Payback

Complications

(I know I haven't had much of BTS in here lately, but I promise there will be more of them coming up.)

              

"You have to be quicker than that." Christian said in his Australian accent as he held a practice sword in his hand and stood over me.

The sword was a bit blunt, but still sharp enough to rip the dress that I'm still wearing. He didn't give me time to change when we arrived at his practice gym. He just gave me a practice sword and the lesson began.

I was lying on the floor after being knocked down by Christian, gripping my sword tightly as I struggled to stand up.

"Well gee, I don't suppose you'll be nice and tell me how I can be quicker." My voice rang with sarcasm.

"I will once we're done here. I want to see what you're capable of right now."

I finally stood up, glaring at him through my damp strands of hair that fell into my face. Sweat trickled down my body, and my newly stitched cuts stung and bled. My dress had a couple of slashes, revealing my bare skin underneath. At this point, he might as well just rip my dress off.

He came at me again and I managed to dodge some of the blows, but within the next few minutes, I was back on the floor. The floor we were practicing on was enclosed and covered in sand. It was even harder to move around in the sand than it was on solid ground. Luckily that helped keep me from getting scraped up, but the sand was starting to get into some of my exposed cuts and it stung. Most of the bandages stayed in place, but a couple of them fell off. At this point, I might just die from an infection thanks to this guy.

I looked up to see Jackson and Hoseok using some of the work-out equipment on the other side of the gym. Hoseok drove us to the gym and decided to take full advantage of the gym. Jackson already had a spar with Christian and it went much better than mine is going.

"You're taking way too long to get up."

Christian was standing behind me, so I turned and looked up at him. I needed a minute to catch my breath, first.

"First of all, you're a master at this while I'm still a newbie. Second of all, I had no time to prepare myself. And third, you might want to be worried about the fact that I could die from an infection from the sand that's getting into my cuts."

Christian just smiled and walked over to me. He gestured toward his bandaged shoulder. "You're fighting against someone who has an injured shoulder and you're complaining about a few cuts?"

"Well, can your injury get infected by sand?"

Christian chuckled and then turned and walked over to a wall nearby where the swords hung. He put the practice sword up on the wall and grabbed a real Katana sword. He unsheathed it and walked over toward me.

At this point, I had stood back up and I watched as Christian approached me with the sword. What is he doing with that? My thought was answered when he moved to strike me. I quickly blocked the blow, but he moved on to his next strike. I did the best I could to block each of his blows, and I tried to attack, but to no avail.

My heel caught the edge of the sand pit, causing me to lose my focus. Christian's sword came up and sliced through my dress from the bottom all the way up to the top. I felt the sting of the blade cut my skin, but only very lightly. I fell backward, tripping over the wooden beam that enclosed the sand pit. My back hit the floor and my shredded dress lay on the floor while my bare body was exposed to the air and the two pairs of eyes in the gym. I was defeated.

I watched as Christian approached me. I made no effort to cover myself since the shredded dress was pretty much in tatters anyway. I glared up at him as he smirked down at me.

"You don't become an assassin quickly by having an instructor teach you every little thing." Christian said as he kneeled down next to me. I noticed his eyes wandering over my body. "Some things you have to learn on your own. You have to learn from the other's mistakes and actions. When you come back tomorrow, I expect you to be ready to learn rather than run your sweet little mouth like that."

With one last glance at my exposed body, he stood up and walked away. I wanted to punch him in the face, but my arms and legs felt limp from struggling to fight with a master assassin. Should I just sleep here? I can barely move.

"Akio?"

Jackson came into my view as he approached me from the direction that he was working out. I saw him bite his lip as he approached me, his eyes scanning my exposed body quickly.

"Jackson." My voice sounded weak. "I can't move."

Jackson gave me a little smile before he kneeled down and scooped me up into his arms. With an exaggerated groan, he stood up and began to walk over toward the locker rooms. My weak arms wrapped around Jackson's neck as he carried me.

"I know you just took a shower earlier, but let's get the sand off of you and I'll take you home."

I saw Hoseok open the door to the men's locker room and Jackson carried me over to the showers. The cleaning crew just left a short while ago, so the showers smelled clean and fresh. Only Hoseok, Jackson and me remained in the building. I looked over to see Hoseok go to one of the closed-in showers nearby.

"My clothes are in the women's locker room." I murmured as Jackson placed me on a bench that sat in front of a detachable showerhead.

"I'll get them later." He said in a soft voice as he turned the water on.

I could tell that he was trying to avoid looking at my naked body, but he was failing miserably. It made me giggle.

Jackson raised an eyebrow at me as I tried to stifle my laughter. "Is something funny?"

I nodded.

"You don't have to try so hard to not look at me. You're failing miserably."

Jackson gave me a playful glare and he showered my face with the water for a second, earning him a surprised squeal from me.

With help from Jackson, I managed to wash off the blood, sweat, and sand. Hoseok went over to the women's locker room and got my things while I dried off. Jackson re-patched some of my cuts where the previous bandages were before I changed into my clothes. The three of us walked out of the locker room only to find that we weren't alone. To my surprise, I saw Jin standing there. For the past month, we haven't really spoken much and even if we did, he always insulted me in some way. He looked rather pissed at the moment.

"Jin?"

I looked at him, puzzled.

"What are you doing here?"

Jin looked between Jackson, Hoseok, and me before he finally spoke up.

"I heard that you're switching jobs, Akio."

Jin's eyes looked dark as he looked at me. I felt as if his eyes were trying to burn a hole into my head.

I just nodded, not letting him intimidate me.

"Yeah, so? Why do you care?"

"Because I'm the head of the military part of this mafia. I control all weapons, and jobs related to assassinations, organized raids, and weapons dealings."

Jin took a few steps toward me. I could see a hint of a smirk playing on his lips as he stopped right in front of me.

"I'm your boss now, Akio."