Crescent // ATEEZ ✔

11 [comfort]

"Hwayoung does not need a nanny," Yunho protests. "I can take care of her, all of us can take care of her. We don't need another person in the house."

"I know, but we'll keep her around as that before we decide what to do with her; it's just a temporary cover. We have to take responsibility for her life. She'll need a new identity now that she's supposed to be dead."

"You're really playing around with her life like it's a game... It was your fault but right now you're involving everyone. You think they're stupid to not notice that we suddenly brought in a new nanny just right after we've supposedly killed her?" he starts to get heated up. He decides that whatever Hongjoong is doing now is reckless, and he's doing it without consulting the others.

Yunho has sent Hwayoung away with Seonghwa to her room, instructing him to help her get back to sleep and not let her wander off into the living room again. Wooyoung, Jongho, San and Mingi have went up and now they're all gathered at the living room with Byul, who is as equally unsatisfied as him. The others who were downstairs are filled in by Yeosang, but even then they don't know how to react to the plan. Yeosang turns quiet after, his expression unreadable after some point.

"Listen, if we let her go now there's a chance they might look for her, knowing that Alexander doesn't trust us enough. They would probably scout her place for a few days, so she can't go back to her place. The only route she has to avoid is through the cafe where the cameras are. She can always use the other route to go here."

"The other route. The route that's..."

"That's what? Haunted? Dangerous? Nasty?" Byul looks back and forth from the leader to the younger, but none is focused on her. Yet again, they're discussing about her as if she's not there, which irritates her.

"She'll have to use that route to avoid the cameras at the cafe and the possible spies from there. We can let her stay here until things get settled."

"And how long do you think that would take? Do you have a plan on what you're going to do with her after?" he gestures angrily at Byul. He doesn't look at her, his chest puffing up and down after his outburst. "You need to think about the long-term consequences, how it's going to affect us and her. If you're just going to abandon her after-"

"Then what do you want to do? We can let her walk out of here right now but she doesn't have anywhere else to go. That's why I need time to think! If you think it's easy to become a team leader of this forsaken group, then why don't you be one?"

"Don't call us a forsaken group," Jongho interjects. "I don't like that."

"That's what we are, no matter how hard you try to deny it," the leader says as he stands up, intending to leave the discussion group. He's had enough for today. "Did you forget why we're here in the first place? Nobody cares about this damn team; our lives from the start are bound to be doomed anyway. I'm sorry because I'm really trying to be a leader right now. I'm trying so hard but nobody seems to appreciate that." He leaves them, purposely stomping his feet on the vinyl flooring to make sure the whole house can hear. He enters his bedroom, slamming the door as he does so.

"Kim Hongjoong!" Yunho calls out, but only once to his closed bedroom door before he goes the opposite way, stepping into his own bedroom and closing the door. Although he does it slowly, the rest of the occupants feel the tension between them, as if there is something that's waiting to explode. They have altercations here and there but it has never been so intense like this, and they would never have thought that a day would come that they would see Yunho get mad. He has always been the bright person of the group, not even once showing how mad he is, especially when Hwayoung is around.