Chapter Text
“Listen, Joy, you’re not here to see it. I’m about three seconds away from yanking my hair out at the roots.”
From the other end of the line there was a laugh that was halfway disbelieving and half hysterically amused. You glared at the wall, leg bouncing in annoyance where it sat crossed over your other one—for a moment your gaze was captured by the floppy movement of your foot before you shook the observation from your mind. You were laying back against the mountain of pillows on your bed, forty-five minutes into a phone call with your best friend, who happened to be halfway across the world at the current moment. As it usually did on your phone calls together recently, the topic had drifted, once more, to your roommate.
As though the very thought of him had been enough to summon him, you heard the front door click as the knob was turned, and the resulting creak and thud as your roommate entered the apartment and closed the door behind himself. You cursed softly, eyes flitting to your own door—you’d closed it, but he had excellent hearing, so you were going to have to talk quietly. You grabbed your laptop and put on some very loud, very explicit music.
Like clockwork, not even a whole second later there was a loud, annoyed groan from the kitchen area, and you grinned to yourself. It took you a moment to realise your best friend had been talking to you for a few moments now.
“Trick ass bitch, don’t ignore me!” Joy’s voice was sharp as it pierced your ear through the receiver. “Everything I have to say is something worth listening to!”
You rolled your eyes, thankful she couldn’t see you—it would have earned you smack were you here, and a loud protest were you video calling.
“Of course, you’re absolutely right,” you said, scratching an itch that appeared on your hip. “That’s why I was listening to you!”
“If you were listening to me, then what was I saying?” the female asked, tone indicating she knew you hadn’t been hearing a single word.
“I won’t butcher the majesty of your words by attempting to speak them with my own poor, peasant mouth,” you said, lips tugging in a smile when you heard her snort. Lucky for you, she decided to let it go.
“I was asking why you haven’t just left?” she repeated, for your benefit. “I mean, that’s the obvious solution. Your roommate is actively making your life very difficult, so remove the roommate from the equation.”
“I’ve been trying to!” you informed her in protest, rolling onto your side so you could kick your legs. The warmth of the bed where you’d been laying was heavenly as it began to sink back into the side of your body that had been exposed to the cool air. There was the faint sound of footsteps down the hall before a door closed and, seconds later, the wall of your room began to groan as the shower was turned on and the pipes were put to use.
Joy made an unimpressed sound. “You’ve been trying to make him move out, not move out yourself.”
A heavy sigh escaped you. “Yeah, but you know I can’t, Joy. This was one of the only places that would take me, and one of the only ones I could afford! Plus, it’s so close to campus, and the shops… I can’t let him have it.”
You could almost feel her rolling her eyes. “That’s kind of petty, but I did raise you that way so I can’t really call you out on it.”
A smile crept into your voice as you spoke. “I’m older than you though?”
Joy sighed. “Ah, the life of a single mother is hard. Kids are so ungrateful.”
You laughed, her own giggles as she joined in from the other end of the line sending fond warmth to curl around your heart. Ah, she hadn’t even been gone that long and already you missed her a lot.
You talked for a while longer, until she was cursing softly and telling you she had to go—it was a lot later than she’d realised. With a sad smile, you bid her farewell, and let your phone drop to the bed as the familiar beep filled your ears. There was always something rude about being hung up on, even if it was consensual and agreed upon by your best friend—there was always a part of you that felt slightly ruffled.
Nestling further into your covers, you kind of just lay there for a while, lost in thought. It was mid-evening, the sky dark outside, and you were surprisingly tired—you’d spent the day catching up on lectures you’d had to miss over the past few weeks and your brain was kind of fried. Which, you supposed, was probably why it kept wondering to your annoying roommate instead of something more relaxing and mood-improving, like kittens.
Jung Hoseok, a second-year student like yourself that attended your university, was your unwitting roommate. One might wonder, how could a roommate be unwitting? Well, you knew exactly how.
