FELLOWSHIP || Ateez Fanfiction

Chapter Eleven: Burglary

Wooyoung POV
14 years ago
"Wake up, Wooyoung. Today your brother is going to the military boarding school.", my mom says.
I sit up in my bed and look at her.
"I made sun fruit salad for breakfast."
"Yeaaah sun fruit salaaad!", I say and jump out of bed.
I go down the stairs and rush into the kitchen of our inn where dad puts an extra big portion of sun fruit salad into my bowl. I sit down next to my brother in the lounge. He is staring at his breakfast with a sad expression on his face.
"Why do you make that face?", I ask.
"What face?"
"Sad face."
"I just don't want to leave my friends, you and our parents behind."
"Aren't some of your friends going to that school too?"
"Yeah, I generally don't want to go to that school. They are mean there."
"They are also mean here. If you don't want to go, then you shouldn't go."
"I need to go. One son of each family has to go... , besides if I make it to the army, I will be save from harsh punishments... at least to some extent."
"Will you visit us or write us sometimes?"
"No, that is forbidden there. I won't see you until I turn 18 and become part of the army."
"That is 7 years from now. That's so cruel."
My brother starts crying. I hug him.
My father comes to our table. He ruffles through my brothers hair.
"Don't be sad. We will see each other again. Eat your breakfast. A soldier needs to be strong and well fed."
After breakfast my mum wants to dress me nicely for the farewell celebration of the kids who go to the military boarding school but I would rather play with my teddy bear.
I let my teddy dance in my bedroom.
"Hold still!", mum says while trying to button up my shirt.
After a half hour I am fully dressed and we have to go to the celebration.
The whole village meets at the plaza.
My friends are also there. I want to run over to them but mum holds me back.
"Hello Roduez, Miicalo and Minha!", I scream and wave and them. They wave back.
The mayor holds a very long speech that is super boring.
Then everyone throws flowers at my brother and the other kids.
We follow them to the harbor where we say goodbye.
"Goodbye, Wooyoung. Stay healthy, don't do too much reckless stuff and grow up well. I will always think of you.", my brother says and hugs me.
"You too... and become a strong army guy, so you can protect mum and dad.", I say, a few tears roll down my cheek.
My brother says goodbye to our parents before he has to go on board of the ship that will bring him to a small island near Nekra's capital city where the school is located.
My brother waves us goodbye as the ship sails away. I cry all the way back to our house.

Suddenly I feel hand on my cheek. I open my eyes and see Jongho's face in front of me. He is kneeling in front of my bed and wiping away my tears.
"Good morning. I wanted to wake you up and saw that you were crying in your sleep. Is everything okay?", he asks.
"Yeah, it was just a sad dream.", I say. I sit up and run my fingers through my hair. It has been 14 years since then and I haven't heard of my brother ever since. I wonder where he is? Did he make it into the Nekra Kingdom's army? Does he know what happened? Does he even remember me?

After breakfast we gather around the kitchen table and discuss how we want to get the key.
"Since plan A didn't work, it's time for plan B. We need to make a copy of the key and swap it with the original, I have a chisel so we could remove it without destroying the whole throne. We will need a sketch of the original key for that. But how do we secretly make one?", Hongjoong asks.
"I guess we will need to break into the palace two times.", I say.
"Either way we need to get an overview of the palace.", Yeosang states.
"He is right. Let's examine the palace today. Maybe we can find a side entrance we can use to break in. We also need to know how many guards there are. When we have gathered the information we can send a 2-3 people into the palace to make a sketch of the key. Then we need to find a way to make a copy before we break into the palace again to swap them.", Mingi explains.
"I think we walked past a pottery today. Maybe we can buy some clay there to make the copy?", Yunho suggests.
"But the key is made out of stone.", San remarks.
"Of course we will paint on it so that it looks like stone.", Hongjoong says.
"Then who is going to do what today?", Seonghwa asks.
"Me and Wooyoung could take a look around the palace today.", Mingi says.
"But we also need groceries.", Wooyoung comments.
"It's fine I can do it without you.", Seonghwa affirms.
"Me and Jongho can buy the clay.", Yunho adds.
"Then the rest of us will go grocery shopping.", Hongjoong says.