Hope.

that was one thing hoseok doesn't have anymore.

one thing, among countless others, that that bullet took away from him.

he wonders when he will ever smile again.

he is in the practice room, dancing to death.

he tries to forget about it all, tries to drown himself in his work.

but he can't.

he fucking can't.

maybe that's why he spends every night at the club, drinking till sunrise, drinking to incoherence, drinking till he can't tell what's real and what's his imagination anymore.

maybe that's why he never smiles anymore.

maybe that's why nothing makes sense, nothing but jimin.

and maybe that's why the monsters come and haunt him, the monsters that tell him he should have been the one that was shot, he should have been in jimin's place.

he's trapped in his own head, a captive to his own mind, to the overpowering regret ——

to dull melancholy.