As they entered the conference room, a new face sat in the chair at the head of the table.
"Excuse me, this is a reserved conference place for a meeting between EXO and their manager. Can we help you?" D.O. asked.
"Ah! You guys are three minutes late, don't be late next time." The man said.
"Who are you?" Chanyeol asked.
"So on Su Ju's joining, what do you guys think about him?" The man asked, ignoring Chanyeol.
The EXO members began to shout and yell, ignoring the fact that they were ranting to a random man.
"We are just fine with eight members." Kai said.
"Whoops, too bad." The man said.
"Can we make him debut in another group?" D.O. asked the other members.
"Nope." The man said, popping on the 'p.' "You'll have to deal with him for another six years, and you have no choice. This is something that's going to happen and you can't do anything to change it. Copeesh? You have to follow my orders anyways. I am your new manager after all."
"WHAT!? NO, YOU ARE NOT OUR NEW MANAGER. YOU ARE THE ONE WHO MUST HAVE CHOSEN TO REPLACE OUR LAY! ARE YOU SERIOUS!? SO WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NOW, ARE WE GOING TO GET THREE MORE CHINESE MEMBERS TO REPLACE, KRIS, LUHAN, AND TAO!? I BET THAT YOU'LL KICK US OUT OF OUR OWN GROUP. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, OUR FATHER? WE WONT ACCEPT YOU AND WE WONT ACCEPT DUMB SU JU. SO THERE. IF YOU KEEP ON ACTING LIKE THIS, WE'LL HAVE YOU FIRED. WE'LL HAVE YOU KICKED OUT. AND THEN YOU'LL BE ON THE STREETS AND-" Baekhyun began to yell.
EXO's manager walked over to Baekhyun and slapped him.
All of the EXO members fell completely silent.
"I-I really don't think that I should be in this group, besides, I still need proper training and-" Su Ju began.
"Su Ju, for the love of god, shut up. Kai, train him in dancing. I want him to know every single move of our newest album. D.O. and Chen, work with him and practice on your singing. Su Ju, just listen to them. As your new manager, all of you will listen to me."
Baekhyun gritted his teeth and nodded his head.
"He's sorry." D.O. said, gesturing to Baekhyun. "He didn't mean it."
"Keep in mind our respected positions, Baekhyun." EXO's new manager said.
"Anyhow, you will call me Manager Hyun. Here's your new schedules, and have a good day!" Manager Hyun said, throwing schedules into the air. They floated down slowly and scattered around everywhere.
"Wait...what happened to our other manager?" Chen asked.
"I got him kicked out for supporting Yixing." The manager said before smirking and leaving, slamming the door shut.
"That son of a bitch!" Chanyeol yelled, punching the wall.
"What the hell. There is something seriously fucked up here." Kai said.
"Guys...he didn't look like he was messing around. I think we should follow his orders..." Xiumin said.
"Seriously Xiumin?" Baekhyun asked.
"No, Xiumin's right. He threatened us by kicking us out and I'm sure that he has the power to do so. Baekhyun, you need to calm down. Don't do that again. I understand that we're all freaking annoyed right now, but we have to deal with him. I don't want EXO to end." Suho said.
"Me neither." Chen agreed.
"I don't want EXO to end either..." Baekhyun said softly. He massaged his temples.
"Are you okay?" Su Ju asked Baekhyun. Who just pouted and faced away from him.
"Hey Sehun, are you okay? You haven't been talking for a while now." Xiumin asked. He rubbed Sehun's back. Sehun just turned away and walked out of the room.
"Sehun wasn't that close to Lay but this must remind him of the other one.." Chen sighed.
"What other one?" Su Ju asked confusedly.
The EXO members glared at Su Ju and were silent for a while.
"Alright! Let's get started with our schedules." Chen said, gathering a few of the scattered papers and passing them out.
~
"Okay, let's work on Ko Ko Bop, considering that its the main song of the album. You wouldn't know that though, would you, Su Ju." Kai sassily said.
"Oh! I've been practicing that on my own time!" Su Ju said excitedly.
"Okay, let's see you do it by yourself with no music." Kai said.
"But I haven't perfected the moves and-" Su Ju began.
"Well that's how good you need to be. Don't try boasting with us." Kai said.
"But I wasn't boasti-"
"Okay, let's start!" Kai said, cutting off Su Ju.
For the next six hours, the nine boys danced to the one song, Ko Ko Bop over and over again, having only two water breaks. By the time they were done, they were exhausted. When they finished, it was around 11.
"Okay. Voice lessons and then lunch. Su Ju, you'll be going with Chen and D.O. to have voice lessons. We'll be in the other room for our lessons." Suho said. The other six EXO members left.
"Follow us." Chen said. The three boys traveled throughout the SM building and ended up in a recording booth. Chen began to teach Su Ju how to warm up his voice. D.O. was playing around with the settings and setting up the microphones.
Soon, Suho came in to the members surprise.
"Manager Hyun wanted me to accompany you guys so that you don't mess up anything." Suho said. He said it aloud but they all knew he was talking about Su Ju.
Suho sat in the back while Su Ju stepped into the booth. Chen instructed him on his singing for a while.
"Okay, not sing from your diaphragm, not your throat. Take a deep breath and try it again." Chen said.
"Okay.." Su Ju took in a deep breath and before he could release a single note, he threw down his headphones as a shrieking noise pierced his eardrums.
"Oops, my bad." D.O. said. Suho sat in the back, laughing lightly.
"I-Its okay." Su Ju muttered.
For the next three hours, Su Ju got lost in his own world with singing, Chen tagging along. Chen shared tips with Su Ju on how to hit those high notes and Su Ju listened to Chen carefully. Before either one of them knew it, three hours were over and they had finished an hour late.
"Wait, where's Suho and D.O.? I didn't even notice that they left." Su Ju asked.
"Oh, they left around two hours ago to get food. They were hungry." Chen explained cleaning up the place.
"They can do that?" Su Ju asked.
"They're not supposed to. Let's go eat. We finished one hour late, so we only have around twenty minutes left." Chen said, laughing.
"Hey! It's not funny. You need to eat more. I'll be fine, but you are as skinny as a twig Chen." Su Ju said, showing concern.
"Awh, I'll be alright. Wanna just walk among the streets and talk? We can meet EXO back at the conference room. We have another meeting with Manager Hyun." Chen proposed.
"Sure, that sounds nice." Su Ju said.
They left the building and went onto the cold streets.
"You have a really nice voice. I was shocked that you could sing so well in English! That's a really good skill to have." Chen said.
"Thanks! But I think your singing beats my voice. You can hit such high notes, I'm really impressed." Su Ju said, laughing.
"Su Ju, you haven't even heard Xiumin's high notes." Chen laughed.
"Oh! I watched that video with the high note battle!" Su Ju exclaimed, excited.
"Wow, you sure did your research." Chen chuckled, shaking his head.
"I was so surprised when I was invited into EXO, so I crammed all of the information on you guys into my mind the first day I met you guys!"
"Ah, no wonder you were so tired. Studying nine different members is tiring."
"Even worse, I decided to study the other three-" Su Ju stopped himself from saying anything more. For the next few minutes, both of them were quiet.
"It's okay," Chen whispered. "In my heart, there are still twelve members."