(38) YEAH, IT'S HELL

"This isn't fair."

Kris smirked smugly with his arms crossed as Sehun is shoved into the middle of the field by a few others. Kyungsoo waits there, not in the least bit afraid whereas Sehun looks as if he wants to run away entirely.

“Too bad.” Kris laughs all the more, “And… Start!”

Sehun looks up at Kyungsoo and meekly puts his hands up in front of him.

“C-Come on hyung! You don’t wanna do this to me… Right?”

“Woah! He’s actually calling you hyung?” Luhan whistled, finding Sehun’s predicament extremely funny.

Sehun shot Luhan a dirty look as he clenched and unclenched his fingers, palms growing sweaty not knowing what Kyungsoo was going to do. He and the boy never really had time to bond over the years. The only thing he really did was tease Kai for becoming the boy’s shadow.

From the corner of his eye, Sehun could see Suho using the garden hose to make a trail of water going perfectly around him and Kyungsoo. Not far behind was Xiumin dragging along a rather large chunk of wood. He pulled it through the muddy ground that Suho was creating, the two of them working together to create a clear boundary line for the fight.

Because Sehun definitely needed that.

“Thanks guys.” Sehun said sarcastically unaware of Kyungsoo who had already begun to advance towards him.

By the time Sehun had realized what was happening, Kyungsoo had pushed the backsides of his ankles and grabbed his shoulders to lay him down on the dirt floor. He sat over Sehun’s stomach and looked up at Kris expectantly. Nobody thought it would be over that quick, or rather, that gently.

“Come on.” Baekhyun groaned, growing sick by the poor excuse of a fight. “Kyungsoo, I know you can do more than that. He’s not a baby!”

Sehun struggled to break free, finding himself cursing more and more at Kyungsoo’s strong thighs. He may have been small, but he sure as hell was strong.

If he hadn’t realized that earlier after having seen the boy break almost every bone in his body.

“Just beat him up hyung.” Kai frowned, not liking how easy he was being on the maknae.

“Thanks, again. Really Kai, you are the best friend anyone could ever have.” Sehun sighed sarcastically.

“There’s no point in fighting if Sehun gives up like this.” Kris grumbled, “Kyungsoo, you need to let him stand and then be serious please.”

Kyungsoo nodded his head and stood up, giving his hand to Sehun to help pull him off the ground. Finally both the two had their fists bared and bodies ready for an actual fight and only then did everyone stop complaining.

Once again, Kyungsoo was the first to move, this time much quicker and with much more intent than before. He brought his hand forward to grab Sehun’s shoulder and the boy deflected his attack, fingers lightly pressing down on Kyungsoo’s wrist as his own hand crumpled to the floor. Kyungsoo winced as his fingers bent under the amount of power his own movements held. He heard the noise too, of bones crunching in the dirt.

Falling to his knees, Kyungsoo held his injured hand, tenderly trying to straighten out the digits though he knew he wouldn’t be able to do that on his own unless he wanted to break the bones back in place.

“Does this mean I won?” Sehun mused, watching as Kyungsoo silently crumbled to his knees.

“You used your powers!” Kai yelled, pointing a finger accusingly at Sehun. “Kris said no powers!”

“Oh yeah?” Sehun challenged. “How do you know?”

Kai’s mouth opened to say anything, but no words came out, just his frustrated breath as he tried to come up with an excuse. “Well… You…”

“Exactly.”

“You wouldn’t have been able to push him away like that with your own power though.” Xiumin hummed, looking at Sehun top to bottom to see where this hidden strength was in his scrawny brother.

“Well, I did have to survive in faction F without the power of teleportation, mind you all.” Sehun huffed, just wanting to step off the playing field already.

“Do it again.” Kris ordered.

“What?”

Sehun held a grim expression as Kris’ one stayed stoic. With his arms crossed, he looked at Kyungsoo to see if he could still fight and of course the boy stood, clutching his injured hand with a dark look in his eyes.

