Chapter Text
Min Yoongi was not by any means the hot-shot lawyer he thought he was going to be.
Growing up, he’d watched his grandfather build up his own law firm and become successful, rich, and as Yoongi had thought, powerful. His grandfather would tell him that he was helping people, that he was making lives better and doing his part. ‘That’s what I want to be,’ he’d tell himself, ‘I want that life.’
So Yoongi stuck in at school, he kept his head down and studied his way into top grades, and a top law school, until eventually he passed the bar exam with flying colours and landed himself a job in his grandfather’s firm. Presenting as an Alpha at just sixteen like his grandfather was the cherry on the cake, and he thought he had everything he could ever want. But he realized, a little belatedly, that it was not the life he’d hoped for.
The future he thought he was chasing was just a lie.
His grandfather was a family lawyer dealing with case after case of failed marriages and custody battles, and Yoongi felt no joy in it. He wasn't angry or resentful toward his grandfather. The elder truly did believe that he was making the world a better place. It was just that as an adult, after achieving his dream, Yoongi had found that their beliefs didn't align as much as he thought they did.
Sure, he loved building up case files and getting down to the nitty gritty, figuring out who was lying and who was genuine, but it was never enough. It wasn’t where his heart lay. Nevertheless, he kept at it, working the same cases over and over, with only the faces and names ever changing.
Part of him hoped that making partner would change all that, and that he'd be able to work on cases that he had a real genuine interest in. He wasn't there yet, though. His grandfather told him he'd have to work for it, and Yoongi was glad he wasn't handed everything for simply being family.
Two weeks before Yoongi’s twenty-seventh birthday, he received a call that would change his life completely. Yoongi was at his desk, as he always was, falling asleep in a pile of paperwork. The case he was working on had been dragging on for months and he was exhausted . It was another case of a mother trying to get the kids she’d neglected back from the state’s custody. Although she’d never said it outright, he knew she was only in it because she was no longer getting the money to help support the children she’d had taken away; he’d seen the same type of case a hundred times before. If it was up to him he simply wouldn't work it, but the lawyer initially in charge had gone on maternity leave and Yoongi was the only one able to take over. He’d just dozed off, head resting precariously on the palm of his hand, when the shrill of the office phone made him jump awake and flail slightly.
Clutching his chest with one hand, and rubbing his eyes with the other, Yoongi composed himself for a moment before answering the phone.
“Min Family Law Services.”
“Yoongi? Sweetie?” A soft voice asked, cracking slightly down the line, “Is that you?” Yoongi smiled and leaned back, loosening his tie a little and closing his eyes.
“Hey, eomma.” He smiled, running a hand through his hair and allowing himself to yawn. He knew it’d just be her giving him a lecture on how he works too hard, and how he should get some rest. Even how he should come home at a reasonable hour once in a while, just to eat dinner with his mother. “What’s up?”
“Yoongi,” She said softly, almost quiet enough for him not to hear it, “It’s your grandfather. He collapsed at your father’s house tonight, honey.”
“ Shit! ” Yoongi almost shouted as he fumbled to get his jacket on, standing up to prepare to bolt out of the door as soon as he ended the call. “Is he okay?”
The line went silent, just the sound of Yoongi’s breathing for a few short moments that seemed to drag on. It made him pause, jacket halfway onto his arms. He grabbed the phone from where he held it between his shoulder and ear. “Eomma? Is he okay?”
“Yoongi, he passed away before the ambulance arrived. They suspect it was a heart attack and th-”
It was as if gravity had intensified suddenly, like a weight crashing down onto his shoulders that caused his knees to buckle as he collapsed back into the chair behind him. Yoongi gripped the phone so hard his knuckles turned white, just trying to catch his breath. It didn’t seem real, he’d only been to lunch with his grandfather that afternoon, laughing and joking over their lamb skewers. It couldn’t be right, he couldn’t be gone .
Slowly he replaced the receiver, ignoring his mother’s voice on the other end of the line, and allowed his arms to drop limply at his sides. It felt like his whole world was spinning out of control, faster and faster, making his head rush, until finally he lurched forward and threw up in his waste paper bin.
“He’s gone,” he whispered to nobody else but himself, “ he’s gone .”
