The water droplets pounded on his broad shoulders when he stepped into the rain. Within moments, his light-colored bangs were sticking to his forehead, while water trailed down his face and dripped onto the pavement. In his haste, Kris had forgotten to grab a coat or a hat. His thin, white shirt was soaked in seconds, but he couldn’t have cared less. His head turned frantically, but his view was obstructed by a lot more people on the street than he remembered from that day. Even with a height of 187 centimeters, it was still a bit too difficult to find her. It took him a minute or so before he caught sight of the back of her small figure.

Yang paused in the middle of the walkway to look up at the cloudy skies. The rain continued to shower her with cold droplets, dampening her warm brown hair. Just as she took a step forward, she could’ve sworn that she heard her name called, “YANG!!”

When she turned around, she couldn’t see anyone she recognized in the unusually large crowd of people. Yang shrugged to herself as she started walking again, only to stop when her name was called again. She whirls around, her hair twirling around her as she did so. Her eyebrows were pulled together and her hands were clenched tightly in her pockets. She was beginning to feel very paranoid…

Kris sprinted towards Yang when she turned around again to continue walking. He weaved through the crowd that seemed to be getting thicker and thicker. He called her name, again and again. However, each time she stopped, she would turn around and it always seemed as if she couldn’t see him. The tall Chinese man opened his mouth to tell her to stop, but before he could even utter a single word out, he was cut off by a rough hit against his shoulder which knocked him down onto the hard, cold walkway.

His head started to ache and he covered his face with a large hand, massaging both of his temples at once. He opened his eyes, expecting to see the cloudy skies pouring rain down on him, and people hustling by… Except that wasn’t reality.

“Get up, you lazy jerk of a leader…” he heard an angry voice whisper harshly. There was another punch to his gut before the person stepped away. Kris sat up slowly and turned to the door to see the back of the thin maknae as he stepped out of the room, stomping angrily away. He shook his head at himself thinking about how he missed the way Tao used to confide in him for everything. However, ever since the accident, he ignored him most of the time off-camera and had closed up towards just about everyone else. Huang Zi Tao was no longer that cute, Kung-Fu Panda who liked to take solitary walks on the beach.

“Finally! It’s all over!!” The other five members cheered loudly once they were safe in the confines of their moving van. “HyunKyun-hyung! Treat us to some dinner!!”

Everyone laughed when the said man shook his head before training his eyes back on the road. As the excitement of their Good-Bye stage after several weeks of promoting died down, small conversations began to stir between the individual members. In the very back of the van, Chen and Tao were trying their best to keep Lay awake for the ride home since his fatigue was truly about to make him collapse. The two younger members told jokes and laughed between themselves. They talked about the new dramas and movies coming out into theatres for the coming weeks with wide grins and bright laughs. In the middle seats, Lu Han and MinSeok engaged themselves in a talk about whether Tao’s Korean or JongDae’s Chinese had improved more.

Sitting silently alone in the passenger seat, Kris flicked through his phone aimlessly. For the thousandth time today, he tapped on the message icon. He scrolled through the hundreds of texts that he had sent to her. Strangely enough, she didn’t answer him at all today, or rather, she hadn’t answered him since the last time he saw her which was backstage at one of the promotional interviews a few weeks back. Since then, she hadn’t been answering his messages either and she hadn’t been dropping by at the dorms.

“Hey, Yi Xing,” Xiu Min turned around to tap the said man on the shoulder. Chen and Tao paused in their jokes to see what the oldest of the six of them wanted. Lay looked at him with a small smile that had lingered from Chen’s impersonation of an actor just a few minutes before. He asked the one question everyone was wanting to know the answer to, but no one had the guts to ask: “Where’s…Yang?”

At the question, Tao made a sharp intake of air, and Kris tensed slightly, stopping the music he was listening to through his earphones so that he could hear Yi Xing’s answer better. Chen bit his bottom lip glancing between Lu Han, Kris and Yi Xing, and then repeating the cycle. To his surprise though, Lu Han looked rather calm at first glance, but his fists were clenched, hidden away from Chen’s view. JongDae placed a hand on his best friend’s shoulder, over the seats as if to loosen him up a bit. When the question had first been asked, Yi Xing had frozen up and his muscles tensed up. He wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and hide from everyone in the van somehow.

