Chapter Five

A/N: Next chapter after this is Chenlay focused~ and then a xiuhan/baekyeol one~ Baekyeol will have a focused chapter after and then a couple xiuhan focused ones (I found my old copy of my plan :3 )

Minseok chews on the free popcorn given to him by the company for completing the background music for one of the songs. He wasn't sure on what to call the song but he has a bit of an idea on what it's going to be about. It has a happy vibe to it, so it must have happy, joyful, rainbow lyrics right? You can't give it a happy joyful melody and mix it with heart-breaking lyrics, no that's just wrong. It would be like, putting the lyrics of K. Will's Please Don't.. to SHINee's Hello. Both songs are great yes, but...you can't make them cry when you have happy-go-lucky melodies and harmonies going on in the background can you? Likewise vice versa, you can't make them feel happy with sad, depressing tunes (well you can but imagine violins, pianos, and cellos all performing a sad, sad tune with happy 'life is great, life is awesome!' lyrics).

His feet is resting on a stack of old Mandarin workbooks that he's been procrastinating for the past few months as he watches Yixing talk on the radio corner. It's nearing Luhan's birthday he thinks, he needs to find some sort of present for him. He shakes the thought of, he'll stress about it later. He figures that he should start paying attention now, this is Yixing's first time doing the radio broadcast freestyle (he stayed up late writing songs and forgot to write out the script, he swears Yixing almost killed him that morning).

"In idol news lately, SNSD returned with I Got A Boy a couple weeks ago! How are you guys liking it? Sone's, leave your comments below on your opinion on this comeback and we'll read some out next time! Personally, I like Hyoyeon-noona the best, along with Yuri-noona! But they're all really pretty and talented and I hope you all give them lots of love! We'll come back after the break to discuss other groups such as SHINee's Misconceptions of You, it is January 29, 10:28am. Here is SHINee's 'Dream Girl'."

Minseok zones out again, there's really no point in him focusing. He feels his pocket vibrate, and on his phone he notices that he has one new message from the only and only Luhan.

Luhan:

I'm bored Seok.

Minseok:

Don't you have like work to do??

Luhan:

Don't you?

Minseok:

Xing's on the radio

I'm on free time

Luhan:

I know! Let's play a game

Minseok:

Luhan you need to work you know

Luhan:

Pshhhh, Baek and Chanyeol are missing rn and the dance instructor is giving us a well earned break and are you going to statisfy the hard working, physically drained idol?

Minseok:

…

Luhan:

I'll take that as a yes and I saw trainees playing this game earlier, 21 questions I think?

Minseok:

Luhan, you are aware that that game is used mostly by people to find out if someone has a great life or what

Luhan:

...

That explained the scene

Minseok:

...

Luhan:

Anyway, let's play.

How tall are you?

Minseok:

Around 170cm, How long have you been in Korea for?

Luhan:

Can't remember, use three words or syllables in any language to describe me

Minseok:

Quite descriptive

I don't know

What do people say

Small idol deer

Luhan:

I have no idea what you just said.

Is that English?

Minseok:

Ye, have to go now.

Luhan:

Fine leave me

Don't complain later

Bye Seok

Minseok:

Bye Han

Minseok stares at his silent and unmoving phone and sighs, it should be time for him to go to his shift.

He quickly grabs a notepad and a marker and jots down a quick note for Yixing. He quickly taps the glass during a song to gain his attention and Yixing stares quizzically at the notepad saying 'Xing, I have to go to my cafe now, good luck with the radio broadcast :)" When Yixing realised what exactly he was implying (hint working by himself), he frantically waved his arms around with eyes pleading him 'Minseok-hyung, please, pity me. Pity, pity, pity. Please, I'll cook you dinner for a month!'. But alas, Minseok is prone to those eyes (most of the time), and he waves  him goodbye.

He doesn't notice how there isn't a guard greeting him.

***

On Minseoks way out of the building, he notices someone waiting on the edge of the exit. Usually he exits through the door no one remembers because it wasn't in the map, and it leads him to the back of the building except it's not really the back of the building it's just a dumpsite that is rarely visited by anyone except him and Yixing.

It's easier for Yixing, since they already know he works there, but not so much for Minseok.

Yixing questions him some days, why does he do it to himself. Separating himself into three different identities and making it hard on himself. Minseok only smiles at him, he never answers.

It was only a theory laid out by his father. He isn't even in Minseok's or anyone's lives anymore to be questioned. He never even was to begin with.

