Work Text
1924
Yoongi marches through the snow towards the inn, excitement making his legs push harder through the deep snow.He’s almost home.He takes a moment to catch his breath at the edge of the forest surrounding his inn, taking in the way light spills from the windows, painting the snow in golden squares that warm him in the frigid air. As he stands and watches from afar, a figure appears on the front porch of the inn.“Jimin,” he breathes into the cold winter air. He can see Jimin scanning the edge of the forest, looking for Yoongi. He’s too far away still for Jimin to spot him, especially in the dark, but he waves anyway. His arm halts in midair as Jimin’s lone figure is joined by another that Yoongi recognizes.He watches as Jeongguk pulls Jimin into his chest, cradles his head tenderly. His stomach sinks and there’s an awful twisting sensation in between his ribs as he watches his fiancé in the arms of someone else.Yoongi starts forward, moving toward the light and warmth of the inn where his fiancé is waiting for him, where his heart is, when he’s struck from behind, his skull cracking with the heavy impact. His last thought is of Jimin, of being back in his arms.Yoongi falls back into the snow, a final breath escaping into the chill of the air as the snow around his head turns crimson.***
Present Day
“Hoseok, you’re amazing and wonderful, and so extremely talented.”Hoseok smiles faintly at the man sitting across from him as Hakyeon takes his hand.“I knew the moment we met that the man that found you would be extremely lucky,” Hakyeon continues.“Um,” Hoseok says, a sense of dread spreading through him. This sounds an awful lot like something he doesn’t want to hear.“Hoseok, that man just isn’t me,” and Hakyeon looks so distraught as he forces the words out. “You’re so smart and incredible and I know you’re capable of love but I’m not the man who is going to bring that out in you.”“Are you breaking up with me?” Hoseok asks, leaning forward and pulling his hand out of Hakyeon’s.“I am,” Hakyeon says, taking an awkward sip of his wine.“Oh, thank goodness,” Hoseok sighs, feeling giddy with the relief that this is returning to familiar territory for him. “I thought you were about to propose to me.”“What?” Hakyeon almost chokes on his wine. “No. Look, Hoseok you’re an amazing lawyer and you’re so important, but if you really loved me you would make me a priority and you just…haven’t.”“You’re super right,” Hoseok says, nodding and taking a bite out of a roll.“I, what?”“And you’ve gotten tired of trying to love someone who isn’t yet capable of love.”“I never said that."
“No, you didn’t, Wonpil did.” Hoseok takes a sip of his water. “Sunmi called me her phantom boy, which was cute until it wasn’t. Oh, and the best was when Jackson told me I needed to go to love boot camp because of my childhood. Crazy, right?”“You’ve heard this before.” The way Hakyeon says it isn’t a question.“Yeah, lots. But I’m not going to pretend to feel something that’s not there.”Hakyeon looks at him with a dumbstruck look. “Okay…I’m glad we’re on the same page.” He leans back in his chair, looking a Hoseok steadily. “I’d still like to be friends, though?”Hoseok smiles. He likes Hakyeon enough to keep him as a friend. “Sure. I’d like that.” There’s another moment of silence that mainly consists of Hakyeon staring at Hoseok like he can’t believe how smoothly this breakup just went. “Are you going to finish that?” Hoseok asks, pulling Hakyeon’s cheesecake toward him and taking a bite, not bothering to wait for an answer.They’re friends still, after all.***Hoseok barely glances up when the file hits the top of his desk.“New case coming in,” Wonshik says, hands in his pockets.“So close to the holidays?”“The last surviving member of the Min family died and they need an executor for the estate,” Wonshik says, standing in front of Hoseok’s desk. “I would do it, but I’ve had that vacation to the Bahamas planned with Hongbin for months now. It’s a simple execution of the will. They just need the property sold before the end of the year, in three weeks.”“Well you know I never have Christmas plans.”“That’s why I love you. You’ll need to go down there and have someone appraise the last bit of property that belongs to the family.”“Oh?”“It’s an inn. They’ve tried to have it appraised twice already since the Min heir died, but it’s never happened.”“Why not?” Hoseok asks, flipping through the file Wonshik handed him.“Well, they say it’s haunted.”Hoseok’s fingers freeze. “Did you say haunted?”“Silly, right? Apparently, it has been for years. Either way, it’s a pain and I need you to get this handled.”“Do I have to?” Hoseok whines, with enough dread to make Wonshik’s lips twitch in barely suppressed laughter. “You know how jumpy I am.”“Excellent, I knew I could count on you.”Wonshik finger-guns his way out of the room as Hoseok sighs and begins sorting through the file.***
Hoseok pulls up to the Mistletoe Inn and can’t see any reason why it would be haunted. It’s an old plantation style home, large and sprawling, and it looks cheery enough. He steps out of his Jeep and looks around, taking in the surrounding forest and the snow-covered landscape. It’s really quite beautiful.Then again, this is how every horror movie ever begins and oh hell, he’s going to die here.As if confirming his fears, a man comes shooting out the front doors of the inn, sprinting for his car with his arms stuffed full of files. Hoseok jumps back, colliding with his car, before he recognizes the appraiser he’d scheduled to meet with. He relaxes and sighs in relief. “Hey, I’m glad you could...”He trails off as the appraiser jumps into his car and drives away as fast as he can, not even once looking at Hoseok or back at the inn. Hoseok sighs. It’s no surprise really, since the inn is supposed to be haunted, but it makes his job harder because that’s the third appraiser in as many weeks. Not to mention he doesn’t really want to have to do it on his own. Ghosts or no.He hates ghosts.He shrugs it off as best he can and walks up to the front doors of the inn. One is standing ajar from the fleeing appraiser, no doubt, and Hoseok walks in cautiously. It’s beautiful inside. All rich wood floors and a grand staircase in the entry way. The parlor off to the side of the hallway, when he steps into the room for a closer look, is quaint and homey feeling—what you’d expect from an inn that’s been around since the 1920s.It’s also completely empty, which Hoseok finds strange given the holiday season.“Can I help you?"Hoseok jumps and spins around from where he was by the mantle, and definitely doesn’t shriek. His hands fly to his heart, like that will keep the poor thing from beating out of his chest. “Hi, yes, I’m with Kwon, Choi and Park?” His heart is racing and he struggles to remember what he’s doing here. “I’m here to help get this inn appraised and sold by the end of the year. I’m sorry for coming in unannounced; the door was open.”“Actually, it wasn’t.” The man manages to smile in a way that is both polite and threatening all at once. “I’m just about to close the inn until the new year.” His dimples are incredible.“What?” Hoseok asks, sizing him up for the first time now that his terror has faded. He’s a bit taller than Hoseok, almond eyes holding an immense amount of intelligence rarely seen. He’s handsome, with the look of an old soul about him, although he looks quite young, about Hoseok’s own age. His hair is a soft purple and not even the playfulness of his hair can make up for the fact that he looks like he could probably pick Hoseok up and throw him out the door if he wanted too. “Why are you closing the inn during what I would assume is your busy season?”“Tradition,” Dimples says.“What kind of tradition requires you to shut down during the busy season?”Dimples shrugs. “It’s just how things are done.” He smiles sheepishly and Hoseok has to take another moment because holy shit his dimples really are something else.“Okay,” he says, dragging out the word. “Regardless, I need to appraise this inn so that we can help you get it sold before you get hit with the taxes.”“I’m afraid your appraiser has just run out and is unlikely to ever return.”“Why do you say that?”“Because of the ghost.”Hoseok tilts his head. “The ghost?” He doesn’t know about the way Dimples just says it like it’s something he should already know. Hoseok doesn’t like being out of the loop and he doesn’t. Like. Ghosts.“Yes, I’m afraid Yoongi chased him off.” Dimples shrugs like this isn’t anything out of the ordinary. “While he’s never actually hurt anyone, he does assert himself frequently.”“Yoongi, huh?” Hoseok huffs, glancing around warily like this ghost will just appear. “You’re on a first-name basis with the ghost?”There’s a loud thump from upstairs and they both look up at the ceiling in tandem. “Was that a guest?” Hoseok wimpers quietly, already knowing the answer wasn’t going to be one he liked.“Ghost,” Dimples says, looking smug.Hoseok throws his pride out the window and looks back up at the ceiling, summoning all his courage. “Sorry Yoongichi~!” Hoseok shouts at the ceiling, making sure to say it as ridiculously as he possibly can.“I’ve worked here for a while,” Dimples explains. “Yoongi has owned this inn for a long time and he doesn’t take very kindly to strangers sometimes.”Great. So it was a hostile ghost. Even better. “And you are?”“Kim Namjoon,” he says with a gentle laugh. “You can call me Namjoon, though.”“Okay Namjoon, surely there has to be an appraiser around here somewhere who isn’t deterred by a ghost story.” There’s another thump above them but Hoseok presses on, only flinching a little at the sound. “I’ll just stay the night and try again tomorrow.”Wait, what? He mentally kicks himself. He does not want to be stuck in this creepy-ass haunted inn with a hostile ghost, Hoseok what the fuck.“Oh, I’m afraid that won’t work,” says Namjoon with a firm shake of his head. “Like I said, we’re closing until the new year. I’m leaving within the hour and the rest of the staff has already gone.”“It’s not a problem,” Hoseok says, pulling the keys out of his pocket, screaming internally. He doesn’t know how Namjoon can’t see that he’s terrified. “I have the keys. I’ll be fine here for one night and I’ve never been afraid of ghosts, so.” It’s a bald-faced lie. He’s terrified of ghosts, but Namjoon doesn’t need to know that.Namjoon gives in surprisingly quick and shrugs. “Suit yourself. I’ll be checking in from time to time and I’ll leave my phone number on a note in the kitchen should you need anything.”“Thanks,” Hoseok says, giving him the broadest smile he can manage.
Once Namjoon leaves, Hoseok calls Wonshik to tell him about the snag in the appraisal and how it might take an extra day or two. He sets the alarm for the inn as he’s finishing up the call before heading upstairs to one of the second floor rooms. The bed is large and soft, and he quickly changes out of his suit and tie and into a soft pair of sweats and a large sweater so that he can crawl between the sheets.He’s almost asleep when a door downstairs slams shut. Hoseok jolts up and flips on the bedside light, hearing footsteps walking around. This is it. This is where he dies and he can’t say he wasn’t warned because Namjoon told him about the ghost. His bedroom door swings open on creaky hinges and Hoseok chokes down a scream. He’d shut that door, heard it latch shut. He pushes past his terror and manages to ease his way out of bed, grabbing his phone and using the light to guide his way downstairs quietly. He’s not going to die in bed like a loser.No, if he’s going to die it will be with a fight.He curves around the stairs and walks slowly down the hall of the main floor, brandishing his phone like a weapon.“You’re trespassing,” says a low, deep voice behind him.Hoseok whirls around with a shriek, bumping a wardrobe for coats and causing a vase to topple off the top of it. It lands on Hoseok’s head and he has just enough time as he falls to the ground to catch a glimpse of glowing golden eyes looming over him before he passes out cold.***When he wakes up it’s with a crick in his neck and a throbbing in his skull. He’s on the couch in the parlor with a large quilt thrown over him. Motes of dust float through the cascading sunbeams that warm the room through the large picture windows across from him, making the room golden in the rising sun. It’s peaceful and calming and he feels safer under the sun-warmed blanket than he did in his borrowed bed.Piano music filters in softly down the hallway, rousing him from the sleepy haze he’s been trapped in and making him perk up in curiosity. Hoseok gets up, wraps the blanket around his shoulders to ward off the morning chill of the inn, and wanders towards the sound, following it down the hallway and into a large room.He finds the piano tucked into a corner of the dining room. It’s being played by a slight man that somehow looks delicate and deadly all at once. Hoseok recognizes the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas as the man’s fingers run over the keys. It’s beautiful, a wandering melody that returns to the theme just when Hoseok thinks he’s getting lost in the notes. He sways in the doorway for a breathless moment, enraptured by the music.The music stops suddenly as the man turns around on the bench. Hoseok jerks out of his spellbound daze and blinks at the man.“How’s your head?” He asks, a wry smirk crossing his face.“Sore.”“Understandable.”There’s a pause.“I’m sorry, who are you?” Hoseok asks, not sure who he could be or why he knows his head is throbbing with every beat of his heart.“It doesn’t matter because you’re going to be leaving in a moment.”Hoseok bristles. No matter how much he may want to leave this cursed inn he has a job to do, and he doesn’t leave a job unfinished. “Um, yeah, no. Look, I’ve got a job to do here, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re the one who broke into this place last night. I should call the police.”The man stands up and walks toward Hoseok until they’re standing nearly eye to eye. “Okay, first of all, you’re in my inn.”“I think you’ll find—”“Secondly,” he says, cutting across Hoseok like he wasn’t even talking. “I don’t like being around other people and I crave solitude, so please, go ahead and leave.”Hoseok rolls his eyes. “Look, I’m not leaving so you’re going to have to deal.” He doesn’t know who this guy is, but he’s not going to be bullied out by some piano-playing bum who wants somewhere warm to sleep over the winter (because honestly, what else is he supposed to assume this man is). “Besides, this inn belongs to the Min trust so you should leave before I actually call the police.”The man smirks at him. “Honey, I am the Min trust.”Hoseok starts to feel the pieces fall into place. “What’s your name?”“Min Yoongi, owner of the Mistletoe Inn.”Hoseok flinches. Namjoon had said the name of the ghost was Yoongi, and—Hoseok quickly glances at the news article framed on the wall behind the man’s head that’s clearly dated 1924—yep it’s the same guy.Hoseok swears creatively. “You’re the ghost.”Yoongi smiles, a slow, easy glide across his lips. “Ding ding ding, we have a winner.”“Okay wait,” says Hoseok. “That news article clearly states that you died in 1924. How are you here in front of me?”Yoongi blinks at him and shrugs.Hoseok gestures at the article emphatically. “The headline literally says ‘Min Yoongi found dead a half mile away from his inn’.” He waits for Yoongi to offer more information, growing frustrated when Yoongi says nothing to explain his less-than-corporeal status. “Would you care to tell me how you died? Or maybe show me that you’re actually a ghost and not a figment of my imagination?”Yoongi sighs. “I don’t have the energy for this.” He turns around and walks away from Hoseok, rounding the corner into the kitchen.Hoseok angrily follows, only to find an empty room. A chill zips up his spine.Well, this is annoying.***
From: Hakyeon
I hear you’ve landed yourself in a haunted inn
To: Hakyeon
Get me out of here I want to die random doors keep slamming
From: HakyeonSo it is haunted?To: Hakyeon
Y E S
Ghosts are real I can’t believe I’m stuck with this case
From: Hakyeon
Ngl I’m laughing rly hard at you
Taekwoon thinks it’s funny too
To: Hakyeon
Hey can u ask him if he has any tips on dealing with ghosts?
From: Hakyeon
????
What does my bf have to do with you fighting off ghosts
To: Hakyeon
He’s so quiet I assumed he was a ghost too
Thought he’d have some tips for me
From: Hakyeon
You can’t see it but he’s giving my phone the deadest stare I hope you’re happy
Bsides are you sure it’s actually a ghost and not just a breezy house?To: Hakyeon
I’ve met the ghost, Hakyeon.
He talked to me yesterday and told me to leave his inn
and stop trying to get it appraised
From: Hakyeon
well shit
is he a dangerous ghost???
To: Hakyeon
I don’t even kno!!!
He’s kinda hot, tho
From: Hakyeon
Hobi
Where the fuck are your priorities rn
Get it together bro
To: HakyeonI’m sorry okay
I’m just so scared
I see why people always have sex before they die in those terrible horror movies
Terror is motivating
From: Hakyeon
Omg
Ur gonna die it was nice knowing you
Riiipppp
To: Hakyeon
Thx love you too
He sets his phone down on the bed and sighs. Hakyeon's been his best friend since their brief attempt at dating and while it's nice to have someone to complain too, Hakyeon can't actually help him. He's been reviewing the paperwork on the estate all morning and trying to find another appraiser but he's come up empty on every account. It seems like even mentioning Mistletoe Inn is enough to get an immediate no. He would ask Yoongi for more information, but he gets the feeling the ghost is avoiding him because every time he chases after footsteps or the sound of a closing door he finds empty rooms or abandoned books.
