Xiumin's POV

Chanyeol carried me literally all the way to the nearest bus stop which took us to what looked like an old and very messed up baseball field. Why were there so many holes in the ground everywhere?

“This was always the best testing area.” Chanyeol commented. “I guess Kyungsoo's not out of school yet.” he muttered afterwards, scanning the horizon quickly.

“What exactly are we testing?” I asked, scared for the answer.

“If we're soulmates.” he said simply. And yes, that was the answer I was afraid of. How was he planning to test this? What was he going to do with me?

He dragged me over to a spot near the center of the field, skirting around deep holes and stepping over large stones. When Chanyeol lifted his hands up, I didn't know what to expect, but flinched at the movement anyways. His hands sat in the air, waiting. Feeling silly, I copied his action and he closed the distance.

Chanyeol's hands were flush against mine and they were impossibly warm. Even when Luhan tried his best to warm me up with hand warmers and his own breath, it was never this warm. It was even nearing hot. I hadn't felt hot in weeks.

I was sweating again. Fantastic!

No, not fantastic. Just gross.

The heat from his hands grew a little hotter and I felt the cold in my chest stirring against it, reaching out to meet it. When I started to push back with my own power, I could feel the two temperatures pressing against each other, neither in control and neither backing down.

“Good.” Chanyeol whispered. He smiled, but it looked a little sad.

***

Tao's POV

Kai wasn't frozen. I didn't get it. Why did my power never include him? What made him exempt from Time's grip?

I was bleeding again. Something I couldn't see was sticking into my back and the memories brought terror in a situation I could have handled no problem without the adrenaline rushing all over.

“Tao, step this- ouch!” Kai moved forward just a little and whatever invisible thing Sehun had produced in the air poked a small reddening cut into his shirt. Experimentally, I stepped away and felt the sharpness leave my skin only to feel it again as I felt around in what looked like empty air with my hand. Strange. There were many of these things spread out and it was impossible to tell where without getting cut on them.

“Oh no, Luhan,” I sighed looking over to see my friend badly scratched up his arms and through his shirt, drops of blood stuck in time with him. He got the worst of it out of all of us.

“Do you think you can just unfreeze everyone else and leave Sehun and whatever these things are so we can all duck?”

“I can try.” Though I didn't know how to even start. Normally I would touch something and it would unfreeze instantly, but I could only reach Kai from here and he was already moving.

Yixing would have to come first, I decided, since most everyone had new wounds to heal. I closed my eyes and felt a thousand ticks competing for attention inside my head. Nope, this wasn't the way to do it. Trying again, I reached out for the pulse of music coming from my target only to remember that I paused it which was why I couldn't find it. This was frustrating and confusing and I felt scared to the point of irrationality at an angry voice still echoing harshly in my head.

“Tao- agh!” Kai tried coming closer only to run into more invisible sharp things.

“Just stay there!” I told him, trying harder by thinking of everyone in a bubble where time was allowed, excluding Sehun and the rest of the world.

“Tao,” he said gently, keeping in one spot. “Just calm down and breathe. Everything is fine. This won't kill us and Lay can heal everyone. You won't be able to do anything if you pass out-”

“I'm not going to pass out.”

He smirked. “Try telling me that when you're not hyperventilating. Just... breathe.”

I knew how to breathe and be calm – did it on a daily basis with meditation; I was just having a hard time concentrating. There was too much ticking in my head and their rhythms were throwing me off, not to mention the memory of a sharp metal click of a ready gun shoved to the back of my head.

I almost died that day. I almost died. Like, bullet-lodged-directly-into-my-skull dead, holy-

“Innocence, look at me.” said Kai and I felt I had no choice but to obey. His gaze was steady, though ringed with fatigue. I almost thought I saw a speck of silver in the endless brown of his irises. "Breathe."

Look... look at you. Okay. Looking.

Oh!

