Epilogue II
"I'm coming!"
The doorbell had rang three times when you finally shouted a response without even looking away. You were in the midst of placing the plate of cold lasagna into your microwave oven when the first doorbell rang, and you took your sweet time of paying attention to heating up your dinner before eventually running towards the door.
Jumping over the boxes that were still laid on the ground, you quickly made haste without even minding to make a stop to look at your appearance on the mirror, not wanting to have the intruder to ring the doorbell yet again. A neighbour's complaint was certainly something you would rather not have coming your way so early in the first week of moving in, so you made sure to not give a chance for it to happen. You never even bothered to look through the peephole to know who was standing behind the door, before opening it so blindly with a cheerful greeting of, "Yes?"
As your eyes fell on your unexpected guest, you abruptly stopped. You felt how your brows dropped to a frown when you saw him there.
"Hoseok? What are you doing here?"
Hoseok gave you a soft smile, then carried on to hand you a bouquet of flower and a bottle of wine. "Celebrating," he said so nonchalantly. "May I come in?"
You were still awestruck by his sudden visit that you failed to notice how you had been blocking the doorway. "Um—yeah, I guess," you muttered as you stepped aside. Your eyes could not look away as Hoseok smoothly walked into your apartment while looking around.
"It's still a mess," you quickly said to him while making your way around him to reach the kitchen. "I haven't had time to unpack and stuff."
Hoseok merely nodded his head while he studied the scattered boxes. You kept your eyes on him while you settled his gifts on the counter. The motors in your brain kept turning to try and figure out why, or how, he was here, but you took a moment of silence to compose yourself before finally asking, "How did you know where to find me?"
Hoseok turned around when he heard you speak, looking rather sheepishly as he responded to you, "I went to, uh—your boyfriend's place and—"
"Ex," you cut him off. "Ex-boyfriend. That's kind of why I moved out."
"Right," he nodded while looking as if he was holding back his lips from curling to a smile. "Well, I went there to look for you and he let me know that you were no longer sharing the place with him. No further explanation."
"But he gave you the address?" you asked him, still with your brows furrowed deeply when you tried to imagine how it was possible for Hoseok to encounter Namjoon without carrying any scratch of wound on his skin. Especially with how you ended things with your former lover.
"No, of course not. I believe that he couldn't decide if he wanted to punch me on the face or to invite me in for a drink. And he settled with kicking me out instead by slamming the front door on my face," he said with an amused grin on his face. "Then I met your neighbour. The chef. He, on the other hand, was a lot more friendly and welcoming. He invited me in for a drink and a short talk, before he gave me the address to your new place."
"Seokjin?" You asked him with your eyebrows rising up. "He did?"
You were left wondering about what kind of conversation they may have had. Seokjin was the one who gave you the extra room in his apartment the day you had the fight with Namjoon, and he was the one to offer you help in finding a new place—which was this apartment—and a promise to never give away your address so easily to give you enough space to settle on your own.
"How did you manage to convince him to give away where I am?"
Hoseok shrugged. "I believe his words was—'as long as it's anyone who is not Namjoon, I'd be glad to help.' I swear, he said that. Word for word."
The fact that Seokjin, the one person who was supposed to be Namjoon's partner, ended up being the one who sent this man to your door left you feeling quite appalled. But then again, he was also the one who had been on the sidelines watching everything between you and Namjoon unravelled and crumbled to pieces, and also the one who knew the whole story of what had happened.
Making a mental note to talk to Seokjin the moment you ever had a chance to, you opted to change the topic of the conversation instead.
"So what are we celebrating?" you asked Hoseok, after making a double check on the oven to make sure that you were not burning your dinner for the night. "You said you came here to celebrate."