Yoongi wasn’t sure when it happened exactly, maybe somewhere between him staring at the phone ringing off the hook or him staring at the wall in front of him, but he must have fallen asleep. A gentle hand on his shoulder shook him gently awake, and he blinked, eyes feeling dry and sore, as he tried to focus on the person shaking him.
It was Seokjin, another alpha lawyer at the firm and Yoongi's best friend, smiling down at him, coffee in hand. Yoongi could smell it, warm and inviting, and he wanted it. “Morning, Yoongi,” Seokjin said cheerily, holding out the coffee for Yoongi to take and he nodded toward the waste paper basket. “Long night?”
Taking a sip and letting the coffee burn his tongue for a moment, Yoongi nodded, wrapping both his hands around the cup.
“You could say that.” Yoongi muttered into the mug once he’d swallowed, flickering his gaze up to Seokjin as he relaxed back in his seat. “Grandfather died last night.”
Seokjin turned, planting his ass on the edge of Yoongi’s desk, and stared out the window, eyebrows raised as he blew out a breath and shook his head in disbelief. “Fuck.” He said quietly, turning to look down at Yoongi who’d reclined his chair back and kicked his feet up onto the desk.
“Pretty much my sentiments, yeah.”
The next few weeks seemed to blur as Yoongi tried to carry on with business as usual, and to help with the funeral arrangements. He’d passed on the case he'd been working on to an intern, leaving it on their desk with a post-it note saying ‘It wouldn’t be so bad if you lost this one.’ and had set about sorting through the cases his grandfather had been working when he passed.
He was exhausting himself, Yoongi knew that, but he refused to let himself rest until the funeral was over; and until he knew the fate of the firm. It wasn’t until Yoongi’s birthday, the day of his grandfather’s funeral, that Yoongi could let himself breathe easily for a moment.
His Grandfather’s house was full, people milling around, sharing memories and laughing every now and then despite the solemn affair. Yoongi had spent the whole wake sitting on the stairs just like he did as a child, looking at the photographs lining the wall and wondering who would want what when he finally got to clearing it out. A hand landed on his arm and he turned to find his mother smiling down at him as she tightened her grip slightly,
"Come on, honey. It’s time to hear his will.”
A handful of family members had gathered in the den, and were sitting down or standing around awkwardly, with the exception of Seokjin who’d also been asked to be present. A lawyer from a separate firm, and a dear friend of his grandfather’s, sat beside the TV, paperwork in hand, smiling a little sadly at everyone.
“It feels like years since I’ve seen some of your faces, it has been years for some of you.” he said, looking around at everyone. “I just wish I wasn’t seeing you in such awful circumstances.”
He looked down at the paperwork in his hand, shuffling them around a little, and picked up the remote beside him. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”
The man clicked on the TV and reached to press play on the DVD player, settling back as it whirred into motion. Yoongi smiled, choking down a small laugh, as his grandfather appeared on-screen in a dinner jacket and holding a pipe.
He wasn’t really listening to what he was saying, just allowing himself to hear his grandfather’s voice again, when Seokjin leaned in and whispered,
“Was he leading a double life as Hugh Hefner?” Making Yoongi smile wider and cover his mouth.
Yoongi focused his attention and listened as his grandfather listed items and told which family member they were going to, apparently his aunt was getting the pictures as well as all the trinkets she loved so much, until his grandfather said, “And finally the big stuff.” And Yoongi perked up because that meant the fate of the firm. He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, and listened intently, digging his fingertips into his knees slightly.
“To my boy and his lovely ex-wife, I leave you both the deeds to my villa in Sicily. You’ll be joint owners. I expect Byung to have done the paperwork,” Byung waved the papers and smiled, “and I hope you might revisit the old place together. You know that divorce and bond dissolution was a mistake.”
Yoongi turned to look at his parents and smiled as he saw his father put his arm around his mother and squeeze her a little, both of them chuckling quietly. He turned back to the TV and waited as he watched his grandfather strike a match and light his pipe again, realising that he missed the smell of that thing already.
“Finally, my house and my beloved firm.” Yoongi leaned forward a little further, Seokjin doing the same beside him. “Firstly, I leave my house to my grandson, Min Yoongi.”
Yoongi sat up, blinking with his mouth hung agape. He turned to Seokjin, finding a similar expression on his face, and turned back to the TV.
“You’ve made me so proud, so incredibly proud. You deserve something good, and you deserve a wonderful place to start a family of your own. I know this house will bring you the same joy that it's brought me over the years.”
