“A Matcha green tea with grass jelly and a Roasted milk bubble tea for Tao and Thehun.”

Laughter burst from one of the corners of the bubble tea shop, uncontrollable and loud. What follows is a sharp yelp of pain. And a very genuine apology.

“Stop laughing, Tao.” The dark blonde remarked from Tao’s side. He raised his hand in a karate chop pose. “Or do you want to be hit again.”

Tao hid his laughter under his fist in vain, but continued to chuckle. “Oh, I’m so scared, forgive me Thehun.”

Sehun growled at the older trainee and shoved past his shoulder to pick up their drinks. Tao quickly regained his composure and raced over to the man grumpily snatching their drinks from the counter table.

“Hey, I’m sorry okay, it’s just your lisp.” Tao smiled hesitantly and sheepishly at the blonde who raised an unamused brow. “You can’t even say your own name.”

Tao winced when he saw and heard Sehun stab the straw to the drinks and handed one over to Tao before strolling away and out of the shop, leaving a laughing Tao behind.

The shop clerk laughed softly at their slightly abusive interaction. Tao caught the female in her discreet action and winked at her, “He secretly loves it.”

“Tao!”

~~~

When Tao caught up to the rampaging bull on a warpath, he was sipping on Tao’s order of matcha tea. He reached out and snatched the drink from the blonde’s grasps.

“This is not yours, young man.” Tao eagerly took a long sip of his heavenly drink he claims his ambrosia.

Sehun smiled cheekily before scoffing. “I can’t believe you ordered that monstrosity in a bubble tea shop. You didn’t even order any bubble. How does that make sense?”

Being an unnaturally obsessed fan of bubble tea, Sehun was offended at best. Tao, however funny he found it, had also taken a personal liking to bubble tea ever since he first bought it as an alibi for their mission. “Sehun, there’s a reason they put this in the menu at a bubble tea shop. It makes sense.” Seeing Sehun stare at him without response, he knew he won the argument. “And just seconds ago you were sipping your way into town with that monstrosity, you hypocrite.”

“Still doesn’t make you a true bubble tea fan.” The shorter remarked, although his complexion was slowly turning pink.

Mumbling under his breath and fast-paced walking away, Sehun was an easily flustered person, Tao has noticed over the past months they’ve spent together. And amongst all other trainees in the house, Sehun was the one that he grew most close to. Closer than he thought he would get to anyone, and not exactly with the person he had in mind.

Tao smirked before taking his turn to snatch Sehun’s drink and take one long sip of the milk tea along with the satisfaction of Sehun’s contorting face.

“Besides, if I wanted bubble tea I can always take yours.” Surrendering to Sehun’s unamused face, he gave back his drink and played with the straw of his own. “Why else do you think you’re here?”

Before Sehun could retort to anything else that might be either damaging or hilariously embarrassing, Tao broke into a mid-way sprint leaving Sehun to catch up before him. Laughing whilst running, he didn’t notice an arm grabbing him and came to an abrupt stop. He immediately turned and twisted the arm holding him back to receive a cry of high-pitch pain of the blonde.

“I would say I’m sorry, but then again, I’m not,” Tao saved his mistake under a joke and slowly released Sehun’s hand, trying to calm his nerves down. Sehun held his hand in exaggerated pain, rubbing his wrist slowly.

“Something’s up with you, Tao.” Sehun snarked, albeit jokingly, but he meant something. Being the person that grew closest to him, he noticed a few things about him. “I told you I had to go to the bank for a while. Don’t just run off on your own, child.”

The elder scuffed his head before following the blonde to the bank. Sehun chewed on the straw of his drink as he absent-mindedly listened to Tao reprimanding him of treating him that way - because yes, thank you Tao, Sehun’s perfectly aware that he was technically older than him - a prayer to him by now. But that wasn’t what he was thinking about.

“So remember about two weeks ago, we had a photoshoot in the cruise?” Sehun asked Tao idly, walking to the bank on the other side of the road. Tao nodded, curious where he’d bring this to. “You know, the one where you suspiciously disappeared and came back looking like a traumatized chihuahua.”

Tao gave a deadpan stare at the younger, to which he cheekily smiled at. “Yeah, so I didn’t tell anyone, but I saw something weird.”

“Huh.” Tao looked upwards in thought and amusement. “Thought you’d be used to it after looking in the mirror for so long.”

Sehun ignored him with a glare. “Anyways, I saw Baekhyun jumping off the railing,” Tao choked on his drink, “When I got there, the boat was gone and there he was speeding away into the sunset.”

At this point poor Tao had started gargling and buckled his knees when the green matcha tea spurts from his mouth like a fountain. After assassins, burning buildings, and grenades, this is how he dies. Death by grass jelly. Wonderful.

Sehun scrutinized the taller coughing his guts out on his knees in amusement, that little bastard. He stopped to think whether or not he’d help pat his back, but decided instead to continue. “I mean, I get joyrides, but I’d never expect Baekhyun to do that. He seems so, what’s the word, sheltered and those abide-by-the-rules scout boys.

Tao didn’t exactly know what happened when his brother mentioned -- shouted -- about the panic at the cruise.

(How’d you get that boat to save me?

I found it.

Where, floating in the indoor swimming pool?

…

Baekhyun.)

Grumbling and creatively throwing a big old punch at his brother in his mind, he laughed on late reaction. So much for being subtle there, brother.

“He’s uh- he’s a big fan- enactor actually- of Grand Theft Auto.” Tao blurted on the top of his head, trying to make a logic to get out of the situation but it seemed to make it worse as Sehun gave him a weird look -- a raised eyebrow and a smirk -- and rolled out, “Right.”

Thankfully, the bank was in view now that they’ve walked a distance. Saved by the Bank, Tao. Saved by the Bank.

