#idollifeff

[dreamteez-story]

Take me Home

[OCxYunho | Lovestory | Idollife | Ateez FF] "Somebody, take me home, I don't wanna be alone anymore."

"KQ Entertainment shows interest in your designs. We just got an offer." With these words, the life of the young designer Kwon Nabi changes forever. This was her biggest achievement till now and her biggest chance to step into the K-pop world. She was happy, but something, or better someone, pulled her down. There was someone who took away part of her happiness: Jeong Yunho, her childhood best friend, whom she hadn't seen for the last 5 years since their big argument…

Re-started: September 2024 [in english]

Status: In Progress

2023 © written by dreamteez_story [wattpad]

[dreamteez-story]

Take me Home Chapter 4 ♫ Ateez - New World

“That went pretty well, didn’t it?”

Seoyoung and Nabi had just put the designs back in the van when she turned to her friend again. Nabi hadn’t said a word since they had said goodbye to the members and the manager. Her thoughts were pure chaos and at the same time, she just felt empty. It would be best to throw herself into work and focus on it completely, at least in her eyes. Her work colleague, however, seemed to see it differently:

“Silence won’t change the fact that we will be backstage with them and probably not everyone there should find out what happened between you. If you stay quiet like this, they will know something is wrong and we might lose that job.”

“I know,” Nabi began tensely. “But I don’t even know what I’m feeling right now and I just want to focus on my work now. We have a lot ahead of us. I can’t allow myself to overthink this. Give me time, okay?”

She was usually someone, who easily could talk about her feelings, but even though she trusted Seoyoung, this was a different situation. As much as she appreciated the honest nature of the other women, this was a slightly different situation and it was about someone who could lose his dream because of bad press. This wasn’t just about her. They had seen in recent years what simple rumors could mean for idols.

___

“How can a man have these measurements? How am I supposed to sew this in so that it looks decent?”

Nabi looked up from the jacket she was working on and looked over at Seoyoung, who stood up annoyed and walked up and down a few steps. She put her work safely on the table and then went to her friend's workstation. Then she took a look at the design of the jacket and of course it was the design they chose for Choi San. She immediately could understand where the problem lay.

“I think the only thing that will help is to sew a loop in the back so that it can be pulled tighter at the waist. Otherwise we won't be able to properly implement his triangle of shoulders and waist.”

“You mean like Lee Seo's vests?”

“Exactly. And then we can pin it on site.”

Her voice was calm, but she could also understand why Seoyoung was so tense. It wasn't easy to get the measurements right without Nabi's design looking completely different. Added to that was the pressure that the two of them felt more and more clearly with each passing day. This was the big chance and probably the only one. If they both messed it up now, no one could guarantee that it wouldn't be the end.

___

Two weeks passed since the first meeting in the KQ building and the two designers had returned twice for check-ups with the managers during that time. It went well and they had not only made it on time but received good feedback each time. They hadn't met the Ateez members in the last few weeks, which had given Nabi some opportunity to think about how she wanted to deal with it all.

It wasn't easy, but she knew she couldn't deny that Mingi, Yunho, and she knew each other. Nevertheless, she would try to find out what her former best friend had told the others if it had even been an issue between the boys. She didn't know how close the group members actually were and what they had noticed.

Since they had the fitting with the boys today, she had both Mingi's and Yunho's concert outfits on her clothes rack. It allowed her to at least exchange a few words with them alone. To be honest, her biggest fear was that he didn't want to say anything to her, that it wasn't interesting for him, that he had simply finished. But she couldn't let that stop her now. They had to talk so that the next few days wouldn't be unpleasant.

In addition to the suits of the two of them, she also had Jongho and Hongjoong's next to her and would take care of those first. A few days ago, Seoyoung had quietly asked her if she could take care of Yeosang. Nabi agreed with a big smile. Her friend wasn't one of those clingy fans, but she could still understand wanting to take the chance to exchange a few words with her bias.

But when the boys finally entered the room, Nabi’s whole plan felt like it was doomed. She met Yunho’s eyes and stopped again.

2023 © written by dreamteez_story [wattpad]

[dreamteez-story]

Take me Home Chapter 1

♫ Ateez - Sunrise

Nabi threw her handbag and the bag with fabric samples to the ground and sat on her chair, or should she say plumped down, because this wasn't graceful at all. She was tired and would love to go home to sleep, but she needed to finish her current project. An opened sketch of a ballgown still wanted to be finished.

