FELLOWSHIP || Ateez Fanfiction

Chapter Fifty One: House Number 666

Wooyoung POV
I wake up in Yunho's arms after our youngest annoyingly sings us a wake up song.
"Kwait!" San's pillow flies towards the troublemaker but he catches it.
Yunho yawns and sits up, forcing me to also get up.
"If you have to be so annoying, let me at least give you a good morning kiss."
I give Jongho an extra big kiss on the cheek. The younger man lets out a loud squeel before he continues to sing.
I go into the kitchen where Seonghwa and Hongjoong are already eating their breakfast. The captain is studying a map of the island's forest and frowning while hovering with his finger over the temple street.
"Good morning!", I greet them.
"Good morning."
The oldest gives me a warm smile while Hongjoong just mumbles a "Morning" and doesn't even look at me.
"How long are you going to stare at the map. It's not on there. We will have to ask to find it.", Seonghwa says.
Hongjoong sighs and rolls up the map.
"I hope we won't go there for nothing."
"We will find it. What reason would she have to lie to us."
"She could try to trap us.", I comment. I hear footsteps behind me. Everyone seems to be awake now.
"For what reason? She doesn't know us.", Jongho argues and splits an apple directly next to my face. I feel a few drops of it's juice hit my face.
"Maybe she's from the Nekra Kingdom."
San puts his plate down next to me and tries to barge into the conversation.
"She doesn't look like she is. Apart from her clothes, she looks like local.", Hongjoong says.
San takes my knife to put jam on his bread.
"Hey that's mine!"
"You don't seem to need it anymore."

Everyone is gathered in front of the ship.
"Do you all have everything? Has everyone been to the toilet?", Hongjoong asks.
We nod.
"Okay, let's go then."
We follow Hongjoong through the wide and busy main roads. I hold on to Mingi's hand just in case. I don't want to search for him a whole day again. We reach the temple street and follow it until we reach the edge of the city. A lot of guards hold the people back from entering the rain forest. Hongjoong goes up to one them.
"Good morning. We want to visit the temple."
"Morning. Let me see... You are eight people. In the group over there are already nine. You should wait a bit then. It's not recommended to enter the rainforest without a guide that's why we always build groups of ten people who can go at a time."
We have to wait a half hour until two women from Kroosborg join us and we are allowed to enter the forest.

Two soldier walk us down the forest path. On the way I speak with the two women in our group. They tell me that they are on their honeymoon and have been in the city for a few days already. I tell them a little bit about our adventures and about myself. Of course they are really shocked when I mention that Yeosang and I are from the Nekra Kingdom.
The path just keeps going on. Occasionally someone points out an animal between the trees or we find a lantern made out of stone that has an inscription of the time it takes to the temple on it. The last said it would be around a half hour.
For now I don't see much of the temple. The trees are too huge to see the end of forest.
"Do you guys want to see the temple before we look for the clairvoyant's house?", Hongjoong asks.
"I would love to see it.", Mingi says.
"Yeah, why not?", I answer. The others nod in agreement.

We finally reach the grand temple. It doesn't look too different from the other bigger temples in the city with the exception that it is enormous and has a few side buildings. The guards drop us off at the edge of the forest and tell us that once we want to go back we can talk to the guards that are waiting here. A few priests and priestesses hurry over the place in front of temple and a group of visitors are coming out of the temple just when we were about to enter. Some of them are locals who instantly begin to gush about Mingi's and Yunho's height.
The inside of the temple is super beautiful and colorful. The floor is made out of marble and the walls have handpainted flower motives on them. The pillars that lead up to a big altar are embellished with gold and gems. The altar itself is decorated with embroidered cloths, flowers, candles and a small statue of the grand priestess. Behind the altar is a big painting of the priestess saving the people of Tongcheok.
Hongjoong shows us a rite that people do when they visit a temple. On the right side of the altar is a small table with a vase on it. Inside of it are small rod with numbers on them. I take the number 69 of course. I know, I am childish. Hehe!
We give the number to a priest who stands in front of two desk with candles. The candles on the left desk are all unlit, the ones on the right desk are mostly lit, behind it is a board with messages pinned to it. In exchange for the rod he gives us a unlit candle with a message tied to it. Mine says: "I won't let others determine my worth. I know my own worth."
The priest explains that if we like the message we can light the candle and place it on right desk and pin the message to the board, so it becomes one with our energy. I do as he says.