Resolving Conflict | Ateez Superhero AU

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The government officials rejected Hongjoong's offer of tea or coffee and sat down by the dining table without a word.

"How should we call you?" Yunho asked, picking a seat on the opposite side of the table. Hongjoong sat down next to him.

"That's not important,"  the woman said. She intertwined her fingers  and placed her hands on the table. "We'll get straight to the point and  tell you why we're here."

She nodded to her  partner and the man spoke for the first time since  he arrived. "We're here to talk about you and your team." His voice was  surprisingly deep and soothing, but Hongjoong remained on high alert in  case he fell into a  false sense of security.

"What's wrong with our team?" Hongjoong directed his question to the  woman. She seemed to be at a higher authority to know more intel,  whereas the man was just here to deliver a message.

The woman shifted her gaze from Hongjoong to Yunho as the man  answered the question. "We're not concerned about your team. We're  noticing what you do, and it's becoming a problem."

"You mean you don't like us doing the police's job for them?"

The officials ignored the insult. They placed some important-looking  documents onto the table  and turned the pieces of paper around for  Hongjoong and Yunho to see.

Yunho was relieved to have something else to focus on other than the  woman who was starting to burn holes into his face. He eyes fell onto  the words and numbers on the paper, but he wasn't really making sense of  the information.

"This is a record of repair costs invested to fix the damage you've done while you were on your missions."

Hongjoong did a cursory glance at the enormous figures. He was trying  to keep his calm and  confident composure, but his eyebrows twitched  uncomfortably. "I don't understand."

The man was about to  answer, but closed his mouth when the woman  sighed. He leaned forward  and stared at Hongjoong. The leader felt his  heart jump a little, but he  kept a poker face on the outside.

"Simply put, this is  unacceptable. Whether intentionally or not, you  break water pipes,  destroy windows, start fires, bring down trees, and  disturb the  innocents. The government won't let this go on without  doing anything. The weak-hearted don't like seeing things they can't  explain."  The woman's voice was suddenly much deeper. She enunciated  each word in a  condescending tone, sounding as if she had a mouthful of  venom she was  trying not to spit out. "We're here to bring you back so  we can discuss a  plan."

The woman returned to  her original posture. Yunho finally found the  courage to look up from  the pages. He felt a strong sense of dread  emanating from the leader  next to him.

"What plan?" Hongjoong's felt his voice waver. He hoped no one else heard the weakness.

"You have two options," the man said. "One, you disband your team and stop everything you're doing."

"Impossible." Hongjoong stated, anger taking over all emotions for a split second.

The man continued speaking as if he hadn't heard Hongjoong. "Two, you join us and you will be trained to defend the city properly, without all the destruction."

It took Hongjoong all  his self-control not to shout the first thing  that came to his mind,  which happened to be a swear word. "You want to train us."

Hongjoong waited, but  the officials stared blankly back at him. "I  don't think you understand  why we made this group in the first place."

Yunho's body tensed up  after hearing the hidden wrath in his  leader's voice. He knew Hongjoong  would protect the team at all costs,  but Yunho was different. He wanted  time to digest the information  before coming to a conclusion. The  situation seemed bad on the surface,  but if he had time to think through  it, things might turn out  differently. Unfortunately, the  overprotective leader seemed to have  already made up his mind.