Nickhun’s POV
It was 10:30 am, and we were all in our makeup chairs.
I glanced at the others’ reflections.
Junho was visibly deflated.
Junsu looked pissed, angry mama bear over there.
Chansung and Wooyoung were snoring. Their makeup artists were gingerly doing their makeup.
The makeup noonas were slightly grossed out but also slightly attracted by their sleeping aegyo.
Taecyeon was just staring down at his hands, totally zoned out, not even blinking.
I had a half a mind to apologize to him right now.
But then my eyes met… my eyes.

I was looking at my reflection in the mirror, and my guilty face told me that apologizing wasn’t going to fix anything.
I had to do something in order for them to believe me.

I just… didn’t know what. I sighed.                       

The makeup had been finished and we were ready to do the photo shoot.

We all posed awkwardly, uncomfortable with the new positioning for six instead of seven.
We all felt the emptiness…
My heart called out…
Jay….

…..

…..

…. Hanul.

 --------------------

We had just finished the photoshoot when the manager of the album design approached us.

“How was the photoshoot?”, Mr.Jin asked.
Without waiting for a response, he went on, “The President just contacted me. He said that since the release of your new album will be presented by six members instead of seven for all performances, a new album picture needs to be picked out.” 

We all stared at each other. All performances? How long was Jay’s hiatus going to last?

Well, no one wanted to change the album picture, that much was clear.

In the end, we went along with Mr.Jin, and just picked the one that he recommended.
“Excellent”, he said, when we had finished. “Is there anything else you need from me?”, he asked. He was already packing up.

I was starting to get angry at this man’s impatience. Didn’t he realize what we were going through? We weren’t even 2pm…

On second thought….
“Change it”, I said coldly, indicating the new album cover in front of us. “All of it.”
“The only part we didn’t change is the label ‘2pm’.”, Mr.Jin told me, looking impatiently at me. 
“I know”, I retorted. “Change it to 1:59 PM.”
The moment I said that, the other members’ eyes all flashed up to look at me, but I didn’t want to meet their eyes, so I left.

Junsu’s POV
The debut was over… and we were back at our hotel.
I was in my hotel room, with Junho.

I had felt joyous and victorious, but as the adrenaline pulsed away, an empty depression quietly permeated my body again.
Our leader… wasn’t here.
I thought back to the time in the practice room, when out of nowhere, Jay had shoved Nickhun and yelled at him.
Our leader had been suffering in silence for a while…
I sighed. 
“What’s up?”, Junho asked from beside me.
“Where do you think Jay is?”
“I don’t know”, Junho said, looking away.
I could tell this subject bothered him just as much as it bothered me.
“Why don’t we just look for him?”, I suggessted.
“How do we do that without creating a scandal? Can you imagine: Runaway leader of 2pm. Hated his group members. ”, Junho scoffed.
I stared at him. “Why would he hate us?”
“I don’t know.”, Junho retorted. I could see his stress building up inside of him.
“Okay, okay”, I said quickly, not wanting Junho to get impatient with me.
“You never answered my question. Are we or are we not going to look for Jay?”, Junho said, irritated.
“ We are”, I fired back, with an attitude.
“How?’ “, he sneered at me.
“Carefully”, I answered.
I  poked his side.
“Stop giving me attitude.”, I told him.  

“You stop.”

“No, you stop.”
“You-“

“No, youuuu-“

Hanul’s POV
“Oppa, are you sleeping?”
…

“Oppa, are you sleeping?”

….
“Oppa.”

…

“How long are you going to keep ignoring me, oppa?”

He turned over on his side, blocking me out.

I sighed and leaned back in my seat. 
“Why’d you come?”, he asked, still facing away from me. “I have even less motive to go back now that you’re with me.”
“Because…  to me, you’re my oppa before you’re an idol. Even if it meant risking your career as an idol, I still had to follow you…”
“Is the YG President okay with it?”
“Yeah.” 
“… Are you okay with it?”
“I’m okay with me being here… you, not so much.”
I paused.
“Oppa, I can’t believe you’re missing your new album release. “, I said.

