Baekhyun plonked himself down beside his boyfriend, absent mindedly tracing his flingers over the contours of Chanyeol’s palms. He felt a smile tease at the corners of his mouth as he watched his hyung and his maknae. The two were sat, squished up together on a small sofa, both with their heads resting in their palms. If he looked closely he could see the scattering of pink staining their cheeks as they frequently glanced up at the six boys on the other side of the reception area.

“Hyunnie, what are you focusing on so much?” Chanyeol asked. Baekhyun looked up at him with a grin, jerking his thumb over to Sehun and Suho.

“Look at them.” Chanyeol looked over to when he was pointing with his eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

“What am I…” He started.

“They’re smitten. Can’t you tell?” Baekhyun said, sighing happily as he watched them ogle two boys in particular. Chanyeol, no matter how smart he was, was being ever as dense as usual. “Huh? Who? I don’t…” Baekhyun mentally facepalmed. He reached his hand up and tugged Chanyeol’s head down by his chin so that their faces were at the same height. He pointed subtly over at the six boys.

“Look, you see that blonde one, not the tall one but the really pretty one with cute round eyes? Sehunnie is so far gone by him that he will never doubt his uality ever again. And then that one with the chocolaty hair, the sweeping fringe and the, ooo wow really cool high tops. I so want those shoes, anyway yeah you see him? Well our guardian has found his unicorn.” Baekhyun finished with a smug little smile. Chanyeol’s eyes widened and he looked back and forth between his two teammates and the two boys. Baekhyun watched his face clearly and noticed the moment that it truly clicked with Chanyeol as his eyes grew even wider and his mouth opened and closed like that of a goldfish. Baekhyun laughed and lifted his chin to close his gaping mouth before pressing a quick kiss to his lips.

Just at that moment the same petite blonde woman, Lee Minhee, who had been judging in the competition so far, came into the reception area. Baekhyun stood up and pulled Chanyeol up with him, bowing politely with a gentle smile to the kind woman. “Ya, Suho.” He half whispered so that Suho would lift his head from his palms. As Suho looked up and noticed Lee Minhee he practically jumped from his seat, bowing suavely and putting on his killer smile. Baekhyun had to force down his laugh as Sehun bounced off of the sofa at the sudden movement beside him and flopped onto the floor with a grumble.  Baekhyun glanced over at the six unknown boys and searched out two faces to gauge if they had seen that scene or not. And boy had they scene it.

The petite blonde had his bottom lip captured between his teeth and faintly pink cheeks as his wide, doe like eyes glanced worriedly over Sehun as the maknae rubbed his back with a frown. The chocolate haired boy was stood with his mouth slightly tilted at the corners and one eyebrow raised cheekily as he took in Suho’s second, charismatic persona, a polar opposite from the bumbling shy boy he had been before. Baekhyun was happy with those responses, they showed interest, all that need to happen now was for that interest to grow into something more. For all he knew it already had.

Lee Minhee beckoned all of the boys over her and they traipsed excitedly over to her, crowding around in a big circle. Baekhyun was surprised when She turned to him with her usual radiant smile. “Baekhyun. Are you better? How is your leg?” She asked with a concerned expression. The six boys from the other school all turned to him with confused expressions and he felt himself go bright red.

“Uh-umm yeah, it’s much better, thank you.” He bowed his head lightly and smiled. She grinned back at him, making her look like she was sixteen rather than in her mid to late twenties. “Ah good, so you have had long enough to recover?”

“Yes, thank you for your concern.” She smiled and clapped her hands together.

“Right guys, let’s get down to business. Hmm, I think that the tour can wait, how about we go and get introduced to each other properly? After all, even though you will be competing against each other, you can still be friends.” Her bright grin was infectious and, although never as dazzling as Chanyeol’s Colgate smile, still had them all grinning and nodding fervently.

