Seungcheol wasn’t the type to overthink things. He usually did things the way he saw fit.

If you wanted to become better at things, you had to practice at it.

If you wanted something, there was something you could do to get it.

If you presented things at face value, then you are more likely to get your point across.

That’s what he thought and lived by.

He was actually a very simple male deep down.

So, as he watched Junhui single-handedly knock Soonyoung off his feet and admit defeat, he believed that Junhui must have practiced a lot to get where he was.

“Do you all believe me now?” Junhui let out softly with a huff, releasing Soonyoung’s arm.

"Why me?" lamented Soonyoung, cradling his sore arm. "What did I do to ever deserve this?”

No one listened to his cries of sorrow, knowing fully well that he was partly joking around.

Despite Junhui taking Soonyoung by surprise and easily taking him down, Soonyoung was also very capable of fighting back. Just not as easily as he would have liked.

Wonwoo silently patted Soonyoung on the back as an attempt to comfort him.

"Can we please start warming up now?" Jisoo asked with a sigh.

As they started off the day, Jisoo was adamant about warming up before they started any real sparring or practice.

But Jihoon made a snark comment about Junhui's inexperience of being in the team which prompted Junhui to challenge him.

The others were hesitant, especially Jisoo, but they figured it was the best way to let out the tension and curiosity of how experienced Junhui was.

None of them were trained formally in any sort of fighting and suddenly the new addition to the team was.

There were mixed feelings about this. All of them sort of started from the beginning, struggling to become better. It might not feel fair to some of them knowing that Junhui was trained for far much longer.

"Why are you even here?" Jihoon asked rather harshly, easily voicing thoughts the others would never dare to say out loud. "What's there for you to even learn from?"

Junhui casually turned to them. "I'm better than all of you. That's a fact." His bold statement made the others feel slightly irritated and queasy.

"But I'm still learning too. I can tell from here that some of you have natural abilities that I would have to train extremely hard to obtain." He turned away. "I'm not going to underestimate any of you. You are all my rivals."

"This isn't a competition," Jisoo said slowly.

Junhui shrugged. "Think what you want, but my only goal is to become the very best."

"So, you're serious about this," Seungcheol stated.

Junhui frowned. "Extremely."

It was quiet, but Junhui's point got through and a sort of amicable understanding was realized.

They started training and soon began practice.

Seungcheol was glad that they figured out Junhui. He had a lot of confidence despite his quiet demeanor and had no qualms to show that he meant what he said.

But he had another concern.

Xu Minghao.

 

Minghao was nowhere to seen since morning training. Despite knocking on his door and asking if he was awake, there was no response. Junhui was no help despite being next door to him on the third floor. He simply shrugged and said, “He’ll come out when he wants to.”

With nothing else they could do, they left him and could only hope that he would appear.

He eventually did.

But only after lunch and after they finished running and onto sparring.

Junhui had successfully won in every match against all the boys. He was now imparting his knowledge to them, giving them tips.

It was then that Minghao lethargically appeared.

"Hey guys."

The sudden introduction of the voice startled the others, prompting them to stop what they were doing.

He yawned, not bothering to cover his mouth. "What you up to?"

Wonwoo stopped Soonyoung with a hand to his face as the boy stumbled.

Soonyoung let out a muffled, "Ow," as Wonwoo asked, "Where have you been?"

Minghao grinned and shrugged. "Just...chilling."

His words were indifferent causing a slightly irritated feeling in the others."

"We tried to wake you up in the morning," Jisoo continued. "Did you not hear us?"

Minghao laughed. "Oh, I heard you. You guys are so loud. Can't a guy get some sleep around here?"

"That's when we practice," Soonyoung lamely replied.

"Oh? Yeah? Pretty early if you ask me," he shrugged before giving them a smirk. "But I guess you guys obviously need it."

"Excuse me?" Jihoon hissed. "You want to say that one more time?"

Minghao rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't get in such a hissy fit. It stunts your growth. I said you guys probably need the extra practice," he repeated, eying them up and down.

"It sounds to me that you're implying that we're not as good as you are," Seungcheol calmly said.

