This was meant to be a nice cracky story but then SM pissed me off.

So Chen put his plan into action. Project “Avoid Lay but make it look like I’m not avoiding him” was officially underway. He began small, like carrying his own tissues around when rehearsing so he wouldn’t have to take any tissues that Lay or any of the other members were distributing. He also kept a water bottle close to him so no one had to get it for him during rehearsals. If he was having difficulties with dance moves, he’d go to Kai, Sehun, Xiumin or Luhan for help. This was the first indicator to Lay that something was wrong. But what really set off alarm bells in Yixing’s head was when Jongdae never came to him for Mandarin help, he’d always go to Luhan or Tao and Tao was the worst at explaining anything.

Yixing was going to asks Minseok if anything was wrong because if anything was wrong, Xiumin would know instantly, when Sehun burst into the living room visibly upset.

“Sehun-ah, what’s wrong?” Lay asked in concern.

“They did it again! They ed up again!” Sehun gestured with his phone.

“Sehun, language.” Suho reprimanded.

“I don’t care!” He screamed with tears beginning to appear in his eyes. “They kicked out Jessica noona and they’re making it look like it was SNSD’s fault.” He turned to look at Baekhyun. “You knew didn’t you, you knew!”

Baekhyun backed away from Sehun. “Sehunnie I swear I had no idea-”

“Bull!” Sehun began to advance on Baekhyun, Suho and Chanyeol came to stand in front of Sehun to stop him from doing something he might regret. “You are dating Taeyeon noona, I bet she told you everything!” Tears falling continuously down Sehun’s face at this point.

“Sehun,” Suho spoke with a soft voice. “Sehun-ah please calm down. This is the first we are all hearing about this, isn’t that right Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun nodded. “I swear I knew nothing. Please believe me Sehun.”

Sehun looked up at Baekhyun and shook his head. “I’m done.” He turned and stormed off.

Suho was about to go after him when Xiumin grabbed his arm. “Let him go, he needs to calm down.”

“What if he doesn’t come back hyung?” Suho asked worriedly.

“Sehun’s a baby, he needs to have his tantrum but he’ll always come back home. I just can’t believe the company pulled something like this again. Beakhyun did you really not know.” Asked Xiumin.

“I swear hyung, I had no idea. This is like Kris hyung all over again.” Baekhyun said in exasperation.

Suho flinched. “This is nothing like that. Kris left and then sued the company where as noona was pushed out according to Sehun.”

No one said anything. Everyone was happy that Kris escaped and was doing what he loved now, everyone except Suho. What Kris did hurt everyone but Suho had taken it especially hard.

Baekhyun decided to change the subject. “Hyung why don’t you buy the company in a hostile take over?”

Suho sighed. “I know you all think I’m really rich but I’m not that rich.”

“We can get all the sunbaes’ to chip in with you and Luhan hyung, that way things like this won’t happen again.”

“I’m game.” Luhan said. “It might even help me win brownie points with my dad if he sees that I’m interested in the business aspect of things.”

“We are not going to conspire against the company Baekhyun.” Suho insisted.

“Why not? They are always conspiring against us, never mind the fact that without us they wouldn’t be making money. And think how easy it would be for us to date if we were in control of the company, we’re not getting any younger hyung.”

“He’s right you know.” Piped in Luhan. “And think, Minseok and I can publicly date then.”

Xiumin frowned. “Luhan we’re not even dating.”

Luhan winked at him. “You keep telling that to yourself Boazi.”

“Guys we know nothing about hostile takeovers.” Suho tried to reason with them.

“Maybe we can hire a lawyer-”

“No one is going to do anything like that and that’s final!” With that he stormed off.

Minseok sighed. “Jongin, Kyungsoo, go after Joonmyun.”

Kyungsoo and Jongin did as they were told.

“What’s up with him?” asked Chanyeol.

“I don’t think you guys see the reality of this.” Xiumin said.

