It took one look for them to figure out his mood.

"Shit."

"Shit."

"Not it," 005 said immediately, looking at her fingernails idly as she leaned against the wall.

"Not it," 032 quickly followed up, almost smiling in victory when he realized that he wouldn't have to be the one who sparred with the irate 001.

006 didn't even get a chance to squirm out of the spar before the other two called it, causing him to curse foully," Fuck!" he had no shame in throwing the water bottle at 032's head, only for the teen to catch it without looking," It'll be your turn next time."

032 and 005 almost snickered as 006 accepted his fate, garnering the attention of Kyong as he walked into the room. He rose his eyebrows, taking in the way 006 was scowling while 032 and 005 laughed at him," What's going on here?"

005 shrugged her shoulders as she pointed at Ijin who was stretching in the corner," 001 is in a bad mood and we're forcing 006 to spar with him."

He looked confused by her words, and followed her finger to look at Ijin, who seemed to be perfectly normal as he did his usual pre-warmup motions," How do you know?" Because if he didn't know better, and if he didn't know that they had worked and trained with Ijin for years, he would have thought that they were making things up.

006 stood up and started to tie up his hair as he spoke," It's subtle, but he keeps on popping his fingers. Something must have really pissed him off."

"Oh yeah," 032 readily agreed, recognizing the behavior from when they were at the camp together, when 001 was in a foul mood after one of the other numbered had disobeyed their orders under his command. Meaning that 001 was going to be the one that got the brunt of the punishment," Last time I saw him like this was when 004 fucked him over."

"Isn't his temper better now?" they watched as 006 walked over to 001, keeping a distance before calling out for him," I thought you said it was better now." 005 asked simply, her eyes lingering on the two teenagers as they moved to the sparring mat.

"It is. It was almost like being our captain that would get punished for every little mess up was stressful." 032's sarcastic tone earned him a flick from 005, much to his ire.

Kyong felt awkward as he listened to the two bicker, not quite sure that he should be hearing what sounds like a private part of Ijin's past without him being present," Was…was it really that bad?" he asked quietly, internally hoping that he wasn't crossing a line with the question

The Ijin he had come to known was gentle, patient, and quiet, a stark contrast to his skill in combat. He's never seen the teenager lose his temper, and if he was being honest, he couldn't imagine Ijin being upset. He knew that he didn't know a lot about the teenager, but at the same time, he knew that they wouldn't be saying such things without premise.

They exchanged looks, 032 looking up at 005 from his position on the floor, before they looked at him," Yeah. Our handlers gave him a hard time. Sometimes, he barely had space to breath, they kept him on a pretty tight leash." His stomach twisted at the news, his eyes drifting off to the pair as they stood on the mats, and now that he really looked, Ijin was tenser than normal, his shoulders stiffer as he spoke to the blond teen.

"Even before they had assigned us our ranks," 005 added on quietly, a somber look on her face," they kept on eye on him. When I left the Camp, they were pretty hard on him." His heart went out to the young man

"It got worse after you left. They…" 032 trailed off, looking unsure of himself before continuing," They conditioned him into ending spars and fights within seconds with a single word. He hated it but…he had no choice. Even if he ended the fight, if he didn't do it fast enough, they would go after him."

"That…that sounds truly miserable."

His words caused them to snort as if it was humorous.

"You have no idea. A lot of people killed themselves before our ranks were assigned."

"Sometimes I find myself wondering how we're still alive," 005's tone was light as if she was talking about a happy childhood memory.

"We're just stubborn like we're fucking cockroaches." 032 chuckled out.

Again, Kyong felt very left out and awkward as the two talked about their dark past as if it was normal.

Then again, it was their version of normal.

As horrible as it was.

They lapsed into silence again, the three of them watching as Ijin and 006 finally started to get ready to fight.

Immediately, they noticed the way Ijin switched up his stance, changing it from the usual sparring stance, a stance that had more openings in favor of practicing reaction time, to his usual combat stance, showing that he truly wanted a proper spar.

Without another word, 032 got up and with 005, they started to walk over to the pair. Kyong found himself trailing behind them, both interested and concerned with the potential results of the upcoming fight.

006 hesitated at the stance chance for a split second, before he mirrored Ijin's stance, showing their roots with their identical stances.

The former mercenaries had always used an odd fighting style that the others couldn't quite identify. Their fighting styles had roots in different techniques, and the fact that none of them knew what it was called didn't help.

