It was 5 am in the morning and he was already awake. It's been just almost 12 years since EXO has debuted. He was once 20 when he debuted, now he's 32 and the age went up to 34, turning 35 this year. He's not the youngest neither, but the younger ones. Altough, he knew he wasn't young like he used to be anymore, he's now one of the legends, where they will never die from anyone's memories but slowly fade until sometimes you don't see. But he, and his brothers, will be there. Sehun had yet to turn 32 and Jongin just turned 32 in the beginning of the year, Minseok was turning 35 soon.

Kim Jongdae, or the legendary thunder voice Chen, looked outside the window as he drank his cup of warm herbal tea. It had been so long ago since the hype of their busy scedules and fangirls. He still remember so clear in his head the day where he was told that he'll be in SM Entertainment's new project, EXO. Or at that time known to the public as M1 and M2. The day of their debut, even though it was in China, and he wasn't Chinese. he remembered so clearly that Yixing, Lay, came down from stage with a clouded expression and as soon as his mother came in he hugged her and broke into tears. Yixing had always been dreaming of this. Their first award on Music Bank where Joonmyun broke into tears. Jongdae was going to break into tears, too but seeing as their leader was in tears brought him to laughter instead.

Almost 12 years already, and they were still together as One. They were One. "We Are One!" as they have always said. It was The 3rd of April and their debut anniversary was coming up soon. Their 12th year debut anniversary. Maybe not a special number to others, but to them 1-2, twelve. It was them. It was true that they didn't have scedules like before but everyone was busy with their own things, too busy to see each other. Jongdae hasn't seen some of the members in so long, too long.

Kim Jongdae was also coaching SM trainees and helping the agency select members for their new projects. He sees new chances and oppotunitis for the youngsters, this reminded him of himself many years back.

It wasn't that he was not happy with his current life, it was just... He missed everything. No, he didn't miss fame. It was still following him everywhere he went. He missed the times and energy they shared together. He used to be such a troll, not that he wasn't now, but he had to play by the rules more now that he was considered a fully mature man.

Turning his head to the blank white wall beside the dining table he was on to see a typical wall calender hanging from it. It was still on last month's page. Jongdae sighed and settled the mug down as gently as possible onto the table careful not towake the kids next door, and got up and approached the calender. As he changed the page to April a certain gold star caught his eyes. Golden star along with '데붓 엑소 120408'*.  Seeing this, the smile that used to melt girls' hearts spread across his face. He never knew that she had marked his debut date onto the calender. The reels in his mind started ticking. It was the 3rd, and the D-Day was on the 8th. It was 5 days until then. He'll have time, and everyone will have time to rearrange their scedules. The previous smile spread even wider, a warm feeling in his heart.

They would, at least for one day, go back to the times when they were still active. When he was still Chen.

Jongdae hung the calender back onto its hook and headed back to his bedroom, Only to see by a woman with rounded tummy walk out of the toilet. She wasn't fat, oh no, she was quite graceful actually. Her nose was turned up slightly, but not to that she would be snobby. She just had confidence even with the growing baby in her. She was a beautiful caring, hard-working and kind lady, about 2 years older than him.

"Hajung-noona..." Jongdae blinked, "What are you doing up 5 in the morning?"

The lady, known by Hajung chuckled; "I should be asking you Jongdae, what are you doing? Mine's quite obvious." she replied, nudging her head slightly backward towards the direction of the toilet.

"I just can't sleep... Again." Jongdae said with a sigh. Now that he was 32 sleep was something hard to come for him, though he wasn't old.

"But there's a bathroom in the bedroom." He stated as a matter of fact to her as he approached her bending down to her tummy and put his ear on it. He her tummy gently and whispered to it "Seojung-ah, grow well and strong and become just as beautiful as your mother. Grow and be your brother's friend quickly, he's lonely." 

He gave her stomach a gentle kiss before looking up to her, giving her a gentle hug. 

"You should go to bed now, it's bad for the baby, you know? For the mother to stay up late." he smiled at her. But she only gave her a questioning look in which he replied "Yeah, I'll go back to bed soon, too. I still need to clear up the mug." 

He nudged her to the direction of the bedroom and walked back to the kitchen.

