Limitless || Mark Lee

Chapter 18

"So that wasn't a dream..."

"Nope, unfortunately not."

Unfortunately?

"I'm really sorry if I made you uncomfortable, Mark. I know you still don't really like me."

His eyes shot up to hers, seeing the sadness on her face.

"No no not at all, I just mean I wish you didn't get dragged into this....and who said I didn't like you?" He replied with a playful smirk.

"Um... you did. Like 10 days ago."

"Oh...right." He mentally cursed himself for being so dumb. "Well opinions change. Maybe we can start over and be friends."

"I'd like that."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Mark Lee."

He straightened his posture and extended a hand towards her, the frown still on his face but a glimmer in his eyes.

"It's nice to meet you too, I'm Park Mirae."

She shook his hand, laughing slightly at the gesture and his still rigid stance.

"You know, Mark, friends tend to smile around each other. You can loosen up a bit." She nudges his shoulder with a smile, causing him to let out a small huff.

"I mean, I can try. I've been trained to be like this and it's hard to break away from."

"Well you guys are going to help me become a mafia girl, and I'll help you learn to relax a bit, okay?"

"That sounds... that sounds nice."

- - -

"Okay, Mirae, it's time to start your training."

It was early the next morning and Taeyong had gathered the whole gang in one of their huge practice rooms while Mirae stretched out her muscles.

"We're going to start with an evaluation, so just do your best. Good luck."

"Wait, good luck? What..."

Her eyes widened when Renjun, Ten, and Yuta stepped onto the platform in training uniforms, replacing where Taeyong was once standing before her.

"No. No way. I cannot fight you guys."

"Yes you can, Mirae." Jaemin says encouragingly from the sideline, giving her a thumbs up.

"You don't have to beat them, in fact we expect you to lose, but we need to see your basic strength and skill set. Renjun, go ahead." Taeyong gestured to the boy.

"Kick his ass, Mirae!" Haechan yelled out as Renjun stepped up.

She slowly backed away as Renjun got closer. Despite the cheerful smile on his face, she was still nervous.

"Renjun... Junnie... you don't want to hurt your best friend, right? You really don't need to do this, I- I'm good."

She stuttered out nervously as she backed into the barrier of the arena.

"Don't worry, Mirae, I won't hurt you."

Just as she started to breath out a sigh of relief, he grabbed her arm and flipped her over his back straight into the ground.

The wind was knocked out of her as she made impact with the ground, staring up at her best friend in shock, betrayal written all over her face.

"At least not that badly." He smirked at her before allowing her to scramble to her feet.

"Oh it's on Huang, you're dead now."

"Bring it, Park."

He lunged, crashing into her full force and knocking her off her feet. She winced at the impact but quickly found her footing and stood back up.