KAI went out from his room, when he suddenly bumped into Baekhyun who was in hurry.

        “What’s wrong with you?” He asked while put on his vest over the pink shirt that he wore.

        “There’s a cockroach! A big one!” Baekhyun was stuttering in fear, and keep looking behind. “And, Chanyeol had caught it.”

        “That’s good. So, why you keep running here and there?”

        Then, out of nowhere, Chanyeol appeared with something behind his back.

        “Yah, Park Chanyeol! Stay away from me!” Baekhyun hid himself behind Kai, and his hands were trembling as Chanyeol walked closer to them, with an evil smirk on his face.

        “Chanyeol, what you got behind there?” When Kai took a step to look behind him, Chanyeol showed them a huge-sized cockroach in his hand.

        “Ta-da!!”

        “Arrghhh!” Both Baekhyun and Kai screamed out of their lungs and ran away from him, and Chanyeol started to chase them around the house.

        “Take a look at it! It’s cute!” He brought the innocent cockroach up high and Kai looked at it while screaming.

        “Baekkie, you’re right! It’s so damn huge!”

        “Gahh!”

        They suddenly screamed when Chanyeol accidently let go of the cockroach from his hand, and it flew before landed smoothly on Baekhyun’s head.

        Standing behind him, Kai came in contact with that only-God-knows-how-big-it-is cockroach which crawling on Baekhyun’s silky, brown hair.

        “Baekhyun-sshi, I think you might want to…”

        “What?” At that moment, the cockroach crawled down onto his face and he jumped out in fright and screamed like a maniac.

        “TAKE IT OFF FROM ME! PALLI!!” Then, Chanyeol walked cozily towards him and got the cockroach back by holding its antenna.

        “Hye, buddy.” He shoved the cockroach to Kai’s and Baekhyun’s face and Kai smacked him at the left arm.

        “It’s hurt!” Chanyeol whined and looked at the cockroach. “Look at them, they’re hurting me. Do you want to seek for a revenge for me?” He grinned and shoved the cockroach again towards them when Suho went out from his room.

        “What are you guys doing? I could hear someone screaming.” He yawned and rubbed his sleepy eyes.

        “Hyung, look at him!” Baekhyun quickly moved towards Suho, tried to seek for a protection from that mischievous boy.

        “Chanyeol, you know that Baekhyun and Kai are afraid of bugs, aren’t you?” Suho patted gently on Baekhyun’s head and chuckled.

        “That’s why I like to give them this!” He once again dashed towards Baekhyun and Suho stopped him by grabbing his hand in time before he threw the cockroach right at Baekhyun’s face.

        “Stop it, Yeollie. Or else, I’ll cook that friend of your for lunch afterwards.” Suho said and that made Chanyeol brought the cockroach away from him.

        “It’s my friend! You can’t cook him as you please just like that! Pity him.”

        He looked at Chanyeol who was talking to his little friend and then Baekhyun, who was making a disgusted face.

        Later on, he realized that Kai was staring at him without saying anything. He seemed like he had been possessed.

        “Kai, are you okay?” Suho waved his hand in front of his face and he startled. “What are you looking at?” Suho took a look behind him; maybe there was something that caught Kai’s attention.

        “N..nothing hyung.” Kai smiled and scratched the back of his head, and acted like there was nothing.

        “Okay then. By the way, isn’t today is the recording for our single?” Suho asked and walked himself to the living room.

        “Nae, but why are you still in your pyjamas?” Chanyeol asked, still playing with his friend in his hand.

        “I’m not going today.”

        “WHAT?!” He got shocked looks from the three boys. They looked at each other before fixed their wide-opened eyes at their leader.

        “You guys heard what I said. My mom wants to see me today, as she didn’t see me in few weeks already. And, I had recorded my part last week.” Suho shot them a smile and they still glued their eyes at him, speechless.

        “But, why you didn’t tell us?” Baekhyun asked in confusion.

        Kai looked at Suho then Baekhyun. That’s because he's going to leave us soon.

        Suho glanced at his wristwatch and stood up. “I think you guys better move now, otherwise you’ll be late soon.” He then disappeared into his room.

        “Okay then. We go first!” Baekhyun shouted towards his room and walked to the main door, being followed by Chanyeol and Kai.

        Sorry for lying to you, dongsaengs.

