Chapter 3

EXO had been practising their new song, Wolf, for 5 hours. They would have practised longer, if it wasn’t for Kris who voiced out that the 4 youngest ones had school the next day. Jongin and Sehun groaned at the word ‘school’ and insist that school should not stop them from practising. Minseok looked at them sternly and Joonmyeon turned the stereo off. Two of their managers, who were watching their practise, got out their phone to arrange for their vans to be on standby. Yixing quickly passed out water bottles and towels. Joonmyeon was quick to wave a finger at whoever’s depleting water bottles to refill them with fresh water.

“What’s for supper? Fried chicken or pizza?” asked Chanyeol.

“Chicken.”

“Pizza.”

“Chicken.”

“Chicken.”

“Pizza.”

“Pizza.”

“Pizza.”

“Chicken.”

“Wait, wait, wait, I lost count. Stand for chicken. Sit down for pizza.”

Tao, Baekhyun, Joonmyeon, Jongdae and Yixing sat, leaving Kris, Sehun, Jongin, Kyungsoo and Luhan standing. Minseok formed a cross with his arms, “Count me out. I’m still on diet. I’ve got bananas for myself.” Baekhyun frowned, “You sure, hyung? It is fine, you know. You worked hard for 5 hours. A bite doesn’t matter.” Minseok smiled, “No, thanks. If I want a bite later, I’ll ask for it. In that case, any of it is fine.”

Chanyeol counted again, “It’s a tie. I guess I’ll have to decide!”

Everyone else shrugged and continued packing up.

“Hey, all. The vans are ready. Oh, you’re ordering supper, Chanyeol? I guess you can call them once you guys move to the vans. Or else the deliveryman has to wait for you guys, like the other time,” said one of their managers.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! Warm shower, yummy food, a good night sleep, let’s go, let’s go!” cheered Jongdae.

Everyone stepped out of the room, towards their vans, waiting outside to bring them home.

“Hello? Yes, yes. I would like to order 4 large pizzas? I have a coupon for that 3+1 deal. Uhh… Yeah, yeah, that’s the one. Oh, so I just have to give it to the deliveryman? Okay, good. So, I want one pepperoni, one barbecue chicken, one...”

***

Minseok stood under the stream of warm water and sighed happily. He loved the feeling of being clean and the sound of water around him drowned out the constant noise in the dorm. There is nothing more comfortable than this.

He assumed too quickly.

The door banged open. Minseok opened his eyes and look over in annoyance.

“Hyung, can I join in?” Chanyeol asked brightly.

Minseok rolled his eyes, “Is this the first day you know me? No, no, no! Let me have my peace. I’m almost done already!” Minseok turn back to the shower and scrubbed his hair one last time to make sure that he had washed out all the conditioner.

“Hyung… You’re almost done anyway. You would be out by the time I got ready to go in.”

The door closed and Minseok can hear Chanyeol ping his pants and hanging them up. Just as he resigned himself to this invasion of privacy, Chanyeol swore.

“I forgot to get a new towel. Sorry, hyung. I’ll be back soon.”

The door opened again and this time, it stayed open. All the warm steam wafted out and Minseok shivered a little. Darn this kid. He closed the door, hard. Five seconds later, the door was yanked open again by Chanyeol and more steam escaped. Very annoyed, Minseok turned off the water and grabbed his towel.

“See, I told ya, hyung. By the time I’m ready, you would be done.”

“I would have showered longer if not for you letting all the steam out.”

Chanyeol, chagrined, looked at Minseok apologetically, “Sorry, hyung.”

Minseok towelled himself dry quickly and sighed, “It’s okay. Remember to close the door next time. Enjoy your shower.” He pulled on a pair of shorts and left the bathroom.

Chanyeol breathed a happy sigh ad turned his back on the warm water from the shower head. He heard someone snapped their fingers once outside the bathroom door and the next thing he know, the comfortable warm water turned into a freezing cold stream of ice.

***

Jongdae leaned his head on Joonmyeon’s shoulder, eyes glued on the drama showing on the television.

