"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel." — Carl W. Buechner
~°~
"Where is it dammit?" Hoseok groaned, shoving a frustrated hand into his red hair as his eyes scanned over the room for the nth time that day.
He was running around the space in search of something which he was really struggling to find for days on end.
It had been well over a week since he had asked you out on a date, one of which you actually agreed to. But his mother had suddenly called him the morning of the day that the date was supposed to happen, where she urged his presence for something related to the family business. This ultimately forced him to take a rain check on his date with you and postpone it.
Another issue that contributed to this postponement was the fact that he literally could not find the necklace he had for you anywhere. He was planning on giving it to you on the date since he had kept it safe for someone he cared deeply about, and now he truly felt like you would be the best person to gift it to.
His father had gifted this necklace to Hoseok on his nineteenth birthday and instructed him to give it to the person he felt was most deserving of it. He recalled asking his father whether the person in question had to be a love interest or not, and he remembered his father's smile when he gave him the answer.
"The person you care about the most or feel that is deserving of such heartfelt gifts does not have to be limited to somebody you are related to by blood, nor does it necessarily have to be someone whom you are involved with romantically. You can care about someone without any of the factors I just mentioned playing a part in it. The person can be anyone."
Although he had only recently met you, there was just something that had Hoseok feeling drawn to you and had him feeling a weird need to protect you. Yes, he knew was attracted to you and really did enjoy your company, but he wasn't entirely sure if that could have been the reason he felt that way.
He really felt like meeting you was the very thing he needed in his life at the moment. Although he didn't completely know what the whole reason for this was, he knew that he met you for a reason.
However, was this mere attraction really grow into something more? Would it really help him tackle his familial issues by getting involved with someone who ticked almost all the boxes required?
Another issue he couldn't ignore with this situation was the whole thing with your best friend. What exactly was the story between you two?
Hoseok sighed as forced himself to put his focus back on the task at hand and continued to walk all around the apartment, in search of the item.
Eventually, after what honestly felt like forever, he finally found it in one of his drawers underneath all the items in that small space. How exactly it got there? He had no idea. Right now all that mattered was that he found it.
He grabbed a hold of the small rectangular box before he then started a new search, but this time for a better spot to place the box so that he wouldn't repeat the same mistake of misplacing it.
A knock at his door stopped the redhead from continuing with his mission.
With the small box in his hand, he let out a frustrated groan before asking who was at the door, but he got no response, forcing him to make his way to the front door to find out who was there for himself.
He pulled the door open and let out another groan as soon as he saw who it was on the other side of his door.
"What do you want?" he sighed in irritation before turning around and leaving the door open to let the girl in.
"Don't you miss me, Hoseok?" the girl asked as she closed the door behind her and followed after Hoseok who was now standing in the living room with his arms crossed over his chest.
"No, not really." he scoffed, annoyed but also unsurprised that she decided to show up unannounced, "What do you want?"
"I came to talk to you, Hoseok," she simply said to him as she walked past him and casually took a seat on the one-seater couch, making herself comfortable in the seat.
"Make yourself at home," Hoseok said sarcastically, waving his hands around as he took a seat on the couch that was furthest from the girl, the two-seater couch.
"Stop with the jokes now, Hoseok." she pursed her lips before looking down at the box he held in his hand, causing her to scowl.
"Who is that for?" she asked, still eyeing the item.
"No one that should concern you."
She dramatically placed a hand over her heart, almost as if she had gotten hit in that spot or something, "I felt that on that person's behalf."
Flabbergasted by what she has just said, Hoseok looked at her incredulously, "What?"
"You don't seem to care about them very much." she snorted and shrugged with a smirk on her face.
"How much I care about her is none of your concern," he growled out as he felt himself getting extremely annoyed with the girl in front of him.
"So it's a girl? Hmm." she hummed teasingly, "And here I was thinking that what you and I had was special." she let out a very dramatic sigh.
"Again, what do you want here?" Hoseok stared blankly at her as he completely ignored everything that she had just said, "I have a friend coming to help me out with something important."
"She sent me here," she said as she ignored the second part of his statements and looked away from the box, now carefully examining her red-coated fingernails absent-mindedly.