Ijin stepped forward, throwing a hook towards 006's ribs that had the teen side-stepping, his padded hand wrapping around Ijin's wrist in the process. Ijin pulled his wrist free and using the momentum from doing so, he swung another fist forward, forcing 006 away.

006 pulled his leg up and planted a solid kick onto Ijin's ribs that had all of them wincing.

Kyong leaned away, and he blinked more than once as he tried to make sure that he wasn't seeing things.

"Well then…fuck."

"Yep," 032 agreed, mirroring 005 as they moved closer to the mat," fucking adrenaline junkie."

006 had a wide smile on his face as he dodged Ijin's blow, pushing on the boy's shoulder to change the boy's direction. Ijin pivoted on his heel, delivering an almost textbook-worthy kick to 006's head, only for it to be blocked with his forearm. His smile was as wide, if not wider than 006's, mirroring the almost feral look on his partner's face as they continued fighting.

Ijin wasn't smiling like he had seen him smile before. It wasn't a shy, almost muted smile that was normal to see on the young man's face.

No.

It was a wide smile, almost like he was smirking, giving it a distinct feral tone to his look. As if he was excited to be part of such a high-paced, difficult fight.

He just watched with furrowed brows as Ijin fought with a grin on his face.

Perhaps there was far more to Ijin than he originally thought…

Despite the teenager's occasional bickering and scolding from Ms. Adebayo, it only took a single incident for them to realize that the teenagers worked shockingly well together.

Although Liam's younger brother, Isak, had stubbornly tagged along for the shift (Though he was only allowed after Ijin, Liam and Ms. Adebayo vouched for him), it was another standard day for them.

Well, at least until a man had thrown a smoke grenade into the area when they were escorting her to the car, and somehow had managed to grab the madam and throw her over his shoulder kicking and screaming the entire way into their van.

Kyong had barely managed to get into the car before Ijin pulled away from the curb, already pursuing the van at a speed that made him question his life choices.

Then as cool as a cucumber, Liam stuck his head into the front," Hey, this better not be like the time by the river," He held onto the overhead handle as Ijin jerked the car to the right horribly to stay behind the van.

"Unless there's minefields here in Korea," Ijin said simply, and if it wasn't for the barely present tense tone in his voice, it would have sounded like everything was just fine. Even then, he sounded like he was dealing with a simple problem, he didn't have the tone Kyong would expect one to have while in a car chase. "Shut up."

Liam snorted," Whatever. Hey, give me your knife." Without a word, Ijin held out his arm, holding it out so Liam could grab it himself from his forearm holster.

Kyong was starting to question just how healthy his heart was, especially with the way Ijin was weaving in and out of traffic with one hand on the wheel. Cars were honking at them as they speed past them, more than once, they were almost clipped by another car, the same going for the van.

"Hey," Isak stuck his head into the front as well, bracing his body against the center console and the seats each time Ijin braked to barely avoid crashing," I need one too."

Just as Kyong was going to point out the fact that Ijin only had two knives on his person, Ijin leaned forward in his seat and said," Lower back. I have another one."

Know what…

He wasn't even going to question the fact that Ijin really had three knives on him instead of two like he had previously believed. They weren't paying attention to him anyhow, and he was trying to keep his heart from beating out of his chest.

Isak picked up the back of Ijin's suit jacket and grabbed his knife for himself, the four of them nearly tumbling out of their seats when Ijin drifted around a corner.

God, he was going to make an appointment with his cardiologist.

"You only have three? You used to carry more."

"Later," Ijin snapped out, finally getting fed up with the distractions the brothers were causing.

Ijin drifted around another corner, and then everyone started to question what the actual fuck Ijin was doing when they saw the van disappear behind an automatic gate, only for Ijin to press on the gas.

"Ijin?!"

"Put on your seatbelts."

"This is a terrible fucking idea!"

"That's a cast iron gate you dipshit!"

"And this is a two ton machine," Their speed increased again," We'll be fine." The car crashed through the gates, barreling them over and allowing them access to the compound the madam had been taken to.

As Ijin said, they were, in fact, fine.

Somehow.

While the younger ones had started chasing after the madam within seconds of Ijin putting the car into park, Kyong just sat there, reconsidering his life choices as he tried to confirm that his heart was still beating. For a few seconds, all he could do was sit with his hand on top of his chest, breathing heavily.

Right.

Right.

Ijin was no longer allowed to drive.

That fucking adrenaline junkie.