<><><><>----- When the music starts to lose control, energy permeates my body -----<><><><>

Erin's POV

I was excited to be able to hang out with chanyeol, the two of us had barely been able to talk in China, in between rehearsals and me nursing my ankle, the two of us had only a few conversations at most during our four day stay. We had chosen Cafe Bene, a small place that was a good in between distance from our dorms, but when I was getting into the car with the rest of the girls, one of the managers stopped me.

"Erin, you're going to the hospital so we can get that ankle checked," my eyes widened,

"But it's 10 at night! My ankles a lot better, I bet I won't even need the crutches tomorrow. Please oppa," Manager Son was mush at my aegyo act, "I really want to go home and sleep" He stuttered.

"Uh . . " He looked at Manager Oh who gave him a stern look, "Sorry Erin but you need to get checked up, it looked like you got sick on the plane too, we just want you to rest there overnight so you're one-hundred percent for practice tomorrow." At his words the other girls groaned,

"Practice? Tomorrow?" Woo-Jung muttered from inside the van.

"Alright," At this point, I was too tired to argue anymore with anyone. On the way to the hospital, I texted Chanyeol

Managers want me to get a check-up, can't sneak out this time. Maybe tomorrow.

He texted back right away.

But whyy? Can I come visit? *puppy eyes*

I smiled at his thoughtfulness, but still replied,

NO! Rest, sleep, tomorrow maybe we can sneak out. I’m only staying overnight they said so I'll be at practice with you guys tomorrow morning. Good night.

I turned my phone off, and slept the rest of the way to the hospital.

<><><><>----- Just let calmness become your enemy, and dance until you faint -----<><><><>

Chanyeol's POV

I was worried by what Erin had said, if the managers had even brought her for an overnight stay, that meant the company wasn't even sure how well she was. They almost never brought us to a hospital for an overnight stay, at the most, we would have a five-hour doctor visit in case one of us had a serious injury (namely Jongin and Tao who always did the most physically demanding performances).

I looked over at Kris who was sitting against the window on the way back to the dorms, he had ear buds in and was looking out the window, looking more thoughtful than sleepy at the moment.

"Hey, Kris," I whispered so I wouldn't disturb any of the members who were sleeping (like Tao and Joonmyeon).

"Hmm?" He asked, barely tilting his head in acknowledgement,

"Do you know if there's anything wrong with Erin? Like is she really sick? Is her ankle sprain really bad?" He frowned,

"Not that I know of, but she did look pretty bad on the plane. I was surprised that you even wanted to take her out for a midnight snack after seeing how beat up she looked." I gave a wiry smile,

"What gave us away?" He gave a knowing grin,

"You two were the only ones other than Mi-Yeon and me who were looking down during the mini-conference at the conference." The van stopped, "Looks like were home" He said, still looking out then getting off.

<><><><>----- Chasing the light, all eyes concentrate on my body -------<><><><>

Erin's POV

"You took care of it nicely, it'll heal in a few days." The doctor told Manager Son, he looked relieved.

"Thank you Doctor Lee," I looked at Manager Son,

"Then does that mean I can go back to the dorms tonight?" The doctor looked at me,

"Your ankle is healing, but your body on the other hand is extremely weak. It seems that you have both a sinus and ear infection in your left ear, not to mention a persistent fever from what your manager has told me. You will still have to stay overnight, I would especially like to monitor your REM levels and the amount of rest you really need." He left with Manager Son, the two of them going to his office to talk about how treatment would go for my sinus and ear infection while I was abroad, I wasn't too worried though. I had gotten both before from competitive swimming, water is surprisingly hard on your nose.

"Ms. Choi, please change into this," A nurse came into my room, it was a nice room by the way. I was by myself and there was a window, bed, comfy chair, and bedside chair. There was even a small bedside table with flowers on it and a tray with some light broth at the doctor's request. The nurse handed me some hospital pjs, it made me realize I was still in the uncomfortable airport fashion clothes that Mi-Yeon had conviced me to wear for the airplane ride home ride home. The others had gotten a laugh out of it, especially the EXO boys, because she had dressed me up as a boy, a cap and boyish sunglasses covered my face just enough for me to get by with the boys as part of staff and made it easier for the managers to move me quickly through the airport so I could get seated faster in first class(they wanted me to move the least amount possible).

