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

Chapter 24|Me, myself and I|Be free

Seperating from the rest of the group for sure felt weird to Seonghwa. After leaving the warehouse together with Yeosang, Jongho and Yunho, who all had to go the same direction as him, he waited for a few minutes, until all the others, but Hongjoong, had left too. He had looked after San and Wooyoung, who had to go left from the warehouse, walking together until he couldn't see them anymore. Mingi was the only one who had to go right. When he came out of the warehouse, he looked at Seonghwa, intimidated by having to go alone, tried to force himself to a brave smile, before he left as well. Only when the doors were closed again, Seonghwa finally turned around to the three boys and follwed them down the long street. Yunho and Yeosang walked close to each other while Jongho stomped along beside them, grimly dragging the heavy leg brace behind him. He would have preferred to just rip it off and walk normally, but since he didn't know how to get this stupid leg brace off, he had to keep walking around with the thing on his leg. This made things difficult for him, but what choice did he have? The permanently stretched-out position of his leg made it difficult for him to walk normally and he limped slightly, which Seonghwa, who was walking a little way behind him, watched with concern. Jongho shouldn't be walking around alone like that. It made Seonghwa nervous to think about it. What if enemies were nearby? How could Jongho defend himself or run away? When they first came to an intersection, Yunho ran a few steps ahead and looked cautiously around the corner, while signaling to the others to stop. Confused, Yeosang and Jongho stopped and Jongho crossed his arms in front of his chest with a questioning expression on his face.

"What are you doing?" He asked. Yunho remained silent and continued to check the surroundings before relaxing and taking a deep breath. He turned to the boys, who looked at him questioningly.

"I'm checking the area. Enemies could be waiting around every corner to attack us." He just said that and then continued walking forward.

"Don't go too far!" Seonghwa called after him before he and the other two followed Yunho in frustration.

"We have to split up soon anyway to go our separate ways," Yeosang said with a frown.

"Why so worried?" He asked Seonghwa, who sighed in frustration while still keeping his eyes on Yunho.

"Just because we have to split up soon doesn't mean I don't have to worry." He replied.

"Like Yunho said. There could be an enemy around every corner."

"Are you scared?" Jongho suddenly asked, Seonghwa leaned back to look past Yeosang at Jongho and furrowed his eyebrows.

"I'm not scared." He said.

"I am worried." Curious, Yeosang looked at the older man.

"Is it your task? Is it hard?" He asked and Seonghwa shook his head.

"No."

"Then what are you worried about?" Jongho questioned as he dragged his leg over the crossway, where Yunho was already waiting for them on the other side.

"You guys are really slow." He said, before he turned around and kept walking. Seonghwa sighed and shrugged.

"I'm probably worried about being alone." He answered Jongho's question and put his hands in his pocket. In his left hand he felt the letter he had folded together and put into his pocket, before they had left the warehouse. His task was definitely not what was scaring or worrying him. All he had to do was to find some bracelet in a mini market by the outskirts of the city. That shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. If he searched thoroughly, he would be back with the others in two hours at most. Maybe three hours if the mini-market was a bit bigger. He was just worried that he wouldn't be able to concentrate on his task because he would be worried about the others all the time. He only had a rough idea of where they were all located, which was bad enough, but not knowing what tasks would await them there was even worse. He just hoped that the other boys' tasks were as simple as his and that they would quickly come together as a group again. To distract himself from his worries, Seonghwa cleared his throat and looked at Jongho.

"How about you? Scared?" he asked, but the youngest immediately shook his head with a smile.

"Tss, no." He laughed amusedly.

"My task is exactly what I like. It will be done quickly." Yeosang looked skeptically at the younger man with a raised eyebrow.

"What, muscle man. Do you have to break apples with your bare hands or something?" he asked and Jongho rolled his eyes with a grin.

"No, but that would be a piece of cake for me too." He grinned cheekily at Yeosang, who just rolled his eyes in amusement and shook his head.

"Show-off." He grumbled and then looked straight ahead at Yunho, who was waiting for the three of them at the next intersection and worriedly kept an eye on the side streets.

"Hey, Yunho! Is your task to play street cop?!" Yeosang shouted to Yunho, who just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"No, it's not." He said. The three boys quickly caught up to him as Seonghwa hooked his arm into Yunho's and then pulled him along with a gentle smile on his lips.

"Don't let them tease you. I understand your concern." He said to Yunho, who took a deep, frustrated breath and looked back over his shoulder to see Yeosang and Jongho walking behind them. Yeosang deliberately walked a little slower to keep up with Jongho and gave him an encouraging smile. When Yunho looked forward again, he heard Seonghwa sigh softly and looked at the older man worriedly.

