I hope none of you thought that I possibly increased my speed of writing/updating because some things just don't change. 

Part 2!!! Also go boop Wren (daehyun-ate-this-url) on the nose for being a great beta with the best commentary <3

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              You enjoy the concert, cheering and waving the balloons they had handed out at the entrance into the hall. From the corner of your eyes you see a group of bored looking girls. They check their phones and whisper to each other. They had their fan signs resting on their laps on standby. You try and make up for their lack of enthusiasm with your own cheers. The boys on stage were pretty dang cute.

              Soon enough 12 boys run onto stage in the dim lighting and find their starting positions. The crowd roars as the popular act is up and only now does the entire audience pays attention, fan signs ready and alert. You can’t tell them apart, unlike the fans already prepped with their expensive DSLRs trained on their favorite members. You try to pick out Yixing from the bunch as they all run out, but can’t in the dim lighting. One of them bows to the audience and then turns back into his position. You laugh inwardly; found him.

              The lights lower onto the 12 boys as they begin their performance. The crowd roars as one, vibrations running through the ground and seats and adrenaline filling the air. EXO seems to feed off the cheers as they smile brighter, sing louder, and hit the beats with more energy. You keep your eyes trained on Yixing throughout the performance, sometimes flicking over to Kai who is no doubt the star of the show. They finish with the final beat of music and the lights dim as the boys run into their lineup, chest heaving and hands flying up to wipe off sweat.

              They greet the crowd with their energetic “We are one!” intro which barely could be heard over the fan hysteria. They go down the lineup introducing themselves and start with Wufan. He introduces himself in his infamous English and proceeds to rile up the crowd by hooting and telling them to make some noise. You look over at Yixing while Wufan tells LA that he loves them; he’s smugly smiling to himself. When Wufan is done with his intro, Yixing begins to whisper to himself and you assume that he’s practicing the phrase he was going to say. You grip onto your seat as the member’s leading up to Yixing introduce themselves.

              When it’s time to introduce himself, Yixing thankfully remembers his name. He then brings up a finger to his lips and shushes into the microphone, looking around at the audience. After a little bit, the audience gets the cue and the quiets down. He takes a deep breath as your fingers grip tighter along the edges of your seat in anticipation and worry.

              The words stumble out slurred and faster than what you and him practiced the night before. “Whenever I come to LA, I always see so many fans around me and to feel the immense love, it’s really...” He stops and your nail scratches the bottom of the seat in tension.  You wince and repeat the word “humbling” underneath your breath and hope that somehow the thought would reach him. He looks out at the audience with blank eyes and your fingers continue to dig into the hard seat. He suddenly laughs into the microphone and yells, “Humbling! It’s really humbling!” You sigh and collapse back into your chair, receiving confused glances from fans next to you. He continues, “So I really hope that I can live up to the love you give me because I feel so blessed to be loved by such wonderful people. Your support is also the motivation for me to walk on! Thank you and I love you all!!” The crowd grew louder and louder with each sentence and Yixing fought to keep his voice above the roar. When you sit back up, you look at Yixing who basks proudly under the surprised eyes of all s and the cheers of the crowd. Kris grabs the microphone and informs the audience that he didn’t teach Lay that. The crowd cheers in excitement and awe while you sink back into your seat, sighing in relief.

              You head to the back of the hall after EXO’s last performance. You find the locked doors leading backstage and get security to let you in as you show all the necessary tickets and ID cards. Yixing stands near the door as he leans on the hallway walls and twiddles with his phone. He’s still wearing his outfit from the last performance: fitted jeans, a dress shirt and suspenders. The left loop of the suspenders casually hangs from his hips. You shake away your thoughts on that performance and start to run towards him. He looks up when he hears your hurried footsteps approaching and breaks into a grin. You run into him, arms wide and feet light, letting yourself be lifted off the ground and spinned in a circle. You pull away, bright eyes and giggles. He grabs your forearm with both hands and begins tugging you to EXO’s dressing room.

              “How did I do?!” He asks eagerly.

              "I was so worried for a second when you forgot the phrase." Yixing sighs beside you. "But you did it!”

              "I was so nervous, but did everything come out alright? The accent? Speed?" You two reach the door with a paper with "EXO" plastered on the front.

              "Could've been better but you did fine; everyone was amazed." You smile up at him as he turns the doorknob and opens the door. It's empty albeit Kyungsoo and Sehun who are reclining on the sofa playing on their phones. They look up from their phones when you walk in and smile, wave hurriedly and get back to their game.

