Monday, September 17, 2012.

SuHo’s POV.

The weekend had ended quickly, and it was already the beginning of our second week here. We were getting ready to get into our official uniforms, since they were being shipped for the new school year from Japan. Some black jeans, a blazer, a white dress shirt and a tie that was blue, red and white, acceptable. JongIn, however, didn’t like it and made his tie all messed up, therefore, Kyungsoo had to fix the whole ordeal. I rolled my eyes and chuckled, tying said tie neatly. I looked in the mirror and fixed my hair, blinked twice and turned my face to check if there was anything related to pimples or zits. I smiled when I noticed there wasn’t, and Sehun walked out of the room, bag hanging in his shoulders while he yawned.

‘’Hyung..Let’s go~’’ He pouted, pretty sure that if he didn’t move, he’d fall unconscious on the floor. Not my fault that he was texting LuHan late at night, taking up at least 3 hours of sleep. I tapped his back and dragged him towards the kitchen, opening the fridge and taking an energy drink, uncapping it and giving it to Sehun who gladly drank it all. Chanyeol was the complete opposite, running around, trying to find his left shoe with practically a half-blind eye. Baekhyun was trying something new today, applying some eyeliner, almost poking his eye because of his annoying best friend.

‘’Guys, come on, we’re going to be—whoa’’ A sudden vibration in my jeans cut me off. I pulled off my little phone and checked the caller ID, no doubt, it was Lay.

‘Hey, I need to talk to you’

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

‘What about?’

‘I’ll tell you when you come and meet me @South of the Tree Of Life Tomorrow’

‘Where is that exactly?’

‘Where your instincts lead you to. I’ll text you later, I’ll specify the time, just don’t miss out on this’

I stared at the text for awhile before replying,

‘I won’t’

And I hit send. I stuffed the phone in my pocket and led the guys towards campus, where the principal said that he had some sort of announcement regarding the upcoming Primary Tests. The boys and I made sure to reach center of the place in time, we wouldn’t want to miss this, even though we hardly understood.

When we got there, the place was packed, and the principal stood atop a small stool, megaphone in hand and a sheet of paper on the other. We tried to watch a good peek of the whole announcement, but since me and Baek were so short, Chanyeol, JongIn and Sehun ended up translating to us down here.

‘’…the tests will be handed out by the teachers the day it is assigned to be answered. The tests itself will be printed out with material you all must know and that every EXOtic must apply, hence, you must answer said answers with all honesty, since this test is based in knowing how the EXOtics function and whether we should trust your learning method is based in good instead of evil. You must study every subject well and know yourself more than you know your brothers, please study well, for this test depends on the rest of your years in this Academy, we trust you pick the right choices, thank you all for your respective attention,’’ The Principal said, handing boxes full of what we knew were the tests to the teachers. I gulped, seeing as how the pamphlet itself had at least 50+ pages for being the first test. I’m literally going to have to crack my cranium for this one. Chanyeol dropped his jaw, Kyungsoo had his signature eyes bat out to the point of falling out, Sehun had a blank expression on, Baekhyun looked like he was about to cry and JongIn was about to faint, these reactions were one that I would love to add to the ‘Reasons why my roommates are such dopes’ album.

We headed towards our different classes in different location. My class was in 3B, it was Pyro, a class I never get to understand, while some others took Gym and Math. 

As I pushed the door open, I looked back to see that one of my papers had fallen. They were some forms I needed to hand in today, so luckily, I noticed and crouched down, grabbing one of them, before another hand took hold of the other papers. Confused, I looked up, shocked to see a pair of familiar eyes. I gasped and fell back on my , whimpering.

‘’Whoa, SuHo, you okay?’’ Lay asked as I stood up, rubbing my behind with a pout. I nodded.

‘’Thanks anyway,’’ I said and smiled at him, turning around before he grabbed my wrist and turned me around.

‘’Think you have some time during lunch tomorrow?’’ He asked, hope in his eyes.

‘’U—Uh, I—I think so..’’ He smiled and let go of my wrist, signaling me to go inside.

‘’Oh, that’s great,’’ He smiled again ‘’we’ll see each other then. Remember, South Of The—‘’

‘’Tree of Life, I know,’’ I chuckled as he did the same and nodded.

‘’Exactly, now, you must be going, see you then,’’ He waved as he walked away. I rolled my eyes and chuckled, walking inside the room to find everybody staring at me. I cleared my throat and they all kept copying what was on the board as the teacher glared at me and told me to sit down. I mumbled a quick ‘sorry’ before doing what I was told.

SeHun’s POV.

‘’Mr. Oh!’’ I gasped and snorted when a ruler hit my desk as I was in a peaceful slumber. I groaned and looked up, the teacher glaring daggers at me as she raised her brow. I looked down at my desk, only to find a pool of drool. I furrowed my brows, wiping away my saliva and shaking my head, I turned to face the teacher. ‘’No sleeping in my class, next time this happens, you will most likely be sleeping in the Principal’s office,’’ I shook my head frantically as she hummed and walked away, resuming her boring math class. I looked towards my side and saw LuHan giggling at my misfortune. I stuck my tongue out at him, which made him giggle more and cover his mouth before the teacher could even find out. I chuckled and began drawing abnormal shapes in my notebook, not even close to what the teacher presented on the board but whatever, I don’t even like this class. 

‘’Sehun-ah!’’ After I walked out of the classroom, LuHan took my arm, preventing me to go any further. I looked at him confusedly. He had this weird look on his face, almost like a hurt and embarrassed look, it didn’t fit him at all.

