To See The Moon

Being Able to Trust

     A chapter of fluff with a few... dark undertones.

     Seugmin knew he had made the biggest mistake of his life the minute he was thrown onto the mat of the sports centre.

     "And that's how you do it, Jeongin!" Chan said proudly, completely oblivious to Seungmin's suffering.

     "That's cool and all, Channie hyung, but why was I your test subject!?" Seungmin complained.

     "Because you have the strength to put up a fight AND you're Jeongin's friend," Chan said, helping Seungmin up.

     "Yeah, I'm beginning to regret the second part," Seungmin said, giving Jeongin a glare, the younger sticking his tongue out as a reply.

     "Were you watching, Jeongin?" Chan asked seriously.

     "Yes, you know I was!" Jeongin said.

     Chan couldn't deny that. A week of lessons and Jeongin was trying to be the best student he could possibly be. He came by on time after school (a very irritated Seungmin in tow,) and earnestly tried to learn everything Chan was teaching him.

     A bit TOO earnestly. When he was fighting, Jeongin went into a sort of zone, where nothing else existed around him. In normal circumstances, Chan would be impressed. It wasn't easy for people to become this focused.

     But there was something different about Jeongin. There always was. The zone he seemed to be in unnerved Chan. Like there was always something else clouding Jeongin's mind. Like his eyes were directed on an energy that nobody else could sense. Chan couldn't really put his finger on what it was.

     "Okay, Jeongin, spar with me using what I've taught you," Chan said. "I'll go a bit easy on you."

     "It's okay, hyung, come at me with all you've got!" Jeongin said. His enthusiasm should have been good. Why wasn't Chan happy to see it?

     "Okay, three, two, one, go!"

     Another thing to note about Jeongin. He wasn't half bad. He had a very good reaction time and retaliated back quickly after dodging an attack. Throughout the spar, Chan couldn't help but notice the fire in Jeongin's eyes, his intense focus on every hit. His smile was gone, he was in the zone. But that wasn't a good thing.

     Chan's expertise took over. Jeongin's foot slipped a little and Chan took the opportunity to grab his arm and turn his body around, locking Jeongin into a losing position. Jeongin grunted against the force Chan had applied to the attack. Chan knew he had overdone it a little. He didn't know why. When he was against Jeongin, a certain fight and flight instinct kicked in and he didn't like it one bit.

     "You're clumsy," Chan said, the authoritative part of him taking over. "And you don't check to see where your punches are going. Your defence does no good if you can't get a hit in."

     Jeongin began to struggle against Chan's hold, even though he had clearly lost the fight. Chan found himself losing his grip.

     "Whoa, Jeongin, calm down!" Chan turned Jeongin back towards him and loosened his grip a little, but refused to let go until Jeongin's rigid stance had finally calmed down and his breathing went back to normal.

     "You're taking this too seriously, Jeongin," Chan said.

     "I- isn't that what you want?" Jeongin asked, clearly confused.

     "No, I mean yes, but-" Chan struggled to find the words to properly explain what was going wrong. What was going wrong? "I'm not trying to hurt you. And you're not trying to hurt me. Yet, whenever I teach you, you become aggressive. Sometimes that's good, but in your case, it's almost like..."