~~~

They were lining up for the bank when it happened. A lot of things happened that day, and a lot of things are going to go down at this point thus for better purposes, it would be better if the situation was given a bit more context.

This was Tao’s first time out ever since the cruise incident. Granted he’s been to the SM building and back to train, but nowhere outside the building or his dorm. Baekhyun came late last night, and Tao knew that it was due to a mission he didn’t know about; and that was fine. It was just that he realized he couldn’t hide forever.

Tao’s guaranteed ten times as fearless as the next person, he’s one tough cookie to crack. But this was also given that he’s never had an encounter as close to death as this one, and what made it worse was that he was alone, nearly drowning, and for what purpose? For some ungrateful and unappreciated justice to prevent a possible bioweapon war from happening.

The night that Tao and Baekhyun got back from the cruise and stayed awake until the morning came to greet them. There were no tears shed, just clinging.

Thus back to the situation at hand, or the situation waiting to happen at hand, Tao was wary of everything -- more than before. He was naturally attentive to the audience around him, but with the recent event it was like he was constantly on adrenaline.

“Tao!”

Tao snapped from his conscious state and blinked at the frowning Sehun. “Yes?”

“You didn’t hear a word I said now did you?” The frowning Sehun frowned some more.

“Maybe?”

Sehun shook his head and started complaining but Tao pushed him ahead when he saw the line for the queue was moving. “Hey!” The younger protested, bumping into a stranger in front of him that led to him profusely apologizing in embarrassment while Tao hid behind Sehun, grinning.

By the time Sehun snapped back to him, Tao realized something was off. First it was just a feeling -- someone acting unnaturally two heads after them in the lineup. So he ignored it. Then it was a suspicion, two men dressed in black huddled to each other with their hands in their bag. Once an accident, twice a coincidence, and third … well--

A gunshot rang to the ceiling, the overhead lights bursting at contact inciting the scream of the crowd.

“EVERYBODY DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!”

