“Tao, is your room clean?” Suho asked in his parent-like fashion. “We’re leaving in half an hour. Is everything out?” He peeked into Tao’s room to find Tao with his wushu sword, practicing, just as he’d been for the past two months. Tao’s room was empty and spotless. “Good,” Suho sighed. He left the room and Tao heard him tell whoever was outside “Get Luhan in there. Tao’s moping again.”

               It had been two months since they’d broken up. Two months, eleven days, and eighteen hours, not that Tao was counting. It wouldn’t make sense for him to be dwelling on it anyway, since their breakup was technically his fault.

               But he wasn’t moping. He had been for the first few weeks. He’d admit to that. But not now. He’d gone back to wushu to keep from moping. Whenever he felt like moping, he’d practice wushu instead. It wasn’t moping.

               Luhan opened the door.

               “How’s our peach?” he asked, walking over to Tao. “Wanna sit?”

               “I’m fine. I’m not moping,” Tao pouted, and Luhan smiled at him as if to say “sure you aren’t.”

               “Are you excited for summer?” Luhan asked instead.

               “No,” Tao replied seriously. “I hate hot weather.”

               Luhan sighed. “But it’s going to be weird to be out of school, don’t you think? Not seeing each other every day anymore?”

               “We’ll all be back next year. We’re just taking a two month break from each other. It could be good,” Tao shrugged. Luhan sighed once again.

               “I’m worried about you, Tao,” Luhan said, inching closer to Tao. “I’m really worried.”

               “Don’t be,” Tao replied, looking at Luhan kindly. “Really, I’ll be fine.”

               “Are you sure? Will you call me every d—”

              “No,” Tao said firmly, “a break is a break. I’m not going to call anyone. We’ll come back next year and then we can talk.” Luhan pouted but didn’t persist.

               “So, back to China, huh?” Luhan asked, changing the subject. Tao didn’t mind.

               “Yeah,” he said. “I’m staying with my uncle in a small town.”

               “Well, that should be a change from this, definitely. Got any plans for while you’re there?”

               “My uncle is looking to get me a job,” Tao replied curtly.

               “That’s nice,” Luhan said as Sehun peeked in the door. “Oh, Sehunnie, what’s up?”

               “Uh, are you two ready to go? Tao, there’s a cab for you.”

               “Did Kris already leave?” he asked, and Luhan turned to him, looking concerned once again. Tao disregarded him. “Is Kris gone?”

               “He’s gone,” Sehun confirmed. “His flight was late last night.”

               “You don’t need to avoid him,” Luhan said lightly, but Tao ignored him.

               “Okay then, I’m ready to leave,” he said.

               “Xiumin wants to say goodbye to you,” Sehun said. “He’s out on the street waiting.”

               “Fine,” Tao said, standing up and leaving the room. As he passed the living room, he looked at the couch. The last time he’d sat on that couch, his head had been on Kris’s shoulder and their fingers had been intertwined. It was part of some of his best memories.

               Memories that had since been tainted. He looked away and continued out the door.

               He reached the street and saw Xiumin, Chen, and Suho waiting for taxis.

               “Is everyone else gone already?” Tao asked, and Chen nodded. “Well…see you in the fall, I guess.”

               “Tao, take care of yourself, okay?” Xiumin said, patting Tao on the back.

               “Why is everyone so worried about me?” Tao said in irritation. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

               “You aren’t really yourself, though,” Chen pointed out. “I hope you come back more like the Tao we remember.”

               Tao gave them all a glare as he stepped into the cab. He didn’t want to say goodbye, and it wasn’t because he was feeling sentimental. He just didn’t want to give the appearance that he was being friendly. The others seemed more concerned with his weakness than his strength, and Tao didn’t appreciate that one bit.  

               “Where to?” the driver asked.

               “Incheon airport,” Tao said. “And go quickly.”

               He glared out the window as the cab took him through the neighborhood on the way to Incheon. They passed the garden, the convenience store, the library, the florist, all the places that reminded Tao so painfully of Kris.

               He didn’t miss him. Or at least, he didn’t think he did. The breakup hadn’t exactly been smooth and Tao had been sure he was better off without Kris.

               He reminded himself that the breakup allowed him to take up wushu again, which he should never have let go in the first place. Wushu was forever. Relationships with tall, handsome, perfect men were not.  It was a good thing.

               “Where are you going?” the cab driver asked, trying to make conversation. Tao just glared at him.

               “China,” he replied. The driver didn’t say anything after that.

               Tao had never liked airports, and that day was no different. He hated seeing lovers kissing each other goodbye, full of heartfelt “adieus” and tears of anxiety. He always wondered why, if they loved each other, they were leaving each other. It just didn’t make any sense to him.

               “Tao!” he heard a voice cry, and despite himself, he hoped it would be a certain someone.

               But he remembered that this was a good thing, and that Kris’s voice was much deeper than Lay’s.

               “I’m glad I caught you. You’re going to China, right?”

               “Yeah,” Tao replied.

               “So am I. I’ll be excited to get back. I have to congratulate my friend Victoria.”

               “Did she get married or something?” Tao asked in a monotone, and Lay laughed.

               “Oh, Vic? No, no no. She was just…right about something. And I want to let her know that.”

               “Okay,” Tao said, turning around. To his annoyance, Lay followed him to the check-in line.

               “Tao, seriously, I’m trying to be friendly to you and you’re just making it so hard,” Lay said. “You have to stop moping.”

               “For the last time, I am not moping,” Tao said angrily. “Why should I be?”

               “I don’t know,” Lay replied, “since you say that this break up was a good thing. Why did you even—”

               “I don’t know either, okay?” Tao muttered. That wasn’t entirely true, but he said it anyway, because Lay was getting annoying.

