pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

shy

He pulls you through the town, back to the harbor where you can see several ships docked in the piers. But to your surprise, Jongho doesn't lead you back to the Treasure. Instead, he drags you to a small bakery selling pastries and sweets.

You turn to him confusedly. "Jongho-hyung, what are we doing here?"

"Pick three cakes." He gestures at the shelves. The establishment is neat and well kept for a pirate town, and the cakes look rather high quality compared to the other shops you saw earlier. It must be expensive. But since he told you to do it, you obey.

The shop owner takes your pastries and puts them in a little paper bag. Then Jongho adds several more cakes to the order, until his arms are laden with bags of sweet treats.

"Let's sit." He tells you gruffly, pulling you to one of the tables outside and sitting you down. You continue staring at him in complete bewilderment even as he pulls out your pastry and sets it in front of you.

"Eat."

Your mouth falls open. Then you lean forward, pressing a palm against Jongho's forehead as you look into his eyes intently. "Jongho-hyung, are you experiencing any dizziness or discomfort?"

The maknae jerks back at the contact, face twisted in a confused scowl as he shakes his head. "What? No! What are you-"

"You need to be honest with me, Jongho-hyung." You look into his eyes carefully, searching for wavering pupils or the like and your voice drops to a secretive whisper. "Have you been drinking without telling Seonghwa-hyung?"

"No! Why are you even asking me this? I'm not being weird!" Jongho yelps as he scoots back further from you, the sound of his chair dragging across the stone floor making both of you wince. "I'm not drunk! I'm not sick either!"

"Okay..." You continue to stare at him with worried eyes as you take a bite of your puff, the sweet taste of cream spreading over your tongue. The young battlemaster sighs.

"I just wanted to talk to you." He glances away from you for a moment to collect his thoughts, before he opens his mouth to speak again.

"I don't hate you, okay?"

His words are mumbled under his breath, so you lean across the table to hear him more clearly.

"What?"

"I don't hate you!" He shouts, clearly embarrassed. His cheeks are tinged pink and you look at him in surprise.

"Shut up, kid!" One of the bakery's patrons shouts at the two of you and you shy back into your chair, feeling your cheeks burning.

"Oh." Is all you manage.

You're a little shocked. With how he'd been treating you this while, you thought he'd hated you, loathed you, even. While you weren't sure why, you had thought he had disliked you immensely.

"Wipe that dumb look from your face before I smack it off." Jongho grunts, and you realise that your lips are pulled into a wide grin. Hurriedly, you try to hide your Cheshire Cat smile, but it's impossible. "I mean it!"

Finally with much difficulty, you press your face into a poor attempt at a serious look, much to Jongho's chagrin. He sighs, slapping a hand against his forehead.

"I'm just awkward with new people, okay?" You've never seen the young battlemaster this skittish. Even in battle, he's always possessed some kind of quiet, silent self confidence, not an ounce of self doubt in him. "And I was always the youngest till you came along, so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to... take care of you."

You're oddly touched by this for a moment. This strong man, who can handle even the fiercest of enemies, awkward and shy... because he doesn't know how to take care of you.