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Yoongi hated Kim Taehyung. He really, really did.
Days like this made him question why he was friends with Taehyung in the first place, to be frank. He was loud, always a handful and currently getting on Yoongi’s nerves.
“Come on, hyung!” Taehyung whined. “Just tell me! I swear I won’t ever bring it up again.”
Yoongi sighed.
“There is nothing to tell. It was a great date, I just doubt I’ll see him again,” Yoongi said for what felt like the utmost time.
To be quite honest, it had been a terrible date. The guy, Jihyung, had kept on making lame jokes that were actually pretty offensive to anyone who might have had the misfortune to hear them, most of all Yoongi himself. His conversations were dull and boring and Yoongi kept glancing at his watch, waiting for it to be over.
Taehyung had been bugging him to start dating again for months now, ever since he had gotten together with Jimin. Yoongi assumed Taehyung simply felt guilty for ditching Yoongi time and time again to spend time with his boyfriend, but it wasn’t like Yoongi didn’t understand the simple need to spend time with Jimin. Besides, Yoongi didn’t mind being alone. He felt Taehyung had much more of a problem with it than he did.
“Who even was he? Do I know him?” Taehyung kept whining. “You can’t just tell me nothing, you know I have a natural need to know everything and it’s very un-hyung-like of you to be mean to me like that.” He was pouting now.
“Listen, Taehyung-ah, I know it’s because you care and think I need some great relationship to make me happy, because that’s how you’re feeling right now but - ,” he cut off, his eyes settling on Jihyung who was standing just across the courtyard and looking right back into Yoongi’s eyes.
Shit.
Taehyung noticed his pause and stare immediately, of course, turning around to see what caught Yoongi’s eye.
“Oh my God, is that him?” he squealed almost too excitedly. Oh no. Oh God, no.
Yoongi swallowed. There had to be a way out of this. If Taehyung knew who Jihyung was, it would only be a matter of time until he found out about what kind of disaster and waste of time Yoongi’s evening with him had been.
“Uhm…” Think, Yoongi, think! “That depends on who you’re looking at?”
A smile formed on Taehyung’s lips.
“Him,” he said, pointing to a guy a little to the right of Jihyung with orange hair. Yoongi suppressed a relieved sigh.
“Yeah, sure, that’s him,” he said quickly, ready for this to be over already.
Of course, in hoping that this would be over he had made the mistake of not calculating Taehyung being Taehyung into the equation.
Before he could react, Taehyung was storming off and the realization hit Yoongi, that he was walking right towards that stranger. Fuck.
Yoongi’s feet slowly started moving, speeding up quickly to catch up with Taehyung before it was too late.
No such luck.
When Yoongi had finally caught up with his friend, the disaster was already full on happening, no hope left in stopping it.
“...and he wouldn’t tell me a thing can you believe? I’m just looking out for my hyung, making sure he gets treated as well as he deserves and he flat out says no? That really hurt,” Taehyung was saying. “But since you went on this amazing date with him, I’m sure you can tell me how it went right? You seem friendly enough, in fact, you’re exactly Yoongi’s type. This must have been a great date.”
The stranger looked more than confused. Yoongi just wanted to die. This was only made worse by the fact that the stranger was actually very attractive and just like Taehyung had said, exactly Yoongi’s type. The universe had it out against him.
“Look, I’m sorry about him, he doesn’t really know how to behave around people,” Yoongi said apologetically, avoiding the strangers curious looks at him. “So let’s just forget this ever happened. Again, I’m really sorry about him harrassing you like this, it won’t happen again,” he said, grabbing Taehyung by the arm and starting to pull him away.
Yoongi had his eyes trained ahead and was ready to erase this embarrassing incident from his memory forever, when the stranger spoke up.
“Wait.”
Taehyung stopped dead in his tracks, pulling Yoongi to a stumbling halt. Spinning around on his heel, Taehyung looked at the stranger with lit up eyes.
“So you’ll tell me?” he asked excitedly.
The stranger smiled, dimples making themselves apparent. Damn, Yoongi had always been a sucker for dimples. The guy shrugged. “Sure, what do you wanna know?”
Yoongi fought the urge to pinch himself. This wasn’t actually happening. This stranger wasn’t actually pretending to have gone on a date with him. No way.
Taehyung was obviously overwhelmed by this, not knowing where to start. Yoongi wanted to put a hand over his mouth to prevent things from getting any worse but he was too late again.
“Everything!” Taehyung exclaimed. “Where did you guys go? How was it? What do you think of hyung? Would you do it again?” With each question leaving Taehyung’s mouth, Yoongi felt his face grow hotter. That boy was shameless.
While the guy seemed a bit overwhelmed by Taehyung’s forwardness, he kept that friendly smile of his, not wavering one bit. Yoongi couldn’t really relate, but then again this is something he had to deal with on a daily basis whereas this guy was witnessing Taehyung’s shenanigans for the first time.
“He didn’t even tell you where we went?” the guy asked. He turned to Yoongi, a warm smile splitting his face in half. “Now that’s just mean.”
Yoongi was taken aback. Was this guy for real? Was he really playing along, just to take Taehyung’s side.
“Well,” Yoongi started through gritted teeth, “it’s like I told you. Taehyung-ah is the nosy kind of roommate and the more he knows the worse it gets.” Yoongi smiled sweetly.
