For the first time in a while.

He was genuinely excited.

He kept on shifting in his seat, while it would have looked like to someone else that Ijin was trying to get comfortable. Seokju knew that it was one of Ijin's subtle tells of excitement.

Seokju grinned as he quietly said," Didn't think you would be excited for this."

Ijin huffed and had the smallest smile as he said," Its my first time doing something like this."

That was the truth.

While Ijin had been shot at both in and out of training, this is going to be the first time he was going to be completely out of danger.

"You've never gone paintballing before?"

He shook his head.

That was why he was so excited. Since even if he got shot, at most, he was going to have a bad bruise, not a bullet wound as he would back in Grian.

Apparently, S.W had a tradition of pitting Team Two and Team Three against each other in a paintball competition. They did it to improve teamwork and also so they could have some fun. It was time for that competition, and just to make sure that their usual clients (Yeona and Jiyeh) were going to be safe, they were tagging along with them.

They weren't going to be participating in the actual competition, but the team leaders were going to get watching over them until a winner was declared. As people got taken out, the more bodyguards would be surrounding the pair.

Ijin was just excited to take part in something in the field.

Nothing like polishing up your skills in a non-deadly way.

He knew for a fact that the other men were going to be gunning for him and his silvery-grey hair was rather distinctive in the green and brown forest. He had even brought along his Shemagh so he could have a slight advantage over the others.

They finally got to the private reserve in the forest where they were going to be shooting at each other. After a short uniform change as well as an explanation on how to use the paintball guns and ammo, they were allowed to go off on their own to plan.

Five square miles to run around and fight.

This was going to be fun.

"Make sure you don't lose your radios," Kyong said as he held up the small receiver, making a show out of clipping it back onto its designated harness," You'll be getting updates about how many players are left in the game from each team. If you get lost, this is how we will find you."

Ijin nodded along before he moved his receiver into a small pocket on his side. In his experience, the harnesses had a habit of breaking on him. It was just better to put it away entirely. His action got an odd look from Seokju, but after a few seconds of deliberation, his friend seemed to realize that it was a good idea to do the same.

After another ten minutes of orders and advice, they were breaking off into two groups. Thankfully, there were former soldiers in their group, so Ijin knew that he could rely on them.

They were creeping along with the trees when they came to a stop, stopping by a small stream. He took the chance to put on his Shemagh so he could blend in better. His action didn't go unnoticed. Duri grinned," Smart kid," His words brought attention to Ijin as he wrapped up his head," I was just about to tell you to put some mud in your hair."

Ijin chuckled as he wrapped the last part of the Shemagh over his face, effectively hiding everything but his eyes and a tuft of his hair from them," I have experience in forests. I know how much my hair color stands out."

That made them grin.

But at the same time.

There was a small voice in the back of their heads telling them that Ijin looked way too natural dressed up like that. With fatigues, a (nonlethal) gun in his arms, and his face wrapped up in the cloth.

It looked like Ijin was in his element, it looked like he had no problem working under such conditions.

They tried their best to ignore that voice.

Duri's grin got wider," You better not get caught first then."

Ijin returned the smile with a hidden upturning of the corner of his mouth.

That was the plan.

"Alright guys," Saem brought the attention to him. As he kneeled next to a tree, looking around as if he was already prepared for someone to try and shoot them," You know the plan. Split up to confuse the other team, last as long as possible and take out as many men as possible."

Ijin nodded his head in agreement. It was a reasonable plan. To split into two groups with the main group being the distraction, while their smaller group goes around and takes them out one by one.

It was a tactic that he used himself when he operated as 001, though he usually did it on a smaller scale. If he was by himself, then he would be performing the same role as the secondary team anyway. sneaking around to both confuse the opponent and pick them off.

"Do keep in mind that there are wild animals in here," Saem reminded them," There shouldn't be anything bigger than a deer but just in case, keep an eye out."

Wild animals?

No problem.

He used to deal with wild animals all the time back in Grian. although his worst experience had been the time a cougar stalked him and 007 when they were walking back to the camp. Nothing had happened, but it had been nerve-wracking as all hell as they made their way back to camp.

