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Anyways, IMPORTANT TO NOTE: this is a slight spoiler if you haven't seen the movie or read the book, but they have to slice their own palm in order to bleed so if that's something you're uncomfortable with then I highly recommend...not reading this. I can like summarize it for you without that part if you don't want to read it yourself, I understand that self-inflicted wounds can be a sensitive topic but it's not to harm so it's not self-harm (or at least I wouldn't call it that)

Has not been proofread...only if you count me reading through it at 2 am as a proper proofreading lol

It’s the morning of the choosing ceremony where the rest of his life will be decided and Jeongin doesn’t think he’s ever been this stressed in, well, his entire life. If he can recall correctly, his brother had never been calmer in his entire life when the day came. He’d been stoic and collected and not frantic in any way, but Jeongin’s not his brother, not even close, and so when he wakes up that morning he has no feeling of confidence or belonging; he’d been so sure of his choice yesterday but today is a new day with new feelings that have Jeongin more confused than ever.

His breakfast consists of the usual oatmeal with berries and a piece of bread but contrary to every other day in Amity, the breakfast suddenly tastes disgusting and he has to gulp down water after every bite to stop himself from hacking it up again. I guess this means something, he thinks but he’s still unsure, it's not like he can make an entire decision based on one bad experience with breakfast.

Yesterday had been a good day, he’d met Felix and Seungmin, he’d done his aptitude test without any difficulties, and most importantly, he’d been so sure of his answer. Today...today he’s going together with his grandmother, a very avid believer in everything Amity stands for and a borderline hater of every other factor. But of course, she would never admit to that, since Amity is all about love and peace. But no matter how much peace-serum-injected bread she eats she’ll never get rid of her prejudices against the other factions, and that is something Jeongin just can't stand. And he guesses he, in some ways, is quite similar to his brother, both being able to recognize the flaws within their own faction, the only difference is that Jeongin’s brother had the courage to leave, to set his foot down and say enough without hesitation.

Jeongin? He’s Amity through and through, the aptitude test proved that much so how is he supposed to turn on his own nature? his own being? The system works for a reason, or at least that’s what he’s been told, but if he were to go against the system, and not to mention, end up in Dauntless! He would most likely become factionless. But he’s got to try, he has to, if not for himself then for his brother. He shoves down the rest of his food with a hefty glass of water before putting his bowl away and returning to his room for some rest, only, it’s a challenge to get there because every path is blocked by people who would usually be off to work by now but have taken the day off to because of the choosing ceremony; including his grandmother.

“Jeongin-ah, there you are! Why aren’t you fully dressed? And what’s with your hair? The train leaves in a short while,” she immediately begins to straighten his shirt hurriedly and fix his bangs to lay the way she wants them but he waves her off to which she smacks him right on the forehead. “Yah, we can’t show up looking like we slept until just before the train leaves, you know some of the other factions already call us lazy and hipsters,” hipster is a word he hasn’t heard in a while. It’s mostly the elderly people who use it, surprisingly, since most of the lingo comes from the youngers. But hipster is a word that’s been used since before the war and then quite often in the beginning when the factions were taking place, it’s not as popular amongst the younger ones now and Jeongin can count on one hand the number of times he’s heard the word from someone other than his grandmother. But in Jeongin’s own opinion, hipster isn’t the worst thing he can imagine being called. Dauntless are called idiots for seemingly only using brute force and no brains, so he can live with 'hipster'.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles tiredly and his grandmother sighs before enveloping him in a tight hug, tight enough to squeeze the breath out of him. “Oh Jeongin-ah, you’re a good kid, you just need to learn the correct etiquette for a grown Amity boy. You’re still very much a child but when you get back I think we should go through some work and see how you do on your own,” when I get back? It’s still a possibility since he’s not completely and utterly sure on what faction to choose, however, it sounds quite repulsive. Return to Amity? When he has the opportunity to...not to?

“Right, when I get back,” he says slowly, almost like a question but thankfully his grandmother seems to have turned her attention toward something else, or at least she shows no sign of hearing what he just said, thankfully. Last time he brought up not being Amity it went...not well.

