Yoojin stared up in shock, “What? JB…he was sent to America?”

Jr nodded, “Yeah. It was a shock to all of us, but in retrospect I guess we needn’t have been so surprised. That guy’s been a bit messed up for ages, and after what he did to you…”

Yoojin’s gaze dropped to his food, his expression stunned. He had never meant to do this to JB. All he wanted was to make him suffer a bit, show him what it meant to lose…but this…being sent out of the country for god knows how long…

“Hey, you’re not feeling guilty, are you? He’s the guy who punched you, for god’s sake. Why’re you feeling guilty?” Jr nudged his best friend. But Yoojin just shook his head numbly. Then he moved to get out of the hospital bed, “I have to go see Rian.”

Jr grabbed his best friend, “Woah, slow down for a moment. You’re in the hospital, you can’t just walk in and out like that.”

“Watch me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Yoojin approached the door he hesitated for a moment, wondering if she would be inside. Biting his lip, he raised his hand and knocked gently on the door before opening it.

The first thing he noted was how dark it was. The windows were drawn and the lights were off; the room was practically completely dark.

At first glance, the room was empty. Then Yoojin saw her.

Rian sat on the floor next to her bed; her expression lost. Her hair was messy, her face pale and drawn, her entire frame trembling. Tears streaked down her face, but she seemed almost unconscious of it.

“Rian.” The name came out as a whisper as Yoojin knelt down beside her. She turned to look at him, but no recognition entered her eyes. Instead, she whispered, “JB…”

Yoojin’s heart almost broke in that instant. She was still thinking about him. She would always be thinking of him first, no matter what happened.

“JB…”

“Stop it, Rian. You can’t hurt yourself like this, all right? Come on.” He tried to lift her up, but her body was limp in his hands, unmoving, like a corpse.

“Rian, enough is enough. He’s gone, and nothing’s going to change that. Now get up, all right?”

There was no response.

“Goddammit, Rian! Get the up and stop moping around! It’s not going to change anything!” Yoojin finally lost his temper, slamming his fist into the bedpost.

The tears just welled up in her eyes again, “He left because of me…it’s all my fault…”

Helplessly, Yoojin turned to look at his best friend. Jr had stopped right outside the door, his expression stricken as he stared at Rian. He’d never seen her like that before.

“Jr-sshi, Yoojin-sshi.” A soft voice called from outside. Jr’s head whipped around, his expression showing surprise. Yoojin hesitated for a moment before rising to see who it was.

Ailee and Nana stood outside, waiting. Ailee’s arms were folded, her expression unhappy. Nana didn’t look much happier. She closed the door quietly behind Yoojin before starting to speak, “She’s been like this the whole week, ever since JB left. She barely eats anything and she drinks so little water that I’m surprised she hasn’t collapsed yet. It’s like life’s over for her.”

“What can we do?” Yoojin asked immediately. Nana paused for a moment before speaking, “We’ve already called her mother, who was overseas. She’s coming over tomorrow. Hopefully this will wake her up a bit. Other than that…well, like they say: time heals all wounds.”

Yoojin’s eyes widened incredulously, “You’re kidding. That’s your brilliant suggestion? ‘Let time heal all wounds’?”

“Do you have a better idea?” Ailee snapped, “We’ve tried everything. Speaking nicely to her, yelling at her, getting the teachers to speak to her. Even the principal tried talking to her and he even threatened to kick her out of the company if she didn’t get her act together. Nothing worked.”

There was a long silence at Ailee’s words.

All of a sudden, there was a thump from inside the room. All four of them turned in alarm; at once, Yoojin rushed into the room, “Rian!”

Rian had fainted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rian stirred weakly, her eyes flickering open; she closed them almost at once, unused to the bright light.

A familiar voice spoke from beside her, “Rian, are you all right?”

Weakly, she turned her head. It was Nana. The HershE leader looked relieved, “Thank god, Rian. We thought you were never going to wake up.”

