Three years later...

"Wow! Traditional Japanese hotels are the best!" Kai exclaimed excitedly, as he rushed inside to inspect the Asiatic decorations.

"I believe they're called 'ryokans', Kai. They're more like inns than hotels" Sehun corrected.

The EXO members entered their Japanese-style accommodation which composed of tatami floors and minimalistic decoration. An earthy and neutral colour scheme was evident across the whole room and a small, wooden table was placed in the centre, nearby a tiny, flat-screen TV. Connected to the cosy common area were two spacious rooms that the EXO members will sleep in. These rooms were separated by sliding doors and were currently empty, apart from a pile of futons that were neatly folded in one corner.

Suho observed their humble abode for the next couple of days. "You guys better take advantage of our time in Osaka" he advised, "We'll be moving on to Hokkaido next."

"Do you think it'll be any different? I mean, Manager-nim might have booked us another ryokan" Lay mentioned as he brought one of the futons to the common area.

"I don't think so" Suho replied. "Manager-nim said that he only booked us the ryokan because all the big hotels were at full capacity. I guess we're doing our Japan tour at the wrong time since there are many tourists this year." He peeped at Lay who was making himself comfortable on the futon. "Yah! Lay, if you're going to sleep, go shower first and sleep in the bedrooms-- don't sleep here!"

Lay's eyes were already half-closed. "I'm just going to rest my eyes..." he mumbled sleepily while hugging his purple unicorn plushie.

Suho sighed, "Typical."

Chen hauled his suitcase into one of the spacious rooms. "Kinda think of it, I thought they'd postpone our tour to Japan until a lot later in the year. It seems counter-productive to do a tour when the Olympics is going on."

"I agree" Xiumin responded as he sat down on the tatami floor. "But when I was speaking to Manager-hyung, he said that Manager-nim and Lee Sooman thought that it would be a good idea since we could take advantage of all the tourists who will be coming."

"I still think it's pretty dumb" Chen expressed carelessly. "One thing's for sure, it's so hot outside that I think I'll end up fainting on stage!"

Baekhyun sat down on the tatami floor next to Xiumin. "Well, while we have these three days off before we head over to Hokkaido, we can use this time to relax." He picked up the remote and switched on the TV. "Maybe we can catch up on some anime or something?"

Sehun smirked from beside him. "Yeah, I bet you're just looking for the channel, hyung."

"No, I'm not!" Baekhyun blushed as he aimed to kick Sehun on the shin but he avoided it.

Chanyeol returned from one of the bedrooms with a towel slung over his shoulder. "Any of you guys wanna go to the hot springs? D.O-ah and I are going there right now." A few moments later, D.O appeared from the bedroom too. He was staring blankly at the others as if he was preoccupied about something.

"Nah" Baekhyun replied. "I think I'll watch some TV first." He turned to Sehun. "How about you, Sehun-ah? Maybe you should go to the hot springs to cleanse your filthy mind?"

Sehun stuck his tongue out. "I think I'm fine just the way I am, thanks."

"What about you, Suho-hyung? Chen? Umin-hyung?" Chanyeol addressed the other three.

"I think I'll go after" Xiumin replied as he started eating mochi that was left on the table for the EXO members. "I'll take a bath before going to sleep. It's still pretty early."

"Same here" Chen answered.

"I'll go later as well" Suho responded. He looked around the room, "Where's Kai?"

"He's probably off calling his sister again," Sehun told Suho. "He's been missing his dogs lately."

"Okay, well, I guess it's just me and you, D.O-ah" Chanyeol told him. D.O nodded. "We'll see you guys later then." Chanyeol waved, before leaving the room with D.O.

"It seems like D.O-ah is still feeling a little weird being in Japan" Xiumin observed once the pair had left.

"Can you blame him, though?" Chen answered. "I guess it brings back a lot of memories for him."

Suho sighed, "Well, I'm going to unpack some of my things. Since there are two rooms and there are nine of us, we'll have to split up into groups of five and four."

Immediately, the other EXO members grouped up together. "Baekhyun, you're with us, okay?" Chen told him as Baekhyun was still busy flicking through the channels.

"Okay," he replied distractedly. "I don't mind who I share a room with."

"Why don't we just split into two groups of four instead and have Lay sleep in the common room by himself? He seems to have made himself comfortable already." Xiumin pointed at a horizontal Lay who was snoring softly in one corner.

