July 13, 2032 - 5am
PumPumPumPUUUUUUUUUUUUM!
Junkie blew a horn and yelled, “Wake up, ya brats!”
Seohwa jolted awake as she opened her door, rubbing her eyes and saw Junkie continuing to press the horn in his hands.
Seohwa was about to use her wind slice to cut the horn until she saw Yerin practically freezing it before her, “You ruined my beauty sleep!”
“Ack!” Junkie got kicked on the side by Yerin as he fell, “That ain’t how ya respect yar guardian!”
“Then give back my $50K from yesterday.” Yerin reached her hand out and huffed. She was wearing light blue silk pjs and a sleeping mask hanging on her hair.
“No take backs.” Junkie stood up and patted off the dust on his body, “Anyway, get ready. Y’all asked for training, so ya get training.”
***
5:30am - Outside Junkie’s Training Hall.
Junkie crossed his arms, “Too slow!”
Everyone was confused at his sudden eagerness to train, except for Seohwa, who had been waiting for this day for a while now.
Hwayeon raised her hand, “Why are we suddenly training?”
“After getting to know y’all, I realised something. Y'all are babies, all pure and innocent! Ya need to toughen up if you wanna be a mercenary.” Junkie smoked his cigarette as he pointed at the Furies, “Being a mercenary is all ‘bout the money. Ya retrieve something for money, ya steal something for money, ya kill someone for money and maybe a few casualties while ya’re at it.”
The Furies looked down as they considered his words.
“Don’t look down. First rule of being a mercenary, no matter what shit life gives ya, ya gotta look front. Not down, not up high into the sky. Front.”
“Yes, sir.”
Junkie frowned as he put two fingers up, “Next rule, ya don’t call me ‘sir’. That’s for the military. Just call me Junkie or my real name, when not in a job, it’s Muyeol.”
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!!!
“You have a real name?” Jiho gasped.
“Do I have…” Junkie mimicked him mockingly, “Of course I do, are ya dumb? That’s the same as asking if I was born or not!”
“Wait… I’m confused right now. Was your whole personality this whole time a lie?” Yerin rubbed her temples from his sudden change.
“Nah, I just showed ya the worst of myself. I wanted to test yar personality and how ya act as a team. If you had abandoned all hope in me, I would have done the same and just do the bare minimum for y’all.”
Seohwa then curiously asked, “Why now? And why test us?”
“I wanted to see if ya have some humanity in you. Being a mercenary is a tough role. It wouldn’t help any of ya if y’all were killer machines without a moral conscience. If ya were, I would have you live a normal life to get your humanity back, but I didn’t need to worry about that.” Junkie smirked, “Believe it or not, I’m a dedicated trainer.”
“Why do you want us to be mercenaries?” Hwayeon raised her brows, “We could just live normal lives after all.”
“Do ya?” Junkie eyed her, “Do any of ya want to live normal lives? Can we even be considered normal with these powers?”
“…” None of them could retort as they kept a small seed of doubt in their hearts.
Junkie smirked, “Ya can live a normal life later. What I’m givin’ ya is a choice. A choice so that y’all can live if normal ain’t cutting it. I want y’all to live long lives, make terrible mistakes and choices, learn from them, grow from them, then become a kinder human.”
The Furies looked at him contemplatively as Taeseok raised his hand, “Can you return to your worst personality then? I want to continue sleeping in if you’re going to wake us at 5am.”
Junkie was flustered at his request before laughing, “Trashy personality? Bear, I am the trashiest of trash, I dwell in blood, metal and chaos.”
Hwayeon pondered before speaking, “I think it’s a good idea, training to be mercenaries just in case.”
Seohwa then added, “And, we can use the funds we earn to stop the LAB experiments.”
Everyone looked at Seohwa with wide eyes. Seohwa crossed her arms, “I’ll be honest. I can’t undo or forget what they did to us. And it’s clear they’re determined to reach their goal. Meaning, even if we had escaped, they'd still kidnap other children to experiment with. I want to stop that from happening.”
“…”
Yerin sighed as she touched her face, “I was planning on being a celebrity. It wouldn’t do any good if my face is recognised as a mercenary. It would make a bad rep.”
At the mention of that, Junkie chuckled, “I got the thing for that if ya wanted to live a normal life after.” He picked up the bag on his side and opened it before throwing an animal mask each to all of them, “Animal masks with your codename.”
They all looked down and savoured the masks in their hands.
Junkie then said, “Now, this is yar first choice. To be a mercenary, one must abandon their previous name or personal names. Ya can only live with yar code name from here on out. If ya agree to this, wear the animal mask.”
Seohwa was the first to wear her snake mask without hesitation.
I need to stop them…
So no one else can feel what we felt…
Jiho glanced at Seohwa before asking, “Are you sure it’s just to stop the LAB with the experiments and not revenge for Seoyong and Jisoo?”
Seohwa flinched, “… To be honest, there is that too.”
“Remember what Junkie said? If we let our emotions get the best of us, we’ll enter the Berserker phase and…”
“I know.” She nodded as she clenched her fists, “But I’m willing to take the chance.”
“… You really are my Xuanzeng.” Jiho exhaled and reluctantly wore the monkey mask.
“You don’t have to. This is my choice.”
“I want you to live. You’re my first friend. And, it’s safer if we stick together.” Jiho huffed, “And, if you ever, ever think of dying to stop them, then don’t. You’re more important to me than anyone else.”
“…” Seohwa was baffled before chuckling, “Alright.” They fist bumped as they smiled.
Yerin wore her crane mask, “Jiho said something right for once. I can’t afford to lose another friend.”
“So can I.” Minggu wore his mantis mask, “And that includes you, Crane. Don’t even think about sacrificing yourself.”
“Are you seriously holding that against me?” Yerin rolled her eyes.
“Yes. Because out of all of us, you have history trying to do so.” Minggu crossed his arms.
Hwayeon glanced at Taeseok and encouraged with her eyes. Taeseok thought…
It’s such a tiresome task though…
We already have $450K each to spend our lives normally…
I can eat whenever I want with how much I want.
Hwayeon interrupted his thoughts as if knowing what he was thinking, “But, will you be able to sleep properly?”
“… Shit.” Taeseok rubbed his hair aggressively, “But I want double the food portions I’m currently getting.”
“Alright, I’ll cook.” Hwayeon chuckled. Both of them wore their respective tigress and bear masks.
“Now that ya decided, I want all of ya to come one by one to the hall separately. I want ya to take a test.” Junkie whistled and entered the hall
