Luhan walked over to the empty practice room that not many people used. He looked inside and sure enough, he found the person he was looking for.

Yixing was softly strumming away on his guitar with his eyes closed.

“Yixing?” Luhan called, as he walked in.

Said person opened his eyes slowly. “Lu-ge?” He sat up straighter. “What are you doing here?”

Luhan walked over and sat down next to him. “I need to talk to you.”

Yixing looked over and noticed one of Luhan’s eyes was swollen again. He swallowed and looked away, fiddling with the tuning pegs, despite his guitar already being in tune.

Luhan picked up a guitar pick that had fallen on the ground and continuously turned it over in his hands.

After a long stretch of silence, Yixing looked back up at Luhan and noticed the latter was crying.

“Lu-ge? What’s wrong?”

“Yixing, I’m sorry.”

“Why are you crying, Lu-ge?” Lay asked, putting his guitar down and wrapping his arms around Luhan's shoulders.

“I-I’m leaving, Yixing.”

Yixing swallowed. “I-I know.”

Luhan pulled away and stared Yixing directly in the eyes. “What?”

“I-I accidently overheard you talking to your p-parents…” Yixing stammered.

Luhan closed his eyes. “I’m really sorry, Yixing.”

Yixing took a deep breath. “Are you sure about this?”

Fresh tears welled up in Luhan’s eyes. “N-no. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. B-but I don’t think I can hold out much longer, Yixing…”

Yixing hugged Luhan again. Luhan started sobbing. “I’m sorry to the rest of the m-members. But I-I don’t know what to do anymore. I-“

Yixing shushed him. “I’ve been watching your health deteriorate since last year. And it's only getting worse lately. I know you haven’t been eating or sleeping well...”

“But y-you know what t-this is going to do to t-the rest of the g-group. Especially M since Kris is g-gone too. Why a-aren’t you mad at me? Y-yell at m-me instead,” Luhan pleaded.

Yixing looked away. “We’ll survive,” he said, a fierce look in his eyes. "We went through it once and we’ll get through it again."