TRAINING

The way home was silent. Too silent in fact. It’s not that the streets are empty or anything, it’s still filled with people buzzing around but the silence are referring to the four of them.

Xiumin was walking quietly, face expressionless as his mind is filled with something- or someone. Flashbacks about the incident 7 years ago starts to appear in his mind again.

Chanyeol, who was walking beside him stole glances to check on him every now and then. Even though he did it obviously, striking some small conversation with the eldest but Xiumin would always answer shortly before falling in silence again.

The man who would throw flirty stares at women wherever he goes disappeared.

Kyungsoo and Aecha, walking behind the duo is also walking quietly. Suddenly, they don’t seem to know what to talk about in this situation.

Hence, they all walked silently until they’ve reached black pearl motel. 

What happened 7 years ago, stays in the past.

Xiumin once said when the rest asked what happened, why he called the marriage off hours before the actual event started.

Yes, he left her at the altar and no one knows why. It’s going to stay like that unless he decides to spill it but knowing his personality, they knew he wouldn’t.

They’re going to keep quiet about it, they won’t even bring it up later on to avoid ticking Xiumin off.

“Food is here!” Chanyeol hollered in the hallway without a care, knowing that there’s no one else except on the ground floor.

Almost simultaneously 3 doors quickly opened and the first one to come out from one of the room was surprisingly, Kai.

“Where’s Sehun?”, Chanyeol asked the guy as he came out of the room that he shared with Sehun and Kyungsoo.

Kai quickly answered, “Fell asleep after complaining how hungry he is.. I regret ever coming into your room. He just couldnt stop talking about it”

He was feeling bored, having to do nothing in his room shared with the other 2 guys as Baekhyun and Chen was taking a nap. He couldn’t even play with Aeri as the cat is also asleep, curling beside her owner so he decided to disturb Sehun.

He should’ve just join the other two in napping.

Without a word, Chanyeol quickly opened the door to wake Sehun up from his nap so he could finally eat.

The rest of them are still in the hallway, distributing food to the guys who stayed.

“Thank you for the food” Kai thanked them after taking 3 sets of food in his hand. He opened his room door before disappearing inside, the door isn’t fully closed as he only manages to lightly kick it shut. Behind the closed door, they could hear him waking up the others.

Suho is next, taking the plastic bag full of food from Xiumin before barging into a room that is not his. “Let’s eat together” he declared loudly.

Everyone ended up gathering and eating on the floor, in Baekhyun, Chen and Kai’s room.

It is quite nice eating together in a group as if there’s nothing to worry about. For once after several days, they really do look like a bunch of friends who’s having a fun trip together.

Throwing jokes here and there, stealing each other’s food, reminiscing embarrassing past memories. Everything seems normal if Aecha didn’t know that their actually on a mission to save Elyxion.

She was actually thinking of eating alone in her room, not wanting to disturb their small dinner together but Kyungsoo wouldn’t even let her step an inch into her room— dragging her with him as soon as he realised that she was about to leave with her food in her hand.

Aecha is now regretting that she didn’t decline his offer as she is currently eating in awkward silence as the others are chatting happily. She was still listening to their story though, which is why she didn’t have any problem when they asked her something thats related to the topic being discussed.

“I’ve learnt to control it myself” Aecha answered calmly before feeding herself another mouthful of jajangmyun.

They were talking about their training life back in exordium, way before they are appointed to be apprentices officially.

They started off normally like how others would, clumsily realising their powers and having control issues.

“How long did it take you to control your power?”

Aecha quickly munched her food to answer but deciding that it would take long, she raised her hand to cover politely before talking with full. “3 years?”

The boys nodded understandingly. Of course it will take longer for her as she didn’t have any mentors, she was on her own from the beginning. Normally it will take only 1 year for them to master in controlling their powers in exordium, 6 months if the person is really good at it.

“It’s only limited to shutting down my senses that connect to the underworld and calling them though.. I couldn’t make them visible for anyone to see them yet” She told them slowly, revealing her limits on her power.

She knew that it would somehow disappoint them as they initially wanted and asked her to connect with the souls of the previous guardians.

It somehow made her feel guilty when she saw their expression turned a bit sullen. Although she might have disliked them before she even met them, they weren’t as bad as she thought they were.

They room suddenly went quiet and everyone continued to eat without talking. It was clear that they had thought of her as their only hope to get hints regarding their exchanged powers— and what to do with the remaining 3.

