TARGET

마흔 여덟

"...potential, hidden potential."

Wherever that potential was, it didn't show sign of divulging itself anytime soon.

Yet another strained grimace blossomed across Joshua's visage as he watched the younger flail his arms hopelessly, trying to untangle himself from coarse rope biting into his irritated skin, the perpetrator being relentless friction. Whether it was the utmost rudimentary combat sequence, or merely trying to unravel himself from the binds of a single knotted rope, 

Dokyeom was completely and utterly helpless.

Making his training undoubtedly arduous for both parties.

Joshua had to give it to him though, the kid had an undeniable tenacity. His eyes gleamed with an innate ingenuity and a willingness to learn; plus he had balls, even when they where being crushed in by his poor judgement and timing during combat. 

Shaking off the remnants of knotted rope strewn across his figure, the brunette shot to his feet and Joshua clicked the stopwatch cradled in his palm.

"6 minutes and 38 seconds," Joshua pursed his lips, a juxtapose to the elation coursing through Dokyeom's stature-

"NEW RECORD LETS GO!!!" His voice cracking in exuberance as he exclaimed. Joshua marveled at how even after overexertion the younger was still brimming with unadulterated energy. 

Cute.

Joshua furrowed his brow at the fleeting thought, regaining his composure and waving his hands to settle Dokyeom down, "Better than before, but being completely honest, still very shit, DK,"

Joshua tries not to let guilt swallow him whole as the brunette's face drops, trying to subdue the crestfallen emote showing through his jubilant facade. 

"The good thing is, you are getting better. You have undeniable strength, but no idea how to distribute it," Joshua walked over to the younger, who had his head canted inquisitively as Joshua motioned for him to widen his stance.

The elder gingerly lifted Dokyeom's wrists to suspend parallel to his shoulders, using the tip of his sneakers to tap the insoles of Dokyeom's shoes to move them shoulder width apart. Joshua stood back, eyes locked with the latter, and mirrored his stance:

"Close your eyes. Imagine your feeling heavy, like your body is filled to the brim with water-"

His brows furrowed, "-What"

"Just do it." Joshua enjoined, watching as the younger's eyelids hesitantly, albeit compliantly, fluttered to a close.

"That heaviness- that water coursing through your body. Focus on it. Its there, your strength." Joshua scrutinized the boy- his eyes that had been formerly screwed shut gradually softened, his eyelashes daintily grazing the other with each flutter of his closed lids.

Joshua deliberately let the silence fan out, basking in a reticence that comfortably resided between the two. They trained in the warehouse, the entrance agape and letting the balmy rays of the retiring sun grace the dull concrete with a transitory glimmer, making the typically insipid pavement attitudinize as ethereal.

"Imagine that water pooling in your core, making it tight and moving all of your energy there," his tone merely grazing a whisper, conjoining with the whistle of the equally temperate gale. He eyed the brunette, whose arms ever so slightly drooped as the vitality seeps from his finger tips and drew inwards. 

Joshua lowered his own arms, discreetly sauntering over, "Think about it. Keep all of the energy, the strength of your core engaged."

He approached the unbeknownst boy, pressing a palm to the center of the other's abdomen.

Joshua felt the energy reverberate through his chest and to his lumbar, Dokyeom may not be Starborn, but he did have a certain vigor coursing through him. 

Joshua canted his head up, meeting Dokyeom's now opened, mellow, but stern eyes. His midnight orbs reflecting the hues of the sunset as he scanned Joshua's visage.

And right then, Joshua felt something flutter in the depths of his stomach. 

Specs of white littered the crepuscular sky, painting the backdrop of fixated star clusters with a lavender tint.  A soft rhythm of pants- an annex to the white noise of the night, chests rising and plummeting with each breath escaping their parted, chapped, lips.

Joshua had the notion that the two moved outside to spar in the moonlight as the warehouse was too dark for further toil.

So they sat, wilted meadow grass tickling the exposed skin of their ankles, positioned adjacent from each other as the moon scrutinized the tops of their scalps. 

Joshua ruminated- for someone who had faced remarkable volumes of adversity in a constrained period of time- it was an enigma to him how Dokyeom was able to sustain his unwavering mental fortitude, his perpetual optimistic outlook on things. Joshua could only recall the bitter pessimism that tainted his young soul when he was in analogous circumstances.

It made him feel weak, for Dokyeom, inexplicably, must have been stronger than he ever was.

His gaze wandered to the brunette, who lay with his hands cradling the back of his head, the ghost of fatigue looming over him. His skin soaked up the luminescence of the moon, melanin not losing an ounce of its vivacity against the ghastly rays. His were eyes closed and his features serene, but not dormant, as he basked in the twilight as if he had not a care in the world.

Joshua's chest swelled in envy, admiration. 

"Do you ever feel tired, Dokeyom-ah?"

The aforementioned hummed, "Yeah, I'm pretty worn out right now,"

"No, I mean..like... tired of it all. Tired of how we live," Joshua lowered to his elbows so his lumbar pressed flush against the grassy bed.

Cicadas crooned, their choppy breaths allaying to adhere to the serenity of the night-scape. 

"...All the time," he mused,

"You don't seem like it, though,"

Dokyeom drew in a breath, "I know, but its better for me, better for the people around me-"

"-To act happy?" Joshua cut him off, 

"To be happy,"

They lay in reticence as Joshua further studied the Dokyeom- his face less tranquil and more esoteric.

"How?" Joshua inquired, his remark coinciding with a respire,

"...I dunno, hyung,"

Joshua's eyebrows knit together as he pivoted his gaze back towards the stars, eyes drawing closed with afterimage of the stars etched into the back of his eyelids.