“Hope this isn’t goodbye, Chanyeol-rah?”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Junmyeonie,” Chanyeol smirked, lazily rolling the bottom of the gin tonic drink in his hand on the bar. “It’s not like I can delay moving back. My sister is getting married and the long term plan has always been to make Maa famous in Los Angeles...”

“... Then we branch out to New York, where I take over, and you build it from the ground up in our home country,” Junmyeon continued for him, knowing the drill already. “But it doesn’t mean I’m not going to miss you.”

Chanyeol almost spurted out his drink, just a little tipsy enough to find the humor in the admission. For seven years, he and Junmyeon had struck up a friendship as they had put their differences behind them, which mostly stemmed from Chanyeol’s immaturity and rashness. Thankfully, Chanyeol had grown out of that, and they had found some common ground apart from their connection to Jiwon and their families. Junmyeon had always been the calmer, more level-headed between the two of them so it was only natural that Junmyeon was his boss. “Well, you can always visit me when you come home for a visit, right?”

“That’s true,” Junmyeon agreed. “Do tell Yoora noona I will try to make it to her wedding.”

“Don’t try,” Chanyeol challenged, laughing it off. “Do. She would be expecting you.”

Chanyeol sighed and looked around the packed house that was the Maa Restaurant, one of the most famous celebrity and influencer hangouts in the Hollywood area.

So this was what success looked like. He didn’t think he would reach this point in this life.

Maa had just celebrated its 5th anniversary this month. To think of all the hurdles he and Junmyeon had to go through, including racist comments, when they were first starting out. Two 22-year-olds who were both naive and lacking life experience, equipped only with their family’s money and their fathers’ connections. Who knew they would get this far? Junmyeon, being a formidable yet compassionate leader, decided to close an hour early tonight to send off one of its founders, who would be flying back to Seoul tomorrow.

“How about some music from Mr. Chanyeol Park, huh?”

Chanyeol turned and saw Kris, Tao and Sehun, his old friends from university, coming up to him. A big smile cracked his face as he hadn’t seen his old rap group members in the flesh for at least 4 years. Kris hyung had graduated and became an up and coming music producer. Tao had built his own martial arts studio and specialized in teaching kids. Sehun had became a real estate agent, even selling Chanyeol his first owned home in L.A.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Chanyeol exclaimed, as he opened his arms as the Two Moons members all huddled together in a group hug. “How are you, guys?”

“Doing pretty damn well, thank you very much!” Tao cajoled.

“If Junmyeon hyung didn’t contact us, we wouldn’t have known you were moving back to Seoul!” Sehun retorted, frowning a bit.

Junmyeon raised his hand. “Yup, guilty.”

Kris had to pipe in. “Well, we’re among the ones he had called because he knew we’d be very pissed if you had just left without seeing us.” Then he pulled Chanyeol into a tight hug. “I missed you, Yeollie.”

Chanyeol had to chuckle, patting the older one at the back. He met Junmyeon’s eyes and gave him a nod of gratitude. He wouldn’t have thought of calling up each one of his friends to say goodbye. It was too tedious and, frankly, he wasn’t the type to get all sappy.

Junmyeon only grinned and clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. “How about a round of applause for Two Moons, huh?”

Chanyeol’s cheeks reddened, but mostly with exhilaration. Here they were, 4 tall Asian guys in suits and years older. Would it still be cool to perform their old, rather rowdy, angst-ridden lyrics?

It seemed as if his former band mates were able to read his mind that Kris, being the leader, the tallest and the oldest, was already going over to the DJ’s to give them the track.

Chanyeol had to close his eyes as the soft, somber melody of something long forgotten began floating in the air. Two Moons had recorded the English version of The Promise, but the demo hadn’t been picked up by any studio, unfortunately. When the four of them decided to disband a year after Chanyeol had returned to Los Angeles, they all agreed that the song was still pretty special.

Memories of writing the song seven years ago, and remembering the 21-year-old Kyungsoo whom wonderfully loaned him his ethereal, perfect talent in recording the original, evergreen version.

Chanyeol had never been able to say goodbye to him, since he’d had to fly to L.A. in less than a week when his father dropped the news to him. He’d had Jongdae deliver the journal to Kyungsoo, who was still in the hospital—and unconscious—at the time.

Months had passed, and he hadn’t heard from Jongdae, as he had become a regular singing gigs at the bar where he had been the main singer.

He also hadn’t known what had become of