Minghao laughed. "I'm not implying it; I am saying that."

"This !" Jihoon shouted. Wonwoo and Jisoo immediately grabbed Jihoon before he could lunge at Minghao.

"Stop it, Jihoon," Wonwoo muttered. "It's not worth it."

The male slightly resisted against their hold, muttering under his breath not so pleasant words while angrily glaring at the other.

"But you're going to practice with us now, right?" Jisoo asked.

"Yeah, sure," Minghao replied, throwing out vague, uninterested answers.

Seungcheol had a feeling that he wasn't.

And he was right.

Minghao only sparred once. And it was against Junhui.

Junhui narrowly managed to defeat him and after that, he laid against a nearby tree and played on his phone.

Despite being in heavily covered woods, Jay designed it so that her territory would get excellent service and Wi-Fi so long as you were in her area.

But Minghao's action caused the others to glance at him in irritation at best and in fury at worst.

Even though Minghao did not interfere with their training physically, his presence caused a distraction to the others.

Some were better at ignoring him than others, but Jihoon was always the one to say it first.

He flipped Jisoo over with a loud thud against the floor and whipped his head to the direction of where Minghao was laughing at something on his phone.

"If you're not going to practice with us, then please ing leave."

Minghao looked up from his phone with a perked eyebrow. "You talking to me?"

"Who else would I be talking to?" he spitted back.

"I don't see the problem here."

"You're the problem!" He growled, "Look. I'm not a big fan of training. Especially with these guys. But you best believe that once I made the decision to join this team that I'm going to stick to it. And I ain't going to be left behind. And you being here is hindering that."

Minghao raised an eyebrow. "That's because you need the practice."

"And you don't?"

"Of course not. I’ve already gotten training."

"Are you even taking this seriously?" Jihoon shouted.

Minghao sighed, "Look. I've trained for a long time. The thing is there would be no point of me training alongside you guys. None."

"Then go be useless somewhere else," retorted Jihoon.

"I rather not."

"Why? Because of your friend here? Junhui might be a bold-faced guy. But at least he tries."

Minghao smiled brightly. "Right? Gotta love the guy."

Jihoon breathed in slowly and let out an audible huff of air. "I can't. I can't deal with this er."

He spun around and briskly walked away.

"Where are you going?" Jisoo frantically called out. No one dared to speak during the exchange of words, the rising tension between the two suffocated any words from them.

"Anywhere that isn't."

Seungcheol looked around, seeing the nervousness and hesitance in the other’s eyes. "Let's go back. It’s getting late anyways."

The others mutely nodded and walked back to the estate silently.

The only sound could be heard from Minghao cheerfully talking to Junhui.

 

Seungcheol knocked once on the door and waited a few seconds.

It violently swung open and he was met with a pair of glaring eyes.

"What do you want?"

"Free to talk?"

He scoffed. "When were you one to socialize?"

Seungcheol didn't say anything.

The other male sighed. "Fine." He gestured for him to walk in and led him to an area where a couple of beat up couches were.

Once they were situated, the male asked, "So? What did you want to talk about?"

"About today..." Seungcheol slowly started.

Jihoon's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What about it?"

"How do you feel about Minghao?"

" him," he immediately replied. "That doesn't give two s about us or the team. All he cares about is Junhui. I don't know where he gets such devotion to him." He shook his head. "The point is, I'm not going to bother with him."

"That's pretty mature of you."

Jihoon snorted. "Well, screw you too. But yeah, there's no point of me putting any energy with that guy. I'm going to pretend he doesn't even exist. He'll be gone in a month's time anyways."

"What do you mean?"

Jihoon looked at Seungcheol in almost a pitying way. "Do you really expect Jay to let such a person stay? She's so worried about us getting hurt that she makes us train a bunch. And that’s why we haven’t been on any missions with her. And that’s why she’s always out these days and never around.”

“She said it was only for a couple of days.”

Jihoon shot him a glare for interrupting him.

“As I was saying, there's no way she'll let him stay if he doesn't show that he's good enough."

"I suppose."

"Enough talk about this. It makes me want to puke." He looked at the other curiously. "Why did you even ask?"

