Byun Baekhyun, day thirteen 12:01

The cafeteria is still white. It’s still silent. I’m not the only one in here. Someone new entered. He’s taller than me. Black hair and a fox-like triangular face. His stare is vacant and steps slow. He almost looks like a zombie.
I paid close attention to which tray he took. It took him a while but he ended up retrieving tray number 10. He’s the new one, I realized. He looked around the room, it was as if he couldn’t see me as his eyes scanned the room and never once landed on me. He seemed to decide something and walked over to the table I was sitting at. He sat down right in front of me, tray haphazardly placed at the very edge of the table.
“I know you’re here.” He suddenly said, his eyes were looking through me. I was frozen in place by the weird comment. It was quite obvious that I was here, I was sitting right in front of him, but something about the way he looked at--through--me made me certain that I wasn’t fully there, whatever that meant.
“I can feel you,” he finally continued, “but I can’t see you.” His eyes narrowed as if looking for a speck of dust on my chest. I could feel my heartbeat quicken along with my breath. “Don’t be afraid,” he said, as if he was reading my mind, “I’m not going to hurt you.” He smiled warmly and a dimple appeared on his right cheek. My racing heart started slowing down, allowing me to breathe deeply. I hadn’t actually believed that he would hurt me, something about him told me he was quite harmless, but what he said was still extremely confusing.
“What’s your name?” I asked and he jumped back in surprise. His eyes widened and started scanning my general area before he answered.
“If I tell you,” he started cautiously, “will you show yourself?” I still wasn’t sure what he meant by that, perhaps he was half-blind and needed me to reach out to him.
“Yes.” He let his shoulders loosen up and the smile reappeared.
“My name is Yixing, what’s yours?”
“Baekhyun. That name’s not Korean, is it?” Yixing laughed, it was loud and made his eyes crinkle.
“No, I’m from Changsha.” He explained, it really didn’t tell me much since I’ve always been quite bad at geography.
I decided to take a bite of my food which caused Yixing to stare in surprise as my hand picked up the utensils. He exclaimed in astonishment as the food entered my mouth. It was like I was performing a magic show and he had taken on the role of audience. That happened a few times. I was beginning to feel slightly enamoured by his almost childlike behavior when he suddenly shouted in surprise. I looked around to make sure no one had entered. When my head turned back I was met with Yixing’s curious face mere inches away from mine. Now it was my turn to be surprised. I leaned back in my chair and away from him. He examined me thoroughly before he sat back down with a smile.
“How’d you do that?” He asked.
“Do what?”
“Make yourself invisible.” That’s when everything clicked. Somehow I had managed to fulfill every angsty teenagers dream of becoming invisible without realizing it. Between the events of yesterday and what had just happened, I found myself suddenly believing Master Kim’s words about me. Talents, I thought to myself, I have talents.
Yixing had been looking at me expectantly for several seconds when I finally remembered to answer him.
“I don’t--,” I started, still very confused by my realization, “I don’t know.” Yixing’s eyes were inspecting me again. It was like he was looking for a sign of a lie. But what would be the point in lying?
“That’s too bad, I thought you could’ve taught me.” Despite his smile there was a sign of pain hidden in his face. He stared down at his food, all traces of conversation dead in his dejection. The things he said earlier seemed to finally be registering in my brain.
“Wait,” I finally said and his gaze was focused on mine again, “you said you could feel me?” I asked and for some reason, a blush spread over his cheeks. “How?” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly as he tried to come up with a proper explanation.
“I don’t know, either. I just do.” I nodded solemnly at his answer. “Have--,” he said hesitantly, “Have you been to a test?” He suddenly asked. My ears perked up and I felt heat rising to my face as I once again recalled the not-so-comfortable memory of yesterday. Instead of answering verbally, I nodded in reply. A hint of sympathy appeared in his gaze.
There seemed to be a pattern during these lunch periods that I wasn't alone. Short conversations with long pauses while neither one of us could think of anything to say. It was frustrating to say the least.
Yixing opened his mouth a few times as if he was going to say something but backed out at the last minute. My brain was too focused on trying to figure out what exactly had happened to pay it any mind. Whatever he had to say couldn't be that important.
The headache I was causing myself was enhanced by the fact that I had only recently gotten over the one I had yesterday. Yixing seemed nice enough but I couldn't bring myself to continue any conversation he tried to spark.
“Are you okay?” He asked, it came out slightly muffled as the headache started blurring my vision. There were suddenly three Yixings sitting in front of me and each one of them was spinning.
“I’m fine.” I managed to force out.
“Do you need help?” Yixing asked again, concern laced in every syllable. I shook my head which, in retrospect, was a bad move. I clutched my head and suddenly Yixing was rushing to my side. I tried to swat him away. It was nothing but a bad headache, he didn't need to worry himself over it. “Let me help you,” he said softly. My face contorted in pain and I nodded involuntarily. His hands were suddenly laced in my hair, his fingertips rubbing softly at my scalp. It was probably my imagination but it was like warm water was seeping from him and into my skull. I felt the pain ease up and it was only then that I noticed how shallow my breath had become. I started relaxing tensed muscles into his touch, a sigh of relief fell from my lips. He sat down next to me and leaned my head on his chest.

I don't know when I fell asleep, all I know is that I woke up in my room in the middle of the night with a warm feeling at my scalp and a sense of being punched in the gut as I jerked out of the nightmare. The nightmare of Master Kim.