❝Chapter IX; part 1
        

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                           "Divide and conquer"

   

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( SM Entertainment; February 1, 2014 )

Following his manager blindly, Wu Yifan looked over his right shoulder and saw Park Chanyeol still engrossed in his phone. He watched with a worried expression when he saw the littler giant scrunched up his eyebrows while mumbling something intangible.

Crossing his arms at his back, he significantly slowed down a bit to match Chanyeol’s pace. He craned his neck as to see what captured his attention to the point where he didn’t even realize that someone was spying on him. He should be aware if someone was spying on him. They had sasaeng fans, for goodness sake.

His eyes widened when he saw the phone’s screen filled with message bubbles, all from Chanyeol’s side but none from the receiver’s side. The messages went from ‘Hey, are you okay? You’re not replying anymore...’ to ‘Did I do something wrong? Or are you busy? Am I disturbing you...?’ until it escalated to ‘Are you with someone? Is that why you’re not replying anymore? :’(’ type of messages. Really, it was a rather pitiful sight.

He snapped his head up when he heard someone stifle a giggle. He looked around and saw Kim Jongdae laughing at the back of his hand, pointing at Chanyeol. Nothing escapes that troll’s eyes. He should have remembered that.

“He reminds me of our own brat when his ‘boyfriend’ is too lazy to reply back.” He heard Choi Minho whisper to Kim Kibum nonchalantly, scratching his chin. Key could only hum in response, afterwards yawning loudly.

“Maybe he’s texting his mother?” Luhan offered, trying to save the dignity of his band mate.

“You’re way too kind, hyung.” Oh Sehun quipped, and then pouted slightly. “Wish you were as this kind to me...”   

“And you guys wonder why the fans think you two are gay for each other.” Kim Jongin said, rolling his eyes.

“Even though hyung is very sweet and pretty-” Sehun clarified, ignoring Luhan’s death glare “-I still prefer chicks over dudes. And besides, hyung is too obsessed with.... um, Minseok-hyung to even notice me anymore.”

“So.... you’re bitter that Luhan-hyung prefers Minseok-hyung over you?” Huang Zitao asked Sehun, looking ahead. “Although, even I prefer Minseok-hyung over you, any day.”

 “I’m not bitter about that! I’m just saying that Luhan-hyung should be kinder to his dongsaengs!” Sehun yelled, aggravated by the sudden turn of events. Looking back at Zitao, he fired back “And who gives a about what you think, you er?”

“Excuse me, asswipe, I just thought you needed help. You looked so pathetic, whining about not getting attention from your elders. This is why the fans always pegged you as gay.” Zitao sniffed, crossing his arms in defiance.

“That’s rich, coming from the dude that always clings to his ‘Yifan-gege’ on every show!” Sehun shot back, stopping in front of Zitao and poked the elder’s chest multiple times to prove his point. When Sehun said ‘Yifan-gege’ he made his voice go an octave higher, making it sound like a horrible imitation of a high school girl’s ‘fangirling’ voice. At the front, Yifan gave an involuntary shiver at the mere mention of those... moments.

Zitao proceeded to mutter Korean curses under his breath, sometimes inter-mingling them with Chinese curses. He then flipped his middle finger and waved it in front of his fellow maknae’s face with a smug expression. Jongin could only laugh at Sehun’s insulted expression. Kim Jonghyun could only look on with mild amusement.

“Is this why you always look stressed, Junmyeon-ah?” Jonghyun asked EXO’s co-leader quietly. He looked over at the two bickering maknaes and gave an amused smirk.

“Unfortunately, yes. Although they are the least of my problems, this is the most reoccurring one.” Kim Junmyeon sighed, rubbing his head ruefully. It wasn’t really their fault; this was how they showed they cared for each other. If girls showed affection through hugs and kisses, guys show it through insults and physical abuse. It was one of the natural laws of the universe.

Minho only shook his head at their antics, remembering the good old days. Not that they were old already. Of course not. They still didn’t have white hair, only bleached hair. Not that that made any difference.

“Where are we going and what are we going to do there, hyung?” Kibum asked EXO-M’s manager, Im Kyunhyun, who was looking at a piece of paper. He gave the SHINee member an appraising look before answering “Practice.”

“Practice for what?” Jongdae asked, not actually paying attention to his band mates.

“Okay, not really practice.” Kyunhyun amended. “More like, self-improvement with your abilities and skills.” He looked at Chanyeol, who was still too engrossed with his phone to even pay attention, and snapped his fingers in front of his face. “Hey, stop that.”

Chanyeol finally looked away from his phone’s screen, surprise evident on his face as he took in his surroundings. “Where...?”

“You’re in SM Entertainment’s main building, remember? Your name is Park Chanyeol, and you are part of the boy band called EXO.”

“Hyung, I’m not that stupid.”

“Could have fooled me...” Kyunhyun murmured, then spoke louder “Anyway, I suggest you should stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“That.” His hyung pointed towards his phone. “It’s not cute anymore. Take it from me.”

“Why should he stop? I’m enjoying his pain so much right now.” Jongdae said, a tad bit too gleefully.

