CHAPTER 1

THE THING ABOUT C O M E B A C K S

 

 

Yixing almost didn't get to join the band during this comeback.

 

The gist was that his acting career in China overlapped with EXO's activities; comeback preparations were set to start right when he was given the role for his new movie.  A miracle occurred, though, which allowed the film to wrap up oddly quickly which consequently allowed him to fly back to Seoul just as recordings were happening for the album.  He sang his lines for the songs he missed then jumped back on the train and caught up fairly quickly, shooting his teasers rather last-minute.  EXO-Ls were beyond ecstatic when his teasers were posted since most of them had began to accept that Yixing wasn't going to be a part of the comeback, and yet his teasers arrived, last but definitely not the least, which completed the teaser phase of the CB.

 

Now, the strenuous part: promotions.

 

Promotions were the one thing that Yixing didn't particularly enjoy.  He did enjoy interacting with the fans and being on stage again with a new concept, but promotions were exhausting as hell.  Attend these press-cons, go on these variety shows, sit in for these interviews, do these photo-shoots, fly here, drive there — it just never ended.  In essence, promotions lasted during the entire comeback; hell, the teaser phase was promotions.  It was just technicalities like those that set things apart.  Otherwise, Yixing would be several times more tired than he already was.

 

His eyes fluttered open groggily.  When his vision adjusted, he found himself blinking slowly at the couch in the dorm's living room.  He felt extremely cocooned, then remembered that he'd tightened the hood of his jacket over his head and wrapped himself in a comforter like a burrito before napping.  His ears picked up on video game sounds from the flat-screen.  Groaning, he flipped himself around while shielding his eyes from the screen's brightness.

 

Chanyeol was sitting on the floor with his back to the couch.  He had been playing Super Smash Bros. by himself for the past two hours.  Yixing had been asleep for four.  When Chanyeol entered the living room, he'd turned off all the lights and played as quietly as he could.

 

“Chanyeol?” the older of the two croaked.

 

“Evening, hyung,” Chanyeol responded without taking his eyes off of the screen.  He jerked the Wii remote every which way to mimic the actions of Princess Peach in the game.

 

Yixing squinted and tried to read the clock on the wall but it was too blurry.  “What time is it?”

 

“Five minutes till 11:30,” Chanyeol said.  He grunted while lifting the remote.  “P.M.”

 

Slowly, Yixing sat up and swung his legs from the couch.  Rubbing his eyes, he chose to stare at Chanyeol's pink head to help them focus.  Had he really been asleep for four hours?

 

“Kyungsoo put your dinner in the fridge,” the younger man quipped.  “He wanted to wake you up but Junmyeon-hyung said not to.”

 

“He should have,” Yixing mumbled, rubbing his temples.  “That was a depression nap.”

 

“Are you depressed?”

 

“No,” Yixing said, “just sleepy.  Super sleepy, which is weird.  I don't feel tired.”

 

“You did practice for two days straight. ” Chanyeol's Princess Peach won the battle.  He looked away from the screen and up at Yixing.  “I'm surprised you even woke up.”

 

Yixing's stomach grumbled.  He threw the covers off of his body and stood up, zombie-walking to the kitchen.  He found a Tupperware with his name written on it in Kyungsoo's handwriting.  EXO-K's mother-figure knew Yixing could have cooked for himself, but mom friends looked out for each other, too.  Hmm, bulgogi, smells good, Yixing thought as he smelled the meal.  He popped it in the microwave to reheat (with a paper towel over it, of course).

 

“Two days, you said?” he asked from the kitchen.

 

“Yeah!” Chanyeol said.  “It's Thursday.”

 

Thursday, huh?  I should really keep track of time better.  Which was true.  Ever since he returned, Yixing kept losing track of time, especially the days.  On one hand, it helped him focus on more important things like whatever was happening at the moment (i.e. practicing).  On the other, he ended up doing too much of it.  At least he was making those mistakes now, at the dawn of promotions, and not during, when he could overwork himself.

 

“Where's everyone?” he asked as he prepared his late dinner.

 

“Everyone's asleep except for you, me, and Junmyeon-hyung and Kris-hyung.”

 

“What're they doing?”

 

“Still at the company,” Chanyeol said.  He turned off the game and walked into the kitchen.  “They went back for a meeting of some sort, not really sure what.”

 

“Have they eaten?”

 

“Yeah, everyone has.”  Chanyeol sat down on the kitchen island.  “How are you?”

 

Yixing looked at him with raised brows. “I'm good.  Why do you ask?”

 

Chanyeol reached over and pulled back Yixing's hood as he sat across from him.  “Nothing, just wondering.  You said you don't feel tired but you napped for four hours.”

 

“I felt sleepy.” Yixing took a bite of the beef and some rice, immediately satiating the hunger calls from his stomach.

 

“Yeah, which means your body is tired, but somehow you're not registering it,” the younger member said.

