chicken noodle soup || sope

fortyfive

"Yoongi...I can't."

Fuck. I'm an idiot. Yoongi watched as Hoseok's eyes began to water. He quickly scrambled back to his feet. "Hobi, I'm sorry. It was too soon wasn't it? This was a bad idea, I should've waited-"

"No! I want to..." Hoseok stopped him, bringing a hand to Yoongi's forearm. "I j-just... I can't."

Yoongi lowered his brow. "But why? I don't understand."

"Because I lied!" Hoseok blurted out. His bottom lip began to quiver as tears dripped from his eyes. "I'm not honest Yoongi, I'm a liar! You'd never love me if you knew the truth."

"Hobi baby-" The older man didn't even flinch, instead brushing his hand over Hoseok's cheek in an attempt to reassure the younger. "I promise there's nothing you could tell me that would ever change the way I feel about you."

"But you don't know the truth, I-I..." Hoseok hid his face in his hands.

"Yoongi hyung, I cheated."

Yoongi stumbled backwards, catching himself on a nearby table. No. Impossible. It didn't make any sense. How could Hoseok do such a thing? "You... you cheated on me?"

"No!" Hoseok's eyes flew open wide, his hands reaching out to Yoongi's bringing him back in. "Oh gosh, I didn't mean for it to sound like that. I would never cheat on you. I meant that I cheated on my interview."

"You-"

"No let me finish," Hoseok put firmly, "Remember when you had us make chicken noodle soup during the interviews? Well Jin hyung switched his soup with mine. It wasn't my soup that got me a job here. At first I didn't know that Jin switched them, but then he told me, and I really wanted to tell you, I swear! It's just that I got scared you would hate me, and I kept putting it off. But I'm telling you now and I completely understand if you think I'm horrible and you never want to speak to me again..."

When Hoseok finished his confession, he stared down at the flower in his hand, awaiting some kind of reaction from the older. He thought his boyfriend would yell or storm away...

But instead, Yoongi burst out into laughter.

"Oh my god Hobi-" He wheezed, doubling over and holding his stomach as if he had just heard the most hilarious joke of his life.

Hoseok just stared, utterly dumbfounded, as the mint-haired chef tried to collect himself. He immediately assumed that Yoongi thought he was joking. "I'm being serious hyung."

The pale fingers of Yoongi's hand snaked into Hoseok's open hand, guiding it to his chest. His cheeks still rounded as he grinned. "Hobi baby... I know."

"You know?"

"I've known the whole time," He chuckled. "You really think I didn't realize the soups tasted exactly the same? And there's the additional fact that I'm pretty sure I saw you put cinnamon in your real soup. Now that would've been interesting."

"B-but..." Hoseok stuttered, "Why did you hire me then?"

Yoongi shrugged. "Thought you were cute."

"Oh..." Hoseok bit his lip, "So you're not upset?"

Yoongi shook his head, not the slightest flicker of anger in his loving gaze. "I'm not upset."

"And you don't hate me?"

Yoongi chuckled, bring his lips to Hoseok's and kissing him softly, taking the younger by surprise. "I still love you sunshine."

"Yay," Hoseok whispered through a widening smile, slipping his arms around Yoongi's torso and pulling him close. The weight holding him down had suddenly lifted. It turned out that the reasons he was anxious were all in his head. Their love was stronger than that. It always had been and always would be.