The whistle blew and the game began.

"Changbin!" Chan shouted from the other side of the field signaling for him to freeze Jisung and Felix before they had a chance to go for the soccer ball. Jisung was stopped mid-run just inches away from the ball, but Felix managed to poof from the field before he was frozen.

Seungmin and Chan both ran for the ball at the same time, so Minho summoned a forcefield in Seungmin's path to make sure Chan was able to make it to the ball first. That tactic didn't last long, though, because Felix popped up behind Minho and kicked his feet out from under him making the older lose focus on maintaining his gift.

"Shall we have a rematch?" Felix asked with a smirk. He then went to land another strike down on Minho's stomach until his ankle made contact with a shield. Minho rolled out from under the protection he had summoned and jumped to his feet, engaging Felix in a series of close contact attacks. Felix stayed close to Minho the entire time, knowing that Changbin wouldn't try to freeze him and risk freezing his teammate as well.

Meanwhile, Chan had gotten to the ball before Seungmin since he was delayed slightly, only to be met with a bombardment of water to the face. Hyunjin took advantage of the distraction and stole the soccer ball from Chan's feet heading towards their goal instead. Changbin stood in his path, and Hyunjin was suddenly worried he would be frozen, but instead, Changbin stepped out of the way and a sonic scream blasted Hyunjin onto his butt. Woojin came from the right, dribbling the ball in the opposite direction.

Seungmin attempted to retake the ball for his team, but before he could attack Woojin, the eldest kicked the ball to Chan and then shifted into a jaguar. He lept at Seungmin, keeping him distracted long enough for Chan to kick the ball into their team's net.

Jeongin, Woojin, Chan, and Changbin cheered, Jisung unfroze and almost face planted in the dirt when he went to kick a ball that was no longer there, and Felix relaxed the chokehold he had put Minho in when he had jumped onto his back during their fight.

"Aish, this is so unfair you guys," Hyunjin shouted. "That was your third goal in a row, and we can hardly stop you since Changbin keeps freezing half our team, making it literally two or three versus five."

"Maybe Jisung should have moved a little bit faster and I wouldn't have been able to freeze him. Felix did it this time," Changbin said and Felix blushed a little at the slight compliment.

Jisung just cast Changbin a glare. "I doubt you were even trying that hard to freeze him. You're always playing favorites, hyung."

"Everybody calm down," Chan eventually stepped in to settle the argument. "This is supposed to be Team Building. We're working on getting a job done even when we have to be split up into smaller groups. The key is to devise a plan before the play and carry it out as a united team, and your team isn't with one another. Hyunjin and Seungmin, you both could have done way more damage if you two had been on the same page. Most of our team have defensive gifts while you guys have more of the offensive types, too, so use that to your advantage. Be more aggressive."

They were currently playing a game of Gifted soccer. Chan, Woojin, Minho, Changbin, and Jeongin were one team while Hyunjin, Jisung, Felix, and Seungmin were the other.

"Fine," Jisung said defiantly. "Alrighty, team 2000, huddle up!"

"Who made you the team captain?" Seungmin and Hyunjin questioned at the same time.

"Oh, would you just pretend you like me for the next half hour so we can kick the hyungs and Jeongin's asses."

Both of them looked to Jeongin, but all they got in response was the youngest sticking his tongue out at them in a childish and provoking manner. After that, they were quick to join Jisung and Felix in a huddle, eager to devise their opponents' demise.

Once again, the two teams were standing across from each other on the soccer field waiting for the whistle to blow. Jisung and Felix had their eyes trained on the Normie teacher who was leading their class that day with the hopes of seeing the exact moment he signaled the match to begin. For Jisung, he took a deep breath and let the world slow down as his internal body functions speed up. The very second the high pitched note of a whistle shot through the air, his body was moving towards the soccer ball.

Felix, too, was quick to teleport from his spot on the opposite side of the field to directly on Changbin's back. He wrapped both his legs and his arms around the older boy and clung onto him for dear life.

"Can't freeze me now, Binnie," Felix said with a laugh into Changbin's ear that made the dark-haired boy freeze himself for a hot second.

Meanwhile, Chan's team seemed to predict that Jisung and Felix would avoid being frozen that time because Minho had set up a forcefield surrounding the ball immediately after the bell sounded. Luckily, Jisung managed to jump over it before he kicked at the forcefield and stubbed his toe.

Jisung continued running in random directions around the field as he huffed in frustration at the ball. He couldn't stay still for long and risk Changbin getting the chance to freeze him even though Felix was keeping him distracted, and he was learning from his mistake the previous day by running in an unpredictable pattern.

That was when Hyunjin and Seungmin stepped forward to fight. Hyunjin used the water from his pouches and from the air around them to cover his arms in water, strengthening them, and Seungmin had all his bits of metal flying in circles around his body. The two of them stepped forward and were met with Chan, Woojin, and Jeongin in a face off.

