Hobi's Demands • JHS

Ten

By Wednesday you were angry at him, frustrated that he'd pretended to be interested in you when your silent phone said he wasn't. By Thursday you'd hand washed the delicate lingerie tossing it back into the white box tucked into the tissue paper, green bow tugged down over its lid.

You'd wanted to talk about everything with Suyee, debate your next steps like you always did about difficult men, but you couldn't bring yourself to do it. One, was it really advisable to mention J Hope? You loved her dearly but she had the most casual mouth in the world. She wouldn't even mean to but she'd probably accidentally bring it up to a dozen people. Two, this wasn't a dynamic either of you knew anything about, it felt weird dragging her into it. What could she really advise you to do?

You settled on plan b, flopping onto your couch on Friday and lifting your phone, his text box open. You grit your teeth, convinced you were on the moral high ground and typed your message.

YN: Should I put the lingerie at your door or should I toss it in the trash?

You hit send before you could rethink it. You watched the screen, no dancing dots. After five minutes you abandoned the phone and went to start dinner.

Who did you think you were? Certainly not someone capable of keeping up with his games. Definitely not someone who could compartmentalize your feelings and dance this tango of uncertainty. Clearly Hobi had been doing this for years, he knew all the steps with his eyes closed. He didn't have the nickname 'Dance Teacher' for nothing, you knew first hand now it extended well beyond the studio.

Dinner was left over fish and vegetable soup you'd made the night before. It was tasteless on your tongue as you shoveled it in, barely chewing while your brain tossed around all your insecurities. When you'd finally returned to the kitchen to wash your dishes you heard your phone's Hobi tone.

JH: Throwing away almost a million won sounds irresponsible, how about you return it in person right now?

You stared at your phone, something like desire curling through your stomach. Now you were frustrated with yourself, how dare your body long for Mr Egotistical.

YN: Absolutely not, we played this same foolish game a week ago and then you ignored me, I'm done

JH: I ignored you? Inaccurate babe

You fumed, a sound growling from your lips as you stomped across the floor pacing. You tried to respond twice, your thumbs frozen over the screen while you calmed your temper. Neither answer seemed quite right.

YN: Then you had a extremely busy week and didn't have time to reach out?

JH: It was a fairly lazy week actually, I caught up on all the TV I'd missed

You wished you could hit him with the lingerie box. He'd just been lounging upstairs in his palace while you turned yourself inside out wondering why he didn't message you? He'd been so rude pushing you off the elevator, mentioning step three and then ghosting.

YN: So you did ignore me

JH: How do you figure that?

YN: You were the one who dismissed me from the elevator without so much as a goodbye, do you realize how embarrassing that was in front of Park Jimin?

JH: Come up, I'm not doing this through text, it's boring

YN: No

JH: Suit yourself, if you think I'm going to crawl down there and beg for your attention you're mistaken

YN: And I'm supposed to beg for yours?

JH: Precisely

Why could you see the moronic smirk on his dumb face? Fine. You would go upstairs, deliver his stupid gift, and then cool as ice walk away. You could be as aloof and uncaring as he could. Liar.