Chapter Text
The subject line of the email stared back at Hongjoong, written in bold, unmistakable letters: ATEEZ VIDEO CALL EVENT: WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT.
Hongjoong blinked a few times, refreshing the page to make sure there’s no glitch. He’d decided that once it hit five o’clock on Friday, whatever happened to this proposal was none of his business, and he’d been staring at his laptop screen for the better part of twenty minutes, cursor blinking at the end of a sentence he’d rewritten and reworded at least six times. So when his laptop pinged with another email notification, he’d sighed with frustration, assuming it was one of his coworkers sending him another draft or his boss reminding him to add his files to the shared folder. He definitely hadn’t been expecting… this.
It took his brain a second to process the words. ATEEZ. Video call. Winner. What?! His eyes scanned over the email once, twice, three times for good measure. When he bought the albums all those weeks ago, winning a fancall had never crossed his mind. Sure, he’d entered the event, because why not? But he’d figured there must be thousands, millions of fans entering those things, and he was happy enough with the photocards and posters, anyway. His eyes caught on a line further down in the email, and he gasped, almost choking on the force of his surprise.
Artist Selection: Park Seonghwa
Of course he would’ve picked him when he entered the event. Park Seonghwa, who he had an embarrassing photocard collection of. Park Seonghwa, whose fancams he had watched so many times he felt like he’d been there in person. Whose name was currently sitting in his email inbox, and who he would apparently be speaking to on the phone in – he scrolls down a little further – three days. Three days was not enough time to prepare for something like this!
Hongjoong shut his laptop, reasoning with himself that if he couldn’t get his work done before, he definitely won’t be able to now. He grabbed his phone, making his way to his kitchen as he opened his group chat with Wooyoung, Yeosang, and Jongho.
Hong
GUYS
GUYS
GUYS
Three dots appeared immediately.
Young
what
Sang
What happened
Jong
???
Hong
[screenshot]
is this real life???
Young
NO WAY
YOU WON??!!??!?!
Sang
Wait
THE PARK SEONGHWA?
Young
THE PARK SEONGHWA
HYUNG IS MEETING HIS BIAS
OH MY GOD
Jong
congratulations oh my god??
Young
i’m so jealous
where’s my san fancall
Sang
Retweet
Hong
WHAT DO I DO
Sang
Well I guess you have three days to figure that out!
Hongjoong stared at the message, leaning against the counter. Three days. Three days until he would be on one side of his screen, and Park Seonghwa would be on the other. What are they going to talk about? What is he going to ask? Oh God, what is he going to wear? His phone buzzed away in his hand, but he ignored it, scrubbing a hand over his face in distress. At least he had the weekend to figure out how to be somewhat kind of normal during a phone call with his bias.
By Saturday morning, Hongjoong had meticulously crafted a note on his phone entitled Questions for Seonghwa. It had thirty-seven bullet-pointed items. Throughout the course of his day, he decided that thirty-seven questions for a five minute call was insane, and narrowed it down to twenty-seven, and then again to fifteen, before deciding that all fifteen were stupid and completely deleting the note. He wasted an hour going down a TikTok rabbit hole about fancalls before closing the app with disappointment.
Be natural. Yeah, right. He would have more luck trying to show Seonghwa that he can stand on his head while juggling knives. He stared at himself in the mirror, practicing greetings that all sounded either too formal or too obsessed. His phone buzzed and he snatched it up, grateful for the distraction from himself.
Wooyoung :)
have you decided what you’re wearing??
Hongjoong frowned down at his phone.
Hongjoong
Why would you ask me that.
Wooyoung :)
because i know you’re definitely freaking out about it
Hongjoong
I’m wearing a shirt
Wooyoung :)
what shirt
Hongjoong
A normal shirt!
Wooyoung :)
define normal
this is park seonghwa we’re talking about
Hongjoong
I know
Ugh
The problem was, Hongjoong actually hadn’t thought about what he was wearing much at all until Wooyoung brought it up. He paced in front of his closet long enough for his socks to wear a hole in the carpet. Was a sweater too much? Should he wear his ATEEZ merch, or was that too obsessed? He definitely wasn’t wearing a button-down. Seonghwa would only really be able to see the top third of his body, so a plain black T-shirt and jeans should be fine, right?
He put on the outfit, scrutinizing himself in the mirror. He thought he looked fine, or at least like himself. He snapped a picture for Wooyoung, bracing himself for the younger’s critique.
Hongjoong
[image]
Is this okay?
Wooyoung :)
you look fine
plain old boring hongjoong
so yes, it’s fine
Plain old boring Hongjoong would have to work, because he didn’t have many other options other than his work clothes or the one nice button-down Jongho had bought him when he didn’t have anything to wear to a date. It was fine. He was fine. He was going to have a five-minute conversation with another human. He did it every day at work, for God’s sake! This time, the other human just so happened to be drop-dead gorgeous and his obsession for the past several years. It was fine.
Sunday simultaneously dragged and flew by, and before he knew it, Monday had arrived. It was the most excruciating day of Hongjoong’s life. He answered emails and edited designs while feeling like he was floating above his body. When he left the office at 5 p.m., he felt like he’d gotten nothing done. Jongho shooed him out of the office, clearly trying very hard not to laugh at his frazzled state. Hongjoong appreciated that he was trying, at least, because Wooyoung was doing no such thing – he had been openly laughing at Hongjoong all day.
