Prompt: You have the ability to freeze time. When you do, everyone freezes as well. One day, you freeze time, and out the window, you see a girl moving around, astounded and confused. Then, she sees you.

 

She was 9 years old the first time she realized she was different from the rest of the kids. It all started on the 10th birthday of her best friend, Taeyeon. The birthday celebrant in question was dressed up in jeans over-all, a green shirt with small robot print patterns, and a pair of sneakers. Comfortable, unlike at all with what Yuri’s mother made her wear. Forced into a frilly, peach dress, flower patterned doll shoes, and her jet black hair tied into a ponytail that was a little bit too tight, Yuri was not so much in a good mood.

 

She scratched at her head, trying to relieve the dull ache at the very top of her skull. She sent a pout to her mother, who was busy talking to the other parents gathered around the buffet table they had set up at the side of the play park. In a small, rebellious act she tugged at the tie on top of her head, relieving her aching scalp a little and knocking off the small tiara that she didn’t even like from its perch at the crown of her head. She kicked the tiara to the side, hiding it under a thick bush, smiling mischievously at her act of rebellion. She could always lie, it was just a stupid tiara after all.

 

Taeyeon runs up to her a moment later, smiling toothily, and launches her small body at her best friend. Yuri laughs as they both topple onto the floor and she grabs at a random belt loop and pulls, making Taeyeon squeal at the mini-wedgie she was being subjected to. A light tussle later they both sat up, dusting clothes amidst their laughter.

 

“You look stupid in that dress.” Taeyeon snickers, looking Yuri’s attire up and down.

 

Yuri sighs. “My mom made me wear this. Not fair that you get to get away wearing that.”

 

Taeyeon shrugs her shoulders. “It’s my birthday. I get to do anything I want. By the way, where’s my present?” she holds out her hand expectantly, grinning broadly in excitement.

 

Yuri’s expression mirrors hers at the thought of the gift she’s carefully selected. It had taken a lot of begging to her mother to switch out the dollhouse she was planning to buy for the birthday girl. Yuri knew Taeyeon wouldn’t appreciate the ‘girly’ toy as she didn’t really like playing house. “Oh! I picked out the best! You’re going to love it!”

 

“Then give me!” Taeyeon says impatiently, jutting her hand closer to Yuri.

 

Yuri giggles as she pushes her hand away. “I don’t have it, silly. It’s with the other piles. Mom wouldn’t let me give it to you earlier.”

 

They hear Taeyeon’s name being called, followed by someone mentioning cake. The two girls exchanged grins, pushing at each other to get to the cake first, a contest in which Yuri won. After singing the birthday song and the blowing of candles, and the random finger grazing the side of the cake for an icing test, the children were herded around a semi-circle as the entertainer made its entrance.

 

It didn’t take long at all for Yuri to find the entertainer boring. Her thoughts stayed on the excited grin Taeyeon had, expecting her present to be delivered to her at the earliest possible time. A wicked grin pulled at her lips and she cautiously slipped away from the crowd, heading straight for the pile of gifts at one side of the park. She pulled free the gift she had picked for Taeyeon, glancing cautiously over to the adults, all who were too busy talking to each other to notice her hiding the spherical gift behind her back. Not wanting any of the adults to see her and ruin her surprise she took the long way around the park, keeping the gift out of sight. She was halfway through when a miscalculated step pitched her forward. Instinctively, she let go of the gift, her hands pushing forward to catch her plummeting body.

 

A short cry leaves her lips as her unprotected knees began to sting, a good indication of a break on her skin. She bits her lower lip, not wanting to cause a scene. It was Taeyeon’s day, and she was big enough to pick herself up. Ignoring the slight sting around her knees she got to her feet, her eyes frantically looking around her for the wrapped present she dropped.

 

It had rolled away to a few meters from where she was, gradually slowing as it rolled closer to the cemented walkway. Yuri was quick to scramble after her present, hoping to get to the precious item before someone, or something, pushes it farther away. Picking it up she sighed in relief, turning the gift over to check its packaging. There was a slight tear in one side, but not enough to see the present within. She grinned in triumph, gently dusting the imaginary dirt off the wrapping as she turned to return to party.

