Joonmyun stuffed his sunglasses into his pocket, he checked the time. "Guys, you have to start packing about now, we're leaving this afternoon."

The door to one of the dorm rooms swung open, and out came a Zitao still in his pajamas. "Unbelievably, Tao is again not participating in EXO activities. And on that shocking information, good morning!"

"You're up. Sleepy head." Sehun flashed him a sweet smile. "Come here."

"Why don't I get to go with you?" He snuggled up into Sehun's arms, "It's boring being by myself."

"Because you have to treat your wounds first." Sehun pinched his nose.

"Ouch."

"A-hem," the leader gestured for them to part, "Sehun, go packing."

"Why don't I get to stay behind with Taozi?" He got up, stumbled away.

Joonmyun sighed, "Zitao, go help him pack or something."

"Of course, because that's just what I am supposed to do. Be supoortive, no matter what, even from a distance. A long, long distance." Zitao strolled off, mumbling words as he walked pass Jongdae, who was leaning against the doorframe of Baekhyun's and Chanyeol's room, bag already in hand.

And the leader sighed again. As the now second-oldest in the group, he sometimes really didn't know what was up between his dongsaengs and their sarcasm.

"Aww look at Taozi, he wants to go to Vietnam with us." Jongdae leaned into the room and told the person inside.

"Well, I don't see extreme upside to that. I mean, yeah, I really want to greet our fans but, I'm tired of flying around." Baekhyun sat up on his bed, legs folded.

Jongdae raised his eyebrows and pointed to his bag, "Too late, you're not getting out from this, so start preparing."

"Tell me why we are in this showbiz industry again?" Baekhyun whined as he began packing his bag for Hanoi.

"Because you're loud and doesn't shut up?" Jongdae joked.

"Yeah, right back at you."

"No, apparently I'm not as annoying as you." Jongdae shifted his posture in disagreement.

Kyungsoo passed by the door and spared Jongdae a semi-approval look. He then continued to the kitchen for a drink.

"Where do you even get that illusion from?" Baekhyun picked up two t-shirts and turned to Jongdae, "which one do you think I should wear to the airport today?"

"You didn't pick out any clothes last night?"

"Says the one who didn't give me enough alone time last night." Baekhyun rolled his eyes, "Come on, which one?"

Jongdae bit his lip. Technically, it was his fault that the other couldn't make wardrobe plans. "That gray one."

Baekhyun frowned, "Gray one? But you know I like the black one more."

"Then why do you ask me?" Jongdae laughed, "besides, I'm already wearing black today, don't you dare copy my style."

And somewhere in the distance, Kyungsoo was trying hard to think of any peice of clothing of his that wasn't black.

"Copy your style? I'm above that." Baekhyun retorted. But he still lay the gray t-shirt on his bed and hung the black one back into the closet. "And what you're wearing isn't a t-shirt, that's a turtleneck and hence we are different."

"We will be different as long as you stay away from my dressing style. Thank you."

"Shut up." Baekhyun slammed the closet door.

Joonmyun's eyes flew open at the sound, and decided to leave the couch to check on the members who were potentially not getting ready.

"Aww, he said shut up to me." Jongdae, now about to prove Kyungsoo's opinion wrong, teased.

"Are you guys packing or what?" Joonmyun walked up behind Jongdae, arms on his waist, "And please stop flirting around in the dorm, there are people everywhere."

"Just make him go away," Baekhyun pleaded.

Jongdae put his hand over his left chest with a surprised expression, "Ouch. That hurt."

"You heard him, Jongdae-a. Go somewhere else." Joonmyun patted him on the back and left to make sure everyone else wasn't fooling around like the two-thirds of the infamous beagle line.

He turned around headed off, and caught Chanyeol stepping out from Jongin's and Kyungsoo's room, a mad bright smile plastered on his face.

"Chan!" Joonmyun called out, "What were you doing in there? Were you bothering Jongin?"

The giant happy fluff ball jumped at his voice, "No, why?"

