Kris POV:
10:19 a.m a week from the last chapter

My head pounded from the lights in the room, seeming infinitely brighter than usual. My eyes wandered around the room to see first, Tao sound asleep on the couch, and second, a nurse with a moderately thick stack of papers in her hand. She glanced my way and gave me a soft smile. "Mr. Wu, I have some good news for you, if you're going to stay awake this time," she said in a slightly amused voice. I must have already woken up and fallen back asleep; I blinked a few times before her words clicked.

"Good news? What would that be?" I asked, still not super awake. I heard Tao roll over on the couch.

"You have one more x-ray today, just to make sure everything is healing well with your arm, and to make sure once more that there is no head trauma. After that," she waved the packet of papers in her hand, "we'll fill these out and add them to your records. Then you'll be free to go."

"Wait, really?" I said a bit too loudly, and my ears were met again with the noise of movement on the couch and then a thump on the floor, followed by a soft groan. Both mine and the nurse's eyes flickered to Tao to make sure he was okay before she chuckled and answered my question.

"Yes, your x-rays shouldn't take long, nor should the paperwork. You should be able to go home by around," she glanced at her watch and then back at me, "2 p.m. today? Does that sound okay?"

"That sounds great. Thank you. What time are the x-rays?"

"11 a.m. Another nurse will come get you when it's time," With that, she bowed politely and left. I turned to face Tao, who was now sitting up on the floor, looking as if he were still half-asleep.

"Are you okay down there?" I laughed softly, and he stared at me for a moment.

"What were you guys talking about? I didn't catch any of that," He asked, words slurring slightly together due to his not being fully awake yet.

"I'll take that as a yes, I guess," my eyes narrowed at the younger on the floor before I continued, "I gotta go in for x-rays and fill out some paperwork when I get back, but after that, we can go back to the dorm."

"So they're discharging you?"

"Mhm. She said we should be free to go by 2."

"That's great! How do you feel?"

"I feel okay."

"Only okay?" He asked, seeming hopeful that I would have said something besides my usual answer.

"Yeah, only okay. More okay than yesterday or the day before though."

"That's good then, maybe." Tao laughed, "You confuse me with your '50 shades of okay' game."

"50 shades of okay? Sounds eerily close to something els-" I was cut off by a soft knock on the door from another nurse, this time a younger male.

"Mr. Wu, I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's time for your x-rays."

"No, it's fine. I'll be back, Tao. It shouldn't take long." I stood up from the bed, giving my legs a second to adjust to having weight on them after laying there for almost a week. It took a moment, but I was quickly able to follow the nurse to the x-ray room for the images.

Tao POV:

11:20 a.m

I'd gotten up and moved to lay on the couch. My eyes were fixed on my phone as I scrolled through my Weibo feed, when I'd heard footsteps go by, and come back and stop in front of the door. I glanced over to see who it was, only to be met with a shocked face standing in the doorway. I didn't recognise it from anywhere.

"Hi? Can I help you?" I said, a slight confused tone in my voice.

"You're- You're Tao. Like from Exo, oh my god." I blinked a few times and stared at her, trying to see if there were more behind her before I motioned for her to come in and close the door. She did so, but stayed back by the door, as if she was afraid to come too close.

"You're the only one out there, right?" I asked quietly, and she nodded. The last thing Kris needed was fangirls invading his space while he was recovering.

"Why are you here though? You don't look hurt." She asked, concern evident in her voice.

"I'm visiting a friend, he's getting x-rays, so I'm waiting for him to come back." She made an 'o' shape with , folding her hands in front of her. "What brings you here? You don't look sick, and surely the press hasn't released anything about my being here yet."

"I'm visiting my little brother. He got into a bike accident and broke his leg. He'll only be here for a day though. I was going to go get lunch while he's asleep."

"Is he okay?" I asked, seeming more concerned than I'd have liked to. She nodded and quickly responded.

"He's fine now." A small smile spread to her cheeks.

"You seem much more calm than some of the other fans I've encountered, thank you for that." I laughed for a moment before cringing at the memory of some of them at the airport. She let out a small laugh and nodded.

