Divergent | Jungkook AU

Chapter Nine

“SINCE THERE ARE an odd number of you, one of you won’t be fighting today,” says JK, steppingaway from the board in the training room.

He gives me a look. The space next to my name is blank. The knot in my stomach unravels. A reprieve.

“This isn’t good,” says Hanni, nudging me with her elbow. Her elbow prods one of my sore muscles—I have more sore muscles than not-sore muscles, this morning—and I wince.

“Ow.”

“Sorry,” she says. “But look. I’m up against the Tank.”

Hanni and I sat together at breakfast, and earlier she shielded me from the rest of the dormitory as I changed. I haven’t had a friend like her before. 

“The Tank?” I find Hanni’s name on the board. Written next to it is “Molly.”

“Yeah, Yeonjun's slightly more feminine-looking minion,” she says, nodding toward the cluster of people on the other side of the room.

Molly is a bit taller than Hanni, but that’s where the similarities end. She has broad shoulders, bronze skin, and a bulbous nose.

“Those three”—Hanni points at Yeonjun, Drew, and Molly in turn—“have been inseparable since they crawled out of the womb, practically. I hate them.”

Kai and Taehyung stand across from each other in the arena. They put their hands up by their faces to protect themselves, as JK taught us, and shuffle in a circle around each other.

Taehyung is half a foot taller than Kai, and twice as broad. As I stare at him, I realize that even his facial features are big—big
nose, big lips, big eyes. This fight won’t last long.

I glance at Yaonjun and his friends. Drew is shorter than both Yeonjun and Molly, but he’s built like a boulder, and his shoulders are always hunched. His hair is orange-red, the color of an old carrot.

“What’s wrong with them?” I say.

“Yeonjun is pure evil. When we were kids, he would pick fights with people from other factions and then, when an adult came to break it up, he’d cry and make up some story about how the other kid started it. And of course, they believed him, because we were Candor and we couldn’t lie. Ha ha.”

Hanni wrinkles her nose and adds,
“Drew is just his sidekick. I doubt he has an independent thought in his brain. And Molly…she’s the kind of person who fries ants with a magnifying glass just to watch them flail around.”

In the arena, Taehyung punches Kai hard in the jaw. I wince. Across the room, Suho smirks at Taehyung, and turns one of the rings in his eyebrow. Kai stumbles to the side, one hand pressed to his face, and blocks Taehyung’s next punch with his free hand. Judging by his grimace, blocking the punch is as painful as a blow would have been. Taehyung is slow,
but powerful.

Yaonjun, Drew, and Molly cast furtive looks in our direction and then pull their heads together, whispering.

“I think they know we’re talking about them,” I say.

“So? They already know I hate them.”

“They do? How?”

Hanni fakes a smile at them and waves. I look down, my cheeks warm. I shouldn’t be gossiping anyway. Gossiping is self-indulgent.

Kai hooks a foot around one of Taehyung's legs and yanks back, knocking Taehyung to the ground. Taehyung scrambles to his feet.

“Because I’ve told them,” she says, through the gritted teeth of her smile. Her teeth are straight on top and crooked on the bottom. She looks at me. “We try to be pretty honest about our feelings in Candor. Plenty of people have told me that they don’t like me. And plenty of people haven’t. Who cares?”