The next morning, all of them woke up with puffy eyes. No one spoke as they all got ready for their schedule. No morning greetings were exchanged between the members as they took turns to the bathroom to get ready. Though, all of them seemed to become strangers again. They flinched when they made accidental skin ship and avoided one another, no words exchanged in the silent dormitory.  

“As you may remember, yesterday I told you about Kris leaving EXO. It is not a joke and is very real. I know all of you are going to miss him but I will not allow sadness to be an excuse for your mess ups during your performances. I want everyone to pretend like nothing happened and all of you are expected to put out your best if not better. We are one, right?” Their manager spoke calmly, and put out his hand to wait for the rest to do the same.

But none of them did.

“What one? We aren’t even a whole now. Stop trying to make everything seem normal when it isn’t.” Kyungsoo spoke with an irritated tone, before he walked out of the room and left all of them shocked.

He had never talked back to their manager before. The rest of them followed him out, Kris included.

But Kris was called back to talk with the manager.

“This is your entire fault. If you hadn’t started this in the first place, they wouldn’t have been in this mess now. Can’t you see? They’re all broken into a million pieces. All because you only thought of yourself and your own wants. To you, it has always been ‘Me, Myself and I’ hasn’t it? So go, have fun as a single man outside, carefree. See if your guilt eats you up. Whole.” The manager croaked out, equally as sad as the other eleven as he left Kris in the meeting room alone, guilty and on the verge of tears.

They had found Kyungsoo balled up in the corner of the practice room, sobbing his heart out. The members immediately rushed over to comfort him, while they themselves tried to hold back tears. In the end, they managed to calm Kyungsoo down as the heavy sobs that once echoed in the empty practice room turned into small hiccups. They helped Kyungsoo stand up, before they all sat down together in the middle of the practice room, a habit they always had since getting close as a whole group.

Suddenly, Baekhyun said, “Let’s practice. My limbs are sore from sitting down.” He let out a small chuckle that even a stranger would’ve known it was forced.

He walked over to the sound system and their newest song, before joining the rest who had already stood up. Tao, though, excused himself to the toilet.

Tao splashed his face with cold water, hoping it was all only a dream, and that his best friend who had helped him through everything would suddenly run to him and say it was all a joke. But he didn’t. And it certainly wasn’t a joke. All the times they had fun and laughed so hard together. The memories flashed past by Tao’s mind as he felt tears threatening to rise up again. He collapsed onto the ground and leaned against the cool wall of the washroom as he sobbed again. He didn’t want Kris to leave. He didn’t want to be forgotten by Kris. He had wanted the twelve of them to remain as friends till they were old and not sudden