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“You know you just need to like trap him under the mistletoe or something. That might work,” Namjoon offered. Yoongi rolled his eyes at his friend’s ridiculous suggestion.
“You’re joking, right?”
“No! It’s a Christmas tradition and Hoseok is a fool for all things Christmas.”
Yoongi sighed, “Okay, but he’s not gay.”
“It’s not gay if it’s mistletoe,” Namjoon replied.
Yoongi rolled his eyes once again. Namjoon wasn’t making any sense nor was he helping out with this matter. Yoongi had a helpless gay crush on this guy in his Sociology class. At first, he thought maybe Hoseok had liked him back, but he made an unfortunate discovery that Hoseok was actually very straight.
Hoseok’s Instagram had a few old photos of past girlfriends. He knew they were past girlfriends because one time Namjoon embarrassingly decided to bring it up and ask Hoseok directly. Hoseok had gotten all shy and managed out how they were his exes.
“I just don’t delete photos from my Instagram… I guess I’m sentimental?” Hoseok had admitted. Yoongi remembers how somehow this statement made his heart flutter.
Either way, no matter how far back Yoongi scrolled, it seemed Hoseok had only ever dated girls.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s straight,” Namjoon tried to reason.
“Okay, but he’s definitely not gay,” Yoongi said. And it was a fact. Maybe there was some part of Hoseok that would consider dating a guy (and Yoongi wished he could be that guy) but the fact stood that Hoseok had exclusively dated girls in his past.
Yoongi spent a good part of the semester trying to find out if maybe Hoseok was actually bisexual or something, but he failed on all accounts. Anytime he and Hoseok met up to study together he was always upset about the lack of casual conversation. It turned out that Hoseok wanted to use their study sessions to actually study.
Then Yoongi began inviting Hoseok out with him and Namjoon to see if maybe he could steer the conversation other ways. He had decided it would be all too weird to flat out ask him if he was into guys, so instead, he brought up Namjoon’s relationship and tried to gauge a reaction.
This method seemed to fail as well and Yoongi was at the end of his rope. The semester was coming to an end which meant after their final, they wouldn’t have a class together anymore. In turn, this meant Yoongi couldn’t spend every weekend with Hoseok at their study sessions. Sure they could maybe remain friends and hang out occasionally, but until this point, they had never hung out alone and done something that wasn’t studying.
Yoongi wasn’t sure what to do at this point. There had been countless moments when Yoongi thought that maybe Hoseok liked him back, but it was really hard to tell if it was just in his personality to be really touchy.
His last resort would be to just flat out confess to Hoseok, but given his track record, he would chicken out last second and pretend nothing ever happened.
The thing with Hoseok was that he really felt different. He was someone that Yoongi didn’t want to slip out of his life. If he confessed to Hoseok and he didn’t reciprocate, things might get awkward and Hoseok might casually slip out of his life. At this point, they weren’t really good enough friends to remain friends through something like that.
The next time Yoongi meets up with Hoseok is technically their final study session. Their final exam was in the morning and they reserved a room in the library to cram until two in the morning.
Yoongi had had something on his mind for the past hour or so, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to focus until he asked the question weighing on his brain.
“Hoseok?”
Hoseok stopped his drawing of some sort of chart on the whiteboard to look over at Yoongi. Yoongi felt the pressure now with Hoseok’s full attention on him. He looked away and tried to feel more casual. This was a casual thing after all. Just a friend inviting another friend to a third mutual friend’s Christmas party.
“Are you free on Thursday? After finals?” Yoongi asked. Wednesday was the last day the university held final exams and most people would be going home by then. Every year, Yoongi and Namjoon always took advantage of this to throw a particularly loud Christmas party. Usually, it was just them and a few of their other friends. This year, Yoongi wanted to invite Hoseok.
“Uhh, I should be?” Hoseok asked, looking at his watch as if his entire schedule would be there. “What time? I was probably going to go home that day since my last final on Wednesday is so late.”