You were convinced that what had happened to the both of you was technically illegal, but neither of you knew enough about the law to really dispute it. You’d never met Hoseok before the day you were set to move into this apartment, both of you under the impression that you were going to be the sole resident—both of you were mistaken. The landlord of the apartment had, as you were prone to putting it, pulled an absolute fast one on you. Both you and Hoseok had been offered leases, and both of you had signed thinking you were going to be the only person living there—yes, both of you were that dumb that you didn’t even read the whole thing. But could you be blamed? At the low prices this place was offering, you really should have known better and suspected a catch, but you were also desperate and a few days away from being homeless—so you’d taken the opportunity that had been so nicely presented to you, gift wrap and all.
Of course, now there was nothing you regretted more than not looking over that stupid form.
You’d signed for a year, and the two of you were now contractually obliged to stay for that duration. Neither of you wanted to live for an entire year with the other. Well, technically at the start you wouldn’t have minded—Hoseok was cute, but for some reason, right off the bat, he hated you. At this point you were just responding in kind! You were a proud person, and your pride would have suffered greatly if you’d just sat there and taken it, so you didn’t. No, you gave it back just as strong and sometimes (most of the time, you’d like to think) you even won your sad little showdowns. It wasn’t as much of a stroke to the ego as you would have liked, but you did enjoy seeing Hoseok riled up. The glare he gave you and the way he would storm off to his room and slam the door really buttered your eggrolls even on the worst of days.
With a sigh, you grasped the covers and began wriggling your body beneath them properly, almost making your phone slip off the side in the process. You were an indulgent person, easily persuaded to your own whims, and so it was no surprise that you’d showered and changed into your pyjamas well before six o’clock. You liked how refreshed it made you feel.
Your eyes fluttered closed for a moment, ‘resting’, and for a second it seemed like your mind might actually be still for once. Then the walls groaned once more and the pipes hidden behind plaster shifted, creaking slightly, to indicate the shower had been shut off. God, your biggest fear was that one of these days one of the pieces holding those ancient pipes together inside the walls was going to burst and fly through the wall to belt you on the head, Final Destination style. Would it kill you? You supposed that depended on how merciful the powers that be were feeling on that particular day.
That train of thought, slightly morbid as it may be, continued on and slowly, gradually, your mind blended thoughts and images together until the graceful embrace of sleep washed over your mind and for the meantime, you were free.
x x x x x x x x x
The next morning your sleep was interrupted by a persistent, raucous sound. Groggy confusion registered in your mind as you recalled you hadn’t actually set any alarms for today, since it was meant to be your day off. It took a few moments more as your brain booted up for you to realise that the sound was knocking, and someone was currently trying to bash down your door with their fist. You lurched from the bed, trying to remember if you’d ordered anything online for there to be a parcel as you threw your door open and bolted down the hall. You did not want to miss the parcel guy again. Going to the post office was a massive pain in the ass.
You skidded to a stop at the door, sparing a moment to mentally curse Hoseok out for not answering it—until your eyes flicked over the microwave at the edge of the kitchen, that is. The time blinked at you in bright green, 10:15AM. Well, you supposed, he was probably well gone and completing a shift at work by now. Damn it. You were almost sad you lost an opportunity to be annoyed at him.
The knocking started up once more, loud and jarring and completely startling you where you stood next to the door, and you were reminded once again of the pressing matter at hand. Fuck, right, the mail guy! You hurried to unlock the door, swinging it open with a sheepish smile already plastered on your face. Cool air brushed your body as the door swept past you.
“Hi! I’m so sorry I took so l—oh, hey Taehyung, Jungkook.”
Taehyung laughed at the audible way in which your tone had shifted once you realised it was them, and Jungkook merely smiled sheepishly at you. “Hey, y/n. Sorry we, uh, woke you.”
You returned the smile, stepping back and pretending you weren’t painfully aware that you were standing before the two very attractive males in your rumpled, gudetama pyjamas.
“Nice PJ’s,” Taehyung said as a way of greeting, rich golden eyes curving with his smile. You tried not to blush. “Is Hoseok home?”
“Nope,” you said, popping the ‘p’. You shut the door behind them once they were both inside, slipping their shoes off to the side. You were careful not to catch their tails in the door. “But I’m sure he’ll finish work or whatever he’s doing sometime soon. Feel free to loiter in his room.”
