#hoseok flatmates | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

helenazbmrskai · 3 years

Text

I love you slowwwww much! (M)

Pairing ‹sloth hybrid! jeongguk x reader›

Genre ‹hybrid, fluff, smut, angst, strangers to lovers›

Summary ‹Your roommate's hybrid always nags you about a playmate while your roommate complains about you being alone all the time in your room so you kill two birds with one stone and get a companion.›

Warnings ‹exotic/rare hybrid, inexperienced owner! reader, hybrid stereotypes, adoption centre and adoption of an adult hybrid, roommate and best friend Namjoon and snake hybrid hoseok, smut, sub! jeongguk + soft dom! reader, foreplay, oral (f, m), unprotected sex (always be safe guys!), you do all the work honey, finger and cock riding, dirty talk, praising, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, blowjob, lots of cum, jk is a pillow prince, manhandling, face sitting›

Words ‹8.8k›

Author note. In case If you’re wondering. Yes, the sloth hybrid JK idea comes from the ’run bts’ episode when they dubbed Zootopia. I like writing about unusual hybrid breeds so I wanted to give this a go I hope you guys will like it as well!

Do I have the urge to climb a tree and hang upside down from it? Absolutely yes but do you see me actually doing it? I don’t think so.

Menu: Masterlist l Be part of my permanent taglist to recieve a notification when I upload a new fic or send an ask!

⤷ Part of Animal Lovers Hybrid Collection

Your left eye cracks open when you hear a pan loudly hitting the kitchen floor and then silence. The perpetrator in the house probably tries to figure out if he frightened you awake yet or not by listening intently for any sign of noise in the form of a frustrated groan or a not so friendly curse word that usually follows once your clumsy roommate prepares his breakfast before work, 6 o’clock at sharp every damn morning on weekdays.

The apartment’s walls are thin but in turn, it was cheaper for you two to rent it, you didn’t think it was an issue before you learnt what it means to live with a clumsy Kim Namjoon as your flatmate. You never hated his office job more than these few days that you’re seriously deprived of sleep. You like to sleep till ten or twelve normally the hour depends on when you went to bed that day.

Your working hours are miles apart from each other that’s why you two make attempts to be considerate when the other tries to get a good night of sleep. Living with Namjoon is not bad, he’s not a messy person and remembers dates better than you that saved your life more than once in the past five years of living together. On the other hand, he’s a disaster walking on legs when it comes to anything else, especially in the kitchen.

You hear a low snicker that undoubtedly comes from Hoseok, your roommate’s hybrid. You could picture the frightened look in Namjoon’s dark eyes without having to see it for yourself. You can be a real bitch if you’re up before your alarm and it’s not to their advantage that you haven’t had your morning coffee either that comes to the second revelation Namjoon learnt from living with you for so long is that you’re not a person before your daily dose of caffeine. Unfortunately for him now you’re wide awake as you roll out of the human-sized blanket burrito.

You only have the energy to sigh as you look through your closet for something comfortable and warm to wear, looking through all your knitted sweaters before choosing a light brown one with black leggings and your favourite pair of fuzzy socks. The mornings are cold despite spring creeping up on the corner, you can’t wait to see the flowers bloom as there’s a park not too far away that your window has an excellent view of. Thanks to the buildings surrounding you it’s never too cold or windy which is one of the reasons why you like to live in the heart of Seoul. The next best thing is how everything is within reach, restaurants and convenience stores just a few minutes away from home.

You check the time out of habit while you comb through your hair but you declare at the last minute that it’s better if you don’t even want to count how many hours of sleep did you get. Watching any kind of illuminating screen gives you an instant headache but you guess it’s the price you pay for focusing on your computer screen all night while you were translating an important document with a nearly impossible deadline. You did finish it on time but now you need at least a 24 hour long power nap to regain your energy.

”I’m sorry Y/N.” Namjoon has a sheepish expression on his face when you join them in the kitchen. Hoseok probably heard you sighing as Namjoon has a freshly made pot of coffee on the counter waiting just for you.

You give him a small smile and a dismissive shake of your head. You know he didn’t do it on purpose.

The snake hybrid is next to you as soon as you sit down and absentmindedly nick pick at your nails. His smile is dazzling and his hug is warm when he cages you between his strong arms. Hoseok is a cuddly snake, he likes the warmth of a person next to him so you often find him and Namjoon cuddled up on the couch watching tv if you venture out of your room late at night. He admitted you feel like an ice pole when he tries to cuddle you so the fact that he does it anyway always warms you from the inside out.

Namjoon takes charge of preparing your coffee and when he pours so little into your mug you whine loudly. You like your coffee with a lot of milk and two scoops of sugar but sometimes when you don’t get enough sleep you just drink black coffee out of the pot. You shake your head when he tilts his head towards the cartoon of milk in his head.

”More Jonnie. I need caffeine if I want to function and I have something important to do today. No sugar or milk just pour the damn coffee.” You rest your head on Hoseok’s shoulder while you bark your orders. Waiting for the ibuprofen to have an effect and subdue your cluster headache.

His shoulders shake from the laughter when Namjoon pours more coffee into your cup with a prominent scowl on his face he never fails to mention how unhealthy you are but always relents to your wishes. He hates when you drink too much coffee and if you’d listen to him you would be in bed sleeping and not chunking down pure poison but the emphasis on the listen and you don’t know her. Hoseok likes to witness you two bantering around since once Namjoon leaves for work the apartment get eerily quiet as you retreat to your room to work as well. Sometimes he meets up with other hybrid friends but mostly he just hangs out in your room sleeping in your bed while you type away on your laptop and waits for your roommate to come home so they could do something together. He enjoys it the most when you and Namjoon are home and have time to pay attention to him even if all you guys do is watch movies and shit talk the plot. Apparently, it doesn’t matter what you guys watch there’s always something to pick apart, you and Namjoon are the worst type of watchers.

”Are you going somewhere today?” Namjoon asks as he smuggles in a spoonful of sugar and some cream into your coffee dosage thinking that you’re not watching but you do see him tampering with your drink.

You give him an unimpressed glare but relent and a sigh slips through again. It’s probably better as you’re about to drink it to an empty stomach, you don’t feel like eating so early in the morning. Your neck cracks when you try to stretch untangling yourself from Hoseok in the process who whines in protest like a toddler and wraps himself around Namjoon instead looking at you with playful betrayal.

”Yeah to the hybrid adoption centre.” Namjoon freezes mid-bite of his egg thinking that he probably heard you wrong. He knows Hoseok has been nagging you nonstop about a playmate while both of you work during the day that leaves him alone for several hours of the day but he never thought you’ll actually consider it. You’re a very responsible person so he’s not afraid you can’t handle it and even if you can’t he’s here to help just like Hoseok who is a hybrid himself.

If Hoseok had a tail it would be going up and down like crazy. ”For real? You’re getting a hybrid?”

He almost crawls over the table to reach you in excitement that you have to chuckle into your coffee.

”Hmnm. That’s the plan.” You have enough money saved up to house a hybrid and the apartment doesn’t have any strict regulations on it – that is one of the reasons you choose this place as Namjoon has been wanting to get a hybrid for a long time. He even asked you before he brought Hoseok if you’re ok with living together and you think rooming with those two are the best decisions of your life.

As soon as you two settled into the new space nearly four years ago Hoseok came. He considers you a close friend just like he does with Jonnie but they have something special between them that you don’t share. Hoseok is great but he’s not yours.

You booked this appointment with the adoption centre a month ago but you never got to mention it in a conversation before partially because you wanted to surprise them. You had to fill out different forms, first to register and the second form was to get a view of what kind of breed you’d be interested in adopting. They asked a bunch of questions about you and your preferences after they did a throughout background check on your finances and you, in general, to see if you’re legally able to have a hybrid of your own. It was a slow process but they eventually called you yesterday to tell you they have a list of five hybrids that would be a good match for you.

”I wanted to ask if you could stay at your friend’s house while I get him,” You turn your attention to Hoseok as you speak. ”I want him to get familiar with the layout of the apartment before I introduce you and Jonnie to him.” The boys nod their heads understanding that it’s probably a good idea to get him comfortable with you before they meet him.

The house gets quiet when they leave. Namjoon offered to drop Hoseok off at Taehyung’s place and pick him up when he’s done with work giving you plenty of time to get your hybrid settled down in the apartment. You felt the need to tell them that there’s a possibility that you don’t find your match today so they wouldn’t be too disappointed if that really happens since Hoseok seemed very excited about it that you don’t want to see him sad. You’re getting nervous as you tie your shoelace.

The adoption centre is situated in the suburban area of Seoul. They need a lot of space to not crowd so many hybrids of different species. There’s a huge playground for the young ones and the facility itself is pretty massive with a lot of rooms that are filled with different types of hybrids. Everything is sterile and white as you step foot into the building. The girl behind the desk greets you cheerfully but you could only show her a tired smile back. Driving for an hour while you run on two hours of sleep was harder than you thought but you can’t cancel your appointment. You don’t want the facility to think you changed your mind and even if they accept the terms to reschedule it could take months to get another date set so you just have to get through the day and think about sleep later.

”Here are the files of the five hybrids that matched your preferences. They’re all male and in their twenties. There are two felines and one canine hybrid on the list and two from other species. There’s a sitting room here so take your time with reading the files and call for me if you want to meet with any of them.”

You thank her and sit down. There are ten tables inside the room most of them empty as you find a spot to comfortably flip through the files. You start with the felines, the first one you open is a tiger hybrid the second is a calico cat. They seem lovely but you want to see the others before you make a decision so you open up the next document and see a german shepherd hybrid smiling at you from the picture attached to the left top of the introduction page. The fourth one is a bunny but his recommended space requirement is more than what you have at home so you have to get him out of the equation.

The last one is a sloth hybrid. This is the first time you see such a rare breed so you scan through the pages with care your eyes land on his picture and you're mesmerised by his curly hair and dark eyes. Just like Hoseok, there’s no tail or ears on top of his head like most hybrids do, he looks normal in a sense of hybrid terms. But even Hoseok has a characteristic that tells you he’s a snake hybrid and the answer lies in his slitted pupils and pointy tongue with sharper teeth in his mouth.

His file says that you need to trim his nails two times a week. The nail is a gene defect from his animal counterpart that would ensure a firm grip if he needs to climb trees. He also moves slower than normal but not as slow as a real sloth would, he’s just more sluggish and lazy than others. His personal note states that he’s not showing interest in a lot of things he mostly sleeps and eats but he has a slow metabolism so he only eats one big meal that could take several hours for him to devour. You realise you never caught his name so you turn the page back to the introduction.

You think the name Jeongguk suits him. The next paragraph tells you that he’s a good match with a household that can’t devote all their time to care for him. He’s low maintenance and doesn’t scent or mark his territory until there’s something that could make him think he’s in danger. Hoseok is a predator hybrid and even though he’s a sweetheart he could get pretty territorial when he smells other hybrids on you or Namjoon. Considering his description it doesn’t seem like that will be a problem with him.

There’s information on his heats as well, stating that he has it once a year and some more detail that makes a blush spread across your cheeks before you move on. The last page is about a list of things he can and can’t eat.

You give the others a second quick reread but you only feel drawn to the sloth hybrid at the end so you make your decision after forty minutes of reading and contemplating and finally gather the files and go back to the front desk to tell your choice of hybrid to the receptionist. She looks pleased with your decision that could mean he’s been here for a while. You understand why he wouldn’t be appealing to some but he’s the perfect match for you, well, you hope that he will think that too once you’re face to face.

She leads you up a long staircase exchanging small talk until she stops in front of a numbered door that reads ’58’. She knocks once before entering without a reply you’re not too far behind as well as you look around the room. There’s not much for you to see as it only has some hangers for clothes and a big bed with white sheets.

He was probably sleeping before you two barged in but now he has his eyes set on you. He studies your face for a minute before he looks over your body and takes your physical features in with sleep heavy in his eyes.

”Hi, I’m Y/N.” He fixes his gaze on your face again as you speak. You see his hand move under the duvet until it reaches the edge and tosses it to the side slowly exposing his matching white clothes. His slowness in movements doesn’t annoy you. If you didn’t know it from his file you probably wouldn’t bat an eyelash.

”Hi, I’m Jeongguk.” He cutely scratches behind his ears like he’s embarrassed his voice might sound hoarse to your ears. He sits up but otherwise doesn’t move from his position, he’s probably curious about what you’re doing in his room and as if the girl beside you thought about the same thing she takes initiative and starts explaining the situation to him with a happy tone.

”Y/N here is looking for a hybrid to adopt and she really liked your file! Why don’t you two talk a little while I go and get the papers ready for you?” She directs the first part for Jeongguk to hear but turns to you with a wink and a squeeze to your shoulder a second later before she storms out of the room with a visible bounce in her steps. You shyly smile at him now that you’re alone, you don’t want this to be awkward so you decide to speak first.

”Can I sit down?”

Jeongguk nods and motions for you to sit wherever you want. You take the spot on the edge of his bed with a friendly distance between your bodies. He didn’t seem to mind it so you relax your shoulders after a minute.

”I need to mention that I’m living with a roommate and he has a snake hybrid but there’s plenty of space and you’ll have your own room. Is it ok with you?” You’re a little nervous but you had to get this out in the open before you sign the papers. If he says no you could schedule another appointment you tell to yourself.

Jeongguk sees your fingers are anxiously intertwined on your lap but he can’t tell if you’re nervous because of him or it’s about something else. He doesn’t really care if you live with other hybrids or humans. If you treat him right then he could share with others as long as you provide him with the basic needs.

”I don’t mind.” You could sense a but. He doesn’t continue however even if you could see it on his face he has something to tell you or ask you.

”You can tell me if something’s on your mind. I want you to be comfortable with me.” Jeongguk nods, getting encouraged by your smile.

”Are you in a romantic relationship with any of them? I don’t want to stand in between anyone.” His question surprises you. Even if Namjoon is a handsome guy he’s been your best friend since you were toddlers so there’s no way you would at this point has a change of heart and Hoseok is like a brother to you.

”No, I don’t have that kind of relationship with them or with anyone for that matter. Hoseok is Namjoon’s hybrid and you will be mine if you want to. We’re all friends, we just live together because sharing rent is easier for us.”

”Oh, I see. Sorry.�� He lowers his gaze shamefully but you quickly reassure him that it’s ok. It’s kind of a spur of the moment decision but you place your hand on the top of his head.

”You don’t need to apologise. If you’re unsure of something please ask. I don’t want you to assume things and I’ll try my best to do the same.” You catch the smile in the corner of his lips that gives you the boost to card your fingers through his hair. It’s thicker than it looks like and kind of rough textured but you don’t mind that he doesn’t have silky smooth hair. There’s silence for a while but it’s comfortable as you both get used to each other’s presence nearby. She comes back with Jeongguk’s papers and you’re good to go.

He could tell during the ride home that you look really tired. You told him to keep talking so you won’t fall asleep and shared that your job kept you up all night to finish the commissioned translation. The ride seems shorter now that you had someone to share it with as you talk about anything and nothing at the same time. You apologise for your lack of contribution to the conversation but it’s getting harder to speak in full sentences as the exhaustion kicks in finally, the coffee you had earlier just only prolonged it.

You sigh in relief when you see your apartment complex come into view. Suddenly you realise that you don’t have anything prepared for him and you sheepishly ask if it’s ok to go shopping for clothes and other necessities tomorrow when you’re more awake. He tells you it’s fine but you feel bad for not thinking about this earlier.

”Namjoon is at work and Hoseok at his friend’s house at the moment so you could get used to it before you meet them.” You inform him while you search for your keys. Once you finally get inside you let him wander around the living room. You give him a brief tour of the rooms with his room as the last destination. You haven’t got around to have his sheets ready so it’s pretty empty but you tell him if he needs anything just tell you. For now, you guide him to your room and let him get comfy on your bed.

”Are you hungry? I’ll order for the guys as well. As soon as it comes I’ll probably out like a light but wake me up if it’s around nine or something.”

Truth to your words as soon as you pay for the delivery and make sure Jeongguk has a glass of water and a plate full of food in front of him you fall face first onto your bed. Hours later when he’s finished eating he finds you on your bed sleeping like a rock in your signature dead starfish pose.

You don’t leave him much room on the bed but he doesn’t dare to move you afraid that you’ll wake up if he does. You looked very tired and still made sure he ate before you went to sleep so he claims the remaining edge of the bed and closes his eyes as well. You don’t leave him much choice as he strongly grips your loose shirt so he doesn’t fall off the bed.

It’s around nine when you hear something drop to the floor startling you and Jeongguk as well. You’re disoriented until you hear the low ’fuck’ that undoubtedly comes from your roommate. There’s a second voice joining as he scolds the boy and you can’t help but laugh out loud at the absurdity.

When your laugh subdues you see Jeongguk clinging to your shirt so you send him a smile in hopes that it calms him.

”Get used to it. Namjoon is the clumsiest person I know and he always fucking drops something when I’m sleeping.” As you speak you hear a groan from the other side of the door, there’s no question they’re eavesdropping right now. You’re not surprised they seemed pretty excited in the morning when you told them your plans to get a hybrid.

”Are you ok to meet my friends now?” You ask while running your hand through his hair curling some behind his ears with gentle fingers. His hand entangles itself from your shit and instead rests on your waist.

”Yes.” Jeongguk nods his head he just woke up from a nap at the same time as you so you two are a little slow to get up.

”Meet us in the kitchen. I ordered delivery if you’re hungry.” You call out to the boys in front of your closed door and soon enough you hear their footsteps fade away and the light switch is turned on in the kitchen.

The meeting goes better than you expected. Hoseok loved him and Jeongguk seemed to like the older boy as well. You ended up watching a movie but your eyes closed after the first five minutes only to wake up to the credits rolling and your head on Jeongguk’s shoulder as a makeshift pillow. You decide to head to bed early considering that you’re still very much tired and Jeongguk follows you that leaves Hoseok and Namjoon cuddled up on the couch watching a second movie.

After you’ve rested you make a trip to the mall with Jeongguk the next morning and pick up a few things for him. You make sure to pick up groceries as well since you normally cook for everyone but yesterday you were too out of it to lift a knife. You would have probably just cut off your fingers if you tried. While you make lunch Hoseok teaches him how to play with the board games Namjoon ordered online. You could hear his frustrated groans when Jeongguk takes a lot of time to pick out his choice.

Things seem to fall into place perfectly. After you changed the sheets in his room he slept there, you wouldn’t want to admit it but it was nice to share a bed with him even though you were too tired to consciously enjoy his company. Hoseok has his own room but after the first week, he started to sleep in Namjoon’s room because he found the bed too cold. You don’t want to make him think that he needs to sleep next to you just because of you so you stay quiet until he comes up to you one day when you work on a Chinese translation and asks if you’d be comfortable with him in the same bed.

You learn quite a few things about him as well. After he got comfortable in your apartment and started to see it as his home as well he let his guard down even when Namjoon or Hoseok was next to him. He would sleep with them in the room, you didn’t think of it too much until he told you it’s a big deal for a sloth to let you be near him while he’s vulnerable. Occasionally his nails dig into your skin at night when he pulls your body closer to him in his sleep and that always reminds you to never forget trimming his nails twice a week. You have quite a few scratches on your sides but you never tell him to pull away because you don’t want him to feel bad.

Jeongguk is the worst when it comes to decision making. Normally you rotate between the household members to pick out the food if you do delivery but he takes at least thirty minutes just to choose between pizza or hamburgers. There was one time Hoseok tried to teach him how to play chess and it was the longest day of his life. He was about to flip the table onto his face if you didn’t intervene on time.

You learnt fast that you don’t ask Jeongguk if he thinks the red or the blue top looks better when you’re out shopping because he’ll stand there with his cute nose scrunched up in concentration until the mall closes.

He moves the slowest when he just woke up but during the day he’s like everyone else if you don’t count him mounching on a toast for two hours. You don’t joke if you say you have to wake up at at least 9 crack of a dawn to prepare his food because once he’s finished lunchtime rolls around.

Unlike his file told you he likes to eat multiple times a day just in smaller portions. His favourite snack is dried alga he told you that he especially likes dried fruits and leaves such as lettuce and cabbage. He won’t eat it fresh you have to dry it. You don’t question his preferences anymore after he tried to eat your aloe vera ornamental plant. He got a huge scolding from you as you remember reading it on its tag that it’s not safe for eating purposes. Learning from the incident you moved your plant to the living room’s balcony so he shall never feel tempted again.

It’s rare that you’re not hunched over your laptop’s screen typing away but for the past week, you could feel Jeongguk stare a hole into your skull. He didn’t explicitly tell you that he would like to spend some more time together since you’ve been working more lately but you could tell from the longing stares he sent your way when he thought you weren’t looking. You had to accept more translating jobs than you usually do so you could balance your finances better now that you have someone else to take care of but it meant you could spend less time with him. You even overheard a conversation between Hoseok and him. The snake hybrid tried to reassure him that you’re just busy and there’s no way you would think he’s boring. In fact, you don’t think he’s boring at all.

Even in the early stages of your relationship, you could tell that it’s an insecurity of his. He’s afraid you’ll get bored of him and give him back so he tried to read the books on your shelves even though you will find him sleeping with it on his head rather than reading. You almost laughed when you discovered he only read like five pages before he gave up on it. You always try to tell him that it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t like the same things as you because you like him just the way he is.

You thought that spending some time with him might lessen his agitated state. Jeongguk is surprised when he finds you next to him when he wakes up. Usually, you’re already up and typing with a cup of coffee sitting on your table farther away so you wouldn’t accidentally knock it up but reachable for you to sip between your rereads.

You feel his hold tighten around you when you lazily look up to meet his eyes. You greet him with a kiss on his cheek and ask with your raspy voice if he’s hungry. He is but he wants to stay like this a little more before you have to do your work so he shakes his head instead and buries his face into your neck.

You take a mental note in your head to cut his fingernails once you’re up as you feel them dig into your sides. It’s silent except for the soft conversation your roommates are having in the kitchen. Namjoon and you were planning this day off since last Saturday and you know Hobi is excited to go to the amusement park. He’s been talking Namjoon’s ears off about it since last year but he doesn’t get that many day offs to spare so he could never make it happen until now. He asked if you’d like to join with Gukkie but you thought he might think you don’t want to spend time alone with him so you decided to refuse the offer even though Hoseok looked pretty disappointed about it and you hate making him sad. However, you’re a little grateful about it now as you get to lay in bed next to Jeongguk.

”Go take a shower by the time you’re out I’ll have your breakfast ready.” You instruct him as you try to get up but he rolls over to have his full body weight pinning your body down. You could feel his abs press into you as he breathes. One of the greatest mysteries in your life is how is he so hot when all he does is eat and sleep. He must have good genes to be this fit without trying while all you have to do is think about McDonald's fries and you’re already getting extra pounds.

”Five more minutes.” He murmurs it into your neck, his breath tickles your skin so you try to move away but he’s stronger he’s able to keep your hands at your sides. It startles you how immobile you are under him but most surprisingly you don’t feel fear, only a sense of calmness washes over you when he rubs your hipbone with his thumb in lazy circles. You allow him five more minutes.

The next time he throws in the same sentence you don’t relent. This time you catch him off guard as you flip your bodies over so you’re the one straddling his hips. ”Go shower Gukkie we have all day to cuddle.” You boop his nose with a smile.

”Really?” His whole face brightens at the mention of more cuddles and you find him incredibly adorable that you can’t help yourself but kiss the tip of his nose. ”You don’t have work?” He asks shyly, looking away as soon as you lean back. You shake your head as you run your fingers under his jaw before getting up from the bed.

”No. Me and Joonie have today and tomorrow off. We planned a picnic for tomorrow but as for today. We simply do what we want to do. I’m yours all day.” You don’t see the slight change in his eyes once you say you’re his. He very much like that sentiment if only it would be every day from now on.

He tucks his words away in his heart though as he simply nods and heads to the bathroom just like you told him and just like you promised when he emerges from the bedroom with wet hair and wearing a new set of fresh clothes you have breakfast ready. You laugh when you see him eating faster like he normally does.

”Don’t choke baby, there’s no rush we have all day together.” You pretend that you’re unaware of the pet name that just rolled off your tongue so easily and Jeongguk decides not to comment on it.

Namjoon and Hoseok come out of their bedrooms looking all nice as if they’re about to go on a date. You have one eyebrow raised and Namjoon immediately blushes. Hoseok is not so shy about his reactions as he elaborates instead of his friend.

”Namjoon asked out this pretty lady from the accountant department and her hybrid is very cute too. Don’t wait up on us guys.” You laugh when Hoseok winks in your direction, you can’t tell if his boldness that makes Namjoon’s cheeks redder or your shit eating grin as you make sure to tell them to have fun but not too much fun.

”Use protection guys.” You call out to them one last time. You get two reactions to this the first one is predictable the second one is confusing. Namjoon doesn’t acknowledge it and runs out of the door while Hoseok gives you a cheeky thumbs up with a following ’you two’. Jeongguk turns into a tomato next to you while you roll your eyes. As if you have a chance at getting some today or any day for that matter. You’ve been painfully single for the last five years and there are not many places that you could get asked out since you work from home and don’t go out that much.

”Finished?”

Jeongguk nods following you to the bathroom tossing his plate farther away from him. Honestly, he’s not done but he could always eat it later. You get the nail clippers in one hand and reach for his with the other. He sits on the toilet lid while you trim his nails, his face is still red but you have no idea it’s because he checked out your ass as you were looking for the scissors on a low shelf.

After you’re done you take a shower as well while Jeongguk waits for you in bed. This time you use your laptop to put on a film and not pull out a long document and it feels so good to take a break you could kiss Jeongguk for making you think of getting some rest. While you love your job doing something else with your hybrid wrapped around you is just as fulfilling. Jeongguk’s phone buzzes with a text but he’s too focused on the film to discern it so you ignore it for the first time but then there’s another text liting up the screen and this time you see Hoseok’s name. You check it just in case it’s something important but what you see is definitely not what you were expecting.

[Hoseok, 13:17]

Did you tell her yet?

[Hoseok, 13:21]

You have to tell her or you plan to get old while still pinning over Y/N?

Does Jeongguk like you? You think he’s been especially clingy these few weeks but you thought it’s because you couldn’t spend that much time together. But maybe it was for a different reason?

”Who is it?” Jeongguk’s voice makes you jump, you forgot that he’s next to you but now that you realise you can’t think of anything else besides his head on your shoulder and hand on your left thigh rubbing comforting circles onto your bare skin. Normally you wear pants but since you wanted to get under the covers you skipped it knowing that you’d be hot if you wear them and have the blanket over you.

”Just Hoseok, checking in.” You tell him nonchalantly like you didn’t just realise your hybrid that you pretty much like as well likes you back. He only hums not even looking at you as the movie keeps playing. For now, you decide not to say anything as you change the messages to unread and place it back on your bedside table.

You two somehow fall asleep as the second movie is playing in the background. You’re the first to wake up and see the blackened screen on your laptop so you gently shut it to avoid waking up Jeongguk. He looks very peaceful, you don’t have the heart to wake him up so you tiptoe out of the room to reheat the leftover food from yesterdays’ dinner and eat in silence. Your mind wanders back to Hoseok’s text.

Falling for Jeongguk was pretty easy. You two sleep in the same bed share meals together and talk all the time. You did all those things before with Namjoon and Hoseok as well but with him it’s different. You feel different when it comes to Jeongguk.

”Y/N?” Hearing your name called your head snaps in your bedroom’s direction finding a sleepy boy in the middle of your living room. Jeongguk comes up to you while rubbing his eyes. ”You were not there when I woke up.”

”Sorry. I was just hungry. Do you want to eat too?” You rub his back letting him place his head on top of yours while he picks at your food. It’s silent while you two finish up eating and the clock already reads it’s 6 pm. You’ve been sleeping for quite a while you realise. The boys are nowhere to be found either. Maybe Hoseok wasn’t joking about getting some action tonight while you could only hope for the same. Considering how he didn’t say anything all day you could probably wait forever for him to say something. You need to bring up the conversation even if it’ll be awkward at first.

You’re halfway into another movie cuddle when you decide it’s time for you to test the waters. You first start rubbing his shoulders when he relaxes into your touch you move lower caressing his sides slowly. At last, your hand lands on his inner thigh and you hear his sharp intake of breath, letting you know that now he’s definitely more focused on your hand rather than on the movie playing in the distance. You move your head on his shoulder closer to his neck giving an experimental kiss to the bare skin and you feel him shiver against you. After you receive some good reactions you get bolder and move your hand over the bulge in his pants while you nip at his neck and shoulder.

”What-ah-you’re doing?” You deliver a harsh suck just under his jaw that makes his entire body tremble underneath you. You pull away to look at his eyes but he whimpers loudly when you’re nowhere near the sweet spot on his neck. You’re pleased that he’s so into it just after some soft kisses. He’s getting harder under your skilful touching, all you want is to swallow him whole and taste the salty precum on his glistening tip.

”Making the first step since you’re not doing it.” You put pressure where your hand is over the tightness in his sweats and rub it harder. Jeongguk moans at the delicious friction he has half a mind to process what you’re telling him when his mind is getting numb from the delicious pleasure.

”How … How did you..?” You cut him off with your hand sliding under his pants rubbing the head with the heel of your palm.

”I saw Hoseok’s texts earlier. I was waiting patiently for you to say something.” He looks horrified when you mention Hoseok and he immediately buries his face into his hands bashfully. You wonder if he’s aware your hand is down his pants while he tries to hide away in his large hands just because you know he likes you. You decide to remind him by pulling his sweats and underwear down in one go, letting his thick tip meet with his lower stomach with a quiet smack.

