▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀

ⒸⒽⒶⓅⓉⒺⓇ ➆

“Answer Me”

▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀

It seemed like practice would never end. Tao was tired. They were all tired. The room was hot and the boys were sore. Earlier that morning Tao had felt a newfound energy to drive him. Some invisible strength from his conversation with Kris the night before. But it hadn’t lasted very long. Now he felt completely drained. Despite being exhausted Tao noticed that no one seemed to blame the M leader. Yes it was true that some of their routines had changed last minute and it was annoying to learn new things in such a short time, but they all knew if they weren’t practicing new moves they would have been practicing old ones. They would have never had the time to rest in the first place. After all, the concert was coming.

●•۰•♡•۰•●

By the time they finally stopped for dinner Tao could tell the group was spent. Everyone was eating quietly. Their muscles ached and they only exerted enough energy to get their chopsticks between their plate and mouth. Tao wondered if the others were even hungry or were they, like him, just happy to be sitting and not dancing.

Tao noticed that Kai had stopped eating. There was still one piece of chicken left on the dancer’s plate but instead of eating it the boy simply looked at it. There was something sad in the boy’s features and Tao wondered if he was thinking about Kris. The sad look flickered and was replaced with a smile as Sehun reached over the boy’s plate and placed one of his own pieces of chicken on Kai’s plate. Kai turned to his friend and laughed when he saw the maknae’s expression. There was humor in the boy’s eyes that seemed to say ‘there you go my little chicken mania’. Tao gave a quiet chuckle but the pair still heard him. When they looked over and saw him smiling in their direction they knew they had been seen. The two laughed as well. The others at the table looked curious for the sudden cause of cheer. Perhaps they wanted an excuse to laugh too. This only made Kai laugh harder as he buried himself into the maknae’s arm out of embarrassment. Even though they didn’t understand the joke the others exchanged smiles.

●•۰•♡•۰•●

After dinner each member went off for individual practice. For Tao it was vocal practice. He was thankful to be able to rest his body.

“We’re going to get through this. Ok?” That was Suho’s final message of encouragement as he rubbed the back of Tao’s neck. The tall boy smi