Jongin was really quiet in the car ride, Suho came early in the morning to pick up D.O and Jongin from the hospital and now they were on their way to their new dorm.

“Jongin aren’t you excited to be out of the hospital, a way from all that bland hospital food?” D.O nuzzled Jongin’ hair but Jongin looked too distant to care, almost as if trapped in his own thoughts.

Suho stared through the rear view mirror to check on Jongin, who was glaring through the car window with his hand placed firm on his cheek as if someone had died, not blinking even once.

“Jongin did you hear what D.O just asked you?” Suho turned to stare at the boy for a brief moment before focusing his gaze back on the road.

“Food is food.” That was Jongin’s only response.

“Guys we are finally here, welcome to our new home away from home.” Suho smiled foolishly as he parked the car into their garage and D.O covered his eyes. One thing he couldn’t stand about his lover Suho was his goofy smile.

“Wow this place is huge!” D.O stepped out of the vehicle and was now looking around the large yard. There was a huge swimming pool with lounge chairs around the shade.  D.O turned his gaze again and saw a fountain that flowed into a small pond with little lily pads floating on top of the pond.

“Absolutely breath taking, isn’t it Jongin?” D.O turned to stare at Jongin, who was too busy moving his luggage towards the front door to care about the beautiful scenery around him.

“D.O don’t push too hard, maybe his still a bit mad at us.” Suho kissed D.O on the cheek and made a run for it, towards the front door.

“You better run!” D.O chased after Suho, Suho kept running because he knew how much D.O hated showing public affection.

When Jongin stepped into the lounging area inside the dorm, he was greeted by s with a large banner spread across the entry point, which read: ‘Welcome home Jongin’

Jongin was shocked and happy at the same time. He covered his mouth with his hands, never in his life has he ever felt love like this. Chanyeol aka Jongin’ number one fan boy, went up to his favorite idol and gave him a great big bear hug.

“Wow you guys are the best.” Jongin smiled bewilderedly.

“Jongin I know I can’t cook like D.O but I tried my best to cook you, your favorite dish.” Chef Lay presented Jongin with a plate filled with crispy fried chicken. Jongin pouted and inflated his nostrils, his thick lips and took the plate off of Lay’ hands.

“Thank you so much Lay, this is perfect! I love it! I love you guys.” Jongin dug in and Chanyeol could only observe from the sidelines too scared to ask for a piece of chicken because he knew Baekhyun wasn’t standing too far from him. D.O and Suho finally made their way into the lounge after playing their cat and mouse game around the yard.  Both boys chuckled when they saw Jongin pigging out.

“So where is my new room?” Jongin looked around the boys with his mouth glistening with oil.

“I mean where is our room?” Jongin went up towards D.O and wrapped an arm around him, because D.O was Jongin’ old roommate so he thought he would be rooming with him again.

“Jongin about that…I’ve changed the sleeping arrangements. You are now going to be rooming with Sehun.” Suho scratched his head.

“Who is D.O rooming with then?” Jongin placed his hands on his hips, Suho coughed a bit before scratching his neck nervously.

“D.O is rooming with me now.” Suho gave a short answer and Jongin responded by rolling his eyes.

“I thought as much!” Jongin lifted his luggage and asked Sehun to guide him to their new room. Suho sighed and looked at D.O who shot him a cold glance.

“Come on! Don’t tell me you are mad at me too!” Suho stared at his lover’s large eyes and D.O only responded to that remark by smacking Suho over the head, before disappearing into the long passage way to his now new room with Suho.

~

One year later…

EXO was busy preparing for the 2014 MAMA awards backstage. Hair, make-up and gorgeous suits that were tailor made to fit each individual boy’s body type. This was their first time going to MAMA awards as EXO 11, without their former leader Kris.

‘EXO you’re up. Please hurry up to the stage, your fans are anxiously waiting for you all!’ the backstage manager shouted out.

“This is it guys, the moment we all have been waiting for, we worked very hard this year and I know we are going to win tonight! Come on boys let me see your spirit fingers!” Suho started making drizzling gestures with his fingers; all the members rolled their eyes back before each smacking Suho on the head.

EXO moved with haste to the stage were three other groups were standing before them. The crowd roared when they saw EXO making their way to the stage.

