You have to find the right distance between people. Too close, and they overwhelm you, too far and they abandon you.

Hanif Kureishi

“I’m the Devil.”

Chanyeol beamed brightly at his new friend’s confession. “You’re handsomer than I anticipated.”

The devil was dumbstruck. He could only stare at those two carefree, chestnut crescents with his lips slightly parted. Just what was going through the scientist’s mind? He had just met the Devil and he didn’t seem at all worried about it.

“And since you told me your secret, I’ll tell you mine. A secret that even Huiyin doesn’t know.”

The devil hung his head solemnly. Human secrets often revolved around their relationships, backgrounds or thoughts; however, Chanyeol’s secret wasn’t anything like what he’d predicted.

“Like you, I’m also a figment of imagination.”

Yixing remained still for minutes, allowing those words to sink in, and Chanyeol couldn’t help but wave his hand in front of the healer’s eyes to grab his attention.

“You know, you could at least give me a reaction,” said the scientist with a small pout.

The healer shook his head as his eyebrows furrowed. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting that.”

Chanyeol chortled, almost proud that he was able to shock his new friend. “One day, let’s exchange our stories. I would love to hear about your story. I know you won’t tell me now, so I’ll wait. When that day comes, I’ll tell you mine.”

*

Huiyin was woken by the beautiful aroma floating into her room and upon hearing her stomach growl, she quickly dashed downstairs to see what was for breakfast.

To her surprise, Chanyeol was sitting on the sofa reading the papers and presumed that Yixing busied himself in the kitchen since she could hear the clanging metals. Looking up from the paper, Chanyeol noticed her curious gaze.

“I almost burnt the house down,” he explained, before resuming back to the papers with ‘The Eighth Uprising’ printed in large, bold letters - just like the ones they had back home. She was curious how they were able to understand the kingdom’s language, but the sudden thought of ‘sonars’ answered her curiosity. Her eyebrows crinkled at how her brain just came up with the answer itself, as though the thought was implanted into depths of her brain to begin with. She shook away the thought before continuing her journey down the staircase - it was too early to think. “And good morning to you too.”

“I forgot you couldn’t cook,” she muttered to herself. “And yes, good morning.” Approaching the dinner table, she saw only one plate of breakfast and one set of cutlery neatly presented on the long, wooden table. Ignoring her rumbling stomach she dashed for the kitchen to see Yixing doing the dishes.

“How could you do everything?” she gasped. “CHANYEOL, DO THE DISHES!”

Before Yixing could protest, he was dragged towards the dinner table and forced to sit down. Chanyeol peered over his newspaper to observe the two.

“I don’t want to eat alone. How could you two eat without me?!” She pouted, taking a bite out of the sausage. Her eyes enlarged animatedly as she stared at her plate. “Wow, this is good.”

Yixing silently watched her as she ate. Noticing his silence, Huiyin looked up from her food and stared back at him.

“Why are you so quiet?” she asked, slightly uneasy that he was just staring at her whilst she ate to her heart’s content.

“I bought you this,” he said, taking out a pair of thick-rimmed glasses from his bag. “You should appear at your worse before you go anywhere.”

Huiyin took the pair of glasses and began to examine them. “But I’m not short-sighted.”

“It’s an accessory. A lot of the girls around here are captured to become slaves; therefore, I advise you to look as hideous as possible when exiting that door.” He rested his elbow on the table, tilting his head, letting it lean against the palm of him hand.

A slight cackle escaped her lips. “You think I’m pretty?”

Chanyeol almost choked from watching his friend.

“No, I’m just stating that you have the clear disadvantage as a girl.”

Chanyeol almost died from hearing his other friend.

Huiyin sighed as she resumed back to her breakfast, putting the pair of glasses down on the table beside her plate. Chanyeol shook his head with an amused grin, walking towards the kitchen to finish off the dishes.

*

The moment the trio entered the university grounds, they knew their class schedules immediately, almost as if their timetables had been registered into their brains.

“This system is neat,” Chanyeol praised. “We need this back home!”

“We won’t be back for 30 weeks!” Huiyin uttered between seethed teeth.

“Don’t be too loud. Everything is being monitored,” Yixing told them as he strode towards the heart of the university.

Girls were beginning to notice the charming new student and one by one they all started to trail behind Yixing.

