[deal]

Crescent
Please Subscribe to read the full chapter

Byul almost gets a heart attack as the first thing she sees as she opens her eyes is Yunho's face hovering near hers.

The latter gets shocked too as he quickly straightens up and blurts, "Please- please don't misunderstand. I wasn't trying to do anything to you."

"What- what do you- you mean-" she gets herself out from under the blankets and from Hwayoung's embrace then scoots further from him, nearing the edge of the bed. Hwayoung is still sleeping soundly on one side, her face serene.

"I wasn't trying to do anything to you," he repeats. "I was trying to wake Hwayoung up to get ready for kindergarten but she had her arms around you. I didn't want to disturb you so I was trying to lift up her arms without waking you up." He sighs, "Now that I hear myself talking, it sounds like a bad excuse now, doesn't it?"

"It doesn't," she says, but it's full of uncertainty even when she says it, and her actions come with her tone as she distances herself further from him. "I mean sure I trust-" she doesn't get to finish her sentence as she yelps and tumbles backwards and onto the floor, pulling the blanket together with her. "Ouch," is all she can say as she disappears from view.

Yunho rushes to the other side of the bed, quickly kneeling beside her as he untangles the blanket from her and asks, "Are you okay?"

"Obviously I'm not," she squeaks. "I think I hit my head against the wall and some memories escaped me." She frowns and stays silent for a while. "Okay I remember my name at least, that's good."

Yunho chuckles but when he sees the scars on her arms peeking out from under her sleeves he clears his throat. She has taken off the bandages she had to go around with since the first day, as the wounds are closing up and healing. He looks to the side and catches Hwayoung already woken up, propping up her elbows and resting her chin on her palms, a dreamy smile on her face as she watches on the two adults.

He realizes what his daughter is thinking of so before the little kid gets to say anything, he quickly instructs, "Hwayoung, you need to shower and get ready for kindergarten. I already ironed your uniform, so wear the one I hung up in your wardrobe, okay?"

She gives a cheeky smile to the two of them before nodding. "Okay, dad. Good morning, Byul-ie!" She jumps off the bed, runs to the bathroom with Yunho reminding her to be careful.

He shakes his head when he sees that Hwayoung remains with the cheeky smile as she slowly closes the door, looking back and forth between the two adults. He gets up while holding the blanket so that he's able to fold it neatly, his eyes following Byul as she stands up after him.

Byul trips over her left foot and ends up stumbling backwards onto the bed, but not before she finds purchase to stop the impact - pulling the blanket held by Yunho until both of them are sprawled on the furniture in a position that would bring a misunderstanding to anyone.

And it does.

"Really guys? Right here in Hwayoung's bedroom with the door open? You could've you know, control your hormones and not rub it in the faces of single people like me. Get your own room!" Yeosang appears at the door, in the process of wearing an apron. "Yunho, I was looking for you because Seonghwa wanted to know what Hwayoung would want for her lunchbox, and I come to this rated scene."

"Shut up, it's not what you think it is," Byul whimpers as she pushes Yunho off her, causing him to roll to the floor with a sea of blanket around him. "We fell."

"You tripped, Yunho fell on top of you and you ended up tangled in bed. Sure Byul, whatever you say. I can trust a friend," he smirks, "or not."

"It's true!" Yunho says a bit too loudly from the floor, trying to get off from being tangled with the blanket. The tips of his ears are red as he rolls the blanket into a ball and rears back his hand to throw it towards Yeosang. It sails above Byul's head and lands on the target's face who didn't have time to duck.

"Jeong Yunho-"

A scream from the top floor cuts off Yeosang's rebuke and his instant reaction is a low laugh and he says evilly, "Looks like Mingi has gotten his present."

"WHO DID THIS TO MY HAIR?" the hacker's voice booms through the whole house accompanied by thunderous footsteps on the stairs and followed by the sound of something being whacked. "Jung Wooyoung and Choi San, both of you!"

Drawn by the chaos outside, Byul gets off the bed and Yunho makes a beeline for the door to join Yeosang who has finished tying up the knot on his apron.

