Four days passed since Baekhyun left and things seemed to be getting worst. It had been a good thing that Baekhyun left since the manager had dedicated his life to turning their lives into hell.

With a tired sigh, Minseok pressed the button of the drink he desired from the bending machine and stood there waiting patiently. He ran a hand across his face and focused back on the glossy surface of the machine. Slowly his eyebrows knitted together as he saw movement reflectingin it, his eyes widening when he identified the figure of a man nearing him from behind. Right when he turned around, he was harshly pushed against the bending machine behind him.

The manager glared at him and gripped Xiumin's arms tightly, keeping the man in place. The eyes of the manager burned with rage as he stared down at Xiumin's wide shocked ones.

"The others won’t tell me where Baekhyun went, will you be just as disappointing? Or are you smarter than them?" The manager spat glaring at Xiumin. Minseok looked at the man with wide eyes, his arms hurting where the other's hands gripped at.

"With all due respect, even if I wanted to sir, which I don't, I don't know where he is" Xiumin said through gritted teeth, ripping himself from the man's grip as he managed to gather some courage.

"You will tell me!" The man demanded. He lifted his hand, ready to strike the man, when a deep older voice interrupted them.

"Mr. Kim! What is the meaning of this?!" The voice of none other than Lee Soo Man was heard. Both Xiumin and the manager stopped dead their tracks, the manager slowly releasing the idol.

"I-I, sir this isn't what it seems" the manager stuttered, looking at his boss with wide eyes.

"It appears to be exactly what it seems, I am tired of all the news and the problems that have come to my company lately!" The man said sternly, looking at the pair in front of him with piercing eyes.

"M-my apologies sir, I understand how you must feel, but it's all because the homo kid is causing trouble out there" the man tried to reason.

"I've heard enough to know what's going on around, and I won’t tolerate it, I want your office clean and your keys on my desk by the end of the day, you are fired" the man in charge of everything said firmly. The manager gaped at him and nodded his head in a slight bow before walking off.

"But sir! You can't do this!" The manager called back looking at the retreating man.

"Have a good day Mr. Kim" Lee Soo Man said before taking an elevator. The manager just gaped there before looking at Minseok, gritting his teeth in rage.

"This is because of all of you! I know your weaknesses, I will end all of you!" The now former manager growled, now fuming with rage.

He gave a threatening pace towards Minseok but the other didn't cower back this time. Xiumin stood his ground and looked at the manager with a glare. Now that the man was no longer his superior, Xiumin didn't have to worry about as many consequences as before. He curled his hands into tight fists at his sides as he stared at the slightly taller man. Right when the manager was about to take another pace into Xiumin's range, the security guards came and escorted/dragged the man out of the building.

Minseok released a breath that he didn't knew had been holding and stood there for some time. He leaned back against the bending machine with a sigh and looked around. He decided that he had to tell the others what had just happened. Taking the drink he had been delayed from acquiring, he ran all the way to the practice room where the rest of EXO waited. The looked at him with wide startled eyes because of his sudden entry of their bandmate.

He explained what happened to the others in a rush, causing a group gathering to take place. Their discussion extended for almost an hour, the heat rising up in the room.

"I keep telling you guys! This is all his fault!" Yixing shouted, glaring around the group.

"For once in your life! Can you stop being so thick in the head?! How can it be Baekhyun's fault if he isn't even around?!" Kyungsoo shot back with a murderer glare.

"If he hadn't left, none of this would have happened! If he wasn't gay, none of this would have happened!" Lay barked with a glare at the others.

"If the world was less judging and didn't get their noses in topics that don't concern them, this wouldn't happen, what do you or the manager care for what Baekhyun does?! He's the same Baek we knew! Nothing changed in him! But you all decided to attack him for being himself! Even I would leave you guys if that's how it's going to be!" Jongin said, shoving Lay back. Lay growled and shoved Kai back, the pair getting at each other's throats in less than a minute.

"That's it! That's enough! Don't you see what's becoming of us!" Suho shouted parting the two men away from each other and looking at them with a glare. Lay glared at Suho, but his gaze softened when he saw just how hurt Suho actually looked. He was about to say something but he bit his tongue and stayed quiet.

He suddenly felt sick. He realized just how much all of this took a toll on Junmyeon. After Kris left Suho had to work as the only leader figure of a bunch of men that acted like brats sometimes, as a consequences almost everything would take a toll on him. As Lay's head cooled down a little he started to make some sense.

"Come on guys, let's just.... Try to get along among us... We need to be together now more than ever" Suho said in an even voice, looking away from Lay. After that, Suho didn't met Yixing's eyes again. Even when addressing him directly, Suho looked at anything except Yixing's eyes.

At night, when Lay was ready for bed, he pondered over the day's happenings. He ended up disappointed at himself when realization downed on him. Baekhyun was homoual, yes, he was doing things that weren't right, not at all. But if Baekhyun was the responsible, the logic would be that everything had to be focused on him. He wondered why the manager had to hurt the others if it was Baekhyun he wanted. He told him it was for everyone's wellbeing, but if you wanted to look after everyone's wellbeing then you shouldn't hurt them either.

"God dammit Yixing!" Lay huffed annoyed at himself. He his side and look at the empty bed besides him. Chen had refused to sleep in the same room as Yixing ever since they split the dorm in something like neutral, approving and disapproving sides. Sehun had abandoned the disapproving side as well, moving to the neutral area with Xiumin. He was currently on his own.

"Is it really worth it, to lose everything.... Just to feel good with myself?" He asked to the nothingness of the room, and yet, he still felt that even if he did kept on his current ways, he wouldn't feel good with himself. He felt bad all the time. All this meaningless hate poisoning his soul, it hurt. Deep in thought he ended up drifting off to sleep, not even his subconscious letting him rest.

