Until their rehearsals, Chanyeol has been thinking about what Ynna told him. He does love Milan. He could give her the whole world if it was possible. But she’ll be put in danger if he told the whole world. He was sure enough Ynna knew that. Then why would she ask that kind of question if she knew the answer?

And until now, he hasn’t seen Milan. He was supposed to ask Baekhyun but that vocalist might keep it a secret from him. Maybe Suho knows but the dude doesn’t want Chanyeol to get near Milan. What if Luhan knew? Chanyeol preferred not to think about that too much.

“Are you listening?” The manager was already talking downstage. EXO was putting all their attention on him but Chanyeol was sort of distracted to be honest. “After the two concerts here in the Philippines, we have to attend a fansign in Shanghai and then we can go back to the concert plans and go to Europe. And you know what will happen next, right?” The manager raised an eyebrow. The members were silent. They knew very well. Milan will leave them for three years to finish college and then she’ll go back to them. That was the plan but what if she changes her mind? She did tell them she wants to work with YG or JYP.

She sometimes tells them how much she doesn’t fit in SM. She said she wasn’t attractive. Chanyeol could contradict her and tell her all her positive points. For Chanyeol, everything about her was her positive point. “Why can’t she just finish studying in Korea?” Baekhyun asked. The manager shook his head before shrugging. “That was what Soo Man-ssi and Milan talked about. I am not aware of the reason but let it be. It’s between our boss and your composer after all,” he answered.

“I want her to stay,” Tao mumbled. “We all want her to but she has to study first,” Suho said. “Yeah, that’s what we tell our fans right. Studies are more important than we are. We can’t help them in their future. But in Milan’s case, well, we can help her but she chooses to help herself,” Kai suddenly said. “Wow, words of wisdom!” Baekhyun made an outburst. Chanyeol was too troubled to be the one to burst into random comments now.

It was already 9 PM and Milan was still not found. “Are we still going to go to her place?” Sehun asked. They all shrugged. “I wonder what happened,” Lay said. “Wait, let me call her,” Luhan said and that made Chanyeol shoot a look at him. Unfortunately, the older didn’t notice it. It was too late when Luhan dialled her number on his phone.

“Mil-ah, where are you?”

“Home. Why?”

“Why didn’t you visit us?”

“I’m not your manager. I am your composer.”

“But still, you usually would.”

“I’m busy. Just because I’m in another country, doesn’t mean I don’t have my job.”

“And what job is that?”

“None of your business. If you don’t have any more to say, goodbye.”

And then she hung up. Luhan looked at his phone in disbelief then sighed. “She’s really a different type of girl. Aish…” He muttered as he massaged his temples. “Well, that was cut short. Where is she?” Suho asked. “Back at her home, she said she has work to do. I don’t see what though. Manager-hyung told us she didn’t have any work left,” Luhan answered. Baekhyun pouted.

“That girl is surely lying. And she’s lazy like she’s on her vacation and she works? Impossible,” he shook his head. “Right, Yeol?” Baekhyun turned to his best friend and Chanyeol only nodded. “Maybe she’s writing fanfics about us again,” Sehun snickered. “Oh god, I hope I don’t get shipped with Luhan again,” Xiumin groaned. “What’s wrong about being shipped with me? You should be grateful. You get shipped with the visuals,” Luhan winked. Xiumin rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, let’s just rehearse until around 11 then go to her house again. I like how quiet her neighbourhood is,” Suho said as he prepared himself for the next dance. It was really hot in that place but they have to adjust. They don’t want to repeat what happened in Xian and Malaysia years ago. Xiumin made sure he drank enough water to supply enough energy.

After two hours, the boys went to Milan’s house and saw how dark it was. Kris went to ring the doorbell and saw Venice go out of the house. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she tried to recognize their faces without her glasses. When she realized who it was, she hurried to open their gate. “Where’s Milan?” Kris asked in English. “Our room, she’s in the middle of writing and well, blogging,” Venice answered.

