Chapter 28

Sehun was quite obviously speechless, stupefied even. Zitao would kill him later if he insulted Jongdae, though. Especially if it was as bad as what those thugs had said. Zitao didn’t even want to repeat what those jerks said. It was too disgraceful. Jongdae was waiting patiently for Sehun’s response, trying not to hide himself. Zitao found it slightly cute. He cleared his throat, trying to urge Sehun to say something.

“Wow.” Sehun finally said. “I’ve always wondered what Asians looked like with blue eyes... Jongdae-hyung, look at me again for a second.”

Jongdae glanced up at the screen where Sehun’s face was. He had a slight pout on his face. “It’s weird, isn’t it?”

Sehun hummed. “Yes.” he paused, but sensing an incoming glare from Zitao, continued. “But it’s a good kind of weird. I’ll probably be a but shocked for a bit, though.” 

Jongdae smiled slightly. “You’re definitely not the only one who needs to get used to it.”

“So, how’s the birthday boy?” Zitao asked. “Has Candy caused any trouble?”

“Nah. The little furball has been nothing but an angel all day. She probably just misses her owner.” Sehun said, chuckling. “All she’s done since you left is eat and sleep.”

Jongdae’s eyes lit up as he thought of something. “Sehun-ah, can you go get Candy-ah?”

Sehun nodded and disappeared from view for a moment. Jongdae grinned excitedly. He’d finally get to see the ‘fluffball’ he had only known by sound and touch to be a little dog.

Zitao glanced over at Jongdae and chuckled at the smaller’s expression. “You just couldn’t wait until we got home to see Candy, could you?”

Jongdae hit Zitao’s chest lightly. “Don’t tease me for being able to actually see things. Or else...”

Zitao rubbed his chest, acting like Jongdae actually hurt him. “Sorry, sorry. My apologies, hyung.”

“Are you kids threatening each other over here?” Sehun joked as he returned with a tiny white ball of fur in his hands.

Jongdae just smirked smugly as Zitao blushed slightly. Sehun eyed the two of them curiously. Then Jongdae’s eyes noticed the white furball in Sehun’s hands and his smirk turned into an excited grin. Sehun was slightly surprised at the quick change of expression. 

“Is that Candy-ah?!” Jongdae exclaimed, almost squealing.”Oh, my God, she’s so cute! And tiny!”

Sehun gave Zitao a look that said, ‘Is he always like this?’ Zitao just chuckled, now slightly over his embarrassment over Jongdae’s threat. Jongdae sure was good at changing his expression. From serious to cute; sad to happy. He should be an actor. Or just an idol in general. 

Zitao thought about that for a minute or two. He wondered how it would feel to see his boyfriend on stage or on the TV. He wondered how it would feel to be on stage or on TV. If Jongdae became an idol...Zitao wouldn’t know what he’d do. On one hand, it would be great for Jongdae to get more exposed to the public. But on the other hand, Jongdae becoming famous would just mean that there would be less time for any alone time between them. Plus, Zitao would have to deal with thousands of other people being in love with Jongdae... And what if Jongdae doesn’t feel comfortable openly expressing his relationship with Zitao?

“...Hyung!” a voice called. “Zitao!”

Zitao blinked quickly. “Huh? Oh. Sorry. I must have zoned out.”

“You were thinking about something, weren’t you?” Sehun asked with a smirk. “Perhaps something...dirty?”

Zitao’s eyes widened. “No! Definitely not!”

“Mmhm, sure.” Sehun continued to have a very smug smirk on his face as he raised his eyebrows. “No one zones out for 3 minutes thinking about something normal.”

Three minutes? Zitao could have sworn he had only been thinking for a minute at the most. He made a sidelong glance at Jongdae, who seemed to buy what Sehun was saying and was quirking his eyebrows curiously, staring holes into Zitao’s neck, and definitely aware he was looking at him. He averted his gaze to his hands. He suddenly felt very embarrassed.

“It totally was something dirty wasn’t it?” Sehun asked, sounded excited for a reason that Zitao did not want to know. “Did it involve Jongdae-hyung? Hmm?”

“I-I’m telling you, it wasn’t dirty!” Zitao insisted. “I mean, it involved Jongdae-hyung, but I swear it was innocent. I’m not like you Sehun-ah.”

“If it wasn’t dirty, than what was it?” Both Sehun and Jongdae asked simultaneously. They glanced at each other and laughed at their accidentally concurrent response. Then they trained their eyes on Zitao.

The attention was nerve-wrecking Zitao. Especially since he could still feel Jongdae’s gaze burning a hole through his neck. When he glanced over, there was an amused smile displayed on the older male’s soft lips. He wanted to know. And somehow, Zitao had the feeling that Jongdae wanted it to be a dirty thought.