‘We are one’ EXO shouted out loud and fan girls went crazy.Lee Min Ho, who was the host for the night, ushered EXO to their rightful position on the stage.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time again. It’s time to announce the best dance group for 2014’ MAMA awards! As you can see we have our four nominated groups on stage, starting from my far right we have: EXO, B.A.P, Infinite and Girl Generation.”  Min ho pointed to each group on stage and each group waved at their fans, as lee min ho introduced them.

“Okay guys can I hear you all scream!” Lee min ho shouted and the fans screamed.

“That’s what I like to hear! So our MAMA 2014 best dance group goes to…EXO!” Lee min ho pointed towards EXO’ direction and the fans went wild.

~

A lady wearing a white uniform with her hair neatly pinned up into a bun was walking across a long hallway, she turned to a dull looking door and quickly turned the doorknob without even bothering to knock first and made her way into the room. She gazed at the tall, now slightly blonde man sitting upright on the bed, reading a book he had picked out from his book shelf earlier on. The now ombre haired man stared at the woman and placed his book on the dresser.

“Kris, my superiors have just now informed me that they would like you to make your way to the lounge area.”  The lady in white ushered Kris out of his room. Kris didn’t ask too many questions and just did as he was told. The lady who can now be identified as Kris’ personal nurse made a hand gesture guiding Kris to sit on the couch near the television screen. Kris set on the couch and waited for whatever was coming next. Kris was puzzled as to why they called him out to the lounge area to stare blankly at switched off television. He started wondering if they had called him out to punish him. Had he done something wrong? Was he in some kind of trouble? All these questions ran through Kris’ mind, as he set upright on the couch to make himself more comfortable. Kris didn’t think he was in any trouble because as far as he knew, he was the most well behaved patient.

“Well you have been so well behaved and my superiors thought it wouldn’t do any harm to reward you on your fast progress to a more stable mind. So they thought it would only be fair to let you watch you former friends on television, at the 2014 MAMA awards.” The nurse snagged the remote that was on the coffee table to turn on the television, she selected the channel were the MAMA awards were currently showing and placed the remote down beside Kris. Kris’ eyes widened when he saw s on screen without him, it felt surreal watching s get nominated without him.

Kris had tuned in just in time to hear Min ho announce them as the best dance group for 2014. Kris’ face beamed with great joy for his former band mates.

“Ok guys, now for our next category. Our nominees for best male group are: EXO, B.A.P, VIXX and Shinee. “All the boy bands called out proceeded towards the stage and waited anxiously.

“These boys are really killing it tonight! The winner of best male group is EXO! Come get your prize boys.” Min ho handed Suho the trophy and all the boys hugged one another. Fans clapped and cheered on for their beloved EXO, the camera was now directed towards Jongin face, causing Kris to sit up and take notice. Kris watched on as a surprised expression was plastered across Jongin’ face. Jongin kept turning to look at the back; he now had his hand across his mouth.

“Our next category is for most charismatic group, the nominees are: EXO, U-Kiss and Super Junior. The winners are EXO!” Lee min ho screamed out EXO’ name causing the fans to chant ‘E.X.O! E.X.O!’

Jongin felt over emotional now and the camera was directed towards his direction again, as the fans looked up on the screen projector to see a very teary Jongin. The fans chanted ‘Jongin, Please don’t cry!’

Jongin started fanning himself with his hands and looked away from the crowd and his colleagues. Jongin proceeded by covering his eyes with his hands and tears streamed down his now dark red cheeks.

“Not this again!” Chen rolled his eyes and Luhan pinched Chen’ arm and said: “Try to be a bit sensitive!”

“I mean he does this every year! I thought he would be use to us winning all the time now!” Chen babbled on and Luhan swapped positions with Xiumin who was standing next to him, before he could do something really stupid to Chen.

Jongin’ eyes were all puffy and red now, with his eyeliner now smudged all over his face. He couldn’t believe that they won all categories they were nominated for. He felt truly blessed.

Kris stood up from his seat and stared at the screen, watching helplessly as Jongin cried his eyes out. “Why isn’t anyone comforting Jongin?!” Kris whispered this question to himself.

