upon the bright sky, there stood a guy with a bouquet of roses in his hands
he was flashing the widest and brightest smile despite wearing the face mask that covered his nose and mouth. there were also some managers that came along with him behind
hongjoong, the leader of ateez, promised to the other members that he would never ever let a tear escape his eyes if he ever visited them again. it was understandable since hongjoong had not seen then for over two years
just the moment he dropped his gaze to seonghwa; his eternal friend, then moving along to the other younger members; his treasures, automatically, his eyes began to water. trying to avoid on breaking his promise, he looked up to the sky and successfully not letting it fall
"kim hongjoong!"
"hyung!"
the said person turned around and pulled his mask down since the sliding door got closed right after he's getting called and mouthed a 'what?' before putting his mask back on. he just nodded when he clicked on what they're actually saying by signalling a motion like 'call us later'
and they, all seven of them waved at him until his figure disappeared into the gate, staring at the departures sign just above the door for a while before deciding to to get some food and shopping, then going back to the dorm
arriving at the dorm, seonghwa felt a huge difference in his and hongjoong's shared room. seonghwa made his way to yeosang, wooyoung and jongho's room. "kids, i'm staying the night here from today until your hyung comes back" he said before carelessly laying himself down on top of the three's backs
"go bring your bed here then. we still have some space ... "
"jongho, it's a bunk bed ... "
"hyung! hi hyung!!" they could hear san's voice, and another voice followed after; yunho's. "guys, it's hongjoong hyung!" and mingi just greeted the leader with a simple 'hi hyung'
--
hongjoong and the manager (as well as some staff) arrived safely at his working place -which was where he was called for some interviews and a collab of music production- after around six hours and was now in a hotel where he would stay at as long as he's still there
not even bothering to unpack his things, he plopped onto the soft, queen-sized spring bed and fished his phone out from his jacket and video-called yunho, excitedly waiting for the other line to answer his call
"hey... where's the other? hi sani, mingi" he did a small wave to the three without calling out yunho's name and saw how shocked yunho's expression was. "hi to you too, yun"
yunho chuckled and tell the others just then.
"guys! it's hongjoong hyung!"
—"hyung! seonghwa hyung's been annoying us" a jongho complained through the call
—"no, i did not! you three little demons are the ones locking me in the bathroom from outside"
—"it's wooyoung"
"boys, it hasn't been a day and you're already this loud. come on, just give seonghwa some break while i'm away, can you hear me?"
—"listen to dad, everyone. give our mommy dome break~" teased yunho, earning a light smack on the back of his neck from you-know-who
