Loud cheers. Brutish grunts. blood, sweat, and other bodily fluids flying everywhere. This is what he lives for. A staff member calls him up, and he bunches up his fists, itching to get in there and fight. It helps that his best friend is the owner of the joint too.

"Welcome, Ladies, Gentlemen, Brutes and es!" Jooheon shouts in the mic at the middle of the ring, causing another uproar to start in the audience. "Tonight, in the red wing, we have a newcomer. Please welcome, Park Jeongchul!" A mix of boos and cheers fill the room as the said wrestler runs into his designated corner, in a fighting stance. Jooheon waits until it quiets down enough before introducing the next person. "And in the blue wing, we have a true No Mercy veteran, everyone please welcome 3-time champion...Shownu!" This time nothing but loud cheers and a painfully loud "have my babies Shownu!" fill the room as Shownu calmly walks to his corner.

He just stands there, staring his opponent in the eye. Out of the corner of his eye, Jooheon gives him a sly wink, "Alright you disgusting human beings, are you ready to see our competitors," he waits for dramatic effect as the audience says the last part with him "Show. No. Mercy!" The crowd cheers once more as the ref makes his way in the middle of the ring, blowing the whistle, signaling they could fight. 

As always, Shownu lets his opponent make the first move as they circle each other. Everything is white noise the moment Jeongchul charges towards him, fist readied. Immediately Shownu's reflexes kick in, stopping the fist and taking his own fist to jab him in the stomach, effectively making his opponent reel back and let his guard down. Smirking, Shownu hits his opponent with extreme speed, combinations of kicks and jabs and other things (idk I don't wrestle). The crowd goes crazy when Jeongchul goes down, staying there for more than just 3 counts. Jooheon, expecting this, comes up and raises Shownu's sweaty arm in triumph. "And that concludes it! Shownu, the veteran of No Mercy, has won yet again!" Shownu smiles, relishing in another victory. 

_

After the match, Shownu basically devours a bottle of water as Jooheon opens another beer can. "Sometimes I feel like you'd leave this place to wrestle somewhere more challenging. You slaughter any opponent who comes your way." The latter confesses, gulping down the can.

Shownu waves him off "This is my first wrestling gym, there's no place that could replace No Mercy." He assures, looking around the now empty arena with a fond smile. It's been 3 years since Jooheon bought the No Mercy arena and made a brand for himself, being the kooky cosplay owner who occasionally runs a bar. 3 years since Shownu reunited with his old friend and started building his life back together. Sure, sometimes he felt empty, but as long as he's alive and living this life, he's okay.

_

The next morning, Shownu goes out for his morning jog. After doing 1-handed push ups and pull ups, he sat down on a bench near a small craft shop, just enjoying life. Suddenly, he hears a sound he hasn't heard in 4 years.

"Yah, Slurpie Head! You're going to drop everything!" Kihyun scolds and takes various blueprints and junk from Hoseok's hands. Hoseok in turn pouts but nonetheless let's Kihyun do whatever he wants.

Shownu is shocked, baffled, flabbergasted. Here he thought Kihyun fled the country and here he was, out in the open, being somewhat domestic. Oh, and Wonho too.

"Ki-" he almost cries out, but stops himself at the last second. He can't do this. He just saw Kihyun again, there's no way he's ready to talk to him again too. And Wonho, can't forget Wonho.

Instead, he resorts to-you guessed it-stalking. Following a small fast-paced blunt man and his best friend who can barely keep up has proven to be a harder task than he thought. Especially if he himself is a tall, generally big tan underground wrestler who can barely get through crowds alive, much less follow them unnoticed.

On the other side, Kihyun is grumbling about how Wonho has probably gotten completely insane. What is he talking about? Making flower juice? Having I.M's gaming skills power the ING TIME MACHINE? Yep, he's definitely gone mad. Feeling an odd prickling sensation at the back of his neck, he turns around, but dismisses the thought quickly as he just sees Wonho barely keeping up. 

How odd...almost as if someone's watching us?

