Ateez Roommates - Seongjoong

Why him?

"Hi Seonghwa."

It took everything in Seonghwa not to snap back. He set his box down and walked over, knowing he should at least try to be friendly. Even though Hongjoong hardly ever returned the favor.

"How was your summer?"

"Good," said Hongjoong, not wanting to expand any further.

"That's good!"

Awkward silence filled the empty hallway. Seonghwa tried again to ease the tension.

"I spent mine in Seoul at a business internship with Samsung—"

"Wow. Good for you."

"I also got to travel a bit, my father took us to Europe for a month—"

"So cool."

Seonghwa was getting annoyed but he took a deep breath and continued.

"Well, it was nice seeing you. I look forward to being RA's together!" he said with a smile plastered across his face, which quickly faded as soon as he turned away from Hongjoong.

How had this happened? Of all the people he could have been paired with, why did it have to be Hongjoong?

He grabbed his box, giving a final wave to Hongjoong who was still standing like a statue (hehet) outside of his dorm room.

Quickly, he rushed to his new room and closed the door, sliding down to the floor. He set the box in front of him and put his face in his hands.

Why him?

Seonghwa and Hongjoong had been roommates freshman year and things had started off on entirely the wrong foot.

To begin, Hongjoong told him he would keep the room clean at all times—he'd even put tidiness down as a requirement on his roommate match form.

And yet, he was incredibly messy. As a music major, he left his sheet music and songbooks scattered about the room—often on Seonghwa's side—and would panic every time he had to find them. He had also joined a dance group so he was constantly having to change between his over-the-top outfits and athletic clothes, leading to a massive pile-up on the floor by the end of each week.

This wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't also been defensive when Seonghwa confronted him about it. He always turned himself into the victim, claiming that Seonghwa was just too much of a neat freak and that he'd get to it. Of course, his tone usually just made Seonghwa call him out on it more often. This never led to a good conversation.

Hongjoong also used to get annoyed at Seonghwa whenever he tried to have a normal conversation with him. He'd always call him "entitled," "stuck-up," "self-centered," "asshole," among other things. Seonghwa was simply talking about his life and his career goals but evidently Hongjoong always saw it as bragging.

And then, there was the worst part. Seonghwa had immediately fallen hard for Hongjoong. This was before he found out he was a cranky slob. But it definitely caused many problems, such as Seonghwa getting jealous when Hongjoong went out on dates without telling him anything (even though Seonghwa knew he wasn't obligated to) or him getting too flustered to respond when Hongjoong got so heated he was right in Seonghwa's face.

But he was definitely over that crush. It died long before Hongjoong switched roommates second trimester.

Of course he still thought he was cute. Despite all of his aggravating qualities. So seeing him again was quite the shock. He had been wearing a tight white t-shirt and skinny jeans and even though it was simple, he looked fine as hell.

Seonghwa smacked his forehead. He could not afford to have those thoughts! The situation was messy enough as is!

He was at least thankful that he would be living on the other side of the dorm. He would hardly have to talk to him unless they had RA stuff to discuss...which would probably happen very often.

Seonghwa threw his head back in frustration but ended up hitting the door kind of hard and winced, rubbing the sore spot. He hoped Hongjoong hadn't heard that.

Finally he sighed and stood up, preparing to unpack his boxes. It would be nice to have his room all to himself, as he was the only person he could trust to keep it clean.

He set each shirt into the drawer meticulously, making sure they stayed folded. He then hung up each of his sweaters together, then jackets, then dress pants. He set up his accessory rack on the closet door and hung his scarves, necklaces, bracelets, ties, and belts in their own areas. He then moved on to the shoes, placing them in a rack on his closet floor.

He went through each box in his room like this, wanting to set everything up well the first time so he wouldn't have too much work later. He enjoyed making things neat, as it cleared his mind of Hongjoong, among other things.

He had a lot of pressure to do well this term as the Business Fair would take place during third trimester where the biggest companies in the world would come to scout potential interns. Not to mention, over 85% of these interns ended up receiving a guaranteed position at the company once they finished school. Seonghwa's dad had been pressuring him all summer about it so he was glad to have these few weeks alone to de-stress and prepare himself.

Finally his last Star Wars action figure had been placed in his display case and he smiled reaching to turn on the light for it when a knock on his door startled him. His hand shook and he hit the case, knocking nearly every figure on the shelf over and ruining his hard work. He sighed and stood up, heading to the door.

It wasn't until his hand was on the handle that he realized the only person who would be knocking was Hongjoong. He froze and lifted his fingers off the knob. He really didn't want to talk to him. But knowing that that wasn't an option, he opened the door with a smile.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked, nonchalantly.

"We have the first RA meeting today and I figured we should probably go together," Hongjoong muttered, looking to his left. Specifically avoiding eye contact with Seonghwa.

"Sounds good, let me just grab my bag."

Seonghwa went back into his room and grabbed the pastel pink backpack from his closet and placed it on his back. He would've taken time to check how he looked in the mirror but Hongjoong was standing in the doorway watching him and it felt weird to do that when he wasn't entirely in private, so he hoped he looked alright.

He turned to Hongjoong and nodded that he was ready and the two headed over to the meeting together.