”We could have been doing this the whole day if only you had the balls to say something. To be clear, I like you too dummy.” You take your place between his thighs unbothered as you keep eye contact with his hands as he still hides behind them, lowering your voice just like your mouth lowers to have his dick between your lips. His whole body goes rigid once you have the tip in your mouth and lick over the gathered precum.

”You l-like me?” It’s cute that he thinks about your words while you lick over the prominent vein on his cock from base to tip. You confirm his statement with a hum once his cock is halfway down your throat, knowing that the vibration will probably send him through the edge. He’s already cumming and you didn’t have to do much for it. You swallow as much as you can while Jeongguk throws his head back with a needy moan. You’re going to have so much fun while you test out all the things they said in his file. You confirmed the first one already that was somewhere along the lines like ’they could cum after five minutes of stimulation’. He feels shy once you cleaned him up but you caress his cheeks lovingly. The only thing sloths do quickly is cumming, how cute.

”Don’t worry about it love. I know sloths are quick shooters.” You nip at his collarbones playfully before pecking his lips that he juts out in a pout. He’s embarrassed but absolutely turned on by you. You can’t wait to find out if the next theory about their quick recovery is true or not but you think you could already see his member swelling after you start caressing his muscular thighs.

”I always wanted to ask you. If you see a tree would you instinctively want to climb it?” This time you’re only half joking as you were pretty curious about what kind of instincts he has as you never met another sloth hybrid before him.

”What you’re implying is…” He has his eyes narrowed down on you, for the first time after you started touching him he looks pretty confident as he answers your question. You must have hit a spot.

”Do I have the urge to climb a tree and hang upside down from it? Absolutely yes but do you see me actually doing it? I don’t think so.”

You roll your eyes at his cocky remark and pull him into a kiss. He responds immediately as he traces your lips with his tongue begging for entrance that you give him easily after nipping on his lower lip for a second longer. He uses his strength to push you into the mattress the sudden movement makes you gasp into his mouth as a low chuckle leaves his.

”Sloths have 90% of their energy saved. Would you like me to use it on you?” Even though you’re flattered to see this side of him you want to get back that shy sweet boy who would ask you if you like him during blowing his mind, quite literally. The smirk that greets him next throws him off as he expected a meek reply. You decide to use it to your advantage and push him down to the bed before getting up to take your clothes off. You think he looks best when he’s naked and under you.

”Save that energy for later honey. I’m more than happy to do the work if you let me use your body.”

Your words are quick to shut him up and you love how his pupils dilate at the mere prospect of you getting off by using his dick. You could tell he wants that just as much as you do. He wants to be the source of your pleasure.

”Are you going to let me use your tongue baby? Let me sit on your face and grind on it until I cum with your pretty lips around my clit?” Jeongguk nods, eager to please you in any way he can. You’re so worked up that you don’t waste time straddling his face guiding his hands to grab your thighs and dig his fingers into your plush skin. He has his eyes on your dripping pussy licking his lips in anticipation. He watches it from first class when you snake your fingers down your abdomen separating your folds with two of your fingers that has Jeongguk moaning under you. His hands try to push you down onto his face he wants to taste you, you smell so good it drives him wild that you’re close but yet so far away.

”Open.” He opens his mouth at your command, you observe him with predatory eyes as he lets your fingers enter his hot cavern gently pressing down on his tongue. He could taste you on your fingers and he greedily sucks them in wrapping their pink lips around the digits and sucks. You’re dripping down his face but he doesn’t mind the mess he welcomes it with his tongue when you smear your arousal around his lower lip. ”Taste good baby?” You ask even though you already know the answer. He nods closing his eyes tight when he licked your juices off his lips.

”Use your words.” Your sharp tone has his eyes open in an instant. He has difficulty finding his voice but relents, he lets go, his body finally going lax under you in complete submission. The dam is broken as filthy words spill between his swollen lips.

”So good. I want more. I want you to ride my face until I can’t breathe suffocate me with your thighs as you use my tongue to fuck your pussy.” You moan loudly at the mental image of him with his tongue out letting you use him as you please. You didn’t expect him to say such lewd things but you can’t say you’re not happy with the discovery.

”My filthy baby. You want me to make a mess on your face? Ride your cute little tongue until I have my cum dripping down your face? Make you clean all of it up?” Before he could answer your questions, you lower your body cutting his shaky yes off with a needy moan. You stabilise yourself with one hand gripping onto the headboard while the other helps him by separating your sticky folds.

”Be my good boy and stay still like that.” You tug on his hair tilting it upwards to get a better angle, he looks at your pretty pink centre with hungry eyes that makes more arousal gather around your opening. ”Open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue like the good boy you are.”

Jeongguk moans embarrassingly loud when you finally grind down on his face using his tongue to pleasure yourself. He doesn’t dare to move in case you pull away if he disobeys so he only pushes his tongue out, gulping down greedily your arousal that gathers in his mouth until the only thing he could smell and taste is you. You fulfil his desire and clamp your thighs around his head pulling on his hair to rock your hips into his awaiting mouth. Jeongguk feels his senses heighten feeling like his whole body on fire as his dick twitches. He’s close again, he wants to warn you he doesn’t want to disappoint you by cumming without your permission but you’re so lost in your own pleasure that you only push his face into your pussy more pulling at his hair and position him to with each lick his nose would bump into your clit. His high pitched whine is muffled by your folds. You could feel something warm and sticky land on your back and you look behind you to see his cock covered in his fresh cum. You let him breathe as you pull away he tries to protest by gripping your thighs harder but you’re too fascinated with the fact he came so hard from eating you out that you don’t care about his desperate attempts to keep your throbbing centre near his face.

”You just came two times and you’re still half hard.” Your amusement is palpable in the way you talk, you’re not even frustrated that your orgasm was cut off seeing the effect you have on him. He shudders when you start stroking him slowly, he’s so sensitive he could feel the third orgasm shaking his body. He’s so close to cumming again but you don’t let him this time as you grip his base holding off his high.

”Please … can I? Inside?” Jeongguk is nearly incoherent while he begs but you understand him. He’ll probably cum as soon as your velvety walls close around him. You’re used to be with guys who could hold of their need to cum but Jeongguk is a sloth hybrid, he can’t control his body can only hold his orgasm off for mere minutes. You have an idea, however how to make the most out of it.

”You can but before that I want you to make me cum too. Don’t you want to see me fall apart too?”

You wet two of his fingers with your saliva, coating it heavily before you guide his fingers to slide up and down your slit. He watches you like a lovesick puppy ogling at how easily your arousal coat his fingers making them shine under the light.

You hold his wrist hostage as you dip two of his thick fingers into your heat moaning at the heavenly stretch. Your gaze locks on his eyes when you hear him heave an almost inaudible ’fuck’ he has his eyes trained on your entrance while your pussy sucks in his fingers greedily. They slip in with ease, the wet noise of his fingers moving in and out at a steady pace makes your vision filled up with stars.

”Fuck Y/N. You’re so tight.” Jeongguk throws his head back as you squeeze his fingers affected by his words. Lust blinding every other sense as he fucks his fingers into your tight wet heat. You’re so warm around his fingers he feels like bursting again but you pin him with a look that tells him you wouldn’t want that so he tries to concentrate on your hips as you bounce on his fingers mewling softly when he gives you a third finger to fuck yourself with. He experimentally curls his fingers which makes your back arch. He curls them again scissoring you open as you get close to your sweet release.

He helps you ride it out by matching your pace until you whine with oversensitivity. You came around his fingers with a loud moan that makes his heart swell with pride. He’s impatient when you sit down on his cock but lets you catch your breath. It’s hard to stay still when he could taste his own orgasm just slightly out of reach and the way you continue to throb around him is not helping him to hold back. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to wait long till you start moving to throw him over the edge it comes sooner than his mind could register the white hot pleasure surging through his body.

”You smell like Jeonggukie. I presume you guys had fun yesterday.” Hoseok licks his teeth suggestively once you and Jeongguk leave your room to get breakfast. The hybrid beside you looks away quickly but nodding that makes Hoseok’s grin wider. You look him in the eyes, not shying away as your lover does.

”As if you have the right to speak. Is that a hickey on your neck Hobi?”

2K notes · View notes

jiminiejamie · 2 years

Text

Bts!Stoner AU introduction

before we begin, i am in no way promoting people to smoke weed (well i kinda am) but i mean no harm in creating this, i just really like AUs for BTS and i thought this would be very interesting and frankly hilarious to imagine them like this lol. If you have any suggestions to add to the boys info or a situation you'd like to see them in please let me know I'd love to explore these characters and their lives!!

MY AO3:

Members:

Jin

Age: 26

Job: nobody knows, imagine chandler from friends, he has a job but nobody knows eXACTLY what it is. It includes maths and IT.

Sexuality: He’s quite ‘fluid’ and very open, most of his relationships have been open. His last relationship ended a few months back and they'd been together for 3 years so he is… how do you put this lightly.. He's been very horny lately so he has a few people he's seeing. (nothing serious!!)

Housing situation: Lives in a flat with namjoon and yoongi. It’s a relatively nice flat, four bedrooms for the three guys, they've tried in the past with a fourth roommate but they either moved on with their lives?? Or it went BAD.

Crushes: Namjoon..kinda.. He's kinda a cutie or whatever ;))) no but seriously Jin has had a lil crush on Namjoon for a while, he’d never do anything tho…. Also he’s WELL aware jungkook likes him a lil but let's be real, jungkook likes everyone.

Smoking/weed preferences: Jin is nowhere near the biggest stoner of the group, he has smoked and he still does every few sESHES, if he is to get high he much prefers edibles but even then it's not that often. He’s normally the designated sober guy at the seshes, he doesn't mind tho. Because of this his tolerance is the lowest of the groups by far, if Jin’s getting high, someone else has to be sober since sometimes handsome gets a lil too high, especially since the rest of the groups tolerance is qUITE high.

‘Fave weed method?’ : Edibles

Drinking preferences: Our Jin is a drinker, he loves a drink. So sOMETIMES at seshes he’ll drink while the rest smoke and it works quite well. Most often he is drinking some sort of spirit, he loves a vodka :)))

Room decor ;): very warm tones!! Beige, oranges, browns, very clean most of the time. He has a lil mini fridge with snacks and drinks for when people are in his room, mostly kook :)

Hobbies: He spends a lot of time on interior design! The apartment is BEAUTIFUL compared to Hoseok, Jimin and Taehyung’s flat. He is constantly rearranging, buying decor. It is nice for Yoongi and Namjoon to have a nice home but it drives them crazy when they come home and the apartment has an entirely different layout.

What do they smell like: he has that ermmm… old smell? Hard to explain but he smells like the oLD aesthetic, a slight scent of yoongi’s cigarettes, a slight smell of his flatmate’s weed, and the smell of old books. A VERY pretty smell.

Yoongi

Age: 25

Job: Editor! He edits videos for quite a few youtubers which is his fave job but he also works in a cinema on the side. He ideally in the future wants to just edit and potentially work for a company editing. The cinema job is quite literally the least favourite thing in his life. He dreads it every day and his managers are assholes, BUT the rest of the boys will not let him quit because they get discounts on screenings and free food :))

Sexuality: Bisexual, his last relationship the guy cheated on him and Hoseok nearly had a fight outside a bar when he saw they guy the week after lol. But Yoongi’s been single for a while but he quite likes fucking around with strangers recently :)

Housing: Lives in a flat with Namjoon and Jin. It’s a relatively nice flat, four bedrooms for the three guys, they've tried in the past with a fourth roommate but they either moved on with their lives?? Or it went BAD.

Crushes: Hoseok :))) Him and Hoseok had a thing a while back, nothing serious but Hoseok got a boyfriend which Yoongi was obviously fine with all they did was fuck around high. But once Hoseok and his boyfriend broke up, he and Yoongi didn't really reconnect the way they did and Yoongi misses it a lil. Shhh dont tell anyone but Hoseok misses it too. Also of course Yoongi is well aware of the crush Jungkook has on him but once again Jungkook likes all of them.

Smoking preferences: My guy Yoongi likes weed a whole bunch, he loves it. One of the decided stoners in the group. He is high basically everyday, his tolerance is through the ROOF. Him and Namjoon introduced weed into the gang and Jin LOVES to make them feel guilty about turning 17 year old Jungkook at the time into a stoner. No hard feelings though, they didn't actually let Jungkook smoke with them for a while.

Fave weed method: Joint

Drinking preferences: loves whiskey, doesn't drink very often because he is the biggest lightweight you have ever seen. ONE glass of whiskey and he's gone. The boys have gotten him very pissed a few times, the worst being when Yoongi ended up in hospital because they thought they poisoned him. Turns out he was fine, he was just very vERY sick. So yeah, he’ll drink on occasion but very very rarely.

Room decor ;): imagine a tumblr user from 2014’s dream room, it's like that. Walls painted black with psychedelic mushrooms on the walls, vinyls stuck to the walls, photos of friends, and cant forget the LEDS which are only ever red or green. He likes to make it green if he's high because he thinks he’s hilarious. Also his room smells of weed, incense from Joon, cigarettes (he and Taehyung are the only cigarette smokers) and Linxs Africa because despite being 25 years old, he is still a teenager.

Hobbies: makes music, but nobody actually knows. He hires out a room in a studio and makes music. He’d die if people actually found out, even if he is proud of a song nobody gets to hear it. Jungkook heard one once coming from Yoongi’s phone and asked who that was but Yoongi just replied with a shrug

What do they smell like: cigarettes, his expensive aftershave that the boys love so much, he buys one every year for his own birthday because it's EXPENSIVE so he has to make one last a whole year, but it is so worth it it smells aMAZING.

Hoseok

Age: 24

Job: He is a preschool teacher. He teaches 3-5 year olds and he is vERY good with kids. Sometimes in public his students will come up to him and when he’s with another one of the boys, they MELT he is so sweet with them and it's so clear he has such a passion for the children and letting them learn. Another job he has is he teaches dance lessons to people, children and adults!!

Sexuality: He’s gay, he thought he was straight until recently-ish, he only learnt he was gay when he was around 22 so its only been the past 2 years he’s known and hes been out to the boys for about 1.5 years now. He’s had numerous girlfriends in the past but is yet to have a boyfriend, which the boys love as they get to be lil hunters trying to find someone for Hoseok.

Housing: Lives in a flat with Taehyung and Jimin, it also has 4 bedrooms like the other flat. The difference with this one is that they don’t have interior designer Jin living with them. It's an actual wreck. It's not MESSY per say, it's just the weirdest looking place ever. If you've never been high before this flat is NOT the place you wanna do it in. Overwhelming af, Jungkook learnt that the hard way.

Crushes: He misses Yoongi (mentioned before), but he really doesnt wanna make the first move to get back what they had because he's worried Yoongi will think hes needy and weird(yoongi would never think that lol) Oh and the Jungkook thing to, poor kook loves them all :(((

Smoking preferences: stoner, stoner, stoner. Sober Hoseok is a rare sight, let's be real. BUT he is mature about it and does not abuse it (disclaimer:: None of the members abuse drugs or alcohol it's just vibes man, and for the sake of the plotline, they all keep each other in check in terms of they stuff they are smoking <3) but yes Hoseok is a STONER, textbook definition of a stoner, down to his dress sense. You would know he was a stoner from 3 miles away, well you'd smell him from about 15 miles lol. Is the kind of stoner thay will smoke anything, strains are bullshit to him, if he gets high it's good weed for him.

Fave weed method: Bongs

Drinking preferences: Doesn't drink at all. His family were drinkers growing up and he doesn't even like to be around people who are insanely drunk. He has drank in the past but it really isn't for him. Also he has a predetermined opinion of alcohol from his family and he is vERY scared he would act like them drunk so he doesn't touch it.

Room decor ;): Once again, exactly how you'd imagine it, has the messiest room of all of them, besides mAYBE Kook. He has sO many bongs, I'd say he has one in every single place it will fit. Nightstands, wardrobes, drawers, he has about 12 in his room. Thrasher everywhere and he doesn't even skate he just likes it. Music playing 24/7, even at night it just is turned down much more. Taehyung loves Hoseok’s room vERY MUCH.

Hobbies: Dancing!! He loves dancing, he dances everywhere constantly, his room and Jimin’s are right next to each other and Jimin complains at least 34 times a week.

What do they smell like: the only one who vERY rarely smells like weed! Although he probably smokes the most he can not risk smelling a lot like weed even in public since a parent could see him and boom he’s lost his job. But he smells very clean at all times. This makes no sense but he smells warm? Not in a sweaty way lol, in a comforting way, all i can describe it as warm??? Idk

Namjoon

Age: 24

Job: Owns in a wellness/self care/spirituality store. The most beautiful place you've ever seen. Crystals, incense, yoga, and a lot of healthy foods. It's a very nice and ‘aesthetic’ shop and he also does tarot readings in the back room which the boys enjoy a lot. Speaking of the room in the back, when the shop is closed some days during the week they all sit in there and get higher than the clouds, a prime hangout spot for the group. Also on the side Namjoon sells weed, mostly to just the boys and mutual friends though.

Sexuality: namjoon is currently questioning! He is straight as far as everyone knows, he has had a few girlfriends over the years but he is now thinking whether he likes men? He isn't sure and it's causing some stress for him since he questioned when he was around 16 and he kind of just forgot about it?? He is thinking about going to some of the members and talking about it as he is well aware those gay mf will always help him.

Housing: Lives in a flat with Yoongi and Jin. It’s a relatively nice flat, four bedrooms for the three guys, they've tried in the past with a fourth roommate but they either moved on with their lives?? Or it went BAD.+

Crushes: He doesnt think he has a crush on anyone at the moment, but he is still figuring out the difference between platonic and romantic feelings about men but he thinks Yoongi is quite pretty (why is this so cute aww) but yeah he’s working on it <3

Smoking preferences: He sells weed so he obviously smokes quite a lot, he is one of the most chill smokers. Random thing he was REALLY against kook smoking when they all first met but kook eventually convinced them all it took namjoon mUCH longer to come around since he’s much younger but aNYWAY back to namjoon. He always has a joint on him. Last year he went to the extent of buying a lil box to keep one in his pocket to stop it from snapping which lets be real he should have bought a lil box much earlier than last year.

Fave weed method: Joints/Bongs

Drinking preferences: loves a beer he does!! Someone that often drinks with Jimin. They love going to the club together when the others don't wanna go anywhere. Sometimes he has phases when he prefers drinking to smoking!

Room decor ;): its giving incense smell, its giving spirituality, its giving crystals, but it's also giving weed smell, rolling trays and pure vibes (that sounds very cringy) He has a yoga mat in front of his bed, and he in fact does use it every morning.

Hobbies: Yoga obviously, but also he really enjoys spending time with Jin in his shop. He obviously LOVES when everyone is in the shop but when it's just him and Jin he gets to hear Jin talk about ideas for the shop and how it can be better. His main hobby is spirituality and wellness though, he spends his DAY researching and learning!!

What do they smell like: Incense, weed and his really pretty scents that he sells in his shops. His favourite smell he sells is tobacco and orange which is dIVINE, jungkook’s is not shy to shoving his head in namjoon’s neck when he's high and just ‘breathing’

Jimin

Age: 21

Job: ‘accountant'..if you know what i mean. No seriously he has onlyfans which fund most of his life but he also sometimes works in the local strip clubs which the boys take a lot of pride in going in whenever he's working. Only because Jimin refuses to give any of them his onlyfans name!!

Sexuality: very veRY VERY gay.

Housing: Lives in a flat with Taehyung and Hoseok, it also has 4 bedrooms like the other flat. The difference with this one is that they don’t have interior designer Jin living with them. It's an actual wreck. It's not MESSY per say, it's just the weirdest looking place ever. If you've never been high before this flat is NOT the place you wanna do it in. Overwhelming af, Jungkook learnt that the hard way.

Crushes: One of the only guys who doesn't have a lil crush on another one in the group. BUT he has a very good eye for figuring out who might. I can guarantee Jimin is aware of every single crush within the group.

Smoking preferences: He has smoked in the past, have you SEEN his friend group? Of course he has. But he prefers not to because he’s not a massive lover of the feeling of being high. Getting cross-faded tho? That's something he likes to get involved in. Jimim likes getting FUCKED UP, which isnt the smartest thing to do but he loves it and lets be real…so does his onlyfans supporters.

Fave weed method: Edibles

Drinking preferences: Wine, spirits, beer? It's all good. Jimin looooves alcohol. Biggest drinker in the group 100%. Is his tolerance high? No, but he will still outdrink the whole group.

Room decor ;): Very classy, a sexy vibe bc if my boy is taking photos *wink* He needs a good background. LEDS also, always red, doesn't matter time of day or occasion always red.

Hobbies: clubbing, not rlly a hOBBY but he loves it. He also draws all the time but only Tae gets to see his drawings and Taehyung prides himself on the fact that only he gets to see them!!

What do they smell like: fresh plant vibe, descriptors would be: sunny, refreshing. He very rarely smells of weed just as he does it much less basically not at all.

Taehyung

Age: 21

Job: Tae works as a photographer. He has his own photography business that he set up in the past few months. He's only gone ‘professional’ and created it into a business in the past few months since he'd been doing weddings of people he knew, photoshoots for his semi-influencer friends and namjoon told him one day he should go professional since he already has a lot of pre-existing clients and charging people would mean he could quit his job at the library. He did enjoy his job at the library, he would just talk to some old people and get high on his break but he only had the job for the money which he now didn't need.

Sexuality: Taehyung is a lil quirky, he doesn't know if there is a label for what he experiences so he just says Bisxual but it is definitely not jUST bisexual. He doesn't have any desire to date men, he dates women and he has had multiple girlfriends. But he will fuck men, and he likes men he just doesn’t date men. Which for a while he thought was internalised homophobia but after trying to date a guy he realised he just didn't like the idea of having a boyfriend. (BTW if anyone knows the label, or a better way of describing this pls lmk <3)

Housing: Lives in a flat with Jimin and Hoseok, it also has 4 bedrooms like the other flat. The difference with this one is that they don’t have interior designer Jin living with them. It's an actual wreck. It's not MESSY per say, it's just the weirdest looking place ever. If you've never been high before this flat is NOT the place you wanna do it in. Overwhelming af, Jungkook learnt that the hard way.

Crushes: he really likes Jungkook, like he really likes Jungkook. Everyone is aware other than Jungkook. It’s adorable watching Taehyung dote over him and Jungkook being oblivious <3

Smoking preferences: Loves a cheeky blunt, doesn’t use them a lot as no one else is a massive fan but he loves them :))) but joints with Namjoon at 3am is his favourite thing <33

Fave weed method: Blunts/Joints

Drinking preferences: Much like Jin is also a vodka drinker. Not a lightweight at all, pisses him off sometimes but it is a good thing there's always someone who can be there for the rest of the group!!

Room decor ;): He always has music playing, it's always from his record player. Jimin and Hoseok love to call him an old man. The music playing drives Jimin mental as both of his flatmates are aLWAYS playing music so he has to choose between Hoseok’s stoner/indie music or Taehyung’s 50s/classical music. Creates an odd vibe in the flat but very fun. Tae’s room is the stereotypical skater room. Old boards on the walls, posters and a lot of black. Like Yoongi, his room also smells like cigarettes at times.

Hobbies: He really likes skateboarding!! Is he good at it? Not really he only started a few months ago and he is getting better! He loves making Hoseok go to the skatepark with him and take videos of him, very cute bonding sessions for them.

What do they smell like: cigarettes, with a slight smell of weed, more cigarettes and then more cigarettes.

Jungkook.

Age: 19

Job: is only a wee kid so he works in a shoe shop in a shopping mall. Much like Yoongi’s job he has the worst manager on the planet and all the other staff are 45+ so every shift he talks to no one all shift. He hates it so much that one of the boys normally picks him up after he’s finished and goes out with him to cheer him up. His ‘goal’ is to be a tattoo artist so he has been working on a portfolio and is looking for places he'd like to do his tattoo artist apprenticeship.

Sexuality: nobody ask him or he will cry. He has been aware he’s not straight since he was around 14, he has panicked himself since as he is yet to find a label that fits him and he doesn't know what a lot of his feelings mean and it scares him that he needs to find an identity. Jin told him recently that he doesn't need a label!! Jin doesn't label himself and mentioned to Jungkook that unlabeled is jUST as valid as anyone who has a label. The word ‘queer’ is somethign that resonates with Jungkook so he has been using that recently.

Housing: This lil 19 year old still lives with his Mom, trust me you don’t need to bully him, heh gets enough shit from the boys. Although he lives with his Mom, he crashes in the spare room of one of the flats a lot of the time. He was going to buy his own flat once he saved from his job but the boys said he’s more than welcome at either flat. He just needs to decide which one lol.

Crushes: All of them, he loves them all so much. He cherished all the hugs and cheek/forehead kisses he gets when a member is high. What he doesn't know is that all of the members are well aware of his lil crushes on everyone. Poor thing thinks he's so fly and nobody has caught him.

Smoking preferences: oK, he was quite young when he became friends with the rest of them and they flat out refused to let him smoke, or even get high around him massively. Which used to irritate him so much he was so confused why since Tae and Jimin were only 2 years older?? But he experienced the age-old tale of accidentally eating an edible that Hoseok left out and the rest berated him for wEEKS. From then on they let him smoke sometimes and it took a while for Namjoon to agree with it just because he was still living with his Mom. Eventually he became the stoner they all know and love. Jungkook high is the sweetest thing ever. He is just adorable, chilled and hilarious. But still to this day Hoseok is blamed for ‘corrupting the child’

Fave weed method: Edibles/Bongs

Drinking preferences: He only started drinking in the last year so isn't very good at it. He often gets too drunk accidentally so he doesn't drink mUCH but he has had enough bad experiences in the past to stop him from going too far now.

Room decor ;): His room hasn't changed much since he was a younger teenager, he still has blue walls and pictures of his family on the walls, which is fine but he sometimes gets quite insecure of it as the rest of the boys have their own homes and he lives with his Mom. His Mom always said that since Kook’s older brother moved out, Jungkook should redo his brother's room and he could have it how he wants, which he was going to do for a while but since he's planning to move into one of the apartments he never bothered. Also his room is the only one that doesn't sTINK of weed, his Mom would kill him if he stunk the house out. She knows what the group get up to because he really isn't that subtle when high and she had a conversation with him saying she doesn't care what he gets up to (he's an adult and she only cares that he’s safe and she knows the rest of the boys are mature), so yeah she doesnt care what he does with his time but she would prefer nothing happened in her house, which Jungkook respects.

Hobbies: loving his friends, no JOKING but not really lol. He really likes gaming! He's a lil gamer, his favourite thing is getting high and playing video games all night!!

What do they smell like: monster energy, weed, taehyung’s cigarettes (which he hates the smell of) and some random aftershave his grandad bought him last christmas.

34 notes · View notes

btsmosphere · 3 years

Text

Lost in a Book | JHS

~summary: you and Jung Hoseok don’t exactly see eye to eye. but when you (literally) fall headfirst into a whole other world, that becomes the least of your worries ~pairing: hoseok x reader ~word count: 8.5k ~enemies to lovers, college au, fantasy au ~rating: g ~warnings: naughty freudian slip, sexual tension, arguing, fire

~a/n: this is my gift for the wonderful @moccahobi‘s birthday! I am so lucky to be friends with someone as funny, hard working and gorgeous as you and I hope you have a great day!! and no, of course I didn’t choose the biggest bingo square only to forget and write this in a week.. (okay, I did, so pls go easy on any errors!) as always the lovely admins at @thebtswritersclub came up with a fun challenge to prompt this story, so I will be including my makeup palette bingo square at the end so you can see what prompts I used for this! enjoy x

The moment you had seen Jung Hoseok coming through the door, your eyes rolled.

Almost entirely made of large windows, the front of the coffee shop you worked in allowed you to see all the passers-by. So when you spotted your classmate coming down the street, laughing loudly with a couple of friends, you had prayed that he would just pass by.

Of course, you could never get what you wished for.

“Yoongi-“ you tried in vain to capture your friend’s attention, but too late. Yoongi hadn’t even looked around from where he was scrubbing coffee cups when a familiar voice reached your ears, making you groan internally.

“Y/N! Hard day at work? You look frazzled.”

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” you drawled, resigning yourself to serving him.

He simply leaned on the counter, sagging with laughter.

“Always service with a smile with you, isn’t it?”

“I’m sure you’d be just as tired if you even tried to focus in class,” you fired back.

His grin didn’t even falter. But at last, he dropped his teasing. With a scoff he ordered a tea and turned around, scrolling on his phone with his back to you as you got to work.

It seemed you had grabbed Yoongi’s attention after all, judging by the poorly-hidden snort from the washing up area.

Scowling, you chucked together a cup of tea distractedly, only too relieved when you pushed it over the counter to be rid of Hoseok. So when he sipped it only to wince in disgust, your heart sank.

“Jesus, where’s the caffeine? This is so weak.”

Your desire to argue back lost its short-lived wrestle with your customer service training, and you were reluctantly offering to make a new one. This time, you forced yourself to pay more attention. You knew that way, you could actually get rid of the nuisance on the other side of the counter.

“You see Y/N, the bag goes in the water,” Hoseok remarked, leaning over to see what you were doing.

Shooting the most passionate glare you could muster had the undesirable effect of sending him into peals of laughter.

Eventually, after making a point to leave the teabag in for much longer – at least until you noticed his fingers begin to tap on the countertop – you passed over his second cup with a sarcastic smile. His mood didn’t seem to have dampened that much, but he left without a fuss.

“You have great chemistry.”

The dry remark from behind you had you whirling around to glare at Yoongi instead. He stood in front of his stack of clean washing, observing you with a smirk.

“I don’t think Jung Hoseok knows what chemistry is,” you grumbled.