Hyunjin and Seungmin looked at each other briefly before Hyunjin threw water at the three's feet. Hoping to trip them. Chan and Woojin managed to jump and dodge this attempt, but Jeongin quickly fell backwards. Seungmin took this opportunity to neutralize their biggest threat in this fight by merging some of his metal pieces together into a band, and securing it around Jeongin's mouth so that he couldn't open it and scream.

"Sorry, baby, but this is war," Seungmin said apologetically to the red-head when his eyes went wide at Seungmin for the treatment.

Woojin had shifted into his signature brown bear form and started to lunge for Seungmin while Chan tried to fight with Hyunjin. However, the tall, younger boy was a bit better at martial arts compared to the leader, especially when he was using just gifts alongside his fighting style. As a result, Chan was a little over his head, but he was just hoping on keeping his opponent distracted from the game.

Minho, on the other hand, knew he needed to get Changbin to freeze Jisung before he could remove his forcefield from the ball. He was just about to help Changbin deal with Felix when suddenly he was pushed to the ground with an incredible force. Jisung stopped for a moment and gave the older a soft apology before he took off again and claimed the ball before Minho could re-shield it.

Within the next blink of an eye, the ball was in their opponents net, and the 2000 line shouted out in victory.

The game ended up being a tie with both teams scoring five times, much to the makane line's dismay.

*****

The next week seemed to fly by before Minho even realized it. On Saturday, they went into town again and helped repair an old couple's barn that was damaged during a storm a week prior. Sunday, all nine of them spent time together at the academy goofing off and having a movie binge together that night. Monday through Friday they returned to classes, and Minho eventually got reaccustomed to school life. It had begun to feel like he had lived at the academy with the rest of Stray Kids for months when in reality it hadn't even been two weeks.

The second Saturday since Minho's arrival came around, and they returned to town to help with another project. By now Minho wasn't wary about being around all the Normies in town, and he even grew to enjoy the residents because of their warm hospitality whenever anyone from the academy came around. The academy's students really seemed to give back to this small community as much as it could, and in exchange, the town gave them a little part of the outside world where they were welcomed. Welcomed because the residents didn't know they were Gifteds, but it was closer than most students have been welcomed anywhere before.

Unfortunately, even though Minho had gotten used to the school schedule, he was having trouble keeping up with all the lessons they had been going over that week in their classes. One subject in particular was giving him a harder time than the rest: Math.

Sunday afternoon, he was sitting at his desk in his dorm room trying to complete the homework that would be due Tuesday. After staring at a problem for ten minutes and still not being able to come up with any possible way of solving it, he threw his pencil down with an exasperated groan.

"Fine! I'll bite my pride and ask for help," Minho shouted to himself. He proceeded to push out of his chair and set out to find the person who had offered to tutor him.

He ended up not having to look too much because as soon as he walked out to the mini lounge space they had at the end of their hall, Minho saw the very boy he was looking for sitting on a couch.

Jisung was sitting up with his legs curled up against his chest while he was holding his phone at eye level. His eyes were trained on his phone screen, eyes wide and he also had headphones plugged into his ears, so it seemed as if he had no sense of the outside world.

Minho smirked as a devilish plan popped into his head.

Slowly he crept up behind the couch and looked over the boy's shoulder to see him watching some drama which caused Minho to roll his eyes. 'Of course, he would watch that kind of sappy stuff.'

Once he was done mentally making fun of him, Minho reached forward and grabbed both of Jisung's shoulders quickly causing the younger to jump up and scream, dropping his phone in the process. Minho buckled over on the floor laughing behind the couch at the success of his jump scare.

"What the fuck, Minho?!" The squirrel boy shouted at him as he stuck his head over the back of the couch and saw who the culprit was.

"Oh my God," Minho said through watery eyes. "You are such a scaredy cat."

"Leave me alone. I was just minding my own business and wasn't expecting a hoe to come up from behind and ruin it," Jisung said with a pout as he sat back down facing away from Minho.

"Yeah, I could tell," Minho replied as he finally stood up and started to calm his laughing. He jumped over the couch and landed in the spot right next to Jisung. "You seemed pretty engrossed in whatever the hell you were watching. Why do you watch those dramas, anyways? They're just a bunch of boring Normies acting out cliché plot lines."

Jisung loudly gasps in response to what Minho had just said. "How dare you call drama's 'cliché!' I should have known you were a man with no taste."

"Pfft. Whatever. What are you watching, anyways?"

"The Beauty Inside, and you are now going to watch it with me until you recognize what true art is," Jisung huffed as he pulled Minho close to him, unplugged his headphones, and clicked play to resume the episode.

Minho was taken aback by the sudden action but wasn't complaining too much either. He decided to humor Jisung for a little bit before ditching the drama and asking him to help him with math. Or at least, that was the plan, but three episodes later Minho was totally hooked.

"Alright, and that's where we'll stop today," Jisung said and then turned his phone off.

"What? Why?"

Jisung laughed in response to Minho's cute questioning. "Weren't you the one who was calling this drama cliché and boring not three hours ago?"

"I... uh... a guy can change his mind, okay?" Minho stated with a shrug of his shoulders like he was trying to play it off.

"Okaaaay. If you say so. I have to go work on my homework that is due Tuesday."

