Fireworks | ATEEZ story

18 - Yeosang

To my beloved father,

Father, I'm walking towards the 'Strictland' where I may not be able to come back.

Now that I'm walking on a bumpy road after always having walked on a beautiful and straight road, but I still feel good.

That is because I'm with my friends and I'm walking towards a place I've decided on my own.

Everyone says this is a new world but somehow, I'm familiar with the scenery here.

The city I faced after coming down from the woods,

I could only see people who were running without taking a single look at the sky, as if they were being chased,

people who took the escalators like products being placed on machines, people who removed unnecessary smiles and only talked about their needs, and people who are only looking at small machines, having forgotten how to see each other face to face.

I thought that maybe this place is not a new world, but that I'm just taking a microscopic look at the world I was living in.

Father, I know you were shocked to see me singing and dancing with these friends.

But I really wanted to escape the world I've lived in, the world I've been trapped in.

I love my parents so much, but I have never been happy in your world.

When we were kicked out of the garage that we have been using as our hideout and had to be separated, what was more painful to me was that my father was the one who drove us out.

I became the person who took happiness away from the friends who have willingly invited me to their world. I regretted that if they haven't met me from the beginning, this situation wouldn't have happened.

I resented you, father.

Father, thus I will not return to the world you have created.

It's not that I don't love you but that I don't want to blame you anymore.

Kyung-Hu raised her eyebrows at Yeosang, asking if the hand-me-down armour was a perfect fit for his skinny person.

Yeosang nodded and thanked her politely. "Thank you, Kyung-Hu. It fits fine on me. I think I can move with this much clothing on...I'll manage."

Judging with how much time they have met these past few days, it's safe to say that the boys mastered the art of communicating through facial expressions and mannerisms. Since they have just finished a full-on class about KSL, they have tried to deduce what Kyung-Hu was feeling whenever they couldn't understand her hands. By now, they can understand each other without a single exchange. It was both convenient for her and the boys.

Before the big night, the group all huddled together in the common room to have another meeting, the host this time was none other than Marcelo Grimes. Most of assembly comprised of warnings and tips on stealth. Since the Grimes siblings have lived under Strictland for three years, their intel was perfect and calculated. No wonder they have survived this long, they both weren't stubborn when it comes to staying alive.

Exposing the Giants' weaknesses as well as their scheduled individual missions were essential when they wanted to avoid them. Infiltrating during the time most people are asleep was the best hour to dominate. The citizens, as well as the Clerics, had curfew by eleven. The children, however, eight. The Giants...they're robots. Do they really need sleep? Yeosang thought.

"But what about work that required late hours?" Yeosang once asked.

Mars smirked and winked at Yeosang. "I said most didn't I?"