Seungcheol shook his head. "I was...worried. I wanted to make sure you were okay and ask for you to at least see if Minghao would improve in a couple of weeks."

Jihoon laughed with absurdity. "Well, lookie here. Really taking this leader role seriously, aren't you?"

"I told you, I'm not the-"

"Yeah, yeah. You're not the leader. Been there, done that. The way I see it is that Jay is like the boss. But you're like our squad leader. Making sure everything's okay. But we'll all still follow Jay. You're kinda like second-in-command. You're the oldest anyways. And I can tell that you're that kind of person. Nothing wrong with that."

Seungcheol was quiet for a moment. "I'm surprised you think that."

Jihoon rolled his eyes. "I know I'm not the most pleasant person to be around. I've known that my entire life. But if we're going to be stuck together for a long time coming, I'd like to make it known that I don't exactly hate all of you. Just extremely dislike. More some than others."

Seungcheol quietly laughed. "I bet I can guess who ranks low on that list."

Jihoon snorted. "Oh, trust me. I make it known if that's the case."

Seungcheol stood up. "Thanks for talking to me."

Jihoon waved his hand at the comment, adding an eye roll for good measure. "There was no need honestly. But thanks anyways, I guess."

Seungcheol chuckled a little and quietly left Jihoon.

He thought about talking to Minghao too, but he had a feeling that it would go nowhere. He decided to wait a little and see how it turned out.

 

There was no improvement from the first day. In fact, it almost seemed to get worse. Minghao would not participate in anything. And if he did, it was the bare minimum. It got to a point where the two most patient people in the group, Jisoo and Wonwoo, became irritable with him.

Even if they tried to persuade him, he still would act the same.

But if there was one thing Seungcheol could applaud him for, it was the fact that no matter what they said to him, Minghao would take it easily and cheerfully counter them. No matter what anyone said, he stayed true to himself.

But as the weeks dragged on, it was obvious to Seungcheol that Minghao's behavior didn't sit right with him. Minghao was doing absolutely nothing. And if he was truly planning to stay after his one-month trial than Seungcheol could not understand his actions. He increasingly began to feel that maybe Minghao wasn't fit for the group.

But he kept these thoughts to himself.

That is until Jisoo snapped.

If there was one unspoken rule amongst the group was never get Jisoo angry.

 

"Can you stop?"

His voice wasn't loud, but it pierced the air. Everyone froze and turned to look at the person who had spoken.

Jisoo was staring at Minghao who had been casually pointing out the mistakes in each person's training.

His expression was passive, but his eyes flickered with anger.

Minghao's face twitched slightly at the unexpected coldness he felt emitting from the other male.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I offend you?"

"You're not offending me. You're pissing me off."

Soonyoung flinched and silently took a step backward. Even if Jisoo's anger wasn't directed to him, he still instinctively felt the need to stay far away. The others could only wordlessly watch them.

Minghao looked a little surprised which was understandable. Jisoo was one of the few who tolerated Minghao, stepping in to stop any emitting fights that may erupt from the others. It wasn't often since Jihoon took the effort to ignore the other as much as possible. However, sometimes there were times where he couldn't stop himself from cursing at Minghao.

"Hey, it was a joke. Calm down."

"A joke?" Jisoo said icily. "What, so all of this is a joke to you?"

"No, I didn't mean that-"

"Every single one of us is trying to become better. But you belittle us every second we try. If you really want to be part of the team, there's something you must know. This team isn't made up of just you and Junhui. There are five other people and that's not including Jay. This isn't about you anymore. It's about all of us." Jisoo narrowed his eyes and him and said very quietly. "You know, it's actually really simple. Start acting more responsibly or don't. But I hope for everyone’s sake, you make the right choice."

Jisoo let out a little sigh and turned around.

"I'm heading back. I can't train right now. Sorry, guys."

And with those words, he disappeared from their sight.

"What's his problem?" Minghao muttered.

Wonwoo looked at him in bewilderment. "Seriously?"

"Well, I mean-" He trailed off before looking away.

Seungcheol looked at the others. "Do you want to train more?"

The atmosphere had turned awkward but no one knew what to do.

