[dispose]

Crescent
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"I switched the cameras off; bring her out of the store," Mingi announces from the main area of the cafe as he types something away on his laptop. "We don't have much time before they notice something's amiss. We have less than..." he consults the clock, "...5 minutes."

After getting the confirmation from him, Seonghwa steps into the store, putting out his arms in defence, trying to fix his body language to show that he doesn't mean any harm. The trail of blood leads to her in the corner, unscathed. He looks at the small uncapped bottle filled with fake blood on the floor beside her. There is a lot of explanation to do to her so he crouches a few feet away from her, trying to reason it out.

"Yeosang didn't touch you, did he?"

She shakes her head, gesturing to the fake blood beside her.

"Please take that as we truly mean no harm to you. I know you're scared and confused; we will give you all the explanation that we should but first, you need to follow us upstairs. We don't have much time before Mingi has to switch back on the cameras at the cafe."

Her whole body is shaking but she doesn't give any more reaction.

"Please believe us this one time, we meant no harm to you. If..." he changes the direction of his approach, "...we have a child upstairs. You can stay with her if that makes you feel safer. We need to get you away from the cameras first, then we will explain."

"I can't walk properly," she merely replies, stretching out her legs. "I- I hurt them again when I was running away from... Yeosang."

"I can uh-" he does a gesture to show that he can carry her up the stairs, but he's too shy to verbalize it. They are the reason she's hurt, they are the reason she got caught in this mess, yet she still shows a little bit of trust in them. Somehow, that made him feel a little bit relieved. "If you would let me."

"Uh, sure."

He doesn't waste anymore time as he slides his arms under her knees and behind her back, lifting her up with ease. She looks away, feeling stripped now that he's too close for comfort. He only looks straight ahead and she looks away, avoiding any moments that could make the situation awkward. They step out to find Mingi waiting at one corner in front of his laptop, while Hongjoong, Yunho and Yeosang have gone upstairs. Wooyoung, San and Jongho remain downstairs, regarding the pair quietly.

Seonghwa slightly nods to Mingi, and he carries her up the stairs to punch in the code, before putting her down softly on the sofa across another one where the three men are already waiting for them. He joins them, keeping a distance from her because they know they're not making it any better for her. Too much of a mess have been done, but they have no way of turning it back.

"Who are you?" she asks first, surprising the four as she slowly sits against the sofa, moving her bandaged arms carefully.

Yunho nudges Hongjoong, prompting him to answer. He blinks once before saying, "We do run the cafe-" She gives him the look. "-but under that we have other jobs."

"A gang? Or assassins?"

"We're not just that. We're hired 'couriers'," he says while putting up quotation marks. "We get requests from people to do all kinds of jobs."

"So you do kill people," she snaps. "But why won't you kill me? And what was that back at the cafe?"

He hesitates. "Yes, but we have our own principles. We don't simply kill anyone. The reason why we had to bring you back here was because we needed to sort things out. The cafe is full of cameras, full of people watching."

"You mean those who you called monsters?"

Something in his eyes shift and he darts his eyes away, like he's hiding something. She notices, but decides to deal with it later.

He plays around with his fingers, pressing his lips together as he tries his best to answer truthfully. "It depends whether you want to believe us or not, but we're not at the top." He points a finger upwards, "Above us there are... bigger people. That's why we're stuck here doing this job and just like you, we have a debt to pay. They trust us enough to only put the cameras at the cafe, so that was why whatever happened back in the cafe..."

"It was all an act," she helps to finish his sentence. "Up until the fake blood and you pretending that you were going to kill me." She turns to Yeosang, whose expression bears guilt.

"Through the cameras they would know that by the looks of it, you have already found out about our identities. To them, that's the biggest sin anyone could have for both parties. Once they know that our identities have been compromised, they will hunt you down without even taking into account whether it was your fault or you found it out by accident. Their rule is that anyone who knows the secret needs to be eliminated, and then they'll get rid of us next. But if we do it on our own, they'll spare our lives and pretend like nothing ever happened."

"So to them who were watching through the cameras... you had gotten rid of me. You had killed me."

He nods. "There are two cameras at the main area at the cafe, one at the hallway leading to the store but none in the store. We had to keep up all the act until we could drive you back into the store. We had to make it believable. We needed to show them that we were fighting over what to do with you, and that there was some who would gladly kill you. If they see us fighting over this, they won't be suspicious. They would be if all of us are on the same side."

"All of you really made that up while I w

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Magbuull5245 #1
Chapter 70: By far the best book I have read. Laughing, crying, deep thinking. Just amazing!
jeongsclown
#2
Chapter 3: LMFAO THEY'RE SO CHAOTIC I LOVE IT
Manna-chan #3
Chapter 70: This story is amazing! You are so talented, the flow of the story, the way you managed to tell about all of them without it seeming forced or weird. I love it, thank you for making me smile, cry, smile again and cry happy tears at the end. Thank you for sharing this story with us <'333
WiltedStar
#4
Chapter 1: You're such a great writer.
Jade_Flower #5
Chapter 70: Loved it!!
TaeTae_wife
#6
Chapter 70: I so love your story! It's the fist Ateez story that I read and it's WOW!
Congratulations!!!! <3
MsPinKai
#7
Chapter 70: THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME SHED HAPPY TEARS ??? this was EVERYTHING!!!! One of the best written stories & plotline ever! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Animeakume
#8
Chapter 70: prepared my heart for a tragic ending but tHANK GOD ??? shed happy tears instead but it’s all worth it

i love this whole story so much! defs one of my go tos for rereading <3 thank you so much for this amazing story
Animeakume
#9
Chapter 57: i cracked and bawled my eyes out when yunho and byul repeated that they said back then as trainees ??? the whole “Dont you wish everything here is an illusion” “us, being here?” “No you idiot” back and forth conversation ohmyheart
MsPinKai
#10
Chapter 51: just when I was already believing that she 's not eunbi.......OH. MY. GOD.