.

 

 

 

After done shopping at the open food market they walked to the pier and sat at a bench. Finally, they got to put down all the bags in their hands to rest. Of course they could have took a taxi, but Tao said he really wanted to take a walk to see his hometown after so long.

 

"The grandmas, grandpas, aunties and uncles seem to really like you here. They kept on hugging and pinching your face. Even half of the food here were for free," Kris said, glancing down at all their bags. "Are you like a prince here?"

 

Tao smiled. "Probably cuz they all use to look after me since I was little while my parents were always busy working, so they're all like family." His faded as he looked out at the harbor, reminiscently. "And it's been a while since I saw them all. And I missed them too."

 

"You seemed to live a pretty happy life back here," Kris observed.

 

 Tao nodded. "I did."

 

"So, why'd you leave and went to Korea?" Kris asked.

 

Tao looked down at his hands, fiddling with his fingers, then interlacing them. "'Cuz of a silly dream."

 

Kris watched Tao intently, wondering why the boy seemed crestfallen. "What was your dream?" 

 

Tao casted his eyes back towards the water, thinking for a long time before he took a deep breath. "Want to here a story?" he began.

 

When Tao was little he wanted to be an action star. So he took a lot of martial arts classes. But his mom was always worried he'd get hurt. Which he did, a lot. Eventually he quit so she would stop worrying.

 

Later Tao found other interests like his other friends. At their age dancing and singing was a way to together and have fun. They even started going to competitions. The cheering, the applause, the music, the atmosphere of it all was amazing. That's when Tao realized this was hos dream. So he seriously started taking dancing and singing lessons.

 

Then came this one competition. He came in third but after the show someone went up to him asking if he wanted to sing and dance and travel around the world doing it. And they said they'll train him too. Tao thought, 'this was it'. His parents even supported him all the way. They agreed academics wasn't for him anyway.

 

After leaving school, Tao flew to Korea but things didn't turned out how he imagined. First, learning a new language was hard (even though he watched alot of kdramas back home). So there were some miscommunications that occassionally happened. And then there are the training classes, apparently, it was charged by the hour, and according to subject and level the cost will just go up. Eventually, it got expensive. In addition to that there were dorm and meal fees. 

 

Tao felt bad that he had to keep calling his parents to transfer money over to him. So he tried to get a part-time job then he didn't have to bother his parents all the time for money. But it was hard since his Korean was limited. Luckily, he found one as a dishwasher for a Chinese-style restaruant. Fortunately, the auntie that owned the place knew Mandarin.

 

Just when things were taking a better turn he went to the training studio one day and everything was gone. As in Tao, including a dozen other trainees were conned. 

 

He felt like such a fool. At that moment Tao wanted to cry and just go home to his family, but his conscience told him he couldn't. He already owed them so much. Ever since he was born they've always gaven him everything he wanted and supported him in whatever he wanted to do even though his family weren't rich or anything. Tao felt like such a spoiled brat. He felt like he had to do something to pay them back.

 

So, he stayed in Korea. He auditioned for other entertainment agencies. But they either said he couldn't sing, couldn't dance, didn't have the look, or slam the door in his face before giving him a chance to speak a full sentence.

 

Tao hid himself away for days after that in the tiny rented apartment he could just barely afford on his own. He had stopped answering his parents calls about money for his training. He told them he had everything handled, even sending money back to them, saying he started doing some backup for famous idols. A total lie. Aside from washing dishes he got another job at a cafe cleaning around their shop.

 

"Then, how did you suddenly become a host?" Kris suddenly asked.

 

"It was an accident, sort of. I started doing deliveries for the chinese restaurant I worked at and someone from the host club (aka Black Panther) made an order. So when I got there they somehow mistakenly thought I was there for an interview as a host. I told them but then they told me how much the pay was and the first thing I thought was - with that kinda money I could finally repay my parents. So I took the job on the spot and quit the other two. I know it's not the most modest job in the world but..."

 

"But you had no better choice." Kris answered for him.

 

Tao looked his eyes. "Yea."

 

"Well, then lucky for you I swooped in to save you, because..."

 

"Because you always wanted to fly and be Superman?" Tao adlibed.

 

"No." Kris looked at him solemnly. "Because you deserve better."

 

There was a moment of silence as they looked at each other for a while. Tao eyes were feeling misty and he didn't even know why. At that time, Kris reached out his hand and cupped the boy's cheek, thumbing away the falling tears. 

 

Tao shut his eyes, reaching his hand up to Kris' hand that was on his cheek and held it still for a moment. So warm, he thought. He opened his eyes again to find Kris' soft eyes and soft lips centimeters away from his. He gasped, letting go of the other's hand realizing what just happened and stood up quickly.

 

Tao looked at his watch. "Look at the time. We better get back. My mom's waiting for us." 

 

He hastily picked up some bags and was already half walking and half running. His odd hurriness caused him to bump into a bicyclist and his bag of lemons to rip open. Resulting in a frantic chase for rolling lemons (they were the round kind).

 

Kris went after the boy with the rest of the bags in hand, shaking his head, half sighing and half laughing. 'Damn, why do you have to be so cute?'

 

 

 

 

 

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Author's Note

Sorry for the hold up guise, but for sure tomorrow the last part of "Hello, Family!" will be posted since I just need to edit it a bit. And yay, reason why Tao went to Korea is finally out in the open.

 

 

 

 

 

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