Chapter ten

30-06-15

‘’Yah! Dfg advabvd asivb’’ Was what Chanyeol heard, not that much as you can read. But that one word. ‘Yah’ did it. There was only one person in the whole school who used that word.

Baekhyun’s here

He could save him!

A thousand thoughts flew around in his head

What if Hosee defeats Baekhyun and drowns him too?

I have faith in Baekhyun’s ability but Hosee’s pretty strong too!

And twice his size too!

He’ll get hurt!

Chanyeol’s eyes snapped open as he started to fight back against the non-stop flowing water, trying to move his arms and legs although the water force was way too strong. There was no way he was going to let Baekhyun get hurt. Not again.

However, the water stopped flowing before he even had the chance to try to escape by himself and he was met by a very angry looking Baekhyun and a hurt Hosee. It seemed like Baekhyun had made Hosee lose control over his power which caused the water to stop flowing. It was a pity for him that he couldn’t enjoy Hosee’s painful face for long since he still needed to breathe.

As soon as he was out of the water, he in an immense amount of air, causing him to cough afterwards as his lungs weren’t able to take in all the air.

It was that moment, Baekhyun noticed that the person underneath the water force was none other than his roommate. From the corner of his eyes, Chanyeol saw how Baekhyun’s expression changed from angry to concerned one as he slowly walked towards him.

Making use of Baekhyun’s distraction, Hosee raised his arms towards the smaller boy and tried to drown him the same way he tried to drown Chanyeol (what for some weird reason didn’t work). Bad thing for him that Baekhyun wasn’t stupid neither blind and threw a light ball at the weird guy’s leg before even a drip could touch him, causing Hosee to fall over, cry out loud and clutch his semi-burned leg.

Exaggerator

Chanyeol felt how his upper-body was being pulled off the ground into a sitting position. His eyes met Baekhyun’s concerned ones. ‘’Are you okay?’’ Even his voice was full with concern.

‘’Y-yeah, thanks.’’ He was pulled completely off the ground. Having nothing to do at the moment, Chanyeol looked over Baekhyun’s shoulder while the smaller boy tried to steady his wobbly body, which was kinda hard since Chanyeol was twice his size, and saw how Hosee tried to stand up again. Water sprouted out of the ground and flowed around him as Hosee stretched his arms forward aiming multiple water arrows their way.

Baekhyun’s way.

Chanyeol’s eyes widen as he quickly grabbed Baekhyun’s shoulders and turned him around, letting the water hit his back instead. That however didn’t stop the two of them from falling over.

A loud shriek was heard when Chanyeol’s body lost its balance and fell on Baekhyun, literally pinning the smaller down.

A stinging pain shot through his back afterwards as the water started hitting him, harder and harder each time a new arrow came.

Water starting hoping up around them too fast (like they’re in a bath tub, but then on the ground) and Baekhyun’s body was already covered with a layer water. Chanyeol wanted to get off of him and help him up so badly, yet he couldn’t find the strength to even move a leg.

‘’Chanyeol.’’ Baekhyun spluttered when the water reached his chin. He held his head up as high as possible as his breath came out laboured.

‘’Move.’’

Yeah…

Easier said than done.

‘’How am I supposed to?!’’ He shouted back aggressively. He didn’t do it on purpose, but it was not like he could sound all sweet and happy when his back was getting smashed apart by water! Not at all when he was forced to watch the smaller boy beneath him drowning.

Baekhyun’s eyes widened when the water reached his mouth in an incredibly short amount time, shocking both boys. So with no other choice than ignoring the male above him, Baekhyun tried to push Chanyeol away himself.

It was that moment Chanyeol realised what Baekhyun wanted to do.

So with all his strength, he managed to move aside a little to free the slender hand and watched how the owner of it started charging his power. I know, ‘charging your power’ or ‘power charging’ sounds ridiculous but it was seriously the way they learned to call it. It was basically when someone needed to use his power in a situation where it was hard to use them. Charging thus.

Not even 5 seconds later, a scintilla light appeared in Baekhyun’s hand.

Another 5 seconds later, an intensive bright light shoot out of his hand, barely hitting Chanyeol’s side and shoot Hosee’s leg once again, causing him to lose control again; stopping the water from flowing and Chanyeol immediately rolled off Baekhyun.

Finally having the giant off of him, Baekhyun shot up and coughed all the water out of his lungs. The expectation that Chanyeol came and help him was proved wrong when his roommate stood up and walked towards Hosee who was getting off the ground while clutching his horrible looking leg; blood seeping out of the big black hole in his pants.

Grabbing Chanyeol’s pants didn’t stop him from walking further and neither did the ‘leave it Chanyeol’ as his hand was pushed away harshly and the latter walked towards the still-stranger-for-him.

What he saw afterwards was an unexpected and rather disgusting sight.

