Kris Wu’s POV

 

It was a warm night. The air was thick and sticky with the humidity of an approaching summer. What lingered in the dimming sky was the remnants of a bright sunset that had been enchanting to watch come and go. There was no breeze and the city was far from dead with the sounds of Seoul’s nightlife slowly emerging.

 

Leaning against the stone wall of the dorm apartment complex, I rested an arm on the cold metal frame of the fire escape.

 

“What do you mean by that?” Yunji’s voice lulled into my ear.

 

“Exactly what I said. I didn’t like studying in China,” I lightly kicked the bars below me while gripping my phone.

 

“But you said that you loved the times you spent there,” I could imagine the frown lines forming between her eyebrows. The confusion in her voice painted a picture vividly in my mind, so much so that at times it didn’t feel like I was talking to her over the phone.

 

“I did enjoy those times. But I loathed schooling there. The hours were long, the work was hard and dished out heavily. It was ridiculous to the point that I was happy to start school when I returned to Canada,” I ran a hand through my hair.

 

“It sounds more like you were just lazy,” she laughed warmly.

 

“The West has a nicer education system. We have shorter school days, the work isn’t made to be grotesquely intense, and there actually is time for extracurricular activities,” I protested.

 

“But students in your school belonged to clubs too, and they managed just fine,” she pointed out. As if it put a dent in my argument.

 

“You don’t understand,” I huffed.

 

“You do realize that the education system here in Korea is actually quite similar to that of China’s right? I practically went through what you did, and though it wasn’t paradise, it wasn’t nearly as awful as you described it.”

 

I grimaced and decided that it would be best to drop the subject. “How’s the café going?”

 

“That was subtle,” she teasingly said, “it’s been fine. You visited 3 days ago…”

 

“Oh,” I popped, “has it really only been that long?” I scratched the back of my neck.

 

“Pretty much,” she answered, “you must be tired.”

 

“I am,” I nodded, “the schedule is becoming busier.” I rubbed my eyes.

 

“But you’re doing what you want? Being an idol I mean.”

 

“Yeah. I am,” I smiled.

 

“Then that’s all that matters,” she said like it was the clearest thing in the world to her.

 

Just as I was about to say something, when a knock against glass caught my attention. I turned around to see Luhan standing on the other side of the window, his fingers poised to open it.

 

“Ah, I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you later,” I slurred my words as I tried to get them out quickly.

 

“Okay.”

 

“Goodnight.”

 

“Goodnight Kris,” Yunji softly replied.

 

The line went dead just as Luhan managed to pry the window open.

 

“Hey. I was wondering where you disappeared off to,” He greeted while hoisting himself out to join me.

 

“Ahh, really?” I hummed.

 

“Who were you talking to?” my doe-eyed roommate tilted his head curiously.

 

“No one,” I shook my head, tucking my phone into my pocket.

 

“Does ‘no one’ have a name?” he raised a questioning eyebrow.

 

“No one isn’t worth mentioning,” I continued trying to dodge the bullet.

 

It seemed like he had given up on his little interrogation, so I began to relax again. Staring out into what was now a dark night full of brightly coloured lights.

 

“You’ve been smiling a lot more lately.”

 

“Huh?” I clucked.

 

He flexed his arms over the barrier and shrugged. “You seem to be happier nowadays.”

 

“I guess…we’re getting closer to releasing the album,” I lamely offered.

 

“You’d tell me if something was going on wouldn’t you?” He glanced back at me. “I’m your roommate afterall…”

 

“Of course I would man,” I scoffed lightly, “I talk to you the most out of all the guys.”

 

I didn’t want him to worry about my arrangement with Yunji. He would have reprimanded me, would have said it was too risky. It was sort of stupid in a way I suppose- how I was so trusting of her. But she hadn’t given me a reason not to trust her.

 

Yunji was a friend. Nothing more, nothing less. And I didn’t see the point in mentioning her to him. I was allowed to have one or two secrets left, wasn’t I?

