When you woke up the next morning, it was obvious the guys were gone. Not only was the bed made around you, but the house was entirely silent and still. It was more than a little uncomfortable for you. After so long on the streets, utter silence was somewhat alien to you. Even at night, a city makes noise.

After a shower and a change of clothes, making it so that you would have to bring a spare again when you came to visit next, you made yourself a quick and easy breakfast. After cleaning up, you hesitated. You weren’t really sure how to leave and lock up as much as possible. Wandering into the bedroom again, you finally noticed the note taped to the window.

Rae,

                Annyeong! I hope you slept well. Don’t even think about going out the window. Use the key. You know you’re welcome anytime.

To your surprise, dangling from a string tied to the crank on the window was a copy of the key to get into Jaejoong’s house. You had heard him jokingly comment about giving you a copy, but had just assumed that would never happen. After all, Hyori would be furious if she found out you had it. You carefully untied the string and added your key to the keychain you kept with you at all times. It held your own apartment key.

Smiling to yourself, you practically skipped to the front door where you slipped your feet into your shoes and walked out the front door. You locked up behind you and, keeping your head low just in case there was as tray paparazzi still around, went on your way to get to the nearest bus stop for a ride to work.

For the most part, the people on the bus ignored you. You saw a couple of guys your age or younger—you didn’t care—just looking you over like a stray dog looks at street food left unattended. Although you didn’t appear to notice, you were aware, and just ignored it. If they wanted to start something, then you could handle yourself.

No one bothered to get off the bus when you did, which was perfectly fine with you. You had things to do and were just hoping no one would make your day difficult.

It was a hope in vain, however.

Between the unnies on the staff, and all the trainees, you were pretty much kicked around like an unwanted runt. After going through the break rooms and cleaning up trash and other leftover crap from messy people who knew that you would do it, you had to go around to the practice rooms to see if the trainees needed anything. For the most part, that meant getting beverages from various locations in the building—coffee, energy drinks, water—and bringing them back to the right person. You did all of this with a stoic face.

You were happy when you finally got to go work with the actual idols. It was the guys that you preferred working with, although the professional unnies weren’t nearly as bad as those on staff or the trainees.

Seeing that someone was recording, you snuck into the viewing room to see who it was. Imagine your shock—and pleasure—when you saw Chanyeol was working on a rap that you hadn’t heard before.

You quietly closed the door and moved to one of the rolling stools to watch, figuring no one would notice you taking a short break. The giant virus of joy was so into his rap that he didn’t even notice you sitting there. Your stomach felt like someone dumped a bucket of butterflies into it. Pleasant, but not, and you couldn’t tear your eyes away from Chanyeol.

You were pretty much in love with everything about the guy, and although it that he was unaware of your existence, you were resigned to that. You were more than happy to love him from the background. You would be that silent support.

“You’re drooling, Rae-ah,” a quiet voice said near your ear.

Biting your lip to keep from shrieking and interrupting EXO-K’s rapper, you almost threw yourself off the stool to look at who it is.

As soon as you saw their face, though, you forgot the pounding of the blood as your over-excited heart made your head hurt.

“Tao!” You pushed yourself up and threw your arms around the older Chinese boy.

He had gotten picked on when he first came to train with the Korean trainees, and you had pitied the angry-looking boy who couldn’t speak very good Korean. Fortunately, your mother’s clientele included Chinese business men looking for a good time, and you picked up on enough to expand it when you were on the streets.

The two of you had bonded quickly.

He chuckled softly and hugged you close. “Are you happy to see me or something?”

You nodded, forehead bumping against the much taller boy’s chest. “Ne!”

Tao quietly led you out of the room so that the two of you wouldn’t interrupt Chanyeol, relaxing a little as you walked happily at his side. He didn’t often get to see you, since he was only really in Korea with the rest of EXO-M when there was a new song or video to produce. While in Beijing, he didn’t have a whole lot of time to keep in contact with you, and he had noticed that you didn’t respond very frequently. He had a feeling that you were trying not to bother him.

“Are all of you back?” you asked, switching to Chinese. You spoke Mandarin with Tao because it made him feel more at ease. Unless his hyungs were there to insist he learned better Korean.

He nodded. “Yeah, the others are around here somewhere. They might be with the rest of EXO.”

“Oh? That’s cool,” you said with a little smile. “Did you come looking for Chanyeol-ssi?”

“I wasn’t. I was looking for you,” he answered, glancing down at you with a fond little grin.

Your smile faded as your mouth dropped open a little. Did Tao really care about you that much? You knew the two of you were friends, but you had never wanted to assume much more. You were aware that you were like his little sister. At least you thought so.

I’m always the little sister, that nasty voice in your head pointed out. You squashed it.

“Well, you found me!” you cheered, throwing your hands up like what Tao did was some great feat.

He laughed and ruffled your hair. “I did. I’m the best Raekyo finder ever.”

“You are,” you said, a little too serious. You were remembering how Yoochun had mentioned that when you disappeared on them that no one could find you. “Maybe I should introduce you to the oppas later. They’d appreciate your me-finding skills.”

“Oppas?” he asked, frowning a little in confusion. He wasn’t entirely aware you even had guys in your life to call that.

You nodded. “The oppas from DBSK, and now JYJ. I’m supposed to meet Yunho-oppa later. Changmin-oppa will probably be nearby, too.

You were so busy thinking about how to bring up your friendship with Tao to your “older brothers” without them getting overly protective of you as they were want to do, you missed the shocked look on your friend’s face.

