.three. reunion

For a bit over a week--almost nearing two weeks--she was forced to remain in her dorm in the SM building's top floor that was not yet populated. She had heard from the people who came to teach her dance, and the lyrics to some of EXO's songs, that the space was being reserved and renovated for their newest musical group that would be called NCT. SM was currently holding auditions for their SM Rookies group, which would prepare the new idols, and their debut wasn't planned for another three years. Auditions were being said to reach their end in a month's time and that was when they wood move into her floor, but Yena would be long gone by then.

Learning how to act and sound like a boy was the easiest part for her. When her instructor asked why, she replied with, "Acting like a boy is difficult. But acting like my brother Tao is entirely different. I know his mannerisms and his way of speaking perfectly. So as long as I just have to act like him, I should be okay."

The learning of the lyrics and the dancing were the hardest part. Yena spoke some Korean and understood it since she had taken a few classes at the University, but when it came to singing or rapping at a fast pace, she kept getting tongue tied. Even after ten days and tireless hours with her lyrics professor, he finally told her that he would suggest for SM to have her lip sync at performances for a while. Ten days weren't nearly enough for her to learn lyrics in a different language, for their songs. Yena was grateful that at least they also sang in Mandarin sometimes, being part of the sub-unit EXO-M.

But dancing was the biggest challenge for Huang Chuyen.

Apart from the fact that it was a very long routine that she had to learn in ten days, she never knew the human body was capable of making those kinds of movements. She marveled at the hours of practice and sacrifice her brother and the other EXO boys had probably done to get those dances to look so well coordinated and synchronized. 

Her dance instructor did all he could with the ten days they were given, and Yena's limited dancing skills. By the time her training period was over, she had only learned about two steps, which were the ones that involved crotch grabbing. It was also on the tenth day of her quote on quote imprisonment--as she liked to call it--that another worker from SM was sent to retrieve her from her dorm. Without giving her any reason or even speaking to her, she was led to a waiting car once again. But this time they were headed to the hospital where her brother had been.

As they drove past the city skyscrapers to the hospital near the outskirts of the main city, that was when the SM representative started speaking to her. "Tao--meaning you--has just been given permission to be discharged from the hospital." He explained, typing away responses on his phone as he talked to Yena. "The other boys in the group said they wanted to be there to see you in person and take you back to the SM housing building downtown." Yena crinkled up her nose in confusion. If EXO lived in another building somewhere downtown, why had they forced her to remain in her dorm for ten days? She couldn't understand it, but said nothing of it. "The story is that it was just a sprain, but that you'll need to rest for a couple more days before you can actually perform or do anything heavy. Camera crews will be there to film the reunion, so remember to act like Tao would."

"And where is my brother?" She asked. She assumed he would probably in the same hospital, but probably somewhere with maximum security to avoid anyone seeing him.

The representative explained to her with an annoyed sigh, as though he had already answered several questions for her, rather than just one. "We dressed him up as you. He and your parents are probably on a plane back to China as we speak." He was sat in the front passenger seat, with Yena in the back, and when he saw her eyes widen in surprise, he continued, "He had a successful surgery ten days ago and was cleared just long enough for him to get to China. Once there, he will be in a hospital for about two weeks before he can continue his recovery at home."

Again, Yena was overwhelmed by the extent that SM went just so that they wouldn't lose a member in the band.

It was another few minutes in the car where the representative handed Chuyen some flashcards with information on each of the other members. They looked like colorful fan cards and each of them had the members' names and basic information on them, which reminded the twenty year old that SM had forgotten to assign someone to teach her all the names of each boy. She only knew Kyungsoo who went by the stage name D.O. because they had dated, but beyond that she knew nothing of the other boys. A stack of flashcards wouldn't be enough to help her get by. Yena finally decided she wouldn't call them by their names for the time being. She would only refer to them as hyung, which would also take some getting used to.

She only hoped she wouldn't accidentally call them oppa. 

-

Yena arrived at the hospital before the EXO boys did and she was led to a room which she would have to pretend she had been in for the past ten days. They didn't even bother changing her into a hospital gown, since she had supposedly been discharged and the crew of SM had the doctors wrap a bandage around her leg and handed her a cane, for dramatic purposes.

She was sat in the room, sitting on her hospital bed, when the boys arrived. Eleven of them, plus the SM representative, and a camera crew crammed into the room to witness the moment of the reunion. Yena looked towards the doorway and smiled as though those boys weren't all strangers to her.

Yifan, who was the closest to her and the first to have entered the room, cut the distance between them and pulled her into a tight embrace. "We missed you, dongsaeng. We tried to visit at least three times, but they wouldn't let us see you because of your surgery. They said you needed your rest. We were worried loads about you." 

I don't know who this guy is, Yena told herself as her eyes widened and her body stiffened against his embrace. He was too close for comfort and seemed to really have a high esteem for her brother Tao. Her arms robotically went around to embrace him in return, but she was left without anything to say to him. It was the fact that the boy had so much love for her--or, rather Tao--and she didn't even know what his name was. It was almost unfair.

"I missed you too, hyung." She replied awkwardly, patting his back in a stiff showing of reassurance and comfort.

When they pulled away, Kris eyed her strangely, like something was off about Tao. But it sure looked like Tao to him. He shrugged the thought away as it being the shock of the injury and then the following operation to fix him.

One by one, the rest of the members walked up to hug Yena, each of them offering get well wishes for their injured band mate. 

Tao had even been right when he assured her Kyungsoo wouldn't recognize her. She didn't know if she should feel relieved or upset about it, since they had dated for about six months. But theirs had been more of a long distance relationship since he could hardly get any vacation time from SM and Yena was always too busy with her studies in Nanjing to visit him. It had been a short lived, and very long distance relationship, to the point where she had only seen him in person twice the whole time that they were together, which was what probably explained his lack of recognition for her. That, and the fact that she had been given a very convincing make over that made her look like a boy, who was a part of their band.

The whole scene was filmed by SM Entertainment and would be broadcast on all their platforms that night, in order to announce that Tao was okay, and that he was ready to return to the band. It was all just a huge publicity stunt that served to get the fans at ease. None of them even knew or imagined that her brother would actually need several months of recovery because of their management's carelessness.

After filming was done, they were allowed to leave the hospital with Tao. The boys all walked down to the lobby and outside to waiting rows of luxurious black cars. Yena didn't know which one to ride in, since she wasn't sure which of the boys her brother was better friends with. But they all wanted her to ride with them. 

In the end she decided to catch a ride back in the same car as a boy they had been calling Lu Han. He was friendly, but gave her the space she needed and didn't pressure her to talk to him, which she was thankful for. 

But she would need to talk to them eventually. 

It was only a matter of time.

-

here's the third chapter for you all.

yena communicating, though awkwardly, with the other boys for the first time. thank you all so much for reading, and subscribing to my story. it means a whole bunch to me. if you have wattpad, don't hesitate to follow and reach out to me @ claryvette, or on twitter @ brizueia ^.^ i'll follow back, i promise.

have a wonderful weekend everyone!

-clary (baekshands)