But as you set to work, a little aggressively, on scrubbing the counter, you never would have guessed how right you were. Or that it would soon become your responsibility.

“So when we sleep, what part of the brain transfers memory from white to grey matter?”

“…what’s grey matter again?”

“I think you could do with some more of it,” you muttered in lieu of an answer.

Hoseok lifted his head from his arms just enough to fix you with reproachful puppy eyes. Sighing, you tugged the textbook back across the table towards you, flipping a few pages back and jabbing your finger at the relevant passage.

Raising an eyebrow, he read it for the second time today with a growing frown.

“Long term…” he said at length.

“Long term memory!” you groaned, dropping your forehead against the heel of your hands.

Behind you, you knew Jungkook and Yoongi were watching this unfold with amusement. You weren’t sure you could take much more of this.

If you had envisaged this when you had signed up for your college’s mentor program, well, you may have changed your mind.

At last, the hour dragged by. Apparently Hoseok wanted to be there as little as you, collecting the books and leaving very quickly once you were done. Though your shift was over, you were sure you might explode if you didn’t get to rant about the guy right now.

Huffing, you marched over to the counter.

“He’s such a jerk!” you threw your hands out, “his ego’s so big, it’s like he thinks he’s too good to even try! And now it’s up to me to make sure he isn’t so behind, but there is so much to do!”

Your coworkers weren’t helping. Both had given up suppressing their laughter, openly enjoying your pain.

“You guys are no help,” you grumbled, folding your arms.

“Just be patient,” Jungkook offered, “it might get better in time.”

“Patience is not something Jung Hoseok inspires,” you retorted, “and I’m being good enough as it is! I even had the generosity to lend him my textbook!”

“You’re a saint,” Yoongi chuckled.

A withering glare later, you slung your bag over your shoulder and bid your friends a tired goodbye.

Much as you hated to admit it, there may have been some truth in what Jungkook told you. Patience did seem to be the key after all. A lot of patience.

A few more meetings had passed, and Hoseok remembered a lot more now. You weren’t sure whether it was due to the quality of your teaching or just a desire to avoid your constant scolding, but it didn’t matter too much. The result was what counted.

You were to meet again today. As always, he came as your shift finished so that you could work in the café.

“You like him really.”

Jungkook’s voice tore your eyes away from the clock you had been watching.

“I’m sorry?”

“You like him,” he repeated, “I’ve never seen you so impatient to get off work.”

“What? I’m not,” you scoffed, “it’s just-“

The little jingling bell above the door interrupted you. Never finishing your thought, you left Jungkook to meet Hoseok at the counter.

“Tea?” you asked him.

“Not if you’re making it,” he quipped, eyes already skimming the menu on the wall behind you.

You scoffed with a roll of your eyes, but said no more. Hoseok’s teasing eyes returned to you as he said,

“Think you can manage a hot chocolate?”

“Of course I can make hot cock-“ your eyes widened at your momentary slip “-chocolate. I can make hot chocolate-“

But for all your correcting and muttering, there was no hiding your embarrassing moment from Hoseok, whose eyes lit up with surprise before laughter spilled out of him in reams.

“I didn’t mean to make you so flustered, Y/N!” he cackled.

Biting your tongue, you hid your burning face from him as he half-collapsed against the counter with the force of his laughter. You angrily set to work on the drink, milk sloshing in the jug as you thrust it under the machine.

“With whipped scream on top too, huh?”

Hoseok’s incessant mocking didn’t stop until you had handed him the drink. If anything could prove to Jungkook just how wrong he was, this should do it. Still, you didn’t dare to turn around and see what your friend made of the situation.

Mixing the powder into the hot milk forcefully, you glared down at the cup.

Damn Jung Hoseok! He couldn’t be any more infuriating if he tried. It wasn’t your fault he was so annoying it made it hard for you to think straight. No one else managed to rile you up so much as him.

You gave him the drink with a side of deathly glare. It only served to amuse him more.

Safe to say you were dreading the next hour.

Clocking off soon after, you hung up your apron regretfully and headed across to your usual table. Thankfully Hoseok was a bit more subdued now.

Unfortunately, you were about to find out why.

“So, Y/N,” he started as you were sitting down.

This brought your attention to him straight away. Your eyes narrowed as he toyed with his mug on the table, avoiding your eyes.

“So, uh, that textbook you lent me-“

You had a bad feeling already. Looking around, you didn’t notice it on the usual pile of books.

“Where is it?” you cut him off.

At last he raised his head to meet your eyes, and you didn’t like what you saw.

“It’s not like we need it that badly anyway,” he began, though you weren’t sure you had ever heard him sound so hesitant, “we finished most of the stuff in there anyway…”

“You lost it, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah. And I think I also spilled some-“

Not waiting for him to finish, you exclaimed your frustration.

“I can’t believe you! Just because you don’t see a use for ever picking up a book, I need that! I don’t have that kind of money spare either…”

As you raked a hand through your hair, Hoseok decided now was the time to be helpful.

“Gosh, I was afraid you would do this. We have a library for a reason, you know?”

Stopping your train of thought abruptly, you lowered your hand to glower at him.

“And now you’re going to make me go in the library? Ugh, you really have it out for me.”

Incredulous laughter followed. Hoseok leaned back in his chair, observing you with raised eyebrows.

“You’re telling me you believe in those stupid rumours?”

Shifting uncomfortably, you shrugged.

“Well, you’ve got to admit the place is creepy, right? And my flatmate said she knew that girl Cindy-“

As you spoke, Hoseok’s laughing grew louder, steadily filling the café until you were forced to stop.

“What?” you hissed.

“We’ve all heard about “Cindy”,” he made quotation marks in the air, “but that’s just a story! The older students made it up to scare newbies – and it would seem it worked. But everyone knows the scariest thing in the library is just the course reading.”

Biting your tongue, you didn’t muster up a response. You would only face more ridicule if you argued about this.

“Don’t forget the librarian,” you joked half-heartedly.

Hoseok chuckled lightly, and you were glad he dropped the topic after that.

But still the issue of your sorely misused textbook remained.

There was nothing to be done. You had to go to the library.

It may seem a ridiculous thing to be scared of, especially for someone who loved books, but, as Hoseok had kindly refreshed your memory of, there were… stories. The campus library at your college warranted a degree of wariness.

Most commonly told was the story of Cindy, supposedly a student at the university many years before. No matter how dramatic the story was made, the essentials were the same; she had gone into the library and never come out.

Logically, you knew that this was just one of those quirky urban legends that came to surround certain places.

Nonetheless, your nerves only worsened as you entered the grand building.

On your way in, you only passed one other student. Most people were leaving uni at around this time, but you needed to hang around anyway because your shift was soon. You had sent a quick text to Yoongi to let him know you would be there once you found the book, and somehow it comforted you a little that someone else knew you were here.

Moving through the first few rows of tall bookshelves, you had to pass by the main desk on your way to the section you were looking for.

Doing your utmost to tread with care, sandals making as little noise as you could manage on the wooden floor, you walked on.

As you drew near, the librarian looked up. Greeting them with a bright smile, you didn’t let it show that your heart was really thumping in your chest.

Hurrying along, you only slowed once you had entered the right section. Near the back of the library, it was dimmer as no light from the window reached all the way into the corner. Utter silence dampened the air. Not even the rustling of the librarian sorting papers could be heard from here.

Alone with the hushed sound of your own breath, your eyes flicked along the rows, searching for the right name.

Spotting it at last, you wasted no time in reaching for it. But as you tried to slide it from its spot, you were met with resistance. Perhaps it was very tightly packed in its place.

You tried again with both hands. It was still wedged in, but you felt it give a little so kept pulling. You managed to tug it out a little way, but this time, the book tugged back. Holding onto it as tightly as you were, you stumbled forwards, nearly slipping out of one of your sandals.

Gulping, your brow creased. More determined this time, you tried once more, but it seemed the book only retreated further among its companions on the shelf.

Breathing heavily, you stepped back. Books were not meant to do this. You swore it had moved by itself.

Maybe Hoseok would call you crazy if this was your reason for not getting the textbook. But, you thought, staring back down the empty row of shelves, a science textbook was less important than not getting involved with the strange happenings of the library.

Already you were questioning your sanity. Books didn’t move.

Looking back at it once more, it appeared perfectly unassuming. There was nothing unusual about the book. Maybe your mind was playing tricks, driven from the fear you felt about this place.

Breathing deeply, you reached your hand out for one last try. Picking up a book couldn’t be that hard. As long as you didn’t fear it-

Your fingers came into contact with the spine, and not a moment later, the book shrunk right back. But though it shot out of sight between its neighbours, your hand was stuck to it. Your intent to snatch it straight back at any sign of movement failed, and you were yanked forwards.

Flying clean off your foot now, your sandal clattered to the floor among the silent shelves behind you.

Your stomach jerked at the sudden movement. Now, as you plunged towards the shelves, you screwed your eyes shut, anticipating the imminent collision.

None came.

Instead, your insides seemed to be suspended. You had not crashed, but still your feet didn’t meet the floor; though your eyes were closed you were certain you were falling.

Rapidly upping its pace, your heart tried to punch through your ribs the longer you were in this state, fearing your landing. Panicked, you took great gulps of air, limbs flailing fruitlessly.

You landed.

It felt like you had been falling for a long time – too long – yet the force you hit the ground with was not painful. For a second, it expelled air from your lungs, but by the time you had rolled and tumbled enough to land on your back, you were sucking in a shaky breath.

Blinking, you turned to look around you. Your arms struggled to push you from the ground, but you heaved to sit up anyway.

This was like nowhere you had ever been.

No parquet was beneath you here. The ground was earth, sparse tufts of grass growing from it. But in places, the foliage was abundant, great swathes of vibrant grass surrounding a nearby rock which protruded from the ground.

These rocks were also plentiful, though not of regular size. They poked from the ground, rough surfaces being seized by moss of all colours.

Other plants stretched higher still, all in shades of purple, green and blue. Climbing slowly to your feet, your eyes traced up the stem of a slender tree whose leaves drooped downwards with their size.

The only thing you could hope to recognise were roses that grew in places, curved petals familiar atop their stems that wound around larger plants.

In the scattered canopy above you, there appeared to be vines as well. Climbers, perhaps; it appeared as if they were winding around ceiling beams above you, except that they were in open air, pale sky stretching above them.

Very deliberately, you blinked.

Nothing changed.

Jaw hanging open, you turned slowly around. This place continued the same everywhere you looked. You certainly weren’t in the library anymore.

Taking some effort to breathe evenly, you forced your feet to still.

Remembering your phone, you quickly reached for it. But as you repeatedly pressed the power button, the screen remained black. Either you had let it run down, or it wouldn’t work in this alien place.

You replaced it in your pocket with bitter disappointment and continued to stand still, observing this place.

Purposefully, you walked towards the nearest rock. Given the way you were transported here, you were a little wary of touching random objects, but you tentatively reached for the mossy surface. Briefly grazing it, you jumped backwards, expecting something to happen.

Nothing. Just the springy surface of moss, solid and very real.

Staring at the rock, your mind ran in uncomprehending circles. How had you got here? Why? How could you get out?

Cutting through your thoughts, a thump came from behind you.

Startled, you jumped around, eyes darting in panic around the world you had found yourself in. Nothing seemed to have moved…

A cough, followed by a groan, drifted from somewhere.

Frown deepening, you stepped forwards. A few paces brought you around the next rock, bigger than the last. Not only was it taller than you, it was bordered on one side by more of the tall plants, blocking your view of what was behind it.

This was definitely where the sounds were emanating from. As you cautiously rounded the boulder, rustling sounds reached your ears.

Reaching the trees, you peered between two dark blue trunks. Every muscle in your body was tense, ready to spring away at the first sign of danger.

Instead, you were greeted with the shape of a person. They wore a dark jacket, their hair also dark, but they were facing away from you where they sat.

For a moment you stood frozen. You were divided: should you announce yourself? Maybe they could help you? But for all you knew, they might not feel kindly towards you. What would another person be doing in this strange place?

Before you had the chance to decide, let alone move, the person slumped backwards to lie down, huffing a great sigh as they went.

Your eyes widened. Now you could see their face — and you certainly hadn’t expected this.

“Hoseok?”

Squeezing between the trees, you pushed your way into the small clearing he lay in. On hearing your voice, he twisted towards you with wide eyes.

“Y/N?” he jumped up, eyeing you suspiciously, “what is this place?”

“I have no idea,” you answered honestly. Then, “what are you doing here?”

Echoing your earlier words, he said, “I have no idea.”

After a moment, he seemed to remember something and looked around sharply.

“I found this,” he told you, pointing at the ground some feet away. There lay your sandal from earlier.

“Oh. Thank you.”

You flashed an awkward smile and went to pick it on, sliding it back onto the foot it had lost not long ago. Then your silence resumed.

Briefly, you did nothing but stare at each other. Then you stared again at the bizarre scenery around you.

Hoseok was first to move. Apparently becoming tired of your company so soon, he turned away with hands on his hips and began to pick through the undergrowth, which was thicker here than where you had first landed.

Even if this was all the company you were granted, you were eager to keep it, and so followed him.

A few minutes passed. Eerie silence was all around, save for the tentative brush of your footsteps against plants. He hadn’t complained about your presence, though, so you eventually decided it safe to speak.

“Did you… fall here?” you ventured.

His eyes snapped back to you. With a nod, he confirmed it.

“From the library?”

Slowing down, he allowed you to catch up and walk at his side.

“Yeah, why? You too?”

“That’s what happened to me,” you nodded, “but… what were you doing in the library?”

But Hoseok never heard those last words. A deafening, crunching crash resounded through your quiet conversation, drowning you out.

Both of you reacted quickly, spinning to the source of the monstrous sound in fear. Your hammering heart only sped up as you located a dark shape above the treetops.

“There!” you cried, grabbing onto Hoseok’s sleeve.

He spotted it as you pointed, for it was rapidly growing, soaring towards you.

“What is that?” he yelled, stumbling backwards.

You had nothing to offer in reply, instead watching with wide eyes as the creature flew closer still. Still grasping at Hoseok’s sleeve, you tugged at it, looking around for the nearest cover. He made no move. Struck dumb with awe, he seemed to be rooted to the spot.

Turning back to the sky, you were panicked to see the beast drawing closer. You could make out a long snout protruding from its head, spiny wings beating slowly and yet carrying it swiftly over the land.

The monster was enormous, blocking out a chunk of the open sky.

Not wanting to hesitate any longer, you pulled Hoseok forcefully with you as you retreated under the cover of a thick patch of foliage. He complied, still unable to tear his gaze from the flying creature.

You almost daren’t look, even now you were secluded among shadow. But curiosity overcame you.

It was near enough on top of you now. You held your breath, terror washing over you at the sight of it, close enough now that you could make out scales on the thing’s large belly. They glimmered a blazing red as it moved.

But its pace was fast, and it continued quickly, long tail etching a path through the sky behind it.

“Was that…” you breathed, after you felt enough time had passed to be safe. But your thought was too absurd for you to speak out loud.

However, Hoseok finished it for you.

“A dragon?”

Both of you slowly turned to face each other, matching expressions of perplexed shock painting your faces. You opened and closed your mouth, but no words presented themselves.

Your gaze was only severed by the return of the same cacophony to the air that had first heralded the dragon. Only now, it was louder.

Ducking by reflex, you whipped around. Above the treetops, the dragon was returning.

Still filling the air, the sound was that of treetops rupturing as the scaled beast flew low over them, snapping them like matchsticks. Once again, it seemed like the thing was coming straight towards you.

“Let’s move,” you shouted over the noise.

Hoseok didn’t need telling twice.

Side by side, you raced between trees, feet and clothes catching on leaves and vines that spanned the floor. Plunging on nonetheless, you kept your eyes set determinedly ahead.

By the time your lungs demanded you stop for breath, you were sure you must have gone a considerable distance from where you had first been hiding. But the deafening crashes from above had become no quieter.

Slowing down, you sagged against a tree as you gasped for air. Just in front of you, Hoseok looked around, finding you holding yourself up shakily against the trunk.

With a look to the sky and back at you, his face sank further, eyes wide and afraid.

“Y/N!” he cried.

Lifting your head, you met his eyes. Still panting, you turned to follow a finger he raised as he took trembling steps backwards.

Overhead, the leaves seemed to shake. A shadow was sliding along the forest floor as above it, twigs and branches rained down, bouncing from their lower counterparts until they disappeared into the shrubbery.

The dragon was following you.

“Come on!” Hoseok’s voice reached you somewhere among the din.

Spinning, you found him holding a hand out to you, gesturing maniacally for you to continue. You had barely caught your breath, but forced yourself to push away from the tree and run towards him once more.

What did surprise you was that he waited for you. When you came within reach, his outstretched hand was grabbing you, pulling you along at his side.

But there was no time to think of that. Chest heaving with exertion, you willed your feet to move faster underneath you in an attempt to flee the dragon.

All at once, the tall tree trunks you had been running between, almost dense enough to form a forest, stopped. Realising too late, the two of you shot from the cover at full speed, only to find yourselves utterly exposed.

Skidding to a stop, you looked to Hoseok in panic.

Before you could take another step, shadow fell over you again, but it was not cast by harmless trees. The roar of splintering branches grew to an overwhelming crescendo as the dragon caught sight of you and dived, uncaring for the insignificant wood pushed aside by its bulk.

Beside you, Hoseok screamed hoarsely. Together you fled backwards, knowing there was no hope of outrunning your pursuer.

In a few seconds, the beast had descended, giant nostrils flaring at your eye level. Curved fangs gnashed.

With horror, you saw a glow brighten the deep tunnels atop its snout.

In the corner of your eye, you spotted another rock, rough surface towering from the ground. You barely had time to think before you were shoving Hoseok to the side so you fell together behind the barrier. Not a moment later, blazing orange flared, obscuring all other sights as fire erupted from the monster’s jaws and nostrils.

You gave no thought to the position you had fallen in, your push having left you tumbling directly on top of Hoseok. His scream rang in your ears, only rivalled by the crackling heat in the air as his arms wrapped around you. You too were curling up, hands shielding your head in some attempt to shelter.

Thankfully, the rock you had chosen was one of the larger ones and took the brunt of the blast.

Not that it encouraged you much, considering the persistence the beast had shown so far. The dying away of the heat and fire only brought on dread, gnawing low and incessant in your stomach, of the next blast.

Barely daring to breathe, you stayed still, huddling against Hoseok, who did the same.

Any moment, you expected another massive roar to rip through the air. A swipe of the malicious claws or the sizzling heat of dragon flame. The longer you waited, the harder your heart rioted in your chest.

“Students.”

You jolted violently as a loud voice resonated through the air. But it was not the dragon.

Looking around showed you no one who the voice might belong to.

“It is gone,” the voice said.

Hoseok’s hold around you was loosening. Swallowing, you became aware of your proximity and carefully extracted yourself, not looking him in the eye as you moved to sit next to him instead.

It was true that no indicator of the dragon’s presence had made itself known, but you were not inclined to trust a faceless voice. You crawled to peer around the edge of the rock. Finding the space empty, you emerged further.

The clearing was totally deserted. The only evidence of the recent fearful moments was the debris of burnt leaves and broken branches scattered across the ground.

“Who are you?” Hoseok raised his voice, though it shook a little.

You returned to his side, the voice replying as you sunk down beside him.

“Students,” the voice repeated. It was level and calm, but awfully cold. The word was spoken with disdain. “I doubt you would recognise such a voice as mine. You young humans know not the value of words, of books. I am the librarian.”

You blinked in surprise. Next to you, Hoseok sat forward from the rock you leaned against.

“You are? Can you get us out of here?” he yelled, aiming his voice at the sky for lack of target for his pleas.

“Certainly not. I am the keeper of this land. You see, due to the neglect of your kind, my creatures are only kept alive through written word, and I cannot let them be endangered. Students are all the same. Careless. I do not appreciate those who vandalise or waste the knowledge granted them through books. And so, I cannot let you take another one.”

“It’s just a science textbook,” you muttered.

Meanwhile, Hoseok was growing more desperate.

“We won’t!” he called, “just let us out!”

Ringing silence was all he received in reply.

Eventually, he flopped back against the rock with a huff. Worrying your lip, you turned to him, though you had nothing to propose for what you should do next.

His hair was a dishevelled now, strands falling into his eyes which he now turned to you. To your surprise, his mouth curved back into a smile, breathy laughs bursting from him as he rested his head back on the rock.

He shook his head.

“This is crazy.”

You had to agree.

Turning your despairing eyes away and to the surrounding forest again, you were surprised to see movement among the trees. But this creature was not enormous or fire-breathing. A sandy-coloured tail waved, blurring in the air.

Bounding through the trees and coming to a stop at the forest edge, came a labrador.

Staring in bemusement, you found the dog looking right back at you. It was panting, mouth open in a smiley-looking shape. Its tail continued wagging enthusiastically behind it.

Just as you opened your mouth to tell Hoseok, the dog went rigid, body jerking as it barked across the space.

Sitting up straight, Hoseok spotted the dog as well, and together you watched it.

The dog watched back, standing still as if waiting for something. It reminded you of the way your flatmate’s dog used to wait for you to throw the ball when you played with her.

After another minute of stillness, it barked again, then turned and ran. You jumped to your feet as the yellow tail went wagging away through the shadows.

“What are you-“ Hoseok exclaimed as you started towards the trees, following the dog’s path.

Already tired, your legs lagged behind the dog’s pace and you nearly lost sight of the sandy fur. But you kept your eyes trained on it. This animal did not seem unfriendly, or angry. Something told you that you could trust it.

“Where are you going?”

You hadn’t noticed the pursuing footsteps until Hoseok was grabbing your arm, forcing you to stop. Looking around at him in annoyance, you shrugged him off and turned back around. But you had lost sight of the dog now, finding the forest empty.

Your shoulders slumped.

“I was trying to do something to get us out of here-“

“By getting more lost?”

Hoseok’s eyes blazed with anger and he threw his arms out to punctuate his yell with frustration. Opening your mouth, you returned his outrage.

“We’ve been lost since we got here! We don’t know anything about this place, but we can’t just do nothing!”

“What can we do? You heard what the librarian said.”

His volume had lowered and he took a step back.

Breathing out, you did the same, noticing only now how you had crowded each other’s space in your anger. Swallowing down your own frustration, you levelled your gaze at him. His words spoke of despair.

Sighing, you pushed a hand through your hair.

“There’s no use in fighting,” you muttered, “and I’m scared too. But we have to try.”

Lifting his eyes to you, Hoseok felt then as if he was seeing you for the first time.

You shared his fear, and had spoken that out loud, but still the steely glint never left your eyes. Rather than run or hide, you stood tall, resolved to find a way out, no matter how hopeless this crazy turn of events seemed.

“Hoseok?” you called, rendered hesitant by his silence.

Giving his head a quick shake, he averted his gaze from you.

“Hobi,” he spoke.

You frowned.

“I’m sorry?”

“Call me Hobi,” he repeated, “if we’re stuck here forever, I won’t be able to stand it if you call me Hoseok all the time.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Taking that to be some odd form of agreement, you turned around and started to pick your way again through the forest, no matter how blindly. The only vague thing guiding you was the notion that the dog had left this way, but that certainty grew weaker with time.

The only thing bolstering you were the steady steps of Hobi right beside you. A reminder you weren’t alone here.

“Sorry for losing your textbook.”

Smile quirking your lips, you turned to Hobi. He was steadfastly ignoring your gaze, kicking his feet through the low undergrowth while his hands were buried in his pockets.

“If you hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be here now,” you hummed.

That caught his attention.

“Hey! At least I’m apologising!”

“Doesn’t fix the fact we’re lost in… well, wherever this is,” you chuckled, “though I’m sure it’s worked out well for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I hadn’t come here to replace my textbook, you would be here all alone.”

Hoseok simply tilted his head in vague answer.

After a few short moments of quiet, you resumed the conversation.

“So, what were you in the library for?”

He let silence stretch out for longer than you expected, and you slowed your steps to look at him. His eyes were wide, and when he spoke, it was with a nervous smile, as if he wasn’t sure he should be smiling.

But he was too quiet, and all you heard was something that sounded like ‘yuzbook’.

“Sorry?” you frowned.

With a long-suffering sigh, he finally spoke up.

“I was looking for your science book as well.”

Your eyebrows shot upwards.

“You were?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you had decided it was my responsibility? Even though you lost it.”

“Exactly, I had lost it. I felt bad.”

“Ha!” you exclaimed, jumping around to dance in front of him, “Jung Hoseok admits remorse! What is the world coming to?!”

“I told you to call me Hobi,” he grumbled.

A smile was still bursting at your lips, but you calmed down and returned smugly to his side.

“My bad. Hobi wanted to do something nice! For me, of all people! Maybe this really is a dream…”

“You dream about me?” he grinned, teasing right back.

“Eugh, of course not,” you scoffed.

His laughter filled the forest, and you were glad of it. At length, it faded and you walked on.

“But, turns out you were right to be scared of the library,” he admitted quietly.

Simply nodding, you kept going. By now you had lost all hope to have remained on course with the dog you had seen earlier, but there was little use dwelling on that.

Most of the way, you had been trekking through forest, but now the trees were thinning. Once again, they began to be clustered in patches near protruding rocks.

Coming between two waist-height boulders, you found a pond lying cradled by short grasses and more rose plants.

Agreeing on a break, you and Hobi slumped down at its bank, though you also agreed not to drink it. Hobi seemed much more distrustful of everything you came across in this curious land than you, but there was no harm in caution, you supposed. It was true that, on getting closer to the water, it appeared to glimmer silver.

What that meant, you didn’t know, but didn’t care to investigate.

Reclining on the ground, you breathed deeply. The pond was in a large clearing, similar to the first place you had crash landed in. You couldn’t escape some dread that all this time had brought you in a mere circle to the beginning, but there was no way to be certain.

Forest lined one side of the oasis, while the other stretched away, obscured behind that rocky landscape dotted with an array of foliage.

As you scanned the area idly, a familiar blur of motion had you sitting up with a yelp.

“There! Did you see that!” you cried, but began running without waiting for a reply.

Twisting to attention, Hobi clumsily took to his feet after you.

“You sure?” he called after you.

You kept running. You had seen it – it had been right here. You were certain it was trying to lead you somewhere, and you felt compelled to follow it.

Plunging between rocks, Hobi’s slower steps faded behind you. Uncaring, you continued, eyes alert for any sign of your goal.

And there it was: another brief glimmer from just beyond the next clump of plants. You were so close. This time, you were going to reach it. It would get you out of here.

Still running, you didn’t care that the way wound deeper through the terrain, nor that the world around you darkened as you went. No, your mind was set. You kept moving.

When you finally reached what seemed to be the midst of the darkness, it never occurred to you that this was never what you had been looking for. All you were filled with was delight; in the middle of the dark clearing stood a grove of roses. They were taller than the roses you had seen so far, growing thickly and close together.

In the blackness, the petals emitted a soft glow that shone through their delicate veins.

A smile curved your lips. But as you took a slow step towards the luminescence, something emerged from behind them. It became clear that the roses themselves were not glowing, but the creature. A unicorn.

White coat shimmering with its every move, it seemed to glide over the landscape. The slender horn protruding from its head appeared crafted by the finest silversmith, with hints of colours dancing along it even in darkness.

All breath was stolen from you. Your startled exhale left a cloud lingering in the air beside your lips which glittered as the majestic animal walked in front of you.

Either it didn’t see you, or didn’t mind your presence, because it proceeded perfectly calmly. Keeping your eyes fixed on it, your feet stumbled after the serene creature without you willing them to.

You barely blinked as you followed the graceful unicorn, desperate to keep your eyes on it. You couldn’t have torn them away if you wanted to. Just watching the animal had all your tension melting away: legs feeling heavy, mind fogging. All your worries dissipated as easily as smoke in the wind.

The world was silent. It was as if your ears were plugged as you reached out, somehow confident enough to touch the noble beast.

Another step closer.

Your fingers stretched out, ready to meet the sleek, glowing coat-

“Y/N!”

A blow knocked you sideways, a weight falling with you as the shout of your name rung loudly in your ears. For a split second, you winced, expecting to be crushed on the ground, but already a hand shielded your head. Instead, you landed on a body, held securely in the person’s arms.

Gasping, you found yourself breathless. Your gaze had been severed on being tackled, and now that you blinked, dark clouds seemed to lift from your vision.

Looking around wildly, you were slow to come to your senses, but the person was already shifting.

“We need to move.”

That voice was familiar. Looking around, you found Hoseok’s eyes trained on you as he struggled to stand with your weight against him.

Clumsily getting your feet underneath you, your mouth opened, but a shriek filled the air before you could speak.

Clapping your hands over your ears, you winced at the piercing wail splitting the air.

Hoseok, however, wasted no time. He grasped your wrist, pulling you stumbling across the clearing behind him as he sprinted away.

Wide-eyed and breathless, you twisted to look behind you. The unicorn was still there, but it wasn’t glowing, just plain white. But your eyes only caught it for a second, before a darker shape was swooping from the sky.

Feet pounding, you fled the shrieking beast as it descended in a rush of feathers.

Glinting talons flashed, inches in front of your face as the bird-like shriek reached its peak.

And then you were plunged into shadow, squeezed between leaves and petals.

Hoseok slowed, dropping your hand, but you were practically frozen. You staggered backwards, eyes trained on the spot those razor sharp claws had been.

Above you, the shrill cry was quieting, echoing around the land as your attacker circled higher once more.

“What… what was that?” you panted.

“That was close,” Hoseok responded, no humour in his voice. “I was calling to you! Why didn’t you move?”

“You were?” you frowned, “I-I didn’t hear. I don’t know what happened.”