‘’W—What is it, Lu?’’ He sighed and scratched the back of his neck. I leaned against a locker as he did the same, twirling his thumbs while looking at the floor.

‘’Listen..about Friday..’’

‘’Yeah?’’

‘’I don’t know if I can go..’’ He pouted and blushed embarrassingly. I sighed.

‘’its okay, you don’t have to—‘’

‘’Hear me out,’’ I sighed and nodded ‘’I need to study really hard for these tests, they’re only given out every 4 years and it’s what they’ll use against us if we don’t pass it,’’ He sighed and looked at me, biting his lip.

‘’No, no, it’s fine, I get it, and I need to study, too..’’ I chuckled as I patted his shoulder ‘’We can still talk and plan another day,’’ I soothed.

‘’No, I want it to be this Friday,’’ He pouted ‘’That’s why I’m about to tell you that I can’t talk to you for the rest of the week,’’ It was my turn to pout. He giggled and ruffled my hair playfully. ‘’Yah, don’t be sad, I’m just doing this to get the whole studying thing out of the way so I can at least have a night off with you.’’ I smiled shyly and blushed.

‘’Well..I guess we could make some sort of arrangement,’’

‘’Good,’’ He smiled ‘’I’m going to study really hard so I can be sure that I will assist Friday night,’’

‘’You don’t have to..’’

‘’I want to,’’ He said quietly. ‘’I want to try something that day..’’ He said shyly. I chuckled and raised a brow.

‘’What ‘something’?’’

‘’Yah! It’ll ruin everything if I tell you!’’ He defended and pouted as I ruffled his hair and walked away while chuckling. I looked back to see him pouting those rosy pink lips that just looked so cute while his eyes looked somewhat like a puppy’s. I headed off to class, saluting him with my back turned. I heard him talking to himself while stomping away, which is, what in my head, looked adorable.

When the school-day ended, we all headed towards our dorms, tired and lazy to do anything else. I slumped on my bed, inhaling the familiar scent of the pillow. It smelled like my old room and like mom’s cheap detergent. She gave me like 5 of those to last a year or 2. My mom’s always wanted me to go to this school, since she used to attend the school right next to this one. My dad attended this school, and my mom and dad met and kept a secret relationship, since back then, the females weren’t allowed to have an affair with us, but they didn’t care.

I smiled, closing my eyes, ready for a little nap, before JongIn harshly opened my door, surprising me. He came in, only a towel wrapped around his hips.

‘’What?’’ I asked, annoyed. I was much too used to this JongIn.

‘’Do you have some underwear I could borrow?’’ He scratched his head and looked as if he was pleading with his eyes. I rolled mine and sighed, picking up some boxers from my drawer and tossing them to him. He thumbs-upped me and smiled. ‘’Thanks, you’re the best!’’ He exclaimed, closing the door behind him as I threw myself back onto the bed, trying to, yet again, catch a quick sleep. I closed my eyes again, tightly this time as I tried to imagine myself in a deep sleep, where in a parallel world, JongIn didn’t exist and wouldn’t come into my room, SuHo didn’t nag me, Baek and Yeol wouldn’t be rattling some pots and pans and Kyungsoo wasn’t trying to get JongIn away from himself..just me and my bed. I sighed, settling in some peace..I was about to fall asleep to the calming sound of the wind against the window, until…

Buzz.

I gasped and shot up, feeling something vibrate over and over in my pants. I cursed mentally as I took the phone out, not bothering to check the ID.

‘Just because I told you we couldn’t talk face to face, doesn’t mean that you could ignore me haha :)’ I recognized the smileys all too well already. I smiled lazily at this and sighed, texting back with tired eyes.

‘I wasn’t ignoring you, I was just lazy and tired^^’ I answered.

‘Oh, sorry, were you asleep?’

‘About to kkk, don’t worry’ I rubbed my eyes, tired as I yawned.

‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize :( I just wanted for you to know that you could still talk to me T.T’ I chuckled.

‘It’s okay, who needs sleep anyways?^^’ I yawned again.

‘Yah, not true, go to sleep!! >.<’ LuHan replied as I chuckled and typed back,

‘OTL fine, but at least now I know that I don’t need to be bored during the whole week^^’

‘Hmm~ True^^ Now do as hyung tells you and go rest, I need to study anyways kkk^^ Goodnight!~ :)’

‘Good night^^’ I replied. I sighed and turned off my phone, digging into the covers and finally settling to sleep..

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

‘’SEHUN!’’ I gasped as I felt something warm and fluffy hit my face. I groaned and opened my eyes to find SuHo staring down at me with his brows raised.

‘’What time is it?’’ I managed to croak out hoarsely. He rolled his eyes and pat my to encourage me to get out of bed.

‘’It’s 6:00,’’ He said as I groaned when he pulled on my foot.

‘’6 PM?’’

‘’6 AM, kid, you’ve slept for 16 hours,’’ I shout up and stared at him in disbelief.

‘’Seriously!?’’ He nodded in response.

‘’We tried to get you up for dinner but you wouldn’t budge, so we let you sleep,’’  He chuckled and shrugged. ‘’Chanyeol thought you had died for awhile,’’ I rolled my eyes and rolled out of bed, tangling my legs in the cover and falling on the floor. I mumbled an ‘ouch’ as my head hit the floor. SuHo picked me up and dusted me off like a good father, pushing me into the bathroom next door, telling me to shower because I stunk.

