Hongjoong sat in the recording studio, smiling to himself after rehearsal.

He was so glad he'd found his song again.

He couldn't believe it took him so long to find it. He's practically torn his own hair out trying to look for it. Just for it to be in the folder he swore he'd checked almost fifty times.

It was really hard to act so calm about it in front of Seonghwa but he had to in order to keep it secret. He still didn't know how he was going to show it to him, but he knew he wanted to.

Although the thought made his face flush in embarrassment.

How had Seonghwa ever written a song for him and performed it in front of thousands of fans?? He could hardly even imagine just playing his recording for Seonghwa.

He knew he'd written it just to show him but he'd never played something so personal for anyone before.

And what if Seonghwa thought it was cheesy and stupid?

Not that there was any reason he would...but Hongjoong couldn't definitively say it wasn't a possibility.

Groaning, he put his head on the table as soon as his phone started to ring.

Startled, he quickly pulled it from his pocket, only to see a number he didn't recognize. Turning his head a bit to the side in confusion, he shrugged and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hi! Am I speaking with Kim Hongjoong?"

Hongjoong nodded his head.

"Yes, this is him. With whom am I speaking?"

"My name is Eden, I'm a producer at—"

"KQ ENTERTAINMENT!?" Hongjoong stammered, nearly falling out of his chair.

"Haha, yes. I see you've been waiting for our call."

"Yes, sorry—it's just—I love your company. I didn't think I'd even get a response, so thank you so much for calling," Hongjoong stumbled through his words, hoping they were coherent enough that he could still be understood.

"Don't you want to know why I'm calling?" Eden laughed and Hongjoong felt his heart beat quicken.

"Of course—sorry, please—continue."

"It's alright. We took a look at your tracks and, we'd love to have Ateez join our company."

Hongjoong fell back into his chair that he'd jumped out of. KQ—KQ Entertainment—wanted to work with them???

"You still there?"

"Yes! Yes! Absolutely! We would love to join KQ!" Hongjoong quickly responded, realizing he had fallen silent.

"I'm glad, it sounds like you'll be pretty fun to work with. We'll keep in contact and let you know when we'd like you to come in."

"Of course. We'll still need to go through paperwork and auditions."

"Oh—no, you don't need to do any of that. I mean, there's a few official things to sign but we've seen and heard you play and we love you guys. You'll start right after we've officially signed you on."

Hongjoong sat with his mouth agape. So...they were practically already under KQ.

If they wanted to be.

As much as he'd wanted to go to JYP because it was one of the big three...KQ had always been his and Seonghwa's favorite company.

And they got in.

"You don't have to decide right away, I'm sure you want to talk to your members. But we'd like to hear back from you within a week. Just give me a call whenever you've decided and I'll let you know when we can have you in."

"Alright, thank you so much. I'll call as soon as I talk to them. Thank you."

"Alright. Hope to hear from you again."

With that, the line clicked and Hongjoong set down his phone.

They got in.

They did it.

His face lit up in a huge smile and he spun his chair in a circle, bouncing up and down.

They fucking did it.

After celebrating for a few minutes, he remembered he needed to tell his group.

He started heading off towards the members' rooms, a skip in his step. When he got there, he decided the first door he knocked on had to be his and Seonghwa's.

He walked up to the door and knocked before stepping back and breaking into another toothy grin.

But no one answered.

Confused, Hongjoong decided to open the door and check inside. To his dismay, Seonghwa wasn't there.

Not that he was required to stay in the room at all times. He had just gotten used to him being there all the time. Maybe he was hanging out with the rest of the members somewhere.

Then he could tell all of them at once.

Getting excited again, he decided to check the rest of the rooms, starting with San and Wooyoung's room.

They were both gone.

He moved on to Jongho and Yeosang.

Also gone.

Finally he knocked on Yunho and Mingi's door.

No answer.

So they were all hanging out together. Hongjoong smiled, glad he'd get to tell them all at once. But it faltered.

They were all hanging out without him.

To be fair, he'd been in the studio for a long time.

He still felt a little left out though.

He shook it off, knowing they didn't mean it, and decided to look around for them.

After checking their floor of the dorm, he made his way down the stairs, thinking they might have gone to a practice room.

But as he passed the Stray Kids dorm, he heard the sound of loud laughter and he paused. It could just be all of Stray Kids having a party as there were 8 members. But he decided to check, just in case. He pressed the buzzer by the door.

"Oh—there he is! Come on in!" came Hyunjin's voice from the other end, followed by the door opening.

Hongjoong realized with a start that he wouldn't really be able to bring up KQ around all of Stray Kids, especially since there might be spies and he wasn't absolutely certain everyone was on board. But he stepped inside anyways, wanting to see what was going on.

"Now we've got the whole gang," Hyunjin smiled, putting an arm over his shoulder and walking him over to the living room where everyone sat, chatting and playing board games.

"Hongjoong hyung! We just sent Jongho and Yeosang to go find you!" Wooyoung called as he made his next move on the board.

"Oh—I should probably go tell them I'm here," Hongjoong said, turning to leave but Hyunjin stepped in front of him.

"Don't worry about it, they'll be back soon. Otherwise Minnie and I can go," he smiled, flashing a smile to Seungmin who rolled his eyes.

"Oh, you don't have to—"

"It's fine, you're our guests. Go on, grab something to eat!" Hyunjin spun him towards the table of snacks and gave him a light push forward.

Hongjoong nodded, moving towards the food. As he grabbed a plate, he finally started to settle in, taking a look around the room.

Wooyoung sat curled up in San's lap on the floor, constantly leaning forward to join in the board game on the table before them. Yunho and Mingi were both standing and yelling, very invested in whatever game they'd joined. Chan and Changbin were seated a ways back on one of the couches, observing from a distance. Jisung and Felix sat together opposite Wooyoung and San, a little closer than Hongjoong would've expected. Hyunjin had gone back to his seat, which was decidedly Seungmin's lap. Minho sat close to the games next to a snuggly Jeongin, making small expressions of excitement when his favorite team was in the lead.

That left...

"Hi, Joongie."