"Who?"
She shrugged, "Your mother."
"What?! Why?!" Hoseok bellowed angrily as he shot up from his seat, immediately feeling upset at the mention of his mother.
"Sit down." the girl said sternly.
"No." Hoseok scoffed.
"Fine then," she mumbled under her breath.
"Are you going to start talking or what?" Hoseok asked her when he noticed the girl staying quiet.
"Yeah," she said quietly as she avoided eye contact with him, and started fiddling with the edge of her shirt.
"So?" Hoseok urged the hesitant girl on.
"Your mom wants the two of us to meet with her and my parents," she said in a low voice.
"When?"
"Saturday night," she said, as she looked up at him slowly.
"I can't do Saturday," he stated bluntly, before walking out of the living room and into the kitchen.
"Why not?" the girl asked as she stood up and followed after him.
"I've got plans," he told her, as he poured himself a glass of water.
"With who?" she raised an eyebrow, "Is this person perhaps who the necklace is for?"
"That is none of your business," he said, before gulping down the glass of water.
"It sure is, when you're giving this girl the necklace that was initially meant for me, Hoseok! Don't act like I don't know what your dad said when he gave this to you!"
~°~
You walked out of your last class of the day and you let a tired sigh slip from your lips.
This was officially your final day on campus before your final exam season begins in less than two weeks. A part of you was relieved that were finally reaching the end of your time as a university student but you were also dreading not only the last step of getting through exams well but also what kind of life was prepared for you after graduation.
Would you be able to find a good job? You, for one, knew how tough it was to get a decent-paying job in this day and age. Not only that, it was known that everyone got the best of the best opportunities in all industries, ultimately making the completion even more intense.
Some people were lucky to find a good job fresh out of university, but others weren't as lucky. You couldn't help but wonder which end of the stick you would land up in.
You and Namjoon had spent almost all day speaking about this and you were glad to find that, although weren't going to graduate together, he did still have the same concerns as you.
Speaking of Namjoon, your mind quickly led to another main conversation you had with him along with the whole graduation discussion.
This conversation in particular had gotten you thinking, stupidly causing you to be distracted in almost all your classes which frustrated you quite a lot as this happened against your will. You quickly made a mental note to ask some of your classmates for their notes since you were too out of it to take any for yourself.
You knew that today was probably the worst day to drift off into thought in class, but no matter how hard you tried, the thoughts would come rushing back in mere seconds later.
You had also gotten a text from Nari earlier in the afternoon telling you that she had to suddenly cancel your lunch meet-up with her because something apparently came up.
This gave you a chance to get lunch on your own and allow you to think in peace without trying to listen to someone else speak to you. Especially Nari. She and Seokjin were the last people you had the energy to speak to today.
You stepped onto the sidewalk, but doing this didn't feel normal this time.
It felt different.
You had gotten so used to Seokjin coming in to save you from walking all the way back to the apartment after your last class of the day ever since your first year, but now that the two of you were not exactly on proper speaking terms you doubted he'd come to pick you up this time.
The sky was now grey and the clouds were slowly starting to roll in, and you picked up your pace not wanting to get caught in the upcoming rain, realising that you hadn't brought an umbrella with you since you weren't exactly expecting the weather to change in such a way.
You felt your phone suddenly buzz in your pocket and you pulled it out to see what it was for.
Hoseok
Hey love, you free later??
Read at 17:29
You subconsciously smiled a little at the text, before suddenly feeling the need to add two yellow hearts to his name on your contact list since he reminded you of sunshine due to his bright persona. You then replied to his message, telling him that you'd come over when around seven o'clock, before slipping your phone into your bag afterwards.
You then started thinking about him and how comfortable you already felt around him even though you'd just met him recently, and the thought alone brought a smile onto your face.
The way he held you against his body the night before as he hummed a song that you guessed he must've made up, until you fell asleep, but still stayed with you anyway until the next morning, which you found quite cute.
You fought the urge to close your eyes as you were randomly reminded of how good it actually felt to have his soft lips against yours, and how gentle it was when he kissed you.
