D.O rapidly pushed himself away from Kai. Baekhyun blocked you away from his sight immediately and the other members conjure up their weapons. Seems like you were the only one who was still dumbfounded by the current situation.

“B-Baekhyun, what’s going-“

“That’s not Kai!” Baekhyun informed, not taking his eyes off ‘Kai’ as the other male stands there with an un-amused expression on his face. “Do you really think Kai would push Chanyeol into a lake at a time like this?”

At that, you were reminded of the boy beneath the sheet of ice. “C-Chanyeol!” You were about to dash to the fence to check if he was alright, but Baekhyun took advantage of being handcuffed to you and pulled you back.

“Don’t worry about Chanyeol for now!” Suho advised, “He can hold his breathe longer than you think”

“I wonder about that” Xiumin sniggered, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Sure, he can hold his breath. An hour or two max. But freezing to death is another thing you should worry about. After all, fire doesn’t ignite under water, remember? He can’t heat himself up under there”

The boys clenched their teeth.

“Bastard! Are you planning on killing him?!” D.O raised his crossbow.

“D.O, wait!” Suho commanded. “He’s doing this for a reason! Let’s hear what he has to say quickly!”  

“Ahaha, a leader indeed!” Xiumin cheered, suddenly swinging his body off the tree branch and landing swiftly on the ice.  “I suggest…a game”

“What game?” Baekhyun urged and squeezed your wrist tighter.

“Hmm…” The fact that he was taking his time to think about it ticked them off so much. Their teeth would crumble if they grinded them any harder.
Chanyeol was basically drowning and the guy has the nerve to take his time to think?

“How about a game…on agility”

..What?
Your eyebrows furrowed at him, however the others seemed to have seen it coming somehow.
Of course he’d pick that. They might not know Xiumin well but they knew him well enough to know what he was good at.

“That’s just playing to your advan-“

“Ah-ah~ I wouldn’t argue- you’re just wasting time, the poor giraffe is probably freezing”

Everyones blood boiled, the members were too busy thinking about the situation to reply. You couldn’t help but feel useless at this point. You were trembling in Baekhyuns hands, hoping that he’s be too distracted to notice. Chanyeol…Park Chanyeol was drowning. He’s trapped under a frozen lake and can’t get out. Just the thought brought tears to your eyes.

“We’ll do it” D.O suddenly announced, lowering his weapon. “On one condition”

“I’m listening~”

“You let Chanyeol out of there first…”

“Aww~ what’s the fun in that then?” Xiumin complained.

“Let Chanyeol go first…” Suho agreed, “If we win the game, you leave us alone…”

Xiumin contemplated it before a sly grin appeared on his face, “And if you lose…”

“We’ll leave that to you” D.O replied. Although, that really could be anything. But they didn’t care. They needed to save Chanyeol first.

Everyone had their eyes fixated on Xiumin, “Fine” The boy replied with a seemingly normal smile before he waved, “Meet me at Shota high’s swimming pool at 11” He grinned. However no one noticed the meaning behind the sneaky smile of his “Try your best!” With that, he swiftly pounced back into the woods and disappeared.

“That bastard!” D.O quietly cursed to himself after realizing that Xiumin had left them to save Chanyeol themselves. But before D.O could jump over the broken fence, a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around his waist and powerfully pulled him back.

“Are you mad!? You could fall in as well!” Sehun yelled at his hyung, obviously he hadn’t calm down yet.

“Let go out me, Sehun! Chanyeol is dying down there!” D.O violently tore Sehuns arms off of his waist.

“BUT YOU’LL DIE TOO!” He cried, blocking D.O’s way and finally, he fell silent. Everyone did until the sound of banging and cracking got your attention.

“C-Chanyeol!” Everyone stared down towards the ice. The ice was breaking. Everyone held their breathe when the banging suddenly stopped when suddenly Chanyeol finally appeared, “CHANYEOL!” the members called as the boy was busy coughing and spluttering, trying his best to pull himself out. Your heart clenched at the sight of him struggling so much just to breathe.

“A-A-A L-Little h-help?!” He stuttered, but even before he could finish, Suho went flying towards him, landing softly on the ice.

“SUHO!” You flinched when his feet touched the ice, but luckily, it hadn’t cracked…yet.

