Luhan never expected that he would devote more than one day a year to figure skating. Growing up, he’d visit a local rink maybe once a year during the snowy months with his parents, or on dates when he got a bit older. When he moved to Seoul, he stopped thinking about ice skating completely. He had no time, especially while being a full time kpop star. Even when he returned to China, he wouldn’t even think about skating because of his injuries.

He never even thought about figure skaters, unless it was a year where the whole world tuned into the winter Olympics. Those Februaries, he’d sit back and stare at the tv screen, wondering how people managed to be so elegant, how they danced across the ice as if it were easy.

Well, as a dancer, he could sort of understand, but still. He always subconsciously gave them a lot of credit.

But he never, you know, gave it any thought.

Life in Exo was traveling at breakneck speed. Over the two years he’d spent with the other eleven boys, Luhan sang and gave everything his all. He loved his fans, he loved s, but everything seemed to speed up all at once-

Everyone knew that Luhan had injured himself, quit Exo, filed a lawsuit, and returned to China.

He thought he’d never recover.

He did his best to escape the public eye, and heal and rest, a chance he hadn’t gotten in a long time.

Somehow, he managed to float around China for a little while without the press finding out. As 2014 bled into 2015, he switched from Beijing to Chengdu to Hangzhou to Shanghai, hoping for some new life experiences. He couldn’t seem to escape all this Exo business. He already missed eleven of his best friends enough without the media throwing it in his face, reminding him every time he walked down the street, scrolled through the news, or even checked his own Instagram or Weibo.

Why did he want to be forgotten?

For the first few months of 2015, Luhan mostly hid in his brand new Shanghai apartment. He slept until late morning, exercised in the apartment gym with sunglasses and hats, shopped for food at the tiny market around the corner, and read in his apartment.

Nighttime was his favorite, the view he managed to get of the city skyline made him feel a little bit less like the latest topic, a little bit more like just a tiny part of the working city.