Smiles

Jongin's POV

Gwangju fansign

Our last two fansigns to conclude our more-than-just-successful run of 'Growl' promotions. Followed by a magazine photoshoot and that was the end of the day's schedule.

Except for four "lucky" people.

Four members.

Two radio stations.

No way was I going to give up my time with Kyungie for radio! Especially what happened the last time I went on Ryeowook sunbaenim's Sukira. When Xiumin chose him as an ideal partner for the variety show We Got Married, he just HAD to choose Kyungie. When I first heard D.O, my heart leapt. I missed him and hearing his name was such a energy booster that I nearly jumped with excitement. Then the context in which his name was mentioned sunk in and I immediately sobered up. How dare he chose Kyungie? If it had been any other sunbaenim, I'd probably wouldn't have minded as much but I had always known that Ryeowook had a thing for Kyungie. Maybe it was just as a hyung, maybe he had a crush on him, who knows. I had always respected that. But to want to go on the couple show with him? That was too much! So the bottom line was, I did not want to go for the radio shows, neither do I want Kyungie to. It just ate into our personal night time and that meant less time together and with the boys for Kyungie and me. Given my circumstances, it was no secret that I didn't want to do the radio shows.

None of us did.

It wasn't that we didn't want to do that schedule. Everyone had their own hot and steamy times planned for tonight. Especially Baek and Yeol! The two of them just couldn't seem to get enough of each other. Ever since they reconciled, they had been in each other's faces.

Almost as bad as Kyungie and I.

So bad that our managers refused to let us sit together during the fansign. He separated all six couples of us. But that didn't stop us from leaning forward to catch a glimpse of each other. Even though Luhan and Yixing hyung were seated between us, Kyungie and I locked eyes so often that it was as if those two between us were invisible or non-existent. Who could blame me? When there was such a perfect being in front of you, you'd stare as well. And the way he stare back with his huge round eyes, who wouldn't love that?! And the way his face broke out into such a huge grin that his cheekbones went up so high was just… It made me feel like I was the best thing in the world. That smile would be the death of me. The smile that was meant for me and me alone. The smile that was so genuinely sweet that warmth rushed through me.

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Chanyeol's POV

Gwangju fansign

Being seated so far from my Baekkie was agonizing.

But what say did I have?

None.

As I waved enthusiastically at the fans who were here to welcome us today, some movement caught the corner of my eye. Kyungsoo who was seated on my left was leaning forward as far as his tiny body could. His entire posture seemed to suggest his desire to just climb on to the table and crawl over to where Jongin was seated.

The moment he leaned back, I leaned forward. Very expected considering how we were very in sync with one another lately but I still found myself surprised when I saw that Baek too had leaned forward to catch a glimpse of me. The moment our eyes met, it was as if we were in a vacuum, with all the crowd and loud noises in a completely different universe. As much as I would likes to just stay there and stare at him all day, we had a fansign to do. Reluctantly, I sat back down (I hadn't realized that my was off the chair) and began the tiring process of signing a couple of hundreds of albums. Making small talk with the fans helped take some of the boredom out of the repetitive signing, plus it made the fans feel special. With such an active personality, I could hardly sit still as the fans that appear before me one by one started to look the same. As I continued to sign countless albums, I continued to sneak glances at my Baekkie. Something was nagging at the back of my mind. As time passed, I noticed he was slouching forward more and his face had a very slight paleness to it. Maybe he was just sleepy… I didn’t have more time to focus on that as the fans that appeared before me demanded my attention.

Then came this one fan who asked who I was sharing the dorm with now.

A harmless question, from the fan's perspective.

Not so harmless, from ours.

"I share room with Kai...and..."

Truth was each of us six couples had taken up our own space, some sharing like Xiuchen and Sehun, some in the living room like Kris and Tao. The rest? We took up our own rooms. Instinctively I knew not to say Baek. Somehow, I didn't feel like I should. We had a pre-planned fake arrangement to say if we encountered this question but my mind was blank and pre-occupied by the lack of ways to expend my energy. So I said the first name that popped up in my head. Jongin. Because I had taken to spending a lot of my time staring at his notes.

