unfortunate situations.
pairing; joshua x idol!reader
genre; angst? fluff?
warnings; slight mentions of injuries i.e bruising
wc; 2400
if joshua had to pick out one of his biggest enemies in the industry… it would be you.
since the day you two began training together the boy always had an issue with you and it was the same vice versa.
“joshua, when are you and y/n going to get over your petty little fight from literally years ago?” seungcheol asked as you walked past the seventeen boys in the company building waving at them all, joshua glared directly at you making you stop and roll your eyes all the boys awkwardly waited for the tension to pass.
“never.” he spoke with venom in his tone, almost making seungcheol shiver.
you all watched him walk off to the elevator where he got on without making any further eye contact and everyone quickly turned back to you giving you sympathetic looks but you couldn't care less.
what had happened in the past to bring you guys to this point was actually pretty easy to explain, during your trainee days with seventeen and your own group you had accidentally let out a laugh while joshua performed for his progress check, the boy had gotten angry at you for teasing him however what he didn't know was you were not actually laughing at him, and at your group mate for telling you she forgot her lines.
joshua refused to listen no matter how many times the boys had told him the actual story, he wasn't ready to let go of his grudge nor his pride so due to this the two of you swore to be enemies for as long as time even if it meant the two groups would suffer along with their members.
you sulked your way back to the dorms, you hated how he always singled you out like that and gave you dirty looks.
“at least i have the mind to not do any of that when others are around.” you mutter to yourself as you open the door taking out your frustration on it when you slam the door.
“y/n is that you?” calls out your leader, mira.
“yep.” you call back out in response making your way to your room and flopping onto your bed face first.
“whats wrong?” she asks, picking up the bag you had dropped by the doorway, a motherly instinct from her because she was always cleaning up behind you.
“take a guess”
“joshua?”
“don't even say that demon's name.” you moan making her chuckle.
“well whatever it is, don't worry about it. now come, we ordered food. let's have a night for ourselves and some movies.
you get up at her words deciding to join them instead of sulking in your room all alone
“i'll be down in a sec” you notify her, taking a the moment to rub off your makeup and get into comfier clothes.
throughout the movie, you find yourself occasionally thinking of joshua and you sit there puzzled on why he was running through your mind like crazy, you groan holding your head in your hands causing everyone to divert their attention from the movie to you.
“is everything okay y/n?”
“why won't he just leave me alone.” you rant and everyone stares at you with wide eyes before bursting out into laughter.
“is this seriously what you're thinking about during a movie night?” they ask. you end up looking at them all with a pained look.
“well.” one of your members drag on teasingly.
“why are you even thinking about someone you hate so much?”
“its cause i hate him so much... duh?”
“i dont think thats how hate works, y/n” she chuckles, throwing a fry at you to annoy you even further, you were ready to throw one back but the ringing of the door bell spooked you all.
“i’ll get it” you stood up to walk to the door and check through the peephole to make sure it wasn't a dangerous stranger however the person you catch a glimpse of makes you roll your eyes.
“what do you want” you spit once the door is opened and joshua is standing in front of you, much closer than you would like.
“you could be a bit nicer” he says with the same sarcasm he always uses when speaking to you.
“i could but it's you so no i don't think i will.” you fake smile to annoy him and it works because he screws up his face with furrowed brows.
“okay whatever, can you tell your leader to come here? i have to tell her something.”
“what is it?”
“well i'm not going to tell you because frankly i don't want to talk to you any further.” he sighs, leaning on the door frame.
“mmm, well you’re not exactly fun either so just tell me and i’ll pass on the message, mr hong.” you mimic his actions and lean on the door frame also.
he pushes himself off the door frame as you do that, “just tell her to come to practice room four at ten am.” with that the boy turns around and walks away.
you watch him leave, confused on why he would want to meet your leader so early, your thinking comes to an end when a voice interrupts the questions running through your mind.
“who was it y/n?” mira asks as she approaches you in the hallway.
“joshua, he said meet him in practice room four at 10” you tell her nonchalantly before going to your room instead of the living room to continue your movie night with the excuse of being worn out from the day.
everyone nods and a series of goodnights are said as you close your door and tuck yourself away into your bed for the night while wishing your thoughts would shut up and stop thinking about the boy you were supposed to hate.
the next day began later than usual for you, barely managing to get yourself out of bed by noon you waddled over to your bathroom and got into comfy clothes you could live in for the day.
since there wasn't any official schedule today, you were originally planning on grabbing one of the performance team members (most likely soonyoung because you guys were the closest) and having a dance session. thankfully he agreed to meet you in an hour and you now had an hour to spare all alone in the company somewhere.
you booked out the practice room at the front desk and skipped over happily to it, opening the door you expected to be met with your own reflection in the mirrors but instead were met with joshua sat in the corner wincing as he held his ankle and you immediately assumed he was in pain.
your eyes widened for a second as you thought about whether you should help, not that you wouldn't but it was him and you were scared of his reaction. despite making up the cons in your head you still rushed over to him making him glance up but once he realised who you were his face somehow relaxed more but the pain was still evident in the way he scrunched up his face.
“what did you do?” you ask kneeling beside him trying to remove his hands from his ankle which was very red and bruised.
“i don't know, must've strained it” he hissed in pain and it only made you worry more.
“oh god, do i call someone?” you look around in panic wishing someone would coincidentally come in and show you the way in this situation.
