.ninety nine.

-

"Hate got in the way of your happiness, and you both suffered a lot when you died. She went first, and you did not want to let her go alone."

-

On their day off from schedules, the group was allowed to go out together without any supervision. Chanyeol heard there would be an international festival with various tents of activities, rides, and foods from all over the world. He had somehow convinced all eleven of the other EXO members to go with him to the festival. Baekhyun had been hesitant at first, since he wasn't very keen on going out much whenever he had a day off. But he did it when Chanyeol mentioned they could see things from all over the world. That made Baekhyun think because most of the time, he'd just spend his time in his dorm room whenever he had the day off.

They arrived in company cars, which dropped them off a block from the festival, so as not to attract attention to themselves. All of them wore hats, masks, and sunglasses, as though it were the ultimate disguise. As if their fans would never be able to tell that they were EXO members. 

As soon as they arrived, they divided into their own little groups. The Chinese line all went to the tents that sold Chinese food and items that reminded them of home. Sehun followed Lu Han like a lost puppy, hoping that his hyung would buy him something good to eat. Minseok and Jongdae went to look at a little football tournament that was starting near the Latin American culture booths. Kyungsoo was interested in a cooking seminar that was being offered at the festival, and Jongin tagged along with him to taste all the food he was going to learn to make. Junmyeon had made it his mission to spend a little bit of time with each of them, to make sure they wouldn't get into any trouble. 

Then Baekhyun and Chanyeol went off on their own to see everything. There was nothing in particular they were there to see. They ate all kinds of food, they went on the rides, and as the sun went down and the sky grew dark, Baekhyun found himself all alone for an extended amount of time. Chanyeol had run off to get another corn on the cob and Baekhyun just stood around waiting until a particular tent caught his attention. 

He had sworn he had seen everything, but he didn't notice that one until that moment. 

Get your fortune read for six thousand won. Learn about your past life.

The sign in front of the tent read enticingly and Baekhyun could not help but roll his eyes at the thought. There were people who would just do anything for money. And as he found himself walking towards the tent, he found that he was one of those idiots who was willing to pay for someone to blurt out random things they claimed to know about him. But he was in his disguise and there was no way this person could know he was Baekhyun of EXO. He thought to pass the time by seeing if this person could accurately tell him about his life, but also tell him about his supposed past life.

Maybe it was true that he had once been a prince of Goryeo, even though that was highly unlikely.

He pushed past the entrance of the tent hesitantly, only to find a woman sat at the end with the typical gypsy attire. Inside the tent was dark and the place was only slightly illuminated by a purple tint. 

Her face was covered by a veil and in front of her was a crystal ball that shone with purple lights. Around her were a couple of shelves with potions labeled with different things on them. Evil eye. Love. Money. Power. All of them were probably just sugar water and made to scam some poor fool out of his or her money. He thought it was all for show. He had seen those came crystal balls at a store in the mall and they were battery operated, nothing special. It was a store where they sold various novelties, but he remembered he and Chanyeol had been all over the gossip rags when they went there to have a look. That was because at the back of the shop they also had a section for sex toys. Fans and anti-fans alike had gone crazy with the news. The Chanbaek shippers swore they were there to buy sexual items. They were convinced that their presence there proved the theory that the two were secretly dating. But they were only friends, best friends at that.

In reality, Chanyeol had heard from friends that the store sold all kinds of fun novelties, excluding the part about the sex toys, and he really wanted to go check it out. They had left that day with Chanyeol buying a blanket of Deadpool riding a unicorn, and a vintage shirt that said Don't Talk to Strangers. 

He stood by the entrance of the tent for what seemed like an eternity, contemplating whether or not he should just turn around and leave when he heard the voice of the fortune teller speaking to him. "I've been expecting you, Mr. Byun Baekhyun."

Baekhyun felt himself freeze up in surprise. She had called him exactly by his name. How did she know who he was? His identity was concealed and he knew they had never met before. 

Baekhyun eyed her with curiosity, raising an eyebrow at her in question. "How do you know my name?"

She replied simply, as though it were the easiest thing in the world. "Everything in this life was written out in the stars before you and I were even born. I am merely a messenger of the skies. They have told me you would wander into my tent today." Gesturing to a chair across from her, she added, "Sit. I presume there are some things you want to talk about, even if you don't believe in them."

Baekhyun cut the distance between them and ended up sitting across from her. He sheepishly admitted to the older woman with graying hair and crinkly eyes beneath her veil. "I honestly wanted to see what you would tell me and I wanted to know if you were full of bullshit." He quickly covered his mouth and apologized for using a profanity. He didn't want anyone hearing him. It would tarnish his image as an idol. He was trained and was supposed to be perfect in every way too appear a certain way in front of his audience. It was very much like acting. In front of the cameras he was a little bit different to how he was in real life.

