"Hmm, it's been so long since I've done this… Where am I supposed to start?" The old man spoke to himself. "I guess I can just have them run until I can remember everything. Running sounds like a good option." He continued to mutter.

"We should let them rest first – they must've traveled for a while." The young girl standing next to him interjected. "And I'm sure they'd like to know what's going on before they agree to anything."

"Humph…" The old man grunted before staring us over. "One night of rest won't hurt." He turned his back to us and walked into the house… but he left the door open as if he expected us to just follow him.

 

…

 

"What is going on?" Tiffany slumped over from exhaustion.

"It's very nice to meet you all." The chubby-cheeked girl approached us with an awkward demeanor.

"Who are you, exactly?" Jessica questioned the odd girl.

"Me?!" The girl sounded shocked; as if she had never identified herself to anyone before. "My… my name is Seohyun…" She spoke nervously.

"… And the old guy is your grandfather, or something?" Jay said more as a statement than a question.

"Mhm." Seohyun nodded. "He's the man you've all been looking for."

"How do you know about that?" I asked. It was odd because we had no previous contact with them.

"I'm not too sure myself… Grandfather just told me that we had visitors coming."

"Well it's nice to meet you too." Eli returned her greeting. "We're all pretty tired, so no one's in a very welcoming mood." He tried to amend for our lack of introduction.

"That's completely fine. You're welcome to bring your stuff and get some rest in the house." Seohyun gestured towards the door. 

 

…

 

The quaint outside appearance of the house didn't do justice to the well structured interior. Everything was so simplistic, but elegant at the same time.

The living room was relatively empty: there was a large, circular table in the center and a few couches around it. The old man was sitting at the table with his face down, and he was snoring.

"Grandpa…" Seohyun nudged the elderly man.

"Hmm… what…?! Oh, right…" He woke up startled. "Everyone sit down – I'll explain what's going on."

 

All of us, including Seohyun sat down around the large table and waited for him to speak.

 

"Despite what you have been told, the main reason all of you are here is to train." He said in a serious voice.

He stopped talking, looked at us, and waited for a response… but none of us said anything.

"Really… none of you are surprised?" He sounded confused.

"I think they're waiting for you to finish explaining…" Seohyun answered for us.

"I don't know what else there is for me to explain?!"

 

"We just finished training…" Tiffany finally spoke up. "Aren't you just supposed to fix our bracers?"

"… And then what?" The old man said loudly. "You'll rush in and save the world as you are now? Bah! You can't even protect yourselves!"

 

Seeing as how we weren't familiar with the old man, the members of our group were taken back by his brashness.

 

"He just means that you're not nearly strong enough to deal with all of the obstacles in your way." Seohyun mediated the conversation again.

 

"I feel like we're strong enough…" Jessica interjected.

"Oh, really…?" The man rubbed his mustache. "Let's test your theory out."

"How?" Jay asked.

"Seohyun… get ready to spar with our guest." He smirked as he spoke.

 

O_o

 

…

 

"Are you really going to fight her?" I questioned Jessica, who was putting on a pair of gloves and a sparring helmet.

"I'm not one to back down – especially from a good challenge. It's not like we're fighting to the death or anything."

"You better not lose…" Jay teased. "Or else you'll make us look bad."

 

"Are the two sides ready?" The engineer spoke from the middle of a rectangular mat that sat behind the house.

"I'm ready!" Jessica readily hopped onto the mat with a spring in her step.

"What about you?" He looked at Seohyun, who nodded in response. "3… 2… 1… Go!" He shouted as he skittered off the mat.

He seems really into it…

 

 

Jessica and Seohyun squared off in the ring. Jessica's stance was completely solid, and allowed for no openings. Seohyun had an odd stance – she had multiple open spots near her head and ribcage, but it clearly allowed her to have a more free range of motion.

"Oh, wow." Eli said as he saw the stances. "This will be interesting."

"What makes you say that?" Tiffany asked.

"Well it's obvious that they both understand the technical aspects of fighting, so the fact that Seohyun is allowing herself to be open means that she's got something up her sleeve."

