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

Chapter 23|Password please

The next time Wooyoung opened his eyes, he felt a familiar buzzing and pounding in his head that pounded against his skull so hard that he felt like his head might explode. He couldn't keep his eyes open for long. His eyelids were simply too weak and the light, the source of which was not entirely clear to Wooyoung, blinded him even more. Humming quietly, he squeezed his eyes shut and rolled around on the soft ground he was lying on.

What's going on?

He thought in amazement and carefully felt around his surroundings with his hands. Whatever he was lying on, its surface was smooth and easy to press in, like fabric or leather. It smelled strange. Dust in the air tickled Wooyoung's nose and he grimaced as he suddenly sneezed and sat upright with a jerk, his eyes wide open and his arm in front of his face. He looked straight ahead at a wooden pallet that was leaning against a metal wall. In front of it was a couch made of worn brown leather, on which Wooyoung was now sitting. When he felt dizzy from suddenly standing up, he put his right arm around the back of the couch for support and then rubbed his temple with his fingers. With his eyes closed again, he hummed quietly.

"Mmmh... My head..." He murmured.

"Are you awake?" When Wooyoung suddenly heard a voice, he was startled, opened his eyes wide again and turned in the direction from which the voice had come. Only now did he notice how big the room he was in was. It looked like a kind of small warehouse or a really big garage, in which all kinds of odds and ends, boxes and old furniture were stored, stacked in every nook and cranny, and across from Wooyoung, on the other side of the room by a large metal door that was locked with chains, stood a person, with his back turned to Wooyoung and silently looking out through the door slot. Wooyoung frowned hesitantly. He knew that mint-colored hair.

"Y... Yeosang?" He asked and the person at the door nodded without saying anything. Wooyoung paused and looked away. When his gaze fell on the person opposite the couch, he opened his eyes in horror and gasped.

"Guys?!" Two more couches were there, so that the three couches together formed a U, and on these two couches four of his friends were sitting, unconscious, leaning against each other. Hongjoong and Yunho sat motionless on the couch opposite Wooyoung, and on the couch between them, San sat in a corner and Seonghwa next to him, half lying on San's lap. Wooyoung got up worriedly to go and check on his friends when he suddenly felt something at his feet. Startled, he lowered his gaze, only to see Jongho lying on a shabby mattress, turned on his right side and also appearing to be unconscious. Worried, Wooyoung crouched down and took a close look at Jongho to see what was wrong, then his gaze wandered from Jongho's face down to his leg, which was wrapped in a splint from thigh to foot, wrapped in bandages and with a dried blood stain on the outside of his thigh. When he saw that, Wooyoung suddenly remembered what had happened. They had been in the Manson. All eight of them. He vaguely remembered how they had sat at the same table with the Halateez and how they had fled to the small room and how Jongho had been injured.
What had happened after that?

"Are you ok?" Wooyoung heard Yeosang's voice again and he looked away from Jongho. Yeosang had finally turned to Wooyoung and was looking at him carefully. Wooyoung hesitated.

"I... think so." He answered in a hoarse voice and cleared his throat before looking back at Jongho and seeing someone else lying on the musty mattress behind him. Mingi! The tall black-haired man with blue streaks in his hair was lying with his back to Wooyoung and was dozing. Shaking his head, Wooyoung looked back at Yeosang, who had crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked worried.

"What happened?" Wooyoung asked.

"Why aren't they waking up?" Yeosang shook his head, pushed himself away from the metal door he was leaning against and took a few steps towards the younger one, who carefully got up from the floor and sat back down on the couch.

"They'll wake up. You did too." He said and went over to Wooyoung. When he got to him, he carefully walked past Jongho on the mattress and sat down next to Wooyoung, where he turned towards him, leaned forward slightly and reached out his hand to his face. Wooyoung sat quietly. He closed his eyes slightly tensely as Yeosang carefully held his hand against his forehead and rested there for a moment, then he put it against Wooyoung's neck and felt.

"You don't seem to have a fever." He said with a relieved undertone in his voice and Wooyoung paused.

"Did you expect that?" He asked and Yeosang nodded before looking at Jongho with worried eyes.

