aurora: in full bloom | hongjoong - ateez [hiatus]

⇢ ch. 3

You immediately message San when you get inside of your apartment.

You smirk at your phone, as you anticipate that you're going to win this bet.

↞—↠

In the morning you find a note on your desk.

[Y/N],
See me when you arrive.
-Hongjoong

A wave of nervousness rushes over you. You wonder what this could mean.

You wonder what this note could imply, as it could mean anything. You're nervous as it is to be working with Hongjoong on this new project, but having so many mysterious meetings with Hongjoong is already taking a toll on your heightened emotions.

You walk to his office and see that his door is ajar. You knock and push open the door slowly.

Hongjoong's head snaps up and immediately smiles.

"Good morning [Y/N]. How are you?"

"Good, how are you?" You nervously say.

You fidget with the bottom of your shirt.

"I'm great, thanks for asking. I would like to go out for breakfast with you and talk about our project over it."

You gulp and nod, relieved it's nothing serious.

But you're also nervous to be going out to eat with your boss.

You start to question what is going on in this office. You think it's crazy that you had a wild day yesterday, but it's becoming even crazier today.

You wonder if there's some office prank occurring, or if you're in some sort of dream state.

You just go along with it, not questioning anything. You don't want to mess up in front of your boss to cause you to get demoted, or even worse, fired.

You start to feel a little nauseous, and you wonder if your chocolate croissant is going to come up.

You smooth your sweaty palms on your pants and follow Hongjoong.

↞—↠

His car is some fancy looking one, one you're not familiar with. You're not familiar with many car brands to begin with.

But you notice how shiny and brand new it looks. Or Hongjoong takes really good care of it.

You get into the passenger side, noticing how clean it is inside.

You try not to make it look like you're checking it out, but Hongjoong notices.

He chuckles and glances at you.

"I'm the only one who drives it, so that's mainly why it's so neat. I don't bring much into the car because I want to make sure it stays like this."

You just smile and nod.

You feel extremely awkward, more awkward than with Seonghwa.

You know Seonghwa better, and there's this aura about him. There's this comforting aura about him.

Plus, you've only interacted with your boss a handful of times. He still intimidates you, so you feel like you need to be good in front of him, not mess up.

Hongjoong takes you to a fancy looking restaurant.

He's some bougie person. That's probably what you get for being a CEO of a company.

He holds the door open for you, surprising you a little. You didn't expect him to do so because he gives off this vibe that's a bit uptight.

Hongjoong is proving you wrong slowly but surely.

"You can order whatever you like, [Y/N]."

You nod and look at the menu.

Hongjoong watches you with a small smile on his face.

He thinks you're cute, especially since he thinks you're trying to impress him. You kind of are, but he doesn't think you need to impress him.

He's already started to fall head over heels for you. He wants to break into who you are, but he is awkward and not quite sure how to exactly get to you.

He hopes that over time you'll warm up to him. He hopes that his attempts of being kind will help him.

↞—↠

You spend the morning going over more details about the work you'll be doing with Hongjoong.

You don't have much of an appetite because of your nerves and the fact that you already ate.

Hongjoong makes sure you're okay when you just order coffee and fruit. He doesn't push you though, and you silently thank him for his overall kindness.

His kind gesture of making sure you're okay but not overly pushy.

Over time, you start to become relaxed around him. You open up a little more and crack more smiles. You make some jokes, which are well taken by Hongjoong.

You're joyful that you're able to make your boss smile and laugh. You take it as a good sign that you aren't on his bad side. Like you were on his bad side in the first place because he chose you to be his partner in crime on this project.

After you get back to work, Seonghwa stops by your office.

"I came by this morning to see you but you weren't here. Where'd you go?"

"Hongjoong took me to breakfast, which I found to be weird at first. He left this note on my desk, and it scared me. I was worried I did something wrong in the twenty-four hours that I became his...work partner? Is that the right term? Anyways, he wanted to talk about work over breakfast."

"Huh, that's kind of weird. In all the time I've known him, he's never acted like this. Never been this casual. I wonder why he started acting like this."

"That's interesting. So much has happened in the last day. Right when you least expect it, life likes to throw a curveball at you, am I right?"

"Yeah," Seonghwa gives you a smile, melting your heart.

"How are you doing?"

"Just working on new music, nothing new."

Seonghwa is a nervous mess, his heart pounding.

He wants to ask you out on another date. He wants to risk a relationship with you. He doesn't care what others think of him. What's holding him back is the thought of how the media and his fans will think.

Seonghwa decides to think more about it, as he doesn't want to make any rash decisions. Plus, he wants to give you some time, as the two of you went out the night before.

He wonders if the date, if it even was a date, added to the craziness in your life. You now have somewhat of a new position that you must adjust to, so he goes back to doing his own thing.

Depsite working with Hongjoong for a longer period of time with him, he still isn't on first name basis with him. Even though Seonghwa is older, Hongjoong is still his boss, who he respects dearly.

Seonghwa cares deeply about other's feelings and respects the choices and decisions of others, even if they're older than him or below him on any sort of level.