TARGET

열셋

Minghao lay on his bed, sprawled out with his arms and legs out in all directions. He was working with Wonwoo but decided to take a break, if he had another algorithm explained to him, he felt as if his head would combust.

The Circle.

They had been their biggest target for the entirety of Ursula Minor's existence. As of now they knew the rough coordinates of 17th Circle's base. They couldn't move in to seize the base until the trainees where ready for higher-order combat.

The elders desperately tried to get Renjun to practice his stargift with them, but he refused. Minghao once caught him making his own mini snowstorm hovering above his hand, which made him a bit proud to know he had gained some type of control over his stargift.

Allegedly, he just discovered his stargift.

Minghao doesn't know why he trust Renjun, but he does. Jeonghan however, is another case.

He doesn't necessarily hate Renjun, but he did hold some type of distaste for the boy due to him lacking transparency, which worried Jeonghan secretly.

He confided his concerns to Minghao one night, Minghao listened attentively to the elder,

"They're good kids, all of them- especially Renjun. I know that, I feel bad for snapping at him while he was so...vulnerable but still... safety, Minghao. What if he hit someone by accident-"

Jeonghan held his head in his arms, rubbing his hands across his face and through his hair, huffing out.

"I understand hyung, but now their all so distant, even during class- it gets hard to communicate with them outside of the essentials,"

Jeonghan looked up at Minghao, his expression dejected.

"Just, why didn't he tell us? Why does he hate us, hao?"

Minghao sighed, before he could reflect further, the front door opened and Joshua announced his arrival.

Soonyoung sit outside the dorms in the street corner of the backside of their apartment complex, absent-minded flipping his pocket knife open and closed.

He watched as pedestrians walked by, some with their partners or their dogs; as cars whizzed past in blurs of bright headlights; the minimal view he could get of the lively cafe across the street through the opening of the street corner. The dusk crept upon downtown Seoul, painting the sky in honey hues with cotton clouds strewn across its canvas.

It was Thursday, meaning he taught armed combat classes two days ago.

This week, Renjun, Jeno, and Chenle were Batch 1 with Jaemin, Haechan, and Jisung being the latter.

Soonyoung has his brows furrowed as he thought back to what had occupied his mind for the past few days:

Tuesday

Chenle was going about his own advanced target practice with a handgun and moving targets since he was highly experienced, Soonyoung had to give him separate tasks to stimulate his learning.

On the other hand Jeno and Renjun had daggers in their hands practicing throwing daggers.

"Keep your legs in a lunge and gain momentum from moving your body forward along with your arm throwing the dagger-" Soonyoung demonstrated, hitting the painted target on the red circle in the middle, but not directly in the center since he did it quite lazily.

Jeno nodded, Renjun did nothing (as always) but followed through with orders. The two made it closer to the middle with each critique, they went on until Chenle made his way back-

"The amo is out," He simply said, his lips pressed together in an attempt of a friendly smile, but it was obviously strained.

It pained Soonyoung to see all the boys distant because of the situation with Renjun, but he had to respect their boundaries.

"I didn't bring that much today, so you can practice dagger throwing with them." Soonyoung gestured at the rack of daggers and the 6 foot tall wooden wall painted with 5 targets painted across.

Chenle made his was to the target on the far right, so that each boy was a target apart to avoid any obstruction with each others practice, since occasionally they wouldn't hit the target.

Chenle copied the stances of his peers, turning back to earn a nod from Soonyoung in approval.

His eyes narrowed, staring down the target-

Chenle furrowed his brow in thought:

If my elbow is at an exact 89.6387 degree angle, and I flick my wrist 0.4 of a second before release, then that would result in a 60 degree pathway if it travels 35 km/h, then again- velocity and degree yields distance, then the most optimal angle would be 71.467 midair and 40 at release-

3..

2...

1..

Soonyoung turned his head to unusually loud sound of a dagger hitting the wood, He first saw Jeno and Renjun frozen, their heads turned to Chenle's direction, since their backs faced Soonyoung he couldn't see their expressions, nor the targets well.

He walked closer to Chenle and his target, seeing that Chenle's hand was free of a dagger, he then looked at the target-

his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

The dagger pierced the wood directly in the center.

Chenle looked around, confused at their dumbfounded expressions-

"What?"

After a while of silence, Soonyoung blinked and cleared his throat, patting Chenle on the back-

"G-good job kid, you ever thrown daggers before?"

Chenle shook his head no politely, reaching for a different knife.

Soonyoung stood back, but still kept a proximity where he could watch Chenle closely.

His stance wasn't perfect, but Soonyoung didn't say anything, just observed. Chenle got into position, cocked his head in thought for what seemed like a millisecond, and threw almost immediately.

The dagger-

was right next to the previous one, embedded deep into the wood due to the small boy's unexpected impeccable force.

Soonyoungs' jaw dropped to the floor.

For the remaining hours of practice, he watched in awe as Chenle hit the center of all targets given to his disposal.

Present

Chenle was most definitely a prodigy in the realm of mathematics, he surprised Soonyoung time and time again as the peak of his capabilities seemed to broaden at an exponential rate with each uncovering.

His eyes would brighten and narrow, as if the formulas were right in front of him, his thought process barely taking seconds- which bewildered Soonyoung as he picked up that Chenle didn't seem to notice how little time he took.

The trainees definitely were hiding something about them, Chenle and Renjun was just scratching the surface of their capabilities-

"Hyung, Joshua is cooking and he needs help in the kitchen, also Jeonghan is calling a mini meeting as we help," Seungkwan poked his head through the back door of the basement, slightly startling the other.

He nodded and stood, brushing off his jeans and following Seungkwan in.

What where they hiding?