✓ 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 | ateez

11:11

[a/n: hi! we're over halfway through this book :0 pls comment here how you discovered this book; i'm really curious haha!!
thank you and please enjoy! <3]

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"halmoni! i'm home!" mingi calls as he shuffles through the front door. the smell of dinner from the cooking hours ago lingers in the air, and the promise of hot cocoa and his blanket-swamped bed invites mingi further inside. his grandmother hollers back at him loudly from the living room (for a woman of ninety-nine years of age, she sure has a lot of stamina).

as mingi prepares his nightly hot chocolate (yes- hot cocoa is best drank during the summer time, an argument mingi will hold firmly to his chest until his dying breaths), his phone buzzes. he presses the phone between his shoulder and ear, leaving his two hands occupied for stirring.

"hello?"

"mingi! are you home yet?" undoubtedly, the caller is wooyoung, his signature obnoxious and high pitched voice resonating through mingi's eardrums and making him wince (he accidentally clangs the metal teaspoon against the ceramic mug loudly and shudders).

"yeah, why? what's up?"

"yeosang called me, but ended it when i picked up! and he won't reply to my texts or answer my calls. has he called you?"

"no, i'll try and call him too, if you want?" wooyoung sighs anxiously. mingi can picture his friend now: teeth tugging at the loose skin hanging from his swollen lips and chewed nails dragging through charcoal hair. he hesitates before answering mingi's question.

"woo? you okay?" another pause.

"mingi, i think i'm lost. i- i don't know here i am," wooyoung whispers hoarsely, his strained voice sending a frenzy of static and crackling sounds down mingi's speaker. at this point, he's taken the spoon out the cocoa, and the wavering steam travels upwards into the air beseechingly, glaring at mingi as he completely abandons his drink for wooyoung.

of course mingi is worried. worried is an understatement. as an only child who's grown up with only his grandmother for company, he'd heavily rely on his wild imagination and hyperbolic daydreams, which came as a severe consequence in situations like these. he's known as the coward, the scaredy-cat, the wimp, and honestly, he doesn't mind. it's all true- the way he flinches at the slightest of movements and can never be left alone pitch-black spaces are obvious telltale signs. he'll always believe in the monster under his bed, or the mad-axe murderer that awaits him from outside his house.

mingi is already running through worst-case scenarios of what may or could or will happen to wooyoung, until his friend cut through his thoughts: "mingi? hello?"

he must've zoned out.

"sorry, sorry- i'm here. tell me where you are, i'll see if i know your whereabouts," he suggests weakly. (not his most helpful idea, he'll admit.)

"uhm, there's a huge cherry blossom tree, with a wooden swing, and there's a huge forest behind me." mingi can barely hear him; his usual deafening voice is now mouse-quiet and hesitant, as if he's holding his breath whilst talking. mingi doesn't like the change.

"i... i think i know where you are, you're like half a mile from my house! okay, stay there, i'll come to get you, don't hang up-"