Jay clapped her hands once and nodded solemnly.

“Alright, I believe we need to talk.”

They were sitting at the dining table, casually eating breakfast when Jay suddenly spoke up.

The three boys looked at her curiously.

She looked down and sighed. “I have realized this after a few encounters, but I need to train you. It wouldn’t be good if we go out and we encounter a nibra. And I’m sure you all are feeling like you need to do something besides laying low when something happens, especially you two,” she explained, nodding to Seungcheol and Jisoo at the end. “Are you guys ready to start?”

Seungcheol and Jisoo both nodded, but Jihoon did not look pleased.

“I don’t have to do this, yeah?”

Jay gave him a skeptical look. “No, you’re going to do it too. You may know how to kill a nibra, but I need you to know some other things too.”

She stood up, gesturing them to follow her outside. “Come on. First thing’s first.”

They walked until they came upon the thick of the woods where she stood in front of them and the three of them faced her.

“Go take a lap around the path.” She clapped her hands. “Chop chop.”

They looked at each other and took off.

They came back sweating and tired.

While the three all had decent stamina, the path in the woods made it difficult to run steadily. With the foliage and extruding underbush, it made it a little bit more difficult to run.   

She frowned. “It looks like you guys need to work on your stamina. Mmm. I’ll keep that in mind. But I suppose we can still do what I planned. Hand-to-hand combat. You need to learn to defend yourself before we work with any technical stuff.”

Jisoo raised his hand like he was a student in school. “When you mean technical, do you mean that gun looking weapon?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but you should never rely only on that. If for some reason, you are unable to materialize it or something of that nature, you need to learn how to defend yourself.”

“But before we get into defending ourselves, there’s one thing you have to learn first.”

“And what’s that?” Jisoo asked.

She grinned. “Rolling.”

The three of them didn’t move, thinking she was joking.

She raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “I’m not kidding You know there is something called falling properly, right?”

She paused and turned, stepped up and put her hands out. Making a circle with her arms, she smoothly rolled across the floor and finished with a squat and her hands out.

“Looks easy, right?” she said with a smile.

She stood up. “Now you try.”

They looked at each other and tried to do what she did.

It was harder than they thought.

Jisoo rolled awkwardly so that he would roll diagonally instead of straight.

Seungcheol managed to roll somewhat, but she told him that his arms kept collapsing so that he was hitting the floor roughly.

Jihoon had enough experience to roll but would do it roughly that he would end up backwards when he finished his roll.

Jay was patient with them, guiding them until they could do a somewhat decent roll.

She let them have a break, giving them all a bottle of water.

“So why do we need to know this?” Jisoo asked after he chugged all his water.

“You never know when you’ll end up falling. Knowing how to roll will allow you to break your fall and continue to be on your guard.”

“Is this all we’re going to learn?” Jihoon grumbled.

She blinked and laughed. “Well, I was going to show you some basic moves. But only if you’re up for it.”

“Goddamn I am,” Jihoon.

Jay laughed. “Alright. How about you two?”

They nodded in agreement.

“Then I’m going to need your help.” She pointed at Jihoon.

He blinked but still stood up. He walked up to her so that they were facing each other.

She stuck out her hand. “Grab me,” she commanded.

Jihoon stared at her in confusion.

“Just do it,” she said with a laugh in her voice.

He snorted. “Gladly.”

He grabbed her wrist which she immediately moved up and rotated so that she twisted his arm. And then right after that she stepped forward so that she was offline to his body and pulled him by the shoulder which caused Jihoon to fall on his back.

He landed with a grunt and a displeased expression on his face.

“That was a basic move in aikido.” She lent her hand to the fallen boy. But he scowled and brushed the outstretched hand and pushed himself up.

She looked down at her neglected hand and shook her head sadly but also with an amused expression.

“Now that you all saw that; shall we get started?”

The mischievous glint in her eyes only hinted at the upcoming session.

The three of them laid on the cool ground, all breathing heavily.

Jay had drilled them hard until they could perform the five moves in aikido she taught them with some confidence.

