Chapter 12

The three arrived at the café and sat down somewhere 3 people could easily sit. Zitao sat next to Jongdae, while Yifan sat across from them. They were given menus by a waiter, to which they looked over. Zitao looked at Jongdae and touched his arm slightly to get his attention. Jongdae looked over.

“Hyung, do you like coffee or anything like that?” Zitao asked. “Or do you want something else?”

Jongdae hummed in thought. “Is there anything with oranges in it?”

“Why? Do you like oranges?” Zitao inquired.

Jongdae nodded. “My nickname has been orange since I first ate something orange related and loved it.”

“Ah. That’s cute.” Zitao said. “Let’s see what we’ve got…”

He looked at the menu again, now only looking for the word orange. After another minute or observing, he looked back at Zitao. “There’s a smoothie with oranges in it. Do you want that?”

“What else is in it?” Jongdae inquired.

“Mangos and peaches.” Zitao responded. “There are also chocolate covered oranges, if you want that too.”

Jongdae’s eyes glistened. “I want both of those!”

Zitao looked at Yifan as if asking for confirmation that Jongdae could get both the smoothie and chocolate covered oranges. Yifan shrugged.

“He can get both the chocolate covered oranges and the chocolate covered strawberries if he wants.” Yifan responded. “I have money.” He glanced at the smaller male. “Plus…he’s too cute to deny.”

“Everyone says that…” Zitao mumbled. He turned to Jongdae again. “Do you want chocolate covered strawberries, too?”

“Yes, yes!” Jongdae sounded like a little kid. “Anything chocolate covered I love!”

Zitao laughed. “Aren’t you supposed to be older than me, hyung?”

Jongdae shrugged. “I guess I’m used to acting younger than people because of my hyung. I’ll stop if you’d like.”

“No…it’s cute.” Zitao said without thinking. He played it off smoothly by changing the subject. “So, you want that?”

Jongdae nodded. “Yes, please!”

“Alrighty then.” Zitao replied. “Well, I guess we’re good then. You decide what you want yet, Yifan-hyung?”

Yifan nodded. The waiter came 2 minutes later, took their orders, and left again. No one said anything—no one knew what to say. Yifan was still curious about Jongdae—he seemed familiar, but Yifan still couldn’t put his finger on why. Zitao noticed Yifan staring at Jongdae and got somehow annoyed by it.

“Gege.” Zitao said, trying to get the older male’s attention. “Why are you staring at Jongdae-ge like that?”

Yifan looked at Zitao. “I swear I know him from somewhere.”

“Jongdae-ge?” Zitao questioned quizzically. “How would you know him? I just introduced you to him today.”

“I swear.” Yifan insisted. “I—I think I heard my…boyfriend mention some kid named Jongdae…”

“First of all, you have a boyfriend?!” Zitao asked incredulously. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“I didn’t think it was important.” Yifan replied. “But now, looking back on it, it probably might help me out now.”

Their lunch came, halting Yifan and Zitao’s Mandarin conversation. Jongdae—who had been staring in the direction he heard Yifan and Zitao talking, in confusion and bewilderment—now looked elsewhere when he smelled his two favorite things—chocolate and oranges. Zitao’s attention turned to Jongdae to see if he needed help finding his food, completely forgetting about the conversation he was having with Yifan.

“Jongdae-hyung, are you good, or do you want my help?” Zitao asked.

Jongdae shook his head. “No. I can feel around, like always.”

“Well…okay…” Zitao said, half reluctantly. “Be careful not to spill your smoothie, though…”

Jongdae nodded, but Zitao felt bad watching him feel around for his food. However, after a while, the older seemed to be able to grab the chocolate covered oranges and strawberries, and could easily grab for the glass that had his smoothie in it. Zitao finally started eating his own lunch, suddenly remembering Yifan had a boyfriend immediately after he stopped paying attention to Jongdae.

He chose not to say anything and silently ate his muffin and drank his iced coffee, making subtle glances at Jongdae to see if he needed any help. Yifan had been noticing these glances, though, and wondering why Zitao was so nice to this kid, but not anyone else. Was it purely because he was pitiful of Jongdae’s disability? No; as far as Yifan knew, Zitao wasn’t one to befriend someone because he pitied them. So then…why?

“Zitao.” Yifan spoke without thinking. “Do you like Jongdae?”

Zitao nearly choked on his iced coffee. “E-excuse me?”

“Do you like Jongdae?” Yifan repeated.

“O-of course I do.” Zitao answered. Yifan almost got excited, but Zitao continued. “He’s my friend.”

Yifan sighed. “Not what I meant, Zitao.”

Zitao looked down. “Oh…”

“Do you like Jongdae?” Yifan asked again, adding as much emphasis on to word ‘like’ as he could.

Zitao stayed quiet, trying to avoid the conversation by devouring the rest of his lunch, seeing as Jongdae was also almost finished. He figured if both of them were finished, Yifan might offer to just take the rest of his food with him and drive them back. Not exactly how it happened, but at least he somehow got out of the conversation thanks to Jongdae, who had grabbed Zitao’s arm. His other hand had a cellphone in it.

“Tao-yah, could you call Joon-hyung for me?” he asked. “Since I’m already finished, I figured it would be faster for him to pick me up here.”

Zitao nodded and stood up. “Follow me. We’ll call him outside. Yifan-hyung will be paying anyways.”

