Chapter Text
Speaking many, if not all possible languages was Hoseok’s dream since he could remember.
When you first learn how to read, your eyes jump from one readable thing to another. You read every single thing you see. Hoseok wondered: “why not be able to do the same in all the languages?” All the pretty words, hiding a beautiful meaning behind them; amazing cultures, waiting for him to be explored; all those amazing places he’s yet to see and new people he wants to be able to communicate with, without any barriers and problems.
He wanted to see those places, meet those people and understand everything they say.
When he was young, he could be easily found with his nose in a notebook full of.. doodles? weird drawings? His attempts at writing with the left hand? Not a single person could pinpoint what it was. They labelled it as somethin g.
Until one day, a small Hobi came up to his parents, with his sticker-covered notebook held tight to his chest and the biggest smile on his face, as he explained what the “something” in his journal was.
It was his first own alphabet.
And he didn’t stop there. Not too long after, Hoseokie came up to his parents all smiley, yet again. This time, instead of that notebook, he was holding a finished kanji workbook.
Growing up in a multilingual family surely helped him achieve his dream. Insulting that one, always drunk uncle with his grandma in perfect mandarin.
He was just another one of his dad’s college friends and to be honest, no one knew how he ended up in their house, yet no one said anything about it. Except for his grandma, that is.
One second she swears at the man in the language the so-called uncle has no idea about, and the next second she asks him if he wants some more cake with that angelic smile of hers. After all the complaints and insults Hoseok heard, he was sure he could handle an argument in that language perfectly fine.
Having deep, pretty complicated discussions about literature and sometimes even politics with his dad, fully in Japanese, was another thing that helped him a lot. They weren’t arguing per se. It was more that Hope’s dad was always desperately trying to find something more to the story or poem he recently had a lecture about and Hoseok trying to reasonably talk him out of that idea. Hearing all the elegant, poetic and solemn words in another beautiful language, he was pretty sure he could write a poem in Japanese. He even tried to write one or two himself.
Yet the best part of growing up in an environment like that, surrounded by people speaking so many, so different languages was complaining about boys, with his sister, in English. Talking about how all of them are the same, how they leave their manners behind the door. Speaking about their crushes and handsome actors, or simply the fact Hoseok is still waiting for his prince charming to come into his life, even right there, through their front door.
Their mom always chimed in, saying that none of them should ever get married, while looking at their dad with an annoyed expression.
Those talks, as well as watching all those teenage romance movies, surely helped him a lot in building a strong dating and everything romance-related vocabulary.
Throughout the years Hoseok’s love for languages only grew more and more. That’s why, at the age of 22, he had a pretty stable job as a full-time translator.
When his boss decided to move their company to the country he had so little idea about, Hope was the one to translate all the important documents, if not all the documents, since his boss didn’t even know the basic phrases in the language. It resulted in him not sleeping well for a good few months. No one in their right senses would ever agree to such a torturous job yet Hoseok was the first one to say yes and get down to work. He loved his job too much to say no.
Since that incident he has become his boss's favourite. And it had many perks: having the best jobs assigned to him; being able to hand in suff a day or two after the due date, but most importantly—moving to Japan, which was one of his biggest dreams.
Before his “career” in the company, he had picked up various translation jobs from all five languages he knew so far (while self-studying even more of them).
He translated small articles, from a few pages to whole chapters of mangas for his friends— also helping said friends with their attempts at international dating— and added subtitles to his favourite shows and dramas, alongside other people on the subs team.
It sounds all sunshines and rainbows, but it hasn't always been that easy. There were moments when his mind got lagged and, unexpectedly, all the languages he knew so far got mixed together or he felt like he forgot them all at once, with the due date right behind the corner.
Now, working mostly on the boring documents for the pretty big company, Hoseok missed those light and small, sometimes weird yet fun jobs he used to pick up before.
Thank god for him still having the app where he found all those crazy jobs.
After a quick process of “refreshing” his profile through changing his picture from the one back when he had braces on to something more accurate, after making his description sound a little better and less cringey (though he left the cute emojis), and updating the list of all the languages he knows, with a huge, proud face, he was done.
