"They did?"

"Yeah, but it didn't last long before that girl came and spilt her lunch on Yuri's shoes." 

"That would have been fun to see", Chuckled Changkyun, and Somi clucked her tongue, trying to focus on her breathing as they talked.

"It had me stunned. The girl was bowing and apologising like it was the Queen's shoes that the food had been spilt on. Anyone would think her head was going to get cut off. And then when it was all over, Yuri said she wanted to sit together another day before Kihyun carried her out of the canteen like she was royalty."

"That is what Hyunwoo tries to do for you", Changkyun pointed out as the plank they were doing started to have Somi shaking.

"Which I do not let happen because I'm not a delicate little princess. I couldn't believe my eyes," Somi shot back, only for Changkyun to snort elegantly back at her. Further proving Somi's point.

"Thank you for proving that I am indeed a princess with her elegant royal guards" Somi rolled her eyes before she went back to gritting her teeth and begging herself not to give in to the trembles consuming her.

"Ten, nine, eight" Changkyun began to count down with each breath he took. Mentally, Somi screamed at him to count quicker so that her misery could come to an end.

"Two... and one"

"You know, just because Hyunwoo taught you that trick doesn't mean you have to use it every time", Somi panted with her cheek pressed against the floor. That plank was the easiest thing they had done so far, and Somi was close to begging for mercy.

"Have you ever done weight training before?" Changkyun pushed himself onto his knees, choosing to ignore Somi's comment. Changkyun was breathing in and out noticeably, though it was nowhere near how messy Somi's breathing was.

"Are you ok?" Somi also ignored Changkyun to ask a question of her own, taking notice of Changkyun's composure.

"Yeah, why would I not be?" Confused, Changkyun narrowed his eyes on Somi, who looked Changkyun up and down again.

"You're puffing, and you're even a little red in the face", Somi pointed out. It was something that she hadn't noticed with Changkyun and certainly hadn't seen Hyunwoo or Hyungwon do.

"We have been working hard; it is only natural to run out of breath."

"Hyunwoo and Hyungwon certainly don't, and this is my first time seeing you do so as well."

"Well, I am not on the same level of strength as Hyunwoo or Hyungwon", Pointed out Changkyun.

"You're not as strong as them?" Changkyun's head shook

"Hyunwoo is an S grade card, and Hyungwon is an A grade card. I am a B grade card, so I do not possess the strength and endurance that the both of them do."

"Your physical strength is affected by such things? You're affected by what strength I have as well."

"That is why we are working so hard together now", Changkyun reminded Somi as she puffed and panted, trying to catch her breath.

"Right," She took another moment to catch her breath, "You were saying something about weight training?"

"Yes, we all think it would be a good idea for you to start weight training. It will improve your strength greatly," The male explained.

"Then we should do it."

"We will be doing it" Changkyun nodded.

"Come on, another set of mountain climbers, and then we can stand up" Somi nodded, wiping the sweat from her face with the back of her arm before leaning forward again and setting herself up for the last round of mountain climbers.

"Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight..." Counting down, Changkyun took the lead, and Somi pushed her legs to keep up to speed with his, not wanting to be left behind and finish after Changkyun. Sweat was dripping from every part of her body, and the air conditioner and fans in the gym stopped taking effect after roughly an hour into their workout. Somi had pretty much forgotten what the cold felt like at the point when Changkyun refused to let her rest.

"Stand up," He offered her his hand, "We are going to go for a run on the treadmill."

Somi hoped that everything they were pushing to do would be worth it for all of them in the end.

------------

"We are increasing your diet."

"We are?" Somi wanted to act confident, like she was on the same page as everyone else as they all looked at her, but Somi could only phrase her words as a question and raise her eyebrow. She felt a lot like the kid in the playground who was the last to hear about her friend's secret little crush, flustered with being left out of the conversation.

"You need to eat more food, bigger servings, and more protein" Somi looked down at her body, running her hands down her sides to try and find what was wrong with the body she currently had.

"That will only make me heavier", Somi pointed out.

"We are not trying to lose weight. We are trying to build muscle in your body. With the amount of physical work your body is performing, it needs more fuel to support it, so we need to increase the amount of food you eat."

"You know, like the kids all say as of late, let's get these gains" Changkyun quoted what he was hearing from other students in passing, and Somi could only shift her eyes to look at Hyungwon knowing of his love for modern-day society and their phrases. As she predicted, Hyungwon was thrilled by the use of terminology from Changkyun.

"Let's get it", Somi agreed with them readily, more for the sake of amusing herself by watching Hyungwon's show of expression. As she expected, a scowl scrunched up his handsome face, and a smile automatically lit up Somi's delicate features.

