Super

03. puke

"About time." Baekhyun arched his eyebrows after glancing at his über-cool watch, a metal contraption that ran from his wrist to his elbow. It projected the time—and a few other statistics, only some of which would be recognizable by the layman—as a holograph just above his forearm. Mark eyed it hungrily as Baekhyun jerked his wrist inwards in a rotating motion, and the open lid flipped back into place.

Taemin smiled thinly, not fully looking at his orange-haired partner in justice. "I've been waiting outside for some time now, actually, running through some details I might have forgotten to mention. I doubt any of it posed problems, though, judging by their reactions—and, of course, by the extensive research we performed on their backgrounds."

A raven-haired man, who Mark recognized from Baekhyun's file as Ten, half-raised his hand, looking bemused and slightly afraid for his life. "Do we have a choice?"

Baekhyun made an amused sound at the back of his throat. "Hypothetically, yes."

"Anyway, we should be commencing the introductory presentation in a few minutes' time," the blonde millionaire said. "After the last member of the team decides to make an appearance."

Mark frowned, eyes skimming over the young men present. Baekhyun and Taemin, of course, and then there were Ten, Lucas, and Kai. Wait, that was just five—oh right, he had forgotten to include himself.

Sure enough, there was a noticeable lack of Taeyong.

Mark voiced his confusion, and Lucas's lips lifted fractionally in an expression of humor. "Taeyong," Taemin said, with barely a trace of emotion in his voice, "should be joining us about...now."

Right on cue, the huge double doors opened, and a blue-haired male staggered in.

Mark stared in amazement as Taeyong fell through, almost literally, bending over and resting his hands on his knees. His face was reddened, closely resembling a tomato, and his chest rose and fell like tall waves in the ocean. He could almost hear the heavy breathing from where he was standing. Taeyong had an oddly intense emotion in his eyes, like he was going to strangle someone, and Mark got the feeling that he needed to get out of the line of fire.

"Taeyong—" Baekhyun began.

Taeyong raised a firm hand, shaking his head and breathing harder, signalling to him that he needed a moment. Every pair of eyes in the room was trained on him as he finally straightened, the line of his body almost quivering with emotion.

"I think," he said, voice breathy and heavy and barely audible, "I'm gonna sit."

Upon saying this, he promptly threw up.

Ten's face twisted into an expression of utter disgust, and he shielded his eyes. Taeyong, wincing and stumbling away from the yellow-green looking slush and sat down on the floor itself, crossing his legs and holding his face in his hands.

"Ate bad burger," he breathed. "Muscles work hard. Puke."

"Yes, puke," Kai said sympathetically.

"Why would you climb up, like, twenty flights of stairs?" Mark asked softly, looking at the older male with a creased brow. "That's insane."

Taeyong glared up at him, wiping the back of his hand against his mouth. "Taemin offered to climb up with me."

"Not to be a mom, but if Taemin jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?"

The man glowered even harder, if that was possible. Mark knew he should have been intimidated by him, especially after knowing that he had superpowers and possibly had the ability to grind him to fine dust, but he couldn't bring himself to take seriously a person who climbed up stairs and puked afterwards.