Honor and Glory | ATEEZ

028

The world kept spinning as the voice at the back of my head kept growing louder and louder, eventually making me able to make out some of the words that it was whispering to me.

"Too late," the voice kept repeating, though it was hard for me to hear the other words or even piece together an entire sentence.

My heart was beating so loudly that it had become more like a constant thumping in my ears.

I looked around in the darkness, trying to identify the owner of the voice, but there was nothing to be seen.

I got the eerie feeling that I had heard it before, though, but the constant spinning of my head kept throwing me off the trail.

Suddenly, the darkness disappeared and I tumbled out of the shadows, rolling into a bunch of lush bushes, coughing and spitting sand out of my mouth before going head-first into the log of a tall palm tree, the plant swaying a little at the impact.

My head was spinning, again, and I looked up in confusion at the treetop above me, only to come face to face with a coconut that was now rushing down toward me.

"Careful now," Mingi said, and the coconut stopped mid-air before he threw it away with an absentminded move of his hand.

I scrambled over to Hongjoong who was laying on a green patch of grass only a couple of meters away, carefully putting my hand on his forehead before checking him for any wounds or injuries.

The light elemental groaned in pain and furrowed his brows.

At least he wasn't unconscious.

It didn't take long before the others popped out of the shadows as well, turning around to face the familiar surroundings.

Stretching out in front of us was the beautiful oasis that we had been lucky enough to find yesterday.

It was just as lush and green as I remembered it, the clear water glinting invitingly in the bright sunlight, and the tall palm trees swaying softly in the hot breeze.

"Well this is a pleasant surprise," San said.

I turned to him, almost surprised by the complete sentence, with feelings and all, that had just slipped past his lips.

"It's definitely better than some lonely cliff in the middle of nowhere," Wooyoung agreed, referring to the place where we had first arrived after shadow travelling with Seongwha on our escape from the thunderstorm in District 7.

"I tried my best," the darkness elemental huffed, only for him to follow Hongjoong's example as his eyes rolled to the back of his head before he collapsed.

None of us got the chance to catch him, though he got a soft landing as he crashed right down on top of Hongjoong just as the light elemental was about to get up again.

The two of them fell to the ground.

"Typical," Jongho said.

We couldn't help but laugh at the sight of the Hongjoong struggling to get out from underneath Seongwha.

Though his struggles didn't get him anywhere as the darkness elemental was both bigger and heavier than him.

None of us wanted to help, either, simply enjoying the sight.

It didn't take long for him to give up and slump back down on the ground as he suffered under the weight of the taller male.

But instead of asking for help, Hongjoong seemed to simply accept his situation as he closed his eyes in exhaustion.