Xiumin

Careful, don’t get so close you might burn him

Yixing get ready, I’m getting rid of the ice on his face

Chanyeol ah! I want him to have eyebrows when this is finished! Be careful!

Can someone get Luhan out of here? I can’t concentrate.

Hey you got rid of everyone else I’m staying. Four people are enough.

Cold. I feel so cold. It’s good, I like the cold. I haven’t felt it in a while. In fact, I haven’t felt anything in a while. I have barely felt time passing. I guess then that I don’t actually know that it has been a while. It’s all rather confusing, really.

I feel more than cold. I feel fingertips on my eyelids. I feel ice brushed off my nose. I feel my hair flop against my forehead for the first time in weeks, and light shines through my eyelids. I feel the warmth of room-temperature air hit my brow, down my nose, until finally, the air rushes down into my lungs.

I start coughing. My head won’t move, but my chest heaves into ice.

“Woah, woah! We have life! Watch it, he might hurt himself. Yixing keep healing him, I’ll work on freeing his head.”

Suho? Was that Suho’s voice? It sounds so different. Like he’s even more of a leader than what he was before. I feel warm water seep around my head and gentle fingers pry my head from its lock in ice.

“I got his glasses!”

Luhan? Luhan! It’s Luhan! He’s here! I force my eyelids open and immediately regret it. White light. Too much, I feel blinded.

“Woah, mate. Watch it. I know the feeling, being blinded. Just take it easy. Here, wear some shades.”

I don’t recognise this voice. It’s much lower than the others; I can almost feel the vibrations in his voice box. Warm slender fingers slip some sunglasses over my ears. I feel the lights dim.

Slowly I open my eyes a crack. Looking through my eyelashes, I can see the vague outlines of four boys in the room with me, crowding around me. I look down my body, but all I see is ice. My entire body is submerged in a block of ice from the chest down, and I can feel the ice rise up over the back of my head like a head rest.

I see the soft green glow of Yixing’s hand as it presses onto my chest, then checks my neck and temples. Suho stands to the side near a kettle, waiting for water to boil, and the lower voiced boy is kneeling in front of me with a small fire in his hand, melting away ice from my stomach.

I force my eyes fully open when I see Luhan.

He runs over to me and kisses me on the lips. I can barely move my mouth, but it’s okay. I close my eyes and feel Luhan’s breath from his nose on my face, his warmth radiating off me.

“Um… so…” I hear the fire boy talking in the background.

“Yeah, they’ve always been a couple. You get used to it.” Suho said, “Just keep working on melting the ice and ignore… all of that face going on.”

Luhan broke apart from me and stared at me with a wide grin. I couldn’t help but grin back, no matter how confused I was.

“Oh, that’s Chanyeol.” Luhan said, his voice rapid with excitement. “We’ve kind’ve doubled in size now. Here’s your glasses, and I brought you coffee but you can’t really hold it can you, with your arms still frozen and all! Here.”

Luhan held the take away cup up to my lips and I drank as much as I could without burning my tongue.

“There’s so much for you to catch up on now! Just wait until you meet the others, some are a little weird but they’re all pretty likeable! And I got stronger! I lifted the entire pool of ice out of the pool!”

Suho placed his hand on Luhan’s shoulder, stopping him rambling.

“Lu, Xiumin’s obviously very confused but he’s too polite to cut in. Just try to explain everything to him. Xiumin, what is the last thing you remember?”

I racked my brains, trying to remember where I was.

“I… I was in Japan, looking for the Tree of Life. By the way, the 1000 year old cherry tree is just a 1000 year old cherry tree, nothing else. I was in my house, and I was attacked by people wearing black.”

“Not wearing black, they were black. Like goo. It’s their flesh.” Luhan helped

“Right… so that would explain the claws, they had claws. I ran…. I ran outside, into the backyard.”

“And then you jumped into the pool right?”

“Yeah! I fell in, actually, and then….” I can’t remember any further. I look down at my body, still frozen in the iceblock.

“….Oh my god…” I say

“He’s got it now.” Chanyeol chuckles “The penny drops.”

“Is this my pool?” I gesture to the ice around my body.

“Whatever is left of it.” Chanyeol said.

