During the midday, storm clouds have gathered as unexpectedly as the change of a woman’s emotions and as quickly as a flock of crows. By night, rain fell in such thick sheets that it had turned the dark of the night greyish, making it hard for one to even see three feet beyond.

Tiffany sat by her window sill and stared out at into the rain. Except for the cold that raised occasional goose pimples from her skin, the researcher was nearly motionless.

The rain always had the ability to churn emotional thoughts, especially from a cripple as such. Tiffany thought.

Soft rapping came from her room doors but being as preoccupied with thoughts as Tiffany was, she had completely missed it.

The researcher had snapped out of her reverie when she had noticed the intruder. It was Taeyeon. The wheel-chaired girl eyed the pile of thick and fluffy-looking sheets in the leader’s arms and knew that she must have brought them to her for the cold weather. What she did not understand was why the leader had brought those warm covers to her personally.

The leader of G7 was in fact feeling exceptionally lonely that day. After hearing accounts from Seohyun that Tiffany seemed to have begun to open up to the pink-haired captain, Taeyeon had half-hoped that Tiffany had become friendly enough and would invite her to stay the night in her room for a nice chat. 

However, those lips that were pressed into a thin hard line and the slightly furrowed eyes of her occupant told Taeyeon that she was not welcomed. Even so, she sat herself down on her host’s bed and began to unfold the sheets. “It is going to be a really cold night, you will need these.”

“Thank you. You can leave them there. It is going to be a really cold night so you should turn in early and get a warm sleep,” Tiffany said, her tone betrayed no emotions.

Taeyeon continued to make the make the bed for Tiffany as she spoke. “I will when I am done with these. It is not convenient for you to do it all by yourself.” The leader then bit her lip when she realised what she had said. She might as well said that a cripple like Tiffany was incompetent. All her hopes of Tiffany inviting her to stay the night had vanished completely.

“The night is cold,” Tiffany repeated.

And you are colder than the night. Taeyeon might have added as she looked into those cold, unyielding stare from Tiffany. The leader felt so upset and ashamed that she felt her eyes watering.

“Yes, it is. I shall take my leave now. Sorry for the intrusion.” The leader spun on her heels so quickly and fled the room.

Tears began to flow freely from the leader’s face once she was out of the room. When the distinct figure with a headful of pink-hair approached, Taeyeon wiped those tears off with the heel of her palms.

“Hyomin.” The leader addressed the captain who was by now standing in front of her. Taeyeon had no doubts that the pink-haired captain must be headed for Tiffany’s room for some reasons. What reasons that were, Taeyeon could not help but feel a little jealous. At least she had a real reason.

“Seeking Tiffany?” The leader asked.

Contrary to her belief, Hyomin shook her head. “Seeking you."                                                                                                                                                    

**

The mood was serious as the G7 forces, now with eight members sat around the table. It had been nearly a month and a half since Thanatos had settled in with G7 and there was a need for the organisation to restructure themselves.

Taeyeon felt slightly uneasy sitting at the head of the table especially since it involved making decisions which concerned so many lives. Within the past four years, the G7 forces had swelled from only a mere five hundred men to nearly ten thousand people. Though this explosion in the number of men they had increased their prowess exponentially, it had also put a challenging strain to sustaining the organisation.

Fortunately, Tiffany and Seohyun had a research team set up to advance on agricultural techniques and solidified their water treatment technology right after they had relocated. They have also been actively recruiting men to tend to their agriculture to increase their food supplies. Yoona and Hyoyeon had also been doing well to expand their territories and procuring weapon supplies for their men. Sooyoung had not been idle all these time as well, she was in charge of planning transport routes and also to organising guarding duties during the transport of their supplies.  Needless to say, Yuri and Hyomin were primarily in charge of subduing and recruiting men into G7. G7 had thus effectively organised themselves into, the research team, procurement team, transport and logistics team and finally special missions’ team.

