This was the second time I had entered gym class with a person out to get me. I really didn't want to make a habit of this. Despite the fact that I already knew what Taehee’s mutation was so she didn't have the upper hand, I still didn't want to fight her. I didn't really want to fight anyone if I was being honest with myself. I really didn't like my mutation. That's why I am always hesitant to tell people about my mutation. I feed off of people’s insecurities and nightmares, what kind of a sick person would enjoy that? Who would want to be friends with a person like that?

I saw Hua waving from the bleachers, and waved goodbye to EXO before going to join her. After I had greeted her and sat down, I looked up and saw Jongin and Luhan enter the gym, still angry. They both approached the stairs of the bleachers at the same time, and, after throwing a glare at Luhan, Jongin poofed away. Luhan rolled his eyes and joined the rest of EXO.

“He’s such an asshole. Acting all high and mighty.”

I jumped and turned to find Jongin had wedged himself in between Hua and me. I don’t know why I was still scared, I honestly should expect this from him by now. I heard Hua scoff before scooting away from Jongin. I frowned a little as I looked at him. I really hoped Luhan and Jongin stopped fighting soon. I heard the gym doors slam shut and looked up to see the coach making his way to the middle of the floor, clipboard in hand. I zeroed in on the clip board. In his hands was the roster of who was going to battle today. I just hoped Taehee wasn't on it. 

“Alright class, listen up. Today we are doing doubles,” the coach announced.

I perked up at that. I had yet to see a battle of doubles before. I was actually excited, as long as I didn't get called up. I only knew EXO and Hua in this class, (I didn't count Taeyeon et. al), and I didn't think that anyone in the class would be gracious enough to pair me with any of them.

“Let’s start out with our raining champions, shall we,” the coach turned to look at the section of the bleachers where EXO was seated, “Baekhyun, Taeyeon, get down here.”

The power couple stood up and made their way down to the floor.

“Man coach, you gotta stop calling me up first,” Baekhyun whined.

The coach just rolled his eyes and told them who their partners would be. Now I was really excited. I was going to get to watch the power couple in action. And if Baekhyun was good in his fight against Suho, he was going to be even better in his fight alongside his own girlfriend. Their two opponents met them on the floor, two guys who Jongin informed me could stretch their entire body like rubber and run super fast. I knew Taeyeon’s power was shadow manipulation, and I was excited to see how that played out. Especially against someone with super speed. 

Coach began the match, and the one with super speed immediately took off, running circles around the gym. Baekhyun kicked it off by throwing a huge ball of light into the air, keeping it there, before firing some small beams at the stretch one who dodged accordingly. Jongin explained that this was one of Taeyeon and Baekhyun’s many battle strategies. The orb of light in the sky provides an ample amount of shadows for Taeyeon to manipulate, making her power more flexible, and much stronger. Taeyeon, however, appeared to just be standing there, letting Baekhyun do all the work. When I asked Jongin what she was doing, he just told me to wait and see.

Baekhyun continued to fire light beams at Stretch, who kept evading them, and at Speedy whenever he came around. He actually managed to knock him down a few times, but only when he ran too close to Taeyeon or tried to land a hit on her, so he hadn't done that much damage on the whole. Taeyeon just continued to stand there, eyes following all of the other participants movements, Baekhyun included. This went on for a what seemed like forever, but it was really only about seven minutes. Baekhyun was still going strong, but Jongin said he was getting tired. He knew him better than I did so I took his word for it. Baekhyun wasn’t the only one that was getting tired, though. Stretch was slowing down from dodging so much, and Speedy was starting to get frustrated that he couldn't land a hit on Taeyeon because of the light wielder, which was making him sloppy. 

Finally, Speedy had had enough, and made for a direct attack at Taeyeon. Unfortunately he had to cut his speed to do it, which was his undoing. Taeyeon smirked, the first time she had showed any real emotion throughout the entire. This was what she had been waiting for apparently. Suddenly Speedy froze, mid step, like something you would see in a cartoon. I turned back to the battle that was happening between Baekhyun and Stretch and saw that Stretch had been frozen too. Taeyeon turned to Baekhyun and nodded, and he smirked before shooting a beam at each of their opponents, effectively knocking them out.

That was the end of that match. It wasn't as flashy as I had thought it would be when I imagined a battle with the power couple, but there was no arguing with the fact that they were a deadly pair. Jongin finished explaining their strategy. After Baekhyun threw the ball of light up into the air to produce enough shadows for Taeyeon, it was his job to distract and tire the opponents out, while Taeyeon slowly crept her shadows up to them, buiding a trap. Once the opponent had fallen into Taeyeon’s shadow trap, Baekhyun delivered the final blow. The couple had apparently used this strategy multiple times, but despite the fact that the whole class knew how it worked, it never failed. Pretty impressive. Coach walked back onto the floor and called down the next team to face Baekhyun and Taeyeon. They were going again? 