Hmm…

 

The two started fighting moments later.

Jessica took the offensive by jumping at Seohyun with her right arm extended. Seohyun responded by twisting her feet towards her body and lowering he left arm, to protect her open ribcage.

"She's got her." Jay spoke confidently about her friend.

When Jessica was a short distance from Seohyun, she planted her left foot on the ground – using it as a pivot, and twisted around the small girl. A moment later, Jessica was directly behind Seohyun, and had a free shot on her back.

 

*

 

What the hell was that?

 

Those of us new to the house were surprised as we scanned over the fight. Seohyun had her body twisted with one arm in front of her, and the other, behind her back. Jessica was lying on the floor, holding her nose, as part of her face was red from impact with one of Seohyun's fist.

"That looked like it hurt." Tiffany stared at her downed friend.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Seohyun apologized. "I tried to hold back as much as possible." She said as she reached out to help Jessica get up.

Jessica accepted Seohyun's gesture, but it was obvious that she was frustrated by what happened. "Let's go again!"

"Are you sure you don't want to rest?" Seohyun was reluctant to fight again.

"Give me another try."

Seohyun looked over to her grandfather, who shrugged with apathy.

"Alright, we can go again." Seohyun eventually gave in.

 

The two girls squared up once more in a similar fashion. This time, Jessica waited for Seohyun to make the first move. Seohyun willingly pounced at Jessica without any hesitation. The slim girl's movements caught Jessica a bit off-guard, but she was eventually able to follow them. Seohyun went for a high-kick on Jessica, but she easily blocked it by grabbing the girl's foot and pushing it back.

Wow…

Seohyun used the momentum, from Jessica pushing her foot, to swing herself in the opposite direction. The maneuver was expected by the seasoned fighter, so she ducked under the following kick. Jessica suspected that she got the better of her opponent, but Seohyun remained a step ahead.

After missing her second kick, Seohyun raised her other leg from the floor and shifted all of her weight to her lower body. As she fell to the ground, completely of her own accord, Seohyun's foot connected with Jessica's chin. The impact from the foot hitting her chin almost caused Jessica to bite her tongue, but she was able to brace herself a split-second before the kick actually made contact.

 

The strange move by Seohyun ended with both girls on the floor, but one was unhindered.

"Oh my… Are you okay?!" Seohyun quickly got up to check on Jessica.

"Just great…" Jessica's chin was bleeding a bit, but it was her pride that was hurt the most.

"I'm sorry." Seohyun bowed in apology. "I fought completely off reaction after you pushed my first kick.

 

"Do you see now that you still have much to learn?" The old man joined the conversation. "I take it you want that training now."

Jessica nodded in acceptance.

"Good, we start tomorrow morning. Everybody settle in and wash up, we'll make dinner in a few hours."

 

…

 

"I still can't believe that I lost so easily… Jessica looked down as she sat on one of the couches.

"What's the big deal?" I wasn't able to understand her frustration.

"My parents have been training me my entire life – I should at least be able to hold my own against practically anyone… especially someone who's my peer."

"What about the demons?" Eli asked. "You didn't seem so confident back then."

"They're different. I got a bad feeling just by looking at them – It was easy to tell that I wasn't on their level."

"This first step to progression is admitting that you still have a ways to go." The engineer entered the room. "I believe that your frustration comes from your idea that you've reached your peak when it comes to combat." He spoke towards Jessica, who reluctantly agreed with his statement.

"My parents said that they don't have anything else that they can teach me, so I'm afraid that I won't get stronger."

"Well that's nothing to worry about! Who do you think taught your parents?"

"You trained my parents?" Jessica sounded surprised.

"I trained most of your parents." He spoke towards the majority of the room. "…All except for our foreign friends here." The man made a gesture towards Eli and Jay.

"Really…?" Tiffany was equally surprised.

"Yes, Tiffany – both of your parents trained under me when they were young; along with Taeyeon's father."

The words surprised me as well.

"What were they like?" Tiffany asked inquisitively.

"They were very spry to say the least… but they started their training a lot earlier than you all."

"So we're pretty behind in terms of that." I realized.