After the twelfth member went in, she closed the gate. The members casually went up without any hesitation and they opened the door to Milan’s room. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun and her feet were on her chair as she typed whatever it is she was typing. The Korean members can’t comprehend since it was in Mandarin. “What do you want?” She asked coldly.

“I thought manager-oppa reserved you a room in a hotel,” she added. “Why are you being so cold?” Chen asked. Milan shrugged, not sparing a glance. “This is how I naturally act. And idols like you won’t understand normal people like me,” she reasoned. Sehun frowned. “Yah, what’s happening to you?” he annoyingly asked. “I’m treating you how I should’ve treated you before. I was wrong to let my guards down,” she then stood up.

That’s when EXO realized how much Milan looked so mature. It was like she returned to how she was on Day 1. Her smile didn’t even hint on her lips. “I’m going to sleep. Good night. Tell Venice I’m going to work in the bakery with her tomorrow morning,” she said before exiting her own room and going to her parents’.

Suho gulped as he watched her close the door. “Chanyeol, didn’t you quarrel earlier this day?” Lay asked. Chanyeol bit his lower lip. “I don’t recall saying anything that might’ve caused her to act like that,” he defended himself. “He’s right. I was there, hyung,” Kyungsoo backed him up. “I wonder what’s up…” Kai muttered.

“She left her SNS open,” Tao quickly sat in front of the PC and looked through her Twitter. There, in her notifications, they saw words in different languages, mostly in Korean, Chinese and Tagalog. Luhan gulped as he read each one. “Has she been… going through all that alone?” Baekhyun hesitantly said. Chanyeol was just speechless.

Not one was with good intentions. They all cursed her, called her names. Tao was afraid to even glance at Milan’s weibo account. “Die you flirt”, “stay away from my oppa”, “you keep rubbing it in” and a whole lot more were flooding Milan’s notification. “This is what I’ve been warning you about, Luhan-hyung and Chanyeol,” Suho said as he bit his lower lip. “Our fans are scary. And she’s a coward in her heart, she told me that. Your fans are to be feared, you two. But she never appeared scared right? That’s her flaw. She thinks she can protect herself,” he closed his eyes as he said those words.

“I told you to protect her.”

They all turned around and saw Milan’s younger sister.

“I told you she needed protection. I always knew this could happen, you know. I’ve tried stopping her but she wanted to fulfil her foolish dreams,” Venice took a deep breath. She then pointed a finger at Luhan and Chanyeol. “You two have handsome faces, sure. You two are known to be gentlemen. Fans think they’ll be lucky if they spent time with you and have you as their friends or even more but what happened to my sister, huh? Was she lucky? Of course not,” she scoffed.

“You idols are worth nothing. You only hurt the people you work with, even if it was unintentional. Sure, I’m a fan of yours but my sister’s welfare comes first. I hope, after she studies in Europe, she’ll stay with us because she’ll only get hurt if she works with you more,” Venice coldly said before going into the room where Milan was.

The room was silent for a few minutes. They thought long and hard. They didn’t want to hurt her but they need to work with her and she was already their little sister. Sadly, the fans couldn’t understand that. They can’t believe she was only a little sister to them (with the exception of Luhan and Chanyeol of course).

“Chanyeol, Luhan, end it,” Xiumin suddenly spoke out. “End what?” Chanyeol furrowed his eyebrows. Luhan, on the other hand, understood it completely. “I will,” he muttered under his breath. “I’ll end it,” he added. Chanyeol asked louder,” End what, hyung?” He laughed as if he was crazy when he realized what the older meant.

“I’m serious, Chanyeol. End it with her. Stop being friendly with her as if you two knew each other for so long. End it. Every good thing comes to an end and your relationship with her comes with it. You want to protect her, right? You want her to smile and laugh again. That comes with a price. You have to end everything.”