Chapter Text
All too soon, the semester has started up and everyone’s back to classes. Jeongguk doesn’t get a chance to see Hoseok as often, which makes him sad but they text one another throughout the day to make up for the lack of actually spending time together. It’s nice… comforting. Jeongguk doesn’t wake up or go to bed without a text from Hoseok, and they send one another encouraging messages throughout the day. Jeongguk doesn’t expect Hoseok to suddenly be sitting next to him in the diner during a lunch break. “Oh, hyung,” he says with a smile, shifting over in the booth a little more to give Hoseok more room so that he’s not sitting on the edge of the booth. “I didn’t expect to see you today.”
Their lunch breaks didn’t typically line up. They had already tried to plan to meet up during the day, but it never worked out. “My afternoon class is cancelled,” answers Hoseok, smiling when Jeongguk presses a kiss to his cheek. “Did you just get here?”
Jeongguk nods a little. “I have not even ordered yet.” Jeongguk smiles with a blush on his face as Hoseok presses a kiss to his cheek in turn.
“What do you want?”
“Oh, uh… a cheeseburger an-”
“Curly fries?” Hoseok laughs when Jeongguk nods, a sheepish smile on his face. He doesn’t tend to order a lot of different items, something that Hoseok has picked up on over their time together. “Wait here.” He presses a kiss to the top of Jeongguk’s head as he gets up and heads behind the counter. He waves at the waitress who was at the far end of the diner, dealing with some difficult customers. She gives Hoseok a weak smile and he disappears into the back of the diner. Jeongguk stares after Hoseok for a few moments before he pulls out his phone to play a game on it while he waits.
He doesn’t wait too long before Hoseok returns with two glasses - one is a chocolate milkshake, and the other seems to be strawberry milk. He places the milkshake in front of Jeongguk and takes his seat again. “Alright. Order is placed. Should be ready soon,” he says. He nods his head when Jeongguk thanks him and he takes a drink out of his own glass. “Figured you might want that.” He gestures to the milkshake and Jeongguk smiles at him. He had wanted one but hadn’t said anything about it - he thinks it says a lot how Hoseok knows him so well. The way they fall into an easy conversation as if it hasn’t been days since they’ve spent more than five minutes in one another’s presence is just … amazing. Jeongguk cannot help but marvel over it silently.
He almost gets distracted as they talk, watching the way Hoseok’s mouth forms his words or the way he gestures with his hands as he speaks or the way his eyes crinkle in the corners whenever he smiles or laughs. When Jeongguk moved to the States, he had never anticipated meeting someone, let alone someone as amazing as Hoseok. Of course with that thought comes the reminder that Hoseok isn’t just Hoseok, his boyfriend - he’s also Hoseok, his soulmate. Hoseok still has no idea. Jeongguk opens his mouth to say something, but stops when the waitress comes over with their plates, apologizing that she hadn’t been able to take their orders in the first place. Jeongguk barely hears as Hoseok insists that it’s okay, he understands and it’s not like he doesn’t work there, too. She seems incredibly relieved and the smile that Hoseok gives her is so warm and understanding. Jeongguk really loves him.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
“You still haven't told him?” Namjoon’s incredulous tone causes Jeongguk to wince, refusing to look in his direction. It's just the two of them in the apartment. Jeongguk doesn't know where Jimin is, and Namjoon doesn't explain why he's not there. Instead, they straighten up the apartment some before starting to make dinner, which brought them to the topic at hand, even if Jeongguk wishes they could talk about anything else.
“It just… has not come up,” he says, focusing more on putting the rice into the cooker than on Namjoon. He knows Namjoon is staring at him and it makes him fidget where he stands before sighing and looking at Namjoon. “I do not know how to tell him. It would be strange to just randomly bring it up. Could I really just blurt it out at him?”
“You can make the time to tell him, you know. Or show him. If you can't say it, show him.”
Namjoon’s words cause Jeongguk to glance down at his leg, even though he is wearing sweatpants and the mark on his thigh can't be seen. He grips a fold in the material just above the mark, pulling it away from his leg slightly while feeling as though the skin underneath was burning from the mere mention of showing Hoseok the flowers on his leg. “What if he decides he does not want to be with me anymore?”
