An alarm beeped incessantly through the cold air of Hoseok's room. Mumbling curses at it, he rolled over and turned it off, instantly curling up to go back to sleep. It was so cold and he just wanted to stay under his covers forever and forget that anything else existed. He was in an in-between state of sleep and awake so it was difficult to determine how long he was there for.
His phone buzzed from under his pillow and Hoseok was tempted to throw it away if it was another alarm. He fumbled around before grasping it and answering a call, too tired to even check who it was.
"Hello?" he rasped.
"Hyung, are you sick?" Jimin's voice asked. Hoseok rubbed his eyes and attempted to wake up some more.
"No, I just woke up. What's up?" he replied, already feeling his eyes shutting again.
"What?! We have practice this morning, you idiot! Get up, we've been waiting for like fifteen minutes." Hoseok sat up. It was a Saturday morning; how the hell could he forget to go to dance practice? Despite the cold, Hoseok jumped out of bed.
"Uh, yeah, I'll be there as soon as I can. Run it through without me, okay?" He rushed to put on some suitable clothes and heard Jimin laugh over the phone.
"Fine. Get here soon," he wished before hanging up. Hoseok was a mess, picking things up, putting them down, immediately forgetting where they were. It was too early for this. Why the hell was he so tired? Actually, that didn't matter right now. He just needed to be out of the house.
It was so cold outside but he made up for it by sprinting almost all the way to the studio. By the time he got there, he was more out of breath than he had been after a full rehearsal. He burst through the door and everyone immediately applauded. He just caught his breath, confused.
"Hyung, you got here, well done!" Jimin teased and Hoseok rolled his eyes. He threw his bag down and walked to the front of the room, placing his phone on the speakers. He was about to just get on with it and call for a full run-through when Yeonjun raised his voice.
"Sunbae, did you sort out the dance-off with Jungkook yet?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah, I-" Hoseok froze. Ah. That's why he was so tired. He had been awake until 3 am texting his new boyfriend – his new secret boyfriend. He was so lucky they had sorted out the arrangements for the contest with Bangtan during that time.
"Sunbae~" Yeonjun sang and Hoseok looked up, shaken out of his memory. "You blanked out. Did you sort it out or not?" Hoseok blinked.
"Yeah, we did. The song is How Long by Charlie Puth because he likes western artists for some reason. Shouldn't be too difficult. First verse and chorus is freestyle, the second verse is theirs, pre-chorus is ours and then the chorus is between me and Jungkook," he explained, trying to make that sound as inconspicuous as possible. The real plan was a lot more exciting but a total secret. Jimin just shrugged,
"Yeah, sounds good."
"I'll have our bit done by tomorrow and start teaching it on Monday. Until then, get familiar with the song and get the beat down. As for this dance, let's run it through with me, this time." There was a low grumble of complaint but everyone shuffled into formation. Hoseok's adrenaline was wearing off and it was difficult to begin with; but the further he got, the more he remembered the night before, dancing under Jungkook's piercing eyes. That was enough to give him energy.
Well, for the rest of practice, at least. When he got home, his eyes were shut before his head even reached his pillow. Two hours of dancing on four hours of sleep was not the most fantastic idea he'd ever had. And yet, when his phone pinged, he sat up and looked at it. He had customised Jungkook's ringtone so he instantly answered it.
"Hello?" he asked, despite knowing exactly who it was.
"Hey," responded Jungkook's song-like voice, making Hoseok smile. "How was practice?" he asked and Hoseok sighed.
"Exhausting. I was ten minutes late because someone kept me up until 3 am being adorable," he pouted but was internally exploding with glee. This relationship was so easy to be in. It felt cute and joyful and supportive and it was so secret.
"Oh no, how terrible! I hope it didn't affect your practice time!" Jungkook consoled sarcastically and Hoseok gasped.
"You snake, I swear if you seduced me just to mess up our practice-" he started but was cut off by Jungkook's giggle.