"Both of you close those lips of yours and silence yourselves, would you please?"

"Aight", Changkyun shrugged, causing Somi to chuckle, encouraging Changkyun when their eyes met with an amused gleam.

"So, we will make a plan", Hyunwoo interrupted them all, bringing them back to the real reason they were all gathered together at the table.

"A food plan?" Somi focused again, putting their entertainment to a temporary stop.

"Yes, we will make a plan for what kind of meals you will be eating and how often you will be eating them" Hyunwoo nodded as he explained, and Somi followed along.

"Chicken will be one of the main ingredients for your meals, red meat sometimes too. We will also have you snacking on food like peanuts for protein."

"Right", Somi tried to follow along but ultimately ended up getting bored again as they all sat listening to Hyunwoo and Hyungwon, who pitched in when he got the chance. Twenty minutes ended up passing, with Changkyun and Somi being spectators for Hyunwoo and Hyungwon's scheming. A finely detailed menu roster was between them on a big piece of paper that Hyunwoo moved to blue tak to the wall in the kitchen, filling Changkyun and Somi with the hopes that the meeting was over. But then Hyunwoo and Hyungwon dragged them to the fridge so that they could all look at what food they needed to buy.

"Did you write that down, Somi?"

"Yes, it's there", Somi bobbed her head, tired of the team meeting dragging on.

"Avocados put avocados on the list too."

"Noted" Somi added the item to the list as Hyungwon waved a hand at her.

"We are running out of vegetables a lot quicker as of late."

"That would probably be from Somi going into the fridge so often. Just yesterday, I saw her take out two carrots to eat, and she had not even peeled the skin off."

"Changkyun, shut up", Somi shoved the offending male, her eyes displaying how she couldn't believe Changkyun was throwing her under the bus so easily, all for the sake of sparking up a bit of entertainment.

"I did notice that too, but I chose not to comment on her actions because she was choosing healthy food to eat", Hyunwoo dismissed, and Somi stuck her nose up with a huff, her tongue poking out to mock Changkyun. The male pulled the same face back and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Is there anything else that we need?"

"More milk", Hyunwoo immediately answered, and Somi added milk to the list with a sigh.

"When I enter the higher grade, will we be earning enough money to feed this army you're catering for?" Somi droned out.

"Eventually, yes, until then, we will just get what we can afford to get"

"Are we finished?" Changkyun breathed out as Hyunwoo shut the fridge door at long last.

"For now, yes, the only thing left to do is make our way to the shops to buy the things from our list."

"But that can wait until later this evening. You and I," Hyungwon pointed between Somi and himself, "are going for a run together."

"Now?" Somi perked up, optimistic about getting out and doing something more interesting, even if it would be more physically painful than this group meeting.

"As soon as you are changed and ready, would one of you mind coming with us? I would like for us to be timed on our laps," Hyungwon asked the other two males, who looked between each other and shrugged.

"We will both come and watch", Hyunwoo decided as Somi shuffled off to her room so that she could change her clothes. When she was done, Hyunwoo was still in the kitchen, wiping down the bottles he had filled with cold water.

"Will you be getting changed?" Somi asked, noticing Hyungwon and Changkyun were gone.

"Yes, I wanted to prepare water for everyone first" Hyunwoo bowed his head, and Somi smiled his way.

"Thank you, Hyunwoo, that's muchly appreciated" With that, Hyunwoo was gone from sight, and Somi sighed when a tingle ran down the back of her neck only two seconds later.

"You're ready to go, Changkyun?" Somi asked once the male was no longer hidden away in his card and stood in front of her.

"Ready to go and see you struggle", He retorted, and Somi's expression flattened.

"You're a funny one, aren't you?" She sneered, much to Changkyun's amusement.

"I always aim to spread joy" He nodded, smiling innocently, and Somi turned back to him, fists balling at her sides. Changkyun took a step back, and Somi looked him up and down before growling.

"You're lucky" A tingle ran down the back of her neck again, and Somi turned away from Changkyun to knock on Hyungwon's card.

"I shall go and prepare water for us" Hyungwon immediately stepped away to get to work, and Somi shook her head, reaching out to hold Hyungwon in place.

"Hyunwoo already did that before he left", She informed him, and Hyungwon nodded.

"Very well then, I will go and get them" Hyungwon left the room, and Somi sighed, putting Hyungwon's card away and stuffing the case into the pocket of the jacket she was donning. Changkyun rubbed his hands together as he moved to follow Somi out of the room, further insinuating his excitement. Somi chose only to roll her eyes in response, quickly pulling out her card case as a third tingle ran down her spine.

