Well, it's not like disasters are happening in every town. They're all over the place, sure, but they're not everywhere everywhere. Some hours I'm nowhere near any disasters."

Hoseok nodded and tucked his knees against his chest, staring at the floor and listening to the droplets hitting the roof. Thunder kept rolling in. Hoseok tried to ignore it.

"Enough about that, though," she said after a beat of quiet. "I'm more curious about you."

Hoseok didn't take his eyes off the floor. "Please don't talk about my career."

"I wasn't going to." Y/n scooted away, Honey huffing and moving with her. "Believe it or not, I'm not some huge BTS stan or something. I just know of you. Who doesn't?"

"That's great. Please change the topic."

Y/n didn't say anything for a long moment. "Right. Sorry. I wanted to ask about your English. I mean, I'm not trying to be one of those people, just didn't know anyone in the ban..." She trailed off and cleared her throat. "Didn't think you knew it. Based on what I've seen."

"We all do. We pretend we don't because it's 'cuter', according to management."

"Oh. Yeah. Makes sense. I guess."

Neither of them spoke after that, and time carried on without a care if Hoseok was following or not. He didn't know how long it had been, but eventually, Y/n got up with Honey doing the same.

"Sounds like it stopped, and you have people to text." She shoved her charger back into her pack and handed her phone to him. "Kakao's downloaded. All you have to do is sign in. Can you text and walk?"

Hoseok took the phone. "I have a choice?"

"Not really. Or you can stay here. But if your friends are anywhere, they're gonna be there. When you split, did they have anyone with them? Management? Bodyguards? Translators?"

"I don't know. Didn't get a good look."

"Well, if they did, anyone with half a brain would direct them down south. I'll ask you one more time: do you want to come with me?"

Hoseok gazed at the phone, the login page staring back at him. His index finger skimmed by the screen. It had no cracks or bumps on it. Some dirt, though.

"I'll come with," he whispered.

"Good. Then let's go."

Y/n trotted away and went upstairs without Hoseok. Hoseok logged in as if on instinct and fired out some texts to all his bandmates. The entire group chat along with individual texts. No one had texted him during that time. Of course.

There was nothing Hoseok could do about it, so he stumbled to his feet, his grip on the device tightening as he peered at the bottom of the stairs. Stairs to the basement he had hidden in. But he had a chance again. Maybe hope, or maybe that was a pipe dream. Either way, he had a goal. So, he let out a soft breath and moved.

"Yeah. Let's."

---

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed chapter 2, especially now that it was a Hoseok-focused one.

See you soon for more updates!