Jungkook shot you a look, flavescent hues startling you as they always did with their striking beauty. His tail curled behind him as he grinned cheekily, “Hoseok hates it when we mess up his space though.”
You smiled brightly at him, “I know.”
Taehyung snorted, moving straight for the kitchen. You couldn’t help but watch as his long, cream tail flowed behind him, swishing through the air playfully. You almost missed it as he spoke to you, his head already buried in the pantry, “Are the two of you ever going to stop being such childish idiots with each other?”
Jungkook hopped onto the bench, feet resting on one of the stools, and faced you expectantly as he waited for an answer. Taehyung let out a soft ‘ah ha!’ as he found what he was looking for in your pantry. You tried not to roll your eyes as he stepped out with the dried banana chips in his grasp.
“I don’t know,” you grumbled, kicking your toe against the floor. “Maybe when he finally leaves and gives me my house back. Besides, I’m only being rude because he started it.”
“You’re a literal child,” Taehyung said around a mouthful of banana chips—your banana chips, you might add—and rested his hip against the bench. His ears, medium sized and fluffy white with black on the inside, flicked idly.
“One, I cannot believe you would say that to me in my own home while eating my banana chips,” you said, pointing at him in half-hearted outrage. He blinked owlishly. “Two, are you sure you’re not a monkey? I thought you said you couldn’t hold stuff with your tail!”
The second part was directed at Jungkook, whom was reaching for the packet in Taehyung’s grasp with the end of his tail. He froze in the act, blurting defensively, “We can hold stuff! I said we couldn’t hang from stuff with it, like monkeys can—because we’re not monkeys.”
Taehyung snickered and you laughed lightly, moving over to sit at the table near them. “Right, right. How could I forget. A monkey would have been able to grab that bag way quicker.”
Jungkook let out a noise of outrage and you were laughing until he smacked you in the face with the appendage in question. In an instant the tables had turned, you now the one sputtering around a face full of fur as he and Taehyung cackled like hyenas. From the sounds of them, you wouldn’t peg them as lemur hybrids.
“God, there’s fur in my mouth, what the fuck Jungkook,” you whined, swiping your fingers over your tongue to get rid of the strands that had decided to cling.
“It’s what you get for being a bitch,” Jungkook sniffed, tail curling against his side in a manner that you could have sworn was triumphant. “I’ve told you many a time we’re not monkeys, yet you still decide to push it.”
You squinted at them both, deciding to ignore his accurate jab for the time being, “You lemurs are awfully vindictive, aren’t you? Is that why Hoseok is such a butt face? The whole lemur thing?”
Taehyung laughed, nearly choking on the mouthful he hadn’t finished chewing yet. You sent a quick prayer to the heavens for your flooring incase it met chewed-up banana chips anytime in the next few minutes. “Hoseok is a ray of actual sunshine, y/n. I still have no idea what you did to make him act this way— it usually takes a lot to make him mad.”
You sniffed, turning your face to the loungeroom, “You and me both, my dude.”
True to your words, you had absolutely no idea why Hoseok had taken to disliking you as much as he did. You knew it had to have happened on the day you both moved in, because for a while there you could have sworn he was a decent person. Then he changed and became the earthly embodiment of the devil and you’d never regretted a decision more than you did signing that lease.
“You’ve been living together for three months now and you still don’t know?” Jungkook queried, and you looked over to see he’d succeeded in snatching the bag from Taehyung with his nimble tail. His eyes, light, flavescent golden and framed by dark lashes, bored into yours as he spoke, the kittenish curl of his lips making an appearance as he smiled in amusement. Your eyes swept over the chestnut-coloured locks atop his head, swept back from his face for today’s style, and admired the odd white or black strand that stuck out against the rest. You supposed it was his hybrid colouring peeking through.
“No,” you said, begrudging, before reaching to smack his thigh. Your palm smarted at the impact— you’d probably ended up hurting yourself more than him, what with how ridiculously toned he was. “Get your feet off there— no timberlands on the stools.”
