Ride - JHS ***COMPLETED***

Back in the Saddle

Hoseok contemplated looking for a new job. Even if it paid less, or came with less notoriety...shit...honestly he'd rather take a gig getting kicked in the face every hour than deal with the torture bashing against his body as he sat at his desk. 

Because, try as he did to ignore it, Sam was...just...breathtaking.

Even with her leg in a boot splint and her arm in a soft sling, there was no denying the Sam was still the girl he never thought he needed but couldn't live without. She practically ignored his existence, only speaking to him when the work absolutely required it, cordial and civil but also cold and distant. 

She was her usual sunny self when it came to just about everyone else. She laughed with Jimin, her bell-like giggles heard over the noisy din of the cafeteria like a siren's call. She talked intently with Jeongguk and Taehyung, working diligently on the gaming sector of the project he'd brought in with Claudia's company, bringing them coffees and sipping on her smoothies with glee. She even had lunches with Namjoon again, the two of them talking seriously and using their hands to gesture back and forth at their favorite cafe, while Hoseok watched with tears prickling his eyes from the sidewalk across the street.

She was back to herself. To the her before he met her, the her before he'd broken her heart.

And she deserved to be.

Hoseok had protested to management when he heard that Sam had wanted to move her desk out to the production floor, siting the inconvenience of noise and productivity for the moments that they would need to work together to manage their teams. But...gods he wished he hadn't bothered. Because it meant that he had to see her, smell her sweet perfume, watch her ignore his very existence as she worked and lived and sat too close but also too far away. He had to see how the pink in her hair had been refreshed, how her skirts and shorts showed her legs and the curve of her hips, how her golden eyes flashed with frustration or excitement at her screen as she plugged away at difficult code.

How her eyes never looked at him.

It was the worst punishment he could imagine, not to exist to her when she was all that existed for him. But, he figured it was what he had earned, what he deserved for hurting her the way he had. 

Even if the bet didn't have any pull by the time she found out, it had still existed. He had still made the bet with only his own interests in mind. The bet hadn't cared whether or not she'd cry herself to sleep at night, whether or not she would recover from the heartache it caused, and Hoseok hadn't cared either when he'd spoken it into creation. He'd had no heart back then, and Sam had given him one without even knowing it. Even if she would be the one who owned it forever, without reciprocation or acknowledgement, he couldn't be mad at her for her abuse of it. It was his penance for what he had done, and his ironic fate that he would be the one pining for her for the rest of his days after creating such a heartless bet with Sam as the butt of his sick, cruel joke.

Swallowing down the lump in his throat once again, Hoseok bent his head over his laptop to shield his vision from looking at the woman of his dreams for another minute of the workday.

--{-@  

"I think you're being highly unreasonable, Samson," Namjoon smiled as Sam giggled at his new nickname, "You're the best of the best, and A.J.A.X. can't make it without you."

"You'll be a fine supervisor," Sam waved him off as she took a bite of her fries, "If I can do it, you can definitely do it. You won't even have half the resistance I did making my way to the position."

"I don't want it, though?" his voice raised in question, "I don't really care of I'd make a great supervisor, because I'm wholeheartedly not interested in supervising right now. I'd rather succeed while the business succeeds. I'll get my bossman position when we expand again."

"But I can't do it anymore!" Sam flopped her good arm and leg as she pitched a mini-fit in the café booth, "I can't look at his gross, dumb, shitty, beautiful face anymore!"

Namjoon laughed around his bite of burger, "As descriptive as that was, you know you're better than that, Sam," he pointed at her with his fry, "You're letting your heart make decisions for your brain, and that's not how you run. Think about it logically, and you know I'm right. Going freelance in this current economy isn't the best shot right now."

Sam slumped onto the wooden table, "I know," she looked up at him with a friendly glare, "You don't always have to be a genius, you know."

"Can't help it," he returned with a faux-smug smile, "It's in my nature."

"So how do I get past this? I want to let it go, but I just can't get their voices out of my head." She glared at Namjoon's dubious look, "Don't give me that attitude. I know what I heard."

"Do you, though?"

"It was kinda' hard not to know," Sam simpered at her friend, "I have the distinct knowledge of what that man's sexyflirtygimmethatass voice sounds like, and that's the one he was using on Claudia," she mocked the woman's name, hating herself for it.

"Claudia Miles?" Namjoon furrowed his eyebrows, "From Pro-Mount?" He tilted his head as Sam nodded confirmation, "I don't think I've seen or heard anything about her since the contract signing, though."

"Doesn't mean he's not seeing her...or hearing her," Sam muttered the last part with a scowl. 

"Have you talked to him about it at all?"

"And how exactly would I do that?" she tossed her hands in the air, "Hey, Hobi, remember that one time you were fucking the Pro-Mount chick in your office? Well I heard that and it really hurt my poor baby feelings. You're not still fucking her, right? Because that totally matters when I can't get the image of the time that you were fucking her out of my head every time I look at you. Thanks for not making the office reek of perma-sex, though. Much appreciated. Think we can be friends or whatever?"

"He spent a cool dozen grand to fix your bike," Namjoon chuckled, "I think 'friends or whatever' is definitely on the table, at the very least."

"My friendship can't be bought for a measly few grand," Sam sniffed as Namjoon laughed at her.

"Anyone can be bought for a freshly upgraded cycle," he went on, "Shit, I'd suck his dick for a new exhaust, if I'm being honest. Those fuckers are expensive!"

"Practice getting rid of your gag reflex," Sam giggled, gasping at her own admission, "
Oh shit! I did not  say that. Don't you dare tell him I said that. I'll deny till I die!"

"I won't tell him," Namjoon wiped a mirthful tear from his eye, "But you really should talk to him. I'd hate to think you're holding onto this because of a misunderstanding," he held up his hands in surrender at her scoff, "I'm not saying you can't hate him, Samson," he shook his head, "I just think you should be absolutely sure you're justified if you are going to hate him."

He watched as Sam chewed her food, her contemplative stare traveling to look out the window at the world passing by. A small part of him wished that he was the man she needed, but the bigger part of him just wanted to see her happy. He was sure there was something she was missing, something he couldn't see but would mean the difference between her and Hoseok being together or not. If they ended up apart for the right reasons, Namjoon would let his conscious accept it. But if there was any reason that Sam could be her very happiest, Namjoon felt it was up to him as a friend to make sure she got the chance she needed to make the best decision for her.

She deserved it.