Chapter IV.

On a typical weekday afternoon, Zhang Yixing found himself seated at the electronic piano in one of EXO's dorm rooms, working on a piece of music. He had picked up the basics of music composition and arrangement pretty quickly for someone who couldn't read sheet music, and presently, his gaze was fixed on the piano keys, his fingers dancing as they tickled the ivories. He hummed to himself in tune with the notes, a pair of headphones perched on his head. Only one ear was covered by the headphones, though, while the other often picked up bits and pieces of the conversation between the others as they shuffled in and out of the room.

Most of his focus being on the current task at hand, he could only faintly hear Byun Baekhyun and Do Kyungsoo talking between themselves. Out of the corner of an eye, Yixing could see the legs of a certain vocalist dangling from the arm of a couch as they kicked at the air above his feet. The occupant of the said couch was scrolling through something on his phone, his finger refusing to cease the continuous motion, his brows furrowed together as he stared at the screen with a slight pout.

From a door nearby, Yixing saw Kim Junmyeon walk in. Their group leader stopped in the middle of the room, saying something along the lines of having to go for vocal practice. As the Chinese dancer took a slight pause, trying to think of the next set of notes, he heard Junmyeon urge the other EXO-M member to get his off the couch, but judging by the tone of his voice, the other wasn't willing to join them.

"Yah, Kim Jongdae!"

Yixing was startled by how loud and harsh Junmyeon's voice sounded as he called out to the vocalist, and he could see Jongdae exiting the room without a care in the world, earphones jammed in his ears with the volume turned up to brain damaging levels that even Yixing could hear for a second.

His eyebrows knitted together in a frown, Yixing slipped the headphones off, placing them on the desk in front as he turned his complete attention to the other three, who were currently shooting each other looks of confusion. "What's wrong with Jongdae?" He asked, his tone light. Baekhyun was the first to respond with a blank shrug, while the other two let out long sighs of frustration.

"He has been like this since the past few days," Kyungsoo explained in a small voice, his gaze staying fixed on his hands that were resting in his lap. "It almost feels like he is pushing aside his duties."

"We can never tell what's going on in that brain of his now," Junmyeon added as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Seriously, what has happened to our Chenderella?" Baekhyun joked as he tried to lighten the atmosphere, the faint grin slipping from his face immediately as he realised that now was not the time for a quip.

Despite the severity of the situation, Yixing found himself smiling softly to himself; seemingly, Baekhyun was actually trying to go back to being fun and playful. With a light scrape of the chair he had been sitting on, Yixing stood up, turning to face the three. "I'll see if there's something bothering him," he offered, taking a step towards the door when he was stopped by Junmyeon's voice.

"Yixing, it's fine. I can talk to him."

"Don't you have to go practise?" The Chinese retorted, the corner of his mouth threatening to tug upwards as he stared at the leader, an eyebrow arched in mock sternness. Junmyeon sighed in defeat, nodding reluctantly as he walked back to the other two, tugging on Baekhyun's sleeve to make him stand up.

"Yixing-hyung, just a little word of advice," Kyungsoo began as he stood up alongside Baekhyun, a hand in his pocket as he glanced at Yixing, "please try not to be too angry at him. Such behaviour is quite rare for Jongdae, and it would be bad if we drive him over the edge." Even if the younger guy seemed aloof and indifferent to the public, there was a slight hint of worry lacing his voice as he spoke, and the dancer merely nodded in understanding as he threw them a small wave, before strolling out the room.

Yixing found himself standing in one of the empty hallways of the dormitory, scratching his head lightly as he made a face. In the couple minutes that he had stopped to talk to the three about Jongdae, he had completely lost the man in their house. He had peeked into every room on the floor he had been on, as well as the floor above, but he had neither been able to see Jongdae nor hear anything from him.

Resignedly, he huffed out a long sigh as he trudged up the stairs to the top floor, making his way over to a balcony adjoining one of the rooms. His lips broke into a small grin as he spotted the back of the very man he had been searching for, who was now leaning against the railing, his foot tapping on the tiled floor. Tentatively, Yixing took tiny, silent steps towards the balcony, coming to a stop a couple feet beside Jongdae as he rested his hands on the railing, peering over at the sky.

The older guy had been holding his breath for a while, waiting and hoping against hope for Jongdae to initiate any kind of conversation between them. To his absolute disappointment, the other refused to utter a single word. Yixing had always been the quieter of the two, letting Jongdae speak up first every time they had talks related to random topics, and with a somewhat sinking feeling, he realised that he would have to cut to the chase.