“U-uh...” Zitao stammered, trying to avoid both Jongdae’s and Sehun’s gaze. “I swear, it wasn’t dirty. I-I was just thinking about what it would be like if Jongdae became famous...since he has the looks and talents to do so...but then I ended up thinking about how jealous I’d be having to share him with thousands of other fans...”

There was silence. They didn’t believe it. Who would? Even if it was true. Zitao felt really embarrassed for some reason. Suddenly, he felt Jongdae touch his hand, and it was as if all of his worries had disappeared. Even if Jongdae neither confirmed nor denied believing Zitao.

“Aw, you’re so cute!” Jongdae smiled, squeezing his hand lightly. 

That both made Zitao feel better, but didn’t, at the same time. And Sehun’s next comment definitely didn’t make him feel any better, either.

“My answer was more funny. So to me, you were still thinking something dirty.”

Zitao groaned and mumbled a sarcastic, “What a great friend you are, Sehuna.”

“So how’s China?” Sehun said, quickly changing the topic.

“Jongdae-hyung almost got killed.” Zitao said, half jokingly.

“Seriously?” Sehun suddenly sounded concerned. 

“Some thugs almost knocked him out.” Zitao explained. “Said some pretty nasty things, too.”

“Like...?” Sehun questioned. 

Zitao hesitated, but shook his head. “I probably shouldn’t repeat it. Hell, I probably couldn’t repeat it.”

“Was it really that bad?” Jongdae seemed curious too now. He’d figured it had to do with his eyes, but what kind of comment about his eyes could be that bad? His lips formed a pout as he thought about what those thugs could have said.

Sehun frowned. “Okay, don’t tell me then. I won’t press; for Jongdae-hyung’s sake.” but he gave Zitao a look that said, ‘You better tell me later though.’

There was a knock at the door and Joonmyeon peeked his head into the room. “Sorry to interrupt you guys, but Yixing told me to ask you guys if you wanted to go out for an early dinner, since Yixing has to do a house call during dinner time, so he can’t cook for us.”

“Yixing told you, or Yifan told you?” Zitao questioned, staring at Joonmyeon, knowing Yixing’s Korean abilities were only sub-par. 

“Yifan...” Joonmyeon said after a second. “But I was there when Yixing told Yifan. Then Yifan told me to tell you guys.” he glanced at the laptop. He lowered his voice and asked if Sehun could see him, to which Zitao shook his head.

“I can hear you though.” Sehun said. “Mr. Disembodied voice.”

“Knock it off with the sass Sehun.” Zitao said. “He’s older than you.”

“You’re older than me.” Sehun countered.

Zitao rolled his eyes. “Oh my God, Sehun. I love you like a brother, but could you shut up for a second so we can reply to Joonmyeon-hyung.”

“Chill dude.” Sehun said. “I’m just playing around. I’ll go then. Text you later.”

“Bye Sehuna.” Jongdae smiled. 

Zitao followed suit in bidding Sehun goodbye, as well as Joonmyeon for some reason. Then Zitao hung up the call and closed the laptop. He put it to the side and stood up, offering a hand down to Jongdae to help him up.

They ended up in a small place that was known for its excellent handmade traditional Chinese food, and fairly popular with both natives and foreigners. Yixing said that he’d pay for it, since, he claimed that the ladies that worked there knew him well and almost always gave him discounts, (even though they weren’t really supposed to.) No one bothered to comment because it wasn’t like they were the ones paying. They just accepted the food graciously.

“This is really good!” Jongdae exclaimed happily. “And the dish looks so pretty. I’m really glad we got to eat out today!”

Joonmyeon chuckled. “It’s completely different eating out with you when you can see than it was when you couldn’t. You rarely talked about how good the food was before.”

“Somehow, I feel that a food has a better taste if you can see what it looks like.” Jongdae explained. “Though it could also work the other way around, where you could like to eat something without seeing it, but when you’re suddenly revealed to what it looks like, you suddenly feel turned off by its look and might not like it anymore.”

“So if someone feeds me something I wouldn’t normally try because it looks funny, while I’m blindfolded, will I like that food?” Yifan asked curiously.

“Not necessarily.” Jongdae responded. “But that also depends on whether you’ve actually tried the food, and if the person feeding you tells you what you’re eating. You also have to trust that that person won’t feet you something gross.”

“Well...I guess I’m never going to do that kind of thing around Sehun.” Zitao commented.

Jongdae chuckled and patted Zitao’s leg. “I’m sure it wouldn’t be that bad. Actually, it sounds like it would be a good game.”

“More like a good punishment game.” Zitao mumbled, earning a squeeze on the knee from Jongdae.

“You just don’t want anyone to put weird things in your mouth when you can’t see, don’t you?” he said. “Come on, let’s try it when we get home! It’ll be fun!”

