Chanyeol stared straight ahead bleakly.

 

“I’m not supposed to tell this to anyone,” he started, tone and expression grave. He turned to face Suho and stage-whispered, “I’m actually a K-pop star.”

 

Silence filled the room. Some of the participants tried to take a closer look at him, trying to decide if they could recognize him from somewhere.

 

Suho frowned. “And that is a problem because?”

 

“I keep my status a secret from everyone else so I can attend uni normally, but even people in the industry don’t seem to recognize me anymore. Like my bandmate here,” he said, turning to Jongin.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Remember when we performed that song together on that radio show?”

 

“What?”

 

“You’re the dancing machine and I’m your biggest fan, remember?”

 

Jongin looked at him oddly. “I don’t dance.”

 

Chanyeol’s expression darkened. “Who made you stop? Tell me so I can hunt them down.”

 

“I never did,” Jongin said, brows furrowed in confusion. “And I have no idea who you are.”

 

“See?” Chanyeol turned to Suho. “It’s like the whole world’s gone mad except for me.”

 

“Schizophrenia?” Kris whispered to Suho.

 

“Delusional disorder?” Suho whispered back.

 

Kris shrugged. Suho scribbled both down in his pad.

 

“When did you start noticing this?” he asked Chanyeol.

 

“I thought something was off when I took my sunglasses off in class because I couldn’t see the board properly on the first day of uni and nobody hyperventilated,” Chanyeol said thoughtfully.

 

“Like that’s going to happen,” Luhan scoffed.

 

“Are you still,” Suho searched for the right words, “active as a star now?”

 

“No, our group went on hiatus,” Chanyeol said, indicating himself and Jongin. Jongin frowned.

 

“Why?” Suho asked.

 

“Because I wanted to study. And apparently Kai did too,” Chanyeol smiled affectionately at Jongin.

 

Jongin’s frown got deeper. “Kai?”

 

“What the-” Everybody in the room turned to look at the person sitting to Baekhyun’s left as he threw what appeared to be a toxic wad of chewed gum with soiled food wrappers stuck to it back into Baekhyun’s bag.

 

“Hey!” Baekhyun protested, zipping up his bag and pulling it closer to him.

 

“What the hell did I just-” the person next to him said, face filled with disgust.

 

“Bathroom’s at the back if you need to wash your hands,” Suho glimpsed at his nametag. “Jongdae.”

 

“I’ll do that,” Jongdae headed to the bathroom.

 

“Alright, let’s take a break while we wait for him,” Suho said.

 

“There’s a bin right there, you know,” Luhan said to Baekhyun, pointing to the back of the room.

 

“No, I might need them for something.”

 

“What would you need chewed gum for?” Luhan asked with a mixture of disgust and incredulity.

 

“To put something back together?” Baekhyun said, matter-of-fact. “Like if my soles fall off I can just stick them back on with those.”

 

“That’s weird as,” Sehun said.

 

“We all are,” the person to his right mumbled.

 

“I’m not. I don’t even know why I’m here.”

 

“Anger management issues?” Luhan offered.

 

Sehun stood up. “You piece of -”

 

Kris sighed. Here we go again. He pulled Sehun back into his seat.

 

“I rest my case,” Luhan declared.

 

“Stop provoking him,” Suho told Luhan wearily. “And you came here of your own accord,” he pointed out to Sehun.

 

Meanwhile Chanyeol was staring at Jongin, eyes filled with concern. “You have a problem with addiction, Kai?”

 

Jongin discreetly shifted his seat closer to Kyungsoo’s, who shifted further away from him. “You’ve got the wrong person,” he told Chanyeol.

 

“Sorry, that took awhile,” Jongdae said, returning from the bathroom, to Jongin’s relief.

 

“Okay, where were we?” Suho asked, turning to face Chanyeol once again.

 

“Our group went on hiatus because I wanted to study and Kai left the group because of his addiction.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“It caused a huge uproar in the media. People were saying how they knew it all along,” Chanyeol grasped Jongin’s hand. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

 

Jongin turned to look at Suho, confused at the sudden development.

 

“If only you opened up to me, then you wouldn’t have had to suffer alone,” Chanyeol continued sadly. “You know I’m always here for you, right?”

 

“You sure he’s not certified?” Sehun asked.

 

“What if Chanyeol’s telling the truth?” the person next to him spoke up. “What if Jongin’s the one who can’t remember?”

 

Sehun turned to him, fleetingly registering that the other’s nametag read Tao. “Are you daft? It’s obvious he just made it up during the break.”

