One: The Legend of EXO (Chapter One)
Title: One: The Legend of EXO
Rating: PG-13
When darkness descends the Dragon shall rise,
Along with twin moons and the Thief, King of Lies.
When Phoenix takes flight and sun covers sun,
When evil is vanquished, the Twelve become One.
Chapter One
Kris was just about to drift off when he felt the light tap on his shoulder.
"What is it?" he growled, refusing to raise his head from the comfortable cushion of his arms. Lunch was always his library naptime and he was not about to be deprived of sleep.
"Um, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"No."
He felt another tap.
"It's really important, I swear."
"No."
"Please..."
Grinding his teeth in frustration, he slowly looked up. Dark, innocent eyes stared back at him, partially blocked by messy black bangs.
The boy slid into the seat across from him and leaning forward, whispered, "It's about what happened last Wednesday."
Kris snapped to attention. He had been alone that day, so how the hell...?
"You saw it, didn't you? The green light?"
He seized the boy by the front of his shirt, ignoring his gasp of pain.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm...I'm Tao. Ninth grade. Class six."
"Were you stalking me that day?"
"Wha-no! I was training on my own when it happened."
Kris narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Then how did you know I felt it too?"
Tao flushed. "Please don't think I'm weird, but I can sort of sense people's auras. Not clearly, mind you, but there was something...different about yours, like it's been marked."
Marked.
Loosening his grip, Kris grabbed Tao's right hand and quickly pushed up his sleeve before he could protest.
It was there, halfway up his forearm, a faint pink outline of two triangles joined at the tips.
"Do you have it too?" Tao asked, eyes bright with curiosity.
Kris hesitated. He had replayed the memory over and over in his mind, but had not discovered a single lead. The gangly freshman was a little strange to be sure, but he just may be the key Kris needed to unlock the answers. Granted, it meant breaking down the wall he had painstakingly constructed to isolate himself from society, but he could always keep the relationship purely professional.
Slowly, he pushed up his own sleeve, baring his arm. "It's something with wings, a bird I think.
"It looks like a dragon," Tao whispered, his voice filled with awe. "The symbol of power and strength."
Kris didn't particularly care for either. "So what do we do now?"
"We find the others."
***
Tao smiled as his footsteps echoed in the empty hallway. He had been a bit afraid to confront the tall, scary-looking senior but Kris had turned out to be nicer than he looked. The upper-year had agreed to accompany him as he wandered the school, hoping to bump into someone with the same strange aura as Kris. Though he seldom spoke, there was something reassuring about Kris's presence that made Tao less worried about the whole incident than he was before.
Together, they had found Chen, the latest member of their rag-tag gang in the music wing. The soft-spoken singer had seemed almost relieved to see them, and had agreed to come along.
"I've never been to this part of the building before," Chen commented quietly, glancing around at the locker-lined walls.
"It's the old science wing, I think," Tao answered, taking a small sniff of the chemical-infused air. He led them to the end of the hallway, stopping before a plain wooden door, its hinges orange with rust.
"Um, hello?" Tao called out, rapping his knuckles lightly on the wood. "Can we talk to you?"
Silence greeted him.
"Um-"
Kris pushed him aside and gave the door a hearty kick. "We know you're in there so open this damn door before we break it down."
With the click of a turning lock, the door opened an inch. Wary eyes peered up at them through the gap.
"We're not going to hurt you," Tao said hastily. "We just wanted to ask you a few questions."
The door slowly swung open, revealing a boy with the face of an angel. With his long lashes, smooth skin and delicate bone structure, he was prettier than most of the girls that Tao had met.
"Luhan?" Chen said softly, eyes widened in surprise.
"Chen! Thank goodness." The boy smiled in relief. "I thought you were a bunch of bullies." He stole a side-long glance at Kris, who stared back coolly with his hooded eyes.
Tao quickly explained about the symbols on their arms, the earthquake and the green light they had all seen.
"We're all somehow linked, but what does this all mean?" Luhan asked, running a finger over his mark, five circles joined by short waves.
"We don't know," Tao answered solemnly, holding up his own arm beneath the light of the fading sun filtering through the window.
"But there must be a reason. Whatever happened that day changed not only the balance of the natural world, but it changed us."
***
"So you're saying this isn't some prank that my friends paid you to play on me?" Xiumin asked dryly.
Tao, the oddball freshman furrowed his brows in confusion. "Why would your friends do that to you?"
"Because they can't wait to take revenge for all the pranks I pulled on them," Xiumin said with a chuckle. "Anyway, I don't know what's going on here but there's nothing I can do, so why don't you-"
"Please, come with us," Tao pleaded, clutching at his arm as if his life depended on it.
Xiumin racked his brains for an excuse that wouldn't hurt the kid's feelings, but came up with nothing. With a sigh, he said "Fine, fine, I'll come."
Half an hour later, he was already regretting his fleeting moment of compassion. The five of them were idling outside the student council room waiting for the meeting to finish.
"Can't we come tomorrow," he complained, flopping down onto the floor. "They'll probably be debating about lunch prices and tree planting all night."
Tao shook his head. "Something tells me he's the last one. Besides, maybe he knows something and could help us out."
Xiumin didn't have the heart to tell the kid that the student council was run by a bunch of idiots too full of themselves to bother with green lights and weird symbols.
The door of the meeting room finally opened. "Could we speak to you for a moment?" Tao asked, approaching a pale boy with an armful of books. "It's about what happened last Wednesday."
Of all people, it had to be Lay, the uptight bastard responsible for much of Xiumin's undeserved suffering. Surprise flashed across his nemesis's angular face for a millisecond, before it was once again a cold mask of indifference. Even Xiumin, who had known the arse his entire life, had barely caught sight of the fleeting expression.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Lay replied, his voice clipped and void of emotion. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm very busy."
The group watched in stunned silence as the last piece of their puzzle walked away.
"Well, that's that," Xiumin said brightly, clapping Tao on the back. The poor kid looked like he was about to cry. "Guess there's nothing we can do after all."
And without another word, he too turned on his heels and left. True, the whole incident was too much of a coincidence to completely dismiss, but it wasn't his problem. If he stayed, he would only complicate the care-free life he had tried so hard to maintain.
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