WARNING: Attempted , Molestation

"You are absolutely terrible at this, you know that?" 

          He turned to look at his companion that stood in the corner of the training room, among the shadows where no one can spot him. It was funny, really, considering his companion's power, and there his companion was standing in the dark corner of the room and hoping against odds that no one would notice him. He figured that his companion did not know how much he stood out, and that no matter how hard he tries to hide from plain sight he would always be seen — or maybe that was just his own opinion, since his companion was someone special to him. 

          His companion was a young male looking not older than twenty but also not younger than eighteen, with long black hair tied up into a bun with a honey coloured ribbon. His companion was wearing a robe with the same shade as the ribbon, consisting mostly of the colours orange, yellow and brown. His companion was short — from how he saw it at least — and had a petite figure, pale face and thin lips but his eyes were out. 

          Even though the matter-of-fact tone that his companion used on him, he could see the worry in his companion's features as he stared at him. His companion's lips were pressed into a thin line and from time to time his tongue would dart out and wet them, causing them to glisten with saliva. His companion didn't notice it but he was picking at his nails, digging at the invisible dirt in his rather short fingernails. 

          He was panting heavily as he looked at his companion's worried expression, shoulders moving up and down along with each breaths he took. The upper part of his body was exposed, the top robe having to pool around his midsection and supporting from the sash around his waist. He could feel sweat all over his body — on his forehead which caused strands of his hair to stick to the skin and also on his torso which was why he had his top robe discarded. 

          He scowled at his companion's statement, gritting his teeth as he bit back, "Can't you see that I'm trying here?" 

          His companion's frown only seem to worsen, shifting from one foot to another as he replied, "I can see that. But as you can also tell without me pointing it out — you are not improving, not even a bit." 

          His frown deepened but he decided not to say anything, opting to just let out a defeated huff as he turned around and tried to continue on with his training. It was the truth though — he had been working on this for as long as he could remember, probably ever since he came to this temple. And as far as he could tell, he was not making any progress, which was frustrating. 

          Inhaling deeply, he shifted his footing so that his base area was larger and his legs were more spread out, holding up a hand and staring at it as if his intense gaze could light up a ball of fire in his opened hand. He bit his bottom lip so harshly that it almost drew blood, a bead of sweat already forming and rolling down his face as he continued to stare at his hand. He could see his hand visibly shaking and his fingers trembling, however he made no move to stop whatever activity he was trying to do and instead just continued on with it, even if it proved to be useless. 

          There was a growing heat inside of him, so hot that he could definitely feel himself nauseating over it. The hot feeling however wasn't the kind of feeling a person would get when they're sick, flustered, aroused or angered — this sensation was something more, something far more dangerous than emotions. It felt something like when you bottle up your feelings too much and you don't know how to let it out, or when a volcano is about to erupt but the magma just won't come out. 

          He could feel himself getting lightheaded as he continued to stare at his hand that was trying to somehow form a ball of fire, or at least a small flicker of amber. He was hoping that his power would somehow appear — be it in a weak flame or a big combustion, at least they were something. He really didn't like the idea of being one of the only few people left in the temple who still didn't know how to control their powers. 

          He could feel the flow of power inside of him, coursing through his veins like a river and burning hot like boiling water. The hot feeling was travelling all over his body — from his head down to his torso and then ending at his feet, before flowing back up to his torso and head to repeat the cycle — and yet it was making no move to appear outside of his body. It was like his body was holding back the power, and it was really frustrating because he did not know how to solve this problem of his and he was somehow hoping that by some miracle, he would be able to make his power come out. 

          Letting out a yell of frustration, he whipped his arms downwards forcefully like he was throwing something to the ground. His eyes were blazing with anger and irritation, teeth chattering against each other as he breathed through his nose, more sweat forming on his forehead and torso somehow even though he was not performing anything physical. It was almost like his body was sweating due to the heat contained inside of it, wanting to let out the steam somehow since he couldn't do it with his hands. 

          He hadn't notice it when his partner came forward and it was until he felt someone pulling his hand that he snapped out from his daze, turning over to his companion who was looking at him tenderly. He watched as his companion flipped his hands over and over, inspecting the palm and the back of his hand as if he could find the problem. He bit down on his lip to hold back the sound of ticklishness when his companion started to prod at his palm and the back of his hand, like his hand had a switch somewhere that he should try to switch on. 

          With a defeated sigh, his companion let go of his hand and stepped back, wordlessly looking up at him and prompting him to look down at his companion. The height difference was obvious — his companion having to be a forehead shorter than him — but his companion didn't mind, he could barely bring himself to bother about it anyway. Even though he couldn't see his companion's eyes, he could feel the worry that was practically radiating off from the shorter male, showing his obvious anxiety. 

