Yixing tidied up the dining table, making sure that everything was in place: the hot pot of food placed right in the middle, two assembled plates on both ends, a pitcher of orange juice and the hot rice just waiting to be served at the cooker. Yixing was excited, it has been a whole day since he last saw him so a good dinner is a must.
Yixing played out all that he’ll do as say: he’ll ask about work, how’s it was, what he ate for lunch and what they’ll do on the weekend. As these thoughts rolled out in Yixing’s mind, the doorbell rang.
“He’s here!” Yixing announced as he joyfully ran towards the door of their apartment.
With a last fix of his hair, he opened the door to welcome his guest. “Welcome home!” he greeted.
“I’m back!” the other answered with a smile.
“JONGIN?!!” Yixing shouted.

“WAAH!” Yixing shouted as he abruptly sat up. He quickly scanned his surroundings; he was at his room. He was able to calm down as his thoughts sank. “It was a dream… just a dream…” he told himself as he tried to lie back down – that is until his hand hit something while trying to reach for the sheets.

“WAAHH!!” Yixing shouted again as he saw Luhan asleep beside him. “Is this a dream too?!”

Yixing’s thoughts were distracted as shouting could be heard nearing him from the door. “WHAT?! WHAT IS IT?!” Suho shouted as he ran towards the bedroom.

“WAH!” Yixing shouted again. “WHAT!” Suho shouted back.

“STOP SHOUTING!” a half asleep Luhan said as he hit Yixing’s chest.

“We all slept here,” Suho explained to Yixing. It was five minutes after the shouting that the three managed to calm down and talk by the kitchen.

“All? As in everyone?” Yixing asked.

“No, I mean as in the entire population of the company,” the older said sarcastically.

“How? I mean… weren’t we?”

“Yup, we were on the way home when all the drunkards decided to fall asleep and never to rise again.”

“Drunkards?!” Luhan retorted.

“Yes, and by ‘drunkards’ I especially mean you, hyung. Do you know how you are when you’re drunk? You’re either noisy or drooling everywhere!”

“I do not drool.”

“Shall we check Yixing’s pillow then?”

“FINE! Whatever.”

“So anyway,” Yixing said. “If we all slept here, how come I only see the three of us?”

“The others left earlier. They… had something to do, well that is what Sehun said.”

“Hey hyung,” Sehun spoke to Suho. “Have you cleared your schedule yet?”
“You just told me to do so last night! Do you think it’s that easy to clear plans?”
“Isn’t it? I cleared mine just now. I was about to have lunch with Luhan but I cleared it.”
“Luhan-hyung being out cold doesn’t count as you ‘clearing your schedule’…”
“Well, the point is that I’m free.”
“Whatever; I can go to. I don’t expect whatever you need to do would take the whole day. I can just postpone plans until tonight.”
“This won’t do! You lack commitment; this mission needs more of it. You stay here and guard those still sleeping.”
“What exactly are you talking about?”
“Chen-hyung!” the younger ignored the other. “You can come with me, right?”
“Where to though?”
“I’ll tell you when we’re on the road.”
“I’ll go too!” Chanyeol shouted from the bedroom door.
“What makes you qualified to come?”
“Anywhere where Chen goes, I go! Especially when there’s ‘commitment’ involved.”
“Fine, let’s go.” Sehun said as he motioned the other two to leave the room.

“I didn’t have time to ask; Sehun was in a rush to get out.” Suho explained.

“Does he have some event or something, hyung?” Yixing asked.

“None that I know of…” Luhan answered. “He’s probably just hungry. It’s late in the morning and he didn’t have breakfast yet.”

“It’s not ‘late in the morning’, hyung,” Suho clarified. “It’s already three in the afternoon.”

“Well, that explains why I’m hungry…” Yixing said.

-2:00PM-

“Where is it that you badly need to go, Sehun?” Chen asked.

“Do you have an event? Doesn’t the manager take care of the arrangements for that though?” Chanyeol added.

The three of them were at the lobby of the apartment. They sat down after Sehun said he needed to contact someone first before they leave.

“Aren’t you going to answer?” Chen said.

“Last night…” Sehun finally spoke, as he put down his phone before checking one last time for a message. “Last night, I overheard you and Yixing-hyung.”

“You… you did?!”

“Overheard what?!” Chanyeol asked.

“Yes. I was actually there earlier than when I approached you.”

“How much did you hear?” Chen asked as he didn’t want to reveal anything more. Yixing trusted him with the secret and he doesn’t plan on breaking that trust the first morning he held it.

“Yixing-hyung shouldn’t blame himself,” Sehun calmly answered.

“For what?!” Chanyeol asked.

“So you know, huh?”

