Hoseok was a pretty light sleeper, he just never let on that he was. Whenever Jimin and Taehyung would whisper to each other in the morning, Hoseok would pretend to be asleep and listen to all the things they said. It was never bad, in fact he ended up learning quite a lot about the two. It was part of why he knew so much about Jimin’s likes and dislikes, dreams and fears, and even the name of that mysterious roommate that was harassing him. He also learned about the ever allusive Taehyung who hid everything behind his smile and blank eyes. What he wouldn’t admit to Jimin in his wake, he’d admit in his sleep. Taehyung had a nasty habit of talking in his sleep, and on one end it was endearing, but on the other it was concerning. Concerning because Taehyung was a lot more honest in his sleep then he was when conscious. For example, if Taehyung was keeping a secret, he would say whatever he was hiding in his sleep as if he was confessing a prayer. One time Seokjin made these cookies from an online recipe that ended up tasting terrible, and everyone pretended they were good because no one wanted to hurt the eldest’s feelings. But that same night, Taehyung ripped him a new one with all the jokes he made about the disgusting cookies. Things like they’d tasted so bad even his human trash can of a brother couldn’t stomach them, and the underwear he accidentally himself in when he was four tasted better than that. Hoseok was both shocked and amused to hear such things coming from his cute dongsaeng.

    But right now, all he heard was stuff that made him sad. All little Taehyung had to say was how much he missed hearing the maknae talk to him. He murmured at length about how sorry he was for what he did, and wanted to make it up to the younger. He called himself a dummy, a selfish , and an idiot hyung who couldn’t tell when he’d upset the people he cherished the most and how much better he’d be if Jeongguk would just talk to him again. Hoseok wanted nothing more than to jump out of his bed and rush over to hold Taehyung and tell him everything would be okay again. But really, what did he know? He’d barely managed to get Jimin to stop acting so guarded around him and finally open up to him. Not nearly as specific as he wished the younger would be, but it was a start. Speaking of the younger, Hoseok was once again disappointed to see that it had been an hour and a half since Seokjin had come in and stolen his socks, Jimin had gotten up to follow him, and he’d heard the door close as a third person had also left. Based on the empty bed in Jeongguk’s room, Hosoek was left to assume that the third person was Namjoon, being as obsessive as ever over Seokjin and his interactions with other men. Hoseok wished Namjoon would just finally get it through his head that he was jealous and finally admit that he liked Seokjin so that they could all put this nonsense to rest. He’d held a grudge against poor Jaehwan since the day they met, complaining about his hands being all over Seokjin. If that didn’t sound like a jealous boyfriend, Hoseok didn’t know what would. Even Yoongi agreed with him when they’d talked about it before. Namjoon was in denial, plain and simple.

    “Please Kookie. I’m sorry. I’m really really sorry. Tae-tae’s so sorry.” Hoseok felt his heart break again. He opened his eyes and rolled onto his side, propping his head up on his palm so he could look at the sad lump in Jimin’s bed curled up with a pillow squished to his chest. Taehyung looked so pitiful in that moment. His face was pinched and red, probably from crying in his sleep. Hoseok wished so badly that he could do something, but what was there to do? Jeongguk wouldn’t talk to him anymore than he would to Taehyung. When Hoseok had tried asking him about it, the youngest had simply smiled saying everything was fine and he just wanted space. Sounded just like another pesky dongsaeng of his. Hoseok sighed and to his back so he could face the ceiling. He rested his head on the palm of his hands and sighed. Lately these days, it seemed their band was a mess. Were they ever going to make it to debut? It seemed like such a far distance away now, when just six months ago Hoseok couldn’t stand the wait. Hoseok began to feel restless. He couldn’t sit here and try to sleep. He pulled himself and started to get dressed. As he walked over to his dresser, he heard a door slam and lots of commotion coming from the living room. Startled, Hoseok stepped out just in time to catch Seokjin shove past him and into his room, making sure to slam the door harder than the first.

    “What the hell? Does he have a death wish, or is he just not scared of the wrath of Suga-nim?” Hoseok said, scratching the back of his head. He turned back towards the front of the hallway and spotted Namjoon removing his coat and shoes. He started forward to ask what the hell was wrong and then it dawned on him. Hoseok leaned his forearms against the kitchen counter and ran his fingers through his hair.

    “Rapmon, you didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t.” Hoseok begged. Namjoon grunted and walked past him.

