Deer Luhan,

I hate you.  Chinese is such a horribly hard language.  It makes me want to cry.

Leigh

Baekhyun was clearly disappointed that he couldn’t throw me a proper leaving party, especially since the managers, hospital staff and a third of EXO still had no clue that Luhan wasn’t actually there.  But he did call me back after the others had left and wished me luck.

“See if you can stay on in China for an extra couple of weeks once you’ve switched back with Luhan,” he told me.  “I’m getting discharged soon and we’re supposed to be joining M in China in mid-January.  After the sh*t he’s put you through, Luhan shouldn’t object to letting you stay in his house in Beijing – you can go sight-seeing and then all of us can throw you a proper farewell do instead of me just lying here in this bed trying to say goodbye.”

“I can’t,” I mouthed at him sadly.  “I’ve got to get back to university.”

It took a few attempts for this to translate across to him, and he pouted.

“Bummer.  Does that mean this is the last time I’m going to see you?”

I bit my lip and nodded.  He yanked me down for a bear hug, which I was surprised he could do without hurting himself.  Come to that, I was also quite surprised that he’d grown so fond of me in such a short time.

“Video call!” he ordered as the manager came to drag me out of the room, complaining that we’d be late for the flight.  I grinned and saluted Baekhyun.  It was great that he was recovering so well.

EXO-K, to the consternation of Suho and the managers, insisted on piling into the minibus to go to the airport with us.  I was pretty sure it wasn’t coincidence that I ended up sitting next to Sehun: D.O. and Chanyeol’s grins were a little too impish for comfort, and every time Kai caught my eye, he’d tap his lips and point to the maknae.  Sehun and I spent the entire journey looking out of opposite windows.

We had to say our goodbyes in the vehicle because there were too many fans right the way up to security, and the K members couldn’t go past there with us.  Suho did one of those bro-handshake things with all of us as we passed him, and looked a little disconcerted at the level of love his faction was lavishing on me.

“Guys, guys,” he said.  “Calm down – it’s not like you’re never going to see Luhan again.  You’re overwhelming him.”

D.O. stopped squishing me in a hug and turned to glare at him.  “Hyung, this is something you wouldn’t understand.”  And he returned to squeezing the breath out of me.  I had to hit him on the shoulder to warn him I was going to pass out, because I’d busted my throat so spectacularly I could barely squeak.

“Take care,” he told me, and shoved me into Chanyeol’s embrace.  Chanyeol ruffled my hair fondly.

“Don’t get killed,” he murmured in my ear before I was ripped out of his arms by Kai, who planted a kiss on the side of my head.

“Good luck!” he cooed.  “Remember to keep in touch!”

“Luhan, what have they done to you?” Kris asked.  “Did the knock on the head turn you into their baby or something?”

I mimed my thumb at him as I was handed over to Sehun, who sat there looking awkward for a few seconds until Chen popped up from the seat behind us and shoved our heads together.

“Kiss!” he trilled.

Sehun brushed his hand away, poker face firmly activated, and after what looked like a lot of internal struggle, eventually gave me a hug.

“Stay safe,” he murmured just loud enough for me to hear.  “And make sure you video call regularly.  Every other day, at least.”

I nodded and returned the embrace.

“Luhan owes you,” he whispered in my ear before letting go.  “Go on.  You don’t want to miss your plane.”

I followed Xiumin off the bus, trying to swallow the lump in my throat.  It was made extremely painful by the infection I’d given myself.  Xiumin looked around briefly to locate me and then fell in step.  A second later, Lay appeared on my other side.

“Ready for this?” he asked, taking out a pair of sunglasses.  Xiumin wordlessly followed suit, and they donned them so in sync that I had difficulty not laughing.  It genuinely looked like something out of a spy movie.

“Let’s do this,” said Kris’ voice, and I turned to see that he and Tao were also wearing sunglasses.  Chen was swinging his around his hand.

Xiumin plucked out the pair he’d given me from Luhan’s coat pocket and plopped them onto my nose.  “Let’s go.”

And into the mosh pit it was.

Compared to the last flight I’d been on, this one was tame.  There were a few screaming fans on the plane with us, but the manager was quite bullish about them leaving us alone, and they reluctantly did.  I sat next to Lay, intending to save the other seat for Xiumin, but Chen got there first.

“Yo, hyung!” he said brightly, holding up his iPod.  “Music for the flight?”

I accepted.  Two Steps From Hell wasn’t something I passed up on easily, and Chen appeared to have something of an addiction to Bergersen’s Sonera.  I was pretty sure I’d heard him singing it in the shower once or twice.

Chen gave me an earbud and was asleep before we’d climbed to cruising altitude.  I turned to a spaced-out Lay.

How long is the flight? I wrote out on Luhan’s phone to ask him, and nudged him to get his attention.

“Couple of hours.  Looking forward to China?”

I don’t know, I typed up honestly.  Under any other circumstances, probably yes, but I don’t really feel safe.

He patted my hand.  “Don’t worry.  We’ll look after you.”

I am looking forward to not having fans camping on the doorstep, though.

He gave me