<><><><> Protect me from this slightly changing world<><><><>

Monday in Japan

Erin's POV

I woke up, still unable to comprehend that one year ago, as of today, that I had been staring at videos of EXO on youtube. This morning I woke up to Yixing bringing me breakfast in the lounge of our floor of the hotel where it was all EXO concert staff and crew. I got emails and snapchats from a few friends at home who were able to remember my birthday without the help of face book. Because I knew that they didn't know who EXO were (I only had non-kpop cultured friends back in Chicago), I sent the a selca with Yixing, telling him I wanted to show off my boyfriend to my American friends. He seemed cautious at first, but then I assured him that they didn't even know that EXO had a concert in Chicago and that the picture would only last for three seconds.

They answered back saying that he looked like a girl and that both of us should eat a ton of spagetti.

Somehow Yixing had gotten the managers to agree to just the two of us going out for a few hours, I wasn't sure how he found out my birthday either, since I don't really like celebrating getting older, but he scored us a few hours in Tokyo with the promise of fatfilled streetfood and shopping.

We both had to wear hats, I had to wear long sleeves and long pants despite the temperature being well into the 80s just so that my skin wouldn't tan. Yixing only had to wear long jeans, that lucky duck. and of course he wore a hat and sunglasses. I opted for a hat and my own perscription glasses because it was the big-rimmed kind that hid my face without the hindering of a darker lense.

"And be back before four, otherwise no one gets any free time for the rest of the tour." The manager warned us, Yixing gave him a wink and a thumbs up.

"We'll be back in one piece, sir."

<><><><> The beat is getting faster little by little. It's getting louder bit by bit <><><><>

Yixing's POV

I was glad that the managers were part of the plan for her surprise party, otherwise I'm not sure that they would have even let us out of the hotel by ourselves.

We took a taxi to the part of Tokyo that had a ton of street shops, it took about twenty or so minutes.

We talked about her filming yesterday, she filmed her first dance teaser in a skyscraper in the middle of Tokyo. She had stayed up till 3 in the morning so that they could get the right position of the moon and the right amount of lights from the city below. I wanted to be there with her but EXO had an interview yesterday and a late night practice with a Japanese choreographer. we were learning a new dance with him. After the party tonight we had to go learn the formations and then after that we would be leaving tomorrow night.

Erin told me about how much fun it was. she didn't seem to mind that it was late at night and that she had been on stadby for over three hours before it was dark enough to film. She didn't have to dance that much she told me, they had the right takes is less than an hour so the thing that took the most time was her hair, make-up and clothes. When I asked her how her costume was, she blushed a bit and didn't give me a straight answer.

<><><><> Your eyes are a strong laser, laser <><><><>

Erin's POV

I turned red just remembering what I wore yesterday. Until now, I had always had long jeans and long sleeves for my performances to blend in with EXO (except for that one time with Amber and Hyoyeon). But yesterday they had put me in a cutoff top (sure they gave me one of those million zipper jackets, but my bellybutton was still exposed for the world to see. For pants I got black shorts to contrast the white cuttoff, making it obvious how much of my mid-section was put being displayed. I didn't even know if it was legal for someone my age to be put in this outfit.

"It was based on a chess. My outfit was all black and white while the floor was designed like a chessboard." The dance was specially choreographe to look like I was dancing on only the black squares, something that had been hard for me to practice because all of our floors were brown hardwood at the practice studio.

We talked more about the concerts and what I wanted to buy. Chanyeol never came up in our conversation.

Our first stop was of course food. I couldn't remember the nname of it, but the first thing we had was a dessert based cuisine that I wasn't our managers should know about. Next, we street shopped. There were so many different accessories here, and the shoes were especially charming. There were accents of wings and pastels everywhere, but sadly none of them had my big 255cm size. Yixing didn't find anything he wanted to spend on, but he did charm a few of the shopkeeping women into giving me a few samples whenever I purchased something. His dimples were deadly.

"Let's play a game for who pays for these." He suggested. We were in line in a coffeeshop somewhere at the edge of the fashion district. I was somewhat broke after my spending spree (I was only going to be in Japan for onemore day, why not shop?) and this seemed like a tempting offer.

"What game?" I was curious as to what game he could possibly be risking money on. Yixing was pretty careful when it came to his hard-earned salary.

"Ever seen X-men? Do you know the 'dangyeonhaji game'?" (Literally translates to 'of course') I'd seen X-Men back in my DBSK days, the epic match between Changmin and Jaejoong is still my all time fav(but Heechul is full of sass).

"Yup, two second rule?" If we let each other have too much time, the game wouldn't finish before we had to order, there were only 6 people in front of us.

"And loser has to have a punishment of the winner's choice." He smirked, thinking I was going to be easy.

"Fine, be prepared." I warned him. "I'll go first. You think Duizhang is a good drawer." Yixing's eyes widened before he gave a short burst of laughter.

"Of course," He said before running out of time. He looked thoughtful for a second, "You have a poster of me in your dorm room," I didn't even flinch.