"I think the stress of the last few days and the gunshot wound have made him sick. He's all warm and shaky." Confused, Wooyoung looked down at the youngest of the group and only now did he notice the thick drops of sweat on Jongho's forehead that were soaking his black hair. He was shaking from head to toe, so Yeosang took a blanket that was lying on the floor next to him at Jongho's feet and laid it over the sickly boy.

"Do you think the wound is infected?" Wooyoung asked and Yeosang shrugged his shoulders as he pushed the blanket neatly under Jongho's body until he looked like a wrapped up wrap.

"I didn't check. This strange bandage on his leg won't open." Wooyoung nodded.

"I don't understand where he got it from. A splint and all that bandage were completely unnecessary for the wound he has. A bandage around his thigh would have been enough." Yeosang shrugged ignorantly.

"Maybe it was whoever brought us here." Wooyoung nodded slightly and lowered his gaze, when his eyes suddenly fell on a strange black spot on his wrist.

"Hm?" Frowning, he raised his hand and turned his forearm slightly so he could take a closer look at the strange mark. It was ink, in the shape of numbers, scribbled on his wrist with a permanent marker or a felt-tip pen.

"What...?" he said confusedly and Yeosang just nodded.

"I was wondering that too." He replied, stretching out his arm and showing Wooyoung the writing scribbled on his wrist. Wooyoung frowned in confusion.

"What's that?" he asked. Not sure, Yeosang shook his head and leaned back on the couch in frustration.

"No idea. But we all have that." He said before getting up from the couch in frustration and walking back to the metal door. Wooyoung looked after him briefly before looking back at his sleeping friends. He had to wake them up. He carefully stood up and took a big step over Jongho, putting his foot between him and Mingi, and when he was standing safely, he took another big step until he was standing on the other side of the wide mattress directly in front of Hongjoong and Yunho. Leaning against the backrest, with his head resting on Yunho's shoulder, Hongjoong sat there motionless, his eyes closed and his hands weakly on his lap. Wooyoung carefully bent down slightly and gently grabbed the older boy by the shoulders before shaking him slightly.

"Hyung." He spoke to the unconscious boy, but he didn't react. Wooyoung shook him again, only this time a little harder, so that the sleeping boy's head hung forward like a doll's and rested on Wooyoung's arm.

"Hyung, wake up!" he demanded, but again Hongjoong didn't move.

"I've already tried that, Wooyoung." Yeosang said, watching what was happening by the couch and sighing in frustration.

"He won't wake up like that."

"But why not? What's with him?" Fear for the well-being of his friends was in Wooyoung's voice as he carefully leaned Hongjoong back against Yunho and put his hand on his forehead.

"He doesn't have a fever and doesn't seem to be injured." Yeosang nodded.

"He seems to be just as knocked out as we were." Wooyoung sighed worriedly and gently held Hongjoong's hand in his.

"But why? What happened?" He looked over at Yeosang, who had turned away from Wooyoung again and was looking out through the doorway again. Wooyoung hesitantly got up from his crouched position, let go of Hongjoong's hands and walked slowly over to Yeosang. He stood next to him and looked at him questioningly.

"Is there anything out there?" He asked, but Yeosang just shook his head slightly.

"I thought I heard something earlier." He said and looked around outside again. Through the crack in the door he could see a long street leading away from them and small gray houses that looked like run-down apartment blocks. The windows were dirty, broken or covered with newspapers and lonely clotheslines stretched out between the houses. The occasional T-shirt or sheet hung on the line, blowing in the gentle wind, but otherwise nothing was moving in the empty street.

"Where are we?" Wooyoung continued to ask and Yeosang just shrugged.

"I have absolutely no idea. Definitely not in the pine forest anymore." He took a step to the side so that Wooyoung could also take a look at the dead streets. The younger one stepped curiously to the crack in the door and looked out. The bright light of the sun blinded him slightly. It seemed to be the morning sun, which made Wooyoung frown questioningly.

"How long did we sleep?" He looked questioningly at Yeosang, who just shrugged his shoulders cluelessly.

"I don't even know exactly why we slept. All I remember is that we entered this strange, dark basement." Wooyoung nodded. He remembered the basement. It had smelled strange down there and he also remembered how Hongjoong had suddenly lost consciousness. He had also suddenly felt dizzy.

