Coffee Stains #1 - For the Money
Word Count: 2,681

Date in Chapter: Various dates before and after YoonSeok became official

Note: First Coffee Stains of the season. YoonSeok Coffee Stains. I don’t know how often it’s been mentioned in the story, but but we’ve mentioned it in the asks a few times. This is about many people thinking that Hoseok was just with Yoongi for the money. All in Hoseok’s POV. We may do Yoongi’s POV as a bonus chapter later, but for now, just Hoseok’s POV.

        It all started with his parents, the last people Hoseok would expect to accuse him of taking advantage of someone. They should really know better. He wouldn’t even accept their assistance when he decided to move to Seoul to achieve his dream of becoming a professional dancer and starting his own dance school. He saved up money from his first job at home, and he paid for a bus ticket out to Seoul. He made sure to save up for a few months worth of rent, and he even had money for groceries and bills to start himself off. It took a while for him to land his first job in the larger city, something that took him by surprise. He expected living in the city to be so much easier, but it’s not all it’s made out to be.

When he started running low on what he had saved up before moving out here, he had given in and started working at Seokjin’s cafe to earn just enough money to get by. Hoseok wouldn’t even tell his friend that he needed more money. He wouldn’t tell Seokjin that he was refusing help from his parents, and he was having trouble keeping up with the bills with the small amount of money he was making from the cafe. He wouldn’t tell him because he knew that, if he told Seokjin that he needed more money, Seokjin would find a way to make sure he got it—even if it meant a loss for him. Or even worse, he’d offer Hoseok the spare room in his apartment, and Hoseok really didn’t want to be mooch. Not to his best friend.

So why would his mother, of all people, accuse him of taking advantage of Yoongi? Okay. Maybe she didn’t exactly put it like that. Here exact words were something like: “Wow, he run his own design company? If you ended up marrying him, you wouldn’t have to lift a finger for the rest of your life.”

At the time, Hoseok was only one of Yoongi’s many buddies. Of course, he wasn’t going to let his mom know that. What she knows is that Hoseok has been seeing Yoongi, and they had been going on frequent dates together. He fails to include that these dates are only ever at Yoongi’s apartment and usually—no, not even usually—always end in them having before Hoseok goes home. Sometimes Hoseok gets lucky, however, and Yoongi would ask him to stay the night.

“Don’t get excited like it’s already set in stone. He’s seeing other people as well,” Hoseok warned her. His mother has the habit of getting ahead of herself. She’s always positive and goes into every situation with high hopes, only to, usually, be let down with the end results. It’s good, then, that she has Hoseok’s father there. Still an optimist, yes, but he’s more on the realist side, and he kind of keeps everyone from getting their head in the clouds. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to just be lazy for the rest of my life. I came to Seoul for a reason, and that wasn’t to live off some big shot who happens to be really ing cute.”

His mother laughed that way she always laughs when Hoseok slips up and uses curse words toward her. It’s a laugh that’s mixed with disappointment and humor at the same time. Like she’s disappointed that Hoseok isn’t being polite and watching his language, but she finds humor in hearing her good-natured son slip up like that. “I’m just saying, sweet heart,” She said. “It wouldn’t hurt to have someone take care of you so that you can do what you love and still love it. When you’re making a living off what you love, it still becomes stressful.”

“Dancing is never stressful.” Hoseok lied, and he knew that his mother knew it was a lie.

That was only the beginning of what would eventually become Hoseok getting a lot of hate from people who were close to Yoongi or even just knew him. Yoongi always claimed that he didn’t have many friends, but he sure did know a lot of people. Hoseok just always assumed that came with running a company and Yoongi’s habit of switching up partners all the time. It almost seemed like Yoongi knew everyone living in their district.

Nearly two weeks after that phone conversation with his mother, Yoongi had invited Hoseok to come out to his company for the first time since they met. This was also the first time that Hoseok almost thought that he was going to be able to be something a little more than Yoongi’s booty call. Little did he know, that’s exactly what he was being called there for.

Hoseok hopped off the elevator on the floor that Yoongi said his office was located at, and he was immediately greeted by a man, who Hoseok assumed was the secretary. The ing secretary. As if that didn’t make Yoongi’s company seem even more legit than Hoseok had imagined it. Really, Hoseok didn’t imagine it being so big. Yoongi’s still really young, so Hoseok was imagining a single studio located in one of the cheaper buildings in the city, but no. Yoongi just had to go be all cool and stuff and accomplish this in the short time he’d been alive.