    “I don’t need to hear it from you too.” He responded before disappearing back into his room. Hoseok sighed again and rubbed his eyes. This was bound to be a terrible morning. Hoseok was about to leave to finish getting dressed when the door opened again, and Jimin stepped through with a forlorn expression. Hoseok stepped up and sat down on the couch while Jimin put away his outerwear.

    “Was it that bad?” Hoseok asked. Jimin stared at him with a dead expression before rounding the couch and sitting down next to him. He threw his head back and groaned, running his hands down his face.

    “It was worse hyung. So much worse.” Jimin responded. Hoseok shook his head.

    “Do I even want to know what happened?” Jimin laughed without a hint of mirth.

    “Besides following him all the way to the cafe, videotaping their entire time together, and then charging at them while they were in the restroom, he had the nerve to argue with Jin-hyung the entire ride home and rip him apart. I’ve never heard hyung say such mean things before. But the worst part was, I expected Jin-hyung to fight back, do something, say something to defend himself, but he never did. He just took it with the same mean glare on his face.” Jimin sighed.

“What did Rapmon say that made him like that? Did he just not care, or he didn’t want to acknowledge him?” Hoseok asked. Jimin shook his head.

“It wasn’t about what he said. Jin-hyung could have easily come back with a number of things in response. I don’t think he was silent because he wanted to be, he was silent because he had to be. He couldn’t say anything back because everything out of Rapmon’s mouth had some element of truth to it.” Hoseok made an ‘ah’ sound and sighed again, leaning onto his elbows and rubbing his forehead.

“Well, I doubt Jin-hyung’s going to be up for cooking this morning, so let’s just have leftovers for breakfast yeah?” Hoseok held out his hand, and Jimin took it gladly. The ride over had truly been a nightmare. It was only an eight minute drive and yet, it felt like two with Seokjin speeding and Namjoon shouting. And with the way that his hyung was attacking Seokjin, one would have thought Namjoon had his date ruined and not the other way around. Hoseok and Jimin pulled out dishes from the night before and warmed the contents in smaller pots. They reheated stew from a few days ago as well as some cooked pork and beef chunks. Jimin pulled out the kimchi and placed it in a medium sized bowl while Hoseok made some omelet seaweed wraps. Thanks to Seokjin and Namjoon’s slamming, the rest of the members were awake. Yoongi came trudging out of the hall and plopped down at the table.

“Please direct me to the person I can thank for waking me up since Jin dearest is off limits for throttling.” Yoongi made a point to glare at Jimin as he came round the table with the rest of breakfast. Jimin gulped and sat down as far away from him as he could. Hoseok laughed as he sat down in between them.

“Sorry to disappoint hyung, but it wasn’t Jimin this time. Please direct all animosity towards your beloved leader. I’m sure he would love to hear your grievances.” Hoseok intervened. Yoongi tsked at him and turned back to his food.

“Darn shame. You lucked out this time kid.” Yoongi said before eating. Jimin nodded his head in agreement. Just then, Taehyung came out, looking more worse for wear than normal. In fact he looked positively dreadful with dark bags under his eyes and ashen, puffy skin. Jimin stared at him to ask what was wrong, but he didn’t even look at him. Taehyung sat down opposite Hoseok and quietly ate. This was the first time he’s ever eaten a meal nearly silent, and it put everyone on edge. Yoongi, who normally would have been praising some god for a quiet morning breakfast, was put off by the strange behavior.

“What’s wrong with you yah?” Taehyung didn’t respond to him, only flicked his hand as if to say ‘nothing, leave it’. Yoongi frowned but said nothing else and continued to eat. Jimin leaned to the side and whispered to Taehyung in his ear.

“Is there something wrong? Do you want to talk about it later?” To Jimin’s surprise, Taehyung turned away from him and put the hood of his sweatshirt over his face, a clear sign that he wanted nothing to do with Jimin at the moment. Jimin sat quietly in thought. This morning he was so sweet and cuddled up beside him, but now he’s blowing him off. What happened to put him in such a sour mood? Just then, Namjoon finally came out of his room and sat down to eat. His shoulders were tense and lips pursed in a permanent frown. If Jimin thought he was furious before, he was even more livid now. Following Namjoon was Jeongguk, and he was just as solemn as the rest of the group. The first sign of emotion spiked from Taehyung when the youngest sat down. But it was short lived, whatever he was hoping for didn’t happen as Jeongguk mumbled his ‘good morning’ to the group and sat down right next to Jimin. Taehyung’s eyes turned stormy, and refused to leave from Jimin’s face. He could feel the glare all over his body, and it burned. Jimin blinked rapidly at him, asking through his eyes what he did wrong. Taehyung was either to upset, or had no intention of telling as he turned away and went back to eating. It was as if the animosity in the room spiked tenfold. Hoseok and Jimin exchanged confused glances, trying to figure out why everyone was in a bad mood. And if things couldn’t have gotten more heated, well, they were terribly wrong.