 

When she looks up her first reaction was to gape at the scene before her.

 

Like a video on pause, everything was frozen mid-action.

 

It wasn’t long that her shock was replaced by curiosity. She poked at an already bursting balloon, noting that the stretched rubber was just starting to retract. It did nothing other than pushing the balloon a few centimetres from its original place. She giggled at the surprised woman a foot away, the contents of the plastic cup in her hand halfway out.

 

Arriving at the stage she stared hard at the magician as he was showing an ecstatic Taeyeon a card, while hiding another behind the first card. She reached for the hidden card, tugging it loose from the magician’s fingers. She carefully examined the card, then, finding nothing of interest, let it go. It stayed floating on the space she left it in, suspended in motion. She went over to the magician’s hat left on top of the table, picking it up and peering inside to find the hidden dimension that hid the white bunny rabbit. She stuck her hand in, feeling the felt against her fingertips, but no bunny.

 

After what must have been an hour pulling out and examining weird contraptions and the surprising amount of deck of cards Yuri placed everything back into the bag, disappointed not to have found out the secret doors or magic wand.

 

She went over to the seat she saw Taeyeon take, at the very front of the stage, and placed her present on top of the chair. She stood back, grinning. At least there was one thing to look forward to now. In fact, she couldn’t wait to see the look on Taeyeon’s face the moment she got down the stage and see the present Yuri just knew was going to blow the socks out of Taeyeon.

 

She looked back to the front, an idea sparking in her creative mind that had her grinning like the Cheshire cat. Giddily she rushed back to the stage, crouching in front of the magician and undoing his shoelaces. She tied them together, laughing wildly when she scurried back to hide within the crowd of her peers and waited.

 

When nothing happened and everyone else remained frozen she scratched her head. What now?

 

“You can all move now.” She tried, looking around to see if anything happened. She raised her hand up to the face of her closest peer, waving it in front of the boy’s face. When nothing still happened she took the lollipop from his hand and angrily threw it away.

 

“Why won’t you move!” As if those were the magic words the world around her reanimated.

 

A loud pop was followed by a surprised shriek.

 

“That’s not my card.” She heard Taeyeon say. She looked back to the front, just in time to see the magician trip forward, crashing on the stage and everyone chorusing in gleeful laughter.

 

“Hey, there’s my card!” Taeyeon gleefully announced then began clapping by herself. Yuri made her way to the front, laughing as the magician rolled to his back looking down at his tied shoes in complete befuddlement. Uncaring of the man’s predicament, and now that she’s found her card, Taeyeon skipped down from the stage, letting out a delightful squeal as she reached for the wrapped gift on her chair. She tore through the wrapping, her eyes glittering when she looked up to find the face of her best friend. Yuri stepped forward, waving her hands to catch Taeyeon’s eyes.

 

That was the first that she froze time.

 

 

 

The second and third were triggered accidentally. Once to stop a bully from shoving a kid into the janitor’s closet, the other was to pull Taeyeon back before she fell down a flight of stairs.

 

Over time, and with various experimentations and a bit of light reading somewhere in the depths of the school library(she was surprised at the number of strange books just lying around for students like herself to pick up), she figured out how to freeze time on her own will. No sooner had she got control of her gift that she decided to take the art of pranking to another level, one that assured her that she will never get caught. Not to say she didn’t have a conscience. Once in a while, she would silently apologize to the students unfortunate enough to walk into one of her traps, often catching Taeyeon’s attention. She would always smile and shake her head at the inquisitive gaze. Taeyeon was too nice to let her wreak havoc, and she was still having too much fun. She decided not to tell her just yet.

 

To give her credit, where credit was due, she didn’t always use it for pranks. There were other uses for it, like when she needed to finish her forgotten homework or even extend her time a little during quizzes and exams. Not the best examples, but it was her gift and there was no reason for her not to take advantage of it. She wasn't about to do something stupid with it and try to be a superhero... until maybe college.

