Answer ||| Ateez

52

"Hongjoong, did you get that order in?" Mingi yelled from his office.

"Yes! Two hours ago!" The older shouted, then poked his head around the corner a few seconds later. "Did everything go through?"

Mingi pulled up the appropriate screen on his computer and quickly scanned the form. Then he hummed and nodded. "It did. Perfect."

Hongjoong's lips tilted in a crooked smile and he walked forward. Mingi pushed himself away from the desk so that the older could sit on his lap. "Does this mean we are done for today?" Hongjoong asked while teasing the hair on Mingi's neck.

"I suppose."

"Good." Hongjoong leaned forward to press a light kiss to Mingi's lips. "Hwa and Youngie have dinner ready in the main house."

Mingi perked up at those words and jumped up, looping his arms around and under Hongjoong to cradle him next to his chest. This made the older tilt his head back and laugh before holding onto Mingi's neck.

They walked together through their small home and into the main courtyard, which was filled with flowers, shrubs, and a beautiful fountain in the center.

Four homes were situated on each side of the courtyard, each with an iron, arched entryway layered with creeping vines.

It was a perfect setup, one that had taken months of planning and financing, but the team had been more than happy to do it.

Once they had taken the time to heal and recover, everyone took the time to branch out into the city to try and figure out how it was holding up with Mercer and The Pack gone.

What they found was an entirely new society.

Most of the people were still celebrating on the streets, happy that they didn't have to pay rent or extra taxes or fear for losing their lives.

Stores were flourishing again now that the owners didn't have to hide their goods or bow down to Mercer.

Everything was better. Happier. Fuller.

And it stayed that way too, for about a year or so. And then the crime rate started to rise once more.

At that time, Yeosang was busy surveilling the city to keep an eye on things while everyone else was doing what they could to help clean up any left behind messes. They weren't making themselves known to the public only because they didn't want to be accused of trying to take over.

The public needed to decide who was going to lead them and help repair everything.

Thankfully, as time passed, a leader was elected and the city plus all the surrounding areas were able to return to some semblance of normalcy.

Seonghwa made a comment one day about how he had nearly forgotten there was a world outside of their city. His father had been so hell bent on gaining control over everything he could, starting with the immediate area and stretching out to a few cities a few hours away.

Trade was steadily rebuilt, along with highways, partnerships, and everything needed for them to reintroduce themselves to other forces in the world.

One thing they ended up learning as this happened was that Mercer had set up Pack check points to limit anything getting into his predetermined zones. He had truly cut them off from everything so he could have his own section of his 'perfect' world.

Hongjoong and his team handled taking out the check points as secretly as possible, turning into a vigilante group determined to do the right thing.

When they were confident in what they had accomplished, they started to slowly emerge into society again.

Now, five years after Mercer had been defeated, Yeosang worked with the head of a large technology company. They employed his expertise to help invent new systems used for all types of surveillance, security, and anything else that may be needed.