“Someone’s popular,” the two scientists stated simultaneously, before exploring the place they called ‘university’, that took the form of a city decorated with aristocratic buildings and monuments.

*

Chanyeol and Huiyin headed to their first class together. When they entered the room, their eyes were instantly drawn to a group of students in the corner. They were all too busy chatting and giggling amongst themselves that they didn’t seem to notice the scientists’ existence - apart from one. The quiet male nudged the blonde-haired boy beside him before gesturing to their direction with his chin. Their interaction was so subtle that no one seemed to have noticed it.

“Stop staring at them,” came a voice, and their attention turned to the messy brown-haired boy. “I would advise you to stay away from them.”

The two scientists gave each other a knowing nod before sitting beside him.

“Hi, I’m Park Chanyeol. She’s Li Huiyin. We’re new. Nice to meet you!” Chanyeol beamed radiantly, showing his flawless white set of teeth.

“I’m Byun Baekhyun. Pleasure to meet you.” He introduced with a smile, reaching out to shake their hands. Leaning back into his chair, he glanced at the group in the corner before turning his attention to the new students. “That gang over there comprises of five members. Luhan is the leader with the power of telekinesis. He takes the form of a stag. His right hand man is Kim Minseok, the snow leopard. He has the ability to freeze the entire kingdom. Luhan’s bodyguard Sunggyu is a mind controlling hamster. Don’t go near him! Then there’s Eagle Sehun with the power of wind and Tao the time controlling panda.”

Chanyeol was absolutely mesmerised by people’s way of life in the kingdom. It was similar to theirs, but with a lot of supernatural involvements. His eyes sparkled, attaching themselves to the group of boys like a scientist looking at a rare specimen for his research.

“Here comes the Prince and his army,” Baekhyun pointed and quickly pulled back again before anyone saw. “Prince Jongdae is the one in the middle, heir to the throne. He’s the cunning monkey with powers of lightning.”

With a nod, the scientists watched as Jongdae and his two bodyguards sat in the front seats.

“The left one is Kim Jongin the fox - master of teleportation. He’s part of the army and is often called Kai amongst the soldiers. The right one is Kim Joonmyeon - known as Suho in the army. He’s an eel with water powers. Both of them are actually the Prince’s cousins.”

“Baekhyun, what about you? What are your powers?” Huiyin asked, turning to face her new friend instead. Just as Baekhyun was about to reply, he was interrupted by a shadow towering over the three of them. They lifted their heads up to see who was blocking the light.

“He’s a ferret that controls light. His animal form is adorable,” Luhan said, sitting down beside Huiyin. “A lot of new students have been appearing lately. I’m Luhan. I’m sure Baekhyun has told you all about me. What is your name?”

Huiyin’s heartbeat accelerated as he inched his way towards her. She was tongue-tied.

Luhan was beautiful.

His silky blonde hair matched perfectly with his flawless complexion. His eyes were soft and captivating, complimenting with his thin pink lips. His nose bridge was at the perfect height. His scent – his scent was…

“You’re in my seat.”

Huiyin glowered at the rude voice that interrupted her moment of appreciation for Luhan’s beauty, lifting her gaze to see who it was. Her expression softened when she saw it was Yixing.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Luhan said half-heartedly. “I just wanted to make some new friends, that’s all.” A small smirk appeared from the corner of his mouth, but it vanished almost instantly, as though it never existed to begin with.

“Oh, Luhan. The newbies don’t want to be friends with you because they know who the one in charge around here is.” The Prince cackled. Beside him, Jongin and Joonmyeon both smirked in amusement and the newer students, plus Baekhyun, turned back to hear Luhan’s response.

“Oh, my dear Prince, the only thing you’re in charge of around here is the two dogs beside you.”

“How dare you insult the Prince?!” Jongin thundered, teleporting in front of Luhan. Just as he was about to throw him a punch, he stopped and looked at his fist in confusion. “W-what’s going on?”

“I’ve got your back, Luhan.” Everyone turned to the voice behind them to see Sunggyu using mind control. Luhan mouthed a ‘thanks’ in return before throwing Jongin off of him.

“STOP IT!” screamed another voice. Everyone’s attention was diverted towards the door to see their tutor. “Hold that feeling you have now and unleash it in the month-end battle.”

Everyone watched as she cat walked her way across the classroom.

