“I loooooove you” DK twirled around the room at 2 in the morning.

“Dokyeom, go to—OUCH, DID YOU JUST STEP ON ME?” Mingyu stood up and put DK in a headlock. “THINK YOU CAN STEP ON ME AND GET AWAY WITH IT?”

“I can—because I love you.” DK’s voice cracked.

All while this occurred, I did everything in my power to ignore it: cover my face with the covers, cover my ears with the pillows, and even think about DK’s loud, yet soothing, voice. None of it worked.

“Dokyeom: stop biting me! We are not this close!” Mingyu hollered and I heard them fall to the floor.

“You guys: be quiet or you’re going to wake the ghost next door. DK, go to bed. Mingyu’s my boyfriend.” I spoke out of frustration. Having realized what I just said, I threw the covers off of my head and sat up straight. “I mean, Mingyu’s my.. friend. Who is a boy. Yeah, that sounds about right.” I glanced over to the wrestling scene next to me. Both of their eyes had a bright pink glow. “Are you guys okay?”

“Fine, why?” Mingyu looked at me. “Are YOU okay? Why are your eyes glowing pink?” He released a suffocating DK.

I picked up my cell phone and looked at my reflection. My eyes were normal, no pink glow in sight. “What are you talking about? My eyes aren’t pink, yours are.” I tossed him my phone and he checked his reflection.

“No, I don’t see anything.” He tossed it back.

“That’s strange; we can’t see our own glowing eyes? Can you see DK’s glowing eyes?” I asked him.

“No, you’re the only one with glowing eyes.” He replied.

“You both have glowing eyes to me, because you’re so beautiful.” DK raised his head and passed out. Mingyu picked him up and threw him onto his bed.

“We’ll see what’s going on in the morning. In the mean time, get some sleep. Boyfriend.” Mingyu giggled and fell asleep on the floor next to me. I fell back asleep, watching a soft pink glow radiate through his eyelids.

In the morning, both DK and Mingyu still had bright pink glowing eyes. DK was still complimenting and confessing his love for us while Mingyu tried his best to keep him grounded. After getting dressed, I parted ways with the guys and made my way to my first hour. The door was locked and there was a sign on the door that read “Professor Alexander is in the infirmary, free period.”

Why is everybody ending up in the infirmary? Considering I didn’t have any friends with a free first hour, I decided to visit Vernon.. and I guess Woozi.

Upon reaching the infirmary, the first thing I noticed was Vernon’s glowing pink eyes. I sat in the chair next to him and felt his forehead, regretting it instantly. His temperature must have been the same temperature of his fire spit. A hand found my shoulder, causing me to flinch.

“Are you okay?” Jeonghan’s eyes glowed pink as well. “What’s wrong with your shoulder? Shirt off, now.” I obeyed and took my shirt off, revealing the fire damage. “Was this because of Vernon?”

“Please don’t blame him; it’s my fault for not treating it. Mingyu tried helping but I didn’t want his help.” I confessed to Jeonghan while Vernon slept his little heart away.

“Sit; I’ll see what I can do.” Jeonghan put on some glasses and inspected my arm. “You should have let him heal you. This burn mark probably won’t go away for a good year.” His hand shined a bright white color and pressed against my shoulder. It didn’t feel like Mingyu’s copy of his power, it wasn’t cold or relaxing.  It felt almost necessary and unwanted; if that makes any sense. “I won’t make you stay in bed rest anymore, but make sure you take care of yourself. Don’t be ashamed to have people help you. You never know: one day, it might just save your life.”

Before I left, I looked over to Woozi, who seemed to be free of the pink-eye virus. Did I just refer to it as pink eye? Next to Woozi, Professor Alexander was being worked on by the Principal. Professor Alexander’s body was a bright pink color. Is she the source to the pink eye virus? There I go again, calling it pink eye virus.

Second period was the same old second period I’ve had since the beginning of school. Professor Suarez makes a sassy remark, assigns us 10 laps around the obstacle course, and makes us restart if we aren’t fast enough. What really excited me was to find out who else’s eyes were pink. The only person in second hour who had pink eyes was DK.

Lunch time rolled around and the gang, excluding Vernon and Woozi, sat at the table. Minghao decided to use Jun as a chair, because apparently there weren’t enough chairs, despite two members missing. Jeonghan and S.coups both blushed and looked in opposite directions of each other. Did they know something the rest of us didn’t? ARE THEY TOGETHER? Hoshi stared at Megan from a distance, he looked a bit worried.

“Sooooo, whose eyes are pink?” DK gathered the group’s attention. “Everybody’s eyes are pink to me. Are you all sick?”

“That’s not what it means,” Jeonghan coughed. “If you see pink eyes, it means they are a possible mate for you.” He ducked underneath the table.

“WHAT? DOES THAT MEAN I LOVE YOU ALL?” He began walking around the table, giving hugs to everybody. “Jun, who’s eyes are pink to you?”

“Minghao’s, obviously.” Jun kissed Minghao on the cheek.

“What about you, Minghao?” DK stood in between their kiss.

