Flower ||| Ateez

9

Yunho let out a strangled cry before quickly covering his mouth and running to Lily's side.

Her song faltered at the sight of her friends and she started shaking her head rapidly before forcing herself to continue. Her body shook in both fear and relief.

Yunho wrapped his arms around her protectively, grinding his teeth together in frustration. Then he started to fiddle with the chain on the wall. Lily placed her hands on his to stop him, still singing. Her eyes pleaded for them to go.

"No." Yunho said, batting her arms away and taking a closer look at the chain. It was padlocked.

He turned to the others and whispered, "Key."

Seonghwa and Wooyoung quickly looked around the room for any sign of a key.

Lily started to panic. It was taking to long. He would be back soon. They had to go before he saw them. If he did...

Jongho popped his head in the room, waving his hands in a panic and rubbing his hands together, imitating washing hands.

Lily faltered again, fighting back a sob, and tried to push Yunho away. She pointed to the door frantically, tears staining her red cheeks.

Yunho shook his head again and waived Jongho over. "Can you break this?" He said, moving himself and Lily away from the wall, being careful not to let the chain pull on the collar.

Jongho nodded and started to pull on the chain.

A door opened. All five of them froze, but Lily still forced herself to sing.

They could hear footsteps scrapping the ground.

Wooyoung looked around, then growled as he picked up one of the beer bottles on the table.

The man pushed the door open, too drunk to register there were other people in the room. "Such a pretty song, my Songbird. Let's have some f- "

Wooyoung brought the bottle down on the man's head, knocking him out.

Lily's strangled cry broke the tension just as Jongho pulled against the chain, tearing the ring out of the wall.

All four boys surrounded her, protecting her with their bodies. Yunho's long arms pulled her to his chest and he fought back tears as she clung to him.

"We need to get her out of here." Seonghwa said quickly, glancing back at the man on the ground.

Yunho shifted, picking Lily up in his arms in a smooth motion. His long legs carried her out of the room. Wooyoung kept pace with him, jogging slightly, holding onto the chain so it didn't make too much noise, but also keeping it from pulling on her neck.

Seonghwa ran down the hall to what he presumed was Lily's room. It was as bare as the rest of the house. But he did pull the blanket off her bed and stuffed some of her clothes and whatever else he could find into a bag.

The others were waiting for him by the front door. He handed Yunho the blanket to wrap around the shivering girl. He managed to use one of his arms to hold her up while she clung to his neck, while the other one worked on the blanket. Wooyoung did his best to help.

Without a backward glance they left the house behind them and hurried to Seonghwa's.

The door burst open, startling the other four members waiting impatiently in the living room.

"San." Seonghwa called out. "Get some water. Yeosang, towels. Mingi, keep an eye on the street, you too Hongjoong. Make sure we weren't followed."

No one questioned the eldest's authority, scrambling to get their jobs done. The other four helped get Lily up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms.