I'm sorry...I literally couldn't make this any shorter...I had an idea of what I wanted to get to but I never did so here you have 10 000 words of pure rambling...
Also, it hasn't been proofread so expect a LOT of mistakes

 

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“Initiates!” a man, with a buzzcut and tattoos seemingly covering every inch of his body, shouts, standing at the very edge of the building they’re currently on top of. The sound of his voice shakes almost everyone out of their shock and they turn to stare at the obvious authority in front of them, “you’ve made it this far,” barely, Jeongin thinks, “and now you’re here, at the very edge of entering the Dauntless compound, so…” he pauses and smirks in a way that has Jeongin shuddering uncomfortably, “who wants to go first?” he gestures towards the ledge with a sneer and Jeongin now understands what it was that Felix meant by another jump. A boy with green hair and ripped jeans, obviously Dauntless born, standing a few metres away from Jeongin throws up on his shoes forcefully, his entire body heaving with the movement and Jeongin has to look away before he makes himself sick.

 

He’s not afraid of heights, not really, but if he could avoid jumping twenty 20 meters down into a giant pit of black he would really do so. The boy continues to heave even when nothing’s coming out of him and one of the Dauntless-born girls go to pat him on the back as he hacks up his lungs, but the man on the ledge does not look pleased with the display of weakness from one of his own. “You over there,” the leader shouts and like the boy has been programmed to do so, he immediately straightens up and swallows down the bile heavily, standing at attention in front of not only the leader but everyone else, his classmates and all the transfers. “What’s your name?” the leader questions and the boy swallows once more and clears his throat, “Kim Dongwoo, sir,” his voice is hoarse from throwing up just seconds ago but he’s standing steadily enough that if Jeongin hadn’t seen him cough his stomach’s contents up he wouldn’t have been able to tell anything was wrong.

 

“Well, Dongwoo,” the man jumps down from the ledge, landing stealthily, and the crowd parts for him like the red sea as he takes a few steps forward, “you’ve got ten seconds to jump-” he looks up at the sky as if he can’t think of what to say but when he locks eyes on the poor boy once more it’s clear that his intentions are far from kind, his entire face is overtaken by the dark smirk he’s wearing and then he’s saying, “or you’re out.”

 

Felix turns to gape at both Seungmin and Jeongin and while Seungmin manages to mask his face, Jeongin, who’s standing right next to him, can tell that he’s just as shocked as Felix. Jeongin clenches his fists, despite the pain in his scratched up palms, but he can’t quite tell if it’s in anger or frustration- Dauntless is all about being brave but as of now, Dongwoo hasn’t even been given the chance to work through his fears enough to be brave, though, isn’t that what the Dauntless training is for? Seems unfair to force him to do something he hasn’t been trained for. 

 

The boy loses all he remaining color that he had in his face and even the stoic girl who merely moments ago was patting his back pitifully looks surprised, “please I- I can’t,” he begs but the man at the front is relentless, he drops his smirk as soon as the words leave Dongwoo’s mouth and it’s replaced by a malicious look, “there is no ‘I can’t’ in Dauntless,” he mocks the voice of Dongwoo and holds his hands up in a defenseless position to mimic the boy, “jump, or you’re out.”

 

Dongwoo heaves but this time it’s a sob that wracks his body as he takes slow steps towards the edge of the building, his legs shaking and his posture sunken in on himself. He grabs a hold of the edge and takes a peek over it but immediately falls back onto his , “ten” the leader begins and Dongwoo shakes his head and a few tears spill, Jeongin has to look away.

 

“nine,” he continues whilst Dongwoo crawls towards him to beg on his knees, “please, I’ll do anything else, just- I can’t jump,” he pleads weakly, however, as expected, the man pays him no mind and curls another finger to his palm, “eight,” the girl from before who was patting Dongwoo’s back walks over to where the boy is curled in on himself and grabs him by the nape of the neck and practically drags him back to the edge, “this is pathetic,” she mumbles and Jeongin can’t fathom how she can sound so disgusted with her fellow Dauntless, doesn’t she have any fears?

 

“Seven.”

 

“Jump,” lifting him back onto his feet she pushes him ahead of her so that he can climb up onto the ledge but he can’t make himself do it, even though he knows what will happen if he doesn’t jump. If he doesn’t make the jump, consequently, he’ll be left up here to later be taken to the factionless and live there for the rest of his miserable life. “Six.”

 

“I can’t,” he says once more and this time, this time it’s clear to Jeongin that he’s not gonna make the jump, ever, and he seems to have made peace with it as well because he pushes the girl away and goes to stand as far away from the rest of them as well. Seungmin looks at him with pity, because had they been forced to crawl through some narrow tunnel or, hell, be shipped down in small boxes or something, Seungmin would have been standing where Dongwoo is now. Jeongin looks over at Jisung, who’s standing a little to the right of the tattooed leader, and despite him being Dauntless as well, he doesn’t look half too pleased with the treatment of Dongwoo, nor the result- a factionless before they’ve even officially entered Dauntless.

 

The leader claps his hands together, finalizing the entire event as if it never happened, and then the smirk is back, “so, who’s next?” the question barely has enough time to be said before Felix’s hand is up in the air, waving wildly, “Candor?” there’s surprise plastered on his face but nonetheless he looks pleased enough to have someone brave enough to make the jump.

 

Felix struts casually over to the ledge and jumps up, he doesn’t even look the least bit nervous while Seungmin can already feel the nervousness making its way through his body as a natural response to knowing that he’s, at some point in the coming minutes, supposed to jump twenty meters into darkness, and he’s not even close to the edge. Felix takes a peek down into the giant hole of darkness and gulps loudly, and then he turns to Seungmin and Jeongin, makes a halfhearted salute and says,” see you at the bottom,” and then he’s falling backwards, not even seeing where he’s about to land, and Jeongin makes a mental note to not do that. They hear Felix’s excited cheer as he falls and then it stops suddenly, which can only mean he landed safely in water (despite them not hearing a splash) or he’s dead. Jeongin doesn’t like the odds of that.

 

“Next?” the leader gestures to the ledge and a Dauntless-born girl steps forward without a word, she doesn’t seem as excited as Felix had but there’s no sign of nervosity either and Jeongin barely has the time to register that someone else is about to jump because in just a few seconds she’s gone without a peep.

 

---

 

 

He doesn’t know what he was expecting but it was certainly not to fall into a net out of all things, furthermore, he hadn’t expected to bounce around so much. To his disappointment, he only gets a second of rest from all the excitement before the net is dipping and he’s rolling off straight into someone’s arms and to his shock, it’s someone he recognizes. “It’s you!” he exclaims excitedly before adding, “I know you! Did you miss me?” to which the only response he gets is, “I was hoping you missed the train,” Felix pouts sadly as he’s put down on the ground, “name?” Felix stares incredulously, “you know my name already?” the man sighs, clearly annoyed, and asks again, “Felix,” and the man nods, seemingly satisfied with the answer, before shouting to the crowd (whom Felix hadn't noticed), “first jumper, Felix!” which is met by cheers that have Felix blushing.

