Hearts Awakened, Live Alive

Yeosang: Unwanted Guests

Yeosang slammed his clenched fist against his desk, frustration and anger bubbling up and making his throat feel tight as he watched his monitors.

"Damn it," he swore loudly for no one to hear. He slammed both his elbows onto the desk next, throwing his face into his hands, palms digging into his eyes as he tried to keep from breaking down completely. He hated this feeling. Helplessness. Uselessness. There was nothing he hated more. Sometimes it was a low constant, just sitting in the background while he sat at this very desk doing nothing while the team was out actually getting stuff done and putting their lives on the line. But other times, like right now, it was his dominant emotion, so strong that he felt like screaming at the top of his lungs, crying his eyes out, and curling up into a motionless ball all at the same time.

He couldn't believe it. Did what he'd just seen actually happen? His best friend, his closest confidant, practically his brother, had just walked willingly into the arms of the enemy and there wasn't a thing he could do to stop it. He knew why he did it. Of course he understood that they couldn't let Agony hold onto Gunho for any longer than they already had. And he knew Hongjoong couldn't go; the team needed their leader to figure out how to recover, if they even could at all, from this crushing blow. Aside from himself and Hongjoong, Wooyoung knew the most about ATEEZ, had been with the team the longest out of the remaining members. The choice was obvious and Wooyoung had been brave enough to make it before anyone else thought of the only solution.

Yeosang wiped at his eyes, looking back to his screens just as San was crumpling to his knees in his grief. He knew San would take it the hardest aside from himself. He wondered briefly if the man had managed to confess his feelings before all this happened. They all knew how Agony dealt with interrogations. They were going to try and get every last detail and bit of information they could from Wooyoung, and they didn't shy away from extreme tactics. He really hoped this wasn't the last time any of them saw their friend alive...

He watched the Agony cars all begin to leave the scene; he hoped his teammates got out of there soon too. The police would be showing up any minute now that Agony was leaving. Yeosang honestly didn't know what to do. He watched his monitors absentmindedly, leaning back in his chair, his eyes heavy as he held back even more tears. He felt numb, his mind blank.

"Illusion, Agony is going to—" he heard Hongjoong's modulated voice start talking in his ear before abruptly, there was radio silence. He caught a glimpse of the team frantically begin running to one of the stolen SUVs before... nothing. All his monitors went black in an instant. The low hum of the fans on his computers suddenly cut off, leaving him feeling unnerved. The lights above him went dark and so did the lights outside in the hallway.

Yeosang startled up straight in his chair, quickly looking around the now very dark and very quiet room, panic beginning to overtake his previous emotions. He pressed a few buttons on his keyboard, desperately hoping his computer had just idled out even though that made absolutely no sense. It was futile, nothing changed. Frantically, he pushed his chair backward, practically throwing himself under his desk as he searched his towers for the hard power button. Nothing still.

He stood back up, shaking the entire way. With the sound of his computers gone, he could hear what used to be a light drizzle turn into a full downpour battering the roof high above him. The distant rumbling of thunder snapped Yeosang back to two years ago, to memories of a very similar event, memories he'd much rather forget.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

He couldn't breathe. He braced his hands on his desk, leaning against it heavily. His knees felt weak like he could collapse at any moment. His entire body was shaking, his artificial nervous system taking his emotions and amplifying them tenfold due to the sheer amount of terror he was overcome with.