Flashback

“Mommyyyyy, I don’t wanna go on these rides!” A miniature version of Hyunjae wailed. She tugged at her mother’s jacket sleeve persistently.

Her mother and her were at the Ocean Park in Hong Kong, and the one thing that the small Hyunjae was scared of was the rollercoasters.

“Aiya, hurry up! We have to go meet someone!” Her mom dragged Hyunjae down to the meeting location.

“Who are we meeting?!” Hyunjae struggled, but was unable to release herself from her mother’s grasp.

“You’ll see when you get there.” She replied, sighing in relief as she finally saw the two people from a distance.

“Wu Hao Yi!” Hyunjae’s mom shouted excitedly as she let go of Hyunjae for a moment to embrace her long known childhood friend.

“Lee Mei Xi!” Hao Yi smiled as she broke the embrace. “How have you been doing?”

“I’ve been doing good! This is my daughter...” She pointed to the right, to find no one there. Looking around frantically, she saw her a few steps away from them talking to a little boy under the shade of a stand-up umbrella.

“Hello, my name is Wu Yi Fan! You can call me Yi Fan if you want. Or gege!” The cheerful young boy exclaimed to her in Cantonese. “What’s your name?”

Hyunjae hesitated before answering, staring at the ground and looking up several times to catch glimpses of his face.

“Ah...m-my name is Hyunjae...My chinese name is Wen Xing...I-I only let special oppas call me Wenxing” She stuttered, trying to form words. “C-call me Hyunjae.”

Hyunjae gazed at him shyly through her bangs, her cheeks flushed a shade of pink. She wasn’t familiar with socializing and making friends, and this time, especially with a boy.

“Aiya, they look so cute together! She’s talking to my son, Yi Fan.” Hao Yi asked happily. “How old is Wen Xing?”

Mei Xi smiled, watching her flustered daughter take the first few steps in talking to someone else.

“I’m 6 years old this year!” Kris grinned, holding up 6 fingers. “How about you?”

Mei Xi and Hao Yi laughed, watching the effort Kris was putting into talking to Hyunjae. Mei Xi walked up to the two followed by Hao Yi.

“Oh, you’re two years older than my Wen Xing, Kris-ah. Why don’t you two become good friends?” Hyunjae’s mom asked.

“好的! Okay! We’ll be close friends in no time!” Kris gave an eye smile, before grabbing Wen Xing’s hand and running to the playground down the street. “Let’s go!”

Hyunjae looked back at her mom with pleading eyes to only see her mom happily telling her to follow the boy. She had no choice and gave into the charming side of Wu Yi Fan, trying to forget about the rollercoaster ride they were heading towards.

“So what are we going to do with you, Hyun Jae?” Xiumin sighed, looking at her.

She woke up from her trance, mentally scolding herself for even thinking about how she met Kris. Awkwardly scratching the back of her neck, she stared at the ground as if it were the most intriguing thing she has ever seen.

“Well, our SM CEO has been missing her for quite a while since she escaped over to Guangzhou.” Chen added.

“And he’s on the lookout for new trainees.” Lay suggested.

“And trainees who left and want to come back.” Chanyeol emphasized, pretending to be oblivious.

The EXO members all glared at him at once, and he hid behind Kris, sensing the scary aura.

“Then let’s just bring her back to Seoul with us.” Xiumin stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“That sounds like a good idea.” EXO said in unison.

Hyun Jae blinked, suddenly realizing what she was getting herself into.

~*~

“I just arrived in Guangzhou.”

All of the EXO members nodded in sync.

“And I was ditched by my brother at the airport.”

All of the members nodded again. Chanyeol put a thumbs up. Luhan smiled at Chanyeol’s cuteness, putting his arm around Yeol’s neck. Bromance!

“And I was about to go to the small apartment he rented for me.”

“Nehhhh~” The members chorused.

Sehun noticed the closeness between the two and barged in between Chanyeol and Luhan, separating them. Luhan pouted, reaching for Chanyeol once more, therefore leaving Sehun standing alone again.

“And then I saw the EXO-M signs and thought to myself that I should get out of here quickly to catch a taxi but it turns out that you guys stopped me using the powers our CEO gave you and then I ended up going nowhere.” Hyunjae looked at EXO like they were crazy aliens with super powers from another planet. Which she knew they weren’t. But still. Sometimes she thought it was a possibility. “And NOW I’m stuck with you guys.”

“BINGO.” Baekhyun exclaimed ignoring her look as he snapped his fingers. “You seem to catch on quickly. Same old Hyunjae. Same old, same old.” He grinned.

Hyun Jae rolled her eyes. Someone who didn’t catch on could really be called a pabo.

“Aigoo, of course. She has the brains, Baekhyun.” Sehun laughed. “Unlike someone here.” He then faked a cough, glaring at Luhan. He was still mad at him for choosing to hug Chanyeol instead of him.

