Long Journey || ATEEZ

An Ambitious Little Girl, Lost To Time Forever

The deck of the ATINY was hectic as the crew hurriedly pulled ropes, opened the sails, and people rushed about carrying various items of importance to their assigned places. Hongjoong had taken up the helm, the rest of ATEEZ were down in the infirmary, having their wounds checked out. For the most part, none of them were worse for wear – at most their injuries consisted of black-eyes, swollen lips, and a heck of a lot of bruises and minor cuts. Nothing the medic, Juyeong, couldn't patch up with his healing Magik.

After the doctor had finished up with the others, it was just Yunho and Mingi left in the infirmary now. Yunho had been all patched up, his worst injury a sprained wrist, and all of Mingi's minor injuries had been tended to.

The big problem was his eye.

"Lie on the table for me, will you, chick?" the doctor said as he pulled out various pieces of equipment he believed he would need.

Mingi obliged, and laid down on the singular bed in the infirmary, lined with white sheets. Yunho watched with concern from his perch in the far corner of the room.

The medic leaned over the fairy, and gently began to remove the bloodied cloth Seonghwa had hurriedly wrapped around the fairy's eye earlier. Mingi winced, biting his lip to stop himself from crying out in pain.

Juyeong sucked in harshly when he looked at the bloodied mess that had been Mingi's eye.

"How....how bad is it, Doctor?" Mingi asked, his voice croaky.

"There doesn't seem to be any sign of infection, thankfully," said the medic slowly. "But your eye, it's...." The doctor sighed. "I don't think you'll be able to see out of it anymore."

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Yunho burst out, his eyes full of anguish. "With your healing Magik – anything!"

"I'm afraid not," the doctor sighed. "Healing Magik doesn't work in the way everybody thinks. I can only speed up the process of the body's natural healing mechanisms at the expense of my own energy; there's no healing what isn't there."

"But—!"

"The best I can do is remove what's left of your eye, get your wound cleaned up and wrap it all up until the rest of it can heal. I'm sorry," he said to Mingi.

"It's fine," the fairy managed, trying to get up. Juyeong tutted and fussed over him, forcing him to lie back down.

"I'll get the anaesthetic ready," the doctor said, and set about to doing his work.

* * *

A painstakingly long thirty minutes later, Mingi had been taken care of as well, and the two tallest of ATEEZ made their way onto the deck. The ATINY had long since set sail, and the deck had settled down. Everyone had set about to their own business – either doing their duties or simply just relaxing, and sea breeze blew in their faces as the noises of seagulls from above greeted them.

Yunho and Mingi settled at the front end of the ship, overlooking the vast and seemingly never-ending stretch of deep blue. The sun shimmered on the surface of the water, twinkling and sparkling benignly as if nothing had ever happened.

Tilina, and all of the memories that had come with it, had long since disappeared beneath the horizon, and the ATINY was the only thing in sight for miles.

"Are you alright?" Yunho asked in a hollow tone as the two stared at the gentle, shimmering ocean.

"I'm fine," Mingi said, fidgeting with his hands.

"Are you sure?"

Mingi nodded firmly.

"You have no idea how worried I was when I noticed you'd just...disappeared." Yunho sighed, the concern and the worry and the pain not leaving his eyes. "Just...stick close to me next time we're in a fight, okay?"