 

Just as Felix is about to ask the man for his name since he never got it, a girl falls through the hole and lands in the net and his window of opportunity disappears.

 

---

 

 

“Boring,” the leader mutters with a roll of his eyes, he had most certainly been expecting some sort of shout of fear or at least some shivering but the girl had been stoic. He looks over the crowd, undoubtedly picking out who to torment next, but before he even has time to speak, the same girl who dragged Dongwoo to the front, steps forward with an irritated look, “Nancy, you took your time,” Seungmin snorts at the girl’s name, indiscreetly, which she manages to hear and she turns toward Seungmin, and by default, Jeongin, and sneers.

 

She steps up onto the ledge but as soon as she’s up she jumps down again which peaks the interest of the tattooed leader, “following in Dongwoo’s footsteps?” he spits out, clearly not amused with her cowardice and she shakes her head forcefully but doesn’t make a move to jump up on the ledge again. Seungmin sees his chance to make her feel a bit bad, it’s not like she doesn’t deserve it, and he takes it. “If you’re too afraid, maybe you should go and stand over there with Dongwoo, I’ll jump for you,” Jeongin turns to stare at Seungmin in shock, still not quite used to his Candor nature, but Seungmin doesn’t seem to notice as he walks up to the ledge. Nancy’s brows furrow and her jaw tightens angrily but Seungmin pays her no mind as he jumps up on the ledge, he sways slightly, almost immediately feeling lightheaded as he sees how far the jump is, and he can’t tell where he’s about to land either.

 

Nancy sneers at him but Seungmin, with his back, turned to her, doesn’t notice. He breathes heavily and closes his eyes, the wind blowing through his hair a constant reminder of where he’s standing. Jeongin bites his nails anxiously because he can see the leader tapping his foot impatiently, “are you gonna jump or what?” Nancy questions sassily with a smirk and Seungmin turns slightly so that he can see her, “third place is still a medal, no one remembers the fourth,” and then he’s jumping off the ledge, the breath being knocked out of him rendering it impossible for him to scream. It feels like he’s falling for ages and when he finally lands it’s not at all in what he expected, he feels the net touch his back for only a split second before he flies up again, he does this a few times’ every jump making him feel slightly nauseous but then he finally lands and lies still in the net.

 

The net dips and he rolls down from it into a man’s awaiting arms but as soon as he’s out of the net he puts him down and gives him an incredulous look, “Candor?” it only seems like an obvious statement to the others, since he’s wearing Candor clothes and is obviously a transfer, but Seungmin knows what he means. After all, Changbin was the one administering his test, he knows his result, and had he followed his result, he would not be standing here now.

 

“What’s your name?” Seungmin doesn’t even question the older’s reason, maybe he’s forgotten, maybe he hasn’t, “Seungmin,” he speaks, a little out of breath from falling twenty meters but Changbin nods without any sort of expression and shouts out, “third jumper, Seungmin!”

 

Seungmin heads over to where Felix is standing and the boy immediately throws an arm around him and buries his face in Seungmin’s shoulder, “Minnie! I didn’t think you would jump so quickly,” it’s not said in a condescending way, Felix has more confidence in Seungmin than he has in himself, only in a matter of factual way because it’s true, he would never have expected Seungmin to be the third jumper.

 

Seungmin only grins, “I took Nancy’s place,” he whispers as if it’s some dirty secret and Felix lifts a hand to cover his mouth, “what did you do?” Seungmin answers, “she was about to jump but got scared as soon as she stepped up, and I wouldn’t have made fun of her if it wasn’t for the way she treated Dongwoo, so I told her that if she was too afraid then maybe she should go stand with him,” Felix oohs to which Seungmin nudges him in the side for because the least thing he wants is to attract too much attention. “I might have also told her that no one will remember her if she isn’t one of the first three to jump, I would assume she’s not very happy about that since I jumped third,” he snorts, amused at the thought of Nancy’s suffering.

 

“What about Jeongin?” Felix bites his lips, a small sign of his worrying, and Seungmin realizes that he has no idea how Jeongin’s dealing now that he’s alone, dammit, “I kind of forgot about him,” he hesitates, “for a second, you know?” Felix spares him an unamused glare and looks up toward the giant hole in the roof from which they fell. “Let’s just hope he’s not freaking out up there.”

 

_____________

 

Don’t freak out, don’t freak out, it’s just a little jump. You’ve jumped from trees before, it’s basically the same thing...except this is twenty meters and the tree was two and a half at best. Just breathe, you’ll be fine, if you don’t jump you’ll never see your brother again and if you don’t jump you’ll end up factionless with no food and no clothes and no warmth and -

 

“Next!” a boy, Dauntless-born, with a stoic face and muscles as big as Jeongin’s head walks up to the ledge, making sure to bump into Jeongin forcefully on his way. Jeongin rubs his sore shoulder and glares after the boy, what made him do that? It’s not like Jeongin’s done anything to him. The boy steps up on the ledge and looks over at the leader, as if asking for permission to jump, and the leader only raises his brows challenging before gesturing over the edge. Barely a second passes before the boy is flying off the edge, making sure to flex by backflipping off the ledge instead of jumping like a normal person.

 

He’s the fourth to jump, Jeongin thinks as he counts the people before him, they’re now getting into the lot of losers apparently, if the look on the leader’s face is anything to go by. It seems that to him, only the top three matters, but Jeongin’s not so surprised, everything here seems to be based on competition, compared to Amity where everything relied on teamwork and support. Here, even your closest friends and family, are your competition.

 

Nancy jumps next, seemingly having mustered up enough courage to finally take the leap and she does it gracefully like everything else she does. But Jeongin can’t help but dislike her for being mean to Dongwoo; whom, without Jeongin even noticing, isn’t on the roof anymore and is nowhere to be seen, have they already taken him to the factionless? Jeongin doesn’t even want to think about it, the boy, the same age as him, at best one year older than him, completely alone with no family or friends in factionless where it’s a constant fight for survival, Jeongin shudders.

 

That will not be me, he tells himself mentally, but even his head voice wavers nervously, right?

 

Similarly to Dongwoo, the girl, Eunbin (from Erudite) is already crying, it’s not as panicked as Dongwoo was, but it’s clear that she’s shaking from fear. Jeongin reaches over, purely out of instinct, and pats her on the shoulder, she looks up from her hands quickly and distressed, probably expecting it to be the tattooed leader but when she sees Jeongin she relaxes. She takes in his clothes with calculating eyes before giving him a small smile through her tears and Jeongin is unsure if she’s smiling because he’s from Amity so she ‘knows’ his intentions are kind, or if she’s smiling because it’s obvious to her that he’s not a threat. He’s picked up quickly in the short while he’s been with Dauntless that there is barely any kindness that doesn’t cost, contrary to Amity where kindness is the way of life, or, at least it should be.

