Time flew so fast and the next thing we realized, we just arrived in Canada, sitting inside a van that is driving us to our hotel room. We were with Exo-K. All 12 of us were together again for another amazing SM show. Performing with our sunbaes always excited me to the core. Seeing the other groups perform while we wait backstage, it’s such a marvellous sight to behold. And that adrenaline rush I get after hearing our cues to get ready, I will never replace that for anything in the world.

I could hear Chanyeol and Baekhyun talking nonstop at the back. Kai was sleeping at Kyungsoo hyung’s shoulder. Suho hyung was so caught up with watching the different buildings outside his window. Luhan and Sehun were talking quietly together in front, with Chen, Xiumin and Yixing all huddled together behind them. I was seated in the middle of the van with Kris.

I know I slept during most of the duration of our flight, but I still felt really sleepy and tired, must be jet lag or whatever. I decided to check out the view outside my window. Suho hyung seem to enjoy so much with watching a lot of Caucasians strolling around. Then I see these poles at the side of the street that are evenly spaced, and the van’s speed is making the zooming poles seem hypnotizing.

One pole. Two poles. Three poles.

I blinked my eyes hard and shook my head. I’m spacing out.

One pole. Two poles. The shapes are getting blurry. Three poles. Four… I felt a hand on my face, pulling my head slowly. I let the hand guide my head towards the left. Then my left cheek felt something hard yet soft at the same time. It was comfortable nonetheless. Smells good, too. It was someone’s shoulder. It was Kris’ shoulder. The hand on my right cheek didn’t leave just yet. I was slowly welcoming sleep once again. A sensation of fingers caressing my cheek was the last one I felt. And a Sleep for a while, Tao was the last sentence I heard.

It looks like we were booked for an interview in some TV show in Canada. When we arrived at our hotel room, manager hyung of Exo-K announced that all 12 of us will have a quick interview the day after the concert. The rest of our sunbaes will have an earlier flight back to Korea while we’ll stay for a few more days to sneak the interview in our schedule.

“We’d better practice our English then,” Suho hyung jokingly said after the manager finished with the announcement. “Kris, could you teach us a few lines for our intro?”

“How do you say y dance machine in English, hyung?” Kai approached Kris.

 “What’s maknae in English, hyung?” Sehun followed after Kai, pulling Luhan along with him. I think I should ask him how to say romantic panda in English, too. That would be a treat for the fans.

Kris was accommodating enough for all the members. He patiently translated each member’s intro for them. He can’t hide that he’s excited for all of us. At least he’s in a familiar environment. Seems like everyone was pretty excited for the interview that they forgot about the concert before that. Surprisingly, we had a few hours to spare in our hotel room before we head to the stadium for blockings. Baekhyun wanted to go shopping. Kyungsoo hyung said he was hungry and wanted to try steak at a nearby restaurant. As for me, I sat at the sofa and flicked through the channels to watch a movie… and everything was in English. Great. No Chinese subtitles, too.

“Hey, don’t you want to go out for a stroll?” Kris gege touched my shoulder. “Everyone seems to be going out.” He leaned on the back rest of the sofa with his two outstretched arms, peering down at me.

“Not everyone. Luhan and Sehun opted to sleep,” I pointed to a room where I saw Luhan and Sehun enter together.

Kris looked at the direction where I pointed at, “Um, okay. But aren’t you going out to see Canada?” Kris stretched his arms out like he was some magician presenting a magic trick, with emphasis on the word Canada.

“Nah,” I was still scanning the channels even though I can’t understand what they were saying. I can understand English, but when spoken so fast and with a lot of jargons, never mind. “I wanted to watch a movie but everything here is in English and they’re talking too fast for me. Even the morning news is too fast for me.”

I heard Kris snicker. “I could translate the conversations for you if you want, but that would be really hard on my part,” he walked around to the front of the sofa and sat beside me, scooting close while getting one pillow to place on top of his lap.

