Chapter 1

He knew the second he stepped into the room that they knew. Smile unwavering, he avoided looking into the eyes of any of the six other boys sitting in silence around the table, and wandered over to the fridge under the pretence of getting a drink.

"Hoseok." The stern voice cut through the silence, full of authority.

"Yah, Namjoon? Do you want a drink too?" He knew there was no point keeping up this pretence, the pretence that nothing was wrong and he hadn't made what was arguably the worst decision of his life. Honestly though, it hadn't even been a decision. A reporter had grabbed him for an interview, and somewhere along the way... It just sort of came out. It had been a week since then, and he was sort of hoping nothing was going to come of it. Evidently, he was wrong.

"Hoseok." This time he knew he couldn't avoid it. He turned and looked into his leader's eyes, trademark grin still plastered across his face like a mask. "What is this?"

Namjoon threw down a magazine as he spoke, and even though he knew what it would say, Hoseok couldn't help but glance down at the bold words screaming out at him from the headlines.

"BTS' J-HOPE COMES OUT AS GAY".

"Oh, yeah." He took a sip of the cola he had grabbed, eyes trained on the magazine. He let the quite frankly awful drink swish around his mouth for a second, before swallowing and adding: "That."

"Why did you do it? Why didn't you tell us first?"

Hoseok could feel himself growing hot. This was not the reaction he had been hoping for. He knew what he did was rash, but these were his brothers. His family. He needed them to accept him, to continue to love him. They hadn't said anything outright, but he could feel their stares burning into him. They were staring at him like they didn't know him. He glanced up and caught Jimin's eyes. Jimin's mouth parted slightly, before he quickly looked away. That was it. He had ruined everything. He turned to leave, but Namjoon spoke up again.

"Cameras are coming tomorrow."

It was a simple enough statement, but the words were loaded with meaning. With warning. Act the same. Pretend it never happened. Don't be rash. Don't go overboard.

He closed his eyes, back to them, and nodded slightly. Their eyes followed him all the way out of the room.