As stubborn as Kairi was, she decided to ignore the doctor. Every time that doctor tried to help her, it would never work. So why should she believe him now?

Kairi walked down the street aimlessly, occasionally throwing glares at the cast on her arm. She sighed and walked over to the bus bench. She waited until it came and boarded onto the bus.

Kairi sat down and thought to herself. *I can't worry about myself right now. I have to focus on the festival. So what should I do?* She ran her fingers through her hair and then thought back to the CD lying in her bag. twisted a bit, trying to come up with a way to help EXO.

The bus jolted, and Kairi's head snapped towards the window. She saw where she was and immediately left the bus. She only had to walk a couple steps to get to where she wanted to go.

When Kairi arrived at the fabric store, she almost skipped over to it in glee, forgetting some of her initial problems. The door chimed pleasantly when she went inside as if it was cheering that she came.

The employees inside heard someone come inside and welcomed her with a bow. They stood straight up again, and their expression brightened when they saw who it was. "Kairi-ah?"

Kairi gave them a small smile and waved. "Wow! I haven't seen you in a while," another employee said.

Another employee rolled her eyes. "We saw her like a month ago."

"A month is a long time in Kairi-time. She usually buys fabric every 2 weeks."

Kairi pulled out her notepad and struggled to write. They noticed her cast and looked at her with concern. "Oh my goodness! What happened to your arm?"

It's nothing big, don't worry about it. And by the way, sorry for not coming lately. The team got a job, and we've been busy preparing for stuff., she sloppily wrote with her left hand.

"Ahh, so now you're designing for someone? Can you do it with your arm like that..?"

One of the employees hit that one on the back of the head and clucked his tongue. "Of course she can. Kairi can design anything backwards and forwards blindfolded. Something like this won't hold her back, right?" He turned his eyes onto Kairi, and she smiled back at him gratefully.

"So so so! Who is it? Who are you working for?" They piled in closer to Kairi to get the information. She shook her head and "zipped" her lips. They all groaned. "Come on! Tell us! We won't tell anyone, we swear!"

Kairi raised an eyebrow at them and gave them a look. They looked at her hopefully, and she sighed in exasperation. In sloppy handwriting, she wrote, EXO.

One of the girls screamed. "REALLY?! AAHH! YOU'RE SO LUCKY! I LOVE EXO! CAN YOU LIKE HOOK ME UP WITH KRIS PLEASE?"

Kairi looked at her, startled by that reaction. The other employees chuckled. "Yeah, she's a total nut for those boys."

She nodded furiously. "I love them! You're helping them get back on their feet?" Kairi nodded, and she squealed. "I'm so happy! If anyone could help them, it'd be you!"

Then her expression suddenly got more somber. "Please save them. They don't deserve all this hate even if Kris did make a stupid mistake."

Kairi knew that she had to save them either way. She was just glad that there were still dedicated fans who supported EXO. She now felt more confident that she could save this group that no one thinks can comeback. She nodded, and the girl beamed. "Yay!"

Kairi ordered rolls and rolls of all the fabric that she needed for EXO's comeback clothing—discounted, courtesy to the "number one EXO fan". Now all she needed to do was wait until they arrive the next day to her house. 

Kairi left the store and checked the time on her phone. She bit down on her bottom lip thinking about whether she should go to another place. Making up her mind, she raced down to the bus stop but suddenly stopped herself. *The buses will take too long.* She looked around the busy street and stood at the edge. She waved her hand, hoping a cab would come soon. Eventually, one came to her, and she gave the cabdriver the address.

Kairi sat back in the car seat and waited patiently to arrive. She opened up her bag and dug through it, fishing out the CD case. She stared at it, and her lips thinned in distaste. *I will fix this. No one will know.*

Kairi turned her head to the car window and realized that they were finally entering into the slums of Seoul. She saw the piles of waste on the streets and gruesome violence that occurred as she drove past them. Her nose wrinkled a bit at the sight of everything. She shook her head, not knowing why someone would willingly live there, but in the back of her mind, she knew some people didn't have a choice. She sighed again. 

The taxi stopped, and Kairi gave him the money, exiting the car. The car drove off as she looked at a small rundown house that looked as if it was built decades before and was on the verge of collapsing. She sighed and slowly walked up the steps to the front door. She pressed on the doorbell, and no sound came from it. She pressed it again, only to realize that it was probably broken. She knocked on the door loudly, hoping that the person on the other side would hear her.