It isn't until Namjoon shows up with arms full of food later that afternoon that Hoseok finally gets some answers. Sure, doors kept slamming all night and he was too afraid to fall asleep until the early morning hours, but having actually met Yoongi and survived made him feel marginally better about the whole thing.Marginally“Still here?” Namjoon asks as Hoseok helps him unload food into the fridge and cupboards.“Yep.”“I’d have thought that Yoongi would have chased you away by now.”“I tried,” says Yoongi, and Hoseok jumps with a screech and spins around to see Yoongi leaning up against the doorframe, cutting sections of an apple with a knife and eating it methodically. “He wouldn’t leave.”Namjoon laughs, and Hoseok notices again the unfair appearance of Namjoon’s dimples. “Looks like you’ve finally met your match, Yoongi.”Yoongi just grumbles, shoving more apple into his mouth.“Okay, so what is going on here?” Hoseok looks between Namjoon and Yoongi in confusion. “If you’re a ghost, why can we both see you? And how did you die? Why are you still around?”Yoongi and Namjoon look at each other and seem to have a silent conversation with each other. Finally, Yoongi sighs and says, “So we’re telling him?”Namjoon turns to face Hoseok and begins to talk.“Yoongi has been around as long as I’ve worked here. We don’t know why, but each year he has twelve days where he’s a living, breathing human again.” Namjoon pauses and squints at the ceiling in thought. “Kinda human. Mostly human with some cool tricks. Anyway, once midnight hits on the twenty-fourth of December, he turns back into a ghost nobody can see.”Hoseok feels like this information is at once too much and not enough. He can feel Yoongi’s steady golden eyes on him, measuring his reaction and waiting to see what he will do.“What are you thinking, Hoseok?” Namjoon asks, peering up at him from under his purple fringe of hair. Hoseok fixates on the silver stud in his left ear, mesmerized.He thinks through his options. Obviously, his top priority is getting this inn appraised and then getting the hell out of this creepy-ass inn with slamming doors, but if Yoongi’s going to be getting in his way, he may as well do something about that if he can, which means—“Well it’s obvious, isn’t it?” Hoseok finally replies.“That you need to leave me to my solitude?” Yoongi asks sardonically.Hoseok doesn’t want to do this, not really, but he does want to leave, and in order to do that, “We need to solve your death!” he says with forced enthusiasm.“No,” says Yoongi, shutting down Hoseok faster than a drug deal gone bad. “I don’t even remember it that well, how on earth do you think you can figure it out in twelve days—eleven, now.”“I’m incredibly determined.” Hoseok’s mother once told him he could do anything with a smile and enough hard work. He wishes she’d told him what to do if he’s stuck in a haunted inn with a ghost, but he’ll work with what he’s got.“Right,” Namjoon says, interrupting their stare-off. “As much fun as this is, I’ve got things to do in town, so I’m going to head out.”Neither of them breaks their battle of wills to say goodbye to Namjoon as he slips out the back door.“Come on Yoongichi~!” Hoseok whines loudly, hoping some good old fashioned aegyo will do what plain words can’t. “Let me solve this mystery for you.” Two birds, one stone. Hoseok crosses his fingers and silently urges Yoongi to agree.
“First, don’t ever call me that again. I’m older than you,” Yoongi says, ignoring Hoseok’s pout. “Second, this is my life that you’re messing with and, dead though I may be, I am still a person with feelings and I don’t want some meddling lawyer digging around in my past.”Hoseok mutters under his breath mutinously before saying, “Fine.”He’ll stop asking Yoongi about his past, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to look for clues around the house.But only in the daylight. He’s not suicidal enough to wander this inn at night with some maybe-hostile ghost slamming doors passive-aggressively.Yoongi turns and leaves without another word and Hoseok sighs, wondering where to start.***He’s drawn back to the parlor later that afternoon.On the fireplace mantle, there are several photos from back around the time when Yoongi died.There’s a picture that he didn’t see before of a well-built, happy looking man smiling widely at the camera, his eyes disappearing with the force of his grin. His black hair is swept off his forehead and styled fashionably, at least from what Hoseok can tell from the grainy black and white photo. It’s clear that this man, whoever he is, is very pretty; balanced features and sharp lines.Hoseok wonders who he is and why he’s on the fireplace mantle. He gently picks up the picture to look at it closer.“Put that back,” Yoongi growls from behind him.“Okay,” shouts Hoseok, clutching the photo to his chest and whirling around in fright. “Enough with the ‘scaring Hoseok for fun’ thing, okay?”Yoongi lets a low chuckle slip past his lips before he can school his expression back into the indifferent glare he’s usually sporting when he’s around Hoseok.“Whatever you say, Jumpy.”Hoseok ignores the jab and points at the man in the picture, looking up at Yoongi through the fringe of his hair to gauge his reaction when he asks, “Who is this?”Yoongi flinches, just a little, and a tic starts up in his jaw. “Someone I lost a long time ago.”Hoseok waits, hoping that if Yoongi sees that he’s willing to listen he’ll keep talking. He tries to ignore the way Yoongi’s golden gaze makes his skin itch, like Yoongi sees through the happy front Hoseok puts on display for the world and into the darker depths of his heart, where sadness lurks like an unwelcome tenant. His patience pays off because after a moment Yoongi sighs and sits down on one of the overstuffed couches in the parlor.“His name was Park Jimin, and he was my fiancé.”Hoseok nearly drops the picture in shock. Still dazed, he places the picture back in its spot on the mantle and walks over to sit on the other end of the couch. He doesn’t know if the shock is for the way Yoongi starts to talk easily about Jimin or the fact that Yoongi digs men but he wisely shuts up and lets Yoongi talk.“Jimin and I were supposed to be married two weeks after I died.”Hoseok feels his heart go out to this poor man who died decades ago because that blows. “Yoongi, I’m so sorry.”Yoongi shrugs. “I was on my way home to surprise him when I saw him in the arms of another man.” He pauses, runs his fingers through the midnight strands of his hair, fluffing it. “That’s the last thing I remember. The next day they found my body in the woods.”“I’m sure he was devastated.” Hoseok would be, if he ever found someone to love that wanted him enough to marry him. If he found someone like that, only to lose them two weeks before the wedding? “I would be,” he blurts without thinking. “I’d be devastated if I lost the one I loved after searching for as long as I have. I’m sure he was too.”Yoongi snorts. “Yeah, maybe.”Hoseok frowns at Yoongi’s dismissal but moves on, changing the subject. “What was the cause of your death?”Yoongi rubs the back of his neck. “They thought it was a fall or something, but I have a hard time believing that.”“Why?”“Because I was helping my cousin run drugs at the time and we worked for some pretty shady men.”Hoseok’s brain screeches to a halt. “I’m sorry, what?”“The inn was not making as much money as we needed to keep it running, so my cousin—who worked for me—convinced me to bring in some extra money by smuggling drugs into Korea from China. The inn was Jimin’s favorite place in the world, he wanted to stay there and so I had to do something to keep it running for him.” Yoongi pinches the bridge of his nose, exhaling despair. “I loved him a lot, enough to break the law.”“That’s,” Hoseok says, pausing to collect his thoughts. “Really sweet of you, in a shady way.”Yoongi nods before grabbing a book and beginning to read.Hoseok sits back on the couch, mind reeling with all that he’s learned. It’s a start, and Yoongi opening up to him is a good sign.He might not have to stay in this inn the whole holiday season after all.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“So, he can’t even leave the property line?”Namjoon shakes his head. “It’s been that way for as long as Yoongi has been hanging around. He just vanishes and reappears inside the inn if he tries to leave.”They’re walking along the garden path around the grounds of the inn. Hoseok’s boots are leaving fresh prints in the deep snow. Namjoon’s walking next to him with a soft blue scarf wrapped around him so that only his eyes are visible.“So, why is he here? Why does he keep coming back once a year, twelve days before Christmas for the last nine decades?” Hoseok asks, stopping in the middle of the shoveled path.Namjoon turns to face him. “I don’t know. He doesn’t like to talk about it, and I’ve been around for the last six times this has happened.” Namjoon shifts, shivering slightly in the cold. “I pretty much just make sure he has enough food for the duration of his return to the living.”“Why doesn’t he do anything?” Hoseok half shouts into the biting cold of the air around them. “If I was stuck like this I would spend all of my time every year researching until I had figured out why I’m here.”Namjoon shrugs. “Yoongi is stubborn and I think his past really bothers him.”“Yeah but if he would just talk to me about it then maybe I could help him break the curse!”“Well,” Namjoon says, hunches his shoulders against the cold seeping into their bones and continues to walk back toward the inn. “You can always ask.”
“No,” Yoongi says, when Hoseok finally works up the nerve to ask him.“Why not?!” Hoseok asks, and he does not stomp his foot. Absolutely does not.Yoongi doesn’t even look away from the book he’s reading. “Because I want you out of here. You and Namjoon both.”“Why?”“I have a limited amount of time to be here and I’d rather not spend it with some uppity lawyer hanging around who doesn’t know when silence is in his best interest.” Yoongi shifts on the window seat he’s on.Hoseok sighs and rests a hand on his hip. “Well, have you ever even tried to figure out what’s going on?”“For longer than you could possibly imagine.” Yoongi looks up at him through the frames of his square, black-rimmed glasses with a rather formidable glare.Hoseok refuses to back down so easily though, and just shoots back, “Have you ever had somebody try and help you?”“Yes,” says Yoongi with no small amount of exasperation in his tone. “My cousin and partner in the inn Taehyung. He took over running the inn after I died and we spent many years on the event of my return trying to understand what had happened to me.”Hoseok feels a bit of the wind taken from his sails at this. “Well, that was a long time ago.”“Say we do figure out what this is, then what?” Yoongi finally closes the book in his hands, finger stuck between the pages to hold his place.“I don’t know, you go into the light or something.” Hoseok starts to pace around the second-floor landing where Yoongi is reading, curled up on the padded window seat in a patch of sun like some kind of giant cat. “All I know is that I need to get this inn appraised and sold off and I can’t do that when I have a ghost wandering around causing doors to creak open at obscene hours of the morning.”Yoongi just sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose under his glasses.“Don’t you want to move on?” Hoseok asks, watching him closely.“More than you know,” says Yoongi in the quietest whisper.“Let me help you, then.”Yoongi sighs deeply again, looks up at Hoseok from under his eyelashes. Hoseok feels the way those golden eyes cut past muscle and bone right to his heart. “Okay.”Hoseok smiles hugely, making Yoongi pull his knees in to his chest in haste as he sits down on the window seat across from Yoongi. “Tell me everything.”***
1924
“Yoongi, why are you doing this?” Jeongguk whispers furiously. “Jimin is going to be so upset when he finds out.”“Oh, and that would be so perfect for you because then you’d be there to comfort him, wouldn’t you,” Yoongi snaps back, unable to stop the jealously from rising cold and vicious into his tone.Jeongguk had found out about the side business he had going on with Taehyung and was asking Yoongi to stop. He knows that Jeongguk is just trying to look out for him, the closest thing he has to a brother, but Yoongi has also seen the longing glances he’s been giving Jimin and he can’t help but snap back.“You know that I would never—”“But you want to, don’t you?” Yoongi asks, and he doesn’t have to look very hard to see the truth in Jeongguk’s eyes.“Yoongi I just want you to be safe. The inn will be able to make it without the drug running you and Taehyung are doing. Just end this nonsense before Jimin finds out. It will crush him.”Yoongi can’t stand the way he feels the rightness of Jeongguk’s words sink into his gut. “I have one last run to make before Christmas, but that will be the last one. I’ll quit after this last run,” he says, and tries not to let the resentment at Jeongguk’s ability to make perfect sense show through in his tone.Jeongguk’s mouth twists in disappointment, but he doesn’t say anything else, so Yoongi walks away.He has a trip to pack for.
Jimin finds him a few hours later.“Yoongi, do you have to go again?”Yoongi turns around from where he’s jamming an extra coat into a small travel bag. Jimin is standing in the door of his bedroom, a nicely pressed suit fitting snugly to his slender frame.“I’m afraid so, baby.”Jimin frowns ever so slightly. “I hate that you’ve gotten tangled up in this drug business.”Yoongi’s stomach drops through the floor and he grits his teeth in anger. He’s going to kill Jeongguk.“Don’t be mad at Jeonggukie.” Jimin holds up a hand to forestall the argument Yoongi has brimming on the tip of his tongue. “He was right to tell me. What you’re doing is reckless and unnecessary.” Jimin steps into his room, approaching him slowly. “Yoongi, do you have any idea what I would do if you didn’t come back from one of these trips?”He doesn’t have to know; the pain is already there in Jimin’s wide eyes as he steps into the warmth of Yoongi’s space. “This is my last trip.” It’s all he can think to say. “I’m done after this. No more.”Jimin nods once, bravely. “Good,” he manages to choke out before he falls forward to wrap his arms tightly around Yoongi, rubbing his nose into the collar of Yoongi’s shirt and inhaling his scent. Jimin pulls away to look back up at him. “I love you, Yoongi.”He reaches up, cradles the sharp line of Jimin’s jaw with his hands and places a soft kiss to Jimin’s lips. “I love you too, Jimin.”It takes him by surprise when Jimin grabs the lapels of his jacket and pulls Yoongi against him roughly, deepening the kiss. Yoongi can feel the edge of desperation in the pace of the kiss, in the way Jimin nips and sucks at his bottom lip.The kiss is hot and desperate and salty.Yoongi pulls away slightly to wipe at the tears falling slowly from the corners of Jimin’s eyes. “I have to go now, baby.” He places tender kisses to the corners of his eyes, his forehead, the tip of his nose.Jimin sniffs, tries not to look so visibly upset. It would be cute if it wasn’t breaking Yoongi’s heart to see him this way. “Promise me you’ll come back.”Yoongi smiles down at him, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “I promise. I’ll be back Christmas eve in time for the annual party. You’ll hardly know I’m gone.”Jimin sighs shakily. “Oh, I’ll know you’re gone. But if you promise to come back I can manage.”Yoongi feels warmth flood through his bones at Jimin's words, resolving to not keep Jimin waiting, to return as quickly as he possibly can.Jimin is worth everything he has. Yoongi’s not going to disappoint him.***
Present Day
Hoseok can’t sleep anymore.It’s been four days since he arrived at the Mistletoe Inn and he’s ignored seven calls from Wonshik. He’s been trying to ignore the early morning sun for a few hours now too, hoping against all odds he’ll manage to sleep for a few hours but it’s to no avail. It also doesn’t help that Yoongi won’t stop opening and closing his doors at random, adding to the struggles he has with sleeping. It’s bad for his nerves, this constant listening for Yoongi in the dead of night.He gives up around mid-morning, picking up his phone from the nightstand and unplugging it from the charger. He has a text waiting from Hakyeon.
From: Hakyeon
How goes the ghost hunt?
To: Hakyeon
I’ve met the ghost and we’re friends?
Idk but I’m helping him figure out how he died so he can move on
Hakyeon’s response comes immediately, surprising Hoseok. He didn’t think Hakyeon would be awake this early.
From: Hakyeon
Omg
Are you joking?
