CHAPTER 3

Frozen

Chan POV

            I opened my eyes slowly. The only light that illuminated the room was from the door that remained slightly ajar. My head still throbbing in pain, I let out a sigh and couldn’t help but notice my breath floating in the air. It wasn’t even cold, I didn’t understand why that would be happening. I gradually sat up from my bed and walked to the door then poked my head into the hallway looking towards the direction of the living room.

            Just as I poked my head out I heard Seungkwan’s voice. “I was not speaking English.” His arms across his chest while he leaned to one side.

            “Uh… Yes you were. You wanna go? Fight me.” Hansol joked around with sarcasm laced between his words, but the tone in his voice soon turned serious. “That girl was speaking English and you replied in English. You didn’t even mispronounce anything, your American accent was even perfect, it sounded like you were raised overseas. How are you going to explain that? She’s gonna go and tell everyone that we now have a third fluent English speaker out of nowhere and his name just so happens to be Seungkwan. Do you see the problem here?”

            I cleared my throat as I stepped out of the room and closed the door behind me. Everyone turned towards me. “Is there… Panadol?” I asked as I rubbed my head. The pain was just on the verge of being unbearable but I could still take it.

            Jeonghan looked at Jisoo and turned his head to me. “Go cure him.”

            Jisoo stood up and began to walk up to me. He then proceeded to poke my right arm for a second before pulling away almost instantly. Just as he did that I felt the pain leave my head as if there was absolutely nothing wrong to begin with.

            “What the heck Chan… You’re so cold.” Jisoo said quickly as he looked at my arm and back at his hand.

            All of a sudden I could just hear a crackling sound above me which caused me to look immediately up towards the ceiling. Frosted white fragments and clear icicles were forming on the ceiling just above my head. It began expanding and spreading across the ceiling at a gradual pace. The floor below me did the same. Ice. It all began from where I stood. Jisoo jumped back and ran to the rest of the members sitting in the living room. They all stared at me standing in the hallway while their jaws dropped to the floor.

            I could feel my heart pounding against my chest. I saw everyone else shiver but I felt no change in temperature. My heart was racing just as we could see the steam from everyone’s breaths in the air.

            “The temperature just dropped…” Hansol spoke as he and the rest of the members bunched up together. “Hey Chan. Are you okay?” He looked at me with a concerned expression on his face.

            I looked around me and back at the members. “What’s happening?”

            “Don’t you feel cold?” Minghao raised an eyebrow.

            I shook my head in response.

            “Then it must be you that’s causing the coldness!” Mingyu shouted out.

            I laughed. “Oh nah...” I said sarcastically.

----

Seokmin POV

            Footsteps. Dogs barking. Water dripping. Children laughing. Heart beats. Heavy breathing and a crackling sound. Everything sounds like they are right next to my ear. What’s going on?

            We rushed back to the dorm, practically outside it by now. Wonwoo opened the door and we barged into the living room.

            “Aish really? Why is it so cold in here?” Soonyoung exclaimed.

            I butted in before someone could reply to Soonyoung’s question. “Guys weird things are happening!”

            Hansol let out a sigh. “Okay. First things first. Before you go ahead and tell us your story, and before I fill you all in about Seungkwan’s English, we need to figure out how we can get Chan to control this cold thing going on right now.”

            “Wait what? Seungkwan spoke english?” Wonwoo asked.

            Seungcheol began speaking before anyone could answer Wonwoo. “I don’t mean to interrupt but… Guys what’s this?” He said as he pulled a purple petal out from his bowl of ramyun.

            “It looks like a petal from the flower that disappeared yesterday.” Mingyu answered his voice cracked a bit towards the end.

            “So clearly there’s some bad mojo supernatural things going on. But right now, before we freeze to death, how can we stop Chan from killing us all with hyperthermia and then we could figure out how that petal got there?” Hansol spoke quickly, his bottom lip quivering, everyone in the room shivering except for Chan.

            Soonyoung put a finger up as if he had hatched an idea. “Google. I’ll get my phone.” He immediately ran down the hallway towards the bedroom.

            “Bring some blankets!” I yelled out.

-

Soonyoung POV

            I looked around the room and saw my phone laying on my bed. I jumped onto my bed and reached for it and couldn’t help but notice the charging symbol appear on the screen. It was strange. I slowly pulled my hand away and the charging symbol disappeared, only to show 24% next to the battery icon on the top right corner.

            I tilted my head to the side and reached for my phone again. Holding it in my right hand, it was charging. The 24% moved up pretty quickly to 25% then to 26%. I placed my phone down onto my bed and saw the symbol vanish once again.

            I looked around, grabbed the blankets off the beds in the room and took my phone out into the living room. Everyone was huddled together trying to keep each other warm. Chan sat alone opposite them, icicles surrounding him.

            I threw blankets to the members and wrapped one around myself. “Share the blankets cause that’s all I could carry from the room.” I told them. “On the other hand, you guys would probably want to see this.”

            I turned my phone screen to face them, showing them the home screen. They all squinted and had confused looks upon their faces.