Hongjoong tried to distract himself on the train ride back to his apartment. He scrolled through Instagram (noting that another person from his college had gotten engaged), putting on his favorite playlist to try and distract himself. The train ride went by way too fast, and before he knew it, he was unlocking the door of his apartment. He toed his shoes off at the door before proceeding to his desk to clear it off. He carefully set up his laptop, plugging it in and double-checking that it had enough battery while he threw on his carefully-selected-but-somehow-still-too-boring Fancall Outfit. He checked his hair and his teeth in the bathroom mirror, giving himself a dazzling smile before sprinting back to his desk.
He sat with the fancall application open, jiggling his leg with his hands clasped tightly in his lap as the minutes ticked by, 6:00 p.m. approaching dangerously quickly. At 5:59 p.m. (not that he was checking), a notification appeared.
Your video call will begin shortly.
Hongjoong forced himself to take three deep breaths as the screen changed to a loading circle. His heart was beating so hard he could feel it in his throat, and he briefly wondered if Seonghwa will be able to tell how nervous he was before–
The screen changed again, and suddenly his laptop was filled with Seonghwa, who was smiling. At him. Hongjoong forgot how to breathe a little bit. A timer appeared at the top of the screen.
5:00.
4:59.
4:58.
“Hi!” Seonghwa grinned at him, flashing perfect teeth.
Hongjoong opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Seonghwa laughed softly.
“Hello? Can you hear me?”
Hongjoong cleared his throat. “Hi.” His voice sounded embarrassingly small, and he decided that yes, Seonghwa definitely could tell how nervous he was.
Seonghwa’s smile widened. “I’m Seonghwa.” He introduced himself.
“I know,” Hongjoong blurted, before slapping a hand over his mouth in embarrassment. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. I mean– obviously you know who you are, and you know that I know who you are, and–”
Another laugh crackled through his shitty laptop speakers. This was going terribly.
Seonghwa tilted his head slightly, a smile still slightly playing on his lips. “What’s your name?”
Or maybe it wasn’t.
“Hongjoong.” He got out.
“Hongjoong.” Seonghwa repeated it, rolling it over his tongue as if he was testing the feel of the word. Something about hearing his own name coming out of Seonghwa’s mouth made his stomach flip. “I like it.”
“Thank… you?” Hongjoong stuttered out, not knowing how to respond. The timer was already down to four minutes.
“I’m really glad to meet you.” Seonghwa told him, and although Hongjoong knew deep down that he probably says that to everyone, he still preened, feeling a little bit special.
“So, Hongjoong,” Seonghwa continued, glancing to the left of his screen for a moment. “If you don’t mind me asking, of course… who’s your bias?”
Hongjoong laughed nervously. “Obviously you.”
“Obviously?” Seonghwa’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Why is that?”
Hongjoong hesitated, debating how much he should share.
“I just really like your voice. And your personality. And your dancing. And–” A beat. “And you’re really pretty.”
Seonghwa laughed, eyes bunching up with his smile. “Thank you, really.” Hongjoong wanted to crawl under his desk and die. “It means a lot coming from you.”
Before Hongjoong could ask why exactly it meant a lot from him specifically, Seonghwa had already moved on. The conversation flowed easier after that, with Seonghwa asking him how he’d found ATEEZ, his favorite album, and his favorite songs – all relatively easy for Hongjoong to answer. But then, Seonghwa started asking him questions he wasn’t prepared for, like:
“What do you do for work?”
“I’m a graphic designer.” Hongjoong told him, caught slightly off guard by the sudden topic shift.
Seonghwa nodded thoughtfully. “Mm, that’s cool. Do you like it?”
“Most days.”
“I definitely understand that.”
Seonghwa asked him about music he liked, his friends, and his hobbies, cooing when Hongjoong showed him sketches he did of Wooyoung and Yeosang and their cat. It crossed Hongjoong’s mind at one point that he was the one that was supposed to be asking Seonghwa questions, but he was so proud to be the center of Seonghwa’s attention that he didn’t care. It felt like he was talking to someone he’d known for a lot longer than four minutes. Which reminded him…
He glanced at the timer.
0:20.
His stomach dropped. His time was already almost gone, and suddenly he found himself wishing he had prepared something better, something that would make Seonghwa remember him past these five minutes.
Seonghwa was already looking at him.
“Hongjoong?”
“Hm?”
“I’m really glad I got to meet you.”
0:00.
The image of Seonghwa faded away, and his own smiling face stared back at him from his laptop background, posing in front of Universal Studios with Wooyoung, Yeosang, and Jongho. Hongjoong didn’t move for several seconds. His apartment looked the same as it did five minutes ago. His coffee from that morning sat on the counter. The steady hum of the air conditioner filled the room as traffic zoomed past the window. Nothing had changed. So why did he feel so different?
Hongjoong leaned back in his chair, pressing his hands to his face and laughing in disbelief.
“Oh my God. Did that just happen?”