“How long was I-“

“A few weeks, we can’t be certain. “

“See, the Tree of Life has arrived in our world.” Luhan explained. “Except she didn’t become a tree, she’s a little girl. With the Tree came the Dark, which brought those black gooey people who attacked you, the slimers. We found the rest of the twelve and we saved you!”

“So you are…” I nodded at Chanyeol, he’s still working on the ice around my stomach.

“One of the twelve, yep, I’m number eight if you count it by age.”

 “He’s also Baekhyun’s boyfriend.” Yixing whispered to me under his breath. Chanyeol didn’t notice, or at least he didn’t react.

“Xiu, you should come and meet everyone once you’re out! I think they’re doing a big training exercise later, you can see how powerful we all are now!”

There was a knock on the door. Suho opened the door and in walked Kris and a boy with wide eyes. Both of them wore shinpads and Kris was splattered with mud. Suho stopped any more boys walking in, saying ‘too many at once will overwhelm him’.

“Xiumin, it’s good to have you back, we missed you” Kris wasn’t one for many words, but his face showed sincerity.

“Uh, this is Kyungsoo. He’s new. He controls dirt.”

“He is dirt!” shouted a voice from beyond the door “All he does is cheat!”

Kyungsoo turned around and shouted back through the door “Shut up Sehun, you should’ve expected it when you challenged a god of earth to soccer!” he turned back to me and talked with a calmer, more quiet voice “It’s nice to finally meet you, I’ve heard good things about you.”

He made a deep bow and left.

“Hey Suho, how long until you think he’s out?” Kris said.

“At this rate, probably three hours.”

“Are all of you hungry? I can boss Tao into making something.”

“Everything! Anything!” I blurted “I’m starving! Bring me something warm!”

“Sure thing, Xiumin. Hey, when you’re out we’re going to all fight Tao.  Sehun made the mistake of saying Tao could take us all out with his power and stupidly Tao actually wants to try it.” He chuckled to himself “It’s going to be a massacre.”

He paused before leaving the room.

“Hey Yixing, when you’re done here, can you come over and check out Baekhyun? He’s been pretty sick since we’ve come back. Vomiting heaps. I think the Tree caught his sickness too.”

Chanyeol looked worried at the mention of Baekhyun’s sickness. Yixing nodded in understanding and Kris left

--------------------

 I sat in the viewing platform above the training area with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders and a hot cup of coffee between my fingers. Don’t get me wrong, I love the cold, but I missed heat.

“It’s amazing isn’t it” said Luhan, talking about the area underneath us. “Kyungsoo made it mostly. I helped a bit.”

It really was. The area was flat and the walls were bare, the roof at least twenty meters high. The viewing platform was built into the middle of the wall, looking down on the room. Ropes and various trapeze objects hung from the roof, and to the side there was an area with a rock obstacle course. A pile of training dummies sat piled in the corner.

Yixing walked into the viewing area, holding the Tree by the hand. The tree was beautiful, her face full of innocence, except now she was pale and clutched a bucket.

“Have they started yet?” Yixing asked. “No? Good, I was hoping I didn’t miss out. Luhan, Baekhyun is in the infirmary, he is asking to speak with you in private, something urgent.”

Luhan looked confused, but he stood up and left. I sat down with Yixing and watched the others file into the arena. Suho and Kris walked in with six of the new members.

“That’s Chanyeol, you’ve met him. He controls fire, but he can’t make it himself, so he always has a lighter with him. If you see a lighter lying around the place, just leave it or else he gets really cranky when he can’t find one. That guy dressed in black is Kai. He teleports; and the guy with him is Kyungsoo, the earth mover. He did the prank of dying Kai’s hair, so Kai did the same to him, it was hilarious, you should’ve been there. The one with the strong jawline is Chen, he controls lightning, and the little with the blonde hair is Sehun, the wind controller. Tao is the fierce kid in the middle. He is really good at martial arts, he’s been teaching me. The best thing he does is he slows down time. The slower he goes, the more concentration it takes, but he’s really powerful.”

I sat patiently as Yixing described each of the new members, and explained how they learned to work together to anticipate each other’s moves. Soon, they were ready to start eh fight. I had the honours of calling out when the fight started.