Chanyeol pushed the man back on the ground again and landed a strong punch on his face, earning a loud groan. Chanyeol moved over to the man’s stomach and easily overpowered him.

‘’Better shouldn’t have drowned us.’’ Chanyeol muttered as he threw another punch

Hosee spatted out blood by the third punch. That however didn’t stop Chanyeol from punching him again.

He couldn’t look away from the scene, not say anything too. He was glued to the ground watching how Chanyeol nearly killed the man.

He was shivering by the time Chanyeol was himself again. But that took him way too long.

‘’What do you mean don’t: underestimate the hunters? Pfft’’

 Chanyeol stopped punching Hosee, stood up from the bloodied man and turned towards Baekhyun with a satisfied grin, expecting him to be proud of him. But Baekhyun didn’t even look close near proud, he was shaking violently and his eyes looked genuinely scared. Although he had stopped coughing, his breath was still quite uneven, washing guilt over Chanyeol’s body.

‘’Baekhyun? Are you okay?’’ He asked as he walked towards him.

Baekhyun didn’t reply, instead he flinched when a brown fur crawled out of the collar of his shirt.

‘’Oh hey, I’m sorry you had to experience that buddy.’’ Baekhyun silently said to the wet fur as he took it off his shoulder.

Frowning, Chanyeol walked closer to the fur and to his own surprise, he saw that it wasn’t just a wet fur, but the squirrel!

‘’You have the squirrel?’’ Chanyeol whispered in disbelief, talking too loud would mean that the whole forest would come their way to steal the gnawer.

‘’Uhm yeah.’’ Baekhyun looked at Chanyeol for a second before he looked back at the squirrel again. ‘’But he’s hurt so I wanted to bring him to Yixing first, you know Yixing? The healer?’’

‘’Yeah, yeah I know Xingxing.’’ Chanyeol was obviously flustered by the new information (??). Baekhyun had the squirrel that meant that he could win!

‘’It’s Yixing.’’

Maybe they could share the squirrel and win both.

‘’Chanyeol?’’

Or Baekhyun could give him the squirrel and then he won.

Yeah…

That was a good idea.

Chanyeol had absolutely no idea what was happening to him. One moment he was concerned about the boy but now… his head was filled with the words ‘win’ ’win’ ‘win’, they kept circling around in his head. ’Win’ ‘win’

‘’Chanyeol’s what’s wrong?’’

’Win’ ‘win’

‘’Give me the squirrel.’’

‘’What?’’ Baekhyun looked really small right now, he was drenched from head to toe and shivering violently while hugging the wet fur close to his chest. The squirrel seemed to hug him back as well. Scared and cold.

But Chanyeol didn’t care.

‘’Give me the squirrel.’’

’win’

Chanyeol took big steps towards Baekhyun as the latter stood up and walked backwards. ‘’Chanyeol, I’ll burn you if you don’t back up now right now.’’ Baekhyun threatened with a surprisingly stable voice.

Yeah sure.

‘’You wouldn’t dare.’’ Chanyeol cornered Baekhyun against a tree and looked down on the trembling boy.

’’Watch me.’’

‘’Give me the- AUW’’ Chanyeol’s sentence was cut off by his own scream when he felt a burning sensation shoot though his arm and immediately took a few steps back.

He certainly wasn’t joking.

‘’What the is wrong with you!?’’ Baekhyun asked, clearly annoyed by his behaviour. 

‘’Why did you burn me!?!’’

‘’That’s your own fault!’’

‘’Give him to me!’’

‘’No!’’

Baekhyun turned around when Chanyeol tried to fetch the gnawer out of his arms and walked away.

‘’At least I don’t give a about winning, let’s get you to Yixing buddy.’’

Haha

Ha

No

‘’Baekhyun!’’ Chanyeol took a few big steps towards the said boy and blocked him. ‘’Give me the squirrel and you won’t get hurt.’’ He mimicked Hosee.

Baekhyun took the y pose and looked Chanyeol straight in his eyes.

‘’If you don’t move right now I’ll-‘’

He wasn’t able to finish his sentence when he was harshly pushed on the ground. The squirrel was taken out of his arms and Chanyeol ran away towards Taecyeon.

Why didn’t it surprise him?

Why wasn’t Baekhyun surprised at all?

Using a random tree as support, Baekhyun pushed himself off the ground, muttering a soft ‘dammit’ when he felt a sharp pain shoot through his arm as he slightly panted.

Finally upright, Baekhyun did the only thing that was a little bit logical at the moment; he walked towards the edge of the forest were Taecyeon would wait for the winner to arrive.

As expected, the final whistle was blown seconds later followed by a wave jubilation through the whole forest.

Students walked past him, some happily smiling because they had a fun time in the forest, some grinning defeated. Baekhyun followed them towards the big lake where they started.