For the first time in his life, he had a light feeling in his chest as he crept around the forest. He didn't have the weight of knowing that a single mistake could get him killed weighing on his shoulders.

It was just pure fun that was going to happen. No one was going to die, and if everyone was careful, there should be absolutely no injuries, no blood should be spilled.

Five minutes passed by, and he could barely see the tops of his teammate's heads as they went their separate directions to confuse team three. Another minute passed, and he was completely by himself, walking through the forest quietly as he kept his senses open for any signs of Team Three.

No doubt, since Team Three hadn't seen him put on his Shemagh, they weren't going to expect him. The best part was that since the human brain instinctively looked for anything that looked like human faces, chances were high that they were just going to gloss over him should they see him sticking out of a bush or anything similar.

He had just crossed a second stream when his radio came to life, Gi's voice almost being obnoxiously loud as he reported the first casualties of the game. Team Three already had a slight advantage over them.

Oh well.

He turned down his radio to its lowest setting before placing it back into his pocket.

He's worked under worse circumstances.

They sputtered as paintballs burst against their bodies, effectively taking them out of the game.

"What the hell?!" Haneul swore as he looked down at his chest, cursing at the way bright pink paint was staining the vest a bright pink," How did they even find us?!" he looked around at his teammates, and was nearly gob smacked when he realized that out of the four of them, all four of them had been taken out.

He narrowed his eyes at the placement of the paint splatters, realizing that their vital points would have been hit had they been real bullets.

He groaned," Saem! I thought you said you weren't going to go special ops on us!"

The forest was silent as they waited for the team two members to answer back like they usually did.

Haneul scrunched up his nose when he got none.

"At least answer us you bastard!"

Ijin smirked as he moved on.

Seokju grinned as he heard Haneul report him and his team being taken out.

It sounded like Ijin's team was doing an amazing job.

There were some downsides to using paintball guns.

Namely, Ijin wasn't too familiar with them, they didn't have as much recoil as regular guns but that mean that they also didn't travel too far.

To be quite honest, he had almost missed hitting Haneul and his men before he quickly adjusted for his mistake by moving up.

Though after a few more shots against team three, he quickly readjusted for the new range that the little paintballs had.

It was fun.

He did admit that he struggled a little bit more against the men who once had a career in the military. They were able to track him better through the underbrush even as he ran around and evaded them.

The terrain was similar to Grian, it didn't have nearly as much plant life or hills as his former working grounds, but it was similar enough that he was able to work efficiently.

He pushed the branches to the side, trying to see if he could see anything vaguely human-shaped moving through the trees.

He almost blinked in surprise when he saw Seokju's group approaching the tree he was in.

Either he was moving faster than he thought, or they were moving much slower than he thought. Seokju didn't move as smoothly as the others, taking the time to glance down at the forest floor before stepping forward while the others were just plowing forward.

To their credit, they were rather quiet as they approached the tree, although it was a rather amateur mistake that they didn't spot him up in the tree.

He quietly plucked a pinecone off of the branch, a grin hidden under his Shemagh as he dropped it right onto Seokju's head again.

The small, almost yelp, of surprise that Seokju made the others turn around and look at the teenager.

Ijin waved when Seokju looked up into the tree, his hand rubbing at the spot the pinecone landed on.

"You need to look up more."

He was sure that it was only his voice that kept them from shooting him.

They sputtered.

"I-Ijin!?"

"What are you even doing up there!"

"Why are you up there?!"

He just smiled as he grabbed onto the branch he was kneeling on, holding on tightly as he flipped over, lowering himself before letting go to land safely on the ground," I was trying to find someone." Undoing the portion of his Shemagh that covered his face, he took a breath of fresh air as he pointed to their right," I took out Haneul and his men about two klicks that way," He found himself using lingo without even realizing it," I suspect there will be another group somewhere up ahead. Two klicks ahead at the most."

They were still staring at him.

Pushing aside the way Ijin seemed to slip into a report/field mode when he was speaking to them, they still had a somewhat important question on their minds.

"So," one of the men made a vague gesture to his head," What's up with the head covering?"

