Chanyeol's fire stopped spreading around his forearm and started to waver before he put it out. “See?” he said simply, once again beaming proudly.

“Alright, I'll tell him.” Sehun typed in a quick message and it wasn't long before his phone buzzed in response. “Incoming.” he sighed in boredom.

We waited for the tell-tale sign of shadows gathering, but nothing happened. Two minutes passed before Sehun's phone buzzed again and he laughed loudly at the screen. “He got stopped short; they're both barely outside of the school grounds!”

“So then he can move another person.”

“Yeah, but now he can't even teleport himself here. He exhausted his power.”

Chanyeol nodded in thought. “I think we should train everyone's power though.” he concluded. “If Jongin and I can do it, I'm sure everyone else can. Sehun, maybe you can even start chewing gum again.”

The boy looked very happy at that prospect, slipping away from reality to ponder it over in a daydream.

“Couldn't he just chew gum now?” asked Luhan. “It's not like these powers are useful for anything more than a couple mere tricks and cheats.”

Sehun shook his head. “What if something happens, like a natural disaster or I get mugged on the street and can't do anything because my mouth is stuck shut with chewing gum?”

“See, I don't understand your weakness.” admitted Chanyeol. “You can control the wind using your hands. Why do you need your mouth free of food? Why does food make it impossible? Think about it, Sehun. I'm sure you can get past this block. And Tao,” he looked at me. “You have trouble controlling when and how you use your power right? I'm sure if you just kept practicing, it'll be like breathing.”

But I was so scared of my power. I didn't want to increase it's strength. I would sooner get rid of this ability than try to make it stronger.

Yixing's eyes lit up during Chanyeol's speech though. “Maybe I could increase my power too. I've only ever successfully healed paper cuts and light bruises. How great would it be if I could actually be useful for sprains and even broken bones?”

“Think bigger, Yixing. You could cure cancer for all we know.” said Chanyeol, the excitement clear in his voice.

“Well, if you happen to get any cuts, I could use the practice, so call me.”

“Why wait?” I asked, pulling out a Swiss army knife from my pocket and flipping it open with ease.

Kris' eyes widened. “You're not allowed to bring that kind of stuff to school.”

“More importantly, what are you planning to do with it?” Sehun had come to stand in front of me, towering over where I sat. He was trying to intimidate me, probably scared that I was planning to hurt the others.

“This.” I shrugged, sliding the knife across my palm in one quick slash. I gasped as the pain struck.

“Are you nuts?!” Sehun yelled, slapping the knife away from my hand to slide across the gym floor and grabbing the other to inspect it. My cut hand wanted to fold in on itself to stop the bleeding, but he forced it to stay open to check the damage. There was more blood than I had intended. Maybe I put too much strength into it.

Yixing scooted over quickly, looking at me with wondering eyes.

“If it helps, it helps, right?” My voice broke a little. It was a stupid idea, and I knew it, but at least he could practice.

He took my hand in both of his and closed his eyes, channeling his power into the wound. He hovered a finger over the cut and traced it over and over. It felt really strange. The pain numbed down, but not completely as new skin started to form and mesh the two sides of the cut together. It closed imperfectly, a jagged edge to the pearly new skin.

“I'm sorry.” said Yixing, looking at his work. “I can't do any more. What's worse, I think it'll scar this way.”

“I've always wanted a cool scar.” I told him, flashing a smile. Flexing out my hand was a little painful yet, but it was definitely better than before. “And who knows, maybe you'll be able to heal scars in the future too.”

Sehun scoffed and sat back down. “You're an idiot.”

I hid another smile as it threatened to peek through with a cough, realizing how protective and caring Sehun was under all the tough words. He would a be a good friend. A slightly bratty friend, but a good one with a lot of heart.

“Does it hurt?” Yixing asked, worried. He would be a good friend too, it seemed.

“Not really.”

“Sehun's right though. You are nuts.” said Luhan, taking my hand to look at it himself. “What if you get an infection?”

“Don't worry about that,” Kris spoke up. “Yixing knows what he's doing.”

The boy nodded. “I always try to clear out the toxins first. It makes it harder to make new skin, but it reduces the chance of infection to nearly zero.” He choked a bit on his next words. “There were a couple failed attempts to heal before I knew this.”

“But the past is behind us, and now you know.” Kris comforted him, patting Yixing on the back. I heard a small apology coming from Yixing to Kris. There was some kind of incident between the two, I guessed.

“Luhan, you still have my hand.” I realized, finding him gazing at the scar thoughtfully. It was weird, so I took my hand out of his grip.

“I'm still looking at it.” he said, reaching for it again.

“It's fine. See?” I moved my fingers around as proof, but stopped when pain flared up and the cut reopened a little at the top. Luhan angrily pulled a packet of tissues from his pocket and ripped it open, putting one over the cut and pressing down hard.

“A-ah!”

“Idiot.” confirmed Sehun.

When did he scoot closer to us?

It didn't matter. I waited until he took a particularly large bite of food and pushed him over with my free hand, enjoying how he tried to chew and swallow furiously fast. He really couldn't do anything when he was eating.

I broke down laughing. It was too funny. He had such a cute, innocent face that was busy glaring daggers at me while he chewed as fast as possible. Luhan couldn't help but laugh too, nearly forgetting about my bleeding scar. I winced and stopped laughing when he remembered and pressed down again.

“As soon as lunch is over, we're going to the nurse's office to get this bandaged properly.” he stated as if it were a strict fact.

“You're going to wait for lunch to end?” asked Kris curiously. “Wouldn't it be better get that bandaged now?”

Luhan smirked. “But then we wouldn't be able to miss out on biology.”

“I could learn a few things from you.” I told him, admiring the other's ease with this sort of thing. It took a lot of guts for me to even take the knife to school and I had pulled it out of my pocket several times at home before finally bringing it with me. I had gone to school for years without the knife, wishing I had it with me when I needed it. It was a useful little tool. I just couldn't convince myself to break any rules before, but now that I had a small support building, I felt like I should experience this kind of thing in my life at least once.

Though I hadn't expected to slice my skin open willingly. That was unplanned, to say the least.

I hoped I wasn't turning down a bad path. I just wanted to experience some normal teenage things before high school was up and the adult world called out to me. I could do that, right?

No more stupid dangerous stuff though. What was I even thinking? Cutting myself to help Yixing practice- who would think of something so stupid?