            “That’s your phone?” Chan said still squinting and trying to figure out what I was trying to show them.

            “Yes it is. But look closely.”

            “It’s a phone in your hand?” Hansol responded.

            Wonwoo laughed. “A hand phone.”

            “It’s charging.” I said bluntly.

            Everyone’s faces remained blank as it seemed to not have clicked within their minds.

            “So what?” Jihoon shrugged.

            I put my phone closer to his face. “It’s not plugged in yet it’s charging.”

            “Maybe your phone is stuffing up?” He said. “Here pass it to me and I’ll just google the weird supernatural things.”

            I passed my phone to Jihoon and the charging symbol disappeared. “See!” I pointed to the corner that displayed the battery percentage that now read 62%.

            “Wait. Take your phone back.” Jihoon began passing my phone back to me, his eyes locked onto the corner of the battery percentage. As I reached for my phone Jihoon’s hand touched mine. He fell backwards as a bright spark of electricity shot between us. “What the hell! You shocked me?!”

            “Electricity generation?” Seungkwan said, his eyes wide open.

            I looked at my hand. “That makes sense.” I whispered to myself and rose my voice soon after. “Earlier Wonwoo and Mingyu both said they got a static shock when I touched them but I didn’t feel a thing.”

            Jihoon had a frown upon his face as he was looking at his hand and shaking it. “That actually really hurt.”

            “Guys…” Wonwoo began out of nowhere. We all turned towards him. “I think I may have just found out what type of flower that was… You know… The one from yesterday.”

            “What how?” I asked just as he began lifting up his phone screen and turning it to face everyone. I saw an image of a violet flower upon the screen.

            “I was doing a web search while everything else was going down.” Wonwoo explained leaning against Mingyu as they shared the blanket between them. “But anyways, apparently the flower is some species of aconite, also known as wolfsbane. But like… It’s supposed to be toxic and people actually die from aconite poisoning.”

            Seokmin raised an eyebrow. “Wolfsbane? As in that one thing that they use to deter werewolves in movies?”

            Wonwoo nodded in response. “However it says nothing about superpower-like symptoms that occur due to aconite poisoning. Plus, not all of us touched the flower so it doesn’t really explain much at all.”

            “It doesn’t explain the mark on our wrists either.” Jeonghan said sitting between Jisoo and Seungcheol. The three eldest members sharing one blanket. Jeonghan lifted his wrist and showed it to everyone. “Mine faded a bit though.”

            Seungcheol’s eyes widened as he looked at Jeonghan’s wrist. “Your mark has faded a lot more than mine.” He placed his arm beside Jeonghan’s and compared the red lines.

            Mingyu put his arm out. “Mine barely faded. It kinda matches Seungcheol’s in terms of how much it faded.”

            Wonwoo laid his arm beside Mingyu’s. “Mine hasn’t changed at all since yesterday.” That caused me to look at my wrist which looked exactly the same as yesterday. Not even a slight amount of fading was visible.

            “Same here Wonwoo.” Seokmin said quickly while looking at his wrist.

            Junhui placed his finger up beside his head. “Wait a minute!” His face showed an expression as if he had just pieced a puzzle together. “Mine is very slightly faded and so is Minghao’s.” He then grabbed Minghao’s arm and showed their wrists side by side. “They look similar too. This happened after Jisoo healed our headaches. The people who went out before he healed everyone didn’t get touched by Jisoo. Could it be that he healed our strange marks too?”

            “Well mine is completely gone.” Jisoo began. “It’s been gone since I woke up this morning. I assumed everyone else didn’t have it either…”

            Hansol let out a sigh which travelled through the air in a fine mist. “And we still have to figure out how to get Chan to control this frozen situation before we all freeze to death.”

            I felt my stomach grumble with hunger and rubbed it. “Ah… I haven’t had breakfast yet.”

-

Seokmin POV

            “Neither have I.” I said quietly responding to the words that just left Soonyoung’s lips.

            Water dripping. Hearts beating. The grumble of a starving stomach. I could hear it all as if the sounds were right next to my ear.

            I could hear every breath. Every heart beat and even the smallest movement of Jihoon’s hand brushing against the blanket that he had wrapped around him. But someone’s heartbeat ran faster than everyone else’s. I could hear it surrounding my ears.

            I glanced around at each of the members. Their chests rising and receding with every breath they took.

            It’s Chan’s heart. It’s beating simultaneously with the speed of the ice forming on the white ceiling above his head and the wooden floor below his feet.

            “Some crazy stuff happened in the doctor’s office earlier.” I blurted out, everyone turned towards me. “But I’ll explain that later because right now, I think I know how to get Chan to stop producing this cold temperature thing.”

            “Okay, go ahead, what’s your theory?” Chan put his hand out suggesting that I continue with what I had to say.

            “Well… I don’t know if you guys would believe me or not but…”

            “Trust me, with all this happening, what won’t we believe?” Soonyoung snickered and leant back against the wall behind him.

            “So I noticed on the way home from the doctor’s office that I could hear things that others couldn’t.” I continued.

            Seungkwan put his hand out as if to stop me from talking. “You mean like voices in your head?”