“Oh! I mean, you can go home if you want… it’s just. Well, Namjoon and I are having a Christmas party,” Yoongi explained.
“Really? That sounds fun!” Hoseok said.
Yoongi felt himself blushing. “I mean it’s not really that big of a deal, we do it every year,” he mumbled.
“It definitely sounds worth staying an extra day for,” Hoseok beamed at him.
“So you’re coming?” Yoongi asked.
Hoseok nodded. “Of course! Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he laughed which made Yoongi’s heart flip. Hoseok sounded like maybe he was joking or being sarcastic, but somehow he still seemed completely genuine. He was an enigma.
-
The day of the party rolled around and Yoongi did several rounds of the apartment, making sure there were no sprigs of mistletoe hanging in discreet corners of the house. It would be just like his friends to hang some of that plant somewhere and push the both of them under the mistletoe.
When Yoongi had told the others Hoseok was coming, there had been countless jokes about them doing just that. Every single one of his friends knew about Yoongi’s helpless little crush on Hoseok. It wasn’t like he went around and told them all either - he was just really obviously taken with Hoseok.
Every time there was a knock at the door, his heart leaped into his throat thinking that Hoseok had arrived. However, the door always opened before he got to it and his guests let themselves in. Hoseok had never been over to his place, so Yoongi didn’t think he would be letting himself in.
Yoongi greeted the others as they showed up and tried his best not to seem distracted.
“Hi Jungkook, hi Jimin,” Yoongi said as the pair made their way into his apartment. He heard some laughter as a response, so he looked over at the both of them. “What?” he asked.
“I’m Taehyung,” Taehyung said with a funny look on his face.
Yoongi frowned. “Yeah. I know who you are Tae.”
“Do you? You did just call him Jungkook,” Jimin said.
Yoongi’s eyes widened as he realized they were right. “Shit. Sorry.”
This only resulted in more laughter. “He’s just waiting for Hoseok to show up I bet,” Taehyung said.
“Shut the fuck up,” Yoongi said. The thing was Taehyung was exactly right, but Yoongi didn’t need to be told something he already knew.
The duo laughed at him again, but Yoongi’s attention was drawn away when there was another knock at the door. He would be lying if he said he didn’t hold his breath as he opened the door. The door, unfortunately, did not have a peephole - an underappreciated feature that really every household should have.
He was disappointed when it was just Seokjin who showed up.
“Namjoon’s in his room,” Yoongi told him. Seokjin was dating Namjoon, so he was sort of over all the time. Yoongi really liked Seokjin actually. He was easy to get along with and fun to be around. He could see why Namjoon liked him. He was a more laid back personality that complimented and contrasted nicely with Namjoon’s. Opposites attract and all that.
Yoongi then took a seat at one of the barstools. He could hear the others talking loudly around the corner, but he wasn’t ready to join the festivities yet.
Then he heard someone call out his name.
Yoongi didn’t really want to be somewhere where the front door was out of sight, but he supposed it couldn’t hurt to step away for a few seconds. He left the stool and headed towards the sound of the voice.
“What?” Yoongi asked Namjoon when he got to his room.
“Someone’s calling you,” Namjoon said.
Yoongi rolled his eyes. “I don’t care. Let it go to voicemail,” he said, turning to leave the room.
“It’s Hoseok,” Namjoon said, making Yoongi freeze in his tracks. “At least I think it is. I’m assuming ‘Seok-seok’ is some kind of nickname?”
Yoongi felt his face grow hot, but he quickly stepped forward and snatched the phone out of Namjoon’s hand. “Hello?” he asked into the phone.
“Yoongi! So I was on my way over to your party and now I think I’m lost,” Hoseok’s voice came through the receiver on the phone.
“Did you take a right or a left at the stop sign?” Yoongi asked. He was quite familiar with people getting lost on their way over to his place. Almost everyone made the same mistake because the GPS always lead them the wrong way.
“Uhh, a left? I think,” Hoseok said.