 

He pats her back and mumbles a quick, “you can do it,” and this time Jeongin can tell that she’s genuine when she smiles, and so he smiles back before patting her one last time and letting his hand fall to his side again. She wipes her tears with the stiff blue sleeve of her suit and straightens up, she’s still shaking and it’s clear that she’s still nervous but she’s not crying anymore so that’s a win in Jeongin’s book.

 

Walking up to the ledge she’s less shaky, but nowhere near the confident strut from the choosing ceremony. Grabbing a hold of the ledge with sweaty hands she hauls herself up and whimpers when she sees the hole in the roof, “I-” she hesitates and Jeongin thinks she’s about to step down but she surprises him but taking a giant leap with a loud shriek and then she’s plummeting down. Even the tattooed leader seems surprised, but nonetheless pleased. She’s the fifth person to jump, and Jeongin feels pathetic, he’s not even that afraid of heights, not like Eunbin, and yet here he is, what’s stopping me?

 

The sixth person jumps, Jeongin keeps his head down.

 

The seventh person jumps, Jeongin bites his lip until he draws blood.

 

The eight person jumps and Jeongin picks gravel from the cuts in his palm.

 

The ninth person...is him, he decides, his hand flies up into the air when the leader boringly asks for the next person to jump, seemingly to have completely lost all interest in them, but he perks up when Jeongin’s hand waves in the air.

 

“Amity, I was wondering when you were gonna jump,” he a brow and smirks in a way that has the hairs on Jeongin’s arms rising, “you took your time over there,” he says mockingly but Jeongin can only nod, all the words escaping him and rendering him incapable of responding in any other way than to submit. He goes to move his bangs out of the way, smearing some blood on his forehead in the process, which he fails to notice as he takes his place on the ledge. He climbs up onto his bloody knees and looks over the edge, the endless black pit staring right back at him and the cold wind slapping him in the face, he shudders and carefully maneuvers himself into a squat, not daring to fully stand up on the ledge.

 

“Today, Amity,” the leader drawls and Jeongin nods hurriedly and slowly begins to stand, his legs on the verge of failing him; swallowing heavily he closes his eyes tightly so that all he can see is the swirl of stars behind his eyelids and jumps. His entire stomach feels like it’s flipping upside down and he loses his breath as he falls through the hole and lands in the net, to his absolute shock. He’s pretty sure he stops breathing for a while when he’s lying in the net because that was at the same time the most terrifying and exciting thing he’s ever done.

The net dips and he rolls down, arms out ready to catch himself if his fate is to land on the floor, but instead he falls straight into someone’s arms and in the process manages to facepalm the person with his bloody hands.

 

“,” the person groans and drops Jeongin straight onto his on the hard concrete and Jeongin hisses in pain when he lands uncomfortably on his bony backside.

 

“Don't drop the initiates Binnie~” someone sings mockingly and it's not as raspy as the one who dropped him but it's laced with authority despite the light tone of it. Some giggles can be heard, assuming they weren’t expecting someone as tough as the man to have such a cute nickname as ‘Binnie’. “I try not to but the kid smeared blood in my face,” I know him, is Jeongin’s first thought when he hears the reply from the man, it's the same guy who administered his test, he recognizes the sarcastic tone. “I’m sorry,” Jeongin mumbles when the man reaches down with a hand for Jeongin to take but the man only shakes his head with slightly widened eyes and helps him up despite the blood now ending up on his hand as well.

 

“What the -” the man mumbles when he finally realizes who it is that he helped up and Jeongin shrugs a little helplessly, “no more sunshine land,” the man his brow in question, not exactly expecting a verbal answer but wanting to see how the kid reacts. Jeongin looks up at him and shrugs mutely not knowing what to say, but it’s the obvious that the man is expecting something from him, his test was Amity through and through so what the hell is he doing here? Jeongin himself is surprised that he’s even made it this far.

 

When Jeongin stays silent the man assumes that he’s not gonna get much out of the kid, not that he cares really, if the kid fails it’s his own stupid fault. “Name,” he mutters and Jeongin naturally thinks, of course he doesn’t remember my name, and opens his mouth to speak, “Jeongin,” he mumbles quietly, not used to dropping the Hwang- but the words of his grandmother are engraved in his memory and despite not agreeing with her, she has taken care of him for years now when his parents and brother couldn’t, so if she says he’s not a Hwang then he’s not a Hwang. And he’s got to learn how to live with that.

 

“I’ve lost count of which jumper we’re on, but the name’s Jeongin!” the man, Binnie, (Jeongin doesn’t know what else to call him) with Jeongin’s blood on his face and hands, shouts and the people around them clap lifelessly, unsurprisingly since no one cares about anyone that comes in ninth place.

 

Jeongin spots Seungmin with Felix, naturally clinging to him, and when their eyes meet Seungmin gestures for him to come over and he takes one look at the man who had turned away from him to help the next person down from the net and takes that as permission to leave and he hurries over to the two.

 

“Hey, you okay? You’re kind of bleeding all over the place,” Felix furrows his brows and points to Jeongin’s bloody knees and his hands, his hands don’t look too bad but his knees are still bleeding and it’s dripping down his legs and being collected at the edge of his socks and he winces as he takes in the cut on his left leg. “It doesn’t hurt that bad,” he mumbles as he rolls up his left pant leg and immediately pain radiates up his leg, seeing how bad it really is makes the pain grow a tenfold and he hisses loudly.

 

“Ow, maybe it does hurt a bit,” he whispers and Felix chuckles a little before throwing Jeongin’s left arm over his own shoulders and helping him stand, taking some of the weight off the most injured leg. They only have to wait for another ten minutes for every person to jump and when the last person is out of the net and his name has been called the unknown man who gave the familiar man the name ‘Binnie’ pushes himself off from the wall where he was leaning and stands in front of all the initiates together with Binnie.

 

His hair is a nuance of gray and his eyebrows thick and brown with a slit going through the left one, wearing a loose fitted white t-shirt and black pants he pales in comparison to Binnie who’s dressed in all-black- the true Dauntless lifestyle, resulting in him not looking particularly scary. But it’s the look in his eyes, the look that screams ‘in charge’ that has Jeongin cowering a bit into Felix’s side. He doesn’t need a knife in his hand or all-black attire to assert himself above all the others in the room, he does it naturally and Jeongin finds it both admirable as well as frightening.

