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Tuesday, April 26^th , 2022

                 Tao took the bus to Kris’s photoshoot destination first thing in the morning and brought a long some food he made himself at home. Knowing Kris worked all through the night for the next magazine spread, Tao took his time to make sure he was getting enough to eat. Tao could barely made out who was who when he finally arrived at the shoot. The filming crew was everywhere; make up tents, props, fans, people made Tao dizzy for a bit. He pushed through a curtain of people and finally spotted Kris in the middle of the circle about fifteen feet away from him. Tao waved, but no respond from Kris. Kris let his eyes darted through Tao quickly and returned to his model friend. He seemed to say something funny; the girl laughed, Kris laughed, Taozi didn’t laugh. Tao rolled his eyes and stepped out of the circle then settled himself onto a stone curb, waited for Kris to be done.

                After a while of fidgeting with his phone, Tao saw Kris sitting on the opposite side of the curb. He quickly ran over, and sat next to Kris.

“Here, I made you some food. Food poisoning is happening a lot lately, it’s better that you eat homemade stu—“

“No need.” Kris pushed the food box out of his sight, almost out of Tao’s hand and onto the hard concrete.

“But I made this for—“ The second time in a minute that Taozi got interrupted, this time by a man in white dress shirt, long slacks and expensive shoes. Tao pouted at the sight.

Kris happily took the foam box from the man with a grateful smile, “Thanks man.”

“No, eat thissss. Kris, come on.” Tao begged, as he violently shoved the glass box into Kris’s face. “Don’t do this to me please. Will you stop eating that?”

Kris turned his back, and Tao gave up with a huff. “If you’re not gonna eat this then I ing will.” He mumbled.

“You should go home, why would come out here so early in the morning for?” Kris softly said, almost like a scold

“I brought you food!” Tao protested. “If you eat this instead of that, then my effort wouldn’t have gone to waste now is it??”

Kris closed the top of his foam box as he stood up. “Go home, I have to go back to the shoot now. Don’t wait for me.”

Before Tao could make any sound out of his mouth, Kris was already gone. His effort indeed went to waste. Stupid guy, I woke up early for him and everything… Ugh.

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Sunday, May 2^nd, 2022

Tao was running late, as per usual.

Taking too long in the bathroom to get ready was one of his many fortes. He found every excuses there was to make up for the fact that he was always at least ten minutes late to every event he was about to attend. Not to mention today was his birthday, he took thrice as long. Kris was waiting for him down stair, on his little bike, looking at his wrist watch every two seconds to see how many hours of the day Tao had wasted in the bathroom.

Today’s plan was going hiking. Tao was extremely out of shape. He stopped working out and doing wushu ever since his ankle healed. This will be the first time since then that he has any kind of exercise. The couple biked to the park and started walking the vast perimeter of it after ten times of making sure they had locked their bikes securely.  Fifteen minutes into walking, Tao was panting and sweating like it was going out of style. Kris amusingly looked at him.

“Come on, pick up your pace.” Kris clapped his hands together like he was a real trainer, “You used to give me about not getting exercise, now you gotta too!”

“But it’s hot, I’m tired, and my throat is sore.” Tao paused between words

“If you don’t hurry the hell up, I will leave you here.” Kris threatened, turned around as he went

Tao quickened his pace and managed to catch up to Kris, but he was left behind after a few steps “Whose idea to go hike on a hot day like this anyway??”

“Yeah, whose?” Kris left out a hearty laugh.

Tao’s birthday continued with a blow of the candles and ended with a birthday song. He was pretty content with it. But then to his dismay, what Kris said to be his “sore-throat-paranoia” turned out to be real. That night a burning fever crept up on Tao, he could barely sleep since it was so uncomfortable and tiring. He randomly touched everything on his night stand until he found an object that shaped like his phone but indeed was a calculator. He fumbled a little bit more when he finally found the phone and put Kris on the other line.

“Hey Kris,” Tao’s voice was so hoarse that he didn’t even recognize himself. Took him a few tries to get the words semi clearly out of his mouth.

Kris glanced at the caller ID, but he was still a little fuzzy, “Who the is this??”

“Tao…” His throat felt like it was rubbing sandpaper. It hurt so much that he could barely make out what he wanted to say.

Luckily, Kris was telepathic enough to know that Taozi needed him, so he put on a coat and went over next door to his house with the spare keys that Tao secretly gave him three years ago.

“What did you do?” Kris walked into the room, avoiding the mess of clothes on the floor. “Are you sick?”

Tao squinted at Kris really hard through the darkness even though both of them can barely see, “Well, obviously.”

“Here,” Kris the light, and came by Tao’s bedside just to see if he was ill anywhere else beside his sore throat. Tao’s body was burning with a high fever, his lips turned pale. “I’ll go get some medicine. Lay back down.”

Tao slumped back to his mess of pillows and relaxed his muscles before he tensed up remembering his midterm was in four days.

“, no,” A cough broke through his interjections. “Kris—“

Despite the raspy voice Tao was trying to convey, Kris heard his name. “What now?”

“My math test is on Thursday, help.” Tao clasped his hands together. Begging for a favor from Kris wasn’t hard. He said he won’t do it, but he ended up doing it anyways. But seeing Tao grasping for some words, Kris had no choice but nod to get him to stop talking and damage his voice box for good.