          "I don't understand," was all his companion commented before he brought his hand up in front of him. 

          He watched in no surprise as his companion's hand started to form a white circle which glowed brightly with every passing second, until the light was almost blinding and he had to shield his eyes from the brightness. His companion noticed the small gesture made by him and he immediately closed his hands, easily cutting off the light as he let his hand fall to his sides. He blinked a few times, looking around a bit to gain back his focus before looking at his companion. 

          Even though the brightness from before, his friend didn't seem all that affected — his companion was still staring up at him with an unfazed look, as if the light from before was never there to begin with. It was a perk for having light powers — to avoid the possibilities of being blinded by his own powers since it would be ridiculous for a power user to have their own powers backfire on them, his companion's eyes adapted themselves to the brightness of the light. Which also meant, no matter how bright something is, he would still be able to look at it and not risk going blind — he knew this firsthand when he witnessed his friend looking up at the sun without having to shield or squint his eyes. 

          He shook his head, still trying to focus his eyes as he asked, "What do you not understand?" 

          His companion bit his bottom lip, "We are both elemental users, and the other elemental users can also at least summon their powers." 

          His companion stopped right there and said nothing more — then again, it wasn't as if he should say anything else other than that because he understood clearly what his companion was trying to get at. Out of the twelve of them in the temple there were six of them who were elemental users, including him and his companion. As far as he knew, the others could already call forth their elements, which kind of made him the last one — there were also others who couldn't bring out their elements, but at least they have signs of their powers. 

          He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking around the training room as he commented, "I am never going to be able to learn this in time."

          He heard a huff from his companion and all of a sudden, he felt two hands grabbing his face and turning it forcefully. He felt his eyes widening in shock at the sudden brute force, eyes filled with confusion as he was forced to look at his companion in the eyes. He could see the heavy frown on his companion's face — brows furrowed and jaw set. 

          "That's not true," his companion told him and although the serious look on his face, his voice was as soft as ever, "You will be able to learn how to control your powers!" 

          He sighed softly, leaning into his companion's touch as he stated weakly, "You can't be sure about that." 

          His companion chewed on his bottom lip, a thoughtful look crossing his face as he stayed quiet and tried to think of something — a way for him to learn how to control his powers. He stared at his companion's concentrated face, opening his mouth and was ready to tell his companion to not worry himself too much when he received a glare from said friend. Instantly, he closed his mouth and watched patiently as his companion went deep in thought. 

           He could practically see a light bulb blinking by his companion's head when a certain glint flashed in said companion's eyes, a hopeful smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he let go of his face and chirped excitedly, "I got an idea!" 

           He raised a brow which prompted his companion to continue, "I will teach you!" 

          He looked ready to laugh, but one look from his companion had him shutting up completely as he heard the shorter continued, "I will guide you to use your powers, step by step." 

           Now he's interested. 

           He looked at his companion with a raised curious brow — like he wanted to make sure that his companion wasn't joking around — and asked, "Will that work?" 

          His companion pursed his lips, "It has to." 

          Seeing the determination burning in his companion's eyes, he shrugged and agreed, "Okay. We'll try your method." 

          His companion nodded, "Good. Now-" 

          He jumped back with a yelp when his companion abruptly sat down on the ground, his companion lifting his head up to look at him with a small smile while patting the ground near his feet, "Come on, sit." 

          He put on a bewildered look, "Wait, right now?" 

           "No, after dinner," his companion let out an exasperated sigh, "Would I tell you to sit if I'm not sitting myself?" 

          He bit his bottom lip before letting out a sigh, inspecting the ground a bit before slowly sitting down. 

          His companion smiled approvingly, giving him a thumb's up, "Good job!" 

          He shot his companion a glare, "What now?" 

          His companion grinned at his enthusiasm, pulling back as he instructed with as much seriousness as he could, "Now, I want you to close your eyes and picture a fire in your head." 

          He stared at his companion, "That's it?" 

          His companion shook his head, "Nope. You must also picture your mother." 

          He scowled at his friend before closing his eyes and picturing a ball of fire in his mind, drawing out the shape of the amber element before imagining it to be flickering like an actual fire. 

          As if knowing he was done imagining a fire, his companion continued, "Next, I want you to imagine yourself catching the fire in your hands." 

          "Just imagine yourself reaching out for it in your head," his companion further explained, "And then, imagine your hand being a vacuum and the fire got into it." 

