Lured. I was lured into Jongin's grasp? And I smelled good, but did Sehun really have to keep his nose stuck at my neck as often as possible?

I blamed Baekhyun.

No, I didn't. He was only reminding me that love existed and it was worth fighting for. But what was this? This wasn't love. This was a big mess.

I had insisted on staying at school even though Lay thought it best to rest at home. School was important and I couldn't afford to miss class time if my friends were going to continue distracting me in the future. He relented eventually, as long as I let him check up on me every now and then to make sure I wasn't likely to collapse again, so off I went to my next class, mind swimming.

Thoughts of Sehun and Jongin tugged at me throughout the lecture of this next class, but I was able to stow them away enough to get down some notes, when Chanyeol started giving me a serious, very determined look that said he wanted to talk to me. He was an open book of a person. Already, I knew he was worried and guilt-ridden. The furrowed brows and continuous sighs said it all.

But Jongin was right behind me, swirling shadows around his finger when he thought no one was looking. I couldn't whisper to Chanyeol or write notes like this. He'd have to wait until after Math was over.

Thankfully the worst that happened during class was Jongin kissing the back of my neck once when I was craned over my notes. How was I supposed to face this class again? This was so embarrassing. It could have been much worse, but that thought didn't stop the heat rising to my cheeks.

After the bell rang, I pulled Chanyeol with me to the bathroom, checking every stall and throwing Jongin, who had followed us, out so we could talk privately. I faced him, seeing his lips thin as he prepared himself for whatever he planned to say.

“What is it-” I tried to ask.

“I think I found my soulmate.” he said, not blinking.

“Okay, congratulat-”

“But I don't know if I can go through with it.” His voice cracked and he bit his lip in a quick show of embarrassment.

“What do you-”

“It's like we're too perfect together.”

Too perfect? Was that possible? “Is that a bad thing-”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Chanyeol!” I laughed. “If you'd let me spea-”

“I'm going crazy!” he burst out. “We laugh at the same stuff. We talk too easily. He likes music and I like music,”

He? But wait, Chanyeol was starting to sound silly. “You're being ridiculous!” I told him. “I don't think there's a person on this planet who doesn't like music.” I pointed out as an example.

“My grandpa doesn't like music.”

“What-”

“I don't know what to do, Tao!” He was flustered and practically pulling his hair out over the matter.

I gently extracted his hands away from the short hairs before he could scalp himself and kept them as I spoke, willing him to calm down. “Chanyeol. Tell me slowly. Who is it and what are you so afraid of?”

“It's... Baekhyun.”

“Baekhyun!” My heart leaped in my chest. It was like watching fate unfurl in strings of dancing lights and flames that don't burn. This was surreal and exciting!

“I'm sorry, Tao.” Chanyeol certainly looked sorry, eyes pleading for understanding and forgiveness that really needn't be there. I was already practically jumping for joy at the thought of Baekhyun finally getting the love he so wished for. “I know he already confessed to you-”

It was my turn to cut him off. “Chanyeol, go for it.”

He blinked at me. “What?”

“Go for it. Now. Leave, go!” I pushed him out the door, grinning as he stumbled out into the hall and suddenly realized all I had said. I sent him a look to tell him to hurry and saw the exact point where the flood of guilt switched to disbelief and finally to pure determination with a pinch of nerves. The rubber of his sneakers squeaked as he abruptly started running, surprising my poor history teacher. He managed to get a quick detention slip before fast-walking out.

Someone had a happily ever after waiting for them not minutes away. I almost wanted to spy and see how it all played out. That'd be creepy though. I wouldn't be creepy.

“Why are you smiling like that?” asked a disgruntled Jongin, leaning against the wall.

“I'm watching a red string of fate get shorter.” I answered, heading back in briefly for my backpack.

“Like this?” Jongin circled his arms around me in the middle of the hall. I thought he planned to teleport, but he just stayed there, ignoring all the students passing by with various looks of disgust and shock at our public display.

