duality ➵ an ateez superhero au

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐰𝐨: too late

TOO LATE

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he felt like he couldn't breathe. like there were hands wrapped around his neck or like his head was submerged underwater. his world was phasing in and out, black spots clouding his vision, he felt like he'd just consumed a tanks worth of helium. no oxygen was entering his lungs, an invisible force had their chokehold on him, he felt like he was going to die.

he just couldn't breathe.

he can't breathe.

breathe.

breathe....

"we really need to do something about this whole situation." san expresses worriedly, clutching seonghwa in his arms before he could've fully collapsed onto the floor. "i do not think seonghwa can take anymore of this abuse."

for what seems like the umpteenth time, the poor boy's body desperately clings to san's superpower and practically relies on it.

they were starting to really fit his face, those sparkly freckles that is.

san feels seonghwa's breathing calm down and helps the older back into an upright position. he thought that everyone would be staring at them, thinking that the others took the teleporting as well as he had but it seems like they were all struggling after the jump.

yunho was helping mingi who seemed unable to stand up straight too. jongho had ran away towards the edge of the forest that surrounded the facility, hongjoong following right behind him and patting his back as he throws up the food they ate this morning into the back of a bush. yeosang was on his knees, clutching his head in his hands.

but aside from that, something in particular catches san's eye. the birthmarks on seonghwa's back have now disappeared completely, as though they were never there in the first place. dark brown patches that used to just be visible beneath the pale cotton, now gone in favour of his usual, milky skin tone. san had never been more confused with a mutant, the older and his powers just made no sense. he chose not to voice this, they could barely see anything through seonghwa's white shirt anyways, but he still couldn't help but question what this meant for wooyoung.

those marks must've been left because of him. why would they have suddenly just disappeared

seonghwa's breaths were deep and long, thankful to be able to get oxygen back into his system again. he stays on the gravel ground for slightly longer, his knees and palms starting to hurt from the pebble path digging into his soft flesh. but that discomfort paled in comparison to the literal rollercoaster his gut had gone through whilst teleporting.

everyone else recovers in the next five minutes too, still looking slightly green but congregating towards the front entrance.

"we are never, ever doing that again hongjoong." mingi whines, tears stinging his eyes and a sour taste in the back of his throat. the majority of the pain had already passed but that was not something mingi was willing to go through again.

"we have to do it one more time to get back to the elite—" the faces of all the struggling cluster members turn a ghostly white, unable to even begin to fathom undergoing that convulated mess one more time. "but that's not a problem for now. now we worry about getting wooyoung back."