12: Bad News

Due to the incident on the beach that morning, Kris’ training had been cut short, leaving the two males with more than enough time to blow before they were due for work at The Black Pearl Surf Shop. And Kris, being the intelligent that he was, thought it’d be fine to go out for breakfast before having his shoulder bandaged up. Tao quickly nipped that in the bud, claiming that no one wanted to see blood while munching on their pancakes, including himself.

“Ow! Dammit, Taozi! That hurt!” Kris jerked away from the younger’s fingers with an annoyed scowl. Since the experienced surfer was accustomed to receiving injuries, they’d opted to clean the wound at his house, raiding the small stockpile of first aid supplies Kris kept stashed on the middle shelf of his bathroom closet.

“Stop being such a baby!” yelled Tao, losing his patience. “How in the hell did you do this by yourself all these years?”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe because I didn’t go digging my fingers into my flesh like you’re doing right now!”

“I'm not digging my fingers into it!”

Dabbing hydrogen peroxide onto a cotton swab, Tao cleaned the wound gently, liquid foaming and fizzing as it made contact with Kris' damaged flesh. Tao focused on that, refusing to let his mind or eyes wander to anything else other than the task at hand.

Kris flinched as his shoulder began to burn. At least Tao had shown a smidgen of mercy by not selecting alcohol as his choice of disinfectant. As the blonde glanced about the bathroom, he concluded that his injury was much worse than previously thought. Several bloodied cotton swabs had been discarded in the plastic waste bin along with his ruined t-shirt. Had he really bled that much?

Kris heard the sound of rustling fabric, followed by the soothing caress of cool breath being blown across the gash. He swallowed, eyes half-lidded as he reveled in the sensation, goosebumps raising across his skin in response to the vaguely intimate gesture. The makings of a shiver prickled at the back of Kris’ nape, and although he tried to stop it, it rolled down his spine anyway, revealing his reaction despite his best efforts to conceal it.

“S-Sorry,” whispered Tao. Being around Kris was difficult, especially when they were alone. There was always a certain level of tension hanging over their heads that heightened with each passing day. Tao didn’t want to know what would happen once it finally snapped. “You should probably get stitches,” he provided, tossing the dirty cotton swab into the waste bin.

“Don’t need them,” replied Kris, turning his head for a glimpse of Tao’s handiwork, only to make direct eye contact with Tao instead. The bathroom was cold but the air in the space between them heated and buzzed with energy. “Um…” he trailed off, mind blank.

“Hm?” hummed Tao, gaze unwavering, seemingly drawn to the surfer like a moth to the flame. Kris’ hair was windblown, skin dewy with a few sprinkles of sand clinging stubbornly to his cheek. Tao had the urge to reach out and brush them off but quelled the desire by nibbling on his lower lip.

“I…” fumbled Kris, heavily distracted by the other’s unknowingly seductive action, eyes darting down to linger on soft lips for far too long. Kris cleared his throat. “I don’t know… I… forgot what I was going to say.”

Tao smiled timidly as he opened a small tube of antibiotic ointment and squirted a pea-sized drop onto a q-tip. “I mentioned stitches?” he provided.

“Oh… yeah.” Kris turned from the other to stare at his hands, drawing imaginary shapes into the porcelain of the bathtub with the tip of his index finger. “Just bandage it up. It’ll be fine.”

“Whatever you say, surfer boy. But I don’t want to hear you ing when it scars.”

“It’ll fade with time, surfing model. All scars do… to some degree at least.”

Kris' statement was profound, as if he were talking about something other than the obvious. His father maybe? Tao stuffed down the thought. It wasn’t his business, and he shouldn’t pry. Kris was probably still agitated by what Jongin had said, or at least, had intended on saying before Tao smashed his face into the sand. The teen smirked at that, feeling quite proud of his mini victory on the beach that morning.

He began applying the ointment. Luckily the wound was only a couple of inches long and not that deep. Looking at it made Tao’s blood boil. To think someone would do that to Kris--a decent guy who worked hard to reach his dreams despite the challenges. It didn’t seem right, the amount of Kris had dealt with over the years, and it only confirmed that bad things really did happen to good people. In turn, Tao had learned to appreciate the things he did have, even if those things weren’t silver and gold.

