*** 3 years later ***

“And that concludes tonight’s show, don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for our special guest host, Choi Jinri.”

Chanyeol turned off all of the soundboards and flicked off the lights. He waved goodbye to the night worker behind the soundproof glass on his way into the elevator. He plugged in his headphones and listened to a random playlist just to not be alone with his thoughts on his walk home.

“Hyung!” screams Jinyoung, running to the door.

“Yeah, buddy,” Chanyeol said. “Hyung’s home.” He slipped off his shoes and gave his little brother a hug. “Why are you still awake, hmm? It is way past your bedtime.”

Sohee emerged from the kitchen with a smile. “He wanted to say goodbye to his brother before he went to sleep.”

Chanyeol smiled and ruffled Jinyoung’s hair. “Aww. You wanted to say goodbye to me? I’m only gone for a week.”

Chanyeol picked up Jinyoung to join Sohee in the entrance of the kitchen, giving her a quick hug. “Where’s Dad?”

“Just in the bathroom.”

“Be out in a sec!” came a muffled voice from down the hall.

“No rush!” Chanyeol called back.

Sohee took Jinyoung, who was evidently showing how sleepy he was now that he had seen his brother. “You’re not forgetting anything, are you? You’re all packed?”

Chanyeol nodded. “I mean, like I said, I’m only gone for a week. There’s not a lot to pack to begin with.”

“Fair enough.”

Taejoon came out of the bathroom, sleeves rolled up to his elbow. “Hey, Chan. You feeling excited?”

“I guess so,” responded Chanyeol. “It’s just a week. Besides, it’s hardly a vacation.”

“Yeah, but you get to see your friends again! When was the last time you saw them?”

“I mean, I saw Kyungsoo and Jongin two weeks ago…”

Taejoon rapped Chanyeol’s head with a knuckle. “Yah! Be excited! Your friends are getting married! When will you?”

Chanyeol laughed and pouted dramatically. “Ouch. I’m not single by choice, Dad.”

Sohee coughed, in between spurts whispering, “Not even single.”

“What?” Chanyeol asked.

Taejoon grinned mischievously. “I’ve seen the way you interact with your friend from work. What was his name..? Jamin?”

Chanyeol narrowed his eyes. “How the hell do you mess up, Jimin, Dad? That’s, like, the easiest name in the country.”

Sohee coughed again, this time muttering, “Avoiding the subject.”

“I’m not avoiding anything!” Chanyeol defended. “I would just like to have friends without you guys thinking I’m dating them!”

Jinyoung buried his face in the crook of his mother’s neck. Sohee straightened up. “I’m going to put Jin to bed.”

Taejoon went to the kitchen and got himself a beer. He held one up to Chanyeol, but he shook his head. He hadn’t had a single drink in years. He never wanted to lose control and make stupid decisions.

“You are ready, right?” Taejoon asked. “How are you getting to the airport? Who’s picking you up? Where will you stay?”

“I’m taking a taxi to the airport, Kris is picking me up, and he’s got an Airbnb booked for all the international guests. From the pictures, it looks huge, and the description says there’s, like, room for 12.”

“Good,” Taejoon took a big gulp of his drink. “You wanna just watch some TV until you have to go?”

They the local news channel just in time to watch Yura sign off. “Wedding season is among us. To anyone flying out for a wedding, we wish you safe and fulfilling travels.”

Taejoon laughed. “She’s clever,” he said.

“Yeah, she is.” Chanyeol sent his sister a text message to say thanks.

By the time 2 o’clock had rolled around, Taejoon was nodding off. Chanyeol poked his father, who awoke with a jolt.

“Hey, Dad, the taxi’s here to pick me up.” He had his backpack and his luggage beside him, and his shoes in his hands.

“Well I guess you’ve gotta leave, then, don’t you?” The older man stood up with a grunt to give his son a hug. “Be safe, buddy. I’ll see you soon. Message me when you can.”

The taxi ride was almost silent. After all, it was 2 in the morning. Still, Chanyeol tried to make small talk to the best of his abilities, mainly to keep the driver from getting so bored that he falls asleep.

At the airport, he met up with two people who looked way too excited for a 4 AM flight standing next to another who was appropriately disdainful of still being awake.

“This is so exciting!” Kyungsoo cheered.

