Am I doing well?🥺 I hope the plot twists are as exciting as I hope it did.
BY THE WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY :)) I have TWO new story ideas, but this time I'll be writing for ATEEZ :) Is any one you willing to wait for that??
Chapter written on: March 22, 2020 (two chapters in a day after leaving this draft to rot for who knows how long?? Woah...)
Chapter written on: March 23, 2020 #Happy_Yunho_Day
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Suffering breakdown is not a joke. Imagine crying for unknown reasons, blankly staring somewhere and not having the energy to continue doing what you are supposed to do
— @ DoktorJoseRizal (on twt)
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[Chapter 11]
“Just go. Do it. By this time, from my hints, you clearly have a clue who's the bad guy now, go to him and take advantage of him.... So,
Who's stopping you?”
With that Woojin left, leaving me processing everything he said. I gasped, realizing who I had to go to.
It's so clear now.
I left the balcony smirking triumphantly with one person in mind,
Han Jisung.
[CONTINUATION]
I searched every corner of the manor, but to no luck, I couldn't find Jisung everywhere.
“Where is he?” I muttered to myself as I try to regain my breath, all this walking around this big mansion has me catching my breath. Maybe I really need to strengthen my stamina...
“You can't even walk around this mansion without getting out of breath? How pathetic,” Someone said, mocking my hunched form.
I turned around and saw Jisung,“HAN JISUNG!”
He winced, probably not expecting me screaming his name so suddenly,“What?”
“I need to talk to you about something... Woojin told me—”
“I know, that was part of the plan,” He said, which caught me off guard. Plan? Shit, is this another bad choice?
Taking note of my sudden change of expression, he added,“You seem hesitant, I understand but if you really want answers and solutions, follow me to the garden,”
Without looking back he started walking away to presumably the garden, I stood there for a few minutes, drowing in my thoughts.
What do I do?
Is this the right choice?
But it's answers that I really want...
Do I do nothing or risk it all?
Looking over his shoulder, he said, “Are you coming or not? Tell me beforehand so that I won't have to waste my energy walking to the herb freak's garden and raising suspicion by having seen leading you to the garden,”
Risk it all, Y/N. You don't know what's going to happen if you just sit here and watch.
I took a shaky step forward and started to slowly and surely jog towards him, making him let out a smile, making one thing come to my mind as soon as my features were graced by the presence of his smile, a squirrel,“You're finally coming together, I'm proud you made the right decision,”
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Wait, he said herb freak. He's refering to Seungmin, right? The one who almost strangled me to death if it wasn't for Minho interrupting?
Don't tell me he's part of this?
“Get out of my garden, you lunatic,” Seungmin said without turning around, holding a hedge shear to trim the bushes. Herb freak...
“Seungmin, activate the dome,” Jisung said and with that, Seungmin turned around and imediately spotted my beside Jisung. Smiling, he said,“So, you made the right choice, that's good,”
They're being oddly nice...
“Before I fully agree to this... whatever it is, can you at least tell me the reason as to why you're doing this? I mean, helping me?”
Jisung brushed his hair back with his hand, looking anywhere but me,“We're not only doing this for you, that's for sure. It's because if we get you out of here, both sides are benefitting from this,”
“That still doesn't technically answer my question,” I insisted.
“To begin with, Chan is the main mastermind of the whole thing, this damned circle is not a circle of 'friends' as you may refer it to but rather, in Chan's calculating mind, we're just pawns in his game,” A new voice said, turning to the direction of the voice, I saw Jeongin coming to us with his hands in his pockets.
“And the reason why we're doing this is because through Jeongin's power, we discovered through him that he saw Chan's calculating ways of how he got us together,” Seungmin added, sitting on a nearby bench.
“How? What did he do—”
“He destroyed our perfectly good lives hundreds of years ago,” Jisung said, looking at me straight in the eye.
“Hundred of years...? Wait...” I was confused, but then my mind flashed back to what I saw in everyone's chest, a frozen 00:05 countdown.
“Yes, you see it don't you?”
“So, that countdown... it's frozen, meaning you can't die...?” I muttered to myself rather than them in realization.
They only nodded, but I added,“Wait, couldn't kill yourselves?”
