Today was the day. At midnight they’d be releasing their new album and they’d be having their showcase a little earlier than that. They’d been preparing for this for ages and nothing was going to dull down their excitement, not at this point.

Especially for Baekhyun, considering this was his first group release. An excited Baekhyun was hard to control, and the other members found that out fairly quickly. He would not stop asking them questions and practically skipping around the waiting room while their stylists pick out their clothing and force them into outfits they probably normally wouldn’t even think of wearing.

“Are you done, noona? Are you done yet?” Baekhyun pestered the stylist that was currently doing his makeup, earning himself a sigh and a shake of the head in response.

“Baekhyunnie, she’ll tell you when she’s done.” Junmyeon laughed.

The pink haired singer huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Stop moving around, you’re making it harder.” The stylist scolded, beginning to get frustrated with the antsy boy.

Baekhyun stopped, dead still. “Sorry.” He mumbled, careful not to move his mouth too much.

Before Jongdae could step in, Yixing grabbed his arm and whispered, “No. He has to learn that even when he’s scolded he won’t get hit. He’s going to get scolded, that’s inevitable. He’ll eventually learn that he won’t be hit as a result of it. Just let him be, only intervene if the situation really calls for it.”

Jongdae let his arm fall out of Yixing’s grip and nodded.

“Is everyone almost ready?” Their manager called out to them.  They had twenty minutes to go until their showcase began and they needed everything to be absolutely perfect.

“Yeah,” Sehun replied. “Some of us are just getting our hair done, though.”

Their manager nodded and left again, presumably to let the MC for the show know that everything is going according to plan.

“Baekhyunnie!” Chanyeol called.

Baekhyun’s head popped out from around the corner, “Yes?” He replied.

Junmyeon walked over to him and straightened out his red jacket. Baekhyun had chosen the number four, and was given the superpower of light.

“We’re almost up, Baek. How are you feeling?” The leader asked.

The pink haired singer smiled at Junmyeon, “I’m great! I can’t wait to go on stage again.”

“Alright. Don’t forget your seat is in between Sehun and Minseok, okay? And you have to call us by our stage names while we’re on stage.” He reminded.

“Yep. You’re Suho, Jonginnie is Kai, Soo is D.O, Yixing is Lay, and Minseok is Xiumin.” Baekhyun listed and Junmyeon nodded in acknowledgement. Something the leader was worried about was the fact that the new addition to their group never called anyone ‘hyung.’ Not to anyone, he said ‘noona’ and such, but never ‘hyung.’ They’d never asked him about it, thinking it might have something to do with the stuff he’s gone through, but if he doesn’t call them ‘hyung’ on camera it could cause issues. It would be fine for today, but afterwards they’d need to do something about it; come to some kind of solution.

Baekhyun, on the other hand, had no worries whatsoever. He was extremely happy that they’d be performing today. He hadn’t performed on stage in so long, and he’d never done it with other people before. Granted, they were only performing three songs today, but it was nonetheless something he was anticipating.

“EXO! You’re on now!” Their manager called out, and the members slowly shuffled towards the stage. He was nervous, now. Not in a bad way, though, they were happy nerves. The kind that make your stomach tingle rather than twist.

He felt someone rub his back soothingly, obviously they’d taken his jitteriness the wrong way, but it was appreciated regardless.

The moment he walked out onto the stage and saw the silver ocean of light sticks and heard the screaming of the fans, he felt a surge of energy that would surely get him through the night.

Sehun grabbed him gently by the shoulders and guided him to his seat, situated next to the rapper’s.

He noticed some of his fans from back when he was a solo artist in the audience and smiled widely at them, they seemed to notice him and the screams only became louder.

Kim Heechul, their MC for the showcase, walked out slightly after themselves and the screams slowly started to die down as the MC took his seat and readied his microphone.

“Hello, everyone!” He greeted, gesturing to the fans. “Wow, so many of you came today. It’s nice to see so much support for our juniors.”

This was it. The thing he’d practiced so much for. Their slogan.

He heard Junmyeon begin the countdown and his heart was racing. This was all he needed to get right all night. Apart from the singing, he wasn’t going to be doing much talking today – something he was thankful yet sad about.

“One, two, three,” Junmyeon began, followed by a chorus of “We are ONE! Hello, we are EXO!”

He did it, and he was proud of himself. He looked up at the rest of the fans for the first time and wasn’t expecting to see quite a few glaring at him.

What did he do? Did he mess up the slogan? The pink-haired male swore he got it right, he’d practiced it so much! But there they were, glaring at him and shouting things that he couldn’t make out over all the noise.

The other members looked at the singer in worry, they could see his internal panic and they knew that something bad would happen if they let the shouting continue. They couldn’t stop the glaring, but they hoped Baekhyun would simply look at the other fans who were smiling at him rather than the ones glaring. Of course, that didn’t happen, though.

“Hey, calm down everyone!” Chanyeol’s deep voice echoed throughout the showcase hall due to the microphone and the shouting only slightly dissipated. “Please, calm down so we can start the showcase!”