 

“Yuri-yah!” Taeyeon growled, slapping Yuri by the shoulder as the latter was stretching mid-yawn. Yuri made a little hissing sound as she shrunk back, pouting up at Taeyeon’s condescending look.

 

“What?” she whined. Acting cute was not her forte, but when faced with an angry best friend it was always the best course of action.

 

“You weren’t listening to me.” Taeyeon responded, huffing. Her already chubby cheeks puffed up, reminding Yuri of a squirrel with its food stuffed in its cheek. For someone who despised doing cute things, Taeyeon needn’t even put in the effort to look cute.

 

Yuri reached for her stinging arm, rubbing at the reddening spot. “Jezz, there’s no need to get all violent. So, what did you say?”

 

“I was asking you if you finished your half of the assignment.” Taeyeon repeated, shaking her head this time. “Honestly, talking to you sometimes feels like I’m speaking to a wall.”

 

Yuri stared at her, brows crinkling in the middle while her muddled mind was still slowly clearing up. She was honestly drawing up a blank. “What assignment?”

 

“For history!” Taeyeon groaned, frustratedly running a hand through her hair. “We talked about it yesterday. You said you had it covered. Please tell me you didn’t forget.”

 

“Oh.. uh, yeah. I totally.. totally have it. Done. Finished it all yesterday.” She put on her best grin and threw in a thumb up. “I swear! I packed it in my bag right before I left this morning.”

 

Taeyeon eyes her distrustfully, her lips pursed into a tight line. “You do know you talk unnecessarily when you lie. It’s your thing.”

 

“Psh.. Aw come on, have I ever let you down?”

 

“Well…” Taeyeon leaned back, the tension of her body easing somewhat. “no…”

 

“Trust me. I’ve done it. I just need to..” Yuri turned, pretending to rummage through her bag. She squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on slowing her breathing and thought of still water. The chatter around her seems to lower until all she could hear was the sound of her own calm breathing. She opened her eyelids, looking to check on Taeyeon. Her face had smoothed out, but a small frown was still present. Yuri reached out to wave her hand in front of Taeyeon’s face. When she didn’t react Yuri relaxed on her seat.

 

She hadn’t completely forgotten the assignment. She had done ¾ of the work the night before until her strained eyes began to ache. When she thought about it now, having a power nap during the evening was not a good idea, more so when the bed and her comforter made easing into dreamland a smooth transition. It was a good thing then that she had the power to stop time.

 

She pulled out the folded manila paper, laying it out on her table. She nodded her head at the colourful writings depicting a summary of the great Korean war, the rest of her notes in a piece of scrap paper. She cracked her knuckles, shaking whatever remained of her sleep and sorted through her colourful markers.

 

It took a while before she was satisfied with her work, something she would never fret over. She stood, stretching the tightness of her muscles from working, manoeuvring around the motionless students as she made her way to the window. Squeezing her tired eyes she sighs a breath of relief. Another nap was just what she needed. Unfortunately, her control of time seems to switch off when she was asleep, so the next best thing was to entertain herself in her frozen wonderland.

 

She lazily scanned the courtyard, leaning over the window to fully bask in the warm rays of the sun. She chuckled, seeing a boy, with his hair sporting a white spot, courtesy of the small brown bird that had just deposited its on his head.

 

It was a game she made, looking for funny occurrences that she normally would have missed. Frozen in time there was really only so much she could do before she bore herself. She let her eyes comb through the students below. Sometimes she would see how many students she could name, and sometimes she would take out random things from their bag and place it somewhere else for them to find. It was amusing to see them frantically going through their things and knowing exactly where the missing item is at.

 

“10.. 14.. 21..” she muttered, counting the students gathered around by the cluster.

 

The stillness of the frozen world around her, even after all the time stops, still made her feel a little bit unnerved. The absence of sound and the natural breeze gave her a distinct feeling of numbness. Even with her running amok in between time, the times that she does stay still and merely observe the numbing feeling weighs heavily on her mentality. But, she thought, that can be easily cured by keeping her mind on other things. The more she directed her thoughts to a certain action, the lesser she would think about the peculiar feeling.