            I shook my head in response. “No no. I mean as in I could hear water dripping from a tap that was across the street. Even everyone’s heartbeats currently beating right now. I don’t know if I’m going crazy but right now… I can pinpoint someone’s heartbeat beating pretty fast compared to everyone else’s.” I let out a breath. “It’s Chan’s.”

            Some of the members glanced towards Chan then back at me.

            “Strange enough, I can hear the crackling noise the ice makes and the rate the ice is being produced matches up with his heart rate. So… Maybe if he control’s his breaths and breathes slower, that should calm his heartbeat down and it’ll stop the ice production manipulation power thing.” I smiled and chuckled anxiously. “I honestly don’t know what to call it.”

            “Aish… So many strange things. I don’t know how to react to any of this.” Mingyu said with his right hand to his temple while he leant against Wonwoo.

            “I don’t think any of us know how to react to any of this.” Seungcheol laughed. “It’s so… Random? It feels like we’re in a movie or something.” His expression went slightly serious. “But anyways, as Hansol said, we should sort this cold thing out then discuss everything. So first we get Chan to calm his heart rate and we talk over this whole thing. Y’know, everyone’s experiences so far because there is actually so much happening within such small amounts of time.”

            I began to hear Chan trying to control his breaths. As if he was counting the amount of seconds to breath in through is nose, hold his breath and let it out through his mouth. His heart rate began slowing down, and just as that happened, the sound of ice crackling began to slow down too. I stared at the ceiling and saw the ice receding back to where it initially began forming.

            “It’s working.” Jihoon spoke as his tilted his head up towards the ceiling. His mouth partially open but a blank expression remained upon his face. Clearly no one knew how to react.

            It was within a matter of a few seconds and the ice had completely disappeared. There was absolutely no trace of anything frozen ever appearing. The temperature within the room regulated and everyone unwrapped the thick blankets from themselves.

            Wonwoo almost immediately turned to Mingyu the moment he removed the blanket that wrapped around the two of them. “Is there still food left?” He asked as I heard his stomach grumble with hunger.

            Mingyu nodded. “Yeah, of course. It might be cold though considering how Chan kind of just froze the whole place for the past half hour or so.”

            Wonwoo stood up. “So who wants me to bring them a bowl of ramyun then we can talk about the things that happened?”

            Soonyoung, Hansol, Seungkwan and I raised our hands.

            “Well I only have two hands.” Wonwoo said jokingly as Hansol and Soonyoung stood up and followed him to the kitchen.

-

Wonwoo POV

            Soonyoung, Hansol and I entered the kitchen. I immediately grabbed out five bowls from the cupboard and lifted the lid off the cold pot of ramyun. The contents looked strange. It was frozen solid, of course, it made sense since Chan pretty much made our home into Antarctica for the past half hour. I placed the lid back onto the pot as my stomach gurgled with hunger.

            “Mingyu!” I shouted out. “You’re right, the ramyun is cold.”

            I heard footsteps approach the kitchen. “Heat it up then.” Mingyu said as he stood next to me.

            “Not only is it cold… It’s actually frozen.” Hansol stated.

            Mingyu grabbed the pot and placed it on the countertop beside our microwave. He grabbed a large ceramic bowl from the cupboard and lifted the lid from the pot.

            Steam.

            Steam rose from the pot just as he opened the lid. He immediately turned around to Hansol, Soonyoung and I.

            “What do you mean it’s frozen?” He asked raising an eyebrow. “It looks like it’s just been freshly cooked?” Mingyu stood there with a confused expression painted on his face while the rest of our jaws dropped to the floor.

            “Wait…” He quickly turned back towards the pot. “Freshly cooked…?” He stared into the pot filled with steaming hot ramyun. “It can’t be? I cooked this over an hour ago. How is it still hot?”

            I felt the hunger in my stomach attack me again.

            “You know what, let’s talk about this in the living room while we’re eating.” Soonyoung said while grabbing chopsticks and spoon, scooping the the remaining contents of the pot into the bowls. “Let’s go.” He grabbed two bowls and exited the kitchen, Hansol did the same and I took the last one.

            Mingyu stood there leaning with his hands upon the countertop, gazing into the empty pot. I turned around to face him as I stepped through the kitchen doorway. I stared at Mingyu for a second. His hands emitting a red-orange glow.

            “Heat manipulation?” I looked down at the floor and quietly whispered to myself. I quickly glanced back up at Mingyu who was still looking at the pot. His hands no longer had the orange glow. Maybe I was just seeing things.

            Wait... Mingyu hasn’t moved for the past two minutes. Did I freeze time again?

            “Yah. Kim Mingyu.” He looked towards me. “Ah… Let’s head back to the living room. We all need to talk about everything that has happened.”

            Mingyu laughed for a bit. “Sorry, I’m just mind-blown at how the ramyun seemed freshly cooked. Let’s go.”

            We walked back into the living room Seungkwan and Seokmin already held their bowls of ramyun in their hands.

            Mingyu sat down on the floor next to Minghao and Junhui. “So... Where do we begin?”