“Come now Jeongin-ah, we should hurry,” she gives him a stern look, “we don’t want to miss the train do we?” Jeongin shakes his head quickly and earns himself a warm smile from his grandmother before she grabs his hand and practically drags him out of the dining hall and toward the familiar train station where the train is already waiting with three minutes to spare. She ushers him onto the vehicle and quickly grabs onto the pole in the middle, quite like Jeongin did before. “I wish they would add seats, I’m not old and weak but I’m not young and hip either, some consideration would be nice,” she mutters to herself but Jeongin barely pays her any attention. He’s far too focused on the sweat in the palms of his hands and the slight tremor going through his body. This is worse than when he was heading into the city for his aptitude test, this day is what will decide the rest of his life, this day is the ultimate test and Jeongin’s not ready for it.

The train quickly passes by the fields of Amity and the greens turn into walls of concrete and abandoned community buses that no one has any use for anymore; Jeongin can’t help but think about the bus in the aptitude test and the burnt man screaming for his father, he shudders at the thought of it and shakes his head. The man isn’t real and his father is long gone, there’s nothing to worry about, the man can’t hurt him and neither can his father, everything's okay.

The train comes to a stop and Jeongin grabs tighter onto the pole, knowing that within the next few seconds the train will, already completely full with yellow and reds and browns, be filled with black and white as well. The train doors open and just as expected the people start falling in, he grabs a hold of his grandmother and pulls her closer to the middle so that she doesn’t get squished by the Candor families.

“Candor,” she mutters sourly and he tilts his head in question to which she eases her expression a bit from disgust to...mediocre dislike. “That faction has no respect for anyone’s feelings, they just say whatever they want. How can you trust someone like that?” Jeongin nods understandingly and turns away from the conversation, not wanting to engage in any debate on the subject. Because he knows there’s no use in trying with his grandmother, however, in his personal opinion, Candors are probably some of the bestest friends you can have. He’s only met Seungmin and Felix once, and while they have been extremely blunt with him, far more than anyone else from his own faction, he’s kind of liked it. He’d rather someone pointed out that he had a booger hanging from his nose than be kind and pretend it’s not there, sure he would be extremely embarrassed in the moment, but it would be nothing compared to the embarrassment of having to find out himself later on after everyone’s already seen it.

He doesn’t actively try to ignore his grandmother for the rest of the trip, but he doesn’t engage in any conversations either, there’s no use when he feels that whatever subject he chooses will end up in her making it a competition, and her always winning the argument because he’s too young to know anything; despite the fact that she never has any facts to argue with, only opinions. Opinions rooted in deep prejudice as well.

When the train stops for the second time Jeongin grows even more nervous, there’s no backing out now when they’re basically on the front porch of the ceremony. Not that he could ever have backed out, but like, he could have run away from home yesterday and spare himself an extra two days. His grandmother, the Amity she is, waits for most of the people to exit the train before following suit and grabbing Jeongin’s hand once more so that they don’t get separated, even though they're about to be just that in the coming minutes.

They follow the rest of Jeongin’s classmates whose families have already left them to go and take their seats and Jeongin’s a little embarrassed to be the only one with a parent (figure) next to him, “it’s okay grandma, I’ll see you in a bit,” he manages to mumble nervously and she spares him a look before sighing deeply squeezing his cheeks, “aren’t you a big boy, huh?”  she says lovingly and it only makes the bubbling guilt in him even worse.

“I’ll see you in a bit,” she pulls him into a quick hug before pecking his cheek and then she’s disappearing into the crowd. He knows that he’s gonna see her in a few minutes when he takes his seat inside the ceremony hall, he’s even gonna sit next to her, he just needs to get registered first, but for some reason, it feels like his goodbye has already begun.

Within five minutes he’s at the front just like last time getting his hand scanned, only this time there are only three numbers and the woman administering it actually tells him what it’s for, “Amity is in section 2, and 12 is for which row you’re in, follow the signs,”  he thanks her gratefully before making his way inside. It’s only then that he notices that they didn’t enter the same way they did for the aptitude test which is why he doesn’t recognize the interior, he’d been too distracted to notice. But thankfully it’s a lot easier this time because right in front of him are five large openings and through them, he can see the podium and the five bowls in which his life will be decided.

He swallows heavily and heads on over to the one marked ‘2’ accidentally bumping into one of his classmates who gives him a small encouraging smile before hurrying to her friends and at that moment, when he sees her golden tan skin, her luscious curls, her yellow top and her red skirt, and her calm and gentle smile, only then does he make his decision, and only then does he make peace with it.