"What's with that creepy smile then?"

"That's how I smile!" Chanyeol said, "And, you know what the fans say, if it's not creepy, it's not Chanyeol's smile."

Joonmyun shook his head, "You've been spending too much time on the internet."

"You're the one that is living in a cave," Chanyeol laughed, "man, you don't even have any SNS account."

"I have the official website and the EXO-L site. I'm content with that."

"But even Jongin's got an Instagram!" Chanyeol kept on, "you should consider making one."

"I'll think about it someday," Joonmyun sighed, once more.

Chanyeol frowned, "You have been sighing the whole day. What is up?"

"Nothing. Just go pack." He replied, "and check on the other two, Jongdae was annoying Baekhyun."

"Isn't he always?" Chanyeol laughed and walked away.

Joonmyun stood in place, suddenly feeling an urge to lie down and just sleep through the day. With their first comeback as 10 members, as another start, as a brand new EXO, he definitely felt stressed out being the only leader of the team. But being the leader wasn't as depressing as what he was going through these days.

"What was that about?"

Joonmyun didn't need to turn to be able tell that Kyungsoo was right behind him.

"Weren't you in the kitchen?" He asked back.

"I was. But then not anymore," Kyungsoo said, "so, what was that about?"

"What?" This time, Joonmyun turned to face the younger.

"Catching Chanyeol as if he did something wrong." Kyungsoo squinted, "I get it that he was in Jongin's and my room, but even I'm fairly okay with that. Why wasn't it for you?"

Joonmyun flashed a wry smile.

"Hmm," Kyungsoo shrugged, "You don't want to talk about it. Fine." He made a move to go around the other.

"Wait, Kyungsoo." Joonmyun called.

"Yes?"

"You will stay with us, right? With me?"

Now it was Kyungsoo who sighed, "Joonmyun, stop thinking about that. We're having our comeback and you have to cut yourself a slack."

"But," Joonmyun bit his lip, "everyone looks happy with each other and... you know."

"Well, at least they're happy," Kyungsoo continued, "and that's a good thing. You have to lighten up your spirits, the others wouldn't want to see you grunting all day."

"I'm not." Joonmyun let out a dry laugh, "it's just right around these days last year, we were preparing for the new comeback, and..."

"I know."

"It's like deja vu all over again. I don't know." Joonmyun inhaled, but stopped himself before he sighed again.

"You'll get past it." Kyungsoo gave him a pat on the arm, "You will. The rest of the group has."

Kyungsoo then proceeded to his room, in which Jongin was lying on the bed with his phone.

"Hey." Jongin acknowledged Kyungsoo's presence. "Baby."

"Hey you," Kyungsoo sat down beside him. The bed sqeaked a little under the change of weight.

"Hey me?" Jongin narrowed his eyes. "Try something else."

Kyungsoo stared back at him with confusion, "what?"

"Oh, come on," Jongin tilted his head backwards, "you're supposed to, you know, call me baby."

Kyungsoo turned away and rolled his eyes.

"Okay, pun intended."

"Stop it with your chessiness!" Kyungsoo hit Jongin's stomach.

"But I like it!" Jongin grabbed Kyungsoo and pulled him down onto the bed with him, "It's fun."

Kyunsoo struggled to get away from the youger's grasp but in vain, "But why do you promote within the group? Aren't you supposed to go on Instagram and post something that will actually draw more attention to our comeback?"

"I do that." Jongin pouted, "But then you'll say that I spend so much time on Instagram that you're being left alone."

"I don't. Do I?" Kyungsoo started tickling Jongin and finally rolled off freely. "Did I say that?"

"Oh, when did you not say that?" Jongin shook his head.

"Well, I guess I like to keep you to myself." Kyungsoo sat up at the other side of the bed, he shrugged, "I mean, who doesn't?"

"I get it, I get it." Jongin laughed, "I may be their KAI, but I'm always only your Jongin."

"Now you get the point."

