s e v e n t e e n

Outside of the venue were reporters and paparazzi, waiting to take pictures of the idols as they left the party at three in the morning. Aron had an arm around Sun's waist to keep her from falling. "Try not to look like you're pissed drunk." Aron whispered a warning to her as they reached the door to the exit. "The media will eat you alive, and then you'll be in trouble with the managers."

Sun let out a giggle. "You kind of have an accent when you speak."

Her comment had nothing to do with what he had said to her. He rolled his eyes slightly at her and let out a sigh. "I said try not to look like you're pissed drunk, Mae."

She nodded. "They won't even notice as long as you don't let me fall on my face."

He led her through the crowd of reporters, all of them trying to shove microphones in their faces. Both ignored the questions which pried into their personal lives, wondering if they were in a relationship or not. They reached a waiting car that was going to get them back to the dorm building and the two climbed into the car. 

The moment Sun sat in the back seat, she felt herself drifting off to sleep. She three her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. 

The ride back felt shorter than she thought and soon Aron was trying to shake her awake. In her drunken sleepiness, she refused to open her eyes or even walk. Swatting his hands away as he tried to shake her awake, she complained in a slur, "I just want to stay here and sleep. Leave me here." Outside of the dorm building there were no reporters waiting for them. Most of them were back at the party venue where other idols were still gathered, waiting to snap pictures of them leaving with other idols, or showing signs of being drunk.

Aron groaned. He got out of the car first and then reached inside to pick her up in his arms. Sun wrapped her arms around his neck and again began drifting off to sleep.

In her dreams, it was Yixing carrying her, scolding her for drinking so much.

"Ah, jagi," He said to her, disappointed. Though it was all part of her dreams and imagination. "You shouldn't have drank so much. Just look at the mess you're in."

"I'm so sorry, baobei." Sun whimpered in her sleep. "I won't do it again."

Entering the building with her in his arms, Aron's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Baobei?"

"Saranghae, baobei." I love you, she said drunkenly, a hand caressing his face. 

He managed to get her to her floor and her room without Sun letting more information slip, and he laid her down on her bed. In her own bed in the room was Sarang, not fully asleep yet. When she saw Aron with Sun, bringing her into the room, she nodded a slight bow at him. "Thank you for bringing her back safe, Aron. I tried to find her after I was done talking to someone, but she was gone."

"Baobei please stay and take care of me." She called from her bed, her arms outstretched and reaching for him desperately. 

Aron gave a shake of his head awkwardly. "I can't. I should go."

"Baobei, I know they don't want us together. But no one will find out right now. It'll be our secret, like its always been." She assured him, her words slow and slurred. They were barely understood by Aron and Sarang who were the other two people in the room with her.

The Nu'est member looked to Sarang, his eyes filled with concern for Sun. "Noona, please take care of her. She had a little too much to drink." But it was all part of the act. He was a good actor.

She nodded and as he turned to leave the room, Sun called for him again, "Please don't leave me here alone. I'm tired of this fucking hiding."

Sarang sighed. "Why don't you stay here with her, and I'll sleep in the lounge for tonight?"

He refused with a shake of his head. "I couldn't, noona. This is your room."

The leader of Baby Lips got out of bed, dragging her blanket and pillow along with her. On her way to the exit, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Besides, I have a feeling she won't stop whining until you climb into bed with her." Shooting him a look, she warned, "But no funny business, Aron. Sun is our beloved maknae and I know you wouldn't take advantage of a drunk girl."

He assured her he would take care of Sun and the older girl left the room. 

Aron rolled his eyes and climbed into Sun's bed, awkwardly lying next to her. "Good one." He commented about Sun's begging for him to stay. "Now Sarang noona really believes we love each other."

But Sun wasn't pretending. She was calling for Yixing.

-

When Sun woke up the next morning, she no longer recalled most of the things that had happened the previous night. She was alone in her bed, Aron was long gone. He had left almost as immediately as she fell asleep. Sarang wasn't in the room either and as Sun sat up, she felt a headache pounding in her head.

"Why did I drink so much?" Sun complained to herself.

The youngest member of Baby Lips climbed out of bed and left her room in search of Sarang. In the hallway, she took a left towards where the lounge room was located. She peeked through the small window in the room and found her group leader, already awake that morning, and talking on the phone with someone. Muffled by the door, Sun could barely make out what was being said. "I'm just calling to remind you that you cannot tell anyone about what happened last night, or I will end you." Her words of warning triggered a foggy drunken memory in Sun's head.

They were flashes of lights from the party. Stumbling in the hallway. A darkened staircase. Sarang. A man. Both of them. Alone, together.

Her memory cut off as Sarang spotted her at the door and said into the phone, "I have to go." She then hit the end call button and stuffed her phone into the pocket of her pajama bottoms.

The leader rushed to the door and opened it, pulling Sun inside, "Mae! Good morning. How are you feeling?"

Sun brought a hand to her temples and winced in pain. "I have a killer head ache."