To: Hakyeon
I wish I was
I’m literally in a horror movie help
From: Hakyeon
Taekwoon says you should go buy salt and iron
For the ghost
To: Hakyeon
Omg why
How does he know that wtf
From: Hakyeon
And if you can find the remains and burn them that will get rid of the ghost
He’s been watching Supernatural on Netflix
He’s in season 7
To: Hakyeon
He’s got way too much time on his hands
From: Hakyeon
Agreed
But anyway
The ghost
To: Hakyeon
Yeah he’s not bad
Except
He’s rly hot
Like, rly hot and I feel conflicted about that
From: Hakyeon
Get some ghost dick
I won’t judge you
To: Hakyeon
Fdkjalfdkfjd
Bro
I’m helping him solve his murder, not trying to get laid
From: Hakyeon
Don’t limit yourself
You never know, bro
To: Hakyeon
Bro
Hoseok puts his phone down and tries not to audibly scream.It’s not like he hasn’t thought about it; sleeping with Yoongi, that is. It’s hard not to, with Yoongi’s intense gaze following him around, watching his every move. Half the time Hoseok can’t even see him, but he can feel the intensity of his gaze on him almost always.But Yoongi is a ghost, and regardless of whether or not Hoseok can figure out what’s keeping Yoongi here, he won’t see him again once the inn is sold and Christmas is over. It would be a bad idea to get involved with Yoongi, even if a part of him desperately want to know what it would feel like to kiss Yoongi. He frantically tries to think about anything other than Yoongi.It doesn’t work, really, because he can’t stop thinking about everything that he’s learned from Yoongi.Yoongi’s cousin and partner is the one who suggested drug running as a way to bring in extra money for the inn. Taehyung had known how much Yoongi needed Jimin, how much he loved him. He suggested that they do it to help keep the inn afloat so that Jimin and Yoongi could continue to live there and not have to sell the inn.Hoseok can’t figure out what went wrong.It should be easier, more straight forward to understand but it isn’t and Hoseok feels more frustrated than ever.He jolts upright when he sees the door leading into his bathroom slam shut for no reason. Annoyance bubbles up into his throat and he flings the covers off and throws on some clothes for his march down the hall. He’s so done with this whole ‘scare Hoseok out of the inn’ routine Yoongi thinks he’s being so subtle about.There’s another thump that sounds from the room down the hall and Hoseok shoves his feet into some slippers and marches toward the room at the end of the third-floor landing.He opens the door and bursts in without knocking which is, it turns out, a huge mistake on his part because Yoongi is standing in the middle of the room, shirtless, his shirt hanging limply from his fingers.“Oh,” Hoseok breathes, and tries not to drool from his mouth. He doesn’t know if ghosts can like, go to the gym or not but Yoongi is all hard lines and lithe muscle and Hoseok regrets his habit of barging in and thinking later.“Good morning, Hoseok,” Yoongi says in an even voice. “Can I help you with something?” Hoseok feels the weight of his gaze pin him in place. The steady golden eyes and smooth pale skin make the room feel much warmer than it was two seconds ago.“Um,” is Hoseok’s eloquent reply. He can’t look at Yoongi anymore and hope to be able to speak so he casts about, looking for anything to distract him. His eyes fall on another picture of Jimin in Yoongi’s room. This one is of the both of them, standing side by side, Yoongi’s arm wound tightly around Jimin’s shoulders. “This is Jimin, right?” He asks, picking up the picture and inspecting it more closely.Yoongi sighs deeply and pulls the soft looking cotton shirt over his head. “Listen, I will share all pertinent information with you, as per our agreement, but my room is off limits.” He plucks the picture from Hoseok’s slightly limp fingers and places it gently on his bed.“Fine, then my room is off limits too.”Yoongi just gives him a confused glance over his shoulder as he begins walking out of his room.Hoseok follows him. “You have got to stop with the door banging. It’s keeping me up at night.”“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Yoongi says, heading downstairs.“Don’t you ever sleep?” Hoseok half shouts, following him down the stairs. He’s awake with nothing else to do, so maybe now he can get some answers to his questions.“I don’t need sleep, I’m a ghost, remember?” The way he says it makes it clear that Hoseok should have already realized this.Hoseok rolls his eyes. “Well then we should at least get back to work on this project.”“Agreed. But first, breakfast.” Yoongi reaches the main floor and walks in the direction of the kitchen.“Are you ever not hungry?” Hoseok mutters under his breath. Yoongi must be the hungriest ghost Hoseok has ever met. He doesn’t dwell on the fact that Yoongi is the only ghost Hoseok has ever met. In fact, he’d be fine if he never met another ghost after this. One is enough for a lifetime.There are voices coming from the ballroom and Yoongi veers off to investigate. Hoseok follows and sees that it’s Namjoon making the noise, and he’s talking to a very beautiful man with mahogany hair.“What’s this?” Yoongi asks sharply, and Hoseok is more satisfied than he perhaps should be at the way Namjoon nearly jumps out of his skin in fright.“Hi!” He squawks, his hands flying out of the beautiful one’s grasp. Hoseok doesn’t miss the look of disappointment on the man’s face as this happens.Interesting.“Seokjin was just asking me if he could maybe use the bar here for some of his patrons,” Namjoon says, a warm smile now starting to spread across his face.“No,” Yoongi says, not even bothering to pretend to think about the answer.Hoseok slaps Yoongi on his arm, appalled at the lack of manners.“Hello,” Hoseok says, “It’s nice to meet you.” He walks up to Seokjin and holds out his hand. Seokjin stands several inches taller than him, with shoulders for days.“Oh, how rude of me!” Namjoon says, gesturing between Hoseok and his friend. “Seokjin this is Jung Hoseok. He’s here to appraise the inn for his law firm.”Hoseok shakes Seokjin’s hand, charmed by the way he winks at Hoseok after Namjoon’s introduction.“Hoseok, this is my good friend Kim Seokjin. He owns the only bar in town.”“Yeah, well, I would if the pipes hadn’t frozen in this snow and caused some damages that prevent me from keeping it open right now.”“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” Hoseok says, although he really doesn’t care a whole lot. Not when there’s a mysterious death to solve and a ghost to put to rest. It really pales in comparison, actually.“Yeah me too, which is why I came to Namjoon to see if he could open the tavern part of the inn during the holidays and if I could use the inn to host my annual Christmas eve party.”“No,” says Yoongi again, and Hoseok jumps a little. He forgot Yoongi was still in the room but now that he thinks about it he can feel the warmth of Yoongi seeping through the back of his soft purple sweater.Seokjin looks a bit taken aback by the curtness in Yoongi’s tone.“What he means to say,” says Hoseok, hoping to smooth things over a bit. “Is that the inn doesn’t usually stay open this time of year.” He slips his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Besides, I’ve got a bunch of things to do here in order to get this inn sold before the new year and it would be hard to do that with the tavern open.”He doesn’t miss the surprised but grateful look Yoongi throws his way. Yoongi presses close to him, brushing Hoseok’s shoulder with his own in a subtle sign of thanks. Namjoon, however, seems to have other plans and Seokjin doesn’t seem like the type to be deterred easily.“I’m sorry, who are you?” Seokjin asks Yoongi, and Hoseok bites his lip to stop a giggle from escaping at the nerve of this man. Seokjin doesn’t even flinch at the scowl Yoongi gives him, a feat Hoseok hasn’t seen anyone yet pull off during his short stay.Yoongi glances at Hoseok like ‘this is your fault that he’s here so you answer him.’ Hoseok admits that he can’t exactly say “this is the original owner of this inn. Yes, the one that died decades ago. It’s a long story.” So instead he says the first name he can think of.“This is Yancy,” he blurts, and Namjoon snorts into his elbow with suppressed laughter.“It most certainly is not,” says Yoongi, with the most affronted look Hoseok has seen from him yet. “That’s a ridiculous name.”“Would you excuse us for a moment?” Hoseok asks sweetly.Seokjin nods a bit bewilderedly and Hoseok grabs Yoongi’s wrist, towing him from the room and into the kitchen. He hears the soft murmur of Namjoon’s voice as he resumes talking to Seokjin.“What is your problem?” Hoseok hisses when they’re alone in the kitchen. “Do you want him to know who you are?”“I want him gone,” Yoongi says, crossing his arms over his chest. “And if you weren’t dangling the possibility of being useful I’d want you gone with him so that I could finally get some peace and quiet.” He reaches out and grabs an apple from the table, biting into it angrily.Hoseok huffs. “Well the one way to never get your solitude back is to keep acting like you are and ruining everything.”It’s silent for a moment while Yoongi eats his apple and Hoseok watches him. Yoongi finally softens and sighs, regarding Hoseok warily. He grabs a knife to slice up what’s left of his apple and shoves a slice of apple at Hoseok. “Well, what do you suggest?” He asks, while Hoseok munches on the chunk of apple.“Just follow my lead and keep quiet,” he says as Yoongi finishes off the last of the apple and throws the core away.He pulls Yoongi forcibly back into the ballroom where Namjoon and Seokjin are talking a bit closer to one another than they strictly need to be. Hoseok doesn’t miss the way Namjoon’s hand is pressed into the small of Seokjin’s back.“So Yancy here is actually a cousin of the Min family,” Hoseok says when he has Seokjin’s attention. A miracle considering the man can barely keep his eyes off Namjoon.“Oh,” says Seokjin, a bit surprised.“He’s here looking at the property now that it’s up for grabs,” interjects Namjoon smoothly. Hoseok sends him a covert wink, pleased at how quickly Namjoon reads a situation.“How nice,” Seokjin says. “I was really hoping that the tavern would be open. I mean, my pub is going to be closed for a week and I know that my more regular customers would love another place to go.”“We’ve already dismissed all of the staff for the holidays,” says Yoongi, not unkindly, but still with enough of a disgruntled tone that Hoseok cringes slightly.“I’d be happy to bring in my own staff to tend the bar. I’ll bring in my own alcohol too,” Seokjin supplies helpfully.For whatever reason, this seems to spark a challenge in Yoongi’s eyes. “I’m the only person I trust behind a bar,” he says.Hoseok trades a surprised look with Namjoon.“You can tend bar?” Seokjin looks about two seconds away from vibrating loose from his skin in excitement.“I’ve been doing it most of my life,” Yoongi says smoothly. “Why don’t you bring some of your friends over tonight and I’ll show you what I can do.”“That would be amazing!” Seokjin says, a smile splitting across his face and his eyes lighting up in excitement.Hoseok watches Namjoon’s eyes soften. When Namjoon notices Hoseok’s knowing stare, a rosy flush colors his dimpled cheeks.“Then it’s settled,” Yoongi states with authority. “Bring your friends over tonight at seven.”“Okay!” Seokjin grins happily. He turns around excitedly and beams at Namjoon. “Thanks so much, Namjoon!” He throws his arms around Namjoon happily, tucking his head snugly into Namjoon’s neck.Hoseok fights off his gag reflex at the display of affection.And then Seokjin is off, leaving as quickly as a whirlwind. Yoongi is already behind the bar tucked into the corner of the ballroom, writing furiously on a scrap of paper.“Namjoon, I have a list for you of alcohol to get for tonight.” He holds out the scrap of paper, his eyes looking over the various bottles stored on shelves behind the counter.Namjoon shakes himself out of a daze, arms still hovering in the air where they’d been wrapped around Seokjin. He glares at Hoseok when he sees him fighting back laughter. Namjoon isn’t really built for glaring.“Right, sure, okay,” he says, walking over and plucking the list from Yoongi’s outstretched fingertips. Yoongi barely notices, still lost in what must be a mental inventory of sorts.“I’ll go with you, Namjoon,” Hoseok says, moving to walk with him as he heads for the back door.Hoseok could use to get out of the inn for a few hours.“Sure, Hoseok.” Namjoon’s smile is warm and soft again.
They’re in the liquor store when Hoseok’s phone rings. He sighs when he sees Wonshik’s name flash across the screen, but he’s been avoiding this call for too long anyway so he answers it.“Hoseok speaking.”“Hoseok, you better be on your way back to the office or so help me I will throw your collection of Supreme swag out the fifth-floor window.”Hoseok gasps so loudly that Namjoon jumps next to him and looks around frantically, sure that someone is in trouble. “You wouldn’t dare,” he hisses, and Namjoon rolls his eyes at him. “Wonshik you know those were expensive!”“Just watch me, Hoseok,” Wonshik growls. Hoseok can see the scowl on his face. “I’m drowning in work here and Hongbin is going to kill me if his husband is home late, again, when we haven’t even packed all the way for our trip yet.”“Wonshik I just need a few more days and then I’ll be back I promise.”“Don’t tell me you haven’t gotten the inn appraised yet.”Well,” Hoseok starts. Wonshik doesn’t let him finish.“You’re joking. I can’t believe this.” Wonshik’s half sob half sigh is audible through the line. “Hoseok there had better be a good reason for this.”“It’s not me Wonshik it’s the ghost.”Next to him, Namjoon snorts, tries to muffle his laughter as he slaps a hand over his mouth. Hoseok sends him the most vicious look he can manage while trying to explain to his boss how a ghost is ruining his life.He places a hand over the mouthpiece of his phone and whispers, “Does the inn have a fax?” to Namjoon while Wonshik is letting go of a long string of profanity in his ear. Namjoon nods and Hoseok cuts Wonshik off mid-stream to say, “The inn has a fax, so send me everything you don’t want to do and I’ll get it done. I have my laptop and scanner so I can work from here for you but I can’t leave until I have this settled.”“Hoseok, if you weren’t my best lawyer you would be fired right now,” Wonshik says gruffly, but Hoseok knows the worst has passed because Wonshik only calls him the best when he’s about to make Hoseok do some truly awful paperwork.“I’ll text you the fax number in a minute,” Hoseok sighs, knowing that he’s going to be a lot busier now.Wonshik doesn’t respond, just hangs up. Hoseok lets his hand drop to his side and Namjoon breaks into dorky, ceaseless giggles.“Namjoon I need that fax number.”It takes Namjoon a full two minutes to calm down enough to give it to him.
Hoseok finally emerges from his room later that night after a long afternoon of sorting through Wonshik’s latest torture for him and heads down to a small party that is in full swing. There’s soft jazz playing in the ballroom that sounds faintly Christmas-like in theme, but subtly so. The lights are dimmed and there’s a fire crackling merrily in the hearth. It’s a cozy scene and Hoseok is glad he’s wearing one of his flattering but extremely soft pairs of jeans with a warm cream sweater. He hates showing up and not being dressed correctly for the occasion.Yoongi is behind the bar. He’s focused, mixing a drink for someone Hoseok doesn’t know, and he’s wearing all black. From this angle Hoseok can only see the tops of his jeans that his turtleneck sweater is tucked into, but they look tight and fitted and Hoseok isn’t ready for this.Hoseok shakes his head and figures that the best thing for the sudden dryness in his mouth is to get a drink from the bar. He drags himself over and plops on one of the stools, resting his head on the cool wood of the bar.“I haven’t seen you around much today,” Yoongi says by way of greeting, his gold eyes flashing. He sets a drink down in front of Hoseok’s nose and Hoseok reaches up and takes a sip without even asking what’s in it. He could honestly use some alcohol right now.“My boss agreed to let me stay here until I manage to find a buyer for the inn but in exchange I have to do whatever paperwork he sends me and that has not been...pleasant.” Hoseok is feeling a bit more alive already, and he wants to credit the alcohol but he thinks it might have more to do with the person that mixed the drink rather than the drink itself.Yoongi opens his mouth to speak, but whatever he’s about to say is lost as Seokjin appears behind the bar with a challenging smirk. “Can you make me a Manhattan Twist?”“Coming right up,” Yoongi purrs, and Hoseok can’t help but think that Yoongi is finally in his element here, behind a bar and mixing drinks like he’s been doing it for decades.Then again, he probably has.Namjoon appears next to Hoseok and Yoongi hands him an already mixed drink without pausing the skilled pouring he’s doing with his other hand.“Thanks,” Namjoon says, raising the drink in salute to Yoongi before downing the amber liquid in one shot.Yoongi gapes at him, and for the first time Hoseok sees him spill a drop of liquid on the bar instead of in the tumbler. “Namjoon, that wasn’t really intended to be drunk in one shot.”Namjoon just shrugs and throws a wink at Seokjin, who blushes furiously.Hoseok snickers behind the rim of his glass. The drink really is quite good. He watches Seokjin work up the nerve to walk around the bar and sit on the stool next to Namjoon.Neither Hoseok nor Yoongi comments on how Namjoon casually slips his hand onto Seokjin’s inner thigh, though they can both see him do it.“I’ve always loved this place,” says Seokjin, apropos of nothing.“Yeah,” Hoseok nods slowly, his eyes catch Yoongi’s and he doesn’t look away as he says, “I’ve found that I like it more than I thought I would.”He watches as Yoongi swallows thickly, but his heated gaze stays fixed on Hoseok, dancing between his eyes, lips, throat like he can’t decide what he wants to lick first.Hoseok winks, for good measure. Ghost or not, Yoongi is hot, and he can’t help but remember what it was like to see Yoongi without a shirt on.Hoseok’s pants suddenly feel a bit too tight.Hoseok wants to say that this feeling stirring in his chest is lust but he’s felt lust before and this is something that feels heavier, more lasting. It’s foreign and new and he doesn’t like the way it makes his heart beat a bit faster, his breath come quicker.He takes another sip of his drink to distract himself away from this feeling. It doesn’t quite work like he wants it too.Yoongi walks over to the other end of the bar to mix up a drink for someone else and Hoseok feels the lack of his presence like a missing limb.“I mean, ghosts and tragedies and scandalous marriages. People in this town still talk about it even now,” Seokjin continues, and Hoseok has to think back to what they were talking about before he found himself lost in Yoongi’s eyes.The inn, right.“Scandalous marriages?” Namjoon asks, and Hoseok focuses back in on the conversation fully, aware that this is probably important information that he should be hearing.“Oh yes,” Seokjin nods excitedly, lowering his voice a bit with the gossip. “Between Park Jimin and Jeon Jeongguk.”Hoseok nearly spits out his drink. Namjoon’s eyes are wide with surprise.“What?” Hoseok asks, and he notices the way Yoongi tilts his head in their direction, clearly listening in as he mixes drinks at the other end of the bar.“Yes, it was quite the scandal apparently. Jimin married his fiancé’s best friend just a month or so after his fiancé died tragically. Then he died himself about two years later.”“That’s awful,” Hoseok says, and he doesn’t have to see Yoongi’s face to know that this information can’t be something he would want shared.Hoseok didn’t even know that Yoongi had a best friend, or that Jimin had died.“Nobody believed that the marriage was real, at all,” says Seokjin, taking another sip from his drink. “It’s often said that he died from a broken heart, from losing Yoongi, but of course we’ll never actually know.”Yoongi abruptly puts down the bottle of liquor on the counter and walks out of the room.“Seokjin,” Namjoon starts, a coy smile playing across his lips. Hoseok is pretty sure he’s just covering for Yoongi’s abrupt departure, but it’s terrifying to watch. “Would you like to dance with me?”Hoseok watches the slow flood of color into Seokjin’s cheeks as he nods quickly, his fingers sliding between Namjoon’s where they still rest on his thigh. “I’d love to,” he says, smiling brightly.As they slip away to the dance floor—Hoseok can’t believe that Namjoon had the guts to actually ask Seokjin to dance when he can barely walk two steps without tripping over himself—Hoseok goes in search of Yoongi, finding him in one of the parlors on this level of the inn.