After shower, I slipped into my uniform and loosened the tie a little bit before settling on putting on my shoes and walking out earlier than everyone else because I had skipped breakfast, even though I was kind of hungry and SuHo insisted, I wanted to arrive early to class. The guys caught up to me by the front door, where everyone was situated, waiting for the doors to be open so we could attend the respective classes. As soon as the principal inserted the key and opened the huge doors, gasps and murmurs were heard. I looked behind me and see Chanyeol dropping his mouth and covering it. Since everyone was pushing us to get inside, I couldn’t really see, nor did the others, except Chanyeol, who wouldn’t come up with a coherent sentence. Suddenly, when Chanyeol was trying to tell us, Kris pushed him and tried to catch a glimpse, cursing while at it.

‘’, the Elites were here,’’ He said to his group in murmurs. We were confused as to who the Elites were, so we just kept our head high, literally, trying to catch a peek. When the students got the chance to step inside the building, we were next, and once we stepped inside, everyone gasped. All over the school were empty cans of spray paint, banners with the capital letters of ‘ELITES’, banners with some Chinese symbols and some in Korean, that said ‘WELCOME’. Whoever these elites were, they weren’t so nice, invading property and . As we stepped in deeper inside, the floors were covered in papers and other empty cans of paint and whatnot. I kicked one of them, and as it rolled down the hall, something made it stop. I furrowed my brows as I went towards the direction of said can, and picked it up, revealing a..red lipstick? I turned around and waved the object around, they came forth and SuHo grabbed it, inspecting it.

‘’The Elites..they must be female,’’ He sighed and gave it back. Chanyeol grabbed it from my hands and stared closely, eye level to be exact. He furrowed his brows.

‘’Guys..this isn’t a lipstick..’’ He mumbled and gasped, throwing it in the air. Baekhyun reacted and when it dropped back down, he caught it, making Chanyeol gasp. It was his turn to react. ‘’No, Baek!’’ He grabbed the ‘lipstick’, and threw it elsewhere. When it hit the floor, the item rolled around until it stopped. 2 seconds later, the thing blew up and gasps and screams were heard.

‘’H—How did you know?’’ Was what Suho managed to ask.

‘’I—I..it had a timer..’’ He replied, eyes widened at the sight. He automatically got behind Baek and hugged his neck, burying his reddened face in his hair. He kept mumbling softly, ‘’You..you almost...if I hadn’t—‘’

‘’If you hadn’t thrown that somewhere else, who knows what would’ve happened,’’ Baekhyun turned around to find his friend pouting as he nodded. It was obvious Chanyeol was really over-protective of his best friend, if something did happen to him, we may never know his reaction, but I know it wouldn’t be good. I gulped as soon as I see the two hugging each other tightly, thanking whoever it was that told him that was a damn bomb. It made me feel kind of..happy for them, with a mixture of jealousy. It was also very obvious that the two shared affection towards each other, not only friendly, but something more..I was happy for them, but jealous because they could just do that and not get judged because it ‘wasn’t allowed’ and because one of them was ‘the enemy’…wait, what? I shook my head of all thoughts and left the scene to head towards class, looking at the floor to make sure that I didn’t trip with the cans.

Kris’ POV.

While at gym, the teachers gave us approval to learn some new methods me and ZiTao had planned for today. The others were displayed in a line, waiting for instructions. Tao and I huddle close together, planning what we were going to do today. He sat down, legs crossed, arms doing the same as he eyed me.

‘’So?’’ I shrugged, raising a brow as he smirked.

‘’I think they’re low on self-defense,’’ He acknowledge. ‘’I have a few things up my sleeve.’’ He stood up and took a deep breath before waving his stick around to get their attention. He hit it against the ground, attracting their eyes to him as he pointed said stick towards XiuMin.

‘’Minseok, what do you do if your victim tries to kick you?’’ The other stuttered.

‘’I—I..uh..I kick back?’’

‘’Wrong!’’ ZiTao ran towards him, extending a leg out, simulating as if he was going to kick him. XiuMin gasped and grabbed his leg, twisting him around so that Tao ended in his back, gasping as XiuMin got on top of him and took a hold of his fists, freezing them and practically gluing them to the ground so he couldn’t move. Tao twisted and turned, trying to get out of the tight hold. He struggled until he finally got out and brought his stick up, swinging it so it almost hit the stunned Korean. He gasped, ducking and getting behind Tao, kicking his back, causing him to fall on his knees. LuHan gasped as Chen and Lay stood dumbstruck. Tao smirked at their reaction, only visible to me. His eyes darkened as he got up, running and dragging the stick on the ground, until it eventually made XiuMin trip on his own two feet. Tao got the chance to climb up to him and hold his wrists down hard, until he whimpered and begged to be let go. Tao complied and dusted himself off when he stood up, standing next to me and picking up a water bottle, downing it all in one go.

‘’Today’s ‘lesson’ will be on how to self-defend yourself,’’ He started. ‘’Duizhang and I have noticed how much you lack at that. The true way to self-defend yourself is not with your hands or feet, you must use your mind. You must know where your opponent is placed and observe his techniques before you attack, like this,’’ He positioned himself in front of me and swung his stick, aiming at my face before I grabbed it and tripped him with my foot. ‘’Good,’’ He stood up, his back. I chuckled.

‘’Besides that, LuHan, Lay, come here,’’ I beckoned them with my head as they came forth. ‘’LuHan, you’re experienced when it comes to defense, how do you do it?’’

