Quiet | BTS ✓

55

"Ho, Ho, Hoseok is here with a feast!" Hoseok exclaims as he comes out of the kitchen and places a large tray of food onto the dining table.

"Cutie," Hoseok's mother says and Hoseok blushes.

"What?" Mrs. Jung laughs. "Your girlfriend isn't here to compliment you, so I have to work twice as hard!"

Yoongi knows that Hoseok misses his girlfriend; she lives fairly far away from Hoseok's apartment, so they don't see each other as often as he would like.

But as expected, Hoseok is not dwelling on the part of him that misses her; he is focusing his attention on who he does get to see for this Christmas holiday.

Hoseok rolls his eyes affectionately as he sits down between Aria and his mother. "I know we are missing Rina and Mr. Min, but I am glad that the five of us are here."

"Me too," Yoongi says, smiling warmly.

He wishes his uncle could be here, but he is helping to restore the music room, and he is far too busy ordering new instruments to replace the ones lost in the fire.

He told Yoongi he could pick the new piano, but Yoongi refused.

The wound is still too fresh; he is still too fragile.

So, he is focusing on today.

Not yesterday. Not tomorrow.

Just today.

Christmas with his girlfriend, his best friend and his best friend's parents.

Aria lays her hand on Yoongi's arm and he turns his attention to her to see her watching him with a questioning gaze.

She's wondering if he is okay.

Yoongi sighs and nods, a small smile gracing his lips.

"I'm okay. For today, I will be okay," he says to her, the last part supposed to be more to himself than to her, but she hears it and sends her boyfriend a sad smile before kissing his cheek.

The couple hear Hoseok and his parents gushing over their affection, and Yoongi laughs while Aria rolls her eyes as she takes a bite of her food.

"I hear wedding bells in the future," Hoseok's father says knowingly, and Aria chokes on her food.

~

"Goodnight, my three beautiful little angels," Mrs. Jung nearly sobs in happiness as she hugs the three.

"Mom," Hoseok whines halfheartedly through his laughter as Aria and Yoongi just let the group hug happen.

"Let's go, dear," Mr. Jung says in a loving voice to his wife. "I think you've had a bit too much wine, yeah?"

After more hugs and gentle urging from Hoseok's father to get his wife to go home and let her son be with his friends, they finally leave and Hoseok closes the front door, laughing at the drunken state of his mother.

"I love them," Hoseok sighs happily, stretching his arms above his head.

He glances over at Yoongi and Aria cuddled together on the couch, and he smiles fondly at his two best friends.

"Let's open gifts now, yeah?" Hoseok suggests, pointing at the small pile of gifts underneath their Christmas tree.

"Sure," Yoongi says, seemingly nervous as the three move to sit on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.

Yoongi is scared, terrified even, that his friends won't like the gifts he has picked out for them. He spent a lot of time thinking of the perfect gift for each of them, and he hopes that they will like them.

After all those years of making gifts for his parents for their birthdays as a child and being disappointed when he would see them in the trash the next day, he found it hard to find gifts that he felt would be good enough for such perfect people that he knew in his heart would never treat him that way.

He wanted to reach into the night sky and place the moon in a jar to give to Aria to show her how he views her; ethereal and everlasting in her beauty.

He wanted to capture the sun itself and show Hoseok how much he resembles it; how his personality and his smile shine just as brightly and how he brings comforting warmth to those in his embrace.

But because he cannot do that, he feels nervous that his gifts will not compare to the people themselves.

He wonders how he can possibly give everything to those who mean everything to him.

Maybe, one day, he will unlock that secret.

"I'm opening up one of my gifts first because I was the one who cooked and I will also be the only one who cleans," Hoseok declares as he grabs the gift from Yoongi.

Yoongi gulps as he watches Hoseok tear the paper off.

Hoseok gasps before grinning so widely, Yoongi is sure that his smile is not as bright as the sun; it's even brighter.

"Yoongs, you got me a camera?" Hoseok asks, smile threatening to split his face in two.

"Yeah," Yoongi says, rubbing the back of his neck. "I noticed that you take a lot of pictures. Not just of Aria and me, but scenery and stuff too. I figured you could use an actual camera. Maybe get your pictures printed and hung up in your future dance studio."

"Thank you, Yoongs," Hoseok says in awe as he stares at the camera's box with glee and excitement.

"You're welcome, Hobi," Yoongi says, feeling his tense shoulders relax.

"Aria, open yours from Yoongi," Hoseok says, pushing the very large gift towards her.

Her eyebrow lifts up as she has to stand to unwrap it, and Yoongi can feel his heart skip a beat as he watches her tear the gift wrap off of the large item.

Yoongi sees Aria's jaw drop and when tears pool in her eyes, he knows they're not sad tears.

She's smiling from ear to ear as she opens the case to reveal a brand new cello, its polished wood gleaming perfectly underneath the Christmas lights.

"Wow," Hoseok says in awe.

"I know the one you have is pretty worn down, so I wanted you to have a new one. My uncle says that's one of the best models you can get," Yoongi says shyly, watching Aria run her fingers along the neck of the instrument.

After one last lingering look, Aria carefully closes the instrument's case, leaning it against the wall before making her way to her boyfriend, basically falling into his lap as she holds onto him tightly, sending her message through the kiss she places on his lips.