“Then he's stupid.” Namjoon ignores the look that Jeongguk sends him for the insulting comment. He doesn't apologize or take it back. As much as he has come to like Hoseok and thinks of him as a friend, Namjoon will continue to stand by what he had said. After all, Jeongguk has always been and will continue to be his top priority. “Hoseok really likes you, Gguk. And if he breaks up with you because you have a matching soulmate mark to him, then he doesn't deserve you anyway.” Namjoon sighs and he goes over to Jeongguk, wrapping his arms around him and hugging him from behind. Jeongguk struggles just for a few seconds before just letting Namjoon hold him. Namjoon hooks his chin over Jeongguk’s shoulder, complaining about how it’s unfair that Jeongguk has gotten as tall as he has before just standing there silently for a few moments. “Hoseok makes his own rules about life, about soulmates and what they mean to him. Give him a chance to redefine it. He can't do that if he doesn't know that your mark matches his.”
“It does?” they both hear from the doorway, making them turn to see Hoseok standing just behind Jimin who has a key to the apartment in his hand. Hoseok is just staring at Jeongguk, who has shrugs out of Namjoon’s hold on him. “Kookie, I-” He breaks off from speaking when Jeongguk disappears into his bedroom, too terrified of what he was going to hear from Hoseok to actually hear it. Hoseok looks between Jimin and Namjoon a few times. “Did both of you know?”
Jimin winces a little as he walks over to Namjoon, and he nods his head a little. “Yeah,” he answers, gently squeezing Namjoon’s shoulder as Namjoon stares down the hall while debating on whether he should go after Jeongguk. “It wasn’t ours to tell you, and I found out on accident. Sort of. It was early and Namjoon was talking with Jeongguk - I don’t think they realized that I didn’t know.” He knows that Namjoon hadn’t really thought about the fact that there was someone else in the room, he and Namjoon had become an extension of one another, honestly.
“I’m not… I don’t care that you know.” Hoseok shakes his head a little, his brow furrowing as he stares down the hallway that Jeongguk had disappeared down. He isn’t mad that other people knew before him, especially since it’s Jimin and Namjoon. If it was someone else … well, then maybe he would have been upset. As it is, though, he knows Jeongguk’s connection to Namjoon and Namjoon’s connection to Jimin. It makes sense that they know. Hoseok isn’t sure what he thinks about it otherwise, honestly. He never thought…
But then, it makes a lot of things make a lot more sense. Like the day that Jeongguk had spilled water all over the dance studio floor when Hoseok had been wearing shorts. Jeongguk’s questions to him about soulmates and whether he wanted to find his - Hoseok almost winced remembering his own response because he could only imagine how much that had hurt Jeongguk to hear. Knowing how Jeongguk felt about soulmates, it had to have been horrible to hear.
“He does not want me.”
Hoseok suddenly remembers the end of their conversation the day that Jeongguk had asked him about his soulmate and how Jeongguk had told him that he had met his soulmate - him. Jeongguk had been talking about him. “I…” Hoseok points down the hall and doesn’t wait for anyone to respond to him before he goes to Jeongguk’s room. He pauses for a moment at Jeongguk’s door, unsure if he should knock first or just go into the room. When he glances back and sees Namjoon standing at the end of the hall, gesturing for him to go on in, Hoseok nods and goes into the room.
Jeongguk is sitting on his bed, playing with the strings of his hoodie while staring at the floor. He looks up slowly when Hoseok walks farther into the room. He looks like he’s struggling to say something, but before he manages, Hoseok finishes walking over to the bed. He takes Jeongguk’s face in his hands and tilts his head back to make it easy to duck down enough to kiss him. He can feel how Jeongguk tenses at the action, but after a few seconds, he grabs Hoseok’s shoulder with one hand, keeping him from pulling away though he doesn’t even try to. When the kiss breaks, Hoseok presses a kiss to Jeongguk’s forehead, brushing his hair back out of the way to do so, and then sits down next to him. “For the record,” he says as he takes a hold of Jeongguk’s hand, linking their fingers together, “there hasn’t been a moment that I didn’t want you.” Jeongguk’s brow furrows in confusion for a few seconds before he realizes what Hoseok is referring to. When he does, the expression is replaced with a small, shy smile. “But, I was right about the being a dumbass part.”
“Hoseok…” Jeongguk says his name with a sigh but Hoseok just smiles, nudging Jeongguk’s shoulder gently with his own.
“You could have told me.” Jeongguk nods, looking at their linked hands instead of directly at Hoseok. He’s not sure he could handle looking at Hoseok without blushing to the point of making his face permanently red. “I don’t, uh… I know the whole soulmate thing means something different for you than it does to me. This… doesn’t change anything for me. I still like you a lot, and I want to be with you.”
Jeongguk nods again, understanding what Hoseok is saying to him. Suddenly, his anxiety over the whole thing seems absolutely ridiculous and Jeongguk wonders why he didn’t tell Hoseok sooner. Jeongguk isn’t sure what he expects to happen next, where they’re supposed to go from this point. Hoseok is his soulmate, the person he is supposed to be with - but Hoseok doesn’t view him the same. That is… okay. He knew that already, and it didn’t stop him from being with Hoseok in the first place. He just wished that things didn’t feel so… awkward, now.
