Luhan stared at Nicole intently until she asnwered.

   "Confessed...what?" Luhan's face turned bright red as he started blinking rapidly.

   "...ignore that. It was a mistake. I'm just being dumb." He stood up and went into the kitchen as Nicole stayed where she was, absolutely confused by his actions. Chanyeol walked out of his room in fresh clothes and with his bag. He saw Nicole staring off into space.

   "You okay? Did Luhan do something inappropriate? Do I need to smack him?" She shook her head, trying to act normal.

   "Nah, I'm good. He just said a really dumb joke and I couldn't quite comprehend how his brain came up with something so dumb."

   "What was it?! I love stupid jokes!" Chanyeol said, getting a smile on his face.

   "Luhan, tell that joke you just told me." Nicole stared at him with wide eyes as he walked back into the room.

   "Uhhh...what's the corniest joke you've ever heard?" Chanyeol shrugged, hoping for an amazing punchline.

   "Corn!" Luhan finished. Both Chanyeol and Nicole were left flabbergasted at how horrible that was.

   "I can see why you were dazed. That was really bad hyung." Chanyeol put his arm around Luhan as they left.

   "Bye Nicole!" They said in unison. Chanyeol gave her a small wink. She saw Luhan have a strained face, making her extremely confused. Not only was she confused by what he said, but also how both of them were acting so normal.

   She thought for quite a while, but having gotten no where, she gave up and assumed they were just preparing to act cheerful and bubbly.

   She took out her computer and started searching random things. She wanted to keep her mind occupied for the time being. She checked Youtube, Facebook, and other social media. For her fangirlly interest, she searched Donghae on her search engine. She was utterly surprised that there were no articles about a dating scandal between her and Donghae. She was thankful he took precautions and chose their dating spots carefully and that he had managed to cover himself well enough that no one would recognize him.

   As she continued roaming on her laptop, she got a text message.

   From: Dong Oppa: "Lovely lady, would you care to join me for frozen yogurt? Suho-ssi told me Chanyeol was out of the house and I feel as though you need a day away from stress."

   She got a big smile on her face, yet again ecstatic that her favorite star asked her out first.

   To: Dong Oppa: "Sure! What time?"

   From: Dong Oppa: "I'll be on my way right now if you can get ready quickly. But I'm sure you're beautiful no matter what."

   She mentally cursed him for being so cheesy.

   To: Dong Oppa: "Okay! Sounds good. You can head on over now."

   All he sent back was a smiley face. She sent a message to Chanyeol in case he came home early.

   "Hey, I'll be out with Donghae for a while in case you come home and I'm not there. So don't worry! I will never leave you! :)" 

   He didn't respond, but she saw that he had read it. She stood up and started getting ready, hoping this day out would help her feel better.

_____

   "His actions were and are completely selfish. He is not thinking of what's best for the group! Because you all did not follow in his footsteps, we will pay for each of you to go on a three day vacation to a place in Asia of your choice. Chanyeol-ssi, you can bring Nicole if you wish.We thank you all for not betraying the company the way he did." Soo Man walked out of their dressing room and off the set after lecturing Exo about the situation with Kris. Suho made sure Soo Man was gone before speaking up.

   "If Kris never left, we would have never gotten a vacation. I'm glad we have it, but now we're empty. Today's shoot felt so lonely without him." Tao nodded. Everyone else remained still.

   "Honestly, we could kind of tell this would happen sooner or later. There were times when he wouldn't give things his all or just seem apathetic towards things. He didn't really seemed all there at times." Xiumin added. A few members brought their head up, thinking back and realizing Xiumin was right. Suho started talking again when Chanyeol's phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and read the text from Nicole. His heart sank a bit, but he couldn't expect her to wait around until he got home every day. At the same time, he really appreciated the effort she took to help him not worry. It reinforced that she wouldn't leave him right now, but her going out with Donghae made him worry all the more.

   After Exo spent a good few minutes talking amongst themselves, they finished up the shoot and left. They decided to all go together and get food, seeing as how they hadn't been able to do that in a while.

_____

   They spent about two hours in a samgyupsal restaurant. Chen, Kyungsoo, Suho, Luhan, and Xiumin were all pretty drunk. Baekhyun, Tao, Jongin, and Sehun decided to take them home, leaving Chanyeol and Lay alone to talk.

   "Do you want to go somewhere else? You seem like you have something to say." Lay looked at Chanyeol. Chanyeol nodded as they walked to a more deserted area.

   "I may not be a love expert, but something is obviously bugging you about Nicole. We all know you like her. Sehun can't shut up about it. So what's going on?" Lay looked at Chanyeol whose face dropped a bit.

   "You know how they went out the other night?"

   "Well no, but go on."

   "Well they did and he was acting super romantic like she likes and he kissed her." Lay stopped walking and put an empathetic hand on Chanyeol's shoulder.

   "Oh man...I'm sorry. Did she tell you anything about what she felt?"

   "She said she didn't know what she felt. She's confused about how she feels about him but they're going out tonight and I'm worried that means she'll find out she feels and then start dating him and then I'll never have a chance. But like, I don't want to tell her how I feel in case she's confused about him and then she'll be confused about me too." Lay was about to say something when he paused, hearing voices approaching.

   "Well, we only have a few seconds of privacy to talk about this because I think that's her and she's walking this way." Chanyeol immediately looked to see Nicole and Donghae walking towards them. He say Donghae looking at Nicole intently as she spoke, them being hand in hand.

   ". Act cool."

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   Hey bros! Sorry if you feel weird that I keep using some of the member's real names and some of them their stage names. It's just a weird thing where sometimes I only use the stage name cuz it feels weird to use their real name and vice versa. I didn't catch when I used their stage name early in the story so, jsut for consitency, I'm just gonna keep switching :P sorry! I hope it doesn't distract frmo the story!