[ONE MONTH LATER]

[Kris' POV]

EXO's Kris and Crescere's Ren secretly tied the knot in a private ceremony!

EXO's Kris and Crescere's Ren married?

EXO's Kris and Crescere's Ren rumoured to have gotten married...without SM Entertainment's approval!

                I had to give kudos to the media outlet. They managed to hold it in for just over a week before blurting things out. Ren and I knew better than anyone that at least one person would have gotten wind of it the moment we made the booking.

                Granted, it wasn't the wedding my mother was dreaming of; nor mine. But it was me and Ren; that was all that mattered for me.

                "Whether in this life or the next...we will be together," I said, putting the newspaper down.

                Turning her head toward me, Ren looked at me with a twinkle in her eye. Slowly, she smiled.

                "Have you done another pregnancy test yet?" I asked her.

                "Yeah," she sighed softly. "It was negative."

                My face dropped. I was a little upset because I had hoped a celebratory child would have been in order.

                "I know you're upset," said Ren.

                "Well...no, not terribly but..."

                "I know why you want the baby so soon," said Ren. "But since we now have a choice, I don't want our child to be in the centre of a controversy of our greed. You know I want to be a mother. But we're doing to do it the right way. Getting leverage over the company is not fair and I won't have our child be a part of that. I love you. But if we're gonna make this work, you have to be more than EXO's Cold Guy. Be the man I know you to be. Be the man I love."

                She was right. Getting married was already a huge risk. No doubt, everyone was gonna want us to do it properly eventually, but this was enough to get the company gritting it's teeth and butting heads with other companies.

                "President Kim will see you now," the secretary said.

*

[Suho's POV]

                "Man, what is going on?! It's been three hours!" exclaimed Chanyeol. "Are we grounded? Are we getting fired?"

                "No one is getting fired!" I exclaimed. "They can't afford to! We're probably gonna get suspended from a lot of shows; especially Kris. Ren's probably gonna lose her place on Immortal Songs. It'll be a bloodbath for at least a year!"

                "Then maybe this is a bad time to bring up all the hash tags netizens are post online?" said Kai.

                Kris brought himself into his own mess. I could appreciate him taking it like a man but, inevitably, the entire group was going to be copping a lot of it too. After all, all the articles are labelling him as 'EXO's Kris'. Then there was Crescere to worry about too.

                "I'm curious, though," said Chen. "Has the company stocks increased or decreased since they got married?"

                "Decreased, slightly," Xiumin answered. "It's bound to decrease more over the next couple days but nothing they can't fix. Why are you worried about that though?"

                "Not sure," Chen replied simply. "Maybe it's a reality check of how much harder we have to work. I mean, I love Kris Hyung too, and I wanna help support him. Maybe I'm just a little weary of how much I have to prepare myself for when working."

                Finally, after the excruciating three hours, the front door opened. All of our expressions lit up like a box of fireworks in anticipation of the news. Approaching the living room, Kris and Ren walked in together with solemn expressions.

                "Oh, no," I gasped.

                "No, no, it's not terrible," Kris said quickly. "It'll...it'll just take time to digest."

                "Well the suspense has been killing us for hours; spit it out!" said Luhan.

                Kris and Ren looked at each other one more time.

                "We're suspended for six months," Kris finally heaved.

                "And we're disbanding in four years," said Ren.

                Everyone was quiet for a good minute.

                "My members are with President Kim now," said Ren. "I'm actually supposed to be going back."

                "You can't be disbanding though..." said Kai. "Crescere can still perform!"

                "We'll cross that bridge when we get there," said Ren. "But in the meantime...I've sealed our fate."

                I couldn't imagine what the next few years were going to be like for all 18 of us. I was happy that EXO could still stand together despite the suspension. But Crescere...they're all still young.

"You haven't," I said to Ren. "It's just the beginning. But we're all here for you. The only fate you've sealed is your own; by tying yourself to us. If they want to mess with you, they're not going to without messing with us too. Just hang in there. In four years, that's when we'll fight."

*

[Ren's POV]

                "Unnie, you know it's a lie, yeah?" asked Saerom. "Crescere will never disband!"

                "Really, Unnie, you can't be as naive as that," said Jaekyung.

                "Of course not!" I exclaimed. "Sure, nothing's gonna happen overnight, but I promised you we'll make it work. And we will! But I have a plan."

                "Does it involve changing companies?" asked Kimi. "It's no use if you're not coming with us."

                I had been thinking about this since the night before the wedding. There was no way for me to break my contract in half, and I couldn't ask the members to extend their contracts until they were as long as mine, because that would have been too selfish.

                "EXO are planning to make their own company," I said. "You know, like Shinhwa. But my plan for us is not that drastic. Look, the company's not that heartless. Even though you guys won't be with SM by that time, we can still perform together. It won't be convenient, but it'll probably mean a lot more with the distance. Work on your own for a few years, meet with each other in the middle, and then when that's all said and done..."

                "Crescere can be a proper whole again?" asked Hyoim.

                "Possibly," I answered. "Now, look; you're all strong women, so whatever hate and anger you feel towards anyone, you can hold onto forever. I will never let you guys down. You'll always know where to find me. It's not like I've got any place to hide."

Well...i got there somehow ><"
That being said, thanks again for gritting and bearing with my incomptenence...
Merry Xmas~!! =)