All he had to do now, was wait.
Min Yoongi, a 24 year old music producer, found himself in deep shit.
His family decided to come all the way from his hometown in Korea to Japan, where he is currently living and working. Out of nowhere, they decided to pay him a visit.
It’s not that they hated each other. It’s just that they strongly and openly dislike his life choices, and Yoongi does not like wasting energy to put up with their shit.
They dropped a “we’re coming over” bomb on him two damn days before their arrival.
The best part about this whole mess? He truly didn’t feel like talking to them. At all.
His sister and her fiance couldn’t understand a single thing in Japanese.
Is forgetting your mother tongue a thing? It must be now, because that’s what he’s going to tell them. Problem solved.
“No way in hell am I going to talk to them. Over my dead body,” Min grumbled as he spun in his big swivel chair, sipping on his already cold coffee.
Is there a translator, or someone for that kind of stuff? It won’t hurt to find out, right?
Yoongi googled a “translator looking for a job app” phrase and clicked the first link.
He made an account with a decent profile picture since he didn’t want to come off as a sketchy creep. Call him lazy or desperate, he really didn’t want to see any of them, or worse—have any kind of conversation with them. Why are they even visiting him? After all that, he placed his request and paid extra for the app to show it on top of the available jobs list.
Then he slid his phone far, far away from him and laughed bitterly while pinching his temples. God, he never thought he would do something that incredibly stupid. But hey, it’s all for a good reason!
Hoseok didn’t have to wait for too long. Barely 15 minutes after turning the app notifications on and putting his phone down, he had to pick it up again. Only to see six notifications of new possible jobs for him pop up on the screen!
Most of them were “help me with a school essay due in 15 minutes” or “a new episode of my favourite, certain type of anime, and there are no subs!”. He passed on them all. Even if it was a job, he wanted it to be something fun.
Hobi decided to scroll down the jobs list once again, to see if there’s anything suitable for him. He noticed one job, highlighted in bright red color and marked as “urgent”.
It was, well, something different from all the other ones he had picked up, or even seen, before. A translator needed for a family dinner, labelled as from Korean to Japanese and back?
On one hand, it sounded like a pretty fun thing to do, and it reminded him of his family talks in all the languages they know; which was something he really enjoyed. On the other hand, it seemed quite sketchy. After all, you don’t see job offers like that everyday. In fact, it was Hope’s first time seeing something like this.
But hey, at least that someone who put up the offer had a profile picture! Pretty nice one, if you ask him. And it pays well! Not that Hoseok needed money, he just really wanted to get himself those big, colorful designer shoes which were expensive as hell, and maybe a few albums of his favourite k-pop girl group.
That’s why he applied for that job.
About 16 different people applied for the job Yoongi put up on the app. Though he still wasn’t sure if the 3 dollars paid there were worth it.
Now, the fun part: choosing someone to do “the talk” for him and get it over with.
Scrolling through the profiles of people willing to do the job for him, Min treated it like tinder. Aggressively swiping on the screen with a bored expression on his face, judging mostly by the picture, and sometimes the age of that someone (now even paying attention to the description of the profile). He was slowly starting to lose hope.
Until he stumbled upon a profile of a someone with a charmingly pretty smile. Quickly checking if it’s not some teenager and then actually paying attention to the full profile (with the description this time), he decided that was it.
Funny how the only person he agreed to, Hoseok, his last hope even had the word ‘hope’ in his nickname.
The two didn’t talk much before their meeting, only a quick chat on the app, exchanging the most important details such as when and where they are going to meet, small tips from Min on how to deal with his family when they start asking uncomfortable questions and that was it. Of course Yoongi didn’t mention the entirety of his plan. Let's treat it as a little surprise for his guest.
Having a perfect plan, all the details talked about and someone to do all the dirty work for him, it was just a matter of time. Everything had to go well. There was no way something could go wrong.
Except it did.
Things went downtown the very second Yoongi’s—overly full of herself—sister walked into his apartment where that damn dinner was taking place, her fiancé trailing behind. Min had no idea how come this poor man is still putting up with her bullshit.