“I didn’t mean to. But I couldn’t interrupt you guys then because hyung was crying so loudly. I couldn’t walk away because of the same,” the youngest recalled. “It was the first time I heard Yixing-hyung cry. It was scary… how he was barely able to breathe in between the words he wanted to tell.”

“Yixing-hyung was crying?!” Chanyeol said.

“Hyung has always been like that when he cried; I got used to it,” Chen said. “What I was scared of last night was how he blamed himself for everything… I tried to comfort him but I don’t know how deep my words can reach him.”

“I think we should do something,” Sehun said.

“Okay, something big is going on but neither of you is explaining,” Chanyeol declared. “SOOOO I’m going to be a mature and cultured person and stay quiet for a while. I’ll figure it out by myself as you two continue to ignore me and talk.”

“Getting into someone else’s business isn’t a good thing, Sehun-ah.”

“Then do you expect me to just let the thought go? When hyung was explaining what happened, I was angry and hurt. And that’s just me. Imagine if Yifan-hyung heard that.”

“Still, it’s not our business.”

“Agreed. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get answers for ourselves.”

“What are you planning?”

“I want to go meet Jongin. I want to see him talk to us; to see if he can still smile at us with the same as before he did that and to see if he can still look at us in the eye. If he can or cannot, then I could infer if he regretted what he did.”

“Just casually meet him?”

“Yes. I won’t mention anything. And he doesn’t know that we know; we know Yixing-hyung to be someone to hold things in. Jongin would’ve expected that hyung wouldn’t tell anyone…”

“And if he can look at us in the eye? If he tells jokes while laughing hard? What will you do?”

“I’ll laugh at his jokes and talk to him comfortably. But the next time we meet… after the moment Yifan-hyung came to know it or the moment I see Yifan or Yixing-hyung cry again, I’d be the first one to punch Jongin in the face. I swear it.”

“I didn’t know our Sehunie could be this spiteful?” Chen commented, slightly amazed on how much emotion the usually-stoic Sehun has.

“He made one of my precious hyungs hurt so bad… I actually think I’m handling my emotions quite maturely.”

“I’m with you. Let’s go meet Jongin.” Chen seconded. “You in?” he asked Chanyeol.

“Sure, I’m already out here anyways…” Chanyeol answered.

“Even though you don’t really know what’s happening?”

“I think it’s better I don’t know for now. Because from what I’ve heard, if I knew the story, I don’t think I’ll be able to hold my emotions in like Sehun.”

“If you’re sure…”

“Yes. I’ll act like I didn’t hear anything from the two of you this morning. That’s the plan, right?”

“Perfect. You behave quite nicely, huh hyung?” Sehun said.

“I do and I will. But!” the older said.

“But?” the two chorused.

“But I want to hear the entire story tomorrow. And by the time I know the truth and I see a friend cry personally, this nice guy attitude will not be there.”

“As expected…” Chen noted. “Birds of the same feather…”

“Are conjoined birds!” Chanyeol joked, which is a huge jump on his mood. Well, leave it to Chanyeol to perfectly act apathetic in an instant.

“So I sent Jongin a message. I told him to meet us up this afternoon,” Sehun said.

“That easily? Yixing told me he could hardly get in touch with Jongin. Even the studio was no good.” Chen said.

“I don’t think he ever left the area. We frequently talk to each other because we’re roughly the same age and that made us quick to be comfortable with each other. Over the past few weeks, I was able to talk to him over the phone like always,” the youngest explained.

“Was there a change of attitude recently?”

“He’d just been replying less often, saying he was busy.”

“Then he must’ve felt a bit guilty? It’s a good start then!”

“It better,” Sehun said as his phone rang. “Hello?”

“Hey, Sehun!” Jongin spoke on the other line.

“Yah, Jongin! Until when are you planning to avoid me? Let’s have a meal!” Sehun responded a bit brightly.

“Are you buying?”

“Fine! Jeez do I need to bribe my friends just to be able to meet them?!”

“I’m broke! And the studio hasn’t been going well for me so…”

“Fine!! I told you it’s my treat. Meet me in two hours.”

“Call! I’ll see you then.”

“Oh wait, it’s fine if I take Chen-hyung and Chanyeol-hyung with me, right? I sort of owe them a meal as well, so might as well deal with this in one go, you know?”

“Uhm….” It was quite a while before Jongin spoke again. “Sure, but just the two of them, right?”

“Yup. Don’t worry, I don’t have that much money to treat everyone in the group.”

“Seeya.”

“Later!” Sehun said as he ended the call.

“Let’s go!!” Chanyeol shouted brightly as they stood up and walked out of the building.

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A/N: Okay, so i was re-reading the last chapters and it had a ton of grammatical errors. Sigh. this is what i get for inserting phrases here and there before uploading it. I'll correct them. T.T
Anyway. hope you enjoyed this chapter!