Tao’s life had resembled a rusted piece of metal when he first came to the island. Yet over the past several weeks, that rust had began to flake away, revealing polished metal beneath the so-called crud of his life. With a crooked smile, he knew it was all Kris’ doing. To some degree, Tao hoped that he too had been able to make a difference in the surfer’s life, even if only a little bit.

“Alright.” Tao tossed the q-tip into the waste bin. “Where are those huge bandages?” Kris picked up the box beside of his foot and handed it over his shoulder. “Thanks.” Tao readied a large bandage and applying it to the gash. “There. All done.”

Kris stood from the side of the tub, walked to the mirror above the sink, and turned to eye Tao’s handiwork. There wasn’t anymore blood, so mission accomplished. “Awesome,” he grinned genuinely. Had he done it himself, it would have taken twice as long. “Now, about that breakfast you owe me.”

Tao groaned and rolled his eyes. “You don’t let anything go, do you?”

“Nope.” Kris’ stomach growled angrily as if to confirm his resolve.

“Fine.” Tao scowled. “But put on a shirt for Christ’s sake. I’ll lose my appetite if I have to keep staring at you like this.”

Kris approached Tao, a mischievous spark in his eye as he purred into his ear. “Then don’t stare, Taozi. Unless, of course, you want to. In which case, I don’t mind.”

Tao swore his body flushed from head to toe. He slapped Kris’ chest as hard as he could, warranting a startled yelp from the other. “Shut the hell up and put on some damn clothes!”

“Gah! Dammit! I am a wounded man!” Kris complained.

“You’re going to be a lot more wounded if you don’t have a shirt on in the next thirty seconds.”

“Why are you being so--”

“Thirty,” Tao began counting down. “Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight.”

“Okay! Okay! I’m going!” Kris threw up his hands before exiting the bathroom in search of a fresh t-shirt.

Tao washed his hands at the sink, and as he dried them, smiled at his reflection in the mirror. There was a time when he would’ve had a major freak out over his mussed hair, wrinkled shirt, semi-damp swim trunks, and sandals. As he stared back at himself through the mirror, all he could see was a look in his eyes he couldn’t quite place. All he knew was that his summer had started out as the worst experience ever, yet somewhere along the way, it had turned into the best.

Funny how life had a way of surprising the hell out of you when you least expected it.


-


“OHMF MUY FWUKING GAWD DESE PAHNCAKESS,” Kris spoke around a mouthful as he skewered another large bite of stacked pancakes. Meanwhile Tao looked on, empty fork resting idly in his hand as he watched Kris barbarically shove his face full of food.

“You know,” began Tao, eyes narrowed, “There’s this thing called chewing. You should try it sometime.”

Kris paused at the other’s smart remark, cheeks puffed out as he sniffed once and pointed to Tao’s bacon. “YOOGUNAHEATDAT?”

“What?” barked Tao, “I’m sorry but I don’t speak Pig.”

The blonde grinned stupidly, resembling a puffy-cheeked chipmunk. Tao found it difficult not to laugh, much less grin at the big oaf, so he stuffed his mouth full of bacon and chewed slowly. The waitress chose that moment to stop by their table and ask if they’d like any more coffee. After receiving two wide-eyed looks and a bunch of incoherent mumbling, she walked away shaking her head like a disappointed mother. A moment later, Kris nearly choked on a stray chunk of pancake, which had Tao spewing his coffee across the table from laughing so hard. Needless to say, the waitress had quite a mess to clean up after the troublesome duo had left the restaurant.

On the drive to Luhan’s surf shop, Kris talked about surfing and Tao spoke about school and his life back home. Is seemed as though they’d fallen into a comfortable rhythm, one with much less arguing and much more talking. Never once did they speak of the kiss. Maybe it was because Kris understood how difficult it was for Tao to talk about such things, or maybe they just didn’t need to talk about it.

“You two are ten minutes late.” Luhan glared from behind the register. Not that it really mattered. The surf shop had yet to see its first customer of the day.

“Really?” Kris feigned innocence. “Well let me just fix that.” He grabbed the plastic clock from the back wall, twirled the little gear on the back, and hung it back into place. Tao’s lips lifted into a smile when he realized that Kris had turned back time by precisely ten minutes.

“You ,” chuckled Luhan, playfully punching Kris in the stomach, “I was afraid you guys had gotten breakfast without me.” At that Kris and Tao froze. Luhan looked between the two of them before crossing his arms against his chest, seemingly appalled by their betrayal. “You cheap asses! How could you go for pancakes without me!”