Her walking in was just the beginning. A silence before the storm.
There Hoseok was. Just two days after he applied for the seemingly fun job, sitting by the table filled with takeout dishes, with a guy who supposedly doesn’t remember his own mother language, and his family in front of him.
The whole room was silent.
The two siblings glaring daggers at each other, as if they were trying to kill one another with the stare only. Tension in the small room so thick you could cut it with a knife. Hobi had a bad, terrible even, feeling about this whole situation yet he decided to brush it off. For now, at least.
Then the storm happened.
“You’re not going to ask me how my flight was? How lovely of you, little brother.” The sister started, visibly annoyed, with that fake smile screaming ‘I’m better than you’.
Yoon looked at his helper with a confused expression, entirely fake. Sadly, he understood everything loud and clear. Hope didn’t need to know that.
”That’s your sister right? She asked why are you not asking her about her flight here,” said the younger, in fluent Japanese, following with a small smile on his face. He was trying his best to mask his nervousness. It was nothing like the multilingual talks he had with his family! And the tone she used didn’t sit right with him.
”I don’t care,” the older of the two replied softly with a smile on his face. Something like that shouldn't sound so nice, but how could you not smile at that boy, whose smile was dangerously contagious?
And the fact Hoseok translated what his sister said, to sound way nicer than it really was, made him feel warm inside.
Said sister, Yeojin, was truly confused by her brother's weird behavior. Not to mention she didn’t even acknowledge Hoseok’s presence in that room with them, until he spoke up, that is.
“What are you two talking between yourself, huh?” Yeojin questioned, leaning over the table a little, her “smile” long forgotten as she wasn’t even trying to cover up how annoyed she felt. “Why are you even here, huh?” She spat, now pointing accusingly at Hope, who only looked at her with his head tilted to the side in confusion. “Can’t he speak for himself?”
Yoongi was a rather calm person. Pissing him off to the point he will actually show it was a hard thing to do.
But God! This one person, not even his boss who was a total jerk, could change that in a matter of seconds. No one could ever piss the hell out of him, and make him want to strangle someone to death, more than his own older sister. For now, he couldn’t do anything other than suck it up, take a deep breath and come up with hundreds, if not thousands of new ways on how to kill her.
Seeing Yoongi’s clenched fist under the table, the younger put a hand on his arm and sent him a reassuring smile. That was one of the few things they talked about over the chat. I’ve got this.
“Yoonie said he spent too much time working here in Tokyo, and now he has a hard time speaking Korean comfortably. That’s why I’m here to help,” Hoseok answered as calmly and politely as he could. He didn't want to make the woman sitting in front of him even more annoyed and possibly give her yet another reason to be mean to both of them.
“Yoonie?” Oh... well, that was something new.
Upon hearing that, Yeojin’s expression changed. From an awful, annoyed grimace to a knowing smile, with something behind it. Hoseok couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.
“So, what's your name?” She asked, looking at Hoseok expectantly.
To be honest, that question got the two sitting in front of her feeling taken aback. Why, after coming to see her own family, has she asked about that? About Hoseok, not even her own brother to whom she came all the way from Korea to visit!
“Uh, my name is Hoseok.” The youngest of the four answered with something resembling a small, forced smile on his face.
All the attention was on him now!
Poor Hoseok, not knowing what to do or how to act in a situation he found himself in, started fiddling with the bracelet (with colorful wooden flower beads all over it) he was wearing.
“Okay then, Hoseok, who exactly are you?” Yeojin asked with her chin resting on her hand and a weird smile on her face. A smile that made Hobi feel a little uncomfortable.
It was the moment Yoongi was desperately waiting for. Of course, he understood the whole conversation without any problems.
When that old hag (his lovely older sister) asked who the person sitting on his left was, Yoon elbowed Hoseok, under the table, and chimed in, speaking Japanese, not even letting his sibling finish the rest of her sentence. Not that he cared about what she had to say. It was a perfect opportunity and he must make a good use of it!
“Tell her that you’re my boyfriend,” Min said with a smug grin on his face.
