Chapter 9
ChemistryOk, so he couldn’t delete it, because it was technically not his photo, but Kyunghee's. He briefly entertained the idea that Xing wouldn’t see it because he didn’t think she knews Kyunghee, but then that concept was shot to the wind when he remembered that she would probably see anything he was tagged in.
What to do, Tao wondered.
But was he really that obvious? If Jongin was able to tell so easily, what about other people? Maybe his mum and sister would already have guessed too. He felt an anxious ball settle inside him and hoped he was wrong. He sat in his bed for a while, then wrapped himself in his duvet and sat for a while longer, stewing in worries. At some point, he heard the door open, which meant his mum must be home.
Today it was his turn to cook dinner, and his mum called him down to start. He decided to chop up some vegetables and put them in a pot, because this usually works and he couldn't be bothered to do anything else. He then added chilli powder, because he liked it spicy, and if the rest of his family didn’t then they could make their own food. He smiled and humed to himself while cooking the rice.
He heard someone coming down the stairs, and he was hoping it was his mum, but he knew deep down that it wasn’t because she was in the next room. So logically that meant Xing was coming downstairs and she was going to try and verbally kill him. It didn't even matter if it wasn't because of the photo, she would think of something.
She walked in blatantly ignoring Tao and went straight to the fridge, which Tao found extremely rude. He was making dinner couldn’t she at least wait for food? He opened his mouth to tell her this, then he realised that this must be how his mum feels like every day when he does this exact same thing. But what surprised him the most was that she didn’t even look at him. Had she not seen the picture yet? Well she would soon. He repressed a shudder.
When the food was done cooking, Tao called his mum into the kitchen, laid the table ready for his meal to be judged.
“Where’s your sister?” His mum asked, too casually to not have been staged, then, “go get her, please." Tao groaned,
“Can’t we just eat without her, please?”
“No. Go, now” she shooed him away. Tao made a big show of his disgust with the situation by flouncing out childishly. He stomped up the stairs, but upon reaching his sister’s door, was quiet for a few seconds. He hesitated in reaching towards her door, and then mentally kicked himself for being such a wimp. He could tell her it was dinner time, he had no reason to be afraid of her.
He pushed open the door and called in “food’s ready” then quickly left, nearly slipping on the stairs on the way back down. Xing came into the kitchen a few minutes later with her phone in front of her face, which meant she was on facebook. Which meant if she hadn’t seen it, she would any second now. Tao sat at the table, stiff and sweating, watching her from the corner of his eye.
She sat down too, still scrolling, and then she gasped, eyes flashing up to meet his. Tao cringed and gripped his fork tightly.
“Why didn’t you tell me you have a boyfriend?” she accused,
“Because I’m not- what?” that wasn’t quite what he'd expected. He'd expected her to pick on him, not... not sound almost excited. Tao realised that he was gaping, and snapped his mouth shut.
His mum, who had been dolling out the food up until this point, not really paying attention to their rather one-sided conversation, puts a plate of his almost-curry in front of him, then sees his perturbed expression and glances between them.
“What’s wrong now?” She asked Xing who was looking at him like he'd done something wrong, which was basically her default.
“Tao has a boyfriend, and didn’t tell me,” she said as though this should be his first course of action. This comment grated on Tao's nerves,
“Ok, One; he’s not my boyfriend, and two, even if he was do you really, honestly think I would tell you?” He inquired scathingly.
“Tao, calm down. What exactly are you talking about?” His mother interjected, trying to keep the peace. A full time job in their house.
“We’re talking about how Tao got a boyfriend, look,” she showed his mum the picture on her phone, ignoring Tao's icy glare as she did so. Tao really didn’t want to endure the rest of the meal with the awkwardness that he knew was about to ensue. He picked up his plate and cutlery and took it upstairs to eat in his bedroom, glaring at Xing as he left, and only not making a rude gesture at her because his hands were full.
He heard his mum calling his name but he ignored her.
While waiting at the bus stop the next morning, it was drizzling lightly, and he had spent an extra few minutes on his hair that morning, which had put him in a bit of a sour mood. Then it occured to him that Sehun will be on this bus too, and this escalated his mood significantly. When the bus arrived, it was unusually full, no seats at all. Tao couldn't see Sehun anywhere, but there were so many people crowded on that that was hardly surprising.
“Hey, Tao.” A disembodied voice caught Tao unawares. Sehun was sat on one of the pull down seats, one of the ones you have to give up if there’s a pushchair, or wheelchair. He patted his lap expectantly. Tao raised his eyebrow at him,
“You know, I have some dignity,” He turned his nose up at him, pretending to be snotty about it, when really he did want to sit on Sehun's lap again. He wouldn't ever admit that to anyone, though, not even Jongin.
“Don’t lie to me, you at it,” he laughed and yanked on Tao's arm, pulling him down. Tao tried to subtly look around for reactions from the other passengers, embarrassed to have been manhandled and also to be on another boy's lap in public without shouting 'no homo', but no one seemed to have noticed or cared. Pleased at being socially invisible, Tao relaxed a little more.
Chemistry went the same as usual; with both of them pretend fighting when the teacher wasn’t looking. Sehun stole his pen just after the teacher told them to do some work, and held it out away from him, where he couldn't reach it without climbing over him and causing a fuss. Tao hissed at him,
"Give it back, you turd, I need that. That's my only pen!"
He leant over him to reach for it, and tried to take it from his hand but Sehun just leaned back, snorting. It was only when the teacher interrupted them that he realised he was basically straddling Sehun's lap, with one knee on his chair. Tao felt almost all the blood in his body rush to his face. He ripped himself away, mortified, and put his face in his hands. There were a few people snickering at their childish antics, but the teacher told them to be quiet and focus on their own work. Sehun prodded his arm with the offending pen, which he then snatched from Sehun's hand angrily, and tried to focus on the worksheet they'd been given.
Ok, Tao sighed, all he he had to do was calculate the number of moles of copper in a solution of copper (II) sulphate. Alright. He could do that. He reached for his calculator, only to find that Sehun had got there first. He grumbled, retracting his hand. He refused to look at him, until he slid the calculator to him in apology. It had a piece of paper torn from the corner of his worksheet placed on it.
It reads: ‘if u still want to come to my house, how about this Saturday?’
Tao took it and considered, heart jolting weirdly. This was exactly what he'd wanted, but how to respond without looking like an over-eager freak? He agonised over the response, and eventually settled on a simple 'ok'. He slid it back to Sehun with his answer written on it in his untidy scrawl.
"What is that?" Sehun said, with a measure of disdain.
"Ok. As in I'm going to yours Saturday and nothing you say now is going to stop me," He bared his teeth in what was meant to be a smile, but came off more as a grimace.
"Duly noted," Sehun smiled again, and Tao's chest clenched in that weird way again. Not good.
comments anyone? maye ill do a double update today since i havenet updated in a few days hmmmm
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