 

“For starters, divide yourself into transfers and Dauntless-born, transfers to the right,” immediately the group begins to divide itself and Felix practically lifts Jeongin off his feet to walk over to the right side of the group to where the other transfers are standing nervously.

 

When the group is divided into two the gray-haired man puts his hands behind his back and straightens up, “Welcome, initiates. I’ll be the leader for the transfer group, my name is Chan,” he speaks loudly and firmly and Jeongin sees the way even Binnie straightens up when Chan speaks, so he can only assume that Chan is older than him.

 

“And I’m Changbin, not Binnie,” Changbin glares at a couple of Dauntless-born girls giggling to the very left and they quickly quiet down under his harsh glare, “I’ll be the leader for the Dauntless-born,” Felix huffs, sad that he won’t be able to get the know the older as much as he wants to, and Jeongin spares him a confused glance; Changbin doesn’t seem to be someone who’s easy to get to know, at least not to Jeongin, but, maybe Felix has his ways.

 

“You’ll be taken to your rooms and shown around the Dauntless compound,” Chan says towards the transfers before turning to the Dauntless-born, “it’s not like you need a tour,” he adds to which the Dauntless-born nod quietly and then Chan turns to Changbin who leans in so that Chan can whisper something. When Chan’s done speaking Changbin nods and suddenly whistles loudly, “Dauntless-born! Follow me,” he calls and as soon as he starts walking the rest of the kids follow him like sheep.

 

When they’ve left the giant hall through the left exit Chan claps his hands loudly and leans his head towards the opening to their right, “follow me.” They pass through a giant hall opening and continue into a large stone tunnel with minimal lighting, so different from Candor’s glass building with natural light seeping through and Amity’s- well, natural light outside on the fields, in the open, whilst in the tunnel they pass a group of guards wearing black masks who are armed heavily, Jeongin keeps his head down purely out of instinct, and turns his face slightly into Felix’s side.

 

Chan stops abruptly and so does the armed group, one of the soldiers, the one in the front, shakes hands with Chan and says something to which Chan’s expression changes drastically and his relaxed (but firm face) turns stone cold and he nods mutely before mumbling something and patting the man on his shoulder, and then they’re walking again. “Is it the guns?” Seungmin suddenly asks Jeongin with a frown and Jeongin furrows his brows, “what?” he questions confusedly to which Seungmin gestures after the guards with a hand, “you lowered your head almost immediately when they walked by,” he points out and Jeongin feels heat raise up to his cheeks, “I’m just wondering, you don’t have to answer-” he hurriedly explains, “-but is it the guns that you’re scared of?” suddenly Jeongin understand what it is that Seungmin means and he shakes his head quickly.

 

“No, I’m not afraid of guns, it’s just-” he cuts himself off, unsure of how to proceed without making Dauntless sound like, well, s. Seungmin urges him to go on with an eager look, not explicitly saying it, but his eyes speak enough for Jeongin to know that he’s curious, “it’s what we did back in Amity when soldiers walked by, any strange eye contact with them could get you apprehended for questioning,” he tells hastily, afraid that Chan will, in some way from three meters ahead of them, hear him.

 

Seungmin frowns and shares a look with Felix, “why are Dauntless in Amity?” they both manage to ask at the same time and Jeongin bites his lip nervously and raises himself a bit to see if Chan is looking back but he seems completely focused on leading them to wherever so he deems it safe to speak, “a lot of factionless have been hiding in Amity, both with our knowledge but some without, so Dauntless have been trying to find them by raiding people’s houses,” he half-whispers and Seungmin’s eyes widen, proving Jeongin’s theory that it’s not common knowledge what goes on in Amity.

 

“But,” Felix begins, “the borders?” Jeongin immediately understands what he means and bites his lip nervously, it’s no secret in Amity and obviously not in the higher ups of Dauntless, but he doesn’t know if it’s meant to be common knowledge. “The borders are a little...loose,” as soon as the words leave his mouth a boy walking just ahead of them turns around and Jeongin immediately stops talking and changes his expression to what he hopes is a relatively neutral expression, afraid that he’s said something wrong. But the boy seems to look right past the three of them and Jeongin sigh in relief when the boy waves at someone in he back, conforming his thought that the boy wasn’t looking at them.

 

However, before he can continue with what he was about to say the stone tunnel opens up to a large room- not even close to a room, it’s a giant stone hall with small sidewalks carved out of the stone walls and the three of them all gape as they take in the beauty of Dauntless, so very different from anything they’ve ever seen. “Wow,” Felix mumbles, eyes wide and mouth agape, in addition, both Seungmin and Jeongin chime in with their own exclamations of awe as they gaze around the hall where numerous people are walking around, dressed in almost exclusively black clothing and many of them covered in tattoos.

 

A man covered in tattoos from head to toe walks past their group and Felix’s gaze follow him with admiring eyes, taking in the intricate designs climbing up from behind his shirt, up his neck and over his bald head. “Did you see that guy?” he kicks Seungmin’s chin to get his attention and Seungmin hisses in pain and glares at Felix, “you didn’t have to kick me, I saw him,” he mumbles and Felix waves his complains off, “they were cool, right? I totally want one,” Seungmin raises his brows, not expecting Felix to want one so quickly, but he’s not entirely surprised either. Felix has always had an interest in the life of Dauntless, the freedom to do whatever you so please.

 

Seungmin doesn’t entirely share Felix’s sentiment, but he doesn’t say anything against him either, only keeps his eyes forward, occasionally wandering around the hall as they keep walking. A group of small children, no older than 10, run past them chasing each other wildly and basically ripping each other’s clothes trying to bring their friend down on the ground. “Ya!” Jeongin turns quickly toward the shout and is surprised to see Jisung with a finger pointed at the kids and with a stern face (but still clearly very much amused), “what did I tell you about running around here? And how many times haven't I gotten complaints from your parents over your ripped clothes?”

 

Putting his hands on his hips for effect Jeongin can’t help but find it a bit amusing (as well as a bit confusing) and to his surprise, and most certainly to the rest of the group as well, the children actually look a bit regretful as they lower their heads, “we’re sorry, teacher,” they chorus together but Jeongin isn't thinking about their impressive coordination, he’s far too busy trying to process that Jisung is a teacher. Granted he’s only spoken to him once, but he had certainly not been expecting the older to be a teacher to such young kids.

 

But, then again, things are vastly different here from Amity, so maybe he should stop assuming so much and just go with the flow (although Jeongin is well aware that it won't be easy for him.)

 

They leave the group of children and Jisung to continue to their destination which, sadly, requires stair climbing that has Jeongin biting his tongue to keep the pained noises at bay. He’s covered in sweat when they’ve climbed as far as they need to and Felix spares him a comforting smile, “just a bit more, I think,” it doesn't do much to comfort anyone but it's the thought that counts and Jeongin appreciates it greatly.

