Chapter one

28-04-15

‘’Baekhyun, please put that away.’’

He looked up at the teacher, then at his classmates who all stared at him. People would feel embarrassed to be called out by the teacher so sudden, others would feel proud to be in the spotlight; to get all the attention. But Baekhyun wasn’t like that.

He didn’t get flustered in embarrassment, neither did he feel proud. He showed no emotion at all and fisted his hand, making the three tiny light balls that were previously rotating in his hand, disappear. He moved his hand from the table to his chin and rested his head on it. Mr. Hwang nodded at him in approval and the class turned back to the front, uninterested as always.

It was math the teacher taught them. Something he had no interest in at all, mainly because he already knew most of it and math was one of the easiest subjects in the world, at least, that’s what he thought. He would roll his eyes every time a student got an easy question wrong and get irritated when the teacher made him the centre of the class’ attention by asking something hard; what the man kindly did on a weekly base.

Baekhyun was a smart kid, he was very aware of that.

The school he attended wasn’t one you’d find locally. It was a one of a kind, a school only kids with a special ability were allowed to attend; or even know about.

Now... this is the part where it’s all getting a bit more... different. You could call it weird, call it crazy. ‘Special abilities?’ You’re questioning yourself. ‘Those don’t exist.’ But let me tell you something, something you need to believe in; and I know that’s hard. But it’s the truth.

Magic...

 It’s real.

And it’s everywhere.

In your city.

In your neighbourhood.

Damn even at your local library!

It’s here, it’s there. It’s literally everywhere!

You just don’t see it.

And no, I’m not only talking about the cliché things you straight up think of when you hear the word ‘supernatural’ or ‘special abilities’. I’m not only talking about fire, air, water, earth and the whole Avatar story. Here I’m talking about teleporters, mind readers, flight and telekinesis. Adaption(*1), Biokinesis(*2), invisibility, jump, illusions. About every ability you didn’t even know that it existed, ranked in numbers from one to then and ‘normal’ to ‘rare’.

Baekhyun was a ‘rare’ one.  Someone with an ability no one else had, or someone that was able to do more things with the one particular ability. Baekhyun was both. Light was what he could manipulate and influence, illusions and bombs was what he could make with it.

But no one had ever recognized him for being a rare one aside from his P.E. teacher, who was amazed. Baekhyun however, wasn’t amazing. Not at all.

He was about to go back to his own thoughts – where everything dark and quiet – when suddenly the old wooden door opened with a loud creak, making every pupil turn towards the person entering the room. Mr. Hwang stood up, looking both surprised and dishevelled.

‘’Ahh, Miss. Lia, I didn’t expect you to come this early; but come in please.’’ He said as the tiny woman closed the door and walked made her way to the teacher’s desk. She looked very chic, her short, dark brown hair was tied into a neat pony tail; she wore a tight, black dress with a grey Colbert and high heels to make herself look taller.

‘’Good morning Mr. Hwang – class.’’ She greeted, giving both a mere nod.

‘’Would you like a chair?’’ Mr. Hwang asked, already hovering his hand above an empty chair beneath the chalkboard, but Miss. Lia shook her head. ‘’No thanks.’’ She kindly rejected. ‘’I won’t take much of your time.’’

Mr. Hwang nodded and sat back down on his own office-chair, making a few pupils flinch when it made a loud creaking sound. Baekhyun ignored it and looked at the woman with a deadpan, slightly curious about what she had to tell.

‘’Good morning again, class, my name is Lia, you call me Miss. Lia; and today, I will be escorting one of you to your new school.’’ She announced. It was then Baekhyun remembered what day it was. It was the seventeenth of January, the day one pupil per class would be escorted to EXO; the school were children like him would be developing themselves and their power to become unbeatable. Or that’s what everyone thinks at least.

EXO was actually just like college, but then for people like them. It was hidden in a place not even they knew, shielded from the evil.

Baekhyun had seen many people come and go to that school.

His eyes dimmed and his curiosity lessened.

‘’I will have to keep my talk short because we don’t have as much time as we had in the past. Does anyone know why?’’ She asked and looked around in the class, but no one raised their hand; and Baekhyun didn’t know whether it was because they didn’t dare to of if they genuinely had no idea. It was probably the latter.

Baekhyun did know. He was highly intelligent compared to everyone in his grade and higher. He just didn’t bother to raise his hand and get himself to the centre. However, one did that for him already, and Baekhyun granted him with a heavy deadpan.

‘’One knows.’’ Mr. Hwang said and pointed at him. ‘’Byun Baekhyun.’’

