When Eloise's father tells her that he has arranged a marriage for her, she is outraged. But then she meets the man she is supposed to marry, and decides that being forced to marry a stranger might not be too bad if it is this particular stranger.
...
"No, Jimin," Hoseok said for the 15th time. "You can not come with us."
"Why not?" Jimin whined at him, then looked at me. "Ellie, I can come, right?"
"Sorry, Jiminie, but no," I told him, as I hooked Rizzo's leash to his collar. "Not this time."
"But why does he get to go?" Jimin asked, pointing at my dog.
"Are you seriously comparing yourself to my dog, Park Jimin?" I asked him. Then, remembering what Hoseok said in the kitchen, I laughed. "Because he's an actual puppy."
"That's not what you said you would tell him," Hoseok said from behind me.
I turned to look at him. "I can't. Look at his face." I pointed to Jimin's pout.
Hoseok rolled his eyes. All the way around, like he always does, making me giggle. "Fine. Let's go, Gongjunim." He held his hand out for me to take.
I smiled brightly and slid my fingers through his, making Jimin groan and look at Yoongi. "You're right. They are disgustingly cute."
Yoongi just shrugged from where he was sitting on the couch, still scribbling in his notebook. "Told you."
Once we finally made it outside, I turned to walk along one of the cemented footpaths that surrounded my father's estate.
"So..." Hoseok said. "I don't want to push you, but you can start any time."
"I know, baby," I told him. "I'm just..."
"You have to stop doing that, sweetheart," he told me. "I need you to finish your sentences."
"Sorry, Hobi," I told him, then took a deep breath and started. "I don't like Christmas."
"I could tell," he said quietly.
"What?" I asked, looking over at him in surprise. "You could tell? But I'm so good at faking it."
He shrugged his shoulders. "I guess that I can just read you better than other people."
"And you're not acting like I personally stabbed you."
"What?" he asked with a laugh.
"Usually, when people hear that I don't like Christmas," I told him. "They tend to act like I just stabbed them in the heart. Or kicked a puppy. Or threw a kitten or something. Like I have personally wronged them in some way, just because I don't like it."
"People can be dumb," he said. "I want to ask why you don't like it, but you don't have to tell me."
"I'll tell you," I said to him. Then I went into the whole long story about my grandma and everything. By the time I was done, there were tears falling from my eyes.
"Oh, Eloise," Hoseok said, pulling me into a tight embrace. "My Gongjunim, I am so sorry. I wish more than anything that there was something I could do to help with this, but I know that there isn't."
I hugged him back, pressing my face into his neck. It had just occurred to me that I did this often, and that hugging him and pressing into his neck had started to feel like my safe place. Whenever I did it, everything was better. Even if nothing was wrong, it made it better. Kind of like with Rizzo.
Having Hoseok's arms around me and my face pressed into the warm skin of his beautiful neck was my home. Wow.
It took me a minute to come back from that revelation and continue our conversation.
"You're not going to tell me to get over it?" I asked against his skin.
"What? Of course not."
"Or that she would want me to enjoy it?"
"While I'm sure that she would want you to enjoy her favorite holiday," he said, stroking my hair lightly to calm me. "I also know that hearing those words doesn't help at all."
"No," I said. "It really doesn't. It makes me feel guilty."
"Guilty?"
"Yeah," I told him, pulling back just far enough to look at his face. "Guilty that even though I know she would want me to love Christmas as much as she did, I just can't."
Hoseok sighed and moved his hands down to rest on my waist. "Do you think that I can help?"
"Help how?"
"I'm not completely sure, yet," he said, looking up at the snow falling around the two of us. "Maybe if we do something like a 'Christmas' Greatest Hits' kind of thing together? Or a 'Christmas Bucket list'? That probably sounds stupid..."
I shook your head at him. "No. I like it. I'm up for trying. And...I enjoy every moment that I'm with you, Hobi. Maybe if I make new Christmas memories with you, it will really help."
He blushed a little. "I was going to say something along those lines, but I thought that it migh make me sound full of myself."
I giggled and reached up to touch the pink splash across one of his high cheekbones. "Nah. It doesn't. It's the truth. I love being with you, Hobi. Being around you. You're like the sun. You make my life bright and happy."
He gives me the most gorgeous, bright-as-hell smile that I have ever seen, and I am suddenly glad that he's holding onto me, and I'm holding onto him, because my knees feel a little weak.
He feels me teeter on my feet a little, and raises a perfect eyebrow at me. "Are you okay?"
I bite my lip for a moment before answering him. "Honestly? Sometimes you literally make me weak in the knees, Hoseok. You give me this beautiful smile, or this sexy smirk, and I about fall to the ground. Or melt into a puddle. Either one is possible."
He does the thing that I love and tilts his head to the side like a puppy. "I do that to you?"
"Since the moment we met, baby," I tell him, cupping his face in my hands.
He leans down to kiss me, pressing his lips to mine, and I can actually feel his smile.
Was it possible to completely fall in love with someone in just a couple of weeks?
A/N: hello lovelies. Since this chapter is pretty short, I'm going to do a double update, so enjoy. Please don't forget to vote. And feel free to leave a comment! I'll answer back! Stay safe and healthy, my friends!
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