Jongin squeezed his boyfriend’s hand in reciprocated glee.

Joonmyun pulled his hoodie further down his face. “Guys, it’s 2 in the morning. We’re about to board a plane and stay on it for ten hours. Please don’t spend all ten hours being annoying.”

Kyungsoo made a sound that could only be described as chirping. “You’re just jealous that they wouldn’t let you invite Yixing as your ‘plus one’.”

Joonmyun rolled his eyes. “That’s not even true. Yixing didn’t feel comfortable going. I asked them and they said they were fine with it, but he just didn’t want to go.”

“Don’t you guys think we should be checking in and finding our gate?” Chanyeol pointed out.

Jongin shrugged. “My mom made Kyungsoo and I check in online to be sure.”

Joonmyun nodded. “My mom did the same.”

“What, is that a rich person thing?” Chanyeol asked with a lopsided smirk.

Jongin snorted. “You’re one to talk, DJ PCY,” he said.

The four of them started to make their way to the check-in desk for Chanyeol, and then they all went to the gate to wait for their flight. Joonmyun leaned on Chanyeol’s shoulder and fell asleep instantly, while Chanyeol busied himself with texting some of his work friends. Kyungsoo and Jongin busied each other just fine.

All four of them knocked out on the flight, awoken only by the sound of meals being passed around. After they’d eaten, Joonmyun told them that the easiest way to beat jet lag was to start following the destination time zone while on the plane, so they all fought off the urge to go back to sleep and synced up a movie to watch together instead.

Chanyeol needed to stretch his legs, so he took a walk to the bathroom. In the tiny enclosed room, he faced himself in the mirror. He splashed some water on his face to shake off this bad feeling that had been creeping up on him. “What is wrong with me? I’m going to a wedding. Why do I feel so empty?” he asked himself.

He walked back to his seat and gave Joonmyun a quick nod of his head as a silent greeting.

The stewardess came back with drinks. The four of them decided to get a glass of wine each to celebrate their first group trip. “To long lasting friendship,” they cheered.

In what felt more like ten months than ten hours, they finally landed in the Vancouver International Airport and were met at the exit by Kris and Zitao wearing suits, sunglasses, and earpieces. They each held a sign with two names on it, and stood as straight faced as possible.

“Where did you even find earpieces?” Chanyeol asked, laughing.

They didn’t answer. Zitao pressed a finger to his ear and said, “Targets have been picked up. Permission to commence Operation Exhilarating Fun.”

Kris followed with the finger to the ear bit. “Permission granted,” he said, before breaking character and pulling Chanyeol in for a hug. Zitao threw an arm around Kyungsoo and the other around Jongin.

“I’m so excited that you guys are here!” he said.

“Are we the first to arrive?” Joonmyun asked.

Kris shook his head. “Luhan and Sehun got here yesterday.”

The six of them headed out to Kris’s minivan. In a car seat, Taylor slept peacefully. Chanyeol smiled down at her, sitting right to her left. She must be, what, three years old now? Just a few months younger than Jinyoung. Maybe two and a half?

Chanyeol could remember watching her grow up through pictures and videos her parents would send often. This would be the first time he’d meet her in person.

Getting to the Airbnb wasn’t difficult at all, but the fight over rooms was vicious. Kyungsoo and Jongin had internal conflicts; one of them preferred the room with the bigger windows, while the other wanted the one closest to the stairs. Eventually, since they realized they’d be spending so very little time in the house anyway, they decided that it didn’t matter and settled for the one closest to the stairs. Luhan and Sehun were happy to greet Joonmyun, having not seen him in years. They’d seen Jongin and Kyungsoo a lot more recently.

Chanyeol calmly dropped off his bags in the room Kyungsoo and Jongin had given up. Joonmyun chose a bedroom based on where he got the best WiFi connection. They all reconvened in the kitchen and started wondering where to go for food.

“It’s, like, 8:30,” Joonmyun said.

“Tell that to my stomach,” Kyungsoo shot back. “And seeing as there’s no food in the fridge, we need to go out to eat.”

Luhan nodded. “I know of some good places from the last time I came to visit Kris.”

With Luhan leading the expedition, the group went out to eat. They called an Uber to get there, from Joonmyun’s experience in the Western hemisphere. “I never thought going out would be a group project,” said Sehun, who had made sure everyone looked nice and presentable.

