Hai guise! it's another update! ^^ i hope you enjoy! ^^ i started school recently and i don't know what's wrong with me, but i have 5 APs as a senior in high school. yes i'm crazy ;__; over achiever so if i don't update for a while, i'm so sorry >.< but i will try my best to update or at least start a chapter every week!! ^^ although the chapters might be shorter, i hope it's better than nothing! :D
happy reading~~
Rose POV
Tao's entire body stiffened and his eyes hardened as he stared at his phone.
"Tao?' you said softly, sensing there was something wrong.
"We're leaving. now" he said gripping your hands, his voice was tense with worry. "Hurry. Now." Tao began walking quickly, puling you close to him. "Don't look around." he said, his hand tightening around your own.
"Tao?" you had to lightly run to keep up with his pace. "What's wrong?" He gritted his teeth and turned to you.
"There are some things that I can't tell you. I'm sorry. But, from now on, just...trust me okay? No matter what happens." he said seriously.
You nodded and gently squeezed his hand back, worried.
When you guys arrived home, Tao told you to shower first and left.
Tao POV
"Kris gege." I said, knocking on his door.
"Eh. Open the door. It's unlock." Kris said from inside.
As soon as I entered the room, I said "Gege. They found out." I broke down in front of Kris. "What do we do?"
"What do you mean?" Kris said seriously, standing up. "Show me."
I showed him the picture. Kris tensed up and looked at it carefully. "Scorpion."
Scorpian was the most recent underground gang we had to deal with, and the most tough. They've been around for a long time and only surfaced recently. They are the highest, best, baddest devils of the underworld; essentially they ran everything from drugs to ion rings, but we could never get solid evidence on them. It was only recently that I got ahold of their check books, or "black records" as I call it. It wasn't enough to bring them down, but it is defintiely enough to make them feel threaten, and now they were getting back at me.
"Gege? What should we do?" I asked helplessly. "I can't let her get hurt."
"Remember what I told you in the beginning?" Kris said, not looking at the younger boy.
"....Yes." I said quietly. " I can't do that....things are different now. I can't possibly..."
"Let her go." Kris said simply, and again without looking at him.
"No I ca-"
"Yes you can and you will." Kris said sharply.
"No...Ge...isn't there ano-"
"No. Tao." he whipped his heads towards me, his eyes burned with hurt too. "I love Rose too, but of course not as much as you. But even I know I must let her go. It's for the best. It's for her. We'll get a place for her. Some apartment away from here. Somewhere safe, secluded. For her."
"Please...Ge?" I started tearing up. "Please don't make me let her go. She's everything to me. I know I have you and the boys, but with her it's different. I feel different....I love her more than anything. We can protect her here. Please..." I begged.
"Do you think that they will stop now that they know where she is and who she is with? It makes it harder on the rest of us too. Now we have to protect someone else! It use to be just the 12 of us; we can protect each other, but now we have Rose, and you know she's weak, Tao. We can't put her through this. It's better if she goes far away. Somewhere where they can't or even think to look for her. It's safer for her and us."
I couldn't look at Kris. I gripped my hands at my sides.
"Please Tao....it's really the best for everyone." Kris said gently.
I gave a slight nod. There was definltely sense in what Kris was saying.
"Push her away gradually, but by the end of this week she has to be willing to go Make sure to make it so that she will not come back here and she won't ever come looking for you." Kris said. "The other guys can't know. If everyone knows, it'll be too obvious and everyone will be too nice to her. We'll let them know when the time is right. Okay?"
I nodded silently.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way." Kris said gently.
"I understand." I said numbly.
" xie xie Tao." Kris said softly. " I love her too...."
A tear rolled down my cheek and Kris gave me an awkward hug. "Good night, Tao. Try it out tonight." he said giving me a small smile.
I nodded and left.
Rose POV
You were sitting on the bed, wiping your hair when Tao came him. He looked depressed and hurt.
"Tao?" you got up to meet him and reached for his arm. He pushed your hand away gently and sat down on the couch, sighing.
"Do you want to talk about it?" you asked sitting next to him, eyeing him worriedly.
He didn't say anything, but continued staring at his hands. "No I don't" he said after a few quiet minutes. "I'm going to shower."
"Okay." you said softly. "Maybe afterwards you will feel better."
He didn't say anything and left for the bathroom.
You slumped against the couch. What could possibly be wrong? Everything was fine -- it was perfect before his phone rang-- but now you just don't know anymore. Did something happen here? It seemed awfully quiet here. Perhaps it's because everyone was watching tv or playing games, but it's not like they treated you or Tao any differently when you guys came in. You were very confused and pondered these thougths a long time. Tao came out of the shower.