 

Lee Yunji’s POV

 

“Hey Mom. It’s me,” I managed a smile as I spoke. “It looks like you’re busy with something, because you didn’t answer the phone,” I swallowed down a lump of disappointment. “I just wanted to say that I love you and miss you.”

 

I felt my lip quiver ever so slightly. “Happy Birthday…Umma.”

 

I pressed the ‘end call’ button with a sigh and closed my eyes to give the tears threatening to spill some time to retreat back into my heart.

 

“I’m sorry Yunji-ah.”

 

I opened my eyes to find Jieun giving me a sympathetic look, her attention solely on me.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” I faked a smile, scooping my hair up into a ponytail. “It’s probably for the best anyway, if she did start talking to me Dad would throw a fit.”

 

A bitter taste formed in my mouth as I continued to feed myself lies to lessen the pain. It was the fourth year that I had called my mother on her birthday since she and my father had moved away. To my dismay, it was also the fourth time I had received her voicemail. I missed her. I wondered often if she and Dad missed me.

 

I really would have liked to hear their voices just once more.

 

“Aish, they don’t deserve my dongsaeng’s love anyway,” my friend scowled while stuffing her face with another cookie from my display case. She moaned with delight and patted her cheeks as she swallowed down the treat. “You need to tell me who your supplier is one day. These are so good,” she pointed at the pile of cookies she had shamelessly swiped up in one go.

 

“You’re a chef right? Can’t you figure out how to make those just by tasting them?” I gave her a puzzled look.

 

“Keyword ‘chef’, not baker. And I only know how to make traditional Korean cuisine anyway. I’m useless when it comes to anything else,” she stated and began to munch on another cookie.

 

I watched her continue to chow down the sweets like there was no tomorrow to come. It was incredible how much Jieun could eat and yet, remain unsatisfied. She was a major foodie.

 

“So, is there anything new I should know about? Anyone special to squeal over?” she asked while tapping her lips with a napkin in an overly lady-like manner.

 

Kris.

 

“No,” I shook my head, “unless you count the men in fanfics. In which case, I have too many,” I winked at her.

 

I spent the rest of the morning joking around with my food-obsessed friend while serving customers. She would say something stupid and I would retort with something equally idiotic. That’s how I began to spend my weekend, avoiding thoughts of anything that required real energy to think.

 

I couldn’t tell anyone about Kris. It was against the rules. My rules, his rules, the rules of our friendship…it was just a taboo area in general. Even if it didn’t go against my morals to tell my friends, I wouldn’t have done it. I apparently had Kris’ trust.

 

I couldn’t afford to lose it, not when I was just starting to know him.

 

Kris Wu’s POV

 

“And besides the photoshoot tomorrow morning, the cf-shoot on Wednesday, and the radio show Thursday, there is nothing new that has been added to the scheduale,” The sound of Youngjun-hyung’s folder snapping closed echoed throughout the room. The longing to be released from the formality of the brief team meeting was thick throughout the room as the older man his chapped lips. “You all are free for an hour before we start dance rehearsals again.”

 

A sigh of relief was made by the twelve of us and everyone slouched out of their perfect postures in their seats, soiling the fake image of a happy-not tired out in the slightest band.

 

“God I thought he was never going to stop talking,” Sehun groaned when our manager closed the door behind him. “Seriously why does he drag all of our meetings out?”

 

“I don’t know. But you better stop whining, if he comes back in here to find you ing about him you’ll be dead,” Tao yawned, resting his head on top of the table.

 

I stood up to stretch my legs and grimaced when I got that tingling sensation running up and down through the right one. The electric flow of pins and needles was unwelcome and it irked the hell out of me every time it happened.

 

“So stupid,” I hissed, beginning to walk it off around the room. I jerked out my phone from my pocket and started flicking through my playlist, one bud from my earphones jammed into my ear while the other remained empty. I found a song that I hadn’t listened to in a while and put that on before browsing aimlessly through my phone.

