Sehun couldn’t keep his mind in its place because of what MiYeon told him. He was worried and wondered what the girls were up to but she told him to not meddle in their affairs.

“Have a safe trip, guys!” HyoRi said before going in first before MiYeon. The trio bowed and proceeded to leave but MiYeon held on Sehun’s wrist. “Bwo, noona?” Sehun asked. MiYeon didn’t match his gaze at first but she flashed a smile when she looked at him. “Give this to Baekhyun-ssi when you go to school tomorrow. HyoRi and I will be kind of late because of classified stuff but we’ll be present tomorrow. I just want him to get this as soon as possible, arasseo?” MiYeon told him as she shoved the envelope into Sehun’s chest. “And don’t ask any questions, just give it to him or I’ll tell HyoHyo about your feelings,” MiYeon said when Sehun almost opened his mouth to speak.

“Sehunnie?” Luhan blinked a few times when Sehun didn’t answer his last questions. “Hey, Sehunnie, what’s bothering you?” Luhan asked as he elbowed his friend. Sehun shook his head. “Nothing, hyung. Nothing,” he answered. “Is it about a girl? I’ve been hearing news about you liking a girl but no one’s telling me,” Luhan pouted. “Aniyo, hyung. I don’t like anyone,” Sehun said.

Luhan kept on pestering Sehun to tell him until they entered the school grounds. Sehun sighed in relief when he saw Baekhyun, Chen and Chanyeol going to school together. Sehun pulled out the letter from his bag and rushed to Baekhyun and left Luhan. Luhan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He was thinking what was happening to the maknae.

“Hyung, MiYeon-noona told me to give you this,” Sehun said as he handed the letter. Chanyeol elbowed Baekhyun and Chen was kind of frowning and felt jealousy. “I always thought she likes Jongdae though,” Chanyeol said as he wrapped his arms around Baekhyun’s waist. Baekhyun frowned for a moment when he received the letter.

He knew what it meant. The girls were already leaving for another country and he has to take these boys to their ex-apartment and show them what MiYeon told him about. They’ll surely interrogate him. They’ll question why he kept quiet about this.

But he has no choice, does he?

Baekhyun pocketed the letter and punched Chanyeol’s chest. “I’m just too handsome for her to resist me,” he said arrogantly. But in his mind, he didn’t know how to tell the guys to come with him to the girls’ apartment. At least, he had the whole school day to figure out as long as Chanyeol won’t bother him during class hours.

When lunch came, the seniors asked the freshmen where the girls were. “Noona said they’ll be late but they were absent,” Sehun answered. “What if something happened to them? Ah, my babies,” Joonmyun said, making Chanyeol laugh. “They’re tough girls, hyung but I wonder what happened,” Yixing said. Baekhyun bit his lower lip and fiddled with the letter in his hands.

“I can’t hide what I know forever. Here, read this,” Baekhyun tossed the letter to Jongdae then gave him a look to mean that the camel would read the letter. Jongdae stood up and went in front of the others before reading:

Baekhyun-ah,

It’s me, Choi MiYeon. You know about what we talked about the other night? Well, today’s the day. It came sooner than expected sadly. HyoRi and I wanted to spend more time with you all but we can’t and we may never see each other again. We might’ve been on our flight as you read this letter or if Sehun-ah gave it to you earlier, maybe we’re on our way to the airport. Either way, it’s too late to even think of stopping us.

I might’ve told you to keep it a secret and I’m glad you did. Even HyoRi doesn’t know I told you. But now’s the time for them to know. Go to our apartment during your dismissal with the other members, we left something special for each of you. Yes, sadly, including deer-sunbae because I have no choice and we’re still one even if there were a lot of drama.

Tell the boys we’ll always love them and they’ll always live in our hearts, of course, it includes you Baekhyun. Keep shining like the stars you are and keep reaching for your dream and share the musical gifts given to you.

Until we meet again.

MiYeon

All of the boys saddened when Jongdae finished the first paragraph and they even grew depressed once he finished the letter. Luhan looked uneasy as he heard a special mention from MiYeon. MiYeon and HyoRi were gone and they never bothered telling anyone but Baekhyun. They didn’t doubt the girls’ decision but why? Why did they have to keep that a secret? When they asked Baekhyun why the girls were going overseas, he shrugged. He didn’t know either.

The girls had a lot of secrets surrounding this matter. Maybe that’s why they acted weird these past few days. MiYeon being against the fact HyoRi wanted to confess and HyoRi being that desperate to confess to Luhan. MiYeon who didn’t talk that much these days and HyoRi who didn’t crack that much jokes and instead cried were now gone from their lives.

“Who else knows about this?” Kris asked as he looked at the others. Luhan hesitantly raised his hand. “She told me this morning. She messaged me as if she was disappearing from my life,” Luhan shared. “What did the message say?” Sehun asked, completely curious though he knows he’ll get hurt.

Luhan-oppa, annyeong. Annyeong means hello and goodbye right? It usually means one thing over the other but now, it means both for me. Hello since this is the start of my message to you and goodbye since it’ll be the last you’ll hear from me. You know, I really like you ever since we were kids. You were always babysitting me when I end up in the hospital. You were always protecting me that I fell for you but you were too dense to notice. Not until I started to ignore you. Mian for that but I needed to. It hurts me so much to think you love someone who bullied me so much. At least you kept it all a secret. Mina, she always makes my life miserable. She first took my confidence, my happiness and now, she took away the man I fell in love with. But it doesn’t matter now, does it? Because I’ll be leaving you. I’ll be living on without you. I’ll continue life as I never knew you. But, oppa, I need to thank you. Because of you, I found a light in my dark world. Because of you, I found the pen as my voice. You were my muse, my model in everything I wrote and composed. But that’s all going to change. Oppa, saranghaeyo. Annyeong.

