Chanyeol's POV

We're sorry. The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again.

I quickly hit the red button on my screen and dialed again.

We're sorry. The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again.

I slammed by finger on my phone again, redialing. Frantically turning in every direction, looking to see a familiar face.

We're sorry. The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Pl--

"No, no, no!" I shouted. I dialed again and again, running in circles, asking people if they've seen her.

We're sorry. The person--

"Excuse me. Where's the flight that leaves for the States?" I stopped a pair of stewardesses.

"The flight to the States?" one of them repeated. "Didn't that leave already?" she asked the other.

The second stewardess looked at her watch. "It should be leaving soon. Gate 45B." she told me as she pointed in the opposite direction.

"Thank you!" I said quickly as I bolted toward where she pointed. I held the phone to my ear once more.

We're sorry. The person--

"Pick up your goddamn phone!" I shouted, my eyes nervously searching for 45B as people looked at me as if I was crazy.

42…43…44…45! My legs moved, my lungs burned, my heart was out of control. Please, please still be here.

"Excuse me sir!" a flight attendant stopped me. "You are not allowed inside. All passengers have been boarded and the plane is ready to take off."

"I need to go inside!" I shouted, trying to push through. Security guards in the vicinity noticed and started to make their way over. "You need to stop this plane from leaving! There is someone that shouldn't be on there!"

"I'm sorry, sir!" the flight attendant said sternly, starting to get annoyed. "The plane is about to take off! We're already behind schedule!"

"Is there a problem here?" a security guard asked as he approached me.

"I need you to stop that plane!" I turned to the security guard, hoping that he would oblige.

"You mean that plane?" he pointed to the glass wall as a plane started to take flight.

My eyes looked up to the outside of the airport as a plane smoothly flew through the air away from me.

"No…" My eyes started to water, my heart started to break, my chest became heavy. "Soojin…"

*****

Soojin's POV

Umma….umma what am I supposed to do now? I asked as the tears started to collect in my eyes again. Two days after I landed back home, the funeral began. I stood in the small room, filled with flowers and pictures, as my dad, brother and I stood to greet all of our family and friends that have come to say farewell.

I didn't believe it at first. I expected to greet my mom and brother once the gates of the airport opened. But all I saw was my brother and my Aunt, looking said and exhausted.

You're a strong girl, Soojin.

Her last words echoed in the back of my mind and I knew right then that I had to get myself together. Kwonho looked like he hadn't stopped crying since he called me. I had to stay strong, for the both of us.

But as the past couple of days passed, it became harder to hold it in. My mother was gone. When I thought I would have the rest of my life with her, she had just left, without a warning. I expected to see her again when she left me in Korea. I had expected that our family could be together again in the future. It was all too much to handle, but I kept staying strong. I had to.

"I'm sorry for your loss," the next person said sadly, placing a flower next to my mother's picture. "She did a great job raising you kids. Remember, she still lives through you both."

Kwonho sniffled, never raising his head from the ground and nodded. My dad shook their hand and gave a grateful nod for their appearance at the funeral. HIs eyes were red and swollen too, unable to mutter more than a few words to our guests.

"Thank you," I said sadly, trying to form a small smile through my lips. It couldn't be done.

For the rest of the day, it was just like that. Person after person, sympathy wish after more pity looks. I knew what they were all thinking. What now? I was the oldest and I'm still in high school. And the plan for Kwonho wasn't to come to Korea until he finished junior high. But that was the least of our problems.

Throughout the day, I couldn't stop thinking about how much worse my life could get. In addition to my mother passing away, there was the situation with Kwonho, there was the question of what to do with my mother's belongings, I was missing school - not to mention that I was already starting to fall behind and of course, Chanyeol was going to get married in a few months.

Every time I was in trouble, every time I was down and lost, he was always there to help make it a little easier to deal with. He was always there to comfort me and to make things better. He was always just there, at the perfect place, at the perfect time. Except today. The day that I needed him the most in my entire existence. Not the time he saved me from those two drunk guys at the park. Not the time he cleared my name when I was suspended from school. Not the time he got me out of the house when I first found out about my mom's illness. Not the time he held onto me when we were on the ferris wheel. Not all those times I was cold and he gave me his jacket.

Now.

I needed him now. And it just broke my heart further that I couldn't have him. He wasn't mine to claim. What we had was truly over. It was never going to happen and that's what hurt the most. All of those times we had together in the past were for nothing. It promised me nothing but a heartbreak.

