5. Their Difficile Provocatio

Their difficile provocatio: "their difficult challenge"



"We need to comply with the task we're given..."


It's upto them to handle their difficile provocatio.


"... else we find ourselves either injured or dead."



= = = Soundtrack: MBLAQ - Again = = =

"Again."

The voice of Seunghyun Oppa broke through my ragged breaths as I tried desperately to get air into my system.

"Again."

He firmly said again, his voice soft but clear in my ear.

"Do it again."

I raised my now wounded fist into the air and let it come in contact with the bag of sand hanging in front of me. I continued on punching the object with all my strength until its string snapped, causing the full sack to crash to the ground with an explosion of powder. Now certain that my will power had no hold on me anymore, I slumped to the ground, trying to make my breaths even.

"You've been improving, but you're still too weak. It took you five minutes to take down something as easy as this. In a real scenario, you could DIE in less that five minutes." Seunghyun Oppa said harshly as he looked at the stopwatch he had in his hand then at me.

"I think you shouldn't be too harsh on her. She's been showing improvement. It's only been about two months since she started her training, yet she can bring down the sack in five minutes." Chanho Oppa began as he went to me, held up my now bloody fist, and bandaged it. I kept quiet all through the while that he's doing that, never removing my gaze from Seunghyun Oppa's sharp stares.

I've been trying very hard to keep my cool these past two months as my brothers showed me the other side of themselves that I never even dreamed of. The strong, brave, cunning, and fierce personalities they kept hidden had gotten to see the light as I began my training under them.

I was introduced to two monsters.

Well, not really two, because Chanho Oppa still knows how to be a brother. When I feel I couldn't continue with the required activities any longer, he would command the trainers to make me stop doing them. He knows how to respect me.

Seunghyun Oppa on the other hand became the true definition of a gang leader. Despite his condition, he still stands up and supervises my physical and combat training. Sometimes, he himself sets the difficulty of the hardships I would go through. And most of the time, he just smirks everytime I fall to the ground because of it.

It was like I had no connection to him whatsoever, and he looks at me with evident dissatisfaction whenever I let my tears roll down my cheeks because I've gone too tired or too weak to continue. He just pushes me to keep going.

I've grown a certain dislike of him over the weeks, and perhaps if we weren't related, this would have stemmed to contempt. That's why when he suddenly smirked at me while my fist was being tapped gently by Chanho Oppa [a signal that he had just finished fixing up my wounds], I got to my feet, rushed towards Seunghyun Oppa...

... and kicked him directly in the stomach with every ounce of negative emotion overflowing from me.

Everyone was shocked as Seunghyun Oppa fell to his knees in front of me while clutching at his abdomen.

At that, I felt a new sense of power. A new kind of adrenaline rushed into my system. It was the exhilirating feeling of letting all my hatred and pain out with every hit I was making.

I felt powerful for the first time in my life.

While he was looking at me like he had just seen a ghost, I pulled back my bandaged fist and punched him square in the face.

= = =

"Shirin-sshi!" Taemin-sshi called out my name as we found each other inside another warehouse that the gang has under its shared properties, a few weeks after that incident regarding me kicking and punching my own brother.

"Hey, Taemin-sshi. They sent you here too?" I asked him, to which he nodded.

"Yeah. Seunghyun Hyung himself said that he had already imparted to you all that he needs to, so he's planning to make us have mission training together so that we'd learn teamwork and coordination." He said, and my eyes furrowed in confusion at the second sentence he said.

"...He had imparted to me all that he needs to?" I asked, repeating the same words Taemin-sshi used, which supposedly came from my own older brother. He just nodded his head before smiling at me.

"I guess it's time to let you know the truth. Seunghyun Hyung isn't really that harsh of a person. He was nowhere near as strict as when he trained you a few weeks ago when he trained me back then. I believe that Seunghyun Hyung went monstrous on you for you to actually build up a strong front and for you to develop a sense of ability and confidence. He wanted you to find the strength to fight back and keep hitting. Because when you suddenly lose heart, you fall with the defeated." Taemin-sshi told me, before pulling out a switchknife from his pocket and giving it to me.

"You never know when you'll need to stab someone. Keep it close to you." He added, before lightly patting the hand which I used to take the knife in my hand. I nodded before pocketing it, and huffing a breath.

"So, what is this joint training mission that they want us to do?" I asked Taemin-sshi, who just shrugged his shoulders.

But something told us that something's going to happen, so we both stiffened our stances and sharpened our looks.

Something doesn't feel right.

And as sudden as we had the question of what we were really going to do, we shielded ourselves from attacks from both our sides.

= = =

"I knew that you guys have the potential to be the second-in-command of the Song Brothers."

