Chapter Text
Hoseok has always kept his options open. It’s just difficult when it turns out that none of those options are very good.
“So.” His date leans forward, both elbows perched on the edge of the table. He’s handsome. He has neatly trimmed dark hair and a single shining hoop dangling from one of his ears. He wears a neatly pressed shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He’s a little expensive, and Hoseok likes that. He’s been nice so far, polite and inquisitive about Hoseok while also offering details about himself. He’s hot. He eats his food neatly and cleanly, no open mouth, not offensive noises. He’s polite to the waitress.
His name is Kang. It’s going well.
Hoseok also leans in, turning his head just slightly so the best angle of his face catches the gentle overhead lighting. He takes a sip of his wine. “Hm?”
“If you had to choose,” Kang says, holding up an index finger, smiling, “between being an alpha or an omega, which one do you think you’d be?”
Hoseok keeps the smile on his face.
“I’ll tell you which one I think I would be after you do,” says Kang. He takes a sip of his own drink and grins, a little cat-like. “Maybe it’ll help determine how good of a match we are.”
“Hm,” Hoseok says again. He runs the tip of his finger along the rim of his wine glass. “Maybe.”
Or maybe it already has.
Hoseok manages to skirt around the question, swerving the conversation onto another topic, something about how the dating app they met through scored their compatibility already. Kang hardly notices.
Hoseok is good at this. He knows he doesn’t lack social skills. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s had a lot of practice. A lot of dates.
Hoseok lets the date extend for another fifteen minutes before he smoothly asks for the check when the waitress asks if they would like more to drink. It’s late, anyway. They’ve eaten and had dessert, and their glasses are empty. Time to go home. Hoseok’s gotten quite tired very quickly.
“So…” Kang says as they step out into the cool night air outside the restaurant. The skin of his face looks suddenly shiny under the fluorescent streetlights. Greasy. Hoseok hadn’t noticed that in the restaurant. He knows what Kang is asking.
“Ah, yeah, I don’t really… on the first date,” Hoseok says. It’s not exactly the truth, but it’s been more common than not lately. The tip of Kang’s nose shines in the light, and Hoseok doesn’t even want to kiss him.
He does, though, because he’s polite and this is a date and the man spent far more money than he needed to on him. Kang smells a little musty, something Hoseok also wasn’t able to notice in the restaurant.
Then Hoseok gets in his car, puts his seatbelt on, turns on the same playlist he’s been listening to for the past two weeks, and drives home. The town roads are a little empty, even for a Friday night, but it’s late. Black pavement glistens with an earlier bout of rain, glowing orange under the lights.
When he gets home to his apartment he locks the door, then strips off his nice clothes and puts them in his hamper. He puts on his pajamas, brushes his teeth, does his skincare routine, and then slips into bed and turns off the light. He stares up at the dark ceiling and considers what he has going on for the rest of the weekend. He’s supposed to visit his sister tomorrow afternoon. Maybe he’ll take her out somewhere.
He turns onto his side and closes his eyes.
He should have known. He’d hoped that trying to date a beta might be successful this time, especially after a slew of alphas and omegas that hadn’t worked out. But he really should have known.
Hoseok isn’t an alpha and he isn’t an omega. He’s a beta, but that answer never seems to please anyone.
The next day he texts Kang that he doesn’t think he’s interested in a second date, and then he deletes the dating app off his phone entirely.
*
Hoseok’s already been at his desk for forty five minutes by the time the lobby doors open and a familiar figure shuffles into the office.
“Good morning, Yoongi!”
Yoongi grumbles a good morning, a lunchbox in one hand and a travel mug of coffee in the other, like every morning. He wears a perfectly unwrinkled navy blue sweater with a collared shirt peeking out around his neck. On his face, his expression is pinched and groggy.
Hoseok grins. Yoongi is his favorite coworker in this entire place.
“See you at lunch time!” he says as Yoongi ambles past, not making eye contact.
