“Wonwoo! Come sit with us!” Vernon motioned me over.

The table was completely full. People I had never met before were sitting there. I recognized some of the freshman and some of the sophomores but some of them were fresh faces to me.

“At the table we have Joshua, Jeonghan, DK, Seungkwan, Dino, Mingyu,” he took a quick breath and continued “Minghao, Jun, Woozi, S.coups and Hoshi. Wow, that’s like Seventeen of us, right?” he sat down and took a bite out of his sandwich.

I looked at Mingyu who motioned for me to sit next to him.

“That’s thirteen, smart one.” Minghao flicked Vernon’s forehead.

 Minghao was sitting on Jun’s lap and they were sharing a salad. If I remember correctly, doesn’t Minghao turn into a statue or something? Should he really be sitting on top of Jun like that? Hoshi had approximately thirty plates of food and was rapidly devouring them two by two. S.coups seemed to be busy staring at a clipboard and editing its contents. The rest of the guys were just eating lunch and talking about their classes.

“What class do you have next?” Mingyu poked my shoulder.

“Um.. It says here that I have ‘Superhero Work’ with Aubrey. But Professor is crossed out?” I looked closely at the weird schedule.

“Hey, so do I! Maybe this is the class for our mini groups? You know, the one with Yoolhee.” He stared at his schedule like he was waiting for it to tell him if he was correct or not. “Anyways, how was your summer? I missed you. I mean, how was your summer?”

“It was good,” I giggled. “Don’t be shy, I missed you too.” The table stopped what they were doing and looked at us.

“Dating already, are we?” Minghao spoke.

“WHAT? UH. NO.” My chair fell back and I fell onto the floor. Mingyu helped me up and my cheeks turned a bright shade of pink.

“Whatever you say.” Minghao turned away and kissed Jun on the cheek. The rest of the group slowly lost interest and continued doing what they were doing before.

Am I moving too fast? Is this a relationship already? What if I am moving too slow? What am I talking about, I just met the guy! Okay, but Romeo and Juliet worked out well.. No wait, they ended up killing themselves.

“If you like me, can we take it slow please? I like romance.” I whispered into his ear.

“Should I flirt a lot?” he replied back into my ear. I nodded in approval. The bell rang and the group parted ways. I followed Mingyu to class and sat behind him.

“Hi kids, I’m Aubrey. Call me Aubrey, not ‘PRofFEsor’ Aubrey; that sounds atrocious. My name is beautiful as it is and I do not need a professional title to enhance it! But welcome to my class! This is where I prepare you for life beyond the ‘Institute of the Talented’. As we all know, powers aren’t common in this world and for that reason; they aren’t highly praised. So in this class, I will be drawing/ writing/ painting/ singing/ typing scenarios for you to survive. If you take too long, the art will go bad and you might die.” She hummed.

If that wasn’t the most confusing paragraph I’ve ever heard, I don’t know what is.

“I will divide you into your groups that you were assigned during freshman orientation.” She said with her eyes closed and a smile on her face. I don’t recall seeing everybody from freshman orientation in this class. Did I get stuck with the other half of people I didn’t bother meeting? Great. “You will have ten minutes to escape this dimension and return to your seats. Go!”

 Suddenly, the world around us starting spinning and the roof blew off, leaving nothing but the floor and the desks. Everybody in the classroom, with the exception of Mingyu and Yoolhee, vanished. The wind was strong and the sky was flashing in different colors. It was becoming more and more difficult to breathe. Yoolhee and Mingyu tapped me on the shoulder and we all held hands so we wouldn’t fly away. Everything stopped and I out.

“Wonwoo, wake up! We have to get out of here.” I heard Yoolhee’s voice call out.

“Wonwoo, hurry! Before the spiders eat us!” Mingyu’s voice woke me up.

I looked around and saw darkness. I was unable to move, something was restricting me. I glanced towards the sound of Mingyu’s voice. Just barely, I managed to make out a white substance holding him back.

“What is restricting us?” I called out.

“A SPIDER WEB, YOU IDIOT. LOOK UP!” Yoolhee shouted.

I glanced up to see eight glowing red eyes coming for us. The sound of crawling filled my ears. There was definitely more than one coming.

“If you want to survive, you must work together.” Aubrey’s voice filled the void.

“How can we do that? I can’t even use my power!” I screamed in frustration. Yoolhee was shaking the entire web, but nothing was working.

“You can summon nature, right? Cut us out of here with a rose bush or a blade of grass!” she squirmed around.

“I don’t know how to!” I fought back.

“Wonwoo, I believe in you.” Mingyu’s voice soothed me. Wait a second, why isn’t he helping? I will deal with that later.

I focused my energy onto a rosebush, or a rose, or a vine, or a thorn. Whatever would help us escape. Eomma, help me. Please. I waited for something to happen.

