In the blink of an eye, a week had passed since the Trainee Showcase. It was finally confirmed that EXO would be having their first ever solo Asia World Tour in three months time. Realising that their biggest and most daunting dreams were finally becoming a reality, everybody was excited and gave their all when they practised for the concert. Just like any other day, they were up by dawn and were preparing to attend their practices and classes.

"Ge! Ge! Hurry up! We need to-" Tao stopped abruptly as an empty room greeted him. He eyed the figure on the bed.

He's still asleep? That's rare.

Frowning a little, Tao moved to wake Kris up.

"Ge! Wak-" Once again, he halted. The figure on the bed was soft. Soft and long like a bolster. He flipped the sheets open and indeed, a bolster and pillow laid in Kris's place.

"What..."

At that moment, Minseok and Luhan burst through the open door.

"Tao-ah! What's taking you so long?"

"Where's Kris?" Luhan added after seeing Kris nowhere in the room.

"I don't know. I came into the room to wake him up but..." Tao gestured to the pillows.

Confused, the three members glanced around the room in silence as an unsettling tension announced its presence.

"There's something here!" Minseok exclaimed, pointing over at oddly out of place sheets of paper that had crazed scribbles and highlights everywhere. Rushing over, the trio scanned their eyes over the contents of the paper:

The Last Piece Of Me...

Fighting for your rights, even when you're wrong. And hoping that at least one of you sing about me when I'm gone. You don't know the pain is real and you don't have any clue. About what's driving me nuts, this ain't some simple-to-cure flu. You knew I couldn't swim and yet you pushed me. Into the deep end of the waters, did you think that'd make me free?

It's gotten to a stage where the sun is hard to find. But when I ask where it is you point to the sky everytime. You don't get that I don't see it, you don't get that it's always black. And while you're climbing a mountain up, I'm running on ground that's always flat. Oh, I heard, I'm unimportant, I'm untalented and I'm also useless. I'm sorry I could not be what you wanted. Was what you wanted flawless? I can't take it anymore, I'm not a puppet and you don't hold my strings. You say that I'm replaceable and not a man that does great things.

I've had enough, I've broken down, I've gone mad more than once. I'm removing the cone around my neck, the one on you wrote "dunce." You say that I'm disloyal, mean and ungrateful. But don't misunderstand cause I love every single one of you. I just hate that I'm not allowed to do the things I want. You force me to act like I'm not myself, no I refuse, I can't. I wish you guys all the best in everything you do. And I pray that you'll miss me, and know that I'll miss you too.

I guess this is goodbye, to all my closest friends. I guess we'll have no more shared fistbumps and I guess this is the end. Goodbye to the memories, and the rooms we once shared. Goodbye to the fearless, the daring and the dared. Goodbye to the nights, where we bonded over tears. Goodbye to the days where together we conquered fears. This long tiring chapter is closing and so are the zips on my bag. And when you hear this song, in my hands you'll see me raising a white flag.

Written by- Kris Wu Yi Fan

Produced by- Kris Wu Yi Fan

Hey guys, I'm sorry you're finding this song this way... It took me over a year to complete and up till now, I'm still not sure if I'm happy with it. This is the hundredth song I've ever composed and out of the hundred, this song was the hardest to write. For so long, I've been singing songs that I had zero emotional attachment to. Songs bought by our company for us to promote. It was easy promoting, because when something doesn't belong to you, you really don't care what people think of it. But when it's something you've worked so hard on, you want your audience to love it and feel it, feel what you felt writing it and I hope I achieved that with this... I've also included a bunch of different tracks you guys can listen to in the thumbdrive, and I guess you guys can do whatever the hell you want with them since I know for sure that they would have never made it into an album anyway. Thanks for the great years we spent together. We travelled the world and conquered the impossible and I have absolutely no regrets. But it's come to a point where I've become so blinded by what I want that I find myself completely unable to fully appreciate what I already have. It's been a long, tough and memorable journey, but it's time for me to let go and say goodbye. I'll never be able to repay you guys for letting me experience the best few years of my life. I really really do love you guys.