Suho quickly grabbed hold of Chanyeols hand and pulled him up, and right then, the ice beneath him began to break. You were at the edge of your sanity when you felt something squeeze your wrist. You turned to see Baekhyun staring at you, “Don’t worry…He’ll be fine…It’s Suho, remember?” He spoke with the gentlest voice.

“Y-Yeah but-“

“Don’t worry” He repeated before focusing back onto Suho as he yelled at Chanyeol to try harder to pull himself up. Suddenly, the ice broke beneath Suho’s feet and you felt a mini heart attack as Suho jolted, but even so, his feet were still attached to the water, he hadn’t fallen and continued to pull Chanyeol back up. “Suho can control water” D.O reminded.

You felt like a boulder had been lifted from your chest when Suho finally hoisted Chanyeol back up and hung his arm over his shoulder. Thank god. Thank god. You let a heavy sigh of relief escape your lips.

 

Chanyeol quickly warmed himself back on your way back home, recovering from the cold whilst you on the other hand were recovering from a heart attack. You finally got home and made sure to bring blankets and pillows for Chanyeol who still wouldn’t stop shaking from the cold.

Good thing Junpei and Rin weren’t here yet. You wouldn’t know how to explain this to them otherwise.

“T-T-Thank you, Ji-Eunnie” He said, shining you a bright smile. You couldn’t help but smile back. It was as though you just rescued a drowning puppy.

“Are you feeling better?” Suho asked, patting him on the back.

“Yeah. A lot better, I think if I dry myself quickly then I should be able- WHO THE HELL PUSHED ME?!” He erupted and suddenly, everyones eyes rounded like saucers.

“Where’s Kai?!” Baekhyun urged.

The heaviness in your chest returned.

“Kai?! That jerk! Where is he?! I’ll kill-“

“It wasn’t Kai who pushed you, Chanyeol, it was the anonymous shapeshifter” D.O explained quickly before turning to his leader, a concerned look crossed his face.

“O-Okay, let’s not panic guys, we’ll just call him!” Suho hurriedly reached for his earpiece and attached it to his ears, but Baekhyun had already beaten him to it, he’d reached for his earpiece right after Chanyeol had been saved when he realized someone was missing.

“No use, it’s static…” Baekhyun replied and suddenly, silence fell. The heavy atmosphere was back.

“Oh god…we lost Kai” Sehun said though his hands as he covered his face.

“No we didn’t, Sehun”

“Then where is he?!” Sehun questioned the leader.

“I’m here”

Everyone practically jumped a foot in the air when Kai suddenly appeared by the front door. You noticed his uniform was dirty and his hair was messed up, a leaf tangled in his hair.

“Kai!” D.O and Sehun practically pounced at him. “Where were you?! Are you alright!?” They asked.

Kai didn’t have much of a reaction. “That Xiumin brat pushed me down a hill” He said whilst fixing his hair, taking out a few leaves and brushing the dirt off his blazer.

“Why didn’t you teleport here sooner?! Chanyeol almost died and maknae here almost broke down!” D.O scolded.

“Sorry,  I couldn’t teleport properly so I had to walk” He explained whilst massaging his neck.

“Are you okay?” You asked him, trying to search for any bruises or scratches. Strangely enough, there weren’t any.

“Yeah, fine…Why is Chanyeol shivering?” He asked once his eyes caught sight of Chanyeol.

“Because an pushed me into a frozen lake and I almost froze to death” Chanyeol replied through clenched teeth.

“Oh dear” Kai smirked.

“Don’t know what you’re laughing about, father earth” Baekhyun snapped back at him, referring to the fact that Kai was covered in mud.

Just when Kai seemed to open up his mouth to say something, nothing came out. His eyes fell to the hand cuffs between you and Baekhyun. Baekhyun detected a look on Kai’s face that made his eyebrows furrow. That look in his eyes...it wasn't jealously and it wasn't the look Kai would give...it was different. Not to mention just then when you asked him if he was okay...something just wasn't right. 

Then, it hit him. If the fake Kai was the one who walked out of school with them...then how could he be pushed down a hill if he never went outside? 

“Alright, alright…now we have another problem to face…” Suho sighed.

“Oh yeah…the game thing huh?” D.O scratched his head.

