Mana

[ˈmʌnʌ; Proto-Polynesian]
Power, prestige; specifically, a form of supernatural energy in Polynesian religion that inheres in things or people.

The night came in no time. They ate simple bread and cheese that Kyungsoo whipped out of his backpack and a sweet, tender, roasted young trunk from a species unknown to Kyungsoo. Baekhyun and Chanyeol wolfed down the bread and cheese like it was their first time eating them—which probably was true considering the nature of their lifestyle.

After dinner, they were lying down on what seemed like perfectly round, small clearing in the middle of dense trees. Baekhyun, who earlier asked for Kyungsoo’s assent to abandon his Mature form and return to his four-year-old body, was shining—literally—like a giant, silver firefly. It took Kyungsoo a while before getting used to Baekhyun’s light, joining them comfortably to immerse in the feeling of fragrant forest wind on their skin.

“I feel so tired…” Kyungsoo sighed. “So many new things to digest today.”

“It’s not actually new,” Baekhyun told him somewhat angrily. “You just don’t remember.”

Kyungsoo felt slightly ticked by Baekhyun’s mood swing. He didn’t know if he said something that could have offended his new friend but he decided to leave it be. When he asked him why they prefered to stay as children, and Baekhyun’s answer was absentminded. “How should I put it... Hmmm, it helps to ‘preserve’ us?” he said, tilting his head toward Kyungsoo. “The point is, staying in our Mature form takes a lot of energy. We can’t waste our Mana on this alone.”

Kyungsoo was dumbfounded. Just how many other things were there yet to discover? “Mana?”

“Mana,” Chanyeol rolled on his stomach and leaned closer, “is a kind of power from the elements of our world. Mana keeps everything in balance, like the hands of God themselves, something that ordinary human beings can never do. But sometimes, it gets a little inconsistent. Someone can be born with extra sensitivity toward a specific kind of Mana. They get the ability to interact with it, and channel it for as long as they live. When they die, their Mana will return to its origin and wait for another vessel to possess. What you did to the earth earlier, that was your Mana. In Baekhyun’s case, his is light.”

Kyungsoo was only half-listening to Chanyeol's explanation because something else was bothering him. His cheek grew hot since their face, for some reason, was so close—like only centimeters apart—and he could feel Chanyeol’s breath on him. He cursed himself inwardly when he found it somewhat pleasant.

“C-Chanyeol, you’re...being too close…” Kyungsoo faked an annoyance, and half-heartedly tried to push Chanyeol away. A tinge of pink shading his cheek, his embarrassment remained, especially when Chanyeol refused to both budge or and look away.

He felt a churn in his stomach, a familiar dance of the butterflies, which somehow told him that them being in such a close proximity, in an exactly similar position—wasn’t at all strange. The reaction he made when Chanyeol provoked him felt more like a routine rather than something entirely new.

"So," Kyungsoo cleared his throat, bringing his attention back to the topic and trying not to dwell much on the peculiarly familiar warmth from the pit of his stomach. When he finally pushed himself a little distant away from Chanyeol, he continued. "You're saying that I can control the earth? And Baekhyun can create light?” The idea seemed ridiculous to Kyungsoo but he felt like it was possible.

“More of like...manipulating?” Baekhyun chimed in. “I mean… I won’t be able to shine if there’s no source of light to begin with, no matter how hard I try. Chanyeol’s lucky because all he need is heat. You, too, because earth is literally everywhere for you to call. Well, it can be slightly easy for me since it’s extremely hard to isolate light but for Jongdae, everything is harder. That’s why he hates summer—or any damp days, or days without thunderstorm, to be more precise.”

“Jongdae’s Mana is...uh, lightning, right?” Kyungsoo was no longer surprised with the emergence of new knowledge in his head: the name ‘Jongdae’, and the vague recollection about a thin boy in mousy hair and his favorite pastime to draw the trees with burn marks from his lighting.

“Electricity, actually, but yeah,” Baekhyun laughs, partly from the fact that Kyungsoo was able to remember more things that he previously forgot. “Damp or sunny weather kills his mood. But if there’s electricity—no matter how faint—he can amplify it and make it do things.”

“Do things? Like what?”

Baekhyun yawned lazily, and nodded at Chanyeol instead. “Jongdae’s not here. Why don’t you try?” he said, “You’ve been looking forward to show off anyway.”