"Could it be..." He mumbled, but was interrupted when he suddenly heard a humming sound from the couch and quickly turned around. When he saw that Yunho had opened his eyes and was rubbing his head, humming, his eyes lit up with joy.

"Yunho!" He said excitedly and ran towards Yunho. Yunho pulled a face and pouted.

"Fuck... My head hurts..." He mumbled. When Wooyoung reached him, Yunho opened his eyes again and looked at the younger one in surprise.

"What happend...?" he asked and Wooyoung shook his head.

"I don't know, but I'm glad you're awake!"

"What's all this chatter about..." Wooyoung now heard Mingi's rough voice behind him on the mattress. He turned around and saw Mingi lay on his back, groaning, and bumping his arm into Jongho, who hummed quietly and curled up like an embryo, at least as far as his tightly wrapped leg allowed.

"My head is pounding..." San also opened his eyes carefully and rubbed his eyes exhaustedly. Smiling happily, Wooyoung walked around the mattress to San and crouched down in front of him so he could look at him.

"Are you okay?" He asked and the blonde nodded slightly. He frowned when he noticed the eldest sleeping on his lap, but said nothing and then looked at Wooyoung with questioning eyes.

"Do we have water?" Wooyoung hesitated.

"Um, I don't know-"

"Yes!" Yeosang interjected and ran from the metal door to a box that was standing in a corner near the door and was filled to the top with full water bottles. He took a few out and went back to the couches, where his friends were slowly but surely all waking up from their slumber. Seonghwa also opened his eyes and raised them from San's lap with a throbbing headache. The blonde carefully helped him to stand up and then looked at him worriedly.

"Everything okay, Hyung?" he asked and Seonghwa just nodded weakly.

"I just have a headache." He grumbled, then Yeosang came over with the water bottles and handed them out to his friends.

"Drinking helps with headaches." Confused and a little skeptical, Seonghwa looked at the water bottle that Yeosang pressed into his hand.

"Where did you get that from?" he asked. Yeosang gave San and Wooyoung the last two bottles and then pointed to the box from which he had taken the bottle.

"Over there. I discovered the box earlier when I woke up." Hongjoong, who had finally woken up too, looked around in frustration and roughly unscrewed the cap of the water bottle before putting it to his mouth and taking a sip.

"I'm going crazy." He grumbled annoyed as he unscrewed the cap of the bottle and shook his head in frustration. The seven boys looked at him in confusion as he put the bottle next to him on the couch and carefully stood up on slightly wobbly legs and walked past the mattress to get an overview of their location.

"Where the hell are we?" He asked in frustration and Yeosang and Wooyoung, who had both been awake the longest, just shrugged their shoulders uncertainly.

"Not in the Manson basement anymore, anyway." Mingi grumbled, who didn't even bother to sit up, but just remained flat on his back and stared grimly at the ceiling. He held the bottle that Yeosang had given him firmly in his hands on his stomach and drummed his fingers lightly against the plastic.

"How did we get here?" Seonghwa asked, not feeling comfortable with the thought that someone else could have brought them here.

"I'm guessing our creepy robo twins brought us here." Jongho answered and San nodded slightly.

"I think so too. Before I passed out, someone came into the basement." Wooyoung tilted his head questioningly to the side.

"Really?" San nodded.

"You were already out of it. I'm sure it was the Halateez." A bad feeling spread in Wooyoung's stomach. The Halateez had brought them here? That made no sense to him. If they had caught the boys, why were they even still alive?

"I don't understand." He said and got up from his crouching position to sit back down on the couch he woke up on. He scratched the back of his head, pondering.

"Why would they take us here, if they had the chance to get rid of all of us at once?" Cluelessly, the boys exchanged questioning glances and shrugged their shoulders. How would they know? The Halateez always tricked them. For weeks they had them running from them, sending them to dark and creepy places, manipulating their minds and almost killing them, but letting them save each other too. It felt almost impossible to really grasp what their goal was, but one thing was clear. They were playing a game with them, a gamey that the boys didn't like at all.

"That means we've walked into a trap again, am I right?" Jongho asked in frustration and Seonghwa sighed dejectedly before nodding gently.

"Seems like it..." growling, Mingi suddenly sat up on the mattress, his hands clenched into fists, turned around and searched the room until he spotted the large metal door opposite him.

"Is that the exit?" He asked and got up. Yeosang nodded a little hesitantly.

