Once again you looked flawless as you entered the room and Hoseok looked back at you in total awe.

You wore a body-con dress in gray, very professional and sober, but it contrasted with your every day style. It gave him a different feeling.

He might have thought you were all over the place looking like a rebel with your leather and windbreakers, but in work mode you made his heart skip every other beat.

Your hourglass figure was breathtaking as you walked. You didn't have to have a pronounced neckline or show a lot of skin to look as hot as you did just walking around.

Truth was informal and relaxed was the sexiest to him though, so that said a lot. Just comfortable to you and around him. That was what he yearned for.

The guys giggled behind him and he didn't care anymore. He simply ignored them and tried to focus on his goal of the night: confessing his feelings to you.

Hobi was anxious about it as he put his lips to his glass and poured the burning drink down his throat. It wasn't about overdoing it tonight, he just needed some liquid courage.

He wasn't excited at all, his first thoughts weren't bright and hopeful in these circumstances. Unfortunately, the warmth in his chest and the butterflies were a bad omen from experience.

Preparing himself to get too personal, to reveal his innermost thoughts and feelings was a promise for his heart to potentially be ripped out and he hated what came with it.

He preferred this to getting his hopes up, he was waiting to be pleasantly surprised, but he was more hopeless than hopeful with every failed attempt.

In all honesty, he was very pessimistic when it came to love. You'd associate love with heartbreak only after a relationship, but the whole ordeal was unpleasant to him.

Love wasn't easy, relationships weren't a walk in the park and they didn't offer one safety and comfort by default.

The stuff that he wanted felt unrealistic at this point. You'd think the bare minimum would be to love and be loved, but it turns out it was a lot to ask for.

Tonight he was either going to lose you or get a chance with you. You were a good friend, but at this point in time, he wasn't concerned with friendship.

That didn't mean he didn't care for you as a friend, he did in fact love your company. But the things he wanted from you were not what friends do and he was not going to deny it.

It was way too stressful to keep up with a friend when you wanted more and he was too wounded for that. He had girl friends whom he held close to his heart, but he didn't have romantic feelings for them.

You were a different case and he was going to suffer. The idea of getting used to getting hurt didn't exist, so all he could do was protect himself with numbness.

And now he just seemed to be cold and distant. You interacted as usual, but he was not all that relaxed and he was rather serious.

It was hard for you to tell if there was something wrong with him. He could be warm and sweet, he had been yesterday after the concert, but he didn't seem to be enjoying himself to the fullest.

When you looked at him with a small smile, trying to make him know you were there in case he needed someone, he smiled back, but his eyes didn't. It was sincere, but not animated.

You held onto his forearm which was laid on his lap, to his surprise, and gave him a sympathetic squeeze.

It was a second and you took your hand back to rest it on your own lap, but that prompted him to rub a couple circles on your back.

You both seemed to be trying to offer comfort but it wasn't working because you were concerned about one another. The issue was not personal.

"I can't believe it's the last leg already! North America, South America and now Europe are officially done" Namjoon commented feeling like time had flown.

"In the beginning it feels like a lot, but then it just doesn't feel like enough, does it?" Taehyung shared the thought they all had. It was a lot of work, but done with a lot of passion and love for their professional vocation.

Six months of getting to know you, of becoming friends, of starting to feel things for you that became bigger and more profound as you got to know each other.

Hobi's mind was elsewhere, he couldn't help it. He could agree with their words, but his heart wasn't in friendly chatter right this moment.

Your mind was fascinating, your view of the world refreshing and stimulating. Some found their turn-ons to be more visual, but he found a good conversation exhilarating*.

Each individual is a whole universe and he wanted to get lost exploring you. Like captain Nemo*², he loved a good mystery to unravel and was fully committed to pursuing you.

If he went by looks alone, he didn't think much about it when he first met you. The maknae was more interested in you than he was. He thought you were cooler than Hoseok did.

