Hello to my first subscriber UnusualTeuk! ^^ Since you're the first subbie, this chapter is for you ^^

And, I usually don't write unnecessary author notes on chapters, but I'd like to apologize in advance for the chapter titles. haha. I usually take a long time thinking of chapter titles, so for this fic, I choose not to write any of it. so every chapter will have to be a 'surprise'! lol.

Anyway, I'll shut up now. this chapter is semi-proofread. I made changes on the first reading. too lazy to proofread the second time.lol

Enjoy~ ^^

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Chapter 1

You made sure to send Kris an email before boarding the plane bound to Incheon. You can barely contain your excitement that you just have to smile and do small greetings with other passengers. You’re practically radiating with positive energy.

All throughout the trip, you just watched Kris’ music videos, performances and variety shows. You can’t help feeling giddy and ecstatic that you’re boyfriend has become much more handsome over the years. Despite the cold, face like he always has on, you knew the real Kris wasn’t like that. His soft and gentle smiles were the first reasons you fell in love with him. And you knew that the image he has on camera was just an image he has to portray for the fans.

Upon alighting the airplane, you can’t help feeling a sense of reminisce. The same air, the same language and the same culture: you thought you could cry at the moment. But then, your reverie was interrupted by a loud yell and squealing from a distance.

“Oh my god! Yejinnie!”

You ran to your long time bestfriend, and you didn’t even care if the two of you were causing loud chaos by the airport lobby.

“Oh my god! You look so great!” you told her. She grinned sheepishly and twirled around. You remember Yejin back in highschool. She’s always the shy girl in class, and she won’t even do something she likes without you having to encourage her to it. But now she looks so confident and so grown up.

“And you! You look might fine, girl!” She squealed at you. True enough, you did lost your baby fats, mainly because of the change of temperature, and also the food choices. It was hard adjusting, but you managed it.

“Ya ya yah! Look at this girl,” Yejin teased you. “We must be careful then; boys might start throwing themselves at you.”

The two of you giggled and started catching up on the way to the hotel that your parents had booked for you. It was just a few minutes’ walk from Yejin’s home, so they wouldn’t have to worry about you being alone in Korea.

“So, what do you want to do now?” Yejin flopped down at your fluffy hotel room carpet, smiling at you.

“Well, for starters, I’m starving! I missed authentic Korean food; all the street food! And that curry restaurant near our old school!” You jumped beside her.

“Slow down, you don’t want those perfect curves to lose right before you go back,” You best friend laughed at you. You made a face. You wanted to eat everything that you can. But you also don’t want to gain so much weight before meeting Kris. You actually took a lot of effort and preparation back home before seeing him.

“Ah right. Wait up. I need to check on my email.”

You almost forgot to check if Kris replied. But sadly, he didn’t. You checked on EXO’s official website to see if they have schedule today. Your heart slightly fell a little when you saw that they have a 2 day fanmeet at Busan today. They wouldn’t be home until tomorrow.

“Kris?” Yejin peered behind your shoulders.

You looked back at her and nodded, smiling a little.

“You two were still in contact after all these years?” She asked you. You didn’t miss that surprise tone in her voice.

“Well, yes. We used to call and do video calls more often before; before he debuted. But after, we would just send emails from time to time.” You told her, while typing another email content towards him, informing him that you’ve landed safely and that hopefully he’s not too busy to see you in the next couple of days. After all, you’ll be in Korea for about 3 weeks.

Yejin just shrugged and chose not to reply anymore.

“Let’s go!” She pulled your arm. “I’m hungry!”

You laughed at her cuteness as you closed your laptop.

You have all night to catch up in the 4 years that you missed together.

“So, we went to Daegu and Sunggyu oppa finally recognized me, and even signed on my album before I could even tell him my name!” Yejin squealed. You can’t help laughing at her, yet again. You’ve been in that street stall for about 3 hours already. You didn’t mind eating and listening to Yejin talk. It’s just nice to finally be back home, and to use her mother tongue conversing to other people.

“Wait, wait. So now, you’re telling me you’ve become a fangirl?” You asked her incredulously. Yejin smiled sheepishly.

Back in high school, you all think that fangirls are quite silly. They always follow, gawk and squeal at every good looking and hot guys they see. Well, you didn’t hate them, but it’s just weird that whenever you and Kris would go on dates, his own set of fangirls, both from your own school and from other girl high schools, would follow you both and take photos of him. It was even absurd up to the point that you found fansites of him. He wasn’t even a celebrity yet at that time.

“Please don’t tell me you own a fansite,” You raised an eyebrow at your friend.

“Well, of course not!” She said defensively. “But I have my own Infinite blog, where I post my entire fan taken photos, fancams and my fan accounts.”

You gawked at your friend, but you know better now to judge her. Back home, you have friends who like Korean music, and they’re so ‘in love’ with KPOP idols that it’s almost too funny for you. You didn’t mind being their translator, but when one of your classmate started squealing over Kris over EXO, you didn’t know whether to laugh it out or just be plain awkward.

You never told anyone that you’re Kris high school sweetheart. You didn’t want to cause him any scandal. And you were sure that the girls in your previous high school all new that you were out of the country already. And that means Kris is already single and available. But the thing is, you and Kris never broke up.