They made use of my dark wardrobe clothes and added some of EXO's accessories, who had been more than happy to go along with their plan. I looked more or less like

with one of the boy's shoes (because I had feet way bigger than any of the other girls)

 

I got changed quickly and fell asleep right away with the help of the bowl of soup.

<><><><>------ I'm struggling to break free as I abttle with the rope that binds your heart -----<><><><>

Next Morning . . .

Kris's POV

"Hyung . . . Hyung . . . Hyung! .  . HYUNG! . . DDUIZHANG!" I lay in bed, eyes still closed, choosing not to give sounds of life to that obnoxiously energetic voice, knowing to do so would be to sacrifice the precious rest I had.

"Chanyeol, we can just go," That was definitely Jongin's voice, "If we take him then the less people we have to feed, and Erin's probably starved. She hasn't eaten a proper meal since before the first Seoul concert." My eyes opened at the mention of Erin.

"You guys are going to see Erin?" I asked, sitting up in bed, blowing my cover with Chanyeol, but not wanting to miss the opportunity to go.

Chanyeol immediately pouted, "You were doing that thing again where you were pretending to be sleeping so you wouldn't have to talk to me, weren't you.

"I just woke up," I feinted a yawn and eye rub, "but I thought she was at the hospital, is she out already?" I asked the two members.

"No, but the girls invited us to come with them to check her out of the hospital before morning practice, they were thinking about a quick stop at some kalguksoo shop since Erin loves it there." Jongin explained to me, texting someone on his phone. Who am I kidding? It's probably Woo-Jung, those two are anything but subtle. I shook my head, concerned for the future of those two.

"We're going now, if you want to hurry and come with us. The managers are out at a company meeting so the two of us were just going to take a taxi to the hospital, Jongin knows which one it is," I nodded wordlessly at the two and ushered them out, getting up to show I would join them in a few minutes.

We ended up at the hospital 20 minutes later.  Jongin, Chanyeol, Tao and I were all in sunglasses, cap, sweats, and dark jackets trying to not draw attentions to ourselves, but it was hard considering that three out of the four of us were somewhat on the tall side of the Korean spectrum. The girls weren’t that hard to find, they were waiting in the hospital lobby for us, I gave Mi-Yeon a small wave, she smiled and waved back.

“She’s already checked out, the managers left for that meeting at SM but Erin’s getting some results and perscription directions from the doctor. She said she’ll be out in a few minutes.” Woo-Jung explained to the four of us when we got there.

“She’ll be glad to see you guys” Mi-Yeon told us.

“Hey guys, so what were you saying about breakfast?” A familiar voice came from down the hall next to us. “I need to take these medicines soon and the doctor said it’d be best to take them with food so I was thinking-“

“Would kalguksoo be okay with you?” Chanyeol’s deep voice broke Erin’s vocal train of thought.

“Asdfghjkl,” she almost dropped her medicine from surprise, and looked up at us for the first time, surprise taking over her face.

<><><><>----- (I"m going crazy girl) Hey! Hey! I have to control my feelings-----<><><><>

Chanyeol’s POV

“What are you doing here?” She asked us. The confused look on her well rested face made me smile. She looked much better after twelve hours of rest.

“We figured you’d want some company for breakfast, and this way you won’t look like the only guy out of three beautiful girls,” Meishan teased, tapping the BWCW cap that Erin had on, tucking away all her hair to make her look like a boy.

 

She still had on all her airport clothes, probably because she hadn’t stopped at the dorm after coming back to Korea, and even though I’m glad that she’s a girl (because he’s totally dateable), it wouldn’t be hard to see Erin as part of Exo with how good she looked as a guy with all that black.