With a flick of her wrist and turning on her heels she commanded the twelve boys to follow her. Baekhyun laced his fingers through Chanyeol’s and pressed his side up against Chanyeol’s as they walked. They were walking through a pristine corridor, walls white, with posters of Sm groups every few feet. The floor was what looked like polished marble, it was the type that glittered in the light and tricked your eyes into thinking that the floor was littered with thousands of little diamonds. After only about a minute of walking she lead them through a glass door so clean that it looked as though the metal handle was suspended in the air. The room they entered was just as spotless as everything else they had seen and had sparse décor. The walls were predominantly white with only the far wall being made of a large mirror. Thirteen honey coloured wooden chairs were placed in a large circle. Other than a few microphones and a keyboard in the far corner, that looked as though they had been pushed out of the way to make room for the chairs, there was very little in the room.

Lee Minhee sat down on the chair at the farthest side and indicated for them all to take a seat. They filed in and sat grouped in their schools. Baekhyun was sat between Chanyeol and Sehun, who had somehow managed to end up with the petite blonde next to him. Baekhyun smiled slyly and glanced over at Suho who was sat opposite the chocolate haired boy, cheeks stained pink.

“Right,” Lee Minhee clapped her hands together again and looked around the circle. “To start off with we are going to go around the circle and I want all of you to say your name and a little about yourselves. We will start on this side and go clockwise.” She said pointing at Kai who was sat on one side of her. Baekhyun couldn’t help but compare the exercise to drama classes in his younger years as they would always sit in a circle just like that one.

“So, I’m Kim Jongin but everyone calls me Kai. I love to dance, that’s all really.” He said with a laidback, cool expression, “Oh and I love Kyungie!” He burst out his eyes becoming small half-moons as he smiled, shattering the cool guy image entirely. Minhee raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow but smiled nonetheless and nodded for Kyungsoo to continue. Kyungsoo nodded, face as red as a tomato at Kai’s words.

“Hi, I’m Kyungsoo and I really love to cook. I especially love to make kimchi spaghetti. Oh and I really love singing, of course.” He bowed slightly and then nudges Suho to say his part.

“Hello, I am Junmyeon but everyone knows me as Suho. I am the leader of this lot and I love pirates of the Caribbean.” He said with one of his dazzling smiles. Baekhyun couldn’t stop himself from doing what he did next, “And Suho hyung loves unicorns more than anything.” He added before it could move onto Chanyeol. Suho’s eyes widened and he glared over at Baekhyun but seeing as Baekhyun was focusing on the chocolate haired boy’s reaction he didn’t notice Suho’s glare. The boys mouth formed a dainty ‘o’ shape and his eyebrows raised as he stared, intrigued, at Suho.

“Hi, I’m Park Chanyeol,” Chanyeol began. As soon as he spoke six mouths dropped open in surprise. Baekhyun giggled and his thumb over Chanyeol’s hand. They had clearly not been expecting Chanyeol’s y deep rumble of a voice given his babyish face. “I love to rap and to smile.” He finsished flashing his mega-watt grin. Baekhyun had a hard time concentrating after such a perfect smile but with a squeeze of his hand from Chanyeol he snapped back to attention.

“Yeah, Hey I am Byun Baekhyun and I love to sing. I love to listen to music and to spend time with my friends.” He paused, “Okay I feel like I just filled out a personals add on a dating site, moving on.”

Baekhyun nudged Sehun whispering, “Sehunnie…”

“Oh, right. Hello I am the maknae Thehun. Hmm well I love to danthe like Kai hyung and I love bubble tea! My favourite ith chocolate but I also love thtrawberry and, well all flavourth ath long ath it ith bubble tea. I love ithe thkating and filmth and ooo rapping too! Oh thorry, I got carried away.” He bowed his head and fiddled with his fingers cutely in his lap as he gazed downwards. Baekhyun wrapped an arm around his shoulders and squeezed before letting go. He looked across Sehun to the petite blonde only to see that he had a shell shocked expression.

“Umm, Hi I am Luhan.” Ahh so that was his name. “And I love singing and dancing like I am sure all of you do too. And well I love bubble tea too.” He said with a slight blush, glancing at Sehun before looking back to his lap. So cute, little deer and maknae seemed to have a mutual crush.

