Before the sun rises, Woohyun is already awake. He's all showered and dressed up, trying to keep it as quiet as possible to not wake Sunggyu up. Once he's put in his shoes, he exits the room and jogs up to the gym to train. 

Today was the start of Day 2 of the fight-offs. And since they weren't allowed to leave the fight-offs while it was happening, Woohyun uses the time in the early morning to train just before the fight-offs begin. He didn't want to waste his time, so he gets to the job immediately and does some basic warm ups first. 

Thankfully, he had the whole training gym to himself. Well, if you were to sneak out at 3 in the morning then you'd definitely get it all to yourself. Even if it was against the rules, Woohyun risks his safety just to train. 

After some stretching, he proceeds to some fast jogs around the gym. Then he focuses on the punching bag he and Sunggyu always used. He tries to remember what Sunggyu had taught him the week before, and amazingly, his body remembers them very accurately. 

Woohyun trains until the sun rises, but he doesn't realize it. It was now 6 am, and his body is feeling tired, but Woohyun refuses to stop. He needed to win the fight-offs, he needed to prove himself of his worth to everybody. To Sunggyu, most especially. 

Another hour of restless training had made Woohyun feel that he was actually improving. Though his body was hurting and he was by far exhausted, Woohyun felt strong and also encouraged that maybe he had a chance of winning this thing. 

He didn't want to stop and he wanted to get more better, but sadly enough, his body was worn out. Before he knows it, he falls to the ground out of exhaustion. Woohyun groans from the pain of the fall but it subsides after a few seconds. 

Woohyun stretches his burning arms out on the floor and breathes in and out to calm his mind and body. He reeked of sweat, and was wet all over. His black shirt was stuck to his sticky chest, and his hair was all spread out on his forehead. He closes his eyes for a second and just lets himself breathe. 

Then he hears the gym doors open quite loudly, and Woohyun immediately sits up to see who it is. Upon realizing that it was Sungjong, Woohyun relaxes and waves a friendly hello. 

"Oh? Woohyun hyung?" Sungjong rushes up down to where Woohyun was and helps him stand up. "You smell bad, oh god."

"Do I?" Woohyun laughs. "Sorry. I'll be taking a shower once I finish mastering a few more kicks. What're you doing here?"

"Dongwoo hyung said we should train early before my match later…We sneaked out too…"

Woohyun's eyes widen. "You're going to fight later?"

"Yes." Sungjong sighs and stares at the ground. "I'm quite nervous." 

To be honest, Woohyun was nervous for his friend as well. But another worrier wouldn't help Sungjong at all. So, Woohyun tries to be optimistic. 

"Don't be nervous, Sungjong, I'm sure you'll do fine." 

A small smile spreads out on his face. "Really?"

"Really." Woohyun pats Sungjong's shoulder encouragingly. He looks past the younger boy when he hears the doors open again. "Who's that?"

Sungjong looks back too and tells the figure to come over. "It's just Dongwoo hyung."

Woohyun waits for Dongwoo to come nearer. Once he was already by Sungjong's side, Woohyun bows respectfully and introduces himself. 

"I'm Nam Woohyun. Nice to meet you again." 

"You're the kid who placed the flag in the finish line the other time!" Dongwoo said with excitement. "Nice to meet you too!"

Dongwoo seemed all smiles like usual, and Woohyun already liked the man even they just met. He was probably the happiest person Woohyun's seen inside the compound. And he could sure use some more friends too. 

"Say, Dongwoo-ssi, do you know who Lee Howon is?"

The smile falters from Dongwoo's face. "Yeah. Why?"

"Well…I'm gonna be fighting up against him tomorrow. I just wanted to know who he was." 

The smile was back on Dongwoo's face again as he chuckled. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to know." 

+

Once Woohyun was inside their room, he pulls on the back of his sweat soaked shirt and removes his shirt. He throws it over to the direction of his bed without looking at where it would land and quickly removes his shoes because he was itching to go take a shower. 

He s the zipper of his pants and was about to pulls his jeans down to his knees when he hears someone clear his throat. That's when he remembers that he shares a room with Sunggyu. 

