The festival in Busan was an outdoors one so their fitting rooms were substituted for white tents set up in an empty parking lot. As usual for these types of events, the boys and girls shared a tent and Chanyeol ducked as Joonmyun flung off her shirt so that she was only wearing a white camisole now. Little dots of sweat beaded at her forehead and she huffed, a few strands of her bangs blowing up. It was hot outside and they were all thankful that they were last in the line up when the sun was a little lower and it would be a bit cooler. The rehearsals earlier at noon had nearly killed them with the sun at its peak and even Kyungsoo had rolled up her sweats to her thighs to cool off on stage.

“I don’t care what Baekhyun says, I want the shortest top and pants today,” Joonmyun said as she sat in front of one of the portable fans. “I don’t care if my is hanging out for everyone to see. It’s a good anyways.”

“You’re gonna have to fight me for it,” Baekhyun piped up from her spot on one of the lawn chairs she was lounging in.

“Maybe me too,” Kyungsoo said miserably as she took a gulp out of one of the ice cold water bottles they had laying around. Everyone’s head whipped around at the unexpected statement from her and her eyes grew wide in confusion.

“What?” Kyungsoo asked.

“I’ll give it up if Kyungsoo really wants to wear it,” Baekhyun smiled, scooting her chair closer to the other girl.

“I see Kyungsoo all the time. I still want it,” Joonmyun said not giving in.

“Joonmyun can have it,” Kyungsoo gave up easily, second thinking her decision.

“Honey, I’ll do your hair up today,” one of the stylists nodded in her direction. Kyungsoo smiled sweetly back at her and nodded back.

“Do you think we can perform shirtless?” Sehun asked, looking at the rest of the guys. The youngest had already stripped from his bro tank and was lying on a picnic mat on the ground. Jongin was lying next to him, his tank pulled up to his armpits. All of their boys were nicely muscled from late nights at the gym and in preparation for their upcoming comeback. Summer was right around the corner and they had been listening to demo tracks for weeks to pick their title song.

“No,” their stylists shook her head. “I did not spend hours looking for nice, expensive outfits for you to just walk out shirtless and kill everyone of your fangirls.”

“But they’d like it,” Sehun smirked.

“You have us in tight pants again,” Jongdae whined.

“You could have at least gotten some jeans with tears in them,” Chanyeol agreed.

“Twelve minutes on stage,” their manager reminded them. “You all can handle twelve minutes in some heat. We’ve been through worst.”

“We’re out of water,” Minseok announced, tipping her empty plastic bottle over Jongdae’s head where the last drop splashed onto him.

“I’ll go get some more,” their manager said sacrificing himself and standing up.

“I’ll help,” Chanyeol stood up too, following the man outside of the tent and into the humidity. The tall idol bowed politely at all the staff and fellow idols he encountered until they reached the tent that held cases of water and some snacks for everyone working at the festival.

“You think two cases should be enough?” His manager asked.

“It should be unless Sehun and Jongdae decide to start some type of water fight to pass the time,” Chanyeol answered

“I’ll keep an eye on them,” the manager sighed before eyeing Chanyeol, “and on you too. Don’t act like you aren’t a trouble maker when I know you’re the mastermind behind most of the pranks,” he scowled a bit. All Chanyeol could do was grin because it was sort of the truth.

“Let me go sign off on this and then we’ll grab the cases and go,” the older man said. Chanyeol nodded and slipped his hands inside his short pockets and whistled as he waited. He nodded at more staff members and shook hands with some friends he hadn’t seen in a while. As he began to stare off into the hustle and bustle of everyone preparing for the festival though, his eyes narrowed and he scowled at the sight of a certain person.

“What the is he doing here?” he asked as his manager returned.

“Chanyeol, language,” he was firmly reminded as the manager looked in the direction he was glaring at. There, lounging about twenty feet away from them was Park Jungki, leader of well known boy group Princeton and more notoriously known as Baekhyun’s ex boyfriend. Chanyeol didn’t just hate the guy, he despised the other idol with every bone in his body. If he could make the douche pay for everything he had done to Baekhyun he definitely would have.

“No seriously, what is he doing here?” Chanyeol asked, looking away from Jungki and grabbing a case of water. “We never ever go to the same events as them.” After the well publicized breakup, their company had meticulously went to the lengths to avoid any matching schedules with Princeton except for the unavoidable year end awards and celebrations. Even then, it was an unwritten rule to keep Princeton and EXO as far away from each other as possible.

“He’s a stand-in MC for Minki,” the manager sighed as they started walking back to their tent. “It was a last minute change because the guy was in Busan for a fansign for his solo album. I’ve already talked to the event organizers and made sure that he will be off the stage when you guys perform. There shouldn’t be any issues.”

“What about the ending stage?” Chanyeol asked.

“Just keep her on the far left away from the MC’s,” manager answered.

“Does Baek even know?” Chanyeol continued to press as he adjusted his grip on the case of water.

“Not yet,” manager answered nervously. “Maybe you could tell her? She’ll take it better coming from you than from me.” Chanyeol let out a heavy breath. Once again, he was expected to keep Baekhyun together.

“Don’t get mad but I have something to tell you,” Chanyeol cornered her in a quiet area of the tent a bit later.

“What is it?” Baekhyun asked. “It’s my turn for makeup in a bit. God I hope it doesn’t melt in this heat. I feel so ing gross,” she wiped her sweaty palms down his shirt.

“I think runny makeup is the least of your worries when a certain is at this event too,” Chanyeol told her.

“Jungki’s here?” Baekhyun asked breathily, her eyes opening wide before a familiar look of anxiety and panic began to set in. “Why? They weren’t in the lineup when I checked.”

“He’s the MC,” Chanyeol scowled again. “A last minute addition but we can’t back out now. Not when we have all the fans waiting for us. Everything is taken care of though. Don’t worry too much about it. I just wanted to let you know so you wouldn’t be surprised later,” he tried to reassure her. Baekhyun looked nervous, hands grabbing onto the bottom of his shirt and wrinkling the thin fabric in between her fingers tight.

“I’ll block you,” Chanyeol promised her. “I won’t let anything happen.”

“Thanks Yeol,” Baekhyun leaned into him, head resting on his chest. It was still unbearably hot and they were both sticky but Baekhyun needed this.

“Anything for you Baek,” Chanyeol replied, pulling her a bit more comfortably against him.

The performance later went well, the heat dying down considerably as the sun sunk in the sky and the moon began to rise. Joonmyun got to wear the short outfit, her not hanging out, and Kyungsoo’s long hair was tucked into a cute little bun that made her cheeks stand out even more. To Sehun’s disappointment, he was wrestled into wearing a loose, long sleeved tee while Jongin got away with a mesh top. Jongdae almost split his pants when he crouched down to sing a high note but he stood up safely. During their ment, Minseok began to hiccup and charmed the entire audience with her shy smile. Chanyeol stood right next to Baekhyun, blocking Jungki from her view so she could focus on the sea of silver lights glowing back at them.

It was a successful day and as they were herded back into their tent to pack up and get ready for the drive back home, Chanyeol couldn’t help but keep on staring at Baekhyun and her radiant smile. Performing gave her a glow that nothing else could. Hearing those cheers and fans made her the happiest he had seen in a long time. He wasn’t going to let anything destroy that-not again. The first time he hadn’t protected her but this time, nothing was going to take her light away.