Third is when hits the fan. Hard.

~~~

One thing led to another -- by that Tao means that the robbers, now clad with black ski mask and fully equipped with a semi-automatic, have gotten everyone on the floor with one of three guys prancing around them cocking his gun in show of strength, while the other two were dragging the bank manager to unlock the register -- and now, Tao was sitting there, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, Sehun beside him freaking out, and the robbers stuffing money in their duffel bag.

Out of all the misfortunes he has encountered, this has got to be the dumbest one yet. Tao just couldn’t believe it. Everytime he lifted his head and saw the fact that he was in the middle of a bank robbery was still a reality, he grunted and went back to rubbing his temples.

A bank robbery, seriously. And Sehun was with him, jesus.

Now don’t get him wrong, he can get this sorted immediately if not for the fact that Oh freaking Sehun was there with him. So what in the hell is he supposed to do now. Well, he supposes he could just let this go, and let the robbery happen. He’d figured since he had done it before--although not as amateur as this, no seriously, they locked down the bank and the shutters were down, so unless they have some metal cutters in their bag with the power of a lightsaber, they had no way out since the lock down button that they pressed to initiate the metal shutters on every opening can’t be deactivated until the bank corporation manually inputs the code to the system at their headquarters so. Dumb rookie mistake number 1.

Should he go on? Dumb rookie mistake number 2, tie up your damn hostages. One of them might be, you know, a highly trained assassin with a pinky that could hurt you seven ways to sunday. Or in a more realistic situation, a cop maybe.

Dumb rookie mistake number 3, for god’s sake, use ing gloves. If not for the fact that its purpose is to prevent leaving any traces like dna or fingerprints behind, then do it for the simplicity that it was a major stereotype. See picture of bank robber; black skii mask, black hoodie, black sweatpants, black sneakers, black gloves. It could literally not get any simpler.

So, Tao groaned. And groaned and lifted his head when Sehun whimpered, and groaned again. And yes, he was going to let them go with this petty crime, because he felt a rather slight pity for the robbers-- they were such amateurs that it was sad, really. But then, one of the other hostages just had to do it.

There’s always one in every situation.

A wannabe hero.

“Wait!” The man, an office desk person by the looks of his apparel. “Please, you don’t want to do this.” Oh but they really do, they’re desperate and making mistakes but they’re enthusiastic at least, Tao commented drily in his head. “Just let us go okay, drop the money, and let us go, and the cops will let you go.”

Right, Tao rolled his eyes, the cops. Of course, they would let them go because they’re such upstanding citizens of moral compass, but wait, right, there’s these things called the law. But still, the cops. They’re outside, he supposes, he’s heard the telltale tracks of the standard issued police car pulling up outside the building. And probably by now, if they’re following protocol, they’re trying to assess the situation: doing a body count of the hostage and possible suspects of the robber.

“Tao. Tao, what do we do?” Sehun panicked, shaking his elbows. Tao shook his head, trying to keep Sehun quiet.

“GET BACK DOWN NOW!!” One of the robbers taunted the office man-hero with his gun when he stood up to try and coerce them to give up. But the office man stood tall, holding his hands forward in a form of promising no harm.

“Look, please. We all have families to get home to, and the police are right outside so please just let us go?” The hero wannabe tried and Tao was about to scream at him to stop before anything bad happens. And maybe he should have been smarter, not to offhandedly threatened the robbers with the fact that the cops were there, but he shouldn’t have been talking in the first place.

So when the gun went off and shot right through the man’s chest, Tao was the only one who held his cool mainly because he knew it was coming. The others, however, did not.

The screams that followed the blood splatter was instant, Sehun clutching on Tao’s shoulders to hide away. The sudden outrage triggered a panic in the robber-- which is bad, Tao cursed--and had him unveil the duffel bag on the floor which revealed a bomb and his other hand outstretched with a button.

“Nobody move. Or I blow this place.” The robber threatened, getting the effect he wanted when the whole chaos dimmed to murmurs.

Sehun shook against his side. “Tao, oh my god. Tao, we’re going to die.” He nearly sobbed. “Jesus, we’re going to die for going into a bank.”

The older boy held him through his silent tears, thinking of what he needed to do next. Logically, he definitely had to step in now. If those bombs went off, there was a real possible danger that he too will die with it. Another was now that the robbery had amount to one casualty, the cops were going to have to rope the hostages into witnesses, that meant they had to give statements and recorded into the database which is a hefty problem because Huang Zi Tao does not exist. In a turn of events, Tao would have to save this place.

Great, he was becoming a cliché. But the worst thing is, Baekhyun would totally have a crack at his heroism, and he would have to hear his teasing for days.