“Hey, are you okay?” Hoseok asks when he sees the way Yoongi is pacing around the room fitfully.“Of course I’m not okay,” Yoongi snaps, and Hoseok tries not to take it personally.“What’s wrong?”“How could you discuss my life so callously with a stranger?” Yoongi bites out.Hoseok takes it personally this time, rising to match Yoongi’s tone. “Hey, I was getting good information.”“Yeah, about my life!” Yoongi shouts, not loud enough that they’ll be able to hear it in the other room, but loud enough to startle Hoseok into anger. “I know to you this must seem like some great mystery for you to solve but it’s not! It’s real and it happened, Hoseok. It happened to me.”“I’m trying to help you!” Hoseok shouts back, his anger causing him to speak before he can think about what he’s saying. “But you won’t tell me things and so I have to get information from somewhere, if not you.”Yoongi runs his hands through his hair in a distressed motion, his hair becoming disheveled with the gesture. “I didn’t even know,” he says, his tone considerably softer than it had been a moment ago.Hoseok steps in the way of his pacing, making Yoongi come to a stop in front of him so he can ask, “What didn’t you know, Yoongi?”“I didn’t know that he married Jeongguk, or that he’d died,” Yoongi says, and he can’t meet Hoseok’s eyes as he says this, like the weight of the words is too much to bear.“You didn’t ask Taehyung?”Yoongi shakes his head. “I didn’t want to know why Jimin wasn’t around when I returned for the first time. I couldn’t bear to put him through losing me only to have me again for twelve days. Not if he’d moved on and was happier without me.”“Yoongi,” Hoseok says, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. But you have to trust that I’m doing everything I can to try and break your curse.” He takes a small step into Yoongi’s space, hoping to convey his sincerity. “I’ll do anything to make you happy, Yoongi.”Yoongi finally looks up and meets his eyes. Hoseok was expecting to see grief, sadness, pain, something along those lines in Yoongi’s eyes and is surprised when he doesn’t.What he sees is desire.Hoseok inhales sharply, lips parting slightly, as the full weight of Yoongi’s gaze settles on him. He shivers, but feels altogether too hot in this moment. “Yoongi,” he says, but trails off, not sure what else he was going to say as Yoongi’s hands settle on his hips.Yoongi pulls him closer, just a bit, maintaining eye contact as he brings his face within inches of Hoseok's.Hoseok has time to pull away, but his blood is thrumming in his veins and his hand is sliding from where it lies resting on his shoulder to tangle in the soft black hair at the base of Yoongi’s neck and he really, really doesn’t want to move away.So, he moves closer, bringing their chests flush with one another. Yoongi’s hands tighten on his waist, thumbs pressing into the dip of his hip bones.Hoseok pulls, just slightly, on the back of Yoongi’s neck, and that’s all it takes for Yoongi to bring their lips crashing together.It’s a hot, intense kiss from the start and Hoseok can barely keep up with Yoongi’s relentless pace. He can’t help but moan softly into Yoongi’s mouth when his tongue slips between Hoseok’s parted lips and slides along his own.Hoseok doesn’t realize they’re moving until he collides with the parlor wall, the impact startling a breath out of him when he gasps in surprise. Yoongi takes full advantage of their new position, pressing into him, his hands traveling up Hoseok’s sides, up his neck, to tangle in the strands of his hair.Hoseok breaks the kiss, moving to bite lightly at Yoongi’s neck, smiling against warm skin when it makes Yoongi groan.Yoongi’s hands are everywhere, like he can’t decide where he wants to put them more. They’re tugging in his hair, only to wander down across his stomach, to press into his lower back.Hoseok is doing fine, thank you very much, until Yoongi slides his hands up under the hem of his sweater, pressing hot hands to the warm skin of Hoseok’s back.He shudders, pulling his mouth away from what he’s sure is going to be a hickey on Yoongi’s neck to lock their lips together again, his tongue spilling into Yoongi’s the second he parts his lips.He doesn’t have enough air, suffocating under the heat of Yoongi’s kiss and burning from the inside out, his skin feels tight across his bones. It’s a strange feeling but he craves more and doesn’t want it to stop.Without warning, Yoongi rips himself away from Hoseok, backing away quickly with a stricken expression on his face.“Wha…?” Hoseok pants, unsure as to why Yoongi would ever back away but knowing that he needs Yoongi’s body pressed against his again, that he’ll probably always need Yoongi pressed up against him.He aches for him already and he’s only a few feet away. Hoseok doesn’t know what this feeling is; the shortness of breath, the constricted feeling around his heart, the heat thrumming through his body. He’s never felt this when anyone kissed him in the past and it’s a terrifying sense that nothing is going to be the same now. Nobody will ever kiss him like Yoongi kisses him.So why isn’t Yoongi kissing him.“Hoseok, you deserve more than this,” Yoongi says, gesturing between them. “I only have eight days left before you won’t be able to see me, hear me, touch me.”Yoongi looks distraught, but Hoseok feels like he should have seen this coming. Except this time, he’s on the flip side and he knows what it’s like to suddenly find yourself in love with someone who can’t love you.He wonders how it happened so fast. He wonders if he can even call this love when he’s never felt it before. How can he be sure that this—this intangible, delicate thing strung between them—is enough to risk his heart for.Then again, what does he have to lose?“Wait,” Hoseok says, reaching out to grab the sleeve of Yoongi’s sweater. “What about what I want?”Yoongi looks over his shoulder, a pained look in his eyes. “I’d love for you to keep helping me try and figure out what happened to me, but I understand if you want to leave.”Yoongi pulls his arm away from Hoseok and walks back to the ballroom.Hoseok takes a minute, runs his fingers through his hair, breathing deeply a few times before following Yoongi.He takes in the small changes to the room since he was last present. Namjoon is dancing slowly to the soft jazz filtering through the room, Seokjin’s head resting on his shoulder. Yoongi is back behind the bar, wiping down the counter, the sleeves of his sweater pushed up to his elbows, revealing the smooth, pale skin of his forearms.It’s the easiest decision Hoseok has ever made.He has eight days to figure out what happened to Yoongi, find a way to keep him in the realm of the living after the curse is broken, and maybe make him fall in love with Hoseok too.He’s done more difficult things in eight days.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
1924
“You’re what?” Taehyung shrieks, eyes wide with shock.“I’m out, Tae. I want to be done,” Yoongi repeats calmly, stuffing his hands into his coat to keep them warm against the chill in the air.“You know this isn’t going to go over well with the Kwons right?” Taehyung asks, leaning in toward Yoongi, concern all over his face. “They don’t like people who just up and quit on them, especially when it’s a running team as good as us.”“Well they’re just going to have to deal without me because Jimin is more important than the extra money.” Yoongi shifts his weight, measuring his next words carefully. “Tae, I think you should stop too. You have Sooyoung and you’re going to have a kid soon.”Taehyung sighs and crosses his arms. “I know, you’re right. I told the Kwons that this was going to be my last season a few weeks ago.”“Good,” Yoongi says. “Let’s hope old-man Kwon is feeling merciful today and lets me go without a price.”“Indeed,” Taehyung says, then moves closer, rests his hand on Yoongi’s shoulder. “You’re my best friend. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”Yoongi smiles, “Me too, Tae, me too.” He’s about to say something else, maybe hug his cousin tightly, but the door in front of them opens and a firm voice says, “Enter.”They look at one another, nervous smiles in place, before they step into the office.
Jimin paces a hole in the carpet of the parlor room. It’s been ten days since Yoongi left, and he’s supposed to be back in the next two. He knows, logically, that he shouldn’t be nervous yet, that Yoongi has come back safely every other time, that this time will be no different.So why does he feel this looming sense of foreboding? Why is it that he can’t calm the twisting in his stomach, or the way his heart has been beating faster than normal all day? He tries to calm his heart, slow his breathing. The last thing he needs is to have a nervous breakdown in the middle of the parlor.He loosens his tie in an effort to suck air into his quickly constricting lungs. It helps a little, but not enough.A cold sweat breaks out onto the back of his neck and his hands start to shake. He just wants it to stop but he can’t get enough air to calm his heart. Usually Yoongi is here to help him measure his breaths, to hold him until the shaking stops but he isn’t and Jimin can’t be in this room anymore.He walks quickly up the two flights of stairs until he’s in Yoongi’s room, the smell of his cologne still lingering in the air. He runs over to the bed and collapses on it, limbs shaking as he tries to focus on the way he can smell Yoongi more strongly against the pillows than he can anywhere else in the inn.It’s working, slowly. The scent of Yoongi calming him and helping him take deeper and deeper breaths.There’s a knock at the door that he didn’t bother to close, and Jimin rolls over slightly to see Jeongguk standing in the doorway. “Are you all right, Jimin?”The sight of Jeongguk soothes him slightly, while also making the ache for Yoongi that much stronger. Jimin shakes his head slightly, and Jeongguk comes and sits on the edge of the bed behind him after shutting the door.They’re so similar in so many ways, Yoongi and Jeongguk. But where Yoongi is delicate bones, wide hands, and burning eyes, Jeongguk is bigger framed, cat-like eyes and balanced features. Jeongguk rubs soothing circles into Jimin’s back.“He’s going to be fine, Jimin.”Jimin hopes with every fiber of his being, but no matter how much he repeats those words in his head, the lingering feeling that all is not right stays, shadowing each beat of his slowly fracturing heart.
Present Day
Hoseok gives himself exactly twelve hours to be upset by Yoongi’s streak of noble intentions before he moves past it, and he spends half of those hours sleeping, so.By the time he drags himself out of bed and convinces himself that he’s ready to face the day it’s noon and the sun is reflecting brightly off the snow that fell last night. Piano music filters up softly from the main floor, and Hoseok can just barely hear Yoongi’s voice drifting through the inn, winding with the notes of the piano.He’s working his way slowly down stairs when a door slams on the second landing. Hoseok pauses, and spends a full minute debating if it’s worth it to indulge Yoongi in his annoying habits or not, but Yoongi is still playing the piano, so Hoseok decides to investigate.Hoseok walks down the landing slowly, and the door to the room at the end of the hallway creaks open slowly. It’s beginning to occur to him that maybe it isn’t Yoongi who keeps messing with the doors.“Hello?” Hoseok says, pushing the door open further. It’s a normal room inside: bed, small bathroom, closet. “Yoongi, cut it out,” he says a little louder.The piano music is still floating through the inn.“Leave,” a voice hisses, and the bedroom door slams shut behind him, making Hoseok jump with a shriek. It’s just a whisper in the stillness of the room, but Hoseok shudders at the sound as the word grates down his spine and makes the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. He rushes to the door, jiggling the knob which has somehow, inexplicably, locked behind him.“Yoongi, seriously, stop,” Hoseok says, terror choking his voice and causing his heart to speed up. He tries to breathe deeply but he can only manage short, fast breaths. He spins around at the sound of a vase shattering against the floor, his back to the door as he strains to see what caused the vase to fall.A dark, shadowy figure appears in the doorway to the bathroom, door ajar slightly, and Hoseok screams with the shock of suddenly seeing something that wasn’t there a moment ago. He struggles to breathe steadily.“Leave, now,” the spirit hisses, and Hoseok shifts along the wall, trying to get as far away from the ghost as possible while not exactly knowing what to do when confronted by an insubstantial spirit that seems upset by his presence.The spirit rushes at him and Hoseok closes his eyes and throws his hands up over his eyes, ducking slightly and screaming.“Hoseok?” Yoongi shouts, throwing open the door with a snap and running into the room. He twists, shielding Hoseok as the shadowy figure rushes for him, but Hoseok watches through his fingers as the figure vanishes just before it reaches Yoongi.Hoseok feels like he might collapse, so it’s a good thing Yoongi gathers him up in his arms, holding him to his chest tightly.“Hoseok, are you okay?” Yoongi asks, pulling away slightly to look at Hoseok’s face, lips pursed in concern.“I’m fine,” he says, but it comes out choked by terror and he feels a tear streak from the corner of one eye.“Hey, hey,” Yoongi says, reaching up with one hand to brush the tear from his cheek. The other stays wrapped securely around Hoseok’s back. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.”“Why would you do that to me?” Hoseok cries, fisting his hands in the material of Yoongi’s shirt. “I told you to stop with the door slamming and trying to scare me. I don’t like to be scared.”“Hoseok, it wasn’t me, I swear,” Yoongi says, running a hand soothingly up and down Hoseok’s back.Hoseok stares intently at Yoongi, vision blurry through tears, trying to detect any hint of a lie. He feels tension drain from his shoulders when he finds no trace of a lie. He wraps his arms around Yoongi’s waist, pulling him close and burying his face in Yoongi’s shoulder. “If it wasn’t you, then what was it.”“I don’t know,” Yoongi says, and Hoseok misses the look of concern on his face as he says it.
“Hoseok speaking,” Hoseok says distractedly, picking up his phone when it rings without looking at the name that flashes on the screen.
“Hoseok I need you back at the office,” Wonshik says by way of greeting. “I’m on vacation but apparently they’re having a crisis and I don’t trust anyone else to go in and fix it.”Hoseok sits on the couch in the parlor, diaries and papers scattered around him, and sighs. “Wonshik I’m neck deep in work here are you sure there isn’t anyone else who can fix it?”Hoseok can hear the muted voice of Wonshik’s husband through the line as Wonshik says, “Hoseok literally no one at that firm is very good at thinking in a crisis except for you and me, and since we’re both gone it’s absolute chaos.”“But—”“Sanghyuk has already had two breakdowns and I think that Jaehwan tried to quit. Twice.”“If I do this for you, you owe me a swim suit from the Bahamas,” Hoseok says with another world-weary sigh. “And once I get things sorted out I’m going right back to the inn.”“Fine, fine,” Wonshik says, and in the background of the call he can hear Hongbin saying “I swear Wonshik I will rip your balls off if you don’t put down the phone and be on vacation.”“You’d better go, Wonshik,” Hoseok says, feeling merciful. An angry Hongbin is one of the most terrifying things Hoseok has ever seen.Wonshik’s reply is the click as the line goes dead.“What was that all about?” asks Yoongi, walking into the room with a mug of coffee for Hoseok.“I have to go back to work for another day or two,” he says, sipping the coffee gratefully.Yoongi sits down next to him, and Hoseok is painfully aware of the way he makes sure there’s a few inches between them.Despite Yoongi comforting him earlier this morning, he has been extremely careful not to touch Hoseok any more than is necessary.They’ve spent the day looking through some old journals that Yoongi had stashed away in the attic of the inn. A few were his, a few more Jimin’s, and a lot of them belonged to Jeongguk and Taehyung. Hoseok is glad that it used to be expected that people would keep record of their daily activities.“Oh,” is all Yoongi says, and Hoseok is pretty sure that he can hear a faint note of disappointment in his voice. “Why do you have to go back?”“There’s some sort of crisis that only I can fix, apparently,” Hoseok says, gathering up the journals and papers from around Yoongi’s death. “My boss, Wonshik, is on vacation so he asked me to go back in to work to set things straight.”Yoongi tries to sound nonchalant when he asks, “Are you planning on returning to the inn?”Hoseok bites back a smile and nods, moving into the hallway with the journals and up to his room. Yoongi follows him as Hoseok replies, “It should only take a day or two to sort out, so that should give us plenty of time to break your curse still.”With Yoongi following him up the stairs he can’t see his expression, but he can hear the sigh of relief that Yoongi isn’t quite able to hide. “Good, that’s good.”“You don’t mind if I take some of these journals with me and keep looking through them, right?” Hoseok asks, already starting to pack up the small, leather-bound books.“Go ahead, I won’t need them again.”“Great,” Hoseok says, quickly gathering up his things and throwing them all back into his overnight bag. “I’ll be back in a few days then.”“See you soon,” Yoongi says, and disappears from the room.Hoseok leaves a few minutes later, and he swears he can see Yoongi watching him go from the front porch.***Yoongi is bored.For the first time since he’s been back this year, he is bored and he doesn’t want to admit that it’s because Hoseok is gone.But it is.“Your move,” Namjoon says, looking at Yoongi expectantly.Yoongi examines the chessboard and sees that unless he’s very clever, Namjoon is going to win in the next few moves. He moves his knight.“Do you want to tell me why you can’t stop sighing?” Namjoon asks, moving his bishop across the board and eliminating a pawn.“It’s nothing. I’m just trying to figure out the circumstances behind my death.” Yoongi moves his queen.“This has nothing to do with the handsome someone who has been helping you do this?” Namjoon’s knight takes his bishop.Namjoon’s phone lights up between them and Yoongi pounces on the chance to distract Namjoon away from the subject of Hoseok. “Your lover is calling you on your device,” he says, using a pawn to set up a trap.“Seokjin is not my lover,” Namjoon replies primly, ignoring the call. Yoongi smirks when he moves directly into his trap.“Generally, when I see two people looking at each other the way you and Seokjin look at each other it’s because they’re lovers.” Yoongi moves his rook into place. “Checkmate.”Namjoon’s head falls onto the table with a dull thud. “You’re insufferable when you’re bored. Usually you let me win the first game.”“I do not.”“Yes, you do. When did Hoseok say he was coming back?”“In a day or two, but that was three days ago,” Yoongi mumbles. He has no right to be missing Hoseok as much as he is. Not when he has his own death to solve.And then there’s the fact that he kissed Hoseok and then pushed him away. It’s for his own good, though, he thinks. Hoseok won’t be happy only seeing him for twelve days out of the year, that’s not fair to anyone, much less someone as bright as Hoseok who deserves so much more.“You know what I think?” Namjoon asks. He doesn’t wait for an answer from Yoongi, just keeps on going. “I think you’re being an idiot.”“Gee, thanks Namjoon.”“People like Hoseok don’t come along very often, and ghost or not, I don’t think you should let that stop you from falling in love again and finally moving on.”“Who says I’m falling in love?” Yoongi asks, trying his hardest not to break eye contact with Namjoon.Namjoon snorts, and Yoongi takes a moment to appreciate the fact that only Namjoon can make a snort sound dignified.“Yoongi, please. You’re playing chess with me.”“I fail to see how that proves anything, Namjoon.”“You are so lonely without Hoseok to chatter away to you that you’re filling your time by playing chess with me.”They both glance down as Namjoon’s phone starts vibrating on the table.“Your lover is calling you again.”“He’s not—” Namjoon cuts himself off. “I’m going to take this call, but don’t think that I’m done talking about your feelings for Hoseok,” he says sternly, backing away while answering his phone.Yoongi sighs and looks out the window to his left. The ground is covered in fresh, unbroken snow like it always is this time of year. He can’t remember the last time he saw a season other than winter. When he was alive, probably.Like it always does, his mind eventually wanders to Hoseok as Namjoon’s giggles drifting to him in the quiet of the inn.
