Junmyeon walked into the living room rubbing a towel through his brown hair, having just gotten out of a refreshing shower. It had been a long, long day, filled with interviews, recordings and photoshoots, and a nice, hot shower was just what he needed.

When he came up though, he noticed his normally rambunctious members now quietly sitting in front of the TV, giggling and murmuring like little girls. 

What was it that got them so hooked on the TV?

As he entered their fields of vision, Baekhyun was the first one to turn around happily. "Hyung," he called. "You came at the right time. Your drama's airing today!"

My drama? Oh...

"It's not mine, idiot," Junmyeon clarified. "I just had a small cameo in it."  

"Still!" he gestured to him to sit with the rest of them. "Come watch with us!"

He urged Sehun to shift to create enough space to accommodate the extra man on the couch. Once seated, he grabbed a handful of popcorn out of the bowl Sehun had in his lap and popped a couple of kernels in his mouth as the intro of the drama began.

Throughout the entire show, Junmyeon marveled at how quiet and engrossed his members were. Not one snicker or chuckle was heard the entire hour, the only sound he heard was the crunching of popcorn and slurping of juice. 

It was just a bit unnerving.

This drama had been airing for a couple of months now, so it wasn't like it was a new one, and the members had been fans of it since the first episode. They had been diligently following it ever since it was announced and every screening usually entailed popcorn, juice and a whole lot of off-handed comments.

Today, it was calm and quiet with the occasional crunch or slurp being heard, but it was rare. 

The leader worried for the rest of his group. 

When the closing song and credits began to roll, the group scrambled to their feet and stretched, stiff after sitting in one position for an entire hour. 

Just as he turned to go inside because he really was exhausted and was going to take advantage of this rare free time to just black out for a night, his members crowded around him, slapping his back and showering praises on their leader.

Okay, what happened to his members?

"That was amazing, hyung!"

"You really showed a new side of yourself!"

"It didn't seem at all like the you we know. Great job!"

"How did you do it?"

"Guys, guys!" He put his hands up in defense. "It wasn't that great. I only appeared for less than ten minutes."

"But it was still really good!" 

"Yeah, you did an amazing job!"

"You'll be appearing for three more episodes, right? We'll watch it!"

Chuckling, Junmyeon broke away from the circle as his members dissolved into their own conversation. He slowly slipped away and went to his room, dropping down on his bed.

Even he had to admit, he did a really good job.

***

"A featured artist?" he asked.

He sighed. This was the second time this month he was caught off guard, the first time being when he got the drama offer.

His producer nodded. "Yes, but I thought you'd have already known about this? Didn't Manager Hwang tell you?"

Junmyeon shook his head. "When was this arranged? Who's the featured artist? What do we have to do? Is it a group song or...?"

The producer sighed. "Don't worry, I'll bring you up to speed. We're going to be doing a...call it a different version...of one of EXO's songs. This time though, it's just going to be a couple of members with a featured artist giving the vocals."

"And I'm one of the members..." Junmyeon guessed.

The producer nodded. "Yes, you are."

He sighed. "Alright then. Who's the featured artist?"

The producer looked at his watch. "Actually, she'll be here right about now."

"She?"

Just then, they heard a knock on the recording studio door. Just as the producer turned his head slightly to call out, "Come in!" Junmyeon turned to look at who was about to come in. For the millionth time since debut he wished that the door was glass and not wood so he could see exactly who was coming and going. 

The door opened and his breath caught in his throat when he saw the person who walked in.

Jung Eunji.

It had been a few weeks after their meeting at the set of her drama, and he hadn't really seen or talked to her since then. In the middle, they had been on a music show, but Apink hadn't been there. This was virtually their first meeting after their scene shooting.

He didn't know whether he was happy or embarrassed.

The producer turned back to him. "Here's our featured artist."

***

One of the things he was thankful for, was that he was part of a group. Because just as Eunji walked through the door, he had received a call from Chanyeol saying that they were on their way. Pretty soon, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol filed into the studio to discuss the tracks further.

He was happy though how friendly they were with Eunji. Her happy disposition made her a hit with Chanyeol (as expected) and the two had spent nearly fifteen minutes just talking and talking, before the producer brought them back to business.

"So, what are we doing?" Baekhyun asked.

The producer handed them all a sheet of paper per person. "You'll be remixing Lucky."

"Lucky?" Kyungsoo asked. "Any reason for that?"

"Actually, it was Eunji-shi's choice," the producer said.

The four males turned to her, making her shrink slightly under their questioning stares. She then straightened herself up and put a smile on her face. "Yeah, I chose it. It's one of my favorite songs from EXO, and if I was getting the chance to sing one of your guys' songs, I wanted to sing Lucky."

"Really? I really liked that song too."

"It's so upbeat I love it!"

"This is going to be a fun recording!"

***

He sat beside Eunji as they watched Baekhyun in the studio belting out the chorus. He turned to see her watching Baekhyun intently, analyzing his style.

"Isn't it a bit more upbeat than the original?" she asked him.

Junmyeon nodded. "Yeah, I thought so too. It's not that different, but just a little more fast."

"And there's more emphasis on the percussion than just the synth," she observed.

"I like it," she told him. "It's somehow better than the original. Wait, maybe not better, since the original is in a league of its own, but different. It has a nice fresh feel."

