Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Good luck Min, may the best strawberry harvester win," Hoseok smirked, bidding his rival one last farewell before heading over to his assigned booth to set up his display of strawberries and strawberry jellies.

Yoongi narrowed his eyes evilly towards the slowly fading figure, poking his tongue against the side of his gums before waking himself up out his temporary daze and following in suit and walking over to his own assigned stand with his name on it.

Which of course was next to Hoseok's, but really he shouldn't be too surprised since they were both here for the same reason: to sell strawberries.

So of course they were going to be organized by category, thus put next to each other.

Yoongi groaned at seeing his unfortunate placement before shuffling over towards his own little table to prop up his display of strawberries, with Hoseok doing the same. Neither of them really paid any attention to each other since their ultimate goal was to completely ignore each other's existence, but of course those subconscious realizations that they were only an arms length away always lingered in the back of their minds.

Yet business was professional and important, so when the time came that customers started flooding the small outdoor market, that's when they knew they had to set away their differences and solely concentrate on their main objective of the day: attracting as many people to them as possible.

Because no shit that's why they came.

✿ ✿ ✿

"Yoongi!" Hoseok whisper screamed about two hours into the fair, snapping Yoongi out of his temporary work mode to where he was now staring at him with wide, pleadingly eyes.
Quirking an eyebrow at what Hoseok could possibly want half way through the fair, Yoongi hesitantly followed up with a blunt, "What?"

"Can you watch my booth for a minute?" He asked softly, breaking past his level of pettiness in order to ask the one person he was competing against for a moderately huge favor, but of course he'd rather show some vulnerability than possibly have someone sabotage or steal his hard-worked-for fruit.

"Why?"

Puffing up his cheeks slightly, acting as an indicator that he was very apprehensive upon answering the generic question, Hoseok managed to let out a semi weak, "Cuz I don't wanna piss my fucking pants!"

Grimacing dramatically, Yoongi quickly nodded his head and waved off Hoseok towards the direction of the portable toilets, to save both him and Hoseok from public embarrassment from the possibility of having an 'accident'.

Though regardless of how gross the likelihood of it actually happening was, Yoongi couldn't help but chuckle at the boy's desperate pleads and rather questionable wording when asking for assistance with watching his booth.

Shrugging off the interaction without paying any more mind to it, Yoongi darted his eyes back to his own array of strawberries that laid prettily displayed all about it table, begging to attract any new customers who haven't bought from him already that day. After all, after all his hard work into making them look beautifully irresistible, he'd hope to get at least a fair amount of profit off the day's work since even he himself had to admit that his strawberries appeared to look extra fresh today, all coated with a a gorgeous bright red shade and plump appearance — it was most definitely a pull factor for any passerby's.

So there he patiently stood, mind drifting off onto its own train of thoughts as he watched with his beady cat-like eyes as people blindly walked past his booth. It was a little disappointing to see the disinterest visible on some people's bland expressions, but Yoongi didn't hold it against himself since he reasoned that strawberries weren't everyone's forté; plus whenever those more negative and self deprecating thoughts did leak through, he always replaced them with the reminder that an abundance of customers still ended up purchasing from him that day.
And that was all he needed for a little glimmer of bliss to shine right through.

Smiling to himself slightly, Yoongi absentmindedly shuffled around the different carts of strawberries on his display table as he let the warm heat from the summer sun beam down onto his sunkissed skin, gladly soaking up the comfortable heat that usually came whenever July rolled around.

Fluttering his eyelids shut for a brief moment, Yoongi took the rare moment of silence (where Hoseok wasn't bothering him or he having to deal with pesky customers) to take a deep inhale of breath, somewhat calming down his bubbling nerves that didn't submerge from anything in particular really — just the usual nervousness he always experienced.

Of course, he couldn't stay in his own little made up world for too long however since he did have a job to attend to, as well as watching Hoseok's stand on top of his original tasks.

And as much as he didn't want to and found it to be quite time consuming from tending his own, he of course understood Hoseok's worries and wasn't an evil grinch at heart despite how much Hoseok solely believed that fact. Plus, both being strawberry farmers, Yoongi knew perfectly well that despite what kind of relationship the two shared, blatantly sabotaging each other on purpose would just cross that line dividing rivalry and pure hatred.

There was a difference. And a very strong one at that.

Just because they were neighbors both fighting for the same exact thing, which was a steady income, by partaking in coincidentally the same exact occupation as well, that didn't automatically equate to them actually having the wish to make their lives miserable or physically unbearable.

Sure, taunts were strewn here and there and they teased each other on the daily, but there was still that decent wall of respect that kept them from lashing out at one another over something serious.

Nothing ever surpassed the ridiculousness of their insignificant daily bickers or childish insults, as the idea of going behind that never crossed their minds either.

Sighing heavily, Yoongi slowly lifted his head up from his own barrel of strawberries to Hoseok's stand beside him, which still remained vacant, before making the decision to stroll in between both of theirs just to insure that nothing would happen to their precious strawberries.

However maybe he spoke too soon.

Because the millisecond before he decided to take initiative and carefully watch over Hoseok's booth, Yoongi spotted someone out of the corner of his eye grab one of the small bucket of strawberries sitting on Hoseok's table and run off with it.

Widening his eyes in pure disbelief, Yoongi instantly disregarded his position and took off chasing after the suspect through the small crowd of people, feeling the harshness of the crisp air clog his throat with the inability to properly breathe as he ran for his life — probably the fastest he ever had at that.