"Is everything okay, hyung?" He asked and Seonghwa hesitated. He kept his eyes fixed ahead, where he could already see the intersection where their paths would part. The feeling of nervousness in his chest grew with every step he took and his grip on Yunho's arm tightened. He was afraid to let go. If something were to happen to him, or the two behind them, after he continued straight toward the outskirts of town, he would never be able to forgive himself. As the oldest of the group, he felt responsible for the boys. They were like little brothers to him, whom he wanted to take care of and protect. How could he do that if he wasn't with them? He even wanted to protect Hongjoong. He wasn't much younger than Seonghwa and he wasn't quite sure if brother was the right term he'd use for him, but Hongjoong was extremely important to him, but even him he couldn't protect in this moment. He was to far away. Sighing, Seonghwa shook his head.

"We have to split up now." He said dejectedly and Yunho looked ahead to the intersection they were approaching. He nodded slightly.

"Yeosang and Jongho have to turn right here. And you?" He asked and Seonghwa raised his free right arm to point straight down the street.

"Behind this block is the border of the city. I have to go there." He explained. Yunho nodded and an encouraging smile grew on his lips.

"I'll stay here at the intersection." He pointed to a row of small shops that were at the intersection and then stopped in the middle of the street and looked at Seonghwa.

"Should I wait here for you when you're done or come pick you up?" Seonghwa looked at Yunho with relief. Knowing that Yunho saw his nervousness and was there for him, offering to pick him up as soon as he could, calmed him down a lot. He nodded and then turned to Yeosang and Jongho, who had also just arrived at the intersection.

"You two too." Yunho said and the two looked at him questioningly.

"Once you're done with whatever you need to do, come back to this intersection. We'll meet each other here." The two promised that after completing their tasks they would find their way back here immediately to meet up with the two of them, which calmed Seonghwa down a lot. He nodded and took a step back towards the outskirts of the city.

"Good." He said with a slightly nervous undertone in his voice.

"Then we'll see each other later." He continued. Jongho nodded before grabbing Yeosang by the shoulders and turning him in the direction they had to go. As they slowly walked away, Seonghwa watched them anxiously. He didn't feel good about it. It was as if he had forgotten to say something. He clenched his hands into fists and took a deep breath.

"TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, OKAY?!" he called after the two, who only looked back briefly and nodded briefly before moving on. Seonghwa sighed in frustration and turned to Yunho, who was still standing next to him, waiting for the older man to be ready to leave. He looked at him with the usual friendly smile that he always wore and tilted his head slightly to the side.

"Ready?" He asked and Seonghwa had to take a deep breath, sighed before nodding and putting a hand on Yunho's shoulder.

"Please be careful." He told the younger man, who just nodded understandingly.

"Don't worry. Nothing will happen." Seonghwa wasn't so sure about that. He huffed in frustration and then let go of Yunho, who didn't hesitate for long, turned away and walked away from Seonghwa. Seonghwa watched him for a brief moment before setting off as well. He crossed the intersection and headed down the main road towards the outskirts of town. The afternoon sun shone brightly above him and a light sweat ran down his neck, a result of both the heat and his nervousness. With every step he took away from the boys, his concern for them grew. Would they be able to manage on their own? Seonghwa could only hope that their tasks were as simple as his and that they didn't have to do anything difficult or dangerous. When he reached the end of the main street and stood at the edge of the city, he looked nervously out into the endless emptiness. In front of him lay a grassy field that stretched for kilometers, with a long road that led far away from the city, and only a dozen meters away from him stood a small house with white outer walls, many windows and a flat gray roof. He walked towards it somewhat hesitantly. As he came closer, he recognized the lettering 'Minimarket' flickering in bright neon colors above the entrance door. Lights were on inside the shop and televisions were in the window, their screens flickering colorfully. In general, the minimarket seemed very spooky to Seonghwa and when he stood in front of the entrance door, he hesitated. He carefully took a step closer and braced his hands against the window as protection, leaned forward and sulked through the window. He didn't see anything inside. There seemed to be no one there. He sighed again and then grabbed the door handle, pulled the door open and carefully stepped in. He looked around carefully when the door behind him was too much and he hesitantly took a few steps into the shop.

"Hello?" He said loudly so that if someone was here, they would definitely hear him. After waiting a moment, Seonghwa was sure that no one was there and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Phew..." He breathed and then looked around.

"Bracelet. Where could there be bracelets here?" He muttered and began to search the store. He started at the front entrance and searched the shelves, where he found all kinds of odds and ends. Technology such as charging cables for cell phones and tablets, batteries, hard drives and SIM cards were on the shelf right next to the door, next to which was the display window in which all the flickering televisions were displayed. The noise of the televisions tickled Seonghwa's ears. When he was sure that there was no bracelet on the shelf, he went on and searched the next shelf, but he couldn't find anything there either. He found almost everything in the shop that he could use. Food, clothing, drinks, technical devices, even scented candles and New Year's Eve firecrackers, but there was no sign of jewelry. He searched the entire mini-market, pushing shelves aside in the hope that the bracelet might be under the shelves. He even climbed onto one of the shelves to break open the air conditioning above the entrance door, but the bracelet wasn't hidden there either. When he gave up hope, the sky slowly turned a faint pink and orange tone, which told Seonghwa that sunset was approaching.

