28^th October. 1503 hours

 

Two hours had passed since Sehun went for his treatment. Sulli was left alone in the room with nothing to do. She had no intention to roam around the building without a companion she could trust. The thought of Sehun suddenly emerged in her head. She only knew him for a short amount of time but she was already at ease with him. He was exactly what she needed in this foreign surrounding.

It was so different from her hometown. There were no friendly faces, excluding Sehun and the two friends they had met earlier. There was no comfortable bed with pink, frilly comforters or small pillows and stuffed animals she loved to cuddle with before going to sleep. What was there was a lumpy bed with only two pillows and white-grey metal walls as her room. .

She remembered vaguely the two men in black, muscular and strong, throwing her into a van with hands cuffed and eyes blindfolded. She didn’t, couldn’t struggle. She knew it was coming for her but she didn’t know when. Perhaps it was what she deserved, having caused mass destruction to her town. She deserved to be locked somewhere, she thought, and left to be dead. What she did should never be forgiven by anyone, even herself.

Images of burning cars and screaming citizens flooded her mind, causing her to scream. She cried as the flashes of her memories became more vivid. She backed against the wall and hid her face in her hands as she cried again and again that it wasn’t her fault. Eventually sleep overtook her and the nightmares stopped.

 

 

 

28^th October. 1855 hours

 

She woke up a couple of hours later. The sun was setting when she looked through the small window. She looked to her side and saw Sehun was out cold on his bed. She approached him and kneeled beside him, levelling her head with his.

She stared at him, her eyes ultimately landing on his face. She gasped when she saw there was a tiny mark on his temple. Her fingers trailed the tiny hole, thinking it must have been the remains from his ‘treatment’ earlier. She noticed he looked paler than the last time she saw him.

Sulli began to wonder how much has Sehun endured up until now. It seemed as if he has been here long enough to suffer a lot. She could tell there was a lot of pain just by looking at his eyes.

She then began to admire his features. She knew he was good-looking but upon looking closer, she realized he was more handsome than she thought. He had beautifully slanted eyes, thin lips and a defined jaw line, all of which she found attractive.

The bell suddenly rang. Sehun stirred and then sat up, letting out a yawn. Sulli jerked back when Sehun suddenly sat up. He stretched and was surprised when he saw Sulli was sitting beside him. She cleared out of embarrassment, her cheeks slowly tinted with a shade of pink. She smiled shyly at Sehun and he was taken aback.

His mind began to race as his brain registered what happened in the last few hours. When it was finally done processing, he smiled back. He got up from his bed and so did Sulli.

“It’s time for dinner,” he said.

She nodded. He took her hand in his and led her out of their room, joining the others who were also making their way to the cafeteria.

They could see Soojung and Jongin coming out of their room. Soojung kept a safe distance from her hostile roommate and they exchanged a worried look.

 “Did you two just come out of Room 3065?”

Sehun and Sulli turned around to see Chanyeol and Luna standing behind them with smiles on their face.

“Yes.”

Sehun and Sulli watched the two of them grinning at each other like idiots.

“Did you know that our room is just one door apart from each other?”

“Oh, really?”

“That means we’re going to see you two much more often!” Luna said, enthusiastically.

“That’s great,” Sulli smiled politely and nudged Sehun, who was beginning to make a face, to do the same as she did.

“Hey guys, let’s go to the cafeteria! I’m starving,” Chanyeol said.

“You’re always hungry, Chanyeol,” Luna said, frowning at him. Chanyeol smiled at her and took her hand before dashing off to the cafeteria, taking Luna with him. Sehun looked at Sulli and the both of them shrugged, following their footsteps.

 

 

~**~

 

 

Dinner was nothing special. Sehun and Sulli ate in silence while Chanyeol and Luna chatted with each other most of the time. They found out that the two were cousins, hence the same surname. They also hinted a bit about how they ended up here. Other than that, they revealed nothing else and kept on bickering on petty things.

Sehun and Sulli decided to get used to this situation. It didn’t seem that Chanyeol and Luna would stop trying to be closer to them any time soon. Perhaps it was a good thing. Some friendly faces wouldn’t hurt, right?

When they were on their way to their room, Sulli saw Jongin and Soojung were about to go into their rooms too. It didn’t look like they have bonded at all since the distance between the both of them were far enough. She began to recall what Sehun said to her about him being the reason both of them captured and trapped here. She was determined to get the answer out of him tonight.

“Hey Sehun,” she began when the doors were closed, “about that thing earlier, with Jongin and Soojung…”

“Oh right, that,” Sehun sat down on his bed and looked at his feet, sighing long and deep. “You might want to sit down, Sulli. This is going to be long.”

 

 

~**~

 

 

Sehun and Jongin were never close.

They had been in each other’s path for quite some time but they never really interacted. It didn’t help that they were separated by ranks in school and in life. But all that changed when fate intervened.

It was just another day for Sehun as he made his way to his favourite ice cream shop. He had been hanging out there all summer with his friends. They didn’t do much but talk. They chatted on about sports, girls they’ve been hanging out with though Sehun had none to tell and other things that average teenagers chat about.

When the group parted, Sehun decided he won’t go home just yet. He walked alone as he roamed the town. It was a windy day and Sehun has always loved the wind. For some reason, the wind feels like a part of him, a part he couldn’t really explain. When the wind blows, it felt like he was carried along to its rhythm naturally and not by force. He closed his eyes and felt the calming sensation of the wind caressing his skin.

Then, he began to feel lighter. It felt as if he was floating, like the ground beneath him was no longer there and air has taken its place. When he opened his eyes, he saw a crowd beneath him and it was then that he noticed he was no longer on the ground and was suspended in the air.

