Eightmakesoneteam - Tumblr Posts
Whenever You’re Ready
Author’s Note: A little short drabble about our dearest Ateez member Song Mingi, who is FINALLY coming home. It’s been a long time. But I know that he will be back stronger than ever, serving all the looks and smooth lines and quality Mingi dancing we’ve missed so much. So... welcome home Mingi.
----------------
“You’ve worked hard for this moment, Mingi.” The calm voice of his therapist came over him as he held his discharge paperwork. All he had to do was sign it. The words all the simple, basic jargon he had become accustomed to with all of the paperwork involved in his therapy. Yet… the paper seemed so heavy. He was misty eyed as he realized he HAD worked so hard to get to this moment. He had torn himself down mentally a thousand times and reassembled himself just as many times over. He was proud.
“You’re right. I did.” He wiped at his face, his parents standing behind him in the soft, deep seat of the chair he was always in seeming foreign now, like he didn’t need it. Like he could toss it at any second and not miss it at all. His mother’s fingers in his long hair eased him even more, and he sighed happily, eyelashes fluttering. “I’m gonna go back to the guys, and we will eat well, and drink… and just… be.” He couldn’t wait. He had spent some time in this process with them, but nothing like he used to. He missed them terribly.
From Jongho snapping apples in half to Seonghwa chasing him from a room so he could clean, and Hongjoong calling him at the latest and earliest hours to check on him and get him going for the day. They had never once forgotten him. Keeping him in performances. Updating the fans about him. Calling him while doing lives with Atiny. And now… now he could be the one in the live. Setting the paper down on the table, he picked up the pen, and rotated it skillfully between his fingers.
I’m running to your side.
Flying my white flag.
My white flag.
My love where are you?
My love where are you?
Whenever you’re ready.
Whenever you’re ready.
Can we? Can we surrender?
Can we? Can we surrender?
I surrender.
His signature fell neatly on the line and he smiled happily, tears spilling over his cheeks as he looked up at his therapist. “Thank you.” The sun was remarkably warm on his back. The birds seemed to sing only for him. And the realization, as he stepped out of the car, that he was finally going back to the dorm made him feel like he could fly. The same steps. Like muscle memory all the way to the door he had gone in and out of some many times. “Oh?” He heard the sound of Wooyoung’s curious call down the hall, and no sooner than he had toed out of his sneakers and turned, the entirety of Ateez was on him. He cried happily when his brothers, his friends, the men he had shared so many memories with, good and bad, enveloped him in the best coming home hug. He wiped at their faces with gentle hands, and sank into the happiness, nodding. “I am home, guys… I am home.” His gaze met Seonghwa’s over the group, the man trying to hold his own tears back, and reached up to touch his face. “Thank you for not giving up on me… now.. how about we order all of the meat? I’m starving.” They all dragged him to the table for animated chats over soju, beer, and good food, and finally, they were eight once again.
Welcome Home, Mingi.