SILENCE | ATEEZ

14 | A Dance Of Deception

He squints his eyes to the woman as if staring at the back of her head would magically bring the answer out. To consider her vulnerable is one thing, but he couldn't stop thinking about what the soldier had said to Arin earlier in that room. Saera works with VESTRA, and according to Yunho, she had a very close friendship with the president himself. A fact that he simply couldn't ignore. Any form of friendship with one person; it clearly means that they had similar understandings and things that they both agree on. To assume that Saera had been forced to work with Seonghwa as suggested by Wooyoung is simply nonsense because Saera doesn't seem to have any sort of things that is holding her back from withdrawing from the president's grasp.

"I don't know who to trust anymore," Wooyoung expresses in a whisper as he walks on Mingi's left side, "but I certainly don't think the soldier will do us any good."

"Why is that?"

"Well, I don't know?? Sometimes you can just sense someone with bad intentions," Wooyoung mumbles, carefully not wanting the soldier to hear them.

Jongho seems to have distress paint all over his face. Though he didn't yet open his mouth to speak out his thoughts, Mingi senses that Jongho might have a lot of things that are going on in his head. He is about to ask him but quickly decides against it after he remembers their conversation not too long ago.

There's no way he's still thinking about escaping right?

Mingi shifts his attention to the two walking figures in front of them and keeps his mouth silent. They keep on following the soldier, eyes lingering everywhere around the two of them, followed by Elenna on Saera's side, as she insists on watching over her. Wooyoung seem now to be absorbed in the surroundings as they step into the other side of the many halls of Astral Ruin. Arin follows right behind the three of them with both San and Yeosang, all with facial expressions that are hard to interpret.

Wooyoung's mouth opens wide as he gasps in awe, "woah.. What is this place?"

Sun is now shining brightly upon them as their eyes feel a bit sting due to the changes in light. It seems like they are now outside of the building, out at a wide field with green grass. It is strangely empty however, and even though the sun is shining blazingly against their skin, strangely enough, they all didn't feel any warmth or heat coming from the sun... As if the sun is indeed, not really there.

A loud sound.. Very loud blaring horns greet their ears, subsequently changing their faces into grimaces as their hands go up to cover their ears.

For a moment, neither of them moves, not even the soldier as he seems to have taken the shock as well, as if he was not expecting something. Just as they are about to recover from the shock, a scream leaves the soldier's mouth as he quickly pushes both Saera and Elenna's head down in a rush, forcing both of them on the ground.

"LOWER YOUR HEAD!"

All of them scramble on the ground, heartbeat rapidly increasing as they hear more gunshots coming right before them. Wooyoung rolls on the ground as he tries to balance himself and is caught off guard as an arrow lands right before his eyes. He gasps, trying to grasp on the situation as he is still frozen on the ground, unable to recover from the shock. The arrow didn't hit him, but he stayed there, unable to move nor to breathe as he held his breath – as if the arrow struck him right in his heart, putting a stop mark to all of his system circulations. He feels something brewing under his skin when he realises the situation before his eyes; the arrow is not a mere arrow.

It has no sharp ends like the usual arrow used for hunting, no. It is not an arrow, it is merely a stick that is attached to a small bottle of liquid, which has now already crashed on the ground. The liquid contents inside of the bottle splatters everywhere near him, and some even find its way on his arms and his right cheek. Wooyoung slowly put his hand on the side of his cheek, feeling it slowly burns his skin as he stays there, unmoved.