"Hmm… I would say that you're ahead of them in terms of skill, but they had a lot of field experience by the time they were your age."

"Looks like you still have a ways to go before you're at your peak." Jay spoke towards Jessica. "So try not to be so high-strung." She joked with her friend.

 

…

 

"Okay everyone; everything's ready." Seohyun poked her head out from the kitchen.

We all excitedly ran into the kitchen: we were extremely hungry from all the traveling and lack of having proper meals for a while.

 

 

"Ugh… this is a joke, right?" Jay was stunned, as were the rest of us, at all of the unprepared food laid out before us.

"You didn't think we were going to cook this all ourselves, did you?" The engineer spoke casually to us.

"I think… I think I might pass out." Eli held his stomach as it grumbled.

"What are we supposed to do with this?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

 

"We're going to cook it together!" Seohyun responded with a cheerful smile.

"Ugh…" We all groaned simultaneously.

 

 

…

 

 

"Alright, you've all worked hard – now… Let's eat!" The elderly man shouted from the table.

We were excited to finally have the opportunity to eat, but none of us had the energy to return his enthusiasm.

"Yay…" We all responded weakly before digging into the food.

 

After taking a few bites of the food, everyone became reenergized, and started enjoying their time at the table.

"Hmmm…"

"What are you thinking about?" Tiffany responded to the noise I made.

"It's been forever since I've just sat down and had a meal like this."

"It's nice… We barely know most of these people, but it feels like we're all really close." Tiffany laughed as Jessica shied away from a plate of cucumbers that Seohyun attempted to pass to her.

"… and I'm not sure why, but I'm really looking forward to our training." I finished saying.

"I wish I shared your excitement." Tiffany joked. "But I'm willing to do whatever it takes to save your parents."

 

…

 

That night, we found out there were two extra bedrooms in the house. Jessica and Jay shared a room, while I shared a room with Tiffany.

With all of the rooms being used by the females, Eli was forced to sleep on one of the couches in the living room, but claimed that he didn't mind.

 

"What do you think the training is going to be like?" I asked Tiffany from my bed that was across from hers.

"It'll probably be really grueling – if we're meant to become as strong as Seohyun is."

"We should try to sleep now then: who knows how early he'll wake us up."

"That's true… Goodnight Tae." Tiffany's voice was soothing to hear as I closed my eyes.

"Goodnight Fany…"

 

 

 

…

 

 

"Yah… just five more minutes!" I could hear Jessica pleading with Seohyun from mine and Tiffany's room.

 

"Mmmm… what time is it?" Tiffany rubbed her eyes. We were both woken up by the yelling.

I rolled over and looked at a small clock that was hanging from the wall.

"It's five in the morning…"

 

Funny story: I'm actually writing this part at five in the morning xD

 

"Meh… I guess it's good that we've gotten used to waking up early." Tiffany mentioned her father's training.

 

The two of us got dressed and walked out to the living room, where Seohyun was waiting for us.

 

"Good morning." She said with a slight smile on her face.

"Good morning." Tiffany and I mumbled as we started to slide on our bracers.

"Oh, you're not going to be using those." Seohyun pointed at our gear.

"Really? It'll feel weird to not use them." Tiffany reluctantly took hers off.

"That's the whole point." Seohyun collected our bracers as she spoke. "You're going to strengthen yourselves."

"My arm feels ." I tried to rub out the strange feeling from the missing object on my forearm.

"Are you ready to train?"

"We're not going to eat breakfast first?" I asked slowly.

"About that…" Seohyun skittered out the door; gesturing for us to follow her as she did.

 

…

 

"Today is your first day of official training as a Liner." The old man spoke to the five of us lined up in front of the house. "Well… not you…" he spoke towards Seohyun, who was standing behind us.

"Why am I even out here? I'm not part of this whole Liner thing." Jay said bluntly.

"Every family of Liners has to start somewhere." The engineer responded in a way that Jay didn’t know how to reply to.

"Umm, excuse me." Tiffany interrupted their conversation.

"Hmm…? What?"

