4th November. 0217 hours

Jongin did so with ease, his face as bright as the sun when he accomplished the simple task. “It wasn’t as hard as it was before.”

Soojung scoffed, earning a glare from Jongin. Luhan pretended the palpable tension between them didn’t exist and proceeded to train Soojung. “Alright Soojung, now try to make Jongin jump.”

Soojung’s face lit up. She nodded eagerly at Luhan and turned to Jongin with an evil grin. Jongin scowled.

“No way! I will not let this get inside my head again,” he protested.

At an instant, Soojung’s eyes turned white and Jongin was groveling at her feet, begging for forgiveness and calling her with names akin to royalty. The second she released her control, Jongin got up and pounced her, his face blazing red with anger.

“Enough!” Luhan bellowed, trying to break them apart.

From afar, Sehun laughed at his friend’s and his roommate’s antics. Soojung was still stubborn and Jongin never learned how to control his temper. He watched as Luhan tried to stop their scuffling before using the last resort; pushing them apart with his telekinetic powers. Even then, they still try hard to claw each other’s eyes out.

It was the third day of training and everything was becoming easier for him and everyone else. Today, his training partner was Luna. Luhan said that their abilities are related to each other as sound travels through air. They’d been practicing on ways to implement the principle and it was going quite well so they decided to take a break for awhile.

“Hey Sehun, whatcha looking at?”

Sehun turned his head to see Chanyeol taking a seat next to him and tried to hide his dissatisfaction. Since Luhan wanted to train both Soojung and Jongin today, Chanyeol was left without a partner and he took every minute he had to spend with Sulli, much to Sehun’s annoyance. The two have been really friendly since the first day and Sehun didn’t like it one bit.

Chanyeol followed his gaze when Sehun didn’t reply after awhile. He chuckled when Luhan pushed Soojung and Jongin into a closet and said that they cannot get out until they’ve made up with each other. Chanyeol noticed Luhan locked the cupboard with his powers and given his strong head, the two can’t get out unless they really made peace or Jongin teleported them out of there. He watched as Luhan went to a corner and practiced his powers by himself.

“He’s not so bad you know,” Chanyeol said. Sehun turned to look at him, expecting him to say more. “He’s been here longer than any of us, been through a whole lot more of hell than us and yet he stayed strong so he can be uptight sometimes.”

Sehun scoffed. “The jerk’s way worse than uptight.”

Chanyeol gave a short laugh. “Yeah, I admit he has his bad times. He’d stop at nothing to get out of here. He’s been planning the escape for quite awhile, you know? It's like this is the last thing he wants to do before he dies.”

“How much do you know about him?”

“Just as much as he tells me which is not a lot. All I know is he had another team –I think it was his roommate- before we came along. It seems like they’ve got it all figured out too. But something happened and the plan fell through so he went on a search for another team and then he found us and then we found you and then Soojung and Jongin so now we’re all here.”

Sehun was silent, trying to process what he just told him. He knew there was a reason behind Luhan’s behavior but he wasn’t interested enough to find out why. Now he wondered what happened in his past. Why did his old plan fell through?

“What happened to his old team?”

“I know what you know. I told you he only lets me know of his past as much as he wants. Try asking him yourself. You guys seem pretty chummy.”

Sehun rolled his eyes.

“I think it’s my turn to train with Luna. Watch me burn her hair,” Chanyeol winked, gave a little laugh before joining Luna for his practice session.

Sehun was left alone to wonder what makes Luhan ticks before Sulli joined him. Between her dazzling smile and her twinkling laugh, Sehun somehow forgot his other problems and enjoyed her presence.

~*~

Soojung hated the dark. She hated being trapped in a closet. She, above all, hated Kim Jongin.

“Stop fidgeting so much, this thing is stuffed enough as it is!” She yelled as Jongin paced about.

When Jongin didn’t yell back at her with profanities, Soojung knew something was wrong. She watched his behavior from her side. He kept playing with his hands, his eyes trying to find a way to escape but to no avail since the only opening in the closet was two holes small enough for a finger to fit through and nothing else.

“Kim Jongin! Stop what you’re doing. You’re only making things worse.”

Once again, Soojung was ignored. He rammed the door in attempt to open it. When that failed too, he slid down his side of the closet, clutching his head with his hands, rocking to and fro. He was nervous alright.

“Hey, are you okay?” She crouched down to his level. He lifted his head slightly, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Shut up, ! You’re the reason we’re trapped in here. I should’ve teleported you to Jupiter when I have the chance.”

“Oh please, if you can do that you’d be out of here long ago.”

“Shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP!” Jongin yelled and Soojung was silent.