Light frown creasing his brow, Hobi looked seriously down at you. Swallowing, he looked you over. Your heart still trembled, trying to take in what had just happened, and you looked up at him fearfully. Was he angry?

Fixing his eyes on your own, Hobi stepped forward, bending to draw your faces closer together. Holding your breath, you stiffened, heart rate rocketing as his breath fell warm over your cheeks.

Then he reached his hand out. You forced yourself to hold his gaze, not sure why your face was growing hotter under his scrutiny.

His fingers met your hair. They pulled gently at a strand.

“You had this in your hair.”

Blinking, you found him holding a rose petal up, the hint of a smirk playing on his lips.

“Right. Thank you,” you spoke awkwardly, snatching it from his hand.

“Let’s stay here for a bit,” he said then, turning around as if nothing had happened. However, you didn’t complain. You didn’t want him to see your burning cheeks.

Hobi had pulled you into the grove of roses you had seen earlier, which grew some way above your heads. The bushes were close together, providing the perfect cover. You heard no more of the shrieking monster as you walked after him through the plants.

Beautiful flower heads were nestled everywhere, the graceful bundles of petals peering at these strangers walking through their home.

Eventually, Hobi came to a halt. When you stopped at his side, he pushed aside some leaves to show you what lay beyond.

You had reached the other side of the grove and a new clearing lay before you. Unlike the other places you had been, there were no tall trees or wide rocks rising from the ground. At last it was flat.

But, most noticeably, in the middle of the clearing there was a building. Deep blue walls rose from a gold base, thin pillars winding upwards to support the corners of the many-sided roof. Small arched windows were set high up in the walls, through which you could see a silvery glow from inside.

Hobi looked around the space before emerging. No longer impatient, you wholly agreed with his caution and also peered out carefully.

As you remained mostly hidden by the roses, something came running around the house.

The dog.

Same as before, it stood looking at you, smiling mouth and wagging tail welcoming.

First, you looked to Hobi.

“What do you think?”

“You were right,” he replied, “the dog seems alright. We should give it a shot.”

Smiling, you felt assured now you were in agreement. Not stopping to think too much about the action, you placed your hand resolutely in Hobi’s and stepped forwards.

This time the dog did not begin running away, waiting for you by the blue house wall instead. As the two of you drew closer, you bent a little, holding your hand out to the creature.

“Hi!” you cooed, ignoring Hobi’s light scoff from beside you.

The dog poised as if it would bark back, but instead it looked towards the house. Following its gaze, you looked through the window and instantly fell silent.

Inside, a figure was sitting, though you could only see their head and shoulders – and a pair of wings. They fluttered lazily, glinting in the silvery light.

“The librarian,” Hobi murmured.

Nodding, you looked back to the dog.

“Will you help us?” you whispered.

Its tail wagged harder.

Smiling, you reached out to give it a gentle pat, ruffling the soft fur between its ears.

Satisfied, the sandy blond animal turned around, tail blurring all the while. It trotted away, leading you around the house. On passing the windows, you both ducked, fearing what the faerie would do if they discovered you here.

A short dash, looking over your shoulders, and you finally reached a thick row of trees. Squeezing behind the large trunks, you were surprised to see large wooden doors waiting for you.

If not for the lingering worry of the librarian somewhere nearby, you would have laughed out loud.

Hobi rushed forwards, grasping the dogs ears and ruffling them enthusiastically.

“You got us out!” he whispered happily.

You were amused to see the dog’s smiling mouth grow wider, tongue hanging out with his praise.

Jumping up with a brilliant grin, Hobi walked to the door. Waiting by the handle, he let you also say goodbye to your four-legged saviour.

“Thank you,” you told it with a loving pat. For a moment, you looked into the dog’s eyes, wishing you could somehow convey your gratitude.

Then a thought came over you. Tilting your head, you frowned slightly.

“Cindy?”

The dog’s tail whirred back into motion, hopping up and down a little at the name.

Breaking into a smile, you patted it affectionately.

“Good girl, Cindy,” you grinned, “thank you.”

Then you stood to join Hobi’s side. He lifted the great handle, which made a concerning thunk in the quiet.

Hurriedly slipping through, you fell against the other side of the wood as he followed and shut it firmly behind him. You were back at the entrance of the library, the glass doors at the front of the foyer showing the road beyond it, no different than ever as cars and pedestrians hurried along.

“Who let someone like that work in a school?” you laughed, incredulous.

Hobi laughed loudly at last, the sound bringing a bigger grin to your face.

You had made it out.

All of a sudden, a pinging sound rang from your pocket, soon over taken by at least five more.

Pulling out your phone, you found it alive again, the screen lit up and full of messages.

“Yoongi’s wondering where I am,” you muttered, “my shift…”

Hobi pushed away from the wooden door, starting to walk with you across the entrance hall. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he nodded.

“Yeah, um, I should get going too, I guess.”

Opening the main doors, you stood outside on the steps, at a loss. A bus rumbled past.

“Okay,” you spoke at length, “yeah. Er, see you around.”

Smiling briefly, Hobi took a few hesitant steps back before he committed to walking away. One last wave and he was engulfed by the crowd on the street.

You sighed and set off in the opposite direction.

The bell clinked, swinging wildly above the door as you hurried over to the counter.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” you spoke as you set your stuff down.

Turning to lean against the counter, Yoongi shrugged.

“’s’alright. Where were you though?”

“Ah…”

What were you meant to say? Your head was still spinning from everything that had passed, but you knew no one would believe you if you told them the truth. Shifting a little, your teeth nipped at your lower lip while you tried to come up with a reasonable excuse.

Meanwhile, a knowing look was sliding onto Yoongi’s face.

“I see,” he grinned, and then, to your mortification, winked!

“No, you don’t- that’s not-“ you protested, but he was already snickering and turning back to the washing up.

Shaking your head, you concluded that whatever his belief was would make as good as excuse as any. At least he had made it up for you, saving the hassle.

You got to work.

Over the next couple of days, everything ran like normal. Except for you, nothing was normal.

You still had no idea how such a small amount of time had passed while you and Hobi were busy running for your lives in fear of the librarian and their crazed world. You had barely been late for your shift afterwards; when it was time for bed you had collapsed straight in, feeling as if you had been awake for two days straight.

Of course, you had never gone back for that textbook.

In college the next day, you had taken a detour to class, stubbornly avoiding the building that had all but kidnapped you, wondering at the fact no one else seemed to realise.

At the café later on, you waited impatiently for any sign of Hobi outside. He was the one person you desperately wanted to see. Surely he must be feeling the same? He would understand.

But you waited and waited, serving countless other customers without much thought. He never came, and so you were left to question your own sanity by yourself.

Nothing about your impromptu adventure made sense.

If it had been real, why didn’t Hobi act like anything had changed? You certainly couldn’t pretend that nothing had been altered between you while you had been trapped in that strange world inside the library.

Perhaps it had been a dream. All of it seemed so implausible that even recollecting it sent you spiralling with more questions.

But there was one hope. Even if Hobi remembered nothing of what transpired, you were still supposed to tutor him. You would see him next week, and try to assess what he might remember.

So when your phone buzzed that night, screen lighting up with a message from him at last, you had expected to arrange this week’s session. But all it said was: come outside.

Though you frowned, you weren’t going to pass up this chance.

Sliding off your bed, you quickly stuffed your feet into your slippers and tried your best not to break into a run on the way to the door. Collecting yourself first with a deep breath, you pulled it open.

The first thing you took in was empty space outside your door. Blinking at it, you couldn’t prevent the disappointment from creeping in. But then your eyes flickered downwards.

There at your feet lay a rose.

Your lips parted in wonder as you stooped to pick it up. Taking it between your fingers, you rolled it gently there. It was the exact same as those delicate flowers that had filled the grove where you sheltered together in the library.

A smile tugged at your mouth. It only grew as you remembered the identical petal Hobi had pulled from your hair.

He remembered.

The relief that washed over you was dizzying. Clutching the flower to your chest, you smiled out of your doorway once more, silently thanking Hobi.

But you wouldn’t have to be silent for long. Your eyes landed on a figure leaning against a lamppost a few metres away, smiling right back at you.

As your eyes met, Hobi stood straighter. His mouth shifted to a radiant grin. He had come back to you.

Thank you so much for reading!! And again, send lots of birthday love over to @moccahobi!! As promised, here is the beautiful bingo card I used for this story:

taglist: @aianloveseven @preciouschimine @un2-verse @ddaechwita @taegularities

#thebtswritersclub #j hope imagine #jung hoseok imagine #bangtanarmynet #btscreatorscorner #purplearmynet #hoseok imagine #jhope imagine #jhope x reader #j hope x reader #bts fantasy au #j hope fluff #hobi fluff #bts enemies to lovers #hobi enemies to lovers #bts college au

187 notes · View notes

ffion451 · 2 years

Text

Honesty: A KSJ | KTH two shot (m) Part One

Summary: Life in London is not easy for Taehyung, especially where Seokjin’s girlfriend is involved.

Pairings: Seokjin x reader, maybe Taehyung x reader (no spoilers…)

Warnings: 🔞 not suitable for minors, adult themes throughout. A fair bit of smut, references to violence and domestic abuse

Genre: Angst, smut

Word count: 9.4K

Part One

CHAPTER ONE: The Truth Untold

Everyone likes Jin’s girlfriend, except Taehyung.

Tired feet slide from his loafers, flexing his toes as they catch on the back of the folded-in and pressed-down heels: it’s an unusual way to wear shoes but it’s a constant habit of his. His coat and bag are quickly discarded and he pushes up the sleeve of his beige loose knit jumper and hitches up his wide-legged tan trousers, trudging his way to the living room.

Padding through the hallway, the sounds of multiple groans reach him, though they’re soon drowned out by two laughs, one honking, the other melodic. Taehyung knows before he even enters the room what is happening and he hates the way his heart constricts in response.

Stood on the threshold, neither within or without, he watches how his flatmates, Jimin and Hoseok, are looking on at the honking man with something somehow resembling affection and disgust simultaneously. Jin, the source of the laugh, is pointing finger guns at his ever-reliable girlfriend, who is possibly the only person who finds his Dad-humour actually funny.

**********

Over time, Taehyung has come to dislike your visits more and more, he always wants to see Jin, but do you always have to be with him?

He’s complained a few times about it to Jimin, well, bitched about it, to be precise, moaning to Jimin about you having to speak English while you’re over. Jimin always points out that, living in London, it’s not unreasonable that people here don’t speak Korean, but Taehyung always reasons that at home, at least, he should be able to use his mother tongue.

Jimin sees it for the thinly veiled excuse it is, but anytime he tries to explore what the actual reason for Taehyung’s hostility is, Taehyung shuts him down. Friends from infancy, Jimin knew his friend will share it with him when he is ready and so he doesn’t push. They’ve been in London nearly a year now. Their other friends, Jungkook, Yoongi and Namjoon live minutes away as does Jin, though he lives only with you.

Friends from their teens, all the men had been surprised when Jin decided he wanted to go university in the UK for his postgraduate studies, halfway across the world, to Edinburgh specifically. He’d kept it all very quiet and only told them weeks before departing.

They were even more surprised when their friend, who until that point had apparently had no interest in any romantic relationship of any kind at all, told them that he had a girlfriend.

Perhaps the biggest surprise has been how many years the relationship has lasted; Jin returned to Korea with his head full of you and somehow he made the relationship work, utterly committed to you. The other guys were moved by his devotion.

It didn’t come as a particular surprise then, when a year later, Jin declared he was going to move to London; maybe not permanently, he reasoned, but for a few years. You, his beloved, still lived in Scotland after Uni but you’d agreed to move to the English capital too, knowing the cosmopolitan and diverse city would be an easier move for Jin.

The boys were shocked, but Namjoon, who’d always wanted to travel suggested maybe it would be an exciting adventure and maybe he’d go to; one by one, they all bought into the plan and half a year later found themselves arriving in London.

Taehyung still remembers coming through the arrivals gate vividly: Jin dropping his stuff and running to hug you; your kind smile to them all; the way Jin took the lead with a group of them and how you’d helped the others. Taehyung had been the most nervous, not really understanding the tube system; if he closed his eyes he’d be able to reimagine the feeling of your hand on his as you showed him how to pay for entry to the underground.

You helped them all settle in, find their way around and were endlessly patient. You showed them all the main galleries and museums and would happily spend whole days just with Taehyung taking him to the more obscure galleries he wanted to visit and never complaining.

So, given all you’ve done and how you’ve opened your heart to him, why doesn’t he want you around? It’s simple: Taehyung doesn’t trust you. In fact, Taehyung suspects that you are a liar through and through.

He is deeply suspicious that you aren’t as perfect as you seem; you have a friend, Joe, who you see a lot of and when there’s a lot of you gathered together he has watched the two of you closely, specifically, the way Joe watches you and how he almost physically flinches to see Jin’s hands on you. Even worse, he sees how you blush when Joe finds any excuse to touch you; you flush deeply even if his fingertips only even skim your arm. It’s clear to him that Joe has a crush on you and that you aren’t doing anything to put him off.

If he’s fair to you, you never encourage Joe and often seem embarrassed when he’s overt in his flirting but it doesn’t matter if you haven’t done anything with Joe, with Jin in your life you shouldn’t even entertain the idea of Joe: having feelings for another man makes you as good as unfaithful in Taehyung’s eyes.

He really doesn’t understand why Jin doesn’t seem to care. He never reacts to Joe’s flirting with you, never seems jealous or annoyed. Taehyung doesn’t get it, if it was him he’d be furious. If you were his, he’d find it hard to keep his fist out of Joe’s face when the man hugged you for too long.

That’s the main reason Taehyung doesn’t like being around you, and perhaps it’s really the only one that matters: it’s the amount of time he imagines scenarios like that, so many of his thoughts about you begin with ‘If she was my girl…’

Taehyung isn’t religious and doesn’t go in for higher powers but he’s starting to believe in fate because somewhere over the course of this year he has come to believe that if two people were ever meant to be together, if there is such a thing as soulmates, then you are his. It doesn’t matter if he thinks your a liar, Taehyung is crazy about you.

He fought the feeling from the moment he first met you, your kind smile and gentle touch going straight to his heart, but now he’s stopped trying to convince himself when the truth is so obvious, his heart yearns for you.

To make the situation even more unbearable, despite your relationship with Jin, and flirtation with Joe, Taehyung strongly suspects you have feelings for him too. In those first months of settling in, after Jin you’d mostly keep your attention on him in any situation where he was nervous. Within weeks he’d only need to glance at you and you could read what he needed, whether it was help understanding a word, or just needing your reassuring presence near him.

As time progressed though, you began to tail off your gallery visits and photography walks with him, putting gentle distance between you. Now, rarely ever alone, you avoid Taehyung as much as he avoids you. Yet but there’s no escaping the way you both react to things the same way; the electricity that runs through the whole room when you two make eye contact; the way you understand everything he says even when the others, whom he’s known for years, don’t; the way you still look out for him, anticipate his moods and his feelings: there is a pull between you that can’t be denied and it makes Taehyung burn inside.

**********

Taehyung rolls his eyes before he enters the room, forcing a smile on his face.

He watches as you reach over to tuck Jin’s overlong hair behind his ear, following how Jin catches your fingers and presses his lips to them softly in response to your affectionate gesture… Like so many times before, the same thought occurs to him: How can he love and loathe someone so desperately at the same time?

Everyone greets him as he enters the room and collapses on the couch beside Jin, with a vague, mumbled greeting. You’re on the sofa that’s at 90 degree angle to the one he’s on, holding Jin’s hand across the gap between you, and you note that he doesn’t even look at you.

“How was your day, Taehyung?” you ask, innocuously. You always call him Taehyung, never Tae, always Taehyung.

He looks up at you after he’s opened the cold beer Jimin’s fetched for him, “Not bad, thanks, just busy,” he grumbles mostly to the ceiling, only sparing you a fleeting glance. You smile gently in response as he takes a long gulp avoiding looking at you for too long.

You squeeze Jin’s hand, “Guys,” you say to everyone, “Should we order in tonight? We’re all pretty tired, maybe going out isn’t the thing…”

Everyone agrees and starts to choose food and Taehyung looks over at you gratefully; simultaneously you both blush slightly. You break eye contact quickly as Jin gets a text and calls your name.

“Babe, I completely forgot I said we’d go over Ed and Joe’s for dinner,” he explains.

You smile, but Jimin frowns, “Hyung, she was gonna help me with my presentation for work. I need her English skills!”

Taehyung is tense, and strangely you seem to look to him for permission, “I mean, I could stay here?”

Taehyung regrets the connection that exists between you more than ever: he knows that you know how much he doesn’t like having you around and it pains him that you’re so aware of it.

“Good plan,” Taehyung says, trying to confirm how ok he is with it, even if he isn’t. Yes, he loathes you, but that doesn’t mean he can bring himself to hurt you. He gestures with his phone, “Shall I order?”

Jin smiles, and kisses the top of your head, “Ok then, sure. Babe? make sure you still get my order in, I’ll have it tomorrow instead, I don’t want to miss out…” gathering his stuff and bidding everyone goodnight, Jin leaves.

“Tell the boys I said hi!” you call after him.

Taehyung thinks of Joe’s imminent disappointment and smirks to himself. Fuck those two, he thinks, before correcting himself that it’s really just Joe that can get fucked. He doesn’t really know Joe’s brother, Ed - he too is friends with you and Jin; the four of you do loads of stuff together but rarely does Ed spend time with the rest of Jin’s friends. Jin asserts that he’s simply shy: Taehyung wishes Joe was. Prick.

Later that night, dinner ordered, eaten and cleaned up, Taehyung finds himself squashed beside you on the smaller couch as you, he and Hobi act as Jimin’s audience. He is amazed at the level of focus you offer and how generous and carefully worded your interruptions and corrections are. Several rehearsals in, Taehyung has totally lost focus, but he’s aware Jimin is far more fluent and confident than he had been before your help.

What seems a little while later, but is actually far longer than that, his eyes flutter open to make eye contact with Hobi standing in front of him. He realises he has slunk down the sofa and his head is resting on your shoulder where he’s fallen asleep. He is mortified to realise from your deep breaths and the gentle weight on his head that you have fallen asleep on him in turn.

The warmth of your body, the gentle scent of your perfume and the soft skin of your arm against his overwhelms him and his heart races like a schoolkid’s: he looks at Hobi in desperate panic.

Hobi grins, “Calm down and pretend to be asleep, before you react like an idiot,” he says, “I’ll wake her up.”

Taehyung closes his eyes and hears Hobi wake you. He’s surprised by how carefully you ease away from him, how gentle your hands are as you cradle and ease his head to rest on the sofa behind him and how you definitely stroke the curls that gather at the nape of his neck softly as you release him - What does that mean? he wonders. Finally, there’s a whispered conversation between you and Hobi and then he hears the sound of Hobi grabbing his jacket as he walks you home. As the front door clicks closed, Taehyung groans and forces himself off the couch and to his bedroom.

Sprawled on his bed, mindlessly scrolling through his phone, it’s not very long before there’s a tap at his door and he calls to the person to enter. Hobi sits on the edge of his bed, rubbing his cold hands together, “Bloody freezing out there, mate,” he says in a mock-London accent, “Are you ok?” he asks Taehyung more seriously.

Taehyung nods without any real commitment. He and Hobi have never openly spoken about the feelings Taehyung has for you, but an understanding has silently grown. Hobi is everyone’s sunshine because he’s so warm and empathetic. He’s not just an extrovert, he’s a listener, a watcher; he knew how Taehyung felt before Taehyung had worked it out for himself. Hobi pats Taehyung’s leg in sympathy before leaving the room.

As Hobi closes the door behind him, Taehyung groans to himself, trying not to think about what you’re doing in your own bed, undoubtedly Jin waiting there for you.

**********

You arrive home and you’re surprised to find Jin there, beer in hand on the couch. He gestures for you to join him. A few moments later, you sink down beside him, a beer of your own in hand. He throws his arm around your shoulders, and in a sing-song impression of your voice, brings up the events of earlier in the evening, “Ooo, let’s stay in and eat here, poor little Taehyungie is too tired to go out so let’s all make him comfortable …” and he laughs to himself.

“Oh fuck off,” you grumble as he kisses the top of your head pulling you closer.

“Just remember who your boyfriend is - yah!’ he cries out as you tickle him and you both writhe in laughter.

******************************

CHAPTER TWO: Lies Grow

The truth will out, and trying to stop it is always catastrophic.

Weeks later, you’re at Taehyung, Jimin and Hobi’s flat again: you enter to find a subdued group sitting in what seems to be almost deliberate silence. You push Jin forward and back out, indicating to Ed and Joe that it would be best to wait outside; whatever is going in there is between them and your interference will not be welcomed.

“Come on guys,” cheers Jin, “It’s gonna be a great night. Get yourselves together.”

Taehyung looks up at Jin and Jin smiles, “Come on, Ed and Joe are waiting outside,” Taehyung rolls his eyes but complies and the boys file out one by one.

“What is with the sour mood?” asks Jin as they pass into the hallway, each greeting Ed and Joe with nods and you with a hug, until of course, Taehyung, who only gives you a curt momentary incline of his head.

You cock your head as you look at him, pausing as you figure something out and then say, “Oh, your eyes are different colours!”

Taehyung is so pleased that someone has finally noticed that he breaks into his wide, boxy smile and says, “Finally!”

Hobi laughs, “So that’s the reason for the mood! Taehyung was pissed that none of us could tell what was different about him… we guessed everything but no joy,” he shares.

Joe snorts a little unkindly at that and you glare at him, “It looks cool, Taehyung,” you say as the boys all peer at his eyes, one hazel, the other a blueish grey.

Jimin, who regularly speaks without thinking, says, “Wow, how did you notice when none of us did?” and an awkward silence falls on the group with a sudden weight.

Jimin, even more stupidly - bless his naïve heart - ploughs on, “What? What did I say?”

Everyone shuffles nervously and Jin finally speaks, “Come on guys,” he begins with false cheer, “Let’s not make it more weird. We all know it’s because he saves his long, cold glares for her… it’s not a big deal that they’re not close. Let’s just go…”

You avoid looking at Taehyung who is now staring even more intensely at you as you take Jin’s outstretched hand and move away. Taehyung wishes that it was just the swirl of your scent that would haunt him, but he has no such luck: he catches the way you take a sharp intake of breath and the pain that crosses your face, knowing he’s the cause: Taehyung hates that you’re hurt and he’s annoyed with himself and the universe for it.

Hobi fills the awkward silence by laughing loudly about something that happened in his day whilst jabbing Jimin in the ribs in warning as you all leave the building.

**********

The night out is actually to a large house party hosted by an acquaintance of theirs, another Korean expat, the ever popular and likeable Wooshik. Wooshik works in the City in some finance-bro job nobody understands; his Chelsea townhouse is huge and lavish. When you all arrive you take in the sheer opulence and scale: the ground floor is for living, your host claims, the next floor is for his leisure, where his studio, gaming room, study etc are, leaving the bedrooms on the top floor. Oh, to be so rich, you all think.

The night stretches on; you’ve avoided Taehyung at every opportunity and now you’re nowhere to be seen. All the others have left to go to a club but Taehyung doesn’t fancy it and neither do you, Jin or Joe it seems; Ed having left long ago as is his usual, quiet way.

Bored, Taehyung thinks about how he has never seen the top floor and, getting a little tired, he decides to sneak upstairs for a few minutes to himself.

As he climbs the stairs he hears muffled, but tense, voices coming from Wooshik’s study. He’s tempted to keep climbing the stairs but instead he edges quietly along the plush cream carpet silently and glances into the room.

Inside, you’re against the desk, clearly edging away. Your hands are on the hem of your dress trying to pull it further down as it rides up your thighs. Your distress is evidently because Joe is trying to edge his way between your knees as you push away from him.

Taehyung forces himself to look away and presses his body into the wall, listening carefully.

“Joe,” you say firmly, “Why are you being like this? Just stop.”

“Babe,” he scowls to hear the flirtatious tone of Joe’s voice as he replies, “I don’t want to stop. What’s the harm?”

“Because anyone could come in at any time,” you hiss.

Taehyung shudders. You’re worried about being caught but not about cheating? He can’t believe you. Taehyung never thought it would be possible to feel this way about you, but he’s actually disgusted at your behaviour.

It appears Joe has the same thought as Taehyung but with a very different reaction, “You just worried about being caught?” he teases, “So you do want me then?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it -” you say softly, then your tone changes when Joe gives a seductive chuckle, “It doesn’t matter what I may or may not want anyway. This is not happening. I won’t risk anything,” your voice is now steely with resolve.

He hears the anger that’s edging into Joe’s voice as the man hisses, “Because Jin always comes first, yeah?”

“Always,” you say simply and without hesitation.

“I get that what he wants comes before what I obviously want,” he sighs, his voice trailing off, but then his tone changes and becomes crueler, harsher, “But putting Jin before yourself? Putting what he wants before what you want is worse. It’s sad really, even a bit pathetic, if you’re honest with yourself.”

There’s a tense silence and then you speak again, but this time there’s a slight tremble in your voice, “Joe, you’re hurting my arm.”

Before he can think Taehyung is striding loudly forward and into the room, his blood boiling, “What’s going on in here?” he asks, looking at you rubbing your arm where there are red indents from Joe’s fingertips, and at Joe, who is scowling heavily.

“Nothing,” growls Joe, “we’re done.”

He moves to leave the room but is stopped by Taehyung’s firm hand on his chest, as Taehyung looks at you for confirmation. You gently pull Taehyung’s hand away, “It’s fine,” you say softly, Joe smirks at Taehyung humourlessly, and is gone.

“Thank you,” you say to Taehyung, softly blushing in embarrassment at the whole scene.

Taehyung stares at you and before you know it tears start to roll silently down your cheeks, the shock of what happened hitting you. Without thinking, Taehyung pulls you against his chest, stroking your hair. You don’t know what to do with your arms, and Taehyung can only find it amusing: you’ve wrapped one around yourself, like a half hug, and the other gently grips onto the front of his wine-red sweater, oddly, the same exact shade as your dress.

Taehyung can’t help himself, he slides the hand that is on your back downwards until his fingers intertwine with those of the hand you’ve wrapped around yourself. You breathe in sharply, but you don’t move away. You and Taehyung stay that way for a few minutes, as he strokes your hair. Taehyung almost holds his breath, convinced that you must feel his heart pounding underneath your fingertips.

“I don’t dislike you,” he says in almost a whisper, unable to let the moment earlier go. Only when he’s spoken the words does he realise context might help.

“I don’t dislike you either,” you reply. Of course you don’t need context; you always seem to understand him perfectly.

For both of you, it feels like the moment exists in a bubble outside of time and neither of you want it to end. Yet, as he holds you, Taehyung’s concern for you dissipates and, though confused about what exactly happened, he can’t shake his disgust that you’re creeping around with Joe when you’re with Jin. Obviously, he’s also as jealous as sore hell at the thought of yet another man touching you, but the thing that stops him ever acting on his feelings for you is the same thing that drives his anger now: his loyalty to his friend. Still, he doesn’t want to let you go.

It doesn’t surprise him that you’re the first to move away, pulling back and loosing your fingers from his sheepishly. When you’re fully parted and you look at him slightly embarrassed, your cheeks a light pink.

“The contacts really do look cool,” you say, trying to create a light mood as you look up at him.

He is overwhelmed with the desire to push you back against the desk and kiss you, Just like Joe tried to, he thinks, and suddenly he feels sick with himself and anger quickly replaces his desire.

“What was that with Joe?” he asks you coldly, “You’re sneaking around behind Jin’s back?”

You look both shocked and mortified, “No, that’s not what it was -”

You’re interrupted by Jin entering the room, looking panicked, “Babe, I just saw Joe in a fit, are you ok?” he asks, taking in your stricken face and watery eyes. It’s only when he’s done speaking that he even registers that Taehyung is there. “What’s happened?” he asks gently, pulling you into a hug but looking to Taehyung for answers.

“You should ask her,” he hisses gesturing at you, “See what she has to say for herself.”

Jin frowns and you say, “I can explain…” your voice high and nervous.

Taehyung laughs coldly, “Fuck this,” he scoffs, “I’m going home.”

“No,” says Jin, firmly, “Please, please just wait downstairs for me,” he follows more softly.

Taehyung nods briefly and reluctantly goes downstairs to wait.

**********

When you finally come down the stairs with Jin, you part and make your way to the kitchen; he notices you’re trembling slightly as Jin approaches him.

“Tell me exactly what happened, Taehyung,” he pleads, pulling Taehyung into a quieter room.

Taehyung tells the whole unvarnished truth and Jin nods, “That’s exactly what she said,” he sighs.

Taehyung asks, “What are you going to do?”

Jin grimaces, “Obviously I need to speak to Joe,” he runs his hand through his hair, “Will you please walk her home? She doesn’t want to be here anymore and I’ve got stuff to do here.”

Taehyung gapes slightly, “You two are fine? After what I just told you about what she said? You’re ok with that?” he stutters disbelievingly.

Jin shakes his head, “Tae, she hasn’t done anything wrong. Of course I’m fine with it.”

Taehyung is confused enough to want to refuse to take you home, but he doesn’t. He just sighs and feels like there’s something he isn’t being told.

**********

The walk back to your apartment is awful. Neither of you speak and you’re both stiff and awkward with each other, Taehyung trailing half a step behind you. You’re surprised when you reach your building that Taehyung is even still with you.

“I told Jin I’d wait here at yours until he gets home,” he says by way of explanation.

Inside your apartment, you make him a cup of tea and you’re about to sit awkwardly with him when he speaks again, “You look exhausted, you should go to bed. Jin text when you were in the kitchen, he’ll be back soon.”

