I’ve been in many fights before. Most of the time, they consist of terrifying creatures, weapons of mass destruction and super villains. I’m exaggerating when I say ‘most of the time’; it’d be more accurate if I said ‘for the past few weeks’. Never, have I been in a fight where the villain was a friend and their weapon of choice was a rabbit army. Unless you count the soon-to-happen-fight against my father and the time I was almost eaten by a squirrel.

“Really, Minghao?” The wave of rabbits swirled around me, taking the shape of a whirlpool. “Is this really necessary?”

“WHAT WAS THAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF RABBITS EATING YOUR FACE OFF!!!” Minghao said sarcastically; he could obviously hear me.

Mmmnmmmmnmn

A sole rabbit jumped from the mass and met my carrot sword. Instead of a bloody mess, like I was expecting, rabbit hide fell to the floor. There are two possibilities as to why this happened.

1. This carrot sword is enchanted with a spell that turns rabbits into hide without the mess.

OR

2. These are undeveloped rabbits, falsely created by Minghao’s lack of education on anatomy.

As the rabbits swirled closer to me, I did what I thought would be best for my survival in the fake world created by Professor Suarez. Swiftly, I spun around with the carrot dagger sticking out in front of me. Dozen by dozen, rabbits were converted into hide and fell to the floor. Before I knew it, the floor was covered with a nice rabbit hide carpeting.

The world spun as I finished off the remaining rabbits. Everything became blurry as I tried reclaiming my balance. From the distance, three figures started walking in my direction. The three figures walked into each other and took the shape of Minghao. Stupid dizziness.

“It’s bad enough that you steal my boyfriend’s power, but now you destroy my beautiful rabbit army?” Minghao’s face was a bright shade of red. By the looks of it, the source of his red face wasn’t because he found me extremely attractive.

“I suggest you take an anatomy class. How dare you use my power to summon balloon rabbits!” I threw the carrot dagger directly at his face.

Oh, no! What if the dagger kills him? What have I done?

The carrot crashed into his face and Minghao fell onto the ground, booty first. A knot welled up in my throat as I ran over to him.

“Minghao?” I shook him. “Are you okay? Please be okay!” I took a closer look at the shattered carrot on his face. Directly in the center of his forehead, an orange dot lay dormant. Suddenly, Minghao coughed up a piece of carrot and opened his eyes.

“That was totally uncalled for! A carrot to my face? Really, dude?” His fist met my face and I flew backwards.

“Thank goodness, you’re okay.” I stood up and brushed the tiny pieces of hair from the rabbit carpet off of my pants.

“Of course I’m okay. You can’t throw sharp objects. In fact, you can’t throw objects at all. Not with indestructible properties, that is. As soon as you let go, it loses its invulnerability.” Minghao laughed. “We’ve only just begun.” He snapped his fingers and something sprouted behind me.

I turned around and saw a stalk growing wider and taller. I took a step back and tripped onto the carpeting. At the top of the stalk, two disk-shaped leafs grew to the size of the cafeteria tables. At the ends of them, grass-like blades formed as teeth. The center of the plant turned a light pink shade and the gym was filled with a familiar scent.

The scent reminded me of when I slept over at Mingyu’s dorm. I was back in Mingyu’s bed, underneath his fresh blankets, embracing his scent. My hands brushed against the top of his perfect hair. Instead of the soft, lush feeling I was expecting, my hand began to sizzle and burn. My mentality came back to me as my hand was glued to the plants feelers.

“What?” I tired freeing my hand from it. “What is this?”

“A Venus-fly trap. I guess in this case it’s a Venus-man-eating trap.” Minghao’s voice was calm.

By the looks of it, Minghao was getting better at my power than I was. It’s hard to believe how quickly he managed what he has. I couldn’t even make a flower grow when I first started yet Minghao’s first plant was a giant Saguaro cactus!

I quickly glanced at the fly-trap and back onto the rabbit-hide carpeting. If I can reach the floor, I can probably make an armor to prevent further harm from this beast. Using my tiptoes, I kicked one of the pieces of hide off of the ground and caught it before it fell back down. The hide hardened and I used it to pry my hand off of the acidic plant. I stumbled back and tripped on something.

I tried moving but I was stuck on something. My pupils moved left and right and I saw what was restricting my movement: a thorn bush. Somehow, I had managed to stumble upon the weapon that led to Melissa’s mind control. I see why she chose Obsidian as her morph; the damage from these thorns is no joke. If you tried moving, the thorns would just tug on your skin instead of releasing you. It might as well have been the plant version of quicksand.

As much as I didn’t want to do this, I had no other choice. To stop myself from bleeding and taking any further damage from the thorn bush, I solidified my entire body.