“Yeah, you could,” I suddenly stopped on one channel. There was a boy and girl acting together in one scene. The girl was crying. The boy was silent. They were together in a… park? And it was dark with only streetlamps to light them. Then the boy said something, and he was touching the girl’s hand. The girl continued crying.

“Gege," I touched Kris’ hand on top of the pillow. “Could you translate this to me please.”

Kris listened to their conversation first. I waited. I heard the boy saying sorry. “Gege, why is the boy asking for an apology? Did he break up with her?”

“No,” Kris answered. “It’s more complicated than that,” he continued on with listening to the couple’s conversation until the boy ended it by hugging the girl, really tight. Like he didn’t want to let go of her.

“Then what is it?” The scene ended with the guy walking the girl home, and another scene followed.

“Well,” Kris was finding the right words. “I don’t know the whole story of their relationship since we weren’t able to watch the movie from the beginning but basing on that scene, both of them were in love with each other but they can’t be together because the boy is already committed to another girl, or something like that.”

“Oh,” my eyes went wide. “But why is the boy asking for the girl’s forgiveness then? It’s not his fault he already has a girlfriend.”

Kris laughed at what me before answering, “Like I said, it’s complicated.”

I looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Okay… What did the girl tell him then? She was crying a lot.”

Kris slowly turned his head to look at me. “Why am I so afraid of losing you when you’re not even mine?” He looked at me with that serious expression and piercing eyes.

What is this? Is he confessing all of a sudden?! I did not prepare myself for a spur of the moment confession! My eyes were blinking really fast and I noticed I was breathing shallow breaths. “Excuse me? Don’t you think it’s a little-”

“That’s what the girl said,” Kris finished off.

Oh. That’s what the girl said and Kris translated it for me. Mental facepalm.

“Or something along that line… Pretty heart breaking, don’t you think so, Tao? Falling in love with someone yet you already know that you can’t be together. You try to stop your feelings but sometimes you just can’t.”

I looked at Kris and he was staring at the TV, watching the movie perhaps. “So I guess it’s… complicated then.”

“What’s complicated?” He looked at me, confused with what I said.

I shrugged, “Falling in love?”

He blinked for a few times. Then he looked at the center table between us and the TV. “Yeah, just like in the movies.”

“Could you write that down for me, gege?”

“Which one?”

“The line that the girl said. Could you write that down for me? In English please,” I stood up and searched for a pen and paper.

He tilted his head in one side, like a confused puppy, “Why?”

“Oh, nothing. So I could practice it.” I’m pretty sure I packed along some notepad and a pen with me. “Got one! Here, gege.”

He reached for the notepad and pen doubtingly. But he got them nonetheless. He started opening the pad and searched for a blank sheet. “But why would you want to practice that? Don’t tell me you’ll use that as your intro for tomorrow. That’ll be embarrassing.”

“Oh hell no. I’m am not going to do that. I just... want to keep it. For keepsakes, maybe I’ll be needing it in the future.” I sat back down beside him, waiting for him to finish writing.

I dunno why I wanted to remember that line. I have this feeling I’ll be needing it soon, or I’ll be giving it to someone. I just don’t know who yet.

What kind of movie do you like to watch, gege?” I asked, changing the topic.

“I don’t particularly have a favourite genre actually. It depends on my mood and if I like the actors.” He handed back my notepad to me.

“Do you sometimes wish that your life is like the movies, gege?”

“What?” He looked at me with a smile. “What do you mean?”

I shrugged again, this time with a playful smile. “You know, that feeling you get when you snuggle on a couch, eating a bowl of cereal or a bag of popcorn, watching a movie with that one person you know loves you back, and for a moment, you feel like life is like the movies."

Kris looked at me with one eyebrow slowly rising. “You want your life to be like that, Tao? You want to snuggle with someone on a couch while eating Fruit Loops?”

This time I was the one to laugh. “Not really, gege. Not necessarily Fruit Loops. Eating apples would be nice, too.”

The sofa was getting more comfortable by the minute. The others will be back after half an hour still, enjoying their tour of the place while Kris and I shared fits and giggles that morning.