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“this is so stupid,” yoongi muttered.
he pretended he was talking to taehyung, the brat who’d convinced him to pull this stunt, to make an absolute fool of himself, to make this previously-great neighborship and casual-polite passersby dynamic a source of humiliation and dread. for a month. he was moving in a month. and if (when) this thing turned into a stomach-churning nightmare, he would never see his neighbor ever again.
(except he would, he thought, because one of his best friends was taehyung and taehyung was jimin’s mate and jimin was best friends with hoseok and the reason yoongi felt compelled to do this was that jimin and taehyung had started bringing hoseok and hoseok’s other best friend jin to their hangouts and yoongi’s absolute best friend namjoon was practically purely platonically enamored with hoseok and had started inviting him to their hangouts and yoongi didn’t mind because hoseok fit in great and was incredible to talk to and be around and see smile and—)
yoongi could turn around right now, he thought. he could literally turn around and take the two steps back to his own door and hide in his apartment and pretend he never even thought of this stupid idea and throw this stupider box in the stupid trash and—
hoseok opened the door and yoongi went immediately red. he saw hoseok’s lips (his lips, his lips, god) move and knew he was speaking but his ears were not working in the slightest, and his hands were barely working, and his arms weren’t working at all, it seemed, except they were working against him and for some reason he was handing the stupid box to hoseok, forcing it into his arms, and suddenly he was back in his apartment, back pressed against the closed door.
“thank you?” he heard hoseok say after a moment, muffled by the door and by yoongi apparently covering his ears.
“fuck,” he whispered. no going back now.
taehyung called him that night and laughed at him for twenty solid seconds before yoongi hung up. jimin texted him after, a string of heart emojis and a thumbs up. he deleted the message and hid his phone from himself, only getting it from his bedside drawer when his alarms went off the next morning. when he read the string of texts - from jimin, sure, and taehyung, but namjoon knew? who had told him? jin, too? and what the fuck, jungkook never even looked at his phone, the brat—he shoved it in the drawer again.
stupid decision, really. if he’d just—doom scrolled for a few hours, he wouldn’t have started cooking. if he’d just doom scrolled, maybe he wouldn’t have remembered hoseok casually mentioning his favorite food two weeks ago. maybe he wouldn’t have remembered hoseok saying he ate microwave meals on thursdays because he taught a late class and was too tired to cook and meal prepped on friday and was sick of what he had made himself by then.
if he’d just stared at his phone for a few hours and gave himself a headache and caught up on the hundred things namjoon had sent him that he hadn’t even glanced at yet he would not be standing at hoseok’s door again.
he was going to just leave it at his door, hoseok would be home soon enough that it would still be warm when he picked it up and maybe he wouldn’t even know who it was from at all—
yoongi balked. was that better or worse? what if hoseok contributed it to someone else, to some other mysterious omega, maybe two people were courting him (fuck, was he courting him? he was, he knew, but was he going to admit it now? to himself?)
should he write his name on it? maybe he should write heating instructions, just in case he got home late. but—
“yoongi-hyung!” hoseok said as he rounded the corner. “i wanted to thank you for—”
he was wearing the cardigan yoongi had given him the night before, still covered in yoongi’s scent, he could smell it from there. he was wearing it. he was wearing it, he had accepted—
he shoved the container in hoseok’s hands just as he had done the night before and only just managed to not slam the door behind him.
hoseok let out a surprised laugh and called out “thank you!” and yoongi could hear the smile in his voice.
he ignored taehyung’s call that night, and jimin’s texts, and the group chat that was filled with stupid memes and reactions and teases and celebrations that made yoongi blush and balk in turn.
he left flowers outside the door the next night, and he was not at all sure whether he was grateful or distraught that hoseok hadn’t caught him unawares.
hoseok was wearing the cardigan that saturday when they met at their usual place, still yoongi-scented and enticing and terrifying all at once. he had a flower from the bouquet tucked in one of the button holes. yoongi was tempted to run, but he wasn’t sure if he’d run into his arms or right out the door so he stayed still.
“hyung!” hoseok said. he stood and took yoongi’s hand, leading him to the seat right next to him, their thighs pressing together under the booth. “thank you for dinner, it was delicious.”
yoongi’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, nodding jerkily. “yeah. thanks. welcome.”
he took over the grill as he usually did, serving cooked meat as it was done, giving hoseok (and jungkook. jungkook would always be his baby, even if he was semi-courting the most incredible omega in the world.) the best cuts. he blushed brightly when hoseok held some to yoongi’s lips but would never refuse a bite.
he ignored the teasing jibes of his friends well enough that they stopped all-together, moving on to more entertaining topics of teasing everyone else. hoseok threw himself on yoongi every time he laughed - it wasn’t abnormal, he did it with everyone, yoongi knew, but still. the contact tingled pleasantly, making his whole body buzz with the thrill of it, feelings that renewed all over again within two minutes when hoseok did it again.