              "They're playing this car racing game, you should race them they're pretty good!" You hum in agreement and Yixing goes to the ice box in the back and tosses you a Sprite can. You sit down at a chair next to the mirror and look at the sets of makeup on the counter.

              "You guys get to use such expensive and good quality makeup I'm jealous." You say picking up a stick of eyeliner and inspecting the label.

              He laughs and comes over, "Do you want to try?"

              “Are you sure? Won’t the makeup noonas get mad?” Yixing walks over and makes some room on the counter next to the makeup bags.

              “I’ll just tell them that Kyungsoo was playing around with the makeup.” Kyungsoo whines from the couch as Yixing pats the counter and motions for you to get up. You prop yourself up and sit on the counter, bringing your feet up and crossing your legs. Yixing moves in front of you and opens one of the makeup bags. You wait patiently as he opens the different eyeliner pens and tests to see if they were old on the back of his hand. Once he found one that was blunt and old enough to play with, he tipped your chin up with his knuckle and a click of his tongue.

              He cups your chin with his left hand and leans into you, peering at your face. He lifts his right hand and lightly presses the cold and wet tip of the eyeliner a little off from the corner of your right eye. He lifts his hand and continues to start tracing a little star outline next to the dot. He begins adding more stars and little dots next to your eyes, expanding down the side of your cheeks. You sit quietly and still as Yixing runs the tip over your skin.

              “How was the concert?” Yixing asks when he backs away and appreciates his handwork.

              “The concert was fun! VIXX is pretty exciting!”

              Yixing goes back to fix an outline and mumbles focusing on his drawing , “Yea, one of the singers, Leo- he’s a really nice guy.”

              “I asked the girls next to me about Hyuk, the youngest one, I think. He’s really hot.” Yixing’s hand shakes and he frowns at the stray line that he created.

              “What if he’s a dreadful person?” He mutters while wetting a cotton pad and wiping the stray line away carefully.

              You stick your tongue out at him, “Am I not allowed to find guys attractive?”

              He shakes his head and leans back finally looking you blankly in the eye. “No, no you are. Do you want me to get his number?”

              You lean forward pushing your feet off the table and pressing your palms against the counter. “Would you?” You ask doubtingly. Yixing’s blank stare clears up and his eyes crinkle as he smiles.

              He cups your chin and leans in to redraw his wiped away star. “Yea sure, I’ll do anything for you,” he mumbles. You smile but your fingers grip the edge of the counter, heart thrumming.

              You take advantage of Yixing’s concentration on his drawings on your skin to watch him. You can see the makeup caked onto his skin, covering his blemishes along his jaws and the three freckles that you memorized and constantly doted on. His eyes are outlined with dark brown eyeliner and emphasized with light eye shadow, making his eyes look deeper and more intense. He’s so close that you can feel warm breath on your cheeks and can count the number of eyelashes on each eye, but halfway through counting you’re distracted by his lips. You see an indent on his lower lip and assume that he’s biting the flesh inside in heavy concentration. His lips are tinted to look fuller and you wonder if he kissed you right then and there, whether his soft bowed lips would leave lipstick stains on your lips, cheeks, jaws, or neck.

              He looks up and you make eye contact. He smiles at you and picks up red lip liner from the counter. He sees your raised eyebrows and laughs. “This is the makeup noona’s, no one wears bright red lipstick I can assure you.”

              “Baekhyun does in the dorms!” Sehun quips from his game and Kyungsoo hums in confirmation.

              “I bet he looks better in it than I do.” You retort.

              Yixing chuckles while tracing little hearts next to the stars and dots. “There’s an after party after the concert at a club, but I’m not really up for loud music and drinks.” You hum while he traces a large heart on your cheek. “I’d rather rest so do you-” He picks up a barrel of bright rouge lipstick and starts to bring it up to your cheeks but you stop him.

              “You’re going to ruin the tip, they’re going to get mad.”

              “I’ll take the yelling don’t worry they all like me.” He fills in a heart on your cheek as you whine.

“Don’t you dare bring that onto my lips though, I look awful with red lipstick.” He hums and moves his hand to the corner of your lips, teasingly drawing a small heart whose edge overlaps onto your lips.

                “You’ll look fine.” He mumbles, leaning in to fix a corner.

