As soon as Tao and hopped onto his bed, he instantly felt better. The stress of all the drama that had just happened really got to him and he needed a break. So he picked up his favourite book, which was beaten and stained from the effects of reading it repeatedly, and settled under his duvet. He heard a shout from Xuimin asking if he wanted a cup of tea. Pausing the story for a moment, he called out a reply.

But before he could turn back to his book, his phone beeped and he looked at it questioningly. It was odd to for Tao to get texts, unless it was from Baekhyun when they were in the same country, but Baekhyun had switched his phone off when Tao tried to text him last. The only other people who would text were his family, but he told them only to do that in emergencies.

Oh.

Tao looked at the screen on his phone. Mum. This can’t be good. Tao started to panic without even know what the message was. It took him a few minutes to pick the courage and open the message. Through teary eyes, Tao read the text.

He’s dead.

~*~

Kris stood there, looking at the distraught Chinese maknae. Tao’s dark eyes were swollen and red and with tear drop stuck to his eyelashes. The color had drained from his face, although his cheeks were a matching shade to his eyes. His hair was messed up and the poor boy was trembling.

“Thanks Gege.” Tao mumbled and reached out to take his tea, but Kris held it back.

“Tao, what’s wrong?”

Tao shrugged. “I’m just tired.” He tried to get his tea once again and Kris stood firm.

“Tao. Tell me. Please.”

“ I’m tired and I want my tea. Please Kris.”

Kris sighed and handed him the tea. “I’ll speak to you later about it.”

Tao huffed. “I don’t want to.” And with that Tao shut the door without another word.

What in the actual?

This was weird. The sweet bubbly panda suddenly changed into a crying teenager. Something was up and Kris made it was his mission to find out what it was. He went back to the kitchen where he found Xuimin wiping the counter top. Xuimin turned round to face Kris.

“Is Tao alright?”

Kris shook his head. “Something’s up.”

“What makes you say that?”

“He’s crying.”

Xuimin raised his eyebrows in concern. “At what?”

“I don’t know. He won’t say.”

Xuimin bit his lip in thought. “Do you want me to go and talk to him.”

Kris shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Xuimin washed his hands and wiped them on the striped tea towel hanging on the oven door. “I’m going to speak to him.”

The older headed off to speak to Tao and Kris sighed.

Why does Tao always confined in Xuimin? Kris thought. Why can’t he talk to me about it?

Trying not to let him bother him too much, the leader went to join the others in the living room. Luhan had ended his chat with Sehun and now he and Chen we playing cards on the table.

“SNAP!”

“OH MY GOD CHEN! THERE’S NO NEED TO SLAP MY HAND SO HARD!~”

“Then maybe you should get better reflexes old man!”

“Hey! I’m only 2 years older than you!”

“Well, it shows!”

“Why you little Troll-”

“HEY! You two, would you pack it in?!”

Luhan was just about to smack Chen round the head when Kris spoke.

“Leader~ Chechen’s cheating~”

Kris tutted. “Luhan, you’ve spent too long talking to Sehun.”

“Yeah Luhan, you’re agyeo is sick.”

Luhan pouted. “Leader, do I permission to beat the crap out of this Troll?”

Kris shook his head. “Just calm it. Both of you. I can’t be bothered to deal with your cat fights.”

Luhan giggled and Chen shot Kris an evil look. However, Kris ignored and sipped his tea, diving into his back pocket to fish out his phone. He was shocked to find no new messages.

“Hey, have any of you heard from Lay yet?”

“Yeah, I sent him a text to come back as soon as. He said that he was on his way.”

“When was that?”

“About 10 minutes ago.”

Kris nodded and sat back into the sofa. Lay should be here in the next 5 minutes and for a moment, Kris felt relaxed. Until Xuimin came back looking glum. Kris looked up at him expectantly but Xuimin sighed.

“He doesn’t want to talk to me.”

Kris groaned and rested his head on the back of the sofa. “What are we going to do with him?”

Chen and Luhan looked at the elders with identical puzzled expressions written on their faces.

“Who’s this?”

“Tao.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s been crying, but he won’t tell us why.”

“Shall I try and talk to him?” Luhan asked.

Xuimin shook his head. “He said he doesn’t want to talk to anyone. He’s asleep now though.”

Kris hummed. Well, that’s a start. Tao should feel better after a nap, he thought. Kris just hoped it was nothing bad.  

Silence floated in the air around the four members, each in their own thoughts. They were all snapped back into reality when they heard the front door click open.