 

Tao stayed silent, knowing he deserved the insult.

 

“I’m not making it up,” Chanyeol said, clearly offended.

 

“I’m pretty sure I would remember being a star,” Jongin said.

 

“You are a star!” Chanyeol affirmed.

 

“What? No, I was talking to him,” Jongin gestured at Tao.

 

“It was just a suggestion,” Tao protested meekly. “I just thought that it wasn’t fair for everybody to dismiss everything that Chanyeol says.” He turned to Sehun.

 

Sehun scowled. “What are you looking at me for?”

 

Tao looked away, a shadow of hurt passing across his features.

 

Suho sighed. “Let’s try to stay focused. Chanyeol, do you have anything to corroborate your story?”

             

Chanyeol looked at the researcher with a grim expression. “That’s the thing. Everything was wiped out. Not just everything on the official websites and forums, but I couldn’t even find fantaken photos.”

 

“Did you even have fans?” Luhan sneered.

 

“We had plenty,” Chanyeol responded to the obvious gibe seriously. “They followed us everywhere, so there must have been thousands, no, millions of photos and videos, but I found nothing. It must be a conspiracy.”

 

“A conspiracy for what?” Suho asked.

 

“To destroy our group! It must be somebody from a rival company who thought that they would take advantage of our hiatus and delete us completely from the industry. It’s like we never existed. That way we can never come back and be a threat to them again. Who would want to follow a rookie group filled with old has-beens who they don’t even know?” Chanyeol said, growing angrier as he spoke.

 

The room was silent. Some of the participants shuffled uncomfortably, none of them knew how to deal with an angry, delusional conspiracy theorist.

 

Kris cleared his throat. “Who wants coffee?”

 

“I think we all need some,” Suho said. Murmurs of agreement came from the participants.

 

Kris stood up and headed to the door.

 

“Can I do it?” Minseok asked. “I’m pretty good at making coffee.”

 

Kris looked at Suho, who nodded. “Sure, why not? Follow me.”

 

The others in the room watched as the two of them left.

 

“We’ll take a short break,” Suho announced. “Feel free to go to the bathroom or grab some snacks.”

 

“Kai?” Chanyeol said, looking at Jongin.

 

‘Oh what the hell,’ Jongin thought. ‘Maybe I should just play along.’

 

“Yes?” he said.

 

“I think we should regroup.  I don’t think we have time to find the other members before the world completely forgets about us. We should recruit more members,” Chanyeol said sombrely.

 

“Well,” Jongin deliberated. “We have Kyungsoo here.” He threw his arm around the other’s shoulders. Kyungsoo tried to shift forward but Jongin kept him still. “And then we have that annoying loudmouth,” he gestured at Luhan. “And the angry kid people can ship him with,” he pointed at Sehun. “Five people should be enough,” he concluded, nodding thoughtfully.

 

Chanyeol smiled brightly. “Thanks, Kai! I knew I could count on you.” He stood up and walked towards Luhan, obviously planning on persuading him to join his fictional group.

 

“That’s cruel,” Kyungsoo said softly.

 

“What?”

 

“You’re mocking him.”

 

Jongin eyed Suho cautiously. The researcher seemed to be engrossed in his notes. “I’m pretty sure he’s faking it like the rest of us,” he whispered to Kyungsoo.

 

Kyungsoo turned to look at him. “What if he isn’t?”

             

Everybody in the room startled at what sounded like kicks to the door. Suho opened the door and Kris and Minseok walked in with a tray of coffee mugs each.

 

“Sorry, we had our hands full,” Kris said.

 

“I hope nobody minds having whipped cream with coffee,” Minseok said cheerily.

 

“You’re trying to fatten us up?” Luhan asked, but grabbed a mug from the tray nevertheless.

 

The others grabbed a mug each as well, all of them enjoying the much-needed dose of caffeine. Even Yixing seemed to be rejuvenated.

 

“You’re not having any?” Suho asked Minseok.

 

“Nah, I like making coffee, but not drinking it.”

 

Kris sent the mugs and trays back to the kitchen when they were done.

 

“Alright,” Suho said when Kris returned. He looked at the person next to Chanyeol. “Yixing, what’s your story?”

 

 

---

a/n: Finally finished all the character introductions. You can probably guess what's (supposedly) wrong with all of them by now. Hopefully I can make the remaining chapters lighter than this one >.<

Thank you so much for subscribing to those who did~! I hope this lives up to your expectations ;;