CHAPTER 2

The Headache

 

Mingyu POV

 

           I sat up from my bed. Everyone was still fast asleep, snoring even. I exited the room quietly and saw Jisoo just walk out of his room.

 

           “Hey, I’m gonna shower, everyone else is still asleep.” He said as he walked past me down the hallway towards the bathroom and patted me on the back.

 

           I then proceeded to walk to the kitchen and start cooking up some ramyun so by the time everyone else woke up the breakfast would be ready. I prepared the pot and began boiling some water on top of the stove. It was awfully quiet with everyone asleep that it felt rather uncomfortable. Speaking of uncomfortable, it reminded me of the pain on my wrist from yesterday. I quickly looked down at my wrist, the red mark still remained.

 

           Soft footsteps approached the kitchen. I turned to face a sluggish Wonwoo. He yawned, holding a book that he had been reading for the past few days in his left hand as he opened one of the kitchen drawers. He took out a small box of Panadol tablets from the drawer and popped one in his mouth, grabbed a glass of water and gulped it down.

 

           “Everyone else is still asleep.” I informed him as I poured two packets of ramyun soup mix into the pot. “Yesterday was so tiring and strange. Practice this afternoon instead?”

 

           “Usually everyone else is up already… Just us two up again?” Wonwoo asked as he opened his book and leaned against the wall not too far away from me. “Just like it was us two when that one girl you mentioned ran past yesterday. Could that mean something or is it just a coincidence?”

 

           I shook my head. “Nah, Jisoo is up already, he’s just showering right now.” I opened three more packets of the ramyun soup mix and poured them in. Fifteen more packets to go. “I still wonder where that flower went though. It was so weird right?”

 

           Wonwoo still stared into his book. “Yeah, very weird. But it’s probably just somewhere in the practice room, you might’ve dropped it when those painful insect bite things happened.”

 

-

 

Wonwoo POV

 

           “True…” Mingyu replied, I could hear him stirring the remaining soup mix in as I read the last few words on the page I was on, ‘it was as if time’. “And the static thi-”

 

           I flipped the page over.

 

           “The static thing what?” I asked as I slowly looked up from the page. “Mingyu?”

 

           Mingyu was just staring into the pot, his mouth half open. I stepped forward and waved my hand in front of his face. “Yah, Kim Mingyu?”

 

           I glanced down at the pot, it looked odd. The bubbles from the boiling water stood still, the flame didn’t flicker. It was as if everything froze, froze in time. I turned around slowly and leant against the wall. I pulled the book up to eye level. The first word of the page read, ‘froze.’.

 

           “-ng on our wrists hurt pretty badly.” Mingyu continued his sentence as if nothing happened.

 

           I put the book down again. “What’s the expiry date of that Panadol?”

 

-

 

Soonyoung POV

 

           My eyelids still felt heavy as I stared up at the ceiling. I reached out to my left for my phone and checked the time, 8:21am. I sat up and silently walked out of the room making my way to the kitchen. Just before I got to the kitchen I could feel my head throbbing, it felt like a terrible headache was coming.

 

           By the time I got to the kitchen I saw that Wonwoo and Mingyu were already awake. Mingyu stood at the stove cooking some ramyun for breakfast and Wonwoo held the box of Panadol in his hands, he was looking at the side of the box which had the expiry date written on it.

 

           “Hey Wonwoo can you pass me one?” I held my hand out as he passed it to me. His fingertips brushed my palm then he jumped back and placed the box on the countertop.

 

           “Yah! Static. Lift your feet when you walk would ya?” He laughed sarcastically.

 

           I was confused. I didn’t feel anything other than his fingertips on my palm. “I didn’t feel the static? All I know is that my head hurts like hell.” I said as I took the painkiller.

 

           “That’s why I took some too.” Wonwoo replied gesturing to the box of Panadol.

 

           Mingyu opened another packet of ramyun. “Maybe you guys should go to the doctor.”

 

           “I’ll probably just wait for the painkiller to kick in. Maybe I’m just too tired from yesterday.” I made my way to Mingyu. “How many packets are you cooking this time?” I laughed as I hit him on the shoulder.

 

           “Aish! Stop rubbing your feet across the floor. That static isn’t funny.” Mingyu said as he flinched.

 

           “I don’t get it. I didn’t feel any static?” I stepped back and walked into the living room. “Everyone’s still asleep?”

 

           “Probably feeling tired too. We decided that we’ll just rest this morning and if we feel better by the afternoon then we can go practice.” Wonwoo responded from the kitchen.

 

           I heard a door close and spotted Seokmin groggily make his way towards the kitchen.

 

           “Is there any Panadol?” He asked as his hand rubbed his head. “Feels like I’ve been hit in the head with a brick.”

