chapter twenty four:  history

"i turned and turned around far away, and i came back here to start again.  "   

"What if we gather all the EXO-L's for once?"

Jonathan nearly spat his vitamin drink when he hears Hyerin's sudden idea, while Huiying nearly choked on her ramen. Hyerin was suddenly talking about nonsense since they got in back to work— despite having adviced to stay at home and avoid work. It's something Youngmin is forcing them to do, since basically, he's against the idea of having the group go on hiatus. (as per usual, they are a popular idol group.) 

Sure, the day was becoming tiring to handle for the three, especially for the sick Hyerin. She struggled to appear perfectly fine for the sake of the public and media, but as far as Jonathan and Huiying know, she was actually hurting. Every now and then, either of them would see Hyerin wincing in pain as she holds on her head. 

"Wait, what are you saying?" Jonathan coughed as he eyed the eldest sibling. "Is your sickness getting the best of you?"

"No, no." Hyerin pouted as she crosses her arms. "It's just that, hey, their fans are almost half of our fanclub! They've supported us and our dads, so why not give 'em a surprise?" 

"And by 'surprise', what do you have in mind, eonni?" Huiying pouted back as she placed down her chopsticks. Hyerin could only smile mischievously, which ticked something in the two younger siblings. "Oh, no. I know that look of yours and I'm already saying this... 'no'." Huiying frowned as she shook her head. 

"A little performance wouldn't her them." Hyerin pursued. "Besides, I think the twelve'd love it too!"

"No."

"Aw, come on!"

"I should agree on Huiying this time, noona." Jonathan frowns. "The dads barely even coped up with life back as twelve. And our original plan is to just have them on our side, not put up an extravagant show for their fans. I suppose it'll call for attention too, having the disbanded group suddenly perform in front of hundreds and hundreds of fans! Don't you think it'll be quite media-attracting? That wouldn't be good."

"And it might be a gateway for your sickness to go viral." Huiying worriedly says.

"I'm sure it wouldn't happen." Hyerin smiles. "Look, it'll be fine. It's just a simply presentation for the EXO-L's and all, what could go wrong? We're going to have an open-interview and that can be the perfect time to put up the EXO surprise! Imagine how the dads'll be blissful to see their fanclub still alive and all."

"... I don't know." Huiying shakes her head. "It might go all wrong."

"It wouldn't hurt to try." Hyerin grins.

Ah, the "Hyerin charms" works once again.

"Perform?"

"Yeah." Hyerin smiles widely whilst her siblings gesturing the twelve to deny naturally. Right after arriving home, Hyerin presents her idea of EXO giving a surprise performance to their fans. It's been years since they've actually seen them all together, so seeing them as a complete twelve-membered group might give the EXO-L's some relief and joy that they're all doing fine. Yes, it's been quite some time already since EXO's disbanded and nearly given zero care about, but now, it can all change. 

"I don't know, Hyerin." Suho pouted as he leaned back as he eyes the three. "It's been years since we've performed. A few of us are pretty much out of shape already, both in the singing and dance areas."

"Plus, our coordination's been slacking off for quite a while now." Lay added.

"I haven't danced for quite some years now." Kai added afterwards. 

"Same!" Sehun pouted. "I haven't been in the dancing field for quite some time now. I'm not as sleek and flexible compared to before."

"We can always fix that." Hyerin grins.

"We'd love to perform, really." Kris sighed. "But how? We barely even remember the choreography, the lyrics itself and the formations. It's been in the past for some time now." 

"Aw, I suppose you can remember?" 

"Hyerin, we can't perform that well."  D.O explains. "I'm afraid that even if we are really intruiged to see our fans once more, we've got nothing to show."

"I beg to differ, but seeing you as a whole would make the fans the happiest." Hyerin smiles. "But, nah, it's not like I'd force you. It's okay, I understand." she grins.

"What's up with you anyway, suddenly thinking that we should perform or something?" Baekhyun asks in curiosity. 

"I second the motion, what's up?" a curious Chen repeats. 