Something beneath his skin boiled, the mere thought of someone taking advantage of the fact that no one was supervising a stand to steal a farmer's hard-earned work deeply agitated him. Perhaps it was because of the fact that he too felt sympathy for Hoseok, being a farmer in a rural and discreet town, there was that mutual bond and thin line of understanding that went along with their relationship in that aspect.

Or maybe it was something a little bit different.

Still, whatever it was — it didn't undermine the fact that Yoongi was incredibly annoyed with the amount of audacity this person had to just run up and steal an innocent farmer's strawberries.
How evil could someone possibly be?

Finally managing to catch up to the anonymous person, Yoongi grabbed at the edge of their T-shirt causing them to make a sharp halt in their movement as their shoes skidded with the dirt ground beneath them.

Realizing that they had just been caught, the person slowly turned around with a sheepish grin plastered over their guilt-ridden face, clearly not thinking this whole thing through before carrying out the stupid and foolish act or contemplating the practicality behind it actually working.

Seeing as he was able to stop whatever the person was attempting to do, Yoongi snatched the small bin of strawberries back in hand before stating bluntly, "Please don't go around stealing strawberries — I mean, how low can someone possibly fucking get?" He asked cluelessly, still not being able to grasp the person's mind process behind pilfering them.

Not letting the person have a chance to defend themselves — although, that seemed extremely useless at this point since there's no justifying reason behind stealing food unless you desperately need it (then go ahead cuz fuck capitalism uwu). And still, even if that was the person's last resort, both Hoseok and Yoongi would have nothing against offering a cheaper sale version of their organic fruits or even bargaining them for free as long as the person asked. Plus, stealing from individual owned businesses was as morally wrong as it is — so either way, the person was extremely simple minded for attempting actual thievery.

Yoongi marched back to the market with the small bucket in hand, which seemed to remain untouched to his relief, and honestly didn't even review the fact that he'd have to confront Hoseok about the situation.

Nor did he ever consider that maybe Hoseok had witnessed it all.

Which he did — hence the grateful expression resting on his face from coincidentally getting back from the bathroom the moment Yoongi went to chase after the mystery strawberry thief.

Oddly enough, seeing the one person you're destined to despise or compete against for the rest of your life defend you in a matter of life or death was extremely attractive in every way possible. It was both utterly adorable, watching as Yoongi's face unintentionally scrunched up from how concentrated and determined he was to win back the strawberries, and heart-fluttering since Hoseok would have assumed that Yoongi would've just let the person run off with them.

Because they hated each other after all.

However, in the reality that both oh so deeply tried to suppress between that thick border of stubbornness, they were fully aware that that wasn't the case at all.

And far from it.

"Awwww did you really run after someone just to get my strawberries back?" Hoseok fawned, both teasingly and genuinely since the majority of him was incredibly thankful that Yoongi went out of his way to retrieve the exact thing he was competing against. And the fact the he could've easily chosen to let them be stolen, thus providing himself with a greater advantage to earn more customers since he's theoretically have more stock, made something within Hoseok's heart of gold fluctuate.

"Yeah and you better be fucking thankful," Yoongi grumbled, plopping the small bucket back on top of Hoseok's display table before walking around back towards his own with an indifferent expression on his face, despite probably partaking in one of the most eventful things that had ever happened in his whole entire life or being.

Hoseok grinned, showing off his pearly whites as he smoothly strolled over to where Yoongi was standing to latch an arm around his shoulders, finding comfort in the way how their small height difference made the action somewhat more significant in its own unique standout way.

"I am, thank you. It's not every day that you get to see your arch nemesis chase after a strawberry kidnapper," Hoseok chuckled, almost thinking he has gone mad mad since he could've sworn he felt Yoongi stifle a laugh right beside him, who still made no efforts in removing himself from Hoseok's lose grip.

"Rightttt that sounds like something out of some novel," Yoongi sarcastically added on. And surely enough, it really did; despite it not being a typical occurrence to happen on the daily, it did hold that traditional cliche charm to it that was often portrayed through infamous pieces of "great" literature.

"Wait you're kinda right," Hoseok agreed in a stumped manner, not even realizing just how accurate Yoongi's comparison was until now.

"Mhm, anyways I'm gonna get back to work —"

Squish!

Yoongi felt his heart stomp once Hoseok wrapped both arms protectively around the base of his backside, as if his sole intent was to shelter Yoongi away from the outside world and safe inside their own little bubble of warmth and comfort.

Smiling to himself softly, Yoongi let himself relax into the embrace ever so slightly — not wanting it to come as anything more than just a friendly hug of gratitude, partially because he still held that title of stubbornness and pure denial regarding his feelings towards Hoseok — but still enough to showcase to him that their complicated and untitled relationship was behind the lines of pure enmity.

"Thank you, I honestly thought you'd just let them go but it means a lot that you went through all the trouble to get them back for me — you're cute, Min," Hoseok laughed lightly, letting the hug linger a little longer than anticipated before letting go and ruffling Yoongi's fluffy mop of amber toned hair.

Who was thankful that the heat and small sunburn he got from standing out in the sun for several hours at a time distracted the outer public from the fact that the rosy pink dusting his cheeks was actually blush instead, not just a light sunburn.

Because holy fuck.

Jung Hoseok just fucking hugged him.

Genuinely.

And called him cute.

All in one go.

Yoongi actually thought he was going to pass out — that or contemplating the fact whether he should just give in to those roaring urges to kiss the exact person he'd never ever thought he'd want to in the first place.

But now here they were: two clueless idiots finding themselves slowly falling into a black mindless oblivion where the only way out was each other.

And maybe they were already climbing their way out.

Because maybe, just maybe, Hoseok nor Yoongi, view each other as their enemies.