Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Miranda here! I'm really sorry that I've been lazy when it came to updating my stories. I've just been lacking motivation recently since Seventeen hasn't been doing much, and school is just really tiring in general. Anyway, if you have been following me on here, I do occasionally post oneshots, but that won't be the case for the next three to four weeks. If you follow me on Twitter, you'd have heard that I have another surgery on May 2^nd (also the day of my birthday, yay!) and I won't be on here as often as I have posting whatever I post so I'll be on hiatus. I will try my best during my recovery period to write more chapters for you guys, and I might just have my sister post them if she can.

Thank you again for reading, and I hope you continue to support my stories!

Black to red, or as Soonyoung saw it, a transition from the main Academy building into the Jang Wing. His eyes scanned over the other students casually walking through the common room, all sporting the burnt red patches on their clothes. On their backs, in a darker red was a Killer Bee imprinted into the uniform; the unofficial mascot of the Jang Wing Plebes and K-ombatants. Of course, that symbol would be camouflaged into the rest of the uniform outside of the Jang Wing. From the entrance, Soonyoung could see the lot of the students in his BOS class making their way up the stairs to the dorms. He followed. Before he was even scouted into the Kestrel Program, he had heard many stories from the interviewed K-ombatants that there was little discrimination between the lower ranks and the higher ranks because they were mixed in with each other in the dorm rooms. Now Soonyoung was going to find out how much of that was actually true.

“Hey man, do you know who you're rooming with yet?” Soonyoung felt himself being forced downwards as he felt Seokmin's arm just plop onto his shoulder, “Rumor has it that the boys and girls are required to share dorms,”

“No, I haven't gone up yet, and um, I don't see why not,” Soonyoung chuckled to himself as he slid the shorter boy's arms off so he could straighten his posture. A rather creepy grin made it's way onto his face when Seokmin mentioned something about having to share the dorms with the girls, “I'm sure they do it to use that extra space for other training rooms, ya feel me?”

Laughing, the made their way up the jet black staircase to the boy's rooms. Well, Soonyoung had to admit for a multi-billion dollar company, the rooms were pretty crappy. Sure, he wasn't really expecting that they were going to have a Five Star Hotel stay, but you would think that they would at least put a little bit more effort in the interior design. The hallway was as dark as the deepest part of Carlsbad Caverns, with dark red Victorian-style lamps hanging from the walls. From all the wear and tear they displayed, Soonyoung could tell that the facility hadn't been upgraded in a while. A dull brown color lined the narrow walls that closed in on them, water damaged and peeling. The once-matching burgundy accents had now turned a weird shade of salmon thankfully it didn't seem too obvious to the eye because there were no windows to let any light shine through. Soonyoung cringed as he heard an annoying creaking from underneath his boots with every step he took. Were the higher-ups expecting their students to live like bats? Because if so, Soonyoung wanted out. It was stupid enough that they were to be segregated into wings run by the K-aptains, but now they had to strain their eyes in the dark. Great.

“Huh, would you look at that” Soonyoung barely breathed out when he saw his name on the red illuminated name plaque outside of a dark brown automatic sealing door. He brought his fingers up to trace the paper-thin metal plastered onto the wall, marveling at the craftmanship put into the design. Alright, maybe the interior lacked a first impression, but the miniscule details were pretty refined. He read the name that was written out in English, “I'm rooming with some guy named Livewire, and that Chan kid. How about you?”

“Ahm, lemme check,” Seokmin strolled down the hallways, squinting at the wall plates to look for his name. In a matter of seconds, a glass-breaking shriek left his mouth as he ran towards Soonyoung with a terrified look on his face, “I'm with the Yinzhi girl!”

“Oh , dude, good luck with that!” Soonyoung snickered, not even feeling the least bit sorry that his new friend was going to be rooming with the Devil's daughter herself. At least it wasn't him.

Shaking the younger boy off him, Soonyoung slipped into his room to leave Seokmin alone to figure out his own problems. Soonyoung had other problems to deal with like, you know, snatching up top bunk before Chan did. When he entered the room, he was greeted with a completely different atmosphere from what was outside. A soft yellow from the single lamp on the desk lit up the room, showing black wood furniture. The walls were as red as their uniform, and were textured to look like they were in a cave of something. The bed in the bunks was a sharp, crisp white and completely contrasted the rest of the room, but was once again toned down by the grey bedsheets. Walking over to one of the beds, Soonyoung noticed that on the wall, there was a metal plate, almost like an in-wall drawer. Before he even got to touch it though, the door hissed open.

