Come back to me [SOPE]

Chapter 9

After dinner, as they stepped into the flashy hotel lobby, Annet offered them both a ride. "If you don't have a ride tonight, I can ask my chauffeur to drop you home," she said graciously.

Suga politely declined, slipping into his calm demeanor. "Thank you, Annet, but my designated driver is on the way. I'm good for tonight."

J-Hope, on the other hand, added quickly, "I've got a few things to discuss with Hyung. I can stay back with him."

Annet chuckled warmly, a friendly gleam in her eyes as she gave them both a final nod. "Alright, you two. Have a great night!" And with that, she disappeared into the night, leaving J-Hope and Suga standing alone in the hotel lobby.

Awkward silence surrounded them, the only sounds being the soft tapping of Suga's fingers as he checked his phone for his driver's location.

J-Hope shifted on his feet before breaking the silence. "Thank you for joining, Hyung," he said, his voice hesitant but sincere.

"It's alright," Suga replied curtly, his eyes still glued to his phone.

The silence that followed was thick with things unsaid. When Suga's driver finally pulled up, Suga noticed J-Hope glancing around, clearly searching for his own ride. Without lifting his gaze from his phone, Suga offered, "You can hop on. I'll drop you."

J-Hope hesitated. He wanted to accept, but the memory of their last drunken encounter flashed in his mind-how he had made his hyung cry, a night he deeply regretted. He wasn't about to risk that happening again. "It's okay, Hyung. I'll arrange a cab somehow," he said, his voice wavering slightly.

Suga's patience snapped, his usual calm crumbling just a little. "It's not polite to leave a drunk friend alone in the middle of the night. Can you please get in the car?"

"Hyung, I still think-" J-Hope began, but Suga interrupted sharply.

"No one's going to eat you alive. Now. Get. In. The. Car."

J-Hope, startled by his hyung's tone, nodded silently and climbed into the backseat without another word. Suga followed, giving the driver J-Hope's address before settling in. The tension was palpable. J-Hope sat rigidly, keeping a conscious distance between himself and Suga, determined not to make any bad moves. His hyung was clearly not happy.

The car ride seemed to stretch on forever, traffic crawling, and the sky growing darker as heavy clouds threatened rain. The silence between them weighed down the air, and J-Hope's thoughts drifted back to their golden days together.

J-Hope had always been a bright presence, a ball of sunshine capable of lighting up any room with just his personality. Outgoing, extroverted, a social butterfly. With him around, any event could turn into a celebration. Suga, in contrast, had always been the quiet one-reserved, introverted, a man of few words. Only with a select few friends did he make small talk, but with J-Hope, he had always been his most honest self. J-Hope had an uncanny way of making Suga comfortable, allowing him to be himself in ways no one else could.

J-Hope's lips curled into a faint smile at the memory of one of their old inside jokes. He had once teased Suga, "Hyung, would anyone believe that I could make you squirm like a worm?". Suga was literally squirming under him when he made that cheesy comment. He was clearly, roughly rammed by JHope and got taunted verbally too. This little bastard? He went all red by just that comment. Tsk tsk tsk.. All in the past.

It had been a playful jab, back when everything between them felt lighter. Now, though, as the rain began to patter against the car windows, that carefree warmth felt like a distant memory.

As the car inched through traffic, J-Hope glanced at Suga from the corner of his eye. He wondered if things could ever go back to the way they were-before the distance, before the awkwardness, before all the unspoken words that now filled the space between them.