After they finished eating at the restaurant, they went back home, and before Yixing left, he gave them permission to go through his kitchen to find food for the blind food testing game. Jongdae seemed really excited, but Yifan seemed to realize something just as they were about to start the game. As Jongdae returned with a sleeping mask, to be used instead of a blindfold, Yifan pointed out:

“If Jongdae has been blind for several years, and is used to eating foods blind, wouldn’t that give him an unfair advantage over everyone else?”

Minseok tilted his head. “That’s true... I was going to opt out of the game, but I can play in Jongdae’s place instead. How does that sound?” Minseok looked over at Jongdae.

“I’m okay with being the score keeper.” Jongdae said. Despite sounding a little disappointed, he put on a smile. “There’s got to be a white board or something to write on around here somewhere...”

Zitao watched Jongdae run around looking for something to write the scores on, wondering if what Yifan had said was a good idea. He looked over at the tall male, who was seemingly already being scolded by Joonmyeon. Zitao pursed his lips and walked up to the couple. Yifan looked as if he knew what Zitao was going to say, because he didn’t hesitate to say:

“Look, I don’t wanna hear the same thing I just heard from Joonmyeon. If you’ve got complaints, say them quick.”

“Did you really have to say that?” Zitao said immediately. “He looked so happy and excited. He forced a smile to seem okay, but he could be really disappointed about not being able to play.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Yifan grumbled. “I already heard that from this kid.”

“I’m not a kid!” Joonmyeon whined, but his complaint went ignored, as Yifan continued talking over him.

“Listen, I get it that you both care about Jongdae, but you have to admit, if he plays, he’ll beat everyone by at least half.” Yifan explained. “It would be totally rigged. And if he wins, then he’s gonna be the one to decide the punishment, and if you lose, you’ll have to deal with the punishment.”

Zitao shrugged. “I don’t care. As long as it’s not totally embarrassing, it’s whatever.”

Yifan rolled his eyes. “You’re whatever, too.”

Zitao opened his mouth to say something, but instead turned around and walked away, not wanting to deal with Yifan anymore. Jongdae was still struggling to find something to write the scores on, so he decided to go help him. He hopped towards the shorter (not literally, mind you) and messed up is hair to get his attention.

Jongdae turned around, touching his head to fix his hair. He had a slight pout on his face, but it disappeared when he seen Zitao. He grinned slightly as he flicked his hair back into its place with a sharp head shake. Somehow Zitao found that mildly attractive. He shook the thought out of his mind as Jongdae began to speak.

“Zitao-yah! What’s up?” he asked.

“Thought you might want some help looking.” Zitao responded. “So I came over to see.”

Jongdae smiled. “Thanks. I thought that since Yixing-hyung is kind of like a doctor, he’d have a whiteboard somewhere. But I don’t know where to look...”

Zitao hummed. “Minseok-hyung seems to know his way around Yixing-hyung’s flat pretty well. Maybe he can help?”

Jongdae’s eyes lit up. “That’s a good idea! I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

“Well, they always say that two heads are better than one.” Zitao said with a smile. “I’ll go ask Minseok-hyung now.”

He gave Jongdae another pat on the head before stalking off towards Minseok, who was watching Yifan and Joonmyeon argue about something with a slightly amused expression. He tapped the older male’s shoulder gently to get his attention. Minseok turned around, seemingly not expecting to have to look up.

“Oh, Zitao.” Minseok said. “Need something?”

“Jongdae and I are looking for a whiteboard or something.” Zitao explained. “We figured since you know your way around Yixing-hyung’s place the best, that you would know where one is.”

Minseok hummed. He seemed to have ignored the comment about Yixing for some reason. “I think I know where one is.”

“Oh, speaking of Yixing.” Zitao was curious now, seeing as Minseok had completely ignored what he had said about the doctor. “I know you’ve known him for several years, but how did you meet? And how did you two become friends?”

“Ah...” Minseok seemed to be thinking of a way to get out of this conversation. “It’s been so long, I can’t remember very well. Maybe ask Yixing later?”

Before Zitao could even say anything else, Minseok hurried off into a room to find the whiteboard. Zitao was left staring at the elder curiously. Something had to be going on between them that Minseok didn’t want to say. And Zitao was going to do something about it. 

He smiled smugly as he obtained an idea from the depths of his brain. He had to tell this plan to Jongdae. He skipped (this time literally) over to Jongdae, who looked amused at first. Zitao bent down to whisper his plan in Jongdae’s ear, to which Jongdae seemed to look at Zitao and laugh. This was going to be great.

Word Count: 3011

A/N: To make up for the long delay of this chapter, it's extra long! It's probably boring, idk.. I have some plans for later, but not now. I still have ni odea when this will end. If anyone has ideas, that'd be great. Well, until next chapter/story!