“Where am I?” The words came out as barely more than a whisper, and Rian flinched as she realized how weak she felt.

“The hospital, of course. After your one week fast, you fainted from malnutrition and lack of water. You’ve been out for nearly three days. We were all so worried, especially Mrs Lee…” Ailee replied from the other side of the bed.

“My mother…?”

“Yes, she’s here. She just stepped out to get some food, she’s been by your bedside for the past two days. I’ll go and get her.” Nana stepped towards the door, but it opened, and Rian’s mother entered. Her eyes widened at the sight of Rian, “You’re awake!”

Mrs Lee hurried to Rian’s bed, “Oh thank god you’re awake…”

Nana and Ailee glanced at each other. Both retreated quietly from the room.

Mrs Lee smoothed Rian’s hair, her expression tender, “I was so worried about you…”

Chagrin filled Rian and she looked down, “I’m sorry, mum…”

“I heard about JB. Nana and Siwoo told me everything.”

Rian looked up in surprise, “Siwoo was here?”

Her mother nodded, “He didn’t stay long. He looked worried when he came, but he still seemed rather angry when he was telling me about what happened.”

Rian could feel the tears welling up in her eyes involuntarily, “JB…he’s gone…”

Mrs Lee’s eyes seemed to fill up with tears as well, “I know…I know…you must be hurting terribly because of it.”

“But it’s my fault he left.”

“I’m sure you had your difficulties. You loved him, didn’t you? I’m sure you did it because you had no choice.” Mrs Lee comforted her daughter, “But you can’t do things like this anymore. Refusing to eat and drink and just spending one whole week crying…JB wouldn’t want to see you like this, would he?”

There was a pause before Rian looked up, “You…you don’t blame me? Didn’t Nana and Siwoo tell you-”

“How you kept on being nice to that Yoojin boy? Of course they did. But I’m your mother, Rian. I know how you feel. And once a girl starts loving someone, there’s no way they’ll be able to look at another person. Isn’t that right?” Mrs Lee smiled, “I know you’re angry at yourself, but this isn’t the way to do things. You’re just making others worried about you. All right?”

Rian’s expression changed at her mother’s words. Slowly, she gave a nod.

It was time to move on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three Years Later

Rian snapped her phone shut, “The CEO’s coming, we better get ready.”

There was a collective groan from the others in the room. Yoojin pushed himself upright, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Nana and Ailee continued to chat quietly, discussing the merits of the new boy band that had recently debuted in America, EXO. Jr had his head on the table and continued to snore, completely unaware. Siwoo was scrolling through his phone, reading some news.

Siwoo waved his phone, “EXO seems pretty amazing. America’s such a damn hard market to break into, but they seem to have managed it. The fans are crazy over their fifty teaser promotion.”

Yoojin rolled his eyes, unimpressed, “Thirteen boys who’ve got nothing but looks – of course they’ll have fans: those shallow teenage girls.”

“They seem pretty talented, though. I was watching their teasers, and a couple of them really can dance. Their songs on their new album are pretty nice too” Nana commented.

Yoojin just rolled his eyes again.

The door swung open, and their CEO/principal strode into the training room. He frowned, “Weren’t you guys supposed to discuss the songs for your debut album? What are you doing?”

Yoojin waved a hand, “We’ve already decided.”

There was a pause as the CEO sat down on one of the seats. Then he began to speak, “This may be a bit of a shock to you guys. I know how much you’re anticipating your debut, but I’m afraid we’re going to have to push it back a bit.”

Yoojin bolted upright, “What? Why?”

“There are some in the company who are…unconvinced of your abilities and your right to debut.”

There was a mutter of dissent, but the CEO quickly interrupted, “As you know, the company has been working to break into the American market. The American branch of our company recently debuted EXO, and Kim Soohyun of our former idol group Dream High is already a famous name in America. We’ve decided to bring the idols of EXO and Dream High back to Korea.”

