BUTTON EYES [ATEEZ]

Chapter 7

Daylight shone bright through the curtains as he groggily rubs his eyes with a groan. Lately since he got there he had seemed to be having all of these dreams that didn't even make sense to him. Although he wanted to shrug it off and just take it as him just having trouble adjusting to the house, he couldn't look past them all.  After showering away the remnants of last night Seonghwa steps from the shower and throws on a pair of underwear and sweats. With a towel thrown over his shoulder he makes his way down the hallway and enters the kitchen. There to Seonghwas surprise he entered the kitchen and everyone sat there silently stuffing their faces full of rice and hangover soup.  A soft whistle came from none other than San as his eyes landed on a half naked Seonghwa earning a soft chuckle from the both of them.

"Must be a hell of a hangover if it has Wooyoung this quiet.'' Wooyoung looking up with a mouth full of rice simply shook his head tauntingly and scrunched up his nose since he couldn't say anything at the moment. Seonghwas eyes scanned the room in search for a certain checkerboard haired someone.

"Where's Hongjoong?'' He took a bowl for himself, taking a seat at the old dinner table before stuffing his face as well.

"He went out, said he needed a minute and stepped out over an hour ago? Yunho went into town to get groceries and forced Jongho to come along. Mingi went out back after eating, seems he's been in the garden a lot lately.'' Seonghwa nodded and went back to eating. Today Seonghwa would make it his mission to get answers and since Seonghwa wasn't here he knew the exact person to ask. As if on cue the boy with the head full of cotton candy blue colored hair had entered the room with a cheery smile.

"I got us tickets to see paranorman in the theater.'' he happily sang around eight tickets in his hands.

"Yeosang you know both Wooyoung and I get tickets for free right?'' San chimes in earning a small pout from Yeosang.

"Yes but, well..You know you can simply just thank me and go about your day mountain.'' he huffs and made his way over to Seonghwa taking a seat in front of him.

"I'm sure you're grateful that I got us tickets to such a wondrous movie arent you?'' Yeosang said with a pout earning a chuckle from Seonghwa.

"Yes Yeosang i'm absolutely thrilled that you got us tickets to see the screening of a new childrens movie.'' he responds in a somewhat teasing tone, but it was good enough for Yeosang who simply nods at his achievement.

"Yeosang can I ask you something?'' Seonghwa asks quietly as he watched The other two guys place their bowls in the sink and exit the kitchen.

"The park Seonghwa has questions for me? Well how could I help you?'' he plopped his arms down onto the table before resting his head in his hands.

"Your grandfather..does he know the history of the house?'' seonghwa was hopeful that the man knew something of course he didn't remember much off the old man aside from the occasional times his father would bring up the man calling them batshit crazy.

"Ah well he does know quite a bit, but i'm not sure everything he knows since he doesn't speak of it much anymore. Grandpa well he's developed schizophrenia over time so now the things he says not much of it makes sense.'' Yeosang frowns and traces circles over the table with his fingertips.

"Do you think you could take me to him, and...let's just not tell Hongjoong about this, any of it?'' at his request Yeosangs eyes had widened, no one ever asked him to even be in the same vascenity as his grandpa, even san and wooyoung were sometimes creeped out by the things his Grandpa said. People barely even liked to hang around yeosang thinking that he'd be weird just like his grandfather and they werent entirely wrong, the boy was indeed peculiar.

"I'll call him and let him know that we'll be coming you may want to you know, put something on.'' pushing himself from the chair parallel to Seonghwa, Yeosangs makes his way out of the kitchen and into the foyer. For a moment he sat contemplating on whether or not he should call and ask Hongjoong despite Seonghwa telling him not to tell Hongjoong anything. He eventually decided against it and dialled up his grandfather to let him know that he'd be bringing over an old friend of his.

As Seonghwa made his way into his room and pulled a black hoodie over his head he heard it againt. The faint whispers as if someone had been calling out to him. He then heard what sounded like children laughing and a bunch of footsteps running past his bedroom door. He slowly krept his way over both confused and a little frightened at the fact that he heard children when there were in fact no children living in this house. As he poked his head out the door he was met with emptiness and silence until Wooyoung sprung out of nowhere laughing and giggling as he and san ran around the hallway. Seonghw let out a sigh of relief and released a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding in.

Stepping from his room he closes the door behind him letting the two of them know that he and Yeosang were stepping out for a while so they could make themselves at home.

For a while the two just walked silently until Yeosang found himself curious as to why Seonghwa was suddenly asking to see his grandfather.

"Hwa if you don't mind my asking...why the sudden interest in grandpa bobinsky?'' he glances over at Seonghwa who had for a moment seemed occupied by other thoughts.

"Hm? Oh why I want to see him uh. Well to be completely honest I don't remember anything about the place, The only bits and pieces of the place I do remember I found out from my mother and father arguing about it all the time. I don't know, I guess I just want some sort of memories even if I have to be told about them by someone else." he sighs and kicks a rock or two as they walk. Yeosang sat quietly for a moment before finally looking at Seonghwa.

"Do you think it could be your trauma response? Sometimes when it's memories that we don't want to remember we block them out. Some people forget entire portions of their lives when it's been something traumatic for them, sometimes it's easiest to forget things or shut them out when you're a child.'' Yeosang eyes him curiously, if this was a trauma response to what had happened to Seonghwa that scarred him so badly he had forgotten a whole summer's worth of memories in that house.

"I don't know, possibly? Any time my parents brought it up they made it a mission to not speak of it around me, and the conversation always ended in yelling.'' Seonghwa really didn't know what had happened that summer that sealed his fate of not having seen his grandma on anything other than facetime calls, but he was surely not going to let any of it go until he remembered something.