Manager Hwang stepped into the room just as he finished recording. After getting the all-clear from the song-writer, he hung his headphones on the mic stand and walked out.

"Hyung, is there something wrong?"

His manager shook his head, giving him a comforting smile. "Nothing's wrong, Junmyeon-ah," he said. "But I have noticed that you've been working incredibly hard this past month," he pointed out.

"Well, since I now have a girlfriend, I not only need to work harder so that I can make up for the time I spend with her, but also so that I can have even more time to spend with her."

Manager Hwang chuckled, ruffling his hair. "Eunji's got herself a really good one," he said.

"So, why are you here?" Junmyeon asked.

"I just wanted to pass on the message that next month your tour begins."

"Tour?" This was the first time Junmyeon was hearing about this.

Manager Hwang nodded. "President Lee is going to call a meeting tomorrow and have a talk about the schedule and other preparations," he explained. "He wanted me to pass this onto you first so that you can get everyone in the office on time."

"Tomorrow?" Junmyeon narrowed his eyes. He had worked especially hard to get that day off, especially since it was Valentine's Day, and now he had to go work?

Manager Hwang raised an eyebrow. "Yes, tomorrow," he repeated. "You sound disappointed. Did you have something you needed to do?"

"Yes," Junmyeon quickly said, but then caught himself and began backtracking. "No, sorry, I mean, it's fine. EXO comes first," he sounded down as he repeated his personal mantra.

Manager Hwang chuckled lightly. "It's not going to be a long meeting," he said. "The CEO himself doesn't have too much time, all he can spare is a couple of hours in the morning. He's left the rest to me and the organizers to tell you when you start preparing." 

Despite the fact that he tried his best to keep a straight face, the twinkle in his eyes made the older man laugh. "So, you're saying...?"

"You can still go on that date with Eunji that you seemed to have worked hard for," Manager Hwang said, laughing loudly.

Realizing that he'd been caught, Junmyeon let himself smile as anticipation filled in his chest. "What time should all of us be there?"

"Ten o'clock," Manager Hwang reminded as he walked out of the door. "Don't be late."

***

It was all he had to not dash out the second they were dismissed by the CEO, but he managed to hold himself together and lead the guys back to the dorm and send them off on their plans before running inside to throw on a decent looking dress and pants, grabbing his coat and dashing out of the dorm.

Mainly because he was going to be late.

He managed to hail a cab and drive to their meeting location, getting out in a rush to see whether he had made her wait.

However, he found that he was not only on time, but also early.

So as he leaned against the wall, trying to catch his breath, he took a moment to look around the block.

Mid-February, the snow had all melted, but there was still a definitive chill in the air, and pockets of snow still lined the pathways. The air smelt fresh, as if the world was waking up from a deep slumber.

It was definite. Spring was on its way.

Too bad he wouldn't be here to see it. 

It was then that he saw Eunji walking up towards him, waving in greeting. Throwing a quick glance at his watch, he saw that she was exactly on time. He grinned as he waved back to her, beckoning her over.

The two entered the restaurant, giving the orders to the waiter while they took out the time to sit and chat. 

"Eunji, I need to tell you something," he said. 

"What is it?" she asked. "You sound so sullen."

He smiled at that. "EXO is going on tour from next month, right after we drop our new album." 

"Are you?" she asked, sounding impressed. "That's cool!"

"Yeah, It's a world tour, so I probably won't be back for six months."

"Six months? Your tours are getting longer!" she exclaimed.

He nodded. "Yeah, they've added a couple more countries to the map," he chuckled. 

Something then seemed to strike her and after a while she spoke up again. "Show me your schedule," she said.

Silently wondering why she asked, he took out his phone and showed her the photo of the schedule that he had taken earlier in the day. She took the phone from his hand and scrolled through it.

"This is good!" she said, putting the phone down and pointing to a date. "We overlap here in China!"

"Overlap?" he asked.

She nodded. "We actually also received our schedule today," she sheepishly said. "Our tour's much smaller and we're only covering China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and the Philippines, but we should be in China when EXO performs as well."

He raised an eyebrow. "That's an interesting coincidence," he chuckled.

"We can meet then," she excitedly said.

"Only for a little while," he pointed out.

"That's enough for me," she said. When he stared at her, she continued. "We won't be seeing each other after that for four whole months!"

"And you're absolutely fine with that?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I'd be lying if I said I was completely fine," she said. "I do want to spend more time with you, see you more often. Am I okay with only seeing you one day in two months and then not seeing you for the next four months? No."

She looked down, heaving a huge sigh. "But I do know that our work will always come first. I can understand that better than anyone."

She looked up, smiling widely. "So I'll be fine, don't worry!"

He stared at her for a few more moments. "Have I ever told you how amazing you are?" he asked.

She grinned. "So many times."

She placed her elbows on the table. "So, I was wondering, do the members who left still keep in contact?"

He paused, stunned by the question. "What's with the question?"

She shrugged. "Just curious."

"You also had a member leave, didn't you?" he asked, remembering a piece of vital information.

She nodded. "Yookyung left, not because she wanted to, but because her father made her leave. According to him, she was spending too much time with Apink and not enough on her studies, and he also felt it was impacting her health." She sighed. "She's still in contact, in fact, it's like she never left. The only difference is when we perform, we do it without her. Otherwise we see her almost every second day."

He chuckled. "Glad to know at least someone's still on good terms with their former members."

"You aren't?"

He exhaled lightly. "Luhan calls in regularly, even though he's busy, he never forgets to call in to congratulate us on a new album or tour or other thing. Sometimes he calls in just to chat. Zitao, he's not as regular as Luhan, but he does call in often. He likes to keep in touch with Yixing and Jongin."

"And Kris?" she asked.

"Kris...Yifan...hasn't stayed in contact since he left the group two years ago," Junmyeon let out.

"Why?" Eunji asked.

He shrugged. "I'm not sure, all I can think of is that he's trying to erase any last trace of EXO from his mind."

"Why did they leave in the first place?" she asked.

"Because the company took them for granted," he growled lightly under his breath. "They overworked them, trapped them, took them for granted just because they were Chinese. They never treated Lay like that, only the other three. Eventually, they exploded and sued the company." He looked up. "Yifan was the first to leave, the others followed his lead."

She leaned in closer slightly. "You seem to be harboring a lot of anger for the company."

He gave a sarcastic laugh. "That's an understatement," he said. "I hate them. I hate them for what they did to them, to us. I hate them for tearing our family apart." He dropped his eyes to the table, his hand slightly shaking. "I hate them for making 'We are One' a lie."

She reached out and covered his hand with hers, stroking the smooth skin with her thumb. He sighed. "Sorry for springing this on you so suddenly," he said.

"I was the one who brought it up, I wanted to hear you say it."

"Why?"

"Because you needed to talk to someone. Just because I haven't experienced the same level of separation you have, doesn't mean I can't listen."

***

A/N: So, funny story, I was going to publish this last night, but there was a power cut and also a problem with my internet so it didn't save and I lost more than three-fourths of the chapter. I wrote down everything I could think of, though.

And I don't know why I didn't search out this song before. VIXX's "Can't Say" is literally the most perfect song for this story! Song is attached for your listening pleasure :)