"Yeah look I've told you I'm not interested"

"You're being rather loyal to them considering that you say they aren't your friends" Minhyuk scoffed and Somi glared at him.

"Call me a lone wolf then" Somi retorted, earning a few chortles out of the ones surrounding her.

"Shut up and start doing something interesting I'm bored" Hoseok was practically lying on the bench at this point, still having refused to join in on the torture that the others were putting the antisocial Somi through. Instead, he chose to torture and rile her up through comments and smirks that reeked of in Somi's own opinion.

"So you're like us and it won't hurt for you to talk to us once in a while" Jooheon commented.

"I've talked to you plenty today then" Somi answered trying to stand up for the thousandth time in that hour only to have Joohoen rip her back down onto the grass again.

"I don't care if you don't talk to me honestly"

"That's why you're here" Somi retorted in response to Kihyun giving her the snide eye.

"I was curious about what this moron was going to do" Kihyun nodded in the enthusiastic Jooheon's direction. The male was practically bouncing in his place on the grass and Somi rolled her eyes.

"I don't really know you so I don't care either way either" Everyone paused, turning to look at Minhyuk who bobbed his shoulders and leant back on his hands.

"I needed to have my input in the conversation to" Jooheon shook his head putting his hands on Somi's knees to get her attention. Somi flinched back, narrowing her eyes at Jooheon and his hands.

"You don't want to just look at your elements and admire how pretty they look" Jooheon lectured and Somi snorted.

"You're starting to repeat yourself" She sneered and Jooheon nudged her.

"You need to know how to take those gifts and use them" Jooheon made a snatching motion with his hand and Somi scrunched up her face, judgement in her gaze that was pointed at Jooheon's hand.

"If that's how you describe it I doubt you're the one qualified to teach me anything" She crossed her arms over her chest and Jooheon's face dropped, his eyes narrowing on her in a blank stare.

"Anyway, now that is all cleared up I'm gonna go to that class we're meant to be attending, better late then ditching so obviously, I guess" Somi sighed, pulling out her phone to look at the time.

"You're staying here" Legs knocking into her back stopped Somi from moving and she looked up to see Kihyun leaning over her. Somi glared up at him, her lip turning up in a snarl of retort.

"Who are you to be telling me what to do?" Somi spat back at him and Kihyun rose an eyebrow, letting it disappear behind his bangs as his lips remained in a stoic line.

"Just see what he can teach you and if nothing happens you can go back to your spell casting friends" Somi let out a deep breath through her nose, her eyes glaring at Minhyuk before she turned back to Jooheon.

"What have you got Jooheon?" In defeat Somi slouched, Kihyun moved away, walking around the small group and standing opposite of Somi, his hands in the pocket of his jumper and his head tilted in interest as Jooheon opened his mouth, taking in a deep breath.

"Ok so your element has like it's own little home within you that you need to reach into to be able to use it" Jooheon started, his hands out in front of him as he spoke and Somi let out a deep breath, feeling like too much sighing was being done in the past few hours.

"Ok and?" She drawled, resting her chin on her hand as she blinked slowly.

"We need to teach you how to get to that little home and use your element on command!" Jooheon enthused and Somi nodded.

"Right" There was a pause of silence where Kihyun shook his head and Minhyuk kicked Jooheon.

"Is someone going to teach her how to do that?"

"Well yeah" Jooheon nodded and Hoseok rolled his eyes, his head shaking from side to side.

"So," Jooheon got on his knees in front of Somi and Somi leant back, moving away when his face got close to hers.

"Here's what we're gonna do"

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

"Holy crap!"

"I told you this wasn't a good idea!"

"But you used your flames! On command!" Jooheon exclaimed from a distance and Somi huffed, her chest heavy as it rose and fell in deep breaths.

"I almost lost my hair" Minhyuk deadpanned.

"I'm exhausted" Somi knew she should have felt bad, but she was too tired and could only find it in herself to slump down on the grass in a pile of limbs and sweat as the four males looked on.