There was a stunned silence. Then Siwoo gaped, “Why?”

“To train and judge you. EXO’s purpose is to break into the American market. Your purpose is to break into the Asian market. To do that, you must become the best of the best. You must be able to rival your sunbaes TVXQ and Shinhwa. And to do that, you’ll need to best mentors.”

This time the silence became awed. Nana gasped, “Dream High is coming back from their careers just to teach us? That…that’s amazing! I’ve always wanted to speak to Pilsuk-sunbae!”

The CEO nodded, “Yes. We’re bringing EXO back to prepare for their next album. We released their first album in English; now we’re going to release a Korean album. You don’t know any of the EXO members because we’ve been training them in America this whole time, so you can take this chance to get to know them. The idols of Dream High will be training you lot and EXO together. We intend to release EXO’s second album at the same time as your debut.”

“Wow.” That was all Ailee could say.

Rian was calmer, “So when will they arrive?”

“EXO should be arriving at the airport now. The Dream High idols are coming tonight, so you all better get ready.” With that, the CEO left the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He stepped out of the airport, breathing in deeply. Finally. Back on his native soil.

Baekhyun stretched tiredly beside him, “God, that was a long flight. At least we’re finally home. Man, it’s been four years since I’ve seen Korea!”

Kris’s arms were folded, his voice slightly grumpy, “At least you get to come back to Korea. I haven’t gone home in ages.”

“The CEO promised to let you all return to China soon, right? So don’t be so grumpy.” Chanyeol tried to sling an arm around Kris, but failed due to the older member’s incredible height.

Suho glanced about impatiently before he spotted a manager waving an EXO board in the air. He pointed, “C’mon, our ride’s here. Let’s go!”

As the other twelve members followed him, Luhan nudged Lay, “I heard we’re training with some trainees they intend to debut.”

Lay shrugged, “So? We’ve trained with other trainees before.”

“Do you think we’ll know them?” Luhan was feeling surprisingly cheery despite the long and tiring plane flight.

Lay just shrugged.

The thirteen members piled into the two vans the managers had prepared for them, and before they knew it, they were headed to the company.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, EXO’s coming already!” Nana hissed. The six trainees quickly stood up to wait for EXO, their backs ramrod straight as they waited nervously.

The door was opened gently, and Suho poked his head in. He started at the sight of them, and quickly entered, bowing. The other twelve members filed in behind him.

The six trainees glanced at each other before preparing to bow; then Yoojin froze, his eyes falling upon the blonde-haired man standing quietly at the back.

“JB?!” 

-----------------------------------------------------------

EXO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heh, how many of you saw this coming? Exo and the idols of DH1, meaning Hyemi, Jinguk, Samdong, Jason, Pilsuk and Baekhee, will be playing supporting roles. And JB's the new member of EXO!!! For EXO fans, I hope you won't mind me taking these liberties >< It's just a story.

Some background info: I've merged EXO-K and EXO-M to form EXO as a general band whose main focus is supposed to be on America. The leader will be Suho. Of course I won't be able to focus on all twelve members, so the main EXO characters who will be appearing will be Lay, Luhan, Sehun and Baekhyun. Dream High is the name of the band the DH1 characters formed, but it disbanded two years ago, with the members leaving to do solo activities. Samdong is an internationally famous star, Jinguk is the most famous soloist/dancer in Korea, Jason and Pilsuk have formed a popular singing/dancing band, Hyemi has become a famous musical actress and Baekhee is a mentor in the American branch of their company (meaning she taught EXO/JB previously)

Also, the main characters mentioned after the three year break was Rian, Ailee, Nana, Siwoo, Jr and Yoojin. As hinted in the story, there are plans for them to debut as a group, which means that they have actually been trained together for three years. 

This chapter was mainly setting up for the three year break. So, what changes would have occurred in these three years, and what changes will the new idols bring? Wait for the next chapter to find out! 

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