The Lost Treasure - Ateez

The Day After

Hongjoong was having a hard time falling asleep,laying on his bed in his home, thoughts haunted his mind every time he closed his eyes.

Maybe everything that happened today was a dream? Maybe he was in a loop where he's in a dream inside a dream ? He tried to convince himself that was what's happening to him, because there was no way he would go back in time. This is impossible beyond ridiculous. He considered telling his friends about what's happening to him, but he knew they probably think he went crazy and won't take him seriously. After all, Hongjoon himself would not have believed if someone would tell him such a thing.

After experiencing this weird situation, he waved goodbye to his friends and hid the hourglass and the drone that was with him in a hidden spot in the shelter,before covering them, he looked at the note that was attached to the white drone.

Hongjoong did not know why,but for some reason he ripped it from the drone ,shoving it in his pocket,taking the note with him.

He had a strong feeling that if he could figure out the meaning of the strange symbols, perhaps it would shed light on the situation he was in. He didn't even notice he fell asleep as thoughts ran in his head until loud knocks startled him awake. He didn't even have time for his heavy eyelids to open before the heels clacking noise stopped right beside his bed.

"Come on,it's seven o'clock,Get up" His mother's cold voice tried to wake him up.

He heard in the background some noises before another voice spoke up.

"Even if robots fly in his room,he wouldn't wake up" His sister's snobbish voice joined in and grated his ears .

Slowly opening his eyes,his sight was blurry from just waking up. He looked at his mom's icy, serious face while she paced back and forth in his room before throwing at him his school uniform.

"Get up and get dressed, the school bus will arrive in exactly fifteen minutes.If you miss it you will have to walk on foot to school." His mom sounded uninterested, barely even glancing at him.

The sour face of his older sister looked at him in contempt.

"I don't get why we are bothering ourselves to wake him up, after all, he is not gonna be a doctor" she clicked her tongue in disappointment .

Hongjoong felt that sentence was quite familiar to him, but all he could think about now is how tired he was.

"Close the door," he let out a grunt as he cuddled his face into the pillow.

His big sister rolled her eyes at him and shut the door loudly.

Hongjoong's parents and his sister didn't always treat him like this,he knew the main reason for their behavior was because of his attitude towards school,how he doesn't study like they want him to and his the brash and cheeky way he spoke and act doesn't quite fit their "Perfect life", but Hongjoong didn't care about it. After all, even in the days where he put so much effort in school,studied for hours on hours to make them proud,to be the child they always wanted him to be,but it was never enough for them.

His older sister always was in their eyes,her name always left their lips in praise,she was better than him in everything. Everything!

Hongjoong also saw the treatment she was given by their parents and the praises they would always show off in front of their friends, but they never praised Hongjoong. He remembered the proud looks when they saw Sanha's achievements and always compared them, and it was not in the good way. The line that was always repeated from his father's mouth played in his head.

'You need to take examples from Sanha. Look at the results she gets' and when Hongjoong would reply that he was trying hard and trying to be better, the only response he received was the disappointment that was seen in their eyes. This behavior continued to repeat over and over for years until Hongjoong decided that it did not matter how hard he would work, he would not reach her level and knew that his parents were expecting results that were above average. Hongjoong frowned and finally managed to lift his heavy body from his bed. He stood on his feet and dragged himself towards the chest of books in his room and removed the cell phone from charging. The anger he felt just now, faded a little bit when he saw the multitude of messages from his friends in the group they had and a small smile rested on his lips. Hongjoong was happy in the environment he built for himself with his friends without judgment and without unnecessary comparisons, just freedom and quiet that each of them would yearn so much to share their true dreams without being shattered. He didn't want to be a doctor or a sentence, he wanted to live the moments, experience exciting things, full of meaning for him, that would determine his destiny for him, not his parents. He undressed the pajama he was wearing and quickly put on his school uniform. Hongjoong looked at the time on the wall clock in his room. He had five minutes to get to the bus pick-up station. He carelessly wrapped the tie around the button-down collar.