Choi Junghoon.  It was a name that Chanyeol could never forget.

 

Junghoon had always made it a point to make Chanyeol’s life miserable in middle school, but relented only when Kyungsoo confronted him about it.   Junghoon apparently had a crush on Kyungsoo even when they were adolescents.

 

Junghoon had been livid that Kyungsoo was giving Chanyeol all of his attention.  One afternoon, just as Chanyeol went to the restroom to pee, Junghoon and his friends thought it would be hilarious to throw his wheelchair in the dumpster, causing Chanyeol to miss two of his classes.  Kyungsoo had been frantic, trying to look for him, and finally he found him stranded in a toilet cubicle, crying his eyes out because Chanyeol couldn’t even reach to zip up his own pants.

 

Junghoon came from a wealthy family, so he was probably a favorable candidate to be Kyungsoo’s potential mate.  Still, shouldn’t Kyungsoo end up with a good person, someone who loved him, whom Kyungsoo loved in return?

 

And Chanyeol wanted that for his best friend, more than anything. 

 

Was it selfish to wish for Kyungsoo to look at him that way?

 

He had to go find Yixing, or at least locate the convenience store from where they exited before.  Perhaps, he should have heeded the others when they voted against him going to the surface, as it didn’t serve any purpose.  Chanyeol had pleaded that it was for closure, but opening the possibilities again, as this reborn, improved version of him, he wanted so much more.  To start from scratch and live as a healthy, carefree, young man.

 

Just then, he sensed some kind of foreboding, somewhere nearby.  He turned his gaze ahead on the black cloud of smoke and blazing fire coming out of a building about two blocks away. 

 

On the 27^th floor of a condominium, someone could be heard crying for help. 

 

Chaos ensued on the streets below, especially after a fire-wielding being glided into the scene of emergency from the skies.

 

Yixing cringed, quickly asking a concerned citizen to call the fire department, and then he ran towards the commotion.  He activated the smart watch on his wrist to communicate with the others, requesting reinforcements ASAP.

 

Chanyeol cautiously entered the raging inferno, intently listening where the screams were coming from.  Everything was already burning and Chanyeol rushed to locate the bathroom, where an elderly woman was crouching below the sink, with pipes already blown up, and now there was water sprinkling everywhere. 

 

The woman screamed some more upon seeing blazes of fire shaped like a man coming towards her and she could only brace herself. 

 

“D-Don’t be afraid, ahjumma, I’m here to help you!”

 

The elderly lady shrieked at the top of her lungs, hearing it speak! 

 

Chanyeol was panicking, wondering how he was going to help without burning her.  He willed himself to restore his human hands, if that was possible… but something else happened instead.

 

The old woman’s screaming increased in decibels as she found herself encapsulated in some sort of bubble without any support.  She was simply being lifted in the air, with this fire mutant manipulating it. 

 

“Is there anyone else in this building, ma’am?  A pet?”

 

In fear, the old woman shook her head and continued to scream as the fiery creature carried the bubble she was in outwards, towards her balcony.

 

“AAAAHHHHH!!!” The ahjumma’s hoarse wail echoed in the air when she realized how high up she was.  Chanyeol gently transported the bubble to safety on the ground, using his fiery hands to break through it, letting the ahjumma free.

 

Several flashes of cellphone cameras and people taking videos and even members of the media began to crowd around him, despite the aberrant flames spurting off his body.  Chanyeol panicked and instantly zoomed upwards, leaving demands and questions of who and what he was unanswered. 

 

Just then, claps of thunder penetrated the dark clouds as heavy rain began to pour down, helping to alleviate the fires in the building. 

 

Chanyeol hadn’t anticipated this, as the fire on his body was quickly being extinguished by the downpour.   He found himself flailing, losing the ability to fly, until he was free falling several feet from the air, crashing at warp speed into a lake.

 

He didn’t know how long he was underwater for, but when he came to, he swam upwards to get some air, only to discover that it was still raining.  

 

Just then, a limousine pulled up by the lake, and Yixing and the other EXOs alighted, getting soaked to the bone too. 

 

“Could you two stop the storm now, please?!” Baekhyun complained, turning to Junmyeon and Jongdae, who agreed by opening their palms towards the sky, to do just that… gradually.

 

Chanyeol watched in awe as Junmyeon seemed to absorb the rain while Jongdae collected the thunder, both reverting them to the atmosphere.  Chanyeol emerged from the shore—once again, sans the clothes—that Minseok had to throw a robe over to him before anyone caught him for indecent exposure. 

 

“You were responsible for that?” Chanyeol asked them incredulously, as Jongin and Sehun quickly led him inside the vehicle. 