Jungkook pouted, but did as you said, legs shifting from the stool to swing them where he sat on the edge of the bench. The black hoodie he had donned pulled taught as he shoved his hands in the front pockets like a sulking child. He sent you a glare, to which you responded with a pleased smile, cooing, “Good boy.”
You ignored the blush that lit in his cheeks at your words for his sake, but Taehyung was not one to let such an opportunity pass so easily. He cackled, making fun of the younger before Jungkook punched him in the arm and he lowered the volume of his amused chuckling.
“Anyway,” you began, frowning at Taehyung. “Why are you here?”
“Hoseok,” he answered immediately, about a split second after he’d shoved more chips in his mouth. If he at the whole bag, you were making him buy you some more— they cost $7 a pop and you were truly living the poor student life.
“I know,” you said, rolling your eyes heavily. He wrinkled his nose at you. “I’m asking why.”
“Oh,” he said simply, before a bright grin tugged his lips. A part of you wanted to give him the world when he smiled like that. “He’s been teaching me to dance! Hobi, Jungkook and Jimin all go to the same dance class and I want to join too, but I don’t want to embarrass myself, so he’s been teaching me.”
“Huh,” it wasn’t your best or most eloquent response, but it was a response nonetheless. You tried to assimilate the image you had of Hoseok in your head with the one Taehyung was proposing, and found you simply couldn’t do it.
You spent a little longer talking with the two hybrids, laughing at their antics and the stories they told you from their dorms. Considering they were Hoseok’s friends, they were pretty decent. Then again, you weren’t really one to judge right off the back; like you’d emphasised many times before, Hoseok was rude to you first. Before that, you were perfectly friendly. Well, as perfectly friendly as one could be when they were livid about being conned by their landlord.
Your joyful interaction was interrupted though. Halfway through talking both hybrids paused, heads tilting and ears twitching— Jungkook’s smaller ears ruffled his chestnut locks slightly, but Taehyung’s larger pair shifted quickly. You were about to ask what was wrong when you heard it too, a shrill noise from the direction of your bedroom that sounded horrifyingly familiar.
“Oh shit, someone’s calling me,” you blurted, before lurching from your spot and racing down the hall, hoping you didn’t miss the call. You had that ringtone reserved for one person in particular and she’d give you an absolute pizzling if you didn’t answer her on the first try.
“y/n!” your eardrums were accosted the second you picked up, upper half falling onto the bed to reach the phone in time. “Dude, you almost missed my call! Ungrateful.”
“Hani,” you cooed, fluttering your lashes out of habit. “I came running as soon as I heard the ringtone.”
The female sniffed, and you could have sworn you heard two hybrids snickering from down the hall. They’d met your friend before, and they knew the wrath you’d meet if you happened to miss the call.
“You better have,” she said, voice loud against your ear. You briefly wondered if you should turn the call volume down or whether you should just deal with it for now. “Anyway, I’m just calling you to see how far away you are?”
“Hm?” you froze, teeth clacking from the speed with which you shut your mouth. What?
“You know, how far away you are…?” Hani continued, a knowing edge seeping into her tone. “From the cafe…? Where you are meeting me…? Like we planned…? A week ago…?”
You cursed, knowing for sure now that the laughter you were hearing down the hall was not a figment of your imagination. Of course they could hear every part of your conversation, stupid hybrid hearing.
“I’m…” you gulped. “Not far…”
“y/n,” Hani said. You slipped from your bed as she spoke, hurrying to the chest of drawers to the other side of the room and rooting around desperately for a dress or shirt or something you could get dressed into quickly.
“Yes?”
“You have ten minutes to get here, or else you’re shouting my meal.”
You shrieked, ignoring her cackling in favour of slamming the hang up button and lurching for the draw with all your underwear. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! Shit, I forgot I was meeting her today!”
Taehyung’s cackling reached you from down the hall, “Better hurry, y/n! She probably chose on of the expensive cafes!”
You let out a loud, tortured groan, knowing he was right. Ugh, Hani would. Cursing once more, you slammed the door shut and threw yourself into the quickest attempt at getting dressed you’d ever achieved on record.
