“I hate him.”

Sehun plops down beside Jongin and lays his head on his lap.

“Move. You’re squishing my lunch,” Jongin whines, already pouting over the loss of his still unwrapped sandwich underneath Sehun’s head and shoving him to Tao’s lap.

“I hate him,” Sehun huffs out again as he stares up at Tao who just looks down at him as he on the straw of his juice box.

“I hate Luhan,” Sehun stresses out again when no one seems to be listening to him. “Does anyone here hate their meister?”

They’re supposed to be inside the cafeteria since eating lunch outside the designated areas are prohibited. But Sehun, Jongin and Tao have never followed the rules. They don’t have to anyway. They’ve already graduated from the academy. They’re under a different program now. A far more serious program than the ones they were taught throughout the years. But they’re still staying around the academy’s grounds where eating lunch outside under the shade of a tree is prohibited and to which none of them really care anymore.

“No,” Tao answers, crumpling his empty juice box to toss it to the trash later on. “Kyungsoo’s nice.”

Sehun doesn’t understand how Kyungsoo can be nice but waves away that comment.

“Yeah. Kyungsoo’s nice,” Jongin adds dreamily making Sehun and Tao look at him.

“What?” He asks, raising his sandwich halfway. It’s no secret what Jongin feels for his meister since the day Kyungsoo scouted him and Tao. Sehun thinks it’s amazing for a meister to be able to handle two weapons at the same time and not know the link one of them shares with him. Or maybe Kyungsoo does know. Sehun can never tell what Do Kyungsoo is thinking.

Both Sehun and Tao shake their heads leaving Jongin to shrug and continue eating his sandwich.

“Can Kyungsoo take on one more weapon?” Sehun picks on a blade of grass on the ground and angrily tears it apart. “I’m done with Luhan.”

“He can’t be that bad.” Tao says, running his fingers through Sehun’s hair.

“He is,” Sehun replies and sits up to stare at Tao. “I had five hours of judo today. At four in the morning. Straight. Does Kyungsoo make you do five hours of judo?”

Jongin nods and happily replies. “Last time he gave us six.”

Sehun stares at his friend wondering what is wrong with him.

“Are you complaining about the five hours of judo or the one hour dedicated to meditation before your training starts,” Tao snickers.

“Meditating is hard,” Sehun stresses out. “Sitting still and being quiet is hard.”

Tao just continues to judge him and Sehun plops himself back on his lap.

“I don’t know what you’re complaining about,” Tao says to him as he continues playing with his hair. “You should be honored that you get to train under Luhan.”

“Yeah,” Jongin joins in, crumpling his sandwich wrapper. “Having a meister who knows what it is to be a weapon is kinda cool.”

Sehun knows what they mean. Luhan used to be a weapon long before he became a meister and Sehun has heard from the stories people say how he was good at it. Sehun can’t imagine him being a weapon at first since Luhan looks so frail and tiny. But their first training together as a team changed all that when he was covered in bruises by the end of it.

He hadn’t ask what made Luhan change to become a meister. Sehun presumes he must’ve been an exceptional weapon in the past to be able to change paths like this since not everyone is allowed to do it so easily.

And Sehun hadn’t ask because Luhan doesn’t like talking about it. His meister is a very private person.

“But he doesn’t teach me anything,” Sehun sighs. “He fights with me during trainings but that’s it. He’s not like Kyungsoo who explains and corrects stances. He just gets me to fight over and over again until he feels like i’ve gotten it right.”

“Every meister is different. Just like how every weapon is different,” Jongin smiles at him. “Relax. Luhan’s just sharpening you up for when you two finally get drafted. You’re already good at what you do anyway.”

“But I’m not the best at it,” Sehun pouts. Jongin just gives him another smile that says “we understand” while Tao comforts him by playing with his hair.

He feels guilty then for destroying the usual peace they have during lunch breaks. Sehun knows how his friends are very understanding but lately, it’s as if Sehun has been whining to them a lot. It’s the stress of not being drafted so soon when he thought that being scouted would lead to him finally working on the field. What good is a well experienced meister who trains him when Sehun can’t even use what he learned and harness his skills in a real fight?

“We’ll be drafted soon,” Jongin says quietly, as if to answer his thoughts. “It won’t be long now.”

It won’t be long now.

But for the meantime, he still has to train.

* * *

“Again.”

Sehun pants, hands on his knees as he glares at Luhan who’s standing there without a strand of hair out of place. Sehun is all sorts of tired and annoyed and breathless and all he’s thinking about is knocking his meister in front of him to the ground so he can head off and get a good night’s sleep.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Sehun breathes, as he straightens up and places his hands on his hips.

“This attitude won’t get you anywhere,” Luhan replies. “How hard is it to tackle me when I’m smaller than you-”

Sehun charges at him and aims for his waist when Luhan moves to his left and takes the upper hand.

