Chapter Thirty
Can I continue feeling this way?
I just wanted to say that I completely understand that "-ah" and "-hyung" endings are Korean, but because I dont know the chinese words for honorifics, I will be using the Korean ones even if they are Chinese.
because its my story :>
I felt something wet on my face. That’s truly the only way I could describe it. It was slightly soggy, but warm and comforting at the same time. I opened my eyes the slightest bit to see what was going on and saw Tao sitting next to me with his legs crossed.
“You’re awake~” Tao said more to himself than to anyone else. I brought my hand to my forehead and picked off the item. Looking at it, I realized it was a towel. I looked to the teen with a more than confused expression.
“When I woke up you were shivering but you were under the covers and still in the same exact position. The only explanation was you were sick and I felt your forehead and nearly burnt off my hand.” He ended his sentence with a smile at his joke. Before I knew it the back of his hand had attached itself to my forehead and felt my temperature. He sighed. “I think I should put it on one more time.” He took the towel, took it to the bathroom, rinsed it, and brought it back. The fabric was cool to the touch now, and he made me lay down as he placed it on my forehead.
“So… I think the dream brought this on. What was it?” He asked quietly, staying by my side as he understood my nonverbal request.
“…” I hesitated. I felt like a child for feeling so sad over something that wasn’t even real… but it did feel completely real. “I was standing on some kind of flat plane, a few feet away from you. But… you were a kid. And you were scared of something. So, you didn’t come to me when I called you. There was something I couldn’t protect you from, but when I said that I promise I would, you started to come towards me. When you were by my side you reached up your hands for me to hold, so I bent down and picked you up. I held your small little hands and you smiled but somehow… you started slipping from my hold. Before I knew it,” I looked into Tao’s eyes, “you were gone.”
Before I could look back down I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. Surprised, I stared at the teen who attached himself onto my torso. He looked up to meet my curious gaze and leaned in to give me a tender kiss on the lips. Repeating the complete phrase he had earlier for the upteenth time, I finally relaxed. I could feel his heartbeat thud thickly against his chest, heavy with emotions as he tried to get me to believe him in any way he could. When I relaxed, he could feel it, and his heart slowed to a more light, healthy vibration through his skin. He slowly unwrapped his arms around me, as they were so tight it was hard to breathe, and once again sat in his criss crossed leg position watching me.
“Thank you, Tao.” I said with a genuine smile. Because of his reassurance, I was able to put the dream aside without the worry that it would come true.
He smiled back. “So what do you want for dinner?” He asked casually.
“Dinner?!” I almost shouted back. I was under the impression it was still morning.
“Yes, dinner. That’s not the sun coming up,” he tilted his head towards the window, “that’s the sun going down.”
I sat up and took the towel off, pushing the damp ends of my hair back with my fingertips. “Anything.”
With that, we got dinner, ate it, and simply went to bed.
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“Gegeee~” Someone whispered in a singsong tone.
“Gegeeee~” I heard again. I groaned and kept my eyes closed. It was way too damn early to wake up. I didn’t feel like doing to photoshoot or even leaving the room. I just wanted to sleep here all day with Tao and enjoy not doing anything.
I felt something trail against my spine in a long, soft brush. I felt it again after a few seconds and I was pretty sure that it had something to do with Tao’s fingertips.
“Time to get uuuuup~” He sang softly, fingers still grazing over my back.
I groaned aloud. I mumbled something unintelligible into the pillow, probably along the lines of ‘just five more minutes’ and noticed that there was no longer anything touching my back. I felt the bed shift but kept my eyes closed as my heart rate gradually went up in anticipation.
I waited a few seconds.
Nothing.
A few more.
Nothing.
I was just about to open my eyes until I felt the bed shift again. It felt like someone had gotten off of it.
“TIMETOWAKEUPNOWAHAHAHAHAHTIMETOWAKEUP!!!” Tao jumped on me and continued to jump on me as my motionless body practically got pounded into the bed.
“Ah-ah-ah-” I grunted as he continuously jumped on me trying to wake me up. Its as if he was a kid jumping on his parent Christmas morning. Finally, he stopped and whined.
I turned my mangled body over and opened my eyes, causing him to squeal with joy. I watched him as he jumped back off of me and made his way around the room to find some clothes. I didn’t open my eyes all the way, but kept my focus on him and him only. He walked around the room as if he was a hamster looking for pallets of food.
His body glowed in the sunlight that penetrated the room. He was so incredibly skinny. Muscular, but skinny. If I hadn’t watched him devour a whole chicken last night I would’ve thought that he wasn’t eating enough. But of course, the chicken would say otherwise.