My dad, Kwonho and I got to our house late that night. It was pitch dark and there was an emptiness that lingered in the air. We all knew what it was, so no one said anything.

"I'm going to bed first kids, good night." My dad announced softly, taking off his black jacket.

"Appa, you gotta eat something first," I said, concerned. I hadn't seen him eat anything all day.

He shook his head and gave me a weak smile. "Not tonight honey," he said, placing a hand on my head. "You two eat and head to bed too alright? We'll talk in the morning."

With that, he slowly lifted his heavy feet up the stairs as I heard the soft click of the door close.

Kwonho didn't move from the kitchen chair he had taken a seat in. I walked to the cupboard and grabbed a box of cereal.

"You didn't eat that much either right? Have some cereal before you go to bed or--"

"What is wrong with you?" he said, shocking me. He hadn't said anything all day. And the content of what he said threw me off too.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"How can you be thinking about cereal right now when our mom is dead?" he said, a little stronger this time. I sensed that a anger was beginning to spark.

"Kwonho," I said sternly. "I know you're upset about umma, we all are, but that doesn't mean--"

"Are you noona?" he spat at me, glaring at me with fresh tear-rimmed eyes.

"What?" I asked, not able to believe what he was saying. "You don't think I'm upset that we lost our mom?"

"You sure don't look like it. You haven't shed a single tear. You greeted all of the people today with a smile. And now, you're looking for cereal to eat before you go to bed. What kind of daughter acts that way when her one and only mother just died?" he raised his voice, disgusted.

"YAH! LEE KWONHO!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "You think this was easy for me? You think that I'm not devastated that we lost our mom? Do you think it's easy trying to be the only person in our family to keep it together? What am I supposed to do Kwonho? You're crying, appa's crying. Do I need to cry too? We needed someone to keep the sanity. We needed someone to control the emotions in this family. It wasn't going to be you and appa gave up that position once he found out." The tears finally came, they were streaming down my face with no end. I couldn't breathe and my chest felt like it was going to explode. "How do you think I feel Kwonho? You were here with her the whole time. You were the last person she was with. I wasn't, I was on the other side of the world. The last time I saw her was months ago. Do you think that makes it any easier for me? How dare you think that umma's passing isn't affecting me?"

"Noona…" Kwonho whispered, crying. I wasn't sure when his tears began, but then again, I couldn't really see anything at this point. "Noona, I'm sorry. I didn't--"

"Forget it!" I cut him off, unable to control the explosion of emotions inside of me. Anger, guilt, sadness, loneliness, heartbreak. "Eat your cereal or don't. What do I care." I slammed the box down on the counter, turned my heel and ran upstairs to my room where I finally let out everything I've been holding in for the rest of the night.

*****

Chanyeol's POV

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"UGH!" I grunted loudly, throwing my phone on the couch.

"Be careful man, you just got a new one!" Baek said, grabbing my phone to make sure it was alright before lightly tossing it back to the couch.

"My phone is the least of my worries right now," I huffed, lying back on my head, running my fingers through my hair.

"She's still not picking up?" D.O asked sadly, already knowing the answer.

"I've heard that stupid message more times in the past 3 days than I have all of you combined in your whole lives." I flatly told them.

"Just give her some time," Suho advised. "She's going through a rough time. I think checking her phone is the least of her problems right now."

"It's still annoying." I muttered. My heart was slowlying shattering into smaller pieces with each passing day. I know how crushed she was when she first found out the news that her mom was sick, so I could only imagine how much worse it is now that she's gone. I wanted to be there to comfort her, to protect her to heartache. I needed to be there to make her feel better. It was a yearning inside of me that I couldn't get rid of. I just wanted to hold her in my arms and brush my fingers through her hair telling her that everything will be okay, that I will make everything okay again. And not only was I now free from engagement, it meant that Soojin and I could finally move forward and be official. But she doesn't know that. She tried really hard to cover up her feelings about the whole situation, but I knew that she was hurting inside just as much as I was. And to think that she still thinks that we are hopeless. It just wasn't fair. Right when I think things are finally going to start to look up, they take a huge turn for the worst.

"Man, just when we thought our senior year was going to end on a good note," Suho shook his head sadly. "At least you don't have to marry Minji anymore, right?" he said, trying to cheer me up. I placed my forearm across my forhead, covering my eyes and didn't respond.