"Yes, but..." Ignoring Yeosang's words, Mingi stomped over to the large metal door with quick steps, grabbed the metal handles of the door with both hands and tried to open it with all his strength, but apart from the rattling of the chains that chained the handles together on the other side of the door, he was unable to do anything. He growled in frustration and continued to shake the door hard as Yeosang sighed dejectedly and ran over to him.

"Mingi, stop it. It's no use." He said and put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. Mingi stopped the angry shaking of the door and took a deep breath. With his eyes lowered, he stared through the narrow door slot at the chain that was chained together by a lock and locked them in this warehouse.

"I tried to open this door several times, but it didn't work." For Yeosang, he exhaled in frustration.

"We're locked in here." Mingi closed his eyes and took a sharp breath through his nose. He hated those words. He had heard them far too often, these or similar words that told him he had no control. He and his friends were nothing but toys of the Halateez and they had managed to lock them in their stupid toy box. Frustrated, he opened his eyes again, let go of the handles of the door, but didn't move away from it without giving it another firm kick. Yeosang flinched slightly when Mingi kicked the metal with full force and then turned away, growling angrily.

"Is there another door?" He asked, looking around frantically. There had to be a back door in a building like this, but he couldn't see anything except for the junk lying around everywhere. Yeosang hadn't found another door since he first woke up, and that had been almost an hour ago. After opening his eyes and checking on his friends to see if they were okay, he immediately set about finding a way out. The entrance door was unfortunately a disappointment. He had tried to pick the lock with a piece of wire that he had found on the floor, but unfortunately, his talent for picking doors wasn't as great as Hongjoong's. He probably could have done it with the piece of wire. Depressed, the boys were silent for a while after Mingi and Yeosang sat down again. Mingi had sat down between Hongjoong and Yunho and laid his head frustratedly on Yunho's shoulder, where he rested with his eyes closed and let the older boy stroke his black hair tenderly. Not only did Yunho calm Mingi down, but it also relaxed him and he immediately felt much more comfortable in the shitty situation the group was in because he knew he wasn't alone. When Hongjoong, who was constantly opening and closing the lid of his water bottle in frustration to distract himself somehow, could no longer stand the silence, he suddenly addressed the group with a sigh.

"How long do you think we were unconscious?" He asked, but only got questioning, uncertain looks in response. Yeosang shrugged.

"Ask us something easier." He mumbled in frustration and Hongjoong sighed again.

"Take a guess." He insisted. Yeosang just shrugged and ran his hand through his mint-colored hair, which was slightly wavy and sweaty from the heat in the room.

"A few hours, A few days. I don't know, men."

"It must have been at least one night." Wooyoung suddenly said and Hongjoong looked at him questioningly.

"How do you know that?" he asked. Wooyoung pointed to the window through which the sun was shining brightly.

"It was midday when we passed out and when I woke up earlier it was a little darker than it is now. From that I conclude that the sun had just risen." Yeosang nodded in agreement.

"He's right. So it must have been at least a day ago." He confirmed Wooyoung's statement. Hongjoong understood and rubbed his forehead in frustration.

"That means we were in a Sleeping Beauty sleep for about twenty-four hours because the Halateez set a trap for us."

"They must have drugged us with some kind of sleeping gas." Seonghwa interjected and San nodded.

"I thought that something smelled really funny in this basement."

"So it was all a trap?" Yunho asked, putting his hand on his lap, which he had previously used to scratch Mingi's head, causing him to pout. He lifted his head from Yunho's shoulder and sighed at Yunho's question.

"What else did we expect? We were foolish to believe that any of it was real."

"The door was real." Hongjoong interjected and Mingi looked at him in frustration.

"We were just foolish to believe that it would be an exit for us."

"We had hope, Joong." Hongjoong took a deep breath and looked at Seonghwa, who ran his fingers through his black hair and tilted his head back with a sigh. Frustrated, Hongjoong lowered his gaze. Seonghwa was right. They had just had hope. Hope that they could outsmart the Halateez and escape from them, but their mistake was forgetting that those assholes were always three steps ahead of them. If they got out of that warehouse, the Halateez would have a new trap ready for them. When Hongjoong lowered his head in discouragement and his gaze suddenly fell on his wrist, he frowned in surprise at the sight of the black ink on his skin.

