“Took you long enough,” the man says as soon as Jeongin enters and Jeongin’s eyes quickly dart up to the man standing by the chair, he oozes authority despite not being very tall- he’s probably a few centimeters shorter than Jeongin- and he’s very obviously from Dauntless.

Jeongin would have been able to tell without all the black clothing and the eye makeup and hair, but the extra black only adds to his character and Jeongin finds himself fascinated by the man, he doesn’t seem much older than Jeongin himself and Jeongin would guess he’s probably around his brother’s age.

“Are you gonna sit down or do I have to drag you?” he sounds bored out of his mind, almost like he just woke up from a really long nap, but Jeongin can see it in his eyes that he’s fully awake and aware and Jeongin thinks it’s best to not keep him waiting. So he takes careful steps inside the room which is filled with mirrors, it’s unlike anything he’s ever seen before, although they do have mirrors in Amity-contrary to Abnegation- he’s never seen an entire room filled with them.

The chair in the middle looks highly uncomfortable and also kind of like an electric chair which Jeongin remembers reading about them in school, what an awful way to die. He takes his seat slowly and makes himself as comfortable as he can in the metal-like chair and the man hands him a small triangle formed glass with blue liquid, “drink up, we don’t have all day,” he says flatly before going back to his computer.

Jeongin stares blankly down at the liquid inside the glass, “what is it?” he asks quietly, carefully, to which the man looks up sharply and glares at him, his eyes piercing, “doesn’t matter,” well then. Jeongin gives him a small glance just to makes sure that the man isn’t poisoning him but he seems as calm as before so Jeongin musters up his courage and takes a small sip; it tastes like water with a hint of metal, so in conclusion, he thinks, it’s not that bad. He downs it quickly with little to no hesitation and when the entire glass is empty he looks back at the man in wonder, “what do I do now?” Jeongin questions quietly and the man looks up from his computer and looks down at the glass, “that went down quickly,” he mentions casually as if he couldn’t care less and Jeongin shrugs, “it tastes like the water at home during summer, when the rust from the pipes makes its way into the water,” the man grimaces slightly, probably not liking the idea of drinking rusty water, before grabbing two wires and making his way over to Jeongin.

They look like wires with little stickers at the end but just as Jeongin’s about to question what they’re for his head start spinning and he loses his vision for a second, “what-” the man pushes him back into the chair and puts one wire each on the sides of his forehead, “just relax kid, soon you'll be back at home in your sunshine land,” he speaks sarcastically and it’s clear even to a delirious Jeongin that the man isn’t too fond of Amity, judging by the way his voice goes sour at ‘sunshine land’. It’s the last thing Jeongin hears before he passes out.

Only to wake up a few seconds later in the exact same room, except the brooding man is nowhere to be seen and there are no wires stuck to his temples, “hello,” he calls out faintly but it still echoes throughout the entire room.

He hops down from the chair that suddenly feels a lot higher than it did before and the sound of his feet hitting the floor echoes as well, he turns around to see if the man is standing behind him but suddenly the chair he was just sitting on is gone and the room seems to have expanded at least by three meters.

He turns back around in shock, not fully comprehending what's going on, and to his shock, there’s suddenly a table in front that wasn’t there mere seconds ago. There are two items placed on the small table, a knife and a slice of cheese, there’s nothing dangerous around nor anything that would require the need for a knife so Jeongin can’t fathom why anyone would pick up a knife sharp enough to cut someone. “Choose,” a voice echoes and Jeongin can immediately tell that it’s the Erudite leader Park Jinyoung, so used to hearing his messages about absolute peace and the faction systems perfection that he’s grown tired of it. But he has to make a choice, so he chooses the most obvious one. Picking up the slice of cheese he turns around to see if anything new has materialized behind him but he finds it just as empty as before so he brings the cheese up to his mouth to take a bite, but just then he hears a low growl from behind him and he quickly turns on his heels to see what could possibly be making that noise.