‘’I read their minds?’’ He grinned nervously. I tapped his head.

‘’Good,’’ I moved to Lay, who stepped back in fear as he looked up at me. I grabbed his arm and tugged him towards me. ‘’Relax, I’m just asking, how is it that you do the same?’’

‘’I try to find their weak-spots..sir?’’ He said, rather high-pitched as he chuckled nervously as I raised a brow.

‘’How?’’ He cleared his throat.

‘’Well..my power is healing, no?’’ I nodded slowly, letting him explain the rest. ‘’One of the things that are most greatest upon my power, is that I can scan their bone structure and ultimately, I can cause impact when I attack on their most weakest points..if that makes sense..’’

‘’Good,’’ I took a breath and placed my hands on my hips, raising a brow. ‘’How do you advice us to heal our own wounds fast enough when we don’t have your power?’’

‘’But I thought we were talking about—‘’ Lay interrupted.

‘’This is part of the test, don’t question me,’’ He gulped and thought, placing a finger on his lips.

‘’Either acting fast enough to knock the opponent out or running away to find some healing herbs and acting out a spell,’’ I nodded and moved onto LuHan.

‘’Tao, give me your stick,’’ I beckoned him to walk over to me with my hand. He placed the instrument in my palm and I placed the end in front of Luhan’s eyes, on the tip of his nose. ‘’Weapons,’’ I started. ‘’Strongly required, so what would happen if your opponent destroyed it and you were wounded?’’

‘’Oh! I learned this one in Metals! You need to inspect it if it’s broken in half, that way, you can still use it and it’ll be better because you have 2 separate parts of the weapon itself!’’ He smiled brightly. I sighed and rolled my eyes, bonking him with the stick atop his head. He pouted.

‘’Nope,’’ I said as LuHan dropped his head and it. ‘’Tao, enlighten him,’’ He nodded and grabbed the stick.

‘’You may be correct in some parts though,’’ Luhan shot his head up and smiled. ‘’You can also use its remains to make a new weapon, but the main priority is that you need to use your mind, in this case, it’s easier for you, since you can attack with only your mind, but in our case, we need to protect ourselves, which doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re backing out, we just need to find either, like Lay said, a weak spot to hit fast enough, or hide behind an object big enough so we prepare ourselves to do the previous,’’ I was stunned by this statement. I nodded in approval and gave him a thumbs up. He smiled and bowed before I walked away to get some ‘presents’ to my allies. I came back with a bag, they eyed it curiously as I dropped it to the floor.

‘’These are courtesy of Lau, come up and claim one,’’ I smiled as they all came forward carefully and opened the bag, eyeing the different varieties of weapons. Chen was the first to claim his, it was a trident, the blades were shaped into a scorpion and the base was colored in black. He bowed and gave me his thanks and went to sit back down. Next, was XiuMin’s. His was a spear with a snowflake with rough and sharp edges that allowed to cut through anything. He gasped and smiled, bowing and sitting down next to Chen, who was talking to him about the weapons and how they looked. LuHan picked his up, and was surprised when he saw that it was a long, silver sword. He thanked me as I bowed to show my ‘you’re welcomes’ He smiled and sat down beside the others. Last was Lay. He picked up his dagger and smiled while inspecting it. He gave me a quick eye smile before bowing down. After I grabbed mine, which, by the way, was a spear with some sharp wings on the side, I started talking again.

‘’Use them well,’’ I warned, pointing my spear at them, which made them gasp at the suddenness. I chuckled ‘’From now on, you’ll be practicing with these, but other than that, they’ll stay locked up in our supply closet,’’ They groaned, some pouted, but I rolled my eyes. ‘’Any questions?’’ Chen lifted his hand up shyly, I sighed and pointed at him, a hand on my hips.

‘’W—Will we need to train to use these?’’ I nodded as Tao butted in.

‘’We will use them from now on, prepare yourselves, we start tomorrow,’’ Tao started, spinning his stick and landing it in his underarm. ‘’But first, who wants a go with their new toys?’’ He smirked, getting into his ‘attacking position’, luring the first person that raised his hand, which was Chen. Tao settled into the center of the gym as Chen followed nervously.  

‘’Relax, it’s just a little test battle,’’ Tao soothed as Chen took a deep breath and positioned himself in front of Tao.  ‘’I’m going to give you a chance, come at me,’’ He beckoned him with his hand as Chen came forth, trident in hand, trying to hit his face with the end of the weapon, Tao blocked himself with his stick. Soon they started a fight of who would touch who with their armaments without actually hurting each other. Tao dodged as well as Chen, and nobody was winning, they were both equally as good. Tao though, clanked his stick against the other’s arm(weapon), trying to push it forward so that it would fall and Chen ended up unarmed, but little did he know that he used this to his advantage and tripped him, touching his chest with the end, and just like that, Chen won. Tao grunted, but got up and shook Chen’s hands, smiling as Chen grinned in victory.

‘’You did well, I’m glad’’ Tao said, chuckling at the shorter’s excitement because he just beat the Huang ZiTao. ‘’It’s okay, it was just a test, I’ll get you next time,’’ He hummed and walked past Chen, lightly smacking his with the stick because he was enjoying his victory a little too much. I chuckled as Chen reacted and let out a small yelp, and followed Tao out to the narrow and empty halls.

‘’You did good today, finally’’ I rolled my eyes, leaning against the wall as he ‘tssked’, his back to mine as he rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, turning around and facing me with a brow raised as he leant into the other side of the room’s wall. He crossed his ankles and scoffed.