 

I somehow ended up scanning through my texts with Yunji. What I had learned about her so far I liked, she was refreshing- utterly new. I found myself looking forward to our random conversations because she kept me entertained and, well really, I was still trying to figure her out. Lee Yunji was a jigsaw puzzle that I wanted to solve to see the whole picture.

 

I didn’t understand how a fan could possibly contain herself while hanging out with her idol. I didn’t understand why she never asked me about EXO. I didn’t understand why she didn’t try to take advantage of our friendship-arrangement. I didn’t understand much about the girl named Lee Yunji.

 

But I wanted to. No matter how stupid my reasons were.

 

When the leaked version of WOLF rolled into my ears with the shuffle of my playlist, a smile broke out onto my face. My thumbs started moving before I had time to think.

 

I’m listening to the leaks right now.

 

A moment later, I got her reply.

 

New Message received from Lee Yunji.

 

Oh, really?

 

I sat down in the corner of the room furthest from the other members, crossing my legs on the ground.

 

What do you like about them?

 

The reply I received made me laugh inwardly.

 

What do you hate about them?

 

I shook my head.

 

None of it sounds good yet. You can hear the how rusty the high notes are, it’s obvious we aren’t used to singing that high.

 

Her retort to that was something I suppose was typical of her.

 

I think you’re being too critical. Anyway, I like the sound of progress. And I think the song has the potential to be transformed into something fantastic by you guys.

 

I nodded as if she could see me and accepted her answer. The next song took over my ears and forced thoughts of WOLF to vacate the barren land of my mind.

 

How’s work going?

 

I could imagine her, behind the counter smiling that funny little smile she sometimes gets. She would be humming along to the faint sound of the radio station that she plays in the café, and no one would really hear her over their chatter.

 

Nothing eventful. How’s your day so far?

 

I glanced up to see the guys well-occupied on the other side of the room, doing all sorts of things together.

 

It’s been okay. Tiring really.

 

My phone didn’t vibrate again for a few minutes, and I wondered if maybe she got caught up with a customer or was growing bored of the conversation.

 

Poor you. Try to rest up tonight.

 

I raised an eyebrow and smirked to myself.

 

It sounds like you might care…

 

Yunji got flustered easily, even over text. She had told me about it once. It was safe to assume that her reaction to what I had just sent her would be funny.

 

Yah. Don’t make my face transform into Rudolf’s nose.

 

I was about to reply when he materialized out of nothing. “Hey Hyung, what are you looking so happy about?” Sehun bobbed down in front of me. I removed my earphone and stared at him blankly. “Huh?”

 

“And why did you have earphones in? Were you looking at something bad on your phone?”

 

I face palmed myself and sighed. “No you weirdo. Why would I be looking at something like that right now?”

 

“Why not? Any time is a good time to be watching-”

 

“Sehun, if you’re about to say what I think you are you better keep your mouth shut,” I narrowed my eyes. “Who’s been showing you that stuff huh?” I peered over his shoulder at the others, debating over who would actually watch that stuff with the maknae in the room.

 

“Well…a certain giant with a goofy smile has been educating me-” nearby, within earshot, Chanyeol and Baekhyun were sharing earphones while listening to something. Except Chanyeol’s body had suddenly stiffened and his gaze shifted to my direction.

 

He shot up from his spot. “Yah! What are you saying you little punk?” His large hand muffled Sehun’s words.

 

I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to supress a knowing grin. We had all been trying to keep exposure to the younger members of the band at a minimum. But obviously someone hadn’t been doing a very good job at sticking to that mission at all.

 

“Typical,” I muttered, mustering a somewhat irritated tone.

 

As Sehun struggled in the giant’s grip, the said giant feebly attempted to cover his . “You shouldn’t listen to this guy. He probably watches things like that when Suho isn’t in the room. He’s sneaky you know?”

 

“You’re looking really guilty at the moment…” I wasn’t stupid enough to buy that crap. “Let go of Sehun,” I sighed, watching the troublemaker squirm around as if his life was on the line.

