Kyungsoo’s POV 

            “ONE!” Sehun hollers from the other side of the door. I hear a loud bump after and I assume he’s trying to knock the door down.

            “TWO!” Another bump follows, this time it’s louder.

            Right before he can yell three, I hurriedly unbolt the door and step to the side, making sure I’m not in the way and the door doesn’t have a chance of smacking me in the face.

            Right on cue, I hear Sehun yell “THREE!” and he stumbles through the door, landing on the floor with a loud thump because he put too much momentum into his charge.

            “So this is what it feels like to be tall,” I say, towering over Sehun as he lies there sprawled on the floor, glaring daggers at me. “I like it,” I say, grinning.

            “Yea, because you’re always so short,” Sehun scoffs.

            “Yah!” I playfully pretend to kick him and he instinctively curls into a ball. He waves his hands in front of him as his knees are still tucked into his chest. “All right, all right, I surrender, just please don’t kill me.”

            “Aish, if anyone walks in right now they really will think that I’m trying to kill you,” I say, peering down at Sehun who’s making it look like he’s my victim.

            Just then, Luna walks through the door. “Hey, I came to finish the project. And I brought the st-” She peers up at us and her eyes widen slightly. “What happened here?” Seriously, it’s like someone listens to what I say and then uses my words against me.

            “L-Luna, it’s not what it looks like,” I say, shaking my hands in front of me while my eyes are probably as round as basketballs right now.

            “Luna noona! It’s exactly what it looks like! Help me!” Sehun cries, scooting away from me and towards Luna. I send him a deadly glare and he points at me. “See what I mean? He’s out to get me!”

             I resist the urge to put him in a headlock. There are times when I seriously want to strangle this maknae.

             I look back up at Luna and she looks like she is about to explode from trying to hold her laugher in. She has a hand covered over and her eyes have turned into crescent moons.

             When she regains her composure, she holds up the bag holding the bottles of various chemicals we are using for our project. “Let’s get started,” she says, her breath still slightly hitching from laughter.

             “If only we could see around here,” Sehun says, gesturing to all the lights in the room that have been turned off. “Hyung, there’s nothing wrong with turning on the lights, you know.”

            Yes, there is. I think. Light creates shadows, but if there’s no light, I won’t need a shadow, and I don’t have one at the moment.

            Instead, I just tell him, “I’m trying to save on… uh…. electricity.” I mentally smack myself for being such a bad liar.

            Sehun gives me a very sceptical look and reaches over to the light switch. “NOOOOOO!” I scream, putting my hand over his and pulling it away frantically from the switch. Sehun looks at me like I’ve gone crazy and I mentally facepalm myself again for exaggerating my actions. Just great, Kyungsoo, now they’re suspicious, I think to myself.

            “Uh... it’s just that our electricity bill was really expensive last month, and my parents will be really mad if we don’t save electricity this time,” I say.

            Luna puts a hand on Sehun’s shoulder and pulls him away from the light switch. “It’s okay, it’s not dark outside yet, we can work with this amount of light,” she says. Thank you, Luna, I say in my mind, heaving a sigh of relief.

            Sehun hesitantly walks away from the light switch and sits down on the floor in front of the coffee table. He pouts slightly as he says, “Fine.”

            “Good,” I say, reaching into the bag Luna brought and pulling out a bottle filled with some sort of red chemical and another with a purple liquid. “Let’s get started then.”

Shadow’s POV 

            I peer through the gap in between the doors of the closet, watching as Kyungsoo carefully pours a purple liquid into a beaker filled with a red substance. It’s a little tight in here, with all the clothes and all, but I guess I can wait it out. “This is the safest place for you to be in right now,” Kyungsoo had said about half an hour ago, pushing me into the closet before he let Sehun in. “After all, who can find a shadow in the dark?”

            I hear vague voices coming from outside the closet and I press my ear onto the door to hear their conversation better.

            “Okay, mix that chemical,” Luna points to the one tinted bluish-green. “With this one,” she says, holding up a pear-shaped beaker filled with a transparent liquid.

            “Kyungsoo, I can barely see anything, can we turn on the lights now?” Sehun says. I notice that it has gotten noticeably darker. The sun has probably set.

            “Sehun, unless you want to pay for my electricity bill, we’re not turning them on,” Kyungsoo says, his eyes still fully focused on the chemical solution in front of him.