"Tao." you said softly. "Are you....feeling better? you asked cautiously.
He didn't answer but came over to you. There was a different glint in his eyes and he turned to you. Suddenly he placed his lips roughly against your mouth, ferociously nibbling on your lips as his tongue aggressively pushed its way into your mouth. You gasped in surprise at his aggressiveness; he is always gentle with you and this was defintely new. His hands traveled down your body, touching every part he could, and he began roughly pushing you against the couch. Before you knew it, he was between your legs and he was against your neck, biting here and there.
"Tao...." you whispered. "Tao stop."
He ignored you and his hands began traveling up your shirt.
"Tao." you said pushing him hard on the chest. "Please stop."
He ignored you and grabbed your wrists and held it above your head before kissing you roughly on the mouth roughly again as his hands continued to travel up your shirt. It was now in the small of your back and he lifted you towards him.
"....Tao." you whimpered. You were scared now. "Please, please, stop" you said. Memories of your stepfather ually abusing you came rushing back.
He ignored you and gripped your wrists tighter. It began to hurt. A lot.
"Tao...stop...please. You aren't like this, are you? I know you're not..." By now there were tears in your eyes. "Please stop..." you sobbed.
Tao paused and looked at your tear glistened eyes and immediately released you and sat down on the couch with his face between his hands. You curled up against the corner of the couch, not daring to look at him.
After a few minutes, there was a soft, "I'm sorry."
You turned to look at him, and you could see the tears on his face and hurt filled his eyes.
"I'm sorry too....I'm just not....ready." you said softly after a while. "It just....brings back too many bad memories....and I really don't mean to or anything. It's not that i don't want to, it's just--"
"It's fine." he said, not looking at me and cutting me off. "I'm gonna sleep here tonight." he said simply.
"...alright" you said shakily. You placed a small hand on his arm and said gently, "If you need to talk, just wake me up." and kissed him gently on the head.
You turned off the lights and when to bed, glancing at the red marks on your wrists. Tao....what happened?
The morning you woke up, Tao wasn't in the room. You figured it was perhaps that he needed space and went to brush your teeth, and then went downstairs to cook breakfast with D.O.
"Good morning Rose!" D.O said cheerfully like always.
"Good morning." you said trying to put a smile on your face. You looked outside and around the kitchen, but Tao was no where to be found. "Um have you seen Tao....?" you asked D.O.
"Nope!" he answered. "Why? Was he not here this morning? Didn't he tell you anything?"
"No...." you replied softly.
D.O looked up questioningly. "Did something happen between you two?"
"No....not really." you said turning away.
"Hey...." D.O came over. "It'll be okay. I have never seen Tao so affectionate or caring to another person. He really loves you...more than you know. Before you came, he had a different girlfriend every week. Heck, he had flings everyday. But when you came, things definitely became different. I can see the change in him, so don't worry too much." He gave you a reassuring smile and went on cooking.
"Thank you D.O," you said softly.
At breakfast, Tao still wasn't back. Kai asked me, "Where's Tao?"
I looked down, not knowing what to say. Kris immediately looked up and said, "He had to do somethings for me."
Flashbacks to yesterday as I remember Tao telling me he couldn't tell me some things. This is probably why he couldn't leave a note this morning....
Breakfast and lunch passed by quickly because you were helping D.O clean the house. But, Tao still hasn't returned. You were worried but tried to shake it off. He has never been away this long. Dinner also passed by, but still Tao hasn't come back. You watched tv with the guys, and one by one, they went to go to bed.
"Don't stay up too late Rose!" they all said before they left with reassuring, kind smiles. Kris, before you left, ruffled my hair and told me to not worry too much and sorry he had to put Tao on an assignment. You gave Kris a small smile and nodded you head, indicating that it was okay.
"Good night Rose. " he said with a reassuring smile. "Like the others said, don't stay up too late."
You nodded your head and said "Good night Kris. I won't."
Minutes turned into an hour, and an hour turned into hours. Tao still wasn't back. You looked at the clock, it said 2:33am. You sighed and turned back to the tv. More time flew by, but then suddenly you heard the front door unlock. You glanced at the clock, 2:45am. You hurriedly got up and saw Tao coming in, his hand combing his hair.
"Tao...?" you whispered.
He glanced up and surprised flashed through his face and disappeared. His hands came up, as if to wrap you into a hug, but it dropped to his side.
"Why are you still up?" he asked without looking at you. You could detect a hint of worry in the beginning but it disappeared too.
