FELLOWSHIP || Ateez Fanfiction

Chapter Sixteen: Alone

San POV
I fell asleep quickly last night and slept very well because of Shiber.
I give the dog pillow one last hug before I stand up and eat breakfast.
After washing myself and getting dressed I have still some time before we go grocery shopping.
I climb up the main mast and watch the ships at harbor come and go.
Yeosang climbs up into the crow's nest and sits down next to me.
"Seems like the streets are full of people again.", he comments.
"Yeah, I hope we don't get pushed around too much."
It's quiet for a few minutes.
"I hope you don't think of me any different because I am the prince of the Nekra Kingdom."
"Why should I? You are still you. I don't care who your family is."
"It is weird. We grew up completely different to each other but we both struggled."
"What was it like growing up in a rich but evil family?"
"Hmm... I knew I had to obey to some degree, so they don't see me as a traitor. When I was a child it was still bearable. I just sometimes had to see things that I didn't want to see, that haunted me in my dreams. As I got older it got worse and worse but I knew that if I didn't obey either me or someone else I liked would have to die. I sometimes wished I would have spoken up and died because I couldn't take it anymore. Not because I thought it would change something. I knew someone else just would have done what I was supposed to do. But then I also thought about Wooyoung. I didn't want to leave him behind in this horrible place. I am glad we both made it out of there together."
"That sounds traumatic. I am glad we are here together now."

Hongjoong calls us. We go to the others in front of the ship and go into the city. It is even more crowded than yesterday.
"Maybe we should hold hands so we don't loose each other.", Yunho suggests.
I immediately grab Yeosang's and Wooyoung's hand. We form a line to get through the crowd easier with Hongjoong at the front and Mingi at the back.
Somehow we make it through to south of the city where less people are walking around. We quickly buy everything that we need for the next few weeks. Then we search for a bookstore.

We find one near the city center. There are a lot of people inside. I don't know if I should buy anything. The others taught me how to read but I am still not good at it.
Maybe there are some books with lots of pictures somewhere?
I go through the shop and end up in the kids section. I open a book named "My pet dragon" and read the first two pages. It doesn't seem to childish but still isn't too hard to read. The dragon in this book this kind of looks like Seonghwa. I find another book about an ogre and a princess that seems funny.
The last book I find is called "The ghost of the lamp". It is about a man in Wajasi who finds a mysterious lamp.
The others also have successfully found a few books.

We leave the bookshop and form a line again. This time I am holding Seonghwa's and Mingi's hand. Mingi is the last one in the line again. We squeeze ourselves through the crowded streets and get pushed around quite a bit.
Then another group of people makes their way through the crowd. They push Mingi and me away from each other. I loose my grip on his hand and he gets shoved further away from us. Seonghwa pulls me forward and I completely loose sight of him.
"STOP!", I scream at the top of my lungs but it is so loud around us that the captain still doesn't hear me. Fortunately Wooyoung heard me.
"STOOOOP!!!", he screams even louder.
This time Hongjoong hears it and turns around.
"MINGI AND I GOT SEPARATED!", I explain.
I see Hongjoong's mouth move and he looks at me confused.
"WE LOST MINGI!!!", Wooyoung screams.
I can see Hongjoong's mouth form an "Oh" and he motions us to go back.
We are back at the place where we got separated but I can't see Mingi anywhere. We walk through the area for 15 minutes but we can't find him.
"LET'S GO BACK. HE WILL FIND THE WAY BACK HIMSELF. IF NOT, THERE ARE ENOUGH PEOPLE THAT HE CAN ASK.", Hongjoong shouts.

Back at the ship we pack everything away and clean the ship. After an hour Mingi is still not back.
"I am starting to get worried about Mingi. It is already 12:30pm. I know that he doesn't have the best sense of direction. Maybe he doesn't find the way back.", Yunho says.
"He could just ask people for the direction.", Seonghwa remarks.
"Maybe he isn't good at following their explanation of the way either.", San utters.
"It is also super cold and snowing outside. I hope he isn't freezing and gets ill.", Wooyoung says.
"I think we should go and search for him.", Jongho states.
We go to the captain's cabin and ask Hongjoong for permission. He agrees to search with us and suggests that we split into groups. Yunho and Yeosang are going to search in the southern part of the city. Hongjoong, Wooyoung and Jongho are searching in and around the center of the city and Seonghwa and me are searching in the northern part of the city.
We also agreed to return to the ship at sunset if we don't find him.
"How do we begin searching? This city is so labyrinthine, it's going to be hard to find him.", Seonghwa says.
"Let's just search from west to east.", I suggest.