+ twenty seven 

For the next few days up until EXO K was set to travel overseas for Music Bank Mexico, Baekhyun ran into Narda everywhere when he was out with Taeyeon. It was almost as if it had been something planned. They saw each other at the night clubs, at restaurants, at the mall, at the movies. Everywhere he turned, she was there with either Daniel or Chanyeol, but more often than not she was out with her insufferable coworker. The sight of them together made Baekhyun's blood boil, but he could do nothing about it. He had no right to.

She was single, and he was with Taeyeon. Even when he was single, he had no chance with her because he had promised to stay away for Chanyeol's sake. It was a promise he deeply regretted making.

And everything reminded him of her. With just hours before getting on the plane for Narda's country, as Chanyeol constantly and happily pointed out, EXO K filmed a video announcement in Spanish for their Mexican fans. It had been a little speech he and the others had memorized and gone over with Narda all summer, just for that video to be filmed. 

"Hello everyone, we are EXO K." They said with smiling faces at the camera, in Spanish. "We will be visiting our beloved fans in Mexico on the thirtieth of October to perform for Music Bank. Tickets are now sold out for Arena Ciudad de Mexico and we hope to see you there supporting us. Thank you!"

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun had done most of the talking, since Chanyeol and Junmyeon had just been added to the line up which had been modified at the last minute and did more practicing for the performance than for the announcement. It had first been scheduled to include every member of EXO to perform Growl, and the four vocalists would then perform Sabor A Mi. But with the departures of Yifan and Lu Han, SM Entertainment had been forced to modify their line up for the performance. 

Baekhyun was almost relieved when he and the other boys travelled for Mexico. That meant that he wouldn't have to pretend to go out with Taeyeon, and he wouldn't have to see Narda with Daniel or Chanyeol. But being apart from Taeyeon was what brought him most relief. He didn't have a single moment alone since the announcing of their relationship.

Taeyeon was insufferable, always whining and always wanting every bit of his attention.

When she didn't get it, she was usually yelling at him, and accusing him of seeing Narda behind her back. Something that was ridiculous since he was always at the SM building rehearsing, and on his free time he was with her.

One month after they had seen a second departure by one of their brothers, EXO-K was on a plane across the globe to a new country, which they had never visited before. Mexico. The land of tacos, big colorful hats, and mariachi music--as it was most stereo-typically known by the rest of the world.

Music Bank's world tour had the Spanish speaking nation as one of their stops, and EXO had been invited to perform. It had been something planned--even before Yifan left the group--and it had been at first decided that the entire group would perform Growl together. Then the four vocalists would perform a cover of a popular Mexican song called Sabor A Mi--which roughly translated to The Taste of Me.

With the last minute changes that EXO had suffered over the past year, SM Entertainment ended up deciding that it was best for half of the group to go--the most complete group. EXO-M was to stay behind in Korea until the rest of the group returned from Mexico and it could be decided what the best course of action to continue with the group was. Instead of having Lu Han and Jongdae participate in the song cover, they had been replaced with Junmyeon and Chanyeol; one because he had chosen to leave the group, and the other because he was asked to stay behind with the rest of his group. It had been difficult on Jongdae, as well as the two other boys because the replacements for the performance only had one month to practice the foreign song.

Baekhyun noticed the way Lu Han's departure had affected everyone, but especially their maknae. Before Yena had arrived to replace Tao for a year, both Lu Han and Sehun had been close. They were best friends, and when Lu Han started spending more time with Tao, Baekhyun noticed how their youngest had become jealous and a bit more distant from everyone.  It took him time to get used to the fact that he had to share his best friend with someone else, and that his best friend seemed to like that someone else better.

Baekhyun missed his hyung too. 

Out of all the other members, Lu Han was the most friendly of them. He treated them as though they were his younger brothers and got along with everyone. He was also usually the peace maker whenever the others got into arguments--mostly he was the one stopping Kyungsoo from hurting anyone when the others made him mad.

Things would never be the same if EXO no longer had its twelve members.

-

It was a twelve hour flight from Seoul to Los Angeles, where they would get a connecting flight down to Mexico. From Los Angeles there was another four hour flight before they arrived in Mexico City, where the Music Bank concert would be held at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico--or the Mexico City Arena.

The concert would be on the thirtieth of October, as they had announced in SM's official youtube channel SMTown, and the group had arrived three days before. None of them said more than a few words to each other for various reasons. They were tired from the long flight, and they were still visibly upset at the fact that yet another member had left them. They were thankful that in those three days before the actual concert, they would have busy schedules in order to prepare for the performance.

Sehun and Jongin were left with a bit more of free time than the others, since they would only be participating in the group performance, and had no other obligations while in Mexico. The other four had vocal practices for their performance in Spanish. It was difficult to learn lyrics in a foreign language, especially when they had no idea what they were singing about. Their managers from SM Entertainment wanted to schedule things for the maknaes to do as well, but it was difficult, considering that neither of them spoke an ounce of Spanish.

They found their chance--in regards to Sehun--when they were contacted by Estrellas Y Mas, the most successful and popular teen magazine in the country. The editors of the magazine had found out about the music bank concert and wanted one kpop artist that was going to perform, on the cover of their magazine. Of all the groups and their idols that would be performing, Oh Sehun was chosen, because the editors had determined that he would probably look best next to the Mexican super model Florencia Orizaba solely for the reason that he was taller than her, even if she wore heels.

SM Entertainment was thrilled to have one of their own on the cover of Mexico's most popular teen magazine. When they had been invited to send EXO to perform at Music Bank, they saw it as their opportunity to expand their popularity over Latin America. With the magazine cover opportunity, they had even more of a chance.