He’s met by a large dog, teeth bared and its tail still. It’s clear to Jeongin that this is no friendly dog, this dog is wild and probably extremely hungry so instead of giving into his own selfish wants and taking the bite he was intending to take he lowers his hand and kneels slowly so that he doesn’t startle the rabid dog and sticks his hand out, presenting the cheese.

Out of nowhere, a child appears behind the dog and she seems to be laughing at something someone said, only there’s no one there, but the laughter quickly dies down when the dog turns towards her, growling louder than before, a bark beginning to form.

Oh no, think Jeongin, think , but he doesn’t know what to do, he can’t exactly attack the dog, not when its teeth are strong enough to saw through his bones, but he also can’t let the dog attack the little girl. So he uses what is probably the only skill he has, he whistles.

It’s no more than a single tone but it manages to capture the attention of the dog and it slowly turns away from the girl to face Jeongin once more, “good dog,” he whispers barely loud enough to hear it himself and once again he reaches out, presenting the cheese to the dog who starts to take slow steps towards him. “Come here little- I mean big, terrifying dog,” the dog is only a meter away from him now and Jeongin is practically shaking despite the dog already appearing much calmer than before.

The dog sniffs his hand for a few seconds before grabbing the entire slice of cheese and running off with it, to the relief of Jeongin who puts a hand over his beating heart. Now what? He wonders as the dog disappears into the distance and the child as well, am I done? He questions, however, he gets his answers as quickly as he asked them because the image of the room full of mirrors starts to disappear and the floor beneath him disintegrate. He yelps in shock as he starts falling with seemingly nothing to catch him but thankfully the fall is only about a meter and when he lands on his knees on the gray floor he’s relieved to see that he has something steady underneath him. Looking up he sees multiple seats all around him and just by his head is a pole; a bus. He climbs to his feet and takes a careful look around his surroundings, the bus looks rundown but still good enough to be running, contrary to what he’s used to- he’s seen buses before way off in the distance when he’s been working at the outskirts of the fields.

There doesn’t seem to be anyone else on the bus and he’s about to take a seat and just wait for something to happen when he’s suddenly grabbed by the collar and pushed up harshly against the back of the bus and he lets out a painful yelp as the handle of the back door pushes into his back.

The man in front of him is all burnt, his face melted on one side and the other deeply scarred and he’s breathing heavily and staring at Jeongin with piercing black eyes, very clearly distressed. “Do you know this man?” he shouts and holds up a newspaper with a picture of his own father on the front and Jeongin almost chokes on his own saliva when he sees the picture. He looks older than he did the last time Jeongin saw him but he also looks happier, a smile planted on his face so wide that his eyes disappear and he’s not as thin as he was after he stopped eating the peace-serum bread.

“Do you know him?” the man shouts once more and it’s hard for Jeongin to move when he’s gripping his collar so tightly to the point where it’s also a little hard to breathe but Jeongin manages to nod clear enough for the man to see. “Ye-yes I know him,” he whispers breathlessly and the man practically growls, “where is he? Where is that bastard?” he shouts once more and Jeongin’s practically shaking in fear, what will the man do when he finds out that Jeongin doesn’t know? Will he hurt Jeongin?

“Si-sir I don’t know, honestly,” he mumbles and the man slams him harder against the wall, “but you said you know him!” Jeongin closes his eyes in fear and nods once again, “I do, I did, but he’s factionless now so he could be anywhere. But sir, please, this isn’t the right way to handle this, whatever he did-”

“He did this!” the man points to his face and Jeongin’s eyes widen, not sure of what to say, “he did this to me!” the man shouts once more and Jeongin looks away, he doesn’t want to appear rude by staring at the man’s face.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know where he is, honestly” as soon as the words leave his mouth his collar is released and the man fades into nothing, and once again the floor disintegrates and then he’s falling weightlessly, only to land back in the chair with the wires still attached to his face, I’m awake.

Before the dauntless man has the time to remove the wires Jeongin yanks them off himself and stand up, a little too shaken to say anything at the moment, “feels real, doesn’t it?” the man says without even looking up from his computer and Jeongin nods soundlessly.

