Inside and Out | Seventeen Fanfiction

Disaster

And it all ended in disaster.

Vernon didn't catch on to what he was supposed to do, and he pretty much...fell.

Joshua already hit the floor and knives were being thrown all over the show. And all the guards were being knocked down like bowling pins.

Vernon hit the ground with a thud, he swore he could've broken his legs. It was a painful landing. Joshua saw he fell and showed no emotion, he didn't want to fail a mission today.

"Vermin, get up and get Kihyun out!" Joshua shouted. Vernon shakily got to his feet and did as he was told, he needed to be careful since bullets were flying everywhere.

And the number of guards seemed to increase.

You can do this Hansol, you've trained long and hard to do this, don't mess it up.

Woozi was already trying to untie the victim on the chair, S.Coups was occupied with the guards along with Joshua and the other team.
Vernon ran over to help him.

Everyone wore a face mask so no real emotion could be shown except the eyes, when Vernon went to help Woozi you could see he felt grateful. Layers and layers of thick rope were slowly getting untied, and the amount of guard still continued to increase.

"Vernon, you go help them, I've got this" Woozi said worriedly.
"Are you sure? We're almost done, I can help you!"

"No, no. Go help them before someone gets seriously hurt". Vernon nodded and stood beside his leader, who was hiding behind a large wooden crate.

"Vernon, I think we're getting outnumbered"

"Really? I had no idea"

"This is no time for sarcasm! We need to get everyone out of here-"
A bullet shot right through the crate, next to Vernon's head. The pair screamed with fright.

"Why don't we call for backup?!" Vernon screamed.
S.Coups opened his mouth to reply, but another bullet through the crate interrupted him. He replied with a scream instead.

Joshua was still out there, giving it his all. Watching him out there, Vernon was honestly impressed with how he missed every single bullet that flew towards him.

Whatever he did before, he must've been trained to perfection...

"VERNON!" S.Coups snapped Vernon out of his thoughts. "I know it's risky, but Joshua can't do that by himself, neither can Minghao and Jun. Go help them!"

"What about you?"

"I'm going to call backup! Now go!"

Vernon nodded and made his way besides Joshua, and this time he had no nasty comments to say to the newbie. Instead, he nodded.

The room was finally clear, and dead bodies were scattered across the floor. Everyone besides Woozi, S.Coups and Kihyun, were panting. No one expected to actually succeed by themselves.

The "back-up" stood there at the entrance and saw the scene in front of them. "What exactly, did you need help with again?" Minho squinted at S.Coups, who was smiling nervously.

Joshua turned to Vernon and probably said the nicest thing he's heard since he met him,

"Not bad, Vermin"

"My name is Vernon not Vermin"

"Whatever Vermin, that's my name for you" Joshua rolled his eyes.

Vernon sighed, but decided he was going to live with it.

————————
It's been two months since that mission, and Vernon faced countless trails and training.
The first day of his new training was honestly terrifying for him...

Because Joshua was his trainer, of course.
With Minghao as a "side-kick".

Minghao was the one who reassured Vernon after he received countless curse words and aggression from the trainer. Which made Vernon feel ten times better.

It was a Tuesday, and Vernon had already spent three hours on a trail course. His task was to run through the course and take out as many enemies as possible. Pellet guns were installed to act like real bullets.

Joshua stood on a platform, watching his performance in the trail. He could see he was exhausted so he disabled all the robots and opened the main door.

"Have a break Vermin, good job"

Vernon lay on the ground, panting. His lungs burned and so did his arms and legs. With all the strength he had left in his body, he got up and made his way to the main door, where Joshua was now waiting for him.

"Actually, forget a break, you worked hard. You're finished for the day"

"Really?!" Vernon smiled through exhausted breaths.

Joshua continued to show no expression, "yes, you've made good progress over the last couple months. So, you're finished for today". He started to walk off until Vernon called out to him.

"Yes, Vernon?"

"Thank you"

Joshua nodded and walked out, leaving Vernon feeling a sense of accomplishment.

"Well, I think he's starting to like me" Vernon thought aloud, continuing to smile through the physical pain he felt in his body.

"Don't get your hopes up Vermin!" said a voice through the speaker, giving Vernon a little fright.

Vernon felt embarrassed, but he couldn't help but laugh at himself. Yeah, I don't think a friendship with him could be possible...what was I thinking?

But what he didn't see, was Joshua smiling behind the microphone.