A/N:  This oneshot is for zwolftenaugust who has had crazy conversations with me more than once. I hope you all enjoy this! 

I still at fluff.

Still, don't hesitate to talk to me and request!

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Chapter 3: Baektao

Tao liked the silence.

Korea was better, because he didn’t understand the sentences very well. So the voices that spoke in a language different than his own faded in the background and it was quiet again.

So very quiet.

Nothing like the noisy days back in Shanghai, when his father called him a useless brat because he refused to become a doctor and marry a girl from a good family and his mother cried in the corner. Nothing similar to the screams, his own screams, at nights when no one was listening.

Tao was happy with silence.

It’s not like he loved being a martial arts’ instructor. He would much rather throw all these stupid kids out of his practice space and have it all for himself. And even though he didn’t speak Korean very well, he could still make out the words ‘crazy bastard’ as they came out of his students’ mouths after long hours of practice. He was also painfully aware that someone had painted a very clear image of male ia on the door of his cupboard.

But Tao wasn’t going to care about these rude teenagers. As long as he got paid, he didn’t need anything more from them.

For Tao, the best time of the day was when he finished lessons, at nine in the evening. He would keep on practicing wushu for about two hours after that and then take a shower at the Martial Arts’ Club, change to some clean clothes and head out.

Seoul was the best after midnight, Tao thought as he walked down the street that particular Wednesday night. And suddenly he felt the need for some coffee.

‘Drinking coffee without having had anything to eat will completely ruin your stomach.’ He could hear Wu Fan’s advice in his ears. He contemplated calling his old friend, but then he remembered, midway through his Contact List, that the guy was probably sleeping, at home, with his boyfriend, and he put the phone back in his backpack.

Tao decided to have the coffee anyway. Wu Fan was not there to see him anyway. He had Chanyeol to whine at, now.

On cue, an electric blue light caught his eye, before he got a chance to cross the road.

It was one of those cheap-looking signs, a coffee cup made of blue led lights and the word ‘OPEN’ under it, in English.

Tao nodded to himself decisively and walked towards the small coffee place without even checking the name.

It was already empty, because, as expected Tao was the only person in Seoul who wanted coffee at one in the morning, but the coffee shop, the Chinese man noted, was not half bad. With wooden, but surprisingly comfortable, seats and small circular tables. Books on the walls and the occasional poster from a movie Tao had never seen.

Now, if Tao was one of those friendly and sociable people, he would have kindly moved towards the counter and ordered his coffee, since there was no waiter around at that moment.

However, Tao was nowhere close to friendly or sociable and he happened to like having his order taken, watching the poor waiter or waitress squirm and try to explain the menu to him in Chinese or English, because he always made it perfectly clear that he couldn’t speak Korean.

So he just sat on a remote table, close to the window, waiting for the waiter, or anyone really, to show up so he could order.

Five minutes and thirty four seconds later -and no, Tao was not a Time Control Freak, he just liked punctuality- a brown-haired, only relatively tall figure, ran inside the shop, giving Tao a disbelieving glance.

“I’m very sorry!” The guy, wearing a black, waiter’s apron bowed quickly and even though he wanted to sound apologetic his voice still came out more surprised and amused, than sorry.

The Chinese man blinked back and tried not to show that he understand the man’s words.

“You want to order?!” Once again disbelieving looks flied over to frustrate Tao, who raised an eyebrow and was moments from crossing his arms angrily, making sure his strong muscles popped out to scare the guy into taking his order.

“Yes, of course! Why else would you be here? Sorry…” The waiter blushed profoundly and nodded to himself. He leaned over the counter and fished out a small notebook and a pen, quickly dancing around the tables to get to Tao.

“Right. Well, what can I get you?” The waiter sighed deeply, for having made it there in one piece Tao guessed, and asked in a forced-polite tone.

“Americano.” Tao said in his clearly foreign pronunciation, which might or might not have been a little forced as well.

“Coffee? At this time? You don’t want some tea, or a drink, or something to eat?” The waiter mumbled, disorientated, his pen hanging over the notebook awkwardly.

The wushu master wished to say that waiters who work at cheap coffee shops and take five minutes and thirty four seconds to notice their customers don’t have a right to question said customers’ tastes. But Tao held himself back, because he didn’t like fights.

“Americano.” He repeated and this time he crossed his arms, making sure the waiter saw his muscles.

The guy gulped, visibly and Tao smirked a little, as he watched him ran back to the counter obediently.

In the end the coffee was not so bad, not too hot, or too cold and with the right amount of sugar and Tao persuaded himself that this was the reason he returned to the same coffee shop the next night.

He walked in, ready to demonstrate his wushu skill on anyone who would dare say that he had developed a liking towards flimsy, useless waiters. However this time the guy with the brown hair was already behind the counter, left hand already holding the little notebook and eyes practically willing Tao to sit so he could take his order.

