07 — AT THE TIP OF MY TONGUE
hyeongjun? an x1?
that's ridiculous.

—

"hyeongjun?"

wooseok moves closer to eunsang and whispers, "i'm fine with everything if that means we can keep that kid."

"he's a light manipulator. moves fast too, moves as fast as light." seungyoun explains slightly. "ultraviolet radiation manipulator too. don't know if he could control it well, though."

"eunsang-ah, you didn't tell me you hang out with our awesome seniors!" hyeongjun scampers excitedly, jumping up and down. "hello, senior-nim! i hope you remember me, i was the one who gave you sunflowers on your graduation."

"how could i not remember him? he's so precious." seungwoo mumbles to himself.

"hyeongjunie, i think we should talk elsewhere. we don't wanna disturb our seniors, don't we?" eunsang says, pushing hyeongjun aside.

"disturb us? that's ridiculous!" wooseok pulls eunsang back, stopping him from getting away. "we were just getting started! i'm sure uri hyeongjunie here wants to get to know us better, don't you, hyeongjun?"

what in earth is wooseok trying to do? that somehow appears into eunsang's head without his own consent. confused, eunsang immediately glances at seungyoun, who was grinning slightly.

great, that means it works. i can't read your mind, but i can indefinitely get into your head.

eunsang scowls.

yes, i can annoy you, i know. now let's just work on what wooseok's trying to do, i think he's about to draw in the target immediately.

"so hyeongjun-ah, what do you see as your best traits?" wooseok starts to ask, as he swirls his finger against the lid of his bottle.

"my best trait?" hyeongjun bites his lips. "i think it's gotta be.. my wide puppy eyes!"

"not that, silly." seungwoo chuckles. "i think what wooseok means is, what are you good at particularly?"

"um.. i like dancing." he answers. eunsang knows that hyeongjun is a part of the school's dancing team because he told him earlier. "my body is very light, so i could easily perform complex movements and routines."

ask him about running. seungyoun tells him.

eunsang nods. "how about.. running?"

"running? ah, i guess i could be considered good at that as well." hyeongjun smiles. "i was number one in the year's batch on my last bleep test."

"really? how much did you get?"

"uh, 13? or was it 14.."

that's not high enough. yohan got higher than that in his.

"well it's not my fault," eunsang utters to himself. he then realizes that he actually articulated those words himself. "wait, what? i'm sorry hyeongjun-ah, i wasn't talking to you." he shoots seungyoun a glare.

seungyoun smiles mischievously. guess i really did mess your head up. sike.

eunsang sighs in despair. he really hopes seungyoun could stop and just bother the other boys instead.

hyeongjun giggles. "eunsang-ah, you're so funny."

"anyway hyeongjun-ah," seungwoo continues the disguised interrogation. "13 is a high number, but are you sure that's the best you can do? were you sick or something by that time?"

"i was perfectly fine, i think." he answers. "i mean, that was last year. i might get a better score this year because my stamina is getting better. perhaps i can set a goal for 16."

seungyoun huffs a sigh of disappointment. hyeongjun, noticing the damp situation after he said those words, immediately panicked. "wait, i didn't say anything wrong, did i? i really didn't mean to make anyone sad—"

"no no, that's alright." wooseok says, assuring him. "you did great, 13 is a high score. even i didn't get that high of a number during my bleep test."

wooseok is really into him. seungyoun says in a disgusted tone. he's never this soft for a kid.

alright, i gotta go for a plan b, you follow me okay? eunsang looks at seungyoun who deliberately raises his eyebrow. he nods.

and in that moment, seungyoun starts his play. "ah, the lighting in this cafeteria is bad, i just noticed. i can't really read in the dark well, this is such a bad thing for me."

hyeongjun flutters his eyes. "i was about to go an turn on the lights, but i just noticed that the lights are actually all on. maybe it's because this place has a lot of windows and it depends on the sun a lot, that's why it's been quite grey. the weather's kinda cloudy today."

seungyoun sighs. "i wish someone could do something about it."

hyeongjun chuckles. "controlling the weather? i don't think that's possible, seungyoun-senior."

the trio and eunsang exchange glances. seungyoun sighs again. "well, perhaps someone could do something with the sun.."

the others nod, showing their agreement to seungyoun's statement. hyeongjun could only look at them, puzzled. "you mean control the sun? the sun hasn't been doing anything wrong! we're the ones circling her around, we should be the ones to start thinking of our rotation system!"

wooseok scowls. seungwoo grits his jaw. "i mean.. he's not wrong." seungwoo mumbles to himself.

"anyway, i think i gotta go now. lunch break's over and i gotta get to class." hyeongjun says as he gets up from his seat. "thank you for having me, seniors. eunsang-ah, would you like to walk with me to class?"

"me? i—"

"we need to talk to eunsang for a bit, he'll come to catch up with you later on." seungwoo says with a chuckle.

hyeongjun nods. "alright. i guess i'll be treating myself a fruitpop first, then i'll come back here okay?"

eunsang gives him a thumbs up then the boy leaves. checking the clear scene, eunsang immediately voices out his opinion. "guys, i really think he doesn't know about his power. his answers doesn't seem so 'super' if you ask me."

"well, he might be lying." wooseok says.

"he's been thinking about how weird we are for the past 15 minutes, but i can't be so sure whether he's lying or not." seungyoun points out. "he's an x1 here, maybe he's able to manipulate his own thoughts too, so we shouldn't really trust my readings too much."

