Quiet and peaceful in the office. An excellent atmosphere to work.
A mechanical pencil in between his slender fingers, shading a soft and long curved line to sketch a shape of a woman, to darken the outline second. A palm-sized eraser in his grip – in between the pencil and his index finger and thumb. When the outline was too thick, he delicately erased the line and swept the residue with the back of his hand.
The sketch continued some more. A fist under his left cheek this time, getting more focused yet slowly feeling his brain's energy getting drained. The pencil began to work slower, carving with the HB graphite lead small details on the long dress that he sketched, according to his ideas in his mind.
This man never put down his pencil since a few hours ago. Neither his hoodie.
He had never let the hoodie off his head. Be it the short sleeves one or the long sleeves one. Be it black, white, pink or rainbow. Be it a zipper one or no zipper. Be it the one with rope inside the hem of the hoodie or no rope. Usually, when a hoodie he wore had a rope, he would tie it in a loose knot, so it would not disturb him concentrating on letting out his ideas.
But there's always something that disturbed his concentration.
"Hoseok-aahh!!"
The loud call made Hoseok jumped. His pencil became out of the aim, the thin lead broke and rolled around the paper. He gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath.
"Let's eat!" Shouted the oldest friend.
"I'm not hungry," replied Hoseok flatly.
"Aw, I cooked a lot for us."
"You didn't ask me whether I'll be eating or not."
The man replied smugly with head shaking, "Because I know you will never reject food."
Hoseok sighed, rubbing off the mistake on the sketch with the eraser.
"Come down quick, or the food get cold."
"I said, I'm not hungry, Seokjin hyung," Hoseok pressed.
Seokjin curved his plumped lips a smile and cooed, "you know, I'm not taking a 'no' from you." His smile fell when he finished his words and threatened, "now, hurry up before I whoop your butt with this spatula."
Hoseok shot him a short glare before gathering the stationary and placed them in a stationary cup. "Fine. Let me clean these up."
The older snickered. "Good boy."
The glass door screeched against the metal beneath the hinges. Hoseok peered, watching the figure of a broad shouldered man held a spatula with a lavender apron rested on his chest and stomach passed through the glass wall behind the artificial wood blinds. Knowing that Seokjin had gone, the 'good boy' began to grumble with his mouth curved downwards.
"'Hurry up before I whoop your butt with this spatula'." He lightly hit the breadth of the papers twice on the table. "He's lucky that he's born before me." He placed his sketches papers on the table and then pushed the chair under it.
It did not take him long to reach the main spot of the premise.
He stopped his steps, getting his sight to be greeted by the view of residents of South Korea and foreigners passing by the porcelain mannequins as though the clothes designs on them did not attract them. He did not care anyway. Everyone had their own tastes in fashion, and he respected that.
It was not a rare sight either, to see his friends-like-family gathered at the middle of the boutique; the big, rounded coffee table filled with foods cooked by Seokjin and three boxes of pizza that Hoseok did not know who ordered. Cups of orange juice or coke or water were either in between their legs or grip of their hands as their dominant hands feeding their own mouth, some of their cups were under the table.
Some were bickering, some were busy with their phones, some were busy talking and some were stealing other's food.
If the sight was not them gathering at the table to have a meal together, then it would be them busy entertaining customers, arranging the stocks, sweeping the floor, cleaning the mannequin or glass display and; compiling and counting the profit and losses they had that day.
He had a big family at the Yugen Boutique, consisted of people who came from different personalities and background, different talents and abilities, different provinces. These people had been supporting him since the day he had to manage the business alone and since the day they started working with him.
He was Jung Hoseok, the boss.
"Oy, Jung Hoseok!"
The call from a feminine yet rough voice female shook him off his trances.
"Waiting for red carpet?" Joked Amber with his mouth full of pizza.
"N-no." Hoseok scurried to a stool and brought it to join them. He sat in between Kim Namjoon and Min Yoongi.
The loudness from the Kims siblings – Seokjin and Jisoo – bickering bothered him as he stretched his arm to grab a piece of pizza.
As if Yoongi read Hoseok's mind, the curly, black haired guy said, "who could have thought siblings can fight over who's going to have the final pizza?"
"They fight like the world is going to ban pizza forever," Amber Liu butted in.
Jung Wheein, who had been listening to their ridiculous arguments muttered, "I can't believe siblings still compete over the last pizza by mentioning who washed their clothes the most and who cleaned the toilet while we're eating." She scrunched her face. "I'm losing my appetite if they are talking about the toilet we have here."
"What's wrong with our toilet?" Amber asked.
With a grimace on her face, Wheein replied, "you better check later."
"But the argument is usable," said Kim Namjoon. It seemed that Seokjin and Jisoo still had not known the spectators were talking about them. Namjoon resumed, "the one who works the most, deserves more rewards."
Seokjin heard him. "Uh-huh, that's right. You heard that, Jisoo? Thank you, Namjoon." He then blew him a hand kiss to Namjoon.
Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jungkook and Park Jimin simultaneously contorted their faces at that action.
The bickering then continued, but Namjoon stopped eating. "Now I'm losing my appetite too."
Yoongi, on the other hand, did not give a damn anymore. He took the last piece and stared at it for a few second, then giving it to Hoseok who was also not wanting to give a damn about the argument.
Hoseok saw the pizza's presence as he was chewing fried chicken. "Huh?"
"Take it." Yoongi lightly tossed the pizza on Hoseok's plate. "You must eat a lot."
"But hyung, I have many food –"
"You are getting thinner."
"It just my sweater that make me look thin."
"I see... Eat up, fill in the sweater," he said, gripping a radish pickle with a chopstick.
Knowing Yoongi, 'I see' always meant 'whatever'. Hoseok could not find a way to fight or to stop him if that already left his mouth.
He knew Yoongi and Seokjin made him eat because they cared about him. After all, he had to go through so much waiting for his sister to return.
Until that day, no one knew where Jung Jiwoo had gone. Hoseok's sister did not leave a message to where she went and with who. She only left a message saying; "If I gone long, pass my position to Hoseok."
Amber; Jiwoo's trusted friend and assistant was the one who found the message. She tried calling Jiwoo, sending her text messages but none of them got replies.
Remembering that one day when she visited her boss' family to ask, the person who was at the door was Jung Hoseok. He was not seen as introverted one like how he showed everybody at that moment.
