Chapter Text
"That sounds like an absolutely terrible fucking idea.”
That was what his sister had said to him when Hoseok had revealed his master plan to her, aptly titled The Grand Plan by Hoseok himself.
The Grand Plan was simple - enlist in the Seoul Metropolitan Police, train hard, graduate, and get placed in the same squad as Min Yoongi. Reconnect with Min Yoongi, impress him in the field with his mad skills, and then win him back. Piece of cake.
His sister had strongly advised against it, of course. She’d called him an idiot and told him that if his stupid Grand Plan plan actually worked, then she’d swallow her beloved Gucci handbag whole.
Hoseok didn’t expect his dear sister to actually swallow her precious bag, but he was determined to prove her wrong nonetheless. He knew it was a crazy idea, but he was a man on a mission after all, ready and willing to do just about anything to win back his one true love.
He met Min Yoongi back when they were both still fresh-faced young teenagers, they’d been something like high school sweethearts. They made a bit of a curious couple; Hoseok was naturally extroverted and enthusiastic, and Yoongi was the shy and quiet new kid who’d just moved to Seoul from Daegu. While Hoseok enjoyed sports and got himself involved in just about every social activity on campus, Yoongi could more often be found hiding out in the music room.
Still, something between them had just clicked . Being with Yoongi felt right . Hoseok loved everything about Yoongi, from his quick wit, to his brilliantly beautiful smile, to the way his smaller body seemed to fit so perfectly against his own. They dated all throughout high school, and stayed together through college, too. Shortly after they graduated from college, they moved in together.
Yoongi had been his first everything - his first kiss, his first fuck, his first love. They understood each other in ways that nobody else could, and Hoseok was utterly convinced that Yoongi was his soulmate. They were always on the same page and always seemingly able to read each other’s thoughts, sometimes they even found themselves finishing each other’s sentences. They were practically joined at the hip and almost never had disagreements of any kind. They were so in love, and so perfect for each other. Hoseok would do anything for him.
That was why Hoseok hadn’t seen it coming at all, when Yoongi had suddenly told him one day that he wanted to break up.
They’d been sitting at their little dining table, sharing some takeout jajangmyeon that Hoseok had picked up on the way home from work. And then, out of the blue, Yoongi had said that they needed to talk .
“I submitted an application to the SMPA a while ago,” he’d said, his food completely untouched, “I heard back from them today. They’ve accepted my application. I’ll be reporting to my first day of training in two weeks.”
Hoseok admits he’d been surprised by this. Yoongi had never expressed any interest in joining the police force. In fact, it was the last thing Hoseok would have expected from him. After all, the Yoongi he knew liked to snuggle up on their couch, take long naps, and avoid strenuous physical activity at all costs. But then Hoseok remembered that Yoongi could probably easily kick his ass if he wanted to, and then it made a little more sense.
“I’ll have to move out,” Yoongi had continued on, “I’m required to live in barracks with the other trainees.”
Now this , Hoseok had a harder time accepting. Yoongi was always there to welcome him home after a long day at work, he couldn’t imagine it any other way. Slowly, he could feel his perfect world chipping away around him, but Yoongi had yet to deliver his finishing blow.
“Hoseok, I think we should break up. I need to focus now. You’ll just be a distraction for me.”
And that was when everything fell apart.
Because Hoseok loved Yoongi, he’d tried his best to respect his decision. They parted on amicable terms, promising each other that they were still best friends. Hoseok tried to smile through it all for Yoongi’s sake, but it hurt when he later discovered that Yoongi cut him out of his life entirely. He’d blocked his number, deleted him off of all social media, and even took down every photo of the two of them together that he’d ever posted on his blog. It was like the nine wonderful years they’d spent together never even happened.
Hoseok had daydreamed about spending the rest of his life with Yoongi, about one day asking him to marry him. Maybe they’d have kids one day, one boy and one girl, a picture-perfect family in a perfect house with a pretty garden and a white picket fence. To know that none of that would ever become a reality was too painful to even begin to explain. Without Yoongi, his world was in ruins.
