Star Illusion | ATEEZ Pirate AU

Chapter 58 - Disclosure

The bridge of the Revenge went quiet as grave once I confessed everything to Ateez; my transmigration, my liar, the book, storyline, their characters, their relationships with Y/N, the bad ending, except about them being an idol because that it'd be strange to know that they're clone of other people. Knowing that they're book characters is bad enough. It's like their fate is being pulled strings by an unknown creator.

The atmosphere is eerily like a haunted ship. The chilliness of the night and my suspense cause my body to tremble. The candle lit chandelier cast shadow over the pirates' faces. They're losing in their thoughts, processing the information I told them. And without doubt they're figuring out what to do with me. As one by one, they start to fix their gazes on me.

Scared by their stern looks, I spoke up after they silently stared at me for over a minute. "Guys, say something."

And that was the mistake because all hell broke loose.

"A book? Us in a book?! How ridiculous!!" Seonghwa is the first one to scoff, he stood up and looked as if he'd come to strangle me. Luckily, the boatswain held him down.

"Calm down, sir. That truly sounds incredible, but think about it. Her story matched with the past events, and how she came to know about the curse. She bid us goodbye at the island because she thought it was the end of the story. And she used to mention to me that we couldn't sail her back home because it was too far away. Everything kinda makes sense now." Jongho said, twinkle filling in his round eyes. He let go of Seonghwa's shoulder to grab his chin, activating his brain to its full power.

"Star's a person from another dimension, she traveled into our world which is inside a book. She alternated the storyline, but failed to go home because we failed to reach Wonderland. Then how's the book going to end? And our thoughts and our fate will depend on the author? No, that can't be. If that was the case, then Star wouldn't be here to save us. Or we were destined to die from the start... and if the book ends then what will happen to us?" A series of strange questions fly out of Jongho's mouth. The grumpy quartermaster listens to the younger boy and looks like his head will explode.

"Aurora was meant to end up with one of us." Wooyoung chuckled and later made a shocked meme expression. "Then who was her lover?"

"We died..." Yunho mumbles, completely out of his mind, his hands grab on his sky blue hair. Then he snaps into reality and shouts, "We died!"

"Shooting Star, you're joking right? Let me tell you, your jokes aren't impressive. I don't approve of it. A person like me can't be a book character. Here, touch me. I'm warm and alive." Mingi extended his arm to me. When I apologetically shook my head at him, he let out a loud yell. "Ahh! this can't be happening! What are we going to do? Where's the author!? We need to talk!!!"

"Ah...so that's what you meant when you told me you were from the other world. But you read our story from a book...how?" Yeosang mumbles questioningly at me, face drain of color. I'm at loss of word too. To be correct, I didn't read it from the book but my laptop and phone, but I don't want to spend time explaining those electronic devices to them.

My body started to slide down the chair, attempting to disappear from the earth surface. I expect them to freak out but not to this extent. I guess the very next moment I'd be swimming with the giant squid.

A sound of slapping the table shut all of them up. I jolt and sit up properly.

At the head of the table, Hongjoong draws his breath and exhales, his yellow slit eyes stare at me intently, they're no longer filled with perplexity like a moment ago but with determination. "So that was the reason why you have to leave me."