“Kyungsoo is injured. You can’t expect him to fight-”

“You should worry about yourself Sehun.”

The sudden whisper sent chills down Sehun’s spine and it shocked his mentality back into fighting mode. It had given him just enough time to spot the hand coming up to crush his face in.

Kyungsoo had more self control than to actually hit him and raised an eyebrow once Sehun’s irises bloomed white, giving him an extra boost as he jumped extremely high into the air.

“He did cheat…” He managed to breathe out, watching as Sehun landed much farther away from him in the field.

“Nobody jumps that freakin’ high!” Baekhyun screamed, arms raised high into the air.

Sehun clicked his tongue as the others seemed to figure it out.

“Yeah, I used my powers. Big deal!” He glances over at Kyungsoo who's still fixated on the spot where he would’ve been if he hadn’t used them. “How do you expect me to compete against someone who has a natural power?”

He felt his breathing slowly become constricted as Kris’ eyes burned silver even under the bright rays of the sun. His powers were relentlessly forcing Sehun’s body to the ground, only letting up just a bit when Sehun’s knees were planted in the dirt, forcing him to be submissive. His body proved to stay down while his eyes bore holes into Kris’ entire being.

“I’m doing this to help you-”

“No! You’re doing this because you’re older than me!” Sehun shot back, baring his teeth as Kris kept him down. “Why do I have to go through all of this… This bull because I’m the youngest?”

“Just- Because! Okay?” Kris grumbled while feeling his head begin to ache.

Sehun wasn’t satisfied with Kris’ reasoning, struggling to stand as he was pushed down. Nothing was fair as the youngest. Not before, not now and certainly not in the future if his brothers thought he still needed to be held by his hand and babied for the rest of his life.

Before he could mouth off about Kris’ great leadership, Sehun felt the weight around him dissipate. He looked to find out why and saw Xiumin grabbing Kris’ arm, already having dragged him off to talk in private. Kyungsoo was helping him stand and he could see the faint worried expression decorating Kris’ usual stoic look.

The relief hadn’t lasted very long because just as Sehun had gotten back to his feet, he felt an ache in his lower abdomen. The pain shot from his stomach to his lungs and he could barely breathe. It only occurred to him he had been punched after his lips to find the salty taste of dirt. The smell of it was awful and more so because he could feel his non existent breakfast threatening come back up.

Kyungsoo clenched and unclenched his injured hand. “It only makes you an idiot if you don’t listen.”

He left to go and seek Lay out about his broken hand, leaving Sehun on his knees as his stomach lurched.

“He’s just worried about you.” Xiumin chided, rubbing Sehun’s back as he continued to gag.

The boy continued to gag until Lay had finished healing Kyungsoo, making his way over a little too late once Sehun’s eyes were filled to the brim with tears. Lay had taken particularly long examining Kyungsoo’s hand after he had healed it. That and he wanted Sehun to suffer just a little longer for getting on everyone’s nerves. But he didn’t have to know that and Lay stayed silent.

“Sorry, I guess…”

Sehun’s eyes blearily opened to see Kris awkwardly shuffling his feet around in the dirt. “What?”

“I said,” Kris huffed, his lips as his eyes darted around to look at the other boys before going back to Sehun. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

“I’m sorry… What?”

The way the corners of Sehun’s lips were starting to tug up signaled that he wasn’t actually unable to hear what Kris was saying. He just wanted him to keep saying it and enjoyed that Kris couldn’t say anything more.

“I’m sorry I kept treating you like a child.” Kris bit back a curse as Sehun was fully smiling now, bringing a hand up to roughly ruffle his hair. “So don’t make me treat you like one.”

His shy apologies were no more once he had finally got those words out of his system. Kris’ shoulders automatically perked up as he felt no need to show mercy any longer.

“Next battle!”

The boys were listening eagerly for the results, especially since Kris was the one that chose whether they’d make it or break it. Kai was smiling off to the side, earning a weird look from Sehun who was hunched over and holding his stomach.

