8 is fate // Stray Kids

13

Jisung

"How was it with the evil queen?", Hyunjin was the first to arrive at the gym after Jisung.

"Evil queen? What are you talking about?", asked Jisung confused as he stretched.

"You know, Sujin is hella scary", explained Hyunjin. "That earned her the nickname."

"You think? She's really nice and caring though", wondered Jisung. He knew that Sujin could be scary when she was angry, but that rarely ever happened.

"Are we talking about the same person?", asked Hyunjin chuckling. "That woman gives me the chills."

"That's the Hannie privilege for you", Changbin entered the training room, having overheard the conversation he couldn't help but to comment on it.

"How can I get that too?", asked Hyunjin.

"Tell me when you've found out", deadpanned Changbin, making Hyunjin and Jisung laugh.

"Stop being so melodramatic", snorted Jisung. He finished his warm-up as everyone else started to file in. Since two weeks were a rather short time span, they had decided to start the training straight away.

Jisung mustered everyone up and down. Hyunjin and Jeongin looked exited, while Seungmin, Changbin, Chan and Felix looked rather unsure. Minho looked disdainful,but that was nothing new.

From what Jisung could see, it felt like this had been Hyunjin and Jeongin's idea and everyone else had been more or less forced to join. He guessed that Changbin had been too kind to tell the truth and sugarcoated the whole thing for Jisung.

This would be interesting.

"So to start, I'd like to spar with everyone individually, just for three minutes each and I want you to fight without your powers. I know that your advanced physical abilities can't be properly controlled so they are excluded from the ban. Through this I will be able to gauge your raw fighting styles, as well as your strengths and weaknesses. It will also help me to develop a training strategy for the next days", explained Jisung. "Hyunjin, will you show them how it's done?"

With a big smirk, Hyunjin jumped to his feet. "It'd be my pleasure."

It's been a while since the two had last sparred but this used to be a daily routine for them, making Hyunjin his perfect first opponent.

"I hope you've worked on your attacks", teased Jisung as they got into position.

"You should worry about your defense", retorted Hyunjin without missing a beat. A grin spread on their faces, this felt like they were back at the arena.

As soon as Chan gave them the 'go', the two fighters went at each other.

Somewhat proud, Jisung noticed that Hyunjin had really improved a lot. His attacks had gotten stronger but his defense was still the most impressive thing about him. Hyunjin was like a slippery fish that you couldn't catch, no matter how hard you tried. His movements were smooth, fluid and graceful.

It was a fun fight. They knew each other so well that the spar resembled a dance more than a fight.

Still, while Hyunjin hadn't been slacking off, Jisung had been worked to the bones. Every part of his body was trimmed to fight. It didn't take long for him to gain the upper hand, but Hyunjin didn't give in easily, he was relentless. He would always get back up and continue to fight just as fiercely as before.

The timer went off at the same time as Hyunjin's back hit the mat.

"Damn dude, how are you human?", panted Hyunjin as he took Jisung's extended hand to help himself up. "You would be a beast if you were supernatural."