Chapter 0: Intro
Seoul High School was packed with students. They bustled about the halls, chattering along with their friends and classmates. Kang Taehyun grumbled to himself as he walked down the school corridor, nudging past people as he went. He tried to turn up the music on his phone, only to be further disappointed when the volume wouldn’t rise any further. Eventually, he got tired of pushing past people, and stood still in the middle of the hall.
He inhaled deeply, then let the air out slowly. Taehyun’s eyes drifted closed, and a familiar, comforting chill slid up his spine. Behind his eyelids, he saw the all familiar light blue glow of magic he knew was radiating off of him. His eyes opened slowly, and he lowered the volume on his phone as everything slowed around him. The people walked slower, and their voices got lower and dragged out, until they completely stopped. The entire hallway, and school, if Taehyun had succeeded, had completely froze.
Kang Taehyun had stopped time.
He dragged his feet over to a gap between some frozen students, and sat on the floor. The young teen leaned against the wall, fishing his phone out of his pocket, and restarted the song he was trying to listen to before. He rested his head against the wall, letting his eyes slip shut as he let the sound of the music embrace him, easing his tired mind.
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Choi Soobin sat in class, completely engrossed in his quiz. He scribbled down answer after answer, too lost in his work to notice the eerie silence that had fallen over the room. He finished the last question with ease, raising his hand as he finished writing. Slowly, he looked up from his completed work and up to the teacher.
“I’m do-” he froze as his eyes widened at the sight before him. The teacher, and students weren't moving. Or breathing, for that matter. He stood up and looked around the classroom. For a split second, he felt his anxiety spike. However, as soon as he began to freak, he quickly realized what had happened. He darted out of the room, looking for a specific junior.
"Taehyun!!"
Said boy looked up from his place on the ground, watching Soobin as he slid across the glossy school floor tiles. He watched Soobin with a blank face, as the raven haired teen tried to catch his breath, his cheeks flushed pink.
Once Soobin caught his breath, he looked down at the bored teen accusingly.
"What did I say about stopping time at school?"
"To do it when it's necessary." Taehyun blinked up at Soobin
"Yes-No!! I said to only stop time when it is absolutely necessary, which is never during school hours!!" Soobin looked down at his friend incredulously.
Taehyun shrugged, looking away from the older male, and stared at nothing in particular in front of him. “It was absolutely necessary.”
“Then what happened? Are you hurt?”
“...no.”
Soobin stood in disbelief for a second. “If you're not hurt, then what was so important that you needed to stop time?”
Taehyun didn’t speak for a second; he knew he would get scolded for his reasoning, but he also knew he’d get caught in a lie. Soobin’s magic fed off of aura anyway; he could always read Taehyun like an open book. Taehyun looked up at Soobin through his eyelashes, his cheeks puffed out in slight embarrassment.
“I had to... listen to my song..” he mumbled under his breath.
Soobin blinked owlishly at the other teen. He huffed, but decided not to argue. At least Taehyun wasn’t using his magic for some kind of malicious reason. He peeked down at the younger boy’s phone, squinting his eyes.
“...what song are you listening to?”
Taehyun flashed his phone screen at Soobin, and the raven haired teen looked at the screen, his eyes widening a bit.
“Hey, that's my favorite song.”
Taehyun let a tiny smile raise on his lips, before taking one AirPod out of his ear, gesturing it up to Soobin.
“I know. Come listen.”
Soobin knew he shouldn’t have caved; but he couldn’t help himself. It was his favorite song after all. He sat next to Taehyun on the ground, took the AirPod, and turned back to his friend.
“Only this song. After this, you have to start time back up and get to class. Okay?”
Taehyun looked away, pressing his head against the wall, letting his eyes slip closed once more. Next to him, Soobin put the airpod into his ear, copying Taehyun’s pose as he rested his own head against the wall.
“Fine. Just one song.”
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Choi Beomgyu clutched his books to his chest tightly, walking fast with his head down. He just had to make it to the library and he’d be safe. ‘Jeez’, he thought to himself. ‘Could my body move any slower?’ He stared at his own feet, and hoped he’d gain the ability of super speed before-
Before he could finish his own thoughts, he was pushed on the shoulder. The force made him turn, and the same hand that pushed him shoved him backwards. The force made Beomgyu’s back slam into the metal behind him. The door was then harshly thrown into the rest of the metal, letting out a loud booming noise as the lock clicked in place.
