“Honestly, I don’t know why you guys can’t, like, take over the world.”

         Baekhyun ruffled her hair while laughing. Jinah flinched at the contact, but she didn’t object. Baekhyun, Jinah, and Chanyeol were killing time on the couch. Sehun was asleep, along with Kai. Lay had collapsed immediately after showering. Apparently using their abilities drained a lot of energy. D.O and Kris had crashed, too, and no one heard of Xiumin and Tao after the training grounds incident. Chen was gaming on his phone and listening to music while Suho was flipping through a magazine.

           “You’re really cute, you know that?” Baekhyun said boldly, and Jinah grimaced at that. “No, not like a girl doing aegyo or whining type of cute,” Baekhyun corrected when he read her expression. “I mean, like, when a little girl is mad or throwing a small tantrum. Yeah, a tantrum type of cute.”

         “What the heck, Baekhyun?”

         “Heh…” Baekhyun rubbed the back of his neck. “And, well, for the millionth time – we’re not the only males with abilities.”

         “Yeah, but like, you can like, blind the government officials with your light power thingy, and Chanyeol can burn down buildings, and –”

         “Did you really say that? Are you suggesting I handicap the government, and Chanyeol kill innocent people?” Baekhyun said, raising an eyebrow at her. He knew that she wasn’t malicious, but her words were blunt.

          “No – I mean, yeah. I mean… I don’t know. Just – darn it, why aren’t you guys the best Top Gang then?”

        “Okay, for the million-and-first time, we’re not the only ones with supernatural abilities. The officials at the government and other gangs have them too. It’s just rare for all twelve members to have it, that’s all.”

         Jinah brought her knees up to her chest as she sat down at the edge of the couch. “Great things have limits,” she muttered.

         “What was that?” Baekhyun asked as he grabbed the remote control and flicked through the channels, sticking his lower lip out and smiling. He was sitting on the couch, the part nearest to Jinah.

         “Nothing,” Jinah said.

         Luhan came out of his room with a towel around his neck. He was in his blue shirt where the shoulder patches were a darker shade, and comfortable khaki pants. He sat down on the couch, next to Baekhyun. He flicked his hair back and forth, and water sprayed onto Baekhyun and Jinah, who both made noises of disapproval.

         “Damn it, Luhan, what are you – a dog?” Baekhyun complained as he wiped his cheek. Luhan’s eye twitched and Baekhyun gulped. “Only joking,” Baekhyun quickly said, as Luhan resumed drying his blonde hair.

         “You should dry your hair and then come to the couch,” Jinah said with a scowl, shielding herself with a nearby pillow.

         “You dried your hair here last night,” Luhan reminded her, as he ran a hand through his blonde, damp hair.

         “Tch. At least I wasn’t being a lawn sprinkler,” Luhan’s eye twitched again as he gave her a questioning look. She only frowned at him. “What?” He stared at her with dark eyes, and she stared right back. After awhile, she asked again, “What is it?”

         Luhan shook his head as he continued drying his hair, pretending as if nothing happened.

         Baekhyun blinked twice. “Um… Luhan?”

         “Mm?” came Luhan’s nonchalant reply.

         “Did you just… yeah?”

         Luhan frowned at him. “Did I just what? I don’t understand you.” He got up and went over to the kitchen, giving Baekhyun no time to answer. Perhaps it was because Jinah hadn’t seen Luhan get extremely angry, but she just wasn’t afraid of him. That was the first, so it left Luhan clueless as to what to do, forcing him to change the subject. “We have water, right?”

          “In bottles, yup,” Chanyeol said as he lied down on Baekhyun’s lap now that he knew the coast was clear. Chanyeol, feeling bored, poked Baekhyun’s stomach.

          “Oh, I have one more question,” Jinah said. “How did you guys get your abilities? Did you guys just wake up one day and realize that you have superhuman powers and you suddenly know how to wield them and stuff?”

          “No,” Luhan said as he opened the fridge. “Well, if your ability unlocks itself – we don’t know when, how, or why – then you’ll have strange occurrences. Whether or not you notice it, it’s ultimately up to you,” Luhan said, taking a drink of water as he made his way over to the couch. Just as he sat down, he proclaimed, “I kinda want to drink soda.”

          “So you’re basically saying… that some people may have abilities, but they might not notice it? Ever?” Jinah asked, ignoring Luhan’s announcement for his desire of soda.

          “Yeah,” Chanyeol replied. “Not everyone gets abilities, so if you’re too stupid to notice the signs, then you clearly are not competent for an ability. It’s your own fault, no one else’s. Besides,” he reached for the water bottle that Luhan had, but Luhan ignored him as he sat on the other couch, making Chanyeol frown, but he gave up as he relaxed. “For the ability to fully be unlocked, it takes time. If you don’t practice it every so often, it might become dormant before it fully evolves, which means it’ll just die and you’ll never be able to use it. Complicated that even I don’t understand.”

