Jongin thought that maybe Sehun wouldn’t like her; maybe she wasn’t his type.

            He thought wrong.

            Sehun came back from his first ‘date’ with Nayoung practically glowing.

            “It’s like I’ve known her for forever,” Jongin heard him telling Joonmyun. “It’s weird, I mean, we’ve never met before but she just gets me. I don’t have to hide anything from her.”

            You don’t have to hide anything from me, either, Jongin thought.

            It just got worse.

            Jongin’s only distraction was his new drama, and he threw himself into that so he might be able to forget his real life. If he tried hard enough, maybe he could become the character, and not himself.

            It was a relief to escape, even if it was only for a short period of time.

            Luhan had left for China after EXO had disbanded, and when he came back, Jongin drove to the airport to pick him up. Luhan smiled gratefully as they loaded his bags into the truck of Jongin’s car, but didn’t say anything until they were on the highway.

            “I heard about Sehun,” he said, softly.

            Jongin gripped the steering wheel tighter, but didn’t answer.

            “I’m sorry.”

            “There’s nothing to be sorry for,” Jongin said, between clenched teeth.
            “Yes, there is,” Luhan said, putting a hand on Jongin’s arm. “I’m sorry that he thought that marrying and starting a family was a better choice that staying with you. I’m sorry that he hurt you. I’m sorry that you’re hurting. I’m sorry.”

            Jongin relaxed his grip on the wheel by a fraction. “Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.”

            Luhan hesitated before he said, “Now that we’re not a group anymore, Yixing and I are moving out. We have an apartment a couple blocks away from our old dorm. There’s a spare bedroom and if you wanted to move in…”

            He trailed off, looking at Jongin expectantly. Jongin didn’t look away from the road, but he relaxed a little.

            “When does Yixing get back from China?” Jongin asked.

            “Next week,” Luhan said. “He was supposed to come back today with me but there was some family issues so he had to push the date back.”

            Jongin nodded. “And when could I move in?”

            He felt Luhan smile. “As soon as you want.”

            Kyungsoo helped Jongin pack his things.

            “I’m going to miss you,” he said, so softly that Jongin almost missed it.

            Jongin sat against his bed frame. The wood dug into his back. “I’m going to miss you too, hyung,” he said. “But I can’t stay here.”

            “I know,” Kyungsoo said. “But how will you and Luhan live in an apartment? Neither of you know how to cook, and you can’t live off of instant food forever.”

            Jongin couldn’t help but laugh. It was such a Kyungsoo thing to worry about. “Yixing’s moving in, too, when he gets back from China next week.”

            Kyungsoo looked relieved, and Jongin didn’t blame him. Kyungsoo had seen enough of his and Luhan’s failed attempts to cook.

            “Are you going to move out too?” Jongin asked, and Kyungsoo nodded.

            “Joonmyun, Minseok, Jongdae, and I found a place a couple minutes away,” Kyungsoo said, zipping Jongin’s suitcase shut. “We all need to move out by the end of the month.”

            Jongin reached over and pulled the zipper so that the suitcase was completely closed. “So we’re all going to be apart now.”

            Kyungsoo looked over. “It’s only a couple minutes,” he said. “We could visit and stuff.”

            Jongin smiled. “Yeah. We could.”

            Jongin thought that he wouldn’t see Sehun before he left, but he ran into the younger as soon as he stepped out of his old bedroom door. Sehun’s eyes widened and Jongin opened his mouth to apologize before he stopped himself. He wasn’t really sorry.

            “Leaving?” Sehun was obviously trying to sound light, but his voice cracked, and Jongin knew that he was upset. His voice always cracked when he was upset.

            “Yeah,” Jongin said, pulling his suitcase through the door. “We all need to move out now, don’t we?”

            Sehun didn’t say anything, just reached over and pulled Jongin’s suitcase upright.

            Jongin bit his lip. “I need to get going,” he said, trying not to sound uncomfortable. “Luhan hyung’s waiting outside with the car.”

            Sehun’s head snapped up. “You’re going to live with Luhan hyung?” he asked, roughly.

            “And Yixing,” Jongin said, realizing that he sounded defensive.

            Sehun didn’t look at him. “Oh. Okay. You should go then.”

            “Yeah,” Jongin said, softly. “I’ll go now.”

            Sehun didn’t stop him.

            Luhan was sitting on the hood of the car, fiddling with his phone when Jongin walked out of the elevator with his bags. He looked up and smiled, hopping off the car to help Jongin with his bags.

            “Is this everything?” he asked, and Jongin nodded.

            “Jongin?” Luhan said. “You okay?”

            Jongin opened his mouth to say ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’, but instead, to his horror, he felt a tear running down his cheek. Luhan’s lips parted in surprise before he pulled the younger in for a hug.

