It all started with a trip gone wrong.
It all started with Kris’ carelessness.
It all started with romance and adoration.

It ended with a trip gone wrong.
It ended with tears and agony.

It ended with Tao.

-

Kris was careless.

Very, very careless.

He liked Tao. Not in the way Tao liked him, but Kris was pretty sure he liked Tao, at least.

He accepted Tao’s kisses. He accepted Tao’s one-sided hugs. He liked Tao.

But Tao was a romantic. It was different for him. Tao liked hugs and cuddles and kisses and sappy love movies and hearts. Kris liked drawing and the galaxy and superheroes and stylish clothing.

Tao hardly noticed it until Chen pointed out one day.

“Why doesn’t Kris ever initiate a hug?”

A simple question. A question that made Tao ponder for days and days. A question that made Tao think back to all the times he hugs Kris, and the blond just smiles and pats his back in return.

Tao is slightly angry when he walks out of the room to see Chanyeol and Kris grabbing their coats from the coat hanger in the living room, Chanyeol holding the door and Kris laughing at something Chanyeol said.

“Where are you going?”

“Off.” Chanyeol’s answer echoed through the room as the door slammed shut.

And now, Tao is livid. He grinds his teeth as he stomps back to his room, slamming his laptop open and going on to Twitter. His fingers fly quick and fast over his keyboard as he punches the enter button.

And sure enough, his newsfeed is chock full of photos of Chanyeol and Kris. But Tao’s eyes picked out one detail and one detail only.

Kris’ eyes never shined so brightly when he was with the younger lad. Kris never smiled so happily when he was with the younger lad. Kris never… never had arm around Tao so comfortably and casually, like he was used to it.

It felt so wrong, so off to Tao as the fact sickeningly lodges itself into his brain that Kris-had-his-arm-around-Chanyeol’s-waist.

KrishadhisarmaroundChanyeol’swaist.

No, no, it was fine.

It was fine. All he needed was to have faith in Kris. Some people just aren’t so keen on being touchy-feely, right?

Right.

And so, Tao made a mistake. A mistake that started the string of mistakes. The domino theory.

-

Tao grinned at Kris as the older lad plopped a hat on himself. They’re on a shopping trip. Maybe. So far all they’ve done is trying on stuff and not actually buying anything.

“It looks good on you.”

But Kris answers with a groan as he removes the hat and flips it over to see the price tag attached to it.

“You’d think they made hats out of gold and diamonds these days.” Grumbling, he places the hat back on the shelf as the couple exits the shop.

And then, the second mistake.

Tao knocks his hand against Kris’, and Kris huffs as he knocks his knuckles against Tao’s, and Tao knocks his hand against Kris’ again, and so the childish couple started the game that led to the end of their relationship.

Tao looks down at his shoes smugly as he slips his fingers into the gaps between Kris’ fingers, elated that they were actually holding hands.

And the third mistake.

Kris slips his hand away from Tao’s, and shoves them into his pockets.

Tao stops in his tracks, Kris oblivious to Tao’s actions and continued strolling.

Tao stares at his fingers in shock, his brain still not registering what had happened.

Had… Had Kris just…?

No. No, no, no. Tao willed himself to calm down as angry hot tears sprung to his eyes. No, all Tao needed to do was try again. All he needed to do was try harder.

-

And so, Tao tried. He tried, again and again. Again and again and again.  He spent afternoons in his own room scrolling through Twitter dejectedly as pictures of Kris and Chanyeol popped up. Not pictures of him and Kris, no, never of him and Kris anymore.

Picture after picture of Kris and Chanyeol feeding each other food, eating, playing basketball, going to the arcade…

And the last straw.

Tao refreshes his newsfeed one last time as a brand new picture springs up.

A photo of Kris and Chanyeol holding hands and laughing as they pointed at something in the far off distance.

-

To say their manager was angry was a lie.

That day, the EXO members faced the wrath of their manager for the first time.

“Kris, I expected more of you! As a leader, you are important for the group’s image; you can’t just bring your own private life into your celebrity life and ruin the group. One careless mistake and you’ll affect the future of all 12 of you. Not one, but all of you! Do you understand me?”

Kris mumbled an answer that barely sounded audible, but their manager nodded anyway.

“From now on, keep your hands to yourself in public, away from your boyfriend.”

Oh.

Kris’s head snapped up in shock and Chanyeol’s eyes grew wide.

And the rest of the EXO members all stared at Tao, with pity-filled eyes and shock evident on their faces.

“No, you don’t understand, Chanyeol’s not my-”

“Haven’t you done enough for today already? You are all dismissed.” The manager snapped as he walked out the door.

“Tao-” A chorus of 11 voices broke the silence as they reached out to comfort Tao, but Tao stood up.