 

“But-” panic was evident in his eyes.

 

“Yeol, just give it up. You’ve already been caught out,” Baekhyun rolled over to us from his spot where a happy giant once sat too.

 

“Oh, what has our Yeollie done now?” Kai plopped down at Baekhyun’s flank, an amused look on his face.

 

Reluctant, Chanyeol complied and removed his restrains from Sehun. He released prisoner gasped for air and sharply jabbed his captor in the stomach with a hand. “.”

 

“Rat,” he retorted with a wince.

 

“So you’ve been corrupting this one?” I gestured to the meant-to-stay-innocent Sehun.

 

“I can’t help it if he walks into the room while I’m relieving myself,” Chanyeol grumbled with his arms crossed. He was turning defensive.

 

I cringed at the thought. “You could kick him out,” everyone was now crowding around to see what was going on.

 

“He should know that’s he’s not welcome when I’m jac-”

 

“Ahhh, let’s not get graphic today,” Suho interrupted, “not everyone wants to have that image of you stuck in their heads today Yeol.”

 

“Except Baekhyun,” Kai sniggered, earning a punch in his side from a not so pleased Baekhyun.

 

“It’s not like you ever said you minded when I came around hyung,” Sehun hissed, “didn’t you say we could have fun together?”

 

“I think I just barfed a little in my mouth,” Chen groaned. A string of nods from the others followed as we all agreed that the wording of that previous sentence sounded so wrong.

 

“Not like that you idiots,” the two perpetrators screwed up their faces simultaneously in disgust.

 

“What Kris is trying to get through to you is that you shouldn’t be showing that stuff to Sehun,” Suho stated, wanting to get everything settled, “and that you shouldn’t be watching that stuff either,” he stared Sehun down.

 

“Why don’t we all just call it what it is instead of that stuff? You all sound like eighth graders,” Kyungsoo stuffed his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. “, guys. It’s called .”

 

“I think it’s safe to say that everyone here knows that…I mean we all watch it…” Xiumin sighed.

 

“I don’t,” we all turned to look at Suho. His face was straight, he wasn’t joking around. He was dead serious.

 

“Yeah…but you’re…” Tao started. “Our Suho-appa,” Luhan finished with a snarky smirk.

 

A chorus of laughter followed from everyone including our pure leader.

 

“Yah, you’re not meant to be watching anything like that either,” I nodded towards my panda. His eyes widened in alarm as he became conscious of the fact that he just slipped up himself.

 

“Aish, looks like you ratted yourself out right there huh?” Lay playfully nudged Tao who was now red. “I can explain gege.”

 

“Speaking of explaining…” Sehun trailed off, crawling closer to me, “I’ll be taking this!” He snatched my phone out of my lap.

 

“Yah! What are you doing?” I lurched forward as he took a step back, causing me to just miss him. Mischievously he skipped away with my phone. “You still haven’t told me what you were looking at that had you smiling like an idiot!” He called.

 

I was on my feet quickly. He couldn’t see those texts. He couldn’t find out about Yunji. He would blab about her to everyone, not to mention he would want to know everything. And then the managers would find out, which wouldn’t be fun. They’d all mistake it for something else, something it wasn’t.

 

I found myself running after the maknae. “What’s your passcode again hyung? I can’t remember it,” he continued to scamper around. Thumbs twiddling on the screen.

 

“Sehun…” I growled. He was fast.

 

“Sehun-ah, you better just give it back. Duizhang might kill you,” Lay frowned.

 

“Yeah Hun-ah, if someone doesn’t want you to see what’s on their phone you should just leave it,” Baekhyun scolded.

 

“I’m not going to buy you bubble tea ever again you rascal,” I threatened as we continued our game of chase.

 

“Just stop it now Sehun,” Suho shook his head disapprovingly.

 

“Oh! I remember it now!” Sehun ignored everyone, typing in the code.

 

.

 

Just as the screen unlocked, a hand seized my abducted phone from the evil maknae’s claws. Leaving Sehun to run into a wall, dazed and confused- and I to stop breathing.

