I've dragged this story on for longer than I intended, I apologise. In other news, another one bites the dust (Luhan), I can honestly say I'm not surpised. I wish him all the best in the future. Him, Kris and any other member that may or may not leave. 

Dinner was unusually suffocating. Usually everyone would be stuffing their faces because they were so hungry but today they were stuffing their faces so they could get away from the dinner table as quickly as possible. The tension radiating off Chen and Lay was stifling and only a handful of people knew why, the ones that didn’t were confused. Chen and Lay never fought, never argued, never so much disagreed on anything. So something bad must’ve happened for Chen to be quiet, red eyed and sniffling and for Lay to be trying hard to look at anything but Chen.

Everyone quickly finished their dinner and one by one left the table. As Yixing and Jongdae weren’t paying attention, they were the only two that were left. When Chen noticed this, he scrambled to leave the table but Yixing called out to him.

He plastered a smile on to his face and used all his courage to turn around. “Yes hyung?”

Lay’s heart clenched, he wanted to see Jongdae’s real smile. “Go put on some warm clothes, grab a coat and wait for me by the door.”

“We’re not allowed to go out this late.”

“That’s never stopped us before. Now go and do what I said.”

Jongdae wanted to protest, he didn’t feel like going anywhere with Lay, all he wanted to do was curl up on the bed and cry but Yixing’s tone left no room for discussion.

“Yes hyung.”

15 minutes later, Chen met Lay at the door and saw that Lay was swinging some keys around.

“We’re driving?” he asked.

“Yep.” Lay said with a smile.

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.”

They managed to sneak into the garage unnoticed and out of the building without a hitch.

They’d been driving for 30 minutes when Lay spoke. “Jongdae I think it was incredibly brave of you to confess to me-”

“Hyung please let’s not talk about that.” Chen pleaded.

“I think we need to. Just hear me out ok? So when you confessed to me, I’ll admit, I could’ve handled that better. After talking to Minseok hyung, I could see a lot clearer. I really care about you Jongdae and I want to protect you.”

“What are you trying to say ge?” Jongdae tried to keep the hopefulness out of his voice.

“I’m trying to say, let’s give this a try-”

A thought occurred to Chen. “Is this out of pity?”

“No-”

“Because I don’t need your pity! I am-”

“Jongdae shut up for once in your life!” yelled Lay. Jongdae instantly quietened down because Lay hardly ever raises his voice and when he does, he’s scary. “I love you Jongdae, maybe not the way you do, but I want to try and have a relationship with you. All this time that you were ignoring me made me realise that I didn’t like it when you ignore me. When you cried as you confessed your feelings, it hurt to see tears of sadness in your eyes. Or when the fans say that your cheekbones are getting more prominent, it makes me want to take care of you because God knows you don’t take care of yourself. What I’m trying to say is that, you make me worry about you and you make me want to take care of you more than any of the other members and I didn’t really question it or understand why. But after I talked to Minseok hyung, I began to understand. Jongdae, I think I might be falling for you so I’m asking you to give us a chance so we can both be happily in love together. I know I may have explained this a little weirdly and in my defence my Korean is still not as strong as my Mandarin but I assure you, I am not doing this out of pity.”

Chen took a deep breath in and tried to process all that Lay had said. “So what you’re saying is that you want to date me.”

Lay blinked a couple of times. “Well yes…I guess I could’ve just come out and said that instead of babbling.”

Jongdae threw his head back and laughed. The sound made Yixing’s heart light and his face stretched into a smile.

“Alright, I guess I could date you. I don’t really have anything better to do.” Jongdae said with a smirk and watched as Yixing’s jaw dropped. “Not to mention the adorable confession you just gave me, I mean, how can I say no.” Yixing splattered and reddened. “Now will you tell me where we’re going?”

Yixing quickly recovered and smiled. “It’s still a surprise Chenchen.”

Jongdae whined. “Come on Xingxing ge, tell me.”

The rest of the ride was spent with Chen pestering Lay about their destination and Lay slyly rebuffing him. They drove for another hour and half before the arrived at their destination.

Jongdae’s mouth fell open. “Is that?”

“The East Sea. I remember you said in the Samsung showcase that if you had a girlfriend you would take her here to see the sunrise. I know that I don’t really pay attention to a lot of things and I know that I’m not a girl-”

Jongdae hugged him tightly and whispered in his ear, “It’s perfect, thank you.”

They switched into the backseat of the car so they could cuddle together as they waited for the sun to rise. During their wait, they talked about all sorts of things; their worries, their dreams, their past and all sorts of nonsense. They were about to doze off when the sun began to rise.

“It’s beautiful.” Yixing said in awe.

Jongdae nodded. “I’ll never get tried of seeing the sunrise.”

They both locked eyes with each other and that is how Zhang Yixing and Kim Jongdae shared their first kiss together, in the backseat of their company’s car with the sun rising behind them.

The next couple of months that followed were especially hard. EXO and their sunbaes’ were still sneaking around with lawyers as they tried to hide this fact from the staff. But the staff were busy as it was, with an EXO member leaving every other week, they were going pretty crazy. It was all a part of the plan; every time someone leaves SM, the stocks drop further, making it easier to buy the stocks and subsequently the company.

It was a difficult task but SM idols did finally manage to buy the company and kick out their CEO and anyone with supported the old regime was fired. Promises of change and better conditions were offered, these promises were actually kept. Lawsuits were miraculously dropped and the member that had left, or were on a “hiatus” or were fired all came back, including Kris. They had a heartfelt reunion after Kris apologised for running out without telling anyone and EXO apologised for turning their back on him so quickly. They really were one again.

The End

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