It is fall in Seoul. And though the steel skeleton of the city is grey and unchanged, the spots of arbor swallowed up in skyscrapers and loud advertising, the city’s flesh has exchanged its bright summer fashion for the more muted, earthy tones of fall. The days grow shorter as the nights grow longer, and the winds that whistle through alleyways and around street corners are crisp and biting.

On a Friday as the sun sets, the nightlife awakens and shakes the young districts of the metropolis with visceral bass beats and trippy electric rhythms. In the outlying suburbs, the shoulders of parents and children alike relax at the prospect of a respite from work and study.

Near the summit of a modern tower of glass and cleverly worked angles, too, the weekend brims with prospect. At midnight KST, EXO’s long awaited comeback video will premiere on YouTube and a dozen other streaming websites. The members themselves will take turns staying up into the wee hours of the morning on a worldwide videochat with fans.

“I think these kids are more excited now than at our debut,” Kris comments as he uses a wall mirror to apply copious amounts of skin cream to his already flawless complexion.

Suho agrees - he’s watching Tao and Xiumin wrestle playfully over a favorite pillow in the center of the floor, thin cotton t-shirts riding up their thin frames.

“Knock it off!” Kris calls over his shoulder as he spots the incident in the mirror. Under his breath, he mutters, “Zhen shi de. Really.”

But he smiles.

A few feet down the mirror, Baekhyun is leaning against the mirror with his Naruto underwear peeking out of his sweatpants for all to see. Recently, he’s grown over-fond of the eyeliner he got from that stylist at the magazine, and he’s experimenting with different thicknesses and styles, turning every so often to blink coyly at Kai, who’s playing with the iPad and tapping his foot to a beat only he can hear.

Chanyeol races around the room, skidding on the futons and blankets strewn everywhere, tugging on sleeves and jabbering in rapid-fire Korean to everyone who can listen, even Lay, who looks terribly confused once Chanyeol speeds away. D.O. laughs at him and explains that Chanyeol has just done a great slight to his manly honor - Lay had better go over there and sort him out right away.

Chen is aghast at his countryman’s lack of discipline, but then he remembers that he was the one who had laced Chanyeol’s drink with sugar and caffeine in lethal dosages. He laughs loudly to himself, startling an already lost Lay and making D.O. laugh even more.

Suddenly the door bangs open and a mop of shaggy blonde hair stumbles in, followed closely by a pristine cap of brown that covers a grin wide enough to be seen by Kim Jong Il.

Luhan gasps out between peals of laughter, “Manager hyung is sooooo mad at us.”

“We found a Gucci store nearby,” Sehun explains sagely.

The room groans collectively, save Tao, who prances over for a high-five.

“On another note, it’s 11:53,” Sehun says quietly as he settles into his blankets, clutching a teddy bear from a fan to his skinny chest.

As one, the members glance at the digital clock near the door - he’s right. For once the room falls silent with anticipation. Everyone puts away his task at hand - eyeliner is tossed into makeup bag, iPad disappears only to be found with a cracked screen a week later under a pile of assorted crap - and huddles around the laptop Suho has in his lap. They watch with bated breath as the time ticks closer to 12:00, pressed so close that Kai’s leg is indistinguishable from Chanyeol’s and it looks like D.O. has one limb too many. Xiumin says later that he’s pretty sure he heard Lay make a joke about being suffocated by night cream and fruity shampoo, but no one else can be certain.

Each second that passes is one closer to their dreams and one farther away from their realities. With predebut, debut, and postdebut schedules produced to a T, syllables in both foreign and native tongues fall easily from their lips, and every member has memorized not only his own dance part, but also all of the others’. Debut was what they had waited for for so long, but once they got there they realized that they are greedy. Each member can’t wait for the next step on his way to stardom, to head into the unknown with eleven brothers made from the breath of fresh air in between practices, the late-night bowl of ramen in the dorms, the conversations shared over bubble tea and shopping trips.

Manager hyungs walk in with their fleet of cameras to discover a crowd of attractive boyflesh piled around and on top of each other and a square of white light that connects them to the rest of the world. The hope and excitement in the air are almost tangible, shining from bright eyes and pretty bone structures, making themselves known with the wringing of delicate fingers and the jiggling of dancers’ legs.

It’s ing beautiful, they declare later.