Yoongi…
The whisper is so quiet that Yoongi doesn’t even notice it at first, but then it echoes back to him in the silence of the inn and he startles into alertness, looking around. There’s no one else in the inn and Namjoon’s still talking to Seokjin on the phone.It’s probably nothing.Still, Hoseok said he’d be back yesterday, and there’s no sign of him. Yoongi isn’t worried, he’s not, but he feels something a bit like concern work its way around his heart to twinge sharply in his chest.The sooner Hoseok breaks this curse on him the better.If this curse is even breakable.***“What do you mean,” Hakyeon says slowly, drawing out the syllables as he stares Hoseok down over his coffee, “that you kissed the ghost but it was, and I quote, ‘no big deal.’”“His name is Yoongi.”“I don’t care what his name is!” Hakyeon shouts, starling the teenage boy behind the counter at this ridiculous excuse for a café. “You kissed a ghost?”Really, Hoseok muses, who names a café All or Muffin anyway? It doesn’t help that the owner—Mingyu, maybe? If Hoseok’s memory serves him correctly—keeps tripping over himself and has nearly poured coffee right onto Hoseok’s dick more times than he’s comfortable with while trying to give them refills.Whatever, it doesn’t matter. He levels Hakyeon with a look and pulls out his phone, scrolling lazily through his messages. “What’s this? A message from one Cha Hakyeon that reads ‘get that ghost dick; I won’t judge you’ and yet here I am, being judged.” He locks his phone and grins at Hakyeon in smug satisfaction.Hakyeon scowls at him before huffing, “I was joking, obviously.”Hoseok shrugs and takes a dainty sip of his coffee. “Seemed like you were serious.”“Yeah, well, Taekwoon thinks you’re batshit crazy too.”Hoseok quirks an eyebrow. “The same Taekwoon who is seven seasons into Supernatural?”Hakyeon throws his hands up in the air, narrowly avoiding smacking Mingyu in the face as he passes by their table sweeping the floor. “Okay you know what? Sleep with the ghost. I don’t care.”Hoseok sighs and rests his head in his hand. “Is that really a good idea though? Isn’t that like, crossing some kind of line?”“In all seriousness? No. Do what you want man.” Hakyeon leans back and runs a hand through is vibrant, red hair. “If Yoongi likes you enough to initiate an intense make-out session with you then he’s probably game for a good dicking down. When you go back you should be prepared, if you want it to happen.”“Oh my gosh,” Hoseok whispers, horrified. “How does Taekwoon put up with you? You’re a disaster.”“Okay first of all, rude.” Hakyeon leans forward and aggressively points his finger in Hoseok’s face. “Second of all, I’m fantastic in bed.”Hoseok cringes. “That is way more information than I needed, bro.”“Yeah, well,” Hakyeon shrugs, “if you do get laid I don’t want to hear about it.”“Why am I even friends with you?”“Because I buy you coffee when you have to go in to work to fix problems an intern created instead of getting boned by your ghost lover.”“Oh, right.”They both take a final sip of their coffee before getting up and leaving, Hoseok waving goodbye to Mingyu (?) on their way out.He’s got shit to fix and a ghost to bone.
Hoseok can’t remember the last time an intern made this much of a mess out of year-end statements.By the time he manages to sort out all the misfiled and lost statements it’s been three days. The only good thing is that he’s been spending every spare minute at the office and his apartment pouring over the journals of Jimin and Jeongguk, trying to understand what happened after Yoongi died.It hasn’t been very helpful.Jimin’s journals are…depressing, to put it lightly. Hoseok can’t help but feel for the poor man who lost the love of his life at such a young age. It becomes very clear to Hoseok, by the time he finishes Jimin’s journals, that Jimin probably died of a broken heart.Jeongguk’s journals aren’t much better. They’re full of panic and pain over losing Yoongi, as well as a longing to take care of Jimin and put the pieces of his heart back together with his love for Jimin.Clearly, it wasn’t enough.Hoseok returns to his cold apartment the evening of his third day back in the city, already ready to go back to the inn first thing in the morning, and picks up the last journal he has to read through.He hasn’t allowed himself a moment to think since he left the inn, knowing that the moment his mind was unoccupied it would drift back to Yoongi, to the way his lips felt when they were sliding against his own, to the strength in his fingers and hands as he gripped Hoseok’s hips, pulling him closer.He doesn’t think about how much he longs to be back in Yoongi’s presence. Even the thought of being near him is enough to get his stomach fluttering in excitement after three days without seeing him.Yes, it’s best to keep busy.He curls up in bed and opens the last journal.It’s Taehyung’s journal and he’s hoping that it details something other than Jimin’s devastation and heartbreak over the loss of Yoongi.He’s not disappointed.
Hoseok pulls up to the Mistletoe Inn and feels the strangest sense of deja-vu.This time, however, he walks straight into the inn without hesitation and shouts, “I’m back!”Footsteps echo through the hallway to manifest as Namjoon, who strides up to Hoseok excitedly.“Oh good, you’re back.” He looks completely unsurprised to see Hoseok standing there. He hugs Hoseok briefly before stepping back. “Yoongi has been so bored with you gone. I think he’s been moping.”Hoseok can’t help but raise an eyebrow. How enlightening. “Has he now? Well then, I’ll have to go and say hi.”Namjoon smiles at him knowingly, “I think he’s upstairs in his room, reading.”“Thanks,” Hoseok says, already turning to head up the stairs. He walks to the room he was staying in earlier in the week and drops his bags full of fresh clothes and the journals before walking down the hall to Yoongi’s room.He pauses in the doorway, taking in the sight of Yoongi sitting in an armchair, reading quietly in the sun. He’s curled up in the chair like a sleepy cat lounging in the sun, eyes half drooping in the warmth of the winter sun.“Hello, Yoongi,” Hoseok says softly, leaning against the door frame.Yoongi startles a bit before looking up quickly. Hoseok wishes he could freeze the moment when Yoongi’s eyes soften at the sight of him, wishes that he could never forget the soft smile Yoongi gives him as he says, “Welcome back.”But moments are fleeting and all too soon the moment has gone.“Did you get everything sorted out at work?” Yoongi inquires, closing his book and standing up, walking toward Hoseok.“Yes, finally,” Hoseok says quietly. “I’m sorry it took longer than I thought it would.”“That’s quite alright.” Yoongi is right in front of him, eyes shimmering in the afternoon light. “I missed you,” he sighs into the space between them. It’s a small admission, but it feels momentous to Hoseok.Hoseok tries to speak, to force some kind of response through the dryness of his throat but nothing comes out besides a breathless ‘oh’ as his lips curl into a small smile.“Did you learn anything from the journals?” Yoongi asks.Is Yoongi moving closer or is he imagining things?“Y-yeah,” Hoseok finally manages to say through the dryness in his mouth. But his smile doesn’t subside.“What did you learn?” Yoongi is close enough that Hoseok can see the threads of amber in his brown eyes. He wonders why sometimes Yoongi’s eyes flash gold in the shadows.Hoseok pulls his attention away from Yoongi’s eyes and lips with immense effort and focuses instead on the light blue material of his sweater. “Nothing much from Jimin’s or Jeongguk’s journals, well, nothing useful that is. But it seems like Taehyung was quite torn up about something.”Yoongi’s lips are drawn down at the corners in thought, and Hoseok realizes that he’s staring at Yoongi’s lips again. He doesn’t even try to look away.“About my death?” Yoongi asks, and Hoseok struggles to remember anything other than the way Yoongi’s lips feel when they’re pressed against his own.“Mmmm…no, it seemed like something more than that,” he replies, almost absently. “He kept mentioning how upset he was that he couldn’t talk to Jeongguk about it, but he never once stated what had him so torn up.”Yoongi reaches up to run his fingers through his hair in contemplation, and Hoseok tries to remember to keep breathing as the motion causes Yoongi’s arm to drag briefly against Hoseok’s chest with their close proximity.“Would you mind showing me these passages?” Yoongi asks, one hand still tangled in his dark strands.“No, not at all,” Hoseok says, trying to suppress the excitement in his tone. “I left them in my room.”He turns, gesturing for Yoongi to follow and they both walk down the hallway to Hoseok’s room.“Are you sure I’m allowed in?” Yoongi asks cheekily as he crosses the threshold into Hoseok’s temporary room.Hoseok turns his head just enough that Yoongi can see the exaggerated motion as he rolls his eyes. “Yes, you can come in my room.”Yoongi raises his hands up in front of him as he moves to sit on the edge of Hoseok’s bed. “Just making sure.”
It’s the slam of a hallway door that starts it.Hoseok and Yoongi have been in his room pouring over and discussing the contents of Taehyung’s journals, cross referencing to some of Jeongguk’s and Jimin’s even, trying to find answers for the last several hours.The slam startles Hoseok into a sitting position, and he realizes that night has fallen and it’s gotten quite late. With the lamps on around the room he hadn’t noticed the fading light through the windows.He looks over at Yoongi. “That wasn’t you, right?” he asks, feeling flighty and nervous knowing that something else lurks in the inn.Yoongi is frowning, eyebrows creased. “No, that wasn’t me.”Hoseok starts closing journals and gathering up his notes, moving them off the bed.“What are you doing, Hoseok?”“I’m moving all of this out of the way so that I can cower under these blankets in fright.”Yoongi lays a hand on his arm soothingly. “Hey, it’s late. I’ll go look into the slamming doors and you just get ready for bed.”Hoseok nods, but really all he wants to do is bury himself in the safe circle of Yoongi’s arms. He can feel the burning imprint of Yoongi’s hand on his arm when he lifts his hand away. “Be careful,” he says instead, watching as Yoongi slips out of the room.Hoseok moves with superhuman speed, throwing on a soft, long-sleeved shirt and flannel pajama pants before brushing his teeth faster than he ever has in his short life. As he’s crossing from his bathroom to his bed, the bathroom door slams shut on its own, and Hoseok shrieks and dives for his bed. He rips the sheets back only to crawl under them and pull them up over his head, a firm believer that if he can’t see it then it can’t hurt him.“Hoseok?”He hears Yoongi call, and it sounds panicked to his ears. Yoongi calls his name again, louder this time as he approaches Hoseok’s room.“Hoseok, hey. What’s wrong?” The bed dips under his weight as he sits down next to Hoseok’s tightly curled body.Ever so slowly, Hoseok peels back the covers, revealing a concerned looking Yoongi above him. “The door slammed shut on its own again,” he says, rather weakly but not really caring in his current, terrified state.Yoongi looks around the room and stands up. “Well, there isn’t anything in here now.” He turns back to Hoseok and smiles softly. “I’ll leave and let you get some rest.”Hoseok reaches out and snags Yoongi’s wrist as he turns to walk away. He ignores the spark of desire that thrums through him at the contact. “Will you…stay?”The question is hesitant, gentle, and Hoseok is fairly certain that he’ll say no. He bites his tongue as Yoongi looks down at him over his shoulder, eyes blank of emotion. He’s silent for too long and Hoseok has nearly bitten through his tongue by the time Yoongi nods slowly, a small smile tugging the corner of his mouth up.Hoseok sighs in relief. He does not want to be alone, at night, in this inn.“Let me change into my pajamas real quick, okay?” Yoongi says softly. “I’ll be right back.” He pulls his wrist out of Hoseok’s grip, but reaches back to brush a knuckle against his forehead.Hoseok just nods, savoring the brief feeling of Yoongi’s skin on his as Yoongi leaves the room. Hoseok shuts his eyes, not wanting to see anything except Yoongi.He knows that Yoongi’s back when footsteps patter back into the room, lamps clicking off as Yoongi darkens the room. Hoseok has five seconds to be afraid before a weight is sinking down behind him on the other side of the bed, Yoongi’s low voice asking, “Is this okay?” into the dark of the room.Hoseok nods, then realizes Yoongi probably can’t see the motion in the dark, and he manages a breathy, “yeah” in answer.