You nod, and speak quietly, upset at being dismissed in your own home, “Thank you,” you head out of the living room and down the hall, feeling Taehyung’s eyes on you. Sighing to yourself, you step backwards, and hesitate.

Taehyung cocks an eyebrow, he knows you’re out of it but forgetting your own bedroom is just plain weird… You glance backwards and catch Taehyung watching you.

“Um,” you begin nervously, “I’m going to sleep in the spare room, because …” you don’t seem able to complete the sentence though and you trail off, only receiving a curt nod from Taehyung in response.

He sips his tea and waits for Jin’s return. Perhaps he got it wrong? If you can’t sleep in the same room maybe Jin’s lying to him and things really aren’t ok with you two.

******************************

CHAPTER THREE: The Lies Come Undone

Truths are laid bare with unexpected consequences.

Jin reads the message he’s just received from you: Heading home now, Taehyung with me. Still thinks I’m a whore… Still having a massive rant at me. Please hurry home x

He thinks about replying and letting you know he’s already home but after the dinner tonight, the palpable tension between you and Taehyung was evident to everyone, and Jin knows it’s time to act. It’s been a month since the events of that house party and nothing had dispelled the mistrust and dislike Taehyung eyes you with. Jin thinks maybe things just need to come to a head and then this issue can be put to bed.

He hears you and Taehyung enter seconds later, clearly in the middle of an argument and he ducks into the kitchen, leaving the door ajar but the lights off so he can listen in.

“It was a moment of weakness, ok?” you sigh, “For the millionth time Taehyung, I was a little tipsy, I didn’t realise how close he was getting, I didn’t really think about what was happening and I just faltered but nothing actually happened, I’d never do that -” you explain desperately.

Taehyung’s anger explodes, “That’s the fucking issue,” he almost shouts, “You WANTED something to happen at the time. How can’t you see that’s wrong?”

You’re exhausted. You’re fed up of his snide remarks, his casual meanness around you now; it’s been a long day and you’ve drunk more than you should have and your tongue is looser than it should be.

“Fuck off, Taehyung,” you mutter, not quite brave enough to go toe to toe with him, “It’s actually got nothing to do with you.”

His voices raises in response to your snide remark, “You’re telling me to fuck off? No, fuck you! That’s my friend you’re pissing all over, so it is my fucking business.”

Jin wonders if he should intervene but he suspects Taehyung is on the verge of explaining what really bothers him. Jin is fairly certain he knows what Taehyung’s problem with you really is, though he wonders if Taehyung does too - either way, he wants to find out.

“I would do anything for Jin,” you shout back, “How fucking dare you! Fuck, Taehyung, I’m only human, we all make mistakes and I didn’t do anything wrong! We’re all allowed to have thoughts for fuck’s sake! And I wasn’t even thinking, I was just lonely for one fucking minute and let my guard down. Jin’s let it go, why can’t you?”

Taehyung doesn’t even consider the answer to your question, his attention is elsewhere because he knows you’ve slipped up and he’s desperate to play his advantage. He steps closer to you so he’s looming over you and you’re forced to tilt your head to look up at him.

“What do you mean you’re lonely?” he asks, suspicion lacing each word.

Your eyes become panicked saucers suddenly and you look terrified. Taehyung realises, more than even walking in that room and seeing you with Joe, that now he has really caught you out and you have nowhere to hide.

You can’t speak, your eyes are fixed and your stuttering out unconvincing excuses and garbled sentences. Taehyung’s brain comes to a rapid conclusion, and he attacks again.

“Are you even in love with Jin?” he spits at you.

You gawp at him, slack-jawed, “Of course I am,” you say quickly.

Suddenly it’s all crystal clear to him because he knows you so well: when you said you were lonely he knew you were telling the truth, accidentally maybe, but still the truth. But right now, insisting you love Jin, Taehyung knows you’re definitely lying.

“Oh my God,” he says, mouth gaping open, “You don’t! You don’t love him,” he feels a rush of euphoria at being right but it’s quickly replaced with a sickening realisation of what it means; it will destroy Jin.

You’re freaking out now, your breath isn’t coming to you properly as you start to panic, “No,” you gasp, “No, no that’s not true -” your hand is held feebly out in front of you in a desperate plea for him to stop talking.

Taehyung is concerned for the state you’re in but his sense of righteous outrage overrides it. “How can you do this to him? Did you ever really love him? He moved halfway across the world to be with you! You’re so fucking cruel,” he says in disgust.

At that point, sensing it’s all getting out of hand Jin enters the room. The shock of seeing him there makes Taehyung step back from you and Jin pushes between you, shielding you from Taehyung and pulling you into a hug.

“Babe,” he says softly as you cling to him for comfort.

Taehyung feels betrayed by his friend’s awful judgement, “Jin, man, don’t let her do this to you -”

Jin cuts him off with a hand held up to silence him, it’s firmer than your weak gesture and it silences Taehyung. Jin pushes you from the room gently, “Go lie down and breathe baby, I’ll be there in a minute,” you leave the room without looking at Taehyung, though he notices that again you walk past your bedroom.

Jin crosses the room to the kitchen, “Come with me, I don’t want her overhearing what I have to say to you,” he says in a low voice and Taehyung complies mutely.

Taehyung realises he has never really seen Jin angry until this moment as Jin turns on him under the kitchen’s bright lights, “Explain to me how you can shout at someone who is clearly in the middle of a panic attack? One that I am guessing you triggered,” he questions coldly, fury etched across his face.

“What the fuck, Jin?” Taehyung splutters, utterly confused, “She’s playing you!”

“Taehyung,” continues Jin coldly, “I am aware that Joe has feelings for her and she may have liked the attention but it was nothing and nothing happened. As she says, if I’m fine with it, what’s your problem?”

“But how are you fine with it?” Taehyung asks, his voice rising with frustration and confusion.

Jin is fed up with the drama and the pain Taehyung is causing you and his control snaps, “You really want to go there?” he laughs humourlessly and threateningly.

Taehyung’s own anger rises, “Yeah, I do, especially with what she just gave away about her real feelings!”

Jin smirks, “Ok, then why not ask me how I’m fine with the fact that you, one of my oldest friends, are clearly determined to stick your nose into my relationship and break it apart?”

Taehyung is furious, “I am not trying to break you up, I’m trying to protect you!” he insists.

“Why does it matter to you how she feels when I am happy with things? Why do you hate her so much? Months ago she was all you could talk about to me, you seemed to like her then!” Jin reasons.

“I don’t hate her,” Taehyung replies quickly, “It’s not about her. It’s that she isn’t being honest with you.”

Jin laughs loudly, “Because you’re so honest…” he scoffs.

“I am! She’s the liar and I don’t get how you can be ok with it!” Taehyung insists hotly, his temper and frustration getting the better of him.

Jin scoffs again, and pinches the bridge of his nose to calm himself. He realises he and Taehyung are too close together, both trying to assert their dominance in the tense situation. Jin knows though that he’s the one in control now while Taehyung gets more and more defensive. He leans back against the kitchen counter and breathes deeply.

With a softer voice, he fixes Taehyung with an intense stare and goes for the kill, for the one one thing he was hoping would be revealed tonight. “If we’re talking about being honest and what I’m ok with then let’s talk about that. Why not answer me this,” he pauses for dramatic effect, unable to help himself, as Taehyung, wide-eyed, looks at him dumbly. Jin presses his advantage, “So, how am I supposed to be ok with the fact that you are clearly in love with my fucking girlfriend?”

Taehyung is silenced: he is suddenly stripped raw and he feels horribly, nakedly exposed. He doesn’t even know how to begin to lie, he simply opens and closes his mouth like a fish out of water.

“Exactly,” says Jin, more calmly now, “So, I’m asking you for the final time, Taehyung, just let this go.”

Taehyung can only nod meekly, the fire of his rage complete extinguished in a flood of shame; he can’t look at Jin, instead focusing on his own feet, “I am so sorry. I think I better leave -” he mumbles weakly.

Jin has never seen Taehyung look so broken and he suddenly realises the full truth of what he’s actually said, of exactly how in love with you Taehyung actually is. Jin’s resolve weakens, “Taehyung,” he says softly, “I need you to do something else for me.”

In shame, Taehyung nods.

“Go and see her, she’ll be in her -” he catches himself, “the spare room. I want you to tell her that I have told you that she has to tell you the truth about everything and I mean EVERYTHING. Say I said code furry, and that I’m ok with it”

Taehyung looks confused but allows Jin to usher him out.

**********

You’re breathing normally when Taehyung enters the room, though you’re obviously crying, tucked in a foetal ball on the bed facing the wall. Taehyung sits on the desk chair in silence for a moment, ashamed that he’s done this to you.

As he looks around the room he has never before seen, at the photos and books, little decorations and plants, he realises this isn’t a spare room; it’s clearly your room.

What is going on with you and Jin? he thinks. Taehyung is more confused than ever. He rolls the chair closer to your bed to face your back, relaying Jin’s message word for word.

You don’t say anything for a moment, then you sit up and turn, back against the wall, knees to your chest as a defence against him, and you sigh.

“So… do you guys have some kind of kinky open relationship?” Taehyung ventures when you remain silent, trying to keep his tone soft and gentle.

You laugh humourlessly, “No, of course not.”

“What does Code Furry mean then? Is that your kink?” he presses.

“Stop making it all about sex, Taehyung,” you sigh, “It’s a code word meaning I should tell the truth. I can’t believe he wants me to tell you everything. I don’t understand why.”

Taehyung thinks he does, but really doesn’t want to declare his love right now, especially when you are clearly distraught and he is probably number one on your shit list.

You take a breath, “This never leaves this room,” you threaten and he nods. Before you speak, your mind is carried back to all those years ago when this all first started.

******************************

CHAPTER FOUR: The Truth Unfolds

Taehyung finally learns the truth from you, but does he get all of it?

Flashback to your postgrad days in Edinburgh

“What am I going to do?” Jin whines, “Why would my parents come here?”

You smile at him, “Jin, what’s going on here? Why so much panic? You love your family, I would’ve thought you’d have been excited?”

“I am, I do,” he splutters, “It’s not that - it’s working out what am I going to do about you?” he whines again, not able to meet your eyes as he buries his face into your shared sofa.

You laugh, and move over the the couch is sprawled on and you stroke his legs, “Hey, it’s ok,” you say reassuringly, “If they don’t know I live here I can stay with someone else, don’t worry!”

“That’s not it,” he groans, his words muffled by the cushion.

“Then what is it?” you say gently.

“I told them you’re my girlfriend,” he almost whispers.

You don’t say anything. You stop rubbing his leg and wait for him to get himself together. When he finally sits up and looks at you, you look at him neutrally. He looks helpless, and finally you take pity on him.

“Ok,” you say calmly, “So you’ve used me as a shield.”

He looks ashamed, and says “Ugh, I am so sorry -” as he buries his face in his hands.

You interrupt, you can’t bear to see how he’s misinterpreting you, “No, don’t, please,” you plead, taking his hands in yours, “Let’s do it. Fuck it, I’ll be your beard, it’s going to be ok…”

Jin grins broadly at you, his face nearly splitting in two and he pulls you into a strong hug and that’s how it all began.

**********

In your bedroom, you smile at the memory and begin explaining to Taehyung.

“So, ok, code furry isn’t something weird kink. There are no kinks of any kind. It just means I’m a beard,” you watch him for a reaction carefully.

“You’re a beard?” he repeats, none the wiser, “What does that mean?”

You sigh, “I’m a beard: I am a woman who acts as camouflage for a gay man.”

Taehyung’s mouth drops open, “Jin is gay?”

You nod as Taehyung’s brain spins, “Ed…” he says, realisation dawning.

You nod again, “Ed is his boyfriend.”

“Why?” is all Taehyung can think to say, his heart breaking for Jin that he’s been living such a double life and didn’t feel he could confide in his oldest, closest friends.

You explain about Jin’s family, the pressure, the judgement, the desperation he had to live his life freely driving him to come to the UK in the first place, his equal desperation for his family not to find out. Jin’s family were both supportive and loving, but they were obsessed with their successful company, and desperate for Jin to be the face of their success and to begin a chaebol empire. Jin tasted freedom on different shores and had never had to hide who he was with you when you met at University. When you had acted the part of his girlfriend so well, you’d both realised that it could be the a perfect distraction from the pressure from his parents: they were glad to see Jin happy and finally in a relationship and didn’t push for anything from it, hoping that it would not last.

It wasn’t that they disliked you, no, they were actually very fond of you and your clear love for their precious boy, but they still had their dreams and were hoping that Jin would come home and settle with a nice Korean girl, preferably an heiress. To maintain the illusion, Jin had decided to keep the secret from everyone at home, including his friends: fewer chances for a slip up and the truth being exposed was his logic.

As soon as you’re done explaining, Taehyung starts asking questions: he is reassured that Jin didn’t think that Taehyung or the other guys would judge him, but that all the concealment was for his parents, and their company and chaebol dreams, only.

You’ve talked for a long time and Taehyung sees you in an entirely new light and how much you’ve sacrificed for Jin because it’s obvious you do love him, if only like a brother. He’s overwhelmed with guilt for what he’d thought of you and how unkind he’s been. His heart aches for you and how hard it must have been.

“So Joe knows,” Taehyung states, rethinking the night of Wooshik’s party. You nod. “Do you love him?” Taehyung makes himself ask, his heart beating rapidly against his ribcage.

You shake your head, “Never. I don’t think I even like him very much anymore.” Taehyung smiles softly, not knowing what to say as you sit in awkward silence together.

Finally, he tries apologise but you won’t let him, you just ask him to leave so you can rest. It hurts, but he understands. He’s about to leave the room, when Jin enters and you both look at him.

Taehyung pulls Jin into a big hug, apologising, reassuring him and expressing his undying love and brotherly devotion. Jin is touched, and happy, and he beams, which you smile at.

“I was just leaving,” Taehyung says softly but Jin steps back and blocks the doorway.

“Did you tell him everything?” he asks you in surprise.

You nod, “Yep, yep, yep. Everything about you and me and Ed and Joe, yeah,” you say with a discernible edge to your voice which snags at Taehyung’s curiosity. Evidently, there are more secrets as yet unveiled…

“For fuck’s sake,” he says rolling his eyes, “Taehyung, sit down,” he says, taking the desk chair meaning Taehyung has to sit beside you.

You’re pleading with him to stop, but Jin ignores you, “Ok children,” he smiles, “Listen…”

Taehyung looks at Jin attentively as you make yourself into a small, groaning ball and roll to face the wall again.

“Taehyung, this lovely, beautiful, wonderful woman who I love but am not in love with, has had the most enormous crush on you from the first moment she met you…”

Taehyung spins his head to look at you but you are clenching your shoulders tightly and whining in embarrassment.

“Babe,” chides Jin, but you ignore him and remain curled like a terrified pangolin, “Taehyung here feels has all sorts of feelings about you too…”

Jin winks at Taehyung but he doesn’t see. His attention is fixed on you; he watches for a reaction but the mortification you feel doesn’t allow you to move.

“So,” says Jin, the amusement dripping from his voice, “Clearly we need to work out what to do next, because the situation has changed, but that’s tomorrow’s problem.”

He slaps his thighs and gets up, “I’m gonna head out, I’ll be at Ed’s tonight. I suggest you two talk, make out, fuck it out, whatever you need to do. You have my full blessing. I’ll see you in the morning,” and with another wink at a very puzzled Taehyung he leaves the room.

******************************

CHAPTER FIVE: Exposed

With the lies you’ve told laid bare, you struggle to be so naked in front of Taehyung.

Taehyung sits by you in silence for a while, feeling so many emotions at once that he doesn’t know what to do. Finally, he reaches out and gently touches your shoulder, but you pull away quickly as though his touch burns you.

Your voice is small, but clear, “I can’t do this right now,” you say through tears, “Please leave.”

Taehyung has no choice but to do as you ask, “Ok,” he says, standing up, “Can we talk soon?” he says, looking at your trembling back. You don’t reply, you just weep softly.

“It’s hard for me to leave you this way,” Taehyung says softly, “when you’re so upset.”

Still nothing.

“Because it’s true,” he states, “I hate to see you sad because Jin is right, but it’s so much more than a crush.”

He gives you a moment to reply, he thinks you might for a moment when you shift slightly, but you seem to change your mind.

“I’m not leaving. I’ll sleep on the couch. Tomorrow we’ll talk things out with Jin when he gets home,” he pauses, “I guess we can talk about the other stuff when you’re ready,” he finishes weakly.

His heart feels heavy as he leaves your room, as he pulls the door closed behind him he says, “I can wait.”

Suddenly, you’re getting up and for one mad, hopeful moment he thinks yo will come to him as he hopes, instead you gently push past him gently, “Follow me,” you say quietly.

He follows you to your home office, and the sliding panel that divides the room. You open it and step through into a small but neat bedroom. You pull clean bedding from the chest of drawers beside you and gesture silently for Taehyung to help you.

A short while later, bed made, you smile weakly at him, “you can sleep here,” you say softly and you leave the room.

He calls your name after you, but the rest of his words die in his throat as he finds he has nothing to say.

“Sleep well,” you reply softly and then you’re gone.

**********

Back in your bedroom your heart races. This should feel like a drama or a fantasy: finally, Taehyung knows the truth and he says he has feelings for you. You should be happy.

Though you might feel slightly less burdened by him knowing the truth, you’re now worried about what comes next for Jin. You also think of how hard things have been with Taehyung recently and you have no idea how to approach what to do next with things as tense as they’ve been.

Finally, you do the only thing you can think to do, the only thing you know how to do when the going gets as tough as this.

You knew, in your heart, that you would do this, it’s why you need Taehyung sleeping down the hall, not in the living room between you and the front door.

******************************

CHAPTER SIX: Of Mice and Men

Realising his scheme has failed, Jin plan a new one tat couldn’t possibly go awry? Could it?

“Fine,” grumbles Jin the next morning, his frustration evident, “I’ll think everything through and I won’t say anything to anyone until we’ve talked it out. Taehyung will keep silent too.”

Taehyung nods but stays silent, he doesn’t want to alert you that you’re on speakerphone.

They’re both surprised by what you say next, “Is Taehyung still there? Can I talk to him?”

Jin passes the phone to Taehyung, “Um, hi?” his voice is hesitant and unsure and Jin smirks at him.

“I hope you’re a man of your word, Taehyung,” comes your firm voice down the line, “I will not let Jin make any hasty decisions that fuck up the relationship he has with his family or Ed and you better not either.”

“I won’t -” he insists, and continues “But won’t you tell him where you are at least? He’s worried.”

“I’m fine,” you say, “Can you put him back on? Oh wait -” you fumble desperately, “No don’t yet -” but Taehyung can barely hear you now over the caterwauling that comes down the line. He almost drops the phone, grimacing, and is confused by the delight on Jin’s face as he snatches the phone as the sound fades.

“Fucking got you, bitch!” he shrieks victoriously, “Waverley Bridge! You’re in Edinburgh!”

Suddenly, the victorious tone is gone and Jin sounds apprehensive, “You’re not going to Kate’s?”

Taehyung hears you sigh, “That fucking bagpiper. Yes, I’m going to Kate’s,” you begrudgingly admit.

“Don’t see Gregor,” he states, but it sounds like a plea.

“I won’t,” you say and Jin can hear the honesty, as can Taehyung though his curiosity is piqued.

“If he’s there, just go to a hotel, any hotel,” Jin says desperately, “I’ll pay for anywhere. Promise me!” Taehyung is no longer curious, now he’s just worried as Jin gets more frantic.

“Fuck it,” he says, “Go into the Balmoral now,” Taehyung notes the steely authority, “you can see Kate but stay there and do not tell her that’s where you’re staying, say anywhere else.”

“Jin, that’s not necessary -” you begin, but he cuts you off.

“Listen to me,” he says passionately, “You may not be my actual girlfriend but you mean more to me than anyone, let me do this. Now go in, stay on the phone, get a room and put them on the line so I can pay,” and he takes you off speakerphone while moving to his room to get his wallet.

He looks at Taehyung as he moves, “Taehyung, stay, I’ll be back.”

**********

A few minutes later, Jin is back in the room having finished his call with you.

“Tae, much do you love her?” he asks straightforwardly.

“More than I thought was possible,” Taehyung replies honestly.

Jin smiles and breathes deeply, “The first time I met her, she was hiding behind a bus stop in the rain, trembling. The right side of her face was already purple…”

Jin shakes his head softly, his voice breaking at the memory and when he looks back at Taehyung his eyes are sparkling with tears.

“I can’t tell you the things he did to her. Him, fucking Gregor, Kate’s brother, but Jesus, Taehyung, she was terrified of him. They’d been together for years, she was so used to it…” Jin begins to cry.

Taehyung suddenly feels terrified for you, terrified at the thought of that man near you, and his own conduct looms large in his mind, the way he frightened you…

When Jin speaks next his voice sounds like it’s coming from under water, Taehyung starts to feel sick, memories of your frightened face after Joe had gripped your arm swaying into his mind now. Shame and self-disgust burn in him.

“I know she’s stronger now but I can’t bear it,” Jin continues, “She’s promised me she won’t even call Kate yet and when she sees her it’ll be in a public place… I believe her but I need to be there. I don’t think they should meet. I’ve booked another room in the hotel. I’m going now.”

“I’m coming,” Taehyung says immediately.

Jin simply smiles, “Good.”

**********

On the train, the two men sit across from one another. Jin seems to have taken the role of some kind of prospective father-in-law, grilling Taehyung with every question in the world about you from your favourite foods to films, fears and habits. He’s desperate to be sure of Taehyung’s feelings for you and to be sure he really loves you as much as he seems to before he plays the role of matchmaker.

“Can we stop this now? It’s been hours,” whinges Taehyung tiredly.

“Last one,” Jin sighs, “What’s your favourite thing about her appearance?” thinking he might punch Taehyung if he says your tits or ass.

“Her eyes,” Taehyung says without taking a pause.

“What colour are they?” Jin fires back.

Taehyung pictures your eyes, the colours that swirl in their depths and how they’re one shade in the bright sunlight, another in the dusk and another again when they brim with tears; he explains all this to Jin, describing in detail every tone and hue. As he finishes, he groans, palming his face, “God, I am so pathetically, desperately in love with her,” he breathes, realising how hopelessly head-over-heels he is.

Jin has never seen Taehyung like this before, and his heart softens. “When did you first fall for her?” Jin asks with a soft voice, his demeanour changed from interrogator to the friend Taehyung has always known.

“Hyung,” Taehyung blushes, still not totally able to move past the guilt that he’d fallen for his friend’s girl, even if it wasn’t real, “From the first day when she helped me on the tube, to be honest,” he sighs.

Jin grins, “That fast, eh?”

“It went downhill from the first moment she spoke to me… The gallery visits, the walks in the park, every little fucking thing she did she ruined me more, it just got worse and worse…” He takes a deep breath, “I would never in a million years have ever acted on any of it, I would never do that to you,” he adds earnestly.

Jin nods, “I know that,” he smiles, “I think if was really in love with her and she was in love with me you might have felt differently anyway - to be honest, I think you were picking up on her feelings for you.”

Taehyung pauses, excitement bubbling through him like lava; here it is, the thing he’s desperate to know more about with a burning need, “These feelings she has for me… tell me more.”

Jin smirks, “Ah man,” he smiles, “She’ll kill me…”

Taehyung pleads and Jin, feeling reckless and now determined to see you and Taehyung together, relents, “Ok, ok, ok, fuck it…”

For the rest of the journey, Taehyung smiles as Jin tells stories about you, how you told him within days of them arriving that you were drawn to Taehyung and every detail after that as you fell more and more in love with him.

Taehyung is amazed at how you told Jin the truth at every turn, making him feel even more ashamed of the way he treated you over Joe, which as it turned out, Jin knew everything about too. Yet he’s also thrilled by the fact that you feel as much for him as he does for you. Taehyung’s romantic heart rejoices in the fact that you two have fallen for each other at the same pace, same depth and in the same way and, somehow, all at the exact same time.

For Jin’s part, as he watches his friend’s face dissolve into excitable giggles and smiles, a different kind of shame envelopes him. Jin understands now that you may well be the love of Taehyung’s life, and he yours; he curses himself for coming between you.

The two men’s regrets unite them. By the time they get off the train they are both resolved on one thing: when you get back from Scotland you will finally be with Taehyung.

As they alight the train, breathing in the Scottish air, they both neglect the famous words of Robbie Burns: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley” (the best plans of mice and men often go wrong). You, neither man nor mouse, have fled without a plan; yet, that doesn’t mean that you’re likely to submit to theirs either.

Neither Taehyung nor Jin have considered this. Not at all.

PART TWO HERE

#bts smut #taehyung smut #v smut #bangtan #taehyung x reader #jin x reader #taehyung fic #taehyung x oc #jin x oc #jin fic #bts fic #bts fanfic

34 notes · View notes

blu-archer · 2 years

Text

Prescription: Rest with a side of love

It's been a while... forgive me? 🖤

[based on a post I saw months ago - it's really taken me that long to write guys, what is this world..]

[part 1]

Pairing: Yoongi/Jimin/Hoseok

m/m/m

Sickie:Jm

Caregiver: Taekook [for now]

snz/sickfic

Enjoy...🖤

“Please tell me you have tissues?”

Jungkook blinked – whatever he’d been about to type to Taehyung a second before was forgotten at his fingertips. He turned to look at the bedraggled appearance of his best friend, a look more tailored towards what Jungkook himself usually embraced as the elder tended to be a lot more conscious of his appearance and presentation, especially when hanging around campus.

Jungkook had barely registered the innocent question he’d been blindsided with. Jimin had appeared out of thin air, which was even harder to believe considering how Jimin’s classes weren’t anywhere close to his own, not to mention that the elder was almost twice his usual size because of the thick, padded clothes he had on. That, and the fact that he just looked like a walking disaster. Jungkook hadn’t seen his hyung at their apartment that morning – he’d had to meet a tutor before his unfortunate 8am class, and even if he had managed the rare miracle of seeing either of his flatmates up and functioning before 9, he definitely wouldn’t have been awake enough to be able to realise it – but from the mess of tangled blonde hair and the rosy sheen on Jimin’s cheeks Jungkook was certain that something was wrong.

Jimin rested his head on his arms, folding onto the table that Jungkook had been sitting at studying for the past 2 hours and gave a miserably deep, muffled moan that made Jungkook wince and pat at his back in sympathy.

“Sorry, Hyung… I didn’t bring any with me today.” He frowned at the answering moan, whinier than before. “Are you feeling okay? I thought you had studio classes now? What are you even doing on this side of campus?”

Jimin pushed himself upright and rubbed tenderly at his nose with a sleeved wrist. Jungkook had a feeling that the elder must have resorted to his sleeves some time ago if his reddened nose and the dark splotches on the fabric had anything to say about it.

“I’m sick. My throat was sore yesterday, and I was a little stuffed up this morning, so I thought maybe I was getting a cold. Which, usually, I could push through in my classes, but my 10am nailed me hard and my whole body just feels heavy and achy. I barely had the energy to walk here, I can't even imagine dancing right now... This is actually starting to feel like the flu.” He sniffled wetly, then winced before angling his body away from Jungkook. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t be near you right now. I just saw you sitting here, and I still have an hour before the bus gets here.”

"We live together, hyung. It's fine." Jungkook smiled softly, before a sinking feeling settled in his chest at Jimin's last words. “The bus?”

Well that made sense as to why he was so close to the Science department then. Although Jungkook couldn’t imagine why he would want to get a bus back home. It was usually overcrowded, and he’d still have to walk ten minutes from the stop to their complex ,which wasn’t something Jimin enjoyed on the best of days. He shook off Jimin’s attempt at shielding him and slid the iced coffee he’d been sipping on for the last twenty minutes across the table. He may have momentarily forgotten about it and it had become slightly watered down, but he doubted Jimin would complain about a free drink if his throat was hurting.

“Why don’t you get one of your boyfriends to pick you up? Or your brother?”

“My brother has an exam and Yoongi and Hobi are still in Daegu. They’re only planning on getting back in like a week or two.” Jimin shrugged with a punctuated sniffle and accepted the drink, lifting the cup to press the cool side of it to his cheek. He let out a soft breath that deepened Jungkook’s frown. “I haven’t even called them in a few days. There’s just no time… God, I just want to go to sleep. I feel like I’ve never had decent sleep in my life. I actually haven’t slept properly since Yoongi and Hoseok left. And my practises aren’t going as well as I want them to.”

“Exam season has been particularly rough this time round.” Jungkook agreed softly, not being able to relate exactly but sympathising with Jimin’s exasperated tone anyway.

He hadn’t even met the ‘boyfriends’ yet, always too busy, but Tae had and from the stories he had told Jungkook and teased Jimin about, the older two men seemed to be extremely caring and loving towards Jimin, not to mention Jimin was completely whipped for the two even after only a few months of dating. A part of him felt a little guilty at not having noticed his friend's lack of sleep, but to be fair, he wasn’t getting that many hours in either, so he probably wasn't noticing a lot. But surely his boyfriends would be able to lift Jimin’s mood even without being present. The elder had always revelled in attention, even if it wasn’t directly physical or overbearing.

“… Maybe you should give them a call when you get back home? Or a text at least. I won’t be back until late and I think Tae is planning to work on his exhibition with a few of his classmates. So we can’t even try to help out with stuff right now… Talking to them at least might help, you know?”

“Mmm,” Jimin sniffled quietly but persistently as he finally sipped the coffee, slumping back over the table tiredly. “This day has been such a waste. I’m so behind on my final choreo, and I was supposed to help this freshman that’s in my tutorial class tomorrow. God, I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to pitch up to tutor my class this week. I can’t believe this happened… I took so many vitamins.”

