Guts (EXO)

Demons

Her nails dug into her palms, already bruising from clenching her fists too much for almost half an hour. Sweat trickled down the side of her face and her lips quivered as her eyes stared menacingly into Tao’s, hoping that this time it’ll work.

But two minutes had already passed, and his powers weren’t transferring to her.

With an exasperated sigh, Hyerin threw her hands in the air out of defeat.

“Fuck this,” she snapped, leaning back against a tree.

The others who were watching groaned and rolled their eyes while Tao folded his arms and glared at her.

“You’re giving up just like that?” he scoffed, raising a brow.

“We’ve been doing this for almost an hour! Nothing’s happening!” She squatted down the ground and ran a hand through her short hair. “I’m sick of it. I’m done.”

“You can’t say that once we’re finally out there trying to save the city,” Xiumin remarked.

Hyerin shrugged. “I just can’t seem to do it. I don’t think I’m determined enough to do it again.”

“Maybe you’re trying too hard,” Kyungsoo mumbled, busy polishing his robot arm in the corner. “Just relax, you’re too tense.”

“That’s not it. I wasn’t relaxed at all when Blue was about to kill me. But my powers worked.”

Chen rubbed his chin. “Maybe you need more of those chemicals to reactivate your powe-”

“I ain’t taking none of that shit again,” she cut off.

Suho sat next to her. “You said you’re not determined enough?”

Hyerin nodded. “Mhm.”

“Then let’s do something to get you determined.”

“What?”

Suho shrugged casually. “Maybe spar with someone, I don’t know.”

“I’ll do it!” Chanyeol exclaimed, waving his hands in the air. “Maybe use my power on you, too, if that helps.”

“Woah, woah, hold on there, bud,” Kyungsoo said warningly. “The deal was to spar, not use your power. That shit is dangerous.”

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Hyerin said, getting up. “I mean it’ll get me worked up, right?”

Kyungsoo glared at her. “Have you forgotten the fact that his power is fire? What if you fail to dodge and you get a burn? We don’t have enough stuff to treat-”

“I’ll be fine.”

“No, you’ll be-”

“I said I’ll be fine,” she interrupted firmly, “so don’t worry.”

Kyungsoo pressed his lips together before retreating back to his seat and sighing.

Suho nudged her playfully. “Overprotective boyfriend strikes again.”

She rolled her eyes, blushing despite herself. “He never trusts me.”

“I can hear you both,” he called out from his corner.

“Okay!” Tao clapped his hands together. “Let’s start the sparring now, shall we?”

“Yeah.” At once, Hyerin stepped in the middle of their ‘arena’ and positioned herself in the proper stance. “Ready, Yeol-”

The girl was not able to finish her sentence when a fireball flying towards her direction cut her off. She dodged it just in time and it hit the tree behind her, while Suho crawled away to safety.