“What-” he pauses and takes a deep breath, “what where my results?” he mumbles and the dauntless man looks towards him with disinterest, “it’s obvious isn’t it, you’ll be staying in your faction for the rest of your life I assume, unless you up, then, say hi to the streets I guess,” and to Jeongin it’s clear that those are his final words because he goes to grab another triangle formed glass and starts filling it up with the blue liquid but, however, not intentionally, Jeongin stays unmoving. “Well?,” the man a brow and makes an annoyed face and Jeongin doesn’t want to anger him so he nods, bows a little and hurries to the exit, the one he didn’t come from, and just like before, the door automatically closes behind him as soon as he’s out.

And he’s back in yet another endless corridor, but at least now there’s an exit sign pointing to his left so he shakes his limbs to get some life back into them before beginning to walk down the narrow hallway.

He got Amity, just like his grandmother predicted, just like he himself predicted. It was fruitless to even have the slightest doubt about it but no matter what the test showed, his decision remains the same. He’s going to join Dauntless and find his brother- he hasn’t planned past that but it seems better than to remain in Amity with his grandmother who’s growing older and older to the point where it’s only a matter of time before she passes too, and then Jeongin will be all alone.

He’s good at being alone, but not lonely.

“He’s surely gonna get Amity,” Felix speaks as soon as the door closes behind Jeongin and Seungmin rolls his eyes and nudges Felix in the side perhaps a little harder than necessary, “we just met him, it’s not like we know him,” it’s not said in a mean or condescending way, just matter of factly and so very Seungmin like that Felix can’t help but find it a bit amusing.

“Oh come on, you saw the way he acted, he’s like the walking trademark of Amity,” Seungmin gives him an uninterested look, surely thinking about which out of his top ten ways he’s gonna try to shut Felix up, but Felix pays it no mind, far too used to the other’s behaviour, “I bet his entire family has been Amity,” Felix adds with a small confident grin and just as Seungmin’s about to call his friend an idiot and tell him he has no facts to base that assumption on another boy speaks up from across the room, “are you talking about Hwang Jeongin?” He’s dressed in Amity’s colors but his face tells a completely different story; he looks a bit harsher than the usual Amity person.

Seungmin shares a glance with Felix before turning to the boy, “yes,” Seungmin states, straightforward as always, “what’s it to you?” Felix adds, much less...sophisticated than Seungmin. The Amity rolls his eyes at Felix and they’re pretty sure the conversation will end there but the boy surprises them by speaking again, “not everyone in his family have been Amity, his brother transferred to Dauntless three years ago,” he speaks seemingly without any respect for Jeongin’s privacy which even Seungmin seems a bit surprised about.

And Seungmin, as eloquently worded as ever, decides to speak up after a few seconds of stifling silence, “welcome to Candor,” to which the boy snorts but doesn’t oppose. Felix groans in disgust, he’s just met the boy but he can tell already that he doesn't like him, “I hope he doesn’t join,” he complains and Seungmin looks at him with annoyance, for the first time that day letting any sign of amusement fade from his features, “why do you care? It’s not like you’re planning to stay,” his eyebrows are drawn tightly and his teeth clenched as he speaks, however, Felix refuses to show any sign of guilt or any sign that he’s heard him at all.

What’s he supposed to say? He knows that Candor isn’t for him, it’s never been his place. The only reason he’s there is because the people who found him, those he calls his parents, are Candor and so that’s where he ended up. But now that he has a choice, he’s not gonna let that opportunity go, not even for Seungmin.

“Ignore me all you want but we both know it’s true,” Felix knows that Seungmin doesn’t agree with his choice but he doesn’t think that gives him the right to chastise him for it, “so what if I don’t want to stay in Candor? Not all of us are some emotionless stick figures that follow the rules religiously,” as soon as the words leave his mouth he wants to punch himself as hard as he can and then be hit by a train.

