Kris was plenty eager to get out of the train station, as evidenced by his insanely quick pace and inferred aura that screamed “get out of my way or I’ll run you over.” The tall giant flew up the stairs into the midday sun, breaking free of the mass of people exiting the station.

“Yifan!”

His sigh of relief was more like a heave as he fought his way out of this germaphobic’s nightmare. All the people bumping against you, rubbing against you, surrounding you on every side… That would easily make it a claustrophobic’s nightmare as well.

“Yifan!”

Good thing Kris was both, right?

 “KRIS!”

“WHAT!?” Kris nearly leaped a mile out of his shoes when a hand grabbed him from behind.

The younger male gaped at him. “What? What do you mean ‘what?’ Did you just forget I was behind you or something?”

Kris figured it was a bad idea to say yes.

Tao, of course, knew the answer anyways. Rolling his eyes, he said, “Just walk slower okay? I’ve got more bags than you.” And that was true. Four bags and a suitcase of “precious cargo” Kris was not allowed to touch could easily slow a person down.

The pair continued across the open cement. The stiffness from sitting on a train for three hours and air conditioned chills wore away as they walked under the midday sun. The crowds were less dense outside the station but no less populated. People lined up for taxis, gathered for tickets, and sat in the shade for no apparent reason… Kris flinched every time someone came up to them, shoving maps or tour guides in their faces. Tao always shot them down, but Kris had the feeling that if they hadn’t kept walking, they would have been swarmed.

“So…” Kris started testing out his Chinese, “Where did your sister say she would pick us up?”

“Near the back end,” Tao replied, “She said she would take us to her place so we could drop off our stuff and unpack a little before going to lunch with my family. You’ll get to meet aunts, uncles, cousins; it’ll be fun.”

“Right.” He hardly sounded convinced.

By the time they did reach the back end, both of them were perspiring from the heat.

“There she is!” Tao pointed to a car Kris was pretty sure was parked illegally near the curb.

A short woman dressed in blinding white stood near the front of the car. She had a phone pressed to her ear and sunglasses over her eyes; it wasn’t until Tao called out her name did she realize they were right in front of her.

“Liyin jiejie*!” Tao tapped on the hood of her car.

Turning around, the lady let out a chirp of surprise. She said something quickly into the phone before hanging up.

“Zitao! I haven’t seen you in so long! How was the train ride? What happened to your hair?”

Tao laughed as his sister bombarded him with questions, most of which regarding his new bleach blonde hair. Finally, she must have realized he had a friend behind him because she turned to look at Kris.

“So,” Liyin said, looking him over, “You must be Kris, right?”

Tao answered before he could, “Yes. He’s my… friend, just a friend. From college.” His answer came out rushed and choppy as if he’d rehearsed it one too many times. His sister didn’t seem to notice though as she extended her hand.

Kris received it, giving the lady a thin-lipped smile. “You can call me Yifan.”

Picking up their multitude of bags (hey, how come she got to touch them?) Liyin led them to the back where they stuffed most of the luggage into the trunk. The larger ones wouldn’t fit however, even when Tao pulled the Gucci bag he’d bought for Liyin. They ended up placing them in the back seat. The result being there was no room to seat two people. Kris was about to offer to take the back when Tao did it for him.

“You take the front seat. I’ll sit in the back and watch the bags,” he said.

Kris didn’t even have to guess if the I-have-permanent-shotgun-privilege male was serious or not because Tao slipped right into the back seat. Well, he wasn’t going to argue with that. Taking the front seat before Tao could change his mind, Kris found himself in the messiest car he’d ever seen.

Liyin slipped in beside him. “Sorry for the mess. LuHan borrowed my car yesterday; left it in this hot mess.”

Brushing aside a bunch of cookie wrappers, Kris decided he never wanted to meet this LuHan guy. Kicking the car into drive, Liyin quickly pulled out into the street.

“I’m really sorry for the hassle, but I totally forgot that the boys had singing lessons today, and we have to pick them up first. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, not at all,” Tao replied. “Does that mean Yixing and LuHan are still living with you?”

“No, Yixing is but LuHan moved into his high school dorms. It’s probably for the best; a Korean transfer stays with us now, and the place is pretty crowded.”

