Chapter Text
“Do you think your mom will like this?” You query, brows farrowing together as you turn the elegantly decorated plant pot around in your hands. It would match her current living room decor and she loved gardening.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah…why?” Hoseok asks with a distracted tone, his attention grabbed with the collection of fake plants. The two of you had come to a home decoration store as you wanted to redecorate your bedroom. He wasn’t hugely interested in how it was done and you were pretty sure that he was here just to spend time with you.
Which was sweet and you loved that he was content to just be with you, but he wasn’t being very helpful right now.
“…her birthday? It’s next week, we’re taking her out for dinner, remember?” He pauses for a moment before his lips turn into a circle.
“Oh yeah, shit. I need to book the table for that.” Before you can say anything else, he’s pulling out his phone and tapping away on it.
Sighing, you place the pot into the cart and begin to look with an eye for your bedroom. You wanted to inject more plants into the house but Kasumi just tried to eat real ones, so you were stuck with fake plants.
“How about C'est Bonne? Wait no, she doesn’t like French food. Hmmm, Italian feels boring though. Do you think she’d like Thai, I think that’d be alright.” Hoseok is muttering to himself as he scrolls and you smile affectionately.
To say he’d completely forgotten, you weren’t surprised that he was throwing himself into it now.
“Hoseok?” For a moment, neither of you respond. You, because it wasn’t your name and so you weren’t conditioned to respond to it, and Hoseok because it wasn’t your voice.
His head jerked up in confusion, gaze going to you first before looking around. The voice calls again from your left and you turn to see who it is, wondering who was calling out your husband’s name.
What you didn’t expect is for Hoseok’s face to open in surprise, shocked recognition taking over his expression. Like, real shock and you’re even more confused and intrigued.
“Yoona?” He asks, his tone slightly unsure and you realise it’s obviously someone he once knew. You’ve heard him mention the name at some point, but you can’t remember why you know it.
“It is you! Oh my god, it’s so good to see you. How long has it been?” The woman in question, Yoona, smiles brightly and you observe that she’s pretty. Very pretty with the kind of hair you see in commercials.
She’s wearing plain black jeans that conform to her legs alongside a subtly flowered shirt. Her black pea coat tops it off with a matching deep purple scarf and beanie to cope with the colder weather.
“Err…a while.” Hoseok laughs, his hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck and you recognise the awkward movement. He’s a little uncomfortable and your stomach turns as you wonder if this is one of his hook ups.
Surprisingly, you’d never met one of them given how prolific he’d been. Though you did wonder how many of them had also been drunk and probably didn’t remember him at all.
Still, you feel the urge to comfort him and move closer, resting your hand on his back in assurance. He straightens a little at the touch before relaxing into you, his arm coming to wrap around your shoulder and hugging you into him a little more strongly than you’d anticipated.
“Oh, Meeps this is Yoona, the girl in college who got me to sort my shit out?” Hoseok’s brows rise as his voice turns dry before he looks back at Yoona. “This is Y/N, my wife.”
Her eyes flick over to you and surprisingly enough, she doesn’t give you a once over. You almost expected her to view you as some kind of threat or rival, but the reassuring smile she gives makes you realise how silly that would be.
“Really? Oh my god, Hoseok! I’m so happy for you, and for you, Y/N! I always knew he had the makings of a good partner, even if he couldn’t see it. I’m glad you finally took my advice.” Yoona says before reaching out to shake your hand politely.
Surprisingly, it’s not nearly as awkward as you’d think to meet one of your husband’s ex-flings. Especially one who’d had such an influence on his life.
“Erm, thank you. Hoseok’s talk about you sometimes, thank you for helping him back then.” You say shyly, feeling your stomach twist uncertainly as you take your hand back and play with your fingers.
Just like he always has, Hoseok instinctively knows when you’re not comfortable and he reaches for one of your hands.
“I’ve told her lots of things over the years,” He grins before kissing your forehead. “My therapy was very good, I promise.”
That’s directed to Yoona who laughs sweetly and nods in appreciation.
“Good, good, I’m glad. Anyway, I’ve got to be going but…it was nice to see you! And I’m really happy that you’ve found someone. I’d love to get to know you better but I’m sure you’re amazing. Gotta be to have captured this guy’s attention.” She smiles and gestures towards you, causing you to feel hot with embarrassment.
“Erm, thank you.” You mutter, unsure of how to react. But you’re surprisingly okay with her and don’t feel any form of threat, even with her important history with Hoseok. It was clear there were no feelings between either of them and you genuinely felt that she was a good person.
Before either of you could say anything else, she said her goodbyes and headed towards the cashiers at the front of the store. There was a brief moment of silence as you both tried to compute what had happened and Hoseok recovered quicker than you did.
“Are you okay?” He asked quietly, his words laced with concern that matched the worry in his eyes. You knew why he was feeling like that - Yoona was beautiful, once upon a time he’d slept with her and she’d helped him realise how to move forward. Or at least take the steps there.
If this had happened in the first year of your relationship then you probably would feel disconcerted, unsure what to think about this blast from his past. But you weren’t that girl anymore, and whilst you still had your anxieties, you had full and complete faith in Hoseok.
Plus, he’d been as blindsided by her as you were.
“Yeah, I’m fine. It was nice to finally meet the famous Yoona, she seemed nice.” You comment, slipping your arm through his and leaning against him as you both walked towards the bedroom section. Bring so close to him meant that you could practically feel him relax at your words.
“Good, good. I didn’t…well I didn’t know what to think, really. I was worried you’d be upset or something.” Hoseok admits, trailing his hand down your coat sleeve until he can grasp your fingers between his own.
“No, I know all about your history and it was only a matter of time before we met someone. And like I said, she was sweet.” There’s still some uneasiness in his demeanour though and you squeeze his hand before gently poking the back of it with a finger.
The movement makes him smile and you feel relief at him looking a little happier.
“Seriously, I’m okay. Are you okay?” It was probably a big thing to accidentally meet up with such an important fling, but but could understand why he wasn’t comfortable with it all.
That was a part of his past that he wasn’t entirely happy with colliding with his very happy present. So you just held on to him as he worked through his feelings.
“Yeah…yeah I am. It was just weird to see her, you know? Never expected that.” He let’s his free hand trail over a soft, velvet cushion idly and you hum in contemplation.
“I get it. But don’t fret over it, okay? I’m fine with it all and…well, it was nice to meet the woman who helped to bring the Hoseok I know to life. Or at least, started the process. Without her, we wouldn’t be here.”
Hoseok is silent as he considers that, his lips twisting before he licks at his lip ring and nods.
“Yeah, you’re right. She’s the one part of my past that I’m okay with you seeing in person. I should’ve thanked her…” Muttering, he sighs before shrugging with a lopsided smile.
“Oh well, let’s carry on shopping. Your decorations await! And I need to finish booking that table…I’m actually thinking of maybe trying that Lebanese place…”