“Wonwoo” Vernon coughed. “Wonwoo, I don’t feel good.” My head went under my pillow to ignore the sound.

Peace and quiet, just the way I like it.

I closed my eyes and fell back asleep. The smell of smoke filled my nose, causing me to wake up. My head poked out of the covers and with one eye opened, I saw smoke escaping Vernon’s mouth.

“You’re disgusting.” I picked up a random shirt from off the floor and threw it at his face. The shirt landed on top of his face, covering the smoke. Slowly, Vernon began to hyperventilate in his sleep. Small embers made their way through the shirt, almost setting a fire. “Vernon, wake up!”

“Huh?” Vernon jumped of fright. He removed the shirt from his face and breathed in heavily. “Wonwoo, I can’t breathe.” He continued hyperventilating, embers flailing from his mouth.

“Calm down!” I fell out of bed and looked around for some water. By this time, the room was filling up with smoke and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Instead of continuing to look for water, like an idiot, I dragged Vernon outside of the room. Great, now the school is going to die from inhaling smoke!

I leaned Vernon up against the wall and checked his temperature. Not sure if it’s high because he’s half dragon or if he is sick. Looking at the obviously non-well boy, I decided it’d be best to take him to the infirmary before the school burnt down. As I made my way to the infirmary, with Vernon riding on my back, people were beginning to step out of their rooms with their pajamas on. A lot of them looked confused and tired, but a select few were jumping up and down like “OOH WHAT’S GOING ON, I WANNA SEE!”

“Wonwoo,” Mingyu coughed and ran over, helping me carry a sick Vernon. “What’s going on?”

“Vernon might be a little sick.” I said it like a joke and looked up to the smoke infested ceiling.

Traversing through thick smoke made finding the infirmary much more difficult. I’m surprised the fire alarms hadn’t gone off yet. My shoulder felt an immense amount of heat. I turned my head to see a knocked out Vernon drooling lava on my shoulder. The neck area of my shirt was beginning to singe off, revealing one Wonwoo chest. Lucky for me, Vernon hadn’t mastered his heat control. The worst damage was a slight burn and a melted shirt.

Finally, after about ten minutes of traversing the halls in a hazardous smoke, the fire alarms went off and the sprinklers kicked on. I thought the fire alarms would be helpful, you know: save some lives. No, it just made it a hassle to move around. Can you imagine not being able to see, carrying a boy who is drooling fire onto your shoulder, listening to alarms announce to the world that there’s an obvious fire, all while slipping on a now wet floor? It’s not fun.

We arrived at the smoky infirmary and Jeonghan was prepared for our arrival. Gently, we placed a passed out Vernon onto the mat. Jeonghan checked his vitals and poured water down his throat. Isn’t that a bit dangerous? He began using his healing abilities on Vernon’s throat, lighting it up. I felt a hand press down onto my burned shoulder.

“Sorry,” Mingyu moved his hand away. “Let me try and fix it.” His hand lit up a white color and he placed it back onto my shoulder.

It felt different than when Jeonghan did it, but that might be because I was under S.coups influence. The light felt cold, but relaxing, almost like swimming into the shady area of a pool after being attacked by the sun.

“Feel better?” Mingyu’s voice snapped me out of it.

“Yeah,” I pushed his hand away. “It’s fine.” I focused my attention back onto Vernon. “Do you know what’s wrong with him?” I asked a healthy looking Jeonghan.

“No, but I’m sure it’s nothing serious.” He smiled and continued his work.

“Let’s go remove the smoke, yeah?” Mingyu grabbed my not fully-healed shoulder and I cringed.

“Yeah, let’s do that.” I began walking a head of him.

Every student seemed to be searching for the fire source. Little did they know, it was just smoke from a kid who was half-dragon. He hates it when I call him half-dragon. We informed the school of Vernon’s trouble and things began to settle down as students knew how to fight the ‘danger’. The sky lights opened up, releasing tons of smoke into the outside world. I hope people didn’t suspect anything of us.

After the crisis had been solved, people returned to their dorms and fell back asleep. I said my goodnights to Mingyu and returned to my dorm. The dorm smelled of smoke and saliva. I guess I wasn’t getting too much sleep tonight. I removed the half-burnt shirt and threw it away. My shoulder was blistered and the skin was peeling, but I didn’t want Mingyu taking care of me like that. I know, it’s stupid, but I can take care of myself. Besides, if another situation happened like the one Professor Suarez placed me in, I need to be able to help myself in the off chance of Mingyu not being there. I up the pain and fell asleep.

The next morning, I looked over to Vernon’s bed and remembered that he wasn’t there. Aww, poor guy. Feel better soon, bud. From my ‘extensive’ shirt collection, I pulled out the raggedy one I used to wear back when I would help my mother clean the house. My shoulder seemed to be getting better, it wasn’t bubbling so that was a good sign.