Chanyeol was proudly standing next to Taecyeon was the first thing he saw when he arrived. Multiple students surrounded them and congratulated Chanyeol. Guys were patting his shoulder. Girls were dying to get his attention. Baekhyun’s eyes made its way towards Chanyeol hand and saw the squirrel being squished in Chanyeol’s grip.

Something snapped inside Baekhyun’s heart.

The squirrel was hurt badly and Chanyeol was holding it like that!?

An angry feeling spread through Baekhyun’s body when Chanyeol happily laughed with Taecyeon. Baekhyun walked towards them and grabbed the squirrel out of Chanyeol loose grip.

‘’Guess you don’t need him anymore.’’ He muttered and walked away, ignoring the stares.

Away from the lake.

Away from the surprised looks.

Away from Chanyeol.

‘’Uhm Yixing?’’

Baekhyun knocked on the nurse’s office open door to catch the boy’s attention.

‘’Oh hi Baekhyun.’’ Yixing greeted back, still remembering his name from the time when he fainted. ‘’How did you know I was here?’’ Came the following question.

‘’I didn’t.’’ He replied. He really didn’t know Yixing was actually here but it was logical to first look in the nurse’s office for a healing boy. ’’Uhm could you heal something or someone for me?’’

God that sounded stupid.

Yixing stood up from his seat and walked towards him with a concerned look. ‘’Are you hurt?’’

‘’No it’s not me, it’s uhm…’’ Feeling embarrassed to actually say that he bought a squirrel, Baekhyun decided to just show Yixing.

The reaction he got was quite unexpected. Yixing started laughing and took the squirrel from Baekhyun’s hands, lying it down on the stretcher.

‘’You might want to cover your eyes.’’ Yixing warned and laid his hands down on the squirrel’s chest and a bright light came from his hands. Baekhyun stared at it in awe. He never had to cover his eyes for things like this.

But what happened next, startled him to death.

The squirrel transformed into a boy, a boy. Probably not much older than Baekhyun if not younger.

‘’Oh my god.’’ Baekhyun covered his eyes and turned around, rather facing the door than an unknown boy. He heard Yixing’s laugh in the background and waited ‘till he heard a safe ‘’you can turn around now.

Obeying, Baekhyun turned around and faced the boy (who now wore a blanket) again. He opened his mouth to say something when he was cut off by the squirrel, I mean boy

‘’Before you flip, yes I was the squirrel. Mr. Oscar was angry at me for not paying attention in class and transformed me into a squirrel. Then he made fun of me and said that I could replace the old squirrel as punishment. So I was forced into the forest and got hit by an icicle and then you found me. So don’t stress out, it could overcome everyone.’’ If it wasn’t for his sharp ears, Baekhyun would’ve sworn that it was a miracle that he could catch the boy’s fast words.

Yeah sure, it could happen to anyone. Transforming into a squirrel… yeah…. Completely normal...

Baekhyun closed his mouth as squirrel boy extended his hand. ‘’I’m Kim Jongdae.’’

‘’Byun Baekhyun – how’s your leg?’’ Baekhyun shook his hand and pointed at the boy’s leg.

‘’Great, thanks to Yixing and you, but I need to say that I don’t like it when I nearly drown.’’ Jongdae said as he sat up.

‘’What happened?’’ Yixing asked, looking back and forth between Jongdae and Baekhyun.

‘’Long story short, I nearly drowned because someone was really heavy and I couldn’t get underneath his body.’’

‘’Blame Chanyeol.’’

‘’Who’s Chanyeol?’’

‘’Congratulations Chanyeol!’’

‘’Chanyeol oppa‘s handsome!’’

‘’Yeah buddy, how did you find that squirrel?’’

‘’I guess it’s just luck.’’ Chanyeol awkwardly scratched the back of his neck as he answered the stranger; the crowd around him finally started to slim.

‘’Good job Chanyeol.’’ Jongin appeared in front of him.

‘’Thanks man, where’s Kyungsoo?’’

‘’He was tired so he went right after we knew the winner. He’s proud of you man, does Baekhyun already know that you’ve won?’’

‘’Yeah, he already went too.’’ Chanyeol once again scratched the back of his neck.

‘’Chanyeol oppa, there’s a party tonight in my room, you’re invited. You will come right?’’ The girl pouted and Chanyeol, not being able to resist the cuteness, couldn’t say anything else than: ‘’Of course I’ll come!’’

¬

‘’Jian, do you have the papers ready?’’

‘’Yes sir, one of our boys is ready to go for his first day on the institute. Are you sure you want to go through the whole progress again?’’

‘’Yes Jian.’’

‘’And what if you don’t find him again?’’

‘’Than we’ll do the same as last year.’’

‘’O-Oh, b-but sir-’’

‘’No buts, maybe we’ll find him this time, I’ve got a good feeling about this.’’