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The first time they meet, Hoseok had found himself in an unfavorable situation.
He had been inching along the pathway, surrounded on either side by corn stalks that rose above his head. He could hear every snap and crunch that came from his own footsteps, and nothing more. He desperately wanted to turn around and leave.
The only problem was that Hoseok was one-hundred-and-ten percent lost. He’d been forced into the maze of a corn field by his cruel, cruel friends and now he couldn’t find a way out. He would never forgive them for this, because this would definitely be how he died.
It was hard to keep track of his randomly chosen pathways when every sound caused him to jump out of his skin, and for his heartbeat to immediately begin racing.
The worst came when he’d chosen the wrong path and almost ran straight into something . Hoseok didn’t really know what it was, but it looked grotesque and disgusting and he wanted nothing to do with it. He skidded to a halt on the heels of his feet and swirled around, going back the way he came before he could be caught. He would later swear on his life that he’d heard the thing chasing him, intentionally creating noises using its surroundings to herd him around like he was nothing more than a cattle. Honestly speaking, he kind of felt like it, too, when he was more or less running in the directions that the thing wanted him to go.
Eventually, Hoseok lost his pursuer. But he also lost his way.
And that’s how he found himself slowly edging along one of the many available paths, trembling from the occasional cold chill and breathtaking fear he was experiencing and looking around in paranoia.
Hoseok was just about to reach the point that he was going to just stand there and wait to be rescued when a hand shot out from the bottom of the corn stalks directly beside him (it didn’t help that he’d been so close to them that his shoulder brushed against the leaves or any stray stalks) and clasped around his ankle.
His reaction was immediate. He let out a powerful (pitiful) scream that could break glass (manly, right?), tore his foot free, and was once again running. It seemed that his sanity had snapped, and it certainly felt like that was the case, because the moment he stopped at dead end, he ran over into it and huddled down in the corner, turned away from the revealing path that led back to the horrors he’d already had the displeasure of running into. If anything was going to kill him, it would happen with his back turned, like the coward he knew he was. At least then his final moment wouldn’t be seeing something so atrocious.
Nope. The last thing I’m going to see before my death will not be a zombie or ghost or whatever the fu-
“Um… hello?”
“FUCK!” Hoseok screamed again, in another moment of absolute horror and, admittedly, a little bit of anger. His voice cracked into a sob halfway through the one word, and at that moment he just desperately wished he was home, safe and sound. “I wanna go home…” He bemoaned in a watery voice.
Due to his position, he missed the flinch of surprise that came from the person(?) behind him. “H-hey, are you okay?”
At the reminder that he had an audience that didn’t sound too malicious, Hoseok very slowly turned around. He could have cried in relief, just because of the fact that the person standing in front of him was very much so a person, and was not dressed in one of those dreadful costumes, unlike the one that had tried to actually murder (or maybe potentially molest, he didn’t know the guy’s intentions) him. “Okay? Okay?? Oh yes, I’m perfectly fine.” Hoseok laughed deliriously, his voice cracking multiple times again.
Jung Hoseok was perfectly, amazingly okay.
“Clearly not…” The man in front of him muttered to himself. “I’m guessing you either got ditched or dared. Which is it?” Past the heavy veil of darkness, Hoseok could just barely make out youthful eyes and a pouted set of lips. Other than those indicators, he couldn’t see his new companion. It didn’t help him at all that the man’s hair and outfit both were black.
“... Both.” Hoseok admitted, “They dared me then forced me in when I refused. Haven’t seen them since.” And he likely never would, seeing as how he would probably die here, once he was found by one of the creepy guys. Because unless this man was going to take pity on him, then Hoseok would not be moving from his spot. A small part of Hoseok wondered if he could even stand up at this point.
The man snorted and gave an unimpressed whistle. “Damn. Some friends you have. I was dared.” Ah. So this man was one of the braver ones. Hoseok silently wished that he could relate. It’s unfortunate that’s just not how things work, though.
There were a few seconds of silence before the stranger continued. “Anyway… I’m Min Yoongi. Am I going to need to get you out of here?”
