Empire | ATEEZ

002

"Where the hell have you been?"

The question made Seonghwa freeze mid-step in the doorway, rolling his eyes and mentally cursing at himself for even trying to be discrete in the first place before turning around to see the entire group staring at him with wide eyes of mixed confusion, worry, and anger.

Hongjoong crossed his arms over his chest, releasing a breath before cocking a brow and repeating the question, "Where the hell have you been?" his voice edged with something dangerous, something dark.

"Out," Seonghwa said, shrugging slightly as he closed the door behind him and sent the rest of the men behind the leader a challenging look, "Things got complicated last night and I had to make a change of plans."

"A change of plans?" the blue-haired leader huffed, looking his right-hand man up and down with skepticism as if searching for something, an explanation that he knew he wasn't going to get, "What happened?"

"We tried to call you but after a while, the line went dead," Yunho said, the advisor visibly shrinking underneath Seonghwa's gaze as he straightened himself and said, "Nothing happened. I'm fine," to which the other blond furrowed his brows, opening his mouth to protest only to halt as Hongjoong raised his hand in a dismissive gesture. "To what do we owe this change of attitude?" the leader asked.

His cerulean blue hair had been swept back to reveal his eyes completely; dark, serious, and obviously not buying Seonghwa's bluff. "You know how I feel about lies, Seonghwa," he said, "How I don't tolerate them."

The others stared back and forth between the two men in command; the leader and his second, as they sized each other up, Seonghwa, at last, bowing his head slightly in respect to the slightly younger man. "Are you hurt-?" Hongjoong tried, cut off by the blond as he once again repeated his words "Nothing happened," through clenched teeth, "I'm fine."

A heavy silence followed at that, only broken by San as the hitman took a step forward and reached out for Seonghwa who visibly flinched as the ebony-haired's hand came close to his waist, quickly glancing at the group as their eyes widened at his reaction before pushing past them and heading for his room.

Only when he closed the door and shut off the voices of the others was he able to breathe out a sigh of relief, turning around to press his back against the door and close his eyes for a moment as he went over everything that had gone wrong last night.

It was embarrassing, to say the least, considering his experience and role in the group, his responsibility, that something so unacceptable could happen, and on his watch at that. He couldn't tell them.

He banged his head against the door as he cursed himself for noticing too late that the other had been holding a knife, for not suspecting that someone like him, someone from another group, a rival group, would dare bring a weapon to a meeting with him.

Another bang against the door. And the witness, the girl, how stupid he had been for not pushing her away, for letting himself get involved with someone like-

His thoughts went back to her wide eyes as she had first seen him underneath the dim street light above them, horrified and innocent as she ran to him, reached out for him, pleaded and insisted that he should let her help him.

Seonghwa sighed, straightening himself slightly as he remembered her shaking hands as she had reached for his shirt, how warm they had felt against his skin, trailing up his abdomen as she cleaned his wound, her furrowed brows and soft words as she had wiped off his sweat and cleaned his face after she thought he had fallen asleep.

He had done the right thing that morning, he told himself, cringing at the memory of how he had aimed a knife at her, wanted her to push him away only to be surprised by her courage as she had grabbed it from his hand and then confronted him with it.