‘’You barely did any today, so..’’He pursed his lips and played with his feet, looking directly at them. I sighed and scratched the back of my head.

‘’I liked watching you teach them, it shows off how strong you are..’’ I mumbled. He shot his head up and looked into my eyes, even though there were a couple of feet separating us. I shivered, witnessing how strong his gaze was.

‘’Thanks,’’ I nodded and looked down, hearing him sigh. I heard some footsteps coming towards me, I didn’t need to raise my head to know who it was that was there. I see Tao’s shoes anxiously tapping the ground, so I raised my view and see his eyes boring into mine. I let my jaw drop in shock at the sudden intrusion of space, but let it be. His index finger was bent slightly in the middle as he traced a thin line over his bottom lip, letting me know he was nervous, and that he wanted answers. ‘’Why?’’ I shook my head in confusion. He chuckled and placed a hand gently on the wall behind me, looking down and feeling something drop down on my shoes..he was crying.

‘’W—Why what, Tao?’’ I asked nervously, feeling my palms sweat and tremble as his face came up, only to discover that his eyes were clouded with the liquid saltiness of tears. My look softened and I couldn’t tell how many inches were separating us, but to tell you the trust..it wasn’t a lot and I could feel his shaking breath against my nose.

‘’Why is it that you tell me this...and you suddenly make me feel so powerless?’’ He asked, his voice below a whisper. If I was looking below me, I probably wouldn’t have heard a word, but by the way his lips mold into quiet words made me recognize the sentence, so I began to get confused. ‘’Duizhang..’’ He sobbed quietly until he dropped down into my chest and wet my shirt. Unmovable, I could only stare at his hair, and how he shook as he gripped on my t-shirt, and how he got closer to me by the minute. I only then realized that Tao was begging to forgive him for the incident in the locker room a few days back, even though he had nothing to be sorry about, since I was the inconsiderate ..I sighed and let him stay in this position for a minute or two, until he calmed down. I slowly his hair as he lifted his head to look at me with hopeful, sad eyes. I smiled and said,

‘’It’s okay..’’

SuHo’s POV.

I groaned, watching the clock tick in the classroom, wanting the damn class to be done with so I can get to Lay and get this thing over with. I didn’t know where I was going and why I was doing it in the first place but I agreed nonetheless for some reason. I sighed and checked my phone, no new text nor missed calls. I glanced at the clock once more and grinned when I saw that there was little to no—

RING

I darted out of my seat and ran out of the classroom, man, 5 minutes do pass by fast. I texted and tagged all of my group-members in the following text,

‘Busy right now, have lunch by yourselves today, have fun^^’ 

I sighed and traveled to another ID, Lay, to be exact, and texted him,

‘On my way’

He replied seconds later,

‘Great^^’

I rolled my eyes and jogged towards the front door, opening it and ‘following my instincts’ towards my destination. I blocked the sun with my palm and looked around. Now where exactly is the Tree Of Life? . I jogged around, trying to find a tree that stood out from the rest or looked like the Tree Of Life. I groaned but kept going, so where exactly is the south now?

After 5 minutes of searching, I found a rather large tree north of the school and I smiled in realization. Now all I have to do is head south. I walked towards the south, seeing nothing but trees, pines and bushes, until I found a rather large shrub blocking the rest of my adventures. I groaned and kicked it frustratingly. I pouted, seeing as there was nothing but some really messy bushes next to the shrub, and some trees blocking the path ahead. I sat down in front of the bush and took a breath as I grabbed a pretty flower from the ground and twirled it between my index and thumb. I looked behind me and saw that the shrub moved as I automatically made my eyes go wide. I moved away from the shrub as it shook more, until a little bunny came out and drained me from worries. I smiled and attempted to caress the little thing, until it reacted and went away into the shrub again. I chuckled and headed after it in an attempt to catch it. I dug my hands inside the shrub and reached out into thin air, grabbing nothing. The bush shook again and as soon as I was about to pull my hand back, something or someone tugged on my wrist, making me gasp and resist the tight hold. I sighed when I couldn’t and might as well thought, hey, I’m going to die now, I had a good life though and let myself be dragged towards wherever I was going to be dragged by a demon bunny. I shut my eyes tight as I went through the shrub and fell on my face against what I tasted to be..grass?

‘’Good, you made it!’’ I groaned and looked up, facing a smiling Lay who offered me his hand. I spit out some grass and gladly took it, holding myself up and dusting me off of grass. ‘’Like it?’’ He moved his figure out of the way so I could take a look in front of me. I gasped when I saw a small, trickling river, rocks blocking some of it to pass through into a larger puddle while some butterflies flew around and dragonflies buzzed about. I smiled and looked at him, who hummed, then whistled, then hummed some more as he dug his hands into his jeans, one hand coming out to fan himself with the collar of his thin tank-top. He looked at me, then back at the river, then back at me as I looked at him weirdly.

‘’What?’’ He asked. I shrugged and smiled.

‘’Why am I here again?’’ He dropped his jaw and smacked himself in the forehead.

‘’Oh! Right, I forgot, hehe,’’ He chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his head. ‘’Uh..so you’re water right?’’ I furrowed my brows.

‘’Huh?’’

‘’Your power?’’ He looked confusedly at me as I realized what he was asking.

‘’O—Oh, yeah!’’ He smiled and nodded.

