Even though it was a lovely sunny day, Suho felt that there was a slight lingering coldness in the air but he supposed that could be just his feelings on the matter. Though he had noticed that Sehun was wearing a black jumper so at least he wasn’t the only one feeling the bitter chill. It felt strange being back in the graveyard, for it hadn’t changed in the slightest and seemed to be exactly the same. Of course with the exception of a few new graves being added there probably wasn’t a lot to be done in way of changing in such a place but he almost half expected it.

Luhan gave him a gentle nudge, “Come on Suho, you don’t want to be left behind and get lost right?”

The leader smirked happily and nodded, “Hmm I think that’s about the last thing that I would want right now.”

Rejoining the others, who had thankfully waited for him, Suho happily accepted the one armed hug from Chanyeol as they made their way up the small winding path to reach Yifan’s grave. Whilst they were severely late for the Tomb Cleaning Festival, they had all agreed to at least go and visit it when they got the chance to do so. Thankfully their promotions had landed them in China for an extended period of time and they were able to work everything out in a good and timely manner. Officially they were off on some meeting or other about some show, their manager easily able to cover up the fact of where they were going without so much as a bat of an eyelid.

The company couldn’t stop them visiting Yifan’s grave, they just preferred them not to do it on company time which was next to impossible but that was just the way that things went sometimes.

All of their gloomy thoughts were broken however when Tao suddenly burst into laughter, “Oh my, do you think he was expecting us or something?”

The grave of Yifan was...well pretty wasn’t quite the most appropriate word but it was about the best that Suho could manage to come up with at the moment and it was set back with a little paved out area. Suho figured that it must be some form of family grave since it was fairly large and held several different plagues in it but the main one that they came to visit was easily recognisable because there was already a blanket stretched out in front of one of the plaques a several empty vases had been placed. There was even a small selection of gifts, wrapped in bright and happy paper with their names clearly written in what could have only been Yifan’s writing.

The group blinked and paused for just a second before suddenly breaking into laughter, even though their former M leader had been a dork he always knew how to throw the best surprises and somehow managed to always pull them off perfectly too. Carefully they made their way to the graveside, kneeling and bowing as they were directed by the Chinese members before setting to work. There wasn’t much to actually do on the grave itself, clearly someone had been around and had cleaned everything up perfectly before they got there but the joked on with one another about how Kris was suddenly being very tidy and how he probably had complained time and time again about it. Or to quote Baekhyun, “Cleaning is not my style.”

Groans had quickly turned into laughter and the eleven remaining members of EXO were soon gathered around a huge meal consisting of sandwiches, rice cakes, and some little fluffy fairy cakes with cartoon dragon toppers and a couple bottles of wine which they could all agree to drink. Thankfully with there being eleven of them none were going to get completely off their face on the wine but it was fun.

Lay and Luhan set about dishing up the food to everyone whilst Sehun set about making sure that Kris had plenty to eat and drink himself. Even though it was a little odd to the maknae he sort of got the idea now that he was here, sitting by the graveside and actually eating something. Though with a careful glance towards his hyung’s, Sehun nodded towards Tao silent. The M maknae smiled in return and carefully opened his bag, pulling out a framed photograph that he had carefully wrapped in a towel before setting it next to the food and drink that had been set out, “There we are Ge, better late than never right?”

Immediately the rest of EXO stopped their talking and turned to see what Tao was going on about, only to find themselves looking at a photograph of Yifan with his big goofy grin and that bright sparkle in his eyes. For a few seconds they were completely gobsmacked and then Chen turned and firmly smacked the two giggling maknea’s on the back of the head, “Yah! You two! You should’ve told us!”

“But where would have been the fun in that?” Tao complained, sticking his tongue out at Chen, “Plus it’s just like him to be late, ain’t that right Yifan Ge?”

Xiumin opened his mouth to protest when suddenly he giggled as he clocked onto the pair’s meaningful game, “No use in complain Kris, they’re right. If we’re not with you, you always run late.”

“Or get lost,” Chanyeol chimed in with a grin towards the picture, “And no, never going to ever let you forget that in the slightest.”

