The Ongoing Struggles of Being A Mall Gay

Part 2

"Oh," Hoseok draws out the word for a long moment. "You too?"

"I keep telling you!" Jimin bursts out. "We're magnets for the gays! I don't know how this keeps happening!" Jimin has noted a few times how peculiar it is that the six of them gravitated together, completely ignorant of each other's sexualities at the time until they had already been assimilated.

"This just means that Yoongi will stay, right? You're not going to leave our family, right Yoongi?" Hoseok asks, looking brightly at him. Yoongi blushes and shakes his head. He's pretty sure he looks like a strawberry right now from how embarrassed he is. Of course he isn't going to leave their circle, he thinks they're the most charming people he's ever met. Especially Hoseok with his cute nose and energetic personality. "Oh my god, is this why we drive away everyone else? Why did that never occur to me, holy shit. Straight people think we're weird!"

"I think it's because you're you," Jimin says brightly. "I wouldn't want to be friends with you."

"I think you're alright," Yoongi says, and then has a look of sheer panic, which looks good on him in a bizarre way.

Hoseok's not going to be okay. He's going to combust from how much he likes Yoongi. Every little thing, ever last tiny thing, it's perfect. If Hoseok were to create a boyfriend in a laboratory, not only would that boyfriend look a lot like Yoongi, but he'd also act the same. He doesn't want a boyfriend who's loud like him, because they'd annoy everyone and drive people away. He wants someone who can get invigorated when talking about the things he's passionate for but is soft spoken and wise in casual conversation. He wants someone doesn't sugarcoat their feelings and opinions. He wants someone who's sarcastic and too smart for his own good. He wants someone exactly like Yoongi.

Also, Yoongi's got those holes in his ears where piercings go when he's not at work, and Hoseok is unreasonably turned on by that. Literally everyone he knows has a slew of earrings, but it's way more attractive on Yoongi than anyone else. He wonders what Yoongi looks like when he's not at work. Does he look like Jungkook, all black outfits and stomping boots? Or maybe like Seokjin where everything is three sizes too big? He can't possibly dress like Taehyung who wears prints and styles that can't ever look good on anyone except – miraculously – him. Call him vapid, but Hoseok cares a lot about fashion, and he just knows that Yoongi must look good in anything. He can make an ugly Orange Julius uniform look good, because he's got that face, so surely, he must look like a million dollars in street clothes.

Hoseok absently looks over the counter, he tries to be subtle about it, but he checks Yoongi out. His pants don't flatter him, but he must have toothpicks for legs based on what Hoseok can see. Hoseok could probably lift him, and he isn't that strong. Jungkook could probably lift him with one hand.

The only problem is that Yoongi is too young. Why couldn't he just be a few years older? Maybe if Hoseok were in his thirties and Yoongi was in his late twenties it wouldn't be so bad, but he'd feel like a creep to date someone who's barely out of their teens or still in college.

Yoongi catches his eye. Maybe he knows that Hoseok is looking. Maybe Yoongi can sense the change in the atmosphere now that Hoseok knows he's gay. Maybe that's why the look they share is so heavy. Yoongi shouldn't be allowed to be that beautiful, yet there he is.

"Oh my god, I have a job," Hoseok's eyes bulge and then he turns around to run back to his store, not even bothering to take the smoothie that Jimin sets on the counter for him.

***

Hoseok walks through the definitely not haunted employee entrance of the mall. He has his apron over one arm, because it's been a little too long since he last washed it. In his defense, he hates supporting the evil capitalism that is coin laundry machines.