milk tea

04:50

The golden rays of the sun brought color to the vast gloomy sky. At sunrise, the trio arrived at the base with a single scratch on their bodies. However, Serene could definitely feel her body ready to give in and stay in the comfort of her bed for hours.

"I'll walk with you until you reach the sleeping quarters," Jaemin offered his kindness to the overfatigued girl. "You might collapse."

"Thanks for the offer but I can walk with my two functioning legs," Serene declined with a forced smile on her face. Talking had also tired her out. Her mind was foggy and everything that she thought of led her to think about sleeping.

"Serene."

Turning her head, she stared at Jaemin who had called her. His hands were in his pockets while a proud smile had emerged.

"You did well," Jaemin threw a compliment at Serene. His pickup lines never phased her, but something about his sincere compliments made her heartstrings tug. "I mean it. You worked hard for this. I'm proud of you."

"I bet Mark is cutting the onions," Serene joked in the midst of her weariness. The sight of Serene laughing had given Jaemin another reason why he had fallen in love with her. Until now, he couldn't grasp how to understand and feel emotions. Despite that, he wanted to show her his love for her somehow. "I appreciate it, Jaemin. You're also doing well. I'm not really used to this side of you but thank you. I really needed that."

Not even Jaemin realized that the corners of his mouth were rising without hesitation after hearing her words. His eyes sparkled every time he sees Serene, whether far away or close. He started to think that maybe he didn't have to be bold to initiate conversations with her.

"You go and rest now," he reminded her, signaling her to go inside the base. "Have a good rest."

"You should rest too."

The cold air inside of the base had greeted her as usual. Without dilly-dallying, Serene headed to the sleeping quarters without bumping into anyone. As she opened the door, the lights were off. With her sharp eyes, she could tell that Yuta wasn't around.

"Must be busy," she muttered and changed her clothes to appropriate ones for her to sleep in. Her mind could only think about sleeping. Once her body was on her bed, she was hit with drowsiness.  "Goodnight, self."

🧋

The infirmary that was occupied with half of the members of the gang now only had four members left inside. Everyone with minor injuries had left the infirmary to work on their own solo missions. As much as they wanted to rest, their rankings were more important to them.

"Yangyang's still unconscious. I'm expecting him to wake up in a day or two," Doyoung sighed and fixed the blanket to cover his younger member properly. He did a quick follow-up and checked his temperature, wound and stats. "His recovery would take at least a month. He'll need to take a couple of painkillers as well."

"His ranking is at risk if he doesn't do anything," Yuta commented, feeling bad for him. The energetic boy was now quietly healing in the infirmary. He never expected this to happen.

"Look who's talking," Doyoung scoffed, glancing at Yuta. He raised an eyebrow at him before attending to Yangyang. "I thought you liked missions that were at night? Now, you only ever do day missions."

Yuta remained silent as he couldn't deny it. Even Shotaro, who was with them in the room, agreed with Doyoung. His missions slowly decreased and his ranking last time had gone down by five. Although he has been increasing his missions in the morning, he wouldn't even do one mission at night.

"The reason is obvious," Doyoung said, adding to his statement earlier. Yuta couldn't escape the sharp observations of Doyoung. After all, he did rank first consecutively for a long time. "It's because of Serene, yeah? Damn, she can impact a lot of people."

"She can also cause an impact," Shotaro mumbly lowly as he remembered the complaints of Xiaojun when she was still training under their care.

Yuta had been decreasing his workload at night because some nights, he would hear cries from Serene. Her nightmares had increased which made him worry. Nearly every night, he would wake up to Serene screaming painful phrases.

"It hurts! Make it stop! Please, I don't like it!"

"Don't cut me open!"

"Why does no one care about me?!"

"Let go of me!"

Thankfully, she never knew about her habits. He was concerned about it and wanted to stay nearby in case she wakes up abruptly. Instead of protecting and staying in his zone, he preferred sleeping at the sleeping quarters with Serene.

Even though she didn't know about his little sacrifices, Yuta didn't mind doing the extra mile for Serene's good. She could never open up about her past to any of the members, so he didn't expect it at the least. He only hoped that he could be helpful by not leaving her side at night.

"You take around 8 missions a day, from dawn to dusk. Doesn't it tire you out?"

"No, never," Yuta smiled at Shotaro. His hand patted the top of Shotaro's head and saw his confused face. "Yangyang likes Serene. You like her as well, don't you?"

The younger male still found it difficult to admit that he likes her, that she treasures her. Maybe it was his trust issues taking over but he remained silent instead of giving Yuta an answer. This made Yuta chuckle at him, but he couldn't figure out why.

"There are some people in your life that you cherish but fail to protect. I know that you also know that, Shotaro," Yuta said, his eyes averted from him. The two had their eyes on Yuta as he continued his statement. "You'll grow scared to protect someone, fearing that you might fail to protect them. However, someone will come into your life and show you that fear goes hand in hand with protecting someone. Fear will remain as long as you treasure them."

The words of Yuta had hit both of the members who were listening.

"Shotaro, let's stop living in guilt for failing to protect our loved ones, okay?"

Upon hearing Yuta, for the first time, Shotaro broke down in tears in front of them.

[a/n: taro past reveal soon tho ]