A breathy male voice echoed throughout the warehouse, which made Taemin-sshi furrow his eyebrows. It seemed like he knew the voice earlier because a flicker of recognition showed in his features. But, in what way can Taemin-sshi be related to its owner?

We both struggled to keep the two men, who were the ones that attacked us earlier, rooted to their places and unable to attack us. I'm pretty sure that both Taemin-sshi and I were as tense as ever. It was moments later, when a figure emerged from the shadows, that the both of us found breathing room.

A man with shiny black hair, sharp features, and way-too-formal attire for a meeting in a warehouse showed himself to us. It struck me that he looked quite primly handsome, but it also reminded me that he looks like he is qualified to be my uncle, for his gaze is way more mature than how I would expect Taemin-sshi, or my brothers to gaze at me. He sent a smirk to my way, before nodding his head, motioning for the two men who attacked me and Taemin-sshi to back off and get away from the three of us.

In the midst of all these happenings, I spied a look at the young man beside me.

Taemin-sshi was agape in surprise, his jaws slacked and his eyes wide. I didn't get it why he reacted that way, but when he suddenly ran into the older man's arms did I understand everything.

"Jaejoong Hyung! I thought those SkullBeaters had beaten you up for good last time!"

A wide smile was plastered in his face, and the older man, who I now know as Jaejoong-sshi, smiled as well as he continued to hug the younger one. As they both released each other, Jaejoong-sshi lightly ruffled Taemin-sshi's hair.

"Those guys couldn't take someone like me down so easily. But enough of me. I've been silently watching you two train these past few months. Since the Song brothers are still in the process of healing their fatal wounds from the previous battle, they've assigned you to helm the brotherhood in their absence, haven't they?" He asked, which I'm not sure if it was directed to the smiling young man or to me.

"Yeah. We've been under a series of training sessions. It has been okay for me, I guess, since they were already training me even before the war. Seunghyun Hyung went hell-hound on her though." Taemin-sshi answered before looking at me.

"Ah... The Song Sister..." Jaejoong-sshi whispered as he turned to me and walked in my direction. I kept a confident stance as we stood face-to-face, and I huffed a deep breath when he looked straight into my eyes. Over the course of my physical training, I've been able to build an air of confidence and slight hostility, which I believe struck Jaejoong-sshi the moment he approached me.

I guess Seunghyun Oppa fulfilled his purpose.

"You're as fierce as Seunghyun-ah, yet as strangely reserved as Chanho-yah. Well, if I were but about nine years younger, I would've made my moves on you. But you're much too young for me, pretty woman. Your good luck, I guess." He tried not to smile as he said it, but failed. My gaze turned into a glare as he was speaking, and that earned me soft chuckles from him.

"I believe if I continue speaking, I might merit a kick in the stomach like how you did with Seunghyun-ah, so I'll stop. It looked like it really hurt back then, though." He remarked, which surprised both me and Taemin-sshi. I thought he was bluffing when he said that he was watching our training sessions. I guess I was wrong.

I didn't expect Taemin-sshi's reaction, however. He started laughing, until he knelt on the ground because of too much laughs. This led to my raising of eyebrows and giving him questioning looks.

"Well, back then, no one could bring Seunghyun Hyung to his knees, even when he was being harshly trained, so I heard. I guess that statement was true until you kicked him!" Taemin-sshi laughed again after the words escaped his lips, and surprisingly, Jaejoong-sshi laughed with him.

"Yeah. Knowing how Seunghyun-ah's brain works, he will be wary of his sister the next time he sees her." He added, before letting himself be smoldered up in laughs.

"But, then again, Hyung. You went here because of the mission training stuff, right? What do you want us to do?" Taemin-sshi asked again after his peals of laughter subdued.

Suddenly, the expression of Jaejoong-sshi stiffened, and I immediately knew that he was going to be serious with the next words he's gonna say.

Here comes the hard task both Taemin-sshi and I have to fulfill together, and we certainly can't run away from this.

We do it seriously and we succeed, or we play around and find ourselves either in the hospital or in a casket.

It's just either of the two, and what we choose determines our life and death.

= = = =

Important Note:

[credits for jaejoong pictures are given to fy!jaejoong. Taken from tumblr and google.]

[credits for taemin pictures are given to fy!leetaemin. Taken from tumblr and google.]

[credits for chanho pictures are given to respective owners. Taken from google, tumblr, and 10mans.co.kr]

[credits for seunghyun pictures are given to respective pictures. Taken from google, various wordpress accounts and photobucket.]

[credits for shirin's wardrobe pictures are given to yesstyle.com and SPICY HOLIC.]

All pictures used are for the sake of clothing recognition and venue identification, which aids in better visualization of the story. The pictures are not mine, and I stake no claim on them. No copyright infringement intended. Were only re-uploaded for the sake of complation and assurance of long-lasting viewing activity. Thank you.