WHO ARE YOU?|ATEEZ FANFIC

Chapter 32|Parade

For two days they waited in the warehouse for Mingi's return, but their waiting was pointless. There was not even a trace of Mingi to be found anywhere in the entire area. When he wasn't back the next morning after the argument, Yunho's alarm bells had rung and by the afternoon at the latest, he had persuaded the others to look for their lost friend with him. They searched the whole district, broke into houses and shops, hoping Mingi would have found a place to hide, but that wasn't the case. It was as if he had never been there. Yunho paced the clubhouse restlessly on the afternoon of the second day of their search. Hongjoong, Wooyoung, and Yeosang watched while the others hadn't returned from their searching.

»I knew I should have followed him.« Yunho murmured and Hongjoong sighed in frustration.

»You shouldn't have. Let's assume something happened to him, then we'd have lost you too if you'd gone with him.« It just made it worse.

»You think something happened to him?!« he asked in panic and Hongjoong put up his hands and shook his head.

»No, Yunho. Relax yourself. I'm only saying IF something happened to ihm. Then we would have lost you both. But nothing happened to Mingi. He's probably just hiding from us because he's angry.«

»I guess that's understandable, after he and Jongho treated him like this.« Yunho murmured, glaring at Yeosang. Yeosang shook his head with a disbelieving look on his face.

»I don't see how you can defend him like that, Yunho. What if he had driven faster? You'd be dead now.« Yunho just rolled his eyes.

»He didn't.«

»But he could have.«

»Yeosang, you-«

»Stop fighting!« When they heard Hongjoong's annoyed voice, the two immediately fell silent and lowered their eyes. Wooyoung was frustrated. His friends were arguing, one of his best friends had disappeared and nobody knew how to proceed now. He rubbed his face in frustration. The quarrel of his friends gnawed at him. Having Yunho, Jongho, and Yeosang at each other's throats over Mingi broke the group cohesion, and somehow he noticed the issue dividing the group. Yeosang, Jongho and also Hongjoong were skeptical about Mingi. Hongjoong definitely wanted to find him and have him back with him, but he wasn't quite sure how to handle the situation. Yeosang and Jongho, on the other hand, both opposed Mingi's decision to resume. They thought it would be too risky if Mingi could go back to work for the Halateez at any time. They didn't know if it would ever happen again, but this 'it could be' was a factor unsettling both of them. The rest of the group was keen to find Mingi and discuss a way to finally free Mingi from the manipulation. They didn't want any quarrels, neither with Mingi nor with each other. Hongjoong ran his fingers through his hair and then looked sternly at Yeosang and Yunho.

»We really don't need your quarrels right now. You're both right and you're both wrong.« Yeosang rolled his eyes and didn't look at Hongjoong, while Yunho kept his eyes singed.

»Perhaps Seonghwa should have stayed here. He can handle you guys better than me.« the little man grumbled and at that moment Seonghwa entered the warehouse together with Jongho.

»Thanks god.« Hongjoong let out a relieved sigh when he saw the eldest. Yunho got up and looked at the two hopefully, but when Seonghwa shook his head, Yunho understood. They still haven't found him.

»Where can he be?« Wooyoung asked thoughtfully. They really had already searched almost everything in this area.

»Well, we may not have found Mingi.« Jongho began excitedly and the rest of the group looked at him in confusion.

»But we found something else that's really cool. I'm sure you want to see.« Curiosity awoke in the four boys.

»What is it?« Yeosang asked and Jongho grinned cheekily.