"I was just wondering: How should we refer to you?" Tiffany said. "We've already spent the night here, but you haven't given us a name or anything."

"Mmmm… you can just call me Pops…" He responded jokingly.

"What does the name Pops mean?" I quietly asked Tiffany.

"It's sort of like a nickname that you would give and old man that you're pretty close with."

"Oh… So then why would we refer to him that way?" I said bluntly as I pointed at the elderly man.

"I can hear the two of you!" He yelled at us; causing me and Tiffany to straighten up and look forward.

 

The chain of events was followed by laughter from everyone else.

 

"Now that that's settled, I'll tell you all your first exercise." Pops said. "Eli, you can go back inside – Seohyun's going to pick up where you left off learning about the bracers."

"Uh… okay?" Eli seemed confused by something, but he followed the directions.

 

With Seohyun and Eli now inside the house, Pops gave the rest of us our first lesson.

"Today, the four of you are going to be training with presence."

"Didn't you two mention something like that the other day?" Jessica spoke towards Tiffany and me.

Pops raised his hand. "I'm aware that some of you are already familiar with presence, but we're going to treat it like it's a new subject to all of you."

Time went by slowly for me and Tiffany, as we were forced to listen to information that we were already aware of.

"Who would've thought…?" Jay commented at what she was just told.

"Now I understand how everyone knew those demons were coming." Jessica added.

 

"With that out of the way…" Pops started talking again. "…we can get to work now."

The old man pointed behind him, towards a large number of trees that served as an entrance to the woods near the house.

"You'll split up into groups of two, and search these woods for a badger…"

"Why does that sound familiar?" I thought out loud.

"Hmm… Oh, it was written on the note!" Tiffany realized.

"That's right – for some reason, I felt like it would be a bad thing."

"Well the way my father acted when we mentioned it, gave the words a negative connotation."

He must have some reason for reacting like that…

 

"Well that's why you should let someone finish what they're saying before you interrupt them." Pops started speaking again.

"Oh, there's more to it?" Jay questioned.

"Yes…" The elderly man raised one finger. "The group that succeeds in catching the badger will be allowed to have a nice dinner tonight; the losing team will be forced to eat whatever edible vegetation they can find in the forest.

 

What?!

 

"That seems unnecessarily cruel." Jessica reasoned.

"Your enemies won't treat you kindly, and neither will I." The old man spoke with apathy. "You will group up as you were before you combined groups: Jessica and Jay will be one group, with Taeyeon and Tiffany being the other." He paused. "Now go!"

 

 

 

…

 

 

 

"How exactly are we supposed to find this badger?" I asked Tiffany as I moved aside a branch in our way.

"I have no idea…" Tiffany's stomach grumbled as she spoke. "… but it'll be pretty difficult since we're running on empty."

"Well maybe he gave us a clue while he was ranting."

 

Tiffany and I spent a few minutes scanning over every word the old man sad as he explained our lesson to us.

"Ugh… I'm drawing blanks here." Tiffany eventually conceded.

"I really wish I paid attention the entire time – I zoned out when he started talking about presence." I stated.

"Maybe that's it!" Tiffany stopped moving, and found somewhere to sit. "What if we're supposed to sense the badger's presence?"

"Hmm… it would make sense to connect the teaching with our training." I thought out loud. "How do we go about doing that?"

"Well…" Tiffany sat on the grass and crossed her legs. "I guess we just try and concentrate." She closed her eyes as she finished speaking.

I guess we can try that.

I sat horizontally with Tiffany, copied her pose, and tried to focus on the world around me.

 

Am I supposed to be feeling something?

 

Despite trying my hardest to concentrate on the things around me, I only noticed the things that I could already see normally.

"I don't think it's working…" I slowly opened one eye to look at Tiffany.

"I'm not getting anything either." She responded.

 

"Umm…" I struggled to tell Tiffany what I was looking at, but she eventually noticed herself.

"Wait, is that it?" Tiffany pointed towards the smallish four legged creature that sat on a rock in front of us.

 

The furry animal stared at us for a bit, chewing on something, before running off past a few trees.