, why’d I have to go and say that? Felix has never found it hard to read Seungmin because contrary to popular belief Candor-people aren’t all stiff, but of course, he had to go and bring up that stereotype and worst of all perpetuate it onto his best friend just out of spite and be rewarded with anger replacing his friend’s annoyance.

“, Seungmin-ah I didn’t mean that-” Seungmin holds up his right hand to stop Felix from saying anything else that could possibly make the situation worse than it already is, Seungmin knows that Felix is good at speaking his mind just like any other Candor, but he also knows that Felix has the tendency to say things just to make them hurt without really meaning it; he’s good at telling lies. So before Felix can say any more Seungmin puts a stop to it, “stop, just shut up,” he says and tightens his raised hand into a fist, “just be quiet for like the next hour, otherwise I can’t promise that I won’t hit you,” he mumbles through clenched teeth and Felix nods quickly, “that’s fair-”

“Sh!” Felix hastily closes his mouth and makes a zip motion. They spend the next fifteen minutes in silence with Felix stealing occasional nervous glances at his friend to see if he’s still angry but Seungmin’s face remains unchanged until the silence hits minute sixteen and Felix sees Seungmin let some of the tension from his face go just in time for his name to be called.

“Kim Seungmin,” Seungmin rises to his feet and spares Felix a single glance, less fiery than before, “I’ll wait for you by the train,” Felix nods excitedly with a small grin on his face and raises his fist while mouthing ‘fighting’ to which Seungmin snorts and rolls his eyes, “nevermind, I’m leaving without you,” but Felix knows that Seungmin doesn’t mean that even for a second, “see you later buddy,” Felix calls after his friend and Seungmin manages to catch a last glance before the door closes, separating the two from each other.

“Another Candor, great,” the man says sourly as Seungmin takes his seat in the metal-like chair, tilting his head curiously at the man, wondering what his fellow classmate had done to annoy the Dauntless man. “Have any honest comments to say about my hair or my clothes or my faction before we start?” he asks sarcastically and Seungmin snorts before leaning back in the chair, he’s pissy over some stupid Candor kid insulting him?

“I haven’t formed an opinion on your hair nor your outfit, yet. And I don’t think you want to hear what I think about Dauntless,” he speaks as he’s handed a glass with blue liquid inside, “wow, first smart thing I’ve heard today,” the man mutters and sticks the two wires to Seungmin’s temples, “am I correct in assuming that you’re Seo Changbin?” Seungmin asks casually and it’s clear that the man is shocked because Seungmin hears the way his breath catches in his chest.

“How the ?” he questions harshly, Seungmin downs the glass while ignoring the metal taste before stating, “I overheard the names of the Dauntless administrators from one of our leaders, Changbin is a name most often given to Dauntless born kids and I can’t imagine you being anything else, at least not based on the little I’ve heard from you, so I made an intelligent guess,” shrugging casually he leans his head on the headrest and closes his eyes, starting to feel dizzy, and the last thing he hears before his hearing disappears is, “so ing annoying I swear-” and then everything fades.

When his eyes fly open he’s in the same room as before only it seems to have expanded to the point where Seungmin can’t tell where the room ends, and the mirrors all around certainly don’t make it any easier on the eyes. He gets out of the chair and walks forwards carefully, he’s only heard stories about the aptitude test and all of them have been different, they never use the same test twice as long as the first bunch of kids who did it are alive, only when the entire generation is dead is the test reused, but even then minor changes are made; so Seungmin has no way of knowing what’s to come.

But then he spots something in the mirror in front of him and as he when turns he’s suddenly standing less than a step away from a small table with a knife and a piece of meat placed neatly on top. There’s a small note folded neatly on the table and he picks it up only to read the word ‘choose’ which he frowns at, how is that supposed to determine anything; he could be vegetarian so how is a piece of meat and a knife supposed to determine whether he belongs in Candor or Abnegation or any of the others?