Tao chose to begin in the centre of the room, armed with his long staff. The others all gathered around him in fighting stances,  Kris and Kai armed with sticks to represent their blades, and Suho brandishing whips of water gathered from the waterfountain.

“Hana, Tul, Set!” I called.

Tao seemed still, like a statue. The only movement he made was the flickering of his eyelashes and the steady rise and fall of his chest.

It only took five seconds for someone to be taken down. Spinning on his feet and ducking down to waist height, Tao anticipated and dodged Kai’s first attack, teleporting behind the wushu fighter. Swirling the staff around his body, he swept under Kai’s feet and kicked him in the chest, knocking Kai to the ground. Kai was out of the fight.

The others burst into action. Kris took to the skies. Sehun whirled the air around him in a cyclone, and Chen charged up his lighting. Chanyeol’s entire wall which he protected was immersed in fire, and Suho whipped out with his water in an attack at Tao. Kyungsoo stood on the outside, quiet and observant.

At breakneck speed, Tao rolled on the ground, dodging fierce whips of water and tucking his staff close to his body. He sidestepped a swoop from Kris easily, and lashed out at an intense speed to Kris, his foot connecting with the side of Kris. Kris spun into the air, but righted himself.

Chen set loose his bolts of lighting, and Tao attempted to outrun them. Of course, even Tao can’t outrun lighting in his slow motion world, so he stepped closer into Suho, under his protective whips of water. The lighting hit the water, and travelled up the snakes of liquid, bypassing Tao and electrocuting Suho.

Before Suho hit the ground, out of the battle, Tao had lost his staff by throwing it like a javelin at Chen. The staff hit Chen squarely on the head and he fell down, hitting the ground mere seconds after Suho.

Tao was a blur, each of his limbs creating various arcs in my mind as he moved across the arena, dodging attacks from flying Kris and Chanyeol’s fireballs. He was thrown against the back wall by an invisible wall of wind, but he was quickly on his feet again.

The next time Kris flew past in another attempted swoop, Tao ducked underneath the wooden sticks used to attack him and reached to hood his fingers into Kris’s belt. Using Kris’s momentum, he swung himself up onto his back.

I could barely see what happened next, my eyes didn’t even register the wooden training stick as it was launched from the jumble of limbs in the air into Chanyeol’s stomach. I saw Tao leap down onto the ground as Kris kept flying forward, out of control and headed straight towards Sehun. We all winced at the contact as Kris plowed through Sehun and knocked him into the wall, leaving them both unconscious. Tao quickly closed the gap between himself and the winded Chanyeol and in a few quick moves had him knocked down onto the floor.

Silence fell on the room as Chanyeol fell, the only thing heard is Tao’s panting.

“I won!” he exclaimed, jumping into the air “I did it! You all didn’t think I could defeat you all at the same time bu-“

A deep rumbling fell on the entire room like an earthquake, shaking the walls of the arena. Tao tried to jump, or run, but he didn’t know what he was running from. Suddenly, his foot sunk down into the ground up to halfway up his shin. He tried to pull himself free but his food was stuck fast.

The ground parted a few meters away from Tao and up rose Kyungsoo, lifted on a platform of earth. Tao struck out with his arms but he couldn’t reach his attacker and his leg was stuck fast into the ground.

Kyungsoo moved smoothly, sliding his foot across the dirt to raise two pillars of earth which encased Tao’s hands. With his own arms, Kyungsoo mimed pushing an object downwards and the makeshift hand restraints sunk back down into the ground. Tao was now stuck with a leg and two arms in the dirt, hunched over and struggling to get himself free.

“I won.” Kyungsoo said flatly.

Yixing ran down the stairs, eager to start healing the wounded while Tao lay on the floor, trapped and annoyed.

“Let me free! You cheated again!” He whined.

“I didn’t cheat! I just hid.” Kyungsoo said “Why does everyone insist I cheat at everything?”

Kris stood up, holding his head from an obvious headache.

“You know, don’t let him free, I want to annoy him.” He instructed Kyungsoo.

“Noooo!” Tao wailed “Anything but Kris’s torture! Please!”

Kyungsoo smirked “text me when you want him out.” And left.