“By battle, doesn’t it sound like-”

“No.” Sehun interrupted. “Don’t even say it.”

“Pokemon?”

Sehun’s upper lip curled upwards a bit as he judged his friend for bringing up something that was over hundreds of years old. “Really?”

“What’s Pokemon?”

Both boys turned to see Lay tilting his head in wonder. They couldn’t keep him waiting though and struggled to come up with an explanation when Chen came along.

“It’s something that’s too old for this time.” He summed up, taking Lay away before those two could pollute his mind or something.

“As I was saying.” Kris squinted his eyes in their direction for talking while he talked. “Next battle is… Xiumin Vs. Suho.”

Xiumin broke out into a grin hearing that he’d be next while Suho let out a shaky sigh, worried he’d end up something like Sehun after his own battle had been finished. Those two had known each other the longest out of the group when you thought about it. It would be interesting to see who’d win in this situation, and Kris had the perfect opportunity to figure out the outcome.

The both of them moved into the dirt battle ground before Kris had called for them to start. His rushing decision already threw Suho off guard as he was unaware of a fighter’s battle tactics. Xiumin on the other hand, knew to strike on the first notice and did, running towards Suho and grabbing both of his arms to throw him to the ground.

Suho wasn’t the most fit out of everyone, but he had common sense enough to try and keep his balance and not end up on the floor like Sehun.

It was evident that the latter just didn’t want to end up like Sehun in the slightest.

They both clung to each other’s arms, using their weight to try and push one another to the ground in hopes to end the battle quickly. Once they could see that wasn’t possible, Suho was the first to try tripping Xiumin to the ground, almost succeeding if it weren’t for Xiumin’s training at faction A. He was able to sidestep and quickly make it so that they were standing upright again, a small smile lingering on his lips despite how he had no more strength to try and push Suho down fully.

“Who do you think is going to win?” Chanyeol whispered, just wanting to know from someone else since he couldn’t predict it himself.

“Xiumin.” Kyungsoo nodded his head, “He’s older.”

“So? What does that have to do with anything?” Sehun hissed, still bitter about his own battle.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, “Xiumin trained at faction A and he’s stronger muscle mass wise.”

“You never know. Suho actually got abs while we were in faction B.” Lay hummed.

That was also unexpected.

“That guy? The one battling Xiumin?” Chen gasped, still not believing what Lay had said.

It was hard to say Lay was lying because he never lied.

“Yup. Faction B personnel have to keep in shape or you’ll get demoted.” Lay nodded his head to confirm his own words.

It wasn’t like they were trying to keep their conversation a secret and Xiumin was even more amazed by how much Suho’s changed in the years. He’d been especially curious to see if the word about his abs were true.

Grabbing Suho’s wrist, he momentarily was able to hold them together with one hand. Using the other, he flipped up Suho’s shirt to reveal the truth.

Easily visible and chiseled to the point of actually being rock itself, abs were planted right over where Suho’s stomach should be. His cheeks flushed red while his shirt remained up and he’d frantically struggled to push Xiumin away.

“Oh my god…”

Chen was in awe. Kyungsoo was in awe. Everyone was in awe of Suho’s actual abs.

“Told you guys.” Lay said smugly, watching the fight happily as they continued to gawk at Suho who was too embarrassed to fight seriously now.

“I think Xiumin’s going to win.” Baekhyun said suddenly, turning heads of those that were struggling to find their own outcomes after seeing Suho’s hidden abs.

“Siding with Kyungsoo finally?” Kai teased, though his eyes remained hard as he pushed himself between the two boys just in case something happened.

“No,” Baekhyun scoffed. “I talked to Tao and he said that Xiumin would win. So I’ll trust him.”

Tao, who had been sitting idly on the side looked all to happy with his own answer. And the smug expression on his face was already egging others on to challenge what he said. It was hard to tell at this point. Suho hovered slightly over Xiumin as he pushed his body downwards, seemingly having the advantage though his grim expression said otherwise.

Suho’s face was red and i