Work Text:
Seonghwa had been keeping a secret from his members. It wasn’t a huge secret, and he honestly didn’t think it was that big of a deal. It’s just a minor medical thing that’s so minor, he didn’t even put it down on his medical forms when he auditioned. He honestly thought he wouldn’t have to deal with it for another ten years or so, but unfortunately, life had other plans.
The eight members of Ateez were doing their usual dance practice, and were on their sixth run through of a new choreography. During the chorus, San got a bit too pumped up and elbowed Seonghwa in the jaw, knocking him over. “I’m so sorry hyung, I didn’t mean to hit you. It was an acci-” San paused, when he noticed something red dripping from Seonghwa’s mouth. “Hyung, is that blood?” San asked, really hoping the answer was no.
Seonghwa put his hand to his chin and removed it, seeing the red. He was indeed bleeding. He quickly licked his lips to feel for a cut and didn’t feel anything there. However, he did feel something amiss inside his mouth. A tooth was missing. He rapidly knelt to the ground and began searching for it, leaving the other seven very confused.
“Hwa what are you doing?” questioned Hongjoong. “San knocked out one of my teeth. Help me find it please.” The expressions on the others suddenly went to very concerned. Yunho wouldn’t let Seonghwa look for the tooth now that he knew he had been hit hard enough to lose one, so he pulled him over to the couch and sat him down.
It wasn’t long before Jongho found the tooth and brought it over to the duo sitting on the couch. Yunho was quick to provide a plastic bag to put the tooth in and handed it to Seonghwa. Hongjoong was giving Seonghwa a scrutinizing look, trying to determine whether or not medical attention was necessary. “Joong, I’m fine. It didn’t even hurt that much. I probably just need a bit of ice and that’s it.” Hongjoong didn’t seem the slightest bit convinced, but knew that there was no point in arguing with the older.
The leader also tried to convince Seonghwa to go see a dentist about the tooth, but he refused, only saying that it wasn’t an emergency and that he’d go on the group’s next break. San brought an ice pack over to Seonghwa and Hongjoong decided to end dance practice early. The group packed up their things and left for the dorm, Hongjoong made sure to call the manager to let him know what happened.
San ended up going to his room immediately upon arriving at the dorm feeling very guilty and upset about having knocked out one of his hyung’s teeth. He had no clue why he seemed so nonchalant about it, but was determined to make it up to him anyway. He regained his composure and went to dote on his hyung.
Seonghwa allowed his dongsaengs to dote on him a bit. After all, it wasn't common for someone to lose a tooth during dance practice. He honestly found it a bit comical. He barely had to open his mouth to ask for anything before one of his dongsaengs (mainly San) would immediately volunteer to grab whatever to grab whatever it was needed at that moment. While he personally thought it was a little bit excessive when he was brought a third ice pack, he had still been hit in the jaw, so it was definitely a good idea to keep swelling down as much as possible.
It wasn’t until dinner rolled around that Seonghwa decided that he had had enough of the doting. It had been decided the day before that they were going to have fried chicken for dinner. However when dinner finally arrived, Seonghwa was handed a bowl of ramen while everyone began serving themselves some chicken.
The eldest initially brushed off the ramen he had been handed and reached for the plate piled high with chicken. Only to have it pulled just out of his reach. “No hyung. You just had a tooth knocked. You should just stick to soft foods for a couple of days until either your jaw heals or you see a dentist.” Wooyoung had said. All of the members were quick to agree. Now Seonghwa wasn’t a huge fan of fried chicken, but he was actually looking forward to it today.
“Guys, while normally I would prefer ramen over fried chicken. I actually want the chicken today.” Seonghwa again reached for the chicken, only for Yeosang to once again move it away from him. “Hyung you can’t have the chicken right now. It could be too hard on your teeth.” the younger tried explaining.
“My mouth is fine guys. Sure I might have a bruise on my jaw for a couple of days, but I’m otherwise fine. The tooth San knocked out was going to fall out eventually anyway.” The table fell silent at Seonghwa’s declaration that the tooth would have fallen out anyway. Seonghwa used the stunned silence to his advantage to grab a piece of chicken.
“What do you mean the tooth would have fallen out anyway? Was it scheduled to get pulled or something because of cavities?” Mingi asked, genuinely curious and also a little concerned for his hyung’s oral health.
“It was a baby tooth.” was all the eldest had said before continuing to eat his dinner.
“What do you mean it was a baby tooth? Everyone loses all their baby teeth by the time they’re like ten?” Jongho asked incredulously. The other members looked just as confused. Seonghwa put his chicken down before explaining.
“It’s a condition called hypodontia. Basically, not all of my adult teeth formed. Since there’s no adult tooth to push the baby tooth out, I still have, or had a baby tooth. Although my dentist had said the roots of the tooth were dissolving, indicating that it would be falling out eventually.” Seonghwa paused for a minute to eat some more chicken.
“However I will likely need some dental surgery to have an implant put in so that my bite doesn’t get terribly screwed up as my teeth shift. But that can wait until after we’re done with our comeback.” There was an audible sigh of relief coming from one of the members once Seonghwa was fully done explaining.
“I’m so glad to hear that hyung. I really thought that I seriously hurt you. I do have one question for you though. How can you be certain that the tooth I knocked out was a baby tooth?”
“First, if you actually look at the tooth, you can see that it barely has any roots. Secondly When I got braces in middle school, they initially didn’t want to put anything on the tooth for fear of accidentally pulling it out. However, to fix my bite properly they eventually had to put a brace on that tooth as well.”
Once everyone had finished dinner, Seonghwa decided to do a quick live stream. San decided to join him. The duo talked for a little bit before they addressed the comments asking about the bruise on Seonghwa’s jaw.
“I accidentally went a little overboard in practice today and elbowed hyung in the jaw.” San looked a little sheepish as he explained. Seonghwa on the other hand had a mischievous grin on his face.
“Thanks to San here, I have finally completed a growth milestone that most complete by the time they’re ten.” Seonghwa then showed the ziploc bag with his tooth.
“I have finally lost all my baby teeth. Now, since we’re in the city, I can’t exactly go outside and throw it on the roof for the magpies. What should I do with my tooth?” Once again the comments were flooded with suggestions. The main one that caught his eye was put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy and receive money for it.
“How much money do you think the tooth fairy would give me for a tooth I lost at twenty four?” San and Seonghwa both watched in amusement as various amounts of money from fairly small to very large were suggested from Atiny.