 

“Sorry, the storm came too early.  We didn’t take into account the time that you needed to land,” Jongdae apologized, getting in with all the EXOs on the limo. 

 

“We had to create a diversion at the last second,” Junmyeon told him warily, as Sehun went into the front seat, with Jongin beside him, driving on.  “Chanyeol, we need to talk.”

 

***

 

“I seriously thought I was going to die!” The woman on the news narrated passionately.  “I couldn’t tell if it was a freak of nature or a goblin, but it spoke to me!”

 

“Omo!”  Yeongmi cried out, watching the evening news with the orphanage's caretakers in the living room that night. 

 

Kyungsoo had just come in, after having dinner with his old schoolmate Junghoon, as the administrator suggested, and curiously asked, “What’s that on TV?”

 

“A fire broke out in NNG Condominiums earlier and the woman trapped on the 27^th floor miraculously survived!” Woojin ahjussi replied, nervously chewing on his fingernails, eyes glued on the screen.

 

“F-Fire?” Kyungsoo echoed, his heart beat pounding between his ears.

 

“What did it say to you, Mrs. Ahn?” the reporter off camera asked. 

 

“It told me that it wanted to help me and asked if there was anyone else in my unit or if I had any pets.”

 

“Really?  Very thorough,” The reporter observed.  “If it was made of flames, did you get burned?”

 

“No, that’s what’s shocking to me.  I thought it was going to spit fire but then I was floating in this bubble, which was scarier than anything I had ever experienced in my life, especially when it placed me outside of my balcony!”

 

“Did you feel like you were going to get harmed?”

 

“I didn’t know that.  The bubble could burst at any moment and I could fall to my death, but the alien—or whatever it was—made sure that I was safe on the ground before it flew away.”

 

Suddenly, an outline of a man in flames came on the screen, with the woman screaming and indeed floating in a life size transparent bubble, captured from spectators’ cell phones on the scene.

 

Kyungsoo’s jaw dropped, as did the others who were watching this extraordinary footage with him.  Several people had witnessed such a thing landing on their streets, in broad daylight.  This couldn’t possibly be movie magic or an edited video, unless it was a very intricate one. 

 

Just then, there was a loud thud on the floor that had Yeongmi gasping, “Kyungsoo-yah!”

 

The adults immediately gathered around the fainted teenager, attempting to rouse him to consciousness. 

 

“It looked like a man, but it could be a bird as well,” the woman was describing, still sounding bewildered by the experience.  “It was like… being saved by a phoenix!  And I owe my life to it!”

 

“There you have it, folks, we have The Phoenix in our midst!  Wherever you are, the community thanks you!”

 

Meanwhile, Chanyeol was also watching the same news broadcast inside the spacecraft with the others, with palpable tension in the air, and understandably so.

 

“This wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t insist on coming up to the surface,” Minseok murmured sadly.

 

“What was I supposed to do?” Chanyeol asked, aghast.  “Let the ahjumma die?!”

 

“That’s what firemen are for,” Jongin pointed out, slightly exasperated.  “We don’t try to meddle with the natural course of things—”

 

“Why didn’t any of you just leave me for dead, then?!  Why go through the trouble of healing me and letting me live?!”  In frustration, Chanyeol’s entirety exploded into flames, lifting himself off the ground.  “What kind of second chance at life is this?!  I’ve become… this monster, just a useless, condemned ball of fire!  I don’t even know what you aliens are doing here!  Are you just turning innocent people like me into… whatever you are?!”

 

“Chanyeol,” Baekyun alleviated, coaxing him to calm down.  “You’re the first one.  We also haven’t encountered what happens to a human when an alien energy such as our force field mixes with your body’s composition.  We want to help you and take you in but we can’t risk being exposed.”

 

“We’re a peaceful species, Chanyeol,” Yixing implored.  “Even on our planet.  We don’t believe in harming anyone, but we stay out of humans’ radar, if it can be helped.”

 

“And we may be the only survivors of our species,” Junmyeon told him, finally standing up to regard their fiery friend diplomatically.  “Since you have acquired these extraordinary abilities somehow, then you must be one of us now, albeit… a hybrid one.”

 

“But I can’t keep a secret this big from Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol replied despondently, gazing at how the flames on his arms rolled and swirled in waves.   

 

 “You mean you’re going to see him again?!” Sehun snapped, wondering how Chanyeol could be so entitled when Sehun wouldn’t be given the same courtesy if he himself broke any rules.  “Why didn’t you just stick to the plan?  You had one chance to see him in the flesh, tell him you’re sorry, thank him for everything and kiss him goodbye!”