Baekhyun’s expression remained cold as Mr Hwang smiled teasingly and satisfied. Miss. Lia – who looked more satisfied than she was a moment ago – nodded and looked at him. ‘’Well then, Byun Baekhyun, please stand up and tell us.’’

Baekhyun sighed in annoyance but stood up anyway, heavily pushing himself up. His voice was monotonously as he spoke. ‘’Three years ago, a big army we’ve been in a war for about ten decades was about to destroy the world again, but before they could do that, a huge fire wiped out their whole base and killed almost every fighter. There was only one person who magically survived the disaster, but he was already dead too. They however think that it was EXO who had caused the fire and try to kill them and others who aren’t fighting with them.

On top of that, ‘normals’ don’t really like the knowledge of us being supernatural and want to kill us too. Three sides, all fighting, no place safe; and that brings us here.’’ He ended it with a shrug and sat back down.

Everything had become vaguely quiet, from his classmates to the teacher to the birds outside. Everyone shut up. Baekhyun knew they hadn’t expected him to know the story.

‘’... Very good.’’ Miss. Lia complimented after seeming to have recovered from her unobvious shock and turned to Mr. Hwang, who gave her a proud nod. He was the only one in the school who had acknowledged Baekhyun’s knowledge of basically everything and loved to show it off to others – like telling his colleagues how amazing his pupil was.

‘’I would like to announce the person who’s coming with me to school.’’ She turned back to the class. Whispers enveloped the class.

‘’It’s going to be Chaelin for sure, she’s the best!’’

‘’Of course it be her.’’

‘’Or its Maus.’’

‘’Maus? No way-‘’

‘’The person who will come with me...-’’ Miss. Lia raised her voice to make the class quiet again. Everyone was intimidated by her cold aura and hard voice. ‘’-is none other-‘’ Baekhyun rested his head on the palm of his cold hand and glanced around, waiting for everyone to start congratulating Chaelin because even he knew it was her who was chosen this year.

Even Chaelin oneself was so confident she was chosen, that when the small woman spoke, she couldn’t move.

‘’-is none other... than Byun Baekhyun.’’

Time seemed to slow down, and no, not only for Baekhyun. The whole class fell into a screaming silence. No one believed it, not even Baekhyun oneself. The first thought that came up in his dark, blurry mind was that she was probably mistaken. But he wasn’t to one who tell her that.

‘’I don’t want to sound rude, Miss Lia. But don’t you think there is a mistake?’’ Chaelin, the class’ , spoke. ‘’Because, come on, it’s Baekhyun. When has that guy ever done something to change the world?’’ She reasoned, her big eyes obviously glancing at Baekhyun, throwing daggers.

But Miss, Lia just shook her head. ‘’No Miss. Chaelin. No mistakes were made at all, on the contrary, I think it’s you who’s making the biggest mistake here with trying to prove me wrong.’’ She said, her voice defiant and mischievous. ‘’Actually, Baekhyun here is-‘’ She suddenly stopped talking. No one knew why.

Baekhyun stared at her, his eyes big and terrifying for whoever saw it. Miss. Lia nodded. She gave Chaelin – who gasped at the disrespectfulness drawn towards her – a last, challenging look before she turned towards the rest of the class, although Baekhyun knew her eyes were actually on him.

‘’Okay class, I’m sorry for the interruption. I will be leaving now, and Baekhyun will be too. Mr. Hwang, please continue your lesson’’ She said and started walking out of the classroom. Mr. Hwang immediately jumped back in front of the chalkboard and continued his lesson as if none of the previous events ever happened.

The class was left confused.

Baekhyun stood up and followed the small woman. Glances followed him.

So many emotions were thrown at him.

Disappointment, because they weren’t chosen.

Marvel, since they didn’t expect it.

Anger, because it was Lee Chaelin who never really liked him.

Everyone looked at him like he was a stranger; like they saw water burning. It wasn’t like Baekhyun had the same emotions. He too had no idea why he was chosen to come. He didn’t look back and followed the woman out of the classroom. No one waved him off or wished him good luck.

When he closed the classroom door, Miss. Lia was waiting for him. He wanted to walk past her, but her voice stopped him.

‘’How did you do that?’’ She asked, her voice a whisper in surprise and confusion. Baekhyun turned around with a light frown. ‘’What are you talking about?’’

‘’How did you make me stop talking?’’

It had happened before. Whenever he wanted something to really Baekhyun just never really thought it was amazing or anything. In the end he just shrugged. ‘’... I don’t know. I just... do.’’

