Chapter Text
Jihoon rested his chin on the palm of his hand, looking out the car window and watching the world around him flash by, feeling increasingly sick to the stomach as the vehicle slowly approached the ginormous campus. His new university. After a few minutes, the car finally came to a stop in a parking space in the school parking lot and Jihoon deeply sighed for what could possibly have been the millionth time during the entire ride to the campus.
"Okay Jihoon what's wrong, this is 95th time you've sighed during this whole car ride." So not exactly a million but close enough.
Jihoon looked over at his older cousin, the one who drove him to this hell place, and sighed again. "Wow Minhyun, you really had nothing better to do than count my sighing?" Jihoon deadpanned, the question sounding more like a mocking statement.
"Even with the radio on, your dramatic sighing was all I could hear for the past 2 hours driving here, so I counted just to inform you of how ridiculous you're being. Now what's wrong?"
Jihoon turned his head towards the windshield, looking out at all the people walking around the campus ground doing whatever and going wherever, and man was it a lot of people. He grimaced. "You should know why I'm sighing, seeing as you're the cause of it." Jihoon huffed while crossing his arms.
It was now Minhyun's turn to sigh, sitting back in the driver seat and turning his head to look at his little cousin. "Come on Jihoon, don't make it out to be something bad when you haven't even experienced it yet. Maybe high school wasn't the best but university could be different, give it a chance."
No comment.
"Jihoonie, I don't want you to stay alone your whole life. I want you to make friends, experience fun and exciting things with other people, enjoy your life, date somebody. All the things a normal young person like yourself should be experiencing."
Jihoon looked down at his balled up hands in his lap, frowning. Normal? I'm anything but that, he sneered to himself.
Jihoon's had it tough for as long as he can remember. Especially in high school, being seen as a "cold hearted loner" and a "weird asshole kid" who would either run away or snap at anyone who dared to go near him. Keeping his distance, never being able to get close to anyone, to form lasting friendships and bonds with people. That's been his whole 18 years of life (well ok not the whole 18 years but the majority of it). But it's not something he can help. He doesn't want to be seen as a coldhearted loner, a weird asshole kid, he wants friends. He wants to experience fun and exciting things with other people. He wants to enjoy his life. But he doesn't know if that's possible, not with this damned ability or whatever you wanna call it that he's been cursed with (he refuses to call it something as corny as a 'superpower', what Minhyun described it as when he first found out).
Jihoon basically has the ability to create force fields/barriers. Let's just call them barriers. Anyway, Jihoon is the only one able to see the barriers so to describe them, they are cube shaped and transparent, but not completely, having a slightly glowing, pinkish color to them. If you were to touch one, the texture feels like that of glass. The walls of the barriers are very thin, almost like that of paper but they are not by any means weak. When Jihoon creates a barrier, whatever is inside it can't escape its' walls, nor can whatever outside the barrier enter the space inside, that is until Jihoon destroys it. So to put it simply, Jihoon has the ability to create forcefield-like barriers that are impassible (nothing can enter/leave) nor indestructible by anything or anyone other than the creator himself. Now you're probably thinking to yourself, "Ok but why do you need to distance yourself completely from people because of this? I mean yeah you have this magical power or ability or whatever and I get how it could be bad if people found out about it but as long as you don't say anything or let anyone touch them you're good right? Cause you can create and destroy them at will right? Wrong. Thing is, Jihoon hasn't really mastered his ability completely.
"Those things aren't possible while I still have this stupid ability. You know I'm not good at creating and destroying barriers, what if I accidentally make one and someone comes into contact with it before I'm able to get rid of it? Or worse, what if I accidentally trap someone in a barrier and I can't destroy it? What if what happened that time with you happens again?!" Jihoon says, his voice rising in volume and almost wavering at just the thought. Minhyun sighed again.
Minhyun first found out about Jihoon's ability when he was 16 and Jihoon was 12. It was the summer when Jihoon had first started staying at Minhyun's family's place while the younger's mother was abroad. Long story short, Minhyun accidentally scared Jihoon causing him to mistakenly trap the older in a barrier for about 2 whole days. You'd think Minhyun would be the one traumatized by that experience but Jihoon was really a mess those two days, thinking he'd trapped the older in that barrier forever, and ever since that incident Jihoon's been horrified of the same thing happening again, of trapping someone in a barrier even longer than he had Minhyun.
