There were a lot of fascinating things about moving to a new country - new people, new food, new customs and new places to go. Everything was new and interesting. Yixing could hardly hide his excitement when he tasted something delicious which he never tasted before, or when he was walking down the Han river and thinking that it was just as beautiful as k-dramas made it seem. He also enjoyed talking to people. Most people were really nice to him - always suggesting new food or new places which he had to see. Although all his relatives warned him that studying abroad would be very difficult, it turned out much easier. He enjoyed exploring everything and being independent - a luxury he didn’t have back in China. Sure he loved his family and was often called a mama-boy by his friends but he felt so overwhelmed by all the new things surrounding him that he didn’t have much time to miss them. Also he skpyed them every week so he didn’t miss out on the family gossip and mum’s remarks about eating more and finally dating someone. The last bit was more difficult than the first. He had only been in South Korea for year and he spent his time adjusting to his life there; no time for dating. Also there wasn’t a line of people who wanted to date him per say. But what its worth he managed to find some good friends.

Firstly it was Baekhyun - his self-proclaimed best bro forever. When they first met, Yixing was looking for his lecture room and he managed to find the lecture room 5 minutes later from the bell. When he entered the lecture room already mentally preparing himself to being scolded, he saw a boy standing on the lecturer’s desk wiggling his but and doing the ‘shy-shy’ thing from that famous song. Yixing just looked at the guy for a second, the guy looked back at him noticing his presence and they kept an eye contact for a second before Yixing closed the door without making a sound. A loud laugh was heard from the lecture room as the guy or Yixing would get to know him as Baekhyun, rushed to the door to bring him back to the class. Later it turned out that he lost a bet to Jongdae and that was what Jongdae made him do. Yixing immediately liked Baekhyun. There was this warmth all around Baekhyun. He was so nice and cheerful so even if you tried to hate him you couldn’t, not that Yixing ever had a reason to. So Baekhyun was the first person he got to know from his group.

The next was Junmyeon.  When Baekhyun convinced Yixing that he in fact found the right room and brought him back, Junmyeon was the first to come and greet him; being a general sweetheart and the member of the student council required getting to know all the people. When he learned that Yixing was Chinese, he immediately greeted him in Chinese but when Yixing asked in Chinese if he could speak the language, Joonmyeon’s face reddened and he said that it was the only thing he remembered. He said that it must have been hard being away from home and that he wanted to make Yixing feel more like home. That small gesture pulled at his heartstrings and Yixing couldn’t contain his fond smile when thanking the boy and answering his questions.

Now with Sehun things didn’t go all too smoothly. When he first got introduced to the boy (bless his lecturer who couldn’t bother to come on time for his class), Sehun was sitting near his desk with his head hung low. When Yixing greeted him, the boy raised his head just a tiny bit to look at Yixing with a cold expression mumbling a quiet ‘hi’ before lowering his head even more. Yixing got discouraged at this, thinking the boy didn’t care enough to acknowledge him. Only a few weeks and an accident later Yixing would realize that the boy was just shy and bad at expressing his feelings on his face. It wasn’t actually an accident; Yixing was telling Baekhyun how he already visited the river Han, Lotte world, Changdeokgung palace and a few other famous attractions in Seoul and was looking for somewhere new to visit. He didn’t even know Sehun was listening to their conversation, when a day later Sehun silently handed him a few booklets with all the attractions in the Seoul and went back to his seat. Things after that cleared up between them and Yixing started spending more time with Sehun and invited him to go with him to those places as his personal guide. It was nice. He loved his new friends and he knew they liked him back.

Oh, also there was Jongdae. He wasn’t really close with Jongdae. Not that the boy did something wrong or was not worthy of Yixing’s friendship, but they never got super close. For example, the friendship with Baekhyun and Joonmyeon came easily. They both asked him million questions about how he ended up in Korea, often complimented his Korean and cheered him up when he mispronounced stuff and got laughed at. They were attentive and sweet. Baek was also very clingy and Yixing, who really wasn’t a touchy person, couldn’t bring himself to mind Baek leaning into him during boring lectures. Joonmyeon was the mum friend and it got to the point that Joonmyeon often messaged Yixing’s mum telling her how much he ate or when he went to sleep. It would have been creepy if anyone else did it, but Joonmyeon was 1.73 meters of love and affection. With Sehun things worked out over the time. They talked some more and realized they had many interests in common such as dancing and travelling and it was during this conversations that Sehun begun opening up to him. He always got very excited when telling him how he went hiking with his big brother that one time or how his impromptu trip to Japan went. Despite his cold exterior, he had childlike excitement which most people got stripped off by the time they finish high school, but not him. No wonder Joonmyeon kept calling him his son, he kinda was everyone’s son and the apple of their eyes.