“She’s been…studying…at school,” Yi Xing almost had to force out the answer. It wasn’t a complete lie, but it wasn’t the complete truth either. When he couldn’t find his sister at 2:30 in the morning one night, Lay had called her cellphone only to realize that it was still charging on the table in their room. He checked the others’ rooms quickly and soon realized that Lu Han was gone also. He searched the neighborhood for them, sprinting around the block and back, and repeated this path several times. In the end, it wasn’t until an entire hour later that he returned to the front door of the dorm building to find her and Lu Han walking back towards the doors from the other direction. After seeing that, Lay had to resist the urge to punch the visual of the band in the face. The only thought that kept him from that was a scolding from HyunKyun and Lee SooMan; of course, no one would ever want to be scolded by the CEO of their company… He was a nice man, but when he was angry…no one wanted to be around him.

After that encounter, Yi Xing had kept his sister away from the boys and the dorms and it had already been so many weeks since the boys had last seen her. At first, the mood around the band had been quite gloomy without Yang around; however, a few busy schedules later, the six boys were back to the way they normally were. The way they were before Yang had actually became a huge part of their lives.

“Is she ending it with that bastard?” Zi Tao grumbled with his arms crossed.  Kris flinched, knowing who the maknae was referring to, but he tried to relax since the others thought he wasn’t listening.

“Huang Zi Tao!” Yi Xing scolded the younger. He looked forward to see how Kris reacted towards Tao’s words. He may be a jerk, but Kris was still their leader and had gone through probably more years of hardships and training than most of the other members.  He could only let out a sigh of relief when he realized that their leader was listening to music with his headphones. “You’re lucky that he’s not listening… Watch your words, Tao.”

I wish I wasn’t listening… Kris thought to himself with his eyes closed. His large hands tightened around his phone and his jaw tightened to keep himself from shouting back at the youngest of them all in his frustration.

The rest of the ride back to the dorms was quiet as was the ride in the elevator up to their floor. No one dared to utter a word as their manager unlocked the door to the house. The first one to push through the doors was Tao, stomping past the other members and towards the room he shared with MinSeok. All the others could hear was a loud slam of his door as they were slipping off their shoes.

Lu Han mumbled a soft “good night” before retiring to his and Lay’s room for the night. He was exhausted and he knew the others were too, in more ways than one. He dropped onto his bed with a loud sigh, covering his eyes with his forearm. Lu Han didn’t so much as move a muscle when Yi Xing told him he was going to take a shower first.

There was a soft knock on his door, but thinking that it was just his roommate, Lu Han couldn’t find the energy to even call out to the person to just come in. Another few minutes passed and the door opened slowly with a small creak. The only thing that followed was a long silence that only shook the older uncomfortably awake. “What’s wrong, Yi-”

Standing in the doorway wasn’t EXO M’s main dancer, instead Xiu Min puffed his cheeks rocking back and forth from his heels to his toes and back again. He rubbed his left arm with his right hand awkwardly as Lu Han sat up and motioned for him to come inside. “Uhm…Tao kind of…”

“He locked you out, huh…” Lu Han shook his head with a low chuckle. He stood up and ran a hand through his already more-than-messed-up hair. “You can sleep on my bed tonight. I’ll take the couch in the living room.”

“W-wait!” MinSeok shook his head furiously when he heard what the Chinese man said. “It’s fine, I’ll…just…move over there…”

A hand landed on the Korean man’s shoulder from behind, making him jump slightly at the sudden contact. Turning his head, MinSeok blinked at Yi Xing, who walked in wearing a plain t-shirt, jeans, and a towel around his neck. “Actually, you guys can share the room. I was planning on going over to Yang’s for a visit anyway.”

“But, what about Manager hyung?” He was the oldest of them all, but MinSeok acted more like a maknae. “You’ll get in trouble!”

Lay strolled over to drape his towel on the metal bars of the bunk bed. Although he had a bunk bed, the top was too close to the ceiling for any of the members to sleep in, so HyunKyun had stuck with putting in another bed for Lu Han. The top bunk was now used for whatever junk the two boys wished to throw up there.  The guitarist grabbed the black sweatshirt which was folded neatly on the desk and slipped it over his head as he walked back to the two of them. He opened his mouth to say something as he approached his two elders, only to pause and furrow his eyebrows. The two of them stared at him, waiting for him to say whatever he was going to say. A sigh escaped the boy’s lips, “I forgot what I was about to say… but anyway, you can take my bed, hyung. I already told HyunKyun that I will be taking a few days off since we’ve finished promoting.”

Without another word, the dancer was gone. The two of them shrugged at each other before proceeding to do their own things. Next door, JongDae kicked his feet in the air as he flopped around on his bed after reading something off of his phone. The tall, Chinese rapper raised an eyebrow at his roommate, “what?”

“Li Yin noona just texted me!!!”