“Can I see it?” Hoseok asks after they sit there silently for a few moments. He gently squeezes Jeongguk’s hand, leaning over to rest his chin on Jeongguk’s shoulder.
“Huh?” he replies, turning his head in an attempt to look at Hoseok.
He just lifts his head and presses a kiss to Jeongguk’s cheek. “The mark, can I see it?”
Jeongguk stumbles over his words for a few seconds, making Hoseok laugh even as Jeongguk attempts to pull away, which only makes Hoseok let go of his hand to wrap both arms around him. “You have the same one,” Jeongguk says, “look at yours.”
“Yeah, but I want to see yours.” Hoseok lets go of Jeongguk with one hand to poke at Jeongguk’s leg where their matching mark is hidden by his pants. He starts to say something else but then realizes Namjoon is peeking around the open door to check on them. It makes Hoseok laugh again and rest his head on Jeongguk’s shoulder. “You can come in Joon.”
“Things are… okay?” he asks as he slowly comes into the room, smiling a little when he sees the two of them sitting there together. Jeongguk nods and Namjoon smiles even more. “See? I told you it would be okay, Gguk.” Jeongguk grumbles at the reminder, looking away from him to focus on the wall instead in an attempt to keep it hidden that the callout was making him red in the face all over again. “Anyway, uh, Hobi, are you going to stay for dinner? Jimin wants to know how much to make. He’s kicked me out of the kitchen.”
Both Jeongguk and Hoseok chuckled at that and Hoseok lifted his head to look at Jeongguk. “If that’s okay,” he answers Namjoon, though the comment is more directed at Jeongguk than anything. Jeongguk smiles at Hoseok and nods, hugging Hoseok tightly against his side. “Then, I guess I’m staying.”
Dinner is filled with conversations with the two couples as the TV plays some sitcom in the background. They sit around talking about classes and how ready they all are for the semester to be over. Namjoon mentions that he’s already got a plan in place for continuing his education with a master’s degree, which seems to ease some of the tension in Jimin’s shoulders - Jeongguk assumes that Jimin had started thinking about what was going to happen when Namjoon graduated, if he was going back home or not. Eventually, Hoseok regretfully informs them that he needs to go back home so that he can let Mickey out and finish a paper he’s been putting off. When Jeongguk volunteers to take him home, he almost expects Hoseok to decline but he doesn’t and soon enough the two of them are heading to his apartment together.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Hoseok when they were almost to his apartment, walking hand-in-hand slowly and enjoying one another’s company.
“I thought you might hate me if I did, and then when we got together, I thought you might decide to break up with me,” Jeongguk explains carefully, almost slowly in how he chooses which words to use. Hoseok gently squeezes his hand in a reassuring manner, reminding him that he’s right there.
“Kookie. If I wasn’t your soulmate, would you still want to be with me?” After he asks the question, they stop walking because they’ve reached Hoseok’s apartment.
He expects Jeongguk to hesitate to answer, which is why Jeongguk’s almost immediate “yes” nearly causes him to stumble over nothing. It makes Jeongguk chuckle as he uses his free hand to help steady Hoseok while moving so that he’s standing in front of him instead of next to him. “Hoseok, I wanted to get to know you more from the first time I met you. When we went on that tour of campus, I spent half the time thinking about your smile.”
The confession makes Hoseok smile at him, though his ears and face are turning red. The color reaches the sides of his neck, too, and Jeongguk smiles quite proudly at the fact he’s able to get that sort of a reaction from him. In just a few simple words, Jeongguk managed to erase Hoseok’s only worry since hearing that they have matching soulmate marks. It also makes him realize that he’s glad Jeongguk had not told him right away, because if he had, he probably would not have let himself get closer to Jeongguk out of fear that the fact that they had matching marks was the only reason Jeongguk would want to be with him. Hoseok lets go of Jeongguk’s hand in order to wrap his arms around Jeongguk’s shoulders, pulling him in close and kissing him. Jeongguk’s hands rest on his hips and keep him held close enough that their chests are almost touching as the kiss deepens. They only pull apart when someone passes by them, clearing their throat pointedly to remind them that they are in public and making out right there on the sidewalk isn’t exactly the best idea. Hoseok giggles out a laugh as he hides his face against Jeongguk’s shoulder for several seconds. “Will you stay here tonight?” Hoseok asks as he lifts his head up to look at Jeongguk again. Jeongguk just nods with a smile, though neither one of them makes any moves to head inside right away.