 Jongdae here was a different case. They had different interests, different characters and different ways of thinking, as far as he knew that is. Jongdae liked pranking his friends, making bets with them and embarrassing them if he knew their crush was nearby. His favourite target was Joonmyeon; too easy to embarrass and too soft to scold him properly. Of course Jongdae never went too far, but every time Jongdae and he were left alone there was nothing to talk about. Sometimes they’d discuss how difficult the homework and how little their lecturer cared for anything or anyone, but mostly they stayed silent. Yixing played a game on his phone, while Jongdae was silently sitting next to him. He didn’t mind the relationship they had going on but he always wanted to know more about the boy, so when Jongdae one day came up to him and asked him to teach him Chinese he agreed immediately.

 

xxx

 

Thursdays were never anything special; going to classes, coming back home, eating, resting and sleeping. Today there was a new thing added to his mundane schedule – teaching Jongdae. They decided to meet up in the campus library since it didn’t have a soul after 5pm. A perfect place to learn something. He came there 10 minutes earlier than they had agreed, put his notebook and pen on the table and begun waiting for Jongdae. To be honest he was a bit nervous. He didn’t have any kind of experience in teaching other people and his own grades weren’t that impressing and although Chinese was his mother tang, it wasn’t the easiest language to teach. He had only faint ideas of where he should start and how much to teach him. He even spent today’s lunch break to surf the net for tips on teaching the language. He promised Jongdae and he wasn’t the one to half- his promise. While he waited for Jongdae he began reading his notes again. He didn’t want Jongdae to know he had no idea what he was doing to he wrote his notes in Chinese.

 

Start with explaining the tones

Pinyin

Pronunciation exercises   

Hello

 

That’s all he had planned for the day. It was the first day so he didn’t want to scare the boy away.

The sound of sneakers on the wooden floor brought him back to his surroundings. He looked up to see Jongdae approaching him with his signature smile. He was wearing black skinny jeans, a white t-shirt and a flannel. His hair was neatly combed and Yixing had to admit he looked good.

Jongdae sat across Yixing and put his backpack on the chair by his side.

“Have you waited long?” asked he while taking his notebook and pen out of his backpack.

“Not really, I just came too,” replied Yixing casually.

“So where do we start?”

Jongdae folded his arms and looked straight at Yixing. It was a bit unsettling but Yixing ignored it and begun teaching.

“I should probably start with saying that Chinese is very hard, so if you want to back out, you should do it right now.”

“Do I look like someone who backs out of stuff?” said Jongdae arching his eyebrows amusedly.

Yixing chuckled and nodded his head. Jongdae was anything but a quitter. He never backed out of things even when once Baek dared him to answer their psychology test with nothing but emoticons. He was lucky the lecturer adored him or else he’d have to face the wrath of their dean and truth be told just his appearance made Yixing shiver in fear.

“So, let’s start, shall we?” when Jongdae nodded firmly, he continued, “we must start with the tones since on it depends whether the things you say make sense or not. Basically they are 4 tones and one neutral. The first tone is the level tone, the second is rising, the third is the fall-rising and the forth – the falling tone. You mispronounce one and you just might call your mum a horse.”

Jongdae was staring at him and listening attentively. Teaching wasn’t so hard. His nervousness was starting to lessen by every minute.

“You might need to write this down, though. Staring at me won’t make you remember this,” remarked Yixing as he noticed that Jongdae’s notebook and pen were left untouched.

Jongdae’s cheeks reddened as he quickly opened the notebook and begun writing some notes down. Yixing smiled to himself; Jongdae’s red cheeks were very cute.

“So let’s try out pronouncing some syllabus.”

Yixing had written some syllables down and he begun reading them and moving his hands along his voice. Jongdae followed after him. His pronunciation needed some work but overall he was pretty accurate. Being a singer had its perks when it came to tonal languages.