“… So…?” Chen rolled his eyes at EXO M’s leader as he sat up to lean his back against the wall. He pulled his legs up so that he could rest his hands on his knees. The small screen of his phone was lifted up so that it was just a mere inches away from his eyes. The young singer bit his bottom lip to contain a smile as he read his sunbae’s message. Seeing this, a smirk overtook Kris’s lips as he spoke, “glad to see your relationship is progressing so much, Chen Chen.”

At the older’s words, it sounded as if JongDae had choked. “W-what are you t-talking about?!” he sputtered as a bright blush crept up his face. Kris lifted his book up so that it would seem like he was still reading. “I just really admire her!!”

“No need to get so defensive,” Kris chuckled as he dropped his book down so that he could clearly see the astonished expression on the vocalist’s face. “It wasn’t like I said the relationship was romantic…”

JongDae made a few more incomprehensible noises as he kicked his feet on the mattress like an embarrassed child who didn’t get exactly what he wanted. “Kris hyung…you bully…”

The tall leader laughed as he slid his bookmark into the book and laid it to the side. Kris couldn’t remember the last time he had such an amusing time with one of s. It was a long time ago anyway… He watched as Chen tapped his thumbs on the screen of his phone. “But really, I can’t say that I would never expect the two of you to become a couple. I mean, your ideal type is a noona that would take care of you…”

“When did I say that?!” the blush on the young singer’s face becoming bright red as he fell onto his side and curled up into a ball around his phone. He straightened up when his phone began to ring and Kris couldn’t help the string of laughs that came afterwards when he saw the bright smile and the dimples that consequently followed it.

“Just answer it. It’s from Li Yin noona isn’t it?”

JongDae made a face at the taller man and stuck his tongue out before answering the phone with a rather cheery voice. It wasn’t long before he flopped back down on his pillow, kicking his feet as he chatted away on the phone.

Meanwhile, at the end of the hallway, Tao groaned as he rolled around on his bed. He was lying face-down with his face buried in his pillow when his phone rang loudly by his ear. The Chinese maknae flinched and squeezed his eyes shut tightly as he fumbled blindly for his phone with his right hand. He let out a rather upset sigh when he answered the phone. “What is it?” he snapped at the caller.

“Sounds like this panda is rather annoyed,” a voice giggled on the other end. Zi Tao sat up almost as quickly as his eyes snapped open. The voice was unfamiliar, yet he recognized it from somewhere. He took the phone away from his ear to look at the caller ID only to realize that it was an unsaved number. “What’s wrong?”

“Who…”

He could almost hear the person rolling their eyes as they spoke, “Haruka. Lu Han gave me your number, telling me to call you after promotions or something, which I assume are finished as of today?”

 “Oh…” Tao’s lips straightened into a thin line due to his embarrassment when he realized who it was.  And he had to hold himself from slapping himself, although he had done it mentally several times already.

“You sound disappointed,” Haruka’s voice dropped almost an octave, and he could tell that it was from her own disappointment. At this, Tao quickly corrected her shaking his head furiously although she wouldn’t see it.

“No no no no no!” He bit his lip hard, “it’s just… no… never mind. Sorry…”

“What’s wrong?” Haruka folded her legs as she sat down on a chair across from her older brother who raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s a friend” she answered Kaito’s curious look and he just nodded his head as if he understood. “Trust me, Nii-san, he’s just a friend. I promise.”

“What’d you just say?” Tao furrowed his eyebrows at the foreign language as he scooted over to the edge so he was sitting with his feet on the ground.

Haruka moved her phone from one ear to the other so that she could reach for her pair of chopsticks. “Nothing, it’s my brother.”” The young Japanese girl took a few bites out of her dinner after bowing her head and mumbling a soft ‘itadakimasu’. “So…how were promotions?”

“Uhm…I uh…” There was a loud smack over the phone when Tao smacked himself on the forehead, only to regret it as he rubbed the spot. “That hurt…” he mumbled, “they were busy.”

Okay…that was a stupid answer… he thought to himself, rather tempted to smack himself again.

“I see,” the laughs that came through the receiver rang like little bells in the young rapper’s ears and he couldn’t help the smile that crept up his lips. She spoke a few more words to her older brother in Japanese and the rapper frowned.

“You know what?”

“What is it?” There was a long pause on Tao’s end, giving Haruka the time to take a sip of her water. She placed her chopsticks down and pulled one of her legs up to her chest while crossing the other across her chair.

“You should teach me Japanese…”

And she laughed that beautiful laugh of hers.

Curled up on a couch in the middle of her living room, Yang pulled the old, baby blue Doraemon duvet up to her chin as she zoned out while watching whatever show it was on the television. She had turned down the volume so that it was just a low hum and it made her eyes heavy with her need of sleep.