"It sounds a little different coming from my mouth though," Jongin approached Kyungsoo again, "since your the one that usually says it."

"Uh-huh," Kyungsoo looked away as Jongin drew closer, "you make it sound like I'm possessive."

It was then when Minseok popped his head into the room, about to say something, but kind of stopped to see what event would play out.

"Well, if that's the case," Jongin drew even closer and he made Kyungsoo face him, "that makes the two of us."

"Back off," Kyungsoo scoffed.

"Why?"

"We're leaving for Vietnam this afternoon," Kyungsoo stood up. "That's in a few hours."

"So?"

"We need to, you know," Kyungsoo smirked, "Save some energy. And if you come any closer I cannot promise you'll get off easy."

Minseok let out a whistle. Both Kyungsoo and Jongin turned to the door, startled.

"That was a heavily tensed conversation you were having there," the oldest tilted his head, "hate to break this to you, but Joonmyun's telling people to concentrate on packing."

"Man, ain't he a control freak these days?" Jongin pouted, "He's getting grumpier."

Minseok and Kyungsoo exchanged a look. Then Kyungsoo spoke up, "He's got issues that he needs to get over with. Leave him be, that's all."

Minseok nodded along, "We'll see."

 

 

 

 

It wasn't until another two or three hours that all memebers had finished packing and choosing out an outfit or even, put their clothes back on.

"You two are too hyperactive," Jongdae commented as Zitao and Sehun finally walked out of their room, hair sightly messy.

"Says the one who kept us all up last night," Sehun shot back.

"Hey! How come I always get these 'last night' remarks?" Jongdae held up his hands.

"Maybe cause you give pretty good 'last nights', you know?" Baekhyun closed his eyes and sighed after a second, "nah, I'd say they're great last nights."

"Shut up." Joonmyun threw them a glare. "No flirting, I said."

Most of them looked at thier leader, all wondering what triggered his fretful switch.

"What's eating you up, really?" Zitao sat himself down on the armrest of the couch, legs dangling, "No flirting? Since when is that a rule?"

"Zitao-" Joonmyun started.

"Is this about Kris?"

Eveyone's eyes flew to the one who voiced the question, while Jongdae just leant back as if he had just asked what time it was.

Joonmyun opened his mouth but didn't speak. Kyungsoo and Minseok internally expected their leader to admit the fact.

"It is about Kris." Chanyeol realised after several seconds.

"Look, guys, don't make me sound so-"

"Soft?"

"Nostalgic?"

"Weak?"

"Sensitive?"

The beagle line and their new panda addition didn't even give Joonmyun a chance to finish his sentence.

"But, this is about Kris?" Jongin questioned. "So you've been bossing us around because you had a fling with Kris?"

Joonmyun snapped, "Who didn't have a fling with Kris?"

Several of them gulped.

All members except three looked at each other with guilt. The noisy atmosphere finally died down until one of the not-guilty members broke the silence.

"Well," Minseok shrugged, "I didn't."

"Neither did I." Jongin scratched his head, "but really? All of you?"

Sehun let out a scoff, "Don't count me in." He then started laughing, "Did Kris really manage to get so many of you? Wow."

They were on the verge of bursting into taunting laughter when Jongdae just casually chipped in, "We can almost count Luhan in also, if he was here."

The three fell silent.

"Ah, come on," Jongdae continued, "Drop the sentimental act, guys. The past is the past."

"Second." Zitao nodded.

"We'll get past it," Kyungsoo rubbed at Jongin's thighs.

"Ditto."

Joonmyun sniffed, then brought his hands up to massage his eyes. "As long as you are ready for this comeback, we're gonna be fine."

"Man, I'm ready as hell. Look at me," Sehun flippd his hair. "fabulous."

"Don't... don't do that." Baekhyun hissed, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Says the one who claims to greatly enjoy somebody's last nights."

Jongdae widened his eyes in disbelief. "Leave me out of this!"