Ijin almost huffed," My hair stands out."

They nodded in understanding.

Ijin was almost disappointed when he realized that out of everything, that was the one thing they questioned. Not the fact that there could potentially be another group up ahead, but the fact that he was wearing a Shemagh.

He pulled the cloth around his face again," I'll go ahead."

His back almost burned with the stares they were giving him.

He almost fumbled with his radio as it sparked to life a little bit louder than he would like," Ijin, you are the only remaining member of Team Two left." Gi's voice was calm as he said that.

Hm.

Well, that wasn't good.

It wasn't the worst news he had heard but it did pose a little bit of a problem if he wanted to win.

" There are seven members of Team Three left."

Hm.

That wasn't too bad.

He grinned (It was fun and wasn't lethal, sue him)

Tugging the Shemagh further over his head, he reloaded the gun quickly reloading it before setting off again.

It would be logical for the rest of Team Three to slowly corral him back into the building that was their base. Perhaps spreading out to form a rough circle as they got closer to the building.

That means that he could either bunker down and wait for them to pass him, assuming they were behind him. Or he could creep around and try to find them so he could pick them off.

After a few seconds of deliberation, he climbed into another pine tree, quickly scaling it to the highest branch possible.

He scanned the ground below him, easily spotting the building about a mile or two downhill from his position. He stared at the building for a few seconds, watching figures walk out of the tree line before walking inside the building.

Those must have been his teammates and most likely the Team Three members they had taken out.

He started to scan the forest again, his interest being peaked when he saw someone moving less than 20 meters away from him.

He held up his gun.

Long-distance shooting had never been his specialty, 025 was the one who had the best sniper skills out of the camp. But that didn't mean Ijin didn't know how to shoot from far away at all.

He smiled.

" Sir, they took me out."

Oh, that was a pleasant surprise. Seokju exchanged grins with the rest of their team as they waited for the competition to wrap up.

"They took me out as well."

Ijin seemed to be doing a good job.

"Ditto."

They started to frown.

"I thought you said there was only one left? I just got hit!"

Um.

How was Ijin taking them out so fast?

That was four people in the last ten minutes. Meaning that Ijin had three more people left if he wanted to be the last one standing.

Seokju looked at his older teammates.

"What the hell…?"

" Tell Saem that he promised he wasn't going to go special ops on us! He just got me!"

They looked at Saem.

Saem looked at them back.

What was going on?!

Ijin was somewhat impressed that the two youngest of Team Three (excluding himself and Seokju) had managed to last longer than some of the older members of their group.

Nonetheless, it was rather easy to take them out, especially with the way they were trying to cross the stream without falling in. They were taking far too long and it would have been faster to just wade through it to get to cover.

He heard their screams of anger/surprise even from his position up on the hill.

" Ijin," his radio crackled to life," You won the competition. Come back to base."

He smiled.

This was fun.

He was definitely going to have to do this with the Major and the other's first chance he got.

Everyone was already packed up and ready to go, all of them patiently waiting for their newest member to return so they could go.

Yeona and Jiyeh stood outside on the second-floor balcony as they waited for Ijin to return. It had been almost fifteen minutes since the remaining pair of Team Three returned, and they were starting to get a little bit concerned with how long Ijin was taking.

Kyong and Gi joined them outside, also scanning the tree line to try and find the teenager.

A flicker of motion caught their attention.

They blinked in surprise.

Ijin was the last one to return after winning, they understood that.

But why was he running so fast?

He was weaving in and out of the trees, running just inside of the tree line, but not coming out of it to get into the clearing.

"Huh," Yeona said as she leaned forward against the banister, squinting her eyes to try and get a better look," Why is he running?"

The crackle of the radio almost startled them," Open the doors!"

Huh?

Something was definitely wrong, that had to be the loudest they had ever heard Ijin speak. His tone was almost frantic as he yelled that out.

But what was wrong?

Kyong motioned for Saem to do just that as he pressed down on the receiver," Is there something wrong?"

Ijin made a sharp turn, finally coming out of the tree line as he held his radio up to his face," OPEN THE FUCKING DOORS!"

