SILENCE | ATEEZ

3 | Strands Of Allegiance

The loud blast of gunfire alarm wakes Mingi in horror. He quickly leaps off his cubicle and the sight of Yeosang already putting his uniform on greets his eyes. The mentor gives off a little nod, before nudging at his uniform. His hand doesn't stop combing strands of his black hair.

"Morning, Mingi. Better put on the uniform now, the capsule is going to open soon. They don't like newbies who are late."

He walks to the side of his necessities, grabbing a toothbrush and hurling into the toilet. A few minutes pass, Mingi comes out the toilet already fully dressed in the uniform they had prepared for the newbies. He compares the outfit he gets with Yeosang, there isn't much difference aside from the stripe colour. A black compression body suit. The uniform was tailored exactly for him, but it's hard to say whether he likes it.

It's too fitting to his liking, but it is comfortable enough for his good. The uniform is black in colour, fit to his body and it has white stripes that line both sides of his torso down to his legs. Yeosang has red stripes on his outfit, reflecting the superiority he has as a mentor. Mingi can tell that Yeosang isn't really that proud of it, given how he couldn't care less about the given opportunity to do anything towards the newbie.

Though Mingi can see that Yeosang does put extra effort on his presence. He can even smell his perfume all over the room.

The both then make their ways into the capsule on the other side of the room. It's a tube, big enough for two. Yeosang faces the other way when they enter it together, as his hands are still busy fixing the strands of his hair. He can feel Mingi's eyes on him, before he gradually retreats his hands.

"You know, you might want to appear very decently in front of them. It's your first impression towards the board members of VESTRA."

"I don't give a shit," Mingi scoffs, nearly rolling his eyes off. Yeosang only shrugs, "trust me, I've been in your place too. I still regret not taking my mentor's advice."

The capsule closes, and it starts to generate some kind of whirring sound from the bottom of the tube. Yeosang closes his eyes, letting his body give in to the gravity as the sudden blast of air pushes both of them up through the capsule. Mingi lets out a splitting ear scream as he moves through the capsule, grasping for anything that he can hold onto. Yeosang is unbothered, not until Mingi squeezes his own shoulder for support because it seems like he has nothing to hold onto except Yeosang.

His grip on him is nothing but painful that Yeosang had to endure the whole time they're in the capsule because there's no point in him screaming back. Mingi is too immersed in his terrifying world, screaming non stop at his ears that he is now kind of developing some regret over his mentorship.

The capsule finally slows down and they land back on the capsule's floor as Yeosang shoves Mingi away from him. The capsule opens and he doesn't even look back to check on Mingi when he walk away, dusting his own uniform that's slightly ruined because of the newbie. Mingi takes a moment to regain his composure before finally following Yeosang suit.

The lounge is an enormous place that could gather thousands of people at once. Taking in the surroundings, Mingi wonders if it's possible to have a place this big in a building. He does know that Astral Ruin is gigantic, but this place almost looks like it's a whole football field arena that could host thousands of people. The lounge has a few sections that converge into a big hall in the middle. The section consists of multiple designated areas, which he can see from his limited eyesight, the closest one to him is the section for light hand weapons, like knives and daggers.

This must be the place that Yeosang talked to him about yesterday, where VESTRA hosts their newbies for the training. Another section that catches his eyes is the section filled with hammers that weigh quite a lot of pounds. There's also sections for crossbows, rifles, boxing and so many other types of weapon and self defence tools. The sections are labelled with numbers, and for once Mingi haven't seen any soldiers guarding it.