For the past few weeks, Yang had been studying hard for all the classes she had missed to spend time with her brother and EXO. The homework, papers, and readings were all weighing down on her and she felt like she could collapse at any second. Yang couldn’t believe how she could ever find the time to spend with EXO anymore. Yi Xing was so busy with his promotions that he had no time for her either, save for a few phone calls throughout the day to check up on her.

The doorbell to her apartment rang a few times but the buzzer fell upon deaf ears. She made no move to get up or open the door, instead, she closed her eyes and was beginning to drift off to sleep when she heard the door open with a loud click. The sound had caught her attention and Yang turned her head to see who had walked in.

A tall, and rather handsome, man walked through the door, slipping off his shoes and plopping down on the couch beside her. He crossed his long legs and moved himself closer to her with his hands. She said nothing as she watched the man stroll over and ran a hand through his messy, dark hair. He let out a loud sigh in an attempt to make her say something, but she kept mum and just stared.

“What?” the man spoke slowly, “do I have something on my face?”

Yang giggled and shook her head, “no, I just…I thought you had a long schedule today?”

The man chuckled as he stretched his arms in front of him and yawned. “Well,” he rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile, “it ended early, so I thought I’d come visit my little neighbor.”

Several weeks before, Yang wouldn’t have had any idea who was living next door to her. However, since she was now home more often, leaving the apartment only for groceries and classes, she had come home once to find this tall man standing in front of her door, punching numbers into her door’s keypad with a very frustrated and drunken expression on his face. She gave him a place to stay for the night and the next morning he had been extremely apologetic and promised he would make it up to her. Since then, he had spent a lot of his free time with her, helping her with her projects while working on his own work.

“EXO finished promotions today, didn’t they?” the man had grabbed the remote off of the coffee table and was flipping through the channels lasting on each one for a few seconds before changing it again, unsatisfied by what he saw. He turned his head to see Yang frowning as she realized that she hadn’t been to a single one of their performances. She missed the boys dearly, but the days she had missed in her classes refused to give her any free time to go and visit them. “Speaking of…”

He chuckled and Xiao Yang turned her head to see that the channel he had stopped on was a replay of one of the said band’s performances. She watched as the boys moved across the stage with their powerful moves and listened to their voices which she hadn’t heard in such a long time.

Someone call the doctor kuài bǎng zhù wǒ duì wǒ shuō
Àiqíng zhè bìng shàngyǐn Overdose
Sīniàn de shíjiān tài jiǔ kǒnghuāng jiù kāishǐ zhémó
Màn man yuè bèi nǐ shēn shēn míhuò eh-oh

She would smile every time the camera would zoom in on her brother, the concentration and the passion he put into his dancing always amazed her. When the camera moved onto the other members, Yang felt her heart skip a beat when Kris’s rap came up and she curled up even more, hiding her smile beneath the large blanket. The older man watched her curiously. The only thing she had ever told him was that her brother was a member of EXO M and he had quickly linked it to Yi Xing when he discovered that the two of them shared a family name.

It was obvious to him that she had a lover among the other five boys, but she had never revealed who exactly it was. With the performance on, the man believed that he could single out who it was. Her reaction had given him very little lead on the person; however, that was until he caught sight of a small tear roll down her cheek. A sad smile graced her lips when the camera zoned in on Lu Han. A single tear, had fallen from her eye and he reached over to brush it away.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” he whispered softly as he brushed another tear away. Yang looked shocked when she realized that she had been crying. She rubbed her eyes furiously and shook her head.

“Huh? Nothing’s wrong,” she shook her head. “Why….I don’t even knew why I’m crying…”

At that moment, the door to her apartment opened again without a warning. “Xiao Yang!”

With one last wipe of her eyes, Yang turned her head up to meet the wide eyes of her older brother. She hadn’t realized how intimate their position actually looked. While she had been crying, the two had shifted their positions so that she was resting her head on the man’s shoulder. He had one arm around her shoulders while the other one wiped her tears and brushed her hair away from her face.

She never expected the words that slipped out of her brother next…

“What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On. Here?!”

A/N: Uhm…Heyo~ I’ve been trying my best to update for y’all but there’s this thing labeled “writer’s block” standing in my way >.< In an effort to please my dear, lovely readers I have prepared this poll (which is,  by the way, irrelevant to the storyline, but is important for your preferences ^^ ):

Thanks for your patience, all of you! And… I LOVE YOU~^^ Wo ai ni men~ Saranghaeyooooo~

-KissMe_Angel97