Just as they were about to react to the fact that their ever so polite and quiet Ijin just screamed out a cuss word to their boss of all people.

They heard the reason Ijin was running before they saw it.

The bear roared as it stumbled out of the trees, stumbling over its front feet after the sharp turn Ijin made for a split second before it recovered.

A fucking bear was chasing him.

They scrambled for the doors. In less than a second, almost half of the men were crowded around the door, urging one of their youngest members to run faster.

"RUN FASTER!"

"COME ON! HURRY THE FUCK UP IJIN!"

"COME ON!"

"HURRY UP!"

As Ijin got closer, they could see the pure look of panic that Ijin had on his face, his face a bright red from running as hard as he had been for who knows how long. Just as he was about to enter the courtyard, he did something that had everyone questioning his sanity for a second.

He slid under the bus they came in, easily clearing it as he came out of the other side and scrambled to his feet.

For a second, they thought he was the stupidest person they had ever seen until they heard the resulting crash of the bear running right into the side of the bus. No doubt damaging the bus but giving Ijin the precious seconds he needed for him to run through the door to safety.

They slammed the door shut, quickly locking it as Ijin crashed into some of the other men who hadn't had the hindsight to move out of the way. They barely managed to catch him before they collapsed after being knocked off balance by Ijin's momentum.

For about ten seconds, the only thing that could be heard was heavy breathing, the sound of the bear roaring outside, and the shocked silence as they all processed what the hell just happened.

The team leaders were the first ones who recovered, quickly running over to Ijin, who had fallen onto his back and had yet to move.

"Fucking shit kid, are you okay?" all professionalism went out the window.

Their kid just got chased by a bear for fucks sake, they had bigger concerns.

The words of the team leader made everyone come out of their stupor, and it wasn't long before almost everyone was crowding the kid. Seokju and Yeona were the only ones who forgot to give them space as the team leaders assessed Ijin.

He was drenched with sweat, his breath coming out fast and heavy as he recovered on the floor. His hand was grabbing onto his ribs, no doubt experiencing side stitches after running so hard.

After a few seconds of just breathing, Ijin shakily nodded his head, taking no note of the blood that was going down the side of his face.

"Did it get you?" Seokju asked almost anxiously, his hand going up to gingerly move Ijin's hair out of the way so they could see the wound. It was a small cut that was being a typical head wound and was bleeding excessively.

"N-no," Ijin gasped out, staying still as they inspected the cut on his head," Branches," he said breathlessly, finally starting to recover from his position on the floor.

Well, that was a relief. Somehow, even though a bear had been chasing him. He managed to walk away with scratches on his face and exhaustion he was surely going to experience later on.

"Do you just want to stay there until you feel better?" Jiyeh wisely asked, standing back as the team leaders made sure that Ijin was really okay.

When they got a nod of agreement, they had no arguments there. The kid had to be exhausted if he was actually showing a sign of weakness.

Ijin just ran away from a bear, he could stay there for as long as he liked. Ijin stayed still as Kyong and the other team leader treated the small cut that was on his temple.

It took nearly fifteen minutes before Ijin felt like he had recovered enough for him to even try sitting up.

Seokju passed him a water bottle," How do you feel?"

Ijin grunted into his bottle," Tired." That made a round of chuckles go around the room as Ijin sipped at his water.

The teenager took a few more sips of the water before he turned to Kyong, bowing his head as he said," I'm sorry sir," just hearing his voice made the others feel exhausted," for what I said earlier."

Kyong blinked in surprise," Kid," He said slowly, causing Ijin to look up at him," You were being chased by a bear. That was a punishment in itself." He would feel bad if he punished Ijin after an experience like that.

Ijin sighed before he nodded his head in agreement.

That had to be one of the scariest experiences of his life. To be running from what had to be a 700 pound bear with nothing but the clothes on his back and his destination ahead of him. He had even tried shooting it in its eyes while it distracted the mama bear for a few seconds. It only pissed her off further.

God he almost preferred being stalked by a cougar. At least a cougar wouldn't attack if you watched it. A bear didn't care.