“Hi, I am Zhang Yixing, but people call me Lay. Err some of my friends like Lu call me unicorn, umm I’m not really sure why…” He trailed off looking at Luhan.

“It’s cause you mama us and look after us and you know, unicorns heal so…oh it up Xing-ah.” Luhan said, crossing his legs. Whoa, diva. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo may have some competition on that front.

“Err, yeah so that’s the reason. I don’t know really, I love to play the piano and guitar.” He said with a smile, Baekhyun could practically hear Suho melting into his chair.

“Hello, I am Kim Jongdae but everyone calls me Chen.” The next boy said. He had raven dark hair and an impish grin, there was something cheeky and fun about him. “I love singing and playing games and pranking people and yeah.”He said with a grin, poking the boy beside him.

“Hi I am Xiumin…although everyone calls me Baozi ‘cause I supposedly look like one. Hmm, I love entertaining people and ironically, I really love Baozi.” The boy smiled and his cheeks rounded, Baekhyun could see where the name came from and he had a sudden urge to pinch Xiumin’s cheeks just to see if they were as soft and tubby as they looked.

“I am Zitao but you can just call me Tao. I have been doing wushu for years and I love taking long walks on the beach so I am a romantic Kungfu panda.” Said boy had dark rings under his eyes and a wide, toothy smile, eyes crinkling up cutely as he grinned. The last boy, sat beside the panda had the complete opposite expression. His face was set into a firm frown and his eyes were narrowed.

“I am the leader Kris.” That was it. That was all he said. Okay, Baekhyun decided that he was the quiet grumpy type. Lee Minhee grinned at the introductions and gave herself a short introduction. “In case you don’t remember my name is Lee minhee and I will be guiding you through the competition. Oh I meant to tell you. You know how in pairs you each had letters and then you had three letters in your groups of six? Well something very interesting has happened and it just so happened that from both schools the teams are called EXO. So what we have decided to do is add to the name by your school. So Kkamjong school, your team will be EXO K and Minseok school, your team will be EXO M. Okay? Great.” Hmm, EXO K, Baekhyun liked the way that sounded. To be perfectly honest it was quite awesome that the two teams had the same name, even just with short introductions he felt like he was connecting well with the six boys. “Now I thought that we could start with a singer from EXO K and a singer from EXO M performing together before our tour. Who will sing from each team?” She asked with a smile.

Baekhyun looked either side of him to discuss with his friends when suddenly he was beign shoved out of his chair and into the middle of the circle.

“Baekhyun!” Suho called and all of his friends cheered and agreed. He flushed red as his fingers slipped from Chanyeol’s. He turned around to be facing Chen who was equally as red and seemed to have just gone through the same ordeal as him. Baekhyun sighed and agreed before grabbing Chen’s hand and pulling him over to the microphones. They had a quick discussion so that the others couldn’t hear before deciding on a song and which bits they would sing. Baekhyun liked Chen, the guy was easy going and kind and they seemed to gel immediately.  They turned to the 11 waiting people and looked to each other before they started to sing.

Lying beside you
Here in the dark
Feeling your heartbeat with mine
Softly you whisper
You're so sincere
How could our love be so blind
We sailed on together
We drifted apart
And here you are
By my side

So now I come to you
With open arms
Nothing to hide
Believe what I say
So here I am
With open arms
Hoping you'll see
What your love means to me
Open arms

Living without you
Living alone
This empty house seems so cold
Wanting to hold you
Wanting you near
How much I wanted you home

But now that you've come back
Turned night into day
I need you to stay

So now I come to you
With open arms
Nothing to hide
Believe what I say
So here I am
With open arms
Hoping you'll see
What your love means to me
Open arms

The song came to a close as the two of them held the last note, Baekhyun’s almost husky voice blending melodiously with Chen’s clear cut voice. The ended the song and looked up to their small audience as applause filled the room and the two boys blushed. Baekhyun searched out the face of his boyfriend and as he found it what he saw made his heart skip a beat. Chanyeol was mouthing I love you.