ATEEZ | Empire Ep. 1 : Desire

Chapter 3: Let's Go

"we gonna find new world to be mine." - wonderland

The sun was already down when San reported back to his captain.

San walked to the place where Hongjoong went when he couldn't sleep, knowing that Hongjoong wasn't sleeping.

"Uh, hi." San awkwardly greeted his captain, announcing his presence. Hongjoong was standing facing away from him, on a balcony that overlooked the city. "I did my mission."

"No, you didn't." Hongjoong said. "Did you think I trusted you? There's a camera on you, but it went fuzzy after a certain point. So, what were you really doing?"

It kind of hurt San that his captain didn't trust him after all this time, but he didn't show it. He looked around as he tried to find an excuse.

"You are dismissed." Hongjoong said suddenly.

"What? From working for you or talking to you?"

"From talking to me. And don't think you got off easily. Your punishment for disobeying me will come soon enough."

Despite what Hongjoong had said, San let out a sigh of relief. He left the room, walking downstairs to his own small bedroom.

. . .

Yeosang felt a bit of fear bubble up in him as he followed one of Hongjoong's lower men. If someone was injured, the captain would have just sent them to the infirmary.

He fumbled with his white coat, which he hadn't even been able to take off. Hongjoong seemed to be in a rush, and Yeosang knew it wasn't a good idea to test his captain's patience.

Hongjoong smiled when Yeosang came in. "How are you feeling today, Yeosang?" He asked.

"Fine, there aren't many patients today." Yeosang replied.

"Good, because you're doing San's mission."

Yeosang was taken aback. "Me? But... who's going to take care of any injured-"

"San will be taking over your duties as a doctor for the duration of the mission. If anyone dies, it will be his fault and his fault only. That's his punishment for disobeying me and lying about it." Hongjoong said coldly.

Yeosang shuddered. The fact that his captain thought lives were so disposable...

"I want you to go to Busan, and weaken one of those other pirates' most vital districts. I assume they have a warehouse or something of the sorts that you can get into. I'm just asking you to kill some people, nothing more, nothing less." Hongjoong continued.

"But captain, I'm a doctor. I heal others when they're injured-"

"And you kill on my command. Don't act like you haven't. This is a bit less sneaky than giving your patients nitrogen dioxide. It may be a bit out of your comfort zone, but blame San."

Yeosang sighed. "Is that all?" He asked.

"Yes. Ah, and if you see San, tell him to come here."

Yeosang turned around and left the room. As he went back to the infirmary to put away his coat, he was surprised to see San standing outside of the infirmary.

"Hey, Yeosang," San said. Yeosang immediately noticed that something was wrong. San seemed restless, and he was shifting from one foot to the other. "Can you write me a sick note?" San asked.

"A sick note? You rarely ever ask for one. What did you do?"

"Why do you think I did something? I'm just not feeling too good, maybe it's because I haven't been getting enough sleep. I want to be on the safe side, I think I should take it easy today."