Tao stopped in front of the cabinet, picked out some of his own clothes, and then stood there as if he was trying to decide something. I quietly got off of the bed and stayed a few steps behind him, but he didn’t seem to notice. He stayed there, so I quietly walked up behind him as a devious smirk played on my lips.
I stepped behind him, reached my hands out, and squeezed his .
That’s right.
I squeezed it and earned a half scream and half yelp from the younger as I walked away like nothing happened. I could practically feel the warmth from his face radiate through the room as blush overtook him.
I told you I would get you back Tao.
I laughed to myself as the boy rushed off the bathroom and got ready.
Later that day
We came back from the shoot and thankfully, no one said anything about the still faint marks that scattered across my torso. I told Tao that we could order pizza for dinner tonight, which sent him in a hyper frenzy to absolutely devour it when it came.
We sat on opposite sides of the table and I watched him eat. I was hungry, but didn’t have much of an appetite for some reason. So, I chewed my food slowly and studied the boy. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I realized I had completely forgotten to give him that panda bear like I had wanted to.
“Tao-ah” I spoke softly. I was surprised he heard me over the moans he was making about how good it tasted, but he looked up nevertheless, telling me to go on.
“I… have a present for you.” I smiled shyly, waiting for his reaction.
“Really?!?! Can I have it now gege?” The widest smile crossed his face and I nearly died of laughter from the trail of pizza sauce that went from his lips to his chin. “What did I do to get it?” He then asked with a curious look, not remembering any time that we were separate, meaning I couldn’t’ve gotten it recently.
“You want it now?” He nodded furiously as reply and I couldn’t help but smile for the hundreth time that day. I told him I would be right back and went to get it. I hid it behind my back as I walked back over to him and saw his eyes practically glossed over with excitement.
“Close your eyes and hold out your hands.” He did so and I placed it carefully in his hold.
“Alright.”
He slowly opened his eyes and stared at the item. His mouth was open in a mixture of surprise and shock.
“Th-this is the panda from Disneyland.” His wide orbs found mine for confirmation.
I nodded my head. “Yeah…” I looked down. “I bought it after you… ran.” I admitted shamefully. “But I put it in my bag to give to you later.” I paused. “I named it T.M.”
“T.M.? What does that stand for?” He asked as he flew the plushie in the air and caught it every time.
“…Trouble… Maker…” I admitted with a nervous smile. The teen’s laughter, however, told me he would’ve probably named it the same thing.
“It’s nice to meet you T.M.” He looked into it’s eyes and did a self introduction.
This boy.
*************************************
We were going home today. We were both excited to finally get back home as we missed all of the others. Tao and I weren’t quite sure if we should let the others know about the whole relationship thing, so we decided to keep it to ourselves until we were ready to reveal it. We boarded on the plane and closed our eyes, deciding to nap on the way there.
Opening our eyes, we opened them to see that we were home. Tao and I exchanged happy glances as we got our stuff and got back off. Within an hour, we were standing in front of our house. I stuck the key in the doorknob but before I got the chance to turn it, it started to turn by itself. I stared in amazement as I let go, watching the haunted object move itself. The door opened and I looked through the crack to see a wide-eyed Luhan on the other side.
“You’re back!!!!” He shot the door open and practically jumped on me, hugging and squeezing the life out of me. “Guys! They’re back!”
I walked in with him still attached to me and saw everyone else gather around us.
“How was it?” Chen asked enthusiastically. Luhan finally got off of me and dragged us to the common room to interrogate us. Tao sat next to me and shook his leg nervously, afraid the others would be able to tell. I placed a comforting hand on his knee, silently telling him to relax and felt him do so a few seconds after. I gave him an encouraging look and then light lifted my hand.
“It was pretty boring. All we really did was take pictures. We had every other day off so we just kind of lay around and enjoyed doing nothing.” I looked to Chen who had a frown on his face, probably disappointed that nothing juicy happened.
Well, nothing that we would reveal anyway.
Although my story was boring I still heard a few ‘ooh’s’ and ‘ahh’s’ echo through the room. It made me laugh. “Are you guys hungry? What have you been eating?” Frankly, I was surprised that the house hadn’t been burned down. The answer was a mix of words from each member that had absolutely no meaning at all, which I just took as a ‘hell yes’ and ‘’. The latter of which made me laugh hysterically as I got up to go to the kitchen. I told Tao to put our bags away while I got out the ingredients. It was just me in the room and it wasn’t until the food was almost done that I watched one of the boys walk in.