“Yeah, you should’ve taken a right. The GPS always takes you the wrong way because these apartments are still kind of new,” Yoongi explained.
“Ohh, I see,” Hoseok said.
Yoongi waited a moment in case Hoseok had another question. When he didn’t say anything else, Yoongi spoke up. “So you need to go back to that stop sign and go the other way. Then once you see the first couple buildings you take a left and go all the way to the end. There’s guest parking there,” Yoongi explained.
“What building were you again?”
“Eighteen. It’s on the second floor. Room 202,” Yoongi said.
“Okay great! Thanks, Yoongi, I’ll be there soon,” Hoseok said.
“Okay, see you!” Yoongi said, but didn’t hang up.
“I mean unless I get lost again,” Hoseok laughed.
Yoongi rolled his eyes, “You won’t get lost again.”
“You don’t know that I have very poor directional sense,” Hoseok stated.
“Okay, well I don’t think you’re that far so just try your best.”
“Okay. Got it.”
“You sure?”
“Yes! Thanks, Yoongi,” Hoseok said.
“No problem.” Yoongi should’ve hung up the phone once again, but he always found it hard to hang up on Hoseok. He felt like he could talk to him forever. However, this time he knew Hoseok was on his way over here and he would get to talk to him in real life soon enough.
Yoongi hung up and tried to leave the room, but was stopped by Namjoon blocking the door.
“Seok-seok?” Namjoon asked.
Yoongi felt his face grow hot, “Stop, I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“That’s such a cute nickname though! How come I never got a cute nickname from you?” Namjoon asked.
Yoongi frowned and tried to push him out of the way. Unfortunately, Namjoon was quite a bit bigger than him and it proved to be pretty difficult to move him aside. “Because. I don’t give anyone nicknames like that. Hoseok put it in himself that way,” Yoongi said. It was somewhat of a lie, but Namjoon didn’t need to know that. Hoseok had put it in that way, but only after Yoongi accidentally called him that one day. He kept teasing Yoongi about it but insisted he liked it and it was okay.
“I’m sorry, I was tired!” Yoongi had complained after Hoseok brought it up once again.
“Don’t be sorry! I like it,” Hoseok said.
Yoongi pouted, “You’re just saying that to spare my feelings.”
“No! I’m serious. I love nicknames.”
“Okay, Hoseok,” Yoongi said.
“Give me your phone,” Hoseok said, but it was redundant because he already had Yoongi’s phone in his hand.
“What are you doing?” Yoongi asked.
“You’ll see,” Hoseok said as he typed away on Yoongi’s phone. Yoongi would usually try to get his phone back if someone had taken it from him, but for some reason, he was okay with Hoseok stealing it from him. The next thing he knew, Hoseok’s phone pinged beside him. Hoseok held it up and showed Yoongi the screen. A random number had sent Hoseok a text. Except it wasn’t a random number. It was his number.
When he had taken his phone back, he saw that Hoseok had entered his number into Yoongi’s phone and started a chat. Up until this point, they had been using the class’s GroupMe to communicate. It never occurred to him that he should ask for Hoseok’s number.
Hoseok’s original contact name had been “Seok-seok ;D” with a little winky smiley face and everything. Yoongi wasn’t sure if the wink had been a mistake or not. Either way, it made his heart race far too fast for him to keep it in this phone that way.
He was now glad that Namjoon had never seen that version of Hoseok’s contact in his phone.
There was another knock at the door and Yoongi looked at Namjoon. If that was Hoseok, he wanted to be the one to let him inside. He didn’t want the rest of his friends acting all weird around Hoseok just because he wasn’t around. He was almost certain they would do it anyways.
“That’s not Hoseok,” Namjoon said.
“How do you know?” Yoongi asked.
Namjoon held up a finger to signal for silence. Yoongi listened as he heard the door open, then the voices of Taehyung and Jimin shouting Jungkook’s name really loudly. Yoongi frowned at Namjoon. “That. And you were literally just on the phone with Hoseok, there’s no way he would be here already,” Namjoon reasoned.