Bless this saviour who goes by the name of Min Yoongi. Hoseok will forever cherish his name and existence. “Yes!! Please! Oh my god. Yes.” He stumbled to his feet. “O-oh. My name is Jung Hoseok.”
“Hoseok? I think I’ve heard of the name.” Yoongi stated, calmly choosing to ignore the oddity of Hoseok’s relief in action. It was really no surprise, though, that he’d heard of the man before. The town was fairly small in comparison to others he’d seen in his lifetime. He placed a hand on Hoseok’s back and began to lead him through the maze, encouraging him every once in awhile when the younger would freeze up.
Hoseok was quick to relax into the touch, regardless of the fact that he’d only met Yoongi only a minute ago. Right now, he was welcome to any comforting touches. “Yeah? Yoongi sounds kinda familiar to me, too.”
“That’s hyung to you, brat.” Yoongi chuckled. “Would you happen to know a Kim Namjoon?”
“Yeah, I do. He’s in some of my clas- uUUUH !” Hoseok’s words gave way to a squeal when yet another zombie-clad person jumped out from the corn stalks.
Yoongi calmly walked past, as if the person was nonexistent, with Hoseok in tow. “That’s probably it, then. He talks about you a lot.” If he noticed how Hoseok’s arms were now tightly around his middle and his arm had been forced around the taller’s shoulders, he said nothing of it.
“Th-that’s l-lovely.” Hoseok stated shakily. He sounded uninterested, but that’s far from the truth. He was quite curious of learning more about Namjoon’s friendship with Yoongi, and learning more about Yoongi in general, but at the moment it was all he could do to not have another mental breakdown. Fortunately, Yoongi seemed to understand and allowed the topic to drop and save it for a later time, when Hoseok wasn’t terrified out of his wits.
Eventually they made it out of the “haunted maze” after many screams, yelps, squeaks, and other terrified sounds from Hoseok and a lot of verbal and physical comfort on Yoongi’s part. Hoseok was so relieved when they walked past the last of the corn stalks (seeing corn in any form after this would disgust him) that he could have cried, and he sagged against Yoongi as he took in several deep breaths to calm his fried nerves.
He was much quicker to calm down when he looked over and saw the proud grin that Yoongi gave him in congratulations.
The first time they kiss, Hoseok had been in a bit of a similar situation as when they had first met. It seems everything happens between them at the worst of moments.
It had been the night of Halloween, and he and the others of their social circle had all insisted on going trick-or-treating. Yes, they were all technically adults. But who said they actually had to act like adults? They were allowed to slack off every once in awhile.
When there had been no protests, they’d all dressed up. Seokjin had dressed up as a vampire, and had used the excuse to wear a pink blazer that gave him an intense kind of handsomeness that only he could accomplish. Namjoon was dressed as an American gang member from the fifties, complete with a dramatic Shakespeare-esque mask, giving the impression that he was going to rob somebody. With his hair slicked back as it was, he was an impressive and almost intimidating sight. Jimin and Taehyung were going for the more comedic approach, and the two were dressed in the matching black and pink maid dresses they’d found at a store they frequented. Jungkook was dressed as an actual cookie, complete with the goofy bunny-toothed gleeful grin of his that everybody absolutely adored. Every single one of them had cooed over him at some point during the night, and it was almost relentless coming from the softer ones of the group.
Hoseok was suited up in an outfit he’d seen in one of his favorite girl group’s songs that had been easy to replicate, and had proudly learned the dance to go along with it. Yoongi had gone for a comical-looking zombie, and would occasionally make fun of his own costume by acting as if he truly were a zombie, and trudged around sluggishly or faked a biting motion towards the younger friends to tease them.
The first few rounds of houses had gone smoothly for them, and their bags and pumpkin-shaped buckets were already filling up steadily with candy that they would most likely inhale once they made it back.
But eventually, Hoseok made the mistake of running ahead with his younger friends while Yoongi, Namjoon, and Seokjin followed at a more leisurely pace to collect their own candy. He’d gone up to a house just ahead of the other three and had easily gotten his candy first while the others caught up to him to get their own handful. The bad part came, however, when Hoseok turned around.
