After eating that spicy wasabi ice cream, Lay claimed he urgently need to go to the washroom. They way he actually said it was much more disturbing : "I need to go to the washroom to clear my intestines of the defecate it possesses." With that, he hurried to the restrooms and he still hasn't come out after 5 minutes. I took the chance and dialled Suyeong's number.

"Hello? You didn't call me to apologize again right?" She answered after a few rings.

"Well, not exactly..."

"What then?" She asked, a little impatient.

"I have two things to say. First, sorry—"

"Alright! I'm hanging up!"

"Wait no! You didn't hear the second one yet..." Looks like I wasn't going to be able to apologize for making her leave her apartment again...

"Ok fine. If I hear the word sorry, I'm hanging up without warning— Eek!" She shrieked.

"W-what's wrong??" I worriedly asked. I was afraid the gang had gotten a hold of her already.

"CHEEEEEEN!! GET HER AWAY PLEASE!" She shouted so loudly I was sure it burst my eardrums. I was slightly relieved to hear her voice though. I could also hear some faint barking, hinting me that Chenny was fine as well. However that only made me realize one thing.

"Are you skipping school again?" I asked to confirm my suspicion.

"Ah... Well... You're dog may be cute, but she's scary sometimes..." She awkwardly laughed, "Anyways! What were you going to say again?" She changed topics to distract me (she was successful).

"I'm leaving." I blatantly said. The only response I got was silence, which made me worry. Was she disappointed? Did she hate me?

"When are you leaving?" She asked in a monotone voice. I bit my bottom lip,

"Tomorrow morning."

It was silent for a few seconds before she spoke up,

"Why?"

"Can I tell it in person? If I can't tell you in person, I'll call you when I'm in on the— Oh gotta go. Lay's coming." I hurriedly tried to hang up despite my fingers fidgeting from the fear of Lay finding out. I only heard a faint "What! You haven't told him—" before I hung up.

"Sorry it took long. I had some... Problems..." Lay said as he nervously played with his fingers. I eyed him. Was he going to start talking about sanitary problems? I shudder at that thought. He said something before I could continue thinking about weird things,

"My parents are going to be here early and we have to cut the date early. I'm so sorry." He apologetically said, but continued, "If you don't mind, I mean if you want to, it's not like I'm forcing you or anything—" He suddenly stopped talking to look at my face that was slightly disappointed that the date was over already.

"... You want to come with me to pick my parents up?" He suggested with a hint of hope in his voice. The corner of his lips lift a little.

I only gnawed at my lower lip. It felt like as if I was being asked what I would do with the last 24 hours of my life. I definitely wanted to spend part of it— scratch that. I definitely wanted to spend the whole 24 hours with Lay. However, I definitely didn't wanted to meet his parents when I'm just hours away from leaving him. At the same time, if I didn't go with him, I would probably be stressing myself out with the gangs and spending my last hours in this town alone.

He looked at me with his pleading eyes and I took a deep breath before answering him,

"Okay. I'll go with you." I said with a soft smile. His own smile grew wider as he got up and caught my hand to drag me out the ice cream store.

***

We talked about this and that while waiting for his parents at the airport. It was a little chilly since the airport is still blasting air conditioning at this time of the year. We were in the middle of discussing whether the chicken came before the egg or the egg came before the chicken when a loud and high voice called for Yixing. We both stopped talking at that instant and turned to the voice.

Yixing's facial expression quickly brightened and reached out to a woman in her mid forties while exclaiming something in Mandarin. I guessed the woman was his mother and the man who was pushing the luggage cart behind her was Yixing's father. His mum cupped his cheeks and planted a big kiss on Lay's forehead, making the boy chuckle.

The two of them tightly hugged the boy and they started giving me some confused glances. Yixing seemed like he remembered that I came with him and blabbed something in Chinese. Now that I somehow had his parents full attention, his mother said something and bowed a little with a smile. I quickly return the gesture, not understanding what was happening and thinking she was greeting me. His father did the same, but with a broader smile. He said something, probably a comment, and Yixing shyly laughed while rubbing the back of his neck. I was starting to feel frustrated at the lack of understanding of the situation.

