After attempting to call Kris several times every day, Tao just didn’t care anymore. He couldn’t reach Kris, and he knew that any chance he might have had was over.

He didn’t care about anything anymore, and he picked up his phone.

 “Hello?”

“Ailun,” Tao said slowly, “do you want to come to my place tonight?”

“Really?” Ailun asked, sounding excited. “Of course! What time?”

“Now is good,” Tao said.

                “Peachy Pie, is this what I think it is?” Ailun asked quietly, and Tao took a deep breath.

                “Yes,” he replied, and Ailun let out a small squeal.

                “Okay, I’ll head over right away. I can’t wait!” The other line went dead and Tao thought his heart went dead, too.

                No, he wanted to do this. He loved Ailun, and Ailun loved him, and they were meant to be, and that was that. Kris was irrelevant.

Ailun appeared at his door about fifteen minutes later, looking eager and excited. He kissed Tao quickly, looking at him as if it was all too good to be true, and then kissing him again.

                Tao kissed Ailun back furiously, messily, but it wasn’t the same as kissing Kris had been. They stumbled into Tao’s bedroom, and Tao backed into his bed, Ailun falling on top of him. He tore off Ailun’s shirt, kissing up and down his neck, but it felt wrong.

                “Are you going to be on top, or am I?” Ailun asked in a whisper, and Tao knew he had to say something.

                “You do it,” he sighed, hoping that maybe he could just imagine it was Kris. Ailun grinned, pulling Tao’s shirt off and kissing down his torso. It was eerily like it had been with Kris, except Tao was nowhere near as excited.

                But he wanted to do this. He wanted to…

                Ailun pulled off Tao’s pants, reaching his hand into his underwear, giving Tao a few languid before putting his mouth to the waistband, kissing and .

                “Stop,” Tao said finally, and Ailun looked up, frowning.

                “I’m about to go down on you for the first time. Don’t make me stop now,” he said, and Tao grimaced. How he could stand Ailun’s crude way of talking was beyond him.

                “I…don’t want—”

                “You invited me here, Tao. You said you were ready!” Ailun cried.

                “That’s not the problem,” Tao sighed. Ailun stood up, looking furious.

                “So I’m the problem?” he demanded, and Tao backed up.

                “No, Ailun—”

                “I knew it! You were never into this relationship. I clung to you for dear life because I felt like you might leave me. I gave you everything, and I was okay with not getting everything back because we were together. But I knew you never loved me!”

                “Ailun, I did love you. I did,” Tao said, but Ailun glared at him, tears seeping from his eyes.

                “You should be saying that you do,” he told him. “I deserve better, Tao. I deserve someone who’s going to love me back.”

                “I know,” Tao replied quietly, looking down.

“Tell me one thing,” Ailun hissed. “There’s someone else, isn’t there? Ever since a few weeks ago. I’m right, aren’t I?”

“I…I mean,” Tao paused, and shut his eyes in shame. “Yeah.”

Ailun slapped him across the face. Tao wasn’t even shocked as he put his own hand to the stinging imprint of Ailun’s.

                “Just in case you’re unclear,” Ailun said, fighting through his tears, “we’re over. Have a nice life, Huang Zitao.” He gathered his things and left the room. Tao heard him leave the apartment, the door slamming behind him.

                So now Tao had messed things up with everyone in his life.

-

                “Now you’re looking really bad,” Lay said concernedly at Victoria’s next appointment. “I know you’re going to tell me that there’s nothing wrong, but I won’t believe you. What’s really bothering you? Tao, please tell me so I don’t have to worry anymore.” Tao looked up, and Lay’s deep brown eyes gazed right back into his. Lay had always been someone he could talk to, someone he could trust.

                And at that moment, Tao really needed to talk.

                “I went to Kris’s apartment to have dinner with him. It was going really well and we were doing the dishes and suddenly we were kissing and he brought me to his bedroom and I was down to my underwear before I remembered that I had a boyfriend. I stopped him and told him and I know I shouldn’t have let it get that far because he brought up Mianzhi again and he told me to get out and now he won’t talk to me and he didn’t show up for his appointment with me and I haven’t seen him since then. So I decided to give up and I was going to do it with my boyfriend…but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t. It wasn’t the same and I didn’t want to if it wasn’t with Kris and so Ailun dumped me and now I’m a mess.”

                “Does Kris know you’ve broken up with your boyfriend?” Lay asked.

                “I haven’t seen or talked to him since that day like two weeks ago.”

                “Maybe you should move on,” Victoria suggested, but Tao looked at her painfully.

                “I’ve tried,” he said, trying to sound strong, “I’ve tried. I can’t move on.”

                “Then maybe you need to try harder for him,” she said, and Lay nodded.