 

           “You too aye?” I said and walked back to the kitchen with Seokmin. “Maybe we should go to the doctor.”

 

           “Why? Did you have one as well?” Seokmin questioned.

 

           “Only those two.” Mingyu used the spoon he was mixing the ramyun with to point towards Wonwoo and I. “I’m feeling fine and Jisoo seemed okay before he went to shower. Maybe you should all head to the doctor now if you’re all experiencing headaches? The food would be ready by the time you get back if you leave now.”

 

           “Should we go?” I asked, looking at Wonwoo and Seokmin.

 

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Wonwoo POV

 

           The doctor’s office hadn’t changed much since I was last there. Still the same plain white walls and posters of the human body around the place. The bed was still across from Dr Moonsoo’s desk and a couple black seats next to it.

 

           “Ah, Wonwoo, Soonyoung and Seokmin, yes?” Dr Moonsoo asked.

 

           We all nodded.

 

           “The last time you were here Wonwoo was for your gastritis last year. What brings you and your friends around here this time?”

 

           Soonyoung began for me. “Well, all of us woke up feeling fine but a couple minutes after waking up a massive headache just hit us.”

 

           “We think it could be because of a strange insect bite or something we all got yesterday afternoon. But then again, the other members haven’t experienced the headache.” Seokmin continued.

 

           “Do you all mind showing me where this insect bit you?”

 

           We all just so happened to put out our right hands and turned it over for the doctor to see the small red mark on the insides of our wrists.

 

           “Very strange. It’s all in the exact same spot too.” Dr Moonsoo then took a closer look at the red marks. “Have you been experiencing any other symptoms?” He asked further, holding Soonyoung’s arm and inspecting his wrist.

 

           I put my left hand up. “Well, I’m not sure whether or not I was hallucinating or something but this morning I… Um… Had a weird experience after taking Panadol.”

 

           The doctor then reached for Seokmin’s arm but just as his hand made contact with Seokmin he fell to the floor. We all immediately stood up from our seats and exchanged looks.

 

           “He’s… Snoring?” Seokmin raised an eyebrow.

 

           “Is he sleeping?” Soonyoung kneeled down and tapped Dr Moonsoo on the shoulder. “What do we do?”

 

           We instantly looked at the door the moment we heard it open. It was one of the nurses.

 

           “W-w-we” Soonyoung stuttered.

 

           “Wait!” I yelled and placed my hands out.

 

           I glanced around. Everyone was frozen in place. I walked in front of Soonyoung and waved my hand in front of his face. Nothing. No reaction. His eyes just stared at the nurse. His mouth wide open as if he was about to say something. I then decided to poke him on the cheek.

 

           “Didn’t do anything!” He yelled out and scanned the room. “What the? Why is everyone frozen? Yah! Wonwoo why aren’t you frozen in time?” He stood up and pointed at me.

 

           I then poked Seokmin on the shoulder. He quickly jumped and turned to face me. “What’s going on?”

 

           “Ok. Let’s not panic. This happened earlier back at the dorm but I thought I was hallucinating. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know why this is happening. All I know is that we have a sleeping doctor on the floor, a nurse entering the room.” I gestured to the door way. “And that anyone I touch somehow manages to enter this ‘unfrozen’ state during this strange time freeze...”

 

           “Then what do we do?” Seokmin said panicking a bit.

 

           “Well… I don’t know how long this is going to last. But all I can think of is that we put the doctor on the bed and when time unfreezes we tell the nurse he was asleep when we walked in.”

 

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Hansol POV

 

           I walked out of the bedroom and noticed Seungkwan leaving his room too. My head throbbing in pain, we both made our way towards the kitchen. Mingyu was scooping ramyun into ceramic bowls for our breakfast. Both Seungkwan and I reached for the Panadol on the counter top. There just so happened to be enough remaining for the two of us.

 

           “Headaches?” Mingyu asked as he passed bottles of water to us.

 

           “Yeah. How’d you know?” I replied.

 

           Mingyu leaned against the wall. “Wonwoo, Soonyoung and Seokmin just left to the doctors a couple minutes ago because they were experiencing headaches too.”

 

           We heard footsteps enter the kitchen. “Who has headaches?” It was Jisoo drying his hair with a towel.

 

           “Clearly everyone else except you and me.” Mingyu said.

 

           “Eh... Seungkwan and I will go buy more Panadol in case others wake up with a headache.” I pushed Seungkwan’s shoulder and we both headed out the door.

 

-

 

Seungkwan POV

 

           We began making our way down the street and started walking in the direction to the local chemist.

 

           “I wonder why everyone is waking up with headaches.” I scratched my head.

 

           Hansol shrugged. “Maybe it has something to do with this?” He pointed to the mark on his wrist which caused me to look down at the mark on my right wrist.

