chicken noodle soup || sope

nine

"You didn't have to be such a dick to him!" Seokjin yelled, pissed that the head chef had been so awful to his best friend. At this point, he didn't care about getting fired if it meant sticking up for Hoseok. Seokjin knew better than anyone how sensitive Hoseok was, especially when it came to people insulting him. Hoseok's homophobic father used to verbally abuse him in a similar way all throughout his childhood after Hoseok's mother had died. Hobi had been able to move out of his father's house when he turned eighteen, but still suffered nightmares and anxiety from the years of abuse. "He's my best friend, you can't yell at him like that!"

Seokjin didn't have to tell Yoongi that. He already felt like an asshole. In the heat of the moment he had been absolutely blinded by rage, not really hearing his words until they were already out of his mouth. He had been harsh. Way too harsh. Especially when he knew that the boy had only made those mistakes because he was exhausted from his night shift at the convenience store.

A surge of guilt washed over the head chef as he turned out of the kitchen, trying to find where Hoseok had run off to. He checked the office, the storage room, the washroom- the young chef was nowhere to be found. When he finally opened walk-in fridge, Yoongi's heart sank straight to the bottom of his stomach. There was Hoseok, curled into the fetal position, whimpering into the sleeves of his chef's jacket- absolutely broken.

Yoongi stepped into the room, quickly shutting the door behind him. He didn't know what to say or what to do. He sucked at dealing with these kinds of emotional situations, but he had to do something. He hated watching Hoseok cry like that, especially when he knew that he was the one to cause it.

"Um, Hoseok?" Yoongi said hesitantly. Hoseok didn't respond and instead started crying even louder at the sound of his voice. Oh shit- I'm just making it worse.

Yoongi sat down cross-legged in front of his sobbing employee. The familiar red mop of hair's face was hidden away and Yoongi wished that he could see him. The head chef patted Hoseok's arm awkwardly. "Please stop crying, okay?"

"You should f-fire me," A tiny muffled breathe came from Hoseok's mouth between uneven breaths. "Y-you're right... I'm an idiot..."

Yoongi's heart broke, feeling like the world's biggest asshole for all of the things he had said earlier. The last thing he wanted was to make Hoseok feel stupid. "Shit... please don't think that. Hoseok, you're not an idiot. I didn't mean it."

"N-no... I am," Hoseok whimpered, bursting out into a fresh set of tears, letting them fall into his already soaked sleeves.

Before he knew what he was doing, Yoongi was wrapping his arms around the boy, bringing Hoseok's head into his chest and gently rubbing the trembling man's back as Yoongi tried to calm him down. "Oh fuck- Hobi I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to say any of that stuff to you, it wasn't true at all. If anyone's an idiot here, it's me."

Hoseok sniffled a little, his sobbing getting a little quieter before he brought his arms around Yoongi, latching onto him like a koala bear and leaning his head against the chef's jacket as a few more silent tears trickled down his cheeks. "Am I fired?" Hoseok asked in a small voice.

"No Hobi, you're not fired," Yoongi affirmed, tracing circles on the boy's back in a soothing motion, which seemed to be helping him to relax. He usually hated hugging people. It made him feel restricted and squished, but hugging Hoseok was different. The red head was warm and adorable, and surprisingly, he didn't mind him at all. "But I do need you to quit your part-time job at the convenience store. You can't work properly with no sleep and it's not healthy for you either."

"But I-I need that job," Hoseok sniveled, pulling his head away from Yoongi's chest and looking at him with swollen tired eyes. "I need the extra money." Hoseok hated admitting that he was broke, he didn't like people looking down on him, but he also didn't think Yoongi would judge him for it.

Yoongi had assumed that Hoseok was having some financial problems. No one would voluntarily work night shifts at a convenience store that probably only paid minimum wage, but he didn't really know how he could help. He could give Hoseok a raise, but that would be unfair to his other employees, especially the ones who had been working there the longest. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head, "What if I paid you to do some extra training with me?"

"Extra t-training?" Hoseok repeated.

"Yeah- you could come in early a few mornings every week and I can help you with some of your skills," Yoongi explained. He didn't really know why he was offering this when he was already swamped with work. For his other employees, it had always been sink or swim, but he wanted to help Hoseok, and not just because he felt bad about making him cry. There was something inside of Yoongi that wanted to see him smile and be the reason for it. "Do you like that idea?"

Hoseok looked at him with big doe eyes, an expression of worry crossing his face, "Are you sure I won't be too much trouble? I mean, it might just be easier for you to hire a different chef-"

"No Hobi, I want you," Yoongi admitted confidently, flashing the boy a small grin. He took his thumb and wiped away a couple of the stray tears that were left on Hoseok's cheeks, "You're a good chef, you're skills just need a little, uh... refining."

"Do you really think so?" Hoseok asked, a little bit of hopefulness re-entering his voice.

"I know so," Yoongi reassured him. The head chef watched as the sunshine boy returned and Hoseok's mouth stretching into a wide smile. Yoongi would have sacrificed his first-born child to Satan just to see that smile everyday.

He squeezed the red head once more before detaching from him and helping him to his feet. Yoongi was fully aware that he probably shouldn't have been hugging an employee like that, but he didn't really care. Suga's didn't have an HR department anyways.

-