 

Luhan had saved my phone from Sehun.

 

Oh …

 

But he had also seen the messages between Yunji and I.

 

If it was something he wasn’t expecting, or something scandalous, he didn’t show it to the others. His face remained neutral. He didn’t react. He kept a poker face on and slowly walked over to me. “Here,” he handed me my phone.

 

“Thanks,” I swallowed, hopefully not too obviously.

 

“What was on there Lu?” Chanyeol asked the question everyone was curious to know.

 

I felt my palms begin to sweat as I watched him turn around to the bunch of guys I knew as family. Was he going to reveal my secret? Would he do that to me? A million questions full of anxiety began to bubble within me.

 

“Lots of new selcas,” was what came out of his mouth with a dazzling smile, “this guy is so vain,” he chuckled, jabbing a thumb back in my direction.

 

I had to remember not to let my jaw drop or to sigh in relief. All of them bought the story, and snickered amongst themselves knowingly. Some even wanting to see the supposed ‘new selcas’.

 

But it didn’t stop me from catching the short-lived grimace that flashed across my roommates face as he glanced back at me.

 

We were sitting in our room- just the two of us. I was on my bed and he was on his. Me, cross legged. He, lying down on his back facing the ceiling. He hadn’t really spoken to me since the phone incident earlier. I knew why, but it didn’t make things any better. No lights were and the curtains were drawn, preventing any light from passing through into the room. The silence was for once uncomfortable in the room that I shared.

 

Luhan leisurely stood up from his bed, causing a squeaky sound to be made, and made his way over to me. I felt guilty for not telling him, even more so for lying to him, and now dirty for being too much of a coward to apologize to him.

 

He stopped by my bed and looked down at me. His doe-eyes were not that friendly today.

 

“Give me your phone,” he said.

 

I didn’t bother to fight him, I owed him that much. I pulled it out of one of the pockets of my jeans and handed it to him. Casually lowering my eyes as soon as it was out of grasp. I couldn’t look at his face yet, and was thankful that when I gave it to him all I got was his T-shirt.

 

Luhan retreated back to his bed and started scrolling through what he caught sight of not too long ago. I could tell by the crinkled up forehead he was sporting that he was not happy with what he saw, not in the slightest.   

 

Minutes passed by in that same uncomfortable silence. The aura that emitted from my friend’s side of the room was cold like the winter we had abandoned at the start of the year. I waited patiently for him to yell at me and to tell me I was selfish. I mentally prepared myself for the lecture of the century.

 

“She works at a bubble tea café?” He asked. That was the question that broke through the thick awkwardness that was suffocating us.

 

“Yeah,” I grunted. There was no point in trying to lie about anything to him.

 

He sat up, leaning his back against the headboard of his bed. “The one you’ve been buying from recently?” His eyes flitted up to meet my gaze.

 

I nodded once and watched as he placed my phone gently down on his bedside table next to his. “You’ve been talking to her for a while,” he stated. He pursed his lips together and folded his arms. “Do you like her?”

 

“No,” I shook my head, “we’re just friends Lu.”

 

“But you like the idea of liking her,” he sighed, “Geez Yifan.”

 

Luhan, along with the others, only used my real name for a few of them. One of them was in an instance like this, when something that shouldn’t be happening was occurring. It was them showing just how serious they were. Kris was only a nickname around here.

 

“I don’t know what you’re on about-”

 

“And she’s a fan. Out of all the people in the world, why did you have to pick a fan?” He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

 

“She’s not a typical fan. I wouldn’t even call her a sasaeng,” I frowned.

 

“You even defend her!” He scoffed, beginning to quietly laugh with irony.

 

I didn’t know if what I had just said could really be classified as defending, but I did know that I could trust Yunji. “She’s my friend,” I repeated myself.

 

“I don’t get it man, why are you doing this?” He questioned.

 

“I’m not doing anything.”