Tiffany and I traded glances, and then turned our attention back to the skittering animal.

"Let's chase after it!" I yelled… but my partner was already in pursuit.

 

…

 

"You've got to keep up!" Tiffany turned and yelled: I was trailing her the entire time, and couldn't catch up for some reason.

"When did you get so fast?" I called out as the girl in front of me hopped over a brush.

"You've never really been that fast, Tae..." She teased me.

 

While turning her attention back to the path in front of her, Tiffany's eyes skipped over a mossy patch of grass.

"WAHHH!!!" she yelled as she slipped on grass, lost her balance, and tumbled to the floor.

Due to running so quickly, I wasn't able to get out of the way in time. "OHHH!"

 

Our bodies collided and rolled for a bit before we were stopped by a large rock.

 

…

 

"That wasn't very fun…" I pulled some twigs out of my hair.

"… And we lost the badger." Tiffany groaned as she raised herself from the ground.

"I can't believe it just walked right in front of us like that…"

"Well it won't matter if we don't catch it." Tiffany muttered. Her stomach growled once more. "Let's go."

I wonder how Jessica and Jay are doing…

 

*

"zzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ…"

"zzzzzZZZZZzzzzZZZZZ…"

The two girls were sprawled out and lay asleep on a pile of soft leaves.

*

 

…

 

We had spent the next few hours outside, trying to find the badger, but without any luck.

 

"Should we just call it quits?" Tiffany rested on a low hanging branch.

"Are you okay without eating dinner?" It was my stomach that growled this time.

"It can't be that bad… we just have to find some food from this forest." Tiffany looked around for something edible, and eventually came across some berries. "Look – we can just eat these." She plucked a few off of a branch and tossed them into .

"I don't think those are…" I started to say, but the optimistic girl was already chewing. "How does it taste?"

Tiffany gave a curious look outwards before twisting her lips and making a sour face.

"BLEH!" She turned around and spit-up the berries.

"That bad?" I asked rhetorically.

"Let's hurry up, and win this – I am not suffering through that again."

 

 

…

 

 

It had started to grow dark in our search for the badger.

 

"Maybe we should call it quits now…" I was hungry to the point that my stomach didn't even grumble.

"Mm… let's give it one more hour before we give up." Tiffany responded.

"Okay, but we should try a different plan."

"What can we do though? We can't seem to sense the presence of the badger, and it seems like he's afraid of us."

"Well he wasn't scared of us when we sat still…" I mentioned.

Tiffany looked to the side for a bit as she came to a realization. "Have I ever mentioned that you're a genius?"

"Huh?"

"You've made me realize that we're not supposed to look for his presence; we're supposed to hide ours."

 

…

 

 

The two of us sat on a rock completely still.

Remaining in one spot without moving was difficult, but it was necessary for our idea to work.

I fought off the urge to ask Tiffany a question, and focused on keeping my breathing steady – it was almost as if I were meditating.

 

During our concentration, my partner and I noticed a small, fury creature approach us.

Don't move.

 

The next part was the toughest:

It was up to the two of us to not make any sudden movements that would scare the badger away.

Stay calm, Tae...

It took about 30 minutes of sitting completely still, but the badger eventually got directly next to me.

That… tickles…

The badger starting rubbing its nose on my hand, which let me know that it was close enough to catch.

Now!

In one swift motion, I swept one hand under the badger, while my other hand reached over and got a grip on his back.

 

 

Tiffany heard the noise, and jumped up from her position. "Did you catch it?"

As she opened her eyes, the badger in my grasp stretched its neck out and the curious girl on her cheek.

 

 

 

…

 

 

"We're back…" I panted as Tiffany and I reached the dimly lit house.

Jessica and Jay sluggishly approached from behind – with Seohyun leading them.

 

"How did you know we were done?" Tiffany asked the three of them.

"Oh, you didn't notice the collar on the badger?" Seohyun asked. "It lets us know where he is."

"You managed to put a collar on this thing?" It seemed like a really troublesome thing to do.

"Of course: he's our pet." Seohyun whistled to the badger.