Passing through the giant opening and heading up the stairs he notices that every three steps a new row begins and the numbers slowly climb until it reaches twelve and he raises his gaze only to see his grandmother in the middle. She waves him over and he awkwardly starts walking past the people already seated, “sorry, I’m sorry,” he mumbles everytime he nudges someone or stumbles but finally he reaches his grandmother and sits down in the seat next to her. She goes to open to speak but is interrupted by someone shouting his name and he quickly turns his gaze, eyes blown wide at the shout and as he looks over the crowd to see where the shout came from and someone captures his eyes. A pair of white-clad arms are waving at him wildly and Jeongin meets Felix’s eyes, “oh,” he mumbles once he sees who called his name. To say he’s shocked would be an understatement, but he raises his arm and waves back slightly to which Felix’s face breaks out into a grin. Jeongin thinks he can see Seungmin behind him trying to stop Felix from embarrassing himself, as well as two very well dressed people that he can only assume are Felix’s parents, but Felix just keeps on waving.

“Who is that boy?” his grandmother asks and it’s a completely different tone from before, Jeongin puts his hand down slowly and lowers his gaze, “I met him yesterday,” her eyes narrow and Jeongin quickly adds, “he’s really nice!”. She continues to stare at him before huffing and leaning forward so that Jeongin’s vision of Felix is blocked, “I’m sure he was nice yesterday, but there’s no use in getting attached when there are so many nicer boys in Amity,” she says, not unkindly, but firm and Jeongin looks down to the floor and nods solemnly.

But with his gaze turned downwards and his view blocked by his grandmother he doesn’t notice the way Felix’s smile falls and how he turns to Seungmin, “did you see that? She just blocked him from seeing me,” he whines and Seungmin frowns, “lots of Amity folk don’t like Candor, Felix,” he speaks and Felix shrugs carelessly, “yeah but Jeongin didn’t seem to have a problem so I figured his family was the same,” Seungmin rolls his eyes at his friend’s ignorance, “not everyone's like their family,” he mumbles and Felix scoffs as if to say don’t you think I know that already.

But then he remembers something that peaked his interest, “speaking of family, I didn’t see anyone young enough to be his parent, only his grandmother, if that’s what she is,” Felix says curiously and Seungmin stretches to look over to where Jeongin’s sitting and, indeed, there’s no one talking to Jeongin or even acknowledging him except for the old lady with an uncanny resemblance to Jeongin so she must be his grandmother. But just as Seungmin’s about to agree with Felix (for once in his life) and point out that it’s bit odd, a voice booms throughout the entirety of the hall and everyone immediately fall silent.

Jeongin brings his hand up to his mouth and begins to gaw at his nails because after Erudite’s leader Park Jinyoung has made his speech the first person will go up onto that stage, cut their hand, and drop their blood into their bowl of choice, each bowl representing each of the faction. Grey stones for Abnegation, earth for Amity, glass for Candor, water for Erudite and sizzling coals for Dauntless. Jeongin only has his eyes on one bowl, and in the midsts of his concentration, the speech of Erudite’s leader falls on deaf ears right until his grandmother nudges him in the side. He looks up and his gaze falls upon the man whose voice is all too familiar to Jeongin.

“The future,” Jinyoung pauses for dramatic effect, “belongs to those who know where they belong,” he finishes off and a heavy silence falls upon the crowd as the leader takes a deep breath, “faction before blood,” he utters and immediately the crowd responds back, “faction before blood,” in chorus, but not Jeongin; never Jeongin.

Park Jinyoung bows deeply to the people before leaving the stage and giving it to the actual leaders, which would be Abnegation. Abnegation are the ones in charge of the whole system, they are their regime since, because of their selfless nature they have no wants to embezzle money or steal from other, they are the leaders solely focused on the needs of others. Their leader, Leeteuk, steps forward and bows deeply to the crowd, “when we leave this room, you will no longer be dependants-” he pauses and looks out over the crowd of kids together with their parents, and Jeongin thinks that there’s something bitter in the way he smiles. Something off.

“-You will be full-fledged members of our society,” he looks over at the Abnegation faction’s seats and his face changes, it’s not a big difference but Jeongin can see the way his forehead wrinkles sadly for a second but when his eyes snap away from his faction, so does his expression. “Remember,” he pauses, “faction before blood,” and yet again the crowd repeats after him, however, this time his grandmother notices his lack of response and pinches his thigh tightly, “faction before blood,” he whispers and she nods in satisfaction.

