The Chosen

Rigid Refusal

Mr. and Mrs. Park hugged their son in happiness. They could not believe their son was one of the destined rulers of the kingdom.

"Why didn't you tell us about this, son?" Mr. Park asked Woojin.

"Honestly, I had the mark for a long time. I thought it was a bad thing so I tried to keep it from you." Woojin smiled as he talked.

"You knew you were a Chosen?" Mrs. Park was confused.

"No. What I meant was I had this mark for a long time but since I did not know what it meant, I decided to hide it." Woojin defended himself.

"I still cannot believe you are a Chosen." Mrs. Park murmured.

"Neither can I." Mr. Park said.

As the Park family were having their moment, Daniel took a locket and and waited for the right timing.

Daniel cleared his throat before speaking, "Park Woojin, as my duty being the kingdom's Seer Successor, I present to you this locket. Please accept this and wear it around your neck as a symbol of your acceptance to your destiny as a Chosen."

"If I accept that, does that mean I have to go with you, guys?" Woojin asked.

"Yes. As we still need to find the remaining three Chosen." Daniel responded.

"Then, I sincerely apologize. I won't join you guys and neither will I accept that locket." Woojin bowed down then went out of the room, leaving the shocked Chosen Squad and his concerned parents behind.

"What just happened?" Jinyoung's expression was blank.

"Did I hear correctly?" Daehwi touched his ears, "He won't join us? But he is a Chosen. He can't run from it."

"Uhm... Mr. and Mrs. Park, I think we need your help here." Kuanlin addressed Woojin's parents.

"I'm sorry, guys, but we respect our son's decision." Mr. Park apologized.

"But we are hoping you can still convince him. We know how important your destinies are." Mrs. Park said in an optimistic tone, "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go."

Mr. and Mrs. Park left the room. The Chosen Squad, on the other hand, remained silent for a couple more minutes; each of them wore a blank flabbergasted expression on their faces.

"Wow. This situation seems very familiar." Minhyun chuckled.

"Well, yeah." Jisung reacted and faced Minhyun, "Remember when you said you didn't want to be a Chosen. But it turned out to be just a misunderstanding."

"Really? Hyung said that?" Jinyoung was amused by the story.

"But it's serious this time. He didn't even accept the locket." Daehwi mentioned.

"How do we convince hyung?" Kuanlin returned to the point.

"We really need a plan on how to convince him." Sungwoon suggested.

"Hyung, haven't you read his mind to see his reason why?" Daniel blurted.

"Yes. I did try but somehow I cannot read his mind. I'm blocked or something." Confusion was seen on Sungwoon's face.

They put their brains together to come up with a decent plan but, as usual, nothing brilliant came out of their mind when they needed it the most. They decided to just approach Woojin every time they see him and try to convince him to join the journey. However, even finding Woojin inside the hotel proved to be a difficult challenge.

For the rest of the day, they attempted to find Woojin, as he cannot be seen in the hallways. It was as if they were playing hide and seek. The sun finally set and their efforts were wasted. None of them could find Woojin anywhere in the hotel.

"I do not remember this hotel having secret passageways." Kuanlin murmured.

"What makes you think there are?" Daehwi retorted.

"That is the only explanation I can think of why we can't see Woojin-hyung." Kuanlin reasoned out. The rest snorted with Kuanlin's thoughts.

"What should we do now?" Seongwu voiced out.

"We will continue to chase after him until he finally joins our squad." Jisung was really determined.

"As long as Woojin refuses his destiny, we will not leave this hotel. I need all eleven of you. No one will be left behind. I will have him join us by hook or by crook." Daniel was smirking eerily and looked like he was ready to kill Woojin.

"Wow. Hyung is scary." Kuanlin, Daehwi and Jinyoung whispered under their breath.