“What the hell is going on here?!”

At those seven words, Yang quickly pushed herself away from the man’s embrace and was now sitting on the opposite side of the couch. Before she could even explain herself, Yi Xing was already at the side of the couch with his usual tired and frustrated expression, shouting out in furiously fast Chinese. His hands were gripped on the back of the couch for a moment before his other hand started moving to emphasize his words. Yang decided that it was best to keep silent during his entire rant as she hid half of her face underneath her baby blue duvet.

There was a loud and upset sigh when he finished whatever it was he was saying. Yi Xing attempted to calm himself down with a few deep breaths before he said anything clearly. “Who exactly are you anyway?” His eyes were accusing and glaring daggers at the unfamiliar man, but the latter seemed to keep his composure easily.

The man had stood up not long after Yang tucked herself in the opposite corner of the couch. He had his hands in his pockets and was only slightly taller than her brother, but he had a much tougher expression than Yi Xing’s softer face. “I live next door,” the man said as if that was enough of an explanation for the protective brother.

“Xiao Ming.” Yi Xing snapped his head over to his little sister who was still curled up in her position with only her eyes peeking over the large blanket. She lifted a hand to rub her eyes quickly before hiding it underneath the cover again. “He’s helped me with my homework a lot lately and has been there as a friend whenever I needed one…”

Yi Xing stepped forward curiously when she rubbed her eyes. His anger dissolved into nothingness when he caught sight of the droplet that rolled down her cheeks, “are you… crying?”

When she didn’t respond, he stepped closer to her, forgetting about Xiao Ming who just stood coolly to the side as he watched the siblings. He moved her hand away from her eyes when she rubbed them again. “No. Nothing’s wrong.”

Lay frowned, climbing over the back of the couch so that he could sit beside her and wrap an arm around Yang’s small figure in an attempt to comfort her. She laid her head against his shoulder, staring forward at the TV which was now playing a performance of some other band. The sound was now on mute and the two siblings sat in a comforting silence. Almost five minutes or so had passed when Xiao Yang’s phone vibrated on the coffee table in front of them.

“He’s gone…” the brother frowned when he looked up to see that the man from a few minutes ago had retired to his own apartment. Xiao Yang nodded in confirmation when she read the message from the said neighbor, claiming that he’d come back later since the two of them needed their own brother-sister alone time. Yi Xing gave out a tired sigh, “good.”

“Why’re you here?” Lay looked at his sister with a slightly offended expression and it was then that she realized how accusing it sounded. With a glance at his expression, Yang was suddenly doing her best to apologize rather furiously: “not that I don’t want you here. I love you and all! I mean, of course I love you, you’re my brother! It’s just… I just…” she groaned, frustrated with her inability to put her thoughts into comprehensible phrases. “Won’t you get in trouble for being here? Does…does HyunKyun even know you’re here?”

The dancer chuckled when his sister continued her rambling, but she stopped when he tightened his embrace and kissed her temple, “I love my Yang Yang, too. And I missed her too.”

“Are you hungry?” the girl asked after letting out a sigh and pulling her head off of his shoulder so that she could look him in the face.

He hummed in response and pursed his lips, “are you?”

“A bit,” Yang pursed her lips, making the two of them look completely identical, as she used her thumb and forefinger to emphasize her words. She rested her head on his shoulder again, “do you want to go somewhere?”

“Where to?”

“Anywhere. Away from all this school work I’ve been buried underneath,” she rolled her eyes. Yi Xing chuckled and nodded his head with a thoughtful look on his face.

He ruffled his younger sister’s hair and stood up after shifting their position. “Come on, you should get changed if we’re going out.”

Yang never truly realized how extremely popular EXO had become until today. She knew that many young teenage girls had fallen head-over-heels in love with EXO since SM Entertainment had released the 23 teasers on their respective dates. The concept of them being aliens from “Planet Exo” seemed to add to the excitement for the new and unofficially-named fandom. Yang knew exactly how crowded the airports were every time she went with them to cross the seas. She always had to go an hour or so before them so that she could avoid the fans and meet up with the boys behind the security check-point. She couldn’t be more grateful to be able to dodge such a scary time frame.

She never believed how extreme the boys would have to go just to walk out on the streets without being bombarded by fans now. She never believed it because, almost a year ago, when she woke up on that hospital bed and was discharged there had been no mob of fans waiting outside for them with signs, gifts and love confessions. However, now, there has been more than one occasion where the boys had to deal with a fan breaking into their dorm—or rather a fan jumping over the fence to get to their dorms—or one of the boys being injured by overwhelming mobs of fans in the airport. Yang had no other words to describe these scary situations except the words “insane sasaengs.”