Jungkook tried to swallow his laughter at his friend's words. Leave it to the dancer to believe that would be what saved him from Finals Flu. Jimin hid his face into his arms with a muffled whine, the pitch enticing a few annoying coughs out that shook his frame. Jungkook reached out and sunk his fingers into his friend's hair, gently scratching at his scalp until Jimin’s breathing evened out again.

“I’m going to message Tae and see if he can drop you off at home, I don’t think you should take the bus right now. You feel a little warm and no one’s home to make sure you get there okay.”

The only answer he got was Jimin blindly pressing the barely cool cup back to his face, his forehead resting almost entirely on the table. Jungkook would have warned against it because, A] it looked like it had gone through multiple food wars and B] was probably riddled with germs, but it felt a bit too ironic in this case.

“Hang tight, hyung.” Jungkook brushed through the messy blonde hair again as he drew attention to his forgotten phone, Taehyung’s last stupid meme still staring at him in the open chat. “You’ll feel better soon.”

“Jiminie… You need to help me out a little here, okay?” Taehyung grunted as he shifted Jimin in his arms.

He almost regretted having encouraged Jimin to sleep in the car when they had hit traffic. Climbing the flight of stairs leading up to their apartment was a challenge without having to carry dead weight and Jimin’s sleepy clinging was really narrowing down his movement. Taehyung was silently cursing himself for not accepting his friends offer to help bring Jimin up, but he doubted his flatmate would appreciate someone he didn’t know helping him walk home, so he’d just have to rely on any muscle he had gained from carrying around easels and canvas’ [and that one day that Jimin and Jungkook had convinced him that gym would be fun].

He stumbled on the final step and would have dropped Jimin if the elder hadn’t hugged him tighter, his cold, sniffling nose pressing hard against Taehyung's collarbone.

“I can’t believe you made me carry you.” Tae huffed as they got to their door. He pressed Jimin up against the wall, angling his body in a way to still keep Jimin aloft while he managed to slip his keys into the door and opened it.

“You offered.” Jimin murmured, rubbing his nose against Tae’s skin with a hope to quell the tickle that had started to rise ever since he’d gotten in the car.

“I guess I did.” Tae huffed out a laugh and slipped his arms under Jimin’s thighs before gripping him sturdily and walking into their home. “Don’t you dare sneeze on me, we can’t be friends if you do that.”

“Liar.”

Fair enough. They had known each other and lived together too long to actually be bothered by stuff like that at this point, it had happened too often in the past anyway – mostly his own fault – so it made sense that his threat was discarded so easily. Taehyung took quick, shaky strides into their cramped home towards their trusty, beaten up couch and dropped Jimin just as his arms gave out, almost collapsing on top of his friend from the momentum.

He gave an exaggerated sigh, shaking his head with a low chuckle as Jimin moaned and curled into the lumpy seat. Choosing to cuddle into the hoodie Jungkook had left there the day before rather than continue clinging to Tae, mumbling a deep curse at being dropped that felt about as harsh as being hit with a soft, downy pillow. Taehyung chuckled as he straightened his shirt and caught his breath, moving quickly to their bathroom to see if they had any medication.

“Tae…” Jimin called, his voice a bit hoarser than earlier that he couldn’t completely blame on sleep. “Taaeee…”

“Yeeesss?”

“Bring a blanket, please.”

There was some distant shuffling as the artist continued his search. Jimin took the time to kick off his shoes and adjust to a more comfortable position, which was a feat in itself on that couch. His body, which had been aching before, was now numbingly heavy. His thoughts were clouded and the insistent tickle in his sinuses was yet to leave him in peace. The room seemed to be freezing, even in his padding of clothes, but when Taehyung reemerged with two medicine bottles and his own weighted blanket, he appeared unaffected. So it must just be Jimin then.

"You don't share this one." Jimin stated as Tae forced him out of his jacket before draping the red blanket over him and tucking it in.

"Mmm, but maybe it will help you sleep. I know you kind of like the pressure on you as well." Taehyung brushed the hair back off of Jimin's face, smiling as his best friend melted into the touch. "There is some stuff you need to take as well. We don't have much, but it's enough for now. I'll try to get home earlier than I planned, or I'll call in a delivery. Delivery might be best, I can't cook anything edible anyways."

Jimin started to deny the claim, Taehyung really did try and sometimes it wasn't half bad, but his breath stuttered off into an abrupt, throat paining sneeze.

"Ow…." He sniffled, shifted to release his arm from the blanket and pressed the sleeve of his shirt to his nose, already feeling more coming.

"Bless you." Tae pouted, disappearing for a moment then emerging from Jungkook’s room with a box of tissues. "I need to go, but take some medicine and go to bed, okay? Or stay here, whatever makes you happy. I'll send food later."

Jimin nodded, gearing up for another sneeze that annoyingly just wouldn't surface completely. Taehyung called out a final goodbye and then Jimin was left by himself. No matter how much he rubbed at his nose or stared at the sunlight streaming through their windows, the tickle kept ebbing off just as he thought he'd finally get it out. It was driving him insane.

Immensely frustrated, he grappled for the tissues to blow his nose. Proceeding to blow through 4 or 5 before he finally hitched his breath enough to catch a fit of itchy, damp sneezes into a tissue. Not that the tissue lasted long but it had helped a little. He plucked a few more tissues from the box, which surely would be finished by the end of the day, and blew his nose a final time before wiping his hands.

He dropped the mess he'd created to the floor, a miniature pile of white beginning to grow. Then pushed himself up right, increasing the ever constant sniffling that he had been struggling with the whole day so far. The medicine was generic for colds and flu, and surely with how often the three roommates relied on it they must be building up some type of tolerance, but it was all that they had and was definitely the more affordable brand for broke students.

Foregoing a spoon for the syrup mixture, Jimin sipped it twice before switching to the next and dry swallowing the pain tablet in the other bottle. It was a bit painful with how his throat flared, he probably should have swallowed the tablet first, but his head wasn't working properly. The sleep in the car had only made him more groggy than what he had been already, and the sneezing was definitely knocking some brain cells. Or at the very least masking them to a point of non-existence.

He sunk back into his previous position, a fresh tissue pressed to his running nose as he panted warm breaths against his hand, somehow the feeling only added to how disgusting he was feeling. A part of him vaguely remembered Jungkook mentioning he should call his boyfriends, that part of him really wanted to. Yoongi would shower him with deep, soft words that would make him melt, and Hoseok would surely try his best to give any and all care that he possibly could over a call, and that thought alone was almost enough to make Jimin reach for his phone. But they were visiting their families, he didn't want them to worry about him even if a large part of him really did actually want them to worry about him.

He couldn't be a burden. The two men worked hard at their jobs and often worked harder than they should in order to spend time with him together, and it wasn't often that they got to visit their parents and siblings at all. Usually just on main holidays.

So as much as he wanted to, and he really really wanted to, Jimin refused to make the call. He was tired anyway, and the weight of Taehyung's blanket was reassuring in its comfort. Jimin would text them later, hopefully feeling better, but for now he shut his heavy eyes and let the wave of fatigue paired with his medicine take over his body.

#platonic soulmates #university au #yoonseokmin #bts sickfic #bts snz #alternate universe #colds #dancer jimin #yoonsoek will be present next time #Taekook are good bestfriends #poly relationship #series #bts fanfic

25 notes · View notes

taleasnewastime · 3 years

Text

Flatmates | Part 1

Summary: You need to find a spare room after deciding to move out of your flat that you share with your best friend and her boyfriend. Stumbling upon an advert for a room that seems almost too good to be true, you decide for once to not over think and go for it. But who is the mystery flatmate you are now living with that you hardly see?

Pairing: Hoseok x reader

Genre: Fluff, angst.

Word count: 19.7k

Part 2

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol consumption (though just for fun).

Authors Note: So, I wrote a thing and it turned out to be very long so I have decided to split it into 2 parts. The second part isn’t currently finished but it is not far off so hopefully won’t take me too much longer. This has taken me a while to write and it’s not perfect by any means, but I like it so whatever. It’s based off the same concept as the book “The Flat Share”. I hope you all enjoy it!

Flicking through the ads for a spare room seemed like second nature to you now. You felt like an expert on the topic. You could easily create a presentation detailing the common mistakes people made when advertising a room, how you could easily spot if something was too good to be true, and when someone was probably a hidden psychopath, just from what they’d written about their spare room. You could probably draw a map of the city and detail the average prices of a room in each area, how fast some rooms went in some areas compared to others and which areas were best to look at. Having lived in the city for two years you felt like you knew it pretty well, but as soon as you started to search for a room to rent you realised how little you actually knew about it.

When you moved to the city it was with your best friend Lily. You had rented a two bedroom flat together and the first few months were amazing, the whole two years were amazing, but after living in the city for just 3 months Lily found a boyfriend. So after he basically moved in with her, and you effectively becoming a live in third wheel, and even though you were the one to find the flat in the first place, you decided you should move out. You didn’t resent Lily for it, and it was your decision to move, but it still made you sad, the end of a chapter in your life. You would still be in the same city and would still see each other all the time but it felt like a new chapter, one where she was getting serious with a guy and where you were still single and sharing a house with someone. It��s almost as if you hadn’t left university.

Finding a spare room was easier said than done. You had asked around at work whether anyone was looking for a flatmate but everyone was either in a serious relationship or already tied into a contract with other friends. You’d even been desperate enough to ask friends of friends, putting it out on your Facebook that you were looking for someone to live with hadn’t helped, so you turned to looking for spare rooms online.

Again, this was easier said than done. But you still looked, every day and night refreshing your search in the hopes of finding the perfect room or roommate, not wanting the perfect room to slip through your fingers. You had even looked around a few places, one that was an actual dump, clothes and dirty plates laying around the flat, one that was nice but a bit small and a 40 minute commute to work and one that was almost perfect if not for the fact the other people living there were doing drugs as soon as you walked through the door.

You had even wondered whether you should just up your search to find a flat of your own, you were on a good wage, you felt like a young semi-successful business woman, why couldn’t you have your own place? Well due to extortionate rent, that’s why. So after considering getting a flat to yourself for approximately 10 minutes it was back to looking at spare rooms.

Continuing to scroll down a page listing rooms you reach the point where you had already seen all the rooms past that point. You pause and stretch your back, twisting your neck slightly to ease some tension, and reach to take a sip of your drink. You had decided to come to a coffee shop early on a Saturday to do some searching, finding you were way more productive and less likely to get distracted in the public place. And though you had been good so far, that didn’t mean you had found any results. Deciding to refresh the page one more time before giving up for a bit, you set down your cup.

Scrolling to the top of the page you click refresh and watch as the pictures disappear for a second before popping back. You are shocked to see a new ad, one that wasn’t there a second ago. From the small icon it looked good, the description detailing a rough location and a price that seemed almost too good to be true. Clicking it to expand the details and see more pictures you were shocked at what you were seeing. A spare room in a flat that was probably double the size of where you currently lived, in one of the most sought-after areas in the city, and the price of the room wasn’t through the roof. You read through the details looking for some sort of catch but couldn’t see anything, just a number at the bottom of the page saying to call with queries or interest.

Instinctively you pick up your phone and type in the number given. This was so unlike you, normally someone to not make a quick decision, to mull over everything before acting, but even you could see that this could be something too good to miss. You were willing to risk looking into it more given how long you’d been looking, even if it was just to find out they’d accidentally missed a zero off the end of the rent price. It took 5 rings before someone answered the phone.

“Hello,” a female voice sounded out.

“Hi I’m Y/N, I’m calling regarding the ad that has been placed on spareroom.com,” you put on your most formal, chipper voice.

“Oh, that was quick,” you can hear the surprise in the voice.

“Yeah, I guess I was just looking at the right time,” you say, not wanting to sound too desperate in admitting that you basically live on that site.

“Well, is there anything you wanted to ask? Any details I missed from the ad?” She asks.

“I was actually hoping I could come and have a look at the room. The pictures and description make it sound great but it would be nice to see it in person,” you reply.

“Oh, yeah, sure. I’ll have to have a look when it’s free,” she pauses and you can hear the flicking of pages as if she is looking through a diary. “You see it’s not actually my flat, I’m just putting it up for a friend, I guess. It’s kind of complicated actually, but I can talk you through it all when we meet,” her tone and what she says worries you slightly, you knew that there had to be some sort of catch. This was definitely too good to be true. “We could actually go look this afternoon if you’re free?” She says.

“That would be great,” you say. Even though there was some doubt seeping into your mind from what she had said you decided that it was still worth going to look around. The worst that could happen is that it’s awful and whatever complicated situation she was talking about was a deal breaker and then you would continue your search. But this complicated situation might not be that bad and then you may finally have a place to live. It was worth spending some of your Saturday looking around a flat, plus you got to snoop in someone's house which was always a perk.

“OK, I’ll text you the address and a time, I’m guessing this number is ok?” She says.

“Yep, this number is perfect. I look forward to meeting you later,” you say.

“I’m Rosie by the way. Should have introduced myself earlier,” she gives out a small laugh at her words. “Anyway, just come to the address later and tell the doorman you’re meeting me and he’ll point you in the right direction. I’ll put all of this in the text, don’t worry.”

“Great, see you later,” you reply before you both hang up.

Placing the phone down on the table you go over the conversation you just had. A doorman? The place looked fancy from the pictures and you could tell by the address that it was in a good area but a doorman? Maybe this place was out of your league.

Just as you are think this a text comes through and you look at the message.

Hi Y/N, this is Rosie. It was nice speaking to you and I look forward to meeting you in person. As I said just let the doorman know you are looking for me and he will help you out.

At the end of the text she lists the address and you immediately open a new tab to look into the building. A few news stories pop up with a list of famous people who are rumoured to live in the building, a few pictures of them entering and leaving the building. Next there were a few websites that list the prices of the flats and you suck in a large amount of air, eyes widening at the price. You would never earn that sort of money in your lifetime let alone be able to spend it on a flat. Maybe Rosie was right when she said there was a complicated story behind this spare room. Why the hell was someone, that was obviously rich, listing their spare room for some stranger to live with them?

Looking down at what you were wearing and then at the clock you decide that you have enough time to rush home and change into something that could be classed as a bit nicer than your current attire. Almost slamming your laptop shut, you shove it into your open bag before downing your drink and rushing out of the café.

Your eyes pan up the side of the building, your head falling backwards on your neck so that you can see the top. It was shear glass and you imagine that the views of the city from the upper floors are beautiful. After taking in the building you look down and slowly move towards the door, continuing to question how you managed to find this place advertising a spare room. Glancing down at your phone and then at the fancy plaque by the door, you check for the tenth time that you are at the right place. Confirming the words do in fact match each other you reach for the door only for it to swing open for you, a man in a smart black suit holds the door and looks down at you. There is a small forced smile on his lips and you can see by the look in his eye that you would not want to be on the wrong side of him.

“Can I help you?” He questions, his voice just as stern as his demeanour.

“Hi,” you almost stutter the words, intimidated by the man. “I’m here for Rosie. I mean Rosie said to meet her here?” Your voice is full of the nerves that are currently swimming around your stomach and you curse yourself for not asking what Rosie’s second name was.

The small forced smile is replaced by a more genuine smile, the man's eyes softening as he looks at you. “She told me you’d be coming. Come on in,” relief washes over you as the man steps out of your way, holding the door open so you can enter the building.

Giving him a small smile as you walk past him, you step into the lobby. The ceilings are tall and light floods in through the windows. There are a few sofas scattered for people to sit, some coffee tables with magazines and books on top. A small desk is by the door, some buttons and papers scatter the desk and you assume that is where the man who had just held the door open for you sits. At the far end of the lobby there are some elevator doors and placed around the edge of the room there are large leafed plants. If this was just the entrance to the building what the hell do the flats look like, you think. This room alone was nicer than any other room you had stepped foot in in your life. The doorman steps past you and heads towards the elevator and you slowly follow him.

“You will be going to the 14th floor. When the doors open there is a small room, almost like a porch and there you will see the front door to the flat. Rosie is already up there so if you knock, she should come meet you,” he gives you the details after having pushed the button to summon the elevator and you nod at his words.

There is a small ding as the doors open revealing a small mirrored room. Looking to the man for reassurance you step in and say thanks just before the doors close, leaving you on your own. You can feel your heart thump in your chest as you push the number 14. The elevator feels like it's hardly moving as it ascends and you rub your sweaty palms on your trousers as you near your destination.

Just as the man described, when the doors open there is a small room. Again, a small sofa with some plants welcome you, just as they had in the lobby. Stepping out of the elevator you head to the door and knock hard before you can over think the situation you have found yourself in. It only takes a few seconds but each one feels like an hour before the door opens. A girl stands before you, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders, a well fitted black dress on, light make-up on her face. She beams at you as soon as the door is opened and you feel her energy infectious, a smile appearing on your own face as you look at her.

“Hi, it’s Y/N right?” She says as she extends a hand for you to shake. “I’m Rosie, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” you say as you shake her hand, nerves slowly dissipating as you do.

Stepping out of your way and holding the door open, much like the doorman had earlier, Rosie silently invites you into the flat. Taking a step in you slip your shoes off before looking around. The place looked exactly like the photos you had seen, if not slightly better.

“So I thought I’d give you a quick tour and then we can have a chat and go over a few points,” Rosie says and you nodded.

You silently follow her around the flat, where she shows you the kitchen, a modern open plan space with a big island in the middle where you could sit and eat. A living room with a light grey square sofa that could easily accommodate 20+ people, this faced a TV that covered nearly half the wall. Then you moved onto a hall where you walked past several doors before she opened one that held a large bed and had an attached ensuite. The whole place seemed like it was over the top, there was everything you would find in a normal flat but it seemed to be doubled in size here. Pictures and art lined every room that you went into and the decor looked like it was straight out of a high-end magazine.

Walking around you felt like you didn’t belong here, it was the most amazing place you had ever seen and you were unsure what the catch was. You would never in a million years be able to afford a place like this. When you had seen your could be room, Rosie leads you back towards the living room but carries on past the door to another room. Set up as a snug come library of sorts, it was definitely your favourite room you had seen, it felt the homeliest and the view of the city was amazing, if you really focused you could make out your office and current flat.

Rosie takes a seat on one of the armchairs and indicates for you to take one of the other seats.

“So that’s a quick look at the flat. What do you think?” She asks.

“I mean it’s beautiful. I’m kind of wondering why the rent is so low and why the spare room is being advertised in the first place,” you admit, hoping to get to the point quickly.

“Yes,” Rosie sighs and looks out the window which makes your heart pick up in slight panic. “Well like I said I don’t actually live here I’m just doing this for a friend. And as you will have also noticed the flat is empty apart from us. Basically, the person who owns the flat, my friend, he is a busy man and doesn’t actually live here that much. He often is travelling on business for long periods of time and when he is in the city he works a lot so even then he is hardly home,” she pauses to gage your reaction which is pure confusion, unsure where this is headed. “Well he doesn’t like the idea of the flat sitting empty all the time. He wants someone to move in and live here, keep it clean, use the appliances so they don’t seize up or anything.”

“So he wants a live-in house sitter. The rent is so low because I’ll be expected to do jobs around the place?” You question, slightly confused by the explanation. Was this guy making the rent so low because he was expecting the person to almost work for him in return. You already had a job, you didn’t need to be coming home to work some more. “Could he not just hire a cleaner to come here every day?”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” Rosie is quick to reassure you. “He just wants someone to live here. You wouldn’t be expected to do any jobs, if something broke then someone else would come and fix it just like in a normal contract. And a cleaner comes here once a week already, so you would only be expected to keep the place tidy,” she pauses again, obviously searching for the words to explain what she means. “He just wants someone to live here, to enjoy the space, to make it homely, to just appreciate the flat in the ways that he can’t.”

You remain confused. The person that lived here was obviously rich, they were obviously successful, why would they want someone to invade their space just so that the space is enjoyed. Didn’t they want to enjoy the space themselves without someone lurking around. It didn’t really make any sense to you.

“You would hardly see him,” Rosie continues seeing the unease on your face. “To be honest you may never meet him, like I said he is hardly here and when he is, he is a pretty private person.”

“That’s what's confusing me,” you admit. “I’m not going to lie, this flat is amazing and beautiful and I have never seen anything like this in my life and I don’t think I will ever be able to afford to live in a place like this. But if I could, I wouldn’t want anyone living here, even if I was hardly here, I’d want it all to myself. And the rent is so ridiculously low for a place this nice, he could be charging through the roof and still have people paying him to stay here,” you have to stop yourself from rambling, remembering that you are still being considered to live here, you didn’t want to blow your chances by saying the wrong thing or convincing them of raising the rent to a figure you couldn’t afford.

“I think that’s the thing, he doesn’t want just anyone staying here, he wants someone normal. It’s not about the money for him, like you said he has money. Listen, I can’t speak for him about his reasonings for doing this, and to be honest I tried to convince him to not do it, like you said he could get any crazy living here. But I guess that’s my job, to find the best person to live here for him,” Rosie says.

“And have I passed the checks?” You smile at her, the tension in the room lessening slightly.

“I’m not sure yet,” she laughs faintly.

“To be completely open and honest with you, I googled this place when you sent me the address,” she raises an eyebrow at your confession a small smile on her face and you can tell that she was expecting this. “It’s seems like a popular building, lots of well-known people living here. Am I allowed to know who my potential flat mate is?”

“It’s a very nice building, and like you said lots of very famous people live here, but unfortunately the person who lives here is not one of them. Just some hot-shot business man,” you can tell the speech is rehearsed and you are unsure whether to believe her, but to be honest you are secretly glad it’s not a famous person. And it made sense they weren’t, a famous didn’t need some crazed fan living in their flat.

“Suits me,” you nod at her and you can see relief wash over her face. “To be honest I’m not the sort of person that is into the whole fame thing anyway. I don’t really keep up with the latest gossip or news about what people I don’t know are doing,” you admit, and it was true. Sure you could recognise some famous people and you could pick out certain faces from a line up, but that was just because it was impossible to avoid all celeb news. You honestly had no interest in what a person you didn’t know was doing with their life.

“You don’t read TMZ and scour the internet over whether Taylor Swift has got a new boyfriend on your weekends?” Rosie says and you can hear the sarcasm in her voice.

“I didn’t know Justin Bieber was married until last weekend, and I honestly have no idea who he is married to,” you admit and you see the smile on her face widen at your confession. “But then I do know who Leonardo Dicaprio is and I know he is into environmental issues and finally won an Oscar a few years ago,” you say with a shrug giving her an insight into your level of celeb knowledge.

“But then who doesn’t know that,” she laughs at your statement. “So you may not even know if you bump into a famous person here?”

“Honestly when I saw the list of names online there was a few a recognised but not many. I’d possibly recognise their face but may not be able to place it,” you say and she hums in response her faced scrunched in thought as she looks at you. You were being honest with her and you hoped she could see that and didn’t think you were saying all of this just to secure the room.

After that the conversation moves onto some questions about you; where you work, why you are looking for a room, questions about cleanliness and general upkeep, normal questions someone would ask a potential new flatmate. When Rosie finishes her questions you both get up and head to the door, she stands at the door and watches as you call for the lift.

“Thanks for coming today,” she says.

“Thanks for letting me look around so quickly. It really is a lovely flat,” you reply.

“I’ll be in contact with you to let you know our decision either way, obviously I will have to discuss this with Hobi,” she slips up and reveals the name of the man that lives here. You try to remain passive at the name though you can see the slight panic in her eyes at her mistake, though you honestly don’t recognise the name. “And there are a few other potential people that are going to come have a look around to,” she carries on as if nothing had happened.

“Of course, I don’t expect it to be a quick decision,” you say. “Do you have any idea when I’ll hear by?”

“I’ll get back to you by the end of next week,” she says.

You nod at her and hear the ding of the elevator from behind you.

“It was nice to meet you. I look forward to hearing from you,” you smile as you back into the elevator.

“You too, Y/N,” Rosie says before the doors close.

As you stare at your reflection in the mirror heading down to the lobby you are a bit in shock. What the hell was that place and who the hell was this Hobi that owned a flat that he hardly lived in? The situation all seemed so strange, something you could never have imagined. As you head down to the lobby you imagine living here, and as amazing as it was you wonder whether it is even somewhere that you’d ever feel comfortable. You feel out of place just stood in the elevator and would probably walk around on egg shells in fear of breaking anything in the flat. It was all in Rosie and the mysterious Hobi’s hands now so there was no point even thinking about it until you heard a reply, you reason as the doors finally open to the lobby.

“So let me get this straight. Some rich ass man wants you to live in his expensive ass house where you will basically have the place to yourself and all you have to do is make sure the place is tidy?” Lily says.

“I mean, kind of yeah,” you reply.

After meeting with Rosie you had come home and after changing into some comfier clothes you had collapsed on the sofa and told Lily about your crazy day.

“When do you move in?” You can hear the excitement in Lilys voice.

“I’ve already told you, today was just me looking at the place. They need to tell me if they want me first and then I have to decide if I want to live there,” you explain for what feels like the fiftieth time.

“I’m still not understanding why you would turn down this offer. It sounds too good to be true, an amazing flat that will basically be yours for basically shit all money.”

“That’s the point,” you sigh, your brain slightly aching from all the thoughts that had been running through your head since you left the flat. “It’s too good to be true, there has to be some sort of catch.”

“And what if there isn’t? What if it is exactly how it looks? You over think everything Y/N, please just this once don’t over think it,” Lily pleads.

“I’ve not even been offered the room yet,” you say, but when you look at Lilys face you give in. “But fine. If they offer me the room, I promise I will not over think it.”

Lily squeals slightly and leans in to give you a tight hug. “I can’t wait to see this amazing flat,” she says into your ear.

You simply roll your eyes at her, unwilling to correct her statement, you may never move in.

Over the next week, however, you can’t get the flat out of your head. You continue to look at possible rooms online, as you still might need to find something, but as you scroll you never really take in anything, nothing living up to what you had already found. By the Tuesday you all but stop looking, deciding that if everything falls through and you don’t get offered the room then you could pick up your search again. A few days off wouldn’t kill you.

But your lack of searching only increases your thoughts of the flat. You remember the details of the city out of the window, it never looking quite as beautiful from where you stood on the ground. You remember the big kitchen, and curse whenever you were in your own and Lily walked in, making it feel cramped. You remember the room that could be yours, the bare walls and how you would decorate them, the big bed you could be sleeping in, the shower that would surely have amazing high pressure that wouldn’t cause the water to be just a trickle. You remember the little snug room that you spoke to Rosie in, the books and CDs that lined the walls and the different comfy chairs that all had contrasting patterns. As much as you tried not to think about it, you couldn’t get it out of your head.

What you also couldn’t get out of your head was this mysterious man. Though you had caught the name when it slipped out of Rosies mouth you decided to respect his privacy and did not look into the name. If he wanted to remain unknown then so be it, as Rosie said you would probably never meet him anyway so it made no difference to you. And although Lily had asked several times you only told her that you didn’t know who owned the flat and that it was just some business man, that is essentially all you knew anyway.

As the week started to draw to a close you became more and more attached to your phone. Any notification or noise that came from it sent your heart racing at the possibility of it being Rosie. Yet none of them were her. As Sunday started to draw to a close you gave up hope entirely. To be honest you had expected to hear by Friday night so the fact it had been two whole days and you still hadn’t heard anything, you had essentially given up hope.

By Monday you were slightly annoyed. After work you opened up your laptop and started to scroll through your frequented websites in search of a possible new room. You were annoyed that Rosie hadn’t even messaged you to say that they weren’t offering you the room. When you had left her she had said that she would let you know either way, yet here you were without a word.

You became slightly grumpy at home too, pushing your bad feelings onto Lily and her boyfriend Eddie. Every time you caught yourself snapping or being moody you would apologise, but Lily understood and didn’t blame you for your behaviour. You were in a complete funk by Tuesday evening, annoyed at yourself now for getting your hopes so high. You should have been realistic and realised that the flat was too good for you. That of course they would offer it to someone else. That you were right from the start, you didn’t belong in a place like that.

As you sit on your bed your phone rings, you didn’t even look at the caller ID before answering, head somewhere completely else.

“Hello,” you say. Hearing your own voice sounded weird, it came out flat and devoid of emotion, not your normal self.

“Hi, Y/N? It’s Rosie,” you perk up at the voice and have to pull the phone away from your head to check the number. Sure enough it was Rosie. “Have I caught you at a bad time?”

“No, no, sorry,” you stutter out, coughing slightly to make your voice sound more normal. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting a call.”

“That’s my fault sorry. I said I’d let you know by last week and it’s my fault entirely that I am so late, there’s been a lot going on recently. But again my fault, no excuses,” she says.

“No, it’s OK,” you reply, feeling your bad mood drift away, only to be replaced by nerves. The anticipation of what she was about to tell you made you feel like you were back at school waiting for your exam results, were you going to pass and feel elated or fail and go back to your funk.

“So, as I assume you have guessed, it’s about the room you viewed the other week,” she explains as if you have no clue what is going on. You remain silent letting her fill it with an answer. “So I have spoken to my friend and as I said we did have some other people come and look at the flat, to be honest we had quite a bit of interest,” her words were not filling you with hope and you had to will yourself to sound positive when she lets you down. “But me and my friend both agree that you would be the perfect match and he would like to offer you the room.”

You almost drop the phone at her words. Your mouth pops open in shock, eyes go wide as you stare at the wall in front of you. No words escape your mouth and your brain fails to come up with anything to say. The line stays quiet.

“Obviously if you have found something else in the meantime, we understand. As I said it’s completely my fault for getting back to you so late,” Lily fills the silence.

