Chapter 10; Deal

“Do you ever dress up like a girl?” Xiumin asks. Su Min whips around, her brow creased and her eyes flashing angrily.

A growl escapes from the bottom of . “What do you mean, am I not girly enough for you?” she snaps. Xiumin shakes his head, stepping back a few steps out of fear. “Good, then shut the up!” Su Min yells, her eyes narrowing threateningly before she turns back around. Things had been tense between the three ever since they left the town. Su Min’s more irritable from her restless sleep, Kyungsoo is hungry as always, and Xiumin is...Xiumin.

Su Min pauses, holding her hand out behind her, just in case the boys aren’t paying attention to where they’re going. Sure enough, they knock into her outstretched hand, and she nearly punches them as a consequence. Luckily, being loud might not be a good idea, so she decides to save the punishment for later. “We’re near a military town,” she whispers, her tone as blank as her face. Kyungsoo scoffs and steps forward.

“How do you know, Miss Navigator?”

She raises her hand as if to smack him, but instead points a finger towards a clearing. There, lines of wooden dummies stand in rows, waiting for military students to come beat them up. It’s kind of brutal, which is why back at camp, they just fought each other. Dummies are a waste of wood. “There’s a running trail as well. We can follow that back to the city.” she decides. She continues forward, not bothering to wait for her male companions.

The trio walks along the dirt path in silence, the only sounds come from the call of birds in the distance and the scream of a drill instructor some ways off. The woods fades away and welcomes the group to a medium-sized town. The buildings are grey and dull looking, as if the residents couldn’t care less about the appearance of their homes. That being said, most of the houses are meant to shelter military trainees, so they don’t really need to look good.

A field of ample size sits behind the town, near the back, wheat grows to feed the students. And in the front, a muddy wasteland filled with boys of varying ages, all there for the same reason; to learn how to fight. Su Min and the boys wander through the town, watching as pale, ashen faced women skitter by with bowls of dirty water in their hands. “This is barbaric,” Xiumin mumbles as he gazes around. Su Min shakes her head.

“No, this is military life.” she says, her voice soft but gravelly. As they approach the edge of the field, Su Min draws back in horror, a look of supreme dislike covering her face. Kyungsoo follows her gaze, and finds her staring at a tall man in robes as black as his hair. Her hand tightens around the hilt of her sword, the knuckles on her hand becoming increasingly white. “Why him?” she curses.

The man turns around, as if he heard her speak, and his eyes train on the three of them. Suddenly, a wide smile adorns his face and he jogs forward. “Su Min! Wow, I’m surprised, I thought you would’ve died by now!” he exclaims, clapping her roughly on the shoulder and receiving an icy glare in return. Su Min chuckles darkly and gives him a smile so wicked even Kyungsoo and Xiumin are surprised.

“Actually, I was hoping you died by now. I guess we were both wrong, huh?”

The man purses his lips and turns away from her, now looking at Xiumin and Kyungsoo. “Oh, so these are the so called ‘Divine Forces’?” he drawls, suppressing a laugh. Su Min scratches the back of her head, her cheeks flushing from embarrassment. Truth be told, her companions just don’t look all that divine. Nor do they look very powerful. “What can they do?”

This time, they choose to speak. “I’m Xiumin, Force of Frost.” Xiumin announces, bowing his head slightly. The man laughs, gripping his stomach slightly.

“Force of Frost? What do you do, make it snow?”

Su Min grips the mans shoulder, scowling all the while. “Lieutenant Lee, I’ll ask that you leave them alone. That is, unless you want to start trouble?” Su Min asks, a strange glint in her eye. Lieutenant or not, he’s a jerk, and Su Min is always in the mood to teach him a lesson. Once again, he lets out a cocky chuckle as he stares at the three of them.

“To be honest, I’m not really in the mood to fight with you, Su Min.” he confesses. She places her hands on her hips and stares at him in disbelief. Yeah, right, you’re always up for a fight, she thinks savagely. Sure enough, a smile crawls onto his face. “But there is someone here who might be willing...” he offers. He claps his hands together, as if calling a dog, and a tall boy with short, jet black hair runs over. He stands at attention and quickly salutes before staying as rigid as a rock.

Su Min laughs dryly. “Who’s this? Looks like one of the militaries ‘drones’, and I can’t say I’m really interested in fighting some unskilled boy.” she coughs. Kyungsoo and Xiumin smirk, obviously not the biggest fans of Lieutenant Lee either. Placing a hand on the boys shoulder, Lieutenant Lee proceeds to cluck his tongue in disapproval, only succeeding in aggravating Su Min more.

“This isn’t just any other boy, idiot. This is Huang Zitao, one of the militaries finest!”

Her eyes narrow slightly. “Zitao? Wait, so he’s Chinese. Didn’t they conquer us awhile ago?” she whispers, as if he can’t hear them.

“That was dynasties ago! Plus, this kids a wushu genius. He could probably even beat you,” Lieutenant Lee bargains, a smirk on his face. Su Min raises an eyebrow and looks at Zitao once again. No way. “Okay, maybe not you. But I’m positive that he could defeat your little Divine Misfits over there!” he shouts. Su Min’s jaw clenches angrily as she looks from Zitao to Xiumin and Kyungsoo. Her teams odds aren’t very good. She stares at the two of them, their bodies are weak, they have little to no muscle. Whereas, Zitao is pure muscle. He’s tall, agile, and swift. But her pride always gets the best of her.

“Deal.”

Author's Note;

► TAO! Yes, Tao has to battle Kyungsoo and Xiumin. I wonder how it'll turn out...Anyways, thanks for commenting, I really enjoy reading them. I've worked out the order in which the rest of the guys will be found, so, yeah. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, btw. Oh, and remember to comment, subscribe, and upvote as well!

► Peyton

Happy Be-Lated Valentine's Day! <3