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What was even the point of this?
Chenle stared at the white and teal tablet resting in the palm of his hand. The glass of water sat on the table, still, unmoving, unnerving.
"Swallow." The omniscient voice boomed through the speakers above him.
He pressed the pill to his lips. It was now or never.
He raised the glass of water and swallowed.
He sighed as he placed the glass back down, making sure to keep his features as neutral as possible to not raise any suspicion.
The weight of the unswallowed pill sat underneath his tongue. His first act of rebellion.
Maybe this wasn't the right time to be testing this theory though, he realized as he took in his surroundings. The room he was about to enter was bleak. Nothing but white tiles and a singular, too bright spotlight shining directly over a rectangle outlined with reflective, mirror-like panels. There were shadows looming over the sides and corners of the room, probably with wardens hidden in them, ready to drag out the defeated opponent.
Because they were meant to fight each other here. They were meant to be victorious and nothing else. Kill or be killed. That was the message that had been drilled into his brain since he first arrived here. Had it been eight days by now? Three weeks? Six months? He couldn't tell anymore.
They made it hard to keep any semblance of the outside world in here. There were no clocks, no calendars, no schedules of any kind. Nothing to keep a sense of normalcy. Just the swallowing of the pills and long ruthless days of training.
Chenle turned around, grabbing a nearby weapon as he sized up the person entering the room across from him. He was slightly shorter with a more muscular build, the uniform an overall better fit for him. His hair was a lighter brown compared to Chenle's own darker color. He had a busted lip but even that didn't take away from the man's beauty. And his eyes, a soft brown, seemed impassive and completely unreadable.
Chenle felt his pulse quicken as they walked towards each other onto the rectangle of pure white beneath their feet. He gripped his weapon, positioning it like a baseball bat. He might not have taken the pill like the others, but he'd be damned if he didn't make it out of this fight alive.
"Fight."
Chenle rushed forward, bringing the weapon up and aiming directly for the other's head.
Unfortunately, it seemed like the other man knew his way around a fight as he easily ducked under Chenle's attack.
Chenle quickly spun around, ready to counterattack. He saw the other swing upwards, but they were too far away from each other and the attack missed. Chenle took advantage of the other's momentum going the opposite way and lunged to attack the other's shoulder. He gripped his weapon and tried to stab towards it, but the other man recovered faster than Chenle was anticipating. His strike was immediately countered as the other tried the same move on Chenle. He had a split second to react if he wanted to keep this fight alive so he ended up switching his tactics. He grappled the other, grabbing his dominant arm, trying to render his weapon useless.
They locked arms, both of them with their weapons caught in the lock. The only thing Chenle could think of was leveraging the strength against the other. He pushed all of his body weight down, trying to bring his opponent with him. For a split second they didn't move. Then they started to lower as the other man pulled them both towards the ground.
Chenle didn't want this to become a strength competition because it was clear that his opponent was stronger than him and if Chenle was going to go down, not that he planned to, it was going to be a fair fight.
As Chenle was starting to look for a way out of their armlock, he noticed a brief moment of hesitation in the other. Almost like he was waking up or realizing something. He had stopped pulling them down and was now looking at Chenle like he was trying to see something. But just as quickly as Chenle saw it, it was gone.
He was pulled back down in an instant, his stance lowered and his weapons arm still locked.
Fine. If strength wasn't going to do it, then Chenle was going to use a different tactic. He made sure to maintain his focus on the other so as to not alert him of Chenle's plan. He planted his left foot down and raised his right to connect with the back of the other's knee.
He went down in an instant and Chenle was freed from the lock. He stepped back, ready to deal the final blow that would ensure that Chenle would live another day. He raised his weapon above his head, placing all of his strength into it, before swinging down.
Clang.
Chenle felt a reverberation through the weapon, almost stinging his hand. His eyes widened as he saw the other's weapon raised in a block. Chenle was almost certain that his opponent was done for and yet here he was staring back at Chenle with a soft gaze. Again, like he was realizing something. He blinked softly at Chenle as time stood still. His features softened and a small smile tugged at the edges of his busted lip.
Chenle was confused. Why was he smiling? They were just fighting to, presumably, the death and now his opponent was looking at him like they were friends. Were they friends?
They stood in silence, sharing a softened stare, almost silently communicating with each other. The fight started to leave Chenle's body and he could see the same was happening for the other.
They lowered their weapons together, slowly, trying to communicate a sense of trust between them.
Around them, Chenle could hear the increasingly frantic "Don't stop. Fight" from the disembodied voice around them. But Chenle couldn't pay attention to that anymore. He needed to know more about this person in front of him.
He let his opponent stand back up, weapon stationary by his side, not wanting to harm the other anymore. He saw the other reach into the front pocket of his pants. Chenle hoped that whatever it was wasn't going to kill him because he decided to blindly trust a stranger.
And maybe it was against his better judgment, but Chenle still felt like he could trust his opponent, a stranger, with his secret.
He lifted his tongue and brought the unswallowed pill to rest alongside his cheek. He parted his lips and pushed the pill forward to show the other. His heart was beating in his ears as he waited for a reaction.
Chenle was scared now. Maybe this was just a test, a mental test, to check everyone's loyalty and he had failed. Failed one of the only things they were supposed to do. And there would be consequences for this, Chenle knew that, but he had to know if the flicker he saw from earlier was real.
His opponent's expression hardly changed as he brought his hand out of his pocket. Chenle inhaled before looking down at the outstretched palm.
A pill. The same one they were supposed to have taken moments ago. The same white and teal tablet that rested between Chenle's lips.
He couldn't help the smile that formed. He had seen right. They were on the same side.
Before Chenle could process another second of this revelation, he heard boots hitting concrete and the wardens, dressed in black with equally imposing masks, appeared. Chenle watched as they pulled the weapon away from his opponent and restrained his arms. His gaze never left Chenle.
He mouthed something towards Chenle, repeating it a couple times before Chenle realized it was a name. Jaemin.
Chenle was pulled backwards and he felt a tight grip around his wrists. He didn't fight. Knew there was no reason to. He let them drag him into a small concrete cell with a singular window, barred to prevent escaping.
He was thrown to the ground, his palms hurt from trying to lessen the impact. He heard the heavy metal door close and lock behind him as the footsteps faded down the hallway.
Chenle took a moment to steady his breathing. He looked down at his palms, red and sore, and gritted his teeth. It would take a whole lot more than that to take down the Zhong Chenle.
He stood up, brushing off the loose gravel from his palms, and took a deep breath. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and flinched. He hadn't realized that his nose had a cut across the bridge and that the bruise on his cheek had become even more discolored. He leaned forward, lightly brushing over the bruise. It seemed like a warning. That if he continued to act out, the consequences would be worse than he imagined. But that didn't stop the thoughts from flooding Chenle's brain.
Why was he here? What were they training for? What was in those pills that made them so mindless? Were there others resisting too?
And every question led back to only one thing, the person who started to consume his waking thoughts and subconscious dreams: Jaemin.
He needed to find Jaemin.