"Of all possessions, a friend is the most precious." - Herodotus
~°~
"So... I'm hoping that it wouldn't be a problem if I were to do this?"
"Do what?" you asked, confused and looked at him with your eyebrows furrowed.
"Kissed you."
It only took you a few seconds before you registered what he had just said to you and you immediately had to stop yourself from choking on literally nothing as your face started to get slightly warmer from the sudden request.
This man, who was very much one of the most attractive men you have met, casually asked you for something so intimate as a kiss. Not that it was anything relatively new for you, it was simply the fact that it had caught you way off guard, ultimately rendering you momentarily speechless for a couple of seconds.
"Oh..." you quietly said and softly cleared your throat, immediately feeling like an idiot for saying that so awkwardly instead of answering the man.
"Sure." you finally replied.
Wasting absolutely no time whatsoever, Hoseok slowly leaned in before gently crashing his lips against your own just moments later.
His lips were soft and felt quite pleasantly satisfying against yours. Your lips found their rhythm and you began to softly move them in sync with his as though this was some sort of dance routine.
Placing your drink down on the ground next to you, you ensured that you didn't detach yourself from him. Just as his hands made their way to your hips, squeezing slightly, he slowly lifted you a little bit off the ground. Taking this as a sign to adjust your legs by parting them slightly, Hoseok then gently placed you down in his lap so that you were straddling him.
In a matter of what must have been mere seconds, the kiss quickly got more and more heated as the time continued to tick by. Your fingers somehow found themselves buried deep in his hair somewhere along the way and you instinctively pulled at the strands as his hands slowly ran up and down your sides.
After what felt like ages, you eventually had to pull away from him with much reluctance on both ends, feeling the unwanted desperate need for air.
"Damn." he sighed, with both his eyebrows raised in what was seemingly astonishment.
You looked away, dropping your face onto his shoulder as it, yet again, started to burn up in embarrassment for what was probably the nth time that night.
"Cute. Are you blushing?" he teased, to which you simply responded by playfully hitting his arm as a soft fell from your mouth.
"Wanna get out of here?" he then asked, slowly caressing your sides with his hands.
You thought about his offer for only a few seconds as you lifted your head before quickly nodding your head, feeling like there was no reason for you to turn him down. You were both attracted to each other on a pretty decent level, there was no harm in continuing with the fun, right?
Standing up from your place on Hoseok's lap, you quickly dusted yourself off as the said man soon followed your actions before holding one of his hands out to you, indicating for you to take it.
Gladly taking the redhead's hand, you smiled at him just as he started to casually drag you back into the house, the two of you abandoning your drinks on the ground.
"Y/n!"
Suddenly hearing your name being called just as you and Hoseok managed to get through the crowd and reached the front door of the house, you turned around and you were immediately met with the gazes of your close friend Kim Nari and a quite upset-looking Jin.
"Oh hey, Nari." you smiled, realising that it was her that had called your name.
Letting go of Hoseok's hand, you quickly started walking over to your friend before pulling her into a warm hug in greeting.
"How are you?" she asked you as the two of you soon let go of one another.
"I'm okay, you?"
"I'm great," she said. An awkward silence quickly then fell over the group for some reason and you mindlessly found yourself glancing over at Seokjin just as Nari did the same before she turned back to you.
You immediately locked eyes with your best friend, instantly noticing how serious he seemed to have become over the past couple of seconds, more so. He was staring, or at least even glaring, right at you. He didn't even bother to look away after getting caught in the act, instant his gaze remained right where it was.
You were kind of uncomfortable under the man's stare.
You quickly turned your head away as possible explanations of what was basically a glare from Seokjin could have been.
Was he still thinking about what had happened earlier in the day? Did it make him feel uneasy around you now?
As incredibly embarrassing as the whole situation had been for you, you had already gotten over it hours ago, surprisingly so. You had honestly, much to your own shock, moved past it ages ago.
As much as it was technically the first time Seokjin had ever seen you completely naked and not just in some skimpy swimsuit or new matching underwear set you'd be trying to flaunt because you had quite a limited number of friends, especially since you were comfortable with to that extent.
You honestly assumed that he would have gotten over it way before you did because of his typical carefree attitude. But perhaps this time you were wrong about your guess?
Maybe it really did do a number on him...
However, that did not explain the glare... The stare, maybe. But the heated eyes? Your mind was completely blank whenever you attempted to come up with some sort of plausible explanation that could help you wrap your head around the matter.
"Y/n,"
Suddenly hearing the soft whisper in your ear from Hoseok, you quickly lifted your head to look at him, finding him sporting an expectant look as he moved to casually grab your hand again.
"Wanna head out?" he asked you, now giving you his attention after getting his seemingly very short-lived conversation with Nari over and done with.
You gave him a small smile and nodded a little bit before hesitantly looking back over to Nari and Seokjin.
