Chapter 29: 29. Hongjoong x ATEEZ

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Story plot: To everyone, Hongjoong is the hardest working man on the planet. He's involved with everything that's possible, composing, writing, choreography and new concept ideas. They're all worried that Hongjoong can't keep up with his own and their shared schedule, but he refuses to listen. If they try to talk to him about it, he'll get angry and walk off. Until one specific show, when Hongjoong gets confronted with his way of life.

Hongjoong is back in the studio and his boyfriends are all at the dorm.

"Do you think we should talk to him?" Wooyoung asks as the other guys look up at him. "About?" "About his personal schedule. I mean he barely spends time with us anymore because he's always in the studio doing something. I promised him I wouldn't tell you guys this but, I've carried him home about 10 times in the past two weeks.." "You what?" Yunho asks, his voice filled with concern.

"Yeah I carried him home. I'll wake up in the middle of the night and he wouldn't be here. So I made my way over to the studio to find him asleep, resting on his desk. I don't want to wake him up, because I'm already blessed that he's sleeping instead of working when I get there. So I lift him up as carefully as possible and carry him home.." Wooyoung looks at everyone and everyone is just staring at him. They can't believe that it has gotten this point where he literally falls asleep at the studio. "But you can't let him know I told you! I confronted him already and he promised me he'd work on that. I promised I wouldn't tell you guys so.."

"We won't tell him we know about this, we promise." Jongho said as he makes his way over to Wooyoung to cuddle with him.

"Let's wait and see if he keeps the promise he made to you, and if he doesn't we should try to talk to him again." Seonghwa suggests and they all agree.

Tonight, Hongjoong would sleep with Seonghwa, who was woken up by the sound of their door opening and closing. He peeks at the clock seeing it's 3 in the morning and sighs. They'll have an early schedule which includes a couple of radio interviews in the morning. "Hey you're here." Seonghwa speaks softly causing Hongjoong to jump, because he thought Seonghwa was asleep.

"I thought you were asleep!" Hongjoong whispers loudly. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you. Come here baby you need to rest." Hongjoong nods as he slides on his pyjamas and snuggles into Seonghwa's arms. "Did you forget that we have an early schedule today?" He asks carefully. "No I just lost track of time." "Mhm okay, well let's get some rest then before we have to wake up." Hongjoong nods and leans up to kiss his boyfriend softly. "Goodnight Hwa." Seonghwa returns the kiss and smiles. "Goodnight Joongie."

As their alarm brutally wakes them up, Seonghwa is shocked to see the dark circles underneath his boyfriends eyes. He places a soft kiss on each eye and turns off their alarm. "Wake up love, we have to get ready for the interviews." Hongjoong mumbles something that sounds like a yes and forces himself out of bed. "I'll be downstairs to make some breakfast so can shower in the meantime." Seonghwa says as he kisses the tip of his nose. Hongjoong smiles and returns the small kiss by placing a kiss on Seonghwas nose as well. "Thank you babe, I'll take a quick shower so you can go after me."

As they make their way to their first interview, Hongjoong quickly falls asleep in the car, resting his head on Seonghwa's shoulder who wraps his arm around his boyfriend.

You can't keep pushing yourself like this. None of us want to see you like this baby. We all appreciate the fact that you work so hard, but you don't have to work this hard. We love you and we would always be proud of you.

Seonghwa wakes up Hongjoong as they're nearing the first location for the interview. "Wake up Joongie, we're almost there." Hongjoong yawns and sits up.

As usual, there are a lot of questions about each of them being in a relationship with Hongjoong. Nobody seems to understand that there is no jealousy. They're all in love with the same precious boy and things have actually become a lot easier now. During the last interview of the day, Hongjoong is visibly tired and he's glad when it's over.

Once they get back to the dorm, Hongjoong slips into the kitchen with Seonghwa to help him out. 

This is my chance. Maybe I can try to talk to him about today.

