The moment his lips touched hers, everything disappeared.

It almost felt magical, the way he kissed her. In contrast to the aggressive way he had kissed her a few days ago, this one was completely different, filled with a different feeling altogether. He kissed her like she was a piece of porcelain he was afraid of letting go, like someone he cherished with all his heart and he didn’t want to say goodbye to. He kissed her like he would press a kiss onto the soft petals of a flower in order for them to bloom in the sunlight.

And Soa felt just that way, like a blooming flower.

It wasn’t rushed; on the contrary, he was tender and framed her face with his hands, gently caressing her cheek as he continued cajoling against . It was filled with this emotion of innocence, purity that shone from the way he slanted his mouth over hers. It was like he was inviting her to dance, a dance that was foreign to her, and yet she had tried it out.

It was a short kiss, and he leaned away after some seconds while gazing at her with inexplicable look in his eyes. Soa tried in vain to wrench her gaze away and use her hands to push him away, but her brain seemed to be on pilot mode and nothing left her lips as she continued gazing into his familiar maroon orbs and watching the swirls over his pupils, wondering what he was thinking about exactly. He must think that she was a bad kisser, she though to herself in disgrace.

But then, she sneezed. “ACHOO!”

Soa clamped her hand over right after it had left her, only to gaze at J-Hope with shock. The boy had squinted his eyes shut, and was now sporting some bits of thrown off saliva on his face. His nose was scrunched in disgust, and when he opened his eyes again, they were narrowed into threatening slights.

That was enough to break the awkward atmosphere between them, and Soa couldn’t help herself.

She laughed.

Like, really laughed.

“Yah!” Hoseok’s hand reached up to wipe off spots of saliva on his face, cringing in annoyance when the girl underneath him kept laughing her head off like it was the funniest thing she had set eyes upon.

“Ew, Kang Soa can’t you restrain yourself?” He scolded, but inside softened at the image of her face crinkling into a smile. It was the first time that he saw her laughing, and Hoseok had to admit that her being positive and radiating vibrant energy was way better than the usual gloomy atmosphere she always carried around with her. Her laugh- although it wasn’t the cutest, or the prettiest, or the most beautiful- held onto a thin strand of hope that enveloped her voice box, and that was enough for Hoseok to smile.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry” She kept saying through another peal of laughter bubbling up her lips.

He scrunched up his nose “You’re disgusting”

“Screw off, J-Hoe’ she pushed him away then, when noticing the sudden closeness between their bodies. Soa made sure that she was at a good distance from him, but when she tried getting up, her knees wobbled and caused her to collapse back onto the sofa. Did he have that much effect on her? Embarrassment flushed over her face.

“So you’re not that immune to my kiss” Hoseok smirked, crossing his arms over his chest triumphantly.

The girl only sent him a scowl “Shut up. You think that alone would make me forgive you? You’re damn wrong”

“I know” His eyes flashed with guilt “I know it’s not enough. But I’m not a bastard either. I know the importance of a first kiss”

“Wow, congrats” She rolled her eyes. “But you’ll need to do way more than just that to gain back what you’ve lost. Not that we had any friendship to begin with” her last words pinched his gut. Were they were nothing more than enemies? The boy had thought that were at least acquaintances, but it didn’t seem so to Soa.

He gulped down the sudden tsunami of emotions that crashed into him. He wondered briefly why was he so affected by it all. It didn’t make sense, since J-Hope wasn’t one to overthink things that much.

“I made a promise, didn’t I?” although it was clear to Soa that he was trying hard to make an effort just for her, she still had this tiny it of pride etched onto her heart, and scoffing, she looked away. “You already broke it once”

He clenched his teeth together and thoughts just how y she appeared to him. Sometimes, Soa’s sassy side was uncontrollable. “You’re so freaking stubborn” He growled.

“Or so they say” Shrugging, Soa made a move to go to the kitchen before J-Hope’s arm shot out to halt her movements. “Where are you going?”

“This is my home. Why should I need your permission?” she shot back as viciously as she could and he relented in silence, not forgetting to glare at her back when she walked to the kitchen, a fire of frustration burning in his eyes. He had enjoyed the kiss no doubt, but he wondered exactly how the hell did she muster that kind of attitude.  She even appeared worse than the queenkas at school.