“Don't touch that!” a boy with tri-colored hair pounced at Soonyoung, shoving him off the bed, “That's mine!”

Judging by how high the voice was, Soonyoung assumed that the kid was about Chan's age. Although, the hair color was a bit of a debating factor. A dark red covered the top portion of the boy's Bieber-esque cut, but underneath, Soonyoung could make out his natural black color. And then there was that long platinum blonde streak positioned a few centimeters away from the edge of his bangs. Unfortunately for Soonyoung, he didn't get a good enough lock on the boy's face to identify this new creature sprawled out in the bed across from him. After a few minutes, he finally got his chance to when the boy recollected himself and stood back up from the bed. The tri-color haired boy squinted down at Soonyoung obviously reading his rather crappy profile, arms crossed, and legs apart like he was anticipating an attack. Soonyoung took this opportunity to read the boy's profile too: Rank 2 Kestrel Rookie K-adet Lee Jihoon. Pilot Number 11 of the Epsilon Valkyrie. Pyromaniac/Arsonist.

Well that last part explained why his hair was rather bold.

“So, you're one of the plebes that I have to share my room with, huh?” The Jihoon boy flipped his bangs to the side before offering a hand to Soonyoung, “Pleasure to meet you, Soonyoung, but I'm afraid that our time together is going to be rather short. I'm being transferred to the Choi Wing in about two week's time, so you'll just be sharing at room with that interesting boy I met a bit earlier,”

“Oh you mean Chan?” Soonyoung guessed since Chan was the only other person they were sharing the room with, earning a nod from Jihoon, “So Rank 2, huh? That's great. Who's your piloting partner?”

“Oh I was just promoted a month ago I don't have a partner yet. I'm starting my neural matching tomorrow,” Jihoon explained, “The most I've done so far is choose my K-odename – which was three ranks ago hahaha,”

“Livewire, right?” Soonyoung remembered the name on the plate.

Livewire. He had heard that name on the news the one time his dad actually paid the electric bill. Soonyoung recognized Jihoon now. He remembered seeing Jihoon walk out onto that podium to receive his K-adet badge given to him by some black-suit guy. Probably one of the CEOs of the company Jihoon was sponsoring for. Soonyoung had seen a few of Livewire's missions on the Internet before, and honestly, he never liked the guy's fighting stye. He was aggressive, and always made sure he burned the Weigyein until it was nothing but ashes. Then again, Jihoon was a pyromaniac and an arsonist. But Soonyoung never knew that before. Anyway, Jihoon grinned at the mention of his K-odename, “Yeah, it's a pretty sweet name, don't you think? Doyoon helped me pick it. Well, to you he would be Senior Jang, but that's not the point. You've met Doyoon, right? If you haven't you really should. He's our Division K-aptain, and overall he's a pretty chill dude. Everyone in the Academy loves him, especially the females,”

For a while, the two conversed about the small things – their personal lives before they were scouted, how their first day at the academy was, a few do's and dont's, and Jihoon's hilarious stories about trying to hit on girls from the Choi Wing. What do you expect? Boys will be boys. So in that hour, Soonyoung had learned so many things about the academy that he was never taught about in school. Like, apparently there was another joint-base in Russo-China where the K-ombatants, K-adets, and K-aptains were sent to outer space to train for off-Earth combat, and another base in Japan that was built underwater for underwater combat. Jihoon even gave him a bit of advice on which division had the best girls – and that was the Hong Division. Soonyoung could figure out that much though. Most of the Hong division girls were nice.

