You were terrified to move without him saying to do so, as well as speaking. You felt like if you did anything without his approval that he would kill you in an instant; instant not in a figurative sense. There are literally guns, explosives, everything in arms reach. You felt like even letting out a cough would be the end of you, but how were you supposed to hold them in for so long? The toxic air was really irritating.

It seemed like the twentieth time you had cleared your throat in the last 10 minutes. You weren’t doing it to annoy him, but with the way he threw what he was working on, you knew that’s how he saw it.

Hoseok stood up quickly, the chair he was sitting in knocking over as he stomped over to you. With eyes closed and a heavy sigh, he put his arms behind his back.

“Can you please stop?” he asked, keeping his eyes closed. His voice would always be muffled with that thing on, and you feared that one of these days you wouldn’t be able to understand him.

“It’s kind of hard to, how do you live in this place?” you replied, covering your mouth and turning to the side before coughing. You could hear Hoseok groan loudly as he reached behind his back. He held one hand on top of his mask, putting the other behind his back. A faint click was heard, the small straps of the mask falling to the side of his head.

Hoseok lowered the mask and glared at you, a frown present on his face.

There was a visible line that was on his face from where the mask had covered; a small line of dust defined where the mask had previously been. He had a normal looking nose, but there was something about his lips. The way they looked just had something special to it.

Noticing that you were staring Hoseok bit his lip and huffed.

“Don’t move,” he mumbled. He put the mask over your mouth and nose, messing with the small straps on the back of your head before you finally heard a click. Hoseok took a step back, eyeing the mask before giving it a few taps. It was obviously loose, but then again he was a lot bigger than you.

Hoseok sighed deeply , cracking his knuckles. “It’ll do for now, until I can make you one that actually fits your face.” He gave your mask one last look, tightening it up before finally leaving it alone.

“How do you breathe in this thing?” you muffled out, touching the spikes on the mask. Hoseok chuckled, turning his head away. “Breathing in that is better than breathing in things that could kill me.”

He walked back to his desk, picking up the chair and putting it back in its place before turning back to you.

“I guess if you’re gonna be staying here I should show you what I have.” he spoke, looking around the large warehouse like room. You followed him to the side of the room with all of the firearms.

He reached up and grabbed a small gun, tossing it around and looking through the sight. He held it out to you and you took it hesitantly. You tried doing what he did, but you apparently did it all wrong. You could hear small amounts of laughter coming from Hoseok as you waved the gun around.

When you tried to see him laughing he looked away and went back to his irritated self.

“You really don’t know anything about this kind of stuff, do you? Do you even know how to protect yourself?” he asked, putting the gun back and picking up a large black pocket knife. He held it so that the tip of the blade was pointing behind him, crouching down into a defensive stance.

He took a few quick swings close to you, making you flinch and back away. Hoseok stood up straight once more, the knife still present in his hand. This would have been the fourth loud sigh he let out because of you.

Without warning, he quickly moved his hand to your face, making you stumble backwards.

“The hell was that for?” you asked, regaining your composure. He tilted his head to the side, putting the pocket knife back.

“Testing your reflexes. When something’s exploding in your face you need those reflexes to get your face out of there.”

“Is that how you got those burns?” you asked, looking up at his face. Hoseok shook his head, “That was just from welding.” Rolling up his sleeve, he held his arm out. There was a large, wide and dark line on his arm with little dots around that spot.

“That’s from an explosive going wrong. It would have taken down the entire place if I didn’t get the smart idea to put my arm on it. Of course, that’s why I keep a bucket of water near me whenever I do explosives now.”

You let out a small chuckle, looking at his arm. “A lesson well learned, huh?” you asked, looking up at him. Finally, it seems like you caught him smiling. He was to busy looking at his arm to notice that you were watching him smile, but you couldn’t care less.

His smile was something different. It was huge, bright, happy, it could bring anyone’s mood up. It was making you smile like an idiot just looking at it. It was a shame that he hid such a smile with an intimidating mask.

Before he could catch you looking, you focused back to his arm. He began rolling his sleeve down once more, nodding as his tough-guy physique came back.

“Very well learned.”

He cleared his throat, looking around the room before settling his eyes on the rack or powders. With a small chuckle, he looked back to you.

“I think we should try making something.”