Kintsugi // ATEEZ [Ishihara Sequel] ✔

32 Faded

The queen watches the island getting smaller and smaller as they tread the bridge carefully, this time even more alert as they listen for any sounds to indicate whether the sea monster might still be nearby. Even though they are walking side by side, she lags slightly as she feels lightheaded, the fatigue finally taking over her and she shakes her head a few times when she sees that the colours around her seem to fade again.

When they arrive at the gap in the bridge, Wooyoung looks over the edge, trying to see any changes in the water current to see if the monster is still waiting to catch them again. He crouches next to the edge, squinting at the sea down below as he assesses the situation. He presses his lips together, staying quiet for a few minutes before he nods, deciding that they can take the leap of faith for one last time.

As he turns around, his eyebrows furrow as he sees Akira against the railing, palms over her eyes as she rubs them before shaking her head.

"Are you... okay?" he utters as he goes over to her.

"I'm fine," she replies, giving a weak smile as she stands up. "I think I'm just tired because we haven't had anything to eat." She chuckles, "We spent so much energy just to go back like this now."

"We'll find another way," he says, determined. Even though he wants to ask more because he knows that she's not telling him the entire truth, he puts it off because he doesn't want to push her. Now they have to risk their lives again jumping over the gap... and he wants to only think about that now. "You can go first, so in case the monster is awake again, I know I can trust you to shoot it down for me," he tries to joke, but she only smiles for a fleeting moment before turning to the gap.

She is already calculating the distance between the edge of the broken bridge and the other, ready to make the jump. This time around, she's slightly slowed down because her body feels like it has been stretched to its limit. She decides to jump anyway since they barely have any time to spare, making a mental note not to grab to hold herself with her bandaged left hand.

She backs up, ignoring the fact that her eyes are puffy and that her focus is slightly skewed due to the fact that she's starting to see only black and white again. It's only for a few milliseconds; like a flicker when a light bulb switches on or the tingling feeling when something brushes against your skin. She doesn't want to think about it but it seems to become more frequent now; the day it started was the day they were attacked as they paid a visit to the residential area.

She can't bear to think what it means when she's losing her ability to see her colours.

Is it because I might lose him?

A sign?

Stop thinking about something ridiculous, Akira.

You're not losing him.

You're saving him, and all will be fine.

She launches herself off the platform as soon as she darts past Wooyoung, but she gets distracted mid-air as her world completely turns black and white again that her body slams against the platform on the other side. She groans and closes her eyes in pain, her ears catching the sound of Wooyoung's voice asking whether she's alright. Luckily, she has managed to land on the other side without having to hold on to anything, even though her miscalculation causes her body to skid across the platform.

Slowly, she opens her eyes in fear of losing the colours around her again, but silently heaves a sigh of relief as everything is as it is. Maybe it was simply her being paranoid mid-jump, or like before, it was only a flicker of a scene where the colours were gone once again. She puts up a hand, beckoning for him to jump next as she watches the sky darkening.