ateez family au

159

"You're getting better and better. You're making such great improvements!" The man ruffled through his hair and put his hand on Yunho's shoulder. "I'm sure during the next selection you'll be chosen," he added and winked at him.

Yunho's face beamed, his smile almost blinding. "Thank you very much, sir," he replied and bowed slightly, stood straight in front of his vocal coach. In his hands he held the songs he had practiced his singing on; every sheet was full of notes and advice given from his teacher. "All thanks to you!"

"Ah, you got this laid in your crib!" the elder gave back and wove after his student as he exited the door. "I'll see you on Friday, Yunho!"

"Until Friday!" the bac gave back and left the room. The floors of the building we're already empty, quiet for the most part. The floor underneath was loud; the dance-practice rooms were located there. Above him were mostly offices, it's mostly quiet there. And above the block of floors full of offices, there were the four floors of production studios. A couple of his fellow trainees had asked holes into him why the building was divided like that. He himself had never given it much thought, but after he had been asked about it so much, he too had wondered. His father's answer had been simple; a good view stimulates inspiration.

Yunho made his way to the next elevator to get to the top floor; his father would drive him home tonight. As he passed masses of practice rooms, he halted in front of one, involuntarily. The door swung open almost in his face and Jimin exited angrily, yelled things at whoever was inside, and stomped off. The door had long fallen into its lock again. The boy looked after his friend and tipped his lips. He had rarely seen Jimin angry, leave alone yelling at someone that outraged. Yunho's first thought was to go after him to check up on him, yet he hesitated. This had something to do with work, and that was the last thing he wanted to have anything to do with.

~

Hongjoong's brows knit as he looked over the report in his hand. With a deep sigh, he took off his reading glasses and massaged temples. Sometimes he was very close to giving up his spot and become a mere producer again, just to have his well conscious back.

Maybe he should have had known better before he had decided to go this way; his empathy towards all the artists under his label would come into his duty to act professionally. Yet whenever that thought passed his mind, he too remembered that that way the exact reason he had wanted to have his own label, outside of whatever his competition was doing. The art and its artist were first, everything else second.

With that thought, Hongjoong made a note on the upper corner of the report and put it on the pile of documents he had to work through. He rearranged a couple more things before shutting down his pc and laptop. There was a knock at his office door, a faint 'Dad? Dad, it's me!' was heard right after. Using the button on his desk, Hongjoong opened the door to his office. "Hey, big boy," he said as he packed his stuff in his bag, "how was practice, hm?"

Yunho smiled tiredly as he stepped into the spacy office and stood in front of his father's desk. If he didn't know him better, he would have assumed that he was a neat person; the office was kept clean and organized, stood in rather high contrast with his own studio back at home where he got most of his work actually done. "It was good, it was good," he replied, "Mr. Kim says that I'm making great improvements."

The parent put his hand on his son's back as they walked the way back to the nearest elevator. There was a proud smile all over his tired face as he listened to Yunho tell him about his day, how school had been and how his training of the day had gone. He could feel himself slip out of the role of the businessman and back into what he loved being; the father of a bunch of energetic children. "Sounds like Kim Yunho is going to be our new sensation soon, hm?" he chuckled as they walked to their car parked in the underground parking lot.

"Mhm... I don't think so," Yunho then admitted and scratched the back of his head. His lips tipped and the corners of his mouth twitched left and right. "I want to finish high school first, I don't want to work and go to school at the same time, that's probably more exhausting than how it's going right now..."

"I'm glad you have the common sense of your Papa," Hongjoong joked and opened the car door for his child before walking around and seating himself. "Make sure to give your mentors a notice, not that you accidentally end up on the list after the next election."

The tension left the boy's body again and he gave his father a relaxed smile. "Don't want to barely graduate high school, a family tradition I don't want to participate in"

"Listen here, you-"

~

"I told him that he's our son until he tells us otherwise."

"What did he say?"

"That... he is Mingi and doesn't know further... he said that it doesn't make any sense to him and that everything is fine and somehow not."

"Hm."

"He said that he wants to try some things but not yet," Seonghwa added into the silence and turned his back to his husband sitting at the small table in the kitchen. He stemmed his arms on the kitchen counter and pressed his lips in a thin line. It was not a slap in the face from them to hear their child's request. It was the slap in the face they were would hit Mingi in the worst case.

"Did you talk about how society will react?"

"I'm not going to smash my child's hopes just like that, Hongjoong."

"Hm." The younger massaged his temples and looked into his cooled-down cup of tea. He watched his exhausted face in the reflection and sighed. "We can only make home a safer place for all of them... Everything outside is out of your control."

~

"Yeosangie... do you have time?"

The elder turned his head and glanced to the door briefly. "Depends."

A smile flashed over Mingi's face. "Can you teach me how to braid hair? Mine is getting long enough now."

Yeosang put his book to the side and patted it in front of him on the bed, waited for his sibling to come sit. "You could have three other people in this house," he commented and took a hair tie off his wrist. "Why don't you just cut it?" he asked and took the soft strands of hair between his fingers, demonstrating how to make a simple braid.

"I want to have long hair for a while."

"How come? Are you over the butch lesbian cut?" the elder laughed as he recalled a quite vivid memory of Mingi with an almost bald head.

"Hm, I think that way people won't automatically assume I'm a boy."

Yeosang braided a second thin braid on the other side of Mingi's face and tied them together at the back. He looked at his younger sibling and smiled, put his arms around their shoulders, and leaned in for maybe even the first non-forced hug he had with his siblings. "Don't tell Papa, but fuck them people."

~

:)