"Jihoon, that was six years ago when you were still very new and inexperienced with that new part of you, you've gotten way better at controlling your ability since then."
Jihoon's eyes wandered over to his cousin's face then back to his own lap. Minhyun was kinda right, Jihoon has gotten a bit better at using his ability. He's now better at creating them at will and he's even learned how to make a variety of barriers. He can make big and small ones, and instead of them just being cube shaped he can create longer, rectangular shaped barriers. He can make thinner and wider ones too. In the beginning, the barriers he made would always be on the ground, unmovable from whatever spot Jihoon created them in. However now he's able to create barriers in the air or on a ceiling or wall, and he can move them if he wants. He can make a barrier that's sitting on a surface float in mid air and vice versa. Jihoon is always trying to learn new ways to use his ability, he figures the more in control he is of the power and the more evolved it is, the better off he and others will be. He's just recently discovered that he can now change the length, width and height of an already existing barrier, but he's still very new to it, not yet the best at this newfound way of using barriers. Still, even though he's learned how to do so much with his ability, there are three big problems that remain the same. 1: He's still terrible at destroying the barriers. It takes him about 2 or so minutes to destroy a small barrier and the bigger they are the more time it takes for him to get rid of. Big barriers that are, say, capable of incasing a person can take around 5+ minutes to destroy if jihoon concentrates hard enough, but that's still too long of a time and there's no guarantee it won't take even longer than that. 2: Even though he has indeed gotten better at purposefully creating barriers, there are still many times where he accidently makes them. and 3: He can't move or alter the shape of barriers he creates by mistake, and barriers made on accident take even longer to destroy which could be a huge problem if he accidentally makes one around people, especially if it's of a larger scale, and can't get rid of it in time.
"You even use your power to tease and mess with me all the time. Just this morning you kept using barriers to try and prevent me from bringing you here!" Minhyun continues with a pout.
Jihoon smirked a little, remembering how this morning after putting all his stuff in the car and getting in himself, he pettily made a barrier around Minhyun's feet so he couldn't get in the car. Then once Jihoon destroyed the barrier (after hearing Minhyun whine "C'mon Jihoon let me gooo!" ) and the older was finally in the driver seat, the younger made another tinier barrier around the key in the ignition cylinder so Minhyun couldn't start the car. He ignored Minhyun's scolding and whining about Jihoon being "childish and ridiculous" for 5 minutes until he decided to destroy that one too and stop messing around.
Oh...The younger just realized that he was actually able to destroy those barriers exactly when he wanted to for a change. Hmm..what a lucky fluke he thought to himself.
"Yeah but even if I've gotten better there's still a risk of those things happening, so it's better if I'm not surrounded by so many people." Jihoon persisted, wishing his cousin could understand why this was such a bad idea.
"Jihoon, you're not inherently a person who's introverted and quiet. Yes you can be kinda shy and want to be alone sometimes but you're naturally an outgoing person. You like having fun and playing and laughing with others, but since you discovered your ability you closed yourself off. When was the last time you had a friend, went to hang out with and enjoy the company of someone who wasn't me? It's been forever right?"
Jihoon pursed his lips.
"I want you to find people besides me to trust. Even if it's just one other person, I want you to find someone who makes you happy and who you can open up to, that you'll accept and that will accept you and bring out the cute, bubbly and lively Jihoonie I know you are." Minhyun smiled solemnly, placing a hand over Jihoon's balled up one.
"I want you to be happy, and being by yourself avoiding the world isn't gonna make you happy. I know you're afraid of something bad happening because of your ability but even with that risk I think this, going to university, will be a good thing for you. You're so much better at controlling your power now, you're improving every day and you'll get even better as time goes by, and for some reason I think being around other people will help with that. So don't let your ability hold you back from experiencing life and being happy, okay?"
The car was silent for a minute or two.
"I..I'm scared..." Jihoon finally breathed out quietly. He balled his fists tighter, hating to say those words out loud. Minhyun patted the younger's fists softly.
