Chapter 6 (A/N: Comments would be loved for this chapter.)

It gets from bad to worse.

EXO-M is taken to the airport secretly. They told fans that they were leaving the country, but did not specify the time and date. Fans, however, were uncanny in their ability to look up flights and guess correctly when their idols would show up.

“You’re going to the VIP line to check in,” the manager says, looking in the rearview mirror at the kids behind as the chauffeur drives them to the airport. “You’re all wearing face masks, aren’t you?”

The only person who remotely looks like he is listening is Chen. He is sitting beside Xiu Min, who is constantly giving Luhan sidelong glances as he passes a stream of tissue paper to him. Luhan is sitting at the left side in the back seat of the six-seater van. His eyes are closed and the only sign that he is awake is the loud sneezes every few minutes.

The van is very quiet apart from Luhan. It is unusual, even for EXO-M who the managers liked to refer to as the quieter of the two groups (‘Baekyeol-less’, one of them dubs). It is disconcerting. Just behind the manager’s seat, Kris stares out of the window, his chin propped by his hand. Tao is sleeping beside him, his head leaning on Kris’s shoulder. Yixing is half-asleep also, but he leans against the door instead.

“Anybody doesn’t feel well?” the manager tries again. “Apart from Luhan?” He scans their faces. It is a question the managers did not like to ask, but had to. With their tight schedules, it is almost impossible to have a perfectly healthy group at any point of time – they may be lacking sleep, hungry, having mild flu, etc. The members would pretend to be fine nevertheless, and that just makes the question redundant and borderline tactless. Still, EXO has just debuted. They are young enough to hold it out.

“What did you give him?” Chen asks curiously, leaning forwards to look at Luhan around Xiu Min.

“Flu medicine,” the manager responds. “It’ll make him groggy, but he can sleep it off on the plane. Yixing, are you feeling alright? You look pale.”

Luhan starts to shiver, eventhough the air-conditioning in the car is normal. Kris almost jumps in his seat at the question, raising his head. He exchanges glances with Xiu Min.

“I’m okay,” Yixing says, but his voice is washed away by the sound of the van engine as it speeds up.  

Chen leans back and lowers his gaze. It is kind of pathetic how they are going to return to Korea; with sick members and everyone lying to each other.

What is worse than ‘worse’?

None of them thought it was possible.

(“The only thing I should say by tomorrow is that you are wrong,” Kris had said flatly, when he had listened to what Luhan had to say. “You’re wrong, wrong, wrong.”)

The headache builds up. It starts from a heavy feeling in the head. Yixing leans his head against the headrest and closes his eyes, trying to will himself to sleep. Instead of darkness, there are flashes of red behind his eyes, and the pounding grows louder. He snaps at the person next to him at the slightest hint of voice.

Ironically, Luhan has never seen a person die, or been in close proximity with someone who has. He hops in and out of hospitals, sticking to the floor where doctors give medical consultation to people who may or may not need it. He cried when his friend passed on, but he was in school at that time, and felt nothing.

They are in the air at seven in the morning. Most passengers are asleep, or trying to. Luhan shifts uncomfortably in his seat, cringing as a wave of nausea hits him. The effects of the medication should be wearing off. He clings onto the arm of the person next to him. Tao looks at his hyung, raising his eyebrows. He sees Luhan mouthing something, his voice too weak to be head over the dubbed voices of a Korean drama Tao is watching. He slips off the headphones. “What?”

“Check on Yixing,” Luhan repeats. “Please.”

Tao obliges. Luhan falls into an uncomfortable fit of sleep and does not see Tao returning to take their spare sick bags to give to Yixing.

The manager is really thankful they decided not to reveal the flight details to fans. EXO-M goes to the toilet after their plane lands as they always do. Chen runs out, his face mask flapping in the rush of wind.

“Put it back on – someone might recognise you –” the manager begins in alarm, but Chen wails about Yixing vomiting and turning blue from shortness of breath.

Suddenly it feels like the world has been put into a washing machine like a cloth that needs to be cleaned. The world spins round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round –

And comes out torn and ragged, its ends frayed, unrecognizable.

Luhan has his hands on the sink. He is unsuccessfully trying to clean himself. His face is red, a mess of snort and tears as he sneezes and cries at the same time. Kris orders Xiu Min to take care of Luhan, but Xiu Min just hyperventilates “he is right” which irritates Kris and scares a clueless Tao, who frantically asks how he can help. Chen has run off already. Kris has his hands on Yixing’s shoulders, trying to tell him calmly to breathe, ignoring the sick that Yixing just threw up in the sink and the blood in it. The tap is still switched on, the steady stream of water hissing in the background. The manager barges into the restroom, already yelling commands down the phone.

None of them have their wits about them.

Eventhough EXO-M is still in the VIP floor of the airport, privacy is something they do not have. Rumours float just by the blare of the ambulance. The only silver lining is that they are not pinpointed to EXO-M. Yet.  

“Please don’t die,” is the last thing Luhan pleads, before EXO-M is split up and ushered to a private waiting room in the airport. The manager’s eyes bulges out at the words, but he leaves with Yixing. Kris is in charge.

Chen kicks his seat and whirls around when he hears Luhan. He doesn’t understand the Chinese words, but he gets the desperate tone. Chen is a runner; he doesn’t keep still when there is a problem. He’d rather seek help, to regain some kind of control over the situation. Stuck in a luxurious room with padded walls, carpeted floors and plush velvet armchairs, they can do nothing. “What is going on!”

EXO-K waits in their dormitories, until excitement slips into mild annoyance. Confusion came soon after, when the hours stretch and nobody comes.

Everyone is gathered there, watching the TV to pass time as they patiently wait. Flight delays, evasive driving to avoid fans, a meal before meeting – all sorts of excuses gets thrown out in between commercial breaks. Sehun glances at the wall clock in the living room.

The hour hand is up.