The stranger chuckled warmly. “Come on, it’s just a restaurant. No one could hardly use that information against you.”
Yoongi huffed. The guy didn’t know Taehyung, alright. He had no idea. Before he knew it, Taehyung would show up at the place and ask the waiters if they had witnessed anything in particular about said date. Not that Taehyung had ever done anything like that before, but Yoongi wouldn’t put it past him to actually do it.
The orange haired stranger turned back to Taehyung. “We went to that little restaurant two streets across from campus. It was very quaint and romantic, if you ask me. Would totally recommend,” he said.
Yoongi gaped. He was really going through with this, full on.
“Neat,” Taehyung nodded. “Maybe it’s a nice place to go to for Jiminnie’s and my anniversary, what do you think, hyung?” He asked, turning to Yoongi.
“Uhm, yeah, I’m sure you’ll like it,” he replied, an unsure smile on his lips, not knowing how to feel about this still happening.
“Great,” Taehyung clapped his hands. “And? Did you like hanging out with Yoongi-hyung? Are you guys gonna go out again?”
The strangers smile was rivaling the sun at this point. Yoongi felt dazed.
“Of course. We haven’t really talked about it yet, but if Yoongi wants to, I’m all for it,” he said, smiling blindingly.
Taehyung pursed his lips in deep thought. “Oh.”
Yoongi turned to Taehyung, suddenly remembering what he’d said earlier. This thing was about to go up in flames.
“Well, I’m sure you didn’t mean it when you said it won’t happen again, right?” Taehyung asked, looking back at Yoongi.
Yoongi fought the blush that was furiously creeping up his neck.
“You know,” he coughed awkwardly. How did this escalate so quickly? And why did Yoongi care about fixing things with a stranger that he never actually went on a date on?
But the guy actually looked crestfallen at Taehyung’s words and Yoongi simply couldn’t have that.
“You know, I just said that to get Taehyung off my back,” he finished, looking up at the guy through his lashes and feeling a smile spreading on his face. The guy smiled back, his eyes lighting up again.
Taehyung let out a delighted squeal at that, clapping his hands again.
“This is so beautiful! Love is real after all! I knew it!” Taehyung yelled, making a few people turn to look at them. Yoongi was back to wishing the ground would swallow him whole.
Taehyung sighed dreamily. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone!” Yoongi fought the urge to punch him.
“See you at home, Yoongi-hyung,” Taehyung called out before skipping away gleefully, seeing his job here as done, most likely.
Awkwardly, Yoongi turned to the stranger, ready to say thanks and bye and never see him again.
“Uhm, thanks?” It was more a question than an actual statement. This is why Yoongi hated interacting with people.
The guy laughed warmly. “No problem. I’m Hoseok, by the way. That’s quite the friend you’ve got there.” Yoongi let out an embarrassed chuckle at that. “He seems to really care for you.”
Yoongi sighed at that, finally looking up to meet Hoseok’s gaze. “He does, he always means well. He’s just...a lot,” he concluded with a half smile, not quite sure how to behave around the attractive stranger - Hoseok - now that he was alone.
“So, did you ever even have a date?” Hoseok asked. “Or did you make it all up just to get him off you back?”
Yoongi’s cheeks heated up. He didn’t really know how to answer that without finally actually telling someone how terrible his actual date had gone and how badly he just wanted to forget it. At least Hoseok seemed nice enough and Yoongi would never see him again, so he didn’t have a lot to lose.
“There was a date,” he admitted, trying not to notice how Hoseok’s smile fell a little. “It was just really horrible, there’s no other word for it. The guy was a douche and I wish there was a way I could get those 3 hours of my life back. The food wasn’t good either.”
Yoongi let out a little huff at remembering just what a waste it had been. “I just really didn’t want Taehyung to pester me about how I’ll find ‘true love one day, hyung, you just haven’t met The One yet, don’t give up’ and then set me up on a blind date that’s even worse than the last.”
Yoongi shuffled on his feet, Hoseok’s gaze so intense he had to glance down to catch a break from it.
“But then the guy was suddenly here, and Taehyung noticed something was off and I panicked and you kind of just came up?”, Yoongi tried to explain helplessly. “I’m really sorry. Thanks for going with it, seriously, you didn’t have to and you could’ve exposed me at any second.”
“I never would’ve exposed you, I’m not heartless,” Hoseok laughed. “I saw you were in need of a helping hand and I’ve always had a weak spot for cute strangers.”
Yoongi’s heart fluttered involuntarily at Hoseok calling him cute. He couldn’t help the breathless chuckle that escaped him.
“Well, if you ever need anything…” he trailed off, realizing that Hoseok only knew his name. Giving him his number now seemed presumptuous and weird and wasn’t like Yoongi at all.
Awkwardly, Yoongi turned on his feet, ready to leave. Mournfully saying goodbye to what could’ve been if Hoseok had in fact been his date.
“Hey, hold up,” Hoseok called out as soon as Yoongi took his first step away from him.
When Yoongi turned back to face him, Hoseok was wearing what was probably his brightest smile yet.
“Since your last date sucked so much, why don’t you give it another try? With me?” Hoseok asked, a sudden shyness coloring his voice but his smile no less bright or fading in any kind of unsureness.
Yoongi returned his smile shyly. “What did you have in mind?”
The sun should have been envious of Hoseok’s smile and the way it lit up his whole face.
“Well, I did mention that restaurant…”