Then he explained what pinyin was and how the tones were reflected on them. Yixing wrote them down and turned the notebook so Jongdae could copy them.

Things were going easier than he thought. Jongdae was a quick learner. He sighed internally out of relief.

Then came probably the most challenging aspect of the Chinese language – the writing. The hieroglyphs themselves weren’t that difficult, except one tiny dot could change a meaning also the same character could have 5 other meanings and pronunciations. Yixing wondered what forced Jongdae to start learning the language when they already had enough homework to last them a year.

 He wrote the charters for ‘hello’ down and showed hem to Jongdae. Jongdae looked at him with the most unimpressed face Yixing had ever seen which made him realize that he might have thought too highly of Jongdae. He put his notebook between them and turned it to the right so Jongdae could see what he was doing.

“This is difficult,” whined Jongdae with a slight pout.

Yixing combed his hair in slight frustration. 

He stood up abruptly which startled Jongdae. His eyes followed Yixing as the other lifted Jongdae’s backpack and put it on his seat before taking the chair next Jongdae. They were sitting close enough for their arms to touch. Jongdae’s breath seemed to have hitched for a moment but Yixing might have imagined it. For now Jongdae was pointedly looking at his notebook which was now in Yixing’s hands.

He began writing the characters and explaining how he should write them. Then Jongdae tried writing them down. The characters were sloppy and barely readable. Yixing shook his head slightly before practically grabbing Jongdae’s hand. Jongdae froze for a second. Yixing began guiding his hand. This time the characters looked much better.

“See this isn’t that difficult. Try for yourself now,” said Yixing not hiding the excitement in his voice. Surprisingly enough he enjoyed teaching.

Jongdae shook his head as if getting rid of whatever thought he had in his brain and begun the character. This one looked good enough.

“Yes! This is right!” exclaimed Yixing.

He was so proud of Jongdae that he nearly reached his hand to ruffle the boy’s hair, but thought better of it. He touched the boy enough for one day. What if it made the boy uncomfortable? After all the noticed how stiff Jongdae was when he had his hand on his. He should be more thoughtful.

 “Oh course it is. After all I wrote it,” said Jongdae beaming.

“Don’t get all cocky with me now,” added Yixing amusedly.

“Only if you’d want me to,” said Jongdae wiggling his eyebrows.

Yixing farrowed his eyebrows for a second before realizing what Jongdae meant.

“ert.”

Yixing nudged Jongdae who was laughing at Yixing’s red cheeks.  

Someone cleared their throat near the boys which brought them back to reality.

“Sorry guys but we are closing in 5 minutes,” said the tall, tanned boy and without waiting for a reply headed back to his desk.

Was it already 6:20? Time really flows when you have a good time and did Yixing have a good time with Jongdae.

They looked at each other and silently decided that the lesson was over. They gathered their staff and went out not before bidding their goodbye to the tall boy at the desk.

They walked side by side in comfortable silence before Jongdae broke it.

“So… do you think I might be any good at Chinese?”

“Pretty good. This is the first lesson so of course I didn’t expect you to not make any mistakes. After some time you’d get better, don’t worry. Your tones were mostly accurate so you have nothing to worry about,” Yixing’s voice changed from serious to interested, “ By the way I meant to ask this the other day, but I forgot. Why are you studying Chinese anyways? I don’t mean you shouldn’t. It’s a beautiful language but you are a music major why would you need to bother yourself with a new language?”

“Ah, well…. The thing is I wanted to challenge myself. To try something I wasn’t sure I’d be good at. As you might have noticed I’m good at everything I do (it’s natural talent it can’t be helped), so I thought what could be better than learning a new language.”

Yixing snorted. Whatever the reason was, he never found Jongdae’s self-confidence annoying, it was rather admirable and a tiny bit endearing.

“Why me though?” this was another question interesting Yixing.

Jongdae averted his eyes and stared at the ground while replying.

“Well, first of all you are Chinese, so I figured you’d be my best choice for learning. Also we have known each other for a year now so I knew you’d be very diligent in teaching me. There was something else…”

Jongdae didn’t finish his sentence and looked at the street across them. He was biting his lip nervously as if he wasn’t supposed t say what he just said.

“What?”