Not managing to hide a look of surprise and slight discomfort, the Chinese guy, sat on the same spot he had occupied yesterday and waited.

It took only eleven seconds for the waiter to arrive at his table this time – not that Tao was counting or anything.

The guy had a handsome face, with an easy, wide smile and nice eyes. Tao thought they’d look even better with some eyeliner, but he was aware that certain men hated using cosmetics and would probably react very badly upon hearing his suggestion. After that, he spent around ten seconds scolding himself for even thinking of talking to the flimsy waiter about eyeliner and such.

“Erm…Sorry?” A soft, slightly playful voice interrupted Tao, who forced himself to look up.

“I was wondering whether I could get you something.” The Korean guy bit his lower lip, shifting his weight from one foot to another.

“Americano.” Tao replied solemnly.

And the waiter just nodded, without even taking down his order and walked back to his counter, looking, in Tao’s opinion, a little too cheerful for someone working the night shift.

The coffee had been good for two days straight, the heating was arranged to warm the place but didn’t dry the air and the seats remained strangely comfortable despite being made out of wood and having no pillow whatsoever.

So the wushu instructor saw no reason to stop visiting the coffee shop on his way home from work. And it slowly became a part of his every day ritual. Get up, do some yoga, go out shopping, cook, go to the Martial Arts’ Club, teach till nine, practice wushu, have a quick shower, grab a cup of coffee and go back home.

And life was quiet and nice for Tao.

Until one day, it suddenly wasn’t.

Tao learnt that the young waiter’s name was Baekhyun when a middle-aged woman, with shabby clothes and uncombed hair shouted it for everyone in the coffee shop to hear. Tao only understood half of the curses the woman threw at Baekhyun after that, but he had the decency to look angrily at the woman when she called the waiter ‘a useless bastard, who should be something crazy, if he thought she would allow something men in her apartments’.

Tao might have missed some details here and there. However, he was pretty sure the Baekhyun guy wasn’t on good terms with that woman. He didn’t blame him, really. She was extremely vulgar and had a tendency to hit other people’s tables with her hands.

Baekhyun looked extremely scared at first, stumbling from behind his counter and staring at the woman with big, innocent eyes, like he had no idea what it was all about. But, apparently, even a clueless waiter had his limits, because after five full minutes of yelling on her part, he was fuming and ordering the woman to close and get out of his shop.

And just like that silence was restored on Tao’s life.

Only, not really.

He hadn’t even realized he was standing up, clutching his fists, until Baekhyun gave him a worried look while blushing, probably because someone he knew had caused a commotion in the shop.

“I’m so, so sorry!” The waiter messed his hair awkwardly. “I had no idea she would scream like that! I cannot believe she would dare say… I’m not… I mean, I am but… You didn’t need to know that and-” He finished his mumbling with a long, desperate sigh.

Tao sat back to his seat staring intently at his coffee, wondering whether he should tell the waiter that he hadn’t really understood what this was all about, so there was no need for him to freak out.

He didn’t need to, though. Because, a while later, he heard the brown-haired waiter gasp from the counter.

“Oh! You’re not Korean!” Baekhyun exclaimed.

Without wanting to, and maybe because he was particularly aware that they were the only two people in the shop, Tao looked up at the waiter, alarmed. 

“You didn’t understand anything, did you now, Panda-sshi?” Baekhyun asked with a somewhat sweet and teasing smile.

Tao did the only sensible thing that came to mind.

He blinked. Repeatedly.

Panda-sshi, he contemplated. Was this a nickname? Tao had a lot of nicknames among his students; ‘Ninja Assassin’, ‘Iceberg’, ‘Time Control Freak’ and of course ‘Crazy Bastard’. But none of them made him sound even remotely… good.

Panda-sshi was… he tried to place it in his head.

It was nice, he concluded. Definitely nice. A little too cute for his tastes, but altogether nice.

Meanwhile the waiter was throwing a party behind the counter, wiping, putting some glasses in order and looking like he had won the lottery.

“Of course he doesn’t understand, Baekhyun!” He seemed to be scolding himself. “He’s obviously foreign.”

“Good. Good. That is good. Phew! Great.” Then Baekhyun was smiling to himself and Tao felt the need to mimic the move. He blamed it on his wushu reflexes and kept drinking his coffee.

When he was getting ready to leave, Tao saw the waiter approach his table with a look of over-rehearsed formality.

(A/N: Mandarin is written in italics from now on.)

“Hello” Baekhyun cleared his throat and said in heavily accented Mandarin. “I am apologizing for the disturbing. Thank you for visiting in our shop.”

And Tao just laughed.

Because it was so ridiculously obvious that Baekhyun had just google-translated the whole sentence that he couldn’t hold back anymore.

