SILENCE | ATEEZ

14 | A Dance Of Deception

"051. Can you hear me?"

Buzzing noise fills in his earpiece as he scrutinises his eyes, trying to make out what the other person on the line is saying.

"Hello? 051! I repeat, can you hear me?"

"Yes, yes! I can hear you well. Is everyone already there?"

Yunho clicks a button on the smartwatch wrapped around his wrist nicely, catching the attention of the others as they're trailing all of the soldier's movements. Gradually, Jongho moves to stand closer to him, trying to listen to the conversation as attentive as he can to find any clues about anything.

He does realise the newbie is now weirdly close to him but Yunho doesn't seem interested in finding out the motives behind Jongho's curiosity towards him. Instead, he relaxes his position and leans back to the wall behind him, allowing Jongho to eavesdrop himself, fearing nothing towards him.

"I can put it on speaker if you want," he says nonchalantly, catching Jongho off guard as he rolls his eyes. "I've already gathered them. Just give me the cue when everyone's ready."

"Alright, keep them on standby."

Mingi's head instantly snapped up when he hears Hongjoong's voice coming from the soldier's smartwatch. Beads of sweat forming on his forehead as his heart races to the thoughts of the last quarter. He takes a glance towards everyone around him, the people he had spent all his time here in VESTRA ever since.

When he thinks about it, Mingi admits that he couldn't have made it this far without this team. All the things they had been through, all the attacks that his sister had to suffer; if it wasn't for the people in this team he is with, he wouldn't have survived. Even for this short period of time, he knows that in the deepest part of his heart he can truly rely upon them. It's still hard to say, but part of him already trusts the members as if they are his own friends.

Friends who trust each other. Although the fundamentals of friendship between them may be established by a bond of trauma, somehow he believes that they've been put together for a reason. Some kind of destiny, some people would say. Mingi used to view these people around him as a threat, as someone who are capable of doing anything that might endanger both him and Elenna, but along the way he came to realise that there's more to it other than his own ego built around his heart.

He doesn't know who they are, all of them, but he knows for a fact that he can trust them.

It differs for the two new people however. The soldier seems to give him an aura he does not vibe with, as if he's waiting for something to go wrong that will confirm his suspicions about Yunho. Mingi shakes his head, trying to avoid the unnecessary thoughts in his head when he has so much more to think of. His mind occasionally repeats back his conversation with Saera, a person who he couldn't help but notice a slight difference between her and other people who work for VESTRA.

Mingi lowers down his head, putting both of his hands on, battling with his inner thoughts.

The real intentions of her joining their team is yet to be discovered, and it has been making him grow restless with thoughts. Taking a slight look towards her, Mingi finds himself making thousands of bad conclusions to soothe his mind. Thinking how bad it was the agenda and scheme of VESTRA that had been played on them until now, it is unclear whether these thoughts are to ease his heart or make even more mess out of it. If it is indeed that Saera was sent to be with them as part of the scheme and show VESTRA is putting in front of them, then it occurs to him a question on why.

Why would they send such vulnerable woman to be with them?

Perhaps it is to lower the strength of their team, though he didn't understand it quite; their team's strength is out of question if they are about to be compared with others. They are obviously low on numbers, so by sending more members to their team, it seems like VESTRA is helping them. It is a theory that hurts one brain to make sense out of it, but even if he wants to gaslight himself that the president is finally seeing the light of honesty in his little games, sending a weak woman is not really something that will favour them.