"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood." – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
~°~
"Hoseok, would you mind if I stayed the night here?"
"Uhm, I-" he stammered, giving you a slightly dumbfounded look which immediately had you feeling like perhaps you were overstepping boundaries and asking for too much.
You did just meet the guy after all...
He probably wasn't expecting to see you again tonight.
"It's okay if you do mind. I'll understand," you quickly rushed out as you tried wiping some of your tears away from your eyes with one of your hands, and assumed that Hoseok was hesitant about answering some sort, especially since it was so sudden.
"No, no, no!" he suddenly blurted, putting both of his hands out in front of himself in a waving motion.
You were just about to take a step back from the door when the man's sudden exclamation forced you to halt mid-motion and slowly glance back up at him.
"It's not that." he huffed, "I was just caught a little off guard, that's all. I really do not mind you staying the night." he smiled at you reassuringly, although you could catch the concern in his eyes, "Actually, please get in," he said and quickly stepped to the side so that you could into the apartment.
"So, what happened?" he asked after closing the door and started to lead you over to the living room with his hand gently placed on the small of your back.
You took a deep breath in as you looked down at your feet and slowly sat down on the couch, trying to stop any more tears from falling before you let out an involuntary sniff.
"Hey," Hoseok whispered softly, as he sat down beside you and reached out to you, immediately pulling you into his arms without a second thought.
The man then continued to simply hold you, letting you get out all your current emotions once you realised that you could no longer actually hold back your tears as soon as you felt his arms wrap around your frame in consolation.
Against your will, your body shook slightly as you cried, making Hoseok hold onto you even tighter as he whispered sweet nothings into your ear.
The more you cried, the more your mind continued to run. No words would ever be enough o describe the shock that had come over you.
If it were anyone else, you would have been upset, sure. But Jin? He was the last person you would expect this from - therefore the indescribable shock. Never in your life has Seokjin spoken to in such a way that lacked any respect whatsoever. He had never spoken to you with so much distaste and disrespect. It hurt.
After a couple of minutes went by, you eventually felt yourself beginning to finally calm down, and Hoseok slowly pulled back from you so that he could look you in the eye.
"Y/n, what happened?" he asked you softly as he kept one of his arms around his shoulder.
You took a very deep breath before you hesitantly started to explain what had happened after you left his apartment earlier, and the man listened to everything you said intently, taking in every word with much care.
"And then I came here." you finished after a while and looked down at your hands, "Sorry for barging in like this and bothering you."
"First of all, you aren't bothering me, and you'll never bother me." Hoseok stated firmly, "Second, I don't understand why your so-called 'friend' would talk to you in that way."
"To be honest, I don't really blame him for being upset." you sighed, already hating how it must have sounded like you were making excuses for Seokjin, "I should have told him from the start, but I didn't. That was very dumb of me."
"It's okay. Don't beat yourself up, you already feel bad enough about it." Hoseok shrugged, trying to console you as he used an arm to pull you closer to him again, "He'll get over it eventually. I mean, he can't stay angry with you forever."
"I hope so," you said quietly before a sudden yawn forced its way from your mouth.
"Look who's tired?" Hoseok joked, trying to ease the heavy atmosphere.
"I guess I am," you answered sheepishly as you sat up straight.
"I've got a guestroom that you can sleep in. Let me show you where it is," he said, slowly letting go of you and standing up from the couch.
As soon as he got up, you couldn't help but instantly feel cold from the sudden loss of contact as you stood up with him and allowed him to lead you down a hallway, before the two of you stopped in front of a door and pushed it open, revealing a clean grey and white themed room.
The large bed was covered in white sheets and pillows, with grey patterns decorating the ends of each item. There was a grey throw blanket placed at the end of the bed, and a nightstand on either side of the bed, each made of a smooth-looking white wood, with grey lamps with a silver stand placed on top of each. A black rug was placed on the wooden floor in front of the bed, which added some contrast to the room.
