Taemin

My bed feels soft and comfy.

"Wake up princess." I hear a nagging voice that wants to disturb my pleasant sleep. But I want to stay in bed, it's so nice and warm right now. So I keep my eyes closed and try to slip back into my dreams.

"It's too early Kibum." I murmur softly to myself and pull my blanket close to me. 

"Kibum? You have a boyfriend? He must love you for your inner values though." A whooping laugh makes me open my eyes.

It's a little darker in the tent, but I can see through the fabric that the sun is just rising. With a yank, I pull the front sheet aside and glare at Jonghyun with angry eyes. A laughing Jonghyun is not exactly what I want to see first thing in the morning.

Besides, I'm still tired. Apart from him, Jinki is also awake. He prepares breakfast for us.

But why does Jonghyun only wake me up?

"Come. It's time for your next training session." He promptly answers my question.

"Wha-?" I'm perplexed. I thought yesterday he was just training with me out of boredom because his boss was asleep. Now I'm not sure if that's really the real reason. Does he really want to teach me something?

Drunk with sleep, I get up.

"Good morning." I hear Jinki say to me. He gives me a loving smile.

"Good morning." I reply, also with a smile. It sounds silly, but Jinki makes me feel at ease. He is nice to me and talks to me normally. As if I were not a hostage. My thoughts circle around. Come to think of it, Jonghyun doesn't treat me like one either. He even wants to train me.

The only one who is really mean is the Merciless. My gaze falls to that very one. But I only catch sight of him in the second moment, because he hasn't spent the night in his tent. He is lying huddled next to the fire where Jinki is boiling some water. Why didn't he go into his tent?

"Did you fall asleep standing up?" Jonghyun pulls me out of my thoughts. 

Like yesterday, Jonghyun is a spitting image of Siwon. Their movements are identical. Accordingly, my arm is getting more and more tired. The drops of sweat make my hair stick to my face and I grow uncomfortably warmer with every movement. I sigh with a groan and lean against the handle of the massive sword. Jonghyun looks at me in confusion.

"You can't just give up." He says in a good mood though.

"Well as you can see, I can." I say firmly and sit down on the dirty ground. The fresh air does me good.

"Besides, I don't stand a chance against you."

Jonghyun sits down with me. For a moment, I feel like I see Siwon by my side and my heart grows heavy.

"Although I'm flattered by that, but you'd have a good chance against me." What did he say? Now even I have to laugh at his words, but unlike me, he is not laughing. On the contrary. His look seems serious. Is he trying to cheer me up?

"Yes I am tall and very well built." Now he has made a joke, because he adopts that dramatic façade again as he says this. But this is not the first time I have seen him be serious.

"And you're short and slender." I don't feel offended by his words; because I think I can actually tell the difference by now. When he means something seriously and when he's just being casual.

"But that's exactly your advantage. You're short, so you're harder to hit. And your slender stature should actually be pronounced for being faster than some." I can hardly believe it, but his words not only make sense to me, but actually cheer me up a bit. It's a real shame