I followed the trio into a cab, three of them piling in the back, the boy in the middle, while I sat in the front in the passenger seat. After Yixing told the driver the address for his apartment, the three started chatting away in Mandarin. Yixing seemed really happy finally seeing his parent in a very long time, but I left utterly left out. I shouldn't have decided to come. Lay probably felt a lot more comfortable around his parents than with me.

I glanced at them for a second when my phone buzzed. I quietly answer the unknown caller.

"Soomi, this is your phone right?" A familiar voice said. I hummed in response and he continued, "It's Xiumin."

I started thinking for any reason he was calling, but none came to my mind.

"Chen told me you were leaving tomorrow morning. Why?" He said when I didn't answer. I haven't noticed, but judging from the blunt question, he was the type of person that wouldn't beat around the bush.

"For personal reasons." I muttered loudly enough for him to hear.

"Why? What reasons? It is not acceptable to befriend us and just leave after a week and a half without proper explanation." He said again.

"I can't explain now. I'll fully explain it to you later." I said, trying to be as discreetly as possible. I took a glance at the trio and they were still happily talking about something.

"No, now." He authoritatively spoke.

"I told you I can't explain now. I'm in a cab with Lay and his parents to his apartment."

"Suyeong mentioned something about not telling Lay too. Why?" He demanded.

"Please. Just wait 'till I get to the apartment and I'll spill the beans. I'll tell you everything." I sighed.

"Fine. You better speak when you get here." He said and hung up. Suyeong must have told Chen and he must have relayed the message about my departure to the guys.

***

We arrived at the apartment and Lay somehow managed to include me into the conversation by translating everything. However, he left out the translation to some questions his parents were asking and I felt left out once again.

A voice popped up from behind us and we all turned around to see Luhan brightly smiling at Lay's parents. They also seemed really close to Luhan since the mother also reached out to squeeze him in her arms. I watched Luhan as he fluently spoke Mandarin to the adults and he gave me a few glances. It wasn't long until he bowed to them and suddenly drag me to his apartment with a frown.

"Xiumin wanted to see you." He said as he free my wrist.

"I know. He wants some explanation."

"I do too." He confessed.

"So you know about my leave too." I sighed. He simply nodded.

"Go talk to Xiu. I'm busy. I'll get your explanation through him." He patted my back and pointed inside his apartment with his chin, before leaving. He's a lot less demanding than Xiumin. Speak of the devil, the round faced boy suddenly opened the door in surprise and invited me inside. He didn't utter a single word until we were sitting (uncomfortably in my case) on the couch.

"So, what's the explanation?" He demanded, sounding a lot less authoritative than over the phone. I sighed and started telling him the whole story, leaving out the irrelevant parts.

***

Suyeong had joined to hear my explanation halfway through, saying that Chen went to greet Lay's parents.

"This is unbelievable. So that weird tall guy that kept following Chen and I is actually an undercover cop?" She gasped.

"What tall guy?" I frowned.

"This guy." She showed me a picture of Chen, the guy and her taking a selfie with contorted faces.

"How did you take that picture?" I blinked.

"Well the guy was pretty chill and dorky. Chen has his number." She grumbled something around Chen being jealous, "I forgot his name though."

"Send it to me. I'll ask."

"Wow. So you're already close enough to the police to ask them to reveal one of their undercover spies?" She chuckled.

"Enough of this girls. Soomi," Xiumin called me and I turned to him, "when are you going to tell Lay about all this?" He frowned.

"Other than now, when can I?" I sighed. This was not what I had planned to spend my last hours in this town.

"But his parents are here. You can't bring his mood down." Suyeong interjected.

"What do you want me to do then? Wait 'till I leave and tell him everything through a call?" I shook my head.

My phone vibrated and I saw a text message from Lay. "Luhan told me you had something very important to tell me."

Xiumin and Suyeong both leaned towards me, trying to grab my phone away while I struggle to keep it away from them.

"C'mon! Luhan he