Young and Wild || seongjoong || ATEEZ

Chapter Six : In The Shadows

                             Chapter warnings: minor violence, minor gore, and minor stalking

An inanimate object had never felt so daunting before.

An inanimate object had never held a presence quite like this one before. It never had hands that could grab onto anything and choke them until they fell to the floor and were forced to give up. There had never been a looming presence or even a sense that it was growing further and further away even as one stayed stationary in front of it.

Creeping backward inch by inch, the distance grew with each inhale and with each passing thought.

It was as if the world grew darker as well, despite the night that had overcome it and wrapped it in its cool embrace for many hours, this was a different kind of dark.

It was the kind of dark that came with overthinking. The kind of pressure and doubt that followed after self-deprecation.

With each second of delay, each second of hesitation- the world only grew darker and darker as an inanimate object had somehow grown legs and moved just out of reach.

A door.

Seonghwa stood in front of a door, lanterns hanging on each side of the wooden door as he stood just out of reach from the handle. He was frozen, standing in the soft dirt outside the room as a bird crowed and flew by him, the sound of it hardly audible with the way his heart was beating.

His hands were clenched up as his eyes blurred with the light- truly wondering if what he was trying to do was a good idea or not- if it would simply make things even worse for him and the crew. He could hear warning signals sounding and blaring in his mind, his brain telling him that it was a bad idea and that he should return to his own room for the night and forget about the whole thing.

But at the same time, Seonghwa could not deny the feeling deep within him that would not let him walk away.

It was in the middle of the night, there was a reason he was standing out in the open instead of in his own bed like he was supposed to. There was a reason he had passed a certain blonde pirate on his way over to this door- and there was a reason Yeosang had told him that the door was unlocked if he wished to enter.

Yeosang and his unspoken knowledge- it was beginning to drive Seonghwa mad how the blonde pirate seemed to know everything and anything about everyone and knew exactly what they were thinking down to the last insecure thought. Seonghwa had read about people who claimed to be able to read minds, that they were given a gift and were able to look into someone's thoughts and become a part of their conscience. Seonghwa hoped Yeosang was not like those people- his mind was a place he didn't want anyone to see- not even himself anymore.

The door remained horrifying in a way Seonghwa would never guess a door would be.

A great divide perhaps, the only barrier standing between him and the person on the other side.

His jaw tightened as his hand reached up to touch the door's handle- instant electricity shocking him at the first contact.