Hoseok his dry lips wet as he made his way to a Toms n Toms coffee shop not too far from the studio. Miyoung had asked him to meet up with her for a midmorning coffee break. From the text that she sent him, it sounded like she wanted to talk about Yoongi. Hoseok honestly wasn’t looking forward to it only because he didn’t want to listen to her either complain or whine about his best friend. Miyoung was a sweet girl and Hoseok didn’t mind interacting with her from time to time but - when it came to Yoongi, she could get a little too much. The man flashed the younger woman a bright smile when he walked through the entrance of the café and spotted her by the window.

“Hi, Miyoung.” he called out, as took the seat across from her.

“Hi, Oppa!” smiled the girl. “Here’s the iced vanilla latte you wanted.” She quickly pushed the drink towards him and he graciously accepted it.

“Thank you!” Hoseok smiled brightly at at her. “So, why did you want to meet up?”

Her smile grew wider, if possible. “What did you know about Yoongi’s ex-wife?” she replied, right off the bat.

Hoseok blinked. “I know probably know just as much as you do or even less. Hyung never really bothered to talk to me about her and their previous relationship to be honest.”

Miyoung narrowed her eyes at him. “I doubt that.” she countered.

The older man took the time to let out a soft scoff. Was she being serious right now? He was telling the truth and she completely dismissed him as if he was lying. “Look, I’m being honest here. I only know as much as Yoongi told me about her, OK? He never talked about her to me.”

“Well, that was then. What about now?” demanded Miyoung.

The younger girl wasn’t there to beat around the bush and made sure to get straight down to the point. Hoseok liked how she was quick to lay out what she wanted to talk about, but he didn’t like her attitude towards him. If she didn’t believe the his honest answers, then would she really believe anything else that he spills?

He slowly his dry lips wet. “Yoongi Hyung talks about Inhye Noona here and there, but that’s about it. The most that he ever mentions her is when he talks about the Saturdays he spends with Yoonsung and her.” he replied. He didn’t really feel like answering her questions, especially if she already had her own ideas about what the truth was, but did so in order to keep his friend out of any possible trouble. He was trying his best, but he was sure Miyoung will still assume what she wanted to assume about Yoongi and Inhye’s relationship regardless of everything that he told her.

The younger woman’s eyes narrowed at him. “What does he say about her?” she immediately asked.

“He doesn’t really say anything at all. All he does is mention the fact that she was there with him and Yoonsung and that’s it.” Hoseok, shrugged. “Like, he would complain about how they never know where to go eat for lunch or how she never lets him spoil Yoonsung by buying him anything he wants.”

“There has to be more that he tells you.” stated Miyoung, gruffly. “I doubt that this is truly all that he says about her.”

“But, that really is all that he says about her though.” defended Hoseok.

Yoongi had been showing an obvious interest and care for Inhye. However, those feelings seemed to be more on the platonic side due to the growing respect Yoongi seemed to be developing for her. Well, at that’s what Hoseok would like to believe. But, considering the fact that Yoongi did kiss Inhye back when she kissed him while she was drunk was another thing to ponder whether or not if he was actually romantically interested in her. Regardless, Hoseok would never know because that would the one thing that that man would never admit even if it was true. On the other hand, it was true that Yoongi may have kissed Inhye, but he truly did care and love Miyoung a lot. Hoseok had never seen his friend act this way towards any women he had been with before. So, maybe that kiss was just a slip up and nothing more.

Miyoung didn’t seem so sure about his answer of course. She looked upset as she made eye contact with him. “I really doubt that’s the case, Hoseok Oppa.”

Hoseok frowned. “What do you want me to say to you?” he stated. “Because you’re obviously not looking for the truth if you’re not even willing to listen to me.”

“That’s not it.” breathed Miyoung, with teary eyes. “I’m worried about Yoongi Oppa and his ex-wife, OK?” She let out a long shaky breath. “I hate to be the , but do you think there would be any way for him to get full custody of Yoonsung?

“W-What do you mean?” breathed Hoseok. “Full custody? Are you-”

“She needs to go.” interrupted the young woman. “Yoonsung’s mom needs to go away.”