          He did as he was told — staring at the fire with his mind's eyes and imagining himself reaching a hand out to take it like it was something with a body, all five of his fingers outstretched and making grabby gestures like the fire could somehow come to him like that. He thought about his companion's instructions and took in a deep breath, picturing his hand to be a vacuum instead of a body part and the dancing fire with it. He imagined the fire being into his hand, watching as it stretched to his hand like a plant would to a sun, the fiery element disappearing once it was close to his hand. 

          He unconsciously nodded his head, signalling his friend to continue on with the next step. 

          "Now, imagine yourself transferring the fire in your mind's hand to your actual hand," his companion said slowly, "Picture your actual hand letting the fire appear like a spark to wood." 

          He furrowed his brows at the instruction but didn't object, taking in a deep breath instead to prepare himself before doing as he was told to. He imagined transferring the fire from the hand in his mind to his hand in real life, watching the flow of fire energy rushing through his body. He could see the fire energy bottling up at his hand and he slowly opened a hand up, his hand slightly shaky in anticipation. 

          His heart was pounding harshly in his chest, hitting against his rib cage painfully and threatening to jump out from his chest anytime soon. There were so many times he had attempted to summon his fire element, and yet everytime he tried it just didn't seem to work. He wasn't sure if he would now be able to bring out his power with his friend's help and he was praying in his head that it would work. 

          He suddenly felt a hand resting in his palm and he jolted in surprise, not opening his eyes in fear that everything he learned from his companion would go to waste if he did. He felt his companion holding his hand with both hands, giving a soft squeeze as if to reassure him. He could basically feel the smile radiating off from his companion and he visibly relaxed. 

          "It'll work," he heard his companion said and he didn't need to be a genius to know what his companion was trying to tell him. 

          So — after his friend pulled his hands away — with a huff of breath, he imagined fire appearing in his palm. 

          There was silence for a moment and he feared that he had failed the test, almost closing his palm when a hand suddenly grabbed his wrist harshly, tearing a yelp out from his lips. 

          "Can't you feel it?" His companion asked and there was a hint of awe in the voice. 

          He hesitantly shook his head and with a chuckle, his companion told him. 

          "Open your eyes." 

          He slowly opened his eyes — as if scared that if he snapped them open, he would not be able to see what his companion wanted him to see — and stared with wide eyes at the flickering amber flower in his hand. His mouth unhinging itself as he watched the ball of fire danced in his hand, slowly looking up to meet his companion's eyes which were staring at him. He couldn't help the smile that slowly crept up his face at his friend's smile. 

           "You did it," his companion told him, "You finally did it." 

The living room was mostly quiet with only the sound of fingers hitting the keyboard and cooking utensils hitting against one another being heard. Chanyeol was sitting with his legs crossed at the coffee table with a laptop to his right and a few books and some papers scattered to his left, typing something in the search bar before he took the pen placed in between the pile of sheets and the laptop to jot down whatever notes he found from the net. Kyungsoo was in the kitchen making them dinner, stirring the fried noodles in a wok with a spatula and causing clashing sounds to resonate in the dorm room.

          The examinations was nearing and Chanyeol's professor didn't cut everyone any slack as he heartlessly gave out another assignment. Doing a project was no easy task and as if that wasn't enough, the professor wanted everyone in the classroom to do this given assignment by themselves. There's strictly no copying others' works, no helping others and no doing others' works — the project had to be a hundred percent original and written by themselves with no discussions allowed, which meant the only source they could rely on was the net and any other sources they could get their hands on. 

          Chanyeol heaved an exasperated sigh as he dropped the pen onto the coffee table and pulled off his spectacles, letting the hand with the spectacles rest on his lap while the other hand was busy massaging his tired eyes. Chanyeol leant back against the couch behind him while doing so, his head tilting backwards and resting on the seat of the couch. Chanyeol let out a sigh as he stopped massaging his eyes, resting his hand on his forehead and letting his eyes stay closed. 

          Chanyeol could practically see his thoughts running around in circles behind his lids, watching with very little interest as they slowly became a jumbled mess. Chanyeol was sure that there were creases on his forehead and he couldn't help but to sigh again — the realisation that the project was getting on his nerves dawning on him and slapping him in the face. Chanyeol sighed once again before putting his spectacles back on, straightening his back only to hunch over to continue on with his hopeless project. 

          "Where on Earth are you?" Chanyeol muttered through gritted teeth, typing on his keyboard with a lot of force. 

