Dandelion | ATEEZ Hunger Games!AU

3: Casings

Yunho was absolutely screwed.

If he thought he already didn't have a chance of taking the victory, then the past events that had transpired ultimately sealed the deal. There was no way of returning, Yunho thought, although he had never planned on doing so. Surely, his fate had already been written down in stone, unearthed for change, but his guilt and concerns did fall on Elenna.

In all honesty, he had seen it coming. From the moment he had boarded the rather luxurious train, to the long hours left waiting for no one to come and greet them, he already knew which hour the clock had struck. The silence that kept on chasing them ever so thickened, and even when Yunho had laid in his bed, watching the grey and boring ceiling of his temporary retreat on the train, he had sensed it. If it hadn't been made clear from the moment he had been reaped, then it had all been made clear once he arrived on Capitol grounds. There would be no help for them in the days counting down to the Games, and no matter how many times Lavinia tried to make sure everything was going to be fine and taken care of, Yunho knew. He had always known.

And just like he knew, he also knew that life seemed to have a knack for mocking him. It did so when he was younger, and it continued to do so when he grew up. Now, finding his life changed to become a Tribute and being sent to his inevitable death, it seemed that all life wanted to do was to get out one last laugh.

And yet, even when catching a glimpse of his Mentor prior to reaching the Capitol, and hearing from his mouth that all hope was lost from the moment everything started, he couldn't seem to raise concern. Much like he had been hours before, when he got called up on stage to represent his District against his will, he didn't feel anything. At least, he didn't feel anything for himself, that was. For what he felt came from the concerns of his partner. The young girl who, from the moment they were unwillingly paired together, couldn't seem to calm down. Elenna Collier, nothing but a child, who had to hear from the person she deemed could be trusted the most, that she would die.

He wanted to curse him. In his mind, his Mentor had already written himself off as the biggest piece of shit in the Capitol. His Mentor merely glanced at them, bored eyes gazing at the two while they had been seated for what seemed to be forever. They had been waiting ever so patiently for him to come, even forced to have a conversation with Lavinia, whom he still didn't like. And after all that waiting, all that they ended up with were empty words.

''There's nothing left for you, now,'' He had said to them when he finally decided to make an appearance. ''The only advice I have for you is to live your life to the fullest. You'll be dead in a few days, anyway.''

After that, the man simply vanished. With a few words, he had made an entire declaration, narrowed down to the simple premise that neither Yunho nor Elenna would live to see the golden glory of the Games. With the most luxurious and lavish tools from the Capitol, they were handed the same thing they had always received in their own poor District; the simple promise of a short-ended life. Even when assured of all the help the Capitol claimed to offer, there would be none to come. And it pained Yunho to have already realised that the moment they left their home.

As such, with the grim truth of their newfound lives, Yunho and Elenna were left alone in a sitting room on the upper floor of the Remake Center, silently awaiting for what was about to come. They had just undergone what was called 'prepping', and Yunho had hated every single second of it. It felt as if they stripped him down to his core, rid him of every imperfection that made Yunho himself. They were 'polished', as Lavinia had called it right before sending them to hours of strangers picking at his body and turning him into someone he hated the most; Capitol breeds. He wasn't like the boy from District 12, anymore. Rather, he took on a mask, one thrusted into his hand, and forced to play a new and sumptuous role.