"Chill, I forgot you had practice today. Besides, if I wanted to do that, I would have done it ages ago," he joked and Hoseok almost laughed at the memory of how far their relationship had progressed in the last 36 hours. "Oh, did you tell them about next week?" he enquired.
"Yeah, all set. I've choreographed a little bit of our section but not loads. Wanna rehearse tomorrow?" he asked.
"What about today?"
"Are you kidding? I'm gonna be asleep until about 5 in the evening," he scoffed.
"I'm free after 6," Jungkook suggested with a certain cockiness in his voice, as if he knew Hoseok couldn't refuse.
"I- fine. We could grab a bit to eat afterwards, maybe?" he proposed and Jungkook hummed.
"Sounds perfect. Have fun sleeping, I've got to revise all day and quadratic graphs make me want to cry," he whined and Hoseok smiled,
"Oh, yeah, I forgot you were still little," he teased. Jungkook huffed,
"You were supposed to say, 'My darling sweetheart, of course I will help you with your math homework and bring you chocolate milk because you're the best boyfriend in the world.'"
"I'd rather sleep," Hoseok mused and he laughed when he heard Jungkook sob exaggeratedly. "I'll tell you all of that tomorrow. For now, remember that quadratic graphs aren't on this term's exams," he consoled.
"Wait, really?" Jungkook chirped. "Wow, that does make me feel better. Thanks!"
"Well, what else are boyfriends for?" Hoseok hummed and Jungkook laughed,
"Stopping each other's dance practice?"
"Oh, that's right, I get to disrupt one of your practices now. Thanks for reminding me," Hoseok smirked
"I shouldn't have said anything," Jungkook conceded. "Anyways, sleep well! I'll see you at six!"
"You too!" They hung up and Hoseok lay back on his bed, thoughts still filled with the black-haired boy.
Two days later, he was back at school, pretending to be a dick to Jungkook. Hoseok had thought it would have come easily, since they had despised each other for the better part of two years. It's funny how only three dates could have completely flipped that upside-down. When his teammates jeered in the playground, Hoseok cringed instead of laughing.
The worst came when they were walking opposite ways in the corridor, both with other people. They locked eyes, trying to figure out a way to handle this naturally.
"What the fuck are you looking at?" Jungkook bit out and Hoseok rolled his eyes.
"Don't flatter yourself, dumbass. Keep walking," he rebuffed. Jungkook scoffed, Hoseok ignored him. Inside, they were both trying so hard not to laugh.
Jungkook lived only a few blocks away from school so he didn't take the bus with Hoseok. That was annoying, but it also meant that they didn't have to spend as much time pretending to hate each other, so perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. His phone dinged while his friends were joking around and he checked it subtly.
JK: nice comeback earlier
Hobi: I didn't mean it :(
JK: aw ur so cute
JK: I can't stay mad at u for long
Hobi: :)
JK: I miss u
JK: wanna come round later
Hobi: yeah course
Hobi: we can think of some more comebacks
JK: loll we're definitely gonna need them
"Hyung," Jimin called and Hoseok looked up, distracted. Jimin was looking at him curiously, not saying a word.
"Yeah…what?" Hoseok asked carefully. Jimin just smiled.
"Hyung, do you have a girlfriend?" he asked bluntly and Hoseok nearly burst out laughing.
"What? Where the hell did you pull that from?" he laughed and Jimin folded his arms.
"Custom notification tone, stupidly smiling at your phone, generally distracted. Those signs to me point to a girlfriend. Who is it?" He made a grab for Hoseok's phone, who quickly turned it off.
"Hey, none of your business!" he retaliated defensively and Jimin raised his hands in surrender.
"Fine, fine! Maybe a good thing I can't know her. She'd fall in love with me anyway," he hummed and Hoseok punched him in the arm to punish his vainness, safe in the knowledge that Jungkook would never fall for someone like Jimin.