An object can’t possibly determine everything, Seungmin thinks, it all depends on the situation. If it’s a life and death situation surely anyone, except for maybe Abnegation, would pick the knife. Therefore, picking the knife doesn’t automatically mean Dauntless for bravery (or stupidity).

“Neither,” he says aloud, unsure if they can hear his thoughts or if he has to voice them. “I choose neither,” a few seconds of silence pass during which Seungmin wonders if he perhaps has to choose in order for the simulation to continue. But just when he’s about to ask his question the table disappears right in front of his eyes and the note in his hand catches on fire, burning up as quick as lightning, leaving only a small pile of ashes in his hand and then his vision fades yet again to black.

When his eyes reopen he’s in a corridor very much like the one he walked through before to get to test room and when a man suddenly walks past him, close enough for Seungmin to be able to see the gray streaks in his hair, he wonders if he perhaps has awakened and just doesn’t remember waking up, but before he has time to truly explore that thought something on the ground captures his eye.

A wallet. He bends down to pick it up and it’s clear even to his untrained eyes that it’s very high quality and most probably very expensive, and when he opens it up the first thing he sees is a board meeting pass, meaning that the owner is one of the higher-ups important enough to be allowed into the meetings. Next to the board pass is a credit card, it awakens his curiosity but just as he’s about to check the other cards he stops himself, what am doing? This isn’t mine, he quickly closes the wallet and looks towards the end of the corridor, realistically the man should have been long gone by now but from where Seungmin’s standing he only seems to be about four meters ahead of him.

“Sir, you dropped your wallet!” Seungmin calls outs to which the man turns towards him and it’s only then that Seungmin notices that he’s dressed in the usual Erudite attire. They walk towards each other and meet halfway, “thank you,” the man says and accepts his wallet, “that was very kind of you,” he adds but Seungmin shakes his head.

I’m not being kind, I’m just doing what’s right, and just as the thought crosses his mind his eyes fly open, for real this time. And suddenly Changbin’s there pulling the wires off of his temples and going back to his computer.

“You want to make an intelligent guess on what your results are, too?” he asks sarcastically and Seungmin rolls his eyes, “no thanks, I would prefer a straightforward answer from you, Changbin-shi,” Seungmin finds it amusing how Changbin’s jaw seems to tighten at the mention of his name. He hears the man mutter something akin to a curse word before looking up from his computer, “Candor,” is all he says and Seungmin nods, he’s not too surprised although he had wishfully hoped for something else.

“You’ve got your results now get out of my room,” Changbin grumbles and Seungmin can’t help but wonder if the guy has any friends at all, Seungmin himself isn’t the easiest person to befriend but this is just ridiculous.

“Goodbye Changbin-shi,” he says it only because he finds it amusing how mad the older seems to get but when Changbin glares at him he figures it’s probably best if he leaves unless he actually wants to get punched in the face. He doesn’t spare the room a second glance before leaving, too happy to just get out of the mirror-filled room, now he just has to wait for Felix- and knowing that boy he knows that even when Felix isn’t in charge of his schedule he still manages to arrive late in some way, so he makes himself ready to wait for at least an hour. In the meantime, he might as well try to find somewhere to sit; preferably somewhere where everyone else isn’t sitting.

There’s a loud buzz coming from the end of the hallway and Seungmin can only imagine how crowded that place must be, no thanks, he thinks as he slides down the wall to sit on the cold floor of the hallway. Just as he’s about to put his head in his hands and rest for a bit a door further down the corridor in the opposite direction of the exit opens and to his surprise, Jeongin steps out waving his hands wildly like he’s trying to shake something off of them, Seungmin stares curiously at the boy.

“What are you doing?” Jeongin startles and turns with wide eyes, “oh, hi, um...there were no paper towels” is all he says and Seungmin can see red beginning to rise up his neck to his cheeks. Well done Seungmin-ah, you embarrassed him, “sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he apologizes but Jeongin only shakes his head with a small, almost careful smile, “no it’s fine, I’m easily startled,” Seungmin doesn’t respond to that but he does wonder, doesn’t it get tiring to always say it’s okay? Felix is probably gonna, at some point, accidentally stab the fox and he’ll just say ‘it’s okay,’.

