Vanished [ATEEZ]

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Three days.
Three days that Seonghwa was searching for them. But for the moment he didn't found anything, and he kept on growing in him. Seonghwa fought back, as hard as he could. But he knew it... He could only delay the moment of his awakening.
The young man had no hint, nothing to hang on to.

The place where he had woke up was a relatively big island.
He had found a place to sleep. A couple of old people had kindly took care of him. Treating him just as their own grandchild. They were really poor and had very little to bite or sup. Just as the biggest part of the island. But their hearts were filled with goodwill and sympathy. They literally had nothing but would have given him the world if he ever asked for it.
They had asked a lot of questions, that Seonghwa tried to avoid, such as who he was, what happened to him, where he was coming from, what was his name.
Seonghwa had said the bare minimum, not wanting to endanger them. He had given them a fake name, the first one that came in his mind.
Now Seonghwa was just a survivor of a storm that sank the ship he was on, named Hyung-min. That wasn't a big lie after all. Seonghwa never mentioned anything about him, but the simple thought of him navigating the seas was enough for the old man to be happy. He had told him a secret.
The man was once a pirate, but the war forced him to retire. The couple was so happy to have the young man by their side. He had been so helpful and kind to them since he had suddenly appeared in their life. But they knew it, it was not going to be eternal.
The young man kept on searching for his friends. Even the smallest hint could help him.

He was wandering in the dusty crowded streets, kids running as they bumped into everyone. The young man had hidden his face with the long scarf that was once tied around his waist. He did not knew if a bounty had been placed on his head or not, but taking too much precautions wouldn't hurt anyone.
For the few days he had spent here, Seonghwa had learned about what people called The sinner's purge.
The sinner's purge was a random thing created by the Royalty. The aim of it was to terrifies the poor citizens, and make them obey at every ridiculous laws and rules. The citizens lived in constant fear due to those people.
It could take place at any random moment, catching people off guard. Guards on horses, armed with swords and muskets, hurtled down the streets, wounding, looting, killing those who were unlucky to be on their way. They did not cared whether or not the person was old, young, weak, defenceless... That was exactly what they wanted.
Killing innocents, terrifying the harmless, and becoming the nightmares of children, so that no one ever had the thought of rebellion, no one ever had the courage and the recklessness to break the rules.
All of that by order of the King...

______________

Jongho was walking in the dusty crowded streets, heading toward the Harbor. From the informations he had succeeded to collect, a ship was sailing today. He had found the captain and had a little conversation with him. The man had accepted after a little sums of money, clearly not clean obviously, to help the young boy. He did not knew why, but he didn't cared at all, as long as he had his money nothing else mattered.
The boy was lost in his thoughts. He had dreamed about his friends. He wasn't sure if that was just a useless dream or a perfect vision of them.

If he followed his dream.
Mingi and San were in bad conditions but Jongho didn't had any clues of where.
Seonghwa was searching for them just like him.
Yunho had woke up on a beach, alone.
Yeosang and Wooyoung had been saved by a merchant ship that had apparently passed by after the storm, bringing them back to the lands. They had drop anchor at Ostendène, an apparently "rich" island, even if the entire wealth of it was detained by ten percent of the population. The rest was left to die at the bottom of the village, the luxurious houses dominating them. The island was also well known as a dangerous one, corrupt pirates using it as a way to obtain slaves. That was where Jongho was going, trying to find his two friends after those days was gonna be a good start.
But in all of that, Jongho was scared. Scared about one thing...

Hongjoong.

During all of his dreams he never had saw him, nothing about him, nothing that testified that he was still alive. This simple thought crushed his heart. Did he really died that night? Was it over?

The young boy was completely absorbed by his thoughts that he barely heard the sound of an horn and the galloping of horses upper on the pathway. He directly understood what was going on and cursed himself to not had woke up earlier this morning to avoid that.
The sinner's purge, he had heard about that but this was the very first one he ever encountered, and he hoped the last one.
Jongho got out of his reverie and just as everyone around him, began to run down the street. He heard the galloping coming closer and closer as he began to hear the slashing of swords and the screams of innocent people, which he may even have met the gaze. He ran faster and faster, shunning the bodies falling to the ground. Suddenly, at a crossover, he bumped into someone. He got up rapidly and offered his hand to help the person that fell with him. But the sound was now just behind them and Jongho couldn't really focus. As a last chance he grabbed the man strongly and threw him to the side of the road, following him at the same time. The horses passed in front of them and even more screams began to echoing in the narrow street. The bodies joined the others already on the ground and the guards continued their slaughter without even looking back. The blood completely filled the gutters, the few villagers that survived ran to their beloved ones, laying on the red carpet.
Jongho got up, his ship was now sailing in a very short time. He turned back to look at the man and apologised for pushing him that hard, but when his eyes finally adjusted to look at the person in front of him, joy and hope took over him.

-Hyung?