Black & Silver // ATEEZ

Way Back Home

Yunho

It was down to the six of us. Me, Seonghwa-Hyung, Mingi, Yeosang, Byeol, and Min. I sat forward, leaning my elbows on my knees and lacing my fingers together as we rocked slightly on the moving metro.

"Okay, there is exactly fifty-five minutes until we reach." Yeosang said, looking at his phone. He, Mingi, and Min were standing in front of me, Seonghwa-Hyung, and Byeol (we were seated).

"Can we switch spots halfway though?" Mingi asked, looking at me hopefully.

"Mingi, not the time." Yeosang shook his head, sighing. Nonetheless, I snuck a small smile to my housemate, nodding silently. He mirrored the smile to me.

"So what's our plan?" Min asked. She looked ready to punch someone, even though her gold-rimmed circular glasses and chubby cheeks gave her a soft look.

"How about," Yeosang said, shifting on his feet as the gears in his brain turned. "Maybe Seonghwa-Hyung and Mingi could team up, and I'd go with Yunho, and we split up to cover more ground and find our friends quicker."

"And what about us?" Byeol asked, referring to herself and Min.

"We do need a backup team. Once we find our friends, we don't know what state they could be in. Or, if we accidentally get caught, and we need to make a quick getaway—"

"Are you insane?" Min tilted her head with a confused look. She cleared her throat, shaking her head a little. "Sorry, Yeosang, but we're not just going to be 'backup.' Don't get me wrong, I hear you, but what would Byeol and I even do? Stand there behind a bush? Call the ambulance and wait and find all eight of you coming out unharmed?"

"But..." Yeosang looked around us but words seemed to evade him.

"Yeosang, she's right." Seonghwa-Hyung said from beside me. Byeol was staring up at him with her head resting sideways on her lap, her eyes tired.

"Byeol and Min can help a lot." Seonghwa-Hyung continued. "Min is super strong, though she doesn't look like it." Min shot him a glare, but he just smiled. "And Byeol can be really quiet, like she is right now." At this, Byeol tried to hide her slight smile by burying her face in her lap. Hyung looked at her with... something in his eyes. I couldn't figure it out.

"See, I think you're right about the groups," Min said, nodding at Yeosang. Byeol sat up, listening. "But I think it should be mixed a little differently, and for different reasons. We should have a decoy— we don't know who these people are and what they're like. Bait almost always works, at least as a temporary distraction."

"Mingi and I should be the decoy." I said, playing with my necklace. I always kept it on to remind myself of my responsibility, even though it felt really heavy sometimes. Fidgeting with it became a habit for deep thought. "We could pretend to be looking for Jongho and walk straight in."

Fear flashed through Mingi's eyes for a second, but it was gone as soon as it appeared.

"Yeah... Yeah, that would make sense." Mingi said, nodding.

We had to do it for our friends.

"Great. The rest of us could try to find the missing people. What do you guys remember about the house?" Min asked.

I sat back, reaching deep into my memory in hopes that I'd find something useful.

"There was a back door, remember?" Mingi said, shoving his hands in his jacket pocket. "We returned the lady's kitten through there once."

"Right," I said, nodding my head. "We should go first because it'd be too obvious if we walked right through the front door."

"And then maybe once you both get caught, we could follow." Byeol said, catching on. I nodded.