The morning moves along pleasantly enough for a Monday. Hoseok sits at his reception desk and puts in the weekly order for office supplies, pausing to greet the employees as they walk into the main lobby. Then he tidies the sitting area so it looks presentable for the two job interviews that are scheduled this morning– not that it looks unpresentable, but Hoseok thinks it’s just as important for the company to make a good first impression as it is for the candidate to. Once he’s satisfied, he starts working on helping HR with the bi-annual health fair that’s coming up in a few weeks.
He likes his job. He likes making sure everything is in stock and in place. He likes greeting people and meeting new faces and forming connections with clients and interviewees. He likes helping to plan events and schedule appointments. His official title is receptionist, his unofficial title is office manager, his other unofficial title is ‘face of the company,’ and in his head he’s a jack of all trades.
He’s been here for about half a year and is not exactly sure where it’s going to take him, but he hopes the only direction is up.
He’s on the phone, answering a call from the second interview candidate about rescheduling his interview because of a conflict, when the first candidate walks in.
“Yes, just let me transfer you to HR,” Hoseok is saying on the phone. “They should be able to help you reschedule.”
The woman stops in front of Hoseok’s desk as he reaches over to punch in HR’s extension. She’s a little imposing, in a suit jacket of deepest blue, and Hoseok wishes she’d sit in one of the chairs until he was finished with his call. He’d arranged the ‘Welcome to our company!’ pamphlets perfectly for viewing.
“Oh, it really should be no problem,” Hoseok says, pausing with his finger over the console as the candidate on the phone apologizes again for requesting to change his scheduled time. “You’re only human. Things come up!”
The candidate in front of Hoseok’s desk shifts. She’s an alpha. Hoseok has been trying to ignore it but it’s practically oozing off of her. As a rule, Hoseok doesn’t like to rely on his first impression of people by their secondary gender.
The candidate on the phone thanks Hoseok again before he finally forwards him on to HR, but not before Hoseok makes sure to tell the candidate, cheerfully, that he’ll see him soon. He knows interviewing is stressful. He wants everyone who comes in to feel as welcomed as possible, and the guy on the phone had certainly sounded stressed.
Hoseok finally looks up. The woman is already looking back at him, hands folded on Hoseok’s counter in front of her. She’s got small hoop earrings in either ear that gleam in the lobby lights.
Ordinarily, Hoseok might compliment her outfit. She does look exceptionally put together. However, there’s a formidable presence to her that makes him not very interested in engaging in small talk.
Still, it’s his job to make everyone feel welcomed.
“You must be Jules, here for the ten o’ clock interview for the auditing position,” Hoseok says, smiling warmly.
She holds out a hand. She wears a single, modest ring on her index finger. If a diamond is considered modest. “Yes, Jules Lee.”
“Nice to meet you,” Hoseok says. “If you could just take a seat, I’ll let HR know you’re here.”
“Thank you,” Jules Lee says. She doesn’t go to sit, and instead asks, “That wasn’t another candidate on the phone trying to reschedule, was it?”
She says it with a little smile, like it’s a joke. Hoseok tries to abide by his rule not to judge people by their secondary gender, but-
Sometimes they want you to.
It’s clear she thinks she has the upper hand here. Hoseok wishes she’d just listen to him and take a seat. She hasn’t even done her interview yet.
“Our company is accommodating,” is all Hoseok says. He feels a little defensive for the other candidate. He seemed nice. Hoseok can’t imagine this woman being so apologetic if she had been the one that needed to reschedule.
Stop it, he tells himself. Don’t be judgmental.
He forces another smile on his face. “If you could please take a seat, Ms. Lee. HR will be out shortly!”
To his relief, she goes and takes a seat. She glances at the suggested reading material Hoseok has laid out neatly for guests, but doesn’t make use of it as Hoseok calls HR to let them know she’s here.
*
“How’s your day going?” Yoongi says at lunch, squinting a little as he shoves a bite of sandwich into his mouth. They’re well under the shade of one of the courtyard trees, but Hoseok knows that the sun is Yoongi’s mortal enemy. It’s funny.
Yoongi’s lunchbox is laid out all cutely in front of him, like it always is. Hoseok knows that his husband, Taehyung, likes to pack them for him. Taehyung’s even got a little TikTok channel devoted to prepping Yoongi’s lunches. He’s got quite a following, Hoseok being one of them. It’s cute.
