SILENCE | ATEEZ

12 | Faces In The Dark

Yeosang and Saera had been up for almost two hours, and both of them are slowly getting used to the change in their surroundings. The cuts on Yeosang's face send random jolts of pain to him but Yunho gives a bottle of antiseptic and a cotton swab for him to use on them. The pain is getting tolerable and he is already now sitting on the bed as his muscles start to remember movements by memory.

Contrasting to Yeosang, Saera only manages to sit up against the bed and stare at the white wall in front of her. Her movements are so minimal and it still looks like she's in a deep thought to herself, that she refused to talk about. Yunho pulls the drawer next to her bed and takes out a bottle of water and hands it to her, the cap already open. Both him and Mingi watch as she brings the bottle to her lips and finally drinks it.

When Yunho moves away from his seat and goes to take a look on Yeosang, Mingi slides onto his seat. He takes a good look at Saera as he thinks of what he wants to say, too many question marks go unanswered in his head. For some reason he has the impression that Saera could help him provide insights that he needs to know, things that could help him gain more knowledge about VESTRA.

"Saera?"

Her head slowly turns towards the voice calling out to her. Mingi holds his breath. How can a person look so different in a span of days? He wonders what happened to her, and why she ended up here with the rest of them. More questions appear in his mind as he takes it in, resting his eyes on the intravenous drip on her left hand.

"Why are you here?"

Saera takes a deep breath as she remains unmoved, her gaze still pinned on the wall in front of her as if it's playing a show no one else sees. She takes a moment to swallow her thoughts deep down in her, her hand moving to scratch the drip. It's not getting itchy and slowly she rips it off her hand, freeing it from the pressure.

"No reasons," she says, not looking at him.

"Were you willing?"

"Does it look like I am?" she asks, curiously. Mingi scratches his head as he sheepishly pulls a small smile, "uhm.. no? Is that a stupid question? I'm sorry."

"It's not," Saera rests her head on the headboard, "what is it that you want to know? I can see curiosity screaming beneath your face."

He looks around for the others, who are all seemingly lost in their own thoughts including the intimidating soldier himself. Mingi lowers down his head, not wanting to appear as suspicious to them as he thinks of what to ask her now that he finally had the chance to. His mind gradually becomes loaded with thoughts and questions but Jongho's suspicions over VESTRA keep on playing on his mind even more than he could think of. It bothers him, to think about the possibility of VESTRA'S true purposes and it keeps him restless every time the thoughts of it crosses his mind. With a little gut left in him, he convinces himself to look up and meet Saera's gaze.

"What happened to you?" he asks, tone lowers down, "what did VESTRA do?"

Saera furrows her eyebrows as she hears his questions, "what?"

Mingi doesn't say anything as he waits for her to answer, still as confused as ever.

"Wait, why are you asking about me? I thought you wanted to know about what happened and what will happen to you?"

"That's true," he replies, "I don't know. Maybe cause I just want to know. You were one of them, yet why did they send you here to train with us?"

She lets out a sigh, "I don't understand either, and I guess I never will." Saera takes a moment to pause and breathe, "sometimes, a goal motivates us to get things done. A goal could mean so much to someone that it can be a major source of inspiration for them to accomplish the things they want in this short life. However.."