Sehun could not sleep that night, he had thought that the hot springs would lull him into a deep sleep bit it would not come to him in the slightest. He twisted over onto his side, smiling a little as he felt Kai wrapping his arms around him a little tighter but it really helping him to settle. It was so tempting just to get up now and see if he could find any signs that Tao had visited them but he knew that he wasn’t supposed to. There again they weren’t supposed to leave the dorms wither but the opportunity had just been too good.

Hitting his futon pillows to make it softer, Sehun pouted when it didn’t help and pulled himself upright to huff in an easier position when a song cut through the silence, one that was familiar and caused the maknae to blink in surprise rather than fright.

Carefully he untangled himself from his friend’s long arms and made sure to tuck him in properly, vaguely wondering where Chen had got to but not focusing too much on that question as he instead follows the cheery kid’s TV music out of his room and down to the small lounge that was connected directly to the kitchen. For an a second he felt a little hint of fear dragging him down but as the TV set came into view Sehun couldn’t help but let just a little bit of a joyful yell as he rushed forward to throw his arms around the tall figure who was sitting waiting for him.

Before unfortunately face planting straight into the sofa.

“what?!?!” Sehun whined pulling himself up to look at Tao, “how...I mean...”

Tao looked at him with a shy smile, “I am a ghost, Sehun, it’s not like I’m here”

“But I can see you,” Sehun virtually cried, “you’re sitting right in front of me right now and you’re talking to me and you’re not supposed to be able to do that.”

Tao gently sighed, “We get to choose how we say goodbye to everyone and this is my way of doing it”

But Kris and Luhan didn’t do this,” Sehun complained, pouting like a child because he could do so in that moment in time

Tao grinned cheekily, “I kinda pulled a few strings but they’re a bit more traditional and plus since you’re not at home I couldn’t follow the usual routes. But enough talk about that,” the slightly older maknae made himself comfortable on the sofa, “I don’t want this to be a sad goodbye. I want to just have some fun before I leave.”

Sehun looked crestfallen, “But this is sad. I don’t want to lose you...”

“You’re not losing me Sehun,” Tao said, “I’m just in a different place waiting for you to come and join me is all. I bet you’ve got a really good life ahead of you and there’ll be a ton of stories for you tell me when you do get there.”

“But you won’t be there to experience them with me,” Sehun replied with a sigh, wiping away the tears that were falling down his face, “it’s not fair. You shouldn’t be dead! I shouldn’t have left you alone like that.”

Lightly the other shook his head, “Sehun you can’t keep blaming yourself for something that was not your fault.”

“But you needed help,” Sehun wailed, wondering if he would accidentally wake someone up with all the noise that he was making, “and I wasn’t there to give it to you.”

Tao lightly cooed towards the crying boy, wishing that he could reach out to embrace him but that was the one downside of the route he had chosen. Whilst he could be seen and actually speak with those he wanted to they couldn’t reach out to touch him and he couldn’t reach out to them. For a second he almost regretted the whole situation but he knew that this was the best way for him.

“Sehun,” Tao tried when the other continued to wail, “Hunnie . Sese...hoi potato.”

At that word Sehun looked up towards Tao with a frown despite the tears that were trickling down his face, “Potato?”

A blink was his reply, “Did I just say that?”

“Yes...” the syllable got dragged out a few seconds longer than needed, before a familiar smile of resigned trying to guess the word that Tao wanted to say filtered onto Sehun face, “what did you want to call me.”

There was a pause as Tao thought best how to describe what he wanted to say, before breaking into a grin, “Maybe I just wanted to get your attention.”

An eyebrow was raised in his direction before Sehun wiped away the tears that were falling down his face, “Your Korean still .”

“As does your Mandarin,” Tao sparked back, “Not my fault your language is so complicated.”

That immediately sparked off an age old and now much playful argument between the pair and slowly Sehun’s tears dried up until they were nothing more than just a general wetness around the eyes. Their argument broke off at one point to just fall into a normal everyday conversation about things that had happened and things that were going to happen and just the usual nonsense that the two maknae would talk about whenever they could.

Though Tao had to turn his head when the ending theme song for Pororo started to play and gently he let out a sigh, “Looks like my time is up.”

Sehun glanced towards the television with a look of hopelessness in his eyes, “There’s another show on after this one...”

The youngsters whine was so cute that it took all of Tao’s willpower to not attempt to hug him again, “You stay up and watch it Sehun, you can tell me all about it later.”

“Can’t you stay,” Sehun pleaded, on the verge of tears once again, “just a little longer?”

“if I could then I would but my time is up Sehun,” Tao said sadly, raising to stand up, “But if you want me to stay around a little longer then there is something you can do.”