Pretty soon everyone had joined in, talking like they had done a little over a year ago as if nothing had changed. They made jokes, bickered back and forth, insulted once another and made jabs at each other before immediately blaming Yifan for saying it even though he wasn’t strictly speaking there. Sehun smiled at his hyung’s and did a little, “Yehet!” to himself in victory before a dollop of yogurt, whoever had brought some was a complete idiot, landed on his nose and he immediately went off after Kyungsoo to tackle him down for doing such a thing.

Sitting by his photograph, the spirit of Yifan smiled as he watched the others muck about and just be themselves. If he had been alive right now then tears would have been stinging at his eyes but there was no use for such things in the spirit world so he was content to just stay where he was. A couple of times he tried to answer back to their comments about him being the cause of something or other but unfortunately no one could hear him. He felt a little disappointed because he had hoped that Suho would have retained whatever it was that allowed him to see him on the night that he had departed but it was apparently not to be.

As the sun set, EXO carefully tidied everything up and got hold of the blazer for burning the paper offerings to Yifan but Lay held out his hand, “Shouldn’t we open the gifts he got us first? Then we can send him our gifts?”

The spirit Yifan raised his head and smiled, glad that they were choosing to open the presents now because he really wanted to see their reactions.

Not wanting to really watch each other open the last gift from Yifan, the group opened them all at the same time and after a moments silence, it was Luhan who broke the silence, “He seriously didn’t, did he?”

“What?” Xiumin looked up and then spied Luhan’s present before letting his jaw drop, “you have got to be kidding me.”

“No way,” Suho said, his voice completely failing to hide his mirth.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Baekhyun added with a giggle.

“Yehet!” Sehun said, joining in the laughter

“That’s our Gege,” Tao said even though there were tears beginning to creep into his voice

“So typical,” Chanyeol smiled happily.

“Are we meant to share these or keep them for ourselves?” asked Kai, feeling slightly bewildered though the youngster was smiling brightly.

“Only Kris would even think of this,” Chen said, shaking his head.

“Man and I thought he wouldn’t be able to trick us ever again,” Kyungsoo said, bewildered yet smiling.

“What else should we expect from Yifan? He always knew how to get us,” Lay said with a soft smile.

Inside each of the boxes were a black rimmed watch with a large face and a blue background with silver numbers and hands pointing to the time. However on the watch face itself there was a wolf's head though each one had their own colour so that they were unique to their respective owner. Engraved on the back of each was the member’s true name, written in Chinese and the phrase ‘A guardian wolf for each of my wolves whilst I am gone’. Just to make things even more perfect, there was even a small engraving of a drawing that Kris had done for each of them even though they still looked terrible.

“How did he manage this?” Kai asked, biting back tears, “I mean, he couldn’t have known. Could he?”

No one answered because there was no answer to give the youngster and Suho, seeing that he was the eldest and the closest to Kai, simply acted on instinct. Taking Kai’s watch, which had a maroon coloured wolf on it, the leader gently wrapped it around the others wrist, “There, wear it with pride Kai and always remember the good times with him.”

There was a sudden flurry of movement as they all took their own watch out of the box and strapped it to their left hand wrist. Instead of letting the emotion overwhelmed them though; they put their hands together to form a circle and took a photograph of their eleven joined wolf watches which clearly screamed, “We Are One!”

Sehun and Tao raced to be the first to upload the images to the web before Xiumin shifted to set up the camera he had brought with him because they all needed a group photo together. Settling themselves down in an nice arrangement, Suho picked up the framed photograph and held onto it for the first couple of shots, since he was in the very front as ‘shortest to the front’ was called though it made no sense to the leader.

However on the later shots, Suho placed the picture to the side of himself, saying that it would make it almost appear like Kris was actually sitting with them rather than just being a photograph added to the picture. As he watched Xiumin race back around to get into position, Suho swore that he felt an additional arm which was not Lay’s slide around his back and felt a presence on his left hand side that was cool but not completely freezing cold. The flash blinded him for a second, making him pull a funny face but thankfully he settled down for the next shot which happened after a couple of quick clicks later.

“Man I want to see these,” Chanyeol said, rushing forward to grab the camera before Xiumin could only to let out a disappointed whine when it clicked off as the battery died.

