Sitting at the backseat and staring out the window, Baekhyun's mind flew out of the reality for some time. His manager was driving him back home. Darkness of the night, and the lights in the streets became one big, dull scenery in his eyes. Maybe, because they were driving fast or maybe, because there were actual tears in his eyes. Baekhyun cried rarely, and when he did, it was because he was really happy or super sad. This situation clearly was heartbreaking for him. His soul hurt and he wanted to vanish out of the world, but instead was locked inside the car and mutely crying to himself.

“Is everything ok, Baekhyun?” his manager asked.

“Yeah…” his voice croaked for some reason, making it hard to gulp.

“Did you fall sick? Your voice is different,” manager Seo looked at him through the rear mirror but couldn’t see his face because Baekhyun was looking outside.

“No, I’m okay. Just tired,” Baekhyun replied after clearing his throat once. His phone in the pocket of his jeans beeped and Baekhyun grudgingly took it out. Notification was from Irene. And that was a message from her. He sighed, once again looking out the window. ‘What does everyone want from me now?’ he cringed his face out of annoyance.

Something told him that the message was important. And the fact that Irene wrote to him first was something unexpected in the first place. Now that Baekhyun thought about it, she never started a conversation herself. Intrigued by that but still lazy, he swiped the screen to right and opened the app. What he saw took his breath away for a second.

Irene : *Photo* remember this occasion? I forgot I still have it as your profile picture :P I hope you can still smile joyfully like you’re doing it on this photo :)

He saw the attached picture of him that she took long time ago. Looking back at the text, Baekhyun almost forgot all his sorrows, and let out a scoff mixed with a little smile. ‘How does she always know the moments when I get sad.’

Resting his back against the seat, he again looked at the picture. He was younger and smiled more than nowadays. Drowning in idol’s eventful but stressful life, Baekhyun wanted to go back to the time when he was carefree and had no problems. This year for sure was one of the hardest for him, and it was still testing him emotionally.

Clicking back to sender’s profile, he saw no picture frame. Disappointed that Irene did not put any photo on her profile, he let out a sigh and looked out of the window. Baekhyun didn’t have any picture of her because he has changed his phone a few times since then.

Thinking of what to text back Baekhyun suddenly changed his mind and pressed the call button instead. After two and a half rings she picked up. Not that Baekhyun was counting. Let’s say he was very sensitive and vulnerable at the moment. He wanted to thank her through a call rather than just a text. The boy was kind of grateful to her.

As soon as he heard the breathing on the other side, Baekhyun let out his quiet “thank you”. His voice became deeper, that he thought maybe that could have scared her, because of her silence. ‘Has she figured out from my voice..?’

“You are welcome,” Irene answered after she regained back her sanity. ‘What is wrong with me? Hold yourself up, Joohyun.’

Baekhyun didn’t have anything else to say. He thought about it too late. “Well… I… uhm… I just called to say that,” he cleared his throat, which felt to ache for real.

“Are you sick?” Irene asked catching unusual crisp in his voice.

“No, no. I’m okay. I’ll text you later then…” Baekhyun wasn’t in the mood to keep up the conversation.

“Okay,” Irene’s quite voice was heard, and Baekhyun thought that he made her gloomy with his tone.

“It’s… I’m just tired a bit, so…”

“Okay. Why are you explaining yourself? I didn’t say anything,” Irene asked lowly.

“Just… I feel like I’m upsetting everyone nowadays. I-” he was interrupted by the girl on the line.

“Take a rest, Baekhyun. Today was a long day for you. I can tell,” she calmly responded.

“How… how do you know?”

“Hmm. I just have super power. Sixth sense, you know. I don’t have a physical power like iron man but my intelligence could be counted as life saver.” The cheesiness in her voice was so hilarious that Baekhyun unwillingly chuckled at her words. Irene hearing him laughing giggled to herself too.

“So don’t worry about anything, okay?”

Baekhyun hummed in reply afraid of ruining the soft conversation between them. He realized he wanted to sleep badly as the time was already past midnight. And Irene was right. He had intense practice during the morning, and rested for a little bit before having a vocal session and recording in the evening. Plus he had to read the scripts for Inkigayo interviews with Suho and to sign some albums for the fans. In addition to that he didn’t have a proper meal throughout the day, and his late night date ended with a break up.

‘What did I do wrong?’ Baekhyun thought.

“Bye. Text me later if you get bored, mm?”

He almost forgot that he was on the call with Red Velvet’s leader, “ah, yeah. Okay, bye.” Baekhyun hang up seconds later. He was too tired to think about anything else, and fell asleep, leaning his head on the head rest of the seat.

‘What happened to him?’ Irene was confused and worried about him after she ended the call. She sighed helplessly and made her way downstairs. After picking her things up, she finally went home have a sleep for the rest of the night.

There went the whole month. In September CEO Lee’s wife died because of illness she had for long. SM artists and CEO’s friends expressed their condolences as soon as they could. After that time flew even faster. Everyone was engrossed in their own lives and promotions.

There came the October when Red Velvet came back with a new R&B song that had a mature concept. For a rookie group like them, it was a bit uncomfortable at first. But they got to know about this song before their debut so they had time to prepare.

This time Suho and Baekhyun had a chance to interview their junior group, which made Baekhyun five times more active than he already was.

“Are you nervous?”

“No. Are you?”

“Of course,” the boy exclaimed.

“It’s us who is going to get interviewed, not you. Why do you have to be nervous?” Irene replied laughing at Baekhyun.

“Asking questions is hard too, you know?” the boy sassed. Irene smiled at that and wanted to say something else.

“Red Velvet and Boyfriend are going on camera in three minutes. Get ready,” the staff said as they were watching a performance from the backstage. The two groups stood behind MCs as they were instructed.

When Suho noticed that Baekhyun sneakily stood at Red Velvet’s side he notified him about it, to which the latter just with ‘you snooze – you lose’ thing and didn’t move from his place for an inch. Deciding to be the adult that he is, Suho just sighed hopelessly and shook his head.

Baekhyun was quite impressed by girls’ live voices. Not that he didn’t know that they had great voices, but hearing it live definitely left some pleasant feeling of pride for his junior colleagues.

“Wow that was fast!” he laughed after their camera turned off.

“And you call yourself an MC?” Irene scoffed sarcastically.

“I got a job of MC because of my genius skills of spokesman, for your information,” Baekhyun smirked, crossing his arms on his chest.

“It’s not your actual job,” Irene laughed seeing him turning red out of embarrassment.

Baekhyun couldn’t say anything back but smile because girls were already leaving the set with their manager after the quick interview. Suho and Baekhyun continued with their work for the rest of the day.

October was also known by another member leaving EXO. Boys tried their best to stay positive because they knew about the departure of Luhan. He chose to be honest with them and announced about his decision to leave the group in the beginning of the autumn. Guys were upset, but didn’t do and couldn’t do much as that was Luhan’s matter and wish. Despite all the hardships, they went forward with big smiles.

In the end of October, after SMTown live concerts, company had preparations for Halloween