The door finally opened and revealed a young man wearing a stained wife beater and sweatpants.

(Just pretend he's not wearing that... haha)

He squinted his eyes as if he just woke up and scratched the back of his head. "Who is i-" He paused when he caught sight of Kairi's face. His eyes slowly widened when he recognized who it was. "Wh-what are you doing her-"

Kairi placed her finger on her lips and pushed him inside, going inside and closing the door behind her. She suddenly had a coughing fit when she sensed the stench that permeated from the house. She looked around to see piles and piles of takeout boxes sitting in black garbage bags and a sink full of dirty dishes that looked like they were not cleaned since last year. She looked at the man and gave him a face. "Pig," she mouthed to him.

He sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Noona, you've always been mean to me." Kairi would ruffle his hair, but she was pretty sure that he hadn't showered that month. "But what are you doing here? I thought you didn't want to associate with anyone from the family," he said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

Kairi softened a bit, but she only showed herself thinning her lips in response. *I gotta get this done first.* She took her notepad and tried to write.

Noticing her cast, he stopped her. "What happened to your arm?" She shook her head, telling him to ignore it, but he would not let it go. "I thought I told you to take care of yourself! Why didn't you listen to me?"

Kairi gave him a look at the use of his informal tone. Why are you talking to me like that? I'm older than you! I'm more concerned about you living in this pigsty!

His nose crinkled at her statement, and he crossed her arms. "You know why I'm living here. And I'm a man now… Just turned 19, ya know?" he said with a small pout on his face.

Kairi did know. She bought a birthday present for him a while back, but she couldn't gather the courage to go give it to him.

You're still the stupid little cousin who cried at age 8 when I ate your pudding.

"I WAS NOT CRYING. THOSE-THOSE WERE-UHM. THOSE WERE TEARS OF—YOU KNOW—MANLY TEARS AND-you know what, never mind. Why are you here?"

Kairi sighed. So… I need your help with something.

"Of course. You wouldn't have come on your own free will," he said, slightly bitter.

Kairi winced at that statement but continued nonetheless. Are you still working on producing music?

He scoffed as if she offended him. "Of course I am. If I wasn't, I wouldn't still be living in this paradise." Kairi stared at him, not knowing whether he was serious about his house being a paradise. "I was kidding. But yes. I am still working on it. Why?"

I need you to fix a song for me.

He looked at her suspiciously. "What song?"

Kairi handed him the CD case, and he took it into his hand. "Come on." He motioned her into his room. She followed him inside and saw that his room was at least tidy enough to move around. There was a desk with a high quality computer and a stereo mixer that she was sure cost hundreds of thousands of won. She watched as he placed the CD into the computer and listened to it intently.

His face cringed a bit as the song progressed bit by bit. By the end, he turned to his cousin with wide eyes. "What did I just listen to?"

Kairi nodded in agreement. You see? It needs to be fixed. I'm helping this… group, and their producer is screwing them over by messing with the song. I can't let that happen.

He nodded slowly as he understand what she wrote down. "I can tell that someone tampered with the audio. The way they mixed everything together is not pleasing to the ear. I'm not sure what exactly they did, but I'm sure that I can fix it no problem. Just give me a few days, and I can give it back to you," he said confidently.

Kairi let out a breath of relief that she had been holding the entire time. She gave him a faint smile. "Thanks, Yongie," she mouthed to him, watching with amusement when his face soured as he knew exactly what she was saying.

"I have always hated that nickname. Oh! " He snapped his fingers. "You know what? I should have like a stage name or something! If I'm going to be a producer, then I don't wanna use my real name. Yongsun," he shuddered at his birth name, "bleh." He looked at Kairi and smiled. "How do you like J-Drizzle?" He crossed his arms and threw up hand signs, trying to be a thug.

Kairi snorted and laughed at him, causing him to laugh as well. Their laughter echoed throughout the whole room, and it was like as if they were kids again. Kairi's laugh began to trail off, and Yongsun's as well. An air of awkwardness quickly filled the space between the two of them, and Kairi looked down at her feet, not knowing what to do anymore. Yongsun gazed at his cousin with sadness in his eyes. *What happened to this…*

Kairi hitched her bag onto her shoulder. She gestured towards the door, indicating that she was going to leave. She turned around and started walking. She couldn't wait to get out of the house.