“Jin-hyung, can you grab me another spoon from the kitchen while you’re up?” Yoongi asked as he saw Seokjin coming from the hallway. He still looked royally pissed, but at least he’d come out at all. That much in itself was an accomplishment to Jimin. Seokjin paused for an entire five seconds before sighing and grabbing a spoon. He also followed with getting a bowl, plate, and utensils for himself while he was at it.

“Anyone else need something while I’m up? Wouldn’t want to be an inconvenience on any of you.” There was a poisonous hiss to his tone. That much went noticed. Jimin felt himself cringe at the spite dripping from Seokjin’s lips. Namjoon ground his teeth together, a reply was just waiting to come out, but he held back. He’d done plenty of trash talking on the way here, and he wasn’t ready to start again. He’d have the courtesy to wait till after rehearsal for that. Because if he was being honest with himself, he was still mad about earlier. No matter how many times Seokjin tried to persuade him, he never saw Jaehwan as anything but a predator. He didn’t see the way Jaehwan’s eyes sparkled when they looked at him, or the sly smirk he’d make before he was about to do something to him. And he sure didn’t see the fake way in which he tried to balance that glass on his finger. It was all an act, a show, and he had bad intentions. He’d wanted to get his hands on Seokjin, Namjoon knew it. He knew it, he did, he couldn’t explain why but he just did.

Seokjin looked at the spots open at the table to sit. There was only one place left, and it was next to Namjoon. He had no intention of being near the younger today. He would rather stand than sit beside him. So that’s what he did, he grabbed his food and took his plate to the kitchen counter to eat. Hoseok saw this and frowned.

“Hyung if you want to sit, you can take my place. We’ll just shift over. Suga-nim, move over so your hyung can sit down.” Yoongi looked at him for three seconds, deciding whether he should ignore the order from the younger, or he should just humor him since there seemed to be a prickly situation occurring at the moment between the eldest and the leader. And if Seokjin would rather stand than take the conveniently open spot beside their leader, then maybe it was best of him to just put up with it and move. So sighing, he picked up his dishes and moved over to be next to Namjoon. Seokjin, once he saw there was an open spot, took his dishes and moved to the table. There, the group ate in silence. No one said a thing, and anytime someone wanted to-or more specifically Jimin and Hoseok-it didn’t seem right to with the heavy silence in the air.

Yoongi was the first to finish, taking his things to the sink and returning to his room to finish getting ready. Jeongguk was second, and he took his things as silent as the other had to the sink before leaving. With that, Namjoon finished next, and he made sure to look Hoseok and Jimin square in the face when he thanked them for the meal. If the air was heavy before, it was overwhelming now. Seokjin gripped his chopsticks in an iron fist as he passed behind him. When he was gone, Taehyung was next to leave. Jimin tried to pull on his shirt to tell him he wanted to speak in the room later, but his hand was shrugged off and an annoyed expression crossed his face. Jimin felt hurt as he retracted his hand and turned his face to the floor. Jimin was about to leave next when Seokjin, who would normally eat two or more plates of food in the morning, stood up to leave having only finished half of his plate. Hoseok’s eyes grew wide in shock as Seokjin stood and threw out the other half into the trash.

“Uh hyung? Are you sure you don’t want to eat a little more? It’s going to be a long day and-” Hoseok started, but was cut off sharply.

“Seemed to have lost my appetite.” He said. Jimin and Hoseok exchanged looks for a moment.

“This rehearsal is not going to go well today.” Jimin said.

“This is ridiculous. They’ve fought before but not like this. And what’s up with Taehyung? Did you two fight too?” Hoseok asked. Jimin shook his head.

“No, well, he was being a little distant yesterday after rehearsal but that was partially my fault for ruining rehearsal. Plus we’d apologized to each other during it and he said it was fine. He never said anything after that so I figured it was resolved. This was out of nowhere. I have no idea what I did wrong this time.” Jimin moaned. He laid his h