I shook my head no. Glad to see my vocabulary was nowhere to be found when I needed it.

“Tao, this might sound silly,” he spoke quietly, lips moving slow. So slow... They looked just slightly chapped and Jongin's tongue swiped across them to correct this. “Can you call me Kai from now on?”

“Kai?” I asked, startled out of my staring- I was staring at his lips this whole time?

“Everyone is getting nicknames. I'm jealous.” He let me go and I stepped back to face him at a proper distance. “And doesn't Kai sound so much cooler?”

You know, it kind of did.

“So, whose red string is Yeollie tugging?” Kai asked, walking with me to the gym. Seeing as how there was no doubt that they'd couple up, I told him. “But that guy keeps hanging on to you.” he said, obviously speaking about Baekhyun.

“He's a friend who likes to tease people,” I shrugged. “Play with their weaknesses for fun. It isn't cruel the way he does it- just annoying.”

“Is this a weakness for you then?”

I stopped him before he tried to hold me again. Really, was he planning on using every excuse he could to touch me?

He smirked. Of course the answer was yes. Why did I even doubt that for a second?

I opened the gym door and found Chanyeol beaming, showing off a fireball he created to Baekhyun and Sehun. He tossed it lightly in the air and caught it, able to keep it in it's shape now.

“Tao! Look!” He wasn't just talking about the fireball. Chanyeol was smiling so big I thought I'd see his wisdom teeth, and Baekhyun had lights happily dancing all around him in their ever beautiful swirling patterns and rays.

Kai disappeared and reappeared by Sehun, whispering something to him before I could get close enough to hear. What was he doing? Whatever it was, Sehun didn't like it and Kai had to teleport away to avoid the strong gusts of wind directed at him.

“Tao, since your power is past immunity,” started Chanyeol as I sat down, away from the bloodhound with super sniffing powers, Oh Sehun. The light draft of the perpetual gym air conditioning already felt slightly shifted from it's familiar clockwise route. “Why don't you try freezing my fireball?” he continued, giving the awkward sphere an added flare for emphasis. He couldn't see the change in his eyes when he did it, but I could. It turned his bright smile into something twisted and borderline demonic. Where did my friend go during these flashes of power? I had a hard time believing this boy, who had been like an excited puppy not seconds ago, ever existed when his eyes were burning a molten orange and sharp shadows cast by the flame played across his face.

I automatically shook my head no.

Kai appeared on the floor next to me. “Why not? I think it'd be interesting to try.”

“You know what else is interesting, Jongin?” hissed Sehun with dripping malice in front of us.

He didn't stick around to find out, choosing instead to teleport over where the other had been sitting with his lunch.

“You'll exhaust your power eventually. You might as well give up.” Sehun reasoned.

“And you need to eat your lunch eventually, unless of course you mean to starve for the rest of the school day.” Kai took Sehun's chopsticks and stole a piece of whatever his box contained, barely managing to escape the counterattack. When the shadows revealed him again, his hair was swept off to the side.

Sehun growled in frustration, dragging his lunch over to my side before dropping down to the floor right behind me. He slipped his arms under mine and rested his chin on my shoulder, legs on either side of me. This invasion to my personal bubble was so unexpected and quick that my mind went blank trying to process what happened, why it happened, and how I should react all at the same time. Throwing him off would be the obvious answer, but I wasn't sure if I wanted that. If my heart could be a little quieter with it's pounding, maybe I'd actually be able to try to understand.

Why was Sehun being like this?

His breath was warm. Normally the added airiness took away the heat from his breath before I could feel it, but his nose was nuzzled right up against the skin of my neck and cheek. This affection was everything I craved about Oh Sehun from the first touch in the barren garden. I'd put up with anything this brat could pull to feel his presence made known with the light animalistic nudges of warmth that spoke of more love than any passionate kiss Jongin could lure me into.

But this was very public. I hadn't even told Baekhyun who it was I thought I liked or what really happened when I had been taken away from class yesterday. It was embarrassing to not have any control over how fast everything was spinning out from under me.

