Chapter 27

Zitao paused, unsure if he had heard Jongdae right. He moved back slightly to examine the older carefully. “Wait. Did you just say you wanted to learn Mandarin?”

Jongdae nodded. “Yeah. What did you think I said?”

“Nothing. I was just checking if I heard you right.” Zitao hummed. “Why Mandarin though? I learned Korean because I had to. What, do you want us to stay in China or something?”

Jongdae shook his head. “That would make Sehun-ah mad if we just left him in Korea. I just...really like the way Mandarin sounds.” he paused. “Especially when you speak it.”

Zitao felt flustered suddenly. “W-well, I tend to slip into dialect sometimes. I’m from Qingdao, which is in the Shandong province, so I have a Shandong accent.”

“Either way.” Jongdae pouted. “I like the sound of it. It flows nicely. And didn’t you say earlier when I sang that Chinese song that my Mandarin was good? It doesn’t have to be fluent Mandarin...”

Zitao sighed. “Alright, fine. But don’t trust my Beijing Mandarin. Sometimes my dialect slips out without me realizing. I’ll start teaching you when we get back to Korea.”

Jongdae jumped up, pulling Zitao up as well with surprising strength. “Yay! Thanks, Tao-ah!” he threw his arms around Zitao’s neck, pulling him into a tight hug.

Zitao chuckled and hugged Jongdae back. “I still don’t get how you’re older than me.”

Jongdae pulled away and shrugged. “I’m always treated like a child from my brother. So I guess I end up acting like it sometimes. It’s not like I’m always like this though.”

Zitao rolled his eyes and pecked Jongdae’s lips. “Whatever you say, Jongdae.”

“Jongdae-hyung.” Jongdae corrected, playfully hitting Zitao in the chest.

Zitao huffed. “Sorry, hyung.” 

The taller put emphasis on the hyung this time. Jongdae smiled and patted Zitao’s cheek, as if praising the taller for doing something good. Zitao rolled his eyes again, but decided not to comment. He just shook his head and ruffled Jongdae’s hair.

“I’m gonna change back.” he said. “I’ll be back in sec.”

Several minutes later, Zitao and Jongdae were on their back to Yixing’s place. It went normal until about half-way back. Jongdae was talking happily to Zitao, not looking at his surroundings. Two tall, buff men were walking in front of the shorter, also seemingly not paying attention. Jongdae tripped slightly, landing in front of the two men, causing them to bump into Jongdae with a force enough to make the shorter fall on the ground. 

“Hmm?” one of the men said. Then he said something in Mandarin that Jongdae couldn’t understand as both men approached him and grabbed his collar. 

Jongdae’s eyes widened. The man was strong enough to literally pick Jongdae off the ground. Jongdae tried to search his mind for something he knew in Mandarin that could get them to stop harassing him. Zitao sure was late to notice what was happening. The two men were laughing, probably at the face Jongdae knew he was making. Or maybe at his eyes. Because they were so weird. Jongdae closed his eyes. 

Suddenly, he was dropped and in more comfortable arms. Jongdae opened his eyes. And watched as Zitao kicked both men in the chests, sending them stumbling back a surprising distance. Zitao looked at Jongdae gently. He hugged him tightly. Jongdae hugged back.

“Are you okay, hyung?” Zitao asked, pulling away. “They didn’t hurt you, right?”

Jongdae shook his head. “I think they were laughing at my eyes though...”

Zitao ran his hand through Jongdae’s hair. “Don’t think about what others think. They don’t know you. Your friends do.”

Jongdae nodded. “Thanks, Zitao-ah.”

Zitao smiled. “Anything for you.”

Zitao took Jongdae’s small hand and intertwined their fingers. Jongdae smiled up at the taller and they continued their walk back to Yixing’s place, this time in a much more peaceful manner. There were no more run-ins, but Jongdae could sense people looking at him. He pretended not to notice. 

A short bit later, they couple arrived to see smoke coming from Yixing’s place. They looked at each other, surprised. Jongdae raised an eyebrow, and Zitao shrugged at him, despite having a slight idea as to why. They walked into the building, wondering what the hell had happened.

Zitao’s jaw dropped when he seen Yifan apologizing to Yixing and Minseok attending to some sort of fire on the stove. Jongdae blinked and ran over to Minseok to question him about what happened, whether he was okay, if he needed help. Minseok laughed slightly and dismissed all of Jongdae’s questions.

“It’s fine. Yifan apparently tried to cook something and ended up almost setting the stove on fire.” Minseok explained. “Though I wouldn’t know too much.”

“What about...” Jongdae trailed off and looked at Yixing, who was still talking to Yifan.

Minseok followed his gaze. He shrugged nonchalantly. “What about him?”

Yixing looked over at the two and smiled at Minseok. Minseok smiled back. Jongdae looked from Minseok to Yixing, eyeing them suspiciously. He shrugged and went back to Zitao, who was trying to talk to Yifan. Joonmyeon was sitting in between them, trying not to laugh as they argued.

