The morning in Melbourne was bright and warm, a perfect day for those who wanted to enjoy the outdoors. The clear blue sky seemed to be calling out to people to live more productively, but there were still some who yawned and felt sleepy, squinting their eyes at the dazzling sunlight.
A row of off-road vehicles were parked outside the building, and around 50 men gathered outside. The instructor divided them into groups, with each group consisting of five people. It would be a lie if he said he was ready for today when the instructor called out his name to be in a group. Suga felt relieved that he was in the same group with people he knew somewhat well, at least he recognized these men from the first day he came to IHPS.
Yuze, Trevor, Marcus, Aaron, and Suga. They were in the same group, standing with backpacks full of food and snacks. Apparently, they were going to camp in the forest for about two days. This was Suga's first official schedule he attended in IHPS, and he thought it would not be too bad. Fingers crossed.
It reminded him of his childhood when he always went to the forest with his father, hunting deer or rabbits, or simply went fishing. He enjoyed the times he spent with his father back then, but the activity was tiring, so he didn't have a passionate hobby for it.
Taking his backpack and putting it in the back of the car, after they felt all their equipment was complete, the five men stood awkwardly facing each other with frowns on their faces, making Suga wonder.
"We need to decide who will drive this car when we go, and also when we come back."
Trevor spoke up, folding his arms in front of his chest, his face crumpled as he looked at each of his groupmates.
Marcus squatted down, playing with something like a phone in his hand, while Aaron leaned against the car, folding his arms in front of his chest, with messy hair and eyes occasionally closed because of sleepiness. The only human who looked normal besides Trevor in this group was Yuze— the man sighed as if already exhausted, maybe thinking the same thing as Trevor.
"Suga, you sit next to Marcus," Yuze turned his head to Suga. Suga nodded, but wait, why should he sit next to Marcus?
"Trevor, I'll drive the car when we go, and you when we come back," Yuze continued, opening the car door and getting into the driver's seat.
Trevor quickly agreed and followed, he got into the front seat.
At that moment, Suga who planned to sit near the window for some reason was now being squeezed in the middle of Marcus and Aaron.
"Has everyone checked their equipment thoroughly? What about you, Suga? Have you taken your rifle?"
"Yeah," Suga replied. He had just gone to the first floor this morning, specifically at 4 am, to take his equipment after Yuki knocked on his door and reminded him to take his gun at the weapon storage center.
Even that night he only slept a few hours, the sound of the door being knocked repeatedly annoyed him.
'What's up?'
'Oh, are you still sleeping? Haha... I just wanted to remind you to take your weapon.'
As personal weapons were prohibited from being carried, IHPS provided its own weapons to be used during important schedules.
He walked sluggishly downstairs, took his weapon, and the woman guarding the place looked at Suga with a curious face, staring at him for a long time without saying anything. Eventually, after he wanted to leave, the woman called him in a tone that sounded uninterested.
'Can you assemble the rifle? Are you a new member? Do you want to take a different gun instead?'
Suga, who heard the question from the woman with no smile on her face, raised his eyebrows briefly. Honestly, he had not touched a rifle in a long time, probably the last time he was at a shooting range was about two years ago. Even so, he knew how to assemble one, although he might not be as proficient as a professional.
'I can do it.'
'Really? Don't hesitate to change your weapon to another one if you can't use it.'
It was said in a tone without a bite, but for some reason, Suga felt like he was being sneered at. Reassuring himself that this was a common question, considering that this woman had only now seen him for the first time in this building.
'Okay, thanks for your suggestion, but I'll take this one.'
The woman squinted, tilting her head for a moment. Suga thought the woman looked more like a robot than a human, with lifeless eyes blinking a few times, and a bored face sitting on a chair with several documents on the table.
'So... can I go out now?'
'Write your name here first...' The woman pointed to the paper on the table. Without waiting long, Suga wrote his name on the list.
He bowed his head out of habit, but the woman didn't say anything else and her attention returned to the computer screen.
Yuki was waiting for him outside, leaning against the wall. Suga hit the man's shoulder, 'That woman is kinda ...'
'Ah, Jessica... She's always like that, been working here for seven years.'
'What? Seven years? She looks young.'
'Young? If you consider 35 young.' Yuki glanced at the case he was carrying, 'So, you chose a rifle? Can you assemble it?'
'Hah, funny because the woman inside said the same thing.'
'That might be because your arms look small, so she's a little skeptical.'
'Tsk, what's the correlation!' He himself was aware that he hadn't worked out in a long time, how could he have time for it when his days were always spent busy working.
Yuki gave a stern warning to Suga as they walked side by side. 'And Suga, don't even scratch that riffle even a bit if you don't want to see Jessica angry. Anyway, I have to go. There's something I need to take care of.'
'Hey, what time are we going hunting?' Suga asked.