He kicked and screamed for help, afraid that he was about to fall down. The crowd beneath him gasped and murmured among themselves, astonished at the peculiar scene in front of them. Suddenly, Sehun began to feel lighter than before. He looked down and saw that his body was disintegrating. He was vanishing into thin air.

He looked around the crowd who was growing by the second. His eyes quickly flashed from one person to another until his eyes were stuck on a boy who had his eyes closed and lines forming on his forehead. He knew what he was trying to do immediately and closed his eyes, bracing himself for what’s about to happen next.

When he opened them again, he saw that he was in his room. There was no crowd under him nor was he floating. He recalled the face that had saved him and realized he knew who he was. It was his classmate, Kim Jongin.

 

 

~**~

 

 

The next day, Sehun went to his favourite ice cream shop but not to see his friends. They didn’t make any plans whatsoever to meet up that day. He was careful to wear a disguise just in case someone recognized him from yesterday’s fiasco. To his luck, he saw him coming out from the door’s exit with two bags of trash in his hands. He quickened his pace and went to him before Jongin could walk into the shop again.

“Hey.” Jongin was startled when he saw a face, smiling at him after he closed the dumpster’s lid.

“Um, hey.” He turned around, showing no interest in talking with this boy, and headed to enter the shop but Sehun blocked the door before he could enter. “I’m sorry but could you please move over?”

“No.”

“Look, kid. I have a job to do so back off.”

Jongin tried pushing Sehun off and he succeeded since the boy was smaller than he was, earning him a greater advantage. But before his hand could twist the knob and made his way into the shop, Sehun’s hands caught his other hand. He turned around to see Sehun looking at him with an urgent look on his face. He sighed.

“Alright, what do you want?”

“Yesterday,” Sehun started, not knowing how to put his words into action, “you saved me, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“But I saw you! You were the only one who wasn’t staring at me when I was floating. You teleported me back to my room, didn’t you?”

“You’re really going to believe in all that ability nonsense? They don’t exist alright! It’s just a myth.” Jongin pushed him off and entered the shop.

“Then what am I? What are you? Aren’t we proof enough that this is all not a myth?”

Jongin turned around and was met with Sehun’s fiery gaze.

“Whatever this is, it definitely does not benefit any of us. If the rumours about the government taking out people with these abilitie swere true then we should just keep quiet about it. That’d be easier for all of us,” he said and closed the door behind him.

Sehun was definitely not satisfied.

 

 

~**~

 

 

Sehun waited until he felt the wind began to act up. He closed his eyes and concentrated on feeling the wind’s movements, trying to sway along to its rhythm. When he opened them, he saw that he was once again floating on thin air. It didn’t freak him out like it did yesterday. This time, he was more excited as he walked on. He was beginning to get used to it.

He wanted to show Jongin that he was wrong. So Sehun did the one thing he could think of; he screamed Jongin’s name. By then, people were already gathering around him, astonished to see a boy floating.

Jongin saw the commotion outside but he took no notice of it and continued mopping the floor. Then, he heard a faint voice calling his name so he looked up and saw that Sehun was in front of the shop, his feet standing on nothing but air and screaming his name.

Suddenly, the door burst open and he felt a strong wind pushing him towards the door, approaching Sehun. He panicked when he saw the crowd behind him. He decided that this has to stop so he took Sehun’s hand and closed his eyes, concentrating on getting out of here and away from the crowd’s eyes.

He didn’t think of the outcome of his actions as all he wanted to do at the time was to escape. It’s too bad he didn’t because what happened next was inevitable.

 

 

~**~

 

 

“So that’s how we ended up here. It was all because of me. Because of my stupidity.”

“At least you didn’t hurt anybody…” Sulli said, more to herself.

Sehun pretended he didn't hear what she said. He decided he shouldn’t pry much longer and leave her be. He soon retreated to his bed and let sleep took over him. Sulli did the same too.

 

 

 

 

29^th October. 0103 hours

 

It was already late into the night but Jongin couldn’t sleep a wink. He occasionally glanced at his roommate who was out like a light ever since dinner. He didn’t know why he hated her so much. Perhaps it was her haughtiness or the fact that she kept emphasizing that someone will come and rescue her from this dump. He knew from the way she talked that she was from a rich family who grew up with luxury and never experienced any kind of hardships at all.

It was ironic that she could sleep despite her constant complaints on how the bed was too hard and lumpy or how the pillows were not fluffy enough. He scoffed at her most of the times. He hated people like her who always take things for granted.

Kim Jongin wasn’t born in a family surrounded by wealth or even comfort. His father left them when he was only 4 and the burden of raising a child was left on his mother’s shoulders. She had to work three to four jobs in order to support them and he always remembered the tired look on his mother’s face every time she stepped into the house.

He decided that he would be a good boy so that his mother won’t have to worry about him. He maintained his grades and stayed out of trouble. But when he found himself waking up at the park instead of his bed one day, he knew he was definitely in a very deep trouble.

The word was out that people with strange abilities would be taken away to be disposed of and Jongin didn’t want that. Who else would take care of his mom if he was gone? So he tried his best to keep his power in control and a secret.

But all that failed tremendously when Sehun came along and brought him out of the closet.

He sighed. He missed his home. He missed everything about it, especially his mom. He tried numerous of times to teleport out of here but all his attempts always ended in failure. Over time, he lost the will to escape as his abilities weakened. Now it was hard to teleport a book without losing his energy.

Jongin yawned. He lied on his bed and forced himself to sleep.