If you skipped hair, you might just make it in time.
x x x x x x x x
As it turned out, you hadn’t made it on time, but Hani had been so amused by how disheveled you looked as you rocked up to the table with a bird’s nest for hair and your shirt on backwards that she’d left you off the hook anyway.
Your little cafe date was there because you’d both gotten extremely caught up during this semester and hadn’t seen each other as much as you would have liked. You didn’t think you’d seen her for a few weeks this time. You were in different degrees, so it could be expected, more or less.
After your cafe date, you’d spent a good few hours studying in the library on the side of campus closest to your apartment. While you understood it was an unavoidable part of life, you still didn’t particularly like walking, and strategically included as little in your day as possible. At this point you were a pro, it was just unfortunate that that mastery didn’t extend to studying. You’d given up on your physiology revision after a few lectures when the information has stopped sticking and started slipping. It was an executive decision to call it quits while you were ahead, really. Your motto was always to study smart, not hard.
You thought you were going to be more tired after expending so many of your dwindling brain cells on studying for so long, but to your utter surprise you had enough energy to skip up to the door of your apartment if you wanted to. You almost did, but refrained for the sole reason that the last time you’d indulged in an urge like that you’d gotten a complaint from three separate tenants on the floor below and you weren’t up for being scolded by Maureen the middle-aged maitenance lady again. She got this crazy look in her eyes whenever they landed on you and it made you fear for your life— you would have been much more alarmed that she had a key to your apartment did you not have a defence of sorts in the form of a grumpy lemur hybrid who happened to have night vision and a tendency for holding grudges.
Smiling to yourself about how funny you were, you unlocked the front door and swung it open as you usually did when you came home to an empty house, even going so far to holler into the void, “I’m home!”
You almost tripped as you entered the apartment at the sound of a pained groan that echoed from the direction of the living room— you thought no-one was home? Fuck, what day was it? You tried to recall what part of the week you were in and pulled a face when you realised you’d miscalculated and that tomorrow was the day Hoseok worked later, not today. Shit, that meant he was here— if you’d known you would have hung around the library a bit longer.
Before you could backtrack and leg it back out the door, you genuinely tripped on your next step and nearly hurtled to the floor. You caught yourself on the wall with a loud thud, and glared at the offending shoe that had just made an attempt on your life. God, you couldn’t even blame Hoseok— it was one of yours.
“Ah, y/n! Are you alright?”
You looked up at the sound of a voice you most certainly hadn’t been expecting, the concerned expression of one Park Jimin peeking around the corner that lead to the living room. Heat instantly rushed to your face. What the hip hoppin’ heck was Jimin doing here? You cursed internally. God, could this get any worse?
“I’m fine,” you managed, voice somewhat strangled as you threw yourself into a standing position once more, a little too quickly. You dusted your clothes, adjusting your bag. “I just, uh, dropped something is all. Yeah.”
You honestly wondered how and why it was possible for every single one of Hoseok’s friends to be as ridiculously attractive as they were. Jimin’s look of concern split to reveal a stunning smile as his plush lips tugged into a grin and his hazel eyes honest to god almost glimmered in the light. Holy shit. Why couldn’t you have gotten Jimin as your roommate? Not only was he nicer than your current housemate, but you definitely wouldn’t complain about waking up to see this every day. Not to say Hoseok wasn’t attractive— it was just you were usually so annoyed with him that you spent as little time as possible looking at his face, because you knew you’d forget you were mad as soon as you saw it. Jung Hoseok had one of those faces that looked like it was made for smiling, it was a shame you hadn’t been witness to it. A small part of you predicted it would probably feel like looking upon the sun.
You quickly squashed that thought as you returned the hybrid’s grin and moved further into the house— your house. Jimin hovered in case you needed help, and you tried not to squeal like a preteen at how much of a sweetheart he was.
“So,” you began as you moved towards the kitchen, the only hybrid in the apartment that cared for your wellbeing trailing after you. “What brings you here today, Jimin?”
“Oh!” the male sounded behind you, and you glanced behind you to see his copper tail curling against his thigh. His eyes, a strange mixture of hazel, olive green and cocoa, were wide and clear as he smiled at you once more, the large, light brown ears atop his head flicking lightly. “We’re going—”
“We have dance.”
