Ocean's Descent ||| Woosan (Ateez)

20

Nothing in his life had ever compared to the horror San felt when he saw the robotic arm pulling Wooyoung from the water. As confused as he was with everything he had just seen, he knew Wooyoung was in danger.

The first thing he did was reach for his walkie talkie, then he remembered it had shattered. He had no idea who it was he would have called anyway.

So he pulled out his cell phone and tried to call Jongho, but the room he was in had no service. He was so panicked right now that he didn't think about all the water and glass messing with the signal.

San glanced at the tank one more time before running down the tunnel and heading back to the employee break room.

He was just about there when another door opened and the aquarium director stepped out and San slid to a stop. "Ah! Choi San, I was just about to come find you. We have some things to go over."

San opened his mouth to try and protest, but this was only the third time his boss had sought him out since starting here, and despite what he just saw, part of him still wanted to make a good impression. He pressed his lips together in a thin line and nodded. "Of course, Sir, what is it?"

"I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here so late." The older man flashed a teasing smile that made his face light up. His statement was true, he was hardly ever here while San was on duty.

The aquarium director, Mr. Choi, as ironic as that had been for both San and Jongho, seemed to be a nice man. He was wildly successful, all because of the aquarium, and was now one of the most well known men in their city. For being in his mid forties, he was very in-tune with every generation and had done a good job making sure his aquarium would be loved by everyone.

It hadn't come without it's stress though. His black hair was already peppered with white flecks and there were several wrinkles on his forehead. But the man always managed to have a smile on his face.

"I'm here," Mr. Choi continued, "to go over the new expectations with you. As you know, we've been setting up an exhibit that is going to be huge. Some of my men found something that is going to change the world as we know it. And," he placed both hands on San's shoulders to make sure they could face each other square on, "I'm counting on you to help me keep it safe. This is going to be your number one priority now, do you understand?"

San tried to swallow the lump of dread in his throat, but when he wouldn't move, he settled for just nodding his head.

"Good boy. I still expect you to do your rounds, but when you're not, you are either to be in the security room watching the cameras or by our new exhibit. I've set up an entire new system so someone breaking in through the back will be near impossible, but we can never be too careful. Come, let me show you."

The pair made their way back to the new exhibit built to contain Wooyoung. San's eyes immediately flicked to the open space where he last saw the boy, but there was no sign of him. San didn't know if he should be relieved or not...

"This is the main exhibit. I'm going to hire some extra guards during the day to help with the rest of the aquarium and make this Jongho's main station since he's my most senior guard. I may hire another one to help you at night too, but we will play that one by ear. But, as you can see, it's now the largest tank we have. Come." Mr. Choi motioned for San to follow and they went to the small door cut into the side of the tank.

San could feel his heart racing and it was getting harder and harder for him to keep calm. Sweat was starting to gather on his forehead and he could feel his fingers twitching at his side.

"Back here is an area I want you to patrol but not linger. We don't need you getting in the way. This is where all our scientists will work gathering information on the new specimen, and we are going to need to gather as much of it as possible so that we know how to better take care of it." Mr. Choi stopped and took a deep breath while puffing out his chest. "You know I've never been in this for the money, but... this is going to be our ticket to bigger and better things, my boy. I'll finally be able to upgrade my other tanks, get better filtering systems, higher quality food... You're going to help me, right?" Mr. Choi had the most hopeful and sincere look in his eyes that had San wanting to help him.