Hoseok tried to move on, went on blind dates and even asked out a coworker on one occasion. But none of them could even hold a candle to Yoongi. None of them came anywhere near being as pretty or smart or funny as Yoongi. They didn’t understand Hoseok, didn’t get his sense of humor, didn’t have the patience for any of his bad habits like Yoongi did. None of them were perfect the way that Yoongi had been in Hoseok’s eyes.
For him, there was nobody else but Yoongi.
And so three long, miserable years after the breakup, in a last-ditch effort to win back the love of his life, he had devised The Grand Plan.
He’d show Yoongi how serious he was, that he was more than just a distraction . And maybe Hoseok could admit to dreaming up all sorts of scenarios where he’d prove himself so selfless and noble that Yoongi would be swooning over him again in no time - one particularly indulgent fantasy involved himself heroically taking a bullet for Yoongi in the field, or something like that. Oh, Hobi, you’re my hero, Yoongi would say, and then he’d be unable to resist falling right back into his arms.
And so after a year of grueling training, countless bruises, and getting constantly screamed at by superior officers, Hoseok finally finds himself getting ready for his first official day as an officer of the Seoul Metropolitan Police.
He’s confident, of course, that he’ll be placed in the same squad as Yoongi - he may or may not have bribed an unsuspecting member of HR into securing the placement for him, in exchange for him filing three months’ worth of backlogged paperwork for them. So he makes extra sure that all of the wrinkles have been ironed out of his brand new uniform, and spends another twenty minutes laboring over how he should part his bangs. This will be the first time that Yoongi will be seeing him in three years, after all.
His mother calls him as he’s on the way to the subway station, and she’s already in tears when he answers the phone.
“My little Hobi’s off to catch criminals and keep the city safe,” she sobs, “I’m so proud of you, dear. Do be careful, though, will you? You see so many scary things in the news these days...Did you hear, Hobi? Knife crime in the country has gone up by 11% in the last five years...”
“Don’t worry about me, eomma ,” Hoseok laughs as he jogs his way down the steps into the subway station and swipes his transit card at the turnstile, “I’m sure they’ll start us cadets out easy. We’ll probably just be issuing parking tickets for the first couple of weeks, or something boring like that.”
“If only your dear father could see you now, he’d be so proud of you, too - I’m sure he’s smiling up in heaven right now, bless his soul. Oh, I bet you look so handsome in your uniform-”
“You do know he only decided to become a policeman to get his ex back, right?” comes his sister’s unimpressed voice from somewhere in the background, and his mother pauses for a moment in confusion.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Gotta go, eomma !” Hoseok says hastily with a sheepish grin, “I’ll call you back later, okay?” He quickly hangs up and shoves his cell phone into his pocket before she can ask him anything else, and slides deftly between the doors of the subway carriage just moments before they can slide shut.
The ride from his local subway station to the police station is a brief one, and Hoseok is glad for it. To say that he’s eager to get started is an understatement - with every minute that passes, he’s that much closer to seeing Yoongi again. The thought is equal parts terrifying and thrilling.
Once he arrives at the station, Hoseok wastes no time in heading to the locker room to get changed. He puts on his freshly washed and ironed blue uniform shirt and tucks it carefully into the standard issue trousers, and then he quickly shines his badge and metal name tag with a handkerchief before fastening them to his chest. He forgoes the cap and holds it in his hand instead, after deciding that it would probably just mess up his hair and make his head look weirdly small.
After he’s double-checked his appearance in the bathroom mirror one more time, Hoseok heads down the hall to the meeting room where he’s been assigned to report to. He finds several other freshly-minted cadets seated inside, restlessly awaiting their first instructions.
As he walks through the door, Hoseok gives the room a quick scan. He doesn’t really recognize a whole lot of the people in the room, most of them were probably in different training squads - but there are a few familiar faces. He manages to spot Park Jimin, the guy he had bunked with in the training barracks - who’s currently chatting with Jeon Jungkook.
Well, he doesn’t know Jeon Jungkook exactly, but he definitely knows of him. He was in the same training squad as Hoseok and Jimin, but they never spoke or interacted much.
