"From now until the release of their debut album on the 8th, less than a week from now, Exo will be preparing for their first ever performances stages as both Exo-k and Exo-m respectively. You, as the manager of Exo-m must ensure that all schedules of exo-m run smoothly and efficiently." the CEO's assistant informed through Skype as all 12 exo members, Hyun Kyun and Youngjun sat in the boarding gate. Youngjun and Hyun Kyun had all had their turns speaking with the CEO's assistant, and last it was your turn.

"We'll be holding more meetings once all of you return back to Korea and we can discuss things further then, see you then" the assistant informed. The two of you quickly said your goodbyes before the call was cut. The airport waiting chairs had almost seemed familiar to you now and you tried to settle comfortably into the seat.

"Eun Mi, would you like to go look around the airport stores, I can stay here and hold down this area." Hyun Kyun offered.

"No thanks, we were here literally a couple of days ago, and we're going to be back in just a couple of days." you told Hyun Kyun, letting out a yawn as you did so. Both Youngjun and Hyun Kyun laughed at your remark.

"Well you're not wrong there Eun Mi, but I guess this is lifestyle you're going to get used to now" Youngjun informed, Hyun Kyun nodded along.

"Youngjun, do you want to go play some League with me?" Baekhyun excitedly bounded over to the three of you, slinging an arm over Youngjun. Youngjun shot Baekhyun a judging look but agreed anyways.

"I want everyone back here by 9:20am" Hyun Kyun called as the boys began splitting to explore the airport. "That's 50 minutes" Hyun Kyun continued, as all the boys shouted back in agreement. You quickly found a comfortable spot upon the chair and decided to close your eyes for a while…

---

You awoke again and in your hazy displacement, quickly checked the watch on your wrist. You had napped for around 35 minutes and you breathed a sigh relief when you saw that Hyun Kyun, Chen, Sehun and Suho were seated by you, chatting lightly.

"Awake?" Suho gently pondered. You nodded your head in response before you recalled the last time you had unintentionally fallen asleep in public.

"Kim Jongdae, I swear if I see any photos of me asleep in the group chat" you threatened, immediately pulling out your handphone to check. The boys giggled as you unlocked your phone to see over a hundred unread messages from the group chat. You grumbled in response and didn't even bother to look through the messages, instead you shoved your phone back into your pocket. Upon further thought, you pulled out your phone once more and scrolled through some of the replies, you searched to see if Luhan had said anything in the group chat, but you saw that he had only seen all the messages. You grimaced slightly before shoving your phone back into your pocket once more. You hadn't talked to Luhan since last night and all throughout the morning Luhan had remained mostly silent, only talking to s occasionally. Luhan's harsh words thoroughly discouraged you to try and talk to him, although you would say you had a thick skin, you weren't quite sure how much more of Luhan's cruel words you could take. You had stayed up the previous night, Luhan's words repeating itself over and over and slowly but surely tearing you down on the inside. This morning you awoke feeling emotionally and physically drained. Trying hard not to fall asleep again, you set your attention on the planes that were landing and taking off in the distance. As you watched the flights take off and land, you were suddenly aware of all the different days that were being lived, that no two days in the entire universe were identical, that every individual being was experiencing a completely different day.

"What are you thinking about?" Lay interrupted, as he poked his head in your line of vision. He took a seat next to you as you pondered on your response.

"Just…" you began, not sure on how to reply.

"Just?" Lay prompted, staring at you softly, not pressuring you to continue.

"Just thinking about everyone's lives" you vaguely responded, not expecting Lay to understand.

"Thinking about how everyone is living their own lives and there are about seven billion different days being lived right now?" he continued your train of thought, almost as if he was reading your mind. Your eyes quickly shifted towards Lay as you lifted your head up from the seat.

"Exactly that, how did you know?" you asked, intrigued to continue the conversation.

"Because I think about it a lot, especially at airports. "The fact that no two days are lived exactly the same, simply intrigues me" he finished, a pleased look on his face.

"Right?! It's fascinating, our universe is such a mystery" you commented, staring up at the high ceiling now.

"People are the mystery, the universe? We're figuring out new information every single day. But people? That's the true mystery. We can't just run experiments and figure them out." Lay added, expanding your train of thought.

"Hm, I've never thought about it like that. I like that." You smiled a content smile.

"You guys ready?" Hyun Kyun interrupted. You looked up to see that that the rest of the members had already returned. You snapped back into manager mode and stood up, straightening yourself out.

"Alright. Everyone here? Everyone have their flying buddy?" Youngjun paused, as all the members laughed. Chen enthusiastically latched onto Suho calling "Yes sir!"

"Alright let's get going then" he called before he began leading the boys towards the gate. You fell behind, falling to the back of the group to make sure everyone was keeping up. Lay had joined you in the back of the group, excited to continue talking.

"Do you think there's a meaning to everyone's lives?" he excitedly asked, a curious hunger in his eyes.

"Well, I think everyone can lead a meaningful life. I don't think that people are put on this earth just for single purpose, I think they can create multiple purposes and meanings to their lives" you elaborated, trying to articulate your thoughts into words. Lay enthusiastically agreed. By the time all of you made your way onto the plane, Lay and yourself were excitedly discussing the prospect of what could happen when people passed. Lay had this idea where you just stop existing. There's just nothing. You on the other hand willed to believe that there was at least something there, whether it was set places like heaven or hell. Or just somewhere in the middle ground.

