Four months pass. EXO became inactive as a group ever since the crash. Sehun's physical condition became less critical, however, his mental condition remained severely stagnant. The hospital where Sehun stayed, a place that led the world in neuroscience, trauma, and mental health studies, still couldn't pinpoint what issue he had after being examined countless times after the crash. This delayed EXO's promotions around the dawn of an important event in their career, which led their management team to forcefully demand that Sehun be discharged from the hospital for a short amount of time.

“Manager, I’m begging you,” cried one of the boys later that day. “We need to cancel our schedule until we figure out how to help Sehun.”

    “No, rules are rules,” replied the stiff impresario. “This is one of the biggest music shows of the year. I cannot afford to cancel this, especially at the last minute. Why do you think I bugged the hospital to release Sehun today?”

    “And that was a dangerous move, manager!” Jongin butted from across the room. “Do you even know how damaging his mental health is now? For you? For us? For the company? For our fans? We don’t know what is happening because you only thought about the good of yourself and our agency’s CEO, and you asked for a discharge. Being selfish is only worsening his mental health! Look at the boy. He’s clueless and scared. Fragile and in a state that should only be seen in a hospital.”

    Jongin continued to rant, and Sehun sat quietly on a couch in the rehearsal studio, still unsure of his whereabouts or existence. He stared blankly at the eleven boys who stood near him, unable to recall any trace of them in his memory.

    “He hasn’t even had a bite of that ddeokbokki I made the other night.”

    “I know, he’s really lost it, Kyungsoo.”

    “This could really hurt us and the company. I understand that we are our agency’s main money-maker right now, so Sehun’s problems could actually-”

    “Baekhyun, stop, please. We’re trying to calm down and talk about this, and you freaking out is no help.”

    The exasperating arguments between the boys and the manager became more and more heated until Sehun stood up from the couch he comfortably laid on. The room fell silent and everyone pierced an anxious stare into him. Sehun looked around, analyzed the design of the dance room, took in every detail, every crack in the wall, every pebble in the corners of the space. He opened his mouth to speak, slowly, as if he had forgotten how to move any muscles in his body. Everyone’s eyes seemed to widen as he tried to speak.

    “Who are you all?”

    The manager’s eyes squinted and his brows furrowed in confusion.

    “I don’t know you guys. How do you know me, and what the hell am I doing here?”

    One of the members giggled. “You died last night and you’re burning in-” The member next to him slapped him across the face and hollered an extended stream of profanities before turning back to look at Sehun.

    “Where have you taken me?”

    “See, this is why you should have let him stay in the hospital!” Jongin cried to the manager. “If he was in there for just one more day, he might have gotten some treatment in. You selfish bastard. Never did I think in my years of being a musician, I would have to put up with people like you. I get people with your occupation are nutjobs but you-”

    “Who are you?” Sehun replied intently to Jongin. He sighed, almost angrily, and rubbed the temples on his forehead.

    “Sehun, you’re a musician, a dancer, one of the most famous people in your country right now. You’re in a boy band.” He motions his hand toward the rest of the group members. “These are your bandmates.” Jongin looked calm when seeing Sehun and talking to him, but inside, there was a storm of fear and sadness in his heart.

Author's Note: Hello guys, I hope you are enjoying the story so far. I would like to warn you that the next and final chapter contains extremely graphic and triggering content, including public death, self-harm and suicide. I understand there are individuals who can be triggered by any of these situations mentioned, and I do not want anyone to be harmed or affected by the content in this next chapter. The story will be marked as M once the chapter has been published.