Answer ||| Ateez

10

By the time Mingi had finished explaining everything, the sun had cast a beautiful color of deep orange over the city. Both of the car windows had been rolled down and they had both reclined their seats a little.

It was mostly to help Mingi relax. There were quite a few times he had to stop and collect himself before he could continue on. Thankfully Yunho was patient.

He went over everything. The selection, how Yunho and Hongjoong had decided on who would be on the team, and Mingi made sure to stress just how close the two of them used to be. Yunho pursed his lips during that and stared hard at his steering wheel.

Mingi didn't press him to talk, he knew this was a lot to take in. It had been hard enough to go through this alone, and Mingi had had years to learn and process. He was asking Yunho to make a decision as soon as he was done.

He spoke about training and how they were all forced to be locked into their own room until their hacker, Yeosang, was given his own space, then about how Mingi convinced Hongjoong to give them all their own space so they could bond.

That was followed by their first mission and how Wooyoung had disobeyed orders and them finding out about his past. Then he went over how all of them weren't necessarily bad people, they had just made bad choices.

Mingi then went into specifics with San and how Yunho had felt attached to him because of his sister. This was when Yunho paled and hung on every single word that Mingi said. His mouth opened a little when Mingi said San heard voices too and that Yunho wanted to help him.

"He's like Yuri?" Yunho whispered, his voice shaking a little.

"Kind of." Mingi let out a long sigh. "We all thought he was, but... at one point we got him tested because he kept attacking us. It was mostly you because you were closest to him. It was like there was a switch that was flipped in him and he turned into a stone-cold killer. So when the test came around, we found out that he had some kind of a chip embedded in his brain so that he could be controlled."

"What?!"

"Yeah." Mingi nodded slowly. "And that ties back in to everything. Seonghwa's father is the one who did it. He wanted San to be the perfect killing machine. And in that life, San... San killed Yuri while he was under Mercer's control. He didn't remember doing it until Yeosang had come up with a device to block the signal getting to his chip."

Yunho paled and covered his mouth. "Oh god... What... What did I do?"

"You destroyed every dish in the kitchen before speeding away to your sisters grave. Hongjoong found you and convinced you to come back, but it was raining and you ended up getting sick. I think San was getting ready to leave until he saw that and he didn't leave your side. You guys really loved each other."

"San..." Yunho whispered. His eyes seemed to fog over as he repeated the name a couple of more times, then he started to shake his head. "I'm sorry, but I don't know who you're talking about."

"I know you don't." Mingi's voice made it obvious how disappointed he was, but he knew he couldn't blame Yunho. "But it's all true. Seonghwa's father ended up showing up at our complex because he regained control of San and found our address. He thought Seonghwa was being held prisoner, so Seonghwa went with him willingly to keep up the lie and they took Wooyoung. We had to evacuate because Hongjoong's boss was going to have us all arrested again for failing, and once we were safe we went to rescue them. The final time we were all together was when we were trying to stop him. But we were too late..."

"And that's why he activated this... time machine?" Yunho arched an eyebrow, showing how skeptical he was.

Mingi nodded. "Seonghwa was shot protecting Wooyoung from his father, so that's when his father lost it and dove for the machine. I—" Mingi's voice cracked. "I was the closest one to his machine. So I dove for it and I touched the machine at the same time he pressed his button. I think that's the only reason I remember. Which means he does too, and that terrifies me. If this is the world he created... then he's achieved everything he wanted."