 

Chan leads them down yet another stone tunnel until he reaches seemingly a hole in the wall and enters through it, the rest ur the group quickly following suit. It’s the room where they’ll be staying they soon realize as they take in the bunk beds, spread across the room in no particular pattern, and the toilets lining the wall to their left. “Are we supposed to just use the toilets with everyone here?” a girl from Candor that Jeongin doesn't remember seeing, asks, but Seungmin and Felix clearly know her, or of her because they groan in unison and Felix mutters, “it’s either that or holding it until everyone’s asleep Karen .”

 

She doesn't hear him, judging by the way she doesn't even spare him a single glance, but Seungmin hears him and snickers quietly, pretending to cough into is elbow when Chan’s eyes drift over them.  

 

“Yes,” Chan begins, one brow cocked and his arms crossed, “it’s either that or, just like Felix said, wait until everyone’s asleep,” Felix lets out a shocked gasp, both because their leader knows his name but also because he had heard him, “wow,” he mumbles, awestruck by their leader which Jeongin finds quite amusing and Seungmin, as usual, rolls his eyes.

 

“Now, if there are no more questions-” a boy at the front from Erudite raises his hand which Chan completely ignores, “-you have three minutes to strip everything you’re wearing and put on anything out of that pile that fits,” he points to a large pile further inside the room which, from a distance, kind of looks like an old bonfire to Jeongin, the shape similar to that of a pyramid and the black clothing similar to burnt wood.

 

“Three minutes and then regroup outside,” when no one makes a move to move Chan raises both brows and leans forward as if he’s trying to see them better, “well? Chop chop,” he claps his hands together and that finally jolts people out of their shock and they're hurrying over to the pile of clothing.

 

Felix readjusts his grip on Jeongin and starts moving towards the pile as well but the pair (Seungmin having already walked ahead of them) is stopped by Chan who puts a hand on Felix’s chest to stop him from moving any further.

 

“How are the knees?” it takes an embarrassing amount of time for Jeongin to understand that he’s addressing him and when he finally understands and goes to answer all of the words escape him, “uh-um, they’re okay,” he manages to mumble, barely audible even for Felix pressed cheek to cheek with him but somehow Chan seems to understand him and he suddenly kneels in front of the two and pulls Jeongin’s left pant leg up.

 

It hurts more than it did before now that some ps the blood has dried, gluing the pants to the cut. Chan takes one look at the look and then he's rising as quickly as he kneeled, “you’ll need a few stitches but we’ll fix that later, now, you better hurry or you'll have to settle for v-neck tank tops.”

 

Felix doesn't even bother saying anything before he’s dragging Jeongin away from Chan and hurrying, to the best of their capacity, over to the clothing pile which has shrunken a substantial amount since the last time they laid eyes on it.

 

“Is that….a bra?” Seungmin snickers at Felix’s shocked expression and presents the pile of clothing in his hands, “I grabbed for you as well,” Felix puts a hand over his heart and pretends to shed a tear, “an angel.” Once again, Seungmin rolls his eyes in amusement and chucks the clothes at Felix who struggles to catch the flying items, “hurry, there’s not much time left,” and they’re suddenly reminded that they’re on a tight schedule and the clock is not ticking on their side, so Felix reluctantly lets go of Jeongin and practically rips his stiff collared shirt off his body, “ugh, what a relief!” he exclaims as soon as his neck if free from the constricting collar. Jeongin too starts to undress, starting with pulling his hoodie off and quickly covering his exposed chest.

 

Seungmin takes one calculating look at him and tsks, “you need to eat more, you’re really skinny,” Felix swivels around with his pants half down his legs, “yah, you can’t just tell people stuff like that, look at him!” he gestures to Jeongin whose chest is beginning to bloom with red and slowly rising up to his face in obvious embarrassment. He’s not dangerously skinny to the point where there’s need for worry but admittedly he’s not the buffest of them all and he could spare to gain a few extra pounds.

 

Jeongin lets his arms fall away from his chest, very much against his will, to start slipping out of his pants and he grimaces when he feels the pants irritate his cut but everyone is almost done already and he needs to hurry, so just like ripping off a bandaid he strips out of his pants and into the new pair which is entirely black except for the stripe of red going down the sides of the pants. And they’re thankfully not as tight as the ones Seungmin has gotten himself into, hugging every inch of his legs- Jeongin can’t fathom how he’s supposed to move in those.

 

He kneels to the floor- worst idea he’s ever had because the cut starts bleeding again- to take off his shoes and put on the new ones. They’re very different from his old ones and Jeongin can’t get used to the feeling of them, they cover his entire foot and almost squeezes it to the point that Jeongin wonders how his feet will be able to breathe, especially if they have to run (and sweat) again.

 

When he’s fully dressed he looks around at the others around him and takes notice of how, despite the smallest of variations, they’re all wearing the same shirt and the same jacket and he realizes that it’s their uniform, their ‘initiates-uniform’, after all, they’re not Dauntless just yet. They have to be trained and tested, but more importantly, they have to prove that they belong.

 

A whistle sounds from outside the room and everyone quickly grabs their own clothes and hurries out the door to regroup outside and Seungmin, the angel he is, grabs Jeongin’s clothes for him and nudges Jeongin out the door. Chan takes one look at them from head to toe, sighs with his entire body, and gestures for them to follow me. “I take it we’re not the ‘great’ initiates he was waiting for,” Seungmin whispers and Felix huffs, “I’ll show him how great I am,” to which Seungmin only rolls his eyes and nudges Jeongin, “don’t become like him, please, arrogance is not flattering,” and the youngest can only nod his head hastily while Felix glares at Seungmin, “it’s not arrogance if it’s true,” he mumbles disappointingly when Seungmin doesn’t even react to his glare.

 

“Don’t listen to that hyung, it’s good to have confidence in yourself,” Felix gives Jeongin a reassuring smile and pats him- with difficulty because of the clothes in his arms- on the shoulder, “listen to this hyung instead, I’m the one with the good advice,” Seungmin scoffs but otherwise stays silent and Jeongin musters up a little courage, “Seungmin hyung gives logical and honest advice,” Jeongin mumbles resulting in Seungmin giving him a blinding smile that Jeongin didn’t think the older was capable of, but Felix, however, is not so amused. “What about my advice?”

 

“Your advice is...comforting,” he can’t think of a better word to describe it but Felix points at Seungmin in triumph, “see! I’m comforting,” he cheers but instead of accepting defeat like Felix had been expecting Seungmin chuckles mockingly and shakes his head, “he basically said I’m right and logical and you’re just comforting, as in you may lie to comfort others.”