“What happened?” Jongdae asked curiously as he sat on the arm of the couch.

“Yifan-hyung was hungry.” Joonmyeon said, mock-annoyed. “I told him to wait until Yixing came back with Minseok, but he was like ‘Oh, come on. It’ll only take 10 minutes. Who knows how long they’ll be out for!’” Joonmyeon shook his head. “I look away to go the the bathroom for one minute and he’s already burned something. And then when I go find something to solve the problem he sets the pan on fire, nearly dropping it on his foot and setting the whole house on fire.”

Yifan looked like he wanted to defend himself. But there wasn’t much to defend. “I was hungry, okay! I thought third times the charm; I wont burn down anymore houses. It was going well. But when I went to ask Joon something, he had disappeared and I forgot to watch what I was making... And I freaked out because I could see the fire starting and almost dropped the pan...”

Joonmyeon shook his head. “I have no idea how I’m going to live with you.”

“I still didn’t get to eat anything.” Yifan mumbled. 

“Well, now that everyone’s here, why don’t I make something for us to snack on?” Yixing asked in a mixture between Korean and Mandarin.

“I think Jongdae-hyung and I will pass.” Zitao said. “I promised my best friend I’d give him a call because its his birthday, and Jongdae-hyung seemed excited to actually see him.”

Yixing nodded. “If you need anything, just call.”

Zitao stood up, dragging Jongdae with him. “Come on, hyung. Let’s go call Sehun and wish him a happy birthday.”

Jongdae grinned and followed the taller into their room happily. Zitao grabbed his laptop from his bag and opened it, sitting on the floor, his back against the wall. Jongdae joined him, snuggling close. Zitao chuckled and moved to call his friend on a video chat. 

“Do you think Sehun-ah will be surprised by my eyes...?” Jongdae asked, pouting slightly. 

“Probably.” Zitao responded. “Do you want to stay out of frame until I explain to him how things went with your vision?”

Jongdae shrugged. “Just give him a warning. Or something.”

Sehun answered the call almost immediately after Zitao sent the call message. His face appeared really close to the camera, nearly giving Zitao a heart attack. Jongdae laughed next to him. Sehun’s wide grin scared Zitao even more.

“Jesus Christ, Sehun!” Zitao exclaimed. “You scared the out of me!”

“Ouch, thanks.” Sehun rolled his eyes and moved away from the camera. “How’s it going in China?”

“Great so far.” Zitao said. “Except Yifan almost burned the place we’re staying at down.”

Sehun raised his eyebrows. “What about Jongdae-hyung?”

“He’s looking great.” Zitao responded. “No pun intended.”

Jongdae laughed again. Zitao hit his arm slightly. “Oh, yeah. And...as you can hear, he’s right next to me. But uh...I should warn you. There’s a bit of a change. Physically. And maybe mentally.”

Jongdae hit Zitao. “Yah! I haven’t changed that much!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Zitao waved Jongdae away. “You’re going to scare the out of Sehun if you’re not careful.”

Jongdae frowned. “So? You could get pay back for him scaring you.”

Zitao hummed. Sehun was already complaining and questioning the conversation going on, but he was very ignored. Jongdae laughed again and shook his head, telling Zitao that he was joking. Zitao shrugged and turned back to the video chat.

“Sorry.” he said. “Anyways, Jongdae-hyung’s vision is back. But...his eyes are a bit different. Don’t get too scared. He already got made fun of on the street.”

Sehun frowned. “I just wanna see him. I don’t care what he looks like. As long as he’s still the same person!”

Zitao smiled. “Great. Jongdae, meet Sehun. Sehun, meet new Jongdae.”

Zitao pulled Jongdae closer to him so he was in frame. He looked down a little, still embarrassed about his eyes, but also about what Sehun said. He glanced up though, and broke into a huge grin seeing the younger male. Sehun stayed silent, probably processing Jongdae’s new eye color. Zitao bit his lip slightly, hoping Sehun wouldn’t freak out. Sehun’s mouth opened slightly, but then he shut it again.

“So...?” Zitao said. “Still don’t care what he looks like?”

Word Count: 1827(?)

A/N: First of all, I made a new cover/poster! What do you guys think of it? c: I felt like it needed an uprage, so I figured since Jongdae has his vision back, but has a new eyecolor, why not include that in the new poster. I had help with changing his eye colors though. But other than that, everything else is all me. ^^ (Besides the bg, which I got off google and tweaked a bit)

Also, here's a new poll for everyone! (Not really poll but whatever)

• Taochen one mentioned before with the personality swap
• Wontaek post apocalyptic (similar to/continuation/redo of . (click the dot)), or
• Tao is happy go lucky on stage, but as soon as he's offstage, there's only one person who he'll talk to (taochen still)