"Nothing." Hyerin grins. 

"Say, you were working back at the company again, weren't you three?" Chanyeol frowns as he crosses his arms. "Geez, I thought Hyerin here needs to damn rest? In this situation, she'll grow far more worse than she is today! Why don't you just take a hiatus or something?"

"Like it'll be that easy." Jonathan huffed.

"Please don't tell me they didn't let you go on hiatus." Xiumin frowned.

"They didn't let us go on hiatus." Huiying pouted as she plopped down beside Tao. "Kim Monster didn't see Hyerin-eonni's situation as something dangerous and all. Geez, he even told us that the two of us, me and Jonathan-oppa, are enough to promote by ourselves!"

"Is he insane?" Tao scowled as he sighed heavily. "Sheesh, you know what, you three, why don't you just sign up a lawsuit against SM Entertainment and all? Go transfer in a different company or something!"

Silence.

"Did I say something wrong?" Tao blinked.

"By the silence they have? Probably." Luhan nodded.

"What's wrong?" Suho questions as he eyes the three. "There's gotta be something wrong for this silence to emerge."

"You see, we can't just live SM." Jonathan huffed as he averts his eyes away.

"And why not?" Chanyeol blinked.

"Too hard to explain, but let's all just say that it's kind of a... thing we want to prove." Hyerin smiles as she eyes the twelve. 

"Prove?" Sehun blinked in confusion. "Prove what? That you can withstand SM's cruel ways and be a successful group at the same time? Puh-leese, if I were you, I'd dump that company and transfer to YG."

"Something like that." Hyerin nodded. "It's just that... Youngmin saw every group he debuts as a puppet he can easily stir around and all. TVXQ, SNSD, Super Junior, SHINee, f(x), Red Velvet... even you guys and all the other groups I haven't mentioned. If there's something they should see and discover, it's a group that they can't play around with easily. We want to be that group."

"If they think that they can break us with those small threats and mistreatment, then we'd beg to differ." Huiying grinned. "Besides, I bet if Hyerin-eonni here isn't sick and Jo-oppa here isn't a pacifist he is, Youngmin's no where between being all so powerful as he is! He'd be beaten down to the toes."

"Alright now, calm your rage tempers, Chang Huiying." Xiumin laughs as he ruffles Huiying's hair. 

"And, wait, lemme try to get this clear." Chanyeol coughed as he eyes the three. "You really don't have any plan on leaving the company anytime now?"

"Nope." Jonathan shakes his head.

"Rather, piss the living lights out of the CEO." Hyerin smirks. 

"Like going against their prior instructions. As simple as turning on the mic when they strictly said don't turn it on and just do a lipsync." Huiying giggled.

"Man, aren't you guys rebellious lil' bundles." Chen grinned. "Teach me your ways."

"One day, we will." Jonathan snickers as he leans back. 

"Alright then, since we're all damn pissed over the great SM CEO, let's go and do Hyerin's plan of performing for the EXO-L's!" Baekhyun cheered as he jumped up, only to be looked at with astonishment by the other members. Noticing this, the latter blinks in confusion as he tilts his head. "What? Did I say something offending again?"

"Not really," Kris shakes his head. "But... you do know we're behind practice and all. We have nothing to perform."

"Doesn't necessarily we've got to perform." Baekhyun laughs. "Besides, I just want to see Youngmin all red with anger. Kind of brings joy to my soul, you know?"

"You're one sadistic beagle, y'know that?" Chanyeol laughs as he leans back. A few seconds of silence later, the red-haired giant jumps up as if something joyous just popped in his head. "I've got an idea for our performance!"

"Wait, wait, you're really performing?" Jonathan blinked.

"Well, duh." Chanyeol smirks. "Alright, a few of us knows how to play instruments, right? Y'all know how to handle some musical instruments, yeah?"

"I can play the guitar." Lay smiles as he raises his hand.

"Piano!" Kai grinned. 

"Wait, hold up— since when did you learn how to play the darn piano?" Sehun scowled as he eyes the tanned latter.