Maybe, just maybe, Yoongi mentioned something about “seeing someone” before, over the phone. It was solely for one reason—to make Yeojin shut the hell up, which was possible only after saying what she wanted to hear. (She laughed at him, not believing his words a single bit.) Him not wanting to see nor talk to his family was another problem here.
Jung, agreeing to help him with that particular issue, was obligated to help the older out with the entire mess. Even if he wasn’t aware of it. Did he feel bad for Hoseok being dragged into this mess just because he couldn’t get his shit together? Not at all.
“What? B-but why?” Hope tried to argue but older wasn’t having any of it. Heck, Hoseok swore blind it was his first time hearing about this!
They never talked about that, and even if they did, the younger of the two would surely remember that part! There’s no way he could have missed it! And now what? Jung couldn’t back off just like that.
Why?
With Yoongi already not getting along well with his sister, declining would make the atmosphere in the pretty spacious dining room even more tense and uncomfortable than it already was. Straight out awkward. Also, it would be far too embarrassing for him to handle. Not that he was good at dealing with that particular feeling anyway.
He didn’t want to make things between the two even worse, what more let down someone who needed his help, and feel like the shittiest, most terrible person for doing so and messing up his job.
Hope took a deep breath. He is going to suck it up and play along. Yoongi seems like a smart person, he wouldn’t do something like that for no reason, right? It will surely help the older out, maybe take away a part of the weight resting on his shoulders. He will help Min like the nice, kind-hearted person he is.
Hoseok felt that all eyes were on him, except for Yoongi’s. And he wasn’t wrong! The woman sitting in front of him stared into his soul. Her eyes never leaving his visibly nervous face as her patience was running low.
”Say it.” Min hurried with the smirk audible in his voice, leaning back in his chair with arms crossed over his chest.
Yoongi knew how pissed Yeojin would be. All her fake niceness, playing the good, always-right, better sibling—now she will have to keep acting like that the whole time. Seeing her suffer like this (which was her own fault) must be one of the things he loved most..
He felt like a damn winner.
Hoseok spared one last glance at the older, wanting to make sure it wasn’t some kind of a joke, before he smiled warmly yet nervously at Yeojin.
“I’m his boyfriend.” He explained, trying his best to sound as kind and not-stressed out as he possibly could.
He didn’t question the fact Min cut in, knowing exactly what they were talking about at the moment. How did it even happen? Maybe he remembered a few words and made up the rest of the sentence?
Hobi decided to let it slide. After all he had a bigger problem sitting right in front of him!
He sat there, with his chubby cheeks which had a light pink blooming all over them, looking down a little to avoid the possible eye contact, and a shy smile on his face as he kept fiddling with his bracelet under the table.
Hoseok was acting like a shy teenager, and Yoongi definitely shouldn’t find the sight so damn adorable.
“W-who?” The sister asked with a horrified expression on her face, struggling to force and maintain a smile on her face.
When she first heard about her brother being with someone, she didn’t believe it a single bit, not even for a second. Now, much to her surprise, it turns out he wasn’t lying at all?! The news were so unexpected, even the fiancé, who gave up on talking a while ago and stayed silent the whole time, choked on his drink.
Yeojin wanted to yell, slam her first on the table (like she usually does when something doesn’t go the way she wanted it to) and curse out loud, but one look at Hoseok stopped her. The boy looked too soft and warm to make a scene now. Hell, she could bet on the fact he translated everything Yoongi said to be nicer since her brother knew no respect and was lacking manners.
There’s no way the younger was with Min for real. That bastard must have tricked the poor boy into that weird relationship.
“You heard that loud and clear. Got any problem with that?” Yoongi spat with venom loud and clear in his voice. He hated Yeojin with passion.
Min spoke up for Hoseok, yet again.
Due to all the stress Hobi was put under now, he didn’t notice or question the fact that the older magically understood everything his sister said, yet again. All that without translating!
“Yoon said that he is sure you heard it correctly, and asked if everything is okay.” Once more, Hobi translated in a way which sounded really nice. Way too nice than it really was. He wondered if Yoongi or his older sister caught up on what he was doing the whole time. To his defence, his good heart wouldn’t let him do otherwise. He would feel way too bad for doing so.