"We're all ready," She told Hyunwoo, who nodded, eyeing the water bottles in Hyungwon's arms.

"Then lead the way" Hyunwoo gestured for Hyungwon to take the lead as they left the dorm. Somi checked behind them that the door was locked before they took the path through the hall to get to the elevator.

"Where will we go?" Asked Somi, looking up at Hyungwon as the elevator doors slid shut.

"Just to the oval, there should be tracks marked for us there that we can make use of", Answered Hyungwon, and Somi nodded, content with Hyungwon's idea.

"Just because we are running does not mean that Hyungwon will go easy on you today" It didn't take long for Hyunwoo to shatter the peaceful silence that they had all fallen into, and Somi breathed out a heavy sigh.

"Yes, Hyunwoo" She made sure her tone showed that she was well aware of what was to come.

"Your new uniform should be ready for us to collect tomorrow" Hyungwon changed the topic quickly.

"Already?"

"Yes, we shall go and collect it together in the morning."

"Sounds good to me."

"Let's go" Hyungwon took the lead once the elevator doors had opened. Once out in the cold air, Somi shivered, visibly reacting to the cold weather, but none of the males she was walking with paid it any mind. Changkyun stepped closer to her, letting their shoulders brush and his warmth move closer to Somi. He didn't look down at her when Somi looked up at him, but Somi still smiled, grateful for Changkyun's consideration.

"This is where we will be doing our training together" When they were in front of the gates to the oval, Hyungwon pushed the stiff, cold steel gate and forced it to open. The gate pushed against the snow and cleared a small part of their path for them. Knowing what was coming, Somi swallowed and followed them onto the grass that was getting covered by snow.

"We will make sure to stretch first; I do not want you getting injured, " Explained Hyungwon, putting down all the water bottles he was clinging to with his other arm. Somi nodded, following Hyungwon everywhere he went, only stopping a couple of steps behind Hyungwon when he finally stopped moving around.

When Hyungwon turned to face Somi, she took a step back, still feeling a little too close to the figure that towered over hers. Choosing not to comment, Hyungwon unclasped the hands he had put at his back and began his stretches. Somi rushed to follow him, and shortly after, Changkyun and Hyunwoo were on either side of her, following Hyungwon's instructions like they were in a yoga class. When Hyungwon breathed in, they did the same, and when Hyungwon stretched his right arm, they all followed.

"Alright," Hyungwon looked back up to find three soldiers standing in a perfect line, waiting for their next order. He breathed in and sighed the breath back out.

"Let's go to the starting line. I would like to start simply by jogging the track first so that our bodies can get a feel of how long it is" Keeping his eyes on Somi, Hyungwon tried to forget that there were three pairs of eyes on him and not just one pair.

"Ok", Somi broke from their neatly formed line to begin walking to the tracks painted onto the grass. Hyungwon quickly followed, standing at the starting line with her.

"Would you like me to count down?" Suggested Hyungwon as the other two stood at Somi's other side.

"Sure", Somi nodded.

"Three, two, one" A light jog started, and Somi fell into step with Hyungwon, puffing out air from her lungs that she could see in front of her as they made their way around the track.

"We will take it easy at first, but once you have figured the track out, we will push harder", Hyungwon explained, following the curve of the track with Somi, Hyunwoo and Changkyun trailing alongside him.

"Hyungwon," Hyunwoo intercepted, "Once we have completed this first lap, we should move faster."

"We will" Hyungwon nodded. And then it started, Somi's mind couldn't differentiate between their warm-up lap, and when they had started belting out in full sprints, all that she could understand was that her legs and lungs hated her more and more as time went on.

"What do we have here?" Whispering in excitement to himself, Minhyuk couldn't help himself when he hastily moved closer, having spotted the familiar girl and her butler running like their lives depended on it with two other unfamiliar faces. Once he was at the fence, he crossed his arms and leaned against the steel, watching them all work hard while he went without having to break a sweat.

"We are being watched by someone," Changkyun observed. Hyunwoo nodded, not paying Minhyuk any mind.

"Do not satisfy him with your attention. That is all he is after," He warned Hyungwon and Changkyun, who weren't sparing Minhyuk any obvious glances.

"Isn't that Minhyuk? From the gallery?" Somi, on the other hand, made it evident that his presence was known amongst them by pointing in the said male's direction.

"Somi, we were trying not to make our attention obvious to him" Hyungwon turned Somi away. She didn't miss the snide little wave of attitude from Minhyuk and would have waved back if she wasn't turned away from Minhyuk by Hyungwon.