 

“39.. 41.. 4..” she blinked, pulling her head back in to make sure there was nothing floating around her vision. She rubbed both her eyes to be sure and stuck her head back out, her eyes quickly scanning the suspicious area.

 

“I swear there was someone..” She muttered unsurely. It had been quick, but something was moving from the edge of her vision. But that was impossible. It has never happened before. No one was immune to her time freezes. She blinked hard, just to be sure, and stared at the rows of trees that could easily hide people underneath.

 

Her breath caught in as her vision honed onto a brunette emerging from the security of the greenery. She wanted to shout, catch the person’s attention, but her body had other ideas. constricted to the point that the tightness had felt so uncomfortable and wouldn’t permit even a single squeak coming out of . Shutting her useless mouth Yuri made a mad dash for the doors, skilfully evading the still forms of her peers.

 

She leaned against the side door that leads to the courtyard, heaving in the still air, trying to ease the burning in her chest, wincing once in a while at the stinging. She pushed past the swinging door, turning her head from side to side, wondering where the girl had gone from the time she had taken running down the stairs.

 

Squeezing past a rather loose cluster of students she looked to her right just in time to catch a glimpse of brown moving away from her. A quick switch of direction and she was weaving through the few students in her way, easily catching up to the confused student threading carefully about. She caught her by the wrist, startling the owner. A sharp, sonic shriek had Yuri loosen her hold and take a defensive step back.

 

Holding her hands to her ringing ears she gave the girl a quick once over. Though Yuri is a sociable person, she could not remember faces that well, especially those that did not give a lasting impression on her. This girl, she had definitely not seen her there before.

 

“You’re moving!” The girl said, her eyes filling with relief. A sheepish smile soon takes over her features and she mutters a soft apology, pointing at her ear. She knows what she’s done.

 

“Ah, it’s alright. The ringing is going away. That’s a good sign.” Yuri jests. She playfully sticks a finger in her right ear. “Yup, I can still hear.”

 

“Oh, haha. There’s just silence here you know.” The girl crosses her arms over her chest, turning her head to stare worriedly at their surroundings. Yuri keeps a neutral expression, knowing full well there was nothing to worry about. Instead, she kept her eyes on the anomaly of her frozen world, this strange girl walking about her domain. “What the hell is going on here anyway? Why is everyone.. everything frozen?”

 

“Why aren’t you?” Yuri asks back thoughtlessly.

 

The girl arches a brow challengingly, her lips turning down into a tight frown. “Excuse me?”

 

“Er.. why aren’t you..” Yuri jerks her head to the rest of their frozen peers.

 

She lets out a huff, giving Yuri an are-you-serious-right-now look. “Everyone is frozen except you and me and the first question you ask is why aren’t I frozen? Did you hit your head when you were a baby?”

 

“What? No!” Yuri shakes her head vehemently. “That’s no- Oh, God, this is confusing!”

 

“Oh, gee. You think?”

 

“No, I don’t mean that. I meant you!”

 

“Me?! What is your problem?!”

 

“You!”

 

“Well, excuse my sensibility. At least I’m trying to make sense of everything here!”

 

“Can you please stop shouting?!”

 

“You stop shouting! You started it!”

 

“Ahrg!” Yuri let loose a loud huff. She held her hands out in surrender, pursing her lips into a tight line. “Yuri-ah, take the high road. She’s just confusing you more.”

 

“Oh great! I’m stuck with a lunatic who talks to herself.” The girl sighs. She gives Yuri one last incredulous look, turns on her heels and marches away.

 

“Where are you going?” Yuri asks, quickly following the mysterious girl.

 

“As far away from you.” She growls over her shoulder. “Don’t follow me!” she snaps a second later. Yuri ignores her and keeps up with the brunette’s angry stomps.

 

“Okay, look. We started off on the wrong foot. I was just confused and I’ll admit I was in the wrong for being tactless and for shouting first. I shouldn’t have reacted that way and I’m sincerely sorry.”