“You know them?” he asked. “They’re EXO’s sunbaes.”

You blinked, before grinning. “That’s right, they are!”

It had never occurred to you that your oppas from DBSK would know the guys from EXO, and vice versa. Sometimes you had trouble remembering all the groups that S.M. Entertainment was in charge of. It was a pretty extensive list, to be sure, without including the solo artists. You blinked up at Tao.

“Do you want to meet up with Yunho-oppa with me, then?”

Tao shrugged, looking a little shy. It had taken you a little to realize that when he grew tense and seemed more brooding than usual that he was just being uncomfortable and shy.

“If you don’t think Yunho-sunbae would mind.”

“Ani, he won’t!”  You dismiss Tao’s concern with a wave of your hand.

Without realizing it, the two of you had slipped into Korean again. Tao was a lot more at ease speaking it with you, because when he didn’t know the right word, he could just plug in the Mandarin one, and you would understand almost instantly.

“Aigoo,” came a voice from behind you. “The two of you make an adorable couple.”

With a squeak, you twirled around to see Kai smirking at you both. “Y-Yah, how long have you been following us, you stalker?!”

His smirk disappeared into a glare. “I’m not a stalker! You two were walking too slow and taking up the whole hallway!”

Tao just looked amused. “That’s not true, Rae-ah is tiny.”

“You’re almost as big as Chanyeol, panda,” Kai pointed out.

You frowned. “Chanyeol-ssi isn’t fat, he’s just tall! Your argument is invalid!”

“Kai, you called me fat?” a deep voice asked from behind Kai.

You could feel your face starting to burn, and Kai noticed. He definitely noticed. Storing that information away for later, he turned around to look at his hyung.

“Ani!”

Tao smiled a greeting at his hyung from the other half of the group. “Annyeong, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol spotted Tao and smiled, before it widened when he saw you. “Annyeong, guys. Rae-ah, where have you been? I was looking for you earlier?”

“M-Mwo?!” Your face was definitely even hotter now. “I was helping the trainees and cleaning.”

Tao glanced at you with a little frown. He knew that when you said you were “helping” them, it meant you were being their slaves. It had been part of your job back when he was a trainee, too, but he’d never used you like that. Instead he’d often gone with you on those “errands” and helped you carrying some of the things back so as to keep you from being over-burdened.

“Oh,” Chanyeol said with a little nod of understanding. “I will look for you around them next time then!”

You smiled shyly. “W-Well, during the afternoons and evenings, I help with the idols doing whatever they want, such as making sure they take breaks to eat. Sometimes SooMan-ssi sends me on errands, too.”

The tallest member of EXO pouted at you. “Well then how do I get in contact with you?”

Kai barely hid a smirk. “Exchange numbers?”

You didn’t know whether you wanted to slap Kai or kiss him for the suggestion. Slap because you could see the way he’d looked at you, and knew he wasn’t just being helpful. However, you also wanted to kiss him for being such a genius. Either way, you held your breath to see what your crush answered.

Chanyeol’s face lit up as if he’d just solved a really difficult problem on his own. “That’s a brilliant idea!”

Whipping out his phone from a pocket, he opened it and—after getting to the right screen—held it out for you so that you could enter your information. It didn’t take long, and you felt a little bad for Tao, because he was just kind of standing next to you while this was happening, but as soon as you’d entered everything you thought Chanyeol could want, you handed it back to him.

He tapped on it a couple of times, and you felt your phone in your pocket vibrate before the text message alert noise went off.

“Just sent you a message so you’ll have mine,” Chanyeol said with an easy grin.

You could only nod, dumbfounded. Your crush of about a year had just given you his number. Tao gently nudged you as inconspicuously as he could, jerking you out of your trance.

“G-Gomawo, Chanyeol-ssi,” you stammered.

Chanyeol’s nose wrinkled. “Chanyeol-ssi? Call me Yeollie, or oppa, or something. Nothing that formal!” He pouted at you.

Barely resisting the urge to hide your eyes, you could only nod a little. “Arasseo, Yeollie-oppa.”

Tao frowned at you. “How come you never call me that?”

You blinked. “Do you want me to?”

“Ah… it’s okay, just Tao is fine.”

You only smiled, pleased that your friend was okay with that. If he wanted to be called “Tao-oppa” you would have indulged him easily, though.

“I was looking for you, hyung,” Kai said, interrupting the silence. He was looking up at Chanyeol. “Suho wants to see us. Kaja.”

Chanyeol pouted about not getting to spend more time with you and Tao, but followed after Kai, waving over his shoulder as he went. “See you later!”

You waved back stupidly, unable to stop yourself. After that time dealing with the staff and trainees, your day was really starting to look up.

Smiling up at Tao, you slide your arm through his. “Where to now?”

The older boy’s stomach growled. “Lunch?”

“Sounds good!”

Today would be a good day, you could just tell. Maybe you would have to start spending the night at Jaejoong’s house more often.

Annyeong~

I should really be updating something else, but I can't help it. This wasn't even supposed to happen in this chapter, but it kind of spotaneously took over and BAM, now it's here. So I guess meeting up with Yunho and Changmin will have to wait until the next one. But Tao will be along for the ride. He's apparently your Locater.

I'm glad someone liked this enough besides me to leave a comment and subscribe. It made my day, so thanks to SuperJunior4Ever for that. :)

Until next time~