At the hotel room the night they arrived, one of the managers handed Sehun a photograph, saying, "You'll be on the cover with her."

Baekhyun saw the way Sehun eyed the photograph in his manager's hand of the beautiful green eyed girl without saying a word. The maknae couldn't help thinking to himself that he wouldn't mind standing next to her in a photo shoot. The smile on her face was sweet and innocent; friendly. He found himself staring at the picture a bit longer than he intended to.

Curious, one of the other group members snatched the photograph out of Sehun's hand to get a good look at it. It was Baekhyun, whose eyebrows raised in mild surprise when he noticed how beautiful the girl actually was. Nudging the maknae, he said, "Wow, Sehun-ah, you get to spend the next week with this girl? So lucky." Chanyeol was sitting on the other bed in the room and he got back on his feet, walking the small space between the two beds to peek over Baekhyun's shoulder at the girl in the picture.

"She's pretty." Chanyeol agreed with his friend. Though he quickly added his objection. "But Narda-yah is prettier."

Somehow, Baekhyun tensed at the mention of his sasaeng, but he didn't fight Chanyeol on it.

As their side conversation ended, the manager continued giving the details about the girl in the photograph. "Her name is Florencia Orizaba." He said her name in slightly broken Spanish, he had replaced the letter F with an H, since F didn't exist in the Korean language. He had pronounced her name like Hlorencia. He then got his phone out and proceeded to read something, probably a bio about the young model. "She's from Orizaba, Mexico, on the southern coast of the country. They say her family is the oldest in that region and that the town Orizaba was named for them when the Spanish settled in Mexico. Her family owns two professional football teams: Tiburones Rojos of Veracruz, and Albinegros of Orizaba. Last important detail is that she's twenty years old, but she became Miss Universe two years ago, at eighteen. She is currently considered the most beautiful woman in Mexico."

"She's practically royalty." Jongin concluded. He had been the most interested in the football teams she owned than anything else. With a chuckle, he adding jokingly, "While Sehun is just a lowly peasant."

The maknae shot his group member a glare.

While they had been discussing the photo shoot and the girl he would be sharing the spot light with, Baekhyun along with Kyungsoo, and the group's leader Junmyeon had been clicking away on their phones. Baekhyun had been scrolling through his social media, and before he knew it, he found himself scrolling through the pictures in the profile that belonged to gutilozz. But he kept his phone angled, to prevent his group mates from noticing. Noticing, and judging him for it. He quickly closed out of her profile and typed another name into the search bar: Florencia Orizaba.

It was better to meddle into the maknae's love life than to deal with his own problems at the moment.

The manager left them to go to his own room and unpack his things. When they found something worth sharing, Baekhyun jumped forward on the bed with excitement. He practically shoved his phone screen in Sehun's face.

"She has twitter and instagram." Baekhyun informed them delightedly. Sehun was better at keeping his enthusiasm at bay. "Her username is florizaba for both."

Sehun got his phone out and discreetly opened up his instagram app. Without taking his attention off the other boys', he hit the search bar and typed in her username. Florizaba. The clever combination of her first and last name, Florencia Orizaba. The very first picture he clicked on was the most recent, and it was a picture of her with skull make up on.

♥ 40K likes
florizaba: so ready for day of the dead :] <3 #threemoredays #diademuertos

load comments...

The comments section was littered with people--all telling her how gorgeous she was.

"Hey. You should ask her if we could meet the players of her football teams, and maybe she can give us some jerseys." Jongin nudged Sehun to get his attention. Though he ended nudging him so hard that the phone fell out of his hand and onto the bed, face up, showing that he had been looking at the girl's instagram pictures.

Chanyeol's hand reached out with lightning speed to pick up the phone before Sehun could even so much as react. "The maknae was trying to pretend he wasn't looking at the cute model. He's probably shy about us knowing he has a crush." He wiggled the phone in front of Sehun's face teasingly.

Baekhyun wiggled his eyebrows at the youngest of the group, joining in. "And we're allowed to date now, so you can freely chat her up without a problem."

With a roll of his eyes, Sehun took his phone off Chanyeol's hand. "I'm not going to chat her up, and I don't have a crush. I haven't even met her yet. Besides, the photo shoot's only going to be a few days at most. Then we'll return to Korea and I'll never see her again."

"Only in your dreams." Baekhyun teased, barely able to contain his laughter. "Or in her instagram pictures when you continue to stalk her from a distance."

"Wait. She was a Miss Universe." Junmyeon pointed out as he recalled what the manager had told them about her. "She'd never go for an uncooked noodle like Sehun."

The other boys in the room shot the group leader a surprised look before bursting out in laughter. All except Sehun who sat there shyly. "Why do you do this to me, eomma? You don't love me, always so savage." He said in a fake whiny voice. "Am I adopted?"

"As the new patriarch of this family, I'm going to take the liberty to answer that question, my dear son." Chanyeol began with something of a sigh. Placing a hand on Sehun's shoulder, he gave a simple, one worded answer. "Yes."

-

this is just the first chapter of "mexico", sehun's story, only i modified a little to focus more on baekhyun than sehun. which means that i can also start updating that one periodically as well since these two stories overlap. so please look forward to that. i will probably be posting the next chapter for "mexico" tonight.

also, guys. i just watched the first episode for the new series "riverdale" and it was awesome. i have always loved archie comics. but this live action series was lit af.

so tempted to start writing fics about them. but since its only the first episode, i'll wait a week or two. but anyway, i highly recommend that you watch it. also watch archie cartoons, and the modern spin off cartoon "archie's weird mysteries".

have a wonderful weekend!

-clary xx