Ateez Stories & Imagines : A compilation

Seonghwa • Office Break •

The sound of mechanical clicks and the constant ticking of the clock that displayed an incorrect time above the desk was enough to drive anyone mad. If anything it was a certain indication that I was losing my mind, finding a strange comfort in the consistent sounds.
"Are you alright?" Blonde locks followed by warm brown eyes slid into view, a sympathetic smile gracing the handsome features of Park Seonghwa, who up until today had literally never looked at me.
He was dressed more casually than he usually was when he wandered into managements office, lacking the excessive frills and trills of his on stage outfits. Black jeans hugged his long slender legs and an oversized black jumper with foreign words sprawled across the torso hung loosely on his upper body, the hem tucked into the waistband of his pants to highlight his athletically thin waist.
One of the perks to dancing everyday, I mused to myself as I stared wide eyed at the beautiful specimen of a man leaning casually on my desk like he wasn't a freshly debuted idol under the company I was supposed to be working for.
Supposed to be because despite being hired and paid for the hours I came in to the office, I had yet to be assigned an actual role beyond 'the cute coffee girl' and every day was just hours filled with reviewing footage of the idol group that Seonghwa was in to ensure nothing out of place would go online.
"You don't like talking?" Seonghwa chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably, an almost pained look on his face as he continued to smile. I blinked rapidly and shook my head to shake the thoughts clouding it, offering him a quick and embarrassed smile.
"Sorry, I was stuck in my own world. Thankyou for asking, I'm okay." The words had barely left my lips before a thought clicked into place in the back of my mind and I stood quickly, staring harder at the man in front of me. Usually if any of the members of Ateez wandered into the KQ Entertainment offices it was because one of them had done something wrong, something that I usually had already found in logs of their camera footage or something that I usually ended up having to deal with because the seniors in the company rarely got involved if they could avoid it.
Seonghwa leaned back, eyes wide at my sudden change in position and hard stare. Dark brown roots were showing through the sandy blonde strands and his hair lay flat over his forehead, bare of any product.
"Why are you here?" The question came out blunter than I'd intended it to and he wiped the shocked look from his face quicker than I'd have thought he could, his large hands wringing in front of him in a visual display of his nerves.
"Well-" his eyes flickered once to meet mine, apologetic and still filled with his earlier friendliness. It was hard to be angry at him, or any of them, whatever the issue was. As the oldest member, it was often Seonghwa or the leader Hongjoong that wandered in with those apologetic looks to dump an issue in our hands and very rarely one of the others would come by in place of them. But they never came without a thousand apologies on their lips or hard work to make up for time lost to solve the problem. With their good looks and sweet personalities, none of Ateez were easy to be mad at.
I almost missed the words falling from his lips next in my thoughts.
"Wooyoung has hurt his ankle, we're not entirely sure what happened but he can't dance on it. Hongjoong is with him now." I froze, eyes finding the laptop sitting open on my desk with Ateez's schedule for the upcoming week on it.
It wasn't fully booked, thankfully, though there was a fansign in a few days that we wouldn't be able to cancel.
"He really can't dance on it?" I asked cautiously, hoping to some god above that this was the only issue to deal with today. Because if it was then today would be a marginally easier day than most. Seonghwa dipped his head in a nod, cheeks dusting a soft red.
If it weren't both unprofessional and completely out of my comfort zone, I would have grabbed his trembling hands and reassured him that this was one of the easiest problems that they had brought to this office.
"It's okay. I'll deal with it, don't worry." I waved, hoping that the dismissive gesture would ease his conscious but the uncomfortable positioning of his muscled body and constant shuffling of his booted feet continued. "Seonghwa, really it's alright. This is a manageable problem you know." I offered him another smile, eyes darting to hold his to convey my sincerity. He swallowed once and nodded again, sighing out softly.
"Thankyou, Y/N. I appreciate y- it." He stuttered over his words and a terse smile once again graced his face. For the second, or maybe third, time today I froze, eyes fixed tightly on the screen in front of me.
"You know my name?" Instantly I wanted to take a sock and shove it down my throat, cringing inwardly at the high pitched squeak leaving my lips. It almost made it worth it though when an angelic laugh spilled from his mouth.
"Of course I know your name. We all do, everyone thinks you're the cutest person here." Instantly his eyes widened and a large hand slapped hard over his mouth as shock bloomed in his dark irises, more than likely matching my own.
My muscles refused to move despite my desire to stand and run, or to hide literally anywhere but in front of the insanely attractive man in front of me that just told me he thought I was cute.
It was a dream come true, more than likely, for most girls but my worst nightmare. Granted it was humbling that the members of Ateez even remembered my name, let alone thought I was cute, but hearing one of them tell me was too much for one girl to handle.
"God I'm so sorry, I've made you uncomfortable. I'm really embarrassed.." Seonghwa mumbled through his fingers, face contorting in a grimace below the shadow of his palm. I just gaped at him, begging my mind to recover and respond instead of staring at him like a fish out of water.
'Get a hold of yourself.' I insisted inwardly, clenching my fists at my side. 'He just said you're cute, it's not like he's confessing he likes you, what are you 12?'
Slowly his hand dropped, concern writing itself into a song on his face and he stepped closer, mouth twisting down in a frown.
"Seriously, are you okay? You look like you're about to pass out." He murmured softly, hand outstretching towards me. His fingertips barely grazed the skin of my wrist before I was standing again and stepping harshly out of reach, eyes wide and heart beating loudly in my ears.
At this point, if anyone else had been in the office to witness my erratic and weird behaviour beyond the concerned man in front of me I might really have died. Or dig a hole to hide in.
"I'm fine. You should go." I said in a faint voice, praying he was smart enough to hear the plea in my voice and kind enough to listen.
"How can I just go like this?" He muttered below his breath, eyes still fixed strongly on me as if I was going to topple and disintegrate below a soft wind. Which was not entirely impossible at this point.
"Are you really okay?" The world spun as he stepped closer yet again, apparently I'd given him too much credit when it came to brains because any idiot should have been able to tell that if you had a face like that and called a girl like me cute then she was going to over react. My hand touched the wall behind me, barely supporting my now trembling body as he moved so close that I could smell the pleasant scent emanating off of his skin. This was not how I normally reacted to being so close to someone, even a male, but normally I wasn't so close to someone with unmarred looks and beautiful eyes that I could drown in.
"Don't faint." He begged, hands catching my forearms and holding tight to prevent my useless limbs from sending me toppling. Either it was that obvious on my face or he could see the trembling of my hands and jelly like shaking of my legs below me.
"I'm okay." I whispered, closing my eyes on the sight before me. His hand was warm on my arm, hot breath fanning delicately across my face and even with my eyelids over my eyes I could still see the concerned frown creasing his perfect face.
"You don't like being called cute? Or are you sick?" He asked, seemingly oblivious to the way he was affecting me. I scoffed, peeking through my lashes at him to gauge whether he was being serious.
"It's not that I don't like being called cute. But you're-" I paused, reconsidering what I'd planned to say. Telling him that he was too attractive to be the one telling me those kinds of things would just go over his head, he was clearly unaware of his own looks. And given his band mates own looks, it must be hard to be able to tell the difference between average and above average.
"I'm what?" His eyes were far too close to avoid looking into and the glint of slight amusement in them now was tell tale that he understood at least somewhat what was going through my mind now.