The Long and Winding Road || A Vhope FF ||✔️

Chapter 8

Hoseok had to admit, he was almost insulted by the lack of reaction from everyone around him. No one even seemed to be remotely surprised. Jungkook just kept eating, shoving an entire handful of peanuts into his mouth.

“Yeah...” he said after a beat. “I’m J-Hope.”

“Oh, I’m a big fan! Your choreo is always out of this world. I covered one of your songs, back when I was at school,” Jimin said, and smiled deeply.

There were three kinds of fans in the world, Hoseok had found.

There first were the ones that felt like they knew your entire life and therefore were entitled to you. Those were the creepy ones, and the scary ones. The ones that worshipped him in ways that he didn’t deserve, or took creepy pictures of him as he went on with his life even though he could always see them. Hoseok was just a person, after all, and not always a very good one at that, even though he tried. Hoseok tried to have as little to do with them as possible. You could spot them right away, once you’d been around them for a while.

The second were the ones that simply appreciate you as a person, that liked what you did for them, but didn’t expect anything from you. That saw you simply as a means of escape from their everyday life, but understood boundaries. They were respectful, and fun, and dedicated, and Hoseok loved them for all those things. A light lit up in their eyes when they saw you, but they weren’t creepy about it.

Then there were the chill ones, the ones that liked Hoseok’s music, and bothered to buy it legally or stream it most of the time, that would watch when he was on TV. They weren’t dedicated or obsessive. They just liked him.

Jimin was clearly the third type of fan.

“Thanks,” Hoseok said, relaxing. “And that sounds really cool. You should definitely send me a link, I’d love to see it.”

“J-Hope...” Taehyung trailed off. “I was wondering about that. You’re so smart, Jiminie.”

“No, you just don’t pay attention when I watch idol stages with you,” Jimin said, shaking his head at Taehyung. He turned his opinion back to Hoseok. “So, what are you doing here?”

“Just needed some time off,” Hoseok said, though it came out weird this time. He could tell that Taehyung noticed from the way he cocked his head, but he didn’t press on.

“Namjoonie, Jungkookie, and I knew this entire time, for the record,” Seokjin said.

“What?” Jimin asked. “How?”

“Who else could afford to take three months off from their job, and to stay somewhere like the Bed and Breakfast?” Seokjin asked. “They had to be famous or rich or something. That, and the guy who made the reservation was totally sketchy. Of course we looked Jung Hoseok up.”

“And you didn’t tell me? Hyung!”

“Jimin, I can’t keep all those idols of yours straight,” Seokjin said, shaking his head.

“Why are you all so mean?” Jimin asked, pouting in a way that was almost ridiculous. But he seemed amused too, and Hoseok was glad that he wasn’t mad about something like that. Lying by omission was technically a thing he had done, and he wasn’t proud of it, but he knew he had a good reason for that.

“Well...it does make sense. It explains why you’re so handsome at least,” Taehyung said, easy as anything. Hoseok could feel heat crawling up his neck and ears.

“Is that why you wondered about who I was?” Hoseok couldn’t help but ask.

Taehyung nodded. “I mean, I guess you could have been a regular guy, but I still wondered, that’s all.”