Hoseok suddenly looked bright and clapped his hands. "Ah, yes. Let me prepare the wine," he said while walking around the kitchen counter to join you. He went scouring for clean glasses through your kitchen cabinets before you stopped him, letting him know that everything was still kept inside the boxes. All but the couple of coffee mugs that you have put out only for the purpose of serving for your morning coffee routine. One which had printed writings saying "You Will Never Worried Alone" while the other one was showing Eeyore's solemn smile on its side.
Hoseok gave out a playful laugh of seeing them all as he poured the wine into them nearly reaching to the brim.
"Right. So—" he started then, lifting his mug filled with expensive wine as you followed along. "First, we are celebrating the moment of you moving into a new place, being independent and all of that. Not to mention that this place is a total upgrade from your old place," he said with a wink, while you could only chuckle. This new place of yours was much more spacious compared to the one you shared with Namjoon. A little splurge you gave yourself to make up for all the drama you had to endure before you managed to get here.
"Second, we are celebrating my promotion, which I got after that last project we did. The branch office has been running smoothly and they awarded me with a promotion after they relocated a whole division there."
"Really?"
Hoseok nodded. "You are looking at the new COO of Ravenetworks."
His face was beaming with pride and joy that you could not help but feel just as excited and played along, tipping your mug to his before drinking. "Congratulations."
"That's not all," he continued, after taking a quick drink. "You have also been appointed as the head designer for the next branch expansion."
You were in the middle of finally taking the first sip of your wine when he added that last statement, making you choke on your drink for a moment. "I—didn't you hear? I had proposed to have a team of new designers to take my place."
Hoseok gave you a tight smile. "Yeah, well. I guess your boss hasn't informed you about it then." He stopped, only continuing to explain when you inquired him to with a flick of your eyebrows. "I told them that I will refuse the offer unless you are leading the team."
You stared at him incredulously for a moment before you managed to find your voice again. "What? You can't just do that."
"I can. And I did," Hoseok said with a shrug, before lifting his glass. His gaze was challenging you, as if waiting for you to put up a fight.
Which you would have, if only you were not distracted by the sound of the microwave oven calling for you.
Keeping the words hanging by the tip of your tongue, you turned away, taking the scalding plate of lasagna out of the oven and gently placed it on the counter. Hoseok still kept his eyes on you the whole time, watching every movement you were making while studying the look on your face.
There was not a single doubt in your mind that he could read your thoughts. The silence he was giving lasted merely minutes before he reached across the counter, taking your hands away from the hot plate and entwined his fingers with yours. "Talk to me."
You instinctively clenched your jaw tight as you looked up at him. The concern in his eyes was deep, but there was also hope lingering there.
While all you could feel was rage.
"Why?" was all that you mustered to say. "Why did you have to jeopardise other people's work only because of me?"
"Have you forgotten what I said? I told you that once I have any chance of seeing you again, or even getting in the same room with you, I will never let you go." Hoseok tightened his hands that were clutching yours, all while holding his gaze so firmly as he looked straight to your eyes. "The day you came back to me, when you came to my office after we returned from that trip, that was the moment when knew that there was no turning back. That I can't ever let you go again. The bracelet, Yuna and Namjoon, everything else that followed were merely fate giving us a way to make it all happen."
You remembered that day like it was just the other day.
It took you days after receiving the damn bracelet from the very nice doorman before you hastily made your way to Hoseok's office. You had just returned from your trip with Hoseok, and for the whole week since your return, you were haunted by guilt that kept weighing you down from your betrayal. Only to discover that you were not the only one with secrets.
That you were not the only one spending that fateful week lost in bliss.
That day, after revealing the truth, you had ran back to Hoseok. Before you knew it, you were back in his arms, with his touches, once again lost in the pleasure of his company. You blamed it on the guilt and the heartache, and that he was there as the only one capable of giving you the consolation you needed. Only to leave you with more remorse that had you avoiding Hoseok for weeks after.
Snapping out of your daze, you pulled your hands from his tight hold and turned away. "We already said goodbye, Hoseok."