It was already noon and she arrived here at seven in the morning with only a short coffee break with her coworkers. But now she was back from the fabric store and had lost a lot of time there. The eyes of the black-haired Korean scanned the room and stopped at the second workplace in this small and cramped room. The chaos on the table showed her, that Seoyoung would still be working herself. Nabi just hoped that it wasn't that damn sewing machine again, that broke like every two weeks. Their Boss would need to get a new one for them, so the two girls would be at least a bit less stressed. They still had 3 projects to sew. Nabi took in the air and pushed herself up. She took the little black hairband from her wrist and tied her hair together in a high ponytail. Then she took out her headphones and pulled the sketch near. This needed to be finished like now. Since this was supposed to be on her boss's desk tomorrow morning, she completely immersed herself in the task and didn't even notice, that someone had entered the room. It was a small touch on her left shoulder that made her flinch a little and curse. Normally, Nabi wasn't someone who cursed just like that, but with all the tension she was currently under, her limits had dropped significantly. She looked at her best friend and work colleague. She and Kim Seoyoung had known each other for around 5 years now and during their training, they had made up their minds to start at the same place. This was exactly why they were now sharing this small, chaotic office room.

"Damn it, I said you should never touch me when I'm focused on work"

She sighed and raised an eyebrow skeptically when she saw the broad grin on her best friend, who seemed completely unbothered by her words. Seoyoung slowly took off Nabi's Headset and placed it next to the ballgown sketch.

"You won't believe me when I tell you what happened. You really won't believe me, girl." she suddenly said, excited and surprisingly loudly.

"You have a date with Minjun? Has he finally asked you out?"

"No, it's better. Well, not better, I guess, but something good for both of us and more your work to be honest. Something incredible just arrived by email. Our email, not the one for the company."

With that, Nabi's interest was on high alert. She could really use some good news after this hell of a day. She grabbed her smartphone but didn't even get the chance to unlock it, because Seoyoung grabbed her chair and sat down in front of her, and continued:

"KQ Entertainment shows interest in your designs. We just got an offer." she started and with one thing her best friend was right: She couldn't believe what she was told there. "They want the designs for the upcoming concert in Seoul. The sketches you send out to a few Entertainments." It took a moment for the young designer to process what she had just been told and that this wasn't a joke from her best friend. What she said was a big, really big opportunity for the two of them to be taken seriously as designers and would mean they would get even more orders out of the K-pop industry if they would like her designs. But there was something about all of that, that threw Nabo off track. "KQ Entertainment? So you mean, we would work for Ateez?" she asked, knowing too well, that there weren't many other options. Maddox and Eden didn't do a lot of concerts and her designs would not match them. Xikers had just debuted and had a very different style from her works too. So there was really only their most famous group, the flagship of KQ Entertainment: Ateez.

"Exactly for them, yes! And this tour should be huge, worldwide."

The question of whether they would accept the offer wasn't even on the table, but Nabe became unusually quiet after Seoyoung confirmed that it would probably be for Ateez. I was her biggest chance yet, could be her big breakthrough as a young designer. She could have a foot in the door of the K-Pop-World, everything she wished for when starting to pursue design, but...There was something, or better said someone, who held back her joy a little: Jeong Yunho, The Main Dancer of Ateez

2023 © written by dreamteez_story [wattpad]

[dreamteez-story]

Take me Home Chapter 3 ♫ Ateez - Empty Box It had been four days since Seoyoung and Nabi had accepted the job. In those four days, the two young designers hardly allowed themselves a break. Sleeping and the iced Americano in the morning were the only exceptions. Hand Stitching onto the clothes, sewing on more details, and two extra pairs of jackets and trousers. It was rough, but it was bearable since this was part of their dream. 

And yet the two of them were now wide awake and feeling good in the entrance hall of the KQ building. It was slowly coming down on her that this was a pretty damn good opportunity and no matter what happened with Yunho, or would not happen, she was damn proud of them both. Nabi had not only made it from Gwangju to Seoul but was now facing her first big job. The past simply couldn't hold her back.

"We can do it, right?" Seoyoung sounded incredibly nervous, which made her laugh. Then the black-haired woman put a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder. Nabi rarely got nervous, so she could now be the calming influence for her friend.

"What couldn’t we do, when we work together? I doubt the designs will look worse in reality than  in the photos. We know that they are good. You know we did something great here. And if KQ Entertainment won’t take them, we still were names and could try this for other groups.." She was just able to say before they were called.

Nabi pushed the clothes rack with the first 4 finished versions of the suits into the elevator.

_____

The meeting itself went well, but as they were told at the end that the members of Ateez had just arrived in the building, Nabi tensed up.

The boys' manager suggested that they could introduce themselves briefly and perhaps it would help the young women with the even larger order that they had just received. The boys' measurements would then be sent to the two of them later by email.

She noticed her best friend's worried look on her but smiled at her more convincingly than she felt. Nevertheless, they agreed to the manager's suggestion and stood up.

He finally led them to a training room on one of the higher floors. Once there, the two women waited until the manager had made himself heard and the members stopped their training. Only then did Seoyoung and Nabi enter.

