Despite everything rolling in a new dimension than the one Chaerin had gotten used to before, she refused to do anything without having any kind of caffeine in her system. It wasn’t as hard as she thought to convince the duo to stop by a café she preferred for her to grab something. Suho seemed pretty patient with her decisions, if he didn’t actually respect them. Kai, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of him and it was he whose eyes pinned Chaerin’s back as she paid for her coffee, because she had started chatting with the employee whom she knew from when he had visited the junk shop she worked at. Although she didn’t like how his glare was aimed at them, Chaerin didn’t comment on it and, instead, decided to just get over with it.

Since the day was still at its start, Chaerin suggested they went to her apartment, but Suho declined; “We need someone to test you on.”

She didn’t like it the least. It sounded like they were planning in hurting someone and Chaerin couldn’t even stand the thought of her causing pain to a stranger. Suho’s and Kai’s calmness didn’t make it any easier to deal with the fact that, yes, they would need someone else for her to release whatever power or strength she had on. Or at least that was how it all made sense in her head. If the case was otherwise, she wasn’t sure of the reason they’d need someone else.

“Can’t it be any of you?” Chaerin asked and Suho shook his head.

“We need to watch you. We won’t know if you have any progress otherwise.”

Chaerin had nothing else to retort, she just followed Suho and Kai to wherever they thought would be a good place. She wasn’t sure how they would manage to use such thing in a public place but she went along. Soon she noticed that Suho was leading them to a secluded part of the backstreets. When the girl opened to question him, some thrashing came from the trash cans at the corner of the building. Instinctively, she jumped back, hiding behind the two males.

“Kai,” Suho voiced lowly and the other male was off in less than a second, walking right towards the source of the noise. Chaerin stood right by Suho’s side, staring wide eyed to where the other had gone to. Shortly after, Kai returns with a man in between his strong arms, holding him in place and a hand over his mouth. Muffled voices echoed and a foul smell reached Chaerin’s nostrils; the man was wearing old, worn clothes.

“What are you—“

“Hold him in place, will you?” Suho asked with a strange calmness in his tone before he turned to face Chaerin. “I know this looks bad—and it is bad—but no one will look for a homeless person in such a big city.”

Chaerin refused to accept Suho’s words because she knew it was true. In the capital of South Korea, a place with millions of citizens alone, who would miss or search for a homeless man who lived behind the corners of buildings and sleeping in the backstreets. A wrong way of thinking—and she knew it—but she couldn’t agree more. That still didn’t stop the vile rise in at the thought of causing harm to an innocent man, though.

“I can’t harm someone who has never done anything,” Chaerin protested and Suho shook his head.

“Do you want to find out your past?” Her jaws clenched. That only had one answer; she made a curt nod after a long while. “Then do this one thing. If you don’t, millions will get in trouble and a lot of them will be murdered.”

Chaerin’s eyes looked at the man in Kai’s arms, his own ones pleading the girl and Suho to not harm him, and she hesitated. If Suho was right, one sacrifice will let millions live. If he was wrong, Chaerin would be haunted by the thought of harming someone without wanting, without having any legit reason to defend herself and her horrible actions. All by herself, all for some lie someone told her. A huge risk— and it was probably obvious that she was unsure of what to do because Suho interjected her thoughts once more.

“I’ll help you out. You won’t harm him, don’t worry,” Suho offered a small smile. “Trust me, you’re not that powerful to actually hurt him right now.”

Chaerin glanced at the homeless man again and let a sigh. She could trust Suho, right?

Sensing her change of mind, Suho stepped closer to Kai and the man, gesturing for the blonde girl to follow—which she did.

“Look into his eyes and try to touch him with your mind,” Suho instructed and Chaerin glanced at him in question. “Try to channel with him, try to pass a message through your eyes and you’ll reach him.”

Chaerin took in a deep breath, staring at the man’s eyes which were now dancing all around the backstreets at the sound of the terrifying description of Suho’s. Kai tried to stabilize him with low threats pouring through the man’s ears and, although Chaerin had no idea what exactly he had told the homeless man, Kai had somehow convinced him to stare back at her. The dark orbs were filled with fear and Suho reassured her again that nothing bad would happen.

She stared strongly into the man’s eyes, trying to do just what Suho had told her to do; pass a message. How, she wasn’t sure exactly. She wasn’t even sure they weren’t fooling her into making her believe she was some kind of superhuman.

Mister, listen to me.

The man was still staring back and Chaerin’s eyes became hard orbs.

We won’t harm you. Please calm yourself.

Time slowly ticked as she kept focusing more and more on something she wasn’t exactly certain what it was. No reaction. If anything, with the moment stretching like this, the man had started trembling more in fear of what was to come—which, coincidentally, was something Chaerin could not obviously channel in her.

Stay calm, I can’t hurt you.

The sound of a tongue clicking made her lose her concentration, her eyes losing focus and falling on Suho who stood with his lips pursed into a thin line. “Again.”

Chaerin tried for the second time, Kai held him in place, the man stared, Suho shook his head.

“Again.”

Chaerin tried for the third time, Kai sighed, the man wavered a bit in his footing, Suho crossed his arms.

“Again.”

Chaerin tried, Kai was distracted, the man gulped, Suho groaned.

“Again.”

“It’s useless,” Kai gave up after Chaerin’s fifth fail and the girl’s eyes looked away, avoiding anyone’s stare. “She can’t do it, there’s no point in trying again. She’ll only fail.”

Suho munched on the words, thinking it through for a couple seconds before agreeing reluctantly. “You’re right, this is the furthest we can get to at the moment. You may release the poor man.”

Kai nodded his head, loosening his hold on the man who slipped away, a chain of trembling slurs containing words like Satan and worshiping and freaks and so many more that Kai was in no mood to hear followed. So, he made a move as if he wanted to punch the man and the elder scattered on the ground, whimpering and shaking. Neither Suho nor Kai were affected by him in any way and they started off down the way back from where we had come.

Chaerin, on the other hand, glanced at the man on the ground, a look of remorse in her eyes. The poor man, what he’d seen, what he’d felt while being held down. It was plain wrong to use someone like that. The young woman sighed, stepping closer to the man in attempt of helping him up, but the man crawled away as soon as he noticed her. He glared at her in both regret and fear and Chaerin bowed her head, trying to show that she was actually sorry for everything—not that it’d change anything. And it didn’t.

In the end, Chaerin caught up with Suho and Kai, hearing the distant calls of the scared man’s voice that kept repeating words of religion and crime and everything illegal.

“He’ll have something to think about for a long time,” Kai mumbled, half-joking, and Chaerin sent a glare at him. Arrogant, if she had to label his overall personality.

“It’s too early to give up yet. The power’s somewhere in you, it’s just too weak. It’s been so long that it’ll be far harder to reach it than I first expected,” Suho mumbled to himself. “If it’s that deep, it’ll be triggered only by memory flashes, probably. There’s only one thing—“

Chaerin stopped listening to Suho’s muttering. She wasn’t even sure whether it was meant for her to listen or if he was just thinking aloud. She tried to forget the whole incident and think of the warm bed that would await her once she went back.