"No, we didn't," he quickly said. Within moments, he had moved around the counter and stood in front of you, pressing you back between the kitchen counter and his chest. "We only said that we would return to real life but there was never a word of goodbye or that it was over between us. But then everything happened, as if fate is giving us that chance to start over, you came back to me. And when the real life that we were supposed to return to was no longer there, there is only one path left we could return to."
"And what would that be, Hoseok?" Holding your gaze on his as you spoke, you barely able to contain the tears that were threatening to fall. "There was never any parting words needed anyway. You never gave me one when you left me a long time ago, when I kept waiting for you only to have you crushing any hope I had left. You were able to walk and look away from me as if I never existed. Why should things be different now?"
This time, it was Hoseok who had his jaw clenched tightly. And so did his fists as they held tight on either side of your body. But he never let go or pulled away.
"I know that I may have a lot of explaining to do," he muttered, earning a scoff and a roll of your eyes on your behalf.
"Oh, you bet you do. But what makes you think I would listen?"
"Because everything is different now. Things have changed."
"Too many years too late, Hoseok," you muttered softly, your voice coming out almost as a whisper as you shook your head. You could feel your breath being caught in your throat as you remembered how easy it was for him to steal your heart only to then discarded it as if you never mattered. And you were terrified of how easy it would be for it to happen again. For you to give him your heart once you gave in. "I think it would be best if you go."
There was no need for you to look at him to know how much your words had hurt him. You could feel the way his body stiffened, yet he made no move to walk away. "Are you sure that you want me to leave now?"
You kept your eyes looking down instead of returning his inquiring gaze. He gave you only a brief moment of silence before his fingers found your chin and lifted your face. "Look at me, _____," he whispered. "Tell me if that's what you want. Tell me to leave and I will be out of your way."
The moment you met his eyes, you were definitely gone. You soon realised that you had been protecting yourself by building walls around your heart ever since the day you were reunited with Hoseok once again. It was the sole reason why you kept pushing him away then, why you refused to spend the night with him after the gala, and the reason why you were able to walk away from him no matter how much he begged you to stay after that fateful weekend you spent with him at the beach house.
And it was the same reason why you had stayed away after the day you came to Hoseok with the bracelet and even after all the downfall between him and Yuna, and your own with Namjoon.
But right this moment, as you were standing so close to him with his gaze looking down on you, you finally realised how you have actually been keeping your heart on arms length, and how he had already held it captive with his own. Words failed you when it finally dawned on you on how much you have been falling back to him since then. And the only thing that you could serve him were your tears.
Your clutched hands found their way to his chest and rested there. Hoseok kept his hands away, yet you could sense him tensing, holding back from reaching you. You heard his whispers before you felt him closing in, his nose grazing lightly on your cheeks while his fingers gently wiped away the tears that kept coming and flowing down our cheeks like a river.
"I will make it up to you. I'd do everything you want me to, but I certainly am not losing you again this time. I will wine and dine your fancy ass if it can help me get deeper into your heart," he said, earning a few sobs changing to a chuckle. You saw his smile as he pulled back. His eyes tracing down the tears on your cheeks which he kept wiping away no matter how they kept on falling. "We can even start now, can't we? I already brought the wine and you have the dinner prepared on the table."
That finally did it for you, stopping your tears and replacing them with laughter instead. "I don't recall inviting you to join my dinner."
Hoseok shrugged. "I just thought I would invite myself. Might as well just do it while I am already here," he said, sounding relieved at the change of mood. "Please, I really, really want to try this with you. Remember when you asked me about why I started things the way I did, and how I told you about whether I wanted to make sure that it was the memory of our past that kept pulling me back to you?"
You felt a lump in your throat at the memory of that night. And you nodded, still remembering everything so clearly in your head.
"I never lied when I told you that I wanted you more than ever," he said, suddenly moving so close that you could feel his breath fanning the corner of your lips. So close that you could even taste his kiss before your lips ever touched. "And I do believe that I may have never stopped loving you. Never stopped hoping that I could find you and have you back into my life again."