All night long he had constant nightmares of their former manager hurting his bandmates. It was torture for him, to think of his friend getting harmed because of an obsession.

-

"Yeah... I'll tell Suho and Kyungsoo... Don't worry about it... Yeah bye" Xiumin nodded ending the call. He had been told to call Baekhyun and Chanyeol to tell them about today's happenings and ask them if everything was ok since the rest of the group was either busy or asleep.

He threw his phone to the side and rubbed his face with a huff. Not even a few minutes after he ended the call, his phone rang again. Letting out a tired sigh he took the device and looked at the caller's ID.

His heart tightened in his chest and suddenly a wave of nausea overtook his stomach. He felt the bile raise in his throat as he felt like wanting to puke, his head suddenly getting clouded by thoughts.He hesitated a little before his trembling finger decided to answer the call.

Before doing so he got up. Dazed with fear he walked to the door and locked it, trying hard to keep his knees from giving out under his weight because of the shattering feeling that overwhelmed him. Whatever the outcome of this call, he didn't want to be seen like this, he didn't want anyone coming in, he would be ok, he just wanted to be alone for this. He walked back to the bed and as he sat down in the soft mattress, he slowly pulled the phone to his ear and with a deep breath he answered.

"Hello father" Minseok answered slowly.

"Hello Minseok, you mother is in the line as well" his father greeted, supplying the information so Xiumin would be aware of his mother's presence. He should have known, when his parents called like this, it wasn't good.

"Hello mother" Minseok said, his mother greeting him back.

"Anyways, we are calling because, we reserved a rather disturbing call earlier" his mother started, his father picking up the sentence after her.

"And we thought we were clear the last time we spoke about this, you were aware of the consequences" his father said. Of course he remembered, he had been publicly humiliated in a restaurant for two whole hours. He was sure he would have killed himself that day if it hadn't been for his best friend.

Xiumin's minds drifted off a little, his father’s voice snapping him back to reality.

"Minseok, answer when we are talking to you" Mr. Kim snapped at his son, Minseok gulping thickly.

"Yes father, you were very clear during our last talk" Xiumin said looking down at his bed. He knew the manager had lied, but his parents were even thicker in the head than Yixing or their former manager, so there was no use.

"To think that we loved you enough to give you a second chance, and you do this to us, you get yourself directly involved with those kind of people" his mother said, actually sounding undignified.

"Answer us this Minseok. What is your stand on this issue?" His father asked, voice stone cold. The young man gulped and took a deep breath, he knew what was coming, it didn't matter what he said.

"I-I...." Xiumin started, flinching when his father raised his voice.

"Speak clear! A Kim son of mine never stutters!" He scolded sternly, actually pissed off. He closed his eyes and gulped thickly, gathering control over his voice.

"I couldn't take sides sir, he is my friend after all" Minseok said keeping his voice as even as he could. He braced himself for what was coming.

"You betray your family, because a homo took a hold of your soft side" his mother said bitterly.

"You dishonor us Minseok" his father said in a cold deep voice. He always said that, after all, he wasn't supposed to be nice, he wasn't supposed to sing, he was raised to be whatever they wanted, but he never did.

"Mom please" Minseok tried to speak, his voice cracking as his eyes began to sting with tears.

"And on top of that you plea, is that how you sound when you're being gay? Disgusting." his father spat through the line. More tears left Xiumin as he sobbed brokenly, listening to whatever his parents said.

"Don't do this, please, mom, dad" he tried again, closing his eyes tightly.

"Don't call us that Minseok, you're no longer our son" his mother said to him, delivering the devastating blow.

"Have a good night Mr. Kim" his father finished, addressing him as a complete stranger before the line went dead.

After that, Xiumin didn't have strength. His phone fell to the floor and his tears ran freely down his cheeks. He slowly laid down on the bed as he sobbed against his pillow brokenly. His hugged his blankets as he stared at the wall before him, the tears cascading down his face. His heart clenched painfully until it felt as if he was suffocating, but at the same time, it felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulder.

His mind was too hazy and in pain for what had just occurred, so he just laid there. He cried and cried until finally he fell prey to the clutches of sleep and exhaustion.

-

"How are you?" Jongdae asked as he entered the bedroom he was now sharing with Suho.

"I could be better to be honest... Do you think Baekhyun is ok?" Junmyeon asked as he looked away from the book he was reading to look at Chen. Jongdae looked at Suho for a moment before nodding with a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry too much, I am sure they are just fine, he is perfectly safe with Chanyeol and Tao, and they told us to trust Chanyeol's friends so they must be having a good time." The vocalist reassured the leader as he took few steps closer. Junmyeon hummed and nodded with a smile.

"Yeah... You are right, I just get carried away with my worries." Suho chuckled a little shaking his head.

"Well then it's a good thing you have me here, that way I can always tell you ok and how great of a leader you are so you don't stress out" Chen said and they both shared a small laugh at this. The smiled and laugh for a short while before Jongdae spoke again.

"And what are you reading?" He questioned curiously as he slowly walked closer to the bed where the leader was.

"It's a novel, it's about a king and magic and stuff" Suho answered with a shrug as Jongdae looked over his shoulder to the pages he was currently holding open.

"Well that sounds like my type of thing, tell me more about it" Chen said with an excited grin as he sat on the space Suho cleared for him when he scooted to the side. The both spent their time talking happily after that, falling in the vast world of books and imagination they both loved so much.

---

A.N.

Sorry for taking long guys! I was packed with works. So yeah thank you for the patience!!

Hope you are liking this! tell me what you think in the comments! and don't forget to subscribe!