Crescent // ATEEZ ✔

8 [choice]

"It's wise for you to follow me back to the cafe and we'll-"

He retracts his words as her head lolls to the side, eyes closed. She has fainted, and a mild panic runs over him as he thinks about how the others would react if he brings back the unconscious girl. He had never meant to scare her but he got carried away when he was trying hard to catch up with her, so he resulted in chasing her by using the access points on the buildings' roofs instead.

He came down when he saw her crashing against the metal dumpster, taking the opportunity to get close to her. He needs to ask her to come back to the cafe so they could... sort things out.

"Uh- well- that ended badly." He jumps off the dumpster, holding on to the shoes and scrutinizing her condition from far. He frowns when he notices the blood on her arm first then the cuts littered across her legs then ended on her soles. He finally notices the broken glass near her feet, and it's made worse because she didn't have any shoes on. "She's hurt really bad..." he whispers to himself.

He mulls over his decision before he crouches in front of her, pulling her so that her body rests against his back. Being careful as not to touch her wounded arm or brush against the cuts on her legs, he heaves her up, letting her head rest at the crook of his neck. As his left hand holds her shoes, he uses his right hand to pick up her scattered belongings, shove them back in the bag and pick it up, making sure she doesn't fall off from his back.

"I really apologize for having to... touch you," he says to her, although he knows she probably cannot hear him. "You're hurt really bad so I need to bring you back to the cafe." Then after another thought he adds, "Please don't sue me for harassment."

He treks the path back to the cafe, her feeling heavier on his back as she's unconscious. The light from inside the cafe spills onto the ground outside, as if creating an end point on where he's supposed to go.

He enters the cafe with the rest showing various reactions; some are pacing back and forth, while some look worried, anxious. Hongjoong looks the most distressed, with Yunho beside him biting on his nails hurriedly. Seonghwa and San just woke up from their slumber, hair unkempt and eyes bloodshot.

When they see she has fainted, Seonghwa instructs to place her down on the sofa they have in the store at the back. He goes upstairs in a flash to take the first aid kit, disappearing into the store to tend to her. He doesn't let anyone else enter the room, because he doesn't want it to be crowded.

Out of the eight of them, he has the most knowledge in basic medicinal skills thanks to his past experience, so they always turn to him whenever they have any injuries. He looks at her forlornly, remembering that she was the girl that had stumbled and tore her skirt when they were apprehending the thief.

He tears Byul's sleeves, exposing the skin along her arms, and unknowingly he sighs loudly when he sees the condition of her skin. It's not the glasses stuck or the blood seeping out from the wounds that's making him pause, but the original condition of her skin before it got torn. Burn wounds. She has burn wounds along her arms, hidden away neatly under the long sleeve of her shirt.

Steeling himself, he takes a pair of tweezers before picking out the pieces of glass that has plunged into her scarred skin, dropping them onto a shred of tissue and disinfecting the wounds. He wraps them up, then moves on to her legs. Thankfully, the skin on her legs and soles are only superficially torn, so he deals with them accordingly. After he's done, he orders for San to take a blanket upstairs, covering her body.

They have locked the entrance of the cafe, the roller shutter in place to hide the interior from the outside world. He goes out into the main area of the cafe to find them huddled in front of Mingi, who already has his laptop. Beneath his glasses, Mingi's eyes move fast across the screen, typing something with speed before he presses down the 'enter' button and leans against the chair. He reads the details on the screen before turning the screen to face the rest. He joins in.