11
Nothing's Over
--
Eleven
--
You were given the use of the bathroom first after dinner to clean up for the night. Your muscles ached a little bit from not stretching before the obstacle course and sparring with Myungsoo, but it was a pleasant ache.
You showered quickly and changed into comfortable clothes. Hoya’s house was a little chilly, so you settled on long pajama pants with strawberries on them and a plain white cami. After blow drying your hair, you padded back towards your room.
As you passed the boy’s room, the door swung wide open, and Sungyeol came crashing into you, followed by Woohyun brandishing a pillow. You could hear the laughter from inside as you groaned, rubbing your head as Sungyeol got off of you.
“Oh jeeze, sorry. Look what you made me do, Woohyun!”
“I didn’t make you do anything. Your desire to not get hit with a pillow made you do this.” You got up from the ground with Sungyeol help and snatched the pillow away from Woohyun before hitting him with it and running inside.
“What? Oh, hell no!” Woohyun ran after you as you dashed towards the bed. You dived onto the bed, landing in Sunggyu’s arm and rolling so he was above you.
“Oh hey, what’s going-”
“Move!” Woohyun shoved Sunggyu away as he found you, grabbing the pillow you were holding.
“Sunggyu! Save me!” Woohyun went to hit you with the pillow but stopped in midswing. Sunggyu froze him and proceeded to pull him away from you and flip him over onto the bed. Sungjong bounced over and held his hand before nodding at Sunggyu.
He unfroze him, making Woohyun fall back on the bed.
“What-”
“Surprise!” Sungjong shocked him again before crawling away from him in laughter.
“What? That’s not fair! How come everyone’s on her side?! This is mutiny!”
“It would be if you were the leader,” Hoya said, sitting on the bed, going over his notes while ignoring what was going on around him.
--
When everyone was cleaned up, they sat in a circle on the bed. You were hugging a bear that Sunggyu won for you at the carnival a few weeks ago while Sungjong was braiding your hair. Sunggyu was tracing the strawberries on your pajamas.
“Okay, guys. This or that. Starting with you.” You looked up to see who ‘you’ was and saw everyone staring at you. Woohyun grinned at you before starting to ask the questions.
“Sungjong or me?”
“Sungjong.”
“Hoya or Sungjong?”
“Hoya.”
“Hoya or Sunggyu?”
“Sunggyu.”
“Myungsoo or Sungyeol?”
“Uh... Sungyeol.” Sungyeol clapped his hands and laughed at your answer.
“You see that? There are people who prefer me to you.”
“What kind of world is this?” Myungsoo asked dramatically, sighing heavily before covering his eyes with his arm. You laughed at him and shrugged your shoulders as Woohyun thought of the next one.
“Junhyung or Sunggyu?” You sighed and frowned. Junhyung or Sunggyu? Your best friend or your boyfriend? Sunggyu gave you a curious glance while Woohyun stared at you for a moment.
“You already know who you would pick,” Woohyun said, leaning back on the bed.
“... Junhyung.” Sunggyu sighed dramatically before falling back.
“Looks like I’ll just have to try harder,” Sunggyu said, rolling over onto his stomach and poking at your knee.
“Sorry,” you said, reaching forward to ruffle his hair. He smiled and sighed again.
“Damn you, Junhyung!”
“Shh! Don’t say it so loud! He might hear you,” Woohyun said, looking around cautiously.
“What is he, the boogey man?”
“Pretty much,” you, Sungjong, and Woohyun said at the same time, looking around before crawling into the middle of the circle and hugging each other, looking around wildly.
“You dorks, get out of the circle.” The three of you laughed before returning to your spots in the circle. You brought your hand up to your hair, marveling at Sungjong’s perfect braids. Just like the old days.
“New game!” Woohyun said, throwing his hands up in the air.
“Never have I ever! We’ll just play from five.” Everyone held up five fingers.
“Man, it’s not fair. Woohyun knows everyone’s secrets!” Dongwoo complained, wiggling his fingers around. Woohyun looked around for his first victim.
“Loser has to get shocked by Sungjong,” Woohyun said before settling his eyes on Sunggyu.
“I guess that means you’re a loser all of the time,” Hoya said with a smirk on his face.
“We’ll see who the loser is this time.”
“No! Do a different punishment. I don’t want to shock anyone. Well, besides you.” Woohyun rolled his eyes.
“Okay. Loser does a girl group dance. Agreed?” There were murmurs of agreement before Woohyun thought.
“Never have I ever... discovered my powers by blowing up my mom’s car.” Sunggyu scowled at Woohyun and put a finger down.
