Chapter III.

Despite his growing urge to sleep, an extremely exhausted Zhang Yixing wandered through their dorm building, his hands tucked inside the pockets of his shorts. He stopped outside one of the rooms, and raised a hand, rapping softly against the slightly ajar door before peeking inside. He got the unspoken permission to enter the room as the occupant gave him a distracted smile, and Yixing walked inside, sitting down on the bed next to the oldest of the Beagle line. He had been wanting to speak to this particular man for the past few days, and today, he had found a good enough time to be able to talk to him alone. Chanyeol, his current roommate, was still busy practising in some other corner of the building, which left the guy alone for a few hours.

Byun Baekhyun closed the book he had been reading, placing it lightly on his lap as he gave Yixing his full attention. "What's up, hyung?" He asked, a ghost of a smile on his face which didn't quite reach his eyes.

"You haven't had dinner yet, right? What would you like to eat?" Yixing asked carefully as he gazed at the singer intently, watching his expression shift from a neutral stare to a grimace.

"I'm fine, hyung. Not hungry," Baekhyun replied in clipped tones, burning a hole through his outstretched legs as he stared at them, refusing to look up at Yixing.

The older guy sighed, shaking his head slightly. "Ah, such a pity," he said in an amused voice, using Baekhyun's own trademark word, 'kkaebsong'. "And I was planning on cooking something with pork." He mispronounced the word on purpose; he knew how much Baekhyun loved imitating the others' mistakes while speaking in Korean.

The Chinese was disappointed beyond belief when all he got from the other was silence. Okay, he thought, now is as good time as any to talk to him.

He shifted a little on the bed, making himself more comfortable as he stretched his legs out from under him, and inched closer to Baekhyun. After a moment of thought, he lifted a hand, gently placing it on the younger one's forearm. Yixing could feel him flinch from the touch, but his hand wasn't pushed off or swatted away, so he took it as his cue to speak.

"What's the matter with you, Baekhyun?" He asked, keeping his tone light as he gave the other a sidelong glance. He held up his other hand, stopping Baekhyun from saying anything; he knew Baekhyun was going to lie, saying that everything was all right.

"Baekhyun, do you know what we all love about you?" Yixing asked, not expecting any answer from the boy as he continued, turning his gaze away. "Your smile. It is no doubt that you are the mood maker of our group, and it's your radiating smile that makes us forget our worries, even if for a while."

Looking back at Baekhyun, Yixing was stunned to see tears glistening in the younger man's eyes, that were blinked away furiously as Baekhyun cleared his throat.

"You don't have to lie to me, Yixing-hyung," Baekhyun began, his voice heavy and strained that left Yixing in outright confusion. It was starting to become painfully obvious just how much Baekhyun was hurting, and the dancer resolved to himself that he would not leave the room without knowing the cause for it. For the moment, though, he stayed silent, letting the other speak.

"What is the use of smiling, when all I do is make others feel bad?" Baekhyun asked, although it felt more like a declaration or a statement than a question. Before Yixing could retort, Baekhyun let the words spill, pouring everything out.

"I can't help but feel that those three were starting to get sick of me and my jokes. I mean, they did say that they had some medical issues, but we don't know if that was really the reason why they left. I don't think people like it when I mimic them, when I point out their mistakes or accents. For all I know, they couldn't stand me being such a pain, and decided to leave the group just to get away from me."

His voice had begun to rise as he continued his monologue, and by the end of it, Yixing could see that Baekhyun was practically seething with anger, most of it directed towards himself. Yixing couldn't believe his ears. Had Baekhyun been suffering from these thoughts through the entire ordeal? Why had he kept this all to himself for so many months? Didn't he trust any of s, to be able to talk to them freely about the whole issue?

Hundreds of questions swirled through Yixing's brain, but only one of them surfaced, one that might have sounded pretty silly if not for the graveness of the situation.

"Have you been reading the comments on YouTube videos?"

Baekhyun looked up at his older brother -- there was no doubt he thought of them as his brothers as well -- to see a small but sad smile on his face, letting his gaze drop immediately to his hands as he nodded mutely.

Yixing did not have to lie, he had come across a lot of hateful comments himself. While some of them were about people speculating that he would be the next to leave, there were quite a few ones about his fellow members as well. He hated reading them, but this was the Internet, where one could freely express his or her opinions.

"Tell me one thing, Baekhyun. Do you really, truly believe that your jokes were what led to their exit from EXO?"

"Well-"

"Are you really of the opinion that those three were that shallow to feel hurt just because of your jokes?" Yixing interrupted once again, his voice growing urgent by every passing second.

"Who knows, hyung? Maybe I overdid it!" Baekhyun exploded, raising his hands in the air, only for them to be brought back down by Yixing in a tight grasp.

"Whatever you did, Baekhyun, was out of love for them. We all know you so well. We know you would never get comfortable enough to tease someone who you're not close to. Isn't that what we all do to our closest friends? We tease them a lot, we make fun of them, but at the end of the day, we love them the most." Yixing's face held a stern expression, but his voice was soft as well as firm as he looked Baekhyun in the eye, never letting go of his hands and gaze.

As Baekhyun fought to keep meeting Yixing's stare, the latter went on. "We never hated it when you mimicked us or made fun of us. That's just how you are, and if anything, your imitation reminds us just how close we all are. I will never take back what I said, we love it when you're the smiling, happy guy, and your smile makes us feel better every time."

Yixing watched as a small, unsure smile began to make its way on the other guy's face, and Baekhyun gave Yixing's hands that were still holding on to his a light squeeze.

"I... you have no idea how relieved I am... to hear you say all of this, hyung," Baekhyun said in a tiny voice so uncharacteristic of him. "Thank you so much, and... I apologise profusely for having snapped at you." With this, he finally broke his gaze away from Yixing's, looking away as the older man put a hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to feel sorry for that, I can understand how you were feeling." Yixing was beginning to surprise himself by how calm and collected he sounded; maybe the discussion with Minseok had been useful, after all. "Just know that if there's anything bothering you, anything at all, we are here for you."

After wrapping Baekhyun up in an affectionate hug, Yixing left the room, and Baekhyun could finally breathe, knowing that a huge load had been lifted off his shoulders.

Author's Note:

Please don't kill me I swear please

I literally emptied all my feelings about EXO into this chapter. I have read a lot of comments about how Baekhyun's teasing eventually led to you-know-what, and I guess I just had to get this all out. Again, I say that all of this is purely my imagination, so please don't hate me I'm begging literally on my knees please