“We have been making good progress with the synthetic blood samples we have obtained from Hyomin but we have no found the actual component which produces the intended effect. As for food supplies, our manpower and similarly the number of mouths we have to feed had increased by 30% with Thanatos joining us. Even though we estimation states that it was sustainable with our current food producing capabilities, the agricultural research team suggests that it would be better if we ration our food supplies until our new facility for food production has been built,” the younger of the two head researcher reported.

Taeyeon readily gave permission to the request from the research team. She had hoped that Tiffany contribute a little to the discussion since the last time she had heard the lead researcher’s voice was in Tiffany’s room and that had not gone well. She looked hopefully in Tiffany’s direction and found the researcher’s steely gaze upon her as well. The leader felt her heart thump faster during that brief moment when their eyes had connected and decided to feign that she was scanning for the members’ face. The next face the leader’s eyes fell upon was on Hyomin and she lingered on them for a moment longer as well. The discussion they had that very night of visit to Tiffany’s room had changed a lot of things for Taeyeon. She cannot think about them now. The leader shook her head and forced herself to channel back her focus on the discussion.

Next up, there was some confusion between the procurement team as to who should deliver the report and it was decided that Hyoyeon be the one to do it. The slightly disgruntled leader of procurement made her report as straightforward as was her personality. “We have enough weapon supplies from Thanatos’ surrender. We have also made the territory that had belonged to Thanatos our new weapons and combat testing ground.” 

“Thanatos’ weaponry which was the small building in the East of their main compound in fact had two basement levels. Each of which was at least two thousand square feet and they wasted no space in their weaponry.” Yoona added, “With their weapons’ capability, they would prove to be a tough enemy if they chose to oppose us. If I were Jiyeon I would have been angry to yield to G7 as well so easily as well.”

That comment earned stern glares from her other members. Yoona, as playful as ever, responded to the rest with a sheepish grin.  

“We have enough men but we require captains whom we could work with,” the co-captain of the special missions’ team, Yuri reported.

The two special missions’ team captain then looked at each other in synchronisation and some sort of silent agreement seemed to have been passed between the two. Hyomin then spoke in addition to Yuri’s report, “Jiyeon has agreed to train with our men and if she manages to prove her capabilities, we will let her become a lieutenant.”

All around the table, there was unease. Yoona whispered something in Hyoyeon’s ears and they both nodded in agreement. Hyoyeon took the initiative to voice out her opinions, “Hyomin, I know of your capabilities as a captain but I think you should reconsider this proposal.” There was a meaningful pause and no response came from the pink-haired captain nor the others. And so, silence hung in the atmosphere for a few good seconds. “You were expecting me to say that, weren’t you?” Hyoyeon laughed jokingly before she continued, “No doubt, that kid is going to be a handful for you but it should be a piece of cake to you right?”

Sooyoung then threw in her jape. “Definitely a piece of cake compared to you, Hyoyeon. I think it is a pretty good arrangement too. I could feel raw talent radiating from Jiyeon. She must just have been misguided momentarily.” Sooyoung had been speaking from experience. The leader of transport and logistics who stands at 5’6 feet was the tallest amongst the G7 members. Before she had joined G7 forces, she had been a leader of some sorts of one of the minor antagonistic groups but was later subdued and found herself happier and less tainted with vile thoughts the longer she worked with her new organisation members. Previously, she was co-captain alongside with Yuri in leading fighting missions but decided that she had preferred a more peaceful job. Sooyoung was relieved when Hyomin had stepped into their leadership position and managed to work so much in tandem with Yuri. After giving her two cents about the suggestion for Jiyeon, Sooyoung looked around the table to gauge her members’ reactions and was heartened to see understanding faces on most of them.

Asides from only weighing the pros and cons of the suggestion made by the leader of the special missions’ team, Taeyeon too had been observing the reactions of her members, again, stopping a bit longer on Tiffany’s face from time to time. Even though the leader had her qualms about allowing Jiyeon take on a leadership role in G7, she thought that she should heed the advices of the current members who are in-charge of fighting missions. She steepled her fingers and leant into the back of her chair as she considered the situation. Another terse moment of silence befell them before the leader dished out her response. “Well then, I will leave the selection and training of new leaders for teams or units to Yuri and Hyomin then. You may report when necessary.”