Zitao got up with Jongdae on his arm and they walked into the foyer of the café. Zitao took Jongdae’s cellphone and asked him for his brother’s phone number. The shorter told him and Zitao dialed it, waiting for an answer before offering it to Jongdae, who told his brother where he was and to pick him up. After another minute of Jongdae confirming and reconfirming, he finally had Zitao hang up.

“Sorry for making you do all this for me…” Jongdae said. “It must be annoying… That’s why I told you that you didn’t need to help me with my food. I feel like a child having you help me all the time…”

Zitao sighed. “It’s me who should be apologizing. I’m the one who keeps asking to help you. I can’t help it—I just…feel bad that you can’t do things the same way as me…”

“That’s why I wish I could see…” Jongdae mumbled. “Then I wouldn’t have to bother you so much.”

“It’s no bother, really.” Zitao insisted. “I like helping you.”

Jongdae’s cheeks turned pink. Before Zitao could question, Yifan came up next them. “Well, I paid for it. Now we’re just waiting for his brother?”

Zitao nodded. “Jongdae-hyung said he’d be here in a few minutes.”

“Well in the meantime, I’m going to window shop.” Yifan said. “There are a few nice clothing stores here. Come find me when he gets here.”

Zitao rolled his eyes. “Yes, Yifan-hyung.”

Jongdae, who seemingly heard Yifan leaving, looked in the general direction of Zitao. “Where’s Yifan-shii going?”

“To kill time.” Zitao respond. “Until Joonmyeon-hyung gets here.”

“Ah.” Jongdae said with a nod. “Oh, by the way, what were you and Yifan-shii talking about before?”

“When?” Zitao asked.

“Before I asked you to call Joon-hyung.” Jongdae explained. “You were talking in Mandarin, but it sounded to me like you were nervous or embarrassed.”

“O-oh…” Zitao mumbled. “Just…something. He was bothering me that was all…”

“Oh.” Jongdae said, sounding almost disappointed. “Okay.”

“Yup…” Zitao replied awkwardly.

A while later, a car drove up and Joonmyeon’s face was visible through the windows. Zitao called for Yifan, who was only several feet from them, looking at something in a window, like he said. Yifan looked over and made his way back to him and Jongdae, curious about if his thoughts were correct or not. Zitao and Jongdae were standing by a car, talking to someone, whom Yifan presumed was Jongdae’s brother.

However, once Joonmyeon spotted Yifan, his eyes widened in shock and confusion. He completely forgot about his conversation with his little brother and Zitao and stared at Yifan, who hadn’t quite noticed Joonmyeon yet because he wasn’t close enough. Jongdae had to call his brother many times before he could snap Joonmyeon back to reality as he realized he wasn’t going crazy.

“Joonmyeon-hyung, what’s the problem?” Zitao asked curiously, looking back for follow Joonmyeon’s gaze.

Yifan felt eyes on him and looked over at Zitao. Finally, he noticed Joonmyeon too and approached the three, knowing his thoughts were right. He noted the look on Joonmyeon’s face; the male was obviously very confused. He looked back at Zitao, who looked very confused too—probably confused as to why Joonmyeon was just staring at Yifan.

“Yifan-hyung.” Joonmyeon breathed once Yifan was behind Zitao and Jongdae, looking at Joonmyeon.

“Joonmyeon-ah.” Yifan said back calmly.

“Why are you here?” Joonmyeon asked.

“I came to meet up with Zitao-ah.” Yifan responded. “Who had, apparently, brought Jongdae-ah with him. Isn’t this very coincidental?”

Zitao was left thoroughly confused about what was going on. Yifan was talking so friendly with Joonmyeon—even knew his name. And Joonmyeon also seemed to know Yifan somehow. Could Joonmyeon be the boyfriend that Yifan was talking about earlier? It would be pretty coincidental if he was—Zitao’s best friend was dating the brother of the person he could possibly like.

But what if they weren’t dating? What if they just knew each other from school…or work…or they were neighbors? Zitao’s head felt like it was about to explode as he looked between Yifan and Joonmyeon, who were just staring at each other, while Jongdae was just standing around, clueless as well probably. Or maybe he wasn’t. Zitao couldn’t tell.

“Uh…excuse me…” Zitao said. “But could someone explain to me what’s going on here?”

Yifan and Joonmyeon looked at Zitao with a laugh. “Well, I guess there’s still some time before you have to get back to school, so…I should explain some things, seeing as you seem to be friends with Yifan-hyung…”

Word Count: 1,679

A/N: Finally got this finished! Also, those of you who guessed that Yifan was Joonmyeon's boyfriend...you may or may not be correct c;

_{butreallyyouarecorrect}

With that being said, you all probably know what the beginning of the next chapter will be, even if I haven't even written it yet. xD

Anyways, enjoy~ 

_{You can ignore all of this, but I want to say it... I can't stress how much I'd love people to enter my first contest. I don't want my first contest to fail as it's happened before on a different site (and it putting so much effort thinking about prizes people will like and being 100% ready to commit to those prizes) I don't want to shove entering this down your throat or anything, but even if you don't want to enter, it would be nice to try and get it out there... I swear the prizes are good or...at least decent... I promise I won't promote the contest in the next chapter, either.}

_{Or if you have any suggestions on HOW I can get it out more without spamming people, which I hate, feel free to tell me.}

http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/836704/100-facebook-fans-contest-contest