The word vomit in this chapter is exceptional! I did my best to air out the stench and piece together the parts... but vomit is a vomit! Enjoy! It might be little jumpy but hang in there!

The snow slowly fall on Yifan’s face as the man stares up at the sky. His lips are void of any color and a single tear races down his cheeks, leaving a trail of sadness pouring out of the man’s eyes.

“CUT!”

The lights shift and the crew members run up to the scene. Yifan whips his tears away and thanks the woman who hands him a tissue. He makes his way towards the director and his little monitor to check the scene.

“Your skills are killer. I don’t think we need to reshoot that.” The older man flashes Yifan a smile with a pat on his shoulder before shouting out other orders. “We are done here! Moving to the next location. Where is tape 24.3? I asked for it like ten minutes ago!”

Yifan walks away from all the commotion in the background to take a seat next to his costars. They all greet each other before Yifan takes out his phone to check the web. Under many tabs that are always open now days, he goes through each one to check any posts that would be of any interest to him. His eyes quickly scan for two specific words. EXO and Chanyeol. Nothing new. Just updates of the mysterious comeback that everyone is hyped to see, including Yifan.

It’s been a month. Yifan sighs.

“I think if I come from this side, we won’t have any problems with formation change after Joonmyun-hyung’s part.” Jongin suggests as the six of them go over their new choreography.

They had been practicing the new steps since two days ago and Chanyeol is proud to say that they have actually managed to learn everything. Now they only need to clean it up so that the final execution looks sharp and cool. After ten more minutes of more corrections from both Sehun and Jongin, Joonmyun calls for a break.

“I can’t believe we’re having our comeback in a week! I’ve never been this rushed.” Baekhyun slides down the wall until his bottom hits the hardwood floors. He groans, slightly, but ends up massaging his thighs.

“Sorry.” Chanyeol hears himself saying. Everytime he sees s he feels a certain amount of guilt. It’s most likely 80% his fault that the comeback AND their World Tour got pushed up. Everyone seems to be killing themselves trying to make it all happen.

“Don’t be.” Joonmyun smiles up at Chanyeol. His eyes speak volumes and Chanyeol feels thankful to s.

“The sooner we finish this, the closer we will be to our vacation time, right?” Kyungsoo chimes from his back and Chanyeol can feel his small hands trying to massage his shoulders. “Think positively!”

“Yeah!” Sehun is now melting into the floor. “I can’t wait to see the fan’s during our concert. I get so hyped when I get on stage and they are all there, like a force! When they shout I feel the power in my chest!” He pats his chest for added effect.

Chanyeol nods with all the enthusiasm he can muster. He likes being busy. Constantly having to work gives him a break from thinking about other things. Things like Yifan. Chanyeol checks his phone. It’s been a month since he last saw Yifan in person. Of course he had been tracking down the man’s activities but it’s not the same as having his body besides him. The week that he spent waking up in Yifan’s bed with the man smiling down at him with a tray of breakfast feels more like a dream these day.

Chanyeol sighs.

             “Nothing has been too suspicious.” Seokjin says over his cup of espresso. “Well, except for some crazy fans trying to kill themselves just to get a look at them.” He shakes his head. “I will never understand them.”

Yifan smiles at the man and looks over the report he had handed him. He liked how thorough Seokjin was, just like his brother. After his meeting with Minseok, they had planned to have someone look after Chanyeol, incase something happens. Minseok recommended his younger brother, a detective. Yifan didn’t want a state worker to get involved with his situation but Minseok convinced him that Seokjin was not the typical detective. How true he was.

Seokjin reminded Yifan of a spy more than a detective. The man always wore sleek black attire, both formal and informal. His words were sharp and short and always to point. He always handed Yifan a written up reports of almost every second of Chanyeol’s whereabouts and activities. Yifan had to remind himself that he was doing this to protect the man just so that he doesn’t feel like a total creep for knowing this much information about the younger man.