“You blew up your mom’s car?” Sungyeol asked from beside him in disbelief and awe.
“Yeah. I grew up for sixteen years of my life thinking I didn’t have powers, then BAM! I blew up her car when she threw out my... collection.”
“What collection?” you asked. He sat up and leaned over to you to whisper in your ear. You choked back a laugh but failed and started laughing anyway.
“It’s not funny!”
“What’d she throw away?” Hoya asked, very interested.
“His bottlecap collection,” Woohyun said, staring at his nails. The whole circle burst into laughter as Sunggyu buried his face into his hands, muttering something that sounded like, “I hate you so much, Woohyun. Why are you my best friend?”
“Hoya, your turn.” Hoya rolled his eyes up in thought before smiling to himself.
“Never have I ever eaten an entire tub of strawberry ice cream by myself in one sitting.” You bit your lip before putting your finger down, making Sunggyu look at you in surprise. You weren’t the only one that put your finger down though.
“Myungsoo? You too?” you asked. He sighed and chuckled to himself.
“I was bored.”
“Oh. I was watching the finale of a drama at Junhyung’s house. I didn’t even realize I ate the whole thing until Junhyung started complaining about how he just bought it.” You grinned sheepishly as Sunggyu shook his head.
“Don’t you remember this? Junhyung came in and complained about it all during class.”
“I didn’t know who she was then,” Sunggyu said, grabbing your hand to play with your fingers, “and I didn’t pay attention to everything Junhyung said.”
Sungjong smiled. “Never have I ever been shocked by me.” Woohyun put his finger down, expecting everyone else to too. When no one else put their finger down, he looked around in disbelief.
“You’re kidding me. NONE of you have been shocked by Sungjong before? What the hell, Sungjong?!” Sungjong laughed before clapping his hands. It was your turn now.
“Never have I ever... been rejected by a girl because I was too short.” Woohyun stared at you from across the bed before narrowing his eyes and putting his finger down. Everyone around the circle laughed hysterically as you smirked at Woohyun.
“How did you know that?” he asked suspiciously.
“I was there. I was standing right beside her when you confessed, and she rejected you.” Woohyun sighed shook his head.
Sunggyu thought for a few moments before speaking. “Never have I ever though Sungjong had a nice S-line.” Everyone put their finger down besides Sunggyu. You stared at him before punching him in the arm. He laughed sheepishly and put his finger down.
“Aww, you all think I have a nice S-line? It’s pretty, right?”
“You’re a guy, Sungjong. A guy,” Hoya said with a sigh.
“She has a nice S-line too,” Sungjong said, outlining your S-line.
“Well, of course. She’s a girl.” Sungyeol sat there and thought.
“Never have I ever sent a secret admirer gift to someone I liked.” Myungsoo put his finger down, along with Dongwoo and Hoya. Everyone stared at Hoya in surprise.
“What? Am I not allowed to like people or something?”
“More like you DON’T like people- Please don’t hurt me,” Woohyun said, shrinking away from Hoya as he leaned over to punch him.
“Myungsoo?”
“It was to me!” Sungyeol said proudly, pointing to himself.
“It was supposed to be a joke, but he took it too seriously,” Myungsoo said, rolling his eyes.
“Who was it, Hoya?” Sungjong asked with a huge grin on his face. Hoya rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
“I’d rather not say. It was a while ago and things have changed...” You met eyes with Hoya and couldn’t help but start laughing.
“What? What?” Sungjong asked looking between the two of you. When realization hit him, he covered his mouth and starting laughing too.
“No way! You two? You had a crush on her? No way!”
“God. No wonder you keep smiling when she’s around,” Woohyun said, wondering why he didn’t see it earlier. Sunggyu gave Hoya a suspicious look before leaning over and hugging you possessively.
“Hey man, don’t worry. I’m not like that. If she’s happy with you, then I’m happy,” Hoya said, holding up his hands. “But the second I see her unhappy...” The bed shook a little bit as a warning.
Dongwoo looked around at the remaining fingers. “Never have I ever received a gift from a secret admirer.” Everyone put their fingers down again. Woohyun and Myungsoo each had one finger left. You, Sunggyu, Dongwoo, and Hoya each had two. Sungyeol and Sungjong had three.
Myungsoo looked around and smiled. “Never have I ever been in Class B.”
“You idiot!” Woohyun yelled as he put his last finger down with Myungsoo. “You got yourself too!”
“Who cares? I got you too.” Myungsoo smirked at him and stood up on the bed as Hoya scrolled through his iPod to find some fitting music. When the music for Tell Me by the Wonder Girls started playing, you started to laugh.