After blushing and staring, wide-eyed, at Tao for a while, the waiter burst out laughing as well.

So they found themselves, ten minutes later, sitting comfortably at what Tao had been calling ‘his table’, still laughing and even crying a little.

“Apologizing for the disturbing?!” Tao repeated as he laughed some more.

“Well, what was I supposed to do?” Baekhyun should have understood the words because he replied easily, even though he had gone back to Korean for good measure.

“You could have bought me some coffee...” Tao decided to continue with Mandarin. It was big enough a step that he was talking to the guy, he didn’t need him to understand on top of that.

“Oh! I know!” Baekhyun clapped his hands happily. “I’ll just give you some coffee on the house, next time you come.” He announced and Tao almost choked on thin air.

“But I don’t know how to say ‘It’s on the house’ in Mandarin…” Baekhyun muttered, unaware of the reactions he was causing.

“The coffee is for free.” Tao provided, knowing fully well that it was no use, since Baekhyun had no idea what he was saying.

“I’ll look it up in google and if I’m lucky enough, I’ll say something wrong again and make you laugh…” The waiter beamed, while Tao tried to understand the lucky part of that scenario.

“My students call me ‘crazy bastard’ because I keep them too long during practices. Why were you called a ‘useless bastard’?”  The Chinese man decided to ask, out of nowhere.

“Honestly, I have no idea what you’re saying.” Baekhyun shook his head meaningfully. “I just wanted to apologize for Mrs Jung. She’s my landlady.” He began explaining and Tao was starting to think there was someone up in the skies, translating for the two of them. Because, somehow, Baekhyun was really answering his questions.

“She… Well she found out that… It’s okay if I say this, right?” Baekhyun looked up at him expectantly and Tao just stared back, knowing, by now, that Baekhyun would feel more comfortable saying this if he thought Tao didn’t understand.

“Right. Of course you don’t understand.” The waiter nodded. “Well, she found out I like guys. Like… you know… romantically. And she freaked out so much. You saw it, right? She was livid!” Baekhyun sighed and pouted, making Tao purse his lips together to avoid letting out any emotion; whether that would be anger for the woman’s behavior, or joy -not because Baekhyun was into guys, no, definitely not- just because the young waiter looked so adorable when he pouted.

“Do you want me to kick her some time?” Tao smirked at the thought. “I try to use my skills only for self-defense, but if you want, I can do it.”

Baekhyun focused a little on the wushu Master’s face. “You look totally dangerous when you smirk, Panda-sshi!” He pointed out and Tao let the smirk slip his face immediately.

As he took one final look at the handsome waiter, before leaving the coffee shop an hour later, Tao felt his stomach twist a little, painfully. All those late night coffees were taking their toll, he assured himself.

After that day, everything became just a little less silent for Tao.

Visiting Baekhyun’s coffee shop and having strange conversations, half in Mandarin and half in Korean, was Tao every day routine these days.

He had already learnt all of Baekhyun’s secrets by the end of the second week. How Baekhyun was bullied back at school, how he picked his nose in public some times and how he loved the smell of coffee. Baekhyun’s favorite ice-cream flavor was coconut and he’d choose street food over sushi any day. And, apparently, he didn’t find Tao’s arm muscles intimidating, only a little –Beakhyun had stressed the ‘little’ part quite a lot- attractive.

Tao felt bad from time to time, for acting like he didn’t speak Korean, when in fact he understood almost everything. But then, he realized Baekhyun would have never confessed all these things if he knew the truth. And Tao really wanted to know each and every one of Baekhyun secrets.

The silence in Tao’s mind was completely broken apart the day he found Baekhyun sleeping soundly on one of the couches at the back of the shop.

It was the time Tao should have been doing his morning yoga. However, that particular day, the Martial Arts’ Club had their annual show, where they invited all the parents to see their kids’ skills. Manager Kim had asked Tao to come by early in the morning and help him arrange the seats and decorations.

So Tao thought it would be a good idea to pass by Baekhyun’s and grab a cup of coffee before going there.

And that was how the Chinese man found out two new things about Baekhyun.

The first was that he was working the night shift because his best friend and co-owner of the coffee shop took the morning shift.

The second was that aforementioned co-owner was no other than Wu Fan’s smiling giant of a boyfriend. A guy Tao had met a couple of times before, whose name was Park Chanyeol.

“Zitao?!” The curly-haired guy by the counter grinned pleasantly at Tao, who only managed a half-smile, distracted with looking for Baekhyun.

“Hello.” Tao nodded as he reached the counter.

“I had no idea you were a customer! Do you come here often? Did Wu Fan suggest this place? Are you feeling okay? Are you looking for something?” Chanyeol was a great guy, honestly. But Tao would never understand how Wu Fan could stand all of this blabbering of his.

