TW: death and drunk driving, academic failing, stress, and bashing/cyber bullying

A/N:  His first time seeing you cry, part 2.

~ ~ | ATEEZ | ~ ~

🍁 Choi San 🍁

You woke up with a pang of sadness in your heart today.

Today was the 5th anniversary of your big brother's death. Five years ago, he was hit by a drunk driver and killed on impact. The death of your brother still hit you hard every year on this day, and today was no exception.

You got out of bed, walking over to your closet to select today's outfit. Once you were dressed, you walked downstairs to eat something.

San smiled as you entered the kitchen, but his smile disappeared when you walked right by him without so much as a 'hello.' You always greeted him in the morning; how come you didn't greet him this morning?

"Y/N? Are you okay, pretty girl? You're very quiet," San commented.

You nodded and continued to fix your breakfast. You hated not talking to San, but you knew if you opened your mouth, you'd be crying instead of talking.

San just thought you woke up in a bad mood, and that you'd go back to your talkative, smiling self in a few hours.

That wasn't the case today.

It was like seeing a zombie walk around the house. Nobody knew what was going on with you today, and they wanted to help. San most definitely wanted to help — his love was hurting and he didn't know why.

A little while after lunch, you decided to go outside and sit in the summer sun. You plucked a flower from Seonghwa's flower garden and kissed it. Around this time of day every year, you'd be in your H/T (hometown), buying a floral bouquet to set at your brother's headstone. But not this year. You sat on the porch swing, just staring at the flower intricately.

It was an azalea. B/N (brother's name) liked azaleas.

You don't know when the tears started forming, but before long, they were cascading down your cheeks. It hurt so much to know that B/N had been stripped of his opportunity to live the rest of his life because someone decided to get behind the wheel after drinking.

Your silent tears turned into cries, and your cries became loud, heartbroken sobs. You missed B/N, and you were hurting just a little more this year.

You heard the backdoor open and then close, but you hadn't been paying attention; you were busy mourning a lost loved one.

"Sweetheart..." San's voice called to you gently.

With puffy and tear-filled eyes, you looked at your boyfriend and all his friends. Each boy was wearing an expression of sadness on his face. It made you cry even more because they were sad, too.

"I'm-I'm sorry."

San sat next to you, pulling you into his arms. He kissed your head as he began to comfort you, his heart breaking with every cry you let out. "Y/N, don't ever be sorry for being sad. No one is upset with you — we're just worried about you. Can you tell me why you're crying, pretty girl?"

You took a few breaths before gathering enough courage to say it out loud.

"Today's the anniversary of my brother, B/N's, death. He um... was hit by a drunk driver and killed on impact. That was five years ago."

San rubbed your shoulders, trying to help you calm down. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart," he said softly. "Is that an azalea from Hwa's flower garden?"

You nodded. "Azaleas were his favorite. I'd always take him a bouquet of azaleas on his death day and his birthday."

You closed your eyes and nuzzled your face into San's shoulder, hearing his heartbeat. The sound of it was soothing and calming to you.

The others had gone inside the house, leaving you and San sitting outside.

"Thank you for this. You don't know how much it means to me," you thanked after a few moments of silence.

San pressed a kiss to your cheek. "You're most welcome, Y/N. I just wanted to help you; I hate seeing you cry."

"I know. And I'm so lucky to have you in my life. I love you, Sannie." You told him.

San gave you a smile and a peck on the lips. "I love you too, sweetheart. I love you so much."

🎤 Song Mingi 🎤

To say you were frustrated would be an understatement. You were flustered.

You were at the kitchen table, studying for a big exam in your college class. It was a huge portion of your grade, and it was important that you passed the exam.

For whatever reason, you weren't doing so well in your class. You made excellent grades when it came to classwork and quizzes, and you could retain a lot of the material. However when it came to taking the exams... you found your grade average getting lower. You couldn't understand why you were testing so poorly; you've always done well with academics.

As your eyes skimmed over all your papers and material, you couldn't help but think maybe you were going to fail the class. The mere thought of you getting a failing grade in your class was enough to bring tears to your eyes.

You weren't even startled when Mingi walked into the kitchen, talking in his unmistakable deep voice.

"Baby girl, we're home. I — what's wrong, Y/N? Is something the matter?"

You bit on your lip, fighting the tears that threatened to fall. When Mingi put his hand on your shoulder, the dam broke and the tears fell.

Mingi frowned when he saw you start to cry. What could've made you so sad? "Hey, hey. What's wrong, baby girl? Why so sad?"

"I'm trying to study for this exam in class — I have to pass it or else I'm gonna have a failing grade. I can't fail this class, Mingi. I'm studying, and all I can think about is getting a bad grade on the exam."

Mingi pulled you into his arms, his chin resting on top of your head. "Don't think like that, Y/N. You're not going to fail, I promise you. You're smart — you're extremely smart. Let's take a little break, and I'll help you study some more. It'll be all right, baby girl."

After calming down and taking a much-needed break, you and Mingi went back to the kitchen to continue your study session. Having your boyfriend there to help you and walking away from the material for a while really helped your mindset.

"Thank you again for doing this, Min. You'll never know how much I appreciate it."

The rapper smiled and pressed a kiss to your cheek. "Anything for you, baby girl."

💎 Jung Wooyoung 💎

You'd had a really stressful day at work.

Working as a part-time waitress for a big name restaurant is stressful all on its own. But when a bad day falls on all the employees, it doesn't help any less.

You'd gotten a party seated in your section, and they took up a good majority of your time when taking drink and food orders. You thought your section would've been closed off, seeing as you had the party to tend to, but you were sorely mistaken.