They used the outing as a means to catch up with each other’s lives. Sehun had finished his degree a year early by overloading and taking a lot of summer classes. He and Luhan had apparently just come back from China, from a visit to Luhan’s family. Sehun said to Luhan in a hushed voice that “seeing that girl again was a little awkward.” Luhan laughed at that. The Chinese man said he’d been doing musical theatre in China in the winters, but how he wanted to go into directing instead.

Joonmyun talked about how he’d been doing contemporary theatre with a troupe, and that even though he wasn’t supposed to say anything yet, he revealed that he was about to make his television debut as the second male lead in a drama.

“Oh, so you’re the one everyone is going to wish the girl chose,” Kyungsoo simplified.

“Precisely,” Joonmyun said with a wink.

Chanyeol admitted that he had found fame pretty soon after graduating, landing a job as a radio DJ and doing some producing on the side. No one was surprised; they had already heard about that. In fact, Joonmyun was no stranger to the phrase “My college roommate used to date DJ PCY,” though he wouldn’t dare say that to either of the split couple.

Jongin revealed that he was actually still in school because he had gone back to study Music as well. Kyungsoo had also gone back with him.

Kyungsoo asked what Yixing had been up to, making Sehun and Luhan shift uncomfortably in their seats. “Umm,” Joonmyun mumbled. “You know, still doing his thing.”

“Still?” Luhan asked. “Hasn’t he learned his lesson?”

“Well actually… He owns an actual drugstore now.”

Jongin snickered at the irony. “You’re kidding.”

Joonmyun laughed with them. “No, my father gifted it to him to keep him out of trouble. He’s actually also going to school again. This time for pharmacology.”

Sehun burst into a fit of giggles. “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long while.”

When they wrapped up their dinner and their conversation, they went back to where they would be staying for the next week. Kris’ minivan was outside again. Luhan went in first. “Hey Kris, what’s up?”

“Nothing, just dropping off the next guests to arrive.” With that, he left, saying goodnight.

Kyungsoo and Jongin, now full like everyone else, were about to fall asleep. They decided that they would greet the new guests in the morning and retreated to their room.

Joonmyun had a new roommate, a friend of Kris and Zitao’s from their childhood. Four more such friends took the last two vacant rooms. That left Chanyeol as the only person without a roommate.

Overcome with the weight of his eyelids, he said goodnight without chatting much. Not that he could, anyway, he barely spoke a single word of Mandarin. Besides, they were pretty wiped anyway.

Chanyeol changed into his pyjamas and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

He woke up what felt like a second later, only the large windows were lighting the room now. It really didn’t feel like he’d really slept a full eight hours, but the time on the wall clock confirmed that he had. He groaned and got up, taking his time to change.

He heard the front door open and close downstairs. He could make out Zitao speaking in Mandarin to Taylor, calling her by her Chinese name, Taile. Taylor said something in reply and Kris spoke up, saying, “Taylor, listen to your baba.”

Chanyeol figured everyone else was still asleep, so he went down the stairs alone. “Hey,” he greeted the trio. Noticing the containers in their hands, he rushed to help them. “What are these?”

“Breakfast,” Zitao said with a sweet smile. “Taile helped us make it, didn’t you sweetie?”

Chanyeol smiled at the little girl. “Thank you so much, Taylor!”

The little girl hid behind Zitao’s leg.

Chanyeol noticed that the door was still open. “Is there anyone else with you?” he asked. Kris and Zitao shared a look, but before either of them could say anything, a figure approached the door, struggling to carry a small carry on suitcase and a backpack. Only when the man reached the doorframe did Chanyeol realize who it was.

“Baekhyun,” he whispered.

Baekhyun looked up and his jaw dropped ever so slightly. “H-hi Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol looked at Kris, who looked right back. “I didn’t really get a chance to tell you, you know. With Zitao’s graduation, and the wedding planning, and everything. It never felt like the right time.”

“Right,” Chanyeol said, spinning around on one sock-clad foot to climb back up the stairs.

Zitao lowered his voice to apologize to Baekhyun, and to tell him to find a vacant bed.

“The only vacant bed is in my room,” Chanyeol announced. “Come, I’ll show you where that is.”

Baekhyun gulped and threw his shoes off