 

“That’s not what I-” Jeongin tries to cut in but is interrupted by Felix’s dramatic gasp, “that is not what he said! If you would have listened-”

 

They start to walk faster as they get more heated and Jeongin, without Felix to lean on this time, falls a bit behind, “that’s exactly what he said!” Seungmin exclaims and Felix shakes his head, “his words did not go like that, he said-”

 

“It wasn’t a direct quote, Felix.”

 

“Well maybe, don’t put words in his mouth, Seungmin. ”

 

Despite being a bit worried that they’re actually going to get into a fight Jeongin finds their banter amusing, however, Chan does not. “Will you two dips shut up?” consequently, both Felix and Seungmin immediately fall silent and Chan sighs in relief and drags a hand through his hair, “thank you, you’re doing us all a favor.” They spend the rest of the walk walking in silence with Jeongin trailing behind them and when they reach a staircase leading downwards he realizes that there are no railings to hold onto and so the only thing he can do is jump on one leg, swaying dangerously a few times and almost falling to what he assumes is a certain death- he’s right.

 

“Be careful when you walk around this area, the water that flows here does not lead to a pool, contrary to popular belief, fall in and you’re never coming back,” the words stick with Jeongin and he moves closer to the wall, not willing to test his luck on the edge of the stairs.

 

When they reach the bottom they take a direct left turn and suddenly it’s hard to breathe because of the smoke surrounding them and Jeongin’s first thought, irrational to the extreme but a thought nonetheless, is that Chan has lead them to their deaths, we’re about to be burnt alive. But then the smoke clears and they’re presented with large ovens, fire glowing deep inside the mouth of the ovens, “you’re Dauntless now, that means no accessories from your old factions, and most certainly, no clothes.”

 

“This is a bit dramatic, don’t you think,” Felix mumbles and Seungmin hums in agreement, but what can they do but follow their orders. Seungmin spares Jeongin a small glance but the boy only nods encouragingly and Seungmin throws both of their pairs of clothes into the pit and almost immediately the fire engulfs them, “I’m not saying those could have gone to the factionless-” Seungmin begins and, naturally, Felix finishes for him, “-but that’s exactly what you’re saying,” Seungmin hums in agreement.

 

Jeongin wants to agree, and he does, of course, but the thought of the factionless is, in his mind,  immediately auto-redirected to thoughts of his father, and that’s why he stays silent, too caught up in his own mind. They leave the smoke-filled room relatively quickly and Jeongin limps after Seungmin and Felix whom, for a moment, seem to have forgotten about him. But he’s not mad, he’s a lot slower than them and he doesn’t bring much to the conversations either, so he lets them walk ahead of him chatting excitedly, no sign of their little spite from before.

 

“You not gonna join them?” Jeongin jumps, frightened like a deer in headlights, and whips his head around to the source of the questions and is met by Jisung, a questioning look on his face and a raised brow. Jeongin hesitates, “uh, well, I’m kind of slow,” he mumbles and Jisung frowns in confusion, “really? Your intelligence seems to be up to par, if not above the-”

 

“No! I mean, my leg,” he shouts, perhaps a little bit too loud, and quickly covers his mouth, an embarrassed blush already beginning to form. Jisung bends a bit, takes one look at his leg and then hisses when he sees the fabric covering the cut, despite being black it’s very clear that blood has seeped through it and he looks away towards the front of the group where Chan is, “what did Chan hyung say about it?” Jeongin finds it interesting, moreover quite shockingly that he calls him hyung, but he doesn’t point it out, instead he focuses on the task at hand, what did Chan say about it.

 

“He said that I’ll get stitches later, but I don’t know when ‘later’ is supposed to be,” he mumbles to which Jisung rolls his eyes, “we’ll go fix it now, we’re only heading over for dinner anyways so it’s not like you’ll miss much,” he says while dragging his hand through his hair but before Jeongin even has the time to acknowledge what Jisung just said, Jisung speaks again, “I don’t know why he doesn’t just tell you where you’re heading? It’s not like he doesn’t know.”

 

“Maybe he wants to keep a bit of mystery,” Jisung turns to Jeongin with wide eyes, clearly surprised that he spoke without it being an answer to a direct question, incidentally, Jeongin too is just as surprised, if not even more and he turns his eyes to cast downwards. Only to be quickly brought up again when Jisung laughs, loudly.

 

“That type of language-” Jeongin prepares for an earful, maybe even to be reprimanded, but Jisung surprises him, “-is the exact type of language that I want to hear from you,” Jisung gives him a smile and Jeongin can’t help but return it brightly. Maybe he needs to speak without thinking some more if he wants to survive here and make friends other than Seungmin and Felix.

 

Jisung pats his shoulder comfortingly and says, “I’ll take you to the infirmary myself, hold on,” Jeongin doesn’t know what he’s holding on for but he immediately gets it when Jisung suddenly shouts, “Channie hyung!” Jeongin sees Chan stop at the front and his entire body sink in on himself, in a whole body-sigh, and then turn around with a bored expression, “yes, Jisung-ah,” but despite addressing Jisung, his eyes are boring into Jeongin’s and Jeongin has to look away.

 

“I’m taking the kid to the infirmary before he bleeds out,” he points to Jeongin wildly, making Jeongin want to sink into the floor and never come back, but Jisung grabs a hold of the collar of his jacket and waves to Chan, “I’ll have him back before you even have the time to say ‘thank you’,” Chan spares him an unamused glance and opens his mouth, “ y-” Jisung drags Jeongin away before they hear the rest of that and the group starts walking again. He sees Felix trying to wave at him through the crowd of people and Jeongin waves, albeit a lot more discreetly, back at him.

 

“Come on now kid,” Jisung says and starts walking in the opposite direction to where they were heading but instead of heading up the stairs like Jeongin was dreading, they head on in under the stairs where an elevator is. “It’s only used when we bring in heavy stuff or injured people, but since you’re mildly injured, I figure it won’t upset anyone too much if we use it just this once,” he says it about sneakily, letting Jeongin in on the fact that they’re really not supposed to use it.

 

Jisung presses the third button and as soon as the door closes Jeongin realizes that the lights don’t work and they’re left in absolute darkness, “I hope you’re not afraid of the dark,” Jisung jokes but Jeongin supposes he might also be a little worried about him freaking out on him. He spares him off his worry by saying, “I’m not,” he tells him and Jisung lets out a ‘whew’ sound before falling silent for the next seconds as they ride up the elevator.

 

When the doors open Jeongin is almost blinded by the lights and it takes a few seconds for his eyes to get used to it again. Jisung leads him down a corridor, once again, in stone; Jeongin realized quickly on that the entire Dauntless compound is basically underground and therefore, carved out of the literal ground. A pair of door come into sight, white and icy, making it impossible to see through them and he supposes it’s for the privacy of the patients, surprisingly, since their ‘dorm’s’ toilets are against the wall for everyone to see.

