“Chanyeol hyung..” Before Tao reached the living room, his voice could be heard from the second level of the apartment.

 

“That panda seriously need to stop whining.” Xiumin who was at the dinning table with Chanyeol, Kai, Baekhyun, Suho and Lay complained. “It’s getting overly annoying.” His tone of voice was so irritated that Suho and Aleyah picked up immediately as they eyed one another warily.

 

“Chanyeol hyung~~~” The moment he reached the dining table, he went straight to Chanyeol who was drinking his soup and started shaking him, causing him to burn his lips.

 

“What the hell Tao!” He slammed his utensils on the table and turned and looked at him. His loud voice caused everyone on the table to jump.

 

“Hyung, will you bathe with me?” The younger one begged him with puppy eyes. “Please….”

 

“No.” Without any explaination, Chanyeol was so annoyed that he turned his back at him and went on eating his meal.

 

“Hyung, please.. you are the last one who hasn’t bathe…”

 

Ignoring his whine, Chanyeol continued sending spoons of rice into his mouths. Xiumin plugged his earphones into his ears while the others went back to eating their meals, enjoying the morning drama. Only Aleyah and Suho sensed the little tension from Chanyeol’s earlier action.

 

“Hyung… I’m scared. Please….”

 

“Kris hyung doesn’t want to shower with me today..”

 

“Hyung~~~”

 

“Chanyeol hyung~~~”

 

“I’m really scared and I really wanna bathe.. please…” He resorted to faking a cry as he clinged onto Chanyeol’s arms, preventing him from eating. The latter’s face was really annoyed and Aleyah could see fumes coming out from his elf ears.

 

“What the hell is wrong with you Tao?!” He pulled his arm from him and shoved the younger one aside roughly. “Can’t you just go and bathe yourself?!”

 

“I’m scared hyung…”

 

“Scared of what?!” Chanyeol screamed at him, causing him to jump a little.

 

“Of… you know what.”

 

“Don’t be stupid Tao. It’s 7am in the morning, there’s no ghosts. So shut up and bathe before I whack you. Heard me?” Chanyeol showed Tao his fist while Aleyah signaled Suho to do something. She knew he was serious about hitting Tao because he was really annoyed by him. Recently, the boys temper were really bad due to the stress and lack of sleep so their words hasn’t been very kind with one another. Like now. However, Suho just beamed at her and went back to enjoy his meal.

 

“Please hyung…”Not willing to give up, Tao went on pestering Chanyeol. And what happened next was too fast for anyone to grasp. The latter stood up and held the other by his shirt collar before shoving him into the wall nearest to them.

 

“Chanyeol!”

 

“Hyung!”

 

“Wtf!”

 

Everyone at the dining table rushed towards them. Baekhyun and Kai tried to pull Chanyeol away as Lay struggled to pry his hands off Tao’s shirt. Suho and Xiumin on the other hand tried to pull Tao away.

 

“Stop being so selfish and burden everyone because you are scared. For your info everyone is burdened enough. So shut the up and grow some balls.” Chanyeol spat at Tao. You could see the latter’s head dropping the moment he finished his sentence.

 

“What the is happening?” Kris rushed down the stairs to be greeted by such an unpleasant scene.

 

“Time to get your beloved dongseng to bathe himself Kris hyung. Because of you giving in to him by bathing with him, he’s burdening everyone to bathe with him too.” Chanyeol had managed to struggle free from Kai and Baekhyun. He went up to Kris and talked to him face to face. It was literally an inch away from one another’s faces.

 

“What’s the problem with you early in the morning?” Kris asked him back. “I did nothing but to be drag in by this little fight between Tao and you?”

 

“Time to get him to grow some balls before we comeback. I don’t want to comeback with a 21 year old who can’t shower himself okay?” Chanyeol pushed Kris away from his face causing the latter to grab his shirt. Now Sehun and Luhan who had witnessed the fight less than 10 seconds ago joined forces to pull one of the 2 giants away from one another. While Chen and Kyungsoo just stood outside their room, unsure of what to do. Aleyah on the other hand just observed the entire incident quietly.

 

“If you want to tell him such stuff, do it in a nicer way. Like this you are only hurting him. You are a hyung to him for god’s sake.”

 

“For god’s sake you are also his hyung.”

 

“Will the two of you shut the up?” A slightly higher pitched voice interrupted them, attracting everyone’s attention because the girl who’s their manager just cursed angrily.

 

“Luhan, Sehun, Kai and Baekhyun Oppa, let go of them.” And they did as told, all too stunned by her authoritative tone of voice. She walked towards the two giants and stood beside the two of them, “Go ahead and finish your unfinished business, leader of Exo-m and rapper of Exo-k.” Her words caused the two male to let go of one another slowly as they gulped in shame almost immediately.