“There’s that kalguksoo place you always wanted to go down the street, want to go?” Erin happily nodded, but she looked at us with concern,

“Won’t you guys attract attention though? Will you be alright in broad daylight?” We shrugged,

“It’s not really a busy street, we should be fine.” She took that as a reasonable explanation and we headed out.

<><><><> ----- You know, that I know, that you have no chance of leaving this place anymore-----<><><><>

Erin’s POV

I was still worried for the boys, they were always surrounded by fans, at least the airports were pure mayhem when it was concerned with them. But they could take care of themselves if trouble were to happen, it’s the girls that would have a hard time dodging the fire that came with hanging out with idols.

“So how do you know about this place?” Chanyeol asked me, walking next to me on the street. It was really dead, the few people who were out were mostly shopping at the small shops, and no car whatsoever had passed by yet.

“Remember the cousin that I said hi to after the first rehearsal we had?” I asked him, looking at the shop names, trying to find a certain one.

“Yup,”

“Well, his mom owns the restaurant and he works there part-time during the week when he doesn’t have to take college classes. I was hoping I’d see him if I went since my Aunt only runs the business part of the place now and doesn’t bother coming to the shop now that my uncle is a full time chef here.” I found the name I was looking for and guestered everyone to hurry in.

It didn’t look open but there were people inside, including the person I who invited me.

“Woo-Am!” I ran to my cousin, jumping into a back hug to surprise him.

“Wha- Oh hey Erin! You finally stopped by? You look different, have you lost weight? Hungry?” He turned around. “Oh! You brought friends too!”

“Oppa, would you mind giving us some breakfast?” I pouted at him in an attempt to act cute, “I’m starving and I haven’t eaten decent Korean food for almost a week,” He laughed at my fail and patted the top of my cap.

“Sure thing kid, I’ll heat up the broth and noodles and you can go sit with your friends upstairs. We’re not open so you can use the reserved dining area.”

“Thanks Oppa!” I gave him a peck on the cheek and ushered the girls and guys upstairs.

“He says they aren’t open so we get special treatment!” I told them, the boys relaxed at the news and took off their caps and sunglasses. The girls also took off their glasses (a mandatory disguise for us now that we were so close to debut, and already part of Exo’s concert tour). I followed their example, shaking my hair free of the restrictive cap and taking off the leather jacket.

“So Erin, introduce me to your-“ Woo-Am stopped when he saw who I was sitting with. “Wow,” He came closer slowly, I felt a smile creeping onto my face, “Your friend looks a lot like SHINee’s Taemin.” He said, looking closely and Jonging, I resisted the urge to laugh and kept a straight face. The others were trying to follow my example. Jongin himself was being a riot and managed to keep a puzzled expression to humor Woo-Am.

“Oh really? I never noticed. His name’s Kai incase that rings a bell, maybe you’ve seen him before.” Woo-Am looked like he was thinking really hard, and then I introduced the others really quickly, “That’s Tao, Chanyeol, and Kris. And my girlfriends are Meishan, Elizabeth, and Woo-Jung.”It took him a few more seconds, but then Kris’s phone rang, and his ringtone was “Wolf”.

“I feel the sensation; I feel it at once. I’ll take you in one mouthful like cheese” Chanyeol rapped,

“I take in [your] scent, scrutinize [your] color I’ll eat you up with more refine than [drinking] wine.” Kris followed.

My cousin looked like he realized something.

“Ah, but the strength in my toenail weakens, so my appetite yeah is gone. Maybe I’m sick. Have I fallen ill? Yeah I’m in trouble.” Jongin put the icing on the cake.

“Y-Yo-YOU’RE-“Woo-Am was about to exclaim something but Kris held up one of his gigantic () hands, and answered the phone

“Sorry but I have to take this,” He told a dumbfounded Woo-AM, “Yeah, Suho?”

And we all burst out laughing at the expression on my cousin’s face.

<><><><>----- It's time to take away your heart, take away your everything -----<><><><>