Hoseok felt his jaw drop as he stared back into the eyes of the person that sat in front of him. How could this woman possibly suggest such a deliberately evil thing? To separate a mother and son was probably the cruelest thing anyone could ever suggest, especially when it came to Inhye and Yoonsung’s situation. Inhye was the only parent Yoonsung had ever known and it’d be completely wrong to take him away from her just like that. Yoongi would never agree to do such a thing. At least that’s what Hoseok was hoping, but he wasn’t too sure either. Unfortunately, Miyoung had a lot of power over Yoongi.

“Why would you-” He stopped to let out a long sigh. “What did she ever do to you for you to suggest such a thing?” Miyoung frowned as she flashed Hoseok a gloomy look. A thick silence hung over them as she refused to answer his question. “If you’re asking for my opinion, then I’ll be honest. I doubt it’s that easy to get full custody because Yoongi Hyung has never been in Yoonsung’s life and Inhye is fully capable to raise her son on her own. It’d be a useless fight. Not just that, but I want to make this clear: Yoongi Hyung would never go through with what you just suggested. That’s because he cares about Yoonsung and his wellbeing and this has absolutely nothing to do with Inhye Noona. It’s about his son.”

He slowly stood up from his seat, indicating his leave. “I’ll be going now. Thanks for the coffee though and, don’t worry, I’m not going to tell Hyung that we met up.” The young woman continued to sit there in silence as she brought her drink up to her lips and sipped her iced Americano. “I’ll see you later.” He smiled.

“Bye, Hoseok Oppa.” she responded, with a very fake smile plastered onto her face.

The man let out a long sigh as soon as he stepped out of the café. He had never seen Miyoung like this before, but with what Yoongi had been telling him about how insecure she had been, he wasn’t too surprised. Hopefully the young woman won’t actually ask Yoongi to try to get full custody of Yoonsung. It wasn’t long before he made his way back to the company, but he felt his stomach drop upon seeing a familiar face sitting in the nice lobby in the front.

“N-Noona?” he automatically said, upon seeing Inhye’s face.

“Hey.” she smiled.

“A-Are you here to see Yoongi Hyung?” he asked, feeling a bit flustered that he was just talking about her not too long ago. He felt as if he was caught red-handed, talking smack about her or something, when that wasn’t even the case.

“No. I’m actually here to see you.” she replied.

“What? Why?” he immediately responded, alarmed.

Inhye let out a laugh. “It’s nothing bad.” she said. “I just needed to talk to you about something before I headed to work but I didn’t know how to contact you besides coming to your company… I hope it’s OK. If you don’t have time today, then we can always chat another time.”

Hoseok his lips, again. Did hell freeze over? Because he couldn’t understand why in the world he was going to be talking about his best friend with the two women that are currently in his life right now. “I-I have time. If you want to talk, we can head up to my studio now.” he suggested.

In the elevator, Inhye turned to him. “From what Yoongi tells me, he doesn’t really start his days early, right?” she asked, worried.

“Yep, he comes in around 10 or 11 am or so.” answered Hoseok. “Why did you ask?”

“Because I don’t want him to know that we talked to one another.” she quickly replied.

Hoseok felt his brows furrowed. “What did you want to talk about then?” he asked, confused. “Why would you want me to keep this away from Yoongi Hyung?”

Inhye flashed him a serious look. “Let’s wait until we’re somewhere more private to talk about this.”

Hoseok raised his eyebrows at her as the elevator opened to reveal the 3rd floor of their building. He quickly led the way to his studio and passing by his hyung’s in the process. “This is Yoongi Hyung’s studio by the way.” he stated, pointing to the white door with a Genius Lab sign on it with his infamous keypad lock and door bell on the side. He glanced at Inhye and she scoffed.

“Is it really necessary to have a keypad lock and doorbell?” she questioned.

Hoseok laughed. “Everyone kept on barging into his studio without announcing anything and it ticked him off so much that he got a doorbell. Yoongi Hyung likes it when people announce their arrival.”

