OMFG Kris' July, though. Sorry for how long this always takes me. I work too much, and now I hate my job which I used to love. My friends and family keep telling me to quit and move on to being a novelist, but I honestly don't think I have it in me. It's hard enough to try and put out chapters for fanfiction.

~ Tao POV ~

"You're a real piece of for that, you !" I yelled as I slammed on the buttons to my game controller. After my one-hundredth consecutive loss, I groaned loudly and pushed the controller as far away from my person as possible. I leaned backwards with a heavy sigh, snuggling into Kris' warm chest. Kris put his own controller aside and gently wrapped his arms around me, resting his chin on the top of my head.

'You're just a sore loser, aren't you?" Kris questioned, earning a punch to the side of his head.

", I might be." I muttered grumpily under my breath, earning a low chuckle from Kris. I snuggled further into his chest and let out a contented sigh.

“You’ve never told me about your family before, Tao.” Kris stated somewhat out of the blue. At the mere mention of my family, my whole body reflexively tensed up.

“Well, my dad was a major perfectionist, like OCD hardcore. He started controlling my life early on in primary school, hoping that I would be some doctor making millions so that I could support him and my mom when they became elderly. At first, I was happy to do anything for them. They were my parents, you know. I loved them. But when my classes started getting more and more difficult, my grades started slipping. My father was furious.” I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. My nerves frazzled as I had never told anyone, never gotten close enough to anyone, to tell them my life story. Kris placed his warm hands on my shoulders and began to rub them absentmindedly as he listened. “The first time I received a B grade, I was so scared to go home. I was so nervous and cried to my teachers, but they told me everything would be fine and that a B is still a really good grade. I believed them and went home.” I didn’t realize I had started shaking until Kris wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace.

“You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to.” Kris said, worry lacing his voice. I shook my head and leaned back into him.

“You asked me, so I’ll tell you even if it hurts.” I mumbled, taking in a large breath of air. “My father beat me until the sun came up the next day. He said so many things. So many mean things to me. How worthless I was, or how I should just die. That I should just disappear and never come back. I was only ten years old. He’s even locked me in a shed during a terrible thunderstorm. How could a father do that to their own child?” My teeth began to chatter as I spoke, the memories flooding back sent chills up and down my spine as goose bumps rose on my skin. “After that day, I was never the same. I dyed my hair, pierced my ears on my own, started skipping classes, and always got into fights. I stole money from my parents to take Wushu classes, just in case.” Kris grabbed the blanket from our bed and wrapped us in it when the shivering wouldn’t stop, encasing me in warmth and safety. I relaxed a little and grabbed one of his hands, entwining our fingers together. “When my father decided that I was being too much of a brat and being disrespectful, he tried to beat me again. But this time, I was ready. I fought back and nearly sent a grown man to the hospital. After that, he tried to file a domestic abuse case against me, but I fought back with my very own case of self-defense. He was so angry that I had won, so he tried to send me to a foster home, had tried to get rid of me. At the time, I was fifteen and my mother, no matter how scared of me she was, told him that she wouldn’t allow it.” I sighed heavily and tilted my head back, looking up at Kris. “And a few months later, I ended up here. With you and all of our friends. It was the first time I’ve ever felt completely whole ever since I was ten.” Kris planted a soft kiss on my forehead which spread warmth from that spot all the way to my toes.

“You’re so strong, Tao. I’m proud of you.” Kris mumbled against my forehead, making my heart beat quickly and blossom for him. I sat up and turned around in his lap, kneeling in front of him. I grabbed Kris by his neck and pulled him into a tight hug.

“I haven’t heard someone say they’re proud of me since I was ten. And to have it said by an idiot named Kris, I must be out of my mind.” I pressed my lips against his, which he accepted happily. Tears slipped their way down my cheeks, making the kiss taste salty but oh so sweet. Kris placed his hands on my hips and pulled away for air. When I looked him in the eyes, they were dark and seemed to be clouded over. He easily picked me up by my hips and placed me directly in his lap, making me gasp before taking my lips once again. Kris hesitantly swiped out his tongue and my bottom lip, making me gasp in shock. Kris pushed me to the floor as he deepened the kiss, snaking a hand up my shirt.

“Guys!  Do you want to go to the beach with the others before the storm?” Baekhyun yelled as he barged into the room. He looked down at us in shock before smirking. “Ooh? Did I disturb you?” I shot up into a seated position and pulled down my shirt. I stood quickly and murmured something about being thirsty and left the room. I stormed down the hall and didn’t realize where I was going until I ran into someone and nearly fell down on top of them.

“I-I’m so sorry.” I muttered before looking at the person I ran into. “Oh, hey Yoona. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” I asked worriedly. She shook her head and smiled, a light blush tinging her cheeks.

“T-Tao. I heard from someone that you like me. Is that true? Because I really like you and you’re super cute.” Yoona said rather bluntly. My mind couldn’t process quickly enough before she was practically pushing me up against a wall, pressing her chest against my own.

“U-um, Yoona? Could yo-“ I couldn’t finish my sentence as she stood on her tiptoes and pressed a heated kiss against my lips. I froze in utter shock, and placed my hands on her shoulders. Her kiss didn’t do what Kris’ kisses did to me, and they truly felt wrong against my own. Before I could even push her away, we heard a strangled cough behind us. She jumped and turned around so that we were face to face with an extremely aggravated Kris.

“What the hell, Tao? I thought we were doing great but here you are, making out with Jessica’s cousin. I thought you were better than that, but I guess a kid with daddy issues would have no morals when it comes to relationships.” I felt my heart freeze over and tears well up in my eyes. Yoona gasped beside me, but her response fell on deaf ears as I stared at Kris.

