Chapter 1(1)

His priorities were his job, his group, his dream. He had worked so hard to get here, and there was no way Park Chanyeol would let himself retrocede. There was a thrill only the 9 of them, well the twelve really, knew in getting out of the airport surrounded by hundreds of people chanting their name and their achievements. There was actually nothing better than being known throughout the entire nation because he was part of the hottest idol of them all, a record-breaking group. No matter what, EXO was still breaking records winning daesangs, getting 1st places in music shows after one month of the same song, topping all charts. They were the it thing of now, and for Chanyeol that meant that sooner, rather than later the songs he composed, alone or with Lay hyung’s help (who now was in china evolved in filming and promoting his new Chinese movie) would be out. Sooner rather than later, rather than never really, he would be able to share his music with people. One day he would be able to be just like Lee Hyun Do sunbaenim who could compose a jingle in minutes. One day he would be part of the hallyu wave just like the super junior hyungs, TVXQ sunbaes, Big Bang sunbaenims. Chanyeol’s dream was to be as legendary as Seo Taiji sunbaenim himself.

This had been Chanyeol dream for as long as he could remember. He had always told himself that if he could get to a company then he would bear it all, from the grudging trainee days to learning how to dance properly, he would endure those endless years in dorms, small and shared and a bit claustrophobic for someone as large as him. He’d told himself countless time there was nothing he couldn’t take, after debuting, all those things were in his reach he just had to know how to handle them. Clearly some of the members hadn’t known how to deal with the acquired super-fame. Kris hyung had just set off. Luhan hyung had gotten worryingly sick. Baekhyun had been reckless and had been caught, damaging the love the fans had for him. Tao had decided he had grown enough to be by himself, except he wasn't, not really.

But Chanyeol had never been willing to lose any of the things he had achieved. He was Exo’s vitamin, voice and happy virus, this was his role, his part in life and the best thing was, this was his job. Something he had desired all of his life. He wasn’t willing to lose any of it and this was why he was always satisfied and euphoric. There was nothing that could come before his career. Of course the main point, he knew, were the fans. Selling one million digital copies was definitely not easy and he also knew it was all due to fan’s endeavors. He would easily admit as well, that it wasn’t just because they were talented, even though he was comfortable enough to think they were, but because a very nicely put together marketing strategy had been built around EXO and because his now smaller group, was by no means, a group of ugly people. But still to him there was no demerit in being famous because of it.

And here they were, three years later, three members short and one too busy in China to give a damn about them. Though Lay was missed they had his reassurance that he would comeback, he was a very responsible person and was aware of the compromise they had assumed towards the fans. Anyways the 12 members Sino-korean group was reduced to 8 members, all Korean, at most nowadays and it was pretty sad. Nonetheless, they were still happy, Chanyeol was still happy.

He was still happy until everything changed.

Ever since EXODUS promotions had started, it had been absolutely hectic and chaotic.

And now that it had begun to simmer down, some of them had yet to be finished with their EXODUS schedule for a while, there would be a CF shooting in a day or two, some other members had solo schedules, but he for once, had nothing to do. Jongin had a cold – again. Baekhyunnie had chosen to spend the night quietly in the dorms, though Chanyeol was pretty sure he would devise a slick plan to meet with noona anyways. Joonmyun hyung and Jongdae would be going to a mini variety for all he knew, others like Umin hyung wanted to rest for as long as they could. There had been an offer from SBS that the company was pondering for him as well, but for now, at least this week, his schedule was cleared off. The general vibe was exhaustion laced with laziness and some sickness, as if a black cloud hovered around the dorm’s halls. But not him, as always he was full of energy.

Fiddling with his cell phone and scrolling through his latest Kakao messages the tall boy stopped in the middle of the hallway towards the kitchen which earned him a strange look from a blinking D.O. who just ignored him and using his hobbit stature hunched his way from under his arms.

There was a message from four or five days ago. He remembered clearly they had been in China and it had been so chaotic that his cell phone (miraculously) had been forgotten, or perhaps taken away by manager hyung. He laughed a little. Yeah, probably taken away, with how obsessed he was with his own smartphone. It was from an old friend. Someone he had met in Hyundai High School on first year he had gone there. His name was Yeon Woo and he was a nice kid, really kind and easygoing he had been one of the first people to encourage his dream and told him to become an idol. At the time he had been 16 years old and everything had seemed possible. When he had enrolled in the 2008 smart model contest which ultimately gained him the entryway to being a trainee in SME he had thanked Go Yeon Woo so much his forehead had almost touched the ground. From there onwards his life was fully divided into two very distant different sections, high school and training and most of time the latter overwhelmed the first.

Still he had made friends with the same click Yeon Woo rolled with. There were the weirdly genious twins Sa Dal Soo and Sa Eun Joo. They used to take over the School radio and make everyone laugh during period break. He remembered them fondly, they had shared many jokes together and often they were the mood makers of the little group. Then there was a cute sunbae that sang through life by the name of Noh Min Jung and who was everlastingly in love with, also sunbae, Noh Sung Woo, which was funny because they already had the same family name. And that had been the premise of many of the twins jokes on them. Anyway, at the tome Sung Woo sunbae only tought about SNSD and Wonder girls and had spent the whole second year of high school chanting Gee on the desk in front of Yeon Woo and his. He was part of the fan clubs and fan cafes and was constantly all over the news about the girls he liked, and though Noh Min Jung really sang like an angel he couldn’t be bothered by her then. Sung Woo sunbae was pursuing arts as his life career, and right after girl groups his favorite thing would be to spend an entire afternoon in a gallery watching paintings with his headphones, listening to SNSD.

There was quiet Lee Hyun Seok who really resembled D.O. so much that the first time he had seen Kyungsoo he adored him right away just by thinking about this kid. Lee Hyun Seok was actually one of those kids that wanted everything he did to be exciting and new. As soon as it was trendy he would drop it. And that was why when he finally decided he wanted to be an actor he immediately decided he wanted to be a theatre actor without even giving it a simple though to the small or the big screen. He was a very determinate fellow as well. Other than them, there were a few more which he also loved and missed. It wasn’t exactly that he missed high school. He had achieved his dream now and he didn’t miss those times of innocence and hard work, even if he was still working hard every day, at all. But he was nostalgic of them and the people he really did miss.

And that was why he had stopped in the middle of the hallway so suddenly, looking down at his Kakao chat. It was Yeon Woo and he, politely and quite oddly, had asked him if he would like to come meet them. It wasn’t a high school reunion at all, Yeon Woo had reassured, just their little clique getting together on some street ahjumma