kalei

hongjoong's pov

hongjoong yawned, feeling his body spread out, go taut, and retract again. he cracked his neck to the side, wincing at the gritty set of cracks that followed. he scrunched his eyes shut and pressed the palms of his hands flat against the spots that danced across his vision, weaving around each other like fireflies.

he glanced at the clock.

two am.

he closed his eyes again.

well. there was hardly much he could do about it now. hongjoong stared blankly at the monitor in front of him and began to absentmindedly poke at a key on the electronic keyboard mat. as he pushed it over and over again, he wondered whether he should head home. it was god-awfully late and god-awfully early at the same time, and although the other members were used to it by now, he hated to wake them up coming back to the dorm. he could always sleep on the couch.

it wasn't as if he hadn't done it before, in fact that couch had become hongjoong's recent resting space despite the claim that he "had a bed in seonghwa's room". that bed had been made perfectly by seonghwa-hyung weeks ago, and he hadn't used it since. on the rare nights he didn't spend at the studio, he would often just sleep on the couch anyway after drifting off during a movie night with all of them together.

he rubbed his eyes, turned off the monitor, and grabbed his coat on the way out the door.

the dorm was quiet, and hongjoong tried to be quieter.

he dropped his messenger bag down on a chair in the common area, and collapsed on the couch. it let out a loud creak and hongjoong winced.

alright. he was home, he was back.

and he was so tired. holy fuck.

hongjoong let his head fall back onto the throw pillow, and was asleep within minutes.

the next day, he awoke to the sound of the coffee maker and vibrations against his stomach. muffled voices filtered through the fluff in his ears, and he rolled over slowly, dully registering the ache gripping his back.

"hongjoong-hyung~" the voice was clearer now, and closer.

"go away, wooyoung." hongjoong groaned into the cushion.

"nuh uh-" wooyoung poked him in the shoulder, hard. "time to get up, we have a schedule at ten."

hongjoong squinted, blinking at the sunlight coming through the window next to the couch.

"why are you being the responsible one?" he asked. "is yunho dead?"

wooyoung pouted, sweeping his fingers through his hair.

"no, but seonghwa-hyung made breakfast, so you should come eat."

"aiyah, fine..." he groaned and sat up. san and yeosang sat at the table, quickly eating their kimchi pancakes. san was done before hongjoong could even sit down, and ran off into the hallway to grab the shower before mingi woke up.

"hey, did you hear that eden is taking on a new producer?" seonghwa called from the kitchen.

a new producer? it had been just him, maddox, eden, buddy, leez, and ollounder for years. six or seven producers for one group seemed like plenty. of course, a new face was always welcome in the kq family, but ... why? maybe a new project eden-ary was working on?

"no, i didn't ... any particular reason?"

seonghwa shook his head.

"no idea. maybe an intern? eden might train then and send them off somewhere else."

"unlikely, he likes to keep good people here." hongjoong replied. "doesn't trust big companies."

which was totally fair. hongjoong didn't trust them either. a twinge of bitterness stirred inside him. it was no secret that the rest of the korean music industry shunned kq despite ateez's global success, threatening to buy up their resources and force them out of certain typical k-pop show circuits. still, it ... seemed that so many people weren't aware. or just didn't care.

seonghwa contemplated that, turned back to the stove and flipped the pancake that had browned deliciously in the time they had exchanged words.

"true…”

“do you know whether they’ll be working with us? or with the trainees?” hongjoong rested his face on one hand and glanced back towards the hallway where the others had disappeared to. seonghwa smiled, dark hair falling into his face.

“considering the trainees won’t be debuting for at least another year and a half…” he trailed off, and pulled the pan off the stove to walk towards hongjoong at the table. spatula in hand, he pushed the kimchi pancakes onto the waiting plate and turned back around to return the pan to the kitchen before circling back with his own portion.

