That was the most boring two weeks of my life. I wasn’t allowed to talk to anybody except for the principal and Jeonghan. As lovely as those two are, the conversation gets really repetitive. “How are you feeling today?” and “Did you read that book for your class?” I’ve had just enough about it!

I’m happy to be able to move around freely. To be honest, I miss going to class. I miss being in the presence of people. As much as I hate to admit it, I miss arguing with Yoolhee!

“Sup, idiot.” She smacked me over the head and walked away.

Okay, maybe I don’t miss her so much.

During first hour with Professor Alexander, I found out that my restriction was dehydration. The strange thing is: it’s the same restriction and my dragon-of-a-friend Vernon. In Professor Suarez’s class, he told me I have the most potential he’s seen in years. I thought that was a lie because he said the same thing to Mingyu. I’m surprised Mingyu made no attempt to see me while I was in bed rest. Was he really considering finding someone new to like?

Lunchtime came rolling around and I made sure to sit next to Mingyu.

“Hey.” I didn’t look at him.

“Hey.” He replied.

I took a bite out of my sandwich and watched the rest of the group interact with each other.

“I’m sorry—” Mingyu and I spoke at the same time causing us to giggle. “You first. No, you first. Stop it!” the group looked at us. “Sorry!” we bowed our head apologetically into our sandwiches.

HAHHHAHAHAHAHAH!!

My face grew red out of embarrassment. I looked over at Mingyu, who had a slice of ham hanging from his cheek. Mingyu picked up a carrot and rubbed my cheek with it. Great, I have become dipping sauce. He bit the sauce-covered carrot and smiled.

“Let’s go wash up before Scenario class, yeah?” Mingyu grabbed my hand and led me to the bathroom. He washed my face with the end of his shirt while I stared at him helplessly. I grabbed the piece of ham and threw it into the garbage can.

“Your face plant into the sandwich was much nicer than mine was.” I .

“What do you mean? At least your meat wasn’t thrown out! You only lost some sauce.” He rubbed his hand through my hair causing it to spike up.

“My hair!” I started trying to fix it. Mingyu laughed and put me into a headlock as we walked to Aubrey’s class.

“No class today, my beautiful children. You still have an assignment: join a club and help the school grow in its community!” I could almost hear Aubrey’s voice while reading the sign on the door. Dang, you miss two weeks of class and when you try to go back: THERE IS NO CLASS.

“Clubs?” Mingyu stared at the paper as if he were interrogating it.

“What should we join?” I grabbed Mingyu’s shoulder and pulled him away from the sign at the door.

“How about wrestling? I’m pretty good at putting people into headlocks!” He brought back a painful memory that occurred not even five minutes ago.

“That doesn’t sound very fun.” I frowned.

“Oh, c’mon! You will never know until you try.” He put me into a headlock and dragged me to the wrestling club.

If I had known that the wrestling team met on the roof of the school, I would have punched Mingyu in the face as soon as he suggested the idea. Looking over at him, I saw that he hadn’t realized where they met either. The wrestling team was made up of a group of men and women that looked like bodybuilders. I’m not the smallest person in the world, nor am I the biggest, but when you compare me to these people: I might as well be a button on their shirt. The smallest guy on the team was Seungkwan from our lunch group.

“Seungkwan, wanna wrestle?” Mingyu ran over to him and put him into a headlock. The rest of the wrestlers looked over and gasped in fear. Did Mingyu do something disrespectful? They started chanting “fight” and “mistakes were made”, making me fear for the handsome Mingyu. Was Seungkwan good at wrestling?

Mingyu and Seungkwan changed into a tighter outfit and stepped onto a flat blue mat.

“I’ll go easy on you, alright?” Seungkwan cracked his neck. Eww.. The bell dinged and the two boys went head to head. By the looks of it, Mingyu seemed to be winning. His headlock is no joke.

“Super Tantrum” the crowd chanted. “SUPER TANTRUM.” Their voices gradually got louder. “SUPER TANTRUM!!!” Seungkwan’s skin started turning a dark maroon color and the tips of his hair became curly. Soon, he looked like a devil-baby wearing tight clothes. Seungkwan broke himself free of Mingyu’s headlock and pinned him onto the floor.

Stay down, Mingyu. Please, this doesn’t look good.

Mingyu’s skin began turning a dark maroon color, just like Seungkwan’s. Eventually, it looked like two massive devil-babies fighting. How did Mingyu do that? Seungkwan only turned a brighter red color while his hair twisted into mini horns. HE HAS THE POWER TO BECOME THE DEVIL? This time, Mingyu didn’t have the chance to power up: he was thrown off the side of the building.