To Jeongin, it’s all very contradictory. His family disowned his brother because of the faction he chose, because he left his family behind, but they’ve always been very avid believers in the message ‘faction before blood’, but on some level Jeongin can understand what it is that they mean. Because according to his family, Amity is the only choice; because Amity is in them, in their blood.

Leeteuk grabs some sort of tablet from a table behind him and with a small, comforting, and fatherly smile towards the crowd, he begins to read. “Kwon Eunbin,” a girl from Erudite clad in the usual blue clothing with her hair pulled back cooly steps up confidently and grabs the knife on the table, without even a second of hesitation she slices her palm and clenches her hand into a fist. But when it’s time to choose she hesitates, only for a short while, with her hand over water she in a breath and moves it over to Dauntless just as the blood drips and the sound of sizzling coal can be heard for a millisecond before the entire Dauntless faction cheers loudly. Jeongin looks over at the Erudite faction who don’t look particularly happy and one woman in the crowd who Jeongin can only assume is this Eunbin girl’s mother buries her head in her hands and the man next to her puts a hand on her back, it’s a sad sight but then again, faction before blood, right?

“Kang Chanhee,” Leeteuk says as soon as the crowd has quieted down and a boy from Jeongin’s own faction makes his way down to the stage and he recognizes him from his class, they’ve never spoken except for that one time, a few days after his father was banned, when Chanhee came up to him and said “I’m sorry your dad’s an ,” and Jeongin smiles at the memory, he can almost guess which faction he’s gonna choose. The boy seems to have a little trouble mustering up the courage to cut his hand but he manages after a few moments by looking away from his own hand and just going for it, the blade must be incredibly sharp because even from where Jeongin’s sitting he can tell that Chanhee uses next to no force.

And as soon as blood reaches the surface of his wound he holds it over his chosen bowl and lets it drop onto the broken pieces of glass, Candor. Candor claps calmly, so very different from Dauntless, and one of the people in the front row stands up to shake Chanhee’s hand to which Chanhee shakes back comfortably and Jeongin really hopes that his classmate- former classmate- will have it well in Candor.

The rest of the ceremony continues on for what feels like hours to Jeongin, and it probably is as well, judging by how many people there are in the entire hall. And Jeongin’s somewhere at the bottom of the list because it goes according to age, he’s probably last. He doesn’t know if there are any other fifteen-year-olds in the crowd since it’s not a usual situation, it was only a few years ago that they changed the law so that if you’re a class above your other same-age friends because you skipped a grade then you’re able to take the aptitude test and make your decision. A few years ago you had to wait an entire year even after school was done so that you could choose together with the rest of the sixteen-year-olds.

When they reach September Jeongin feels like he’s about to fall asleep in his chair despite the break they had halfway through, it’s been going on for far too long and he thinks that they must be closing in on lunch hours by now, that’s how long it’s been. Just as he’s about to give up and lean his head in his own hand he hears a name that’s familiar to him, “Lee Felix,” he sits up completely alert in his chair, startling his grandmother in the process, and she puts a hand over her heart, “Jeongin-ah,” she hisses but stops when she sees whose name they called. Jeongin sees Felix hug Seungmin and say something to the adults next to him before squeezing his way through the row of people and making his way down the stairs towards the stage,  and when he steps up he grabs the knife and presses it into the skin of his palm, but not hard enough to draw blood. Instead, he pauses and takes a look at the bowls in front of him, Jeongin follow his line of sight and sees that he’s staring at the Candor bowl, is he gonna choose Candor?

But then the knife pierces his skin and he holds his hand out and Jeongin feels his breath catch in his chest...and then the sizzling of the coals echoes in the room and Dauntless once again erupts with happiness for another transfer, Felix grabs a piece of paper from the table to press against his cut before making his way over to his new faction where he’s greeted by someone punching him in the shoulder jokingly, and when Felix smiles Jeongin knows his friend has found his place. Candor, on the other hand, don’t seem very happy, but from what Jeongin can see, no one’s crying, so that’s a plus.

There are two girls after Felix but none of them transfer factions so Jeongin doesn’t pay them any mind, it’s only when Leeteuk shouts out “Kim Seungmin,” that his interest is peaked once more. Seungmin shakes hands with a man next to him and bows to the woman next to the man and Jeongin frowns because, the resemblance is clear, they’re clearly his parents, but he finds their interaction odd.