When Jongdae still didn’t reply, Yixing fastened his steps and stood right in front of Jongdae blocking his way. He pulled Jongdae’s hand and stomped his feet cutely.

“Tell meeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

Jongdae couldn’t help the fond smile which appeared when he saw Yixing’s antics and looked at him while replying.

“It’s just we have know each other for a while, but we aren’t as close as we are to our mutual friends. And I just felt like knowing you better?” the last part sounded more like a question than anything.

Still Jongdae’s cheeks were very red and it was cute as hell. For the first time for a long time he felt something akin to butterflies in his stomach. Oh, boy, here we go.

Yixing just blushed in reply before nodding and drawing his arm back.

They kept walking without saying anything.

 

xxx

 

The next lesson was on Friday. Tuesdays and Fridays were the only days both of them had time for classes – Yixing preoccupied with his dance classes and Jongdae with his choir.

After their first lesson they became much closer. They still only ever talked about lessons, but at least this time they were also discussing their new one. Yixing made sure to remind him to study them, while Jongdae kept saying that he did in fact study.

The lesson on Friday proved otherwise. The tones were alright and Jongdae could also read pinyin, but when Yixing asked him to write the characters for the word ‘’hello’’ Jongdae ended up doodling something unreadable.

Yixing didn’t understand. Jongdae, despite his jokes and pranks, was a very responsible student and got nice grades; not to mention studying Chinese was his idea so why didn’t he study?

“Sorry didn’t have time to study properly,” said Jongdae sounding sincere (he wasn’t though; someone (not saying any names) might have enjoyed the other boy’s skinship a bit too much).

Yixing sighed as he had no choice than to sit next to Jongdae again. Again he sat very close to Jongdae and again he felt Jongdae stiff for a few moments before he relaxed.

The lesson after that went smoothly. Yixing taught him how to introduce himself. Jongdae yet again learned very quickly although his characters still needed work. They parted ways while entering the dorm, and Yixing thought how he didn’t mind spending like this the other 2 years left of his studying there.

 

xxx

 

On their third lesson Yixing wasn’t in his best mood. In fact, he was angry and disappointed at himself. They learned a new routine in their dance class but no matter how many times he tried he couldn’t get it right. He hated it. He hated how he always needed more time than the others. It was frustrating.

He had his head on the table when Jongdae came up. He had a smile on his face until Yixing raised his face and half-heartedly greeted Jongdae.

“What’s wrong?” asked Jongdae worriedly.

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Jongdae looked even more worried. Crap, Yixing really didn’t want to burden Jongdae with his problems. He’d deal with them later for now he needed to teach Jongdae Chinese and that’s what he tried to do.

“Let’s start with revising the last lesson’s vocabulary.”

Jongdae still looked worried but he let Yixing change the topic and go on with their lesson.

Today there were to study some words connected to the things surrounding humans.

“The next word is cǎo – means grass. Repeat after me cǎo.”

“Cào,” repeated Jongdae loudly.

Yixing couldn’t stop his chuckled.

“No, no pronounce it with a falling-rising tone or else it means “”,” explained Yixing with a smile.

“Oh, so if I want to say ‘ you’ I have to say ‘cào nǐ’?” asked Jongdae excitedly.

“Jongdae! This isn’t that type of a class. Please concentrate.”

The next word was fēijī meaning airplane.

“Can you try to make a sentence with it?”

“Yeah sure,” Jongdae seemed deep in thought then a smile (a playful one) appeared on his lips, as he loudly said the sentence, “Tā měitiān wǎngshang dǎ fēijī.”

Hearing this Yixing started laughing loudly with his head back and his hands clapping. Jongdae was also laughing although less loud than Yixing. It took Yixing some time before he calmed down, dried his eyes and asked Jongdae amusedly;

“In what context would you even use that?”

Jongdae just shrugged.

“You know, for shooting stuff?”

“Well, you aren’t wrong,” Yixing was still grinning, “So what you were trying to say was ‘every night he was hitting planes’, but in Chinese slang ‘hitting planes’ is a euphemism for male ion. Oh god, I’m so glad there is no one nearby. They’d question the things I’m teaching you. How did you even thought of that?”

Jongdae just shrugged with a faint smile on his lips.

Yixing shook his head before completely calming down and going on with the lesson. However, his smile remained all through it.