Tao gulped the last mouthful of water from his water bottle and turned to Joonmyeon, “Hyung, get me water?”

Before Joonmyeon could react, Jongdae clutched Joonmyeon’s arm tightly, “No! Go get your own water, Tao. I don’t want to move from this position. Besides, you’re the maknae here.”

Yixing looked over from the floor, “I’m about to refill my bottle too. Give it to me, Tao. I’ll refill yours for you.”

Joonmyeon sighed and waved his fingers to refill all the bottles lying around, “In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve still got some trick up my sleeves. I may be one of the oldest one here but I’m not that old. At least, I’m not half fifty.” Joonmyeon grinned at Minseok cheekily.

Chanyeol widened his eye, “No, hyung, don’t annoy Minseok hyung. You know what he did just now? He froze my shower water. Don’t .”

Everyone broke out in laughter, recalling Chanyeol’s girlish screams from the bathroom just minutes ago.

“Joonmyeon and I are close. I can take jokes, you know. You were just plain annoying. Joonmyeon, I’m not twenty five yet. And your age isn’t that far away from mine.”

Ten tired boys laughed sleepily together in the living room. Kris looked around and found Jongin and Luhan already dozing off on the couch. He stood up and make himself look as leader-like as possible, “It’s very late already. Bed, now.”

Herding all those boys to bed could be quite a task. No one can do it better than Kris. Whenever some of the hyperactive ones tries to sneak pass his herding arms, he would unfurl his wide semi-translucent wings to push them into place.

Author’s Note:

I’ve decided to shorten each chapter. In addition, I will attach someone’s background story (like, their ancestor’s story and all) along with the chapter. Maybe not all the chapters though. I’m not too sure how am I going to do this yet.

Reason being, I realised that there are some stuff that I made up in my head, especially regarding their powers, and they make sense to me. But since I have yet to write it out, it may be confusing for readers so I decided not the put some events in. Which is stupid, really. And… More importantly, I have no idea how to put those events. Unlinked flashbacks could be really weird. So I decided to write their background out. But then again, being an OCD person, I don’t want to mess up the numberings of the chapters. I want each chapter to be numbered accordingly, if you know what I mean. So I’ve decided to put the background stories after the main chapters, especially since it is not exactly linked to the main story, I figured that putting it at the end of the main chapters would make them somehow like a bonus side story.

And yes! The first bonus story will be up in this chapter, in case you haven’t noticed! Let’s continue, shall we? First up, we have duizhang Kris! Since I mentioned his ‘wide semi-translucent wings’ in this chapter, why don’t we look more into that?

Child of an Azure Dragon

Kris was a mix baby. His father was a Cypher and he got his Feirer ability from his mother. One quickly forgot that he was not a mix baby because his affinity for his gifts manifested when he was around four years old.

His mother was a descendant from the Azure Dragon. Also known as the Avalon Dragon, the Azure Dragon was one of the Chinese constellation portrayals. Descendants of Dragons may possess different ability from each other. Some has long lives. Some can control fire or water, depending on their ancestor. Some has tough skin, almost impenetrable. For Kris, it is the ability to fly.

Just after he turned four, Kris’s mother noticed that his son was able to float. Nothing much, just a couple of inches off the ground, but enough to know that her son was gifted. Even though she herself was born to a pair of true Feirer parents, her own ability to fly was weak (she could only hover above the weighing scales to convince herself that her diet works) and only manifested when she was ten. She was doubtful if Kris would have any abilities of his own, seeing how his Feirer blood was weakened by his Cypher father. When she noticed little Kris giggling happily to himself, floating around his playroom, she figured that the affinity in her family has somehow skipped her and went thick to her son. She quickly registered Kris officially as a Feirer, after going through the necessary procedures. With that, Kris grew up just like any Feirer child.

When he was ten, his mother decided to immigrate to Canada with him as there was a very famous descendant of the Vermilion Bird there and Kris was getting so strong that there was no other person who was deemed capable to teach him more. After five years, at the age of fifteen, Kris has surpassed all expectations and decided to move to Guangzhou, China.