"I know. but even so, please give it a try ok? How about, say, a week? If you say things are completely terrible by the end of the week, I'll come pick you up and you can go back home and that'll be the end of that. Deal?" Minhyun bribed. Jihoon sighed. Why was his older cousin so convincing, with his calming honey voice and kind, soft face. Maybe him being an actor helped.
"Deal." Jihoon agreed reluctantly. Minhyun smiled and ruffled the younger's hair, much to his dismay. "Great! now come on, I'll help you take your stuff to your dorm." The older says, opening his door to get out the car.
"Don't worry about it, I got it." Jihoon insisted, already out of the car and grabbing his belongings from the backseat. "Pop the trunk, I have stuff in there too."
The older did as he was told then walked to the back of the car, looking at Jihoon as he retrieved yet another bag from the trunk. "Are you sure you don't need any help? That's kind of a lot of stuff. I don't know why you decided to basically stuff your entire room in those suitcases anyway. I made you go to university, I didn't kick you out of the house." Minhyun laughed, thinking his little cousin looked as if he were about to permanently move into his new dorm for life with how he was surrounded by his huge suitcases and bags.
"My plan is to never leave my dorm room so if I gotta be here, I'm gonna make sure I already have everything I'll need." Jihoon huffed matter-of-factly.
"You'll have to go out eventually but sure. Anyways, go to the reception to get your dorm key card, ID and books, then you'll be good to go. You know this already but your classes start Monday so it'd be good if you would use your weekend to try and familiarize yourself a bit with the campus instead of spending the entirety of the rest of today and tomorrow in the darkness of your dorm room playing games." Minhyun snickered, knowing that's exactly what the younger was planning on doing.
"Yeah yeah, are you done now, Mom?" Jihoon let out jokingly.
"I guess for now I am, sweetie. Mom just worries about you, y'know." Minhyun played along, patting both of Jihoon's arms lovingly while faking a worried pout. "No but seriously, I do worry about you." The older says a few seconds later, with a somewhat concerned look washing over his face. "I know you're a bit scared but I promise this will be a good thing for you, I can just feel it. Things will be okay. You'll be okay, you can be in control of your ability so don't stay cooped up in your room, try and enjoy your university life and try to make friends. Don't push people away so much just cause you're scared okay?.......Okay?" Minhyun urged again when he didn't receive a reply.
"Ok ok, jeez. Are you sure you're not my mother instead of just my older cousin?" Jihoon quietly whined.
"That's not scientifically possible seeing as I am both male and only 4 years older than you." Minhyun hummed out with a smile, watching Jihoon roll his eyes at the older's comment.
"Alright, I'm gonna go now. Don't forget to drop by the reception to get your books and stuff, I'll be on shoot tonight and tomorrow but I'll try and text you to check up on you. I'll definitely call Monday to make sure you actually go to your classes though. Minhyun says, hands firmly on his hips, trying his best to look serious.
"Just go already." Jihoon exasperates as Minhyun got back in his car.
"Bye Jihoonie, I love youuuu!" Minhyun yelled out like an embarrassing dad to Jihoon as he started the car and let up the window. Jihoon embarrassingly hit his forehead with the palm of his right hand, then smirked. He watched in amusement as he saw Minhyun's car try over and over to back up, being prevented by something from going back more than 2 inches each time. The car then came to a still and Minhyun let down the window again.
"Really?" the older deadpanned, face free from any emotion.
Jihoon laughed as he swiftly swiped the air with his index and middle finger, destroying the barrier (It actually disappeared when I wanted it to again), and watched the still (jokingly) emotionless face of his cousin disappear as the window of the driver car door rose back up.
Jihoon waved as he watched Minhyun drive away and the soft smile on his face gradually disappeared the farther the car left his sight. Jihoon deeply sighed, that feeling of being sick to the stomach slowly returning, as he draped the straps of his two large backpacks on the handles of his two larger suitcases placed on the ground at either of his sides and grabbed both, turning around and looking up at the humongous campus in front of him. Still standing outside the campus grounds, he looked at the abundance of people walking and talking. He sighed again (he has a feeling he'll be doing a lot of that from today on) and urged the contents of his stomach to stay where they were.
"Here goes." He gulped out and started walking past the gates and into the entrance of his new life.