[ONE WEEK LATER]

                Now, in China, EXO M gathered for an interview. I sat alone in my room watching the live stream and thanked my brutal Chinese lessons during training to be able to understand at least enough of it.

                "…all of you are now in the prime of your 20s. So the topic of relationships is always in question. Can any of you tell us if you are in a relationship or looking to be?"

                All six members chuckled and looked at each other nervously. But Kris maintained his cold glare. Lay was the first person to speak.

                "I think it's still too soon to say for us because we're working so much. We want to be able to dedicate a good amount of time for our girlfriends and provide good things for them, but its very hard right now. But eventually, we all do see ourselves with someone for the future. Hopefully we can work hard and earn that person's respect."

                 Kimi and Jaekyung walked into the room right at that moment.

                "Unnie…" Kimi spoke.

                "Shhh!" I hissed. The dongsaeng members still walked in followed by the other three members Hyoim, Ruby and Saerom. They all gathered and sat around me on the bed and continued to watch the rest of the interview with me. "Oh, EXO Oppa-deuls!"

                "Ohhh, but then, your private lives are always a big topic for conversation; to the point such fans will chase you until your dorms. How do you handle such fans and how hard is it to maintain your privacy?"

                "We honestly do appreciate our fans passion in supporting us. But we hope that they understand, we care for their safety as much as our own," Luhan said. "We don't want to be the reason our fans get hurt and we show as much of ourselves as we can when we appear on shows and on stage. But at the end of the day, their actions are their own. We appreciate their love and support, 100%. But we just hope that they do suppose while being mindful of their safety and the safety of others."

                Until this point, the interview was quite tame. But I still kept my eyes glued to the screen. I was concentrating so hard, trying to translate and unscramble the Chinese in my mind into a more familiar language. I could feel a headache moving into my head.

                "There have also been a lot of false rumours spreading about you all. Most of them seem like they appear out of nowhere or out of misunderstandings. Like recently, Kris has been the topic of a lot of dating scandals. There's one about dating an SM trainee and another on being in a relationship with her since long before your debut. How do you handle things like that and how true are they?"

                My guts tightened quickly. The dongsaengs started holding their breaths to the point I could see their ears turning red.

                "Ah, yes," Kris stuttered. "Our company does not actually have a dating ban, but naturally, when first debuting, it's not wise or easy to have a partner. Usually, when a scandal is obviously fake, it is easy to move past. I believe our fans know what is true. However, lately, I feel like I owe them an apology."

                The other members of EXO-M quickly looked at him. Their looks were of worry, sympathy, reluctance and confusion, all at once. Tao looked like he wanted to grab the mic from Kris to stop him but Chen looked the most cavalier. The look he gave Kris looked like he was trying to say "yeah, go ahead, it's time they knew."

                "Many people have been confused and left wondering for weeks now, and for that I'm sorry. But we've been so busy that I couldn't keep up with the news," he continued.

                My guts began to tighten even more and I could feel the tension in my room growing thicker and thicker, especially with all the members in the one room.

                "But in answer to your question on how true the rumours are…they're only partially true."

                "Oh really?" the interviewer asked.

                My guts were still tight but I didn't know whether to feel relieved or worried.

                "It is true that I was with a trainee but we were never dated back then. She was a junior I helped look out for. I grew very fond of her. And eventually…I didn't mean to, because she was still in training, but…"

                Apart from the volume of the computer, you could hear a pin drop. Despite how uncomfortable it was having six people on the bed, I didn't even dare move my hands or let out a breath because it would disturb the interview.

                "I fell in love with her."

                My guts actually relaxed. But I grew hot. I felt as if there were tons of bricks pushing me down on my shoulders. If it weren't for the ongoing interview, I would have fallen back on the bed.

                "But is she the one that the articles are speaking of?"

                Kris answered slowly, taking a big breath. Eventually, he managed to heave out a heavy response. "Probably, yeah…"

                The EXO-M members were still slightly tensed from Kris' public confession. You notice Tao's expression was probably the worst; it was almost a complete scowl that wanted to scream out "stop it! Just stop it now!" In the back of your mind, you realise that that was another new thing to worry about.

                "Is she still a trainee, or is she now a celebrity?"

                "Yes, she is. She is a singer too. And a very good one."