The moment he sat down, she started running her hands over her crystal ball. The little purple bits of lightning inside flashed for a moment before they turned into a deep purple fog. "Hm..." She hummed as she observed the fog in her crystal ball. "The skies would like me to show you your past life, from over a thousand years ago."

Baekhyun scoffed at that cockily. "I already know I was a prince in a past life." He informed her, finding it every bit amusing how his friends were convinced he was the tenth prince of Goryeo, but reincarnated into their present times. But if he was, he didn't remember his past life. He didn't remember any of it. 

The fortune teller concentrated on her crystal ball, observing what it was telling her about his past life. "You had a good childhood in your past life. You were happy, playful, care free. A little prince sheltered within the walls of a palace." She said, her eyebrows furrowing as she continued reading what her crystal ball told her. "You were forced into a marriage you did not want. Well...your feelings were conflicted about it. You liked her, but you knew she didn't like you back. Yet, you wanted her by your side because you cared about her. But you were a bit mean to her sometimes."

None of it sounded familiar to him in the slightest.

When she paused for a moment, Baekhyun was surprised how she told him about his past life with such detail that he could almost picture it in his mind. No doubt, she probably had a bunch of detailed back stories written down somewhere and she fed them to her clients, mixing them up every once in a while so they wouldn't suspect that it was all just a sham. 

Still, it all seemed to strangely connect with what he saw in the museum. As a prince, the boy in the paintings probably had a happy and care free life growing up. There was also the possibility that his marriage to the girl in the paintings may have been arranged, as was the custom back then. Very little people in those days married out of love, and more for social convenience. But the young couple in the painting looked like they were in love and he was a bit curious to find out more about them.

"What was her name?" He wondered aloud, his words slow and sounding every bit mesmerized. "My wife in that past life?"

The fortune teller replied with a shake of her head. "The heavens don't provide me with names, only stories. But she suffered a lot in the beginning, for a number of reasons. She did not have feelings for you. She had strong feelings for another, a brave and handsome soldier. Later on, she grew to love you, and it seems that you had a beautiful family together." The fog in her crystal ball soon turned pitch black, startling Baekhyun because he knew that could not be a good sign. "Hate got in the way of your happiness, and you both suffered a lot when you died. She went first, and you did not want to let her go alone."

That girl...I cannot let her go alone.

The words echoed out of the crystal ball and Baekhyun gasped. It was his voice. But he did not remember ever saying that about someone. The words were foreign to him, yet they were his voice nonetheless. It was definitely him. 

Startled, he shot up from his chair and turned to leave the fortune teller's tent. He rushed out and scurried off to find Chanyeol. He ended up doing exactly that when he bumped into his friend, making him drop his corn on the cob. Chanyeol looked at the food that had fallen onto the floor with a look of dismay. He then looked up at Baekhyun and was about to reprimand him for making him drop his food. But he stopped himself when he saw the look on his friend's face.

"What happened to you?" He asked, kneeling down to pick up the tossed food out of courtesy to the other guests of the festival. He would find the nearest trash bin and throw it there when he could find one. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

Baekhyun's heart was beating madly against his chest from what he had just experienced. Had it not been for that, hearing his own voice coming from her crystal ball, he would have still thought all of it was bullshit. But now he wasn't so sure. She seemed to know details about him from the present time and even from his supposed past life. 

He turned and pointed towards where the tent had been. "I visited this fortune teller while I waited for you to get your food and--"

He stopped talking when he looked ahead and noticed the tent he had just been in had disappeared. In its place was an empty space through which they could look out towards the back of the festival. It was at a vast park in the middle of the city, near the Han river. Chanyeol looked to his friend with confusion. Baekhyun had been acting a bit strange ever since he had seen that museum exhibit, and he seemed to be obsessed with the girl who looked like the one in the painting. He was trying hard to find her all over the city and even on social media. 

Now he was making up stories about fortune tellers. It was all so bizarre. 

"I swear she was just here a moment ago." Baekhyun said, hoping that his friend would believe him. But at this point, he just knew he sounded like he was absolutely insane. Still, he continued to explain, trying his best to sound as convincing as possible. "She was telling me about my supposed past life, and I didn't believe in that stuff before. But then I heard my voice coming from her crystal ball and I wasn't sure anymore."

"If you're not feeling okay we can go back to the dorms." Chanyeol offered with concern. He had seen most of the festival anyway and they had tried most of the food. That was enough for him to return to the dorm building where EXO currently lived together.

-

with this one, there are only two more updates left before this story is over for good.

i think i will be posting the blurb for the sequel, so please check it out if you get the chance. thank you all loads for all the support you have given me. it means the entire world. 

question of the day ; if you were in this situation, would you think it was you in a past life? or would you think that they were all just coincidences. i honestly don't really believe in past lives. so i would probably think it was all just a coincidence, or maybe that my friends were all playing some elaborate prank on me.

i hope to see you all there, in the sequel!

-clary