“You must be Hoseok,” The secretary said, looking Hoseok over. He was clearly judging him based on his attire. It was fair, Hoseok thought. This man worked in a design company where everyone was making clothes of a higher price than even Hoseok’s parents could hope to afford, probably, and here Hoseok is in the pair of jeans that he’s owned for the last two years with the shoes he’s owned for the last three. His t-shirt, however, is relatively new—Hoseok having only bought it a few weeks ago. “Yoongi is in his office.”

The secretary turned around to leave without even telling Hoseok where Yoongi’s office is. Almost like he expected him to just know as if he had been here a hundred times before.

“Wh-where is his office?” Hoseok asked, and he grabbed the man by the elbow to stop him from getting too far. If Yoongi’s company was as small as Hoseok imagined, he’d have had no trouble finding the office.

“The big room right there.” The secretary told him as if it was the stupidest question Hoseok could have asked. He pointed to a room that was fairly large with big windows, and he could actually see Yoongi inside from his current position. So yea, Hoseok felt kind of like an idiot.

Well, Hoseok can’t really say that he expected anything different from a person who worked for Yoongi. Yoongi tends to be kind of an most of the time, so maybe he hires people with the same kind of feeling he gives off.

Hoseok didn’t let this man’s unfriendliness bring him down. He skipped down the hall to where he saw Yoongi’s office, and Yoongi waved him in before he could even knock.

Hoseok didn’t intend to get anyone in trouble, but he found himself complaining about the secretary the minute he walks into Yoongi’s office. Hmm. So maybe the man’s attitude bothered him a little more than he thought it did.

“Must have been Sungjong,” Yoongi said, leaning against his desk. “Doesn’t really sound like him, though. He’s usually really polite.”

“I just assumed he acted like that toward all the people you invite to come here.” Hoseok suggested. “Maybe it’s just my clothes. He probably thinks I’m a beggar.”

“I don’t invite other people to come here.” Yoongi told him. To this day, Hoseok will still deny the small fluttering feeling those words caused him to feel in his chest. “Besides, the only thing wrong with your clothes is that you haven’t taken them off yet.”

“Don’t lie.” Hoseok snapped. “I know you can tell that these are cheap brands that I’ve had for over a year.”

“Yeah, I can tell, but I don’t care. I like what’s under your clothes.” Yoongi said.

Those words would have almost been sweet if Hoseok didn’t know that Yoongi was only talking about his body. The designer made it clear, every time they meet, that he only cares about what’s under the clothes, not what’s under the skin.

So Hoseok’s first experience in meeting someone in Yoongi’s company wasn’t exactly the best experience he could ask for. Maybe it shouldn’t be so important to him that Yoongi’s employees actually like him, you know, since Yoongi will never be his boyfriend—he makes damn sure Hoseok knows that. Still, since the two see each other so much, Hoseok would like for Yoongi’s employees to at least give him a chance.

The next time Hoseok had an encounter with Sungjong was, again, at Yoongi’s company. At this point, Yoongi had gifted Hoseok with a new pair of shoes. He insisted that he actually ordered them for himself, but they didn’t fit, so he wanted to give them to Hoseok—since they fit perfect on his feet.

“Why don’t you just send them back and get the right size? Then you don’t have to buy another pair, and you could save some money.” Hoseok had suggested at the time.

Yoongi shoved the box toward Hoseok once more, the younger grabbing hold of it out of reflex. “You need new shoes more than I need to worry about saving two hundred dollars. Besides, I can’t be bothered with returns. It’s too much work. If you don’t take them, they’ll just sit in my closet for eternity and gather dust.” Was Yoongi’s counter argument.

Hoseok knows better. Yoongi probably ordered the shoes for Hoseok and came up with some bull story like that so that Hoseok couldn’t refuse the gift like he knew he would.

Anyway, it all leads up to Hoseok returning to Yoongi’s company a couple of weeks after he was there the first time, and he showed up wearing the same pair of shoes Yoongi got for him. What could he say? He had never owned such a nice pair of shoes in his life, and the new ones were loads more comfortable than his old, worn down shoes.

“I see you afforded new shoes.” Sungjong noted when Hoseok walked past his desk. Leave it to someone working in a design company to pay enough attention to every detail of Hoseok’s outfits enough to notice when there’s something different from the usual.