He stood up; face devoid of emotion as he calmly walked away from the group.

Fourth mistake.

Tao slams the door shut and sighs.

What has he done?

-

Tao is tearing up.

The end of the show is approaching, and his emotions are already a mess from what he’s decided to do, but really that VCR didn’t help much.

“I managed to experience such glory today because I persevered; as well the opportunities given by the company and the love you guys showed me, which made me continue doing what I do. There are-” Tao breaks off as he lowers his microphone to roll his eyes to just threaten the tears back into his eyes and sighs as Chen, Minseok, Luhan, Yixing and… Kris swarm around him with their own microphones annoyingly close to his face.

“There are many things I can’t show or express, but-” Another pause as he realizes this could be it. That there’s no more going to back to past after this show. More tears cloud his eyes as he raises his microphone again. “But I really, truly, honestly love you guys so much, and I will always continue walking down this road with you guys, forever and always, okay?”

“I love you guys!” Tao’s face is scrunched up as the tears finally leak down his cheeks and the MC takes charge again.

This is it.

Tao blinks the remaining tears back, as he wipes away his tears.

In a flash, the cameras stop rolling and the MC comes around to comfort and talk to each member.

Tao bows to the MC and shakes his hand with a faint smile on his face, leaning a little closer when the MC leans in to whisper something into his ear.

“It’s great to see such burning spirit and love from such a young man. I hope the next time I see you, you’ll always remain the same way, okay?” Tao nods and smiles sadly as the MC points toward Kris and tells him it’s okay to stand next to his boyfriend.

And Tao does just that.

He walks to Kris’ side with fast strides, and brushes his knuckles against Kris’.

One last time.

Kris seems to understand and grins as he reaches out to mold his own fingers against Tao’s, but it’s far too late.

Kris struggles to just actually hold his hand, and they finally settle on just plain intertwining their fingers and raising their fist in the air before bowing. Tao watches with sad eyes as Kris glances over at Lay before returning his gaze to the audience.

Sad tears make their way down Tao’s cheeks again, one last time, as they remain bowing to express all their love for their fans, and Kris rubs Tao’s thumb as he swings their intertwined hands back and forth.

This is it.

This time… Tao’s the one to pull away first.

He pulls away fast as lightning as Kris fumbles and yearns for Tao’s hand again, shocked at the lost of contact and Tao switches his microphone over to his right hand so he doesn’t need to hold Kris’ hand anymore.

He knows his nose is red and his skin is blotchy with tear tracks and he makes his way backstage.

This is it.

Kris follows behind him and stares as Tao sniffles and clears his throat before speaking.

“Kris… Let’s break up.”

The last mistake.

Kris fumbles for words as he stares dumbfounded at Tao.

“That picture that manager saw? I showed it to him. I wanted to see how you would react, and how you would treat me after that.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, I was selfish. I’m always selfish, but I’m a romantic too, and I crave for affection and love and care. You don’t… love me. You’re better off with Chanyeol anyway.” Tao grins sadly as he meets Kris’ gaze.

“No, wait, no-”

“I’m sorry.”

And Tao slips away from Kris yearning hands again.

-

A/N: And that's the end of this chapter! Hope you guys liked it! :D 

Also, comment if you want a Chapter 2? I'm actually pretty happy with this sad ending lmao I'm sorry (*´∀`*) 

Chapter 2 is still going to have a sad ending, it's just basically going to prolong your pain... But hey, I'm in a down mood, so if I write Chapter 2 it wouldn't get out of of point. (That's not supposed to comfort you)

And let's just believe that Tao has a Twitter account in this story because why the heck not.

Self advertising time!

For Of Coffee Addicts and Tea, there will be another story in that AU! Highfive to all of you who read that story.✧٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶*✲ﾟ*｡✧

Unfortunately as much I ing love XiuLay with all my heart , the next part of the story will be posted separately as it it a Taoris fic and it will explain A LOT of things in OCAAT. I wouldn't recommend reading the Taoris one when I actually post it lmao because it is one of my tiest works so far but it explains a lot of things in OCAAT so if you're still interested in reading it... I love you bruh. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

The next part after Taoris is HunHan, which again will be posted separately but is still in the same AU. And also, that was a major spoiler. The HunHan one will have two chapters, one for Luhan and one for Sehun. And I know I sound like a jerk but I really like Luhan the most in the entire AU I'm sorry don't hit me.

As much as I want to give more spoilers, all I can say is that Tao will seem like a real jerk as well in the first few paragraphs of his story because of Luhan and also because he's a stubborn little .

Btw the video in the foreword isn't a video in case anyone was scared to clickity click on it. It is genuinely the video of Tao and Kris holding hands at the end of China Love Big Concert.

I'm not a ert...?

Have a great day/night ahead!

-AdoruZiall