There was a pause.
“Me neither.”
“And you’re sure you’re okay with it?”
“Hanul, stop bothering me.”
“Sorry, oppa.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“What?”
“Oppa.”

“… Because that’s what you are to me.”

He turned towards me and leaned his head on mine.
“I can’t believe we’re finally going there.”
“ I know.” I smiled.

“Oppa.”

“What?”, he said.
“Get your head off of mine. It’s heavy.”

Taecyeon’s POV

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that I found Hanul’s phone on the floor of Jaebum’s room.

After all, she’d been dragged out of here like a dog by Wooyoung.

I picked it up and stared at it in my hand.
I suppose buying this for her and returning it to her now made up for breaking her phone when she first came here.
I tucked the phone in my pocket and got in the car.

On the way there, I had to make a sudden stop because, well,  I swear, I swear, I didn’t mean to buy her anything, but the roses just happened  to be on sale.

Seriously, I bought them without any thought of Hanul.

They could have been for… for Wooyoung! Yeah…

Anyways, I made my way up the flight of stairs and to her apartment room.

I knocked on her door, grinning stupidly at the thought of her face when she saw the roses, totally chill.

When she didn’t come to the door straight away, I figured she was just busy.
But three knocks and twenty minutes later, I was being to get a bit worried.
Hiding the roses and my face as best as I could, I knocked on her neighbor’s door.

An old grandmother answered, and patiently waited for me to say something, kindly not pointing out the fact that I was wearing sunglasses when there was no sun.

“Um… grandma…. Has your… neighbor… been here lately?”, I gestured towards Hanul’s door with my rose-free hand.
“I don’t believe she’s been here since two nights ago… “, the grandmother said, peering up at me.
“She hasn’t?”, I voiced out loud. “Then, why-“
I stopped as I realized where she was.
Where she had gone.
The bouquet slipped out of my hand and fell to the ground.

“Young man…? Young man…”, the grandmother called, but her voice was so distant.
I needed to confirm the truth. Now.  

Hurriedly, I picked up the roses and brushing them off as best I could, I handed them to the grandmother, and bowed.
The grandmother, startled, watched me sprint down the first flight of stairs, trip, and fall down the rest.

T.O.P.’s POV (Omooooooo…… <3 It’s been too long, I hope you haven’t forgotten all about him and Big Bang)
I had just finished my recording for my new song…
Inspired by….
I sighed, I had sworn to let go of her, erase her.
Two months had already passed since I’d talked to her.
By “talk”, I mean more than just a formal “Have you eaten?” “Yes.”  That occurred whenever we met in the hallway, which occurred more often than it should.

But even that kind of talking I hadn’t had with her since Wednesday, and it was Friday now.  
I searched around, trying to be subtle about it, looking for her.
I felt stupid, she’d told me already that she was taking a short break, to visit her parents in Daegu.

But I kept looking for her. When I knew she wasn’t here.
Sighing, I turned to leave.

WHAM!
Out of the blue, a man, tall, and built, flew by me, nearly bowling me over.
Instinctively, I turned to look at who it was.
It was a lean, good-looking, man of about veintidos (twenty-two).

Wait a second… I knew him.

It was Taecyeon. Of 2pm!

Wait. WHO SAID HE WAS LEAN AND GOOD-LOOKING? I mentally facepalmed myself.

But then I became aware of what Taecyeon was doing.
He was trying to get past a security guard to the…
“SIR!”, the security guard was yelling.

“I. NEED. TO. SEE. THE. PRESIDENT. I NEED. TO. ASK. HIM. ABOUT. HANUL!”
Wait.. Whattttt? Que es? What the hell did he just say?

“Hyu-“, I clapped a hand over Jiyoung[G Dragon]’s mouth, who had just appeared from behind me.
“Sir, what!?”, The security guard asked, confused.
Taecyeon stopped resisting and said, panting, “I need to ask the president about Hanul.”

I knew I’d heard right.

“If you want to check the weather, sir, just go outside”, the security guard said.

>< 

Oh. My. God.

He thought Taecyeon was asking about the fricking weather.