It was a curt voice that interrupted, and you nearly jumped a clear foot in the air as you entered the kitchen area to see Hoseok there already, leaning against the bench with his arms crossed. A light duffel bag was slung over his shoulder, and you tried not to look at how good the current position made his body look, especially in those clothes, damn him. It was much easier to focus on the fresh wave of fear and annoyance that washed over your insides at the sight of the irritated expression on the male’s handsome face. Oh christ, you were about to get a lecture.
“Oh, hello Hoseok,” you greeted, smiling widely as you deposited your bag on one of the chairs at the table. “I didn’t know you were home!”
The male’s nose wrinkled at your words, amber eyes narrowing. It was always startling, meeting his gaze. The combination of golden-amber irises, rimmed by dark lashes and coupled with the dark, kohl-like colouring around the upper and outer corners of his eyes— a carryover from his hybrid genetics, no doubt— always awakened a sensation in the pit of your stomach and the bottom of your lungs that you didn’t quite know how to put a name to. It was like fear, but not. You weren’t sure but honestly if you ever managed to make Hoseok really angry, you were sure you were going to absolutely shit yourself at the end result of being truly glared at with those eyes.
As though he could sense your unease, Jimin’s hand found its way to the material of your sleeve and grasped it, a comforting weight. You couldn’t help the soft twitch of your lips.
“I don’t know why you wouldn’t know I was home,” he said, shapely lips forming a sharp frown. “Our shoes are literally sitting outside the door.”
You blinked. Were they? It was kind of hard to remember if they were or not, since you hadn’t really been watching where you were going. As soon as you saw your front door it was like you developed tunnel vision, and the only thing that was on your mind was what lay on the other side— your bed, and food.
Your eyes were drawn to the movement from the side, gaze falling upon the long, striped tail that was curling and flicking agitatedly against Hoseok’s thigh and the bench. Your lips formed a soft ‘o’.
“Oh,” you smiled at him. “You’re mad at me. What did I do this time?”
The male looked like he was physically restraining himself from causing you grievous harm, and Jimin looked torn between leaving you to comfort his friend and staying where he was.
After a deep breath, Hoseok was ready to talk. The smile that tugged his own lips was the best he could manage, and was the very visual definition of strained. “You left food out again,” he said. “We’re going to get ants, y/n.”
Your face wrinkled as you tried to think of what you could have possibly left out, before you followed his pointed gaze to a bag lying incriminatingly on the bench that was otherwise completely clear. You blinked. Your banana chips. Realisation caused a scowl to slip onto your face. Taehyung. That bastard came into your home, ate your food, then left it on the bench and incriminated you.
“To be fair,” you said, eyes still on the packet as you tried to assess how much Taehyung had eaten. It was facing away from you, so you couldn’t see. With a sense of resignation, you stepped towards it and took it into your grasp, peering inside. “While I will admit it’s my food, it was Taehyung that came in and— ugh, that bastard ate it all!”
Your cry of outrage was met with an amused look from Jimin and a raised brow from Hoseok. It seemed like his anger had diffused for now, but you could tell it would hurt his pride if he just let you off at this point, after all the trouble he’d gone to in reprimanding you.
“Nonetheless,” he grumbled, pushing off the bench, “It’s your food, make sure it doesn’t get left out.”
“Yes, sir,” you smarted without a single regard for the possible repercussions, still staring with a frown into your empty packet. Every day that went by, you were going to charge Taehyung interest on replacement. Today, he owed you one bag— tomorrow, it would be two. By the end of the week? Probably around seven, you hadn’t done maths recently enough to know for sure.
Jimin guffawed at your words, and you glanced up to see whatever annoyance had fled Hoseok before had quickly returned, colouring his face red. Instead of speaking, he simply huffed, turning on his heel and striding towards the door.
“Oh, are we going?” Jimin asked, ears flicking as his head turned to follow Hoseok’s path.
“Yes,” came his grumbled response, and Jimin turned to you with a smile.
“It’s been a while since we saw each other, we have to hang out soon,” he said, beginning to angle his body towards the door. You nodded in agreeance.