              “No I won’t, red lipstick is hard to wear.” His index finger moves up from the edge of your jaw to place on your lips, shushing you.

              “Ease your lips.” He says tilting your head up towards him.

              “Zhang Yixing, I swear if you-“ He places the flat of the lipstick on your lips and you soften your lips in defeat as he slowly drags the flat against your lower bud. You don’t realize that Yixing moved into the counter until you feel his coarse jeans pushing against your bare legs. You feel your back pressing against the mirror as Yixing’s torso and body adjust to move in closer, parting your dangling legs to stand in between. He tilts your chin up higher and slightly pulls down your lower lip to coat the upper lip.  Yixing stares intently at your lips and you feel your heart thrumming and fingers gripping the edge of the counter, fighting to not cup Yixing’s jaw and bring his coated lips onto yours.

              Yixing’s hand slightly shivers as he finishes applying the lipstick and places the barrel on the counter next to you, eyes still trained on your lips. His hand on your chin moves to the side of your face, fingers resting on your neck and thumb shaking as they brush your coated lips. You catch his tongue quickly poking out to wet his dry lips and the slight nervous bob of his Adam’s apple; you want to smile, but you’re frozen. He brings his free hand up to the other side of your face and you’re not even sure if the rapid beating of your heart is healthy.

              Yixing’s eyes flicker up to meet yours and you see a question flicker through his eyes. You try and bring your hands up from the counter and slither them around his neck to answer, but your hands are locked and dead weight. After a few seconds of silence, Yixing shoulders droop and his hands on your jaw lighten.

              Panic runs through your body and you realize how long you’ve been waiting for this. To kiss Yixing and press your lips against his seemingly soft ones, to have his coarse hands that you were so used to gripping onto run along your neck and arms and waist and shoulders, to confess and show Yixing how much you actually like him. You take a deep breath and quickly give him a slight nod.  Using your wobbly elbows to push yourself up, you aim to meet your nervous lips to his as he tilts his head down and closes the gap.

              Almost.

              The door slams open and you hear Tao and Sehun shriek at each other, and your situation, you presume. You feel warm air leave your jaw and the scent of sandalwood and sweat waver from under your nose. Your lips suddenly feel cold as Yixing’s never warmed into yours and the back of your head hurts from slamming it against the mirror in shock. Yixing stands a foot away, hands by his side, wide eyed and slightly frowning.

              “Hyung! I’m sorry I just had to call you three back for the ending!” Tao wails, clutching onto the doorknob, eyes guilty. You push yourself off the counter and your arms and legs feel heavy and frail.

              “Okay, I’ll see you in a bit, just stay here.” Yixing nods at you and you walk over to him, reaching down at his hanging left suspender band and pulling it up and onto his shoulders. You curse yourself for finally having the courage to smooth out the shirt wrinkles on his shoulder and fix his collar. He tilts your chin up and presses his lips onto your nose and whispers a ‘thank you.’ Tao waits alone at the door, eyes wandering the ceiling and flickering secretly back to you and Yixing. Yixing drops his hand from your chin and quickly waves to you, turning around and running out with Tao.

              The door closes and you hear Tao ask rather loudly to Yixing if he was going to kiss you. You don’t hear Yixing’s response but you hear a wailed ‘I’m so sorry!!!’ You laugh humorlessly and go back to the makeup counter to retrieve your can of soda. Looking into the mirror you see what Yixing drew onto your face. Stars seemed to sprout from the corner of your eye and spill onto your cheek and disappear into your hairline. Little dots accented the stars and a small red hearts appeared as planets in the large universe on your cheek. The red lipstick didn’t look half as bad on your lips, but you still decided on taking it off. What you liked the best however was the slight red tint caked onto the tip of your nose. You laugh at your little red nose and shake your head. He was wearing a lot of lipstick.

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Quickie promotions! I wrote a lot actually over my hiatus-ish from this story. Here are two I decided to publish!

Hunhan / Fluff / 1,522 words - Laughter Lines 

I'm sorta in love with the idea of Luhan and Sehun prancing through meadows and also Bastille's Laughter Lines ^^

Fanxing / Angst (OoHOHOHO) / ~5,800 words - Business Ethics 

I felt sorta :/ about the whole sinking fanxing issue and decided to cope with some angst which may or may not have helped. Also this story formulated in my head for m o n t h s and I'm pretty proud of the results!