“can i walk you home?” he muttered at him as they were leaving, focusing on adjusting his jacket for far too long.
hoseok laughed, touching his arm. “i’d be offended if you didn’t, hyung, considering we live not even five feet from each other.
yoongi blushed once again, his permanent state around hoseok, and nodded stiffly.
their hands found each other after they bid their friends goodbye, idly gossiping about jimin and taehyung maybe adopting a dog and the much more enticing suspicion that namjoon, jungkook, and jin were starting something, their glances and shy touches over dinner not pointed out but also noted, bold and underlined, by everyone at the table.
that meant yoongi noticed immediately when hoseok shivered and he froze in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at him.
hoseok blinked, furrowing his brows. he was just in the cardigan, and here yoongi was all bundled up in his warm coat - horrible. he shrugged it off and draped it around hoseok’s shoulders, tugging the collar to make sure it covered him up well enough. hoseok kept staring, even when yoongi took his hand again and made to keep walking.
he glanced back at him, and the blush painting hoseok’s perfect cheeks seemed to warm yoongi from the inside out. he looked, and smelled, pleased. pleased at yoongi’s care. making sure his omega - not his, but he was - was warm.
“ah, hyung,” hoseok said quietly. he squeezed his hand and fell back into step with him, arms brushing where they hung together.
“let’s go home,” yoongi muttered.
when they got back to their apartments, hoseok kissed his cheek and disappeared behind his door without looking back.
yoongi stared at the closed door for - he didn’t know how long. he knew the kiss was real, though. he felt it linger on his cheek until he fell asleep.
after a week of cooked dinners, delivered coffee, and yoongi fixing hoseok’s temperamental heater when he mentioned in passing that his apartment was too cold, jimin sent him a screenshot.
hobi-hyung: is yoongi hyung courting me
🥺😳🤔🙏😻🌻🤔🌹😋❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤍🥺❣️🙏
jimin:
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
the next night, yoongi answered a timid knock on his door to find hoseok on the other side. there was a cat plush in his arms, a chunky black thing that yoongi just knew was covered in hoseok’s scent. the cardigan was under it, folded and well-kept and completely devoid of yoongi’s scent.
they stared at each other for a long moment before hoseok cleared his throat, glancing away with pink cheeks.
“i’m sorry,” yoongi said, “come in, please?”
hoseok licked his lips and smiled. “i can’t stay, i’m sorry. i just wanted to—” he cleared his throat again, squeezing the cat and cardigan to his chest for a brief moment. “i saw this earlier and i thought of you. just—cute. it’s really—it’s cute. it’s—you’re cute.”
yoongi’s jaw went slack, the compliment soaring through him with astonishment.
“and—” he cleared his throat again. “i had to wash the—this, and i’d really love it if you—scented it. like, really scented it. please.”
yoongi took the bundle thrust at him slowly, shoving his nose onto the cat’s head without thinking. it was soft and absolutely covered in hoseok’s scent. he held the cardigan close, as well, and wondered how hoseok had saturated the cat so thoroughly so he could do the same.
hoseok let out a loud shaky breath. “i have to run, but i’ll see you later, okay?” yoongi nodded and watched him go, blinking when he turned abruptly. “this—this is a courting gift. just to be clear. i’m courting you.”
he turned and half-sprinted down the stairs before yoongi could say a word.
yoongi: is hoseok courting me
taehyungie: oh my god
it happened on christmas, when yoongi’s apartment was in boxes and ready to move a few blocks away - somewhere with a better heater and a better view but, he already mourned, several steps farther away from hoseok’s door.
neither of them were going home and had silently and mutually decided to spend the day together, casually lounging and watching christmas movies, putting together an eclectic dinner of their favorite foods even if they didn’t go well together at all.
hoseok snuggled up to yoongi’s side, covered in the soft blanket yoongi had given him the week before that he kept rubbing against his cheek in a way that made yoongi’s heart light up almost painfully bright.
“you know,” he said, one cheek against yoongi’s shoulder, the rubbing the other with the blanket. “it’s not that i don’t like courting—”
yoongi’s heart dimmed immediately, dread freezing his bones.
“but it’s not like we can’t court while we’re, you know. together.”
yoongi blinked a few times, bones slowly thawing. “what?”
“i’m just saying. i wouldn’t mind kissing you, too. and i wouldn’t mind you staying the night.”
“seoltang will get lonely,” he said, grinning when hoseok let out the loud, raucous laugh that yoongi loved more than any other sound in the world.
“seoltang is invited,” he promised, looking at him fondly, eyes bright and lovely and beautifully warm.
hoseok kissed him, a sweet, chaste thing that yoongi knew he would never forget. even years later, with thousands of kisses shared between them, that first would be unlike any other. hundreds of thousands, even. millions.
“i love you, hyung,” hoseok said, tugging his ear gently.
“love you, hoseokie,” yoongi muttered. “i still want to make you dinner.”
“please do,” hoseok grinned. he kissed him again, and yoongi realized he might remember every kiss just as clearly as the first. “let’s go get your son, hm? i don’t want to stop touching you the rest of the night.”
“sounds good to me.”