“You never told me you were a ventriloquist!” Jihyo laughed.

Gary didn’t expect that coming. He looked at her, mouth agape.

“No, Jihyo… I….” he stuttered. “I’m not using ventriloquism…”

Jihyo looked at him, prompting him to say more.

“I’m talking in your head, Jihyo arh. It’s telepathy. I… no, we…. Are telepathic.”

To his surprise, Jihyo started to giggle. “Yah! Stop fooling around!”

Gary opened his mouth to protest, but the kids interrupted them.

They had already reached the entrance. “Gary hyung (oppa), Jihyo noona (unnie), faster!” they yelled.

Gary sighed, “I’ll explain to you later.”

The car ride back was silent, because the kids fell asleep after a long day.

Glancing at the kids through the rear mirror, Gary confirmed that they were sound asleep.

“I’m not joking. We are telepathic.”

“I’m tired.. Stop it oppa…” Jihyo grumbled.

He stopped the car. The kids did not stir.

He turned to face her. They were looking at each other.

“I’m not joking,” he said firmly. “You try it.”

Jihyo was now getting scared. She blinked in shock, biting her lips nervously.

“Oppa…. Gary… are you ok…?”

“Just try it. Say something. In your head.”

Okay… this is weird…

I know, it’s always weird in the beginning.

“What the?!!” Jihyo blurted out. Her voice was trembling. Her hands too. Her palms became clammy, and her breathing became heavier.

“Calm down!” Gary said, reaching out to her.

“NO! Don’t… don’t touch me!” she flinched. “What are you?! Who are you!”

Gary withdrew his hands. His eyes fell; he shifted his body away.

“I wouldn’t hurt you, you know,” he said softly, and started to drive again.

Even though he said it out, Jihyo ‘heard’ it in her mind too. And, she felt the pain and disappointment in his words. She felt her heart tightened. She was guilty for saying it to him.

He was Kang Gary. Her Kang Gary. Of course, he would never hurt her.

Slowly, she reached out to him, touching his hands that were on the steering wheel.

“I know you wouldn’t.”

He glanced over, they both smiled at each other.

Even though he didn’t say it, she could feel his happiness and gratitude. It was a warm, fuzzy feeling, in her heart and mind. Just now, he said, we were telepathic… was that what he meant? That I could feel what he was feeling too?

Yes.

They looked at each other again. She gave a weak, bewildered smile and he shrugged.

“I’ll explain later.”

And silence took over the car again. Usually, Jihyo would have fallen asleep too, but there was so much going in her mind. She couldn’t stop thinking. Who was she? Why was she suddenly telepathic? Was her parents telepathic too? Was she normal? Was she human? …..

Finally, they reached the carpark of the town. Gary woke YongHui up, because he would be too heavy to be carried all the way back. HyeJin didn’t stir. So, Gary carried her on the front, and his gigantic back pack on his back, while Jihyo held onto Yonghui. He was too tired to even walk properly, so he leaned slightly against Jihyo. She let him be.

The walk back was silent too.

Gary let Jihyo carry HyeJin into the girl’s dorm. Meanwhile, he sent YongHui to the boys dorm and passed the prizes won to YongHui.

“Help us share it with the rest, will you?”

Yong Hui nodded sleepily.

“Good boy,” he ruffled his hair. “Wash up and sleep well.”

Yong Hui threw his arms around Gary. “Thank you so much for today, hyung. It’s the happiest day of my life.”

“There will be more to come,” Gary smiled, nodding.

Gary and Jihyo walked back to the car.

Silence…

Silence….

“YongHui said thanks for today,” Gary broke the silence. “Thanks for suggesting to let him come along…”

“Mmmm…” Jihyo nodded.

Silence….

Silence…

“Now, would you care to explain everything?” she finally asked.

Gary let out a sigh. “Let me start, by answering your questions, shall I?”

“Wait… You mean you can read my thoughts?”

Gary smiled sheepishly. “Not since we first met! It was just today… tonight...” he corrected

“So, firstly, you are a human, from earth. Just like me and everyone else here…”

“Wait, but not everyone are telepathic…?”

“Ya! Let me finish first, will you?”

She nodded, slightly embarrassed.

They were at the playground by then, so they just decided to sit on the bench.

“So, only a small population of people are telepathic. We call this people the Stars, stars as in those in the sky. Why? Because, we have a golden feature in us.

“Mine’s on my back, see?” Gary pulled back his shirt for her to see. You can’t really see it clearly, because I got it covered with tattoo.”

Jihyo squinted her eyes. Indeed, there were some shiny golden streaks.

“I know, I could have pretended that it’s just some birthmark right? But here’s the thing, it glows, in the dark.”

She cupped her hands around the tattoo. True enough, the golden streak was glowing. Even though it was more like a glimmer, maybe because of the tattoo.

“I knew you were one of us on that day…. When Chang Joo…” he trailed off, watching for any signs of unhappiness. None. She was too preoccupied with the telepathy issue.

“When you ran out into the street and the car’s headlights illuminated your eyes. Then I saw it.”

“Why didn’t you tell me then!”

Gary looked at her like she had just asked if the skies were blue.

“Ok ok, I get it. Don’t have to make me feel like I’m an idiot. Please continue…”

Perks of telepathy.

