“This is exhausting.” Baekhyun let out a heavy sigh as he plopped down next to his bag and grabbed his phone. It was only one day after the news broke, yet they had been in the practice room since dawn. No one had a clue how the choreographer had fixed the gaps so quickly, but they did know that he was being extra strict since they were on a time crunch.

“I know, but just think of how amazing it’ll feel to finally have a concert that’s all our own.” Suho did his best to encourage the group despite the fact he looked tired and gross. His skin was oily and his hair was so drenched in sweat it stuck to his forehead. But unlike the other members who were still upset and now physically tired, Suho had to at least pretend to be strong.

Luckily for him, the oldest of the Chinese members felt the need to be strong for them, too. “Come on, just think of all the fans who are upset right now. They’re just as lost and confused as we are, and it’s up to us to be there for all of those people who care about us. It may be exhausting, and we may make a mistake or two on stage, but what’s important is that we go out there with smiles on our faces and be strong. They need us to be strong.”

Kai, along with everyone else in the room, looked at Luhan with wonder in their eyes. The older one had always had an aura of strength, but usually it was hidden under his soft features and twinkling smile.

“He’s right.” Suho looked relieved to have someone else motivating the group. The poor guy could only do so much by himself. “But right now you can relax, you’ve got fifteen minutes.”

Most of the band, including Kai, took a seat right on the hardwood floor. A few had left the room, most likely to use the bathroom, but Kai didn’t have the energy to keep tabs on who was where. It wasn’t long before dinner time, but the boys were all ready to sleep. They had spent the day in the dance studio, working on shifting positions to fill the void that popped up in all their choreography. Eleven was such an awkward number. All their formations felt off, they all felt unbalanced and wrong, but it was what they had to deal with.

“You still just okay?” Suho appeared next to Kai.

“You need to relax, I'm fine.” Kai did his best to not look exhausted. He knew that Suho had a lot more pressure on his shoulders now that the leader felt like he had to stay strong for all the other members. But that didn’t stop Kai from hearing soft cries come from the bathroom when Suho showered early in the morning. “I’m still just okay, so take the time you plan on using to baby me and take a moment for yourself. You need it, hyung.”

“No, I need to just keep moving.” Suho got up and moved over to the next member, the still angry and now exhausted Sehun.

“He’s like that battery bunny on the tv, he just keeps going and going.” Yixing took a seat next to Kai. “But batteries lose power, and soon he will too.”

“Hyung,” Kai turned to look at the older, “Is it going to be okay?”

“What? The concert?” Yixing noticed a teary sheen on the younger boy’s eyes.

Kai shook his head, he didn’t know why, but he could feel panic rise in his chest. He knew that, even if they didn’t want to go on without Kris, they could do it. They’d be able to survive. But how could they really call it surviving when Exo-K’s leader was wearing away and their maknae was angry at the world. And in between those two, the rest of the members were depressed, angry, and lost. Kai wasn’t worrying about Exo as a group, he was worrying about each, individual member.

“Kai-Kai-Jongin look at me.” Yixing grabbed both sides of the younger boy’s face and made him face him. “I need you to breathe right now.”

“But what if he does stop?” Kai asked. Suho couldn’t stop like Yixing implied he would. If he did, the rest of the members of Exo would break down. “What’s going to happen when the battery goes out?”

Yixing pulled the dancer into a tight hug, “Don’t think about that, I didn’t mean to freak you out. He may get tired, we have so many practices that we have to squeeze in before this concert so we’re all gonna be tired. But just because we get tired doesn’t mean we’ll be giving up. It’s like Luhan said, we’re going to stand strong together. When Suho runs dry, we’re going to be here for him, get new batteries in him, and he’ll go back to being that little bunny.”

Kai buried his face in the older man’s chest to attempt to get himself to calm down. He didn’t know where this sudden panic attack came from, but he knew he was overreacting. Or at least that’s how he saw it. Maybe he was just freaking out over the members losing all energy because he should have been freaking out over Kris leaving, but he wouldn’t let himself. He couldn’t freak out over Kris like everyone else and increase the burden on Suho.

He could hear people around him throwing questions at Yixing, but he did his best to tune them out. He just needed to calm down.

“Jongin, are you okay?” Suho’s familiar voice asked as the leader’s hand came up to rub his back.

The boy nodded into Yixing’s chest, but didn’t want to look up. He was sure that everyone was crowded around, wondering why he was freaking out only now.

“What’s that smell?” Chanyeol asked out of nowhere as he sniffed around the room. “Is that alcohol?”

