Answer ||| Ateez

19

Hours had passed since Wooyoung's confession and Seonghwa still couldn't get his thoughts straightened out.

Presently, he was sitting out he side of his bed, with his head in his hands, while Wooyoung slept peacefully behind him.

After neither of them had anything else they wanted to or could say, they had curled up in bed together. Wooyoung had spent a little more time crying but did a good job trying to hide it so Seonghwa didn't want to say anything and embarrass him.

Once the younger was sound asleep, though, Seonghwa had sat up and moved to his current position. He couldn't get his mind turned off, so there was no way he was going to be able to sleep.

Wooyoung's confession had really rattled him. He had no idea the boy felt this way and he didn't know what to think. Wooyoung was his father's... Seonghwa hated thinking of the word 'plaything' right now, but there was no better way to describe it. His father had chosen Wooyoung as his personal whore and that's how it had always been.

The Pack did a lot of shady things that used to be considered illegal, so growing up Seonghwa had never questioned his father's motives. Sure it had seemed wrong... but he was raised to do a lot of bad things.

After tonight though... and seeing just how his father had treated Wooyoung, it had Seonghwa's stomach churning.

He turned around so he could look at the sleeping boy. Wooyoung's blonde hair was disheveled and either clinging to his forehead or fanning out behind him. His eyes were red and puffy from trying and he even had his lower lip sticking out a little bit. One had was opening and closing next to him as if trying to find something to hold on to.

'Because I love you.'

Seonghwa sighed and shook his head before grabbing a fistful of his hair. He really wanted to ask Wooyoung why. He had done nothing to deserve the boy's love... And he probably never will, but he did want to try.

When Wooyoung had said that, something deep inside Seonghwa had stirred. It was something he had never experienced before and there was no way he could even begin to describe it, but... it had made him want to tell Wooyoung that he loved him too. Which wasn't right at all...

What a mess this was turning out to be.

Seonghwa was about to give in and lay back down when a knock interrupted his thoughts.

Wooyoung sat up immediately and pulled the covers up to cover his mouth as if they could act like a shield.

The couple locked eyes for a moment. Wooyoung's seemed to tremble with fear and he pushed himself against the headboard.

After taking a deep breath, Seonghwa moved to put a shirt on and walked to his door. He kept it locked at all times and thankfully even his father didn't have a key, so he had his privacy. But the pounding of his heart in his chest told him that the fear of it being his father on the other side was very real.

With shaking hands, Seonghwa undid the two chain locks he had and then turned the deadbolt before opening the door.

His fears had been right.

Seonghwa was immediately shoved out of the way when his father came storming in the room, his face beet red and hair standing on end like he had been tugging on it. "It's all ruined. We need to be prepared to leave. I can't believe this has happened! That worthless piece of shit!"

"Father, calm down!" Seonghwa said, standing so that his father would be forced to look at him and keep his back to where Wooyoung was now cowering in the far corner of the room. "What happened?"