Hoseok had done a fair amount of stupid things in his life, on various degrees of stupidness, with various people and with varying stages of awkward realization of said stupid things. But that-- that just had to take the cake of all the dumb he had done in his life. And he was most likely going to die. No, he wasn’t dramatic. (Okay, he was being dramatic but it was a hypothetical life and death situation right there if he wasn’t in a super public context and what actual murderer would just kill a victim in the middle of the day right in front of maybe hundreds of university students). Not a good murderer. Maybe Hoseok was just hopeful about his chances to live), he was just facing death with his very eyes in that beautiful, sunny Friday morning. 

And death, for some reason, was shorter than he was. 

Rewinding to how Hoseok got face to face with death himself, one could say that perhaps sometimes too much excitement might kill you. Hoseok had been absolutely gleeful in the moments before said encounter (with death). He didn’t expect to do that well on that paper, it was not his preferred subject and he had the universally ‘best’ of a tired college student with too much caffeine in their bloodstream  Perhaps all that caffeine got to hallucinations before he couldn’t honestly remember when he had come out with such beautiful wording and phrases but he wasn’t mad.  It got him a score of 90 points and he wasn’t about to complain about that. 

The thing about Hoseok was that he was bubbly, energetic and a bit ‘too much’ at times, maybe even ‘extra’. But on day to day basis he didn’t really care about that. After all, being the reincarnation of the Sun itself was a bit of his personal charm as well as, of course, his good looks and talent at dancing on top of almost everything. The point is, most people enjoyed his excitable and bouncy personality. And, to his luck, he had friends who tended to be very much in sync with him, happy for him when they had a reason to and so on. So when he told his friend, Taehyung, that he got a passing grade on that horrible mid semester paper, there was a lot of happiness, joy, excitement, jumping legs and moving arms going on.

The moving arms happened to be his one way ticket to meeting the actual death himself, because neither Taehyung nor Hoseok stopped themselves enough to care that perhaps they were not all alone in the corridor. Perhaps other people were around except for them and their tiny victory party. As it might be quite obvious, death was one of the people in the corridor and the recent owner of a very well placed punch followed by a bloody nose.Hoseok didn’t even realize he had hit someone until a loud curse bellowed around the place.

“You son of a--” 

It was a short curse, not even a finished one as the guy immediately placed his hand over his nose, stopping some of the blood from staining his shirt. The shout had Hoseok turning around in panic and then promptly turning as white as a sheet of paper in sheer terror. Because before him stood Min Yoongi, his nose and lips covered in blood and with a very not friendly ‘i-am-going-to-kill-you” look in his eyes. The look didn’t last too long before it was transformed into a grimace of pain, and Hoseok’s mental panic alarms went off. 

The thing about Min Yoongi was that no one messed with him. Ever. And no one wanted to mess with him. Hoseok didn’t really know why exactly, as he had never heard or seen him do anything illicit, illegal or dangerous during the very few times he had seen the older man. He had thought, like the kind person that he was, that all the talk about him was probably rumours and accusations, based on basically nothing but the fact that the man seemed to have a wide vocabulary of curse words, good leather jackets, cigarettes and, apparently, a resting face. No matter what Hoseok thought and how he tried to reason and understand the man from a distance it still didn't compare to experiencing the infamous scowl right before his very eyes, paired with the blood running down the man’s nose. He didn't look too happy that was for sure.

With a shudder he remembered that whether he was about to die or not, the punch was still his fault, and it didn’t matter if it was the last thing he did in his life. His mother didn’t raise him to be that rude prick that doesn’t take responsibility for his actions. And so, he started doing just that, taking responsibility for his actions and  approaching the older (and shorter) man and holding his arm lightly. Hopefully it was gentle,  he wasn’t really that careful at that point. 

“Oh my GOD!” He screeches, “does it hurt?” He asks, searching then in his pockets for a tissue. He finds a pack and rips one out, holding it out to Yoongi who doesn’t take it, busy holding his hands at his nose and glaring daggers at him. 

Right. The question.

“Of course it hurts. I’m stupid. Sorry, nevermind. “ that didn’t seem to change much. “I am sorry I didn’t mean-”

“Stop.” Yoongi told him, muffled by his hands but clear enough. 

He stopped, but only for a moment. “Fair enough." He tells the male. "But we must go-- the nurse’s office. That's a lot of blood," Hoseok may or may not have become extremely squeamish at the sight of the blood. But he needed to stay strong and help the poor man he had seriously maimed in his glee. "It's not too far away from here, can you walk with me?" 

He wasn't sure whether or not Min Yoongi wanted to walk with him like that, all bloody and mad down the University halls, but he sure did do that. Leaving behind the people watching the event unfold wondering how in the world that guy escaped so easily, and how did the one known bad- just accept to be escorted to the nurse’s office without much comment on his part.

But some things just aren't for everyone to know after all.

oOo

And that is how Hoseok came to be there, sitting on an uncomfortable and squeaky plastic chair in the medical office of the campus, waiting quietly but very much panicked, for the nurse to be done patching up Yoongi's nose. ( "Ah it's nothing that bad, you didn't break it or anything," the woman had told him, making him sigh in relief, at least it wasn't anything with lasting damage at least. "The blood will stop soon enough.") 

Indeed she was right, the blood did stop, but the man's small nose (a very cute nose Hoseok realised with a halt) was visibly bruised, which had Hoseok feeling like the most horrible man on Earth, a shadow of the good man he used to be.  But mostly he was preparing for his demise as he was fairly sure that he will not just get out of this easily, with a few words and some cold presses. 

At the moment the nurse leaves the room (she needed to be somewhere soon and they were instructed to lock the door when Yoongi was feeling better and bring the key to the janitor) he will be--

She was leaving. Closing the door.

