Lay thinks, very hard, pretty much about everyone and everything in his life. His abusive father, his mother’s soft hands, the way his brother taught him to fight the first time when he was 8, his friends back in high school, his training in The Organization, his cold-hearted boss, his mates in The Organization, pretty boy Luhan, witty Chen, softy Xiumin, baby Tao, and tough Kris.

---

Six years ago when he was eighteen, they told him he was very precise. They told him that he saved a spot as a sniper in his new team. They told him they put him into the future best team in The Organization. They told him his new team consisted of another new and promising guys like him. They told him they’d train for a while as a team before their first mission. They told him to go straight and get into the third room on his left when he was ready to meet his teammates. They told him if the room was big and practically empty with a line of windows at the other side of the door, he got into the right one.

“You’re our sniper guy, huh?” someone asked when he got into the room.

He snapped his head up and looked around to find a tall boy, wiping a rifle on his hands, sitting on the only table in the room near the window. He frowned at the boy before nodding his head.

“That’s what they told me. They also told me to go to this room to-”

“I’m one of them,” the boy cut him off.

“Them?” he asked.

The boy nodded lazily and kept wiping the rifle although it already looked shiny even from far away. “Your teammates. Yixing?” Yixing nodded. “Yifan,” he introduced himself.

Yixing was about to say something when a chubby boy popped his head inside the room cutely. “Hey, I’m Minseok. By the way, do you happen to know where the toilet is?” Minseok asked casually, like they were in a classroom in school not in one of secret organization rooms that they didn't even know the purpose of.

Yifan rolled his eyes. “It’s the last door on the left,” he answered.

“Ah, thanks. I’ll be back,” Minseok waved before he left.

Yixing was too amazed with that calm boy called Minseok that he didn’t pay attention at Yifan anymore.

“That’s our visual,” Yifan explained.

“Visual?” Yixing asked as he looked at Yifan again.

Yifan nodded. “That guy is always at the front line. When we need a communicator or a bait, that’s our guy,” he explained.

“What about you?” Yixing asked after a while, “What’s your specialty?”

“Heavy weapons,” he said as he lifted his rifle. “I’m practically just another wonderful shooter, like you.” He laughed quietly and, for the first time, he looked at Yixing in the eyes. “You wanna sit?” He pointed the space next to him on the table with his chin.

Yixing nodded. He walked slowly to the space next to him and sat there. He looked at Yifan’s scarred hands and the way he wiped his rifle gently like it’s his precious thing.

“You’re pretty much an observer, but you don’t ask. I like you,” he said as he continued wiping the rifle, “speak if you want to speak.”

“What happened with your hands?” Yixing asked finally,

Yifan lifted his head and looked straight to the door. “How long have you been here?”

“Seven months.”

“I’ve been here for fifteen months. They told me I have no specialty. I’m good, at everything, so they taught me everything. These scars,” he said, lifting his right hand, “are everything that I learned.”

Yixing looked at the door when he heard noises. And, he was right. Two boys came inside the room, a little awkward with each other, followed by Minseok.

“I’m Luhan,” the boy who stood at the left said.

Yifan pointed at Luhan. “Our martial arts expert. Pretty boy,” he said and Luhan rolled his eyes, looking annoyed.

“Jongdae. Computer.” The boy in the middle walked to the chair next to the table Yixing and Yifan sat on and sat there, crossing his hands and legs.

“Minseok,” Minseok introduced himself again happily.

A sound coming from outside the room showed them that someone was coming their way, running. Soon, another tall boy showed up at the door, panting. “Am I late?” the tall boy asked.

Yifan pointed at the tall boy. “Zitao, the youngest and the last one, transportation. Now, we’re a team.”

---

“We’re okay, Xing, we’re gonna deal with this later,” he promises and Lay snaps back into the reality now, “are you still with us?”

Lay looks at Kris’ soft and understanding eyes. The word sorry is on his tongue but the guilt inside his throat prevents his voice to come out. . If he wasn’t so selfish, if he wasn’t thinking about his so-called big brother that left, if he was actually thinking about how to get them all out of here, they wouldn’t be in this situation now. He caused this. He’s just a burden for the team. The five of them could do so much better without him. But, Kris still looks at him like he made no mistake, like he’s just freaking out and everything’s okay.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he says, knowing that Lay is upset with himself.

“Kris,” Luhan whispers and Kris turns his head a little but never let Lay's shoulders go, “we don’t have much time.”

Kris nods and he looks at Lay again. He tights his grips on Lay's shoulders and give some of it's okay, we'll get through this.

“Leave me,” Lay manages to say.

Kris looks at Lay sharply, dangerously. “No,” he says sternly, “we can get out of here without leaving anyone behind.” He gives Lay one last look before turning around and facing the other four.

Tao looks at him with a reassuring smile on his face, saying it’s okay, Yixing gege. Xiumin takes his hand softly, like he always does. And, he hates the way they treat him. He wants Tao to curse at him and Xiumin to give him a big punch on his face that reminds him that he betrayed them just ten minutes ago.

“Okay, listen up,” Kris says as he squats down a little like the others, “Tao, go prepare the car. Lay, you go with him and protect him. Everyone will cover for you guys. When you’re ready, give us a sign and we’ll go out one by one.”

The others nod his head, but Lay shakes his head. This isn’t right.

“I’ll stay behind. He wants me, Kris. He has my brother and he knows I know everything about his business. He knows that if I go out of here alive, I’ll be the first one to bring him down because I want to release my brother,” Lay says, sounding so broken and desperate.