Once again, Choi Beomgyu was shoved into a locker.
He huffed, and pressed his head to the locker door, listening to the sounds of mocking laughter from the other side. His eyes cast down at the ‘Later loser!’ he heard, keeping quiet.
Being quiet was easier than fighting. Beomgyu thought over his own morals as he waited for the hallway to clear, his ears focused on the footsteps on the other side of the metal door. Why didn’t he fight back? He was telekinetic for christ’s sake. He could throw those mindless bullies down the hall without lifting a finger; and yet, he took all the crap they shoved his way. Beomgyu took a deep breath, urging his nerves to calm back down.
No, he wouldn’t fight back, even if given the chance (which he has been presented with. Several times.) He knew that he would have an advantage over those bullies, and he didn’t want to abuse his power. If they needed to shove him into every locker in the world to feel better about themselves, Beomgyu thought it was best to just leave them be. They’d get taught a lesson in the real world.
Yet, no matter how much he excused their behavior, he did find it quite inconvenient. His shoulder blades and back were always sore, and probably bruised in ugly mixtures of blues, purples and yellows. He wouldn’t know anymore; Beomgyu got tired of checking the damage.
Beomgyu shook off his thoughts, clearing his head and paying attention to the world outside of the locker he was trapped in. He was met with silence, which meant he could finally let himself out. The teen brought his empty hand up to the locker, closing his eyes and scrunching his eyebrows. He focused hard, until he could feel the machinery of the lock under his fingertips. His fingertips then pressed into the locker door harder, and he could feel the gears begin to move.
Slowly, Beomgyu used his telekinesis to unlock the locker, and once he felt the click he’d been all too familiar with, his magic opened the door fully. Carefully, he stepped out of the locker, scanning the hall again to make sure he was alone. He then turned back to his temporary cell, and softly closed it shut.
Beomgyu straightened out his clothes and let out a huff, before making his way to the library.
“Thank god I have study hall.”
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Choi Yeonjun thanked the librarian for his book and made his way to the table he and Kai Kamal Huening occupied. He watched Kai with a soft smile as the younger boy sat at the table alone, trying to solve his math homework. Yeonjun moved to sit next to his young friend, opening his book and reading.
Meanwhile, Kai stared at his paper helplessly as his mind wandered to every possible thing he could think of. He rubbed the eraser end of his pencil into his hair, his face turning to a pout.
‘Focus Kai, c’mon...focus…’
But nothing was more treacherous than sitting around in a quiet library while quietly trying to solve impossible math problems… quietly. He knew he promised Yeonjun he’d actually try to do his homework on his own first; but he really didn’t want to sit in confused silence anymore. It was driving him insane. Kai tried not to break the silence, his body practically vibrating with pent up energy before the dam finally burst.
“Hey. Yeonjun-”
He looked over to his older friend, and his eyes darted down to the book he was holding. His eyes widened at the book, realizing it was one of his favorite manga.
“Ohmygosh Jun, that series is amazing! My sister showed it to me when-”
Yeonjun whipped his head to Kai, shushing him immediately, and they began to talk over each other.
“No, Kai, you're supposed to be working-”
“Yeah I know, but I didn’t it understand and-”
The two started bickering, talking over each other. From the outside, it looked somewhat aggressive- like an argument. In reality, this was just how they communicated, and it was just a part of their exuberant friendship. They got weird looks from other students; not that they noticed to begin with. They kept going back and forth until Kai got distracted by Beomgyu shuffling closer into the library. Kai cut off Yeonjun’s rant, his attention completely shifting.
“Beom!! Beomgyu!! Over here!” he called, his arms waving wildly.
Beomgyu looked up from his shoes, his face blushing in surprise, and deepening in embarrassment when he noticed the amount of students staring at him. He could tell they were begging him to get his friend to shut up, so he quickly went over to the table Kai and Yeonjun occupied, before plopping down.
“Yes, Kai. I’m here, hello. Please stop yelling in the library…”
Kai beamed at Beomgyu, blissfully unaware of the scene he caused.
“Hiya Beom! Jun and I were just talking about this manga that came out not too long ago, see he’s got the book? Anyway, it’s really good, it’s about-” Kai began his rant from the beginning, overwhelming Beomgyu immediately. He peeked down at the work in front of Kai, before looking over to Yeonjun.