          Chanyeol was supposed to find some information on the topic that he was assigned to do, but the task proved to be rather difficult since no matter how many times he tried to find what he was looking for, he just couldn't find it. Chanyeol had tried many different ways of wording what he wanted to find and even tried to find other informations that might be relevant to what he was searching for, yet it was still no use and he wasn't sure just how many tries had he made or how much time had he wasted. Chanyeol had initially thought about using an hour at least and three hours at most to finish his project, yet here he was — having to start on his project in the evening and doing it until five hours had already passed, all because of one stupid information that he just couldn't seem to find. 

          Chanyeol was starting to get agitated by the lack of productivity from his endless research, and the loud sounds made from Kyungsoo's cooking in the kitchen wasn't helping in easing his irritation — in fact, it only served to fuel the boiling feeling inside Chanyeol since he didn't like noisiness. Chanyeol knew that Kyungsoo had nothing to do with his project and so didn't say anything to try and stop his roommate from causing so much noise. Chanyeol was probably regretting not telling Kyungsoo about his frustrations — it wasn't like Kyungsoo would mind not cooking anything for them both anyway since they could always eat instant noodles instead, even though it wasn't healthy. 

          Chanyeol breathed in slowly, typing into his search bar for the umpteenth time in search for the information that he was looking for, murmuring to himself under his breath, "This better work or else I'm totally going to lose it." 

          It took a few more letters being typed into the search bar before Chanyeol clicked on the search button, waiting as the site tried to load related information about what he was trying to find onto the page. There were a few clicks on articles and a few scrolling, backing out from whatever topic he clicked into into in search for another article that might hold the information he wanted. A few more darts of the eyes as Chanyeol quickly skimmed through the text, crossing his fingers and hoping silently to find what he was desperately looking for. 

          Chanyeol's answer was simple — nothing. 

          Something in Chanyeol snapped then — probably the last string of sanity that he had been holding on desperately ever since his tenth to twelfth try at trying to research his wanted information — and that was all it took for Chanyeol to slam his hands onto the table like the non living object was an offending subject in his life, eyes burning with his bottled up frustration as he yelled. 

          "Is there seriously nothing that I could find about this ?" 

          It was right after that yell when out of the blue, a weird cackling sound resonated through the whole dormitory room — it sounded like it came from the kitchen — and then, there was a loud boom — so loud that Chanyeol jumped up from his seat on the ground — and following right afterwards was a yell of surprise and horror — no one other than Kyungsoo being the culprit of the yell. 

          Without another second being wasted, Chanyeol dashed into the kitchen at the loud sounds, question already at the tip of his tongue and legs ready to cross the threshold into the kitchen when he saw the scene before him, and the question just got stuck in his throat as he watched with wide eyes at the scene that unfolded itself before him. 

          Kyungsoo stood with his back against the dining table, round eyes wider than it already was as he watched the fire that bursted out from nowhere. The fire looked like a bonfire and was threatening to at its surrounding objects, wanting to spread its infectious fiery disease to other items. That was what had Chanyeol snapping out from his daze and grabbing the fire extinguisher near the door to the kitchen. 

          Chanyeol pulled out the pin from the handle as he rushed up to Kyungsoo, aiming the nozzle to the fire before pressing down onto the lever and sweeping the extent of the stove. Slowly but surely, the fire died down and all that was left from the freak accident earlier was white foam from the fire extinguisher. Chanyeol stood before the stove with wide eyes, staring at it like it might spurt out more fire at any given time. 

          Once Chanyeol was sure that there was no more fire, he placed the fire extinguisher down onto the ground and turned to Kyungsoo who looked like he had just seen a ghost. 

          "Kyungsoo?" Chanyeol called with a worried frown, standing in front of his roommate and patting his cheek lightly to snap him out from his trance. 

          Kyungsoo blinked a few times before looking at Chanyeol, a glint in his eyes that the latter couldn't seem to pinpoint, "Chanyeol." 

          There was a weird tone in his voice, but Chanyeol quickly shrugged it off as he asked, "What happened?" 

          Kyungsoo merely stared at Chanyeol like the latter had the answer to everything. 

          With a shake of his head, Chanyeol pulled back and told Kyungsoo, "I'll go and report this to the dorm leader." 

          Kyungsoo faintly nodded and out of the dormitory room Chanyeol went, not noticing the beads of sweat on Kyungsoo due to the fire and the lack of it on himself. 

There was Chemistry that day and the professor had everyone into groups of five to carry out the experiment that she gave them, giving each group a Bunsen burner and other experimental equipments for their tests. Before she allowed the students to start with their experiments, she gave them important guidelines on how to use the given equipments, especially the Bunsen burner — it wasn't like everyone didn't know the basic of handling the equipments, just that it's better to be safe than sorry. Once everyone had given their understanding to the professor's concern, she then only let them start. 

