Stalker | D.O. + EXO

Kyungsoo lies in his bed beneath Chanyeol's and listens to both the older's and Jongin's soft snoring. He silently curses when he looks at the alarm clock next to him as the red numbers display that the time is quarter after four in the morning. He huffs before turning on his side and trying once again to get to sleep. His eyes burn with fatigue but with the cogs in his mind seeming to be eternally spinning, he just cannot get any rest. All feelings of tiredness are instantly thrown out of the window as white light shines through the thin lines between the wooden blinds. Kyungsoo squints a little at the brightness before swinging his legs out of his bed and walking slowly to the window. He leans over the desk and pulls down one of the wooden slots of the blinds. His eyes narrow when he spots the very familiar white van that is parked down the street, but this time, it is too close to the dorm than he would like. He watches in silence as two men in the front seats of the van turn on something on the dashboard.
"For goodness sake." Kyungsoo mumbles as he fumbles around quietly for his glasses. He hates how he's practically blind without them. He watches as the two men search for something in the back of the van, grabbing a black duffel bag from the back seat and hauling it into the front. Just after they open the bag, one of the men looks up at the dorm and his eyes quickly find the young idol's, who panics and almost trips over the rug while scrambling back from the sight. He sits on the floor breathing a little heavily in panic.
"Shit." He cusses as he slides open the closet door and grabs a pair of his jeans. He quickly pulls them on and creeps downstairs with speed, socked feet almost slipping a few times on the hardwood floor. His hands tremble and his knees knock with thousands of horrible possibilities cascading like a waterfall in his mind, terrible thought after terrible thought falling into a large pool. He kneels down in front of the large living room window and pulls back the drawn curtains slightly, just enough so that one eye could see onto the street. The van's lights are turned off and the sound of the engine is no longer audible, but the vehicle still sits there, it's menacing white body lain in the street. He sighs shakily, placing a hand over his racing heart.

After almost ten minutes of waiting for something to happen, he slowly walks up the stairs, across the hallway and into his bedroom. He gazes absentmindedly at the alarm clock which now reads thirty-three minutes after four. He nearly groans aloud when he realises that they've to wake up for practice at seven. As minute after minute goes by, he finds his eyes closing, his breath and heart rate slowing as he slips into his slumber. A loud wailing noise wakes him up mere seconds later and he realises that it is the alarm clock. However, what felt like seconds later was really only two hours and nineteen minutes later. He growls before slamming his hand down on the snooze button. Chanyeol and Jongin are awake, the top bunk creaking as the eldest stretches before climbing down the ladders. Jongin chuckles tiredly when he sees the state of Chanyeol's hair, which is sticking up in quite possibly every direction. The boys have an hour to get ready before leaving for dance and vocal practice.
"Kyungsoo. Soo. Kyungsoo." Jongin begins to shake the tired idol gently, just enough so that Kyungsoo is awake. With that, they all trudge down to the kitchen to get breakfast.

Kyungsoo can already tell that it is going to be a slog today as he spoons cereal at sloth-pace into his mouth. Junmyeon taps his shoulder and asks if he is feeling alright and if he got enough sleep. It isn't exactly difficult to see how tired the young idol is, with his large purple eye bags, bloodshot eyes, pale face and slow movements. After everybody is ready, they have to wait an extra ten minutes for the third youngest. The boys are becoming agitated due to the fact that they want to leave and get their practice over with for the day, but they can't do that if someone is being slow and making them late.
"All done?" Yixing asks. "Let's go, guys. The sooner we start, the sooner we finish." Their black van is already waiting for them outside with their manager in the front, waving at them.
"What took you all so long? I've been waiting here for about fifteen minutes." He complains, turning the key in the ignition and starting up the vehicle again. Kyungsoo leans against Baekhyun and quickly falls asleep. The older takes a photo of the two of them and signals to Minseok to look at his phone. After only twenty minutes more, the van rolls into the car park of the SM Entertainment building. They enter and walk past reception, into the lift and go up to the twelfth floor. After entering the dance studio with a key card, Sehun plugs in the speakers and the laptop into the sound station before all of them start to warm up. A sequence of stretches and moves have been made mandatory by Lee Sooman, in order to prevent injury while practicing. After dancing to Growl, Monster and Lucky One, the boys take a break, flopping onto the floor next to the glass mirrors. Beads of sweat roll down their backs and only the sound of breathing can be heard.
"Holy shit." Jongin pants, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He feels disgusting and he is only three dances in. Due to the studio being an enclosed space and the fact that nine people are crammed into a room while dancing to exhausting routines, the room gets pretty hot pretty quickly. Chanyeol ruffles his damp hair and Minseok shrieks in disgust.
"You got your pore juice all over me!" He shouts, slapping the younger playfully on the arm. Junmyeon laughs and takes a gulp of water before speaking.
"Knock it off, you two. We have to get through our list of choreo and we only have four hours and something to run through it twice." Roughly ten minutes later, just after the intro for Ko Ko Bop starts, their choreographer walks in and greets the group of boys. After running three straight dances again, the boys are allowed to have a sit down for a few minutes while their choreographer coordinates their positions on the stage that they will be performing at for their comeback- Music Bank. And with that, their usual schedule is interrupted and they've to start learning their new routine.

"So you are going to turn and land with both feet square on, then you four are going to turn and land on your knees, and the other five are going to spring up from your position with your bodies in a slanted warrior pose. Alright, on four. One, two three and-" The choreographer watches the group as the main dance line get the choreography almost immediately, Sehun doubting himself but correcting his pose at the last minute while a few of the other boys struggle with the turn. The choreographer shakes his head and turns a finger in the air in a circle- a sign for the boys to repeat the sequence of steps.
"One, two three- ok, good. Let's try the entire routine." After having just under two minutes of the routine completed, they begin learning the second half of the song. Upon finally finishing the choreography and running through it three more times, the exhausted men are allowed to go home and rest for a couple hours before returning for vocal lessons. All of the members are knackered and they only wish to jump back into bed to sleep, but aren't allowed to do so due to the fact that they need to wash up, get changed, eat then head back out to the company building again.

"I think that of all the things that we have to do, I hate dance practices the most." Jongdae whines, wiping away his sweat with a towel from his bag.
"Yeah. I just know that by tomorrow I'm going to completely forget the choreography. Just you see!" Chanyeol smiles widely, although the others can see the fatigue in his large eyes. Halfway through the drive, the van is silent apart from the clicking of the indicator every so often and the soft sound of the engine. Kyungsoo rests his head back and almost sighs when he finds a comfortable position. However, his happiness doesn't last long when Yixing taps him on the shoulder and his tired eyes open.
"Don't go to sleep. We still need to do things to prepare for the vocal sesh. Trust me, if you sleep, it will only make you more tired later on. Besides, what were you doing this morning?" The older asks and Kyungsoo is surprised. He thought that he was quite quiet, but apparently not.
"I-I needed the bathroom. But there was a bug in the upstairs one." Kyungsoo lies, hands playing with the hem of his shirt slightly nervously.
"No there wasn't. What is your real reason? I won't judge you, I'm just curious." Yixing pries. He knows that something has been going on with his fellow bandmate but can't for the life of him figure out what. It shouldn't hurt if I tell him...right?

Hi guys! I hope that you are all safe where there is flooding and that you are having a good day. I hope that you guys enjoyed this longer update and that you liking the story so far. Please don't be afraid to leave criticism or suggestions (although if you do, I will credit you). I love you guys and thank you for supporting me! ❤️🍪

Word Count: 1692