By the end of the meeting, it was agreed upon that G7 would take on Black Mamba in a years’ time and had urged for Hyomin and Yuri to prepare for an upcoming assault on Black Mamba during that time.

With mounting burdens, the two captains had agreed with each other to handpick several potential lieutenant and sergeants to lead the various teams, regardless of their background and saw to every training sessions themselves.

Yuri sighed aloud as she complained, “More work for me… those imps better be grateful we are doing this for them.”

Her pink-haired captain only gave a good-natured laugh as she reminisced about how Sunny used to complain like that at times too. However her laughter died abruptly as she felt the stabs of pains in her chest when her warrior’s face came to mind once again.  

Sunny, I will be a good captain. I will stop unnecessary bloodshed as I’ve promised by the great oak tree. Watch over me.

**

S301’s head lolled to its side as the man garbed in a white lab coat injected the serum into her arms which already bore uncountable puncture wounds.

S301 came to sudden alertness as the injected serum coursed through her body. Her eyes dilated in response to the drug and her body trembled so hard the chains that bound her had rattled and chafed into her skin.

Hyomin, Hyomin, Hyomin.

That was the name S301 desperately clung on to. She could forget her own name and everything else but please, she begged, do not take that name away from me.

“Hyomin!” S301 cried out one last time before her back arched and her head lolled to its side once again.

The Black Mamba’s lips twisted into a sneer as she witnessed her prized possession disappointing her.

“You weakling,” Jessica spat at the warrior before she stalked away, conjuring more ideas to resist the growing forces of G7 and to completely destroy her sister.

Jessica turned and with eyes full of hate, she stared hard at the unconscious warrior. It must be Sunny who destroys Hyomin, no one else.

 **

It had been three months into the training.

As more time went by and with each training session with Hyomin, Jiyeon could not help but discover that she was becoming more and more interested in the captain. There was one time when she had been scheduled to spar with the captain. It was a hand to hand combat and they were strict about having no weapons. It was then when Jiyeon realise how one-sided their spar was going. Despite Jiyeon having gone all out with her strength, the pink-haired captain did not break a sweat in any bit.

“Captain, you need to stop playing around with that kid and end this quickly.” Jiyeon turned her head sharply and caught sight of the co-captain yawning and leaning relaxedly sideways against a training target. The lazy smile plastered on the co-captain’s face made Jiyeon even more furious.

Out of rage, she headed for the co-captain outside of the sparring zone. The combatant knew that there would be dire consequences from her actions and yet she ignored those warnings that came from the back of her mind. Surprise was evident on Yuri’s face and even if it was only for an instant, it pleased Jiyeon. The feelings of surprise shifted to the combatant as she felt herself being lifted up into the air. A numbing pain spread through the left side of her body as she crashed unglamorously onto the ground. Shadow fell upon her and a figure towering over her fallen-self came into view. That was fairly sure that the deep look of disapproval in her fellow pink-haired combatant’s face had been seared deep into her memory. She had never seen her captain look so displeased before and reckoned at once that Hyomin would most definitely not forgive her this time round.

**

A/N: 

Aye... as the title suggests... Keep Holding On... TaeNy and SunByung will keep holding on :)

A little bit of angsty moment between TaeNy and SunByung. Hul... believe me i did not enjoy torturing my characters :) 

This chapter finally explores abit about the other roles the G7 members play in the organisation. Hopefully it was not as draggy for you guys as I thought it might be. 

And finally... the usual MinYeon scenes at the end but this time Jiyeon had gotten herself into real trouble xP

Thank care peeps, the weather in my country seem to have been making a lot of people ill. Hopefully it is better where you guys are :)

Seeya guys soon :) Thank you for the subs, upvotes and comments <3