Belated Bloom - Lay (EXOxLay)

Bloom

**Trigger warning: Abuse, Rape (non explicit-but still...)

Rated: M

Chanyeol walked quickly, nearly running, down the hallway to tell his pack mates the good news; Yixing was finally here! Yixing been AWOL for the past 24 hours and when Yixing and his manager had failed to show up for rehearsal yesterday all of the managers and staff were scrambling to find out what the hell happened. All they knew, or at least told Exo, is Yixing and his manager had at some point traded in their tickets for a much later flight and they had heard after the concert that they had landed- but that was it. For the last hour Exo had been waiting together for more information, now 2:00AM and Chanyeol finally had some good news!

Smiling like a fool, he hurried to push the elevator call button, anxiously waiting for the elevator to arrive.

'Come on, come on! This is the 21st century' he whined in his head, 'shouldn't everything be, like, lightning fast by now?'

He knew it was absurd- no one was really to blame for the stupid-slow elevator, but it did help his anxiety a bit. His hand twitched with a nervous itch and he bounced on the balls of his feet as his impatience grew.

*Ding*

"Finally" he huffed out in vague annoyance. As soon as the elevator doors opened, he rushed in and quickly pressed the button for the 9th floor.

This was super important news for the pack! They hadn't heard from Yixing or his manager all day and just 2 minutes ago Chanyeol saw Yixing's personal manager in the lobby. When Chanyeol had rushed over and asked about Yixing, the manager had given him an angered glare and told him "Yixing is here and resting, this can wait until morning" then he had turned away and walked out the lobby doors (presumably to the parking lot- unless Chanyeol was mistaken). He obviously wasn't interested in being friendly, and even though the manager was a bit older than him, it annoyed Chanyeol how rude the beta had been to him for no reason!

Chanyeol froze in his recollection as his mind connected the dots. Taehyung was Yixing's personal manager...that meant he probably knew everything! Yixing being a Non, and all that had happened between him and Exo...so, maybe he was angry at him because of how he had treated Yixing?

He tossed the thought around in his head, mulling it over thoroughly. It wasn't new to him really, he actually thought about his estranged hyung quite a bit.

For most of them, it had all started that horrible night Yixing had returned to the dorms after 'presenting', which had ended in a forced presentation for himself and Kyungsoo.

Chanyeol shivered, phantom pain spread through his limbs as he reflected on that dreadful night.

Of course, he could never have guessed that after he presented, everything would change. After that night, Baek and Jongdae avoided Yixing like the plague- Chanyeol kind of understood, but every time he had approached Baekhyun about talking to Yixing he would cover his ears and walk away (literally, like a child). Baek was so stubborn and Chanyeol was so tired that he soon gave in and stopped asking and pushing the omegas to reconcile with Yixing.

If there was one regret Chanyeol had, it was probably giving up that fight.

If only he hadn't presented and been so exhausted all the time, maybe he could have made Baek talk to Yixing and clear the whole guilt-depression thing up. I mean, forced presentations happened all the time- but also, in the end that was also a lie of Yixing's.

If only they had cleared the air sooner! Then maybe Baek wouldn't have felt so hurt after Tao revealed Yixing's lies- Baekhyun had been feeling guilty for so long over Yixing's 'presentation' lie, that once it had been revealed, he just lost it. That was the real reason why Minseok had ignored Yixing's call when they got back to the dorms- (when Baek and Jongdae had broke down after the meeting about Yifan the year before, Minseok was driven nearly mad by their swirling emotions and had punched Yixing- and ever since Minseok had vowed never to hit any of them again).