For the last time,

Kris Wu, leader of EXO-M

EXO...Saranghaja...

Tao being the first to finish, rushed to the shared wardrobe. Flinging open the cupboards in a mad frenzy, Tao mumbled incoherently under his breath.

"Taozi, what are you doing?"

Tao's reply was barely a whisper.

"He left."

Then a shout.

"He ing left! How could he?!"

It hit the two eldest members two seconds later.

Kris had left.

The other members peeked into the room, alarmed by the sudden shouting. Seeing the distraught maknae, Chanyeol cautiously whispered "What's wrong with Tao?"

Luhan passed the paper to him as he walked to Tao and tried to soothe the agitated male.

Nobody attended the practice lessons scheduled for the day.

***

Dark clouds formed and gathered over the city of Seoul, painting what used to be the clear blue sky an obnoxious shade of gray. Roars of thunder accompanied the of lightning that drew across the ugly skies. The weather mirrored the atmosphere in the dorm perfectly.Tao was staring blankly out of the window, his face void of any emotions. As the rain finally poured, the weather turned torrential, like their hearts. The members could only watch on, helpless.

On a usual rainy day like that, Tao would have been in the comfort of his bed, seeking refuge under the sheets, and everytime a bolt of lightning appeared, he would shut his eyes tight and cover his ears from the loud thunder he knew was following after. Then, Kris would smile at the silliness of the younger's fear and ruffle the younger's hair, saying reassuring words to calm down the overgrown child.

Tao's eyes glazed over in a haze as he gripped tightly onto the only reminders of Kris' existence in the dorm. His lyrics. Eyeing the crinkles and dark spots on the paper where the writer must have shed more than a few tears, Tao could only imagine his beloved hyung, hunched over the goddamn piece of paper in the wee hours of the morning, unable to sleep as his insomnia and anxiety got worse. He could just see how Kris must've gripped his pencil so tight as he wrote, noticing how some words had pierced holes through the paper.

A sigh passed Baekhyun's lips as his shoulders deflated. They knew that among them, Tao would be the most deeply affected. Tao respected and loved his hyung and could never find fault with him. And naturally, Kris was everything Tao ever wanted to be. Tao attempted to dress like him, speak like him and did anything and everything to get into his good books. He was the closest to Kris ever since their trainee days, a good couple of years spent by each other's side. Kris had already occupied an important position in the younger's heart. One that was unparalleled.

It had been five days.

Five days since they found the paper. Five days since Tao cried, or smiled, or laughed, or even said anything. Five days since any of them smiled, in fact. Five days since they played the songs Kris left behind on a pathetic 1GB thumbdrive...

Kris always did produce the best music, music that just had this way of piercing hearts and minds and making even the most hard-headed people burst into tears. Which was what happened with all the remaining 11 members as they closed their eyes and surrounded the laptop, clutching frantically to each other in the hopes of finding some comfort and security. Nothing Kris rapped or produced in his entire career and even way before could compare to the disgustingly beautiful masterpiece that they held in their hands. A blessing in a curse, a thornless rose, heaven in hell.

It had been five days since Kris left.

"Tao?" Suho tried and silence filled the room as the members held their breaths in anticipation of what might be the only evidence to show that Tao was indeed alive.

But the silence continued, and they knew they wouldn't be expecting anything anytime soon.

--------

Co-Authors Note:

Hello guys! We're really sorry for not having updated in eons but certain things cropped up and we were so busy with school and exams and we just had no time at all to even sit down and write. Anyways, after a long long time, we present our new chapter, Gone. Hopefully this chapter was as much fun for you guys to read as it was to write! I even got to try my hand at writing some lyrics ;) (the first paragraph of "Kris' song" is actually two lines out of Kendrick Lamaar's song, Sing about Me, I'm Dying of Thirst. Do go give it a listen! It's one of my absolute favourites!

See you in the next chapter!

-geezeebee