Hoseok can feel the warmth of Yoongi slowly soaking the sheets, and he wants, craves, to roll over and press against Yoongi. He lies still, back to Yoongi, and tries to work up enough courage to just do it.Yoongi’s hand brushes the dip of his spine tentatively, and Hoseok inhales sharply. Yoongi pauses, not moving at the sound Hoseok makes, but Hoseok presses into the touch, his spine curving against the fingers pressed to his lower back.That’s all it takes for Yoongi to slide his arm around his waist, pulling Hoseok back and flush against his chest.Hoseok sighs as heat and desire flush through him, embers sparking and flaring in his blood. He presses against Yoongi, needy, wanting as much contact as possible. He lets his hand find Yoongi’s to lace his fingers with Yoongi’s around his waist. Yoongi’s lips press against the back of his neck, right at the top of his spine, and he knows that Yoongi feels the shiver that works its way through his body at the sensation.“Yoongi,” he breathes into the quiet, ghosts and any looming danger long forgotten. All he can think about is what it would feel like to feel every inch of Yoongi against him, if his skin is as soft everywhere as it is on his hands and arms.Yoongi’s answering groan is lost in Hoseok’s hair and he can’t take it anymore. Hoseok squirms around until he’s facing Yoongi and then they’re nose to nose in the darkness. Yoongi’s hand presses into Hoseok’s spine again, moving to slide up and under Hoseok’s shirt until all he can think about is the slow drag of Yoongi’s fingers up the skin of his back.Hoseok slips a leg between Yoongi’s, his own arm sliding around Yoongi’s waist to pull them closer until their chests are flush, lips just millimeters apart.“Hoseok,” Yoongi breathes, lips brushing Hoseok’s briefly. “We shouldn’t.”“Kiss me,” Hoseok commands instead, thinking that they very much should.Yoongi yields and closes the scant distance between their lips.Yoongi’s lips feel exactly like he remembered they did. Soft against his own, but firm and possessive. The hand against the skin of his back presses Hoseok closer, and he yields easily to the pressure between his shoulder blades. His own hands work their way up into Yoongi’s hair and it’s soft, silky even, beneath his fingers.Hoseok can’t focus on much more other than the way Yoongi sucks his bottom lip between his own to bite at it softly. He’s lost in the sensations, gasping when Yoongi licks into his mouth, tongue sweeping through his mouth in broad, possessive strokes.Hoseok hears himself whine when Yoongi slowly, tentatively, rolls his hips against Hoseok’s thigh and he can feel the hardness of Yoongi against the leg he has between Yoongi’s. His hands become desperate for more, and he moves one back down the firm lines of Yoongi’s spine until his hand is snug against the curve of Yoongi’s ass, using the new placement to pull Yoongi’s hips closer to his own.He rolls his hips against Yoongi and isn’t prepared for what happens next.With a low growl, Yoongi pushes him onto his back so that he can pin Hoseok to the mattress with the weight of his body and lips. Hoseok’s hands fly away in surprise to flop on either side of his head as Yoongi swallows his yelp of surprise with his mouth. Yoongi slides a hand along Hoseok’s forearm until he’s tangling their fingers together against the mattress.Yoongi hums as he moves away from Hoseok’s lips to suck lightly at his neck, a burning, searing trail of heat that brands Hoseok as Yoongi’s with every open-mouthed kiss he places to the smooth expanse of skin.It’s no surprise, really, that Hoseok moans as loud as he does when Yoongi languidly rolls his hips against Hoseok’s, providing them both with some much needed friction.“Do you,” Hoseok starts, then gets distracted by the feeling of Yoongi sliding his free hand under the waistband of Hoseok’s pants to press his thumb into the hollow of his hips. Whatever he was going to ask lost in a moan as the sensation causes heat to course through him.“Do I?” Yoongi asks, a whisper into the skin of Hoseok’s collarbone.Hoseok tries again. “Do you…have lube?”Yoongi bites down into the skin of Hoseok’s shoulder, groaning loudly. “No,” he finally manages after a moment, hips stilling above Hoseok’s.“Side pocket of my duffle bag,” Hoseok gasps out against the sting of the bite.Yoongi lifts himself onto his elbows to look down at Hoseok. “Are you sure?”“Duffle bag. Side pocket.”Yoongi rolls off him and off the bed, walking over to Hoseok’s bag quickly. Hoseok shivers with the loss of heat and tries to steady his breathing.He didn’t necessarily plan on this happening, but he didn’t rule it out after his conversation with Hakyeon, so he’s glad that he came prepared.His breathing isn’t much steadier when Yoongi returns to him. His weight settles against him all at once, lips coming down on his own to stir heat through his body again and Yoongi kisses him like he’s the most important thing in the world.Hoseok can’t stand the layers between them, especially not when he knows what Yoongi looks like underneath his shirt, and he pushes up so that he can yank Yoongi’s shirt off, breaking the kiss only long enough to work the fabric over Yoongi’s head.He swallows the moan Yoongi makes when Hoseok drags his fingers along the smooth skin of Yoongi’s back with his mouth as he deepens the kiss, tongue sliding against Yoongi’s in a smooth glide.Yoongi moves quickly, all patience gone as he divests Hoseok of his shirt, pressing him back onto the bed so that he can settle between his hips again. Hoseok eagerly helps him slide his pants down, before Yoongi does the same for Hoseok and they’re both free of clothes, the click of a small cap echoing into the quiet around them.Hoseok groans and tugs at the strands of Yoongi’s hair at the first pull of a slick hand against his length. The heat rips through him and he feels like each drag of Yoongi’s hand, each steady roll of his hips, ignites a burn deep in his bones.Yoongi breaks the kiss, lips trailing down the smooth lines of Hoseok’s chest as he sucks marks into the skin. His fingers slide away from his length and down between his legs, fingers teasing him slowly before pressing in. Hoseok gasps, tangles his fingers in Yoongi’s hair, the sheets, wherever he can get a hold on something as the sensation of being filled, even a little, causes need to spark up his spine and across his skin.“Yoongi,” he whines as Yoongi drags two fingers in and out in a steady, languid pace.Yoongi moves back up, face hovering over Hoseok and watching each gasp and flinch of pleasure as it passes across Hoseok’s face. Yoongi leans down to mouth kisses along Hoseok’s ear, tongue sliding along the shell of his ear before he sucks the earlobe between his lips. “Hoseok,” he whispers softly, voice gentle as he continues to move his fingers.Hoseok is fairly certain that the only response he gives is a whimper as Yoongi withdraws his fingers. The loss is staggering, and Hoseok feels the abrupt halt to the build of heat and pressure in his lower stomach, the overwhelming sense of emptiness and longing to be filled.He doesn’t wait long as there is another click of the bottle in the silence and then Yoongi’s slick heat is pressing against him and Yoongi is reaching up with one hand to brush his fingers along Hoseok’s cheekbone, his eyes fluttering shut as he slides into Hoseok with one easy stroke.Hoseok gasps, forces himself to relax around Yoongi, and adjusts to the feeling of being full. Yoongi waits, pressing slow, sweet kisses against his lips as he adjusts around him. Hoseok shifts, his legs coming up to press against Yoongi’s hips, encouraging him to move.Yoongi’s pace is slow, languid even, and Hoseok feels the coil of heat in his veins start to gradually wind tighter as Yoongi increases his pace, thrust by thrust.Hoseok feels the heat coiling in his veins, the desire shuddering though him and sparking to a new intensity as Yoongi shifts slightly to slide deeper with each thrust until he’s scraping through Hoseok at just the right angle. Hoseok moans against Yoongi’s cheek, too lost in the sensations of Yoongi’s mouth against his neck, the steady but insistent way he moves inside him.“Yoongi, please,” Hoseok begs, not even sure what he’s asking for.Yoongi grabs Hoseok’s leg, hand gripping him firmly behind his knee, and presses his leg up higher around his waist, allowing him to sink deeper into Hoseok and this is what he needs, he thinks, as he drags his fingers down Yoongi’s back hard enough to leave red furrows in his smooth skin.Yoongi is moaning against the skin of his neck, half formed sentences and barely coherent words slipping from his lips to spill across Hoseok’s skin as he thrusts into Hoseok, each snap of his hips causing the pressure in Hoseok’s abdomen to rise higher and tighter until he’s spilling hot and hard between them.Yoongi’s hips stutter as Hoseok spasms and clenches around him, a choked sort of moan spilling out of him as he moans, “Hoseok,” against the skin of his neck. Yoongi thrusts once, twice, three more times before he’s shaking, body shuddering as he spills inside of Hoseok.The night is quiet, their breathing the only sound in the silence of the room. Yoongi’s hand relaxes its hold on Hoseok’s leg, sliding up along his hip, ribs, to tangle in the strands of his hair and pull his head over so that Yoongi can place lazy, soft kisses against his lips. Yoongi pulls out slowly, as gently as he can, before getting up with a quiet “I’ll be right back,” as he leaves Hoseok prone and limp on the bed.Yoongi returns a moment later with a damp washcloth and cleans them both up swiftly before crawling back in bed and gathering Hoseok up in his arms.“Yoongi?” Hoseok asks sleepily.“Mmm?” Yoongi sounds half asleep already as he presses a lingering kiss to Hoseok’s forehead, inhaling as he buries his nose into the slightly-damp strands of Hoseok’s hair.“Don’t leave me,” he says quietly into the skin of Yoongi’s chest.Yoongi’s hand strokes soothing circles into Hoseok’s back. “I’ll stay with you as long as I can.”It’s not a promise of forever, but Hoseok will take what he can get, a sleepy sense of determination to hold on to Yoongi for as long as possible washing over him in the interlude between drowsiness and sleep.As they slip into sleep, tangled up in one another, Hoseok has enough time to think, I’m going to find a way to keep him with me, before sleep claims him completely.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Hoseok wakes slowly.As a general rule, he doesn’t like to be rushed into consciousness in the mornings. He likes to wake slow and easy, often letting the morning sun ease him to full awareness.He decides, fairly quickly, that Yoongi is the exception to this rule.The first thing he’s aware of is the body pressed against his, the sensation of warm skin against warm skin.The first thought he has is that he only has four days left to break a curse and find a way to keep Yoongi with him.His eyes snap open and he inhales sharply.“Bad dream?”Yoongi’s voice is deep and rough with sleep, which Hoseok is more than okay with, and Yoongi nuzzles into the back of Hoseok’s neck, arms winding around him tightly.“No, just a bad thought.”“Mmmmm,” Yoongi hums, still sounding half asleep. “What about?”“I’m a bit worried that I won’t manage to break this curse and then I’ll have to wait an entire year to take another crack at it,” Hoseok mumbles, aware that this admission is going to spark a conversation he doesn’t want to have this early in the morning, especially when he’s trying to bask in the afterglow of the night they’ve had.“No,” Yoongi says, rising up on one elbow to hover over Hoseok. “If we don’t solve this in the next four days, I want you to forget about me.”And there it is.Hoseok works his way around to face Yoongi so that when he asks him “Why not?” he can do it to his face.“Because I don’t want you to waste your time on me.” Yoongi speaks firmly, but Hoseok can see the lingering pain and loneliness in his eyes.Hoseok reaches up, places a hand to the side of Yoongi’s face. “How long am I going to have to show you that I don’t care.”Yoongi tries to interject, but Hoseok talks over him.“Yoongi, I don’t care how many years it takes, or how hard it is, I am going to break this curse and free you.” And then keep you with me.He doesn’t say the last part, but it seems to hover in the air between them all the same, like a promise made between two souls. He doesn’t understand the strength and suddenness of his feelings for Yoongi, he only understands that they’re there and he can’t bear to lose something so special.Yoongi sighs. “I can’t talk you out of this, can I?” He presses a soft kiss to Hoseok’s lips.“Can you catch a falling star and put it in your pocket?” Hoseok asks, waxing poetic in what feels like a poetic moment.Yoongi pulls back a bit, stares at him in confusion. “I’m not sure I understand the question?”Hoseok rolls his eyes. “You are so behind on everything.”“Hey,” laughs Yoongi, playfully messing up Hoseok’s bedhead. “You try keeping up with society each year when you only have twelve days to do so.”An idea hums to life in Hoseok’s mind. “Wait, have you ever seen a movie?”Yoongi looks at him in confusion for a moment before saying, “Like, a moving picture?”Hoseok flies out of bed, rushing over to his duffel bag and rummaging around for his laptop. It takes a second for his body to catch up with the sudden flurry of movement, but when it does he realizes that he’s still naked and it is very cold. He throws on the first pair of underwear he comes across in his bag and a soft pair of sweatpants.Laptop in hand, he manages to grab Yoongi’s clothes and his shirt from last night on his way back to the bed. Yoongi murmurs his thanks, and Hoseok begins searching through files on his laptop while Yoongi works his way into his sweats and shirt without getting out of bed. Hoseok has a great sense of appreciation for the skill that requires.“Are you going to tell me what you’re doing, or...?” Yoongi trails off as he wraps his arms around Hoseok and rests his head on Hoseok’s shoulder.“We’re going to stay in bed today.”“Oh?”Hoseok doesn’t need to look at Yoongi to know he’s smirking at him. “Yes. I have so many movies to show you in so little time.”“We’re going to watch movies...all day?”“Do you have anything better to do?” This time Hoseok does pause his searching to turn around and eye Yoongi, wondering if he’d rather be somewhere else.Yoongi takes the opportunity to press a soft kiss to the side of his head. “I don’t want to be anywhere else but right next to you.”Hoseok smiles and presses a lingering kiss to Yoongi’s lips. “You sap.”Yoongi chuckles softly. “Only for you.”Hoseok just hums and raises an eyebrow in response, turning back to his laptop. After a few more seconds of searching, he finds the movie he’s looking for in his videos and starts it, burrowing under the covers and up against Yoongi as the opening credits start playing.Yoongi pulls him closer until his back is flush with Yoongi’s chest, Yoongi propping his head up on several pillows so that he can see over Hoseok’s head.“What is this movie called?” he asks, fingers tracing idle circles in the skin of Hoseok’s hip under his shirt.“Ghost,” Hoseok says, trying not to sound too pleased.There’s a beat of silence before Yoongi says, “I cannot believe you.”“It’s a good movie, okay? It’s desperately romantic.”Hoseok can feel the eye roll Yoongi gives him without actually seeing it.
They end up pausing the movie halfway through because Hoseok is starving and by the sounds of it, Yoongi is too.They both wander down to the kitchen for breakfast, Hoseok wrapped in one of the extra blankets from his room to ward off the chill of the inn. Yoongi’s halfway through a batch of pancakes when Namjoon walks in the back door, Seokjin in tow, arms full of groceries for Yoongi and Hoseok, probably.“Oh,” he says, eyes widening like he wasn’t expecting to see either of them in the kitchen. “Good morning.”Hoseok beams up at Namjoon. “Good morning to you too, Namjoon.”Yoongi doesn’t say anything, but he does nod at Seokjin in greeting.Hoseok doesn’t think much of the way Namjoon is eyeing them both intently until he says, “Interesting night?” with such a measured amount of calm and blank-eyed expression that Hoseok immediately knows that he knows.“You could say that, I guess,” Yoongi says from his position by the stove. “It felt pretty natural to me, though.”Hoseok feels warmth blossom between his ribs at the wink Yoongi sneaks his way.Namjoon rolls his eyes.“How are things going with Seokjin?” Hoseok asks sweetly in return, just to see the way Namjoon’s face floods pink.“I’m right here, jerk,” shouts Seokjin, who has been quietly putting away groceries until this moment.“Ooooo, sorry Seokjin,” Hoseok says, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. “I must not have seen you when you walked in,” he lies, feigning innocence as Seokjin scowls at him and mutters something that sounds like: “…can’t possibly ignore the most handsome man in the world.”Hoseok would probably feel bad about saying this if Yoongi didn’t burst out into loud peals of laughter.“I’m too beautiful to be ignored like this,” Seokjin shouts, speaking over Yoongi’s laughter.Namjoon howls with laughter, and Hoseok can’t help but laugh along. Even Seokjin smiles as Namjoon hunches over in laughter.“Sorry, babe,” breathes Namjoon between bouts of laughter.‘Babe?’ Hoseok mouths at Yoongi, who is watching this play out while somehow managing not to burn the pancakes. Yoongi just shrugs.“You are quite handsome, though,” Namjoon concedes, speaking easier now that he’s not laughing quite as hard.Seokjin smiles in satisfaction as Namjoon wraps his arms around him.“Don’t worry Seokjin,” Yoongi says softly, finally chiming in. “After Hoseok and myself, you’re probably the most handsome person in this room.”Seokjin rolls his eyes. “Gee, thanks Yoongi. That’s such a compliment.”Yoongi and Hoseok both freeze at the use of Yoongi's name that neither of them told him. Seokjin, when he sees their panicked expressions, rolls his eyes. "Relax. Namjoon told me how Yoongi's the direct descendant of the original owner, the one in pictures everywhere, and that his parents named him after him. He filled me in."Yoongi shrugs away his explanation much faster than Hoseok can recover. “You’re welcome for the compliment. I'm glad Namjoon filled you in. Makes things easier.” He stacks the finished pancakes on two plates, dumps syrup on them, and hands a plate and fork to Hoseok. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have a movie to finish.”Namjoon blinks his gaze away from Seokjin, who is still wrapped in his arms, to say, “Wait, you got Yoongi to watch a movie?”Hoseok somehow manages to brush off everything that happened in the last minute and finds the wherewithal to shrug. “It wasn’t that hard, really.”Namjoon does a stunning impression of a fish out of water, mouth gaping soundlessly for words. “I’ve been trying to get him to watch movies for years.”Hoseok throws a smirk over his shoulder as Yoongi grabs his hand to tow him from the room. “What can I say, I have a pretty face.”Namjoon grumbles something under his breath that’s too quiet for them to hear, but they don’t miss Seokjin’s loud laugh as it follows them down the hall and up the stairs.
Once they’re back in Hoseok’s room, steaming stacks of syrup-covered pancakes plated and in hand, Hoseok resumes the movie.Yoongi is nice enough not to tease Hoseok too much for the way he tears up at the end.
Hoseok feels the pressure looming behind them, feels the swelling wave of panic and stress nearing ever closer and just decides it will have to wait like, one day.All he wants is one, blissful day with Yoongi before either of them have to think about breaking his curse and the inevitable goodbye they face.Once they’ve finished Ghost and Yoongi has left to take the empty plates back downstairs, Hoseok shucks off his clothes and runs a shower, standing under the hot stream of water as it warms through the chill deep in his bones.According to the weather app on his phone, it’s nearly seven below and no matter how many blankets and socks he puts on, this inn is still drafty and it’s always cold.
