Hoseok blinks as Jungkook explains, talks about a shapeless someone who watches him, who gets that same feeling of butterflies in their stomach around him that Hoseok still gets around Yoongi and Jin even though he tells himself every time to stop. He knows the feeling Jungkook's describing, knows it so well. It's become a feeling he hates, because of that last part, because he can't help the wishing part, even though he knows it's completely, utterly futile.

And Hoseok's sure that Jungkook is talking about a hypothetical someone, not an actual person. Because who would look at him that way? Who in the world could want someone who has (and will always have) nothing?

He thinks it's a platitude all the way up until Jungkook's last words. He feels his eyes go wide, his mouth drop open, and all he wants to do is ask the one question Jungkook apparently can't answer.

"Why..." he starts, then shakes his head softly. He runs through all the people that both he and Jungkook know and the list isn't very long, considering how many years apart they are at school. In his group of friends, he can't imagine any of them feeling the way about him Jungkook's describing. He remembers the way he used to be around Jin, the blushing, the flustered way Jin would make him feel. He thought it was obvious, but Jin had seemed entirely shocked when Hoseok had confessed to him.

It could be possible that one of them likes him and he doesn't know it, as unlikely as it seems.

He swallows. "Why haven't they told me?" he asks then, his heart racing, so many conflicting emotions running through him.