The air just hung around them.

"Let's call it quits," Jihoon finally spoke up. "This is obviously bothering all of us so we might as well just stop now."

"I actually prefer if we train more," Junhui said instead.

Jihoon side-eyed him. "If you want to, feel free to."

Minghao jumped up. "I'll train with you, Junhui!"

Junhui turned to look at him with an unreadable expression.

But the others started to trek back to the manor, not sparing a single look back.

Except for Seungcheol. Taking one last glance behind him, he felt himself coming to a resolution.

 

He knocked on the door despite it being open.

The boy, who was lying on the bed, turned his head to look at him.

"Hey, can I come in?"

Jisoo lazily waved him in and gestured to the chair next to the bed.

Seungcheol stepped in, paused, and decided to close the door behind in.

Jisoo didn't say anything, only blankly staring at the ceiling.

"How do you feel?" Seungcheol asked.

"Like ."

Jisoo was never one to curse. But he let one or two slip out when his emotions were running high. It sometimes shocked the others to hear him say such words, but since Seungcheol had been there since the beginning, he wasn't as surprised. He had heard Jisoo let out a few before.

Seungcheol was quiet. "You want to talk about it?"

Jisoo looked over to Seungcheol with laughing eyes. "You know, Jihoon did tell me that you were acting weird."

Seungcheol snorted softly. "Did he now?"

"You were never one to share your emotions or give such emotional support."

Seungcheol looked down. He knew it was true. It was hard for him to say such words but-

"But I guess it makes sense," Jisoo continued, now returning his gaze to the ceiling. "We've been together the longest. Jihoon, you, and me."

Seungcheol supposed what the other said was true. Jisoo and him met within the span of a week since he first joined. Jihoon came almost within a month after. Soonyoung and Wonwoo were added in much later down the line. And Junhui and Minghao were even newer additions.

Maybe that's why he felt the need to check on the first two. It wasn't that he didn't feel anything for the others, but he just felt more concerned for Jihoon and Jisoo. Especially when they act out of nature.

Jisoo sat up and looked over to Seungcheol who was pondering on these thoughts. "Look, don't worry about it. I just got a little angry at Minghao. I bottled up my emotions for too long and it came out." He sighed and looked out the window. "Something I should work on actually."

"But you're okay?" Seungcheol asked for reassurance.

Jisoo nodded. "I'll be okay. I feel bad actually."

"For Minghao?" Seungcheol asked in surprise. "How come?"

Jisoo shrugged. "Probably surprised the guy. I might have meant what I said, but I didn't mean to say it such a way."

Seungcheol didn't reply right away. "Actually...," he said slowly. "That’s something that's been sitting on my mind."

"What is?"

"Minghao and how he doesn't really put in any effort."

Jisoo only gave him an inquisitive gaze.

"It's not like I'm saying he has to like everyone straight away. We're all practically strangers to him. But he's not putting any effort to try and get to know us nor is he putting any effort to actually train. He might be better than us, but it doesn't mean that he can't train with us."

Jisoo sighed and flopped backwards onto his bed. "And?" he asked. "Do you think even if we tell him that, he'll change? I mean, we already have tried several times."

"You're right. I don't think he will, but that's not what I'm getting at."

"Then what are you getting at?"

"I'm going to talk to Jay."

"Jay? What are you going to tell her?"

"All of this. Our concerns and all. She hasn't been with us much while training since she's been gone on missions so often. So, she does not have any idea that all of this has transpired amongst us. But she comes back for good the day after tomorrow."

He looked solemnly out the window. "Maybe it'll influence her decision when the time comes."

"So, you're basically snitching him out."

Seungcheol turned back to look at Jisoo. "Think what you want, but it's a decision that I came to terms with."

Jisoo stared at Seungcheol for a moment before sighing. "I'll go with you."

The other male looked at him in slight confusion. "I don't want you to go through this by yourself," Jisoo explained. "Plus, I think it'll be better if two people talk to her. And I think that we should ask her to speak to him first before anything." He paused. "Do you really think we’re making the right choice?"

Seungcheol sighed softly. "I don’t know. I really don’t. But I don't know what else to do."