“So anyway, as I was saying, I’m trying my luck now to get a free VIP passes on one of the major concerts this year. You’ll come with me, right?” She gave you a megawatt smile. Yejin knew you can never resist that smile.

“Well, I don’t know if Kris—“

“EXO will be there too!” She insisted. Well, if Kris will be there too, might as well just watch?

“But we’re getting seats from the Infinite fans. So, we’ll be cheering for Infinite.” She said excitedly. You scoffed, but smiled playfully. It’s not that you didn’t like Infinite. You knew Korean idol groups, but you’re not really into them. You don’t even know their names specifically.

“Yejin-ah.” You called to your friend. You had asked her if she wanted to sleep over at your hotel room. She was browsing the internet using your laptop, while Infinite’s The Chaser album was on loop. You can even almost sing along with it. You lost count how many times it played already.

“Hmm?”

“Can I borrow your phone?”

She turned to look at you and gave you a questioning look.

“I kinda forget to rent a phone at the airport, and—“

“You don’t need to rent. Here, you can use mine. I have a spare phone at home that I can use. But why do you need a phone? We’ll always be together anyways.” She said, turning back her attention to the laptop. You can see that she’s browsing to what it looked like a fancafe. You’ve tried visiting it a few times, when your friends back home asked you how to register in it.

“I kinda just wanted to call and send Kris a few messages, I mean, it’ll be more convenient than sending emails.” You told her. Why do you suddenly get the feeling that you’re embarrassed about it every time you’re bringing up Kris? Maybe it’s because of the way Yejin frowns or stiffened when you mention his name? You’re not sure.

You heard her sighed.

“Okay. “ She just answered. You didn’t know why Yejin is suddenly acting like this. You, Yejin, Kris and along with a few more guys used to be good friends back in the days. Did something happen?

“Yejin-ah?” You called. You couldn’t sleep that night, because your mind kept on thinking what happened during the years you weren’t there. You pushed the thoughts out of your head that Yejin and Kris might had a fling or some kind of an intimate relationship for Yejin to be awkward with the mention of his name. No. They’re 2 most important persons in your life. They won’t do that to you.

“Hmm?”

You could tell she was almost in slumber land already.

“Did something happen to Kris?” You asked her.

“What do you mean?” She asked in a slurred voice.

“You seemed to be… indifferent every time I mention his name up.” You told her in a small voice. You felt the bed shifted slightly so you knew that Yejin must have faced your way. You remained facing the ceiling.

“I don’t know.” She mumbled. “Let’s just say we all grew apart after you left.”

That made you turned to look her way. Despite the dark, you can tell that she still has her eyes closed. She must be really so sleepy to hold a conversation.

“After you left, he never met with any of us anymore. We all knew he went to train at SM full time. We were all proud and supportive of him. The other boys thought that maybe he was just depressed over your departure. But you know how we all live near each other right?”

You nodded you head.

“We would know if he’s home from practice, or if he has day off. But still, he never answers our call. It’s as if he didn’t know us anymore. He would just ignore us totally. We don’t know if the company told him not to go out too much, to avoid scandals or whatnot, but we’re his friends. We missed you, and we missed him. But it’s as if he didn’t care anymore.”

You frowned, feeling a little confused.

“When he debuted, we just kinda decided to forget about him. Like he was never part of your group of friends. We know deep in our hearts that we’re proud of what he had achieved, but if he wouldn’t acknowledge us as his friends, if he’s embarrassed of us, then we’ll gladly move out of his way.”

You remained stoic. Kris hasn’t told you any of that.

“I’m so sorry,” Yejin finally opened her eyes to look at you when you didn’t respond. “Maybe Kris has a reason, but it’s been too long. It’s just that weird to be associated with him again. The other guys, everytime we’d get together, we’d just not mention him, and erase him from any memories we had back in highschool.” Yejin told you.

“But he…” You remained speechless.

At first, when you and Kris would talk on the internet, he’d always say how much he missed you, and how he wishes you were with him so he can hold you. There are times that he was so tired and exhausted from his training that he’d just cry his frustrations over you. You always listen to him patiently. When he’s freer, you’d get to video call each other. Of course you’d insist on paying the phone bill, because you didn’t want to burden him with all the expenses anymore. But your mom scolded you and cut your mobile phone line.

When you learned about the video chat on the internet, Kris was already debuting as EXO-M’s leader. You barely even talk during that time anyway. Nightly calls became every other night, then it became thrice in a week. Until it become just only on weekends. Until Kris would just text and send you messages every free time he gets, which is actually not a lot. You’d still send him emails and text messages regularly, sometimes he’d reply. Sometimes he won’t. But you understand. And every single message he’d send you, he’d always assure you that he’s still in love with you and he’s waiting for the day that you’d finally go back to him so he can hold you again.

So you knew that you two were okay. But with the rest of your friends? Why…?

“Don’t think about it too much, go to sleep now. We’re all fine with it. The guys have moved on too,” Yejin told you, as she patted your arm.

You sighed and forced it out of your head in the meantime.