It was rough. She only let them have a five-minute break every hour they practiced. But she was patient with them and worked with each one them with detail.

They were so focused that they didn’t notice that the morning had turned into the afternoon.

3582322134593. how late it was getting, Jay had told them she was going to get them lunch, so they could wait here until then.

Jisoo picked up his head to glance around the area. He spotted what he wanted and coughed out, “Hey, Jihoon.”

The said boy did not respond.

Jisoo got up halfway so that he was leaning on his elbows to look at the boy. “Jihoon?” he said again but a little louder.

“What?” Jihoon finally grunted out angrily.

“Can you pass me some water?”

Jihoon turned his head to stare at the bottled water next to him.

“And why should I?” he mumbled to him.

“Cause I feel like I’m dying and I would really like some water to quench my thirst. Do this for your fellow comrade.”

Jihoon scowled. “I ain’t your comrade. And I definitely ain’t your friend.”

Jisoo sighed. “Yeah, you may think that. But we went through that hellish training together. That makes us somewhat in this together.”

Jihoon didn’t have any comeback to that. So, he finally relented and threw him the water bottle.

Jisoo took large gulps of water until he finished the bottle. He then laid back down where the tree canopies above him swayed gently with the wind.

Jisoo honestly didn’t know how to feel about all of this.

They were three oddly matched people that was suddenly thrown in this situation together. He wanted to get along. He truly did. But he wasn’t sure if they were able to.

He glanced at Jihoon who was lying on his side. Jisoo was glad that Jihoon was easy to figure out. He was true to his personality. He swore like a sailor which bothered him slightly, but he was also the one who said the things they were all too afraid of saying. He appreciated the boldness of the boy. He noticed that he may complain about doing the things they were told to do, but he would always do it, especially if it was Jay who asked. And even Jay was never offended over the words he would say. She seemed unperturbed to everything he said. It seemed that she found it humorous, if anything.

Jisoo glanced over to the other side where Seungcheol was lying on his back and with his hands clasped in front of him, resting on his stomach. His eyes were closed and he looked peaceful even though he still had the same expression he always wore.

Seungcheol was a little harder for Jisoo to figure out. He was silent most of the times and didn’t contribute much to conversations. He was definitely the “actions speak louder than words” kind of guy. Jisoo thought Seungcheol was the closest to Jay even though he, himself, met Jay only a couple days after him. It was only because Seungcheol seemed to understand Jay better than any of them. He never said anything, but it as if he didn’t even need to. He was the one to step up to the plate when someone was needed to.

Jisoo didn’t hate the other two. Not even dislike. In fact, he rather liked them quite a bit and their personalities. But he was starting to feel like he was falling behind. Jihoon had already had experience with nibras and Seungcheol was almost the de facto leader.

But what was he? A tag-along? He had no experiences or abilities to provide.

He was just there.

He had always wondered why Jay had asked him to join.

He had joined because it seemed liked the best option at the time.

And now he was wondering if this was the right choice.

The sudden appearance of a paper bag startled him out of his thoughts.

He looked up to see Jay looked down at him worriedly. “You okay? I was calling your name a few times.”

Jisoo smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He took the bag out of Jay’s hand. “Thanks.”

He noticed that she had already delivered the other two their lunch, and they were already consuming it.

He opened his own bag to pull out a sandwich and chips. He heard rustling next to him and turned his head to look.

Jay had taken a seat next to him and was already eating.

He glanced at her and then down at his food before facing her.

She stopped mid-bite to look at him at her peripheral first before looking at him. “Something wrong?” she asked after swallowing her sandwich.

He smiled and shook his head softly. “No.”

Jay frowned. “If you say so. But if there is something bothering you, I would like to hear it.” She stared at her sandwich. “Especially if it’s about me or the team. This leader thing is new to me too.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it. He pursed his lips in frustration. “Did you pick me up out of pity?”

She blinked at him, pausing mid motion with the sandwich to her lips. She set it down and turned her body so that she was entirely facing him. “Pity? As in I let you join because I felt bad for you? And for no other reason?”

Jisoo couldn’t look at her as he nodded quietly.