 

“It's so weird, right?”

 

Chanyeol smiled thinly.  “We just got you back, hyung.  Please take care of yourself.”

 

Yixing glanced up at him.  That, he registered well.  He was glad to be back.  He should handle that carefully.

 

“Yah,” he said, pointing his spoon at Chanyeol, “if you want some of my food, you can just ask.  No need for sweet words like that.”

 

Chanyeol laughed, his deep voice rumbling, causing the sleeping members to shift in their sleep.

 

 

 

“Why is literally every guy your parents set you up with so horrible?”

 

“Not all of them!”  Justine said defensively.  “There was that one Air Force captain, remember him?”

 

Jinwoo faked thinking deeply.  “Who, the one who kept sending you chocolates every week at work?  Diabetes runs in your family, Justine, it wasn't a very smart thing to do.”

 

Justine giggled.  “Okay, he wasn't terrible but I didn't say he was great.”

 

“You illustrate my point,” Jinwoo said, popping a chocolate-covered pretzel in .

 

The two girls were laying on the couch in the lounge area of their apartment, their backs against either arm of the sofa and their ankles tangled under the white covers Justine hauled from her room.  The first to occupy the sofa was Justine:  She couldn't sleep, and it had been 2:35 a.m. when she decided to crawl out of bed and wach Netflix quietly in the living room.  Jinwoo rolled out several minutes later to get a drink of water, but seeing her best friend awake made her lose her sleepiness, so she grabbed the large bag of chocolate-covered pretzels from the pantry and joined Justine on the couch.  It was now 3:48, the second season of New Girl unwatched but playing nonetheless on the flat-screen.

 

“These guys are so tacky, I don't know what your parents see in them,” said Jinwoo.

 

“Oh, they see several things,” Justine responded, “like their degrees and family name and list of achievements.”

 

“Ugh!”  Jinwoo groaned as she reached over and grabbed the remote from the coffee table.  “It's the 21st century, no one cares about that stuff anymore.”

 

“You'd be surprised.”

 

“I am!”  Jinwoo raised the volume of the TV a couple notches.  “Your parents are crazy wealthy.  They could literally spend their money by traveling to every country in the world twice and they'd still be in the top 100 wealthiest people in Asia.”

 

“That's the thing,” Justine mumbled, counting the pretzels in her hand.  “They want to preserve that status.  My parents' friends aren't as wealthy as they are.  At this point, they just want to stay on the list.”

 

“You guys could literally own South Korea.”

 

Justine made a face.  She wasn't a huge fan of Jinwoo reminding her how many commas her family had in their bank accounts.

 

“Plus, you don't even want to get married.”

 

“I do want to get married,” Justine said.  “Just... not with any of those guys.”

 

“So tell your parents!”

 

“Jinwoo.”  Justine held her best friend's gaze.  The New Girl characters were screaming at each other on the screen.  “I don't want to die early.”

 

“Excuses.”

 

“You know what happened the last time their obsession with arranged marriages was defied.”

 

Jinwoo groaned again.  “Ugh, whatever, gold-digger.”

 

Justine forced herself not to laugh.  Truth to be told, Jinwoo's bluntness was a breath of fresh air:  She was Justine's voice of reason.  Really, her voice of anything — she and Jinwoo were crazy close that they were always in each other's heads.

 

“Wait.” Jinwoo froze, then repeatedly hit Justine's knee.  “Oh my God.  Aren't you visiting them again tomorrow?  I mean, today?”

 

Justine sighed.  “Yeah.  That's a monthly thing.”

 

“Dude, you should go to sleep!”

 

“No, I'm flying to Jeju after work.  I don't want to spend 24 hours there on the first day.”

 

“You're staying over there for the weekend, right?”

 

Justine nodded.  “I'll be back Sunday night.”

 

Jinwoo pouted.  “I wanted to hang out.  We haven't been to the mall in a while.”

 

Justine raised her brows, grabbing more pretzels.  “We literally went there two weeks ago.”

 

“A while!”  Jinwoo defended herself.  She relaxed soon, though.  “Oh, well, at least it's just once a month.”

 

Right, once a month, Justine conceded with a sigh.  It was the one thing her parents asked of her when she told them she was moving to Seoul for good.  Visit the manor one weekend a month; spend time with the family and such — they requested the same of Lorenzo when he and his wife announced their move to Apgujeong.  Justine said yes, of course: if one weekend was all it took for her to pack her bags and head out to Dongdaemun (she and Jinwoo had already signed the lease to their apartment prior to Justine telling her parents), then she would do it.  She failed to foresee, however, her parents' plans: every weekend that she would fly out to Jeju, her parents would also invite over a potential husband, turning the monthly family dinner into the most awkward evening of the month.  She didn't tell Jinwoo about that, though.  Justine's own brain was already screaming for her not to go.  Adding Jinwoo's voice would only feed the fire.

 

“Plus, I also want to go to the mall to get a new top.”

