Hoseok left the clinic, glancing at the flowers to make sure they were doing well before settling into the driver's seat. He was a fairly social person, but since he met with a lot of different people during the workday, he usually didn't feel much like socializing after work was over. He liked to spend his evenings by himself in his apartment, recharging for the next day.

He was saving lives, and he took it seriously.

Like most other days, he drove straight home and changed into looser, more comfortable clothing. He turned on the television as he headed into the kitchen to fix himself something to eat. He wasn't really hungry, but he'd learned that it was important to have a routine and stick to it. He'd just opened the fridge when his phone rang, so he shut the refrigerator door and picked up the phone after checking his caller ID.

"Hey, Yoongi, what's up?" Hoseok asked, turning so he faced the living room area instead of the fridge, his eyes scanning the news headlines.

"Nothing really," Yoongi grunted from the other end of the phone. "Just been cooped up in my apartment all day and thought I'd get out to eat something. What are you doing right now?"

"Just got back from work," Hoseok said, frowning as the news channel relayed more protests. The racial tension in America had started affecting other countries, and protests had started popping up in South Korea. Just one or two at first, but now he felt like every time he turned on the TV, there was another protest, another riot. Things hadn't gotten too violent yet, but there had already been a few incidents with police. A few cases of police brutality had come to light around the same time, and new protests were starting up around that. It felt to Hoseok like everyone was constantly yelling and screaming, and he'd felt perpetually anxious lately as a result. He shared their sense of injustice about the cases of brutality, but it was hard for him to hate all police in general when he knew many of them to be familiar faces.

He padded into the living room and flipped the channel, needing a moment to relax from the stress of his job and the stress of the outside world. An infomercial started up, telling him how much better his life would be if he just had the new and innovative tool that would ensure he'd never lose his car keys again, and he left it on because it was better than hearing about the alternative. "Did you want to meet up?" he asked. He eyed the couch, wanting to collapse into its cushions, but he knew that he'd have a harder time getting back up if needed.

"Yeah. Just if you're not busy," Yoongi said, but both of them knew that Hoseok wasn't busy, was pretty much never busy.

"Yeah, sure, sounds good," Hoseok said, turning from the television to go back into his room, debating on whether or not he needed to change back into something a little more professional, but he decided against it. "I can pick you up if you want?"

"Nah, I'll pick you up," Yoongi said instead, and from the soft sound of the radio in the background, Hoseok made the assumption that Yoongi was already in the car. "Be there in ten?"

"Sounds good," Hoseok confirmed before they both hung up.

He didn't really need to grab anything – his wallet was still in his pocket and his phone was in his hand – so he ended up collapsing onto the couch, justifying to himself that ten minutes of relaxation was worth the inevitable future struggle to get up.

In all honesty, he probably would have accepted Yoongi's offer whether he'd been hungry or not. After he'd introduced the nightmare of Jeongyeon into all their lives, he'd had to work hard to restore his relationships with his brothers. They had told him repeatedly that it wasn't completely his fault, but he still carried the guilt. If he'd never accepted her offer to go to the dance, he probably wouldn't have given her a second look. He certainly wouldn't have dated her and subsequently been her rebound from Yoongi, and there would have been no reason for Jimin to confront her and get dragged into everything.

She'd only brought misery into their lives, and she'd destroyed some of the trust they'd built up in each other. It wasn't that his brothers had refused to forgive him – they'd done so almost immediately. But forgiveness didn't change the hesitance in Jimin's eyes when Hoseok asked him to hang out, and it didn't change the formal way Yoongi addressed him when he was too uncomfortable to speak casually.

Hoseok heard a ding from his phone before he read Yoongi's text telling him that he was waiting outside. He took a deep breath before pushing down against the couch cushions with his palms and forcing himself to a standing position. He patted both pockets to ensure that he had his wallet, phone, and keys – even though he wouldn't be driving, his apartment key was on his key ring and it was too much of a hassle to get off – before leaving the apartment. It was hard thinking of it as 'his' apartment – it just felt temporary in a way he couldn't explain. He didn't know if that was good or bad.

Yoongi was waiting outside like he'd said he would be, and Hoseok gave him a two-finger wave before hopping into the passenger seat. "Hey."

"Hey," Yoongi greeted back, not bothering to look up as he scrolled through his phone for music. "How was work?"

