[gluteus]

Crescent
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Yunho watches cautiously over Hongjoong's head, looking as if he's trying to hide from something as he stands behind the leader, but ends up looking like an overgrown giant tree about to reach the sky. When Hongjoong moves to the left, he follows, when the leader steps to the right, he fixes his position so he'll be standing behind him.

"Are you really trying to hide behind Hongjoong? Because if you are, he's possibly the worst person you could choose," Yeosang passes by them, going over to the kitchen whilst drying his hair. He looks like he's ready to go to bed with his silk pajamas, face red and wet after showering. "Hey Byul, Hwayoung. What are both of you doing?"

"Byul-ie is reading a book to me!" Hwayoung announces in a giggly tone.

"That's nice-" Yeosang backtracks as he catches the book title and what's actually spread out in front of the two girls, unbelieving in what he's seeing and forgetting his initial intention of going to the kitchen. "Is that a human anatomy textbook or am I dreaming? Byul are you really reading out a university textbook to a 6-year-old? No wonder Yunho is trying to hide behind Hongjoong; he's scared of the power you hold over Hwayoung."

She looks slightly guilty at the mention of her reading out a textbook to the 6-year-old, but she's quick to defend herself. "Hwayoung wanted to know what I took in university and when I told her I took biomedical science she asked me what kind of things I learnt there. Somehow... I ended up talking about anatomy and somehow Seonghwa has a human anatomy textbook lying around in his bedroom. At least it has a lot of pictures," she grimaces.

"We have a bone called a femur in our leg!" the kid gushes, looking proud that she remembered what Byul had pointed out. "An adult human has a total of 206 bones in their bodies."

Byul smiles and pats her head, with Hwayoung continuing to flip through the pages and concentrating on trying to pronounce out the different names of muscles in the body. Yeosang leans over from the back of the sofa, trying to get a look at the scientific names but all he gets is a headache.

"How on earth did you manage to remember all these weird names? Ooh, but that one sounds interesting. Gluteus maximus. I had no idea a muscle in the is the largest and strongest muscle in our whole body. Really puts everything into perspective."

Wooyoung comes down to the floor next, followed closely by San, where both of them are wearing matching hoodies and track pants, looking more like the neighbourhood couple. Wooyoung has his hair untied, and San - after much pestering from Mingi for fear of being recognized by his red-streaked black hair - has dyed his hair to blonde with the help of Wooyoung. They are all about to gather at the headquarters at 9 p.m. to have a meeting, to report the missions they collectively carried out today.

Wooyoung and San saunter over to the kitchen, the former calling out orders to the rest. "What would you guys like to have during the meeting?" They pitch in their orders one by one, but as Yeosang is too engrossed in the book together with Byul and Hwayoung, he didn't answer.

Wooyoung goes over to him, kicks his and Yeosang shouts out in pain, dramatically rolling against the back of the sofa and claiming, "You just freaking kicked my gluteus maximus!"

"Your wha-" San starts, his hands preparing the mocha Hongjoong asked for. "What kind of creature is that? Why can't you just say your like a normal human being?"

"It's one of the muscles in your ," Hongjoong adds, his brain already registering the scientific names of the muscles and bones they have. "Apparently the largest and strongest muscle."

"Oh," he replies without interest before turning back to the rest of the orders.

"Byul, would you like anything to drink? What about Hwayoung?" Wooyoung asks, taking a peek at the textbook that's making everyone lose their minds. The owner is nowhere in sight, probably still showering to get rid of the dirt and blood he had gotten on his hands.

The two girls shake their heads and Wooyoung creases his forehead, musing, "Both of you look kind of similar you could pass of as mother and daughter."

"I love that!" Hwayoung jumps up and down, causing her dad to further crouch behind the leader, slapping a hand against his forehead.

"Wooyoung, stop feeding ideas into her head!" Yunho hisses angrily, but still seeking refuge behind Hongjoong.

"Is that Seonghwa's book?" San tries to change the topic as he sets down all the drinks they ordered on the counter, approaching the group at the living room.

Byul nods, holding the book in one hand as she turns it around. "I don't get why he would have this; is he interested in medical science or something?"

San clamps a hand over Hwayoung's ears to prevent the kid from hearing the explanation and nudges Yeosang to allow him to clarify. The hacker complies.

"It's less of him being interested in the field, but he bought the book because he wanted to understand more about the human body." When Byul looks like she's not getting what they're hinting at, he continues, "Seonghwa wanted to know which part of the body could be the most fatal when shot."

"Oh," she deadpans. "Of course that would be what he would do."

San releases his hands from Hwayoung's ears, smiling innocently at the kid.

"I think you're becoming more familiar with us, eh?" Wooyoung an eyebrow. "Would you want to be a part of our team? We could use some extra brain in the team. We don't know much about you, but you seem pretty smart."

"Smart," she repeats, "is what I'm not. I don't even get scholarships because I'm not smart enough. I can't even land a job."

"Scholarships don't really determine how smart you are, sometimes it's based on luck and what they're looking for. As for a job, it's not your time yet," Yeosang utters. "Well, at least you found us after your job interview. Even though it wasn't much of a nice first encounter."

Byul's eyes instinctively travel to Yunho's, letting hers meet his. He is doing a bad job in hiding behind the leader as part of his head sticks out from behind Hongjoong, making himself looking clownish. He holds her gaze, before he scoots out from behind the leader and sheepishly scratches his neck.

"It's almost 9, we should head down," Hongjoong brings away the focus from Byul to him.

They start scrambling towards the laundry room to head for their headquarter

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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.