A young man with dark brown hair comes running down a dark alleyway. He was being chased by creatures of their world and it was impossible to escape them, unless you knew how to defeat them. He looked around for any sign of water and sighed in frustration. "It would be mighty nice of you, Mother Nature, to make it rain right about now..."

Usually, he would just pull the moisture from the clouds, but there weren't any in the sky today. He could hear the buzzing of the creatures and soon, they were floating before him; their black transparent bodies dripping with disgusting and putrid waste. They voiced a low growl and lunged forward. He threw his arms out in front of him to block the oncoming attack, but it never came. He dropped his arms and was taken by surprise at the iced covered creatures, frozen in place just a few feet away from him.

"Do you always get chased by ghosts," a boy shouts from the rooftop above the other. "You're welcome by the way."

"Thank you," he answers, shouting back in return, "And no, I don't always get chased by ghosts. It's just that I may or may not have used my powers in the eyes of those that shouldn't have seen them..."

"And those ghost things were chasing you because of it?"

"Well, yeah... They kind of do that when you misuse your powers."

"So that's what happened," the boy says as if he just finished a puzzle, "it wasn't because of that poor excuse of a lie, but because you misused your powers... That will definitely get those things to chase after you."

"Who are you even," the dark head asks, rubbing the nape of his aching neck. "What's your name?"

"My name is Minseok, Kim Minseok," he laughs, swinging his legs over the edge of the building and jumping off of it, landing safely on his feet. "What's yours?"

"Kim Joonmyeon."

•●•

Baekhyun pulled Jongin through the crowded streets, bumping into people, and apologizing to the ones that he knocked over. Baekhyun wasn't sure that what he was going to do was a smart idea, but it was one that had to be done. If they had any chance of finding the others, he was going to have to bring Jongin to him; he was the only one that saw Jongin's power in action.

"Can you at least give me a hint as to where we are going," Jongin asks, trying to get his arm free from Baekhyun's grasp. "I mean, I should be able to know considering the fact that I may or may not be meeting my death."

"Don't worry about that too much," Baekhyun reassures, dragging him through a few side streets to bypass the crowd of people. "The person that we are going to see won't be able to kill you; his feelings would get in the way."

•

There was a subtle knock on the door and he would have ignored it, but the next series of knocks were coded. A smile made its way to his face and he dropped his stick to race to the front door. "Baekhyun," he chimes, opening the door, "I didn't think that I would see you this week."

"You weren't going to, but something sort of popped up."

Baekhyun came in the house and looked back, groaning at something. He walked back out and pulled on (what was now made apparent to be) an arm. "No," the voice of a boy shouts at Baekhyun, pulling his arm back, "I refuse to go into some stranger’s house. No!"

"But it's not just some stranger, Jongin, and you clearly know that by now," Baekhyun shouts back, pulling him into view. "It won't kill you to talk to him; you need to talk to him."

"He is the reason that I got in that mess. I mean, if he wasn't constantly going on about how my power caused Luhan to go missing, maybe I wouldn't have gotten stuck in that godforsaken world of mine."

"Jongin...?" Zitao breathes, tilting his head to the side. He met the frightened eyes of Jongin and he couldn't help but wonder if he made him this way. He shoved Baekhyun aside and threw his arms around the younger, hugging him tightly, "Jongin, I'm so sorry! I never thought of what would happen to you if you had teleported after bringing me back to this world. I know it's too late for me to say this, but I was being an . I know that it wasn't your fault for losing sight of Luhan hyung, you were still figuring out your powers. I just... I thought that it would've been easier to blame you instead of blaming him. I didn't even realize... I was so angry and upset; Baekhyun told me that that happens when a person loses their counterpart."

Jongin didn't know how to respond to that nor did he even expect it. Zitao never apologies, ever, so this really baffled him. He brought his hands up to Zitao's chest and tried to shove him away, but he only hugged him tighter. "Hyung," Jongin whispers, feeling the air leave his lungs, "I can't bre...athe."

Zitao pulled away from him and apologized. "It's just that I was so worried," he explains, stepping out of the way, so that Baekhyun and Jongin could come in. Baekhyun stepped inside first, dragging Jongin behind him. "I thought that you'd never come back and that scared me."

"Why? Is it because with me stuck there, all chances of bringing Lu Han hyung back would have been gone?"

"Jongin, that's not fair," Baekhyun says with a hint of anger in his voice. "He truly did miss you and worried for you."

"But you're not wrong," Zitao adds, shutting the door. He turned around and walked over to a couple of couches, sitting down and motioning for them to do the same. "It was because of my chances of seeing Lu Han hyung again. With you nowhere to be found, there was no way of getting him back."

"But Zitao had a change of heart when he had a dream," Baekhyun continues, bringing Jongin to sit on the other couch. "He had this dream of Lu Han hyung; he was standing in a sea of black with a single beam of light shining down on him. He kept repeating, 'don't worry too much, we're okay, and I'll be found soon.' This gave him the determination to find his own way to get Lu Han back, with your help of course."

