When the kids started to arrive, there was absolutely no time left for chitchat. Under the direct supervision of my pastor, and the now suspicious eyes of Fei after briefing her on my relationship with Tao, I felt compelled to keep my distance from him. He didn’t seem to notice. Each time we split the children into groups of two for activities, Tao would be in charge of one, and Fei and I would take the other. Despite standing next to Fei the most, even the two of us could barely spare time for a few words with the other.

            During the car ride back, I could tell that Fei had so many more questions to ask, but her dad was within hearing distance and we knew better than to have girl talks in the pastor’s midst. The two of us kept our conversations casually focused on the kids we played with today. Tao’s name wasn’t even mentioned once.

☁☼☁

            That night, I decided to message Tao just to share my surprise from seeing him today. One short message led to the next, and eventually we talked about what we would do after graduating high school. It’s always a different feeling talking about the future with a friend rather than an adult. Friends asked out of curiosity, adults asked out of expectation.  He said he didn’t want to stay in the same city, but he knew that financially, and for the sake of his family, he should. I told him that I would be moving to the next city up north to study nutrition. The institution here didn’t have the program I wanted. I wasn’t expecting what he said next.

“If you’re leaving then we need to hang out right away!!!”

            I still had my last year of high school and the following summer before I left, but I didn’t want to remind him that because I, too, wanted to see him right away.  I asked him when he would like to hang out, and after we set a time and place, the conversation ended. We didn’t speak another word until that fated meeting.

            The night before, I spilled my guts to Amber about seeing Tao again. It didn’t matter that I’d already seen him a few times this year, the thought still left me with a crippling anxiety. My excitement could not mask the butterflies in my stomach, and I was hoping Amber could calm me down and be my voice of reason.

            “What are you guys doing tomorrow?” Amber asked. We were on the phone and I could hear the sound of her laptop overheating despite her phone being off speaker.

            “I’m not too sure… I just know we’re meeting in downtown.” I answered. There were tons of things to do in downtown compared to the rest of the city, but it didn’t hide the fact that our city lacked touristy excitement.

            “You’re not skipping fellowship tonight, right?”

            “No, of course not! I’ll ditch him for fellowship any day!” I laughed. Tomorrow was Friday, and Friday evenings had been reserved for youth fellowship since the seventh grade. Tomorrow would be the first Friday in forever that Amber and I didn’t go together.

            “Awesome! You can tell me all about your date tomorrow night, then!” Amber was gushing, and even though I couldn’t see her face I could imagine her making a winky face. I winced and clarified that it was just a hang out and not a date.

            “It’s just you… and him. It’s a date.” She insisted.

            “Is this how you think?”

            “Come on, Erika! You used to like him, and he used to like you. Tomorrow could reignite some long lost spark, don’t you think?!” I couldn’t stop myself from blushing at the thought, but I wanted to deny it as hard as I could. I resolved that this meeting tomorrow would be our closure. I didn’t want a spark to reignite. I couldn’t afford wishful thinking like that.

            “Ugh Amber. Nothing will happen, you’ll see.”

            “Challenge accepeted.”

☁☼☁

I arrived in downtown at one of the train stations slightly earlier than predicted. I checked the time on my cell phone again and sighed before sticking it back into my pocket. The only reason it would vibrate would be if Amber wanted to tease me a little more before fellowship tonight. Tao never actually gave me his cell phone number. I wasn’t even sure if he had one.

The wind was gentle but chilly, and the sun was high up in the sky shining down on the world. I stood where the shadows were casted, trying to avoid unnecessary tanning. Instead, I think I looked a little more like a teenage punk with my hoodie pulled up over my head and my bangs falling over my face. I dressed casually today, skinny jeans and a white T-shirt with a navy hooded cardigan. Amber had spent almost half an hour convincing me to wear a dress or a skirt, but I had to remind her that I hadn’t owned either since elementary school. Unlike most girls, I kept up my tomboy phase for a rather long time.

“Erika!”

I looked up just as someone called me. From a few metres away, Tao was making his way toward me in a white and green plaid shirt and dark green converses. I had forgotten that the two of us shared the same favourite color. Somehow, I was relieved that I hadn’t worn green today like I usually would.

“Hey Tao!” I smiled back and waved. It felt strangely natural to do, and nothing about him standing in front of me felt as awkward as I imagined it would all of last night. It seemed like my hours of scenario simulations would be completely useless.