Words were incoherent when your heart leapt to his confession. You dare not to speak at all, not when you could barely understand your own feelings. You missed him, yes, that was absolutely true. But did you love him? Have you kept the young love you once had for him in your heart for so long?
Probably not. But somewhere deep inside you wanted him too. Perhaps just as much as he did.
"Do you think it's worth it?" you whispered, looking deep into his eyes as you searched for his truth.
Hoseok gave you a small smile and nodded. "I do. I believe so. Even if you're still unsure of how you feel for me. I am willing to wait. I want to try this, _____. I will take things slow until we are both sure enough to make it last for good, but I want this. I want this so badly that I can never stop thinking about it."
Biting your lips, you found that you had long decided that there was a part of you that kept being pulled to him so strongly. Perhaps it was not love, perhaps you longed for the memory and for closure. But you were starting to feel sure that it might be just that your heart knew what it wanted even before your mind could decide for you. "And you're sure that it would be fine if we spend our first date eating heated up lasagna?"
He gave a deep chuckle. "Anything is fine," he said, while he nipped the tip of your nose with a kiss. "Although the only one dinner I do want to have now is you."
As his lips descended onto yours, taking you into a soft, passionate kiss, everything felt so right.
The crippling doubt lingered for a moment in the back of your mind that it was making you lost every will to move, leaving you standing there completely stunned at first, unable to return the kiss, or even to take a breath. But then the gentle hand that he placed at the small of your back moved, pulling you tight to his chest that you were able to share your heartbeats pacing in the same rhythm against one another.
Your body slowly relaxed then, and you finally moved your lips, holding them together with his hot kisses. Soft at first, before you became greedy to taste every part of him that you leaned up, tilting your head to gain a better angle.
It was you who first put the pressure onto his lips, nibbling them from top to bottom. But it was him who slipped his tongue through the seam of your lips, deepening the kiss until your knees wobbled and weakened to a putty. Your hands that were pressing up on his chest started to cling onto his shirt to hold on. When you parted, your breathing was rapid and shallow. Your face and your whole body felt so hot that you could barely think clearly, but things were far from over.
Hoseok continued to kiss down the column of your throat, sucking your sensitive skin on his way down that you had no chance to settle your breath. A moan slipped through your lips as you exhaled, earning his small smile to form as his lips were still pressing on your skin.
"I just remembered something—" you sighed between your kisses when his hands glided up and down your torso. "The last time we were planning for dinner, we ended up skipping it entirely."
Hoseok's soft chuckle was muffled with his lips still tracing down your body, skimming the swell of your breasts that kept peeking from the low neckline of your tank top. "Oh yes, I do remember," he hummed, before straightening himself to meet your gaze. "Then I suppose you wouldn't mind if we are to skip it again tonight, would you?"
The hopeful tone of his voice and the glint in his eyes that followed made you smile. You were tempted to tease him and make him wait even longer, which you probably would enjoy doing only to see how much he wanted this. But the heat in your body that kept running down south ever since the first kiss, making your center throbbed with needs, spoke for another.
"By all means," you said to him, sounding all sultry and needy with a light bite on his jawline. With both hands, you grabbed his shirt, pulling it up and over his head. Your eyes trail down his bare torso while you tossed the shirt away, admiring his toned body that was presented just for you. A soft moan came out as you continued to appreciate his beauty. "Dinner can certainly wait."
The smile that came to his face then nearly stole your breath away. Yet the one thing that finally took the air right out of your lungs was the touch of his fingers on your skin when he finally pulled your top right off your body.
"Here?" the incredulous gasp left your lips then.
"Here," he said, as he once again descended, leaning much lower on your body and captured your pebbled nub between his lips, wetting the front of your bra as he sucked twice on each through the fabric until both sides hardened. "We had wasted too much time already. I refuse to waste even seconds of being with you."