 

xxx

 

Yixing was late. That was something he never did. He was always early and had to wait for Jongdae, although to be fair the boy always came in time, it was Yixing coming earlier. Today though, his instructor kept him in the dance studio till 4:30. She was pissed at him for sleeping during the class when she was too busy criticizing the other boys. It wasn’t his fault, not entirely. He stayed up all night. He was warned the day would come and it came. He missed his country. He missed the cheap food sold on the streets, the people talking in his mother tang, missed knowing where to go and what to find there. He was homesick and it was killing him, so he stayed up whole night listening to songs in Chinese and crying. He managed to finally fall asleep at 6 am but had to wake up at 7am hence that incident.

It was 5:15 when he finally pulled the door of the library. The tall boy greeted him and said that Jongdae was still waiting for him. Thank God.

He approached the table they usually took when he heard a voice.

 

I’m not afraid of sunrise, only afraid of clarity

Woke up and realize I’m in love with you

I am unable to evade, unable to resist

No matter what type of ending, only hoping to giving up everything chasing towards you

 

Yixing was breathless. Jongdae’s voice had him breathless. He had never heard Jongdae sing with so much passion, so many emotions. He heard him a lot – singing to CBX’s songs or the 90’s Korean songs, but he never heard him sing a song with this kind of lyrics – with so much yearning and pain in his voice. Yixing stood there mesmerized just listening to Jongdae’s voice, as the boy was singing along to the song with his headphones on.

Jongdae finished the song and only then another realization came to Yixing – the song was in Chinese.

“Jongdae, that was amazing!” exclaimed Yixing coming closer to the boy.

Jongdae flinched, clearly not expecting anyone hearing him. His eyes focused on Yixing and he seemingly relaxed and a lazy smile stretched on his lips.

“Thanks.”

“I always knew your voice was good but this was just amazing!” said Yixing while sitting next to Jongdae.

He realized after their 2 lesson that there was no point in sitting across. This allowed him to see Jongdae’s shy smile in proximity and his heart begun beating faster. But then as if remembering he said;

“By the way you sang really well for someone who is just learning the language.”

“You don’t need to know the language fully to be able to sing properly. Also I just learned by the pinyin,” quickly explained Jongdae.

“Can you sing it again?”

“Right now?” Jongdae’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Yeah, I really want to hear your voice.”

Jongdae’s face became redder than Yixing had ever seen. Why was he so cute? Life was too cruel to Yixing. He could just look at that cuteness and not be able to do anything about it. Too cruel.

Jongdae began singing the song all over again. This time though, instead of looking out of the window, he was looking at Yixing. Sometimes his eyebrows would rise when he was taking a higher note, sometimes he’d close his eyes while singing to get into the song’s mood more. Most of the time he just stared right at Yixing.

Yixing felt a sudden change in the mood. He couldn’t look anywhere but at Jongdae. There was something magnetic in the way he stared at him while singing that song. It felt as if there was more to it that just singing a song. He felt as if Jongdae was talking to him, asking him a question to which he knew that answer but was too afraid to reply. He was drowning in the rich brown of Jongdae’s eyes. He felt like he was being suffocated in the most beautiful way possible.

Jongdae finished the song, but his eyes still remained on Yixing. They looked at each other – both feeling the same tension, the same pull, but before either of them could gather the courage to do something, a soft giggle was heard.

It broke the mood and both of them turned to the source of the sound.

They spotted the tall boy and … Sehun? Since when did these two know each other? Upon being noticed, the both boys rushed to hide their faces in the books they had in their hands and disappeared instantly.

Both Jongdae and Yixing didn’t dare to look at each other. They spent the lesson with red cheeks and fast heartbeats.

 

xxx

 

Yixing wondered just how many library rules he could break before the tall and seemingly scary looking boy would kick him out of it. Today’s violation was the lunch box with homemade food in it.

Joonmyeon being Joonmyeon noticed Yixing’s weight going down so he warned Yixing’s mum about it and Yixing’s mum being Yixing’s mum threatened that if he wouldn’t eat enough to get back to his original pre-Korea weight, she’d personally come to Korea to feed him and she  might as well take him back.