Even though you didn’t lose, you stood up, along with Sungyeol and Sungjong and started to dance with them.
No one was surprised that all of you knew the moves.
--
You and Sungjong bid the other boys good night before heading over to your room to sleep. Sunggyu was a little bit jealous that Sungjong got to sleep in the same bed as you. You would’ve suggested sleeping by yourself, but the room Hoya had you in was gigantic, and it felt too lonely to sleep in by yourself.
“How are things going with Sunggyu?” Sungjong asked as you two settled under the covers, facing each other.
“They’re going fine. He’s a little bit awkward, but it’s cute.”
“What does Junhyung think about it?”
“He doesn’t disapprove. Which I guess is good enough,” you said with a laugh. Junhyung’s opinion mattered a lot to you. Though you weren’t going to let him rule your life, he had a high influence. You didn’t know why, but it felt like he knew so much more than you did.
“I remember being terrified of him as a kid until I saw you punching him for scaring me.”
“I remember that,” you said. You smiled at the memory. You and Sungjong were partners for a paired up version of Tag, and you two were running around holding hands. Junhyung made you two let go and said something about trapping him in a cage if he ever saw it again. You punched him, telling him not to talk to your friends that way and grabbed Sungjong’s hand to run away again.
“Yeah, then we drifted after you got demoted, but here we are again! You know that we didn’t drift because of the fact that you got demoted right? Training got pretty intense for Class A after you left...” You smiled and nodded.
“It’s okay. I understand.” Sungjong smiled at you before you yawned and closed your eyes.
“Gnight, Sungjong.”
“Gnight.”
--
Six in the morning was no stranger to you, but you liked to spend the weekends sleeping in. Unfortunately, Hoya had other plans. He took the training regimen right from the SS training all of them received, and you noted that it was a lot lighter than what Junho had you doing on a daily basis.
“Are you tired?” Sunggyu asked, resting his hands on his knees after they finished the warm up to catch his breath.
“Are you kidding me?” Woohyun asked, rolling on the ground with his chest heaving. “She’s not even breaking a sweat.”
“Well... My warm ups with my SS are a little bit more intense than a few laps and pushups,” you said with a smile. Junho had you run five laps around the courtyard, then do a lap of lunges, followed by a lap of warm up basics for kickboxing. After that it was jogging in place for ten minutes, three sets of twenty pushups, three sets of twenty sit ups, then a cool down before kickboxing.
Woohyun stared at you for a moment before raising his eyebrows. “Wow. That’s a workout. And that’s only a warm up?” You snapped out of your thoughts and nodded.
“She does like, triple this on a daily basis,” Woohyun said, shaking his head.
“No wonder she hits so hard,” Myungsoo said, rubbing at his arm.
“Okay. We’ll be pairing up all day to see how our powers work together. This morning, we’ll be working with all of your pairings,” Hoya said nodding towards you. You hopped back and forth on your feet before nodding.
“You have your paper?” Sunggyu asked. You nodded. Everyone looked you up and down, not seeing the paper.
“Don’t worry about it,” you said with a smile.
“Volunteers?” Sungyeol threw his hand up in the air and bounded out into the circle with you. You high fived him as you two stood back to back.
“Alright. You two will go through the course and avoid attacks from us. Besides Sunggyu of course. He might kill someone.” Sunggyu sighed and stood back with his notebook in his hands. He’d be sitting out attacking for now because his power was so destructive.
You and Sungyeol stood out in front of the course, whispering strategies to each other. You two asked questions, nodded, and shook your heads as everyone took their place at each point in the course.
“Are you guys ready?” Sungyeol gave a thumbs up before standing on your right and taking your hand in his. Sunggyu frowned. Hoya blew the whistle, and you two ran for the course. You and Sungyeol practically ran the course the same yesterday and followed that pattern.
Hoya shook the ground as your two cross the raised poles. Sungyeol slipped, but you use his momentum to swing him back up onto a lower pole before you two made it to the next platform. As you took the zip line, Sungyeol held onto it with one arm, while you hung off of his other arm.
With a well placed bolt of lightning, Sungjong snapped the rope. You pulled a rope and threw it over the line as Sungyeol let go of the rope and grabbed your waist. He landed on the platform first before turning to catch you as you jumped.
“That was good,” Hoya said with a nod. Sungjong was sending more bolts of lighting at you on the next obstacle. One of them almost hit you, but you threw up a wooden shield with your left arm as Sungyeol pulled you though the maze of bamboo sticks.