They get greeted by the sight of Mingi with his hair sticking in all directions, held up by what seems like dried up red dye. He is trying with all his might to chase the two troublemakers around the living room, with Hongjoong sitting on the sofa, reading the newspaper and pretending that they are a normal bunch of people, feigning ignorance towards his team members. Seonghwa is at the kitchen, his earphones stuck to his ears - either he's wearing them because he doesn't want to deal with the chaos, or he can't hear the noise due to the music blasting into his ears.

It's most likely the first choice.

"See? I told you Mingi has some red dye lying around somewhere. Our house can turn into a unique zoo," he stretches out his arms, imitating as if he's opening a banner in front of their eyes, "The first in the world, a giraffe with red fur," he adds with a smaller voice, "and a bunch of other animals."

"Including you," Byul states.

"Of course. What makes you think that I would stand being left out?"

"Seonghwa, look at this! They put dye on my hair while I was asleep," Mingi shouts in hopes of getting help, but apparently Seonghwa doesn't hear him as he starts to sing loudly in the kitchen, banging the pots and pans as to appear busy. He turns to Hongjoong next, but the leader folds up the newspaper before shrugging and lying against the sofa to close his eyes. "Really, Kim Hongjoong? Sleeping at this hour?"

Mingi gives up chasing them around as he sighs loudly and plops on the sofa, but Hongjoong snaps his eyes open and pushes his head away so that he won't be able to rest his head against the textile. "Rinse the dye off your hair first, or you'll dirty the sofa. The fabric's expensive and it's going to be hard to take it off."

With a pout on his mouth and the feeling of being wronged trailing him, he stomps up the stairs and slams his bedroom door shut.

"Is Hwayoung really the youngest in this house?" Byul inquires as she moves towards her room.

"Considering how everyone is in this house, I would say no," Yunho says under his breath as he subconsciously follows her and Yeosang goes the other way to help Seonghwa at the kitchen.

"Excuse me, but why are you being a creep and following me until my bedroom door? Do I need to slap you back to your right mind?" she reprimands him, her hands to her hips.

He snaps back into reality, realizing that his two feet have brought him in front of her bedroom, with her looking cute as she frowns and sticks out her lower lip. Even with her threatening him, he finds it cute that she's shorter than him, and he knows that it's not right, but he's reminded of the person he fell deeply in love with 11 years ago.

Because I was only a stupid kid who thought that love was simple.

"Sorry," he manages. "Are you still mad at me for shocking you just now? It really wasn't intentional."

"No," she decides. "Why would I be mad over something you didn't mean to do? I was only joking, lighten up," she playfully punches a fist to his shoulder, but immediately regrets it because things between them have been awkward after she asked him about why his codename was as such. Of course it would be awkward, considering he just confessed his undying love towards a dead person to another girl.

Before she has to think of something to break the tension between them, much to her relief the beep coming from the device indicating a message has been sent in breaks the silence, and Wooyoung is the first to press his thumb on the screen. Everyone waits in silence as he reads the message, and as he reaches the end of the message, he whistles.

"Looks like we're going to a lavish party," Wooyoung announces, running a hand through his hair as he tries to digest the compact information on the device. "The event is set to start at tomorrow evening, 7pm on a Saturday."

"The mission?" Hongjoong approaches him, taking in the information one by one and already having a layout of their mission spread out in his mind.

"Intercepting a meeting between two groups of people who have never met, stealing a deal before it gets to the other," the sniper helps to summarize. "We're about to take on disguises."

"So taking on someone else's identity, pretending to be them to carry out a deal with both parties," the leader decides.

"Essentially for a while," San joins in. "Only for that night during the party, but there's one problem. One of the parties," he pauses, "is a married couple. The wife has to be there because apparently she's the boss of this exchange of deal. She's the main player, the youngest daughter of a materials company. They're about to make a deal for the newest substance from a secret source. Our requester is looking to get their hands on the substance first."

All eyes, including Seonghwa and Yeosang's, trail the path to land on two people idling in front of the bedroom door, who

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter
Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
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.