Chapter 01;

            “Jongin.”

            I stopped the music, turning to the door of the practice room to see Secretary Kim stood by the door with a serious face. Did I do something wrong? Why do I have this weird aura around me? But, I never sneaked out and all I did was going to school and practicing all days though. After I came to Seoul 4 years ago, I went for an audition but life is not a fantasy, I didn’t pass on my first try. But, I eventually did on my 10^th tried so I’ve been practicing since then. I’m 19 and I have to admit, at the time when I was supposed to date, I chose to date the practice room instead.

            “Mr. Lee wants to see you right now in the meeting room.” I gulp nervously, nodding my head following by a bow. Why would Mr. Lee want to meet me all of sudden? Did I do anything that violate against the training contract? I sigh, pushing away the negative thought as I pushed the handle of the meeting room inside and there, sitting 11 other people in the room. What did these people do to get here into this trouble too? Oh wait, why am I in a trouble in first place?

            “Oh, you’re here. Come and sit.” Mr. Lee smiles as he motions me to sit down.

            I breathe a sigh of relieve upon seeing his smile. I did gave him my greeting but I couldn’t give it to the other guys, I guess they were too nervous to even turned around and I chose to sat the very back too so I couldn’t see their faces but I do recognize them from their backs. Mr. Lee sat at the front; he was about to say something when he gave me a big frown. “What are you doing in the desert by yourself?”

            I blink, “I never went to the desert-“ Mr. Lee sighs, motioning his hand at me, “Come and sit close to the others. You’re going to be in the same group in a few months. Look at all of you youngsters still being all awkward around each other. How are you going to work together in sync after you debut?”

            “Are you saying…” The boy in black shirt in front of me stutters. “We’re debuting in a few months?” That got a nod with a grin from Mr. Lee and I swear this old man is quite adorable at times- Oops. He didn’t hear that. No one hear that. Everyone is excited of course, even I am excited, who wouldn’t? We trained for years and we finally get to debut but no one show a single sign of excitement because the look on Mr. Lee’s face was scary enough. He clears his throat a little bit before saying, “Before you make your grand debut. Yes, grand debut, I mean it. You’re going to have 23 teasers and a debut showcase in Korea and China.”

            A debut showcase in Korea and China? Isn’t that a little bit too much for us? I mean, I’m thankful but, nah, never mind. I should just accept whatever came to me. We stood up as Mr. Lee made his way down from the stage but he just had to stop abruptly in his position making us froze. He turned around; his face was rather puzzled as he said, “I almost forgot. Jongin, you have 12 teasers by yourself.” I blink, nodding my head as I give him one final bow before he went off.

            “12 teasers by myself, is he even serious-“ I cut myself off when I felt someone’s eyes on me. I turned to my right side to see a fair boy; he’s somewhat really familiar. I frown, staring at him back before it hits me and I felt my knees weaken. “S-Sehun?” But, he never answers. Joonmyeon hyung, he’s the only one I’m closed to during this training period after Taemin but Taemin debuted first and I’m pretty sure you know him. I’m glad Joonmyeon hyung is in the same group too though. He stares at us confusedly before saying, “Do you two know each other?”

            “Alright kids, I’m your manager. Nice to meet all of you!” Before we could even answer, a man in his 30s appears with a huge grin on his face. “I have a feeling I’m going to have so much fun with you. Let’s have some fun together!” Joonmyeon hyung nudges my arm, giving me a you-have-some-explanation-to-do look. I sigh, staring at Sehun’s back as I took a seat beside Joonmyeon hyung who is listening intently to our manager.

            He grew so tall in such a short period but he’s still fair. He looks like he lost a lot of those baby fats too. I let out another sigh, trying to close my eyes while manager hyung is explaining about our teasers. “Jongin, are you sick? Do you need to go rest?” I opened my eyes immediately at the mention of my name and at the corner of my eyes, I’m pretty sure Sehun is staring at me but never mind. “No, I’m fine. You can continue.”

            “I’ll leave the rest of the days for you to get to know each other so we can work together smoothly in the future.” Manager hyung smiles as he leaves the room. The rest suddenly took a seat next to each other and we’re sitting across each other, 6 people on each side. And yep, I’m sitting across from Sehun but he’s not looking at me. Not even a glance. Joonmyeon hyung took a glance at me and I know what he wanted to ask but I chose to stay quiet. “Do you two know each others?”