"I don't see the point of attacking like some of them do. Screaming in your face and trying to tackle you won't accomplish anything. Besides, I wouldn't like it if someone did that to me, so I wouldn't dream of doing it to one of my idols." This time, I laughed softly and thanked her once more. "Mhm."

"What's your name?"

"Mei." She bowed as she introduced herself, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Are you from here? You have a Chinese name." She shook her head.

"I moved here from Guangzhou when I was 10. I've only been here for 7 years. I'm half-Chinese," she said softly.

"Oh, that's nice. So you get like the best of both worlds?" This made her let out a slightly louder laugh.

"I guess you could put it that way." The door opened behind her and she moved to the side, so as not to be hit by it. When Kris walked in, Mei looked like she was about to hit the floor. Kris stopped in the doorway and sent a questioning glance to me after looking at her.

I shrugged in response and he moved to the bed before asking in Mandarin, "Who's this?" His tone was more of a curious one than an annoyed one.

Before I could introduce her, she politely bowed and introduced herself as well in Mandarin. "Wo jiao Mei. Renshi ni hen gaoxin." (My name is Mei. Knowing you makes me very happy/nice to meet you.) Yifan looked at her with a small amount of surprise in his eyes at her fluency.

"Ah, ye renshi ni hen gaoxin." (It's also nice to meet you.) He said, surprise evident in his voice.

"Mei's one of our fans, she seems really cool," I said, trying to clarify why there was an almost complete stranger in our room. Her face turned slightly red upon hearing the compliment. Our conversation had stayed in Mandarin since Kris had arrived, all of us evidently being more comfortable with it.

"Wu Yifan, it really is an honour." She bowed again, and I narrowed my eyes playfully.

"Hey, you weren't this formal when you were talking to me," I said, trying to make her act less awkwardly polite. Kris smiled and Mei laughed softly. "I think we have a Kris-biased one here." 

"You can speak comfortably with us. Tao seems to approve of your being here, which is enough for me to know you're okay," He made eye contact with her before gesturing to the couch for her to sit by me. "Stop hogging the couch, Tao. Jeez." I moved to sit up, feeling rude for having not thought about offering her a seat.

"Actually," she laughed a little, "I don't think I've picked a bias in Exo," she said as she sat by me, sitting stiffly straight, obviously still in shock about meeting us.

"Ah, come on, everyone who likes any group has a favourite. We won't be hurt if it isn't us," I said, playfully poking her in the arm.

"Yeah, tell us. We won't tell them, or maybe we will," Kris said, taking a sip from the glass of water on the table by his bed.

"Okay, okay." She laughed. "If I have to pick one, I'm Lay-biased." Both Kris and I acted as if we were super offended, before shooting her smiles.

"Good choice," I said and the room was quiet for a few moments.

Mei took a small breath, glancing at the cast on Kris's left arm and the bandage on his head, debating on if she should ask what happened, since he actually was injured. Miraculously, news of the crash hadn't been released, otherwise, the hospital would have been swarming with fans, and they wouldn't be able to talk to them. It wouldn't have been pretty. Kris picked at the plastic on the cast under the feeling of her eyes. "I see you noticed this. Are you wondering how it happened?" She was trying her best not to stare, but to figure out the story behind it without asking.

"Ah, only if you want to tell about it. I didn't want to be rude."

"You pretty flat-out asked me if I was injured," I joked. She nervously smiled.

"You didn't look like you were hurt."

"It's okay, I'll tell you. On one condition though," Kris said, looking right at her.

"What condition?" She asked, a tinge of curiosity in her voice.

"You can't let this get spread on the web right away. I know it'll get found out eventually by the fansites, but as of now, they're oblivious and peaceful," he warned and she nodded.

"It's not my business to tell. You have my word."

"Pinky promise?" I reached out my hand to her and held out my pinky, which she wrapped hers around.

"Pinky promise. I'm only curious."

"Alright then," Kris paused. "Last week, the day after promotions ended, four of us were headed to the store to get food, because our fridge was literally so empty someone could hide in there. So I was driving, Tao was in the passenger seat, Luhan was behind me, and Sehun was behind Tao. About three quarters of the way there, we stopped at a red light, and when the light turned green, we started going. We were about halfway through the intersection when another car ran the red light going probably 105 kilometers per hour (65 mph) and hit us."

