When they arrived at the gala venue, both Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were still fairly quiet while glancing over at Serena at times. Kyungsoo did prefer Serena as how she dressed regularly, but seeing her in the dress updated his perspective of her. Chanyeol, who was usually loud and teasing, didn't dare make a joke.

 

The gala poster was pasted several times on the walls, indicating that it was some sort of Winged celebration. Serena didn't notice anyone from their school on the scene, nor were there any advertisements about it around the school grounds. Perhaps students were not in their target market, but something was still very fishy about the gala. 

 

"Have you noticed where Minseok is?" Kyungsoo asked Serena. 

 

Serena took out her phone from her clutch bag. "He hasn't replied to my texts since a few hours ago."

 

"He could just be busy at the back." Chanyeol said. "He might have placed his phone down, or wasn't allowed to have it around." 

 

"That makes sense, I guess." Serena knew a little bit about some part-time cafe jobs where the employees were not allowed to be on their phones during work hours. She didn't understand how others would be able to be away from their phones for such a long period. 

 

There was an area where the crowd formed in front of the podium. Serena tried to listen in to conversations, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary just yet. Most of the talking was general greetings and catching up on what the others did prior to the gala. 

 

"Hello Miss." A woman who was similar to Serena's age approached her. "Are you new?"

 

Serena hesitated as she didn't want her cover to be revealed. "Um, yes. My first time here."

 

The woman looked at Chanyeol for a second, and then at Kyungsoo for another. "Enjoy your time here. I heard the reveal is going to be pretty jaw-dropping." She wandered away to chat with others.

 

"Reveal?" Serena turned to Chanyeol who just pasted a face of confusion onto himself. 

 

The lights dimmed to signal the audience to quiet down. There weren't any places to sit down so Serena tried to blend in with the others, however Chanyeol's height was a slight problem as he peaked over quite a percentage of the crowd. He had to resort to crouching down to Kyungsoo's height, and people around him wondered what he was doing. A man in a dark suit walked to the center of the stage and tapped the microphone to make sure it was . The back curtains were still down and covering half the stage. 

 

"Welcome all to our second gala ever held! Tonight we have a great demonstration that will open your eyes to the new possibilities that await those who aren't Marked and non-Activators! That's right! Tonight we will test with our own eyes the invention that will change our lives!" The MC introduced brightly as the crowd clapped in approval and excitement. "Now before we reveal the technology, I'd like to ask our Chairman to come to the stage for his speech."

 

The chairman seem like a man in his late thirties. His stride already demonstrated his rank above the others as his shoes tapped against the hardwood stage. 

 

"Greetings everyone." The Chairman began his speech. "I thank you all for your presence on this fine evening."

 

The Chairman went on with introductions of the lead scientist, his staff and other important people whose names flew past Serena's mind. 

 

"As you all may have faced discrimination as Regulars against the highly-regarded Winged. How you have longed for a system that punishes those who abuse their powers? How would you, as a Regular, would like if you were able to control their powers even if it was for a short amount of time?" People began to clap loudly.

 

"This doesn't sound good." Kyungsoo said quietly. 

 

Serena didn't even think that something like this gala would happen in real life. She read about revolutions in her history classes, but to think that it would happen in her lifetime didn't come across her mind. During this time, she looked at each butler and server to see if it was Minseok, but he was still not found.

 

"And now!" The Chairman lifted his glass. "We will test first-hand the device!" The back curtains lifted to reveal a small metallic orb, no larger than a volleyball, placed on top of a pedestal. There were roughly twenty wires attached to the back of the orb, and they sprawled at the back which would lead to different locations. The Chairman took out a switch from his pocket and pointed it at the orb. "Brace yourselves!" He said before pressing the switch.

 

After two seconds, the orb began to emit a static noise. Among the silence a boy broke out in a scream. The girl beside him appeared to be frozen in place as he shook her. 

 

"Oh my god, please say something!" The boy kept shaking her, but no answer was heard. Soon after, others began to fall to the ground stiff and frozen.

 

The Chairman reached for the microphone. "Calm down everyone, we had expected some side effects with the device as it is not fully perfected. It appears that it only affects those who are Marked."

 

Once Serena heard the statement she turned toward Kyungsoo and Chanyeol. Both of them fell onto the ground, but neither looked like they were frozen in time. Kyungsoo had placed his palm on his head as if he had a major headache, while Chanyeol looked like he was cold and about to hurl. 

 

"Man, did it suddenly get really cold?" Chanyeol was using his powers to keep himself from feeling as cold. He could feel that the cold was trying to freeze his blood. 

 

"I think I'm getting brain freeze..." Kyungsoo kept massaging his head. 

 

"W-what should I do?" Serena didn't know what they were feeling as she was not affected. 

 

Chanyeol rolled onto the ground. "Find Minseok. Use this commotion to find him." Kyungsoo agreed. 