When I asked Hua, who had at some point during the match moved to sit on my other side, away from Jongin, she laughed, “I keep forgetting you are new here and don't know these things. Okay, so, the rules for doubles matches are different from singles. The winning pair continues on until they are defeated, or until the class is over. Next class, if we are doing doubles again, there will be two new pairs to start the class,” she looked at me to make sure I was following and I nodded for her to continue, “Now, if a team lasts for two battles, they get to choose their opponents for their third match, and every match after that.”

I looked back at the floor and saw that a new pair had joined the couple, a guy and a girl this time. Hua informed me that the girl could shoot energy beams from her hands, similar to Baekhyun, but the composite of the the beams was different. The guy could apparently secrete a variety of poisons and acids from his body, including with his spit, which was simultaneously cool and gross. I felt like someone was looking at me and I looked around the crowd, only to meet eyes with a glaring Luhan. He wasn't glaring at me, it was directed at Jongin, but I still flinched.

“J-Kai?”

I refrained from using his real name again. Didn't want a repeat of the whole lunch fiasco. He turned to me. 

“Are you….when are you…” I didn't know how to word this, “I don't like that you and Luhan are fighting. Especially over something that was my fault.” 

There was a pregnant silence before he sighed, and turned back to face the match, but he didn't appear to really be watching it. I bit my lip and looked down at my hands in my lap. I just wanted them to talk to each other, I hadn't meant to make him even more upset. I would even prefer to have him mad at me, if that meant he would start talking to Luhan again. Although I didn't see why anyone should be mad at anybody.

“I’ll talk to him, if that will make you stop beating yourself up.”

I looked up at him, surprised. He hadn't taken his eyes off the match but he did have a small smile on his face. I nodded, indicating that that would make me feel better. I saw Hua looking at us with a suspicious look on her face out of the corner of my eye and made a mental note to fill her in on what she missed at lunch later. Jongin playfully bumped my shoulder before he finally looked at me.
“And it’s not your fault, by the way. I meant it when I said that I wanted you to call me Jongin. You shouldn't hold off on that just because you are at school. Besides, someone as strong as you shouldn't be afraid of a few fangirls.”

I heard Hua mutter something about how a few was a major understatement, and couldn't help but chuckle as Jongin shot her a glare. Good, things were going to go back to normal. Well, if you could call before normal. I looked back at the match to see that Baekhyun and Taeyeon had been declared the winners again. Which, according to Hua, meant that they could now choose who they would go up agains next. I wonder who they would choose. I saw Taeyeon lean over and whisper something in Baekhyun’s ear. He looked confused at first but ended up giving her a shrug and a nod. Taeyeon turned to the coach with a smirk and told him their choice.

“Kai and Jiyeon, come on down.”

My eyes widened in surprise and I snapped my head to look at Jongin. He had his eyebrows furrowed, but he still stood up and motioned for me to follow. My heart was thumping in my chest, even more than the last time. The way Taeyeon was looking at me was reminiscent of the look the cat my family used to have would get when it was hunting for mice. While Taehee was more of just a pain in my side, Taeyeon was genuinely intimidating. She had the status and the power behind her, and for some reason she didn't like me. Not a very comforting fact when I was about to engage in battle with her. 

We made our way onto the floor, me nervously tugging at the bottom of my shirt, and Jongin looking calm as ever. Baekhyun gave us a friendly smile, and Taeyeon shot me a smirk. Lord help me now.

“Alright, you know the rules. Begin,” the coach called from the bleachers. 

Baekhyun sprang into action immediately, throwing a large ball of light into the air. Here we go. I quickly threw up a force field around Jongin and myself, before turning to him, ready to strategize. Jongin knew Baekhyun almost as well as Baekhyun knew himself, definitely better than Taeyeon knew him. If we were going to get through this, we would need his expertise. 

He nodded at me, “Alright. Here is what we’re going to do.”

AN.

Double Update! So if you haven’t read the chapter before this go back!
Anyways, here are two chapters. I believe I promised ya’ll more, and I am working on the battle as we speak! But the chapter before is the one that was scheduled for last week. 

It has been crazy let me tell  you. The coffee shop that I work at isn't busy enough for management to hire a full staff, so I have been working full time with classes even though I am only scheduled as a part time worker ><. 

This is the second time that I left ya’ll on a cliff hanger of Jiyeon entering a battle, haha. I’m just gonna say now it will probably happen again.

Also did anyone notice my little shout out to Sky High? That is where I got the idea for gym class in the first place, but I made it even more obvious with Stretch and Speedy today haha. 

As always subscribe and comment if you liked it! Ya’lls feedback makes me happy.

xoxo