Seventeen Imagines

Hoshi - Zoo

"Say cheese!" I snapped a picture of my niece next to the lion exhibit with my polaroid camera. 

"Let me see! Let me see!" She ran up to me squealing causing me to chuckle at her.

"You have to wait for the film to develop, go look at the tigers and I'll come get you when it's done." I smiled and lightly guided her in the direction of the tiger viewing area. 

I sat on a nearby bench and watched my niece from a distance, smiling to myself at how excited she looked when one of the tigers walked out of their cave and did a big stretch. 

I took out my phone and saw I had a message from my ex. I rolled my eyes, why would they text me now of all times? 

Ex

Hey Y/N, I know it's been a while but I wanted to reach out and see how you were doing. I miss you.

It took every muscle in my body to not respond and say I missed them too, because truth was, I did miss them. Even though they cheated on me, it was hard to not think about them. I knew it was wrong to respond but... I did.

Y/N

Hey, I've been good.

Ex

Good! Listen, I know we didn't end on good terms, but I was hoping we could meet up? Would love to talk to you again. Maybe you can clear some things up.

Y/N

Hold on, what do you mean I can clear things up?

Ex

You know, the whole why I cheated thing. It's not like I didn't cheat for no reason. 

Y/N

Are you saying that I made you cheat?

Ex

Well when you put it like that, yes?

Y/N

Okay save it, I don't even know why I responded to you. Delete my number. 

*Number blocked*

I shook my head in disbelief. And to think I thought they changed and realized their mistake. How foolish of me. 

Once my brain fully processed everything that just happened, I couldn't help but let the tears fall. I should've listened to my gut and not responded, now look where it got me, sitting on a bench at the zoo crying when I was supposed to be having a fun day with my niece. 

"Hey are you okay?" I was so stuck in my thoughts I hadn't realized the person sitting next to me. 

"Sorry i-i'm fine." I quickly wiped my tears trying to smile at them.

"Are you sure?" He asked, his voice lacing with concern. 

"Yeah, thank you for asking." I weakly smiled at him.

"I'm Ho-"

"Y/N! Y/N! Come take a picture of me with the tiger!" My niece cut off the man.

"I have to go, thank you for checking on me." I gave the man a small bow before walking to where my niece was waiting, jumping in excitement. 

After taking her picture, she was ready to move on to the next animal. I tried enjoying our rest of the time at the zoo, but I just couldn't shake off the emotions and thoughts from earlier. For my nieces sake, I put on a smile and tried to make this a fun day for her regardless of how I felt. 

As we were nearing the exit of the zoo and I could see my niece become visibly sad. I knelt down to her level and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Did you have fun today?" I asked sweetly, trying to remind her of all the fun she had.

"Yes, b-but I don't wanna g-go." She sniffled and I saw a few tears roll down her cheeks.

"Hey don't cry. Why don't we go to the gift shop and you can pick out something hm?" I wiped her tears with my thumb and she immediately beamed at me, practically running to the gift shop. 

I followed her around for a while as she looked for the perfect item to take home with her. She of course got stuck in the tiger section the longest since that was her favorite animal. Currently she was in an internal debate deciding on which of the two tiger plushies she should get.

While she was deciding, I decided to look at the rack of keychains nearby. I was immediately drawn to one that had a small tiger plushie hanging from the ring. I was tempted to get it, but ultimately decided to focus on making sure I could get my niece what she wanted.

Soon she picked her favorite plushie and I walked us over to check out. We made our way out of the building and my niece took one last look at the zoo before deciding she was ready to leave. 

"Wait!" I stopped and turned to find the voice of the person that was yelling, wondering who they were calling out for. I was surprised to see the person from earlier today running towards us.

"Sorry if I startled you, I just wanted to give you this." He handed me the tiger keychain I had been looking at in the gift shop, except this one had a tag on the keyring also that said Hoshi. 

"Hoshi?" I questioned him.

"That's my name." Hoshi smiled at me. "I saw you looking at it in the gift shop and knew I wanted to get it for you. I hope this cheers you up." 

"Thank you." I matched his smile.

"Oh! And I put my name on it so you can always remember there's someone out there who cares about you. We might've just met, but you seem like a sweet and wonderful person. I hope we can become friends." He continued looking at me with his beaming smile, instantly melting any worries I had away. His aura was very contagious.

"Thank you for this Hoshi. I would love to be friends." I pulled him into a hug which he gladly returned. 

Cute little Hoshi story! Honestly I had the idea for this one before I even started writing this book lol. I could really imagine meeting Hoshi near the tiger exhibit and him gifting some sort of tiger merch.