“Math?” he whispered to his older friend.
Yeonjun nodded halfheartedly, and whispered back “You know how it is.”
Beomgyu looked back to Kai, who was still rambling on a mile a minute. He tried to keep up with Kai’s fast speech, or at least, he tried to pretend like he was keeping up, nodding along here and there, giving an occasional ‘uh huh’ or a ‘yep.’
Yeonjun looked at his two friends, smiling softly to himself, before going back to his book. He couldn’t deny it, it was a pretty good manga after all. He kept reading while Beomgyu had eventually gotten Kai to refocus on his work, only by promising to help him the entire time (mainly an excuse to do his own homework, since they had the same teacher; not that that bothered Kai at all.) They sat together until the bell for lunch rang, and the three got packed up and walked to the lunchroom together.
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The trio from the library walked into the busy, loud lunchroom. Yeonjun and Kai made their way over to the lunch line, where Soobin and Taehyun were already standing. Beomgyu, on the other hand, went over to the group’s usual table before another bully could find him standing alone. Usually, he’d wait for Soobin or Yeonjun to go with him, but he was too hungry to wait for them to settle down. He sat down, pulled his lunch out of his bag, and started munching on his sandwich, his mind dozing off as he ate. Soobin, Yeonjun, and Kai all sat on the opposite side of the table, while Taehyun sat next to Beomgyu.
They chatted about their morning classes, and about Taehyun’s time stopping ‘adventure’ (which was quite funny once Yeonjun realized that that was why he was stuck in the bathroom. The group babbled on like a normal group of teens, until a kid snuck his way behind Beomgyu, a tray of food in his hands. The kid dumped his food over Beomgyu, laughing heartily as he walked away. Yeonjun's hands immediately began to sizzle against the table as he moved to stand, but Soobin caught him and shook his head.
'No burning bullies into a crisp.'
Yeonjun grumbled under his breath, moving his hands under the table. His fire magic left two hand-shaped burns in the wood, and Soobin slid Yeonjun’s lunch tray over the damaged material to hide it.
Taehyun helped Beomgyu clean his hair as much as possible, offering to go to the bathroom with him to clean up, and maybe find a shirt in his locker. Kai, the usually bouncy personality, sat completely still, his eyes locked on the asshat that spilled food over his friend.
Kai watched the kid walk around a bit before going to the water fountain near the doors to the lunchroom. Kai watched as he drank water, his hands clenched. Kai focused on the pipes under the fountain, his eyebrows scrunching. He pent up his energy before letting it loose, and the fountain shot water up at the bully, soaking him almost completely and knocking him to the ground. The entire lunchroom whipped around to face him, some staring in shock; most laughing their heads off. The group watched as the kid grumbled to himself and quickly walked out of the cafeteria.
Yeonjun leaned over the table to look past Soobin, giving him a happy look. Soobin and Beomgyu, on the other hand, both whipped their heads over to the youngest of the group, distaste on their features.
“Kai!!” They both whisper-yelled at their youngest friend.
Kai shrugged his shoulders in response, his hands going up with them, and one of his eyebrows raised up in a confused expression. “What?”
Beomgyu huffed at him, choosing to get up and clean himself off before his next class, Taehyun following behind him. Soobin, on the other hand, couldn’t let it slide.
He watched Beomgyu and Taehyun leave, then whipped his head to face Kai, who froze in his spot. “Kai Kamal Huening!” Soobin glared at his youngest friend. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
Kai pouted in response, slouching his shoulders to make himself smaller. “That guy threw his food on Beomgyu. I just thought that-”
“No, no you didn’t think! Did you not hear me earlier?” he cut Kai off, exasperated for having to have this conversation for the second time in one day. He lowered his voice to a whisper and said, “I’ve had this conversation with all of you already. We can’t risk getting caught. We don’t know what anyone would do to us if they found out.”
Kai visibly deflated, showing Soobin that, yes, he did know better, but he still wanted to argue his point. Kai opened his mouth to say something, but Yeonjun jumped in.
“Bin, you know he was just looking out for Beom, he won’t do it again,” he turned to Kai, “isn’t that right?”
Kai smiled at Yeonjun in gratitude, glad his oldest friend decided to take his side. “Yeah, right!” He turned back to Soobin, his eyes glittering, his head quickly bobbing up and down; seemingly already leaving the scolding behind. “I won’t do it again Binnie!! Promise!”