 

           “But Jisoo and Mingyu seem fine.”

 

           “Hey!” I heard a girl shout out from behind us. Both Hansol and I span around to face the direction the voice came from. “You’re from Seventeen right?”

 

           “Yeah.” Hansol replied with a smile. “You’re a fan?”

 

           “Oh no. My younger sister is a big fan though. Do you mind if I take a photo of you guys for her?”

 

           “One photo wouldn’t hurt.” Hansol said and he prepared for a photo. The girl took her phone out and snapped a picture.

 

           She placed her phone in her pocket. “Thank you so much! My sister is going to be so happy and probably jealous that I ran into you guys.” She laughed. “Vernon and Joshua right? My sister talks about you guys all the time. It’s very difficult to get her to shut up. Haha.”

 

           I laughed. “No no. I’m Seungkwan. Say hi to her for me.”

 

           “Will sure do! Nice to meet you guys.” She said and ran off.

 

           I turned to Hansol. “She was nice.” But his mouth just remained wide open as if he were in shock.

 

           “Uh…” He began hesitantly. “We need to head back home right now. Don’t talk until we get back to the dorm.” He grabbed my arm and started pulling me back towards the dorm.

 

           “What why?” I asked.

 

           “Shh.”

 

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Mingyu POV

 

           Everyone was pretty much awake so I began handing everyone a bowl of ramyun.

 

           Minghao exited the bedroom his fingers rubbing his temples. “Yah! It’s freezing in there! Someone turn down the aircon please.”

 

           I passed Minghao a bowl. It was only Chan left who hadn’t woken up.

 

           “Is Chan still sleeping?” Seungcheol asked and placed a hand on his forehead. “This headache is killing me.”

 

           Jihoon placed his bowl of ramyun down and stood up. He began walking to the temperature control for the air conditioning on the wall.

 

           “Everyone seems to have a headache besides Jisoo and Mingyu.” Jeonghan blurted out.

 

           “Hey guys.” Jihoon spoke. “The aircon isn’t even on.” He rushed to the bedroom and everyone else followed after him. The temperature within the room was unbelievable, I shivered the moment I stepped in. We could physically see everyone’s breath floating in the air.

 

           “Chan! Hey wake up!” Seungcheol shook Chan until he opened his eyes.

 

           Chan groaned. “Why is everyone here? Can you guys get out? It’s so stuffy and hot in this room with everyone crowding around. Plus I’ve got a bad headache.” He drowsily complained and closed his eyes again to sleep.

 

           Seungcheol placed his hand on Chan’s forehead. “It doesn’t feel like he has a fever?”

 

           Everyone exchanged looks and slowly exited the frozen room. There we were, crowded outside the bedroom door.

 

           “He doesn’t feel the cold...?” Jisoo said as he placed his arm on Jeonghan’s shoulder to lean on him.

 

           “Whoa!” Jeonghan’s eyes widened with surprise.

 

           Jisoo stepped away. “What?”

 

           “My headache just disappeared the moment you touched me.”

 

           “What do you mean?” Seungcheol asked. “Like gone? Completely?” Seungcheol grabbed Jisoo’s hand and his eyes widened.

 

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Wonwoo POV

 

           “When we entered the room he was sleeping!” Seokmin yelled out.

 

           The nurse closed the door and began to approach Dr Moonsoo who now laid on the bed within his office. She pushed Seokmin aside but immediately collapsed just as the doctor did when he made contact with Seokmin. Seokmin caught her and looked at me.

 

           “Don’t tell me… She’s asleep too?” Soonyoung spoke leaning to one side with his arms across his chest. We all heard a loud snore come from the nurse.

 

           Seokmin dragged her to a chair and sat her upright on the seat. she slumped down in the seat, fast asleep. “What’s going on?” He said.

 

           “It seems like whoever you touch falls asleep.” Soonyoung stepped back away from Seokmin and I did the same after him.

 

           “Let’s go back to the dorm and process this before they wake up.” Seokmin laughed weakly, seemed like he was trying to think positively in this situation.

 

           “Good idea.” I didn’t know whether or not to laugh at the strange situation or be completely terrified of these peculiar occurrences. We rushed out of the room, closing the door behind us and began to speed walk out of the medical center, attempting to bring as little amount of attention towards us.

 

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Seungcheol POV

 

           Somehow everyone managed to get rid of the headache by Jisoo simply tapping them.

 

           “Do any of you know what’s going on? Even just the slightest idea?” I asked.

 

           Everyone was silent. I looked down at my bowl of ramyun and noticed a small spot of something purple but was immediately distracted by someone barging in through the front door. Hansol and Seungkwan. The latter clearly out of breath, as if they had ran home in a rush.

 

           Hansol’s mouth opened. “Seungkwan spoke fluent English.”