“I knew you'd like him, Sehunnie.” said Chanyeol in a very I-told-you-so way. The boy ignored him and I felt a piece of my hair by my ear move as his nose continued nuzzling my skin.

“I'm not a toy,” I told him, though not with nearly enough of a complaining tone. “And I was eating lunch, if you didn't notice.”

“Hey, If you wanted me to move, you would've resisted.” he breathed onto my neck. It was true. My body was very much in favor of keeping him there. Logic was thrown to the back of my brain, shuddering in a corner as my inner instincts told me to lay back, close my eyes, and relax. “Wasn't this all done for me anyways?”

So he knew straight away. That was okay. Right now, it was very okay. Very much okay.

Something should have been bothering me, but I forgot what and opened my eyes to tear myself back to reality and remember.

I saw the shadows before I felt Sehun's presence suddenly disappear with a rush of displaced air.

“Jongin, you complete ! Get me down from here!”

Sehun was sitting up in the metal rafters, hanging on for dear life.

Appearing in the air a foot above the ground, Kai crashed down onto his hands and knees, panting. “I'm done,” he called up. “I can't do it. You can figure it out for yourself, can't you?” He lay down spread-eagle on the floor. I didn't know he could get physically exhausted with his power. He could have been faking it... I didn't know how to tell.

Either way, Sehun had to get down somehow. Where was Luhan when we needed him? And Kris and Lay... Where had they all gone?

“Sehun, can you use the wind to slow your fall?”

“Are you kidding me?” He cursed Jongin with a string of profanities and hugged the vertical beam next to him.

I got my phone out and signaled the others to do the same. We had to get the others here to help. Kai's way of revenge was so stupid. How were we supposed to get Sehun down?

“Just slow him down. You've grown past the immunity.” suggested Baekhyun, squinting up at the fluorescent lights with his hands on his hips.

“I can't do that. I can't control this at all.” I told him. “What if it doesn't work and he breaks his neck or something? We should wait for the others, like Kris. Kris could get him down easily."

“Kris isn't answering his phone though.” said Chanyeol, hanging up on the mechanical voice mail recording yet again. Lay wasn't answering my calls either. He told me he wanted to check up on me during lunch. Why wasn't he answering? It didn't make sense.

“Luhan?” I asked Baekhyun.

“He's... tied up at the moment.”

“What?”

“You know that teeny tiny incident I mentioned yesterday?”

“Baek-”

“Anyways, he's unavailable at the moment.” he interrupted, giving me a pat on the shoulder. “I think you can do it.”

Thinking I could do it and knowing I could do it were two very different things. I didn't want Sehun to get hurt! Lay wasn't even around to heal him if I failed; though I wasn't sure just how much he could help in a serious emergency.

Just... focus on slowing him down now and have him jump like that, I told myself. And I had to make sure all of him was slowed so he didn't suffer the same adjustment period I went through.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and imagined Sehun in slow motion, watching his canines glint as they slowly formed the profanities they shouted at Jongin below. I didn't have to open my eyes to know it wasn't working. His curses were spat out in rapid-fire. I was beginning to grow impressed with his colorful vocabulary.

“I can't do it.” I sighed.

“Here, just practice with the fireball.” Chanyeol put in excitedly, walking towards me, flames roaring to life in his palm and molding into the awkward sphere he was so proud of. He stuck his arm out with a bright smile and I felt myself shrinking away. That wasn't very cool or manly of me. I was being a coward again, and over what, a practice round with something that couldn't even hurt anyone here?

But still... That was fire. Fire consumed everything it could.

“Be careful with that thing.” Baekhyun warned him. I would've done the same, had my mouth not gone dry.

Why was everyone who could reliably help gone?

Chanyeol smiled wider. “Don't worry. I'm getting a lot better at this! I just have to control the power by visualizing the path of oxygen and- you know what? Just watch.” He concentrated and the ball spiked at the top and towered upwards in an almost sword-like shape made of flame. Stunned by his own creation, Chanyeol swung the imperfect blade through the air, completely unaffected by the burning hilt. “Tao, let me stab you just once.”