"Oh, the math handouts?"

"Yup. Have you done them yet?"

Minho shook his head. "No. That's actually what I came out here for. I was going to ask for your help with the questions because I am completely lost." Minho scratched the back of his head in embarrassment at how he was needing to ask for help.

Jisung, on the other hand, couldn't help but break out into a huge smile as a result of Minho coming to him for help. "Of course I'll help you. I did offer to tutor you, anyways. Come on, we can work on the handout together."

And so that was exactly what they did for the remainder of the afternoon. Minho was still surprised by how good Jisung actually was at explaining things and seemed to know what he was doing while Jisung kept laughing at how shy Minho would get whenever he messed something up or when he had to ask for Jisung to explain it to him a second time, but he always got there in the end. They were just finishing up their last problem when Chan knocked on the door to their dorm and shouted at them that dinner was ready.

"Hmm, that's weird," Jisung said to himself after that.

"What's weird?" Minho looked to him confused.

"Usually when Chan wants us to head downstairs for food he just barges through the door and makes sure we are out of bed and getting ready. He hardly ever just knocks and leaves just like that."

"Oh, yeah. I've noticed that. Hmm," Minho said, thinking about it briefly. "Maybe he thought we were up to no good and didn't trust us to be decent," Minho finally considered aloud.

"Yaaaaah! Get your filthy head out of the gutter. Why in the hell would he think me and you were... I don't even wanna think about what you were implying."

Minho just shrugged and stood up, not saying anything else. Jisung was left staring after him, still in shock, until he snapped out of it and quickly ran after the older.

*********

I'M ALIVEEEEEEEEEEE. 

Wow. Sorry y'all. It's been a hot minute. I feel like every time I'm updating I'm apologizing for being gone so long and now I've gone for like two weeks. whoops.

Hope this chapter's cute moment made up for it, and who knows 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️, maybe the next update will have somethin extra special. :P

Now, this author note is going to be a bit long because it's lowkey a one month anniversary present to my gf (meaning I should've posted this five days ago but I oop-), so if you aren't interested in a sappy real-life love story then ya can just skip it.  

Q: Have you ever made a decision that changed your entire life? If so, what was it?

Yes. 

This decision seemed small at the time. 

It seemed like just a way to practice writing before I started to work on the original work I had been planning to write since the 10th grade. 

But choosing to write this fanfic, The Gifted Few, entirely changed my life for the better. 

Had I not, on a whim, decided to sit down and put my crazy ideas into words, I never would have been able to meet the most important person in my life. 

She never would have been able to stumble upon my fanfic when it was a measly 13 chapters. 

The first comment I ever saw her leave was "I feel so dumb😂. It only just now crossed my mind that when you wrote in the earlier chapter about Minho throwing up his force field when he was on the run that you didn't ACTUALLY mean THROW UP. Like, I've been sitting here this whole time thinking, "His power would be so cool if he didn't have to actually throw it up." Omg you didn't mean it like that. You meant throw it up as in summon it. I wasn't even reading anything to trigger that thought but I had been sitting on it so much and then it FINALLY dawned on me. An hour later."  (Sorry for exposing you, baby). 

I must say, I was laughing for about ten minutes over this and it definitely left a lasting impression. 

Later she reached out to me, so that she could ask me questions about my fic, but also to show me the wonderfully amazing cover that I had inspired her to make for my story. I was so touched when she showed it to me and it an absolutely perfect representation of the story I was trying to tell. (It's the current cover imagine)

From then onward, we started talking. 

And talking. 

And talking some more. I don't think there has been a single day since we met over two months ago that we haven't spent talking to each other (she keeps taking responsibility for it taking me longer to update my fics) 

The more we talked, the more we realized how much we had in common. Within one week and by the fifth 'me tooooo' moment we were already calling each other soulmates.

I say all of this because I sincerely believe that so many things could have gone differently, and we could've ended up never meeting each other. I could have never written this story. You could have never found my widely unknown story. You could've passed right over it and never even read it (she is picky about fanfic. I can't get her to read three-quarters of the ones I recommend). You could have never decided to make me a cover. You could have just shown it to me and not taken the time to actually get to know me. Or could have not let me get to know you. 

This all is what tells me that it is truly meant to be. It was our destiny.

So thank youuuuuu so much for being an amazing person, Cassidy! My beta reader and my soulmate. You are so so so special and you make me feel like the most special person in the entire world. You listen to all my wacky ideas and I love hearing all of yours. You make me feel less alone in the world and I cannot wait to see what you do. (aka get to writing missy)

I love you. 😘 And happy late anniversary! ;p 

And thank you to all my readers who have supported me thus far as well! You all are amazing and I absolutely love it when my phone blows up cause someone is leaving a bunch of comments all over the place. 

Also! It's StaySelcaDay, so I thought I'd share mine. 

This one is from the last StaySelcaDay, so if you follow me on twitter, you have prob already seen. Just thought I would share with everyone else. 

And nooow the current one. 

So yeaaaaah. Face reveal!

Love you all!

~Shadow