Things couldn't have been worse. The sky outside was bright and sunny and just the right amount of cloudy. It was just warm enough to be pleasant and the whole world smelled of flowers and trees and all things good. It was just the kind of detestable beauty that didn't belong with the sad environment in the dorms that day.

Kris. No, he didn't go by that name anymore. Kris no longer existed. It was simply Wu YiFan now. That was the name plastered on the tag on his suitcase, the last of his things to leave the dorm. The lawsuit was over. YiFan should have been happy. He won. He was released. He no longer had to subject himself to the pain and the torture and the subhuman standards to which he had been held for all those years, miserable and broken.

He was free, yet looking around at the empty dorm one last time he felt anything but. The couch, where everyone piled up on the rare moments without work and fell asleep on top of each other while trying to watch movies. The pictures that littered every free space on the wall, except the empty spots where the pictures of himself had been removed. His own bunk in his room completely bare, clean and neat as if he had never been there. The whole place, as if Kris had never existed.

“Duizhang.”The voice was familiar, sad, broken. The voice of the man that YiFan would never forget, no matter how long he lived without hearing it. Huang ZiTao.

Kris bit his lower lip, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He had to steady himself. He had to be strong, if not for himself but for Tao. He would never stop being EXO's leader, no matter what. He could never lose the responsibility he felt for the boys, for all of the boys. Especially Tao.

“You're not supposed to be here right now.” Kris told him, finally turning to look at him. Kris was unable to meet his eyes, choosing to look instead at the necklace that Tao wore. It was a simple thing, a black string with a silver infinity symbol. Something that Kris had given them when they had first started out together. Tao rolled it in his fingers as he spoke.

“I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye, Duizhang..I couldn't..” A sniffle escaped Tao, his voice catching in his throat and he sounded so close to tears. “I couldn't let you leave without trying to stop you..”

YiFan sighed, reaching forward to take Tao's hand. He paused, unable to bring himself to touch the younger boy. He pulled his hand back and shook his head, eyes fixing on the floor as bile rose up in his throat. Be strong, he reminded himself. He had to be strong. He had to do this.

“Is there no other way?” The hope in Tao's voice was enough to destroy what was left of Kris's heart. A blackness darker than death descended upon him and he prayed for the earth to swallow him up and save him from this despair. “Does it have to be this way?”

“Yes.” YiFan's hands turned to fists, trembling at his sides. His eyes burned with the force of holding in the tears.

Tao whimpered. “Do you have to go?”

A long silence passed between the two of them. YiFan stood, tall and silent and unmoving, as if he could simply turn to statue and time could stop for him, for them. It was a fool's dream. The plane leaving to take him back to Canada was leaving in four hours and this part of his life would be over, like a bad dream.

“You know that I do, TaoZi.” The nickname stuck like a bitter fruit on his tongue, a burr in his throat that stung and pulled and punished.

“I'll miss you..” A single tear fell from Tao's eye, followed by another that he didn't bother to wipe. His hand clung tightly to the pendant in his hand, his knuckles turning white.

“Tao..” Kris once again reached out to touch the boy, once again unable to do so. He let his hand hang in the air for a moment before falling back, dead, at his side. A deep breath, an attempt to settle himself that didn't work. “I'll miss you too.”

The two stood, once again in silence. Kris couldn't bring himself to leave and Tao with his entire body shaking. He finally opened his hand, looking at the silver medallion in his palm.

“I remember the day you gave this to me.” His voice, barely above a whisper, cracked.

“The night after SM Town, from the shop in California.” Kris stated, his cracked lips. His whole mouth felt dry, filled with cotton and vinegar.

“You promised me that we would always be one.” The emotion drained from Tao's voice, as if he no longer had the will to care.

“We will.” Kris responded. “We always have been and we always will. Just because I'm not going to be around anymore doesn't mean-”

“Yes it does!” Tao's outburst interrupted Kris's words, his voice raised into a desperate yell and fading into a cracked, broken whisper. “Yes..It does..We can't be together if you aren't here...”