'We're meeting in front of the building at 8 sharp.'
Yuki quickly disappeared, his footsteps inaudible, that man was really like a ghost. 'Yeah, today is going to be exhausting, I can feel it.' muttering to himself, he decided to go back to his room. On the way, from a distance, Suga saw Aaron walking alone in the hallway. Aaron didn't seem to notice him, so he walked leisurely in the opposite direction. If Suga wasn't mistaken, Aaron was heading towards the cafe. Suga stopped for a moment. Had the cafe already opened at this hour? If it had, Suga thought he might have a cup of coffee before returning to his room.
Yeah, coffee sounded good.
However, his steps abruptly stopped as he almost reached the cafe area, he immediately hid behind a wall when he noticed something strange happening there.
Aaron was with the cafe's barista. The cafe wasn't open yet, to be precise, the barista was just planning to unlock the door but when she saw Aaron following behind her, she suddenly choked him and pinned him hard against the cafe's glass window. Aaron winced.
'Shit, I shouldn't have witnessed this,' Suga thought.
Okay, mind my own business. I should leave.
Suga didn't know what the relationship was between Aaron and the woman. Suga had only visited the cafe once yesterday, and the woman looked somewhat like an omega male until Suga heard her speak, and he realized that the person was a woman.
There were indeed many weird people in this building. Suga tried to avoid getting involved in any trouble in this crazy place.
After a few minutes long driving, Suga felt a sudden weight on his shoulder— Aaron had fallen deeply asleep on it. Suga furrowed his brow, shaking his shoulder again and again, but Aaron remained fast asleep like a bear in hibernation. Marcus, the man sitting on Suga's left side, was preoccupied playing with something he'd been holding onto since the start of the journey. The only sound in the car was the music playing softly in the background.
"It must be tough for you, doing this on your first day at IHPS," Yuze said, glancing at Suga through the reflection in the car's front mirror. Suga sighed while massaging his temples. Yuze, glancing at Aaron's head leaning on Suga's shoulder, let out a small laugh with sharp eyes.
"That idiot can sleep anywhere."
Tsking, Yuze accelerated the car, causing everyone to jolt slightly. Aaron remained asleep, undisturbed by the sudden movement.
"If you think about it, our group is really unlucky," He said with a frustrated expression, glancing back and forth between Aaron and Marcus.
Suga didn't know how to respond to Yuze's comment. It was his first time experiencing something like this. Just as Yuze's gaze landed on Marcus once again, he suddenly slammed on the brakes, quickly move the car to the side of the road.
"Marcus! Throw away that stupid thing!" Yuze barked at Marcus, who deftly hid something under his seat.
"What stupid thing?" Marcus scratched his cheek with innocent expression. Suga began to feel uneasy.
Come to think of it, Marcus ... wait, this was the troublemaker who caused chaos on Suga's first day here.
"Give it to me!"
"What do you mean?" Marcus chuckled awkwardly, raising his hands as if to show he wasn't holding anything, with a nonchalant expression on his face.
Suga had seen Marcus playing with what looked like a phone, but he didn't know what it really was or why Yuze suddenly became mad and panicked.
"Don't lie, you're assembling another small explosive device, aren't you?" Yuze growled, as several off-road vehicles from IHPS honked at them. If Marcus kept this up, they would be late arriving at the forest.
"Marcus, have you been playing with an explosion device all this time?" Suga looked down to where Marcus had hidden the object, he looked at him in disbelief.
Marcus stuttered, "Don't overreact goddammit .....—, It's not a bomb, it's just something that will explode a little ... the explosion is very small, so you don't need to worry."
"Hey?! Are you insane?!" Trevor, awakened by their loud argument, shouted at Marcus. "How many times have you caused trouble, you damn maniac?!!"
Wet and warm— Suga felt something wet and warm on his left shoulder, Aaron was drooling, eyes still tightly closed, sleeping peacefully, despite the commotion.
It pissed him off somehow so he violently shook his shoulders, causing Aaron's head to hit the car window with a loud thud. The man finally awake, shaking his head while massaging his forehead. Suga also rubbed his own forehead, which suddenly began to throb, fuck he could feel his headache coming.
The shirt were wet with Aaron's saliva, but Aaron innocently looked at Suga and asked, "Have we arrived yet?"
That's the last straw.
Suga, who hadn't fought in a long time, used to fight in middle school with thugs to pass the time when he was bored. It had been years since he last unleashed his anger through fighting, and now he wanted to punch the man who was now leisurely stretching his body.
"Marcus!!!"
Yuze shouted again, this time Suga's attention turned to Marcus, almost forgetting that there was someone even more annoying next to him. Suga's patience had run out, he wanted the first week of his entry into IHPS to be trouble-free, fuck, he could not take this anymore.
BAM!
Suga punched Marcus right in the jaw, causing him to immediately lose consciousness.