"How long was it chasing you for?" one of the men asked curiously.

Ijin sighed as he ran his hand down his face, sending a look towards Seokju when his friend smacked his hand away from the bandage," I was by the stream when I saw her and her cubs," They cringed. No wonder the bear chased him. It was a mama bear protecting her cubs.

Yikes

"I was a few minutes away from the stream when she started chasing me.

There was an impressed whistle," That's almost half a mile. You were hauling ass." Well anyone would be hauling ass if they had to run away from a pissed-off mama bear.

Ijin seemed to think the same thing, "I wonder why." Ijin said dryly.

Kyong had to resist a snort when he turned around to check on everyone.

After a day like that, the bus was almost oddly quiet. Everyone was exhausted after a day like that.

Just another reason the team leaders didn't participate, was so they could stay alert to keep an eye on the Shin's. Nothing bad was supposed to happen, but just another precaution.

His snort caught the attention of Team Three's leader, Gi, who looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Kyong just motioned to the men behind him, and once Gi turned around, he knew what had made his co-worker snort like that.

Ijin and Seokju were sitting together, but it was clear that out of the two of them, Ijin was losing the battle to sleep.

Not that they blamed him, they were surprised that Ijin even had the energy to move after being chased by a bear for over half a mile.

It didn't sound too bad, but once you remembered the fact that bears ran up to 30 miles per hour, and that Ijin had to weave in between trees as he ran on the uneven forest floor as fast as he could just to survive, it sounded pretty bad.

It was no wonder he was exhausted.

"I'm surprised he didn't pass out the moment he sat down," Kyong commented idly, smiling as Seokju seemingly got annoyed at Ijin's constant yawns.

"Give it a few more minutes," Gi said calmly, settling back down into his seat," Kid is gonna fall asleep soon."

"How do you know that?"

"He's acting exactly like my kids used to when they were small."

That made Kyong smile.

Leave it to the older man to be right.

Kyong checked on the men again about 10 minutes later, and there was Ijin, dead asleep as he leaned his face onto his hand. Right next to him, was Seokju, almost snoozing away as he leaned his head against the back of the seat.

They were lucky that most, if not all of the other men were also asleep, or else he was sure that they would have taken pictures of the teenagers together like they have in the past.

Oh, wait.

He grinned when he saw one of the men in the seats in front of the teenagers, turn around in his seat, holding his phone as still as he could on a moving bus before taking a picture of them.

He turned around with a grin.

"They already took pictures of them?"

The fact that Gi already knew just made him smile even more.

[Extra]: Scrapped Ending

There was an impressed whistle," That's almost half a mile. You were hauling ass." Well anyone would be hauling ass if they had to run away from a pissed-off mama bear.

Ijin seemed to think the same thing, "I wonder why." Ijin said dryly.

It took them a few seconds to realize that that had been the first joke Ijin had said in their presence. And it was a sarcastic joke nonetheless.

They chuckled, Seokju offering a hand that Ijin happily accepted so he could be pulled up to his feet," I get that you were running for your life," Seokju said with a grin," But you seriously need to take a shower."

Surprisingly, Ijin almost let out a scoff as he pushed at Seokju's shoulder with two fingers,"! #** ! ($*# $ ( #*$&%& ." They blinked in surprise.

Ijin almost never spoke his second language. The most they got was him muttering something under his breath when he was thinking about something or a simple slip of the tongue.

"Hey," The others just watched in shock.

There were the two youngest members of their group, the same ones that were exceedingly difficult to unwind.

Acting like a pair of normal teenagers.

Seokju furrowed his brows as he asked," What did you say?"

They blinked in surprise again when Ijin actually smiled.

"Nothing bad."

"What-hey what did you say?"

"Nothing bad."

"Don't give me that Ijin. I know how you are."

"Then you should know that I said nothing bad."

" Ijin."

"Seokju."

" I swear I will grab the audio recordings and put into google translate if you don't tell me."

"Go ahead. Google translate won't recognize the dialect and the result won't make sense."

"Just tell me what you said!"

"Don't worry about it."

"I won't worry about when you tell me what you said!"