There is something morose about crying in the shower of your school’s gym. There is an utter defeat lying in the fact that you can’t even hold in your tears when the football team is going to enter any minute to change before their practice and your best friend is waiting by the lockers. It’s pathetic that Jongdae is letting stars fall from his eyes and flush down the drain when this is the worst possible place to show feelings.

But he can’t help it.

Words are bouncing against the walls, draining his thoughts as they whisper their hidden meaning in his ears and laughs pain through his mind. Jongdae shakes his head, tiny stars flying around and scolding the water before they lose their heat and fall useless against the floor.

He doesn’t know where the words are coming from or what they mean. They’re just there, disturbing his days as they accompany him wherever he goes. There are different words every day, some gets lost as the hours pass and some still glow with him as he falls asleep.

Most time they’re silent and Jongdae can ignore them.

This week they’ve been loud, like tanks invading his mind and disturbing his hard earned piece. He knows that he should talk to someone about it, maybe the school nurse or a teacher but he can’t. It’s not unusual that young people get additional powers as they grow up but it also isn’t unusual that they fake it to seem more important or get privileges.

Jongdae has been wrong twice.

He had thought the stars falling from his eyes was a power but when he’d cried in front of the nurse the tears had been made of water. He’d sworn that the stars came back from time to time and the nurse had patted his head and explained that maybe it was just an effect of stress and overheating. Maybe the added electricity in his body as he got stressed caused hallucinations. But how could he not be stressed when he managed to cry in front of the nurse?

The second time he’d been sure that he could fly but that assumption had just turned into a huge embarrassment when they detected traces of alcohol in his blood as they tested him the day after the incident. That had led to a phone call to his grandparents (his guardians) and suspension for a week even though Jongdae sworn that he hadn’t been drinking the day before. It had been a Wednesday for crying out loud, only the completely mad got drunk before the Thursdays sparring lessons with the seniors. Unfortunately this was not enough proof to make the nurse believe him, especially not since he- an average electricity boy of 17- sworn to have been flying from the chemistry tower, a place known to even the teachers to be a standard drinking place.

The humiliation and heart-breaking call from his grandmother afterwards made Jongdae swear to himself never to go back to the office to check for a new power, no matter how he felt.

No matter how many words that bounce around him.

Outside the football team enters and Jongdae quickly turns off the shower. He closes his eyes and take three deep breathes, listening to the chaos outside as he tries to collect himself. He sneaks out of the showers and collects his stuff that he left right outside, tensely listening as Luhan explains something to his team mates. He dries his hair and tears with a towel and accidently scolds the material, something his senior in charge Minseok will probably scold him for, and tries to conceal his hick-ups. He probably looks like and Baekhyun will ask questions but Jongdae can’t help it. The words are dimming his vision even as he puts his pants on and he’s trembling as he buckles his belt.

Gone away, far away, crystals, iron hard metal, brilliant, smile, sun, colours, golden dust.

They dance around him and he launches himself up in a lamp- following the electricity towards the lockers and trying to escape his mental hunters. Stars are falling as he flies by, heating up the electricity around him and probably damaging the copper but Jongdae can’t find it in him to care.

He arrives in front of Baekhyun to fast and the other shrieks and jumps two step backwards.

Jongdae doesn’t even flinch- too tired to even try to pretend he’s normal in front of his best friend. Baekhyun will notice anyway, he always does.

Like now. They spend a good two minutes just staring at each other, Jongdae fighting back his tears and Baekhyun taking in his apperence, before Baekhyun sighs and drags Jongdae towards his locker.

“Get the stuff you need and let’s go to the dorms. When we get there we’ll open beers and drink until you tell me what’s wrong.”

And Jongdae doesn’t even have the strength to disagree.

“It’s the new kid, he’s apparently super powerful with like 2 level 5 powers or something. He apparently can’t control his powers properly and is wearing those bracelets to tame them or what not. Also, he’s from France, or like he’s not French but he’s lived there for the last years and now he’s moved here but don’t worry, he speaks Korean.” Baekhyun whispers quickly to Chanyeol as the new kid sways into the corridor. “Don’t stare at him!” He adds as Chanyeol turns his entire body in a very indiscreet way to stare at the tall, lanky kid.

“Sorry” Chanyeol apologises and proceed to ignore the kid in an even less discreet way. Jongdae rolls his eyes and closes his locker, armed with a heavy history book. Words are swimming across his eyes, looking foggy and he wants to swipe them away but since no one else can see them that’d just make him look crazy. Not that anyone is looking, they’re too busy staring at the new kid and whispering as he walks past.

He’s handsome, Jongdae can’t deny that, and without doubt out of Jongdae’s league, judging from his clothes and well-styled hair. The guy also looks extremely bored, like he’d rather do much about anything than being here listening to Joonmyun babbling on about the school and its rules. This doesn’t seem to stop anyone from adoring the newly arrived since girls and boys alike still swoon as they look at him. Jongdae decides that he doesn’t care and hikes his bag further up on his shoulders before starting to make his way to class.

“I’ll see you guys later” He says to Chanyeol and Baekhyun, who’s still whispering about this new kid and they wave distractedly at him. Jongdae rolls his eyes and shrugs, stepping aside as a group of girls whisperingly hurries past, walking alongside the new kid in a way that’s probably supposed to be discreet. Jongdae looks up and meets the eyes of the new guy briefly as the other walks by.

It’s a shockwave. The words around him tremor and turns to dust just to spring up again, glowing in red. Every hair on his body stands up and for a second his skin flares with electricity. He gasps a little at the shock and stumbles slightly. He quickly searches around to see if anyone noticed but apparently someone fell further ahead so no one is paying attention to Jongdae’s slip-up. With reddening cheeks he hurries down the corridor, not caring as he bumps into several people on the way. Brown eyes flashes before his vision and he increases the speed of his steps until he’s almost running down the corridor and into the classroom. Most of his classmates are already there and a group in the back take one look at his flustered look and quite heavy breathing before putting their heads together to whisper to each other.

Jongdae doesn’t care, he already knows what they’re saying. Instead he sits down on his seat by the door and avoids all eye contact.

The words are still shining in red around him but the lesson has already started before Jongdae notices that they’re all the same.

One.