Ishihara // ATEEZ ✔

49 |2| Bloom

"That was the scariest thing I have ever done in my life and I can't believe I actually agreed to do it," Yeosang complains as he leans back against the chair. "Thankfully the shield actually managed to stop the arrow or else I could die. I never want to try that again."

"Let's hope we won't face situations like that again," Hongjoong utters as he sits on the edge of the bed. "Choi San, won't you wake up now? You've been lying on this bed for almost a year. We've managed to catch the bastards who did this to you so won't you open your eyes? Don't leave us hanging like this." He reaches for San's hands and wipes them with a wet cloth, cleaning them.

Mingi watches silently as he leans against the wall of the room, arms crossed. Ever since Akira and Yunho left the palace, so much had happened that it seemed that nothing went right for them. They don't say it out loud but they know - the events that happened after was a punishment for them kicking the two out heartlessly.

"We're being punished because we were cold towards them, aren't we?" Mingi vocalizes to the two conscious people in the room; Hongjoong and Yeosang. San stays unmoving. "They were doing their jobs as soldiers, yes, they did kill his father but-" he stops, mulling over his next sentence. "-they killed him because he stole the gold bars. We were hypocrites for reacting like that only when we knew that it was Jongho's father. Today, they didn't hesitate to chase their own men; Yunho had killed off the one he's chasing and Akira fought until the end to take down her opponent. Without them, our plan could go awry."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that they were doing what their jobs required them to do. Punishment for thieves in the palace is execution, and unfortunately Jongho's late father made a mistake and they caught up to him. They could choose to run away today when things go south at the ball, but why did they even bother to chase their own soldiers?"

"What about Jongho, then? Have you ever thought about what he feels?" Hongjoong asks.

"Did you forget what Jongho said, or are we pretending to be deaf to whatever he told us because of our pride?" Mingi replies through gritted teeth.

"They didn't simply leave me alone," Yeosang suddenly butts in, specifically looking at Hongjoong, when he sees that the two are about to get involved in another argument.

Confused, the two turn to look at him.

"Akira stepped in to fight them off when I was almost beaten to death. When everyone else only looked at the scene, she jumped in and drove them away. I wanted her to turn around so I could see her face, but she only sprinted off and left me."

This time, Hongjoong shuts his mouth.

"Akira and Yunho... they are the kind of people who do things that are right. She could choose to keep quiet about Jongho's father, but she admitted it herself, in front of all of us and apologized profusely. We saw her regretting what she did, it was clear in her eyes, but we chose to ignore it. We never took into account their feelings; we never stopped to ask the reason they had to do it. Yes, they were killers. But why did they kill? For fun?" Yeosang asks rhetorically.

"Are we... going to blame them for whatever happened after they left?" Mingi asks next. "We have wronged them in so many ways, we knew that they were only carrying out the queen's orders, but we chose to kick them out because we did not want to accept the fact. We pride ourselves so much in treating everyone kindly but in the end, those two people from Lucida are the ones with hearts purer than ours. We are hypocrites at best, and we had never even tried to ask them for forgiveness this past year, even though we had so many chances to do so. Because we never wanted to admit that we made a mistake; we were too full of ourselves that we never even looked back once to them."