gentle breeze - ateez seongjoong

♡ 10

yunho let go of the hug. “what do you think? of course i will, idiot!”

–

a night has passed, and it is now friday. physical education was the first period, so the students had to go to class in their gym clothes.

hongjoong woke up at 7am sharp, and did the necessary. he had noticed that his clothes were already prepared, and a smile crept up to his face unknowingly. he looked over to seonghwa, who had already finished showering, and was dressed in his gym clothes already. he was silently reading a book on his desk, paying no mind to hongjoong. it was quite strange. usually, seonghwa would ask if he had a good night’s sleep and whether he had any dreams, but this time, he only greeted him with a single ‘good morning’.

and what’s weirder was that he was up earlier than usual, and even prepared hongjoong’s gym clothes for him. he thought that seonghwa was just being nice, so he tapped his shoulder, and informed him that he was heading to the public bathroom.

without saying a word or lifting his head up, he nodded and continued reading his book.

soon, hongjoong was back from the shower, and seonghwa was still at his desk, reading.

“hey, seonghwa. did you sleep well?” he asked, trying to kill the awkward atmosphere in the dorm. if seonghwa wasn’t gonna ask, then he will.

“mm,” seonghwa mumbled with a nod, his head still buried in his book.

“had any dreams?”

“nope,” again, head still buried in his book.

“seonghwa,”

“hmm?”

“look at me,” hongjoong said with a stronger tone, to which seonghwa ignored. he grew more and more anxious as the seconds passed and nothing else other than silence was heard.

“seonghwa, please. what’s wrong?” hongjoong asked nervously, afraid that something might’ve happened to him that he didn’t know of, and that he was crawling back to his shell.

silence followed, and hongjoong inched closer to seonghwa.

the smell of his sweet, berry-scented body wash crept its way up seonghwa’s nostrils as hongjoong moved closer and closer to him. his heartbeat increased along with every step hongjoong took. seonghwa’s face was flushed, and the tips of his ears probably were too. hongjoong probably could’ve already noticed his ears at this point.

“oh my gosh, you’re so red. are you sick?” hongjoong started to worry as has, indeed, noticed seonghwa’s fully flushed face. hongjoong stuck his hand out to feel seonghwa’s forehead for his body temperature, trying to confirm his guess, but before his hand could get in contact with his forehead, seonghwa had snatched it.

“hwa?” with a confused look on his face, hongjoong felt that his assumption might be correct. maybe he was really crawling back into his shell.

“a-ah… i’m sorry,” seonghwa let go of hongjoong’s wrist, and turned his body away from him, focusing on his book once more.

“seonghwa. is everything alright? you’re weird today. i’m really worried. please tell me,” hongjoong started to panic, thinking of all the things that could possibly happen to him. either he is really returning to his shell because someone had threatened him, or he’s getting bullied, or–