“Jun, duh. Go away.” Minghao pushed his face backwards, causing DK to fall onto the table behind us. Wasn’t it a bit obvious the two lovebirds would see each other’s pink eyes? Wait. Does this mean I see DK, Mingyu, Jeonghan, Vernon, Hoshi, Jun and Joshua as possible mates?

“Why do you look so nervous? Wonwoo.” Minghao said from across the table. This little brat, why am I friends with him?

“I just remembered that we have a test in Aubrey’s class today.” I lied.

“Do you now?” DK recollected himself. “Whose eyes are glowing bright pink to you?”

I gulped before I began talking. “I don’t see anybody’s eyes in pink.” I lied and DK knew it.

“That’s not what you said last night.” DK shot back.

“It faded, I must have realized that you weren’t the one.” I fired back, taking the victory. I glanced over to Mingyu and his eyes were looking down. “Are you okay, Mingyu?” I whispered to him while everybody discussed their potential mates.

“You don’t like me?” he whispered in confusion.

“I do.” I thought about my words, carefully deciding my fate. “I’m just shy, y’know?”

“No, I don’t know. I really like you, but if you don’t want to be together: then we won’t.” He stood up and said his goodbyes. His pink eyes were still glowing, so I didn’t lose hope. I just hope I didn’t mess it up too much.

“Megan’s eyes are pink.” Hoshi interrupted my thoughts. “I was worried about her until Jeonghan explained what the coloring meant. I’m glad she’s the only one I have a potential to mate with.” His wording sounded hilarious, making half of the group crack up.

The rest of the conversation I chose to ignore. My thoughts were all flustered and I was unable to comprehend any words anyways. I stared at my uneaten lunch and made the lettuce grow a pair of eyes. Oh, piece of lettuce. Tell me what I did wrong. Hoshi grabbed my sandwich and devoured my lettuce-of-a-friend.

The bell rang and I made my way to Aubrey’s class. Before walking in the door, Yoolhee stopped me. What do you want? Her face was worried.

“What’s up with all these girls having glowing pink eyes?” she looked around as if every girl in school was possessed. “Did I accidently turn them into my zombie army?”

“No, it just means you see a future with them.” I tried getting passed her but her small, yet strong, body prevented me from moving forward.

“Like as in friends? That’s disgusting.” She let me get through and we took our seats. Mingyu’s seat was empty. “Where’s Mingyu?”

“I don’t know.” My voice came off as sad.

“What did you do this time?” she laughed and flicked me on the forehead.

“That doesn’t help!” I tried punching her in the face.

“Alright, class! I hope you studied last night because I am giving you a pop quiz!” Aubrey twirled over to the empty canvas and pulled out different colored paints. I WAS ONLY JOKING WHEN I SAID WE HAD A TEST; WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME? “Oh, Mingyu isn’t here today? I will just summon a few sophomores to help your team out. Be warned, you can only use two sophomores and only one at a time.” She spoke directly to me and Yoolhee.

Before being sent off into the pop quiz, Yoolhee and I exchanged worried looks. The last time we were sent into one of ‘Aubrey’s scenarios’, (which was actually Professor Suarez’s illusionary trick) we were put into a zombie apocalypse.

“Here is your mission for the pop quiz. Don’t come back if you don’t succeed. You have ten minutes before everything starts attacking you.” She began to sob. “I don’t want to lose more of my beautiful children!” She began painting on the empty canvas, starting with a yellow brush.

For the first time, the room wasn’t devastated by strong winds. As she lightly dabbed her paintbrush against the blank canvas, the color transferred onto our eyes. Slowly, as she painted more, our eyes got vision of a desert. The sky was a bright yellow color, almost blending in with the sand. As more terrain was being painted in, Yoolhee stood next to me.

A timer was painted onto the sky, already ticking down from ten minutes. Immediately, we began looking around for our mission. On the floor, there were seven items laid out: a piece of paper, a Band-Aid, a black belt, a rubber band, a cross, a bullet, and a pair of running shoes. ‘Pick three’ the sand spelled out.

“Well, the piece of paper contains our mission. So, we need that.” Yoolhee grabbed the paper and the sand changed its phrase to ‘Pick Two’. “I assume the rest of them are items that will help us with the mission, right?” She began to read the Mission paper. “Save the girl from the bandits, she’s tied up somewhere high.”

“Should we pick items that will help us defeat the bandits?” I asked.

“Duh, you pick one and I will pick the other.” She picked up with bullet and the sand’s message became ‘Pick One’. “Your turn. Please be good.”

I walked up to the items and tried finding meaning behind them. The rubber band seemed worn out and about ready to snap. I’m not sure how the cross could help us. The shoes seemed useless, considering we were already wearing shoes. The only items I would consider taking were the Band-Aid and the black belt. The Band-Aid might be useful if, you know, the bandits hurt us.. I mean the girl. Maybe the black belt will help us reach the high place she is at. I looked up at the sky and saw we had nine minutes remaining. In a hurry, I picked up the black belt and we made our way across the desert.

QUESTIONS:

Do you think the sickness that is going around is the cause of Professor Alexander’s power spreading school-wide?

Where do you think Mingyu went instead of class?

How do you think the items will come in use during their mission?