Because surrounding him, Taehyung, Jimin, and Jungkook were a traumatizing amount of clowns with freakish facepaint that was clearly aimed more towards horror than comedy. His inhuman screech quickly alerted the other three of their predicament, and as if on cue the four of them scattered like ants.
They all pushed through the ambushing clowns together and ran in opposite directions. Jungkook wisely ran back to the hyungs for cover while Jimin fled through the yards and backyards of houses with Taehyung trying (and probably failing, Jimin could be as fast as a bullet when he wanted to be) to keep up.
Hoseok took off down the road past the other houses, where he could most likely try to find shelter behind a tree or bush. And d ear lord, is that the sound of a chainsaw? Hoseok risked a peek over his shoulder and yes , that was indeed the sound of a chainsaw. He could see one of the clowns chasing after both of the maid dress-clad men and shuddered. He turned back around and continued running until he was well out of breath and well out of sight. Or rather, almost out of sight. He could just barely see Yoongi walking down the street, probably to retrieve him, and Jin was angrily stalking after the chainsaw-wielding clown while Namjoon took it upon himself to personally visit the housing that was responsible for the terrorizing of his friends, with Jungkook huddled against his back for protection. They disappeared out of sight for a few seconds, and when they returned back to the street, Hoseok was impressed to see an entire bowl of candy that had previously belonged to the clowns. He was more impressed by the sight of the clown who’d chased his younger friends with the chainsaw running for his own life as Jin calmly met back up with Namjoon and Jungkook with a smug smile, with mildly quaking but grinning Taehyung and a distraught Jimin in tow.
He couldn’t see what his friends did after that, however, because Yoongi had reached him by then. “Are you okay?”
Hoseok could feel himself nodding erratically, though it didn’t feel like much of a confirmation. He was still feeling terribly frantic. “Y-yeah? D-did you s-see them?!”
Yoongi chose not to respond with a snarky comment, because of fucking course he’d seen them, how could he not have? Instead, he pulled Hoseok in for a hug and rubbed at his back. As if he were magic, Hoseok could already feel his heartbeat slowing down from the warm touch. “Yes, I saw them. Pretty fucking selfish of them to do that to you guys.”
Now that the situation was over, Hoseok could feel tears of shame and distress threaten to build up and he whined. “That was so scary! Halloween is supposed to be cute and fun and soft!” Maybe not soft, but definitely everything else.
Yoongi’s eyes crinkled a little in amusement and he sympathetically cooed, hushing him quietly. “I know, I know. I’m sorry that happened. I won’t let it happen again, okay?”
“Please don’t.” Hoseok muttered. Ignoring the fact that he would probably mess up their costumes some, he draped his arms over Yoongi’s shoulders and propped his cheek on the other’s head. “Can we go home now?”
“Of course. I doubt Jin would let us go to any more houses, and Namjoon just scored us enough candy to last a few more days. Let’s get back to the others, and we’ll go home.” Yoongi promised. His deep voice rumbled pleasantly when they were pressed up so close, and Hoseok found himself smiling dreamily despite his still high levels of not-okayness.
“Okay.” Hoseok breathed. However, they didn’t move. They continued to stand there as if in a trance, before Yoongi laughed softly and moved his head away, forcing Hoseok to lift his.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, as if studying each other. Then, suddenly, they were moving. Hoseok had to tilt his head slightly to accommodate for the height difference, and then their lips were pressed together in an innocent kiss.
When they parted, they were aware of the fact that their eyes had widened and there was an additional few seconds of silence before they simultaneously burst into laughter.
“Come on, let’s get back to them.” Yoongi grabbed Hoseok’s hand in his and laced their fingers together.
“Right. They’re waiting on us.” Hoseok agreed, and, after another quick kiss shared under the near-darkness, they walked back to their friends. He never noticed how Yoongi’s touch had completely driven away any traces of unease the scare had caused him.