‘’They don’t know it huh, do they?’’

‘’... How do you know then?’’ Baekhyun asked instead of answering her irrelevant and obvious question.

‘’I was in the rescue team.’’ She told him, but Baekhyun couldn’t recognize her from it.

Baekhyun nodded.

‘’You look better now.’’

‘’Thanks for not telling.’’ Baekhyun almost immediately cut her off.

Miss. Lia cracked a sad smile before she walked past him. Baekhyun followed her. They walked through the deserted school – which wasn’t that big anyway – until they arrived at a small office – which was pretty much empty aside from the bureau and two chairs.

‘’Take a seat.’’ She said and sat down on one of the chairs herself, opening a drawer and taking out a laptop, placing it on the table before extending her hand. ‘’My name is Lia, your buddy for the rest of your school years on EXO.’’ She introduced herself.

Baekhyun looked down at the extended hand after he took a seat and hesitantly shook it. ‘’Buddy?’’ He asked.

Lia nodded, her whole ‘cold’ appearance seemed to change as she became more like her ‘real’ self. Baekhyun could feel it. ‘’Well, it’s actually called a supervisor, but buddy sounds more likable. You probably won’t see me that much but I’ll be helping you to get to the institute and figure out how everything works.’’

Baekhyun nodded and laid both his hand on his lap underneath the desk.

‘’I suppose you are curious why we’ve chosen you right?’’ She asked although she probably already knew the answer.

Baekhyun once again gave her a mere nod and she opened the laptop, turning it towards him.

He took the device and placed it in front of him properly, looking at it with big eyes. He hadn’t seen a laptop in a long time, and they had changed drastically from big, thick device to his small and thin thing. I moved my fingers over the finger pad to a huge ‘play’ icon in the middle of the screen.

 ‘’We have monitored you and your classmates for some time and quickly came to the decision that it was you who we wanted.’’ Lia said as the tape started playing. It started off with a blurry imagine, but Baekhyun could clearly see what was happening. The only thing he was wondering about was how they managed to film it.

The video displayed a small boy, his head hanging low as he walked to a door with an unreadable name tag on it. The boy opened the door and walked in the room. Immediately the screen changed to the inside of the room. The boy laid down on the bed without even bothering to change his sweaty looking attire and fell asleep right away. But the moment he fell asleep, an aura of light surrounded him and lighted up the whole room. It looked like a shield made of light was protecting the boy in his sleep.

‘’I don’t get why I-‘’

‘’Just watch it.’’ Miss. Lia cut him off.

The screen turned black for a second before it changed to the garden. The same boy, this time lying on the grass. His eyes were closed, but Baekhyun knew he couldn’t be sleeping as then heavy sunbeams annoyingly hit the boy’s face; until the ground around the boy became darker, as if all the light around him was removed, and it was. The sun happily yet annoyingly shone, but the boy didn’t suffer.

The third screen, Baekhyun hoped the last one, was in the deserted gymnasium. Well, it was deserted until the boy ran into the big hall. He was angry, his face and actions showed it from the moment he arrived. He started running around for a long time, the video was sped up, but in the upper-right corner of the screen, the time was shown. Minutes quickly went by, until about fifteen minutes had passed, and the boy was still running in the same pace. Then, out of the blue, the boy stopped in the back of the gymnasium and punched a button on the wall. Three shoot signs appeared 15 meters in front of him and the boy stretched his arms, palms pointing outwards and shoot. Then the video stopped.

‘’Baekhyun.’’ Baekhyun’s head shot up. ‘’Could you tell me what happened before and after that, please. The camera deactivated due to the sudden force of light in the room.’’

He rolled his eyes away from the screen and glanced at her, softly shaking his head. ‘’The camera didn’t deactivate, there was no explosion or noise, I saw nothing odd either when I was there. Besides, the camera shows my back, the signs are in front of me, there’s no way the camera could break down.’’ He said, voice void of emotion. He knew he was right, and Lia knew it too.

Lia seemed shocked, but didn’t hesitate to repeat her question ‘’Please tell me what happened.’’

Baekhyun nodded and obeyed.

’’The second video is actually the first one, it was one month ago I think. You cut out a bit though, because after that happened, some boys appeared and shouted at me, saying I was a creep and that I’d scared the sun away. They ran to the director and begged him to take him out of their room since we all share a big boy room. I got angry, that’s when video three starts.

I was angry. And when I’m angry, I run or train. I just shot a few signs and ran for a while.