Jongin was confused and was unsure of all that was being said. How does one man that hated him, suddenly hate him less? And why does someone that he just met, care so much? "How," Jongin begins, wetting his dry lips, "do you plan on getting Lu Han hyung back?"

•●•

"So tell me, Minseok-ssi, how it is that you found me."

The two boys sat in a shop just a few blocks away from where they were. They shared a big bowl of ice cream and were surrounded by half empty glasses of water. Minseok took a bit out of one of the strawberries and grabbed a napkin to wipe the juice from his chin, "It was actually by accident. See, we ran into each other a few days ago; you were trying to pit pocket some man during that festival..."

"I wasn't pit pocketing per se," Joonmyeon says, trying not to spit the ice cream in his mouth at Minseok. He swallowed the ice cream and continued, "This guy stole an old man's wallet and I stole to give it back to him."

"Anyway... I happened to turn the corner and we literally ran into each other. I was so scared... I was listening to music and you came out of nowhere. Then a few days after, I see you around the same place with those ghosts chasing after you, and felt the need to help you."

"You felt the need to help me? Isn't that a normal feeling for most people?"

"That's true," Minseok says thoughtfully, unconsciously freezing and unfreezing the glasses of water, "but this time was weird. I don't know- It was like I had to save you or something bad would have happened? It was like, if I don't save him, he'll die, and I won't be able to handle it emotionally. It was weird... Ever since we made contact, I felt the need to be with you where ever you go and here we are."

"Yeah," Joonmyeon says, understanding what he said, "now that I think about it, I feel the same way. How peculiar. This may be farfetched, but I think I know of someone who can fill us in on what we seem to be missing."

•●•

A small phoenix nudges at a sleeping boys' head. The boy stirs and opens his eyes slowly to see his phoenix, reborn and looking even more beautiful than his last life. He brings himself him into a sitting position and looks around at the vast blue sky; painted with shades of pink, purple, and orange.

"Sunsets are always better on a rooftop, don't you think so, Nix?" The boy looks down at the bird and sighed when it disappears. His eyes caught a flash of red and orange and he crawled over to the edge, following it. He looked closely and at first he didn't see anything, but then he saw Nix hovering over some persons head. "Just what are you trying to tell me, Nix? Ou- !"

He looks down at his thigh and fresh burn appears; blisters and all. He curses again after noticing that the fabric of his pants are on fire and he slaps at his thigh to put it out, only to shout out in pain, "I swear to the heavens above that you better have a good ing reason for giving me a third degree burn, Nix, or these pants are coming out of your !"

“I do, Chanyeol,” Nix says to the boy, quietly sitting upon the head of a boy with a light shade of brown hair. “I think that this is him: the healer”

•●•

"We've tried this before," Baekhyun reassures, guiding Jongin to stand in the middle of an open part of Zitao's house. "What Zitao can do has been practiced plenty of times before."

"But what if he makes a mistake and I get hurt," Jongin asks with a shaky voice. He looks at the bucket of broken glass and forces bites back a cry. "What if he can't stop them from hitting me?"

"Look, if it makes you feel better, we know of someone that can heal like no doctor can. So trust us on this, especially me. If I felt that Zitao could possibly hurt you, you wouldn't be doing this."

Jongin just nodded, still unsure about the whole thing. Baekhyun smiled at him and patted his arms before he steps away from him and walks over to grab the bucket. With the bucket in hand, Baekhyun looks over at Zitao and Zitao nods at him. Baekhyun jerked the bucket upward, sending the broken glass flying above Jongin's head. Jongin knelt down instantly and brought his hands over his head in a protective manner. "Jongin look," Zitao says in a mere whisper to keep from breaking concentration. "Would you stand up and ing look at the broken glass?"

Jongin wasn’t going to, he really wasn’t, but it was terrifying kneeling under who knows how many shards of broken glass. Jongin opened his eyes and slowly lifted his head. He looked over at Zitao, who just pointed to the area above him. Jongin jumped back in surprise at the glass that was frozen in place, not a single shard moving. “W-What...” he stammered, his eyes never leaving the glass, “…are you able to- how?”

“Being able to stop time,” Baekhyun answers for him, looking up at the glass as well. “He is able to stop time from going forward, put life on pause so-to-speak. His power has progress enough to stop everything in the world at once, but give it a few weeks and he will have. The only thing is that he can’t seem to stop me or us in time. We’ve come to the conclusion that it is something that happens when he has perfected his power; sort of like a congratulatory thing. Also, with practice, he will be able to stop time and freely move around without having to concentrate on keeping everything frozen in time.”

“You might want to move-” Zitao says, being cut off by the glass dropping from the air.

Jongin didn’t have time to think, he just did. Without grabbing onto anyone, he teleported everyone out from under the glass. This one was different; he didn’t go to his world like he normally would, he just appeared in a different part of the human world. He opened his eyes to find Zitao and Baekhyun looking at him, taken aback. “Are you guys okay? Are you hurt? The glass didn’t reach you did it,” Jongin asks, rather weakly. They two shake their head and look around. “That’s good.”

