t h i r t y

Sun didn't return to the dorms until dawn and she had to pick up Aron from her parents house first. Her family didn't question the fact that she had left her supposed boyfriend with them all night. Aron was rather glad when Sun saw him, which meant that her father had given him good news. But his happiness dropped an octave when he saw Sun's expression. "I take it things didn't go well." He told her, biting his lip nervously.

"He broke up with me." She replied, her tone was emotionless. She had become a shell of her former self. 

Not knowing what to say to her, he brought her in for a hug. That was all it took to get the tears flowing again and she cried into his arms while they waited for one of the agency cars to pick them up. He said words of reassurance to her, all which were empty and without meaning because it had already happened. Her relationship with Yixing was over and there was nothing she could do about it.

She cried the entire way back to the Pledis dorms which were a twenty minute drive from her house in the residential areas of Seoul. Her vision was so dramatically blurred by her tears and her smeared make up that he had to walk her up the stairs to her floor and then all the way to her dorm room. Some of the girls were already awake at that time. Some were eating breakfast in the lounge, while others were in the shower to get ready for the new day. 

Only Sarang was still in her room, since she had been waiting for her group mate to return.

She knew things hadn't gone well when she saw her crying inconsolably. Sun let go of Aron's embrace and ran into her group leader's arms. Sarang drew her arms around her and hugged her tight. 

"Mae," Aron called from the doorway. "The offer is still open. I can talk to him if you want, all you need to do is let me know. Maybe he'll listen to me."

Sun gave a shake of her head, but said nothing. The sobs that wracked her chest were too strong to provide her with the chance to speak. 

"Or at the very least I can beat him up for making you cry like this." He made another offer, hoping that it would make her feel if even just a little bit better. 

Once again she shook her head as a response. 

She didn't want Yixing and Aron getting into a fight because it would bring about more drama. Also, she knew that their break up was her fault. Everything he told her was a valid reason. She waited too long, and it seemed like their relationship was going nowhere. Even if she had finally decided to tell the truth, their relationship was damaged. Maybe even beyond repair.

He stood in the doorway awkwardly for a few more minutes until he finally decided to excuse himself. "Well, call me if you need anything. Anything at all." He said, followed by an awkward cough. Sarang nodded and thanked him for his help in getting her back to the dorms and the member of Nu'est was out the door within seconds.

Sarang led Sun to her bed and helped her lay down. The maknae immediately pulled the covers over her face and continued crying. They had important commitments for that day. They had just gotten done recording the vocals for their next mini album which would be out in two months. They would also begin learning the dance routines for the songs which they would record a music video for. And most recently their managers at Pledis had informed them that they would be going on tour through Asia that summer. They needed to practice in order to get everything perfect because there was a rumor that EXO would also be touring. 

Sun was clearly not up for it at that time, and Sarang thought up an excuse to get her out of practices for a few days.

-

Sarang had gotten off the phone with their manager Lina, making up a lie that Sun had suddenly fallen ill and needed a few days of bed rest. That would buy her enough time to herself. Lina was skeptical and doubtful about the sudden news, but she allowed it after talking with the higher up people in the agency. They didn't want to risk one of their idols remaining ill when Baby Lips were planning to go on their first tour--especially when Sun was one of the four vocalists in the group.

Sun cried until no more tears spilled out of he eyes. Then she felt the exhaustion and emotional drain taking a toll on her. She fell asleep about an hour later, while Sarang kept a close eye on her. She was about to get in the showers before heading off to practice after making sure that Sun was okay when there was a loud knock on their door.

Sarang opened it to find Bom and Rin with their cellphones in hand.

"Where's the maknae?" Rin asked, looking past Sarang to see Sun fast asleep in her bed.

"She's ill." Sarang lied.

"Well she's gonna be in trouble when the managers see this." Rin informed.

Bom rolled her eyes. "Honestly though, when isn't she in trouble?"

Sarang shot her a warning look.

Rin shoved her phone into Sarang's face with surprise evident in her words. "Look unnie. Little Sun has been sneaking out secretly at night."

