Weeks passed and EXO was busy with their preparations for their new concert tour. When there were no scheduled dance practices, they would go to the gym to exercise. They would allow themselves to rest but not too long unless it's sleeping at night. They had to attend to their other schedules like movie or drama filming, magazine photoshoots, endorsement and other project meetings. In short, there was no more time to dwell on their personal problems once they have officially started preparing for the concert. Even Kai was unable to see Krystal frequently. They knew this would happen but took a chance anyway.

Krystal understands Kai. Most of the time, he's unable to answer her calls or even text her back. He's always focused on practices. Partly because Kai is pressured, partly because he wanted to keep his mind and body busy and keep himself from being distracted. The more he focuses on not getting distracted, the more he forgets about himself and Krystal. And the more Kyungsoo is close to him, the more he's so messed up in trying so hard to focus. 

"Hey, Jongin, are you okay?" Lay asked him. "Here, have some water." He offered. Kai was sitting on the floor of their practice room, Sehun was sitting on one corner with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, while Lay was being a healer to s. When Kai accepted the bottle of water, Lay went to Sehun to give him a bottle of water, too. "We're gonna give them a good show, I'm sure of that! We'll just have to practice more often." He said intending to give confidence to the maknaes.

"Yeah, Lay-hyung." Sehun almost just whispers in response and breathes out loud enough to release the stress.

Kai did not respond. Instead, he nods in agreement and brushed his hair with his hands.

"I think we've had enough for today." Lay said as he saw Kai's exhausted face. "We can just reconvene tomorrow. Let's have a good dinner then go to sleep."

"Ah!! Right! Kyungsoo-hyung said he'll cook for dinner today because the vocal line's rehearsal's supposed to end early." Suddenly, Sehun had the energy to stand up when he imagines what Kyungsoo's going to cook for them. 

"You guys go ahead." Kai said sounding really tired. With his head bowed down, he lifts his arm to wave at his friends. "Go already."

"What's the problem? No appetite?" Lay went back to check on Kai if he's sick.

"It's nothing hyung. I'll just go after you." Kai still refused to lift his head up.

"Then I'll just ask them to leave some food for you, okay?" Lay responds while patting Kai's back. He only got a short hum from him. Both Sehun and Lay went out of the practice room and cleaned themselves up before going to the dormitory.

---

It's already past 10pm, all of the members have already eaten but Kai still isn't back.

"Maybe he went for a date with Krystal." Baekhyun scoffs while helping Chanyeol and Kyungsoo clean the kitchen.

"Hasn't anyone called him yet?" Lay asked.

"He left his phone in our bedroom." Chanyeol answered. He looked at Kyungsoo who he can't decipher if he's worried or pretending not to care. He's busy washing the dishes.

"Just go to bed after finishing what you're doing. I'll take care of him." Suho interrupted them. The guys nodded in chorus. There was silence and Chanyeol could hear Kyungsoo's sighing. They have already talked about their day over dinner so Chanyeol didn't really know what to ask Kyungsoo anymore just to keep his mind off of what's bugging him. He just resorted to what he actually does best to Kyungsoo --

"Kyungsooooooo...hurry up already! I'm sleepy. Look, everyone already left!" Chanyeol whined.

"You can go ahead if you're sleepy." Kyungsoo frowned at him.

"Aaahhhh, but I do not want to sleep without you..."

"What are you? A child?"

"Aaaahhh, here, let me wash those fast instead." Chanyeol bumped Kyungsoo away from the sink and he hurriedly cleaned all the dishes left. If there was no sound of running water and dishes clacking, there would have been 100% silence. Until Kyungsoo spoke--

"Let's go get Jongin."

"Suho-hyung's fetching him."

"No, he's still on the phone with the manager, I think." Kyungsoo said looking at Suho who's really talking to someone on the phone, fidgeting because he probably wanted to fetch Kai already. "Let's just go get him, Chanyeol." Kyungsoo's eyes were pleading and Chanyeol couldn't think of ways to ignore him as he's done with th dishes.

"Who knows where he went." Chanyeol said while wiping his hands dry with a dish cloth.

"Let's find him." No answer from Chanyeol. "Please?" How can Chanyeol resist those doe eyes? How can he endure a worried Kyungsoo? Of course, how can he just leave out a member who's probably going under a difficult situation right now?

"Okay. Let's go the practice room first. Hope he's there." Chanyeol finally agreed. Both of them put their hooded jacket on, still had decent pants and shirt on, wore their shoes and called out their leader's attention. Suho showed his relief and apologies to the two guys who were about to leave.

---

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol were walking down the hallway to the dance room. Chanyeol could tell Kyungsoo's silently wishing Kai's just there, that he must have only fallen asleep. As they got closer, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were looking at each other, confused.

"Can you hear that?" Chanyeol asked looking down at the shorter guy.

"Someone's crying?" Kyungsoo's eyes grew bigger. "Kai...." He's the first one to open the door and there they saw him, still sitting on the floor, hugging his knees and burying his head in his arms, crying.

Kyungsoo went closer and so did Chanyeol. They both sat beside Kai, one on each side. Kyungsoo hesitated to pat him at first but thought he probably needs a little comfort at that time. He's not really sure what Kai's going through because he assumed both of them are already going past the KaiSoo issue. 

"Jongin..." Kyungsoo said in a soft tone.

"Kyungsoo..." Kai's voice was still shaking.

"You mean Kyungsoo-hyung?" Kyungsoo tried to joke around.

"Kyungsoo..." Kai repeated then coughed.

"Come on, Jongin. You should take a rest now." Chanyeol said and he was genuinely gentle. Despite this feeling he has that it's because of Kyungsoo that Kai was like that, Chanyeol was still concerned.

"Can I talk to Kyungsoo?" He said still not moving.

"I'm here, Jongin. What do you want to talk about?" Kyungsoo moved closer to Kai, bowed his head a bit in an attempt to see his face.

"Just you, I only want to talk to you." And Kyungsoo looked at Chanyeol. The taller guy understood it right away and even if he was hesitant, he agreed. But he motioned a "call me" to Kyungsoo first before leaving the room.

When Kyungsoo heard the door closed, he started, "It's just the two of us now. What do you want to talk about?" Kyungsoo's voice was gentle and caring. It's as if he was never hurt by the man beside him.

Kai slowly lifted his head up, then he looked at Kyungsoo eye-to-eye. They stared at each other for a few seconds then Kai slightly opened his mouth. Kyungsoo felt bad for thinking how hot Kai looked at that moment and he mentally said sorry to Krystal for thinking that way to her boyfriend. His hearbeat was already notably fast but it just got faster when he heard Kai asked, "If I break up with Krystal, can we still go back to how we were before?" and a tear fell from Kai's swollen eye.