Aecha looked down at her food as she continued to eat, feeling a bit guilty but then somehow the thought of them taking her in just for that sole reason had hit her.

Her eyebrows furrowed and she looked up, “Did you...” she started and the guys shifted their gaze back at her. She hesitated a bit, slowly putting down her bowl of food before continuing with a heavy heart.

“Is the reason why you took me in- saving me.. you’re not planning to use me and then throw me away after that right?” She asked them, eyes narrowing at them as she speak.

A series of loud no followed after that and the person beside her, bend down to her eye level as she lowered her head due to embarrassment.

“Don’t say that, we already promise that we will take care of you, didn’t we? We’ve already done enough damage to you and your family, we won’t do the same thing again. We won’t leave you”

Kyungsoo said sternly, meeting her eyes as he reassured her and Aecha looked away but she ended up meeting another guy’s eyes.

“You’re a part of the group now, if it’s not much to ask you should learn how to trust us. Trust is the most important thing if we are to make a team” Suho ended up nagging at her and instead of being annoyed, for once, she felt a sense of comfort.

She then nodded before picking up her bowl from the floor, continuing eating. She was about to take a mouthful of noodles when a piece of radish is placed on top of her food. She looked up and saw Yixing smile warmly at her and she gave a little smile back.

That’s it. All her walls are crashing down. She can finally trust people again, it was overwhelming but it’s making her feel good to the point that she almost cried.

Tears almost started to form when suddenly Chen clapped out of nowhere, “Well then if that’s settled, when is training going to start?”

The others started to groan, it feels exactly like a situation when a teacher forgot to give their students homework but some decides to ruin it for everyone by asking it before class ends.

“Tomorrow?”

“Do we even have a place to train?” Sehun asked, trying to stall the practice session a little bit longer from starting and Suho nodded.

He had to explain that Donghae had given them a place to practice. The place is just a 30 minutes’ drive, into a secluded place in which Donghae described as the abandoned training ground. As a former peacekeeper of Odana— he isn’t now, he still has access to the field. The only one that still has the keys to the gates in fact.

“He was a peacekeeper?” Aecha asked, gawking at him because of the fact that she had met one of the people who’s in charge of chasing the people of Awa, her kinds.

The peacekeepers were people appointed by the guardians due to their excellent result in exordium and their job was to maintain order, to prevent crime happening by disallowing other people from neighbouring continents to enter.

However, peacekeepers in every continent cease to exist now as they left their jobs as soon as the system of Elyxion collapsed. They had lost their purpose as there was no leader to lead them.

While others had completely cut off contacts with them, Donghae was the only one who knew about the apprentices still being alive and breathing. He was there when they escaped to Odana, at the port.

The reason why he had recognized them as the apprentices when others couldn’t because again, he was there when the 12 people was selected in exordium as the new apprentices due to accident.

He was actually on his way to a field where peacekeepers are usually trained, it was his first day in hand to hand combat training. He got lost somehow and ended up entering a field full of apprentices who was also practicing hand-to-hand combatting and joined them without knowing.

He only knew that he was in the wrong field when he was asked to project wind by the instructor and he was confused as hell. His power is vapor manipulation, not wind.

They all thought he was a newcomer, the person that would complete their group with the power of wind when it was actually Sehun—in which the youngest came 5 days after the incident happened.

And from then on, after the mistake he had made, he had been punished by training twice the time for a week but the good thing is that he gained new friends.

It was day 1 of training and just the day before that, they had form a strategic plan in which they will make only 4 apprentices practice their powers per day while the other four acts as their mentor and this will go on until everyone gets the knack on how to control their new powers.

Well of course, the mentors will be teaching the guy who has their original power and without being said, Baekhyun is automatically excluded. He would be practicing by himself, working and trying out various types of weapons to see which one suits him best.

Maybe he could teach the newcomer to fight as well along the way if she agrees.

Aecha on the other hand will also be training but by herself, working on her ability to make souls visible to others, to make them appear in their world longer and most importantly, to gain the ability to summon old and powerful souls.

First up to practice on the first day was Suho, Kai, Chen and Sehun. As expected, and it was safe to say that it didn’t go well for all of them.

Chanyeol ended up with burns on his flesh and also burnt holes on his clothes due to Suho’s uncontrollable fire. It was the man’s second time in summoning fire in which the first happened in their house back in Satia