“Where did you take us,” Zitao and Baekhyun ask in unison.

“I took you to the safest place that I knew of, the only place I knew of that would be safe to teleport to.”

“Zitao,” Baekhyun calls out, following after Zitao, “What are you doing?”

“This… …is Luhan hyung’s house. I haven’t been here ever since that one day…”

“B-Bae-” Jongin breathes, feeling his legs give out from underneath him; black blurring his vision and unconsciousness taking over his body.

He lands on the floor with a thud and both Zitao and Baekhyun rush over to his side. Baekhyun looks over at Zitao and sighs, “help me get him somewhere more comfortable.”

•●•

Chanyeol follows quietly behind the boy and eyes Nix nervously. Each time the boy stopped, Nix almost fell forward, the louder Chanyeol gasped. He wondered if the bird could be felt on top of his head and he started to become even more nervous. ”Nix… You’re making me nervous. Will you get off of his head?!”

“It would be useless because he already knows that I am on his head,” Nix answers, laughing at lord knows what. “That was funny.”

“What was funny?”

“He said that that he can hear everything that you are thinking.”

“How is that funny, or rather, how is that even possible?”

“It’s not,” Nix laughs again, looking back at Chanyeol. “He told me to tell you that, so you’d stop following him like you are and just introduce yourself. Also, that he already has an idea of who you are because of some information that a friend of his let him know of.”

“Then why didn’t you say something instead of just playing with my nerves,” Chanyeol asks the boy, feeling an overwhelming amount of pain wash over him. “I’ve been following you for like an hour now, sometimes I felt like I was going to throw up, and you’ve know that I was following you all this time?”

“First of all,” he begins, stopping to face Chanyeol, “my name is Zhang Yixing. Your bird here has told me your name some spare the time that it would take for you to breathe it. Second, you have no reason to be getting upset with me because if I am not mistaken, you are in the wrong here. I mean, you were following me after all. And lastly, I could feel you coming. It was weird, but I just felt as if a part of me that has been lost for so long, has resurfaced, and was coming closer and closer to be reunited with the rest of me. All that and Nix said that you needed healed.” Chanyeol just stared at Yixing, not moving his lips to respond. Yixing blinked a few times and stepped back a bit, “Why are you staring at me? Are you or aren’t you hurt; because I really don’t have the time to waste on you when I have to be somewhere else, with someone who really does need healing.”

“You have pretty eyes.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You have pretty eyes,” he repeats, smiling slightly. “It’s as if I am looking into a night sky filled with stars.”

“This is utterly ridiculous,” Yixing sighs, giving up on the taller, and walking away. “I have better things to do with my time. If you need me like that bird of yours keeps screaming at me in my head, continue to follow me like you have been. If not, well, I bid you farewell, Chanyeol ssi.”

•●•

Joonmyeon fell back against the soft, cool grass, and sighed. He spent hours looking for Baekhyun; walking for what seemed like ages, with absolutely no luck in finding him. He was sure that Baekhyun would be at home if not at work, and he was even sure that he’d be at that one convenient store that he still likes to eat in. He knows that it has been years seen they last seen each other, but Baekhyun wasn’t one to break old habits. He lived in the same small town since he moved away from his parents.

“I just don’t see how he can suddenly not be here,” Joonmyeon breathes, groaning slightly at the intensity of the summer heat. “Everything that he needs is right here in this town, I just don’t get it.”

“Well,” Minseok says, sitting down beside him, “maybe he went to see his parents? Or maybe he moved?”

“He is a creature of old habit, he wouldn’t have moved even in the worst situation. And as for his parents, I don’t think they get along that well…”

Minseok nodded, completely understanding him. He held out a cold water bottle and nudged Joonmyeon, “The humidity is supposed to be high today, you need to keep hydrated.”

“Don’t you need to keep hydrated too?”

“It’s a think that I learnt ever since I found out about my power, it was rather surprising actually. See, I actually found out about mine during the summer of my junior year… I was complaining about how hot it was in my room, and how my air conditioning was working properly, and then I suddenly felt the insane need to sneeze, so when I did, I open my eyes to see everything covered in frost. I then started to test me power; seeing what else I could do and then I thought, what if I could somehow clog my sweat glands?”

“So,” he says, sitting up to drink the water without choking on it, “you basically use your own sweat to keep yourself cool?”

“Precisely that,” Minseok grins, watching as Joonmyeon downs the entire bottle of water. “Why don’t we call it a day, huh? It’s supposed to be much cooler tomorrow anyway, so we can look for this Baekhyun then.”

“Yeah, I think that that would be better. Come on, I rented an apartment here for a few days, so we can rest there.”

Author's note:

And there you have chapter three. I honestly think I mad this a chaptered fic, but whatever. I do what I want.

I think that this chapter doesn't make sense at times, but there are reason for that I swear... I just have to figure out those reasons because I may or may not have forgotten them.....

But anyway.... It is 5:17 am and I really can't think properly to tell you what else I wanted to.

Thanks for reading and subbing~