Apparently, one of the hostesses seated a couple at one of your tables, and she hadn't told you. It took you 10 minutes to realize that the couple hadn't been tended to, and that no one had told you about your extra table.

After a thousand apologies, you took their drink and food orders. You thought that the chaos would stop there.

You had to wait for 30 minutes to get the party's food to the table because of how many substitutions and requests had been made to each order. That meant your table of 2 weren't going to get their food for a while.

The meals for the party were late, and a few had to be taken back because a few party members had changed their minds. This just left you frustrated and desperate to leave work.

The couple that were handed to you got impatient for their food, and decided to just pay for their drinks and revoke their food orders. And don't get me started on the comments they made about your service — they weren't exactly friendly.

After handing out checks and receiving little to no extra gratuity from your party (normal party gratuity is automatically 18%), you were just ready to quit your shift. Your manager — who had seen the chaos and your distress — told you that you could leave early, seeing as she knew you were having a really bad shift. You clocked out and drove home after that.

You walked into the front door, greeted by the 8 boys you lived with. You gave them a halfhearted greeting, walked upstairs and went to your bedroom. Changing out of your work clothes and putting on something more comfortable, you finally let go of the emotions that you'd been holding in. You didn't attempt to hide your cries because you just needed to let it all out.

"Sweetie? Can I come in?" Wooyoung asked from the other side of your door.

"Y-Yeah," you trembled.

The door opened, and your boyfriend walked in, a frown on his face. He shut the door behind him and sat next to you, his arm around your shoulders.

"Aww, what's the matter, baby? Why the tears?"

You leaned into his touch, telling him everything that happened during your shift. At the end of your explanation, you'd curled into Wooyoung's side. You were still very upset at what happened.

Wooyoung maneuvered himself so he could face you. His hands cupped your cheeks and used his thumbs to wipe your tears away. He leaned in and pressed kisses to your face, feeling you relax as he did so. "There's that smile. It's all right, baby. No more tears. You just happened to have a really bad day at work, and that's okay. The important thing is that you know that you are not to blame for this. This is not your fault, Y/N. Do you understand?"

You nodded, knowing that what he was saying was right. What happened today wasn't your fault.

"Thank you for comforting me and cheering me up, Woo. I really needed it."

Wooyoung kissed you properly this time, smiling when he pulled away and saw your bright smile. "I'm always here if you need me, love."

🐚 Choi Jongho 🐚

Your relationship with Jongho was a shock to the Atiny fandom.

At first, you didn't really pay much attention to what the fans had to say about you — they didn't know you, or your relationship with Jongho.

However, as you started posting pictures of you and Jongho all over your social media pages, the fans were not ashamed of voicing their opinions about you in the comment sections. You'd seen a few of them every now and then, but you didn't think much of it.

But with every new post, more and more fans continued to talk bad about you. They were even sending you hate messages in your DMs. You didn't cry over it because that would be giving them the satisfaction of knowing they'd gotten to you.

This continued for weeks, and you said nothing about it. You didn't want to say anything to Jongho because you knew he'd get angry — at you and at the 'fans' who were attacking you.

Jongho noticed the change in your behavior. You didn't laugh and smile as much, and you preferred to be alone rather than hang out with the boys. You opted to take pictures instead of be in them, and you were definitely more defensive nowadays.

What could've possibly happened to you to make you change your behavior like that?

You were busy showering, and had left your phone on your nightstand. It was locked, but your ringer was on, which would go off every time you got a notification from social media.

Jongho had walked into your room, hoping to talk to you about your recent behavior. He was disappointed to see you weren't in the room, and he grew confused when your phone kept going off every five seconds.

He wished he hadn't seen what he just saw pop up on your screen.

Multiple DMs from Atiny members, with each message containing something hateful and ugly towards you. Some called you trash, fake, and said that Jongho deserved better than you.

Jongho was livid — these fans were not true fans. To talk badly about someone like this... it was bullying!

You'd finished your shower, got dressed in comfy clothes and walked out of the bathroom and towards your room. You froze seeing Jongho holding your phone, scrolling through the social media notifications.

"Are-Are you going through my phone, Jong?"

Jongho looked up at you, his lips pressed into a thin line. "I came in here to talk to you... and your phone kept going off. Why didn't you tell me about this, angel? How long as this been going on?"

You bit down on your lip. "Ten weeks," you answered.

"Ten weeks?! Why didn't you come get me when this started, baby?" Jongho asked.

You fell to your knees, tears streaming down your face. Jongho knelt down, opening his arms for you to fill. You leaned into his embrace, crying harder. Jongho rubbed your back, trying to help you calm down.

"Shh, gorgeous. I've got you. I'm here. I'm right here."

You found your voice after a couple of minutes in his arms. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you at first. I didn't want you to get mad at me or-or your fans."

Jongho let go of you and put his hands on your shoulders, gripping them gently. "Y/N... I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at the people who thought it was okay to do this to you. But you? I'm not mad at you; I'm just disappointed. Next time anything like this ever happens again, come to me or one of the others, okay? I don't want you to keep this to yourself. I'm here for you, Y/N. I love our fans, but I love you so much more."

You calmed down at his words, kissing one of his hands. "Thank you, Jongho. I love you so much."

Jongho gave you a kiss. "I love you more, angel."

Let's just say that you got a lot of apologies after ATEEZ did a V-live, calling out ex-Atiny members who had bullied you on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.

~ ~ | ATEEZ | ~ ~

2465 words

Next Update:  Seeing Him Cry - Hyung Line

Published:  4/13/2021