Minseok halts in his footsteps, he's in the tunnel now, the last part until he exits into the dumpsite. He hears a rush of voices go echo through the tunnel and he frantically hopes it isn't anyone that will recognise him.

"Baek, hurry up, the managers will be angry to know that we've been here the whole time!"

"Ugh, Chanyeol short legs remember!!"

"Use those 'chocolate abs' of yours!"

"I'm trying but they are nutella right now and you can't just summon them without a warning!"

Minseok sighs, but he doesn't relax yet. Chanyeol and Baekhyun might be known as some of the 'chill' members but they are band members of Luhan and ah, they have the ability to expose him any time they would like if they were to find out. He slips into a gap in the tunnel, it's too dark for him to see anything and he hopes it's that way also for Baekhyun and Chanyeol.

Their voices come closer, and the tip tap of the their shoes become more distinct. They pass through Minseok without sparing a glance and Minseok finally relaxes. He catches the shadows of them and notice that both of them seemed to have their guitars strapped onto their backs.

It's weird that there are even people here. It's weirder that there are people here with guitars.

This place was meant to be an incredibly confidential path out that no one except Minseok, Yixing and a select few guards should know about, now that it was proven by the beagle idols that it was possible for others to discover this part it terrified Minseok greatly. What kind of excuse would he have if he were to be found here? He can't take Minseok, they don't even know Minseok. Gold, no one knows except for those few in the company. Xiumin was his only shot, but Xiumin has never been seen without makeup for identity reasons and god he doesn't want to go through all the trouble of putting makeup on and putting more pressure on the stylists and finding insoles, only to remove it when he's out oh god he would be such a mess.

Once they are out of sight completely and Minseok has tested with a pebble (Baekhyun was known to be one of the more 'noise sensitive' members eg. Luhan told Minseok that once when they went to a carnival as trainees, Baekhyun had wondered off from their sight and somehow, he heard Jongdae's shouts through the heavy crowd of screaming children who complained about not being able to eat cotton candy), he steps out, with his hood over his head, in a last minute effort just in case. Just in case, was always the key phrase for him. You could never go wrong with 'just in case', it might be useless, it might not be. You don't know what's going to happen, so just in case do it.

Minseok ponders as he moves farther out, should he request extra security? How did they even get past the guards? Should he even report it? It doesn't seem worth reporting, for now at least. But maybe, just in case? No, he doesn't want those to get into more trouble as it is. They were busy enough with comeback preparations. Minseok understands, they need some recluse from the world, and maybe guitars are their way out.

On the way out of the gloomy cave and into the streaming light, he notices a bright red thing on the ground. It's slightly covered with dirt, and was probably dropped hastily in a rush.

It's a guitar pick with BBH embed into it. It looks fancy, the type they sell for $50 on the Internet. Minseok admits he does sort of want to keep it, but he knows Baekhyun wouldn't want that and plus, he doesn't even play the guitar. (Although he can't lie that he has had a past interest in it, but as soon as he asked Yixing to learn how to play, he was instantly confused and thus never made another step to learn the complicated instrument.)

For now, he pockets it and  makes his way towards the coffee shop, just like his routine tells him to.

Fast forward to lunch……..the time everyone looks forward to

There isn't very much people in the cafe today for lunch, so they decide to put the closed sign up front so that they could all take a well earned break (that morning had everyone rushing and tripping and you could say they may have earned a lot of profit). Of course they wouldn't be able to close it for long, people did need their daily rush of caffeine.

While the other workers chose to hide out in the backroom, Minseok chose to stay in the front and continue to wipe of the tables with his apron still on. It was a very silent day, the streets were somehow quieter and had less people in it. Perhaps it was because it was getting hotter that made people reconsider getting coffee.

The bell attached to the front door rang as Minseok set down his cleaning supplies. There by the entrance, right on time Minseok thinks, is of course Luhan.

Lately, Luhan's been visiting fewer, Minseok understands that he has lots of comeback preparations now. Especially since it's getting closer and closer and he knows the management has spent lots of money on this comeback. He briefly remembers his lot of songs that he needs to write but shrugs it off, he still has around two months and he's already finished the instrumental for one of the songs.

"Hey Minseok." He looks tired today he thinks. "I know the shops closed but do you mind..?" Luhan stops his sentence as Minseok goes into the kitchen and exits retrieving a cup of coffee. "Thanks."

