If you were honest with yourself you'd spent the whole week after giving Chanyeol his reward waiting to see if he'd be able to keep it a secret. So far, it seemed that he hadn't blabbed, not even to Baekhyun.  Sure, Baekhyun still suspected something but he didn't seem to actually know what had happened.  The week following your visit to Chanyeol's studio was rather uneventful. Actually it was almost boring. You went to the SM building every day and gave a lesson to either one or a few members during the day but so far no one had requested a lesson. Today for example you had actually gone shopping for a few hours because you knew the guys were off to photoshoots and interviews for the rest of the day.

All this free time gave you far too much time to think about home and about how you missed the beautiful landscape of the place you used to call home. You missed the mountains, the beaches, the slower pace and all of the things that used to make you want to leave the town were suddenly making you homesick. You felt alone and decided that you were in no mood to continue shopping, but you also didn't want to go home.

You dropped your bags at the front desk of the apartment and headed back outside. You decided that a stroll through the park nearby might help you clear your head of the melancholic thoughts that were plaguing you for some reason. You tried to remind yourself of why you'd left in the first place. You saw no future for yourself in that town, no growth. You wanted more than that for yourself. If you had stayed you would have ended up either in a job you hated or as a stay at home mum, also something you didn't see for yourself, at least not in the near future.  You found a bench overlooking the Han River and sat. You let the calming effect of the river slowly wash away each negative thought. It was peaceful out here, hardly any people around and the trees were blocking most of the usual city noises. Lost in your thoughts you didn't notice the day getting away from you until you felt your phone buzzing.

Unknown - Hey, are you ok?

The message lacked Baekhyun's usual hyperactive teasing which struck you as odd.

Y/N - Hey... where'd that question come from?

Unknown - The concierge is freaking out because you dropped stuff off with him 5 hours ago and 'you seemed a bit out of it'. So I'll ask again, Y/N, are you ok?

5 hours ago!? surely that was a mistake. You checked the time on your phone and realised that you had been sitting by the river for hours. I only felt like it had been an hour at most. That poor concierge, you felt bad about causing him to worry about you enough to mention your disappearance.

Y/N - Yeah, I'm ok. I honestly didn't realise how much time had passed. I was homesick so I came over to the park to watch the river and think. I must have just zoned out. I'll head back now and apologise to the concierge.

Unknown - No, stay there ok?

Unknown - No arguments, please just stay where you are.

Maybe it wasn't Baekhyun texting you. Maybe they all shared the phone. If it was Baekhyun, he'd never seemed this concerned about you before. You figured you'd just have to stay put and wait to see who turned up.  You'd only said you were sitting by the river so you had no idea how anyone was going to find you... it's not like the Han River was small.

Either they had been extremely lucky or they had a good idea of which bench you would have ended up at because after 10 minutes Baekhyun and Yixing appeared. You could see them visibly relax once they laid eyes on you. Both men walked over to the bench you were sitting on and took a seat on either side of you. You didn't want to be the first to speak, you weren't sure why but you wanted to wait and see if they were mad at you. Yixing didn't speak, instead he wrapped his arms around you and pulled you onto his lap so that he could engulf you in a hug. You snuggled into his warmth and gave in to the hug. Baekhyun scooted closer to the two of you before he spoke. "Y/N, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." you mumbled.

"Liar. Please just talk to us." His voice was soft and full of concern. Yixing was rubbing circles on your back to try and soothe you.

"I just felt homesick all of a sudden while I was out shopping today and I wanted to be alone for a little while so I dropped my bags with the concierge and headed over here. I was thinking and lost track of time, it's no big deal honestly." You were hoping you sounded more convincing than you felt.

Yixing gripped you tighter before he spoke. "Feeling homesick is normal Y/N, all of us feel it at one point or another. None of us are able to make trips home when we feel like it and even though you've come further from your family and friends than any of us don't think that we aren't here to help you or that we don't know how you feel ok?"

You nodded, Yixing's words struck a nerve you found yourself holding back tears. You did not want to cry in front of them, you didn't even want to be this vulnerable in front of them but that ship had sailed...at least it was only two of them not all nine. You took a deep breath and tried to steady yourself.

