WHO ARE YOU?|ATEEZ FANFIC (In Editing Progress)

Chapter 22|Dangerous dinner

“They should be here by now.” San, who was standing at the window with his arms crossed, tensely observing the foggy surroundings outside, nodded when he heard Yeosang whisper. The two stood at the window while the rest of the group had made themselves comfortable on the couch. Wooyoung was sitting on the couch with Hongjoong and Jongho and had heard Yeosang whispering, turned to him and hesitated.

“Maybe they’re just late.” He said, which made Yeosang smile slightly in disbelief. He turned around and shook his head at Wooyoung.

“What could stop them?” he asked.

“Do you think they forgot an appointment?” Wooyoung shook his head and shrugged cluelessly.

“I doubt that.” He then replied, stood up and walked around the couch to join San and Yeosang by the window. For a moment, San looked away from the window to look at Wooyoung, who stopped his steps right next to him and looked outside. There was nervousness in his eyes as he looked around the foggy surroundings, but apart from the pine trees and thick fog, he couldn’t see anything. Frustrated, Wooyoung sighed and crossed his arms.

“It almost looks like the Halateez are not coming.” He said. Yunho, who was pacing nervously around the room and kept looking through the living room door towards the entrance as if the Halateez were about to come through the door at any moment, shook his head in disbelief at Wooyoung’s words.

“It’s definitely one of their games again.” He said and the three boys at the window turned to him with questioning faces.

“A game?” Wooyoung asked somewhat skeptically and Yunho nodded.

“That’s obvious.” He walked towards the three boys to stand between San and Wooyoung and look out the window himself. He drummed his fingers nervously on the windowsill while he let his gaze slide over the trees hidden in the fog. Their silhouettes in the dark resembled those of people and that made Yunho even more nervous. Even if the Halateez were outside, they probably wouldn’t be able to see them because of all the fog covering them.

“What do you mean?” Yeosang asked and looked skeptically at Yunho, who just shrugged his shoulders and turned around in frustration.

“They’ve been sending us letters since we arrived here to scare us and show us all sorts of scary things like the portrait in the chamber. Then they tell us they’re coming here in two hours, only to not even make it on time?” He looked at the three boys, who still didn’t seem to fully understand what Yunho was getting at. San and Wooyoungs exchanged questioning glances, while Yeosang just eyed the older one with furrowed eyebrows. Yunho sighed and frowned.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like they’re playing with us again.” He then said and San frowned skeptically.

“You think the Halateez are tricking us and aren’t actually coming?” he asked confused and Yunho nodded in agreement.

“It makes sense. They were fooling us from day one, and why else would they be almost an hour late?” He pointed to the clock that hung on the wall above the living room door. It was already almost ten o’clock. They had received the letter at around seven o’clock, when the Halateez rang the bell and handed it to them, and in the letter it was said they’d come in two hours, which was why they had rushed to find the secret door. Two hours wasn’t that much time. With luck and Jongho’s excellent eyes, they had found the door after the first thirty minutes, but according to the letter, the Halateez should have arrived around nine anyway. Yunho couldn’t think of any other reason why they would be late, unless it was just another trick. He could well imagine that the letter, the search for the door and the waiting for the Halateez were all just a joke, a distraction so that the Halateez could hatch some kind of plan against the boys in the meantime.