            “We do-“ “No.” I stare at Sehun in disbelief. The rest had their mouths hang open as I stare at Sehun sternly but he never looks at me back. His eyes are fixed onto the documents, his eyelashes move slowly every time he blinked and I used to enjoy watching his eyelashes move when we were young. There were once when I just sat there, watching Sehun talked and all I did was counting his eyelashes. “Sehun, are you sure? Why would Jongin know your name if you two don’t know each other?” Joonmyeon hyung said, his brows furrowed as if it’s about to be combine into one eyebrow at anytime soon.

            “I don’t know him.” He repeats each word sternly, his face shows no emotion at all and even though I know it’s my fault but I felt anger building inside of me. I clenched my fist, turning to the other side to calm myself down. Baekhyun hyung must have sensed the heavy atmosphere between us as he lets out an awkward laugh but earns himself a smack from Chanyeol hyung who hissed at him to quiet down. I know their names but I’m not that close to them, Joonmyeon hyung is the only person I’m closed with in here. There was once when Joonmyeon hyung’s parents didn’t want him to walk on this path and he decided to run away from home but I guess he was too much of a good child, he went to his mom and told her he’s running away from home and borrowed her phone to called me. What did I do, you asked? Of course, I made him go back – I have enough trouble putting up with myself.

            “Jongin, I pity you.” Baekhyun hyung sighs as he shook his head. “You have to memorize 12 different choreographies. Just the thought of it is hard enough.” I gave him a soft smile because I was too busy fixing my gazes on Sehun. Minutes later, they came up with excuses and went out almost at the same time and that leave me and Sehun alone in the meeting room but he never raised his head up. I know he’s not reading. There’s nothing on that document, it’s about our group’s name and activity. Sehun is not a slow reader.

            I build up my courage and this is the first time I approached someone first. I stared sternly into Sehun’s face even though he’s not looking at me right now, “Can we talk?”

            “There is nothing to talk about.” He mumbles, his gaze averts from the document as he pulled his phone out. I sigh, letting the anger inside me dies down, “Sehun, look I know I should have at least said good bye. I did go to say good-bye but I didn’t want to bother you. Why are you still mad? I at least wrote you one last letter.”

            At that, he scoffs before his gaze fixed upon mine but his face still shows no emotion at all. It was so hard to read, it’s not the Sehun that I knew – used to know anymore. “At least I wrote you one last letter? Yeah, sure.” I crinkle my brows in confusion, “What are you trying to say?”

            He sighs as he pushed the chair back and stood up, “Let’s just say today is the first time we met.”

            I sat there in bewilderment as Sehun leaves the room. Does he even know what he just said? I groan, ruffling my hair in annoyance. What have I got myself into? A hundred what if ran through my mind almost immediately. What if I did not stop Sehun’s mom when she tried to wake Sehun up for me? What if I didn’t care about Sehun’s health for a moment? What if I just have to comfort Sehun when he cried after I told him I’m leaving? What if I –

            The door of the meeting suddenly flung open and I didn’t even have the mood to get surprised from that. Baekhyun hyung peeks his head inside, a small grin forms on his face when he notices my presence, “Yo, Jongin. Shim Jaewon sunbaenim – Ah, he told me to call him hyung. Jaewon hyung said he wants to meet you to discuss about your teasers.” I nod, “Oh, sure.”

            I pulled the door to the meeting room closed, trailing beside Baekhyun hyung. He wraps his arm around my shoulder, flashing me a bright grin and I know I should be thankful that he’s trying to cheer me up but that only remind me of Sehun’s bright grin when we first met. “Everything will be fine, don’t worry.” I nod, “Thank you, hyung.” He nods with a grin still plaster on his face. Maybe, he’s just that bright after Chanyeol hyung.

