Miran dreaded the arrival of Monday morning.  The first week had been more than tough enough – she’d never felt so out of depth before in her life – and her mind was already buzzing with a list of things she needed to do and ask other people to do, like getting the records for who had and hadn’t scanned in and out of the building on the evening the rogue had killed Oh Sehun, she reminded herself as she scanned herself through security, when she was accosted by Jaejoong in the foyer.  He was ranting about her being ten minutes late and nuisances and needing to re-jig PTs as a result before Miran finally twigged that she’d signed herself down for early morning field training and completely forgotten about it.

And forgotten about the fact that she’d agreed the previous day with Chanyeol that she’d ride the same bus to work with him, though that was much less important and he was bright enough to figure out that he was going to have to ride public transport himself.  She just hoped he wasn’t going to be too insulted that she’d stood him up.

Everybody else had already got started when she finally arrived at the gym in spare sports gear that a still-grumbling Jaejoong had dug out for her.  The majority seemed to be warming up with a workout on the various gym machines or with yoga stretches, but she could see people sparring on mats towards the middle of the gym and she... wasn’t quite sure of exactly what was going on at the end.

Jaejoong a sheet of paper into her hands.

“Your medical report shows you’re in good health and good shape, so you’re expected to maintain that.  You have an assigned PT for that if needed, but that’s not what the field training course is for.  Outside office hours, you’ll also have at least one field practical per week or fortnight, depending on what your chief field handler thinks you’re up to, and— why am I telling you all this?  It’s all on the sheet.  Your field handler is Seolhyun, but she’s not here right at the moment.  In any case, you’re doing unarmed combat and you have a different trainer....”

Despite telling himself off for talking too much and giving her all the information she needed on paper, Jaejoong continued to babble as he shunted Miran over to the mats at the other end of the gym.  He seemed totally unfazed at the thuds coming from people sparring around them, heading towards somebody at the back who looked like he was meditating.  Miran thought she recognised the set of the shoulders and the cut of the black hair, and her heart leapt to as Jaejoong coughed to announce their presence.

Kyungsoo turned around, getting to his feet and about to address Jaejoong when he realised Miran was standing there.  A happy little grin tugged at his expression in acknowledgement before his attention returned to Jaejoong.

“This is not a male trainee.  Miran’s in my division.”

“Oh good, you already know her.  Saves the introductions.”  Jaejoong waved a dismissive hand.  “You were both late, so I put Choi Jimin with somebody else.”

“No idea who he is,” Kyungsoo said with a shrug.

Jaejoong waved his hand again.  “If you don’t mind, I need to process this week’s weapon inventory.  Have fun, ducklings.  Bye!”

Kyungsoo and Miran both stared after him.  Miran thought she heard Kyungsoo muttering about how strange Kim Jaejoong could get when he was stressed before he turned to her.

There was an awkward silence and Miran found herself blushing.  Kyungsoo definitely noticed, because he was looking her up and down at the time.  He didn’t comment on it, though, just told her to put the file she was holding down somewhere.

“Well,” he said.  “Don’t know who’s taking you for the rest of this, but it looks like I’m your combat trainer.”  He took a step back.  “Have you warmed up?”

“No—” Miran began, and a second later, she found herself pinned down face first on the mat, one of her arms twisted – thankfully not too harshly – up behind her, and with Kyungsoo’s knee resting on her back.  Miran had done enough basic self-defence and martial arts to know that he was barely even pinning her and that she’d easily be able to free herself, but the shock kept her compliant until he released her arm.

“You don’t normally have time to warm up before a fight anyway,” he murmured in her ear, and she actually shivered at how delectable his voice sounded.

And then Office Kyungsoo was back, whacking her lightly on the head.  “Come on, don’t tell me you’re just going to freeze if somebody attacks you.”

Belatedly, Miran’s adrenaline kicked in.  She’d never been put in a position where she was pinned down face first and had to get out of it before, but Kyungsoo wasn’t putting too much pressure on her and she was able to roll them both over in order to free herself.  Kyungsoo let her go and lounged comfortably on the mat in front of her.  He was much more relaxed and cheerful than Miran had known him since she’d actually first seen him.

“Let’s warm up,” he suggested.

It didn’t take long for Miran to discover that physical combat was something that Kyungsoo not only enjoyed, but that he was also extremely good at.  She’d wondered where he often was when everybody else was working at their office cubicles, and the answer was now apparent.

“I have about five, six people I’m training,” Kyungsoo told her in reply to her asking if this was why he was so often absent.  “So yeah.  I spend at least a couple of hours a day down here.”

They were standing by the water fountain for a midsession rehydration break, and Kyungsoo was apparently predisposed to chat.

“You know, you’re the first one in our cell to sign down for this in quite some time.”  Kyungsoo took a gulp of water and refilled his paper cone, leaning against the wall.  “The others all say they’re too busy.”

Miran could agree on that one – she definitely felt too busy to be doing something like this on a regular basis.  “I thought it was only for field agents.”

“Physical combat, no.  That’s open to anybody who wants.”  Kyungsoo lifted his index finger from the rim of the paper cone and pointed to a sparring pair just a little way away.  “I know those two are in the IT department, for example.  They’re just here for fun.  And practice.”

Mira