My first class was pretty boring without Vernon there to distract me. Professor Alexander just went on about her Husband, J-hope, and how happy they were together. On the bright side, we didn’t do much work; just a few worksheets on how to recover from our own restrictions. I knew how to do that, due to the tests of both Professor Suarez and Aubrey.

My second class was pure torture. I was still upset at Professor Suarez for taking me away from both Mingyu and Yoolhee, well not so much Yoolhee. Not only that, but for placing me into a zombie apocalypse! As if that would ever happen. Though, Aubrey does place us in similar challenges; giant spiders, rabid body-building squirrels, puppies that turn into wolves, piranhas, and the list goes on and on! Today, Professor Suarez made us run the obstacle course as if our lives depended on it; which it didn’t because it was all just an illusion so we wouldn’t have an excuse for why we couldn’t run it a countless amount of times. It took me 46 times to pass the course, I blame my shoulder. Scratch that, I blame Vernon.

The bell rang and I made my way to Aubrey’s class. I waved to Mingyu and began walking to sit next to him, but an angered Yoolhee stood in the way.

“What do you want?” I asked her.

“What happened yesterday? Well, to you. I know ‘what happened’ to me. That darn Professor Suarez and his methods of teaching.” Yoolhee shook her head in disapproval. I had forgotten that it just happened and I forgot to check in with her after I was freed. Whoops.

“Your army me once you.. left? And then I ran into the park and fought them off with an army of trees.” I pushed her out of the way and sat next to Mingyu, who was patiently waiting.

“How’s your shoulder?” he reached over to touch it but I backed away from his reach.

“Oh, it’s fine! Just a little sore.” I lied.

“Alright class, take out your books and turn to page—” She was interrupted by the sound of a glass-breaking shriek.

Everybody’s head poked into the corridor to see what was going on. Nobody could see what was going on because there was a giant cloth wrapped around the halls. A few students attempted crawling around the cloth but ended up returning without any hopes of escape.

“DK, WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?” Mingyu’s voice rang in my eardrum.

“IS WOOZI SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO STRETCH THIS MUCH?” DK’s voice sounded like a cleaner intercom. This piece of fabric is Woozi?

I poked the fabric and ended up losing my finger to his bellybutton. Mingyu pulled me back and I flew into the classroom. Glancing over to Aubrey, I saw her typing on her typewriter as a man with wavy hair and puppy dog eyes wrapped his arms around her. Is that her imaginary boyfriend?

“Bad time, Aubrey?” I interrupted their moment.

“Huh?” she stopped typing and threw her typewriter onto the ground. “What boyfriend?” she adjusted her fogged-up glasses.

“A7tEnt1On 5Tud3NTs, pl3A5e rEmAin C0lm wh.le we At.eMPt tO r0L1 WoOZ1 iNto Th3 inf1rMary.” The intercom spit out. Attention students, please remain calm while we attempt to roll Woozi into the infirmary? I think that’s what it said.

What’s going on here? First Vernon almost setting the school on fire, now Woozi blocking the halls with his short, yet stretchable body? Is a disease spreading throughout the school? Well, Vernon and Woozi don’t share a room. Maybe it spreads differently? I’M SO CONFUSED.

While we waited for Woozi’s elastic body to be rolled up into the infirmary, Aubrey made us practice in one of her scenarios. It wasn’t scary this time; in fact, it seemed to be getting much easier now that I unlocked more of my abilities. Not to mention, that cheater Mingyu copying my abilities. After we escaped her simple scenario, Woozi was wrapped up and we were able to leave. I returned to my Vernon-less dorm and laid on the bed.

“If you want to save your friends, meet me on the roof tomorrow at 9pm. Come alone.” A familiar voice said.

I sat up in my bed and looked around, but nobody was there. Instead of staying in my haunted room, I gathered my things and knocked on Mingyu’s door. DK answered it.

“Hi, Wonwoo. What are you doing here?” he looked at my pillow and blanket that I was carrying.

“Uh, nothing.” I hid the items behind my back and started heading back to my dorm.

“Wait, you can come in. It’s fine, I don’t mind.” DK opened the door for me and I walked in.

“Wonwoo? What are you doing here?” Mingyu sat on his bed and looked at me in confusion.

“I think my room is haunted and you said if I ever needed something, to come over.” I stood there like a child trying to sleep in his parent’s room.

“You can sleep on my bed, I can take the floor.” Mingyu rolled off of his bed and allowed me to sleep on his bed.

Sleeping on his bed made me feel much safer than sleeping in my haunted room without Vernon to spit on the ghost.

QUESTIONS:

What do you think is spreading throughout the school? Why is everybody getting sick?

Why does Wonwoo NOT want Mingyu's help?

What up with Wonwoo's haunted dorm?