Something wet dripped onto his hand and Yoongi looked down at it, finding a tear. He hadn’t even noticed he was crying. He felt an arm wrap around his shoulders as he reached up to wipe his face, and leaned into it, feeling Seokjin rest his head against his own.
“And last, but by no means least, the firm. I’ve known since I hired you boys where the business was going to go when I was gone. I built that place up from scratch, earning a lot of respect in our field of law, and I treasure that place. I needed to know that when it got passed on, it was falling into the right hands. That’s why I’m leaving it to my two best lawyers. Yoongi, Seokjin, fifty-fifty, the firm is yours.”
The room fell into a stunned silence, everyone just staring in the direction that Yoongi and Seokjin were sitting in, and Yoongi felt like he couldn’t breathe.
The arm around his shoulders had stiffened, feeling tight on his back and he looked at Seokjin, finding him white as a sheet. After what seemed like an age, but had only been about a minute, Seokjin turned to look him in the face and whispered, “Holy shit.”
Nodding slowly, Yoongi stared back at him, breathing heavily. “Yeah.”
It wasn’t until later that night, lying in bed thinking about what his grandfather had left him, that it finally hit Yoongi. The firm was half his , the house was his , and according to Byung after the tapes finished, there was a cheque on his way for a cool 500 million won. His grandfather had left him so much, and his head was spinning.
Taking a few weeks off of work, Yoongi settled himself into getting his affairs in order, now that he actually had affairs that needed to be in check. First he worked on clearing out his grandfather’s house, carefully packing everything into pre-labelled boxes and calling family members to come and collect. It upset him at times, knowing that he was packing away memories of the man he’d admired so much, but at the same time it was exciting.
The house was his, even if the possessions it held weren’t. He’d be able to build a life in the house he’d spent most of his childhood in, his favourite place on earth. A few days later the cheque from his grandfather cleared and Yoongi found himself traipsing around a furniture store, looking at generic flat-pack items that would be easy enough to assemble in the shell he now called a home. He hadn’t stayed there yet, it didn’t feel right when it was so empty.
Seokjin had taken a few days off to offer some assistance, helping Yoongi slowly fill the house back up with the few things he’d had at home with his mother, and with the furniture he’d picked up. The walls where the pictures used to be were now filled with framed vinyl, the shelves where his grandfather’s ornaments and trinkets used to sit filled with Yoongi’s own books and boxed action figures.
It felt like a different house when they’d finished, but homely all the same. Yoongi’s mother had cried when Yoongi gathered his last few things in a box on the day he was moving out, hugging him tightly as they hovered by the front door. He’d let her, clinging back as though their bond would break the second he let go. He planted a kiss on her cheek as he pulled back and smiled, letting her cup his face in her warm hands,
“You know where I’ll be, eomma.” He said as he wrapped his hands around her wrists, “Come by whenever you like.”
“I’ll swing by tomorrow before I catch my flight,” she smiled at him, brushing a thumb over his cheek and brushing back the hair that had fallen in his face.
"Flight?"
“Your father and I are heading out to Italy to check on the villa.” Yoongi choked out a shocked laugh and grinned, making his mother laugh herself. “Now off with you, eomma’s got some packing to do.”
The first few days in the house took some getting used to. Yoongi missed hearing his mother’s daytime talk shows that she’d recorded when she went out to work, and he missed coming home to the smell of her cooking. It was so quiet, uncomfortable, and Yoongi found himself setting an alarm clock to the radio downstairs so there’d be some sound when he woke up instead of deafening silence.
He tried his best to spend as little time as possible in the house, busying himself with work and going out for drinks with Seokjin. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be there, he loved the old place, it was more that he didn’t know how to be there when it was so big and it was him wandering the house alone.
It was something he didn’t think he’d ever get used to.
Yoongi had fallen into sort of a routine, getting up, showering, grabbing a coffee to go and getting out of the door. It was comforting for him in a small way, something he could get used to when he was out of his comfort zone. It was nice. He’d come home at night, or the early AM, and either play on his piano a little, one of the few things he kept of his grandfather’s possessions, or jerk off, before crashing out and starting it all again.
What Yoongi had failed to anticipate, however, was that working his ass off with Seokjin just to fill his time would eventually leave him with even more time on his hands as the cases came to a lull.