“I kind of want to ask how you manage to do so thorough of a job, but I’m afraid of the answer.” Yifan chuckles as he continues to read. Seokjin, now busy eating his breakfast, snorts.

“You really don’t want to.”

Yifan slowly nods his head.

“How are you employed by the KNPA? Don’t they wonder what you’re doing?”

The only answer Seokjin gives Yifan is a shrug and a “shut up, let me finish my food” look. Another thing Yifan learned about the man is that he lives to eat. Good thing his brother is the king of the food industry.

Yifan looks at the his own reflection. He looks good with a blonde hair. His hairdresser is standing by him, looking at his reflection with an expectant look. A smile stretches over Yifan’s face and the dresser’s does the same.

“I like it, thank you.”

“Of course! Yifan-shi would make anything look good. I just had to cut and color.”

He had just finished filming the drama and his new movie was starting in two weeks. They asked him to change his hair to blonde and he had been wanting to try the new style. He thanks the hairdresser and his assistants one last time before sitting down at the VIP lounge. His driver was supposed to come in ten minutes.

“Excuse me?” A thin voice pulls Yifan from his phone screen. He already has his polite small on when he sees the woman that had addressed him. She looks nice. Her hair is shoulder length and very straight. The middle cut and pitch black locks makes her complexion even more paler than what it already is. She bows and Yifan reciprocates.

“How may I help you?”

“Oh,” she looks around and sits down next to him, “I just wanted to say ‘hello.’ I actually work with idols.”

Yifan just smiles. And?

“I see. Must be though.” He needs to be polite.

“No, no!” Her lips are tiny but her smile really shines bright. “It’s nice. I actually used to work for another celebrity, before.” Her eyes are now shining up at Yifan and he honestly doesn’t know what to do, may or may not be slightly creeped out.

“Good for you.” He pulls away and quickly glances at his phone. “Look at that! My car is here. Excuse me.” He stands up and with a nod hightails it out of the room. Once outside the room he calls his driver.

“Where are you?”
              “Sorry, Yifan-shi! There was an accident on the main road. I’ll be there in like ten minutes?” The man sounds very apologetic.

“Ten more minutes?” Yifan sighs. “Okay, just give me a call. I’m gonna step out of this place. I think I saw a coffee shop on the second floor.”

The sound of his footsteps slowly disappear until nothing is heard. Dabin’s leaning on door with her eyes closed. Her forehead is resting on the door and she slowly begins tapping the wooden door with her head.

“Dabin-ah! Did you find the color?” One of the hairdressers walks into the room to find her standing right in front of her. “Omo! You scared me!”

Dabin takes a deep breath and looks back at the girl.

“I’m good. I think my mind is set now.”

“Huh?” The girl tilts her head. “Oh! Are you talking about the new makeup look for Baekhyun? Aren’t they having their comeback tomorrow?”

“Yup.” Dabin smiles back.

“I need blotting papers, where are my papers!” A girl shouts out as she walks into the changing room.

“Have you contacted Yifan?”

“Huh?” Chanyeol looks up surprised at Dabin. She shrugs her shoulders and continues to draw small intricate zig-zags on his face.

“Was curious.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol looks straight into the girl’s eyes that are busy looking at her work, “I don’t have a reason to contact him.”

“Oh?” Her eyebrows rise and for a split second he sees her eyes look back at his. Chanyeol had been wondering about some things. However, he doesn’t know how to approach the topic. “I think talking to him would cheer you up.” She says instead.

“Why would that cheer me up?” Chanyeol wants to see something.

Dabin pauses but quickly goes back to drawing.

“I don’t know. Didn’t you two, like, love each other?”

Chanyeol snorts.

“We liked each other. The show really does things to you, you know.” His eyes never leave hers. “It’s hard to not develop some sort of feelings towards a person you have to see and act all cutesy with.” Chanyeol’s chest hurts when he speaks such words but right now he needs to say them.

“What kind of feelings did you develop?” Dabin asks right away.

Chanyeol does his best to control his facial muscles.

