No You Girls || 艺兴

e l e v e n

e l e v e n

"With the way we keep up with them, its no wonder everyone thinks we secretly like them." Jongdae commented with distaste as he crossed his arms over his chest. He was sat on one of the couches in the lounge room, along with his eleven other group members, some of them sat on the carpet ground at his feet. 

After the articles started emerging like wildfire about Yixing and the Baby Lips maknae, SM started planning for damage control. It was publicity for their boy group, but it wasn't the kind they wanted. But Pledis had beat them to it and had their girl group idol to speak at a press conference where she denied being linked to Lay of EXO. Though SM disliked that the other agency had gotten the word out first, they were glad that her words served to calm the seas, if even to a minimal extent. 

When they found out the press conference would air that same afternoon, they were the first ones sat in front of their television sets to watch it. The members of EXO had been gathered in the lounge room of their floor in the dorm building to watch it as well.

None of them were too interested in what would be said except the managers and Yixing. 

For him, it was seen as more of an opportunity to watch his girlfriend on television without it seeming suspicious to anyone. He watched with close attention as Sun was sat at the middle of the table. Her manager introduced her first, and then the maknae was allowed to speak. 

She denied the rumors--as was expected. Then she talked about the fact that she did have a boyfriend, but that she didn't want to say who it was yet. Yixing felt his heart beating against his chest with excitement. Perhaps she was talking about him and was already making plans to make their relationship public. He thought about it as well. He had already thought about it several times.

He knew the risks and consequences of disobeying the agency. But he was willing to stand up to them, for her. He would accept any suffering in life, and obstacles or struggles, as long as it was with her.

As she spoke about the person she was dating--mentioning how both of them were not yet ready to be seen together in public because of what it could bring--Yixing couldn't help but smile to himself. Of course she's talking about our relationship, he told himself. That initial denial of their love at the start of the conference had been because her agency forced her to say those things. 

The conference only lasted about fifteen minutes before everyone was dismissed.

Walking back to their dorm together, Jongdae threw his head back and groaned in annoyance. "I am so done with hearing about Baby Lips' every move, aren't you, hyung? Its like we live for them." He said, which was true. Everything that Baby Lips did, EXO had to hear about, and then do something the same, but better. And everything that EXO did, Baby Lips had to criticize and try to do better as well. Both groups loved more to compete with each other nowadays than to make music and do what they loved. 

The media had done that to them--pitted them against each other.

Yixing sighed. "It really has gotten kind of repetitive."

"Its not fun anymore." Jongdae continued. "I mean, back then it was kind of nice to see them try to take us down and failing. Lu Han hyung is right. We should just ignore them and move on with our lives. This EXO-Baby Lips rivalry got old really quick." It had gotten quick for him, Lu Han, Tao, and a few of the other members. But not for the press. It always gave them something to talk about. It always gave them ways to stay relevant.

Jongdae still disliked them, but he was tired of fighting against them all the time.

It won't have to be much longer, Yixing thought to himself. Soon Mae and I will reveal ourselves as a couple and then maybe all of this fighting will stop.