“You don’t know that.”
Namjoon rolled his eyes, “Yoongi you have to relax a little bit.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Yoongi said. Namjoon just gave him a look that said seriously? So Yoongi sighed and added, “Fine. I know. I’m just kinda nervous. I keep thinking Taehyung or Jungkook are gonna try and pull a prank on him or something.”
“I wouldn’t put it past them, but this is Hoseok. I think I know him enough to know that he might enjoy a little practical joke,” Namjoon said.
“Yeah, I know you’re right. Just stop talking to me already,” Yoongi said.
Namjoon shook his head but stepped aside so Yoongi could leave. Yoongi was headed towards the living room to greet Jungkook when there was yet another knock at the door. The others stopped and looked up at Yoongi and suddenly it felt like a race to get to the door first.
Yoongi wasn’t sure what the others were planning or why they wanted to get there first, he just knew that he had to beat them. Somehow he beat them and pulled open the door, out of breath and panting. This time it really was Hoseok and Yoongi was delighted to see he was wearing one of his many Christmas sweaters.
“H-hey,” Yoongi said, breathless from all the running, but frankly also from Hoseok standing in front of him.
“Ah! I’m so glad I found the right place! I knocked on this door down the hall just a bit ago and I heard this old man’s voice so I ran away. Oh! This is so cute!” Hoseok exclaimed, gesturing to all the decorations up around the apartment. Yoongi felt himself blush because he had spent a decent amount of time decorating everything himself.
Yoongi stepped back to let Hoseok into the apartment. He suddenly realized all his friends were missing from the scene. This was odd because he could’ve sworn they were all right behind him when he ran to the door.
“Oh look! You even have mistletoe up there!” Hoseok said, pointing up above the door frame. Yoongi’s eyes widened as his head snapped up to follow Hoseok’s finger. Sure enough, there was a little sprig of that hellish plant dangling above from a thin white string.
“O-Oh! I uh, don’t know how that got there,” Yoongi stammered. It was true. He doesn’t know when or where that thing came from. A good guess would be one of his horrible friends.
Hoseok laughed at him. “Aw, Yoongi! Did you do that just to catch me under the mistletoe?” Hoseok asked with a teasing lilt to his voice.
Yoongi shook his head adamantly as his ears burned a bright red. “No! I bet Taehyung or Seokjin did this,” Yoongi said.
Hoseok’s demeanor changed a bit. “Oh. Do you not wanna kiss me, Yoongi?” Hoseok asked with a slight pout.
Yoongi blinked. He was unsure he was hearing things right. “What? I mean. Wait? No? Hoseok you’re my friend,” Yoongi stumbled over his words. He mentally kicked himself. The perfect opportunity to kiss Hoseok was here and here he was shutting it down.
“Yeah…” Hoseok said. “It’s just mistletoe, though.”
A crash sounded from the other room and both of them turned towards the noise. “I have to introduce you to everybody,” Yoongi said, glad for the sudden change in topic. Yoongi grabbed Hoseok by the wrist and led him into the other room. He introduced them to the others one by one and then escaped to his bathroom to try and calm himself down.
He could hear Hoseok getting along with the others quite well already. He stared at himself in the mirror and tried to pretend he wasn’t as red as he thought he looked. Surely it was just the bathroom lighting.
There was a tiny clicking noise on the other side of the door and suddenly it swung wide open.
“Namjoon? What the hell?” Yoongi asked as he stepped into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. Namjoon held up a screwdriver which he must’ve unlocked the door with. “What do you want?”
“I want to know why you didn’t kiss Hoseok in there,” Namjoon said.
“So you decide to bust in on me in the bathroom? What if I was naked?” Yoongi asked.
Namjoon huffed. “I’ve seen your dick before, but clearly you’re just in here to hide from Hoseok.”
Yoongi rolled his eyes. “So what?”
“So! Get back out there and kiss him!” Namjoon said.
Yoongi frowned, “It’s too late now.”