Taking both your wrists, Hoseok moved your arms up, resting them on his shoulders. With a hard kiss, he pulled your attention away as he swiftly pulled away the rest of his clothing down to his boxers, with yours following suit. You could not hold back the gasp that came as he roughly yanked all your clothes away, one at a time and all with force, leaving you completely bare in his arms.
You pulled yourself closer, wrapping your arms around his neck to keep balance as he pushed you back, your hips meeting the cold counter top behind you. He hoisted you up then, lifting your legs off the floor with the strong grip he had on your thighs and you instinctively wrapped them around his hips, clinging desperately to his body. Skin against skin, heat pressing onto similar heat, and the kisses never stopped.
Your breathing started getting faster and heavier as he kissed every inch of your body which he could reach, starting from your neck and moving down all over your chest. His hot, wet kisses sent hot, pleasuring waves all over your body each time they landed on your skin.
You felt him hastily pushing down his boxer as he returned to attack your lips, kissing you so hard and so demanding that your mind was muddled. Without waiting for him to make the next move as he was still not done stripping down, you tightened your arms and legs around his body, pulling him closer while hoisting your body, aiming your center onto his crotch before swaying your hips forward.
There was no doubt that you were already dripping with your arousal. You could feel it ever since the first heat he initiated reached to your south. Your core pulsed as you started grinding your mound against his bare length, feeling his rigid girth slipping between your nether lips.
A deep, guttural moan came rumbling from his chest and his head fell back. The shivers that came from his body undoubtedly a sign that he felt what you were feeling, that his body was reacting to how your arousal was coating his length and your heat enveloping him before he was even inside you.
"Fuck, you are so wet, baby. So fucking hot," he kept groaning. His grip on your thighs tightened so hard that you whimpered. "I can't wait any longer."
"Hoseok," you whined breathlessly just as another shudder came flowing through your body along with the long slide down you made against his length. "I want you inside me."
Hoseok merely answered you with a low grunt. Pushing you back until your rear was resting on the cold counter, he let go one of your legs and reached between you, lining the tip of his cock onto your hot entrance and started moving the head up and down your slit. Keeping your eyes on him, you could tell that you were both lubed enough with how much fluid your body had been releasing, and he certainly did not wait.
With one hard thrust, he immediately hit home.
His loud groan and your scream came instantly at the same time. The rushing feeling of suddenly being filled to the brim had your head pounding so intensely that you kept whimpering. Your hot canal throbbed and pulsed, clenching tightly onto his girth, while the rest of your body tensed and shuddered.
"Relax, baby," he whispered. You felt his lips tracing your skin, kissing the corner of your lips gently to coax you into lax. "You are sucking me so hard down there. I'm worried that I might embarrass myself and explode inside you the minute I start moving."
His voice jostled you awake from your trance. That was when you realised that you had your nails planted into the flesh of his back, that your legs held him tight in his place with no space to move, and that you were still whimpering under your breath. Closing your eyes, you focus on your breathing, before our whole body slowly relaxed bit by bit. The tight restraint of your legs started to loosen and you spread your legs wide around him. He moved his hands to your hips, holding you tightly there. Then his gaze fell on yours. The dark lust you saw in his eyes let you know that he had no intention of going slow.
Once he could feel your tight walls loosening around his girth, he started moving, immediately opting to move in and out of you with hard thrusts. Your continuous moans and his deep groans were filled with pleasure, escalating in the same pace with each of his strokes. He kept moving his hips in the most sensuous way, front to back and all around that you felt him filling you up so tight and full to the brim. You felt his cock brushing every inch of your hot, throbbing walls as he entered deep and hard, going faster by each thrust.
The pain was never there. Everything was intense pleasure like you have never felt before. And it all felt so right. Hoseok leaned down as his movement started growing more rapid and uneven, taking your lips to muffle down your screams. You could feel your climax coming to you so quick and there was nothing stopping you from reaching it when he kept going, pounding inside your core until you felt like you were being torn in half.