Sarang's eyes scanned over the cellphone screen, finding an article about Sun and Yixing. The title read A love story better than Romeo & Juliet: Pledis & SM idols have been secretly meeting up at night. It was an article exposing their secret relationship. The piece went into detail about the evidence which now proved that there was something between the two of them, and it also went on to explain how Tiffany and Aron were the two victims of the story, being fooled by people they loved. 

Once again Baby Lips and EXO were the topic of conversation.

Bom snorted in annoyance as she saw their group leader read the article, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Not only was she dating Aron, but she was cheating on him with one of them." She hissed, her words full of venom. Though Bom and Sun were group mates, they weren't the closest in the group. As trainees they often had their differences and would argue about the smallest things. Now Bom was resentful of the fact that Sun was able to date someone with support from the agency, and was also seeing someone else in secret.

She felt that Sun had always been the golden member of the group. She could screw up time and time again, and people still loved her. The events of the last few months all stood as proof to that.

"You really don't know the situation. That's not what happened." Sarang tried to explain.

"You knew, unnie?" Rin raised an eyebrow at her.

Still irked at the information they had found, Bom scoffed. She wasn't surprised at the possibility that Sarang would know about Sun's secret. "Why am I not even surprised? Of course she knew. Sun has always been Sarang unnie'a favorite--and Yunseo unnie's too. Always protecting the maknae, and always covering for her when she does something wrong."

"That's really not true." Sarang countered. As the leader of Baby Lips, she tried to be there for all her members.

Sarang led Rin and Bom out of the room so that Sun could rest. But Sun had heard everything, pretending to be asleep. Not only had she lost Yixing now, and had probably earned herself the disapproval of the public, but now things were even getting difficult with her group mates.

She had no energy to continue with anything.

All she wanted was for the ground to open wide and swallow her up.

-

For that entire month, the EXO boys practicing hard to get all their songs memorized and their choreography spot on for their first tour as a group. They had been in other tours as supporting groups and some of them had participated as background dancers before, but now things were different. SM had deemed them ready to go on tour around Asia, and the boys of EXO were very excited.

The same night it had been announced to them was the night that Yixing decided to end his relationship with Sun. When he returned to the dorms, his room mate was still asleep and he was able to get back into bed, pretending that he had been there all night.

He eventually fell asleep, his eyes finally had no more tears left to shed.

When he woke up later that morning, Jongdae was already up. His excited--cat like--grin was what Yixing woke up to. His room mate was getting ready for another day of practice, and another day of practice meant that they were another day closer to their Exoplanet #1: The Lost Planet tour. "Morning, hyung." He greeted his older group member with a friendly smile. "How'd you sleep?" He wondered, peering over his shoulder at his hyung while he was facing the mirror, trying to decide if he looked acceptable enough to go to dance practice.

Yixing only grunted in response and pulled the covers over his head. 

After breaking Sun's heart and knowing they were no longer together, he didn't have the motivation to even get out of bed. He had decided that it was what was best for him, yet he felt suddenly like a part of his heart had ceased to continue. 

But he made his decision and now he had to live with it.

Before getting out of bed he reached for his phone which had been left on the night stand when he returned from the Han River. His phone had been set to provide him with alerts whenever there was an article on allkpop written about Sun. He had forgotten to deprogram it when he decided to break up with her.

Now the top notification on his phone was the title of a gossip article which involved Mae. He thought it would be about her and Aron again, and he almost absently dismissed the notification. Instead his eyes widened in surprise when the words on his cellphone screen sunk into his mind. It was an article about him and Mae, which exposed their secret relationship. 

He quickly unlocked his phone and read the article with a curiosity.

Just when he no longer needed their relationship to be exposed, it was happening. 

How would he tell everyone now that they were no longer together?

Worst of all, what would the agency and his group mates think about all of this? He had lied to everyone for so long, and all for a relationship that ended in the very same way that it began...in the shadows.

-

a sort of filler chapter about the aftermath of their break up. both of them are upset. living the sad life. only ten more chapters plus an epilogue before this story finally ends. then we'll have the sequel posted. or idk if i will wait a little bit, finish replacement and sasaeng, then upload the sequel.

lol probably not. too impatient to wait until i finish the other stories.

thank you all loads for reading.

-clary xx