               “Uh, okay,” Lay said, looking worried. Tao rolled his eyes.

               “I’m over him.”

               “Okay,” Lay said again, not even trying to hide his skepticism. Tao sighed, knowing that if he couldn’t convince Lay, at least he could convince himself.

               “I’m going to come back at the end of the summer and you’ll believe me then,” he told Lay, and Lay just nodded with the same skeptical expression on his face.

               He thought he heard Lay say “there’s a reason we don’t believe you,” but he couldn’t be sure.

               “Are you on my flight, or are you going to go somewhere else?” Tao asked, and Lay bit his lip.

               “I think I’m going somewhere else,” he replied. “So…I guess I’ll see you at the end of the summer, huh?”

               “Yeah,” Tao said. “See you around.” As soon as Lay left, Tao was suddenly very aware of just how alone he was.

               Kris had been there for him when nobody else was, and now he was gone too. He looked around the shiny airport, realizing that all these people were as transient as everyone else in his life had been.

               He stopped at a café and drank a cup of coffee, which gave him long enough to dwell on being in Korea before they called for his flight. He got on, and before long they were taking off. Tao usually liked watching the cars and buildings and rivers getting further away, but that day he couldn’t stand it. He shut the window and leaned against it. He tried to sleep, and though he technically wasn’t awake, he wasn’t quite sure he could call it sleeping because it felt so torturous.

               He awoke in China, and his uncle was waiting for him after customs. Tao frowned.

               “Took you long enough,” his uncle said.

               “Sorry,” Tao replied quietly, not even bothering to argue because he knew it would do him no good. He shouldn’t have gotten accustomed to the kindness of the people in the dorm, because he knew that he’d come back to the treatment he’d always been used to.

               “Why are you frowning like that?” his uncle demanded, and Tao sighed quietly. “You don’t need to be so angry. I know you don’t like me, and I don’t like you, so that’s why I’m leaving you with my friend’s son, Zhou Mi.”

               Tao’s stomach flipped over. Great, another new person to learn to hate.

               “You’ll be living with him and working at his bar. It’s a good job and you need to learn how to be a better person.”

               Tao made a noncommittal noise and his uncle just grunted.

               “We’re going straight to his apartment now,” he told Tao. “Come on.”

                Tao followed his uncle to the parking lot where a taxi was waiting for them. He told Tao to get in the front seat, while he stretched out leisurely in the back. He didn’t dare ask any questions about where they were going or how long it was going to take to get there, but knowing his uncle, it wasn’t far or he wouldn’t have paid for a taxi to take Tao there.

                Unfortunately, Tao had judged his uncle’s character poorly, because it did take them a long time to get there.

                “Pay up,” his uncle said, holding out his hand.

                “What?” Tao asked, and his uncle scowled.

                “Don’t say ‘what’ like that to me. I said pay up. We came here for you; the least you can do to thank me is pay me back.”

                Tao sighed, rifling through his wallet to somehow find the funds to pay for the taxi ride.

                “You’re here!” he heard someone cry, and he turned around. A tall man was coming out of the apartment in front of which they were parked, and he was smiling like nobody’s business. “You must be Tao! Nice to meet you, I’m Zhou Mi. How much was the taxi? I’d be happy to handle all of it.”

                “It’s really not necessary,” Tao said, but Zhou Mi was having none of it.

                “How much was it?” he asked again, and Tao told him quietly. Zhou Mi handed the money to Tao’s uncle. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of Tao! You won’t have to be concerned one bit.”

                “I wouldn’t be anyway,” Tao’s uncle said, and Zhou Mi smiled. Tao looked at him, wondering if maybe he’d misunderstood Tao’s uncle’s statement as reassuring.

                “Well, goodbye! See you at the end of the summer!” Zhou Mi cried. Tao’s uncle laughed and stepped back into the taxi, which promptly zoomed off, leaving Tao with Zhou Mi on the side of the street. “So, Tao, do you want to see where you’ll be staying this summer?”

                “Okay,” Tao sighed. Zhou Mi grinned at him once again and took him into the apartment building.

                “The bar is here, on the street level. It’s closed today, but we’ll be working there tomorrow. I mix the drinks,” he explained as they passed the bar and pressed the button for the elevator. “You’ll probably be doing the same. I’ll teach you how, don’t worry.”

                “Okay,” Tao replied again. Zhou Mi sure did talk a lot.

                “Here’s my floor,” Zhou Mi said. They exited the elevator and turned left, reaching a door. “And here is my apartment. I only have one bedroom, but there are two beds so you don’t have to worry.”

                “Thanks,” Tao said. He pulled his suitcase into the main room of the apartment and looked around. It was sleek and stylish, a black and white color scheme throughout with random dashes of bright colors. There was a big television, comfortable-looking chairs, and large windows towards the back of the room.

                “Is that all you have?” Zhou Mi asked, pointing down at Tao’s suitcase. Tao nodded. “We’re going to need to take you shopping. I don’t think appropriate clothes for a bartender could possibly fit in there. I hope you like shopping, because I’m a force.”

                Tao cracked a smile for the first time in days.

                “I love shopping,” he said, and Zhou Mi grinned once again. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he thought. 

A/N: 破釜沉舟(Pòfǔchénzhōu) is the actual title of this. It is a Chinese proverb literally translated to "Break Kettles Sink Boats" and it has a smiliar meaning as burning your bridges or reaching a point of no return.

Soooo yeah this takes place directly after Simple. Like a few months later. I don't remember the exact time frame. Even though it's completely different from Fated Bond, you can still see that parts of it are similar to things mentioned (like Laytoria and Tao living with Mi).