Jongin was fast. So fast. But I was faster. He launched himself at me and in a split second I dodged his attack. All of my senses focused the guy in front of me. He looked surprised but continued raining blows towards me. I dodged each one of them but didn’t send any back. I observed him for a little while. He had a tendency to favour his right side ever so slightly. I made a quick jab at his left side to test his defences. They were slightly slower. I smiled to myself. I could take this guy. I ducked under one of his punches and released a flurry of my own. He had trouble blocking and dodging them all. I pushed him back a step. Another step. A particularly vicious kick from me sent him stumbling out of the ring.

When I came back to myself and became aware of the people around me it was silent. Unlike the waiting silence that had happened before some of the fights this one was heavy with disbelief. I had won. Sensing a familiar glare on my back I whirled around to face Taek. He had a downright shocked expression painted all over his face. Wonsik, who was drunk to the point where nothing surprised him started clapping and cheering shamelessly. Taek shook himself out of his stupor and stalked over to Wonsik, grabbing on to his arm. He came past me and put his arm around my shoulders. We walked back to the dorm in silence. The others were sitting around the table playing some sort of game. When we stumbled in Wonsik immediately went to Hongbin and sat in his lap. He then regaled the others with how he had come up with the amazing plan to get me to fight Jongin. As his story progressed the others with the exception of Hongbin looked horrified. When Wonsik got to the part where I had started hitting back everyone just looked incredulous. When Wonsik had finished talking about my much-exaggerated kick the others turned to Taek for confirmation. Taek shrugged and mumbled something about how he saw my kick force Jongin out of the circle. He said he couldn’t verify anything else about the story. All at the same time everyone turned to me. I didn’t know what to do under the pressure of all of their stares so I looked down at my hands and mumbled something about being tired and escaped to Taek’s and my shared room. He came in not long after and I told him about how I’d seen the fights before. I told him about how Wonsik had gone missing and suddenly he was there pushing me into the ring. I told him about how I analysed Jongin’s movements and aimed my strikes accordingly. He seemed impressed when I told him about Jongin’s favouring of one side. He said that he’d fought Jongin once before and noticed it as well. When I asked him about the fight Taek just chuckled softly and told me he’d been thoroughly beaten. With that we said goodnight and went to sleep. The next morning I was wrested from sleep by shouting and banging. I scrambled out of bed only to be caught by Jaewhan and ushered deep into the bowels of the dorm. We sat down in a little alcove made out of boxes. I turned to Jaewhan and eyed him. He was obviously looking everywhere but at me. What’s he hiding?

“Jaewhan.” I put a little bit of authority in my voice and his eyes flicked up to mine.

Jaewhan sighed and explained to me in a low voice that rumors of my talents had gotten around and because people still didn’t trust me yet they were afraid and wanted to get rid of me. The way he said ‘get rid’ sounded more like ‘kill’. There wasn’t anything either of us could do so we just sat in our hiding place.

A long time later, the shouts and banging had died down. Wonsik came and told us that a meeting had been requested by Taek so it was safe to come out of the hiding spot but that I shouldn’t leave the dorm. Jaewhan was the first to get up, he had been complaining about needing to use the bathroom for at least half an hour. Although as soon as he got up he nearly fell over. Wonsik caught him and he was able to hobble off to do his business. When I attempted to stand up my muscles shrieked at me and my joints popped. Ugh. I really hated, HATED, the feeling of stiff muscles. It drove me crazy because I couldn’t move properly whenever it happened. Wonsik said that the others (ergo Hongbin and Sanghyuk) had gone with Taek to provide support.

With everyone at the meeting the camp was deathly silent from where we were. It felt like we were in a gigantic bubble, outside which time had stopped. I felt suffocated. Being stuck in one place was driving me crazy. Just when I felt like I was actually going to snap Taek walked in through the door flanked by Hongbin and Sanghyuk. Sanghyuk tripped over his feet and Hongbin caught him before he face planted. As Hyuk dusted himself off Taek walked up to me and signalled for the others to gather.

“Guess what guys.”

Taek’s taunt was met with absolute silence from everyone including me.

“N is going to be joining our team.”

Uhm. What. Since when.

“So… does that mean he’ll be staying with us permanently?” Jaewhan asked tentatively.

“For now, it’s just a trial, nothing’s decided yet.” Hongbin’s deep voice cut smoothly through the tension that was hanging in the air.

“Hopefully N can stay with us…” Sanghyuk sheepishly added.

“Awwwww! Hyukkie! You really care about me!” I squealed in delight and immediately jumped on the poor kid who looked like a deer in the headlights when I released him. I just laughed at his expression and punched Wonsik in the shoulder.

“What are you laughing at Won?” I asked him teasingly.

At that Hongbin burst out laughing and even Taek cracked a smile. Wonsik just smiled at me and I grinned back.

A weight I hadn’t noticed was lifted off my chest as I looked at the smiling faces around me.