“Are you kidding me? Did you see the look on his face when you wouldn’t kiss him?”
“Wait… you were watching?”
“Yeah… but that’s not the point,” Namjoon said.
“Whatever I’m not gonna kiss him just because there’s this fungus hanging from the ceiling,” Yoongi said.
“Actually, it’s a shrub. Not a fungus.”
Yoongi rolled his eyes. “Even worse.”
“How is that worse?”
“It just is.”
“Are you gonna kiss Hoseok or what?”
Yoongi hesitated. He wanted to say yes and just go out there and do it, but his mind was so muddled up that he knew he would never be able to do something so straightforward. “...Maybe.”
“Come on, maybe isn’t good enough,” Namjoon said.
“But how do I know if it’s okay?” Yoongi asked. The last thing he wanted was to violate Hoseok’s personal space if he wasn’t actually welcome.
“Just get him under the mistletoe again and things will be fine!” Namjoon insisted.
“How do you know?”
Namjoon patted Yoongi on the shoulder. “You heard him earlier right? It’s just mistletoe, bro,” Namjoon said. He then turned and opened the bathroom door and pushed Yoongi outside into the hallway.
Yoongi could hear the others even louder now, so he turned back to Namjoon and whispered quietly. “What do you mean by that?”
Namjoon whispered back, “I mean Hoseok would probably willingly kiss anyone under the mistletoe so you better get out there and do it before someone else does.”
“Wait what?” Yoongi asked. That was enough to get him moving. He returned to the living room and was relieved to find everyone sitting around on all the furniture - definitely not kissing.
He felt Hoseok’s eyes land on him as he entered the room once again. He tried not to stare back at him. Yoongi realized there was no empty seating in the room. He typically tried to find a place to stake a claim to early on in the night and let the others fight over couch space, but this time he was on the other side. He definitely did not want to sit with Jungkook, Taehyung, or Jimin. Which naturally left Seokjin and Hoseok.
He turned to Seokjin who had about a seat and a half to himself. He could maybe try to squeeze in next to him. Seokjin noticed him eyeing the seat. “This is Namjoon’s seat,” Seokjin said.
Yoongi frowned at him. He was about to just settle for the ground when Hoseok spoke up behind him. “You can share a seat with me, Yoongi!” he said.
Yoongi turned and stepped towards Hoseok. He didn’t have to be close to tell that the chair Hoseok was in was really only meant for one person. Nevertheless, Hoseok grabbed onto his wrist as soon as he was close enough and pulled him over even closer. Yoongi didn’t try to fight it as he guided his hips in place to sit on his lap.
He tried his best to hide the blush that would definitely be blossoming under his skin. Hoseok ended up being a really comfortable seat. It had been a little awkward at first sitting right on top of him, but as the night went on, they decided to watch a movie so Yoongi was now positioned more to the side with his legs over Hoseok’s.
Most of the time their parties were much louder than this. They liked to play games and pull jokes on each other, so Yoongi was really surprised they went with a lame movie night instead this time.
When Hoseok wrapped his arm around Yoongi’s shoulders he began to get suspicious. He started to wonder if this entire night was some giant plot just to get him and Hoseok together because it sure felt that way. Almost any time Yoongi said he was about to get up and get something, someone else would get up and get it for him.
He didn’t protest because frankly, it was nice being brought things. His friends were hardly ever this nice to him.
Yoongi didn’t pay much attention to the movie at all. He was much too busy thinking and living inside his own mind to follow the plot of the film. This also meant he didn’t really notice it when he ended up falling asleep and missing everything else.
When he was woken up, he was absolutely horrified. Everyone else had already gone home, and he was trapping Hoseok on the couch and preventing him from leaving. This was supposed to have been a fun party and instead, he fell asleep.
“Oh! Good morning sleepy,” Hoseok smiled at him.
Yoongi was almost startled enough to fall right off the chair. “Where is everyone?”
“They went home,” Hoseok said.
