DUAL

//15

The blue flames coating his fists did not exactly disappear even after the last training session for that day ended. Yugyeom gripped his shoulder, silently warning him not to find trouble. His face was stoic all the time he let the men torment his ears with their scorns, yet his insides burned intensely.

"Why do you have to train so hard, Jeon? Is it so you can be just like your father?"

Cackles.

"Pay them no heed, Jeon," Yugyeom said with a lower voice, forcing him to move away from the training ground.

Everyone else except Jungkook, Yugyeom, the guards and those men had already cleared out of the area. The trainer had already disappeared from there. A perfect opportunity to let them know that he was not one to mess with. He wanted so much to land a couple blows to their mouths.

"Come on, Jeon," Yugyeom's fingers dug into his shoulder. "You said it yourself that it's no use to feed them. They choose to be fools, so let them be."

His grandfather's words came back to his mind. Entertain their foolish antics and you're no different than them.

His grandfather wouldn't like the idea of him fighting with the rest of the Newcomers. More fighting wouldn't exactly cut him out of the list. He would still stand a chance to be the official Defender. Though, if he was unlucky enough to get new severe wounds, his chance would be slim. Perhaps, even slimmer than before when he was left with two wounds so terrible he nearly died.

He still had a long way to go to end his days as a Newcomer. If he gained another awful injury that would really put his life on the line, he might as well be cut off from the list. He would probably end up like the other Newcomers who didn't make the cut, only serving as guards, most of them. You're still a Newcomer, he reminded himself repeatedly in his head.

He could no longer let Chaeyoung heal him even if she'd plead him with her eyes. And obviously, even if he was on the verge of death, the Healing Sector couldn't possibly accept him.

Because, he was still a Newcomer.

Jungkook's balled fists loosened and the flames gone. He took a deep breath and sighed heavily, letting Yugyeom pushed him away from the loudness of the men behind them.

"You've changed, Jeon," yelled one of them. "Never expected that you'd be afraid!"

Even when Yugyeom said a few things to let him know that those were just rubbish and he shouldn't pay much attention to any of them, Jungkook felt the fire in him only grew stronger.

After he had his dinner with his grandfather, Jungkook's silence only thickened that his ears muted any sounds, unaware of what the old man was saying. When he finally heard his grandfather's voice, it was after the old man threw him the stone bowl. The bowl hit him directly on his head, causing his eyes to turn bright red and fire began to wrap his whole arms.

The old man only watched him with dull eyes, unaffected by him fuming. "If you won't stop letting those fools get into your head, you're going to destroy my house," his grandfather said monotonously. "And I have no time to rebuild it."

The old man walked over to where the bowl had landed on the floor, took it to his hand and Jungkook felt his grandfather's eyes on him. "If you still wish to live here under my roof, control your anger and learn to be wise." Just as he thought it was over, his grandfather added, "Do not be like him."

Him.

Though the fire around his arms had gone out, his anger still wouldn't dissipate. Jungkook's hand gripped the arms of the wooden chair he was sitting on and one of it shattered.