Baekhyun’s POV

“Omo omo omo!!! Come look at this guys!” D.O. shouted, beckoning everyone to join him in the computer room.

“What?!”

“Yah, what’s this early in the morning? And where is Kai?” Suho asked, stretching as he walked.

“Kai is on the Internet!” he squealed, clapping his hands like a seal.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” the rest of us shouted. Everyone began dashing to the room to join D.O.. Even Tao turned off his drama and sprinted to the room.

I woke Chanyeol up from his slumber (yes, he fell asleep on the couch after breakfast) and both of us made our way to D.O.’s. Somehow, I had a bad omen about this.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“OH MY GOD.”

“WHAT THE HELL.”

“FREAKING BARNACLES.”

Everyone took their turns at exclamations as all of us zoomed in on the article headlines.

“Since when was Kai and Sulli a thing?” Kris rolled his eyes and asked.

“I bet Sulli coerced him. Or threatened him with a hammer. Worse, maybe she stole all his Gucci,” Tao nodded.

“Kai doesn’t like Gucci, Tao. But she probably threatened him with something,” Suho said, tapping his chin.

“Possible. Or he just gave up,” Luhan muttered.

“Poor Kai.”

“Yeah.”

“I think S.M. made him do it,” Lay said. All of us turned to him.

“Seriously? Is that possible?” I asked.

“Yeah, whatever for?” Sehun frowned.

“Let’s just ask him later when he gets back,” Kris said, with his forehead creased. (KREASED)

“Oh well. What a shock in the morning,” Xiumin said, slumping down on the couch.

“Let’s go get some Gucci later, yeah? To counteract the shock,” Tao suggested, grinning to himself. He seemed satisfied with his own suggestion.

“That only works for you, Tao.” Chen sniggered.

“Duizhang!!!!” Tao whined.

“Aigoo, aigoo. Stop bullying Tao,” Kris cast a stern glare at Chen, which shut him up.

Chanyeol leaned over to me and seemed to want to tell me something. I turned to face him.

“Yah, isn’t Kai with Jiyeon?” he whispered.

“No, he isn’t. They aren’t together.”

“But, he likes her, doesn’t he?” he questioned, looking annoyed.

“Yes, but I don’t know what’s happening, Chanyeol ah.”

“Arghhhh, this is confusing!” Chanyeol cursed and went into the room, attracting stares from the rest of the members.

“Baekyeol’s fighting?” Chen smirked.

“Shut up, Chen,” I snapped at him, rolling my eyes. Chen really knew how to be annoying sometimes.

“Whatever man,” he said, waving it off.

“Oh yes! Man U won the match yesterday night!” Luhan cheered out of the blue.

“What was that?” D.O. turned to Luhan and asked.

“Manchester United!”

“Oh.”

“OMG and RVP scored a hattrick!” he continued gushing.

“What’s RVP?”

“Robin Van Persie! Only the best player in the world,” Luhan said, rolling his eyes.

I laughed at Luhan’s fanaticism. If there were anything which would make Luhan gush like that, it would be soccer.

And not just any soccer team.

It had to be Manchester United.

“Now’s not the time to be cheering, Luhan hyung. I’m really worried about Kai,” Sehun sighed, hugging his pillow.

“When he’s back, he’s in for a round of interrogation by Suho and I. No one is to interfere,” Kris growled.

I sat beside Sehun and sighed.

What have you gotten yourself into, Kai?

Jiyeon’s POV

“Hey, why do you look so gloomy?”

I looked up from my daze and saw Hyunjoon proceeding to sit beside me.

“Are you okay, Jiyeon?” he asked, patting my shoulder.

“Yeah. I’m just tired,” I replied, forcing a smile at him.

“Do you want to take a rest in my room?”

“It’s alright, thank you.”

Seeing that he could do nothing to help me in my state of disarray, Hyunjoon did not respond and just continued sitting with me.

“She’s definitely not alright, Oppa. You should take her to the psychiatrist,” Ha Eun declared, walking right before me with her arms crossed.

“What are you saying, Eun ah?” I asked. Please, don’t talk about him, I pleaded silently.

“She’s the most foolish person I have ever met. Who would wait for a guy to ditch her a second time?”

I kept quiet. I felt as if I had been banished into the bottomless pit of shame by her statement.

Yes, maybe I am that stupid.

“Who did? Kim Jongin?” Woojin poked his head around the corner.

Hearing his name made my heart sink lower. It was as if I was stabbed with a million daggers and emotions were flowing out of me like blood. I looked away as my vision became blurry.

“Yeah, that guy sure is a jerk.” Ha Eun scoffed.

“Expected. What did he do this time?” Hyunjoon asked.

“Here, look at this,” Ha Eun handed her phone to the guys.

“OMG he’s dating Sulli from F(X)? You kidding me?” Woojin squeaked and rolled over on his back.

“You like her, Woojin ah?” Chunseok appeared and took the phone from him.