"so what should we do now?" wooseok asks. "meet him in a quiet place, show off our powers and then tell him he's one of us?"

eunsang shrugs. "well, that's what you guys did to me."

"i think we gotta give him another chance to tell us himself." seungwoo says. "we need a conversion. something that could make him arise in panic to the point he has to run as fast as he could. by then he could expose his powers to us."

"and if he doesn't?"

"... we'll go for plan a."

"that's a good idea for me." seungyoun nods. "redhead, you come get the puppy guy. we'll be right behind you if you need us."

—

"they were quite weird asking us those questions, don't you think?"

eunsang was walking with hyeongjun back to class. their classes were next to each other, so eunsang had enough time to perform another bait so he could expose hyeongjun's powers. he answers hyeongjun's question with a blank face. "well, i can see why they're curious. they must like you a lot."

hyeongjun's cheeks redden. "how did you end up sitting with them anyway? i thought you're friends with junho."

alright, junho. i completely forgot about him. "i came to them because i was really touched by their speech."

"but they didn't even say anything, seungyoun senior fainted before he even grabbed the microphone."

"...but their presence itself is much more important, don't you think?" he lies. "after he recovered, i came to ask them things about adapting in this school. they were really nice to let me sit with them during lunch break."

"how brave of you to come ask the seniors for their opinion." hyeongjun mumbles. "i find that really cool."

"really? thank you." before eunsang could turn left back to the school's building, he captures seungyoun's voice appearing again in his head.

go to the garden. that's where we'll do the conversion.

eunsang pulls hyeongjun's arm, stopping him from turning left. "hyeongjun-ah, let's go to the garden."

hyeongjun's eyes flutter. "what?"

"i haven't visited it before, i want to take a look around! you can be the one to show me."

"but i have physics class!"

"relax, the teacher took a day off today." he pulls hyeongjun over. "let's go, i'm really curious!"

hyeongjun was unsure, but he followed him anyway. the two went over the garden, looking at the tall trees and beautiful flowers planted surround them. eunsang doesn't know what kind of 'conversion' he's expecting, but he knows that seungyoun will tell him his cue himself.

"the trees have been here for over 70 years," hyeongjun says, astonishment appears in his voice. "i heard that the school has requested to never cut the trees because it has been told to be the school's moral foundation. that's why they are strong and huge, i don't think any storm could ever taunt them down."

"that's interesting." eunsang was too focused on waiting for seungyoun's answer than listening to what hyeongjun has got to say. thankfully his cue appears faster than he thought.

first of all, before you judge, this is wooseok's plan. he told me to tell you that you should try tricking him by saying that the tree is gonna fall or something, he'll then panic and run away then BOOM we get him.

eunsang waits until they reach the biggest tree. "hyeongjun, watch out! the tree's gonna fall!"

hoping to see him run into oblivion, hyeongjun instead shrieks in panic. "what? where?! eunsang-ie save me!!" he cries, hugging eunsang very tightly to the point eunsang couldn't breathe. "I'M SO SCARED!"

eunsang sighs. turns out this great conversion they planned on didn't work out well.

wooseok's mad. time for plan b.

before he could do anything, suddenly he feels the ground turning to ice. eunsang who pretty knows what's going on immediately leaps backward, leaving hyeongjun behind on the cold trail of ice. "w-what's happening?" hyeongjun mutters in fear.

just like that, wooseok appears behind the trees, throwing water balls to hyeongjun. a very concerned seungwoo tries to stop wooseok by throwing fire at him, but most of his shots end up attacking hyeongjun anyway. seungyoun shouts at the both of them. "IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL A CONVERSION?!"

"we need to kickstart him and his power!" wooseok shouts back, still occupied by his water shooting capability.

"you're not trying to help him, you're trying to scare him away!" seungyoun yells. "hyung, you too! you gotta stop!"

"wooseok is never gonna stop if i stop!" seungwoo reasons.

"all that you can get from this is the destruction of the school's garden and let me tell you, that ain't gonna be nice to see!" seungyoun shouts. "god bless our dear gardeners!"

eunsang didn't know what to do. he wanted to help hyeongjun get away, but he knew he can't. he can't do much to stop wooseok from shooting water balls to him too. that's why at this point he's just hoping for a miracle, something to happen to hyeongjun, because maybe he has been keeping his powers this whole time...

then it happened.

eunsang couldn't really explain what exactly happened, what he could only see is that hyeongjun's face was as red as ever. his hands are clasped tightly and his eyes are sealed shut. then all of a sudden he glows into a huge ray of light. the light surrounding him guards him from any incoming attacks. then the light explodes, causing a huge spark that quite create an impact for the plants close to him. the plants burnt to ashes, and wooseok who was standing quite close to him got his left hand burnt from the sudden counterattack. he winces lightly, holding his injured hand tightly.

the other boys stare at hyeongjun in awe, surprised of what he did defending himself. hyeongjun looks quite surprised himself. his eyes widen and his mouth falls open. he looks at both of his hands, seemingly wandering what he did until he reached into that kind of state.

seungwoo steps forward. "hyeongjun-ah—"

before he could calm him down, hyeongjun runs away himself in the speed of light, somehow already gone.

the rest of the boys look at each other in surprise. they finally did it. seungyoun looks over wooseok's injured hand. "i'm not going to treat that for ya. you deserve it."

—

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