Still, everyone knows who Jeon Jungkook is. The kid had unwittingly become something of a celebrity amongst the new recruits. All the senior officers called him a prodigy . Despite being the youngest out of all of that year’s recruits, he’d graduated the academy at the top of the class with high marks in every area, from marksmanship to written exams. If Hoseok was the competitive type, it would have pissed him off, but fortunately for them, he’s not.
There’s an empty seat next to Jimin, so Hoseok quickly slides into it. Jimin turns to look at him, a grin splitting his cherubic face when he recognizes him. Even the police uniform does little to offset Jimin’s babyfaced charm, Hoseok thinks.
“Hey, Hobi!” he says cheerfully, “Looks like we got assigned to the same squad, huh? I can’t believe our luck!”
Well, Hoseok hadn’t exactly been placed in this particular squad based on luck, but he isn’t about to tell Jimin that. But he had, of course, told Jimin about The Grand Plan back when they first started their training.
Jimin’s response had been something along the lines of, “Jesus, that is literally the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard in my entire life. You’re out of your mind, Jung Hoseok.”
Still, it hadn’t stopped the two of them from getting along well and enjoying their time together as roommates, and Hoseok is glad to have him in the same squad now, too.
“You know Jungkook, right?” Jimin says as he gestures to the kid sitting on the other side of him, “He was in our training squad, too.”
“I don’t know if we’ve officially met,” Hoseok admits, and he holds out his hand for a shake. “I’m Jung Hoseok. Let’s work hard, yeah?”
“Pleased to meet you, hyung,” Jungkook replies eagerly, seemingly relieved to have found some friendly faces. It’s no secret to anyone that there’s been a lot of gossip about Jungkook floating around amongst the new recruits - mostly unpleasant whispers, based on jealousy - and Hoseok honestly feels bad for him. It’s not the kid’s fault that he has to be so damn good at everything.
“You nervous?” Hoseok asks, and Jungkook nods briefly.
“A little,” he admits, before lowering his voice to a whisper, “I heard some of the others saying that the squad leader’s a hardass.”
“Really?” Jimin asks, dismayed, “God damn it, maybe we’re not so lucky after all. Who’s the squad leader?”
Hoseok tunes out Jimin and Jungkook’s conversation as he takes another quick look around himself. Some of the cadets seem to be falling asleep, others are chatting with each other. It’s starting to feel a little warm in the meeting room, and Hoseok finds himself tugging restlessly at the freshly starched collar of his blue uniform shirt.
At that moment, the room’s door opens again, and two uniformed officers stroll in. Almost immediately, Hoseok snaps to attention, and Jimin and Jungkook quickly scramble to do the same.
Hoseok recognizes one of the two men who’ve just entered the room immediately. It’s Min Yoongi without a doubt, and his heart catches painfully in his throat.
It’s been, of course, quite some time since he’s last laid eyes on Min Yoongi. Three years, to be exact. Yet, Yoongi looks every bit as beautiful as Hoseok remembers, with his jet-black hair parted neatly at the center and the way that the uniform shirt tucked into his trousers accentuates his waistline. Hoseok swallows thickly.
While Yoongi is small and slender, his companion is taller and broader and has an easy smile on his face as he turns to face the room of rookies, with Yoongi standing slightly behind him. The inscription on his badge reads Assistant Inspector , and Hoseok supposes that he must be their squad leader. The guy doesn’t look much older than Hoseok himself - they might even be around the same age. He doesn’t look as bad as Jungkook had feared, but it’s still too early to tell for sure.
Almost immediately, some of the rookies stand up to salute the two men who are clearly their superior officers. The rest quickly follow suit, and Hoseok hastily gets up out of his seat to do the same.
But he can’t keep his eyes off of Yoongi, who has yet to look his way. He finds himself unsure of whether or not he wants Yoongi to see him. He’d spent so much time mentally preparing himself for this moment, but now that Yoongi is standing in front of him, looking so unfairly gorgeous, he’s not actually sure if he’s as ready as he thought he was. He feels like all the breath has been stolen right out of his lungs - Yoongi has always been absolutely stunning to him, and even after three years, that hasn’t changed one bit.