At the thought of sasaengs, Yang recalled the time Lu Han told her that a sasaeng had called him and hung up immediately when he showed the phone to a camera. She giggled to herself at the thought and received a strange look from the man at her side. When she turned her head up to look at her brother she just couldn’t help but laugh some more. Before they left Yang’s apartment, Yi Xing had slipped on one of his old hoodies, which he left in the spare room she kept for him whenever he used to stay over, a black cap and dark sunglasses even though the clouds above their heads were a dark grey.

“What?”

The university student shook her head with a bright smile, “nothing. It’s just… sorry to say, but you look ridiculous in your little,” she waved her hand at his body, ‘“disguise.’” 

The dancer rolled his eyes and frowned, “it’s necessary, okay?” Lay turned his head around as if he were bracing himself for a tackle from a fan that would pop out of nowhere. He pulled his hat down lower over his sunglasses.

“There’s no sun, and there’s not a single soul on this street except for us,” Yang nudged her brother’s side with her elbow. “Besides, wherever you’re taking me, it probably won’t have bright neon signs hanging over your head saying: ‘LOOK! It’s Lay from EXO! Come and gather around Fangirls!!’  It’s not like this old neighborhood is going to have any of your crazy fans.”

“Better to be safe than sorry,” Yi Xing mumbled underneath his breath. Xiao Yang rolled her eyes again and crossed her arms across her thin body while shooting something back at him about being way too cautious for a person who forgets he’s the most forgetful person in EXO. He replies to her remarks with an equally mocking tone.

The two siblings continued their casual bickering as they turned down a few more blocks before they stood in front of the corner of an old building. There was an ancient sign, dangling over the single-door entryway, the Chinese letters of which read: “Zhou’s Café.”

The tiny silver bells, which hung on the inside corner of the door by thin red ribbons, jingled when Xiao Yang pushed the old mahogany door open. A young girl, perhaps Yang’s age or younger, smiled as she looked up from where she was standing, “Welcome to Zhou’s Café!—Oh my God!! Xing Xing!” The girl slowly stepped away from the small boy sitting at one of the small tables, whom she had been bent over while pointing at something on his homework page just seconds earlier. Xiao Yang was ready to pull her brother out of there if this young barista turned out to be another crazy fan of EXO when she first heard her cry out. “It’s been so long!! How have you been? How is everyone?”

The younger Zhang stiffened when the girl came over and gave her older brother a warm hug. Since Yi Xing made no move to push her away, Yang did her best not to show her confusion. The girl pulled away and ruffled the dancer’s short black hair. Lay had taken off his hood, his hat and his glasses when they first walked in, and, if he found it safe enough to take off all those layers of “disguises,” Xiao Yang knew she should probably start relaxing too.

The boy sitting at the table had suddenly gotten up. He probably wasn’t any taller than Yi Xing’s mid-section, but he had a face which made him look older than he probably should at his young age. The boy ran at the celebrity at full speed, nearly toppling the dancer over when he jumped into his arms “Xing ge!”

Lay chuckled as soon as he stood up, holding the boy firmly in his arms. “I missed you, too. How’s school?” Yang followed her brother as he walked over to the table the young boy had been sitting at. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw the wide grin and heard the sincere laughs coming from her normally stressed, tired, and frustrated brother. It was a nice change and definitely something Yang wished she could see more often.

“Ling, this is–” The girl held her hand up with a sly smile, effectively cutting off the short-haired man’s words.

“Don’t tell me,” she closed one eye and her tongue poked out of her pale lips as if she were thinking really hard, “this must be your baby sister, Xiao Yang!” The girl pulled her long, dark hair back and tied it with an elastic band that had been around her wrist. “You two look so alike. Has anyone ever told you guys that? I wouldn’t ever have doubted that the two of you were related,” she winked and giggled before strolling over to the counter where all the machines for the drinks stood.

“Or maybe, you have this ability to read minds and just don’t know it…”

The girl, Ling, rolled her eyes and shook her head, “you just never change. Even when you’re a big international music idol, you’ll never change from that clumsy teenager I first met on the late night subway.”

“Pshh,” Yi Xing rolled his eyes at the playful tone of her voice, “I’ll take the regular, thank you very much.”