Inhye rolled her eyes. “Why am I not even surprised?”

Hoseok continued to laugh as they stopped in front of the door leading to his own studio with the word Hope World also plastered on it. His studio is about the same size as Yoongi’s, with two book shelves for all of his favorite figurines or things he needed in the studio like hand lotion and travel sized bottles of shampoos or body wash for those late nights at the studio, a small couch and a beanbag for his visitors. Upon entering the room, he quickly offered the couch to Inhye. She graciously took the seat after she closed the door behind her.

Hoseok sat in his large office chair and made sure he was directly facing her before he asked her the question he had been dying to ask. “What did you want to talk about?”

Inhye looked at him straight in the eyes and blinked once. “I’m so sorry about imposing this on you, but I don’t have any friends that I can really talk about this with except for my cousin. The only reason why I’m not talking to her about it is because I know that she’s going to say something to my mom and that’s the last thing I need.” she started, softly.

“No, it’s OK.” the man reassured.

Inhye blinked again, but with glassy eyes this time. “Hoseok, I like Yoongi.” she breathed and he felt his breath get caught in his throat. “But, don’t worry. It’s not like I expect anything from him because it’s clear from our past that we’re toxic for one another. I honestly just want to get rid of these feelings, but Yoongi’s making them worse by being nicer to me. I feel myself falling deeper and deeper into these stupid feelings when I know I shouldn’t.” He could see the way her face twisted in despair and her voice becoming constrained by emotions as she continued with a hoarse voice. “I don’t want to like him. I don’t want to fall back in love with him again. I just want to live my life, trying to forget that someone like him was ever in it. Please, if you can convince Yoongi to be nonchalant and not care about me like he used to then I’m begging you to do it. He’s been so nice to me lately that it’s starting to make me fall for him again.” Tears were now streaming down of her cheeks as Hoseok looked on.

He didn’t know what to say, let alone do, aside from offering her a box of tissues. He just didn’t know how to respond to that request. How does anyone convince someone else to stop caring for someone that they have slowly, but surely learned to worry about over time? “I-I don’t think I can help you.” Hoseok heard himself reply. “I know that Yoongi Hyung cares enough about you and I really doubt I can really convince him otherwise.”

The woman across from him looked completely dejected as she stared past him. “It’s OK. I wasn’t expecting a lot anyways because it’s such a huge favor of me to ask of you.” she whispered, as she quickly dabbed her face dry with a piece of tissue. “I’m so sorry that I took up so much of your time. Please don’t tell Yoongi what I said. This is the last thing I would ever want him to know.”

Hoseok watched Inhye motioned to get up and leave when he stopped her. “Noona, what do you mean by falling in love with Yoongi Hyung again? Were you previously in love with him?”

She looked back at him with a sniffle and she flashed him a small, sad smile. “I was in love with him ever since we were buddies and all throughout out our short marriage. I was stupid, especially for thinking that maybe he would one day fall in love with his toy, but it never happened. Instead, he handed me the divorce papers he and his family were anxiously waiting to give me, and I took the chance to start hating him in return.” Hoseok could barely breathe upon hearing her response. “I’ll be going now. Sorry about interrupting your day like this. I won’t ever drop by like this ever again to bother you.”

“W-Wait, Noona.” He said, as he quickly reached for a memo pad and pen from his desk. He quickly scribbled a sequence of a few numbers on there and then handed it Inhye. “H-Here’s my number. If you ever need anyone to talk to about Hyung, then I don’t mind listening. It must be hard to be in your position.”

She smiled softly at him again. “Thank you, Hoseok.”

“No need to thank me.” he said.

With that, she bid him goodbye and left. Hoseok, on the other hand, sat in his studio with a heavy heart as he nibbled on his bottom lip. Inhye asked him to never tell Yoongi about any of the words she uttered to him and he wouldn’t, due to many reasons. But, the thing that irked him the most was the fact that she said that she was in love with Yoongi from the beginning and the man was completely oblivious to her feelings even when they were married. He told Hoseok so many stories about those Daegu girls he met during the days when he was still a married man, how they loved fl