ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʟᴇᴀʀ ᴇɴᴇᴍʏ || ᴊ.ᴡʏ + ᴄ.ꜱ

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟑

Come morning, before Taehyung had even come to wake them up with his loud megaphone and rough shakes, Seonghwa tiptoed to San's bed with his index finger and thumb pinched around his nose. He crawled in next to San, making sure to stay on the side away from Wooyoung, and gave San an eager shake.

San opened his eyes right away thinking it might be Taehyung but was met with Seonghwa's inquisitive eyes and fast whispers instead.

"Sannie where the hell did he take you last night? I tried to stay awake until you came back but, fuck, I was so dead...." Seonghwa searched San's eyes for answers since San looked like he'd been stunned with a taser, laying tensed and in a daze.

San fought internally about whether or not to share everything with Hwa but there was no guarantee that he could tell him without someone overhearing, with not even a minute out of the day when they could talk privately, so San decided it'd be best to keep the secret between him and Taehyung. Wrapping his arm around Hwa's neck, he pulled his friend down, tucking him into his side, ignoring the ache from the bruising on his waist, pretending to be sleepy when, really, his thoughts had him wide awake.

"But we're best friends...you can't not tell me.." Seonghwa tried guilt tripping San but there was just too much to lose if the wrong person were to hear and news traveled.

"You are my best friend, there's just nothing exciting to tell...just yelling. You can witness it for yourself in a few minutes." San joked sarcastically and kissed the top of his hair, internally cursing himself out for bringing more hurt upon his fucked up lips that he could feel were still plenty swollen thanks to the added activities from last night.

Seonghwa decided to believe his friend as he swiped through his locks abruptly to wipe San's kisses off, both boys chortling until Hwa paused with another thought.

"So what.., he yelled at you and then let you shower? That doesn't make sense San, and don't try to give me some BS story about how he pitied your balloon-faced ass." Seonghwa had one eyebrow raised higher than the other, trying to make sense of it all.

"Hwaaa!" San complained. "Listen, he let me shower for 2 minutes so I didn't smell up the office, that's it."

Seonghwa licked his lips and shook his head a bit. "Is that right?" He had San so close to breaking, struggling to keep the jaw-dropping secret from the boy he'd grown so close to, but Hwa laughed and tickled beneath the other's chin right when San thought he was done for, "Alright, I suppose that's plausible."

It's not like San wanted to keep it a secret from him forever, just for the time being.

The day started off as usual with Taehyung bursting in, a gleam in his eyes as if deafening them with his megaphone, and seeing them startled and tripping around in fear was the best part of his morning. San hadn't expected anything different but hadn't been prepared at all for Taehyung to grab him so violently from the flat and toss him onto the ground along with Seonghwa and Wooyoung in tow.

"The three of you better show me some improvement today." He threw a disgusted expression solely towards Wooyoung, the strong boy that everyone knew, looking his worst like he had succumbed to defeat. "By the end of the day, I better like what I see." Taehyung bent down and put his megaphone in San's face, "IS THAT CLEAR??!!!" The sound echoed throughout the room and San squeezed his eyes shut, his eardrums close to bursting.

Taking the rest of the team to breakfast, Taehyung gave the three boys their first task of the day, expecting them to prove themselves, also giving Seonghwa a chance at restoring himself after being reprimanded for his lack of prior knowledge on CPR. Seonghwa was put in charge of teaching the other two the remainder of what they'd missed, which he did meticulously as a real doctor would. The humiliation from Taehyung made his lessons stick in Seonghwa's mind even more.

Within the hour, while the rest of their team had breakfast, the three, even though some were moody, beaten, dirty, and hungry, had the understanding of how to efficiently stop bleeding, address wounds, and even stitch up a wound.

Interestingly, Seonghwa felt more accomplished than he ever had at school. Taehyung's teaching was harsh but surprisingly effective.

Although the three did well, their leader wasn't the type to give out much praise.

When they joined the rest in their practices after breakfast Taehyung, treating them with the same harshness, decided it was the perfect time to punish the whole team for San and Wooyoung's fight yesterday since it was made clear at the beginning that a soldier represents its team and a team will be punished as one.

On their knees, a slight drizzle had started and slowly became a downpour as Taehyung had them remove their boots and hold them above their heads for what ended up being an hour and a half.

San watched as Wooyoung cleverly held his boots upside down so they wouldn't get wet on the inside and followed him, motioning for Hwa to do the same.

That would help, but it would still suck to put their boots back on with drenched socks that stuck to their feet and crumpled up between their toes.

When lunchtime hit, the team of soldiers squished their feet back into their boots and lined up, per Taehyung's order.

"Are these fools not worried about athlete's foot?" On his knees, Seonghwa leaned to his left and whispered into what he thought was San's ear but it turned out to be Wooyoung's, his wet-dog smell giving Seonghwa the not so subtle hint.

"OH..." he yanked his head back quickly, shielding his nose with the back of his hand, "ew.." He flicked his eyes towards Wooyoung to see if he was in trouble after the automatic reaction, but the stronger and intimidating boy was barely staying upright and looked like he had shut down and gone into autopilot. He wasn't hearing much of anything.

Seonghwa pushed himself off the ground onto his feet and slipped into his heavy boots, distancing himself, before turning his attention back to their leader and getting in line. He expected to see San there lined up with the rest, but his friend who had been one of the first to get lined up had somehow slipped back behind him and was bent down next to Wooyoung.

From the beginning, San, unlike the others, never viewed Wooyoung as a delinquent. Was he an absolute prick? Yes. Was he a master at getting under San's skin? Absolutely, yes. But a killer? A danger? San didn't believe it.

The explanation to Wooyoung's vicious demeanor, San imagined his past might've played a role in it, seeing a hidden pain and possible burden in the other's eyes.

San reached out to Wooyoung and gripped his upper arm with one hand and joined his other hand with Wooyoung's, pulling him up, telling himself it was strictly because he had a conscience and it was the right thing to do as a team leader.

Absent-mindedly taking San's hand, Wooyoung found himself leaning against the other for support.

Skipping meals had never been a big deal for Wooyoung since he had a habit of working through his lunch breaks or skipping breakfast to get a few more minutes of shut-eye but the combination of dehydration, along with the other terrible conditions, had him pretty trippy.

The other boys glanced curiously back to where the two stood and, in a daze himself, San hadn't noticed until Hwa lightly elbowed him and gave him a weird look.

"Why are you holding hands with the guy you just punched the shit out of yesterday?" Hwa whispered and stared shockingly along with the others...including Taehyung, his eyes shooting daggers at their interlocked hands.

Wooyoung, after becoming aware, nudged San aside and walked ahead in line where the other's voluntarily made room for him as Taehyung commanded San in a stern tone to lead his team to lunch, just as sternly giving Wooyoung the command to go to the showers before stepping foot into the food hall, the shower, of course, being included in the allotted time they were given to eat lunch, which seemed somewhat like a punishment.

San could feel there were words left unsaid that he'd likely hear privately, judging by his leader's unwarranted reaction from him helping Wooyoung.

Taehyung walked behind the group on their way to the cafeteria and San felt his eyes burning through his back the entire time.