Work Text:
“When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure”
Memory is subjective, it changes with every thought, and every new outlook or point of view. Some memories are worth fighting for, while other memories are forced to the back of the mind to never be remembered. Some people wish to remember everything, while others wish to remember nothing at all. For Seonghwa, the choice seemed to have been made for him. He found himself completely lost without anywhere to go. His memories ripped from him like sharp scissors from a child. He felt empty, like everything important had been taken away from. Everything important had in fact been taken from his memories. The seven other men that had been with him on this journey, the men that he spent day and night with. The same men he had considered his family.
Seonghwa stood there without a single memory of any of them. No name or address of theirs to be known. Every single one of them had left his memory as if they had never been there in the first place. Seonghwa didn’t know that this was what was missing, only that something important, something BIG, had been removed from his mind and all that remained was an empty hole. The only thing left was her scent. The smell of oranges, flowers, and wood drifting through the air. He couldn’t even truly remember who she was. Part of Seonghwa wanted to hold her accountable for the fact that he held no memories of the past years. The other part of Seonghwa knew that it was truly his fault. The bracelet he now held in his hand, the one that was just around his own wrist, was evidence of this. The metal bracelet that reflects the light of the hot sun is identical to the ones that the seven other men own as well. The importance of the object was lost along with everything else he couldn’t remember. The trinket felt hot and heavy in his hand as if the inanimate object could somehow know more than he did.
"Open Your Eyes" A voice calls out from nowhere and everywhere. The voice was familiar to Seonghwa; he knew it had to be her, whoever she is. But his eyes were already open, how was he supposed to open them any further?
"I- I don't understand." He whispered looking around himself frantically. He shut his eyes tight and reopened them several times but it did no good. The bracelet grew hotter in his hand. Seonghwa looked closer at the trinket as it grew hotter as if it was trying to burn its place into his hand. On the clasp of the bracelet Seonghwa noticed something that hadn't been there before. A word, or a logo: Ateez.
"Ateez?" Upon speaking the word Seonghwa's head spun with thoughts and emotions he couldn't pinpoint why he had. Then memories; memories of the seven men he had known started to resurface. They were in masks that covered half of their face and hats that almost covered all of what the mask didn't. Seonghwa still couldn't tell who they were or why he remembered them. He felt the need to know. He felt the urge to run. To run after his memories, after these men, as if they were a treasure that needed to be found. These men had become just a memory to him and that memory had become a treasure.