            “All right then,” Sehun says, “I’ll pay.” And before Kyungsoo can protest, Sehun has already crossed over to the light switch and flicked the lights on.

            I freeze in my spot, crossing my fingers and praying to God that they won’t notice Kyungsoo’s missing shadow. Kyungsoo seems to have stiffened up too, even though he keeps his focus on the project so that he won’t seem too suspicious. I see his mouth move to form words and I strain to hear them. I hear him mumbling something along the lines of “You better keep your word, Oh Sehun.”

            “Isn’t it much better though?” Sehun says, smiling. “I can see again!” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and hands Sehun the project outline. “Here, mix these two chemicals together,” Kyungsoo says, pointing at specific places on the paper. Sehun nods and takes out a chemical that looks like a silver cylindrical shaped rock. He prepares to dump it into the transparent liquid Luna was holding earlier.

            I sigh in relief when I realize that neither Sehun nor Luna have noticed the absence of Kyungsoo’s shadow. But my relief is short lived as I suddenly recognize the two chemicals Sehun is going to mix. Potassium and water. If a little bit of potassium is dropped into water, it will simply cause a few little sparks. But if too much is dropped into water, it could cause a major explosion. And the amount Sehun is holding right now is far from safe.

            “IF YOU DON’T WANT AN EXPLOSION, PUT THE POTASSIUM DOWN RIGHT NOW!” I find myself shouting. As soon as I say those words, I clamp my hands over my mouth. Stupid, stupid, Krystal, I think, slapping my forehead. I see Kyungsoo’s, Sehun’s and Luna’s eyes widen as they stare at the closet. The closet I’m in. As Sehun rushes to open the closet, Kyungsoo hurriedly runs after him, blocking his way.

            “Nothing to see in there,” Kyungsoo says, nervously laughing, but Sehun simply pushes him to the side and opens the closet door. I had put too much weight on the door so as soon as it opens, I come stumbling out. I look up to see Sehun’s and Luna’s shocked expressions and dropped jaws.

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            Sehun and Luna stand with their mouths agape. When Sehun finally finds his voice, he manages to ask, “W-who are you?”

            I turn to Kyungsoo, hoping to find some help on what I should do. “It’s okay, just tell them,” he tells me. I’m surprised to find that the tone he uses is gentle. Isn’t he mad?

            “I’m…Krystal’s shadow,” I say. I feel a reassuring squeeze on my shoulder and I look up, surprised to find Kyungsoo looking down at me with soft eyes, encouraging me to go on.

            I proceed to tell them the whole story, with Kyungsoo helping me out at the parts where I have trouble explaining. When we’re done, we look up at Luna and Sehun to see their reactions, but before I can even catch a glimpse of their faces, I find myself catapulted backward by someone who gives me a bear hug. Luna sobs into my shoulder as she holds me tight in her embrace. I her hair in a comforting motion and find my own tears falling, comforted by her concern and the fact that she missed me as much as I missed her. Even though I had some unpleasant feelings of jealousy towards her before, I push them aside and focus on the fact that she is a long lost friend that I have finally reunited with.

            I look past Luna’s shoulder at Sehun and he’s smiling a little while watching our reunion. They’re both taking this better than I thought they would.

            “So, you’re the Krystal that Kyungsoo wouldn’t stop blabbering about for years,” Sehun says, grinning. He holds out a hand and I shake it. “I’m Sehun. Nice to officially meet you.”

            I smile back. “Nice to meet you too.”

            “So I take it that you’re the one who helped Kyungsoo study for his science test?” he asks.

            I blink. “How did you know?”

            Sehun grins mischievously. “There’s no way Kyungsoo could’ve aced that test on his own.” His remark earns him a punch on the arm from Kyungsoo. “Ow, what was that for?” Sehun says.

            “For doubting my abilities,” Kyungsoo says, to which he gets the reply, “You don’t have any…”, which earns Sehun another punch on the arm.

            “Anyways,” Sehun says, turning back to look at me while rubbing the spot where Kyungsoo punched him. “I’m guessing that you’re pretty good at Science.”

            I shrug. “I guess so.”

            “Well, do you think you can help us with our project? After all, you did save us from an explosion,” Sehun asks. I hear Kyungsoo mumble, “And he says I’m bad at Science…..”

            I grin. “I’d be honoured.” 

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