Crescent // ATEEZ ✔

61 [goodbye]

She stands in front of the giant screens, linking her hands behind her back as the large pool of information ripples in a play. Faces of their targets, their details, the blueprint of their pathway, their final destination are all scattered around on the screens, none of them focused. It's just a mixture of words, pictures and flowcharts, exactly like the mess in her head right now.

"Are you thinking, planning or just staring?" Yeosang's voice comes from the door and she turns to see him holding two cups of steaming hot drinks, his pink hair highly contrasting with the dull surrounding of the control room and his black-coloured pajamas. "If you're staring, might as well go and sleep, since you're wasting time." He gives one cup to her, and from the tag of the teabag she knows it's chamomile tea. "We need to save all the energy we can for tomorrow."

She waits for the tea to diffuse as she leans against the wall unoccupied by the screens. "I can't believe my 23 years of life are finally leading to this. My 10-year old self back then would only think that I'd be behind a computer, working around the clock like my parents were. I'd never have thought that my father used to be a part of the Bifidensis, but left it behind when he married my mother. 12 years felt too short before they came back for him. For us. My life right now... it's not what I could even imagine back then. Having a child when I was 17, now that's definitely something I would never have imagined." She lets a small smile play on her lips as she plays around with the tagged teabag.

"I still can't wrap around the fact that Hwayoung is your daughter, and now that I see you I know where she gets that personality from. He didn't forget you even for one second," he replies. "Yunho. Everything he did, reflected how much he missed you. He brought Hwayoung up with you in his memories, guiding through the life at KTC to make sure that she would grow up having a normal childhood as much as possible. It was hard, but he tried his best." He takes a sip of his tea. "Just thought I'd tell you that."

"Yeosang, I promised to myself that I won't cry anymore. Stop trying to make me cry."

"Sorry," he chuckles. "You deserve the truth, as much as you were hurt 6 years ago."

"I'm glad that I managed to uncover the truth even though time is running out. It's better late than never." She traces the rim of the cup with her finger. "You met Anna Yoo this morning, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but it was a simple goodbye; I just wanted her to know where we're going." He looks down, the fringe of his hair falling to cover his eyes. "I really hope she won't hurt herself anymore."

"You're worried for her," she utters. "You like her."

His head shoots up as he shakes it. "No I don't."

"Come on." She lifts up her eyebrows. "The way you talk about her is completely different than the way you talk to her."

"I don't know what you're going on about," but he says it with a hidden smile, quickly bringing the cup to his mouth to mask it.

"Are we doing the right thing? Jongho, Wooyoung, Mingi, Yunho and Hwayoung... the ones who will be left."

He goes over to the screens, waves his hand over the packed information to shut it down and leaves the room with minimal light. The sudden disappearance of the glaring lights makes her return her focus fully to Yeosang, expecting for an answer. He takes out two chairs for them to sit in front of the gigantic middle screen, inviting her to face it.

He doesn't answer straight away as he pulls up something on the screen, a group picture of ATEEZ, including Hwayoung, appearing. All of them are smiling, but behind those smiles, it looks like they are being forced to. She looks at their eyes; the usual radiance you can feel under a genuine smile is nowhere in sight - they are scared, lost.