Kris was standing a few feet behind them, watching as he stood in the middle of the street, but Tao was very far from noticing him. Kris watched him as he retreated back to the wall staring at the two guys with wide eyes. He could even tell he was slightly shivering.

Well, looking to the bright side, the boy was more composed than he thought he would be. He thought he would beg them to leave him alone or something but he was just standing there staring at the two idiots who were probably thinking they could really put a hand on him. But they were more than just stupid to think so. Kris would beat the out of them if they do.

He studied their forms from behind before looking back to Tao. The fear was clear on his face. Maybe he went too far with this. Maybe this was so much for the boy, he probably have never seen this kind of people in his eighteen years of life.

His thoughts were suddenly halted by the sudden gasp coming from the boy’s mouth as one of the guys was holding the knife really close to his Tao’s face.

Wait, did he just call Tao ‘His’? Where the hell did that come from?

Anyway, this is not time to think about such things.

“Hey there guys” Kris said making the two look back at him before he continued “Don’t you think it’s time to go home? It’s getting late for you” he stated with a smirk

“Why don’t you mind your own business? Get lost” the taller of the two said angrily

“No, no, no my dear, you shouldn’t talk like that, put some respect into it”

“You’re not one to talk” the shorter this time talked

Kris ignored the last comment as he stood still staring at the obviously older of the two. And the man felt really uncomfortable with the other’s stare, he knew the one standing over there is somehow dangerous. He could see it in his eyes and the creepy smirk on his lips.

“What do you want?” the man asked making his shorter friend look at him with disbelief

Kris chuckled “I only need my baby boy back”

“We got him first”

“Oh, you don’t seem to understand me, let me make it simple for you, It’d be better to leave him alone before I decide to spend the night with you, believe me it won’t be as pleasant as you think it would be”

The man took a step back as the stare on Kris’ face became way too cold, sending a shiver through his body.

When Kris knew that the guy in front of him was too scared to do anything he looked back to Tao.

“Tao” he called but the boy didn’t move an inch, still staring at the two guys in front of him with fear so Kris repeated “Tao, come”

Only then Tao looked at him. The younger stared into Kris’ eyes and by that the latter understood what the boy was thinking

“They won’t dare hurt you, come here”

It took Tao few seconds to move, only after he was sure of the confidence in Kris’ eyes. He moved only few steps at first, his back never leaving the wall behind him, and then he run.

The moment his hand came in contact with Kris’ arm he found himself clinging to him, his hands clenched so hard to the fabric of his jacket, and his face buried somewhere between his nape and right shoulder.

For some reason Kris felt something warm spreading through his body, coming from every spot the younger was touching. He tried to look back at him but he could see nothing of his face since Tao was totally glued to his shoulder as if Kris would disappear the moment he lets go of him.

Kris smiled at his cute actions before he looked back to the two guys

“Oh, you’re still there? I thought you left already… it would be a good Idea if you leave now, you’re making him scared and I don’t like it”

The shorter of the two men was fuming, because why the hell was his boss not saying anything to that tall guy, he looked at the man beside him before he decided to be the one to talk “You bastard shouldn’t  be—“ before he could even finish the other stopped him.

“Don’t”

“What’s wrong with you boss, why are you giving up to him?”

“You won’t understand, he’s dangerous” he whispered still aware of Kris’ gaze on him

“Won’t you two leave already?” Kris cut their conversation short; he was getting really annoyed by their presence. And as if they understood him they retreated and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Kris looked at Tao’s hands on his arm and sighed as he noticed how hard he was holding it. How‘s he going to deal with this now? He really went too far with the boy, maybe this wasn’t a situation for him.

“I told you that was going to happen” Kris started but before he could finish on he noticed something. He could feel the younger shaking slightly and he’s almost sure he heard a sniffle.

He hurriedly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to the front.

Tao was faster covering his own face with both his hands but it wasn’t that hard for Kris to see what’s going on

“Why are you crying?” he asked

“I’m n-not cry-crying” Tao denied but his voice betrayed him

“Yes you are, seriously?!”