To Jeongin’s surprise, Seungmin walks up confidently, grabs the knife, and before Jeongin even has the time to guess what his choice will be Seungmin cuts his hand and holds it over Dauntless, and once again the coal sizzles loudly. Right next to him his grandmother scoffs and shakes her head disappointingly but Jeongin keeps his gaze fixed on the stage because he knows nothing will happen in his favor if he were to catch his grandmother’s eyes now.

Felix and seungmin both chose Dauntless. Is that what Seungmin meant? “Wherever Felix goes I go”

October and November pass by surprisingly quickly, either not a lot of people were born those months or Jeongin’s been spacing out quite a lot thinking about his own choice of faction. Despite knowing what he wants he’s still worried he’s gonna freeze up there and choose something completely different, what if he accidentally drops his blood in Erudite? He would never survive there despite being a grade above what he should be.

They’re onto December now, Jeongin can tell because one of his classmates gets called and he remembers his birthday party from when they were six and starting school, but like Jeongin expected, he chooses Amity- it’s only then that he notices. No one from Amity has transferred today, not a single one. He grows more nervous as every minute passes and they make their way through December and onto January of the next year- there’s only one person born in January that happens to have skipped a grade and she chooses to stay in Erudite, so then it’s Jeongin’s turn. “Hwang Jeongin,” his heart skips a beat and he has to swallow harshly to keep the bile down, his grandmother stands up and hugs him tightly with a gentle smile which Jeongin refuses to return because he’ll probably start crying if he does. He makes his way past his classmates and their parents and some of them give him small encouraging looks which he’s really grateful for because, despite the lack of friends he has, he’s not an outsider. They’re still family, in a way.

He stumbles a bit while making his way up onto the stage but manages to save the little dignity he has left, thankfully. He would never let himself live that one down. He grabs the knife on the table with shaky hands and looks at the blade in his hands, it’s sharp and silver and on the side there’s an engravement, ‘faction before blood’ and Jeongin finds it unsettling that even in the last moment before you’re supposed to decide the rest of your life, you’re still being told what to do- in a way.

He closes his eyes and presses the blade to his palm, he’s no stranger to pain but he’s never inflicted it onto himself so he finds it hard to actually make the blade draw any blood. He takes a deep breath and slices deep enough to draw blood, perhaps a bit too deep because blood rushes to his palm quickly and he hurriedly puts the knife down to place his other hand under the injured one to keep his blood from dripping into the wrong bowl. He stares at the earth, the soil he’s pretty sure is still under his nails from digging out carrots and potatoes just a few days ago, that could be his life. Meet someone nice, eat nice food, live a nice life- but he doesn’t want ‘just nice’, he wants something exciting- not to mention, he doesn’t want to live alone. He wants his brother, his family- so that’s where he lets the blood drip.

It lands on the sizzling coals and the first thing he hears isn’t the cheers from Dauntless, it’s the pained shout from his grandmother, the agony in it makes the guilt in him overwhelming and he quickly grabs a few tissues, presses them against his injured hand, and hurries over to his brother’s faction- his faction- Dauntless.

Felix is the first one to greet him instead of one of the Dauntless-born and he throws his arms around Jeongin much like before, “I can’t believe this! This is too good,” he shouts excitedly over the sound of Dauntless’ cheers and Jeongin gives him a small and careful smile, it doesn’t feel real yet.

When Felix lets him go a Dauntless member comes up to him and pats his shoulder, he doesn’t look very old and, to be honest, he doesn’t look very Dauntless either, not with his chipmunk-like cheeks anyways. But Jeongin knows better than to judge someone by their appearance, so he accepts the pat with a small smile.

“Welcome to Dauntless,” the guy says and Jeongin bows slightly, “thanks,” he mumbles with his eyes downcast and the man nudges him without a word, but in some odd way, Jeongin feels comforted.

“Yah Seungmin-ah, didn’t I say that we would meet again?” Felix mocks with an arm around Jeongin and Seungmin rolls his eyes but smiles nonetheless, Felix half hugs Jeongin with one arm while reaching forward to pull Seungmin in as well to which Seungmin yelps but lets him anyways. It’s clear that despite Seungmin’s uncaring and unbothered nature he still very much likes his friend.