“Oh, my. Hoseok, I’m so sorry. How long have you been sitting here?” Yoongi asked as he made a motion to get up.
Hoseok’s hand on his shoulder, however, kept him in his place. “It’s fine really. I didn’t want to wake you,” Hoseok said.
Yoongi frowned and then buried his face in the back of the chair to the side of Hoseok’s shoulder. “Ahh, I feel horrible! This was supposed to be fun,” Yoongi said.
“I had fun!” Hoseok said.
Yoongi pulled away from the cushion to glare at Hoseok. “Really? Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying!” Hoseok started, “Yeah, you maybe fell asleep, but everyone still talked to me and I had a lot of fun.”
“... You guys… talked?” Yoongi asked carefully. He was afraid of what the others might’ve said to him while he was dead to the world.
“Yeah! After the movie ended we just started talking about the movie and such and then it just went from there. Your friends are really nice,” Hoseok said.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
A brief silence settled between them and suddenly Yoongi felt like Ariel in that scene of The Little Mermaid where they’re in the boat and all the sea creatures are singing about how easy it would be for Eric to just kiss the girl.
Yoongi shook his head and got up for real this time. “I uh… suppose you want to be getting home soon,” Yoongi said, avoiding making eye contact in case Hoseok could somehow magically read his mind.
“Oh… yeah, I guess so,” Hoseok said. He too got up and began gathering his things.
Yoongi started heading towards the door. Even though the house was quiet and Hoseok claimed everyone went home, it would be just like his friends to be hiding around a corner ready to jump out and scare him.
“Aw man, I guess they took down the decorations,” Hoseok noted as he joined Yoongi in heading towards the front door.
“I’m glad they did… Otherwise, they’d probably be up until next year,” Yoongi said.
“Yeah… I just wanted to get a picture of them before I left,” Hoseok said.
“Oh… Well, I can put them up some other time if you want?” Yoongi asked.
Hoseok laughed and shook his head. “That’s okay. I thought it would be cool to post an artsy picture on Instagram.”
“Oh, I see,” Yoongi said. They made their way around the corner and Yoongi immediately noticed something odd about this room. All of the decorations were gone except-
“Looks like they left the mistletoe,” Hoseok said, noticing the same thing.
Yoongi felt his heart jump into his throat. He felt like he was going to chicken out again. But then Hoseok did something completely unexpected. He leaned in and kissed Yoongi on the nose. Yoongi blinked at him with wide eyes.
“Merry Christmas, Yoongi,” Hoseok said with a sad smile. He seemed ready to turn and leave, but Yoongi’s body started functioning again. He reached out and grabbed Hoseok’s wrist.
He did his best not to overthink his next actions as he reached for Hoseok’s neck and pulled him in again. They shared a brief moment of eye contact before Yoongi squeezed his own eyes shut and pressed his lips against Hoseok’s. Moments later they pulled apart and Yoongi felt like he was having an out of body experience. His actions were so unlike him that he felt like something else had to be controlling him.
“Yoongi-”
“Hoseok,” Yoongi cut him off. “I really fucking like you. And I’ve wanted to do that for a really long time. And I’m sorry if you don’t feel the same way… I just had to tell you.”
Hoseok’s face broke out into a wide grin. Yoongi thought his entire face would split if he smiled any wider. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” he asked.
Yoongi felt a shy smile come to his lips and a small flicker of hope rise in his chest. “I-I… I thought you weren’t gay.”
Hoseok gave him a weird smile, “I may not be gay, but I sure as hell am not straight.”
Yoongi was full on smiling now and he didn’t want to ever stop. “Oh,” Yoongi said.
“Yeah.”
“So…”
“So?” Hoseok repeated.
“Do you wanna like… be my boyfriend then?” Yoongi asked and he felt stupid for phrasing it that way.
Hoseok leaned in for another kiss. This one lasted a bit longer than the first and actually allowed Yoongi time to feel the butterflies stirring in his chest. When he pulled away Hoseok was still smiling.
“I thought you’d never ask.”