“The Choi Division's K-aptain is Inferno, and they're probably the most stuck-up, and down-right meanest kids in the Academy. But they're some of the most skilled. I mean, look at Senior Choi himself, and Junior Yao. And by Junior Yao, I'm talking about the younger one,” Jihoon started off with the Choi Division, “Then you have the Jang Division – that's us. According to my other division pals, they think we're the bravest and most charismatic. We're led by K-aptain Ryder. The more famous Jang Division students are Senior Jang, and Senior Gao. Located in the deepest underground sector of the facility is the Yoon Wing led by K-aptain Umbrage. They're some of the deadliest, and craziest people you'll ever come across in the Academy – no wait, the Quarters. Everyone is afraid of these guys. Our K-ounselor, you'll meet her later today I'm sure, is from the Yoon Division. She's crazy, I tell you. Hong Wing is led by K-aptain Beemer, but everyone around here calls him Joshua. They're the coolest, and friendliest people. Totally dependable if you ask me,”

“What about the Zhou Wing? I heard some of the other trainees here talking about them,”

“Oh, the Zhous. Yeah, they're the ones that get to have all the fun around here. Quarantine, Andromeda's older brother is from there,” Soonyoung's brain didn't register the name 'Quarantine' but he nodded it off so that Jihoon could continue, “They're the guys that get to go outer space and all that jazz. There aren't many members that are part of the Zhou Division, but they exist. They say it's like really hard to get in there and that you have to be either really good, or have a few connections with people from Russo-China to even be considered. Think of them as a high school's popular crew. But even knowing that, it's weird because they attend the same classes we do. If you're lucky, you might run into the infamous Tiger Team at First Meal tomorrow morning,”

Soonyoung continued to listen to the rest of Jihoon's drabbles, as he made himself comfortable on his new bottom-bunk bed. So the Kestrel Academy wasn't different from any high school after all. It was just like any regular high school with stupid cliques, snobby teachers, and stuck-up students. Some things never change.

Calisthenics in 45 Minutes.

The yellow reminder flicked across every student's sight area in the middle of First Meal. All the students, didn't matter whether they were a plebe or a K-aptain, were all gathered in the room. Soonyoung dismissed the notice from his view and continued to scarf down the rest of his heavily buttered mashed potatoes. Oils from the sausage links accompanying the potatoes coated the students' lips as they continued to stuff food into their mouths. They all had larger than life plates piled high with all sorts of hearty breakfast foods like meat, starches, vegetables, and each and every morsel was devoured. Next to him, Seokmin literally inhaled four of his sunny-side eggs, while on his left, Chan was downing his fifth glass of milk.

During First Meal briefings, Doctor DiLaurentis explained to the new students that it was normal to eat all the food on their plates, if not more. Those neural processors of theirs took more than the nutrition necessary to maintain hair follicles, but it also took up a large portion of other nutrients to function. So in order to prevent the student from passing out or beings drained to nothing more than just a corpse, they had to stockpile on as much food as possible. Besides, it's not like they were going to get fat anyway. They went through too much training to be able to gain any weigh. If weight was to be gained, the neural processor would just absorb it anyway. Talk about delicious and convenient weight loss.

The Jang Division took up most of the tables in the K-afeteria seeing that they were the Wing that housed the most students. First Meal, and Evening Meal was the only time other divisions could properly socialize with one another outside of the common rooms, so some were taking this as an opportunity to sit with their other division mates. Most of the plebes around Soonyoung were chattering about how great their first day went. Opposite them, the higher ranks mingled with each other discussing whatever upperclassmen talked about. There was a delightful mix of fiery orange, molten red, midnight, electric yellow, sky blue, forest green, and royal purple swimming in the room. All their uniforms proudly displaying their division mascots on their backs.

Most of Soonyoung's table consisted of red uniforms with the exception of Seohee who was sporting a light blue uniform, and Yoora with yellow. Not many words were being exchanged around the table as they were all too focused on eating. Surprisingly, it was the smallest boy of them there, Chan, who finished everything on his plate, and was about to generate another plate. This was is second serving already, yet he still wasn't satisfied. It wasn't until Seohee told him to stop eating when he finally did. After all, they still had Calisthenics. The last thing Chan wanted was to throw up on everyone on his first Calisthenics class. Leaning back in his seat, Chan placed his hands on the back of his head and looked at Seohee who was opposite him, “So Seohee, what's it like being promoted to a Rank 2 on your first day here?” There was a hint of jealousy in his voice.