The moment 'Kai' left my mouth, I could feel Kyungsoo stiffen beside me. As the fan continues to stare at me expectantly for the next name, I just blurted out the next name that came to mind.

With that came a painful squeeze on my thigh from our resident disciplinary master who happened to be seated right next to me.

I took all my bursting energy to keep myself from yelping out in pain.

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Kyungsoo's POV

The next fan that arrived in front of me had a weird expression on her face.

Couldn’t blame her.

That dumb giant.

Saying that he shared rooms with me and Jongin was as good as saying that Jongin and I were sleeping together. Sometimes I really wondered what kind of thoughts went through that awfully dense brain of his. All this thoughts running through my head, I still maintained my angelic smiling face as I greeted the fan.

I wished I were sitting beside Jongin. He'd probably be running his fingers up my thigh or doing something seductive and y, instead of me running painful threatening squeezes on Yeol’s thighs.

Finally it was over.

Our second last fansign.

One more to go.

As I pushed up from my chair, I realised Yeol was already out of his and I saw the the heel of his shoe as he disappeared hurriedly backstage. Weird. I started clearly the microphones off the table for the staff when from the corner of my eye, I saw Jongin beelined straight to me. The familiar feel of his hand on my body sent fuzzies down my spine as I struggled to control myself from jumping straight into his arms.

“You really have to stop doing that.” His sweet warmth brushed along my ear, sending another wave of warmth through my body.

“Doing what?” I wondered what I was doing wrong.

“Melting me with your smiles.”

Immediately, I blushed and turned my face away from the fans to hide the brilliant shade of red that my face had transformed into. Jongin’s soft giggle was all I heard despite the screams from the crowd as he watched me blush.

Then, our manager hyung appeared beside us and whispered urgently. Straining our eyes, both of us leaned in to hear what he said.

“I think Baek’s not feeling too good. You should probably go take a look.”

Immediately, worry coursed through me and I frantically looked around for Baek. Not here. Nodding slightly to our manager hyung, Jongin placed his hand on the small of my back and gently guided me to the right direction as we both hurried offstage. Ah, that was probably why Yeol was rushing off earlier. Jongin and I quickly made our way straight to the bus. Baek was lying down on the row of seats at the end of the bus with his head resting on Yeol’s lap. I quickly strode up to them and sent a questioning look at Yeol.

“He got dizzy from the albums moving so quickly in front of him.”

I heaved a sigh of relief. Baek opened his eyes at Yeol’s voice and started to sit up. “No no, rest,” I instructed. But he still sat up and gave a small smile, “I feel better already. It was just a small dizzy spell.” There was some colour on his face so I didn’t really doubt his words. He rested his head on Yeol’s shoulder as we took the seats in front of them. Soon the rest of the members streamed into the bus and we were off to our next and final fansign. As the bus coursed through the highway towards Daejeon, I too rested my head on Jongin’s shoulder as our fingers intertwined together.

"Okay, EXO, who wants to volunteer for the radio shows tonight?" Suho stood up from his seat on the bus and turned around to face all of us. His face shone bright with expectation and anticipation with a wide grin that brightened up his pale complexion.

Silence.

Slowly, millimeter by millimeter, the upward curve of his mouth lowered until it curved downwards as he pouted.

"Aw come on. Where is the team spirit?"

"Why don't you go then?" A looming voice rang clear from the very end of the bus where Kris was sitting with his cap over his eyes.

"I...I've...got plans!" A blush crept up on Suho's face as his eyes flickered nervously to Yixing.

“So do we,” Kris said, never once lifting the cap off his face.

With a sigh, Suho sat back down and Yixing immediately set to comfort him.

Finally, after an hour, we were finally at Daejeon. The sight that greeted up was astonishing. There were so many people that it just looked like a sea of heads. My breath hitched as I took in the sheer number of people who had turned up for our last fansign for ‘Growl’. We started to get off the bus, member by member. The screams from the crowd was deafening and loud. The security barriers were struggling to hold back the fans who were pushing against. Just as I stepped off the last step of the bus, I heard a shout.

So clear despite the loud screams.

So prominent despite the deafening noise.