“Definitely,” you said with a smile, reaching up to scratch behind his ear. The male’s shoulders tensed up as he let out a soft, purr-like sound at the sensation, large grin tugging his lips. His tail uncurled from where it had been against his thigh and flicked happily.
The moment, however brief, was ruined by an annoyed call, “Jimin, come on, we’re gonna be late.”
The lemur flinched, blinking away the light haze that had begun entering his gaze, and shot you a sweet smile before he was turning and moving towards the door.
“I’ll text you, tell me when your schedule is free!”
You nodded, and then he was gone along with Hoseok, leaving you standing alone in the kitchen, holding an empty banana chip bag and pondering how to best get away with murder. Maybe you should just go over to Taehyung’s house and eat his food. Your brows rose— actually, that wasn’t such a bad idea. Throwing the bag in the bin, you grabbed your bag and moved down to your room. Your bed awaited you, and it was there where you continued planning how to best avenge your fallen chip soldiers.
x x x x x x x x
The next morning found you hurrying off the bus and wincing at the cool morning air that greeted you the second your foot met the path. You missed the warmth of the bus, but there was something satisfying about being at your university so early that the air was crisp against your cheeks and the sun wasn’t too harsh against your form as you basked in its rays. This morning you had an early class, but you’d left even earlier in hopes of avoiding Hoseok. It had seemed like your efforts weren’t in vain— the door to his room had been closed and beyond, you assumed he was still sleeping. A success in your book.
Conveniently, the library for your school was close to the bus stop that you got off at. Even more conveniently, your favourite cafe on the whole campus was directly across from the library, on the back end of the physiology building. It pleased you on days like this when you didn’t have to travel across campus for classes and instead they were all localised to this little area. Ah yes, your favourite days.
Considering you’d made efforts to get here much earlier than usual, there was about an hour before your class started. You’d skipped breakfast for the sake of catching the early bus, so before you’d even resolved to make the decision it was no surprise that your feet were already walking you in the direction of the cafe. The idea of the baked goods, the toasted sandwiches, the coffee… god you were salivating already.
You pushed into the cafe, the bell above the door tinkling prettily to alert the employees to your presence. Warmth graced your form as you stepped inside, allowing the door to close behind you softly. You wondered who was on shift this morning—
Attaching to the back of the short line, your gaze swept to the register and you froze. What the fuck. Now way, it wasn’t possible!
As the person currently at the counter moved off after placing their order and paying, and the line moved forward, the male donning an apron and bright smile looked over the rest of the people waiting to be served— and his amber eyes fell directly upon you. It was too late to run, he’d seen you. God damn it, you forgot that he worked at this cafe.
Hoseok glared at you as soon as he saw you, expression shifting alarmingly fast to a bright smile however as another customer made their way before him. It was a girl around your age, twirling some of her long, flaxen hair around her finger as she ordered with a coy bat of her lashes. You didn’t doubt Hoseok would have flirted back any other time, but your presence in his place of work seemed to have riled him up a bit. You smiled smugly to yourself. Maybe this wasn’t so bad— it was even better that he technically couldn’t be rude to you here. God, what was this feeling? This power running through your veins? Exhilarating. You couldn’t believe you didn’t know he worked the early shift before. This was great.
You couldn’t hide your eagerness to get to the front of the line, and by the time it was finally your turn to order you were almost bouncing on your toes.
“Wah, Hoseok, good morning!” you cheered in greeting, shooting him a bright, smug smile. He absolutely glowered at you, teeth gritting at his inability to be rude to a customer. You watched as his bushy, ringed tail flicked in annoyance behind him, smacking forcibly into the cupboard. You’d never been so thrilled in your life. “It’s a bit chilly this morning, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” he answered shortly, fingers gripping the register so tightly that his knuckles gleamed white. “What can I get for you today, y/n?”
It looked like it physically pained him to say your name instead of something like “she-demon”, and you found it incredibly amusing. When Hoseok got this annoyed, his lips formed the most endearing pout. It was like looking at an angry toddler. His ears, white and fluffy, flicked back against his ashen blonde hair as he spoke.
