Empire | ATEEZ

025

"Lee Taeyong, Moon Taeil, Qian Kun, Lee Mark, Suh Johnny, Jung Jaehyun, and Kim Doyoung," I mumbled, counting on my fingers as I repeated the names Mingi had listed for me the morning after the meeting.

I frowned, "But that's only seven," I paused, my jaw going slightly slack at the very thought of the sheer size of Abyss' inner circle, of the number of people the others, Seonghwa, were making deals with every day, "And you said they were 23?"

The blond nodded, throwing the towel aside after drying his hair. He sighed as he wiped his hand across the fogged-up mirror and stared at me through it, cocking a brow, "Isn't it about time you got out, Nari?"

"But you haven't even told me all of the things I wanted to know yet and you promised-" I whined, pouting in disappointment.

Mingi chuckled, turning around and leaning himself against the sink as he crossed his arms across his chest, "There's still lots of time until the gala which, no matter how much I try to tell you not to, you will find a way to show up at one way or another so I really don't get the rush," he said, pausing, "or the desperation, for that matter. You literally just watched me shower."

I scoffed, "I did not watch you shower, Mingi. I just waited for you to be done so-"

"Do you really want to see me naked that bad?" he hummed, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips as he watched my eyes widen, "If you wanted us to get closer you could have just told me," he said, reaching for the towel around his waist, "But since it's what you want, I'll show you-"

"No!" I cried out, immediately turning my back to him as the soft sound of the towel hitting the floor could be heard, feeling my cheeks heat up, "Why would you ever- Mingi!" I screeched, feeling along the wall as I half-blindly hurried my way out of the bathroom.

"Oh, come on, Nari," he laughed, jumping after me as he tried to pull on a pair of sweatpants at the same time, "There's no reason to be embarrassed."

"The last thing I want in life is to see you naked," I whined, sprinting for the door in an attempt to escape as he lunged for me, unable to hold back a laugh as I watched him hit the wall from the corner of my eye before continuing the chase.

"I think it would actually kill me- No!" I squealed as he finally caught up to me the moment I made it through the door, grabbing me and pulling me flush against his bare chest, both of us laughing as I made a face at him and tried to escape his grasp, both of us suddenly freezing as Seonghwa and Yunho turned a corner and came to a halt in front of us.

Mingi's jokes and laughs and childish behavior disappeared in the span of a single second as he immediately released me.

I straightened myself slightly, smiling at the second-in-command whom I hadn't seen since last night, completely missing the nervous look in Yunho's eyes as he nervously glanced at Mingi behind me.

The treasurer cleared his throat as he took a step away from me, folding his arms behind his back as he said, "It's not what it looks like."

A strange sort of silence followed Mingi's words as Seonghwa took a deep breath before taking a step closer to the dirty blond male, a stoic expression on his handsome features he glared at the younger, "And what exactly does it look like?"

I frowned at that, confused for a moment as I looked to Yunho and watched him mouth something at me, an unexplainable feeling of nervousness settling around my heart. He shook his head slightly, making a discrete move with his hand that told me to move away from the blond.

I did, opening my mouth to say something only to feel my cheeks heat up as I realized how the whole situation must have looked to them.

"No, wait-" I began, chuckling weakly as I reached for Seonghwa's arm, wanting to tell hem that we were just joking around, to reassure him, like the other night, that-