The crowd begins to move and Jeongin realizes that he was the last person to choose faction when he sees people leaving the hall and he stands on his tiptoes to see if he can catch a glimpse of his grandmother- he wishes he hadn’t done that. When they lock eyes she’s, to Jeongin’s surprise, not crying, her eyes look even dryer than they did before he went up on that stage, but she’s glaring; glaring so fiercely that Jeongin has to look away from her sharp gaze. Jeongin freezes in Felix's grip but thankfully Felix, too busy pestering Seungmin, doesn’t seem to notice, and if he does he doesn’t say anything. They, together with the rest of Dauntless, make their way out of the hall and quickly enough they’re back out on the streets and then suddenly everyone’s running. Jeongin loses the loose grip that he had on Felix’s shirt as Felix starts running and he panics for a second thinking this is it, I haven’t even joined Dauntless officially and I’m already failing, but then he looks ahead of him he sees what they’re running towards- the train.

He pushes his body to run a little faster but he’s also aware that he has no idea how to actually get to the train and he’s about to slow down to think of a plan when someone unfamiliar grabs his hand and drags him with them, they’re running a bit in front of Jeongin and Jeongin recognizes the light, slightly long haired style, with pink streaks as the Dauntless guy who greeted him inside so he lets him lead him, trusting that he’ll help him.

They run past the bridge where everyone’s climbing up and Jeongin sees Felix helping Seungmin up by practically dragging him up and he wonders if that maybe he should have just stuck with them instead of this stranger who’s dragging him somewhere unknown, but just as he’s about to pull away from the guy’s grip the stranger suddenly slows down and then he’s dragging Jeongin up a pair of hidden stairs that Jeongin assumes is some sort of fire escape, and suddenly he’s eternally grateful for the stranger because at least he didn't have to climb up those pillars. He’s good at climbing trees, but metal pillars are not something he’s willing to try nor risk since his life depends on whether he makes it onto that train or not.

When they make it up onto the platform Jeongin sees Felix and Seungmin on the other side and just when Seungmin, to the surprise of Jeongin, raises his hand to wave at him a train separates him from them and he’s so shocked by the closeness of the vehicle that he almost falls backwards back onto concrete that most likely would have killed him but thankfully the stranger grabs a hold of his yellow hoodie hurriedly and saves him from that horrible fate. “Careful,” the stranger says and Jeongin nods silently, too shocked to speak, his breath trapped in his chest and his heart beating in his stomach.

The guy grabs him by the hand once more and then they’re running again, but this time it has Jeongin even more stressed because they’re running on a ledge, not leaving much room for stumbling which Jeongin is prone too, next to a moving train. They’re running next to a pair of doors that Jeongin figures they are supposed to somehow, magically, enter- while still running and he has no idea how they’re gonna do that, but the guy in front of him doesn’t seem too worried so he keeps running until he feels his legs grow weak, which is only a few steps later- he’s never needed the ability to run this fast nor this much.

The doors open with a swoosh and the stranger in front of him lets his hand go, grabs a hold of the handle on the door before swinging himself up so that he’s half standing on the step just beneath the door and when he’s steady enough he holds his hand out for Jeongin to take which he does almost immediately and then he’s suddenly being pulled up and practically thrown into the cart of the train, landing face down on the floor but thankfully not hurting himself. He sits up slowly just in time for the door to close and as soon as it does and the wind is no longer hitting his face he feels incredibly hot and he wipes his forehead with the back of his wrist and fans his neck. The stranger kneels in front of him and drags a hand through Jeongin’s hair so that his forehead is free of his bangs and gives him a blinding smile, “you did well! Last time I tried that the poor guy couldn’t keep up and got left behind,” he says and Jeongin’s eyes widen- he really could have been factionless five minutes into being Dauntless.

“I’m Jisung, but I go by Han most of the time,” Jeongin doesn’t understand why this guy is being so nice to him but he’s not about to reject some random act of kindness so he nods in acknowledgement, “I’’m Hw-” he pauses and looks down at his lap, his grandmother’s comment echoing inside is mind from when he asked her what she would think if he chose something else other than Amity ‘you’re not a Hwang anymore’, and since he chose differently than Amity, that must mean he’s not a Hwang anymore.