"There must something there" you argued.

"Okay, firstly do you think there's such things as souls? Or spirits? Or do you believe we're just a brain encased in the body, that our brain is our conscious controlling everything?" Lay reasoned.

"Well I guess I'll have to say that I believe that people have souls" you admitted, nodding your head along.

"Then it would make sense to you that if we died that the spirit would need to go 'somewhere'." Lay explained, gesturing with his hands as he did so.

"Unless the soul kind of just flakes away like Voldermort's did in Harry Potter." you added, shrugging your shoulders slightly.

"Yeah, I totally don't understand why they did that in the movie, I thought his death in the book was supposed to represent how he was just another regular wizard without all these horcruxes and not just this ethereal being of evil." Lay pointed out. "But anyways, you see I don't think I believe in spirits or souls, to me we're just brain operating bodies."

"Which justifies why you believe there's nothing after we die, because our brain can no longer do anything." you finished, understanding Lay's point of view now. The two of you seem satisfied with the conclusion and were just about to continue before someone interrupted.

"Lay, that's my seat bro"

Without thinking, the two of you had properly found your seat and Lay had automatically just sat down beside you. As the two of you looked up, Luhan was standing there, his backpack perched on his back.

"Oh Luhan, sorry man" Lay began, standing up immediately. Luhan remained silent and instead nipped Lay's plane ticket and replaced it with his, with this transaction done Luhan sauntered off. Lay and yourself remained silent for a while as Lay remained standing.

"Sir, could you be please be seated the flight is about to take off" a flight stewardess broke the silence and Lay quickly plopped down again. The two of you remained silent through the safety demonstrations and only until the plane was safely in the air had you finally said something.

"I guess he's still not feeling 100%, huh?"

"That's the most he's said to me today" Lay observed. You bit your lip as you thought. You looked back to see that Lay's original seat was situated next to Chen and Luhan had now gotten comfortable, his headphones on and eyes shut.

---

"Hi, could I please get a medium latte takeaway?" you greeted the cafe shop assistant. She started at you in response, not quite reacting. It wasn't until Tao took over that you realised you were speaking in Chinese.

"She'll have a medium latte takeaway please, sorry, she's just quite tired today" Tao repeated in Korean, the cafe staff giggling as she put your order in.

"And I'll have a medium cappuccino extra chocolate thanks" Tao finished as he fished out his wallet from his pocket.

"I'm sorry, I've just been flying between the two so much, my brain is still in Beijing mode" you apologised as you quickly handed the money to the café worker instead. Tao looked up at you, his card only centimetres from the waitresses' hand.

"My treat" you smiled, nodding to the staff quickly to accept your payment. As you looked back over to Tao you saw his face light up ever so gracefully before he engulfed you in a hug.

"Eun Mi, you're the first person to ever treat me to something without me having to ask them" he exclaimed, as he shook you around in his embrace.

"Your coffees sir" the café assistant called, as Tao set you down. You straightened out your hair as Tao accepted the orders.

"Here you go" Tao cheerily handed you your coffee as he sipped on his own.

---

Once reunited with the group, you assumed your original post at the back of the group, standing behind Luhan and Tao. The boys were waiting before the exit doors and even standing behind the doors you could hear a substantial amount of talking on the other side.

"Now, since you've guys have already made your official appearances, airports, Sm building, basically anywhere you have a schedule, there will be fans. Everyone please make sure you keep up with the group, don't get lost in the crowd." Youngjun stood at the front of the boys as all of them slipped on sunglasses, scarves, hats and other accessories. "Eun Mi will be at the back of the group to make sure you guys don't get lost, but just aim to not get held back by the fans" Youngjun finished before he started walking towards the doors. Almost immediately, a surge of screams and shouts sounded through the air and in no time, you found that you were wedging and snaking your way through fans as they called and followed the boys. Although you tried hard to keep up, the number of fans that had begun getting between yourself and Luhan was steadily increasing. You tried to push past but to no avail. You thought it'd be better once the group exited the actual airport building, but apparently, there were more fans waiting outside. Just when you thought you had lost the boys, a hand had grasped your wrist and pulled you forward. Although the grasp on your wrist was quite strong, the fan's pushing was too much and slowly the grasp on your wrist was slipping. Just when you thought someone had let you go, the hand seemed to find your hand and they were now tugging you by the hand, their fingers entwined with yours. You quickly squeezed past the girls in front of you, and suddenly you saw Luhan's backside. Luhan's hand released your grasp almost instantly and if it wasn't your own hand you wouldn't have noticed that anything had happened. The fans surrounding you didn't seem to notice either as they continued crowding around the boys. The group had now reached the two vans that were waiting for them and Youngjun had quickly directed you to accompany the boys of the first van as he led the other half to the second van. Luhan began following the other boys to the second van but before he had left, he quickly turned to look at you, it was only a glimpse and before long, your view of Luhan was blocked by fans. 

Happy holidays ❤