“No,” you managed to say when there is another pause for you to speak. “I mean yes,” you almost shake your head in an attempt to get your brain to shift into gear. “Sorry. I mean you don’t have to apologise. And yes, I would love to accept the offer,” you are shocked at how calm your voice sounds as you feel anything but calm.

“Great, that’s amazing, Hobi will be so pleased,” she says the name this time with purpose as you will now be sharing a flat with him. “I’ll have to draw up some paper work which we can go through together, and there will be a few house rules that I should tell you, and I’m sure you will have lots of questions. Otherwise, I think everything is all set up for you to move in.”

“Great,” is the only word you can think to say as already everything seems to be moving at break neck speed.

“I’ll get everything sorted and text you about meeting up so we can go through everything,” Rosie says.

“I look forward to it. Thanks for getting back to me,” you reply.

“I promise I won’t leave it so long this time,” she laughs down the phone.

You both say your goodbyes before you hang up and drop the phone on your bed in front of you. Sitting there for a minute in silence, you stare at the wall, your mind seemingly racing but also unable to have any thoughts. After a second you leap into action, quite literally jumping off the bed. Running out of your room you start to scream Lilys name.

“What is it,” Lily burst opens her bedroom door, popping out into the living room just as violently as you had seconds ago.

“I got the room,” your voice is still loud and sounds out around the room.

“Oh, my, effing, god,” Lily stomps over to where you are stood and engulfs you in her arms. Looking over her shoulder you see Eddies head poke around the door.

“What's all the screaming about?” He says.

“She got the room,” Lily screams your earlier statement, jumping up and down with you still in her arms. You both laugh as you spin around in circles.

“What room did she get?” Eddie questions, still stood in the door way.

“THE room. I told you about this. She got the room,” Lily says, pulling away from you to look at Eddie.

“Oh right, the room,” Eddie says, and you are unsure if he is saying it just to appease the two of you. “Congrats Y/N,” he gives you a smile.

“Thanks, Eddie,” you say. “Hey, shall we pop something open? To celebrate? Me moving out, you guys finally having your own place, lots to celebrate.”

“Hell yes,” Lily replies, already walking over to the fridge to get something to drink.

It had been a mere two weeks since you had the call with Rosie to say that you had the room and in that time you had packed up your belongings, signed the paper work that Rosie had set up for you and gotten the keys to your new flat, well the room within the flat.

When you had met up with Rosie she had gone over some of the things that your flatmate would be expecting from you. How he expected the flat to remain tidy, he didn’t want to come home to dirty dishes left out or dirty clothes dumped over the flat. He wanted all his things to stay where they were, you weren’t allowed to go into his room or two of the other rooms that Rosie hadn’t shown you on your tour. She gave you details of people to call in the cases of emergency, of people that would come round to the flat such as the cleaner, and let you know the doorman was called Keith and he could help with almost anything. The only number she didn’t give you was that of your new flatmates. She told you that overall Hobi had said to make yourself at home and to treat the place like it was yours. Though after all the rules she had listed you felt like you may struggle to do that.

At the end of your meeting though you signed the documents and she handed over the keys to the flat. She gave you a date that you could move in and said she would meet you there to make sure you settled in and check that you had no final questions. As you left the meeting you felt like the whole thing seemed very formal, it felt like you were buying the flat not renting a room, even when you had rented your flat with Lily you hadn’t had to jump through this many hoops. You had just over a week to pack up all your belonging and move into your new flat.

That’s where you stood now, with Lily and Eddie outside your new building, each with a couple of bags in your hands.

“I kind of thought you guys were joking when you were describing this place,” Eddie says as you all head towards the door.

“I’ve seen pictures and even I thought Y/N was joking,” Lily says.

“I’ve been here, and even I thought I was joking,” you laugh with them.

Keith, the doorman, opens the door for you as you approach and welcomes you in, obviously now informed on the fact you’d be a new resident. Thanking him you make your way to the elevator and after all cramming in with the bags you had, you head up to the flat. You excitedly pull out your new key and twist it in the lock, and sure enough the door swings open. You give a small squeal as it does, it all finally hitting you that this was real.

“This is fucking insane,” Lily says after she dumps the bags she was carrying at the door and starts wondering around the flat. “Like fucking insane,” she emphasises, opening random doors in the kitchen. “Theres actual food in here,” she says.

“It’s almost like someone else lives here,” you say in mock wonder.

“But can you just help yourself?” She asks as she continues to open every door that is within reach.

“I have no idea. Rosie is coming over at some point so I’m sure we can clear all that up,” you reply. “Anyway, stop snooping. I want to give you both a tour.”

You grab her hand and start dragging her around the flat, Eddie diligently following you both around. They are both the perfect people to show around, providing the right sound effects when needed, ooing and ahhing when you open a new door. You end the tour where you had with Rosie, in the snug and you each take a chair.

“I will never stop saying how amazing this place is,” Lily says. “Maybe I should move in and you can stay in the flat with Eddie.”

“Hey,” Eddie mocks offense. “I think I should move here and you two can go back to sharing the flat,” he jokes and you both laugh.

“The one big thing I notice is a lack of pictures,” Lily says and you nod, having noticed the same thing. There were paintings and pictures on the wall but those were art, no personal pictures, no pictures of friends or family or of the man himself. “Do you not think that’s a bit strange?” Lily questions.

“Maybe he prefers art, I know people who don’t have pictures in their houses,” you defend your new flatmate.

“Name one,” Lily challenges and when you don’t offer any answers she carries on. “Maybe they’re in those secret rooms that we’re not allowed in.”

“You mean his bedroom,” you roll your eyes at her. “I wouldn’t want him going in my room when I’m not here,” you reason.

Lily puts her arms up in defence, doing a fake surrender. “Well the place is amazing,” she moves the conversation on and you’re glad of it.

“It’s pretty sweet,” you reply.

“I will miss living with you though,” Lily says with a small pout.

“We’ll still see each other all the time though,” you reason with a smile and she gives a reassuring nod.

Lily and Eddie help you unpack your belongings in your room. You hadn’t bothered to bring any pots and pans or plates as Rosie had said all of that was communal and you were more than welcome to use it. You had also left behind some of items that would be too big to fit in your room, deciding that the flat was fully furnished anyway and the stuff you owned would look cheap. So, it didn’t take the three of you long to unpack.

As promised Rosie popped round at one point to go through a few final points with you, show you some things she had missed on the original tour and answered any questions you had.

Eddie and Lily stayed for some food, otherwise they headed home and left you alone in the flat for your first night. The place felt big, bigger than normal, when you were along in it and after clearing up the food you decided to just stay in your room, the living room feeling too intimidating for you on your own.

It had been a few weeks since you moved into the flat. The first few days you felt like you were tip toeing around, not wanting to touch anything or put anything out of place in fear of getting some sort of telling off. After a couple of days and after seeing no one in the flat you started to care less, it started off small, not putting pots and pans back perfectly, leaving a book on the side, leaving one of your blankets on the sofa. And after no one magically appeared to tell you off, you started to care less and less. Sure, you kept everything tidy and in its place as promised, but you stopped caring about everything being perfect.

Though you started finally living as if the flat was somewhere you lived and not just somewhere you slept, you did start to feel lonely. Having always lived with someone it felt weird to come home from work and the flat be empty. Weekends when people were busy were hard, having to stay in a flat that was so quiet. You enjoyed being able to speak to someone, to walk out of your room at any moment and be able to just say hi to someone, to ask a basic question, to laugh at a film together, to comment on something that had happened in your day. You had to admit it, you missed actually living with another human being.

It was late on a Tuesday night, you were tucked up in bed and just about drifting off to sleep when you heard the front door slam close. You jump up in bed and pull the covers tighter around your frame. Your sleepy mind not comprehending what was happening in the moment, you listen for further sounds to confirm your suspicions. Sure enough, someone was in your flat as you hear footsteps sound out along the hall outside your room. It take you far too long to connect the dots and realise that it was your flatmate and not some random person breaking in. Slightly embarrassed at the fact that you had completely forgotten that you don’t actually live alone, you stay sat in bed with your covers wrapped around your frame unsure what to do. Should you go out there and introduce yourself? Should you stay hidden away in your room? Would he even remember that he had a flatmate, or will it have slipped his mind just as it had yours? What if he came in here because he had forgotten too and sees you sat in bed?

As the thoughts and possible scenarios run through your mind you continue to listen to his movements. You could hear him dragging a suitcase to his room earlier, and now you hear his footsteps making their way back towards the kitchen. Seconds later you hear the distinctive noise of a plate being taken out of the cupboard and placed on the side. He must have got some food from somewhere. Finally, you hear him head towards the living room and briefly hear the TV before the volume is turned down. It’s then that you realise that of course he has remembered you live here, and unlike you he is not being weird about the situation, instead being considerate and trying not to be noisy.

Laying back down in the bed, you turn and pull your knees into your chest. The adrenaline still pumps through you from the thought of your flatmate being so close. If you were to just open your door to go and get a glass of water you might see him, might finally get to meet the man you had thought so much about. But even that simple act caused nerves to wrack through you. Him coming home this evening was so out of the blue you didn’t feel mentally prepared for a situation in which you meet him. Though you would never know his schedule, the fact you had no way of contacting the man not helping. Instead, you decide that sleep is the best option, chickening out of trying to meet him. It doesn’t come easily but eventually you do fall asleep.

The next day you wake to your alarm and as you get dressed for work you almost forget that you may not be alone in the flat. Once you open your door and head for the kitchen however it becomes blaringly obvious. Although everything is clean and put away, you can’t help but notice how things have moved. Again, you start to tip toe around the flat, quickly making and eating your breakfast before tidying away. You are unsure if the man is even still here, but if he was you didn’t want to do anything to disturb him. Being ready for work in record time you leave.

By Thursday night and after having heard the late-night entrance of your flatmate for two consecutive nights you decide to leave him a note. You had made too much pasta for tea, which was a common occurrence, but rather than Tupperware the excess up and store it for a future meal, you decide to plate it. It was a spur of the moment decision and as you look at the two plates in front of you, you wonder what you were doing. What if he didn’t even come home tonight, maybe he’d gone off on another business trip. You stop yourself from over thinking and decide to just go with it, if he wasn’t here then you could just have the pasta yourself tomorrow.

After eating your meal, you place the spare plate in the fridge and then go in search of something to write on. It doesn’t take you long until you are back in the kitchen with a post-it note in your hand. Now it was time for you to over think everything you could possibly write down. Should you go for, made too much food, left you some. Or maybe, hope you didn’t have too hard a day, food in the fridge. They all sounded personal, as if you knew the guy, which you definitely didn’t. You spend a good 10 minutes thinking of all the things you could say and all of them sounded personal, you decided that there was no way around it so just settled on: There some pasta in the fridge if you want it.

Trying to not back out of it you place the note on the counter in a place that couldn’t be missed if you walked in the room, and then you left the room in a rush, as if you might be caught doing something you shouldn’t be. Watching a film in bed, one ear listening out for your flatmate, you eventually fall asleep without hearing any noise.

Getting ready for work the next morning and walking into the kitchen you see a note on the side. He must not have come home last night you think as you head over to get rid of the note. As you get closer however you notice that it is not your handwriting on the note. Instead a gentle scrawl is on the page.

Thanks, it was delicious.

Four words. Yet your heart manages to pick up speed in your chest due to nerves. Opening the fridge, sure enough the pasta you had put in there the night before was gone. A smile comes to your face at the thought of your flatmate enjoying the food you made, and you are glad that you decided to leave the note.

Over the next week the food cooking and note leaving continue. You still had not seen anything of the man, but you would hear his late night clangs as he came home from work. You started to wonder what it was he did that meant he got home so late. But, although you were unsure, he would still be in bed when you left for work, so maybe he just had a weird shift pattern compared to you. Every morning you would wake and look forward to reading the notes he left you. They started to get longer, as yours had, he started to give you ‘tips’ or requests for how to make it better next time. Things like less spice next time, please and the peanut sauce was great, add more next time! They never failed to bring a smile to your face, and over the week where the exchanges happened you felt your mood picking up, deciding maybe the flat wasn’t so lonely after all.

It had been two weeks since your first post-it note exchange and as you walk into the kitchen you can't help the smile that comes to your face at the sight of a new note. The smile falters slightly when you read the particularly long note however.

Delicious food, as always, next time you could add some mozzarella to the top? Won’t need food for the next few days, though I will miss it, off on a trip for work. Also, it still feels like I live here alone, where is all your stuff? Please feel free to move anything around or put up your own pictures. “See” you in a few days.

There was so much to take in. Your heart sank slightly when you read that he was going away again, the weekend was coming up and though you hadn’t seen him the previous weekends, part of you hoped that you would bump into him, thinking the weekend was the most likely time for it to happen. He hadn’t said how long he was going away for, just a few days, which could be anything from 2 days to a week. You wish you had a way of contacting him outside of these notes, you wanted to ask when he would be back so you could go back to leaving him food. The thing that really got you though was that he wanted you to add your own stuff to the flat. So far the only item that was yours outside of your room was a stray blanket, and even that wasn’t very you, having chosen the most beige one you could find that would fit with the décor. Pulling out your phone you open your messages with Lily composing a text.

Y/N: Fancy coming to the flat this weekend to help me decorate?

You get a reply almost instantly.

Lily: I thought you would never ask. I’ll come Saturday with some wine and pyjamas.

You smile at the text, that’s why you loved Lily, she was never shy and said exactly what she wanted.

“So you still haven’t met him yet?”

You were sat in the flat after having a day of shopping with Lily. Your purchases were still in bags on the floor as you sit in the living room.

“No,” you confirm.

“But you’ve spoken over post-it note?” Lilys face scrunches slightly at her words showing how weird she finds the situation you are in.

“It’s just notes about things around the flat, like if I leave him food or something,” you shrug trying to normalise the situation. “I don’t have any other way of communicating with him.”

“Maybe you should just ask for his number then.”

“He obviously doesn’t want me to have it or Rosie would have given it me from the start.”

“But now you actually live here and have for just over a month, maybe he’s changed his mind.”

You just shrug at her statement not knowing how to reply.

“Or you could just meet him,” Lily pushes. “You said you hear him come home. You could easily just come out of your room and introduce yourself.”

You regret ever telling Lily any of this, mainly because you know she has a good point. You could easily just walk out of your room and introduce yourself and not make it weird. But you knew yourself and you knew you would make it awkward and uncomfortable, just the thought of doing it brought out a cold sweat.

“Yeah, not going to happen,” you say.

“You’re going to meet him one day,” she says. “Why don’t you just do it now, on your own terms rather than when you are least expecting it.”

Again, she had a good point.

“We’ll see,” you respond as a way to show that you were not going to give in and wanted the conversation to move on.

“Alright, but when you do eventually meet him, you know I want all the details,” she says.

“That’s the only reason you want me to meet him isn’t it, so you can finally know what he looks like,” you roll your eyes at her.

“It’s killing me. How is it not killing you? How do you not just want to see what he’s like?” She asks and you can hear the desperation in her voice.

“You have a boyfriend,” you laugh at her.

“I didn’t say I wanted to get with him,” it was her time to roll her eyes at you. “I don’t care if he’s ugly or the hottest guy on planet earth. Are you not the smallest bit curious what he looks like?”

“He could be some old man for all I know,” you reply, trying to act indifferent, though you agreed with Lily, you were dying to know who you were living with. You had images in your mind of what the guy looked like, and with the lack of pictures around the house, your imagination grew even more, some days picturing some hot business man, other days imagining an older gentleman with a long beard.

“An old man living in a house like this?” Lily flings her arms around for effect. “No, he’s 30 max.”

You hum in agreement. “What do you think he does then?” You give in and start to play along with Lily.

“Some hot shot banker? Or maybe a lawyer,” Lily throws out some guesses.

“Or a spy?” You do a fake gasp.

“A spy who lets some random woman come and live with him? I think not,” Lily laughs.

“He is always travelling. Off chasing all those bad guys,” you laugh along.

“Humm, living with James Bond? I could be on board with that idea,” she nods, a wide smile on her face.

“James Bond it is,” you agree, your face mirroring hers.

“So come on then, how are we changing James’ flat?” She stands up and heads over to the bags of stuff you had bought.

You both spend the rest of the weekend changing around items in the flat. You don’t go wild and change anything too dramatically, small changes here and there, a few more vibrant coloured cushions on the sofa, some colourful blankets, a few more house plants strategically placed. You added a fruit bowl in the kitchen as well as some more jars on the side full with teas and coffee, a vase that you could fill with flowers on the kitchen island. You did change one piece of art, taking down the piece that you hadn’t liked since you first arrived, a dark colourless abstract painting. You placed it by your flatmates bedroom door so that he could decide what do you with it, placing a note on top of it that just read: you did say I could change things around.

As promised Lily stayed the night and you were so glad she did, having the best time with her. You drank wine, watched films, talked and decorated the flat. It was the best you had felt in weeks and by the time she left on Sunday you felt like you were more at home. Walking around the flat you were glad that the man had suggested you put your own stamp on the place. Though you were no longer tip toeing around you still had a feeling that you didn’t live here. But now looking around you felt like you finally lived here, like you could relax.

There were no new notes over the next week, the painting and its note remained outside the mans bedroom, indicating he hadn’t returned. The few days he said he would be away obviously meant longer than the weekend you had assumed. You didn’t mind, with the flat feeling more homely you felt like you relaxed more into the space, spending less time cooped up in your room.

When you woke up and went to the kitchen each morning your heart would drop when there was no new note however. Though you always wondered why, they were always short thank you’s, maybe the occasional longer note about something in the food he enjoyed or would change, never anything that special. You reasoned that the feelings were just because it made you feel less alone in the flat.

Eventually though the notes returned. Walking into the kitchen one morning you saw the distinctive post-it note lying on the counter top and had to stop yourself from running over to read it. Picking it up you read over the now familiar handwriting.

I’m back. The place looks a lot better. You were right about that painting, I have always hated it and don’t know why I kept it up for so long. Yours looks so much nicer.

The smile that you were suppressing came to your face. Such a simple note with hardly any information, yet it lifted your mood instantly. You were glad that he liked what you had added to the flat. It was his suggestion in the first place, but a small part of you did worry he would change his mind when he saw what you had done. Your style did seem brighter than his, apart from the much-loved snug room which you had not changed at all.

That evening you did as you had been doing whenever you knew your flatmate was home, you cooked extra and plated it up for him, leaving a note to let him know on the side. The days passed like this, you leaving him food, him leaving a thank you note in the morning. The notes started to get longer in length, sometimes you would find notes in other places around the flat. A note on a DVD recommending you watch it, a new colourful cushion with a note on it saying that he thought it would go with the ones you had added, some ingredients in the kitchen with a note asking if you could make a certain dish that evening. You returned the notes, leaving reviews of the films he had suggested, recommending books in the snug, adding your own in the collection that lined the walls, leaving notes on a new plant you bought that detailed the plants name and a fake greeting from said plant.

The post-it notes became an almost scavenger hunt, your heart leaping every time you saw the bright colour from corner of the room. Though you had still never met the man, you feel like you were slowly getting to know him better. Though you could walk past him in the street and not realise it was your flatmate, you knew what foods he liked, his favourite films and that he was prone to over loving plants accidentally killing them.

It was a Tuesday when you woke up early, your body aching all over. Your throat felt like it was on fire, your chest tight. You had felt a bit rubbish the night before but had gone to bed early and thought you’d wake up fine this morning, but as you lay in bed you felt like pure shit. Literally rolling out of bed, you groan as your feet hit the floor. You attempt to head to the kitchen but only make it so far before deciding to go lie down in the living room instead.

As you lay there, you wonder why you moved from your bed in the first place, it was much comfier there. You attempt to go back to sleep, having a few hours until you needed to get ready for work. This goes out the window fairly quickly as your body feels like it’s on fire, your head pounding, your limbs aching. You hadn’t felt like this in so long and you are unsure what had caused you to become so ill, and for it to get this bad so quickly and out of nowhere.

Getting up again you make it to the kitchen just to down some paracetamol and water before heading back to the sofa. Laying down you flick through Netflix, shoving a random film on in the hopes it would lull you to sleep. Opening your phone you text your manager, apologising for the hour but saying that you didn’t think you’d make it to work. With that you watch the film and it's not long before you drift back into sleep.

You wake hours later, the film long finished, TV off and a blanket over your body. Your mind struggles to function as you blink at the bright light streaming into the room. Your body still aches and you head continues to pound. Sitting up you catch sight of the cup of water and pills on the coffee table, a distinctive bright post-it note next to it. The temperature you were running at made it near impossible but your face still manages to heat up when you realise what had happened. Shrugging the blanket off, which you now realise you didn’t fall asleep with, you lean over to grab the water and pills, taking those before doing anything else. Taking a deep breath, you pick up the note your flatmate must have left.

Left you some water and paracetamol, looks like you might need it. Theres soup in the fridge. Don’t worry about cooking tonight.

The note confirms your suspicions that your flatmate must leave for work after you. It also confirms that he must have found you asleep in here this morning and put the blanket over you. Your face remains hot at the thought, not just because you were running a temperature. You’d never met this guy and the first time he sees you is when you feel like crap and are passed out on the sofa.

The next thing that has your mind racing is the fact that he said not to worry about cooking tonight. Why would you cook in your current state? You had obviously got into the routine of you cooking him dinner, but surely he wouldn’t want to eat anything you made in fear of contagion. He probably just wanted to make it obvious that he wasn’t expecting any food that night.

You don’t think about it for too much longer, your head starting to not hurt as much, the paracetamol you took earlier slowly kicking in. Putting something random on the TV again, it isn’t long until you fall back asleep.

Waking up from what felt like a deep sleep, you already feel slightly better, the sleep helping. Without opening your eyes you hear the noise of the TV and are surprised that anything is still playing, it felt like you had been asleep for hours, but maybe it hadn’t been that long and the film you had put on was still playing. Groaning at you aching body, you roll over, eyes still closed as you curl in on yourself. Deciding that you should check the time to see if you could take some more paracetamol or not, you slowly sit up, another groan leaving your lips as you do so.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” A deep voice speaks out.

Your eyes bolt open, head shooting towards the voice, you almost forget the pain your body was in as you go rigid with shock. You find the source of the voice. A man was sat on the opposite side of the sofa to you. Concern is written all over his face as he looks you, he is sat with a big oversized sweater on, a top poking out of the bottom, grey jogging bottoms on his legs that are crossed underneath him. He has dark brown hair that is slightly messy and parted to show off his forehead, his dark brown eyes look at you as you remain sitting in shock, you mind not comprehending what’s happening, wondering whether you were in some dream.

“What time is it?” You ask, your voice coming out croaky and hoarse from your illness and the fact you hadn’t spoken all day.

A laugh leaves his lips as he looks down at his watch and you notice his perfect white teeth and the way his smile causes his cheeks to squish and small simples to form on his face. “It’s 5.40,” he says, eyes going back to you.

The statement confuses you even more, if you weren’t ill today you would have just been getting home from work. Something wasn’t adding up in your mind, you had felt like you had slept for a few hours meaning it should be the time the man had stated, but you assumed the man to be your flatmate and yet he was never home at this hour. Maybe he wasn’t your flatmate after all. You put a hand to your head and groan at how much it was pounding.

“I’ll get you something for that,” the man leaps off the sofa at seeing your distress and almost runs to the kitchen. Reappearing within a few seconds he walks over to you, giving you a pint of water and some tablets, before he sits down on the sofa, closer to you than before.

You down the tablets and take a few extra gulps of water before looking over at the man, his eyes already watching you. “Sorry, I just feel really crap,” you state the obvious, your voice helping make your point by still sounding hoarse.

“I found you on the sofa this morning and got a bit worried,” he admits. “Have you had anything to eat today?”

So, this was your flatmate. Your face heats suddenly at his words, remembering waking up with a blanket over you this morning. Your eyes fall to your lap in embarrassment. “No,” you croak in answer to his question.

“Are you hungry? I could cook something? Or warm up some soup? Or just order some food?” He fires the questions at you and you bring your eyes back up to him.

“I’m not really hungry,” you say and you see his face shift to one that looks a bit annoyed.

“You need to eat something,” he scolds you slightly. “You’ll feel better for it,” he says before pulling his phone out, taping on it. “I’ll order something for both of us, you don’t have to have much, but you’re having something.”

You watch as he continues to tap on his screen, he doesn’t even bother asking if there is anything you fancy eating, deciding for you. Pulling the blanket tighter around yourself you flop down on the sofa so you’re are lying again. Feeling less nervous around the man, probably due to how ill you felt. You realise that this is the first time you had met and spoken to him in person. This is not how you imagined it happening, you looking like a complete mess, sweating and coughing all over his very expensive sofa. You look over at him from your current position, eyes taking him all in as his eyes are for once on his phone and not you. You had to admit that he looked familiar, you wouldn’t be able to place where you knew him from but you were sure you’d seen him on your TV.

Putting his phone down, he looks over at you and your face heats at the realisation that he has caught you staring at him. A smile forms on his face as he looks at you.

“All ordered, it should be here soon,” he says and there is a slight pause before he continues. “I’m Hoseok by the way. I’m assuming you guessed, but I’m your flatmate.”

Hoseok. Rosie had called him Hobi, but that was obviously a nickname. You give him a small smile before saying your name.

“I guessed,” he nods at you, his smile widening. “Nice to finally meet you Y/N.”

You hum lowly at him in agreement, your heart pounding slightly in your chest and you’re not sure if it’s due to your illness or the presence of the man currently sat in the room with you.

“Sorry I look and feel so rubbish, I’m normally more fun than this,” you croak.

“I think you look perfectly fine,” he shrugs keeping his eyes on you and you have to look away in embarrassment.

There is a seconds pause before you speak again. “Why are you here anyway?” You ask before realising how rude that must have sounded and continue to clarify your point. “I mean, you’re never normally home at this time. Did you get to leave early today?”

It was his turn to falter under your gaze, his eyes flicking away from your face and resting on the TV. You see a slight pink creep up his neck.

“We didn’t have much on this evening and I saw how ill you were this morning that I got a bit worried leaving you here alone,” he shrugs like it’s no big deal, but your heart almost grows in size at the gesture. The man hardly knew you yet he had taken time off work to come and look after you?

“You didn’t have to do that,” you say feeling slightly bad.

“Don’t worry about it,” he continues to act as if it is no big deal. “Anyway, it was about time we actually met.”

You hum in agreement, deciding to sit back up again, reaching for your water to take a sip. “I just wish I felt a bit better,” you repeat your earlier statement.

“Me too,” Hoseok says softly. “Anyway, I wanted to say that I really love what you’ve done with the place. I know I wrote it in a note but I want you to know I really mean it.”

“It’s just a few cushions and plants,” you try to push off his statement.

“Maybe, but it makes it feel like someone actually lives here. I enjoy coming back here now, rather feeling like I’m living in a hotel.”

“Some hotel,” you mock and he laughs gently. “But it’s seriously nothing. I should be thanking you for letting me stay here and invade your space with my rubbish.”

He rolls his eyes at you. “It’s not rubbish,” he says. “Just take the compliment,” he smiles at you.

“Ok, thanks,” you give in. “But I do also honestly want to say thanks for letting me live here. It is a very nice place you have here.”

“Can I be honest with you?” You watch his face shift in emotion again, an almost sadness coming over his features, and you nod at him. “Most of my friends told me that I shouldn’t do this, let someone live here that is. And I nearly listened to them. But I used to come home and just feel like it wasn’t my home. I thought that having someone else actually live here would make it feel lived in and more like a home, and maybe at the start that didn’t quite happen,” he shoots you a look and you know he is referring to how you didn’t put any of your stuff outside the confines of your room. “But that’s why I’m saying thank you for living here and putting your stuff everywhere, because now I enjoy coming home and I feel like I am somewhere that is lived and loved, and that makes me feel nice.”

Your heart warms at his words. He had said he liked the decorations on a note before and had obviously thanked you enough times. He had even started to buy more decorations for the flat incorporation with things you had added. But you had no idea that it had this much of an effect on him. You smile gently at him.

“I don’t know, is that weird?” He says into the pause, obviously worried he had gone too far with his words.

“No, not at all,” you reassure him. “It’s nice to know that you like my additions. But what about the snug? That always been warm and homely?”

“The snug?” His face scrunches in confusion before being overtaken by realisation. “Oh, the snug, I like that,” he smiles at you. “That’s all my sisters doing. I let her loose on that one room when I moved in and I think it’s where I feel most at home. It’s definitely the most me room. Believe it or not I actually like bright colours.”

He had a sister? You were slowly learning more and more about the man and everything was interesting to you. You wanted to know more, you wanted to know everything.

“I think it’s my favourite room. She has great taste,” you say.

“She’ll be happy to know that.”

“Are the two of you close?”

“In a way. We get on and I try to talk to her as often as I can. But as you may have noticed, I have a pretty hectic life so it’s hard to see her and my family.”

If anyone could understand that it was you, you lived with the man and this was the first time you had seen him. You felt sorry for him, he was obviously very successful and had a lot of money, but you could see that it made him sad that he didn’t get to see his family very often. Was money really everything? But then you still had no idea what his job was, maybe it was worth all these sacrifices he seemed to be making.

Before you can question him anymore a buzz sounds from the door.

“Must be our food,” he says and you slowly start to rise. “You stay here,” he leaps up, raising a hand in your direction. “I’ll go get it and bring it all through,” he says before leaving you alone in the room.

Pulling the blanket tighter around your shoulders you look towards the TV. You felt like you were in some sort of fever dream. You had expected to meet your flatmate at some point, but when you imagined it, it was some awkward meeting in the hall that lasted a few minutes, not what was currently happening. You had felt awkward at times, otherwise the conversation had been easy. You couldn’t remember the last time you had met someone for the first time and were able to talk to them as easily as you just had with Hoseok. Normally you would have been stuttering, especially if they looked as good as he did. You reach for your phone and open up your messages with Lily.