“BAEK!” Yeol’s voice rang out loud and clear from behind me.

Immediately, I whipped around and hurried back up the bus, only to see Baek unconscious in the arms of Yeol. Instantly, all twelve of us were back on the bus and the driver sped out of the venue as quickly as he could through the crowd. Yeol had laid Baek on the row of seats and I rushed to his side.

“Baek?” I gently gave him a shake. His eyes remained shut and his face was pale as ever. I reached to feel his forehead. No fever. I turned to his hands and they were cold and clammy. Yeol was a sobbing mess beside me as he held on to Baek’s other hand. Jongin was feeling Baek up, searching for any signs or symptoms that could prompt us to the reason for his fainting. But before we could find anything, Baek’s eyes fluttered open and scanned the surroundings with a lost and confused expression. “Wha--?” Baek could barely utter a word before Yeol crashed into him for a huge bear hug and brawled on his shoulder. We had arrived at the quiet alleyway beside the hospital where the gynaecologist was waiting worriedly for us. She beelined through the members for Baek the moment she boarded the bus and did a thorough check-up on him.

“Come into my office. I want to check on the baby.”

She led us all to the back office of the hospital where there was hardly a soul around.

All twelve of us.

As we crowded into the small office, she single-handedly readied the ultrasound machine as twelve worried faces stared at her. Baek lay down on the table and lifted his shirt off his belly and she smeared some gel on it. After a quick scan, she gave a tiny smile and said, “The baby is fine. Heartbeat is strong. It seems like you are just a little dehydrated.”

A collective sigh of relief filled the tiny office.

“Baek, you are nineteen weeks now right?” He nodded. “Do you guys want to know the of the baby?”

“AHA!” Suho’s excited gasp came from the corner of the room as we all turned to stare at him. “Let’s make a bet! We each guess the . Those who got it correct will be exempted from the radio show tonight and the remaining who guessed wrongly will have to play scissors paper stone to decide who to go!” All eleven of us let out a groan at his weirdness. Ok, just ten of us. Yixing was looking at him as if he just came up with the most brilliant idea.

“I say, boy,” Jongin said.

“Me too,” I piped in. We either win together or lose together.

Soon it was 8 for boy and 4 for girl. The doctor was nice enough to wait patiently for us before we started scanning for some telltale signs on the ultrasound. And...

It was a BOY!

Four people let out a huge groan. And Yeol practically buried his face in his hands. They were still sulking as we headed to the next schedule with Ceci magazine. The pure happiness on Jongin’s face from guessing right was plain for anyone to see. Yeol was sending him death glares but he remained ignorant as he rejoiced in the fact that we had the night to ourselves. As we arrived at the photoshoot, I glance at him and saw that he was still smiling.

“Stop doing that,” I whispered harshly.

“Stop doing what?” He responded in that gloriously velvet voice of his.

“Stop grinning so widely. Yeol wants to kill you now. He wanted time with Baek. He might kill you for that.”

“I didn’t realise I was smiling,” he said.

We stopped in front of the door to our dressing room, and he made a concerted effort to shift his features, twitching his mouth downwards. “Am I smiling now?”

“No.”

“Excellent,” he said, and the smile immediately sprang back up.

Looking at the pictures, no one could deny the happiness in his features when he had his arms wrapped around my waist.

That smile never did disappear.

Neither did the one on my face.

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Chanyeol's POV

Ceci Magazine photoshoot & interview

A BOY!

I have a son. A SON!

I HAVE A SON!

I wanted to scream and let the world know! I wanted to exclaim at the top of my lungs. I wanted to tell everyone around. I wanted to announce to everyone I knew. The pride that filled my heart was so overwhelming. As I jumped around the dressing room, Baek entered and our eyes locked in a long charged moment before I walked over and wrapped his body in the warmth of my arms. Happy tears were in his eyes when I whispered, “We have a son! A son, Baek!”

So when we were asked by the magazine to imagine ourselves in 19 years, I was the first to answer because I knew exactly what I wanted to be in 19 years.

A father

A great dad.

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A/N: Hi subbies! ^^ Hope you guys like this update~~~~