Could the guard be any more stupid?

No, senor, the kid is not inquiring about the damn weather.

I sighed.  I really hated being in these situations. No bueno for me.  

I didn’t want to attract attention, or help a member of 2pm, or help the stupid security guard who obviously knows nada, or talk about her, but I didn’t see any other option.

I had to help Taecyeon out.

I had to help the stupid security guard.

I had to attract attention.

Because all of this, was probably for Hanul’s good.

I walked up to him and cleared my throat, coughing.
“Ahem.”
“I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER!”, Taecyeon was shouting.

“Ahem”, I said, louder.

“THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?”, the security guard yelled back.

Everyone was staring.

Annoyed, I shot a frustrated look at Jiyoung.

Jiyoung gestured that I should try coughing again, louder this time.

“AHEM!”, I coughed, and then choked. I started coughing for real, it sounded like I had a fur ball in my throat.

The security guard, startled, stared at  me.
Taecyeon was pounding my back, asking if I was okay.

Jiyoung was laughing.

-.- .

Trying to play off my embarrassment, I straightened up and moved away from Taecyeon, who was still pounding my back.

“Are you all right?”, Taecyeon asked me. Then his eyes widened. “You’re T.O.P.”

Everyone turned to look again.
“I know”, I said, internally groaning.
Why was this kid so LOUD?

“Dude, I’m a real fan!”, Taecyeon said.

Was the guy crazy? We were RIVALS? Right…?

“Anyways, why were you trying to see the President?”, I asked, trying to get back on topic.

“Oh, I have to ask him a question about a friend of mine-“,
“Hanul?”, I asked, cutting him off.

He stared at me for a split second before he said, “Yeah… how-?”
“What about her do you need to know?”, I asked, cutting him off again.

“I don’t know where she is…”, he answered.
“Well, I’m not sure, but I think she mentioned she was going to her parent’s house in Daegu for a bit. And I think she’s with her brother.”, I conveyed this information without looking at him, so I was shocked when he grabbed my hand and started shaking it.

“Thanks”, Taecyeon said, and his voice was sincere, “Thank you.”

I just nodded stiffly and turned to go; Jiyoung walked over to my side.
“Wait”, Taecyeon called.

Jiyoung and I turned around, half expecting a challenge for a dance battle.

“I know we’re supposed to be rivals and all that, but can I get your autograph? Please?”, Taecyeon said,  making a puppy dog face.
I stared at him.

Was this really the beastly idol that had beaten Big Bang for the singles award?

Jiyoung poked me.

“Uh… sure”, I said, blushing from the surprise.

I opened my jacket up and pulled out a silver Sharpie from the inside.
I signed the piece of paper he handed to me and gave it back.
Before I could tuck my pen in and zip up my jacket, Taecyeon indicated at my shirt and said, “Nice shirt.”

I looked down. I had forgotten what I was wear-
“Thanks”, I said angrily, and grumpily zipped my jacket all the way up, and quickly turned my back on him.

I was wearing the hot pink shirt.
The couple shirt.

Beside me, Jiyoung was laughing.

“SHUT UP!”, I shouted.  

a/n: long time, no see t.o.p.! aw, but he's not over her yet. :/
so, moving on, this has to be one of the most set-up filled and vague updates i've written. i swear everything will become clearer later. XD
mayvin, junsu as leader would be the most hilarious thing ever. <3 i'm going to try to write that in the next chapter. XD in between the heartbreak... WHAT? um.... i didn't say anything.
hellopanda23: good, smart, intelligent, wise, reader! THANK YOU FOR THAT MESSAGE. It made me very happy. ^^ It made me write another update. Thanks so much for all the love and time you give to this story. And yes, you are CORRECT. That's a reference to Hanul leaving to America. ;D ;D Good job!
hellopanda, i left a short reply to your message! and dude, you really did scare me at first! i thought that was the only comment you left, and i was awww 3, that chapter must've . Thanks. (:
Dude, I actually feel like somewhat of an author now. (: Thanks for the support, readers. :3
And HAPPY THANKSGIVING!