 

Chanyeol flared up, charging straight at Sehun, who reactively opened up his hands to form a terrifying, powerful, containable tornado, which automatically Chanyeol in and spun him around like a ragdoll.

 

Chanyeol grew dizzy, his fire unable to repel the harsh winds surrounding him, until he felt himself… floating.

 

Jongdae gasped, pointing at the force field suddenly forming around Chanyeol.  “He…”  Then he jumped up and down, cheering happily.  “Chanyeol!  You can conjure Cosmic Latte on your own?!”

 

Chanyeol blinked, braving to open his eyes.  He was still covered by fire all over, but somehow protected by a cocoon of force field.

 

Sehun’s jaw was ajar, along with the others, as he slowly let Chanyeol down, withdrawing the tornado until it was finally gone. 

 

Chanyeol appeared disoriented as he touched the wall of the bubble with fiery hands and it dissipated, just like that. 

 

Jongin teleported in front of the virtual screen from where they had been watching the news, rewound to the part where The Phoenix was letting off the elderly woman on street, and zoomed in on the bubble, appearing as if it was the same composition as their force field, and that Chanyeol must have conjured it by accident for the first time.  He grinned at Sehun knowingly, and slapped fives with him. 

 

“I noticed that,” Sehun admitted, now smiling at Chanyeol.  “I wasn’t really mad at you.  I just wanted you to get mad enough to see if you’ll be able to do it again.” 

 

Chanyeol clucked his tongue.  “You mean that was a test?” 

 

Sehun glanced at the others, who were all laughing good naturedly now, and shrugged.  “And you passed, brilliantly.”

 

Chanyeol changed back to human flesh and immediately covered himself with a robe.  “There has to be a way that I don’t keep burning the clothes on my back.”

 

“We may have material that could make a fire-resistant suit for you, but you’d have to wear it at all times, I guess,” Jongdae replied, already getting up to get started on it. 

 

However, there was something uneasy in the way the rest of the EXOs were eyeing him, though.  “What?”

 

“I wonder how big of a force field you’re able to conjure?” Baekhyun wondered out loud, glancing at Minseok and Yixing impishly, and pushing them towards Chanyeol, who reactively shielded himself before the two fell over him. 

 

Only… Minseok and Yixing suddenly found themselves inside a force field bubble. 

 

The two laughed out loud happily, trying to roll and chase after each other inside their bubble like hamsters that the other four were badgering them from the ground with envy. 

 

“I can’t believe we’re flying, Yixing,” Minseok cheered, relishing in the feeling that they were floating in the air, finally.

 

“Chanyeol, us too, us too,” Jongin pleaded, readily standing in front of their new recruit, with Baekhyun, Junmyeon and Sehun right behind him.

 

Chanyeol didn’t think he’d be able to lift all four of them at once, while still maintaining Yixing and Minseok’s bubble, so he just closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and imagined creating a force field around the other four, only to hear hoots of joy as all six were now flipping and doing multiple somersaults, enjoying their weightlessness that Chanyeol began to laugh himself, feeling proud and overjoyed that he could do something like this unaided and apparently, efficiently too.

 

“Yah, yah, yah!” Jongdae protested, reentering the room to show Chanyeol the leather-like material for his suit.  “How come you’re the only ones having fun?”

 

Chanyeol gently made both force fields land as the EXOs popped the bubbles by touch so Jongdae could be included.

 

Everyone gasped as Chanyeol attempted lifting all seven of them in one bubble, creating his biggest, widest force field yet. 

 

“The ahjumma didn’t get hurt when I lifted her inside the force field, so maybe…” Chanyeol looked up at the others hopefully.  “These new abilities can help people in need and…”

 

All seven EXOs sighed and touched the bubble to land on their feet, trying to talk some sense into Chanyeol. 

 

“We understand, and we have helped humans in the past, very minimally, but if people discover that there are beings like us out here, who knows what they would do to us?” Baekhyun pointed out, pouting.

 

“There are extraterrestrial life forms that the world’s most powerful countries have detained and it’s only our force field that is keeping us from being discovered,” Junmyeon told him, regarding him gravely.  “With no other planet we could thrive on, we have no choice but to stay underground this whole time.”

 

“But I can’t keep staying underground, not while I haven’t even properly talked to Kyungsoo…” Chanyeol lamented.  “He must be wondering why I left just like that.”

 

“Because you were about to burn the whole orphanage down,” Yixing gently reminded, shaking his head.  “Maybe we should test that fireproof suit before we think of coming up to the surface again.”