How could he have forgotten, it was 5 am and nobody would be up at this time. If he had called them they would probably kill him. Jongdae let out a small chuckle and sat down to finish off his tea. He was lucky he ran into Hajung.

He had planned to call all his friends, or actually only the 12 of them and invite them to meet up somewhere - he'll come up with something later - that day.

Seeing as he has finished his tea he filled the mug with tap water and placed it into the sink silently. He then let out a sigh again as the thoughts of EXO ran through his head. This was probably the reason he hadn't been sleeping well these couple of nights. Jongdae then walked back to his bedroom and tucked himself in. He was still rewinding the memories of their time together in the dorm where Chanyeol would be loud and Minseok would keep going around packing things up. Still fresh in his mind where Suho, who was "supposed" to be the "Umma" would be so messy and never put things back in their places. He had always thought that Kyungsoo was more thesingle "Umma" with 11 children to care for,  even with the help of manager-hyung. Thinking of the wonderful memories and gentle smile spread across his face as he tossed and turned in bed.

Sleep will have to come. He thought. But at least he wasn't frowning like before.

Jongdae has tried to contact Minseok many times, but failed everytime. It seemed like his hyung was busy trying to balance between taking care of his nearly 3 year old son and his work behind-the-scenes in SME, there was a new SM project coming soon and Minseok had to finalize the title song with the producers. Jongdae sighed, it had been so much easier when they were younger. The “XiuChen” ship was true, though in a brotherly way. He had become very close with Minseok during their MAMA era, when neither of them knew Mandarin. His hyug had helped him a lot when learning the language. He indeed had to thank Minseok for teaching him a lot. Not only the language, but also to persevere to reach what you want. It had been hard for Minseok in the beginning when they were nothing but mere rookies. Minseok was slightly cubbier on the cheeks than many of the members, therefore he got the name “Lil’ fattie”. Jongdae found it very offensive, his hyung was not a “fattie”. But instead of being brought down by this Minseok used this as the reason for him to diet. Soon enough he lost his “Baozi-ness”. Jongdae has always admired Minseok for being so tough.

Seeing as he wouldn’t be able to contact Minseok any time soon, he went through his contact and stopped at the next organized member, in which he decided to call.

"Hey, it's been a long time."

"Yeah, too long ago."

"You know it's 0408 soon right? 12 years ago..."

"Yeah, how can I forget? Idiot." his friend rolled his Pororo eyes, even though he knew the other would not be able to see over the phone.

He chuckled in response; "Right, let's meet up."

"What? you could have told me sooner." His eyes widened bigger than before.

"I just came up with it. Idiot." he imitated his friend's voice and continued; "Your wife can come along, too."

"Urmm..." his friend hesitated. "I don't think she'll make it. I'll be sure to get there though. But she's not my wife... Yet."

He laughed; "Yes, yes. Your soon-to-be wife then. Yeah, then you invite K. I'll invite M?"

“Arasso. Where?” his friend questioned.

“I… don’t know. Um, I was thinking of your… restaurant.” It was more of a question than a statement.

“Man, no. Sorry, it’s… My parents will be there and who knows what’ll happen after Chanyeol drinks and Jongin with his ladies. Mian.”

Jongdae laughed remembering the time when Chanyeol did get drunk and pulled a face at the thought of Jongin with his ladies “Of course, then where?”

“Yahhhh, how can you forget? The restaurant when on the first win?” Pororo-eyes reminded.

“Oh yeah! We all loved that didn’t we. Sure, we’ll go there then.” He grinned but then it dropped; “What’s the name again?”

“I… don’t know…” they both sighed through the line. “Ask Tao, maybe he’ll know. He loved it.”

“Yeah, he adores food. Still do. That kid always said he’ll go on a diet –“

“And ends up eating other’s food.” Kyungsoo finished off for him.

“I’lll call the kid to see then, I’ll text you.”

"Kay, see you soon then, Chen." he put emphasize on the name.

"See ya, D.O." His friend chuckled also putting emphasize on his stage name and both of them hung up.

Jongdae grinned in satisfaction. They were going to meet soon, meet as one.

During the past years after their hiatus, he had only met up with EXO as a whole only twice. Sure, he had met up with Minseok often – they were closest within the circle -  and Kai and Tao, as they were all working in SM building. Yixing was still working with SME, too but he wasn’t around the building as often as the others. Maybe he was seen there sometimes for a hairstyle change or for practices, but most of the time the forgetful friend was outside making money like they used to. Xing Xing – as he was nicknamed during Wolf era - was concentrating on his solo career and was indeed pretty successful with it.