“Baekhyun?” Tao asked, simply, causing the tall Korean to widen his eyes and gape at him.

“You know Baekhyunnie?” Chanyeol leaned over the counter to observe him closely.

“Wait a second!” He said after a long pause. “You’re Panda-sshi?”

Tao felt his face heat up, as he cleared his throat indignantly.

“You are!” Chanyeol all but shrieked. “I cannot believe it! Wu Fan will never stop laughing…”

“If Baekhyun-hyung has gone home, I’ll just have a cup of coffee and go.” Tao muttered darkly at Chanyeol.

“Gone home?” Chanyeol questioned, curiously. “Actually, Baekhyun’s landlady practically threw him on the streets about a month ago. He’s living here now, sleeping on the couch at the back of the shop and showering in the sauna next door.”

At Tao’s flabbergasted expression Chanyeol bit his lower lip. “I though you knew…” He whispered finally.

“Is Baekhyun hyung here then?” Tao asked, more mad at himself for not noticing the truth, than at Chanyeol for saying it.

Chanyeol motioned at the back and the Chinese man mumbled a ‘thank you’ before going at the back of the coffee shop.

It was a small space, a semi-basement of sorts, with space for one small couch and nothing more.

Baekhyun was curled up on the small, mustard couch, in what looked like a very uncomfortable position and Tao felt genuinely bad for him.

Without even registering it, he leaned over and brushed some strands of hair away from the Korean’s face, feeling that frustrating twist in his stomach even though he hadn’t had any coffee that day.

“Baekhyun hyung is frowning as he sleeps.” Tao muttered under his breath, not even realizing that he was talking in Korean. “Is it because you sleep in this uncomfortable place?” He sits on the floor in front of the couch, to have a better view of the other guy’s face.

“Hyung did not tell me he had nowhere to live. If he told me, I would…” Tao sighed unable to contain that thing that had been growing inside his chest for so long already.

“I want to help Baekhyun hyung… Because Baekhyun hyung is good. Because his voice is not noise to my ears. Because I like not being silent with Baekhyun hyung.”Tao felt his breath hitching in his throat as the sleeping guy stirred on the couch and slowly, ominously, opened his eyes to stare at the wushu master.

“Panda-sshi?” Baekhyun sat up on the couch, rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes.

Tao was back to his feet in a matter of seconds, trying to think of ways to disappear or become one with his surrounding and regretting for the first time in his life that he wasn’t a ninja.

“Did you just talk to me in Korean?” Baekhyun was standing up as well, a curious look in his eyes. Tao just took a step back.

“You actually understand Korean?!” The brown haired waiter moved towards Tao, while the latter backed up even more.

“And all these times that I poured out my heart to you…” Tao had never felt so scared in his whole life. Baekhyun might be shorter and lacking martial arts skills, but from his expression alone, Tao could tell he was going to pay for lying.

“Panda-sshi this is not okay.” The Korean made a ‘tsk’ ‘tsk’ sound as he approached dangerously. “And you’re not even admitting your mistake.”

Tao forced himself to look away, however the waiter got hold of his chin and made him look back at him.

“Ok. Let’s find out once and for all if you understand me or not.” Baekhyun smirked. “If you don’t apologize to me in Korean, right now, I’m going to kiss you.”

The Chinese man felt his heart jumping from his chest, while he tried to remember how to beg for mercy in Korean.

“Three.” Baekhyun moved his face so close that Tao could feel his breath tickle his cheek.

“Two.” Frankly, it wasn’t so hard to say ‘sorry’. The wushu master could probably manage it. Even say it with a good accent and all. But the other guy’s red lips were distracting him and he couldn’t stop thinking how much better he would look with eyeliner and…

“One.” The waiter was about to close the distance between them once and for all when Tao finally opened his mouth and spoke.

“Hyung you’d look hot with eyeliner.” Admittedly, not one of Tao’s smartest retorts and definitely nowhere close to an apology.

Yet, it still didn’t excuse the way Baekhyun’s smirk widened and the way he attacked Tao with an agonizingly slow kiss, even after the poor guy had thrown away his pride and spoken in Korean.

Tao had already decided to propose to Baekhyun to be his roommate, the moment he found out that he was practically homeless.

“You don’t have to make me your roommate.” Baekhyun argued, shame kicking in a little too late, in Tao’s opinion. “This couch is perfectly comfortable.”

Of course Tao refused to believe it, until the waiter pushed him on it and climbing on top of him.

“Fine.” Tao muttered as he wrapped his arms around the older guy.

“We keep the couch.” He said and smiled as he realized Baekhyun had already fallen asleep on him and was even snoring.

The guy was noisy even when he slept, making Tao rethink his whole theory about the advantages of silence.