Please read Author's Note at the end.xo

“Come on, Saerom! You can hit harder than that!” Hoseok loudly encouraged Saerom as she sparred with Jimin and the rest of Bangtan watched on from the sidelines. The younger man smirked and went to hit Saerom with a right hook which connected with her jaw. It wasn’t a hit hard enough to make her bruise, but it was enough to have her thrown to the side. She could hear Jimin murmur a ‘sorry’ as she quickly regained her stance before Jimin could connect another hit to her side. He went to punch her again, swinging his left fist down, when she ducked and quickly swung her leg, kicking Jimin’s legs out from underneath him. As Jimin fell to the ground, Saerom sprang back up, raised one of her legs and slammed her foot down on his chest, which made Jimin cough loudly from being winded.

“Excellent!” Hoseok clapped his hands together and grinned widely. He felt so proud of being able to train Saerom in combat so quickly in the past couple months. She surely wasn’t the same, spineless girl she was when she first met Bangtan.

Jimin whined as Saerom helped him up, “That wasn’t fair! I’m still hungover~”

Saerom only giggled as she patted him on the back and went to take a sip from her water bottle, “Your fault for drinking so much last night, Chim.”

Jimin frowned and went to go sit with the rest of Bangtan off to the side of the gym. Hoseok allowed for Saerom to take a short break so she sat next to Jimin and caught her breath. Seokjin came to sit on her other side and offered her a small towel to wipe off the sweat from her brow. She thanked him and he smiled at her.

“That was pretty good. You fought well!” Seokjin commented, “Chimchim isn’t easy to take down.”

“Thanks. Although, he is hungover from last night, so I don’t think it counts.” Saerom chuckled when Jimin grumbled about rubbing the fact that he lost in his face. Both Saerom and Seokjin rolled their eyes at Jimin.

“I think J-Hope is going to test you next.” said Seokjin.

Saerom nodded her head, “Yeah, I think he will. He mentioned it being my final test before I leave for my mission.”

Seokjin hummed in agreement, then he absentmindedly said, ” Yes, that, and your initiation…”

Saerom looked up at him with a confused expression, “Initiation? What’s the initiation?” No one had ever mentioned an actual initiation or anything of the sort. Although, she should have expected it since this was a gang she was dealing with. But her mind raced with all sorts of things they could make her do, like highjack a car, shave her head, or even rob a bank.

Seokjin chuckled at her worried expression and held her up her hand with the ring. It was glowing yellow.

“Don’t be so nervous.” Seokjin said in a smug tone, “The initiation isn’t anything that bad.” He was proud of himself for figuring out what a few of the colours meant on Saerom’s ring. He let her hand go and Saerom began to play with her ring, a slight blush coating her cheeks at the mention of her being nervous.

“Then what is it?” she asked.

Seokjin shook his head and tsk’ed, “Not telling you~”

Saerom rolled her eyes again at Seokjin’s antics, then looked over to the other boys who spoke amongst themselves.

“Aigoo… I can’t wait to see Feisty take you down, hyung.” said Taehyung with a cheeky smirk on his face as he pointed a finger at Hoseok. The other boys laughed at the childish way Taehyung spoke. Hoseok’s expression changed to one of shock as he faked being offended and placed a hand on his chest.

“Saeromie? Take me down? Please, V, I think Kookie dragging you up the stairs last night gave you brain damage…” at Hoseok’s words, Jimin almost threw himself onto the ground with the way he was laughing so hard.

Taehyung’s smug face immediately changed to shocked as his gazed whipped to the youngest of the group, “You what?!”

Jungkook shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner and said with a slight smirk, “You’re heavy so it was the only way.”

“Are you calling me fat?!” Taehyung yelled in disbelief.

“Yes, hyung.”

“Come here, you!” Taehyung was about to go and strangle the youngest when Jungkook opened his mouth to speak again.

“Besides, it was Jin hyung who told me to take you up the stairs. I was only listening to my hyung~” Jungkook smiled a -eating grin at the eldest.

Seokjin was quick to defend himself when Taehyung made a move to hit him and blocked the fist that was about to punch him in his precious face, “Don’t you dare try to hit your hyung!” Seokjin jabbed Taehyung in the side, causing the younger to yelp, “That all wouldn’t have happened if your same age friend here didn’t hit you on the head and knock you out.”

At his hyung’s words, Jimin’s laughter was cut off when Taehyung’s deathly stare was directed at him, “So you started it all. How could you…” Taehyung’s voice was eerily calm as he spoke, “Prepare yourself, Chimchim.”

With that, Taehyung launched himself at Jimin, tackling the orange haired boy to the floor. Jimin was pinned underneath Taehyung as he tried to fight the angered boy off, all the while trying to hide his grin.

“But I hardly remember last night!” Jimin yelled, trying to throw Taehyung off of him as the younger of the 95z tickled his sides.

Everyone else except for Saerom watched on with amused expressions. Saerom couldn’t help but worry about the two incase a real fight broke out.