Sehun felt the pang in his chest as he heard HyoRi’s words in Luhan’s voice. This hurts him far too much that he had to stand up and walk away. Luhan tried to chase him, confused why Sehun suddenly left but Baekhyun pulled him down. “Luhan-hyung, there are a lot of things you weren’t aware of. One thing was of HyoRi-ssi’s feelings for you and the other thing was Sehun-ah’s feelings for HyoRi,” he whispered.

Luhan widened his eyes. “B-Bwo?” He stuttered. Baekhyun nodded his head. “HyoRi and hyung were the only people who didn’t know and now, HyoRi’s the only person left,” Jongdae continued. “Sehun’s still innocent though. But he’ll return later. He’ll come with us to their apartment. I’m sure they left something behind for us to know why they left,” Jong-in said. The others nodded in approval.

When dismissal came, Sehun still had soulless eyes. He told himself he’ll be happy if HyoRi got the love she wanted. Luhan loves her back after all. But he just can’t. He loves her too much. And now, because of her leave, he has no chance to tell her about his feelings. Because he was afraid, he lost the chance to ever end up with her. He lost the chance to save her from heartbreak.

“Dammit, hyung. You were so lucky. Why didn’t you take care of the attention you received from her? Why did you hurt her?” Sehun muttered in hatred. “Why did you waste her efforts?” Sehun added. He kept thinking of how much HyoRi was in but she managed to smile in the end, in front of him. He didn’t care much if he got hurt, as long as HyoRi was protected.

“Stop the drama, let’s go to the hyungs,” Tao and Jong-in suddenly appeared and dragged Sehun towards the school’s gate. The others were already there, waiting impatiently. “I don’t want to go!” Sehun whined. “You have to! HyoRi-noona might’ve left something for you!” Tao said.

Jongdae bit his lower lip as he thought of his last conversation with MiYeon. He lost the chance to confess to her. Why was he even so dense of his own feelings? He thought the feeling was temporary or he was sick whenever she was around, but he was completely wrong. He likes her. That changes everything. He was so afraid of being rejected, he didn’t have the guts to tell her.

No one knew except him of course. He never even tried to tell Minseok or Baekhyun. It was because he wants the first other person to know this was the girl he likes who is already gone and may never come back. What nice luck he does have.

The twelve then went on towards the apartment. Minseok and Tao were dragging Sehun. Though Minseok was short compared to Sehun, he was easily dragging the maknae along. Baekhyun went ahead of them already and opened the apartment.

Joonmyun frowned as he saw the empty rooms. There were no traces of MiYeon and HyoRi anymore. He almost cried like the mother he was to them but he kept the tears in. Kris was patting his back as the father of the group. The other kids decided to go into the living room and they saw the two boxes that were empty before but now filled with stuff that were wrapped up.

Joonmyun and Kris went up first and opened the boxes. Joonmyun took the medium sized box labelled with his name and Kris took his also and the leaders distributed the remaining gifts. Sehun stared at the box that had polka dotted wrapper. He took a deep breath before opening it. He saw a chick shaped plushie. He covered his mouth as he recognized it. It was like a brand new version of the plushie he gave HyoRi back when they were in middle school.

Then there was a letter attached to it.

Sehunnie! I’ll surely miss you. I really love you. Noona loves you very much but I have to go. MiYeonnie needs me very much and I need to be there for her like she was for me. And I guess I’ll have my blood transfusion there. Don’t worry! I’ll never forget you. You have always been by my side. You’re the best brother a noona could wish for. Plus I heard you like a girl, you can capture her heart surely! You are a ladies’ man, Sehunnie. Ah, I don’t know what to say. Thank you for always being there and cheering me up when I’m down. I’m sorry I constantly make you worried because of my broken and weak heart. I will be stronger in the future. If fate permits us, I want to see you again.

EXO Saranghaja!

XOXO,

HyoRi

Sehun seriously wanted to book a flight to America to see her, to tell her how he felt but he can’t. He wanted to cry now but Joonmyun already had that job and Kris already has a hard time cheering up the leader. He massaged his temples as he closed his eyes and reclined on the couch. Luckily, the landlady didn’t think of removing the furniture.

He remembered how he met her. He was lucky enough Luhan introduced her to him when they were younger. She was wearing boyish clothes back then and had scratches on her arms and legs. She could be mistaken as a dude. And now, she grew up into a beautiful lady he came to love and Luhan came to hurt.

He pictured perfectly how he gave the plushie to HyoRi in an attempt to confess to her. He was so flustered that he looked silly. And she was so clueless. He kept on stuttering that soon enough Luhan came and caught HyoRi’s attention. It always seemed their childhood only consisted of the three of them. MiYeon had choir back then so she met Jongdae there.

While Jongdae on the other hand had this regretful expression on his face. He was sitting on the floor with his back leaning on the wall. The box of the supposed gift was right beside him. He scanned the item in his hands. It was an “Ash Ketchum” hat. MiYeon was a fanatic of Pokemon after all but she never liked the dude. HyoRi gave this to her as a joke on one of her birthdays.

And in the cap, he found a letter. The girls surely were busy writing all these letters for them.

Jongdae-ssi, thanks for being my friend this long. I know the sudden departure was a shock to all of you but we need to leave. Send Sehun my deepest apologies since I dragged the love of his life away. Also, I’m sorry for being such a trouble for you. I had fun singing with you and I hope you pursue your dream of being a singer. I want to hear your songs soon. And I have a confession to make since we’re leaving…

Jongdae closed his eyes as he bent his head back. “So she likes me too…” He muttered under his breath, quiet enough for Baekhyun and Chanyeol not to hear him.