The simpler cases had been handed straight off to the interns and Seokjin had placed himself in charge of most of the more complicated ones while Yoongi focused on getting his home liveable, and now Yoongi was left at sort of a loose end. So one quiet afternoon when Yoongi was playing trash can basketball in his office, he heard Seokjin talking worriedly on the phone, he got up, abandoning his game, and hovered by Seokjin’s door, eavesdropping.
Seokjin was scribbling something down, nodding with the phone pressed between his shoulder and ear.
“I don’t know how much help I’m gonna be, Joon. I’m pretty swamped.” Yoongi leaned against the door, eyeing the way Seokjin chewed his thumbnail as he listened to the person on the other end of the line,
“Alright, I can maybe give him some advice but you better start checking out other firms, Joon—yeah, no worries. See you around.”
Seokjin looked at Yoongi as he put down the receiver an exasperated expression across his face. Yoongi frowned, drawing his eyebrows together, and moved to sit in the chair opposite his colleague, “Everything alright?”
“Fucking dandy.” Seokjin muttered, running a hand through his hair and leaning his head back, “Just fucking peachy.”
“What’s up?” Yoongi enquired, resting his elbows on the desk and leaning forward to look at the paper Seokjin had been scribbling on just moments before, “Who’s Hoseok?”
Seokjin sighed and looked down at the scrawl on the paper, resting his face in his hand so that his palm covered his mouth.
He seemed conflicted, unsure of whether to answer Yoongi’s question, making Yoongi frown even more. For a few brief moments they sat in silence, Yoongi staring at Seokjin and Seokjin staring at the name and number in front of him. Finally Seokjin sat back, rubbing his hands over his face, and muttered a curse to himself.
“Fuck,” he said to Yoongi, meeting his eyes for the first time, “fine, I’ll tell you.”
Turns out that Hoseok was the omega cousin of one of Seokjin’s good friends, Namjoon. Apparently when Hoseok had been at performing arts school he’d met a guy a few years older than he was and had wound up getting pregnant. Hoseok had dropped out of school to get a job to support the kid, giving up everything he’d worked for, and at first things had gone well.
He gave birth to a little boy and Hoseok worked all hours, but it wasn’t enough, and the alpha father had bailed out.
Namjoon had called Seokjin for advice, the father was apparently back on the scene after ditching the kid for a party lifestyle, and because his new girlfriend wanted kids, he suddenly wanted his back.
Seokjin explained that Hoseok had been an only parent for six years and although he couldn’t afford the fanciest stuff for the kid, the child never went without. Yoongi interjected with, “So why don’t you help him?”
Seokjin rubbed his hand over his forehead and sighed, “He’s broke, Yoongi, and your grandfather wasn’t exactly big on hand outs. Not to mention the fact that I‘ve got my hands pretty full right now. My caseload is insane and I just-” he groaned, shaking his head. "Why did this asshole have to come back now?"
Yoongi had to agree with that, his grandfather never did anything for free, and Yoongi had always gone along with it, but for some reason this case was screaming ‘make an exception! ’ and Yoongi found himself telling Seokjin to give the guy a call and schedule an appointment with Yoongi himself. Seokjin looked surprised at that, knowing Yoongi would never disobey his grandfather, but Yoongi just shrugged and said “I’m only giving him advice, Seokjin. Call it a freebie.” Seokjin grinned and thanked Yoongi as he picked up the phone.
Nothing much happened over the next few days. Yoongi helped Seokjin with preparing case files ready for court, there’d been a sudden rise in divorce and dissolutions, and he’d even attended a few hearings with him. They both took the weekend off and had a barbeque over at Yoongi’s place, just hanging with friends and giving Yoongi the opportunity to meet Namjoon and find out a little more about Hoseok’s case. He didn’t get to speak about it much, Seokjin had banned all business talk, but he did learn that Hoseok was apparently the most genuine guy he’d ever meet and Yoongi really hoped that that was true.
Monday morning rolled around way too quickly though, and Yoongi cursed out the world as he rushed to work. He’d slept through his alarm and didn’t have time to finish getting dressed so drove wearing an undershirt and slacks with the rest of his clothes bundled on the passenger seat. When he arrived and parked upfront, he dove out of the car and grabbed his clothes, pulling on his shirt as he made his way inside the building. For a brief second he caught the eye of a guy sitting on the small wall beside the entrance and felt a hint of embarrassment rise inside himself, so he simply nodded and smiled and rushed inside.