Maybe she had accumulated it all when she was in a coma, he cursed in his mind.

“Are you still here?” Soa’s voice floated from the other side of the flat, and Hoseok let a smirk etch onto his lips as he leaned back against the couch, closing his eyes to enjoy the comfort given to him. Even her couch smelled like her; all-soft cherries and a sharp mint of the forest on a sunny day, not that he knew what the forest smelt like.

“Why? Does it bother you?”

“Yes” She called out instantly.

He stopped the grin that was threatening to break out just in time, “Good then”

Hearing Soa grumble incoherent words under her breath amused him. Things were starting to look up, and it seemed like their relationship was falling back into that old, comfortable zone. Although he had lots to make up for, he was glad that they could talk to ech other now, even if they were arguing most of the time.

But what in the world was she doing?

Sounds of clattering of pots and pans were heard drifting from the kitchen, and curious, the boy got up slowly and inched towards the said room. Could she be cooking, perhaps?

He guessed it right, but when his eyes landed on the piece of meat held in her hands, a shudder suddenly went through him when his mind processed exactly the position of her hands. If she cut it this way, she would surely cut all her fingers off, and dread filled Hoseok’s body like poison.

His breath hitching suddenly, he ran to her and grabbed at her hands before any damage was done. “Are you ing crazy?!” He snarled into her ear.

The girl froze upon feeling his hard and chiseled chest against her soft back, eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

If Hoseok had been 1 second too late, her fingers would have been chopped off by now. He was even scared to breathe out a sigh of relief for fear that something else might happen instead, like she would burn herself.

Before Soa could even react, the boy took the meat and the knife from her and moved away. She felt more than heard his body’s essence leave her side, and closed her eyes in soft relief. She hated it when he came up close to her, because when her nostrils wrapped around his scent, there was no way they would let go. It was like an obsession, no, it was worse. Soa’s legs would always shake; turn to jelly when he came up too close. She blamed it on the fact that she was scared, and didn’t want any other explanation for her weird behavior.

 She watched him now, deftly cutting the pieces of meat with skilled hands. And Soa thought that he was bad at cooking, who in the hell had told her that?

The boy was good, and he damn knew it.

“Are you cooking pasta?” he asked.

She nodded.

Sighing, he placed down the knife and grabbed her arm before ushering her into the living room and plopping her down on the sofa. “Stay” his voice was cold and harsh, almost causing her to wince. He retreated into the kitchen before Soa could even open in protest, only to close it again like a goldfish.

Was he…was he cooking for her?

Although she knew that it was a risk to trust this individual, her heart melted slightly at his action. Sure, many people had cooked her meals when she was small. Her mother, her father, even her sister…but the way J-Hope had said it, like he really meant her to stay and not help. Usually, her family members would point out the fact that she was useless in the kitchen, which was why Soa never entered it in the first place. But Hoseok didn’t do any of that. On the contrary, he pushed her out and looked at her with some sort of amusement dancing on his face. And when the word ‘stay’ fell out of his mouth, she knew as well that he didn’t mean to be cold. It was his nature. Dear god, they had spent some amount of time together, and Soa had become accustomed to his usual coldness.

The food was ready faster than she had expected it to be, and it was only when they sat onto the sofa together with their plates in hand that she had the guts to mutter “Why?”

The boy was puzzled “What ‘why’?”

“I didn’t ask you to cook for me” her gaze was stuck onto the TV screen while munching on the pasta. It was delicious.

Hoseok almost did a double take “Usually people say thank you”

Soa narrowed her eyes at him “You needed to make it up to me anyway, right?”

“Ungrateful brat” he rolled his eyes “If it wasn’t for me, your finger would’ve been gone by now”

“Blablabla” she almost snickered at his annoyed expression.

“” he muttered.

“Jerk”

“ you”

“No thank y-“ he stuffed some pasta into before she could say anything else, and the girl protested in between bites. J-Hope only rolled his eyes once more and clicked on the TV where a drama was playing.