She let out a sigh and that sounded to Jisoo that she was annoyed.

“Jisoo, look at me.”

He couldn’t force his body to turn and could only give her a quick glance.

What he saw was not annoyance on her face but a sad look on her face.

“Is that what you’ve been thinking this whole time? If it is, then I apologize. I never wanted any of you to feel that way.”

Jisoo looked at her warily. “So, it really isn’t pity? So then why?”

She stared at him before a sort of half smile crept on the edges of her lips. “Because I believe in you.”

“Believe in me?” he scoffed, looking down at his lap. “I don’t even believe in myself.”

“My good sir, Jisoo.”

He looked at her with an amused flit of a smile at her moniker of him. “Good sir?” he repeated.

She continued. “You survived a plane crash, a nibra attack, and living in the cold for almost two weeks. You manage to get along with both Seungcheol and Jihoon. You, my good sir, are incredible in your own way. No, that day when you told us that story, I saw something in you.”

She glanced at the other two boys and as if she knew what he was thinking moments before, she said, “Seungcheol may seem like he has everything in control, but he worries about the future a lot. He’s putting on a brave face too. And Jihoon may act like a rude and act like he doesn’t care about anything but he really does care about a lot of things.”

As if they knew she was talking to them, they both turned to look at them. She only grinned cheekily and winked at them. They immediately turned away.

She looked back at Jisoo. “No one’s perfect.”

“You are though?” he responded.

She stared unblinkingly back before chuckling. “I am the least perfect out of all of us.”

“But…” he tried to argue, but he stopped when he saw the look on her face. He didn’t know how to describe it. It was something like a calm but sad look.

She looked back at him with a soft smile and suddenly looked embarrassed.

It was a fascinating look to Jisoo because he usually saw her with a confident look or a teasing one.

She cleared and looked over his head.

“I..er...don’t know how to comfort people that well. It’s not one my strong points.”

“Do you think I need comforting?”

“I did, yes. But I hoped you feel better now that we talked.”

He smiled peacefully at her. “I do.”

She cleared again and gave him a hug that took him by surprise.

And by the looks of it, not just him because Seungcheol let out a little choke and Jihoon looked at them in aghast.

Jisoo didn’t know what to do so he sort of patted her on the back once and nervously mumbled out, “Jay?”

She didn’t make any motions to let go. “Someone told me a long time ago that sometimes people just need a hug.”

“So, this is your way of comforting?” he asked slowly.

“Do you not like it?” she asked.

He didn’t say anything until he grinned and wrapped his own arms around her to return the hug. He could tell that she was slightly surprised by the shift of her to look at him.

“Nah, I like it. I don’t think I had a proper hug in a while,” he murmured into the crook of shoulder.

They stayed like for what Jisoo felt like a long peaceful while until they were interrupted by Jihoon.

“Can you two please take this somewhere else? I feel like I’m going to puke out my lunch if you two continue like this.”

Jay let go Jisoo as he did as well, but almost hesitantly.

She looked at him with a teasing grin. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want a hug too, Jihoon?” she asked.

He put up his hands to guard himself. “Don’t you dare touch me,” he growled.

She rolled her eyes in amusement. “It was a joke. A joke.”

She stood up and dusted the dirt of her pants. She put her hands up and stretched, letting out a groan along with it. She shaded her eyes toward the sun. “Shall we go home?”

Home.

He knew she said it before to him, but it didn’t actually feel like it.

Home to him was that blue and white house where small perennial flowers lined the edges of the house.

Home was the smell of dinner that his mother always cooked for them.

Home was where his mother and he spent quiet peaceful days together.

Jay looked down at Jisoo and put out a hand to help him up. He noticed that both Seungcheol and Jihoon had already gotten up and were waiting for them.

Jisoo took Jay’s outstretched hand and allowed her to pull him up.

A bright smile shone at him and he could feel himself returning the favor.

Home was now the large manor where ivy stalked the cream-colored walls.

Home was now the banter and teasing of the people of the manor.

Where their normal day could include risking their lives.

But Jisoo didn’t mind it.

It was a different kind of “home” but it was still home.