Strawberries and cigarettes

32-Hoseok

"Anyone in here?", Hoseok called out after he'd closed the door of the crossguard-house behind him and switched on the light. Since he didn't get a response he put his earbuds back in and walked over to the fridge with a bounce in his step. He was grooving to the low-fi beat that was booming into his head while opening it and looking for something to drink. The brunette had to push back his curls so that they couldn't fall into his eyes and so he decided to put on his headband back on even though it was still sweaty from working out in the dance studio. It was where he'd just come from practicing his freestyle, and now he was exhausted and looking for a nice energy booster so that he could enjoy his evening, maybe work on some of his essays or the choreo he wanted to perform on Christmas.
When he finally found a can of coke behind Namjoon's stuff in the fridge, he got back on his feet and put his sports bag on his shoulder. He'd probably go downstairs and get a short nap on the couch before he had to go back to campus or at least up here to work on his stuff at Namjoon's desk.
God, college was really no joke!

When Hoseok went down the stairs to the basement, he couldn't wait to finally lay down for a second. Even though a huge weight had left his shoulders after they got Jimin back, things were still quite stressful. For one, the business was going worse than ever which meant that both Namjoon and Yoongi were in deep shit. He himself still had the securing hand of his rich parents to catch him and even though he didn't like the thought of asking for their money, he didn't care about their opinion enough not to. They'd help him for sure so his pride was not going to get in the way. He'd already told his older sister about him being in need of money to pay for his rent (even though the college fees actually included the living expenses) so that she could talk to his parent about transferring some money that would hopefully be enough for at least a short period of time for Yoongi and Namjoon. The younger of the two might also get some financial help from Seokjin even though he never wanted that but these difficult situations required certain adjustments in behavior so he'd have to lose his pride about being a little dependant for once.

Downstairs, the brunette didn't even bother to turn on the light and instead just slowly made his way towards the sitting area from what he remembered about the distance from the metal door.
When he'd passed the couch table, he sighed in relief, feeling the sofa right in front of him so he let himself drop down onto it and leaned back into the cushions.
"Ouch...", a low and tired voice made him jump and within a second, Hoseok had gained back his energy and focus.
Who was that?
What was going on?
He was back up on his feet immediately, reaching for his phone in his pocket and turning on the flashlight. When his eyes had gotten used to the beam of bright light it spread at once, Hoseok gasped and covered his mouth with his hand.
"Fuck.... I'm so sorry, Yoongi. I didn't know you were here.", he called out and felt the blood rush into his head. His face was probably dark-red until now and he didn't know what to do to make this situation less uncomfortable and embarrassing. He'd honestly just laid down onto Yoongi's lap who'd been sitting on the couch, head falling to the side and arms in the pockets of his sweater.

Now though, the grey-haired was tiredly staring up at him with half-closed eyes, trying to shield himself from the bright flashlight that shone right into his face. Hoseok didn't realize that at first but when he did, he first took another moment to examine the older's features before lowering the light. Yoongi looked really exhausted and stressed. Even though he must have been asleep until a moment ago, he had dark circles underneath his eyes which were reddened and swollen. If he didn't know better, he'd suspect that Yoongi'd been crying but that was just a little too absurd to believe. In all their years of friendship, the grey-haired had never really broken down in tears in front of him so he had never considered it to be possible but now something must have happened that put him in exactly that position.
"Don't worry, Hobi... You couldn't have known I was sitting there.", he mumbled after a minute and Hoseok needed a moment to understand what he was talking about until he remembered that he'd actually apologized a while ago.
"No, but still. Are you hurt?", he asked with concern in his voice but Yoongi just shook his head and smiled at him. Then, he reached out and grabbed Hoseok's hands, pulling him onto his lap once again. The younger was so startled about this action that he couldn't react in time and therefore fell onto his thighs and against his chest without any resistance.