Just before she disappeared behind the swinging doors, which Yang guessed led to the kitchen, Ling turned her head to call out to the boy who was still sitting on Yi Xing’s lap. “Xiao Chong, will you be a sweetheart and grab a menu for that nice jie jie sitting beside Xing ge?”

The little boy nodded his head and obediently addressed the girl as his auntie before sprinting over to grab a thin, laminated menu from the side of the counter. Xiao Chong quickly got back to his homework after he handed Yang the manila-colored sheet. As she scanned the simple menu, Xiao Yang listened to the little, adorable interactions between her brother and the girl’s young nephew.

In the end, she settled for a “Goguma Latte” and a “Quiche Lorraine,” both of which had been recommended to her by the grade-schooler who quickly returned to his homework when his auntie returned. He must’ve grasped that Yang had no idea what to pick because of all the foreign-named items. Yi Xing explained to his sister that Ling had spent her childhood overseas so most of the menu items were recipes she had learned first-hand around the world. Ling was born in Oklahoma—the center of the United States—moved to London when she was about six-years-old, attended half of high school in France and the other half in Korea. She took a break from studying to help out her parents’ business in Japan before settling in China after discussing with her parents that she wanted to be closer to her older brother, Guo Feng.

Before Yi Xing could go into depths about Ling’s relationship with her own older brother, the said girl returned with their food and drinks. She had mixed herself up a drink and sat down to join the two siblings with a bright smile upon her lips. Xiao Yang wasn’t exactly sure what happened, but one second they were just beginning to eat, chatting away about EXO’s promotions, and then the next it was nearly midnight and Xiao Chong was sleeping in Lay’s arms. Ling had treated the siblings to some sweet deserts and they had so much to talk about that no one wanted to stop or leave. It wasn’t until two men walked in with a young lady that Yang realized it was about time she and her brother left Ling to her own post-closing duties. One of the men’s face she was all too familiar with, while, on the other hand, the other two seemed to be complete strangers to her.

The unknown man was fairly tall, maybe even taller than Kris, and had short black hair which was combed back nicely. The man wore a neat, silky black suit and a simple black tie, along with a clean white dress shirt. It was obvious that he had gotten off work not too long ago. The man had a certain friendly aura around himself that made him seem rather approachable. Despite his size, Yang could see that the man handled everything as gently as if anything would break if he applied too much force with his large hands. He had one arm wrapped around the woman’s waist as they walked through the door, but seemed to settle for lacing their fingers together as they got closer to the trio. The man habitually pushed up his thin-framed glasses further up his nose as he approached the group, greeting Yi Xing with a healthy smile.

At his side, the woman was in much more casual attire, but still beautiful. Standing next to the man, the top of her head merely reached his shoulders, but their fingers were laced so comfortably that height didn’t seem to be a problem between the two. Her dark hair reached down slightly past her shoulder blades and was pulled back away from her face by two braids which met behind her head, at the base of her neck. The woman’s dress was a light, beige color embroidered with clear blue lines which curled around the hem of her dress and sleeves. The very first thing that Yang noticed about the woman was the prominent bump around her midsection. She was with child, and had probably started to show a month or so ago. The man and woman both wore identical silver bands, laced with gold, on their left ring fingers. Even if she hadn’t glanced at their hands, it wasn’t too difficult for Yang to tell that the two of them were married and were quite deeply in love.

Yang had no idea how to feel about the third person. Her heart raced when she caught sight of his figure, all disguised just as Yi Xing had been, when he walked through the door. As he removed his disguises, she realized that she had no idea what to tell him, or rather where to start. Then again, she would have to think back to whether he even wanted to see her or even talk to her. This man had made no attempt to contact her when she had gone missing for such a long time, and it made her feel like her absence didn’t really affect their relationship at all, for better or for worse. The man ran a hand through his short brown hair which had a tint of red in it, barely noticeable. Yang had to take a deep breath to calm her speeding heart as the man walked closer over to their table with a bright smile on his lips.

“Yang, this is my brother, Guo Feng. Feng, this is Xing Xing’s little sister, Xiao Yang,” Ling stood up introducing the two of them as she picked up the empty dessert plates she had brought out earlier. “Hold on a second, I’ll be right back with his backpack.”

Feng nodded, fixing his glasses again as he gave Yang a sweet smile and a polite “hello, it’s nice to meet you.” Feng had a deep voice, which almost immediately reminded Yang of EXO K’s Happy Virus. Yi Xing stood up, still with Xiao Chong snoozing away in his long arms. “How have you been Xing Xing? I’m sure promotions are stressful and my sister is just another burden to add to the list.”

