Important (TW):

The text messages at the end of this chapter have text that might be triggering to some. Please use discretion. You can skip the texts and, for the most part, understand the story.

This chapter also has use of weed in it as a plot point. This is both a warning for people who don't want to read about their EXO babies using weed and for weed smokers who will probably realize that I have never even touched weed, let alone smoked it.

“Actually, I’m hearing that an interesting article was just issued by Sina.”

He could see the stage begin to crumble from around his feet.

“In it, they have an audio clip of what they claim is-“

“Hey!”

Through the ringing in his ears, he could hear Tao begin to yell at the host.

“What sort of MC do you think you are, asking questions coming from such baseless rumors!? That clip of Baekhyun and Chanyeol was faked!”

“How did you know that that was what I was going to say?”

Tao shrunk back, face flashing shock for a brief moment before he regained his composure.

“I didn’t. You have them both up here together. Anyone could have guessed that that’s where you were going with it.”

The host wore an entirely unconvinced smirk. The audience was whispering; Chanyeol could see them whispering, but he couldn’t hear it. And then they got louder. At first a murmured clamor, then a roar, then ear-splitting madness. He felt a stream trickle its way down his ear. He touched it and looked at his fingers to see that the flesh of their tips had red running through its crevices. The faces in the audience turned pale as they accessed the tabloid’s page, and the file played in waves, Chanyeol’s low, gritty tone against Baekhyun’s passionate mewls-

“You okay?” Jongin asked of the now sweating, white-faced guy to his right. “Chanyeol.” He reached a hand out to discreetly tap Chanyeol’s trembling one, and the taller finally snapped out of it.

“I’m fine,” he murmured, moving his hands to swipe his bangs away from his glistening brow. “I think.”

It had only been ten minutes, but the show was like a situation right out of hell; every time Chanyeol or Baekhyun was singled out he was sure his… daymare or whatever you call such things was coming to pass. Sehun took an occasional glance his way to assess the situation, and Tao shot over far too many concerned glances. Behind each one, Chanyeol knew, was not concern, but raw sadism. He didn’t dare look to the right, much less try to make eye contact with Baekhyun, but he was sure that the other was not faring much better.

Forced smiles and continuous swallowing of the lump in his throat while trying not to have a nervous breakdown got him through the show. Tao never tried anything and the topic of the sound bit never came up, not even during the short fan meet after the filming. He and Baekhyun practically had to claw their ways into the van that would take them to EXO-M’s dorm, where they collapsed (Baekhyun in the front row, Chanyeol in the back,) with their figures slumped against the windows lining the side. Despite feeling one thousand percent done with the world around him and the awful excuse for a human being seated in the second row between him and his boyfriend, Chanyeol couldn’t sleep a wink.

This was the night was going to go down.

Tao disappeared into his room immediately after arrival.

Chanyeol’s plan was to barge in after him without a plan. At least, not one developed past “Argue with him without beating the out of him”. He had made a step toward that “plan” but was stopped when he heard “Chanyeol?” being called out by Lay, who was the only other person who had also gone directly to his room.

‘I guess it can wait,’ he sighed in his mind as he walked past Tao’s door and straight to Lay’s.

“Yeah?”

Lay didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. All he did was meet eyes with his visitor and hold up a plastic bag filled with a certain plant material.

Chanyeol nodded.

He barely got anything in his lungs before he started coughing.

“Oh please, this isn’t even that strong."

“This is what, the fifth time in four years I’ve smoked with you?”

“Technically more like four and two.”

“Why?”

“You can’t seriously count that first time.”

“But-“

“Putting a joint in your mouth and barely inhaling before you start crying from the fumes does not count as smoking. Just as now.”

Chanyeol leaned his head against wall of the building and made a second attempt at breathing in. From where he and Lay sat on the fire escape, he peered around the stairs above and through the crevice of the narrow alley to see what he could make of the stars. Nothing was visible that night; the bright city lights were reflecting a bright and proud shade of brown off of the air and clouds. Probably mostly just the air.

Lay took the joint from where it hung limply between Chanyeol's fingers and took a drag himself. “Wanna talk about it?”

“Nah.”

Out of all of the members of EXO, everyone knew the best one to go to when you were feeling ty was Lay. Half the time, you didn’t have to go to him, he would be the one to come to you and sit, or if you seemed really out of it, he would always offer something to get your mind off of it. It wasn’t usually weed; most of the members weren’t willing to touch the stuff. It could be anything: hugs, snack food, binge-watching some TV show or another… If you wanted to talk about it, he was there to listen; if you didn’t, he was there to make sure you weren’t alone when you didn’t want to be.

After a couple more hits, Chanyeol stopped coughing. After several more, the voice in the back of his mind that was saying, “You should be with Baekhyun, not smoking,” became quieter. The inkling that was trying to make him go upstairs and deal with Tao began to relax, and all the things that had been weighing on him were… gone.

“We should be on the roof,” Lay said in a mellow tone. He’d chosen the weakest of his arsenal, but even that was giving him the slightest of buzzes.

“Maybe we can blow away the air and see the stars from up there,” Chanyeol slurred, a half-lidded smile marking his face. “I like the way you think, Lay. You’re not like the others.”

Lay chuckled at how -faced Chanyeol was. “As long as you promise to not try to fly again.”

The corners of Chanyeol’s smile lowered. “That was Kris. And he was drunk.”

“Details. Anyway,” he said as he handed the blunt to the other and got to his feet, “first I need to grab something from the room. Sit tight for a sec.”

“Chill.”

As he watched Lay disappear back in through his bedroom window, he began to snicker as he thought of what would happen if one of the managers caught Lay smelling like he did at that moment. As he thought more and more of it, the snickers turned to full-blown laughter.

“Okay, let’s head up.”

“Holy , where did you come from? That was fast!”

Lay merely smiled and offered a hand to Chanyeol. He bounced to his feet, making the entire stairwell tremble when his weight came back down on it.

“Building roof, le’go!”

Chanyeol went ahead up the stairs and Lay followed after taking a moment to reply to a text.

GROUP CHAT WITH: Xiumin, Chen, Tao

‘Were ready and we have baek.’ –Chen, 10:22

‘U got the knife yet?’ –Tao, 10:22 p.m.

‘I do now’ –Me, 10:26 p.m.

‘Let’s do this.’ –Xiumin, 10:26 p.m.