“Can I sit?” Jeongin points to a spot on the floor across from Seungmin as if Seungmin owns the floor or as if he’s asking for permission to enter his house, “Sit wherever you want, I’m not going to stop you,” he mumbles and Jeongin nods shyly, growing redder by the second but he sits down nonetheless and wrings his hands together in his lap.

There’s a pregnant pause where Seungmin can’t even tell if Jeongin’s breathing, that’s how quiet he’s being, and it’s clear to Seungmin that this boy isn’t used to talking unless he’s being spoken to first. So Seungmin does he what he does best, asks an uncomfortable question, “so what did your test say?” Jeongin seems to choke on his own spit, clearly not expecting Seungmin to say anything, least of all...that.

He hesitates for a moment, he's heard that you’re not supposed to discuss your test with anyone, however, seungmin doesn’t seem like he’s gonna rat him out or berate him for it so he rubs at his neck awkwardly and mumbles, “Amity, as expected,” his voice takes an odd turn, it almost sounds a bit sour and it’s probably the most emotion, except for his default nervousness, that Seungmin’s heard Jeongin express.

Seungmin fons at him and crosses his legs before leaning over a bit in interest, “are you not happy with your result?” he questions confusedly but not unkindly, he’s just generally curious. Jeongin spares him a glance before speaking, “it’s not that I’m not happy, I like Amity, but,” he pauses mid-sentence seemingly trying to find the right words to use, “Amity’s not where I want to be, nor what I want to be,” he adds carefully, calculating, as if he’s expecting Seungmin to gasp and call him a traitor.

“Then where do you want to be?” Seungmin continues, intrigued by the boy who seems to be as Amity as they come, but Seungmin more than anyone knows not to judge a person so easily. Jeongin’s eyes dart around nervously and his hands pick at his nail beds, “you go first, what was your result?” Seungmin’s brows rise in surprise, not expecting Jeongin to retaliate any questions, but he’s pleasantly surprised.

“Candor,” he says flatly and at this Jeongin frowns, “you don’t seem...thrilled?” and Seungmin understands now why Jeongin seemed so hesitant to speak. It’s easy to ask the questions but when they’re thrown back at you…

Seungmin hesitates, how is he supposed to word himself to make it sound understandable? It’s not like his situation is the first of its kind, but it’s seen as very unusual, some people even think it goes against one major code in their moral, ‘faction before blood’.

“Don’t get me wrong, Candor is...pleasant,” he pauses for a second, “but where Felix goes I go,” he speaks quickly almost hoping that Jeongin doesn’t hear that last bit but he most certainly does, judging his tilted head and the confusion written clear as day on his face. “Well, where’s Felix going then?” he questions innocently and Seungmin decides that this is where it stops, he’s already said too much for his liking, “it doesn’t matter, I just know that we’re a team, despite how stupid that boy is,” Jeongin cracks a small smile at that and Seungmin finds it funny that whenever Jeongin smiles at something he’s said, it’s because he just insulted Felix.

In hopes of changing the subject somewhat, or at least shift the focus, he scratches his forehead and looks towards the door to the test room, “speaking of Felix, I wonder how he’s doing?”

‘Choose’, “I’m trying, it’s not as easy as it looks, okay?” Felix complains loudly, a slice of cheese and a knife both in each hand seemingly staring at him mockingly. “Cheese is good but knives are cool and sharp,” he thinks aloud and looks back at the objects, he raises his left hand, the one holding the cheese, to his nose and sniffs it. But as soon as the stench hits he practically throws the cheese back onto the table, “I don't even like cheddar,” he whines and tightens his grip on the knife, knife it is.

The table disappears into thin air and Felix almost loses his grip on the knife when he sees it, “oh my- what the ,” he mumbles in shock, once again tightening his grip on the knife, this time even a bit harder; if he gets startled again he doesn’t want to accidentally drop it on his foot and stab himself.