 

"I can't just leave you two here!" Serena bent down with her hands shaking.

 

"We can take care of ourselves, Serena." Kyungsoo closed his eyes in pain. "This may be our only chance to find Minseok. Go. We'll get out of here and meet you somewhere safe if we can."

 

"I'll call the principal." Serena scrambled in her clutch but Kyungsoo placed his other hand on Serena's arm. 

 

"We'll do it. Hurry and find Minseok." Kyungsoo pointed at the stage. "We haven't checked the places backstage."

 

Serena was scared that she would never see the two of them again if she left, but she wanted to trust them and hope that they keep their promise. She took off her shoes so that she could run better and made sure no one noticed her as she went behind the curtains. 

 

"There are so many wires, which one do I choose to follow?!" Her finger followed the colored wires. She heard footsteps coming her way so she had to make a quick decision. Her finger pointed at a thicker blue wire and decided to follow that one. It led Serena down some stairs to the basement of the building. The wire disappeared from view after she reached a room bolted closed. Why do I have a feeling that this is the right room... She thought in her mind, but there was no way she was able to unlock it. 

 

"Allow me to assist!" A voice came from behind which made Serena jump in fear. The slim guy was wearing a completely black outfit, from the running shoes, the sports pants, the zippered sweater to the beanie on his head. He looked like a burglar from first glance as he was even holding a few tools in his hand. Serena stepped aside to let the guy tinker with the locks.

 

"You know," He began, "you would have been seen by all the security cameras." He pointed to the upper left corner of the hallway while continuing to be focused on the locks. The security camera was currently covered by a photo. "Gotta be more careful than that."

 

"Who are you?" Serena stared as he continued to successfully unlock the padlocks like flicking ticks. 

 

"No time to explain right now." His voice grew more serious. "I don't know what is behind this door, but I suspect that they have a secondary alarm system in place. Once I open this, go find the Marked you're looking for. I'll keep an eye out here."

 

"What if there's another locked door?" Serena had no experience with breaking in as she never needed to in the past. 

 

"According to the blueprints of the building, this is just a big room." Clearly the burglar did his research. "Ready?" He didn't even wait for Serena to answer before opening the door and pushing her in. He quickly closed the door again. Standing in front of Serena was a large glass container connected to the super computers which stood on all sides of the room. Inside the glass container was a shirtless Minseok with his arms cuffed with metal and his legs tied together, with electrode wires monitoring his upper body. He was screaming in pain but Serena couldn't hear anything as the glass blocked the sound. His disheveled hair signaled that he was struggling the entire time he was in there and it became clear to Serena he was powering the orb device upstairs. 

 

Serena stood frozen in fear. She never liked horror movies but this was definitely much worse to witness. "W-what do I do?" What if instead of turning off the machine she increased its functions? What would Chanyeol do if he was in this situation? He'd probably light everything on fire...that's not helping! What about Kyungsoo? "Do something Serena!" She shouted at herself. 

 

She grabbed a stool and threw it at the glass. It bounced off without even leaving a scratch and landed on one of the super computers, crashing on the buttons before bouncing off and landed beside a generator. The alarm sound and lights activated, alerting that there was an intruder.

 

The impact on the generator revealed a power switch and Serena dropped her clutch and shoes to slap the switch. Immediately afterwards, the entire room shut down, leaving a dim light coming from the container. As the generator was down, the magnetic field that kept the container tightly in place was gone. The power contained inside caused the glass to burst and completely shatter. With the last of his energy, Minseok hurled himself out of the area of the container. Serena avoided the glass shards as she walked up to him with tears in her eyes.

 

"C-cold." Minseok shivered and twitched in fear. He gasped for air and turned to have his back lying on the ground. In contrast to Chanyeol just before Serena winged him, Minseok's skin was covered with goosebumps and his sweat practically turned ice solid. Serena didn't care if she'd get frostbite from contact, but brought Minseok to sit up and hugged him tightly. 

 

"I'm so glad you're still alive." Serena sniffled as she continued to hug him. She cared deeply for anyone she knew and she knew just how hard it was for Minseok to work day and night, only to be tricked at the end of they day.

 

Minseok opened one of his eyes. Never had someone cared so much for his safety. All of his past managers only cared that he was able to do the work and earn them money. Keeping this secret from his parents and family meant that they couldn't give him any sympathy either. When he was inside the container, he knew they were trying to force out his power, even though he wasn't winged yet. He knew he had the potential power of frost and ice if he was winged. Currently the power built up inside of him once the machine broke down and had no where to be released, basically turning Minseok into a time bomb. 

 

He was about to pass out, but something inside re-energized him. Frost began to form on objects around Minseok and continued to creep outwards. He was afraid to embrace the chill as he feared that the cold would just consume him inside out, but with Serena's warmth he felt reassured. 

 

Ice crystals began to form behind Minseok's back.