Interwoven ✔️

Epilogue 1

"Number 34! I've called your number twice now. Ten push ups," I yelled at the trainee near the back of the group of trainees before me. The trainees parted in time to show the numbered trainee get on the ground and begin his punishment for spacing out.

It was nearing the end of the class, so in a way I couldn't quite blame them all for zoning out in weariness. But still, as a trainer, I had to maintain discipline and order. "Next time you space out it's ten pushups. Then double the next. Got it?" I told Number 34 when he finally finished his set.

The trainee nodded sheepishly and exhaled in relief when I moved on.

"To wrap up the class three laps. Go." I clapped my hands once, sharply. "The sooner you complete the laps, the sooner you can get out."

The unit immediately set off in a run around the large training room, eager to leave the session a few minutes earlier.

While they completed the three laps, a prickling sensation washed over me. It was not very good prickling sensation. I took a few steps back until I was leaning against the far wall.

A familiar trickle of anxiety shot through me as a wave of nausea hit me along with a head ache. I'd been experiencing the headaches the past couple weeks. They would strike out of nowhere, followed by nausea and fatigue.

I hadn't told anyone about yet. I was too scared. But as the fluorescent light of the training room was becoming too harsh for my eyesight I knew I probably needed to say something to someone, and soon. Better I tell them than they find out. I swallowed hard. The trickle of anxiety strengthened at the thought.

Just as the unit completed the second lap and began charging through the last, the door to the training room popped open.

My heart skipped a beat before a brilliant smile crept across my face at the person who came skipping in.

"Ah there she is!" The newcomer sang out happily, bounding over to my side. "The infamous Trainer Hwang Jiyeon, wife of—"

"Krys," I interrupted her quickly, embarrassment flooding through me knowing that all the trainees could hear every word spoken.

Krystal, who had become so close over the years since the base, was now almost like a sister to me. After we had completed our training and graduated from the program, Krystal had chosen to remain in the combatant units. Even though she was very cheerful, she still had a rough side filled with the need to remain in action.

I was still in contact with Tzuyu as well, maybe not as close as Krystal ever since she shipped out. Tzuyu had chosen the spying units after graduation. A very common choice for Outworlders and their morphing abilities.

Suho was no longer even associated with the New Order military. His injuries in the action prevented him from ever fighting again, so he'd left to help his family who owned a teashop in the South. The few times I talked to him he never lost his flirtatious spunk and was cheerful as ever.

Jungkook, Hoseok, and Jin were doing well in their respected units, every now and then checking in on Jimin and I. Namjoon and the team of scientists who had developed the antidote had been given a national prize for their life saving work. Taehyung, and Hansol, had also been given medals of honor since they were heroes in rallying and leading the trainees in the final fight that initially took back the Capitol Base.

Finally, as for myself, I'd decided to become a trainer. Two main reasons: one, I decided as a trainer I'd make it a goal to bring change to the ruthless training program. No more breaking trainees beyond their will and judge their success that way. It had taken several long months for my ideas to be heard and even longer for them to be implemented into the system. But now, the program was a point-based system. Everything the trainees did either gave them points, or took away points, and that was how they were judged. The lowest dozen or so trainees at the end of every month in the system were cut and sent back home.