.eleven.

Ernesto stayed with Sun that night and they slept side by side for one night. The football player left the mansion in the upper scale side of Guadalajara at around six in the morning, sneaking out in hopes of not being spotted by anyone in the house, or the media. He had explained to Sun that the Mexican media was ruthless. They could make the biggest scandal out of one picture and they knew how to use their assets. Sun thought that sounded a lot like the Korean and Chinese media. They didn't mind having the whole story. They were going to put out whatever information they had and then make up the rest.

Almost as soon as he left the house, there was a knock on Sun's door. The maknae went to open it and she knew she was in trouble when she saw Rin standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. With Bom gone, the two youngest in Baby Lips were now Rin and Sun. The group took special caution to watch over the two of them. They didn't want their youngest getting into trouble.

Sun's face dropped as she felt what was coming. Rin pushed past her and entered the room. "You totally don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to. But I just want to understand. What's going on? I want to help you." 

She walked over and plopped down on the bed, her eyes widening in something of a surprise when she saw Ernesto's wet clothes from earlier strewn across the floor. Sun closed the door behind herself and locked it, following her friend into the room. Heaving a sigh, she began to explain, "I know you and the other girls must be confused seeing me so comfortable with Ernesto when I'm supposedly dating Yixing."

Rin raised an eyebrow at her, "Supposedly?"

Sun gave a nod of her head. "Yes. Okay, Yixing and I aren't actually dating--"

"What?" She caught her group mate off guard.

"Let me start from the beginning." Sun decided to back track. In order for Rin to understand what was going on, she needed to start from the very beginning. "We've always hated EXO and SM Entertainment since debut, and they've hated us too. But one time I got to interact with Yixing at the MAMA's backstage and he was a really nice guy. We fell in love and we started dating in secret." She then continued, giving her friend the shortened version of the story. "Our companies finally stopped fighting and agreed to let us date, but Yixing was done with me. He won't get back together with me. This is all an act that SM and Pledis forced us into. But my relationship with Ernesto is real, and I don't want to ruin it. He's a great guy."

Rin's expression softened significally upon hearing what Sun had to say. "I guess there's nothing wrong with that." She sighed. "But its probably not good for you to keep your relationship with this other boy a secret. It sounds like you're doing the same thing to him that you did to Yixing."

Sun saw that Rin was going to take her side and she was grateful for that, so grateful that the next offer escaped her lips before she could even think about it. "If you promise not to say anything for now, I can get Ernesto to hook you up with one of his friends." 

If she remembered correctly, Ernesto had mentioned to her that many of her friends were already married and with children, but a few were still single and available. He mentioned that his friends Salcedo and Dedos were looking for girlfriends. Sun was also surprised by how many guys named Carlos there were on the team. There were six of them--including Ernesto--and they all went by their last names or middle names.

Rin crinkled up her nose, refusing the offer. "No thank you. I mean, his friends are handsome. But I've been talking to Kun a lot lately and I really like him." Kun was the shortened version of BamBam's real name. The two had met when Baby Lips visited the JYP building to collaborate with Velvet Rush. 

Sun wiggled her eyebrows at her friend. "I'm so happy for you."

Rin couldn't help but blush.

"Thank you, and I guess I can keep your secret between us." She assured the maknae with a warm smile playing on her lips. 

Once again grateful, Sun cut the distance between them and pulled her in for a hug.

-

Soon after Rin left, it was still early in the morning but Sun got in the shower. She then left Minnie and Isaac's room to have some breakfast. As she passed the living room, her eyes casually peered towards the couch where Yixing spent the night. He was wide awake, eyes blank and trained on the ceiling. When he heard Sun's footsteps, he turned towards her for about an instant. But realizing it was her, he quickly turned away. He was still refusing to acknowledge she even existed. Sun turned away too, nose in the air with pride.

She was already getting tired of chasing him. She had tried to talk to him many times and he refused. Now it was on him to make the first move if he wanted to talk to her.

Sun texted Minnie and asked her if it was okay to make something to eat, to which her friend replied with a text scolding her. She told Sun that of course she could have some of her food. She wasn't going to let her guests starve while she was away on her honeymoon. It would be bad manners of her. Sun went over to the pantry and decided to make some pancakes when she saw the box of mix in the cupboards. It was certainly her opportunity to eat whatever she wanted, since Lina hadn't returned to Minnie'a house after the party. She informed the girls that they would be on their own until night time because she was going to stay at a hotel, taking care of some business.

That meant that the members of Baby Lips would have a free day to do as they please. Some of the girls had talked about how they were going to go shopping. Others talked about how they wanted to go sight seeing around town. Sun didn't exactly know what she wanted to do. She wasn't really in the mood to go out, and even if she wanted to, she didn't even know where to go.