~~~

Tao formulated a plan. He might not be expert at planning, but he figured he didn’t really need a plan because hey, these guys were amateurs. Which led him to say:

“Hey, guys.” Probably not the best thing to start with, Tao winced. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

The robber glared at him, or at least Tao thinks he did, he couldn’t make out his eyes from the mask. But Sehun, he definitely glared at him.

“I mean, if you want me to piss myself all over the floor, be my guest.”

Technically, Tao’s saner part of his brain was convinced this was a dumb idea that would get him shot on the spot, but in his defense, he just saved the world by almost drowning with a chemical compound for god’s sake. But still, he didn’t think it will work--

“Fine. I’ll take you to the back.”

--until it actually did. Wow. These robbers were so dumb that Tao actually started to feel bad for planning to deceive him. And hell, if that was a first in his line of job, the world may not be such a bad place even in the scope of evil doings.

Thus, there he was being carted off with his hands on his back (finally the robbers had the intuition to restrain him, but with tape. Tao could feel his eyes straining stopping them from rolling their way to his throat) and kept an eye at the fuse box near the fire box.

Once he was in the toilet, he made a gesture at his pants, to which he received a disgusted sneer at. “Hey man, my hands are tied and I can’t bend that far to take them off with my teeth.”

The robber had the decency to help him, thankyou small mercies. Watching the man bend down to his knees to help him with his pants, Tao sent a small apology telepathically before driving his knees into the man’s guts. The man doubled back in pain and Tao winced as he headbut the guy into his sleep. He eyed the man slumped against the tiled walls pitifully while sitting down and tucking his legs under his hands so that he could bring them to his front, because yes, he is that flexible have you seen him stretch. Ripping the tape off, he grabbed the guy’s automatic and headed to the fuse box.

If he was gonna do this, he can’t be seen doing this and he needs to do this fast. So, lights out, draw the curtains, it’s show time.

And if Tao was accused of saying such things, he would deny it to the end of his days.

~~~

As soon as he fired the rounds into the box, the entire building was plunged into darkness and chaos. The robbers were surprised, and the hostages even more so. He took the confusion to run into the main hall, using the body of the automatic weapon to knock the closest robber down to his knees then punching him straight in the jaw. Two down.

The hostages seems to have crowded back into the counters infront of the vault, the bank staff helping the crowd take shelter beneath the faux marble long tables.

The last guy was still perplexed beyond his mind, shouting for his comrades in vain. He had the bomb switch, so if he made a mistake, he could set the bomb off accidentally. Tao crouched down, away from the robber’s eyesight, sneaking up to him. Once he was directly behind him, he steadied his hands over the trigger that the robber had loosened his hold on. Careful. He reached forward. Now. Tao grabbed the switch, simultaneously placing the man in a chokehold that rendered him unconscious after a while.

Now for the finale, Tao entertained himself in his head, he casually grabbed the duffel bag of bombs--which he correctly guessed to be a couple of weak plastic explosives--and swung it to the rhythm of highway to hell in his mind, taking one last swing, before letting it fly to the metal barred doors. He ran as quickly as possible to the counters and after hearing the bag hitting the wall, he finally--

One may very well argue that this wasn’t Tao’s best plans or actions but another may defend that Tao’s current state of mind was begging for a comeback to the scene of action, and what better way to do it than with a bang?

--clicked the switch.

~~~

“You are like a trouble magnet I swear. I still haven’t forgotten the time you pushed me around in the mall. You should really should go get an exorcism, Tao.” Sehun ranted in a breath.

Sehun and Tao walked back from the hospital after getting the younger man checked for his bruises--he had been unfortunately hit by one of the flying rubble). Sehun was uncharacteristically quiet after his outburst. So Tao busied the silence with his own ramblings of how ridiculous the experience they had just been in was.

“Tao.” Sehun cut him off. “How did you know how to do that?”

Tao stared blankly at him.

“I know it was you. I saw you, do all--that.” Sehun stopped infront of him, turning to face the elder boy, becasue that’s what Sehun thought he was. “How--no, who are you?”

At this point, Tao should just joke around about taking marshall art lessons, which he did, but for some reason, he didn’t. Baekhyun would probably reprimand him, speaking of the devil, he called right then.

