Rebirth; A New Age || seongjoong || ATEEZ

Chapter 6 : The Boss

Seonghwa had been told that there was a good chance he would never meet the man with the brains behind the whole base. He had actually been told that many times by many different people. Whether it was the woman who cooked the meals and would sit next to him when his friends were busy with other things, or if it were some of the children that constantly asked for stories about the outside.

The children weren't allowed outside. They were cooped up like chickens indoors the base at all times - except when it was time to start growing crops again in the spring and were allowed to help out in the back under parental supervision. Seonghwa at first thought that too was overkill, the whole backside of the building was fenced off just like the front was, but after he saw how sometimes the dead would walk right up to the fence and reach through with their rotten arms and try to chew away at the metal, he no longer thought it was overkill.

He remembered what Jongho and San had said a long time ago, back when they first brought them to the base. They had said Seonghwa would probably never see the man himself, but would also enjoy their interaction if he did. Seonghwa couldn't deny and say that he was curious.

By nature, he was an insanely curious man and he liked to know everything about everything. It seemed Yeosang and Mingi were the only ones that really were ever in contact with the boss, and even San and Jongho rarely ever saw him even though they were major influencers on how the place worked. Seonghwa thought it was weird and would've expected the brains behind the whole thing to be more public.

Maybe the man was old and weak and had troubles moving around like some of the elders but was still sharp enough to run the place. That would make sense, Seonghwa could understand that, and it would make sense to have the younger and more capable people do all the dirty and manual labor. But there was also a part of him that wondered if maybe the boss just hated publicity and was actually constantly around them but no one knew about it since no one really knew what he looked like.

He had lost count of the days, and the only indicator of time he really relied on was the changing seasons. It was like clockwork, some days were longer and some were shorter. Some were burning hot and then when the snow rolled in, there weren't enough blankets to keep them warm. It always boggled his mind that the summers were so hot and the winters so cold. It truly was terrible.

Had it been one year or two? He wasn't entirely sure how many days he had been there for. Everything blended together more than it should've.

But one thing was for sure. Each day that passed, he grew more and more curious as to who the man was behind the locked door.

He had even seen the locked door in question. He had seen the wooden door, the sticky note on the outside that said 'do not disturb' in bolded letters. It was on the second floor, and that was the first time he had ever been on that floor, and the only reason he was there was that he was supposed to deliver a status report to said room. It would either be San or Jongho who would do it, or on occasion Mingi or Yeosang if they ever joined them, but San had twisted his ankle terribly when he was caught off guard on their latest mission and was told to sit down and rest it for the time being.

Seonghwa thought he was finally going to be able to meet the man, was quite excited too, but when he knocked on the door, he was met with Mingi's tired face instead who accepted the report and thanked him before closing the door. He hadn't even been able to see the inside of the room because Mingi was blocking it with both his body and barely even opening the door.

He then returned down to his assigned room and changed out of his clothes, washed his hands clean of the dirt and mud because it had conveniently rained when they went out earlier that day, and then took a nap to sleep off the disappointment.