“so us… i’m guessing.” hongjoong focused intensely on the rocking of his knife on the pancakes, tuning out bits and pieces of seonghwa’s next sentence. they really didn’t need another producer. the six of them worked nearly seamlessly on their own. he had no idea whether the new person was even their age. would they be fresh out of high school? mid thirties?

hongjoong had no idea what to expect when he walked into the studio later that afternoon, but he certainly didn’t expect … this.

in their normal recording booth stood a person with long, dark hair tied up in a half bun at the top of their head, singing softly into the recording mic. their silver rimmed glasses sat at the very tip of their nose, seconds away from falling off, and their hands, adorned with chunky rings, grasped at the bottom of their black oversized sweater as they faded in and out of head voice, a smooth tenor like nothing hongjoong had ever heard.

hongjoong blinked. he looked towards the producer booth, and caught a glimpse of eden’s long nose and brown hair.

the violent peak of a microphone nearly caused hongjoong to jump out of his skin, and he whipped back around to the window of the recording booth to see that the glasses had indeed slipped forward off their nose and into the microphone guard, seeming to startle them so badly they backed up and hit the soundproofed wall. the person seemed to come out of some sort of stupor, and dropped out of sight to search for the glasses.

“it’s alright. i really love your tone. you will have no problem at all with demos, as your range is pretty impressive already.” eden spoke calmly and objectively, compliments sounding like simple facts to take in stride. hongjoong poked his head around the divider and nodded at the producer sitting at the desk, who turned and gave him a look before turning quickly back to the window presumably to answer something the person had said. “no, no… not immediately. i want you to get a feel for the family here at kq before jumping straight into work. before meeting… the members.”

eden shot another piercing look at hongjoong, whose eyes widened and he retreated to the couch at the back of the room and sunk into it, pulling out his phone to look busy.

how was he supposed to know that they would be in his typical recording booth? and why was eden so determined to keep this person—the new producer, hongjoong assumed—separated from ateez before they got used to the … building? odd.

“you’re free to go,” eden said, headphones still secure on his head. “i’ll meet you in the lobby in a few minutes to show you the upper floors. gotta take care of something.” he paused for a second, listening to the man on the other side of the window. “yeah, there’s some vending machines around the corner on the right side.”

the lead producer got up out of his seat, took his headphones off with a sigh, glanced over his shoulder at hongjoong, who simply shrugged, and disappeared around the divider. he heard the sound of a door opening, a few muffled voices, and a door closing. eden’s shuffled feet found their way back around to the back area again, and he settled into the cushioned swivel chair across from hongjoong’s position on the couch.

hongjoong paused. his stomach was an odd mixture of watercolors, orange anxiety, yellow curiosity, blue confusion and pink fascination.

“who was that?” he asked, putting down his phone and looking up at eden, who had a vaguely amused expression on his face.

“our newest staff,” eden replied, leaning back in his chair and gesturing at the computer on the desk. “a new addition to eden-ary.”

“huh.”

“don’t be too enthusiastic, hongjoong-ssi.”

“what’s their name?”

eden paused, as if preparing to say something difficult.

“matsuoka seiji.”

he took a second to sound out the name silently. his tongue stumbled over the ‘tsu’ and missed the ‘i’, but it was… pretty.

“and…”

“he’ll be in this room every day for an hour for the next… week or so,” eden remarked, spinning around in his chair. “then we’ll bring him into one of our meetings, and see how it goes from there.”

hongjoong nodded, a small contemplative frown forming on his face. he was curious to see what this new person could do. seiji. a small tug in his chest send his mind spiraling. what if he hated it here? what if he just didn’t fit cohesively with the team? they’d have to wait and see, i suppose.

“would you hate it if i sat in the corner during your guys’ … lessons or whatever it is he’s here for?”

eden frowned.

“i would prefer you didn’t. just for… his comfort.”

hongjoong nodded, disappointed.

“well, either way, you’ll get to meet him properly soon,” eden said. “don’t you worry.”

taking that as his queue to leave, hongjoong stood up from the couch, tucked his phone in his pocket, and stepped towards the door.

“see you soon, eden-ssi.” he nodded at the older man with a smile, and stepped out.

seiji’s pov

matsuoka seiji collapsed against the wall as soon as the door to the recording room closed.

matsuoka seiji was going to lose his fucking job. he could not believe he broke his glasses on the first day.

matsuoka seiji could not go back to osaka.