Video one is actually the last scene of that day. I was really tired and fell asleep right away, I am aware of the things I do when I’m asleep.’’

He carefully shoved the laptop to Lia and waited for her reply. It was a long wait before she finally opened . ‘’You were angry and exhausted, yet you managed to hit all the signs and even burn them. Those signs were really far away from you, it’s already hard for a senior hit a sign that far, let alone a fifteen-year old boy in that condition.’’ She gave me a knowing look.

‘’It was just luck.’’ Baekhyun said. ‘’I can only see a boy whose trying to release some anger and then sleeps.’’

‘’But that’s not what I see, you know what I see?’’ Lia asked. He didn’t respond.

’’I see a young boy who can make a specific place, no matter where he is, dark without much effort. I see a boy with hawk eyes who is able to hit a small sign from meters away. I see a boy who protects himself in his sleep, whether it is because of a habit or not.’’ She sighed when his expression didn’t change.

‘’Baekhyun, you’re smart. The way you think differently from others makes you a genius, not to mention how much stronger you actually are. We all saw it back the-‘’

‘’I do not want to talk about it. I will come with you, I’d love to. But please don’t tell them what happened.’’

‘’Are you sure?’’

Baekhyun nodded. ‘’I’ve always been.’’

‘’Then let’s go.’’ Lia extended her hand and Baekhyun was about to grab it when his hand stopped halfway and he retreated it. ‘’What about my stuff?’ He asked, not that he had much. But all what he had was precious to him.

‘’We’ve already bought it to the school. Don’t worry.’’ Lia reassured, not retreating her hand. Baekhyun touched the necklace around his neck and nodded before grabbing her hand for real this time. There wasn’t a poof, neither a sudden dizzy feeling. Nothing. The next thing he knew, was that he wasn’t in the small office anymore, not even near it. He, luckily together with Lia, was in a forest.

‘’So this is it? The famous forest.’’ He asked, letting go of Lia’s hand and looking around. He had heard a lot about it and it was said to be the safest place in the world of magic for them; surrounded by a tall, old, rusty fence only they could see. From the corner of his eye he noticed Lia nodding. ‘’Yes it is. I’m assuming you already heard everything about it?’’

‘’Hmm.’’ Baekhyun murmured. Because no matter how same the forest was now, it hadn’t been the same in the past. Many big fights had found place on the ground they’re standing on. Many people had died and many people had lived. It was incredible to imagine what happened.

Lia started walking, and Baekhyun followed her. Not that he had much choice anyway. Soon they walked over a stone path, instead of the dirt path and minutes later, they arrived in a big, open place with three huge buildings. More people around me appeared and walked to the buildings. But Baekhyun stood still.

‘’So this is it?’’ He asked, breathing out in wonder. He was surrounded by three huge buildings, but the building in front of him was definitely the biggest. It was the school itself, the letter O carved in the cement walls. Furthermore, the walls were decorated by unimaginably long creepers that went up until the roof. Purple clematises decorated the underside of the building and the stone tiling made it look ancient.

On both the left and right side of the school was another building, assumingly the dorms.

The big, two-door entrance was wide open. More people, whether it were older students or newbies, walked inside. It was even bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. But its beauty didn’t fade. Without getting the time to observe everything, Lia’s cold hand dragged him further into the school and soon after, Baekhyun came to a conclusion that he definitely needed a map to find out where everything was. After about four long hallways we arrived by another wide open entrance.

They entered the hall were more than a hundred students had taken a seat on the many rows or chairs. Some of them sat quietly, others were chatting with the person next to them.

Baekhyun sat down on one of the last seats and before Lia could take the seat next to him, another boy did, murmuring a soft ‘hello’. Lia shrugged, probably not caring and sat down next to the boy; she started a conversation with the guy next to her.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the boy opening his mouth, wanting to say something before the big doors behind us closed with a loud thud, shutting him up before he was even able to say something.

‘’May I have your attention please?’’ A new voice called, making the hall silent in an instant. Baekhyun looked at the small podium and saw an old man.

‘’My name is Oscar Breamel but ya’ll can call me Mr. Oscar or Mr. Breamel and I wish you all hearty welcome.’’ He said and bowed towards the crowd. ‘’Some of you may have heard of me, some of you know my whole story and some of you are probably like; who the hell is that dude, isn’t he too old to be here.’’ He tried to be funny but only received the cold treatment. He didn’t seem to mind it though. ‘’It is not a lie that I’m old. I am-‘’

‘’Two thousand two hundred and eighty-nine years old.’’ Baekhyun muttered.