"But seriously, who knew?" Sehun started. "You got lucky that of all people your sister is getting married to is Minji's older brother. It really is a small world."

"I think the miracle is that Chanyeol's dad agreed to the change," D.O added.

Baek nodded in agreement. "Noona can be very convincing."

The conversatation started to hit a lull in silence as all of us tried to diver the conversation from the primary problem: Soojin being in the States for who knows how long.

"Why you don't you go to her?" Kai suggested, thinking of a possible solution.

"What?" Sehun asked for me. "Hyung? Go to the States?"

"Yeah, why not?" Kai said, starting to warm up to the idea. "It would be a nice surprise, and you two can finally talk things out. And I'm sure she'll be really happy to see you."

"Do you even know where she lives?" D.O asked. Leave it up to him to be the logical one.

"No," I huffed back in frustration. It was definitely something I was considering. I could miss a few days of school. But how was I supposed to get to Soojin once I landed? I don't know anything about her life in the States.

"Looks like it's time to bring in reinforcements," Baek announced, standing up pretending to crack his neck.

All five of us looked up at Baek to finish his thought.

"Well, if she's not going to answer Chanyeol's calls, she certainly isn't going to answer any of ours." Baek started, slowing down to see if any of us would catch on. "So we ask Shinji."

"I already tried that," Suho said, disappointed that it was all Baek came up with. "Shinji's tried calling her a few times. I asked her to keep calling but she refused. We should be more like Shinji. She understands that Soojin is going through a hard time and is respecting her space."

The six of us cotinued to think of ways to get in touch with Soojin without too much pressure in silece, frustrated with all the dead ends our ideas brought us.

"Why don't we just email her?" D.O said, breaking the silence. "We can have Shinji email her. If any of us emailed her, she probably wouldn't answer, but if it was Shinji, she might at least read it. The message you're getting when you call her means her phone is off, so calling her is useless unless she turns it on. At least with email, it'll give her time to stabilize."

We all thought about this idea and nodded along as it started to grow on us.

"D.O hyung has a point," Kai agreed. "We can have Shinji subtley ask where Soojin is staying and when she'll be coming back. You know, conversational-friend-being-concerned stuff."

I quickly tried to think of any flaws to this plan and couldn't come up with any. The only thing about this plan was that it was going to be timely. I ran out of patience a long time ago and going this route would require more waiting on my part. Who knows when or even if Soojin was going to reply to Shinji's email, let alone check it?

But Soojin's face came into mind and I knew that it was going to be worth it if it meant seeing her again. It was all going to be worth it in the end when I tell her that we were able to be together and that nothing was going to get in the way. I missed her more than I was willing to admit. And that's when I realized that I would wait much longer if it meant seeing her in the end.

I got up from my bed and walked toward the couch towards Suho to grab my phone and dialed Shinji's number.

Just don't take too long Soojin, please...

A/N:

oh my fricken goodness...
my readers!! i'm so sorry it took me forever to give you an upate!
life is fricken crazy and i barely have enough time to sleep (seriously, i'm getting like < 3 hours a day)
i finally was able to find some time to write this out for you
i know i left you guys on a pretty bad cliffhanger, so i hope you'll forgive me!!
and i know it's kind of short, but i didnt want to leave you completely hanging either lol

and i see that there are new readers, welcome!!
thank you for subscribing and i hope you like my story!!!
and to my original readers, thank you for sticking around <3
you guys will wait for me forever won't you? hehe

i'll try to update again within the next week or so
the reason why i've been busy is because in addition to a buttload of schoolwork, tutoring and part-time job
i decided to audition for dancing9 and just submitted my materials for the 2nd round!
fingers crossed that i'll make it to the 3rd round!

i love every single reader here! if it wasn't for you guys,
i would have gave up on this story a long time ago and stopped writing
so thank you!!!

first box was a great trip down memory lane with some new stuff haha

this was the funniest thing minseok has ever done, i tears from laughter omg lollll

did anyone know that the "y" in growl was suho?! i would have never guessed that lol
minseok too cool for heart guns and blows kisses instead lol
  

ps. ARE YOU  GUYS AS EXCITED AS I AM ABOUT EXO'S COMEBACK! EEEK~
i kind of wish they could stay in their growl era forever T-T
much love, thatxmusic