“Mmhmm, I thought she was cute. But who cares,” he mumbled, covering his face with his arm.

Yes, she’s cute. And they look good together.

“Wow, this looks serious. Even SM confirmed it,” Hyunjoon muttered.

I bit my lip. Yup, if SM confirmed it, they were probably for real.

“Oppa, shouldn’t you be studying?”

“Ah, it’s alright. I’m taking a break,” Chunseok laughed, ruffling the back of his hair.

“Jiyeon ah,” Hyunjoon turned to me.

“Let’s... stop... discussing this....alright?” I choked, as tears flowed steadily down my cheeks.

I couldn’t use words to describe how I felt. It was a mixture of pain, anger, sorrow, bitterness, exhaustion and dashed hopes.

I hated myself for being so stupid, for always hoping that something would come out of this. But then again, who was I that I had the right to hope?

We were over long ago.

Yet I kept waiting foolishly. That one day he’d come back. I thought if we’d met again, things could be restarted. We could begin on a fresh slate. You had no idea how elated I was inside when we started talking again, even in short, awkward sentences.

I guess it was just completely over.

“There, there.” Hyunjoon scooted over and pulled me into his arms, patting my back gently while I cried like a baby.

Thank you, Hyunjoon Oppa. And I’m sorry.

“Aigoo, he’s not worth it, Jiyeon!” Woojin whimpered, scuttling beside Hyunjoon and I.

“Th-thanks, Woojin ah,” I mumbled.

“Yeah, let’s not talk about him anymore,” Chunseok smiled.

“That’s it. I’m going to teach that guy a lesson. That bastard,” Ha Eun muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes. She exhaled loudly and tied her hair into a loose ponytail.

“Yah, you aren’t thinking of doing anything strange, are you?” Chunseok asked.

“Since when? I’m still sitting here, aren’t I?” she smirked ominously.

Kai’s POV

When I entered the dorm, I was met with eleven pairs of interrogative stares.

“Kai. Kim Jongin,” Kris snarled menacingly as he walked up to me.

I looked him in the eye.

“We need to talk, Kai.” Suho said.

I nodded and followed the two leaders to Kris’s room. I knew what they were going to talk about.

“Is he going to be okay?” I heard Chanyeol whisper to Baekhyun.

“Who knows.”

I sat down on Kris’s bed and watched him close the door behind us. Suho sat beside me, while Kris sat on the bed opposite us, which I believed belonged to Tao, given the pile of Gucci overload.

“I don’t think you’d want to sit on those Gucci, Kris,” Suho commented.

Kris pushed the bags away and scoffed.

“Whatever, I’ll handle him later.”

“Back to you, Kai. What made you do it? Why didn’t you inform us?” Suho asked, leaning forward on his knees.

“I just felt like it,” I mumbled, looking away.

“Look at us! Answer seriously! You can’t just do something when you feel like it, you’ve got millions of people to account to!” Kris hollered, standing up in a moment of agitation.

“I’ll handle it,” I muttered.

“How do you think you can do it?” Kris asked. His eyes were penetrating, as if they saw through my pretense.

“I don’t know, CEO Kim will take care of the rest,” I blurted. I was really tired, and I knew this fix I’d got myself into was irreversible.

“CEO Kim?!” Kris yelled.

I was about to rebut when Suho tapped my shoulder and motioned me to be quiet.

“Ssh, the others will hear us, Kris.”

“Fine, but they would find out how audacious their fellow member is sooner or later!”

I heard my phone ring at this point.

>>>Incoming call: Taeminnie<<<

I sighed. I guess someone else heard about the news too.

“Yobuseyo?”

“Jongin ah! What was that! Are you free to meet now?” he sounded flustered over the phone. Which was pretty normal.

“Ah, actually I am. Where are you?”

“I’m outside your dorm! Bye!”

I heard a beeping sound. He hung up on me. Tsk, trust Taemin to do such things when he’s in a hurry. And what - he said he was outside our dorm?! 

“Kai! Taemin is here!” I heard Chen call for me.

“Neh! Coming!” I shouted back.

“You have to believe me, what I’m doing is for the best. Really,” I explained to Kris. Standing up, I reached for the doorknob.

“We’re not done with you, Kai.”

“That’s all I can say for now. You have to trust me,” I muttered.

I closed my eyes when I heard Kris yell after me.

It really was for the best, but what I didn’t understand were their reactions. If this was the last resort to skyrocket EXO’s popularity, why couldn’t the others understand?!

And I couldn’t understand what I was feeling. Regret piled up on my heart every second, every minute, every hour.

Did I make the right decision? 

“Kim Jongin!” Taemin shrieked and tossed his arms around me.

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have schedule today?”

“I postponed some of them! We need to talk! Let’s go!” he announced, pulling my hand and hauling me out of the dorm.