               “I don’t know what else I can do,” Tao sighed. “I’ve messed things up so well. Can we not talk about this? Miss Song, how is your foot?”

                “It feels a lot better,” she replied, still sounding concerned for Tao.

                “I think it’s fully healed,” Tao said. “Be careful, though, because you’ll be prone to it again, and you don’t want that happening.”

                “No,” Victoria agreed. She looked at Lay as they exchanged nervous glances.

“Uh, Tao, you’re still coming to our wedding party in Macau next week, right?” Lay asked.

                “I’m still coming,” Tao replied. “Why wouldn’t I?”

                “Well, you seem a little down…”

                “Maybe it’ll brighten things up,” Tao replied. “I’m crossing my fingers.”

                “Well, I think it should be—” Lay began, but he was cut off by the door flying open. Dr. An was in the doorway, looking slightly put off.

                “Kris Wu is here, and he says he wants to see his physical therapist. I keep telling him that I’m his physical therapist now, but he keeps asking for Dr. Huang,” she hissed. Tao looked at Lay and Victoria.

                “Is it a good idea to go?” he asked them nervously, pushing his hair out of his eyes. Victoria nodded.

                “You should talk to him,” she said, and Lay agreed.

                “Whatever you do,” Dr. An said, tapping the toe of her high heeled pumps impatiently, “please do it now.”

                “I’m sorry, Miss Song,” Tao said, standing up clumsily and bowing slightly, “but Dr. An will take good care of you.” He dashed out of the room to room 202, where he expected Kris to be waiting.

                He opened the door without knocking this time, but his hands were shaking like never before.

                “Kris,” Tao said, and Kris turned to look at him.

                “Dr. Huang,” Kris replied blankly. “I’m here for my appointment.”

                “I’m Tao and I’m not here for your appointment. I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have done it, I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

                “Tell that to your boyfriend,” Kris spat, and Tao sat down heavily in the chair.

                “He dumped me,” Tao replied, “because I didn’t want to have with him.” Kris opened his mouth to say something, but he stopped, and Tao knew what he was thinking about.

“Am I really the only one you care about?” Tao asked.

                “Yes,” Kris replied.

                “Even though I didn’t let you kiss me or touch me like you wanted?”

                “Of course!” Kris cried, grabbing Tao’s other hand. “Tao, I was being the worst person on the planet, trying to force you into moving faster than you wanted to. I’ll never, never make you do any of that again if you don’t want to; and it’ll never make me think any less of you.”

                “I’m sorry,” Kris said, sounding hollow. Tao looked at him sadly and didn’t reply. He couldn’t reply. There was nothing he could say. He hadn’t loved Ailun, he’d loved Kris. But that was in the past, and there was nothing he could do about it anymore.

                “I dislocated my shoulder again,” Kris said, and Tao drew back, because it was completely off topic and completely unexpected.

                “What?” he cried.

                “Yeah, I fell down the last few stairs of my apartment building last week.”

                “That means we’ll have to start all over again,” Tao said, and Kris looked at him pointedly.

                “Maybe that’s a good thing,” he replied. There was a few seconds of silence, and Tao stared down at his feet.

                “I don’t know what’s going on,” Tao said. “I have no ing clue. I’m a mess.”

                “You’re a mess,” Kris agreed. “But this isn’t the time to sort that out.”

                “You’re mad,” Tao said, and Kris nodded again.

                “I’m really ing mad,” he said calmly, “but like I said, this isn’t the time to sort that out. I’m here for my appointment.”

                “Dr. An is better suited to treat you,” Tao told him, still looking at his shoes.

                “I don’t want her,” he said. Tao stood up.

                “I can’t, Kris. I can’t. When I don’t know what’s going on, I can’t treat you. I’m not in the right state of mind right now. I’ll do or say something horrible and I’ll regret everything. I can’t treat you properly right now. If you really don’t want to see Dr. An, take your sheet of exercises and do them like I told you to. But I can’t go over them with you right now.”

                “What kind of physical therapist lets their emotions get in the way of their work?” Kris demanded, and Tao felt like crying.

                “A really ing bad one, I guess!” he cried. “I don’t ing care, Kris. Don’t pay me, I don’t care. Just fix your damn arm. I may be a horrible physical therapist, but at the very least I want my patients to get better. Will you see Dr. An or not?”

                “No,” Kris replied.

                “Then I hope you remember your exercises,” Tao said. “I’m sorry.”

                “So am I,” Kris replied, leaving Tao in the room alone.

                Before he knew it, tears were spilling out of his eyes, an uncomfortable lump forming in his throat. He didn’t know what to do, and it scared him. 

A/N: So I'm sure you can see a lot of stuff is the same as normal Fated Bond. More explanation to come next chapter :D