Encounters at school were getting harder to deal with but they had a few plans to deal with them now. There was one instance when they caught each other alone in the hall and had a quiet but cute catch-up, hands instinctively interlinking. When someone turned the corner, they both pushed each other away with fake hostility and Hoseok felt empty as he walked away. He went to find Jimin to sit with.
"Hey. How was your date last night?" he asked and Hoseok sighed, smiling as he remembered it.
"Yeah, it was- wait, what?" he suddenly realised. Jimin was just smugly eating chips.
"So you do have a girlfriend," he pressed and Hoseok rolled his eyes. Leave it to Jimin to totally unravel everything.
"Have you been rehearsing?" he asked, changing the subject. Jimin nodded. Their dance-off was tomorrow and Hoseok was excited. His duet with Jungkook was pretty much perfect and his group dance was spot-on. If everything went well, there wouldn't be a single person in this school not talking about it.
And, as Thursday came, Hoseok was so very jumpy, counting every second until the dance-off. The morning sped past until it was lunchtime and both groups were squaring off outside. A small crowd was already forming while Hoseok and Jungkook pretended to stare each other down. To them, it was closer to just gazing into each other's eyes.
Eventually, the groups and the audience formed a large circle big enough to dance in. And then, someone started the music. First half was a freestyle contest that Jungkook and Hoseok were exempt from. They could have spent the time watching their dancers or supporting them; instead, they just smiled excitedly at each other from across the circle until it was Bangtan's turn to dance.
And Jungkook did not hold back. Hoseok just shook his head at him as he did another body roll. He would have to be patient, but Jungkook was not making it easy for him. Well, Hoseok thought, if Jungkook isn't taking this lightly then neither will I. And so, Neuron stepped up to the space.
It was simple as the choreography had been somewhat rushed. It was pretty good for only four days of rehearsal, Hoseok thought. And, from the captivated look on Jungkook's face, their audience thought so as well.
Their allotted time was coming to an end and the rest of Neuron spun out of their space, Jungkook stepping forward to face him. Just them two in the circle, everyone's eyes on them. They moved apart and the beat dropped.
The first bit of the choreography was separate and different to give the sense of a freestyle, yet it was still coordinated. And when the moves started to match, Hoseok saw people whispering with confusion. He smiled and twisted into the centre, feeling Jungkook line up behind him and a hand creeping smoothly over his shoulder. The crowd gasped as Jungkook's fingers ran down Hoseok's chest and slid off his thigh. They danced away from each other, mirroring each other's movements right down to the dizzy grins on their faces.
The final beat hit and both of them dropped to the floor. There was a moment of silence while everyone took it in. A moment followed by rapturous applause and cheering. Neuron surrounded Hoseok and Bangtan surrounded Jungkook asking so many questions. Jimin was practically screaming but Hoseok just laughed.
The couple managed to fight their way through the crowd to hug each other. Jungkook looked at Hoseok and bubbled over with laughter. Hoseok smiled and kissed him lightly on the forehead. Jungkook looked up and kissed him on the lips as if trying to one-up him. Hoseok didn't mind.
The bell rang and the crowd began to disperse. Hoseok and Jungkook stayed where they were until Jimin tugged them apart.
"What the hell happened?!" he asked incredulously. Hoseok shrugged.
"We kissed. Do you know what that is?" he teased and Jimin rolled his eyes.
"B-but you hate each other!" he protested and Jungkook clung to Hoseok's hand.
"And now we don't," he explained simply. Jimin's eyes widened as he looked at Hoseok.
"Wait, your girlfriend… that was Jungkook?" he exclaimed and Jungkook frowned.
"Um, I kinda prefer 'boyfriend' if you don't mind," he hummed and Jimin blinked.
"I- This is weird."
"Get used to it," Hoseok told him. "I really like him," he whispered and Jungkook kissed him on the cheek.
"I really like you, too." Hoseok just gazed at him, barely even noticing Jimin walk off. Jungkook was like that. Hypnotising, seductive, beguiling. Captivating. Beautiful.