Hearts Awakened, Live Alive

Hongjoong: Just a Little Longer

Hongjoong's head was pounding. A low groan escaped his mouth as he ever so slowly came into consciousness. His eyes were heavy, his ears ringing loudly the more he became aware of his surroundings. He felt so dizzy, like he had been spun around a million times in under a minute. Some part of his brain was vaguely aware that he was lying down, that it was warm, and there was a heavy weight on half of his chest.

A warm vanilla scent hit Hongjoong's nostrils after a few deep, labored breaths, mixed pleasantly with the familiar scent of fabric softener. He forced his eyes open slowly, resisting the urge to just fall back asleep and give in to the warmth and comforting smells around him. But memories were starting to come back to him and a sense of urgency was creeping up on him along with. Finally, his eyes listened to him, eyelids sliding open, feeling oh-so heavy. He couldn't see anything clearly yet, his vision swimming in blurry outlines and colors as his body tried to catch up with the movements he was making.

As he waited for his vision to clear, what had happened to leave him in such a battered state played through his thoughts. He had been angry, so horribly furious. He knew he hadn't been thinking clearly but he really hadn't cared at the time. He just had to chase down that monster. He remembered trying to get into a van that the Agony agents he pursued had left behind, he remembered someone—almost certainly Seonghwa now that he thought back on it—pull him away from the car. The last thing he could remember before nothing more would come to him was a blinding white light and then someone forcing him to lay down on the ground.

There had been another bomb, Hongjoong concluded, one that had been placed with the hope that Hongjoong would come chasing after Seonghwa's brother and he had played right into their hands. Yeosang had been right after all; it had been a trap and Hongjoong had been too caught up in the moment to see it. He only hoped he hadn't gotten Seonghwa seriously injured in the process.

Seonghwa...

That one thought pushed Hongjoong back into the present. It was clear Hongjoong had survived the explosion—though he had no idea how quite yet—the question ringing through his head now was had Seonghwa? Hongjoong couldn't bear the thought of knowing the man had died due to his own reckless actions but he absolutely had to know, otherwise the suspense would surely kill him.

His eyes slowly adjusted to the harsh, bright lighting of the room and his vision finally coalesced into one cohesive image. He found he was in what looked to be a basement of some sort; walls and floors made of concrete with lights suspended high above. There were no other identifying marks but Hongjoong recognized this place, nonetheless. A sense of déjà vu washed over him as he remembered waking up in a similar state to this exact sight.

Well, not this exact sight. The last time he had woken up here, he hadn't woken up to his captor curled protectively over his chest. The heavy weight he had felt upon waking up and the smell of vanilla and fabric softener suddenly made more sense now that his vision had returned to him. Seonghwa slept soundly against him, an ear pressed to where his heart was. His blonde hair tickled Hongjoong's nose, the source of the warm vanilla scent. He had an arm and a leg thrown over Hongjoong's body, holding onto him tightly even in his sleep. There was a bandage taped to the man's cheek where an Agony agent had swiped at him with a knife and despite the peaceful expression he wore in his sleep, Hongjoong could still see signs of stress plain as day across his face. He had bags under his eyes, his skin was pale, and there seemed to be permanent worry lines etched between his eyebrows.

He really didn't want to wake him—Hongjoong was just so relieved to see the man was still alive and seemingly unharmed—but there were so many questions he still needed answered. How did they get here? Was the rest of ATEEZ okay? Had they stopped the bomb? What was Agony doing now? How long had he been unconscious? He couldn't even fathom what the answer to some of those questions could be; he only hoped Seonghwa had those answers for him.