“Because he might lose the girl if he clings too much. It’s not cute, at all.” Kyunhyun simply stated, unaware that they already passed by the first practice room. He was also oblivious of the growing interest of the other people that were walking with him. For some odd reason, Luhan managed to bring a notepad and a pencil and began writing down notes in Chinese and Korean.

“Ok... what should he do?” Jongdae probed, asking for the heck of it.

“He should play it cool. You know, like” Kyunhyun stopped abruptly, and then leaned against the wall, striking a pose “What’s up?” He cocked his head at an imaginary hot girl, before running his hand over his hair to make it like a deliberate mess.

“Eww, hyung! Don’t ever do that again! It’s giving me the hives!” Jongdae shivered, wrapping his arms around himself, as if to ward of any diseases that might befall on his person. Chanyeol only nodded, inputting all the newfound information into his brain. Luhan jotted down notes as Sehun and Jongin repeated the words for him to write down. Minho looked mildly disgusted while Kibum laughed hysterically at Jonghyun, who was kneeling on the floor in shock. Junmyeon was comforting Zitao, who was currently hugging the life out of him, whilst Yifan could only look on with wide eyes.

  “Hey, I give great advice! You go ask Baekhyun! He’s finally got the courage to talk to Taeyeon without looking at his feet in embarrassment!” Kyunhyun defended himself, feeling slightly discomfited at the fact that he did that in front of others. He looked around to shake it off, only to realize that he already led them away from the destination. In his worry, he looked at his watch to see that the supposed practice already started 30 minutes ago.

“The hell..... Why does this always happen?” He looked up, asking no one in particular. He decided to just let them go by themselves. It shouldn’t be that bad. They are all adults.... with the minds of children, but adults, nonetheless. He partially convinced himself that they would be fine without his supervision. He grabbed Yifan and led him away from the others. Yifan yelped uncharacteristically when he felt someone touch him.

“Ok, I trust you enough to do this.” Kyunhyun said, looking at Yifan straight in the eye. Yifan kept his gaze as neutral as possible, even if he was getting creeped out by what’s happening. The others just looked at the two with curious stares.

“I’ll give you this paper,” he lifted the paper to the younger’s eyes, and then shoved it in his hands for emphasis “so that no one will get lost here.”

“Okay....”

“Here are MY instructions:

Do not screw this up. Make sure everyone gets to the SPECIFIC AND CORRECT room in one piece. Do not screw this up.”

“But you already said the first on-”

“Shush.

Make sure everyone leaves in one piece as well. Take whatever you will do there as seriously as you can, so people will take you seriously And lastly, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT screw this up.”

He said the last sentence loudly; making sure the others heard it too. They all gave their nods to Kyunhyun, who was already running back to where they came from.

Yifan looked at his manager’s back, and then looked at the paper in his hands. It had 5 room numbers with specific people at the side of the room number.

“Okay,” he got the attention of the others immediately. He decided to just get straight to the point. “It seems to be room assignments to whatever we are supposed to do. Unfortunately, we’re not all in the same room. Hell, some of the rooms have a very big gap from each other.”

“Well... what are the room assignments?” Junmyeon asked, curious as to how this plays out.

Yifan cleared his throat. “I’ll read the room numbers out loud, also the people that should go there.

In room 350: Jonghyun-hyung and Chanyeol.

In room 164: me, Junmyeon, and Zitao.

In room 276: Minho and Jongdae.

In room 666: Jongin, Sehun, and Kibum.

Lastly, in room 663: Luhan.”

 

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( With Jonghyun and Chanyeol )

Jonghyun and Chanyeol really didn’t need to go far. They were already in the third floor, so all they had to do was look for room 350.

Jonghyun looked at Chanyeol carefully, noticing the defeated slouch and depressed aura. He raised his hand to pat his hoobae’s back slightly, showing his support. The latter looked up and smiled gratefully.

“Thanks hyung. I appreciate it.” He sincerely said.

“You’re welcome. Even if I do agree with your manager about taking it slow, just do what you think will make you happy.”

Chanyeol nodded, a wide smile finally replacing the frown that marred his face for an hour.

They managed to arrive in front of room 350 in one piece, so that was one rule that they managed to follow. Chanyeol pressed his ears at the door, hearing a muffled voice echoing inside. They looked at each other warily, Chanyeol’s hands inching towards the knob of the door.

Out of nowhere, they heard a shrill shriek coming from inside the room. Immediately, Chanyeol threw open the door and they both ran inside, thinking someone was in trouble and in need of their help.

Both stopped in their tracks at the same time when they saw the cause of the scream. The screamer looked at them with sharp eyes and furrowed eyebrows and said out loud. “You have got to be kidding me.”

 

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( With Yifan, Junmyeon, and Zitao )

Yifan and Zitao trekked behind Junmyeon as they went down 4 flights of stairs. Junmyeon knew this place than they did; he was a trainee for 7 years after all.

It wasn’t their fault that the building had an imbalance of room space. All rooms weren’t equal to each other. It varies from a regular practice r