“It’s okay, we’ll find a way to release your brother after we get out of here,” Luhan says.

“No! You can’t get out with me!”

“We’re not leaving you beh-“

They crouch down more behind the huge wood box when they hear gunshots.

“!” Chen says out of breath because he’s so shocked with the sudden attack, “You said we killed most of them,” he says to Tao next to him.

“How would I know! I didn’t count!” Tao retorts back before he shoots back to the group at the other side of warehouse. Luhan, Chen, Xiumin, and Kris follow Tao, shooting back at the enemies.

“Ohoho, Yixing~ our boss just left and forgot to tell you that you’re brother is out of town~” someone sings from the other side and Lay closes his eyes. He hates that voice because now he knows how ugly he is. Kris takes a look beside him, making sure Lay doesn’t do anything stupid. When he sees Lay shoots back to the enemy, he smiles a little and follows the others.

---

“I’m tired!” Tao kicked the table near the window of their training room instead of the tug.

“Tao,” Minseok said and put his hand on Tao’s shoulder but Tao shrugged it off.

“Two more hours and you can sleep,” Yifan said coldly. He didn’t like how whiny Tao became when he was tired. Well, he wasn’t the only one who was tired.

“How long should we do this? Three more months? A year?” he asked annoyingly.

Luhan and Jongdae sat on the ground and watched the drama in front of them. It wasn’t that they didn’t care, but they were exhausted because of the training. They didn’t want to waste more energy to deal with Tao. Yixing hated a fight between the team, but he really didn’t know what to do anymore.

Yifan looked at Tao. “A little more. Bear with it.”

“What are we trained for exactly, Yifan?” Yixing asked out of nowhere and Yifan didn’t expect that, “It seems like the past five months they only give you the proper information. We need to know what are we dying for.”

Luhan stood up and nodded his head. “You never really told us anything. When I got here, they only said I’d be proud of myself.”

“Is that what you all really think of? Don't you trust me?” Yifan asked in disbelief. He turned around and kicked the chair next to the table. He looked out of the window for a while, calming his mind. To be honest, he was tired too. He was tired of all the pressure The Organization gave him like he was the leader of the team and he was tired pulling everyone together. But, he actually understood if they didn't trust him anymore.

“How can we when you don't tell us anything?" Jongdae said.

Yixing sighed. "What is it that you’re not telling us? We want to know why we're here, what are we trained for, everything.” Yixing asked again, this time softly.

Yifan didn’t look back at them. “This organization was established by our own government, but nobody really know about us. Basically, they only take orphans with special skills, like Luhan, Tao, and Jongdae, or their parents were part of this organization too, like Minseok and me, or they were selected students in the military, like Yixing,” Yifan took his time while everyone looked at Yixing since they never heard Yixing talked about how did he end up in a military school, “they said we’re the most talented trainees so far. Every year, they only produce one team consists of several people who pass the basic training and put in a team. Usually, they go through three years of basic training and are, at least, 21 when they receive their first mission. So, we are the youngest team they’ve ever made and we’re pretty much an experiment for them. We have to be successful.”

Yifan turned around to face them. “I’m sorry for not telling you guys about this. I don’t know what to do because they never put me into this situation. Nobody did. Actually, they want me to tell you guys about this when we’re ready. I know it is not fair, but there’s no turning back anymore. We have to stick together because we’re a team now. Some of you probably don’t want this, but we can do this together.”

Everyone stayed quiet for a while. These past five months they spent together, training and living together as a team, they never saw Yifan’s vulnerable side. Yifan was always tough, cold, and, sometimes, heartless. They didn’t know that he was hiding all of this guilty feeling behind his cold mask.

“No,” Luhan was the first one to speak. Yifan looked up and watched him with a little disappointment. “I wanna do this now.”

“Me too,” Jongdae said with a little smile.

“So, it’s official?” Minseok asked, making everyone in the room looked at him with confusion, “You’re our leader?”

“Leader?” Tao asked and everyone held his breath to welcome Tao’s next anger, “I’ll never say no to Kris gege as a leader.”

“Kris?” Jongdae asked, frowning.

Tao nodded cutely. “He fits Kris image. And, you're Chen," he said to Jongdae and Jongdae frowned in dislike.

“What is Kris image, Tao? And, what's with Chen?” Luhan asked before laughing out loud.

Tao shrugged. “He is Xiumin gege,” Tao said as he pointed Minseok next.

Yifan takes his shoulder playfully and the two of them laughed. Everyone in the room laughed too but Yixing. Tao stopped laughing and looked at Yixing. “What about you...Lay ge?”

Yixing looked up because he felt like Tao was talking to him and he was right. He kept quiet for a while and everyone hoped they were all in this together, including the sometime so quiet Yixing. But, Yixing smiled. “I like Lay.”

"Well, thank you, God. You don't give me a nickname," Luhan said.

"You are..." Tao thought throughly. He felt like he had to find something for Luhan. But, after a while, Tao shrugged. "You fit a Luhan image."

Minseok laughed again. "Seriously! What's with this image thing, Zitao?!"

Minseok, Luhan, Jongdae, and Tao joked around for a little while. Yifan took a meaningful look at Yixing. Somehow, Yixing fitted the most with Yifan and he felt like he needed Yixing's support the most. Yixing looked at him and gave him a smile. That was how Yifan knew their team was going to make it afar.

---

I HOPE YOU GUY LIKE IT! By the way, I make them a little older than their actual age.