"Why? Minhyuk is harmless. Hyunwoo even just said so himself" Somi gestured to Hyunwoo running in front of them to prove her point further.

"Move faster Somi" He spun around to face, running backwards as he even went to the effort of clapping harshly, making her feel obligated to go back to running at full speed.

"Are we doing anything else? It feels like we have been at this forever now" Somi began to whine.

"Do not let me beat you, Somi", Changkyun warned, coming up behind Somi with a steady pace.

"I would pick up the pace if I were you, Somi", Hyungwon advised at her left. Somi didn't feel like she had it in her; she also felt like she was going to slip on the wet grass created by the weak attempt to snow that had occurred again. But with a grunt and a push on her back from Hyungwon's hand, Somi was pushing herself as much as her body would allow her to make it move faster. Hyunwoo clapped for Somi again, and this time there was no sarcasm behind it as she made a more significant gap between Changkyun and herself whilst she pulled a face that the unfortunate Hyunwoo probably wished not to see again.

"Swing your arms faster, Somi", Hyunwoo instructed. Somi could only bite down with her teeth harder as she willed her arms to do what Hyunwoo was telling them to do. They were too sore and tired to go much faster, but Hyunwoo noticed the difference and once again applauded how it made Somi pick up her pace.

"Push!" Hyunwoo encouraged as he spun back around to run at full speed, taking off and leaving everyone else in the dust like it was nothing for him.

"The man could at least be a gentleman and not run off ahead of the lady", Hyungwon scolded.

"Somi, I'm coming for you~" Somi didn't think it was possible when she was so desperate to stop and breathe, but Changkyun sounding so close behind her, had a scream ripping through and her legs pumping like it was do or die for the poor girl.

"Somi!" Hyungwon laughed out, stunned by the reaction from her.

"Hyunwoo!" Said male turned back to see Somi speeding towards him in record time.

"Are you what some people would call a little bit of an idiot?" Hyunwoo stopped in his place as he proposed his question. It went unanswered as she belted past him with Changkyun cackling as he followed after her.

"Both of you are of the peculiar type."

"Thank you" Changkyun bowed his head in acknowledgement as he passed by Hyunwoo. Sighing with the realisation that there was nothing Hyunwoo could do about the personalities of the two, he turned and walked towards the gate, stopping in front of it without resting upon it like the male across from him.

"What are you doing here, Minhyuk?"

"I just happened to have been going for a walk" Minhyuk's shoulders shrugged in a carefree manner that had Hyunwoo raising his eyebrow at Minhyuk.

"And it happened to bring you here where you have stood watching us for some time now?"

"That's exactly how it happened!" Minhyuk nodded brightly, glad that Hyunwoo understood him.

"Sure," Hyunwoo breathed out, briefly looking back over his shoulder.

"Listen well, rogue, because I will only be telling you this one time. Leave, do not come near my lady and endanger any of her progress. Somi is moving towards incredible things, and someone like you does not need to be around to possibly ruin that for her"

"Now, Hyunwoo, can't you hear how harsh that sounds? Do you treat everyone like this? That could be why Jooheon says the girl's got no friends to call her own"

"Somi is perfectly capable of making friends of her own if she so wishes. I do not play a part in her making of friends." 

"Who's that she's with now? People you bribed or people she's hoping won't pay any mind to your ill manners?" Minhyuk gestured past Hyunwoo and to Hyungwon and Changkyun, who were laughing on the ground with Somi while she tried to catch her breath.

"I did not come here to converse. I came here to give you a warning. Adhere to my warning for your own sake" Hyunwoo's eyes darkened, and Minhyuk made a shivering gesture, biting down on his fingernails in front of Hyunwoo.

"So scary you are!" He mocked, rolling his eyes as he his heel, leaving Hyunwoo behind.

"Don't stress it. I'll be the least of your problems" Minhyuk waved over his shoulder, not sticking around to explain what he meant. Hyunwoo rose an eyebrow but didn't ponder on it for long as he jogged back to the trio on the ground.

"You will all have wet backsides," Hyunwoo reminded them upon his return.

"What did you say to Minhyuk?" Somi huffed in and out, trying to get her breathing back to normal.

"Was just seeing what he could possibly need from us."

"And?"

"It was nothing" Hyunwoo dropped down to the grass to be on the same level as all of them.

"Now you will have a wet backside too," Hyungwon pointed out. Hyunwoo looked at himself sitting down with them, letting out an airy chuckle.

"I guess that I will. Good work Somi, you have done well" Just as Hyunwoo looked up, Somi fell onto her back, wasted after pushing herself so hard.

"Thanks" Weakly, Somi stuck her hand up to give Hyunwoo a thumbs up before it flopped back on the ground.