“Hello? Guys, are you in?”

Lay removed his trainers and walked into the living room. He was wearing black short and a purple vest top with a navy hoodie, drenched in sweat. Water dripped from the pores of his hot skin and his fringe stuck to his bright face. Lay unplugged his headphones and gave them members a grin. Kris was curious.

“Where have you been Lay?”

“I just went out for a run.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“I told Luhan. The rest of you were busy.”

Luhan looked sheepishly away from Kris’s death glare. “Was too busy talking to Sehunnie, sorry leader.” He mumbled.

Lay scanned the room. He noticed the glumness on the members faces and it worried him.

“Um, guys what’s up?” he asked.

“It’s Tao.” Xuimin answered him.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Kris groaned. “We don’t know. He won’t tell us!”

Lay held his hands up in defence. “Alright, alright! Calm down!”

Tension started to build up between them and Lay shifted around on his feet uncomfortably.

“I’m going to shower.” He burst out and ran away to the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

Xuimin sighed and glared at Kris. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Kris glared back. “What are you on about?”

“I thought you had something to tell us.”

“I do.”

“Then why didn’t you say it? Lay came back, like you wanted.”

“But I need to talk to all of you. I can’t talk about it when Tao is upset.”

“He’s going to be asleep for a while, Kris.” Luhan piped up. “You might as well tell us now and speak to him privately about it later.”

Kris shook his head. “No. That’s not fair.”

“Kris stop bullcrapping and just spit it out!”

“Fine! Ok, well, the thing is…”

~*~

Wrapping the towel around his waist, Lay gathered his clothes together and left the bathroom. When he got to the bedroom, he tapped a quick rhythm on the door.

“Hey Tao? I’m just going to come in and get dressed. I’ll be quick, I promise.”

Without waiting for a reply, Lay carefully opened the door and crept in. Tao was not asleep, like the others had told him, but sitting wide awake on his bed. He was crying silently, clutching his panda and rocking himself back and forth.

“Tao?”

The boy shook his head and shut his eyes. Lay decided it was a good time to dress himself. As soon as he was dressed, Lay began climbing up the ladder up to Tao’s bed.

“Tao?”

He opened his eyes and blinked at Lay.

“Tao, what’s wrong?”

Tao shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Oh Panda, please talk to me.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Please?”

“No. I’m ok. I just need to be alone. Please Gege.”

Lay sighed, frustrated that he couldn’t get a reason from the maknae.

“Fine. Will you join us for lunch later?”

Tao shook his head. “I’m not hungry. I’m going to sleep now.” He lay down and rested his head on his soft pillow, eyes wide open and staring into space.

Lay felt like he wasn’t wanted around, so he leaned over and gave Tao a small kiss on his cheek. “I’m here if you need me Tao, ok?”

Tao nodded and Lay made his way down the ladder and out the room, shutting the door firmly behind him. The dancer shuffled into the living room and sat down next to Kris with a huff.  Kris eyed him cautiously.

“Did Tao tell you anything?”

“Nope. Oh, that he isn’t going to eat later and that he’s going to sleep.”

“Is he ok?”

“He doesn’t look ok.”

Luhan whined. “What are we going to do?”

Chen shrugged. “I guess we’ll just have to try and cheer him up.”

They all nodded in agreement, then Lay spoke up. “He said he didn’t want to talk to anyone though.”

“Ok, maybe not anytime soon. But at some point we will.”

“Agreed.”

Lay turned to Kris. “Luhan said you have something important to tell us.”

“Oh yeah,” Kris said. “I got an email from our manager and well…” he trailed off.

“What Kris? Is it bad?”

“Depends how you take it.”

“Speak up then,”

“See the thing is, there’s been a bit of a problem with the schedules and us going back to China. So manager has cancelled all of our plans for the next two weeks.”

Silence.

“Sorry guys.”

“Hang on,” Chen said. “So we don’t have anything to do for two weeks?”

Kris nodded.

“YES!!” Chen jumped up and began breaking out into a spontaneous dance. “Oh my God! A two week holiday! Guys, we are going to have so much fun!!”

“Are K having a break too?” Luhan asked.

“No, only us. But they don’t have any plans next week.”

“Yay! Can we all do a group outing please Leader?”

“Maybe.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoo What's this? Another chapter?!

Well, I thought I'd treat you guys today :) (But I don't think it's any good!)

Sorry for any mistakes and I love you all~ Don't forget to add your comments ;D <333