We met up in the dead garden in the hedges after school. Yixing had said that this was the best place for us not to be caught by anyone who might have stuck around. This school left their cheap security cameras pointed at the entrances and a few other points of interest. This garden wasn't much of a priority for them.

I was told to sit on the bench next to Kris. I didn't question why he was here. They very rarely ever separated. “You sure you have everything?” he asked as I sat.

“I think so, yes.” I pulled the first aid kit from my backpack along with some hydrogen peroxide I found in our bathroom.

Yixing opened the box and checked the contents carefully. “Some of these things are expired, but not the things we need, as long as you keep the wounds very small.”

He looked me in the eyes and I couldn't help but wonder what made him so completely pure and good that seemed to be missing from so many people in this world. I felt so sure that this would work and he'd finally be able to heal like he wished without having to concentrate so hard.

The blade was sterilized and the pointed tip positioned above the index finger of my left hand- my scarred hand.

“You don't have to, you know.” Yixing told me, his tone of voice forever understanding and forgiving.

But he didn't understand. He couldn't. There was something he didn't know about me.

He called my name and we made eye contact. Strain. Fatigue. He needed this. Yixing was the type who would never ask for anything and try to give his all for something he believed in.

This was nothing. I've suffered worse and it's not like last time.

I pressed the blade down into my skin, feeling the pain bubble up hot with deep red blood immediately.

“Tao! Smaller next time! Why'd you cut so deep?” Yixing panicked and immediately got to work, tracing lines over and over. The pain numbed down to that of a pin prick. “I'm not used to cuts even this big...”

“You should challenge yourself more.” It was a lame excuse. I wasn't even sure myself why I used so much force again. Maybe it was nerves.

But Yixing was doing a great job. I closed my eyes to focus on the feeling, trying to see if I could give any helpful feedback. A small amount of the blood seeped back into the cut, and I felt the two sides of the skin struggling to match up.

“Try starting on the ends of the cut and working towards the middle.” I suggested.

I felt the change as the middle stopped connecting and the ends moved to heal up like a zipper on each end. The skin matched up more easily, but I could tell that time was taking it's toll on the middle. It made sense; the more time it was left alone, the harder it was to heal.

Time. Well, I could help with that, couldn't I?

“Tao? Tao, what are you doing? -”

Wow. Yixing swore.

But I felt kind of woozy and everything was moving too fast for me to follow.

“What? What's happening?” asked Kris, suddenly on the ground next to his friend.

“His heartbeat is slowing.”

“But it's just a cut!”

“He's doing something. Tao, stop it! This is dangerous!” Yixing's eyes were pleading with me, but how could I stop? I didn't give this much thought.

My eyes blinked slowly, so very slowly as I tried to brainstorm how to stop whatever it was I was doing. But I couldn't think clearly and soft lilting music kept running through my head in irregular pulses. No, wait. The pulses weren't irregular; there was more than one source. They beat out in different tempos, muddling what little clarity I had left.

Foggy.

Everything was getting foggy.

***

“I'm going to kill him. Just try to wake up, Huang Zitao. I dare you.”

“You shouldn't say that to a patient.”

“That idiot nearly killed himself!”

“Lay's right, Sehun. You shouldn't talk that way to a patient. We want him to wake up as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Kris-”

“Lay? Who's Lay?”

“It's a nickname from my childhood. But we really should be quiet. He needs his res-”

“What does the nickname mean?”

“I-I don't know. It's been a long time, Jongin. But seriously, can we keep quie-”

“Why do you stick to a nickname you don't know the meaning of?”

“Jongin, Lay said to shut up.”

“I'm asking very valid questions, Sehun. Maybe you should shut up instead.”

Both of you shut up, I thought irritatedly. I'm sleeping and apparently I'm a patient. Don't you know any better than to argue over a patient's bed?

But this wasn't a bed. It was too firm and it felt kind of like foam.

“I'm here! Is he okay?”

My eyelids lit up red and I tried to flinch, my body barely responding to the signals my brain sent. Everything just felt heavy.

“Baek, turn your lights down.”

“Sorry! What happened?”

“I was stupid.” I mumbled in answer, struggling to open my eyes. The gym ceiling loomed above me and I realized that I must be laying on one of the mats. “How did we get in here?”

“Jongin stole the janitor's keys from the closet and unlocked it for us.” said Chanyeol, clapping his friend on the back. “But Tao, your power grew past your own immunity! And slowing things down- have you done that before or is that a first?”

“That was a first.” I grinned. Sehun was glaring at me so I added: “A stupid, stupid first”.

I groaned as Lay helped me sit up. My muscles ached and I felt light-headed, but I was completely fine otherwise. “Was it necessary to bring everyone here? I'm fine. Just a headache-” I swayed and felt someone stop me from collapsing to the side.

“Breathe slowly. Lay, he's a little feverish.”

“His body is trying to fix it's natural rhythm. Tao, promise me you won't use your power on yourself again. Tao?”