Although you were a little bit disappointed when he called you last Friday to let you know that he had to put off your date with him because something had suddenly come up and he had to attend to it as soon as he could. he did, however, tell you that you would not have to wait longer than another week from the initial date for this date to happen.
You guessed that this was what he was texting you about now. That meant he was probably planning on taking you out today and the thought quickly made the smile on your face widen even more.
You then recalled how his mother saw you and him getting cosy with one another the first time you were over at his apartment.
You remembered the hateful glares she threw your way the whole time she was there and how Hoseok had kicked her out of his apartment shortly after her unexpected arrival but instead made you, on the other hand, stay.
Thinking about that whole interaction made a light blush creep onto your face but also had you feeling a little bit uncomfortable because he did kick his mother out and didn't waste a second before asking you to stay with him. You thanked the heavens the said man was not here right now because you knew he would've had something to say about you blushing.
Something wet fell onto your cheek, forcing you to immediately get rid of your thoughts of Hoseok, you felt a small droplet fall onto your cheek and realised that it was starting to drizzle a little bit and you immediately let out a loud groan.
"The day I don't bring an umbrella along with me, happens to be the day that the weather chooses to act funny," you said to yourself before letting out yet another groan.
Almost as if the sky was angered by your continuous groaning, the light drizzle soon turned into a heavier downpour, almost instantly soaking your entire body completely.
You rolled your eyes as you pulled your backpack off of your back and held it above your head to at least lessen the amount of rain that would get onto you.
"Really, sky? You couldn't wait until I got home first before you started with your shit?" you spoke to the sky like a crazy person.
"Would you like to explain to me why exactly you're talking to the sky like some weirdo?" you heard a familiar voice say and felt your heart sink without warning.
You slowly turned yourself around to see Seokjin standing a few feet away from you with an umbrella held over his head, preventing any rain from getting onto him.
"Uhm..." you stared back at him, trying to hide your surprise and the slight dread that you began to feel at the sight of him, "What are you doing here?"
He raised an eyebrow at you, "Do you want to get sick, y/n?"
"No." you deadpanned, still holding the backpack over your head.
"Gosh." he huffed before he quickly walked over until he was standing right in front of you, the umbrella now covering you both and you slowly lowered your backpack from over your head as you tried your best to not look away from the man.
"What are you doing out here?" you asked after long moments of the very awkward silence that had settled between the two of you as you stared at each other, "Where's your car?"
"Back at the apartment," he answered plainly.
"Okay then," you said awkwardly, refusing to drag the conversation any more by asking what his reasons were for leaving his car behind today when he rarely ever did.
You looked away from him, turning your gaze to your shoes and mentally yelled at yourself for deciding to wear ballet flats instead of sneakers or boots.
"Y/n-" Jin started, but you cut him off.
"Can we go? I'm getting kind of cold," you said quietly.
"Sure." he sighed but didn't make any move to show he was starting to walk and he just stared down at you.
"Jin?" you called out to him, wondering why he was literally just standing there.
"Hold onto this for a second please?" he asked before practically shoving the handle of the umbrella into your hand that wasn't holding your backpack.
"Okay?" you gave him an odd look.
He then moved to shrug off the thick jacket he was wearing before he took back the umbrella from your hand and swapped it for the jacket, "Wear it." he said sternly.
Before you could say anything, Jin pulled the backpack from your hand and threw it over his shoulder and gestured for you to put on the jacket he gave you.
"Okay?" you furrowed your eyebrows as you slowly pulled on the jacket, "Thanks," you said quietly once you had the jacket on properly.
"Let's go," he said before suddenly grabbing your wrist and dragging you in the opposite direction you were previously walking in.
"Uhm, Seokjin?" you called out to him as he continued to basically drag you down the street, "The apartment is that way," you told the man with a weird expression on your face and pointed over your shoulder.
"I know," he stated without turning to look at you before he dragged you across the empty road.
Your eyebrows knitted together, "So where are we going?"
"You'll see."
"Jin, it's cold and you'll get sick," you unknowingly spoke in a motherly tone after Seokjin had silently dragged you somewhere for about ten minutes now.
By now, although the sky was still all grey, the rain had pretty much stopped which made you quite annoyed since it wasn't even raining for that long.
