In my dream, time was stopped again. The world didn't dare move before me. It was like that very second in the air after jumping off a cliff where everything was weightless and anything that mattered before didn't exist. It was blissful and quiet.

Until a student with prominent ears blinked.

That's right. It was Chanyeol I saw at the park. And he blinked, didn't he?

Who was he, really? It felt like he was a fairy or with those ears, maybe a pixie who had granted my wish and taken it all away in a literal blink of an eye. Was he responsible for the time-stop? I couldn't ask. If it wasn't him and he had no idea what I was talking about then I would be deemed crazy and carted off to an insane asylum. I couldn't risk it.

But who was he?

I woke up realizing all this, and opened my eyes to see that the bus had stopped. I got up, thinking we were at my stop, when I realized that the bus driver's hands didn't even twitch at the wheel. Looking down, Chanyeol was frozen too.

I did it again? Or was it him?

I looked closer at this boy, studying his features.

His eyes suddenly caught mine and I nearly fell over the seat in front of us in shock. He wasn't frozen, but everything else still was!

“Zitao, it seems I was right about you.” he laughed, wiping his eyes and helping me back into the seat as my legs were shaky and uncooperative. “You have a gift.”

“I did this?” I breathed out, hardly hearing my own voice.

“You did.” he confirmed, grinning. “You aren't alone though. Watch this!” Chanyeol brought out his right hand in front of him, concentrating until a small flame presented itself in his palm, hovering lightly before spreading and weaving through his fingers gently.

“It doesn't hurt?” I asked, amazed. Was I finally getting answers to what happened yesterday?

Chanyeol shook his head. “It doesn't. It won't hurt you either. Show me your hand.”

My hand? He wasn't going to try and burn me was he? I stretched out my hand reluctantly, pausing a number of centimeters away before pulling it back to my chest.

“Trust me.” he said, his eyes never failing to look honest and excited at this new situation.

I took a deep breath and put my hand out again, waiting. Chanyeol took that as permission and clapped our hands together, making me gasp in fright. The flame spread out and over my hand, but I didn't feel a thing, only the touch of skin from the boy's palm. I released the air I had taken in so suddenly and marveled at the sight.

“That's incredible. Why doesn't it hurt?” I asked.

“We are immune to each other's powers. There are more of us too. I know of a couple more friends with these powers, and some of them are planning to transfer to our school next semester.”

There were more of us. Us.

I wasn't alone in the world. I couldn't believe it. I've been on my own for years and years, first when I was a kid and my mother would move so often that I wasn't able to make any lasting friendships before leaving and second when we finally settled and I got into a high school where I was ignored and shunned away from everyone I ever met. I had mostly accepted this fate, knowing that anything I did to change it never worked.

“There's one person like us in our school already." Chanyeol continued. "You should meet him today. Come by the gym during lunch and we can all talk, okay?”

I nodded, new questions swirling around in my head.

“But first, you're going to have to make time go again.” he said, pointedly looking out the window at a bird paused just above a street sign with it's wings outstretched.

“I don't know how; I don't even know how I stopped it like this.” I said, starting to panic.

Chanyeol stood and stretched. “There's no time to learn like the present! Or in this case, whatever this is.” he waved his hand in air to indicate the time-stop. “So. How did you feel when you started up time last time?”

Looking back, I was only concentrating on finding out if the student in front of me had blinked or not so I could ask him what happened. I wasn't really feeling anything specific. There was a brief moment of curiosity as I edged closer when I could've sworn I saw a small lock of hair of the person next to him move in a breeze that couldn't exist. The wind should have stopped with the time, so of course his hair shouldn't have moved. He must have been that friend that Chanyeol was talking about. I was mostly focusing on Chanyeol at the time, so I couldn't quite remember him.

The bus lurched forward.

“See, you fixed it! That wasn't too hard, was it?”

Time was moving again. But how?

“I don't know what I did.” I admitted.

“That's okay. You have plenty of time to figure it out.” he laughed, scrunching his nose and snorting at the pun.

I looked at my watch to find out how much time had passed and was surprised to see it forward three whole hours from where it had been. “Had I really stopped time for three hours?”