“Ah.”  Tao added for Kris’ benefit, “Yixing and LuHan are our cousins. Yixing stays with Liyin jiejie so he can go to the neighborhood school.”

 “That’s right. LuHan did too but now he tested into the high school, thank goodness. Yixing just finished the test a couple days ago, and I think he did okay.”

“That’s good. Wouldn’t want him to-”

 “Gah!”

Kris yelped as Liyin slammed on the breaks. The car lurched forward, just barely missing the biker that passed mere inches in front of them.

“Geez!” Liyin huffed, “These people are just asking to be hit.” Then she started up the car again and continued as if nothing had happened.

Kris on the other hand, was not so calm. Heart pounding in his chest, the man’s grip tightened considerably on the armrest. He did not like sudden breaks. They reminded him of car crashes, bad driving, and the increased chance of death that came with riding in a car. Plus, he hated running into his seatbelt.

Continuing on with the path, Liyin and Tao maintained their conversation about their family and all that he had missed in the two years he’d been gone. Kris would have learned a lot, and maybe he would have better prepared himself for the family dinner if he hadn’t been so focused on the road from then on.

The rampant biker hadn’t been the only driving mishap. There were illegal U-turns, terrible lane changes, and pedestrians stepping right off the sidewalk without even looking for oncoming cars. Liyin wasn’t wrong; it was like they were daring you to hit them. Because of this, Kris sat stock still, knuckles white around the armrests.

And it wasn’t like she was without fault. Liyin seemed to have the habit of drifting between lanes, trying to decide which way she wanted to turn. After a few seconds which felt like a few hours, she finally settled on the left lane.

“I’m trying to find the best route at this hour,” Liyin explained, turning right. “The roads are a mess right now because of subway construction.”

Kris swallowed the scream in his throat.

But still, killing the purpose of the lanes was better than not having any lanes at all. Many roads they came across lacked those painted lines, leaving the crowded streets feeling strangely empty.

“So, Yifan.” Liyin’s voice broke him out of his thoughts, “Where are you from?”

It took Kris a second to realize she was talking to him. “Um…Canada.”

“No, where do your parents come from? Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong…?”

“Oh, um… Guangzhou?”

“Oh, you’re from the south too. Well, maybe not originally; you’re very tall to be from the south, but that does explain your accent…”

As Liyin chattered on about ancestry, Kris caught sight of Tao’s expression in the mirror. That little jerk was smiling. And not just any smile; an “I totally tricked you into giving me the better deal, and you didn’t even know it” smile.

Kris returned it with an “Are you freaking kidding me? I am going to strangle you when we are alone” scowl. Tao knew he hated bad driving.

They eventually pulled up to a storefront where two boys were sitting, green popsicles.

“A-ya! We’re going to lunch you two! Why did you buy ice cream?” Liyin yelled, rolling down the window.

“It’s not ice cream,” a boy with surprisingly chiseled features replied, “It’s green bean popsicles.”

“We got you on too, jiejie,” the boy with an oval face said, handing her one through the window.

Kris saw Liyin roll her eyes, but that didn’t stop her from accepting the treat and pulling off the wrapper.

“Zitao gege!” Kris heard one of the boys exclaim when they opened the door. With much excitement and happy greetings, Tao managed to move the bags so there was enough room to squeeze both of the boys in. Something, Kris noted, he hadn’t bother to do before.

“Boys, buckle your seatbelts,” Liyin said, preparing to start the car again.

“Why?” popsicle boy asked. Kris noticed he had a stiff accent.

“Because it’s safer that way. Look at your gege; I didn’t even have to remind him and he put on his seatbelt.”

Apparently that was reason enough because both boys did it without protest. As Liyin pulled back into traffic (now with only one hand on the wheel, Kris grimly noted) Tao tapped him on the shoulder to turn around.

“This is Yifan gege,” he pointed out to the kids, “He’s my college friend.” Kris cringed again at that title.

“Yifan gege, hao**,” said the boy with the oval face, “I’m Yixing.”

“I’m Chen!” announced the other.

Kris frowned, “Chen? Like Chenchen? Isn’t that a girl’s name?”

