bsky post here | twitter thread here | ao3 link here

namkook | 1.3k words | futuristic societal collapse, vague sci-fi

Namjoon glances over his shoulder as he steps off the dirt road, isolated and littered with various objects, into the tall grass.

To the average person, they’re lost in a sea of green, blue, and pale yellow. Namjoon, however, can find the small markers he and Jeongguk discreetly weaved through various blades due to his heightened senses.

He sighs quietly, but even that is loud to his ears as it drifts between the whisper of the swaying grass.

It’s been four years since the shattering.

The year before it happened, Namjoon had just moved to the city and found Jeongguk’s posting looking for a new roommate. He never would have guessed that this is where they would be now — hiding in the plains.

Glancing at the last marker, Namjoon makes one final turn before reaching out to pull the grass aside.

A medium-sized house comes into view, worn down by years of neglect. It’s served them well enough for several months, and luckily no one’s found them during their stay.

Namjoon crosses the short distance to the front door, then rests his hand on a specific point of the door. It opens with a hushed click and Namjoon pulls off his shoes to carefully cross the threshold. Once inside, he turns to press his hand to the back of the door, and after hearing the faint click again reaches to the side. He grabs a long bar, laying it across the back of the door to secure it.

It’s dark when he turns, but doesn’t bother to reach for the switches on the wall as they won’t work. There’s no power since that faded globally the year before they got to this house. He relies on his senses and memory to walk past what’s supposed to be a living room to head to the kitchen.

When he steps through the doorway, he places his shoes on the ground and unzips his jacket to pull out several items from his inner pockets. After putting the items away, he picks his shoes up again before leaving the kitchen to head to the single bedroom on the ground floor.

There are three other bedrooms on the second floor, all empty since he and Jeongguk first arrived. They’d inspected the entire house to make sure there were no strays, then moved everything useful to the ground floor.

Now, Namjoon quietly opens the door to the bedroom and is unsurprised to find Jeongguk cleaning their weapons on the floor.

“Gguk-ah,” Namjoon starts lowly.

“The living room feels too open, hyung,” Jeongguk immediately says without looking up from the weapon in his hand. “You know this needed to happen today and it couldn’t wait until you got back.”

Namjoon sighs and shakes his head as he fully steps into the room. “Are you almost done at least?”

“Mhm. Go wash up, I’ll start dinner once I finish this.”