‘’-two thousand two hundred and eighty-nine years old.’’ Mr. Oscar said and Baekhyun made his non-famous ‘told you’ face. He did notice the tall creeper beside him staring at him when he said that and turned towards him. To his annoyance, the boy kept staring instead of turning away in embarrassment because he was noticed.

‘’Is there something on my face that you’re staring or…’’ Baekhyun asked and the boy shrugged.

‘’Not that I know.’’

‘’Than why do you keep staring at me like that?’’

The boy shrugged again. ‘’Because I’m curious how you knew his age.’’

‘’EXO is a school that allows you to train and learn more about your power.’’ Mr Oscar butted in and Baekhyun didn’t bother to reply to the boy.

‘’There is a particular and specific reason for every one of you to be chosen. You’re outstanding, you’re strong, you’re smart or have you own mind-set. Whatever the reason is, you are here now and staring from tomorrow, your lesson will start. I will be explaining more after dinner tonight. But first-‘’

Mr. Oscar stretched out his hand and a parchment roll magically appeared in his hand. Some looked surprised as he did so, others didn’t care and acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. What it was, for people like them of course. Mr. Oscar bought his hand back to his chest and scrolled his eyes over the piece of paper.

‘’The room grouping. Boys and girls are separated in different buildings. There will two persons in each room. First pair; Kang Lingsoo and Park Mingsoo, please raise your hands.’’

Baekhyun looked around the hall and saw two different hands protrude above many heads.

‘’Great, I thought you had fitting names so I decided to place you in the same room.’’ Mr. Oscar murmured and looked on the roll again. ‘’Room B20 is for you, your supervisors will lead you to the room and explain from there what will happen further. Have a nice stay in your dorm!’’ He exclaimed.

Baekhyun glanced over at the two boy who stood up and walked away together with two supervisors.

‘’Okay second pair…’’

Baekhyun already prepared himself for a long wait, knowing that luck had never been on his side.

‘’Pair four. Byun Baekhyun-‘’

Baekhyun frowned when he heard his name and looked up. ‘Guess luck ‘is’ on my side today.’ He thought as he raised his hand.

‘’and Park Chanyeol.’’ Baekhyun looked around to find the Park Chanyeol guy, but ironically, the said boy was the boy sitting next to him. His ‘better’ mood instantly dropped together with his expression.

‘’Byun Baekhyun it is.’’ The boy next to him – Park Chanyeol – said. Baekhyun sighed and stood up, together with Lia and the guy next to her; probably Park Chanyeol’s buddy.

‘’Room E6 you have.’’ Mr. Oscar called out before they left the hall. Park Chanyeol walked in front of him, and Baekhyun could only feel annoyed by the fact that the boy was almost a head taller than him. They walked until they excited the room when suddenly, Lia and the guy stopped walking, causing Baekhyun to ‘almost’ walk against Park Chanyeol.

‘’Wait a minute boys, I need to do something first. Wait here.’’ Lia said as she grabbed the other male by the hand and walked away with him, leaving Baekhyun alone with Park Chanyeol.

‘’So, Byun Baekhyun, what is your ‘ability’.’’ Park Chanyeol mocked and Baekhyun looked up. The boy was indeed a head taller than him, had dark brown hair that looked a lot thicker compared to his thin, ash black one. His eyes had a kind hint in them, but it was far behind the look of proudness.

‘’Light.’’ Baekhyun replied curtly, not stopping to stare at him. He wasn’t happy with his power; not at all. It was an odd one, not even near special, because, come on. How ‘special’ is it to be able to turn off lights? Or to make small light balls that weren’t even that hot?

‘’Fire is mine, I was one of the best in my whole school, that’s why I’m here. It’s all about power.’’ Park Chanyeol replied quirkily and Baekhyun started to hate him even more. ’’Show me something you can do with that power of yours. I’ve never heard of something odd like that, didn’t even know that existed.’’ Chanyeol asked, his way of talking didn’t change. Two new students passed them.

‘’Now that I think of it, shouldn’t your eyes be light or something? Or your hair? You’re all black?’’

‘’And you have a problem with that because?’’ Baekhyun replied, crossing his arms.

‘’I don’t have a problem with it, that’s what you make of it, I only pointed it out.’’ Chanyeol said and before he could say more, Lia and the other guy returned.

‘’Okay kids, I can see you guys can get along pretty well-‘’ ‘What did you see to make you think that?’ Baekhyun thought between her words. ‘’-but we can go now.’’ Lia said and passed them.

‘’Follow us to the dorms.