three.

Baekhyun was lucky. Baekhyun has always known what he was.

It's a recessive gene, but can result due to mutation, either at birth or later in life. In Baekhyun's case, both his parents had been carriers. His grandfather, on the other hand, had had the peculiar ability to cool water at a single touch. It'd been small, but big enough for him to get noticed, and big enough that when Baekhyun was three, and accidentally, dimmed all the lights in the room, his parents, instead of freaking out, merely put a blanket over him and let him sleep.

On one hand, he's never had to go through the trauma of accidentally setting fire to a playground or flooding a basement or causing a city-wide blackout that some of his friends did. On the other hand, he's never really understood the trauma of discovering your powers for the first time in a terrible, humiliating, crippling way.

The kid is crying.

Baekhyun has always been that guy who sets the class mood, who makes sure no one feels left out, who comforts whoever needs comforting. It comes naturally to him. He's heading home from school, and it's getting dark, but his parents will understand. He thinks.

Baekhyun turns and walks to the opposite side of the street where the kid is crouched on the curb, his shoulders shaking with each sob. He's just about to call out to him when the kid suddenly jerks up and throws his hands forward.

"Don't," the kid says. "Don't come any closer!"

Baekhyun frowns. "I'm not going to hurt you," he says. "I just wanted to know if you're alright."

The kid freezes, then shakes his head, and then nods. "I...just don't..." His teeth knock together as he speaks, and Baekhyun notices with a start that there is a tiny swirl of wind gathering in front of the kid's palms.

He gets it.

, he thinks. "It's okay, I'm like you," he says.

No you're not, he thinks, but now is probably not the time for details. Instead, Baekhyun drops his bag to the floor and slowly crouches down until he's at eye level. Slowly, he holds out his hand, palms up, and wills a tiny ball of light into existence. It's not something he usually does, and for good reason, because concentrating it like this is exhausting, but from the way the kid's eyes light up, he thinks it was worth it.

"I'm Baekhyun," he says. "What's your name?"

"...Sehun." The kid swallows, and balls his hands up into fists. They're covered in dirt. "I think...I did something really bad."

-

That had been three years ago. In retrospect, all Sehun had done with slam a few people against trees and set a tree-sized whirlwind on a couple trees, and no one had even been seriously hurt, but for the fourteen year old Sehun at the time, it must have felt like the end of the world.

As for Baekhyun, he'd graduated high school, and with little doubt or hesitation, had joined the intelligence branch of the extrajudicial offices, or EXO for short. It made sense; he'd been hanging out there for a good part of his teenage years, so it was a small step to hire him officially and make him work for his free pizza.

Sehun had moved in as a ward of the state, because after some serious discussion with his parents, it was the easiest way to deal with the entire situation. It'd taken him some time to adjust, but after Chanyeol abducted him for a night of video games and horror movies, Sehun became less of a shy, skittish kid and more of a likeable, if not somewhat annoying brat. Baekhyun's still not sure which one he likes more.

But sometimes, when Baekhyun passes by the room Sehun shares with Jongin on his way to his own room, and he knows that Jongin is out, he'll pause at the muffled sounds of crying, mingled with something that sounds an awful lot like mom, dad, I miss you.

He still meets his parents and older brother for dinner every few months. Sehun hasn't seen his parents since the day Baekhyun found him. They called them Gifted, and said it was a Talent, but more often than not, it was a bitter, bitter curse.

Baekhyun had been lucky. It's alright, he figures, if Sehun is a brat.