“—Hey! I heard that!” Ling called from inside the kitchen, and in the next second Yang could hear the water running in the sink. She must’ve been washing the dishes they had used to eat their dinner.

The man with the glasses chuckled, “it would’ve been a waste of my breath if you hadn’t!” When he had hollered back at his little sister, Feng’s wife scolded him with a soft, yet harsh, whisper. She nudged him and gave him a disapproving look before nodding her head over at Xiao Chong, who had his thin arms wrapped tightly around Yi Xing’s neck.

“Yi Xing, why don’t you come with me? I’ll show you where we parked,” the long-haired woman just gave the dancer a genial smile as she kissed her husband on the cheek. She left the café with Lay and sleeping Xiao Chong in tow.

Xiao Yang had no idea what she should do as she watched her own brother walk out the door with the sleeping elementary student in his arms. Feng gathered his son’s homework papers which had been scattered all over the table. Yang stood beside the table awkwardly with nothing to do until the third man spoke up. She had no idea when he had gotten to her side, and she jumped slightly at the sound of his voice.

“Hey.”

One simple word, but it was enough to get Yang’s heart racing again. She cursed herself more than once as she turned her head so that she was looking straight into the man’s warm eyes. Xiao Yang had to remind herself over and over again that she already had Kris, but now, he just didn’t seem to be enough for her. Yes, there had been a point in time where Kris Wu had stolen her heart completely and she could think of no one other than him all day, every day, for a good period of time. Although there was then, now was now. Even before she was forced by Yi Xing to steer clear of the dorms, it seemed like Kris was becoming more and more distant from her. She hated that, but she could do nothing about it. He sent text messages to her often but each time she would try to answer, someone else would catch her attention and she would absolutely forget about Kris’s texts. Then again, when she read those messages a second time, Yang couldn’t find the energy, nor the words to say in reply to his own.

“How have you been?” the man tilted his head a bit so that he could see Yang’s face more clearly. She gave him a small smile and mumbled back an answer. It didn’t seem to be enough for him because he frowned at the reply. “You haven’t visited lately, so we were all lonely without you and the dorms have been too quiet.”

Lies, lies… You are such a liar… he thought to himself as he stared down at the girl who looked so shy and nervous. It reminded him of the first day they met in one of the practice rooms of SMEnt. If anything, the boys had been everything but lonely and the dorms had been everything but quiet. It scared him to think about how natural the transition was from life with Yang every day to life without Yang every day.

Xiao Yang let out a tired sigh and shook her head, “sure it was, Lu. There’s no way you guys could’ve felt lonely with that busy schedule. I’m still surprised Yi Xing ge found the time to call me so often…”

“The love of a brother is extremely strong and crazy schedule-defying. Has anyone ever told you that?” Lu Han chuckled as he leaned back against one of the tables with his hands gripping the smoothed edges. The two of them watched as Feng and Ling exchanged hugs, chatting away in a different, Southern Chinese dialect that Lu Han didn’t attempt to distinguish. He did, however, take note that it sounded quite familiar. He would realize later that the two of them had been speaking in Changsha dialect, the same dialect which Yi Xing used with Xiao Yang at certain times. Ling handed her brother the little boy’s backpack and he gave her another brotherly kiss on the cheek before waving ‘good-bye’ and heading out. Feng didn’t leave without a good bye to Yang and a “see you later” for Lu Han either.

The two of them stood in silence for several more minutes until Yi Xing walked back in with a rather happy skip in his steps. Lu Han leaned over to Yang and whispered with a mocking tone, “I swear, your brother loves kids like an alcoholic loves alcohol…”

“Are you calling him a child-oholic?”

“Is that a thing?”

“Well, I just made it one,” Yang giggles at the exchange the two of them had just made and the giggles turn into full-out laughter when she catches the suspicious look the Changsha Dancer had tossed at her. It wasn’t exactly the funniest thing either of them had ever said, but Lu Han joined her and it wasn’t long before Ling and Yi Xing joined them without even knowing the cause of their laughs.

Laughter is most definitely contagious.

A/N: Oh my god… I feel so horrible for what I’ve done to TFR-Kris… I love that Canadian-Chinese giant so much, but it’s just…this story really just doesn’t portray it. I was absolutely heartbroken at the thought of his lawsuit….and I’m going to stop talking about it or else I might end up rambling…

I hope this chapter was long enough for y’all~ Comments and suggestions are all welcome! Do tell me how this is! I love all my readers~ ^_^
Hoping you have a good day~

KissMe_Angel97