𝑴𝑶𝑶𝑵𝑳𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 2 ● ᴀᴛᴇᴇᴢ ꜱᴇᴏɴɢʜᴡᴀ

𝑽𝑰

AUTHOR POV

It's been one week since Seonghwa didn't make his way to school. ATEEZ nor Aera could reach out to him.

Aera could feel his father was involved in why Seonghwa wasn't present all these days, and Hongjoong passed the message to the rest of the members about how Seonghwa's dad was acting towards his son.

All that Seonghwa gained from his father was never an ounce of love, but rather got popularity around their neighbourhood. He never wanted that.

He never wanted to have anything related to his father, not even both of them living under the same roof.

Seonghwa's friends were dying to know about his whereabouts.

"Wanna go grab lunch ?", Yunho speaks as he joined Aera in the school hallway, throwing his bag on his shoulder. "Sure"

They both sat at the table and slowly all of the members were there. They tried to ignore the fact that Seonghwa was not there with them and chatted with each other.

"Hey guys !"

Everyone became tense.

Mingyu slammed his tray on the table, sitting with an ugly smirk on his face. Everyone shot daggers at him as he took out his burger and went forward to eat it.

"Hmm, how's Seonghwa ?", he speaks in between chewing, grabbing his banana milk and gulping it in one go.

"Throw that for me, will you ?", he throws the empty bottle at Hongjoong, who obeys him immediately. They didn't want to create a scene, though most people could be seen staring at the so-called tough guy.

Yeosang asked for the reason why Mingyu came to them, only to be laughed at and got a reply, "You know why I'm here"

To brag ? Yeah, they could see that.

Aera sighed on the side, receiving the hint that Mingyu spied on Seonghwa only to share with the latter's father that he hung around with some girl.

It wasn't a surprise that Mingyu was the scientist's pet. Being jealous of Seonghwa having a popular dad, Mingyu successfully made his way to gain the status of being treated as his own son by the old man.

It wasn't a pretty scene to see for Seonghwa and that ball of fury still burns inside of him to this day.

"We don't have anything to do with your stories. Get out once you're done bragging", Yunho mustered the courage only to say one phrase at Mingyu. Their past fight wasn't fully cleared and settled, their anger being forced to be brought down as everyone quickly brought them apart.

Mingyu shot daggers at the latter, his fists forming a ball ready to throw it anytime at Yunho.

The rest all sighed in annoyance, impatient as to when Mingyu will finally leave.

And to their surprise, he finally rose up from his seat.

"As for you, be ready for what's next", Mingyu points at Aera whilst smirking and heading away from ATEEZ's table, throwing his half-eaten burger and full side dishes in the bin.

"It's time we go check Seonghwa at his house again", the leader informs, receiving several nods from his friends.

"It's best we reach there by night time. Mingyu and Seonghwa's dad are up to something"