So he says, “I’m Jeongin, just Jeongin,” he mumbles nervously and Jisung chuckles softly and drags his hand through the younger’s hair once more, “alright, just Jeongin, you can call me hyung if you want to,” Jeongin likes the sound of that so he nods excitingly and smiles slightly but when Jisung goes to help the younger boy up from the floor another hand beats him to it, “a third hyung! Seungmin that means he’s gonna favor this guy cause he's older,” oh, Felix. Felix helps him up and dusts the imaginary dust off of him, similarly to their very first meeting, and throws an arm around him quite possessively to which Seungmin rolls his eyes and turns to Jisung.

“Where you planning on stealing Jeongin away?” he deadpans and Jisung lets out a surprised scoff before shaking his head and saying, in disbelief, “no,” to which Seungmin turns to Felix and says sarcastically, “see? all is well,” but Felix only tightens his grip on Jeongin and dabs the sweat from the boy’s forehead with his sleeve.

Jisung seems to decide that he’s had enough because he takes his leave then to go talk to some Dauntless girl and Felix detangles himself from Jeongin only to swing his arm around Seungmin instead, “what an Erudite,” he says not unkindly, just matter of factly and Jeongin frowns, how does he know that?

“Who? Han hyung?” he questions and Felix mutters something about ‘hyung’, that Jeongin can’t hear, before he actually responds to Jeongin, “yeah, he’s totally a former Erudite, I mean, who else would go look for stair when they could just climb up the giant pillars in front of them? Right, Minnie,” Seungmin’s cheeks turn red at the nickname but he nods in agreement and Jeongin nods curiously, he would never have been able to tell- but maybe it comes with the bluntness of Candor or something.

They ride for only a few minutes and Jeongin notices that at some point they switched tracks cause he doesn’t recognize any of the buildings they’re passing but it makes him excited, seeing something new and foreign. Seungmin’s leaning up against the window, looking out at everything they’re riding by, while Felix is hanging onto Seungmin, most likely looking out as well, but Jeongin stays in the center. Even now when lots of window space is open for him he doesn’t feel comfortable doing so, it feels like if he starts taking his position to lightly and freely, he’s gonna wake up any second now only for it all to be a dream.

His thoughts are cut off by Jisung’s shout for everyone to get ready and Jeongin has no idea what he’s getting ready for but straightens up a bit and looks around the train to check what everyone else is doing, what’s going on?  But just as he’s about to voice his concerns his question is answered when Jisung opens one of the doors close to Jeongin and shouts over the sound of the window, “time to jump,” and Jeongin’s entire body freezes, jump? Out of a moving train?

Felix seems just as surprised as Jeongin because his mouth falls open and sputters but contrary to Jeongin he doesn't seem scared out of his mind, “ yeah, this is the excitement I was looking for,” he releases his grip on Seungmin and takes his place by the doors, and to the utmost surprise to Jeongin as well as Seungmin, he jumps at the same time as Jisung with a loud shout of excitement while the two boys can only gape after him.

Seungmin hurriedly comes to stand next to Jeongin and in the moment of weakness he grabs Jeongin by the hand and takes a deep breath, “together?” he asks and Jeongin gulps loudly while tightening his grip on Seungmin’s hand, “together,” he responds and then they’re flying out the doors and to Jeongin it almost seems like it happens in slow motion, he feels like he can see every detail of his surroundings in the short while that they’re up in the air but it all crashes when...well...he crashes.

Contrary to Seungmin’s somewhat handy somersault he lands directly on his hands and knees and feels the skin rip open as he lands, it hurts and stings a lot more than he expected it too but at least he made it. He sighs in relief despite the pain and the blood beginning to drip from his cuts, Seungmin helps him up by the nape and hisses when he sees the boy’s bloody hands and knees, “ouch, that looks like it hurts,” it’s not said in a condescending way, it just comes off that way because of his Candor nature, Jeongin nods and wipes his hands on his pants, they’re already ruined so who cares if he ruins them some more. He hears Felix groan and he assumes it’s because he landed awkwardly as well but when Felix speaks up Jeongin freezes, “we have to jump again,” he whines and Jeongin wonders, how the hell am I supposed to survive the rest of training if I can barely do the most basic stuff? You know, like jumping off a moving train.

Thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you have the time (and please excuse any mistakes, but you can point them out in the comments and I'll fix them at some point, just don't be mean hehe)

Have a nice day/night/morning/evening <3

(Btw: sorry for the lame ending but it's currently 02:07 am where I am so I'm too tired to function properly)