Ateez Stories & Imagines : A compilation

Random and Short Drabble - includes all members

// I had no inspiration for a member specific story and this came to me originally as a Jongho Drabble but clearly escalated to just be for all of them. It ends abruptly, because I ran out of places to take it but I may do a part 2 in the near future. There is NO romantic affiliation in this. //

*This is the beginning of a paragraph that I'm not really sure fits this chapter at all but is what prompted and inspired the rest so I'm leaving it in*

Iridescent.

That is how you would explain Choi Jongho to anyone who asked you about him.
Not that many people would ask about Jongho, the quiet and stony faced teenager who preferred to be around people he knew rather than those who were strangers to him.
Jongho didn't like new things, but that didn't stop him from being something new everyday even to those who knew him best. 

*this is the end of above mentioned paragraph.*

"If you break that, I will break your nose." Jongho warned his older, yet notedly less mature friend and fellow trainee, Choi San. The red streaked hair boy pouted from his position on the floor amongst the careful structure of LEGO that he was inspecting with raucous fascination.
Jongho had been up half of the night creating the small plastic brick replica of his hometown, unable to sleep thanks to the millions of thoughts running through his mind. The last thing he wanted was the clumsy and cheerful San knocking or crushing a part of it.
"Jongho, this looks incredible." Wooyoung commended his younger friend in a tone of surprised appreciation, his light contacted eyes sweeping up the scene in a single sweep of awe, barely taking in his best friend barely moving amongst it.
Jongho nodded his thanks, biting back a slight smile. He liked having the image of a steely faced, emotionless robot, because like that he could construct walls and shields to hide behind if he needed. In the industry they were in, walls like that were not only important but imperative to survival.
Loud whoops and cheers indicated the arrival of the groups tallest and potentially loudest, excluding San himself, members; Jeong Yunho and Song Mingi.
They were as inseparable of a pair as Wooyoung and San often were, seen with one another more often than not. Notorious for creating chaos whilst simultaneously spreading their infections joy and cheer, Jongho really couldn't hide his smile this time when the duo tumbled into the room, eyes lighting instantly on his hard work with exclaims of admiration leaving their lips.
"We really have the most talented Maknae." Yunho cheered, warm eyes appraising the younger member in his own uniquely friendly way. Nobody who met Yunho could find a bad thing to say about him, even the somewhat annoying habit of yelling through his sentences had its charm and Jongho grinned back at him while San grumbled from the floor.
"He's hardly the Maknae. I'm more fun than he is." Wooyoung chuckled at his friend and tugged him up, careful to help him avoid breaking Jongho's precious work.
Truthfully, it would have to be taken down at some point because in his efforts to find sleep Jongho had come to the dance studio to practise, which was where the boxes of LEGO had been and consequently was where the space consuming structure was now set up.
Despite his earlier warning to San, Jongho knew that the thing would have to come down sooner rather than later.
"Right guys is everyone ready- oh!" Kim Hongjoong, the leader and definitively smallest member of the group peeked into the room.
He smiled warmly at the structure on the floor, this not being the first time seeing one of Jongho's creations.
In fact he'd walked past the studio earlier, or rather later, and seen the round cheeked boy pouring his efforts into the construction of the arrangement. He hadn't expected it to still be here however and wasn't sure he had the heart to insist it be taken down for their practise.
Behind him the remaining members of their group, Park Seonghwa and Kang Yeosang chattered and bantered easily about Yeosang's inability to stray further than two feet from his beloved drone which the members had each pitched in on his birthday to get him.
"... I don't even have it with me right now so your point is completely invalid." Yeosang pointed out, eyebrows wiggling at his older friend who just rolled his eyes, mouth curling in an amused smile. They both paused behind Hongjoong, neither struggling to peer over him at the scene in the practise room.
Soft whispers of 'wow' and 'awesome' left their mouths at Jongho's masterpiece, neither in question about who had created it.
As talented and skilled as each of the members were, none had anywhere near the same level of patience that Jongho did.
"Where should we practise today then?" Seonghwa hummed softly to Hongjoong, seeing the reluctant on his leader's face. Being the oldest, he often took on a mother like role, though with Hongjoong he preferred to see it as more of a partnership. Though the cheerful boy was younger than him by a few months, he was technically in a higher position of authority amidst the group of 8, which Seonghwa respected.
If anything it was a relief to not be the only one that everybody relied on.
Yeosang glanced between them, remaining silent though his mind turned with many other options, the most desired being that they call today a rest day and spend it with the members.
In truth, it was on everyone's mind, the need and urge to take a break from the endless droning hours of dancing and practising that had become their circle of life.
But they all knew, nobody more than Hongjoong, that to slow down was to risk their future right now which was in an unstable balance already thanks to the company's small following.
For them to break out, to debut successfully they would each need to push themselves to limits that their bodies and mind had never gone before. So no matter how exhausted each of them felt, or how badly they wanted to use the plastic covered floor as an excuse to take the day off, they wouldn't.
Yunho glanced up from his seated position on the floor beside Mingi, who at some point since he'd walked in had managed to get into an arm wrestling match with Jongho.
Yunho stood and approached the three in the doorway, running his fingers through his dark hair.
"Wooyoung was saying earlier that the weather outside is nice?" Hongjoong peered at his taller member, pursing his lips contemplatively as he nodded in confirmation of Wooyoung's claim.
Judging by the dark circles below Yunho's eyes and the fact that he was still in the clothes he had practised in yesterday, the energetic boy hadn't seen the weather because he hadn't left the building yet.
Seonghwa and Yeosang exchanged glances over Hongjoong's head, mouths set in firm lines. As much as they all worked hard, nobody could deny that Yunho had been overworking himself lately and it had been a source to worry and concern to all of the members. But the smiling, warm eyed boy would never admit to the bone wrenching weariness he felt, or that some days he wanted nothing more than to remain in bed.
"... could do practise outside." Most of them had missed the first half of his sentence, though the end of it left little to the imagination and their worry about him fled to the further corner of their minds, cowering cowardly there as Hongjoong nodded his approval of the idea, relieved not to have to ask Jongho to remove the replica of his hometown.
By now the others were paying attention, listening attentively for the diagnosis of the day, even Mingi who was cradling his aching arm from the abuse of Jongho's muscles.
San was the first to stand, walking with a bounce similar to a ball of elastic bands towards the group, eager to begin.