Resolving Conflict | Ateez Superhero AU

Secret

6 days after separating

Yunho woke up to a incessant whir of vibrations coming from his phone. He stretched his arm towards where his bedside table would be and groped blindly in the dark. The digital clock read 2:27am.

Muttering a curse, he fumbled for the power button and squinted his eyes at the burst of artificial light.

25 missed calls from Tiny Apple

The screen faded away to sleep mode just as the number rose to 26. Yunho switched his phone on again, stared at the missed calls notification until it disappears, and then repeated the process a few times.

His other hand was motionless under the warm covers, battling with the obligation to call his brother back. There were no messages, just calls that kept piling up. Which meant it had to be important.

Maybe it was the draft inclining him to curl back under the thick blanket, maybe it was his eyelids laden with fatigue and threatening to fall shut, or maybe it was the memory of the awkward encounter with Mingi last time that made him hesitate. Yunho didn't want to know. He placed his phone back onto the table and went back to sleep.

-

"Maybe we should try to persuade the others to come," Wooyoung said. Wooyoung, Yeosang, and San were outside, deciding where to go. They were given a holiday, which came as a pleasant surprise to everyone.

"Wait, where's Yunho?" asked San. He didn't work in the lab most of the time, so he was often clueless about his friends' schedule.

"He went to talk to Kim," Wooyoung replied. "Probably about his training. I heard he still has a lot of room for improvement, though he refuses to talk about it and insists that we go have fun first."

"Kind of hard to do that." San took out his phone, only to put it away again after seeing an empty notification wall. "I was keeping in contact with Mingi, but I think he got angry or something. He's not replying my messages."

San faced his friends with a sudden surge of irrational panic. "You don't think something happened, right?"

"Don't be silly," said Wooyoung. "The worst that could happen is that they get arrested. But..." Wooyoung stopped himself before he could say more, because the more he talked, the more he found himself worrying. "They would've found a way to contact us if anything did happen. Right, Yeosang?"

"Yea." Yeosang smiled. No one saw him hide his frown.

"So, should we go visit the others?" asked Wooyoung. "We can at least try to tell them how it's like to be here."

"Do you still not understand? Hongjoong hyung and Seonghwa hyung wants to protect the group's name. Even if they think it's safe to work here, they won't want to." San looked at Yeosang for confirmation.

"We can still check on them." Yeosang took out his phone and opened a maps app. "What's the address?"

-

Yunho was offered a seat in the plush office, but he stayed standing in front of the large desk.

"This is not what we agreed on," Yunho hissed. He stared down at Kim, who was writing something on a piece of paper.

"What did we agree on, exactly?" Kim replied, her condescending tone setting Yunho on edge.

"You know very clearly." Yunho tried to sound intimidating, but he was pretty sure it had no effect on the person in front of him, who was still looking down at the paper as if Yunho was invisible. "And it does not include going to our second base and bringing Seonghwa back."