fever | ateez lore story

Part II: INCEPTION

inception
/ɪnˈsɛpʃn/
noun
1. the establishment or starting point of an institution or activity.
"before he knew it, this was the inception of his dreams to come true"

╔═*.·:·.✧ ✦✧.·:·.*═╗

•seonghwa•
I hold my face behind my hands, my parents and older brother congregated around the table. The start of 'Inception' plays and fills the empty room, my heart racing on the lines of either extreme nervousness or excitement, the enigma of their reactions stressing me out. Once my voice presents itself to them, I unveil myself from hiding and tell them; "this, uh, is me." They look at me, their eyes are wide as mine (guess this is where I got my boba-eyes from).

"This is you? This...voice?" My father asks for clarification, him and mother exchanging looks. I nod, biting the inside of my lips so hard, I think I made them bleed.

"Hwa...we didn't know you had such a beautiful voice." My mother gushes, a sweet and kind smile growing on her ageing face, but still beautiful as ever. Her smile-lines become more prominent, and the creases at the corner of my father's eyes appear, too. I sigh heavily, my smile mirroring theirs.

"I guess I didn't know, either." I say, rubbing my hands together. I look at my brother, who listens with his eyes closed, evidently immersed into the song. He looks just like me when I first heard the track.

"A pretty voice for a pretty face. You're making me jealous, Hwa." He mumbles, glancing at me through the lashes of his closed eyes.

I continue to watch as they fawn over the music, their excitement beaming upon hearing my voice that occasionally dances through their ears.

I'm glad they love it so much. For a second, I was terrified of what was to be the disappointment of not studying after school almost five days a week, but this is so much better.

---

•yunho•
"Shut up, is this you." My brother teases, hitting me so hard, I fall off the couch onto the floor. I lightly slap his leg, the both of our laughs drowning out the track.

"Be quiet, you're missing the best part!" I scold, hauling myself back onto the couch and bumping up next to him. His laugh quietens down and I increase the volume on my laptop.

-"Which part?"

"My part!" I brag, playing the track back a couple seconds to fully immerse ourselves in the vibe.

I am lost looking for you

"i Am LoSt LoOkInG fOr YoU." He mocks, a hearty laugh following straight after. I can't even be offended by this, because he knows I am quite good at singing. Who helped him become an idol, after all?

"Gunho, please!" I giggle, hitting his shoulder.

"Okay, okay, sorry. It's really good!" He says, switching up and brushing his hair back.

-"Who did you say produced this?"

My class captain, someone no one could expect to hold this much talent.

"Kim Hongjoong, our class captain." I say proudly, a wide grin on my face.

"Class captain? Wow...from all the classes he was skipping, I didn't expect him to have this much talent." He says, his ears perking up once he focuses on the song again.

It's disappointing how a lot of people underestimate the captain. Aside from all of the skipped classes, he's a great leader, and knows how to control a large group of people.