 

Justine snorted.  Jinwoo only ever bought new clothes if a boy band she liked was coming to ASC.  “Why, which boy band is coming?”

 

“EXO!”  Jinwoo clapped her hands enthusiastically.  “I get to see Suho again!”

 

Justine couldn't help but roll her eyes, earning a reprimanding slap from Jinwoo, laughing as she popped two pretzels into her own mouth.  Ever since the band's debut, Jinwoo had probably been one of EXO's biggest fans.  She even used to be a photographer for a Suho fansite, back when she still had the time i.e. before After School Club.  She was still a huge supporter, but she did it by purchasing heir albums plus a few merch here and there.  The stable income from Arirang helped support her fan-girling.  In retrospect, it was a good thing she quit from the fansite.

 

“It has been a while since they last sat in for an episode,” Justine said.  She raised her brows.  “Well, if you were in charge of Red Velvet, then I'm in charge of EXO's episode.”

 

“That's right.  And one of their members managed to make it back in time for the comeback, too!”

 

For whatever reason, that perked Justine's interest.  “Oh?”

 

“Yeah!  Lay.  Apart from being a singer, he's also an actor in China.  Most of the fans and even SM assumed he wasn't going to be a part of this comeback, but he made it back.”

 

“Oh, cool.”

 

Jinwoo scrunched her nose at Justine.  “You really are so cold.”

 

Justine was hurt.  “I'm not!”

 

“You're so passive about my interests!”

 

“Girl, it's literally almost 4 o'clock.  I will sound disinterested no matter what,” she said.  “Plus, I like SHINee.”

 

“You're so ugly.”

 

“Oh my gosh, fine!”  Justine proceeded to raise her fists and faked a wide grin.  “Yay, Lay is back!  EXO jjang!”

 

For the next minute, Justine dodged Jinwoo's impassioned hits and kicks, clutching her stomach as she laughed without care.

 

 

 

Yixing kept tossing and turning in his bed.  Jongdae was snoring, perfectly asleep and completely unaware that his roommate was having a mini crisis.  For the last time, Yixing flipped from his side to his back, sighing at the ceiling.  His grandmother used to warn him when he was little about taking naps after 5 p.m.; it always rendered him unable to return to sleep at night.  He reached over to the table beside his bed for his phone and checked the time:  3:48 A.M.  He wriggled himself out of his hoodie then his shirt, throwing them to the foot of his bed.  It turned out he was just too warm.  He sighed contentedly before staring at the ceiling again, pondering.

 

So, promotions... What's the first activity?  Oh, the V-Lives... How many of those?  Two, I think... I think the first one is later today... Then Music Bank... What's after that?...  Yixing falsely assumed that mentally listing the things the band had to do for promos would resemble counting sheep.  It did not.

 

Instead, it clouded his brain even more, having a mental picture of their to-do list.  At times like this, he remembered how he was supposed to be EXO-M's leader.  At times like this, he was thankful he was not.  Then he remembered how it must burden Yifan and Junmyeon, having to be the first to keep up with their schedules, and he felt even more stressed.

 

The thing was Kris also began acting in China.  It just so happened that his drama ended way before the first phase of production began, so he was able to come back with minimal hassle.  All things worked for good, too: as a leader, Kris's presence was vital.

 

Truth be told, the band could have done without Yixing.  The album would have turned out just as fine without him.  He had already prepared himself mentally and emotionally, too, just in case he wasn't able to fly back at all.  But then he did, and it was great, but looking back on it now, acting was slightly less stressful than singing.

 

“Hyung... sleep...”

 

Yixing turned his head towards Jongdae's bed.  He was laying on his stomach, arms on either side of his head, staring at Yixing from the corner of his eyes.

 

“Yeah, I am,” Yixing muttered.

 

Jongdae blinked at him slowly.  His mouth moved against his pillow when he spoke.  “Staying up is bad for singers.  Bad for the throat.”

 

Yixing nodded as best as he could laying down.  “Ara.  I'll sleep.”

 

Jongdae hummed before turning his head and returning to sleep.  Yixing didn't sleep until half an hour later.

 

 

 

 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

OKKKK YAY CHAPTER 2 IS FINISHED

AND YES OT12 is alive in this fic. i believe in OT12!!!!!

so, in reality, there are more factors that are playing into yixing not being able to return to korea.  mostly political.  but here's the thing: it's more complex than that.  it's not about yixing having to be absent; it's literally two countries with a strain on their political relationship.  that's way bigger than k-pop.

so i didn't include it in the reasons why yixing almost didn't make it for the comeback in this fic because it's just way bigger than that.

anyway, what did you guys think of this chapter?  tbh it's quite mellow, but i promise the upcoming chapters will be more exciting.  like, i'm telling y'all, in 2 chapters, justine and yixing will meet 8)

don't forget to comment, subscribe, and up-vote!  see you guys~

thank you for reading♥

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