“Yeol, lookout!” Dongwoo in lion form jumped at them as soon as they emerged from the maze. You dived under him, sliding with Sungyeol behind you as you two sprinted for the end. Hoya shook the ground again and started to open fissures. Sungyeol swung you over a particularly large one before jumping over and grabbing your hand again. You slid behind him, holding up a shield to block off Sungjong’s attacks.
“Oh jeeze!” Hoya pulled up a pillar of rock, leaving Sungyeol barely a second to swing around it with you. He wasn’t watching where he was going and tripped over a fissure in the ground. The two of you displayed your acrobatics as you tried to keep from falling and ended up falling right at the end of the course.
Hoya replaced the ground back to the way it was before clapping his hands as you and Sungyeol high fived again.
“Oh my god. That was kinda scary.”
“Now imagine that times fifty, and you have the Academy’s practice obstacle course. Imagine it times a hundred, and you have the Academy’s survival course.
Everyone gathered around you two while Hoya and Sunggyu did their evaluation.
“You two are very physically fit, and did a very good job of observing each other yesterday. Despite the first time working together, you did very well. Your thinking on the fly is excellent.” You two laughed.
“It’s not so much thinking on the fly as doing what you can to stay alive. Instinct, sorta,” you said.
“I like how you two didn’t separate and made use of your powers to benefit the other one, including use of your outside skills,” Hoya said.
“I hit you in the back with lightning,” Sungjong said to you worried. “I thought I hurt you, but you didn’t even flinch.” You nodded before pulling your shirt up and showing your back.
Strapped to your back was a metal plate with a ton of miniscule words engraved into it.
“There’s a front and back. Junho gave it to me, saying it would probably be the only thing I would ever need to use. It diffuses electricity, fire, water, and wind and converts it to energy. I have a pair of gauntlets and shin guards like it too, with more words, but I didn’t think it would be necessary for today.”
“Isn’t it heavy?” Woohyun asked, knocking on it. You took it off and handed it to him. He took it and almost dropped it.
“Holy cow! This thing weighs a ton?” Hoya took it from him and was surprised by the weight too. You carried this all through the course? He couldn’t imagine how much all of this weighed with the gauntlets and shin guards.
“This doesn’t weigh you down?”
“Junho has me doing speed training with all of this on, so I’ll be okay,” you said with a smile.
“Damn. Your SS is hardcore, and you’re even more hardcore for being able to keep up!”
--
The rest of the morning was spent going through all of your pairings. You didn’t seem to have a difficult time with anyone. Everyone was physically fit, and although none of you blew through the course like you did with Sungyeol, you all made it through eventually.
“It’s just like the games of Tag we used to play when we were little!” Sungjong said, clapping his hands.
“Yeah, except it hurts a little bit more to get tagged,” Woohyun said. You were surprised by how nimble Woohyun was. You got hit with lightning twice though with him because he mistook a reading from Hoya as Sungjong. It was definitely something he needed to work on.
“You should get me one of these plates.” Woohyun eyed yours as you strapped it back on. "Except a little bit lighter.”
“This is a light one.”
“You’re joking me.”
Your run through with Sunggyu was a little bit slower. He wasn’t as fast as the others. You could tell he was over thinking things instead of just running on instinct. And while it was good to stop and think, stopping and thinking too much would be too dangerous.
“Everyone! Breakfast is ready!” Hoya’s mom called from the back door. By now, the sun was up, you were sweating, and you were absolutely famished.
“Oh thank god. Food!” you yelled before running towards the door.
“Next we’re going to be doing Sunggyu pairings!”
--
Everyone was starting to dread going through the courses because of you. You kept pulling projectiles and throwing them. At one point, you even pulled out a BB gun and started shooting at them as they ran by.
“Why so ruthless?” Woohyun asked as he fell over onto the end of the course. You finished all your pairs already so you got to take a nice break for the rest of the day.
“At least I’m not aiming for your head,” you said, nudging Woohyun with your foot.
“I’m thinking I have to redo our formation and strategy,” Hoya said, rubbing at his eyes.
“This afternoon, I want you, Sungyeol, and Myungsoo to go through this course one more time. I’ll have my dad and his techs tweak the course a little bit so it’s not the same while we’re learning survival skills, but I’m looking at sending you guys through the Academy’s practice course first and giving us an idea of what’s in there.”
“Wouldn’t Sungjong be a better choice for that than me?” Myungsoo asked. “He’s a better observant than I am.”
“But I don’t want any of you getting hurt. I want you in, getting as much information as you can, and out.” Myungsoo nodded.
You didn’t know why, but you were starting to get nervous now. The reality of the Games was hitting you at last. This was your team. You were all going to depend on each other to live, and there was no room for error, or someone could die.
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