“Hyung things are changing. Kris hyung has spoken out and so has ZE:A’s leader. If we act now, things could get a lot better.” Baekhyun insisted.

“He’s right Boazi.” Luhan interjected. “Plus it would be nice to take a break once in a while, especially when we’re sick.”

“Guys you really aren’t seeing the whole picture. It’s all well and good if we speak out and win but what happens if we don’t win? They’ll force us to disband and realistically only a few of us will be taken in by different companies.”

“Do you really think that we’re that disloyal hyung?” asked Jongdae. “We won’t go with any company unless they decide to take all 11 of us, right guy?”

A chorus of yeses and nods were seen and heard in the living room. Minseok smiled. Times like these really made him believe that they were one.

“Umma doesn’t have faith in us.” Tao whispered sadly.

“No Tao, he doesn’t have faith in him self. People still doubt his abilities as a leader, singer and dancer. He is really insecure. We’ve only been active for 2 years guys and let’s be honest, we still have so much to offer. Are any of you really willing to let this life go?” Everyone shook their heads. “Exactly. We’ve been living our dreams for 2 years, Joonmyun trained for 7 to get his dream so he’s not about to give it up now. I agree this isn’t exactly what we dreamed of when we wanted to become singers so we need to make the most of this situation.” He turned to Luhan. “Are you serious about your dad lending us money?”

“Boazi, I’m his only child, look at my face, he can’t say no to me. As much as I hate to say it, it really helps that Kris left and Jessica was fired, it will help sell the idea to him so he knows that the situation is serious.”

“Go and sell it to him then.”

Luhan smiled sleazily. “I love it when you take charge.”

Xiumin rolled his eyes as Luhan went to contact his father. He then turned to Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Jongdae. “Beagles, it’s your job to convince the sunbaes. And keep it low key, we don’t want the staff to know, we don’t know who we can trust.”

The beagle line nodded and started leaving the living room. Yixing jogged to keep up with Jongdae who was following his fellow beagles. “Jongdae can I talk to you?”

Chen quickly put his shoes on. “This is a really important mission hyung, let’s talk later.”

He dashed out of the dorm followed by Chanyeol and Baekhyun. Yixing frowned and returned to the living room.

Tao was bouncing up and down near Xiumin. “Hyung, hyung, what can I do?”

“Go with Yixing and bring Sehun back. Then tell him about our plan. Don’t tell him the plan outside of the dorm, understand?”

Tao squealed with happiness at having something to do. He grabbed Lay’s arm and dragged him out. Lay quickly untangled himself from Tao with an apologetic smile.

“Tao you go ahead and I’ll catch up ok? I just need to talk to Minseok hyung about something.”

Tao pouted but did as he was told. Lay quickly ran to catch up with Minseok before he could go in and tell Kyungsoo, Kai and Suho what just happened.

“Hyung can I ask you something?” asked Lay. Xiumin nodded his consent. “Do you know why Jongdae’s been avoiding me?”

Xiumin burst out laughing. “Yixing, groups are being torn apart and the company’s corrupted but all you care about it the fact that Jongdae has been avoiding you.”

Yixing rubbed his neck in guilt. Out loud it seemed less important than what was going on. “Umm yes.”

Minseok smiled. “You both are clueless idiots. Do you like Jongdae?”

Yixing was taken aback. “Yes of course-”

“You should tell him that some time.”

Yixing frowned. “He’s been avoiding me because he thinks I don’t like him.”

Xiumin wanted to say that there was more to it than that but he also wanted them to figure it out themselves. “Yes.”

A look of realisation flooded Lay’s face. “Ooh thanks hyung.”

“Any time.”

Lay was about to go and catch up to Zitao when he turned back. “You should speak more often, you have really important things to say.” Lay gave him a dimpled smile and ran off leaving Xiumin smiling behind him.

Now rumors are flying around saying Luhan is leaving, I just don't know what to believe any more.