ATEEZ ONE SHOTS | BXB

nyctophobia | seonghwa + hongjoong

seonghwa opened his eyes and sat up on his top bunk. looking below him, he sighed and started at climb down the ladder.

once again, hongjoong hasn't came back from the studio. he checked the time on his phone as he walked towards the closet to take his coat.

3.17 a.m.

"he broke his promise again.." seonghwa groaned to himself as he slip into his coat and walked out of their shared room. he went to check on the other members before leaving the dorm, obviously to drag their stubborn leader back from the studio.

he walked briskly to the studio that was about 10 minutes away from their dorm and opened the front door.

silence.

he frowned worriedly as he walked towards the room hongjoong would be at when he was working on new songs. normally, muffled drumming sounds or bass guitar could be heard, but today there was none. is hongjoong not in the studio? where could he be if he wasn't?

he decided to check the room and knocked on the door before twisting the doorknob open.

and there sat hongjoong, curled up in his chair snoring away, his coat covering his petite body.

seonghwa heaved a sign of relief before walking towards hongjoong and shook him gently.

"hongjoong-ah, wake up. let's go back to the dorm." he spoke softly, not wanting to startle the leader. hongjoong's eyes fluttered open as he looked around him.

"hyung- i mean, s-seonghwa." hongjoong shook his head slightly and corrected himself. he was always like this, treating seonghwa as someone above him. technically, seonghwa is somewhat above him; just a few months only. seonghwa even specifically told him, "you are the leader, and we're of the same age. really, just call me by my name."

this time, seonghwa did not nag at him. instead, he smiled fondly at the younger one, amused by his groggy mistake. "c'mon, small one. let's go back to the dorm so you can get some quality sleep." he ruffled hongjoong's hair. hongjoong opened his mouth to object, but closed it quickly, knowing seonghwa would just drag him back to the dorm. or in the previous case, carry him back. he nodded and quickly turned back to his computer to save his work, and also to hide the blush that was forming.

the trip back to the dorm was slow, not because they planned to, but because hongjoong kept lacking behind.

when they finally reached their dorm at was almost 4 am. they quietly locked the door and entered their room, switching on the lights. hongjoong quickly change into his pyjamas and sat on his bed, staring at seonghwa who was eyeing him, as if trying to figure him out.

"what's wrong?"

"i should be the one asking you that. you're clearly tired. and from what i saw just now, you were done with your final songs and saved it already. you clearly could've came back to sleep at the dorm earlier."

"i... i just didn't want to disturb you." hongjoong defended himself.

"that's bullshit, joong-ah. even if you did wake me up, i'd fall asleep in 5 minutes. and this isn't the first time. you probably don't know but i've been checking on you for a while now. sometimes when i came to bring you back, you were already done with your work-"

"no, i wasn't! i-i mean, the computer was probably on sleep mode."

"hongjoong, your computer was switched off. manually. you clearly switch it off. no files were open and your red thumbdrive was taken out already."

seonghwa stared at hongjoong questioningly.

"o-okay, fine. i was done with work and was tired, but i didn't want to disturb you."