WHO ARE YOU?|ATEEZ FANFIC (In Editing Progress)

Chapter 28|Me, myself and I|The Hourglass

"Take care, Hyung." Mingi said standing by the door, ready to leave just like all the others did. Hongjoong smiled at him and nodded.

"See you later, Mingi." The younger boy smiled back at Hongjoong, a nervous smile, as he was the only one apart from Hongjoong who had to go to do his task alone, while every else had a partner to go with, which slightly scared him, before he sighed, turned around and left the warehouse, leaving Hongjoong alone. After Mingi left, Hongjoong closed the door of the ware house und turned around to face the big filled up space infront of him.

""Just you and me, huh?" he murmured, hesitantly wrapping his arms around himself. At that moment, the warehouse was uncomfortably quiet for Hongjoong. He was all alone. Just him and the junk lying around everywhere, stacked and packed. It felt strange to suddenly be without these seven guys who had kept him busy from morning to night for the past few weeks. Normally, it was always so loud around him, full of voices, talking, the occasional small argument, or even singing. This silence was a first for Hongjoong. He didn't like it. It triggered a strange, uncomfortable feeling in him that he wanted to get rid of as quickly as possible, so he took a deep breath and mentally formed a plan for how to complete his task. According to his letter, all he had to do was find an hourglass and turn it over so the sand inside could trickle through. It didn't sound that difficult at first.  But when Hongjoong set about searching the department store for the hourglass, he quickly realized it wasn't all that easy. The department store was about a quarter the size of the one they'd been in in the desert, but at least three times as full. Instead of being neatly arranged on shelves, boxes were stacked on top of each other in the corners of the store, behind the couch, next to the door, and by the table to the right of the door. There were so many boxes that Hongjoong really had to come up with a plan for how to search through them efficiently so that in the end, he didn't have to spend more than maybe two hours finding the hourglass. At least, that's how he imagined it. Things didn't end up going quite as he'd hoped. As he'd planned at the beginning, he started in the less cluttered and more manageable corner of the store.  At the table, where only seven boxes were stacked in the corner, he grabbed one of the boxes, cut the packing tape with a piece of broken glass, and then started rummaging through the box.

"What do we have here..." he mumbled, taking the first thing he could find between the cushioning paper and pulling it out of the box. A hairbrush. Hongjoong frowned and sighed.

"I'm not looking for you," he grumbled, putting the hairbrush aside, which he was sure some of the boys would be happy to have once they got back, then continuing his search for the hourglass. The boxes by the table were, unfortunately, the first disappointment.  Apart from the hairbrush, a few clothes in the same drab style as the boys' everyday clothes, and other practical items like toothbrushes and a lighter, he found nothing. Although he and his friends could and did use all the things he'd collected, he was disappointed as he stood up with the items in his arms and carried them to the table. He placed the clothes neatly folded on the table and placed the rest of his lost and found items on top, took a deep breath, and then turned to the rest of the department store. He sighed.

"This is going to be a long day..." He was right. The first seven boxes hadn't taken long because they barely contained anything and were easy to reach, stacked low, and not packed too tightly. However, things were a little different with the other boxes. He stood in front of the ceiling-high mountain of boxes, all stacked like a pyramid, and sighed in frustration. He looked up thoughtfully and scratched the back of his head.

"How am I supposed to get to them?" he asked himself. Sure, he could try climbing the other boxes to reach the top one, but something told him the boxes wouldn't hold him and that the fall would be really unpleasant. Helplessly, he looked around the warehouse. A ladder or something similar would be his salvation in this situation, but as far as he could see, there wasn't one. Frustrated, he slumped onto the couch, which was facing the large door of the warehouse, and leaned against it.  He groaned, throwing his head back.