“Daehyun! We’re gonna be late, come on!”

He rolled over and groaned, “You’re too loud.”

His brother entered the room and yanked the curtains open, “And you sleep too much. Rise and shine! Come on, we need to go.”

“Go?” Daehyun squeezed his eyes shut at the sudden brightness in the room, “What are you talking about?”

“Oh man, Hoya’s not gonna be happy…”

Hoya… ? After a few seconds of processing, he leapt up out of bed, “Go!” Daehyun grabbed a t-shirt and yanked it on, “Go! We need to go!”

“There we go,” his brother cackled.

Hoya was doing whatever it was he usually did… pacing around and insisting that he was okay and that he definitely didn’t need to calm down and take a seat before—

“Dude, relax. You’re going to make me dizzy,” one of the younger members piped up.

“Where the heck are they?” he threw his hands in the air, “Team check-in is in five minutes. I don’t need to relax, they need to show up.”

“Yeah, yeah and if we don’t make the time, we’ll be disqualified,” an older member waved him off and leaned back on the bench.

Someone behind him chuckled, “It’s always like this, isn’t it?”

“Hang on, I think I hear something.”

Hoya stopped in his tracks to listen.

“We’re going to be late!”

“And whose fault is that?”

“You should have woken me up sooner!”

The voices drew nearer.

One of the boys who had spoken before elbowed his friend in the ribs, “I told you… you hear those two before you ever see them.”

“Who said they were going to set an alarm?”

“I did!”

“But did it work?”

“That’s why I said you should’ve woken me up!”

“How am I supposed to know you sleep like a lump of Play-Do?”

“You live with me!”

The two brothers finally came into view, bickering and shoving, pulling at each other’s jackets and bags, still yelling at the top of their lungs.

His mouth twisted into an exasperated, sour expression, “Who overslept this time?” Hoya grabbed their shoulders and before they had a chance to respond, “You know what? I don’t really care, just go get checked in.” He steered the two over to the check-in counter, the rest of the team in tow.

Bingo. He grinned to himself.

“Come on Dae, if you keep going like that, there’s no fun in playing with you anymore,” his brother’s voice echoed out from behind a plastic, paint-splattered mask.

Daehyun shushed him, “It’s not like you’re the last one out” Suddenly, he heard a clicking noise come from behind him and he dropped flat on his stomach.

“Goddammit!”

He looked up to see his brother with a fresh splatter of paint on his back. Fighting back the urge to laugh, he raised his paintball gun behind him and shot in the direction the other one had come from.

“We’re taking the championship home this year for sure.”

A crackle of dry twigs came to his ears. He rolled over and sat up to see one of the older members of his paintball team with white paint dripping down his arm.

“If we don’t, then next year, we help Dae train and enter him into the solo rounds,” his brother laughed.

Daehyun pulled his mask off, “I don’t want to enter solo rounds.”

The other boy shrugged, “You never know. Gotta be prepared, eh?”

“The senior members who do not wish to, or have already signed for recruitment cannot participate in this round.”

The words bounced around in his suddenly very empty-feeling skull. Daehyun swallowed and stared blankly at Hoya, who had just read out the official statement.

“Don’t look at me,” Hoya tossed the paper at him, “I already signed under the Warfare Division. It’s all you now.”

A part of him wanted to say that the team captain was only trying to intimidate him. Part of him knew the truth behind that last phrase. It’s all you… He knew his brother was the last person to want to be scouted by recruiters. Most of the senior members were already signed if not rejected or uninterested.

Finally organizing his thoughts into a coherent sentence, he asked, “Does this round count in the team final score?”

His captain blinked at him, “What do you think?”

Daehyun chewed on his lip.

“Listen, it’s not like I’m going to tell you to have fun out there,” Hoya stated flatly, “Just don’t let us down.”

He nodded before seating himself on a bench. There was still a while before the match and he decided to busy himself with his equipment. Checking the air tanks, filling the hopper with his trademark white pellets, fixing the buckles on his protective vest. Daehyun wiped down the inside and outside of his mask again and again, squinting at it for any more imaginary smudges.

“Hey.”

A few orange pods landed in his lap and he looked up to see his brother staring down at him.

“Go nail a few of those other guys for me, yeah?”

Grinning, he tucked the pods into a pocket of his vest, “Leave it to me.”

He rolled over and scrambled under a large wooden structure, breathing heavily. Dimly, he could hear Hoya shouting… shouting… something about headshots being against the rules.

Well, even if it were against the rules, that didn’t change the fact that he now had black paint splattered all over the front of his goggles. Daehyun closed his eyes and listened to the competitors approaching. Their opponents were a young team… full of boys who wanted to be noticed by the recruiting officers judging the event from their posts.

The other junior members of his team had long since been taken out, leaving him to deal with the four members left on the other team. Dead alone… and blind to boot, he thought with an absurd chuckle.

Daehyun heard the footsteps draw nearer. One? Maybe two? Were both of them coming? He had already dealt with two of them before the foul shot that turned his world black... and now there were two left. He cocked his head slightly.

Two. The footsteps weren’t coming completely in sync. One rustle was slightly quieter than the other… and they were coming from… Both sides. Probably meant to trap him in there and finish him.

Alright then, let’s give them what they want.

He readied his paintball gun and felt around to make sure of his surroundings before settling back for a moment. Hot. Why was all this padding so hot? He could feel the sweat soaking through the protective undershirt and the gloves slipping a little on his hands. After a few deep breaths, Okay.

Carefully, he stuck the barrel out the side with the closest target. Listen. He’s right there. Another crunch of dry leaves secured the opponent’s position and he squeezed the trigger.

As soon as he heard the paintball hit home, he whirled back around to face the other side. He heard the boy’s teammate rush forward towards his hiding space. 3… 2… 1. Daehyun smirked and pulled the trigger again.

“Player 2481 and 2484, out!” the announcer’s voice boomed over the grounds, "Round over!"