 

“Are you really?” she replies bitterly. She stops beside one of the free benches and plops tiredly onto it. She doesn’t offer Yuri to sit, but she left a wide enough space for her.

 

“Yes, I am. You just caught me off guard, moving and all.”

 

She makes a snort of disbelief. “You can’t believe I can move, yet not question why everyone else isn’t moving? You’ve got to get your priorities straight.”

 

“I do.” Yuri sighs and parks her bottom by the edge of the bench. She turns her gaze up at the clear sky, pondering how to reiterate her thoughts into words without confusing the already confounded girl.

 

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you what I know.”

 

“You’re not going to say you’re a ghost stuck in limbo, are you?” The girl looks warily at Yuri. “I’m pretty sure I’m not a medium and am still alive, otherwise dying from dehydration is a crappy way to end my life.”

 

Yuri didn’t stop the loud bark of laughter coming from . “What? No, how did you end up with that conclusion?”

 

The girl gives her a half shoulder shrug. “I fell asleep under one of the trees. When I woke up everything was like this. Put two and two together… otherwise, this is some really trippy dream.”

 

“Now whose priorities aren’t in order?” Yuri playfully shot back.

 

The girl rolls her eyes at the comment thrown back at her and shakes her head. “You are such a child.”

 

“Last I checked, I still lived with my parents and rely heavily on them. So, yeah, I am a child.”

 

“Alright, wiseass, I get it. You don’t like me. Fine. So, can you please, leave me alone?”

 

Yuri slid closer to the available space, leaning back to use her arms to prop her up. “I never said I didn’t like you. I don’t know you enough to really say I dislike you.”

 

“Then why do you keep prodding me. It’s like you want me to get angry.”

 

“I don’t. I swear.” Yuri huffed, sounding more like a chuckle. “Look, okay, I admit, I was in the wrong for… somehow making you feel like I’m targeting you. I am not. As my friend says, I need a filter. I don’t really think of whether what I’m going to say is going to make people angry. I just say what is on my mind.”

 

“I’m Yuri, Kwon Yuri, from class 2-3. Average family class, height, weight, grading, basically everything, and I mean… everything.” She takes a subtle glance at the well-endowed chest of the girl sitting next to her, quickly looking away when the girl turned to look curiously at her. “Anyway, yeah, I say what’s on my mind, and I am actually running out of things to say, so..” she puckered her lips, waiting for the girl to follow up with her own introductions.

 

“Okay.. miss Yuri. I guess it is just proper to say it is nice to meet you.”

 

“Oh please!” Yuri interrupted, chuckling at the sudden formal way the girl was now addressing her. “I like it better when you were talking to me like I was a brat you wanted to go away.”

 

“Ah, so you do know you’re acting like a brat.”

 

“I wasn’t acting like a… you know what, never mind. You were saying?”

 

“No..” she drawled, shaking her head a little. Her lips were set into a tight line she stared off to space. Yuri liked to think she was doing that to control her smile. “that’s all I wanted to say.”

 

“Aw, come on. I introduced myself. What happened to being proper?”

 

“You just said you liked it when I treated you like a brat.”

 

Yuri breathed loudly through her nose. She got her on that one. “I’d like to know at least your name, otherwise I’ll just be calling you ‘hey’ all the time. Don’t know about you but it doesn’t sound very nice.”

 

“Whatever, Kwon.”

 

“Hm.. I didn’t know my family name could be said with that much annoyance.” The comment received a short string of laughter, a little delayed, but still. Yuri grinned smugly. The girl was a lot prettier when she wasn’t scowling or passive-aggressively trying to counter her.

 

“Jessica Jung, from 2-1. Average family, height, weight, grading except in English.” She mimicked, smiling slyly at the pout Yuri wore.

 

“I know you’re copying me,” she started, a smile slowly pulling her lips into a grin. “but I’ll overlook it, miss Jessica.”

 

“Now who’s being formal?”

 

“Damn. Would it sound weird if I tell you I’m starting to like this?”