Hoseok shrugs, poking at his premade store-bought salad. His cheery mood had soured after that alpha interview candidate, even though he knows it wasn’t a very big deal. He tries to tell himself it’s a nice day out. The sun shines, leaking through the leaves, and the breeze blows gentle and cool against their skin. It’s been warming up as the weeks advance into springtime. Little buds have begun to form on the branches above them, and soon they’ll be a soft, familiar pink. Hoseok does love spring. “It’s alright. Nothing very exciting, just the usual Monday stuff. How about you?”
Yoongi nods. He’s got a little container of carrot sticks in front of him that he pushes between them. Hoseok takes one. “Yeah. It’s a Monday.”
The thing Hoseok likes about Yoongi is that Hoseok never really has to do anything for him other than be himself. That’s all Yoongi really requires of people, he’s found. When Hoseok had started this job, he’d thought Yoongi was a funny guy, in the sense that he always seemed tired and grumpy but carried around a cute little lunchbox and never had a single wrinkle in any of his clothes. For a while, their relationship had consisted of nothing more than “good mornings” and “good nights” when Yoongi passed by the reception desk every day, until Yoongi had, somehow, been wrangled onto the holiday party planning team by HR. Hoseok, of course, had volunteered.
“Why would you ever volunteer for this,” Yoongi had said, monotone, after their first meeting. They had spent the entire allotted hour discussing whether they should book the party in a restaurant or use their own cafeteria for free. It was still undecided.
Hoseok had laughed. There was just something about the way that Yoongi seemed to hate his very existence in the office that was very funny to him. “I don’t know, it’s fun.”
Yoongi had sighed. “My husband would like this kind of thing, too.”
That had intrigued Hoseok greatly. He had, of course, noticed the wedding band around Yoongi’s finger ages ago, but he hadn’t really realized that he’d subconsciously been picturing Yoongi’s spouse as some sort of Yoongi clone, just as grumpy and grumbly as he was. He would not at all have expected Yoongi to be married to someone who would enjoy corporate holiday parties. He really should have known, though, judging by the lunchbox.
It had made Hoseok warm toward Yoongi, and perhaps Yoongi had been on a similar wavelength, because every meeting after that he’d take the chair beside Hoseok’s, sitting down with a complaint that always made Hoseok laugh.
Now, Hoseok considers Yoongi one of his best friends here. At work. In this town.
“Hey,” Yoongi says. He’s got a blue electrolyte drink in his hand, and Hoseok recalls Taehyung saying something in one of his latest TikToks about how Yoongi always needs better hydration, but hates boring water. “Didn’t you have that date this weekend?”
Hoseok sighs. He’d been trying not to think about that.
“That bad?” Yoongi asks.
“It was going well, but then he got kind of…” Hoseok trails off.
He knows Yoongi would understand. He’s a vastly empathetic person, and incredibly kind, for all his grumpy complaints about everything, and Hoseok knows he hasn’t had the easiest time as an omega.
But he’s still not a beta. And Hoseok doesn’t really know if he’s in the mood to go into it right now.
“He just wasn’t my type,” Hoseok settles on.
Yoongi nods. “He was a beta, right?”
“Yeah,” Hoseok says. He takes a sip of his plain bottled water, refilled from the water station in the cafeteria. “I’m not sure it matters what someone is, at this point.”
Yoongi hums sympathetically. “Back to the apps, then?”
Hoseok shakes his head. “I think I’m going to take a break.” He’d been at this for weeks now, on all sorts of dates, and he’s tired.
“That might be good for you,” Yoongi says, and that makes Hoseok feel better about his decision. Yoongi’s never pushy about this stuff. He also never lies.
And it’s not that Hoseok needs someone to date. It would just be nice, is all.
“Maybe fate will drop someone in my lap like it did with you and Taehyung,” says Hoseok, wishful.
Yoongi rolls his eyes. “It wasn’t as smooth sailing as it sounds.”
“Oh, I know, Tae’s told me all about that.” Hoseok grins. “You were a tough nut to crack.”
Yoongi looks at his watch. “Okay, lunch break’s over,” he says, and Hoseok laughs.
