The Bracelet Club [EXO]

prologue: welcome to EXO high

There are two types of people in the world.

The dead and the living.

And I have always seen both.

I was exactly one year older than my brother, born on the same date of a different year. Being from a small town, our birthdays were believed to be unlucky, falling on August 22 of different years. It fell on the day of the Ghost Festival and our inner eye was believed to be open. I got it all, and I could both see, hear and sense everything to a T.

Baekhyun, however, could only hear them and that was enough to scare him. The difference between Baekhyun and I was that they said he was of pure heart—ghosts loved that about him. He was susceptive to possession and since I was young, I could see them hover over him.

I refused to leave his side.

And that was why I had always made bracelets for him, holy beads and blessed strings in order to keep the ghosts away. He was my brother and I loved him. It didn't help that our mother began to fall sick and this was all due to physical problems. But it was enough to watch Baekhyun claw for the slightest bit of hope that she would survive.

It ate her up and I watched my father fall apart, our whole family moving to Seoul to try to save her.

In the end, that was what family was for, wasn't it? To try our hardest and not break apart—

But it didn't work and I remember the flat sound of the machine very vividly. I had opened my eyes to see my father sobbing and holding her hand, Baekhyun's tears running down his cheeks.

I saw her, moving out of her body, my mother watching them cry as she looked over to me.

"I love you," she had mouthed. "Take care of your brother."

I know she wanted to stay.

I could feel it.

"Go," I whispered. "I got this."

And that was the last time I saw her.

That night, I cried.

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