A Thousand Years

Chapter 3: New Day, New Self

Tori wakes up and it is now morning. The dream she had has now vanished from her mind. She suddenly feels something wet down the side of her left cheek. She touches it and wipes it off. "It must be from what happened yesterday. Oh well, today is a new day." Tori gets up and gets ready for work. After some time, she looks at herself in the mirror.

Tori fixes her hair, grabs her bag and leaves her apartment. It takes her less time to get to the company since she knows how to get there now. With more time on her hand, she decided to get an Iced Americano at the cafe near the lobby. After she grabs her drink, she heads upstairs to meet up with the music producer.

She walks into the music studio. "Annyeonghaseyo," Tori said as she bowed to the producer and he did the same. They go over the songs that the guys have recorded. "These sound really good so far. This comeback will amaze the fans." The producer nods in agreement. "Hongjoong and Mingi wrote the songs and produced them as well. They work together on them and then they and the rest come over here to record." He said. Tori was fascinated. "They sure have some talent. I will have to let them know that when I see them."

The door opens and Jongho appears. Tori looks over at him. "Annyeonghaseyo." she said with a smile on her face. "Annyeonghaseyo Manager-nim." Jongho answered back. "I came here to work on my parts." He sits by her. "I heard some of the songs. They sound really good. I can't wait to hear your vocals. You always have that special talent that makes you unique." Jongho smiles at the comment. "Thank you. That means a lot."

After some time, he goes inside the recording booth and begins to sing his parts. Hearing his vocals made Astoria feel something inside of her. She felt as if it was a familiar voice to her. That's what she always felt before when she learned about Ateez. Suddenly, she felt a tear stream down the side of her cheek. She places her hand on the cheek and tries to clean it up before someone notices. Unfortunately, someone did notice.

It was Jongho. He had already finished recording and was glancing at her when he saw her wipe her cheek. 'I made her cry again?' He thought to himself. This brought a flashback, more like a memory at this point, back to him of their past lives together as pirates.

It was night time and everyone was outside wanting to enjoy the stars together. This was during the time that everyone began to trust Astoria. Everyone was scattered around, laying on the deck, railing, and even each other. Jongho leaned against the railing and looked up at the stars. He decides to sing a song about stars to fill the air with music. He has just finished singing when he hears sniffling coming from next to him. It was Astoria who had been crying. He looks over at her. "Tori, why are you crying?" He said with worry. She looks over at him and wipes her cheeks. "I'm sorry. It's just...well this reminds me of when my mother and I would look up at the stars together when I couldn't sleep and she would sing me a song to help." He puts his hand on her shoulder. "I know it still hurts but your happiness is more important. You have us now." She looks over at everyone and then up at him. She smiles softly. "Thanks, Jongho."

Jongho blinks and he is now back in the studio and looks over at Tori. He goes over to her and kneels by her. "Manager-nim...why are you crying?" He said with the same tone of worry as he did in his flashback. Tori sniffles and looks at him. "I'm sorry. I guess your vocals got me emotional, in a good way. That shows me what I already know. You are incredibly talented, Jongho hyung." He smiles at her comments. "Thank you."

Tori stands up and Jongho does the same. "As much as I would love to stay but I am gonna go work on some emails in the studio." After saying her goodbyes, she then walks off to the studio. When Tori walks in, she finds San, Wooyoung and Seonghwa quote unquote 'working'. It was more like San and Wooyoung annoying Seonghwa and him questioning his life. "Annyeonghaseyo" She says as she goes off to the corner where there is a table and chairs. She grabs her laptop from her bag. Seonghwa looks over at her. "Annyeonghaseyo, Manager-nim. Are you alright?" It confused him on why she made a dash to the corner.

She looks up at him with a small smile on her face. "I am fine. Just have some emails to go through. Especially with the new album coming out." Tori gets right to work. The others begin to notice how she got into manager mode quickly after what happened the day before. But they knew that it would take time for her and they must be patient. They go back to practicing.

After some time, Tori suddenly hears laughter and screaming. She looks up from her laptop and finds a scene that was now normal for them. San and Wooyoung were chasing each other. Everyone else was either embarrassed, laughing, or ignoring them as they took a break. Tori watches for a moment or two and quietly laughs. "San hyung, Wooyoung hyung. What are you going on about now?" The pair look over at her. Wooyung goes over to her and sits by her with a pout on his face.

"San hyung got mad at me." He said. Tori sighs and looks over at him. "Why did you make him mad?" She crosses her arms. "I told him that he looked ugly and bit him." He then looks at her with a cute expression. "Pwease don't get mad." He said with an aegyo tone. This made the others cringe. "No more lying to San hyung. I know it's fun for you but it could go to the extreme. How would you feel if you told me that Captain needed me for something and I found out it was a lie?" She asked in a motherly tone.

Wooyoung nods but continues pouting. "Did you just call Hongjoong Captain?" Seonghwa asked as he approached her. Tori looks up at him. She thinks back to what she just said and realizes that she did. Embarrassment and confusion appear on her face. San and Wooyoung look at her in confusement. They knew that no one said it around her. 'Why did I say that? It felt so normal.' Tori thought to herself. She had to find the answer quickly before the others started jumping to conclusions.

"Well, I figured he was your captain, considering the pirate storyline you have. It only makes sense since he is your leader." The three nod in agreement. 'Damn it! The memories aren't back yet.' San thought. He was of course frustrated but can't show it for it may scare her. They all thought the same thing but they promised Hongjoong to be patient. How long can their patience last before it runs thin? They want their Astoria back.

"Well anyways, how about I go get us something to eat? I am sure we must be starving." Wooyoung gets excited and jumps up. "Let's eat!" She chuckles and orders them food for delivery. By the time food was placed in front of them, they were ready to devour it. They sit at the table and eat together. As they ate and chatted among themselves, Tori suddenly felt a headache. She tried to shrug it off as simply stress, but it did not go away. A smile painted her face as the headache didn't fade away.

She sits up, causing everyone to look up at her. "I will be right back." She rushes off to the bathroom and locks the door. Lucky for her, the bathroom was empty. "What is going on?" It was starting to frighten her. Usually headaches meant nothing to her, considering she has worked in the music industry for a long while and was used to stress. But now, they felt painful enough to upset her.

Suddenly, the sound of ringing began to fill her ears. Tori starts hearing loud voices. "Fire! Don't let them get away!" She looks all over the room to find the source but there is no one else around her and the hallway was empty. The voices started up again, but getting louder. Tori covers her ears and curls up on the floor, with her back on the wall. Tears begin to fall down her cheeks as whimpers escape her throat, wanting the voices to be quiet. "Please stop!" She yells out to nobody. "Leave them alone!" She screamed loud enough for all of South Korea to hear.

But the voices got louder and louder until she heard fires being shot and what sounded like cannons. It was becoming too terrifying and too real for her. It was as if they were truly happening right in front of her.

"Captain!! Help me!!"

Suddenly, she felt arms embracing her. "Don't worry. We are here now."