`2
Lost in an Eternity
The sound of the bell signifying the end of the school day could not have been a more welcome to her ears. With lightning fast speed she gathered her pencil case and threw her books into her bag, then rushed to exit the classroom only to tripped over someone's leg on the way out. Luckily not falling to the floor and only losing her footing slightly, she made for the exit again and swiftly left the room. The hallways after school resembled a rapid flowing river, with students eager to get home or dashing for their bus or train before having to wait half an hour for the next ride. She was amongst all those students, streaming through the school gates as fast as her legs and the traffic could take her, so that she could finally exchange the torment experienced during the school day for a peaceful afternoon at home.
Finally escaping the torrent of students, she to a small alleyway - a shortcut which she took home everyday. Trembling with anger, she kicked a small stone with so much force that she could feel the impact through her leather school shoes. Slowing down her walking pace she more gently kicked at the small pebbles which lay on the pavement. Smiling softly to herself she thought: even these stupid pebbles have it easier than I do. The things she would do, the things she would give up to just to be like one of those pebbles, inanimate, unknown and insignificant. Anything would be better than the sort of treatment she was receiving now. Orphan girl, dumb . What had she done to deserve it? It was not as if she had brought it upon herself, from the very first day of school she had tried to blend in with the other students and it had turned out well. She had a small circle of friends one of them who was aware of her situation, but not that she minded - she had only let him know because she trusted him. Little did she know, the boy she had thought to be her best friend managed to leak out her secret, and the piece of insider's information began to spread around the school like an untameable wildfire.
Before long, her entire grade was aware of the orphan girl, and eventually most of the school. Even worse, no one had sympathised or stood by her side, not even her 'friends'. Not even him. That was what had pained her the most. They had finally grown close enough for her to reveal her innermost insecurity to him, and what a bad move that was.
The memories made her tremble with fury once again. What was trust? Why was it something so difficult to build up and in the end was something so fragile and easy to break? Silence engulfed her as she lost herself in thought, in resentment, it was so silent it was as if everything had stopped moving. Then, finally calming down, and bringing her emotions under control, she felt a soft breeze blow her long hair away from her eyes and her school skirt around her legs as she trudged along.
Reaching the doorsteps to her apartment faster than she thought it would take, she climbed up several flights of stairs until she reached the fourth floor where her room was. It was small, but it was comfortable and not to mention her best and only friend was there. Two years older than her, her flat mate was perhaps the only person on this planet that she could trust wholly. Shortly after moving in, unable to keep up with paying the rent every week from her small part time earnings, she finally let her story spill. Without judging her, her flatmate made an agreement that they would split the rent into a ratio of 1:2 as long as she cooked and did the cleaning. This agreement turned out to work extremely well as she genuinely enjoyed cooking (the same could not be said for cleaning)and now she was even able to save some of her earnings so that she could buy something for herself once in a while. Unlocking the door to their shared room, she was greeted with the sight of her flatmate with her legs slung over the backing of the couch, back resting on the seat, a separate chair was placed under her neck to support her neck and her laptop was resting on her stomach where she was slowly but deliberately punching in letters on the keyboard with two fingers .
Smirking at this sight, and in the mood for a bit of fun she rushed towards her roommate, pulled the seat away from under her head and watched in amusement as she tumbled backwards and back flipped off the couch. Speaking in a slightly dazed gaze and muffled voice she said:
'Ah, Atty, you're home?'
Atty. She loved that nickname, it made her feel like she really had a home and family. Her real name, Athena, which was given to her by her American father seemed too harsh for her personal taste, while Atty was perfect. He had wanted her to grow up strong and healthy, and that she was, though she was a little more on the thin side.
'Yup!'
She replied, popping the 'p'.
'I can see you're being productive as always Shin Min Seo. College seems to give a real heavy work load eh?'
Min Seo clambered to her feet and dusted herself off before sighing and replying melodramatically
'There is so much to be done, with so little time to do it!'
Then turned to Athena and asked
'So, how was school today?'
Of course Min Seo knew about the bullying, but since she had been sprawled on the floor before even looking properly at Athena today, she had not taken into account her appearance. Looking closer now she saw the traces of flour which had not been washed clean by water on her blazer and tie and the small sections of hair which were still slightly matted together from the egg. Pulling Athena into her arms, she her hair and sighed
'Again hmm? Don't worry, you only have less than a year until you graduate, then you'll be away from all this forever. Go clean up, I'll order take out for dinner tonight. You're tired enough.'
Min Seo really was an older sister figure to her, and had been aware of the bullying since the first time she came home with bleeding knees and palms. She had even gone to the school principal to raise the issue, but nothing was able to be done officially as she was not Athena's legal guardian. Despite the fact that she was not legally under her care, she was thankful for everything she had done, the fact that Min Seo was a friend and a sister she could come home to every day was something that gave her strength in itself.
Sighing, she gathered her comfortable clothes and headed for the shower to properly scrub away the mess and events of the day.
*****
'So, have we reached a decision? Who are we sending out this time?'
All eyes were on the leader once again. None wanted to undertake this mission, but from Suho's conclusive solution yesterday, there were still quite a few trips to be made. Slowly, Kai, Sehun and Chanyeol raised their arms in the air, glancing at each other first before Chanyeol firmly stated
'Meaning no disrespect to yourself or the others, Suho, but we believe we three are more ready to go for another run than the others.'
It was not much of an insult. Among the six of them, it had been proven more than enough that those three were in fact physically more capable than the others, not to mention that their spirit recharged at a faster rate too. Chanyeol continued to speak
'We think that we will be okay after this run, but our spirit is already at dangerously low levels after last week's intervention preventing that huge nuclear explosion. Even with the five of us it was difficult to control.'
All five of their strength combined was required to stop the nuclear explosion that if not prevented could have been fatal for the country and surrounding countries, and for many many years after the event too. It had taken almost all of their powers and spirit to rewind time far back enough to contain the explosion but in the end they were victorious, however, they had returned drained, exhausted and with no spirit remaining. Earth was getting itself into more and more mess and each was worse than the last, it would be impossible for them to keep up with everything.
With no other option, Suho agreed. It was true, Baekhyun's, Kyungsoo's, and his own spirit had not even recharged to three quarters of its full gage right now, and while exhausted and bleary eyed, the other three's certainly had.
'Alright you three, we all admit that you are the most capable at the moment, but don't get cocky. None of us, including you are at full strength at the moment, even though your gages are full, your minds are almost at the limit. Your location this time is Syria. You know what you have to do, take care and return soon.'
Nodding once and rising from their seats, Kai, Sehun and Chanyeol bowed and made their departure. Suho buried his face in his hands and sighed. The mission this time was to prevent a huge uprising, that if not stopped could hurl Earth into another bloody war. It would not be easy, but he trusted them to do well.
*****
This ability to control time was a powerful one, therefore it was very carefully developed and shaped. It was not only powerful, but very, very rare. It was an ability to be born with, passed down from one generation to the next and the population was quite aware of the six who had been born into this power, who were known as EXO. However, why was there now a very faint presence of another power? It was faint, it was hardly detectable, yet it was definitely there. It was something absurd, something unheard of, but could it be possible...that someone had began to develop this power?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Hmmm, another update yay? Haha
It's the last week of term so hopefully I'll have some more time to write :L Is this story sounding lame so far? Should I bother keeping it up? Feeling a little discouraged because some friends at school were mocking it and reading out my forewords in silly voices...
Comments