“Okay, now cut yourself loose!” Yoolhee’s voice interrupted me. I looked down at my finger to see a thorn for a fingernail. That’s disgusting.

I tried bending my finger towards the web but it wouldn’t reach. Sweat fell down my face as I concentrated to make it longer. Why can’t I do this? I glanced over to Mingyu to see half of his body covered in thorns. He began scraping himself free and swinging on the cut webs over to us.

“How did you?” I asked in confusion. Does he have the same power as me? He cut me free and I fell into the dark void, landing on a soft black cushion. Soon after, Yoolhee fell on top of me.

“Could you be any softer?” She asked sarcastically.

“Could you maybe land on the CUSHION BELOW US NEXT TIME?” I pushed her off of me and she landed onto the cushion.

Not too long after, Mingyu fell onto the cushion, only: he brought a friend. A massive spider lay on top of him, trying to bite through his thorns. I reached out to help him and a massive tree shot out of the cushion and impaled the spider. Mingyu looked at me and then back to the spider. He motioned his hands the way I did and the tree grew three more branches, raising the spider off of him. Did he just copy me? The sound of spiders crawling intensified.

“Where is the escape?” I called out.

“It should be there somewhere. Look around.” Aubrey’s voice filled the void again.

“The cushion! Rip the cushion open! We’re surrounded by webs; it’s the softest area to break through!” Yoolhee said as she started tearing away at the floor. I looked over at Mingyu and back at Yoolhee. “Don’t just stand there! I don’t plan on being spider-food!”

“Just a reminder, the spiders are your timer. Once they reach the ground, your time is up.” She started to sob. “And that means I lose three students.” Aubrey began crying.

Without hesitation, I began clawing the cushion beneath me. Mingyu seemed to be having an easier time. He willed the branches of the trees to start slashing their way at the cushion while he dug with half-a-thorn body.  After digging for a while, Yoolhee found a golden key.

“Great, what does this unlock?” we all looked around in confusion. “We have to be missing something, let’s see. The trap was the web, the timer was the falling spiders, the giant spider was the enemy and the cushion was the key. What could the door be?” Yoolhee looked at her hands and counted her fingers. Such strange methods. I glanced up and could see a small wall of spiders descending slowly. I stared at the only thing Yoolhee didn’t mention: the void.

“Throw the key into the void. Think about it, everything in this place has a use. The only thing we received from the void was—” I was interrupted by a know-it-all Yoolhee.

“The voice of someone outside! You’re a genius!” she hugged me and looked around in confusion. “That was strange, emotions. Eww.” We ran to the void and she threw the key in. Suddenly, a tear split the void and just before the spiders collapsed onto us, we jumped through the tear and landed in our seats in the classroom.

“Oh, perfect! You made it back just in time!” Aubrey was sitting next to a type writer and typing like a mad woman. She took the paper out and shredded the words. “It’s a shame that some of these people didn’t make it out. Hopefully the infirmary can recover what’s left of them.”

I looked around and half of the class was missing. This lady is a killer! Everybody, that was left, looked half-traumatized and in pain. Mingyu was no longer covered in thorns and he had his soft milk-white skin back. On the other hand, Yoolhee looked like she saw a ghost.

“Alright, kids. That’s how my class will work from here on out. Don’t expect it every day though, exams are only on Fridays. Consider this a… pretest. You’re excused.” She dismissed us.

“I’ll talk to you later, Wonwoo. I don’t feel too well.” Mingyu left before me.

“What’s his problem?” I looked at Yoolhee.

“It probably has something to do with the fact that you both share the same power. Maybe he wants a real man that can use superpowers to the best of their abilities.” She smirked and walked away. Four years of her? Maybe we can leave her in one of Aubrey’s scenarios next time.

I walked back to my dorm and Vernon was already passed out. His shirt was lifted over his face and his blanket was lying on the floor. I picked his blanket up and threw it on top of him. He jumped at the sudden movement and sat up.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to wake you.” I walked over to my bed and stripped down into my pajamas.

“It’s fine. Hey, did you have Aubrey today? Her class is amazing! She’s such a genius! I mean, the way her scenarios work are just perfect! Well, nice talking. I’m going back to sleep.” And he passed out instantly.

“Goodnight, Vernon.” I passed out after him.

QUESTIONS CHAPTER 4 & 5:

CHAPTER 4:

What do you think of DK's and Dino's power?

CHAPTER 5:

What do you think about the staff? Proffesor Alexander, Professory Suarez and Aubrey.

What's up with Mingyu? Does he really have the same power as Wonwoo or is it something similar? Why doesn't he want to talk about it?

Yoolhee has super intelligence, do you think she is using it to her best ability?