"No problem, you look like you could use it. What have you guys been doing, you look tired." Minseok drew out a chair for Luhan and both of them sat on opposite sides.

"Lots of preps. It's confusing, they drag us into meetings and even Junmyeon-hyung was falling asleep from the boringness. All I gathered was that we're doing a 'wolf' concept and then a 'high school' concept next. I'm looking forward to when this concept is done and over with, high school seems like a nice and non embarrasing concept to portray." Luhan takes a seat from the table and lets his hands fall into his palms, while making a sound of distress while MInseok pats his back comfortingly.

"Just grit through it Luhan, who knows maybe this comeback you guys will score your first win."

Luhan whines and lets his arm drop and his head rest on the table, "I hope so, because I think SM might give up on us."

Minseok snorts, "They're not going to give up on you guys yet Xiao Lu, it's only like going to be your first comeback."

"Yes but," Luhan swipes to his right, accidently causing the cup to slip off the table and crash pitifully on the glass floor. "Oh my gosh, Minseok, I'm really sorry." Minseok got up from his seat, gave Luhan a comforting look and took the cleaning brush from the shelf. Luhan made a move to grab some towels from the other side, but as Luhan passed Minseok, one of his legs caught with Minseok's and caused him to trip. Luckily, Luhan caught him in time his arms around the elder. Luhan slipped, but soon caught himself and found his face incredibly close to Minseok's.

Their faces screamed surprise, and their eyes widened. Minseok hurriedly tore his arms from Luhan, cheeks showing a slight tint of pink. The air in the cafe was silent except for the buzz of chatter from the back room and neither Minseok nor Luhan knew what to do. Minseok's face was of a calm compose person  while he swept the mess from the floor away but inside his head was an entirely different situation.

He couldn't stop thinking about how close he and the idol were to touching lips and he couldn't help but think what would have happened if he took a different action, a bolder action towards the idol and not foolishly let the chance sweep by him. Would his lips have felt soft and luscious? Does Luhan kiss softly, passionately or roughly? He felt like he wanted in some way know this but he quickly shook those thoughts away, Luhan after all was an idol with no personal space or privacy. He was barely even sure of how he felt towards him. He met him during his trainee years, and now the Xiumin thing and the Gold thing, oh god he's bloody stupid but he does it for him. Maybe in the end it'll be worth it, an ultimate proof.

"I didn't even get to taste the coffee." It's Luhan who breaks the silence.

Minseok chuckles, the mood is still tense from the previous accident and he's not sure how he's going to survive the day with the image of Luhan's eyes up close to him, shock evident but lips alarmingly close and so near, so, so, near.  Maybe one day he'll be thankful for this, or maybe he might regret it.

"Yes it was a great coffee gone to waste, your clumsiness never ceases to amaze me, guy whose prettier than Wendy and Cinderella. Unfortunately, my workers are going to come out of the room anytime soon and I'm not sure how they'd react to seeing an idol like you here."

"J-just wait a second!"

Minseok looks up from his broom and holds his chin on the top with a small smile, "What is it? Do you want me to tell you I'm going to miss you Xiao?"

"Yes sure, that's exactly what I was going to say." Luhan let's every word drip with sarcasm and he thinks Tao's beginning to wear off on him more than he likes. "Anyway, I was just wondering from another day, do you by chance write my name on the coffee cups you give me?"

Minseok looks up thoughtfully, "Yeah sometimes I think. It's vague for me but it's a habit either way. What why? Do you think my handwriting is horrible? Too bad, lots of people have already beat you to it."

Luhan chuckles,"Nah it's something else. Well bye I guess, I won't be coming tomorrow, I have a modelling campaign thing."

Minseok momentarily freezes in his steps, he had forgotten about the fact that Luhan was going to be there. Oh well. "Yeah, bye Xiao, me and my ugly handwriting are going to be stuck in this cafe for the whole day, not that I'm complaining. It is my cafe after all."

Luhan waves goodbye as he escapes stealthily from the shop with millions of thoughts flooding his head from this small visit.

Rewind a bit back in the day…

Whenever Baekhyun was stressed or tired, he would go to his guitar for comfort. When he was overwhelmed by everything, he would seperate himself from the others, mentally and physically. When he was distraught, he would hug others to feel their warmth.

And this was all he got and more when Park Chanyeol entered his life.