 

Jessica threw Yuri a wary look, shifting a little uncomfortably in her seat.  “You’re sounding really creepy if that’s what you mean.”

 

“Creepy?” Yuri turned a confused look at Jessica. Her brows shot up in realization, wildly waving a hand in front of her. “I meant this little banter we’ve got going on.”

 

“You are so immature.” Jessica grunted, continuing her silent scrutiny of the frozen world before her.

 

“I’m just at the right age to act immature. Proper and prim is too boring anyway.”

 

“Whatever.” Jessica scoffs. She pushes off the bench, moving to the frozen boy closest to her. Pinching the stem of the apple he was eating she lifted the fruit from his hand. She then let go, studying it as it freely floats midair. “Interesting.” She mutters.

 

Yuri leans back on her arms, quietly observing the curious brunette test out whatever theories her mind has come up with. She smiles to herself, remembering her own observation the first time she froze time remarkably similar to Jessica’s.

 

“So, Agatha Christie, pulled any conclusions from your observations?”

 

“Yes, that you try too hard to be funny in with a dash of class yet fall short. Agatha Christie is the writer, Jane Marple is the detective from her writings.”

 

Yuri rolls her eyes. “Oh, you must be fun at parties.”

 

Jessica whipped her hair back, briefly giving Yuri a smirk before focusing back on inspecting the frozen strands of hair she had earlier displaced. Chuckling, Yuri pushed off the bench, silently making her way behind Jessica.

 

“Conclusions milady?”

 

“I am definitely not dead, and you’re not some entity that’s come to fetch me.” Yuri cocked an eyebrow and smirked.

 

“What makes you say that?”

 

“I can touch everything, including you.” Jessica made a quick jab at Yuri’s stomach with her forefinger to prove her point, Yuri recoils at the jab, clutching her middle protectively as she backed up from Jessica’s reach. “And this isn’t a dream. I’m not crazy enough to dream up someone as annoying as you.”

 

“Why, thank you.” Yuri says, grinning as she rubs at her stomach.

 

“Oh, shut up.” Jessica scowls, flipping her hair at her.

 

Yuri laughs. “So?” she said, urging Jessica to go on.

 

“So, and this will sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, don’t laugh!” Scowl still on Jessica lifted her forefinger, silently warning Yuri for repercussions if she did laugh.

 

Yuri lifted her left hand up, drawing a cross over her heart with the other. “I swear on..” her eyes shifted to the floating apple. She grabs it, polishing it over her shirt. “this apple here.”

 

Jessica gives her a deadpan look. She sighs. “Okay. Fine. Haha. Anyway, my take on all this.. this here, may be a realm in between reality that we somehow, unfortunately, got stuck in.”

 

Yuri made a subtle raise of her left brow and nodded her head, impressed at the logical conclusion. It may seem farfetched to Jessica, but Yuri made these pockets in between time her own.

 

“Interesting take.” She says, preparing to take a bite out of the apple.

 

“What are you doing?” Jessica’s query stops her. She looks at Jessica, raising a brow.

 

“What does it look like?”

 

“Are you crazy? Do you want to disrupt time and space?” Jessica heatedly retorts as she swipes the apple from Yuri’s hand, placing back on the boy’s hand.

 

Yuri lets her hand drop to her side, watching in amusement as Jessica retraces her steps and fixes everything she had disrupted. “Taking a bite from an apple can hardly do much damage to ‘time and space’. That apple has nothing to do with time or space.”

 

Jessica sighs. “If we really are in between realms, don’t you think people would notice things suddenly changing in a split of a second? What if you did something that would cause a butterfly effect that could possibly not end well. Are you ready to take the responsibility for it?”

 

“Well, you sound like you’ve watched a lot of Doctor Who.”

 

A light, pink blush spreads across Jessica’s pale cheeks.

 

“So what? It's a cool show.” She responds hotly, turning her head away with her nose up in the air at the giggles erupting from Yuri’s lips.

 

Yuri rest her side on the nearest tree, watching in complete amusement as Jessica flittered from one frozen face to another.

 

Freezing time just turned a whole lot more interesting.