                "Can you reveal who it is?" the interviewer asked jokingly.

                "No, no," he said with a smile. "One step at a time."

                "Ahhhh. What was it about her that you liked?"

                "When I first met her, she appeared cold. Then we all quickly found out that it was a language barrier. She is a foreigner in Korea, just like me. Everyone thought she was a cold and distant girl."

                "But you didn’t?"

                "No. I saw someone who was scared; someone who was wondering where she was, how long it was going to take before people could accept her and just basically, struggling to find her place in a foreign world. I understood exactly how she felt, because I was just like that. Her outer appearance, without the coldness, was beautiful alone. But her inner-self really warmed me inside and out. Despite everyone intimidating her in every aspect, she didn't give up and she was always willing to put up a fight. I understood everything she was going through; so naturally, I thought she'd be the one who would understand me. And I think that's what I love the most about her."

                I still couldn't completely understand. "Why me?" Out of the millions and millions of girls that would willingly give up their lives to throw themselves at his feet; it didn't seem like much to understand at first. He's a foreigner, I'm a foreigner, we're training to be singers. What more was there?

                "Our members are very close too. So I have the support of all of them. My only wish is that I have the support of my fans too, because, I do love her; with all my heart. I never really admitted to having a heart to begin with, but if anything, she helped me find it. If my fans choose not to support our relationship, please don't stop supporting EXO. The whole group does not deserve to suffer because of my selfishness and please do not hate her; she did nothing wrong. She worked very hard to get to where she is now, andI am happy with her, and I'm even happier knowing that people support us. Please don't change your view on us because we are working very hard to give you good music."

                "You said your members are close. So she is in a group too?"

                Kris' face stiffened. He realised he blew it a little bit. But I didn't mind. The fact was, he was putting on a brave face for me and I wanted to do something in return. But what? He's already begging for forgiveness that he probably doesn't need and trying hard to hide my identity for that little bit longer. What could I do?

                "Uh…yes," Kris answered, after a pause.

                The other EXO-M members, except Tao, started laughing under their breaths a little bit at Kris' faux pas. But they no longer looked incredibly tensed. Kris also managed to smile knowing that enough was out in the open. His face softened as the interviewer laughed along with them.

                "Actually," Lay started. "Her group is a very capable group. So their love of music is something all of us can connect with. Kris ge always speaks highly of her, since before she debuted, partially because he was the only one who could communicate with her. But overtime, we learnt that she is a really good person and she loves our members as well. She's very much Jie Jie to the younger members and they are all very fond of her. We all look for partners that we can communicate with comfortably, and we envy Kris ge for being the first to find her."

                "Woah~ Unnie! He really does love you!" Hyoim cried. "Unnie, what's going to happen?"

                As the interview ended, I fell backward and smashed my head against my pillows with my members looking at me.

                "Unnie," started Jaekyung. "How much longer can this go on? We just had our comeback! And we're performing again all week and next week!"

                "Jaekyung-ah, stop it," I said, firmly. "I told you nothing will happen to Crescere. We'll just keep performing."

                "So you're not breaking up?" Saerom piped up.

                "I don't know," I sighed, admittedly. "I really don't know how things will work out. Just don't worry. We'll be okay. Look, Crescere is doing well now. If we can make it to number one over the next few days, we'll definitely be all right. It won't be easy but…"

                "Unnie," Ruby, the maknae, finally spoke. "Unnie, we like Kris Oppa too. We know you're happy with him. But we love you too. And if Unnie breaks up with Oppa, we'll be upset too. Crescere has to stay as One too, not just EXO. Unnie just has to be happy."

                Admittedly, I didn't expect your members to be this supportive. Since acquiring the role as the leader by age, there was already a bit of an between me and the next member, Jaekyung. However, it was still very nice to hear that they were all so supportive; particularly from the most naïve member.

                "And Unnie will be happy!" I sighed earnestly.  "Unnie is happy with Crescere. But everything between me and Kris is my business and I have to make it not affect us altogether. I promise we'll be all right in the end. But don't worry so much about me, I'm okay. It's not your burden to bear."





When I first posted this story up, I had written it in third person, so there may be some mistakes here and there. I'll happily fix them if they happen to be pointed out to me.
Other than that, I'm building up the first ^^ hope its been ok so far...xP