“So, when I knew it, I was supposed to induce your Breakthrough- that is, to make you able to telepath as well- by constantly trying to talk to you in your head. And so, when you thought of that family thing just now….”

Both of them blushed.

“… I found out you had your Breakthrough.”

“But why didn’t you see it earlier. The golden streak in my eyes, I mean.”

“The golden features becomes more prominent when it’s dark, or at night. I guess for your case, because it’s in the eye, it needs to be illuminated for me to see… which is kind of contradictory…”

“I know, it’s like the moon!” Jihyo exclaimed excitedly. “It is not visible in the day, because it’s too bright, but at night we can only see it because the light is reflected from the sun!”

“Well…I guess you could put it that way!” Gary chuckled. She’s really the Ace.

Why, thank you. She chuckled as well.

Which reminds Jihyo. “How are we going to stop people, I mean people like us, from reading our thoughts? I mean like yeah, it’s cool and all but we still want to keep secrets right?”

“Hmm. We just don’t put it into images and feelings? It’s like speaking. We only say out the things we want to say right? Telepathy is not exactly mind-reading. It’s really just like talking in the mind. But we use images and feelings and ideas… Do you understand?”

No.

Gary sighed. “It’s something like controlling your thoughts? Usually, when I am with other Stars, I can think before I THINK. Ok, I know it doesn’t make sense…” he laughed at his silly explanation.  Jihyo laughed too.

“Eventually you will learn to do it. I just haven’t gotten used to the fact that you had your breakthrough… so….

“Ok anyway, no, your parents aren’t Stars like you too. It’s a recessive trait, so your heterozygous parents aren’t telepathic. (REMEMBER THE HUGE CHUNK OF BIO IN CHPT 1?)”

“So, other than telepathy, do we have other powers?”

“We do. Well, most of us anyway. There are Nulls, Unis, Dis (pronounced as Dies), Tris (Tries), Quads. Very little of us are Nulls. Nulls have no other powers other than telepathy. The majority of us are Unis or Dis, who have one or two other power respectively.

“Tris are people with three other powers, and Quads are people with four. There are not a lot of them, either, with Quads less than Tris, of course.”

“And what are you?”

“Uni. I’m a Seeker. Seekers are…”

“How about me?”

Gary laughed. “You need to be patient, Jihyo-ah. Anyway, it will take some time for you to know your powers, ranging from a few days to a few weeks.

“Our powers are classified according to the four elements. You know, the Chinese elements? So, there’s…”

“There are five elements, isn’t it?”

Gary shot her a look. YAH!

Sorry…

“I’ll go to that later. So, first, I’m a Seeker, and my element is Earth. Earth powers the quickest to be developed, usually 1 to 3 days after breakthrough you’ll find out. Examples include seeing beyond, hearing beyond. Basically it’s heightened senses.

“Next, we have the fire element. That usually take 3 days to 1 week. It’s those aggressive powers, like control of fire, control of wind, control of water etc… It is the hardest to control though.

“Wood powers take 1 to 2 weeks, examples include Whisperers- people who can communicate with plants and/or animals, and Shape-shifters, illusionists…

“Finally, Water takes the longest, about 2 to 3 weeks. It includes Healers, Apollos- people who calm people through music.”

“Why aren’t you an Apollo? Don’t you do music?”

“My music isn’t very calming…” he replied matter-of-factly.

Jihyo giggled.

“So what happened to Metals?”

Gary shrugged. “Actually, I don’t know either. Since my generation, there wasn’t Metal anymore. I guess they went extinct? But yeah. I guess four elements is enough too?"

“Whoaaa… daee~bak!” she finally exclaimed.

Gary looked at her, feeling a mix of confusion and happiness. “I honestly didn’t expect you to accept this so quickly? I mean, you just reacted like I told you what’s for dinner… The previous times when I told people they were telepathic, they just went berserk?”

“Ah, jjinja! What did they do?”

“Don’t know. Yelled and hit me and all, threw things and said they weren’t monster blah blah…”

“But this is so cool! Telepathy, superpowers and all. It’s like, a movie!”

“That’s exactly what I mean. Anyway, you need to keep this a secret. From everyone who isn’t a Star. Which is basically everyone you know, except for me.”

“Even my parents?”

“Yea. Because there are people who will be freaked out of us, unlike you…” he sniggered a bit. “And there are some who are out to kill us. You don’t know how afraid people are of the unknown.”

Jihyo nodded. As much as she doesn’t want to hide it from her parents, she doesn’t know if they would freak out or undergo a panic attack after knowing.

Gary took a deep breath. “Have I answered all your questions?”

Jihyo nodded.

He turned her face so now they were facing each other. He held her hands gently.

“Then I guess it’s time to talk about us?”

Jihyo blinked, giving him a puzzled look.

“Remember last time I told you we could only be brother and sisters? Because I didn’t know you were a Star then. But now… I know. Now, I don’t have to keep it from you anymore. I know its ridiculous, you just broke up 3 days ago, but….”

Jihyo didn’t give him time to finish his explanation. She kissed his lips. And she finally knew, why she was never comfortable about letting Chang Joo kiss her for too long.

Because her lips belonged to Gary’s.

(ALL HAIL ME what a friggin looong chapter. Guess Jihyo's powers and her element! 

and pls dont think of Jihyo as an easy woman for kissing gary only 3 days after her breakup... they (jihyo and cj) were never meant to be anyway.)