“Fight! Fight!” Jungkook chorused as he watched the 95z wrestle on the floor. Hoseok and Namjoon were about to get up and pull the two apart when Yoongi beat them to it. Yoongi got up, went over to them and poked Taehyung in the lump on his head. Taehyung immediately released his grip on Jimin as he howled at the throbbing pain which had returned in the back of his head. Jimin stifled a giggle as he untangled himself from Taehyung and returned to his seat, all the while, the latter sat cross-legged on the floor with his hands cupping the tender spot on his head as he looked up at the annoyed mint-haired elder with teary eyes.

“Hyung… Why?” Taehyung sobbed dramatically.

Yoongi smirked and helped Taehyung up, “Because I felt like it, plus, you were being annoying.”

They both went to sit back down, this time, Yoongi took a seat on the other side of Saerom. Normal conversation began again amongst the other members, while Saerom and Yoongi had a conversation on their own. Since earlier that morning, they hadn’t had a chance to discuss what transpired the night before after their little heart-to-heart conversation.

Saerom looked down at her lap and fidgeted with her yellow mood ring as she began to speak, “Um, about last night… Thanks for, uh, being there for me- and letting me share your bed with you after I had a nightmare…” She mentally cursed herself for her quivering voice, she had meant to sound stronger, but her nervousness got the better of her.

Yoongi cleared his throat and looked at her with a small smile, “It’s fine. I don’t mind… You know, being there… for you.”

Saerom’s gaze snapped up to Yoongi’s and saw him smiling slightly at her. She felt the warmth of a blush creep onto her cheeks and her heart swelled at Yoongi’s words, her ring turned a colour it had never been before; red. The passionate colour surprised her as she had never experienced the emotion that was tied to that colour and she herself didn’t know what she was feeling. But the one thing she knew for sure about this new emotion, was that it made her feel good. Before she could give Yoongi a reply, Hoseok had called her out onto the sparring mat for her last combat assessment.

As she stood and left her towel on her seat, Yoongi watched her walk out onto the mat, not without catching a glimpse of her red ring which then quickly became a calm, serene green as she prepared herself for her fight with Hoseok. The red colour had Yoongi baffled, he hadn’t seen many other colours than yellow (nervousness), orange (anxiety), brown (fear) and the occasional, dark blue (relaxed), purple (happiness) and white (numb/mixed emotions). But with the way she blushed and smiled he could only hope it meant the one thing he wanted it to be.

“Are you ready, Saeromie?” Hoseok asked in a sweet voice.

Saerom rolled her eyes and assumed a defensive stance, “Let’s get this over with.”

Hoseok let out a bellowing laugh, “Been spending lots of time with Suga hyung, I see.” He shook out his arms and legs after he stretched, “Don’t get too cocky, Rommie~”

One of Saerom’s eyebrows lifted in scrutiny as she stared at Hoseok, “Rommie? Now you sound like the cocky one, Hobi”

Namjoon stood up with a smirk and signalled the start of the fight. He thought it was cute how Saerom had become comfortable with Bangtan and was happy that she had come out of her shell.

Hoseok and Saerom circled each other for a bit, neither of them going for the first move until Saerom came at Hoseok with a right hook which he easily dodged and reciprocated with his own side kick. Saerom was pushed back a few steps, but she kept her balance, her side was starting to throb from the impact of the kick. She charged forward again, this time aiming lower as she made to punch Hoseok in his solar plexus. The hit connected and Hoseok let out a small cough and a grunt. Saerom felt slightly proud of herself for being able to land a punch on him, but didn’t have much time to celebrate when Hoseok came at her with an uppercut. She used her forearm to knock Hoseok’s fist out of the way of her face and used her other hand to deliver a knife hand to his throat. However, Hoseok ducked in time and used one arm to lift Saerom up and throw her down onto the mat. The impact winded Saerom and she struggled to get up.

“Get up, Saerom! Get up!” yelled Namjoon from his spot on the sidelines.

Saerom quickly rolled out of the way of Hoseok’s leg as it came down to hit her chest and sprang back up. Hoseok was quick to charge at her, fist ready to deliver another punch. She waited for him to reach her and caught his balled fist in her hand. A sudden wave of energy washed over her and she twisted Hoseok’s arm behind his back so that he was facing away from her. She swiftly delivered a sharp knife hand to his lower back and Hoseok felt his knees buckle beneath him. Saerom let his arm go and watched him collapse onto the mat with a smirk.

She crouched down next to him, “The sweet spot, just below the third lumber~” She said matter-of-factly.

The temporarily paralysed Hoseok stared at her in awe. He couldn’t believe she had been able to take him down, “You… you used my own move against me…”

Saerom began to massage his arms and legs like he had done for her just under two months ago when he had first started training her. She shrugged her shoulders and flashed Hoseok a -eating grin, “Of course! I had to get back at you somehow~” she said in a sing-song tone. She helped him up and guided him over to his seat. As she went to grab her towel from her chair she noticed how quiet the other members had gotten. She cast them a quick glance to find them all (sans Hoseok) staring at her in utter awe.