“Hey guys. How’s he doing?” Youngjae quietly asks Daehyun and Jongup, who are sitting in chairs placed in the hospital room, as he enters.

“He’s doing okay. He’s still unconscious though but the doctor said he’ll come around soon. His body is just overworked and exhausted from all the heavy impact he took. His body’s beaten up pretty bad too, he has bruises all over. If it wasn’t for the gear, he’d probably have some fractured bones. Anyways, did you get the simulator to shut down?” Jongup softly replies back.

“Yeah, it took quite a while but we finally fixed it. All the targets got the computer messed up. She couldn’t process all their actions, there were just too many activated at the same time. We had to go into the computer and shut down each target one by one.”

“Well, at least that’s all done and over with.”

“Yeah. Well, why don’t you guys go grab a bite to eat? You guys have been here long enough and it’s way past lunchtime anyways so I’ll stay around and watch over Zelo,” Youngjae suggest as he hovers over Zelo’s body, which is lying still in a white mechanical bed, looking down at him.

“Yeah, I’m getting pretty hungry now that you mention it. We need to go return the protective gear back to the shooting facility also. Well, we’ll see you around then,” Jongup says as he stands up from his chair grabbing some of the gear soon followed by Daehyun who grabs the rest of the gear.

Jongup lets out a grunt when he approaches the door.

“Are you okay?” Youngjae asks in concern.

“Yeah, it’s just my leg. It’s not that bad but it hurts every now and then. I’m sure it will go away after a while.”

“Just leave the gear here. I’ll take it back later.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing big.”

“Alright, thanks again,” he replies before heading out of the room with Daehyun.

After they leave, Youngjae pulls up one of the chairs to sit next to Zelo’s bed. He looks at Zelo’s pale skin, now full of blotches of yellow and green and even red in some areas. He lets out a sigh, upset that one of his teammates is down. He stares at Zelo’s face to see more bruises, just not as bad as the rest of his body. All of a sudden, Zelo’s eyelids begin to flinch.

“Zelo?” Youngjae says quietly and does so a few more times.

Zelo begins to show more movement in his face and finally opens his eyes slowly. He slowly turns his head towards the direction of the voice he hears until he finally sees Youngjae.

“Youngjae?” he says weakly.

“Yeah, I’m right here, Zelo,” he replies, with a smile of relief.

“What happened? Did I complete the mission?” he asks, still with a weak voice.

Youngjae chuckles and replies, “No, but you did very well, Zelo. You don’t need to worry about the mission anymore. Just worry about getting better.”

“Why do I feel so tired?” he asks before turning his head side to side to observe his surroundings. “Wait, why am I in a hospital bed?”

“You don’t remember what happened?” Youngjae asked surprised.

“No… did something bad hap- oww,” he tries to ask before cutting himself off with a sign of pain when he tries to sit up.

Youngjae stands up and softly nudges Zelo to lay back down, “Don’t get up, you need to rest. I’ll explain everything.”

After retelling the story of what happened after Zelo made a dash for it, Zelo’s head becomes filled with questions.

“Wait, so they all came in there to save me?” he asks, his voice now showing that he’s regaining some strength.

“Well, of course. You’re part of our squad so why wouldn’t we go save one of our teammates?” Youngjae says before slightly laughing.

“Where is everyone else?”

“Well, I just got here not too long ago. Daehyun and Jongup were here with you for a few hours but I told them to go grab something to eat whenever I got here.”

“Oh, I see. What about you? You haven’t eaten yet have you?”

Youngjae chuckles, “Not yet but I’m not too hungry.”

“Well, why don’t you go grab something to eat and come back? I’m not going to die if I’m alone,” Zelo says before laughing lightly.

“I’ll go get something in a bit. I’ll stay here with you a bit longer.”

“Alright, thanks, Youngjae. Oh, I almost forgot. What about Captain Bang? Where is he?”

“I’m not sure. He actually left while I was working on the computer controlling the simulator. He looked pretty worn down. Maybe he went to go rest or something even though I rather him be dying in a ditch right now. He’s being too hard on you and everyone else. He needs to tone himself down a lot,” Youngjae replies jokingly.