 

* *

 

“…Saenggakhada jamdeulmyeon (nae kkumsok)
Pareul beollyeo ttatteutan (nae pumsok)
Neoreul XOXO pume ana XOXO
Jomajoma ganjeolhan (geumankeum)
Nege daheul deutan (geu immatchum)
Neoreul XOXO maeil kkume XOXO…”

        Kai, Baekhyun and Chanyeol were in the midst of recording for their new comeback song, XOXO, and when it came to Kai’s line, the music stopped out of sudden. All three of them looked at each other, afraid if they need to start all over again as the music director didn’t like their harmonization.

        Then, the speaker in the recording room was being and they could hear their manager’s voice. He sounded anxious, Kai thought in his mind.

        “Guys, I’m sorry for disturbing your recording session. But I need to meet all of you A.S.A.P. Now, at the lounge downstairs.”

        They took off the headphones and made their way out from the recording room, after getting the permission from their music director.

        “Yes, you may. Maybe Mr. Oh had something important to tell all of you.” Hyun Seok smiled and told them to come back to finish up the recording after the meeting.

        The trio arrived at the lounge about a minute later. From afar, they caught a glimpse of their manager, together with their company CEO, Lee Dong Hyun.

        “What is our CEO doing here?” Baekhyun whispered to Chanyeol who walked beside him and he shrugged, not knowing either.

        Kai, on the other hand, felt like he knew the reason their manager wanted to see them. ‘Maybe it is because of hyung’s departure.’

        Mr. Oh looked extremely nervous and anxious when they sat in front of him. His hands were shaking terribly when he handed them some files.

        “These are..these are your schedules for next week comeback.” He stuttered and Dong Hyun grabbed his hand and whispered.

        “Sejong, please control yourself, and told them exactly the way I told you earlier.” He patted on Mr. Oh’s hand before continued. “Don’t make them be too surprise, otherwise the things could be worse.”

        “Arasso, sajangnim.” He nodded and took a look at the three boys in front of them.

        “Wow, we surely got many recordings to do. Music Bank, Inkigayo, MNet! Count…”

        Before Chanyeol could finish up his sentences, Mr. Oh had cut him off.

        “That’s not the actual reason why I called you guys here.” He cleared his throat and glanced at their CEO who just gave him a slight smile.

        “Okay, let me be frank with all of you. Actually, starting from next week, you will do your comeback with only 3 members, which are you,” He pointed at Kai, “…Chanyeol and Baekhyun.”

        As he finished up his words, Baekhyun and Chanyeol looked at him in surprised, but not for Kai. He just looked down, thinking that what he predicted came out true. They indeed want to tell them about Suho’s leaving.

        “Wait a minute…What do you mean? We are supposed to be a group of 4, and that includes Suho hyung.” Baekhyun tried to get the idea of what their manager is saying.

        “And, why Suho hyung didn’t been included in this comeback?” It was Chanyeol’s turn to ask.

        Mr. Oh let out a heavy sigh before continued. “That’s because he is going somewhere. For 5 years.”

        Holy s*it! 5 years??!

        “…But, where?”

        “South Africa, following my mom.” Suddenly, Suho appeared from nowhere, and he had answered Chanyeol’s question, bold and clear.

        “I’m sorry for not telling you earlier.” He then took a seat beside their manager. He bowed to Dong Hyun before got his eyes on s’ faces.

        “So, what I predicted last night was true. You’re going to leave us.” Baekhyun said and some crystal droplets came out from the corner of his eyes.

        “It’s not like that.” Suho sighed. He knew this news had shocked them to death but he thought it was the right time to tell them everything, every single detail that Kai, Baekhyun and Chanyeol needed to know about his departure.

        As he was telling them the truth, it had made him choked on tears. Suho felt like a huge, heavy rock had fell on his heart and made it crushed into tiny pieces. He couldn’t bear to see his group members; especially Baekhyun, the boy with the softest heart shed tears because of him and it made him looks like a bad leader for his dongsaengs.

        He then moved closer to them and gave the boys a warm group hugs. He hugged them tightly in his arms, as he didn’t want to let go of them, forever. He cried his heart out and he could feel millions of extremely sharp swords being stabbed directly at his heart. Only God knows how he feels at that moment, hugging them for the very last time, before he flew for good to South Africa.

 

To be continued~