          Jinah frowned at how uncertain things were. There should be some way to force the ability or speed up the pace of the unlocking process, or something. Anything, whether it’s using physical force or strain, or chemical or artificial means, there should be a way to trigger something to either unlock the ability or enhance it. There has to be. Anything superficial like these abilities, should be able to be modified, she was sure. A thousand questions went through Jinah – did humans always have this ability? If so, then modification may not be possible… no, no, you can affect the host itself, the human body. Is it something to do with DE as the time or the environment, have to do with the ability-awakening? Is there a limit to these abilities? Why is it impossible for females to have abilities, but not possible for males? Why do some people have abilities, and others don’t? What’s the variable in between, what’s the factor that makes the difference between the ones with abilities, and ones without? Physical strength? Height? Weight? Size? Wait, if the abilities awaken from inside, then does it have to do with something from the inside? Speed of digestion? What the hell Jinah, that was so stupid. She rolled her eyes at that – seriously, speed of digestion? Hm… if all of Wolf have abilities, I just need to find similarities between the twelve, right? They were all good fighters and pretty strong, or so she assumed. They all had a solid build. Height differed, so that probably wasn’t it. Weight too, and size also. So, perhaps it was physical strength? But their strengths probably differed too.

          “How’d you guys get your abilities? When did you notice it?”

          They glanced at each other a bit nervously.

          “Uh…” Chanyeol drawled. He laughed awkwardly and that made Jinah raise her eyebrows instantly. “I’ll tell you my story. It was at the Hood, actually. It started then. I didn’t realize it until the sixth generation told me about abilities. I was lucky my ability decided to stay around for years.”

          “How’d you find out?” Jinah asked.

          Chanyeol laughed as he got up from Baekhyun’s lap and sat up straight. “It’s not really a big deal. I just… it was at the Hood, I said, right? Well, we were having a test for school and I was forced to study. I hate sitting and reading books, you know? Anyways, it was a hard test and I could hardly understand anything. And then suddenly, the candles lit up.”

          Jinah blinked. “What? Candles? They lit up?”

          “Yeah. Funny, right?” Chanyeol smirked a bit nostalgically.

          She leaned in, not a trace of laughter on her face. She was dead serious. “Tell me about what you did, and how you were like back then. How old were you? Were you tall then? Muscular? Strong?”

          Chanyeol stared at her wide-eyed. He had never heard her talk this much, or seem this eager before. “I guess… I was like how I am? Yeah, I was tall. And I was around twelve. It was for final exams before the Journey. My ears were getting pointier at that time. Why?”

          Jinah sank back, processing the things. Her eyebrows burrowed slightly together, and her left hand took her own chin, an index finger pushing her lower lip. Abilities can be modified, I’m sure. The question is – how you modify it? How do you attain it… artificially, by force? I’m sure it can be regulated by a person… how it’s attained, when, and all that. What about what the ability is? Do you just choose it? It doesn’t seem like it… Chanyeol didn’t know about his fire ability, and it didn’t seem like it was personal choice either. Maybe it has to do with personality? Absurd. Negative. How can a superficial force weigh things like personality? It has to be physical attributes. Everyone from Wolf has an ability. D.O’s pretty short but it seems he has an ability, too. So it’s not height. Just… what could it be?

          “Yo, you alright?”

          Jinah looked up at a big-eyed Chanyeol in her face. “H-Huh?”

          “You seem dazed… or tired. You should go sleep,” Luhan suggested nonchalantly. He took Jinah’s wristwatch without a warning, and glanced at it. He was getting braver with the physical contact lately. “It’s almost twelve,” he said, letting her wrist go. “Not a bad time to sleep, considering what you experienced today.”

          “Y-You guys can sleep, I’m okay,” Jinah insisted. The topic of abilities really intrigued her. And the fact that it was a research topic meant it required research. Jinah happened to be very good at collecting information, regardless of her energy level.

          Chanyeol frowned. “Well, if you say so. See you” And with that, Chanyeol headed for his room to crash.

          Jinah fidgeted, anxious to begin her research. Books were what she needed. How did she find the library? Maybe the markets? How in the world could she find her way through though? The markets were huge. She couldn’t bring a gang member with her. Maybe ask around? Negative. Most people there would be males. In other words, they’d either try to get her drunk or they’d look down on her. She was in favor of neither. “You two should go, too,” Jinah suggested. She saw the unsure and questioning look on their faces. Was she too obvious? “S-Supernatural energy is tiring as hell, right?” Jinah said, adding an awkward chuckle at the end.

          Baekhyun shrugged. “I didn’t use much.”

          “Me neither,” Luhan said, amusement glinting in his dark irises. Was it just Jinah, or was there a hint of teasing sarcasm in his voice? Like he knew what Jinah’s motives were? This. I hate this, Jinah thought. In front of him, I feel so… freaking stupid and . Like he can see right through me. Maybe he can. Maybe that’s his ability. What is his ability, anyway? Oh god, Jinah…

          Jinah let out a small sigh. This is going to take awhile, she thought, but it only took half an hour for both to yawn and eyelids to droop. Jinah felt tired too, but she could never sleep when her mind was active. The two boys went to their rooms after saying a ‘goodnight’ and when she heard the door close, she leaped up. She pushed the other couch aside as quietly as she could. Surely enough, there was an uneven bump. She lifted that part up and under it was a blue button. Jinah hesitated, but her determination was stronger than her doubtfulness. She practically punched it, and the couches, rug, TV, table, everything – they folded into the space the wall had opened up as soon as the button had been clicked. Jinah yelped and a hand flew to , but it was too late. The sound has been made. The ground had opened, too, and she landed a few steps down the stairs from surprise, hurting her back. Rubbing the small of her back, she carefully got up and peeked over the ground level, to check if she had woken up anyone. No one came out. Good. She quickly ran down the stairs before she started to regret her decision.