Ten minutes later, they start to pack up to go back inside for real. “Hey,” Yoongi says. He looks down at his lunchbox as he zips it. “Since you might have time again, you should join me at the studio.”
Now that’s something Hoseok has missed. It fills him with a little bit of a spark. Something to look forward to. “Sure,” he says, and smiles. “Just tell me when you’re going.”
*
When the second interview candidate arrives the next day, Hoseok instantly likes him better than the first one.
Well, he pretty much already had liked him better anyway, considering their phone call the day before. But when Hoseok comes back from delivering some files to the accounting department (which turned into twenty minutes of Dawn venting about her husband staying out too late golfing again), he spots an unfamiliar person standing in front of his empty reception desk, and stops.
His first thought is, wow.
The candidate is on the compact side, all lean muscle beneath a fitted button down shirt and especially fitted dress pants. His blond hair is parted neatly down the middle, bare forehead revealing a pair of pretty eyebrows and an even prettier face beneath them.
Hoseok grimaces at himself. Pretty eyebrows? God, he really has been single for too long.
He shrugs the thoughts out of his mind. The workplace was no place for attraction. He glances at his watch and sees it’s three minutes after eleven.
“Oh!” he says in alarm, and the guy startles a little, looking up.
Hoseok hurries over, stopping in front of the candidate and holding out his hand. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t at my desk! You must be Jimin, here for the eleven o’clock interview?”
The guy blinks at him. His mouth parts, just slightly.
“Um.” Hoseok’s hand falters in the air. Maybe it’s not the auditing candidate. “I- sorry. Are you not Mr. Park?”
The guy seems to blink back into himself.
He immediately reaches forward and meets Hoseok’s handshake, the tips of his cheeks going pink. “Oh- yes, I’m sorry,” he says. His hand is a little small inside Hoseok’s. “I’m here for the auditing interview. You can just call me Jimin.”
A sweet, flowery scent drifts Hoseok’s way, and Hoseok can’t quite tell if it’s his natural scent or a cologne he might be wearing. Alphas and omegas are so much better at the scenting thing, a lack that Hoseok is only really grateful for when he thinks someone’s scent is bad, like his date's was on Friday night.
Jimin’s scent seems pleasant. Regardless, he’s dressed to impress, and that earns points in Hoseok’s book, even though he has no part in actual hiring decisions.
“Nice to meet you,” Hoseok says, giving him a smile as he lets go of his hand. “I’m Hoseok.”
“Oh!” Jimin says. His eyebrows dart upward. “We spoke over the phone. Thank you so much for helping me reschedule.”
Hoseok nods his head a little, smiling again. “It was no problem at all.”
“I do usually try to keep appointments,” says Jimin, eyebrows turning earnest.
Hoseok waves a hand. “Like I said yesterday, life happens.” He starts walking around the counter to his desk to call HR and let them know candidate number two is here. “We’re nice here, I swear. It won’t hurt your chances of getting the job.” And he’ll make sure to tell HR the only reason Jimin’s late for his appointment right now was because Hoseok wasn’t at his desk.
Hoseok tells Jimin to take a seat as he calls, and he’s secretly pleased when he sees Jimin pick up one of the company pamphlets that Hoseok had painstakingly rearranged this morning on the display table. Jimin thumbs through it, which Hoseok thinks is smart. There’s lots of good company information in there that he knows they’ll ask him about in his interview. That’s why Hoseok put it in there.
It takes a few minutes for HR to come fetch him. Hoseok notices the way Jimin’s knee begins to bounce as he reads the pamphlet. Hoseok wants to tell him not to be nervous, that everyone who works here is nice and that they wouldn’t have called him to interview if they didn’t think he was qualified, but Hoseok maintains his role as a neutral receptionist.
Still, when HR comes to get him, Hoseok can’t help but shoot Jimin a little thumbs up for luck behind her back. Jimin blinks at him again, like he doesn’t quite understand, but then he breaks into a smile that encompasses his entire face.
He’s a little stunning.
