When I Leave | EXO

(1) What I Lost

"Kim Minseok!" Hajae shouted, "Pick up your wrappers!"

"Shut it, Hajae! I don't need my sister telling me what to do!" He screamed back.

"Love you too!" She responded, laughing and shaking her head.

I giggled. It was enjoyable when Minseok and Hajae fought, simply because they never meant it. "Xiumin really likes to leave his protein bar wrappers around the living room. Let him go."

"This is a brand new house," she sighed, engulfing her face in her hands, "He bought a house for the three of us, and then trashed it within a few months."

Kim Hajae and I graduated from school four months ago, and Kim Minseok, who only I called Xiumin, bought a house for the three of us to live in, although he was gone for hours every single day.

"Give him a break. He's been trying to lose weight, and he's stressed out." I practically begged her to let Xiumin alone.

Hajae was my best friend, and Xiumin was my best friend's brother, who might as well have been my best friend, just because of the way we hung out when he wasn't gone off doing something in Seoul.

Just then, Xiumin plopped down on the couch in between Hajae and I. He wrapped his tan arm around my shoulder. Hajae was as pale as me, but Minseok was tan, and chubby, with a rather round face and unforgettable facial features. Hajae was like I said, pale, with brown hair that was tinted a ginger color. She had similar features, such as the doe-rounded eyes.

"You don't need to defend me, Hyojin. She loves me, and she'll always love me, whether my wrappers trash the living room or not."

I laughed at that, and untangled myself from his strong hold. "So what to you guys wanna do today?"

The happiness indented in Xiumin's face instantly disappeared. "I have to go to Seoul everyday, you both know that."

Hajae frowned along with me, and mumbled, "We know, I guess we just thought you could spend some more time with your sister and best friend."

The joyful atmosphere that was previously in the room disappeared before us.

"Nice going, tool. Now everyone's depressed." Hajae added, which made me crack a smile.

Xiumin pushed himself off the couch and looked at his phone. "I gotta go, guys. I'll see you soon. I gotta drive Kai with me today."

He kept disappearing to Seoul. Hours passed usually before he came back. Sometimes he drove Kai with him, sometimes he went alone. We didn't know where he went, though.

Before either of us could even say our goodbyes, he was out the door, running to his car that was almost never parked in the driveway. I could see Kai coming to get in his car also. Kai lived next door, but sometimes rode out to Seoul with Xiumin.

Hajae was quiet. Not a word peaked from her lips. Did I know what to say? Not a damn clue.

I skipped up the set of stairs to my room, and flopped onto my bed, upset and just tired of watching Xiumin waltz out of the house to leave for hours, but never coming inside to stay for more than a day at a time.

I stared at my ceiling, twisting the necklace Xiumin had got me the whole way back in the sixth grade, when I met Hajae and then her big brother. He was only 14 months older than her, which only made him a year ahead of us in school. The necklace was just a leather chain, with a silver metal snowflake pendant.

Normally, I'd just do something on my phone, maybe watch a BTOB music video, but something felt weird about Xiumin leaving this time. I didn't know what it was, but it felt like I just lost half of me. Cheesy, I know, but I'm being serious.