"What's the scribble for?" He asked and raised his arm to take a closer look at the writing. Yeosang just sighed.

"I said simple questions, Hyung." He said and leaned against Wooyoung's shoulder in frustration. Confused, Seonghwa furrowed his eyebrows and leaned forward slightly to get a better look at what Hongjoong meant.

"What scribble?" He asked and the younger boy skeptically held out his left arm.

"That one." When Seonghwa saw the black inscription on Hongjoong's arm, he paused and tilted his head to the side with a questioning expression on his face.

"What is that?" He asked, stood up and went over to Hongjoong to take a closer look at the writing. Hongjoong held out his arm and Seonghwa gently took his wrist in his hand. He leaned down a little and looked at the writing with a frown. He couldn't quite decipher it at first glance. From far away it just looked like scribbles, but up close he thought he could make out numbers.

"Zero, seven, one, one." He said thoughtfully and pondered.
"What does that mean?" Hongjoong shrugged his shoulders cluelessly as Wooyoung pulled up the sleeve of his sweater and showed the writing on his arm.

"For me it says two, six, one, one." Seonghwa turned to Wooyoung in surprise, and Yeosang also raised his arm.

"One, five, zero, six. You all have one."

"Huh?" Came confused from Seonghwa, Mingi and Yunho in unison. They looked at their wrists, which San and Jongho did the same and to their surprise they all found a similar inscription with different numbers on their left wrist.

"What the hell." Mingi muttered and rubbed the skin marked with black ink.

Zero, nine, zero, eight? What does that mean?

He thought as San looked up from his wrist.

"Do we all have different numbers?" He asked and the boys nodded slightly.

"It looks like it." Jongho said.

"But what do they mean?" Wooyoung and Yeosang both shrugged ignorantly and looked at the others in confusion. If only they knew. As San looked at the numbers on his wrist and then ran his mind through the others' numbers, an idea suddenly occurred to him. He hesitated and leaned toward Wooyoung and Yeosang.

"What were your numbers again?" He asked and the two boys quickly read their wrists again.

"Two, six, one, one and one, five, zero, six." Wooyoung said, a little confused by San's question.

"Why?" He frowned questioningly, while San hesitated for a moment and pondered hard.

"Wooyoung, your file said your date of birth. Do you still remember that?" San asked. Wooyoung hesitated, a little confused by the sudden question, and then nodded, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yes, of course I still remember that. November twenty-sixth..." he stopped when he suddenly realized what San had meant by the question. He lowered his gaze to his wrist and read the numbers again and sure enough, they weren't just random numbers. The numbers made up his birthday.

"It's my birthday." Wooyoung muttered in surprise and then looked over at Hongjoong, who seemed a little confused.

"Why would someone write our birth dates on our wrists?" He asked when a knock on the metal door made the boys jump in shock.

"What the-" They turned to the large door in shock when they suddenly saw a dark shadow in the door slot, blocking their view of the street. They had visitors. Hongjoong immediately got up from the couch and walked hesitantly towards the door, which San and Yunho did the same to accompany him. The rest of the group stayed seated and watched them nervously. When the three boys got closer and Hongjoong looked more closely, he recognized the empty, lifeless look under the black fedora hat decorated with chains and anger spread through him.

It’s him again.

He carefully took another step closer and clenched his hands into fists.

"What do you fucking want?" He asked, clearly angry. Seonghwa, who had stayed sitting on the couch with the younger ones, slowly stood up and took a few steps forward across the mattress. He saw the Halateez, who was standing in front of the door and was silent, and frowned questioningly.

"Isn't that..." he mumbled. Hongjoong was just about to turn to him to hear what Seonghwa had to say when the Halateez suddenly moved and Hongjoong immediately focused on him again.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" he asked, slightly nervous, and took a step back. San and Yunho stood next to him like two bodyguards and kept a close eye on their gloomy visitor when he raised his arm and suddenly pushed something through the door slot. When it was through, he let go of it and it fell with a dull sound onto the cold concrete floor. Confused, the three boys looked at the small package on the floor. Hongjoong hesitated for a moment before stepping forward and carefully reaching out his arm, which the Halateez allowed, then Hongjoong took the package and immediately backed away from the creepy guest.