"What do you expect me to be doing within those past years? Lie down like a sloth?"

"Probably?"

"I can handle the guitar too!" Baekhyun proudly cries out. "I can go on the guitar place!"

"Hey, I called dibs on the guitar first." Lay pouted.

"Too bad, I'm on it!"

"No way!" 

"Can anyone here play the bass or something?" Chanyeol questions as he eyes the other eleven. Jonathan was just about to raise his hand when the red haired older shakes his head, claiming that it will be an "EXO" stage of some sort. Frustrated, Jonathan lowers his hand down and simply pouts. "Okay, anyone here who can play the bass?"

"We're not really that of a musical person here, Yeol." D.O frowns as he leans back. "No bassists here."

"Damn. A band won't be complete without a bass." Chanyeol sighs heavily.

"Wait, your performance'll be a band?" Huiying blinked in awe.

"Well, yeah. Since I'm an underground band member assigned in drums, I've got experiences, add the fact that I'm a leader of this underground band. We could perform a few songs we presented during our active days. Like Call Me Baby... or Overdose! Those fit well in the band field!"

"Too bad we don't have anyone who can play the bass." Kris huffs.

"Anyways, for now, this'll be the arrangement." Chanyeol began as he eyes those who can play an instrument. "Kai here'll be assigned in the keyboard. I'll be in the drums, Lay and Baek can be on the electirc guitars. All we're left with is a vocal and a bassist." he huffs.

"Let's decide between Luhan, Kyungsoo and Chen on who the vocal can be." Suho suggested.

"Anyway, what else? There should be an 'everyone will sing' part." Hyerin smiles. "How about giving that idea a shot?"

"Nah, besides, some of us are way behind the singing career." Tao laughs. "But we can do something else, I mean, for those that aren't doing the band thing."

"I've got an idea." Huiying grinned.

"Well then, speak, oh- genius one." Xiumin giggled.

Huiying then grins wider before she stands up and darts to her room, only to return with a notebook and a black pen on her hands. Sitting in the middle and asking everyone to form a circle, she then begins to draw and scribble a few things on the paper. Everyone closes in to see what the youngest was doing. Soon enough, Huiying begins to talk and dictate her own "little" plan, which sends everyone in amazement on how someone like her could formulate an excellent plan like that.

And then again, they recall that she's a genius.

The screams of the Pyxis were rather ear-splitting, but for some reason, the three were pretty much used to it. The outdoors are, by far, their favorite spot to hold fansignings and meet-ups, and even interviews. There's this so-called "outdoor interview" held by a few media. In these kinds of interviews, idol groups, soloists and so on are interviewed outside, particularly held on a stage. It was as if it's a mini-concert, the only difference was that they aren't there to perform but to just sit down, look pretty and be interviewed. 

For the three, feeling the warm rays of the sun on them and the gentle breeze kissing their face is far better than air conditioned rooms they are sick of. Nothing beats Mother Nature. 

So far, the interview was nearly ending. There were a lot of questions they had to answer (mostly, Hyerin answered) and some made a few fans go wild since some questions hit the topic of "romance". There were questions about the three's opinion about dating, about being in this "We Got Married" show, on what their ideal types were, and so on. Huiying was pretty sure she was red all the time, basically because the MC just wouldn't move on from the fact that she is "shipped" with a rookie actor she had accidentally pointed out once to be her ideal type before. 

Jonathan, like Huiying, was bright scarlet as well. It's mainly because they rather discussed his latest kissing scene, which was soon revealed to be his first. Hyerin, on the other side, is barely even affected by the guy being shipped with her. It's not like she hated him, she just isn't interested with such...

"Well, thank you for the interview, Pandora Street." the MC finishes as he eyes the three. "Is there anything you'd like to say to the Pyxis?"

"Ah, of course." Hyerin smiled, asking for the mic from Huiying. Once she grabs hold of it, she checks if it was working. Once she was sure it was working, she stands up from her seat and eyes the fans. "I'd like to thank everyone who bothred to join us in our outdoor interview for today, it's so nice to see you guys supporting us. We're aware that you all are still sadenned by the sudden leaving of Eunseo, but we'll promise that we'll stay strong as three." 