"Of course. You ate part of my crepe back at the  food stall." That was pretty weak, but Yixing still managed to look sheepish.

"Of course." He looked like he was thinking over what to say. "You love me."

That left me speechless. I definetely went over the 2-second limit but Yixing didn't say anything. Instead he focused on my expression, seeing what I would say.

"Of course." I didn't think I would ever feel like this, but it was kind of coming together now. Yixing was my shelter, my best friend, and my home away from home. We understood each other more than ever because we were both away from home in pursuit of music, music that made our hearts yearn for the perfect song, music that bridged the ocean that had seperated us before. "And you love me."

"Of course." He leaned in, as if to give me a kiss, but a voice came from behind the counter.

"M-may I take your order?" A smaller Japanese girl asked us, she looked hesitent to ask us, not sure if we would understand because we had been currently been speaking in Korean.

"One greentea latte for me, and an iced lemonade for him." I told her in Japanese, pulling out my wallet.

"I'm paying." He told the girl, giving her the money first. "You're still doing my punishment though." I looked at him, now super curious/worried at what his punishment would be.

"What is it?" I asked him, he just gave me a dimpled smile,

"You'll see." We walked out of the shop and started going back to the street entrance, this time holding hands and linking arms. Yixing had dfinished his drink first and insisted on carrying my shopping bags again.

"Sumimasen," A man stopped the two of us, mainly me. He didn't look famaliar, and I didn't know anyone in Japan so that right off the bat was suspicious. "Would you be free-" He was offering me a card and I'm sure Yixing recognized it too. There was some kanji and then "Model Agency" in big bold English.

"Would you stop following us?" Yixing started speaking in tonguetripping Mandarin to the scout. "I saw you back there you creep, you've been following us since we were in the shoe district. She's obviously on a date and does not want to be disturbed by the likes of you."

The funny thing though, was that Yixing was speaking in the most soothing voice possible, so that the scout probably thought that we were actually interested and not trying to tell him to get the hell away.

"Oh-oh sorry. Dubuqi." He manage before going off as fast as possible without running.

"Did you really see him in the shoe district?" I asked him, because that was before the coffee shop. THat means he would've been following us for over thirty minutes.

"Yeah, there were actually two, but one of them backed off I think when they saw you with me." He wrapped his non-shopping bag loaded arm around my shoulder, "There's too many wolves out there, don't walk around by yourself from now on. Okay?" It's true, when we had gone on a date the night before we left Korea, there were a few guys who approached me in a cafe when Yixing went to the bathroom. He came back just in time, I had a hard time talking my way out of the situation because they thought that I didn't really have a boyfriend and that I told them about Yixing just to make them go.

Boy were they in for a surprise.

Yixing showed up and not only walked right through the little pack, but then he gave me a peck on the cheek. No words needed.

"May I know why you're talking with my wifey?" It was common in Korean dating culture for couples to call each other wifey/hubby eve when they weren't marry. It just showed how close you were.

It was scary, how Yixing could glare. He looked like a wolf protecting his dinner against a bunch of puppies. But I still waved bye at them, kind of sorry that they had to face a unicorn's wrath.

<><><><> The electric shocks are riding down my body <><><><>

Yixing's POV

She had no idea what was in store for her.

I stopped her in front of a small music store. It was specifically a kpop store, at least, the front was decked out in KARA, SNSD, F(x), AFTERSCHOOL and a few other boy groups.

"Wait here." I told her, she nodded, browsing at the hairpins in the shop nextdoor.

I went into the shop, and picked up an EXO almub on the way in. It was the Growl repackeged album. Casually I flipped open to page 17, but then cringed. Maybe that's a little too much chest, and opened to 33. It focused more on me overall than on just my body.

"May I help you?" The store lady asked me in English. Good accent, Erin would be impressed. I checked to make sure no one else was in the store, nobody else.

I took off my glasses and hat, not caring how bad my hair was, but it did the trick. After taking one look at the page that I had opened to, then looking at my face, and then doing a double take. She knew who I was.

"Oh-oh my! You're EXO's Lay! What an honor!" She hurriedly asked me to sign my page, and my other pictures as well.

"What brings you here?" She asked me with somewhat overbearing curiosity, I gave a shy smile, hoping I could convince her.

"Well, I was passing by and heard our song MAMA, but would you mind playing Let Out the Beast? It's my favorite." She turned around and put in a CD,

"It'll play after MAMA is over, is that all?" I nodded, and thanked her with good wishes for buisness. I put my disguise snuggly back on my head and face. I hurried out, wanting to catch Erin before MAMA ended.

"You're punishment." I walked up to her, giving no warning. "Dance to 'Let Out the Beast' when it plays."

"What? But we're in the middle of Tokyo, and you don't even promote here-" She stopped talking as soon as she realized what store I had come out of. "Oh gosh, the whole song? Please not the whole song." She gave me irresistable puppy eyes, and I went against my original plan and agreed to only make her dance the first verse.

"Do I just dance in the street?" She asked me, but I didn't answer because then the last few bars of MAMA were sung and there was a short mmoment of silence from the speakers and a small opening came in front of the store.

