The Trials of Neo City [WINWIN • YUTA]

🖤 11. House of Memories 🖤

That day, Sicheng met all of the tributes within the training center, one way or another.

There was Yuta, of course. He knew him well enough already; the older boy seemed to take a fierce liking to Sicheng, almost protectively. And Sicheng was happy to have befriended him. Or allied, whatever he was calling it.

There was Shotaro too, a talkative little thing who followed Yuta around like a puppy. He tried to befriend everyone who crossed his path, even one of the Peacemakers watching over the training center. He was clever, it seemed, but also dangerously naive and even more dangerously so friendly. Without Yuta, Shotaro didn't stand much of a chance in Sicheng's eyes.

Yuta had also taken a notice to a small kid, barely older than Shotaro. Dark hair, oblivious, large dark eyes... Mark was too good. Sicheng almost felt bad for him; Mark didn't seem like the type to take the games and the circumstances too well. Sicheng imagined that even in the unlikely event of Mark winning the games, the trauma would get him in the end. The guilt, the pain;
Mark was quite soft, quite a kind soul who flinched every time a mannequin was attacked where he could witness it or a loud sound rang out. Sicheng doubted Mark's ability to kill anything, even in a survival situation. Some people have the guts to do it, but Mark... Sicheng knew Mark wouldn't last long.

Later that day, he'd also met Chenle, a rather stuck-up little boy younger than Renjun who laughed like a dolphin. He trailed behind a much larger, taller boy, about Taeil's age, who Sicheng assumed was from the same District. Both children were built like Careers, was scrawny than the others and a perpetual glare on their faces, as if judging everyone around them.

The freakishly tall boy, Sicheng found out, was Johnny. And the small District Two boy (Chitta-something, Sicheng still couldn't remember) had taken quite the liking to him, sweet-talking Johnny and Chenle to join him and Lucas. He didn't know exactly what the verdict was, but he assumed that if the Careers all teamed up, there would be trouble.

Speaking of Careers, he had further met Lucas... Sicheng could tell that he wasn't very smart, but made up for it in charm and muscle. Hell, Sicheng would be lying if he said that Lucas's pleasant smile wasn't just that: pleasant. He seemed kind, especially compared to the small boy from the very same district. Lucas was also the strongest tribute by a landslide and so far, acted as the smaller boy's personal bodyguard. But Sicheng had no fights, no issues with him; he decided to keep an open mind.

Yuta didn't seem to like Taeil. Any time the oldest would get too close to Sicheng, it seemed like Yuta would tote around the younger tribute instead, dragging him away to show him a cool sword technique or how to make a fire. Taeil still was friendly, but Sicheng noticed how his ears and neck became pink whenever Taeil's hand grazed his. He wasn't too sure how to feel about that, to be honest.

There wasn't much to say about Jungwoo, in Sicheng's opinion. He turned out much more physically capable than his gentle looks gave off, but something was off about him. Something similar, something familiar that he couldn't quite place. Jungwoo simply stayed on the other side of the training center the whole time, so Sicheng had no real reason to approach him.

Yangyang was sort of a monster; the kid constantly stood in a glass room, swinging a sword at a moving target. One stab, two stabs, a slash here and there. At one point, the target malfunctioned and stopped moving, to which Yangyang jumped upon it and broke it even farther. By the time he'd left, the dummy had slashes, bite marks, tears in its cloth exterior, and looked downright maimed. Laughing, Yangyang was pried off of the mannequin, which had ended up decapitated by the end of it. The kid had a wild sort of hyperactivity and a feral survival instinct, but soon Sicheng realized he had no real coordination. One wrong move and Sicheng could already hear Yangyang's cannon boom in his head.