", , , , ..." Tao chanted in his head as he ran out of the subway station, across the city streets, bumping into a few too many people, jumping over a couple puddles between narrow aisles, until he reached the rear door of Black Panther, located in the heart of Kangnam, in Seoul.

 

Even finally reaching his work place Tao continued to race through the hall to get to the locker room to change into his "uniform". But not before a little head on collision, literally, with a fellow male host.

 

"OWW!" Tao and the other yelped in unison after they head budded each other, accidently, at the door to the locker room.

 

"Sorry, Sehun, you OK?" Tao asked the younger boy, who was rubbing his forehead like himself.

 

"Yea, I'm fine," said the other, even though his forehead was now a pinkish color. "Someone's waiting for you in the VIP room."

 

"Really?" Tao was surprised. 

 

See Tao had just started this male hosting job of his only about less than a month and half ago, but somehow he's become quite popular with the ladies, or patrons as they're called, in his short time at Black Panther. He doesn't get why though. 

 

Tao always thought of himself as kind of odd and somewhat scary looking due to his dark rimmed cat-like angular eyes that sometimes can't help but morph into an unintensional glare. And his Korean isn't so good since he's actually Chinese and originally came from, well, China (which is another story there) a little more than a year ago. 

 

However, according to the ladies (partons) who asks for Tao, they say they liked his eyes 'cuz they look dangerous and mysterious. But once Tao speaks they think he's really cute and adorable due to his shy, sometimes mispronounced and broken Korean. Makes him sound really innocent they say. Women tends to gush over that kinda thing.

 

"Who?" Tao asked, curiously.

 

Sehun went to the mirror by the locker room's wall to fix his hair. "Not so sure."

 

"Oh." Tao nodded as he puts on his "uniform" which is a nicely pressed black suit and a clean soild white dress shirt inside with a couple buttons undone to show off some skin and collarbone. Women seems to like that stuff. And a sprits of cologne to top it all off.

 

"How I look?" Tao asked, unsure of himself.

 

"You look really hot," said a dull voice behind him, and it wasn't Sehun's. "Now can you get going to your guest waiting in VIP room 1?" It's Suho, the head supervisor of the hosts.

 

"Oh, I coming," Tao fixed his bangs in the mirror. "See ya, Sehun." He waved to his friend as he was leaving.

 

"Hwaiting!" Sehun shouted back.

 

 

 

"Ok, you know where the VIP rooms are, right?" Suho said to Tao, as they made their way to the main floor of Black Panther. The place is pertetually dim and illuminated by accents of purple, pink, and gold lighting projected on the walls, which is a contrast to the glittery black marble floor and the surrounding black leather seatings.

 

"Um, second floor, yes?" Tao responded, uncertainly. Afterall, he only went to a VIP room once and that was back on his second day at the job and he just blindly followed the other three hosts (Sehun, Baekhyun, and Kai) he was working with that day where they had to entertain a group of six ladies.

 

Just then one of those hosts walked by. "Hey, Baekhyun," Suho stopped the boy. "Can you show Tao to VIP room 1 upstairs?"

 

"Sure," Baekhyun nodded. "Follow me." He made a small hand gesture to have the younger follow him.

 

"So I heard you were late today," Baekhyun said, as they walk side by side and make their way to the back of the main floor.

 

"Ya, I fell sleeping in da sub," Tao explained. "So I tick other back an run. I almost run in telephone pole. An den I ran in Sehun when I come. My forehead hurt, still." (This is Tao speaking in his broken Korean.)

 

Baekhyun chuckles. "Tao, you're so funny."

 

"No, I serious Baekhyun-hyung," the younger pouted.

 

"I know, I know." Baekhyun smiled, reaching up to pet the other's head even though he was much shorter than the Chinese boy.

 

Behind the sound system area they walk up a spiral staircase where it led to a very dark narrow hallway. The walls were all painted black and had minimal lighting coming from the hidden edges of the ceiling in small spotlights projected to the wall. They get to the end of the hall and turned to the left at a door also painted in black like the walls.

 

"Ok, we're here at VIP room 1." Baekhyun said with a presenting hand gesture.

 

Tao placed a hand to his chest. "I nervous. Is my first time alone serving VIP."

 

"Do you know who it is?" the elder asked.

 

The younger shook his head.

 

"Try take a peek."

 

"I can?"

 

"Why not?"

 

So Tao slowly cracked the door open to take a peek inside first. The room was dimly lite, but he could clearly see a male's figure inside with a glass of wine in hand. Surprised, he gasped and quickly closed the door.

 

"What is it?" Baekhyun asked, surprise also from the other's reaction.

 

Tao hesitated. "I-is no woman in there."

 

"Huh?" the shorter boy raised an eyebrow and decided to take a look himself. "Let me see." He cracked the door open like Tao did just a minute ago and took a peek at the patron inside and closed the door again softly. "Oh. It's a man," he said a matter of factually.

 

"Is only him?" the younger seemed even more nervous than before.

 

Baekhyun took a moment and looked sympathetically at the other boy. "Tao, sometimes male patrons do come for our services. And they do tend to reserve our VIP rooms for their own privacy. I see it's your first time too, but try to relax. It's just like being with any regular patron. Be poliet, smile and listen - that's our job."

 

"I guess," Tao said, although his nerves were shaking a bit.

