When Fates Collide | ATEEZ

𝕿𝖍𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖞 𝕺𝖓𝖊

"Ughh", Arae sighed as she sat down and brought her palms up to her forehead. Her thoughts wandered back to the rumour as she ran her fingers through her hair, Mistress huh?

"Yo!"

She looked up and saw Mingi standing above her, two cans of grape cider in his hands as he sat down across from her on one of the foldable chairs.

"Hey Mingi.." She greeted the Lieutenant as he passed her a can.

"What's up with you?" He questioned as he opened the can's lid, the 'pop' sound echoing louder than usual.

She tilted her head and looked at him with her lips pursed, "Apparently I'm his mistress."

Mingi let out a sharp, loud laugh as soon as he heard the word, making Arae slap his knee hard with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Yah! That hurt!" He exclaimed as he rubbed the spot that Arae injured.

"Serves you right for laughing." She retorted before taking a sip of her drink.

He rubbed the back of his neck, "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. But you've got to admit that they have to feed their curiosity somehow." He pointed his finger at her, "Why don't you just tell everyone about your relationship? It's been three years, I'm pretty sure everyone's gotten over Eunbyul."

She shrugged, "It's not my call. Besides, Seonghwa and I agreed that we wouldn't make everything about us until the Nation was in a better place."

"Arae, the districts are thriving! The only reason why rumours like that are spreading is because people are bored." He held his index finger up beside his face, "And when people are bored it means that they're stable enough to have time on their hands." He took another large gulp of his cider, "If you ask me, they're just waiting for news of King Seonghwa's engagement."

"I don't know Mingi.."

The Lieutenant sighed before putting his can down on the ground and leaned closer to Arae. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked seriously into her eyes.

"Choi Arae. Do you want to marry Seonghwa?"

Her eyes widened at the sudden question, causing her to slowly nod her head as she shifted her gaze away from Mingi.

"Do you love him?"

Her eyes flicked back to his, "Of course I do." She said immediately with a smile.

He let go of her shoulders and clapped his hands together, a smile revisiting his lips, "Then there you go! If a man and a woman love each other and want to marry each other, then why should you care about what anyone else says?"

Arae's eyes widened as the Lieutenant's logic registered in her brain. She let out a small scoff as a smile made its way to her lips.

"You know, I think you're more suited to be the Aris than I am." She joked as she looked at Mingi with a gratefulness in her eyes.

The Lieutenant returned her smile with a proud grin of his own, "That's what best friends are for!" He cheered before winking at her.

"Yunho's my best friend, Lieutenant." Arae responded teasingly, making Mingi scoff in offence as he put his hand to his heart and dramatically fell off of his chair.

"Ack! Help! I've been wounded! Choi Arae's hit me with the non-best-friend-attack!"

She shook her head at the man before genuinely laughing at his behaviour, "You're seriously weird sometimes Mingi." She commented in between her laughs as she extended her hand to help him up.