The ineffable feeling of being stuck in time or seeing the world pause even for just a few minutes, was only something that the squad could imagine. It seemed impossible, illogical, an out-of-the-world fantasy, yet here they were, staring at each other with wide eyes of pure astonishment, their fingers shaking with fear and surprise, and their hearts hammering against their chests.

“What the hell is happening?” Kai rose to his feet and looked all around him with surprise. He pulled out the torch from his pocket and tightened his grip around the device, waving the light around to get a clear view of the unexpected turn of events.

Holding in his breath, he saw the way the helicopter continued hovering just slightly above the surface of the ground, while the now calm waves of the river moved back and forth. However, he then noticed how the little girl was frozen in place, utterly motionless with her arms floating mid-air, her feet firm on the ground, appearing to be like a statue; he then shifted his eyes to the tall creatures, only to gasp at the realisation that the slimes were not moving either, their claws still spread out dangerously even though they were of no harm anymore.

“The engine’s still running, and Yeji-noona is…”, Soobin called out as he looked at the distant car. He turned around to face Kai. “Either she’s really stuck or really good at pretending to be a mannequin!”

Suddenly, Yeosang swiftly jumped out of the car and walked over to the helicopter. He saw the blades continuing to rotate at a constant speed, before spotting the static expressions of a few people.

“Oh my God…” He whispered to no one in particular, a few facts easily registering into his mind. He gestured everyone to assemble at the region between the parked car and the helicopter that stayed adrift, engines and motors roaring in the background.

In the span of a second or so, most of the team gathered in a circle. They noted exactly who stood within their small crowd, only to frown at the realisation that precisely four people weren’t present: Yeonjun, Taehyun, Hoseok and Yeji.

The situation slowly dawned upon them, but Yeosang was the first to admit it. “O-Okay, it’s quite clear what’s going on. Firstly, Minho-hyung, what the hell?” He glared at the latter and pointed at his wrist, hoping that the other wasn’t trying to hide something from the team.

Minho groaned as he rolled up the sleeves of his sweater and stared at his wrists. Just a centimetre above his right wrist, there was a small tattoo of a clock with its hands spaced very closely. He stifled a gasp and tried to explain himself, “H-Hey, don’t you dare blame anything on me. I didn’t know about this, I really didn’t!”

“Alright, fine. So, all the living beings have pretty much stopped moving, all the living beings except for us… Why us?”

“Uh, we’re the ones with the tattoos?” Yuqi raised her hand as she uttered those words, her eyes constantly shifting towards the river with an undefeatable feeling of fear. She didn’t even notice the wide eyes of the rest of the team and their eager nods towards her prediction.

Kai unknowingly clapped his hands a bit too loudly, but his true intention was to ease the tension lingering within the atmosphere as he noticed the awkward and petrified glances between the ones around him. He too was still in the midst of processing the idea of seeing most of the world around him freeze, and he wondered if it was permanent.

But he got an answer too soon.

In an instant, the world around them began to resume in its usual pace; the little girl fell on her back and let out a soft cry, while the creatures started to slither forward with their limbs on display. Within the helicopter and the car, Hoseok and Yeji regained control of their navigation.

“! Everyone, get back!”, Jungeun screamed out as she crouched down and rolled over to the side to evade an a