Jongin actually laughed at the two couples bickering. He and Kyungsoo being another pair of lovers in this group, yet neither of them had gotten themselve into a quarrel with the Beagle or maknae couple. To be honest, he would attribute this to the fact that Kyungsoo has the nature of scaring the wits out of whoever comes against him.

Jongin grabbed Kyungsoo by the hand as the latter seemed utterly wierded out all of a sudden, "Thank you."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Kyungsoo retrieved his hand, "But you're welcome."

Zitao studied them for a second, and stated, "You guys are strange."

And this time, Jongin smiled even wider when he saw Zitao cringe at Kyungsoo's fake attempt to slap his head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The airport was the same, flooded with their fans and reporters all eager to get a glimpse of and to snap tons of pictures of EXO.

Kyungsoo didn't ease up until they finally got on the plane and was temporary free from all the stares and exclaims and flashlights. Their manager told them to find their own seats, as there were only 8 of them, seating arrangements weren't as difficult as before.

Jongin flopped down beside Kyungsoo, "Hey, why were you on your phpone in the airport?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Kyungsoo looked up and gestured Jongin to push their luggage a little more inwards. Jongin stood up again.

"You don't do that often at airports. You usually the one who is," Jongin lowered his head and sat back down, "well, not using any electronic device."

"Like I said, the rest of you spend too much time on your phones and your tablets. Of course I'm going to look like the only lucid one." Kyungsoo picked up the escape guide in the seatpocket, "We should go through this."

"Yes we should, but later," Jongin took the paper out also, "So tell me why aren't you the lucid one today?"

Kyungsoo frowned. "I was... umm..."

"What?"

"I was browsing through information about us." Kyungsoo sighed, "there is a lot."

"There is always a lot of info about us, we're in an idol group."

"Yeah, but I mean, you can never finish catching up all of it," Kyungsoo fished out Jongin's phone from his pocket, "The harder you try, the more impossible it's gonna get."

He continued, "And it will take up more and more of your thoughts, your mind, your time, and even your life."

"Where are you getting at this?"

"Browsing about ourselves is going to consume up our lives!" Kyungsoo turned off Jongin's phone. "I don't know how you mange to keep an Instagram account and not explode."

Realization hit Jongin, "Are you saying that I should stop using Instagram?"

"Not really, but yes, that's the idea."

"But I'm not on Instagram every second every day," Jongin took his phone back from Kyungsoo.

"Yet."

"You don't really think-" Jongin paused, "Do you really think that?"

Kyungsoo bit the inside of his mouth, "I guess. Before you got that account, the fans only post pictures about you and write what they want to say; but now? Now they get to tag you and to call you their Kai, their Jongin... Now everyone gets to call you baby."

"Are you-" Jongin widened his eyes, and then smiled, "You're jealous! You're jealous of our fans!"

"They are always leaving messages like, 'I love you Jongin-a', 'You're my baby', 'My baby Jongin' on your pictures," Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, "I don't like that."

"You don't like that." Jongin repeated in amazement. Who thought a mere SNS account would make a boyfriend frustrated?

"I'm the one who gets to call you baby." Kyungsoo stuffed the escape guide back into the seat pocket.

"Sure, now you want to call me baby?" Jongin laughed.

"Not funny, Jongin."

"Okay, I understand. I am going to say this again: I am their KAI, but I'm always only your Jongin." Jongin leant back on the seat. "Remember that."

"I will." Kyungsoo closed his eyes, "And now I'm going to sleep. You had better get some rest, you were practically yawning all your way through the airport."

"Uh-huh." Jongin closed his eyes as well, but didn't fall asleep immediately. He pondered on what Kyungsoo said for a while before drifting off.

The flight attendants came around tending passengers shortly after the plane steadied in the accurate flying altitude.

"Do you think I should get some wine this time?" Baekhyun asked Jongdae.

"No." Came a stern voice behind them. They turned.

Joonmyun looked at them with weary eyes, "You're not drinking on the plane. We have a schedule once we land."

"But I've kinda always wanted to taste wine in the air. It's cool." Baekhyun replied, and Jongdae remained silent.