The others nodded in agreement. "Deal." It was the easiest decision they've ever had to make so far.

Baekhyun groaned, "There's nothing good on TV. All I'm getting is Olympic tournaments."

"Then why don't you just watch that?" Suho asked him as he started moving his things. The others had got up to start claiming their space in the bedrooms too.

"Ugh" Baekhyun grunted. "But it's all in Japanese so I don't understand anything."

Xiumin chuckled as he appeared from one of the bedrooms. "Then just pretend you can" he suggested, before disappearing again.

Baekhyun sighed as he flicked through each channel. After a while, he eventually decided to watch a martial arts match. Since he did hapkido in the past, martial arts had always been an interesting topic for him and the closest ones to hapkido were taekwondo, judo and karate. At the moment, it was the women's judo match on TV. Afterwards, the men's would begin.

Baekhyun shuffled around on his seat to get comfortable. There was only so much you can do when you were sitting on hard, tatami floors as opposed to cushioned chairs. He grabbed the plate of mochi that was on the table and started munching on them while he observed the two competitors, who were fighting in the featherweight division. Baekhyun saw the flags of their countries appear next to their names and saw that it was Great Britain v Spain.

He yawned as he watched the match begin. He observed how the female representative for Britain was short, tanned and had a pixie cut while her opponent was a tall Caucasian woman with blonde hair pulled into a tight ponytail. He noticed that their names were Na Mirei and Álvaro Sara, which was written with surnames first, like in South Korea. Baekhyun watched disinterestedly as the two females circled each other. He didn't really feel like cheering for any side-- he was just waiting for the men's division to start.

"It's already obvious," he said out loud to no one in particular. "The blondie's going to win. She's so much taller than the other girl."

Baekhyun popped another mochi into his mouth as he continued to watch. As he was doing so, he heard the others squealing on the other side. It sounded like they were having a pillow fight or something because Suho was scolding them. Baekhyun shook his head disapprovingly. "Tch. Must be Sehun and Kai again."

He sighed once more as he continued to watch. He was starting to lose interest because nothing was happening. "Maybe I should check if taekwondo is on," he thought out loud, before reaching for the remote to change the channel. But just as he was about to press the button, the small, tanned girl grappled her opponent and threw her onto the floor with amazing force, earning her a point.

Baekhyun blinked. He was dumbfounded. Well, that was unexpected... He straightened his back, leaning forwards a little bit more as he watched the match more intently. Something about that throw was mesmerising-- it was executed so perfectly-- even he, as a hapkido practitioner, had to admit.

He watched as the camera zoomed in on the tanned girl's face, who had a serious expression. She was currently speaking to her coach, probably receiving feedback for her earlier throw. Baekhyun narrowed his eyes as he took in her features. The camera had zoomed in so that he can see her face clearly: the curvature of her nose and her pair of almond-shaped eyes felt somewhat familiar to him but he couldn't put his finger on it. The tanned girl finished talking with her coach and she smiled to reveal a pair of dimples on her cheeks. Baekhyun's eyes rounded and he gasped as realised who she was.

"Little Umma?" he murmured to himself. He had dropped the mochi in his hand back onto the plate and blinked several times. Was he seeing right? Was it really her? Could that Mirei really be their Nami from before?

Baekhyun resumed watching the match, before making a conclusion. He didn't want to get too ahead of himself because maybe, he was just imagining things. He didn't want to alert the others just in case it was another false alarm. It wasn't the first time, after all...

After Nami left unexpectedly, D.O and Chanyeol flew back to the US to rejoin the others on the tour. But even though D.O was with them, he wasn't the same. While he performed to the best of his ability and acted fine on the outside, his eyes showed no happiness. It was as if he was wearing a mask or pretending to be one of the characters from his dramas because, while D.O was able to hide his true feelings, his round eyes couldn't lie. He was in pain but he was repressing it for his fans, for his teammates and most of all, for the sake of the show.

Once the tour had ended and they had gone back home, D.O had locked himself in his room for a long time. He was really downcast and the EXO members didn't know how they could make him feel better again. Nami was gone but that didn't stop them from dedicating their time in searching for her. They had realised that Nami was important to them and it didn't matter that she was a reporter. They wanted to make things right again; they wanted her to come back to where she belonged.

They started off by trying to glean as much information as they could from Suji. But she was determined not to reveal a single piece of information, even going as far as denying she had any knowledge of why Na