The fans were still not calming down, and Junmyeon decided it was time to step in.

“Hey, everyone, please listen.” He began, his solemn voice causing many of the fans to stop screaming, “I know there have been a lot of changes this year. Some bad, some good. But that doesn’t change the fact that we are EXO and you guys are EXO-L, right? The fact that you guys are here proves this. The changes may take some time getting used to, but please keep in mind that the comments you say can be hurtful, particularly for someone going through a lot right now. So please do not say hurtful things to any of the members. Okay?” He ended with a slight smile, hoping to ease up the atmosphere a little.

There was a chorus of “Yes~” that sounded through the showcase hall and the members smiled appreciatively.

Baekhyun, however, did not hear any of that due to his thoughts eating at him. Countless things ran through his mind continuously, the few comments he managed to catch amongst all the screaming made his heart and head hurt, and he wanted nothing more than to hide backstage.

Both Minseok and Sehun noticed the singer’s distress and Minseok pulled him close and whispered soothing words into his ear while Sehun rubbed his back. It took a while for him to come back to reality, but when he did he pushed away from Minseok in surprise and apologized repeatedly, much to the others’ unhappiness.

“It’s alright, Baekhyunnie.” Minseok whispered, and Baekhyun was slowly managing to calm down. Minseok figured the fans would’ve felt guilt upon seeing the way the made Baekhyun, but looking up he only found more glaring pointed at the younger. Really, some fans can be so ruthless.

The others had moved on, and Baekhyun was okay now after the endless comforting by the two on either side of him. He was thankful that he wasn’t alone. That would’ve been scary.

The announcement that they’d be performing their first song caused all previous worries to be forgotten and Baekhyun was back to being a ball of excitement, much to the members’ gratefulness.

The first song they were performing was one composed by Baekhyun himself and the lyrics had been written by Chanyeol, Yixing, and Chen. It was called ‘El Dorado,’ and the dance to the song was extremely difficult, but he’d gotten a lot of help from Jongin to be able to pull it off.

He remembered when he first showed it to them, they’d been pestering him to let them listen to the songs he’d been composing for them and he finally gave in.

“Baekhyun~” Jongdae whined, and Baekhyun was having a very hard time not giving in, “Please?” He asked in a saddened voice, hoping his exceptional acting skills would make the younger give in.

Baekhyun hesitated for a fair few moments, but then Jongdae decided to use his tears.

“No, no, no! Don’t cry! I’m sorry! You can listen, you can listen!” He panicked, and Jongdae had to hide a smug grin.

“Thank you, Baekhyunnie!” He grinned, all previous remnants of tears vanished in an instant.

As Baekhyun set up the computer, Jongdae sent a quick text to Chanyeol and Yixing, telling them to get down to the studio now.

After sending the text, he looked back towards Baekhyun who was looking up at him with worried eyes from his place in the chair.

“What’s the matter?” Jongdae asked.

Baekhyun bit his lip, “What if you don’t like it?”

Jongdae smiled at him, “It’s alright, Baek. I’m sure I’ll like it. Chanyeollie and Yixing-hyung will be coming down soon, too. They said they wanted to hear it as well.”

“Really?” The singer looked up at him in disbelief.

“Yeah.” Came a deep voice from the doorway. Yixing and Chanyeol made their way into the room and sat down in the chairs next to Baekhyun.

“O-okay.” He mumbled and pressed the play button.

They did nothing but drop their jaws when the song started. Baekhyun sat nervously chewing on his fingernails, awaiting their reaction. Did they like it? Did they hate it? He had no idea. He really hoped they liked it. He worked so hard on it just to make it perfect. He knew it wasn’t really their style of music but they said they wanted something new and different this time ‘round, so that’s what he gave them.

The three simply sat the in silence for a moment after the song ended, letting it sink in and truly trying to gather their thoughts together. They had no idea Baekhyun was this good, all of his other songs had been ballads, and hell, the ballads were amazing but they had absolutely no idea he was this good at doing other genres as well. Where did he learn to do this type of stuff?

“Did… Did you like it?” The small singer asked tentatively.

“, Baekhyun. That was amazing. Where’d you learn how to compose like that?” Jongdae inquired, still recovering from the shock.

The way Baekhyun smiled at the compliment was almost as though he had managed to cause the sun to fall from the sky and embed itself into their chests. It was one of those smiles that made you feel a little more alive and a lot less lifeless – almost like seeing a flower bloom after months of snow.

“Jiyoung taught me how to use this program and after that I just tried stuff out until it sounded nice.” He explained.

They showed the others and they agreed to use it in their upcoming album, they only had to get permission from the company.

He’d never have thought he’d be performing one of his own songs with a group of eight other people that he loved so dearly.

They got into position, the music started, and they sang. They gave their all, and Baekhyun belted out his notes in an attempt to impress those he knew disliked him. He could only hope it worked.