I got my phone out, not wanting to miss the moment.

"Go go go." I gave her a light push to stand in front of the store.

Most people would've taken ran away from the sudden challenge, but I knew Erin wouldn't. Dancing was in her blood like me.

She took it in stride, popping and spinning into her place in time with the song.

Chanyeol's voice started, but it didn't matter that it was him. Erin took all my attention, and the attention of others too. A small crowd had started to gather, and by the time the end of the second verse, she was still dancing. And I couldn't be prouder.

It was a good thing she was wearing a disguise too because there were other cameras now focused on her, but she didn't even seem to notice.

She had them in the palm of her hand, it was no different from the nights in the Dome. She was born to be noticed. Walking in the street, rapping in front of thousands, or dancing to background music. Erin was meant for this.

There was a smattering of applause at the end of the song, and people started to crowd her, wanting to get a good look at her face undereath the cap. I grabbed a hold of her han quickly and took her to a taxi that was parked less than five meters away. I checked to make sure no one was in there and hopped in, pulling Erin with me.

I gave the taxi driver a card with the address of our hotel and then looked at Erin,

"I think that turned out too good for you to be a punishment." She smirked at me,

"Well, it's less embaressing when there's music. At Disneyland you and D.O-sunbae didn't have any music and were dancing in front of whtie girls."

"Now how do you know about that?" I asked her. She gave me a cheeky smile.

"Do you really want to know?" Yes, now I really wanted to know. That smile meant something.

"Is it something I don't know about you?" She nodded.

"But D.O-sunbae knows." That was news, why would Kyungsoo know something that I don't? He barely even talks with Erin.

"What is it?"

"D.O-oppa was my bias." My eyes nearly fell out of their sockets,

"WHAT?!" This was not okay. How could she like him? She's with me!

"Before. Before. Before. Now it's you, of course"

If she thought that was consoling, it was not.

<><><><> Don't shock me without any notice <><><><>

Suho's POV

Chanyeol was looking better today. He was sending more kakotalks with Tiffany-sunbaenim so hopefully there's no problems between them.

All of us, EXO and the ChecK-Mate girls had a late start this moring since today was our free day. Because it was Erin's birthday, even the managers had agreed to help us with the surprise party, she was one of the only tainees in the company that they were nice to.

They gave Yixing and her permission to go out while the rest of us went out for some party supplies, food, or set up the party in the lobby of our floor. I went with Ra-Im, Kyungsoo, and Meishan for food shopping. It was fun, hanging out with the girls, it had been a while since I went out with just friends, but Ra-Im made it enjoyable. Meishan and I didn't really know each other still because she had entered the company after EXO's debut and we didn't really get the time to see trainees. I did know however that she and Yifan talked a lot.

Food shopping went without a hitch because Kyungsoo and Meishan seemed to know what they could make in the small microwaves we had in our hotel room.When we got back it was chaos.

The overenthusiastic members had gone crazy in decking out the party area in black and white. Woo-Jung and Ra-Im had found out that those were indeed Erin's favorite colors, fitting her ChecK-Mate image perfectly. And in turn, we had all mad sure to wear black and/or white for her party. Woo-Jung and Ra-Im said that they had packed one of Erin's dresses that she had brought to Korea from America.

Yifan told us that this birthday was actually really important for the maknae, she was going to be turning 16 in American years, even if she was turning 17 here. There was something called a sixteen sweet there that people usually dressed up for and threw extravagent parties.

And that was what we were gonna do.

I think that she really deserved it. While I didn't like Erin in the way that Yixing and Chanyeol did, I did admire her. She was extrememly hard working, and reminded me of how I was, years ago, not knowing if I would be sent home at the end of every assessment, not knowing if I would ever debut. She was extrememly talented,but she didn't let that be the only thing to carry her. she attended every rehersal, even to the point of illness, and I wouldn't ever be able to say that didn't impress me.

"Quick! Ra-Im! Woo-Jung! Yixing said that they'll be here in a few minutes. Get the dress and blindfold and wait in the lobby." Chen scrambled over to where the three of us were finishing hanging up a banner say 'Happy Sixteen Sweet to our Queen.'

"Go, I can handle this." I told hte two of them. trying not to grunt when stretching to stick the top of the banner to the wall. Both girls were taller than me and had started the banner at a higher point than I could reach, it didn't help that they had put on heels for the party.

"Code Black! Code Black!" Chen went to the others, telling them to go get changed if they hadn't yet, and then one of the managers asked us-

"Do you have the cake?"

"ASDFGHJKL!" Chen cried, looking around. "Has anyone see Chanyeol? HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BACK WITH THE CAKE TWENTY MINUTES AGO!"

"He came here twenty minutes ago, but he dropped the cake so he went back for a second one." Baekhyun told us.

I swear, I heard everyone's jaws drop.

I couldn't believe he was one of my members.

<><><><> I'm already past the limit, I'm in shock- Electric shock <><><><>

3k+ words everyone

Next part will be significantly shorter because it's just a continuation of the party