Kai looked up for a second, happy to have the attention off him for a moment. It looked like the people who had left had come back since everyone was there, and they all looked just as confused as Chanyeol. Kai took a deep breath, but couldn’t smell what the older could.

“Oh, I used some sanitizer, maybe spilled a little.” Luhan spoke up, “It’ll go away in a second. What’s up with Kai?”

“I freaked him out.” Yixing admitted as he brought a hand up to run his fingers though Kai’s hair. He then switched to Mandarin to say something to the doe eyed boy.

Kai pouted, he hated it when they did that. But he was able to pick up on certain words like Suho, Kai, and scared.

“Hey,” Luhan kneeled in front of Kai and the younger could definitely smell the sanitizer on him. “It’s going to be okay, remember what I said. We’re going to be strong together, even if Suho overworks himself trying to make us feel better, we’re going to do the same for him. We’ll take care of each other so that when he gets tired, we’ll pick him back up. And when one of us gets tired, all of us, not just Suho, will work together to be one again.”

Kai could feel himself breathe deeply. So he took his time taking a few deep breaths before bonelessly falling back onto Yixing’s chest.

“I think he’s all better.” Yixing chuckled and patted the dancer’s hair. “Now he’s just being lazy.”

“Well we do have a little bit more time.” Luhan chuckled, “Let him take advantage of it, because once he gets up, it’s time to work.”

"Hyung," Kai had calmed down a bit, but still had that question on his mind, "Are we going to be okay?"

"It's going to take some time," Yixing was still holding on to the younger dancer, cradling him on his lap, even if it was a bit awkward due to size. "But I think we're going to be okay. Don't you think we can come back from this?"

"Maybe." Kai replied honesly. "I'm still confused. I just don't understand how he could have walked off like that. And you know something? I think I'm mad at him."

"That's understandable," Yixing replied, not holding an ounce of anger or sadness in his voice. If anything, Yixing's voice matched his statement, he truly understood how Kai felt. "With all this extra work and relearning, I don't think any of us aren't mad at him just a little bit. We're cranky, and I'm sure we will be for a little while bfore we can rest, but we have each other. I can't imagine what it must be like to be Kris and be so far away from all of you guys."

"Tao!" Luhan's voice cut through the conversation where Yixing was doing a great job calming Kai down. Kai didn't look up, he was sure the youngest Chinese member threw something or said something bad about the member who left. But once a string of concerned Chinese came out of the doe-eyed boy's mouth, Yixing looked ready to jump to his feet. The only thing stopping him was the fact Kai was still on his lap.

"It's fine." Kai was able to understand the Chinese coming from Tao and couldn't resist turning to look. 

The young boy had somehow ripped the collar of his tank top and it looked like his hand was pretty red. In Kai's mind, Tao probably was feeling upset and lashed out, hitting a wall and then ripped his clothes in frustration. But when he thought about it some more, Tao loved his clothes. Tao loved his clothes a lot which meant he would have to be pretty distressed to have ripped them, but it wasn't something Kai thought impossible.

From behind him, Yixing said something to Tao in Mandarin, but Tao shrugged him off and opted to just leaving his shirt alone and getting a drink. Luhan tried to talk to the younger boy, too, but Tao just ignored him.

Knowing not being able to help the younger Chinese boy would frustrate Yixing, so Kai rolled off of Yixing's lap, "Go on it's okay. I'm fine now."

After ruffling Kai's hair one last time, Yixing got up and hurried over to Tao. 

"It's nothing." Kai was able to translate Tao's Mandarin, "Stop."

"Tao, they only want to help," Suho seemed to have also understood the basics of what was going on with the Chinese members. "You can tell us what happened."

"I just got mad." Tao brushed off Exo-K's leader as easily as he did the other members who were fussing over him. "It's nothing."

Luhan reached up to ruffle Tao's hair, smiling softly and saying something about him being there for Tao. It was once again in Mandarin, which while it annoyed Kai, it wasn't as annoying as Yixing repeating the same thing. Kai knew it was hard to be away from home, and despite it being two years, it was still difficult for Tao to express his feelings in Korean. But he just wished Yixing watched him as closely as he watched over Tao.

"I'm fine, I promise." Tao stated in Korean before changing his shirt into another one he found in his bag.

Though while he was changing his shirt with his back towards his fellow Chinese members, Kai managed to spot red scratch marks on the boy's chest from his reflection in the mirror. Not only were there scratch marks, but from Kai's perspective, the marks should have lined up perfectly with the tear in Tao's clothes.