Y/N: I just met James Bond.

You send the message, both of you having called your flatmate James Bond ever since you had the joke about you living with a spy. Needing to tell someone about the encounter you had just had you of course told the only person you could. As normal with Lily you almost instantly got a reply.

Lily: WTF!! What’s he like? Send me a picture! I need details!!

Y/N: I am not going to take a picture of him. And he’s nice.

Lily: I need more than that.

Y/N: Can’t talk now, he’s coming back. Will call soon.

Lily: Why did you even bother telling me, it’s like you’re trying to torture me. Call me tomorrow.

You chuckle slightly at how dramatic she could be before looking up to see Hoseok walk in with arms full of food.

“So I know you said you weren’t that hungry, but I thought you might change your mind when everything got here,” he says, placing the banquet of food on the coffee table. “What do you want?”

“I’m honestly not that hungry,” you say genuinely meaning it, but when you look at him and see his stern face you give in. “Maybe just a bit of something plain? Those noodles look good.”

He gives you a wide smile as he picks up the noodles and hands them to you with some cutlery.

“Thanks,” you say taking it off him. “And you’ll know how much I owe you?”

He ignores your comment, instead picking up the remote and looking to the TV.

“What we watching?” He asks.

“You know when I said I don’t care if he’s the hottest man on earth, I take it back,” Lilys voice sounds through the phone the next evening.

You had taken the day off work again, although you felt slightly better you still weren’t 100% and when you called your boss he had said it was fine for you to have another day off. The previous night you had eaten a bit of food and watched a movie with Hoseok before falling asleep on the sofa again. You were awoken to him gently saying your name and rocking your shoulder, telling you to go to your own bed to sleep. The following morning he had knocked on your door to check on how you were, dropping some food and medicine off before explaining that he was heading off to work. You had no idea when you would next see him, and he didn’t let you know when he would next be home. After trying to sleep off your illness for the rest of the day you finally called Lily to give her the details that she was craving.

“You haven’t even seen him, how are you assuming he is the hottest man on earth?” You laugh.

“Y/N, you just described him, you made him sound like a walking god,” you cringe at her words, you hadn’t realised that you had made him out to be like that, but maybe you inadvertently had.

“He’s alright I guess,” you attempt to back track.

“Yeah, whatever,” you can almost hear her eyes rolling down the other end of the phone. “So what did you talk about?”

“Normal stuff,” you shrug. “He was mainly just making sure I wasn’t too ill.”

“Aww, he sounds like he’s the cutest,” she coos.

“He was probably just making sure I wasn’t infecting his flat, which would then make him ill,” again you try to downplay it.

“Will you stop. Just admit he ticks all the boxes. He’s hot, he’s sweet, he looks after you and he’s rich,” she lists off.

“Sure, but I never see him. I live with the guy and I never see him, surely that is the biggest red flag going,” you reply. “Anyway, it’s not like that. We are flatmates, we met last night and talked like normal flatmates and it was nice.”

“OK, nothing’s going to happen, sure,” she says. “Maybe he has friends? You could definitely settle for a friend.”

“This is not some dating expedition,” you laugh. “Can’t I just talk to a guy without their being any romance or possible intentions behind it?”

“You’re right, sorry,” she sighs. Lily always did this, you couldn’t bring up a guys name without her questioning you about him. You know there were only good intentions behind it, she just wanted to see you happy, but as you always told her, you could be happy and also single.

“It’s alright. It’s just he’s basically my landlord so I don’t want any weirdness there.”

“Yeah, you have a pretty sweet set up there, you wouldn’t want anything ruining that,” she agrees. “I just want you to have the best.”

“And one day I will,” you smile down the phone. “Listen, I think I’m going to have a snack and then probably sleep some more. I should probably try and get back to work tomorrow. I love you and will see you soon.”

“Love you too, hope you feel better tomorrow,” she says before the line goes dead.

After that one encounter with Hoseok, things went back to normal. You got over your illness and started to go back to work. Hoseok went back to his normal life of coming home at god know what time when you were asleep. You’re paths never crossing, except for the post-it notes, which seemed to almost double in quantity. Handwriting become smaller and more cramped on the notes so that more details could be given.

The notes still remain on fairly mundane topics, never straying into anything to personal. You still had no real idea who the man really was, what he did for a living, where he went every day. But you did have a good idea who the man was in the sense of his likes and dislikes. It didn’t feel like much, but you still enjoyed reading his notes every day. Replying to them with your own thoughts.

It was a Friday night and you had agreed to go out with some friends. It wasn’t common for you and your friends to go out, preferring quiet nights in. Heading over to Lilys to get ready you had both decided to make a bit of effort, sipping on drinks while you both dance around your old flat and slowly put make-up on.

Getting tipsy before heading to the club wasn’t necessarily your intention but you had both got carried away pre-drinking. By the time you met up with the rest of your friends you were on the right side of tipsy, this however quickly changed. You kept up with your friends, drinking drink for drink, and this was not good for either of you. It had hardly turned 1am as you were both jumping around the dance floor in each other's arms.

“I love you so much Y/N,” Lily slurs into your ear.

“I love you too,” you beam back at her.

A laugh escapes you as Lily takes you in her arms and spins you around. Then a hand is placed on your shoulder stopping the spinning and you look to see who it was.

“Eddie,” you continue to smile as you replace Lily with Eddie, squeezing him in your arms slightly. He had said that he was out with friends and that he would turn up at some point to join you, and then be around to take Lily home, so his appearance wasn’t too much of a shock.

“Hey, he’s mine,” you hear a voice behind you before you are almost ripped from the man, Lily taking your place.

“Hey, hey,” Eddie laughs. “There’s enough of me to go around,” he jokes.

Lily leans up to give him a kiss on the lips, Eddie allowing it until she tries to deepen it, when he pulls away.

“You seem happy to see me,” Eddie looks over to you with an apologetic smile. Lily almost seems to go limp in Eddies arms and he struggles to hold her. Rushing over you help him lift her up, looking up at him a bit concerned at the sudden change in her state. You thought that the two of you were on the same level, but you were obviously handling your drink a lot better than she was. While she seemed to be past drunk, you were on the perfect level still coherent to remember everything but drunk enough to not care about anything.

“Let’s go get some air?” Eddie suggests, already starting to drag Lily and therefore you outside.

“I’ll get some water,” you suggest. “I’ll see you outside.”

Rushing over to the bar, you ask for three glass of water and when they’re handed over you head outside to look for your friends. What you see is not pretty. Lily is hunched in a corner, Eddie stood over her with his hand on her back. You feel like you sober up slightly at the sight.

“Here, drink some of this,” you hand Eddie one of the cups to try and he tries get Lily to drink some. “God I’m so sorry, I should have got her to slow down,” you say.

“It’s alright, she’s alright. It’s no one's fault,” Eddie is now having to reassure you and Lily. “You just had a bit too much to drink didn’t you love,” Eddie continues to stroke Lilys back.

You down some of the water that you had got for yourself, your brain spinning at bit due to the alcohol.

“I think we should head home,” Eddie looks up at you.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. Do you want me to come with you?” You ask.

“No, we’ll be OK, you stay and have fun,” he replies.

You nod at him, but now feel distinctively not in the mood to party. Lily was the main reason that you had come tonight anyway and as she was heading home you saw no need to stay.

“Home sounds good actually, I think I might do the same,” you say to Eddie.

“Alright, come on, I’ll call you a cab,” Eddie hauls Lily into his arms and helps you both over to the street to go home.

With Eddie calling you a cab it takes no time for you to get to the entrance of your building. You stumble slightly towards the door, and nearly fall on your face as you go to open the door but it opens before you get there. A hand comes out to help you before you fall though.

“Oh, hi Keith,” you smile at the doorman.

“Hi, Y/N,” he smiles down at you, his hand still helping to support you. “Good night?”

“It was great thanks. I just had a few drinks,” you say though you know you both know that is an understatement.

“I’m glad you had a good time,” Keith says as you both make your way over to the elevator, you still clinging to his arm for support. He calls for the elevator and you stand and wait, your head resting on his upper arm as you close your eyes and give a content hum. Over the time that you had been living in the flat you had grown to love Keith. He always seemed to be there and had helped you out many a sticky situation. Whenever you had time you would stop and talk to him about your day, and you had learnt so much about him in the process. But you know when you sober up and think back to this current moment part of you will die of embarrassment.

“I hope you have had a nice night too,” you pout up at him, always saying that he worked too hard.

“It’s been made ten times better now that I have seen you,” he jokes and you laugh at him.

“Always making me blush,” you say as the elevator arrives and you walk into it. “Hopefully see you soon,” you point a finger at him and smile.

He laughs at your drunken state and nods his head. “I’m always here,” he says as the doors close on him.

You have to take a breath to steady yourself as the elevator rises. Fishing in your bag you go on the hunt for your keys as the doors open. You decide to take one of the seats to stop yourself from wobbling around, helping you find your keys quicker. Once you have them you stand up and move towards the door. A hand on the door frame you jab the key at the key hole, missing a few times before you finally get it in the lock and open the door.

Stumbling into the house you close the door and wince at how loud you were being, only now conscious of the fact you probably weren’t home alone and it was very late. You haphazardly kick off your shoes, and wince again when they make a loud noise when hitting the wall. In your drunken state you continue to the kitchen and stumble around in search of a glass, filling it up with water when you finally locate it.

“Y/N?” A familiar deep voice sounds out and it is only then that you hear other voices in the flat.

“Hello?” You say, cringing slightly at the state you were in when Hoseok obviously had friends around.

“Y/N? Come join us in here,” Hoseok shouts again in the direction of the living room.

You take a few deep breaths as you slowly head to the living room, water in hand. Internally trying to sober up, yet your mind still fuzzy, and your walk a bit wobbly.

When you get to the door you look around the room, leaning against the frame for support. Hoseok was sat on the sofa facing the door and therefore you, a smile on his face. Around him are four other people. One man with blonde hair, and a wide smile like Hoseok, another man with longer brown hair and a boxy smile, a third man that only had a small smile that showed no teeth, and a woman who had long brown hair that nearly reached her hips. Your eyes whip around the people in the room, all their eyes on you, the room silent.

“Hi,” you give a small awkward wave at everyone with the hand holding the water, which sploshes around, some escaping the glass and you give an audible “woops” as you watch it.

“Hey. Sorry I would have told you about this but it was a very last-minute thing so I didn’t have a chance to leave you a note,” Hoseok explains. “I did knock on your door to invite you, but you were obviously out. Been anywhere nice?”

“No worries. I’ve just out with friends, sorry I didn’t leave you a note” you point over your shoulder as if to clarify where you had been, and the boy with blonde hair lets out a small giggle as more water leaves your glass. “I’ll clean that up,” you say stupidly as it’s just water, and Hoseok gives you a fond smile.

“You guys leave each other notes?” The blonde-haired boy continues to smile as he looks at Hoseok.

“Well, yeah,” he says awkwardly, looking over at you shyly, and you can only join the boy in laughing, realising how stupid it sounded.

“He’s never given me his number,” you shrug a massive smile on your face. The alcohol causing you to say things you would never normally say.

“So you leave each other notes?” The boy's eyes are now back on you as he continues his questioning.

“I guess it’s the only way I can talk to him,” you say, eyes going to Hoseok, a red tint coming to his face. “I just say the normal things, good morning, how you doing? What you up to? And then I get a reply 10 hours later, it’s like living in the 19th century,” you laugh at yourself, the blonde man joining you, unsure what the hell you were babbling on about.

“Maybe one of you should have just written your number on one of the notes. Then you would have caught up to the 21st century,” the boy that previously only had a toothless smile was now looking at you with amusement, a small gummy smile on display.

You hum in response. Honestly you had considered it, but you were too scared of the rejection. Hoseok had never provided you with his number and you thought maybe there was a reason behind it. You had left the ball in his court, though you were unsure if he knew that.

“I should maybe introduce you guys,” Hoseok speaks up, trying to move the conversation on. “This is Yoongi,” he points to the guy with the gummy smile, “Jimin,” the blonde-haired man, “Taehyung,” the boy with the boxy smile, “and Liv,” he points to the girl. “And this is my flatmate Y/N,” he introduces you and you do another embarrassing wave.

“We’ve heard so much about you,” Jimin smiles at you and your face heats up at the words.

“Have you?” You say, not believing him.

“Oh yeah lots. Only good things don’t worry,” he reassures you, though it doesn’t do any good, your mind thinking about all the things that Hoseok could have said about you.

You nod your head slowly at him, still unsure if he is messing with you. “I hope he didn’t tell you about how awful I looked when I was ill,” you say suddenly remembering.

“He mentioned it, though I don’t recall him describing you as looking awful,” Taehyung smirks.

“Did you want to join us?” Hoseok cuts in, and when you look at him you can see that his face has turned a slightly darker shade of pink.

“It’s alright, I was just going to head to bed,” you point to your room this time, making it clear where you meant, Jimin giggling at your action again.

“We have alcohol,” Yoongi mimics you by pointing at the bottles set on the table.

“I seriously don’t think I need any more,” you say. “Water should be enough,” you hold up the glass which causes more liquid to fall out.

“Just stay for one. Looks like your waters going to need a refill soon anyway,” Jimin jokes. “I promise we are nice. We want to meet Hoseoks flatmate that he won’t stop talking about.”

You look over to Hoseok to gauge his reaction, you didn’t want to intrude on his mini gathering. He gives you a small nod, letting you know he is ok with it.

“Ok,” you give in, finally moving away from the door you were propped against. “But I seriously do not need any more alcohol. God knows what I’ll start rambling on about then.”

“Just one,” Jimin says as he starts to pour out a concoction of different liquids. “I want to hear your rambles.”

You make it over to the sofa and almost fall down onto it, sat at the far end closest to Jimin. Downing the remainder of your water you place the now empty glass on the table before taking the glass Jimin hands you.

“To new friends,” he laughs as he raises his own glass so that he can cheers you.

You pout slightly as you take the smallest sip of your drink, even that feeling too much.

“So what do you do Y/N?” Liv asks you before you have even taken the glass away from your lips.

“I work in marketing,” you say, a small smile on your lips as you look at her. “Sounds boring I know,” you laugh at yourself.

“No, marketing's cool. What company do you work for?” She reassures you.

“I work in digital marketing at a relatively small company. I basically help work on their apps, making them better and more accessible for the customer,” you say and can almost see everyone's eyes glaze over in boredom. “It’s not the best job in the world, but I enjoy it,” you say feeling slightly insecure. Hoseok was in a career that made him a lot of money and he was probably friends with people who also did the same. You are suddenly very aware that you are probably in a room full of people that made more in a week then you do in a year.

“I think it sounds great,” Jimin jumps in. “I love apps.”

You laugh at his attempts to reassure you, thankful for his kindness. “What do you guys do then?” You say it lightly as it seems like the next natural question but you instantly regret it, all eyes in the room shooting to Hoseok who looks worried, and the atmosphere in the room shifts slightly.

“I’m a PR,” Liv speaks up and you are glad that she breaks the tension in the room. “Of sorts anyway. I basically just manage people schedules and what they need to be doing.”

You nod at her words, actually interested in what she was saying. “I’m not sure I would be organised enough for that,” you say.

“But come on, we want to know more about you. How come you’re living here with Hobi?” Liv steers the conversation away from jobs and though you are glad the tension in the room is slowly disappearing, it does not help your curiosity when thinking about what Hoseok does for a living.

“I needed a room, he was providing one,” you shrug, deciding not to go into detail, taking a sip of your drink to avoid talking.

“And are you enjoying it here?” Liv presses.

“Yeah, it’s really nice,” you give a smile, taking another sip of your drink. “The décor wasn’t the best, but now I’ve improved it, it’s great.”

A laugh ripples through the room and that combined with the alcohol gives you some fake confidence.

“What’s it like living with Hobi? Has his OCD cleaning annoyed you yet?” Taehyung asks.

“No, it’s late-night snacking that would annoy me,” Yoongi chimes in.

“Come on guys, it’s surely his singing. I’ve heard him in the shower multiple times and I think my ears are permanently scarred,” Jimin laughs.

“No, no, what about all his clothes. Has he asked to take over some of your closet space yet?” Taehyung starts to laugh just as hard as Jimin, and you can’t help but let out a small giggle.

“Go on then, what’s the most annoying thing?” Yoongi asks and all eyes go to you. Under the pressure of the eyes your face starts to heat up, your previous confidence dissipating into the air.

“We all know it’s my obsession for tea. I go through the stuff so quickly Y/N is probably having to buy the stuff daily,” Hoseok saves you and you give him a small smile to show how much you appreciate it. “Anyway, let’s stop harassing Y/N, she’ll never want to join you guys for a drink again if this is how you treat her.”

“No, I’m fun,” Jimin pouts at you. “She’ll want to hang out with me again,” he says and you giggle at his words. “Yoongi is the boring one here.”

“Hey. I’m not the one harassing her with questions,” Yoongi shoots back at Jimin.

“Well at least I’m welcoming and not sat in the corner looking all grumpy,” Jimin continues and you can tell that it is just the way their relationship goes by the smiles on both of their faces.

“I was the one that offered her alcohol,” Yoongi says.

“Neither of you are fun,” Hoseok jumps in. “Let’s just play a game.”

“A game sounds good,” Taehyung agrees, standing up to go and get something, coming back a few seconds later with a pack of cards in his hands.

You end up playing a game that you had never played before, yet somehow ended up winning the two games you played.

“You know the winner has to drink, right?” Jimin looks at you.

“That wasn’t a rule last time I won,” you say.

“That was a practice,” he defends.

“Why does the winner have to drink?” You look around the table in the hopes someone would back you up, finding no one was going to. You give a small huff and cross your arms in annoyance. “I would have at least tried to not be as good if I had known. Though it would have been hard to not have one you are all so rubbish,” you say with a small smile as they all start shouting out at your insult.

“That definitely deserves a drink now,” Taehyung chimes in, and you give him a small glare.

“Come on, as the newest member of the group you should drink,” Hoseok adds and you open your mouth in mock shock at him.

“If anyone was going to have my back, I was hoping it would be my lovely flatmate,” you say and you see a few eyes flick between you as internally cringe at the fact you had called him lovely. “Maybe you’re not so lovely after all,” you say unsure if you were making the situation any better.

Deciding to end your embarrassment you pick up your glass and down its contents, face scrunching up when it was all gone.

“Now that’s honestly enough, I don’t want a throwing up Y/N on my hands tomorrow,” Hoseok says. “I’ve already had to look after her once,” he gives you a smile and you look away in embarrassment at the memory.

The night turns to talking. They continue to ask you the occasional question but talk turns to topics and people that you don’t know. While they try to include you at the start, all the alcohol you had drunk starts to make you go sleepy and you end up passing out on the sofa to the sounds of their voices.

Head pounding, throat dry, a slight queasy feeling in your stomach, it felt like you were ill all over again, but this time it was self-inflicted. It takes you a moment to get your bearings, to realise where you were and what had happened. The last thing you remember is being on the sofa, everyone talking while you struggle to keep your eyes open. But this morning you find yourself tucked in your bed wearing just your underwear and t-shirt.

Slightly embarrassed about not knowing what occurred last night, you roll over in search of your phone, finding it on your bedside table. 7:10am. You groan, cursing the fact that you naturally wake up so early due to work.

After failing to get back to sleep, you decide you may as well get up and have some water and see if you can stomach any food. Rolling out of bed you change into your actual pyjamas and head to the kitchen. Downing a pint of water, you pour a second glass and sip on it while you make some toast. Taking a bite out of you, you walk to the living room planning on watching a film. You almost chock on your toast however when you see a figure on the sofa. Having assumed you were home alone, or at least the only one awake at this time, you are surprised to see Jimin tucked under a blanket.

Though he is fast asleep your face instantly heats up with embarrassment. You stand awkwardly in the door, not knowing whether you should turn on the spot and head back to your room, or go in and watch a film as planned and risk waking the man. You opt for the third option. Turning on the spot you head instead to the snug.

Settling into your favourite seat, looking out at the barely lit city below you, you continue to chomp on your toast. Placing the empty plate that once held on the coffee table, something catches your eye. Standing up you take a step so you are stood by the wall of books and knick-knacks. But placed on one of the shelves, right in the corner, is a picture.

Picking it up you pull it closer to your face so you can study it. A family, a man and a woman with a young girl and boy stood in front of them. They all have big smiles on their faces, looking like they are mid laugh. The little boy was unmistakably your flatmate Hoseok. Though he was probably 15 years younger in the photo, he still had the same eyes, the same hair, the same smile.

“My parents and my sister,” a voice says from behind you and you almost drop the frame.

Spinning round you see the man you had just been staring at in the photo. Hair fluffy and sticking up at odd angles, he obviously hadn’t brushed it, in a pair of long plaid pyjamas, and a pair of animal slippers on his feet. He had obviously just rolled out of bed.

“I’m so sorry,” you apologise, placing the photo back where you had found it.

“You don’t need to apologise,” he smiles at you. “It’s your flat too.”

“I don’t usually snoop around your stuff,” you continue to apologise even though he’s already told you that you don’t need to. “I had just never noticed this before and wanted to have a closer look.”

“I told you, it’s fine,” he chuckles slightly at your rambles. Moving closer so he stands next to you he picks up the photo you had just put down. “I decided a few more personal touches might be nice around the flat. You must be rubbing off on me,” he looks over at you and you shy under his gaze, eyes going to the photo in his hands. “My parents,” he points at the two older people in the photo. “And my sister,” he points at the young girl.

“Very cute,” you say.

“We were on a day out and my dad asked someone to take this photo. It’s one of my favourites.”

You look at him as he stares down at the photo and can see the almost longing in his eyes. You can tell how happy he is just staring at the photo in his hands. Almost snapping out of a daze, he visibly shakes his head before placing the picture back in its spot.

“A simpler time,” he says with a pang of sadness in his voice.

“Things always become more complicated when we get older,” you say. “Which reminds me. What happened last night?”

He chuckles at your words and you are glad to see the smile return to his face.

“You had obviously just had a bit too much to drink. I’d blame Jimin’s drink making if I was you,” he says.

“God, how embarrassing,” you shove a hand over your face in an attempt to hide, unsure what you had done.

“Nothing embarrassing. You just passed out on the sofa, don’t worry,” Hoseok continues to smile at you.

“Thats embarrassing,” you say, peaking through your fingers to look at him. “And how the hell did I get into my bed?” You panic slightly.

“Well, we tried to wake you,” Hoseok’s face goes slightly red at the words. “But you were completely knocked out. So I carried you to your bed.”

“Oh god,” you groan. “And my clothes?” You almost don’t want to ask but also need to know the answer.

“That was all Liv,” Hoseok is quick to defend himself, hands in the air in mock surrender.

“Jesus, I’m a mess. I’m so sorry, your friends are probably wondering why the hell you have me living in your flat.” Dismissing his clear embarrassment over how you ended up in your bed in just a t-shirt and your pants, for your own embarrassment.

“Forget about it. Let’s just go have some food and watch something,” he doesn’t wait for your answer before leaving the room, you trailing behind him.

“I think Jimins asleep in there,” you say sheepishly before Hoseok walks into the living room.

“He’ll be alright,” he shrugs at you before walking in.

You follow him in, noticing Jimin still sleeping on the sofa, seemingly not bothered by Hoseok clattering around. Being a bit quieter, you sit down on the sofa, legs out in front of you as Hoseok turns the TV on.

“What we watching?” He asks.

“I don’t mind.”

“Letting me choose may not be wise,” he warns and you just smile at him, letting him know you honestly don’t care. “The notebook it is,” he says and you can’t help but laugh.

It takes about 20 minutes of the film to play before Jimin finally wakes up. You and Hoseok had been relatively silent before he woke up, but Jimin is quick to change that. Sitting up you both watch him as he squints around the room in confusion.

“Looks like you had fun last night,” Hoseok laughs at Jimin with his blonde hair ruffled all over his head, his undercut on show.

Rubbing a hand over his face, his eyes squint as he continues to look confused. You give him a small smile when he meets your eye contact, before looking away, wanting to give him some sort of privacy haven just woken up.

“Have you guys eaten yet?” Are the first husky words that leave Jimins mouth, and you can’t help but laugh along with Hoseok.

“Fancy ordering something?” Hoseok asks and as you look around to him you see Jimin giving a silent nod, hand on his forehead.

“Do you want me to get you some water?” You ask Jimin a bit concerned. Nodding he hardly looks at you. “And I still owe you for the food you got me last time,” you say to Hoseok as you get up to get some water for Hoseok.

“And I told you not to worry about it,” Hoseok calls after you as you walk out the room.

Reappearing a few seconds later, hands now full with a cup of water and some paracetamol, Hoseok and Jimin are already talking food.

“Will you at least let me pay for this one,” you plead, handing Jimin the things in your hands getting a small thanks in reply.

“Don’t worry about it,” Hoseok barely looks at you as he scrolls through food options on his phone. “What about Moose cafe, they do good pancakes?” Hoseok doesn’t even look at you as he aims the question at Jimin.

“Jimin, tell me what you want, I’m buying it,” you say stubbornly, whipping your phone out.

“No, I have it,” Hoseok shoots you a glare.

“Jimin, I just got you that water, the least you can do is let me buy the food,” you say.

“Jimin, you’re in my house as a guest the least I can do is buy you food,” Hoseok replies.

“I pay rent to live here, so I could also use that as an excuse,” you roll your eyes at Hoseok. “You are the one that keeps telling me to treat this place like it’s mine,” you raise your eyebrows at him. “Please just let me pay,” you plea.

“For God's sake,” Jimin finally speaks. “Will you guys just shut up? Listen, he is not going to let you pay, and neither am I.”

“Why have you got to be so nice? I owe you money, why won’t you let me pay it,” you whine slightly. You felt like Hoseok was already doing you a favour by letting you live here so cheaply, you didn’t want him doing you any more favours on top of that. It may not be much money for him, but for you it was, if it was any other friend you would have paid them and they wouldn’t have refused.

“Don’t worry about it, love,” Hoseok repeats, a small smile returning to his face as he realises he may have won. “So, what’s everyone having?”

“I’ll have the pancakes with bacon,” Jimin says.

“Y/N?” Hoseok looks at you.

“I don’t want anything thanks,” you reply.

“Don’t be like that,” the smile falls off Hoseoks face at your stubbornness.

“I have food in the fridge I need to eat,” you shrug lightly.

“Just add some extra pancakes in for her,” Jimin pipes up and you shoot him a glare.

“I won’t eat them,” you say.

“They’ll just go in the bin then,” Jimin says.

“I can afford to buy my own pancakes,” you slouch into the sofa, letting them know what was getting to you.

“We don’t doubt that you can’t,” Hoseok voice is softer, realisation hitting him. “It’s just pancakes. Don’t over think it.”

You don’t reply to him, feeling like you were making the situation more than it needed to be, after all it was just pancakes. But your money insecurities were slightly getting to you. And he takes your silence as compliance to order the food, letting you and Jimin know that the food was on the way.

“Last night was fun,” Jimin attempts to cut the slight tension that has arisen in the room.

“Yeah, thanks for letting me crash,” you say. “Your friends are really lovely.”

“Was nice to have you join, everyone really liked you,” Hoseok says.

“Even though I passed out?” You cringe at the thought.

“Especially because you passed out,” Jimin laughs. “Now it’s not just me that’s done it in the group.”

“Great, not sure that’s the best reputation to hold,” you say. “I’m guessing you have the day off work?” You ask Hoseok, noting the fact he was still in the flat when he would normally be gone.

“Oh yeah, we have a few days off,” he says.

“You two work together?” You are still intrigued to what your flatmate does, but are also conscious that whenever the topic arises the atmosphere shifts.

“Unfortunately,” is the only reply you get, essentially cutting the conversation short, and increasing your intrigue on the subject.

“Have you got any plans with your time off?” You ask.

“I’m planning on just hanging around the flat, so sorry but you’ll have to put up with me for a few more days,” Hoseok replies. “Maybe Jimin and some of my other friends will come round one night?” Hoseok directs the question to Jimin. “If that’s ok with you, of course,” his head shots in your direction, almost as if he forgot you live here.

“It’s your flat, invite whoever you want,” you say.

“But you know you can invite whoever you want here too?” Hoseok says.

“Of course,” you say, though your voice doesn’t sound as sure as your words.

“Well if Y/N is here, I will be coming round all the time,” Jimin winks at you and you give a hearty laugh in response.

“Jesus, is there anyone you don’t flirt with?” Hoseok rolls his eyes, and you continue to laugh, feeling slightly embarrassed by the comment.

Saved by the doorbell, you almost leap up when you offer to go and get the food. Leaving the room, it doesn’t take you long to get the food and plate it up, carrying it all back on a tray you stop outside the door when you hear your name mentioned.

“You haven’t told her?” You hear Jimin ask.

“How does it really ever come up into conversation? It’s not something you just casually say,” Hoseok says.

“I’m still on team tell Y/N. And now I have met her, I am even more pro,” Jimin says.

“I will, I just need the right time,” Hoseok says.

“And like you said, there is no perfect time. The longer you wait, the weirder it will be,” Jimin says.

You have no idea what they are talking about. What could Hoseok possibly be keeping from you that Jimin thinks he should be saying? And why does Hoseok think there needs to be some perfect timing for him to tell you?

Realising you had been stood eves dropping for a second or two too long, you decide to walk into the room, pretending you heard nothing. The two of them seemed oblivious to the fact that you may have heard them, and you keep it that way. Eating your pancakes and chatting with them you enjoy your day off with your flatmate for once.

363 notes · View notes