 

“Just because all of you are stress and lack of sleep, you all can’t tolerate one another’s flaws.” She looked at all 12 of them whose heads were all bowed down low. “What about after you all comeback. You all don’t even have 5 hours of sleep like now. What will happen to you guys? Fight on stage? Fight in front of the interviewers when they get you guys to point out each other’s flaws? If you all can’t even tolerate such a trivial matter, I will not let you all comeback and throw all of your faces. I can postpone your comeback and you guys know it”

 

Silence engulfed the entire room as the boys looked at one another, all unsure of what to say because they know that this manager of theirs was true to her words. Not only will she postpone their comeback, she will mostly cancel all the other schedules in the months to come until they work something out. Instantly, Chanyeol, Tao and Kris felt guilty because they were dragging the others down due to their childishness.

 

“I’m sorry.” Chanyeol broke the silence and apologized first. He bowed to Tao and Kris.

 

“I’m sorry too.” Tao followed suit, bowing to his hyungs.

 

“I’m sorry bros.” Kris patted both of the younger backs as Aleyah bit back a smile, she knew her threat was working.

 

“It’s okay. It’s all over now. Exo let’s love!” Suho pushed everyone to the middle as they formed a circle to hug one another. Aleyah just stood behind and smiled at the group of boys lovingly.

 

“Let’s…”

 

“Wait!” Suho screamed.

 

“What?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“We forgot about one more person!” Suho broke away from the circle and pulled Aleyah into the middle of the circle. “Exo! Let’s love!”

 

 

******

 

After the early morning drama, Aleyah punished the boys by having longer of training for the day. They were not allowed to leave the practise room until the clock hits 1am. Although she knew that she was being heartless but she had no choice. She had to let them learn their lesson before their comeback. However, she had already decided to buy pizzas and fried chickens for the boys as their dinner to last them through the night.

 

So the moment she ended her 5 hours long meeting, she left the SM building quietly. She needed to get something else for the boys so she headed to the mall. The new dance routine for the boy’s comeback requires them to crawl and slide on the ground and all of their knees were badly scraped and were bleeding. They had been applying medication but it was useless, so she decided to get something else for them.

 

“Excuse me, can I have 30 pieces of knee protectors?” She walked into the sports stores as she pulled out her notebook. Their knee sizes were neatly recorded in there.

 

“What size ma’am?”

 

“25 pieces of M, 5 pieces of S please.” She bought extras just in case they tear it or unable to wear.

 

“Hold on for a while ma’am.” Aleyah nodded as she took a walk around the store, totally oblivious that someone had her eyes set on her.

 

“Here you go.” The salesperson approached her and handed her the nicely packed knee protectors in a huge bag. “Thank you.”

 

“Hold on.” Before she could leave the store, the salesperson stopped her. “Someone asked me to pass these to you.”

 

The girl looked at the sales person weirdly before looking at the brown envelope. Gingerly, she opened it and photos of Kai and her hanging out at his room’s balcony spilled onto the floor. She hurriedly picked them up with her widened eyes. She didn’t know who managed to snap such photos but she was sure that this person was scary. The pictures also consisted of Kai and her at a convenience store picking up drinks that just happened a few days ago. As she dug the envelope to check if there were more of such pictures, she found a note instead.

 

 Hello. It’s been so long since you last heard from me right? Do you miss me? Hahah, at first I thought you were so obedient really leaving my Kai Oppa alone but I don’t think you are someone whose words I can believe. Since you ignored my warning I gave you the previous time, be prepared for the worst.

 

Aleyah stared at the note as she dwelled on the last sentence. She looked around the busy shopping centre in hope to spot a suspicious character but there was none. Just then her phone beeped.

 

[From: Kai]

 

Where are you? Sujeon noona and Taegoon Hyung said you left the meeting room an hour ago. Call me when you see this alright? I’m worried.

 

Then she remembered that she had sneaked out secretly to buy the stuff for the boys. She mentally scolded herself for not listening to the boys, now she knew why they banned her for going out alone. The first time she succeeded leaving alone and she was threatened by the fan.

 

“Hello Kai?” She put her phone in between her shoulder and cheek as she shred the letter and photos with her free hands. “I’m with Teacher Lee Soo Man settling your comeback. So don’t worry alright?”

 

Aleyah ended her phonecall before she dumped the shredded papers into the bin and walked out of the shopping mall confidently. She couldn’t care less about the threat because she would be 24/7 with the boys now and she knows they would protect her irregardless. But the person behind the pillar, a distance away from the her thinks otherwise..

 

 

Had been really unmotivated to update due to the lack of comments thus the slow updates.

If you all subscribed to Locker 303 you would have read my rant there.

It's really annoying when I put in so much effort on my FFs yet the highest number of comments I've ever received for my ff with 200 over subscribers are 5!

Or sometimes even better, only 1.

The disappointment i feel is really huge whenever i wake up in the morning to be greeted by only 1 comment. Probably saying update soon!

So i told myself no matter how long i take to update nobody will care so i shall just take my time and only update when i'm in the mood.

Shadn't go on about it anymore cause i can write pages about it. So yeah enjoy.