It was the only two times they had met up as 12. The first time when Yixing had released his first solo EP* and the second time when Minseok’s now nearly 3 year old son e, which was 2 years ago already. It would be great if they could meet again – this time not leaving the gap so far apart till the next meet up.

Jongdae decided to call his dongsaeng in M, as he was probably the only person who remembers the name of the restaurant.

“Yoboseyo?” the other side of the line picked up.

“Hey! How’re you AB style panda maknae?” Jongdae greeted.

“Hyunggggg,  you know just… don’t call me that.” Tao couldn’t believe that he had introduced himself as when he was younger, but he didn’t regret it though.

 Jongdae laughed, enjoying his dongsaeng’s embarrassment. “Fine, AB style panda. Just wanted to ask ih you remember what the restaurant was called, the one that we always went during those days?”

“Pakdaegamne.*” Tao responded.

“Not that self-proclaimed celebrities’ favourite one. Not the chain one either.” Jongdae told the younger one.

“Not Nongol-jib* either?” The Chinese boy stayed silent for a few seconds names of restaurants running through his head. “Was it the same one as Super Junior sunbae’s?”

Jongdae nodded with excitement only to realize Tao wasn’t able to see “Yeah!”

“Saebyuk-jib.*” The younger one replied emotionlessly. He wasn’t in favor of the restaurant as much, he preferred Nongol-jib, but he didn't mind too much.

They had gone to Saebyuk-jib a couple of occasions when there were celebrations or someone’s  birthday. But normally they would just go out to Nongol-jib for an eat-out dinner. It wasn’t that Saebyuk-jib was bad, it’s one of the top but Tao didn’t like the atmosphere there. He preferred of Pakdaegamne.

Although, on top of them all his favourite was Noggol-jib, which Jongdae declined without even hearing the name.  He liked the more cozy atmosphere and the food was amazing and the price was good, in his opinion. They had only gone there once during their 12 years together. Though, Tao had brought his family and his 2-year girlfriend there many times.

“So, I was thinking the last time we all got together was 2 years ago.” Jongdae’s voice raised up at the end, asking for confirmation.

“Yeah.”

“2 years ago, and the 0408 is coming up soon. We’re planning on meeting up there, as 12.” Jongdae continued.

“Whose ‘we’?” Tao’s question was immediately answered with the other part of ‘we’s’ nickname.

“Pororo. You coming?” He invited.

“Yeah!” Was there any chance of him – Huang Zitao - missing such an important day, not to mention the chance to eat.

Jongdae laughed at his dongsaeng’s enthusiasm. “Kay, then we’ll confirm the time later. See ya.”

They bid their good-byes and hung up.

Tao smiled, maybe this time he’ll be enjoying Saebyuk-jib a lot more after a few years of not going and meeting with his friends.

On the other side, Jongdae smiled in satisfaction as he flicked through his contact list to find Kyunsoo to message him.

Looks like he’ll have to do most of the admin-ing this time. Jongdae let out a sigh as he dialed another one of the member’s number.

It’ll be worth it.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

*EP – Extended Playlist:  pretty self-explanatory.

*데붓 엑소 120408 - EXO Debut 8/04/2012: EXO's debut date. The Korean and japanese put their dates in the opposite order from the western 'Year/Month/Day'.

*농골집 – Nongol-jib: a chain BBQ restaurant in Seoul. It is very value-for-money and great for big eaters. www.nongolhouse.com

*박대감네 – Pakdaegamne: a self-proclaimed celebrities’ favourite barbeque restaurant. Located in the outskirts of Cheongdam district. www.pdgn.co.kr

*새벽집 – Saebyuk-jib: lit. House of Dawn. BBQ restaurant open 24/7. Located South of the river (close to SM building). Known for their quality beef. Super Junior goes there often.

Well, hello there! First chapter is finlly up!! Yay!! -pops ribbon popper-

I hope you're liking it so far =]

i'll probably write the first few chapters and then after that it'll be similar to one-shots.

Subscribe and upvotes are appreciated ^^

--Ray