Toy | Ateez

nine: waffles

Your eyes slowly opened as the light from the window shined onto your face. Forcing your body to wake up, you stretched out across the bed, a prolonged yawn leaving your lips. There was so much space. Wait. There was more space than you remember. Your eyes darted around the room as you realized Yunho was no longer in bed with you. A small pout formed on your lips. And, as if he had read your mind, Yunho immediately walked in the room. He was shaking his hair dry with a white hand towel as he walked in. He was shirtless, which wasn't a surprise to you at all.

Yunho was always comfortable around you, especially considering your history. But every time you saw him shirtless, it was as if he just got hotter. You knew he didn't work out any more than usual, and his diet still mainly consisted of pizza and chicken. But seeing all of the defined muscles of his pecs and abs almost made you forget his dieting habits.

"Morning," Yunho cooed sweetly as he walked towards the bed. He reached out to ruffle your hair then moved towards his dresser to pick out an outfit. You rose from the bed and crawled over so you were closer to him. He placed a few different articles of clothing in front of you, all various things you had left at his house from previous visits. "The boys are making breakfast downstairs. You might want to hurry before it's all gone."

Your brain was still in a daze from only waking up minutes ago, but breakfast sounded amazing right now. With that, you quickly grabbed the clothes and hopped out of bed. You walked into the bathroom attached to Yunho's bedroom. You showered quickly then threw on the clothes he gave you.

Yunho has always had good taste. He picked out at outfit that fit your style: black jeans paired with a black and white off the shoulder cropped gingham shirt. Simple yet cute. Always his favorite style on you.

You made you way out of the bathroom, seeing that Yunho was already at his desk working on God knows what. Before heading downstairs you quickly walked over and ruffled his hair. You could hear his whining from behind but didn't listen as you made your way out of the room.

There was a bounce in your step from knowing that you would see all of the boys again. You got to know them pretty well last night and felt much closer to them than you did before.

The dinner helped you identify what kind of person each of them was. Mingi was the tall jokester. Jongho was the strong, shy one. San was the youngest who wasn't really the youngest. Hongjoong was the charismatic composer. Seonghwa was the handsome, kind one. Yeosang was the quiet, intimidating one. And Wooyoung was the scary one.

Which reminded you that you had forgotten why you were in Yunho's room in the first place. You stopped halfway down the stairs. Your whole body tensing up. Wooyoung was probably gonna talk to you about it today. You really didn't want to have to face him. You let your head drop as you continued down the stairs, the previous happiness had seemingly left. Your feet dragged on the ground slightly as you made your way towards the kitchen.

You moved into the kitchen, heading straight for the island in the middle. Seonghwa stood over the stove, his back turned to you. You decided it would be best to let him concentrate on the meal and decided to seat yourself at the kitchen island. A single plate was at one of the chairs. It had an assortment of food. There were waffles, bacon, fruit, and eggs. The waffles had been coated with a thin layer of maple syrup and the scent of the food in front of you wafted into your nose.

It had been a long time since anyone had ever made food for you. Living alone meant you cooked all your own meals and you would rarely go to other people's homes since you were so busy. The small group of friends you had didn't have the time either. Everyone in your life was constantly busy, it felt like you were always bombarded with work at your previous job and your coworkers felt similarly. You felt sad for a moment. Sad that you never truly became friends with your peers. Sad that you didn't have time to visit family. You let the emotion pass through you before you were snapped back into reality by Seonghwa swiping a finger over your cheek. You focused your attention to him to see his worried expression.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper. Only then had you realized you were crying. Your eyes widened as you quickly grabbed a napkin from the table and turned away from him. You dabbed your eyes, soaking away all the wetness. You hadn't realized you were that emotional. But seeing your reaction only lead the boy to walk around the table and gently place his hands on your shoulders. He leaned down so he could see his face, though it was covered by your hair. He tucked the strands behind your ear before flashing you a careful smile.

"Sorry," you voice broke a little. "I didn't realize I was crying."

Seonghwa chuckled a little and rubbed his hand on your shoulder in a soothing manner. He grabbed a tissue from a box nearby and gently took your hand. Your fingers wrapped into his palm as he slowly lowered your hand from your face, clearing the way for his to wipe your tears. He brought the tissue to your cheeks. He was careful not to get too close to your eye, but you were so lost in his that you didn't even notice as his fingers got dangerously close. He pulled his hands away and quickly threw the tissue into a nearby trash can. He turned his attention back to you, giving you a worried expression once again.

"I haven't had anyone cook a meal for me in a long time." You gave him a forced smile as you looked up at him with swollen eyes. He flashed you a gentle smile, a true one unlike yours.

"Then I'll make sure to cook for you more," he replied. His smile grew bigger as sweetly grasped your hand in his. Your cheeks blushed a bit at his actions. You had cried a day after meeting him, yet he didn't have an ounce of judgment on his face. He let go of your hand slowly and walked back over to the stove. He turned back for a second and gestured to your food. "Go on, eat. You don't want it to get cold."

So you picked up your fork and began to cut into one of the pillowy waffles. You dipped it in the syrup and stuffed it into your mouth. It was just the right amount of sweet. Not so much that you felt like you were getting a cavity, not so little that it tasted like cardboard. You continued to dig into the food, Seonghwa letting out a small chuckle as he turned back to the stove.

The room was in silence except for the sound of grease popping from the bacon on the stove and your fork and knife against the glass plate. This room stayed like this until another figure walked in, clad with gray sweatpants and a white tank top. His purple hair split in the middle, strands sticking to his face with sweat.

"Morning," Wooyoung gave a friendly wave to Seonghwa. His eyes focused on you as he slowly made his way towards your seat. "Morning."

He leaned with one arm on the kitchen island and grabbed a single strip of bacon from your plate. He bit into the crispy meat and gave you a smirk. You heart tinged at his alluring smile. His face was close enough that you could see every detail. It almost made you forget the fear hiding inside you. Seonghwa suddenly paused his cleaning of the dishes and turned towards Wooyoung. He waved his cleaning sponge at him as a way of shooing him off.

"I don't want you making my food smell bad since you stink of sweat," Seonghwa said through gritted teeth, although his expression was still gentle. Wooyoung shoved the rest of the bacon in his mouth and raised his hands up in a sign of defeat. He nodded at Seonghwa and began walking away from you to the other side of the kitchen island. He propped his elbows on top of the granite table top and began to look at you again. You felt your cheeks heat up and quickly looked down at your food, hoping Wooyoung hadn't noticed you were blushing. But he did.

The purple haired boy reached out for a notepad sitting on the tabletop a few inches away from him. He turned to open a drawer behind him and retrieved a pen. He glanced at you once more before scribbling some words down onto the paper. Your mind raced as you desperately tried to figure out what he was writing. You had only known him for a day, so you didn't really know what to expect. You continued shoveling food into your mouth but froze when you saw Wooyoung sliding the notepad towards you. You placed your fork down and slowly reached out for the notepad, picking it up with shaky hands.

Meet at my room in 10 minutes.