"Well, we're going to take our leave now." you quietly announced, completely avoiding your best friend's piercing eyes, "We should hang out this Friday." you ended up suggesting to Nari specifically without much thought as some sort of desperate yet also a futile way to make the atmosphere somewhat lighter.
"Okay, sure." she smiled back, "Just text me where we'll be meeting up." she smiled.
"Cool." you said simply, "I'll see you then." you waved at her and Seokjin as you started to make your departure with Hoseok gently pulling you into some direction, and even then, you avoided eye contact with Seokjin.
"Y/n!" Jin called out to you just as you were about to get further away.
With a hint of hesitance, you turned back around to look at him expectedly, "Are you going home?" he asked.
"Kinda."
"Well, then you could just catch a ride with me. I'll be leaving soon as well."
"I think I'll be fine," you said, as you looked back at Hoseok, who was looking around the room absent-mindedly "I'll probably end up staying the night out."
"Okay then." he sighed, slowly crossing his arms and momentarily letting his tongue poke the inside of his cheek, "See you later, I guess."
Again, you instinctively nodded your head, hating how unnecessarily awkward this whole interaction had been. He was your freaking best friend for peace's sake! Why were the two of you being so weird?
Perhaps that moment really did affect things way more than you had initially thought...
Sighing mentally, you turned your body around once again and finally allowed Hoseok to lead the way out the door and he soon walked you over to a black Mustang that was parked out on the street in front of the house.
"Is this yours?!" you gasped like a small child as the two of you stopped beside the car.
"Yeah." he grinned before chuckling a little and lading you around the car to the passenger seat of the vehicle, "Birthday gift from my dad a while ago"
"That's so cool." you said as you were inside, immediately finding yourself admiring the car's interior as Hoseok walked around to the driver's seat, waiting for him to get inside before you spoke again, "It's beautiful."
"Thank you." he smiled and settled in as he started the car before he looked over at you quite dramatically, giving you an overly intense stare, "But not as beautiful as you though."
You quickly looked down, suddenly feeling shy and let your hair fall in front of your face.
"Look at you blushing again." he laughed and finally started driving once he concluded that you probably weren't going to respond to his teasing.
"So where are we going?" you eventually asked, deciding that you were somewhat over the flirting after a few moments of comfortable silence.
Hoseok looked at you for a split second before turning his focus back onto the road and answered, "Back to the apartment."
Nodding quietly, you decided to stop speaking so that you could allow him to focus on what he was doing and turned to look out the wind, which unfortunately granted your mind the permission to let your thoughts wander once again.
Seokjin...
As much as you had been trying to not think too much about it, you had to admit that the man was, in fact, acting weird since yesterday. His energy had just seemed to be off since then and for the first time in what felt like forever, you really couldn't figure out what at least could have been the reason being this apparent dilemma.
Usually, you were able to read your best friend like a book and figure out whatever needed to be figured out when it came to him. Yet this time, you couldn't read him at all.
Your mind had gone completely blank and it was really starting to bother you.
Hopefully, you were just overthinking...
You were not sure just how much time had gone by before you then realised that Hoseok was now pulling up into your apartment complex's parking lot, calmly bopping his head a little bit to the music that was softly playing on the radio.
"Let's go." he glanced over to you with a soft smile as he sighed, taking off his seatbelt and reaching to open his door.
You followed in-suite and joined Hoseok in front of the car before he casually threw his arm around your shoulders and led you towards your apartment building and eventually into the elevator that then took you up to your floor.
Once you got to stand in front of what must have been the door to Hoseok's apartment where the number '719' was displayed on a thin golden plate, which indicated to you that he was only a few doors away from your own apartment.
"You know," he started to say as he unlocked the door and let you walk in first before following right behind you, "I think I might enjoy this whole neighbour thing with you a lot more than I already thought." he smiled.
"Oh?" you looked over your shoulder, raising a brow in question as you found your way over to his couch, "How come?"
"I get to see you more often," he stated with a wide, prideful grin plastered on his face.
"Oh." was all you could find yourself muttering and glanced down at your feet, just as Hoseok brought over a pair of blue slippers for you to change into.
"You know what else it helps me with?" he asked as he placed the shoes down and you thanked him before making the shoe change.
"What?"
He said nothing and instead, he simply placed his index finger under your chin, lifting your head up once again and taking your attention off of your task before quickly crashing his lips onto yours, kissing you for a few seconds before he slowly pulled back.
Opening your eyes again, you watched as Hoseok's mouth fell slightly open as though he was just about to say something but was unexpectedly interrupted by a brand new voice entering the room.
"Hoseok?"
Immediately pulling your head further back from Hoseok in surprise, you quickly turned your head, only to find an older woman slowly walking into the room with much grace in each step she took as she slowly glanced between you and Hoseok with a slight look of irritation and heating anger fuelling her eyes.
"Mother?"