He was obviously panicking. She tried to stifle a laugh because the aggressive Kim Jongin is actually claustrophobic. The Kim Jongin who always said she was a wimp is afraid of small enclosed space. Not so tough are you now, big guy?

She honestly didn’t know why he hated her so much. They’ve been fighting from the first time they spoke to each other. She has never met anyone who hated her guts as much as he did. Most people would compliment her and tell her how pretty she was or how smart she was but all Jongin ever did was call her a and say bad things about her to her face.

“Hey Jongin, why do you hate me?”

Jongin lifted his head a little to look at her. The spite in his eyes was gone and she was a little surprised how gentle it made him look. He sighed.

“I don’t hate you. I hate people like you. All the money in the world and head so high up in the clouds. You don’t know what hardship is even if it hits you right in the nose.”

“But you don’t even know me!”

“People like you are all the same. Everything’s handed to you. You never have to work for it, always taking things for granted. And then you walked through the door like everything is fine and this is all temporary because your father would come and get you just because he has money.  It’s stupid how ignorant you are and I hate that.”

She would be lying if what he said didn’t hurt her. The truth hurts, that much she knows. It has been six days and no one came to get her. It’s probably time to admit that no one was going to let her out and they probably moved on without her.

Soojung sighed. Maybe it was time to put it all behind. Their stupid bickering should be put to an end before anyone got hurt.

“Jongin…” Soojung moved closer to Jongin, hesitantly taking his hands. He jerked away from her touch but didn’t refuse when she tried again.

Jongin felt something in him changed. The panic in his mind slowly ebbed away and in its place was tranquility. The room that once felt like it was closing in around him was slowly expanding, giving him space to breathe comfortably. His eyes were everywhere until they landed on her.

“H-how… Did you do this?”

She nodded. “I’m trying to let you see what I see.”

“But your eyes aren’t white.”

“That’s because I’m not trying to control your mind, idiot,” she chuckled.

Soojung was smiling gently and something inside him shifted. Jongin no longer saw her as the obnoxious rich kid who came to be his roommate. Instead, she looked dazzling, almost blinding to his eyes and Jongin thought he just saw an angel. He wondered if this was what they meant by falling or if it was just one of her mind games.

“Did you also do this?”

“Do what?”

“What I’m feeling. Are you making me feel this way?”

Her forehead wrinkled, obviously in confusion. “I have no power to control how you feel, only what you do. Why? What are you feeling?”

He turned his head to the side and she caught a glance of pink in his cheeks, wondering if that was an illusion. She never knew Kim Jongin could blush. There were a lot of things she learned about him today. Soojung giggled.

“Alright, if you’re calm enough now, try and get us out of here.”

Jongin closed his eyes and tried hard to concentrate. He searched through the images in his mind until he found the picture of the room. He extended his hand and Soojung took it gladly. In a flash, they appeared outside of the closet and opened their eyes to the peering looks of their teammates. They all clapped and surrounded the two of them.

Luhan’s eyes landed on their joined hands and he smirked. Jongin caught this and let her hand go, his cheeks tinted soft pink. Sehun saw Luhan and Jongin’s little exchange of gestures and he was amazed with the miracles Luhan can do. His doubts on the success of their escape plan began to fade and he was sure that everyone was feeling the same way too.

~*~

When their training ended and everyone was preparing to leave, Sehun noticed Jongin was trying to get closer to Soojung in his own awkward way. It was fairly obvious that Jongin’s view of Soojung has changed completely since their time in the wardrobe. He wondered if Jongin was now feeling the same way about Soojung as he did with Sulli. He watched as the two left the room with hands so close they almost touched.

Sehun and Sulli were just about to leave when he heard Chanyeol calling Sulli’s name.

“Hey Ssul, would you mind coming here a little earlier next time? I was thinking we could get to know each other a little better,” Chanyeol spoke, a hint of shyness in his voice.

“Sure! Are you ok with that, Sehun?”

“I-“

“I meant you and me alone. You know, like a date?” Chanyeol’s face was red.

Sulli giggled. “Would this date include a picnic basket or a candlelit dinner?”

Chanyeol’s face lit up and they soon entered a series of flirting and giggling. Sehun walked away from the two as fast as he could before jealousy and anger could take him over.

Sulli entered the room a few minutes after he did, traces of laughter coloring her face. Sehun pretended he didn’t see her.

“Sehun, you’ll never believe what I saw on my way here! Soojung and Jongin were…” Sulli hung her words when he heard him snore.  She sighed a little, feeling stupid for herself.

She slowly approached Sehun who was lying on his bed, pretending to sleep and snoring louder than normal but Sulli didn’t seem to catch on.

“Sweet dreams, Sehun.” Sulli leaned in and pecked his cheeks before settling in her bed.

Sehun couldn’t sleep a wink that night.