Your whole body shook and shuddered when you reached your high. You felt yourself being sent all the way up and then free falling downwards as your climax exploded from inside you. Your body wracked with pleasure as it slowly seized, turning into a complete puddle of mush in his arms. His hips still moved in a slow, steady rhythm. His lips were still taking yours into gentle kisses before he glided down to nibble the skin along your chin.
Through the throbbing that was still running steady between your legs, you could tell that he was still far from done.
Blinking away the haze in your eyes, you open them to meet his eyes. His desire was still hot in his eyes. And he kept watching you, waiting until you were ready. He felt it before you even gave him any sign for him to continue. Your legs still felt like rubber in his hands, but you could sense him moving. His hard cock retreated slowly, allowing you to feel the slow shudder running along your body, before being ratcheted back up with his thrusts.
"Once more, baby. Just one more time," he told you while pressing a kiss to your jawline.
His hips kept up a steady movement, slowly changing his pace to move on faster, harder, and you could swear you felt him getting even deeper than before with each stroke he was giving you. You were already so wet and so sensitive that both of you knew that it would not take long to pull another climax from you.
Although this time, Hoseok was joining you.
Soon his hips were slamming into yours in relentless speed and force. You felt your walls squeezing him with the same force that his groans sounded louder with each thrust. It was obvious that he was losing control and was so close for his own release when the twitch came inside you, meeting the intense pulse of your hot core.
"Hoseok, please," you mewled as you felt your upcoming release pushing through. So close and so intense that your toes curled right around his back.
"Fuck," he grunted loudly. The sound of your breathless moan calling for his name was the one that pushed him to the edge. "I'm coming, baby. This is it."
He slammed into you in uneven strokes, yet he changed his angle to make sure that he would reach the part inside you that would be able to send you over the edge at the same time. The loud mewl that came between your ragged moans let him now that he had found it, then he continued on to pound hard, hitting the very spot with his hard cock again and again, until both your legs quivered in his hands.
"Come," he grunted, speeding up his thrusts until he welcomed his climax at the same time as yours came crashing down on you.
The mutual loud cries came upon you as you came together. Your hot walls milked him until the very last drop of his seed was released inside you. Your hot and sweaty bodies shuddered as the waves of your bliss rushed down at the same time.
Still panting with heavy breath, he pulled you close in his arms while gently lowered you down on the ground. His lips could not stop tasting yours, kissing you over and over again until you both slowly came down. You only noticed that he had pulled out of you once he pulled back, giving you a chance to take a deep breath of air as he did the same. The throbs between your legs were still going strong, but it took you a while before you realised that the mix of your release and his had been dripping down your legs.
"Oh no," you gasped. Pressing your legs together, you tried to reach out for something to clean up before he beat you up to it, reaching down for his discarded shirt to use it to clean you up.
"We made quite a mess, didn't we?"
You scoffed. "And right at the place where we were supposed to be having dinner."
Hoseok chuckled deeply while he kept staring at you. You were standing with your back pressed onto the kitchen counter and your hands holding tightly on his forearms for leverage. Your tired legs were still quivering slightly after the intense release that you were sure you would instantly fall if you should let him go.
Meeting his expecting gaze with your own, you found yourself still breathing heavily, and it only escalated when your heartbeat increased its pace. "So—we're really doing this, huh? We're going to try?"
Hoseok's gaze softened as he slowly nodded, and he said nothing at all as he waited for the doubt in your eyes to fade. "So—" he started after a brief moment of your pondering. "What about you? Do you want to?"
His jaw ticked and clenched for a brief moment, nothing of it ever slipped out of your sight. You slowly nodded and moved to hug him tightly in response. Arms securing around his bare waist as you pressed your sweaty bare skin onto his own.
"Yes, let's give this a try."