“no shit y/n, call for one the boys. my phones in my bag over there.”
you nod and swiftly make your way over to the bag, browsing through it until you find joshua's phone and return back beside him.
“what's your password?”
“my birthday” he answers and you quickly type away the digits of the said day pressing the first contact you see which belongs to jun.
unfortunately jun tells you he and the other boys are currently not at the company which makes you wonder how comes since you were meant to meet soonyoung in the first place. nevertheless you sigh trying to explain how joshua was injured.
“try getting him up to our dorms, i'll call our manager over and make my own way.”
you looked at joshua with pity explaining the situation and he nodded immediately trying to stand up off the floor but you stopped him immediately.
“you can't just put all that pressure on your foot!” you emphasise causing joshua to look at you in confusion. you look for something before turning back to him. “here it's the closest thing i have to ice right now if it’s helpful” you offer your ice cold bottle of water you had prepared for one of your breaks, he hesitantly accepts it giving you a slight nod through the pain as a thank you.
“we’ll wait for a moment then i’ll help you back to your dorm.” you offer, relaxing for a bit as the exhaustion from all the previous panicking sets in.
“you know you don't need to do all this, i can just call my manager.”
“it's fine, i'd much rather be sure you’re okay” you blurt out without realising until joshua looks at you, his gaze softened but you refused to meet his eyes so you were unknown to this.
“i'm meant to hate you, stop making my job harder than it already is.” he jokes with an awkward laugh, but the words seem to directly go to your heart because it starts thumping and it takes you everything not to bring your hand up to your chest in case he realises.
“really? you make it seem pretty easy either way” you retort, thinking back to all the times he’d react badly at everything you did even if it was unprovoked.
“does it bother you?” he asked with a genuine tone, making you turn to him.
“sometimes, i feel like it bothers me less because i channel a ton of hate towards you now.” you admit with some shame.
he hums, not answering anymore, instead he gives back the water bottle and attempts to stand up one more time only this time succeeding since you didnt stop him.
“i think i'm okay to go now,” he smiles forcefully.
you were puzzled but refused to think much of it, you were sick of him occupying your thoughts more than he needed to.
joshua held onto you the entire way, after all you had offered to help before and this counted as helping. he looked down at you a few times feeling bad you were struggling to carry his weight. you paid no mind to his frequent looks especially as you struggle to divert your conscious from the fact he was closer to you than he had been in years.
it was a weird sight to see and thankfully only seungkwan and dokyeom watched from afar as their two friends walked back up to their dorms.
“i know i didn't just see y/n helping joshua.'' seungkwan gasps, hitting seokmin to make him look over at the two who only stare in shock.
you never expected to stay longer than maybe ten minutes helping joshua adjust and find comfort till everyone else came home.
maybe it was the fact you decided to prepare a quick fix of ramen for the two of you as you spoke about your worst encounters with the boy, dare you say the two of you bonded for the first time ever as joshua spread his legs onto the coffee table and you sat near him on the couch.
“honestly i think i was more afraid of ruining my pride that's why” joshua confesses while bursting into a laughing fit.
“you made my life hell for so long honestly even seungcheol was worried” you laugh along with him.
“okay but you weren't any better y/n.”
“you deserved it.” you subtly remind him after all he was the one who started this enemy thing between you two.
“mmm, i did. i'm sorry.” he goes quieter at the apology and for a moment you both lock eyes in silence.
“do you mean that?” you mutter, playing around with your ramen. you were nervous to hear his next few words and started regretting the fact you had sat right beside him on the couch with just a pillow separating you two.
“why not. i'm tired of acting like im so angry at you when in reality i just want to get to know you again and stop with this whole enemy act.'' joshua runs his hand through his hair just as you look up, a simple act that you never realised how effective it was.
“i’d like that too.” you smile, setting down your plate of food. for the first time in ages a genuine smile directed to the boy as you both resolve your issues.
“FINALLY!” seungkwan runs in shouting with seokmin yelling close behind him and you jump in fear and at the sigh of them.
“thank fuck i dont have to listen to another argument ever again.” seungkwan breathes out.
“where did you two even come out from?”
“oh my sweet joshua, it's 2020 we can teleport now.” seokmin states in a matter-of factly way and seungkwan agrees with the boy, nodding enthusiastically.
joshua laughs at them two while you’re still trying to recover from the moment with him and from the scare.
“okay… well i'm gonna go back to the company.” you stand up stretching, hoping to conclude the day with a dance practice session.
“where are you going?” joshua asks and the two other boys look at you just as curious.
“well, i wanted to practice which was what i intended to do in the first place” you think for a second before continuing...
“with soonyoung actually does anyone know where he is?” you wonder, mostly questioning the two members of booseoksoon.
“we know nothing dont look at us.” seungkwan puts his hands up surrendering.
“now that you mention it, I was meant to meet mira too...” joshua pipes in
“hmm weird.” you mumble.
“anyways im going to go now, feel better!” you beamed towards Joshua, as well as not forgetting to wave a ‘bye’ at the other two.
you walked over to the practice rooms feeling giddy at no particular thing but it was obvious you were happy about being on good terms with joshua.
“speak of the devil” you thought to yourself as you opened your phone to a text from the unknown number that you were sure had gotten yours from seungkwan.
‘can i treat you to dinner on a day where both my legs are perfectly functional?’
your cheeks go red at the sight of the message as you type an obvious answer back.
‘of course.’