I figured out how to pull everything into focus and shut my eyes again, this time focusing solely on the boy in front of me, his breathing, his lilting musical pulse, the sway of his body shifting weight on both feet with subtle creaking noises in the floor. There were no guns, no angry men or awful bullies, no wondering what the hell was wrong with me that turned everyone away. There was only Jongin in front of me, waiting. It felt like I was an instrument, fine tuning myself to just the right beautiful tone as I evened my breathing and the tick-tick-ticking faded and became music.

I knew exactly what to do. It was a feeling, like the slightest, smallest, most miniscule change in the wall of clock faces and gears in just the right spot would do the trick. And the right spot wasn't so hard to find after all. The music led the way for me in the maze of clocks and worlds in my head as a vibrating, long, golden thread of light and melody that made a path clearly ahead. It was all so very strange, but it felt familiar and soothing at the same time. Following it was simple. Everything was calm, clear. Kai made this all possible just by being there and staying strong. He was my anchor to hold onto.

Opening my eyes, I held a hand before me and simply unlocked the hold Time had on Yixing with a perfect-sounding tock.

Just like breathing. Chanyeol had been right.

Control wasn't so difficult with a clear mind.

***

Xiumin's POV

I wanted more of his heat. Chanyeol was unlike anyone I'd ever met. Self-assured, tall and elf-like, eyes burning with a kind of determination mixed with something easy-going and silly. He was interesting and nice (even though he basically kidnapped me), but he wasn't Luhan.

We couldn't be soulmates if I didn't like him like that. Although I believed this, this was the most free and warm I had felt since the dreams of ice had started.

“Step on my shoes?” Chanyeol requested and I had to stop myself from doing so immediately, eager to be closer. Stepping up made our pant legs brush and we had to cling on to each other so I didn't fall off. His arms were comfortably hot wrapping around my waist and although it was hard to imagine cold ever being welcome, he sighed like it was just as soothing to him with my power pulsing back strongly in my own arms.

We couldn't be soulmates.

I laid my cheek on the teen's chest and hugged him tightly. This must be what melting felt like. The ice cold pit in my chest reacted to the burst of heat I felt from him and I let more of it leak, relaxing a knot of tension that I didn't even knew existed. I spotted small flames appearing over the teen's clothes, but they never burned me when they touched my skin.

We could not be soulmates. I didn't love this guy, didn't even know him really.

Tears spilled out over my cheeks, freezing before they could fall off as my power flared up even stronger.

***

Tao's POV

“Where did everyone's heartbeats go?” Yixing asked as soon as he was free.

“Frozen. But hey, don't move, okay?” I warned him. “Sehun threw something sharp all around and we can't see it.”

“I can't sense it either.” he said, squinting as though it would help. Kai didn't understand and got quite the shock when Lay hesitantly revealed his disability.

Thinking aloud, I said, “We need some way to see it so everyone can duck safely and then be healed when it passes.”

“Try Luhan.” Kai suggested. “Maybe he can throw dirt over them from where he is.”

“That won't help Lay though.”

“We'll just have to guide him through it with words.”

“Or the flower-” I realized. “The flower Yixing is holding, Luhan can move it and direct him away from whatever these things are.”

Putting the plan in motion, I quickly unlocked Luhan and cringed at the red spots growing through his clothes.

“It's concentrated wind.” Luhan told us after we explained the situation, cringing himself from the sting of pain as he used his arms to pull a bag of flour in from the kitchen and spread it over Sehun's creations. “It was my idea.” he admitted sadly. “I know he practiced while waiting for the bus by shooting cuts into pieces of paper and cardboard, but I've never seen him do anything like this.”

We were surrounded by what looked like hiltless and barbed powder-covered daggers, all coming in from a ring around the boy who made them. Slim, pointed, potentially deadly if they were made stronger. It was okay though, we had this covered. I unlocked everyone else, we explained, and everyone ducked underneath while I let them fly past.

Now we had a rampant (though currently statuesque) Sehun to worry about. Me and Kai stood in front of him, pondering what to do while the others got healed.