“No, I think he’s being a great leader,” Zelo replies.

“Really? You think so?” Youngjae asks, surprised by Zelo’s response.

“Yeah. I know he is being a little hard on me and all but he’s only doing it to make me stronger. I know he doesn’t have any ill intentions.”

“Maybe you’re right. You know, before we were put off-duty, Yongguk was a really friendly guy. He used to smile all the time, joke, and play around with all of us on Squad 6. I miss the old him…,” Youngjae replies with a hint of sorrow in his voice.

“I could never imagine him like that,” Zelo says before laughing. “I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile even once!”

Youngjae joins in the laughter before replying and asking, “You’re right, it’s been a while since he’s smiled. Anyways, I think it’s about time I go grab us something. I’ll get you something light to munch on. What do you want?”

“I’ll just take an apple and a bottle of water for now.”

“Alright, I’ll be back in a bit. I'm going to go drop off the gear too while I'm out,” Youngjae says, smiling at Zelo before he gets out of his chair, grabs all the gear, and heads over to the door and exits.

Once he closes the door behind him, to his surprise, he sees Yongguk leaning against the wall. He notices that Yongguk looks remorseful as he has his arms in his pockets and eyes staring at the ground.

“What do you want here?” Youngjae asks with a snicker.

“I… I wanted to apologize…,” Yongguk responds quietly.

“Well, I think someone else deserves an apology more than I do. Let it go, Yongguk. You need to learn how to open yourself up again,” Youngjae says before walking away.

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

After the two men finish eating, they agree to go to the dorms to take a break before heading back to see Zelo. They decide to hang out in Jongup’s room in the meantime since he wanted to lie down to give his leg a break. By the time they reach the dorms, Jongup has one arm around Daehyun’s shoulders, as he helps him to the elevator and then to the room. Once they enter, Jongup lies down on the bottom bunk and Daehyun sits on the floor leaning against the frame of the bottom bunk, back facing Jongup’s side.

“Aren’t you tired at all? You look a bit exhausted, Daehyun,” Jongup asks, staring up at the bunk above him before closing his eyes to rest.

Daehyun doesn’t reply and continues to stare at the wall in front of him.

Jongup begins to get used to Daehyun’s unresponsiveness.

“You know you were really amazing out there in the simulator. Like, you finished your mission in no time and then you were so calm when you picked up Zelo. I don’t know how you do it.”

“I wasn’t calm,” Daehyun replies.

Jongup quickly opens his eyes, surprised by Daehyun’s voice. Even Daehyun surprises himself by responding.

“What do you mean? You seemed calm. You acted like your normal self,” Jongup says a little confused, now turning his head to face Daehyun, only to stare at the back of his head.

“My normal self?” Daehyun questions blankly.

“Yeah, I mean you’re kind of… What’s the word? Expressionless. Yeah, that’s the word I was looking for,” Jongup replies.

“Expressionless…,” Daehyun repeats while his mind is deep in thought over the word.

“You know, like how you don’t really show much emotion or spirit or anything of that nature. I mean, I just can’t figure you out. I can’t figure out who you really are. I can’t figure out your character or anything… It’s kind of frustrating you know,” Jongup says before laughing. “You’re my teammate and we’re all supposed to understand each other the best.”

Daehyun ponders over Jongup’s words.

“I guess you’re not completely expressionless though,” Jongup says.

“What do you mean?” Daehyun asks.

“Today, when we were about to go help out Zelo, Yongguk had to call for you. You were like frozen in place or something and when you finally turned to us, your face was completely white and there was some kind of look on your face but I couldn’t figure it out what it was. What were you thinking?” Jongup asks trying to understand his teammate more.

Daehyun just flinches from his position and Jongup notices the discomfort Daehyun feels.

“Hey… you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want…,” Jongup says quietly not wanting to bother or upset Daehyun, though he never thought that Daehyun could even be upset.

Daehyun doesn’t reply but instead lies down on his side as if he’s ready for a nap. Jongup begins to wonder more about Daehyun but decides to get some rest as well.