Oh well, Hoseok thinks, turning back to his computer to check his email. Hoseok’s off the market right now, and if this guy gets hired, he’ll be fun to look at, but Hoseok does not do office romances. They’re so messy and unprofessional, and no one ever stops gossiping about you.
An hour goes by, which is longer than the interview with yesterday’s candidate, and when Jimin finally emerges, he looks as put-together as ever, though there is a looseness to his shoulders that hadn’t been there earlier. When he leaves, he stops at Hoseok’s desk and thanks him again for all the help he’s provided. Hoseok really doesn’t feel like he’s done much, but he appreciates it.
Once Jimin is gone, Hoseok takes out his phone and texts Yoongi. Lunch?
His phone buzzes with an immediate reply. I thought you’d never ask.
You could ask me, you know, Hoseok texts back.
I prefer to be pursued.
Isn’t that what you have Taehyung for?
Hoseok calls the intern to watch his station while he’s at lunch, which he knows is her least favorite duty because she’s terrified of answering the main phone line. Hoseok knows that if she’s exposed to it enough, it won’t be so scary, but she never believes him.
Yoongi and Hoseok go out to the courtyard again because it’s another nice day, and Yoongi tells him that the real reason he forgot about lunch was because the Big Boss– or, the President and CEO of their company– has him on a big new project he needs finished before the end of the week.
“I don’t care, I’m not staying late, if it’s not finished it’s not finished, he could’ve given me this project weeks ago,” Yoongi says, popping a green grape into his mouth and chewing aggressively. He looks at Hoseok. “Speaking of not staying late, I booked the studio for tonight. You still coming?”
Hoseok startles a bit at the abrupt change in topic, but he feels himself nod. “Yeah, definitely.” He thinks he could be inspired today.
That mollifies Yoongi somewhat. “Great. Don’t eat a huge dinner, Tae will probably send me with snacks.”
Hoseok grins. “I’d expect nothing less.”
On Hoseok’s way back to his desk, he stops in the cafeteria to refill his water bottle. The room is emptying out now that lunch is winding down, but when he turns around to head back to his desk he nearly walks into another person.
He yelps- he’s not good with surprises- and takes a step backwards, putting a hand over his chest.
“Oh! I’m sorry,” he says. He looks up and realizes it’s the Auditing Manager, Hana. She doesn’t laugh at him out loud, but there’s warmth in her eyes.
“It’s no worries,” she says easily. She’s always been nice. “How are you, Hoseok?” She walks around him to put her lunchbox back in the fridge.
“Great,” Hoseok says. “How are you?”
“Oh, you know,” she says, waving a hand. “Business as usual.”
Hoseok nods. He gets it. He twists the lid of his water bottle to make sure it’s screwed on tightly. “I’ve met the candidates you’ve been interviewing,” he says, making small talk. “How’s that been going?”
“Oh, that’s right, you see everyone who walks into the building,” she says, closing the fridge and turning back to him.
Hoseok grins. “Face of the company.” He frames his face with his hands. This time she does laugh out loud.
They start walking out of the cafeteria. “It’s definitely going to be difficult to choose between them. They’re really qualified. Smart.”
“Ah,” Hoseok says. “I guess that’s not a bad problem to have.”
“You’re right,” Hana says. She smiles. “Was there one you preferred?” She says it a little teasingly, as if Hoseok’s opinion on hiring decisions actually matters. “The alpha or the omega?”
He knows she’s joking, but the way she phrases the question rubs him a little strangely. He tries not to think too deeply on it and puts a hand to his chin, pretending to think.
“You know, I really liked Jimin,” he says, dropping some of the teasing from his voice. Hana tilts her head, and he clarifies. “The omega.”
“Oh, really?” she says. They start walking out of the break room.
Hoseok nods. “He seemed very kind.”
Hana doesn’t say anything for a moment. Then she says, “You know, that’s very helpful.”
Hoseok warms a little. It certainly feels nice to be helpful. And he really would prefer to see Jimin’s smiling face walk in every day as opposed to the woman who had been so imposing.
“So, you know who’s got my vote,” Hoseok says, putting a little of the playfulness back into his voice before they part ways at her office door. He smiles. “It was nice talking to you, Hana.”