Chanyeol flung his leg over Kyungsoo’s body and kicked Baekhyun’s behind. Baekhyun retaliated with a grasp on Chanyeol’s ankle, and—with an unfathomable strength—sent Chanyeol’s body flying and crashing into a pool of ferns. Kyungsoo slack jawed in utter amazement. At the moment, Baekhyun was probably just a little over half his size (and it said a lot because Kyungsoo is small), while Chanyeol was big.

“Now, that is the difference of when you’re in Mature form and not.” Baekhyun said proudly. “Come on, Channie, let Kyungsoo see,” he shouted at Chanyeol who was standing limply while rubbing his back.

Chanyeol hesitates but in the end, he reluctantly scooted behind the fern tree, and peeled off his clothes until he was buck . The tree helped to keep with his lower body hidden, which earned another remark from Baekhyun. “Come on, you lame! Why bother to hide? It’s not like Kyungsoo hadn’t seen everything before!”

Kyungsoo was already torn between looking away, and keeping his eyes on Chanyeol because he didn’t want to miss a thing. But Baekhyun’s word made him blushed even more furiously if possible. Fortunately, Chanyeol soon transformed into his Mana Form. Seeing him as a kid, although , gave him slightly less embarrassment.

“ you, Baek. Stop making it to sound like something else!” Chanyeol exclaimed and he was obviously red in the face. "Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I can’t afford to ruin more clothes since I try not to steal anything from the village.” He quickly tore his gaze away from Kyungsoo.

Minutes later, after all the teasing had ended, Chanyeol managed to get back to concentration. His eyes grew darker. The air around him became gradually warmer, to the point where it rippled, creating a mirage around him. Kyungsoo and Baekhyun intuitively scooted further, and hid themselves behind a massive rock at the brink of the clearing. Kyungsoo couldn’t hide his amazement when Chanyeol’s body slowly glowed; at first it was an ember hue at the center of his stomach, then spreaded out, slowly losing its saturation, until a pair of wing-shaped flame emerged from Chanyeol’s hands.

Chanyeol’s demonstration ended with him throwing his fire to the sky in the form of a giant tongue of flame. He neither looked tired nor did he shed any sweat even though he had just been literally engulfed in fire. When Chanyeol came out in his Mature form, already clothed, Kyungsoo couldn’t hide his excitement; he jumped toward Chanyeol and tackled him down in a wild hug.

“Chanyeol, that was great!” He squealed. “What else you can do? Can you create other shapes with your form?”

“I...uh—” Chanyeol stuttered, fidgeting under Kyungsoo’s touch. “I can, I guess, with a little practice.”

“That is amazing! Imagine the things you can do.” Kyungsoo said excitedly. “Are there a lot of people like us?”

As soon as Kyungsoo asked the question, there was an apparent change in the atmosphere around them. Kyungsoo felt it, the sudden tension on Chanyeol’s body. He also saw how dim Baekhyun’s light became.

Baekhyun stood up, dusting his pants off, and transformed into his Mature form. The forest turned dark when Baekhyun’s light went out.

“There used to be a many of us.” he said curtly. “But not anymore.”





“Weird,” Kyungsoo mumbled to himself, “I’m trying to locate where we are but my compass just won’t work...”

It was the third morning since his arrival in The Zone—that was how his friends named the only area where Mana could work. They were spending the day lazing around the literal tree house he built many years ago, or at least that’s what Baekhyun said. Kyungsoo didn’t have any recollection of it, of course, but he couldn’t help but sense familiarity as soon as he stepped into the cool, airy hut, like the place was an extension of himself. Time went somewhat slow here, and pretty much nothing ever happened. But for the first time, Kyungsoo neither felt bored nor needed distraction. The only time when he touched his phone was when he was sending a message to his parents.

“I won’t be surprised.” Baekhyun said, with his mouth full of jellybeans he ransacked from Kyungsoo’s bag. “Jongdae’s Mana will any nearby device that works with electricity.”

“But my watch is working normally,” Kyungsoo protested, “although the date hasn’t changed.”