I looked around the room. The others were mostly awake now, Yixing healing a few bruises and bashed heads. I decided to leave Kris and Tao alone and look for Luhan.

--------------------

I stopped outside the small room we used for an infirmary. I could hear talking inside, Baekhyun and Luhan’s voices just reaching my ears.

“Look, I think I’m getting better. I’ve stopped shaking.” Baekhyun.

“That’s good. Do you know where you got the sickness? I really don’t want to catch it. Did you eat anything bad?”

“Not that I can think of. I was pretty nervous before the battle.”

“I don’t think you get this type of sickness from nerves. It’s the same thing that the Tree has caught?”

“Yeah I think so. Anyway, I think I might be over this sickness anyways. I feel fine now.”

I decide to walk in the room, I feel bad for eavesdropping on such a pointless conversation.  

“Hey Baekhyun, why did you ask for me?”

I stopped again, standing in front of the door. I could see the bed where Baekhyun lay, and the back of Luhan’s shirt through the crack in the door.

“Come closer. I need to whisper this.”

I lean closer, curious enough to listen in in hopes to hear the whispered exchange.

Baekhyun grabs Luhan gently by the back of the neck, but instead of whispering into Luhan’s ear, he kisses Luhan on the mouth.

My Luhan.

On the mouth.

I’m about to barge into the room and freeze Baekhyun’s into an soft-serve icecream when Luhan reaches up and pulls Baekhyun closer.

My Luhan.

Kissing Baekhyun.

I stumble back in horror, hands on my mouth to stop me making any sound. Luhan was cheating on me? With Baekhyun? Baekhyun was cheating on Chanyeol? I felt sick; almost as sick as the Tree of Life. I ran back into the main room where Kyungsoo and Kai were giggling together on the couch.

“Hey Xiumin,” said Kai “You’d never guess what happened, Kyungsoo went back to free Tao and found Kris and Tao making out! In that weird position while Tao was stuck in the ground and everything! I teleporting back and took a photo with my-” He noticed my tears.

“Hyung? Are you okay?”  I shook my head, unable to speak.

Kai teleported closer to me and put his arms around my shoulders, guiding me to the couch.

“Is it the shock of waking up?”

I shake my head.

“Shock of the whole attacked by slimers?”

I shake my head again.

“Boy problems?”

I nod.

“Luhan?”

I nod again.

“Look, we might not be very much help. If you want, we’ll take you anywhere and we can sit and have a drink; something to take your mind of things. Does that sound nice?”

---------------------

We arrived back from the mountains later that night. Kyungsoo had gotten a fair bit drunk and was sleeping in Kai’s lap, and I had my fair share of drinks. Kai had drunk nothing, claiming that when teleporting other people he was the ‘designated driver’.

It was a nice thing that he had done, taking me to watch the sunset from the edge of a cliff in the mountains. It was nice to finally see snow again, instead of ice galore. I missed it. the swirls of the snowflakes as the fall calm me and help me think clearly.

However, my mind was a little less clear after drinking a couple of beers. I decided to confront Baekhyun.

I stumbled over to the infirmary, obviously drunker than I thought. I didn’t knock to check who was in there; I just barged through the door, in a rage.

“Baekhyun! Where are you? You have some explaining to do!”

I found him lying down in his bed. I the bedside light so I could see his face and I was confronted by a terrifying sight. Baekhyun’s eyes were rolling into the back of his head, his skin pale white and showing his veins. His wet clammy skin shook from uncontrollable muscle spasms and he couldn’t speak. He leaned over the bed and threw up a gelatine black substance, not unlike the flesh of the slimers.

I screamed. Not a low-pitched yell, I screamed a terrified scream so high pitched it could shatter the ice I create. Black slime oozed into my shoes, and Baekhyun grabbed me by my shoulders and looked into my eyes, black goo still dripping from his mouth.

He tried to speak but he couldn’t and I screamed once again, and more black goo game gushing out of his mouth and down my shirt. His hands started flashing his lights like a distress signal.

Baekhyun let go of me and threw his head against his pillow forcefully, seeming to be asleep. His hands still flash in warning, now changed to the red and blue lights of a police siren.