There was also a desk in the room placed on the wall ahead of the bed which was made out of the same white wood that the nightstands were made of, and a black roller chair accompanied it.
You then turned to the window, and you were met with closed grey curtains so you couldn't really see the outside.
"I hope you'll be comfortable here." you heard Hoseok say behind you, making you take your eyes off the room to look at him.
"Thank you, Hoseok."
"No problem." he smiled softly, "Have you had anything to eat?"
"Not that I can recall, no," you responded sheepishly.
"Don't fall asleep yet then. Let me go cook up something for you quickly." he rushed to instruct you, raising his index finger in the air as a way to tell you to 'wait', before he practically ran out of the room.
About ten minutes later, you suddenly heard a loud collective crashing noise coming from somewhere in the apartment which startled you. Walking out of the guestroom, you decided to follow the noise and you were soon led to where the commotion had been coming from, which seemed to be the kitchen.
If you could conclude one thing from the sight that was now before you, it would be that the kitchen was in a huge mess.
Pots, pans, plates, spoons, forks, knives and many other kitchen utensils were scattered all over the floor and counters with random ingredients forming part of the mix.
You looked up from the mess to see Hoseok running back and forth in the kitchen in a haste, jumping over whatever item may have been on the floor when he'd got to one.
"Uhm...Hoseok?" you called out to the man.
He turned quickly to look at you with a startled look on his face, "Y/n, I-" he awkwardly cleared his throat, "Hi?"
"Need help?" you giggled in amusement, pointing around the messy kitchen.
"Me? Help? Psh." he scoffed and waved you off, making you give the redhead a dumb look with one of your eyebrows raised at him, "Okay, maybe a little." he finally admitted sheepishly.
"Okay then. Tell me where I can find everything and I can get started, while you mister, can clean up this mess you've made before you come to help me out," you said, jokingly feigning some sort of authority in your tone.
"Yes ma'am." he mocked you as he saluted before he began to show you around the kitchen and the two of you soon got to work.
~°~
After about an hour, you and Hoseok finally finished with each of your tasks, the kitchen was nice and clean once again and the food was ready.
The two of you stood in the kitchen with satisfied smiles on your faces, as you looked around the kitchen at the final product and turned to smile at each other proudly.
"We can finally eat!" Hoseok exclaimed, sounding utterly relieved as he made his way over to the stove, "All that cleaning made me hungry."
"Let me dish up." you quickly offered, as you followed closely behind him, "You've already cleaned and helped me cook. Plus, you're even letting me stay here for the night. It's the least I could do."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Now go sit down." you waved him off and chased him out of the kitchen playfully, "I'll bring the food to you."
Once Hoseok was finally gone, you turned to get to work and grabbed the plates you'd need along with some forks. As you began to dish up for the both of you, your mind grabbed the opportunity of you letting your guard down for only a moment to let itself run wild.
Cooking with something that managed to somehow remind you of Seokjin and his love for cooking as this was something the two of you would sometimes choose to do together as some sort of corny bonding activity. It saddened you to know that the two of you were in the middle of an argument.
Catching yourself starting to get lost in thought, you took in a deep breath and immediately shook your head to get rid of your thoughts, quickly grabbing the two now full plates after tidying up a little bit before walking out of the kitchen with a plate of food in each hand.
"There you go." you handed Hoseok his plate and took a seat beside him on the couch.
"Thank you very much." he smiled sincerely at you, before looking down at your plate which was placed comfortably in your lap, and you quickly noticed how his facial expression then changed from a happy one to a confused one, "Why is your food so much smaller than mine?"
"I'm not that hungry." you shrugged, brushing him off nonchalantly, "But I'm sure you are."
He gave you an unconvinced look before eventually turning away with slight reluctance and began to devour his plate, "Thank you. This is really good." he said with his mouth full of food, making you cringe slightly in disapproval.
"Don't talk with food in your mouth, you baby." you scolded him playfully.
