Then I Wake

Chapter 9

Mingi

"Ok, we're waiting for Yunho and Han, Seonghwa and Lee Know, and Wooyoung and Changbin." Hongjoong checks us all off the list as we come back. "Did anyone see them earlier?"

We all shake our heads. I'm not surprised Wooyoung and Changbin are late, they'll be talking a lot, but I would have thought we could trust the others to get back on time.

"Sorry we're late!" Yunho and Han burst through the door, slightly out of breath.

They've probably been running to get back.

"We didn't leave early enough to get back on time. Nothing eventful though."

"No problem, just make sure to let us know in future if you're going to be late." Chan reassures them, "Did you see any of the others on your way?"

They shake their heads too.

Where are they?

Jongho, who was looking out the window, exclaims, "There! Seonghwa and Lee Know!" He pauses for a moment.  "Seonghwa doesn't look great. He's not hurt, as far as I can tell, but I think he's crying. Like, a lot."

Hongjoong rushes to the window.

"You're right. Uh, San, go and see what's wrong, get them to hurry up and get inside."

San goes, and returns with the two of them. Lee Know gets Seonghwa to sit down, calm him down a bit.

He sits on the sofa, shaking and crying uncontrollably. He tries to speak, but all the words come out broken up between sobs, quiet and in random orders, impossible to decipher.

"Ok, ok, Seonghwa, calm down, take your time. What happened?"

"There's no use telling him to calm down, Felix, what else would he be trying to do?" Lee Know almost shouts.

Felix goes quiet.

Han sits beside Seonghwa and runs through some breathing exercises with him.

"Han has had panic attacks before. He's used to this." Hyunjin whispers to me.

When Seonghwa has calmed down enough, he starts to talk. "Wooyoung's dead."

"What?!" Hongjoong shouts, "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. They found Dino, and Changbin shot Wooyoung!" Seonghwa starts crying again.

"Seonghwa, are you really sure? Not just one of those hallucinations again?"

"I'm telling you, Changbin shot Woo-"

Jongho shouts up again, "Changbin's here! He's carrying Wooyoung!"

A few of us bolt out of the door towards them, helping take Wooyoung's limp body up to us. A bullet hole is in his chest, blood covering his shirt.

San is desperately trying to hold back tears, but I can see the pain on his face. Losing such a fun, and valuable member of the group is hard for us all, but San was closest with him. I can't imagine what he must be feeling.

Changbin steps in with us, and Seonghwa immediately goes silent.

"What was that, Seonghwa?" Changbin raises an eyebrow.

Seonghwa says nothing, just looking at Changbin with pure hatred in his eyes. He really believes Changbin did something wrong.

We all turn our attention back to Wooyoung's body.

He doesn't look peaceful, like they say. Something bad happened.

"We had an unexpected run-in with the government agent Dino. As you can guess, he..."

He trails off, seeing San's distraught look.

If only they knew...

San

Wooyoung... My Wooyoung... He's gone.

I can't decide whether to believe Seonghwa or not. I don't know if I want to, but he's not one to make things up. Unless it was one of his strange hallucinations again.

"Wooyoung and I," I lift my head up to talk to the others, "We were together. You probably guessed, but we wanted to keep it hidden for a while."

A mixture of shock and pity is on all of Stray Kids' faces, but ATEEZ don't look surprised, just sad.

Of course they guessed.

Mingi crouches beside me and wraps his arms around me, comforting me. Seonghwa joins us. He knows how I feel.

"We've all lost a friend today, and some of us were closer to him than others. For now, we should all take some time to rest." Hongjoong says, his voice quiet. "Put Wooyoung in the room with our weapons for now. We'll sort things out in the morning."

Seonghwa

None of them believe me. Not one of them. But I know what I saw. Changbin shot Wooyoung.

"Yeosang, please, just let me talk." I run after him as he goes to his room.

"Seonghwa, if this is about Changbin-"

"Please, Yeosang!"

He nods reluctantly, "Alright. But keep your voice down."

I explain everything I saw to him, and I can see him thinking about it all, but then he stops me.

"Seonghwa, I'm sorry, but I can't believe Changbin would do that. Those two have been friends for years. Now go and get some rest. You're probably just tired."

I go to continue, but there's no hope. With a sigh, I go back to my room.

San

Seonghwa really believes what he's saying. I need to talk to him tomorrow.