“YAH! MEANIE!” Luhan went up to hit him on the arm, but Kris happened to fly right in front of Sehun in a flash. Luhan ended up hitting his own leader instead.

“What’d you do that for?” Kris looked at Luhan with the most intimidating look he could muster. However, his eyes depicted amusement and entertainment. He liked making fun of Luhan from time to time.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! DUI BU QI, DUI ZHANG~DUI BU QI, DUI BU QI DUI BU QI!!!!!~~FORGIVE ME!!!” Luhan started freaking out, circling around Kris with his unconscious cuteness erupting.

Sehun tried to hold in his laughter as he stood behind Kris. He felt sorry that Kris had to deal with Luhan. If he had been in Kris’ place having Luhan circle around him over and over again, he would’ve surrendered immediately. Maybe leaders do have tolerance over their members.

“Can you come with me to pick out clothes when we get back to Korea?” Tao did his aegyo to Kris.

“.....Sure.....” Kris responded, before rushing up to the rest of the group so Tao couldn’t ask anything else.

Okay, maybe Kris wasn’t so tolerant of s...But he was a good leader nevertheless.

These guys haven’t changed at ALL...Hyunjae thought, standing there awkwardly.

Chanyeol laughed at the two, before turning to Hyun Jae again.

“Hyun Jae-ah. Exoplanet isn’t real. We’re not aliens. We’re from the same species. Don’t tell me that you forgot after all those years we’ve been together as a group.”

His voice was complemented with a humorous tone, yet rang with a saddening feel to it.

“So, in other words, we’re not aliens.” Kris said, looking up at her briefly with a ‘I think that’s what you’re feeling’ glance.

“You can stop staring at us like that.” Chen walked over to Hyun Jae to stand next to her.

“Aigoo, this shouldn’t be such a hard decision. We’re your best trainee buddies, aren’t we?” The focus went to D.O. as he stepped in and smiled reassuringly at her.

Are we?

The EXO members gathered around D.O. and stood in a huddled bunch, waiting for Hyunjae to make up her mind. Hyun Jae looked at them. It seemed like no matter what insults they took now, they would accept them all without changing their minds about bringing her to Seoul.

Analysis: 12 handsome talented charismatic boys who strived to be perfect, right in front of you. The option to follow them to Seoul was really tempting. What harm could it do to just follow this group of boys to Seoul?

All you have to do is pretend that you don’t know him. She shrugged it off. But then she thought deeper into it. But...this deal you have with Kris isn’t fair anymore. How can you pretend that you don’t know him if he’s from EXO-M?

She couldn’t find a way to express those feelings to Exo, and it was hard to communicate with them after she had pushed them away years back. And it was no use anyway. At this point, none of the Exo members were even listening to her excuses.

Flashback

“Yi Fan....my dad ran away last night.” Hyun Jae said, her voice trembling helplessly.

It was the first time Hyunjae felt so powerless.

“Ah...他终于离开了吗 [He finally left?]” The 17 year old Yi Fan commented, staring at the girl who was secretly pained to have her father leave her. He knew what her father was like. He was greedy and spent all of the family money on useless gambling and mahjong games.

The 15 year old Hyun Jae nodded.

“Well...Wen Xing-ah...Maybe...you should quit being a trainee.” Yi Fan hesitatingly spoke up. He paused. “I know that we’ve been together throughout our whole childhood and did everything together...And that we did a duet and both got accepted as trainees...but I think that your mom needs you more right now.”

“...I guess you’re right...” Hyunjae replied, contemplating what he just said. She calmed herself down, and it felt better just to look at his face and hear his voice. It always soothed her. Ever since she was little.

“Yeah..And we should go our separate ways now that we’re trainees. We don’t want to have scandals, and we want to work really hard to achieve our dreams, right?” Yi Fan asked her, his mind flooded with thoughts about becoming a rapper in a boy group.

Hyunjae nodded, giving him a slight smile. How she would love it if she became the second “Korea’s Little Sister” after IU. However, her mind kept on wandering back to what he had said before. About quitting as a trainee. Just his presence could make her feel relaxed and give her the energy to go through all the hardships she’s been through. Everything she has been through, he had always been there to support her. As a close friend. Maybe even like a brother. One better than Ming Lee. He had an important place as ‘oppa’ in her heart.

“Let’s promise each other that we’ll work hard.”

Yi Fan held out his pinky. Hyunjae linked it with hers without hesitation, and they touched the tips of their thumbs.

“Yaksuk.” They both said, looking at each other in determination. However, both had terribly different thoughts in mind.

A/N:

Hello, this is Kpopchicken back with a new update of this fanfic! If you love this fanfic, be sure to check out the other three fanfics I have out: She Will Be Famous, You and I, Only a Fan, and Would You Read This Story. Thanks for stopping by and continue to support, subscribe, rate and comment!

With much love,

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