"No I won't," he said plainly as you still held the umbrella over your heads since it would be quite hard to close an umbrella with only one hand since Seokjin continued to have a tight grip on one of your wrists.
You rolled your eyes, finding his stubbornness unsurprising. However, you simply chose to remain quiet and rather continue to allow him to drag you to whatever destination he may have had in mind.
After a couple of minutes, Seokjin finally slowed down and led you into an empty park before walking you over to a bench and taking a seat on it, not caring about the fact that it was still wet from the rain.
"Seokjin, the bench is wet." you pointed out to him with a huff as you finally got the chance to close the green umbrella after he finally let go of you.
"Thanks for stating the obvious," he said sarcastically without looking at you as he leaned back on the bench while rubbing his hands together in an attempt to create some sort of warmth in them.
You rolled your eyes and sighed before raising a brow at the relaxed-looking man, "Why exactly are we here?"
He slowly sat up at the sound of your voice and looked down into his lap with a loud sigh before glancing back up to meet your curious gaze.
"Y/n," he started, "I'm sorry." he exhaled loudly, "I'm sorry for being such a dick that night. I was out of line for talking to you like that and not allowing you the chance to explain yourself."
You stared at him, not really knowing how you were supposed to respond.
He really hurt you with everything that he said and you didn't really know how to feel about the whole situation any longer.
"Seokjin, you really hurt me," you said quietly, turning your eyes to the ground for a short moment as you started to recall various parts of that argument.
"I know." he sighed and stood up before he began to take steps closer to you, "I know. And I'm sorry."
You stayed quiet and looked away from the man in front of you after only having looked at him for a few seconds before you stuffed your hands into the pockets of his jacket that you had on.
"Y/n?" he stepped even closer to you.
"Hm?" you hummed.
"Do you forgive my dumbass?" he asked you as he stopped directly in front of you, "I really am sorry."
You didn't say anything for a while, still feeling like there were still a few things you needed to get off of your chest. You still felt the need to explain the whole Namjoon thing to him and also bring up what you had seen with the said man earlier that morning. You wanted to know what his explanation would be for being with Nari without your knowledge and why they were looking all cosy with one another.
Although, it only took you a few moments that you weren't exactly ready to confront these things out of fear of what his response would be.
You were scared of getting hurt so you decided to keep them to yourself and leave them unsaid.
"I don't know." you finally spoke up and glanced up at him, speaking in a teasing voice as you shook off your concerns, "Do I?"
You watched as a smile started to form on his face, "Do you?"
"Hmm." you hummed.
"Please," he asked sweetly.
You rolled your eyes playfully, "Okay."
"Thank you." he sighed loudly in relief as he placed his hands on your waist, causing your eyes to widen slightly at the sudden contact and your heart picked up speed.
He stared down at you with a wide grin on his face, "I can't stand my best friend being mad at me."
"Yeah whatever." you laughed before he pulled your body against his with the hands that he quickly placed on your upper arms and he pulled you into a warm hug.
The feeling of his arms around you for the first in what truly felt like years had you melting before you could even stop yourself.
"I love you, y/n," he said quietly and placed his chin on the top of your head as you slowly hugged him back.
His words saddened you because you knew that he didn't mean it in the way that you wanted him to.
You knew better than anyone else that he meant the hug in a brotherly kind of way and as much as you were used to it, your heart still hurt every time.
A couple of seconds went by before you felt him place a long kiss on your forehead and he moved to put his chin back onto your head with his hands holding onto you tighter, and the two of you just continued to stand like that for quite a while, relishing in the comfort of each other's arms.
Then suddenly, you heard the sound of your phone buzzing from your bag, cutting through your little moment with your best friend, forcing you to pull away from him reluctantly since he was actually keeping you warm.
He reached into your bag and pulled out your phone, but instead of handing you the buzzing device he just stared at the screen with a blank expression.
"Y/n, who's Hoseok? And why do they have two hearts next to their name on your phone?"
~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°
Hey, loves!!
Thoughts about this chapter?
Who do you think the girl Hoseok was talking to may be?
What do you think Hoseok's mother wants with the two of them?
Let me know in the comments.
But anyway, I hope y'all are happy with this update.❤️
~J🌻