He hummed in agreement. "Well, we can't completely sound like the original when we don't have all the members and a female voice to contrast our male voices," he explained. "It's nice how it doesn't take away from the original feel of the song."

Just then, Baekhyun came out of the recording booth, a wide smile on his face. "Hyung, how was it?"

Junmyeon smiled at him. "You did well."

Eunji clapped slightly for him. "You did incredibly!" she said. "You really do have one of the best voices in EXO."

Baekhyun beamed as the producer gave him a smile of approval. He walked to the couch behind them and sat down, grabbing a water bottle and drinking it. In the meantime, Chanyeol walked into the studio and Kyungsoo returned carrying four bottles of flavored water.

As Chanyeol began his rap according to the music, Junmyeon couldn't help but look over at his members sitting on the couch. Smiling slightly at their hushed conversation as they monitored their own performance, his gaze then slowly landed on Eunji who was bobbing her head to the rap before leaning over to ask something of the producer.

With Chanyeol's part done and done fabulously, it was then Eunji's turn, the final one to record the song. She had already gone over her parts with each and every one of the members and even the producer, so she had to be pretty confident.

When she began singing though, Junmyeon stared as the music wafted through his ears. She sounded good, really good, better than she did with Apink. Maybe it was just because she was singing his song, but still...she sounded incredibly good. How was it she could easily blend with their own voices?

He was astounded.

When she finished her part and came out of the booth, the other members gave her a round of applause. 

She then looked over at him and all he could do was smile and give her a thumbs-up.

***

He didn't know why, but when he returned, he had this instinctive feeling to check his SNS. 

He wasn't sure, because he wasn't much of a social media person, and the only reason he even had an account was because the company had asked him to create one. Normally, he would go days or even weeks without checking his SNS. But today of all days, today he needed to check it.

When he opened it, he was met with a flurry of messages, all very angry, all very surprised. Cocking his eyebrow, he scrolled through the messages to see that they were all about Chanyeol.

Chanyeol? Why would there be an outrage over him? He had just seen him the day before while recording with Eunji.

Luckily, he found a link on a message and when he clicked it he found it to be a news article.

The headline was the first thing he saw: EXO CHANYEOL RUMORED TO BE DATING FEMALE IDOL?

He sat up straight in his bed. Chanyeol? Dating? Last time he checked, nothing of this sort ever happened. He knew the contract very well, and even if he were dating, the relationship wouldn't last long due to the overwhelming amount of activities they do as idols.

He read through the rest of the article and felt his stomach begin to do flips as he put together the scenario.

According to the article, Chanyeol had been spotted at a cafe with a girl group member. He wasn't sure about the source, since all that had been provided was a blurry picture from afar, but he did make out a light brown hair color.

The same hair color that Chanyeol was sporting currently.

He wasn't an idiot, and he knew that Chanyeol wasn't the only idol in the world to wear a color like that. He still wasn't sure about the article because it was based on complete suppositions and rumors, but he knew their fans would go ballistic. He had seen the response they had when they allegedly spotted Baekhyun with Taeyeon.

He needed to confirm something first.

By the time he got to the living room, it seemed the news had spread to all the members. He saw them huddled around Chanyeol, who had one of the most terrified expressions on his face. They were busy interrogating him, and the leader knew that his young junior was going insane, and this was even before the actual waves arrived.

"Hey!"

All the members stood frozen in their spots before slowly turning to see their leader. Chanyeol, for one, seemed even more terrified that Junmyeon was getting involved with this. It was bad, very bad.

"All of you go do something. I need to talk to Chanyeol."

They respectfully pushed off, leaving their main rapper and leader to talk things out. Junmyeon sat beside Chanyeol, the latter now hugging a cushion to his chest. He let out a deep breath.

"You've heard the rumors already?" Chanyeol asked softly.

Junmyeon nodded. "I want to hear it from you," he said. "What happened?"

Chanyeol sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I-I-I don't know. I was just getting a coffee when I saw her. We'd seen each other on music shows so she said hi. We just sat together for a very short while, like just half an hour because she had a schedule."

Junmyeon placed a hand on his shoulder. "You did nothing wrong, Chanyeol," he softly said. "You have a perfectly valid reason and alibi, it's unbreakable. You've got this."

"So I'm not in trouble?" Chanyeol asked. "I'm not going to be kicked out?"

"Why would you?" Junmyeon asked. "If they were going to kick people out for dating scandals, then we wouldn't have Jongin or Baekhyun with us. And those two really are dating. You're not. You were just having a small drink with someone you knew."

Chanyeol nodded. "True."

Junmyeon smiled, playfully pushing his junior's shoulder. "Now, cheer up. You will definitely be called to the CEO's office tomorrow, but don't worry. Just tell them exactly what you told me and you'll be fine."

Chanyeol's face held an expression of relief. "Thanks so much, hyung."

Junmyeon chuckled in response and went back to his room, silently scrolling through the wave of outraged fans on SNS by himself. This was nothing big, he told himself. Jongin and Baekhyun, they were big. Chanyeol is clean, he's innocent. He'll be completely fine.

He hoped to God he was right.

***

A/N: I know, I know, I'm supposed to be updating "Future Sky", but this story is one I've really wanted to do. I think it's just getting good, so just wait and watch to see what comes next.

I've also recently been getting into making covers recently. I may start a cover shop, so look out for that.

Hope you guys are enjoying this story as much as I am.