The day moved on to slow. You flipped through the pages Exo had made for your scrape book and laughed between the tears. You couldn’t eat lunch and only had two bites of dinner. Grandma knew that you were sad Exo had left but she knew just as well as you that it was going to happen.

            A few days later your parents came to get you to take you home. As you packed up the rest of your things you caught sight of something shiny on the window ledge. You walked over and picked up the small objects and knew right away whose it was. Zitao’s ear cuff. You smiled and held it to your heart before placing it on your ear.

            Back in the car driving home you noticed rain clouds starting to form above. It began pouring down and you felt cliché and pretended it was a music video. Flash backs of the rainy summer day started going through your mind and you closed your eyes. You felt someone shaking you awake and you sighed, “Zitao.”

            “Sweetheart, wake up. We’re home.”

You slowly opened your eyes and saw your mom standing by the open car door in the garage. You unbuckled your seatbelt and got out of the car and followed your parents inside the house.

            You walked up to your room carrying your bags and pushed open the door and switched on the light to see your posters of Exo looking back at you. “If only.”

            Your dad walked in and returned your phone. “I hope this summer was therapeutic for you.”

            “In more ways than most.”

            “Okay…hurry and unpack we’re going out for dinner to your favorite Chinese restaurant.”

            “Great.” You sighed taking the phone from him. You turned it on and rolled your eyes at all the text messages. You didn’t want to read them. It felt like a chore so you unpacked instead and left the phone on your bed while you went out to dinner with your parents.

            Summer was over and school had started again. Your friends talked about their summer and asked about yours. You told them that you swam a lot, golfed and read. Not saying anything about Exo. They wouldn’t believe you anyway.

            Days melted into weeks. You kept an eye on Exo’s whereabouts and occasionally would talk with them. But you didn’t spend much time online. Your parents were happy but they felt you’re depression.

            One day while you were typing up an essay for class you got a notification of a new Exo update. You sighed and went to watch the video. It was of Zitao wearing the panda bracelet you had made him. “I love panda.” He said smiling. The video was less then ten seconds long but you knew what it meant. He did that for you.

            You decided right then that you couldn’t mope around. You had to do your best and one day you’d see him again. You had to forget about regrets. You had a life. You needed to start living it again. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Okay, so there is one more chapter left before this short story is finished! And the reason why I dragged out posting this chapter is because I'm working really hard on another EXO fic and I want to be mostly done before I start posting it and while I'm at work today I'm going to work really hard to write the chapter I'm on now. And I've told my mom about it and she says it's intriguing, plus she's the only one who can give me an opinion without going all anti k-pop on me. I've also read one of the chapters to my brother and he said that it was good. But we shall see. Please wait a little bit before I share it with you. And remember comments are greatly appreciated!