It was during then when something happened that made Kris lost his flight ability. Being a basketball enthusiast, he muted his own ability so that he could compete fairly in the national basketball tournaments. Feirers were required to mute their abilities as it would be unfair for Cyphers. Since his ability was something on the physical side, he soon found out that he had lost his ability to fly, just like how one lost their ability to use a muscle after a long period of not using it. This frustrates him to no ends. Not only he, his family and his teachers in Canada were upset too. Kris was a legendary flyer. He could shoot straight up in the air vertically and he moved around in the air as if gravity has no pull on him.

Kris was walking home after a basketball match when a girl fell down from the twentieth floor of a high rise apartment building. She was cleaning her windows when she lost her balance and fell. Kris heard her screams right before she fell. She flailed as she fell and managed to grab on to the ledge of the nineteenth floor, but it was obvious that she could not hang on for long. Thinking only about saving her, Kris pushed himself off the ground, only to drop back down. He growled low and suddenly, he found himself in the air. He flew straight up, held on to the girl tightly and floated back down, much to everyone’s relieves. Kris’s mother was running up the street to get to her son when Kris collapsed, not long after landing on the ground. She took one look at her son, with his never before seen semi translucent wings behind his back, and shakily called for an ambulance.

In the hospital, the doctors informed them that his natural ability to fly triggered his body to extend in such a way to allow him to fly again, especially in that urgent situation. Feirers with flight ability does grow wings sometimes, though not often. Even when it does, their wings usually grow out slowly, never bursting out like this. When his emotions were very much agitated, like how it was when that girl fell, his flight instinct which has been pooled up abundantly forced wings to burst out of his back. With proper training, he might be able to keep away his wings away and only allow them to materialise into semi translucent wings when he wills it to. It was just that it is unusual for a person descended from a Chinese dragon would grow wings, which usually happens only to Western dragon descendants. As the Kris’s parents are now separated, the doctors can only deduced that Kris’s father might had some Western dragon blood in him after all.

With that, the mother and son quickly packed their bags and moved back to Canada again after Kris was discharged from the hospital. Not only has Kris got to train his body again to fly, he now had to learn a new way to fly; with his wings.

Under the tutelage of the descendant of the Vermilion Bird for the second time, Kris quickly gained control over his wings. When he needed them, his wings were always ready for him to fly with. When touched, his wings were soft and yet tough to handle rough handlings. Some people had heavy feathery wings. Kris’s wings were semi translucent and looked to be holographic. Scrutinized closely, they were reptilian looking, Western dragons kind of wings.

Just like how one would relax their tired limbs, Kris loved spreading out his wings and relax in the wind, or even when sunbathing. His powers grew strong and vast, and by the time he graduates, he was able to produce a dragon personification. Needless to say, this was something very unusual. This ability is very rare and in addition, dragon avatars are very volatile and hard to control. People with such abilities usually burned out very soon, by their abilities or by their own dragons. Luckily, his natural stern personality helped him to gain control over his dragon. His dragon was obedient and very affectionate.

After Kris joined EXO, he soon realised another use for his wings, to herd the other mischievous boys around. Group hugs were also special, with the addition of Kris’s wings over everyone’s arms. Not only that, Kris often spread his wings a little during concerts or performance. When he turns around, he would tilt his head back to face the audience and flick the edges of his wings, much to the delight of the fans. Sometimes, if he felt like it, he might add in a wink too. If he was feeling very excited and wished to show off, he might produce his dragon and ride him around the venue, sometimes picking up some of s for a ride. Never Luhan though. Luhan was too terrified to even climb up the dragon’s back.

The dragon was affectionately named Ace by Kris. One Christmas, Kris knitted a blue scarf for Ace, much to the dragon’s surprise.

Author’s Note:

How is it? Do notice that I’ve inserted links to wiki about the Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird. I am interpreting it as I wish and it may not be totally accurate. I just like how Kris suited to be descended from a dragon. Hehe. Do comment on your thoughts about this!