3 months later.

The room was captured in dead silence and a wave of intensity washed over the three Exo members who stood back to back, weapons clenched tightly in hand. Their eyes darted across their surroundings, not daring to lose track of even one of their enemies unless they wanted to be met with certain death. There was a strong musky stench of sweat in the air, for the lot of them had been battling it out for at least half an hour now.

Kai’s jaw clenched as he tightened his grip around the daggers in his hand. He must have taken out at least three dozen men, yet they seemed to never decrease in numbers. He glanced at D.O and Chen who were at his sides out of the corner of his eyes, and was irritated to see that it appeared as if he was the most worn out of the three of them.

He locked gazes once again with the enemy in front of him, before casting his team mates one last glance. If they weren’t going to make a move, then he would.

“Kai, you’re supposed to wait until I give the signal, goddammit!” D.O exclaimed with frustration once Kai darted out to attack. He heaved a loud sigh of annoyance and followed Kai’s lead to attack anyways with Chen trailing closely behind him.

“Well you weren’t making a move, so somebody had to,” Kai snapped back with irritation as he high kicked one of the enemies into the wall. The figure hit the wall with a loud thud before disappearing into thin air, quickly replaced by another man dressed in black.

“God damn it, D.O, get out of my ing way!” Kai growled after stumbling over D.O’s outstretched foot. He skid to the floor with a loud thud, and groaned in annoyance when he felt a sharp pain pierce through his torso.

The whole room flashed a red color and the twenty or so enemies that had been in the room disappeared in an instant. Kai glared at the bold letters of “YOU’RE DEAD” that flashed on the screen over head.

“This must have been the 3rd time,” Chen muttered under his breath as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Annoying.”

Kai jumped to his feet, the fragment of pain caused by the training simulator long gone, and spun around to face Chen. “Do you have a problem with me, bastard?”

Chen let out a low growl and dropped his weapons to the ground as he glared straight into Kai’s eyes. “Yeah, I do, actually.”

Their argument was broken up by the sound of a sliding door, and all three heads turned to stare at the intruding figure.

“What?” Kai asked defensively, fidgeting under the intense glare he was receiving.

“Chen is right, Kai. That’s the 3rd time you’ve led your team to peril because you couldn’t listen to orders,” Hanmi growled. Her face softened when she saw the guilty expression that stretched across Kai’s face, and stepped forward to console the other.

He held up his hand to stop her in her steps, and angrily spat out, “Well maybe I’m just not good enough for this team anymore.”

“Kai!” Hanmi exclaimed in protest, but the rest of her words would remain unheard by Kai’s ears for he angrily stomped out of the training room.

“God, he needs to get his temper in check,” Chen muttered under his breath as he pulled his protective gear over his head to throw onto the ground. “I didn’t give up the chance to meet my family to put up with this .”

“Chen…” Hanmi called out, but he too left the room with brows furrowed in frustration.

Hanmi turned to the remaining Exo member of the room, and D.O’s face softened when he saw the exasperation that was draped across Hanmi’s face.

“Maybe this is all just getting to our heads,” D.O shrugged before he left the training room as well to snag a place under a warm shower.

Hanmi let out a loud sigh of distress as she sat down on the ground with her fingers dug into her scalp. How did everything go so badly? Just three months ago they had all been sharing smiles and success, and now… now they could hardly be counted as a team.

The first few weeks had gone by well, but slowly everything began to go downhill. The missions began to be filed as failures, the teamwork was disappearing, and the boys could hardly be in the same room as one another without wanting to bite each others’ heads off within just a few minutes.

The stress had fed onto the mental and physical endurance of them all, and tension was running high because of it. They couldn’t even sit at the same table to eat their meals anymore without at least two of them trashing their entire plate from anger.

Hanmi tried desperately to fix the bonds that had somehow broken, but even this seemed to be beyond her power. The peacemaker’s methods were drawing short, and so was her endurance.

“I’m guessing practice didn’t go well?”

Hanmi’s ears pricked up the familiar voice, and she felt a slight bit of her tension disappear immediately at the presence. “Baekhyun.”

“Hey,” Baekhyun smiled his familiar eye smile and tossed her a cold drink. “Did they get into another fight?”

Hanmi answered by pointing up at the “YOU’RE DEAD” that was still flashing its bold letters overhead.

Baekhyun let out a soft chuckle bef