Suddenly, a child runs past him dressed in Abnegation clothes and Felix’s gaze follows the boy, no older than seven, as he runs a few meters ahead of Felix before turning around and looking past him, the child, seemingly out of nowhere, begins to screams much to the surprise of Felix who looks around wildly for something threatening but finds nothing around.

The child continues to scream and just as Felix is about to tell the kid to shut u- be quiet he hears a low rumbling coming from down by his feet and when he looks to the ground he sees a dog, big enough to almost reach his waist, with its teeth bared and saliva dripping.

The dog suddenly barks loudly and immediately the small boy starts running for his life, but his small legs can’t carry him as fast as he wishes and so when the dog pounces and begins to run towards the child, so does Felix.

He likes dogs and he’s always wanted one, but this dog is one he can live without. The dog is a few steps ahead of him and so he uses every last bit of energy from breakfast to push through and run just a little bit faster until he’s basically heel to heel with the dog who’s slowly closing in on the child. There’s no way Felix will be able to run past the dog and put himself in between the rabid animal and the child, so instead, he raises his hand with the knife and throws himself on top of the dog. He doesn’t know if he stabs it or misses completely because as soon as his body touches bristly fur the animal disintegrates as well as the knife and then he’s free falling face down into absolute blackness.

Only to land, surprisingly softly on a hard floor. He hits his nose a bit but other than that he seems intact, but then again, he probably wouldn’t be able to feel his leg being cut off because of all the adrenaline pumping through him.

He gets up on his feet almost as quickly as he fell and sees that he’s on a bus that looks a lot like the one he was found in as a child, but he has no time to further explore the vehicle because in the next second he’s being pushed up against the back wall of the bus by a hand around his throat, he reacts quickly, kicking the man between his legs and Felix is left dumbfounded when the man doesn’t even flinch. “What the f-”

“Do you know this man?” the man, badly burned in the face and on his hand, screams while holding up a newspaper a picture of Seungmin plastered on the front page, why is this man asking for Seungmin? “Do you know him?” he shouts once more and presses the newspaper up into Felix’s face, “what’s it to you?” he tries to sound cocky but it comes off as nervous because his voice wavers pathetically, but can you blame him? He’s got a hand pressing down on his windpipe.

“He did this!” his incredibly burnt hand gestures to his own face and Felix, without really meaning anything by it, lets out a snort, Seungmin singlehandedly poured acid on this man’s face? Or set him on fire? Yeah, sure.

“You think he looks so innocent don’t you?” the man spits and saliva hits Felix’s face, “innocent men don’t do this!” he continues, practically snarling like the rabid dog from before. “Tell me where he is!” Felix musters up his courage and stares the man straight into his eyes, with a slow exhale and a cocked brow he says steadily, “I don’t know him,” to which he receives a pretty heavy punch straight into the stomach and the pain feels incredibly real as he loses the ability to breathe for a second.

“Liar!” the man snarls but Felix only shakes his head while hunched over, trying to in a breath, “I don’t-” he heaves, “I don’t know him” and just as the words leave his mouth he’s back in the metal chair. He sits up quickly, expecting his chest to be struggling with the intake of oxygen but as he takes a breath he notices that there’s no struggle, at all.

He sighs in relief and drags a hand through his hair, accidentally pulling one of the wires with him, “careful with those,” right, Felix thinks, I’m not alone. He looks over at the dauntless man from before who actually seems to be quite pleased with Felix’s results if the small lift at the corners of his mouth is anything to go by.

“What did I get?” Felix asks while removing the second wire and handing them over. The man takes a glance at his computer before exhaling slowly and meeting Felix’s eyes, “Dauntless,” he states sounding quite...proud, it’s no surprise since he’s Dauntless himself, but to Felix- he doesn't think he’s been this shocked in years. Not even when he broke his own leg because he didn’t listen to Seungmin, he’s learned from that by now.