"It was good," Hoseok said. That was how most of their conversations had gone in the past year or so. It made Hoseok a little sad because he used to be a lot closer with Yoongi, but there were some rifts that never quite healed. Still, he was making an effort, and Hoseok appreciated that. He didn't want to waste any chances he was being given even though he was sick of feeling like he had to atone for something. "How's your music going?"

Yoongi grunted, which Hoseok could take to mean that it was going well, that it was going poorly, or that it wasn't going at all. Yoongi didn't offer any clarification, and after he finally found the music he wanted, he set his phone on shuffle and looked up. "Anywhere you want to go in particular?"

Hoseok gave a half shrug, raising his left shoulder. "I don't really care. Maybe that place on 5th Street?" There was a small pub near Hoseok's apartment that served mediocre drinks and less than mediocre food, but it was never too crowded and there was an atmosphere about the place that made not talking okay. They could just sit and relax without having to sustain a full conversation, which Hoseok was honestly a little too tired to do, which made up for the poor service and food quality.

"That's fine," Yoongi said as he pulled out of the parking lot. A soft rap track floated through the speakers, and Hoseok looked over at Yoongi, surprised.

"I thought you didn't like rap?"

"I don't," Yoongi said, exhaling harshly as though he were asked the question too frequently to bother with a response. "But there are one or two artists that are actually worth listening to."

"Jooheon," Hoseok guessed as the first one. "But who's this?"

"NF," Yoongi said, pulling into the left turning lane and tapping his index finger against the wheel. "Jooheon recommended him to me. I guess Hyungwon listens to him. He's not bad."

Hoseok nodded, feeling that conversation naturally close itself off, and he decided to just listen to the music instead. Honestly, he didn't view most rap as music, but this was...different. He had to agree with Yoongi that there was something about it that he actually enjoyed listening to. Maybe he'd look up some of his albums later.

Yoongi pulled into a parking space outside the pub. The lot was about half full, which was normal, and they went in and were seated without a wait.

Yoongi ordered a burger (those were safe enough) and a water and gestured for Hoseok to get whatever he wanted. Hoseok chose a burger as well but decided to get a light beer since Yoongi was driving and he needed something to destress for a while.

The pub was decked out in a plethora of televisions, each displaying a different channel and eighty percent of them sports. Hoseok would watch sports if they were on, but he wasn't a fan of any one team in particular. Luckily enough, a game show was on, and Hoseok watched that instead, mentally answering trivia questions and getting them wrong about ninety percent of the time. Still, he liked playing, pretending he was a contestant and losing all his money on live television.

"So, what did you do today?" Hoseok asked after a few minutes, looking across the booth at his older brother.

"Nothing much. Couldn't focus on my new track so I went out with Taehyung for a bit then headed back to my place."

"Two brothers in one day?" Hoseok cracked a smile. "What a busy person you are."

Yoongi didn't smile though, just looked down at the table with a shrug. "Just didn't feel like being alone today."

Hoseok nodded, falling quiet. He understood the feeling. He debated asking Yoongi if something was up in particular, but he knew Yoongi would deny it anyway.

Their food arrived a few minutes later, and Hoseok wondered if he should start up another conversation, but he thought that maybe Yoongi just needed some quiet company. So he took small bites of his burger and sips of his beer and focused on the game show, totaling how much money he would have made (or lost) if he'd really been playing.

Yoongi kept quiet as well, eating most of his burger but leaving a few bites.

"Hey," Hoseok said when it was clear Yoongi wasn't intending on eating any more. "If I left food on my plate, you'd yell at me."

"Yes," Yoongi agreed easily. "But calling this food is a rather big stretch, isn't it?"

Hoseok couldn't argue with that. The burger wasn't sitting well in his stomach, either, but the beer had helped a little bit.

Yoongi balled up his napkin and tossed it on his plate, then signaled for the check. Yoongi tried to pay the bill, but Hoseok got to it before he did. He didn't understand why Yoongi had a tendency to try to pay for everything for everyone, but Hoseok always felt guilty accepting his money.

Yoongi gave him a grumpy face, but then the two headed back to the car and he dropped Hoseok off at his apartment. Hoseok gave him a wave as he pulled away, and he looked up at the night sky, wondering what had made Yoongi so lonely today, only the stars had no answer for him.

--

published 07/22/20