“My hair was almost burnt off”

"I've had enough of this" Somi curled up, wanting to disappear from the cold air outside and back inside to her bed, or maybe even burning in the pain that was her P.E class so that she wouldn't get whatever punishment she knew was coming for ditching, even though she knew it was far too late to attend the lesson by now.

"Somi you've done it!" The only reason that Somi could see Jooheon running towards her was because of the outdoor lights that stuck to the walls of the building and the street lights around them, it had gotten late and Somi felt like she was bound to pass out any moment.

"You literally jumped at me in the form of animals I can't even name Jooheon" Somi grunted, her chest was heaving, heavy breaths being taken in and let back out. Her cheek was squished against the grass and her arms lay out in front of her as her legs curled up. Jooheon ignored how pathetic the image of Somi was in that moment, instead he beamed at her, using a hand to shake with a grip on her shoulder that was tight and unappreciated by the fatigued girl.

"But you stopped flying away and used your fire instead," Jooheon told her as if it were a good thing now that she reflexively used fire instead of throwing herself away.

"Yeah great" Somi huffed and if she had the energy she would have rolled her eyes too.

"See all that digging deep and meditating is working" He continued and Somi closed her eyes, her arms to sore to move Jooheon's hand off of her.

"No offence Jooheon, since I can see you're really trying here, but this is what Changsub-"

"We do not want such disrespectful words in this household!" Minhyuk cut in, rushing over and crouching down next to Jooheon. Somi decided that Minhyuk was a tsundre at that moment, but instead of secretly being kind, he was secretly a weirdo waiting for the opportunity to expose his personality.

"And Eunkwang have already done" Somi finished her sentence anyway.

"Huh?" Jooheon pouted and Somi let out a deep breath.

"I meditated with Changsub and found my elements and when that was done Eunkwang and Changsub threw glumps of something at me until they got a reaction" She told them and Jooheon fell on his backside, huffing as his lips turned down in a frown.

"I thought I was on to something there" He mumbled and Minhyuk blinked at the pair.

"This was a waste of my time" He grumbled, which only made Jooheon slump and become even sadder.

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

"I know you're new to this whole great race thing so I'll do a little explaining for you" Somi nodded as Mr Kim sat down next to her on the bleachers, he turned to face her, sitting his clipboard between them and laying his hands out on his knees.

"I don't know if any of your friends have told you about the Great Race, but it's a pretty big deal for this school" Mr Kim started off and Somi could only blink, because she didn't have anyone that came to mind when the teacher said the word 'friends' as if she was making herself comfortable with her classmates.

"But it is something that the whole school takes part in. There will be a race for each grade and you can choose to go on your own or form a team. It's taken very seriously so I suggest avoiding going solo if you can"

"What actually happens in the Great Race?" Somi asks her teacher and Mr Kim sighs.

"Every year the whole school will make a trip out of town to the woods, you have to get from one side to the other, anything could happen in between because the challenges change every year" Somi's shoulders were tense, her back was straight and she didn't like what she was hearing, because if it was coming from Mr Kim's mouth, it must have been serious.

"When is it?" She asked and Mr Kim smiled.

"At the end of the year, so there's still time for plenty of training" Mr Kim was beaming and Somi nodded, taking in a deep breath as she followed Mr Kim when he stood up.

"Alright, off you go, you need to catch up with the rest of the class as best as you can" There was a rough pat of the hand on her shoulder from Mr Kim and she bowed, quickly rushing off to Changsub and Eunkwang's side.

"What did Mr Kim have to say?" She was immediately questioned and she bobbed her shoulders, her lips turning down in a frowned as she fixed the ponytail she wore her hair in.

"He was telling me about the Great Race"

"I want to see everyone running their laps!" Mr Kim bellowed over the group of mingling students, everyone that was stretching groaned and complained but Somi could see the look of seriousn