"Right." Sarang recalled, laughing nervously. "You got drunk last night. We're going to need to have a long talk about the dangers of alcohol consumption." She eyed the maknae in a scolding way.

"Who was that on the phone with you?" Sun wondered, changing the subject.

"This guy I made out with last night." Sarang waved it off dismissively. "We exchanged phone numbers, but I had to warn him not to tell anyone about us or I'll get in trouble with the agency. It was just a one time thing, though. You don't need to worry about it."

"Sarang unnie, you'll never believe what I dreamt though." Sun began, recalling another blurry image which felt more like a dream than reality. When Sarang said nothing, expecting her to continue, Sun finished, "The guy I saw leaving the place where you two made out was Junmyeon oppa from that group." Though she disliked EXO and they disliked Baby Lips, she still had to respectfully call the older boys oppa, even if she didn't mean it.

Sarang crinkled up her nose. "It was definitely not him. You had one too many drinks."

Its true, Sun nodded in agreement. Cutting the distance between herself and her group's leader, she linked arms with Sarang and said, "Lets go get some breakfast together. My stomach needs something to counter all the alcohol I had last night."

"No more alcohol for you." Sarang warned. "It makes you see crazy things."

-

Yixing was back at the dorms, still in bed that morning, since he and the other members of EXO-M had nothing to do until noon. The members of EXO-K were excused from group practices that day, since they had other schedules as a sub group. They would be filming a commercial for Baskin Robbins that day until the afternoon when they would later attend to individual commitments. 

The members of EXO-M would only have group dance practices that day, after which Jongdae and Lu Han would have individual vocal practices. 

Normally Yixing would have thought it unfair that the others got to shoot promotions without the entire group--something that bothered Lu Han as well--but right then he thought himself lucky because he got to sleep in that morning. The others had been woken up by the management at four in the morning for their schedules, and they had gotten in around three in the morning from the awards show after party.

Yixing wasn't very keen on attending parties. There were mostly people he either didn't know or didn't talk to, too much alcohol being freely distributed, and paparazzi surrounding the area just aching to snap story worthy pictures of any idols slipping up.

He avoided Sun through the entirety of it.

He knew she would try to provide explanations for the kiss she shared with Aron Kwak on stage. But he didn't want to hear it. He knew it was all an act crafted by Pledis Entertainment to kill the rumors of two rival idols possibly falling in love with each other. He knew all of that, but he still avoided her because it hurt. Her giving him an explanation would just be pointless considering he already knew her supposed romance with Aron was staged. It was almost like rubbing salt in an open wound.

Getting his daily dose of self inflicted torture, he typed her name in on the search bar of his phone.

Park Mae.

Immediately millions of results popped up onto his screen. He clicked on the news tab and scrolled through the most recent news. There were already pictures and video of her and Aron, most of them included the part where they kissed. It was all news he knew about already.

That was when he saw it.

A more recent article that had been posted six hours earlier, around three in the morning when most were already returning to their dorms. 

Sun of Baby Lips seen leaving awards show after party with Aron of Nu'est after sharing a kiss on stage. The title mocked him. Included in the article was information about the awards show, how Baby Lips won the award that they now shared with EXO, Sun's performance with Aron, the kiss they shared on stage, and last how they were seen leaving the party together. Yixing felt a jealousy creeping up on him. Even if it was all staged, Aron got to be with her in public, the way Yixing wanted to.

It was unfair.

In the other bed in the room was Jongdae, still fast asleep since he had enjoyed the party with all the other EXO boys. Yixing was the only one walking around, hiding, avoiding Sun at all costs like he was a criminal on the run. He was thankful that his room mate was asleep, since he knew Jongdae would surely be concerned for him and he would ask him what was wrong. Yixing couldn't tell anyone about it. He had to stick through it all on his own, just as he had always done since he arrived in Korea.

He needed to stop thinking about it.

He needed to stop thinking about her.

The more he thought about Sun, and their relationship, and her fake relationship with Aron, the more it hurt to even breathe. How could he be expected to just sit there and watch as she was with someone else? Their relationship had relegated even further than it already was with all their hiding from the press and sneaking around.

-

i apologize before hand for this chapter being a bit crummy. im writing this as i watch "el grito de mexico" on television. thirteen minutes away from the anniversary of mexico's independence. 206 years of freedom. 

one night in 1810, priest miguel hidalgo gathered the people of guanajuato and gave his famous speech "el grito de dolores" (the cry of dolores). in this speech, he urged the people of mexico to fight against the spanish empire and the oppression they held against mexicans. 

now every year on this night, the president recites the speech from the presidential palace in mexico city. he rings the bell from the church which hidalgo spoke at (it was moved from guanajuato to the capitol), and there is a spectacular firewors display. 

"viva mexico! viva la independencia nacional!" (long live mexico! long live national independence!) AND congrats to my other latin/hispanic friends whose independence days happened (today was costa rica's independence), or will happen over the next few days. we all decided not to take spain's shit anymore. lol

-clary xx