Oh God.

However, silence fell over the room, save for the sound of their breaths and the light tapping of Hoseok's foot against the floor. Okay, maybe Yoongi will just do the cool guy act and be silent, and he could just leave without attracting attention. He wasn't the most subtle of all men alive but he was sure it could be done-- He didn't even dare to look up to see where the other was facing as he slowly raised from the seat - not at all quiet but such was life - and he had taken one single step towards the door when-

"You're Jung Hoseok, right?"

Hoseok stopped dead in his tracks, then took a step back, and turned 180 degrees to face the older man. He was shocked. Min Yoongi, nose patched with white, hair messy and legs dangling over the edge of the bed was not glaring at him. His expression was mostly neutral, not mean or threatening, maybe perhaps even curious, his narrow sharp eyes trained on the other occupant of the room. Why did he look…friendly? Ok, not in the way he might look friendly or in the way Taehyung might look friendly. Sort of, a cool person style of friendly. Someone that tries to not look friendly and curious but doesn't manage. Hoseok was strangely reminded of a petulant child.

And he was kind of at a loss for words. 

He nods though, not really knowing how to react.

He thought that Min Yoongi would not continue that conversation, that he would leave the information hanging in the air. But no--

"You dance right?" It didn't seem like a genuine question but he still nodded, signaling the elder to continue. He found it odd that he was waiting on someone to make conversation for once in his life as that was usually his thing. Keeping things going. "Jimin speaks very fondly of you, looks up to you, as a dancer I mean--" a small pause and an intake in breath. Wait. "He has taken me to see you dance at recitals, I thought-"

Wait wait wait! He knew Jimin? Jimin, the cutest, most peaceful and sweet underclassman possible, kind and polite on all occassions, knew Min Yoongi? 

"Park Jimin?" Hoseok, honest to God ,was confused as he had never seen the two hanging out, or heard Jimin saying a word about the older man.  He didn't have any other friends with that name either.

"Yeah- your friend. Short." Hoseok snorts at that but gives a verbal agreement. Obviously his Jimin. "We've been friends since highschool. We also live in the same building. He found it better to live with Taehyung, as his schedule works better with his. I tend to be awake during the night most of the times, and for him sleeping is important." The man readily explains as if he expected for Hoseok to be familiar with the whole sitatuation.

"Oh, I see." He says, going over the information in his head. A lot of oddities and a lot of new information, but he had learnt, through years of being a social butterfly, that he should expect just about everything. And a few rumours turning out to be very much untrue were not out of the question. "So, you said you saw me dancing?" He confirms, already with a wide grin on his face. The distance was pointless so he took a couple of steps to sit next to the guy on the bed."When was that?"

So- Hoseok no longer thought he was facing death. Not at all even. He was somewhat amused once he got the 'great and scary' Min Yoongi talking. He seemed like he hadn't spoken with someone new in a while, his replies short, almost shy, but not brief enough to not have the conversation stop too much. He was intelligent and passionate, told Hoseok about his music major and how the inspiration to compose was at 3 or 4 a.m. o'clock kind of  He also recounted to Hoseok about how he could never say no to his friends despite the fact he tried to but both Jimin and Jungkook (Jungkook too! Though he should have expected it seeing as the boy was often attached to Jimin's hip) were just too good at getting him to do whatever they wished and they usually wished to carry him with them to watch dance recitals.  Some in which Hoseok himself was featuring.

"But, why do they take you with them if you don't like dancing, though?" Hoseok adressed the most obvious question. Neither Jimin nor Jungkook seemed like the type of guy that would just annoy someone for no reason at all.

That question seemed to not sit too well with Yoongi. His brows furrowed, his lips pulled into a thin line as his nose twitched, and oh, he looked more like an offended cat than like the badass death he used to look like (why did he even think that ever? He couldn't remember now). And if he were to be honest, Hoseok thought he looked nothing short of absolutely adorable. 

Was that reddness he was seeing on the other's cheeks? Considering he was pretty observant, he was quite sure he was right. And that- that changed everything. 

"Cause- " The man started, seemingly raking his brain for something to say. "Cause they are brats like that!"

Who'd have thought--

"That's not a very good reason, Yoongi-hyung." He pointed out cheerily, the term of familiarity coming out naturally even though he had only spoken with the man maybe less than an hour. By the flush on Yoongi's cheeks and no other commentary besides that, he didn't think he minded. 

"They're convincing brats?" Yoongi offered. He was probably right, but Hoseok read people better than how well Yoongi could act. And he didn't mind, why would he? How often did he get to speak with cute boys who acted bad and happened to have a crush on him?

Hoseok laughed, loudly, agreeing for the sake of the man. "Maybe next time you are forcefully carried to any practice or recital perhaps you can come to say 'hi'?" He proposed, showing Yoongi his widest and most sunshine-y smile, hoping it would lessen the other's nervousness. (To think that the ONE Min Yoongi was shy in front of him, that day indeed took a very odd turn.)

"Maybe I will." 

"I think you should."

"Then I will."

"Then I'll be waiting to see you around."

A smile. A strange thing, rare too, but beautiful nonetheless. 

"Only if the kids drag me." Yoongi still mentions and Hoseok agrees, of course, with a laugh. 

"But, until then, if you feel better, how about some coffee for ruining your nose?"

Yoongi glares at him, but it’s playful, and with some difficulty (laziness?) he lifts himself off the bed. 

"You're paying for both the coffee and the additional ice pack."

Hoseok had no trouble with it. And honestly- what did he have against meeting Death? Because Death was short and had a small nose and attentive eyes and a cute smile and Hoseok- Hoseok didn't really mind his company.