"Not now. Not when you're on schedule for the group." Joonmyun shook his head.

"Alright then, grumpy." Baekhyun turned back and asked for apple juice instead.

Joonmyun sat there, watching Baekhyun pass a cup to Jongdae, flirting along. He glanced at Jongin and Kyungsoo both asleep on each other's shoulder. And there was Sehun, possibly sending messages to Zitao on his phone. Chanyeol was listening to music, and perhaps composing up a new medoly in his mind. Minseok was watching some movie in the entertaining system.

Speaking of composing, Joonmyun thought about Yixing. The other was still in Beijing doing his personal schedule. He imagined how Yixing was doing. Maybe it was fun and relaxing, afterall being in a person's homeland and around thier own mother language is indeed comforting.

Chinese. Why didn't he know how to speak Chinese? How was he supposed to be the face of a bilingual group now that he couldn't speak the other language?

Joonmyun sighed. If he had known Chinese, he wouldn't be half as panicked as he was now, on a foreign schedule with no one who knew how to speak Chinese. And if he had known Chinese, he would have been able to understand what the fan he ran into several months ago was talking about.

If only he had known Chinese, he might have had understood Kris a little more.

Joonmyun still missed their previous member and he hated to admit it, even to think about it. But the young ones were right, he had been dwelling on this too much.

If the company's idea was right, this comeback would serve as their second debut. And Joonmyun felt the urge to completely move on and let go, but he had been trying to do so for months and he knew it was easier said than done.

The seatbelt lights suddenly flickered on, and the captain announced they were encountering a current. The plane swayed for almost half a minute, then finally resmued to its steady staus.

Joonmyun sighed inwards, and then closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

Later that day, after they landed in Hanoi airport, and had arrived at the hotel, the manager gave the room keys to them and told them to stay inside the room for the night, lest any fans barge into the hotel and take pictures everywhere.

"Four rooms this time," Joonmyun held the keycards up, "Do I need to divide you up or you do it yourselves?"

Jongdae snatched one from the leader's hand, "I'm with Baekhyun."

"Jongin and me," Kyungsoo raised his hand and Joonmyun handed another keycard over.

"So," Joonmyun looked at the rest three, "Who's gonna be my roommate tonight?"

"Man, only when you're waiting for Kris' answer do you realise he's not here." Jongdae shrugged.

Joonmyun didn't sigh. He just laughed along, "I know he's not here. We're over that. Now, who's gonna choose me?"

Minseok stepped forward, "I am."

"Huh, I guess that leaves the two of us," Chanyeol circled his arm around Sehun.

The maknae didn't even look up, "Okay. But you're no Taozi."

"Fine. Now head off to your rooms," Joonmyun annouced. Everyone lifted up their bags and walked to the elevator.

"And you guys, don't get too carried away tonight," he grabbed Baekhyun and Jongdae's collars, "We have a schedule tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

 

 

 

 

"Jongin?"

Jongin was lying on the bed, eyes open, staring at the ceiling. "Yes?"

"Joonmyun's checking if we're alright. You fine?" Kyungsoo's voice came from the door.

"Yep."

He heard the door closing and then another click as Kyungsoo locked it up.

"What are you thinking about?" Kyungsoo slid the closet door open and grabbed the bathrobe. He started to undress.

"Nothing much."

Kyungsoo scoffed, "I'm stripping in front of you right now and you're not looking at me. You are so not thinking about nothing much." He put the bathrobe on, and the silky texture gave his skin a pretty welcoming.

Jongin sat up, "Look, Kyungsoo, I've thought about us on our way here.

"You said that I don't spend enough time with you and... and I didn't notice that, I'm sorry. I know you care about this relationship a lot, and I hope you know that you are not the only one. I care a lot, too." Jongin said.

Kyungsoo sat down on the bed, "Jongin, I'm not blaming you for anything. It's just, you know how Joonmyun had been acting these days, and it affected what I think of us."