Thankfully there wasn’t anyone else in the lobby and Yoongi could take a second to breathe, fastening his shirt as he waited for the elevator to come down to his level. He couldn’t believe he slept through his alarm, even if he was a little thankful, he hadn’t had a good night’s rest in weeks.
The elevator doors slid open as he fastened his top two shirt buttons and he stepped inside, noting the flush to his cheeks through the mirror lining the elevator walls. Pressing the button, Yoongi composed himself, hoping Hoseok hadn’t arrived for their meeting yet.
The second the doors slid open, Seokjin was immediately in Yoongi’s face, flustered and a little pissed. He was frantically yelling about how he’d been trying to call Yoongi all morning and how two interns had called in sick and why was Yoongi so late and Yoongi just stared at him blankly until he stopped. Seokjin had a habit of blowing things out of proportion sometimes and Yoongi was only like two hours late. It wasn't a big deal. He voiced this to Seokjin and got a steely look in return before Seokjin just flung his arms in the air.
“Not a big deal, huh? Well we’ll see how small a deal it is when you have your meeting with Hoseok who’s been waiting since I opened the damn building.”
“ Shit .” Yoongi muttered, looking at his watch and realizing that he was in fact almost three hours late, “Is he still here? I didn't think he'd come so early...”
Seokjin’s expression softened slightly and he stepped back, running a hand through his hair. “He went outside for some air, he should be back any minute now. He’s desperate, Yoongi, he would have waited for you all day if that's what it took.”
Offering Yoongi a small smile, he patted his shoulder before disappearing into his office, leaving Yoongi to slouch into his own, feeling heavy with guilt.
He’d just managed to get his computer turned on and his tie fastened when their receptionist tapped lightly on his door frame and stepped inside the office a little.
Yoongi gave her a smile in acknowledgement and sat down as she asked, “Should I send Mr Jung in now?” He nodded and she nodded back before flouncing out of the room while Yoongi got his paperwork in order.
There was another light tap on his door and Yoongi looked up to see the guy from outside the building. ‘fucking hell ,’ Yoongi thought to himself, cringing internally, ‘way to look professional, asshole.’ Hoseok didn’t seem to notice though and gave Yoongi a small smile as he shuffled over to his desk and outstretched a shaking hand.
“Hoseok, Jung Hoseok. I really appreciate you seeing me.” Hoseok rushed out as Yoongi took his hand and shook it, “I’m so sorry if you were busy today.”
Yoongi found himself flabbergasted for a moment, Hoseok was apologising to him?
He suddenly felt like a giant dick. He stared up at Hoseok for a few seconds, just taking him in and noting the slight sour tinge to his scent, before he physically shook himself and smiled,
“No need to apologise, Mr Jung, I was running late. This is entirely my fault.”
Hoseok gave him a small smile and took his hand back, hovering a little until Yoongi said, “Oh! Take a seat.”
Hoseok sat timorously, right on the very edge of the chair, and brought his thumb to his mouth, chewing the nail nervously. Yoongi eyed him over the papers he’d picked up, frowning a little.
He noted the slight shake in Hoseok’s hands and the way he seemed to stare toward the floor. The guy looked terrified and Yoongi wasn’t used to dealing with that. He watched for a few seconds longer and thought, ‘Fuck it.’ And grabbed his briefcase to put the papers inside.
“Have you eaten today, Hoseok?”
Hoseok looked up, seemingly stunned, and shook his head slightly. “N-no?”
“Neither have I,” Yoongi smiled, clipping his case shut and standing up. “Let’s get out of here.”
They headed to the diner down the block, walking in silence as Yoongi dug his cigarettes out from the pocket he’d hastily shoved them in on the way out of the door. Hoseok kept shooting him glances, Yoongi could practically feel the guy vibrating with nerves, but didn’t mention it as he fumbled around for a lighter. “Shit.” He muttered to himself, turning to look at Hoseok. “You got a light?”
Hoseok looked at him blankly for a moment before patting his pockets hurriedly and pulling out a disposable lighter, holding it out to Yoongi with his bottom lip caught between his teeth. Yoongi muttered a thanks and lit up, almost moaning as he took his first draw, and handed the lighter back. “Thanks. I needed this.”