‘’Great, then this is perfect!’’ He started. ‘’Come on, I’ll help you,’’ He took me by the hand and dragged me towards the river, sitting down. As I began to do the same, he stopped me. ‘’No, no, stay like that, I want to see how you interact with it,’’ The statement took me back a bit. Was I some sort of animal to react in my natural habitat for him?

‘’Uhh..’’

‘’Just close your eyes and find peace,’’ He instructed as I looked at him weirdly. He beckoned me with his hand towards the river, and simulated as if he was lifting it and dropping it back down. I chuckled when I got the message. ‘’Trust me, just do it,’’ I sighed and closed my eyes, feeling my insides bubble as soon as I got the first . I could feel my palms getting dampened as I swift my hand around and raised a small amount of the water, turning it into a ball, where I took a deep breath and used my other palm to lift another amount of water, my eyes still shut, as I let my ‘instincts’ take the lead. I did the same with the other quantity of water, forming it into a ball and morphing the two into one, where I moved them around atop my head, then around, then below and about and split them into two long strands, moving them in different directions. The one on the left spun as the other one traveled across my palms and back into the water, where I let it be. Meanwhile, the only one I had right now circled every inch of my body.

‘’Why am I even doing this?’’ I sighed, keeping a rhythm with my palm.

‘’I’ve seen how hard you’ve been doing these days, I want you to relax,’’ I chuckled, turning my face towards his direction even though I couldn’t see him. I scoffed,

‘’Why? Since when do you care?’’ That came out a bit harsh.

‘’I don’t,’’ I mentally rolled my eyes and turned my head back towards my front. ‘’I just can’t stand a horrible aura,’’ He chuckled. I smiled and ignored him as I kept doing what I was doing, until he halted my movements by grabbing my wrist, bringing it down and letting the entire water cascade back into the river, some splashing on me.

‘’Stop,’’ He said. ‘’Open your eyes’’ He said. I did as he told me and turned my head to see him merely centimeters away. I opened my mouth to say something, but it closed back automatically.

‘’Uhh..what am I supposed to do now?’’ I blinked once, twice with this one, in confusion. He smiled, showing a glimpse of his dimples.

‘’Now, sit down, this will get rough if you keep standing up,’’ He sat down and patted the ‘seat’ in front of him. I sat down next to the stream, legs crossed and hands hanging on my knees freely. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I felt the breeze hit my face nicely. I subconsciously smiled as soon as I heard some more trickling, I opened my eyes a little bit to see Lay scooting down and grabbing a small amount of water, and then suddenly, he splashed it in my face. I shut my eyes and wiped the water from my face as he giggled and cleared his throat.

‘’Yah, I’m not done with you, keep your eyes opened,’’ He instructed as I rolled my eyes and did as he told. ‘’Now, tell me..what is it that gets you stressed out?’’ I released an intake of air as I thought thoroughly before I spoke,

‘’Well..knowing that my children don’t obey me,’’ He placed his index and his thumb on his chin, to seem ‘smart.’

‘’Tell me more about that,’’ He waved his hand around to emphasize his point and to tell me to continue.

‘’What are you? A psychologist?’’ I rolled my eyes and raised a brow as he came closer to me and smacked my nape. I pouted.

‘’Yah, just go along with it,’’ He glared at me as I scoffed and continued,

‘’Basically they don’t listen to me,’’ I sniffed. ‘’It’s not fair.’’

‘’What kind of things do they do? Vent those feelings out for me,’’ I took a deep breath and released it when I felt I was ready.

‘’Sehun-ah..he disobeyed me, he’s with LuHan and he probably likes him..’’

‘’Pretty noticeable, keep going,’’

‘’Kai’s fights with D.O give me a headache,’’ I groaned as I shut my eyes.

‘’Anything else?’’

‘’Chanyeol’s heavy breathing at night doesn’t let me sleep,’’ I sighed. ‘’The room’s too hot because Baekhyun turns on the heater at night, plus he yelps like a dying dog,’’ I raised a brow.

‘’Uhh..k—keep going, you’re doing good,’’ He stuttered as I took a breath and continued,

‘’Fear of the Elites.’’ I shivered at the thought. I could hear Lay gulping from here.

‘’Good, uh..what is something that’s annoyed you from the start?’’

‘’I can’t understand a of what the teachers are saying,’’ I sighed, feeling my brow twitch.

‘’Understandable,’’ He said. ‘’Open your eyes,’’ I shyly opened my left eye and took a look around, I met Lay’s widened and scared eyes. I confusedly opened my other eye and tilted my head. ‘’Don’t move,’’ He warned as I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it again. Instead, I whispered through gritted teeth,

‘’Do I have something on my face?’’ He shook his head. I gulped.

‘’Don’t make a sudden move or you’re going to drop it,’’ He pointed upwards. I looked up carefully and when I saw a tidal wave pointed towards our direction, I gasped and covered my mouth. ‘’Don’t—‘’ He stuttered, but it was too late, it had dropped down on us and gotten us all wet before he could continue his sentence. ‘’Never mind,’’ He sighed as he spat the water out like a fountain as I laughed, covering my mouth. He glared at me and coughed up more water.

‘’Sorry?’’ He splashed some water at my face as I giggled and did the same.

We chased each other for awhile, splashing ourselves with water and finally letting go of some stress. I had fun, but didn’t notice that we were skipping a class, so we darted the hell out of there before anybody could catch us, and we ran towards the Legendary dorm to get Lay a new shirt. He shushed me while he was fumbling around to get his key. I covered my mouth and agreed to waiting for him outside as I leant on the doorframe. I looked around inside the dorm, and noticed that it wasn’t as different from ours, just a bit bigger since it was on the higher priced building.

