How could I tell? That voice started talking again. I noticed that he was at the cliff with the others, but I didn’t know his name. He had a young face and his hair was a reddish copper. He seemed a bit shy, but gave me a small smile nonetheless. It was strange though. I expected it to be maybe Kai or Suho… maybe even Kyungsoo, but something forced me to stop at him and I couldn’t will myself to keep looking.

“Very well. Chanyeol, you are now responsible for the well being of Aria.”

Responsible? Well being?! “Hey wait!” I blurted out, immediately regretting it afterwards because I felt like I had stepped out of line. But when the voice simply acknowledged my question, waiting for me to continue my body released its flinched tension and I gave a small sigh. “I uhm… What do you mean by all of this? Can I go home now?”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible as of yet. You can eventually return to visit, but as of right now, you need to stay here with the boys from the lower spectrum. There is much for you to learn. Kai. If you would be so kind as to her back safely, I’d greatly appreciate it. The tension has sudden gone to rise over the news.”

Tension? And here I thought the things I was feeling were anxiety, bewilderment and despondency. My mistake.

 I stared over to Kai with wide eyes and he just gave a sympathetic smile as he approached me and pulled me to him before whispering. “Please don’t scream.” before I was drawn into the interminable black vacuum for the third time that day. I just clung tightly to him, forcing my mouth to stay shut along with my eyes.

The trip wasn’t over as quickly as I’d expected and It threw me into a slight panic because it felt like we were stuck and everything was moving in slow motion. There was a buzzing in my ears that grew to sound like the static on T.V or when you would try to search for a radio station and my skin felt like it was being slightly tugged away from the bones and ligaments it protected. Millions of tiny sudden pinpricks raced across every inch of my skin and suddenly I was numb and couldn’t breathe. I went into a panic, but before it could get serious, Kai and I were standing and I was gasping desperately for air. My entire body shook with distress and my knees went weak once more as I clutched at my shirt near my chest trying to calm myself down. I had no idea what I just experienced, but I was positive that I didn’t want to deal with it again.

Kai crouched down beside me and rubbed my back in a soothing motion. “Well you made it. That must have been uncomfortable for you that time…consider that spectrum security. It deters and prevents anyone from the upper spectrum from entering ours and starting trouble.”

“I thought I was going to die.” My voice cracked. Tears danced around my waterline, formed due to the pure fear I recalled from just moments earlier. I didn’t want to seem like a crybaby though; it was embarrassing to cry around strangers. At least that’s what I grew up believing. There was just a boundary you didn’t cross with certain people because that’s how the society I lived in functioned.

“It’ll be something you get used to eventually I promise.” He reassured.

“Get used to? Why would I need to get used to that? There is no way I’m ever going to go through with that again.” I shuddered and discreetly wiped my eyes.

“Then how do you ever expect to go back home?” He asked and maneuvered to situate himself in front of me with a small frown.

Home. I had completely forgotten about it. The word stirred up a sharp throbbing in my chest. I wanted to go home. However, before I could dwell on it any further, a loud snapping noise got my attention, and the five…wizards? Magicians? The five boys from before were all standing near by. Kai stood up with a small huff before speaking to them.

“She’s going to need some time to get used to the gate, but otherwise she seems fine. How’d it go up there?”

“Well once you two were gone, and the summoning session was over, Lay tried starting trouble again, and because you’re the one whose strong against him and you were out of the picture, guess who he went after?” Suho spat flatly.

“Seriously? Go figure. So what happened?”

“We left obviously. With the new girl around, we weren’t interested in playing with them. I wonder how it works with her. Neutralizing? Maybe she can help save Chanyeol from himself.” The sharp-eyed Suho said with a small laugh. It was only then that I noticed his hair color was a dark brownish burgundy. Almost all of them seemed to have a different hair color. Kai’s was black, Suho’s was the color of this leather handbag I had back at home, Chanyeol’s was like a copper, there was one of the quiet ones that had a honey blonde color and one more who had black hair that matched Kai’s and Kyungsoo’s.  

“Well aren’t you going to introduce yourself to her Chan? Don’t be rude.” Kyungsoo laughed and gave him a light push. He seemed a little shy and flustered but stuck a hand out to shake, scratching the back of his head with his other hand at the same time. I took it hesitantly and shook.  I was doing well until he opened his mouth and spoke.  I know it’s rude to make a face at someone you’ve just met, but his voice. It was the biggest contradiction I’d ever encountered and I couldn’t help but let my brows furrow and jaw go slack at his simple sentence.

“Hello, My name is Chanyeol, nice to meet you.”

I didn’t realize we were still shaking hands and it was the snickers from around us that snapped me out of my sudden confusion and disbelief induced trance.

“A-aria. Nice to meet you too…” I was still shaking his hand and even he started laughing, my hand grew abnormally warm while he did so, so I quickly withdrew and looked at it. “It happened again.” I muttered to myself.

“What did?” Suho asked with a curious tilt of his head. Chanyeol seemed a little uncomfortable and I found it to be justified with how I had just acted, so I apologized. “I-I’m sorry, but my hand just got really warm for no reason. But it felt like it did back in the…room with the voice and stuff. Was that you back there?”

Now he was blushing. “Y-you uh… You were freaking out pretty bad so I thought I’d try and calm you down with some warmth.”