It responded by prying itself out of my grip and prancing over to his its owner.

 

"Wait… so we spent the entire day chasing after your pet?" Jay realized.

"Yup!" The girl responded cheerfully.

"That's so disheartening…"  Jessica sulked as she walked past me and Tiffany, and into the house.

"Can we go to sleep now?" Jay also walked past us.

 

…

 

We had all entered the house and were sprawled all over the furniture when Seohyun's grandfather walked in.

"Don't get comfortable just yet." He rubbed his chin as he spoke.

Everyone slowly moved into an upwards position, but our bodies retained their awkwardness.

 

"So as was our agreement, the losing team has to eat food hand-picked from the forest…"

Jay and Jessica cringed at the idea of having to eat random vegetation and berries.

"Don't worry; I've taken the liberty of collecting some edible foods for you."

The girls shied away from the bowl of odd looking fruits he carried in.

 

"How about we all share the food?" Tiffany randomly suggested.

Tiffany's statement sparked the old man's interest. "You're saying you want to split a meal made for two people, so that it will feed four?"

"Mhm…" Tiffany nodded. "… As long as it it's okay with you." She looked at me to see if I approved.

"I'm fine with it." I responded shortly.

"Well, that's settled then…" Pops started saying before Seohyun entered the room.

"Food's ready!" Her voice rang with excitement.

 

"We don't even have to cook tonight?!" I blurted out.

"I thought it would be better to take it easy the first night."

"That was my idea…" Seohyun said bluntly.

"Ugh…" Pops grunted after being ousted. "Let's eat!" He quickly changed the subject.

 

 

…

 

While eating, it became obvious to me that the meal that night was just a large, if not larger, than the meal from the night before.

He was bluffing the whole time.

 

"I feel like someone is missing…" I thought out loud.

"Yeah, aren't there supposed to be seven of us… I only count six." Tiffany added.

"I don't notice anything different." Jay said as she downed some kimchi.

"Do you mean Eli?" Seohyun picked up a small bowl of rice as she spoke.

"That's right."Jessica included herself into the conversation. "Where is he?"

"I had him do some extra reading after we finished with the lesson." Pops said.

 

Moments after he finished talking, the door to another room in the house slowly creaked open.

 

A zombie-like Eli lazily walked out of the room, his eyes red.

"No more…" He mumbled.

"Are you alright?" Seohyun questioned.

"No more…" He mumbled once more – as if it was the only phrase he knew.

None of us knew exactly what he was saying until he finally reached the table.

"No… more… reading…" His head plopped onto the table as he finished speaking, which was followed by laughs from everyone else.

Looks like we all had a rough first day.

…

 

 

A few more minutes into the meal, Pops surprised everyone by standing up.

"It's time for a pop-quiz!"

"What?!" We all responded unanimously.

"The five of you will be questioned on all of the information you should have learned today."

Uhhh…

We were all shocked at the suddenness of the quiz.

Right when we're the least suspecting.

 

 

He spoke as Seohyun helped him pass out the papers.

"The results of this quiz decided whether or not you eat breakfast in the morning."

We all groaned at the realization that most of our meals were going to be based on our performance during training.

"A 50%, and above, is considered passing." He finally said before we started the quiz.

 

The five of us sitting at the table glanced at each other as we scanned over the papers.

Oh boy…

 

…

 

I don't remember hearing about half of this stuff.

It was already twenty minutes into the quiz, and I was having trouble answering a large portion of questions. My eyes scanned over table, and it was clear that everyone was having a difficult time.

How are any of us supposed to know this? I thought.

Most of the questions were odd and obscure, like:

 

3. In which direction was the wind traveling from 11:36 am to 12:20 pm?

4. Where was the best vantage point in the forest?

5. What is the safest way to find a target while you're in their territory?

 

I might be able to answer this one…

 

Slowly, but surely, I was able to answer all of the questions on the quiz with some degree of confidence.

 

 

…

 

 

"How did they all do?" Seohyun asked her grandfather after he finished going over the papers.

"Well… it looks like nobody passed."

 

The air in the room became stiff as we all thought about not being able to eat breakfast in the morning.