“I can fight all year, Wonwoo.” Minghao stood over me with his arms crossed. “Besides, you can’t karate chop your way to freedom.” He took a sip of water, rejuvenating his shriveling skin. “Oh, yeah. The letter we received from the principal told me your restriction. I studied, can’t you tell?” Minghao walked away.

My body was unable to make movements.

Hours went by as I tried thinking of an escape plan. Nothing came to my mind. I felt useless. Is this how Mingyu felt when my dad kidnapped him?

“Attention. Attention.” Professor Suarez’s voice filled the gym. “To make things interesting, you will get your powers back.”

Slowly, the invulnerability on my skin began to wear off. Before the thorns could seep back into my body, I willed them to soften. The thorn bush dissolved into a pile of sticks. Sadly, my body had a bunch of holes, regardless of my perfect skin just moments ago.

“Fantastic, your power was much too complex.” Minghao’s arm solidified in a coating of invulnerability as he raced over to me.

Before he could get close, my body was engulfed in a massive plant that sprouted through the roof of the gym. Outside of the massive plant, sounds of Minghao swiping at the plant could be heard. From my perspective, all I could see was darkness. It was like I was standing in a void. I could move at will; I just couldn’t see anything but my own body.

“Wonwoo,” A voice called out from behind me. “Let’s go on our date now.”

I turned around to see a bright light in the distance. A hand reached out for me. I know that voice…

I took the hand and it pulled me through the light. I fell onto Mingyu’s person and rolled onto the picnic blanket.

“Hey, there.” He brushed off a blade of grass from my face.

“H-h-hi.” I stuttered. How am I here?

The sky was a light blue with a multitude of clouds in no particular pattern. The sun was directly above, about noon. Next to us, a tall oak tree provided a sheet of shade for us. To my right, a basket of food awaited.

“Don’t worry. You’re still awake in the fight. You haven’t lost yet.” Mingyu reached over me and pulled out a vegetable salad from the basket, setting it in between us.

“Are you real?” I poked his cheek.

He laughed and took a bite from the salad. “No, but I can be.” Mingyu fed me some salad like I was a child.

“What does that mean?” I sat up on the red and white checkered blanket.

“It means I am watching you in the waiting room right now. Well, the real me is.” His face told me he was just as confused as I was. “What I’m trying to say is: I’m a part of your plant.”

“HUH”

“Yeah, you’re encased in a giant cocoon right now. It’s healing you to full health and I’m the side effect. While you heal, you get a slice of heaven.” Mingyu smiled, making him look like a dork.

“Sounds… weird. But… alright. Let’s date.” I opened the basket, revealing a bunch of fruits, two coconut waters and a piece of leftover steak. I pulled the steak out of its container and looked at Mingyu. My eyebrow rose in confusion.

“Eh, I couldn’t just eat grass.” Mingyu blushed and took the steak out of my hand. The sight of Mingyu eating meat like it was the only piece in the world made me giggle. Such a dork.

For a while, we both ate and talked about life. I told him about my time in high school and how I survived off of coffee. He told me about his life, as well. Apparently, he grew up in a rich family. His father runs the Korean Mafia and his mother owns her own fashion line.

“I don’t mean to cut our date short, but,” Mingyu’s expression saddened. “You have to rejoin the fight.”

“What do you mean?” I forgot I was in healing mode.

“Your opponent is breaking your cocoon, be prepared.” Mingyu slowly vanished as the environment faded into a solid black coloring.

From my side, a light shone, revealing Minghao’s arm slashing through. Rage built up inside of me as the sight of Minghao’s eyes replaced the light. He wouldn’t like it if I took him away from a date with his boyfriend; why does he get to do it to me?

The giant beanstalk of life began to shrivel. Minghao backed up and waited for me to step out of it. Instead of allowing the life force to deplete, I wrapped it around my body. Before I knew it, my body was covered in a spiky armor. I looked like a green knight with giant thorns for extra protection.

“If this is an armor competition: I have you beat.” Minghao rolled up his sleeves.

“Let’s see about that.” I drew my grass blade sword.

 Minghao charged at me at full speed. He used his foot as a spring and jumped high into the air. My sword rested in striking position. Minghao’s body turned bronze and he fell at a high speed onto me.

I opened my eyes to see a large cloud of dust surrounding us. Minghao was on top of me, still bronze. The bronze color faded and he stood up, revealing the damage. The sword I held out in front of me was now gouged through my body and into the ground. All of the spikes from my armor were inserted into my skin, almost as if they were impenetrable but still weaker than Minghao’s falling body.

“You can’t beat me, Wonwoo.” Minghao dusted off his shoulder.

My vision went blurry and I out.

QUESTIONS:

What will Wonwoo do now that he isn’t eligible for the Special Unit?

Mingyu is still in the waiting room, waiting for his match, will he win?

Do you think Mingyu will recall going on a date with Wonwoo mid battle? Or was it really just his imagination?