“What?” Sehun asked, virtually leaping to his feet to look at his friend directly in the eye, “tell me and I’ll do it.”

A gentle smile crossed Taos face, “Remember me and live your life to the full and then come and tell me all about it.”

“Tell you?” Sehun said softly before his eyes widened, “at the spirit festival?”

Tao nodded, “I’ll be there every year to see you and the others. So make sure you can come okay? Oh and before I forget, I left your Pororo doll under your bed, you may want to fish it out before Kai’s dog finds it when he next gets to the dorms.”

Sehun blinked before laughing, “and why did you put it there?”

“Cause Luhan-ge said it had to be in a safe place,” Tao smiled brightly back before a slither of sunlight crept through the window, “Goodbye Sehun, may you always have good fortune following you where you go.”

Gently Sehun lowered his head, trying not to let any tears fall but managed a smile, “Thank you Tao...I’ll miss you.”

“and I you...” Tao said softly before the sunlight streamed through the window and cause Sehun to blink open his eyes in confusion. He found himself back at the EXO-K dorms, in his own bed with Suho sleeping soundly in the opposite bed looking peaceful and content for the first time in what felt like forever. Sehun couldn’t resist the urge to stand up and cross the small space to his leaders bed to just look at wonder at the now peacefully sleeping man but found himself blinking in complete surprise.

Around Suho’s wrist was a guuchi bracelet which he immediately recognised as having belonged to their former panda and as the smaller man shifted to a more comfortable position Sehun saw that he was also wearing a necklace which had previously belong to Luhan and a ring which had belonged to Kris.

Without pausing to second guess himself, Sehun virtually dove under his bed to find his favourite blue Pororo plushi right where it was supposed to be and let out a laugh as he pulled it tightly into his chest before scrambling out from under his bed when he heard a half grumbled question about what he was doing under there.

“Tao returned Pororo!” he cried happily, not caring that he sounded like a way too over excited child on Christmas day as he hugged the toy to his chest, “I can squish him as much as I want now!”

Suho smiled down towards the happy youngster before checking his own wrist to confirm that there was indeed a bracelet sitting there that was never the type of thing that he would have worn but he would wear it because it had belonged to his Chinese baby. He nearly jolted at finding the other things too but was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Kai into their room

“Sehun!” Kai yelled a touch too loud for this time of the morning, carrying a green gator plushi that had not been seen for an age, “I told you that silly Panda had this and look he’s returned him.”

“I know!” Sehun said joyfully back, “look I got Pororo back too.” Suddenly he paused, “Did he come and visit you last night as well?”

“I had a dream he did,” Kai said flopping onto Sehun’s bed, “One where we all went away to...”

“a spar in the country...” Sehun filled in with a confused tone

Suho grinned and shook his head, “I guess that Tao really knew what he wanted to do in order to say farewell.”

The two youngsters nodded before opting to dog pile onto the elder so that they could hug against him in a happy pile and feel free to express their joy. Whilst there was still sadness and tears to be shed it became clear that they could move on together and have fun like they used to.

Breakfast turned into a giggle festival as everyone reported the same type of dream though everyone else had a different things returned that had been borrowed by the original wayward panda and they all exchanged stories on how they had each come to give their friend the item in question.

The day progressed on and for no real reason that he could think of, Sehun found himself running about the dorm like a little kid making aeroplane noises as he made Pororo fly around. Not that he cared, it was good fun and no one was going to tell him off anyway since he wasn’t causing much of a problem and he happily skidded down the corridor that lead to the main door with a giggle when something glinted off a new addition to the corridor.

Sehun blinked and took a step closer to smile at seeing that the photo frame which had previously held the photograph of Kris and Luhan now held a new one which featured all three of their missing brothers. It was an image from their Wolf promotion days and they had been trying out sets of ears to wear which had ultimately been dropped cause most of it looked silly.

Gently he chuckled at the trio, “Ha-ha you all look silly! But don’t think that you’re going to get Pororo either, he’s mine!” gently bopping the blue penguin plush off the front or the glass Sehun took off running once again with a cheerful yell. Whilst in the public eye he had to be the ice prince there was nothing to stop him being more like the playful maknae behind closed doors.

Someone had to make up for the lack of cuteness and Sehun was more than happy to fulfil the roll. He would always miss Tao but he would be always with them and Sehun was very glad to know that fact.

authors babbling: If anyone was in tears with this bit of the fic, just grab your Pororo plushi and run around making aeroplane noises like Sehun did - though I cannot honestly ever image him doing such a thing but the image was just way too cute to ignore when it sprung into my mind and I just couldn't leave it be. So yes, lets all grab our Pororo's and run about to cheer ourselves up. ^^