"Bloody hell!" Woohyun shouts in surprise and immediately pulls up his pants and turns away to hide his half- body from Sunggyu. 

"First of all, nobody says 'bloody hell' in here, you got it?" He hears Sunggyu laugh behind him. "And—yah!"

Woohyun slowly looks back only to get hit on the face by his own shirt. 

"Go strip inside the bathroom instead. I'm not interested." 

"S-Sorry…" Woohyun shyly uses his shirt to shield his body, and well, his blushing red face. Right away, he enters the bathroom with embarrassment and a racing heart. 

+

They were inside the fighting arena for Day 2 of the fight-offs once again. Woohyun was sitting on the floor with Sunggyu right beside him, but they weren't talking. Just as he thought things couldn't get anymore awkward for him and Sunggyu, he just had to embarrass himself once again. 

"You know, your brother—" 

Sunggyu stops when he realizes he was bringing Boohyun up again. He had always hated mentioning his name, but it seemed like that wasn't the case today as Boohyun's name had miraculously spilled out of Sunggyu's mouth oh so comfortably. 

"What about him?" Unfortunately, this had caught Woohyun's attention. 

"He…" Sunggyu sighs before he continues. "Before—"

"You don't have to say it if you don't want to." 

But Sunggyu ignores him and says, "He was my opponent for the fight-offs. He beat me up real good, that ." 

Woohyun chuckles. "Hyung has always been the strong one in the family…I'm kind of the weaker version of him…"

"Nobody is strong overnight." Sunggyu speaks confidently while he looks at Woohyun in the eye. Woohyun, however, looks away before Sunggyu could stare any longer. "Your brother was the one who helped me become stronger, even if we were both trainees. He treated me like a younger brother. And I really appreciate him for that." 

Woohyun smiles. "Thank you." 

"But I still hate him." 

"I know." 

+

Sungjong loses to a boy named Kangwoo. With his loss, another point of victory was added under Doojoon's team thus claiming their victory for Day 2 of the fight-offs. 

Sunggyu, obviously, was not happy. He asked the remaining contenders for Day 3 of the fight-offs to head to the training gym to practice. Woohyun, however, wanted to know how Sungjong was doing. 

He walks the opposite direction from the training gym on his way back to the dorms when somebody pulls him back by his collar. 

"Where do you think you're going?"

That voice. He knew who it was even before he could turn around. 

"Yah! I'm talking to you." 

Woohyun reluctantly faces the man behind him with an deep intake of breath. He didn't want to talk to Key at all, so he had his mouth stapled shut as his eyes look down on the ground. 

Key didn't look pleased at the unresponsiveness he was getting. He uses his hand to push Woohyun's shoulder, trying to catch the younger's attention with physical force. It hurt, but Woohyun stayed quiet. 

"Yah!" Key shouts angrily. People walking around take a look at them, but Key wasn't perturbed. 

Woohyun hides his sigh and starts to talk. "I'm going back to the dorms to check on my friend." 

Key scoffs and stares at Woohyun from head to toe. Woohyun feels uncomfortable being looked at that way, but he knows he's not allowed to protest. 

"That's no fun." He says as a smile creeps up his face. Woohyun gets goosebumps on his skin when Key touches his unclothed arm. "Why don't you go to my office instead and we can have some real fun, hm?"

The reason why Woohyun was so uncomfortable around Key is because he knew Key's intentions on him. Ever since Woohyun first stepped his foot inside the compound, Key was never subtle about his motives around Woohyun. 

And now Key was at it again. Woohyun is disgusted, but he doesn't let it show. 

"Come on." Key grips on his wrist tight and starts pulling Woohyun away. 

Woohyun drags his feet on the ground to slow them down. "I can't—" He tries to remove the hand on his wrist, but Key was too strong. "Let go!" 

Key doesn't stop walking and goes farther away from everybody else. He takes a left and steps away from the gravel path, entering the lush forest of the camp. Woohyun gets more desperate to escape. 

"Yah!" Woohyun starts to shout. He punches Key's arm and this makes the soldier angry. 

Key pushes Woohyun on the ground real hard and hovers over the trainee. He uses his h