Sehun grunts at his hold as Luhan locks him from behind. Luhan may be shorter than him but he still has a good grip around his arms and neck. It starts to get a little too tight, his vision turning blurry that Sehun can’t help but give a choking gasp making Luhan release him.

“I can’t tackle you,” Sehun pants, shaking his head in defeat as he lies there on the ground. “You move way too fast.”

“Is that what you’re going to say when your life is on the line?”

Sehun resists the urge to glare at him as Luhan peers down and smirks at him from above.

“And here I thought you wanted to become a scythe.”

His meister is an .

Why he even agreed to become this person’s weapon is something he can’t recall at the moment as he lies there spent. What he’s thinking right now is how Luhan is an . They’ve been doing different tackling techniques and so far, Sehun has only pinned him down once. It shouldn’t be hard. Sehun is great at pinning down his opponents. He has no problem taking them down in seconds. Only Luhan has been making it harder for him to move around with how they’ve been going at it since four in the morning and the only break he managed to have was when he had lunch with Jongin and Tao.

Sehun glares at the smirk Luhan is giving him but it quickly turns into a scowl as Luhan tosses him a towel which lands on his face.

“I think we’re done for today. I’ll see you tomorrow at four. Don’t be late,” Luhan says and Sehun hides the whine threatening to spill from his lips as he hears him walk towards the door. He’s relieved they’re finally done for today but the thought of getting up to do this all over again at four in the morning isn’t something he’s ecstatic about.

“Mop up the floors and don’t forget to turn the lights off when you leave.”

He doesn’t bid him a goodbye. Instead, Sehun clamps his mouth together and restrains himself from yelling after him.

Sehun doesn’t get it. He and Luhan have been together for three years. And when he means together, he means as a team. Three years of being a weapon to his meister. Three years of training and getting up at odd hours of the day to fight. Three years of getting his beaten at the only thing he’s good at. And here Sehun thought that no one was better at this than himself.

At first Sehun thought it was cool to finally have a meister. The thought of finally getting on with his life, to have someone start training him and build him up to start taking as many souls as he can felt like he was taking a giant leap towards becoming a scythe. But so far, it’s just been three years of getting kicked around.

Sehun sits up with a groan, his back sore and his muscles aching for a nice hot bath. He gets up, reaches behind his back to pull up his shirt and tosses it next to his bag and makes a mental note to get started on his laundry.

He starts scrubbing on the floor furiously, all the while thinking how he and Luhan made it work all these years. They share an apartment together, the same as everyone who works with their meisters do. But even if they do live together, living in separate bedrooms, sharing a common bathroom, kitchen and living room, it still feels as if they live separately. Luhan rarely talks to anyone else aside from Kris, Sehun’s professor back at the academy. Sehun presumes that’s because they’re old friends. But aside from anyone else, unless it means business, Luhan doesn’t talk or make any form of conversation. And all these years, Sehun feels like he’s living with a rock.  

Everyone knows a meister and a weapon need a link to be able to function together. And for him and Luhan, all they’ve ever had together was the drive and determination to reach the top. They don’t like each other. Nor do they have any sense of friendship. It’s a miracle they still seem to make things work. That Luhan can give out a command and that link between them can make Sehun listen and obey what Luhan tells him to do.

But he’s thankful, Sehun thinks as he finishes mopping up the floors. He’s thankful that of all the links they have, it’s not as deep as the ones he’s seen from the others. Like how Kyungsoo handles Tao and Jongin. Sehun can see that he cares deeply for his weapons and think of them as a part of him. Like an extension of his body. An important extension. Sure he may be harsh on them but it doesn’t take much for anyone to see that it’s because Kyungsoo wants them to be ready when the time comes for them to be drafted.

But him and Luhan... Sehun snorts to himself at the thought of Luhan caring. It would be nice for Luhan to care. But Sehun wouldn’t demand of it. Luhan is ruthless. Luhan is firm and strict and sarcastic at everything Sehun does. And it doesn’t help how Luhan doesn’t talk to him or teach him anything. Not once has Luhan answered any of Sehun’s questions about what’s it like out there, to finally take the souls they’re tasked to do. To be faced at such a life threatening experience and come out of it alive. Luhan only fights and spars with him until Sehun is spent for the day.

Boy was Sehun so wrong for even thinking his meister was nothing but a pretty face.

He’s really thankful that their link is a solid one. That even between them, a meister and a weapon who don’t talk much and loathe each other’s presence (at least for Sehun), their link is strong enough to get them to work as a team. When they’re up against others during trainings and when Luhan uses that link to command Sehun in a fight, Sehun can feel how strong Luhan’s desire and determination is to rise up a level. And likewise, Sehun knows Luhan can feel his own drive at becoming the best weapon.

Sehun tosses the rag by the side as he puts on a new shirt before heading home.

Their link isn’t special, he thinks as he takes one last look at the training ground. Their link doesn’t involve any sort of care or sympathy from the other nor does it even have a tinge of friendship.

Their link means business. It’s simply nothing more than that.

Sehun finishes that thought as he turns off the lights before he leaves.