“Song Qian, the flexible cat. She’s our tutor. Very popular with the male students,” Baekhyun explained with a grin on his face.

Huiyin sighed and pressed her cheek against the palm of her hand, leaning against the desk in front of her. “Why are people over here all so beautiful?”

“Are you jealous or sad because I intruded your conversation with Luhan?” Yixing asked, taking his seat and leaning back casually.

“There was no conversation. I didn’t even get to say anything because you intruded…” Her eyes widened at how the words just slipped out of .

“So you were sad because I interrupted.”

“N-no. I just thought it was rude that I didn’t even introduce myself properly.”

“Is he your friend too?” Baekhyun asked to which Chanyeol nodded.

The door flew opened again. “Sorry, I’m late.” This time was a boy with big, round doe eyes. “Hello, Yixing.” He greeted, patting Yixing on the back before taking his seat at the front.

Huiyin noticed how Yixing clenched his fists, despite how friendly the boy’s actions were. “You know him?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. He took a deep breath before nodding.

“Do Kyungsoo – earth bear.” He whispered, not bothering to elaborate any further. With a shrug, Huiyin didn’t ask for any more information, turning her attention to their tutor. If he wanted to tell her, he’d tell her when he was ready to talk.

The lesson continued and to the scientists’ surprise it was nothing like their universities back home.

The first class was about the laws of the Water Sound Kingdom. Their second class taught them how to decipher the sounds emitted from the sonars situated around the kingdom and the last class trained their abilities.

The last class was horrendous.

Today they were to hit the specified targets using their special ability. The rules were simple. The faster you eliminate your target, the higher your score.

Gathered in the gym, they watched as Minseok went first, throwing an ice dagger at the target.

“3.04 seconds,” claimed their tutor.

Jongdae was up next, hitting the target at lightning speed. Qian gave him a round of applause. “That’s our prince. 2.31 seconds.”

Jongin scored 4.61 seconds and Joonmyeon with 3.65.

When it was Chanyeol’s turn, he held his hand out and long strings of yellows, reds and oranges fired from his slender fingertips, giving him a score of 5.37 seconds.

Huiyin was surprised by how he was actually able to use his powers so effectively even when, to her knowledge, he had never tried using them before. He made using his powers look so easy and she didn’t understand how.

“Don’t try too hard to attack the target,” Yixing warned. She gave him a puzzled look.

Luhan scored 1.78 seconds by shattering the whole target and Huiyin noticed that her classmates watched as though it was to be expected. Sunggyu recorded 2.93 seconds, Sehun with 4.21 and Tao with 3.72.

When it was Yixing’s turn, Huiyin started to worry for him because he didn’t possess a power which allowed him to attack. What was a healer supposed to do to eliminate his target?

“1.77 seconds,” their tutor stated, earning a wave of murmurs from the students.

The target was completely dissolved.

“The opposite of healing is poison, silly,” Yixing said, hopping off the platform while grinning at his friends.

“But that was so quick!” Huiyin exclaimed. Did poison always work that fast?

“Your turn.”

Huiyin stepped onto the platform with sweaty palms. This was ridiculous. How was she meant to use her powers without knowing how? Maybe she should do what Chanyeol did and stretch her arms out towards the target. Asking Chanyeol how he managed to wield his power would probably have been a good idea.

She closed her eyes and tried to focus, imagining the target in her mind like how it was always portrayed in the movies. The clouds began to gather and the sky darkened before lightning struck the target, and the booming thunder then followed.

“10.72 seconds.”

Her eyes opened and she saw a massive hole six feet deep into the grounds. Surely it couldn’t have been her, could it?

It was.

She quickly stepped off the platform, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. She heard someone laugh and the sound of approaching footsteps made her hope that the person wouldn’t comment on her abilities. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t really on her side today.

It was Luhan, and she just wanted to hide in the massive hole she created.

“You are one DANGEROUS newbie.” He patted her on the back whilst smiling from ear to ear, leaving Huiyin in awe. His smile was dazzling.

“I-I can’t believe I did it. A bit slow, but I did it.” She replied, sheepishly.

Next was Kyungsoo with 8.00 seconds. Then Baekhyun scored 4.61 seconds.

Last was an adorably cute girl called Jieun.    

And their hearts sunk as they watched them take her away.