ANL - mark lee

14

"I think it's done," aeri smiled looking over her room that now felt like her own.

"thank god," jaemin dramatically flopped onto the bed.

"oh please," aeri rolled her eyes, taking a seat next to her friend.

looking at the ceiling, neither of them spoke for a long time.

aeri finally broke the silence, "jaemin, i'm scared," she whispered.

jaemin let out a slow breath, turning to face his friend. tears shimmered on aeri's eyelashes as she looked back at him. a shaky breath left her mouth, trying to keep herself from crying.

"i'm sorry," jaemin let out in a soft tone.

he sat up, slowly pulling his friend towards him, allowing her to cry into his shoulder. she needed this right now.

they sat like this for a long time, wordlessly letting eachother feel.

the silence in the room was broken when the door quickly opened.

"hey aeri-" haechans words quickly cut off when he viewed the situation.

aeri sat up quickly, wiping her eyes.

"i'll, just come back later."

"no, what is it." another sniffle left aeri's nose.

"I just wanted to tell you, you're first training starts tomorrow morning with mark and I. he said to be in the gym by six,"

"why so early?" jaemin asked.

"i've got school and mark wants to get it done early I guess. then she has all her other trainings after that. she'll be done by noon, because taeyong wants her to have time for schoolwork." haechan explained.

aeri groaned, "I was barely passing chemistry as is".

"yeah.. sorry about that," haechan replied, "anyways, taeyong wanted you to read everyone's profiles and he printed out your schedule for the next few weeks."

he handed over a file folder that seemed to be overflowing.

"wait, I want to see my file," jaemin quickly reached out for the papers.

aeri pulled away sticking her tongue out at the boy, "maybe i'll let you see them if you help me with chemistry." she teased.

jaemin rolled his eyes, "i'll let you get some sleep, apparently you'll need it before tomorrow."

jaemin and haechan left her room, the door clicking shut behind them.

aeri made her way to the bathroom getting ready for bed.

coco purred at her feet as she moved throughout the room and finally settled at the foot of her bed.

after tossing and turning for nearly an hour, aeri gave in, deciding sleep wasn't likely to happen.

she flipped the lamp at her bedside on, taking the files off of her nightstand. if she can't sleep she might as well learn.

she opened the folder, being met with the profile for taeyong. the paper was short, straight to the point. he was good with everything, knives appearing to be his specialty. he was the leader of the gang.

she continued to skim the profiles, all containing similar information names, specialties, and units. as she skimmed everyone seemed to have a place, a fit role. there was no way she could outdo anyone at things they are were good at.

she paused when she reached mark's profile. he was everywhere, in every unit. he didn't have any weaknesses it seemed. he was deemed strong everywhere. he was unavoidable.

aeri checked her phone, she had spent two hours looking at the profiles. now she would only get three hours of sleep before her training tomorrow.

it seemed she had just closed her eyes when her alarm went off. she fumbled, eventually finding the stop button. groaning, she flipped her light on. she had given herself 30 minutes to get ready and mentally prepare herself for what lies ahead of her.

aeri arrived at the gym door at 5:59. after two minutes of convincing herself it was going to be okay she walked in. 6:01. 

"you're late" mark stated blandly from next to a bench by the door.

"by one minute" aeri shot back.

a few seconds after her own entrance the door swung open revealing haechan.

"he's late too" aeri shot a glance at mark.

"yeah, well he's not the one that needs training" mark replied boredly, "let's get on with it then".

aeri watched as he walked towards the mat in the center of the room. this was the most civil he had been since her arrival. as he turned back to look at her she was met with a hard stare. this wasn't any different than what it had been before.

aeri followed him to the center mat, haechan following behind.

"if we are being honest here you are going to be at a disadvantage a lot. most everyone who you will ever go hand to hand with will be double your size." haechan spoke from behind her.

mark then intervened, "so, in order for you to get that experience, you will train for an hour and a half, learning new skills and then at the end of every session you will fight with haechan, hopefully applying your new skills".

aeri nodded, "where do we start?"

one hour. that was all it took for aeri to feel like her body was falling apart. her arms felt like they could fall off, while the skin on her knuckles burned a bright red.

"okay, that's enough learning for today." mark stated, his arms crossed as he pushed off the wall, "it will be a one minute match. don't kill eachother, shoulders to the mat for three seconds and you win."

aeri nodded, looking across the mat at haechan. mark shouted begin, signaling for them to start.

haechan took slow steps towards her, aeri took a few steps backwards, her foot stepping off the mat. she looked over to mark who nodded at her, as if telling her to go on. she took a breath, stepping back onto the mat.

haechan nodded, allowing her to swing at him. minseo took the swing and within seconds was flat on her back, haechan standing above her and then mark.

marks hand reached towards her as if to help her up. aeri stared hesitantly for a moment, slowly taking his hand.

"you're too focused on power that you don't have any balance. he easily flipped you because you had no footing."

aeri looked to his eyes only to see he wasn't looking at her. she followed his gaze to the upper windows in the gym. taeyong stood, watching.

of course, he wouldn't be kind for no reason.

she nodded at his correction, turning away. he wouldn't get the satisfaction of using her. she walked over to a small fridge that sat in the corner, grabbing a water bottle out of it.

haechan followed suite, taking a seat on the bench that sat against the wall.

"so, what's next?" he asked.

"knife training with doyoung? i've met him once and then guns with winwin, never met the guy." she shrugged.

"you'll like them, they're the nicer of the 127 hyungs." haechan reassured her. he set a hand on her shoulder as if to tell her it would be okay, and then exited the gym.

soon after the door swung closed behind him, it swung open yet again revealing none other than doyoung.

aeri had read his file last night, but all she could remember was meeting him when they saved jaemin and that he was good with knives. probably why he was training her in knives.

he smiled, "hello aeri, let's begin."