“MINGYU!” I ran to the side of the building and grew a rosebush to lessen the blow of the fall.

“OWW! A ROSE BUSH? REALLY?” he slowly ripped himself from the entanglement.

“Sorry, it’s the first thing that came to mind.” I left the roof and meet Mingyu in the cafeteria.

“At least we know that we shouldn’t join the wrestling club.” He blushed.

“What was that out there? How did you do the same exact thing he did?” I confronted him.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Wonwoo. Please.” He turned around but I walked around to face him.

“If this is ever going to work, we have to have communication.” I waited for him to reply. Instead, he grabbed me by the arm and started pulling me to an unknown place. “Hey, what are you doing?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute.” He led me into the school’s greenhouse.

“Why are we in here?” I looked around at the nature blooming in the confined space.

“Grow a rose, please?” he poked my shoulder and gave me puppy-dog eyes. I can’t resist those eyes. Dang it, Mingyu. I placed my hand over a patch of soil and waited for the flower to bloom. Instead of a rose, three tulips decided they’d like to make their debut.

“Uh, close enough?” I smiled weakly.

“It’s fine.” he kissed my cheek and we both backed up from each other. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.” I raised my hand to touch the warm spot on my cheek. Dang it, Mingyu. You know I can’t hold back a blush. “Anyways.. look.” He grew three more tulips and a daisy. “The daisy was luck.”

“Wow, okay. But how did you do that?” I picked the daisy out of the ground and smelled it. Pretty.

“I can copy people’s powers as long as I see them do it in action and I can only use one copied power at a time. It kind of because I take on their restrictions. That Seungkwan guy has a pretty terrible restriction.” He shivered and made a sound of disgust. “I hate powers that don’t allow you to control yourself during use. What’s the point?” he laughed.

“So is that how you copied my power?” I asked already knowing the answer.

“Yeah, by the way: your restriction is dehydration and sunlight. Though, you probably already know that.” He grew a rose out of the ground. I didn’t know about the sunlight..

“You have more control than I do.” Jealousy spoke for me. Slowly, he plucked the rose out of the ground and put it into the pocket of my shirt. The atmosphere in the room lifted and became ten times brighter. Nature, all around us, began blooming as I looked into Mingyu’s gentle eyes. A smile escaped from the sides of my mouth.

“Wonwoo, we need to get out of here. Someone’s coming.” Mingyu’s face became pale as he watched the handle of the door turn. He pushed me onto the ground and kicked me underneath one of the tables.

“What are you doing in here?” an unfamiliar voice said.

“I was thinking about joining the gardening club.” Mingyu lied.

“We don’t have a gardening club.” The voice said. “Liars don’t belong at this school.”

A black cloud swirled around Mingyu’s feet and worked its way up. I tried to call out for help but Mingyu had wrapped my mouth with the stem of the rose he stuffed into my pocket earlier. Tears escaped my eyes as I witnessed Mingyu become completely engulfed in a dark cloud. The cloud sparked and vanished, leaving nothing in its place.

“Darn kids. Always entering in places they shouldn’t be entering.” The man’s voice moved further away. I looked at the floor and saw a sign that read ‘do not enter’. A little late for that, don’t you think?

Quickly, I ran for the door and headed back to my dorm. As soon as I got inside, I closed the door and locked it behind me.

“Why do you have a plant wrapped around your face?” Vernon looked up from his comic book. I guess I was too caught up in the moment to remember to remove the flower from my mouth. “Are you alright, bro?” he set his book down and sat on my bed next to me.

I willed the plant to release my mouth and told Vernon what had happened in the greenhouse.

“Who’s Mingyu?” Vernon looked confused.

“Mingyu. You know, the guy I like.” I flicked his forehead.

“Ouch! Hey man, it’s great that you like someone but don’t flick me in the head for not knowing who he is!” Vernon walked back to his bed.

“Wait, you really don’t know who I’m talking about?” My stomach began to feel uneasy.

“Sorry, dude. Goodnight though.” He put the lamp off, leaving the room completely dark except for the moonlight shinning in.

I didn’t sleep at all that night. My eyes never left the flower he shoved into my shirt pocket, eventually leading it to become a device that forbids me to speak. I hope this is a bad dream and I will wake up from it, if I ever do fall asleep.

I hope you’re okay, Mingyu.

QUESTIONS:

Is Seungkwan's power hilarious? Or is it just me?

Who do you think erased Mingyu from existence?

Will Wonwoo ever see Mingyu again?

What do you think is happening? Are we getting our first villian?