Hyun Kyun and yourself had made the way back down to the practice rooms when you had finished reading through the sheets. The schedule was jam packed and pretty intense. You were glad that Hyun Kyun was going to be with you, otherwise you probably would have mentally lost it. With the press conference being planned for tomorrow, you wanted to prepare thoroughly in order to do a good job. Exo had trained long and hard and you felt like a burden.

-----

All you ever are is a burden Eun Mi. Useless, unworthy burden.

-----

You bit back the memory as you found yourself back in the group practice room, where Lay, Luhan and Xiumin were working on their choreography. The dance teacher gave you a nod of acknowledgment before continuing to keep the timing. You were absorbed into the beats as the teacher continued her 5,6,7,8 counting. You sat back on the couch with your possessions. You clicked open the folder and as silently as you could, you shuffled through papers and began reading through them. As you read thoroughly through each sheet, you took in as much as you could and the cogs in your brain turned. The halting of the music had flew right over your head and you hadn't noticed the boys were on a break until the couch sunk to the left of you. Lay had a towel in his left hand, dabbing away at his face, whilst his right held his water bottle.

"What is it?" He asked, as he took a gulp of his water.

"Notes for tomorrow and your debut schedule." You answered as you sorted the sheets back into an orderly fashion.

"Tomorrow?" Lay queried again, his face contorted with confusion. "I thought there were no more schedules till Korea?" He recalled as he scratched his slightly damp hair.

"Oh, yeah, I have a press conference for all the tabloid and paparazzi drama." You replied coolly, although your stomach churned at the thought of the conference.

"Ah, well good luck! Fighting! Don't let the dumb reporters get to you." Lay cheered as an encouraging expression graced his face. You returned with a fighting sign before the teacher called break over.

----

As you continued shuffling though the notes, Lay's encouragement stuck in your mind. Don't let the dumb reporters get to you. You stopped momentarily and looked up to stare at the clouds on the wall. As the sentence continually repeated in your mind, the cogs had locked into place and you quickly pulled your phone out of your pocket. Tapping on So Young's message thread you quickly replied a thanks and a small message. It made sense how she knew. Her dad was a CEO of an international tabloid magazine.

"Of course" you breathed, nodding your head in understanding.

----

Shuffling through the sheets you reasoned that too much cramming would get you nowhere and vowed to study back at the dorms. As you now focused on the debut schedule, your mouth contorted with a grimace. Although you would label yourself as adaptable, the strenuous schedule really took its toll. You snapped out of your trance when the familiar buzz of your phone vibrated in your lap, thinking it was a reply from So Young you quickly tapped on the notification.

I took care of rent this week. Work hard sweetie. Missing you. x

Your eyes graced over the written text and you bit your lip in annoyance. Annoyed that for another week you hadn't paid your half. Annoyed that you were relying so heavily on others. Annoyed that Luhan had no true reason to dislike you. At the thought of Luhan your eyes flickered over to the dance practice and spotted Luhan in his sweats, his face glistened with perspiration as he passionately danced. As you rested your eyes on him for a while your vision was interrupted as his eyes also looked back. You blinked out of your trance to see he had stopped looking as fast as he started. As you re-focused your attention on the paper, you took a brighter outlook. This job would eliminate annoyance number one and if you were ever get better at it, number two would be gone. As for annoyance three… you tapped on your chin thoughtfully and thought of possible reasons for Luhan to have taken a disliking towards you and how to overcome them.

----

You glanced at your wrist to find that rehearsals were now coming to an end. The boys had gathered back into the dance practice room and were chatting amongst themselves, sprawled across the floor. You were packing away your things whilst waiting for the manager to arrive and take the boys back to the dorm.

----

As exo-m piled into the van, their bags thrown gingerly in the back, they had slumped into any seat, and you found yourself in the passenger seat for a change. As the van whizzed onto the main road once more the van had quietened down just like the day you had bought rice cake, but as you glanced backward you saw that the members were lane across each other, napping lightly. Lay had his head tilted against the back window with Tao's head resting on his shoulder, whilst Xiumin rested his head backward away from the two. In the middle, Chen had comfortably set his head against Kris's torso as it didn't quite reach his shoulder. Whilst Luhan had stuck his headphones in, a hand gripping the door handle, his eyes closed.

"Should we treat them one last night before they become big stars?" The manager whispered as he pointed to the same stand you had bought from. A smile lighted up your face and you nodded enthusiastically.

-----

The eight of you were seated at the plastic table and chairs located behind the stall. The coldness that had surrounded the eight of you had lead to everyone huddled close to preserve body heat. You were sandwiched between Xiumin and Lay. You had stuffed your hands in your coat pocket in an attempt to keep them somewhat warm, but as you took them out to blow warm air into, Lay had intercepted and made a grab for your right hand. He stuffed your hand along with his into his coat pocket, where you felt a warm heat pack. He smiled at you sweetly, and scooted closer in order to let you get a better hold on the heat pack. You returned with a smile of your own and grasped the heat pack tighter. You repositioned it, so that it was between both of your grasped hands. As the two of you shared a secret smile, the lady had made her way over to the table, with plates of rice cake and complimentary dumplings. She smiled warmly as she set down the plates. As she scanned her eyes around her guests she took a sight of you and smiled knowingly. You returned with a slight tilt of your head and smiled back. As the plates were set down the boys dug in and soon their mouths were full of steam and their tummies warm with rice cake. You had tugged you hand slightly and Lay released it, he had slung his right hand towards you, in it clutch a second heat pack. You looked at it confused as you hesitantly took it with your right hand. Lay slightly chuckled and reached over for your left hand, he transferred the heat pack and tucked your hand into your pocket, before resuming eating. With sincere gestures from Lay, you felt the slight tug of your heart. But it would seem that your heart was not the only one being tugged at, as a silent onlooker felt the strings around his heart start to painfully tug.