            “It’s okay,” Luhan murmured, and Jongin felt the wetness on his cheeks soak into Luhan’s shirt. “It’s okay, Jongin, you’re okay.”

            And Jongin cried, because it wasn’t. He wasn’t.

            They both went to the airport to rescue Yixing from the massive hoard of fangirls who had somehow found out about his flight.

            “How did they know?” Yixing hissed to Jongin as they grabbed his bags.

            Luhan snorted. “They’re fangirls. They’re like God. All knowing.”

            Jongin tried not to laugh and failed.

            “Oh, my god,” Yixing said when they walked in the apartment. “What happened here? I thought this was a new apartment. Did you guys seriously eat instant food for a week?”

            Luhan nudged Jongin before he said, “Of course not.”

            Yixing still looked horrified. “Then what did you guys eat?”

            “Kyungsoo came over once and made us some soup,” Jongin said, trying not to laugh at Yixing’s face.

            Yixing looked around at the mess. “Okay. Okay, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to clean up, and you guys are never eating instant food again.”

            “Never?” Luhan whined, and Yixing grabbed a pillow and whacked him with it.

            “Never.”

            Jongin laughed, and Luhan looked over and smiled at him.

            Yixing sent Luhan to the neighborhood store to buy some toothbrushes, and told Jongin to vacuum the living room. Luhan grumbled, but left when Yixing threatened him with toilet scrubbing.

            “You’re scarier than Kyungsoo,” Jongin remarked, as Yixing wiped down the counters. “Even he didn’t bring out the toilet scrubbing threat.”

            Yixing snorted. “Kyungsoo went easy on you guys,” he said, cleaning the rag. “Wu Fan had us all doing our own chores.”

            Jongin laughed. “We always played games to decide who did chores.”

            Yixing wrung out the rag. “Which is why you probably have no idea how to do housework.”

            “You’re not wrong,” Jongin admitted. “I don’t know how to do anything except perform.”

            Yixing laughed. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You’ll learn.”

            An hour later, Luhan still wasn’t back.

            “He’s probably eating ice cream,” Yixing said, rolling his eyes. “That’s what he always does when I send him to the store. It’s worse when Minseok’s with him. They disappear for hours and come back a little too hyper. Sugar’s not good for them.”

            Jongin laughed, and Yixing slung an arm around him.

            “You okay?” Yixing asked, and Jongin didn’t meet his eyes.

            But he said, “Better.”

            They invited everyone over for dinner a couple days later, after Yixing was sure that everything had been cleaned.

            Kyungsoo came four hours early to help cook, much to everyone’s relief.

            “You guys are never going to learn,” Kyungsoo muttered, as he ran his finger down the list of ingredients. “You would all starve to death without me.”

            Minseok rummaged through their fridge. “Yixing!” he called. “You don’t have any potatoes!”

            Yixing frowned, and when he couldn’t find any, smacked Luhan.

            “I told you to buy potatoes!”

            Luhan pouted. “No, you didn’t! You told me to buy onions.”

            Yixing rolled his eyes. “Who wants to go to the store?”

            Jongin hooked the ring of his keys around his pinky. “I will,” he said, and Yixing handed him a list of everything else Luhan forgot to buy.

            “I didn’t forget!” Luhan said, but everyone ignored him and left him to pout to Minseok, who just rolled his eyes.

            “I still haven’t forgotten the baozi,” he muttered under his breath.

            Jongin drove to the store, about a three minute drive away. He could have walked, but he didn’t want to risk being seen.

            No one recognized him in the store. Less and less people recognized him now, now that the group had disbanded.

            He ran into someone while trying to find a bag of potatoes that he knew Yixing would approve of. Jongin muttered, “sorry”, and tried to move on when the other said, “Jongin?”

            Jongin looked up, to see Sehun, his lips slightly parted.

            “Sehun? What are you…what are you doing here?”

            Sehun was about to say something when they both heard “Oppa!”

            Jongin whirled around, and saw a sweet looking girl, about their age, maybe a little younger. She looked exactly like a girl Sehun’s parents would like. She must be Nayoung.

           “Oppa, I found those sodas that you like,” Nayoung said, smiling and putting them into her and Sehun’s cart.

            Jongin looked at Sehun, and Sehun looked uncomfortable. “Jongin, this is Nayoung. Nayoung, Jongin. You probably know him as–”

            “Kai! Oh, my god, I’m such a big fan, I love all your songs!”

            Jongin forced a smile. “That’s nice. Nice to meet you, Nayoung.”

            “Nice to meet you too!”

            Jongin tried to hate her.

            Sehun cleared his throat. “So, what are you doing here?”

            “Luhan forgot to buy some stuff,” Jongin said, “and Kyungsoo is cooking so.”

            Sehun laughed. “I guess we’ll see you tonight?”

            Jongin forced a smile. “Yeah. See you then.”

            Nayoung waved as they walked away.

A/N: There might be some typos, sorry!