“You know what I think?” Kai smirked. “I think you should wushu his to the moon like a nauseating , but before that, I'll kick him in the nuts like another nauseating , and we can live happily ever after and be nauseating s together. How does that sound?”

“Far too tempting.” I replied, studying stern eyebrows twisted strangely from hatred. “But it's not his fault he's like this.” I sighed. “We can't kill him for something he can't control. We can punish him however, for being incredibly stupid and not chewing gum when he felt it taking over. Let's tie him up.”

“Or you can let me have at him.” came Chen's voice from behind us. He was all healed up and just as angry as the rest of us. “I don't know what this brat's problem is-” I choked on a laugh; even someone who just met him could tell he was a brat. “-but I'm sure a little electrotherapy will do the trick!” he exclaimed, the sound of crackling like static coming from his hands.

“Electrotherapy...” muttered Baekhyun, who was also healed and wanting in on the ideas for punishment. “No,”

Shuddering, I finally got why Joonmyeon's house never had any birds around and the whole area felt unnervingly like death and doom. Animals have strong senses and they know when to avoid an area that could break out in a lightning storm.

Wait, did that make me an animal?

“No, no, no- you!” It took me, Kai, and Kris to hold Baekhyun back in our exhausted states.“You are Kim Jongdae and you didn't say anything?” he shouted, clawing around our arms.

Someone hit the wound on my back, causing me to see burning red stars that pushed all the fear and pain from my memories back to the surface of my mind.

“See what you did?”

“What I did? That was your elbow-”

“That got pushed into him because of you!”

“Tao, are you okay?”

The stars were fading, but I didn't trust myself to move just yet. At least I was still standing and not passed out on the ground again. A hand found mine and I held onto it tightly, exhaling deeply to keep from crying out. I was sure the wound wasn't even as bad as it felt; it was the phantom cuts of my memories that made it so strong.

“Guys, Sehun is back-”

“-an someone tie him up, please?”

“Tao? Tao! What's wrong with-”

“Chew your gum and we'll take care of it.”

“Ahck! Baek, your lights!”

“Tao,” said a voice by my ear. “Don't cry. I can heal it. There won't be any scars, I promise.”

“No more scars.” I said in a strained voice, nodding.

As always, the pain faded quickly and I waited for things to turn for the worse and the wound to rip open and reseal itself, but it didn't. The wound simply closed, the shadows of past scars vanishing.

I really did cry. How embarrassing. Someone was hugging me, but the weird thing was, they were very tall. Who here was tall enough for me to comfortably lay a cheek on his shoulder? The hand I held was my Joonma's, who stood behind this person's back; Lay was to my right, pressing fingertips to my temple; Chen was tying up Sehun, and from the looks of it, giving him a good shock or two; Kai was struggling with holding back Baekhyun alone and calling to Luhan for help; so then-

“Kris,” I sniffled, pulling back. “I'm sorry.”

“We're even now.” Kris said, and he loosened his arms around me. “You worried for me and I worried for you.” Chuckling, he added, “So you don't need to be sorry.”

“You weren't even hurt that time.”

“But you didn't know that. I'm still grateful.”

“Joonma,” I called out to Joonmyeon. He hummed in response, squeezing my hand. “I have a story to tell you.” Rubbing at my wet eyelashes, I reiterated, “I have a scary story to tell you. You're not going to like it, but I need you to listen, okay?”

“Let's get you to a bed first.” Lay advised and I agreed.

“You mean he found another one?” I heard Baekhyun yelling at Luhan. “Just how many soulmates does he need? What is he even planning on doing with all these guys?”

***

Xiumin's POV

My tears stopped freezing. They were warm, really warm! The ice in my chest felt like it had dialed down from biting, searing cold to a luke warm kind of cool.

How was I supposed to deny that Chanyeol was my soulmate if the results were so dramatic? We pulled back a little, but I still stood on his shoes, not wanting to leave.

I gasped, a heavy drop of water plopping onto my nose from above. Chanyeol was crying too?

“It's nice to meet you,” he snuffled, trying and failing to smile. “Soulmate.”