fever | ateez lore story

CH 12

mingi

I almost forgot to text Yunho.

I jog back to my room, my toothbrush gripped between my lips and I quickly grabbed my phone, sending Yunho a quick text saying that I'm almost ready for school.

Yunho has been walking to school with me ever since that day he told me he would do so. He has not missed one day. Every single day, at the hit of 8:00am, he's there at my front door, a huge smile on his face. I never imagined I deserve someone like him. If loyalty was a person, Yunho is ten times that.

After I finish washing up, I look at my phone to see that Yunho hasn't replied. He usually replies with a little emoticon within a second after I've sent the message, but today, he hasn't even read it. Maybe his phone is in his pocket and he didn't see? But wouldn't he check to see if I've woken up?

I push my worries to the side and get dressed before heading downstairs to eat.

Still no response. And he still hasn't read it. What's going on?

"Mingi-ah? Are you okay?" I hear my mother ask from beside me. I look over at her with a dumbfounded expression, nodding lightly.

"Yunho still hasn't replied to you?" She asks, reading my mind. I shake my head, stuffing a spoonful of rice in my mouth. I chew anxiously, my head burning with worry.

"He's fine, don't worry about it. He might be on his way." My father insists. The bass in his voice is stern, which makes me believe him slightly, noting Yunho and how tough he can be, but I still can't shake the uneasiness I have.

Suddenly, the doorbell rings.

"See? That's probably him now." my father says, motioning to the front door with his chopsticks.

I greet the both of them goodbye before leaving the dinner table, pulling my shoes on and swinging my backpack on. I'm preparing a little rant in my head, to scold him for making me worried.

Once I unlock the door and pull it open, the back of Yunho's head greets me, his thick hair blowing in the wind. I say nothing for a moment, confused at the cold greeting.

"Good morning." I joke bluntly, expecting him to turn and laugh. Nothing. All he does his turn his head slightly so I can barely see the tip of his nose and then he speaks.

-"You ready?"

The tone of his voice is soft. Very soft. If he spoke any more than he did, he may burst into tears. Did something happen?

I don't ask him though, but respond; "yeh". And head out the door. Before I could even shut it, he's already walking ahead, pushing his hands into his pockets and kicking his feet. I quickly lock the door and catch up to him, parking myself at his side as we walk to school.

The first couple minutes is agonising. The silence feels like it could strangle me, and the urge to say something to him was becoming more and more harder to avoid. What's weirder is whenever I glance over at him, his head whips round to the other side, the back of his head more familiar with me than the front of his face.

What is going on?

"Dude, are you okay?" I ask, unplugging one of my ears from my earbuds. He nods and hums, not another sound or word coming from him. These boys have a habit of lying as if we can't read straight through them.

"Look at me and swear you're fine." I demand, my eyes never leaving him.

"I'm fine, dude." He says, aggravation in his voice. This behaviour catches me off guard, because Yunho is known to be very composed. But then again, he is a human being after all.

I'm not trusting him.

"You swear?" I question, waiting for his response. When I receive nothing from him, my temper arises, not liking the distrust and lack of recognition I'm getting.

"Yunho-ah." I pull his shoulder and force him to look at me. The impact managed to bring his eyes to mine, and what I find looking back at me feels like a knife to the gut. Yunho's lip is swollen, and dried blood paints the corner of his mouth and his cheekbones. Moreover, the bone where his eyebrow rests is speckled with green and purple bruising. His eyes are sullen and focused on my shoes.

I feel my jaw clench. I start to think who could have done this. There is only one person in my mind, and I'm praying to whoever is above that it's not them.

"Who did this to you?" I demanded an answer, feeling the blood in my body boil.

"No one. I kinda did this to myself." He answers, and it's a shit answer. I refuse to take it, because Yunho has a terrible habit of blaming himself most of the time, and I decide to set the record straight and ask him directy.

-"Was it Min-J?"

The silence he gives me says enough.

"What happened?" I asked sternly. Yunho must feel slightly threatened, because he responds without hesitation, as if he didn't just lie to me in front of my face earlier.

-"I was on the way to yours, and I noticed him and his group. I walked past as if I didn't see them, but they pulled me back. They didn't like how I act bodyguard for you whenever we go to school. They know I'm part of the school committee, so that's why they laid off of you whenever we walk to school together. But they caught me alone today, and my position as assistant to the Class Captain wasn't enough to scare them off, so...I tried to talk and calm them down, but I figured too late to realise that it's not how they roll."

Min-J messing with me was enough to give me a restless night. Now that he's laying hands on my friends, I refuse to let this go.

"Don't do anything stupid, Mingi. I don't want you getting kicked out." Warning is present in his voice, but my ears funnel it out, too focused on making sure Min-J regrets what he did. Yunho notices my fists clench tightly until my knuckles whiten, and I can feel my fingernails dig into my palms. I try to steady my breathing, but everything I do or think about just brings me more anger.

"Mingus!" Yunho yells, his hands landing on my shoulders with a slap. The weird nickname throws me off, but I'm suddenly slightly more at ease as I watch Yunho's face contort into a stupid smile, followed by a laugh that comes deep from the stomach.

"That was the only way to get your attention. Now you listen to me, as your friend but also as the Class Captain's assistant. Do not do anything. I told Min-J and his group that I'll report them to the head, and knowing how strict his parents are, they are not gonna let this slide. I don't want you kicked out of school when you've been so good, and are so close to finishing. Will you let us deal with it instead of you doing it by yourself in the most insufficient way?" He scolds. His speech switched from providing reassurance to telling me off, but the agony in his voice is desperately asking me to pattern up. If he pleaded with me anymore, I'm sure he would have fell to his knees and begged until I listened.

I give him a moments silence, thinking about what to do. I'll never let this slide, but Yunho's right. I may just worsen the situation by getting my hands dirty.

"I'll hold back, for now. If he does something again, don't expect any good-will from me. Whatever happens, happens." I say, lightly shoving his hands off my shoulders and backing up. Yunho's face drops, his chest rising and falling as he sighs deeply. I'm aware he's disappointed, but I know Min-J, and I know that a simple word from the head office or his parents is not gonna make any difference. You need a gun to kill a beast, not a conversation.

"Let's just get to school." He says, his hand resting itself on my shoulder.

"Not like that, you can't." I protest. I don't want people to start getting the wrong idea about Class Captain's assistant. If the teachers and other faculty see Yunho in this state, they'll start to question him.

-"I'll ask Seonghwa to bring something to cover up your bruises. We can't have people seeing you like this."

Min-J's a dickhead for laying his hands on my friends who have no business with him. His problem is with me, so why on God's earth is he bothering my friends?

Guess he's figured out my weakness.