“I didn’t. Yoongi hyung gave them—”

“I know where they came from.” Sungjong cut him off abruptly. As if his sarcasm in the last statement should have been obvious. “If you give him what he wants long enough, you’ll eventually have a whole new outfit.”

Hoseok ignored the secretary’s rudeness, and he skipped on to Yoongi’s studio. This time without complaints as soon as he walked through the door, and he was not so pleasantly surprised to see that Yoongi already had someone there with him.

“Oh, sorry,” Hoseok said. Yoongi was the one to call him over, but he didn’t realize that he’d be intruding on some business matters…or whatever it was that this other man was doing in the room. “I didn’t realize you were busy.”

“Hoseok,” Yoongi called before Hoseok could get out the door.

“Hoseok?” The man questioned. As if he had heard the name before. “So this is the one you’ve been talking about?”

There was that little fluttering feeling again. Hoseok didn’t know why the idea of Yoongi talking about him and thinking about him when he wasn’t around made him feel so light and excited, but it did. Again, that’s one of those early feelings that he would deny if asked about it even today.

The man looked Hoseok over, and his eyes only narrowed further and further the longer he looked. “You made him sound like he’s the best thing in the world, but he doesn’t look too impressive to me.” He said. “More like he should be the one thankful to be in your company.”

Hoseok shifted, uncomfortable with how this man was talking about him like he wasn’t even there. “I’m sorry, I can come back later.” Hoseok said, turning to leave again.

“It’s fine.” Yoongi said quickly, catching Hoseok for the second time before he could leave from the room. Those two words were enough to get him to wait in anticipation for what Yoongi would say next. “Dabin was just leaving.”

With only a few more words that Hoseok refused to listen to, for fear that he’d only be offended by them, the man Yoongi referred to as Dabin left from the studio. When the door closed behind him, Hoseok turned his full attention to Yoongi. “I thought you didn’t ask other people here.” He said.

“I don’t. Not in the same way I ask you here.” Yoongi assured him. “He’s a client of mine, and we were just discussing a new project.”

“Oh.” Hoseok breathed in relief. He had worried for a moment that Yoongi warming up to Hoseok may have been building a bridge to allow him to warm up to other people as well. Hoseok liked being the special one.

“Don’t,” Yoongi said, grabbing Hoseok’s wrist when the younger one started to take off his shirt—you know, only assuming that Yoongi asked him here for what he always asked him here for. “I didn’t ask you to come here for that.”

“No?” Hoseok questioned, dropping his hands to his side. It wasn’t exactly the kind of reaction or response he was expecting to get from Yoongi. “Then why am I here?”

“Well, we’re supposed to be friends, right?” Yoongi asked and Hoseok nodded. This was after Hoseok and Yoongi had decided to be more friends with benefits rather than just buddies. “So I just wanted to talk to you while I work. It gets boring seeing the same faces every day. And, I don’t know, maybe I want to know what’s underneath more than just your clothes.”

That time, the statement was sweet. Really, it hadn’t been long since Yoongi and Hoseok met, but Hoseok could already see Yoongi changing. He smiles more now, and he’s even nicer—to Hoseok and other people. He was really becoming a Yoongi that Hoseok enjoyed in more ways than just ual ones, and Hoseok was sure the day will come when Yoongi’s a little more than just his friend.

Over time, Sungjong became nicer, but others around them were still assuming things that weren’t true. It wasn’t until Hoseok and Yoongi were officially together and living together that things really started turn around for them.

“I don’t get it,” Sungjong said while Yoongi was out of the studio, talking to someone. It was just him and Hoseok in there together. “If you and Yoongi are together now, why do you keep working at the cafe and going to school and dancing and…just doing everything? He can take care of you, so you don’t really need to stress yourself out, you know.”

That time, when he talked about Yoongi being the more financially stable one, it didn’t seem like an attack on Hoseok. Like, now that they’re officially boyfriends, Hoseok has the right to take advantage of Yoongi’s money.

“I don’t know,” Hoseok shrugged. “I guess…I just…if Hyung and I ended up not working out, it’d to not have any money to fall back on. Then I’d be in a worse situation than before…you know, since I wouldn’t have anywhere to go.”

“And I seriously don’t think Hoseok will ever quit dancing.” Yoongi voice made Hoseok jump, the younger not even having known that he was in the room again. He gives Hoseok a quick kiss before taking his seat again.

When Hoseok looks back on it today, yeah. He’ll say that a lot has changed since then, but he wouldn’t change a thing.