Mists of Celeste - an Ateez Fanfic

act two ➻ part four

You wake up with a start, stirred awake by some nightmare that leaves your mind the moment you open your eyes. For a second, you don't remember where you are or what's going on, but the sudden soreness that spreads across your neck reminds you of what happened the previous day. The skin is sensitive under your fingers; there's bruising surely but you don't really want to look at the evidence of your near death. Your eyes shift to the other side of the bed, expecting to find San there since you vaguely remember falling asleep with his hand in yours.

You drop said hand to your lap, looking at the skin of your palm as though it's going to speak back at you and explain what happened last night. You don't remember a thing after he said that he was going to make sure that you wouldn't go anywhere again. Everything is blank and empty after that, no traces of any other memories from that point on. Perhaps it's for the better but you can't help but feel that you are missing something important that happened during the night.

You try not to dwell on it though; instead, you pull yourself up from the bed and cast a glance over at the bathroom door. It's wide open, which you find odd because you at least recall shutting it after your shower last night.

"San must have left already," you mutter to yourself as you bend down to grab your shoes. You slip them on with haste, hand rushing to touch your neck when a surge of pain jolts through it. It doesn't bother you much after that, maybe it had some sort of crick in it from an awkward position in the night or maybe that Taskmaster Cara fucked you up worse than you initially thought.

You let your hand fall back to your side as you step out into the hall. For some reason you expect San to be waiting just outside the door, leaning up against the wall and ready to chastise you for sleeping so late, but the hall is empty. You descend the stairs in the hopes of finding him there, still unsure as to why you're craving his presence so badly all of a sudden.

However, again, San is nowhere in sight in the lobby of the hotel. Rather it's only Wooyoung, Seonghwa, and Hongjoong who stand downstairs. They're close to the door, Seonghwa and Hongjoong locked in what seems to be a heated discussion and Wooyoung stands a bit off to the side and watches on with wide eyes. As soon as you reach the bottom step, Wooyoung catches sight of you. He turns towards you, grinning from ear to ear.

"Good morning," he greets as you walk closer to him, his tone soft and melodious compared to Hongjoong's slightly grating tone that carries over to your ear. Seonghwa twists at the waist when he hears Wooyoung speaking, and his eyes trail over your shorter form in confusion for a brief moment.

"Oh, Y/N. Did you sleep alright?"

Rather than looking back at Seonghwa, you stare past him to look Hongjoong in the eye.

"It was choice that landed you in your current predicament, but I know that it was fate that put you in my path. You can walk away from fate and choose uncertainty. Or you can walk back upstairs and let fate decide the rest."

You want to know what he's thinking, you wish you could see into his mind and understand what exactly is going on in there. Hongjoong's expression remains flat and blank. You can't read anything on it, and he doesn't help you along at all, staying silent and unmoving as your stare trails over him. It's impossible to know how he feels about seeing that you decided to stay.

"I slept just fine," you answer at last. Your eyes drag back up to meet Seonghwa's again, lingering this time. "My neck hurts a bit but not too much."

"It looks a lot worse than it hurts, most likely," Wooyoung mentions. Hot breath hits your neck as the man suddenly leans in and inspects the bruising up close. "It looks like you nearly lost the fight, to be honest. Pretty good impressions of fingers on your skin though. Almost impressive." Wooyoung pulls back and sends a lopsided smile your way, one that you return with half the amount of enthusiasm.