Kris's heart sank. It was true, after all. After this moment, Kris would never see Tao again. He would never get the chance to see the boy smile again. He would forever be barred from the feeling of wrapping his arms around the sleeping figure, the beauty of watching his eyes flutter open sleepily, or the sound of his gravelly voice as he mumbled good morning. Dancing and singing beside this boy, this friend, this brother, this man that he cherished and loved above all others.

“I'll always be just a phone call away.” He tried, knowing it wouldn't matter.

“How could you do this to us?” Another tear fell. Kris reached up to wipe it away but Tao pulled away. “Don't touch me.”

“Tao..” Don't hate me.. He couldn't say the words. He couldn't beg Tao to do something that he knew he deserved. He'd abandoned the others. He'd left them behind like they meant nothing to him, but that was so far from the truth. So far. “This was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, Tao...please try to understand.”

“I know..” His back turned to Kris, shoulders shaking as he forced his sobs quiet. “I know, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.”

“You don't ever have to forgive me...” YiFan muttered, chewing his lower lip, eyes on the floor. He watched Tao's feet as they turned around to face him.

Tao grabbed him by the shoulder, ignoring all restraint and pulling the older boy to him. Both of them shut their eyes tightly, holding onto each other as if all of life itself would fall away were they to let go. Tears brimmed in Kris's eyes and Tao buried his head in Kris's neck.

“There's nothing to forgive, Duizhang. You've done the right thing..for you.” Tao pulled away, keeping his arms wrapped tight around Kris and, for the first time that evening, looking directly into the other's eyes.

A blankness laid beneath those dark orbs, an emptiness that knew no bounds. For the first time, Tao was scared, genuinely scared. “Kris..”

“Tao..?” He mirrored the other boy's tone, speaking his name with such a reserved softness, as if it were the most sacred word he knew.

“Kris..You know I l-” Tao began to speak, but the words caught in his throat when Kris pulled out of his arms.

“Tao, don't..” Kris warned..begged. His heart pounded in his ears. He couldn't take this, he couldn't bear this pain. It was bad enough already without adding the burden of Tao's words.

Love was a dangerous thing, a strong thing. It was known, had always been known, that the bond between Tao and Kris was different from all the other members. The simple fact that Tao was the only one waiting at the dorm, having risked strict punishment and skipped his schedule just to be there, was a testament to that. It had always been an unspoken bond between the two, that they loved each other more than life itself. To put voice to those words now, when everything was at its end, was more that Kris could bear.

“You made so many promises.” Tao finally spoke again after a long while. He shut his eyes tight, cutting off tears, and opened them once more to look on Kris. “What about everything that you said? What about we are one?”

“Tao..” Kris reached out and hesitated. Tao took a step back, shaking his head, and more tears started to pour from his eyes. Wet trails bored into his cheeks.

“All the promises you made, all the things you said we could accomplish?” Tao's voice cracked with the last bit of his broken heart. “When are you going to fulfill your promises? What about us?”

Tao's head fell, his eyes resting on the floor. His tears fell from his face and splashed onto the carpet beneath him, soaking them up where they would stain the floor forever with the memory of this night, this beautiful horrible day.

Kris's hand reached up, fingers through Tao's hair. He opened his mouth a few times and no words came out. His mind raced, trying to think of what he could say. How could he end this? Then he his lips, leaned forward and pressed them against Tao's forhead.

“Maybe next time.” Like a mantra, like a promise, like everything that he ever wanted to say but never could, like the I love you that stuck in his throat unable to be said and never to be experienced again.

And with that, he turned. He picked up the handle of his suitcase and walked out the door. Tao was left behind, with the promise of next time. With the words that rang hollow in his heart because they both knew, the shining sun and the clouds and every person Wu YiFan bumped into on his way down to the taxi because tears stained his vision knew, there was never going to be a next time.

“I love you, Wu YiFan..” Tao whispered into the air with the sound of the shutting door and fell to his knees. He crumpled onto the floor as the last of his heart bled out of him and the world wouldn't give him the courtesy of ending. Because this wasn't the end, and though Tao fell asleep in front of the door with his eyes stuck shut with dried tears, he knew this wasn't the end. And though one member was gone, he would always be there in his heart. Kris would never leave EXO. He would always be in the hearts of the members and of the fans that loved him, and always would.