So here he was with the fried rice and the sour-sweet sauced chicken he made yesterday. He made more than enough for himself, so he though he might share. Normally he shared his food with either Sehun or Baekhyun (they usually complained the loudest when Yixing didn’t share his food), but not this time. This time he wanted to share the food with Jongdae. If he made the food specifically more so that he’d treat Jongdae, it’s none of anyone’s business.

Jongdae plumped down on his usual seat before noticing the lunchbox in Yixing’s hands.

“What you got there?”

“Fried rice and the sour-sweet sauced chicken. Want some?”

Jongdae’s eyebrows shot up before he smiled brightly.

“Of course I do! What student ever rejects free food? Where did you buy it?”

“I made it myself,” said Yixing with a proud smile.

“You made this? Now I want to try it even more, but don’t think just because you are my teacher I’d go easy on you,” stated Jongdae who already was breaking the chopsticks and had the lunchbox open.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Yixing watched Jongdae’s face carefully trying to gauge his reaction. At first Jongdae was chewing carefully, then his eyebrows did their thing, then he shrugged and swallowed the food.

“And?”

“So so,” said Jongdae casually as he took another bite.

Yixing on the other hand froze and looked at Jongdae with his mouth open.

“How dare you? I tried to make it as tasty as I could and here is what I get?” he sounded half offended, half hurt, “You know what? You can’t eat anymore, give it to me.”

With these words Yixing tried to take the lunchbox back, but Jongdae reacted quickly. He hugged it to his chest and spoke with his mouthful.

“Nau take backs,” said he while waving his chopsticks for emphasis.

*“Idiot”*

“What was that?”

“Nothing, just eat your terrible lunch.”

“Awwww, Xingxing, don’t sulk. Next time I’m sure you’d do better,” said Jongdae with a smirk.

“Who says there would be a second time?” replied Yixing casually.

“Of course there would be. You love me too much to let me starve.”

“Says who?” said Yixing with a smirk of his own.

Jongdae just pouted before continuing to chew on his food.

Naturally, there was a lunchbox the next time they met.

 

xxx

 

To Jongdae:

Can I ask you a favor?

 

From Jongdae:

sure what’s up?

 

To Jongdae:

I need to go to this distant cousin’s wedding but none of my family is here at the moment and I really can’t go there alone. I’m not good at talking to strangers I’d just end up embarrassing myself and my mum’d call to scold me. So… can you come with me?

 

Yixing’s heartbeat fastened as he waited for the reply. Of course he could ask Baek, Sehun or Joon, but he was a big boy and big boys should be able to understand their feelings and he did. He had a crush (more than a crush). Ever since he started spending more time with Jongdae his heart and soul knew no piece. He was a goner.

 

From Jongdae:

no probs. when?

xxx

 

For the first time since they started their twice a week classes, Yixing waited for Jongdae by his dorm room. He just stood there shuffling on his feet. He couldn’t help but think how datelike this was. He spent three hours trying to pick up an outfit which he thought would suit him best. He ended up trying on 4-6 outfits and sending photos to Baek who was too busy at the coffee shop to come to help. He with his exquisite taste and attention chose the suite that best outlined Yixing’s guns and thighs, which according to Baek were his biggest weapons and charms.

Jongdae opened the door and Yixing felt like he was punched on his chest. Jongdae was gorgeous. He always thought the boy was handsome, but today handsome didn’t come near to the way the boy looked.  His black suite hugged his frame perfectly. His hair was brushed back and he had a gorgeous smile on his face which would make anyone fall in love with him. Especially Yixing.

“Y-you look good.”

Get a grip Yixing.

“Thanks, you too. Shall we get going?”

“Yeah, I’d rather not be late for it.”

 

 

The wedding was okay. He didn’t know anyone form the guests and not even the groom and/or the bride, but they were somehow related so he had to attend. To be fair he had a good time. Jongdae spent the whole evening staying close to him and cracking jokes and making sure he ate the delicious cupcakes the waiters served. Over all it was a wonderful evening. Until that happened.

Yixing and Jongdae were standing by the chocolate fountain and stuffing their mouths with strawberries when Yixing saw a familiar figure approaching. It couldn’t be him.

The person came closer and held an eye-contact with Yixing and that’s where Yixing knew he was in trouble. It was Yifan, or Kris as he liked to call himself. His jerk ex. He was Yixing’s first love (and first many things) but then when he realized that Yixing gave him everything he wanted from him, he cheated on him and then blamed Yixing for being too boring to care about. It took years for Yixing to get over it and here he was.