“I gained a great hyung out of the show. I hope we can do a movie together, I bet that would be fun!” He beams back at Dabin but makes sure to not miss anything.

“I see.” She pulls back. After what feels like ten minutes of her looking at him she finally opens . “You are done.” She turns around and walks away towards Kyungsoo to check his makeup.

Chanyeol follows her until he has to get up and touch up his hair. He really needs to organize his thoughts.

The number looked familiar. Yifan had seen the sender’s number multiple times if he remembers it this clearly so he decides to open the message.

Unknown: Hello Yifan-shi, this is Chanyeol’s manager. I just wanted to let you know that Chanyeol’s been very ill lately and I thought you could help bring his spirit up!

Well, that was strange. Yifan re-read the message and, yes, now that he looks at the number it is the manager’s number. He thinks back to when he read a news on Chanyeol and Jongin leaving a hospital, he nearly had a heartattack. But right after the gossip news magazine published their article, SM had responded back saying that the two ran into each other during rehearsal and scraped tiny part of their elbows. In order to make sure that nothing else was damaged they went for a checkup and the photo that the magazine published was actually of them visiting the hospital two days after the incident to pick up their results which came out with nothing wrong with their bodies.

Yifan had felt horrible at the fact that he found out about the event two days after the fact. What if it had been something more serious? He didn’t want to think about it. This time he wants to call Chanyeol. He needs to makes sure.

“Hello?” Chanyeol’s baritone voice makes Yifan sigh in relief. “Yifan?”

“Hi.” Yifan breaths out. It’s nice to hear his voice.

“Hi.” He could hear a smile on the idol’s face. “Did something happen? Why are you calling me? Not that I mind.” Chanyeol quickly adds.

“Oh, yeah,” Yifan was too busy listening to Chanyeol’s voice that he almost missed the words, “I heard that you were ill. Are you okay?”

“Ill? Well my throat's been very scratchy lately. Is that what you mean? But no worries, I think I stayed out too long in the cold air or something. Baekhyun thinks my rap sounds cooler with this voice though!”

Now that Yifan is listening, his voice does sound little different.

“That’s good. I thought you were like flu ill or something.”

“Says who?”

“Hm? Oh, your manager just texted me.” Yifan hears Chanyeol humming. “I think he just wanted me to hear your voice or something.”

There is a pause on the other end of the call.

“You wanted to hear my voice?” He sounds so hopeful that it kills Yifan that he can’t hug him right now.

“All the time.”

“Me too, Yifan.” The background noise increases. “Hey, sorry, Yifan. I have to go.”

“Yes, of course, you must be busy. Fighting!”

Chanyeol’s laugh is so wonder to hear again.

“Thanks. Fighting to you too! Bye!”

Yifan hears the line end. “Bye.” He really misses the idol.

“Hyung!” Chanyeol runs up to his manager.

“Chanyeol, there you are! I think taping went well but we need to get ready for the live.” Chanyeol nods but stops his manager.

“Hyung, did you text Yifan for me?” He pouts. “Do I look that miserable?”

“What?” The man looks genuinely confused.

Chanyeol pauses. They stare at each other for a second before Chanyeol looks around them.

“Where’s your phone?”

“My phone?” He reaches into his sling bag and rummages through it for a minute. He pulls out only one phone. The man carries two phones, one for work and one for private use. One is missing. Chanyeol’s eyes widen but the manager doesn’t look that concerned. “I think I know where I left it.”

“Where?” Chanyeol almost jumps at the man. “Go look for it!” He pushes the man.

The two end up walking into the waiting room and the manager briskly walks towards the back couches and picks up his phone.

“Just where I left it!”

Chanyeol is on him again.

“Check it! Did someone open it, send something from it?”

“What are you talking about?” The man actually laughs but does as Chanyeol asked so that the taller man can stop pouting. “Nope, nothing is different from how I left it.” He pats Chanyeol’s head. “Let’s go. The live recording is starting soon.”

Chanyeol doesn’t stop pouting all the way until they reach the backstage where Baekhyun begins mockin