“Yes." Chanyeol responded swiftly. "You were asleep, and I had homework to finish, so I just let you continue on in dreamland. Oh, and don't worry, I finished yours too.”

“You did my homework?” That wasn't right. That was cheating!

“Sure. We have the same class, just at different times, so I only needed to copy mine. You're welcome!”

“Thanks.” I mused.

The bus stopped (naturally this time) and we parted ways awkwardly as we headed to separate classes.

***

Our math teacher droned on and on in class, pausing only to go on a sick type of scavenger hunt to find the most nervous-looking kid in the class and make them come to the front to solve a complex problem that could only be solved if you could understand the teacher's thick accent in the lectures before. It was a wonder anyone could pass this class, and I wondered again how Chanyeol did my homework if we had the same teacher. How did he know any of this gibberish? The mess of symbols on the whiteboard made no sense to me.

“Huang Zitao, come solve this for me.”

He was talking to me, I realized. Did I look too zoned out? It didn't matter. Now I had to pull all my previous knowledge from last year and see if it would suffice for this problem.

But the bell rang, and my head shot up to view the clock from where I sat in my desk. That couldn't be right though. I swear I had been standing right next to the teacher's desk up front not two seconds ago with more than half of class time left.

What happened?

I sat there a while, trying to process this when through the open door, I saw Chanyeol waving at me to come over, so I packed my things in a hurry, and followed.

“Is it just me or did class end a lot sooner than it should have?” he asked, as soon as I stood next to him.

I pulled him in so I could talk low in his ear. I didn't think it'd be best to let everyone in on our problems. “I'm not entirely sure, but... that may have been me-”

He snapped as he realized what I meant. “That would explain it! I looked down and all of a sudden my notebook was filled with notes I don't remember taking.” he started walking to the lunchroom and I followed easily, noticing just now how tall Chanyeol was. We were so similar in height that I couldn't tell who was taller. “That's a cool power you have. I thought you could only stop time, but it looks like it goes both ways.” he said, not bothering to talk quietly. I stopped and looked around in alarm, trying to see if anyone noticed. All the students in the hall were busy hanging out with their packed lunches or running to the cafeteria.

“Relax,” His voice made me jump. Why did he insist on sneaking up on me like that? “They'll think we're talking about a video game or something. Come on!” He grabbed my arm and directed me to the lunchroom.

We each grabbed a tray and got in line. In front of me, Chanyeol tried to sweet-talk the lunch lady into putting extra meat in his tray. She responded by adding more vegetables instead, saying they were better for him anyway. The teen pouted and brought the greens to his nose, sniffing in distaste. When it was my turn, I nodded politely to the lady, biting my lip as I thought back to my math class. How did I keep moving time? What kept triggering this power? It seemed like Chanyeol had a good handle on his ability.

“If you keep looking at the food like that, I'm going to have to give you more.” said the lunch lady, breaking into my thoughts. She put a generous amount of meat on my tray and smiled as she handed it back. I was so surprised by this sudden kindness, that I felt my cheeks get warm with a blush. I thanked her and went back to Chanyeol, who looked upon my tray in jealousy.

“I can share.” I offered, feeling a little happy to have someone to share with for once. He grinned and we both took our lunches outside.

“No, no. This way.” he said, pulling me away from the empty picnic table I was heading for. “We're going to eat in the gym. My friend is waiting for us there.” he explained.

“We're not allowed to bring food in the gym.” I protested weakly. I didn't mind too much about breaking this rule. I had never actually tried to break one before, not even a little one. Breaking rules was always something I dreamed about when I imagined what it'd be like to have good friends. I didn't think my little fantasy would happen so soon.

I kept turning around to look behind us as we walked, feeling a prickle on the back of my neck that told me we were being watched. I never saw anything out of the ordinary, but I couldn't discount the feeling. After all, I had been right when I thought I saw two students move during my first time-stop.

We got to the gym, the heavy door slowly closing on it's own behind us, sealing us in.

“Zitao, come meet my friend.” Chanyeol gestured to a corner of the room where all the mats and various large P.E. supplies were stacked, creating long shadows that covered a small figure sitting cross-legged on the floor. The figure looked up, and I could see a glint as his eyes found mine.

At this moment, the door behind us opened, and a head peeked around the corner.