Long Journey || ATEEZ

Not Too Late

"I know how to extract cores from people," Yeosang admitted as his crewmates asked for elaboration. "Made a living out of taking them out of dead people and selling them on the black market. The government – hypocritically, if we're being honest here – thought it was unethical and imprisoned me."

"You—you what...?" Wooyoung asked in shock, having never heard about this side of his friend before.

"My parents were divorced and I lived with my mum," Yeosang shrugged. It had happened all so long ago it barely hurt him at all. "My mum was also a witch, and she worked in a hospital. She was very passionate about helping her patients, and so was always trying to find a way to solve the problem of not having enough energy. That's how she found out about extracting cores." Yeosang sighed. "Her workmates were really against it, even if she extracted them from the dead bodies of criminals, and I didn't really understand back then, because I was so young. One day I came back from kindergarten and our house was on fire, and my mum was nowhere to be seen. So I ran away and stole books from libraries and taught myself how to do Magik. Mum had already explained the process of extracting cores to me, so I decided to make a living out of that once I grew old enough." The witch clapped his hands together dismissively. "But enough about my sob story," he said. "We've gotta help San – that's our main focus."

"But for the core-extraction wouldn't we need a dead body—?" Wooyoung said.

"There is one," Juyeong said softly. "They're not dead yet, but remember Subin?"

The other crewmates nodded in grim understanding, whilst San looked puzzled.

"They were fatally wounded in battle last time," the doctor explained slowly to San. "I concluded that they wouldn't be able to recover, and they gave us permission to...err...put them down, let's say. We haven't had the heart to do so yet, which is probably crueller of us, if we're being honest."

"But no..." San whispered, shaking his head slightly. "I wouldn't—couldn't do that to someone, even if they're going to die. Using someone's life for my benefit? It doesn't sound right."

"But it's the only thing we can do, San," Juyeong said, almost pleadingly as he stared at the demon with soft, deep brown eyes. "I'm sure Subin would be okay with it."

"But still..." San said, frowning.

"If it makes you so uncomfortable, we can go talk to them personally. We would have asked them for permission anyway."

"But I can't—" San gestured uselessly with his arms, before wincing in pain, hissing through his teeth as the pain spiked through him again.

"If you're okay with dealing with the pain for a little while, then Wooyoung or Yeosang or I could carry you over. Subin's only in the next room down."

"I'll take him," Wooyoung offered, already launching out of his seat towards his best friend. "If you're okay with it, of course," he mumbled as an afterthought.

"Of course," San nodded. "It's much better than actually being tortured."

And so, with San's consent, Wooyoung gently manoeuvred San onto his back, and the demon in turn wrapped his arms around the holin's neck. With San's legs secured, Wooyoung began to head out of the infirmary with Yeosang and the doctor following suit.

Carefully, Juyeong pushed open the door in front of him, just metres away from the one they had just exited through. There was a rustle of movement from within as the four slipped in, and closed the door softly behind them.

"I wasn't expecting visitors," said the girl sitting by Subin's bedside in surprise. Hyeji, San recalled – a close friend of Subin's.

"It's important business," Juyeong clarified. "Is Subin awake?"