“Oopse,” Xiumin said, “Must’ve taken more pictures than what I thought. I’ll upload them once we get back to the China dorms.”

No one really complained too much as they set about placing their paper gifts into the little braiser and setting them alight. They had gotten Yifan a selection of fashionable clothes, some sweets and treats for the dog, a new extension for the house which included a gym and a larger swimming pool, plenty of money to keep everything running smoothly and a whole selection of different toys just to keep the other amused. They put in paper copies of their most recent albums as well as a new stereo system to play it on and they also added a selection of books, magazines, films and other CD’s just to help keep him amused through the long years.

Once the flames had died down they set about tidying everything up and rolling the rug up so that whoever had set it for them could easily collect it. As one they turned to look back at the grave of their leader, companion and friend which still held the framed photograph, the plate of food and the glass of wine which remained untouched for the time being. They were all silent, just briefly before they bowed low and long before rising.

Though as they did so, they jumped at seeing an all too familiar tall figure with black hair and his big goofy smile standing just where the photograph had been. Yifan’s spirit nodded his head towards them, letting the tears run visibly down his cheeks before he raised his left hand to expose the wolf watch that he was also wearing. He spoke some words to them but none of EXO could hear them in the slightest so Yifan just waved to them before he vanished from view. New tears sprang forth from the member’s eyes as they clung onto one another, not knowing what to make of the situation in the slightest but glad to know that even throughout everything, Yifan was still there with them.

Slowly they made their way home and instead of immediately turning on the TV or arguing who got first use of the bathrooms, the members made their way to their beds to just sleep away the pain and start the next day afresh.

~*~

“Hey Suho,” Xiumin said, a few days later when he had finally gotten a chance to sort out the photographs and get them printed off, “You’re not going to believe this.”

“What do you mean?” Suho asked, taking the pictures off his friend and smiling as he circled through them. All of them were from the graveyard visit and he smiled at the eleven wolf watches before reaching the group shots. The first couple were fine as he expected them to be but as he turned to the ones where he had placed the picture to the side, Suho very nearly dropped them in fright.

Sitting next to Suho, with his arms wrapped around him, was not a framed photograph of a familiar smiling face but Yifan himself. Looking as real and alive as he had ever done, though dressed in the attire that he had been cremated in. For a second he thought it was a cruel Photoshop joke but then he saw his own expression of shock and bewilderment and moved to the next one where he was smiling normally and Yifan was still there.

Slowly he gulped, “Have you shown the others yet?”

“No, I don’t even know what happened. On the computer screen it was just the photograph but when they printed...there he was...” Xiumin faltered, “Honestly, I did nothing to put him in.”

“I know,” Suho said, exhaling slowly, “I remember feeling a presence when you took these actually...hence why I’m pulling a face in the first one.”

Xiumin smiled, “Oh yeah, I didn’t notice that. Typical isn’t it?”

Suho nodded, “Yeah...don’t upload these okay? I don’t want them to be seen by anyone but the boys.”

“Wasn’t going to. I’ll get some more printed off because I’m sure that we’ll all want a copy, I just hope they all come out like that,” Xiumin said as he quickly disappeared back to his computer to get the images.

Suho smiled at his retreating friend before looking down at the photograph once again, “Always did surprise us, didn’t you Yifan?” Carefully setting the picture aside, Suho returned to his work and only later did he put it into its own frame which remained by his bedside so that every morning he could wake up and see that grinning smile and be reminded that even when times looked bleak, good things could come out of them.

The End

The wolf watch that they all get just in different colours: Link

A.N - Well this is finally finished and boy has it been an interesting ride. I was going to do an alteravtive ending but I kind like where this one goes and I just cna't think of how to do the other version at the moment. If people want it I may do it but I'll do it seperately I think. But yes, now that I've been a pretty mean Exo-L noona and killed Yifan off, can you guys tell me what you think of this story cause it was an evil plot bunny that I've seen through to the end and I quite like it - I'll admit I was crying when I wrote some of the bits in this chapter but it wa different. 

If you want more EXO stuff from me, check out my oneshot collection here: 

anyways, toodles for now and I hope to ysee you in the future ^^

lots of love

Chia