“How did you know we got pancakes?” asked Tao, astounded. He was becoming more and more freaked out by his boss’ ability to know things.

“Are you kidding me?” scoffed the bleach-blonde shop owner, “I can smell the syrup all the way over here!”

Suddenly a styrofoam takeout box magically appeared on the counter, accompanied by a rainbow-haired teen with an annoyed expression. “Here’s your stupid ing pancakes your royal ing highness,” grumbled Sehun.

“MY PANCAKES!” Luhan’s face lit up as if he’d just been handed a sack of gold, warranting a sassy roll of the eyes from Sehun.

“Now just a minute,” interrupted Kris, arms folded accusingly,” You mean to tell me that you just ed us out for not inviting you for pancakes, when you already ered Sehun into getting them for you anyway? And without even asking us if we wanted any?”

“Yeah but there’s a difference. I’m the boss." Luhan pointed proudly to himself. “Therefore I can do whatever the hell I want.”

Sehun snorted, Tao snickered, and Kris walked off while mumbling something about hypocrites under his breath. Pancakes aside, everyone fell easily into their respectable positions. Tao manned the register and phone, Luhan worked on inventory, Kris prepared for his first surfing glass of the day, and Sehun did something that at least looked like work.

Lunchtime saw them all outside at the picnic table eating pizza. Luhan turned a blind eye to the beer the others sipped casually, even though they still had several hours of work ahead of them.

The beach was exceptionally windy and the surf unsettled, a product of the tropical storm that would be skimming past the island sometime tomorrow evening. Kris didn’t seem too worried about it and neither did Luhan. In fact, they couldn’t stop talking about the formidable waves and considered rounding up the entire group for a surfing showdown later that afternoon. The conditions were beyond perfect, an event that happened very rarely, which should’ve been their first warning sign.

Everyone was in high spirits until Lay burst through the front door an hour before closing time. “I just finished watching the news and came right over,” he began, a bit winded.

“What’s up, man?” asked Kris, concerned. It wasn’t in his friend’s nature to be so flustered.

“They’re saying the tropical storm turned into a category one hurricane. They expect it to be a category two by tomorrow. I thought you guys should know, since it’s headed right for us.”

“What?” Luhan gaped. Surely the weather center had made an error. “I thought they predicted it would turn towards the north and miss us.”

“They did, but its course altered,” replied Lay. “Listen… uh… I don’t know how else to say this but…” He took a shallow breath. “They… expect the storm surge to be pretty bad. I’m… I’m sorry Luhan.”

Tao felt his heart plummet into his stomach. The Black Pearl Surf Shop rested directly on the beach. There was no way it could survive a storm surge.

Luhan looked about the surf shop--his surf shop--and felt his shoulders slump along with his hopes. In his two years running the business, never once had the shop taken a direct hit from a such powerful storm. Granted, it’d been built to withstand an onslaught of bad weather, but it was only a matter of time before it finally took a beating from Mother Nature.

Luhan's mind whirled with possible actions, outcomes, and consequences before he was able to reach a solid conclusion. “Alright! Here’s what we’re gonna do!” he began with renewed vigor, “Sehun and I will drive into town for supplies to board up the shop. Lay, call Minseok and Jongdae. We’re gonna need help hauling as much as we can out of here. We can’t take everything but we should at least move the important stuff someplace safer.”

“Sure. No problem.” Lay pulled out his phone and jumped right on it.

“Tao and Kris, start getting ready. Surfboards, the extra inventory in the back, my computer, the register--”

“S-Sure. No problem.” Tao immediately dashed into the back to start gathering boxes.

“We’ll stay here til it’s done.” Kris placed a hand to his boss’ shoulder and gave a supportive squeeze.

“Thanks.” Luhan’s smile was bittersweet. “Come on Sehun. The faster we can get this done the better.”

“Okay.” Even Sehun appeared ruffled by the news.

Kris hung his head and ran a hand through his hair.

“Kris?”

The surfer turned at Tao's panicked tone. “Yeah?” he replied, face solemn.

“Is… Is the surf shop going to be okay?”

Kris approached the younger and ruffled his hair. “I don’t know, Taozi. I hope so.”

Tao frowned at that, brow creased with worry.

Kris attempted reassurance with a bright smile. But it didn’t quite reach his eyes.