"I-I'm a...I'm a genetic experiment."

“And I’m supposed to believe that?” Sehun saw him swallow, and blinked fast. He'd never seen him this upset before, which was hardly surprising: he had just revealed a hard to believe truth after all.

“No, no you’re not, but I promise I'm telling the truth. I promised my parents that I wouldn’t cause trouble, but I already have, and it’s usually because of you,” Sehun had debated for weeks over whether to tell him or not, how to tell him, but today, he had finally made the decision. Once Tao understood that he was different, then he would hopefully leave him alone, which will be better for him. Safer. He couldn't let Tao get hurt.

Even if it would hurt to be without him.

“You’re blaming me?” Sehun could tell he was on the verge of an emotional reaction, whether it be attacking him, or crying, Sehun was didn’t want him to do either, so he resolved to find a way of pacifying him.

“No, no listen. I’m blaming myself.”

Tao's face twisted in contempt. , that was the wrong thing to say. Sehun backtracked, hands raised in surrender,  “I mean. I-I haven’t even explained, have I?” He took another deep breath, trying to compose himself. This was probably going to be even harder to talk through, but at least he had started. He could hardly stop now, could he?

“I’m not- I’m not like wolverine or anything dumb like that. But I am different to everyone else.” Tao's eyes were narrowed in suspicion, and Sehun completely didn’t blame him. In his position Sehun would think this was some kind of practical joke or something too. 

“I can see you don’t believe me.” He drops his hands and clenches them together on his lap. How could he prove it to him? Maybe if his parents were out he could show him his test records, and compare them to an average person. But they were always in the office; there would never be a chance to sneak in. He disregarded that idea quickly. Then it hit him: Tao had already experienced the effects of his mutation, hadn't he?

“Remember that time in chemistry, when I came in running? And you went all, well, weird?” Tao nodded tentatively, “that was my, uh, mutation…the thing the experiment changed about me. When I get, oh this sounds so bad; excited, my brain makes this synthetic pheromone. Different people react differently, and you seem to get super focused. It’s called Hypervigilance.” He tried to speak as fast as he could, and when he ran out of words, it felt oddly silent. Sehun looked up to see Tao's reaction. His face had gone blank somewhere during his explanation, but Sehun still didn’t think he quite believed him yet,

“And then when I was at your house and I burnt myself, and it happened again then, remember?” Now he was looking at the floor, lips pursed thoughtfuly and eyebrows casting a shadow over his eyes. Maybe Sehun had managed to persuade him. Sehun contemplated moving closer, but would he be disgusted with him? He would probably move away, then leave and never come back. Which was what he wanted, wasn't it? So why did that idea make him feel so distressed?

Just before Sehun moved, Tao looked up and caught his eye,

“Does this actually change anything between us? Because I don’t see how it does. I mean, if you’ve been, I don’t know, like this, the entire time, now that I know it shouldn’t mean anything. I’ll just…know now.” Tao spoke so quietly that Sehun had to strain to hear him, but his heart leapt once he understood what he was saying, but he had to be sure.

“I suppose that logical, but are you sure you knowing won’t change anything?”

“Well…I suspected something was up anyway. I would’ve found out eventually” He had a wry smile on his face, and he surprised Sehun by scooting up closer, “I still like you though, regardless.”

This sentence made him feel inexplicably warm inside, like he could to smile forever and never stop. He tilted his head away from Tao in embarrassment, even though he surely didn't know what he was thinking about. Since when was he so mushy?

“Ok,” Tao said, shifting into a more comfortable position against Sehun's side and causing all kinds of distress, “What now?”

That was a good point, what were they supposed to do now? It was all a bit anticlimactic really. Sehun was kind of expecting him to cry, or run away, or something dramatic. Not just accept it, like he did.

Half an hour later they discovered that neither of them were very good dancers, or at least not this kind of dancing.

“Oh my god, what the hell is this?!” Tao exclaimed in a fit of giggles, while trying to copy his dancer on screen who wass shaking his hips comically. Sehun's was doing some kind of swirly thing, which he knew he couldn’t replicate to save his life, so instead he just swayed to the beat in the hopes of getting some points.

“You can’t do that it’s cheating. Dance properly!” Tao scolded. Sehun tried to do something that looked kind of like what was happening on screen, but it obviously didn’t work as planned, since Tao just laughed harder until he was red in the face. When the song ended, they both flopped down on the sofa behind them, panting slightly.

“That was harder than I thought it would be” Tao breathed, earning a nod in agreement from Sehun, “I’m choosing the next one, c'mere,” he grabbed Sehun'd wrist and pointed it at the screen. Sehun pretended to object, but gave in quickly, subtly guiding him away from the songs he didn’t want to do. Like ‘I’ve Had the Time of My Life’ because there was a high probability of embarrassment. Unfortunately Tao noticed his aversion, and made an extra special effort to pick it.

“No, no,” Sehun whined at him, putting his face on Tao's shoulder. While Sehun was having a little tantrum, Tao had picked the male character, which obviously meant that he would have to do all the spinning, and be thrown around. By Tao. How was this even going to work? Tao wasn't strong enough to lift him, was he?

The music started, and they were thrown straight into trying to do that move you see in ballroom dancing, the one where the girl leans back into the man's embrace. Except Sehun was the one doing the leaning, which was a little awkward but only because of the height similarities. After that, with surprisingly minimal laughter, except a snort from Sehun when Tao actually kissed his hand, and a fair amount of shouting, they sat back on the sofa again, breathing hard.

Sehun suggested playing a more…normal game, and Tao agreed. Once Sehun had set up the game- Call of Duty, it was all they could agree on- and they were playing, Tao shifted, so that he was leaning against Sehun. He smiled to himself.

“Does this make us, like, together now?” Tao was so quiet he nearly didn’t hear him. Sehun wasn't sure how to reply to this however, because he wasn’t supposed to have told him in the first place. He curses himself now for being such an idiot: what if it had all gone wrong and Tao had run out upset and told all his friends? He would have had to move away again. He sighed. He could only imagine what would happen if his parents found out. It was a good thing they didn’t know he made a facebook account, because Sehun knew if he answered yes, then Tao would insist on putting it on there, for everyone to see. Like that photo.

He had obviously been quiet for too long, because Tao paused the game to look at him.

“Hey!” He snapped his fingers, right in Sehun's face. How did he not notice him so close? “It’s not really a hard question.”

But it was. If he said yes, then they could act all couple-y, like he wanted, because despite his brain telling him ‘no, this is a terrible idea, reject him, now’, what he really wanted to do was just kiss him. But then if he was discovered, who knew what would happen? And what if his parents decided that they needed to move house again? They had promised that as long as he could control himself, they could stay here for longer, and even though it would be hard to do that with Tao around, since he knew the truth now, Sehun thought it might actually be possible.

Sehun opened his mouth to tell him yes; yes he would be his boyfriend, or whatever he wants. But before Sehun could get any words out, Tao stopped him in his tracks, pressing his warm lips against his, and moving them gently. Sehun's eyes fluttered closed and his hand raised to wrap around Tao's waist to stop him from falling off the sofa.

An hour later, he went home, red faced, and they agreed to meet at school in the morning, before classes. They spent all night texting, and Sehun found that it was easier to express himself via texting, sending him messages adorned with hearts and filled with pet names. He flushed every time he sent one, kicking his legs and rolling up in his duvet. He wondered if he would regret it if anyone ever looked through his messages.