Hoseok looked like a deer caught in the headlights, Yoongi observed, and the poor guy looked like he wanted to bolt at any second. Yoongi nudged him with his elbow, making the omega jump, and held out his cigarettes. Hoseok grinned, an actual proper smile, and shook his head. Yoongi watched him as he tucked the lighter away again and noticed the way Hoseok’s hands stopped shaking as much as they had before, he still seemed nervous, and his scent made it clear that he was, just not as much as he had been before.
They took a seat outside the diner while Yoongi finished his cigarette, never speaking, and Yoongi tried to figure a way to make Hoseok more comfortable.
He thought of all the charm offensives his grandfather used to have, winning around anyone who stepped in his office with a smooth smile, but Yoongi couldn’t see himself using his grandfather’s patter so he simply smiled and bumped his shoulder against Hoseok’s as he said “Relax, I’m not going to bite you.” To which he got a small laugh in return.
“That’s a bad habit, you know?” Hoseok gestured to the cigarette. “I don’t even usually have lighters around, but my baby insisted on a candle in my birthday cupcake a couple months ago.”
“I know. I'll get around to quitting eventually.”
Once inside and seated, hot coffee in front of them both and food on its way, Yoongi finally settled into lawyer mode and pulled out a pad of yellow lined paper and a pen.
“Okay, Hoseok, I’d like you to tell me exactly why you’re seeking legal help."
Hoseok sipped slowly from his cup and glanced out of the window before looking Yoongi dead in the eye.
“Because I love my little boy more than anything else in the world and I don’t- I can’t lose him. You got any kids?” Hoseok asked before shaking his head and smiling a little to himself, “I don’t suppose you do.”
Yoongi shook his head, tapping his pen against the pad of paper and sipping at his coffee. The way Hoseok looked at him, scared and brutally honest, made Yoongi really feel for the guy. For once he wasn’t dealing with a deadbeat dad who didn’t want to pay child support, and he wasn’t dealing with a mom who only wanted kids so she could get the cash from the state.
No. This was a guy who wanted to be a parent, who wanted to support his child and be there for him. It was refreshing, if not a little saddening, Yoongi was just bummed that this guy couldn’t afford their services. This was a case that Yoongi would really like to be involved in, a person who he’d be fully prepared to fight tooth and nail for. Hoseok was staring into his mug when Yoongi spoke again, looking as if the answer to all his woes was in the bottom of his mug of joe.
“What do you mean when you say ‘lose him’? Is there someone who wants to gain custody of the child?”
“Minnie.” Hoseok said, still staring into his coffee cup. “My son’s name is Minnie. Well...Jimin. When I found out I was gonna be a parent I wasn’t even sure what to call him, but when I held my boy in my arms for the first time I knew his name; I knew who he was. I had so many plans, I was going to travel the world, but I gave it up for him. I’d give up everything for him."
“You already did, didn’t you?” Yoongi replied, leaning forward and wrapping his hands around his mug, “I mean, weren’t you in a performing arts school?”
Hoseok nodded, turning to stare out of the window. He looks lost in his thoughts, falling through memories of old, Yoongi found him utterly fascinating. “I thought my calling in life was dance.”
Yoongi laughed, making Hoseok look at him curiously with just a hint of offense. “It kind of must have been,” Yoongi smiled, watching Hoseok quirk an eyebrow. “I mean you must be dancing around constantly as a dad, right? Kids keep you busy.”
Hoseok chuckled at that and nodded again, seeming to relax a little, the tenseness from his shoulders disappearing. "So when did his dad bail?”
The tenseness came rushing back and Hoseok’s fingers tightened around his cup, his eyes fixed firmly over Yoongi’s shoulder as the bitterness in his scent spiked. Yoongi waited patiently for Hoseok to speak again, not wanting to press him. He needed to know for the case file, it’d save Hoseok having to go through it all again with whatever lawyer took it on, but Yoongi didn’t want to force it out of him either if he wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. Hoseok turned to look Yoongi in the eye for a second before looking down to fiddle with the napkin holder.
“He bolted the day after he was born. He didn’t even hold him, he just took my car and left me standing on the sidewalk with him. Namjoon had to come get us.”
“Oh my god,” Yoongi found himself whispering, almost to himself, “I can’t believe someone would, someone could , do that.”
