Pirate King - Ateez x original female character

Chp 4: Hala Hala

Me and San had spent the least time with her, and were probably the least broken up over it, but god it still sucked. The bad vibes were infectious. Everyone was miserable, and had been for the last week. Seonghwa still wasn't talking to Hongjoong. Jongho spent a lot of time in his room. Wooyoung had been curled up in San's arms for approximately the last forty eight hours. Yunho spent about an hour everyday arguing with Hongjoong about why we should go back for her. Yoesang wasn't  as close to her as the others, but she had helped him cook (when we let him), and he had been extra quiet this week.

"Mingi?" Yunho asked, he had his arms wrapped around my waist and his head laid on my chest.

"Hmm?" I hummed softly, I knew he could feel the vibration in my chest, I knew he liked it.

"How can I be so mad at someone and still love them so much?"

I tightened my arms around him, pulling him closer to me. I pressed a lingering kiss right on his crown, "I don't know, my love... that's just how love works."

"How could he do that to her? None of this was her fault Mingi... if we had found her a couple years sooner he would have been recruiting her," he turned his face into my chest, i knew he was crying. I just rubbed comforting circles between his shoulder blades. There was nothing I could say. I loved Hongjoong too, we all did. With every part of our existence. There was no denying that he fucked up though. This was not a decision he should not have made on his own. Going back is far more dangerous than if we had kept her. Breaking into marineford is practically a death wish, a suicide mission.

As I held Yunho, San walked in, wooyoung not far behind. Wooyoung looked like he had seen a ghost.

I sat up, "What's wrong?"

San set the paper down in front of me. She was on the front page. I read the article out loud.

"Notorious criminal Pepper, known as Bug... Bug? Whatever... has been found guilty of thirty seven counts of murder in the first degree, ten of those being marines... as well as unlawful removal and retention of government documents. She has also been found guilty of lying  under oath, as she lied and gave false information when asked about the pirate group she was traveling with," the air dried up in the room. I looked up and realized everyone else had filtered into the room as I was reading. She didn't just not say anything about us, she threw them off our trail...

"Keep reading," Seonghwa said softly.

I didn't want to read the next part, I really didn't. This was going to kill them.

Hongjoong grabbed the paper out of my hands, "For her crimes, the assassin Bug, has been sentenced to death..." He trailed off, before continuing, "the execution will be held in marineford, in five days..."

Nobody moved for a long time. We sat in stunned silence. Seonghwa was the first to move. He didn't say anything. He pushed off the wall he had been leaning on, his arms crossed and a dangerous look in his eye. He nodded his head absentmindedly before leaving the room. This set off a chain reaction of chaos. Wooyoung fell back into San's arms, crying. San himself looked a bit shell shocked. Jongho followed Seonghwa out the door but not before shoving a whole bookshelf to the ground. Yeosang was staring at the wall, a strange look in his eyes. And Yunho was on his feet before I could pull him back to me, advancing on Hongjoong.

"Hongjoong what the fuck?!" he yelled, grabbing our captain by the front of his shirt and backing him up against the wall. Yunho was quite a bit taller than Hongjoong. But i was much more afraid of hongjoong in this moment. His expression was neutral.

"Yunho, be as mad at me as you want, but you will obey your captain. You know I did this for your safety."

"I told you, all those years ago, that I would follow you until I thought you were wrong," Yunho hissed, his face inches from Hongjoongs. I was considering intervening at this point.

Hongjoongs eyebrow ticked up, a dangerous glint in his eyes, "Do you think i'm wrong, baby?" Hongjoong grabbed Yunho's hand that was fisted in his shirt, pulling his grip loose and using the leverage he had on his arm to switch their positions. Yunho's back was against the wall and Hongjoong was pulling his face down to his, "Do you really think i'm wrong? Do you think I'm wrong for wanting to protect you? Mingi? Seonghwa? All of you. Is that wrong?" he was starting to raise his voice, Yunho's eyes were wide, "Am I wrong for needing to keep ya'll alive!? Tell me Yunho, am I?"

I gathered my courage and walked up behind Hongjoong, setting a hand on his shoulder, "I don't think any of us think you are wrong for wanting to keep us safe... but I think sometimes you make decisions for us that we should be able to make for ourselves... things that should be a group conversation, you decide by yourself what's best for us..."

He turned to me, "so you would have wanted her to stay with us, even knowing it put the rest of us in danger, that it put Yunho in danger?"

I sighed, "Yes, Hongjoong. I would have... we are pirates, everything we do puts us in danger," I stepped closer to him and took his face in my hands gently, "Just because it is less danger than where we came from doesn't mean it's not danger... and you were the one that was so insistent on having some sort of moral code, or honor system. You remember HALA right?"

He nodded softly, "Hearts awakened, live alive"

"We trust our hearts, not logic, not the law, not our brains, our hearts. All life is inherently special and precious. And we take each day as it comes."

"Mingi...?" Hongjoong had his eyes shut, he had never been good at backtracking or saying he's sorry.

"Yes...?"

"We need to go get her don't we?"

"Yes."