[Hellion Brothers: Book #1] Hellion Brothers

22: Training (Two)

It was Sunday, and we were finally doing something productive: Watching TV. It felt so wonderful to let my mind relax and forget all my problems even just for a while.

"Um, Tao, are you sure Maeji's okay?" I heard Xiumin ask in concern. Someone flopped beside me on the sofa, and waved a hand in front of my face a few times. But I didn't mind it and kept watching. Adventure Time is more interesting and fun.

"Now that I think about it, she's not."

"Can we do something about it? It's... creeping me out."

"Do what?" I suddenly turned my head towards Chen, making him shriek in shock. "Why? Aren't you having fun? This is happy Sunday, come on!"

"But Maeji, don't you want to practice?" Chanyeol sat on the floor in front of me and looked at me with puppy eyes.

"Nah, too tired."

"Study?" Suho smiled and offered me a book. I stared at it for a while, before deciding that I wasn't interested in it as well.

"Eyes tired. Brain tired. I like it this way." Stretching, I brought my legs up to lie down the sofa, and my head landed on someone's lap. I really didn't care who it was. I just closed my eyes, ready to sleep all day.

"Uh... M-Maeji..." Kai stuttered from above me. Ah, so it's him. He's got really firm thighs. Really not pleasant to sleep on.

"Ok, that's enough. Quit messing around." Tao grabbed my arm, but I quickly slapped his hand away. My eyes shot open to glare at him.

"I'm resting. Not messing around."

"Yes you are. If you've given up on your ability, fine. But you'll have to learn how to defend yourself in some way."

"TIRRRREEEEEED."

I closed my eyes again, deciding to ignore his existence. He turned silent for a moment as he absorbed how much of a burden I was. "Ok, you leave me with no choice. Kai, bring us to the grounds. We'll teach this sloth a lesson."

*POOF* Cue black mist. And my back landed on rocky sand. Groaning, I slowly stood up while Kai gave me a sorry face.

"If you want someone get up from the couch, say there's a cockroach in there. You do not just teleport them." Damn you Tao. That kinda hurt.

"I'll use that tip in the future." He stated coolly with an amused glint in his eyes. Grunting, I looked around the place. We were in... the middle of nowhere. It was just rock, sand, rock, and sand. Aside from that, nothing more interesting.

"Welcome to our training grounds."

"Aren't training grounds composed of mats... and sandbags... and..." My words slowly drifted away as I noticed Tao's weird stare. I think he was serious. He wasn't planning on returning me home soon. And for the first time in a long time, I actually felt scared of him. He looked like he was going to rape me or something. Ok wait, that sounded weird. Nevermind.

"You're going to train our way. Now, what I want you to do is play tag with Kai. You're 'it'." He smiled menacingly. "Once you tag him, game over, and you can return to your beloved couch."

My eyes narrowed, "But if don't..."

He looked at his watch and shrugged, "I can stay up until midnight."

Tao, I knew you were a jerk sometimes, but I didn't know you could be this huge of a jerk. Deciding that there would be no point in angering myself, I set my eyes on Kai who still looked confused as to why he was caught up in the mess Tao made for me. Then I dashed towards him, but he just stood there, waiting. But with one look from Tao, he disappeared into black mist just before I could touch him. Huffing, I looked around and saw him reappear beside Tao.

Of course. This isn't just physical training. To keep up with Kai, I also need to figure out my ability. Tao probably figured out that the fastest way for me to learn is to push me to my limits, so I would know where to start. It was for my benefit, after all, but I was not sure if I should be thankful or not. The dust was itchy, the sun was hot, and I was getting sunburn. It's hard to bathe in whitening lotion, Tao. So I better learn something from this, or I'll surely make your red hair go pink.

I tried the breathe in-breathe out process, but it was hard to block all thoughts when I had to chase after a teleporting guy. My mouth was starting to feel dry and my legs numb but I had to keep going. As I set my eyes on Kai once again, I took in as much breath as I could and ran. I don't know how fast I went, but Kai seemed surprised. He looked at Tao, then back at me, as if asking what he should do. I was nearly there, but the unexpected happened. I tripped on a rock. Of all things, it just had to be a rock. And I came flying towards a bigger rock. And it looked sharp.

Not good.

 I covered my face with my arms and shut my eyes tight. Using what was left of my strength, I took a deep breath and shifted my body weight forward so I could shorten the length of my fall. I got dragged a few feet forward and probably got a scrape or two, but what's good was that I didn't hit the rock. I was just two inches away from it.

"Maeji!!! Are you okay?!!" Tao hurried to my side and helped me sit upwards. He frantically checked my head, then my scratches. As I tried to stand on my own, I realized that I was dizzy and fell back down. I looked around for Kai. I still had to tag him. But much to my surprise, he was still in his place a few feet from here, frozen in mid-teleportation. Tiny black grains were scattered around him, mostly dense along his left arm. It looked amazing.

I silently glanced at Tao who was still busy checking my wounds.

"Tao," I softly tapped his shoulder, and pointed towards the frozen Kai. "Did you just... freeze time?"

"No, I don't think---" his eyes widened, and his jaw hung open but his breath only hitched up his throat. Then slowly, his astounded gaze returned to me.

"Then how... how are you able to move?"

I looked at myself as if to confirm it, then looked back at him. I felt the soft wind start blowing dust again, and soon enough, we heard Kai's voice.

"Maeji? What happened to you?!!" He rushed to my side as well. I couldn't see his face clearly anymore because I was starting to feel really numb. But I didn't forget to grab his arm, look up his eyes, and smile.

"Tag. I win."

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