“Daddy issues?” The words felt foreign on my lips as I felt my heart crack into a million pieces. How could Kris be so sweet, but such an utterly jealous all at the same time? “Being beaten, abused, neglected, and disowned are daddy issues to you?” My voice was barely a whisper, but I knew he could hear me. His eyes shifted from anger to shock and just as quickly back to anger. My frozen heart was quickly ignited with flames of anger as I marched up to him and slapped him square across the face. “ you, Wu Yifan.” I yelled in his face as I stormed out of the house into the freezing weather without so much as a jacket or shoes. I ran and ran and ran without looking behind me as I entered the forest on the outskirts of the cottage and continued to run. The sound of thunder is what pulled me out of my stupor, making me freeze on the spot and observe my surroundings. Not a single creature could be heard and there wasn’t a single star in the sky. A sharp wind blew past me, effectively making me shiver hard enough that I thought my bones would break with how hard I was shaking. “I’m so going to kick Kris’ if I don’t die in this forest.” I muttered angrily as the sudden downpour of rain stabbed into my body like icy knives. I quickly ran for cover under a large tree as another clap of thunder sounded.

~ Kris POV ~

“What do you mean ‘Jessica put you up to this’?” I half shouted angrily at Yoona. The girl trembled under my scrutiny and looked away from me.

“J-Jess told me that Tao had a huge crush on me and that he liked me, too. She told me to just go for it.” The girl stated, stepping back slightly.

“That ing ! You’re telling me that Tao is innocent and I just made him hate me all over again?” I punched the nearest wall as hard as I could, creating a huge hole in the surface. Yoona squeaked at the sudden act of violence. “I have to find him.” A loud clap of thunder suddenly sounded and reverberated off of the walls, making me halt in my movements. “No.” I muttered, looking back to Yoona with wide, alarmed eyes. She looked at me questioningly as I my heel and fled to my shared room. I burst through the door and spotted Baekhyun and Chanyeol sitting on their bed reading. They looked up at me from their books and took note of the serious look on my face.

“What happened?” Baekhyun asked, discarding his book and standing up.

“I got into a fight with Tao and now he is outside somewhere in the cold and there is a thunderstorm going on and he has no jacket or shoes on.” I said in a rush, almost too fast for Baekhyun to register. He blinked a few times before pulling out his phone and simultaneously put his shoes on.

“Chanyeol, shoes. We have to find Tao.” I nodded and grabbed Tao’s shoes and a jacket, throwing them into a backpack before grabbing my own and putting them on.

“I’m going to get started, then.” I ran out of the door and grabbed an umbrella before exiting the building.

~ Tao POV ~

The only thing warm on me were the warm tears that poured down my face and the warmth that I didn’t feel like investigating on my right side. My body was racked with wave after wave of icy pain as the wind sliced me to the bone and the rain pierced through me. The claps of thunder came more frequently as I sat huddled on the dirty, muddy ground. I wrapped my arms around my legs, ignoring the sharp pain that shot up my side. “I’m going to die out here. All because of Kris, I’m going to die out here.” I thought hopelessly. My mind kept wandering back to Kris and how much I had grown to love him, even if he did treat me as badly as he did sometimes based on his own speculation. Fresh tears welled up in my eyes when I thought about how we had fought. “If I die, the only thing he’ll remember about me was how Yoona got in between us and thought I was cheating on him again.” I covered my face with my ice cold hands and wept into them, savoring how the warm droplets slowly began to thaw my numb fingers. Another clap of thunder sounded, but I could just barely make out a voice through it. My head shot up as I furrowed my brows, wondering if I had begun to hear things.

“Tao!” The voice yelled again, much closer and louder now. I numbly got to my feet and tried to find the direction the voice was coming from.

I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted, “I’m over here!” Before violent coughs racked my lungs and body, making me collapse to the cold ground. I could make out hurried footsteps over my violent coughing fit as Kris made his way into the clearing. I looked up at him and felt relief, but also pure anger. I tried my best to stand and quickly turned to try and run away again.

“Tao! Stop running from me. You’re going to get hypothermia and die at this rate if you keep running from me!” Kris said as he wrapped warm arms around my waist. His warmth thawed me enough to turn around and slap him again with an icy palm.

“You expect me to come along with you when all you have done is accuse me for I didn’t do? Why the hell would I kiss Yoona if you know damn well how I feel about you?” I felt fresh tears stream down my face as I looked at him, my heart swelling for him and breaking for him at the same time. “Why do you have to always make wild assumptions about situations instead of asking questions, huh?” I pushed him backwards, allowing all of my frustration to seep out of me. Kris grabbed my hands and pressed them against his lips.

“Yoona told me the truth about how Jessica put her all up to this. She’s just as innocent as you are. Jessica is a conniving and she needs to be stopped before she ruins our relationship any more than she has.” Kris told me before pulling me forward into his arms. I melted against him and began to sob.

“You say that you love me, but you always get angry at me because of the other people keep pulling. I need you to start asking questions first instead of making accusations first. I’m going to break if you keep doing this to me.” I muttered into his shoulder, effectively making him embrace me tighter. Kris pulled away and placed a chaste kiss on my forehead before he began to examine me. His whole body froze when he looked at my side through the white t-shirt I had been wearing.

“Tao, you’re bleeding a lot.” As soon as the words left his mouth, a wave of dizziness hit me and I collapsed. Kris caught me before I hit the ground. He picked me up and pressed me against his warm chest before he started to run back to the cottage. Darkness was chasing the corners of my vision before unconsciousness finally took me.

And there you have it, folks. Another update! It took me a few months to get to writing it, but only about an hour and a half to write it. I and I'm so sorry. I hope this chapter is acceptable! I hope y'all had a Happy Thanksgiving! 

<3