“Yeah?” Hoseok said sadly, stopping to sip at his now lukewarm coffee, “I didn’t think he would either but here we are. It was hard, you know? Being thrown into parenthood when I was essentially still just a kid myself. My parents kind of stepped out of my life when they found out, apparently unmated omega parents bring shame on the family." He sighs, shrugging a shoulder. "But I don’t think I would change any of that even if I could, I just… I just wish he hadn’t come back. I just don't understand it? Why now? He isn't Minnie's parent, biology doesn't mean shit when it comes to parenting. Jimin is mine. I raised him, and I was the one who's always been there.”
Yoongi tapped his pen against his chin, thinking deeply for a moment. Hoseok seemed genuine, in fact, Hoseok was probably the most honest guy Yoongi had ever come across, but he was also dirt broke. There was no way in hell that he’d be able to afford a decent lawyer, and definitely not one who could win this for him. And legal-aid was definitely out, Hoseok worked and it was only available to those who didn't.
It was all well and good being a loving parent, but it was a well-known fact that the judges took pity on the alphas, especially alphas who had the money to pay for their sympathy. Yoongi put down the pen and rubbed his hands over his face before laying them flat on the table and addressing Hoseok.
“I’m going to level with you, Hoseok. I like you. You’re open and honest about your situation, and anyone with a working set of eyes and half a brain can see that you genuinely love your son, and trust me when I say that that shit is rare in my office. Our issue here is that there’s no way you’re going to be able to afford a good enough lawyer to fight your corner, and unfortunately Seokjin is stacked up right now with back cases.”
Hoseok nodded and sipped at his coffee again, his shoulders slumped in defeat. “I know that, I do. I just wanted some advice so I can maybe fight for myself.”
Yoongi shook his head and reached out, patting Hoseok on the arm to pull his focus again. “What I’m trying to say is that I want to represent you. I know you can’t afford it and I know you can’t get legal aid right now, but I want to do this for you. I’m sick and tired of standing up for people who shouldn’t be parents simply because they can pay for my services. What I want is to represent someone who deserves it more than anything, someone who actually cares about who's at the centre of it all, the child . So I will personally take on your case pro bono." Yoongi huffs out a little chuckle. "Besides, this means that Seokjin won't hound me to help him with his caseload. It's a win-win."
Hoseok stared at him, wide eyed and mouth agape. He didn’t say a word, not for a while, but a smile slowly broke out over his face,
“Are you serious?” he finally asked quietly, hand coming up to cover his mouth. "You'd do that for me and Minnie?"
“I’m always serious.” Yoongi nodded, completely deadpan. “I’m a lawyer.”
Suddenly Hoseok jumped out of his chair and hugged Yoongi, squeezing his shoulders as he muttered 'thank you, thank you' over and over again. Yoongi brought his arms up to wrap around Hoseok’s waist, squeezing him back in the hug he didn’t realize he needed as he breathed in his scent. The sour had all but disappeared, and Yoongi smiled softly as he closed his eyes.
“You’re welcome, Hoseok.”
Yoongi was just closing the door to his office when Seokjin came bounding in, almost knocking him off his feet. Seokjin seemed excited, ecstatic, which was a far cry from what he’d been just a few hours before. He wrapped Yoongi up in his arms and lifted him off the floor, planting a kiss on his cheek, making Yoongi crinkle his nose. “I can’t believe it! Thank you, Yoongi. You’re amazing .”
Yoongi wriggled until he slipped out of Seokjin’s grip and steadied himself, smoothing down his jacket and rubbing at his cheek, “What the hell, Kim? What are you even talking about?”
“Namjoon called me.” Seokjin grinned, bouncing on his heels. “He told me that you’ve agreed to help Hoseok. You know he can’t afford the full price of our services, right?”
“I know.” Yoongi shrugged, moving to sit in his chair and kicking his heels up on the desk. He picked up his notepad and balled up a piece of paper, throwing it past Seokjin into his waste paper basket. “I told him I’d do it pro bono.”
Seokjin’s eyes almost bugged out of his head, wide in disbelief as he watched Yoongi ball up another piece of paper and throw it across the room. “But you- your grandfather? He never gave away free services?”
Yoongi put his hand up and stopped Seokjin in his babbling.
“I’m not my grandfather, Seokjin, and this guy deserves the best help he can get.”
Thinking back to the omega in the diner, Yoongi doubled down in his mind. Hoseok truly did need the best, and Yoongi was that person.