He came back seconds later, tossing me a towel to dry myself off, and some random white t-shirt.

‘’Thanks,’’ I said.

‘’Welcome,’’ He smiled and took off his tank, throwing it elsewhere in the room. I bluntly looked at him from his wet hair to the dip of his belly as he put on the other shirt. He grabbed the towel and dried his hair, then took his large glasses from a table near the couch and cleaned them of all fog. He turned his head and found me staring, I immediately did the first thing that came to mind: I threw the towel over my head, covering my entire face. I cursed under my breath as he chuckled.

‘’We are in such big trouble if they find us up here,’’ He started. I tugged the towel off my face and looked at him with an ‘o’ face, blinking my eyes while at it. ‘’We’re supposed to be in class, remember?’’ I nodded when I came to realization.

‘’I’m ed, I know how much the Science teacher hates me,’’ I rolled my eyes. He chuckled and walked over to me outside, closing the door behind him and locking it closed.

‘’I had study hall, I think I can get you out of this one,’’ He smiled kind-heartedly at me.

‘’Oh, really? How?’’

‘’Unlike you, the teacher praises me,’’ I tilted my head in confusion ‘’My brother used to be her favorite student,’’ He explained as I went ‘ahh’ and walked with him towards the first floor to get our stuff from our lockers. The walk was quiet, not awkward, but comfortable. I couldn’t admit it now, but I actually had fun, I was definitely coming to the South of The Tree Of Life more often.

After we fished our stuff, we headed towards class. Like Lay said, the teacher really did love Lay, and he let me slide in without any problem. I sat down next to Kyungsoo, who gave me a look, I shrugged it off and smiled at him without knowing. I was actually kind of happy. During class, I kept zoning off, almost falling asleep in my seat until I felt a hand smack the back of my head. I turned my head and mouthed a ‘what?’ to Kyungsoo, who rolled his eyes and pointed towards the board. I looked at it for a sec before I looked at him confusedly.

‘’Pay attention!’’ He loudly whispered. I sighed and looked at the teacher, turning my head a second later and pouting. He face-planted himself and rolled his eyes, ignoring me. I chuckled and settled on at least pretending to write something on my notebook while the class lasts.

When it finally ended, this time, I was the last to come out of the room, waiting for Kyungsoo to finish packing his stuff. We walked out together and were greeted in the hall by the rest of the guys. Sehun was texting, Chanyeol was yawning, Baekhyun was whistling and JongIn was checking Kyungsoo out, which wasn’t a surprise by the way.

We walked home and opened the door with the key, and everyone stormed in like wild animals. Me, being the oldest, went last and closed the door. I requested the shower first, like always, and got my clothes and a dry towel and away I went. I didn’t realize that I stayed inside there for an hour though..

Sehun’s POV.

‘Whatchu doing?^^’

As I was studying while eating a piece of celery (it was the only healthy ‘snack’ we had since Kyungsoo-hyung took all the apples), I felt the phone vibrate on the bed covers. I picked it up and read the text. Smiling, I replied.

‘Studying, you? :P’ Seconds later, I received a reply.

‘Same! :O’ I laughed at the use of smileys, but replied anyways.

‘We should have a study date or something like that soon kk^^’

‘That would be awesome!^^ Oh! Speaking of dates, what do you want to do on Friday?^^’

Excuse me, what? Date? I blinked twice and stared at the text longer than I should have. I gasped and replied before he thought I was ignoring him.

‘I don’t know, what do you want to do?^^’

‘I’m not sure honestly Dx I really want a break from all this studying ^^’

‘Yeah, me too, so why don’t we watch a movie at my place or something?’ Fail for a first date, I know, but it was the first thing that popped out.

‘Sounds great!^^ Would SuHo approve of it though? :0’

‘Pretty sure he won’t mind^^ Plus, there are some cool karate movies some of the seniors from last year left and I want to look into them kkk^^’

‘Then I’m in for it!^^ It’s another date kkk’ I smiled and replied a quick ‘okay then’ before resuming to study. The contents weren’t really that hard, but there were a lot of words that you needed to recognize, and since I was pretty stupid when it came to Chinese, I mixed up some letters, so I needed to study my best. I bit my pencil and circled what I thought was the best answer, I sighed, rubbing my eyes with my sleeve. I didn’t know why, but I was really tired these days. I yawned and stretched for a second, before I felt the weight on the bed sink.

‘’Hey,’’ SuHo said while drying his hair.

‘’Hi,’’ I answered, biting more into my pencil. He hummed and tapped my knee.

‘’You studying?’’ I nodded. ‘’Good, you need to practice your Chinese, you know,’’ He pointed out accusingly as I sighed.

‘’I know, hyung, I’m just having a hard time recognizing these stupid symbols,’’ I threw the book across the bed and frowned, crossing my arms and pouting. He chuckled.

‘’Ah, I know how you feel, but hey, why don’t you tell LuHan to tutor you?’’ He suggested while looking into the mirror. He bent down and plugged on the hair-dryer, turning it on to high and beginning to messily dry his wet hair. I sighed.

‘’I don’t want to fill his schedule more than it already is,’’ I started. ‘’He has practice, studying, school and telepathy classes.’’ He shrugged.

‘’Well, okay then,’’ He messed his hair up with his free hand and fluffed it, turning his head to inspect his work. He nodded in approval and continued, ‘’But I’m open to letting him tutor you, just because he’s good speaking Korean and he can explain things to you in a non-complex way.’’