His body became extra aware of his surroundings, eyeing behind Wonho carefully. With focused eyes, he pulled Wonho's ear down to his mouth. "Follow my lead and don't make a sound. This could be dangerous." He whispers, quickening his pace. Hoseok looks at him incredulously but follows anyways. Shownu groaned in the distance, Just when he was getting used to the pace.

He pondered on what Kihyun and Wonho could be doing with all those blueprints and junk. A odd project that Wonho managed to get Kihyun's help for? Part of Wonho's 'I'm not gonna make any of these but I'll at least make it look like I will at some point' experiment stash? Shownu snapped out of his thoughts as he saw Kihyun and Wonho round the corner of a dark alley. 

He followed behind closely, Just barely having his foot hit the pavement when a large net sprung up out of nowhere and trapped him. Kihyun appeared in front of a very shocked Wonho with a smirk.

"Well well well, look what we have-Hyunwoo?" The smirk vanished in an instant, replaced with a expression that matched Wonho's. Shownu coughed awkwardly at his place in the net, "Hi. Kihyun."

Realizing he was staring, Kihyun shook his head, "I..it's really You...you still have the same blank- face." He quipped at the last second, not wanting to sound too sappy. Shownu chuckled, "good to see you too, Kiki." He didn't miss the glare Kihyun, or Kiki, shot him.

Wonho coughed awkwardly in the middle of their staring session, "Uh, hate to be such a third wheel, But we have matters to tend to. Unless Shownu wants to come with us?" He offered, really wanting more of the gang to be back together again. Kihyun bit his lip, considering it before sighing reluctantly. He took his knife out and cut the net, allowing Shownu to drop down and stand on his own two feet.

"Exactly what are you talking about?" Shownu asks, not taking his eyes off Kihyun. Kihyun and Wonho look at each other, shoot Shownu a look, at nodded. "You have a lot to catch up on."

_

"APPA'S BACK, APPA'S BACK, APPA'S BACK BACK BACK BACK BACK!" Changkyun sings (unfortunately off-key) as he squishes Shownu into a tight hug. Shownu winces through his smile, "I missed you too Changkyun." He says as Kihyun tries to hold in a laugh (but fails miserably). 

"Look Look Look Look Hoseok-hyung, My parents are back together again!" Changkyun says childishly, pushing both Kihyun and Shownu closer together. Hoseok looks up from his sketching table. They were currently at Wonho's mechanic shop, which was apparently the starting place of this 'time machine'. Hoseok smiled, "aww, family picture!" He takes his phone and shoots a quick pic, deciding not to notice the empty space around it that was reserved for the rest of his friends.

"Anyways," Kihyun says carefully as he slowly pried himself away from Changkyun. "We have some work to do, do we not? Wonho, go and explain whatever the your Dr. Frankenstein mind is thinking." Changkyun and Shownu both start to pay attention as Wonho pulls up a board filled with blueprints and sketches.

"Okay, So first of all, this," Wonho holds up one of Minhyuk's larkspur, safely contained in a glass dome. "Is a larkspur, said to be toxic, but-" he flipped the board around to reveal a formula even witches couldn't understand. "It will also be the main fuel for our time machine. Once larkspur is melted down and put through a series of soaking with petrol, ferro-fluids, and this clear thingy-" Wonho holds up a tube of 'The clear thingy', "It becomes basically gasoline, But with a little twist." He leans in, "this lark-gas could help us bend time."

A minute goes by until Kihyun starts laughing. "Oh yeah sure! I'll just mix up this flower juice with these fancy schmancy elements and boom! Time travel. Ah this has to be your best joke yet, Wonho. No way in hell could-"

"this might actually work." Changkyun pipes up. Kihyun closes his mouth, now realizing that he should probably leave the quadratic equations and particle theory to the professionals. Changkyun starts writing on a nearby blackboard, putting scribbles that might as well be Latin synonyms for Kihyun and Shownu.

"So then you'd need approximately 3.1415979323846264 litres of Lark-gas. Or something like that." He shrugs, putting the now short piece of chalk back on the blackboard ledge. Wonho smiles, "well then, I think that concludes our planning meeting." He turns to Shownu and Kihyun, "It might take a while to get the parts, but." He shoots both of them a excited smirk.

"You guys ready?"