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Jeon Jeongguk
The pressure came crashing down on Monday. Individual training leading up to the fights started today, for two and a half weeks. It was noticeable in the canteen too; those who ate together and laughed loudly were now sat in an eerie silence apart from their cutlery scraping against the metal bowls.
Our house sat at the same table, but it too was noticeably quieter. Even Taeyong had been reduced to nothing but a few words this morning.
Everybody was a threat at this very moment, but the biggest threat to us all had walked into the gym later in the day. He grabbed the attention of the mentors as well as ours with his extravagant entrance. I slowly stopped hitting a punching bag, attention diverted to the middle aged man who had walked in with two guards at his side.
"Pathetic," he uttered. "everybody gather. Now."
"And who exactly are you?" The mentor for House Busan questioned, he too glaring at him like the others.
"I'm General Choi Seunghyun. I was called specifically by his Majesty to help you train your houses, as you may have grown too attached to them to properly prepare them for their fate. And to be honest, I'm thankful he did; at this point we'll have a very boring show."
"Show?" Taeyong echoed.
"Why, yes. Did you not know?" He chuckled. "The final battles are going to be open-house events, and televised throughout the nation. Imagine dying in front of the whole country," he started to pace, heels clicking against the concrete floor. "there's 25 of you right now; split yourselves into 5 groups and begin to warm up. I will call you out two by two so I can see what you have."
"Sorry, Sir, But none of them are ready to fight. It's their first day." Jooheon spoke up.
"You out of anyone should know that practice makes perfect, Mr Lee. They have to start at one point," General Choi smirked. "I remember little you fighting kids roughly their age at 12, you can't tell me that this is too early for them, especially if they chose to be here."
A nerve was clearly hit - hell, it was aggressively punched - the atmosphere in the room grew thick and heavy. Jooheon, who usually showed a relaxed personality, was currently clenching his fists as if to control something bigger than him.
"If he snaps it's the end for that General." Yoongi whispered, and I nodded quickly, the two of us pretending to block each other's hits. Like everybody else, we took the opportunity to speak to each other.
"Mitozaki Akira and Jung Hyunsoo, you're up." The General announced, after at least 20 minutes of just watching us. The aforementioned boy only grinned, his friends laughing. Akira, on the other hand, looked like a deer in headlights.
I had heard about him. He was mean and skilled, one of the ones who had been training their whole life to join the army, but took the lifetime opportunity of serving the King directly. I immediately wanted to punch the smile off his face.