“Tried it before, didn't work. We realized that the only thing that can kill us is overusing our power but you see, Chan has implemented full control over us,” A new person explained, suddenly appearing behind me, Woojin.
He pointed at something in Seungmin's nape, pulling down is collar to show a weird mark embedded in his skin,“Chan did this on his skin, we don't know what it'll do but Seungmin says whenever he did something that anger Chan it starts to burn,”
“Why is Seungmin the only one who has that?” I asked, eyes still on the mark, not until Seungmin pulled his collar up and faced me, his elbows resting on his knee as he loosely intertwined his hands together.
“I'm not the only one though, I saw Felix with one and Jeongin too,” Seungmin said, making me look at Jeongin.
He continued,“If you're wondering why and how that got there, I am as clueless as you are before when it started to hurt when Chan found out I was out of the manor although he already once strictly told us we're not allowed unless he told us so. Until Jeongin came to me and told me what happened, Chan did that to me on the day when we just met, and erased that memory on me, that goes the same with Jeongin,”
“Jeongin's memory was also erased of that event, but when he did a past reading on himself when he felt the mark, he saw it. You can erase something from someone's mind but you can't erase that from history, unless you have Jeongin's ability,”
“I'm still confused...” I said, feeling dizzy at taking in all these information at once.
“To cut to the main chase, we are doing this because we realized what we are doing is wrong, Chan has manipulated many people as it is, some of us used to look at him like he was our savior but in reality he was actually the one who caused this whole thing,”
“Even your countdowns...?”
“Yes... we don't know how, but he did something to us. We don't know, but all we know is that he wants power. He wants to live forever, he wants to have full control of everything. He failed on the first try, that's why our countdowns were this close to zero, originally it was frozen on 00:01, so he started experimenting on other specialists, and he found out that only life manipulators are the only one who can do add to our countdown,”
“Aren't you supposed to be happy that you can live forever?” I said slowly.
“How does many people think that living forever is a good thing? Yes, it may sound like that, but through what Chan's manipulating, to what he made us do, what he made our lives to be, do you think we can live through that? Without guilt eating its way through our mind? We aren't as heartless as we make it seem, Y/N,” Someone said, Hyunjin.
“Before anything else, I want to tell you something, Y/N,” Woojin spoke up.
“I killed your parents,”
“You... w-what?”
“Stop rephrasing it, Woojin. Chan made Woojin kill your parents,” Seungmin corrected.
“But, they died of a car accident!”
“Most of what occured in your life is fake and manipulated by Chan. He has been watching you since you were a toddler,”
“I... I am very sorry—”
I cut Woojin off,“It's okay, I guess... They won't be back to life just because of an apology. But, weirdly I'm not that angry at you, rather I am angry at Chan,” I said, struggling to control my anger.
Taking a deep breath, I continued,“But why is only a few selected members the only one that has a mark?”
“I'm guessing that it is the most useful one. Chan can use Seungmin's power because elements are always around us wherever he goes, in Jeongin's case, he can use his ability to foresee the possible outcome of his plans and plan beforehand, Felix has teleportation, that alone is an explanation,” Jisung said.
“So that he can rest assured that none of those can go against him because their powers are most useful?” I concluded.
Jisung nodded,“That's right. Now, on to the plan. I want you to create a full submissive image in Chan's mind. Be the perfect key to his plan, make him lower his guard by showing him that you are on board with his plans,”
“That's all?”
“It's not as easy as it seems. Chan can read minds, if your mind is constantly on this meeting, or you are constantly chanting in your mind 'I need to pretend' or something like that, it'll blow our cover,” Seungmin said.
“I suggest thinking of bad stuffs about us while you're around Chan. To make him think that you're really on his side. He already thinks that Jisung is trying to break your trust to him, so hearing your bad thoughts about Jisung would really make him think of you highly,” Woojin suggested.
“That's a good idea. Now, disperse,” Jisung said as the dome disappears and suddenly I was the only one left alone in the garden.
I need to act fast.
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Does that clear up everything?? If you're wondering "where tf is Felix, I need some screentime/highlight plsss" or "is felix only there for the bathroom chapter???"
Well the answer is NOPE. Felix plays a vital role in the ending ;))