“You too, Hoseok.” She smiles back, and a vague pine scent wafts towards him. He wonders if she had liked the woman, Jules. He wonders if alphas are more likely to choose other alphas, or if that would present some sort of competition. Not that labor laws would allow for this type of thing. Hana seems like a fairly neutral person anyway, Hoseok thinks.
Regardless, he’s put his vote for Jimin in, and he has no idea if it will make a difference, but it feels nice to vouch for someone he thinks deserves it.
*
“Wow, you really weren’t joking about the snacks,” Hoseok says when Yoongi lets him into the studio room he’s rented for the night. There’s a spread of crackers, cheese, apples, grapes, and cookies on the little side table next to a small couch. And an array of power water, all different flavors.
“You thought that was a joke? You know Tae,” Yoongi says.
Hoseok grins. He does. He walks over and pops a grape into his mouth. “He didn’t want to join?” Sometimes Taehyung will come for the company; other times he’ll come to try and work on music of his own. He always makes sweet, gentle tunes that Hoseok can tell endear Yoongi beyond measure.
Yoongi shakes his head and sits down in one of the desk chairs. “He’s doing work.”
“Ah,” Hoseok says. He sits down in the desk chair on the opposite side of the small room. “How’s TikTok treating him?”
Yoongi rolls his eyes, but he smiles a little. Hoseok knows how proud Yoongi is of everything Taehyung does. “It’s going well, as always. Do you know that his followers know me by name? It’s kind of weird.”
“Of course we do,” Hoseok says, and laughs when Yoongi makes a face at Hoseok including himself as one of Taehyung’s followers. Well, he is!
Yoongi and Taehyung are possibly the sweetest couple Hoseok has ever met. It might be sickening, if they both weren’t so genuine. Hoseok never feels like anything they do is for show- even when Taehyung is, literally, making Yoongi’s lunches in front of a camera.
Hoseok feels like only a small number of people in life find real, pure, soul-mated love like that. Love that leaves no room for anyone but each other. It makes Hoseok happy to have met them.
It also makes his own standards for love and dating seem like trash in comparison, but again– only a small number of people in life find real love like that. Hoseok doesn’t want to be so presumptuous to think that he could be special enough to count himself as one of them. High expectations lead to dissatisfaction.
They chat a little longer, and then it’s time to get to work. Hoseok gets his notebook out of his bag and wakes up the computer in front of him. He feels a little awkward. Rusty. Yoongi’s clicking around his computer screen, headphones on his ears, already focused.
Hoseok isn’t sure he’d consider himself a musician. He likes music. He dabbled in rap in his teen years and early twenties. It was fun, and it felt good. Performing on a stage in front of people who got hyped up from the words he was saying, how he was saying them, and how he was meaning them… it was a high like nothing else he’d ever known.
Now, staring at the page in his notebook, looking at words he’d written weeks ago, he feels an itchy kind of anxiety working its way up his chest. At the time, he’d thought what he’d written was good, but rereading it, it feels kind of embarrassing. He can’t imagine performing this in front of anyone. He’s not sure he can imagine even saying this out loud at all.
Hoseok had let his musical history slip during one of his and Yoongi’s first lunches together at work. “Wait,” Yoongi had said, leaning forward with real interest. “You do music?”
“I used to,” Hoseok said, trying to make that clear. By the end of university it was hard to find time, and now that he had a fulltime job-
“You should come to the studio with me,” Yoongi said, not appearing to care about Hoseok’s explanation. That night, Yoongi texted him the address of a little place in town Hoseok had never heard of, and a day later Hoseok somehow found himself at the first music studio he’d been to in years. He remembers staring at the doorknob, feeling almost tricked.
And now here he sits, months later, with not much music to show for himself. But he’s made a few things, and he thinks that counts.
“Of course it counts,” Yoongi says a little while later, when he comes out of his music reverie to grab a cookie and ask Hoseok how it’s going.
“You think so?” Hoseok bites on the end of his pen.
“Yeah,” Yoongi says. “It all counts toward something. It might not make you famous, it might not be the final product, it might not be amazing, but it counts.”
“I don’t want to be famous,” Hoseok says, laughing a little.
