A Race to New World // ATEEZ Dystopia AU

10 | Hongjoong

Vancouver International Airport, Canada

The med student - Seonghwa - and I left the jet after San's team. For the past hour or so, we explored both the inside and the outside of the hangar, the runways, the taxiways, and the apron, but all the vehicles we had found so far were too small, didn't have enough fuel, or we just couldn't break into them.

Luckily, we hadn't encountered any Invincs yet, and the parkas that we took from San's jet were keeping us warm. Or at least, it was keeping me warm. I looked at Seonghwa, who was walking next to me. One of his bare hands was holding up his shirt to cover his nose and mouth.

I ripped out one of my gloves and passed it to him. "Your fingers will fall off at this rate." I wasn't exaggerating. The temperature had dropped at least two degrees after midnight, and we had been exposed to the cold for a while now.

He slowed down, watching me with wide eyes. Then, eventually, his hand dropped from his mouth, but instead of reaching for the glove like I expected, he just put his hand in his pocket.

I waited for him to talk, which he did, but only after turning to stare ahead instead of at me. "You know, you don't have to care about me. It doesn't matter if my fingers fall off - heck, I don't care if my head falls off. If I die, I die."

My jaw dropped open. I hadn't heard Seonghwa say a sentence longer than two words since we left the plane, and I didn't expect anything like that to come out his mouth. I knew Seonghwa wasn't as... determined and friendly as the others,  perhaps almost aloof, but this attitude was far from what I imagined.

When I snapped out of my trance, Seonghwa was already a few steps ahead of me. I scoffed, but pushed down the angry words from my throat as I recalled what my general used to tell me: compliments are more effective than admonishments.

Taking my other glove off, I picked up my pace and stood in Seonghwa's way, not letting him go any further. Ignoring the look he was giving me, I pulled out both of his hands from his pockets and forced my gloves on them. "I know you just feel bad, and you don't want me to freeze. But don't worry about me, I'm definitely fitter and stronger than I look. We can take turns, if you really feel uncomfortable."

Seonghwa didn't push me away, which was a relief. But instead he tried to yank his hands away. This man's temper. I had a tight grip on him, though, and he just stared at me ridiculously. "You don't have to go out of your way to--"

"No," I said, before he got to finish, "I do. Because you're part of my team now, and I was taught to take care of my teammates before I lose them all."

I didn't mean that last sentence to come out so grim and foreboding, but it just slipped out. I was glad when Seonghwa opened his mouth in shock, but closed it before any words could come out. He relented and accepted my gloves.

We resumed our walk towards the other side of the Domestic Terminal, hoping to find a car, or maybe a truck there. The silence between was almost interminable, until I couldn't stand it anymore.

I looked left and right, making sure we were not in imminent danger. It seemed like Mingi actually killed all the Invincs in the area while we he was landing the plane.

I took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry."

Seonghwa snapped his head at me so quick I heard a small crack of his bones. His eyebrows knitted together the same way he did when he stitched up Yeosang's wound, but this time his expression was one of confusion rather than concentration.

I looked straight ahead and continued walking, my own way of controlling my nerves. "For shouting at you back then. When we were flying to Vancouver."