----

You woke up the second morning, a slight tingle of anxiety set the mood. You had spent the previous night reading and re reading the notes for the press conference, yet an uneasy feeling swirled in the pit of your stomach and left a huge knot stuck in your throat. As you washed up and got dressed, it only seemed to get worse as your legs wobbled slightly despite just being in your room. You sat at the foot of your bed trying to calm yourself, your hands reached for your phone as So Young came to mind.  Minutes of assurance ensued and as you clicked off the line, a slight knock on the door sounded.

"Eun Mi?" a whisper of a voice followed as the door cracked open slightly. Lay had slipped his head through the crack and smiled slightly.

"I just wanted to wish you good luck today, don't worry, we'll cheer you on during our practices" he exclaimed, holding up a fighting pose. You quickly thanked him, and returned with a fighting pose yourself.

"Zhang Yixing! I'm not doing this by myself, help me!" Tao's voice shouted from downstairs.

"Coming, coming" Lay called back as he gave you one last nod of encouragement and dismissed himself. You felt uneasy just sitting in your room and reasoned that waiting downstairs would be a better option. As you slung your handbag over your shoulder and fixed up your outfit in the mirror your mind wandered away from the present situation and back to the previous evening as Lay and yourself shared heat packs. You couldn't keep the smile from reaching your lips and grinned even wider as you slipped your hand in your jacket to find the now cold heat pack.

----

 Lay slightly chuckled and reached over for your left hand, he transferred the heat pack and tucked your hand into your pocket, before resuming eating.

"Keep yourself warm Eun Mi, we wouldn't want you to catch a cold before the big debut now… but don't worry, as long as I'm here, you'll never be cold."

----

You closed your bedroom door behind you as you stepped into the hall way to find it wasn't empty. Luhan was dressed, a sports bag slung across his torso. He looked towards you and eyed your outfit.

"Do you have a press conference today?" He murmured his face showed no signs of expression as his eyes bore straight into yours.

"Yeah" you returned, your voice barely a whisper.

"Good luck" he muttered before jogging down the flight of stairs. You shot a quizzical look at his back as you remained still where he had left you. Did the cold, teasing Luhan just wish you good luck? His gesture casted a frown across your face as he escaped into the kitchen. You followed in suit and instead, ending up on the couch still confused.

"Noona, do you want some breakfast? I made it myself" Tao claimed as he strutted into the living room. An audible cough could be heard from the kitchen when Tao finished.

"I mean Yixing ge and I" Tao corrected as he silently pointed to himself and mouthed, 'just me, just me'.  You chuckled lightly but passed on the offer. You hadn't waken up with an appetite to begin with and didn't really want to risk having anything in your system.

"Huang Zitao, you are not calling me to help then leaving right now are you?" the teasing voice of Lay chorused through causing Tao to shoot up from his comfortable position.

"No! I'm just seeing noona, gee, I'm coming" he nervously called back, furiously waving at you before rushing towards the kitchen.  No sooner as Tao left had Lay stuck his head into the living room, he looked at you confused.

"You're not having breakfast? It's the most important meal of the day" he queried as his lips formed a slight pout.

"Ah no, I'm not that hungry this morning" you answered as you patted your stomach lightly.

"Promise me you'll eat lunch then?" he pressured on, his face now contorted in judging look.

"Promise" you held up your pinky finger and smiled warmly.

"Yixing ge, you're leaving me now, don't be a slacker, you said you'd help, who's the one leaving now?" Tao continuously shouted, causing Lay's face to shrivel in an annoyed manner. He disappeared once more and you were left alone once again, but not for long as another member had strolled his way in. Luhan still had his sports bag across his torso, but an apple in his palm. He gave you a blank stare and tossed the apple towards you before retreating back into the kitchen. You gave another confused stare at his back, but couldn't ponder your thoughts for long before the doorbell rang.

----

As you sat in the back of the black car your thoughts pounded over in your head, your fingers fidgeting with your bag straps.

"Don't worry, I'll be here to save you if you need" Taehyun called as he eyed you from the rear view mirror. You let out a slight breath and nodded gratefully.

----

The hall was filled with photographers and journalists seated row by row. Some seem bored as they stared at their cameras, whilst others frantically re arranged notepads and computers. As you peeked from behind the stage curtain, your heart continued to pound against your rib cage and your palms sweated profusely. You pulled at your outfit once more, trying to straighten the creases.

"If you pull at your blouse anymore it'll become a size bigger" Taehyun commented as he came to stand behind you. You quickly released your shirt and grasped your hands together.

"Trust me, it'll all be okay, you only have to give your statement and answer a few questions, plus I'll just be to your side" he comforted. You nodded slightly, you had been through the plan a million times in your head, but it all seemed to daunting now that you were on the brink of it actually happening.

"You ready? We're on" was the last thing you heard Taehyun mutter before you were engulfed in the flashes and shouting.

---

I'm a terrible person, I , I know I know.