But then he really got to know you, you opened your heart and mind to him, cautiously because you knew you were not everyone's cup of tea. Yet Hobi proved to be a safe haven.

He saw you in a different light, appreciated your all with different eyes. Your beautiful appearance was only the bait that he was reluctant to take, looks hardly were at the top of the list to him these days.

You seemed to promise trouble and carelessness initially and he wasn't going to be fooled. First impressions were not always the be-all and end-all, however, he had learned this the hard way.

Now he wanted to get into mischief with you, you were far from careless, it was more like you were carefree. He thought he needed more of that, to savor the freedom, to open himself up fearlessly.

Opening his heart to you?

It sounded like exposing his most tender self to be broken, to be slashed, crushed and left when that wasn't enough.

After the toast and his last glass being the dry sparkling wine that only rivaled his parched throat, he saw you out of the corner of his eye getting ready to leave.

You approached the band and said good night, with them knowing fully well you had to fly in the morning, and headed to your room for an early night.

Hobi felt himself starting to panic internally, the night was over and he hadn't said a word that mattered. His apparent disinterest was the opposite, he was not ready, he was unprepared still.

He was supposed to get to the moment when he talked to you about his feelings and he had let it pass somehow. It was like he blinked and it was all over.

How had time gone by this fast without him realizing?

Before he did anything, he waited a few minutes and got up to leave the room after you.

This time round your suites were not next to one another. It was a lottery, sometimes asking for a balcony had worked and then others it hadn't.

What he did know is that you always were on the same floor. When he got out of the elevator, he headed to your room in a way that could only be described as prowling.

Focused and purposeful, he was going to do this, he had to do this. He'd deal with the pain like he always had, but he couldn't keep beating around the bush any longer.

The knock caught you off-guard, you were about to change into your sleepwear. You'd barely wiped your make up off and hadn't even taken off your dress.

The door opened just a bit and once you saw it was Hoseok, you pulled it open all the way and smiled at him with a curious look.

"Hey there" he uttered the first thing that came to his mind which had gone blank.

With you in front of him and your full attention, he swallowed overcome by nerves. His determination wavered.

You can do this, just do it.

"Hi Hoseok-ah, why aren't you at the party?" you asked genuinely puzzled about his randomly dropping by instead of enjoying the rest of the night with his friends.

Hobi cowered at the question that forced him to get straight to the point and he took a wrong turn.

"What if I want to celebrate with you?" he blurted out an octave lower than intended. His eyes fixed on yours in an effort not to look away.

"What?" it was the only thing that your mind could muster as you looked up at him in shock.

You needed some sort of clarification because this sounded wrong and it was probably your dirty drunken mind hearing it that way.

"Why not? A party for two" he quirked an inviting eyebrow and a mischevious smirk drew itself on his face.

What had he done? This was exactly what he kept telling himself to avoid. Not before his feelings. Had he not learned?

Yet he didn't want to back away, he didn't want out. Especially not when he couldn't contain himself and captured your unspoken words.

Because your lips were too sweet and he was more drunk in love than he was on the alcohol that was supposed to help him lower his guards. Not like this, though.

-

The chapter's title is inspired by the song by Shania Twain, but it's too lively to go with the chapter and it's only relevant to the ending.

* Hobi wants a girl with deep thoughts, who he can converse with; that is easy going, cool and refreshing. There's a lot about his type, I haven't double checked all the info yet but here's some with sources:
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMNRhLNuM/?k=1
https://jiminccino.tumblr.com/post/182546890275/hoseok-ideal-type-masterpost

*² Hobi has referenced Jules Verne and Captain Nemo multiple times. In his mixtape to introduce Hope World and in the song Go Go, for instance. 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' is a book he holds close to his heart.
https://www.soompi.com/article/1134461wpp/btss-j-hope-talks-inspiration-behind-new-mixtape
https://doolsetbangtan.wordpress.com/2018/07/15/go-go/