‘It’s kinetic!’ Jongdae shouted from afar, not bothering to look up from the flashlight Kyungsoo gave him the night before right after they met. Jongdae was grateful and he told Kyungsoo that the flashlight would allow him to use his Mana anytime he wanted now. It was also Jongdae, who helped him solve the problem with contacting his parents, using his Mana to control the electromagnetic field that surrounded The Zone. Kyungsoo himself hadn’t known about the fact before. The watch used to be his late grandfather’s before given to him on his coming-of-age day.

“Look at him.” Baekhyun snorted, while nodding at Jongdae. “He’ll be so pleased now since he’ll be able to use his Mana whenever he wants. You’ve unleashed a demon, Kyungsoo.”

‘I heard that’, Jongdae shouted again, but that was pretty much the only response his friend received.

“Anyway,” Baekhyun called. “There’s nothing wrong with your watch. It’s just that...well,” he drew circles in the air with his fingers. “Time is played in an infinite loop of a day. It begins and ends at midnight.”

“What do you mean? Like the time stops or something?” Kyungsoo asked.

“No, not exactly like that. The morning still turns into night eventually, right? Umm...” Baekhyun thought hard. “Think of it like this. If you find a bird somewhere in The Zone, and you kill it, the same bird will be exactly there the next day at exactly the same time. Because once the day changes, everything will reset—including our physical bodies, which means any wound will be healed overnight as long as we’re still alive.”

“So...that’s why you guys remains as four-year-olds? Forever?”

“Except when we’re outside The Zone, yeah. That’s how you’re the only one among us who grew up. But it’s just our body. Inside, we grow old, our minds, our way of thinking. But we do spend some times outside The Zone where our bodies transform naturally to Mature Form.”

Kyungsoo didn’t know if what happened within The Zone was something good or bad. Of course, having the most severe wound gone overnight sounded like something he’d want, but what about growing up? And what about other kind of pains?

“I…” Kyungsoo hesitated, “I notice that you guys don’t forget me. Does it means that...the reset won’t work on memory?”

Baekhyun’s expression hardened. It was somehow heartbreaking, seeing Baekhyun in his Mana form, his face full of agony and pain no four-year-old should ever bear. Kyungsoo knew that he had asked the wrong question. He debated whether or not he should apologize for overstepping the boundary but decided that it would sound even weirder.

“It won’t,” Chanyeol suddenly appeared behind Kyungsoo, interrupting the silence between them, “Ever since the day the Loop happened, we lost our ability to forget.” He smiled. “Hey, none of us forget about you, right?”

“Oh…” Kyungsoo was surprised. He imagined how easy university entrance exam would be if such thing could happen to him. “Like...you don’t forget anything at all?”

"Nothing at all." Chanyeol shook his head. “Not even the pain in my balls when Baekhyun kicked me after I called him a girl when he grew his hair too long.”

Kyungsoo wanted to laugh if it wasn’t due to the sadness in Chanyeol’s face. It was strange how something so amusing was told so forlornly. He bit his lower lip and glanced at his friends in confusion. Even Jongdae, who had previously been shooting lightning at fallen leaves, looked away distantly. The weather felt colder, denser, and more suffocating.

“I know you probably think that it’s a good thing to never forget.” Baekhyun stood up and placed his small hand on Kyungsoo’s cheek. The heavy tone in his voice betrayed his child-like appearance. “But some things are just meant to be forgotten. If only I was allowed to choose, I prefer not to remember...”





Kyungsoo stared in amusement as his friends fought each other with their Mana. He initially freaked out, waking up to the sounds of explosions and the view of Baekhyun, Jongdae and Chanyeol throwing lightning, fireball or blinding light at each other. He panicked more when he saw some parts of the forest, including the house, were severely destroyed, then he remembered that everything would turn anew after The Reset. After all, his friends' faces were bright; they seemed to be enjoying it.

It was the first time since Chanyeol demonstrated his Mana that Kyungsoo saw him in his Nature Form. He asked Baekhyun and Jongdae earlier about why, unlike them, Chanyeol didn't like to be in Nature Form even if it restricted him so much from using his Mana. Baekhyun and Jongdae glanced at each other over the question, and then broke out into hysterical laughters.

"It's not that he hates his Nature Form or anything," Jongdae headlocked him, his mirth ringing into Kyungsoo's ears. "He just doesn't do it when you're around."

"Me?" Kyungsoo grew apprehensive. Although his friends' laughter was enough to tell him that it wasn't anything serious, he still couldn't shake his own nagging instinct, which told him that he had forgotten something extremely significant regarding Chanyeol. "But why?"