“Well, I get to choose my K-odename when I go for re-registration this afternoon,” Seohee reached over to dip one of her dumplings into the ponzu dish placed in the middle of the table, “And I'm really excited because now I don't have to be in the same programming class you four goons,”

Because of her valiant efforts in the operation room yesterday, the Kestrel K-ounsel had decided to reward Seohee with a rank promotion, and in her best interest, transfer her to a more advanced division. The process wasn't quite as complicated as one would expect as she was still a first year and she had very little to transfer over anyway. Soonyoung's lock hovered over Seohee as he read her profile, reading her stats as a plebe one last time. Her badge still harbored a gleaming '6', but that was going to be changed in less than a few hours. This was totally unfair, and he wasn't going deny that he was jealous. I mean, it was his idea in the first place to step up when the head K-ontriever wasn't at the controls. Well if he couldn't get a rank promotion, a letter of congratulations wouldn't hurt, you know?

“So, I heard you were moving divisions,” Yoora discarded her plate and stretched her arms high above her head, “Who's the lucky K-aptain that gets to have you, the wonder child, in his or her division?”

Seohee tipped her head in the direction of the K-aptains who were sitting all the way in the front of the K-afeteria. All of the K-aptains were boys, except for one who was sporting the royal purple uniform with the fox mascot on her back. Her back was turned towards them, but judging from her slender and petite frame, she was obviously a girl. Seungcheol, and Doyoon were sitting on the farthest side of the table, Junghan and the Hong Division's K-aptain next to them, then finally a small, frail boy in blue across the table from the only female. Seohee pointed out the boy in the same sky blue uniform as her, “Do you see that one in sky blue? That's K-aptain Bu Seunggwan of the Bu Division,”

“There's no way that skimpy guy is a K-aptain,” Seokmin scoffed as he set aside his own plate, “I mean look at him, he's way too soft,”

Although rude, everyone knew that Seokmin was right. Seunggwan did look a little bit too baby-like. Even from such a distance, Soonyoung's target locked onto the boy, and immediately his profile showed up. Seohee wasn't lying about the whole 'K-aptain' ideal as it was actually stated right there in writing. The rest of his profile was as follows: K-odename Neutron. Rank 1 K-aptain and Kestrel Novice K-ombatant. Pilot Number 55 of the Omicron Triolith. Speed Programming, Shadow Combat and Neural Connections Mentor. Soonyoung's eyebrows lifted at the mention of shadow combat. To be honest, that seemed more like a Junghan kind of thing and not a wimpy boy show. Looking at Seunggwan as a whole, he was shorter than all of the K-aptains there, and he walked around with his shoulders slouched over, not a single trance of confidence in his body. His hair brushed over his eyes, and were low enough to touch the tip of his feminine -like lashes. Everything about this boy screamed femininity other than the fact that his profile said the opposite.

Their eyes followed Seunggwan's every movement as he got up from the table with the other K-aptains following him. It was still thirty minutes before the first period started, but he figured that maybe the instructors still had to get ready for the class. The rest of Soonyoung and Co. went ahead and cleaned up their table to wander the halls of the Academy before class started leaving everyone else in the mess hall. While Seohee and Yoora went ahead to check out the calisthenics room, Seokmin excused himself to go back to his room to grab something leaving Chan and Soonyoung to themselves. At this point in time, Soonyoung had grown a bit more comfortable towards the younger boy now that they kept each other company in their dorm rooms. They continued their way down the hallway and found themselves wandering into the student services ward. There, their uniforms shifted to a darker shade of grey and their insignias turned black. Chan abruptly stopped in front of an unlabeled door, and pulled Soonyoung with him,

“Hey Soonyoung, check this out,” Chan peered through the small circular window on the the door, “It's totally dark in there,”

“That's probably because nobody wants us in there,” Soonyoung shook the younger off, rolling his eyes, “Come on, I don't think this student services hallway is welcoming to the plebes anyway,”

See, the way Soonyoung remembered high school was that unless you were applying to something or had any form discrepancies to see your counselor about, then you really didn't belong in the service hallway. The counselors and other faculty were too busy working on paperwork to sit around chatting with a student who wasn't even in need of their services. Grabbing the shorter boy by the back collar of his uniform, Soonyoung started off down the hallway to see where it would lead next, until they heard a tapping of footsteps behind them. They seemed to be on their way, but thanks to hearing Chan's struggling complaints, they had to stop and check out what was happening.