For the first time Jongin felt like there was something missing, he felt alone on stage. He had no shoulder to cry on. He couldn’t believe it but he actually missed Kris’ broad shoulders, which he hid his head in and he missed using Kris’ shoulders as his personal Kleenex during the MAMA awards. He misses the giant’s arms around him, comforting him after every win. He missed his hyung.

“Jongin be strong.” Kris smiled at the sight of his teary dongsaeng. He wished he could pass through the television to give Jongin a hug. Kris set back on the couch and watched Suho making one of his long (boring) speeches. “I would love to give great thanks to all our fans, without you guys there would be no EXO! I would like to dedicate all these awards to our fans all over the world and our hyung Kris. We miss you Kris and we hope you are proud of us.” Suho bowed and the whole of EXO bowed before shortly disappearing backstage. Kris smiled and exposed his gummy teeth, he was really happy to see that s still cared and thought of him as one of their own, even after all the pain he had caused them.

Kris ruffled his ombre hair and was now blushing over Suho’ cute speech.

~

Kris was making his way back to his room, when the nurse stopped him and told him to go back to the lounge because she had another surprise for him. Kris thought to himself that Christmas came early this year. So many unexpected surprises. Kris set back down patiently in the lounge and fiddled with his hands waiting for whatever came next.

With no warning at all 11 boys made their way in an orderly manner towards the lounge, causing Kris’ jaw to drop at the sight of his former members. s surrounded him and Tao jumped up first to hug his hyung. Kris cried in Tao’ arms and couldn’t believe that all of them were standing before him.

“We missed you so much hyung!” Tao was now crying too. The boys set down around their former leader.

“Kris we really did miss you and we thought it would be a great idea to come and share our winnings with you.” Suho stood up and handed Kris one of their trophies. Kris was deeply moved and thought he had never met such sweet people in his life. He moved his gaze toward Jongin who kept staring at the floor the whole time, too scared to look at Kris.

Kris sighed and stared at the trophy in his hands. “Guys I’m really honored that you all thought of me.” Kris smiled again and hugged Suho.

“Oh! Hyung! Please tell Kris hyung the great news!” Tao jumped up and down near Kris. Kris thought his heart was going to literally stop to day from all the great surprises.

“Oh yes, before I forget…Kris we spoke to Hyunkyun earlier on today and he told us that you were making great progress. He told us that he thought you were more than ready to reunite with EXO and join us for our next comeback.”Suho clapped and all other members started clapping too. Tao ran around the lounge area, rolled on the floor before shaking his bum like a mad man.

No one commented on the weird behavior they witnessed and Kris could only gasp at Suho’ announcement. Kris stole another glance, staring at Jongin and then back at s. Jongin who was still staring at the ground not paying Kris any mind. Kris sighed again.

“Guys I’m really honored but I don’t think I’m ready to come back as yet. Please give me 6 months to get my act together.” Kris stood up and kindly asked the nurse to his friends out. Tao stopped shaking his bum long enough to realize what Kris had just announced. For the first time Jongin unglued his eyes from the ground and was now staring at Kris with the greatest of amazement.

Both Jongin’ and Kris’ eyes met and Jongin’ gaze was now fixed on Kris’ beautiful brown eyes.

“Please guys don’t get mad. I’m really happy that you all miss me. I truly love you all and I will miss you. You all will see these few months will fly quickly and all of us we will be one again.” Kris approached each member and gave them each a hug. When he finally made his way to Jongin he simply stopped, smiled and bowed at the boy.

“Visiting time is over gentlemen.” The nurse shouted and the boys were shown to the door.

Tao who was crying now was quickly comforted by Suho. “Suho please take good care of Tao for me.” Kris ruffled Tao’ hair and Suho nodded.

Kris watched his friends make their way out of the psychologically institution for the mentally unfit.

Kris was then guided back to his room; Kris hopped onto his bed and stared at the white ceiling before closing his eyes. A loud knock on the door woke Kris up from his brief nap. Kris scurried quickly off of his bed to his feet.

“I’m coming.” Kris made his way to the door; he wondered who it could be knocking. Clearly it wasn’t his nurse, because she never even bothered to knock the first time Kris was admitted to the institution.

When Kris finally opened the door he couldn’t believe who was standing in front of him.

“Can I please come in?” Jongin looked up at Kris’ big bright eyes and Kris moved aside to let Jongin in.