 

Jisung pushes the doors open and holds them for Jeongin as he follows him inside, it’s relatively empty Jeongin notices. With only one bed, out of the twenty-something in the room, occupied and only one person walking around like he works there- although he doesn’t look like it.

 

“Minho hyung,” Jisung exclaims and almost immediately Minho shushes him, “what do you want?” and if it wasn’t for Jisung’s smile Jeongin would assume that he’s actually mad at him, “I need stitches,” the expression on Minho changes almost immediately and he’s quickly by Jisung’s side taking in every aspect of him and looking him up and down, “where are you hurt?” he’s firm and steady but there’s a hint of urgency in his voice.

 

“What stupid did you do this time?” he questions further and Jisung rolls his eyes and pushes Minho away, “not me, Jeongin here is the one who needs stitches,” he gestures to Jeongin who waves awkwardly and Minho frowns at Jisung suspiciously, “what did you do to him?” to which Jisung gapes and throws his arms up in the air, “I didn’t do anything, why do you always assume I’m at fault?”

 

“Because you usually are,” Jeongin snickers into his hand and tries to hide it with a cough which Minho doesn’t fall for and he gives Jeongin an amused look, “well, let’s go sit down and see what we have,” Jeongin limps over to the nearest bed but Minho shakes his head, “it’s better if you sit on one of the tables, makes my job easier y’know?” it’s only then that Jeongin thinks that he can’t recall ever meeting a doctor so chill and...different. Back in Amity, it was a cozy room in wood, with a bed, a small examination table, a doctor in a white robe with a stethoscope around their neck and slow handshakes with awkward stares and long smiles. But this room is in stone, just like everything else is, with white beds, metal examination tables and a pair of bloody gloves thrown in a trashcan- not very comforting. Furthermore, Minho is dressed in a black pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and he has a piercing in his left eyebrow; there’s a stethoscope around his neck, but that’s about all that’s similar to the doctors of Amity. It’s very different, but Jeongin finds that he doesn’t mind all that much.

 

“Hop up,” Minho says and Jeongin stiffly climbs up onto the examination table and to make Minho’s job easier, rolls his pant leg up to reveal the cut. Minho takes a seat on a small, round metal stool that has small wheels on every leg and after taking one look at the cut he rolls away to some locker and grabs a small bag from it. “You were right, he definitely needs stitches,” Minho says to Jisung as he rolls past him back to where Jeongin’s sitting, “you’re lucky it’s not all too deep,” he adds as he starts to unpack the small bag of equipment. “What did you do?” he questions while taking out the items in his bag, “I wasn’t very good at landing after we jumped from the moving train,” Jeongin admits and Minho snorts and shakes his head, “I’ve seen worse.”

 

He frowns when he reaches the last item of the bag and rolls away once again to look though the locker, “god dammit,” he whispers and Jisung walks over to him, “what now? Forgot how to stitch?” he mocks and Minho punches him, hitting him directly in the stomach because of the height he’s sitting at. “No I didn’t,” he hisses and Jisung laughs through his own pain, “but, it seems that Woojin has stolen all of my local anesthesia for his stupid tattoos and the rest of it all is in the storage, but that’s so far away,” groaning he lets his head fall back tiredly before swivelling around to Jeongin, “can you wait for a while?” Minho questions with a thumb pointing towards the door as if he’s saying ‘I’m leaving’. And Jeongin can wait, yes, but it’s not necessary, so he tells him that, “you can just...do it without the anesthesia,” and while Jisung’s eyes widen in surprise, Minho’s eyes narrow in suspicion and he says, “Dauntless encourages bravery, not stupidity.”

 

“Is it stupid if I can actually handle it?” the words hold a lot of sass but the tone is that of a child afraid to go to the bathroom in the middle of class, his hands twist in his lap when all Minho does is stare at him, but after a few seconds he nods mutely and roll up to Jeongin, “let’s get started then.”

 

Pulling on his gloves he cracks his fingers and gets his things ready. He cleans the wound thoroughly and picks out the small bits of gravel left in the cut before getting his needle and thread ready, “last chance to back out,” Jeongin only looks away from his cut in silent permission and Minho makes the first stitch. It hurts, yes, he’s not going to deny it,  but it’s not the worst pain he’s ever felt. Moreover, since it already hurts and has been hurting for while, he’s almost a bit numb to the pain from the stitches.

 

Minho finishes up relatively quickly with only five stitches and sticks a giant bandage on top of it all as the finishing touch and when he’s done he pats Jeongin on the thigh and rolls away to a trashcan to throw away his gloves as well as put away all the equipment he used.

 

“You did well, I’m surprised,” Minho points out and Jeongin smiles sheepishly, not prepared for the compliment but thankful nonetheless. “Yeah that was...badass,” Jisung chimes in and Jeongin shakes his head and laughs a bit stiltedly, not sure what to say. It was nothing- no that’s not right, it was something, even he knows that, so he stays quiet.

 

“Let’s get you out of here and get some dinner, I’m starving,” Jisung claps his hands and smiles  eagerly, Jeongin’s face brightens at the mention of food and he hops down from the table, careful not to agitate his leg, and bows to Minho, “thank you,” he mumbles but Minho only waves off his thanks and pats him on the shoulder, “hurry off and get some food now, some energy will make you heal faster and make you...less scrawny.”

 

They leave the room and Jeongin finds that despite just having a needle thread through his skin it doesn’t hurt as much as it did before and, automatically, it makes it easier to walk. “Let’s head to the dining hall, I’m sure your friends are still there, we weren’t gone for that long.”

This time they take the stairs down like good citizens and head toward the dining hall but even ten meters away the sound is deafening with people talking loudly and cheering and as soon as they reach the entrance Jeongin is surprised over how large it is with tables in lines throughout the entire room and food filling the tables, and stairs going up on either side of the room leading up to a balcony that seems to be off limits for them because at each stair there’s an armed guard seemingly not receptive to any of the joyus laughs echoing throughout the dining hall. Jeongin spots Felix and Seungmin at a table in the middle of the hall and goes to take a step but is pulled back in just in time for him to walk straight into a buff guy carrying a tray, “be careful,” Jisung says steadily and discreetly pulls him by the arm with him in to the mass of people.

 

When they reach the table where the only two people Jeongin knows- unless you count Changbin- are seated Felix stands up and pulls Jeongin into a large hug that has Jeongin unable to breathe for a few seconds, “I’m sorry to say, I ate all the chicken, but there’s still beef left so you won’t go hungry,” he puts his hands together in a praying motion as to say ‘I’m sorry’ but Jeongin only takes his seat and says, “it’s okay, I’ve never had chicken anyways,” that was most certainly not what Felix was expecting because his mouth falls open and he looks almost frightened by what he’s just heard.