“Yes I’m, so what?” Tao shouted, he finally stopped hiding his face and now Kris could see it clearly, with the red eyes and the tears falling down “I was…” Tao stopped there, his pride didn’t allow his to say the word, so he looked down at his own feet and tried to wipe his own tears with the sleeve of his expansive, one of a kind, suit.

“You really thought I would let them do anything bad to you?”

“But you weren’t there” he said in a low voice, still crying though.

When Kris called him beautiful before he really meant it, he really thinks that the boy’s beautiful no matter what kind of face he was showing, but crying, he wasn’t.

Well, he is beautiful but not the kind of beauty Kris would like to see. Now he really regretted doing this to him, even though it was Tao’s fault in the first place because he challenged him.

“I knew someone was gonna come so I was watching you. You know that, I told you, I just walked away because I wanted to demonstrate”

“But he was holding that thing really close even if you run he could’ve hurt—” Tao posed, he didn’t want to say it, even the idea was scary “You couldn’t have reached on time” he said instead

“I knew that they weren’t brave enough to hurt you, if I wasn’t sure of that I wouldn’t have left at all”

“But still—”

“Stop crying! I would’ve killed them if they touched you” Kris didn’t even realize how raised his voice was until Tao flinched, but he needed to prove his point, he really wouldn’t have left if he knew that there was the slightest possibility that Tao could get hurt

He looked at the boy who was staring at him with wide eyes and he didn’t find the words to explain what he said so he just stared back.

The silence lasted for long until Tao suddenly hiccupped and blinked few times. He totally forgot that he was crying.

Kris chuckled at the cute thing but when he realized it he hurriedly brought his hand to cover the smile on his lips. He didn’t want Tao to feel embarrassed about it but it was too late because the younger looked away from him, looking at anything in the street but Kris.

“You didn’t have to shout at me” Tao said, still avoiding looking at him

“Sorry… you stopped crying though”

“Because you startled me”

“I didn’t think you would get startled that easy, same as I didn’t think you’re gonna be scared of a knife when you didn’t even flinch for a second when you had a gun pointed at your head”

“That’s different”

“How different?”

Tao ignored that question and Kris decided to push the topic just few minutes later.

“Come on, I’m still insisting on walking you home”

Tao looked back at him “But it’s far”

“Why? Am I not worthy of walking with you for a long time?”

The younger widened his eyes as if he didn’t believe that Kris even asked that question, he shook his head and hurriedly answered

“No I don’t mind, let’s go” he held Kris’ arm again and tried to walk as close as he can to him, looking behind for few moments to check if there was anyone in there

“I thought you didn’t want me to follow you earlier, why are you clinging to me now then?”

Tao only shrugged at that, not even trying to move away from the taller

“I wasn’t serious when I said that”

“Really now? That means you were scared from the start”

“No… okay maybe just a little bit but that’s not the reason” at that Kris looked to the side

“Why then?” he asked and watched the boy avoid looking at him again

“I… don’t know… how” Kris raised a brow at that, so much liking how amusing this situation is getting “You don’t know how what?”

“I don’t know… the way back”

“What?” Kris stopped abruptly and stared at the boy in disbelief “Seriously? You never walked home before? At all?”

“No, they didn’t let me, I know the way from the university though but it’s the first time I come to this place that’s why I don’t know”

“Oh my god you need a life” Kris shook his head

“Yeah, tell me about it”

They walked in silence for some time until Kris asked

“So, wanna tell me how different?” and Tao laughed at that

“You never give up don’t you?”

“No”

“Well, I don’t know too, maybe because I was in so many situations with guns before and I kind of took it as granted that that thing won’t hurt”

“What kind of situations?”

“I’ve been taken few times before”

“What do you mean by taken?”

“Kidnapped”

“Really? And you’re seeing that as something normal because…?” Kris asked, totally surprised by the calm way the boy said the word kidnapped

“I never got hurt and it became normal after the second time”

“How many times did it h