gentle breeze - ateez seongjoong

♡ 12

and another round of sobbing starts, as hongjoong panics and tries to calm seonghwa down again.

--

the school day ended, and many students made a beeline for the school gates, or to the dorm blocks. hongjoong and seonghwa were no exception. they squeezed into the crowded stairway, making their way up to the third floor, where their dorm resided.

along the way, hongjoong had noticed that many students had turned around and gave them weird looks. he had known this would happen but didn't give it much thought anyways. he looked over to seonghwa to check if he had noticed too, but instead, a smile lingered on his face, like he was in his own world. seeing this, hongjoong smiled to himself. it was great that seonghwa had opened up to him. he didn't know if it was just him, but he felt that his 'cold' aura had disappeared. he felt and looked much warmer. he was even smiling to himself.

"hwa,"

"mm?"

"you should smile like this more often,"

"oh..."

hongjoong chuckled at his small reaction and continued his way up the crowded stairs.

once they reached their dorm, hongjoong placed his bag on the floor beside his study table, and collapsed on his bed, whipping out his phone.

he decided to check the student website first, and as soon as the page loaded, their news was on the banner of the homepage.

'ice prince' seonghwa and transfer student hongjoong! what is their relationship?!

hongjoong scoffed as he read the title of the article.

a video of them hugging was posted too, along with a picture of a crying seonghwa.

hongjoong still can't quite understand why the school is making a huge fuss. yeah, seonghwa might have a reputation that's not as bright, but he's still human, right? why can't he cry?

"i shouldn't have done that... i'm sorry. now everyone's talking about us," seonghwa, who was seated by his study table, apologised in a quiet voice, looking at hongjoong with a soft gaze.

"hwa, i told you not to apologise. it's not your fault. we're all human. we're able to cry," hongjoong returned the gaze, and went forward to give him a tight hug.

ah, how warm it was. how protective it felt. seonghwa felt that he could overcome any difficulty with it.

"j-joong-"

"hongjoong-yah! open up!" a few loud knocks and a loud and rough voice interrupted their mini hugging session. the voice belonged to our dear song mingi.

annoyed, hongjoong took his time to open the door, and mingi rushed in, along with a flustered yunho.

"hongjoong, seonghwa, have you heard?" yunho exclaimed, looking as if he's just been chased by someone.

"the headlines? yeah, we have," hongjoong answered nonchalantly, grabbing his chair out for either of them to sit on. seonghwa too gave up his chair for them and sat beside hongjoong on the lower bunk.