I would've responded, but I was too busy trying to breathe and not pass out again.

And there was the music, but it was blaring inside the walls of my mind.

“Lay, what's wrong?”

“I'm trying to find out. Just step back and give us some room. Also, no talking. I can't concentrate if you talk.”

My head was set back down on the mat and I felt Lay's hands hovering over my forehead.

The music changed. A rhythm was speaking louder than the others and I was able to focus in on it.

It was Lay. Lay was the rhythm I found. I didn't quite understand, but this one tempo of music was coming from him.

What is this? What are these scars? Tao, what has been done to you?

He found them. But that wasn't his voice that spoke, it was the music.

The music toned down from glaring to a distant whisper along the edges of my thoughts.

“-be okay... You'll be okay...You'll be okay... Focus on breathing... You'll be okay...”

***

“We should just call an ambulance and let the doctors handle it.”

“It's okay. He's okay.”

“You've said that about a million times now, Lay, but he isn't waking up.”

“Sehun, he knows what he's talking about.”

“He's a high school kid. Doctors have years of experience and training, not to mention equipment that can detect things people can't.”

“Lay can detect those things as well as the equipment can- maybe even better. His insight saved my grandmother from having a once.”

“But why is he like this? What happened?”

“He slowed down parts of his body while everything else was in real time. Doing that created a lot of strain and restricted the oxygen flow going to his vital organs, like his brain and heart. He'll be fine as soon as his body readjusts.”

“Then why is he like this? Why isn't he better?”

“Baekhyun, calm down. You'll blind us all like that.”

“There's a kind of internal struggle going on in his head right now-”

“Tell him to snap out of it and wake up then-”

“Jongin, it's not that simpl-”

“TAO-”

“Shut up! Seriously, have you not been listening to him at all? He needs rest, you moron.”

“Too late.” I interrupted them, throwing a weak smile at the faces around me.

“Stay down while I take a look.” ordered Lay, pushing down on my shoulders as I tried to get up. He touched his fingers to my temple and I felt a quiet warmth spreading from the spot and quickly flooding my whole body, down to my fingers and toes. “Still a little run down. Tao, it'd be best if you stayed lying down a while longer-”

“If he isn't dying, then I'm doing my homework.” said Sehun, flopping down to floor and pulling textbooks from his backpack.

“You insensitive brat.”

“It's not like standing around and staring is going to do any good.”

“He's right. I'm fine, Jongin.”

“No, don't get up, Tao.” Lay stopped me from sitting again.

“Then I'm not fine, Jongin.”

“No, you are fine. You just need more rest.” Yixing's eyes held a hint of amusement, but mostly it was all relief and exhaustion.

“I'm sorry.” I told him. “I just thought I could help keep the flesh from deteriorating so fast.”

He shook his head. “That's my job, Tao. You should have consulted me before trying something like that.”

“I would have, it's just... I think my power responds to my brain faster than I can reason with it.”

Sehun scoffed in the distance somewhere. “It's called being impulsive, which explains the stupid hair.”

“Hey, you said you liked it.”

“Because it's stupid and warped by chemicals, like you.”

“Your hair is dyed too!”

I turned to my side and saw his face turning red. “That wasn't my choice. Jongin and Chanyeol forced me into it.”

I sputtered out in laughter and would've high-fived those two if Lay hadn't insisted I turn onto my back again.

Everyone but Luhan from our lunch group was here. He must be out working.

Stepping closer, Baekhyun got a silent look of permission from Lay before holding my hand with both of his. “You scared me.” he sniffed.

Jongin placed a hand on my shoulder. “He's not the only one who got scared.”

Was he... trying to imply something here? It sounded like he was trying to fight with Baekhyun, but how was it possible for anyone to like me like that? It still wouldn't process in my head. Those two kisses in the woods felt like a dream or a movie starring somebody else- anybody else but me.

“Give him room to breathe, you idiots.” said Sehun, abandoning his homework and pushing the two away from me.

This was weird.

“Sehun, I detect a bit of compassion coming off of you.” Chanyeol , pinching the cheeks of his younger friend. He was quickly blown to the ground a few paces back. Looking back at Sehun, I spotted a small amount of pink creeping up his ears before his back turned to return to his homework. He was prickly and bratty, but Oh Sehun had the cutest heart.

After a while, Lay helped me sit up and although it was uncomfortable to have my blood rushing to accommodate this new position at first, I was soon deemed ready to stand. Kris offered to help, putting my arm around his neck as I stood on shaky legs. I had to lean on him quite a bit before I could stand confidently, but everything worked out all right in the end.

I had worried a lot of people with my impulsiveness this time.

But I had learned something. There was a musical imprint to all of us, and it might just be relevant to our powers.

That and Oh Sehun was growing on me again. What a weird kid. Why was I even friends with him, let alone exploring the thought of holding him close and trailing kisses up his neck to the scar on his cheek and-

I really needed to get these impulses under control.

All of them.