 

"You'll be fine." Baekhyun patted him on the shoulder. "And if he tries to attack you just ring the bell."

 

"Attack!?" Tao's eyes went wide.

 

Baekhyun laughed. "I'm kidding." Sort of.

 

"OK. I go in now." Tao took a deep breath and put his hand on the door handle.

 

"Good luck," Baekhyun whispered back, while the younger walked into the VIP room and like a prey.

 

 

 

The host boy bowed his head down. "Hello, my name is Tao. I be accompany you this evening."  He lingered a few seconds more before rising his head to finally meet face to face with an extremely handsome male patron before him. 

 

Tao hesitated to get closer but moves anyway. "W-would you like me pour you wine?"

 

"Sure, but don't you want to know my name before getting me drunk?" said the handsome patron holding out his empty wine glass for the young male host to fill.

 

As Tao was pouring the wine he realized the other was speaking mandarin to him. "Oh, you're Chinese?" He placed the bottle of wine back on the darkly tint low glass table in front of them.

 

"Yes. And you?"

 

Somehow hearing someone else speaking his mother tongue made Tao excited and less nervous now that he can speak in his fluent mandarin again. "I'm Chinese too. I'm originally from Qing Dao, China. How about you?"

 

The other smirked. "You don't want to know my name first?"

 

Tao smiled, self consciously. "Sorry, can you tell me your name?"

 

"My Chinese name is Wu Fan, but I like everyone calling me Kris. I was born in Guangzhou, China but I grew up in Vancouver, Canada. And currently I've been living in Seoul for the passed 4 years to run my own business."

 

"Wow," Tao said after practically hearing the others life story (well, the very short version). "So I guess your Korean should be better than mines. I've only been here for a year and a half."

 

"My Korean's alright." Kris was suddenly speaking in Korean, "It could be better though. Doing business here it's necessary to understand and speak the language."  He studied Tao for a second. "So what are you doing here in Korea?"

 

"Huh?" Tao wasn't expecting that question.

 

"Why are you in Korea?" Kris asked again, this time going back to Mandarin.

 

"I, um-" Tao wanted to change the subject. "How are you today?"

 

Kris scoffed. "About me again, huh?" He sipped his wine. "Well, I broke up with my girlfriend today."

 

"Oh, I'm sorry." Tao quickly apologized.

 

"Don't be." Kris paused to gulp down the rest of the wine in his glass and placed it on the table. "I was going to break up with her anyway. She just beat me to it. But what really got me was that she said it's because she met someone. Someone amazing with dark mysterious eyes, a hot body, nice , and a great kisser." Kris laughed, and not in the pleasant kind of way either. 

 

"She also said she met him at a place called Black Panther and his name is Tao. So I got curious and came down here to see who this person was. Then I met you." Kris was now leaning in close to the young host boy and ran his tongue over his lips (his own not Tao's). "And I have to admit, I'm a little intriged."

 

Tao wasn't sure what was going on or what the other was talking about. He has never kissed any partons before, or kissed anyone for that fact. He cleared his throat and scooted a little away from Kris. "I think you're drunk."

 

"I've only had four glasses since I arrived." Kris' handsome face was now noticably red and he was moving towards Tao again.

 

At this time Tao stood up abruptly. "I'll go get you some water to clear your head," he said, but only as a excuse to get out of there.

 

Suddenly, there's a firm grasp around Tao's wrist, and before he knew it there's a hand behind his neck pulling him in to meet with a soft yet strong pressure against is his lips. At the same time another hand ran down the side of his body where it stopped on his , and there was definite grabbing and squeezing. 

 

Things were heating up inside him and sirens just started ringing like crazy in Tao's head and he immediately pushed Kris away.

 

"What the hell are you doing!?" The flustered host boy exclaimed, wiping his mouth with his hand and eyes glaring.

 

Kri grinned. "Just wanted to see what she was talking about. She's right you've got a nice , but you're a bad kisser and I haven't even got to touch the rest of your body," he said teasingly, taking a step towards Tao once more.

 

"Well, you're not gonna." Tao took a step back and was putting up his fists like he was ready for a fight. Oh, and just as a small tidbit he use to do a little martial arts back in China.

 

But Kris easily grab both his wrists and smiled. "Now, now you don't have to get violent. I'll show myself out." He released Tao and goes to the door, but then turns back. "Oh, almost forgot. Your tip." He took out a roll of cash from his pocket and gently place it on top he glass table. And he winked at Tao before heading out.

 

"Arrgh!" Tao lets out a growl. "I can't believe that guy." 

 

Giving himself a moment to calm down, Tao then picked up the money and held it in his hand. He looked at it for a second before his eyeballs almost fell out of its sockets.

 

Reason: He was holding ₩1,000,000 WON in his hand.

 

 

 

 

 

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Originally I wanted Tao to be a prosititue. Yea, I'm bad. But in the end I wanted to keep Tao's innocence so I made him a host boy instead. I wrote this story after reading a BL manga titled Leopard Hakusho, which can be read [ HERE ] so I got a bit of inspiration from there but with my own twists and turns.

 

I'm also writing another TaoRis series titled Distant Sunrise [ HERE ] It's the complete opposite of this story with more drama and angst (kinda) and it's a bandfic so if interested please check it out.

 

And of course, comments are LOVE!

 

 

 

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