“You all look like a promising bunch,” the taller man smiles as the chatter dies down, “Please, have a seat. I’m excited to finally meet all of you. My name is Assistant Inspector Kim Namjoon, and I’m going to be your new team leader. I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to all of you, and to congratulate you for making it this far. Starting today, you are officially officers of the Seoul Metropolitan Police. I thank you all for your dedication, and hope we can continue to work hard together.”
Kim Namjoon then motions behind himself at Yoongi and continues on. “This is Senior Officer Min Yoongi,” he says, “My field partner. You’ll be reporting to him as well, so feel free to come to either of us if you have any questions.”
“Looks like a kid playing dress-up,” someone from the back of the room remarks loudly, and Hoseok spins around indignantly to see who it is. How dare someone say something like that about his Yoongi? He wants to yell at whoever it was to shut the fuck up - he imagines it would be a grand gesture, standing up for Yoongi like that - but he chickens out and holds his tongue. Partly because he doesn’t want to get scolded by Kim Namjoon on his very first day in the force, but mostly because he’s scared to embarrass himself in front of Yoongi.
There’s some fuckboy grinning from the back of the room, and though Yoongi’s expression betrays nothing, Namjoon looks visibly annoyed. The pleasant smile’s gone from his face, replaced by a stern look.
“I’m sure you’re not referring to Officer Min,” Namjoon says stiffly, and the idiot’s grin only widens.
“Actually, I did mean Officer Min,” he sneers, and Namjoon lets out an exasperated sigh.
“All right,” he says, “What’s your name, cadet?”
“Shin, sir.”
“Come on down here, Officer Shin. Let’s see you try to cuff Officer Min. If he’s a kid playing dress-up, then it should be easy for you.”
Hoseok clenches his fists as he watches the asshole named Shin swagger down to the front of the room to accept the challenge with a cocky grin on his face. Namjoon reaches to his belt and tosses Shin a pair of handcuffs, and begrudgingly, Yoongi steps out from behind Namjoon.
“Wait a second,” Jimin whispers, trying to nudge Hoseok discreetly with his elbow, “Is that him, Hobi? Is that your ex? You said his name was Min Yoongi, right?”
“Shut up,” Hoseok mutters, his cheeks reddening, and Jimin stifles a laugh behind his hand.
“Oh my god, Hobi,” he snickers, “I can’t believe your ex is our superior officer. Good luck with that , dude.”
But Hoseok’s attention is fixed on Yoongi, and his blood is boiling as Shin comes to stand right in front of Yoongi, so close that they’re almost touching. It’s immediately apparent that he towers over Yoongi. He dangles the cuffs above Yoongi’s head, licking his lips suggestively. “I’d be happy to demonstrate proper cuffing technique with you, Officer Min,” he smirks, “In the bedroom, too, if you’d like.”
Hoseok wants to jump out of his seat and throttle the prick for saying something like that to Yoongi, but he stays put because he knows he’ll get chewed out by their superior officers if he doesn’t. So he forces himself to remain seated and watch as Yoongi holds out his wrists towards Shin.
“Go on then, Officer Shin,” Yoongi says, a bored look on his face, “Show Assistant Inspector Kim what you’ve learned in your training.”
With that, Shin lunges forward and grabs Yoongi by the arm. He pulls him towards himself, grinning in triumph as he reaches forward with the cuffs - and then all of a sudden Yoongi is twisting around, and before Hoseok can even blink, Shin’s suddenly flat on his back on the ground, and Yoongi has his heel planted on his chest.
“Sloppy technique,” Yoongi comments coldly as he grinds his heel against Shin’s sternum, “You’ll have to work on that.”
Suddenly, Hoseok’s mouth feels weirdly dry. He doesn’t know why, but the sight of his delicate, beautiful Yoongi taking down a man much bigger than himself makes him both frightened and strangely aroused. Nervously, he shifts awkwardly in his seat.
