In the car, Lu Han gives the address to their residence to the taxi driver, who takes note. Xiumin moves around to where his head now rests on Lu Han's lap, and Lu Han plays with his baozi's fluffy messed-up hair. "Are you okay?" he leans down to whisper in his ear.

 

Xiumin nods, refusing to respond with words. Something else was occupying his train of thought. Xiumin turned his head to stare straight up at the car ceiling; the sight of Lu Han's alluring jawline visible in his peripheral vision.

 

"So Yixing knows. . . do you think he'll tell?" Minseok murmurs.

 

As he gazes down, Lu Han places his hand over Xiumin's forehead, and smiles, before running it through his downy hair. 

 

"Xing-Xing. . . nah. He's my. . . friend," a comment which made Xiumin's eyebrows wrinkle in suspect. Lu Han knows he made a slip up when he hesitated to say "friend," and sighs. " Oh my God, Minseok. We just had and you're already suspecting me of cheating? Are you kidding me?"

 

"What the hell? I never said that; you just said all of that yourself."

 

"We're friends. We're roommates. That's it."

 

"But you guys are always together—"

 

"No, we're not."

 

"Yeah, you are! Even today. . ." suddenly Xiumin realized the taxi driver eavesdropping onto the delicious drama they were spewing out at each other. Aware of the driver, Xiumin shuts up and turns his back to the driver, now facing Lu Han's abs. He tugged at the side of Lu Han's shirt. Lu Han smiled at the adorable actions, wondering what came over him. Looking at Xiumin's dumpling cheeks reminded him of a child, a baby. Baby. . . familiar music jingled in his mind. He gazed down to Xiumin, began tucking a stray tuft of hair behind his ear, then closed his eyes and began to sing.

 

"Baby don’t cry tonight. . .

My love will protect you and never let go ♪ "

 

When he opened his eyes, he saw that his baby baozi had already drifted off to sleep.  Did you hear me, Minseok? I'll never let go. . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tao stood there impatiently, waiting for Lay to show up. Damn it, Xing-Xing, he rang again in his head. "What is going on with them? Why did he call Lay? What, what—" he cut himself off and buried his face in his hands, unable to articulate any other thoughts. I'm so worried. . .

 

He took a cursory glance around the dimly lit hall, and scratched his head. "With my luck, Yixing-gege would have wandered mindlessly into the western part of the mall already. I need to go look for him." As soon as he walked past the corner of the hall to exit, he bumped into Lay, who immediately bowed to apologize, unaware of who it was. "Yixing, where in the world have you been?" Tao spat, barely holding back the impatience in his tone.

 

"Huh, Tao? W-what do you mean? I've only been gone for. . . forty minutes," Lay shrugged.

 

Tao patience meter ruptured, and he caught Lay by the shoulders, almost lifting him from the ground. Lay cowered at Tao's merciless demeanor. "What. Happened," he gritted through his teeth.

 

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you. B-but put me down first." Tao did.

 

Lay patted down his wrinkled shirt, and instantly tried to make a run for it. Tao chased after him, yelling, "Why are you running?!" Lay stopped as soon as he reached a secluded corner. "What the hell?" Tao breathed as he reared up to him.

 

"There were too many people there," he said, to which Tao twitched an eye at. You didn't have to run, he thought to himself.

 

"You're going to have a fit as soon as I tell you, so. . . we had to go someplace not so conspicuous."

 

"Okay, well, tell me already."

 

Lay puffed, wondering how he should start. Or if he should lie. Lu Han will get his beat if I tell the truth, he predicted, But then again, he is a to Minseok. He deserves it. . . Then he contemplated again, But we're friends. I bet he trusted me not to tell. I'm too honest to lie though. What. . . do I do?

 

Tao stared at Lay as his random thoughts displayed upon his face. "Xing-Xing?" He waved his hand over his eyes, until Lay reacted.

 

"Oh, sorry. I was thinking how I should tell you what. . . happened. Let's see, ummm, Lu Han—how do I say this?—had his way with Minseok-gege. . ."

 

Tao cast his eyes away, disappointed. He knew it was a possibility that it would happen. He just hoped that Xiumin had the strength to reject Lu Han's devilish words.

 

"I'm not exactly sure what happened. Minseok fainted, Lu Han said, and I had to help him carry him out." Tao's eyes widened.

 

"He WHAT?" 

 

"Not sure. . . maybe he him," Lay shrugged.