While making her gratitude speech, she was quite sure that the fans —well, perhaps not all— didn't see Jonathan hurry to the backstage. Huiying was pretending as if nothing was happening, still sitting pretty on her seat.

It was a surprise that Hyerin was making a speech already, instead of a short message for the Pyxis.

Just as when it was about to end, Hyerin begins the plan Huiying had formulated days ago. After she had ended her speech, she then stretches her finger to the audience, smiling widely. "EXO-L's! You've waited long enough! Call them!"

There was confusion in the crowd. There were mumbling and whispering, which made Hyerin frown. Had they forgotten—

"EXO!"

A fan was beginning to chant, which was soon followed by a few more fans. Soon enough, almost half of the Pyxis were chanting "EXO". A small smile slowly crept up of Hyerin's lips and soon enough, Huiying was smiling too. 

The chant soon was stopped when the sound of drums was heard. Everyone's attention was soon averted when Jonathan comes back on stage, playing the bass with a big grin on his face. Th audience weren't capable of processing things when the sound of drums coming from behind the interviewing stage surfaced. All eyes were averted there, only for a few fans to screch out and realize that the particular red-headed drummer is no other than Park Chanyeol. Screams of excitement rose in no time. 

Soon enough, the sound of the guitars rose along with the sound of the keyboard. Lay. Baekhyun and Kai were all together on a truck they had hired and borrowed for a few hours just for the performance stuff. With everyone gathered there, the crowd goes wild and the interviewer was rather dumbfounded by the sudden performance and on how the audience was reacting. Hyerni was sure that their manager and Youngmin would be greatly furious about this, but that's their main goal, right? 

Just as when everyone thought that it couldn't get any better, the rest of EXO soon comes up on stage, holding their own microphones just as like before when they were performing. The crowd goes wilder and louder as they noticed the faces before them. With Huiying and Hyerin joining in, it was like a grand performance of one of EXO's hit songs— Call Me Baby. The beat was amazing, the vocals never died down (thanks to Chen, D.O and Luhan, and of course Suho), and so were the raps (thanks to Kris, Sehun, Xiumin and Tao). Hyerin, Jonathan and Huiying joined in too, singing along to the song. 

The performance got the crowd going and Hyerin knew that the EXO-L's were rather thankful that this was happening. It was like a dream come true to see the twelve members of EXO performing all together, though not all of them were singing or rapping. The others were too busy playing their own assigned instrument. It was enough to see the grown-up versions of EXO on stage again, joining Pandora Street. Everyone knew that Pandora Street and EXO share a deep family-like bond— having the three go on a scandal news of being "adoptive chidlren" of EXO. Soon enough, it was accepted and that leaded to EXo-L's supporting the group EXO's kids are in.

The performance was lively and despite the weather, which wasn't somewhat near perfection, EXO and Pandora Street managed to make the place jump in joy while chanting their old chants through the song. 

Hyerin had a big smile on her face before she began feeling a familiar throbbing sensation in her head. Seconds later, she felt her vision slowly blurring out before she feels her arm go numb and freeze. It was all getting so familiar but it still scared her. The nearest to her, Luhan, quickly noticed her wobbly movements and the fact that she dropped her microphone. For a second, Luhan thought Hyerin just lost balance and dropped her microphone by accident.

But when Huiying screamed Hyerin's name...

And Hyerin slowly fell backwards,

Luhan knew that something was off.

The last thing Hyerin knew was that the audience's scream turned into fear and the familiar blackness seen before her.

[A/N] 

First off, I'm pretty sure I forgot to hide this chapter earlier so to those who read it beforehend, consider that a small trailer treat! clumsy author imnida, sorry ; ;
Second, gosh, you guys are active commenters, huh? Keep it up and it'll make me happy! and upvotes will to /shot

Third! Clue for the next chapter ---> ►►►