Treasure: The Present || Ateez WooSanHwa

Chapter 21: Date with a friend; class of memories

At 6:00 sharp, the bell on the store door rang followed by a "hey".

"Hey, are you ready to go?" Joong stood near the door, jiggling his keys around his finger.

"Yeah, let's go." Turning off the light, flipping the sign from "open" to "closed" before locking the door behind him for the day.

The two got in the car with Joong in the driver seat and Hwa in the passenger seat. Both were silent most of the way there but not an awkward silence, just comfortable for the two.

"How was therapy?" Joong asked, turning into a corner street.

"It was alright, I guess." Hwa replied with a simple answer. "Where are we going to eat, by the way?" Looking outside the window, watching numerous restaurants passing by.

"You'll see." Making a final turn at a small parking lot. "We're here."

"A steak place?" Hwa furrowed his brows, watching people stroll in and out of the restaurant in front of them.

"Yep now let's go, I'm hungry." Getting out of the car followed by Hwa.

"Enjoy the food." The waiter placed two steaks with a few side dishes on the table.

"Thank you." Joong bowed to him. He noticed Hwa looking at his plate, he took the plate and started cutting the steak in small pieces for him.

"How did you know?" Placing a piece of napkin on his lap to prevent sauce from messing up his pants.

"How can I not notice? I see everything, Hwa." Gesturing to Hwa injured hand.

He let out a small laugh, "Thank you."

"You can feed yourself right? Or do you want me to feed you?" Gesturing to the steak that was at the end of the fork

"Yeah, I'm good." Holding his palm up as protest, making the two laugh.

[ At Hwa's place ]

"So you want to tell me what happened to your hand?" Joong sat on the floor next to Hwa with his knees up to his chest.

"Ugh you have to ruin the mood." Hwa let his head hit the couch behind him.

"No, I'm just worried like Woo and San were." Looking at Hwa's tired features.

"How did you know they knew about my hand?" Hwa turned to Joong, surprised written all over his face.

Joong casually pointed at the leftover bandage wrapped on the floor and the two cups on the counter. "Someone was here and at the same time wrapped your hand. Don't know who but it was either Woo or San. Probably Woo because you know him more than San. But the bandage on your hand now doesn't match the image on the wrapper here so that means someone else changed it for you and that would probably be San." Joong concluded. Hwa was stunned by Joong's accuracy.

"I know more than you think I know. Now you wanna tell me what happened?"

"A man came to my store and suddenly got really angry at me. He told me a guy like me shouldn't wear a pink blouse and told me that makeup and piercings aren't for guys. He told me people like me shouldn't exist and I should..." He stopped, being too hard for him to say it out loud.

Joong slowly nods, knowing it was difficult for him to talk about. "Take your time."

Hwa takes a deep breath, "It's fine, I'm fine. I told Woo already. I'm ok. Suddenly he threw a punch but Wonho stopped him in time so I didn't get hit. I- I stood there for a minute and just stumbled into the bathroom. Everything became so blurry and I just felt this warm sticky liquid and I saw blood."

Even though he had told Joong he was fine, he could tell Hwa still struggled talking about it.

"That's when I realized I smashed the mirror with my hands. Glass and blood was just everywhere. I just wanted those words out of my head. Then Woo unexpectedly came to the store to look for me."

Joong nodded, "I'm glad Woo came just in time." Hugging Hwa tightly.

Hwanwoong POV:

Woong sat in his lecture class, tapping his pen against the back of his hand to avoid the tapping noise. He wanted to go home to Ravn's warm hugs and kisses. A hot blush spread through his cheeks just thinking about it. Suddenly he felt a nudge to the right of him, seeing his friend gesture to the professor to tell him to pay attention.

"Memory loss is a scary thing. Sometimes it's permanent and sometimes it's for a short time depending on the events you go through." The professor moved onto the topic of memory loss and this made Woong's ears perk up.

"There are things called trigger objects and these can range from touch, by seeing something familiar or even smell, or touch. These can trigger a flashback which can be very uncomfortable but it is the start of the journey of recovering the individual's memories. However, that being said, it is not always successful. It can take from months to years to recover someone's memory. We will be discussing this more tomorrow. Class is dismissed for today. Stay safe and have a good night everyone."

The professor stayed in case anyone had additional information and let's just say Woong had many questions.