 

"Now finish eating, and get some sleep – early bird gets the worm or whatever the saying is…" He picked up a piece of bread, and walked out of the kitchen.

 

"I don't know if I'm really looking forward to tomorrow…" Jay broke the silence that filled the room.

"I'm willing to train, but not being able to eat is pretty brutal." Tiffany stood up, along with the rest of us.

"I'm just ready to go to bed." Eli rubbed his eyes to remove some of the strain on them.

Mhm…" Jessica was already dozing off at the table.

"I guess we're going to sleep then…" I said unsurely.

It feels like something's off.

 

Seohyun seemed to not have an opinion on the situation, and just watched as we all walked off to our rooms.

 

…

 

"How are you holding up?" Tiffany asked me once we got settled into our beds.

"I have mixed feelings." I responded. "I'm nervous about everything going on, but I'm kind of excited that we're getting stronger. What are your thoughts??"

"It's funny – focusing on the training is keeping my mind off of a lot of things. I've been thinking about it: Training replaces the stress of the things you can't control with the stress of things you can… in hopes that you can one day control the initial stressor."

It took me a few seconds to wrap my head around the idea, but Tiffany's words did make a lot of sense.

 

I've been a lot less nervous since getting to the house, and starting this new training.

 

"Each day, we have a new set of small goals that preoccupy our time." I realized.

"… And they build on top of each other – eventually we'll be at our true goal." Tiffany finished my thought.

 

Our conversation unknowingly carried on for a couple of hours, until we eventually fell asleep.

 

…

 

"Good morning, sleepy-head." Tiffany poked my side as she hovered over me.

"Hmmm… what time is it?" I rubbed my eyes, so they would adjust to the light.

"I'm not sure. All I know is that it's time for us to start training."

 

The moment I rose from bed, my stomach started to grumble.

"Ugh…" I groaned.

"Here, eat some of these, but keep it discrete." Tiffany handed me small bag of almonds.

"Where did you get these?"

"Seohyun snuck them in when she woke me up."

She did that for us?

 

I ate a few of the almonds, which subdued my hunger for a bit, but I was determined to accomplish whatever task we had for the day, so I could eat a real meal.

 

…

 

The five people from our group all lined up outside once more, but Seohyun lined up as well.

"Are you training with us today?" I asked.

She looked out with a bit of uncertainty before responding. "I would like to… if that's alright with all of you."

"You don't have to be so nervous around us." Jay said to the girl.

"Yeah, you're one of us." Jessica added, which made Seohyun smile.

 

"Ahem…" Pops coughed to draw our attention.

 

We all straightened up and turned our attention to the older man.

"One thing I forgot to mention yesterday: This training is completely different from anything you've been through."

"How so?" Eli asked.

"You've already been trained when it comes to tactics and how to react in the field – you're not here to improve your skills as just a Liner."

Our faces had a mixture of shock and confusion on them.

"Then what are we here for?" Jessica spoke for us.

"I'm teaching you kids how to survive… Outside of what you know, the world is a lot more dangerous than you think. By the time that I'm through with you, you'll be able to handle yourselves regardless of what path you take."

We were taken back by what he said, but none of us said anything.

"Be warned: I'm not going to go easy on you… and many Liners have quit this training because of its difficulty." He said. "If anybody wants to leave now, I understand."

 

All of us stood still, but each of us had our own reasons for doing so.

 

"I assume that means you're all staying."

"So, what are we doing today, Grandpa?" Seohyun spoke out of character.

He seemed pleasantly surprised by Seohyun's presence. "Today is going to be a bit of capture the flag."

We looked out to see the hills, that we initially crossed over to get to the house, were where our training for the day was.

"There are 50 flags placed across the area. Whoever collects the most flags gets to plan our meal for tonight – they can choose whatever food they want."

"What happens to the person who collects the least?" Tiffany asked.

"I'll decide that once I see who it is. Regarding the flags; you may use whatever means you find necessary to collect them, as long as it doesn't put anybody in danger of serious harm."

We all readied as he raised his hand in the air.

"Go!"
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