Seonghwa moves behind Hongjoong who's cutting up the vegetables. He wraps his arms around him from behind and kisses the top of his head. "You looked really tired today babe." "I'm fine." "You always say that you're fine, but I'm getting a different vibe. I don't think you're fine. You came home really late and-" Seonghwa gets cut off as Hongjoong pushes himself way. "I told you I'm fine and that I lost track of time last night! It's my own fucking business!" Hongjoong throws the knife into the sink and storms of to his bedroom.

"Joongie are you okay?" San asks but the only response he gets is Hongjoongs door being slammed shut in his face. "Leave me alone! All of you!" San backs off and walks downstairs to Seonghwa, knowing he was helping him cook.

"You tried didn't you?" San asks carefully as he starts to help Seonghwa. "Yeah and you can probably tell he wasn't amused." San nods as he starts to cut the vegetables. "I'll bring his dinner to his room if he doesn't come down to eat with us. Maybe I can give it a shot?" Seonghwa nods in agreement.

"Hongjoongie! Dinner is ready!" "I'm not hungry!!" He shouts back and they decided not to push it right now. They finish eating dinner together as San fills up a plate for his boyfriend. "I'll bring him some."

San walks upstairs and knocks on his boyfriends door. "Hongjoongie babe it's me. I brought you dinner. You need to eat something.." Hongjoong opens the door and grabs the plate and San enter quickly this time so that Hongjoong can't slam his door shut again. Hongjoong sits down by his desk and eats his dinner in silence. San looks at him for a while.

If he gets mad at me as well, I really don't know what we can do anymore at this point. But I promised to give it a try, so I will. We love you babe and we just want you to be healthy.

He walks up to Hongjoong and massages his shoulders slightly. "Did you get into an argument with Seonghwa? I heard you guys yelling at each other when I was upstairs." Hongjoong sighs and nods. "Yeah.. He got mad at me for coming home late last night." San nods and bites down on his bottom lip. "But don't you think you are working a bit too hard? Or that you're being too hard on yourself?" Hongjoong angrily gets up from his chair.

"Now you're coming at me with the same shit?! Is that why you came here?! Just to boss me around like I'm a baby! I know what I'm doing San!" "Y- yeah I know but we're all worried about you.."

"YOU'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER?! GET OUT!!" Hongjoong pushes San out of his room, slams his door shut and locks it from the inside. "Babe I'm sorry but we just want you to be okay!" "I AM FINE AND I AM OKAY. LEAVE!" "But-" "GO AWAY!!"

San rubs the tears from his eyes as he walks downstairs. Yeosang walks over to him and pulls him into a warm hug. "Give him some space.. Maybe he'll start to think about it now." San nods as he lets Yeosang hug him. "I hope so.. But what if he doesn't? What if he's only going to act up more?" "Then we let it happen. Sannie we tried talking to him, but that makes him angry. We try to take care of him, but the more we care the more he pushes us away. None of us want to see him break down, but maybe that's what he needs to see we were right." San nods and sighs. "Maybe you're right.."

As always, Hongjoong gets home late from the studio, even though they have a long and important stage tomorrow.

He walks over to the couch and lays down for a minute, only to fall asleep. As Mingi makes his way downstairs to grab some water, he catches something from the corner of his eyes. It's Hongjoong. "Babe.." He walks over to the couch and covers Hongjoong underneath it. He places a soft kiss on his boyfriends forehead. This needs to stop as soon as possible.

Today is the day. One of the most important stages.

The day starts early with rehearsals for the stage. Making sure they get the lighting right and look into the right cameras. They need to go all in on these rehearsals. They only have one rehearsal for the lighting and cameras, the second one is their final rehearsal and then it's showtime.

After the last rehearsal Hongjoong walks backstage to the bathroom where he locks himself up in a bathroom stall. He's feeling sick and lightheaded, his body feels drained and every movement is taking a huge amount of energy.

