Another half year passed, it was May. 2^nd of May to be exact, and that is also Tao’s birthday, but he didn’t remember that. He was so busy with being a trainee that he didn’t really keep a track of dates. And there had also been an addition to the dorm. He was another Korean man named Jongdae who had come to join them just a few weeks earlier.

And a few days earlier, the boys; all who had been training together: Joonmyeon, Wu Fan, Chanyeol, Lu Han, Sehun, Jongin, Kyungsoo, Yixing, Minseok, himself and a boy called Baekhyun who had joined them around the same time as Jongdae, had got to know that they would be debuting, not sure about the date yet.

They were all really happy about the fact that they would be debuting together; they had grown into a big family. Everybody took care of each other and loved each other. But then came the next news, they would be splitting up into two groups. This got them all quiet and the looked at each other as they waited to hear who had been put in what groups.

And it shouldn’t have been hard to guess, it was how they were living in the dorms together. This wasn’t so hard for Tao to cope with, or he thought so, he didn’t know what it would feel like not to be together like this every day. But it tore Lu Han apart. To know that he wouldn’t be able to meet with Sehun every day and not to be on stage together with him. The moment they had gotten out of the office and went into the empty practice room Lu Han had thrown himself on Sehun.

He cried. The boy cried, asking god why he couldn’t be together with Sehun. The rest of the boys, now known as EXO, stood and watched as he cried. Sehun held the older boy and whispered in his ear that it would be okay, that they’d be fine.

Joonmyeon, now the leader of one of the groups, EXO-K, had also got a new name, a stage name. Suho. It felt weird for all of them to call him Suho but they would be surprised how easy it was to call him that a half year later.

Kyungsoo, put as the vocal of EXO-K, also had a new name, D.O. No one really understood where that name from but Jongin thought that it maybe had something to do with Kyungsoo’s surname, Do.

Also Jongin, Minseok, Jongdae, Yixing and Wu Fan had new names. Kai, Xiumin, Chen, Lay and Kris. Wu Fan had also been chosen as the leader, duizhang, of EXO-M where the Chinese members of EXO were grouped along with Minseok and Jongdae. Wu Fan, or now known as Kris, wasn’t sure about if he could make it or not as the leader and had talked to Tao about that the following evening before today, on 1^st of May, in the living room before they went off to bed, both of them in their own rooms.

Along with that Jongdae, or more known as Chen, had joined the group they had been forced to re-group the sleeping places. This wasn’t something that Tao fancied much since he was moved out from his room with Kris and moved in to share room with the manager and Xiumin and Lu Han moved in with Kris and Chen shared room with Lay.  

This morning however he woke up, got dressed, went on a jog with Kris and then headed to the company building; they started recording what would be their songs for their teasers and their album. The day passed on, the boys taking turns in the recording booth and some sleeping on the couch outside.

At the end of the day they were all exhausted and just wanted to sleep and as they were walking home, Tao realized what day it was. He happened to see the date on his phone and he stopped for a good second to just stare at the date. Kris noticed this and stopped to, turned to look at Tao asking him what was wrong.

“Oh, nothing” Tao answered quickly and jogged up to the rest of the group and they entered the apartment, took turns in the shower before most of them went to bed. However Tao sat down on the couch of the living room and curled up into a ball. It was his birthday and he had forgotten all about it.

The apartment was dead quiet as Tao laid on the couch, staring out into the air, thinking about how it would be at home without even noticing the tears starting to fall down his cheeks. “Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you” a quiet voice began singing, awfully out of tune. This made Tao sit up quickly and look around. A small light from a candle was coming from the kitchen and towards him.

In the small range of where the light shone he could see Kris’ face as the older man sang the song to finish. The candle was an ordinary cake candle that was now on a small cupcake that Kris held in his hands.

“Make a wish” Kris said as he stopped in front of Tao with the cupcake and the young man smiled. He wished and then blew out the light. They didn’t need to turn on any lights to see; the moon shone right into the room and lighted it up enough for them to see.

“How did you know?” Tao asked with a smile while Kris handed him the cupcake and smiled.

“You now, I have to know things about people I will be caring for, right?” Kris said and Tao shook his head. He hit Kris’ arm lightly, making the older giggle quietly. Together they ate the cupcake while small talking about this and that. A few hours later, around 3 in the morning they said goodnight and went off to their own beds.