"Damn it..." he grumbled in frustration as he looked out the window.

"How long have I been here already?" Hours must have passed. Did the others have the same difficulty with their task? He only had to find a bracelet, it couldn't be that difficult. Annoyed and frustrated, he leaned against one of the shelves when the shelf thundered against something that was behind the shelf and made a dull sound. Seonghwa stepped forward and turned to the shelf. Frowning, he walked around the shelf and tried to look behind it when he noticed that it was a few centimeters away from the wall.

"What do we have here?" He muttered, pressing himself against the shelf with all his weight. It groaned and creaked as it slowly slid across the floor, away from the wall, until what was hidden behind it was revealed. A door!

"There you go." Slightly exhausted from moving the furniture, Seonghwa pushed back his sweaty black hair and then reached for the door handle, pushed it down and pulled the door open. A dark little room opened up in front of Seonghwa. He tentatively stretched his arm in and felt the wall for a light switch. When he found it, he pushed it down and the light in the small room came on. An office! Seonghwa carefully entered. He had searched the entire mini-market. If there wasn't a bracelet in this office, he would go back. The sun was setting and his friends were probably already worried. He had to find it in here. Full of renewed enthusiasm, he entered the office and began his search. There weren't many places in the small office where he could have looked. The most obvious hiding place for something like a bracelet, the drawers of the desk in the back left corner of the room, was the first place he searched. The desk was made of pale greenish metal and the drawer handles were silver. He grabbed the handle of the first drawer and pulled on it, which proved harder than he expected. The metal on the edge of the drawers was slightly rusted and the drawer was wedged into the desk. However, when Seonghwa put his knee against the desk and pulled hard again, the drawer came loose and shot out.

“Wah‼” Seonghwa stumbled backwards and landed sitting on the black leather chair that had fortunately been behind him, with the drawer in his hand. Somewhat perplexed by his sudden fall, he sat motionless for a moment and took a deep breath, then looked down into the drawer on his lap. The first thing he saw was a stack of papers with letters written on them in a meaningless sequence. Frowning, he began to leaf through the sheets of paper until he reached the bottom of the drawer. There was nothing in there except the sheets of paper. He hesitated and thought.

“Could it be…” He mumbled, took the stack of papers, placed them on the desk in front of him and then began to feel the bottom of the drawer thoroughly, hoping his theory was correct. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The drawer did not have a second bottom under which the bracelet could have been hidden, so in frustration he put the drawer to one side and pulled the next one out of the desk and searched through it. After almost ten minutes he had thoroughly searched all six drawers of the desk, but again without success. He had found papers, pens and paper clips galore, but there was no trace of a bracelet. Frustrated, he slammed the bottom drawer shut with his foot and leaned back in the black leather chair, huffing in annoyance.

“Crap.” He muttered annoyed and looked around.

“Where else could a bracelet be lying around here?” Apart from the desk, there weren’t many places in this room where he could have looked. The shelf next to the door to the shop was empty, Seonghwa could see that from far away, and there was no other furniture in this room. He sat on the chair for a while and thought. What would happen if he didn’t find the bracelet? He would definitely be punished, or worse, the others would be punished for his failure. He couldn’t let that happen! But where else should he look? He had turned the entire shop upside down and he just couldn’t think of anything else. The sudden sound of a window being smashed made Seonghwa jump up from his leather chair in shock. A cold shiver ran down his spine and his body froze.

What was that?

He thought frightened, before he quickly walked around the desk and out of the small office, his heart racing inside his chest. Back in the shop, he looked around and walked over at the large display window, in which a hole had been punched. Thick cracks ran from the hole in the pane across the glass and a cool whistling wind blew through the small opening.   Seonghwa approached the window nervously. When Seonghwa looked away from the window and down to the ground, he spotted a small silver object lying on the floor between sharp-edged shards of glass, shimmering in the evening sun, which slowly disappeared behind the horizon. Frowning, Seonghwa crouched down and reached out his hand for the small silver object, carefully so as not to cut your fingers on the scattered sharp pieces of glass,  picked it up and looked at it closely. It looked like a ring, a ring made of flattened silver that was much too big for a finger, with a small inscription engraved on the outside.

“Be free.” Seonghwa read quietly and turned the ring over, looking at it from all sides.

What is this?

