Blood and Roses || Lee Taeyong

Chapter 5 | "go crazy"

Chaerin kept training with the guys for the next few weeks and slowly she started to feel like she was becoming part of their family. Well, minus Taeyong who still hadn't spoken to her and it was annoying her to say the least. Aside from him, they had all grown close and she had definitely gotten stronger.

Back at school, Hansol wasn't happy with her. He noticed that she had somehow grown even closer to the guys, and was beginning to expand her friend circle with the other members who attended their college in younger grades. He had become more controlling, or at least was trying to be, but she just shut up and took it before releasing the pent up frustration at home.

"Alright who pissed you off today?" Kun asked as he walked into the training room, seeing her ruthlessly attacking a punching bag.

"Who else? Hansol." She grunted between punches.

"What did he do this time?" He asked, going to stabilize the bag for her. "Try to tell you how to drink water a certain way?"

"No, not that dumb." She said with a sigh, taking a break from her workout. "I'm chair of the dance committee and I have to plan the underclassmen spring formal."

"Oh I totally forgot about that. Lucas and Jungwoo have been really excited. All of them have."

"Yeah well I've been working on organizing the whole thing and I finally managed the budget and made it all nice, but then here comes Hansol thinking he knows better." She mumbled out, rolling her eyes. "Like I know this is a dumb issue, but I've planned every dance at this school since I was a sophomore. I think I can handle it."

"He's just being controlling. It's what he does." Kun said, rolling his eyes and thinking about all the times he'd witnessed Hansol's attitude towards her.

"Yeah and like, I know it's petty." She said, straightening up to face the bag again. "But I'm" punch. "A petty" punch. "person!" She smacked the bag a final time before letting out a deep sigh.

"Feel better?"

"Yeah actually much better." She said with a nod.

"Good. Take a break, go do some homework or something, and then come back down before dinner. Jaehyun wants to do a test on you to see if you're ready to move on from combat." He said with a smile.

"Ooh exciting, okay, see you in a bit!" She replied cheerily before skipping her way up to her room.

- - -

Chaerin let out a nervous breath as she made her way back down to the practice room that night. She was making significant headway with the hacking side of gang life, having adjusted to their systems and practice hacked into some smaller organizations, but training was different. She wasn't naturally gifted at the fighting side, and despite her speed, her strength and technique was still needing improvement.

When she entered the room, she was surprised to see the whole gang gathered there, Jaehyun standing in the center talking quietly with Jeno and Jaemin. The moment she walked in, all eyes were on her.

"Chaerin! Alright you're here." Jaehyun said with a smile, beckoning her over to the center.

"Is this a really big thing? I didn't realize the whole gang would be watching..." she said nervously as Jaemin comfortingly rubbed her shoulders.

"Don't worry about them." Said the younger boy cheerily. "They all just wanted to come watch. Most of them haven't seen you fight before."

"Got it." She said with an anxious chuckle. "So am I just fighting you guys then or...?"

"Oh no, you know us too well." Jeno said with a chuckle. "You're going to be fighting some of them."

He gestured around the room and instantly Chaerin felt panic flood her system.

"Relax, Chae." Jaehyun said, noticing the change in her demeanor. "They'll take it easy and you don't need to beat them. You just need to be proficient enough at fighting that we can be confident you won't die that easily."

"Wow very comforting, Jae." She said sarcastically. "I hope I won't die that easily."

"Well that's what we're here to find out!" Jaemin exclaimed happily. "And if you pass, you get to move onto knifes, which is my specialty."

"And guns," Jeno added. "Which is mine."

"Uh sounds... fun?"

"It will be." Jaemin said with a firm nod. "A lot more fun than combat, trust me."

"Right...." she trailed off. "So who am I fighting?"

"Hmmm let's see...." Jaehyun scanned the room, quickly thinking through who she'd face. "Let's go with Lucas and Mark."

"Lucas? You want her to fight Lucas?" Jeno exclaimed with wide eyes. "He could literally step on her!"

"Well then it's up to her to not get stepped on." Jaehyun replied quickly, beckoning the two boys onto the floor. "Lucas, you're up first. Don't go crazy here, we need her in one piece."

"Yes sir." Lucas said jokingly, going over to give Chaerin a squeeze. "This is going to be fun. Don't hold back, Chae."

"Please don't step on me." She squeaked out, causing all the boys in the room to chuckle.

"I won't, just give it your all." Lucas said with a nod, going to stand on one end of the mat as the other boys cleared off the floor.

"Alright everyone, let's get started." Jaehyun called out, the room falling into a hush.

As Chaerin stared down Lucas, some movement by the far wall caught her eye. She turned her head to see Taeyong walk into the room, leaning on the doorframe with narrowed eyes as he awaited the fight that was to come. She rolled her eyes, so over his bullshit attitude towards her already as she zoned back in on Lucas.

"Chaerin, Lucas.... begin."

This is gonna be a double update today😆