"I was waiting for you to come back. Where have you been? Are you hurt anywhere? There's food in the fridge. And---"
"I'm alright. Going to sleep now." he said simply and turned to go to the bedroom.
You were quite shocked and didn't know what to say. No hug, no kisses, no....anything. You sat back down on the couch, not knowing what to do and turned off the tv. You sat there for a bit, wondering why Tao suddenly changed and decided to go to the bedroom. You entered and saw him sleeping soundly on the bed, but turned the opposite way from you. You brushed your teeth and got into bed quietly. His back was to you and he seemed to be sleeping.
"What happened Tao?" you whispered softly and went to sleep, you facing his back.
Narrator's POV
Of course Tao heard you come in and get into bed. He was fighting every muscle to not turn around and bring you into him. He was going to sleep on the couch today, but he just couldn't resist being close to you. He hadn't seen you the entire day and it killed him. Every part of his body screamed it was wrong. He didn't do much today. He went to the beach, ate out, went to a club, but didn't do anything there, and that's about it. He was trying to get use to not having you there, but it was killing him. He heard your breathing regulate and knew you were asleep. He turned to you. You looked like an angel. He brushed the hair out of your face and then sat up. It'll be okay to indulge in this little guilty action....he thought quietly to himself. He lifted your body and laid your head gently on his chest. His heart rate immediately accelerated.
"Rosie... I'm so sorry, but you do know I love you, right? I hope you remember what I told you before to always trust me..." he whispered and looked at your face sleeping comfortably against him. He closed his eyes, contented, for all his hurt and his feeling of emptiness disappeared at this moment. He your hair and fell asleep himself.
Tao's POV
I woke up, startled, and hoping Rose wasn't up. I felt her head against my chest and her hand rested in mines. I closed my eyes and breathed in her sweet scent. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her close to me. Please let me hold onto her, just for a little......It was just for a second before she started to stir.
Crap, was she waking up? Please don't....this is the only time I can do this...I thought helplessly.
But sure enough her eyelids began to flutter and I slipped my arms out from around her and got off the bed to go to the bathroom. I got off the bed, to hear a small voice saying, "Tao...?"
I didn't dare look back and rushed into the bathroom.
Rose POV
You swear you felt Tao's arm around you. Was it just a dream? You bit your lips and looked and his side of the bed. Empty. But you heard the shower turn on. He was in there. You slowly sat up, rubbing your eyes. Tao came out of the shower.
"Good morning." you said softly. Tao curtly nodded in your direction and turned to leave.
"Wait Tao..." you said and jumped out of you, your hair tumbling to your side. Tao turned around and stared at you. He bit his lips and turned back around.
"Wait....Tao" you said as he reached for the doorknob. You wrapped your arms around his waist and you can feel him stiffen at your touch.
"Tao. Please tell me what's wrong. You aren't like this. Is it what happened the other night when I couldn't do it? I'm sorry about that. I just wasnt...." you muffled into his back. You felt tears prickle your eyes.
You felt Tao put his hand on your arms. What you didnt expect was what happened next. He pushed your arms off him and didn't turn around but said, "No it wasn't that" and he quickly turned the doorknob and left. You stood there, dumbstruck and numb. What the hell just happened?
Days went by like this. Tao was aloof and distant. Even though you guys ate dinner together, it just wasn't the same anymore. You guys still slept on the same bed, but he never wrapped his arms around you. In fact, he did everything he could to avoid touching you. You tried multiple times to talk to him but it was unsuccessful. He ignored you or answered simply, as if he was too busy to even bother with you. He dropped every single conservation you were trying to make. It was as if you guys led separate lives and it drove you insane, not knowing why or what you even did wrong. You thought he loved you. Well, love sure disappeared quickly. You guessed this was just how love worked.....appear for a bit then disappear. It's never constant, you thought sadly. You just thought you had found happiness... What's gonna happen in the future? He probably doesn't like me anymore. you thought sadly. The guys could tell the tension between you and him, but nothing changed even when they tried to talk to him about it. He just brushed them off. Tao would disappear at night, only to return at 2am or 3am and every time you would wait for him, hoping maybe something has changed. It didn't.
Today was just another night. You were waiting for Tao to come home again. You glanced at the clock 2:37am. He should be home soon. You heard the door unlock, then a girly laughter.
"Oh Tao Zi, you can't!" the girl giggled. Then you heard them kissing, and Tao chuckling and into the kiss.
"You have no idea, baby. I can make you feel so good...." you heard him whisper. You heard the girl moan against the wall as Tao pushed his body against hers.
You felt tears prickle your eyes. Your heart broke in half as you heard them. You sat there helplessly. This just can't be....
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