"Is there any problem, Jongdae-yah?" He asked as he turned to the guy in question, his head tilted to one side. "You seem a bit bothered."

"It's nothing, hyung," came the curt reply, extremely unlike Jongdae, and Yixing let out a sigh, obviously not falling for it.

"You're a bad liar, Jongdae," Yixing said, his voice grim before his gaze softened as he stared at the other. "You know you can tell me if there's anything troubling you, right?"

"Why do you think anything is wrong with me?" Jongdae countered, eyes blazing as he stared at his older brother. A moment later, he instantly lowered his eyes, mumbling an apology.

"I think it's pretty obvious," Yixing said wryly, shaking his head exasperatedly. "Seriously, what's wrong? You love to sing, so why are you running away from it?"

A string of incoherent mutters could be heard from Jongdae as he turned his face away from Yixing and back to facing the scenery outside their dorm. Even after straining his ears, Yixing failed to catch a single word he had said, and noticing the silence, Jongdae heaved a sigh, looking back at the older man.

"Why should I sing, hyung?" He said, his voice coming out a lot clearer and louder than he had intended it to be.

Words failed to help Yixing as he could only stare goggle-eyed at Jongdae, his mouth hanging open. Mentally shaking himself, he tried to recover from the shock.

"W-what do you mean by that?" Yixing sputtered, taking a step forward to place a hand on the Korean's shoulder as he looked Jongdae in the eye.

Taking a deep breath to try and stay calm, Jongdae's unwavering gaze met Yixing's. "I mean exactly what I said, hyung. Why should I waste my time singing, when there is no point in singing anymore?"

Taken aback by the question, the Chinese blinked in confusion, his brows knitted together in a deep frown. Jongdae had effectively rendered him speechless, and as Yixing continued to stare, the other guy continued.

"All along, I devoted my entire time towards the members, I emptied all of my feelings into singing, and what do I get in return?"

He did not need to speak further to explain his point to Yixing, he could already the gears spinning in the other's brain.

All he got in return was a light flick of the finger to his forehead, and he winced in pain, throwing his head back.

"What was that for?" He whined, rubbing at the spot with a hand, only to stare at Yixing as the older man let out a laugh.

"You sure are a silly guy sometimes, Jongdae," Yixing blurted out between his chuckles, shaking his head as he grabbed Jongdae's other shoulder with his hand, too. "That's some twisted logic you've got there."

Jongdae flushed in embarrassment with a pout, averting his gaze to his sneakers as Yixing continued.

"We know how well you sing, and we love your voice, but the other three leaving does not mean that they did not appreciate your efforts," Yixing said, all traces of humour vanishing from his face, his voice soft as he gazed affectionately at his fellow group member.

"You have been blessed with a beautiful and melodious voice, and by no means should you feel burdened about it, all right? And the answer to your question? You should sing for yourself. Make yourself happy, be selfish sometimes, it's perfectly okay to put your needs before the others', Jongdae."

The pinkness faded from Jongdae's cheeks as he looked up at his hyung, hanging on to every single word said by the other.

"Do you remember what you had said once, when you were asked about your aim in the future?" Yixing asked, arching an eyebrow.

How could Jongdae forget? He still remembered it word for word, in an interview along with a few other members. He let out a soft chuckle, nodding as a smile slowly began to spread on his face.

"Bringing to everyone a voice and song that belongs to only me, is my future goal," he recited, watching as Yixing beamed at him.

"There you go. You just have to work towards that goal of yours, Jongdae-yah, and you have to be a little selfish to achieve it. Sing for yourself, and remember that if you ever have any worries, we'll be here for you, all right?"

Yixing gave him a wink as he lightly squeezed Jongdae's shoulders, before letting go and walking off, back to composing the piece he had been working on.

Author's Note:

Oh my goodness, I couldn't apologise enough for the delay. A lot of things came up in life, and I kind of ended up losing any motivation to write. Hopefully, I've got my muse back, and the updates will be quicker in the near future.

For a change, I literally have no idea what went on in this chapter XD It started off with slight bitterness, then moved on to comedy (?!), and then turned serious and kinda fluffy? Can't be bothered, though XD

Coming up with a prompt for Jongdae's chapter proved to be extremely hard for me as compared to a few others'. I dunno, does it even make any sense?