Their first live performance dated back to the spring of 2012. They debuted in the summer of 2012. They released their album that fall, and their MV was accused of plagiarism a few weeks later, leading to a whole string of negative press just as school began. They held several consecutive Christmas performances in that same year. The next year, TF Entertainment filmed a teaser for their new single, which was released in late spring.

This summer, they appear on a reality show to promote the new single.

It’s their first time on a reality show. They’ve had a few interviews here and there, but they’ve been mostly inactive this year. Now, with this single, the company has prepared a whole series of concerts and interviews over the summer.

A reality show isn’t all that different from an interview. They perform their new single first. Its style is similar to their debut song’s, but Yifan has a few lines of rap in the middle. Since Yifan is the tallest, he’s in the middle for most of the dance, and Joonmyun and Yixing change sides at certain points in the song. A year ago, Yixing had been the smallest, but now, he’s passed Joonmyun by a few centimeters and not that much shorter than Yifan. Their voices have changed slightly as well. Yifan’s is the most obvious, and he finds that he can no longer reach certain notes that he was once able to sing with ease.

By this point, they’re familiar with being onstage, and it’s with confidence that Yifan looks at the audience throughout his performance.

When the song ends, the audience’s cheers replace the music as the stage lights are once again adjusted to their normal intensity.

The host walks onstage, introduces the reality show, and then turns to them and asks them to introduce themselves.

This is a part that they’ve rehearsed many times before. Yifan brings his mic up to his mouth, and right after he says, “Hello, everyone,” two other voices join him in his next words, “We are the XO Boys.”

They bow, and when Yifan looks up again, he catches sight of glowing signs in the audiences—some with their band’s name, some with individual members’ name, even one that reads 牛绵^[1]. Near the beginning, he had been too nervous to look at the audience, overwhelmed by the eyes that were on him, but now, he likes looking out into the audience and seeing all of their fans that have come to support them.

“Would you like to introduce yourselves?” the host asks, and Yifan turns his attention back on the MC.

For a moment, Yifan doesn’t respond, but Yixing is quick to fill the silence. “Hello, everyone. I’m Zhang Yixing,” he says, and he bows again. “I’m the lead dancer, and this is Kim Joonmyun, our lead singer, and Wu Yifan, our leader.”

“If Wu Yifan is the leader, then why isn’t he doing the introductions?” the host asks, a small smile on his lips.

Yixing looks over at Yifan, his expression guilty, but Yifan only laughs as he touches Yixing’s shoulder. “This kid just talks a lot,” he says, letting his hand slip off after a moment. Skinship is good, they’ve been told, but it’s dangerous to overdo it.

“You’re the oldest, right?” The host directs this question at Yifan, and he nods. “Do you ever find that Yixing and Joonmyun are disobedient sometimes?”

Yifan’s getting ready to answer, but Yixing beats him to it. “We mess around sometimes,” Yixing admits, “but Yifan usually joins us. He’s usually the one to get us in trouble.”

“Really?” the hosts asks, and Yifan can hear some fans screaming. He resists the urge to hide his face in his hands.

“No, but it’s because it’s better to go along with it than to try to stop them, you know?” he says, although it’s kind of too late to be salvaged. He can already imagine the subtitles that will appear in the video: It’s okay, Yifan. You tried.

Yixing is kind of right, though. Sometimes, when they have a break from all the work, he’ll be the one to suggest that they do something risky, just for the thrill of doing something with all the extra energy that he has. As celebrities, they can’t fool around often. Although there’s a charm to their youth, there isn’t anything charming about immaturity. So more often than not, their manager ends up being the victim to their pranks and schemes. In fact, it’s mostly Joonmyun who acts as the voice of reason, who stops them from doing anything extreme. And when they do get in trouble, it’s often Joonmyun’s fault. Usually, when they’re caught, Joonmyun is the one to sweet talk them out of the situation. Yixing may be the one to charm everyone with his never ending supply of words, but no one can say no to Joonmyun. Every so often, though, Joonmyun will roll his eyes at one of their pranks, a way of silently telling them, “I’m not getting you out of this one.”

The manager’s nice about their pranks, though. Sometimes, he’ll even retaliate, like that time he scared them in the dorms and had them all screaming because they thought it was a ghost. Or the many times that he conveniently forgot to bring their dinner and they had to wait another half an hour for the deliveryman to arrive with their takeout. It’s all fun, though, and it lets them be their own age, even for just a few minutes.

The host asks a few more questions about their personal life—their eating habits, their studies, and their dorm life. “You guys are going to perform a song today, right?” he says, when the questioning time comes to a close.

“Yes,” Yifan says, “Joonmyun and I are singing Onion, and Yixing is going to accompany us on the piano.”

It’s a song that they’ve done before, back when they were trainees. They were all required to learn the lyrics for one of the cuts. It’s a popular song, one that has been sang many times by various celebrities.

They’re given a few minutes for last minute preparations, and the keyboard that Yixing is going to perform on is arranged onstage. The stage lights up again, slowly, as Yixing plays the opening notes to the song. Yifan and Joonmyun are standing in the middle of the stage, a good distance away. The spotlight focuses on them as Joonmyun begins singing.

“If your gaze could fall on me for a moment,
If you could hear the sound of heartbreak,           
I’m watching over you silently, silently waiting for a miracle,
So silently that I nearly seem like the air.”

Yifan sings the next verse, and then they slowly walk to the edge of the stage as Joonmyun begins the chorus. The audience is much closer than he’d expected, and he can see individual faces rather than shining lights and posters in the darkness. He focuses on a spot in the far back of the audience, on the dim blue spotlights sweeping over the audience, as he sings the second chorus.

Yixing has a solo at this point. He’d arranged this particular version of the song, changing it to make up for their lack of drums and guitars. Yifan catches Joonmyun’s eye during this break, and he smiles, a small smile while the audience’s attention is focused on Yixing’s playing. Joonmyun returns it with a smile of his own.

The second time that Yifan sings the chorus, his voice cracks a little at the highest note. It’s been happening a little more now, and it makes him hesitant to sing live. He’s quick to recover from his mistake, though, and finishes the chorus without another mistake.

They sing the choruses a third time together, their voices harmonizing as they step away from the edge of the stage. The spotlight follows them.

“If you were willing to peel open my heart layer by layer by layer,
You will discover, you will be surprised.
You’re my deepest, most suppressed secret.
If you were willing to peel my heart away layer by layer by layer,
You will be moved, you will shed tears,
If only you could hear and see my whole-hearted dedication.”

They’re standing close together now, shoulders almost touching as the Yixing plays the last notes to the song.

“You will be moved,” Yifan sings, and Joonmyun follows with the next line, “You will shed tears.”

Then together:

“If only you could hear and see my whole-hearted dedication.”

Yifan and Joonmyun don’t look at each other as the song ends, their faces remaining serious as Yixing’s notes fade away. When the audience applauds and they bow, their hands are tightly clasped together. 

The cameras capture that moment forever. 

Footnote: [1] Chinese for Krisho

A/N: Onion was originally written by Ashin of Mayday a while ago, although it wasn't performed by Mayday until recently (history lessons). So the song actually belongs to Mayday.