He had wanted to be famous when he was younger. He was a lot more ambitious then. He knows Yoongi was, too. Before they became adults and got adult jobs with adult responsibilities. He knows Yoongi gets it.
He thinks the difference between them is that Yoongi never really lost his passion. His goals might have changed, but the passion is still there. Hoseok gets the sense that Yoongi wouldn’t be able to survive if he didn’t create music.
Hoseok can survive. He can go to work and do his best there and make his way up the corporate ladder and make other people smile and feel satisfied. He’s fine without music.
The thought is a little depressing. He’d hate for his younger self to ever find out about this.
Yoongi looks at him with gentle understanding. There’s suddenly a weird lump in Hoseok’s throat, and he grabs a power water to force it down.
“Just keep going,” Yoongi says, already starting to turn back to his own computer. “Don’t worry about it being good. Just focus on it being.”
“How did you get so wise?” Hoseok says jokingly. Except he means it. Hoseok suddenly appreciates Yoongi so much.
Yoongi shrugs and waves a vague hand. Hoseok can see the curved cheek of his smile even though he’s facing away from him.
Right. Okay then.
Hoseok grabs an apple and some grapes, and then a cookie for good measure. Then he takes a deep breath and faces his notebook again. He looks at the words. Maybe he’s got something here.
*
A few weeks later Hoseok sits at his work desk, bright and early on a Monday morning, greeting everyone as they come in.
“Morning, Jay,” Hoseok says. “Starting to get warm outside, isn’t it?”
Jay from Payroll strolls in wearing khaki shorts that, in Hoseok’s opinion, are way too unprofessional for the workplace, and also violate the ‘all clothing must come below the knee’ part of their dress policy, but he also knows no one is ever going to call Jay out on it.
Jay makes a finger gun at him. “Way too hot, ‘Seok.”
Hoseok hates when Jay calls him that. He kind of hates when anyone calls him that. He shakes his head, ridding himself of the gross feeling it gives him, and turns back to his computer.
The doors slide open again and Hoseok looks up.
“Hey!” He instantly feels a grin come over his face. “You got the job!”
Auditing candidate number two- Park Jimin- meets Hoseok’s eyes from the lobby doors, sunlight streaming in through the glass behind him. He’s wearing a dress shirt similar to the one he interviewed in, and his hair is just as blond and neat as the last time Hoseok saw him. This time, however, he’s got a leather work bag slung over his shoulder.
Hoseok always appreciates when someone’s able to perfectly pull off workplace-chic.
Jimin instantly smiles back. “I did,” he says, adjusting his hand on the strap of his bag. “Nice to see you, Hoseok.”
“And you remembered my name!” Hoseok says. He puts a hand on his chest where his heart is. “You’re already a model employee.”
Jimin laughs- a sweet, light sound- and says, with a little sheepishness, “That’s nice to hear less than five minutes into my first day.”
“Keep it up and you might get employee of the month by next week.” Hoseok winks.
Jimin laughs again, cheeks going a little pink. He opens his mouth to respond, but then Hana walks out into the lobby before he can say anything.
“Jimin, you’re here! Perfectly on time.”
Jimin bows his head a little, polite. “Good morning, Hana.”
“I already told him he’s a model employee,” Hoseok says.
Hana smiles. “A great start, then.”
Hoseok thinks Jimin’s whole face glows. It’s sweet.
Then Hana whisks Jimin away to show him to his desk and give him a tour and have him fill out tax paperwork and all the other easy and yet confusing first day things. Hoseok manages to tell him good luck before he disappears.
Hoseok turns back to his computer, smiling a little. He’s glad they chose Jimin over the other candidate. Jimin’s friendliness fits in with the workplace culture much better, he thinks.
It’s a good start to a Monday, and to a new week. He hadn’t really felt like getting out of bed this morning, even though his weekend hadn’t been particularly eventful and he gets restless when he has too much free time. And then Jay from Payroll hadn’t helped much, once Hoseok was here.
But now it doesn’t feel so bad. The people here are good, he thinks. Hoseok feels good. He feels bright. He smiles at his computer, humming a little.