Chapter Eighteen: Wu YiFan

I thought he was joking.

He was joking, right?

My eyes grew wide in shock, waiting for Kris would say he was just kidding. But all he did was frown and stare right back at me, as if he was waiting for me to say something. With the two of us being silent, he spoke as quietly as he can "You must be wondering why I'm telling you, out of all the people in the room."

"You. . . You're not serious, right?"

He leaned against the wall, rested his head on it as well, and looked up "Have you ever wondered what it was like out there?"

I didn't understand where he was getting to. I remained silent and merely shook my head as a reply. From the looking at the ceiling, Kris looked at me "A curious man does not stay in one place for all his life time. He travels. He goes beyond the galaxy.

You'd think you'd find everything you ever wanted in one specific place. But the truth is, you have to go beyond that to find what you want that you never new you did."

"B-But. . . Why leave EXO?"

"For the reason why I told you out of all the people is this." He got out of his leaning position and stood up right in front of me "Your brother and I, we had the same dreams."

I stiffened up. I knew what he was talking about at that point "You both wanted to act, right?"

"You know him well." Kris smiled "Yes, we did both want to act. But being in SM, being in one place, does not allow us to go beyond even further. I thought being here would, but. . . It just prevented me from doing so even more.

Korea isn't the kind of place for me, nor was it the kind of place for him. We both wanted something more than this, more than fame and money. We wanted to follow our dreams.

I want to able to go out there, to explore, to see the world today. Because all I see now are enclosed stages. EXO did make me so happy. But, I know there's something more waiting for me out there."

Tears filled his eyes, quickly he looked down and wiped them using his hand "I'm sorry, crying is not my style."

I could feel his pain. All the struggle of endless dance practices, recordings, performances, fan events, photoshoots, he has already forgotten to live a normal life.

So did we all.

So did I.

"If my brother was here," I said, my voice cracking "He'd be so proud of you. He'd say: 'You are such a strong person to finally break free and realize what you want, what you want to chase after. No one can ever stop you from following your heart. I- We will always be here for you. Because no one can ever break a family'."

Kris looked at me with tear filled eyes and warmly embraced me "Thank you thank you so so much. Please tell Luhan- that I was finally brave enough to do it."

No, don't thank me.

I thank you for being a brother to me.

Till our paths cross one day,

Wu Yifan.

Few days later. . .

In the EXO dorm, everyone was up earlier than usual. Not doing anything special, but doing their daily morning routines except two hours earlier. While everyone else was either making breakfast or just resting, no one said a word. Chanyeol stared at his laptop grimly with slightly pursed lips, scrolling down. Suho looked at him and spoke "Anything new?"

Chanyeol shook his head "No. Just more articles."

Kai was enraged. He stood up from his chair and punched the wall next to him "This is bullshit! Why would he- How could he just-"

"Yah! Can't you just be mature for once?!" Tao harshly snapped back at Kai, then leaning forward to cover his face with both his hands "He could not have done it without a reason."

Kai's face dropped, slowly sitting back down on his seat. Suho examined all his band members' faces. He finally took a seat of his own and took a deep breath "Tao's right. We all have to handle Kris' terminated contact maturely."

It has been two days since Kris had decided to leave EXO. The fanbase was enraged and it greatly effected many of them, especially SMent and EXO themselves. Articles and updates appeared all over the internet regarding Kris' departure hourly. Silence conquered the room again, and Suho knew it was his job to make things better "Yes, I know we are all upset because of the fact Kris decided to leave EXO without warning-"

"Yeah no shit, hyung." Tao grumbled

Suho pursed his lips and frowned. He knew Tao was the closest to Kris, so he decided to not remark of his words and continue "But we still have one more performance to do, then pursue with The Lost Planet world tour right away."

"After a dear member of ours decided to part away, not to mention Luhan still being missing, SM still asks us to go on with the tour without Kris and Luhan?!" Lay exclaimed, making everyone silent since Lay was never the type of person to act like this "Well. That's just crap now, isn't it?"

The room filled with more comments and small arguments regarding Kris at the moment, every second the noise growing louder. Suho finally had enough "EVERYONE JUST LISTEN TO ME!"

The noise died down and all eyes were on him. Suho breathed heavily, wiping off trickling sweat from his forehead to his jawline "Yes, Kris leaving has caused an outraged among us, but we, all of us, have to be stronger than this. What do you want us to do, sulk around and not care and show support for our fans who love Kris as much as we do?

Not pursuing with the tour will only just make our fans upset. And just thinking about Kris leaving with make us feel even worse. He has a life of his own, even if he left EXO, that doesn't mean he left us as a family. Because-"

"We are EXO! We are one!" The nine members chanted before engulfing Suho and the rest of them in a group hug

Everyone cheered and laughed until the group hug slowly broke down and everyone went back to their original places. Suho grinned and cleared his throat "The bright side is Sehun and Luka's issue did get covered up because of this."

"Yah, we're forgetting the fact that Luhan is still missing." Sehun brought up

"Since you're so close to Luka, why don't you ask about Luhan? You're not going to see her in a very long time because of the tour, so-"

Without letting Suho finish, Sehun quickly dashed off the dorm and exited through the door. Suho sighed and scratched his head "He's growing up too fast."

Just as Sehun was dashing through the halls, once he turned around a corner, he quickly stopped on his tracks with a surprised expression, seeing the being before him.

"OH SEHUN!!!"

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FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY FANFIC WRITING HISTORY, THE COMMENTS OUTNUMBERED THE VOTES IN THE LAST CHAPTER!! I WAS REALLY REALLY HAPPY SO I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU ALL FOR THAT :DD

I'm really really sorry there was no hunhan at all on his chapter, it's just that I was extremely bothered with the Kris issue and I wanted to somehow involve in here in this fanfic. Making him leave in this fanfic did break my heart and I was super emotional writing this chapter, but I don't want to write something that Kris wouldn't seem happy in, and I want all of us to accept the decision he made because we know our Kris made the right one and chose the right path that made him happier and wanted to take :)

aGAIN, Thank you all so much for the support, we are down to less than ten chapters, I promise the next chapters will be all hunhan, and I hope you enjoy reading this fic! :3