Suho gave him a stern glance. “Chan you know you could have accidently lit her on fire right?”

He averted his gaze to the ground and it looked like he was pouting. “I was really careful this time though.”

“I know you were since she’s still here, but you still aren’t fully in control of your power yet. That was a dangerous move on your part regardless of your intentions. But I am glad you tried to help her out, look at where it’s got you now.” He grinned.

“Wait…uhm Suho? Can we backtrack for a second please? What do you mean when you say that he doesn’t have control over his powers?” It was safe to say I was starting to slip into panic mode again.

Kai sighed and moved over to Chanyeol, who seemed mortified at this point and gave him a comforting pat on his back. “Well. Chanyeol here is fairly new at having an ability and can’t really control it all that well just yet. He’s set things on fire by accident when he doesn’t mean to. If he is too excited or too angry…or just too much of one emotion…bad things happen and people get burned. Luckily it’s mostly been Suho, and he controls water so there haven’t been any serious injuries…yet.”

“O-oh…” great. And by some of ‘luck’ I’d picked him. Go figure. “Well I hope he learns how to control it soon.” I gave a nervous smile.

“Thanks.” He said, perking up. I still couldn’t get over his voice and stared at him trying to figure out how it was possible for someone who looked like that to sound like he did. It was like his genetics thought it would be a funny idea to make people double take when they spoke to him.

“Yeah… Chanyeol’s voice will take some time to get used to as well.” Kai laughed. “Don’t let some of the baby faces fool you though, those are the ones you have to watch out for.”

“Speaking of. Baekhyun, Sehun, introduce yourself.” Kyungsoo said, pushing the two quiet ones up towards me. I didn’t know who was who yet so I waited until one of them decided to speak.

“My name is Baekhyun… nice to meet you Aria.” He stepped back with an easy smile, and when the one who I assumed at this point was Sehun didn’t say anything Baekhyun nudged him hard with his elbow.

“I’m Sehun, nice to meet you…” He muttered. Was that a lisp I’d heard?

“I’m sorry what?”

“I said I’m Sehun, it’s nice to meet you.” He seemed to be bracing himself for something. He did have a lisp and I wondered if he was waiting for me to point it out or react to it. So I ignored it. Pointing out differences didn’t benefit anyone. Chanyeol… That was accidental. I hadn’t meant to stare at him like that, but apparently it was understandable by everyone since they knew exactly why it was I acted that way.

“It’s nice to meet you both.” I gave a polite smile.

“Now that everyone is introduced can we go eat now? I’m starving.” Suho said rubbing his stomach.

“That sounds good.” Chanyeol responded and I couldn’t help but stare at him once more as he spoke. He didn’t catch me though, since Kai ushered me to walk in front of them.

“I’m going to take her there now so she can get situated alright? Don’t take too long because I’ll eat all the food.” He laughed and pulled me to him, transferring us to our next destination. We ended up on a balcony overlooking a mountain range off in the distance.

“I could have walked you know.” I said after shaking off the shivers I’d gotten from the trip.

“I know, but I need you to get used to traveling this way. Build up your resistance to the feeling of traveling through spectrums. Consider it training.” He laughed.

“The others will be here soon, so you can have a seat for a little while and let everything sink in. I’ll be downstairs if you need me.” He gave a friendly wink and headed inside, leaving me by myself. Honestly I didn’t want to be left alone in a place I didn’t know, but it was thoughtful of him to think about my wellbeing. I did have a lot to process and as I recalled the events of the day I felt the stinging pressure in my lungs and heart again. The stinging made its way to my eyes and after making sure I was alone, I let them fall. I wanted to go home. I was scared, still confused and by myself. I’d made six new acquaintances today, but I’d never felt more alone. I was also told that I couldn’t go back home. I didn’t know how to take that either even if the words ‘not yet’ had accompanied that phrase.

 What if I could never go back home? Mom, dad, my friends and siblings…what would they all think? How would they know if I was alright. It made me antsy just thinking about it. I needed to let them know I was okay somehow. I didn’t even know how I ended up here and I was still partially convinced, or partially in denial about the reality of this situation. Was I dreaming? I wasn’t sure if part of me wanted to believe that to be true, or if I actually believed it. I chose the former, because I knew this couldn’t have been a dream. I should have woken up by now if it were with all the ‘kicks’ that I’d experienced. Everything felt too real to be a dream. But how did I get here? That I don’t remember. Did the others know I was missing yet? How much time had passed? I made myself uneasy and cry more with all the questions I had raised, so I shut down for a bit and just cried until it hurt to do so anymore.

After that, I had a pep talk with myself. Crying would get me nowhere, and all those years of girl scouts and survival camp would go to waste. I tried convincing myself that I had to make the best out of my current situation, and crying, being mopey and negative were not going to help me. I had to stay positive… or remain neutral. I could be upset that I was told I couldn’t go home, think positive and take into consideration that there was an actually possibility for me to go back, or do neither and simply acknowledge both options. I went with the latter. My homesickness wasn’t going to go away any time soon, and I didn’t feel like going inside with a puffy face and red-rimmed eyes if everyone was already inside. I wasn’t comfortable with that idea in the least.

Once I felt that I was composed enough to head inside I did, full of questions to ask the boys to keep my mind off of home. May as well be productive right?

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Posted: 02/10/13