He carefully swallowed the food in his mouth before apologizing with a sheepish smile on his face.
Once the two of you had eventually finished eating, he took your plate from your hand before you could even say anything and offered to do the dishes while you could go get yourself ready for bed.
As soon as you made your way to the room Hoseok had designated to you for the night and once you walked in, you quickly noticed a pair of black sweatpants and a maroon t-shirt laying spread out on the bed which you didn't remember seeing there before.
"Hoseok?!" you called out to him all the way from the room.
"Yes?!" he shouted back from the kitchen as you heard the sound of water running.
"Are these yours?!"
"What?!" he asked back.
"These clothes on the bed!"
"Yeah, you can wear them for the night, because I don't think you came in with an overnight bag!" he simply answered.
"Oh." you said sheepishly as a slightly shy blush crept onto your face, "Thanks!" you yelled back, before closing the door behind you and hastily got changed into the clothes that Hoseok had lent you.
As soon as the clothes were on, you immediately noticed how big they were on you, as the sweats were literally folding up at your ankles and the shirt went way past your butt.
However, you also noticed how comfortable the clothing was and you couldn't help but smile softly to yourself. After you folded the clothes you wore before into a neat pile on the chair and switched off the lights, you then made your way over to the bed and got under the bedsheets and smiled at how warm they were.
Once you were comfortable in the bed, you remained like that for quite a while which eventually led to your thoughts leading back to the events of that night and a frown slowly made its way onto your face.
You then realised, once again, that you and Seokjin had never argued like that before. Of course, the two of you have had arguments in the past, but that was somewhat normal since you were best friends.
However, this time was obviously not the same. Jin had never called you anything like that before because he knew how you hated feeling disrespected in any way and how sensitive you tended to be in situations like that. You couldn't help but wonder what exactly could have changed this time around. What was so different?
A part of you had to fight the urge to convince yourself that the whole thing did not happen at all, that you had simply imagined it all. You wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but you knew you simply could not. Nothing could ever justify that kind of disrespect.
You wanted to make excuses for him so badly and tried to convince yourself that maybe, just maybe, there was more to it than what it seemed. But even that didn't make any sense. What explanation could possibly be of good enough backup to all of that?
Yes, you felt really bad for hiding this from him in the first place, but did that really justify the sort of reaction he gave? Was the disrespect really necessary?
Yet even with all that in mind, you still found yourself starting to devise some sort of plan to make up for it.
A sudden knock at the door soon pulled you right out of your thoughts before you saw Hoseok walk into the room carefully. He had changed his clothes and was now dressed in navy blue pyjama pants and a plain orange shirt with some slippers on.
"You awake?" the man whispered softly as he stepped further into the room after closing the door behind himself.
"Mhm." you hummed in response.
"Mind if I sat next to you?"
You moved to the side with a light, welcoming smile on your face and he took that as an answer before getting himself under the sheets beside you and placing his left arm around your shoulder.
"It's been a long night, hasn't it?" he asked, after a few moments of comfortable silence.
You sighed to yourself, "Yeah,"
Hoseok then adjusted his body by suddenly moving himself down so that he was flat on his back, forcing you to move along with him and adjust yourself as well.
"Want to cuddle?" Hoseok then suggested as he momentarily placed the side of his face on top of your head and gently caressed your arm.
"Sure." you blushed unwillingly, thanking the heavens that the lights were off so that he couldn't see your face.
Now in a cuddling position with one of your legs placed in between his, your left arm around his waist, his arms securely wrapped around you, and your head comfortably laid on Hoseok's chest.
You soon began to feel your eyes slowly starting to feel heavier and heavier by the minute just as you felt Hoseok place a soft kiss on your forehead, letting his lips linger there for quite a while before he slowly pulled away and placed his head on yours.
"Goodnight, princess."
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Hey, loves!!
I was only planning on updating this tomorrow, but let's just pretend it's tomorrow already.😁
What do you guys think of Hoseok so far?
Let me know what you think.
~J🌻