"What is it?" Seonghwa asked curiously as Hongjoong himself took a look at the package. They were letters. Small letters tied together with a string, each individually wrapped with thin wire and on the front of which there was a small rotating bar with four fields, the wheels from one to ten. Hongjoong frowned.

"It's letters." He answered the older man and then looked up again at their guest at the door, but no one was there anymore.

"Huh?" He handed Yunho the letters and quickly ran to the door to see where the Halateez had gone. He looked through the slot and looked around carefully, but their gloomy guest had disappeared.

"Where did this bastard go?" Mingi said uncertainly, who had now also got up from the couch and was walking to San and Yunho. Hongjoong just sighed in frustration and turned around.

"He's gone." The boys looked at him in surprise, but he didn't have time to ask himself why and how the Halateez si had suddenly disappeared. He went to Yunho and held out his hand for the letters again.

"Let me see." He murmured and Yunho immediately handed him the bundle of letters. With the letters in his hand, Hongjoong walked back to the couch and San, Yunho and Seonghwa followed him. He sat down and opened the loop that held the string around the letters together and then picked up the colonel to take a closer look at it.

"So?" Yeosang asked a little impatiently.

"Is there anything written on it?" Hongjoong nodded slightly.

"It says 'Top Secret' on the front." He said and then turned the letter over in his hand to look at the back. When he saw the recipient and the sender, he frowned in confusion.

"Hm?" The seven boys looked at him questioningly.

"What's wrong?" Asked Jongho, who was desperately trying to get up from the mattress, which was much more uncomfortable than it looked, but his tightly wrapped leg made things more difficult and so he sat there in frustration. Hongjoong uncertainly took a second letter from the bundle and read the sender and recipient there too before looking up and looking at Seonghwa and San. They looked at him questioningly.

"These are for you." He said suddenly and the two of them twisted their faces in confusion.

"What?" They asked at the same time. Seonghwa stood up and stretched out his arm to take the letters. Hongjoong gave them to him before Seonghwa sat down again and handed San the letter with his name on it. With a questioning expression on his face, San looked closely at the letter and was taken aback when he saw the sender's name.

"Black Pirates?" He looked up at Hongjoong in confusion, who just shrugged his shoulders uncertainly.

"I have no idea what that means." He said, picked up the next letter and checked who it was addressed to.

"Wooyoung." Slightly startled, Wooyoung looked over at Hongjoong, who was also holding out a letter to him, then he stood up uncertainly, stepped over Jongho with one leg and took the letter.

"Are we all getting one?" Yunho asked and Hongjoong nodded slightly.

"It seems like it. Here." He said and then handed Yunho his letter. Yunho took the letter somewhat hesitantly and looked at it closely, while Hongjoong also handed out the remaining letters. When everyone had a letter and Hongjoong was still holding two letters in his hand, he hesitated and looked at both of them. One of them was sealed with a lock and wire like the others, which Hongjoong thought was completely excessive for a letter, while the ninth and final letter was just a letter, without a lock, but with the same sender as the other letters. Only the recipient was different. The initials of all of them were in the bottom right corner, which made Hongjoong pause.

"This one seems to be for all of us." He said and the boys looked up from their letters to Hongjoong, who was already carefully opening the envelope.

"Why do we get a letter each individually and one as a group?" Mingi asked, confused, and Jongho on the floor shrugged his shoulders.

"Ask the creepy postman." He said and then looked back at Hongjoong when he opened the envelope and took out the contents. He was surprised at how much was in the letter. Firstly, he found a piece of paper with a message written on it, as well as a folded city map and a small silver key that fell into his hand when the still unusually heavy weight of the letter confused him and he turned it over in his hand and emptied it. Frowning, he looked at the key and the card.

"What are we supposed to do with it?" he asked, confused. Seonghwa shrugged his shoulders and looked at the piece of paper in Hongjoong's hand.

"What does it say?" he asked, Hongjoong sighed quietly and grabbed the piece of paper. He unfolded it and saw another very brief message. Before he read it out, he cleared his throat once.

"Take the key and go into town. Don't tell each other where you're going. Maybe you'll find your way..." Hongjoong hesitated before reading the last word and frowned.

"out..." confused, he looked up and looked at his friends, who seemed just as confused as he was.