She would be lying if she said the room was completely foreign to her. Even if she hadn't actively followed Ateez, as a KPop fan and in living in Seoul you get to see a lot of their content. And there was Seoyoung too, who would show her dance practice moments of the boys, trying to get Nabi into the fandom. But it wasn't the room that distracted her so much that she almost forgot to introduce herself.

Yunho stood between Hongjoong and Jongho. The group smiled at the two of them and almost everyone nodded slightly when Seoyoung was introduced. But Nabi and Yunho both didn't react to this. Their eyes met and for a few seconds, it seemed to her as if time had stopped. He seemed so different to her, so strange and yet so familiar. She couldn't interpret the look on his face. Was it a surprised look? Shock? Or a more negative feeling?

"And this is my Kwon Nabi, the artistic genius behind the designs."

It was Seoyoung's voice that helped her get back into the situation and she leaned forward slightly. She forced herself to smile as she looked at everyone one after the other. But when her gaze met Mingi's, it was a little more tense again.

They both knew each other as well, which was no surprise since they had both spent a lot of time with Yunho, but they weren't friends. Nabi could just see that he didn't seem particularly neutral towards her. The rapper was tense and she didn't know why. Back then, she and Yunho had made mistakes. Mistakes that had led to them parting ways. It had never been her fault or Yunho's fault alone.

"I'm glad for this opportunity." Was all she could add for now, knowing just too well that the mood in the room had changed.

2023 © written by dreamteez_story [wattpad]

[dreamteez-story]

Take me Home Chapter 2

♫ Ateez - One Day at a time

"Okay, that is not the reaction I expected." Seoyoung started and she sounded disappointed. "I thought you would be happy, excited and all over the place. Or too shocked to talk maybe. But this? After all our talks about the future and what we could hopefully achieve..."

Her words brought Nabi back to the here and now. She had never told her that she knew Yun Ho, she never told anyone. Only people from their past knew about them. She had never wanted to make a big deal out of the fact that she used to know a now-famous idol better. That one day their journey together had ended, or at least that's what she thought. When she found out that he was the one who made it into a pre-debut group, she was still happy for him, but she couldn't forget what had happened. They had both hurt each other and that had led to this end. But that's exactly what she would have to tell everyone if she told others about her long-standing childhood friendship with Yun Ho.

"That's not it." the black-haired girl began: "And we will definitely accept the offer, but..."

Now she paused and showed her best friend with a hand movement, that she should grab her chair. When Seo Young rolled it from her table to Nabi's, she then continued:

"Do you remember the best friend I told you about when we met? My childhood friend from Gwangju? The one who stood me up before my entrance exam?"

She waited a moment and when the other designer nodded, Seoyoung already tried puzzling the facts together, yet still waiting for her to say it. Nabi knew all too well that her friend was a fan of Ateez and that she probably would be mad at her. She just hoped her friend would understand eventually.

"This former friend of mine is Jeong Yun Ho."

Nabi couldn't help but lower her gaze after these words and didn't dare to look at her friend. Her eyes were focused on her hands, which pressed against her thighs. She still felt that stabbing pain in her chest when she thought about the whole situation. But she heard Seoyoung hold her breath for a moment and then let her words bubble out somewhat thoughtlessly:

"You're friends with Yun Ho, the main dancer of Ateez, and you didn't tell me about it? This is huge news Nabi!"

It didn't sound like she was angry about only finding out about it now. In fact, she just seemed surprised and realized pretty quickly that her words weren't that appropriate given the situation."We were friends in kindergarten and at school, yes. But when we both had our dreams ahead of us, we went our separate ways." It was clear that Nabi was anything but happy with the situation and it still wasn't an easy topic for her to talk about, but she still explained to Seo Young exactly what had happened back then and why they had broken off contact that one day. ~ A few hours later ~ The picture in the young designer's hands showed two teenagers coming home from their dance lessons together. The girl was sitting on the boy's back with a broad grin. If Nabi remembered correctly, Yun Ho was 14 years old back then, so she had to be 13 at the time of this picture. Those were good times, but she still had no idea how to deal with everything coming her way. She had no idea how to behave towards him and she couldn't predict how he would react to her. It had been 5 years now and he had not only achieved his goal but had even achieved success that he had certainly never imagined before. Nabi herself was still working on her goal and now it was his group, of all kpop groups, that might help her get a real chance. Sometimes life really took unpredictable paths. Nabi put the picture back in the cardboard box in which she collected memories and finally pushed it back under her bed. Today she should really go to bed earlier because the next few days would be stressful and chaotic. She was relieved of all previous tasks so that she and Seoyoung could only work on the outfits for Ateez to present to KQ. In less than five days they were supposed to go to the KQ building for a meeting. 2023 © written by dreamteez_story [wattpad]