But before he could answer it, Sehun snatched his phone away, answering it instead.

“KHUN ZI TAO, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!” Baekhyun screeched so loud, Tao could hear it from the small distance between him and the younger. “You are so in trouble young man, I thought I had lost my little brother again.”

The moment when Sehun realized what Baekhyun was saying, his jaw dropped.

“Come back home this instant and I’ll deal with you myself.” Baekhyun huffed, ending the call right after.

Tao bit his lips, no getting out of this now. Before Sehun could speak and get any ideas, he decided to just the universe because he’s just so damn tired.

“Yes, me and Baekhyun are brothers, our family name is Khun. Yes, I’m highly trained in whatever the hell you’re thinking of me right now, and yes, Baekhyun is too. No, we’re not actually planning to be idols. And no, I’m not going to tell you why any of this is true and is happening.” Tao listed off while ticking his fingers. “Oh, and if you tell anyone, you will effectively cease to exist from this world and disappear.”

Sehun was, what was the word, yes, flabbergasted. You see, Tao had a lot of experience with the unexpected and he had definitely did not expect the younger’s response.

“Oh my bubble gods.” He whispered, and then took a more drastic turn. “That. Is. Awesome!!!” Tao doubled back when Sehun reached forward and rattled him. “Wow. You’re like spies. Oh , are you undercover? Holy-- ok, ok.” The spastic child turn his head around dramatically. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise.” He squealed a bit more, Tao might think his ears were actually bleeding. “For a second there, I actually thought you were part of a mafia or some assassin of a brotherhood, which is ridiculous because that’s totally insane right?”

Tao blinked and diverted his eyes because, full disclosure, that wasn’t entirely wrong.

Sehun stopped his breathless laughter when the silence was met. “Right?”

To hell with it, Tao looked back at Sehun.

Sehun stilled and his smile wavered.

And the damn bastard, smirked at him.

~~~

Baekhyun waited in front of the entrance door when the two boys came in, ragged in appearance and looked ready to play dead for the rest of the day, short as it may be. He looked them over, glared at Tao, before storming off to his room.

Tao sighed, toeing his shoe off, knowing that he would be getting an earful.

Yifan and Joonmyeon were also settled in the living room, other members either in the building for late training or asleep--most of whom haven’t heard the news of their youngest’s latest accident. Joonmyeon gave them a pat on their shoulders before trekking to his room, stating that they would talk about it tomorrow.

“Are you okay?” Yifan laid a hand on Tao’s back, rubbing his thumbs along his shoulder. Tao gave him a shy nod, and they both watched as Sehun started walking to the rooms.

But then he turned back and ran for Tao, enveloping him in a sudden hug.

“Thankyou,” he whispered, “for saving me.”

He let the elder go with a smile, then dashed to his room.

That night was a weird night for all parties involved. The robbers had a crime charge on their backs, the cops had a field day of work, Baekhyun had a headache the size of Texas, Sehun had a newfound bond with his quickly-becoming-his-favourite hyung (although he absolutely denies the age difference).

Tao, well, he had an ulcer in his eyes from all the eye rolls he’d done, and a slight burden left off his chest. He saved people today.

And if anyone didn’t see the frown Yifan had and the bubbling bothering emotion of jealousy in his heart, it was no one’s business.

SOOOOOOO! Hi guys, I'm back! And officially, because I didn't want to abandon this story. And as I've said before, the plot is set and good to go and received very good feedback from my teachers so yay for EXO! Oh, and I told you that this was going to be 50 Chapters, divided into two seasons 1 and 2; so it's nearing the end of season one and the revelation of the bigger picture--stay tuned please :)

One more thing, yes, this is a fluff thing because after all the 'serious' shtuff that I've been feeding you, I think the Khuns deseve a break; And yes! Their family name is revealed it's Khun! Khun Baekhyun and Khun ZiTao, Khun Sooyoung, Khun Jessica, Khun Ryeowook, Khun Eunhyuk, Khun Krystal :) 

Next chapter will be uploaded real soon, please leave comments and likes because that's what made me want to continue this story :)