He’s never been more grateful for hot showers.The bathroom door opens, then shuts again, and Hoseok has a brief, intense flash of panic at the sound before Yoongi steps into the shower with him.“Thought you might like some company,” Yoongi says, stepping under the stream of water to push Hoseok up against the tiled wall of the shower.“Yoongi,” Hoseok complains, wrapping his arms around Yoongi’s neck. “You’re going to get soap in my eyes.”Yoongi just rolls his eyes before pressing in close to kiss Hoseok, slow and easy. It’s a languid, unhurried kiss that Hoseok sighs into happily, at ease with the way Yoongi’s warm skin is pressing and sliding against his.“I’m never going to actually get clean if you don’t stop this,” Hoseok says as Yoongi bites and sucks his way to the skin of Hoseok’s neck and shoulder.“You’re going to want to wait until I’m finished with you to try and get clean,” Yoongi says calmly, hands wandering down Hoseok’s hips.Hoseok hardens alarmingly fast as Yoongi continues to detail what it is, exactly, that he’s going to need to clean up from.Yoongi is really quite dirty, for a man so old.Hoseok moans so loudly when Yoongi takes him against the shower wall that he hopes, desperately, that Namjoon and Seokjin aren’t in the inn anymore. But the hope is fleeting and Hoseok really only has enough functionality of his brain to think about it for all of two seconds before he’s entirely focused on the way Yoongi moves inside him.It’s so subtle at first, the way it builds slowly and quietly, but Hoseok begins to realize that what’s rising and coiling inside of him isn’t just the tension before release, but a swell of emotion too.He almost laughs, when he realizes.Instead of a laugh, he moans Yoongi’s name loudly as he shifts the angle and begins making each thrust count where it matters most.Yoongi bites his neck, just below his jaw, and Hoseok understands that he’s known he could love Yoongi for a while, probably since Yoongi first kissed him in the parlor.Hoseok whines and brings Yoongi’s lips up to his, tangling his fingers in the wet mess of Yoongi’s hair and for him the kiss is desperate, full of longing and need as his legs tighten where they’re wrapped around Yoongi’s waist.Hoseok realizes, just after he comes hot and hard between them, that he’s finally learned how to love.All it took was someone he can’t keep.As Yoongi chases him over the edge, Hoseok feels an overwhelming rush of emotion, each feeling flowing through him as fast as the hot tracks of water are leaking from his eyes. He pours all of it into the kiss, his sadness, desperation, devastation, hope, and the overwhelming amount of love he’s managed to accumulate over the last nine days for a ghost of a man he can’t have.Yoongi’s hands move from where they were supporting Hoseok to his waist, and as Hoseok lowers his legs until he’s standing on his own again, Yoongi runs his hands up his sides and over his shoulders to cradle his face between his palms.Hoseok sobs into the kiss when Yoongi pulls out, and Yoongi pulls away from him, studying the way his face crumbles apart without Yoongi’s lips to keep him glued together.“Hey,” Yoongi whispers, voice barely audible over the white noise of water hitting tile. “Hoseok, Hoseok, what’s wrong?”His thumbs are tracing the line of Hoseok’s cheekbones, wiping away tears as they fall.“N-nothing,” he stutters, digging his fingers into the firm muscles of Yoongi’s shoulders. “Just g-got some s-soap in my eyes.”Yoongi snorts in amusement but doesn’t move away. “Hoseok, you don’t have soap anywhere on you.”Hoseok manages a weak smile, looks up into the warm golden eyes in front of him. “I j-just, realized that I d-don’t want to have to let you g-go.”Yoongi’s eyes sadden, and even if it’s not the whole truth, not every emotion that Hoseok is feeling in this moment, it’s enough for Yoongi to tisk and pull him close, letting the warm spray wash over them both.***Yoongi gets them both washed, dried, and back in bed to spend the rest of the day watching movies on Hoseok’s laptop. They don’t talk about how when they wake up tomorrow there will only be three days left.Instead, Hoseok kisses Yoongi anytime he feels in danger of saying something that neither of them are ready to hear.They spend a lot of the day kissing.In the evening after Yoongi has made them more food and Hoseok’s enthusiasm for movies begins to wane, they huddle back under the blankets and find other ways to keep warm in the growing chill of the inn.The sex is slow this time; gentle and tender in a way that makes Hoseok’s eyes brim with tears as Yoongi moves above him, eyes never leaving his face and fingers wound tightly together on the mattress.After, as they lay tangled together between the sheets, Yoongi’s fingers still laced with Hoseok’s, he finally surrenders to the emotions that have been welling inside him all day.“Yoongi,” he whispers into the stillness between them.“Yes, Hoseok?”“I love you,” he sighs, letting the words drift away from him. Warmth spills from his eyes faster, although he hasn’t stopped crying for a while now, so he isn’t sure that the distinction matters all that much.Yoongi pulls him close, gently guides Hoseok’s face to his so that Hoseok is blinking steadily through his tears into the warm serenity of Yoongi’s eyes. “I know, Hoseok.”He holds Hoseok while he sobs, and when they finally slip into sleep it’s in the comfort of one another’s arms.***Hoseok wakes the next morning in Yoongi’s arms, the inn quiet and still around them.He doesn’t wake Yoongi, just watches him sleep and tries to memorize every detail of his face. The way his nose slopes, the slice of cheekbones under creamy skin, the firm line of his jaw, even in sleep.He knows he still has three days left, three whole days to learn every expression and gesture, but it won’t be enough.It makes sense now, why he’s waited this long to let himself fall in love.It's too painful to do it more than once.
When they finally wander down for food, it’s to find Seokjin and Namjoon hunched over the kitchen table, looking over plans for the Christmas Eve party Yoongi relented to have at the inn.“Oh good,” Namjoon says, looking up from their notes. “Yoongi, I need you to approve these plans before we start buying the food and booze.”Hoseok wants to shout, “can’t you see that we’re mourning here” and considers it a huge achievement that he doesn’t, just follows behind Yoongi as he walks over to the table. Yoongi’s hands settle on Hoseok’s arms when he wraps them around his waist from behind, pressing his cheek to the soft material of Yoongi’s sweater against his shoulder.He tunes out the conversation and focuses on the way Yoongi’s breathing is slow and steady against his chest, to the regular, even beats of his heart through his spine. He wonders if he'll ever be able to recover if he loses Yoongi.“...wondering if Hoseok could help with that.”Hoseok tunes back into the conversation at the mention of his name. Yoongi twists around slightly, lifting his arm as he does so to bring it around Hoseok’s waist. Hoseok resettles, arms still around Yoongi’s waist, head resting lightly where Yoongi’s neck meets his shoulder.“Help with what?” He asks quietly, more focused on Yoongi’s arm around his waist than the conversation.“Decorating the inn, adding some Christmas cheer,” Namjoon says, smiling up at him from where he’s seated at the table.Hoseok doesn’t have enough energy to say anything other than “sure,” a bit dully, and Namjoon eyes him more closely.“Hoseok are you okay?”Seokjin also looks up at him, eyes filling with concern. “You don’t look so good, Hoseokie.”“I’m just, a bit frustrated by this curse,” he says. Technically, it’s not a lie. It’s just not the whole truth.They’re both polite enough to pretend to believe him.***Hoseok spends most of the day before the party wrapped up in Yoongi’s arms and several blankets, pouring over the journals, sure that he’s missed something. Yoongi helps him stay calm, reminding him to breathe and helping him keep his breathing slow as he rubs soothing circles into his back.Hoseok doesn’t panic often, but he has three bouts of anxiety in as many hours that day, and Yoongi calms him every time, helping him slow his breathing by keeping his own slow and steady against Hoseok’s back.Hoseok wonders, briefly, where he learned how to do that.He tries not to scream when he doesn’t find anything new in the journals.
From: Hakyeon
How’s the freaky weird ghost curse?
Did you figure it out
More importantly
Did you get the ghost dick
Hoseok snorts when he finally takes a break from reading to read hakyeon’s messages to him, all sent within seconds of the last. He’s at the table in the kitchen, Yoongi making them both lunch and stopping by Hoseok periodically to kiss his cheek, forehead, anything within easy reach of his lips.Yoongi’s taking forever with their food at the rate he’s going, so Hoseok settles in for a conversation with his best friend.
To: Hakyeon
Omg you’re the worst
From: Hakyeon
You love me
To: Hakyeon
Debateable
And no, we haven’t cracked it yet
From: Hakyeon
Dude wtf are you going to do
Did you at least get the dick
To: Hakyeon
Ffs yes I got the dick
And idk what to do Hakyeon
I’m…in trouble
From: Hakyeon
?????
Wdym do I need to come and get you
To: Hakyeon
No not like that
Although there is a Christmas party you could come to tomorrow night
If you want to make the trip
From: Hakyeon
Taekwoon wants to come
To: Hakyeon
Omg yes he can come too and see the ghost
From: Hakyeon
You have no idea how happy you’ve just made him
He actually s m i l e d
A full on smile, Hoseok
To: Hakyeon
Jeez okay
Anyway I may have accidently fallen in love with Yoongi
From: Hakyeon
…rip
To: Hakyeon
Your support is appreciated
From: Hakyeon
Okay okay I’m gonna come up today
There are open rooms rite
Like me and taek can stay the night and leave after the party tomorrow
Hoseok looks up from his phone. “Hey, Yoongi?”“Yeah babe, what is it?”Hoseok’s heart clenches at the endearment that slips easily from Yoongi’s lips, like it was always meant to be there instead of his name. “Hakyeon and his boyfriend want to come up today and spend the night for the party tomorrow, you okay with that?”Yoongi shrugs, his back to Hoseok as he puts the finishing touches on some sandwiches. “As long as they’re not in my room it’s fine by me.”“Cool.”
To: Hakyeon
Yeah
Yoongi says that’s fine
From: Hakyeon
Dope
We’ll be there in a few hours
Taekwoon wants to fuck me before we leave
To: Hakyeon
O M G
I didn’t need to know that
You’re the worst
From: Hakyeon
; )
Hoseok is sitting in the front parlor, surrounded by several blankets and a napping Yoongi, when he hears the front door open and the unmistakable sound of Hakyeon entering the inn.“Anybody here? Hoseok?”Hoseok quickly untangles himself from Yoongi, who groans at being disrupted from his nap, and rushes into the main entry. His sock-clad feet provide him less traction on the hardwood than he’s anticipating, so he slips on the dark hardwood as he rounds the corner and slides into Hakyeon with his enthusiasm, hugging him tightly. “I’m so glad you’re here!”Hakyeon screams and barely manages to keep them both from falling to the floor in an ungangly heap of limbs. Taekwoon reaches out to steady Hakyeon, a small smile on his lips at their display.“Hoseok I saw you a few days ago, get off!”Hoseok laughs somewhat hysterically and clings tighter to Hakyeon, wrapping his legs around his waist. “No. I missed you.” Hoseok doesn’t see so much as he feels Hakyeon’s eyeroll, finally allowing Hakyeon to shrug him off. “Did you get here safe?”“Obviously,” says Taekwoon, raising a single eyebrow.Hakyeon sighs. “Don’t mind Taekwoon. He’s salty because I made him drive the whole way.”Taekwoon purses his lips and hums in response.“Who are you?”Hoseok turns around and finds Yoongi glaring at the hand Hakyeon has around Hoseok’s waist, looking sleep-mussed and grumpy. “Yoongi this is my best friend Hakyeon and his boyfriend Taekwoon. I told you they were coming?”Yoongi’s face clears and he looks significantly less murderous than he did a second ago. “Right, of course. Nice to meet you both.”Hakyeon’s hand drops from Hoseok’s waist only to have Yoongi step close and wrap his arm around Hoseok’s shoulders.“Are you the ghost?” Taekwoon asks, head tilted curiously.Next to him, Yoongi tenses. “You told them about me?”“Hoseok tells me everything,” Hakyeon supplies helpfully, “and I tell Taekwoon everything. It’s how we are.”“I needed some kind of outlet to deal,” Hoseok explains. Yoongi doesn’t look upset, not really, but Hoseok still feels the need to explain why he talked about Yoongi’s secret so openly with his best friend. “I needed someone to tell me I wasn’t insane.”“I could have told you that,” Yoongi pouts.“Right, because having a ghost tell me I’m not insane is believable.” Hoseok kisses the pout off Yoongi’s face, only stopping when Hakyeon starts making exaggerated gagging sounds in the background.Hoseok breaks away to flip him off, only to see that Yoongi has beat him to it.“Rude,” Hakyeon mutters, leaning back into Taekwoon, who wraps his arms around Hakyeon and rests his head on his shoulder.“I’ve had to put up with way worse from the two of you,” he replies, eyeing them sternly.Hakyeon sticks out his tongue with a giggle. “Are you going to show us to our room or just leave us standing in the entry?”
Dinner that night is an eventful affair. Hakyeon and Taekwoon bring a new dynamic to the inn that Hoseok realizes he’s needed badly. They bring a touch of normalcy to the strange haze of the supernatural he’s been floating through. They make him feel like he might manage to break this curse and have a normal life with Yoongi after all of this is over.They make Yoongi feel real, and not like a dream.“Do you know how to break the curse?” Hakyeon asks later, once they’ve all eaten and moved into the front parlor. He and Hoseok are sprawled on the floor, a bottle of tequila between them with some salt and limes piled haphazardly on a plate next to them.Hoseok looks over at Yoongi, who is having a stare down with Taekwoon from where they’re sitting on opposite ends of the couch. They look like two cats who haven’t yet figured out if they like each other.“No, not yet,” he answers, taking a swig from the bottle and biting a lime.Hakyeon nods, his eyes full of sympathy. “Are you going to be okay if you can’t?”Hoseok looks down at the floor and bites his lip. “…no,” he says eventually. He looks up into Hakyeon’s eyes and whispers, “I love him, Hakyeon.”Hakyeon’s eyes fill with sadness, but he nods in understanding. “I can tell. Hoseok I’m so sorry. Can we help at all?”He shrugs. “Maybe.”Hakyeon opens his mouth to say something else, but doesn’t get the chance when a noise from the kitchen draws all their attention.“Yoongi,” Hoseok says nervously, standing up on slightly unsteady legs to move next to Yoongi. “Are we expecting anyone tonight?”“No,” Yoongi says lowly, the line of his shoulders tense.A door upstairs slams shut with a bang that echoes through the whole inn.Hoseok and Hakyeon both shriek.“What was that?”
Hoseok doesn’t look up at the new voice, too busy trying to manage the sudden armful of Hakyeon he was gifted with when Hakyeon screamed and jumped in his arms. He looks over Hakyeon’s shoulder and sees Namjoon, wilting in relief.“Namjoon, you scared the fuck outta us,” gasps Yoongi in relief. “Is it just you?”Namjoon looks around the room and Hoseok can’t imagine what he sees. Taekwoon, sitting unaffected on the couch, Yoongi clinging to Hoseok’s back while Hakyeon clings to his front. “Nah,” he says eventually, “Jin is right behind me.”“Oh,” says Seokjin, rounding the corner and looking into the parlor over Namjoon’s shoulder. “Are we drinking? Someone get me some Merlot.”“What was the noise upstairs?” Taekwoon asks, and everyone turns to look at him.“What do you mean?” Hakyeon sound nervous, letting go of Hoseok in favor of crawling into Taekwoon’s lap.Taekwoon sighs, like talking is the last thing he wants to do. “If they,” he gestures to Namjoon and Seokjin, “are down here, what made the sound upstairs?”Namjoon, Hakyeon and Hoseok all turn and look at Yoongi.“What, just because I’m actually a ghost everyone automatically assumes it’s me?”“Uh…yeah,” says Hakyeon.“Wait, you’re a ghost?” Seokjin looks a bit paler than normal and clings to Namjoon in shock. “I really need some wine.”Taekwoon wordlessly picks up a bottle of wine from the end table next to him and holds it out to Seokjin.“I wasn’t me,” Yoongi huffs.“I can’t believe I’m going to die in some creepy-ass inn in the middle of nowhere,” Hakyeon groans, burying his head in Taekwoon’s shoulder.“Hey!” Namjoon and Yoongi say at the same time.“That’s my inn you’re talking about,” Yoongi growls.Hakyeon raises his hand in surrender.“Will somebody please tell me what’s going on,” Seokjin pleads, looking around the room in confusion.“Yoongi’s a ghost. He’s been around for decades, but he only gets corporeal form in the twelve days leading up to Christmas.” Namjoon gestures lazily at Yoongi before turning to Hakyeon and a disinterested Taekwoon. “I don’t know who they are though.”“That’s my friend Hakyeon and his boyfriend Taekwoon,” Hoseok says, pointed to each of them in turn for Seokjin’s benefit. “They’re here for the party tomorrow night.”“Oh,” Seokjin says faintly. “Everything makes so much sense now.” He takes a long gulp of wine and staggers over to an armchair to sit, still looking a bit pale.Namjoon gives Seokjin a weak smile. “You did say you wanted to get to know my friends.”Seokjin glowers at Namjoon and opens his mouth and Hoseok thinks this is a very good time to intervene before someone gets hurt. “Anyone up for a game of Phase 10?”
“I like your friends,” Yoongi whispers, later that night when everyone has gone to bed and the inn is quiet around them. They’re nestled beneath the thick quilt of Hoseok’s bed, in their own little world of safe warmth, bodies pressed as close together as they can be.Hoseok sighs sleepily, alcohol making his tongue loose and his thoughts come freely. “Good, we can keep hanging out with them once your curse is broken.”It’s the first time either of them has mentioned the possibility of a life after tomorrow night—Yoongi’s usual last night—and Hoseok shouldn’t allow this kind of hope into his heart because he has no idea how he’s going to break Yoongi’s curse, or what will happen if he does.For all he knows, Yoongi will fade to nothing and that’s it. He’s gone forever.Hoseok really, really doesn’t want that.“I love you, Yoongi,” Hoseok whispers into the skin of his collarbone, burying his face into Yoongi’s neck.Yoongi doesn’t respond, just pulls his face away from his neck so that he can lean back and kiss Hoseok deeply, tenderly, lovingly.Hoseok loses himself in Yoongi and prays desperately to anything listening that just this once, he can be happy. That he can keep Yoongi.Hoseok falls asleep with the taste of Yoongi on his lips and tears in his eyes.***Yoongi has to drag Hoseok out of bed the next day, has to force him to eat something and shove him bodily into a shower.He’d like to think it’s the hangover, but Hoseok’s eyes are startlingly clear and he knows that’s not it.He doesn’t know why Hoseok waits until after their shower to jump him, but he goes along anyway, freely giving Hoseok what he needs, even if he can’t tell him what he really needs to hear.They make love slow and easy in the late morning sun, Yoongi surrendering to Hoseok and letting him fill every sense, every part of Yoongi until they’re as close as they can possibly be. A joining not only of bodies, but of hearts and souls. I love you, he thinks, with every slow thrust, every gentle touch or brush of skin. He thinks, hopes, that Hoseok knows, but he can’t be sure. He tries to pour his love into every touch, every gasp Hoseok pulls out of him.Hoseok collapses against him, in the aftermath, and Yoongi pretends that the wetness he feels on his skin is sweat and not the tears he knows are leaking from Hoseok’s eyes. They don’t separate for a long, long time.
