"That's crazy. You're crazy. I saw the photo you sent me, he can't be twenty-two!" Tao wails into his phone, hands throwing up in the air dramatically.
There's no way that pre-teen boy in the photo is twenty two; Tao is still convinced that his cousin is dating a minor and is too embarrassed to admit it so he's come up with a bunch of bullcrap.

"He's doing post grad in our college, you . In fact, he's doing your course, go check if his name and photo's on the list in your post grad office. See for yourself if I'm dating a fifteen year old or a beautiful sport science postgrad."
Whoa... Sehun never calls anyone beautiful (other than himself), Tao cringes.
Suddenly he's dying to dig up any dirt about this man boy his little cousin is dating.

"Hold on Jongin's back. OI KKAMJONG!! WANNA SAY HI TO YOUR BABY??" Sehun's screeching so loud that Tao has to hold the phone away from his ear so his eardrums don't bleed out.
A few seconds later, the rumbling noise from the other end of the phone is replaced by Jongin's voice.

"Hey Tao. I heard something about you and your roommate and it involves the L word?"

"Uhm... Yeah." Tao nibbles on his lip, feeling his cheeks heating up.

"D'awww finally someone's piqued our Taozi's interest..."
Tao frowns at Sehun's voice ("HE'S NINETEEN FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD I WAS WORRIED HE WAS GONNA DIE A ") in the background.

"...... Anyways. I hope things work out for you, but I'm sure they will anyway. Your roommate has to be either blind or insane to see what he's missing out on."

"Thanks Jonginie." Tao smiles.
You can always count on Jongin to be affectionate in the mature way, unlike Sehun.

"I've had a busy day and it's kinda late, so I'm off to bed now. Night Tao, don't forget our lunch date tomorrow at twelve thirty."

"Night Jonginie... See you tomorrow." Tao hangs up and pockets his phone before opening the door.
He jumps a little; he wasn't expecting to meet a pair of furrowed eyebrows and eyes.

"Took you long enough." Yifan mutters and crosses his arms in front of his chest, then to Tao's surprise, he turns around and walks away, plopping himself back onto his bed.
Didn't he need the bathroom...? Was he waiting outside all this time...?, Tao watches with confusion and scratches the back of his head.
Yifan leans against the headboard and picks his book up from his bedside table, and Tao suddenly feels the tension in the air as Yifan scowls at his upside down novel.
He's never seen his gege act like this before; he's either extremely quiet and calm, or throwing a fit about things Tao doesn't understand (most of the time about showers).
But right now, right now his roommate is shooting daggers at an inanimate object.
Not normal at all.

"Gege...?" Tao gently places himself at the edge of Yifan's bed and watches its owner dig his nose further into his book.

"Gege!" Tao calls again, shaking one of Yifan's knees gently.
He didn't mean to anger him, he just wanted his gege to speak to him.
So he gives a startled yelp when Yifan dumps his book down on his lap and gives him an irritated look.

"What."

"A-Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Yifan tosses his book away and crosses his arms again, then starts staring at a fixated point in front of him with that ugly scowl on his face.

"Oh..."
Liar, Tao pouts and picks at a loose thread on Yifan's ripped jeans, but his hand gets nudged away by his roommate's baseball glove sized hand, and Tao feels like crying.
Yifan is mad at him and he has absolutely no idea what's wrong, and his gege definitely won't be patting his back or hugging him now.

"Are you mad...?" Tao whimpers, vision starting to blur with the increasing moisture in his eyes.
He is certain he made Yifan angry even though he hasn't a single clue why, and all he can think of is how mad his gege must be and he'll start hating him and Tao will never get to tell him how much he loves him and they'll never be together and-

"Argh..."
He hears Yifan groaning suddenly, and soon the blonde male's facial expressions start to soften, and he's surrounding Tao with his arms, patting rhythmically between his shoulder blades.
Tao latches his hands onto the back of Yifan's shirt and presses his face against his shoulder.
Sandalwood with a hint of vanilla.
Tao takes the warm and rich scent in again and again, deciding that he'll never get sick of it; he just wishes he got to smell it more often.

"I'm sorry. I was being harsh." Yifan sighs and runs his hand down Tao's back.

"But you know... after being roommates for a whole month, and with us practically being together all the time apart from class, I thought you'd open up to me, especially about something so important."
What?, Tao frowns.
He is thrown into that hopelessly confused 'I-don't-understand-have-I-missed-something' state again by his roommate, so he pushes him back a little and gives him a little shake of his head.
Yifan falls silent for a little while and simply stares at Tao solemnly, although Tao can't help but feel like he's being interrogated by Yifan's sharp stare.
Finally, Yifan gives a little sigh and looks away.

"I know it's not really my business... but you know that time you went missing for a whole day and came back smelling like... well, someone else?"
Oh! Sehunie!, Tao breaks into an awkward grin.
He's not proud of smelling like his stinky cousin for over twenty four hours; and the offensive stench wafting at his perfect-smelling roommate first thing he got home.

"That's from Sehun, my little cousin... I'm sorry about the smell, Jonginie says he smells like 'Eau de toilettebowl' sometimes too." Tao watches with confusion as Yifan's eyebrows rise and then fall again.
He thinks he must be really missing something here, because Yifan looks like he's just been on an intense emotional roller coaster, and Tao doesn't understand at all why.

"Ah. Right. Jonginie..." Yifan mutters and scratches the back of his head before climbing out of bed.
Tao is about to question Yifan's strange behavior again when Yifan speaks up, and then he gets distracted and all questions are thrown to the back of his mind.

"I'm too tired to cook... I'm thinking of pizza for dinner."

"YES PIZZAAAAAA PLEEEEAAAAASE!!!"

Author's Note:

^basically what happens when Tao wakes up lol (in my fic anyway)^

REAL RANDOM BUT I DYED MT HAIR THE COLOR BAEKHYUN HAS IN SHOWTIME EP12.

BEEN WANTING TO DO IT FOR AGES AND FINALLYYYYYYYY okaysorrybye