“Is Xiumin really good at games or something?” You asked after noticing the concern that crossed eveyrones faces.

Suho shook his head, “Not so much with games…but the agility part is the concern”

“How come?”

“Xiumin is fast. Very fast” Baekhyun answered.

“He’s making everything fall to his advantage...It's a game we can't win” Suho figured.

“I see no reason why he had to freeze me though”  

“I think it’s so that we’d panic and agree” Sehun replied.

"Well, it worked..." D.O said. "Man, he didn't even tell us what he'd do if we lost..."

"What do you think he'll do?" Chanyeol asked.

There was a small pause after that…everyone was busy thinking to themselves.

“Hey, Kai” Baekhyun suddenly hollered. Kai hummed as a reply. “How long can you hold you breathe for?”

Everyone turned to Baekhyun with a curious look. That was random. Kinda. Of course it had some kind of relevance in the situation after Chanyeol almost drowned but the question seemed to come out of nowhere.

Kai stared at Baekhyun, “I don’t know…why, how long can you hold it for?”

Baekhyun smirked, “I’m just wondering…Sehun told us that you fell into the pool so it just got me thinking…” He shot Kai a penetrating look, “Do you not remember the training with professor 7 years ago?”

You didn’t know where this conversation was going. And when you turned to the other members, they didn’t seem to understand what was going on either. It seemed like a regular conversation, but why was the tension so thick that you could cut it?

Kai scoffed, “I’m sorry but 7 years ago is quite a long time, mind refreshing my memory?”

“Yeah hyung, what are you talking about?” Sehun questioned.

“Nothing really…” Baekhyun shrugged, not taking his eyes off of Kai. “Just wondering…Chanyeol was under there for like eight minutes. Usually he can go for an hour and a half”

Your jaw dropped. Hold their breath under water for an hour and a half?! You’d be lucky to do it in a minute! But now was no time to be impressed. Baekhyun was onto something. 

“How about you, D.O? How long can you hold your breath for?” Baekhyun asked, still not letting his eyes redirect from Kai. D.O shifted his eyes back and forth from Kai to Baekhyun, realizing that something was up. “I can hold it for 2 hours and 11 minutes” He stated in detail.

“Sehun?” Baekhyun called.

“E-Er, 2 hours 21 minutes”

“Suho?”

“Mine’s 4 hours 35 minutes” Suho answered.

“Why does this even matter, Kai could always teleport out of the water if-“

“I can’t teleport under water” Kai suddenly interrupted Chanyeol.

At that, Suho shot Kai a glare. Wait...that's not right...

Baekhyun continued to stare at him also, but suddenly started swinging his hand back and forth, forcing you to swing yours along with him. As though he was rubbing it in his face that there was a chain connecting the two of you together, “That’s funny…you remember that you can’t teleport under water, but you can’t remember how long you can hold your breath for under it?”

Kai glared at the chain and his teeth started to clench. But he remained quiet. The other members did too.

“You know where I’m going with this, leader?”

Everyone’s eyes darted towards Suho.

“Kai can’t teleport underwater because his powers aren’t powerful enough to activate when he can’t breathe…however when he can’t hold his breathe any longer…” Suho paused, finally detecting the distress in Kai’s eyes. “His power activates under dire emergencies”

“Do you want to know how long that is?” Baekhyun continued.

You were confused as to why Kai hadn’t said anything to them yet. Why he wasn’t curious as to why they were suddenly asking him all these questions. You sure were, but, he just seemed to stand there, listening, thinking, almost panicing.

“Want a hint?” Chanyeol suddenly said through clenched teeth. His eyes were drilling holes through Kai’s skull the entire time. His smile faded and left nothing but a frown. Like Suho, he figured it out the moment Kai said that he couldn’t teleport under water. “It’s not as long as you think”

You shifted your eyes back and forth from member to member, still clueless as to what was going on until you noticed Kai swallow. He was breaking out into a cold sweat.

Now that you thought about it…how did he end up being pushed down a hill?

“We’ll give you 10 seconds to run” 

 

[A/N: A very sloppy chapter, i must apologize, i will update the next chapter soon and it will probably be the last chapter to the 'Frost Bite' Arc! (maybe) And thank you to ALL who have so kindly subscribed and commented and upvoted! It's not going unappreciated and i thank you guys so much for the support]