"Oh my god, were you guys alright?" Mei seemed shocked.

"I'm pretty alright now," Kris gave her a small smile.

"Don't leave her hanging, Fanfan." I cut in, "Me and Sehun were fine. We just have a couple small bruises and of course, whiplash. Luhan was laying down in the backseat, so his leg was crushed between the door and seat, but aside from a broken leg, he's okay now. Kris scared the out of me. When we were hit, his head slammed into the steering wheel, and he was knocked out for a few hours. I was worried about head trauma, but he's lucky there is none."

"I'm glad it wasn't worse. It sounds like it could have been very bad." She seemed set back by this, unsure of what to say.

"So Kris," I spoke and he looked over at me in response.

"Yeah?"

"When's that nurse coming with your papers to leave? I'm getting hungry."

"Any time now, unless we get to skip the paperwork."

"Oh, you're leaving soon?" Mei asked, softly.

"Yeah, Kris gets the all-clear to leave today." I spoke.

"That's good. I should get going then, I don't want to keep you from leaving." She stood up, and Kris spoke, causing her to stop in her tracks.

"Wait, before you go, Tao, grab my camera."

"The polaroid one?" I walked over to the shelves adjacent to Kris's bed and grabbed his backpack, pulling the small white camera out of it.

"Yeah, I like this one, we gotta remember her. Mei, come here, get in the picture." Kris called out.

"You want a picture of me?" She asked, surprise evident in her voice.

"Yeah, come on, get closer." I said and she stood between us. The three of us smiled and gave peace signs before the camera clicked twice and two photos quickly printed. I put the camera down and took one picture in each hand, shaking it to make it develop faster, at the same time glancing around the room for a pen. When the pictures showed up, I grabbed the pen and was about to write on the back, when I realised I was missing something. "Mei, what's your family name?"

"Huang," She said calmly.

"Spelled the same way as mine?"

"Mhm."

"Alright, got it." I quickly scribbled on the back of her copy, 'Huang Mei, the *cool* fan' and autographed beneath it, handing it to Kris, who followed suit before handing the photo to her. I grabbed the other copy and scribbled the same on the back, skipping our autographs this time and handed the pen to Mei. "Your turn." She quickly printed her name on the paper and bowed at us.

"Thank you, thank you so much. You've made me so happy."

"It's all in the approach. Thanks for not jumping on us. Enjoy your lunch." I said, and glanced at my phone as she walked out.

1:30 p.m

By now, Mei had been gone for about 20 minutes, and we'd just finished the paperwork to let Kris leave. I called for a rental car to be delivered so I could drive us back to the dorm. The other members didn't know Kris had been discharged yet. It didn't take long for the car to get here, and we were quickly able to pack up and leave back to the dorm, where the other 10 were pleasantly surprised to see our faces. I'd been at the hospital keeping Kris company for 5 of the 8 days he was in, and he'd obviously not been here as well. Chen ordered lunch and we all caught up on things we'd missed. For only being gone 8 days, a lot had happened to talk about. Lay had tried to make conversation about some new model, but he seemed to be the only one interested. When the food and conversation topics ran out, we all slowly migrated to our rooms, where we stayed for most of the rest of the day.

A/N: Hi! Long time no see. I haven't updated this fic in forever, but I've had a ton of ideas for it lately, so expect a few updates soon. I've graduated from high school now, so I should have more time on my hands to work on this fic until I have to look into colleges. Anyways, enough about me. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I wanted to have a more light-hearted one after the seriousness of the crash chapter, and the um, tension, between Kai and D.O.

If you're like me and like to picture things as you read, it might help to have a reference picture for Mei. She's a completely made-up character, and I didn't describe much on her physical look because I wanted to leave that to the reader for the most part. But in case you can't picture her, or want to know how I pictured Mei as I wrote about her, here's how I pictured her (though I'm pretty sure Mei is a different nationality than the girl pictured. You'll get the jist of it.) Also, this photo is from DeviantArt. I do not own this photo. If you are the owner of the photo and you want it taken down, feel free to contact me. I will do so immediately.

Please remember to comment, upvote and subscribe. I love hearing from you guys, and suggestions help me make the story more enjoyable for you as well. Have an amazing day/night/morning/evening/afternoon. - Baozi