Resolving Conflict | Ateez Superhero AU

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Seonghwa's whole body tensed when he heard a knock. He peeked out the kitchen door and saw Jongho standing up, staring at the door anxiously. Hongjoong and Mingi were sleeping in, still traumatized from their incident.

"I'll get it," said Jongho. He traipsed to the door and looked through the peephole, then consulted Seonghwa with a mixed expression of relief, confusion, and surprise. "It's Wooyoung, Yeosang, and San."

The knocks came again. Seonghwa frowned but motioned Jongho to open the door.

Wooyoung entered first and gave Jongho a hug. "I'm glad you're fine!"

San saw Jongho's questioning look and explained, "Mingi isn't answering my texts, so we started to worry. We came to check on you since we don't have to work today."

An uncomfortable silence fell upon Seonghwa and Jongho at the mention of Mingi. Jongho looked to Seonghwa for help.

"Is something wrong?" asked Yeosang.

Seonghwa felt an invisible weight pulling him down. Things were happening one after the other with no rest in between, and the timing couldn't be any worse. Screaming sounded very tempting right then, but it wouldn't help anything, and it would only scare the younger members who were waiting for an answer.

Seonghwa told everyone to sit down in the living room and went to get Hongjoong and Mingi. They had woken up from the commotion was feeling a bit moody, so when they saw almost all of the members sitting on the couch, memories from the day before flooded into their heads and they nearly lost all control over their emotions.

"I can't believe you still have the audacity to come here," Mingi said, ignoring Seonghwa's efforts to calm him.

San stared at Mingi blankly, trying in vain to understand the situation. Wooyoung wanted to shout back, feeling hurt and offended from being yelled at without knowing why. Yeosang's attention was on Hongjoong's bandaged arm.

"Mingi, please." Seonghwa pleaded, "Give them a chance to understand before you let out all your anger onto them."

Hongjoong couldn't meet eyes with any one of the three members who were visiting. Jongho stood up from the couch. He didn't feel comfortable sitting anymore.

"Where's Yunho?" Mingi raised his voice, and San recoiled.

"He didn't want to see such an unreasonable person." Wooyoung just wanted to fight back, but he wouldn't have known how much his words meant to Mingi.

Seonghwa cringed. Jongho's eyes darted back and forth between Mingi and Wooyoung, his heart thumping in anticipation of an argument that he wouldn't have any control over.

"So I'm unreasonable." Mingi scoffed, incredulous. His hands were on his hip. His eyes were moving around, too angry to stay focused on one place. His lips were parted but no words came out, his mind too occupied with rage to form sentences.

Hongjoong finally faced the couch. As a leader, it was in him to settle things, no matter how hard it was.

"We got attacked by someone working for the government. He said he received orders from Yunho."

The members on the couch took a moment to let that sink in. Jongho's eyes brimmed with tears.

"That's impossible," said San quietly.

"Well it is now, because it actually happened, and the person who attacked us said so himself." Mingi sounded worn out from his outburst.

"How could you just believe him?" Wooyoung stood up, pushed his chest out. "If you think about it for even a second, you would realize it doesn't make any sense!"