Would the man on his left be mad if he knew how kind Hoseok was? Probably.
“Oh, a boyfriend you say? So, how did you two meet?” Yeojin asked in that sickeningly sweet voice. She acted like a whole different person now.
Seeing her being the first one to judge everyone around her and then completely change her behavior when she hears something she wants to hear with all of that followed by the fake smiles she threw left and right, as well as constantly reminding everyone that she is better than them—it seemed strange.
“A dating site,” said her brother with a displeased eyeroll. God, she was really getting on his nerves.
“Online,” the younger said quickly as he decided to busy himself with the already cold takeout food, which he hadn't touched since he came here.
“And why am I finding out about this now?”
“You never asked,” Yoongi spat before aggressively stabbing his fried chicken. He was at the point of not caring about Hoseok possibly finding out about the little game he got them into. He cursed under his breath when he heard that hag speak up again. Can this day end already ?
“Yoongi can’t recall the last time you asked him about that,” Hobi mumbled, all his being nice and bubby was thrown out the window. Feeling both incredibly tired and stressed, even his favourite meal, no matter if cold or not, didn't taste that well now.
The rest of the dinner went pretty well, although time crawled by not fast enough for Yoongi and Hoseok’s liking.
This whole time, the eldest of the four, Yeojin, decided to play it innocent. Visibly trying her hardest not to come off as too rude with her small, not so subtle questions here and there, which were something along the lines of “who the heck are you, Hoseok?”. Those strange questions made the younger feel like he was taking part in some kind of interrogation. All that followed by the inherent, incredibly insincere smile of hers. It was probably the most forced grin Jung had ever seen.
Not too long after, that damned dinner with Yoongi’s family was coming to an end.
And here they were, Min leaning on the wall with arms crossed over his chest and Hope shyly standing behind him, looking down the whole time.
“That man must be sick in his head for wanting to actually marry her,” Yoongi snarled, pointing at the couple in front of them, making Hoseok laugh prettily at that and then quickly cover his mouth with his hand.
Yoongi leaned over, as if he was about to hug his sister. “Don’t even think about coming back here,” he said through his gritted teeth as, this time, he was the one to fake a smile. ”Get lost,’ he added with a wide grin on his face as he pointed behind her, at the door he opened, especially for her to know where to go in case she wanted to stay and bother him longer.
“It was nice to meet you, Hoseok. I hope to see you around,” Yeojin said as if she knew something that the other three didn’t.
Hoseok couldn’t say anything since Yoongi didn’t waste his time on those typical family farewells and empty promises of contacting them, calling from time to time, visiting them anytime soon or throwing “I will miss you”s left and right.
He simply pushed her out of his apartment, then closed the door. More like slammed it… loud.
“God,” Yoongi sighed in relief, leaning on the closed door with his head thrown back.
The silence he got in response didn’t feel right. Wait—
”Finally.” He quickly corrected himself with a nervous chuckle, using the right language this time.
Thank god Hoseok didn’t hear that!
Not soon after, it was time for Hoseok to leave.
“Thank you for saving me, literally. I’m sorry for her being like that” Min said softly with an apologetic smile as he passed the younger his scarf.
Now, when that nuisance Yeojin is out, hopefully somewhere far far away, Yoongi was like a different person.
“It’s nothing!” Hobi answered with a soft smile, after he thanked silently for the scarf before taking it from the latter’s hands. “I’m glad I could help you out, even just a little bit. She’s, well... pretty difficult to get along with, but it’s nothing impossible, right?” He smiled softly, making his way over to the front door.
“Goodbye!” Jung waved to the older man with a small smile, which was half hidden by the fluffy scarf wrapped around his neck.
“Yeah, goodbye.” Yoongi replied, with a big gummy smile on his face as he closed the door after taking one last look at the younger.
He slipped and replied.. in a language he swore he does not remember, at all = in perfect Korean.
The first thing Yeojin did, after leaving her baby brother’s apartment, was dialing their parent’s number. She had some useful information so why not share it with them? Do they know about any of that?