Junmyeon and Sarang were the first to join her in the kitchen for breakfast. They walked in with his arm around her waist and her head on his shoulder. Even though she had slept peacefully all night, she still looked tired. And he looked so concerned for her. With each day she was looking worse, but she refused to see a doctor because she reasoned that it was probably just the stress of all the training and performing they did. The Baby Lips leader took a whiff of the smell coming off the cooking pan and her mouth watered. "What are you making mankae?" She asked, although it was already obvious. It was more of a question to start conversation with her.

"Pancakes." Sun replied with a smile. "Want some?"

She smiled warmly at her before a thought crossed her mind and the smile quickly faded. "Maybe later. Jun and I are going to see the town a bit before we return to Korea tonight."

But her boyfriend shook his head, insisting she stay for a bit. "But at least eat something. You need energy so you can feel better." He led her to one of the kitchen chairs, but she refused to sit down.

"Stop worrying about me so much." She told the two of them. "I'm not a child. Jun and I can just get breakfast outside. I don't want to waste Min's food."

Junmyeon finally sided with her. Though he was a leader in EXO and the others looked to him to follow, he always followed Sarang's wishes. He always tried to take care of her. The two left the house together after changing clothes and said goodbye to Sun, assuring her that she would be seeing them later that night. 

As the others got up later that morning, they each left with things to do. The EXO members wanted to see the city together and were taking Narda with them, since she spoke Spanish, English, and a bit of Korean now with her time in their country. Chanyeol had been wanting to go out with her alone and she said she wanted to show him the best places she knew about in the city. But the others tagged along and refused to part with them in fears of getting lost. Now that they were in the Spanish speaking country. Narda had thought to call up Florencia, but refrained from the suggestion, given what had happened between the Mexican super model and the youngest member of EXO.

Sun stayed at the house by herself mostly, until she got a message from Ernesto.

ernesto: lets go on a double date with chelo and gabi before u go home :)

sun: that sounds like fun :)

sun: where are we going??

ernesto: get ready and we'll pick you up at noon 

-

Sun got ready for her double date and they arrived right when they promised they would. The three arrived in a beautiful black sports car that belonged to Ernesto. He got out of the car and went around to greet her with a hug and a peck on the lips. "Hola, hermosa." Hello, beautiful, he said with a grin. sun felt her cheeks blush pink.

He led her to the passenger seat and she climbed inside, turning back to see Chelo and Gabi in the back seat. The two smiled and gave a friendly wave which she returned with enthusiasm.

"Where are we going?" She asked again, in Spanish, since he hadn't answered her question earlier.

"We're taking you to all the cool places in our town." Gabi gushed with excitement while the boys nodded in agreement. Sun was moved by how much they seemed to love their town. She knew so many people that didn't like the town they lived in and yearned nothing more than to travel. They seemed perfectly happy where they lived and were even proud of their town.

They started out by visiting La Minerva, a roundabout with a Roman goddess statue in the middle of it. The three had explained to her that it was the place where the town celebrated its most glorious moments, which most of the time included football. Ernesto had pointed out that they had been there just a month earlier, celebrating one of the team's first trophies in a long time. Sun could already imagine the joy and happiness they must have felt celebrating there. They visited the Guadalajara Zoo, the town cathedral, a market where Ernesto bought her little gift to take home and remind her of him, and finally they went to an amusement park.

When the day was almost over, she informed them that it was time for her to get back to Minnie's house. Everyone would already be waiting for her. But she felt almost at home with her new friends, and it saddened her to part from them. They felt the same way and upon arriving at Minnie's house, Ernesto got out of the car to say his goodbyes.

"Do you think you'll come back to Mexico soon?" He asked her with hope reflected in his eyes.

Sun bit down on her lip. She didn't want to lie to him. "I don't think so. My company always has me busy with tons of commitments, but--"

Still, the smile was genuine on his face as he said to her, "That's alright. In the winter time--after the apertura season ends--we always play friendly games in different parts of the world. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with mentioning it to uncle Vergara that it would help us to play against different teams. He used to own a Chinese second division team named after ours, you know." He pointed out.

Without anything more, he leaned in to kiss her on the lips, this time uninterrupted by anyone.

When they pulled away, she promised they would keep in contact. He nodded gratefully and waved goodbye. He didn't know when he would see her again, but he hoped it would be soon.

-

why is this turning into an ernesto cisneros fanfic? lol

jk, yixing will soon come back into the mix. i just thought the story needed an interlude where sun actually gets some love in her life because the poor girl is stressed. 

she was being pressured by her company, by her manager, bom was being a petty as bitch, yixing wanted nothing to do with her, sarang kept scolding her for a bit. she needed someone who could love her unconditionally, and that's what im giving her with ernesto.

i mean, she had that with yixing and she kinda killed it. but still.

i hope you're all liking the story. thank you for reading.

-clary