A comfortable silence enveloped them, and Soa thought that it was a wonder she didn’t feel awkward around him. It was weird, because even with her younger sibling there was this sense of awkwardness whenever the two were in the same room. But with Hoseok it was different. He was different. She didn’t somehow have to force herself to talk; she could just eat and contemplate over her own thoughts in silence. She didn’t have to impress him or whatsoever. But it felt good not to live up to the expectations that people had built over her. When she had returned home, they had all expected the same person from three years ago to come back. But Soa wasn’t the same, not the same person and definitely not the same character that could just brush off anything over. She was practically a stranger to her own family, and thus this led her to believe that she wasn’t wanted anymore, that maybe she had been better off if they had removed the machine willing to keep her alive.

Hoseok’s scoff brought her back to reality, and when she blinked at the screen, she saw the boy suddenly grasp onto the girl’s arms and kiss the life out of her like his own depended on it. Embarrassment filled her cheeks upon recalling back that she had kissed the boy next to her not just 30 minutes ago on the same sofa.

Could the ground just swallow her up right now?

It seemed that the boy had his thoughts clamped on the same thought for her shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying to move away from her while keeping his poker face. God knew what was going on in his mind.

“Why do you live alone?” he suddenly blurted out of the blue.

Soa’s surprise reflected on her face before her brows furrowed in confusion “Why do you want to know?”

“Can’t you stop being your sassy self for a minute?”

She sighed, playing with her food and putting a forkful in “Cause my family lives too far away from the school I attend”

“But why did you move?” He pressed on. He wished for her to tell him the truth, the ugly truth that he was hiding so well. He didn’t want to scare her away by blurting out that he actually knew what was going on behind her strong façade, she might even stop talking to him if that was the case. But on the other hand, he hoped that she trusted him enough to tell him, although it was quite a big secret to keep.

He wanted that side of Soa all to himself.

And he wanted her to feel that way too.

The girl lowered her eyes to her food, unable to comprehend why did he care. For one, nobody had asked her that question before during the three months she had moved there, and secondly, she didn’t trust people that easily. Could Hoseok be counted as an exception? After all, he had disappointed her the most so far.

“Let’s make a deal” he announced, leaning back against the headrest “I tell you something that I shouldn’t have known about you. And then I tell you one of my biggest secrets”

The girl was dumbfounded. Something he did know about her that he wasn’t supposed to? What does that even mean? She wanted to scream out loud and strangle him.

“A-Alright” she found her voice, hand suddenly gripping hard onto the material of the couch. Unconsciously, her fingernails dug into the texture with a sudden fear washing over her body.

Her heart was pounding in her ears.

“I came across your medical file while arranging the student’s records” J-Hope fibbed slightly and watched her hand crumple into the color of a white sheet. Before his brain even processed his actions, his hand had reached out to pry her hand away and he curled his fingers in between hers, not having the courage to meet her fiery gaze that was burning with confusion. He kept his stare on the TV characters “ And I saw something that I wasn’t supposed to see”

Soa’s body froze, and she swore she had stopped breathing for a minute.

No, she thought to herself, no he couldn’t know, how the hell-
 

“You lost three years of your life,” He stated. It wasn’t a question, no, his tone didn’t waver. He was so sure of himself.

A beat of silence passed in between them before Soa realized that he had been holding onto her hand all along, and that her fingers were depending onto his so much it had to be scandalous. With the small amount of pride left, she tried wrenching her hand away only to be restrained by his firm grip. This time, she was the one who couldn’t look at him in the eye, and lowered her head to her plate while biting her lip.

“I hate you” She finally let out. It was a hollow, dead and worn out phrase. But Hoseok didn’t flinch. He saw it coming, was even ready for it. Actually, he had been expecting much worse.

“Let go” Soa made a move to get up when with a swift movement, Hoseok grabbed her plate, placed it on the coffee table in front of them along with his, and pulled her to him so that she crashed against his body, her face in the crook of his neck while he enclosed his arms around her waist in a firm grip.

He growled roughly in her hair “Why do you try to be so strong?”

 And then she cried.

Hey guys! 

This chappie is specially dedicated to HOBISOA *.* don't you find them so so so squishy and cute?! I especially love how Hobi's such a sweetie at heart but then he's just too prideful to actually do what he wants to >< Aish those boys xD

ehehhee

Anyway!I hope you guys liked this one! Once again thank you so much for the kind comments! Like i said i'm still in exams so if i dont reply to them forgive me :( 

Enjoy!~ 
xxx Love you guys so much! <3