          Chanyeol was grouped up with Jongdae and three other students who he was no friends to, following step by step in doing the experiment as to not cause any unwanted accidents. All of them huddled together with Chanyeol being the guy in the middle as they read the instructions that their professors had handed out to them just in case. They were careful in carrying out their experiment, making sure to perfect each step before moving on to the next. 

          Chanyeol loves doing experiment — it was something that he had always loved doing ever since he was a young child barely the age of five. Whenever the teachers back in elementary, middle and high schools held an experiment, Chanyeol could be found watching the experiments with interest and curiosity while listening intently to everything the teacher was saying. It was a hobby of Chanyeol's and he loved having to learn new things through these experiments — he felt as if these experiments allowed him the chance to open his eyes and see more of the world. 

          Chanyeol would have been performing the experiment with just as much enthusiasm as he had every time he does one when he was younger, there was just one problem — that problem being the noise. Everybody was bickering so loudly, fussing over very stupid things like 'I should be the one lighting the burner' and the likes. Chanyeol couldn't help but to wonder if these people around him were really near or in their twenties already. 

          Chanyeol loathes noises — he developed this at some point in his life though he wasn't really sure just when was it. All Chanyeol knew was that he could never — like, absolutely not — stand people loudly talking to each other and also people making unnecessary noises, feeling that these people might not have anything better to do other than bothering others with their rude volume. This was why Chanyeol avoided having to go to places where there would be a crowd — a crowd having many people and many people meaning loud noises — and the only exceptions that he made on this matter was the restaurant he worked at — it was the only job that he could afford taking — and the streets of Seoul — he be damned if he couldn't even stand his own's city's roads. 

           Chanyeol inhaled slowly through his nose before exhaling through his mouth, doing it a few more times in hopes of calming himself down from going crazy. It wasn't like Chanyeol could tell them to shut up and they would heed the warning anyway, so might as well endure it for as long as the experiment last. There shouldn't be any difficulty in keeping calm. 

          Although Chanyeol thought that, he couldn't help but to feel that the volume in the classroom was getting higher and higher with every passing minutes, and it was starting to get on Chanyeol's nerves. It seemed that Chanyeol was not the only one though as the professor at the front also did not look happy with the students' volume — she was looking from under her eyes with her brows furrowed and lips pressed very tightly together. Even though the professor looked like she was going to explode from the volume anytime soon, it didn't look like she was going to tell the students to quiet down and Chanyeol couldn't help but to admire her patience which rivalled that of a mountain's. 

          So, Chanyeol tried to be like the professor and ignore the noises around him, focusing all his attention on the experiment instead. Though it seemed to be a challenge because the volume wasn't going to die down with time and was instead rising louder, so loud that Chanyeol wondered if the students and professors from other classrooms could hear them. The thought would've made Chanyeol embarrassed if he wasn't trying so hard to not be bothered by the students' noisiness. 

          Chanyeol could feel his patience slipping away and every time he tried to take in a deep breath to calm himself down, it just wouldn't work and he would be back to frustrating internally over the brutal noise surrounding him. It was almost like Chanyeol was a man hanging off from a cliff, having to start with two hands before finally only having less than five fingers to hold himself up from the cliff. If the students doesn't quiet down, Chanyeol could imagine himself losing his sanity. 

          And that seemed to be the case when one of the students decided that it was a great idea to squeal in the process of carrying out the experiment. The culprit had been a female and Chanyeol recognised her to be one of those nosy idol groups' fangirls, always talking about her favourite idol groups and sometimes getting all worked up whenever her 'husband' was taken by another female idol — Chanyeol could never see himself understanding these weird concepts made by the fangirls, truthfully. Everyone had looked over at the squeal, thinking that something might have happened to her — Chanyeol didn't know, because he wasn't looking. 

          Since the string tying his sanity together snapped at that squeal. 

          "Shut," the male started off slowly, voice low and growling threatening. 

          "The ," his voice raised slightly as his hands balled into fists, raising them in the air. 

          "Up," he yelled as he brought his fists down to the table, the force so powerful that everything on the table jumped up and the equipments standing threatened to fall. 

          Everyone looked over at him — Chanyeol knew since he could feel the eyes drilling holes into him with their laser gazes — but as soon as the attention was on him, there was another scream. The scream was sudden and it was filled with shock and horror — Chanyeol thought the scream sounded oddly similar to Kyungsoo's from the night before. When the