He tagged Jongdae’s hand trying to get away, but before Jongdae could realize anything Yifan was standing right in front of Yixing.

*“Long time no see, Xing. How’s is life?”*

*“Better without you.”*

*”Ouch. You hurt me. Since when did you learn to talk back? Did you grow balls or something while I was away?”*

Yixing’s fists were itching to punch him, but he didn’t want to make a scene in front of Jongdae. Yixing pulled Jongdae’s arm again, but Yifan blocked their way.

*”I see you found a new toy. He is cute - except too short. Poor boy, his must be just as tiny. You must miss being ed properly.”*

Jongdae pulled Yixing’s hand. He must have sensed what was going on between them.

*”You shouldn’t worry much though. Sooner or later he’d get bored of your stupid little and maybe if you get lucky you’d find someone who’d you until you bore them and then…”*

He didn’t manage to finish his sentence as his face was met with a fist. Jongdae’s fist.

Yifan fell on the ground from the unexpected blow and Jongdae took the chance to straddle him and punch him repeatedly.

*“Say it again! You bastard, I dare you!!! Say it again and you are dead!”*

Jongdae wouldn’t have left a spot on his face untouched had it not been for Yixing’s strong arms pulling him off Yifan.

*“Jongdae! Jongdae, he isn’t worth it! Calm down!”* tried to reason Yixing as he dragged Jongdae somewhere else.

The guests at the wedding were too busy examining Yifan.

*“Let me go, Yixing! I’d kill that bastard, how dare he talk to you like that?! I’d kill him!”* Jongdae was shouting with frustration.

Yixing dragged him to a more private part of the garden before letting go of him then grabbing his shoulders tightly and turning him around.

*“Jongdae! Please! He isn’t worth it. He is just a pathetic jerk who I used to date. He isn’t anyone important. Calm down!”*

He put his hands by Jongdae’s face cupping it and it seemed to do the trick. Jongdae stopped fidgeting. Jongdae took a deep breath before looking at Yixing apologetically.

*“Sorry for ruining the wedding.”*

Yixing chuckled.

*“You weren’t the one ruining it. If anything I’m kinda flattered you stood up fo…”*

Something clicked in Yixing’s brain. Something that should have clicked since the moment Jongdae punched Yifan.

Jongdae spoke in Chinese.

In actual, articulate and fluent Chinese.

 Even their conversation now was in Chinese. What did any of this mean?

Jongdae seemed to have guessed what was going on in Yixing’s mind. He lowered Yixing’s hands from his face and held them.

“I can speak fluent Chinese. I spent my elementary and middle school years in China. I came here 5 years ago.”

“But why,” Yxing couldn’t even finish his question. Why he didn’t say it before? Why did he pretend? Was he making fun of Yixing?

“I…. I like you, Yixing. I’ve liked you for a long time.  I always thought that over time we could get close and maybe you’d at least like me as a friend. But we never passed the friend’s friend zone so I thought that forcing you to spend time with me would change anything. I didn’t expect you to fall in love with me. I just wanted to spend time with you. To be close to you. I was so happy when you agreed.”

“Why didn’t you just ask me out?”

“I was too scared. You weren’t a simple dare for me. I don’t really care when I lose dares, but your rejection would have crushed me. I love you, Yixing.”

All while talking Jongdae had his eyes fixed on Yixing. Yixing could see the yearning and the love in Jongdae’s eyes and it was overwhelming.

Yixing’s brain was too slow to control his body. He leaned in and kissed Jongdae. Jongdae had his eyes wide open from the surprise but then he closed them and kissed back. He melted into the kiss, as the soft lips which he had often dreamed about softly touched his own. He insides turned upside down and Yixing’s breath on his cheek made him feel hot.

Yixing was in similar state. As he was softly kissing Jongdae, he tightened his arms around Jongdae as if afraid Jongdae would disappear and all this would turn out to be a dream. The way Jongdae kissed back and the sounds their lips made, made him feel drunk and deeply, deeply in love.

They did not know yet if their relationship would last, if Yixing would stay in Korea, if Joonmyeon would dramatically cry hearing the news, but for now they knew that they had each other and that was all that mattered.