“How is he?”

Hearing the voice in the otherwise silent room, Junhui opened his eyes to find Jihoon standing over him. After his heated argument with Minghao, Junhui had stormed to the recreational room to cool down. None of the other members had bothered him, understanding his need for quietness and alone time, but Jihoon had always been an exception and he was now in front of Junhui, his face emotionless as ever.

If it had been anyone else, they would have thought that the shorter boy was indifferent to Minghao’s plight but it wasn’t anyone else — it was Junhui. After all those times spent together hiding from the organization, the Chinese male could read Jihoon easily like a book and he found slight concern in his eyes. There was also no need to ask who was the ‘he’ Jihoon was referring to.

Sighing heavily, Junhui leaned back on the bean bag until his head hung over it and everything was upside down. Just like my relationship with Minghao right now. He thought dryly to himself before answering carefully. “Minghao’s fine. Angry, but fine.”

“Just angry?” Jihoon pressed on, a bit of incredulity in his voice, as he nudged at Junhui’s leg to make way for him. The elder did so lazily and Jihoon plunked himself down on the bean bag opposite Junhui, fixing his heavy gaze on him.

“You don’t have to soften the blow for me, you know.” Jihoon remarked in an indifferent tone, his gaze unwavering. “What I did would make anyone mad at me so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s furious at me.”

Junhui coughed awkwardly as he truthfully admitted in a quiet voice, “he is actually. But not just at you; he’s furious at almost everyone involved.”

“Well, like I said,” Jihoon sighed in resignation, “I’m not surprised.”

The Chinese male peered at Jihoon carefully; he had always been a stern and austere trainer but kindness was not unfound in him. Yet, his method of testing Minghao had been unusually cruel and unsparing — especially when one considered the fact that Minghao had only discovered his superpowers a mere few days before. To put him under such a brutal situation was uncalled for, even if some of the harshness could be blamed on Minghao.

“I have to admit,” Junhui confessed after a moment of heavy thinking. He sat up and turned so that he faced Jihoon head on. “I don’t understand why you have to do that.”

Jihoon shot Junhui a queer look, as if upset that he would have to explain his actions to him. “I thought you, out of everyone else, would understand. I did that because it’s a part and parcel of our training. To train him, I have to be able to gauge his level of control over his superpowers.”

“I know that. Don’t think that I have forgotten, Jihoon.” Junhui replied before giving Jihoon a steely look. He accused, “but you were unnecessarily cruel to Minghao.”

Jihoon diverted his gaze to the carpet, avoiding the elder’s eyes. “I wasn’t. I did what I had to.”

“Yes, you were.” Junhui retorted, his suspicions confirmed by the shorter boy’s guilty action. His voice grew a tad louder when he realized that what Minghao had said was right; Jihoon did wronged him. For what reason, Junhui didn’t know yet but what he did know was that Jihoon had made things hard for Minghao.

“No, I didn’t.” Jihoon snapped back, suddenly upset.

Junhui felt like throttling the younger at his blatant lying. “Yes, you were.”

“No, I —” Jihoon broke off abruptly, upset, before scoffing, “what are we doing? We’re no longer kids.”

Ignoring the last remark, Junhui went straight to interrogating the younger. “When Jeonghan hyung joined us, you didn’t get Wonwoo to put an illusion of him being attacked.” Junhui pointed out, determined to get a proper explanation out of Jihoon. His head raced with examples he could toss at Jihoon to prove his conjecture. “You just had Jeonghan hyung suspend large objects in the air or get squashed by them.”

Jihoon scowled indignantly, clearly displeased by Junhui’s accusation. “Well, Jeonghan hyung’s superpower is levitation. What else was I supposed to do?”

“Before Jeonghan hyung,” Junhui went on, his voice overriding Jihoon’s defensive one, “when Joshua hyung arrived, you made him face injured animals to force him to heal them.”

“Was I supposed to grievously injure people, to the brink of death, and get him to heal them instead?” Jihoon asked, his words dripping with sarcasm. “Is that what you wanted?”

“And for Seokmin, you just had Wonwoo trap him in a room that would shrink every ten minutes so that he was forced to pass through the walls,” Junhui continued, pretending not to have heard the other boy. He was on a roll; the previous tests were going breeze compared on Minghao’s. “For me, you only made me turn invisible in a room full of people while my  —”

“Okay, okay, you made your point!” Jihoon exclaimed angrily, his eyes flashing in annoyance. Junhui glowered at him but kept silent as he waited for an explanation. In front of him, Jihoon took a deep breath to calm himself before nonchalantly remarking, his tone clipped and curt. “Maybe I did treated him harsher than I did to you guys but I have my own reasons.”

“So, you admit it.” Junhui caught onto the confession like a dog to a bone. “You were picking on Minghao.”

The moment the words left his mouth, Junhui felt guilt flood him as he remembered his earlier defending of Jihoon. Minghao was right and I reprimanded him. The brown haired boy thought ruefully, thinking back to the blond boy’s upset face. Minghao had looked close to tears but Junhui made no move to comfort him. What is wrong with me?

“I wasn’t picking on him, for goodness’ sake. Everything I did was for the good of the group.” Jihoon denied the accusation, offended that the elder would even think he would do that, before he spat out fiercely. “Maybe, instead of lashing out on me, you should think why I made his test harsher.”

I don’t know. I thought you would be better than this. Junhui swallowed audibly, feeling like he suddenly didn’t know his friend, before answering, “if I knew, I wouldn’t be asking you now, would I?”

In response, Jihoon gave Junhui a dirty look. “Did you even bother trying?” His tone was still fierce but beneath it was a layer of hurt. Before Junhui could even open his mouth to answer, the shorter boy went on, not giving him a chance.

“I had to teach him a lesson that he wouldn’t ever forget. I wanted him to understand the severity of the situation.” Jihoon explained, his voice as cold as ice. His eyes glazed over slightly as he spoke, head bowed mildly. “He has to understand that he’s no longer alone and that his actions can affect the rest of us. Seungcheol hyung told him not to contact his parents but he still did —”

“I was the one who suggested it, Jihoon,” Junhui broke in mid sentence, his voice exasperated. “You can’t lay the blame on Minghao.”

“Does it really matter who suggested it, Junhui?” Jihoon retaliated, unrelenting in his morals, and his head snapped up to catch the elder’s eyes. He held Junhui’s eyes without any signs of backing down as he went on listing out Minghao’s wrongdoings. “He still did it, didn’t it? The facts are that Seungcheol hyung, our leader, instructed him not to but he still went ahead and did it. I have to get Minghao to understand that disobeying rules can lead to dire consequences.”

“By making him think that he was going to die?” Junhui growled back, still furious even though his anger was dissipating.

Jihoon locked eyes with Junhui, speaking softly. “You know that was never my intention. I only wanted him to experience an alternate reality where the organization found us because of his own selfish actions. He was lucky this time and the organization didn’t find us but if they did, I wanted him to know first hand what would happen.”

Junhui was left dumbfounded by Jihoon’s reasoning. Despite himself, the