“Plebes, what are you doing here?” came a curious voice behind them; it was soft, yet at the same time, ever so gentle that it sent chills down the two Jang members' spines.

Peering over his shoulder, Bu Division's K-aptain name appeared over the stranger, making Soonyoung wince and stand down; Chan followed as he stood next to the older boy. From just a few feet away, Seunggwan stared at the two curiously, face lacking any trace of emotions whatsoever. He had just come from one of the K-ounselor's offices not expecting to see any other company, let alone students that really should have been heading to class anyway. The way Chan saw it though, the mysterious K-aptain had just exited from the black office he was looking at earlier. Clearing his throat, Soonyoung attempted conversation towards the hardened K-aptain, “Good morning, K-aptain Bu Seunggwan, sir,”

“And to you too,” a hint of hesitance still in his voice, “May I ask what you two plebes, who should be heading to calisthenics I believe, are doing here?”

“They're with me, K-aptain,” Jinli suddenly spoke up from who-knows-where, surprising even Seunggwan, “The plebes were walking behind me, and I didn't realize they had wandered off path. My sincerest apologies, sir,”

Seunggwan was silent, but showed no expression whether or not he believed they lower ranked pilot. Shaking his head, he acknowledged her excuse and waved them off. Soonyoung and Chan wasted no time tailing after Jinli who had turned the corner and was already at least ten feet away from them. Damn, these pilots were fast. Chan on the other hand was wondering what calisthenics was going to be all about. How rigorous was training going to be? He had heard many tales of ex-plebes on support group forums talking about how they dreaded calisthenics, but here, it seemed like all pilots in training loved it. Well either way, he was just going to have to find out for himself then.

They finally reached the extended part of the building to find that there were already plebes waiting. There were three doors in the cul de sac like area; each one had a different color. The white sign above the doors read: Room 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Turning around to ask Jinli a question, Soonyoung was surprised to see that she was already gone. She was a weird one, Zai Jinli. He shook it off, and wandered over to Yoora who was chatting up a storm with Seokmin, Baekhee, and Yinzhi. When the two look-alike boys approached the small group, they were immediately reeled into their conversation. Hitting Soonyoung's arm repeatedly, Seokmin grinned like the buffoon he was, “Dude, did you hear? There are going to be three classes!”

“And?” Soonyoung didn't exactly see what was the big deal.

“Rumor has it that one of the instructors is a girl, and Seokmin is fangirling about it,” Yoora rolled her eyes when Soonyoung quickly reacted, seeming super excited as well, “Boys will be boys,”

The area then quieted down when the three doors beeped, hissing open as they slowly opened. Everyone held their breath and fell into neutral formation as the instructors walked out, clipboards in hand. Before them stood K-ombatants Hwanmyeong and Wonwoo, and K-aptain Seuncheol in their respective division colors. The only difference was that instead of orange like Seungcheol, Hwanmyeong's uniform was green like the Zhou Wing. They were looking scarier as ever as their faces showed no emotion; it was as if they were just soulless robots. Soonyoung gulped when he saw the three; they were probably the most terrifying K-ombatants in the academy. A message from Seokmin popped up in his sight area shortly after the instructors' grand entrance reading: 'The last thing I need on my schedule is another class with the witch.' If Soonyoung wasn't scared senseless, he would have laughed out loud.

He quickly typed up his reply, and sent it right before Seungcheol began speaking, “Plebes, welcome to your first day of Calisthenics. We are your instructors. I'm sure you don't need us to introduce ourselves so let's cut to the chase. To keep class sizes small, we'll be splitting you up amongst the three of us. No class is better than the other as we will be teaching classes the exact same way it's been taught since the establishment of the academy. K-ombatant Yao here will be taking place for one of the Zhou Wing K-ombatants as he is unable to leave the space facility at this time. We will start sorting now,”

Once everyone was sorted, everyone gathered in front of their training room door, and marveled when their uniforms changed colors to match their instructors. While he was admiring the new black and yellow look on him, Yoora ran up to Soonyoung and whispered, “Our instructor is Satan. Please kill me now,”