It’s the quite moments, that really do him in.There were so many times over the last two days when those three words were on the tip of his tongue, just waiting to slip out. Moments when it was just them, breathing in each other’s space. The moments when Hoseok’s brow would furrow in concentration as he tried, yet again, to solve the problems Yoongi has spent ninety-three years trying to solve with no success.The only thing that keeps him from saying those three words is knowing how much more it will hurt when they fail and Hoseok loses him.
Namjoon has, truly, outdone himself this year.The ballroom of the inn has been transformed into a frosted, wintery scene filled with twinkle lights and mistletoe strung around the room. A warm fire crackles merrily in the hearth, and decorated Christmas trees fill the corners of the room. Actually, now that Yoongi takes a closer look it’s probably all Seokjin’s doing.Namjoon could never pull of this level of coordination with decorations. He can barely keep his own body coordinated.He’s already caught Namjoon with his tongue down Seokjin’s throat twice this evening, so he wonders how much of that mistletoe serves as a convenient excuse for them to publicly ravish each other.By the looks of it, most of the town locals have shown up, families in tow. Soft jazz filters through the room, and children spin in circles under the lights, falling over in dizzy heaps as they giggle, unburdened and carefree.Yoongi keeps an eye on the stairs as he watches people talk and laugh together. His vigilance is rewarded a few moments later when Hoseok finally makes his entrance, stunning in a royal blue suit, white shirt, and skinny red tie.Yoongi doubts that Hoseok can even sit comfortably, his pants are tailored so fitted. His legs look incredible though, and Yoongi has to brush aside the urge to grab him by the tie and drag him to an empty parlor to have his way with him.Instead, he walks over to him, raises an eyebrow and holds out a hand, entreating. “Would you care to dance?” He asks, pleased when a small smile works its way onto Hoseok’s face and he slips his slender fingers into Yoongi’s waiting palm.Everyone around them is happy, laughing, full of joy. Yoongi can see Hoseok’s friends dancing and he watches them over Hoseok’s shoulder, smiling faintly when Taekwoon whispers something in Hakyeon’s ear that makes laughter ring bright and pure from Hakyeon. He aches to know them better, to spend time with them as he fits himself into Hoseok’s life.Hakyeon catches his eye, his laughter fading and a soft smile lingering on his lips as he nods slowly at Yoongi, a gentle hope in his eyes.Hoseok presses a kiss to his cheek, pulling his attention away from Hakyeon and back to Hoseok.“You okay?” Hoseok asks, pulling Yoongi closer against him.“Yeah,” Yoongi breathes, resting his head on Hoseok’s shoulder and wrapping his arms tightly around Hoseok’s waist before pulling away to stare hopelessly into Hoseok’s eyes.He watches the light glint in the brown of Hoseok’s eyes as they turn slowly under the lights. He fights the urge to whisper those three words into Hoseok’s ear and he holds him close, not even trying to keep time with the music.He can feel his resolve weakening, and he pulls back more, takes a breath, opens his mouth.“Mind if I cut in?” Namjoon asks him, already pulling Hoseok away from him.Yes. “No, not at all,” he says, walking back to a more secluded corner of the room.He watches Namjoon and Hoseok spin together under the light, watches as Hoseok breaks out into bright, happy laughter at something Namjoon says. The warmth in his heart grows, expands until he feels like he might burst.A familiar head of hair flashes in the corner of his eye.He turns slowly, sees the figure retreating out the front door of the inn, not bothering to open the door, just walking through it. The hair on the back of his neck prickles.He follows without a second thought, and with each step he feels himself stepping further and further into the past until he’s standing next to Jimin and Jeongguk on the front porch. It’s disorienting, shifting from present to past so quickly, and he takes a deep breath at the sight of Jimin in front of him, just as he remembers him.He follows their gaze to the woods where he last remembers himself standing, seeing this exact scene from a different perspective.He’s about to see himself die.“He should have been back by now,” Jimin mutters anxiously, pacing right in front of where Yoongi stands numbly.“He’s still got time, don’t give up yet,” Jeongguk says evenly, but his brow is furrowed with concern and he doesn’t look much calmer than Jimin.Yoongi waits with them, and even if they can’t see it, he can see the moment he comes into view, a dark shadow between the trees.“Jimin, it’s going to be okay. He loves you, and he’ll come back for you.” Jeongguk pulls Jimin into the embrace he saw from the trees, and it’s not what he thought it was all those years ago.For the first time in ninety-three years, Yoongi sees what happens next.He sees the looming shadow behind him, the rock that crunches into his skull, the way his body slumps quietly into the snow.The shadow drops the rock into the snow and dashes away.Yoongi rushes back into the inn as the past melts away around him. He spots Hoseok in the middle of the ballroom, but before he can say anything the scene bleeds back into the muted colors of days long past, and the ballroom turns into the dining area it was when the inn was fully booked, people eating and talking quietly.Jimin disappears into a side parlor and Yoongi follows after him.“It’s not fair,” Jimin wails quietly, burying his face into Jeongguk’s vest. “Yoongi deserved to be happy.”“I know, Jimin, I know,” Jeongguk consoles, wrapping his arms around Jimin tightly as he hugs him.“All I want is for him to have another chance at life. To know what it means to live.” Jimin is shaking with quiet sobs. “He didn’t deserve to die, alone and cold. It’s not fair.”Jeongguk looks pained as he continues to console Jimin. “I’m sure he’ll find happiness in the next life.”“I hope so,” Jimin whimpers.This time, as the memory fades away, Yoongi walks back to the ballroom, slowly putting the pieces together.He bumps into Hoseok in the hallway, Jimin’s figure still hovering in the corner of his vision.***Hoseok goes looking for Yoongi the second Namjoon releases him. Being apart for two dances is already too long to be away from him when they only have hours left.He wanders into the hallway and collides with Yoongi almost immediately as he’s coming out of a parlor.Yoongi inhales sharply. “Hoseok, I was wrong.”Hoseok feels like he’s just jumped into the middle of a conversation he isn’t prepared for. “About what?”“It’s not a curse, it’s a gift.” Yoongi says, eyes alight with understanding.“What?” Hoseok is still having a hard time following, clearly missing something.“Hoseok?” Hakyeon asks curiously, rounding the corner into the hallway with Taekwoon in tow. “Is everything okay?”Hoseok spares him a quick glance but doesn’t get a chance to reply as Yoongi is continuing to explain.“Jimin, he’s the one keeping me here,” Yoongi says excitedly. “He’s giving me another chance at life.”He tempers his hopes, unwilling to start getting excited. Hoseok can see Jimin now, his head peeking around a door frame down the hall.“Holy shit,” Hakyeon says. “Is that another ghost?” He points to where Hoseok is looking. “Have you figured it out?”Hoseok turns away from Yoongi to look at Hakyeon and Taekwoon, the latter of which looks a bit shell-shocked at the sudden appearance of more ghosts. “I don’t know, maybe?”“Not completely,” Yoongi interjects. “But I’m starting to.” He grabs Hoseok’s hand to get his attention. “I think it’s because of you, actually.”“Me?”“Him?” Hakyeon snorts. “Of course. Hoseok falls in love with a ghost and it’s because of that he manages to solve a decades old curse. Sounds about right.”“Okay,” Hoseok hedges, suddenly warry at what he spots over Yoongi’s shoulder. “But if that’s Jimin,” he points to Yoongi’s right, where Jimin is smiling at them from the entry to the parlor, “then who is that?” Hoseok points behind them at the ominous shadow looming at the other end of the hall.Yoongi turns around and blanches. “I-I don’t know.”“Oh well that’s just great,” snipes Hakyeon, the shadow rushing toward them. “We can all die here, on Christmas eve.”“I think we should run,” Taekwoon says calmly.They all turn at once and rush for the stairs. Hoseok knows that whatever this is, it needs to be kept away from the people still laughing and dancing in the ballroom.As they clear the second-floor landing, the shadow cuts them off, trapping them between the stairs leading up to the third floor and the ones leading back down.“Who are you?” Hoseok asks, sick of running away from ghosts. He feels like it’s all he’s been doing lately.“I think its whoever killed me.” Yoongi looks pale still.“Wait, you know who killed you?” Hakyeon screeches. “Out with it man!”“If we can burn the remains it should go away,” Taekwoon says helpfully.“I don’t know who killed me,” Yoongi gripes, gesturing frantically at the dark smudge of a ghost. “Just that someone did. It must be this greasy fucker in front of us.”Hoseok watches the shadow warily, but it doesn’t move, just stands there, ominous and foreboding. “I think you’re both forgetting that we’re stuck between a ghost and some stairs. We’ve got more pressing problems than finding the remains, even if Yoongi knew who killed him.”Jimin appears next to them, silent and not saying anything, and points at the figure. Hoseok jumps at his sudden appearance.Its form wavers, shifts, and then solidifies into a beautiful man that Hoseok feels like he should recognize. The name is on the tip of his tongue because he’s seen this man in a picture somewhere in the inn…“Taehyung?” Yoongi breathes, shock coloring his tone. “Did, did you kill me?”The man in front of them, Taehyung, hangs his head.“I didn’t want to, Yoongi.” he looks pained, haunted, his voice echoing like it’s coming to them from a great distance.“What the fuck,” Hakyeon whispers. “What is going on.”What the fuck indeed, Hoseok can’t help but silently second Hakyeon.“What happened?” Yoongi asks. Hoseok can’t read his tone, but he doesn’t sound…mad. More curious, than anything.“After you left,” begins Taehyung, “the Kwons called me back in. They said you were a lose end that had to be tied up. Said that if I didn’t, they’d send someone after you, and once you were gone, they’d go after Sooyoung and our little girl.”Yoongi closes his eyes. “They were your everything.”Taehyung has tears in his eyes. “I didn’t want to, I loved you like a brother, but it was my little girl, Yoongi.”Hoseok watches as Yoongi nods in understanding.“You’re the one who kept slamming doors!” Hoseok shouts suddenly, realization hitting him like a punch to the face.“That was him the other night?” Hakyeon screeches. “You scared us all!”“You terrified me,” Hoseok grits out.“Yeah, sorry about that.” Taehyung smiles sheepishly and rubs the back of his neck. “I needed to get his attention and you were the easiest way to do that.”“So, why are you here?” Hoseok asks, brushing aside Taehyung’s apology. It’s done now, anyway. “We know that Jimin is keeping Yoongi here, what's keeping you here?”Taehyung glances at him before turning back to Yoongi. “I…I think I need to be forgiven, i-in order to move on.”Yoongi looks up at him, and Hoseok can see the bright of unshed tears in his eyes as he says, “I forgive you, Taehyung. It’s all in the past now. Go in peace.”Taehyung’s countenance shines brightly as he smiles, big and happy, before fading away in a soft wash of golden light.Yoongi releases a heavy sigh.Jimin is still standing off to Hoseok’s right. Yoongi turns to face him.“Thank you, Jimin,” Yoongi says, smiling warmly.Jimin nods once, a small smile on his lips, before he too, fades away.“Will someone explain what the fuck just happened?” Hakyeon asks, mouth gaping.“I walked back into the past tonight, and when I came back out of the memories I was shown, I realized two things.” Yoongi grabs Hoseok’s hand, lacing their fingers together and walking up to the third floor toward Hoseok’s room, Taekwoon and Hakyeon trailing behind. “First, it wasn’t what was keeping me here, but who. I figured that the dark spirit must be whoever killed me, so weighted down by their guilt that they can’t move on until their unfinished business was resolved.” He pauses briefly as they enter Hoseok’s room and he sits on the bed, pulling Hoseok after him.Hakyeon and Taekwoon hover in the doorway, listening quietly.“Secondly, Jimin was the one who kept sending me back here in the days leading up to Christmas. His one wish was for me to get a chance to live again.” He looks down at their joined hands. “Hoseok, it took me ninety-three years to remember what it is to truly live, and it’s because of you that I finally remembered.” He reaches up and brushes a tear off Hoseok’s face.He hadn’t realized he was crying.“Thank you, Hoseok.” Yoongi gazes at him tenderly, pressing their foreheads together. “You showed me how wonderful it is to be alive. You broke the curse.”Hoseok sobs, a wet, broken sound. “You’re welcome,” he manages to say, right before Yoongi leans the rest of the way in to kiss him through his tears. Hoseok thinks to look at Hakyeon and Taekwoon, but they’ve disappeared.Yoongi scoots back to the middle of the bed, pulling Hoseok with him until they’re wrapped around each other.“Stay with me,” Hoseok whispers into Yoongi’s chest.“I’m right here, Hoseok.” A gentle kiss lands on his forehead, but it’s not the promise he was looking for.Hoseok falls asleep in the circle of Yoongi’s arms.
When he wakes up the next morning, the space next to him is cold, and he doesn’t need to search the inn to know that Yoongi is gone.***A soft looking Stussy hoodie lands on his desk with a soft whump.“Hongbin said I had to give this too you, that it was the least we could do.”Hoseok squeals in excitement, fingers eagerly seeking out the material. He lets out a soft, content hum as his fingers encounter soft fabric and cozy warmth.“You really don’t deserve him, Wonshik,” Hoseok says, immediately pulling the hoodie on over his dress shirt and tie. It’s oversized and comfy and Hoseok could kiss Hongbin.“He reminds me of this daily,” Wonshik gruffly replies. “Anyway, thanks for taking care of things while we were gone.”“Anytime.”“Oh, and good job on getting a buyer for the Min estate.”Hoseok looks up in surprise. “What?”Wonshik blinks at him. “Two buyers came forward, pooled their money to get joint-ownership of the inn.” He looks down at the folder in his hand. “Our notes say Kim Namjoon and Kim Seokjin own it now.”Hoseok smiles. “That’s wonderful.”
Hoseok flicks on the lights to his empty, cold apartment. The silence has never bothered him before.Now it’s all he notices. The spaces where Yoongi belongs but just…isn’t.He’s never loved somebody fully, he’s always kept one foot on the ground so he didn’t get swept away by somebody else lest he lose himself. It was important to protect himself fully, to keep his heart from being broken. But it’s in the cold, quiet days after he returns to his apartment that he realizes he’s fallen completely in love with Yoongi.He loves Yoongi fully, with his whole heart, and he’s gone.Hoseok tries not to let the heartbreak swallow him whole.
He’s making dinner, a pathetic, sad meal for one, when there’s a knock at his door.He opens it without checking to see who it is first, and as his eyes travel up a pair of lean legs, up a firm torso, and into a pair of warm human eyes, he feels the crooked part of his life right itself and fit back into place.Yoongi smiles at him, walks right into his apartment and slams the door shut behind him, moving forward to capture Hoseok’s lips against his own.“I love you, Hoseok,” Yoongi says, breaking away to look Hoseok in the eye. “I’ve been dying to tell you that for a while now.”The words were a long time coming, and all the sweeter for it.“I’m ready to start living again,” he continues, “and I’d like to do it by your side, if you’ll have me.”"How are you here?" Hoseok asks, breathless from the kiss and the shock of Yoongi in his arms. "I thought you disappeared?""I did." Yoongi presses a kiss to his forehead. "And then I woke up a few days after Christmas in my room at the inn. You were gone by then, of course, but I found Namjoon and Seokjin. Once they recovered from the shock of seeing me they told me where you worked. Your boss told me you'd gone home for the day and was kind enough to direct me here." He leans in and kisses Hoseok again, deep and slow, before pulling away to say, "I'm here, Hoseok. When I stepped off the grounds of the inn I knew I was here to stay and I love you. So, so much."
Hoseok takes a moment to breathe it all in. Yoongi, here in his arms, real and tangible and alive. His fingers wind their way into the black strands of Yoongi’s hair. He replays the words, relishes in the warmth he feels at knowing that Yoongi loves him back, that he doesn’t have to wonder if he’ll ever find another love like theirs.“Well it’s about time you showed up.” His voice breaks on the last word, relief and love choking his voice until all he can do is smile, hopelessly fond.Yoongi smirks, rubs his nose against Hoseok’s playfully. “I’m trying to be romantic here, Hoseok.”Hoseok closes his eyes and presses a slow, warm kiss to Yoongi’s lips, breathing him in and relishing the warm, solid feeling of Yoongi's arms around him.“Welcome home, Yoongi.”