 

"What the ," Tao uttered. "And, you just helped him? You sick freak!" Tao shoved Lay in disgust. He threw his fist into the nearby wall, a cracking noise resounded. He exhaled violently, then asked, "Where. . . where did they go?" Lay found himself gripped by the shoulders again.

 

"Tao, I don't know. . ." 

 

"Damn!" he tossed Lay off to the side. "I thought you liked Minseok, too. How could you let this happen?"

 

"If Lu Han liked him first, then I have no right to into their relationship. Besides, he's my friend. And. . . I'm no match for him anyway. What could I do?"

 

"You could have stopped him!"

 

"Well, if I remember correctly, you were the last one here with Minseok. You're the one who left him alone with Lu Han. So quit trying to pin this on me, when it's really your fault they were left together." Lay had a point.

 

Tao twisted knots inside. Lay was right. He remembered as Xiumin told him:

 

"He's right, Tao. I can't drag you into this. Go be with Kris and the others."

 

"No, I'm not leaving you here. With him. No."

 

"Please, Tao."

 

That was when he turned to leave. He should have been stronger. It was the desperateness in Xiumin's plea that made him leave. He shouldn't have left, though. He shouldn't have. Tao broke down crying, turning himself to face the wall. Lay walked up to him and patted his back, then rested his head on it.

 

"There, there. . ." he consoled him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kris leaned back in his seat, now restless from the absence of his four other members. He glanced at Chen who seemed to be much more interested in the shiny button decals on his shirt than in the movie. Kris scoffed, and returned his attention to the screen, when another thought interrupted him. Damn. . . Kris glanced down at the empty seats in front of him, then took out his phone to check the time. 3:08pm. Where the hell are those losers?

 

As he rose to leave into the hallway, he felt a tug at the hem of his shirt. Chen asked him where he was going, with bright eyes. "Restroom," he replied, and Chen stood up to go with him, following him like a little puppy dog.

 

Already, Kris was getting irritated with Chen's clinginess, but it was strangely endearing. Impure thoughts raced in his head, until he waved them away. No, no, Chen would hate that, told himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somehow, Lay now had a crying panda Tao nestled in his arms, and he gently patted his back, waiting for him to stop. Tao kept spouting out nonsense phrases like, "That poor dumpling. . . abandoned by a pathetic panda. . ." and further weeped into misery. Poor panda was beating himself up inside.

 

"Tao, this is crazy. You can't cry about it forever."

 

"JUST WATCH ME," he shouted through sobs and wailed even louder. "Can you believe that, just this morning, I was comforting Minseok-gege?" Sniffle. "And now, because I couldn't protect him from that monster Lu Han, I'm like this?" Again, he wailed, and Lay rolled his eyes. "Strongest person I know, my !" Tao wailed, recalling what Xiumin told him earlier. Tao just wanted to act strong for Xiumin that time. Inside, he was really like this, an overly-emotional crybaby.

 

"Tao. . . Zitao. . ." Lay called on him, "do you want to go get some cake?" Tao's sniffles began to decrease, and turned to light 'hics' instead.

 

"Cake?" he asked, another hic sounded.

 

"Yeah. We'll go eat some cake at the bakery. How does that sound?" Lay smiled, revealing his single dimple. He couldn't believe Tao was actually being comforted by the promise of cake.

 

"Great!" Tao sprung up, wiping his tears. Lay helped himself up and looked extremely puzzled. What just happened here? Wasn't he just crying a minute ago. . . So bi-polar!

 

Lay began walking in a random direction, hoping there was a bakery close by, because he surely didn't know. A strangely happy Tao locked his arm around Lay's and joyfully bounced along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A/N: Ohohoho, what a short update, ffff. =u=;; Sorry I didn't make Tao a buff badass. He's still a baby in my eyes, ahaha. But, well... Lu Han will get his comeuppance, don't worry. ._.

 

Erm, KrisChen is kind of still developing. Mmm, I'm thinking about the , but they're not really the centric couple here... it might be a little weird to just, well, throw them in.

 

Should I make a sequel where it explores how they lead up to a relationship? That sounds best, right? It would be the same scenario, a day at the mall, same details, and blahh. But focusing on Kris and Chen's point of view.

 

Also, my chapter titles are absolutely terrible. At first I planned on having just three chapters: The Morning, The Afternoon, The Evening. LOL THAT WORKED OUT WELL. I have, like, four Afternoon chapters. I'll change them as soon as I get a better idea for the chapter names. But for the time being, you have to deal with the lame repetitiveness.