 

Even Jisung, who’s sat across the table in between Changbin and Chan, chimes in, “you’ve never had chicken? Seriously?” Jeongin nods sheepishly and rubs his neck nervously, “we don’t eat meat in Amity,” he mumbles and Felix turns to Seungmin, “how did I not know that? Did you know that? I didn’t know that.”

 

Seungmin punches Felix’s shoulder to get him to stop rambling before leaning over his moping friend to talk to Jeongin, “but do you eat eggs? Or any dairy products?” Jeongin nods quickly, “we take care of the farms and the farm animals, so we drink their milk and eat their eggs but we don’t slaughter them, Dauntless does that,” he explains with a side glance to the three older boys in front of them to see if he’s upset them but only Jisung seems to be interested in what he’s saying.

 

Just then someone comes and taps Jisung on the shoulder, “your students are raiding the hallways,” Changbin snorts into his food, seemingly not even noticing when Jisung nudges him in the side, “I’ll take care of it,” he says and takes one sad look at his food before grabbing the largest bite Jeongin’s ever seen and shoving it into his mouth, “I’ll see you later, take care of that leg, and don’t tell anyone,” he stresses the last part through all the food in his mouth, which makes it a bit harder to understand but jeongin somehow manages to understand, however, what he doesn’t understand is what he’s not supposed to tell, so he just nods and watches Jisung leave.

 

“What was that about?” Seungmin questions curiously and Felix hums through whatever oily thing he’s eating, “I honestly have no idea,” he admits honestly and just then Chan chimes in, “as long as you didn’t ride the elevator-”

 

“Oh, right that’s what we d-” and then he suddenly remembers that part about them not being allowed to use the elevator and quickly corrects himself, “I mean- that’s what we didn’t d-” Chan chuckles and holds his hand up to stop Jeongin’s rambling, “I’m messing with you,” he takes a bite from his plate and Jeongin, who hadn’t been so focused on the leader before, realizes then that his plate is entirely vegetarian as well, interesting.

 

“Ha ha ha, you’re so funny hyung,” Changbin remarks lifelessly with his eyes downcast on his plate but there’s hint of a smile beginning to pull at the corners of his lips, but jeongin’s eyes worryingly turn to Chan to see what he’ll do but he only rolls his eyes and picks up his plate, “I’m leaving, you’re on your own,”  he exclaims dramatically with a huff and, if Changbin’s ‘ow’ is anything to go by, he kicks him under the table.

 

“Please leave, you’re doing God's work,” Changbin drawls after Chan’s retreating figure and Felix laughs obnoxiously loud with his teeth in a piece of meat that has Jeongin recoiling, it’ll certainly take some time to get used to that.

 

“Changbin-ssi, if you don’t mind me asking-” Felix begins but Changbin immediately cuts in boringly, “I do mind,” but that comment seems to fly straight above Felix’s head as he continues on, “how old are you?” he questions with his chin resting in his oily hands to which Changbin’s brows rise, probably not expecting such a simple question at his age, “nineteen,” Felix turns to seungmin with a bright smile and whispers, “he’s not that old,” and Jeongin’s very obviously missing out on some joke the two of them have because Seungmin rolls his eyes and throws him a disgusted look, “stop.”

 

But the word ‘nineteen’ sticks with Jeongin for one reason and one reason only, he’s the same age as his brother. That must mean that Changbin knows him and can probably tell him where to find him, so he musters up a bit of courage and clears his throat, “do you know a guy your age called Hyunjin?” Changbin throws him a glance and frowns when he sees who asked the question.

 

“Are you kidding me?” Jeongin startles and mumbles a quiet, “no…?” to which Changbin raises his glass to his lips and asks, “what makes you think you can talk to me?” Jeongin’s blood freezes and he tries to reply but only ends up a stuttering mess.

 

But, thankfully, before he can embarrass himself even further and apologize profusely someone slaps the back of Changbin’s head and sits down next to him, “it must be because you’re so approachable Binnie,” Minho says and grabs a hold of Changbin’s neck and ruffles his hair, “stop scaring the kids,” he adds and Changbin flails in his arms, “alright, alright! Hyung, I get it,” as soon as Minho lets him go Changbin hisses at him like a cat who was just forced into water but Minho stays unbothered.

 

“Who were you asking about Jeongin-ah?” he asks and jeongin’s surprise to hear his name come out of the older as it was only mentioned in passing by Jisung but he’s glad that he’s not entirely forgettable, “you know him?” Changbin stares incredulously at them and Minho reaches over the table to scratch under Jeongin’s chin, “I stitched this kid’s leg up like fifteen minutes ago,” Jeongin blushes and swats Minho’s hand away but he doesn’t seem too offended.

 

“So yes, I know him, now let Jeongin- ah answer the question,” Changbin rolls his eyes and sighs deeply, “he was asking about some Hyunjin, I don’t know a Hyunjin though, only that one cook we had that died,” jeongin’s eyes widen and he quickly inquiries, “how old was the cook?”

 

“Like, fifty-something, why?” Jeongin sighs in relief and shakes his head, that’s not my brother , is all he can think and he sighs discreetly in relief, “I take it that’s not the Hyunjin you’re looking for,” Minho supplies and Jeongin shakes his head. No it’s not, but how come Changbin doesn’t know his brother if they’re the same age? Jeongin can’t wrap his head around that.

 

Just then a loud drum sound echoes in the hall and everyone immediately falls silent, “What the-” Felix mumbles with his mouth full but is cut off by a man up on the balcony speaking, “My name is Yang Hyun Suk, and I’m the spokesperson for Dauntless, you who are born here or have lived her for a while know me, but I'm directing this at you, our initiates!” loud cheers come from all across the hall that has even Felix blushing a little. “Now, i want you to know that, while Dauntless focuses on bravery, our strongest point is our comradery-” yeah sure, “and now that you’re in training, it’s important to help your fellow comrades without forgetting yourself, do your best, and I know you’ll fit right in, do your worst and...well, you can figure out that one yourselves.”

 

He pauses and takes a look around the hall, “welcome to Dauntless,” even louder cheers erupt and suddenly the entire hall seems to be moving and from Jeongin’s side Felix disappears only to be lifted into the air by a bunch of Dauntless people and hoisted into the air.

 

Seungmin disappears too and before jeongin has the time to think of ways to avoid being hoisted into the air like his friends he’s being grabbed by the arms and legs and suddenly he’s in the air. He hears Felix's loud laugh from his right and looks over to see one of the Dauntless carrying him tickling him as well and Jeongin lets out a laugh at the way Felix is squirming in their arms.

 

Maybe he was wrong, maybe comradery is a strong point in Dauntless, maybe he just hasn’t been truly exposed to it enough to pass his judgment just yet. He’s unsure, but for now, he’s going to enjoy himself.

 

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Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed! Drop a comment if you did or if you have any suggestions :)
Have a nice day/night/morning/evening <3