“So…?” Lay nudged my side and looked me in the eyes.
I looked around one time to make sure we were the only ones in there for sure and leaned down to whisper in his ear. “We made up. And… I asked him to be my boyfriend.” I was going to ask him what he thought of that, but the gasp that came from his mouth seemed to answer that question good enough. He had the widest grin on his face and hugged me.
“I’m so happy for you! I can’t wait to tell-”
“NO!” I yelled and promptly covered my mouth and waited a few seconds to make sure no one else heard. “Sorry, what I mean is we’re not going to tell anyone… yet.” I bit my lip and hoped he would understand.
“Ohh. Alright. Your secret is safe with me. But try to be more inconspicuous. I wasn’t the only one that noticed that hand on knee action when you told us your story.” Lay pointed out with a light chuckle, trying not to make it obvious that he was laughing at my inability to be sly.
I smacked him upside the head.
Well, that shut him up.
“How have you been?” I asked him after turning off the stove.
He looked up with a hesitant glance as if he was deciding whether or not to tell me.
“You can tell me.” I reassured. He nodded and decided to spill.
“I met someone.” He bit his lip to try and hide his ear to ear grin, but it didn’t help much.
“Really!??!? WHO?!” I had to slap my hand over my mouth to stop me from being so loud and quieted myself once more.
“I don’t want to say just yet, but I think you’ll like him.” He seemed to swell with pride at that statement, as his grin was more than evident.
“Do I know him? Is he from around here? I have so many questions.”
“Yes, yes, and I can tell.” He laughed. “But that’ll have to wait. Your food is burning.” He pointed behind me to the stove which seemed to now be spewing some type of black, airy swirls into the air.
I mumbled a few expletives as I went and tended to the mess. Thankfully, I could save more than half of it. And of course, the others walked in then.
“Are we having barbeque?” Luhan asked mockingly with a knowing smirk.
“Shut up.” I barked back jokingly. “Sit down and get ready.” They obliged but I noticed that some of the positions had changed in the seating. Our table was rectangular, so two sat on the ends while two sat on either side. There was more leg room that way. When I looked up, I noticed that Lay sat next to Chen, Tao reserved the seat next to him for me, and the ends were occupied with XiuMin and Luhan. As odd as it was, I dismissed it as it didn’t really seem to matter. I walked around and placed a plate of food in front of everyone and then sat myself down in the seat the teen had saved for me.
As usual, Luhan and Chen started their usual dinner chatter while the others enjoyed their food and listened for any gossip that might soon present itself. I looked up to Lay to ask him how it tasted but saw his head down and fork pushing the food around on his plate. I didn’t want to draw attention to him so I quickly found his foot under the table and tapped it, causing his head to fly up and find the perpetrator. I met his gaze and saw something unusual.
His cheeks were tinted with a fuming shade of blush.
Immediately noticing he had been caught, he looked back down and tried to compose himself. No one else seemed to notice the nonverbal conversation we were having. When he didn’t look back I decided to let it go as he would probably tell me later. I felt a nudge to my side and looked to my side to find the maknae holding up a fork of various items for me to try. He told me to open my mouth, and as I did, he fed me. I smiled at him and started chewing right away; for something burnt it tasted pretty damn good. Char really does add flavor. After a few more moments I felt another nudge and looked to the boy. He did the same thing, this time having a different food on the fork. I willingly opened my mouth and let him feed me again. His face was so cute when I would open my mouth, his smile widening at the success of his actions and it truly made him happy that I allowed him to do it. When I closed my mouth to chew I involuntarily looked to XiuMin who was holding onto his fork so hard that his knuckles were white. He was looking down at his food, so I couldn’t read his expression, but it seemed he was incredibly mad at something.
I finished that bite, confused, but kept on eating as I was starving. A few minutes later I felt another nudge and opened my mouth even before I turned my head, knowing he wanted to feed me again.
“Here you go, jagiya.” Tao whispered quiet enough so that only the both of us could hear. Apparently, not quiet enough for someone stood up so fast and harsh the chair behind him went flying.
“Jagiya?! You’re ing dating this prick?!” I flinched at his harsh words, for his pointed finger proved that it was I he was talking about.
“You’re both gone for a week and then this ing happens?! I thought you hated him!? I thought you liked me Tao. After all, we did kiss.” His expression turned demonic as he looked at me before the last syllable of the sentence fell from his lips. My mouth went dry.
“You’re nothing but a two-timing , Huang ZiTao.” XiuMin spat in Tao’s plate before walking out of the room of now pale, silent witnesses.
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