With the use of N-body calculations, the numbers and properties of escaping stars from low-N (N= 100 and 1000) young embedded star clusters prior to gas expulsion are studied over the first 5 Myr of their existence. Besides the numbers of stars, different initial radii and binary populations are also examined as well as virialized and collapsing clusters. It is found that these clusters can lose substantial amounts (up to 20 per cent) of stars within 5 Myr, with considerable velocities of up to more than 100 km s-1. Even with their mean velocities between 2 and 8 km s-1, these stars will still travel between 2 and 30 pc during the 5 Myr. Therefore large numbers of distributed stars in star-forming regions cannot necessarily be counted as evidence for the isolated formation of stars.