Jongin kept quiet.

"We are going to be around each other for a tremendous amount of time, and if anything happens to our relationship, it could potentially present instability to the whole group." Kyungsoo paused, "I do not want that."

"No. Me either."

"So we must save some time for ourselves, beside the schedules for promotions. We need to enhance the connection between us." Kyungsoo said, "And it would be hard to do if all our alone time aren't well distributed."

The last sentence hung in the air for a few seconds.

"I understand, hyung." Jongin nodded.

"I'm not your hyung," Kyungsoo shook his head.

"But we're only in our early twenties, don't you think it's a bit too so-"

"Too soon? Maybe." Kyungsoo looked straight into Jongin's eyes, "But this isn't just us, this is about the whole group's career. And for the sake of the fans, it's never too considerate to give it a thought. I've talked to Baekhyun and Jongdae about this, and they are on the same page with me."

"Baekhyun-hyung and Jongdae-hyung are serious?" Jongin asked, "About being together?"

"They are. But that's not the point, Jongin. I just want you to know that what I say to you aren't always just flirting."

"I know that now." Jongin replied, "And to let you know, I am being serious about us. So if you say we should have more time for ourselves, we should."

They looked at each other for half a minute and smiles started to surface.

Kyungsoo laughed. "We should have had this conversation earlier."

"Well, it's better late than never." Jongin laughed, too.

"Agreed."

"Then should we suggest Zitao and Sehun go through this as well?" Jongin crawled closer to Kyungsoo on the bed.

Kyungsoo pinned Jongin back onto the sheets, "I'm pretty sure Jongdae's going to enlighten Zitao someday."

"Yeah, let him do that." Jongin ruffled Kyungsoo's hair, "By the way, I think I am going to delete my Instagram account." He made a move to reach out to his phone, but Kyungsoo kept him in place.

"Yes, I support that, but later." He lifted up the corner of Jongin's shirt, "Not before we're finished with our workout for the day."

 

 

 

 

 

"Hey, Kyungsoo, how do I delete my Instagram account?" Jongin sat frustratedly on the chair by the window, now also in a bathrobe.

"Don't ask me, I don't even have a public account." Kyungsoo answered while drying his hair with a towel.

"Well, but-"

"Why don't you just ask the fans? They'd know."

Jongin processed the advice and shrugged. He typed in 'how do I delete my account?' in comment and hit send.

Several seconds later, his comment sections were flooded.

"Great, now they are all telling me not to. What do I do?" Jongin cried out with even more frustration.

"You try harder." Kyungsoo went sitting on the small table in front of Jongin, amused. "I never thought you could get so worked up by trying to deactive an account."

"Me, neither." Jongin pouted.

Kyungsoo put his hand on top of Jongin's phone screen, "Look, how about you let that go for tonight and get some rest first?"

"But it's only 12am now. We still got time to sleep."

"Yes, but it's Vietnam time. It's 2am in Korea right now, and your biological clock is telling you to stop doing whatever it is that doesn't involve sleeping."

Kyungsoo climbed into the bed and pulled the sheet over himself, "Are you not coming to bed yet?"

"Let me just, find that thing. It's al-" Jongin stood up, "I found it!"

"Great for you."

"Delete my account? Yes, of course." Jongin smiled as he hit the button, and at the same time, hundreds of thousands of fangirls mourned the short lifespam of their beloved @kimkaaaaaa.

"There. Now come to sleep."

Jongin laid his phone down and turned off the lights before hopping on to the bed, ready to cuddle with his lover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Jongin, why is the room's phone set ringing?"

"I don't know."

"Who is this?"

"It's Chanyeol. I need to speak to Jongin."

"Hello?"

"Kim Jongin how dare you deleted your Instagram account? Do you know how the fans are feeling right now? I didn't bring you into the world of Instagram to let you play around with their feelings! Your fans' feelings! My feelin-"

"What did he say, Jongin?"

"I didn't catch many words. I hung up. Night, Soo."