Of course, he had hopes of getting Dauntless, but it never felt like he would, for some reason, but now that it’s been confirmed- a smile breaks out onto his face and lets outs a chuckle, from actual happiness or shock Changbin can’t tell, but it doesn’t matter. This is the first Dauntless he’s gotten today and to be honest, he’d almost lost hope of getting one.

“I actually got Dauntless?” Felix whispers to himself in disbelief, no more awkwardly square suits with uncomfortable lace-up shoes, no more posture corrections during dinner (at least Felix had to go through that, Seungmin- not so much) and no more justice quizzes in school...right?

“Do you have any justice quizzes in Dauntless?” Felix asks quickly, he always did so badly in those and it would be a shame to do badly in them in Dauntless as well, “what the hell is that?” the man answers incredulously and Felix practically shouts in relief, “Oh thank god mate!” he doesn’t see the way the man frowns at him at his odd choice of words, but then again, there’s a lot of things Felix doesn’t see when he’s too be caught up in his own thoughts. He stands up from the chair and stretches his legs, “you don’t even want to know,” he sighs heavily like he’s reliving a very traumatic experience before pointing towards the door and raising his brows in question,” but...can I leave now? Or is there something else I gotta do?” the man shakes his head at Felix and starts refilling a glass with that vile blue liquid (Felix almost threw up while drinking it) and Felix takes that as his permission slip.

“Alright, bye then,” and with those words he practically flies out of the room with a smile plastered onto his face- only to trip over Jeongin’s legs stretched out across the corridor and go flying to the floor and hitting his nose, and it’s a lot worse than it was in the simulation. “Ow,” he mumbles as soon as he sees the first drop of blood drop from his nose and land on the cold floor, in seconds Jeongin’s there and turning him over so that he’s on his back and gasping loudly, “what?” he questions hurriedly, please tell me my nose isn’t broken. “You’re bleeding,” he whispers and before Felix has the time to tell him that he’s well aware of that there’s the sound of something ripping and then something’s being pressed under his nose.

“Did you just rip your shirt?” Felix mumbles through the fabric of the ‘tissue’ and Jeongin’s eyes widen a bit before nodding sheepishly, “I’m really sorry I tripped you,” he hangs his head and looks to the floor in shame which Felix is not having, “yah, I’m the one who tripped over you, it’s not your fault that I wasn’t watching where I was going,” he gives the boy a smile to try and comfort him but it’s clear that Jeongin still feels bad about it.

“Jeongin-ah it really isn’t your fault, just like Felix said, it’s completely his fault,” Seungmin throws into the conversation and Felix raises his fist as if he’s going to hit Seungmin, “yah!” it’s probably supposed to be threatening but he’s sitting on the floor like a baby with a bloody piece of fabric pressed to his nose, and there’s nothing dangerous about looking like you’ve already gotten the crap beaten out of you. Even Jeongin finds it amusing.

“It’s almost lunch time so we should start heading to the train, it should be here soon,” Seungmin states as he rises to his feet, wipes off imaginary dust from his pants and claps his hands together. “I’m bleeding to death and you’re thinking about lunch,” Felix complains and Seungmin tilts his head confusedly, “wouldn’t you do the same thing for me?” and barely a second passes before Felix answers, “hell yeah I would,” to which Jeongin chuckles, these guys are funny.

“Are you coming with us, Jeongin-ah??” Felix questions as Jeongin helps him up but Jeongin shakes his head no and gives them both a small smile, “no we’re taking the train at two so I have some waiting to do,” he answers and Felix rolls his eyes, “do you have to wait for the rest?” expecting the boy to cave but Jeongin only nods sadly, “yeah, I have to wait, but…” he pauses and hesitates for a moment, “I’ll see you tomorrow, at the ceremony,” Seungmin shares a quick glance with Felix before nodding encouraging, “yeah, we’ll see you tomorrow,” Felix smiles brightly despite the obvious pain he’s in.

Jeongin returns the smile and waves them goodbye, hoping that he’ll truly see them tomorrow; because nothing feels certain anymore.