"Let's say..." Baekhyun trailed off with an annoying know-it-all smirk. "He always wants you to see him as a man."

Kyungsoo blushed for a reason he couldn't quite understand. He felt a wild pulse at the pit of his stomach, his mind suddenly recalling Chanyeol's Mature Form the other night.

“Eat that, loser!” Chanyeol shrieked in laughter when Jongdae failed to completely dodge his fireball, and ended up having half of his hair burnt.

“You prick!” Jongdae shouted, sending a bolt of lightning and successfully hitting Chanyeol right on the chest. "Are you trying to ing kill me?"

It was rather disturbing, quite honestly, to see his friends speak in crude language and commit to such acts of violence in their childlike Natural Form. Kyungsoo felt like he was dealing with a bunch of badly educated children and had to remind himself that those boys were actually the same age as him.

The fight ended up a couple hours later, with both Chanyeol and Jongdae suffering from various degrees of burns. They were keeling over and in the end asked Kyungsoo to be brought to the creek where they could cool themselves. Baekhyun, on the other hand, despite the fact that his power was less deadly than the other two, had the least significant damage because he was good at using his light to ruin his opponents’ focus.

“… it stings.” Jongdae hissed. He was immersed almost entirely in the creek, with only his mouth and nose above the water. “If only Yixing was here, he could have fixed us in an instant.”

The name reminded him of some memory he must have unintentionally abandoned. In that instant, scenes flashed before his eyes: soothing touches, shared laughter, a seemingly never-ending happiness. This must be what Baekhyun and Chanyeol was telling him—about remembering—and as it washed over him, he felt pain. He did not understand but it was as if blades were thrown straight into his chest. It wasn't gradual—everything was overwhelming and he was breaking down. His eyes hurt and the next thing he knew he was crying. He had both hands clamped on his hair, pulling them as he curled on the ground in loud whimpers.

"Hey, Kyungsoo!" he heard someone call him. Somebody held him on the shoulders but that was all what he could remember. His vision faded to black.

Then he remembered.





Kyungsoo remembered everything.

Suddenly, he knew who Yixing was; a gentle man who was slightly older than them, whose touch could heal any disease or pain but death. He remembered the countless times when Yixing fixed his scratches or wounds, when one of his friends had so unwittingly use too much Mana while they played. Kyungsoo also remembered that when he cried, someone—was it Junmyeon?—would pick him up and scold the other boys for making him cry. There were also fragments of memories; of laughters, peaceful days and darker days, tears, and farewell.

Kyungsoo remembered the gentle wind that blew the spring petals into a rainbow-colored whirlwind, that tiny castle of ice in the middle of summer, and the voiceless whispers inside his head that spoke only of beautiful things. He remembered freezing midair, suspended by the frozen time that defied gravity, that black mist from where someone would suddenly appear, or those shots of jet water they would get out of nowhere whenever they were lazy. He remembered somebody soaring into the sky and his chest felt heavier—

“KRIS—”

Kyungsoo opened his eyes and saw worried faces of his friends. All of them were in their Mature form. His heartbeat raced and he felt his clothes soaked in sweat. He was still sobbing when he opened his eyes. The first thing he did was to seize the collar of Baekhyun’s shirt, pulling him close.

"Tell me," he told Baekhyun imperatively, his mind was a whirlwind of images and emotion, his eyes were stung by emerging tears. The ground shook beneath them and they all knew it must be Kyungsoo's Mana awakening. It was somehow terrifying, seeing his raging emotions for the first time in years, losing a bit of control of his powers when it just suddenly came back on him.

“Kris left. I...I saw him boarding the boat...with that girl. Tell Junmyeon—” There was a gasp when Kyungsoo stopped. He idly reached out for something to hold on to because realizing everything at once is too much for him to handle. "B-but Junmyeon... he's dead?" Suddenly, he sounded so scared. He managed to grasp on Jongdae's forearm and the latter winced as Kyungsoo's hold on him became stronger, tighter.

"Minseok too...everyone—” Kyungsoo choked when he could no longer control his sobs. “Everyone died. It... can’t be real, right? Right? Please..."

He looked at everyone's eyes as if he was begging. "Tell me...”




-tbc-