 

“You’re putting the band at risk of a scandal. Do you even realize what could happen if someone saw you with this…Lee Yunji?” He struggled to remember her name. “If she sells information about you or anyone in this group to the media then we’ll be screwed.”

 

“She’s not like that,” I sharply replied. I felt my hands curl up into fists at my side as I continued to talk to him. “She’s not that kind of person.”

 

He rolled his eyes. “Then what kind of person is she?”

 

I didn’t know why I was getting so worked up over the matter. “I don’t know,” I sighed, “that’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

 

“You’re playing a dangerous game. You’re not only endangering the band, but you’re also allowing yourself to be vulnerable,” he said.

 

“You’ve read through everything Lu,” I pointed out, “has she ever hassled me about EXO? Has she ever tried to pry anything about anything out of me?”

 

I was met with a speechless Luhan. What could he say? He knew I was right about at least that much.

 

“And I won’t ever fall for her,” I firmly said, “she’s not my type.”

 

“How can you be sure of that?” He seemed to have calmed down.

 

I was so sure of myself, so insistent. “I just know,” I furrowed my eyebrows, “don’t you trust me?”

 

“I do trust you Yifan,” he sighed, “you’re a good guy, you’re my friend, and you’re a great leader. But I think that even you have your lapses of judgement.” He came back with my phone, handing it back to me. “I don’t want to see you make a fool out of yourself over some girl that plays little miss innocent.”

 

“She’s not like that,” I said for the millionth time.

 

His shoulders slumped, but it looked like he accepted the fact that he wasn’t going to change my mind. “I won’t tell anyone about anything we’ve just discussed,” he promised, “but you need to stop keeping secrets from me. You can talk to me about anything.”

 

“God, you sound gay,” I teased, a grin stretching across my face.

 

“You wish I was,” he lightly thumped my head, “you’re like the little brother I never had. Always keeping me busy.”

 

“I’m not that much younger than you,” it was finally my turn to roll my eyes.

 

We spent the next hour joking around, eating crap, and reading up on ourselves online together. It was as if the serious conversation we had just had never really happened.

 

Some of the things we found being said in one of our fancafés were pretty funny.

 

“Listen to this. ‘Can you imagine two of the members showering together?’” Luhan imitated a feminine voice while reading out one of the comments from an anonymous user, “’I don’t see how they find time to individually shower with their busy schedule…’”  

 

I bit my lip. “If only they knew…” I snickered, “there’d be an explosion of new fanfics.”

 

“I know,” he laughed along with me, just as smug, “but you know, it’s not always just two at a time…”

 

“Can you imagine what our dads would say if they knew that sometimes we have to shower together?” I stuffed chips into my mouth from the bag sitting in between us.

 

“It wouldn’t matter that we’re never fully ,” he shuddered, “they would still disown us all.”

 

“At least we’d still have the fans,” I shrugged, to which he burst out laughing.

 

“Yeah that’s right,” he nodded, “speaking of which, is your girlfriend hot?”

 

I choked on my food. “She’s…not…my girlfriend,” I croaked, “why do you ask? I thought you didn’t approve of my friendship with Yunji.”

 

“I don’t,” he was blunt about it, “but you know, I can appreciate a hot girl,” he wriggled his eyebrows.

 

I pushed him lightly. “Idiot.”

 

---

Writer's Notes:

Who else is buying the new "Miracles in December" albums? I'm so excited ^^

I hope this update was okay...but if it wasn't I will let you all whack me with a frying pan (in your hearts). 

We will have more Yunji time in the next chapter, originally there was meant to be more of her in this chapter but I started getting carried away with Kris' POV. 

I've decided to start really keeping everyone up to date on what's going on with this story regarding when I'll be releasing chapters, etc. So if you guys want, you can follow me on twitter and I'll keep you posted :)
https://twitter.com/Samichan99

Thanks for reading/commenting/subscribing/upvoting/supporting/being awesome readers. I appreciate every single one of you!

Lots of love,
xoxoxo,
HEARTACHES <3