            Baekhyun hyung pushed the door to the practice room and leaves it open for me. I gently kicked it close with my ankle before joining everyone. Everyone is in the room, Shim Jaewon sunbaenim is here too and he’s grinning at me with a thick document. Don’t tell me those documents are all about my teasers –

            “Don’t worry, Jongin. They aren’t just about your teasers. They’re about the others too.” He smiles, answering to my facial expression. My mouth forms into a small o-shaped at how he could actually reads my face. Am I that obvious? Then, why can’t Sehun understand me already? “Don’t anyone of you dare to call me sunbaenim. I hate that title. It made me feel so distant. Just call me comfortably.” Jaewon hyung, I got it.

            “Before we begin, are you happy you’re finally debuting?” Jaewon hyung asked with a small grin that looks like he was trying to say I’m happy for you too.

            “Of course!” Joonmyeon hyung laughs. “Aren’t we?”

            “Did you call your family and tell them about it?” Jaewon hyung smiles before continues, “Especially the Chinese members. You should call them, you must have miss them a lot.”

            “We will call them tonight because it’s still daytime, they’re probably working right now.” Luhan hyung nods.

            “I miss my mom.” Yifan hyung sighs as he puffs out his cheeks, immediately cracking the whole room up. I mean, he looks so scary and cold for his first impression and to hear him said that and puffed his cheeks out is like a cultural shock.

            “Alright,” Jaewon hyung manages to grab himself back together after wiping his tears from the corner of his eyes before saying, “As you have already know from Mr. Lee, you’ll be debuting under the name EXO but you’ll be dividing into two sub-units, EXO-K and EXO-M that will be promoting in Korea and China respectively.”

            “Does that mean the Korean members will be put into K while the Chinese members will be put into M?” Yixing hyung asked despite his Korean is still somewhat adorably difficult to interpret.

            “We were planning to do that but that wouldn’t be balance because there are only 4 Chinese members so we decided to add 2 Korean members into M. And that would be Minseok and Jongdae because you look the most Chinese among these kids.” Jaewon hyung said follows by a soft chuckle. “We have a Chinese stage name prepared for you. You can’t promote in M with Korean name obviously.”

            “Is everyone clear about the sub-unit?” Jaewon hyung asked, looking up from his documents. I flip to the other page of the document, nodding my head and I’m pretty sure everyone else is doing the same. “Your stage name and roles are in the document so you can go over them tonight. Joonmyeon, you will take the role of the leader in K while Yifan will take that role in M.”

            “What if we start promoting as one?” I asked, staring at Jaewon hyung confusedly. I mean, yeah, every group needs a leader. Even a sub-unit needs one but when we start promoting as one, we still need someone to lead us too.

            “Good question you got there, Jongin.” Jaewon hyung gives me a thumb up. “EXO is different from every other groups. There is a group that changes leader every comeback but that might be a bit confusing so we came up with the decision to have 2 leaders in EXO. You will be the first group ever to have 2 leaders.”

            We nod slowly to his explanation. That does sounds legit and cool. As long as Yifan hyung and Joonmyeon hyung joins hand and cooperates, I’m pretty sure we’ll be going smoothly but I seriously need to sort things out with Sehun before our debut start or else it’s going to be difficult.

            Jaewon hyung grabs a bottle of water beside him and drank the whole bottle in one shot before he continues, “I talked so much, I thought I was going to lose my voice. But, everyone knows about their debut showcase, right?” We nod rapidly at that. “Good. But, before your debut showcase, you’ll have to perform for End-of-Year special with the rest of your seniors so I need you to put extra care in your practice but you don’t have to worry if the audiences would question your identities because until then, several of your teasers would already be uploaded in the official channel.”

            There was an awkward silence after Jaewon hyung finished talking and half of us are staring at each other blankly while some are ducking their heads down, trying to act as if they’re reading the documents to avoid the awkward atmosphere and I can proudly say I am one of them. Jaewon hyung coughs awkwardly before saying, “Uhm – Guys, you know when you debut, your teamwork need to be perfect and your bond need to appear perfect. Are there any of you who are not in a good term with each other?”

            Oh shoot.  

Hiiii! The actual chapter 1 is up and I apologize for uploading such a short chapter but I have my third exam - apparently, I have 6 exams for this year.
My third exam is coming in a few days and I'm still rolling all over my bed ; A ; I wish I am one of those people who enjoy and are good at studying but
nevermind.

Anyway, thank you soooooo much for everyone who subscribed and upvote and left a comment. ; A ; It means a lot to me and for those who haven't leave
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