“Hmm,” you hummed, taking a moment to gaze over the menu like you hadn’t been mentally planning what you were going to order the entire thirty minute bus trip here. “I think… today I will get a mocha, large, with caramel flavouring please.”
Hoseok, averted his glower from you to the register as he tapped the order in. One of his coworkers, another cute male whose name-tag read Moonbin, sidled over as he noticed Hoseok’s tense form.
“Ah, Hoseok, you can go make that if you want, I’ll take the rest of her order! You’ve been on the register a while,” he said, bright smile melting your heart despite the fact it wasn’t even aimed at you.
Hoseok, however, seemed immune to the sunshine-like rays that beamed from his coworkers smile, and instead nodded, relinquishing the register with a grumble. He shot one last glare your way before he grasped a large take-away cup and scribbled the drink type on it with a green marker, moving away. You watched his tail lash the whole way behind him before it curled back around his leg and he got to work.
Your attention was recaptured once more by the cute barista that had taken Hoseok’s spot.
“Is there anything else we can get you?” he queried, aiming that bright, boyish smile at you. You nearly toppled as the full force of it hit you at once, your knees slightly weak.
“Actually, yes!” you said, doing your best to recover quickly. You returned his smile with a grin of your own, pointing to the glass display of mouth-watering goods to your right. “Can I please get a blueberry muffin? I was going to get, like, a toasted sandwich or something, but I’m not strong enough to resist a discount.”
Moonbin laughed, and you could have sworn you saw Hoseok roll his eyes. You were torn between satisfaction and annoyance at the observation.
“Sure thing,” he smiles once more, dark eyes casting warmth of their own over you. Were this a different situation, without your grumpy roommate in the picture, you might have been swooning. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s all today, thank you,” you said happily, enjoying the way Hoseok’s tail and ears flicked to betray his annoyance. It was so much more fun riling him up here— less terrifying to poke a bear when he couldn’t bite back.
“Alright, then that’ll be $8.25,” the barista informed you, and you happily paid. Those muffins were two dollars cheaper than usual today, so it felt like a small victory that you’d spent less than you’d resigned yourself to.
As soon as your order was complete you moved over to the side to await your drink— Moonbin had passed you the muffin once you paid since you didn’t have to wait for it to be made. The girl that had been waiting behind you the entire time shot you a glare as you moved. You tried not to laugh; she must have been there for Hoseok if she was bitter you’d made him move off the register.
It was early, and despite your best efforts you hadn’t had your caffeine hit yet and as a result found yourself slipping into a sleepy daze as you waited for your drink. God, Hoseok was taking a while making it. Your thoughts shifted off-track to the hybrid in question, and how the hell he managed to look so put-together considering he was at work this early? His hair wasn’t even messy, he didn’t have bags under his eyes… your tired ass could never. It made you even more annoyed that he had such a good bounce-back from early mornings.
After what felt like a whole decade later, your name was finally called and you looked to see your mocha sitting there in its cup alone on the bench, receipt beneath it. Letting out a pleased noise, you eagerly moved and grasped it, nabbing the receipt as you went. You got about five feet out the door and onto the footpath before you realised that the paper of the receipt felt a little different than usual— were they always this thick?
Perplexed, you slowed your walk a little and unfolded the receipt in your grasp. Your eyebrows shot up as you saw a folded sticky note inside the receipt, a heart scribbled upon the top. Incredulity and a shred of hopeful surprise flickered inside you. Did you… charm the cute barista? Was this a note containing his number? Holy shit… It would seem you were winning today, in more ways than one.
Trying not to show how eager you were, you unfolded the note with nimble fingers and allowed your eyes to follow the messily scrawled letters. You froze, steps coming to a halt in the middle of the sidewalk.
“It’s your turn to do the dishes tonight. Also, the hot water system is broken again— call the maitenance lady. xx”
You scowled, crumpling the note and slamming it into the nearest bin. A couple on the seats nearby sent you a startled look, but you just turned and strode towards the library, taking an angry sip of your drink.
He might have ruined your mood and might have been the worst housemate to ever exist, but at least he made a good caramel mocha.