“Are you insane? Where are your disguises?” I reminded him, bearing very clearly in mind we were standing in the middle of the street in broad daylight. Unmistakably, we were not attempting to hide ourselves in any way.

Actually, I was secretly glad Taemin had come at the right time and rescued me from Kris and Suho’s interrogation.

“Kyaaa! Taemin Oppa! Kai Oppa!”

A couple of screams could be heard in the vicinity.

“We’ve been spotted. Run!” I grabbed Taemin’s arm and both of us made a run for it.

We stopped behind a nearby building. The screams had died down by then.

Taemin was wheezing.

“Yah, you haven’t had lunch?” I asked.

He shook his head.

Taemin had extremely high metabolism and had to be kept full, especially if he were to do strenuous activities like running. Or else he’d wheeze like this and become as pale as a ghost.

“Pabo.”

“Anyway, thanks for saving me from Kris and Suho hyung back there. They were going to give me a piece of their mind,” I smiled, patting Taemin’s head.

“Don’t thank me.”

He pushed my hand away.

“Why?”

“I’m giving you a shelling myself. What the hell were you doing?”

“I – ”

“Before you tell me, could we grab some lunch first?” he panted, grinning boyishly.

“What?!”

“Yeah, I’m not lying. That wasn’t my idea at all, it was hers,” I sighed, raising my eyebrows.

“And you agreed to it? Have you lost your mind?” Taemin raised his voice a little too loudly, the waitress stopped and gave me a questioning look. I quickly waved her away.

“Ssh, not so loud! This is between you and I, Lee Taemin. Absolutely no one can know that this entire thing is a scam!” I whispered.

“What made you do it?” he questioned, leaning back. A small frown appeared on his face.

“They said it’d help our publicity. Since we were doing pretty badly,” I shrugged.

“That can’t be it. It has to be something else. Her?”

Damn. Taemin was really my best friend. He knew me inside out.

“You aren’t someone who would sacrifice so much for publicity, Jongin. I know it has got something to do with her. Just tell me what it is,” he demanded.

I reached for my glass of iced tea and gulped it down. I looked at him and took a deep breath.

Taemin looked at me expectantly.

“I thought it was the best for both of us. All of us, in fact.”

“Elaborate.”

I paused to think. Was it okay to tell Taemin everything?

I searched his eyes. Taemin was drinking his beverage and looked up at me with his huge peepers.

“Okay.”

“I felt it’d be better for me to be out of the picture, and Jiyeon’s good with Sehun. He makes her happy. And without me as an impediment, their relationship would be able to flourish. On top of that, we’d boost our popularity. It’s a win-win situation.”

There. I said it.

“Really?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is she really better off with Sehun? Have you even asked her?” he asked, turning serious.

“Well, I can see that,” I said, attempting to convince both himself and I.

“You haven’t asked her, so how would you know?!” he questioned, sounding slightly irritated at my nonchalance about the entire issue.

“It’s obvious enough.”

“Very well. Suit yourself. You decided to take it upon yourself,” he said, playing with the napkin. 

"Yeah, I did."

Jiyeon glanced at her watch.

It was 10:30 PM.

It had been a long day for her.

One of the longest, in fact.

Nevertheless, she thought it was a day well spent with her crewmates.

“You’ll be okay?” Hyunjoon touched her shoulder briefly. His voice was filled with concern.

“Yes, thank you very much for walking me home,” she forced a smile as she closed the door behind him.

After washing up, Jiyeon slipped under the covers and lay in her bed, reflecting on the eventful day.

Things will get better tomorrow, she convinced herself. 

Her phone lit up. She frowned and crawled to the bedside table to get it.

1 New Message: Kang Jinsoo

Hey Jiyeon! This is really late notice, but I need you to come down tomorrow, EXO has another performance next week and they need to practice! Thank you! I’ll see you at 9!

She slammed the phone down on the covers as she rested her arm over her face. She had never dreaded going to work so much in her life.

Tears rolled down her face as she laughed bitterly.

“Aish, I really am stupid, aren’t I?” 

HEYHEYHEY!!!! Here's 23! I'm sorry to keep you guys waiting :X The flu bug hit me over the weekend gahh it was horrible. 

Comment replies

@lululemon_lover24 I know how you feel +touches shoulder in sympathy+ 

@chickenx HAHA WOW! Thank you so much for your support! ^^ ILU TOO~ 

@Sooyong x.x I feel like I'm being scolded too hehehehe x.x KIDDING <3 Thanks for your support! ^^ 

@Divine Thank you so much! :) 

@lightitup Actually I don't know if jealousy made him do it, maybe he's just distraught. Idk. Honestly. :X 

Hope it does this story justice, this chapter!!! It was pretty rushed, and quite long too x.x  I realized I'd neglected Taemin so I put some of him here ^^ He's gonna be more important in the chapters to come! 

And do subscribe, comment, and add me! :) Your support is greatly appreciated! I want to know how I can improve on this story as well~