It's my own fault. They all tried to warn me and all I did was yell at them and push them away. Look at yourself Hongjoong. Are you proud of this? If you fuck up the stage, you're the one to blame. Why didn't I listen to them? Why did I think I could keep going like this? Because I can't.

He slides down to sit on the cold ground and tries to swallow his tears away. "Hongjoongie are you here?" It's Jongho who's looking for him this time. At this point, he wishes they didn't care as much as they do. All Hongjoong wants right now is to lay down and cry. "Yeah I'm here!" He quickly gets up, flushes the toilet and walks out. "Thank goodness we were looking for you. Come we need to hurry up, only 10 minutes before we go on stage." "Yeah let's kill it!"

As they both walk back to the others, Yunho is so worried about Hongjoong. He looks horrible, but Yunho really doesn't want to confront Hongjoong with that again, since he'll probably lash out at him.

The moment they run on stage, Hongjoong knows this is going to be a real struggle. The dizziness is getting more intense and it takes every bit of strength to stay on his feet. Wooyoung notices and holds his hand. "Tell us when you can't go on." Hongjoong looks up and to Wooyoung's surprise, he doesn't yell or protest, instead he nods.

Hongjoong somehow managed to pull himself through the entire stage without making a single mistake. As they thanked everyone for coming out here, it's as if the adrenaline leaves his body the moment they step backstage. 

As soon as they're backstage, everything turns black "Woo-". "JOONGIE!" Wooyoung shouts as he quickly catches his boyfriend before he hits the ground. He carries Hongjoong all the way to their room and lays him down on his side on the couch. San runs over to him as well and places a cold wet cloth on his forehead. "Hongjoong baby it's us. Wake up please."

Seonghwa walks in with a bottle of water and carefully pours some on his face. "Babe, it's Seonghwa. I'm here as well." They all settle down on the ground in silence and fear as Hongjoong still hasn't opened his eyes after 5 full minutes.

"Do we need to call an ambulance or something?" Jongho asks as he looks at the others. Mingi shakes his head and places a kiss on Hongjoong's lips. "Wake up baby please.." Seonghwa pours some more water on his face as Hongjoong starts to cough. Yeosang quickly reaches over to grab the bucket and holds it beside the couch.

As Hongjoong finally throws up, Yunho keeps his hair back. "Baby.." He rubs soft circles on his back, waiting for him to finish. "G- guys I'm so sorry." Hongjoong looks up as tears roll down his cheeks. "You don't have to apologize, take it slow Joongie."

Jongho moves behind him on the couch and helps him to sit up. "Is that better?" Hongjoong nods as he rests back against his boyfriend. All the others sit down around them and in front of them. They don't speak for a while, giving Hongjoong the time to feel a little bit better.

"Guys I'm really sorry.. You all warned me.. And all I did was push you guys away and hurt you.. I don't know why I did that. I thought I could handle it all and I thought I was doing fine. But then I also knew I wasn't doing fine, but by then I already pushed you all alway a- and I thought you guys didn't care about me anymore.."

"Joongie, we'll always care about you. Always. Yeah we were hurt when you pushed us away, but that didn't stop us from caring about you. We love you so much baby." San says as they all give Hongjoong a billion kisses to prove it. "How can I ever thank you guys? I feel horrible."

"We just want to take you back to the hotel room at this point and spoil you with kisses and cuddles so you'll feel better." A small smile appears on Hongjoong's face. "That does sound really good. I really missed cuddles and kisses.." "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Jongho says as he helps Hongjoong on his feet, letting him lean on him for support. He places a kiss on Hongjoong's cheek as they make their way to the van that will take them back to their hotel.

A/N: So this was my first oneshot where I tried a concept like this. I hope you guys liked it. If I should change anything, please let me know!

I can't believe I'm passed the 1K reads and passed 100 votes. Thank you so much for all the love and support! 

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