Their meeting wasn't all the special, but the changes in his life were. Chanyeol was an all new comfort and experience brought to him in the form of a musically talented human. Sometimes he could compare him to Hercules as in the way that he was tall, and sometimes it would slip off his tongue, but unlike Hercules, Chanyeol was definitely not muscular. Sure he was strong, stronger than Baekhyun and his undeniably pretty but weak hands, but he wouldn't say his strength was Hercules strong.

As Baekhyun woke up that morning and headed to the company building, he felt very, very exhausted emotionally. January was only ending, the draining practises only rolled in during March and he doesn't know how he'll cope because this is such a big transition for him. Suddenly, he wasn't a free person to roam endlessly and go wherever he pleases, he was set into full on practise mode.

Along with feeling exhausted, he felt overwhelmed with the comeback news. And now, of all things he was feeling adventurous and missed those days when he and Chanyeol would sneak out of the dorms and scavenge through the building. Most of the times they didn't find anything interesting, but it was the adrenaline rush that they did it for. It was for the excitement pouring through their veins, it was for the suspense they were offered.

Whenever Baekhyun felt this mix of feelings, he would always do poorly during practises and of course, Chanyeol would also as a side effect from this...this...state.

So they did the only thing they thought sensible to cure this horrendous state, they ditched practise after all the major ones were finished. Although they ditching would be a wilder way of saying it. Before they had conversed it with each other, Chanyeol made sure to tell the instructors and they hesitantly agreed to his plan, knowing that if the practise wasn't going to be worth it, it's better they heal themselves while at this stage.

So Baekhyun and Chanyeol, while the members were chatting and instructors distracted, stealthily escaped the dance room and fetched their guitars from their lockers. Oddly enough, these lockers where most kept their guitars were stationed near an abandoned corridor, with security guarding it at all times that they had seen. The corridor was out of bounds to everybody but the people the security guards let through, and that told Baekhyun and Chanyeol only one thing; that is was unexplored territory.

Of course, an unexplored territory meant to them, their next adventure. Baekhyun took a fleeting glance at Chanyeol who nodded to him, a sneaky cheshire like smile sneaking to his lips. Baekhyun mirrored that, eyes smiling along, oh he could feel the adrelanine rush already. This was risky to both of them and maybe even their comeback will be pushed back. Baekhyun shivered at the thought of the other members, especially Jongdae who had been the most looking forward to performing again, when they were told that their comeback was pushed back due to Baekhyun and Chanyeol's recklessness. But this was the only thing that could heal Baekhyun from this pitiful state (even the managers felt pity on him that morning and gave him more time in the shower and a couple more slices of bread for breakfast), and he would not let this pass by.

Baekhyun's eyes widened as he saw a tall figure exit the room, it was Zhang Yixing dressed casually. He talked to the guards for a while and this was when the duo decided to make the run for it. In this corridor, once they got passed the guards were two doors, one on the right one on the left but luckily, once in the hallway it made a quick corner turn effectively hiding themselves from the guards. After that, neither could see from their angle but they hoped that wouldn't mean more guards because they have no good reason to be in the forbidden territory.

Almost as if luck was on their side, the guards stepped aside and began chatting to each other. Maybe a wardrobe was about to come through because the security made way out of the pathway and over towards another area. It was almost too perfect when Baekhyun and Chanyeol came through the corridor and as promissed, the corner was there ready for them. Baekhyun fought to keep himself from laughing because bloody hell they made it through. The duo high-fived each other and had grins that could be mistaken for craziness on their faces but they didn't care, it was almost as if it was their trainee life again.

Once around the corner, it was a slow descent and Baekhyun could vaguely make out a bright light coming towards them. Fortunately, as they ran towards it, no one was there and it was only the revelation of a large tunnel like cave. It was quite large compared to the thin hallway and offered large spaces. "Yeol what is this place?" At the end of the tunnel was an escape way that possibly lead out to the city but that wasn't their goal, their goal was to explore.

Chanyeol adjusted the guitar on his back and replied. "I have no idea....it wasn't on the map of the building. Come on, they're lots of small hallways in here to be discovered and rummaged through. BBH?" Chanyeol offered his hand to Baekhyun, while spelling out his initials which they used as their 'codeword'.

Baekhyun's eyes held a glimmer in it, and very slightly sparkled, "Of course, PCY." He took the offered hand and both ran, towards the end of the tunnel where they would begin to scavenge out this place and maybe, have a guitar break.

