It was late in the evening when Lay finally arrived at the dorm. Bleary-eyed, he let himself in, half-expecting one of the EXO members to still be awake to help him with his luggage. But to his surprise, the common area was empty. Everyone seemed to be asleep already or, otherwise not in the dorm.

Lay inspected the interior and discovered that it was relatively clean and generally looked the same as when he had left for China, five months ago. The main lights were off so everything was shrouded in darkness apart from nearby the stairs, where the middle light was left on.

Lay was about to call out and alert the others of his presence but then, he stopped and changed his mind. He was exhausted from his travels and didn't want anything more than to sleep and, he was pretty certain that the others would be feeling the same way.

As silent as he could, Lay hauled up his suitcase up the stairs and crept along the corridor and into his room. He would leave surprising the other EXO members for tomorrow morning when he was much more refreshed.

Without turning the light on, Lay clambered inside and proceeded with stripping his clothes off. He'd shower in the morning--he was way too lazy to do it now. All he wanted to do was hit the sack and get more shut-eye.

Lay pulled off his trousers with a satisfied grunt and climbed onto his bed. He was so exhausted that he didn't even notice that his room had undergone a minor transformation.

And most importantly, he had failed to notice that there was someone else sleeping next to him.

~*~

The sound of shuffling roused Baekhyun from his sleep. He groaned and blinked a couple of times as his eyes adjusted to the light that came from the lamp on top of Chanyeol's nightstand.

"You're leaving already?" he asked, his voice was croaky from just having woken up. He saw that Chanyeol was already dressed in his outdoor clothes and he was busy packing some things into his backpack.

"Yeah. I'll be leaving in a couple of hours" he replied. Chanyeol checked his phone and saw that it was only five in the morning. His flight was at nine so he still had plenty of time. He glanced at his screensaver which was a picture of him and Nami during the photo shoot. It was the same picture which illustrated her surprise when he suddenly kissed her on the forehead. He smiled slightly. Even though he and Nami had pretended to date for almost two months, this was the only couple shot they took together. He regretted not taking more.

"You're not gonna say bye to Little Umma?" Baekhyun asked as he sat up.

Chanyeol shook his head. "It's best if I leave quietly."

~*~

D.O was busy cooking breakfast when he heard someone climbing down the stairs. He peered from the workstation and saw that it was Chanyeol, wearing his black fedora and long jacket. If it weren't for the backpack he always carried with him when he travelled, D.O wouldn't have realised that today was the day that Chanyeol was leaving for China.

"Chanyeol-ah" his voice had a conflicted quality to it. He couldn't quite believe that Chanyeol would be gone for a month. "You're leaving now?"

Chanyeol smiled at him weakly. "Yeah."

"Don't you want to eat first?" he asked. He was still busy frying some eggs but there were some that were already cooked.

Chanyeol shook his head. "It's okay. I'll eat at the airport."

D.O looked at him and saw that he looked conflicted too. "Does anyone else in the dorm know you're leaving now? Do you want somebody to go with you?"

Again, Chanyeol shook his head. "It's fine. Manager-nim will be picking me up soon."

There was silence.

D.O was careful with his choice of words. "What about Nami-ah?" Chanyeol's eyes met with D.O's at the mention of Nami's name. "You're not going to say goodbye to her?"

He smiled weakly. "Just tell her that I'll be gone for a while." Chanyeol checked his phone a