While we were all walking back, I noticed that the boys were mumbling to one another while shooting stares to the back pocket of my jeans, where I had put the card I had received from Zina. It was quite obvious that they didn't want me to know, for some reason, and I huffed while looking away.

Thank god I was wearing converse shoes, because exiting the clubhouse late at night resulted in not having to find cabs, not even in front of the clubhouse which there should be some. That made us all walk back home, where the boys were lagging behind.

“Alright, are you going to tell me what you're mumbling about or what?” I finally snapped, swiveling around to face them with a scowl on my face. They all pretended to cough and look away, except for Kai who blinked lazily at me, as if just realizing I was with them.

“We are not mumbling,” Joonmyeon answered very seriously. I squinted my eyes at him, and he cleared his throat.

“Then what were you doing just now?” I gave him a raised eyebrow, and I noticed the single peek he gave the others fast enough for me not to catch. Which I did.

“Nothing,” he answered sheepishly, a smile as sheepish as his tone curving up his face. I raised my other eyebrow, the absolute ridiculing in my expression was so clear that he couldn't exactly ignore. With a sigh, he walked closer to me.

“We were wondering why Zina and her brothers said what they said about the card,” he started talking, and my expression fell into a confused one. “We know him, we recognized his card almost immediately. He’s one of us, and he had never acted in the way they said he acted like.”

“Wait, your brother, you mean?”

“Yeah,” Xiumin replied this time, a solemn expression on his face. “He had always been weird, acted strange and blurted things out of nowhere. But he has never been.. weak.”

“You think they were lying?” I asked with a permanent frown, and Xiumin shook his head immediately.

“No, I think he's restraining himself for some reason. He could heal, but that's not all he could do. I don't understand why he wouldn't do anything he was asked to do when he knows of the consequences.”

He was giving up… wasn't he? My mind whispered, and my heartbeats accelerated. I was reminded of my mother, when her grandmother had died. She had went into a severe case of disbelief because she didn't want to admit that the person who had raised her more than her parents had passed away. She had underwent months of sleepless nights filled with tears. I remembered how my dad kept himself steady, trying to make everything right for her, but then he had started coming home late, his eyes dull with eye bags. I remembered how hunched his back was, how short his replies were, and how he slipped on the couch to sleep… he had given up, he hadn't shown such a weakness before.

I wasn't exactly sure this warrior was going through the same, because I hadn't seen the symptoms of the boy before my eyes. However, I still thought he was going through that. The looks on the boys’s faces told me they were worried, which meant they all had a clue as to what was going on without telling me; or that they all had a hunch. I unconsciously reached for the card inside my pocket, taking it out and looking at it with a thin line on my lips.

“Should I.. take him out?”

“Not now,” Kai, surprisingly, was the first one to speak, placing a hand over mine, where I was holding the card. My heart raced at the smooth yet calloused texture of his hand. “It's getting late. We will do it tomorrow so you can get to know him.”

“You’re right,” I mumbled, tucking the card back inside where it was, before sending him a small smile. The thought of the boy going through what my dad had gone through pained me immensely. I don't think anyone would want to go through that at all.

-

“Behave in school, okay? And be careful, no one should know you have some of the Exo cards,” my mom said with a low voice while we were standing in front of the gates of the school, where many other students were exiting their vehicles with yawns and stretches. They were obviously very drowsy and not in the mood for school. From the far left, I caught sight of Lisa exiting out of the adaptation teachers car. She wore a gloomy face, and she rushed inside the school before the teacher could even reach for his briefcase on the other side of the back seat. I noticed the sigh he had let out, before strutting inside with a scowl.

“….- Their aura is quite strong, but thankfully I had met some fifth ranking wielders who are this strong so no one will suspect..—Hani. Are you listening?” I snapped my head to my mom with wide eyes, before sheepishly smiling and scratching my head.

“Not exactly,” I sheepishly admitted, earning an unamused scowl from my mother. “I was distracted by the students.”

“Right,” she continued to scowl, crossing her arms over her chest. “Just be careful, okay? Try not to engross yourself with students and battles, you may be able to twist the truth but it could easily be shown through actions.”

“You don't want me to mingle with others and, like, make friends?” I incredulously raised an eyebrow up, even though I was only teasing her. I knew my mom meant well. Even then; her face turned red with embarrassment and shame, and she immediately tried to correct herself.

“No, honey. I want you to have friends who you can trust this secret with, but I want you to be careful with it. You have something incredibly strong in your hands, something that could change all things as we know it. I just want you to guard it with all your might. There are some people who would do awful things to have what you have.”

I wanted to tell her how right she was, but I didn't want her to worry about it. I wasn't sure what will happen if my mother knew of what had happened to me because of these cards. She could take them away from me and hide it somewhere I wouldn't find to ensure I would be safe.

“I wanted to play with that card.”

What.. what the hell was that? Why did I hear my child-self saying these words? A memo