***

After going through a matter of corridors, it seemed like a maze to them and that intrigued them further. They found a clean bench in one of the cleaner hallways and settled down there. Chanyeol ped his guitar case to reveal a wooden acoustic brown guitar and a guitar pick coloured red with PCY embed onto it out of black ink. Likewise, Baekhyun ped his and inside was a sleek black acoustic guitar and a similar pick, except with BBH embed onto it.

Slowly, tunes began to flood the empty silent space and smiles adorned their young vibrant faces.

Later on in the day... Yixing...

People often wonder what else Yixing does as part of his job.

He choreographs and models, they all know that but he hasn't had any groups to choreograph for a while now, and modelling only makes enough money. Models do make a great profit from looking great and wearing clothes, but he's only a part time model and he turns down lots of the offers thrown at him anyway. When was the last time he even made the front cover? Was it his last deal with Ivy Club in March last year? He can't recall.

So what else does he do, to maintain his rich and high status?

As part of his role in SM, Yixing keeps track of news reports, netizen news and fan related issues to report back to the company. It's a well known fact between the company and it's artists that Dispatch is their worst enemy along with professional fans gone wrong. Dispatch releases most of the idol related scandals and well every couple months or so SM along with other companies, let's call it 'bribe' Dispatch to keep silent about recent news and control when certain things are released. Even so, Dispatch can't seem to keep it's hands to themeselves at times and end up releasing unwanted dating scandals and such.

It's quiet interesting going through, infiltrating fans' bases and forums and one time he even stumbled upon pieces of fanfiction. That was not a road he was prepared for and Yixing definitely knows that he won't be going to those anytime soon.

After doing his search around controversies and recent SM scandals and reviewing songs for Minseok, Yixing packs away his laptop and shuts down the radio system. He should be meeting the sharp cheekbone owning EXO-M member soon in the practise room.

A strange buzz emerged from the speakers by the microphone. Yixing furrowed his eyebrows, the radio corner had ended a couple hours ago and he had just shut down the system. "What…?" He tilts his head quizzically as words appear on the screen used during radio sessions.

February 16 . . . .

Among other scrambled words, those two words were the most visible to him. Rushing, Yixing takes his phone out and snaps pictures of the incident and records the strange sound. Sure they had CCTV, but CCTV can only capture so much and can be tampered easily. It was best to have his own copy.

The buzzing suddenly stops but the words don't stop processing on the screen until Yixing takes the plug off the wall for the screen. This was certainly out of the ordinary, and not something to be expected. Yixing's never encountered something like this before and it's sort of mystifying in a way, like something you would find in a mystery show or even a horror movie Minseok would force him to watch (he always cried, Minseok never did).

Sighing, Yixing switches the lights off and heads to the practise room he promised Jongdae would meet him in.

There, right on time was Jongdae rehearsing their new album track over and over. Even from entering, Yixing could easily see the sweat drops trickling down Jongdae's face and staining his t-shirt.

From his current angle, Yixing could tell what he needed to work on with for the younger. His movements needed to be more synchronised with each other, and often in his rush to perform the next move, he would forget to make the previous movements sharp and thus made it look sloppy.

Only the chorus was set on repeat over and over again, until Jongdae could take it no more and hastily switched off the system and collapsed on the floor with his water bottle in hand.

A cold white towel dropped onto his face and he scrunched his nose as he removed it. "Ugh…" He wiped his neck with it and then looked up from his seating position. Yixing was standing there, with his hands in his pockets and looking absolutely perfect and handsome to Jongdae and ugh, he must look like a train wreck of stinky sweat (he figures that he can fanboy later in the dorms about the fact that Zhang freaking Yixing gave him a towel). Jongdae hastily sits up and smiles at the intruder. "Hi. Hey. How are you?"

Yixing crouched down, "Good, why don't you take a break, you're basically swimming in sweat."

Jongdae chuckled and stood up and took a large gulp of much needed water and smiled at Yixing. "I think I'll need a while."

He chuckled, "It's fine, we have all the time we need."

(Jongdae internally screamed.)

A/N Finally! I'm sure there's a couple of errors but I'll go back later to fix it :) Anyway 100+ subs! I'm so thankful for you guys~ I was a bit late in updating but that was because of lots of things that I have committed to OTL Thank you for the comments on the last chapter and I was really happy that you guys liked it, because it had been changed drastically (more than I planned).

Thank you for reading~