Before she left the room, she heard Yongsun speak. "You know grandma's still looking for you?" Kairi stopped dead in her tracks, not daring to look back at him.  "I would've thought that she'd give up on looking for you... but she's still persisting." Kairi bit down on her lip and chewed on it.

"My mom… talks about you sometimes when I have to go to the family reunions… she misses you a lot… she talks about what you could've been like if you were still… 'around'." He laughed a little bitterly. "She always says that you would have been the perfect child. Unlike me, who decided to live on my own to pursue my 'idiotic fantasy of a job' and get all of my bank accounts frozen."

*Auntie…* Kairi thought nostalgically. She turned her head towards him. *Where is he going with this?*

".. your mom is good too…" Kairi's fists suddenly clenched and slightly shook at the mention of her mother.

*No, I don't want to hear about that woman or anything she does regarding me.* 

"And your dad-" she spun around, stopping him from continuing. She shook her head, not wanting him to talk about the family anymore.

She suddenly felt suffocated in that small house. *I have to get out of here.* She began to run towards the front door, wanting to leave before she gets physically sick.

"W-wait!" Kairi's hand was on the doorknob when Yongsun called for her again. She didn't turn around to look at him, so he took the cue to continue talking. "I-I-well-you know how I found out that you were still… around 3 years ago?"

Kairi's back straightened when she thought back on the time when she accidentally ran into her cousin while she was meeting with clients. She slowly turned her head and looked at him, nodding at his question.

"W-well I-I-it was agonizing for the first 2 years… thinking you were.. gone.. my favorite cousin was… dea-" he stopped himself before the painful memories flooded into his head again. "S-so when I found out that you were still here, I took it upon myself to-to learn…" he mumbled the last words so quietly that Kairi couldn't hear him.

She turned around slowly and reluctantly gestured for him to repeat himself. He cleared his throat nervously. "Well, I learned sign language for you! Because I knew that you knew how to, and I don't want to communicate with your notepad, so..."

Kairi stared at her little cousin for a long time, not knowing how to react. She never thought that he'd go to those kinds of lengths for her. This boy who she grew up with was the only one who cared even after she left. She couldn't help but feel a few tears spring to her eyes. *You dumb kid.*

"A-and I know that you came here for help only… but I-I would like it if you came to visit… just to visit me?" His eyes met with hers, and they maintained eye contact. "I miss you…"

Kairi didn't know what to do. She missed her baby cousin a lot, but at the same time, she promised herself that she wouldn't take part in anything that was related to the family again. She bit the inside of her cheek, feeling extremely conflicted. Eventually she gave him a small nod, feeling absolutely terrible afterwards for lying to him.

Yongsun smiled and sighed. "Alright, thank you." Kairi nodded and turned around again. But then he called her again. "Noona."

Her shoulders slumped, and she turned around to see what he wanted that time. He signed with his hands, "I love you, noona."

Kairi softened at the innocent gesture. She gently raised her hands and signed back, "I love you too, kiddo." She gave him a ghost of a smile and left the house.

Kairi stood outside of the front door and let out a long, drawn-out breath. *I'm sorry, Yongie. I don't think I can come back after we're done with this. It's too much for me to handle.* She placed her hands in her sweatshirt pockets and called down a taxi, leaving the area.

As soon as Kairi left the house, Yongsun's smile slipped off his face and was replaced with sadness again. "You always look sad and pained now… I want you to be happy again." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HI GUYS. It's been like 3 weeks since i updated? Sorry ;-; .... I suddenly had inspiration strike me tonight, and then I just started writing. AND THUS, THIS CHAPTER WAS BORN. 

I hope you guys like the chapter and don't get confused by it... I tried to make it as simple as I could without giving anything away hehe. 

Oh, and tomorrow's my birthday, so yay for me! Haha. I wish I could write on my birthday, but for some reason, I got assigned all of these assignments over the weekend, and I'm like what the heck, man. NOT COOL ; A ; ... So I'm writing this at 2:15 AM on a Saturday just for you guys. O u O

Well, I hope you all are well! I know this story is running a bit long, but I intended for this to be a long fanfic, so. Haha. Don't worry though. Unlike the first 30-something chapters, they're not going to be slow-paced or anything. Or have like. Crappy filler chapters (hopefully). 

Have a nice day, guys! :D