Tao was anxious, concerned, apprehensive, uneasy, and whatever other synonym seemed fit as he walked up the pathway leading to his parents’ house. After three years of living in a different continent he was afraid of finding aliens inhabiting the house where he grew up with his three older siblings. He walked up the stone steps and stood before the dark wooden door contemplating his decision of coming back, even if it was for his sister’s wedding.

The moment his sister had called him to let him know that he was to make an appearance for her wedding, he had made excuse after excuse as to why he was not going to be able to make it. His sister had rebutted every one of his excuses, “A girl only gets married once and to not have her favorite little brother there?” Tao had been easily swayed and a month later he was boarding a plane back to his hometown.

He curled his hand into a fist and rapped it against the door as he waited what felt like an eternity for the door to be opened. His mind reeled, wondering what where the chances of him being there right at this moment. Even if he were inside, what are the chances of he being the one to open the door? Tao gave an affirmative nod as he heard the doorknob being twisted and the door creaking open as per horror movie style. He was relieved as his eldest brothers tall form was revealed, his brother quirked an eyebrow and slowly looked him over before his eyes widened and then fixed on something behind Tao.  

“Rui?”

Tao turned around only to be shocked, if the situation wasn’t so painfully awkward he would’ve laughed at it, but it was painfully awkward so the only thing he could do was gawk.

All his life Tao had been sheltered and coddled, he was the baby of the family, two older brothers and an older sister who was more protective and fierce than his two brothers combined. He never had to worry about anything, never could do anything wrong in the eyes of his mother and father. At first it had seemed like perfection, every time he got in trouble with a teacher it was, that teacher must have had something against our poor Zitao, if he got into it with one of his siblings, Rui, Jai, Ji, why are you picking fights with Taozi? After a while he realized that his situation had two sides, he was always being looked after, he couldn’t take a breath without his mother knowing about it.

As he reached his penultimate year of high school he met him, Kris Wu, he had been heading to his last class of the day when he accidently bumped into the aforementioned boy, effectively ridding himself of all the books he was carrying. As if his life was a cheesy teenage drama, they both knelt down and reached for the same book, fingers touching. To add to the clichés, Tao had felt as if he had been sparked by electricity, he had blushed and pulled back his hand before looking up into a set of dark eyes. That was it, that was all he needed but then as if to cement his infatuation Kris had gone and opened his mouth, uttering an apology in that deep dreamy voice of his.

Maybe it was because his parents at first had been strongly against him dating Kris, but he had reveled in every moment spent by his side. He had devoted all his time, all his energy in his relationship with Kris. Kris treated him royally, equally as devoted to him and he tried hard to win over his parents with not much avail. His parents had met him one time and one look at his face and demeanor had them reeling away trying to drag Tao back in the house and maybe build an impregnable wall around his room to make sure he never went out with Kris. Finally after months of Kris persisting he was finally accepted as part of the family, he was often dragged along with the Huangs’ to every family event. His relationship with Tao flourished and he was blissfully content with the way his life was being carried out. He wanted to study something like business and save enough money so he could later propose to Zitao and maybe get married in Canada or Spain and then they could adopt children. Zitao could maybe teach or stay home with the children if that was what he wanted, but life never goes as planned, having plans etched in to your mind being repeated quietly but surely never helped and so he never got to accomplish anything he had set his mind to.

Two years later, after thinking long and hard about his future and about his present, Tao decided with a heavy heart to apply for the school of his dreams he sent a detailed application enclosed with samples of his best work.

“Tao? Tao? Zitao?”

He was snapped out of his stupor realizing he had been standing dumbstruck facing him. Tao had mentally prepared for this exact moment, but he was still dumbfounded without a single coherent thought, besides how good-looking he was, running through his head. Kris was still as tall as he remembered, Tao was pretty tall himself but even he was a good couple of inches shorter than Kris. Tao remembered Kris being handsome but good god, time had done him well.

He very vaguely heard someone clearing their throat and he blinked a couple of times before being brought to reality.

“Hey, Taozi, it’s been a while.” Oh good god, his voice was just as deep and charismatic as he remembered. He willed his jelly filled mind to find a suitable response, “yeah, same here”, he let out in a breathless tone. Kris quirked a perfect eyebrow his way and how did he ever let him go? Kris shot a smile his way and looked behind him to stare at Rui. Tao suddenly remembered his brother and hastily turned around to shoot him a sheepish smile.

“Zitao, Kris, how about you guys step inside.” He stepped aside and as they walked past him he muttered, plenty of room to flirt in here. Tao chuckled nervously and walked into the living room

written a long time ago, just been collecting dust in my saved documents. 

thanks for reading.

word count: 1068