REWRITING!!!!!! PROMISE (Ateez/seongjoong fic)

Chapter 9: Memories

"Seriously. How did you get that, Hongjoong?" Yunho questioned him a third time.

"I, um, I passed out. I don't remember having it before that. I was following this voice. Everyone dissapeared. I was looking for you for an hour before I heard it," Hongjoong explained.

Yunho's eyebrows scrunched into a look of either disbelief or suspicion. Maybe both.

"Dear, when you left to wake everyone else up, you dissapeared. You've been gone for two days," Seonghwa replied.

Hongjoong's face reddened and contorted into something aweful. Angry and mean, cold and hard, and barely human. It didn't look like him. It wasn't him.

"That can't be possible!" He shouted. The rage came out of no where. It wasn't him. He had given himself away, "Are you hearing yourself? That's fucking crazy! What are you saying to me right now!?"

"Why are you taking that tone with me?" Seonghwa retorted calmly. He figured he must have hurt his head and that's why he was acting this way, and why they couldn't find him until now. He would check him for injury later.

"All that matters is that I got what we needed. Can we get off this fucking island," Hongjoong's voice was bitter and nasty. The words even tasted funny on his own tongue.

"I... guess so," San said. He made eye contact with Seonghwa, trying to communicate on whether he knew what was wrong with him. He didn't.

☆

They were back on the beach before the days end, and had wished a letter to Halateez telling them they were ready to go. Because of this, the ship was there for them when they arrived.

They boarded quickly and made their way back into the dining room where they would have another meeting with Halateez about where they needed to go next.

☆

"I got what you needed. Where do we need to go next?" Hongjoong asked. His tone was still bitter. Not he or anyone else understood why. He was leaned back in his chair. He had one hand on Seonghwa's leg, and the other on the telescope as he pushed it toward the man opposite to him.

"There is a desert, just East of here. It should be a days' journey out." Halajoong retorted lightly and reached for the telescope, "In that desert is a mansion. You will need to trade that telescope for a map that will lead you in the right direction."

"Sounds easy enough, right gang?" Wooyoung stated, and everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Aht, not so fast. You'll also need to gamble the guard for it. If I remember correctly, he loves poker," Halahwa added.

"Looks like a job for me and Wooyoung," San stated.

"Yeah, me and him used to play all the time back at the Warehouse!" Wooyoung added.

"Well, that settles it then. We leave for the dessert tomorrow afternoon, dock by late night, and are back out of there by the time the sun rises again," Hongjoong breathed. This was his first time adding to the conversation since he started it, which was out of character for him.

Hongjoong squeezed Seonghwa's thigh before standing from his seat, signaling that the meeting was over. The rest of the group stood from their seats as well. When Seonghwa stood, he grabbed Hongjoongs hand. He shot him a look that said 'we need to talk' and pulled him away. He smiled at everyone else before leaving the room, while Hongjoong had a clueless and indifferent expression on his face.