Baekhyun's soft voice sounded again. "Can you tell us what you were thinking about that made you zone out for five hours?"

You took another deep breath and forced yourself to start speaking, you just hoped you could get it all out before you cried. "I kept thinking Why am I here? Why didn't I just stay home and find a job? What would I do if I never met any of you? I'd have no friends here and I probably would have failed and had to move back home already. And I tried to override those thoughts with logical answers but I just felt really alone today and I couldn't shake the feeling."  You felt Yixing hold you tighter and continue rubbing soothing circles on your back to try and keep you calm. It was working to calm you down but you still felt a bit off.  Baekhyun hadn't said a word so you lifted your head as much as you could from within Yixing's embrace and you saw Baekhyun smiling at you.

"But if you never came here who could I annoy when I'm bored? Who would get drunk and pass out on our couch? Hmm? Who would I have infuriating conversations with? Who would actually be both excited and worried about lessons with you since the two of us that have has tutoring are being ing weird now huh?" He had started to poke you every time he asked a question, his voice getting a little louder each time. The pokes turned into being tickled and shortly you were a giggling mess. You fell onto the floor, having squirmed out of Yixing's grasp while you were trying to get away from Baekhyun's tickling.

You looked up at the two of them and smiled. "Thank you for making me feel better, even if one of you is a mean tickle monster." You poked your tongue out at Baekhyun and Yixing started laughing.

"You're welcome" both men said at the same time. The three of you sat there quietly for a few minutes before Baekhyun spoke again. "You should probably head back first, I know the concierge will be relieved to see you." You nodded and headed off towards the apartment building already forming your apology to the poor concierge.

-----

You were back in your room  after the 10 minute ordeal that was you apologising to the concierge (who you now knew as Kunwoo). You had apologies profusely for worrying him and he had apologised for telling Yixing what was bothering him. It had gone round in circles until Baekhyun & Yixing had re-entered the building, clearly surprised to see you still in the lobby.  They had managed to help you finish your apology and get back to your apartment before they continued to theirs.  You had just finished unpacking the small amount of shopping you had done today when you heard your phone buzzing.

Unknown - Are you feeling better?

Y/N - Yes, thanks to the two of you.

Unknown - I figured you'd want to know that only the two of us knew that you'd disappeared, everyone else had already headed up to the dorm. We decided to keep it between the three of us as long as you reach out to one or more of us if you feel lonely again. Ok?

Y/N - That sounds fair. Thank you.

Unknown - Good, now I can go back to teasing you :P.

Y/N - Ha, what you do best.

Unknown - You wound me! Teasing is not what I do best ;)

Y/N - No? Hmmm can't think of anything you'd be better at than teasing...

Unknown - You are a cruel woman.  Drunk you was much kinder to me.

Y/N - Drunk me was just and you know that.

Unknown - You say that like it's a bad thing ;)

Y/N - I am far too sober for this. Stop distracting me from lesson plans.

Unknown - I'm hardly being distracting. I am curious though, what's in these lesson plans?

Y/N - What do you mean? They're just tailored lessons to best suit everyone's style of learning and they're all different to try and keep each one of you interested.

Unknown - Hmm. See that sounds legit but 2 ppl have had lessons and 2 ppl have since been acting strangely.

Y/N - Can't help you there.

Unknown - Can't or won't?

Y/N - What happened to you flirting with me?

Unknown - Yah don't avoid the question.

Unknown - DON'T NOT ANSWER ME EITHER!

Unknown - Aish. Fine. Anyway, I was only checking in to make sure you were ok and to make sure you'd eaten.

Y/N - Oh crap, I have no food.

Unknown - Figured as much. Hang on.

Unknown - Our wonderful chef just finished cooking for us. He is going to request a lesson so he'll be allowed down to see you. He makes great food so make sure you eat lots of it.

Y/N - Thank you :)

Unknown - Don't thank me, distract me sometime ;P

Y/N - Ever the . :P