‘’Then I’ll..I’ll probably take that in consideration,’’ I tapped my chin, unsure if to ask about Friday, so I just went for it. ‘’Hey, SuHo?’’

‘’Hmm?’’ He dried the rest of his hair and un-plugged the dryer, putting it away and sitting on the edge of the bed, facing me.

‘’Think you can let me and Lu watch a movie here Friday?’’ He raised a brow and sighed. ‘’Please?’’ I insisted.

‘’Uh..sure, only if you promise not to make a mess of popcorn and other type candies,’’ He smiled and ruffled my hair as I smiled wide and nodded my head.

‘’Yeah..yeah, sure, no problem!’’ He smiled and whispered a ‘thanks’. ‘’No, thank you, hyung, you’re the best!’’

‘’I know, I know, now when I come back, you better have that book glued to your face or I’ll do it for you,’’ He threatened as I went wide-eyed. ‘’Joke! I’m joking!’’ He chuckled and raised his arms in defense. I stuck my tongue out at him as he waved his hand, dismissing himself out of the room. I laughed and resumed on studying, waiting for dinner to be served.

Baekhyun’s POV.

I sat in my bed, fumbling with the covers and picking at the loose strands of string. I sighed, crossing my legs and strangely becoming entertained with the small, thin and weirdly amusing piece of loose cotton. I should be studying, I definitely should be studying, but I wasn’t going to, because I didn’t want to, that’s why. Instead, I stopped playing with the string and threw myself back onto the pillow, groaning and on and on because I wanted something else to amuse me and entertain me. I gasped in realization, and turned my head slightly to reveal a very large and a very amused yet confused-looking Chanyeol staring at me, peering his attention away from the Science book as his limbs were stretched out and he was leaning on his elbows.

‘’You..okay?’’ I nodded carefully while pursing my lips. He laughed and raised a brow, rolling his eyes and going back to his studying. I groaned and let my face hit the pillow as I sighed, emitting a really weird type of snorting noise come out. He laughed loudly as I growled and tried to extend a hand to smack him with it. He immediately stopped. I smirked victoriously and got out of bed, stumbling onto his and staring at him with puppy dog eyes. He stopped his reading and looked at me.

‘’I’m bored~’’ He chuckled and grabbed his book, smacking me in the head with it as I pouted. ‘’Yah!’’ I squeaked out.

‘’I’m studying, go un-bore yourself while doing the same..’’ Well, I never really knew how academic you were, smarty-pants-Yeol, so excuse me.

‘’But I don’t want to~’’ I pouted. He groaned and face-planted against the mattress as I bit my tongue and smiled brightly.

‘’Fine, what do you want to do?’’ He raised a brow and sat up so he was looking down at me. I pouted at the height difference and looked down, fumbling with the loose strings of his torn jeans. He chuckled and tilted my head up, smiling. I blushed and smiled as I tried to come up with a fun idea.

‘’Hmm~ want to play hide and seek?’’ I suggested as he raised a brow, probably thinking ‘hide and seek? Seriously Baek? What kind of space do we have to play in such a small dorm?’ Instead, he nodded.

‘’Okay! You go first! I’ll hide!’’ He jumped out of the bed and scolded me for not counting. ‘’Count!’’ I ‘aish-ed’ him and closed my eyes, using my hands to cover them just for Chanyeol to know that I wasn’t cheating.

‘’1…2..3..’’ I sighed and peeked through my hands, to make sure that he wasn’t there. I smirked, but covered my hands. Suddenly, I feel the bed rumble. ‘’10!’’ I jumped out of bed and scoot down to find him under the bed, covering his mouth, trying not to laugh. ‘’Nice one, Chan, my turn!’’ I giggled and jumped up onto the bed, where he groaned and frowned.

‘’Fine,’’ He pouted and started counting. ‘’1..2..3..’’ I got out of the bed and searched around for a good hiding spot quickly. I giggled a little, but covered it up. I circled the bed and ducked down next to a nightstand with a lamp on it. I rolled my eyes at the poor hiding spot but, oh well.. ‘’10!’’ It’s about time! ‘’Ha! I see your cute little head, Baek!’’ He laughed and pointed towards me. I pouted and got up from the spot, facing him, my back towards the window. I sighed and sat down on the bed, ready to count, before I saw something outside our window.

‘’Yeol..’’ He laughed and turned his head.

‘’Hey! You’re supposed to c—‘’

‘’No, Yeol, look..’’ I pointed towards the window. He turned his head and dropped his jaw. ‘’Wh—who are they?’’ I heard him gulp. He shook his head.

‘’I—I think those are..the Elites.’’ The figures on the roof of the Academy fled the scene when they found out that we looked what they were doing. They had a large, purple flag, the letter ‘E’ branded on it and some cans that looked like spray-painters. Chanyeol and I looked at each other, eyes widened. We nodded our head in unison, darting out of the room, ready to tell the others about what we had just seen. I could feel that whatever they were planning wasn’t all the best.. 

I'm sorry for not updating quickly, I just had lots of exams this week T.T 

Tell me what you think!^^ I highly appreciate it :'D Am I doing good? Am I not? T.T I promise that the story itself will start from chapter 8+ so please anticipate that :D<3 I know you guys could be potentially asking yourselves who the Elites are but don't worry, they'll be revealed soon ;)

Subscribe&Comment if you like it!^^ And as always, see you next update!!~

~Bianca