[disguise]

Crescent
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Yeosang puts his finger to his lip, tilting his head as he studies Byul's face, a pencil tuck at the back of his ear. In his hand is his sketching book, turned to an empty page which has been in that condition since half an hour ago.

Beside him, Hongjoong is flipping through a stack of fashion magazines, looking for nothing in particular. The leader would point something on the pages to Yeosang, but he only shakes his head, closing his eyes like he's facing the biggest crisis of his life.

"I feel like there's nothing I can change on her face or appearance." Yeosang puts down the sketching book, reaching out for a cup of water on the counter.

"So uh, should I take that as a compliment?"

"Oh-ho," he puts up a finger, looking displeased. "In our world, that's not a compliment, that just means you're going to fail miserably because it's hard for you to disguise yourself. You're making me feel challenged as I, Kang Yeosang, is the master of disguises. Not being able to change anything for your outward appearance means that you are insulting me."

As he delves deep into his thoughts, he subconsciously takes his pendant and bites it. In his mind, multiple layouts with Byul as the model is spread out, with different styles and appearances. One thing he knows for sure is that something needs to change.

"Your hair needs to go."

Defensively her hands fly to the top of head, looking at him with a mix of disgust and horror. Accusingly, she says, "You are not going to touch my hair and I am not going bald. I know there's nothing wrong with a woman being bald but I can't pull that off. I'll look like an egg." She frowns then adds grudgingly, "An egg that has gone bad."

Hongjoong snorts but is cut short as she glares at him.

"You think it's funny but your strawberry hair is funnier."

"Do you have a problem with me?" he asks as he puts down a magazine. "Why are you so nice to the others but you treat me differently? You even gave Yeosang your portion of food during breakfast this morning." He tries to appear angry but he ends up sounding and looking like a whiny child.

"Hmm," both Yeosang and Byul verbalize at the same time. They stand side by side, crossing their arms as they turn to look at the leader.

"I don't know," she says sarcastically as she leans against Yeosang, her arm rested against his shoulder. It has only been two days but they are already like the best of friends, clicking right off from the start. "Yeosang, what do you think?"

"That's a tough question," he replies, pretending to think about it so hard that his forehead starts to crease. "Is it because he always looks so grumpy? Or is it because... I don't know... single-handedly ruined your life?"

She huffs. "I think it's the second one."

"Ha-ha, that's funny." He slaps the magazine shut. "That was two days ago, and I apologized to you until I felt like my lips could crack. And I'm trying to be nice while letting you stay at our house. For free."

"Oh boy, here we go again," Yeosang mutters.

"Well excuse me, Mr. Strawberry." She puts one hand on her hip and snaps her fingers with the other. "I should be cursing at you until you are on your deathbed, but here I am, trying to live with the fact that you just simply ruined my life. So don't expect too much."

"Everybody makes mistakes. Just because I'm a straw-" he shakes his head and quickly corrects himself, "-just because I'm the leader doesn't mean that I'm free from any mistakes; I'm not a saint. It's not easy trying to take another person under my wing, but it seems like the rest of the boys are fine with it-"

"So you had to, is that what you're trying to say? While the rest of you wanted to spare my life, your real intention was to kill me off but you couldn't, because it's not the majority decision. Do correct me if I'm wrong."

"She's so salty," Yeosang muses. He puts a hand to his chest, then dramatically wipes a fake tear off. "I love it."

"Stop twisting my words. What I'm saying is-" he puts out a palm to prevent her from interrupting him and she crosses her arms again, defensive. "-it's hard for me to accept someone new in my team, when all I've known since then was 8 of us and Hwayoung. I'm trying. You don't know about it but Alexander used to be a part of our team and he betrayed us. He was our newest recruit in the past, but he was also the first person to leave our team in shambles because he was trying to save himself. I don't want something like that to happen again to my boys."

Yeosang purses his lips as Hongjoong tidies up the magazines. The latter stays in place, his palm on the stack as his shoulders droop.

"Letting someone in, especially one that we can't do a full background check on. For someone who have been through like what we did, what do you think I should feel?"

Yeosang reaches out to pat Hongjoong's arm but the latter flinches and sighs, avoiding his touch. His face remains placid as he stands up.

"Yeosang, make sure she gets a good makeover until we can't recognize her anymore, alright? I'll be down in the studio if you need me."

He walks past the two of them, leaving the stacks of magazines that he and Yeosang like to collect. He gives a slight smile to Byul, never having the intention of making her feel bad about it, but he can't help but get upset as he's reminded of Alexander. He enters the laundry room before lowering himself down behind the washing machine, leaving the two of them in an uncomfortable silence.

She hates the feeling; the fact that some of them - especially Hongjoong and Yunho - are making it as if the whole situation was her fault.

Why does my life always revolve around being accused of something that wasn't my fault in the first place? Just what

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Comments

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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.