“Want to for a walk?” He asked, squinting up at the sun as his right hand created some shade for his eyes. It was a stunningly beautiful day, and the forecast mentioned that the slight chills would dissipate by early afternoon. I nodded and we began our walk around downtown. He showed me the pedways between major buildings that everyone in our city knew except me.

“You’ve never passed this bridge?” He asked in awe after I failed to recognize every staircase we passed through. I was born and raised in this city, yet I knew almost nothing about the inner workings of our downtown area. He brought me to a glass pedway between two buildings that bordered the Chinatown and stopped.

“This is where I play guitar sometimes.” He smiled, pointing at the exact spot he would place his guitar case and start playing during the busiest hours of the weekend.

“You don’t need like… a permit or something to play your guitar here?” I wondered. Usually every corner had a “no loitering” sign.

“Nah,” He explained, “A lot of other people do it too. I think it actually helps brighten people’s days to hear music being played as they walk through on their short lunch breaks.” I tried desperately to imagine Tao with his guitar, playing some upbeat tune as middle aged men and women smiled past him and dropped a few coins into his guitar case as they went on their ways.

“Usually I make around $35.” He added, just as we started walking again. I was always curious how much money people made playing music on the streets. $35 seemed pretty good to me. I began to wonder if I would ever get to hear Tao play guitar. When we were little, he hadn’t picked up music as a hobby yet.

Eventually we found our way to the downtown library. We browsed the old CDs and talked about our favourite musicians and bands as we looked. He was humming his favourite song of the season, Jet Lag by Simple Plan as we talked a little more about our childhood neither of us had forgotten and laughed at the games we used to play. There was even a time when we almost got kicked out of the house.

☁☼☁

We were at Tao’s house, and their living room had toy cars and lego pieces sprawled all around the floor. It was almost like a death trap for the unsuspecting, but we liked playing amidst the mess. After a long round of hide and seek, with Luhan cheating by hiding in the backyard, we decided to switch up our game to something more active. Our moms were in the kitchen readying icing for the cake they had spent the last hour baking together. My mom loved cake decorating, and was picking it up as a hobby from Tao’s mom. The kitchen and the living room were separated only by a two steps of stairs and wooden railings that were almost shorter than us by the rate we were growing.

Kris joined us in the living room after a long scavenge in the basement for something to play with. Luhan was right behind him, carrying a fuzzy soccer ball in his arms. We knew better than to play with a real soccer ball indoors, after all, we’d been warned about breaking lights, vases, and TVs since we’d gotten into recreational soccer with the neighbor’s kids.

“Who’s up for soccer?” Kris asked all of us, and the three of us were beaming. Our outdoor soccer game had been cut short due to the rain earlier, so we left the soccer ball soaking outside to seek refuge indoors. That was when our hide-and-seek game started. We couldn’t boot the soccer ball inside the house, but we could still try to pass it back and forth while avoiding the other team. In every game we ever played, I was always teammates with Tao.

The moment my brother dropped the ball, all four of us went nuts in the living room, sometimes accidentally kicking each other instead of the ball, but ignoring the pain because the adrenaline from the fun made us numb to any other sensation.

“Quiet down!” My mom yelled from the kitchen. Simultaneously we all said yes but continued to squeal and scream anyway.

“You’re not getting it!” Kris confidently announced, kicking the toy soccer ball a little too hard. We all stopped and watched as it spun through the air, and suddenly we all cringed, projecting where it would land. There wasn’t enough time for a warning. Within seconds, it had splattered on top of our moms’ cake.

“Oh crap.” Kris gasped. The three of us were at a loss for words. My mom in particular was furious and her face was glowing red. I knew we had to run away or we were in for a beating.

“Run!” Kris commanded each of us before the words could even escape my mouth. In times of crises my brother seemed adept to speaking my mind. The four of us booked it to the basement and immediately took cover for a third round of hide and seek. This time, all four of us were hiding, and if my mom were up for it, she’d be the seeker. However, none of us wished to be found.

A/N: Hey everyone!! ^^ And to all the new subscribers I hope you'll enjoy this plot! It's been ages since I wrote a chapter and I'm really sorry for that! As some of you know this plot is entirely real, and so I never did outlining for it, I just write based off of memory. I used to have a conclusion for this fanfic because at the time it seemed like it would be a good ending. And if I kept to the original ending, this fic would've ended in the next chapter. However, in this past year of 2014... a lot has happened... regarding the real "Tao" in my life. I'm trying to figure out a new ending to this fic now. Considering our story doesn't actually have a real ending, this might be a little hard haha. Bearwith me ^^!