Shin, on the other hand, looks like he’s in shock, still motionless on the ground. When Yoongi removes his foot from his chest, Namjoon reaches down to haul him up by the collar of his shirt.
“Next time I hear shit like that come out of your mouth,” he says, “You can pack your bags and go home. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Assistant Inspector,” Shin replies weakly, and when Namjoon releases him, he slinks back to his seat like a dog with its tail between its legs.
“That goes for all of you,” Namjoon announces, and when he turns back to face the rest of the cadets, his voice is hard and the friendliness is gone from his features. “There is nothing that I hate more than an officer who doesn’t respect his comrades. Since today is your first day, I’m sure many of you are still getting accustomed to the rules. But I still expect all of them to be followed at all times when you are on duty. As of today, you are no longer trainees. You are officers of the Seoul Metropolitan Police, and your behavior should be a reflection of that. If I catch any of you with a single toe out of line, then I’ll have you assigned to scrubbing the toilets. And trust me, those toilets have seen better days. Do we all understand?”
“Yes, Assistant Inspector!” the cadets chime. To be honest, Hoseok can’t help but feel a little intimidated now. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Jungkook gulping nervously. Vaguely, he wonders if this was what the youngest had meant when he’d said that he heard their squad leader was a hardass.
“On that unpleasant note,” Namjoon continues, “You’ll meet the rest of your senior officers soon, but let’s go ahead and have a break first. You have fifteen minutes, and then I expect to see you all reporting back here, on time and ready to get to work. You’re dismissed.”
There’s another chorus of “Yes, Assistant Inspector!” and a badly synchronized salute, and then the cadets disperse for their break.
“I’m starving,” Jungkook groans, stretching his arms over his head as cadets begin filing out, “Wanna go get a snack, hyung? I think there’s a vending machine down the hall.”
“I’ll go,” Jimin replies, before glancing over at Hoseok, “You coming, Hobi?”
“Huh? Oh, nah. You guys go without me. I, uh, gotta go to the bathroom.”
Truth be told, Hoseok isn’t really paying attention to what Jimin and Jungkook are saying. His eyes are still fixed on Yoongi, who’s currently exiting the room with Namjoon. He doesn’t know why, but he feels a little bit of panic rising in his chest, because he’s pretty sure Yoongi hasn’t even noticed him yet this whole time, and this was not how he’d been planning for everything to pan out-
Hurriedly, he scrambles out of his seat, nearly knocking Jimin over in the process as he rushes for the door. The panic mounts a little higher when he looks down the hall and realizes that Yoongi has disappeared - and then when he looks down the other side and finally spots him walking with Namjoon, he breaks out in a sprint towards him.
Honestly, he has no idea what the fuck he’s doing, but he doesn’t care. The only thing that matters in that moment is Yoongi, his beautiful, perfect, Yoongi-
“I’m going to get a coffee from the cafeteria, can I get one for you, too?” Namjoon is asking Yoongi, and Yoongi looks up at Namjoon with a small smile that makes Hoseok want to pull his hair out.
“You’re so sweet, Joon,” he answers quietly, “I’m dying for a coffee, actually. Seokjin and I were up all night reviewing the surveillance footage from that apartment fire case. He reckons it’s arson, but we need to find the evidence first.”
And then Namjoon’s smiling with a pair of stupidly handsome dimples, and he’s putting his hand on Yoongi’s shoulder - and Hoseok’s going into full-blown emergency mode.
“I’ll get it!” he blurts out before he even realizes what he’s doing, “I’ll get the coffee for you, Yoongi!”
Yoongi and Namjoon both turn around to look at him, startled by his sudden outburst. Namjoon appears perplexed - but Yoongi, on the other hand, looks like he’s seen a ghost.
All the color drains from his face as he gapes at Hoseok, his eyes impossibly wide. And Hoseok is sweating bullets now, because according to The Grand Plan, he was supposed to go in there and sweep Yoongi off his feet with his charm, not chase him down and shout at him like a total freak, and dear god has he fucked this up-
“Jung Hoseok?” Yoongi asks in disbelief, “What the fuck are you doing here?”