"Somi, do not get so wet; we are not here to get you sick," Hyungwon protested, and Somi did the same thing when he grabbed her by the arms and pulled her back up into a seated position.

"Rest and catch your breath. Once you are done, we will go once again."

"More?!" Somi whined in disbelief.

"Can't we mix it up and do some other stuff?"

"We can spar if you would like. I will gladly go against you in a fight" Changkyun leaned back with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'll take you on, pretty boy" Somi glared at Changkyun, and Hyungwon laughed, waving a hand for them to calm down.

"Maybe at another time, in a warmer place, today this is your task" He gestured back to the oval they were all on.

Hyunwoo couldn't help but notice there was a lot more than physical improvement that he had missed out on in his absence from the group.

------------

"Who is ready to go and collect our new uniform?" Hyungwon asked into the open space of Somi's room as he stood in the doorway, blocking the way out, not that Somi noticed as she rolled around grumpily in her bed.

"Hyungwon, I can't tell if everything hurts or if everything is numb," She whined, muffled by the covers.

"Changkyun would not mind starting that sparring if you want me to collect him and bring him to you so we can see which it is?" Offered Hyungwon.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Hyungwon" Somi pressed herself back into the mattress with an extremely elegant groan of exhaustion.

"So, allow me to ask my question once more. Who is ready to go and collect our new uniform?" Hyungwon threw his hands up in a rare show of excitement, and Somi huffed.

"I'm pretty sure it was a uniform for me, but I can lend you the skirt to wear if you would like me to."

"Very funny of you, Somi", Hyungwon deadpanned.

"I should get my own comedy show."

"Do not tarnish a company with bankruptcy for the sake of your own happiness Somi."

"Are you saying I wouldn't succeed as a comedian?" Somi grumbled from her bed as Hyungwon approached her with his arms dropped back down to his sides.

"You said so, not me" Hyungwon shrugged in the act of rare casualty that Somi wasn't used to from him.

"Rude", She pushed out from tired lips that didn't want to move, mumbling her words.

"Rise and shine, our not-so-fair maiden" Sitting beside Somi on the bed, Hyungwon pulled the covers back to reveal messy hair and a face swollen from sleep. Somi hissed at the sudden shock of light meeting her eyes and gripped the covers in an attempt to hide once more.

"Somi, if this carries on, you will be late for your classes, and you do know how that would make Hyunwoo feel," Hyungwon warned, holding the covers back with no sign of the struggle that Somi was having to win the battle between the two of them.

"Rise and shine", Hyungwon repeated himself with an affectionate whack to Somi's side. Groggily, Somi sat up in bed with some help from Hyungwon and begrudgingly began her day.

"Very good", Hyungwon complimented her before he slipped out of her room, leaving Somi to get herself dressed and ready to go.

If Somi weren't so used to seeing it, she would have screamed at the person that looked back at her in the mirror. Somi had been tossing and turning in her sleep for several weeks now, and the young maiden in the reflective service was a show of the rough rest that met her of a night. Another groan came out of Somi, and she moved her arms with a lack of will to begin by brushing her teeth and ticking off one item from the list that was kept in her memory. One step down, several more to go.

"Oh," Hyungwon commented, almost knocking his fist against Somi's head when she suddenly flung her door open nearly an hour later.

"Sorry, madam, I was looking for my lady. She possesses wild hair about this large and a swollen face that holds eyes barely able to open" Hyungwon's hand moved around to gesture a large mop of crazed hair, and Somi's face scrunched up with a sarcastic smile.

"Ahahaha, very funny of you, Hyungwon."

"I should have my own comedy show", He answered, a twinge of a smile on his lips.

"Don't steal my jokes" Somi looked Hyungwon up and down, trying to figure out what was having him act out of character this morning.

"Is everything alright?" Hyungwon asked her, suddenly worried by the way she was looking him up and down.

"Everything is fine" Somi nodded, brushing past Hyungwon, mulling over his sudden brightness in her head.

"Breakfast is served" Changkyun gestured to the table, and Somi looked up, finally smiling about something.

"Changkyun, you are a gift from the gods" She didn't even have to look at the food to know it was going to be good. Changkyun mimed curling his hair behind his ear with one hand and waved Somi off with the other, acting coy as he, too, smiled.

"You flatter me, my lady."

After filling their stomachs with breakfast, the principal's office was the first stop. With a worried glance over Somi's shoulder and a reassuring wave from Changkyun, Hyungwon and Somi left to start the walk to campus. Once the walk came to a stop in front of the door to the main office, Hyungwon opened the door and stepped aside, making way for Som