The boy (he couldn’t have been more than fifteen) raised an eyebrow. “No, it’s my name.”

“Chen’s Korean,” Yixing explained, “His real name’s Jong…Jongdai?”

“Dae,” he corrected. “But I go by Chen because it’s easier.” He said this with a fixed expression on Kris’ face as if daring him to call him a girl again.

Kris just shrugged and turned back to the front. So what if the kid wanted to go by a surname of a different ethnicity? That was fine by him.

The topic changed to Tao’s college and America, but Kris avoided joining in, instead opting to glue his eyes to the road where Liyin was cutting some guy off at a snail’s pace.

“You seem tense,” she commented, finishing the rest of her ice pop. “Are you nervous being back in China?”

I’m terrified being in your car. “A little. I haven’t been here since I was seven.”

“Wow, then welcome back. You must very happy.”

Not really. “Yeah, it’s a great opportunity to brush up on my Chinese.”

“Good thing you have Tao as a friend.”

Please stop talking. “Oh yes it is.”

Liyin was about to say something else when a horn blasted out from behind. A crowded bus drove past them, honking the car horn all the way. Even with windows closed, it was as obnoxious as hell.

“Somebody’s a little horn happy,” Liyin muttered when it passed.

Kris kind of snorted at that. “Yeah, I’m surprised there haven’t been more of those guys.”

“We have several million cars on the road and only about half have legally obtained driver’s licenses. You learn to control the frustrations.”

That was the first acknowledgement he’d received that the roads they were driving on were indeed a hot mess. Surprisingly, this did not make Kris feel any better.

They continued along the road, having avoided any car accidents. A car did run into a bus once but that was in a less busy area so they just curved around it. Eventually, they reached the iron gates of an apartment community. On the inside, every available space had been turned into a parking lot. Cars lined the trees, the sidewalks, and the buildings, leaving basically no room for road. Liyin somehow made do, maneuvering her smaller car through the mess.

The parked cars were so close Kris swore if he’d opened a window he would have been able to touch them. After bending through a maze of narrow streets, they slowed down to what could only be their building.

“Chen, get out and see if there are any parking spaces down there.”

“Sure.” The popsicle boy (who Kris now decided to call attitude boy) slipped out the side door and headed down the street. Kris could only hope that there was a space down there; a U-turn here did not seem possible.

He came back frowning. “There’s a little space down there. I’m not sure if the car will fit.”

“I guess we’ll see.” Liyin pushed ahead to the space Chen had been speaking of. It looked like it could fit the car. But barely.

Lying didn’t seem to have any qualms about that however. Asking them to exit the car (since the doors were hard to open once you got into the parking space), she expertly maneuvered the car towards the tiniest parking space Kris had ever laid eyes on. She got in on the first try.

Even Kris had to admit, that was impressive.

Just barely opening the door, Liyin slid her way outside.

“Alright, grab a bag and let’s go! We’re apartment 6B.” Grabbing their suitcases and bags, they headed for the graying buildings.

Kris lingered behind with Tao who was obviously struggling with the many bags that he still wouldn’t let him touch. Rolling his eyes, Kris let him be. However, when the rest of them were out of earshot, he leaned over to murmur in Tao’s ear: “You owe me for stealing the back seat.”

“Oh yeah?” His boyfriend smirked. “What did you have in mind?”

Kris’ eyes flickered to where his family had turned the corner then back over to Tao. “Nothing we can’t do before lunch,” he said with a smile. He noticed Tao said nothing when he grabbed two of the bags exponentially increasing their speed to the apartment.

*jiejie - older sister; equivalent to noona

** gege - older brother; equivalent to hyung  

**...hao - a more formal way to greet someone is to say their title and attach "hao" at the end

I don't understand the stereotype that Asians can't drive. If you aren't a great driver in China, you will get run over. 

I'm serious. 

People might not know the rules of traffic, but damn can they handle a car. And if some people don't follow the rules then other people will have to break the rules just to avoid being hit. It's like mutually assured desctruction if you don't bend to the choas of the roads.

Thank you for being patient and reading. All the characters have been introduced, so let the plot begin!