Confused, he stood up again, when he suddenly had an epiphany. He took the ring and put it on his right hand. The ring simply slid onto his hand up to his knuckles, then he had to pull in his thumb slightly to slide the ring further over his hand until he managed it and the ring hung on his arm as a bracelet. Seonhwa scoffed.

“You can’t be serious.”  He muttered in frustration.

“No wonder I didn’t find the bracelet if someone threw it through the window from outside-“ Only when he had finished the sentence did Seonghwa realize what he was actually saying. Someone had smashed the window with the bracelet. Someone was outside the shop. Frightened, Seonghwa’s hand, on which he was wearing the bracelet, began to shake and he slowly raised his eyes. He looked out the window, but could not see anyone outside.

Had the person who threw the bracelet already run away again?

He thought and then turned towards the exit door when he saw the silhouette of a dark figure in front of the window and his eyes widened in shock. He gasped in shock. A tall person in black cloths, a mask hiding his face and a hat on his head was standing infront of the door of the shop, starring inside with cold brown eyes. Seonghwa stood frozen and stared at the man behind the door. Neither of them moved. The Halateez tilted his head slightly, which seemed threatening to Seonghwa. Nervously, the black-haired man took a step back and gulped. Why was he here? He hesitated and gathered all his courage to confront his gloomy visitor.

“What do you want?!” He yelled, loud enough for the Halateez to hear ohtside of the door, but as expected, he didn’t reply and just looked at Seonghwa with dead eyes. It felt weird. His brown eyes had something sad to them and something in Seonghwa alarmed him. He just didn’t know what it was. As he started to approach the door, he suddenly heard a quiet clicking sound and immediately stopped again. He looked  at the Halateez, who raised his hand and grabbed the sign on the door, which had the word ‘open’ written on the front and the word ‘closed’ written on the back, and turned it around. From the outside it now read ‘Closed’. Fear crept through Seonghwa’s body and he could only watch, frozen, as the Halateez moved away from the door and walked around the shop until he stood in front of the window with the hole. He reached into his pocket and pulled out something that Seonghwa couldn’t quite make out. Seonghwa looked at the Halateez with slightly narrowed eyes.

“What..” He muttered as he watched the Halateez do something with the object in his hand when a small flame suddenly glowed in his hand and Seonghwa’s heart skipped a beat in shock. A match. Seonghwa felt like he was in a deja vu. He lowered his gaze to the shop window, where a liquid glistened in the last sunlight on the windowsill where a few of the televisions stood. Seonghwa immediately shuddered and continued to look around. All around him, on all the shelves and on the walls, there was a transparent liquid that gave off a slight unpleasant smell. Why hadn’t he noticed this before? When he heard a knock on the window, Seonghwa turned back to the Halateez, who was standing right in front of the window and held his hand in front of the hole in the glass, with the burning match between his fingers. Seonghwa watched with wide eyes as the Halateez threw the match through the hole into the shop. It fell to the ground. To Seonghwa, it seemed as if it fell in slow motion. When it finally landed on the windowsill and came into contact with the clear liquid, it caught fire and flames jumped up in front of the window.

“Shit!” Seonghwa stepped away from the window and held his hands over his face as the flames spread throughout the shop like lightning. They ate their way across the windowsill, across the walls to the shelves and poisonous smoke filled the shop. Seonghwa backed away from the flames as far as he could until his back hit the door of the shop and he could go no further. He stared at the raging flames in panic. The temperature in the shop rose rapidly and sweat ran down the boy’s forehead. He quickly turned around and grabbed the door handle, turning it, but the door stood still. Seonghwa grimaced in despair.

“Come on!” he shouted at the door and shook it desperately, but in vain. It was locked. As he continued to try and the flames slowly approached, he watched as the Halateez moved away from the shop and got into a car parked on the street.

“No…” He whimpered.

“DON’T LEAVE ME HERE‼” In a panic, he banged on the door and screamed.

“LET ME OUT!” The Halateez ignored Seonghwa’s desperate pleas and closed the car door. He looked back once more, saw Seonghwa’s face streaming with tears and filled with fear.He heard Seonghwa’s words, his plea for his life, but he turned his eyes away, started the engine and drove away. Seonghwa looked after him in panic before he kept trying to open the door.

“Open! Open up‼” He yelled at the door, desperately shaking the door handle, but nothing happened. He was trapped. Coughing from the smoke filling his lungs, he turned around, facing the flames now. They were eating through the shop, painting the wooden furniture black and melting the plastic bags in the shelves. He felt dizzy and sank to his knees. Was that it? Was that how he was going to die? For a moment he thought back to his friends. They were probably already waiting for him at the intersection, waiting for him to meet them. He probably wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. When his strength finally left him, he collapsed to the ground and remained motionless, and just as his vision went black, the last thing he saw and felt was the door opening and someone grabbing him by his wrist.