“S-stab me?”

“Oh do it! That's so cool!” exclaimed Jongin, recovering to his feet.

“No!” I shouted as he lunged forward, narrowly missing my side.

Chanyeol laughed. “It can't hurt you. C'mon, try and stop it, or better yet, slow it! Sehun needs to get down somehow.”

“This is-” I dodged again, the flames feeling dangerously warm by my cheek. I shouldn't be able to feel their warmth though. “-stupid! We should wait for everyone-” Growling, I ducked under another and jumped to the side. “-else-”

During my last dodge, Chanyeol's momentum took him too far forward and the blade struck straight into the gym flooring with very little resistance. It burned a deep hole in the floor. Many of the flames surrounding the blade had broken off on contact and were fighting a fierce competition of which could consume the most of the cheap wood. This flooring was coated in a flame retardant, but years of teenage sweat and sneakers had worn the the glossy sheen down considerably. The fire was spreading slowly and we didn't know how to put it out.

“Not again!” groaned the fire-starter, tearing off his jacket and beating at the flames.

Kai and Baekhyun followed suit. I threw a glance at Sehun in the rafters, looking pale and small in the wide expanse of ceiling. Why did gyms need such tall ceilings?

“Can you do anything from up there?” I shouted out to him.

He looked too scared to move at all, let alone fling his arms about for a strong gust of wind to suffocate the fire. Sehun removed an arm from the beam and weakly waved a breeze down that only seemed to fuel the fire more. Hugging the metal again quickly, he closed his eyes and shook his head.

There was a lot of smoke building up, even in such a big room. Would Sehun be able to breathe up there? I put more energy into stopping the fire with the others.

A sharp ringing echoed all throughout the building and I knew it was going off all around the school. This fire alarm would soon attract adults, right? Or firefighters? Someone who could get Sehun down and put this crazy thing out. These flames were so stubborn!

With the alarm came water and lots of it. The fire was finally dwindling and hissing as the droplets pelted down from the school's sprinkler system. Baekhyun cried out in relief, his uniform smudged with dark patches of soot. We were all dirty and singed, and I began to wonder how we were going to escape expulsion when I heard a yell from above.

Sehun was falling.

Nothing else mattered anymore.

Sehun was falling.

I reacted without thought, running out to catch him even though I knew I'd never make it in time.

But I did make it in time. In fact, time was very much on my side, guiding the falling boy gently down, though I was sure it didn't feel that way to him. The shower of water looked like snowflakes in a soft breeze compared to earlier, nearly sparkling in the light. A drenched Oh Sehun was caught in my arms and the water pelted down once more.

There was so much gratitude in his eyes for just one second before he clambered away, slipping in a puddle, but catching himself upright again. “Took you long enough.”

Brat. Before he could do anything more, I threw my arms around him in a heavy, wet hug. He was safe, the fire was out-

“I'm going to kill Jongin," he promised, and I had to agree that killing him had it's merits. He pulled my arms off of him. "Let's go. We need to run, unless you'd like detention for life.”

“Try expulsion.” I grabbed hold of his wrist. I wasn't planning on letting him out of my sight for anything.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun had already fled and Kai was at the back door, giving us the okay sign that everything was clear. I let out a laugh as we ran out, unable to believe that I had been a part of almost burning down the gymnasium. This kind of experience I had never even dared to dream of. Surely I was living a movie, jam packed with action and magic!

But how were we supposed to escape getting in trouble? Our clothes were all the evidence needed to put us at the scene of the crime. Wouldn't we look suspicious all ordering new uniforms at the same time?

And where were we all going? I was following Kai and the bright new couple up ahead, dragging Sehun along, but I had no idea where they were headed as they crashed into the woods and made their way through a path they seemed to know quite well.

***

Author Note:

Why was this chapter so hard to write?

It felt like I was writing mud that was clumpy in some parts and runny with water in others >.<

(gif from here)